John Smith's Family Tree Website
Wyatt
family 
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Part 2: Samuel Wyatt Jr (1808 - 1886)
Early life and marriage to Mary Ann Tippett
Samuel Wyatt was the fifth child of Samuel Wyatt and Elizabeth Skinner. He was born 27 April 1808 in Kingston and baptised 08 May of the same year in St James the Less Church. It is possible Samuel had some schooling. Unlike his father and brothers, Samuel did not work as a labourer. Instead he became a mason. Stonemasonry was considered a skilled occupation, however that level of skill varied. Some masons would work on making stone blocks square to fit together tightly and others would carve elaborate decorations. Samuel was probably a lesser skilled mason and he might not have served a traditional seven-year apprenticeship as a teenager to gain his skills as the apprenticeship system was not so strictly enforced by this time. [1]
Samuel married Mary Ann Tippett (c1810 - 1892) 05 October 1832 in St George’s Church, Modbury. (More information about Mary Ann appears in the Tippett section.) They had seven children: Mary Jane, John, Samuel, Elizabeth Tippett, William and twins Francis and James. There were complications after the twins were born and Mary Ann suffered in pain for years.
Tragically, two of their sons, John and Francis died within a couple of weeks of each other from smallpox. From July to early November 1849 a total of 45 people were buried in St George’s having died from either smallpox or cholera. Most of them were young children like Francis, including two of Samuel’s brother George’s grandchildren who were buried on the same day. The cholera epidemic of 1848-49 was only the second one experienced in the United Kingdom (the first was 1830-32) and it caused over 53,000 deaths. [2] In contrast, smallpox was an endemic disease but in decline due to the smallpox vaccine introduced after 1796 (and the fact that survivors developed immunity to it). Four years after John and Francis died, the Vaccination Act (1853) made it compulsory for all children to be vaccinated against smallpox though it took until the 1930s for it to be eradicated in the United Kingdom.
All of Samuel and Mary’s children were baptised at St George’s Church and there is evidence some of Samuel and Mary Ann’s children had schooling. In the 1839 Robson’s Directory, there was a National Free School, a British School for Boys, a separate British School for Girls and an Infant School for boys and girls but it is no known where the Wyatts attended.
Samuel and Mary Ann lived all their married life in Modbury, first in Sun Lane and then in Brownston Street, one of the main streets in Modbury and full of stone buildings which Samuel might have repaired or helped build. Samuel died 20 July 1886, aged 78. The cause of his death was given as ‘paralysis after 3 months’ which could have meant he had had a stroke. After Samuel’s death, Mary Ann lodged with a local grocer, supported by one of her sons (according to the enumerator of the 1891 census). She died from bronchitis 07 March 1892, aged 82.
Children of Samuel and Ann
Mary Jane (c1833 - c1903) was baptised 17 March 1833 in Modbury. She worked as a servant as a teen and married when she 19, which required the permission of her parents as she was under 21. Her husband was traveller/hawker Henry Ingram Redwood (c1826 - 1854) and they married 12 April 1852 at St George’s Church, Modbury. They had one son John Henry Francis (1853 - ?) who might have later emigrated to Ontario, Canada. Sadly Henry died 18 March 1854, aged 27, and was buried 24 March at St George’s Church. Henry probably never left a will and it took 22 years before Mary was able to obtain letters of administration so she could deal with Henry’s effects (which were only worth less than £100).
Mary remarried shoemaker George Henry Rendle (1835 - 1911) 25 March 1856 at St George’s Church. After the birth of their first child, they moved from Modbury to Devonport. George became a shoemaker for the Royal Navy and served until 1883, when he was then given a pension, although he might have continued being a shoemaker on shore. Mary and George had seven children: George James Jordan (1857 - 1929), Elizabeth Margaret Ann Horswill (1858 - c1934), Harriet Catherine Jane Wyatt (c1861 - ?), Samuel Richard William (1863 - 1943), Sarah Jane (1865 - 1926), William Charles Horswill (1867 – 1888) and Albert Edward (1870 - 1951).
All Mary and George’s children stayed living in Plymouth: their daughters married naval men and all their sons joined the navy, except Albert who became a hairdresser’s assistant. It is possible he worked in a saloon (either for ladies or gentlemen) although some hairdressers would go to their clientele’s own homes. William tragically died following an accident when he was twenty. He had been on board HMS Inconstant with the Royal Navy fleet off Spithead, near Portsmouth. They were going to spend three weeks away from harbour so needed to fill up with coal. Able Seaman William had been pulled up with a bag of coal by accident then fell from a height onto the deck of the coal lighter. He was moved to a naval hospital where he died two days later. The coroner’s inquest was reported p8 in ‘The Hampshire Telegraph’ 14 July 1888.
Mary died c1903, aged 70 and George died 31 January 1911 aged 75.
John (c1835 - 1849) was baptised 21 June 1835 in Modbury. He died of smallpox when he was 14 and was buried 09 October 1849 in St George’s churchyard.
Samuel (c1837 - ?) was baptised 11 June 1837. As a teenager he worked as a farm labourer and then followed his father to become a mason. He married Mary Jane Jeans (or Janes) (c1839 - 1900) 15 February 1862 at St Andrew’s Church, Plymouth. Mary Jane’s younger sister Lydia would go on to marry Samuel’s youngest brother James. They had six children but only three would survive infancy: Emma Jane (1863 - 1941), William Henry (c1865 - 1865), Henry William (c1867 - 1907), Charles (1871 - 1953), Beatrice (1879 - 1881) and Beatrice (1884 - 1884).
By November 1871, Samuel was running the Modbury Inn on Brownston Street. The Modbury Inn has existed since at least the 18th century and is still standing today (in 1967 it became a Grade II listed building). [3] By 1881 he was also described as a famer of 22 acres. How he went from mason to licenced victualler (another name for publican) and farmer is not known. With his new status he was also able to become a prominent person in Modbury. ‘Wyatt’s Modbury Inn’ was the location for the annual Portreeve elections. The portreeve was like a mayor and with the other town officials they had to deal with the “many nuisances in the town that call for the attention from these gentlemen” such as pavements kept in a terrible condition, as reported p8 in ‘The Western Times’ 21 November 1871.
In April 1894, Samuel himself was elected Portreeve, taking over from his son-in-law John Blight (husband of his daughter Emma and a local veterinary surgeon). Two years later, Samuel was elected to the Kingsbridge Board of Guardians which was responsible for administering the local workhouse. Samuel retired from running the Modbury Inn in 1898 and Charles took over. Samuel’s health went into decline. Sadly Mary died 29 June 1900, aged 61. Samuel himself died, aged 63, 01 February 1901, the day after he was found “in the road unconscious in a pool of blood”, as reported p5 in ‘The Totnes Weekly Times’. It is not known what had happened and he died the following day from a liver haemorrhage. He was described as “an old and respected inhabitant of Modbury”.
More information about Elizabeth Tippett (1839 - 1917) appears in Part 3.
William George (1841 - 1898) was baptised 26 November 1841. He became a mason and married Ellen W Lyons (c1846 - 1898) 23 August 1862 at East Stonehouse Parish Church. He and Ellen had thirteen children: Jessie Elizabeth Jane Tippett (1864 - 1941), William George (1865 - 1920), Emily Ellen (1867 - 1931), Samuel Henry (c1869 - 1927), Bessie (1870 - 1947), Florence Louisa (c1872 - ?), Frederick Charles (1873 - ?), Walter Charles (1875 - 1940), Mary Ann (Alice) (1878 - ?), Eva Gertrude (1880 - 1929), Francis James (1881 - 1882) and George (c1889 - ?). They lived in Union Place, East Stonehouse.
In 1873 the family emigrated to Canada. Perhaps William had seen the many advertisements in the newspapers about steam ships going to the Canada which had been organised by the Canadian government. Emigrants who met the eligibility requirements could travel at reduced ticket prices. They had to have a certificate of character from a Minister of Religion or a Justice of the Peace. The Wyatts arrived in Quebec City 09 June 1873 on board the ‘Prussian’. Travelling with them was William’s younger brother George’s wife and two children though it seems they quickly returned to Devon.
The Wyatts settled in Whitby East, Ontario, just east of Toronto, and William continued working as a mason. By 1882, they had moved to Brandon, Manitoba, which had only been chosen as the location of a township in May 1881. Various townships were established as the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was built to link the east and west of Canada. The CPR sold land adjacent to the railway network in the Prairie Provinces cheaply to settlers and immigrants and the Wyatts were part of the 5,000 residents who had created a city in less than year. [4] They soon moved to nearby Virden, also a newly established railway township, and William opened the first lumber yard in 1886. With all the new townships springing up alongside the railway tracks, there was a big need for lumber. The Wyatts must have made an impression in their new hometown as they had a short paragraph dedicated to them in a history of Virden, written in 1957 to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the town:
Mr. Wyatt had a lumber yard on 6th Avenue where the Taylor Lumber Co. Ltd. is now located. His family, both sons and daughters, went into or became connected with business in Virden with the exception of one daughter [Bessie] who married a farmer, William Carruthers of the Hargrave district. [5] Their son, Fred, is still on the home farm, but the other members of the Wyatt family have all sought other fields. [6]
Contrary to the above, some of the surviving Wyatt children actually moved away from Virden but generally only to another part of Manitoba or nearby Saskatchewan. However Jessie and Alice married siblings Robert and Arthur Mullins, and Alice moved to Toronto. Samuel moved to Minnesota, United States. Fred served in WWI as a private with the 195th Battalion (City of Regina).
William died 03 January 1898, aged 57. Ellen died 26 June 1898, aged 54.
Twins Francis and James were born 30 March 1847 and baptised 07 May the same year. It is not known who was older. Francis (1847 - 1849) died of smallpox when he was 2 ½ years old and was buried 30 September 1849 in St George’s churchyard.
James (1847 - 1880) worked as a mason. He married dressmaker Lydia Jeans (1843 - 1910), the younger sister of his brother Samuel’s wife Mary Jane. They married 01 May 1869 in St George’s Parish Church, East Stonehouse but returned to live in Modbury where they had both been born. They had five sons: Francis ‘Frank’ (1870 - 1955), Albert (c1872 - c1923), Charles (c1874 - 1880), Samuel (1875 - 1890) and Walter (c1878 - 1904).
In 1873, Lydia, Francis and Albert accompanied James’ brother William and his family to Canada. It is not known if they intended to emigrate to Canada, with James following on afterwards. Within a year or so, Lydia and the boys were back in Modbury. Sadly James died in 1880, aged 33, and was buried 21 December in St George’s Churchyard. Their son Charles had died only a month earlier, aged 6. Lydia went on to lose two more of her sons: Samuel aged 14 and Walter aged 25. Frank served in WWI as a Pioneer in 311th Road Construction Company of the Royal Engineers. Frank was 46 at the time he enlisted in 1917 (though he claimed to be 44). He was too old to be conscripted but it is possible he was encouraged to enlist because of his stonemasonry skills which would help in building and repairing roads. Frank was one of 240 men in the 311th who arrived in Le Havre in February 1917. He stayed in France until June 1918 when he was posted back to England and was discharged exactly three weeks before the Armistice. [6]
Lydia remarried mason/builder George Lavers (1861 - ?) c1885 in Plymouth. George was born in Modbury but nothing else is known of him and there is no record of him after 1891. Lydia died in 1910, aged 66.
Next: Elizabeth Tippett Wyatt
Footnotes
[1] Stonemason Records website (www.genguide.co.uk/source/stonemason-records-occupations/); Apprenticeship in England (www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Apprenticeship_in_England)
[2] ‘The History of Cholera in Great Britain’ by E Ashworth Underwood (1948), published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine Vol 41 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/003591574804100309)
[3] Historic England website (https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1308879)
[4] History of Canadian Pacific Railway (https://www.cpr.ca/en/); ‘The Story of … Brandon, Manitoba’, taken from ‘The Face of Yesterday’ by MacDonald Coleman (https://web.archive.org/web/20110706184818/http://www.city.brandon.mb.ca/main.nsf/Pages+by+ID/584)
[5] Bessie and William Carruthers’ daughter Lalie Christina Jelly (1903 - 2006) is the longest-lived relative of Cecelia Higgins, living to be 103.
[6] Virden Downtown Heritage District (http://www.virtualmanitoba.com/Virden/history/claims/p4.html); ‘The Virden Story’ by Ida y Ida Clingan (1957) (http://www.mb1870.org/localhistory/097%20-%20The%20Virden%20story%201882-1957.pdf)
[6] Road Construction Companies of the Royal Engineers, The Long, Long Trail website (https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk)
