Cotgrove Family History.

Dear Cousin,

This year I have discovered the benefits of the Web Site and E-mail. The Web Site now has a more easily remembered name www.cotgroveonly.com , although the old name is still valid, and has had nearly 200 “hits” besides finding several new family members. These are mainly from those descended from a Cotgrove daughter now bearing another surname. All those who have an internet connection, even without an interest in Family History, will some time or other, enter a surname into a search engine and will find a reference to that surname. With the name Cotgrove they will soon find the Web Site.

Over the year I have been looking in some detail into the indexed Census returns, viz 1881 & 1901. These enable me to find those Cotgroves who had left home and strayed to other parts of the country. Most of those found living away from Leigh turned out to have been born in the north of England and were really Cotgreaves or Cotgraves. I have now got a small computer program which allows me to show these results on a map and this is shown to the below.

Results of the 1881 Census for COTGROVE.

Only a very few had left Leigh by 1881. Each shaded area represents a Poor Law Union (a sub division of a county) where at least one Cotgrove lived.

County Poor Law Union No. of Cotgroves

ESS Rochford 138

HAM Isle of Wight 5

KEN North Aylesford 3

The entry for North Kent included the family of George Wm. who had married a local girl a year earlier and whose descendents are still there although some moved to Australia. George had been a whiting moulder at Cliffe.

In West Ham, Henry, the Irish born son of sailor Henry John, had just married his first wife Sarah who was to die in a few months time. Henry had left Leigh to become a railway guard.

The entry for Barnet was Henry’s sister, also born in Ireland, who was in domestic service in Frien Barnet.

In the Isle of Wight there were two families; John who had gone there in 1855 to be a Customs Officer but soon left to become a seaman. He married but there was no family. The other was John Reacher Cotgrove. Although he had six children the male line has now died out although I am in contact with a granddaughter.

In Reigate we have the son of “Judgement” Cotgrove, Frederick Thomas who was a Hairdresser, as yet unmarried. His two children died as infants.

In Jersey there was the daughter, Susan, of Charles, brother of “Judgement.” Charles had four children on the island but only Susan can be traced into adulthood.

By 1901 more members of the family had left Leigh although the main concentrations were much as before. Southend was now classed as a separate district – Prittlewell – so the total in the south east corner of Essex rose to 174. Those who moved away left the old trade of fishing and many females were involved in domestic service.

The many single persons were often daughters in domestic service. Ethel M. , daughter of James Samuel and his wife Sarah had found a position as a kitchen maid in a gentleman’s house in St George Hanover Square, an area we would today call Mayfair. She was never to marry but she died aged 91. Her sister Meta was still at home in Leigh aged 15 in 1901 but a mis-transcription of the census record gives her an unusual occupation. She is described as a “dressman.” I have yet to check the original record but dressmann is modern German for a male model !

MDX St George Hanover Sq. 1

IOW Northwood 1

SRY Walton on Thames 1

MDX Chiswick 1

IOW Newport 1

LIN Lincoln 1

ESS Harwich 1

ESS Great Wakering 1

ESS Eastwood 1

ESS Dovercourt 2

ESS Dagenham 2

SSX Hastings 2

LND Kensington 3

MDX Hackney 3

HAM Bournemouth 3

IOW Cowes 5

KEN Northfleet 7

ESS West Ham 12

ESS East Ham 15

ESS Prittlewell 38

ESS Leigh on Sea 136

Dinah, the Irish born daughter of sailor Henry had improved her status since 1881 and was now in Kensington as cook to the household of the Assistant Under Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir William Patrick Dunbar.

Herbert Cotgrove, son of Robert and Mary Ann and known as “Whitehead” was a footman in Lincoln. Later he married Annie; was known as a harpist and an artist. I have found no record of his death.

Charles, son of Edward John and Susannah, was a gardener in Walton-on Thames. He fathered a son but did not marry the mother for over 19 years. The son’s descendents are now in Australia.

Up in Dovercourt, Harwich, which had become a summer fishing ground for the family, another Charles, son of Charles and Mary, was a paperhanger and painter. He died without marrying.

Down south in Bournemouth Jabez, son of John & Jane, and Alice ran a restaurant. Unfortunately Alice was to die in the year after the census. Also in Bournemouth was Ada Ann, a cook, who was to marry in Kensington. Did her employer have a town house there ?

Kensington was a second home for Cotgrove girls, besides Dinah, see above, there was Hilda, kitchen maid, and Irene Mead, housemaid, daughters of James Samuel and Sarah and sister to “dressman” Meta.

The groups in north Kent, East & West Ham were the successors to those who were there in 1881. In Hackney we find Walter Cotgrove with his wife Alice Maud Tyrrell and daughter Irene Mary. Walter was a commercial traveller and the son of sailor Henry Wm. by his second wife, Sarah. Henry had been on board HMS Hero when it took the then Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, across the Atlantic to open a bridge over the St. Lawrence River.

In the Leigh area most of the men were still involved with fish and fishing, while many of heir daughter were now servants or waitresses. Arthur David had opened his Restaurant in Southend and Benjamin and Edwin had their butcher’s shop in Leigh.

Such then was the state of the Cotgrove Family in 1901. The children born at this time will have died within living memory but how much of the family history did they pass on to their grand children ? I hope that these notes will bring back a few memories and encourage the older generation of today to start talking.

Those of you who have followed these Newsletters will know that I have a theory, as yet unproven, that maintains that it was a Cotgrave from Cheshire who had moved to Holland in about 1600 and it was his son or grandson, Benjamin, who returned to Leigh around 1680 to found the Cotgroves of Leigh.

During the last year I have been in contact with Bill Cotgreave of New York and his cousin Peter Cotgreave of England. They have found a Benjamin who roughly fits the circumstances but as yet there is not enough information to prove it. Bill has now registered the name COTGRAVE/COTGREAVE with the Guild of One-Name Studies – GOONS - just as I am registered with them for the name COTGROVE.

With the advances in DNA testing it is now possible to prove, via simple samples from those alive today, if two persons have the same common ancestry. During the coming year I might look deeper into this method.

If you receive this Newsletter a little late, my apologies, but I was on holiday at the beginning of December so I was a little late this year in preparing it.

Finally may I thank all of you who provided information and give welcome to those who contacted me for the first time in 2003. This Newsletter will appear on the web site shortly and I will try to get the Guest Book working again – it was shut down when the organisation providing the service decided to make a charge. I have got to find another source but a free of charge one.

So may I wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year for 2004 and also I send my thanks to all who have already sent me Greetings Cards.

Yours sincerely,

Norman Holding

PS. If this all comes as a great surprise to you, may I say that I am the great grand son of Eliza Cotgrove and for the last 18 years I have been researching the origins of the Cotgrove Family of Leigh from its arrival in Essex in about 1674 until the present day. I have a complete family tree and I’m of always interested in hearing from Cotgroves world wide. Any anecdotes and any pre 1900 photographs would be much appreciated. NHH.

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