Hugkulstone of Marylebone

John Boxall’s wife, Sarah, had a surname that was spelt variously:  Hugkulston, Hugkulstone, Hucklestone, Hugglestone and Hughulstone.  Some details of this family are now on the Boxall page.  There is an intriguing connection between the Boxall and Hugkulstone families.  In 1831, John and Sarah Boxall travelled all the way from their home in Marylebone to Woolwich, on the other side of the River Thames and downriver some distance, to have their second son baptised in the Church of St Magdalene.  He was named William Gulland Boxall.  The same day, John Bruce Gulland, son of John and Elizabeth Gulland, was baptised in the same church.  Twenty years later, Elizabeth Gulland entered into a de facto relationship with Sarah Boxall’s brother, John Hugkulstone.  Although banns of marriage were read, no actual marriage between this couple has been found.  After John’s death, Elizabeth resumed using the surname Gulland, suggesting that she had not been legally married to him.  The big question is what was the connection between the Boxalls and the Gullands?  Was it, in fact, purely a connection between the Hugkulstones and the Gullands?  Without the marriage of Elizabeth to John Gulland, there is no evidence of her maiden name nor of where she lived.

Clerkenwell, Whitechapel and St Pancras

Some further progress has been made in providing information and photographs on the various Boxall, Banham (both of St Pancras) and Tilbury families, including spousal families – Long  of Clerkenwell, Crowden of Whitechapel and Coltman of High Wycombe.  Richard Tilbury married Sarah Coltman in High Wycombe and their son, Richard Tilbury married Sarah Stocks Long in Hammersmith.  Her parents were Benjamin Long and Mary Crowden of Clerkenwell.  Not much is known of the Long family (a difficult name to research) but the Crowden family has been linked to the Crowdens of Whitechapel.  Mary Crowden’s mother was Mary Ann Stocks, who was baptised and married in Westminster but, apart from her father’s name, Benjamin Stocks, nothing more has been located on this family.  Any new information would be most welcome.

Banham, Boxall and Tilbury families

I have now managed to include some of my research results gleaned over the past quarter century for these families – Banham of Suffolk and Pancras, Boxall of St Pancras and Hammersmith, and Tilbury of Wycombe and Hammersmith.  There is lots more to come, I just have to work out the best way to present it.  Each family is a separate page and will be found under the main title of My Family in the line below the header photo.  Just hover the curser over that title and the new pages will appear.

Whence Thomas Ashby?

I have known for over a decade that Betsy was baptised in Castlethorpe on 26 July 1817 because some kind person had submitted the information to the IGI on FamilySearch, along with the marriage of her parents, Thomas Ashby and Elizabeth Darby, on 18 October 1816.  There is no record of a baptism of Thomas Ashby in Castlethorpe, though.  There were Ashbys recorded there from 1562 to 1623 but none from then until 1801 when William Ashby married Mary Compton.  No Ashbys were recorded there at the time of the 1841 census, even though a Thomas Ashby (father Thomas) was married there in 1844.

There were, however, several Ashbys recorded in Stony Stratford in 1841.  Betsy married in Stony Stratford and had six children there, so it is likely that some of the Ashbys living there in 1841 were related to her.  The only Thomas was aged 50-54 and he  was a brewer living in Cow Fair, two doors from a Susanna Ashby aged 75-79.  Susanna died early in 1844 and Thomas died in December 1843.  I have now discovered his burial in the Church of St Giles and St Mary, Stony Stratford on 2 January 1844, aged 57.  This means he was born in 1786, if the age at death was accurate.  So, old enough to be father of Betsy and son of Susanna but how to prove it?

Why Castlethorpe and Betsy Ashby?

The ancestry of Betsy Ashby (1817-1865) of Castlethorpe in Buckinghamshire has been difficult to research as the parish registers were not readily available.  They are now online – hooray!  So, I hope to make further progress in connecting to her wider family, not just the Ashby line but also, Darby, Swannell, Banham, Boxall and any other associated name I can identify.  Because I know so little about Betsy, I have selected her and her birthplace to introduce this site, as an acknowledgement of her existence.

The photograph of Castlethorpe at the head of the page was taken by me on 15 October 1999.