Goodman Allis

 In searching some parish registers for Essex, England I came across some people referred to as goodman or goody in the 1600s. One entry for Waltham Holy Cross in 1634 is an example "Richard Wesley the grandchild of goodman Allis of lipats hill was buried the 9 day" (June 1634).

I had not heard of this term before (let alone see it in a parish register) but it was apparently fairly common in the 1600s in puritan circles and was also used in America at the same time according to this web-site

https://donnagawell.com/2017/08/14/if-you-were-a-puritan-what-would-be-your-title/

A more thorough treatment is given in a paper by Norman H. Dawes, "Titles as Symbols of Prestige in Seventeenth-Century New England" from The William and Mary Quarterly,Vol. 6, No. 1 (Jan., 1949), pp. 69-83 (available via JSTOR).

As far as England goes was it a term just used in places with a strong puritan following or did it have more general use? I have not seen it in Lincolnshire parish records and in Essex it wasn't used in that many parishes. Interesting...

Essex, a soldiers burial

 Essex, England

In looking at the parish registers for West Tilbury, Essex there were a number of burials in the 1700s of soldiers from the fort which guarded the Thames. One very noticeable and sad observation was that they frequently had no names, just a note in the register saying "a soldier from the fort was buried on [date]" and sometimes followed by "another soldier was buried...."

Why did they have no names, especially since they were our soldiers? 

Quite a few soldiers buried were named and with rank, so what set the others apart?

John Alliss of Newark to Australia

 Has a loose end been tied up? 

A John Allis was baptised at Newark, Nottinghamshire on the 26 August 1809  the son of William Allis, a carpenter and cabinet maker, and his first wife Mary. No other records have been found for him.

So it has been until a notice in the London gazette caught my eye. It was for a Mary Amatt Jowitt (1844-1923) who died intestsate and the notice in 1926 (25 June, page 4169) was a call for any claimants on her estate. The short note at the end said 

"Note.—The intestate was the only child of John Jowett and Emma Jowett, his wife, formerly Emma Alliss, Spinster. A maternal uncle of the intestate named John Alliss, born in 1809, went to Australia many years ago."

 Emma Alliss' brother was the missing John, so it seems he went to Australia.

At St Pancras, Middlesex in 1831 John Alliss married Eliza Vandercom who, with their four children, emigrated to Victoria, Australia in 1849. In the 1841 census at St Pancras John was not from Middlesex and he was a cabinet maker, but nothing else to indicate where he came from. He was also born in 1809 or 1810 which was confirmed from the passenger list and his age when he died.

This sounds very much like John from Newark who could well have learnt carpentry from his father. He also uses the Alliss spelling. When his father moved from Lincolnshire to Newark he tended to use the double-s spelling.

It's compelling but it would be helpful to have some more evidence this is the same person.

Interesting how a chance note many years after an event can spark some connections.

UPDATE:

I have been contacted by relative of John and shown a copy of his death record along with a second marriage both of which state he was born at Newark. That's great news and many thanks to Merran. Your help was greatly appreciated.

What's new

As before noted, the Allis families that moved from Nettleham to the south of the county were hard to trace and some records simply do not seem to exist any more (if some were ever recorded of course).

It was interesting to come across someone searching for some of these same records in "Lincolnshire notes and queries" from vol 6, issue 50 in 1901

There is no indication that "Aries" found the entries they were looking for, but they were clearly trying to find the origins of the Ewerby, Hameringham and Old Leake families (see earlier post)

My results for the same:

1. We assume this to be William baptised in Nettleham

2. Still not located

3. Still not located

4. William, Eleanor and Elizabeth were baptised at Old Leake. Mary's baptism still not found.

I'd be happy to give 2 guineas for the records of 2 and 3...

A book on the Allis families of Lincolnshire

At long last I have finished (for the present) a book on the Allis families of Lincolnshire. As a vanity project a handful will be printed for the family but a pdf will be available later. Let me know if interested.

It is 194 pages including an index.

The aim was to draw up the family tress of all the Lincolnshire families and see if they could be linked. I think this has largely been done, at least back to Nettleham in the late 17th century. From there back it is a tangle and a work in progress.

The family lines extend out to Massachusetts, Colorado, Nebraska, Ontario, Australia and New Zealand, as well as various parts of England.

Lincolnshire and Hertfordshire Allis family link?

In looking at the Allis families around the country it seemed that they are largely separate families but there was always the hope of a link between some of them. A curious one has just been found… well, actually quite a long time ago.

I have lately been looking through all of the parish register entries for Allis at Nettleham in Lincolnshire to make sure I have all accounted for in the family tree. One of those that could not be was back in 1598 when a Jane Allys als Ebborne was married to Michael Hill. She was not shown as a widow.
Thereafter was a burial for Richard Allis the son of Jane Allis als Hill als Ebborne, and two years later in 1604 a baptism for Richard Hill, the son of Jane Hill als Ebborne. Not like the usual entries seen.

A few years ago a cousin John Allis sent me some of his research from years back in typewritten note form. I was flicking through these again and the following entry jumped out:

Hertfordshire Assizes
14 March 1623 - William Allys of Hertford, gardener, indicted for bigamy. On 1st Jan 1616 he bigamously married Jane Gregorie in a service conducted by Thomas Noble, clerk, vicar of All Saints, Hertford, having already married Jane Eborne at Reepham, Lincolnshire on 27 Nov 1595. He was found not guilty.

Reepham is only a couple of miles from Nettleham.

That solves the mystery of who Jane was but raises a number of questions, and why was William from Hertford up in Lincolnshire - coincidence or family link?

There are other problems too. The Reepham parish registers and BTs do not cover the year shown and the parish records for All Saints at Hertford does not have this marriage. The nearest marriage is for William Ellis and Jane Gregory on 21 November 1613 at Bramfield in Herts. Better start looking for the original of the Assize records!

John Alice of Falmouth, Cornwall

John Alice from Cornwall is seen in a number of census entries with his wife and children, but does not appear to have any connections to other Allis families.

Looking at him further uncovers an unusual story.

 

John Alice appears in the census of 1861 at Falmouth, Cornwall for the first time as a labourer from Guinea in Africa. He was then married to Elizabeth and they had a son, John. The marriage was in Falmouth in 1857. They were still in Falmouth in 1871 but moved to London sometime before 1881. They are seen in the census for 1891 and 1901 as a family with son John and daughter Clara.

It is believed that John senior died in 1902 and Elizabeth in 1906.

He was from Guinea in Africa, and taken as a slave to Brazil. He then stowed aboard a ship taking coffee from Rio de Janeiro to Falmouth and presented himself to the captain when a few days out at sea. On arriving in England (around 1855 or 1856) he had one more voyage on the ship before settling as a labourer in Falmouth.

The ship’s captain had to give him a name to enter him onto the ship’s books , so John came from his own forename and the ship was the “Alice”, so John Alice was created.

He appears to have entered normal life in Cornwall and participated in a swimming contest one year where his unusual swimming style caused some amusement. However, he was given an award, along with some others, for his bravery in saving a shipwrecked crew outside of Falmouth harbour in 1867.

Why they moved to London is not known.

A notice in a Cornish newspaper (Royal Cornwall Gazette ) reported John’s death due to an accident on board a ship in London. It also gave the details of how he came to England as above. The only problem is that it was published on the 10th June 1876.