Dear Cousin,
Last year I used the words “my
aging computer”; well I’m glad to say I have changed it for a brand new one
with all the latest software, but more of that later.
For the Family Historian the most
important event of the Year was the release of the 1901 British Census Returns.
They were supposed to have been available in January 2002 and in an indexed
version on the Internet as well. However it was not to be, so many Family
Historians tried to log on during the first day that the entire system
collapsed and had to be shut down. All those in the know said “We told you so”
but it made no difference and it was not until September, without any fanfare
that it returned. Anyone can now look up
your ancestors free of charge (full details cost £0·75 per sheet from the original
return document.) on WWW.CENSUS.PRO.GOV.UK.
Needless to say I tried, without success, in January and again in
September. There are 236 COTGROVEs
listed but several have been miss indexed and are not immediately visible. The Isle of Wight branch is missing in its
entirety and Charles the gardener is listed as COLGROVE but he is the
only one with that miss spelling. So that makes 237. I’m slowly checking all
236 to see if they are on my Tree but so far I have only found three young
children that I knew of but I had been unable to place on the tree with the
correct parents. Now Victor, Connie and
Ethel are correctly shown as the children of Robert and Rosetta Cotgrove who by
1901 had moved to Southend. Several of their sons entered the retail fish
trade. When I have had enough time to
check all the 237 names I hope to put a few more names into their correct place
on the tree.
The Internet is a good place for
researchers to record their finding for others to benefit. Such is the case with the web site showing
the Public Houses, Taverns and Inns of Essex. Under the Sutton Arms of Southend
is listed the names associated with this establishment between 1875 and
1908. These include for the 1891 Census
a barmaid, a domestic servant and a Groom/coach driver; all Cotgroves. The Landlord was, and had been for many
years, William Lungley. Now all these are known to me but this
website has made me look again and reveals the fact that Coachman Herbert went
on to become Southend’s last horse cab driver who died in 1946 and the two
girls were his sisters, one of whom married a Harvey Langley. Was he the landlord’s son ? This little story needs further research as
I know that their mother Eliza Cotgrove, nee White was widowed in 1880, aged
36, when her husband Stephen James died.
I have no record of a further marriage but there were at least two more
children by unknown fathers during the next few years. Another son, George
William, was in the Rochford Workhouse for a few years after his father died,
his mother being unable to care for him.
For the copy of the Essex Pubs Web site I am grateful to the New Zealand
Cotgroves.
William upon the leading horse: on the
extreme left.
(To see a picture of William CLICK HERE. It may take awhile to load).
Over the years I have related some
of the stories about the Cotgrove family as they appear in the written record
but what about the houses in which they lived. Most Family members who still
live in the area will know of The Leigh Heritage Centre and its connection with
the family; in fact there is a framed chart inside that traces the owners back
to 1766 and this shows the Cotgroves as the earliest occupiers. We are fortunate that several important
documents dealing with the house still survive and these enable us to trace the
history with some accuracy. For those who do not know the area the Cotgrove
home is in the Old Town High Street just to the east of the Strand and backing
on to the sea. In the 1850s the Strand
was a square open to the sea on the south side and lined on the north with
houses which formed part of the north side of the High Street. In the centre
stood one of the town pumps and to the west a number of cottages with the
entrance to the Alley Dock running between them. On the east side, starting by the Thames was
a large house, dating back to at least 1615 when it was the home of Richard
Chester, Master of Trinity House. By 1850 it had been subdivided into at least
four dwellings. These were destroyed after the Second World War. Adjoining this large house were two small
cottages which ended at the corner with the High St. The position of these is still marked by
stone posts in the ground at the corner of the Strand. It was in the first of
these that Golden Thompson lived, whose son was to marry Eliza Cotgrove and become my great grand
parents. Leaving the square and turning
east into the High Street one went along the side of the two small cottages and
then came to the first two cottages in the High Street. It is these two that form the present day
Heritage Centre but in 1850 they were still two separate cottages and it was
the second one that was the Cotgrove home from 1693 when Mary Cotgrove,
Benjamin’s widow married Henry Bateman up to 1838 when Sarah Cotgrove, also the
widow of a Benjamin, the fifth in the line, died.
The records of the Lord of the
Manor of Leigh, the Manor Court Rolls, show the changes in tenancy over the
entire period and as the Lord of the Manor was the landlord for the entire
period the various generations of Cotgrove are recorded as son succeeds son for
150 years. The type of tenancy was
Copyhold which in modern terms we would call leasehold. It meant that the
tenant could buy and sell or take out a mortgage on the house so long as he
informed and got permission from the Lord. He then received a copy of the
record and become a Copyholder. Wills
also record the transfer of the house to the widow or the next generation, all
with the Lord’s consent.
The first documents do not record the location
of the house so one must go through the whole lot until an almost modern deed
shows a plan which positively identifies the house. So what happened ?
It starts in 1693 when Benjamin’s
widow marries Henry Bateman. When he dies in 1699 she was left the house which
was to go to Bateman’s step son, Benjamin II. For the next 50 years the picture
is unclear but in 1761 Benjamin II’s son came before the Court and waving his
Copyhold said he was the son of the late Benjamin II and claimed his right of
occupation which the Lord granted. At one time a 14 year old boy became the
Copyholder with his mother as guardian but in 1825 the last Benjamin to live
there took over on condition that his widowed mother could have the use of one
room rent free for life. She was still
there when she died in 1838 although Benjamin had sold the house over her head
in 1830. Documents for this transaction record the Cotgrove occupation since
1761. In 1841 the Family were spread
throughout the village in ten different properties; the old cottage in
the High Street was theirs no more.
Turning back to my opening remark, I have now got a state
of the art computer which will enable we to access the internet from home, this means that I have already changed
my E-mail address - see the top of the Home Page - and that within a few days
there will a Cotgrove Web site. The address is not yet known but search with
Yahoo under “Cotgrove Family” and that should find it. I am having trouble getting the new machine
to print out the family tree but I hope to overcome the problems shortly.
May I wish you all a Merry
Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year for 2003.
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.