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Southwood Family History |
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My Southwood
links start with my grandfather Leslie James Southwood (1901-1978) born in Watford Hertfordshire
(photograph on left hand side) he was son of James and Maria Emma Southwood nee Mertens. He had two elder sisters
(Dora Ethel and Marie Kate Southwood) and one younger sister (Edna Maud Southwood). Leslie James
moved to Canada c1925 and married my grandmother Doris Ivy Middleton on 6th July 1926 in Ontario.
He had trained as a mechanic and found work in the Automotive Industry in on the Canada/US boarder in Detriot. With the onset of the depression being a British rather than a US Citizen
he became unemployed and the family decided to return to England c1932 where he worked for
Vauxhall Motors after settling in Luton Bedfordshire.
My great grandfather (photograph on the left)
was James Southwood (1867-1933) born at 6 Shepherds Court Upper Brooke Street London Middlesex. He was the youngest of three children of
Samuel George and Catherine Southwood nee Weedon. He was employed as a solicitors clerk but joined the British Museum in 1888
where he worked until retirement in 1932 . Fluent in several Indian dialects he was employed as a translator.
He married Maria Emma Mertens on 25th September 1888 at Caterham Parish Church in Surrey.
Samuel George Southwood (1838-1925) was my great great grandfather (see photograph on left).
By occupation a Tailor or Trimmer he was born in Windsor Berkshire and baptised at
New Windsor 18th November 1838. My earliest reference to Samuel George Southwood after 1838 is in Census of 1851.
Where he is at West Drayton in Middlesex HO107 1697 F8 P8 living with his Grandfather William Spicer.
William Spicer Head M Age 72 Genl Lab & Pauper Born Hillingdon Middx
Saml Geo Southwood GSon Age 13 Gents Servt Born Windsor Berkshire
Samuel George Southwood and Family , 1881 Census
16,Lees Mews London St George Hanover Square (Ref 0092 Folio 72 Page 23)
| Name and Surname | Relation to Head | Condition | Male | Fem | Rank, Profession | Where Born | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| of Family | Age | Age | or Occupation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Samuel G Southwood | Head | Mar | 43 | Tailor | Berks Windsor |
| Catherine Southwood | Wife | Mar | 42 | Middlesex Bushy |
| James Southwood | Son | Un | 14 | Do St George Han Sq |
| Elizabeth Southwood | Dau | Un | 16 | Marylebone |
| | |||||||
Samuel Southwood Age 44 Port[er?] General Trimmer Born Windsor Berks
Windsor & Eton Express - June 8th 1839
Windsor Police
| James Southwood appeared to answer the charge of assaulting his wife and threatening to take her life. The parties appeared to live very unhappily together, and each appeared determined not to live any longer with each other, but the wife swore she was in personal fear of his violence. The defendant offered to allow her 4s a week and in addition he was ordered to find sureties to keep the peace for six months himself £25 and two householders £10 each. | |||
Finally my Southwood Family Links have ground to a halt two further generations back to my 4 x Great Grandfather James Southwood.
From the (online) Archive to the London Gazette :
March 28th 1834
| NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership between James Southwood and William Simmonds, Carpenters and Builders, carried on at New Windsor, in the County of Berks, under the firm of Southwood and Simmonds, was dissolved by mutual consent on the 8th day of March instant.- Given under our hands this 18th day of March 1834. James Southwood William Simmonds. | |||
Followed by the following advertisement which appears in the Times Saturday and Windsor and Eton Express for May 17th 1834
(located by a search of the Thomson Gale online index to the Times):
| TAKE NOTICE, that JAMES SOUTHWOOD and WILLIAM SIMMONDS, both of New Windsor, in the county of Berks, carpenters and builders, have by indenture, dated the 18th day of March last, CONVEYED and ASSIGNED all their JOINT and SEPARATE and REAL and PERSONAL ESTATE and EFFECTS to James Thomas Bedborough, of New Windsor, aforesaid, stone mason, and William Earle, of Lett's Wharf, Lambeth, in the county of Surrey, timber merchants, upon trust, for the BENEFIT of all the CREDITORS of the said James Southwood and William Simmonds : and that the said indenture was executed by the said James Southwood and William Simmonds, and James Thomas Bedborough, on the 18th day of March last, in the presence of, and is attested by, Richard Gouge Barton, of New Windsor aforesaid, solicitor, and James Bowen May, his clerk, and by the said William Earle, on the 2d of April last, in the presence of, and is attested by, the said Richard Gouge Barton; and the said indenture is now lying at the office of the said Mr. Richard Gouge Barton for the signatures of the said creditors. | |||
Below is the only Census (1851 Devon) in which James Southwood has been traced as the 1841 William Street Windsor Census does not appear to have been microfilmed.
Southwood Family, 1851 Census
Exeter, Devonshire, Holy Trinity, James Street, H0 107/1868 Folio 537 Page 25
| Name and Surname | Relation to Head | Condition | Male | Fem | Rank, Profession | Where Born | |||||||||||||||||
| of Family | Age | Age | or Occupation | ||||||||||||||||||||
| James Southwood | Head | Mar | 62 | Surveyor | Exeter-DEV |
| Fanny Southwood | Wife | Mar | 64 | --- | Exeter-DEV |
| Jane Southwood | Daur | Un | 22 | --- | Winsor-BEK |
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Finally possibly a clue why the Southwood's moved from Exeter to Windsor. In 1851 an Obituary was published in a local Exeter Newspaper and picked up in the November Issue of Gentlemans Magazine.
| [Died] "At Exeter, aged 64, Mr.James Southwood for many years the foreman of the works
at Windsor Castle and the Great Park during the reign of George IV.". | |||
I am currently trying to trace any surviving accounts, note books, or other records of Sir Jeffry Wyattville and the Wyatt family of architects, in hopes some further light can be shed on the obituary above.
