Category Archives: family history
Six Little Girls Dressed in Blue: Lady Caroline’s “Spinning School”
Clive Barnes writes: On September 7 1789, six village girls walked up to Milton Abbey mansion house to meet King George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte. When the queen returned to Weymouth with “the K”, as she referred to … Continue reading
Nicholas Turbeville
One of our members with Milton Abbas ancestors going back the 16th century has discovered that his family were connected to the Turbeville, Horsey, Tregonwell and other high status families. Peter Arnold writes about Nicholas Turbeville: “.. lived at Winterborne … Continue reading
Posted in family history, history, local, local history, Tregonwell
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The name of GERRARD
Whilst searching our transcriptions of Milton Abbas documents for GERRARD it is surprising just how many different spellings of this name there are. The Oxford Names Companion gives: GARRATT, GARRIT, GARRED, GARRAD, GERRETT, GERATT, GERRAD, JARRETT, JARRATT, JERRITT, JARRED, JARAD, … Continue reading
Posted in Churchwardens, family history, local history, Milton Abbas, social history
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Combination Acts 1799 and 1800
The Combination Act of 1799 was an extraordinarily oppressive piece of legislation. After the French revolution it is extraordinary that the Houses of Commons and Lords would risk such an unjust act. There had been acts before against workers in … Continue reading
Posted in Dorset, family history, history, local history, Milton Abbas, social history
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Vestry Minute Book
One of our amazing transcribers, Shirley Chick, has just completed the Milton Abbas Vestry Minute Book 1863 – 1924. The original book is in our possession. The resulting 65 page document is now available for our members to research. The … Continue reading
Posted in document, family history, history, local history, Milton Abbas, social history, transcription
Tagged family history, local history, Milton Abbas
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John HAM – the Millionaire of Milton Abbas
John Ham was baptised on 21 May 1760, the youngest son of James Hobell and Charity Ham (neé Gould, later Hallett). His parents were married in 1747. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1749 but she only lived for … Continue reading
Posted in family history, local history, Milton Abbas
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You must be interested in history or you wouldn’t be looking at our website!
Researching history can be lonely, we know what it is like, we have been doing it a long time! But it is exciting too – the chase for that vital piece of information, that brick wall broken through, that old … Continue reading
Posted in family history, local history, Milton Abbas, social history
Tagged history, Milton Abbas, research
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Poor House or Work House?
Did you know that there was a Poor House in the new village of Milton Abbas? This was not called a work house in our records until 1804, and was built after the houses in the Street but before the … Continue reading
Grist
Every parish had its Overseers of the Poor who were responsible for raising the ‘poor rates’ and for the payments to the poor. The agricultural labourers (ag labs) in Dorset at this time were some of the poorest in the … Continue reading
Your family history!
Tired of reading books about kings and queens, the rich and famous? Fed up with Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn? The lives of ordinary people are just as tragic, difficult, triumphant and revelationary. How your ancestors survived the traumas and … Continue reading
Milton Abbas Local History Group, Dorset, UK 