Week 40: My ancestor was a wheelwright

[Jill on the A272]

Week 40: Wheelwright



This is an opportunity to showcase a wheelwright from your family tree, you might want to offer a short biography and speak about their work eg
Name
Birth location/date
Family background
Where you've found them on the census
Their workplace/employer
Any tips on researching this occupation?

Trades and Occupations - Family Tree Forum

[Next week: Wireless/telephone engineers and operators]

[Jill on the A272]

My husband's 7x great grandfather Francis Juniper (bur. Cuckfield 1706) was a wheelwright in Cuckfield in the 17th century, he had a court case against him in 1660 for non-payment of wages to William Day. He also appears in the account book/diary of barrister Timothy Burrell which has been transcribed with copies of the sketches he included and you can see that he made a number of items in 1702.



His son Francis (6x ggf) seems to have mixed being a wheelwright with some farming as he and one Samuel Greenfield were in occupation of Slow Farm in Cuckfield in 1716. He appears in the accounts of the Stapleys of Henfield on 7 Sep 1732: "Paid Francis Juniper for a waggon and work done to it £2 17s 6d"

Francis junior's son James Juniper (5x ggf) was also a wheelwright, he is described as such on his burial record at Cuckfield in 1805. Thereafter my husband's branch of the Junipers went into farming, but other descendants of the first mentioned Francis continued to work as wheelwrights or coachbuilders at the Whiteman's Green end of Cuckfield which was also on one of the London-Brighton coach routes, Charles Juniper and his brother Samuel where wheelwrights who also had the Rose and Crown at Cuckfield, still trading as a pub.

[cbcarolyn]

my great grandfathers brother was a wheelwright, William Lugg b 1863, he and my grandfather were Lugg Bros

http://www.familytree.chatandthat.co...17-blacksmith/

They left their Cornish farming/agricultural roots behind and according to family hearsay it was my grandfather that started the business, and brother William brought about some of its downfall through drinking (according to my mother!)

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tr...07477558/facts

Here is one of their makes. My grandfather seemed to make a fair amount out of the business, and invested in new property in Cornwall and provided a bus to the village of Gunwalloe, not quite sure what William did, probably why I asked Mum about him.

coach-marlborough-road.jpg

Once again catching up on these posts, has made me realise there must be a little more to this chap than I have.

I assume the skills they both had were acquired via their father who was a blacksmith, rather than through a formal apprenticeship, and wheels are a natural part of being a blacksmith

[Lin Fisher]

William Merriman was baptised on 6 July 1703 at St Anthony's church Nottingham. He was my 7 x G Grandfather. At the age of 17 he was apprenticed to Joseph Williamson a wheelwright, of Sandiacre Derbyshire. He married Mary Hemsley in 1726 at St Marys Nottingham.

[Lin Fisher]

My 4 x G Grandmother's sister Ann Chandler married Thomas Burrows in 1840 Nottingham.

He was a wheelwright in Sutton Bonington Nottinghamshire and looks like a few of his sons were also wheelwrights.