{"id":34046,"date":"2024-05-15T02:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/3aaf2129-feed-4241-aebe-8116192089c9"},"modified":"2024-05-15T02:34:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T00:34:25","slug":"sophie-raworth-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\/sophie-raworth-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Raworth on Who Do You Think You Are?: Everything you need to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 15 May 2024 at 00:01 AM<\/p>

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Sophie Raworth was born in Redhill, Surrey on 15 May 1968 and is 56 years old. She is known for presenting BBC News<\/em>, Watchdog<\/em> and Crimewatch<\/em>.<\/p>

At the start of her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em><\/a>, Sophie sets out to trace ancestors on her father\u2019s side of the family. \u201cMy instinct is always to be prepared for what\u2019s ahead,\u201d she says, \u201cand for the first time in my life I think I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>

The truth of this remark becomes clear in Brighton where, having expected to hear tales of an illustrious ancestor, a piano maker and entrepreneur who mingled with royalty, Isaac Henry Mott, she instead finds there\u2019s been a case of mistaken identity.<\/p>

In truth, she\u2019s descended from black sheep Samuel Mott, who was fired from the family piano business. Family letters from the era reveal a man who was often in financial trouble, \u201ca mule of a chap\u201d.<\/p>

A story of an unhappy life, which ended with suicide in Jersey in 1838 unfolds. According to an old newspaper<\/a> report, Samuel\u2019s wife, Ann, found him \u201cin a pool of his own blood\u201d. But why might Samuel\u2019s life have gone so disastrously wrong, especially as other members of his family, including brother Julius, were so successful?<\/p>

In Birmingham, Sophie learns how Samuel\u2019s parents, her 5x great grandparents, William and Martha, belonged to a dissenting religious community, the New Jerusalem Church in Birmingham.<\/p>

In 1791, the city erupted in religious violence, the Priestley riots, when mobs targeted nonconformists<\/a>. William and Martha reacted by emigrating to \u201cthe New City\u201d, New York, where the First Amendment guaranteed religious freedom.<\/p>

In Manhattan, Sophie learns how the couple became storekeepers. But then tragedy struck and they died during a yellow fever epidemic. Orphaned Samuel, just 11 years old, returned to England and was sent to live with a bankrupt<\/a>, separated from his siblings.<\/p>

\u201cI understand what happened to Samuel,\u201d Sophie reflects. \u201cHe really did draw the short straw.\u201d Nonetheless, she\u2019s \u201cin awe\u201d of the Motts and \u201cthe risks they took\u201d.<\/p>

There\u2019s a happier story when Sophie next turns her attention to the life of Edgar Cussons Crowder, her great grandfather. He trained at Kew Gardens, exciting for someone from a family for whom \u201cgardens\u2026 are everything\u201d. At Kew, she sees a picture of Edgar as a student gardener. Part of the class of 1892, he seems to have drifted away from the profession.<\/p>

But he\u2019s by no means the only gardener in Sophie\u2019s family history. Her 5x great grandfather, Abraham Crowder (1734-1831), was head gardener at Cusworth Hall, near Doncaster. He was also a nurseryman, who grew plants for sale. Records show him selling 18 pineapple plants, then so much of a luxury that you could rent pineapples at a guinea a go \u2013 a guinea extra if you ate the fruit.<\/p>

But how do you grow pineapples in Doncaster? The answer is in a specially heated building known as a \u2018pinery vinery\u2019. Abraham led, according to a newspaper obituary, \u201ca long, kind and simple life\u201d and died aged 98. \u201cEvery time I see a pineapple now, I just smile,\u201d says Sophie.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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