21 Aug 2023

We’re still on the quest to find the parents of William Gilks. We have his baptism:

William, son of John and Anne Jilks, baptized 26 Sep 1749 in Lower Heyford¹

There seem to be two potential marriages:

• 13 Jan 1744, Steeple Aston - John Gilks and Ann Pettifer both of Salford, by licence²

• 8 [???] 1735, Swalcliffe - John Gilkes and Anne Wyeat, both of this parish³

We don’t know which would be the parents of William. John and Ann Pettifer seem to be the most likely but we can’t be sure.

Also we have more than ten different John Gilks born between 1703 and 1725 that could be one or other of the above.

Tonight we tried looking for other children of either couple.

We found a daughter that could be the daughter of John and Anne Wyeat:

Ann, daughter of John and Ann Gilkes, baptized 11 Nov 1746 in Swalcliffe⁴

We then found a John in Southam, Warwickshire

John, daughter of John and Ann Jilks, baptized 8 Sep 1745, Southam ⁵

But we think this is the son of a different John and Ann who were native to Southam. We found their marriage:

Married John Gilks and Anne Clark, both of this parisj, 1 Oct 1744, Southam⁶

We found a Mary Jilks in Stoke Lyne:

Mary, daughter of Johan and Ann Jilks was born April 20, baptised 25th, 1736 in Stoke Lyne⁷

Stoke Lyne is 5 miles north-east of Lower Heyford.

We found a marriage of a John Jelks to Ann Harvey in Stoke Lyne in 1733:

John Jelks of the parish of Launton in this county and Ann Harvey of this parish were married by banns July 7 1733⁸

They also had a William in 1734:

William son of John Jelks and Ann his wide was baptized July the 7th 1734⁹

We also searched for burials of Ann Gilkes from 1735-1755. Once again there are many with very little distinguishing information:

1737 Jun 30 - Ann Gilks of Clifton, in Deddington
1743 Aug 21 - Ann Gilks, wife of James, Hornton
1749 Jun 18 - Ann Gilkes of Sibford Ferris buried, Swalcliffe
1751 Jul 1 - Ann Jelks buried, Adderbury
1751, Jan 23 - Ann, wife of John Gilks, Southam
1751 Jan 26 - William, son of John John Gilks, Southam

We also saw a Richard Wyatt being bured in Adderbury:

1751 Aug 11 - Richard Wyatt buried, Adderbury

We then looked attempted to find mention of Gilkes in Salford. However the registers are not online before 1754. We did find a transcript available from the Oxfordshire Family History Society which contained this note:

Salford is a small parish on the western boundary of Oxfordshire, some three miles west of Chipping Norton on the Worcester road. Registers prior to 1757 were destroyed by fire, but it has been possible to record many events after 1669 from Bishops Transcripts, with gaps.

There were, however no mentions of Gilkes or Pettifer. We turned instead to Chipping Norton and found another John Gilkes baptised in 1726.¹⁰

John, son of Thomas and Mary Gilks, baptised 8 Sep 1726, Chtpping Norton¹⁰

We found the marriage of his parents Thomas Gilkes and Mary Shortland in 1723 in Shipton under Wychwood. The entry noted they were both of Chipping Norton. They had several other children: Thomas (1724), Elizabeth (1732-1733), Elizabeth (1734) and William (1737) all in Chipping Norton.

However there is nothing concrete to link this family to the John who married Ann Pettifer.

We searched for Ann Pettifers who were born in Oxfordshire around 1725. As mentioned in an earlier entry there is only one, in Swalciffe:

8 Jul 1726; Swalcliffe; Ann, dau. of Mich. and Ann Pettipher¹¹
also
14 Jun 1727; Swalcliffe; Ann, dau. of Mich. and Ann Pettipher¹²

At that time Swalcliffe was a large parish that also covered Sibford Gower and Sibford Ferris and was home to a large community of Quakers, many of whom were Gilkes.

We looked for more children of Michael and Ann Pettipher and found several more: Joseph (1715), Michael (1718), Eliizabeth (1722), William (1723), Thomas (1730) and Mary (1733), all in Swalcliffe.

The only marriage we could find for a Michael Pettifer was in Warwickshire:

6 Jan 1714; Temple Grafton; Marriage of Michael Pettepher and Anne Faxon by Banns¹³

Unfortunately the original registers for Temple Grafton are ion a terrible state and this record was found among the Worcestershire Diocese Biships Transcripts which are all unordered and consist of over 30,000 pages online.

Temple Grafton iis 18 miles northwest of Swalcliffe, so this doesn’t seem very likely. The marriage was by banns which suggests that they lived there for at least several weeks and the absence of any other parish mentioned in the register entry could indicate that they are native to the parish.

I had the idea that perhaps they wanted to either join the Quakers or work with the blacksmith clockmakers and made the journey to Swalcliffe/Sibford after their marriage.

We began exploring the Quaker records and found that the full form of the marriage record includes a list of those present, sometimes with a separate section for relatives. The marriages were held at the meeting house Banbury and several of them involve members of the Gilkes family. The list of those present for those marriages contains many people called Gilkes.

We browsed to look for more and found the marriage of Thomas Fardon of Deddington to Mary Prestage of Sibford Gower 23 Jul 1720.

In the list of witnesses we found a Michael Pettifor and an Anne Pettifor who could be the Michael and Anne having children in Swalcliffe. Under the list of relatives was a Mary Faxon. Could she be a relative of Anne? There were also a number of Gilkes: William Gilkes, Thomas Gilkes, William Gilkes, Richard Gilkes, Nathan Gilkes, Elizabeth Gilkes. There is also a Samuel Alcock and a John Alcock.¹⁴

I think Nathan Gilkes was born in 1704 in Sibford Gower and that Richard and Elizabeth Gilkes, formerly Barrett, were his parents. He had a brother, Richard, who would only have been 11 at the time of the marriage so perhaps he wasn’t eligible to attend or to sign the document.

I don’t know if there is any significance to the order of names. Men appear first and women are at the end of the list. There is following page in the records with the same list of names but in a different order, however the women are still listed last.

I browsed a few more entries marriages but didn’t see many more Pettifers. The next year on 15 Jun 1721 was the marriage of George Gilks of Sibford Gower to Mary Gilkes of Sibford Ferris. This seems to have been attended by a slightly different list of Gilkes but no Pettifers: John Gilkes, Hannah Gilkes, Ann Gilkes, Mary Gilkes, Elizabeth Gilkes, William Gilkes, Richard Gilkes and Elizabeth Gilkes

On 2 Jun 1721 a Hen Pettifer attended the marriage of William Morton of Great Tew and Ann White of Northampton.

I feel sure that this is a strong link between the John Gilkes and Ann Pettifer who married in Lower Heyford in 1749. Ann would be the daughter of Michael and Ann Pettipher, born 1727, which would maker her about 22 when she married. Their marriage was by license but they were not married as quakers and their son was not baptised as one.

We’re also wondering whether the note that they were from Salford is incorrect and the were actually from Sibford. The entry in the register clearly reads Salford but perhaps the vicar misremembered or misheard it when recording.

Just as I was going to bed I stumbled across the marriage of Thomas Gilkes and Hannah Alcock in 1674: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7097/images/41815_b0153542-00047?pId=6092991. That will be for another day!