Week 66: My ancestor was a ropemaker

[Jill on the A272]

Week 66: My ancestor was a ropemaker

This is an opportunity to showcase a ropemaker 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: Saddler, harness or collarmaker]

[Jill on the A272]

Henry Buckingham my husband's 2x great grandfather was born in Witney, Oxfordshire in 1823, on the 1851 census he was working as a ropemaker an living with his parents. He married in 1858 and in 1861 was living the the High Street with his wife Sarah , they had not yet had any children.

In 1871 he was boarding at the Chequers Inn at Chipping Norton while Sarah and their three small children were still in Witney, he was probably working at Kecks ropewalk at 20 High Street, and by 1881 the whole family were in Chipping Norton and his son William had started work as a ropemaker too.

Henry died in 1890, son William the ropemaker was married in 1887 and living in Chipping Norton in 1891 with his wife Mary Ann who sewed shirts and sacks. In 1901 he was in Oxford prison doing 14 days hard labour, he was accused of stealing a packet of tea from the vicar's carriage while it was at the Crown Hotel in the town and then a ham from the same hotel which was found in a pot at his house, in mitigation he said he was starving but was told he should have applied to the relevant authorities for help and to find honest work on his release. "Will you help me find it?" were his last words in the court.

He found work, but not locally as he is next seen in 1911 in Warwickshire working as a rope spinner and in 1921 he was a ropemaker employed by Flower and Sons, brewers.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

On one of my away breaks we visited Chatham Dockyards and I went to have a look at the ropery. A very long building indeed and we were given a talk on how ropes were made at the time of Trafalgar.

[Jill on the A272]

On one of my away breaks we visited Chatham Dockyards and I went to have a look at the ropery. A very long building indeed and we were given a talk on how ropes were made at the time of Trafalgar.

We went many years ago when our children were small and were able to watch a demonstration, little knowing that there were ropemakers in the family. Michelham Priory in Sussex owned by Sussex Past also had a room devoted to ropemaking with equipment from a ropemakers at Hailsham.