EVERSON - Monmouth & FoD (General)

by bexxi , Thursday, March 15, 2012, 14:56 (4424 days ago) @ bexxi

I have posted about my EVERSON (and JORDAN) ancestors before on this forum but it's been a while now.

I thought it was time to have a fresh look at what I have and don't have on my various EVERSON strands, in case anyone else is interested in this family or has further information. Sorry if this is long-winded but I wanted it to have potential usefulness for others.

Edward Everson, 1748-1808

Edward was baptised on 25 March 1748 at Monmouth, the son of John (bap. Whitchurch HEF, 1707) and Susannah (nee Evans, bap. Dixton Newton 1708). At some point he moved West and married Mary MORGAN at Llantwit juxta Neath (GLA) in 1772. Most of the records that give a profession record him as a forgeman. Their first couple of children were baptised at Llantwit, their first son Edward (1773-1859) later settling at Neath Abbey. Several further children were baptised in Llandeilo (CMN), in the period 1779-1787. At least part of the family was in Newchurch (CMN) by 1795, where Edward got in trouble with the law in 1795 (NLW crime & punishment database). It seems that by 1799 his wife had died and he had remarried – wife Sarah – and a further child, James, was baptised on 13 January 1799.

The family must have returned to Monmouth in the next few years; Edward may have been the Edward Everson buried at Monmouth in 1808, and his widow Sarah (death certificate: “widow of Edward Everson, forgeman”) lived on until 1839, when she died at Monmouth Forge. Judging from her age at death, she was born around 1759, but I have no record of a baptism, marriage or burial for her.

I have a strong hunch that Edward and Sarah’s son James was the same James Everson that became a Scotch Baptist minister and moved to Beverley (YKS). How this happened is anyone’s guess (as those researching his life in ministry have agreed), but there is documentary evidence for him having gone there from Monmouth Forge; the 1851 census gives his birthplace as Monmouth (clashing with the place of baptism).

James Everson (bap. 1750??)

John and Susannah Everson of Monmouth had a number of other children, and one was James, baptised at Monmouth on 1 July 1750. Whether or not he is the same as the following can only be guessed at:

4 October 1776: marriage at English Bicknor of John EVERSON and Mary DUN (widow), both otp, by licence. Witness 1: Richard POWELL. Witness 2: James EVERSON

(John EVERSON could be a brother (see Monmouth baptism 1734), but this is pure speculation and there are other possible matches)

9 March 1788: marriage at Mitcheldean of Thomas JORDAN and Ann DUNN (my 4x great grandparents), both of the Hundred of St Briavels, by banns. Witness 1: James EVERSON. Witness 2: William MEEK

29 November 1828: James EVERSON was one of the witnesses to the will of James STYANT (1759-1839) which was made on this date at Red Hill Farm, Monmouth (PCC wills). The other witness was Mary JORDAN (nee EVERSON, 1803-1878), my 3x great grandmother, while the witness to the signatures was her maternal uncle John TURLEY. I am related to all the legatees named in the will but don’t actually know where James Styant or James Everson fit in. (It is just as possible that the James Everson in this record is the one born 1799.)

There are no further references to James Everson (1750) that I am aware of.

John Everson (c. 1775-1848)

John is my 4x great grandfather, the father of Mary in the record above. I don’t know where he was born; he married Ann TURLEY in Monmouth in 1796 and their children were born there. John and Ann were later in Neath for a while (1841 census; he was a forgeman) before moving to Whitchurch (GLA) to be close to their daughter.

In a draft letter dating from the mid-1850s to her brother-in-law Richard Jordan in the United States, Mary passes on greetings and family news to an “Uncle William Everson” who is also in the States. I have identified this as William Everson bap. English Bicknor 14 May 1775 (son of John and Mary), who married Elizabeth Winter (Lydney 1804) and emigrated to America in 1837, settling in Pittsburgh. Two of William and Elizabeth’s children emigrated earlier, travelling together with Richard Jordan and family in 1832.

William may well thus have been a brother of “my” John, but unfortunately there is no absolute evidence – he could conceivably also have been a cousin. I am also unsure whether William’s parents John and Mary are the same as those who married in 1776 (after William’s birth). There was another child Richard, baptised in 1779, who I have been unable to trace further.

William Everson (c. 1793-1857)

William Everson married Mary Ann PHILLIPS in 1825 at Newland – she was otp, he of Monmouth. They settled at Monmouth forge (yes, he too was a forgeman) and had nine children there (not one of whom I’ve been able to find a baptism for, however). When Sarah Everson, widow of Edward, died at Monmouth Forge in 1839, it was Mary Ann who was present at the death. This leads me to the idea that William may have been a son of either Edward and Mary or Edward and Sarah.

The Eversons were still at Monmouth Forge in 1841 but had moved to Wolverhampton by 1851; on the 1851 census both William and Mary Ann gave their birthplace as Clearwell, but I’ve never found a baptism for him anywhere.

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Do please get in touch if you are connected to any of these individuals or if you are interested in further information on the descendants of any of these individuals.

Best,
Rebecca