|
| |
The Grace Family From Whaddon in
Buckinghamshire
Grace was the maiden name
of my grandmothers' maternal grandmother. I have a splendid photograph of her,
showing her as a stately lady with a noble bearing. Her family were from Nash in Whaddon,
and later Little Horwood, in Buckinghamshire. They were all farmers and land
owners. In I 861 William Grace, father of Amelia owned and farmed 60 Acres of land,
with his sons helping him. Amelia's father married his wife, Rebecca Smith in
Aylesbury. The reason for this is not immediately obvious, but as their first child
was born in the same year as their marriage, and they were married in mid-March she may
already have been pregnant. Amelia was one of nine children. She and her
sister Georgina respectively married two Henley brothers, Georgina married George,
and Amelia married Robert. Amelia moved with her husband and children to Wilnecote which
was in Warwickshire at that time. She was buried in Wilnecote Old Cemetery.
Meanings (These seem very varied)
a) Buckinghamshire - 200,000, Lancashire - 80,000 (The House of Family Names, H.
B. Guppy)
b) Chiefly Scottish? Latinised version of feminine word meaning 'grey'. Germanic,
Old French. (The Penguin Dictionary of English Surnames, Basil Cottle)
c) 'One who put cattle out to grass' (A Dictionary of British Surnames, P. H.
Reaney)
d) fat' - nickname (T he Origin of English Surname, P.
H. Reaney)
e) English 1. Nickname from Middle English, Old
French 'grace, charm, pleasantness' (Latin 'gratis'.) 2.From the female given name
'Grace', which was popular in the Middle Ages. This seems in the first instance to
have been from a Germanic element gris = grey, but was soon associated by folk etymology
with 1. (Oxford Dictionary of Surnames, Patrick Hanks & Flavia Hodges)
 Some Grace women
made straw plait to try and earn a few shillings a week. The main straw used was
Triticum aestivum, or bread wheat, cut early. It had to be straight, thin walled,
hollow and disease-free, with at least nine inches of good straw between the head and the
first joint. The chalky, hungry Chiltern fields grew the best straw. It was not an
easy task, the straw plaiters right hand corner of her lip becoming permanently scarred as
a result of removing the splints of straw. Also the lips could be coloured blue, red
or green if dyed straw was being used. (A Smart Worker, Good Works, 1891)
|
|
Robert Henley is the elderly gentleman in this picture. He
lived with his daughter, Emily, and her family, after his wife died. the
others are - in chronological order - William Charles Allen, Ellen Mary
(both from Charles' first marriage), Pat, Amelia Maria Marion (my
grandmother), Emily Jane, George, Joseph, Doris, Elsie Alice, Edith
Elizabeth, Sidney Robert (Agnes not yet born - born in 1920) |
 |
The original photo of Amelia Grace |
 |
Emily Allen, nee Henley, daughter of Amelia and Robert. she
is my great grandmother. |
 |
George Henley, son of Robert and Amelia. Here he is with his
niece, my grandmother, in the park at Blackpool (a seaside town) where he
lived in his retirement. |
 |
William Henley, in his Legion of Frontiersmen uniform. |
 |
Another picture of George Henley on the pier at Blackpool. |
 |
Lucy Cresswell Henley is the tallest child in the centre of
the back row. She is at school in Ansley. She was the illegitimate
daughter of Lucy, and was bought up by her aunt Margaret Cresswell, nee Henley.
they lived and died at Ansley, Warwickshire |
|
