Sarah BURGESS / JONES? - 29 April 1821 - Newland (General)

by brian.burgham , Newbury Berks, Friday, August 26, 2011, 10:03 (4906 days ago) @ m p griffiths

One point that may be worth recording, even if it does not help us in identifying Sarah Burgham, is that in BOTH the FOD entry - see below - and in the Death Certificate the SAME reference appears to her being the wife of Thomas Burgham.

If the official certificate was made out in a Registrars Office, and the parish record separately in the church, then maybe there is some truth in the fact that she really was the wife of a Thomas Burgham but we are no nearer to establishing who she was. If on the other hand they were done at the same time, or copied from a note with the wrong information for example, then the error may have been purely clerical.

I am convinced that she wasn't the wife of the Thomas Burgham who owned along with James Davies the foundry in Upper Redbrook.

As far as he is concerned, he definitely had two wives, Esther Knight who he married at Newland on the 21st July 1816, and who was buried at Newland on 17th November 1833,and then Harriet Weare who he married on the 11th January, 1836, also at Newland and she was most certainly his wife when she was present at the death of Sarah in 1847. Harriet lived until 1879 and is also buried at Newland in the same grave as Thomas on the north side of the church where it can be seen today. The gravestone records both names, although her's is more difficult to decipher. The stone at the foot has the letters H B.

Thomas' continued presence in Upper Redbrook is born out by the various census's from 1841 to 1881. There is also a handwritten letter from him dated 1864 and written from Redbrook Iron Foundry concerning the quality of the ore that he was using. This can be found at Gloucester Record Office in the file containing Dr Hart's notes on the Forest. His Will which was written in 1850 also states quite clearly that he came from Redbrook.

One of the problems in sorting out the Burgham history is that there are too many Thomas's who married a Sarah!! One of those was a Sarah Howell at Linton, another a Partridge at Lydney - but the first was buried at Aston Ingham in 1829 and the other at Newland in 1833.

Where Thomas came from is unclear, but that is another story and full of guesses!!

30319
Entry_Number: 3
Year: 1847
Month: Jan
Day: 7
Surname: BURGHAM
Forenames: Sarah
Residence: Redbrook
Age_at_death: 26
Officiating_Minister: G. Ridout Vicar
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda: Wife of Thomas Burgham
Notes:
Register_Reference: P227 IN 1/27
Page_No: 1
Parish_Chapel: Newland
Soundex: B625