An 18th century Saxilby Family

Gervas Woodsend of Saxilby 1751 -1814

Impressive Family History Research

The history of the Woodsend family was researched by Will Honeybourne of Sonoma, California, whose mother’s maiden name was Woodsend; his middle name is Gervase, and Gervas Woodsend is his 4x great grandfather. There have been many generations of Woodsends with the name Gervas(e). The family pronounces it in the old, anglicised way as “Jarvis”.

I was interested to discover the source material used by Will in compiling this quite detailed history, as one of the source records, the Parish Vestry Records, was lost sometime in the early 1960s.

The Vestry was the predecessor of the Parish Council and the Parochial Church Council before 1894.

Fortunately, the Church Warden’s Accounts, commencing in 1551 and continuing until 1790 (with a break during the Civil War in the 1640s) are held by the Lincolnshire Archives.

The original research was done in the late 1940s and ‘50s by Thomas Eadie Woodsend, who employed genealogists from the Society of Genealogists to assist him.
Amongst the supporting documents with his notes are letters from the vicars of Saxilby (1949), Kettlethorpe (1958), and South Clifton (for Harby) (1958 and 1959).

The posts held by the Woodsends during the late 1700s were variously churchwarden, parish constable, overseer of the poor, and overseer of highways. The holders of these posts were paid by the parish.

The accounts show that in 1765, William Woodsend was owed £1-4s-6d (£1-22p) for being constable, and 13s (65p) for being overseer of the poor in 1776.
The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 formalised poor relief. It created a system administered at parish level, paid for by levying local rates on ratepayers. Relief for those too ill or old to work was in the form of a payment or items of food ('the parish loaf'). Some aged people might be accommodated in parish poor houses.

Saxilby did have a poor house. I have been unable to ascertain exactly where it was, but it may have been on Sykes Lane.

There’s nothing quite like the sound of English church bells to stir our emotions. They can stimulate great happiness or sadness according to the occasion and the bell ringing combination.

Saxilby Bells

Who was Gervas Woodsend? Gervas was born into a farming family at Kettlethorpe in 1751. He was the son of William and Ruth Woodsend and the sixth generation of the Woodsend family to live in the vicinity of Saxilby. He had an older brother who died during childhood, like so many children at that time, as well as relatives living nearby. Gervas grew up to become a yeoman farmer and married Elizabeth Hanson at Saxilby in 1777. They had twelve children according to the parish’s baptismal records. Sadly, only three of their children are known to have survived into adulthood. Gervas died at the age of 63 in 1814 and is buried with other Woodsend family members in St. Botolph’s churchyard. The headstones were moved during the 1880s following redevelopment of the churchyard and resited on the south boundary wall.

Throughout his lifetime, Gervas Woodsend would have been regularly summoned by bells to worship at the church together with the rest of the congregation. He may have heard them ring for the coronation of King George III in 1761 when he was a boy. It’s also possible that he may have enjoyed St. Botolph’s bells proclaiming various victories during the Napoleonic wars. The tenor bell with his name on it would have been installed by then. 

How did Gervas serve the parish community? 

Gervas was a member of the vestry and served the parish in four different capacities during his lifetime: Church Warden, Overseer of the Poor, Parish Constable, and Overseer of Highways. His continued appointments might suggest a high level of competency and parishioner support. He had a high-profile position within the community as a Church Warden. It was common practice for one of the two Church Wardens to be appointed for multiple years by the vicar (the vicar’s warden) and the other to be appointed in an annual election by the parishioners (the people’s warden). Since Gervas’ name appears below the other warden’s name, he may have been the people’s warden.

Two other Woodsend family members are recorded as serving St. Botolph’s parish during the 1700s. Robert Woodsend, who was Gervas’ uncle, served as a Church Warden and Overseer of the Poor at various times between 1746 and 1760. His name is inscribed on the Third Bell which was cast during the 1750s and would have been the original Treble Bell before the two victory bells were added in 1946.

William Woodsend, who was Gervas’ much older brother, served as a Constable, Overseer of the Poor, and Church Warden during the early 1760s.

Gervas’ and Elizabeth’s younger son, Thomas, was born in 1799. He married Charlotte Barrowcliff at Saxilby, and they had four children. The family emigrated to Ontario, Canada in 1834 where Thomas died in 1863. 

Their daughter, Charlotte, was born in 1793. She married Richard Lanes, and they had two children. She died in Lincoln in 1864. Their older son, William was born in 1778 and worked as a carpenter. He married Alice Foster at Saxilby, and they had five children. 

He died in 1834 and is buried next to his father in St. Botolph’s churchyard.

One of his children, also called William, was a carpenter by trade and moved from Saxilby to Nottingham in 1837. He founded the building company William Woodsend Ltd, which built many of that City’s prominent buildings and landmarks. The family business was run by later generations of Woodsends before being put into voluntary liquidation in 2011. The William Woodsend Ltd name can still be seen today on the front of their former office building on Nottingham’s Castle Boulevard.

I have previously written about the Churchwarden’s Accounts, but I found a few snippets that were of a more general reflection of village life 400 years ago.

It is interesting to note that the Church had a clock in 1566, as the following entries reveal – ‘one line for the clock – 8d’; ‘another line for the clock – 6d’; ‘to Christopher Atkinson towards his pains in mending the clock – 12d’; ‘to Alexander Person for the font covering and the clock house door – 12d’.

During the same year ‘Anne of the Vicarage for making 2 Rochettes [surplices] for the Parish Clerk – 6d’.

Collected locally, the Chimney Tax was introduced in 1662 as this entry from 1665 reveals – ‘the dwelling house of Robert Deane of North Ingleby has formerly been charged with five chimneys whereas two were like to fall and are said to be taken down’.   

Chris Hewis