Big Question
Arwell Davies has hit a brick wall while researching his wife’s family tree
Q I’ve traced one branch of my wife’s family back to her 4x great grandfather, George Heald, born Warmfield, Yorkshire, c1793. I think that George was the son of Joseph Heald (born c1761) and Sarah Moxon (born c1760), who married in All Saints, Wakefield, in 1782.
Tree hints on Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) point to this Joseph Heald being executed for murder in York Prison on 21 March 1803. However, this isn’t my wife’s 5x great grandfather, as I have found a report in The Times that gives the executed Joseph Heald’s age as 21 (born c1781), so he couldn’t be the father of George Heald.
I found baptisms for two Joseph Healds in 1781. One was the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Heald, baptised in All Saints Church, Wakefield, in October 1781; the other was the son of Joseph Heald, baptised at All Saints Church, Dewsbury, in December.
How can I discover if the executed Joseph Heald is linked to my wife’s family?
A I agree that your wife’s Joseph Heald is not the one who was hanged in 1803. The executed Joseph was an apprentice clothmaker, according to various newspaper reports you can find at the British Newspaper Archive (britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) or at Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) if you’re a ‘Pro’ subscriber.
In Ancestry’s collection of prison records from West Yorkshire, I found a Joseph Heald sentenced to seven days in the West Yorkshire House of Correction in Wakefield on 25 July 1806. This Joseph was recorded as being 50 years old, and had been found guilty of assault. His age would make him likely to be the Joseph who was baptised in 1761, since no other Joseph Healds were baptised in Wakefield around that time.
I could find no likely death or burial for this Joseph in Wakefield, but there was a Joseph Heald buried in 1828, aged 60 years, in yet another All Saints Church – this time in Batley, only about seven miles from Wakefield.
However, as well as the parish records of the Anglican All Saints Church, which both Ancestry and Findmypast have, don’t forget the records of nonconformist chapels. These are at TheGenealogist (thegenealogist.co.uk) and Ancestry.
Rather than being the Joseph who was baptised in All Saints in 1761, your wife’s ancestor may be the Joseph who was baptised in the Westgate Presbyterian Chapel, Wakefield, in 1775 (whose father was named William Heald). This is probably the Joseph Heald who can be found in the 1841 census aged 65, and who died in 1842 aged 66.
Note that Anglican parishes in the north of England were often very large. Wakefield parish was much larger than the town, but for over 1,000 years its only church was All Saints (Wakefield Cathedral since 1888).
According to Local Census Listings 1522–1930 by Jeremy Gibson and Mervyn Medlycott (Federation of Family History Societies, 1997) and Pre-1841 Censuses & Population Listings by Colin R Chapman (Clearfield, 2012), a mini-census of Wakefield was carried out on 9 December 1723. This listing of “families, communicants and souls” in the town and parish of Wakefield was compiled to press the case for an additional church. It was not until 1795, however, that St John the Baptist’s church opened to the north of the town centre. Flanshaw Lane was in the Alverthorpe with Thornes township in Wakefield parish, which received its own church (St Paul’s) in 1826.
A transcript of the 1723 listing can be bought from Wakefield and District FHS via parishchest.com for £2. It lists heads of households and should let you know how many Heald families there were in Wakefield in 1723.
To find a possible link between your wife’s Healds and the executed Joseph Heald’s family you may need to research back a few generations.