INTRODUCTION

N February 1979 I left England and the family for Australia, where I hoped to settle. Janet, my future wife, was at the airport to bid me farewell. The journey took me to Greece, Egypt, India, Kashmir, Singapore and finally Sydney. I stayed with Jack (Philip John WISE 100), and Zenia(102) at Wyong, N.S.W., whilst I sought employment in Sydney. It was during this visit that my interest in family history was first evoked. I found Jack to be interested in the family in England and realised it was probably because of his remoteness from the Island. On a visit one day to Zenia's brother, I was shown photocopies of old letters of official business, written by an early settler in their family, which had been obtained from the State Archives. It occurred to me that Australians were very interested in the roots of their families, both in the new country and in England. This interest is not manifest to such a degree, by the English in England. Even now, I remember my interest was not at that time greatly moved by the receipt of a copy of our family tree, sent out by my father, Charles Thomas WISE (97) during my stay with Jack. I recognised it as being one I had copied from another for a school project at the age of 7 years. (Family tree P).

In July of that year, Janet and I decided to marry in South Africa, to spend a year in England to enable her to study, and finally to return to Australia. So it was that in September 1979, I flew from Sydney to Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth to meet Janet, and her mother, Stella GARDELL, at the airport. Perhaps the longest part of the journey was yet to come; a drive of 180 miles across the Karoo. As we climbed over each range of mountains, the flat, open landscape spread out before us. We carried on until dusk when the springbok appeared near the roadside and we became apprehensive of Kudu launching themselves at the headlights as we passed through areas of thicket. Eventually, the twinkling lights of the town, Graaff Reinet, appeared nestling in the gap of the distant range of hills. It was still a long time before we reached this town, our destination. Janet's father, John, was waiting at the gate to welcome us home and we were soon discussing plans for the wedding. I found the interest in family history of Australians being echoed in South Africa. In particular, I mixed with the English speaking people who were very interested in tracing back their family roots to the British settlers of 1820. I was in South Africa to be married and found myself interested in my bride's family history, only in so far as her close relatives were concerned. My interest in genealogy had only been seeded.

On our return to England we lived in Paddington Green and we were both too busy, Janet on her course and I in returning to work in Parkway, Camden Town, to show any interest in family history. Father sent me a copy of the family tree in October, and after showing it to Janet, it was put away in a drawer.

Sometime in November when we had settled into an easy routine and Janet was working in the evening on her studies, I looked for some interest or hobby which would occupy me over the long, dark evenings. So it was with this idea in mind that I went to the drawer in which we had placed the family tree, (Family tree P). I realised that we too would soon become settlers in a new country and would probably show an interest in our roots. Our children would probably ask questions about England and the family, which we ought to be able to answer. I was living in London, where many records were kept and I had a year in which to do something fruitful. This short story shows how my interest was stimulated, and how time and place helped me make the decision to trace our family history.

PREFACE

his book is written with the intention of concluding a year's research into the history of the WISE family. In the first place, I had been given a family tree (Family tree P) by my father, Charles Thomas WISE (97), who informed me that it had been drawn up by William Thomas WISE (81). I asked Father preliminary questions about his side of the family, in order to find out if an old legend had survived. None had survived for the WISE family, but Marjory Violet CURLE (91), had always said that a branch of her family came from Ireland; also that the NASH family were very wealthy, and that one of the family had squandered the money on enjoyment. I was looking for a legend which, although I realised may have become embellished over the years, would contain a smattering of the truth, and which I could use as a story. The WISE family had come from Banbury, Oxfordshire, but no record of who they were or what they had done remained. When I first started the research, I did not decide which branch of the family I should study first. The most fruitful would be a branch, which, by the commencement of the 1837 registration of births, deaths and marriages, were living in a parish which had a complete set of records. The family would ideally be landowners, who as a consequence, would not move from parish to parish. They would be sufficiently wealthy to leave wills, to afford gravestones, and to be mentioned in books. I set out to trace every branch of both my parents' roots to 1837, with the hope that at least one branch would prove an ideal basis for research. I realised that I had no experience in genealogy and so decided to trace the WISE family independently of the family tree, but to use the tree as a check for accuracy. Eventually I learnt to trace a family quite successfully. Fortunately, the WISE family appeared to have all the requisites for easy tracing. They lived in Banbury, Oxon, which has a good set of records, and an active historical society. They were not large landowners, but they did own houses and shops, which caused them to leave wills. They were not wealthy, but did rise to hold positions in the town, which are mentioned in local history books. I was pleased that the WISE family should demonstrate these requisites, since it is a pleasant task to talk of one's own direct line. I also have found that in tracing their history, I have used most of the tools available to genealogists, from family silver to wills in the Bodlian Library, Oxford.

IN SEARCH OF A BANBURY ANCESTRY:

THE WISE GENEALOGY

CHAPTER ONE

WILLIAM WISE

HE original family tree (Family tree P) which had been sent to me by my father, Charles Thomas WISE (97), supposedly being written by his Uncle, Major William Thomas WISE (81), was particularly interesting because it showed the time of day when the children of William Philip WISE (60) were born. It was not pretentious, and for these reasons I placed my faith in its accuracy. In many cases the dates of events were given, but no places. I had been told the WISE family came from Banbury, Oxon, but rather than start there, I decided to check the information I had and complete, as far as possible, the details of the children of William WISE (73).

When I started work I was ignorant of what certificates were available, what information they contained, and where they were to be found. In the first place, I went to Westminster City Library, Marylebone Road, to read what I could find on the subject. The Reference Section held a good selection of beginners’ books. I chose to buy a book entitled "Tracing your Family History" by Don Steel because it accompanied a series of six programmes on the television which traced back the family of Gordon Honeycombe, a newscaster. I was able to read the book and bring to life its pages by watching the television and following his methods myself. My first search was for the baptism records of the first three children (80,81 and 82) of William WISE (73) at Hoxton Church. The Hoxton Library had a local history and archives section in Downham Road, Hoxton, and I telephoned them to enquire which records they kept. In addition to records similar to those found in the Westminster Library, they held microfilms of the baptismal records of St John's Church in Hoxton and the census for 1851.

One evening after work, I went to the Hoxton Library. I had spoken to the archivist to explain what I required, so on arrival the microfilms of the baptismal records were awaiting me. I found the relevant entries within a short time. William WISE (73) had married Eliza PYLE (78) on 14 July 1850 at St Michael’s, Cornhill, London. They had three children fairly soon and had moved home fairly frequently during this time. They probably were renting the property or rooms and consequently were to move each time the next child was born. The couple was newly married and would not have enough money to purchase a house. The baptismal documents told me very little about the people. In order to discover more, I had to know a little more about the area and the times in which they lived.

Hoxton was a town within a short ride of London. It was not only famous for the Lunatic Asylum but also as a dormitory area for the city workers. It lies to the north of the city and served a similar purpose to that of the East End of London; namely to provide a place of first refuge for those people from the towns and villages of England who sought work in London. Foreigners also had come to England to start in the East End. For example, the lace makers of Spitalfields were Huguenots. Their work may be seen in the museum at Bethnal Green, London. (I mention this because the lace is very fine and delightful). Banbury was famous for its lace and had a thriving cottage industry until the early 19th Century. More recently the Italians and Asians have arrived in the East End to repeat history by bringing their culture and crafts.

So when did William WISE and his wife come to London and where were they born? The answer to this question can be found in the census returns. Every 10 years since 1801 returns have been made by every household of the people living there. No useful returns remain, until 1841, when the following details were recorded; the householder's name and his dependants not noting their relationships. Street numbers were unusual and the enumerator separated buildings on the return with a double line; households in the same building were separated by a single line. Occupations were given. The date of birth was accurate to the nearest 5 years, and no worthwhile details of the person's birth place were recorded, only the answer "yes" or "no" to the question "whether or not born in the same county?" The first census to be of real value to a genealogist was made in 1851, since it accurately recorded the person's age and his place of birth.

On that same evening in Hoxton Library I knew they had a microfilm of the 1851 census for the locality. It had been taken on the night of the 30th March and I had an address in Westmoreland Place taken from the baptismal certificate of Henrietta Louisa WISE (80), dated 19 October 1851. William WISE (73) had moved frequently in those early days, so I held my breath as the pages of the census passed in front of me on the screen of the microfilm reader. Quite suddenly, to my delight, there appeared on the screen No 68 Westmoreland Place. Slowly my eye moved along the line "William WISE, Head Married 31 Messenger United Guarantee and Life Oxon, Banbury."

What a relief to know that I now had confirmed one detail on the original family tree! (Family tree P)

His age was 31 years in March 1851 so quickly I calculated that he would be born between March 1819 and March 1820. The original family tree gave his date of birth as 23 May 1819, so I had confirmed another detail. The census of 1851 is certainly very useful! I examined the details of the other occupants and could see that William was renting rooms above the shop of a mantle maker. Would he possibly have moved rooms after the first child was born because the landlady did not want children in the house?

After such a successful first evening at genealogy who could not be hooked on the subject? I certainly was interested enough to continue and hoped the research would always be as easy. I had, of course, benefited from a baptismal date on an existing family tree. For this reason my research could not be called original. But, if this information had not been available, I should still have used the same technique, as indeed I have done with other branches of the family. I would have had to find a birth, death or marriage, as close to a census year as possible, and subsequently find the address of the certificate on the census.

A law prohibits one from looking at a census less than one hundred years old unless special permission is obtained. In my case, I probably would have chosen the birth certificate of my grandfather, the date of which I knew from my Father to be, 10 December 1869. I should then look up the address appearing on the certificate, on the census. This is something yet to be found. My grandfather, Frederick Charles WISE (86) was the youngest child of his family, so one would expect to find all his brothers and sisters, with their ages, on the census. One can work out from these ages, the dates of birth of the children and of the parents. The relevant certificates can then be ordered from St Catherine's House. One can also estimate when the parents were married. The age of the oldest child will give you the year of his or her birth. In the times we are researching it was usual for the first child to be born soon after the marriage. So usually, one has only to search back a few years. William and Eliza had their first child, Henrietta Louisa (80) ten months after their marriage. William Philip (60) and Elizabeth WISE (64) also had their first child ten months after their marriage. I chose to use a baptismal register because birth certificates are expensive documents to obtain; £3.50 in 1980.

This leads me to my next search for the marriage certificate of William WISE (73). I knew the date of the marriage, but even if I had not, I could have guessed it would have taken place between the time William WISE (73) was a young man of, say 18 years, and the time Henrietta Louisa (80) was born. Throughout our year in England, I worked in a pharmacy and was free each Wednesday. On these days I would do my research. The certificates of births, deaths, and marriages are kept at St Catherine's House, a records office at the bottom of Kingsway just on the Aldwych. On my first day I faced the usual problem of not knowing where to look, or what information was to be found on the certificates. I found rows of books, called indexes, in different sections for births, deaths and marriages. Each year was split into quarters and filled one book, if it were typed. But, if it were still in the original hand, the index filled many books. I wrote down the details given by the indexes for each certificate and realised they told me very little. I went to the marriage index section for the quarter of July, August, September, for 1850, and found several entries for William WISE. I wondered if I should order each certificate, but thought of a better method. I looked up the marriage index for Eliza PYLE and knew that an index number that was the same for both people would refer to the same certificate. The index code starts with a number which refers to the county, and from this I knew they were married in London.

I handed in an application form with the fee and prepared myself to wait patiently for 2 days before I could collect it on my way to work on Friday morning. In the meantime I copied out details of examples of certificates hung on the walls in order to know what I was buying and how it could help me. I hoped to learn from the marriage certificate, which I had ordered, where both bride and groom were living before marriage, and also their fathers' names.

In fact, the certificate I received was both pleasing and disappointing. The bride and groom gave the same address, 26 Cornhill, which was across the road from the Church. I learnt, from a contemporary Kelly's Directory, that it was the address of the offices of an Insurance Company. William was probably the messenger and would live in rooms upstairs. Eliza may have lived with him before they were married, but I suspect she put the same address for convenience, as she probably lived outside the Parish of St Michael. Unless Eliza lived in the same parish as William for a fortnight before her marriage, it would be necessary to have banns published and read in both parishes. All this would have been necessary were they living in the country, but in the city, such formalities can often be overcome.

I later checked the 1841 Census for Cornhill. I could find no house numbers, nor, more importantly, the WISE family. The 1851 census gave, for 26 Cornhill, John WATERS and family, aged 30 years, a messenger, as living there. He probably replaced William at his work and living accommodation. Remember that in 1851 William was working for the United Guarantee and Life Company, which, I learnt from the directory for 1850, had its offices at 36 Old Jewry. He was living in Hoxton.

I was faced with the problem of whether William WISE (73) came to London as a young man looking for work, or whether he came as a boy with his father and family. James WISE (74) was a witness to the marriage, but this did not help, since the same question could be asked of him. I searched the indexes of St Catherine's House for a marriage of James WISE, thinking he may have married the other witness, Elizabeth MARSH. This was a long shot which did not prove fruitful.

It was a pleasure to see the name William Philip WISE (60) on the marriage certificate, just as the family tree had given, and to learn that he was an Inspector of Weights. If William Philip WISE (60) had brought his children to London, he would have been an Inspector of Weights for the City of London or one of the Boroughs of Middlesex. The Guildhall Library has a very complete set of Directories for London and a good many transcripts of the Parish Records. In this library, I spent time looking for the names of people who held the position of Inspector of Weights in the various Boroughs. The librarian was most helpful when I told him about my search, but when it was unrewarded; I remember he commented, "Unfortunately you may find he was only a small fish who has fallen through the net of records." This comment was very sobering. I realised that at some time in my researches, a relation would eventually fail to be mentioned in Parish Records or other records, but I could not, and did not want to believe it had happened so soon in the case of only a great-great grandfather. With this idea in mind, I ordered up the transcripts of the Parish Records of St Mary's Church in the Parish of Banbury. I learnt from these records that there were indeed WISEs in Banbury, but nothing else of any value. It was the first time I had seen a transcript and I wondered if it were comprehensive. The information it contained was neither as useful as the information in the baptismal records of Hoxton nor as useful as the certificates of St Catherine's House. I really don't know what I expected to find in the transcripts: certainly not a reference to William Philip WISE, Inspector of Weights, but I did find the meagre information rather disappointing.

Whilst standing at the bus stop in Cheapside outside St Mary Le Bow, I realised I must complete the present generation of William (73) and Eliza WISE (78) before going back a generation. Only in this direction could there lie a clue to the origin of the previous generation.

CHAPTER TWO

THE CHILDREN OF WILLIAM WISE

illiam and Eliza WISE had their first three children baptised in Hoxton between the years 1851 and 1855. I had been able to find the family on the 1851 census from the addresses on the baptismal certificates. The next two children, Frances Charlotte (83) and Emma (84), were baptised at St Martins in the Fields between the year's 1859 and 1861. I could now repeat the process of finding the address of the family on the baptismal register, and then of finding the address on the 1861 census. (Once again I chose baptismal certificates because they were freely available at Westminster City Library.

Janet passed this library each day on her way to meet a friend in Pimlico to travel to Southlands College. She soon learnt to write down every detail which the baptismal records gave including page numbers, library reference numbers and to learn of other material which the library contained. In this case she came home with details of the baptismal records which showed the family was living at No 2 Waterloo Place, St James. I knew the dates of the baptisms from the family tree my father had sent me, but it was a great relief to see that not only had the records survived two World Wars, but that they could be found so easily. The pleasure of receiving this information was enhanced when Janet handed me the transcript from the 1861 Census for No 2, Waterloo Place. The details of the family corresponded with what I knew except that Eliza (82), who would have been 5 years old, was missing. She may have died young or may have been visiting a relation or a friend on the night of the census.

The street directory for 1861 gave No 2, Waterloo Place as also being No 8, Pall Mall with the following details:

No 2 European Assurance Society, William Cleland, Manager

No 2 Nelson Francis Gustavius Paulus Esq.

There was no mention of William WISE so I can only assume he was a messenger working for the European Assurance Society and was occupying rooms on the top floor or in the basement of the building.

I reflected on what my father Charles Thomas WISE (97) had said about William WISE (73) being a wine merchant in the City of London. It was already 1861 in our search for the family history of William WISE and he was to die in 1872 so we did not have long before there should have been a change in his lifestyle.

The next child, Helen Elizabeth (85), was born in 1866 in Croydon. So I turned over the pages of Kelly's Directory for Croydon and the Locality. I searched all their directories for the different years. In 1866 I found that the landlord o£ the "Prince Albert", Public House in Mitchum Road, Croydon, was named William WISE. Once again I needed a certificate dated about this time. The baptismal certificate of Helen Elizabeth WISE (85) suited my purpose and a copy of this was telephoned to me by a Mrs. Ferguson, who kept the records of Christchurch, Croydon. On this certificate William WISE (73) was a licensed victualler in Mitchum Road, and one can only assume that his inn was the "Prince Albert" situated within walking distance of the church. Father had been both right and wrong in his information concerning William WISE (73). He had lived in the City of London and he had been connected with the licensed trade, but not at the same time. This example showed me that the same can be said of family legends as can be said of statistics. That is to say, it is better to be roughly accurate than precisely wrong.

The baptism of my grandfather, Frederick Charles WISE (86), took place at Old Bromley Church in 1870. I did not know where the records were kept so I contacted the Church Information Bureau which gave me the name of the incumbent and the telephone numbers of two churches in Bromley which could be "Old Bromley Church." I, unfortunately, chose the wrong one the first time, and was directed to the other church where I spoke to the vicar. He kindly gave me the name of a lady in charge of the church records, who would look up the records for a fee.

The next week I received notification that Frederick Charles WISE was baptised on 30 January 1869 and his father was an innkeeper, but no address was given. What was the family doing in Bromley? I could have ordered the birth certificate of Frederick Charles WISE (86) to obtain the address for December 1869 but decided instead to order the death certificate for William WISE (73) in July 1872. I could not afford both, because I was tracing back all the other branches of the family at the same time, and I was consequently spending a good deal on these certificates.

One detail of the baptismal certificate struck me as being strange; this was the date. I telephoned the lady who had given me the information, and after checking, she returned my call to apologise for the error. In turning the pages of the book through 1869, she had forgotten that she was into a new year. This was an easy and quite forgivable mistake.

On another occasion whilst searching for Janet's relations in Devon, a vicar wrote me a letter giving the details of a bridegroom as being "of Tavistock". After some weeks searching the baptismal records of Tavistock for the bridegroom's baptism, I could find no such record or any of the family. Quite by chance, I was studying a map of the area around the marriage and noted the name of a town Tawstock. My experience of having deciphered hundreds of prescriptions written by doctors probably helped me realise that the VI of Tavistock could easily be mistaken for the W of Tawstock. This idea was later confirmed by finding other references to the family as being "of Tawstock". Once again these examples demonstrate how genealogy requires an attention to detail and an open mind, willing to imagine alternatives.

I had decided to order the death certificate of William WISE (73). The death certificates of England and Wales contain little information to help the genealogist beyond an address, which may be of use on a census. I have read death certificates from Canada sent over by Janet's aunt, Marjory. These contain very useful information on parentage, dates and places of births, and marriages.

When I came to read the death certificate of William WISE (73), it was sad to think of him as having died at the age of 53 years, leaving a widow with seven children between the ages 21 and 3 years. My grandfather (86) was the youngest and would never have remembered his father. William Thomas WISE (81) would have been 18 years old. He probably joined the army shortly after his father's death because I know he became a Major in the Royal Army Service Corps. William WISE (73) died in the "Coach and Horses" public house in Pitlake, Croydon, Surrey, from heart and liver disease. The only photograph I have of him is one where he is standing beside a bar with a tankard at his side. He was also a beer retailer by then so we can see that he died from a disease which could be described as occupational.

When one has a death certificate dated after 1858, one can write to Somerset House, enclosing a fee, requesting them to search for a will. I sent off a postal order because I did not have time to visit the place myself and did not know how easy it would be to find. A week later I received a letter to say there was no will, but a letter of administration for which I was to send a fee if I required a copy. This I did, and received the letter several days later. It contained no really interesting information but did give his address, (which would be most important for the census), and the fact that he left less than ₤50. This was a little surprising since he did run a business and his son, Frederick Charles WISE (86), was supposed to have been a student at Dulwich College and was successful in his business career. This appeared to be in direct contrast with his father, William.

My brother, Simon Phillip WISE, worked at an insurance company near Croydon and lives at Coulsdon, so I thought it was time I tried to arouse his interest in family history. I spoke to him on the telephone and asked him to do a little research for me. He was interested and had some time off, so I unfairly gave him rather a lot to do. In the first place I instructed him on how to look up an address on a census at the local library, and gave him the address of No l, Lower Church Street. I had confirmed with the library that they kept a microfilm of the census. They also kept newspapers of the time and I thought that since the death of William WISE (73) occurred in a public house it may have made news in the local paper. I asked Simon to look for such an article. I also contacted the local council to find that the Burial Board 01-684-3874 kept a list of people buried at the local cemetery. The Board gave the grave number 5041 Plot FF3 at Queen's Road Cemetery with instructions to ask the sexton the location of the grave. This job I also gave to Simon, and I was remonstrated with by my wife for giving him too much to do. I was told that I should understand that he may not share the same enthusiasm for genealogy as I enjoyed. I thought it was better to make use of initial enthusiasm before it wore off!

As it turned out, Simon showed a lot of interest and went several times to the library. He was able to locate Lower Church Street on the census but William WISE (73) was not living there. This was rather disheartening for me, but it was not as real a setback as it could have been, should I have needed the information to trace the family further back. I already had this information from the 1851 and the 1861 censuses. I have not attempted to find William WISE (73) on the 1871 census for this reason, but I would assume the birth certificate of Frederick Charles WISE (86) in Bromley, Kent, would be the starting place. (I checked the 1871 census for the Coach and Horses).

Simon was unable to find an article in the local newspaper, The Croydon Advertiser, because the papers were missing for that particular year. I kept a card index for each library, museum and record office and on each card filed away information I wanted to research. On the card for the National Newspaper Library Colindale Avenue, London NW9, I wrote the name, date and details of the event I sought in the Croydon Advertiser. When I had time to visit Colindale it would only be necessary for me to take the card with me. These cards were most useful. It is most important to fill in the information you require at the time you think of it. When the time came to visit the newspaper library I was unable to go, so I sent Janet with the card which, had become quite full of other family history. She found the Croydon Advertiser but no mention was made of William WISE.

Simon had made a copy of an Ordinance Survey map of 1864, for the area of old Croydon in which we were interested, and I was keen to see it. He had also been to the cemetery where he had been shown the whereabouts of the grave. There was no stone so the sexton offered to dig it up. The sexton saw Simon's look of horror and explained he had only meant to find the brass plate with the number 5041. It was really not that important.

The next Sunday, Janet and I went to visit Simon and Ann. I had bought a movie camera so we made a film of the journey from Victoria Station and of our trip around old Croydon. We took the old map and soon found Church Street, but we were not sure where No 1 would have been. When I had looked up William WISE in the directory, I had been careful enough to write down the occupants of the houses and shops on either side and the name of the nearest intersection. Kelly's Directory of 1872 for the Southern Suburbs of London gave:

James Russell, Stonemaker, Church Street - Elys Davy's Road

William Wise, Beer Retailer and Coffee Rooms, Lower Church Street

James Gayner, Bootmaker, Lower Church Street

- Wandle Street

From the map and my plan from the directory, we worked out that the coffee rooms would be right where the present new flyover-road stands. We were disappointed and even more so to find that the "Coach and Horses" too was gone. This was surprising since, when buildings are pulled down; it is always the church and the public house which go last of all. The "Coach and Horses" had stood across the road from where William WISE had had his coffee rooms.

It was sad to reflect on the events of the day when he died. I can imagine him closing the coffee rooms and perhaps going across the road for a couple of pints after work. Eliza WISE must have been deeply shocked when told that her husband had died. Some person from the public house probably ran across the road to inform her. She may have been busy, her mind occupied with making the tea and putting the children to bed. The witness on the death certificate was Mary LOVE whose name, when associated with a public house, had caused some amusement. We imagined her as being some bar room, floozy. She lived at No 3 Wadden New Road which ran alongside the railway line and we all walked along to see it . The house was similar to those in Church Street; small, red brick, terraces with little or no front garden, a front door and three windows. I imagine the house of William WISE was similar to those around him, but with a shop-front.

We next visited "The Prince Albert", public house in Mitchum Road, Croydon where William WISE lived in 1866. This house was still standing and had been unaltered. There was still an outside toilet and the windows had rather attractive stained glass with the words 'Luncheon Room' incorporated in the design. We took photographs and moved on to Christ Church. This church is a flint built, building with a roof in a poor state of repair. I had learnt from the vicar that it was unsafe and unused so we were unable to go inside. We walked around the graveyard admiring the building and found a school at the rear built of the same materials as the church. It was quite obviously the church school, since it was within walking distance of Lower Church Street, there is a good possibility that Helen Elizabeth WISE (85) was not only christened at the church, but also went to school there. The task of finding and checking school records remains to be done.

After visiting the church, Simon took us to the grave of William WISE. It is situated in an ordinary municipal cemetery. There were gravestones, but William WISE had none. I have since learnt that his wife, Eliza WISE (82) is also buried there and perhaps she has a gravestone.

The Sunday we had spent with Simon and his family, was the first of many times Janet and I were to enjoy combining a social visit with an historical search. On an ordinary occasion we should have finished off a large Sunday dinner only to relax in an armchair with the paper or to walk off the dinner with a stroll in the countryside. Our walk on this Sunday had involved us all in the one subject, family history, and had provided us with plenty to talk about and to discuss.

On our return home, I had developed the films which contained photographs of Croydon and the places of family interest. These I put in a scrapbook with subtitles. I had no photographs of the old family, but on a trip down to my parents at West Moors, Dorset, I looked through the old photographs which they kept in a box. A few had inscribed on the back, a date, or a place, or of whom the pictures were taken. The remainder were blank. I went through the whole box with Mother and Father together. On the back of each one I wrote the name, place and date. Where my parents had different opinions, I put down both versions in the hope that one might be confirmed at a later date. I found it was important to put down the name of the photographic studio when such occurred on a photograph. If one is not sure of the person and the date, then the approximate date can be obtained from a directory of the area.

The photograph which father said was of William WISE (73) was taken at Sheerness, Kent and I wondered if he could have been visiting his son William Thomas WISE (81) who lived there at a time when my father was able to visit him. Here I was beginning to become confused in my thoughts. It is difficult to choose a date in family history and formulate a contemporary picture in one's mind, because one is always considering different dates some 50 years apart. In my confusion it took me some time to realise that William WISE (73) was dead when William Thomas WISE (81) was living in Sheerness. So I wondered if the photograph could have been of William Thomas WISE. Father

did not think so but he had never seen William WISE (73). I planned to use a directory of Sheerness to see when the photographer, whose name was on the print, had his business in the town. I did not have time to solve the problem this way. Much later on however, when looking through the old photographs belonging to Jack (Philip John WISE (100) in Australia, I came across one of a woman standing at a bar which looked the same as the one in the photograph under question. Sure enough it was the same bar and the couple must surely have been married. Jack did not know the woman, but knew for certain the man was not William Thomas WISE (81). The two photographs must therefore be of William (73) and his wife Eliza WISE (78) sometime in Sheerness. All this very lucky detective work would have been unnecessary had the originals been marked.

CHAPTER THREE

ELIZA, THE WIFE OF WILLIAM WISE

fter having traced the life of William WISE (73) from his marriage through until his death, it seemed only natural that I should now follow on with his widow. My searches had taken me to a death in 1872, and any further work could not include the census of 1881. This would only become available in 1981. I was left with an ever increasing number, and a more detailed series of directories with which I must be satisfied. The Guildhall Library has a very comprehensive set for London, but I found myself using the adequate selection at the Westminster Library because other searches would take me there.

The next step was to find the death certificate of Eliza WISE (78). I had no address and no date. My father remembered that she was dead by the time he was born, so I had to search through the indexes at St Catherine's House each day, on my way to work. The entry in the index for deaths shows the age of the person after the year 1866. Eliza WISE (78) was aged 35 for the 1861 census so in 1872 she would be 46 years old. As I searched the entries of each year and turned to the next I mentally increased her age by one year. I was starting to think I had missed the entry when I moved into the next century, but in that very year an entry turned up which rang true for age, and the District was Camberwell, London. My grandfather had gone to school in Dulwich and he had married nearby, in Brixton. I ordered the certificate and was most pleased to see the details. My grandfather was the informant and she was the widow of William WISE, publican. The directory of 1898 gave 39 Denman Road as being occupied by Ernest A Baker and in 1900 by Fredk. J WISE. The J was probably a mistake for the C of Charles. The Directory of 1898 and of 1900 gave 103 Angel Road, Brixton as being occupied by Miss McClelland. The address was of the lodgings of Frederick Charles WISE (86). The first house he bought was after his marriage in 1902 was No 52 Bonham Road, Brixton.

I wrote again to Somerset House, this time for the Will of Eliza WISE and within a week I had a will and the letter of administration. It is very important to look at both of these documents as they are written at different times and frequently contain different information. In this case, the will gave the address of Eliza WISE (78) as 148 Choumert Road, Peckham in 1884 and, more importantly, the letter of administration gave the address of her brother, John, as 165 Peckham Park Road, Peckham. He was a butcher, just like his father, Thomas.

These addresses I wrote down on the card marked "Census Room of the Public Records Office", as a reminder when I went there next to look up the addresses on the Census. When that time did arrive, I realised that in 1871 William WISE was still alive and unlikely to be living at 148 Choumert Road where his wife later made her will. I referred to the Street Directories kept in the census room and there was no WISE at this address in 1871. This saved a lot of effort and gave me more time to look up the address of John PYLE , a butcher in the Directory for 1871 and 1861. The address was 165, Peckham Park Road, Peckham in 1871 but in 1861 he was living at 4, Trafalgar Place, Peckham. I ordered the microfilm and whilst I was waiting I looked up the index for butchers in the Directory and found a Thomas PYLE living on the Old Kent Road at Peckham. I wondered if this could be the father of John and Eliza so ordered the microfilm to find out. In the meantime the microfilm for Trafalgar Place arrived and for my efforts I was rewarded by finding John PYLE age 33 unmarried, a butcher,

born in Whitchurch Hants, and living at No 4 Trafalgar Place. More surprising was to find his mother, Charlotte, living there in her old age. She was a widow, aged 75, keeping house for her son. She had been born in Basingstoke which is a short distance from Whitchurch, Hants on the way to London.

The next person on the census came as a wonderful windfall. It was Elizabeth WISE (64). Not just any person, but at the age of 73, and having come from Oxfordshire, she must be the widow of William Philip WISE (60). This was the most joyful moment in the whole of my research. In my mind, I imagined the old lady coming down from Banbury by train to Paddington Station. The railway had come to Banbury in 1850 and the prices of single tickets on the Great Western were 16 shilligs ordinary and 11 shillings second class. This old lady would probably have made the journey on her own, and was to spend the night of the census, and perhaps some more, visiting her relatives. Since they were butchers, it is pleasing to think of her being fed well on roast leg of lamb, for butchers have always eaten well, and Elizabeth WISE (64) had, I imagine, lived a poor life through the hard days of the first half of the nineteenth century. Elizabeth's son William WISE (73) was living at No 2 Waterloo Place, Westminster on the evening of the same census, 1861.

In 1871, John PYLE was living at 165, Peckham Park Road. He was married to Emma from Oldbury and they had five children, the eldest of whom was 9 years old. It would be easy to find his marriage certificate between the years 1861 and 1862, but I had quite sufficient proof that he and Eliza were brother and sister.

Whilst at the Records Office I took the opportunity to look up Thomas PYLE, the butcher of 7, Henry's Place in the Old Kent Road. He was unmarried and came from Hampshire. There was insufficient information to say whether or not he would be the brother to John. The surname PYLE means, "dweller near the pile or post", and comes from Hampshire, Wiltshire and Somerset.

One Sunday I took the bus from Victoria to Peckham. I walked up Denman Road in order to find No 39 where Eliza WISE (78) had died and to photograph it. The majority of the houses were the typical two-storey semi-basement terraces one sees in all the suburbs of London. They would have been built in about 1870. There were some single storey terraces and amongst these stood No 39. It was one of two semi-detached houses built after the second world war. I was reminded of the bomb which had fallen on the terrace of houses opposite my parent’s house in 32 Burnham Gardens, Cranford, Middlesex. I was a little dismayed at being unable for the fourth time to trace a building where the WISE family had lived, but I laughed to think how lucky they had been not to have been in property investments, for they would not have lasted long. It was not too far to walk to Choumert Road. The houses here were terraces of small dwellings. Number 148 was still standing. It had a front door enclosed in an arched porch. There was one bay window in the front and two casement windows upstairs. This address needs searching in the census of 1881.

The weather was quite sunny on the day of my visit and I decided to walk to Peckham Park Road. It was a long road and there had been a lot of new development in the area of No 165 where John PYLE had his butchers shop. However, I was more able to appreciate the character of the neighbourhood by walking its streets, than by taking a taxi. It takes time for one's eye to learn to ignore the motor cars, the electric street lights, the television aerials, the false stone-veneering and the new shop fronts. It takes time to spot a date high on the wall of a local school, or a date above a door where a bricklayer, proud of his art, has blended it into the brickwork. One notices the type of bonding used on the bricks. The older buildings tend to use the English bond whereas the newer buildings use the Flemish or the even more modern, double stretcher bond. All these clues enable one to build a picture of the area and to see how it has changed. Photographs of the area facilitate a careful study of buildings for details which may have been missed. A hanging sign above a shop may be an old tradesman's craft sign. I photographed the shops at the Old Kent Road end of Peckham Park Road, since they would most nearly represent the shop where John PYLE would have worked and lived.

As I waited for the bus in the Old Kent Road, I reflected on the thoughts I had had at a similar time by a bus-stop in Cheapside near the Guildhall Library. Then I had thought of completing the generation of William WISE before going further back into the family history. Do not forget, that I had not known then whether William Philip WISE (60) had come with his young family to London, and still lived there as an Inspector of Weights, or whether his son, William (73) had come alone as a young man. My completion of one generation had led me to John PYLE , to the census of 1861, and to Elizabeth WISE (64), a visitor, the wife of William Philip WISE (60). She was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire according to the census just as the original family tree gave. The bus was coming to take me to Victoria and I decided it was time to look at Banbury.

In the evening I telephoned Father to tell him about the recent finds and about John PYLE . He casually told me how he would play at the PYLE's house as a child when he lived at No 52 Bonham Road, Brixton. The children's names were Mabel, Miriam, Maud and, possibly, Nanna. The address was 23 Ferndale Road and Mrs. PYLE was his mother's, Marjory Violet WISE (91), cousin. He could not remember the father's name nor his occupation. I felt both exasperated and happy. Exasperated to think of Father holding on to such useful information and happy to know that I may be able to trace the PYLE family down to find a third or fourth cousin. On reflection it is quite understandable that Father, at the age of 77, should need me to jog his memory of his early friends. He in turn reminded me of a holiday we had spent in Jersey, Channel Islands, when I was 9 years old. We had stayed in a guest house at St Helier belonging to Nana GETHIN, a widow living with her daughter Phyllis and son-in-law, Alan FINN. Nana GETHIN was Nana PYLE. So I too was guilty of forgetfulness. Father looked up the address of Phyllis in his address book and found they had moved to Deal, Kent. I wrote to them and six weeks later received a telephone call from Phyllis. They had moved once again in Deal and the letter had been delayed. She invited us down to Deal but unfortunately we had no time to visit them before we left for Australia.

I have still not been able to tie in Phyllis with the family tree. The problem is that the WISE family never held strong family bonds. The stories I learnt from each member of the family often contradicted one another. All aspects needed checking which was not easy without the use of a census. Checking was made more difficult because the names of the PYLE children, with whom Father played, appeared to be nicknames or shortened forms of their real names. This same problem was apparent when Father came to describe the sisters of Frederick Charles WISE. They were, after all, Father's aunts and he referred to them as Nellie, Emmie, Lilly, Lizzie and sometimes by their proper names. Quite often, I would find myself with a list of six names to fit five people. Then father would suggest that perhaps he called the person aunty as a token of close friendship rather than because they were true aunts. Red herrings such as this made tracing recent family history more confusing than some of the older history. Had it not been for the original family tree I should have been completely confused about my father's aunts. I confess to have done no more than tie up a nickname with the correct name on the family tree. I achieved this with the help of directories. Both Henrietta Louisa WISE and "Lizzie" LOWN remain enigmas. Indeed, my train of thought is beginning to run the risk of becoming as disjointed as the information concerning the PYLE family and the brothers and sisters of Frederick Charles WISE, so I shall return to my bus ride from the Old Kent Road and change at Victoria for the Edgware Road and the safer ground of 14 Paddington Green, where we lived.

CHAPTER FOUR

BANBURY

wrote a letter to the secretary of the Banbury Historical Society briefly stating my desire to trace the family and included an outline of the branch which the original chart gave as having come from Banbury. It was not long before I received a reply containing a family tree which took the WISE family back a further two generations. The female line of the LAMBERTS went back to a marriage in 1639. I was so pleased with the result and with the interest taken by the Society in a letter containing a request I had considered as being rather selfish. The letter gave the sources of information as the transcripts of the Parish Registers of St Mary's, Banbury as published by the Banbury Historical Society. I had looked at these records in the Guildhall Library but I had been unable to draw up a family tree. The reason for this was that I was not then sure that the family came from Banbury, and because I was unacquainted with the local history of the Town; I did now know if the name WISE was uncommon or well-known. An individual's name may be recognisable to someone with a detailed knowledge of the local history. The original church records are often unreliable, inaccurate and have gaps.  The job of tracing back a family tree from such scant records would come more easily to someone acquainted with other records of the town.
Now came my turn to find out what records remained and where they could be found. The Easter holidays were approaching and I thought it would be good to spend them in Banbury. There was some preparation work to be done in order to make the best use of our short stay there. I went back to St Catherine's House to write down all the death index entries for WISE in Banbury, from 1837 onwards. Twenty names and fifty six books later, I came upon William Philip WISE (60) entered in the index for June 1851. My first thought was that this date was just after the census for 1851. So I ordered the certificate and two days later I was delighted to find him described as a Town Crier.  It was rather like being in Toyland. What was I expecting to find in Banbury, I wondered? I pictured the town crier ringing a bell, calling the attention of chimney sweeps in top hats, muffin men carrying trays on their heads, and tinkers, dressed in shabby clothes. I imagined trades people appearing at their doors; the butcher dressed in a straw hat and a blue and white striped apron, the grocer wiping his hands on his white apron, the scrivener peering over his glasses and the cordwainer, stooping from the many years bent over his last.
William Philip WISE (60), died from a disease of the lungs, not a good recommendation for any WISE thinking of becoming a town crier in the future! I used the same method to find the death certificate of Elizabeth WISE (64), his wife. I searched from 1861 when she was 73 years old and knew I should not have far to look. Indeed it was June 1862. The death certificate showed her to be the widow of William Philip WISE (60), Town Crier and gave the address of Ellen SHIPTON, Britannia Road, Neithrop, but no house number. With these two addresses, I went to the Census Room of the Public Records Office and looked up Banbury for 1841, 1851 and 1861. In 1851 I found William Philip WISE (60) Living at No 6 Fish Street. He was born in Banbury in 1790 and was a Serjeant at Mace. This could hardly be a full-time job, which accounts for the fact that he also held the positions of Town Crier and Inspector of Weights.
His wife, Elizabeth (64), was born in Cirencester, Gloustershire in 1788. This was a far throw from Oxford, which appeared on the original family tree and in the census for 1861. Cirencester is more likely to be correct since Elizabeth was younger with a better memory and understanding in 1851, and Frances E., the unmarried daughter, was born in 1814 in Bristol, which is near Cirencester.

I wrote down the names and the trades of the people living next door to No 6 Fish Street in order to find the house more easily on a map which I may later come across. Fish Street turned out to be Scalding Lane and more recently George Street. There used to be an old building called Fish House on the corner with Broad Street.

I searched the remainder of the census for the name WISE and did not miss out the work-house. I searched the 1861 census for the name SHIPTON in Britannia Road, but was unable to find any and, as I had no number on the death certificate, I gave up. I never considered Ellen SHIPTON to be related. The search for the WISE family on the census of 1841 was fruitless. Nor was there a WADE family in the town. I can only guess that William Philip (60) and his wife Elizabeth were away, possibly in Bristol, at the time of the census. With the 1841 census and the death certificates of 1851 and 1862, I had retraced the WISE family tree to 1837 and the beginning of the civil registration.

It was time for me to join the Library of the Society of Genealogists, London, whose records end in 1837. I was crossing the bridge between the well-documented times of the Victorians, and the earlier times, when records had been subject to many changes or attempts to improve them. Records were to become progressively more and more scanty. One fact was in my favour; the WISE family were out of the turmoil of London and, by 1800 or so, they were established as officials in the Council of Banbury. The town had grown and had enjoyed stability for 150 years since the Commonwealth period. There was every chance of finding more of the WISE family.

On the morning of Thursday before Easter of 1980, Janet and I traveled by train from Paddington Station to Banbury. The weather was cold, but the sun shone and we made a movie-film of our trip. A taxi took us from the station to the guest house in Broughton Road. We walked back into the town, and when Janet went to have her hair styled, I went to the offices of the Banbury Guardian, where I had previously made an appointment to study the early copies of the newspaper. The newspaper started in 1838 and their archives go back to 1840. I was interested to see if there were obituaries for William Philip WISE (60), and Elizabeth WISE (64). I was shown up to a room and on an open desk were the newspapers I had ordered, waiting for me. I found the obituaries but they told me no more than had the death certificates. Turning the pages, I looked up the reports of the Council Meetings to find the election of a new town crier. Sure enough, it listed the number of people put forward and the person elected was Daniel Dixon, a man who had held positions in the town similar to that of William Philip WISE . I soon became engrossed in articles of no real relevance to the family tree and had to pull myself away for there were other things to do.

I met Janet and we walked past the cross, to the Library and Museum. I had not made out a card for Banbury Library with details of all the facts I wanted to research, as I had done for other archives. I had very little idea of what to expect, so I went straight to the local history section and started to peruse all the books on the shelf. I soon found myself wasting time because I was writing down nothing. I decided the selection of books could be divided into two sections; those which would be easily available in London e.g. the transcripts of the parish registers and those which would

not be available in London e.g. the local directories, and rate books. I decided to settle down and search through these latter sources. The directories of Banbury were published by Rusher and they started in 1795, with very little information and only became enlarged in about 1804. However, I was very pleased to see the name WISE appear frequently in the list of Council Officials. I made a table of the jobs available and completed it with the names of the people appointed for the years Rusher printed his list. I imagined that the year in which an official left office after a long term would probably coincide with his death. This had been the case with William Philip WISE (60), and now I had two more names, Thomas and Joseph, who were presumably his father (68) and grandfather (1). I returned to the transcripts of the Parish Records, but found the burials had been completed only until 1723. I should have consulted the originals, but I did not know where they were kept. So I went back to the shelves, took down some rate books and started to fan through them looking for the name WISE. It was obvious to me my search had become haphazard, and if I were not careful, my time would be wasted in the Library.

I really feel that anyone researching back past 1837 should obtain professional advice. The problem is simply this; when I consulted a rate book or an electoral roll, I had no idea which part of the town was covered by the rate book. I did not know if the owner and occupier were the same person. I did not know what entitled a person to vote in the 19th century and consequently who would be missing from the list. I did not know the year of the Reform Act. This ignorance made me question the worth of my ever copying down details from such books.

My thoughts were broken by Janet, who arrived wanting to go for afternoon tea. So, I smiled and welcomed the break. We went upstairs to the museum first however, and whilst there I bought several maps and two local history books. A History of Banbury by William Potts, Second Edition 1978 and A Changing Landscape by Sarah Gosling. These books would provide the answers to a lot of my questions. They really made the trip to the library worthwhile, since I was reminded of how important it is to learn the local history of the area under research before going any further. It was not too late to find a tea shop with Banbury Cakes and tea, hot from the pot.

The next day was Good Friday. The library was closed and we relaxed and enjoyed the town. We obtained a town guide and walked the route between places of historical interest. On our way we joined a long queue at a cake shop for Hot Cross Buns, which were hot and fresh. We found time to hear an organ recital in the church and signed the visitor’s book. I took photographs of places of significance for the WISE family and completed the movie-film. Both Janet and I enjoyed our stay and liked the town with its wide, tree lined Horse Fair and its contrasting narrow Church Lane. The shops were orientated toward the tourist or tripper, but behind the facade one could see the townspeople, busy with their own commerce. Many old buildings and monuments have suffered badly in the name of redevelopment, progress and change. Any sadness we felt was partly our fault for coming with the expectation that we would find things as they had been in the 18th and 19th century. It was distressing to read of the razing of the original Banbury Cake Shop in Parson's Lane. But, it was heartening to realise that it had awakened an appreciation among the populace of the necessity to preserve old buildings. We returned home on the Saturday because Stephen Anthony WISE , my brother, was bringing his family to stay for a few days.

The broom man maketh his living most sweet

With carrying of brooms from street to street.

Who would desire a pleasanter thing,

Than all day long doing nothing but sing?

CHAPTER FIVE

THE WISE FAMILY OF BANBURY

verything I required to continue with my research was provided by the library of the Genealogical Society and I would go there as frequently as possible. I started by extracting all references to the WISE name from the transcripts of the Parish Registers for Banbury. I drew four columns on a long roll of paper. I wrote out the baptisms, deaths and marriages in a column each, trying to keep the dates level. I started with the baptisms because there were more of these and they set the dates alongside which I put the marriages and the deaths. In this way I could choose any marriage and find the partners' children by moving across into the baptisms and going forward in time. Invariably some children would appear fairly soon. There were discrepancies, but for my branch, the line seemed fairly unambiguous until I reached a marriage of Joseph WISE (90) to Patience LAMPREY (101) in 1718. The published records of burials finished at 1723, which was a big pitfall, but from a book of the Wills of Banbury, I was able to fill in certain dates. I completed the fourth column by going through the local history books and writing down important historical events alongside the times of the baptisms, burials and marriages. These were events which I felt may have influenced the family history. I considered the coming of the railway, an outbreak of cholera, the Napoleonic Wars and the establishment of two companies at Banbury, the effect of the Enclosures Act, the Castle siege, and the disastrous fire of 1628, to be important.

There were two Josephs in the family and in order to distinguish one from the other I considered using a generation grid. This had been necessary in another branch of the family where I had found five generations of Daniel NASH in Essex. In Banbury I found I could mentally fit the two Josephs into the historical dates I had extracted. This once again showed the importance of local history.

The wills of Banbury are kept at the Bodlian Library, Oxford and an index of the Banbury Wills has been compiled by the Banbury Historical Society. I was able to order photocopies of the wills by post, by quoting the reference number. At the same time, I ordered marriage licences, where the Parish Registers said a couple were married by licence. Some of these latter documents were at the Berkshire Record Office. As each of these documents arrived I would carefully decipher each word and signature, for many of them were difficult for me to read at first. The letter S which was written like an F caused no problem, but I found the R to look like a C. The letter E was often written more like the Greek theta. The more elaborate capitals I found impossible until I bought a book on calligraphy and a set of pens. I learnt the various shapes, and found that writing a family tree on a large sheet of paper in early type is a very pleasant past-time. The effect is most pleasing.

After writing out the various documents I would extract from them the names and relationships in order to draw two similar basic family trees on the one sheet of paper. I would then improve on one of the basic trees by including on it details obtained from the Parish Registers. I would then see if this tree could be super-imposed on the tree of the WISE family I was building. In this way the Wills cemented the frail structure of the family tree built from the transcripts of the Parish Records. The tree was built up very quickly in this way - a generation at a time.

I had not, however, forgotten William Philip WISE (60) and his wife Elizabeth WADE (64). Details of their marriage had not yet been confirmed. They were not married in Banbury nor could I find any reference to a marriage in Oxford. I searched Boyd's marriage register, and the marriage licences for Oxfordshire and the Mormon Microfische. Then I turned to Bristol and Gloucestershire for a marriage, but with no luck. However, in the Mormon Microfische for Gloucestershire, there was a baptism of Elizabeth, daughter to Richard and Elizabeth WADE in Cirencester on 25th December 1787. C027471.3634. The child was born in September according to the family tree and the parents had waited until Christmas for the christening. She had a sister, Sarah, baptised on 12 July 1786 in Cirencester. (Family tree L). Frances Elizabeth WISE (69) the first child of William Philip WISE (60) was born on 6th September 1812, according to the original family tree and in Bristol according to the 1851 Census of Banbury. It is possible that William Philip WISE went to Bristol, to find work as a young man. There he would have met Elizabeth (64), who was two years older, and they married when he was 21 years and 3 months old. Their first child was born 10 months later in Bristol. The directories of these early times for Bristol only list the tradesmen and more important people so I could find nothing there.

I feel that some research on the WADE family would be fruitful just as had been the work on the PYLE family. Indeed it is true to say that research on the female line did not prove fruitful for the rest of the tree. There was no baptism of Frances BLENCOW (79) in Kings Sutton and I could not find the special licence for her marriage. Ann LAMBERT (57) and her family can be traced back easily with the help of wills. She had married a widower Joseph WISE (1) in 1760 but I was unable to find his previous marriage. His father Joseph WISE (90) was married twice but I was unable to find the baptisms of either Patience LAMPREY (101) or Elizabeth PARSONS (112) in Banbury.

Having gone as far as I could with the resources available at the time I decided to return to the method where I had extracted the names WISE, and collated them on a table for the Parish of Banbury and for all the Parishes around Banbury which radiated out in a circle. I set to this work without questioning. Numerous transcripts of the registers are in the Library of the Genealogical Society. When I had done a number of Parishes, it became apparent that the name WISE was not to be found in all of them as I had supposed. The majority were seen to be in Bodicote, a village two or three miles to the South of Banbury on the Oxford Road. My researches into the name finished here for the time being, as I was kept busy repeating this overall pattern of research for every branch of both my own and my wife's family. I frequently corresponded with South Africa, and sometimes visited, the British Library with Janet. My researches took me to the Public Records Office in Chancery Lane to look up wills proved by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and to various churches in various towns where family had lived. Trips such as these made very pleasant outings.

Finally, at the end of the year, we packed up our things and loaded them into a tiny car and set off on a touring holiday of England. We waved "Goodbye" to Paddington Green and set off for Oxford. We went straight to the Bodlian Library. Here we were asked to repeat an oath to take care of the books before we were issued with tickets to the Duke Humphries section. By this time we had become well acquainted with libraries. We had learnt to read the old letters and work out some of the Latin terms. This library was, however, quite different. It was built in 1311. The ceiling was very ornamental and it takes a photograph to describe it. The books on open show were even older than the books I had seen in the Congregational Hall Library of about 1600. They were not only written in old print but in Latin and I could not even understand the titles. One music book Janet saw had handwritten neumes and not notes as we know them today. Quite in keeping with all this, was a scholar walking around still wearing his bicycle-clips! We collected the original Registers of St Mary's Banbury, which I had ordered, and settled down to complete the period missing between the published transcripts and 1837. This last piece of research was to complete our knowledge of the WISE family.

We left Oxford in the afternoon traveling north to visit Bodicote. This village has a good-looking, solid church and many thatched cottages. It is very typical of Oxfordshire. We traveled on through Banbury to Leamington Spa where we stayed with Kathleen WISE at Whitnash. We spoke of her husband Kenneth (99) and she brought out some old photographs of their life in Aston Cantlow near Stratford-Upon-Avon. We visited her sons, Robert and William, who both live with their families only a short walk away. We continued our holiday the next day to visit towns and villages where other branches of my family had lived.

In Hull, the Rev James SIBREE had ministered for 50 years. In Driffield the TAYLORS had managed the bank and made sewing machines. In York a TAYLOR managed the bank in Parliament Street. In Poole, Otley, Wharfdale, Mary KENDALL had lived. In Cheadle Hume we visited my cousin Roger WOOD. In Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Daniel NASH had owned the "George Inn". In Chittlehamholt, Devon, Janet's relations, the Featherstones, had been farmers. In West Moors Wimborne Dorset we stopped with my parents.

I realised that I had gathered all the facts I could regarding the WISE family. I found that by piecing together the references to one person I could build up a picture of his life.

William Philip WISE (60) was born in 1790 in Banbury. I do not know where he lived in 1811 for his marriage, but when his first daughter was born in 1812, he was in Bristol. In 1815 he was living in Bridge Street, Banbury as a gardener. In 1817 he was living in Bridge Street as a Labourer. In 1825 he was living in Parson's Meadow Lane (which is George Street) as a gardener and in 1827 he is back in Bridge Street as a gardener. In 1839 when his second daughter Sarah (70) was married he was living in Bridge Street as a gardener. In Rushers directory for 1840, he is the Town Crier. In 1841 I could not find him on the census. In 1851 he was living in Fish Street as a Serjeant at Mace. In 1850, he was described as an Inspector of Weights on the wedding certificate of his son William (73). In 1852, at the end of his life, he was living in Fish Street as a Town Crier. Rusher's Directory of 1828 gives him as being a Bread Weigher and Taster of Ale, jobs which were usually allied. In my opinion he would have been a simple gardener working in the gardens at perhaps Neithrop or in the grounds of a large house. He would be courteous enough to doff his cap to the gentry, which is something he would have learnt from his father the victualler. Courtesy is a fundamental of retail business. He would be respected enough to be entrusted with the jobs given to him by the council. So far as I know, they did not bring in a living so he would have carried on gardening and perhaps have sold vegetables at the fair. It does not surprise me that he did not leave a will or rather, that I cannot find one. I should like to think that his father Thomas (68) left a will, and that I shall find it. The reason is this: the references I give to William Philip WISE (60) are clinical dates and facts. They tell very little and are not as interesting as the challenge of overcoming the difficulties in finding the facts. A will has in the same way its bare facts in the date and how much money is left. But it also expresses the personal desires of someone who, knowing the certainty of death, and the impossibility of any repercussions on himself, will make known his true, unhindered feelings. A will then tells us more of the person than we know from the Parish Records.

In the will of Joseph WISE (90) of 23rd August 1756, he leaves seven guineas to each of his children but a greater amount to his wife. His clothes are apportioned to his first three sons and there is nothing left for the fourth. Joseph (1) is favoured with the bed, a very important item in 1756. His daughter, Ann (24), is given the house after the wife is dead. If the daughter should die without issue then the house would go to Thomas (134) or Joseph (1) or John (123) in that order. William (2) is left out again. The probability of it reaching him would be nil and it is for this reason he is, in my opinion, left out. I consider this to be a very fair will which could be said to show a preference for Thomas (134). It is quite fair that the wife, and the daughter after her, should receive the house. The will reflects a man who, although not rich, shows respect for the items he has owned, no matter their value. He is humble, fair in judgment, a respected man in the community and obviously suffering from disease in old age, for at least a year.

It would appear already that we know more of Joseph WISE (90) who died in 1756, than of William Philip WISE (60) who died in 1851. If we now turn to the local history of Banbury and read of the events which may have affected their lives our picture of them will broaden. Let us take Joseph WISE (1), who was baptised on the 2nd September 1724. He was the son of Joseph WISE (90), a labourer, who had been married to Patience LAMPREY (101) for six years. Perhaps he had helped to build the workhouse in Scalding Lane in 1723. Our Joseph (1) would have gone to school, for he could sign his name and made progress in life. The Blue Coat School had been founded in 1705 for 30 boys and 20 girls. The master had to be good at handwriting, to understand arithmetic, and had to be approved by the minister. He received £25 per annum and the schoolmistress received £12:10:0. The school was held above the Gaol on the south side of the market place. The rooms were reached by an outside staircase. In 1817 the National School was established in Southam Road and the children from the Blue Coat School went there. The Gaol was extended upstairs. In 1733 his sister Ann (13) (aged 3 years), died of small pox. There had also been a serious outbreak in 1717. Joseph would have been nine years old when his sister died but another daughter was to replace her in October of that year. She was also called Ann (24).

When Joseph left school he would have had a number of work opportunities. The town had a prosperous market place. The leather trade was established and his future father-in-law, Thomas LAMBERT (107) was a felmonger; a dealer in cow hides. There was a tanyard at North Bar and there is a reference to the washing of hides in the River Cherwell. A workshop was built in 1700 for wearing girths and horsecloths and employed perhaps forty people. The plush or shag-weaving industry was well established. There were a number of specialist trades to be learnt which a rural dweller would expect to find in a market town: millwrights, watchmakers, cabinet makers, hat makers etc. Joseph entered the retail trade. His mother (101) died when he was 16 years old in 1741 when his father was a gardener. His father was soon to remarry, in May 1742 - Elizabeth PARSONS (112), a schoolmistress, as the licence states. The extra money she brought home would be very helpful if she were allowed to keep her job once married. In 1747 Joseph may have been in the Horse Fair to witness the last recorded hanging in Banbury. A man named PARR had murdered a widow called Lydia WILD and robbed her of £20. His corpse was gibbeted outside the town. About this time Joseph WISE (1) married for the first time although I don't know to whom it was, where, or when it occurred. But in 1760 it is recorded he, a widower, married Ann LAMBERT (57), spinster. They both had lived in the Parish of Banbury. She was 27 and he was 36 years old. The Lambert family can be traced back as "Yeomen living in Grimsbury" just across the River Cherwell. By 1760 the effect of the Enclosures Act was beginning to be felt by the depressed labouring population of Banbury. Joseph's father (90) had died in 1755, leaving him seven guineas and in 1760 he took out a bond on his mother, Elizabeth WISE (112) deceased, and would have received a further £5 from his father's will. He already described himself as a grocer in Banbury. He would now have the use of his father's bed. The revolution in agriculture was under way, but Joseph was saved from the unemployment it caused by being in business. The Coventry to Oxford Canal arrived in 1778 and aided the Shag-weaving industry. The town never exploded but enjoyed moderate prosperity. His only son, Thomas (68), was born in 1761 and married, in 1786, Frances BLENCOW (79) from Astrop, Kings Sutton, a village across the River Cherwell in Northamptonshire. One daughter died in infancy, but the other two grew to maturity and married well. Ann (46) married, in 1796, John DRINKWATER (556) and Kitty (52) married, in 1792, Richard BRAIN (53), an Innkeeper. They were married in the newly-built church of 1790, in which Janet and I sat listening to the organ on our visit to Banbury. Rusher had been publishing his list or directory since 1779, and from the copies I have read, dating from 1795, Joseph (1) was Serjeant at Mace in 1798 and 1801, and clerk of the market. His son Thomas, (68) was also Serjeant at Mace. Joseph (1) died on 24th December 1804; a sad Christmas for his family. He was the senior Serjeant at Mace and was also the Gaoler. Records of the Gaol exist for the years 1829-1838, when Robert Gardner kept a note book. He received a salary of £1.13s 4d a month, which had probably not been raised for many years. The gaol was not a glamorous building but resembled a lock-up and was described as "an insufficient building, affording no classification," in 1833.

Joseph (1) had lived to see his grandchildren born and to see the turn of the century. He was 80 years old. His son Thomas (68) was a victualler and may have taken over the grocery business from his father. I wonder what happened to the old bedstead?

In the life of Joseph WISE (1), I have been able to combine the factual Parish Records, and the personal wills, together with an account of the local history to build a reasonable picture of the man. Each generation of the family tree so far, is linked with documentary evidence that can often be substantiated by further evidence, until we reach the marriage in 1718 of Joseph WISE (90) to Patience LAMPREY (101).

It would appear from the Parish Records that Joseph (90) may have been baptised the son of John WISE, a labourer, on 2nd August 1693. He would be nearly 25 years old for his marriage. There are no other Josephs to be confused with him. Here is an example of the worst problem that can occur in researching a family tree. The name John is very common and a labourer often travels to find work, he owns no house, leaves no will or records behind him. I have toyed with making up small family trees by grouping together obvious families from the Parish Records. In 1644 and 1646 the Castle at Banbury was besieged. Many houses around the castle were pulled down in order to better isolate the Castle. After 1685 and the devastations of the Civil War, the castle was pulled down and the stone was used to gradually rebuild and expand the town of Banbury. It was from 1650 onwards that increasing numbers of agricultural workers arrived in Banbury. They probably found work as masons and labourers. John WISE was perhaps one of the latter. That he came from Bodicote, where the WISE name is quite common, is pure speculation. It is interesting to see, however, the name WISE disappears from the Parish Records of Bodicote in about 1780. I shall leave the research in the 17th century where the story comes to an end for the time being, until someone else should be interested enough to carry on with the work. All one needs is time and an open mind which is prepared to accept that there may be alternatives to the facts.

Family tree drawn up by William Thomas WISE