Richard Winmill was born to John Winmill and
Elizabeth
Glen about 1753 in Potterspury. In 1776 he and moved
to Hartwell to take over the tenancy of Home Farm, Hartwell (now
2 Park Road) at £60 per acre. He leased this
farm and land in the nearby fields from the
Duke of Grafton.
On December
18, 1777
Richard Winmill married Mary Hogdskins
of Ashton at
Hartwell Church. Richard and Mary had
9 children, all baptized at Hartwell Church as follows:
|
1778
Apr 12
John
|
1782
Apr 2 Mary
|
1784
Nov 7
Richard
buried 1790 Mar 15 aged 5 ½
|
1787
Apr 15
Elizabeth
|
1790
Jan 31
Hannah
|
1792
Nov 11
Sarah buried Nov 14 aged 3 days
|
1793
Dec 29
Richard
|
1796
Apr 3 William
|
1800
Dec 25
Sarah
A
great sadness came to the family as the parish registers records in 1807:
|
Jan
16 Richard was buried aged 13
|
Jan
31 Elizabeth was buried aged 19
|
Feb
13 Hannah was buried aged 17
|
Mar
7 John was buried aged 28
There
were only six burials in total for 1807, of which four were the children of
Richard and Mary Winmill. The cause of death is unknown but could have been
from measles as there was an epidemic in Hanslope at
that time.
Richard
Winmill was a successful farmer. He bought properties at
Hanslope and
Potterspury as well as being the tenant of the
largest of the Duke's farms in Hartwell. Estate records show payments for
improvements to the farm buildings and homestead, much of which generated
income for the village laborers:
Paid
to John Rollins for quickset
hedge at Mr Winmills paid £2.13.1
Paid
to William Molsher for 18 yds
stone paid £2.2.6
Paid
to Robert Goodridge for new window panes paid £0.19.4
Paid
to John Blunson for painting barn door paid £0.3.0
Paid
to John Fawson for boring anew well 39ft deep paid £
1.19.0
Further
sadness came for the family when Richard himself died in 1810. Their
daughter, Mary, was already married with two children were still at home, Sarah
aged 10 and William aged 14. In Richard Winmill' s
will dated 20 March 1810, he left his property and estate
to his three children and to his wife Mary. Mary continued to manage the farm
and in 1810 her lease was renewed. She tenanted 178 acres of land at £160 per
acre and described as "a farm and buildings consisting of a house, 3
barns, stable, cowhouse and cart-lodge also a
detached barn and hovel.”
Hartwell, hearth and home in a farming
community
William
Winmill was born 14 February 1796 a week shy of his father’s 42nd
birthday. His parents Richard Winmill and Mary
Hodgskins at that time lived in Hartwell, Northamptonshire, England. In correspondence dated
February 21, 1966,
the vicar of the Hartwell parish of the Church of England, Revered H.P. Fuller
wrote to Joseph Dee Winmill describing Hartwell:
“When finances permit I hope that you will see your way clear to visit the land
of your forebearers. This county especially is
steeped in history. George Washington’s own forebearers
came from Sulgrave in
Northamptonshire. Hartwell too has interesting connections.
It was here that Henry, the Eighth, (of six wives fame) met his second wife,
Anne Boleyn. The forest nearby which I have already spoken about is called
Salcey Forest and it is a Royal one, where King
Charles the Second was prone to spend much of his time.”
William
was 14 years old when his father died. His father, Richard was born in
nearby Potterspury and died in Hartwell. His
will is characteristic of the time and gives a view of the family at the time:
“Abstract of the will of Richard Winmill of Hartwell, co Northampton, farmer, dated
20 March 1810.
To my son William Winmill and his heirs forever all my house
and molting with the land thereto belonging and all other real estates in
Hartwell or elsewhere. To my daughter Mary wife of John George 200
pounds sterling secured in and upon to houses in Long Street in the parish of Hanslope, co, Buckingham, the property of William Allen.
To my daughter Sarah Winmill 200 pounds sterling to be paid her by my Executrix
when she is 21. To my wife Mary Winmill the residue of my personal estate,
and I make her sole Executrix. Proved 8 September 1810 by the named
Executrix. Personal
Estate under 1500 pounds sterling.”
William
was the sole living male heir of his father. At fourteen he and his mother were
apparently running the family farm and business. Seven years later on
July
10, 1817,
at age twenty-one he and Jane Spriggs of Towester are married in Hartwell Parish of the Church of
England. Henry Swaker and William’s younger sister
Sarah Winmill are witnesses to the marriage. The same day, William and
Jane stand as witnesses for the marriage of Henry and Sarah. Marriage by license
was a more expensive means of contracting a marriage. From the Hartwell
parish marriage records we find that William’s occupation was farmer and
publican.
William is also recorded as a public house keeper and
farmer and in 1828, the record shows him as the owner
of the Plough Inn shown nearby (now the Conservative Club in Hartwell).
The Bryant’s 1827 map shows that Hartwell was primarily farm land.
It is still a very small village surrounded by farmland.
Between
1819 and 1831, seven of their children (Elizabeth, Hannah, John,
Sarah,
Susannah, Mary Ann and Charlotte) were christened in the
Hartwell parish of the English church. In 1828, William signed the parish warden account as
churchwarden. We suppose this would have indicated the congregation of this parish of the Church of England considered William a
devout man of some standing in the community. In July 1832, his widowed mother
Mary Winmill died at age 77. This may have prompted William and Jane to
move back to Potterspury since there are no further
records of Winmill’s in Hartwell after 1833.
Back to
Potterspury
After
years of association with the Hartwell Church of England, the Winmill family
moved to Potterspury and, evidence suggests, joins
itself to the Independent Church. One hundred years earlier
William’s 2nd great grandfather was church warden in the
Potterspury parish of Church England. Charlotte, the daughter of
William Windmill of Potterspury died 8 April 1832, age 9 months and her burial
is recorded in the Congregational [Independent or separatist] church records. In
1833, the birth of William son of William and Jane Winmill was also recorded in
the Independent church records in Potterspury. Here is
a big change for the family. Were they motivated by a spiritual quest,
economic circumstances or both?
William
Winmill has moved his family from their home of 37 years, returned to an earlier
ancestral home in Potterspury and left the Church of
England. What causes the family to leave Hartwell? The industrial
revolution was pressing in on rural life throughout Britain. The potteries in Potterspury, the industrial growth near
Stoney Stratford, the London & Birmingham railway and Grand Canal were drawing laborers away from
the farms with higher wages. The Duke of Grafton increased the rents
almost three times since his father became a tenant in Hartwell. Perhaps
the combined higher rent and higher labor costs simply made the farm and
business in Hartwell uneconomical.
William
and Jane seem to be going through more changes. They moved a few miles south of
Potterspury to Stoney
Stratford in Buckingham shire. We now find recorded in 1840 civil
registries the birth certificate of “Richard Winmill, son of William and Jane
formerly Spriggs,” William
Winmill’s occupation in both cases being listed as “carrier.” The
record of their son Richard is found in neither the Church of England nor the
Independent Church, but a civil registry birth
record. They apparently may have become disillusioned with the Church of
England and the Congregational Church.
Stoney
Stratford is on an important transportation
junction. Old Stratford has both a windmill and steam
mill. The basin at Old Stratford was an important interchange before the days of
railways as it stood close to busy crossroads. It is easy to imagine this
farm family being drawn into the
swirling activity of the Industrial Revolution. Stoney Stratford
is near the crossroad of a turnpike, the
Grand Junction Canal and the London & Birmingham railroad. It also has the
source of power to drive the revolution. William’s occupation as carrier
may have been related to the Canal.
No further records are
found for the Winmill family until we find a death certificate for William, Jr.
in 1846 in Watford, Hertfordshire. Watford is also on the Grand
Union Canal and the London & Birmingham railroad near London. Three years later,
William, Jane and some family members embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ and are
baptized into the
Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
Susannah,
Charlotte, and Mary Ann were the first to
join the Church in April, 1848. They were baptized by R.
Margetts in the Watford Branch (Hertfordshire) in the London Conference
of the church. Their parents were baptized that fall. A few months later they emigrate to the United
States.
On
to America
and Zion
William
and Jane and their children Elizabeth, Hannah and Richard,
then of Watford Station, Hartfordshire, sailed from Liverpool aboard the Hartley on
5 March 1849
arriving in New Orleans 28 April
1849. John apparently did
not emigrate with the family and may have stayed in Northamptonshire. The
Customs Passenger list
records their
immigration:
WINMILL, Jane
<1795> Age: 54
WINMILL, William <1796>
Age: 53 Occ: Farmer
WINMILL, Elizabeth <1819> Age:
30
WINMILL, Hannah <1821>
Age: 28
WINMILL, Richard <1841>
Age: 8
The
voyage was except for some bouts of seasickness very agreeable. They
saints on board the Hartley seemed to be fired with the spirit of the gospel and
a spirit of adventure. Fellow shipmate and immigrant
William Knox records, " On the 28 of April at New Orleans, Elder [Lucius]
Scovil come on board gave us counsel how to how to [SIC] see to persons health &
engaged the steam boat Mameluke. " Many immigrant journals tell how
the steamboat voyage up the Mississippi turned deadly. Their faith
would be sorely tested. Said
David Bowen,
" While on the river, the cholera broke out on board the
steam boat and made a tremendous havoc among the passengers. For every day there
was from three to six buried every day, and before we got to St. Louis we had
buried about sixty of the passengers. May 12th. We landed in St. Louis with many
sick on board. "
Contemporary journal of immigrants put the deaths from cholera between 20-60 and
records that many then went in to hospital and may have died in St. Louis.
William's
son Richard later remembered that at St. Louis, a sister (reportedly Susannah,
but we have no record of her immigration. Susannah's death date is May 6,
1848.) "drowns in a boating
accident." He also remembers the while at
St. Louis his sister Elizabeth ”married and remained at this place.” In any event, Richard never heard from her again.
Eight year old Richard may not have remembered
events as they actually occurred. The steam boat the family took from New
Orleans , The
Mameluke, along with 22 other steamboats
and one third of the city of St. Louis were destroyed in this
historic fire.
His sisters Hannah and Elizabeth may in fact have died from cholera on the way
to St. Louis. They may also have died as a result of the fires on the
steamboats and docks. Following this devastating fire a
cholera epidemic broke out killing ten percent of the population.
These may have been the reason the family
did not immediately travel on to Council Bluffs with the Saints.
In August,
Sarah was baptized and married William Watts. Sarah, her sister Mary Ann
and William Watts sailed from Liverpool, England aboard the US ship James
Pennell on 2 September 1849 arriving in October, 1949. The Customs
Passenger list records:
WATTS, William
<1819> Age: 30
Occ: Laborer
William, Jane and their children
Richard and Sarah continued their
journey to Council Bluff. Upon arriving in Council Bluffs, they established a butcher
business. Not long after arriving at Council Bluffs, William and Jane became ill due
perhaps to the effects of cholera. They passed away during the night of
October 7, 1850.
We can only imagine what 9 year-old Richard must have felt as he came to awaken
his parents only to find them cold in death. Richard moved in with his sister Sarah and her husband until
her death on February 1850.
Wiliam
and Jane Spriggs Winmill, after years of settled life in a land they must have found
most pleasing, became wanders in their own land. The scriptures make
frequent reference to the Lord's servants sojourning in the wilderness. These references continue after the Lord's
people have reached the promised-land or the land of their promised inheritance.
Because the Lord's people see themselves as sojourners and strangers on the
earth, the earth is sometimes
referred to in scripture as a "strange land."
William,
Jane and their family became sojourners seeking something better for their
family. They may have sought better economic opportunities, but they
were certainly on a spiritual quest. They left both their ancestral lands
and the church in which they and their parents had invested their faith for
greater peace.
William
and Jane did not live to see the place where the Saints were gathering.
The place they called Zion. We know Zion is the pure in heart. It is not a
place as much as a state of grace. William and Jane Winmill found their
Zion and took it with them to America. Only one son,
Richard Winmill,
actually made it to the land they called Zion, but they gathered their family,
all that would be gathered, to their Zion.
Return To Winmill Home
Information provided by
genealogical records and Angela Malin of
Hartwell,
England
