Wesley (1898-1918)
In 1851 there were two CHILVERS' family groups in Carleton Rode, just a couple of miles away from Old Buckenham. I can find no direct link at present with the Old Buckenham CHILVERS, but it is almost inconceivable that they were not closely related a generation or two further back, particularly when we consider that the oldest ancestor I can trace, Joseph CHILVERS was married in 1759 in Carleton Rode. However, equally, it should be noted that there was a census in 1777 for Carleton Rode, and no CHILVERS appear in that list, although there is a Thomas and Sarah QUANTRELL with 3 boys under 16, 2 girls under 16, and 1 over 16. Thomas was a husbandman, and the family religion was noted as CE.
We can also however note in passing the baptism in Carleton Rode on 5 December 1786 of young Philip BROWNE to parents Philip and Ann, the latter being formerly CHILVERS. We also have the marriage of a Rebecca CHILVERS to Henry KEMP on 27 June 1805 in Carleton Rode. We can find that couple in the 1841 census in Carleton Rode with an 8-year-old Alfred - Henry is an Ag Lab (of course). The 1851 census finds them still in Carleton Rode. Rebecca's age of 73 indicates she was born around 1778, and it appears she (a CHILVERS of course) was born in "Stow Breccles" in Norfolk (Breckles is about 10 miles due West of Carleton Rode, and presumably then this is Stow Bedon in the deanery of Breckles). Rebecca is described as a domestic. Interestingly Henry KEMP, himself from Carleton Rode, is described as an Ag Lab with the note "Pauper".
But to get back to the group we have in our sights, by charting this group one can perhaps ensure that family members are tracked in their correct groups, so that we can avoid confusion later, or maybe - if we find the "missing link" - piece a lot of things together easily.
One group was headed by the unmarried 22-year-old Robert CHILVERS, an agricultural labourer born in Bunwell, presumably in about 1829. This household was obviously the parental home, because also resident in the house was his widowed mother, Eliza, who is recorded as being a Domestic aged 62, originally from Carleton Rode. In the 1841 census in "The Street" in Bunwell a family of Eliza CHILVESS, a 40-year-old nurse, were living. Her children were John and Margaret (both listed as 20, but for the 1841 census ages were rounded), Will (16, an Ag Lab), Sarah (2), Joseph (10) and Sharlott (8). In the Carleton Rode census was a 50-year-old nurse Eliza CHILVERS looking after the 6 children of a shoemaker Francis BOLTON and his wife, also called Thurza. Because ages were rounded in the 1841 census these two Elizas could possibly be the same, and she was double-recorded, being recorded at her home and her place of employment as a nurse. The 1841 census also shows in Highgate, Carleton Rode, a 40-year-old couple Henry and Mary CHILVERS, Henry being a Hawker.
In 1851 two other siblings are also at home, Joseph aged 20 who, too was an Agricultural Labourer born in Bunwell, and younger sister Charlotte, 18-years-old and a Field Worker, also from Bunwell. Making up the household was Robert's aunt Elizabeth BRIGGS, described as a pauper, born in Carleton Rode around about 1771.
The other group is quite clearly the older member of the family, William, aged 25 and born in Bunwell. He too was an Agricultural Labourer. He was married to the 22-year-old Elizabeth, who, like her mother-in-law was a Domestic, born in Attleborough. They had one child at the time of the 1851 census, 7-month-old George born in Bunwell.
The 1871 census shows William, by then 45, with Elizabeth living in Flaxland, Carleton Rode. William is a roadman, and they have a growing family. A roadman maintained the roads. James (18) and William (14) are shown as Ag Labs, while the rest of the family comprise Alfred (11), Charlotte (10), Martha (7), Samuel (4) and Rebecca (1). All the children are born in Carleton Rode.
George is an unmarried lodger in Santon in Norfolk in the household of William and Susan Meadows. The head of the household is a railway service navvy, himself aged 28 from Bunwell, so is likely to have been an old friend or acquaintance of George's. George is shown, of course, as an Ag Lab. Santon is a very small parish, having only about 30 inhabitants, so George is unlikely to have arrived there by chance. Kelly's Directory for 1883 notes that the chief crops are rye and turnips. What is interesting from our perspective is that in this tiny village one of the families are the RICHES - which if you recall was the maiden name of the wife of our George CHILVERS, the one who went to Stratfieldsaye. Maybe this is a little indication of a link between the Old Buckenham CHILVERS and the Carleton Rode CHILVERS?
Robert had married by the time of the 1871 census, to Elizabeth, born in Wattlefield (a village outside Wymondham) around 1834. Robert is the ubiquitous Ag Lab, and they were living in W.Bunwell Street in Carleton Rode. They too have a growing family of William (15, Ag Lab), John (11), Anna (8), Elizabeth (6), Frederick (4), Charles (3) and Alan (8 months). All the children are shown as having been born in Bunwell.
For the 1881 census the family were still in Carleton Rode, the address being shown as "cottage"! He is recorded as a 53-year-old Ag Lab born in Bunwell, with Elizabeth. They have five children recorded, John (Ag Lab, born 1860 in Bunwell), Frederick (Ag Lab, born 1867 in Bunwell), Allan (Scholar, 1871 in Carleton Rode), Eliza (Scholar, 1873 in Carleton Rode) and Ellen (Scholar, 1877 in Carleton Rode). The preceding entry is for the Farmhouse of a Samuel COLEMAN who farmed 200 acres, employing 7 men and 1 boy. Again, it is not too far a leap of faith to believe that Robert worked on that farm, and that two of the men were Robert and John and that the boy was the 14-year-old Frederick. You may also wish to note (and investigate if such is your whim) the fact that COLMANs (no E) of the famous mustard family lived in the area at the time, so this Samuel COLEMAN may be one of that family. Or not.
There is the record of the marriage of a Joseph CHILVERS on 21 November 1856 to Mary Ann PEARSON in Castle Rode. In 1881 in Wymondham we can find a Joseph (aged 47 born in Bunwell) and Mary Ann (aged 44 born in Wattlefield) with their children William (born 1864 in Carleton Rode), Charlotte A. (born 1868 in Carleton Rode), Joseph (born 1872 in Bunwell) and Arthur (born 1874 in Wattlefield). Joseph snr is of course an Ag Lab.
William's family can now be found in Bunwell. William and Elizabeth were still going strong, albeit thirty years older. William was recorded as a Farm Labourer. At home were two children, Samuel born in 1867 in Carleton Rode and also shown as a Farm Labourer, and Rebekah, an eleven year old Scholar from Carleton Rode too. It did seem that William and Elizabeth's oldest son, George, had by now set up his own home in Bunwell with his wife, Mary E., who was born in Tacolneston in about 1860. George follows the family line of Farm Labourer. They had a son, George E., born in Bracon Ash a year earlier. However, see further down the page - this may be a red herring - one to be investigated!!
By 1891 Robert can be traced again - but beware! The transcription shows the surname as CHELVERS, although the original is CHILVERS. He, and his wife Elizabeth were still alive, although Elizabeth's place of birth is recorded as Wattlifield (a misprint clearly for Wattlefield), her age of 57 tying in nicely with the 1881 result. She is shown as being a Laundress. No-one else was in the household in W.Bunwell Street in Carleton Rode, which is of course the address that was shown in 1871.
Elder son John had married, his wife Alice being born around 1862 in Bunwell. They were living just down the road from Robert and Elizabeth.They had two daughters by 1891, Agnes aged 6 and Lilian aged 2, both born in Carleton Rode. This family's name has also incorrectly been transcribed as CHELVERS.
In 1901 John and Alice had living at home Lilian, the aged 12, Frederick, aged 9, Jessie A (7), Florence E (5) and Wesley HWEG (2).
The First World War however brought sadness to the couple. Private Wesley Herbert William Ewart Gladstone CHILVERS of the 7RWS, was born on 31 May 1898 in Carleton Rode and educated at Bunwell council school. He enlisted 2nd February 1917 and was reported killed in action 8th August 1918, tragically just three months and three days before the Armistice, on the first day of the Battle of Amiens.
The War Graves Commission gives details of the death of a Private Wesley Herbert William CHILVERS (205381 7th Bn., The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regt.)), son of a John and Alice CHILVERS living at North street, Carleton Rode on Thursday 8 August 1918, aged 20 and buried at Beacon Cemetery, Sailly-Laurette in the Somme. The 7th Queens were part of the 55th Infantry Brigade making up the 18th (Eastern) Division. The Division saw much action from the time Wesley enlisted including the Battles of Passchendaele in October and November 1917. The Battle of Amiens began in dense fog at 4:20am on 8 August with an offensive wave which included the 18th Division. By 7:30 the first German positions were captured, an advance of about 4,000 yards.
William and Elizabeth were also both alive, but by now living in Besthorpe, just outside Attleborough, which you will recall if you've been following the plot was where Elizabeth came from. There is no trace of George, Frederick or Allan now in the county. There is a 19-year-old Eliza CHILVERS from Bunwell living as a servant to a James BROWN, and a 14-year-old Ellen CHILVERS can be found as a servant in Carleton Rode to a 57-year-old Farmer Samuel COLEMAN and his wife Mary, although Ellen's place of birth is recorded as Great Melton, presumably Great Moulton, a village to the South-east of Bunwell. Not fatal to our assumptions - particularly if this is the same Samuel Coleman that was a neighbour (above) to Robert and his family in 1881!
Information now gained from the excellent www.ancestry.co.uk now indicates that George actually married Rose Ellen MOLE (born 1854 in Croxton) in Christ Church, Leeds in 1872. They also had a whole brood of little CHILVERS': Elizabeth (1871, Leeds), Julia (1872, Croxton), William George (19 September 1872, Hunslet, Leeds), Alfred (1877, Leeds), Rose Ellen (1879, Leeds), George (1882, Beeston, Nottingham), Minnie (1887, Sawbridge, Hertfordshire), Horace (1889, Sawbridge) and Dorothy Mabel (abt 1892 in Sawbridge).
It is interesting to note that George's brother Alfred married Rose's sister Eliza Jan MOLE. George became a maltster while in Leeds, and later moved to Nottingham and then on to Sawbridgeworth. Many of his brothers and sisters followed him to Leeds. In Sawbridgeworth George became very successful and had a large household with servants and coach and horses. However, bad times came and he became bankrupt, moving back to Nottingham with Ellen and the 4 youngest children, where he died in 1902.
His eldest son William George CHILVERS emigrated to Australia where he built one of the largest breweries in South Australia. His son, Hugh Cecil CHILVERS, became a well-known cricketer for New South Wales in the 1930s, playing alongside Don Bradman. You can read more about him from an Australian cricket encyclopaedia here.
Moving ourselves after our trip into the sun back to England to William's family, the 1901 census shows a 24-year-old Frederick CHILVERS, born in Bunwell, so likely to be "ours", working as a coal miner in Collerley and Pontop in Durham, probably at one of the Annfield Plain pits. A far cry from rustic Norfolk! He was boarding in the house of a coal miner, William DOWN and his wife Eliza at 43 Annfield Place. What is interesting is that William was from Devon and his wife from Cornwall. A true demonstration of the drift in the late 19th century from rural England to the industrial North.
Joseph and Mary were also still in the area in Besthorpe Road, Wymondham. Joseph is described as a 56-year-old Agricultural Labourer from Bunwell, while Mary Ann (always described a such, not Mary!!) as 50-years-old from Wymondham. All the brood still remained at home: William (aged 27, shoemaker from Bunwell), Charlotte Ann (26 from Carleton Rode, but no occupation shown), Joseph (19 Ag Lab also from Carleton Rode) and Arthur (17 gardener from Wymondham).
As a footnote there is record of the marriage of a William CHILVERS to Margaret Elizabeth SAUNDERS in Bunwell on 5 December 1894.
There is the record of the death of an 83 year old Robert CHILVERS in the June quarter of 1910 in Depwade (Vol 4b Page 130).
Page last updated 25 January 2007