Michael McManus, Durham City, England

Group contact date: 1/95
E-Mail me at: [email protected]
Personal Web Pages at: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/axhsk5/

My uncle, Charles William Hendey, born 1895

CONTENTS

The Tree

The Researchers:

Daphne Bellman

Yvonne Fountain

Mary and Mike Horder

Colleen Kubis

Maureen O'Sughrue

Michael McManus

Carl and Marilyn Madden

Angela Niblett

Sylvia Reid

Anne Shilton

Karen Smith

Eleanor Smyrski

The Newsletters:

Gentle Shores No. 1

Gentle Shores No.2

Gentle Shores No. 3

Michael

Hendy

 James Hendy b. 1748 = Rachel Ridett

Michael McManus b. 1946 = Annette Nicholson

Devin Michael McManus b. 1969 = Kerry Pygall

Michael McManus b. 1946 = Annette Nicholson

Charles William Hendey, or whoever, was my great grandfather. I use the word 'whoever' because my theory makes him someone who had a crisis of identity - he was also Charles Dove. But the legacy of genealogical complexity and confusion which 'whoever' has left me at least makes an interesting puzzle to unravel. The puzzle is best approached from the bottom end, that is with my mother's birth. Rebecca Hendey was born in 1907 at Sunderland, a thriving port on the east coast of County Durham, England, to Stephen Brewster Hendey and Louisa Simpson. Stephen Brewster Hendey, my grandfather, was born in 1873 near Sunderland and his birth certificate states his parents were Charles William Hendey, a mariner, and Sarah Brewster. Charles William, or 'whoever' and Sarah were married in 1868 in Sunderland. Their marriage certificate states Charles William's surname as Handey and that his father was James Handey, a Mariner. Charles William and Sarah stated that at the time of their marriage they were residing at Bonners Field, Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, which was in fact Sarah's home. Moving on, the 1881 Census at Sunderland shows Charles William and Sarah and their children residing near Monkwearmouth Colliery and Charles William's occupation as a Coal Miner at the colliery. Their surname up to this time is recorded as Handey. The census record shows clearly that Charles William stated he was born at 'Yarmouth I.O.W'. and that he would have been born about 1845. It seems logical that, throughout the Victorian period, Charles William would have been employed on one of the many coal boats transporting coal from the great north east coalfields around Sunderland, south through the North Sea and into the English Channel to the Isle of Wight.

I do know that Charles William Handey, Hendey or whoever, did actually exist because my mother told me about the times she had met her grandparents, Charles William and Sarah. It was also a well known family oral tradition in my mother's family that 'whoever' was from Hampshire - and Portsea and the Isle of Wight were specifically mentioned. In their later years, Charles William and Sarah owned a second-hand clothing shop in Sunderland Town Centre. When they were very young girls, my mother and her younger sister, Lilian, remembered visiting their grandparents at this shop. Having previously been to the shop only when much younger, when they arrived they were not certain of which door they should knock on. This problem was easily sorted out through my mother's sense of smell. If they had not remembered the door, my mother had certainly remembered what a second-hand clothes shop smelled like. She told me it took seconds to put her nose to the open letter box and positively identify it as their grandparent's premises. Confirmation was final when the door opened and they were made welcome by Charles William and Sarah. 

The fact that my mother did not see her grandparents very much reflects a suspicion in me that her father and his dad, Stephen Brewster Hendey, did not get on all that well together. And this is confirmed somewhat at the only other meeting my mother recalled having with her grandfather. He was by this time widowed and living in Trafalgar Square, a home for Merchant Seamen in Sunderland. My mother had met him by chance as she passed him relaxing on a public seat near the seaman's home. According to my mam, he was a friendly old gentleman who had a beard, looked just like the sailor on the Players cigarette packet and had an accent like a Cockney (someone born within the sound of Bow Bells, London). Amongst other conversation, which she could never fully recall, he told my mam, "Your father wouldn't even give me a pipe of tobacco". This statement exemplifies to me the rift which must have existed between him and his son. As she left him sitting there, Charles William told my mother that she should come and visit him as he had "a lot more to tell" her. But she never did get to visit him again. 

After several years research, and to my great disappointment, I was unable to trace the birth of  a Charles William Handey/Hendey/Hendy on the Isle of Wight. Between 1983 and 1997 I considered various explanations for this but eventually had to logically decided on a particular theory. The explanation was confirmed in my mind by a kind and clever I.O.W. resident, Marian Lamsley Jones from Cowes. Being here in the north east of England and so far away from Hampshire in the south east, Marian is my local 'genealogist in residence' as it were. Over the years, Marian and her father abstracted from the local records just about all the Handeys'/Handys'/Hendeys'/Hendys' that ever existed on the I.O.W. After all the investigation and debate between us, there was only one explanation about the origins of 'whoever'. The only birth of a Charles from the Yarmouth area with a Hendy connection around 1845/6 was a Charles DOVE. Charles Dove's birth certificate shows that he was born on 23.10.1845. at Yarmouth to James and Frances Dove, formerly Hendy. The Shalfleet Parish records of 14.12.1844. show the marriage of James Dove, (full age, batchelor, labourer, residence at time of marriage, Ningwood - father's name Michael Dove, a Thatcher) to Frances Hendy, (full age, spinster, residence at time of marriage, Ningwood - father's name John Hendy, a labourer). The 1851 Census at Yarmouth shows Frances Dove, wife, married, 27 years, born Shalfleet, IOW residing at 3, High Street, Yarmouth with her three children, Charles, 5 years, Eliza, 3 years, and Leah Elizabeth, 1 year. Father, James, was not present (quite likely a mariner at sea). The 1861 Census shows Frances as a 'widow' living at the Alms House, 31, High Street together with Eliza, Elizabeth and Ellen J. James Dove had apparently died between 1856-1861. Charles, 15 years by this time, was not at home and had perhaps left home for the sea. 

There appears to have been tremendous kinship between the Doves and the Hendys, for three Dove brothers married  three Hendy sisters. In addition to Frances Hendy marrying James Dove, Ann, Frances' sister, married William Dove and her other sister, Jane, married Daniel Dove. My theory would claim that at some moment between leaving home around 15 and meeting Sara Brewster in Sunderland, Charles Dove began to use his mother's surname, Hendy, rather than Dove. Why he did this is unclear. The close kinship between the two families may even account for Charles using the additional name William.  Perhaps young Charles adopted the name William as he was close to his uncle William Dove - who may even have brought him up as his son after the death of his brother between 1856-1861. But there are still plenty of 'perhapses' in my theory and I look forward to the time when I can get to the Public Record Office in London to check out the ticket lists of Merchant Seamen, in which I am certain to find 'whoever'.

Finally, I later became acquainted with Daphne Bellman whose great great grandmother was Emma Dove, born about 1836 on the Isle of Wight. Emma had her first baby (illegitimate) at the 'House of Industry' (Workhouse) in Newport, and later married twice. This first daughter was Annie Marian Dove born in 1864 and when she married in 1886 she gave her father's name as Charles Dove. On looking up that name in the IOW CRO index Daphne could find only one candidate, born Yarmouth in 1845. She strongly suspected that he was a bit of a lad, and, yes you've got it, we suspect he was my great grandfather Charles William 'whoever'. Perhaps he had changed his name to Charles William Hendey to avoid having to support his child, or even children! on the Isle of Wight. I feel this theory is more likely to be true. He certainly had a lot more to tell us, but it's a bit late now, so we labour on in the hope that we will eventually unravel the mystery of 'whoever'.