Jenny Brooks

Henry Weston and Sarah Drinkwater of Yardley Gobion,
their ancestors & descendants

Francis Weston married Mary Marriott in Courteenhall, Northants on 28th June 1610. His son Henry (1612 – 1681) married Elizabeth and they had 6 children. The eldest, William (1642 – 1709) married another Elizabeth. Their second son Henry (1672 – 1746) , a clockmaker and turner, married a Mary Wallis in 1701 in All Saints, Northampton. They had a son and daughter, Joseph and Elizabeth. Mary died in1706 and Henry soon married again to Joyce Easton 10 August 1706. Their son Henry (1710 -1754) a Yeoman ,(=landowner) in Courteenhall married Alice Smith in 1735 at Easton Neston. Eldest son, William (1736-1784) married Mary Norris in 1764 in Courteenhall, and became a tailor. Son Henry, was born in Bradden in 1765 and moved with his father to Yardley Gobion where he met and married Sarah Drinkwater from Potterspury in 1792. Henry and Sarah had nine children, most of whom remained in the village. The eldest son Christopher (1793 – 1827) followed his father and grandfather as a tailor. He married Lucy Collins in Potterspury in 1818 and they were blessed with five children. The Wheelwright’s cottage adjacent to sawpit green  The third son, Thomas (1796 – 1868) married a Yardley girl, Mildred Lever (1806 – 1883) on 7 April 1828. Thomas worked as a builder and wheelwright (a greatly respected profession at that time) in Yardley and three of his sons, George (1831), James (1833 – 1898) and Samuel (1843 – 1893) followed in the family business. George and his decendents lived at 2 Chesnut Road until the 1950s.  (see picture above.) One of his granddaughters, Hazel, was a dressmaker there and made me a bridesmaid dress for my sister’s wedding in 1957. I had no idea at the time that she was related to me! Henry’s next son, Joseph was also a tailor in Yardley in 1841, but his next son, John (1800 – 1864) moved to Ashton as a baker and married Elizbeth Gibbs in 1826. John’s son, another Henry(1828 – 1901), became a miller and farmer in Hartwell and had 10 children. The eighth child was James, publican, wharfinger and farmer, father of Octavius Charles who married his cousin Sarah Jane Weston, daughter of Henry and Ann Marie. Henry and Sarah’s sixth son was Henry (1803 – 1854) who married Anne Marie Brooks, a farmer’s daughter from Linford. Her father had died so she came to Yardley to work and met Henry. Her husband died aged 51 but she carried on farming, living at Prospect House with her 4 daughters, Mary Ann, Sarah Jane, Caroline and Emma, and her unmarried son Frank until her death in 1892 High House later called  Prospect House

Henry and Anne Marie’s second son, William,(1845 – 1927) married Juliet and went to farm at Adstock, Bucks. His second wife was Mary Symons but neither wife had any children.
		Mary Ann, first daughter of Henry and Anne Marie, married Benjamin Scott (1841 – 1879) in 1867 and they farmed at Moorend Manor until his death in 1879. They had two daughters and a son. The eldest daughter, Ann Marie Scott married Frederick Abbot Roads whose two daughters, Marjorie and Gwendoline emigrated to Canada.
		The second daughter, Sarah Jane, (1851 – 1935) gave birth to a son, Charles, on 4th April 1891 in Wolverhampton. The father was named Henry Charles Weston, a commercial traveller. I have not been able to trace the father or any more about the son, Charles. Sarah Jane returned to Yardley Gobion and in 1893 she married her cousin, Octavious Charles Weston, a widower from Willesden who was the son of James Weston, farmer of Yardley Gobion, and he had three children from his first marriage to Sara who died in 1888. The two sons, Whitford Wells and Douglas Colin did military service in Canada in the first world war. Elsie the daughter married Maurice Brachi in 1916 in Willesden.
		Caroline Weston (1851) married Edward Neal in Yardley in 1875 and they had 4 children, Edward, Eric, Kate and Gertrude. Elizabeth Emma and Christopher Frank Weston did not marry and continued to live at Prospect House until their deaths in 1902 and 1901 respectively.
		Henry and Anne Marie’s eldest son, Henry Joseph, (1843 – 1888) married Helen Franklin (1844 – 1914) , the only daughter of Thomas Franklin and Mary Ann Gallard who built Yardley House in 1862. Mary Ann’s father William Gallard had bought the land , Tombs Farm including Daybourne Hill, Stone Bridge Close, Long Bridge Close, Upper Ground, Hall Close and The Pightle, from the estate of the late Admiral Thomas Sotheby who had inherited it from the Nash Mason estate when it was broken up in 1788. Unfortunately Thomas Franklin died in1862 but his widow continued to live there and remarried again in 1870 to John Readman and they continued to live there until his death in 1884. Mary Ann left the house to her only daughter Helen and went to live in Stony Stratford at l62 Wolverton Road until her death in 1896.
Henry Joseph and Helen Franklin were the first couple to be married in Yardley Church in 1867. They had three daughters and two sons and farmed at The Elms. Their two sons, Harry (1869) and Charles (1871) remained in the village all their lives.

 

The following is a transcript of the entry in the first Marriage register 1867 to 1930 of St Leonards, Yardley Gobion.

1867. Marriage solemnized at St Leonard’s chapel in the Parish of Potterspury in the County of Northampton

No.	When Married	Name and Surname	Age	Condition	Rank or Profession	Residence at time of Marriage	Father’s Name and Surname	Rank or Profession of Father
1	December 19 1867	Henry Joseph Weston	24	Bachelor	Farmer	Yardley Gobion	Henry Weston	Farmer
		Helen Franklin	24	Spinster	.	Yardley Gobion	Thomas Franklin	Farmer

Married in the chapel of St Leonard’s according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Established Church after banns by me,
								R. E. Cawley, Vicar
This Marriage was solemnized between us,	signed Henry Weston					in the Presence of us,	signed William Weston signed Caleb Whitton
	signed Helen Franklin						signed Lucy Ann Franklin, signed Louisa Franklin

Their eldest daughter Alice (1868) married John Barford and they managed The Plough Hotel in Northampton for some years

Harry married Edith Downing and they farmed at The Elms and brought up a family of two sons and three daughters. Bill Weston, the eldest son , played rugby for England in the thirties and he continued farming at The Elms until his death in 1987.

Helen (Nell) (1870) married Charles Smith, a brewer from Little Houghton, in 1906 and had two daughters, Biddy and Peggy.  She was widowed in 1912.

 

The Elms farm before the front extension was built around 1902, the gentleman may

 well be Henry Joseph, which would mean that the picture was taken before 1888

Moorend Manor farm house

Charles Weston 1925

Gertrude Weston with her three eldest children

The children of Charles & Gertrude Weston 1915

Cousins, children of Charles, Nell, Alice and Harry around 1920

Charles Weston’s girls in the dog car

Charles Weston, centre back at the village Fur & Feather show showing rabbits, chickens and birds.

Mr. C. Weston, 94 at the Northampton cattle market
with friends Mr. J Spooner & Mr. D. Very.

 

His son Jack continued farming until his death in 2004 aged 93

Mr Jack Weston

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Weston aged 78, standing in his hay meadow on the outskirts of Yardley Gobion after selling this wonderful expanse of meadow grasses, abounding with wild flowers to Northamptonshire Wildlife Trust.
Mr Weston’s continuation of old farming methods, cutting at the end of the summer which allowed the flowers to seed before mowing thus allowing them to continue to flourish. There were in excess of 60 different varieties.

 

On the right he stands proudly beside a young bull that he had bred on the farm at Moorend.

 

 

 

 

 

Jenny Brooks

(grand daughter of Charles Weston)