8 May 2023

We took another look at L’s DNA matches because I remembered seeing a possible match through George Lay (who we don’t believe is Bertie Herbert’s father).

The match is to a user called “JH” who is managed by “LH”.

This is the suggested link:

             Winkles Cleaver
               1695-1754
                   |
    .------------------------------.
    |                              |
Mary Cleaver                   Ann Cleaver
1722-1789                      1733-1801
    |                              |
    |                              |
Robert Ayers                   William Gray
1759-1805                      1772-1840
    |                              |
    |                              |
Robert Ayers                   Winckles G Gray
1789-1836                      1809-1881  
    |                              |
    |                              |
Hannah Ayers                   Thomas James Gray
1821-1893                      1838-1911
    |                              |
    |                              |
George Robert Lay              Isabella P Gray
1847-1930                      1870-1946  
    |                              |
    |                              |
Bertie Herbert Tew             Harold Henry Slow
1908-1961                      1901-1972

If this connection were correct then it would suggest that George Lay is, after all, the father of Bertie Herbert Tew. That would be fascinating but I feel that this link could simply be coincidence so we need to determine if the DNA connection is actually to a ancestor.

We went through all the names in JH’s direct ancestors to try and spot surnames we recognized:

• Gilkes
• Gardner
• Hoare
• Walker

A lot of the people in the tree appear to come from Northamptonshire so it’s possible that the dna connection is via another branch of L’s tree. Interestingly Ancestry predicts that JH is 5th – 8th Cousin on the Maternal side, whereas George Lay would be on L’s paternal side.

We went through the surnames on L’s tree and found that there is a Gilkes on L’s maternal side: Sarah Gilkes, born 1775 in Middle Barton, Oxfordshire. She would be Alfred Facer’s great grandmother through the maternal line (Alfred Facer → Eliza Higgs -> Susanna Rymill → Sarah Gilkes)

JH’s Gilkes connection is Emma Gilkes, born 1836 in Moreton Pinkney, Northamptonshire. Her father was James Gilkes (ancestry), born 1806 also in Moreton Pinkney.

Moreton Pinkney is next to Plumpton and Sulgrave in Northamptonshire, 16 miles to the north-east of Middle Barton.

Tracing the Gilkes of East Oxfordshire

We wondered if we could link these two people. We started with Sarah Gilkes on our tree. Sarah is recorded in the 1841 and 1851 censuses and seems to have been born about 1755 in Middle Barton in the east of Oxfordshire, near the border with Buckinghamshire.

The most likely baptism is Sarah Gilkes in Steeple Barton on 10 Mar 1773, daughter of William and Mary Gilkes¹. Steeple Barton is just a mile or so away from Middle Barton.

William and Mary also had Hannah in 1779² and George in 1782³, both in Steeple Barton.

We found a marriage of a William Giles and Mary Rose in 1768 in North Aston, Oxfordshire. William was of Middle Barton. He signed his name William Gilks, though the vicar had written Giles.

Marriage of William Giles, of Middle Barton, and Mary Rose, otp, by licence on 17 Oct 1768. He signed, she did not. Witnesses John Hughes (signed) and Joh Maynard (signed)⁴

They married by license so we could look that up for more information. Often licenses include ages and possibly parent names.

North Aston, Middle Barton and Steeple Barton are neighbouring villages in Oxfordshire:

(scrollable map)

We looked for the baptism of William Gilks around 1748 and found the following:

William, son of John and Anne Jilks, baptized 26 Sep 1749 in Lower Heyford⁵

Lower Heyford is just 2-3 miles to the east of Middle Barton. This seems a likely fit for William.

Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be any trace of additional children of John and Anne in that area.

There seem to be two potential marriages:

• 13 Jan 1744, Steeple Aston - John Gilks and Ann Pettifer both of Salford, by licence⁶

• 8 [???] 1735, Swalcliffe - John Gilkes and Anne Wyeat, both of this parish⁷

There is also a William Gilkes marrying a Patience on the same day in Swalcliffe.

On the face of it, the 1744 marriage is the best fit for our John and Ann. Steeple Aston is within the same cluster of villages, between Steeple Barton, Lower Heyford and North Aston. Salford is 12 miles to the west of Lower Heyford, near Chipping Norton, close to the border with Worcestershire.

Swalcliffe is 10 miles north-west of Lower Heyford and 5 miles to the west of Banbury. It appears to be the epicenter of the Gilkes family in Oxfordshire. There are many families in that parish and the neighbouring parishes of Sibford Gower, Sibford Ferris, Tadmarton, Shutford and Epwell. There are also several Gilkes who are Quakers.

It turns out that the Quaker Gilkes were famous clock makers. The website of the Sibfords has the following article:

The history of Quakerism in North Oxfordshire is almost as long as Quakerism itself, arriving in Puritan Banbury during the 1650s, and quickly establishing itself in the rural area to the west and south of the town during the second half of the seventeenth century, centred around the village of Sibford Gower, where the first Sibford Quaker Meeting House was opened in1681.

The same could almost be said about domestic clockmaking, although it was not until the 1689 Act of Toleration created the stability and safety for the Quakers that the two converged; when we see the emergence of a group of Quaker blacksmith turned clockmakers, in the form of the Gilkes family of Sibford Gower and later the Fardons of Deddington, who went on, through their descendants, relatives and apprentices to dominate the craft and create a clockmaking tradition that was to last throughout the eighteenth century. During this time they produced one of the most iconic styles of English country clockmaking, instantly recognisable to enthusiasts everywhere – the iron posted hoop and spike clock with the distinctive ring and zig zag engraved dials.

They were most probably first produced in the workshop of Thomas Gilkes senior of Sibford Gower around 1700, and continued by his three sons — Thomas junior (who remained at Sibford), John who moved to Shipston on Stour, and Richard who became the Adderbury clockmaker — and Thomas senior’s apprentice, John Fardon, who went on to establish the Fardon dynasty of clockmakers at Deddington. They were followed by further generations, each in turn demonstrating the Quaker ideals of education, apprenticeship and travel in their working lives.

From this group of clockmakers a network of trade was created throughout North Oxfordshire extending, after 1750, further afield to Charlbury, Burford and Milton under Wychwood. At each location we find the local clockmaker, whether that be William Green (trained by Thos. Gilkes junior of Sibford) at Milton or Richard Gilkes at Adderbury, taking a prominent role in the running of their local Quaker meeting.⁸

The article goes on to list some of the clockmakers and their families:

Thomas Gilkes senior (1675-1757) of Sibford Gower trained his three sons:

• Thomas junior (1704-1772) who remained at Sibford
• John (1707-c1790) who moved to Shipston on Stour
• Richard (1715-1787) who moved to Adderbury

and Thomas Gilkes junior (1704-1772) of Sibford Gower who had sons:

• Thomas 3 (1736-1779) who became the Charlbury clockmaker
• Richard (1741-?) who moved to Devizes
• John (1748-c1772) who remained at Sibford.

We searched the Oxfordshire parish records to look for the John Gilkes of Salford’s baptism some time before 1726 but unfortunately although there are many possible candidates, none look obviously connected to Salford:

• 7 Nov 1703, Tadmarton; John, son of Thomas Gilkes
• 25 Dec 1709, Swalcliffe; John, John Gilkes son of William and Hannah Gilkes
• 20 Mar 1710; Swalcliffe; John, son of William and Mary Gilkes
• 22 Mar 1712; Swalcliffe; John, son of Joseph and Ann Gilkes
• 21 Apr 1713; Burford; John, son of Robert Gilkes
• 2 Aug 1717; Hornton; John, son of Thomas Gilkes
• 10 Nov 1721; Swalcliffe; —- [John?], son of Georg and Ann Gilkes
• 21 Jan 1722; Wigginton; John, son of Peter and Mary Gilkes
• 22 Jan 1726; Swalcliffe; John, son of John and Elizabeth Gilkes

Tadmarton and Wigginton are close to Swalcliffe, about 5 miles west of Banbury and 8 miles from Salford. Hornton is about 5 miles north-west of Banbury and 12 miles from Salford. Burford is in the south-west of Oxfordshire, about 8 miles south of Salford.

There are no other Gilkes mentioned in the Salford registers. We searched for Ann Pettifer being baptised between 1706 and 1726 and only found one… in Swalcliffe!

• 8 Jul 1726; Swalcliffe; Ann, dau. of Mich. and Ann Pettipher⁹

If this was “our” Ann Pettifer then it would mean that she and John Gilkes moved from Swalcliffe to Salford and then again to Steeple Aston to marry, settle down and have one child in the nearby village of Lower Heyford. It seems unusual that an unmarried couple would move from their home parish to another parish and then to another to marry.

So far, our research looks like this:

John Gilkes  = Ann Pettifier
b. 1726?       b. 1826
Swalcliffe?    Swalcliffe?
      |
      | 
William Gilkes = Mary Rose
b. 1749 
Lower Heyford
Oxfordshire
      |
      | 
Sarah Gilkes  = Richard Rymill
b. 1773 
Steeple Barton
Oxfordshire
      |
      | 
Susanna Rymill = Henry Higgs
b. 1802 
Steeple Barton
Oxfordshire
      |
      | 
Eliza Higgs = William Facer
b. 1820 
Deddington
Oxfordshire
      |
      v 

Tracing the Gilkes of Northamptonshire

The Northampton line of Gilkes from L’s DNA connection looks like this:

John Gilkes = Mary Gardner 
b. 1779       b. 1780
Morton Pinkney
Northamptonshire
          |
          |
James Gilkes = Harriet Ann Hoare
b. 1806        b. 1805
Morton Pinkney
Northamptonshire
          |
          |
Emma Gilkes = William Slow
b 1836        b. 1840
Morton Pinkney
Northamptonshire

John Gilkes appears in the 1851 census aged 72 where his place of birth is recorded as Morton Pinkney, Northamptonshire. His occupation is retired gamekeeper.

Morton Pinkney is about 15 miles from both Swalcliffe and Steeple Aston.

We looked in the Northamptonshire parish records and found a likely John Gilks baptism

Baptism on 16 May 1779 in Morton Pinkney of John, son of Joseph and Elizabeth¹⁰

Joseph and Elizabeth appear to be well established in Moreton Pinkney, having 9 other children there around that time. The earlies appears to be Elizabeth baptised in 1775. There is another Gilkes family also having children at the time: William and Patience.

We found a likely marriage:

Marriage on 5 Sep 1770 in Morton Pinkney, of Joseph Gilkes of Sulgrave and Elizabeth Humphries of this parish. By licence.¹¹

Sulgrave is 2 miles to the south-west of Morton Pinkney.

Joseph was baptised there in 1748:

Baptism on 19 Feb 1748 in Sulgrave, of Joseph, son of Thos and Mary Jilkes¹²

We then found a likely marriage of Thomas and Mary in Marston St. Lawrence, 2 miles to the soutwest of Sulgrave:

Marriage on 8 Oct 1746 in Marston St. Lawrence, of Tho. Gilkes of Sibford Fers in the county of Oxford and Mary Wats of Sulgrave in the county of Northampton, by licence¹³

Sibford Ferris is one of the small cluster of villages around Swalcliffe, and the centre of the Gilkes clock maker family! The Northamptonshire Gilkes appear to come originally from Oxfordshire!

We can now extend the Northamptonshire Gilkes tree

Thomas Gilkes  = Mary Wats
b. around 1726?
Sibford Ferris
Oxfordshire
          |
          |
Joseph Gilkes = Elizabeth Humphries
b. 1748
Sulgrave
Northamptonshire
          |
          |
John Gilkes = Mary Gardner 
b. 1779       b. 1780
Morton Pinkney
Northamptonshire
          |
          |
James Gilkes = Harriet Ann Hoare
b. 1806        b. 1805
Morton Pinkney
Northamptonshire
          |
          |
Emma Gilkes = William Slow
b 1836        b. 1840
Morton Pinkney
Northamptonshire

Now we need to somehow link our John Gilkes born around 1726, possibly in Swalcliffe to this Thomas Gilkes also born around 1726 in the neighbouring parish of Sibford Ferris

It’s perhaps notable that the Gilkes marriages in Northamptonshire were all by licence. We could obtain those for more details. Maybe they were by licence because of the family’s Quaker connections?

Even without this final link I feel pretty confident that the DNA connection between L and “JH” on Ancestry is via the Gilkes line and not via George Lay.