Part Nine
Family Migration

After the 1834 Poor Law Reform Act and the 1868 Church Rate Act (which made it no longer compulsory for people to pay a Church Rate), the inhabitants of Harpford parish were largely deprived of the opportunity to conduct their own parish affairs. In an age of progress there was less and less for them to do for themselves or that they were able to do owing to lack of funds.  Locally it was an age of frustration not made any easier by the slow progress of the railway line from Ottery St. Mary to Sidmouth, which did not open until 1874. The branch line from Tipton to Budleigh Salterton was not opened until 1897.

During the nineteenth century the passage of the River Otter was becoming increasingly difficult and was a grave matter of concern to yachtsmen, fishermen, fishmongers and the farmers through whose meadows it flowed. The Harpford register of baptisms of 1813 until the middle of the century gives the calling of the father and includes mariner, rope maker, ships carpenter etc. It is hard today to picture a time when the River Otter was navigable.  The trouble began as far back as 1811 with the enclosure of the estuarial land when it became difficult for shipping to cross the newly created shingle bar.

Generally, the outlook for the Carter family in Harpford was very limited.

In 1854 Joel Carter is listed on the electoral role as farmer of Harts. Having been declared bankrupt, it’s interesting he was still entitled to vote.

Joel Carter’s mother-in-law, Joanna Paver died at Harts on 26th April 1856. Joel was present at her death.  Joanna would have been about 84 years old.

Except for their married daughter, during the 1850’s all of Joel and Mary Carter’s daughters left Devon.  With a spirit of adventure they appear to have headed towards London, probably to seek work as domestic servants. The family story says that the youngest, Emily was only 17 years old when she left home. Their son, John, also left Harpford in the 1850’s.

What happened to the various children is described in the order in which they were born.

1) I believe Joel’s daughter Sarah got as far as the Bath/Bristol area.  On the 1861 census Sarah, 36 years, is a domestic servant, living at 8 Lambridge Place, Walcot, Bath with the elderly Ann Furber and her unmarried daughters.  In 1871 Sarah is still in service with Ann Furber but they now lived at 28 Park Street, Wilton, near Taunton, Somerset.  At 47 years old, Sarah Carter married Thomas Wyatt on 11th April 1871 at Wilton, both of them were grandchildren of Anna Carter, née Vincent.  The marriage was witnessed by Sarah’s brother, Sydenham Carter, of Harpford.  Thomas Wyatt who was two years younger than Sarah, had been born at Upottery, a son of Rachel and Francis Wyatt.  Rachel was Mrs. Anna Carter nee Vincent’s, illegitimate daughter.  On the 1871 census Thomas was living at Locksbrook Road, Weston, Bath.  He was a widower with children, at that time employed as a gardener.  In 1881 at Locksbrook Road, Sarah is living with her husband, a market gardener and stepdaughter Sarah Wyatt, b.1860.  Thomas and Sarah are still at Weston, Bath in 1901.  Thomas died in 1909, Sarah died the year later.

2) Joel’s daughter, Joanna reached London.  On 22-1-1856 Joanna Carter, aged 25 years, married Hugh McRuden, aged about 47 years, at St Olave, Southwark, London. How they met is still a mystery but Hugh had certainly had a ‘colourful’ life.  Born in Donegal, Ireland, he had joined the 58th Regiment. Whilst stationed at Chatham, after a trial when he was accused of rape, in 1845 on the convict ship Mount Stewart Elphinstone he had been deported to Van Dieman’s Land - Tasmania, Australia.  In 1851 he obtained his Certificate of Freedom and subsequently returned to England. By 1866 Hugh and Joanna were living in Tasmania, Australia.  From 1874 Hugh held the licence of the Sportsman Hall Hotel, Launceston.  In 2009 this establishment still trades under the same name.  Much further detail is known of this particular story. 

Rochester, Chatham and Strood Gazette – extract from the report of the court case concerning rape charge – 19 March 1844

c2000 - Sportsmans Hall Hotel, Launceston, Tasmania.

3) Joel’s son John married in St Giles, London in 1858. His wife Lucy was from Taunton. Their first child was born and died in St Giles but then a son, John was born at Newton Poppleford. On 1861 census the family had returned to London and lived in an area called Maze Pond at the rear of Guys Hospital in St Olave, Southwark. John was a railway porter. At least three further children were born in London.

4) Joel’s daughter, Elizabeth, also got as far as London. In 1858, aged 22yrs, she married Michael Daley at St Olave, Southwark. He was from Cork in Ireland. On the 1861 census they are living at 10 White Cross St, Southwark with baby daughter Ellen, b.1859 in Southwark.  Michael was described as a ‘carman’.  Probably he was employed by the railway and had a horse and cart to do deliveries.  Elizabeth and Michael Daley had other children including John born 1862 in Southwark.  A son James was born 1868, St Sepulchre, and Mary born 1872, St Lukes.  On the 1871 census the family is living at Gee Street, St Lukes, near Holborn.  There is no trace of the family in 1881 but by 1891 a widowed Elizabeth Daley is living at 33 Gee Street, St Lukes.  She is described as a fur sewer.  In the same household her son James is described as a postman and daughter Mary is a fancy box maker.  By 1901 Elizabeth Daley is an inmate at Holborn Union Workhouse, Shepherdess Walk, City Road. She probably died in 1902.

5) Joel’s daughter Emily also made it to London.  Aged about twenty years, in 1859 in the Marylebone registration district, Emily Carter married William R. Young, who was born in Scotland, a private in the Scots Fusilier Guards.  In 1861 they were living in Southwark, in the same building as Emily’s married sister Elizabeth.  By 1871 Emily and William Young were living at 1 Trinity Hill, Ramsgate, Kent.  William was recorded as a railway porter. Their children were born at various places including St Saviours (S.London), Sheerness, Ramsgate and Chatham. In the 1881 census, at 127 New Road, Chatham, Emily is described as a widow, living with five of her children. She was employed as a buttonhole worker; others in the family were a tailor’s presser etc. Leaving London on 18th August 1881, Emily and four children sailed on the SS. Chimborazo and emigrated to Tasmania.  Emily joined her sister Joanna and continued the Sportsman Hall Hotel business.  At a slightly later date, Emily’s eldest daughter, Mary Jane Murrell, also emigrated with her husband.  Detail is known of the Young and Murrell descendents in Australia.

 
SS Chimborazo
 

Extract from the Passenger Lists of the SS Chimborazo, sailing 18th August 1881

This is one of a series of related articles. Click forward or back to jump to the next.

Researched by Anne Speight,  © 2009

SOURCE MATERIAL

Harpford.  Revd. H.R. Evans. The Devonshire Association for the  Advancement of Science, Litrature and Art. Vol 101 (1969) pg 45-81.
Wills of Elias Carter d 1833, Anna Carter d 1852, Robert Carter d 1873 and Joel Carter d 1879.
Census Returns – various
Directories - various
S.S. Chimborazo Passenger lists
Convict Records of Hugh McRuden

51 NP-B-00009 Biography any