Introduction

The genealogy of the Craxford family in Northamptonshire has been well documented for many years but following their trails away from this rural environment to other parts of the country has often proved difficult. In the last year the release of the 1911 England census, the much earlier parish records from the London Metropolitan Archives and the National Probate Calendar has filled in many of the gaps. Now, allowing for one or two residual assumptions based on very strong circumstantial evidence, we believe this aim to have been achieved.

This article follows one line of the Craxford family over four generations from its tentative movement across the Welland Valley in the late 18th century to its final resting place in west London in the early 20th. In between we have discovered a far flung, peripatetic but apparently close knit branch, a coincidence with a matrimonial surname and a confusion of religious persuasion.

From Gretton to Cottingham

The Craxford name first appeared in village of Gretton in the early part of the 17th century. Gretton lies in the Welland Valley on the border of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. It had been deemed a royal manor and was an important settlement within Rockingham Forest during the Middle Ages. Its development and economy were founded on the twin occupations of agriculture and ironstone quarrying (1). For the next one hundred and fifty years five generations were born into, married and buried in this tightly knit rural community eeking out a living through toil in the fields or other occupations which supported farming.

The village of Cottingham lies in the shadow of Rockingham Castle, an edifice originally built by William the Conqueror on the southern escarpment of the valley. Immediately to the west is the hamlet of Middleton with which it has a shared history. The name 'Cottingham' has Anglo-Saxon origins, with 'ham' meaning town or settlement and 'ing' denoting a tribal leader's sons, dependants or followers. Thus, Cottingham literally means 'homestead of Cotta's people', Cotta ('or Cotti') having been an Anglo Saxon chief. The spelling of Cottingham has varied throughout history too. There are references to Cotingeham in the Domesday Book and Cotingham in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. The population of just over 600 people remained fairly constant throughout the 19th century (2).

John Craxford, a member of the fifth generation of the family and an agricultural labourer, was born in Gretton in 1774 and was baptised at the Parish Church of St James the Great. He would have been aware of and travelled to the other communities in his neighbourhood as he met Elizabeth Ball in Caldecott. This is a village three miles away over the border in Rutland. They were married on April 22nd 1798.

They initially made their home in Gretton, which is where their first son, John, was born in 1799. However, by the arrival of their second born, William, in 1804, they had made the move five miles eastward to Middleton. They were to have two more sons: Joseph (born 1809) and James (born 1811). John continued to work on the land and in due time William and James followed their father into the same occupation. Apart from his baptism at St Mary Magdalene Church on April 30th 1809, nothing is known of Joseph. Elizabeth died sometime before 1840 by which time John had sought lodgings in the village with John Jackson and his wife, Elizabeth Crane. The Cranes were a family the descendents of his son William were destined to become involved with later in the century. John met his death in an incident on June 2nd 1848. A subsequent inquest declared this to have been caused "by the wheel of a cart accidentally going over his body".

The family of John and Ann Craxford

Having moved with his parents to Middleton as a child, John Craxford spent most of his short life in the village. For a time he did work away in the neighbouring county of Leicestershire where he met Ann Wilkinson, some eight years his senior. She was from Glooston, a village ten miles distant in the countryside near Market Harborough. They were married at St Margaret's Church, Leicester on March 4th 1822 and, apparently, lived in Syston, a village on the north east edge of the town. Within five years the family had moved back to Middleton where he was employed as a twine spinner. This occupation was part of the process of making rope which was used in everything from plough lines, cart ropes, clothes lines and skipping ropes. All rope starts out as bundles of fibres, made up into threads and strands then into string or twine. Thick string is called cord. Rope is made by twisting a number of strings or cords around one another in such a way that they will not untwine. (4). He eventually gave up this job and joined his father as an agricultural labourer.

John and Ann had five children, three sons and two daughters, over the course of the next seven years. Charles Read and Louisa were born in Leicester; David in Syston. These three, together with Solomon, were baptised in a single ceremony at the Methodist Chapel on Corby Road, Cottingham on September 21st 1828. Curiously, last born Elizabeth was baptised the following year at St Mary Magdalene Church.

John died in October 1829 leaving his wife to bring up the young family by herself. For the next forty years she lived in a house on The Hill in Middleton. Early on she found work in neighbouring houses as a charwoman, while the young lads, David and Solomon, were engaged as farm labourers. Eighteen year old Charles found employment at the 18th century coaching inn "The George" in the nearby village of Ashley whilst Louisa went into domestic service at Oakley Hay, an establishment in Great Oakley. As they became of age, her children left the village. By 1851 Ann had been declared a pauper and was in receipt of Parochial Relief. In the early 1860s only Elizabeth remained with her mother, working from home as a dressmaker.

Ann died on June 17th 1869; her death said to be due to "natural decay". She was buried next to her husband in a grave in block A of St Mary Magdalene Churchyard (link to cemetery page)

After her mother's death, Elizabeth moved for a time to Geddington, a village on the road between Corby and Kettering. Her near neighbours on Wood Street were the Walpole family whose story Brothers in Arms: The Moores and Walpoles of Geddington is told in the ORANGE pages.

The drift to London: David and Charles Read Craxford

David, John and Ann's second son, was the first to move south. Born on August 25th 1825, his first known occupation was as a milkman and cow keeper. He married Ann Cox at the church of St John the Evangelist, Lambeth on May 27th 1850. She was about twenty years older than David and had been born in Devonport, a district of Plymouth in Devon. Theirs was to prove a childless marriage. They set up home together in Waterloo Road, Lambeth, an area of London south of the River Thames.

Older brother, Charles, followed David in the early 1850s, working in the same trade as a dairyman. He married Ann Jenner, a girl from Ticehurst, Sussex, at St Mary's Church, Newington, Southwark on June 16th 1853. They went to live with David and Ann in Waterloo Road where they had three daughters (Elizabeth, Emma - who died aged 4 years in 1860 and Anne). A son, Charles Albert, was born in 1863.

During the 1860s, Charles moved his family south to Nutfield Road, Camberwell. His occupation was described as a general labourer. Some misfortune befell Charles (whether medical or financial is not clear) towards the end of the decade and he was to spend the last eight years of his life in Poor Law Institutions. On March 18th 1871, he was admitted to the Christ Church Workhouse of the St Saviour's (later Southwark) Union where he stayed for over seven years. On June 13th 1878, he was transferred to the Newington Workhouse, Westmoreland Road, this site providing hospital accomodation as Walworth Infirmary (6). He died on March 11th 1879, aged 56 years. The cause of death was certified as "paralysis" although no specific diagnosis was entered.

Ann continued to work to support her family, first as a needlewoman and then as a charwoman. Son, Charles Albert, became a dairyman but succumbed to an attack of acute bronchitis and died on April 4th 1880. His death was notifed by his sister Elizabeth, who, oddly, gave his second name as Herbert. Elizabeth went into service with the family of Samuel Rapkin, a fishmonger, in the London district of Bow. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Ernest Albert, in February 1881. By the time of the census in April that year she had moved with her baby back to the family home. Ernest died before his first birthday. Ann's other daughter, Anne Edith, married Walter George Martin at the church of St John the Evangelist, Lambeth in September 1882. Their happiness was to be shortlived as Anne died in 1884, soon after giving birth to their daughter, Annie Edith.

Ann Craxford apparently died on February 18th 1883. The cause of her death in the Borough Asylum, Ipswich, was certified by B. Chevallier, the Superintendent, as due to heart disease and pleurisy. If this is the case, the circumstances surrounding her removal to Suffolk is a matter of conjecture. None of this family, or previous members of the Craxford family, are known to have lived in East Anglia. It is possible that, with her family fragmenting around her, she had no alternative but to follow her dead husband into institutional care.

The Ipswich Corporation Asylum became St Clements Hospital in the early part of the 20th century. It has been confirmed that the Corporation did have contractual arrangements to receive patients from other boroughs and counties and took in some private patients as well (9). There are records suggesting the transfer of inmates from Poor Law Unions in both London and Lincolnshire to Ipswich to relieve overcrowding (10, 11), although none as yet covering the workhouses of Southwark and Newington. However the name Craxford does not appear in the surname index of the Ipswich Asylum.

Continued in column 2...

Joseph and Louisa Cox

Louisa was the older of John and Ann Craxford's two daughters. She was born in Leicester on December 14th 1823. Little is known of her childhood and there is no evidence that she followed any particular trade or occupation. She married Joseph Cox (no relation to her brother, David's, wife's family) at St Mary Magdalene Church on April 5th 1847. The ceremony was witnessed by David and her younger sister, Elizabeth. Joseph was a shepherd at the time of the wedding. He had been born in Faxton, a tiny hamlet about seven miles south west of Kettering, where his father, Richard Barker Cox, and brothers were agricultural labourers. Joseph's grandfather, also named Richard, had originally come from Abington (an 18th century village which is now a suburb of Northampton) some ten miles to the south (12).

Joseph and Louisa moved to the south London district of Southwark soon afterwards. He established himself as a grocer and cheesemonger; a business he was to pursue for the next twenty years. Initially, they made their home at 22, William Street (renamed Gambia Street in the 1890s (13)) where Louisa gave birth to her first son, George David Cox. During the next decade the family expanded as Louisa produced a second son, Charles and a daughter, Fanny. By the time of the 1861 census they had moved a mile south to new premises on St George's Road, Camberwell, although son, Charles, was not with them.

Their youngest child, a daughter named Mary Ann, was born in 1862. Sometime before the end of that decade, the family moved again; this time east to Drummond Road, Bermondsey. At the time of the 1871 census, only son, George, and daughter, Fanny, were living with them. Nine year old Mary Ann was elsewhere but had returned to the household in 1881. Joseph continued to trade as a grocer at that address until early 1882.

He retired with Louisa, initially to an address in Tottenham, and then later to Carisbrook Road, Walthamstow, a district in east London north of the river. He died on January 12th 1892 following a cerebral haemorrhage (stroke) and resulting paralysis. He had written a will some ten years previously in which he left his estate to his wife.

The children of Joseph and Louisa

George David

George David Cox was born on January 22nd 1849, his birth registered in the borough of Southwark. His childhood and teenage years were unremarkable and he moved with his parents until they arrived in Bermondsey. His first recorded employment was as a shopman for a surgical instrument maker. By his early twenties he undertook theological training, enrolling at Spurgeon's College, London (14). His first appointment, in 1873, was to Oaklands Baptist Church, Surbiton. He met local girl, Alice Fanny Halsey, and they were married at Drummond Road Baptist Chapel, Bermondsey in August 1875.

George and Alice travelled a lot over the next five years as they increased their family. He spent three years at Market Harborough, Leicestershire where son, Frederick George, was born in 1877. A move to Sittingbourne, Kent, followed in August 1877 where George became pastor to the Baptist Church. Daughter, Edith, was born in October 1878. During the summer of 1880, he was invited to fill the vacant post of Minister at the Melton Mowbray Baptist Church, Leicestershire, at an annual salary of £120. Heavily pregnant during the move, Alice gave birth to second daughter, Lydia Anne, in Melton Mowbray on November 25th 1880. The family were residing at Asfordby Road, Melton Mowbray, during his tenure.

The Baptist movement in Melton Mowbray started in 1867; meetings being convened in members homes. A church was built in the centre of town in Nottingham Street which opened on May 7th 1876. George was one of its first ministers. Services were conducted there for over one hundred years until a new church building was completed in 1992. The original hall was taken over by the Convent Life Church Centre (15).

The Church minutes show that George resigned from his post in September 1886 because both he and his wife were suffering from health issues. His medical advisors had "ordered him and his family to Australia". Although their actual diagnosis is not known, a reasonable supposition would be pulmonary tuberculosis as New Zealand was considered "a health resort for consumptives" in the 1880s (16). He left with a glowing testimonial for his ministry "characterised by earnestness and faithfulness" and a leaving gift of £129 in gold coins (about £7,725 in today's money (17)).

The family spent a short period in Australia where George was a minister at Geelong, Victoria. By the early 1890s they had moved on to Mount Eden, Auckland, New Zealand. He was also elected Chair of the Baptist Union of New Zealand in 1893. The, for nearly five years, George was Baptist Minister at the Tennyson Street Chapel, in Napier; a town on the east coast of the North Island.

In 1899 he left to take up the pastorate of the Oamaru Baptist Church on the South Island. George and Alice's son, Frederick, who became a pharmacist, remained behind in Napier. He married Mildred Yeoman in 1901. Theirs was a tragically short union as Frederick suffered a syncopal collapse after contracting pneumonis. He died in 1902 and was buried in Napier cemetery, leaving his wife with an infant son.

In 1903, George moved for the last time to the outskirts Christchurch on the South Island, taking up a ministry at Lincoln. Daughters Edith and Lydia married brothers Isaac and Samuel Andrew. Although these boys had both been born in New Zealand the family had originated in Devon. George's wife, Alice, died in 1908 and was buried at Springston, a few miles to the south west of Christchurch. When George retired from his ministry he went back to making artificial limbs for a time. He died in 1929 and was buried next to his wife (20).

A more detailed study of the Andrew family and its relationships can be found at the Andrew-Cox-Godfrey web site.

There is a full biography of the life of Rev George D Cox (1849 - 1929) here.

Charles

Second son, Charles Cox, was born in 1854, his birth registered in Hackney. However, the young Charles was sent to live with his grandmother, Ann, and aunt, Elizabeth Craxford, in Northamptonshire. The reasons for this are unclear. There could have been competing pressure from his father's work commitments, the needs of his siblings or the disruption of house removals. The 1861 census shows him to be attending the local school in Middleton.

It is uncertain where he spent his teenage years but by 1874 he had returned to London. He married Sarah Elizabeth Wilkinson, a girl from Bermondsey, and settled in Reigate, Surrey. Her father, William, worked as a porter and had a second older daughter, Martha Jane. In due time, Martha married Samuel Stevens, a granary warehouse foreman. Their oldest child (born in 1871) was also named Martha Jane.

Charles and Sarah had a daughter, Florence, in 1875 and three sons: Edward Joseph (1880), Charles George (1888) and Reginald Stanley (1893). It is obvious that Charles did not lose touch with his family during his travels. He was made executor of his father's will and he took over the business from his father when he retired. In both the 1881 and 1891 census returns Charles records his employment as Grocer's manager and a trade directory of 1884 (21) lists him as a grocer at 168 Drummond Road, Bermondsey.

By 1891 the family had moved again to Johnson Road, Bromley. As well as their own children, Sarah's neice, 19 year old Martha Jane Stevens, was living with them as a general domestic servant. Charles' final move at the turn of the century was to Alloa Road, a suburban street close to Deptford Park just west of Greenwich. When he retired he was to spend his remaining years there. He died in the Summer of 1928.

Fanny Elizabeth

Fanny Elizabeth Cox was born in 1856 and grew up in the family homes in Southwark and Bermondsey. She married Francis Albert Fuller, a carpenter and joiner from Chatteris, Cambridgeshire in 1881. After an initial short stay at Drummond Road they moved to Tottenham. For a time they shared a house at Bruce Grove, off The Avenue, with her parents. Francis was invited to act as a witness to Joseph's will. Later, they moved to Elmar Road where they had two sons (Frances, 1882 and Herbert, 1886) and three daughters (Lilian Roberta 1887, Edith 1888 and Grace 1890).

By the turn of the century Francis senior had become a builder's foreman and the family had moved to Denton Street in Wandsworth. He died in the summer of 1901. Fanny moved to a new address a few minutes walk away in Haldon Road taking with her youngest daughter, Grace, and earning a living as a needlewoman. She died in the Spring of 1916.

Mary Ann

Mary Ann Cox, Joseph and Louisa's younger daughter, was born in the winter of 1862. Her birth was registered in the district of Lambeth. As a young girl she followed the experience of her brother, Charles, and in 1871 she was living with her aunt Elizabeth in the Northamptonshire village of Geddington. She had returned to the family home in Bermondsey by 1881 and at the census she was registered as unemployed. She married James Edward Joynes, a compositor, in 1890.

.........to be continued

A full list of references can be found at the end of Part 2.

Proceed to Part 2. On to Uxbridge

Please contact us

If you have any questions or comments about the information on this site in general, or you have further information regarding this article, please contact us at Alan. We look forward to hearing from you.

Added December 1st 2010
Last updated: February 9th 2011

Return to Top of Page