Other Local Chilvers

OTHER LOCAL CHILVERS' FAMILIES

Including the Shelfanger Chilvers'


In Diss Road, Shelfanger in 1851 there was a small family group headed by John CHILVERS who was born around 1789 in Markett Durham. His wife was Caroline, from Winfarthing, and aged 58. John was, need you ask, an Ag Lab. At home was a son John CHILVERS, a carpenter, who had been born in about 1822 in Shelfanger.

The 1841 census in fact showed the family group as consisting of a 45-year-old Ag Lab John CHILVERS, wife Caroline aged 45 also (the 1841 census rounded ages to 5 years), son John (19 and a carpenter) and a daughter, Elizabeth aged 15.

And if we look for Elizabeth in the 1851 census we find her - she married a magnificantly named Stimpson COBB in the December quarter of 1845, and find them in 1851 - next door to John and Caroline in Diss Road! Stimpson is a master shoemaker from Shelfanger, and they have three children Harriet(5), Leah (3) and little Stimpson(9 months). Stimpson snr was 29 (he was born in Shelfanger on 15 November 1821, son of a labourer William COBB and Ann) and Elizabeth 27. There had been another daughter Anna born in 1849 but she died within months. There were later children: another Anna (1852), William (born 1854), John Henry (1857), Charles Robert (1880), Weston Chilvers COBB (born 30 June 1863), Robert Harry (1865) and Herbert (1868). Nice to see Chilvers as a forename - just like Ceolfrid all those centuries earlier.


Shelfanger All Saints' Church

In the 1861 census John and Caroline are still in Shelfanger, aged 72 and 71 respectively. John is stated to have been born in Pulham (and note there is a sizeable family grouping in Pulham) and Caroline in Winfarthing. There are no other CHILVERS anywhere born in Winfarthing, so there was probably no CHILVERS presence there. Young John is doing very well, because he is shown as a master carpenter employing 3 men. He is in Diss Road, Shelfanger and has a 27-year-old wife Martha and a 4-year-old son Albert, both from Shelfanger. In the household too are a couple of apprentices, George FLATMAN (16) from Bungate (?Bungay) in Suffolk and Arthur ELLIS (19) from Diss.

Church records in Shelfanger show a double christening on 13 September 1863 of Albert John and Amelia Maria, both with parents John and Martha CHILVERS - John being described as a carpenter. Albert was bornon 8 August 1856, and Amelia on 27 February 1862. There is a further christening of a child of John and Martha on 2 October 1864 - Alfred Ernest CHILVERS (born 25 May 1864), and on 30 November 1866 there's Horace Edward too (born 31 October 1866). It is noteworthy that Shelfanger parish registers show a significant number of late and multiple baptisms.

Norfolk Record Office hold a document dated 1864 (reference PD80/80) which is an agreement by the Church of England Shelfanger Parish with Messrs CHILVERS and BANHAM for the erection of the school.


The Cross Keys in Shelfanger - presumably well known to both Johns -
but with approval or disdain we do not know

John and Caroline are still going strong at the time of the 1871 census - still in Shelfanger, in Hall Lane. John is stated to be 78 (some discrepancy here then), but it is the correct chap as he is "formerly Ag Lab" born in Pulham St Mary and married to a 76-year-old Caroline from Winfarthing. Interestingly the census return notes for John: "Lame 30 years". The 1871 census finds no trace whatsoeverof John jr, Martha and Albert, Amelia, Alfred or Horace, and it may well be that, like so many other Norfolk folk they had emigrated.

By the 1881 census however all had definitely disappeared from the county, John snr and Caroline presumably in a vertical direction. A 78-year-old Caroline CHILVERS died in Guiltcross District (correct for Shelfanger) in the December quarter of 1872 (Vol 4b Page 174). An 84-year-old John CHILVERS died in Guiltcross in the March quarter in 1876 (Vol 4b Page 173).

Other sizeable family groups can be found around the Diss area - Thorpe Abbotts (although most here are recorded as CHILVER), Redenhall, Needham, Dickleburgh and Thelveton. You will recall that Diss is the location of the earliest known CHILVERS event, the marriage in November 1555 of Margaret CHILVER to William CARMAN, so this is clearly the Heartland of the family.

The Thelveton CHILVERS are an interesting crew - in 1841 Isaac and Maria had five children: Emma (15), Ezekiel (12), Esaw (9), Enoch (6) and Ellen (3). They obviously had a bulk order of labels for "E.CHILVERS". And who did Enoch marry? Someone called Ellen!! She obviously put her foot down though because their children were Herbert and Harry.

In Dickleburgh in 1841 we find a Sarah CHILVERS, aged only 34, but described as a Pauper. She has 4 children - John (14), Samuel (10), Nathan (7) and David (4). In 1851 the family are still in Dickleburgh, Sarah is described as a laundress, born in Norwich. We must remember of course that she was not a CHILVERS by birth. She was 43 and a widow. John is now 23, a bricklayer journeyman, Samuel 21 and Nathan 18, both described as bricklayers lab. In the household also was a 35-year-old bricklayer journeyman, George HANNER from Eye in Suffolk. Read into that what you will, but he is described as married. Also in the household intriguingly perhaps is Charlotte SPARKS, a 19-year-old from Dickleburgh. She is described as a servant - but to whom? Surely not Sarah and family? David, by the way, can be found in Diss working (he was 14) as an ostler (the lad who looks after the horses) for an inn-keeper, Mary RAYNOR, who was from Shelfanger.

Interestingly in 1841 there is another Sarah CHILVERS in Dickleburgh - this one is a 79-year-old lady said to be "independent", in the household of an Ag Lab John COLE and his wife Ann.

In 1851 there was also a family group to the North-west in Breckles (William born around 1784 in Rockland with his wife Mary, 2 years older from Thompson). There are a William and Mary of the right ages to be found in Castle Rising in 1841 - way up in the North-west corner of Norfolk. That William is an Ag Lab, shown as being 40 with Mary 45, so Mary older than William looks right. In 1861 we do though clearly find a William born in Rockland alive in Breckles, described as an "outdoor pauper". A Mary died in Wayland in the June quarter of 1856 and a William died in the September quarter of 1861 in Wayland. These of course may not be the ones we are looking at. There are no known children.

We can perhaps here though remind ourselves that amongst the Carleton Rode CHILVERS was Rebecca who married in Carleton Rode to Henry KEMP in 1805 and who appears to have been born in 1778 in "Stow Breckles". Rockland (there are two adjoining - Rockland All Saints and Rockland St Peter), Stow Bredon and Breckles are closely grouped villages about 3 miles west of Attleborough.

Unfortunately I have to stop somewhere, but if you have any connections with these groups, or find a link to my family, then please let me know.


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    If you have any information or comments, or you just want to say Hello, then please e-mail me, George CHILVERS, at [email protected]

    Page last updated 9 February 2007