George Kingham (c1817-1868)
Family Stories > 5th Generation
George Kingham and Sarah
Nash
It’s all
very well to research and find dates for birth, marriage, death but what of the
man and the woman? George Kingham and
Sarah Nash were my great great grandparents.
Without them I would never have come into being.
George
Kingham and Sarah had a daughter, Marianette who married Joseph Samuel Ford and
they in turn had a son, George Dixie Ford who had a daughter, Iris Ella Ford
who married my father – and then there was me!
So, I would
like to try to paint a picture of the real man behind the name, George Kingham
and the real woman named Sarah Nash.
Birth – George Kingham
George
Kingham was born on October 8, 1824 at Wheathamstead, Hertford, Hertfordshire
in UK. His father was James Kingham and
his mother Maria, nee Taylor.[1] George was christened on November 7, 1824.
First name(s) GeorgeLast name KinghamGender MaleBirth year 1824Birth place -Baptism year 1824Baptism date 07 Nov 1824Place WheathampsteadCounty HertfordshireCountry EnglandFather's first name(s) JamesFather's last name KinghamMother's first name(s) MariaMother's last name -Record set England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish RecordsSubcategory Parish BaptismsCollections from England, Great BritainSource: England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975 www.findmypast.co.uk
1824 Baptism - George Kingham, Wheathampstead
George was
born into a large family, possible one of at least seven children. His parents were ordinary working-class
people surviving as best they could.
Birth – Sarah Nash
Sarah Nash
preceded George into the world by a year being born on October 26, 1823. She was baptized on November 23, 1823 at
Wheathamstead[2].
Perhaps George and Sarah were baptized in the same church? Sarah’s parents were William Nash and
Elizabeth Spikesly.
Education
It is
doubtful that George received any worth-while education. It is most likely he was sent out to earn a
living by laboring wherever he could find work, probably by the age of 10
years.
Sarah’s
education would more likely to have come from her mother at home, learning the
straw plaiting techniques used for straw hats, straw bonnets and straw dollies.
Census 1841
By 15 years
of age, George Kingham was working as an Agricultural Labourer in 1841 at a
farm in Sandridge in St. Albans, Hertfordshire.
It must have been a large farm occupied by the farmer, aged 40, his wife
and five children and ten servants, most of whom were agricultural labourers,
the oldest of whom as 25 years old and the youngest just 8 years old, a common
lot for boys from poor families.
I think
George would not have been tall and by our standards even regarded as ‘short’
or ‘stocky’, but work on the farms from an early age would have developed his
muscles and strength. From photographs of his daughter Marianette my guess is
that George would have had dark or even black hair with a swarthy complexion.
At the time
of the 1841 census, Sarah was 15 years old and living with her parents and
siblings at Wheathamstead Hill.
Sarah Nash in the 1841 England CensusName Age OccupationWilliam Nash 40 CarpenterElizabeth Nash 40George Nash 15 CarpenterSarah Nash 15Charlotte Nash 13Joseph Nash 10 Agricultural LabourerJames Nash 8Harriett Nash 4
Census, 1851
By 1851
when George was 26 years old, he was working as a Ploughman at Grove Farm in
Wheathamstead, a property of more than 480 acres.
The land in Hertfordshire is largely on a clay sub-soil, so
much of its land, though rich, is "heavy" and not well-suited to crop
cultivation with a plough. However, the
county did grow good barley crops which later became important for the brewing
trade.
George Kingham in the 1851 England CensusName Age Relationship OccupationThomas House 27 Head Unmarried Farmer of 480 acresSarah House 30 Sister At homeHariett Kidman 22 Cousin At homeMary A Smith 26 Servant House ServantHannah Smith 19 Servant House ServantGeorge Kingham 26 Servant Unmarried PloughmanJames Allen 17 Servant HousekeeperWilliam Humphrey 49 Servant Ploughman
George worked on various farms until 1851 when he was
25 years old, by which time he was strong enough to work as a ploughman.
Figure 2
By Ralf Roletschek - Transferred from the German Wikipedia. Original file
is/was here. (Original upload log available below.), CC BY-SA 2.5,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35770
The plough was harnessed to one or two horses who
pulled the contraption across the paddocks to churn up the top soil ready for
planting. The ploughman needed to be
strong enough to handle two horses as well as guide the plough. Very hard work for 10 or 12 hours each day
for which he would have earned a small wage and keep.
By 1851,
Sarah’s mother was dead and Sarah was living with her widowed father and two
sisters at 89 Wheathamstead Hill
Sarah Nash in the 1851 England CensusName Age Relationship OccupationWilliam Nash 62 Head Widower CarpenterSarah Nash 26 Daughter Straw PlaiterCharlotte Nash 23 Daughter Straw PlaiterHarriet Nash 14 Daughter Straw PlaiterJohn Odell 62 Lodger Agricultural Labourer
Marriage
At the age
of 29 years, George Kingham married Sarah Nash also 29 at St. Albans,
Wheathamstead. Sarah’s father was
William and her mother, Elizabeth Spikesly.
As far as I
have been able to discern, George Kingham and Sarah Nash had four children.
First name(s) GEORGELast name KINGHAMBirth year 1853Birth quarter 2Registration month -Mother's maiden name NashDistrict St. AlbansCounty HertfordshireCountry EnglandVolume 3APage 242Record set England & Wales Births 1837-2006Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish RecordsSubcategory Civil BirthsCollections from Great Britain, EnglandSource: England & Wales Births 1837-2006 www.findmypast.co.ukFirst name(s) ALFREDLast name KINGHAMBirth year 1855Birth quarter 4Registration month -Mother's maiden name NashDistrict St. AlbansCounty HertfordshireCountry EnglandVolume 3APage 245Record set England & Wales Births 1837-2006Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish RecordsSubcategory Civil BirthsCollections from Great Britain, EnglandSource: England & Wales Births 1837-2006 www.findmypast.co.ukFirst name(s) JESSELast name KINGHAMBirth year 1857Birth quarter 1Registration month -Mother's maiden name NashDistrict St. AlbansCounty HertfordshireCountry EnglandVolume 3APage 270Record set England & Wales Births 1837-2006Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish RecordsSubcategory Civil BirthsCollections from Great Britain, EnglandSource: England & Wales Births 1837-2006 www.findmypast.co.ukFirst name(s) MARIANETTELast name KINGHAMBirth year 1859Birth quarter 1Registration month -Mother's maiden name NashDistrict St. AlbansCounty HertfordshireCountry EnglandVolume 3APage 284Record set England & Wales Births 1837-2006Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish RecordsSubcategory Civil BirthsCollections from Great Britain, EnglandSource: England & Wales Births 1837-2006 www.findmypast.co.uk
All George
and Sarah’s babies died shortly after birth, most at three months old, except
Marianette.
Death - Sarah
Not long
after the birth of her daughter, Marianette, Sarah Kingham, nee Nash died of
fever, probably associated with the recent birth. Sarah died on April 20, 1860 at their home at
St. Albans Road, Wheathamstead. She was
38 years old and the wife of George Kingham, agricultural labourer. Sarah had been married for just seven years,
had given birth to at least four children, all of whom she had buried as babies
except her last child, her daughter, Marianette. Present at her death was a woman named Sarah
Young. Was this woman related to either
George or Sarah?
Census 1861
Just a year
after the death of his wife, Sarah, George Kingham, still listed as an
agricultural worker, and now a widower, was living with William Peacock at 31
Lower Hill Cottage in Wheathamstead together with his 3-year-old daughter,
listed as Milicent, but no doubt Marionette.
William Peacock was
1869 – Death of George
Kingham
George
Kingham died at the age of 43 years in 1869.
At the time of his death he was living in the Union Workhouse in Saint
Albans. He developed a severe fever –
brought on by an infection or other disease perhaps – and was taken to the
Workhouse Infirmary where he died in the presence of a stranger after 18 days
of his illness.
By the 1871
census, Marianette was listed as a 13-year-