Fragments of the life of Sarah Biddulph: Wherein is contained bigamists, disappeared widows, commissions of lunacy and no firm conclusions
The fragmented life of Sarah Biddulph
It is sad, but true, that most people avoid the attentions of Historians by being too poor, too female or too long ago. In the hunt for the origins of people donating hard cash to set up the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry I came across Sarah Biddulph. Apart from being rare, only 7% of donors were card carrying women in the 1794 list, [1] Sarah appeared not just in the lists of births, marriages and deaths, but during the initial search, appeared in the newspapers several times over 23 years. What will follow are fragments of History. I can not, as yet, go much beyond these spots of light in the darkness - but what fragments and what darkness.
Sarah was married to William Biddulph, who was involved with land in the possession of Widow Moore in 1761. [2] He was renting 27 acres of pasture [at least] in Uttoxeter in 1761. [3] William is again mentioned as being involved with the sale of land in Wirkworth, Derbyshire, in 1777. [4] In the 1790s Sarah was living in a small, but genteel house, in Uttoxeter.
Sarah first appears in the records when she is named in a piece put in several newspapers in 1776 [5]. Sarah and John Mouseley, a Warwickshire farmer, were accused of clandestinely taking away the widow Ann Trundley, to get her married off. The piece, entitled ‘A Caution to the Clergy’, warned the clergy not to marry the ‘lunatic’ and was paid for by Edward Eastman Pickering, the husband to Trundley’s heir.
The warning piece varied in its wording. That in the 4th May Leicester Journal claims Ann is a lunatic of long standing. By 6th May the announcement includes the information that, once it is known if Ann is a sane or not - a Commission of Lunacy was to be the judge - they would announce it immediately in the papers. Ann Pickering, the Heir in Law, also gets a name check.
Untangling all of this is a bit confusing. James Trundley was buried in St Mary’s, Uttoxeter, on 20th March 1776. He married Ann Clark on 8th May 1758 at St Werburgh’s, Hanbury. He signed, she made her mark. So far, so good. Ann is recorded as being 28 at the time. She was christened in Hanbury on 27th September 1730. Her father was Francis Clark.
The problem then comes with identifying the ‘lunatic’ Ann Trundley. An Ann fits the story perfectly, but for the fact she married in May 1765, a year before the newspaper campaign. This Ann Trundley of Hanbury was married in 28th May 1675 in nearby Sudbury to Thomas Ford, blacksmith - not far from Hanbury, Uttoxeter and oher places mentioned in the story. One record for this comes from the records of the parish and from the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry Marriage Allegations and Bonds records. These are the records of people who wished to marry with speed or with privacy.
There are other Ann Trundleys in Staffordshire and Derbyshire in the eighteenth century on record. One was baptised in Kingsley, near Cheadle. In 1743 and another baptised in Cheadle in 1749 [of different parents] - so these might have been our 1765 Ann - or not. We may be suffering a lack of records or the motive for the newspaper campaign may elude me - at present. What of the other people named.
‘Co-defendant’ John Mouseley was baptised on 25th September 1751 in Meriden, Warwickshire. He is named as living at Mackstock [presumably Maxstoke], near Coleshill, Warwickshire. After that things enter into the world of the possibly. A John Mouseley was married, by license, to Martha Morteboys of Balsall, Edward and Thomas Morteboys being witnesses, on 23rd May 1764. Martha was baptized in 1734. This does seem to be pushing the link, even if the age of consent was 14 at the time.
Edward Eastman pops up again in The Shropshire Chronicle on 14th May 1774. A certain Thomas Noonan, later of Waterford, had married Mary Fead in St. Chad’s Shrewsbury on 27th June 1766. Noonan is described as a farmer, although he was later an innkeeper at the Castle & Falcon, Mardol, Shrewsbury. Before this he had, as a young man, fathered a child - the good lady being Mary Herbert. In 1774 Mary decided to accuse her husband of bigamy and took out an ad to that effect in the Shropshire Chronicle of 23rd April. In an extensive article, published on 14th May, Noonan claimed Edward had gone to Ireland and bribed people to say they were married. Edward wrote an equally long piece for the Chronicle’s 25th June paper saying, effectively, he didn’t. Noonan is, two years later, subscribing to the Shrewsbury General Association for Prosecutions of Felons - so he does not appear to have been driven from the town by the accusation. [7]
At some point in the 1780s Edward’s debts began to mount. Adverts were placed in the Derby Mercury and the Birmingham Gazette in October 1786 listing household furniture which was to be sold at his home at Mottspring, near Uttoxeter. It appears lawyers were after him because 21st May 1796 he puts ‘A Caution to the Public’ piece in the Staffordshire Advertiser, that people are not to deal with Mr Robert Champante, a London lawyer, regarding the money coming from the auction of his Staffordshire properties. Pickering was in Stafford Gaol - for debt - by 9th September 1797 - because he made an appeal, in the Advertiser, to the 1797 ‘Relief of Certain Debtors’ Act, informing anyone with debts to see the gaoler. [8]
We now have two Edward Eastman Pickerings, father and son. Edward Eastman Pickering is listed as a debtor in Newgate in 1788 and 1791. In 1791 Edward Eastman Pickering was indicted for an assault on William Radcliffe, a pastryman, at the Middlesex Sessions. Edward the elder appears to have been buried in Whitechapel in January 1795. Edward the younger was buried in Maidstone on 15th August 1798.
Back to Ann Clark, the wife of Edward Eastman Pickering and presumably the wife mentioned in the warning piece about not marrying lunatics. Her marriage, in Derby, to Edward Eastman Pickering occurred in Derby on 21st March 1763. Her position as ‘heir in law’ suggests that no will had been made but she could have expectations as a relation. Given Ann Clark and Ann Clark are the women in question, and hoping her parents were not very unimaginative in the naming of daughters, and only being five years difference in their age at marriage, I presume Ann is most likely a niece. I can’t confirm this. I have no record of what happened next. Ann Pickering is reported as having died on 11th April 1796. [9]
After all that it is time to return to Sarah Biddulph. Entering the 1790s Sarah was living in a genteel state and able to contribute five guineas to the founding of the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry that summer[10]. Her husband, William, had died in 1782 and buried on 1st December at St Mary the Virgin, Uttoxeter.
Things were afoot for Sarah in 1796. In April her home was advertised‘...a convenient House, fit for the Reception of a small genteel family, situated in Church-street, in Uttoxeter, in the Country of Stafford, with a convenient Yard, and Garden adjoining, with stabling and out offices, late the Residence of Mrs Biddulph.’ [11] The buyers were advised to see William Biddulph of Yoxall for details. William is probably the son of Sarah, who was christened in St Peter’s,Yoxall, on 12th November 1752.
Things took a turn for the strange when Sarah went missing. On 5th January 1797 the Derby Mercury carried the notice that Sarah had absconded a year ago and forged a will which cut out her Heir at Law, John Biddulph offered forty pounds upon her conviction and warned people not to pay anything to Sarah. By the autumn forty guinea reward was offered for information leading to her recovery. Whether she hid herself away or was being held is not entirely clear. [12]
The end of our stories comes thus. On the 12th, 19th and 26th October 1797 the Staffordshire carried a notice that if anyone had any claims on Sarah’s estate they needed to make it known by 1st November. Sarah Biddulph was buried in St Mary’s, Uttoxeter, on 27th July 1799. Although a Sarah Biddulph, was buried in Yoxall, aged 98, on 21st March 1797. [12]
Sarah Biddulph caught my eye when trying to do the simple task of finding where people who had donated to the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry lived. The above is a testimony to the joy and frustration of the internet age - where limitless rabbit holes open up. The very incomplete nature of records in the eighteenth century, much less those which survived to be digitalised has left a trail of possibles and probables and some less than honest dealings. I hope, but don’t expect, to be able to tie some of them up later. I can only end with the heart felt wish of researchers through the ages that, if possible, the first job to be done when a time machine is invented is that parents be persuaded to use a great deal more variety in the choosing of names, especially of Ann Clarks.
Notes
I would like to thank Katie Owens for tracking down many of the documents related to Ann Trundersley and the Pickerings and putting up with my general bewilderment over them and making many sensible observations.
[1] Shropshire Chronicle 25th July 1794
[2] Derby Mercury, 4th September 1761
[3] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 17th December 1764.
[4] Derby Mercury 31st October 1777
Edward Eastman Pickering married Ann Clark on 2nd February 1763 in All Saints Church, Derby.
[5] Derby Mercury 26th April, 3rd May, 10th May, 17th May, 24th May, 31st May, 7th June 1776; Aris’s Birmingham Gazette 29th April, 13th May, 20th May, 27th May, 3rd June 1776; Leicester Journal 4th May, 11th May, 18th May 1776; Gloucester Journal 6th May, 13th May, 20th May, 3rd June, 10th June, 17th June 1776; Coventry Standard 10th June 1776.[6] Aris’s’ Birmingham Gazette 21st May 1764 & 15th February 1768.
[7] Shrewsbury Chronicle 14th May 1774[10] Aris’s Birmingham Gazette 11th April 1796
[11] Shropshire Chronicle 25th July 1794
[12] Staffordshire Advertiser 11th and 18th November 1797
[13] There are several John Biddulphs in the rightish place at the right time. One was born in Yoxall, to John and Mary Biddulph and another is a shoemaker who has a game keeper’s licence in more distant Leek. Birmingham Gazette 26th February 1787.
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