Gilkes Family of Northamptonshire

Important Places in the Story

Moreton Pinkney

Moreton Pinkney is 15 miles from Northampton, 13 miles from Brackley, 11 miles from Banbury and only 9 miles from Daventry. It is not on any of the main roads of the area, harking back to the days that it was 5 miles from the nearest turnpike.

This is a picture of the village school and church taken in 1914. It is now a private house. There was no school at all until 1822.

The first Gilkes to arrive in Moreton Pinkney was almost certainly Joseph Gilkes of 'Soulgrave' when he married Elizabeth Humphries on 5th September 1770. At that time it must have been a pretty desperate place, infested as it was by the Culworth Gang. This bunch of desperados was broken up in the late 18th Century and several members were hanged on Northampton Racecourse in 1787 after a 20 year reign of terror.

Joseph and Elizabeth had around 13 children, although there is confusion about a couple. Three of the sons had families in the village, one moved to London and the last one, another Joseph, disappeared. It is just possible that we may find something about him if we follow up an exciting lead. Of the daughters, three had illegitimate children and had no known marriages, one married and lived in the village and one had a far more nomadic life. At their peak, in the early 1800s, there were probably around 50 of the name Gilkes living in Moreton Pinkney; probably the greatest concentration ever in Northamptonshire. Well before the end of the century, none remained there.

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Sulgrave

Sulgrave is some 4 miles from Moreton Pinkney as the car drives, but quite a lot closer over the countryside. It is well known as the home of George Washington's ancestors and less well known as the home of William Abbott, Parish Clerk and part-time highwayman. For his part in the doings of the Culworth Gang he was sentenced to transportation for life to Australia. He must, in fact, have been amongst the first to be transported 'Down Under'.

The Parish Register for Sulgrave is not brilliantly kept and its lack of orderliness makes the tracing of my family line more difficult. Joseph of 'Soulgrave' did marry Elizabeth Humphries and was the person to whom we can definitely trace lineage, but there is no certainty who he is.

We feel that his father was Thomas Gilkes of Sibbard Gore who married Mary Wats of Sulgrave at Marston St Lawrence in 1846. A Thomas and Mary Gilkes baptised a daughter in 1747, Mary, and a son in 1748, Joseph. The date given for the christening of Joseph is 19th February 1747/8, but there is also an entry dated 26th February for the burial of a Joseph Gilkes. The Bishop's Transcript, working from Lady's Day to Lady's Day is equally confusing.

To add to the problem with this family, there are no more christenings for this couple and we have never found a marriage or burial for Mary, nor have we found the burial of Thomas and his wife. We have been equally baffled in our search for Thomas' family in Sibford Gower and so our attempts to reach further back have stalled. Temporarily I hope.

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Sibford Gower

Sibford Gower is in Oxfordshire, about 7 miles west of Banbury near the Warwickshire border. It appeared as the home of Thomas Gilkes on his marriage licence and so it takes our Gilkes story out of the boundaries of Northamptonshire.

My brother and I recently visited the area and through bad planning approached the village the 'back' way, through Shutford. In an isolated, overspill graveyard, the name Gilkes stood out clearly on a brand new gravestone by the side of the single-track road.

Sibford Gower turned out to be a beautiful village, with narrow streets filled with interesting old buildings. The most spectacular is the Manor House, opposite the Wykham Arms pub.

It was the home of Frank Lascelles, born Frank Stevens, son of the vicar of Sibford Gower. He created the 'fairy tale' building from an old barn after acquiring for himself the title of Lord of the Manor for the village. He was famous as a Pageant Master around the turn of the century.

The picture is from 1911, but little seems to have changed to today. It's imposing front can be studied from a window seat in the Wykham Arms, whilst sipping gently from a cold drink. The Wykham Arms is worth a visit for itself, as it too has many interesting features.

The Quaker Meeting house is just down the lane from the Manor; not an architectural gem, but a real haven of tranquility, set in large, tree-shaded grounds, with small memorial stones spread well apart. It was built in 1860 and must have replaced the licensed meeting places in Quaker homes in the village, which were often those belonging to members of the Gilkes family.

Established Church services were taken at Swalcliffe until the building of Holy Trinity church in the 1840s. We found two legible Gilkes graves there, but an old gentleman outside the church told us there were no longer any Gilkes in Sibford.

When I consider just how many there once were in such a small place, their complete disappearance seems quite remarkable.

We do intend to return to Sibford Gower again, armed with a camera, to record our own impressions of what still seems to be our 'ancestral' village, and I will put these photographs on this site in due course.

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Farthingstone

John Gilkes and Mary Gardener were married in Farthingstone's little church, probably because the village was mid way between Moreton Pinkney and Mary's home village of Everdon.

All of the couple’s children were christened in Moreton Pinkney, but it is possible that the family lived in Farthingstone for some time if my reading of the situation is correct. In 1827, John’s eldest son Thomas and his wife Susanna were ‘removed’ from Moreton Pinkney to Farthingstone after petition, as they were paupers and Moreton Pinkney was not ‘responsible’ for them. (Perhaps someone who knows more about the subject could inform me?)

Thomas lost his wife soon after this and re-married quickly, to Mary Ann Dew from Hinton by Woodford. The wedding was in Woodford, but they lived in Farthingstone and christened their children there. Thomas and Mary Ann had 57 years of married life and a couple more homes on the way.

In the 1851 Census there were just two Gilkes in Farthingstone, Jane aged 16, a servant and William, 15, also a servant. She was the daughter of Thomas and Mary, but who was William? He was a long-time mystery to us because he was from Moreton Pinkney and there was no-one of his age or name unaccounted for.

Going back to the Moreton Pinkney records we finally found a candidiate - William Carvel, bastard child of Maria Gilkes, christened on 3rd January 1836. Final 'proof' came when the 1841 Census showed Maria with her husband John Grey, son Edward Grey and - William Gibbs! Proof enough for me; right age, right place, right family and most of the right name. I've only seen a transcript of the record, so I'll confirm it properly when I can.

William married and had only one child. Jane married in Daventry district in March Quarter 1854, but the details are not yet known.

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Cold Higham

I have to confess that I had never heard of Cold Higham until I picked up an 1851 Census booklet that contained its returns. I was at a loss where to look for further names and flicked through casually - and there was Thomas Gilkes with his family, halfway between Farthingstone and Heyford!

How he decided on this stopping point we'll never know, but he hadn't had a great deal of success at Farthingstone, it seems, so he probably was glad to find almost anywhere else. My visit to Cold Higham was short, but it didn't impress me as somewhere to settle, to say the least. I must go back and see if my first impressions were right.

Maria, Thomas and Mary Ann's eldest had married in Farthingstone in 1849 and Anne, his daughter by Mary Cripps, married in 1850, so they didn't make the trip to Cold Higham. Nor did Jane, younger than Matilda who did travel with the family, who stayed in Farthingstone as a servant, leaving Matilda, Edwin, John and 2 year old Elizabeth on the census return with the parents. Matilda didn't make the next move with the family and at some stage went to live at Weedon, where she married a private soldier of the 87th Regiment of Foot from the Barracks, in 1855. Where she died we haven't found out, but Thomas' Bible claims it to have been in 1863, so her married life was short lived.

Recently someone has found for me a further connection to Cold Higham; Thomas, son of Joseph, married Elizabeth Davis of Cold Higham, in her own village, in November 1812. She died 2 years later, almost to the day, and this has 'cleared up' another of the puzzling entries in the parish register.

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Bugbrooke

I had always thought of Bugbrooke as being the Gilkes family's 'home' village until my father told me they came from 'south' of Bugbrooke. He didn't seem to know where, but the trail is longer than I'd expected it to be.

In 1861 Thomas, and the remainder of his family, were living in Lower Heyford; his son Edwin was a steam sawyer, and John was a sawyer. Heyford was the third village he had been in at census time, following Farthingstone and Cold Higham and was where Thomas remained to his death. My great-grandfather John, and later his older brother Edwin, moved on to, and ended their days in, Bugbrooke. My father was born in Bugbrooke and so was I, but I only lived there, in the Manor, for a few months. Not as 'Lord of the Manor' I hasten to add. I was told that my Grannie had been a domestic servant for the Harrison's and that had helped Gramp's short term tenancy there. Again, someone may know more and I would be pleased to know.

The first picture (left) was taken after my christening, with (L to R) Joan Lovell, my father, me, my mother and Don Lovell. The other picture is also outside the Manor and was taken a little later, in June 1941, with my dad obviously home on leave.

John Thomas Gilkes was married to Hannah Eales in Bugbrooke church on 8th October 1866 and by the time of the 1871 Census was living with her and their daughter Beatrice Sarah, at 94 Mill Yard. He was, of course, a sawyer.

Beatrice Sarah died very young, but the couple had 8 more children; four boys and four girls. John was joined in Bugbrooke by his brother Edwin and his wife, Catherine nee Humphrey, who had eleven children; only two were boys. Over the years, many alliances were made and children born, but there is now, I think, only one person named Gilkes still living in Bugbrooke.

I now have a few photographs from early 20th Century Bugbrooke and will put those in an article on John Thomas and his family in the People section.

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The Journey

Thomas Gilkes' journey in life began in 1802 in Moreton Pinkney. It was to end 85 years later in Nether Heyford, where the Parish Records record him as 'an old sawyer'. He is also the Thomas whose Prayer Book is featured.

His sons continued onward to Bugbrooke, Edwin later than John Thomas, from whom I am descended.

The map shows the journey from Moreton Pinkney to Bugbrooke and follows it on through Duston to Northampton, where I have lived since 1954. The direct route is some 15 miles, but the route shown is about 10 miles and 200 years longer!

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