WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH SHERWOOD

PART ONE

Apart from William’s baptism entry in the Clothall parish church registers,   no further information has been found on William in Clothall. William may have left Clothall and settled in   Fowlmere around 1799, about the time of his mother’s marriage to John Dixon.  He would have been about 17 years old, certainly old enough to be working and to leave home.  He may have made his way to Fowlmere, where he found work on one of a number of farms in the village.  Fowlmere   is about 20 kilometres north of Clothall.

In those times children left home at about 14 to live and work with other families. In his search for work a young rural boy did not travel far at first, but as he grew older and more experienced, he ventured further away from his ‘Country’   The bounds of his ‘country’ was usually limited to a 30 or 40 kilometre radius (often less) to a district that was bounded by the nearest market town.  This was the area that people spoke of as their Country, the neighbourhood larger than the parish to which they felt they belonged.

William later  met and married Elizabeth Smith   who may have been   living in or near Fowlmere at about this time.

Fowlmere

Fowlmere can be found on the Cambridge to London road 13 kilometres south  of Cambridge.  The origins of the village name date from Anglo-Saxon times when it was used to describe a mere or lake on which wildfowl lived.  It was spelt   Foulmire up until the end of the 19^th century.  From there on it is spelt fairly consistently as Fowlmere.    The lake or mere lies to the northwest of the parish. It comprised of   200 acres of marshland fed by underground springs.  It provided the parish inhabitants with food and firewood and an edible frog that lived in the marshes.     In the early 19^th century prize-fights were fought on  heath land to the south of the village.
By 1794 there were around 70 families and 350 people living in Fowlmere.  In 1801 this number had risen to 420 and by 1841   the population had reached  616. A large number of males in the parish were employed as   farm labourers.  Others worked as shepherds, storekeepers, plumbers, tailors, and shoemakers.  Many of the women worked as seamstresses and domestic servants. 
  A fire in 1634 destroyed much of the village, with only a few houses left surviving from that period. In 1841 there were 120 houses of which most could be found on the High Street. (London road) 
In the past the village was largely agricultural with crops of wheat, barley, rye and oats   grown in the fields. In the mid 18^th century Fowlmere was involved in the wool trade.  From the 1790’s until c.1800      women and children worked at home spinning wool for a small wool factory. In 1830     labourers from the village went   on strike for higher wages.  When rioting broke out   constables on horseback were sent from nearby Royston to maintain order.   The ring leaders were arrested and sent to jail.
Throughout the late 18^th   and early 19^th centuries attempts were made to educate the children in the parish.  In 1783 a schoolmistress was teaching some of the poor children in the parish.  By 1825 there were two Sunday schools teaching about 50 children to read and write. Up to 90 children were being taught at dissenting Sunday schools in 1833.
Agricultural or farm labourers as they were also referred, were paid between 10 and 12 shillings a week.  Many of them had large families and had great difficulty in making ends meet, particularly when work was scarce. Family folklore tells us that the Sherwoods worked as grooms in England and that William was the manager of a stud farm.  Given this it’s likely that his sons William and Charles (whose occupations were farm labourers) worked with him tending the horses.

Elizabeth Sherwood nee Smith

According to the 1841 Fowlmere census   Elizabeth was born in Cambridgeshire.  Unfortunately there was no requirement on this census to include the name of the parish in which a person was born.  Knowing that she was born in Cambridgeshire is a start.  The difficulty is knowing with some certainty the year she was born.   According to the census, Elizabeth was fifty years old.  The   information about her age would more than likely have been supplied by either Elizabeth herself or husband William on the night of the census.  On the basis of this information Elizabeth’s date of birth was more than likely about 1790.

In order to find out more about Elizabeth   one of the first things that had to be done was to find her maiden name.  One means of doing this is through the death certificates of her children.  On her daughter Jane Morley’s death certificate in the column headed ‘Surname of Mother’ the words ''Not Known'' are written.  On her son Charles’ death certificate we were more fortunate.  According to the certificate, Elizabeth's maiden name was Smith.  The informant (person supplying the information) was her grandson Charles Sherwood junior.

             Knowing that Elizabeth was a Smith before she married makes finding out when and where she was born just that little bit harder. In fact a lot harder.  One of the first places I looked to find a baptism entry for Elizabeth Smith was in the records of the parish church. There is no birth/baptism entry for her in the Fowlmere Parish Church around 1790 or any date close to 1790. Not knowing the   names of her parents     it   very difficult to connect her with any of the twenty or so baptisms for Elizabeth Smith in Cambridgeshire for the period 1785-1795.  

            Smith has been among the most popular name in Anglo Saxon countries for centuries.  Smith, which dates from 975 AD, means metal worker, blacksmith of farrier.  It has been the most popular English name since 1853, and was the most popular on the First Fleet. The Age. Friday June 22, 2001.

            In trying to determine when and where Elizabeth Smith was born the most promising means is to find her on the 1851 census.  For the first time this census required individuals to state their exact age, and place of birth. For some reason Elizabeth does not appear on the Fowlmere return. In fact Elizabeth does not appear  in any parish in Cambridgeshire.  Other family members who can’t be found on the census are Elizabeth's son and daughter in-law William and Sophia Sherwood nee Stimpson and Alfred Sherwood, Elizabeth's grandson. Where they were on the night of the census is a bit of a mystery. William and Sophia may have moved to another county or emigrated to Australia.   Elizabeth and Alfred may have been away working or visiting friends or relatives in another county when the census was taken. The other possibility is that they were part of the estimated 10 percent of people who were missed by the census.

 Elizabeth’s family, the Smiths, may have been members of the Independent Church. If Elizabeth was baptised into the   Fowlmere Independent Chapel as a child then we will never know, as records prior to 1812  have been lost.

            As far as Elizabeth is concerned we have her full name, Elizabeth Smith, a date of birth sometime between 1785-1791 with 1790 being the most likely year.  We also know that she was born in Cambridgeshire. At this stage the best means of finding Elizabeth and other family members who were missing on census night, is to check the 1851 census returns for other nearby counties.  

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