Keziah Mansfield

LIFE GOES ON: AN INTRODUCTION

MY GRANDPARENTS - I - MY GREAT-GRANDPARENTS - I - MY GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS - I - MY GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDPARENTS

THE SIXTEEN FAMILIES

KNOTT - I - BOWLES - I - WATERS - I - HARRALL - I - PAGE - I - WISEMAN - I - CROSS - I - CARTER

CORNWELL - I - HUCKLE - I - MORTLOCK - I - MANSFIELD - I - REYNOLDS - I - CARTER - I - ANABLE - I - STEARN

CHRONOLOGY - I - DRAMATIS PERSONAE - I - WHERE PEOPLE CAME FROM - I - CALENDAR

MAP OF ELY - I - MAP OF MEDWAY
MAP OF CAMBRIDGE AND DISTRICT

THE WORKHOUSE

WORLD WAR I - I - WORLD WAR II

simonknott.co.uk I home I e-mail

LIFE GOES ON

Keziah Clarke
born St Ives, Hunts, 1814
died Needingworth, Hunts, September 1888

on the Cornwell family tree
part of the Mansfield family story

married to Abraham Mansfield

Mother of Eliza Mansfield

Keziah Clarke (1814 - 1888). My Mother's Father's Mother's Mother's Mother. My Great-Great-Great-Grandmother.

What little is known about the origins of Keziah Mansfield is obtained from census data. The year of her birth is not certainly known. In 1833 she married Abraham Mansfield, the father of at least three of her children, but she would go on to have other children that could not possibly have been his. But she would use the Mansfield surname all her life.The Mansfields were a poor, not to say notorious, family in and around Holywell-cum-Needingworth on the Huntingdonshire/Cambridgeshire border. Keziah's early life is a story of dire poverty, and we find her with her children in the St Ives workhouse in 1851 having probably spent much of the previous ten years there. Her husband Abraham was arrested and imprisoned for a number of minor offences in the 1830s. He was transported to Australia soon after the 1841 census. There is no certain trace of him after 1848, although Keziah believed he was still alive at the time of the 1851 census. Thereafter, she recorded herself as 'widow'. However, this may well have been because she appears to have been in a relationship with another man by the time of the 1861 census.

Keziah had at least eight children, by at least two different fathers. There were possibly more children, but their relationship to Keziah can only be established firmly by census data, since only two of the children were baptised, and Mansfield is a very common surname in Holywell-cum-Needingworth parish. There were perhaps other fathers as well.

And then, in 1861, something extraordinary happened. Keziah's daughter, my great-great-grandmother Eliza, became pregnant by the teenage son of a well-to-do local farming family. The two young people were married, and Keziah was lifted out of her poverty by the prosperity of her daughter's new life. Remarkably, when she died in 1888 her son-in-law paid for a memorial headstone for her in Needingworth-cum-Holywell churchyard, and she is perhaps the only one of my 32 great-great-great-grandparents to have been accorded this honour. Alas, the headstone was destroyed during graveyard clearances in the late 20th Century, but not before its inscription had been recorded. However, this new prosperity would not stop Keziah getting into scrapes of her own in the 1860s.

1814: From the ages given at several successive censuses, Keziah was probably born this year in St Ives, Huntingdonshire. However, towards the end of her life she seems to have added another ten years to her age, and the age inscribed on her headstone in 1888 would have given a birth date of 1802, which is unlikely, given that she was still having children into the late 1850s.

1833: Keziah married Abraham Mansfield at St John the Baptist, Holywell, Huntingdonshire on 18th December. The witnesses were Robert Hepher and Elizabeth Colson.

1835: Keziah's son Samuel was born in Holywell-cum-Needingworth.

1837: Keziah's son Abram was born in Holywell-cum-Needingworth.

1839: On the 24th November, Keziah's eldest daughter Eliza, my great-great-grandmother, was born in Holywell-cum-Needingworth.

1841 Census:

Keziah was 25 years old at the time of the 1841 census. Her name was recorded as Kesiah. The Mansfields were living at Fen Lane, Needingworth, Huntingdonshire.

Her husband Abraham was 25 years old at the time of the 1841 census. His name was recorded as Abram. Abraham is shown as an agricultural labourer.

There were three children in the household, Joseph 6, Abram 4 and Eliza, 1.

All the household are shown as being born in Huntingdonshire. The transcript for their entry is here.

1841: On the 28th June, Keziah's husband Abraham appeared before Huntingdon Assizes on a charge of larceny. He was sentenced to seven years transportation. On the 25th August, Abraham was received into the custody of HMS Warrior, a prison ship moored in the Thames Estuary, as recorded in the Prison Hulk Registers. He was prisoner 1206, and the registers record that he was 'received from the gaol at Worcester'. In the gaoler's notes, it is recorded that Abraham had been 'convicted and imprisoned five times for various offences, & character considered bad'.

1842: The final column in the Prison Hulk Registers, 'how disposed of', records that Abraham was transported to Van Diemen's Land (the modern Tasmania) aboard HMS Triton on 26 July 1842. Tasmanian State Archives record that the ship arrived in Van Diemen's Land on 19th December 1842. The indentures record his wife's name as Keziah.

1842: Keziah's son Samuel was born. His birth was recorded in the fourth quarter of the year in the St Ives registration district. It is not possible that Samuel was Abraham's son. In 1851, Keziah would give his place of birth as Hemingford Grey (that is to say, the St Ives Union Workhouse). In 1861, Needingworth was given as his birthplace. Both these places are in the St Ives registration district. Several of Samuel's younger siblings were born in the workhouse, and if the former is correct then Keziah was probably living in the workhouse by 1842.

1845: Keziah's daughter Emma was born in the St Ives Union Workhouse. Her birth was recorded in the fourth quarter of the year.

1848: Keziah's daughter Harriett was born in the St Ives Union Workhouse. Her birth was recorded in the second quarter of the year.

1848: On the 16th September, the Cornwall Chronicle, published in Launceston, Tasmania, recorded that Abraham Mansfield, who had arrived on the Triton, was one of those who had been granted their Certificate of Freedom.

1851: Keziah's son William died, probably in the St Ives Union Workhouse. He was 13 years old. His death was recorded in the first quarter of the year, shortly before the 1851 census which finds the family in the workhouse. He was buried in Holywell-cum-Needingworth churchyard. His was the first of two deaths of Keziah's children this year (see below). In the same quarter, the birth was registered of Keziah's son Edward. He had been born in the St Ives Union Workhouse.

1851 Census:

Keziah was 37 years old at the time of the 1851 census. She was living with five of her children in the St Ives Union Workhouse, Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire. There are at least two other Mansfield families in the workhouse at this time.

Keziah is recorded in the institution schedule as married. The five children with her in the workhouse were Eliza 11, Samuel 8, Emma 7, Harriet 2 and Edward 1 month old.

Keziah was born at St Ives, Huntingdonshire. Eliza was born in Needingworth, but all the other children were born in Hemingford Grey - is it possible that most of them were born in the workhouse? If so, the family may have been in the workhouse since Abraham's trial and imprisonment. Only Eliza can possibly be his child. The transcript for their entry is here. The original page is here.

1851: Keziah's baby son Edward, recorded on the 1851 census at the age of one month, died in the St Ives registration district. His death was recorded in the second quarter of the year. His was the second of two deaths of Keziah's children this year (see above).

1857: A busy year for Keziah. On 5th January, Keziah's eldest son Joseph was sentenced at Cambridge Assizes to six months with hard labour for larceny of goods. He was 22 years old. He would never come out. On 16th May the Cambridge Independent Press reported on the inquest into Joseph's death from consumption in Cambridge Gaol. It also mentioned that he was a veteran of the Crimean War. On 4th October The Cambridge Independent Press reported that her second son Samuel, a labourer of Needingworth, along with Mark Easton of the same village, was charged with breaking open an outhouse attached to a homestead, and stealing an 18 gallon barrel of beer and a wooden bottle. They were committed under the Juvenile Offenders Act for six weeks hard labour, and both to be privately whipped. While all this was going on, Keziah gave birth to Henry William Mansfield in Needingworth in the second quarter of the year. There must be a strong possibility that the father was John Moody (see 1861 and subsequent censuses). On 26th July, Henry was baptised at St John the Baptist, Holywell-cum-Needingworth along with his older sister, eight year old Harriet, who had been born in the St Ives workhouse, but Henry's death was recorded in Huntingdonshire in the fourth quarter of the year.

1859: On 17th October, Keziah's son Samuel was sentenced at Huntingdon Assizes to twelve months in prison for house-breaking. He had feloniously entered a dwelling house at Holywell, and stolen 14 shillings. He was 16 years old.

1861: Keziah and Abraham's daughter, my great-great-grandmother Eliza, married Thomas Moody Mortlock on the 16th January at St John the Baptist, Holywell-cum-Needingworth. She was 21. Their first child, Samuel, was born about two months later.

1861 Census:

Keziah was 47 years old at the time of the 1861 census. She was living at The Barracks, Holywell-cum-Needingworth, Huntingdonshire. She gave her occupation as Agricultural Labourer. She gave her marital status as 'widow'.

Two of her children were living with her. These were Samuel 18, and Harriet 13. Both were recorded as Agricultural Labourers.

Keziah was born at St Ives, Huntingdonshire. Samuel's place of birth was given as Needingworth (different to 1851) but Harriet's as 'Union House, St Ives' - that is to say, the St Ives Union workhouse.

Also living in the household on the night of the census was a lodger, John Moody, possibily a cousin of Keziah's son-in-law Thomas Moody Mortlock. John Moody had been born in Needingworth, and he gave his occupation as Agricultural Labourer. He was 36 years old, and a widower. Given his presence in the household at subsequent censuses, there must be a strong possibility that Keziah and John Moody were in a relationship.

1864: on 28th May, the Cambridge Independent Press reported that Kezia Mansfield and Elisa Mortlock of Needingworth were charged with assaulting Catherine Jewitt, of the same place, on the 17th inst. Mansfield was fined 6d and 11s costs, Mortlock 1s and 11s costs.

1869: Keziah's daughter Harriett gave birth to a daughter, Ada Webster Mansfield. The birth was recorded in the first quarter of the year. On 11th April, Ada was baptised at St John the Baptist, Holywell-cum-Needingworth. The fact that the middle name 'Webster' was added in at the time of her baptism may give a clue to the father's name.

1871 Census:

Keziah was 59 years old at the time of the 1871 census. She was living at The Barracks, Holywell-cum-Needingworth, Huntingdonshire. Her occupation was recorded pedantically as Labourer's Wife (Agricultural).. She gave her marital status as 'widow'.

With her was living a grand-daughter, Harriett's daughter Ada Mansfield. Ada was 2 years old.

Keziah was born at St Ives, Huntingdonshire. Ada's place of birth was given as Needingworth.

Still living in the household was the lodger, John Moody (see 1861). John Moody gave his occupation as Farm Labourer. He was 47 years old, and gave his marital status as widower. There must be a strong possibility that he was actually in a relationship with Keziah.

1871: Keziah's youngest daughter Harriet married her cousin James Mansfield in the registration district of St Ives, which includes Needingworth, in the third quarter of the year.

1876: Keziah's daughter Emma married James Walter Stephens in the registration district of St Ives, which includes Needingworth, in the third quarter of the year.

1881 Census:

Keziah's age was given as 78 at the time of the 1881 census. She was probably 67. She was living at Church Lane, Holywell-cum-Needingworth, Huntingdonshire. She gave her occupation as Widow of Labourer. She gave her marital status as 'widow'.

Keziah was born at St Ives, Huntingdonshire. Still living in the household was Keziah's grand-daughter Ada Mansfield, now aged 12. She is described as a scholar.

Also still living with Keziah at this new address was John Moody, now described as 'boarder'. John Moody gave his occupation as Labourer. He was 57 years old, and a widower.

1886: Keziah's grand-daughter Ada married John Cooper in the fourth quarter of the year at St John the Baptist, Holywell-cum-Needingworth. Ada was 17 years old and pregnant. Early in the new year she gave birth to her first child, Keziah's great-grandson Joseph.

1888: In September, Keziah died in Needingworth, Huntingdonshire. She was buried in Holywell-cum-Needingworth churchyard on 20th September. The parish register recorded her age as 86, and the inscription on her now-lost headstone read In Loving Memory of Keziah Mansfield who entered into rest 20th September 1888 aged 86 years. In fact, she was probably 74.