Durham Littlefair Families of the 1700's : Analysing the Information
Littlefair Families in the 1700's: Introduction
Peruse the associated section entitled 1700's Data . There you will find listings of marriages and families they produced. The listings were produced using all the 1700 data I had in my possession and were assembled on the basis that I only enterred a christening into a family listing if, based on the name, date, location and any other data to hand I thought it probable the child being christened belonged that family. Yes, there will be mistakes and ommisions but I think the exercise can generally be regarded as a success.
A simple glance at the data will tell you that nearly all of theLittlefair marriages and christenings in the early 1700's were in the Cockfield area. Within the family listings there are entries for marriages and christenings in bold type. Forgive my indulgence , these are Littlefairs who figure on my family tree. My family tree led back to the Cockfield area and if you are a Durham or Northumberland Littlefair it is likely that your tree will go back there and that we share common ancestry. Although I am calling them Littlefairs be aware that early 1700's nearly all names were spelt Littlefare and before 1718 and after 1655 they were being recorded as Littleforth. However that is the story of the pre 1700's.
Data Analysis: Littleforth Links
The first five Littlefair families listed in the data are headed by fathers whose births were as Littleforths. The Before 1700 sections Littleforths and Littleforth Data will deal with their ancestry. They are all closely related as indicated in the following two paragraphs.
William marrying in 1719 is likely to be the one christened at Bowes on the 9/8/1698. He names children after his father Ralph and mother Sarah. Joseph marrying in 1722 will probably be the Joseph christened at Cockfield on 30/9/1693 to Edward and Jane Betson , he is Williams father's cousin so already relationship's are becoming distant. The Ralph, listed in bold type, marrying in 1732 will be Williams brother christened at Hamsterley 6/3/1709. He also names two of his children Ralph and Sarah after his father and mother.
The Thomas that married Hannah Allason in 1732 was probably William and Ralph 's younger brother christened in 1711. We then have an Edward and Anne who had a number of children at Cockfield. We do not have detail of their marriage but if there was one it was most likely late 1730's and in the Cockfield area. This Edward is probably the youngest son of Ralph = Sarah Kipling and brother of William, Ralph and Thomas. His first recorded child Elizabeth probably died as he calls his second child by this name.
Data Analysis: Marriages of those born Littlefair
Next we have a Thomas marrying Elizabeth Thompson at Auckland St. Helen in 1746. He, I suspect is Williams son christened as a Littlefair at Auckland St. Helen in 1720 . The John that married Anne Mayer we believe to be the John born in 1723 to Joseph. We believe this because we argue Littlefair Tree section Elizabeth Etherington Branch that the next John to marry , the one that marries Mary Mitchell at Long Newton, is the one christened by Ralph in 1732 at Cockfield The Mark who marries Hannah Hodgson in 1759 is also Ralph 's son and John's brother. Joseph who marries Mary Raisbeck in 1764 is probably William's son christened in 1735. Edward and Peter marrying in 1768 and 1778 respectively are the sons of Joseph and Margaret Toward.
William who marries Ann Laverick in 1776 is not recorded earlier on the page. Look at the Miscellaneous Christenings that follow the family listings. A William Littlefare was christened 5/11/1752 at Auckland St. Helen by a Mary Littlefare (no father ). This is probably the William that married Ann Laverick. William may not have had the best pedigree but he seems to do well in raising a family. As for Mary, his mother? Again look at Miscellaneous Christenings. Was she the one Christened 1728 to father John, possibly the son of the Edward/Jane Betson marriage. Was she also the one giving rise to the fatherless christenings of Daniel and Elizabeth at Whorlton.
There were christenings of Thomas's in 1747,1754 and two in 1755. The Thomas marrying Ann Marshall at Cockfield could have been any one of them. The following marriage is that of Edward to Ann Westarth in 1780 and I suspect this is the Edward christened in 1754 by the Edward Ann liaison
Moving away from Cockfield
The marriages that follow clearly indicate a move away from the Cockfield area. Some are moving to adjacent parishes, others further afield. The John marrying Mary Peareth at Witton le Wear in 1783 is most likely the son christened to John and Ann Mayer in 1757. The John who marries Elizabeth Foreman at Bishopwearmouth in 1784 has moved well away from Cockfield. We argue, on the section of the Littlefair tree called Mary Mitchell Branch that he is the son that John and Mary Mitchell christened at Cockfield 1759. The Mark who marries two years later at Bishopwearmouth is also from Cockfield and the son christened by Mark and Hannah 1762.
William who marries and stays at Barnard Castle to have his family is another son of John and Ann Mayer christened 1762. Edward who marries Elizabeth Craggs is yet another brother, the one christened 1765 by John and Ann. This William died aged 73, one year after his wife who was 67. Their son Joseph died aged 20
Another William marries a Hannah Sowerby at Cockfield but they are soon on the move to Eggleston. He I believe is the William born to Edward and Elizabeth Baxter and christened at Hamsterley in 1771. Life was hard and there were many early deaths. Another pointer to this is the death of Williams hour old twins in 1798 followed one year later by William himself. His death record describes him as a farmer and aged 27.
To complete the male marriages of the 1700's the Joseph who marries Ann Vasey at Wolsingham in 1796 is probably the grandson of the William who married Mary Bailes in 1719 and son of Joseph who married Mary Raisbeck 1764. The John who marries Elizabeth Atkinson at Staindrop and has his family at Barnard Castle is the brother of the farmer William who died aged 27.He also is the son of Edward and Elizabeth Baxter and grandson of the Joseph who married Margaret Toward in 1722 .
Did all the Durham Littlefair's emanate from Cockfield ?
In the North Durham area before 1660 we had many Marriages and Christenings of Littlefairs at Durham, Bishopwearmouth, Houghton le Spring, Chester le Street and Gateshead but after a christening at Bishopwearmouth in 1663 the only recorded Littlefair events before 1700 were a male marriage, that of a William in 1682 at Ryton, that gave rise to two daughters, and female marriages of a Sarah at Gateshead in 1676 and a Catherine at Newcastle in 1698. In the South Durham area,and again away from Cockfield, a George married at Greatham in 1682 and had a son three years later and in Stockton in 1691 a Robert married but with no apparent family.
1700's Data lists the following marriages in North Durham with no apparent family:-
1721 George = Elizabeth Feuster Durham St. Nicholas 1731 George = Mary Clocker Durham St. Nicholas 1747 John = Elisabeth Shaw Houghton le Spring 1756 John = Susannah Crofton Sunderland 1781 Thomas = Ann Robson Durham St. Margaret's 1793 Thomas = Margaret Smailes Chester le Street
So where did these Littlefairs who married in the North Durham area from 1720, with apparently no family, come from? We start by looking for their christening records but be aware that we may be looking a person or persons who married twice.
There was a George Littleforth christened in 1694 at Cockfield, to Edward and Jane .If he married Elizabeth Fewster at Durham St. Nicholas he may well have returned with her to Cockfield. Whatever happened there are no records of christenings for the couple. Another possibility is the Georg christened at Durham St. Giles to a father William in 1698. Might the William be the William who married and had the daughters at Ryton.
The John's marrying Houghton and Sunderland in 1747 and 1756 I cannot link to birth's using the available data. The Thomas, who married in 1781 I suspect did have family. I argue this elsewhere. Thomas was a popular name between 1747 and 1773. The name was used in four christenings at Cockfield , and three at Auckland St. Helen in the period, enough to explain these Thomas marriages and those in the Cockfield area.
So it is likely that many of the North Durham marriages were of Littlefairs born in the Cockfield area and it seems to me that we can say with a high degree of probability that all the Durham Littlefairs and their families that went into the 1800's emanated from the Cockfield area. This being the case they all had roots with the Littleforths who were resident in the Cockfield area before 1700. To explore these roots further read the before 1700 sections on the Littleforths and then on the Littlefairs.