THE MUDDLE FAMILIES

 

THE KENT MUDDLE FAMILIES THE HARRIETSHAM MUDDLES

 

Chart of Edward & Mary Muddle's Family

 

Edward and Mary’s eldest child was William Muddle who was born at Alverstoke in Hampshire, and baptised at the Church of St Mary in Alverstoke on 20 February 1694.

 

Edward and Mary’s second child was Hannah Muddle who was born at Rochester in Kent, and baptised at the Church of St Margaret of Antioch in Rochester on 14 April 1695.

 

Edward and Mary’s third child was Mary Muddle who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 5 January 1699. Mary died when she was 3 years old and she buried in the Churchyard of Stoke Damerel Church on 26 October 1702.

 

Edward and Mary’s fourth child was Edward Muddle who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 1 December 1700. Edward’s baptism record gives his Christian name as Eastwood, which was his mother’s maiden name, and is considered to be an error and should have been Edward.

On 1 November 1710 Edward, who was not yet quite 10 years old, started working in the Naval Dockyard at Plymouth as a Clerk to John Addis, who was Clerk of the Cheque. Even though he was so young Edward's salary was the same as other Clerks, £30 per year that was paid quarterly. On 16 March 1711 Edward together with John Addis and all the other Clerks working for him were discharged. Edward then became a Clerk to Tempest Holme, who was the Storekeeper at the dockyard, replacing William Bacon, who had been a Clerk to Tempest Holme but had been promoted on 14 March. Tempest Holme was discharged as Storekeeper on 14 May 1711 and was replaced by Edward Cole, with Edward Muddle and his three fellow Clerks now working for him.[5]

When he was 20 years old Edward married Catherine Mutam at Stoke Damerel Church on 20 April 1721 by a licence issued by Canon Gilbert on 10 April 1721. Edward and Catherine are thought to have been childless. In 1723 after the Jacobite plot of 1720-22 oaths of loyalty to King George I were required to be sworn by the citizens of England. This oath was sworn by Edward on 5 September 1723 at Horragridge in the parish of Buckland Monachorum, Devon, which is about 8 miles north of Stoke Damerel, and the oath was sworn by Catherine on 20 December 1723 at the Dockyard in Stoke Damerel; they both signed the oath rolls.[6] They had by now started to use the Muddell spelling of their surname.

Edward continued to work at the dockyard as a Clerk for Edward Cole the Storekeeper until Edward Cole's death on 7 September 1728. Edward then became Clerk to the new Storekeeper, Thomas Colby, and two years later Edward was still Clerk to Thomas Colby on a salary of £30 per year when the dockyard pay books recorded that Edward had died on 5 November 1730, he was just on 30 years old.[7]

Edward had made his will on 4 November 1730, the day before his death, and this will was proved by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in London on 23 January 1731. In this will Edward left £50 to his brother Joseph, and to his half-brother Simon Griffin Sheward he left £20 for him to be apprenticed to a trade selected by the trustees of the will with £2 per year for his education until he became an apprentice. All the rest of his lands, goods and chattels he left to his wife Catherine, whom he made sole executrix, with his friends Philemon Pownoll and Francis Gregson, who were also clerks at the dockyard, as trustees.[8]

 

 

Edward and Mary’s fifth child was Joseph Muddle who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 6 February 1703. When he was 15½ years old Joseph was apprenticed for £12 to joiner Nathaniel Sweetman of Bideford in Devon, which is 45 miles north of Stoke Damerel, for 7 years from 16 September 1718, by an indenture dated 31 December 1718.[9]

When he was 26 years old Joseph married 24-year-old Joan Willcock at the Church of St James the Great in Antony, Cornwall, which is about 4 miles west of Stoke Damerel, on 16 April 1729. Joan was the daughter of John and Joan Willcock and she had been baptised at the Church of St James the Great in Antony on 17 February 1705. Joseph and Joan had three children born at Antony between 1730 and 1737.

When he married Joseph’s name was spelt Muddell and from then on the spelling of the surname of Joseph and his descendants seems to have been totally random as either Muddle or Muddell, so as a result they have all been given both versions of the name in this history.

By an indenture dated 2 June 1730 yeoman William Bartlett of Antony assigned the lease on a messuage or tenement with orchards and gardens (essentially a house and garden) near Willcove (modern spelling Wilcove, and just across the Hamoaze estuary from Stoke Damerel) in the parish of Antony for the remainder of a term of 99 years to joiner Joseph Muddell of Antony on payment of £18. The original lease had been granted by Thomas Waddon to John Hawkins in an indenture dated 6 June 1716 for a term of 99 years with the term of the lease being determinable on the lives of John Hawkins' wife Anna, his daughter Ann, and Ann daughter of Thomas Cample. A yearly rent of 12s was payable to Thomas Waddon.[10]

After his brother Edward's will was proved in 1731 Joseph inherited £50. Then sometime after the birth of their last child in 1737 the family moved to Stoke Damerel, probably by 12 February 1739 when Joseph started working at Plymouth Naval Dockyard as a House Carpenter with a rate of pay of 22d per day, the standard rate for a House Carpenter.[11] A House Carpenter at the dockyard was essentially the same as one in civilian life in that he was involved in the manufacture and maintenance of all the wooden parts of buildings and other structures within the dockyard, though some of these structures may have been fairly specialised, such as dry-docks. Presumably until then Joseph had worked as a joiner in private businesses or even possibly had his own business.

After they moved to Stoke Damerel they presumably had an under tenant in the house and garden at Willcove, and when Joseph assigned the lease on this property in an indenture dated 24 December 1751 he was described as a joiner of Stoke Damerel. In this indenture Joseph assigned the lease to mason Matthew Bawden of Antony for £14 10s 6d.[12] Matthew having agreed with the property owner Jonathan Rushleigh on 2 December 1751 for the property to be leased to him for 99 years determinable on the lives of himself, his wife Elizabeth and his daughter Elizabeth.[13]

Typical of Joseph's work and pay at the dockyard was that during the 1st quarter of 1755 he worked 68½ days, 56 nights and 2 tides for which he was paid £11 9s 3d with 2s 3d lodging allowance.[14] It's not certain how long the standard working day was, but it was probably 10 hours, a night was a period of 5 hours overtime for which a day's pay was received, and a tide was a period of 1½ hours overtime for which a house carpenter received 6d.[15]

It's not known if the family continued to live at Stoke Damerel or moved back to the other side of the Hamoaze estuary, to the parish of Antony, from where Joseph could presumably have travelled by boat to his work in the dockyard. But after 33 years of marriage Joan died at the age 57, and was buried in the Churchyard of St James the Great at Antony on Saturday 17 April 1762. For the next five years Joseph continued to work at the dockyard until in the pay book for the 2nd quarter of 1767 his death on Saturday 2 May 1767 was record, he was then 64 years old. During this quarter there had been 28 working days up to the time of Joseph's death and he had worked 17 of them; his pay was paid to his son Edward, who was the administrator of his estate and working at the dockyard as a shipwright.[16] Joseph was buried in the Churchyard of St James the Great at Antony on Tuesday 5 May 1767. When his will was proved by the Court of the Bishop of Exeter in 1767 he was described as of Antony. Unfortunately this will was destroyed in bombing during the Second World War and is only known from the published index to these wills, so the full details of this will have been lost.

 

Joseph and Joan’s eldest child was Edward Muddle/Muddell who was born at Antony in Cornwall, and baptised at the Church of St James the Great in Antony on 16 February 1730. It was probably in about 1739 that Edward moved with his parents to Stoke Damerel in Devon, which is about 4 miles east of Antony.

When he was 15½ years old Edward was apprenticed for £35 to shipwright Samuel Mansfield of Stoke Damerel for 7 years from the date of an indenture dated 11 September 1745.[17] Samuel Mansfield was a shipwright at Plymouth Naval Dockyard and Edward started work at the dockyard as an apprentice (called servants in the dockyard) to him on 14 September 1745 at a rate of pay of 14d per day, which was paid to his master. Edward's rate of pay increased steadily during the 7 years of his apprenticeship until when he completed his apprenticeship on 20 September 1752 it was 24d per day, which was still paid to his master. The next day, 21 September 1752, Edward started working at the dockyard as a qualified shipwright; his rate of pay was now 25d per day, the standard rate for a shipwright, and it was now paid to him. But just 5 months later on 22 February 1753 Edward was discharged from the dockyard at the same time as many other shipwrights and they were paid, with outstanding back pay, 6 days later on 28 February. Just two years later on 15 February 1755 Edward was taken back on as a shipwright at the dockyard at the same time as many other shipwrights were re-engaged. Then about 20 years later from a least the start of 1775 Edward starts to work significantly less days per quarter than other shipwrights. During the 1st quarter of 1775 he only worked 59 days instead of the maximum of 77 and this declined in an erratic manner until during the 2nd quarter of 1776 he only worked 36 days, and then during the next quarter he was discharged on 10 August 1776, halfway through the quarter, having worked only 13½ days. Payment of wages at the dockyard was nearly always late and Edward's outstanding pay was not paid to him until 21 January 1777.[18]

It seems likely that Edward's health had been deteriorating over the last few years causing him to take time off work at the shipyard and finally leading to either his dismissal or resignation. This probably resulted in him needing to raise money to live on by selling his property because in the Sherborne Mercury of 30 September 1776 a notice of the sale of a lease was published:

To be SOLD,

All that Messuage, Tenement, and Premises. with the appurtenances, called SOUTH WILLCOVE, in the parish of Antony, in the county of Cornwall; consisting of a good dwelling-house, barn, stable, seven fields or closes of land, containing about sixteen acres, and two orchards, now in the possession of George Williams, as under-tenant to Mr. Edward Muddell, shipwright, for the remainder of a term of 99 years, determinable on the deaths of two good lives.

For which purpose a public Survey will be held at the house of Mr. William Trevan, innkeeper, known by the sign of the Plume and Feathers in Fore-street, Plymouth Dock, in the county of Devon, on Saturday the 12th day of October next, at Four o’clock in the afternoon.

Applications for a view of the premises may be made to the said George Williams; and particulars of the title, to Mr. Mounier, attorney at law, in King-street, Plymouth Dock. – Dated Sept. 27, 1776.

Was this possibly the lease of a property that Edward had inherited from his father? Edward had been the administrator of his father's estate back in 1767. Just over a year after his discharge from the dockyard Edward died at the age of 47, and he was buried in the Churchyard of Stoke Damerel Church on 19 December 1777.

 

Joseph and Joan’s second child was John Muddle/Muddell who was born at Antony in Cornwall, and baptised at the Church of St James the Great in Antony on 26 September 1732. It was probably in about 1739 that John moved with his parents to Stoke Damerel in Devon, which is about 4 miles east of Antony.

When he was 15½ years old John was apprenticed for £11 11s to house carpenter Simon Sheward of Plymouth, which Stoke Damerel is now part of, for 7 years from the date of an indenture dated 28 March 1748.[19] This Simon Sheward was probably the Simon Griffin Sheward who was a half-brother of John's father. John would have completed his apprenticeship at the end of March 1755 and 2½ months later on 13 June 1755 he started work at Plymouth Naval Dockyard as a Joiner on pay of 24d per day. He was one of ten qualified Joiners who were taken on that day, and this was just four months after his brother Edward and several other Shipwrights had been re-engaged, so the dockyard must have been increasing its production of ships at this time.[20]

Three years after starting work at the dockyard John, at the age of 26, married Elizabeth Saunders at the Church of St Charles the Martyr in Plymouth on 29 September 1758 by a licence dated 26 September 1758. John was then living in the parish of St Charles the Martyr and described himself as a House Carpenter even though he was working as a Joiner, and Elizabeth was a spinster from Stoke Damerel. They lived at Stoke Damerel where they had seven children born between 1759 and 1773, two of whom died in infancy.

As a Joiner in the dockyard John would have made the wooden fixtures and fittings of a ship rather than the main structure that was made by the Shipwrights. In both the 2nd quarter of 1767 and 4th quarter of 1769 John worked 75 days without any overtime, none of the Joiners were then working overtime, and his pay for the quarter was £7 10s plus 2s 6d lodging allowance. But during the 4th quarter of 1770 they were all working a large amount of overtime, John worked 77½ days, 9 nights and 150 tides and his pay had nearly doubled to £13 6s 9d plus 2s 6d lodging allowance. It's not known how long the standard working day was, but it was probably 10 hours, a night was a period of 5 hours overtime for which a day's pay was received, and a tide was a period of 1½ hours overtime for which a joiner received 7½d.

John worked at the dockyard as a Joiner for 20 years until he was recorded as being discharged dead on 17 December 1765, when he was 43 years old. But it was four months later that he was buried in the Churchyard of St James the Great at Antony on 26 April 1776. It's not at all clear what this means, had John possibly fallen into the dock and drowned, and his body not recovered until four months later, or had he been discharged from the dockyard four months before he died, whatever happened it seems his outstanding pay was paid to Gilbert Elliott on 23 May 1776, a month after his burial.[21]

Five months after John's burial widow Elizabeth Muddle married barber Thomas Peak at Stoke Damerel Church on 1 October 1776 by licence.

 

John and Elizabeth’s eldest child was John Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 6 June 1759. On 12 August 1773, when he was 14 years old, John started working at Plymouth Naval Dockyard as an apprentice to Quarterman Shipwright Henry Coward, and his pay was 14d per day that was paid to his master. The indenture for John's apprenticeship was dated the 13 September 1773 and records that £35 had been paid, presumably by John's father, to shipwright Henry Coward of Plymouth Dockyard, to take John as an apprentice for 7 years from 12 August 1773.[22] John's pay increased each year until during the last year of his 7 year apprenticeship he was on 24d per day that was still paid to his master. John completed his apprenticeship on 11 August 1780 and the next day, 12 August 1780 he started work at the dockyard as a qualified Shipwright earning 25d per day that was now paid to him.[23]

In early 1781 when John's details were added to the register of qualified workers at Plymouth Dockyard it was stated that John had then completed 5 months as a qualified shipwright and described him as being 5ft 8ins tall with a brown complexion and to have a cut on the forefinger of his left hand. His character as a workman was described as good and when additional comments were added in 1782 he was described as a sober man.[24]

John married Sarah and they had at least four children born at Stoke Damerel between 1787 and 1794, one of whom died in infancy. The Universal British Directory of Trade, Commerce and Manufacture of 1791 listed Sarah Muddell under traders at Plymouth Dock, as having a pork shop. John had been working at Plymouth Naval Dockyard as a qualified Shipwright for 11½ years when he was discharged on 15 February 1792 for embezzlement of 2lb 2oz copper, valued at 4s 7d.[25]

It's not known what John did for the next 3½ years until he started work as a Shipwright at Portsmouth Naval Dockyard in Hampshire on 15 August 1795. It's thought that they must have remained living at Stoke Damerel until at least mid-1795 as their last child was baptised there on 4 June 1795, and that on getting the job at Portsmouth two months later John moved with his wife and children to Portsea, the parish next to Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.

After they had been at Portsea for 10½ years Sarah died and was buried in the Churchyard of St Mary in Portsea on 9 March 1806. Eleven years later John was living in Hanover Street in Portsea and still working as a Shipwright in Portsmouth Naval Dockyard when he died on Saturday 25 October 1817, at the age of 58 (not 56 as given on his burial record).[26] He was buried in the Churchyard of St Mary in Portsea on 2 November 1817. John's death was reported in the Monday 3 November 1817 edition of the Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle:

A sawyer (of the name of Muddle), in the Dockyard, who had been missing on Saturday last, was on Monday discovered a suspended corpse, in the pit where he had been at work.

John had made his will on 25 April 1816, and when this will was proved by the Archdeaconry Court of Totnes in Devon on 2 April 1818, John's goods were valued at under £100. This will instructed that his son Joseph was to receive the whole of the money he had in the Sixpenny Club at Plymouth Dockyard.[27]

 

John and Sarah’s eldest child was Elizabeth Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 18 September 1787. It was probably in mid-1795 that Elizabeth, aged 7, moved with her parents to Portsea in Hampshire, where her mother died in 1806 and her father in 1817.

It was probably when she was in her 20s that Elizabeth moved to London where, when she was 31 years old, she married widower John Lowden, who was about 56 years old, at the Church of St Mary in Newington on 2 October 1818. They both signed the marriage register but Elizabeth's was not a very practised hand. They are not thought to have had any children and they were living in Portland Street, Newington when John died at the age of 68, and was buried in the Churchyard of St Peter at Walworth in the Parish of St Mary, Newington on 8 June 1830.

Seven years after John's death Elizabeth, at the age of 49, married 41-year-old bachelor John James Gelling at the Parish Church of St Mary in Lambeth on 27 June 1837 by licence. John was then living in the Parish of St Catherine Cree in the City of London, and Elizabeth was living in Lambeth. John was the son of John and Jane Gelling; he had been born at Castletown on the Isle of Man and baptised in the Parish of Malew on the Isle of Man on 24 February 1796. In the census of 30 March 1851 Elizabeth was living at 3 Woburn Place in Bloomsbury and she had two live-in general servants, but for some reason John, who gave his occupation as Perpetual Curate of St Catherine Cree in the City of London, was than lodging with James and Susanna Cross at 51 Stamford Street in Southwark.

Elizabeth was still living at Woburn Place when she died at the age of 66 (not 68 as given on her burial record), and was buried in Highgate Cemetery in St Pancras on 14 January 1854. Twelve years later John was living at 127 Hemingford Road, Barnsbury, Islington when he died at the age of 70 (not 71 as given on his burial record), and was buried in Highgate Cemetery in St Pancras on 17 August 1866.

 

John and Sarah’s second child was Mary Ann Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon in about January 1789, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 3 August 1789. Mary died when she was 13 months old and she was buried in the Churchyard of Stoke Damerel Church on 18 February 1790.

 

John and Sarah’s third child was John Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon on 11 October 1790, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 11 January 1792. It was probably in mid-1795 that John moved with his parents to Portsea in Hampshire. John married Harriet and they had at least one child born in 1815 while they were living in Hanover Street in Portsea and John was working as a wheeler (wheelwright).

 

John and Harriet’s only known child was Harriet Muddle/Muddell who was born at Portsea in Hampshire, and baptised at the Church of St Mary in Portsea on 18 April 1815.

 

John and Sarah’s fourth child was Joseph Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon on 23 December 1794, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 4 June 1795. It was probably soon after his baptism that Joseph moved with his parents to Portsea in Hampshire. After his father died in 1817 Joseph was granted administration of his estate on 2 April 1818 and inherited the money his father had in the Sixpenny Club at Plymouth Dockyard. Less than two years later Joseph was living in Hanover Street in Portsea when he died at the age of 24, and was buried in the Churchyard of St Mary in Portsea on 3 January 1819.

 

John and Elizabeth’s second child was Joseph Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 1 March 1761. Joseph died when he was about 15 months old, and he was buried in the Churchyard of St James the Great at Antony on 15 June 1762.

 

John and Elizabeth’s third child was Joseph Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 29 May 1763. Joseph died when he was 2 years old, and he was buried in the Churchyard of St James the Great at Antony on 26 August 1765.

 

John and Elizabeth’s fourth child was Edward Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 25 May 1765.

 

John and Elizabeth’s fifth child was Elizabeth Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 7 April 1767. When she was 19 years old Elizabeth married William Evans at Stoke Damerel Church on 9 January 1787. They were both then living at Stoke Damerel and William was a cordwainer.

 

John and Elizabeth’s sixth child was Joseph Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 17 January 1769.

 

John and Elizabeth’s seventh child was Jane Muddle/Muddell, also known as Jenny, who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 20 September 1773. When she was 14 years old Jane had an illegitimate daughter born at Stoke Damerel in 1788, and at the baptism of this child Jane was described as too poor to pay the fee. Two years later Jane, now aged 16, married John Faulkner at Stoke Damerel Church on 22 March 1790. John was then a mariner on HMS Impregnable.

 

Jane’s illegitimate daughter was Jenny Muddle/Muddell who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 23 March 1788.

 

Joseph and Joan’s third child was Joseph Muddle/Muddell who was born at Antony in Cornwall, and baptised at the Church of St James the Great in Antony on 23 January 1737. It was probably in about 1739 that Joseph moved with his parents to Stoke Damerel in Devon, which is about 4 miles east of Antony.

At the start of 1753 Joseph, at the age of 16, started working in Plymouth Naval Dockyard as one of the Clerks working for Clerk of the Cheque Philemon Pownoll. He was on a salary of £30 per year paid quarterly, the normal pay of a clerk in the dockyard.[28] This was the Philemon Pownoll who as a Clerk back in 1730 had been one of the trustees of the will of Joseph's uncle Edward Muddle. Then later that year, when Joseph was 16½ years old, his father paid Clerk of the Cheque Philemon Pownoll £77 to take Joseph as an apprentice for 7 years from the date of an indenture dated 1 October 1753.[29] Joseph continued working as a Clerk to Philemon Pownoll while he was apprenticed to him, and on 1 October 1756 after he had been an apprentice to Philemon Pownoll for 3 years Joseph's salary was increased to £35 per year. He would have completed his 7 year apprenticeship on 30 September 1760, and then just over a year later Joseph was still a Clerk to Philemon Pownoll on a salary of £35 when he died on 6 November 1761, at the age of 24. He was buried in the Churchyard of St James the Great at Antony on 8 November 1761. Joseph outstanding pay from the dockyard was paid to his father as the administrator of his estate. Philemon Pownoll died just two months after Joseph, on 7 January 1762.[30]

 

Nicholas and Mary’s eldest child (Mary’s sixth) was Ridgway Sheward who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 11 January 1714.

 

Nicholas and Mary’s second child (Mary’s seventh) was Simon Griffin Sheward who was born at Stoke Damerel near Plymouth in Devon, and baptised at Stoke Damerel Church on 27 December 1716. After his half-brother Edward’s will was proved in 1731 the trustees of the will had £20 to place Simon as a apprentice in a trade they thought proper and until that time they had £2 per year to use on his education.

It’s thought that Simon was probably apprenticed as a carpenter and that he was later the Simon Sheward, house carpenter of Plymouth, who took John Muddell, the son of his half-brother Joseph Muddell, as an apprentice in 1748. For taking John as an apprentice Simon was paid £11 11s on which he paid tax of 5s 10d on 6 July 1754.[31]

Copyright © Derek Miller 2009-2012

Last updated 21 December 2012