Pages 40 to 49


	Speculum Gregis 1843 'An Account of all the Inhabitants of the Parish of Croydon in the County of Cambridgeshire commencing from 1 January 1843' by Reverend Francis Fulford 1803-1868 (Rector at Croydon 1841-1845). Additional notes by Reverend R S B Sandilands (Rector 1845-1864).


Pages 40 to 49 (Annotated) This is the annotated text of the "Speculum Gregis" pages 40 to 49 inclusive. This annotated version includes additional background material, family research contributions from readers, excerpts from the 1841 census, and some related photographs. Also available is the basic text of the same 9 pages as an uninterrupted transcription.		The wording used in both versions was originally a distillation of three separate transcriptions of the original hand-written text. Where the texts differed, I followed the majority unless historical evidence suggests I should do otherwise. I have subsequently transcribed the text direct from the original document so the corrected transcription used on this website (currently pages 1 to 29 inclusive) is therefore my own. Detailed explanatory notes are given at the foot of each page.


	Return to Page 39 (Annotated Text)		Forward to Page 50 (Annotated Text)

Page 40

Next house up the village to Hopkins

William and Anne ~~Chapman~~ Law

They can both read. He works for Mr Haydon. They have two daughters married out of the parish. They belong to Arrington. He generally attends Eversden meetings, and she Wendy Church. She is the most extraordinary talking old woman in the parish.

RSBS: (Both her daughters are dead. She and her husband are very steady, ~~honest~~ old people, formerly Dissenters, and now of that cast of mind.)

[1841 Census: William Law (aged 60), agricultural labourer, and wife Ann Law (60).]

Page 41

James Bartle

An old man, father of Samuel [Page 1] who now keeps the "Carpenters Arms". A Communicant, and a very good old man, I believe. Can read.

There is a prayer meeting held in his house, which has been purchased by Mr Hopkins of Bassingbourn, an Independent.

[1841 Census: James Bartell (aged 75), agricultural labourer, and Sarah Bartell (70).]

[1851 Census: James Bartell relation widower 85 Ag lab pauper receiving parish relief, born Cockayne Hatley, Bedfordshire. Living with son - see page 2]

Page 42

Next door

William and Mary Newman

Can't read, either of them. He is working for Mr King of Tadlow at Hatley. He is a very quiet and respectable man. She is of a most violent temper. He left her for three or four years some time on account of her temper. They were married at Wendy and children Christened there. Kezia Law and Harriet Greaves are her sisters; he has been in the habit of attending Eversden Meeting, and is a decided dissenter, but comes ~~occasionally~~ now and then to Church. She attends Church.

1. Charlotte Newman, aged 13.
2. Richard Newman, aged 10. In the Sunday school.
3. William Newman, aged 3.
4. Jane Anne, aged 2 months.
RSBS: (5. ~~unbaptised~~)

[Richard Newman left Sunday School "Ceased to attend in the Autumn of 1846, had been a good boy, but latterly fell off. He had been admitted in April 1842 being ten years old." - Rev R S B Sandilands]

Lives with them

Mary Howard

Mother of William Newman by her first husband. She goes out nursing, is a very straightforward respectable woman, attends Church at Croydon when at home. (see next page)

[1841 Census: William Newman (aged 30), agricultural labourer, wife Mary Newman (30), children Charlotte Newman (10), Richard Newman (9) and William Newman (1). Also living with them was Mary Howard (60).]

Page 43

Charles and Mary Titmus

He can't read, works for Mr Elliston. She can.

1. Simeon Titmus, aged 14. Has worked for us, is steady, but very slow and dirty in his work. Attends Sunday school.
2. James Titmus, (aged 11). Attends Sunday school.
3. Mary Titmus (aged 8).
4. Anne Titmus, (aged 5).
5. Charles Titmus (aged 2).

They both attend Church. He is brother to Simeon Titmus (page 9).

These parties now live at the Limekilns [page 54] where Easy used to live before he went to Canada.

[Above entry completely crossed through]

[Simeon Titmus attended Croydon Sunday School. Was Confirmed 22 June 1844. "Entered the school January 1843 being 14 years old. Worked for my predecessor Mr Fulford, and left the school with a good character before I became Rector, upon entering the service of Mr Ellis." - Rev R S B Sandilands]

Live in the same house

Charles and Kitty Titmus

Father and mother of Charles above, also of Simeon and Mary Newman, widow. Attend Church. He is a very quiet old man. She goes out nursing and is a great talker.

RSBS: (Kitty died in 1846, having been taken ill whilst gleaning, since which Charles has become a communicant.)

RSBS: (Mary Howard (see preceding page) owns this house and now resides in it when not nursing.)

[1841 Census: Charles Titmus (aged 70), agricultural labourer, and wife Kitty Titmus (60). Also residing in the same house were: Charles Titmus (aged 40), agricultural labourer, wife Mary Titmus (40), and children Simeon Titmus (10), James Titmus (8), Mary Titmus (6) and Ann Titmus (3).]

Page 44

Robert and Charlotte Gates

He can't read, works for Mr George. She can read. She goes with a horse and cart to Cambridge as a carrier. They none of them come to Church scarcely ever - and are but irregular livers.

1. William Gates, aged 24. Can't read, works for Mr Elliston. (Lately married to a Tadlow girl.)
2. James Gates, aged 21. Can't read. Married.
3. Maria Gates, aged 9. In the Sunday school.

RSBS: (James was married to Mary Lyon (page 36) 30th January 1843 ~~and they are to live at Christopher Gates, all live together~~. No children in either of the son's families yet.)

RSBS: (Later: Robert Gates a steady man, a good workman - wife said to drink.)

[1841 Census: Robert Gates (aged 40), agricultural labourer, wife Charlotte Gates (40), William Gates (20), agricultural labourer, James Gates (20), agricultural labourer, and Maria Gates (7). Also residing at the house at the time of the census was Mary Lyon (25).

Page 45

Mary Warman

Her husband [Samuel] was transported for 7 years about 10 years ago, and she has not heard of him for several years. She goes out as a charwoman, and comes to the Rectory as a washerwoman. She is very constant at Church.

1. Elizabeth Warman, aged 12. In the Sunday school. Fetches our letters.

[Above entry completely crossed through]

RSBS: (Married and gone to Bourn. Her name is Sampson now.)

[Samuel Warman had been transported on the indictment of Joseph Faircloth, the overseer of the poor, and the Tadlow farmer whose threshing machine had been attacked two year's previously. In 1833 Samuel and Mary had a two year old child. The charge was of stealing three elm boards, valued at four shillings, about half a week's wages. Faircloth had been the only witness, and the theft had taken place at night. Samuel was seen carrying the boards on his shoulder, but when he realised he had been spotted, he threw them down and ran. Faircloth caught him, and told the Court that when challenged Samuel had several times asked, "If begging pardon would do any good?" It didn't. He already had a previous conviction for felony, and so was formally sentanced to death, but was reprieved and given seven years transportation. He never returned. Mary waited for ten years and then remarried, taking her now twelve-year-old daughter to live with her new husband in Bourn.]

~~In the same house.~~

Lucy Simpson

Unmarried, aged woman. Has has several baseborn children, is very ignorant, ~~never~~ seldom comes to Church.

RSBS: (Lodges elsewhere now.)

[See Page 85 for possible son Austin Simpson]

In the same house

Sarah Warden

Aged single woman. Has had some baseborn children. Used to be very regular at church. Has not been lately.

RSBS: (Passes for a witch.)

RSBS: (is in the Workhouse)

RSBS: (Now dead.)

[Above entry completely crossed through]

RSBS: (This house has been pulled down.)

[1841 Census: Mary Walmer (aged 30), Elizabeth Walmer (11). Also residing here at the time of the census were Sarah Ward (60) and Lucy Simpson (55).]

Page 46

Next door

John and Mary Presland

Can both read. He works for Mr Jackson. Attend church constantly - children all Christened in Croydon Church.

1. Alfred Presland, aged 14. Works for Mrs Casbourn.
2. Tamar Presland, aged 12. In the Sunday School.
3. William Presland, aged 9. In the Sunday School.
4. Rhoda Presland, aged 7. In the Sunday School.
5. Emily Presland, aged 5.
6. James Presland, aged 2.
[7. Abi Presland born/died 1843]

[Above entry completely crossed through]

RSBS: (Gone to Australia with his family.) [in May 1844 - see box below]

RSBS: (The Graves's mentioned page 18 live here now, having purchased the lease of the house.)

[John Presland (Presslin) took part in the 1832 Croydon Riot and was subsequently sentenced to six month's imprisonment]

[Croydon Parish Baptisms 1840-1845: 20 December 1840, John Presland, son of John and Mary, labourer; 21 May 1843, Abi Presland, daughter of John and Mary, labourer]

[1841 Census: John Presland (aged 40), agricultural labourer, wife Mary Presland (30),
Tamar Presland (10), William Presland (8), Roheda Presland (5), Emelia Presland (3) and James Presland (6 months). Also residing here at the time of the census was Simeon Presland (aged 30), agricultural labourer.]

[Note local spellings of surname: Presslin, Presland, Pressland, Priestland, Preslon, and Preston.]

Barnard (Barnet) Presland (1776-?)
= Margaret Lawrence (1777-1826).

? Reid/Reed (?-?)
= ?? (?-?).

John Presland (1801-1855) = Mary Reed (1808-1853)

Alfred Presland (1829-1904) = Jane Wells
Tamar Presland (1831-1913) = Samuel Tuck
William Presland (1832-1898) = Mary McLean
Rhoda Presland (1836-?) = John Wright
Emily Presland (1838-1853)
James [b John?] Presland (1840-?) = Ellen Bates
Abi Presland (daughter, born/died 1843]

[Maureen Scutts, a great-great-great-great-grandaughter of John and Mary, has contributed the following information, which includes an account of what happened to the family after their arrival in Australia.

John's grandfather was John Presland [Preston] who married Sara(h) Bilton on the 29 June 1776 in Bassingbourn Church. They already had two daughters, Elizabeth (b1773) and Ann (b1774). Their third child was John's father, Barnard [or Barnet] Presland (b1776), who was born shortly before Sarah died. On the 24 December 1778 John [Preslon] married another Sarah - Sarah Night [or Nite(s)] (b/c1739) and had a further six children, five of whom would die before the age of twelve.

Barnard Presland (b1776) married Margaret Lawrence (b1777). They had six children, John Presland was the first in 1801, then came Ann (b1803), William (b1806). James (b/c1808), Simeon (b/c1812) and last was Samuel Presland (b1815) (see page 47). Margaret died in 1826, and in 1833 Barnard married again to Mary Mean at Arrington. At the time of the 1841 census, Barnard and Mary are living in Orwell, at the 1851 census, 'widower' Barnard was living with son Samuel Presland in Croydon.

In 1827 John Presland married Mary Reed (b1808) from the village of Whaddon, four miles from Croydon, and they had seven children.

At the Cambridge Assizes held in October 1832, John Presland [Presslin] was one of sixteen Croydon villagers who were brought before the Court and charged with the crime of destroying a threshing machine on the premises of Mr Thomas Faircloth, farmer, of Croydon on the 3 September 1832. All sixteen defendants were found guilty and John was sentenced to six month's imprisonment. [See the Croydon Riot]

John Presland was an agricultural labourer by trade and mainly worked for tenant farmer Thomas Jackson who leased his Croydon farm from Downing College of Cambridge University. In 1843 the Rev Francis Fulford included the family in his "Speculum Gregis" (on page 46) and recorded that John and Mary could both read [but see below] and they attended Church constantly. All the children were baptised in All Saints, Croydon's Parish Church and the four eldest children attended Croydon's Sunday School.

John Presland worked for Mr Jackson up to May 1844 when the whole family left Croydon and emmigrated to Australia. The immigration papers state that the Rev. Francis Fulford certified their baptisms and both Mr John King of Tadlow and Arrington and Mr Thomas Jackson of Croydon attested to John Presland's good character. Mary stated that she was a kitchen maid for the Earl of Hardwick [presumably at nearby Wimpole Hall] and Alfred cleaned cutlery and ran general errands for Mrs Casbourne, another of the tenant farmers in Croydon. John could neither read or write but Mary and Alfred could read.

The ship that carried John and family to Australia was the 565 tonne "Templar" which originally left Cork in Ireland on the 18 May 1844 (before picking up emmigrants in England) and after a 104 day journey the family arrived in Port Jackson, Sydney on the 27 August 1844.

Ten days after they arrived, on the 6 September 1844, John Presland entered into a six month contract as a farm labourer, with Mr Frederick Castles of Hinton in the Hunter Valley for a salary of 12 pounds per annum plus family lodgings and basic rations of flour, mutton or beef, sugar and tea. Sometime after this point he purchased a property in Hinton which was named "Crippord".

According to family lore, wife Mary and daughter Emily died around 1853/4 during a Typhoid epidemic. A burial registration for the deaths were never recorded as the minister was unable to get to the property because of the epidemic, thus John had to bury them himself on their property. John wrote a will shortly before his own death which occurred in June 1855. He bequeathed the sum of 600 pounds which was distributed between his children and grandchildren. John was buried in Morpeth cemetery.

By the time John had died most of the children had married and established themselves in various areas in the Hunter Valley (about 70 miles north of Sydney). Alfred Presland married Jane Wells, an English girl from Dorset whose family had arrived in 1849. Tamar Presland married Samuel Tuck at the same time, this being a double wedding. Rhoda Presland married John Wright and William Presland married a Scottish lass, Mary McLean. James Presland moved to Queensland settling in the Rockhamptons and he married Ellen Bates in 1865.

From these marriages John and Mary Presland had 60 grandchildren. You can see that from this that their descendants here in Australia now number into the thousands!

For further details on the second and third generations of Preslands please see my Family History Page (broken link). The Presland family has been quite extensively researched by many people and there is a Presland Family Newsletter produced by Gary Presland in Victoria, Australia.]

[See also: Samuel Presland and Family (Page 47 below)]

Page 47

Next door

Samuel and Mary Presland

Can both read. He works for Mr Ellis. They attend Church ~~constantly~~ tolerably.

1. Susan Presland, aged 1 year - Christened in Croydon Church.

RSBS: (They have 2 more children now.)

[1841 Census: Samuel Presland (aged 25), agricultural labourer, and wife Mary Presland (25). Also living here at the time of the census were Mary Newman (aged 35) and Mary Newman (12).]

[ 1851 Census: Samuel Presland (aged 36), agricultural labourer, wife Mary Presland (37), and children William (7), Alfred (5), James (4) and George (1). Also living here at the time of the census was Samuel's father Barnard Presland (74), widower, listed as an agricultural labourer and a pauper receiving alms.]

[Note local spellings of surname: Presslin, Presland, Pressland, Priestland, Preslon, and Preston.]

[Susan Giddings has contributed the following information:

Barnard (Barnet) Presland (1776-?)
= Margaret Lawrence (1777-1826).

James Miller (?-1847) = ?? (?-?).

Samuel Presland (1801-1855) = Mary Miller (1812-?)

Susan Presland (1841-?) Died in childhood?
William Presland (1843-?)
Alfred Presland (1845-?)
James Presland (1847 - ?)
George Presland (1849 - ?)
Josiah Presland (1851 - ?)
Susan Presland (born 12 August 1853 - ?)

Samuel's grandfather was John Presland [Preston] who married Sara(h) Bilton on the 29 June 1776 in Bassingbourn Church. They already had two daughters, Elizabeth (b1773) and Ann (b1774). Their third child was Samuel's father, Barnard [or Barnet] Presland (b1776), who was born shortly before Sarah died. On the 24 December 1778 John [Preslon] married another Sarah - Sarah Night [or Nite(s)] (b/c1739) and had a further six children, five of whom would die before the age of twelve.

Barnard Presland (b1776) married Margaret Lawrence (b1777). They had six children, John Presland was the first in 1801, then came Ann (b1803), William (b1806). James (b/c1808), Simeon (b/c1812) and last was Samuel Presland (b1815). Margaret died in 1826, and in 1833 Barnard married again to Mary Mean at Arrington. At the time of the 1841 census, Barnard and Mary are living in Orwell, at the 1851 census, 'widower' Barnard was back living with Samuel in Croydon.

In 1840 Samuel Presland married Mary Miller (c1812), the daughter of James Miller of Arrington (see below), and they had the seven children listed above.

Samuel was the younger brother of John Presland (Page 46) who emigrated from Croydon-cum-Clopton to Australia in 1843.

Lives in the same house.

James Miller

Her father, a cripple with rheumatism. He belongs to Arrington, was formerly a post-boy at the "Hardwicke Arms", comes up to Church occasionally, is very ignorant. Lady Hardwicke generally gives him a Xmas present.

RSBS: (He died in 1847, and I buried him in Arrington churchyard. R.S.B.S.)

Page 48

William [and Ann] Miller

Can both read. He works for Mr Haydon. They attend Church.

RSBS: (& Ann is dead)

[1. John Miller - see below]

[1841 census: William Miller (aged 50), agricultural labourer, and wife Ann Miller (50).]

Live in the same house

John and Lydia Miller

He is son of the above and can read. She is daughter of William Hill (page 24). She can't read. They were married in Croydon in the Autumn 1842.

1. William Miller, aged 2 months - Christened [Dec 1842] in Croydon Church.
[2. John Hill Miller]

RSBS: (They have another child.)

RSBS: (Later note: He is just sent to prison for a month, for leaving his family [having left his wife on the parish?] in the summer in search of work. I think it was rather a hard case.)

[Croydon Parish Baptisms 1840-1845: 11 December 1842, William Miller, of John and Lydia, labourer; 15 June 1845, John Hill Miller, of John and Lydia, labourer]

William Miller (c1791-?) = Ann ? (c1791-?)

William Hill (c1801-?) = Ann [H]Ilot (c1806-?)

John Miller (?-?) = Lydia Hill (?-?)

William Miller (1842-?)
John Hill Miller (1845-?)

[Contribution: Lydia Miller (née Lydia Hill) later married James Payne on 31 December 1852 and gave birth to Emma Payne the following year (baptised 29 May 1853).]

Page 49

[Ed note: Previous transcriptions refer to William and Elizabeth Martin or Warlin or Worlon. It has to be assumed that this entry refers to Thomas and Elizabeth Worland (née Cooper bap Wimpole 9 August 1801, daughter of James and Elizabeth) both of Wimpole Parish, married Wimpole 28 April 1822. Recorded Wimpole baptisms: Anne Worland 6 April 1923, Lydia Worland 11 July 1824, William Worland 18 January 1829 and Elizabeth Worland 20 January 1833.]

Thomas and Elizabeth Worland

He can read. She can read and write. Married at Wimpole, and Christened there, except two youngest at Croydon. Not very regular at Church.

[Anne Worland]
[Lydia Worland]
1. William Worland, aged 14. In the Sunday school.
2. Elizabeth Worland, aged 10.
3. Emma Worland, aged 7.
4. Susan Worland, aged 4.
[ Sarah Worland]
[Rhoda Worlon]

Lydia, an elder daughter, came home from service the beginning of February 1843, about which time all the rest of the above, and the Hills (underneath) went into Caxton Workhouse, leaving her alone in the house with [Kezia] Badcock.

RSBS: (The eldest daughter [Ann] married one of the Hills [Thomas], and is gone to Canada [see entry below]. The rest of the family are now at home. They are very bad managers, always in rags and wanting. Lydia is dead.)

[William Warland dismissed from Sunday School 1843. "[He was a]... very disorderly boy who had been used always to do as he pleased before I came, and would not submit to discipline and disturbed the school." - Rev Francis Fulford]

[Croydon Parish Baptisms 1840-1845: 1 August 1841, Sarah Worland, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth, labourer; 13 April 1845, Rhoda Worlon, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth , labourer]

[1841 Census: Elizabeth Worland (aged 35), and children Ann Worland (15), William Worland (11), Elizabeth Worland (8), Emma Worland (5) and Susan Worland (2).]

Christopher Worland (?-?) = Anne ? (?-?)

James Cooper (?-?) = Elizabeth ? (?-?)

Thomas Worland (1798-?) = Elizabeth Cooper (1801-?)

Anne Worland (1823-?) = Thomas Hill (see entry below)
Lydia Worland (1824-c1845)
William Worland (c1830-?)
Elizabeth Worland (c1833-?)
Emma Worland (c1836-?)
Susan Worland (c1839-?)
Sarah Worland (1841-?)
Rhoda Worlon (1845-?)

In the same house

Thomas and Anne Hill

He can't read, and is son of William Hill (page 24). She can read a little, and is daughter of the above.

1. William Ilot Hill, aged 2 months - Christened at Croydon.

[Above entry completely crossed through]

RSBS: (Gone to Canada.)

[Croydon Parish Baptisms 1840-1845: 11 December 1842, William Ilett Hill, of Thomas and Anne, labourer]

[Thomas, Anne and baby son William spent several months in Caxton Workhouse from February 1843 before their marriage (the marriage may have been at Fulford's insistance to comply with the "good character" requirement of the assisted "Poor Law" emigration scheme). The group of Croydon villagers totalled 30 - ten men, thirteen women, five boys and two girls - and they left for Canada in June 1843.

The Public Archives of Canada has a receipt dated August 19th 1843 issued to the Emigrants Office by William Taylor, the Master of the Lake Ontario schooner used for the transport of indigent emigrant families to London. The list includes a number of Croydon names including "Thomas Hill and Family (2) fare of £1.0s.0d". Arrival in London appears to have been on the 20 September 1843.

Despite "can read a little", Anne Hill (nee Worland) wrote the following letter to her mother Elizabeth Worland from Canada dated the end of October 1843 and extracts were later published in the Cambridge Chronicle (this last was probably the Rev Fulford's doing!).

"Dear Mother
...You said we were coming from all ower frinds, but we fin frinds here as well as at home... I wish sister [Lydia] was with me. [William] my boy is quite well.
We was eight weeks on the Atlantick and four weeks on the freesh water [St Lawrence River and Lake Ontario]... Tom see his brother William the next day after we landed at London [in Upper Canada]; but you might never expec to see him if he can help it for he like this part best...
We left John 5 hundred miles below us at Mr Darte's... Tom and John C[hapman] have 10 doulers for four weeks and their board, and we have a good house to live in rentfre, and there is no poor people in this country, they are all farmers... We live about 30 miles from London...
We have to a pig, we give a douler for one as you have to give 18 shillins for in England. I do not repent to think I came from home, I should not want for a fire, nor yet have to go to the workhouse, for I cook more meat in one day than you cook in a week...
I shall come home in 13 years if I have good luck. John sends his love to ______ and ______ and he should come home in 10 years and see them all, so no more from your son and dorter.
So goodbye all"]

Lodges in the same house

Kezia Badcock

A single friendly woman aged about 35.

[1841 Census: Kisiah Badcock (aged 30).]


	Return to Page 39 (Annotated Text)		Forward to Page 50 (Annotated Text)

Explanatory Notes:

Fulford generally devoted one page to each property; and I have retained his page numbers as serials for the entries. Crossings out shown are as in the original document. Information, footnotes and commentary additional to the original "Speculum Gregis" texts are shown as [grey text in square brackets].

In the pages of the original "Speculum Gregis", two handwritings are apparent, that of Francis Fulford (entries from 1843 to 1845) and that of his successor, the Rev Sandilands (entries from 1845 to 1848). The notes by the Rev Sandilands have been shown in this online edition as RSBS: (dark blue text within round brackets) and sometimes identified as a later entry.

However, having taken the opportunity to check the first 30 pages of the original manuscript, I found that quite a number of comments attributed to Sandilands in "The Rector and his Flock" were actually in Fulford's handwriting. I assume from the chronology of entries in the later 61 pages that there will be further attributions falling into this category.

A national Census was taken on the 6 June 1841, three weeks before Fulford's arrival in Cambridgeshire and eighteen months before the "Speculum Gregis" was started. Details from the Croydon-cum-Clopton census have been added to page entries where appropriate. Note that the ages of adults were generally rounded to the nearest five years by the census enumerator and therefore they should not be taken as a reliable indication of age.

The enumerator also reported that 26 Croydon labourers were "having left the district for the hay harvest in the neighbourhood of London", which would explain the absence of a number of the known heads of households.

I want this site to be as accurate and as informative as possible - please let me know if something is wrong, however trivial the correction. I would also welcome additional information to add to the annotated text - especially from those with 'family' in Croydon between 1840 and 1850.

In the first instance please contact the website with details.

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No responsibility can be taken for errors or omissions.
This site does not use cookies.