This is part two of a guest blog written for Dorset History Centre by Valerie Brenton. You can read part one here!
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Incomplete Stories
Sometimes the records do not exist or there is not enough detail in the records to confirm beyond doubt that they belong to the person being researched. In some cases research can just show who someone is not. For three of the Roberts children there are no conclusive records to explain what happened to them after they left the workhouse in Sturminster Newton.
Little is known of Matthew after he left Dorset. There is an intriguing recording on 14 July 1839 in the Roman Catholic marriage register of St John’s Newfoundland. There is no spouse mentioned just “Matthew Roberts – a protestant”. Was this an adult baptism recorded in the wrong place or an incomplete marriage entry? It is possible that this is the same Matthew Roberts buried at the Sacred Heart Cemetery, Conche on the Northern Peninsular of Newfoundland. However, the monumental inscription records his death on 27 April 1880, aged 65, which makes him five years younger than Dorset records indicate. If evidence can be found to prove the link with Dorset then we know, from the monumental inscription, that Matthew’s wife Ellen died 11 February 1879, aged 33.¹ To date no record of any children being born to this couple has been found or even a record of their marriage.
Even less is known of Luke. It is possible that he is the Luke Roberts, a labourer, living in Halifax, Nova Scotia with his wife and child on the 1861 census as many trees indicate on Ancetry.co.uk. However, this is unlikely as the 1871 census for Halifax records Luke as a 69 year old born in the United States. There is a tantalising possibility that Luke returned to Dorset and was admitted as a pauper to Herrison Hospital 26 June 1869 and discharged as recovered on 10 December 1869. This avenue will have to be explored further.
Ann appears to have disappeared from the records in Dorset. Ann is not with George Fish, a baker, and his family in Sturminster Newton on the 1841 census. She may be the servant working for a farmer in Stinsford on the 1841 census, but other than her age being about right (allowing for the round down to the nearest five on this census) and being Dorset born there is nothing to confirm that she is the same Ann Roberts who went to work for George Fish in 1833. Despite some suggestions, she is also not the Ann Roberts who married James Jeans Foe as careful family reconstruction reveals that Joseph and Ann Roberts are the parents of this Ann Roberts who was baptised in 1824 at Fontmell Magna. Nor does she appear to be the Ann Jane Roberts who married Thomas Harvell, as this Ann is most likely the daughter of John and Mary Roberts who was baptised in 1819 at Winfrith Newburgh as Jane.
Staying in Dorset
The sixth child of the Roberts family, Hester, was sent to work for a Mrs Mitchell who may have been Susannah Mitchell, wife of Richard George Mitchell who was the tythingman for Hinton St Mary in 1799 and was listed as freeholder yeoman living in Hinton St Mary in the 1831 Poll Book:
We can find that Hester married Samuel Shepherd 05 May 1834 at Stalbridge, Dorset:
According to the 1841 census Samuel and Hester were living on the west side of the High Street, Stalbridge. Samuel was a shoemaker and they had three daughters : Fanny age 6; Ann age 3 and Elizabeth age 1:
The 1851 census recorded the family living at Gold Street, Stalbridge. Samuel is a master shoemaker and the family now includes two sons: John age 4 and Samuel age 1:
Hester died aged 42 and was buried at Stalbridge on 11 February 1854:
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¹Monumental Inscriptions. Canada. Conche, Newfoundland. 11 February 1879 and 27 April 1880. ROBERTS, Ellen and Matthew. www.findagrave.com : accessed 18 January 2021.
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This was a guest blog written for Dorset History Centre by Valerie Brenton.
Should you be interested in writing a blog for DHC, please get in touch by emailing archives@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk
It is interesting to hear stories of the Dorset diaspora. To leave everything and everyone behind must have felt as we would feel if we moved to Mars. It is also too interesting now to look back at where we came from. I am a Canadian whose ancestors left Winterborne St. Martin around 1850. They were the Bowerings.
My 2xgreat grandmother Mary Brett from Dewlish had several brothers who migrated to Newfoundland mainly in the Trinity Bay Area. Mary married Jacob Vincent and they migrated to Australia. I was astounded to learn in the course of my research that I had distant (In all senses of the word) relatives in Newfoundland.
Hi Carol,
I have your book “Sailing to a Distant Land”. We have common ancestry in that Jacob and Mary Vincent are my gg grandparents too. In my research on the family it appears that there was significant migration from Dewlish to both Australia and Canada from the late 1830s, perhaps related to the Tolpuddle Martyrs and there return England from transportation to Australia after being pardoned in 1836?