The simple facts

John Henry Naylor

Marriage: John Henry to Lily

The seemingly inocuous question posed by the title of this article has, to date, evaded a simple answer. Its ongoing investigation has spilled outside the confines of the Naylor family and has turned the spotlight onto South Normanton as a whole and their connections with another family, the Haywoods, in particular.

 Our researches of my maternal grandmother's tree are documented in the second section of this supplement (The Naylors of South Normanton) and this article provides a link to this new section. My great great grandfather John Naylor, a miner from Golden Valley (a small community south of South Normanton) married Ann Haywood (a coal miner's daughter from the neighbouring village of Riddings) in May 1830. Their grandson, John Henry Naylor married Lilly Haywood in December 1890.

 Were Ann and Lilly related ...?

The Evidence 1: The geography of South Normanton

South Normanton map 1889

In 1868, South Normanton was described as "a parish in the hundred of Scarsdale, county Derby, 2¼ miles E. of Alfreton, its post town, and 2 N.W. of the Pinxton railway station. The village, which is large, is situated on an eminence, and is chiefly agricultural. It formerly belonged to the Willoughbys and Revels, which latter family resided here from the time of the Conquest. The surface is elevated and the scenery diversified. The substratum abounds in coal, of which some mines have been opened." (1). The population rose from 1,812 to 3,205 in the 20 years between the 1871 and 1891 censuses (2).

It is clear from a study of the early census returns and nineteenth century maps that the community, like the surrounding villages, remained fairly stable both in terms of population and lack of urban development. The table (right) is a distillation of the first five pages of South Normanton District 4 from the 1841 census. The salient features are the two farms, Rough Close and Woodhouse, and the lane running eastwards to Normanton Common. This probably relates to the present day Camfield Hill and Alfreton Road. What is also clear is the relatively few surnames present, and the tendency for these surnames to be repeated. The logical conclusion to be drawn is that these represent closely related branches of the same families.

In 1841, John and Ann Naylor (both aged 30 years) lived with their four young children. Living with them was 25 year old John Haywood. To date his relationship has not been confirmed but the assumption is that he was Ann's brother. Three doors to the left, lived 50 year old Edward Haywood with two girls - Hannah (15) and Charlotte (3). Later censuses showed that he originally came from Wenlock, Shropshire and was a widower. He lodged with several families in the area over the years (the Lees in 1851 and the Marriotts in 1861) but the girls were not recorded again. The other Haywood family living to the east was headed by George who would become Lilly's grandfather

Continued in column 2...

The Evidence 2: George Haywood's Letter

A letter written by George Haywood to his daughter in 1920 is a remarkably detailed document of his family from the early part of the nineteenth century and correlation of people and events that he mentions with the relevant census returns has proved invaluable in furthering our knowledge. The text of that letter has been reprinted elsewhere in this section, ( this being the first page). His grandfather is the George Haywood mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Grandfather George Haywood was born in Bulwell, Nottingham. Although he spent is adult life in South Normanton, the following paragraph from the letter confirms that this link was not broken.

Fanny and Catherine were servants in the house where I first became acquainted with your mother, and it was while visiting there at Nottingham, that I met your mother. Fanny married one of the Hills of Nottingham. They were silk manufacturers, and I understand after her marriage she became quite 'uppish' and did not know her poor relations, although she herself had been brought up in such indigent circumstances. At the time I spoke of, when I took presents to Uncle Sam from Father, her mother was teaching what would now be called kindergarten school, but with none of the modern kindergarten advantages.

So, was George a member of a Nottingham Haywood family who moved to South Normanton, or a part of a Derbyshire family who happened to be born in the next county?

The Evidence 3: The Bulwell Connection

There is no evidence from the records that periods of domestic servitude by either Fanny or Catherine coincided with a census. However the three returns of 1841 to 1861 confirm that Robert Hill was a draper living in the Sneinton and Bulwell districts of Nottingham. He is presumed to have married before 1837 (prior to the commencement of centralised records) and his wife, Lydia, was born in South Normanton. They had a number of children, including a son, Robert born in 1838. It would appear that he subsequently married Fanny

A curiosity of the 1851 census return family for Robert Hill's family is that they had a domestic servant living with them by the name of Phoebe Haywood (born about 1831) and she had been born in South Normanton. She is mostly likely to have been the daughter of Grandfather George. Her relationship to the family is described as niece. Also in the house was "nephew" Thomas Ruddick who came from Cumberland - the same part of the world as Robert Hill. We therefore deduce that Lydia was a Haywood, possibly Grandfather George's sister

Matters For Discussion

As yet our conclusions are by no means firm or complete. Our studies have concentrated on one small area of the village of South Normanton. As noted in the censuses, there are multiple occurrences of a few surnames. As well as Naylor and Haywood, we have documented Marriott, Ball, Gaskin (or Gascoign). Perusal of the marriages and burials in parish records and the Bishop's transcripts (4) show that these families continually intermarried (Grandfather George married Frances Marriott for instance) but prior to about 1820, there are no references to Haywood.

The Naylor males were all miners, working initially underground before moving into management at the Coates Park pit. They subsequently moved to the village of Somercoates, south of South Normanton, which is where John Henry was born. John Haywood moved to Shirland Village, north of Alfreton around the time that Lilly was born but the family had moved back to South Normanton by 1881.

So, were Ann and Lilly Haywood related. Our instincts tell us that they were (and at best second cousins once removed). Although the surname Haywood is not unduly uncommon, the balance of probability would say that it is highly unlikely there were two totally unconnected families bearing the same name in such a small and relatively remote area.

We will keep on digging ...

References

1. South Normanton: in The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) GENUKI: UK & Ireland Genealogy.
2. South Normanton: in Derbyshire Transcripts from Kelly's Directory (1891) The Andrews Pages
3. Parish Transcripts 1800-1836: South Normanton: GENUKI: UK & Ireland Genealogy.

Page added - April 25th 2008
Last updated - April 13th 2012

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