<\/p>
The story of Jenny Cross\u2019 maternal family begins during the reign of Queen Anne, with an illicit romance between a young man and his older married lover. They and their descendants lived in a tiny village in Buckinghamshire where most of them worked the land.<\/p>
Some of us sigh when we see the words \u201cagricultural labourer\u201d<\/a> listed as an ancestor\u2019s occupation, believing that there will be little more to find out. However, Jenny\u2019s research has proved how fascinating they can be.<\/p> \u201cMy quest began in the early 1980s,\u201d Jenny explains. \u201cI knew that my parents Frederick Hills and Gertrude King were distantly related, and I wanted to find out how. It took me 10 years, pre-internet, to discover that they were second cousins<\/a>. Dad\u2019s grandmother Elizabeth King was the sister of Jesse King, who was Mum\u2019s grandfather.\u201d<\/p> Jenny knew that the Kings came from the hamlet of Poundon in Twyford parish, Buckinghamshire. \u201cThe county archives are in Aylesbury, which is only 25 miles from my home in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. I spent a wonderful day there in 1980, and, with the help of an archivist, was able to trace my King line back to the 18th century<\/a>. It was astonishing to do this in one hit.\u201d<\/p> On Jenny\u2019s second visit, she delved deeper into the Twyford records. She was keen to find the parents of her 5x great grandfather Stephen King, who was born in 1758 to Thomas King and his wife Elizabeth.<\/p> \u201cI was intrigued by the baptism record for a Thomas King in 1704. His mother\u2019s name was Ann King, but no father was mentioned. I then found the birth of a daughter, Ann, in 1705 whose parents were Valentine Langley and Mrs J King.<\/p> \u201cThe next baptism record was a revelation. It was for George King, who was born in 1707 to Valentine Langley and Ann King but not baptised until 1716. The clerk of the parish had written by the entry, \u2018This is the third bastard child of Valentine Langley and John King\u2019s wife.\u2019<\/p> The clerk of the parish had written by the entry, \u2018This is the third bastard child of Valentine Langley and John King\u2019s wife.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote> \u201cIn addition to the four children Ann had with her husband John, she had another three with Valentine while her husband was still alive. I became obsessed with finding out more about the couple and their descendants.\u201d<\/p> Valentine Langley was baptised in 1686 in Twyford and lived in the nearby village of Charndon. \u201cI was confident that John King married Ann Manfield in 1685, and that they lived in Poundon and had four children.<\/p> \u201cAnn was born in 1666, which made her 20 years\u2019 Valentine\u2019s senior. They must have met at some point in the early 1700s, and embarked upon an affair.<\/p> Ann was born in 1666, which made her 20 years\u2019 Valentine\u2019s senior.<\/p><\/blockquote> \u201cI spent a great deal of time checking the Twyford registers before deducing that Thomas King, born in 1704, was my 6x great grandfather and that he was born illegitimately to Ann and Valentine. He married Elizabeth Beason and they stayed in the village to raise their family.\u201d<\/p> Further research revealed a mention of Valentine Langley \u201cof Charndon\u201d in the records of the 1705\u20131706 Buckinghamshire quarter sessions. He was among a list of five local men who\u2019d been enlisted to the Regiment of Marines, commanded by the Honourable Brigadier Holt. Britain was fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession, which had begun in 1701, and recruitment was intensifying.<\/p> It\u2019s Jenny\u2019s guess that Valentine had been press-ganged into service, although he may have chosen to enlist. Ann was left behind in Poundon with three illegitimate children<\/a> to raise.<\/p> It\u2019s Jenny\u2019s guess that Valentine had been press-ganged into service<\/p><\/blockquote> \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to trace an ordinary soldier at that time, but the regimental records indicated that Valentine would have been sent to fight in Spain. After the war ended in 1714, the regiment was posted to Ireland<\/a> before being disbanded.\u201d<\/p> Valentine would have returned to Buckinghamshire in around 1716, when his third child George was baptised. Perhaps Ann waited so long because she wanted the father to be present.<\/p> \u201cThis is only conjecture, but I think that Valentine came home aged 30 and thought, \u201cGoodness, what have I done? Here\u2019s this older woman and three youngsters who expect me to work the land to keep them.<\/p> I think that Valentine came home aged 30 and thought, \u201cGoodness, what have I done?”<\/p><\/blockquote> \u201cThree months later, he appears in Buckingham marrying a lady called Mary Nurse. He was quite the cad, but not the only one in our family.\u201d<\/p> Ann stayed in Poundon and raised her children. \u201cI think that she must have been well-liked in the village, because all of her children married other Poundon residents. There can\u2019t have been much stigma attached to them.\u201d<\/p> It\u2019s difficult to trace Ann, her husband John and Valentine from this point, but Jenny has traced the three illegitimate children, Thomas, Ann and George, forward and found an incredible 6,000 descendants. \u201cIt has taken me 40 years to do this, and it has been fascinating. I\u2019ve found intermarriages in the family and at least two cases where a man married his deceased wife\u2019s sister, which was illegal until 1907. There have been sad stories, too, such as poor Hannah King who was committed to the Stone Lunatic Asylum<\/a>, Buckinghamshire, for six weeks in 1860. The record stated that she thought that \u2018people were throwing bad smells at her\u2019.<\/p> Jenny has found an incredible 6,000 descendants<\/p><\/blockquote> \u201cHannah had married young, and lost both her children and husband in a year. She remarried and had another child, who also died. The suffering must have taken her over the edge.\u201d<\/p> Five generations of Valentine and Ann\u2019s descendants remained in Poundon, which is why Jenny is related to several people who live in the area today. Most of her ancestors worked as agricultural labourers, and had large families. Her grandfather Harry King, who was born in 1878, was among the first of the family to migrate.<\/p> In the late 19th century, about 25 men left Twyford to go to Islington, Central London, where they worked as cow-keepers and dairymen. Harry joined them in 1900, although city life was not to his taste and he retired to live near Poundon in 1943. Some of the King family are still living in Islington today.<\/p> \u201cThe research that I\u2019m most proud of relates to my cousin Peter who was born in the 1920s. His parents weren\u2019t married, and when his mother died in 1936 he was placed in a Barnardo\u2019s children’s home<\/a>. Sadly, the family lost contact with him.<\/p> \u201cPeter went into the home before I was born, but I always knew of his story. In 1990, I decided that I wanted to know who he was, so I wrote to Barnardo\u2019s asking for information. They told me that when Peter was 15 he joined the Royal Navy<\/a>. By 1990, he may have been receiving a pension, so I contacted the Royal Navy and asked them. They confirmed that he was, and agreed to pass on a letter from me to him.<\/p> \u201cI wrote explaining that I had a suitcase in the loft that belonged to his father. It contained several old photographs<\/a> together with other family memorabilia.<\/p> \u201cThree weeks later I was excited to receive a reply from Peter enclosing a photograph, which was the only one that he\u2019d had when he entered the home. He asked, \u2018Who is the boy pictured with me?\u2019 This was delightful because it was my older brother, who was also called Peter, and we had the same photograph in our collection at home.<\/p> \u201cI got in touch with cousin Peter and organised a get-together. He told me that he\u2019d served in submarines, as had my brother. They would almost certainly have met, but they wouldn\u2019t have made the connection because their surnames were different.<\/p> \u201cPeter was overjoyed with the memorabilia, which included a plait of his mother\u2019s hair that she\u2019d had cut off specially for him. We shared photographs of her and his dad, which he\u2019d never been able to see before.<\/p> \u201cPeter is dead now, but we met up several times over the years. Tracing him is definitely one of my greatest achievements.\u201d<\/p> Jenny\u2019s niece Anna, the daughter of her late brother Brian, is also passionate about genealogy, and they enjoy sharing their discoveries. \u201cWe\u2019ve had great fun with the 1921 census<\/a>, and found a King who had nine children with two women who were much younger. He was a bricklayer and wouldn\u2019t have had much money, so how could he afford to have so many children?\u201d<\/p> Tracing her King ancestry has led to fellowship across continents for Jenny. \u201cI correspond with friends and family in Australia<\/a>, Canada<\/a> and Scotland<\/a>. Some have helped to fill in gaps in my tree.<\/p> \u201cDue to my age, I don\u2019t get around much now. Genealogy gives me an interest in life, so that I don\u2019t sit around and feel sorry for myself. I enjoy helping other people with their ancestry, too, and it\u2019s easy to do from home.\u201d<\/p> Jenny\u2019s achievement with the King family is astonishing, and all the more remarkable when you consider that it began over three centuries ago, when a young Lothario caught the eye of an older married woman. That moment was the beginning for generations of descendants.<\/p>