| WAKELING FAMILY 1762-- |
| Nether Broughton is situated in the picturesque Vale of Belvoir (pronounced "Beaver") in Leicestershire. It is a very pretty area, not too greatly changed since the Wakelin family lived there three centuries ago. The Wakelin side I have not documented further back than 1762, when Robert WAKELIN married Anne SMITH in Nether Broughton on 26 September. Anne SMITH's pedigree takes us back further: to John WRIGHT, son of William and Elizabeth WRIGHT, Christened 25 January 1690 in Nether Broughton. He married Elizabeth MUXLEY on 25 April 1720 in Nether Broughton. Their daughter Anne WRIGHT was Christened 12 March 1723 in Nether Broughton and married William SMITH there on 1 May 1740. Their daughter was the Anne SMITH, Christened on 13 April 1746 in Nether Broughton, who married Robert WAKELIN there on 26 September 1762. Robert and Anne had at least one son, William, who was born in Nether Broughton and Christened there on 4 August 1776. Somewhere around this time the name became WAKELING, though the earlier form continued in other lines. William married Mary ? and had several children, youngest of these being Richard, christened 1815. Mary died around this time and was buried in Nether Broughton in 1815. William married Ann FREEMAN (Christened 21 April 1791) and they had several children, among them Hannah, Mark, Matthew, Mary, George (died young), George, Isaac and Sarah. It would seem that most of these children remained in Leicestershire, at least until the 1881 census. I hope to establish the whereabouts of their descendants eventually...until then, we will continue with Matthew's line. In 1842, Matthew WAKELING married Sarah Maria, daughter of Henry WALTON (Christened 20 March 1825 in Wirksworth Derbyshire) in Melton Mowbray. They had the following known children in Leicestershire: William (born ca 1842, died in infancy) William (born circa1844) George (born circa 1847) Harriet (born 11 January 1852) Elizabeth Merchant (born 23 September 1854 at Langar, Notts & Leics) In June 1856 the family emigrated to Victoria, Australia on the "Earl Grey" Matthew, an Agricultural Labourer in Leicestershire, became a splitter in Victoria. Known children born in Victoria are: Thomas (born 1856 in Rokewood, Vic) Freeman (born 1859) Ralph William (born 1861) Mark (born 1864) Sarah Ann (born 1868 in Rokewood Vic) William died in 1860, George in 1870. Harriet married Henry WARD at Staffordshire Reef on 21 January 1867. They had thirteen known children, one of whom, Florence Hilda Amelia WARD, became my grandmother. Hilda, as she was known, died in the Spanish Influenza epidemic, long before I was born. Her daughter Peg told me that she remembered her mother as a lovely presence, always singing or laughing. I like to think that her love of music and singing is her bequest to me and my children. Well, we have it, and it came from somewhere, didn't it? |
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