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David Shakespeare and the Utah Shakespeares
David Shakespeare was born in Sedgley, Staffordshire in 1827, the son of James Shakespeare and Mary Ann Watson.
James Shakespeare & Mary Ann Watson's marriage entry (from the register of Wolverhampton St Peter):
|
Female Surname |
Female First Name |
Female Status |
Date |
Male First Name |
Male Surname |
Male Status |
Banns? |
Witnesses |
Notes |
|
Watson |
Mary |
s |
31 Dec 1810 |
James |
Shakespear |
b |
B |
Joseph Shakespear/Thomas Riddo |
At St.Johns Chapel |
Little is known of his early life and the first real record of him is his marriage to Hannah Brandon in 1846. It seems that he converted to the Mormon faith around this time.
David's father, James, was Gamekeeper to the Earl of Dudley at Himley Hall in Staffordshire. David's brother, John, born 1816 at Himley, was also a Gamekeeper, working on various estates - his daughter, in advanced old age in 1935 (the year of her death) recounted how as a child Queen Victoria had stroked her hair when her father (John) was Gamekeeper to the Prince Consort at Osbourne on the Isle of Wight. John met an untimely end in 1885, being a murder victim. It seems that he was in a public house in Hednesford, Staffs, and had with him a loaded gun. A number of Irishmen entered the Public House and picked up the gun. John asked them to put it down, whereupon they shot him, blowing away his lower jaw. John survived for sometime afterwards but eventually died from his horrific injury. [this is the subject of ongoing research].
In 1854 David emigrated to
the USA. He sailed on the ship ' Marsfield' (356 passengers) from Liverpool on 8
April 1854 and arrived in New Orleans, entered the river by steamship, and from
there moved on to Kansas. He eventually settled in the small town of Panguitch
in Garfield County. Panguitch was settled twice, for the original settlement was
destroyed by native Americans during the ‘Black Hawk Wars.’ It seems that David
and his family were involved in both settlements of the town – they, like many
of their descendants still in the area to this day, were farmers.
In 1870 David entered into a ‘pleural’ marriage with Sarah Ann Batty, being married in Salt Lake City by Brigham Young. His family, with both wives, appear in the 1880 US Census:
1880 Census;
David SHAKESPERE Self M <Married> Male W <White> 53 ENG Farmer ENG ENG
Hannah SHAKESPERE Wife M <Married> Female W <White> 55 ENG Midwife ENG ENG
Sarah Ann SHAKESPERE Wife M <Married> Female W <White> 25 ENG Keeping House ENG
ENG
David J. SHAKESPERE Son S <Single> Male W <White> 19 UT Farm Laborer ENG ENG
George D. SHAKESPERE Son S <Single> Male W <White> 7 UT ENG ENG
William J. SHAKESPERE Son S <Single> Male W <White> 5 UT ENG ENG
Joseph D. SHAKESPERE Son S <Single> Male W <White> 3 UT ENG ENG
Cora SHAKESPERE Dau <Daughter> S <Single> Female W <White> 1 UT ENG ENG
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source Information:
Census Place Panguitch, Iron, Utah
Family History Library Film 1255336
NA Film Number T9-1336
Page Number 344C
A photograph of Sarah Ann (nee Batty), with her second husband, Thomas McLennan can be seen here : Sarah is the lady in the middle of the picture - her husband, Thomas McClennan (with a beard) is seated next to her.
The circumstances
surrounding David’s death in December 1882 survive in two similar, but slightly
different, accounts among his descendants:
The second version is
obviously more colourful, but disputed among his descendants. The true version
of what happened will probably never be known for certain, but the similarity of
the two accounts seem to confirm David’s demise after an accident with a horse.
David is buried, along with his first wife, in Panguitch Cemetery. His second
wife, Sarah Ann, married again after David’s death, to Thomas McClennan in 1886,
and had four more children.
A number of David's descendants moved to the nearby town of Tropic - so named because of it's more agreeable climate, and again, some of his descendants live there to this day (Further information regarding later descendants is available - please contact the site author).
Panguitch was a small town
and many of its’ inhabitants were related by marriage – a number of cousin
marriages occur – and the names of those families related to the Shakespeares
will be familiar to anyone in the area to this day: such surnames as Judd,
Worthen, LeFevre etc.
Around the time that David arrived in Utah there seems to have been one other, unrelated, family of Shakespeares in the State. However, this other family seems to have died out within the first generation (ie left no male descendants) for all Shakespeares in Utah (apart from possible recent immigrants – although none have been traced) can prove their descent from David, and from him the via the branch settled briefly in the village of Himley, on the borders of Dudley and Kingswinford, back through the family in Kingswinford itself, and then directly back to Edward Shakespeare who was the first Shakespeare to arrive in the area in about 1603, and died in Dudley in 1634.
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