Warmest Greetings from Ruth DOVASTON
STANT in
England. This is me photographed at
Ruyton XI Towns, Shropshire with
St Johns Church in the background. I am researching my DOVASTON
family from 15th-19thC Kinnerley, Twyford, West Felton, Weirbrook, Wigmarsh, Eardiston,
and Ruyton XI Towns, Shropshire, and connections with MILLINGTON, WILLIAMS, BROWN[E], DAVIES, STANT, EVANS, JONES, DAVIES
families at Shrewsbury,
Twyford, Sweeney, Ellesmere, St Martin, West Felton, Ruyton XI Towns, Shropshire.
In the cemetery at St Johns I found a headstone for Sarah DOVASTON
[MI237] [the one photographed in the foreground, laid flat, behind which I'm
inspecting unknown graves overgrown with ivy]. Sarah was born 5th August 1782
at The Nursery, Twyford, and
died 30th June 1860. Her parents were John DOVASTON
and Ann [nee HOOPER].
She was the sister of John Freeman Milward DOVASTON
[see Hall of Fame] and never married. She is not my direct kin, being my half
second cousin, five times removed.
A headstone [MI245] next to Sarah's belongs to my 4th great grandfather, John
DOVASTON [1755-1841]
and his wife, Ann [nee PRICE]
[1758-1833], two sons,
John [1792-1824] and Thomas [1789-1807], and a nephew William DOVASTON
[1789-1828]. There's a familiar DOVASTON
inscription: "They ran their course in lowly lot, just streaked the stream
and were forgot". William was born at Littleness,
the son of John DOVASTON
and Ann [nee BROWN].
He was a Stonemason and married his cousin, Sarah
DOVASTON, daughter
of John DOVASTON and
Ann [nee PRICE] from
The Nursery, Twyford.
Some distance away from Sarah's headstone at St Johns is a headstone for Thomas
STANT, my 3rd great
grandfather, a Slater born at Ifton
Heath, St Martins on 11th May 1812. Thomas died
6th May 1853 aged just 42. With him is buried his wife Jane [nee EVANS]
who died 30th July 1854 aged 46 and a daughter, Ann, who died 23rd August 1844
aged 5. Thomas and Jane were married at St Johns on 31st December 1835. Their
children included Thomas, Ann, Jane, Emma, Joseph and Miriam, all born between
1838 and 1849. What happened to the children after their parents both died so
young? Thomas, the eldest, was then only 16 and the youngest was just 5. When
Thomas, the son, married Sarah DOVASTON on
22nd December 1863 his address was Wigmarsh so
I suspect he and his siblings may have been 'adopted' by a relation at Wigmarsh
or maybe the family was split between relations? There's one more DOVASTON grave [MI412] at St Johns, a recent one belonging to Tom and Annie who died 1967 and 1972 aged 72 and 73.
This
is Yew Tree Cottage, Wigmarsh, just north
of Ruyton XI Towns where William DOVASTON
[b.1793] and Jane [nee DAVIES]
lived all their married lives. William, my 3rd great grandfather, was a son
of the above mentioned John DOVASTON
and Ann [nee PRICE]. John was born at The Nursery, Twyford and died at Wigmarsh in October 1841. He married Ann on 15th December 1780 and they lived at Wigmarsh, but I'm not sure which cottage they lived at.
William and Jane's children were Mary, Rachel, Hannah, William, Alfred, Anne, Naome, *Sarah and Margaret Elizabeth, all born between 1828 and 1846. William's occupation, like his father's, was a Tailor. He died 11th August 1879. In the 1881 Census, Jane [nee DAVIES] was a widow, an Annuitant.
Thomas STANT, my 2nd great grandfather, a Stonemason [the son of Thomas and Jane, mentioned above] and *Sarah [nee DOVASTON, the daughter of William and Jane] and their children, Naomi J, Margaret E, Thomas Dovaston, John H, William Alfred, Martin Edward, born between 1867 and 1881 had moved from Weirbrook to live with Sarah's widowed mother. [Sarah M and Phyllis Violet STANT were born later].
Today, Wigmarsh is still a very small hamlet consisting of just the same half a dozen cottages.
Still
at Wigmarsh,
I'm approaching a sandstone cottage
likely built by one of my Stonemason ancestors,
maybe Thomas STANT
[the son] or William DOVASTON from
Littleness. Similar distinctive
sandstone cottages are found at Weirbrook.
As mentioned above, my great great
grandfather, Thomas DOVASTON STANT
[pictured here at the Jaguar factory in Coventry,
Warwickshire where he was a Draughtsman]
was born to Thomas and *Sarah, at Weirbrook
on 20th February 1871. He left Shropshire before 1891 ... he married Mary DONAHUE,
a Cloth Weaver, [born Glossop,
Derbyshire 3rd June 1876] in 1902 at Bolton,
Lancashire ... I'm not sure where he served his Apprenticeship, it could
have been at Newton In Makerfield, Lancashire.
I know he spent some time outside of England,
at Dublin, Ireland.
Thomas and Mary eventually settled in Coventry
and lived there at least between 1912 and 1939, the year Thomas died. Mary died
in 1954. Their children were Doris, Harold and Margaret DOVASTON
STANT.![Ryhall Village nr Rutland Waters [1924]](images/Tdspic-small.jpg)
Ryhall Village nr Rutland Waters
[1924]painted by Thomas DOVASTON STANT - one of hundreds of scenes of Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Shropshire, Wiltshire, Devonshire and Cornwall he sketched and watercoloured during the 1920's and1930's. go to: Thomas DOVASTON STANT's page
Thomas [with his pipe] and Mary went everywhere on a motorbike and sidecar.
Unfortunately the picture collection was broken up and pictures are now scattered
between England, Australia and Canada.
