Gilkes Family of Northamptonshire

The Gilkes Family of Northamptonshire

Truth or Myth?

I suppose all families have a sensational story that stands out from a largely ordinary background; we have ours. One version I saw in print years ago when I had no real interest in my past, was in the local press, sometime between 1967 and 1972. I have never managed to find it again and the amount of labour it would take is daunting. I keep promising myself that I'll make a start, but so far haven't done so.

The story told of a Gilkes - all details of his name and home forgotten - taking two greyhounds to Oxford to sell to one of the dons. During the negotiations over the price he asked for the window to be opened, complaining of the heat, and after settling for £5 he left. Once outside, he whistled, and the dogs jumped from the window and he fled with the dogs and the money. For this, he was transported to the Indies.

A different version of this story occurs in a book, 'The Reminiscences chiefly of towns, villages and schools' by Rev. T. Mozley, written in the mid 19th Century. The protagonist was John Gilkes of Moreton Pinkney (1802-1887), a gamekeeper and dog-breaker, who made the trip to Oxford and proceeded as before. This story then differs significantly in that the window was on the first floor and the dogs leapt from it with no outside encouragement, and fell to their deaths. John returned home with no money and no dogs - but nothing seemed to follow from this.

A totally different 'transportation' story was told to me by an older family member, but I have never seen it documented in print. In this story the main protagonist was also a gamekeeper, forced by his master into a bare-knuckle fight with another gamekeeper on Towcester Green. As a result of his injuries, the Gilkes' opponent died and the gamekeeper was transported - again, to the Indies. From there he managed to get on a ship to Ireland where he charmed a landowner's daughter into an affair. The couple were disowned and had to flee and this Gilkes found his way back to his home district a little later.

I found a 'new' version of this story whilst reading of the Culworth Gang on that village's website. The reference was taken from a local history book, though not teh one mentioned. The result of this search is described below, in 'Escape from Justice'.

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Fame and Fortune

The picture is of a double bass made in 1840 by William Gilkes of London, currently priced at around £30 000. His father Samuel made stringed instruments too and moved to the capital from the village of Moreton Pinkney.

Samuel's home village was, at the time, very isolated, being 5 miles from the nearest turnpike road and needing 20 field gates to be crossed before reaching it. How he came be apprenticed to William Forster will probably remain a mystery for ever, although he wasn't the only Gilkes in Westminster at the time; a member of the Helmdon Gilkes family was born there.

He is generally reckoned to have been Forster's ablest pupil and despite his untimely death in 1827 he is still recognised as one of England's greatest violin makers. His violins fetch around £2,500 and a cello was priced at £11,000. Not in the Stradivarius league, but still, obviously, well sought after instruments. Despite his talents I have found it difficult to find anything biographical about him apart from the barest outlines and I would be delighted to find out more. Of his family I know only of his son William, but he may have had a daughter Sarah.

After his life of some fame, his body was returned to Moreton Pinkney to be buried.

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An unusual name, Gilkes

When we started to look back into our family history we realised how lucky we were compared to the Smiths. As well as being uncommon the name has a distinctive 'shape' and leaps from the page without effort - well, I suppose it does if you are looking for it. We found we could skim through pages quickly and easily and when we found the name we didn't need to check to see if it was the right Gilkes; it had to be as there were so few!

We found John Gilkes marrying in Farthingstone first, traced him to Moreton Pinkney and found that his father came from 'Soulgrave'. So far, so good. Joseph's father was listed as a Thomas and we found a marriage licence made out for Thomas Gilkes of 'Sibbard Gore in the County of Oxfordshire' and took a while to translate that - which the curate at Marston St. Lawrence failed to do - as Sibford Gower.

Off we went to Oxford to find our Thomas and then his parents, or so we thought! Nothing we had experienced before had prepared us for the shock of seeing page after page after page of Gilkes...Gilkes...Gilkes! And after we'd recovered a little from the shock, we found that the Quaker records for Sibford Gower were similarly filled with Gilkeses.

We still haven't found our Thomas, despite narrowing him down to three or four, and we await a 'revelation'. If only Thomas had come from anywhere else! Mind you, we've found our home it would seem; the Gilkes family have been in Sibford since the 14th Century at the latest, as Rychard Gylkes, carpenter, was reported to be working on an Oxford College in 1398.

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Escape from Justice

I was looking for a bit of 'local colour' and my brother had mentioned that the Culworth Gang had been active in Moreton Pinkney. I decided to enter 'Culworth Gang' into a search engine (Yahoo UK!) and found the Culworth village website had an article on it. And then a word, a name, leapt from the page - Bilkes! Bilkes? It couldn't be that; it is a totally uncommon name, but surrounding Culworth were a large number of villages and towns holding quite a few with the name Gilkes.

'Bilkes' was said to be the son of a 'very good family' who seemed to have joined in raids occasionally 'for the excitement' of it. Then, near the end of the article it mentioned that 'Bilkes' fled to the Indies when the gang was captured. Could that be why the other Indies stories came into being?

The source was said to be 'Bridges History of Northamptonshire' and by 9:05 on Tuesday morning, 7th May, I was searching the large volumes for the story. Nothing! A notice in the book stated that Bridges had died in 1753, so couldn't have known about the ending of the Culworth Gang; what a let down. A little pamphlet was found for me, written by someone in the Banbury History Society. The same story, but with no name. I met my brother at the NRO and got some documents from the archives; a newspaper of the whole case - no Bilkes or Gilkes. Two copies, one revised, from Banbury, but nothing. In our excitement we had missed a reference in the pamphlet, clearly stating that the source was not Bridges but - 'Beesley's History of Banbury' and 5 minutes later we found a copy on the shelves. And it all ended happily - yes, it was clearly stated that the 'casual' member of the gang was Gilkes!

Now all we have to do is find which member of our family fled abroad to escape justice and, from this report, made 'a considerable fortune'.

This is a copy of the page from the Culworth Parish Register, telling part of the story.

After some considerable time I have managed to track down a reference to William Abbott's transportation to Australia. It seems that he was probably on the Second Fleet of convict ships to leave for Botany Bay.

The Second Fleet consisted of six vessels; the Guardian, Justinian, Lady Juliana, Surprize, Neptune and Scarborough; the last named was the ship on which Abbott travelled. On the journey to Australia the Guardian struck an iceberg and never completed the trip. This was a major blow to the colony, as she was carrying provisions.

Only 48 people died in the First Fleet. The second group of ships was vastly different; 278 died on the voyage. Unlike the First Fleet, the British Government left transporting the convicts in the hands of private contractors. Some things, it seems, never change; they don't seem to have been paid 'cash on delivery', do they?

I hope to find some reference to William Abbott in Australia, even just the date of his death. If only I could find as much about the Gilkes that fled justice!

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