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Chapter Five
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The Gladwin Family
It seems that an attempt at including the Gladwin name in the Lea family history is not only desirable but unavoidable. The name Gladwin pops up so often, not only on birth and marriage certificates but also in conversations with people living today who have a contribution to make in piecing together our family picture, and after all John Gladwin was one of my great great grandfathers and is surely therefore just as important as those who carried the Lea name. Our families were joined together when John Gladwin’s daughter, Sarah Hannah, married John Lea, son of William and Elizabeth.
During the past two years I have pursued many avenues in an attempt to find descendants of John Gladwin’s family, unsuccessfully until recently when after a visit to Malmesbury Public Library and a chat to the librarian, I discovered that David Gladwin, great grandson of John Gladwin, was living in Northmoor, near Oxford. I wrote to David expressing my wish to discuss our family connection and he replied inviting me to his home, a converted Tithe barn, to see his collection of family heirlooms left to him by his father Wilfred that included such items as family photographs, paintings, poems and indentures dating back to the eighteenth century. I was astounded that so much family history had been kept together for so long by his father Wilfred and grandfather William. One article I found most fascinating was a book bound together in hard back covers and written in by John Gladwin when he was just ten years old, he dated it 1816. I confessed to David that I was hoping he would have a photograph of my great grandmother, Sarah Hannah, amongst his treasures, unfortunately he did not. However I was overjoyed when he offered me a photograph of her father John, taken with his grandson Harold in September 1886.
Harold later became a baker in Malmesbury selling his products in his shop by the cross and in 1937 became the proprietor of the Malmesbury Coal Company, which he sold in 1947.
David’s father Wilfred was manager of an office whilst employed by the Great Western Railway in Swindon. He lived in Elcombe House, Wroughton where he brought up his two children.
John Gladwin, born 1806 at Withington, Gloucestershire, with his Grandson Harold.
Photograph taken September 1886 by HT Prince, Long Street, Dursley.
The Gladwin family home at Brokenborough near Malmesbury. Photograph 1990
The white posts were the entrance to the blacksmiths yard and shed. Photograph 1990
The lean-to building attached to the house (left) was once the village school.
Alice Gladwin was the teacher and would have had up to twenty pupils.
Rose and Crown, Brokenborough
Gravestones of Martha & John Gladwin and Alice Gladwin at Brokenborough
The churches of St. John the Baptist, Brokenborough (left) and Foxley
Missing Gladwin and Lea family tree chart
My great grandmother Sarah Hannah was living in Stratton St. Margaret when she died on the 4th June 1907. I believe she was living with her son Ernie and Daughter-in-law Annie who had married sixteen months earlier, but all attempts to find her last resting place have failed. The most obvious place would be in the cemetery in Green Road, Stratton St. Margaret and I believe this is where she is. Unfortunately the records from this period are missing, but checking through the parish records, the alternative option to Green Road, shows that she was not buried in the church grounds. Her death was reported by my grandfather Albert Hope who was living at 329 Cricklade Road, Penhill with his family.
~~oo0oo~~
Additional material in the folder, not showing on this page:
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Chart showing the Gladwin and Lea family tree.
Titles Preface Chapters: 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
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This page was last updated on 10th April 2007.