If there were twins on my
side of the family i t would be easy to write about multiples, but there aren’t
any. The only double ups I have are with names. I’ve got multiple Georges,
Williams, and Edwards, as well as a few Marys and Mary Ann’s and Susannahs.
As I’ve already written a
story about one of my great great grandfathers for week six, called Talking About George, But Which One? It’s time I
stepped over to the other side of Mum’s tree and wrote about someone from there.
That someone was a great
great grandmother called Elizabeth Hinson who married William Hall. They had at
least eight children, including my great grandfather Thomas Hall.
Elizabeth and William lived
their entire lives in Crowland/Croyland, an ancient
fenland town situated near the southern-most border of Lincolnshire. The name
Crowland or Croyland, means soft land. During the 13th century the area was
just a muddy swamp, until fenland drainage lowered the water table.
This modern-day
map shows the location of Poor’s Lane which was later renamed Albion Street.
According to public records
Elizabeth seems hardly to have existed at all between her baptism and her
marriage to William Hall, both events occurring at St Mary, St Bartholomew and
St Guthlac, Anglican Church
Elizabeth was baptised at on
May 24th 1805. Her actual year of birth is unknown, but census
records put it at 1804 – 1805. The population of Crownland in 1801 was just
1425. By the time Elizabeth married William Hall on October 31 1831 Crownland’s
population had increased to just 2268.
When Queen Victoria came to
the throne in 1837 and like almost all of my ancestors, more than half of the population
of England worked in the countryside.
The 1841 census is
recognised by genealogists as the most useful one as it details the names of
the house occupants rather than jus the number of souls at a particular
dwelling. In the 1841 is Elizabeth, aged 35, and married to William Hall, with
five children. The address is simply ‘Town Lane’
To the left of Elizabeth’s Husband’s entry is a double
slash and a single slash to the left of the older William’s name. The end of
each building is shown with two slashes '//' and the end of each household in a
building is shown with one slash '/'.
I am unsure if the older William Hall, is related
as Elizabeth’s father in Law was called John
Elizabeth’s younger brother William later married
Susannah Cook who lived right next door
Elizabeth’s husband’s
occupation like most of his neighbours was ‘ag lab’. The life of an ‘ag lab’
would have varied with the seasons, and with the crops grown. They wouldn’t
necessarily have been employed by just one farmer, though some were. Elizabeth
would probably have worked in the fields during busy times like harvest alongside
her husband and other wives. Children too were expected to work, their wages
often an important addition to what would likely have been a meagre lifestyle.
The idea that an
agricultural revolution was the forerunner to the industrial revolution continues
to be debated by some even today. Nevertheless, better agricultural knowledge
and techniques improved the efficiency of food production necessary to feed England’s
rapidly growing population: a fifty percent increase 1800 – 1801. This efficiency
in food production meant that there were less jobs for the ‘ag labs’ ultimately
resulting in the increasing number of people migrating from rural to urban
areas. Elizabeth and her husband though, remained in the same town up until their
deaths, William’s in c1880 and Elizabeth’s in 1885.
1851 England Census for
Elizabeth Hall, m Lincolnshire, Crowland, ALL, 8b. Birthplace for the entire
family ‘Craylands’
Address is Poor House Lane. Even
though the name of the street has changed all the neighbours, including the Cook
Family, remain the same, which makes me think that it was a matter of just renaming
the street rather than them all moving. I have yet to discover if there was a
workhouse/poorhouse close by before the new Union Workhouse was built in 1836
on the north side of Thorpe Road, workhouses were closed in 1930. I am waiting
for a copy of a book called ‘In the Shadow of the Abbey’, which I am told has a
section on Poors Lane which may answer the question. Crownland’s population in
1851 had now increased from 2268 to 3183.
1861
England Census for Elizabeth Hall, Lincolnshire, Crowland, ALL, District
2
In 1861 the family continued
to live in Poors Lane, at number 5, as do their immediate neighbours the Cook Family,
including Susannah, William’s future bride. They married October 24th
1870. Elizabeth’s husband’s occupation remained ‘ag lab’, no occupation was
listed for Elizabeth as was common for the time, and son Thomas was a basket
maker. Elizabeth may well have been occupied in milking and cheese and butter
production or perhaps was employed in some domestic role. It is frustrating not
to be able to be at least to have least a little knowledge
about her life.
It is interesting to note
that there now a family of Hinsons a little further along the street, at this
stage I do not know if the family is related.
Moving forward another ten
years to the 1871 census I find just William and Elizabeth at home at Poors
lane with the Cook family still their neighbours. This time Elizabeth’s brother
William is there too with his wife Susannah. Elizabeth’s husband still
describes himself as an ‘ag lab’ at age 67. Crownland’s population had declined
slightly to 3168, probably an indicator
of the forthcoming Great Depression of British Agriculture 1873 -1896. In the
1870s faster steamships transported cheaper American grain leading to a
dramatic fall in the price of domestically grown grain. It is no wonder then
that many thousands succumbed to the lure of work in the cities.
1881 England Census for
Elizabeth Hall, Lincolnshire, Crowland, ALL, District 2. There had been a
slight increase in population to almost three thousand.
Another ten year on and the census address is still Poors
Lane are living the now widowed Elizabeth with her widowed daughter Elizabeth. William
died in 1880. The daughter’s occupation was Nurse SMS (Subsidiary Medical
Services). SMS may mean that she had some medical training, but it could just
as likely be by custom/practice.
Elizabeth died in 1885 aged
81
Notes about Crowland today
The town has a variety of Georgian, timber-framed and
thatched cottages. There are also some interesting archaeological and
historical sights, the most famous of which is the ruined abbey. The abbey was
part of Benedictine monastery, built in AD 716 by King Ethelbald of Mercia, to
honour the memory of St Guthlac. Most of the monastic buildings were lost
during the Dissolution and the English Civil War. Apart from the north aisle,
which is now used as the parish church. A squat tower and ruined Norman arch
still remain, supporting a superb west front, with five tiers of statues,
representing the saints and apostles. The Abbey was destroyed and rebuilt
several times, until it was finally decimated by Cromwell's troops it in 1643.
Hereward the Wake is believed to be buried here with his family.
The Abbey Church holds a popular Flower Festival every
August Bank Holiday.
An extraordinary three-way bridge sits in the centre of
the town, built in the 14th-c over the confluence of two streams, which have
long since dried up due to fenland drainage. A weathered stone figure on one of
the bridge parapets is thought to represent either Christ or King Ethelbald.
You can find a modern day guid to the town at
and a guide to the Abbey at
