5
Alan March’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back many generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from Alan’s as (1)
THOMAS HILSDON and ELIZABETH CLISBY (10)
When Thomas Hilsdon married Elizabeth Clisby in 1720, both were ‘of Upton Cum Chalvey’ in Buckinghamshire, but the wedding took place in Waddesdon, 28 miles away, where they raised their family. Usually, weddings are held in the bride’s parish and the couple raise their family in the groom’s parish. Since we have not found baptisms for either of them in or around Upton, there is a strong likelihood that both of them came from Waddesdon, or nearby.
THOMAS HILSDON. Thomas’s age at his burial gives him a birth date of 1690-91. The earliest record of the Hilsdons in Waddesdon is Thomas’s marriage in 1720, apart from the burial of an unnamed Hilsdon in 1640.
We have not found a convincing baptism in or around Waddesdon, where he brought up his family, nor in or around Upton Cum Chalvey on the outskirts of Slough, where both Thomas and Elizabeth were resident before their marriage.
We do not yet have online access to the Waddesdon registers, and have to rely on indices of baptisms, marriages and burials, which may not be complete. It may be possible to discover Thomas’s baptism when we are able to consult these registers.
ELIZABETH CLISEBY. The fact that the wedding took place in Waddesdon makes it very likely that this was Elizabeth’s home parish, even though she had become a resident of Upton Cum Chalvey at the time.
We find the following baptism in Waddesdon.
Baptism. St Michael and All Angels, Waddesdon.
1698/9 Jan 1 Elizabeth daughter of Samuel and Anne Cliseby.
Her mother was Anne Phillipes.
Elizabeth’s father was a labourer. She was the eldest of three children..
The village of Waddesdon stands on high ground 6 m NW of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. It is a large parish, including the hamlets of Westcott and Woodham. The soil is heavy clay. This lent itself to pasture, rather than to arable farming. We do not have evidence of Thomas’s occupation, but it is likely that he was a farm labourer, like Elizabeth’s father. All the Hilsdons whose occupation we know were labourers.
The women of the parish were noted for their lacemaking.
Marriage. St Michael and All Angels, Waddesdon.
1720 Dec 27 Thos Hilsdon of Upton Cum Chalvey and Elizabeth Clisby of Upton Cum Chalvey.
Upton lies just south of Slough, some 28 miles SE of Waddesdon.
It is not clear why Thomas and Elizabeth were living there. It may be that they worked for a landowner in Waddesdon, who also had property in Upton, and that he transferred them from one of his estates to another
They made their marital home in Waddesdon, where six children were baptised.
Baptisms. St Michael and All Angels, Waddesdon.
1721 Oct 8 Elizabeth
1723 Aug 30 Thomas
1725 Oct 17 John
1728 Apr 17 Samuel.
1731 May 2 James
1735 May 11 Mary
Samuel was buried on 22 Nov 1739, when he was 11.
Thomas and Elizabeth had been born in the reign of William and Mary, at the end of the 17th century. They were still teenagers when the last Stuart monarch, Anne, died. Elizabeth lived on into the reign of the Hanoverian George II and Thomas into that of George III.
Burials. St Michael and All Angels, Waddesdon.
1758 Oct 3 Elizabeth Hillsdon wife of Thomas Hillsdon senr.
She was 60.
1769 Apr 25 Thomas Hillsdon Senr aged 78.
The surname is usually spelt with one l, but sometimes with two.
NEXT GENERATION: 9. HILLSDON-HOLT
PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 11. CLLISEBY-PHILLIPES