The Haywards
This page tells the story of the Hayward line of the family. If you want to see a detailed diagram of the Hayward ancestors which will open in a new tab, then click Hayward Tree
This line is an off-shoot of the Shacklock ancestors. I decided to investigate them because the Haywards were not local, but came from Gloucestershire. I was interested how they finished up in the north midlands. Hayward is an English occupational name for an official who was responsible for protecting land or enclosed forest from damage by animals, poachers, or vandals. It was derived from the Middle English word ‘hay’ meaning enclosure and ‘ward’ meaning guardian. The earliest refence I have found was in 1676, so the story starts from there.
William Hayward and Mary
The earliest reference to a Hayward ancestor that I have found was William and Mary Hayward when they christened their son William Hayward in Tewkesbury in 1676 in the reign of James II. These are some of the earliest of my ancestors that I have found, but also the most geographically distant from Sutton-in-Ashfield, where their descendants moved to.
Early Haywards
The Haywards continued to live in Tewkesbury. For the next few generations I have only found christenings and some marriages . They are as follows.
William Hayward, son of William and Mary, was born 1676. He married Mary Chapman who was born in 1675.
Samuel Hayward son of the last William and Mary was born 1710. He married Mary Tyler.
Joseph Hayward son of Samuel and Mary was born 1735. He married Jane Harman.
Sarah Hayward daughter of Joseph and Jane was born 1774.
There is no information in the parish records about their occupation, so I don’t know what they did. There were a number of industries in Tewkesbury including brewing, pin making, framework knitting and mustard making. Their mustard making even got a mention in Shakespeare’s Henry IV where Falstaff describes someone’s wit as thick as Tewkesbury mustard.
Thomas Hayward and Hannah
Thomas was the illegitimate son of Sarah Hayward and was christened in Tewksbury in 1792. He then married Hannah, but I don’t know when. Hannah was christened in Gloucester in 1793.
Thomas moved from Tewksbury to Bakewell sometime in the early 1800s. Their eldest child was born in Bakewell in 1823. I don’t know why they went all that way, people usually moved to find work, so I can only guess the possible reason.
In the early 1800s, the main industry in Tewksbury was framework knitting, so it is possible that William was yet another of my ancestors who was a framework knitter. As it is likely that the Tewkesbury framework knitters suffered the same drop in income as the framework knitters in the North Midlands in the early 1800s, it may be that he thought he could earn more money heading north to work in one of Arkwright’s mills. In 1778 Sir Richard Arkwright built Lumford Mill in Bakewell which was a cotton-spinning mill. The Haywards may have come to try and find work there.
In the 1841 census, Thomas’ wife Hannah was working as a seamer. Thomas’ occupation is difficult to read, but it looks like a hosier. So it is possible that they were working at the mill. Then in the 1851 census, Thomas has changed his occupation and was now a gardener and farmer. Perhaps he had come to the conclusion that he preferred the outdoor life to working in the mill. Thomas died shortly after in 1857, Hannah died in 1873.
Harriet Hayward and Joseph Wright
Harriet was a daughter of Thomas and Hannah and was christened in in 1830 in Bakewell. She moved to Sutton-in-Ashfield where she married Joseph Wright. What she may not have known is that Joseph had a criminal record, but at least it wasn’t a very serious one. In the 1851 census, he is shown as residing in the Southwell County House of Correction. Joseph’s moment of fame gave him one line in the Nottingham Guardian, where it says he was convicted of assault, given a one moth jail sentence and fined two pounds costs.
The Southwell House of Correction was built in 1808 to replace an earlier old house of correction and closed in 1880. It mainly housed petty criminals with men and women in separate sections. Each section had its own exercise yard. It was designed with a radial layout by Southwell architect Richard Ingleman. This became a model for other prisons in Britain and around the world.
In the early censuses, Joseph’s occupation is labourer, but in the 1871 census he has a new job, which was brickmaker. Around Sutton there was a plentiful supply of clay, so a number of brickworks sprang up in the town. Joseph was living on Forest Side in Sutton and a 1877 map shows two brickyards nearby so he probably worked at one of those.
Joseph and Harriet had a daughter Mary Ann Wright who married James Shacklock which brings me back to the Shacklock line.