The Great Grand-Parents of Sarah Rebecca Mary MURRAY

The Essex Connection

James Sharp

Little is known of James’s early life.  We know he was born about 1789 in Essex but we have no details of his parents or what town he was born in. Unluckily, the 1851 census for Stebbing has either been lost or destroyed, so we have no information on where James was born to be able to try and find his birth town and from there find his parents. There is one James Sharpe being baptised on 15 February, 1789 at Aythorpe, Roding with parents James and Phoebe.  However, I cannot be sure this is our James.  

Sarah Chalk

On the other hand, we know that Sarah was born before 25 May, 1794 as that was the day she was baptised.  Her parents were Philemon Chalk and Mary Young.  The Chalk family were well established in High Easter, having lived there from at least 1685.  This family and a lot of the information I have for the Sharp/Gibson families was researched by Val Hanlon and Delice Lodge, both descendants of James and Sarah.

Married Life

James and Sarah were married on 5 August, 1812 at High Easter.  I am not sure which church they were married in as there was a Church of England Church and a Congregational church as well.  I believe it may have been the Congregational church as many of their children were baptised in Congregational churches.  Interestingly, from their marriage record and also the baptism record of their son Alfred, both James and Sarah could write as they signed their signatures.

As mentioned above, James was a journeyman miller, plying his trade at different windmills where work could be found.  The main use of windmills was for the crushing of grain and the drawing of water.

‘By 1825-35 when windmilling in Essex was at its peak, there were about 285 mills in the county.  The miller’s life was hazardous.  There was the risk on entanglement in rotation machinery, or being struck by sails and of sails accidentally turning when a man was working on them.  Because the mill depended on the most fickle of the elements, it was prone to disastrous storm damage, or being a very tall building and often situated on the highest point in the district, was a prime candidate for lightning strikes.

Mental and physical stamina were also necessary to face the rigours of everyday work such as climbing on to sails to spread their canvas on a wet freezing winter night when the miller’s clothes would become wet through and frozen onto him.  Or carrying 20 stone (127kg) sacks of grain or winding a mill by pushing it round by its tailpipe.  Millers also needed to possess the craft skills of the millwright, embracing something of engineering, carpentry, blacksmithing, and bricklaying in order to do ‘first aid’ repairs.’ ¹

Tom Hine from Berkshire compiled a list of millers (for Val Hanlon) for Essex from various sources and found James Sharp listed in this area. The first listing for James was at High Easter in 1812 where he was married and had a daughter Eliza (Elizabeth).  I mentioned that James and Sarah were married in August 1812 and I found that Eliza was born not long after in November.   

The next mention of the family is 1814 at Good Easter and a daughter Louisa was born here in that year.  Good Easter and High Easter were sister villages, perhaps a few kilometres apart.  However, during the early 1800’s Good Easter had two mills and High Easter had four mills.³. The next two children Harriett(1817) and Mary (1819) were born at High Roding and even though James is not listed as being here, there was one mill at High Roding.  Again High Roding is only a few kilometres away from the ‘Easter’ Villages.

There is now quite a gap between James being mentioned again at a mill.  From 1814 to 1830, where he is mentioned at Stansted.  There were three mills at Stansted and I do not know which one he was at but we have a photo of one of them below.

I believe the family was at Stansted for many years as records show that five of their children were born here from 1827 to 1836.  This also includes my ancestor Rebecca, born before 27 April, 1834, when she was baptised.  Mention is made again of James being back at High Easter in 1838.

Finally, in 1841, we have the first recorded census with James and Sarah and family living in the village of Matching, about 5 kilometres from Stansted.  James was a miller at Down Hall Mill.  There were two mills in Matching.  One was the Matching Tye Mill and the other, belonging to John Selwin, lay about a half kilometre east of his mansion of Down Hall.  This mill was gone by 1874 which closely matches the rise of industrial bread-making in the country.

In the 1841 census, James is listed as 50 years old and Sarah is 45 years old.  If you looked at my explanation of the census, you would know that they rounded the ages down.  So James could have been between 50-54 years old and Sarah between 45-49 years old.  This is why it makes it hard sometimes to find the right person if you have no other information about them.  James and Sarah had only the five youngest children with them at this time.  No doubt, the older four daughters were married.

Sometime during the next 16 years, James and Sarah moved to the village of Stebbing.  Again, they no doubt moved to this village for James’ work as a miller.  At this time in the late 1840’s, Stebbing had three mills – Chopping’s Mill, Bran End Mill and Custance’s Mill. ⁴ 

In late 1855, James developed bronchitis and died on 3 December aged 66 years. I tried to find James and Sarah in the 1851 census but couldn’t. As mentioned previously, the 1851 census for Stebbing has either been lost or destroyed, so we have no information on where James was born to be able to try and find his birth date or town.

In 1861 Sarah was staying with daughter Rebecca and her husband Henry Gibson in the village of Stebbing.  Sarah died not long after the 1861 census was taken, between June and September the same year.

Children

Of their children, I assume the oldest four daughters were married.

Alfred joined the Royal Marines and was a corporal staying at the Royal Marine Barracks in Chatham, Kent in 1861.  We seem to lose Alfred after this time.

From the 1851 census, Hannah was a general servant in the household of Edward Watkins who was a provision merchant. They lived at 53 Clondesley Terrace, Islington, Middlesex.  We lose knowledge of Hannah after this, so no doubt, she got married.

James (aged 19 in 1851) was a general servant to John Bailey in Willingham, Cambridgeshire.  I could find no further mention of James in further census’.

Rebecca married Henry Gibson and their story is told here.

I can find no further mention of Frederick after the 1841 census.

If you have any more information,
Could you please contact me so I can add to this story.

1. www.essex.gov.uk/Activities/Heritage/Documents/Windmills_In_Essex.pdf
2. https://walters-maiden.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Post-Mill-High-Easter.-catalogue.millsarchive.orgpost-mill-high-easter-5.png
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_windmills_in_Essex
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_windmills_in_Essex