The Shermans

Last week I was  on the trail of the Sherman family from Berkshire County, England. The name is spelled differently on different records - Sherman/Shurman/Shirman. There is also a Shearman family in the same area although so far there doesn't appear to be a connection.

My tracking starts out with MARY ANN SHERMAN who was born in June 1848 in Berkshire County, England. She was christened August 6, 1848 in Aldworth, Berkshire, England and her parents were CHARLES SHERMAN and HANNAH HERRIDGE. A hint as to her mother's maiden name came from the birth register which lists her as MARY ANN HERRIDGE SHERMAN.

Mary Ann stayed in Aldworth through the 1851 and 1861 census. In 1871 she was living in Hackney London and working as a Domestic Servant, along with her 13 year old sister Fanny. She married WILLIAM GEORGE PARSONS in April 1875 in Cholsey, Berkshire. Mary Ann and William had 5 children over the next 10 years. They moved from Cholsey to North Stoke to Goring to Mongewell. William was a shepherd and in 1911 they were listed as living at Sheepcote, Mongewell, Wallingford, Berkshire. My assumption is they were't actually living in a sheepcote but were living near the sheepcote. Mary Ann died in Wallingford in December 1918 at the age of 70.

CHARLES SHERMAN was born in 1822 in Aldworth, Berkshire England and was christened on 26 May 1822. His parents were RICHARD SHERMAN AND SARAH. I believe that Sarah is SARAH FISHER but more confirmation is needed for that.   In 1841 Charles appears to be living in Blewbury, Berkshire county. The Blewbury Berkshire county census for that year are in very poor shape and are so faint that they are unreadable in many cases. It looks as though he is living in the house of Stephen someone and his wife along with a number of others. Enumerated next to Charles Sherman is JOSEPH HERRIDGE. I believe he is listed as 19 in this census.

Charles married HANNAH HERRIDGE in July 1841 in Aldworth Berkshire. Hannah has had a son previously - apparently out of wedlock as he is listed as John Herrage, wife's son, in the 1851 census. I think it is interesting that he is not listed as a step-son.  Charles and Hannah had 5 children in their first 10 years of married life.  By 1861 they had 10 children so when Charles died in 1861, Hannah was left with 10 children.

Charles died in 1861 from an wagon accident while riding without reins. (See blog of March 9, 2013 for more on this accident.) He was just 39 years old at the time of his death and appears to have spent most of this life in or around Aldworth.

RICHARD SHERMAN was born in 1791 in Aldworth, Berkshire, England. He was christened 24 April 1791. His parents were listed as THOMAS SHERMAN and MARY.  Presumbly he spent his life in Aldworth. He married SARAH FISHER 18 December 1814 in Compton, Berkshire England.

In 1841, Richard and Sarah were living in Aldworth. Richard was listed as an agriculture laborer.  Within this household is his son George, daughters Dinah and Martha. There appears to be a child listed as N.K. Shurman, 10 days old. I believe this means the child has not yet been named (I think it stands for Not Known). It is unclear as to whose child it is as Sarah would have been close to 50.  Again, the quality of the census is poor and hard to read. Richard died in Feburary 1850 and was buried on 8 Feburary 1850 in Aldworth, Berkshire, England. He was 80 years old.

THOMAS SHERMAN is a bit of a puzzlement. He was born in 1753 in Aldworth, Berkshire, England and married Mary. I haven't been able to get a handle on who Mary was. I have some Aldworth parish records coming which I hope might provide some answers to the mystery.

I've also made some attempts at tracking Thomas and Mary's other children in order to learn more about Thomas and Mary. It is possible that his daughter Mary married a WILLIAM BLACKALL on 29 November 1803 in Aldworth. His daughter Rachel may have married Joseph Lay 21 May 1809 in Aldworth. Rachel Lay died 24 October 1829 in Hampstead Norreys/Norris. Hannah Sherman may have married James Hamblin 12 October 1825 in Aldworth. Hannah Hamblin is mentioned in the Berkshire Chronicle in an article regarding a house sale. It is possible that John Sherman married Elizabeth Huntley in October 1817 in Hungerford, Berkshire. This is one I'm not sure of since it is not in Aldworth.  None of these are absolutely certain and will require more information to provide confirmation.

The last in the line I was able to track is RICHARD SHERMAN. Richard married SARAH SMITH 6 November 1748 in West Hendred, Berkshire, England. Richard was from Aldworth and Sarah was from the West Hendred parish.

The Sherman family will need to be revisited periodically in order to see if there is any new information that helps uncover their secrets.

Out-of-Wedlock Children

Before I got into genealogy, I assumed, quite mistakenly, that out of wedlock children were a modern day occurrence. I've learned, at every turn, that it happened much more frequently than I sure would have expected.

Most laws in the US and Great Britain,  appear to attach a stigma to the child by labeling them a bastard. More modern laws, take that stigma away if the parents eventually marry. But what of those children whose parents don't ever marry?  I've come up on two situations recently.

HENRIETTA HOBBS, b. 1873 in Berkshire, England appears to have had a son, ARTHUR EDWARD HOBBS, out of wedlock in 1897 in Oxfordshire. There doesn't seem to be a record of his father (although I haven't seen an official birth record yet.) When Arthur marries in 1918, he does not list a father on his marriage record. The interesting thing is that Henrietta marries in 1900 to JAMES PARSONS. She does not take her son to live with her in her marriage. He stays with his grandparents.  This seems to be a common way of dealing with this if the mother didn't "give the child up." Henrietta and James went on to have a family of their own.

In my family, my gr-great grandfather, ALEXANDER CLARK was born out of wedlock to GRACE CHRISTY in 1834 in Fife, Scotland. There is a record in 1834 in the Cupar Sheriff's Court Aliment Decrees where Grace is listed along with the father ALEXANDER CLARK. In this case, Grace obviously acknowledges the child and is trying to get some support. It appears as though Grace and Alexander never married and it is possible that Grace may have gone on to live as a "housekeeper" with another family - and may have had two or three other children out of wedlock within that family. So if this is true, why did she never get married.?The man in this second family was a widower so he appears to have been free to marry. It is unclear to me yet, what happened to the father and what happened to the son between the time of his birth and the time of his marriage in 1854. Pieces of the puzzle yet to be filled in.

Early on in England, it appears as though once a child is born out of wedlock, they were always considered to be a bastard, regardless of whether their parents were ever married. This changed in 1926 so that if the parents married, that legal designation went away.  Wikipedia says the term bastard may have come from the word bastum which means packsaddle. This was apparently because originally they thought these children were fathered by passing travelers.

In Wales, a bastard was a child not acknowledged by his father. If a child was acknowledged by his father, then he was not legally considered a bastard and could inherit regardless of whether he was born in or out of wedlock.

As a genealogist, I find all these occurrences quite interesting and add to the colorful fabric that makes up our family history.