The life of this little book published in 1852, 172 years ago must be fascinating, it’s gone from owner to owner and in that time, it must have been read several times, what stories it could tell.

Recently a friend of mine asked me if I could help her find a permanent home for it. It’s a History of Chudleigh (Devon) by Miss Mary Jones dated 1852.

First I wanted to see if there was a possibility of any descendants of any of the people mentioned inside the cover.

Apart from the author, there are two other interesting names to research, one is W.D. Mackay who was given the little book by the author Miss Mary Jones on 20 June 1882 and inside he has left 4 pages of ‘Biographical Notes‘ for us to read. What a gem to find inside this little book.

The other interesting name is Claude Delaval Cobham with a date of 20 August 1855. I assume that he once owned this book.

So there are potentially three families to research, and hopefully, as a result of this blog, we will be able to find a permanent home for this little book, somewhere where it will be safe and treasured. If not with a family but maybe a museum or archive in Devon.

These are W.D. Mackay’s notes stuck inside the little book.

Biographical Notes by W.D. Mackay in History of Chudleigh.
This book was given to me by the Authoress Miss Mary Jones. June 20 1882. She was then 84 years old. I called upon her because I had seen the first edition of it, and was pleased with it considering the circumstances of the writer. She is a Methodist with just enough to live on. She was much pleased with my visit, and I found her a very chatty old lady. She told me that her father had come from Wales, and was educated at Warrington Academy for the English Presbyterian (or rather ”Sociavan’?) Ministry. He was a Minister of a Chapel at Chudleigh (I believe) but was turned……….

Info from Wikipedia: Warrington Academy was active as a teaching establishment from 1756 to 1782 and was a prominent dissenting academy, that is, a school or college set up by those who dissented from the established Church of England.

Info from Chudleigh History: Rev John Jones was the Minister of the Presbyterian/Congregational Chapel from c1798 until c1807 when Rev B Peckford became the last Minister.

Following info and the above photo from the Clay Heritage Website: The term ball clay is applied to plastic sedimentary clays, high in kaolinite, which possess white firing properties and high green strength. According to Scott, the name ball clay derives not from any specific property of the clay but from the original method of production, which consisted of cutting out the clay in open pits into cubes, the sides of which were approximately 22 to 25 cm, each weighing 14 to 16 kg. This original production method is illustrated in Fig. 1.

……….out in consequence of some dispute. He then leased some of the China Clay fields near Chudleigh and for some time supplied clay to the Wedgewoods for their potteries. His daughter (the Authoress) was at school at Exeter when Chudleigh was burned down in 1807. The fire was stopped next door to an old house the Plymouth Inn, three or four doors above the house opposite the Church in which I found her and in which I think she had been born. She had two brothers, one a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy (who caused her some trouble) and the other J Pike Jones a Clergyman in the Church of England. He was………

The Plymouth Inn mentioned on this page is now called the Bishop Lacy and the Church is Chudleigh Parish Church (St Martin & St Mary)

I have read one account saying that Mary’s brother William was a gambler? But how true that is I cannot confirm.

…..for some years curate of North Bovey and took a prominent part in the locality as a Radical, a Whig, Politician. He was appointed Vicar of Alton, Staffordshire by the E (Earl) of Shrewsbury in 1829 and Rector of Butterleigh, Devon by the L. Chanc. (Lord Chancellor) in 1832 and died (as I gather from Clergy lists) in 1857. He had made collections for a History of Devon the M. S. (Manuscripts) of which his sister still has and this first set her as she told me, on the idea of writing a History of Chudleigh. The printing of this second edition of 500 copies…….

…..first priced at 2/6 afterwards at 2/- cost her without the binding and frontispiece £30. There were about 250 copies left when she gave me this.

The Chudleigh History Group have done an enormous amount of research for all their articles on their website, it’s a great resource for family historians researching their ancestors in Chudleigh and I wasn’t surprised to find that they had researched Mary Jones and her family, full article here under the heading ‘Notable People‘ just scroll down the page to find Mary and her brother John Pike Jones: Chudleigh History Group. Notable People.

I also must mention the Devon History Society if you are researching Devon, they also have loads of great information online: www.devonhistorysociety.org.uk

I won’t repeat everything found about Miss Mary Jones on those history pages but after making a small family tree for Mary I thought I would share some finds I had while researching the Jones family.

Mary had established the very first Sunday School in Chudleigh in 1816 at the Independent Chapel.

She has a cousin Katherine Pike aged 20 living with her. Mary’s uncle, her mother Mary Pike‘s brother was called John Pike, he married Mary Stooke from Trusham, Devon and they were Katherine’s parents, they also had a son Alfred. This family also lived in Chudleigh. Katherine died in 1865 and never married. Alfred died in 1879 and he was a Farmer but also never married.

Mary Jones was born on 4 June 1796 and baptised on 21 August 1796 in Chudleigh, Devon. She was the youngest of three children born to her parents John Jones 1755-1827 and Mary (Pike)1755-1798, her mother died when she was just two years old. She had two elder brothers, John Pike Jones 25 February 1791-4 February 1857, he became a Vicar, more on him later. Then the middle child was William Jones 4 February 1794-10 February 1871, he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and caused Mary a bit of trouble it seems. None of the three children married and there are no descendants.

As you can see she has her brother William as a Lodger and one servant.

Again she still has her brother William as a Lodger and he’s only receiving half pay from the Royal Navy now. There are two young women also lodging at Mary’s, one Sarah Wills, is an assistant in the China Shop (Mary ran a China Shop & was a Dealer in China) and the other Ann Combes, a Servant likely in the village. Mary also has one servant living in, Anna Willcocks aged 16.

Now on the 1871 census, Mary has retired from her occupation as a China Dealer, she has a visitor Sarah Wills, a China Dealer. One lodger Mary Flood aged 71, I believe she may have been connected to the local schoolmaster as a Mr George Flood was Master there from 1827 and he died in 1858, and Mary had a young servant, Susan Satterley aged 15.

“By 1833 the school was known as the Commercial School and both day and boarding pupils were admitted. The Master was appointed by the vicar and churchwardens“.

Now on the 1881 census, we find Mary living alone as a Householder, with no servants or visitors. You can see the varied occupations of her neighbours in Fore Street, Chudleigh. The year after this census on 20 June 1882 Mary had W.D. Mackay visit her and she gave him this book. The following year on 25 April 1883 she died.

No time was wasted after Mary died, her cottage, West End Cottage and all its contents were immediately put up for sale by her executors. The executors are named here as William Cornelius of Teignmouth an Insurance Agent, he was also a Methodist Minister. The second executor was Samuel Lambshead of Chudleigh, he was a Baker living on Fpore Street in Chudleigh like Mary, so it’s likely that she knew him and his family well. I would imagine that they may also have been Methodist worshippers.

I was intrigued to read Mary’s Will so I ordered a digital copy (£1.50) Mary Jones wrote her Will on 25 April 1882 precisely a year before she died, is that really a strange coincidence or is that just me?

The first executor William Cornelius an Insurance Agent and Methodist Minister was born in 1818 in East Teignmouth, Devon, he had married Sarah Bastin in 1840, she died in 1884, and it looks like they just had 3 children, they were all 3 alive when their father William died. William was a Shoe Maker when the children were small and then became an Insurance Agent and Methodist Minister. He died on 22 November 1896 aged 76.

In contrast to William Cornelius the second executor Samuel Lambshead was a young man born in April 1846, his occupation was a Baker, living in Fore Street along the same road as Mary, I wonder if he looked out for Mary and very likely went to her Church. He had married Laura Emily Pinsent in 1875 and they had a total of 11 children over 15 years, 3 died at the age of 1, another was 3 and another 6, 1 older child died at the age of 24, he had lived at home until he was a teenager and then was admitted to the Devon County Asylum at Exminster, being described as an ‘imbecile’ he died there. So just 5 children lived through to adulthood, it looks like just the youngest 2 Mary and Walter married. Life must have been very tough for the couple.

If you look at the above grant it says “Resworn March 1898 £277.5s 10d” Why I wondered? Had some other assets come to light? Could it be something to do with William an executor dying in 1896? A friend suggested maybe it was due to the sale of the 250 copies of ‘History of Chudleigh’ that Mary still had in 1882 being sold over the years since her death? Another friend who I asked for advice from is visiting the Archives in the next couple of weeks and is very kindly going to look in the Death Duty Registers, so fingers crossed we might find out the reason.

I just had to order a digital copy of Mary’s death certificate and as you can see it states the cause of her death as “Right Hemiplezia 19 days, a stroke that affected her right side, and Respiratory Muscles involved Asphyxia 2 days” (she wasn’t getting enough oxygen to breath) Certified by J Adam Watson. A lady called Thirza Satterly was present at Mary’s death. Maybe she was connected to Susan Satterley who was her young servant on the 1871 census.

I’ve found no record in the newspapers of Mary’s mother’s death at the age of 43 on 1 May 1798. Mary’s father John died on 4 December 1827, he was 72 and this very short notice was all that was in the newspapers. I was hoping for more.

Mary’s brother John Pike Jones died on 4 February 1857. “Rev Jones died suddenly whilst going up the steps of the Mechanics’ Institute at Cheadle, Staffordshire, on 4th February 1857” in Cheadle, Staffordshire and was buried there. He has a gravestone in St Giles churchyard. The following information is from the Dictionary of National Biography and it also tells us a little about Mary Jones and her ‘History of Chudleigh‘ Book. Page 3 below: It’s wonderful to know that documents, manuscripts and a copy of the book that were in the Jones family are kept at the Bodleian Library.

Mary’s brother William Jones was born on 4 February 1794 in Chudleigh, Devon. He died on 10 February 1871 in Chudleigh, he was 77, and he was buried in the ‘New Cemetery’ as was Mary Jones in 1883.

A little history about Rev Claude Delaval Cobham, he was born in 1843 in Withycombe, Somerset, his parents were Thomas 1813-1865 and Mary Ann Disney Roebuck 1812-1880. He had three brothers and three sisters. On the 1851 census, he was just 8 years old and living with his family, his father Thomas was a Fundholder, at Withycombe Raleigh, about 18 miles from Chudleigh across the River Exe. By the time of the 1861 census, he was a pupil at Rugby School in Warwickshire. So he was just 12 years old when he acquired ‘The History of Chudleigh‘ book, maybe it was left at home and found its way back to Mary Jones by 1882, perhaps the families knew each other?

Lots more interesting information about Claude and his life here: Claude Delaval Cobham And among all that information I found this “He attended, probably as a boarder, the old and well-regarded Grammar School at Chudleigh to the west of Exmouth, and from there in 1858, at the age of 16, he transferred to the independent Rugby School in Warwickshire“. 

It was likely he went to Pynsents Free Grammar School, Chudleigh. Mary says in her book in 1852: ‘However, as a classical boarding school, it has at different periods attained
considerable celebrity. It is at present in high repute’

So now I have his link with Chudleigh when he was about 12 years old, so that’s very likely where he got the book from, maybe it was given to him when he arrived to learn about the village.

Although Claude lived abroad for many years he came back to Devon from Cyprus in his later years and died on 29 April 1915 in Ashburton, Devon, at the age of 72, and was buried there.

So now what of W.D. Mackay who was given the little book by the author Miss Mary Jones on 20 June 1882. Well this has been the biggest puzzle as I have found several possible candidates for the writer of this letter.

There is Samuel Urquart Mackay. As from the Chudleigh History Group, I found this about the Pynsents Free Grammar School: “In May 1877 Rev. Crofton Green became the schoolmaster. He employed a second master, a Mr Mackay who taught languages and mathematics. It is said that he (Mackay) was loved by everyone. By the early twentieth century, the curriculum had expanded again to include algebra and geometry. Some boys came from France, Holland and Germany.
At the close of 1912, only five pupils remained and the decision was made to close the school on 31 July 1913.
The property was sold to Mr Mackay for £700. It was sold below the market value ‘as some slight reward for all the years of his teaching life at a meagre salary’. The school became the home of the Mackay family thereafter“.

Much more here about the school: Chudleigh History Group. Pynsents School

My thoughts are that the Mackay who wrote this letter could be related to this teacher? I have also found another couple of possibilities but really I just cannot identify the writer for certain despite much research.

Mr Mackay was Samuel Urquart Mackay who was born on 25 January 1858 in Govan, Lanarkshire, Scotland his parents were Hugh Mackay and Ann (Urquart). Samuel married late in life to Lilias Urquhart on 29 April 1908 in Surrey. The couple had one daughter Joyce Margaret Urquhart Mackay born on 20 February 1909 during their marriage. Samuel died in May 1919 in Truro, Cornwall, at the age of 61. Their daughter Joyce also married late in life at age 51 to William G Lawrence, Joyce died in April 1996 in Teignbridge, Devon. Her mother Lilias moved from Chudleigh after Samuel’s death to St Andrew’s Road, Bridport and died in Port Bredy Hospital, Bridport on 8 May 1952. Not too far from where I live.

It could be W D Mackay 1844-1924, William Darling McKay was born in Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland, he was an Artist and more, professional bodies: ARSA 1877, (Associate Royal Scottish Academy) RSA 1883; RSA Librarian from 1896 and RSA Secretary 1907-1924. Did he ever visit Chudleigh? I’ve not found any proof.

Another one of my possible W D Mackay‘s is William David Mackay who was born in April 1869 in Southampton, Hampshire, although he would only have been about 13 in 1882 he may have been a pupil at the Grammar School too? His parents were William, a Tailor and his mother was Louisa. He had two sisters Charlotte and Margaret and his father was also born in Scotland. William David Mackay died in December 1900 in Hampshire at the age of 31.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that all these Mackay’s were related.

There’s a picture of Samuel Mackay outside the building on the Chudley History Group Website.

If you have any ideas on who exactly the writer of the letter was I would love to know!

Till next time then…….