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SHELTON family (Wheaton Aston and Wolverhampton)
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Note: the surname is recorded as both Shelton and Sheldon, and the forename Jarvis as Jervis, Jerviss, Gervase & Gervas.
left: Mary Shelton, born 1796, married Robert Fenn in 1816, and died in 1883.
My direct forebear Jervis Shelton married Elizabeth Stokes by licence at Weston-under-Lizard on 24 July 1745. Elizabeth had been baptised at Lapley-cum-Wheaton Aston on 4 July 1723, daughter of Thomas Stokes and Jane née Adams, married at Lapley on 5 November 1719. These villages are all adjacent to each other in south-west Staffordshire.
The children of Jervis Shelton and Elizabeth – all baptised at Lapley-cum-Wheaton Aston – included John (4 May 1746), Samuel (27 Dec 1747), William (4 Oct 1748), Jane (20 Oct 1750), Richard (26 Apr 1755) and Elizabeth (2 Jan 1762).
John married Ann Fennyhouse (see end note) at Blymhill on 18 December 1768. Their witnesses were William Bach and John Wright, and the register describes them as both of the parish. Their children baptised at Blymhill included Ann (12 Mar 1769), Gervase (10 Feb 1771) and Elizabeth (28 Mar 1773); and Joseph Fennyhouse (19 Oct 1777) who was baptised at Lapley-cum-Wheaton Aston.
• Joseph Fennyhouse Shelton was brought before Gnosall parish bastardy examinations on 30 October 1797 by Sarah Wright of Great Chatwell, whom he had got with child. The baby, Joseph Shelton, was baptised on 3 December 1797.
Gervase (Jarvis) Shelton married Mary Mitchel at Lapley-cum-Wheaton Aston on 29 September 1793. Their children – baptised at Lapley – included John (15 June 1794), Mary (17 Apr 1796), Ann (3 June 1798) and Joseph (13 June 1802). Curiously, mother's name for the last two was recorded as Elizabeth, not Mary, in the Lapley register.
The family later moved to Bilston and two other children, Ellen and Jane, were both baptised on 10 July 1815 at St Peter’s Wolverhampton - the parish register records father's occupation as day labourer and abode as Ettingshall Lane. In 1818 when their 20 year-old daughter Ann gave birth to an illegitimate boy named Jarvis, her abode was shown as Priest Fields, which adjoined Ettingshall Lane. Ann’s sister Jane married John Lewis at St Peter’s on 13 Feb 1832: their daughter Catherine was born on 9 July 1832 and baptised at George Street Methodist church eleven days later. The register shows her father as a labourer of Gibbet Lane and the mother as née Shelton, daughter of Jarvis and Mary. Another sister, Ellen, married a miner, William Miller, at Sedgley on 12 June 1836: their son David was baptised at George Street on 19 May 1837 and the same particulars were given in the register, including the address as Gibbet Lane. Elizabeth, also one of the Shelton sisters (birthdate unknown), married John Cleaton at St Peter’s on 2 June 1823: their witness was Elizabeth’s brother-in-law Robert Fenn, and when their son Gabriel was baptised on 28 December the same year, the father was described as a miner of Gibbet Lane.
The oldest of the sisters, Mary – my great-great-great-grandmother - married Robert Fenn at Sedgley on 15 April 1816, and died at New Cross, Wolverhampton, on 18 March 1883, aged 87.
On the 1841 census Robert and Mary Fenn were living at Ettingshall Lane, Bilston, with their six children. Living just off Ettingshall Lane, in Gibbet Lane, were Mary’s parents, Jarvis and Mary Shelton, both 70. Jarvis was described as ‘milkman’, meaning he kept a cow and was selling the milk. He was buried at St Peter’s on 5 June 1842, aged 71 – the register gives his abode as Gibbet Lane; and his widow Mary was buried at the same church on 14 April 1850 aged 80 - her abode is given as Ettingshall Lane.
The 1851 census showed their widowed eldest son, John Shelton, aged 55, a hay dealer born Wheaton Aston, living at Fryer Street, Wolverhampton, with a housekeeper and her children. John Shelton died on 17 February 1858, aged 63, and his Will was proved at Lichfield on 11 March by his son and sole executor, Jarvis, a carter. Effects were under £450.
By the time of the 1881 census, this branch of the Shelton family was still occupying the Fryer Street property. John’s son Jarvis, aged 63 and described as a hay dealer born Bilston, was listed with his wife Sarah, 60; son Jarvis, 30, also a hay dealer; daughter Annie, 23; and two grandchildren, Alice and Jarvis Gould, aged 7 and 6 – the latter described as a mill lock grinder. Jarvis Shelton snr died 13 June 1881, and his Will was proved on 2 September that year by executors David Miller, hurdle manufacturer, and Jarvis Shelton his son. Effects were £356. His daughter Ann (Annie) died unmarried on 22 May 1890 at 2 Cranmore Road, Wolverhampton. Probate was granted on 9 July to her brother Jarvis, who by now was a hay, straw and coal merchant. Effects were £269.
The FENNYHOUSE family:
(note - the surname is recorded with various spellings including Fennihouse, Fennehouse, Fynehowse and Finnyhouse.)
John Fennyhouse married Eleanor Mason at Blymhill, south-west Staffordshire, on 7 Feb 1747. Eleanor was his second wife, his first being Sarah, who was buried at Blymhill on 26 July 1746.
His children by Sarah included John, bp at Blymhill 10 Nov 1740; Mary, 5 Nov 1742; and Edward, 25 Jan 1745.
His children by Eleanor included Matthew, bp at Blymhill 21 Nov 1748, buried 8 Feb 1749; Joseph, 7 Jan 1750; *Ann, 17 Nov 1751 - my direct forebear; and Elizabeth, 6 July 1755.
John Fennyhouse was buried at Blymhill on 19 Sept 1773, and his widow Eleanor subsequently married Thomas Farnell on 16 Oct 1774.
*Ann married John Shelton at Blymhill on 18 Dec 1768. Their children included Gervase (or Jarvis) bp 10 Feb 1771, whose daughter Mary (17 Apr 1796) was my great-great-great-grandmother.
The Fennyhouse family had been in the area for generations. Bell number two in Lapley church is dated 1655 and is inscribed with the names of the churchwardens for that year, Richard Finnehouse and John Corns. Richard was related to Edward Fennihouse of Longnor who had owned the Lapley Estate, which later passed to the Vaughans of Blackladies Priory in the parish of Brewood, Staffordshire. In his last Will and Testament (1673) Edward Fennehouse left 40 shillings to the poor of the parish 'to be set out by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish of Lapley, for the said poor the use thereof, to be yearly distributed by the said officers'. In 1884 it was reported that all trace of this charity had been lost.
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