Hannah Jeneway was christened on 9 December 1770 at Wendy cum Shingay, about 10 miles to the south-west of Cambridge. Her parents. Peter Jeneway and Hannah Love, were married at Tadlow, 3 miles away, on 11 November 1766. When she was just 18, on 11 December 1788, Hannah married William Bray Theobalds at the church where she had been christened.

William Bray Theobalds’ parents, John Theobalds and Ann Bray, were married on 18 April 1763 at Abington Pigotts; his mother’s maiden name being the cause of particular interest in our family some 240 years later. William was christened on 3 July 1764 at Steeple Morden.

William Bray and Hannah’s family grew steadily over the next 30 years.

Mary Theobalds christened 29-3-1789; married John Bennett 30-10-1816
William Jeneway Theobalds ch. 12-2-1792
John Theobalds ch. 3-8-1798
Winifred Theobalds ch. 3-8-1798; m. Joseph Burgess 13-5-1825
Sarah Theobalds born 1807; died 1807
Sarah Theobalds b. 1810; m. William Rennolds
Martha Theobalds b. 1824

The children were all christened in Steeple Morden or one of two villages nearby - Guilden Morden and Melbourn.

The double christening for John and Winifred in 1798 may indicate twins, but sometimes christenings were carried out long after the birth of a child. The same applies to William Bray and his brother John who were christened on 3 July and 4 July, 1764, respectively. However there is a tendency for this branch of the Burgesses to have twins.

Winifred Theobalds married Joseph Burgess and had at least six children, including Mark who was born in 1832. In the course of his work as an ostler, he left the area, married a girl from Windsor and moved to London. One of his sons, another Mark Burgess, was my grandfather.

The only record of a marriage I have found so far for Winifred Theobalds and Joseph Burgess is on 13 May 1825 at Old Church, St Pancras, London. Could Joseph’s work have taken him there? Was he also a groom/ostler? They couldn’t have been living in London for long because all the children appear to have been born in Cambridgeshire.

In the first useful census (1841), Hannah, then 70, was shown to be living at Horse Green, Swaffham Prior and the head of the household was Winifred Burgess, her daughter. Joseph Burgess was not listed at this address. Winifred was a publican as well as the mother of six children. They ranged from 12 year old Clara to Ann aged one week, so Hannah, who was described as a nurse would have had her hands full helping her daughter.

By the 1851 census, Hannah had moved on to live with another daughter, Sarah, whose husband William Rennolds ran a grocers shop in Woodhurst, Huntingdonshire. (A county that has since been absorbed into Cambridgeshire.) Hannah was then 82 and, as an annuitant, would have received an income of some kind, possibly from one of the eleven government fund-raising schemes that were organised during the 17th and 18th centuries. For information about annuities, use this link.

Martha, Hannah’s youngest daughter, was also living at the house. She was described as a teacher, perhaps teaching her two nieces, Rebecca (8) and Hannah (6) who were “scholars at home”. If Sarah helped her husband in the shop then William (4) might have been watched over by his grandmother.

Hannah finally died in the early months of 1859, a little short of her 89th birthday. A very respectable age for those times.

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