{"id":26593,"date":"2023-07-25T22:50:42","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T20:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com\/?p=15264"},"modified":"2023-07-25T23:34:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T21:34:33","slug":"lesley-manville-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/rss_feed\/lesley-manville-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesley Manville on Who Do You Think You Are?: Everything you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Crown star Lesley Manville discovered her ancestor was transported to Australia for his role in a riot when she appeared on Who Do You Think You Are? <\/p>

By Rosemary Collins\n \t\t<\/p>

2023-07-25 20:50:42<\/p>

\n\n

Born on 12 March 1956 in Brighton, Lesley Manville is an acclaimed theatre, film and television actor. All her grandparents apart from her maternal grandmother were dead by the time she was born, so she\u2019s keen to learn more about her family history on Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em><\/a> \u201cThrough understanding where I\u2019ve come from,\u201d she says, \u201cI\u2019m hoping to understand myself more.\u201d<\/p>\n

To start, Lesley meets her son Alfie and her sister Diana to look at family photographs. They reminisce about their grandmother Harriet, who famously wasn\u2019t married to their grandfather James and left her previous husband and children to be with him.<\/p>\n

To find out more, Lesley goes to Brighton. She learns that Harriet was married to a man named George Thomas Barton and they had three children together. The 1911 census<\/a> shows that her grandfather, James Arthur Edwards, was also married to a woman named Mabel and had two children with her. However, Mabel had a child with the family\u2019s lodger in 1921. By 1923, James was in a relationship with Harriet, when Lesley\u2019s mother was born. Because divorce<\/a> was very expensive to obtain at the time, it wasn\u2019t unheard of for working-class couples to simply end their relationships with each other and move in with other partners, while still being legally married to each other. The 1939 Register<\/a> shows Harriet living with James and using the surname Edwards. When he died in 1943, his will leaves all his property to Harriet, who he describes as \u201cmy friend\u2026 with whom I have been living\u201d. Having never known her grandfather and heard him described as \u201ccold\u201d, Lesley is moved by evidence of his love for Harriet.<\/p>\n

\""Lesley\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Lesley Manville\u2019s grandfather James Edwards at her mother\u2019s wedding<\/span><\/figcaption> Lesley Manville<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Next, she wants to find out more about her father\u2019s family. She speaks to Hazel Manville, her cousin\u2019s wife, who has researched their family history. Hazel shows her the records of her 3x great grandparents, Aaron Harding and Sarah Stacey. They applied for a marriage licence<\/a> in 1810 in Hampshire. However, Hazel has never found Aaron\u2019s death record.<\/p>\n

In Selborne in Hampshire, Lesley meets historian Carl Griffin. He tells her that Aaron\u2019s wife Sarah died in 1829, leaving Aaron a widower with nine children, struggling to make ends meet. In 1830 matters came to a head when Aaron was the ringleader of a local riot as part of the Swing Riots, a wave of riots by agricultural labourers<\/a> protesting against low pay, hard conditions and the increasing use of machinery to replace workers. They tore down two local workhouses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love him for doing that,\u201d Lesley says. \u201cHe\u2019s got gumption, he\u2019s not going to put up with what he thinks is a massive injustice. He may be going about it in the wrong way, I don\u2019t know, but I admire the man who says \u2018This is not good enough\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron and the other rioters, including his brother Thomas, were arrested, facing the death penalty. The death sentence was commuted but Aaron was sentenced to be transported to Australia<\/a> for life, whilst Thomas was sentenced for seven years.<\/p>\n

Lesley flies to Australia, following in Aaron\u2019s footsteps. She learns that in Australia, he worked as a labourer for a settler, John Atkinson. Fortunately, Atkinson had a reputation for treating convict<\/a> labourers fairly. In 1837 Aaron and the other Swing Rioters were given conditional pardons after a campaign by their supporters. This meant he was free, but couldn\u2019t leave Australia and New Zealand. However, Aaron went on to have children with Alice Sargent, another convict. Like Harriet Barton, she was previously married but left her husband to be with Aaron.<\/p>\n

Aaron and Alice\u2019s descendants are still living in Australia and Lesley is delighted to meet her distant cousins, Rebecca and Claire Watts, who show her an old photograph of Aaron and Alice. An old newspaper article shows that Aaron ultimately died in an accident in 1851.<\/p>\n

\""Lesley\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Lesley Manville\u2019s 3x great grandfather Aaron Harding with his partner Sarah<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cIt has been quite a journey,\u201d Lesley says, \u201cbut I already feel grounded in a way that I didn\u2019t before\u2026 I can just feel the essence of all that bravery of my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rosemary Collins is the features editor of\u00a0<\/em>Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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