7. HARDY-CONGREVE

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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)

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 BENJAMIN HARDY and SARAH CONGREVE (7)

 

BENJAMIN HARDY. From the date of his marriage, we should expect a birth date around 1770. The most plausible is the following.
Baptism. Horbling, Lincs.
1769 Oct 24  Benjamin of Thomas and Mary Hardy.

Horbling is 14 miles NW of Moulton where he married, but we have found no evidence of this Benjamin Hardy dying young or marrying nearer to Horbling. The Moulton marriage is the nearest one that fits.
If this is the right baptism, his mother was Mary Wilson.
Benjamin was the eighth of nine children, though one of these had died before Benjamin was born.
His father was a grazier, raising cattle or sheep. This is the same occupation as Sarah’s father.
His mother died when he was 13.
Like his forebears, Benjamin became a farmer.

 

SARAH CONGREVE. Sarah was 52 when she died in 1830, giving her a birth date of 1777-8
She was under 21 when she married in Moulton in 1795. This gives just one plausible baptism.

Baptism. Crowland Abbey.
1777 Nov 8  Sarah daughter of Isaac and Sarah Congreve.

Her mother was Sarah Speechly. When they married in 1775, both her parents were of Whaplode, close to Moulton. Crowland Abbey is a parish south of Moulton.
Like Benjamin, Sarah’s father was a grazier.
She was the eldest of three children.
Her father died when she was twelve. Later that year, her mother married the widower Thomas Marshall. A stepsister was born two years later.
Sarah was just short of 19 when she married Benjamin.

 Marriage. Moulton.
1795 Oct 21  Benjamin Hardy of this parish and Sarah Congreve a minor with consent of guardians of this parish.
Both sign their names.
Witnesses: Robert Morone? and Elizabeth Wilson.

Moulton is a Fenland parish in the south of Lincolnshire, 5 miles east of Spalding.

Their first child was baptised in Moulton.
Baptism. Moulton.
1796 Sep 18  Sarah Congreve

They moved to Crowland for the remainder of the baptisms, in the place where Sarah was baptised.
They made considerable use of surnames as second baptismal names. Congreve was Sarah’s maiden name, Marshall was the name of her stepfather.
Baptism. Crowland.
1797 Aug 22  Isaac Congreve
1798 Dec 31 John
1799 Dec 12  Sarah
1801 Jan 14  Benjamin
1802 Jan 15  Thomas
1803 May 13  Thomas Marshall
1805 Mar 3  Rebecca Congreve
1808 Mar 19  Jacob Marshall

Many of this family’s burials took place in Whaplode, a mile east of Moulton. This has since been named Whaplode Drove, because of the many drove roads in the area, where animals were driven to market. The Hardys’ address is frequently given as Postland, This was a hamlet just west of Whaplode.

Burial. Whaplode.
1810 Oct 6  Benjamin Hardy  Farmer (Postland)

Sarah outlived him by 20 years. She was also buried in Whaplode.
Burial. Whaplode.
 1830 Aug 8 Sarah Hardy Widow  Postland  52.

NEXT GENERATION: 6. WILSON-HARDY

PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 8. HARDY-WILSON

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