I am Robin Edward Sharman (born 12.7.1954 in Nottingham, England) and my interests include the genealogy and history of my family. Our Sharman genealogy has been traced back for over 400 years mostly in the Rutland and west Lincolnshire areas. More recently we moved into Nottinghamshire, and despite some shuttling between Notts. and Lincs. we ended up in Robin Hood's county. For some time I have been working on the story of my branch of the Sharman Family over the last hundred years. It is based on my research with help from my father, Henry Sharman (junior), my late Aunt Frances and a number of other relatives. I have tried to include a number of anecdotes to give the story some life and to emphasise that it is a tale about real people.

This page is a heavily edited extract from the second part of the Sharman Family History that I wrote and had printed in 2002. It ran to 46 sides of A4, and covered my line of Sharmans from Richard who died in 1554 to me and my family in the present day. Naturally as our story progresses through time the information becomes more readily available, therefore some of the early stuff is less detailed. The first edition is now sold out, but I am already working on a second edition which is expected to include photographs - something that the first edition lacked. To register your interest in obtaining a copy, please e-mail me on resharman@hotmail.com.

This map is a sketch of much of Rutland and part of the area of Lincolnshire known as Kesteven. It should be noted that:
1. Only the villages relevant to our story are included.
2. The dotted lines represent county boundaries.
3. It is a sketch map only, and is not to scale.

Almost exactly four hundred years before my own birth in 1954 my earliest known ancestor RICHARD SHARMAN willed (on 20th April 1554) his properties at Greetham and North Luffenham to his son WILLIAM SHARMAN. Richard is recorded as being a husbandman (an archaic word for a farmer), and his wife's name was Agnes. William was Richard's eldest son who in turn, sometime between 1582 and 1589, himself had a son who was named Thomas. THOMAS SHARMAN, who was buried at Greetham on 4th January 1660, was married to Mary. They had at least two children, both christened at Greetham - Ann on 31st December 1620, and THOMAS on 28th August 1625. Mary was buried on 26th September 1653 and Thomas Sharman the Elder (to quote from the parish register) on 4th January 1660 - both at Greetham.

The second THOMAS SHARMAN was a carpenter and he had a wife named Elizabeth. From their wills we know that they had at least five children - Francis, Mary, THOMAS, William and Richard - and the parish registers show one before these, a son named …Thomas! We shall be following the descendants of the surviving Thomas, which will increase further the risk of confusion, but first a few lines on the others.

•  Thomas was christened at Greetham on 9th January 1659, but he died in infancy. He was buried, also at Greetham, on 16th October 1660.
• Francis Sharman had a wife named Dorcas, and together they had at least four children - Thomas, Ann (christened at Greetham on 6th November 1691), Francis (Greetham, 2nd April 1693) and Dorcas (Greetham, 3rd June 1696). Thomas was christened on 9th June 1685 at Greetham, and became a farmer at the Glebe. In his will of 14th May 1753 Thomas was described as a yeoman, and with his wife Mary he had a son Francis who was christened on 1st January 1722 also at Greetham. This Francis married Elizabeth Bennett on 26th December 1749, and was granted land in exchange for his common rights at the Enclosure of 1764. He was buried in Greetham churchyard, where a gravestone records his own burial on 31st May 1782 and that of Elizabeth on 13th March 1793. Francis and Elizabeth's eldest surviving son was also named Francis. He was baptised at Swinstead in 1752, married Elizabeth Hubbard at Greetham on 18th January 1785, and was buried in 1795. His will of 1793 described him as a yeoman, and left his property to his only son Matthew, who was christened on 13th February 1788. Matthew was a baker in 1813, a miller in 1816, and a farmer at Horn House in 1851. Matthew's eldest surviving son Charles was christened at Empingham in 1821, and in 1851 was a farmer and miller at Horn Mill between Exton and Tickencote.
• Mary Sharman, the second child (and only known daughter) of Thomas and Elizabeth, was christened at Greetham on 22nd August 1663. We know nothing more about her.
• William Sharman, the fourth child, was christened at Greetham on 1st October 1670 according to the parish registers. He was a carpenter like his brother THOMAS. A William Sharman married Martha Foyster at Greetham on 5th October 1705, but he may not be the same one. William and Martha Sharman had a daughter Elizabeth christened on 18th August 1706, a son Thomas christened on 12th March 1708 and buried just three days later, and a son William christened on 24th April 1709 and buried on 2nd May 1709 - all at Greetham. They also had christened there another William (11th June 1710), Mary (3rd March 1712) and Martha (3rd June 1723). Martha Sharman senior was buried at Greetham on 25th March 1742. It seems likely that, as she was described as the wife of William Sharman rather than his widow, he was the one buried at Greetham on 20th April 1743.
• Richard Sharman, the fifth known child of Thomas and Elizabeth, was christened at Greetham on 12th April 1673. He married Mary Hastings at Whissendine on 26th March 1706, and was buried on 31st July 1735. He was a carpenter, and had four known children - Elizabeth (christened at Greetham on 30th November 1708), Mary (Greetham, 10th April 1710), Richard (Greetham, 27th January 1711) and Thomas (Greetham, 26th January 1713).

The third THOMAS SHARMAN in our line of descent (the son of Thomas and Elizabeth above) was christened at Greetham on 20th February 1666. He was a carpenter and is mentioned in the Clipsham Wood Book of 1697. Elizabeth was buried on 18th July 1741, and Thomas on 7th February 1742 - both at Greetham. Thomas and Elizabeth had at least four children christened at Greetham - THOMAS, Elizabeth (29th January 1698), Robert (27th February 1704) and Richard (12th May 1706).

THOMAS SHARMAN (the fourth Thomas in our line) was christened at Greetham on 11th October 1696. He married at Exton on 30th December 1722. The parish records show the name of his bride as Susanna Masser, but strangely the incumbent at Exton mistook his own handwriting when copying up his notes and her name was in fact Susanna Walker! Susanna was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Walker of Exton, and had been christened there on 23rd June 1700. Thomas and Elizabeth lived at Exton until they died - Thomas on 23rd January 1781 aged eighty-five years (buried at Exton on 28th January), and Susanna in 1778 (she was buried at Exton on 11th October) aged seventy-eight years. Thomas and Susanna had a large family. There are christening records for nine children, whilst a memorial stone at Exton records ten - Thomas, John, ROBERT, William, Susanna, Francis, Elizabeth, Mary, Richard and Ann.

• Thomas was christened on 3rd December 1723 and buried on 15th April 1789.
• John was christened on 17th October 1725 at Exton, and buried on 22nd August 1737.
• William was christened on 27th December 1730 and buried on 13th January 1819 aged eighty-nine years.
• Susannah was christened on 10th December 1732 at Exton, and buried there on 17th November 1813 aged eighty-one years. She never married. Her will dated 21st June 1812 and proved on 12th March 1814 lists all her surviving brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces.
• Francis was christened on 8th April 1735. He is recorded in Susanna's will as being "late of Ryhall", and we know that he had a son named John (living in London in 1812) as well as at least two daughters. I think that he was the Francis Sharman who married Mary Francis (sic) at Ryhall on 15th January 1761. Francis and Mary had four children christened at Ryhall - Susannah (8th March 1761), John (7th August 1763), Mary (18th August 1765) and Elizabeth (18th April 1767).
• Elizabeth was born in about 1736, as her age was given as seventy-six years when she was buried on 25th June 1812.
• Mary was christened on 30th January 1737.
• Richard was christened on 6th January 1738, died on 18th February 1822 and was buried on 20th February 1822. The Exton parish register quotes his age as seventy-six years, whilst the memorial stone says that he died aged eighty-one years. In fact he must have been at least eighty-four!
• Ann was christened on 5th November 1743. She married Samuel Parnell and had at least four children - Susanna (christened at Exton on 24th September 1774), Samuel, Thomas (christened at Exton on 4th March 1781) and William. Ann died on 16th February 1825 aged eighty-two years.

ROBERT SHARMAN, Thomas and Susanna's third child, was christened on 31st December 1728 at Exton. He was a tailor by trade, and on 29th May 1751 he married Sarah Bursnall at Whissendine. Robert was buried at Whissendine on 31st March 1801, having outlived his wife Sarah by almost six years - she was buried at Whissendine on 18th May 1795. There are records of eight of their children being christened at Exton - John, ROBERT, Susanna, Elizabeth, William and Mary, Sarah and Catherine.

• John was christened on 25th December 1751. With his wife Alice he had at least three children all christened at Exton - John (15th November 1789), Elizabeth (16th February 1791) and William (3rd July 1796). The Elizabeth Sharman buried at Exton on 2nd August 1794 and the William Sharman buried there on 24th August 1809 aged fourteen years may well be two of these three children. John senior was buried on 19th November 1817 at Exton, and Alice was buried there on 7th October 1822 aged sixty-five years.
• Susanna was christened on 13th November 1757. She married Francis Wortley, a labourer from Stoke Albany in Northamptonshire.
• Elizabeth was christened on 20th October 1760.
• William was christened on 11th April 1763. He was buried at Exton on 2nd December 1767.
• Mary (probably twin sister to William) was also christened on 11th April 1763. She died about six months before her brother William, and was buried at Exton on 20th June 1767.
• Sarah was christened on 7th June 1767.
• Catherine was christened on 10th May 1772 and buried on 22nd April 1795.

Before the year was out Robert Sharman married again. This time his bride was twenty-four years old Mary Maxey who he married in her home village of Swinstead on 23rd December 1788. Mary's father was Charles Maxey, who was a stonemason frequently employed on work at Grimsthorpe Castle according to Ancaster Estate records. Charles Maxey became Parish Clerk at Swinstead, so he was obviously a literate man. He was buried in Swinstead churchyard in 1814 aged eighty-five years, and his gravestone is still there.

Robert and Mary lived at Clipsham for the first years of their married life together.  It was there that seven of their ten children were christened between 1791 and 1801. The family moved to Swinstead in the very early years of the nineteenth century. At this time Robert seems to have ceased tailoring to take up farming - most probably as a tenant of the Ancaster Estates, though this cannot be proved as the Ancaster records for the period 1804 to 1830 are missing. Robert and Mary stayed at Swinstead for the rest of their lives - Robert was buried there on 27th April 1822 (a family bible records that he died the previous day) aged sixty-five years. Mary died on 16th September 1829 aged sixty-four years, and was buried at Swinstead three days later. Robert and Mary's ten recorded children (taking Robert's total up to thirteen) were Elizabeth, Charles, Thomas, William, CHARLES, John, Henry, Sarah, George and Ann.

• Elizabeth was the first child of Robert and Mary. She was born on 6th November 1789, but I have discovered nothing else about her.
• Charles died in infancy.
• Thomas was born on 19th July 1792. We know nothing further about him. However, a reference in the Swayfield registers to a farmer named Thomas Sharman and his wife Mary as parents of a daughter Hannah Elizabeth christened on 4th June 1834 might possibly link.
• William was born on 19th April 1794, but again we known nothing further about him for sure. William Horton Sharman (son of William and Hannah) christened at Swinstead on 2nd July 1820 could be the son of this William. At the time William the father was described as being a draper. A pipe mounter named William Horton Sharman died at Kingsland, Middlesex on 16th April 1891, but again he may not be ours.
• John was born on 6th July 1797. For many years he was head gardener to Sir John Thorold at Syston Hall near Grantham. He died at the home of his brother Henry at Sprowston near Norwich on 25th January 1863.
• Henry was born on 9th May 1799, and moved around the country a great deal. In 1830 at the time of the birth of his daughter Elizabeth he was living at North Walsham in Norfolk. He must have been living in Salisbury in about 1844 as it is quoted as the birthplace of a second daughter Amelia (whose age was given as twenty-seven years) in the 1871 census. By 1864 White's Directory lists Henry Sharman as Primitive Methodist Minister at Sprowston, Norfolk. He married Elizabeth Riseborough who was born at Barningham - presumably the Suffolk one and not the one in County Durham. Henry's life was well documented by an obituary in the minutes of the Primitive Methodist Conference for 1877. The wording of this was in a fairly distinctive style and read as follows: Henry Sharman was born May 9th 1799 in the village of Clipson (Clipsham - R.E.S.), Rutland. In 1814 he was religiously awakened under the preaching of some Methodists, and after his conversion, amid the jeers and persecutions of his family, who were staunch adherents of the Established Church, he publicly engaged in prayer and occasionally delivered an address. His first sermon appears to have been preached at Dyke, near Bourne, Lincolnshire, when he was eighteen years of age, from the words 'Seek ye the Lord'. In 1822, while employed as a book-keeper in a silk factory at Congleton, Cheshire, he became connected with the Primitive Methodists. This step was not approved by his employer, but Hugh Bourne and John Ride overcame his scruples, and he left the counting house to become a Primitive Methodist Missionary on the Isle of Man in the month of June 1823, his credentials being signed by Hugh and James Bourne on behalf of the Tunstall Circuit. His labours in the Isle of Man were replete with interesting incidents - proofs most undeniable and encouraging that the Divine blessing was resting upon his work. Societies were formed and chapels built at various places. During his itinerary, notwithstanding his excessive and exhaustive labours, he found time to study various standard works, which materially extended his resources and improved the character of his preaching. He travelled at Preston, Oldham, Blackburn, King's Lynn, North Walsham, Fakenham, Lincoln, York, Whitby, Salisbury, Newbury, St Ives (Cornwall), Motcombe, Farringdon, Salisbury (a second time), Luton, Portsmouth and Jersey, which he left in 1858, and in the following year he was superannuated. Thus for thirty years he was a superintendent preacher, built many chapels, preachers' houses and schoolrooms, and in a majority of cases he left his circuits better off numerically and financially than he found them. Personally he was much beloved for his consistant life, for his amiability of disposition, for the Christian patience and resignation with which he endured persecution and poverty, and for the unflagging zeal he exhibited in his Master's service. It was only when the physical infirmities incident to advancing years crept upon him that he appealed to Conference for that relief from active labour which they acceded to him. For a few years he remained to cheer by his general sympathies, to encourage by his past successes, and to give to his colleagues and juniors the advantage of his ripe experience. On Sunday morning, April 8 1877, he attended service at Cowgate Street Chapel, Norwich in rather better health than usual, and two days later he fell asleep in Jesus without a sigh or groan.
• Sarah was born on 5th August 1801, and married a Mr Stokes.
• George was born at Swinstead on 1st January 1804, though there seems to be no christening record for him. He became a gardener, which work took him to Belvoir Castle. There he met his bride, a maid named Charlotte Hollings, who he married at Redmile on 11th January 1832. They had seven children - Henry (christened at Woolsthorpe-by-Belvoir in 1832), Priscilla (Woolsthorpe-by-Belvoir, 1833), Robert (Woolsthorpe-by-Belvoir, 1837), Charles (Hanthorpe, 1839), Augustus (Hanthorpe, 1840), Charlotte Maria (Morton-by-Bourne, 1843) and George (born at Feltwell, Norfolk in 1845). Augustus died in infancy. George became a railway signalman at March in Cambridgeshire, and from him descended the newspaper publishing family Sharman of Peterborough.
• Ann was born on 6th September 1807, but died two years later.

CHARLES SHARMAN, the fifth child of Robert Sharman and Mary (née Maxey), was born on 1st November 1795. He married Jane Bond at Swinstead on 1st June 1818. Jane had been born on 13th February 1791. Charles signed the marriage register with a cross so presumably he could not write. He seems to have gained status fairly rapidly because at the christenings of his children he was described as a labourer in 1819, a cottager in 1821 and a farmer in 1823. This last progression could well have been enabled by the death in 1822 of Charles's father if, as is likely, Charles took over Robert's tenancy when he died. The 1841 census lists Charles Sharman as farming Swinstead Lodge, now called Norwood Farm, between Grimsthorpe and Swinstead. Charles and Jane had eight children - THOMAS, Mary Ann, George, Henry, John, Sarah, Charles and Taylor. Charles senior died on 11th September 1847 aged fifty-one years, and was buried at Swinstead on 14th September. Jane died on 15th January 1881, and was buried at Swinstead on 19th January. The burial register quotes her age as eighty-nine, but the Stamford Mercury gave her age as ninety years. Her gravestone is still in good condition, and correctly refers to her having died in her ninetieth year.

• Thomas Sharman - see below.
• Mary Ann Sharman, the second child, was born on 3rd April 1821, and was christened at Swinstead on 8th April 1821. She married John Ward at Swinstead on 11th December 1861. At that time his home was given as Swinstead Lodge. At the time of the 1881 census Mary Ann was living as a widow in Church Street, Market Deeping with 28 years old Edenham-born Elizabeth Gillson, who was unmarried and was most likely her niece (daughter of Sarah - see below). In 1891 Mary Ann was still living at Market Deeping with Elizabeth, but they had been joined by a Swinstead-born 48 year old niece named Ann P. Banister (possibly just a visitor). We know that Mary Ann survived into the twentieth century because she appears in the 1901 census as a widow aged 79 living on her own means. John and Mary Ann Ward had children including William (born in 1865) who himself became a farmer in Swinstead. I remember that a French-born widow named Ward, who had been married to one of William’s sons, was still living in Swinstead (in the cottage next to the church) when we moved there in 1968.
• George Sharman, born on 7th June 1823 and baptised at Swinstead on 29th June 1823, followed the family tradition and went into farming. In 1851 he was farming the 292½ acres of Edenham Lodge where he lived with his sister Sarah who moved out when she married the following year. George married twice - his first wife was Sarah Bellamy, who he married early in 1852 (most likely to be at Corby – must find). Sarah Bellamy was born in about 1834 and was baptised at Corby (now Corby Glen) on 5th October of that year. The year before her marriage to George Sharman, farmer’s daughter Sarah had been living with two older brothers and four other people at Bellamy’s Farm Lodge, Corby. The Earl of Ancaster’s Grimsthorpe Estate had a penchant for naming a farm after its tenant, and Bellamy’s Farm Lodge is the same as Corby Lodge.
 
The Bellamys had taken on the tenancy of the newly-created Corby Lodge Farm in 1832. At that time the tenant was Sarah’s father Richard Bellamy, who had been born at Great Ponton and married Swayfield-born Catherine Searson. Richard also kept the Angel Inn at Corby, which stayed in the family for two more generations, and later the Blue Horse Inn at Great Ponton. The tenancy of Corby Lodge farm passed from Richard Bellamy to his son George Searson Bellamy, but it seems that constant difficulties culminated in the suicide of the latter on 25th May 1877 at the age of 54. This resulted in the Bellamy family’s surrender of the farm tenancy. Subsequently George Bellamy’s brother-in-law George Sharman took it on in addition to his other tenancies on the Grimsthorpe Estate, albeit with no more success than the Bellamys (see below).


George and Sarah Sharman had four sons and three daughters – George, Charles Thomas, Henry, Sarah, Catherine, Richard and Mary Ann. The children’s mother Sarah (née Bellamy) died in the summer of 1866, and in the spring of 1871 George remarried.

George’s second wife was widow Lettice Smith; who, as well as having an unusual first name, had the middle name of Huband or Hueband (spellings vary). Lettice was his junior by about thirteen years, having been born at Pinchbeck on 20th April 1836. George and Lettice married at Bourne parish church on 3rd April 1871, and in the register entry for their marriage  Lettice is shown as a widow innkeeper.

 
The 1861 census shows Lettice H. Smith (age 24; born Spalding) living in New Road, Spalding with her husband William Smith (31; born Deeping St. Nicholas) and their daughter Elizabeth (1 month; born Spalding). They had at least three other children - William (born Spalding c.1864), Emmie (Spalding c.1866) and Ada Mary (Bourne c.1869), From the places of birth of these children it seems that Lettice and William moved from Spalding to Bourne sometime after 1866. By 1868 they were keeping the Crown Inn in West Street, Bourne, but William died aged 38 in the autumn of that year.


By 1872 George was farming Auster Lodge between Edenham and Toft, and according to later Grimsthorpe Estate records he was a tenant farmer of some 537 acres in Edenham, 12 acres in Swinstead and 271 acres in Corby (these last at Corby Lodge Farm with his son George junior). Like many farmers today George did not always find farming a very profitable business. In his book "A Lincolnshire Village - The parish of Corby Glen in its historical context" (pub. Longman, 1979) David I.A. Steel wrote: One George Sharman took over the tenancy of Corby Lodge Farm (now known as Woodlands - R.E.S.) in 1878. He was already farming two farms in Edenham parish also on the Grimsthorpe Estate. It was an inauspicious time to take on new commitments. A period of bad weather had set in in 1874, and conditions were particularly bad in 1879. It was generally large farmers who fared worst in the agricultural depression at the end of the nineteenth century; Sharman was no exception. In 1881 he failed to pay any rent. The following years were ones of falling agricultural prices, and by 1883 his arrears totalled an impressive £2137. Although Sharman was joined in the tenancy by his son, although his rent was reduced to half that paid by Bellamy and in spite of an allowance of £700, it was not until 1886, when he was granted a further allowance of £643, that his arrears were written off. The farm was then continued by his son, but he was in no better position to pay the rent. On Lady Day 1887 just £12.2s was received by the Ancaster Estate for their Corby farm land. In 1890 Sharman still possessed most of the holding built up by the Bellamys, but by 1893 the land around the farmhouse was taken in hand. That year too more land was put to allotments and more again in 1895. The rest of the land was let to a variety of tenants. The diversity of 1815 had largely been restored.

In 1881 the census showed George Sharman to be living at Edenham with his wife Lettice and the following children: Richard Sharman (born at Edenham in about 1863), William Smith (Spalding c.1864), Emmie Smith (Spalding c.1866), Pollie Sharman (Edenham c.1866), Ada Mary Smith (Bourne c.1869), Jane Sharman (Edenham c.1873), Lettice Sharman (Edenham c.1874), John Sharman (Edenham c.1876) and Robert Sharman (Edenham 3rd September 1876). Of these Richard and Pollie were George's children with Sarah (in addition to the others listed below), and the Smith children were Lettice's by her previous marriage. The others were George’s children with Lettice, and there are no records of any more after Robert. The full list of George’s known children is as follows:

 George Sharman (junior) was baptised at Edenham on 7th January 1854, though he might have been born a year or two earlier. The 1881 census shows this George and his sister "Kitty" (Catherine) living at Woodlands Farm (Corby Lodge, formerly Bellamys Lodge) with three others who seem to be employees rather than relations. As stated above, it was George senior who actually held the tenancy of Woodlands in addition to those he held at Edenham. In 1891 George junior was living at Corby Lodge with his sister Sarah, who had probably returned from living away in Lancashire to keep house for her brother after Catherine got married. In 1893 the Sharmans gave up their land at Corby as stated in David Steele’s book. Early in 1894 George married Sarah Harrison. By 1901 he had turned his back on agriculture completely, and he was living in Irnham Road in Corby.  His occupation was now given as Highways Surveyor. With him in 1901 were his wife Sarah (aged 42; born Sudbrooke, Lincs.) and his mother-in-law Sarah Harrison (aged 72; born Tollerton, Notts.) but no children. Sometime in the next fifteen years George junior and Sarah moved to Stainfield. George junior died on 5th December 1916 (age given as 65), and his wife Sarah died on 28th January 1926 aged 66. Both were buried at Hacconby, as Stainfield has no churchyard or cemetery.
 Charles Thomas Sharman was born at Edenham, and was christened there on 22nd July 1855. By 1881 he had moved away from Lincolnshire, and was listed as one of over two hundred people living at Messrs. Tarns Establishment at Newington in Surrey. William Tarn and Co. were “Linen drapers, silk mercers, boys’ and ladies’ outfitters, boot makers, carpet warehousemen, ironmongers, bedding, bedstead and general cabinet furniture manufacturers” of 165 to 173 Newington Causeway, London SE17 (just north of the Elephant and Castle). They were a kind of Department Store employing a large number of staff, of whom many were accommodated in a hostel or in dormitories provided by their employer. According to the 1881 census, all but one of the employees living in at Tarns were bachelors or spinsters (the exception was the Assistant Housekeeper, who was a widow). I have seen it written that such a mixture of unmarried males and females in their teens, twenties and thirties must have taken some policing! I have yet to find Charles T. Sharman in either the 1891 or 1901 censuses, so I do not know what became of him.
 Henry Sharman was born at Edenham, and was baptised there on 11th January 1857. By 1881 he was living at the Old Manor House in Edenham with two others, who seem to be unrelated to him or to each other. Ten years later he was still living at Edenham (now aged 34) with his 25 year old sister Mary Ann (Pollie). Unlike his older brothers, Henry was still in Edenham at the turn of the twentieth century. The 1901 census shows him to be a cottager (small-time farmer) living on the Main Road there - unmarried and living with his sister Mary Ann as his housekeeper. He died two years later, and was buried at Edenham on 17th February 1903.
Sarah Sharman was born at Edenham, and was baptised there on 26th September 1859. Like her brother Charles, Sarah had moved away from Lincolnshire by 1881. The census of that year shows her at the home of John J. Watson (born Goadby, Leics.) and his wife Mary (born Tattershall, Lincs.) at 65 West Derby Road in Everton, Lancashire. The 1891 census shows her having returned to live at Woodlands Farm near Corby with her brother George. On 23rd September 1896 at Edenham she married George William Foley, born in Driffield in Yorkshire and described as an Agricultural Engine Machinery Merchant. George and Sarah gave their ages as 27 and 35 respectively. In the 1901 census, when the Foleys were living in North Street in Bourne, and the only other person in the household was a domestic servant so it seems that they had no children by then. In that census George William’s age is given as 32, while Sarah’s age is given as 39(!). In the next year or two George William’s mother, also named Sarah came to live in Bourne with her son and daughter-in-law. George William Foley died early in 1903 aged 34, and his mother died later that spring aged 65. If there were no children, that would have left Sarah alone again.
 Catherine Sharman was born at Edenham, and was baptised at Swinstead on 19th October 1862. By 1881 she was living at Woodlands Farm near Corby with her eldest brother, George. On 5th August 1884 Catherine married John Saville at Edenham. John was a draper from Trinity parish, Wakefield, son of James Saville and Mary (née Ellarby). Born in 1853, John was about nine years older than Sarah was, although at the wedding she claimed to be 23 years old – possibly to make their age difference seem less. It seems that the newly-weds went immediately to live in Wakefield where John had his drapery business. In 1891 they were living at 186 Kirkgate, Wakefield. With them by then were their children Mary (age 6), George (2) - both born in Wakefield – as well as Catherine’s step-sister Emma (Emmie) Smith and half-brother John Sharman, listed as draper’s assistant and apprentice respectively. The 1901 census lists just one more child of Catherine and John – a four year old son also named John.
 Richard Sharman was born at Edenham, and was christened there on 23rd August 1863. He was the oldest of the siblings still living with their father George at Edenham in 1881. I cannot find Richard in either the 1891 or 1901 UK censuses.
 Mary Ann Sharman (Pollie) was born at Edenham, and was baptised there on 5th November 1865. She was the last of the children that George had with Sarah. At the age of 25 in 1891 she was living with her brother Henry, presumably as his housekeeper. Mary had not married by the turn of the century – in 1901 she was still housekeeper for her brother Henry at Edenham.
 Jane Sharman was the first of George’s children with his second wife, Lettice. She was born at Edenham, and was baptised there on 25th December 1872. I have not yet found Jane in the 1891 census. Early in 1899 she married James Ake, who had been born early in 1873 at Unthank Farm, Finghall (between Leyburn and Bedale) in Yorkshire to John Ake and Elizabeth (née Johnson). After their marriage Jane returned to Yorkshire with James, and in 1901 they were farming at Foal Park Farm, Constable Burton. By then they already had two sons – James Urbant Ake (aged 2; born Peterborough early in 1899) and Norman Donald Ake (aged 1; born Finghall in the spring of 1900). Other Ake children born in subsequent years in the Leyburn district are George John S (1902), Winifred Dorothy (1903), Richard (1904), David William (1906) and Catherine Emma (1909). Further research in needed to establish whether or not any or all of these were children of James and Jane. Norman married Annie Foster in 1924, and it seems that in 1929 they had a daughter, also named Annie, who lived for just three days and is buried at Finghall. Jane Ake (née Sharman) is thought to have died on 11th August 1931, and also to have been buried at Finghall.
 Lettice Huband Sharman was born at Edenham, and was baptised there on 24th May 1874. At the time of the 1891 census 17 year old Lettice was living in Eastbourne, Sussex with her half-sister Ada Smith. Both gave their occupation as draper’s assistant. On 31st January 1900 at Edenham Lettice married widower Thomas William Green, who was a 29 year old farmer from North Yorkshire. They went to live in Thomas’s home village of Hutton Magna, which lies just off the road from Scotch Corner to Bowes (now the A66). Thomas Green had married Betsy Shields in late-1896, and they had a daughter, Beatrice Maud. However, that marriage was short-lived as Betsy died on 25th September 1898 aged 32. She was buried at Stanwick –  a hamlet about four miles east of Hutton Magna. Beatrice died on 3rd December 1906 aged 9. Soon after Thomas and Lettice married they had a daughter, Florence. Lettice’s half-sister Ada Smith was again living with her at the time of the 1901 census, but now as a domestic servant. On 15th July 1901 - about eighteen months after her marriage - Lettice died aged just 27. She, Betsy and Beatrice are commemorated on a shared stone in Hutton Magna churchyard. Florence survived but never married - she was a housekeeper at Westwick near Barnard Castle until she died.
 John Sharman was born at Edenham in 1875, and was christened there (aged 1¼ years) on 1st October 1876. In 1891 15 year old John was living in Wakefield with his half-sister Catherine, working as an apprentice to her draper husband John Saville. By 1901 he had moved even further north, and was living at Barnard Castle in County Durham, working as a draper’s assistant. At this time John was still single, and was a boarder in the house of William Sinclair and his family at 7 Marshall Street.
 Robert Sharman was born at Edenham on 3rd September 1876, and was christened there on 1st October. He was the only one of George’s children still living at home in 1891, but he does not seem to appear in the 1901 census. Very early in the twentieth century he emigrated to Canada, and his life is detailed in appendix 2 of my printed work.
By 1900 George senior, now in his late seventies, had retired to Scottlethorpe where he rented a cottage with six acres of land. He died on 29th December 1905 aged 82, and was buried at Edenham on 1st January 1906. Lettice died on 1st May 1923 aged 87. She too was buried at Edenham.
 

• Henry Sharman was born in Swinstead on 5th December 1825, and baptised there on Christmas Day. Unlike his father and generations of Sharmans before him, he did not go into agriculture. Instead he took up the building trade, and by 1851 he was a partner with a John Brotherway in a building business in Grantham. Early in 1854 he married Margaret Louisa Taylor in Manchester. Margaret was born in Wrexham, and was about six years younger than Henry. Henry and Margaret had certainly moved to Shropshire, and were living in Ellesmere by the end of that summer. In the 1861 census Henry was listed as a builder in Ellesmere employing sixteen men. Later that year Henry was widowed as Margaret died in the summer of 1861. She was buried at Ellesmere on 20th September – she was just 29 years old.  Just over three years later, on 10th December 1864, Henry married Ann Powell. Ann had been born in Bayston Hill near Shrewsbury in about 1836 to Samuel and Martha Powell. In 1871 Henry and Ann were living in Scotland Street in Ellesmere. In all Henry had five children that we know of. All were born in Ellesmere to Margaret, his first wife.

 Jane Sharman was born in Ellesmere in 1854, and christened there on 31st August. Apart from her move to Whitchurch by 1871 (see above), and her presence as a visitor in the home of Charles and Elizabeth Pitcher in Highgate, Whitchurch at the 1881 census, we know nothing more about her.
 Charles Sharman was born in Ellesmere in 1856, and christened there on 10th July. In 1881 he married Elizabeth Davies who was his senior by two years and born in Wellington. By 1901 they were living in Bushbury, to the north of Wolverhampton, where Charles was a carpenter. The census of that year lists seven children: Ivy (18), Charles (15), Henry (13), Violet (10), Cornelia (9), Percy (7) and Frank (2).
 Mary Ann Sharman (also known as Polly) was also born in 1856, and was most likely twin to Charles – especially as her birth was registered in the same quarter as Charles’s. For some reason she was baptised on 21st April – over eleven weeks earlier than him. Maybe she was not expected to survive. As stated above, she was living and working as a dressmaker’s apprentice in Whitchurch in 1871, but by 1881 she was living back with her father in Ellesmere. Mary Ann seems to have been the Polly Sharman who married the chemist Robert Ferguson Dickie at Ellesmere in the summer of 1882. They had at least one child – a son named Robert Henry Dickie, born at St. George’s (near modern-day Telford) in the summer of 1883. Strangely the 1891 edition of Kelly’s Directory of Shropshire lists Robert as an Insurance Agent at St Georges, but the 1895 edition confirms that he was a Chemist.
 Henry Sharman was born in Ellesmere in 1858, and christened there on 2nd February. In 1884 he married Caroline Jones, who was his senior by two years and also born in Ellesmere. By 1901 they were living at Oswestry with their children: Nelly (14), Florence (12), Frederick (10), Elsie (8) and Albert (2). Like his brother, Henry was a joiner and carpenter.
 Margaret Louisa Sharman was born in Ellesmere in 1860, and christened there on 28th June. She married in 1884, but again we have no further details of her after that.
No trace has been found of any children to Henry’s second wife Ann. In the census of 1881 Henry was listed as living at Laurel Cottage in Scotland Street, but being a widower again. However, Ann was not dead. Instead she was working as a domestic cook in Dursley, Gloucestershire. She claimed to be unmarried, but we do not know the reason for her separation from Henry. By 1891 Ann had returned to Shropshire. She was working as housekeeper to Barnabas Powell claiming to be his sister, which seems to be untrue, although she did at least admit to being married this time! There is no record of Ann returning to Henry, who in 1891 was living at number 38 Scotland Street in Ellesmere with his eldest daughter, Jane. The 1891 edition of Kelly’s Directory of Shropshire lists Henry still as a builder even though he had turned 65 the previous year. In the summer of 1891 Henry Sharman senior died at Ellesmere aged 65 years. About the same time Ann married her “brother” Barnabas Powell; but that marriage was short-lived as she died the following spring (1892) at Atcham near Shrewsbury, just over three miles from her place of birth. Barnabas remarried that same summer, and died in the autumn of 1896.
 
• John was born on 7th August 1828, and christened at Swinstead on 31st August 1828. He moved to London, and his life is detailed in appendix 3 of my printed work.
• Sarah, born on 12th May 1830, was baptised at Swinstead on 4th July 1830. She was sharing Edenham Lodge with her brother George in 1851 as stated above. On 29th January the following year she married a farmer named Thomas Gillson at Swinstead. Thomas was about six years older than Sarah, and gave his place of birth as Tipperary in Ireland. The marriage register entry includes no reference to Sarah's father, who had died over three years earlier. Sarah and Thomas had three daughters : Elizabeth, Mary Ann, and Jane Judith.

  Elizabeth Gillson (born 1852/3 at Edenham) was living with her aunt Mary Ann Ward (née Sharman) at the time of the 1881 census, but I have discovered little more about her. In the 1901 census she is shown as an unmarried farmer’s daughter living at Market Deeping.
  Jane Judith Gillson (born 1854/5 at Grimsthorpe) married Robert William Carr in the spring of 1878 . Robert was a blacksmith, who had been born at Terrington St. Johns in Norfolk. Jane and Robert lived for many years at Witham-on-the-Hill. They had a large family, which included at least:
Sarah Sharman (born 1878/9, baptised at Witham on the Hill on 16th March 1879),
Elizabeth (born 1880/1, baptised at Witham on the Hill on 13th February 1881),
Samuel (born 1882, baptised at Witham on the Hill on 30th July 1882),
Robert William (born 1884, baptised at Witham on the Hill on 20th April 1884),
Thomas Joseph Gillson (born 1885, baptised at Witham on the Hill on 12th April 1885),
Eleanor (born 1887, baptised at Witham on the Hill 11th February 1887),
Ernest (born 1889 , baptised at Witham on the Hill in March 1889 – register hard to read),
Jane Sharman (born 1891, baptised at Witham on the Hill 22nd November 1891),
Mary (born 1892, baptised at Witham on the Hill 1st November 1892),
Walter (born 1894, baptised at Witham on the Hill 6th May 1894)
Richard (born 1898),
and Arthur John (born 1902, baptised at Witham on the Hill 12th January 1902).
It is interesting that both Sarah and Jane were given Sharman (their maternal grandmother’s maiden name) as a middle name, and Thomas Joseph had his mother’s maiden name as a third name (though he dropped Thomas for both the 1891 and 1901 censuses). In late-1900 Sarah married Arthur George Ayto, an insurance agent about seven years her senior, and went to live at Little Gonerby on the edge of Grantham. Sarah and Arthur brought their daughter Doris back to Witham on the Hill for her baptism on 28th October 1901. By 1901 Elizabeth and Samuel had moved to Buxton in Derbyshire, where they worked as a domestic housemaid and coachman. Robert and Thomas (known as Joe) were by then both in the butchery trade – Robert at Great Shelford and Joe at Barnack. However, by 1910 Robert had moved to Leeds (still working as a butcher) and was married to Ethel. On 21st May of that year they brought their daughter Dorothea Rosemary back to Witham on the Hill for her baptism.
  Mary Ann Gillson (born 3 m/e June 1856 at Grimsthorpe) is shown as living as a visitor with her sister Jane Judith at Witham-on-the-Hill in the 1881 census. She seems not to have married, instead becoming a housekeeper. In 1891 she was working  at Harlaxton near Grantham, and in the 1901 census she is shown as a housekeeper (still unmarried) living at Harringworth, Northamptonshire.

The girls’ mother Sarah Gillson (née Sharman) died on 16th April 1858 still aged 27 years. In 3 m/e Mar 1861 Thomas remarried (Pboro 3b 279). His new bride was Fanny Alexander who was born at Ingoldsby in 1840/41. They had at least four children : Fanny Maria (19, born Great Humby), Thomas Joshua (18, born Exton), Eleanor (15, born Exton) and James William (13, born Whitwell). The 1881 census shows Thomas and his new family living at North Fen, Bourne. As well as remarrying and having another family, Thomas Gillson must have moved around a lot. By 1891 Thomas had settled at Teigh in Rutland, where he was living with Fanny, Eleanor and James. In the 1901 census Thomas and Fanny were still living at Teigh but now with a housekeeper.
 

• Charles was born on 29th May 1832, and christened at Swinstead on 24th June 1832. C.A.S. thought that he died in infancy, but in this was mistaken. The 1851 census shows 18 years old Charles living at Swinstead Lodge helping his mother on the farm. On 31st October 1854 a Charles Sharman of Donnington, son of farmer Charles Sharman, married Mary Ann March at Swinstead. This marriage may well link here. However, as yet I cannot find Charles in the 1881 and 1891 censuses.
• Taylor was born on 26th June 1834, and christened at Swinstead on 3rd August. We know for certain that he did die in infancy. He died on 1st November of that year, and was buried at Swinstead on 3rd November.

• Jane Sharman was born on 15th May 1861 and baptised at Swinstead on 23rd June 1861. The census of 1881 shows her aged 19 living at Sharmans Lodge, Swinstead with her brother Thomas, sister Sarah and a couple of servants. After that she has proved very difficult to follow. In the next ten years Thomas had married and moved from Norwood Farm to Blackspring Farm, and Jane moved on too. By 1891 she was working as a servant in the household of 26 year old William Edward Stockdale at Park Farm near Downham Market. William Stockdale married in the summer of 1892, which might have been the reason that Jane moved on again. By 1901 Jane Sharman was back in the East Midlands working as housekeeper to widowed farmer George Crawford (aged 42) at Manor Farm, Queniborough near Leicester. Living with them were George’s five children (ages 9 to 14) and two young servants named Newbold, who were both born at Exton in Rutland and were presumably brother and sister. By 1917, when two of his sons were killed, George Crawford had moved from Manor Farm to Queniborough Grange. We do not yet know what became of Jane after 1901.
• THOMAS HOYLES SHARMAN was my great-grandfather. He was born on 6th December 1862. Because this story follows mainly my line of the family, his details are given in the next part.
• Annie Mary Sharman was born on 31st January 1865 and baptised at Swinstead on 26th February 1865. In 1881 she and her brother William were living with their parents in Swinstead, whilst the rest of the family lived at nearby Sharmans Lodge. On 18th December 1888 Annie married Thomas Pick at Swinstead. Thomas was a farmer about 10 years older than Annie, who it seems was born on a farm somewhere between Toft and Witham on the Hill. Thomas Pick had been married before. His first wife was Mary Ann Grant (born at Empingham in Rutland), who he married in the spring of 1877. Thomas and Mary Ann seem to have moved around quite a lot. They had children born in Braunston, Rutland (c1877), Grendon, Northants (c1879) and Cogenhoe, Northants (c1880). At the time of the 1881 census they were farming at Puddock Drove near Ramsey in Huntingdonshire. When Ellanor was born in the autumn of 1883 they were in the Nottingham registration district, but they were living in the Bourne area (probably Swinstead) when Joseph was born in the autumn of 1885. Mary Ann Pick died at Swinstead on 17th December 1887 aged 48, and is buried at Witham on the Hill. It was just a year and a day later that Thomas Pick married Annie Mary Sharman. In 1891 Thomas and Annie were living at Picks’ Lodge, Swinstead with John (aged 14), Harold (12), William (8), Ellanor Gillson (7) and Joseph Gillson (5) who were Thomas’s sons and daughter from his first marriage. It is strange that both Ellanor and Joseph had the unusual middle name of Gillson, as this name crops up elsewhere in our story (see Sarah Sharman above) – further investigation is needed here. Obviously Thomas Pick had continued to move his family around regularly in the final years of his first marriage. Despite having been married over two years, it seems that at the time of the 1891 census Annie still had no children with Thomas – certainly no living ones are listed. The 1901 census shows Thomas and Annie living at Elderwood in the parish of Toft with Lound with their children Joseph, Edgar, Alfred and Ann. The last three of these would be children from Thomas’s marriage to Annie Mary (née Sharman). Elderwood was a remote farm situated alongside the now-closed Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway about a mile north of Witham on the Hill.

- Edgar (known as Ted Pick) was born in the spring of 1891 at Norwood Farm between Swinstead and Grimsthorpe, where Annie’s parents continued to farm after her brother Thomas Hoyles Sharman moved to Blackspring Farm in about 1887. In 1931 Edgar Pick moved from Witham on the Hill to farm at Castle Bytham, where he remained until his death in 1975. He was buried there on 4th April 1975. Ted and his wife May had a daughter Gwen, who died of peritonitis on 6th January 1947 aged 22, and a son John born in 1928, who still lives in Castle Bytham.
- Alfred Pick was born in the spring of 1895. He farmed at Essendine and then at Old Somerby. He died in 1964. His only son (as far as we know) is called Robin, and is thought to live in Manchester.
- Ann Pick, the only known daughter of Thomas and Annie Mary Pick, was born in the spring of 1898. She is something of a mystery, but she may well be the Ann Pick of Grantham who died in her 70s at Rauceby Hospital in late 1976.
Both Thomas Pick and his second wife Annie Mary (née Sharman) are buried at Essendine, where they eventually farmed. However, they have no gravestone.
• William Taylor Sharman was born on 18th February 1866 and baptised at Swinstead on 19th March 1866. In 1891 he was a tenant farmer in Swinstead living with his sister Sarah and their widowed mother Jane. William Taylor Sharman married Elizabeth Ellen Styles, who was about 8 years his senior, at her birth-village of Witham-on-the-Hill in July 1892. Elizabeth, daughter of John and Elizabeth Styles, had been baptised there on 21st March 1858. Prior to her marriage she had travelled away from Lincolnshire. In 1881 she was working as a linen-keeper at Baileys Hotel in Blackpool, a large establishment now known as the Grand Metropole Hotel. However, by 1891 she was back living with her parents at Witham-on-the-Hill. At some stage William moved to Manor Farm at Clipsham - he was certainly there in 1900. The following year’s census shows him to have been farming Sharmans Lodge at neighbouring Holywell, where he and Elizabeth lived with their daughters Hilda (born Pickworth, Lincs. in 1893), Kathleen (Holywell 1896) and Dorothy (Holywell 1898) along with nephew Thomas (see later), a governess and a servant. However, we know little more about the life of William Taylor Sharman apart from the contents of a letter dated 1962 from his unmarried daughter Dorothy at Eight Ash Green, near Colchester in Essex. In the letter she refers to her mother having died, Hilda living in London and having three grown-up children and three grandchildren, and Kathleen living near Sudbury in Suffolk and having two grown-up children but no grandchildren yet. Dorothy was living with and looking after her father, but William himself being “rather a bent old man” who was capable of walking “only a few steps”. We do not know when the family moved to Essex, but Dorothy writes of feeling isolated from the rest of our family and wishing both that she had married and that she was “back home”. She refers to William’s ill health with no optimism saying “when you get (to) 96 you cannot expect much”.
• Sarah Elizabeth Sharman was born on 7th October 1869 and baptised at Swinstead on 31st October 1869.  The 1881 census shows her living at Sharmans Lodge with her older brother and sister, Thomas and Jane, and a couple of servants. In 1891 she was living at Swinstead with her brother William and their mother. Sarah married Joseph Downing at Castle Bytham on her 32nd birthday - 7th October 1901. The census taken that spring shows her to be living at Castle Bytham. Possibly she had been living there with her widowed mother Jane who died the following year.

 

 
 















To go on to Part Two click here

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This page is a heavily edited extract from the Sharman Family History that I wrote and had printed in 2002. It ran to 46 sides of A4, and covered my line of Sharmans from Richard who died in 1554 to me and my family in the present day. Naturally as our story progresses through time the information becomes more readily available, therefore some of the early stuff is less detailed. Despite poor sales initially, that first edition is now sold out. A reprint would not be impossible, but would depend on a reasonable level of expressed demand.  I am working on a second edition, which will include additional information and is expected to include photographs - something that the first edition lacked.

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This page was created by Robin Sharman on 14th September 2000 (updated 25th November 2007)
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