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Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.
From Sharon Strutt:
‘Hello Stephen.
My husband is supposedly a direct descendant of Lord Jedediah Strutt of Belper, Derbyshire. His great-great-grandfather was a William Henry Strutt who married Bessie Tregear in around 1889. The story goes that he came from a well to do family but was cut off when he married Bessie, who was considered ‘beneath’ him. Their first son, Henry Howard, had two boys but went to America in 1912, served in WWI and died in 1920, after having a second family there. My conundrum is that I can’t find out who were William Henry Strutt’s parents and if my husband is indeed related to the Belper Strutts. I know the endings and beginnings but there is a gap in the middle! Can you help please?’
Stephen says:
‘Hi Sharon.
I would suggest that the rule with family legends and lore of all kinds is to exercise caution. Quite often there will be at least a grain of truth, but equally often they will prove to be unreliable in part if not in whole.
If I have found the correct family on the census returns, I would suggest that there is no substance in the legend that Henry Strutt married ‘beneath himself’. According to the 1901 and 1911 censuses, he was a house painter by occupation; in the 1891 census, he was a tailor. These three census returns are straightforward to find, as of course we know the name of his wife and children. It becomes slightly trickier when we head back before his marriage, to the 1881 census.
The later censuses agree unanimously that Henry would have been born circa 1863/64 in ‘St Luke’s, London’ – this is probably the parish known variously as St Luke’s Middlesex and St Luke’s Old Street, lying adjacent to Shoreditch (rather than St Luke’s Chelsea in South West London). When we look at the 1881 census, searching for a Henry of approximately the right age, the best candidate appears to be a Henry Strutt, aged 16 and born in Shoreditch, living at the Essex Villa Boys’ Home in Regent’s Park Road, St Pancras, later re-branded as a so-called ‘industrial school’ (you can find this in our census reference search: RG 11, piece 183, folio 22, page 37). This was the kind of institution which took in destitute, troublesome or vulnerable boys and trained them for a useful trade (such as carpentry or tailoring). If this is indeed your Henry, then he may have been orphaned or his parents may have been unable to look after him. (I wonder if later he was apprenticed to a tradesman in Devon, and this is what took him down to the West Country at some date before 1888).
If we go back another 10 years to the 1871 census, we find a six-year old Harry Strutt, born in St Luke, residing with his parents Charles and Elizabeth Strutt, porter and stay-maker respectively (census image reference RG 10, piece 474, folio 15, page 23). One has to say that this is very probably your man. If so, I have to tell you that, as a six-year old boy, he was living in perhaps the most notorious neighbourhood in all of London – his parents’ address is given as Old Nichol Street. You can read about Old Nichol area of Shoreditch on Wikipedia
Of course, I cannot say for certain that this Harry Strutt is your husband’s ancestor who later went to the West Country, married and raised a family there. Evidence available at the moment, however, points in that direction. To test the theory, you would need to work systematically, obtaining documentary evidence, to reconstruct the tree. You could do worse than start with such certificates as the 1888 marriage certificate to Bessie Tregear.
Finding his birth or baptism is going to be tricky. There is a birth of a Henry Strutt registered in June quarter 1864 in Mile End Old Town. From some digging around that I have done, however, it would seem that this Henry was the son of a Henry and Mary Ann, and not of Charles and Elizabeth. It is quite possible that, in common with many Old Nichol inhabitants, the Strutts were not ardent church-goers and, therefore, they may not have baptised their child. Moreover, it is also possible that they were wary of the authorities and didn’t even register the birth at the register office. Birth registration in England was not enforced 100% even as late as the 1860s, and the Strutts may have been precisely the kind of family who would have skipped this formality.
Without wishing to make things even more difficult, I think we also have to acknowledge the fact that the parents may or may not have been married. From the 1871 census, they do appear to have had another, older child, (probably Elizabeth, indicated only by faint ditto marks) born around 1859/60.
If the above account proves reliable, then there is probably no direct connection with the eminent Derbyshire industrialist Jedediah Strutt, unless it emerges one or two generations further back in the family tree. For now, I suggest you park this family legend and concentrate on trying to research back in time from known facts – such as they are. This is always the best approach.’
If you’d like to send your question to Stephen, please register or opt to receive newsletters in ‘my account’. Stephen only has time to answer a couple of queries each month but if yours wasn’t answered this month, you could be lucky next time!
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Please note: This post has originated from a news feed from an external website.
Family Tree Forum neither endorses nor is responsible for the views of the author or any other content.
From Sharon Strutt:
‘Hello Stephen.
My husband is supposedly a direct descendant of Lord Jedediah Strutt of Belper, Derbyshire. His great-great-grandfather was a William Henry Strutt who married Bessie Tregear in around 1889. The story goes that he came from a well to do family but was cut off when he married Bessie, who was considered ‘beneath’ him. Their first son, Henry Howard, had two boys but went to America in 1912, served in WWI and died in 1920, after having a second family there. My conundrum is that I can’t find out who were William Henry Strutt’s parents and if my husband is indeed related to the Belper Strutts. I know the endings and beginnings but there is a gap in the middle! Can you help please?’
Stephen says:
‘Hi Sharon.
I would suggest that the rule with family legends and lore of all kinds is to exercise caution. Quite often there will be at least a grain of truth, but equally often they will prove to be unreliable in part if not in whole.
If I have found the correct family on the census returns, I would suggest that there is no substance in the legend that Henry Strutt married ‘beneath himself’. According to the 1901 and 1911 censuses, he was a house painter by occupation; in the 1891 census, he was a tailor. These three census returns are straightforward to find, as of course we know the name of his wife and children. It becomes slightly trickier when we head back before his marriage, to the 1881 census.
The later censuses agree unanimously that Henry would have been born circa 1863/64 in ‘St Luke’s, London’ – this is probably the parish known variously as St Luke’s Middlesex and St Luke’s Old Street, lying adjacent to Shoreditch (rather than St Luke’s Chelsea in South West London). When we look at the 1881 census, searching for a Henry of approximately the right age, the best candidate appears to be a Henry Strutt, aged 16 and born in Shoreditch, living at the Essex Villa Boys’ Home in Regent’s Park Road, St Pancras, later re-branded as a so-called ‘industrial school’ (you can find this in our census reference search: RG 11, piece 183, folio 22, page 37). This was the kind of institution which took in destitute, troublesome or vulnerable boys and trained them for a useful trade (such as carpentry or tailoring). If this is indeed your Henry, then he may have been orphaned or his parents may have been unable to look after him. (I wonder if later he was apprenticed to a tradesman in Devon, and this is what took him down to the West Country at some date before 1888).
If we go back another 10 years to the 1871 census, we find a six-year old Harry Strutt, born in St Luke, residing with his parents Charles and Elizabeth Strutt, porter and stay-maker respectively (census image reference RG 10, piece 474, folio 15, page 23). One has to say that this is very probably your man. If so, I have to tell you that, as a six-year old boy, he was living in perhaps the most notorious neighbourhood in all of London – his parents’ address is given as Old Nichol Street. You can read about Old Nichol area of Shoreditch on Wikipedia
Of course, I cannot say for certain that this Harry Strutt is your husband’s ancestor who later went to the West Country, married and raised a family there. Evidence available at the moment, however, points in that direction. To test the theory, you would need to work systematically, obtaining documentary evidence, to reconstruct the tree. You could do worse than start with such certificates as the 1888 marriage certificate to Bessie Tregear.
Finding his birth or baptism is going to be tricky. There is a birth of a Henry Strutt registered in June quarter 1864 in Mile End Old Town. From some digging around that I have done, however, it would seem that this Henry was the son of a Henry and Mary Ann, and not of Charles and Elizabeth. It is quite possible that, in common with many Old Nichol inhabitants, the Strutts were not ardent church-goers and, therefore, they may not have baptised their child. Moreover, it is also possible that they were wary of the authorities and didn’t even register the birth at the register office. Birth registration in England was not enforced 100% even as late as the 1860s, and the Strutts may have been precisely the kind of family who would have skipped this formality.
Without wishing to make things even more difficult, I think we also have to acknowledge the fact that the parents may or may not have been married. From the 1871 census, they do appear to have had another, older child, (probably Elizabeth, indicated only by faint ditto marks) born around 1859/60.
If the above account proves reliable, then there is probably no direct connection with the eminent Derbyshire industrialist Jedediah Strutt, unless it emerges one or two generations further back in the family tree. For now, I suggest you park this family legend and concentrate on trying to research back in time from known facts – such as they are. This is always the best approach.’
If you’d like to send your question to Stephen, please register or opt to receive newsletters in ‘my account’. Stephen only has time to answer a couple of queries each month but if yours wasn’t answered this month, you could be lucky next time!
More...
Please note: This post has originated from a news feed from an external website.
Family Tree Forum neither endorses nor is responsible for the views of the author or any other content.