These are a series of notes compiled by Maureen Spinks on families who lived in or near Badsey. Maureen, who has transcribed the Badsey parish and census records up to the beginning of the 20th century, will attempt to answer specific queries from bona fide researchers. Please give as much information as possible in order to make the task easier. Please e-mail any corrections, additions or queries to history@badsey.net. For a full list of the surnames covered see the research interests page.
The Hartwell family hailed from Ebrington in Gloucestershire. George Hartwell, born in 1761 at Ebrington, was the seventh of eight children of Henry and Ann Hartwell. Henry Hartwell had been born at Ebrington in 1714, and his father, William, had been born there in 1682.
George Hartwell married Mary Simpson (born 1758) at Broadwell, Gloucestershire, on 18th August 1784. By the end of the year, they were living in Badsey (Mary’s home village), when their first daughter was baptised at Badsey on Christmas Day. They had four sons and four daughers: Hannah (1784), Elizabeth (1787-1870), Charles (1789-1868), Thomas (1791-1792), William (1793-1878), George (1795), Mary (1797) and Ann (1805). George died in 1823, aged 63, and Mary not until 1847, aged 90.
Hannah married Thomas Clark in 1808 and had left the village by 1841, Elizabeth married Thomas Hall in 1813 and had left the village by 1841, Charles married Maria Collett in 1814, Thomas died as a baby, William married Mary Gray in 1821, George married Ann Widdus in 1817 at Offenham (they had a son, Thomas, baptised at Badsey in 1819), and had left the village by 1841; it is not known what happened to Mary and Ann.
By the time of the 1841 census, there were four Hartwell households in Badsey, all descendants of George and Mary. It was the descendants of George and Mary’s sons Charles and William that populated the village throughout the 19th century. By the 20th century, it was just the descendants of William who continued to live in the village.
Descendants of Charles and Maria
Charles Hartwell (1789-1868) and Maria Collett were married in 1814. In 1812, Maria had given birth to an illegitimate son, John Collett (1812-1886) who, for the rest of his life, adopted the name Hartwell. Charles and Maria went on to have five more sons and three daughters: William (1815-1889), Mary (1818-1854), Charles (1822-1893), Elizabeth (1825), George (1827), David (1830), Joseph (1833-1833) and Anna (1838-1838). There appears to be an error in the baptismal entry for Elizabeth, baptised in 1825. The name of the child baptised is given as Charles, child of Charles and Maria, but in matching up with other records, Charles and Maria definitely had a daughter called Elizabeth born in 1825. What seems to have happened, is that the Vicar muddled the names of two babies baptised on the same day. He entered the names Charles Hartwell and Elizabeth Knight in the register, when in reality the names were Elizabeth Hartwell and Charles Knight.
From 1838 to the late 1850s, Charles and Maria lived in an old cottage at Sharps Row. Sharps Row was a terrace of former parish houses which had been bought by a local farmer in 1838.
In 1841, Charles, an agricultural labourer, lived with his wife Maria and their four surviving youngest children, Charles, Elizabeth, George and David, at Sharps Row. By 1851, Charles and Maria Hartwell had only their son, George, living with them; Charles was described as a pauper farm labourer. Maria Hartwell must have died some time between 1851 and 1861, because at the time of the 1861 census, Charles is a widower, but she does not seem to have been buried at Badsey. In 1861, Charles was lodging with his son, George, at Badsey Leys. Charles Hartwell died at Evesham Union in 1868 but was buried at Badsey.
In 1841, John Hartwell (1812-1886), Maria’s illegitimate son, was working as an agricultural labourer and lodging in the same house as Hugh Griffiths and Eliza Naugn, which was next-door to the Sanders household and to his aunt and uncle, William and Mary Hartwell, somewhere on The Street. Later in the year, in November 1841, John married Kitty Cadd, who had been born at Bourton-on-the-Hill about 1804. In 1851, Kitty was described as a schoolmistress and John still a farm labourer. They lived next-door to John’s half-brother, Charles, who lodged with William and Elizabeth Sanders. In 1861, John and Kitty Hartwell were still in Badsey, Kitty still a schoolmistress and they had no children. However, Kitty died in 1870 and John was living on his own in 1871. In 1881 he was on his own at The Green.
In 1841, Charles and Maria’s eldest son, William (1815-1889), an agricultural labourer, lived with his wife Sarah, and young son, Charles. William and Sarah went on to have five sons and one daughter: Charles (1840-1900), John (1844), George (1847), William (1849), Ann (1851) and David (1855-1870). In 1851, they lived at Badsey Leys. In 1861, Charles’ eldest son, William, was no longer at Badsey Leys. He and Sarah, and their five sons and daughter, lived at Sharps Row and continued to live there for the rest of their lives. By 1881, the only two children still at home were Charles (described as an idiot) and Ann; Ann was now married to Thomas Taylor. They also had David (1872) and Sarah (about 1879) staying with them, Ann’s illegitimate children. William died in February 1889. In 1891, Sarah Hartwell was still at Sharps Row with her two unmarried sons, Charles (described as an idiot from childhood) and John, and also David, her daughter Ann’s illegitimate son. (Ann, who had been living with her parents in 1881, was now living with her husband, Thomas Taylor, and their children, on Old Road by 1891; David’s sister, 12-year-old Sarah Hartwell, Ann’s illegitimate daughter, also lived there.) Sarah Hartwell died in July 1893. It is not known whether her sons stayed for long at Sharps Row after her death, but Charles died in Evesham Union in 1900 and John had left the village by 1901.
Mary Hartwell (1818-1854) married John Hicks and lived at Sharps Row close to her parents until her untimely death at the age of 36, leaving her husband with a young daughter.
Charles Hartwell (1822-1893), was back in the village, unmarried and living in The Street, working as a farm labourer and lodging with William and Elizabeth Sanders; next-door lived Charles’ half-brother, John, and his wife. In 1861, Charles was still unmarried and living at Badsey Field, lodging with William and Elizabeth Knight. In 1866 he married Sarah Hartwell (she was his first cousin, the daughter of William and Mary) and they had three children: Eli (1867-1868), Joseph (1870-1927) and Daniel (1872-1910). In 1871 they were living in the Old Post Office Lane region of Badsey, and from at least 1881, they were living at Sharps Row (just two doors away from Charles’ elder brother, William’s family) where they remained until their deaths. Sarah’s unmarried brother, James, an army pensioner and agricultural labourer, was lodging with them. Charles Hartwell died in 1893, and in 1901, Sarah was living with her brother, James, and son, Daniel, at Sharps Row. Sarah continued living at Sharps Row until her death in 1923, Daniel pre-deceasing her in 1910, and Joseph dying in 1927, neither of them having married.
Elizabeth Hartwell (1825-?) married William Knight in 1848 and lived at Sharps Row, close to her parents, for a time, but then by 1861 had moved to Badsey Field before leaving the village.
George Hartwell (1827-?), who had been living at his parents’ home in Sharps Row in 1841 and 1851, was living at Badsey Leys with his wife, Emma, and young family in 1861. George had married Emma Cook (from Broadway) in 1856. Emma had had an illegitimate child, David (by George Hartwell), who was baptised at Badsey on the same day as they were married. In the baptismal register he appears as David Hartwell Cook but in the 1861 census he appears as David Cook Hartwell. By 1861, George and Emma also had a daughter Mary Anne. Also in the household was George’s widowed father, Charles, and George’s widowed uncle, George (who had married Ann, had a son Thomas in 1819 and then left the village), both lodging with them. George and Emma had three sons and two daughters in total: David (1856), Mary Anne (1860), Charles (1864), George (1866-1869) and Fanny Maria (1869-1869). In 1871, they were living at a cottage in Aldington (believed to be The Old House, Village Street), but by 1881, they had moved to Elmley Castle.
David Hartwell (1830-?), the youngest surviving son of Charles and Maria, had left the village by 1851. It is possible that he moved to Yardley, Worcestershire, as, in the 1881 census index, there is a David Hartwell of the right age whose birthplace is given as Evesham. He was married to Harriet and had four daughters and two sons.
The only one of Charles and Maria’s Hartwell grandchildren residing in Badsey to produce the next generation of Badsey Hartwells, was George Hartwell (1847-1920), the son of William and Sarah Hartwell, but George’s children sometimes had the surname Hartwell and sometimes Knight. George still lived at home in Sharps Row at the time of the 1861 and 1871 census, but by 1881, he was living at The Leys with widow Dinah Knight as his common-law wife. Dinah’s two sons by a previous relationship were living with them, as well as George and Dinah’s own two little boys, George William (1879) and David (1880). They had been baptised Knight, but by 1881 had assumed the name Hartwell; George Hartwell Senior was simply described as a boarder. However, by 1891, they, and three younger siblings, all had the surname Knight, so possibly the 1881 name given to them was a mistake by the enumerator; George Hartwell was still described as a lodger. It is likely that George Hartwell was the father of the three younger children, although they had the surname Knight: Thomas (1882), Alice (1884) and Charles (1885). Certainly, he was listed as Guardian/Parent of all five children were they enrolled at school. In 1901, they were all living on Badsey Fields Lane (what is now No 3, Sunnyside); George still described as a lodger.
Descendants of William and Mary
William (1793-1878) and Mary had four sons and four daughters: William (1823-1896), Mary Anne (1826), James (1828-1904), George (1830), Daniel (1833), Rachel (1837), Sarah (1840-1923) and Eliza (1844). In 1841, William, an agricultural labourer, lived in Badsey with his wife, Mary, and children William, James, George, Daniel, Rachel and Sarah, and his widowed mother, Mary. Next-door to William and Mary and their large family was their nephew, John Hartwell, an agricultural labourer. William and Mary were not living in Badsey in 1851, and neither were their three youngest children, Rachel, Sarah and Eliza. They were living at Oden Cottage, Cleeve Prior. However, they were back again in 1861, living at Sharps Row with their two youngest daughters, Sarah and Eliza (their daughter, Rachel, having married George Wingfield in 1855). Also living them was Caleb, the 14-year-old illegitimate son of William and Mary’s eldest daughter, Mary Anne. They were still at Sharps Row in 1871 and had their youngest daughter, Eliza, and her husband, John Hanks, staying with them. William died in 1878, aged 85. In 1881, his widow Mary was living at Sand Pool with her unmarried son, James, and a boarder, Charles Hall. Mary died in June 1881.
William and Mary’s eldest son, William (1823-1896), married Charlotte Sharp in 1846. William and Charlotte had five sons and three daughters: Ann (1847), Thomas Cooper (1849), Elizabeth (1852), Daniel Jonathan (1855), Charlotte (1860), William (1860), James (1863) and George (1866). In 1851, two of William’s unmarried brothers, George and Daniel, lodged with the family in Bakers Lane (now called School Lane, the cottage was next to the present-day school, and was demolished only in the 1960s). William and Charlotte remained there for the rest of their lives. In 1871, they had a boarder, James Willoughby. Their youngest daughter was recorded as Mary Ann, aged one, but Mary Ann was actually the illegitimate daughter of their eldest daughter, Ann, who went on to marry James Willoughby in June 1871. In 1891, their two unmarried sons, James and George, still lived with them on Bakers Lane, next-door to Daniel, and his growing family. William Hartwell died in 1896 and his widow, Charlotte, in 1899.
It is not known where William and Mary’s eldest daughter, Mary Anne (1826), was in 1841, but in 1847 she gave birth to an illegitimate son, Caleb Weaver Hartwell. By 1861, Mary Anne was by now married to Caleb Howes (presumably the father of her illegitimate son) and living next-door to her parents at Sharps Row with their three young children, Sarah, James and Jesse Howes. They had left Badsey by 1871.
James Hartwell (1828-1904) never married. In 1851, he was working as an agricultural labourer, and lodging with the Hall family at The Leys. He was not in the village in 1861. In later census returns he is described as a "retired army pensioner", so one assumes he was away in the army then. In later years, he lodged with his sister, Sarah, and died in Badsey in 1804.
George Hartwell (1830-?), an agricultural labourer, was lodging with his elder brother, William and family in 1851, but had gone from Badsey by 1861. There is a George Hartwell, an unmarried bricklayer, living at Northfield, Worcestershire, in 1881, who is believed to be the same person.
Daniel Hartwell (1833-?), an agricultural labourer, was lodging with his elder brother, William and family in 1851, but had gone from Badsey by 1861. The 1881 census confirms that Daniel Hartwell was living at Northfield, Worcestershire, with his wife, Carole, and working as a bricklayer’s labourer.
Rachel Hartwell (1837-?) had left Badsey by 1851, when she was living with her parents at Oden Cottage, Cleeve Prior. In 1855, she married widower, George Wingfield, at Bengeworth, and had four children.
Sarah Hartwell (1840-1923) married her first cousin, Charles Hartwell (see notes above).
Eliza Hartwell (1844-?) married John Hanks in 1866. In 1871 they were living at Sharps Row with her parents, but by 1881 they were living in Peopleton, Worcestershire.
As far as the next generation was concerned, of William and Mary’s Hartwell children residing in Badsey, it was left to the children of their son, William, to produce the next generation of Badsey Hartwells.
William and Charlotte’s eldest daughter, Ann Hartwell (1847-), married James Willoughby in 1871 and they were living with her parents at the time of the census; Ann had given birth to a daughter, Mary Ann, in 1869. They went on to have more children and continued to live in the village (at what appears to be Barn Cottage, Mill Lane) until at least 1891.
Thomas Coope Hartwell (1849-?) married Julia and left the village. By 1881, he and his family were living at Norton, Worcestershire, where he worked as a groom.
Elizabeth Hartwell (1852-), married John Crane in October 1874. Earlier in the year she had given birth to an illegitimate son, Thomas William Hartwell, who was baptised at Badsey in February 1874. In the 1881 census and 1891 census, Thomas Hartwell was known as Thomas Crane and was living with John and Elizabeth Crane and their other children. However, by 1898, he was using the name Hartwell, as when his second son was born in 1898, the Vicar has written against Hartwell: "commonly known as Crane". Possibly the 1881 and 1891 census enumerator just assumed his name was Crane. By the time of the 1901 census, Thomas and his wife, Esther, lived at Silk Mill Cottages with their young son, not far away from John and Elizabeth Crane who lived in one of the other Silk Mill Cottages.
Daniel Hartwell (1855-1911), married Elizabeth Clarke in 1880, and in 1881, they were living next door to Daniel’s parents in Bakers Lane (one of a pair of cottages which were demolished in the 1960s in what is now School Lane). Daniel and Elizabeth had five sons and two daughters in total: James Henry (1881), William (1884), Kate (1887), Charlotte Elizabeth (1890), Frederick Thomas (1893), Cecil Daniel (1896) and George Baden Powell (1900). In 1901, Daniel and Elizabeth were still at Bakers Lane, but by 1907 they lived at Cotswold View and by 1908 at Badsey Field. Daniel died in 1911. The following obituary appeared in the Parish Magazine of January 1912: News of the death of Mr D J Hartwell, of Badsey, which took place on December 7th, came to many as a painful surprise. Although he had been in indifferent health for some months, he had nevertheless been able to do a little work up to within a week of his death which resulted rather suddenly from a seizure. He was one of the most civil and genial men in the parish.
Charlotte Hartwell (1860-?), had an illegitimate daughter, Ellen Beatrice, in 1880, and then married William Stewart in February 1881; at the time of the census, the three of them were living at Aldington.
William Hartwell (1860-1947) married Maria Sadler in 1887, and in 1891 lived in the Village Street with their two young children. The Hartwells and Sadlers lived in what is now known as Badsey Hall or The Stone House, each family living in one half (in those days, there was a door in the centre of the house, with step leading up). William and Maria had four children in total: Emily Bertha (1888), John (1890), Basil (1892) and Richard (1895). In 1901 they lived at Belmont Terrace.
In 1901, James Hartwell (1863-?), was by now married to Ann from Murcot; they had no children. They lived on Badsey Fields Lane in a red-brick semi-detached (built in the 1890s, currently No 1), next-door to his second cousin, George Hartwell.
In 1892, William and Charlotte Hartwell’s youngest son, George Hartwell (1866-1926), married Letitia Crump at Droitwich. They had three sons and three daughters: Lily May (1893), George William (1894), Rose Ellen (1897), Violet Annie (1899), Reginald Howard (1907-1907) and Harold (1911). By 1901, they were living in the family home (made vacant after William and Charlotte’s deaths), next door to George’s brother Daniel and family. By August 1906, when Violet entered the Mixed Department of Badsey Council School, George and family lived at 7 Cotswold View; by September 1918, they were living at Sylvan Villas (Letitia Elizabeth had died in March 1915).
Hartwell Strays
In 1851, there was also 20-year-old Harriet Hartwell from Broadway, who was working as a servant in the home of Charles and Charlotte Drury in The Street.
See also:
Research interests:surnames and other topics in Badsey and Aldington
Alphabetical index of surnames