Family History – Cheryl Hunnisett

What’s in a name?

What happened when Scamp became Manley Camp?

James Scamp started life in Plymouth, Devon in 1820 as the son of a shipwright, moved to Cornwall where he became a teetotal Wesleyan minister and married the daughter of a publican! They moved to one of the poorest areas of London, the location of Oliver Twist (1837) by Charles Dickens, where they worked as teachers in a church school. On the journey, he changed his name to from James Scamp to James Manley Camp and that is how the family was known from then on. This fresh start led to a long and interesting life as he became a Baptist minister, visiting preacher and a vocal member of the Liberation party and Total Abstinence Union.

This blog is part of The Scamp One Name Study, if you have any Scamp information you wish to share or have any queries about the Scamp family please contact me at scamp@one-name.org

It is also part of the 2020 GOONS Blog Challenge #GOONSblogchallenge and also the 52 Ancestors in 52 weeks 2020 challenge #52Ancestors – Fresh Start

If Only

This biography would have been a lot easier to write, if the author could have been at James’ talk in October 1883, entitled “Reminiscences of a chequered career” where he reviewed his life from his boyhood upwards, with a short review of his ministerial training and subsequent labours!

Born in Devon

James was born James Scamp in Plymouth, Devon on May 21 1820 to Thomas & Mary Scamp. Thomas was a self-employed shipwright with work at the Navy dockyard and Mary was originally Mary Manley born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In the 1841 census deciphering James’ occupation is difficult, but it looks like an apprentice teacher.

Life in Cornwall

On 5 April 1847, (aged 26) he married Elizabeth Noel in Redruth, Cornwall as James Scamp. They married at the Teetotal Wesleyan Connexion Chapel, Copperhouse, Hayle, Phillack. There was a large Wesleyan ministry in Cornwall and a big debate began about whether Wesleyans should be teetotal. In 1842, a group of about 600 ministers separated from the main methodist church in Cornwall and organised as the Teetotal Wesleyan Methodists. James was listed on his first child’s birth certificate as a teetotal Wesleyan minister.

This first child, born in 1847 in Penzance in Cornwall was named Ina Manley Scamp.

The stench of Bermondsey and the task of school teaching

The family moved north in about 1849-50, to Bermondsey, by the Thames River in south-east London where both James and Elizabeth worked as schoolteachers in Christchurch School, Neckinger Road. They now used the surname Manley Camp. The family lived in the Christchurch schoolhouse. Their 2^nd son Horace died from Bronchitus exhaustion when he was 6 months old.

**“The air has literally the smell of a graveyard”**
*Jacob’s Island about 1840*

Christchurch was a new church built in 1848, with a school attached, to serve Jacob’s Island by the River Thames. It was an extremely poor and unhealthy area, described as “The very capital of cholera and “The Venice of drains” by Henry Mayhew in The Morning Chronicle in 1849. Spared by the fire of London (1666), the buildings were extremely old and unfit for habitation, and about a hundred years behind the slums that surrounded it. Fed by an old river, the Neckinger, which had become an open sewer, a number of fetid drains made the land an unsavoury island and two hundred years of the local tanning industry filled the air with “sulpharated hydrogen” and “hydrosulphate of ammonia”

The article in the Morning Chronicle was syndicated across Britain and was discussed in Parliament. Henry Mayhew started collating his famous work, London labour and the London poor.

James and Elizabeth next became master and mistress of the Brideswell School (by 1856). As part of the ancient “Brideswell Hospital”, the school aimed to reform the juvenile criminal, it was next to the famous prison (which closed in 1855).The school changed its name and its approach in 1860 to King Edwards School and aimed to prevent crime by the training it provided. The school is still flourishing but moved to Godalming, Surrey.

Away from London

In 1858, James and Elizabeth were selected to open the New School in Peterchurch, Herefordshire and to be the first master and mistress. About 20-30 children attended and there was accommodation for the Manley Camps and their growing family. His first externally reported speech (so far found!) was a free talk about the Druids in his schoolroom in 1859, after much applause the audience ran out before a collection could be made! The local Baptist minister died in 1859 and James started preaching in the baptist chapel. In October 1859, he was referred to as Reverend.

Life as a Baptist Minister another fresh start

A report in the Hereford Journal in January 1860 stated that James had been sacked by the trustees of the New School. He then became the Peterchurch Baptist Minister, Reverend James Manley Camp. He undertook an open air river “Believers Baptism” for 6 believers later that year, which was attended by about 800 people. His eloquence as a speaker is mentioned.

Back to London

By 1871, (aged 50) he was the Baptist minister at Burtons Hill Woolwich. In around 1876 he then moved to become the Pastor of the small Medway Chapel in Rotherhithe, whose annual report of 1879 stated that

“ We are fully convinced that if the walls of this chapel were enlarged to admit 6 times the number, Mr Camp’s eloquence would be equal to filling the place.”

Medway Chapel from a painting in the British Library

Medway Chapel lay in an out of the way corner, behind the Red Lion, Deptford Lower Road and was one of the oddest places of worship in South London. It was an old fashioned cottage with a door in the middle and entered through a porch. A large fireplace faced you as you entered and on the right a steep short staircase led to the low gallery which ran 3 sides around the building. There was very little space between the roof and the heads in the back row! It could hold about 250 people and had originally stood in the middle of a field .

Speaking further afield – a true orator

In addition James had started featuring as the guest preacher at other churches, e.g. Leamington Spa, Ross on Wye, Milton in Gravesend, Deptford etc.

He also spoke on other topics, for example: Livingstone – Philanthropist and Explorer, The Priest in Absolution, Disestablishment – what we mean by it and why we want it, The trials and victories of civil and religious liberty, The right to God’s Acre, Imperialism and its cost, William Gladstone, John Bright and more. His talk on “Chinese” Gordon was particularly well received as he had met the General, probably when he taught at Ragged and Sunday School in Gravesend when he was Colonel of Engineers.

He became a member of the Liberation Society which was an organisation that campaigned for disestablishment of the Church of England. It supported the Liberal party and James often spoke in support of local liberal candidates.

He was said to have a way of carrying his audience away on a flood tide of vigorous language –

“Give him a congenial topic, social or political, and it is marvellous to witness the effect produced upon his listeners!”

In 1880, the Midway Chapel threw a huge tea party to celebrate their pastor’s 60^th birthday. He left the Chapel in July that year accompanied by another tea party and sad farewells.

James then returned to Neckinger Road, Bermondsey. and took on the Baptist Chapel Church there. His speech to his congregation in 1881 on the evils of “tattling” i.e. gossiping, was described as humorous but telling. He was soon involved with the local Liberal party too, speaking in favour of the local candidates for election.

Backing total abstinence

In June 1882, James was at the inagaural meeting of the Southwark Total Abstinence Union. Abstinence from alcohol was a growing movement in England at this time, advocated particularly for the working man, and the meeting was supported by a number of members of parliament. James was also involved in the local “Tea Festival”, admission a penny for a songsheet. Sixty people took the “Blue Ribbon” temperance pledge after James spoke in Gravesend later in 1882

The Ebenezer Chapel (possibly), now demolishsed

By 1883, he was also pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Chapel in Abbey Street, Bermondsey, which ran an educational Sunday School.

In 1884 James starts “freelance” preaching in and around Gravesend, Kent, and speaking for the LIberal Party in Sussex, so he may have retired as the Bermondsey baptist pastor. By the 1891 census James had definately retired.

He died in 1898, after a fall in which he cut his arm and got blood poisoning, He was survived by his wife Elizabeth, who had followed him around the country for over 50 years. She bore him seven children

Ina Manley b 1848

Horace Noell b 1850 d 1851

Helena Jane b 1853

Percy Havant b 1857

Elizabeth Noell 1862

Flora McDonald 1867

whose baptisms follow James’ progress around the country. But their story is for another time.

Sources

www.scielo.br on Henry Mayhew

https://www.herefordbaptist.org.uk

https://www.londonlives.org/static/Bridewell.jsp

O’Donoghue, E. G. Bridewell Hospital, Palace, Prison, Schools, Vol. 2: From the Death of Elizabeth to Modern Times.

https://www.victorianlondon.org/districts/bermondsey.htm

Ancestry.com

http://edithsstreets.blogspot.com/2014/11/london-and-greenwich-railway-bermondsey.html

British Newspaper Archive

https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/New_Connexion_of_General_Baptists

https://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/search-resources/special-collections/guide-to-special-collections/methodist

http://russiadock.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-ebenezer-chapel-and-dockland.html

New Marriage Challenge! Stratford upon Avon Registration District 1837-1911.

Undertaking a marriage challenge is one of the services that members of the Guild of One Name Studies provide to each other. A member volunteers to look up the details of specific marriages in the parish registers within a registration district. This can really help when you have identified a marriage of interest on a site such as FreeBMD and would love to have the extra details that the parish marriage register contains.

These might include: age, status, address and occupation of the bridal couple, the date of the wedding, fathers’ names and occupations, witnesses names.

It can get very expensive to buy all the certificates for a one name study and the archive holding the parish registers you need may be too far to travel for you to do the research yourself, so a helping hand from another member is very welcome.

This is will my first marriage challenge and I am looking forward to finding out what members would like researched. If you are a GOONS member but you haven’t done this before either, this is how is works:

Requests to hunnisett@one-name.org. Deadline for Requests: 25 Apr 2019

Requests using the standard Excel template much preferred. This is to be found under Guild Services/Marriage Challenge on the Guild website. I will accept other formats but please provide

· Year

· Quarter (please use 1, 2, 3, 4 – this makes it sortable by date. Do not add Q; do not use month names)

· Surname (please use UPPER CASE)

· First Names (please use Mixed Case)

· GRO Volume Number

· GRO Page Number

Requests to hunnisett@one-name.org.

N.B. Any entries already on Ancestry or FindMyPast, will not be researched, so please check beforehand if at all possible. Warwickshire marriages are in the process of being transcribed by both organisations but date ranges vary, some parishes are missing and some entries are banns rather than marriages. The 3 Anglican churches in Stratford upon Avon itself are not covered by either.

The AtoZ Blogging Challenge – April 2019

Just signed up for the 2019 AtoZ Challenge. If you have never heard of this, you promise (or at least promise to try!) to blog for 26 days in April, using a different letter of the alphabet every day to prompt what you write. It has been running since 2010 with more and more Bloggers joining every year.

They provide a calendar and lots of prompts to get you started. I think that preparation will be key as actually delivering EVERY day (except Sundays!) something that others will want to read and possibly even look forward to is the real challenge.

If you want to take your blogging to the next level – at least find out what it is all about – the 2019 AtoZ Challenge.

Our first loss in the Great War

Frederick William Honeysett (43968) was a driver in K Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery and he was killed in the retreat from Antwerp, in Belgium on 20 October 1914. He was on active service in Flanders for only 12 days and was 26. He appears to be the earliest loss in the extended Honeysett/Hunnisett family.

Frederick joined the regular army in 1907, when he was 19. He had been a groom and his father was a coachman, so the Royal Horse Artillery looked a good fit. The RHA manned the lighter mobile horse drawn guns (the Royal Field Artillery had bigger guns!) and usually each battery supported a cavalry brigade.

Frederick and his original X battery were stationed in Mdhow, India in the 1911 census. His new battery, K, was in the Cavalry Barracks at Christchurch, Dorset on the 01 August 1914 and they were quickly mobilised.

K Battery landed at Ostend, Belgium on 08 October 1914 as part of the XVth Brigade RHA supporting the 7^th Cavalry Brigade. They then moved to Bruge.

K Battery arrived in a retreat or was it a rout?

The Belgians had been overrun by the German Army and supported by French forces and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were retreating towards the Yser River, close to the border with France. Each side was trying to keep the advantage of sea access along the Yser River and the Leperlee (canal to Ypres from the sea).

On the “Lives of the first world war” website, Frederick’s entry has this information about his death written by the History Officer, K Battery, RA.

“Dvr Honeysett was killed in the wagon line as the battery prepared to withdraw from Passchendale. There was no time for burial so his body was left at a farm in Moorslede”.

Both places mentioned are nor far from Ypres, slightly to the North-East.

Frederick has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres. I have not found him on a Sussex war memorial so far. He was awarded the 14 Star medal and clasp. The 1914 star was awarded to those who had served in France or Belgium between 05 Aug to midnight 22^nd November 1914. The clasp was an additional award for those who had operated within range of enemy mobile artillery in the same time period. However the clasp had to be claimed personally, so Frederick would never have received it. In addition he was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.

He had given his father, Henry, as his next of kin and he received £22 3s 2d on behalf of his son.

Frederick’s family

Frederick William was born in 1888 to Henry & Kate Honeysett. He had an older brother, Harry, several younger sisters and two younger brothers, Charles and Jack. They lived in Mountfield, Sussex (near Battle) where Henry was a coachman. Frederick, Charles and Jack all joined the armed services either before the war or very early on.

Harry (b. 1886)

Harry is a little difficult to trace, so if you know any more, please contribute. By the 1901 census he’d left home and was a servant at Manor House Stables in Bexhill. A Harry Honeysett is then found in the Waterford area of Ireland where he was prosecuted for driving a motor car without due care and attention in 1905 and 1907 and paid the fines for doing so. This man is also on the 1911 Irish census in Waterford with the profession of a mechanic and born in England. Although he sounds just the kind of man the Army would want, I haven’t pinned him down yet!

Possible census entry for Harry on the 1911 Irish census

Charles Traughton (b. 1897)

Charles T signed up in Maidstone on 15 November 1915 on his enlistment paper he added an extra “n” to his surname, Honneysett and kept it like that for the rest of his life. He had been living and working at Eridge Castle, as a labourer and joined the Royal West Kent Regiment as a Private. He started in the 9^th Battalion (reserve) and then was transferred to the 11^th (service). He was trained in England until the start of May 1916 and then was transferred to France as part of the BEF.

His battalion engaged in these battles in 1916:

Flers-Courcelette 15-22 Sep – this was 3^rd main phase of the battle of the Somme, it was also the first time tanks were used. The purpose was to punch a hole in the German defences which it did not achieve decisively and poor weather then stopped further assaults.

Translory Ridges 1-18 Oct – this was the last big attack in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 by the BEF and French forces with 159.000 allied casualties. The landscape by now had been destroyed and the weather very poor. The ground was described as a morass of liquid yellow-grey mud – men on foot were coated to the knees and movement off the roads became impossible. Guns jammed and provisions got soaked.

Charles survived for 161 days on the Somme before being transferred back to England. On 24 April 1917, he was discharged as medically unfit for service due to his wounds.

He received the British War and the Victory medals and also the Silver War Badge . This last was awarded to those who were honourably discharged due to sickness or injury.

After the war Charles married Florence A Lennox and they had a son, Harry Charles in March 1922. Unfortunately Florence died in 1928. Charles remarried in 1929 in Hampshire to Christine Sarah Violet Case. They had a daughter, Joy in 1931, another child’s details are closed on the 1939 “census”.
In 1939, the family were living in Gosport, Hampshire and Charles was working as a storehouse assistant in Naval Ammunitions, this was considered heavy work. Harry was an apprentice painter and decorator.

Is Charles your ancestor? Can you add more details to the story?

Jack Leonard (b.1894)

Jack signed up for the Royal Navy on 09 June 1913 for a 12 year engagement. His records call him John, which is of course the formal name that has a diminutive of Jack, but Jack Leonard Honeysett was baptised as just that. He had been working as a gardener and motor driver and been living at home.

He trained as a stoker and survived the war. He extended his service until March 1929, when he retired as a Leading Stoker. The Royal Navy advertised for recruits in the local newspapers pre-war and often led the adverts with a request for stokers.

He served on many ship during the war, some of them were:

Dominion – a battleship that operated as part of the Northern Patrol in 1914. This force formed a blockade to stop German trade

Aragon – a converted Royal Mail ship, she served as a troop ship taking part in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. Sunk in 1917, luckily Jack was elsewhere by then

Hecla – was a converted civilian should used as an offshore depot, when Jack was on the ship it was supporting the Second Destroyer Flotilla based in Belfast.

Hawkins- large battleship commissioned in 1917, based in the China Station. Her boilers were changed from coal fired to oil in December 1929, the prospect may have prompted Jack to retire!

He received the 14-15 star, awarded to those who served between 05 August 2014 and 31^st December 2015. He also received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

After the war, Jack married Violet E E Walter in 1921.
He is found in the 1939 “census” living in Battle on Banks Farm as a RN pensioner. Jack was divorced.

Jack and Violet had one son, Derrick Jack born in 1922. In 1939 he was living in Battle with his mother, working as a clerk for a gypsom company and also working as a ARP dispatch rider.

Is Jack your ancestor, can you add more to the story?

Deep Ancestry

I have traced this branch of the family back to 1795 to a Warbleton,Sussex based family

This blog is part of an ongoing series providing the stories around the lives and families of those Honeysetts and Hunnisetts who died in the the Great War.

Find out more about your Hunnisetts and Honeysetts at http://hunnisett.one-name.net

It is also part of the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge – First

Sources – in addition to Ancestry, FindMyPast and the GRO, these sources have been particularly useful

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/medals/ww1-campaign-medals.htm

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie

http://www.lostheritage.org.uk/

www.curme.co.uk

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Hunnisett ? Well that’s an unusual name!

That’s what I often heard when I gave my new (just married!) surname. I had studied my own family history for a couple of years but this new name raised a new challenge. What about doing a one name family study?

I started with more questions than answers:

How unusual is it?
How big a study would that be?
Where do I start?
How do I record it?
Help!!!!!!

One bite at a time

Luckily, help was at hand. I found a Pharos Tutors course run by the Guild of One-Name Studies called Introduction to One Name Studies and I immediately started learning how to eat an elephant.

Firstly how big is the elephant?

My first course taught me how to work out how big a task it was likely to be and gave me some good ideas on where to start. I learnt that my Hunnisett/Honeysett plus umpteen spellings study was deemed to be in the Small size and with quite a defined geographical location in the 19^th century censuses. Emminently devourable in small bites!

How to digest your elephant

The Guild of One Name Studies was my next mentor. I joined and read all the material I could find on what recording systems to use, what records to start with and how not to get indigestion by eating too much at a time. Plus reassurance that you could start wherever you wanted and even find others to help.

I looked at recording systems; spreadsheets gave lots of flexibility and the Custodian4 database was used by some members and their user information gave good recommendations about how to structure an identification system for individuals, households and branch lines. So I bought it.

Deep breath. Then I started. In the middle. And worked backwards and forwards.

There was actually a method to this. I thought I could cope with the number of individuals recorded on the UK 1851 census, the first to give birth locations, family relationships and reasonably accurate ages. Then I could match against the 1841 and 1861 censuses, using birth and marriage records to build my family groupings and then branches. The Guild reassured me that I didn’t need to have all the answers so I became brave enough to register a one-name study and offer to answer research questions.

To see my profile page on the Guild’s website, type Hunnisett in the search box at the top of the page

I continued researching going back to the early 1500’s and forward to the 1881 census. But what to do with my multiple spreadsheets, Custodian database and branch family trees on paper (381 years worth), never mind progressing with further censuses and even onto emigrants. The elephant was beginning to get out of hand.

Getting smarter

The Guild then ran a set of webinars which helped me onto the next steps. One of the seminars was about setting up a one-name website of your own. Quite a scary concept!

They encouraged and supported me to set up a one-name website backed by its own database, TNG. The Guild manages the hosting and website upgrades and will take over the management and preserve the data when I no longer can. What a relief!

Here’s the link to my one-name website

It’s a work in progress as I am double checking all the data & sources before inputting it – I’ve learnt a lot since I started it.

But what about the stories I have uncovered?

Deep breath (again) and I set up a blog, where I could tell the tales of the individuals I have uncovered.This last step, only taken in November 2018 has felt like the missing link, where hopefully I bring the Honeysett/Hunnisett people to life.

The current focus is on telling the tales of the family members who died during the Great War. Many of them came from big families and their siblings also served, so I have told their stories too.

Now, how do I get people to read what I have written?

This is what I am trying.

The 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge. GeneaBloggersTribe on Facebook, tweeting the blogs.

This is where I need help, what’s working for you?

Died in the Great War – Hunnisetts and Honeysetts

I’ll be working on the history of the Hunnisett and Honeysett family members that died in military service during the WW1, so check back to look for new links to their stories. If you know more, please get in touch

This blog is part of the Hunnisett/Honeysett One Name Family Study

A great way to show you recognise them is to visit their record on Lives of the First World War, and then click remember. This site will be updateable to March 2019

A HONEYSETT, d. 1917, France

Albert Arthur HONEYSETT, b. Plumstead, London, d. 07 Nov 1918, 153870

Alfred HONEYSETT,b. Polegate, Sussex, d. 16 Oct 1917, France, G/27678*

Alfred HONEYSETT, Borden, Kent, 14 Mar 1916, G/4876

Bertram Thomas HONEYSETT, b. East Dulwich, Surrey, d. 08 Sep 1918, France, 27316*

Cecil HONEYSETT, b. Brightling, Sussex, d. 30 Jun 1916, France, SD/2706

C H HUNNISETT, d. 1917, France

Charles Vincent HUNNISETT, b. Hanover Square, London, d. 11 Sep 1916, France, 1578 OR 1518*

Edwin Edward HUNNISETT, d. 30 Jun 1918, France, Royal Navy F 24688*

Frank Victor HONEYSETT, b. Sidley, Sussex, d. 25 Sep 1915, France, G/1711*

Frederick HUNNEYSETT, b. 1891, Hellingly, Sussex, d. 31 Dec 1917, Egypt, 282716*

Frederick George HUNNISETT, b. 1889, Oxford, d. 01 Apr 1918, France, 285725*

Frederick John HONEYSETT, b 1891, d. 17 Oct 1917, Royal Navy, K/8193*

Frederick William HONEYSETT, b. Battle, Sussex, d. 20 Oct 1914, Belgium 43968*

George HONEYSETT, d. 1916, France

George Henry HUNNISETT, b. 1880 St Leonards, Sussex, d.22 Mar 1917, Salonika, Greece, 27424*

George Russell HONEYSETT, b. 1898 Mereworth, Kent, d. 21 Mar 1918, France, 11816*

Harmen Charles HONEYSETT, b. 1892, d. 24 Feb 1917, 1719A – Australian Infantry*

Harry HUNNISETT, b. Ripe, Sussex, d. 03 Nov 1917, Israel/Palestine, 37318*

James George HONEYSETT, b Brightling Sussex, d. 30 Jun 1916, France, SD/2707*

Robert HONEYSETT, b. 1892 Hurstmonceaux, Sussex, d. 03 Sep 1916, France, SD/599*

Sidney HONEYSETT, b. Borden, Kent, d. 26 Oct 1917,

Thomas HONEYSETT, b. Hartfield, Sussex d. 09 May 1915, France, G/1306*

William HONEYSETT, d. 31 Jul 1917, Belgium, 532347*

William HONEYSETT,b. Sidley, Sussex, d. 09 May 1915, France, G/1099*

William Henry HONEYSETT, b. Ascot Berks, d. 31 Jul 1917, Belgium, G/236/27*

The Polish Connection

Recent research has discovered an ancestor who was one of the survivors of the Polish November Uprising of 1830-1.

How over 200 young Polish servicemen came to England, were welcomed by the people of Portsmouth and one of them surprisingly ended up in the direct line of ancestry of my own East Sussex Hunnisett family line (by marriage) is explored further here.

The November Uprising

The Cadet Revolution or November Uprising of 1831 started when young Polish officers from the Military Academy revolted against Tsarist Russia, the overlord of a partitioned Poland. It started well, with the army rallying to the cause and other outlying areas of the Russian Empire joining in. Eventually local support fell away and the uprising was crushed by the Imperial Russian Army. Tsar Nicholas I closed the University of Warsaw and took Poland completely within the Russian Empire.
When the end came, rather than surrender to the Russians, over 20,000 men crossed the border into Prussia and surrendered there on the 5th October 1831. This gave the Prussians a real problem, Russia lent on them to send the men back and promised no reprisals. Some went, with disastrous results. Others left Prussia in bands of between fifty and a hundred, and travelled towards France through the various German principalities and were greeted with enthusiasm by the local populations.The Prussians made it very uncomfortable for the remaining Poles by putting them to work with convicted criminals on the roads. A different solution needed to be found; eventually in 1834, 3 ships set off for America with the reluctant remnants of the Polish Army – mainly “other ranks”.

They didn’t make it to America, the weather in the English Channel was very bad and the ships made land where they could. The Elizabeth landed at Le Havre, where the men were welcomed by the French and stayed in France. This was seen as the very best option as Polish-French relations were very good. The Union landed in Harwich, on the east coast of England. They eventually left again to go to Africa, this might seem like a strange change of direction but they were to join the French Foreign Legion and become French that way.

The 3rd ship, the Marianne , landed at Portsmouth where 212 young men (plus one wife) got off the ship and peaceably refused to get back on.
This is a transcription of the letter the Poles wrote to Captain of the Marianne about their decision to stay in England.

We, the undersigned Polish refugees, shipped by the Prussian Government, at Danzig, aboard the Mariane, bound to the United States of North America, and driven into this port, by stress of weather, and determined not to proceed to America, but to unite with our countrymen and warriors, who are in France, in order to be nearer to our own country, and not to seek our fortune in another hemisphere, having remained three months on board the Mariane, and the captain being obliged to prosecute his intended voyage we have decided not to prevent any longer the ship proceeding to sea, but land here, and now think it a duty we owe to Capt. Claasen of the Mariane, before he leaves us, on his intended journey, to declare, that during the whole of the voyage, we have received the provisions and comforts allowed us by the Prussian Government by his hands, in every accordance with Justice; and, that Captain Claasen has, with every humanity towards us, done his duty to the Prussian Government as likewise to his owner, for which we beg he will accept our most cordial thanks.

Signed by the 211 Polish Officers and Men who were embarked in the above ship. Portsmouth Feb 16 1834

The government were unprepared for this and did not offer any support or encouragement. However the local population in Portsmouth rallied round, raised money and helped the young men with food and accommodation .
” The non-commissioned officers of the 12th regiment contributed £7 and the 77th Depot gave £12, while a concert at the Green Row Rooms brought in £60”(Wikepedia)

What’s the connection?

Arthur James Hunnisett b. 1884 in St Leonard’s Hastings married Fanny Elizabeth Mary May in Hastings in 1910. Arthur’s family line goes back to the mid 1500’s all in East Sussex. However Fanny’s family turned out to be a little bit different. Her father was George M W Way and her mother was Fanny KISIELEWSKI, both born and then married in Portsea,Hampshire (the naval area of Portsmouth).

Finding Michel Kisielewski

Fanny senior is found on the 1901 census in Portsea, living at home with her parents Michael and Mary Ann Kisheliski, Michael’s birth place is stated as Poland and he was a tailor.
Michael KISIELEWSKI married Mary Ann Ross in Portsea in 1838. They are on the 1841 census, having started their family of eventually 7 children. Many of his compatriots are in the Polish Refugee Hospital, also in Portsea and in the 1841 census.
Michael and Mary Ann stay in Portsea for the rest of their lives, their surname spelt in many weird ways in each record. Their four daughters all marry but their sons do not, so this branch of the KISIELEWSKI name does not continue.

Was Michal part of the November Revolution?

In 2004 the Polish population in Portsmouth raised money to finish a memorial for the survivors of the November Revolution who came to Portsmouth in 1834. The memorial contains a list of the 213 people who landed, with their name and rank and tells a bit of the story, and there on the list is
Michal KISIELEWSKI,
He left Poland when he was about 23 and lived the rest of his life in Portsmouth

What brought the May family to St Leonards?

George May was career Navy, as was his father before him. In 1881, the census shows him still in the Royal Navy and living in Portsmouth.
However in the 1891 census, the family had moved to Hastings (including their daughter Fanny) and George was an instructor in the Royal Navy Artillery Volunteer School. This was a government backed relatively new endeavour and provided training for any young man, of the professional and commercial classes, who wished to be in the naval reserve and had no background in the navy. George would have run training in Boat skills, General fitness and Weapons handling, “The drills will comprise those for great guns, rifle, pistol, and cutlass”.

How did George & Fanny get to Hastings, East Sussex?

By the time of the next census in 1901, George had changed roles and was the Superintendent of the White Rock Baths in Hastings This was an underground complex built on land reclaimed from the sea, when George was in charge there were both gentlemens and ladies baths and also a fashionable turkish bath. According to the newspaper reports it was always teetering on the bring of bankruptcy so it can’t have been a very settled existence.

There is a photograph in the Hastings & St Leonards Pictorial Advertiser, showing George & Fanny’s sons in their WW1 uniforms, along with their son in law, A Hunnisett. This last was Arthur Hunnisett who had married Fanny May in 1910. The photo was taken in early 1917 and by then George was the manager of the local Masonic Hall, presumably a bit less precarious an occupation than managing the White Rock Baths.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_Uprising

THE ORGANISATION OF THE ROYAL NAVAL ARTILLERY VOLUNTEERS EXPLAINED BY
THOMAS BRASSEY, M.P, 1874

http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/6DIRECTORY/AtoZEstab/England/HastWhite/1HastWhiteSF.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_into_Hampshire

A History of White Rock

Hampshire Telegraph – Monday 24 February 1834 © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Milosz K. CybowskiUniversity of Southampton
First and last refuge: France and Britain as centres of the Polish Great Emigration

150th anniversary of the Polish landing – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-26315789

http://www.memorialsinportsmouth.co.uk/cemeteries/polish.htm

Ancestry. co.uk, FindMyPast.co.uk, FreeBMD

Hastings & St Leonard’s Observer, British Newspaper Association,

Shot down by a flying ace

Sergeant Mechanic Edwin Edward Hunnisett was the observer in a two seater DeHavilland biplane, piloted by Clifford James Moir, when it was shot down by Hans Goerth, a famous German pilot, over Mariakerker in Belgium on 30^th June 1918. He is commemorated on the Arras Flying Services Memorial, Fauberg d’Amiens, Pas de Calais, France.This is a memorial for those with no known grave.

DeHaviland Airco DH 4. Courtesy of www.wikidata.org

How did a 21 year old provisions assistant from Newhaven, Sussex come to be a founder member of the Royal Air Force ?

Services Record

Edwin joined the Royal Navy in 1916 and seems to have immediately joined the Royal Naval Air Service, training at their landbase HMS President. Edwin belonged to the 17^th Squadron, which served in France. He also spent some time at their Eastchurch base; this was a flying club on the Isle of Sheppey given to the RNAS in 1910 and by mid 1917 it opened as a Naval Seaplane Training School.

During the Great War, the Royal Navy was growing its own air arm,originally for reconnaissance and then later for bombing. This was in addition to the Royal Flying Corps, which was attached to the army. On 01 April 1918, both were amalgamated into the brand new Royal Air Force, and Edwin’s 17^th Squadron became the 217 Squadron. He was based in Dunkirk at the time of the transfer.

On the 30^th June 2018, Edwin and Clifford Moir (a Canadian member of the RAF), flew on a mission in Belgium. Unfortunately they encountered Hans Goerth, and became the first of his seven recorded kills, thereby making themselves a place in the record books.

Family background

According to his Naval record Edwin Edward was born on 20 October 1895 in Newhaven, Sussex to Benjamin and Harriett (nee Daniels). However he was registered and baptised in 1896 as Edmund Edwin, his baptism at St Michael’s church in Newhaven was on 15 Nov 1896, so it appears that the Navy was a year out as all the other records tally.

His father, Benjamin, was a labourer, originally from Westham, Sussex and worked as a stevedore on the quay at Newhaven and then by 1911 on the railway. He and Harriet had seven children living in 1911. They had married in the Eastbourne district (Westham is in this district) between Sept- Dec 1891 and their first child, also Benjamin, was baptised on 13 December 1891 in Newhaven. Edmund/Edwin was still living at home in 1911.

He put his mother as his next of kin and his father received his war gratuity in 1919.

Brother Benjamin

Edmund’s older brother Benjamin, born 1891, was living at home in 1911, his occupation listed as ship’s steward.

Records for the London Brighton & South Coast Railway, show he then worked for them as a ganger. He was a Reservist and left for war on 09 October 1914. By the time he was demobilised in February 1919 and returned to the railway, he had married and started a family.

He married Elizabeth May Tubbs in the Newhaven district between January & March 1916. Both their sons unfortunately died in their first year, Benjamin S in 1918, and Edmund W in 1924. Their daughter May Dorine, born in 1917, married William J Gerard in 1934 and were both found in the 1939 Register, with a son William J, living in Newhaven.

Is this your family? Please get in touch if it is!

Edmund’s ancestor

I have traced Edmund’s family back to Peter Hennesit, born about 1550 in Sussex.

This blog is part of the Hunnisett and Honeysett Family Study

Sources

The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey, England; Kew, Surrey, England; Air Ministry: Air Member for Personnel and Predecessors: Airmen’s Records; Series Number: AIR 79

www.findagrave.com

Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services. ADM 188, 362 and 363. The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey, England.

The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Collection: London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company: Records; Class: RAIL414; Piece: 791

www.freeBMD.co.uk

Ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk for censuses and military records

Sussex Family History Group

www.canadiangreatwarproject.com

www.gro.gov.uk

The Mary Rose & Frederick Honeysett, both sunk in 1917

The Mary Rose left Norway on 16th October 1917, one of two British destroyers escorting 12 unarmed steamers laden with coal – 5 Norwegian, 1 Danish & 3 Swedish. Next morning when they were about 70 miles off Lerwick (Shetland Isles). they spotted two British warships coming towards them and signalled for recognition. They did not receive a reply because the ships were actually German Cruisers, modified to have a British “outline”. Frederick Honeysett was a stoker in the engine room. The German ships closed to 2,700m (3,000 yds)and then opened fire, firstly on the other destroyer, HMS Stongbow, which was disabled. They then turned their attention to the Mary Rose, hitting the engine room immediately so the ship sat like a log in the water . All of the guns, except one, were disabled. Two of the crew, French and Bailey, continued to fire until the order was given to scuttle the ship and abandon it.

Few Survived

Only two officers and eight enlisted men survived so about 70 of the crew of the Mary Rose died,including Fred Honeysett. The crew of the Strongbow were lost and nine of the defenceless merchant ships were also sunk, killing around 250 men in total.

The Navy was criticised not only about the loss but also because the German ships got away. The response was that the only radios were on the two escorts and these were destroyed before any message was sent. A courtmartial was announced, a method of determining what happened. The court acquitted all the survivors but further details were not published in case they helped the enemy.

We’re not done yet!

Although the first reports in the newspapers were full of shock, distress and criticism of the Navy, later they were given an “official version” which described“plucky” Mary Rose taking on the German warships singlehanded, fighting to the last gun whilst declaiming cheerily “we’re not done yet”.

Who was Frederick Honeysett?

Frederick John Honeysett joined the Royal Navy on 11 August 1910, enlisting for 12 years,and had worked his way up from a Stoker, 2nd class to Acting Petty Officer.

He was born on 06 Feb 1892 to John Frederick & Sarah Ann (nee West) in Yalding, near Maidstone. His father John, was a foreman on the roads. He had two siblings; Isa Dorothy born in 1894 and Russell George, born in 1897 in Mereworth, Kent.

Frederick married Alice Maude Crowhurst in late 1914. She received his widow’s pension but didn’t claim for any children.

Frederick is remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial, for those lost at sea. He is also on the World War I memorial at St Lawrence’s, Mereworth, Kent. The 100th year anniversary of the loss of the Mary Rose was commemorated in 2017, and in a Facebook group, the HMS Mary Rose & HMS Strongbow Memorial Group.

Do you have them in your family tree?

I have traced Frederick’s ancestors back to John Honeysett & Sarah Bailey (married 1773) in the Headcorn area of Kent.

Russell Honeysett

Russell is also listed on the memorial in Mereworth.

Mereworth WW1 memorial. Courtesy of Gravestone Photographic Resource, whose volunteers own the copyright

He had joined the Royal West Kent Regiment, but then was transferred to the South Irish Horse, 7th Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment. Originally a mounted regiment, the South Irish Horse were retrained as Infantry in September 1917.

On 21 March 1918, the Germans launched the “Kaiserschlacht” (Kaiser’s Battle) a decisive attack planned to destroy the British Army across a wide area of the Somme. The tactics were to “punch a hole and things would develop”. The whole area had been devastated in previous battles and the British lines were in a poor state of repair and easily overrun.

The official regimental history shows that 2 companies of the 7th Battalion were posted in forward zones on the Somme. “They suffered terribly, not a man succeeded in escaping”. Russell died on 23 March 1918, aged 20.

No grave has been found for him but his memorial is at Pozieres, panel 30/31. Pozieres commemorates 14,657 British and South African soldiers who died between March and August 1918.

Russell’s names were reversed in his military records, where he is George R Honeysett. As a member of an Irish Regiment, he is also recorded in the Irish records.

A common story of the times, but John & Ann lost their two sons within 5 months of each other and both disappeared without trace.

Is this your family?

The surviving child, Isa Dorothy, married Frederick D Burbridge in Q4 1916. They appear in the 1939 register living in Gillingham,Kent.

Sources

www.gro.gov.uk

FreeBMD

British Newspaper Archive

www.gravestonephotos.com

www.ciroca.org.uk,

www.ancestry.co.uk

www.findmypast.co.uk

www.longlongtrail.co.uk

6 Sons sent to war, how many survived?

Charles Joe and Sophronia Honeysett had six sons and they all went into the armed services. The family featured in their local newspaper, the Kent & Sussex Courier on Friday 11 May 1917, when the youngest was being called up. At the beginning of the war, the local Sussex newspapers offered to take free pictures of the young men in uniform who had signed up and published their names in a front page list. By 1917 the tone was more measured and individual families were featured, their stories described in a factual way.

The article said that their eldest son, Charles (aged 27) was in the Royal Engineers, a sapper, and had previously been wounded. On recovery he had returned to his regiment but had been listed missing. The family had only just had news of him.

Their second son, William (aged 26) was a stoker on HMS Ganges.

The third son, Jim (was 25) a Lance Corporal in The Buffs, and went out to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force early in the war. He had been wounded three times, and now unfit for trench duties, was guarding German prisoners.

The fourth son, Tom, had been killed at the age of 21 on 09 May 1915. He was a private in the Royal Sussex Regiment and had died as part of the assault of “Hill 60”, not far from Ypres.

The fifth son, Fred (aged 21), had been wounded twice already and had recently transferred to the Royal West Surrey Regiment.

Alfred, aged 19, had just received his call up papers.

The Honeysett Brothers’ War History

Charles was 24 when he signed up on 13^th October 1914 and he was a quarryman. He joined the Royal Engineers, Kent Fortress Company as a sapper. He got dysentery in late 1915 and had been invalided to England. He was put on the army reserve list on 25 July 1919 and received a small disability pension for malaria. He received the 1914-1915 star, The British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

William’s first service date was 19 Jan 1917, he had been a cattleman before he joined the Royal Navy. He was on the Pembroke II before he moved onto The Ganges. These were both training establishments. I have seen no record of active service.

Military information about Jim (actually William James) is hard to find but he was a labourer before he enlisted. He was on the casualty list as wounded from 21^st May 1915 , also from 17^th August 1916 and was wounded again on 2^nd Jan 1918. The Buffs were an East Kent Army Regiment and served in France & Flanders. James’ record features Etaples, where there were large medical facilities behind the lines. He went straight from the army to the Royal Airforce in April 1918 and became a batman.

Tom went out to France on 4^th January 1915 and survived 4 months before being killed. He died on Hill 60 as the Germans sought to win back the hill using one of the first gas attack of the war. At this time, there was no effective defence against the gas. Hill 60 was not really a hill but a spoil tip from a nearby railway cutting. It was fought over continuously during the war as the height gave the victor an advantage in a basically flat landscape. It was completely devastated and was left as a wargrave.

Tom is commemorated on the Le Touret memorial, one of over 13,400 soldiers who died in Ypres area between October 1914 to September 1915 and who have no known grave. His family received the 1915 star, The British War Medal and the Victory Medal. There is a current archeological expedition taking place on Hill 60.

Fred signed a short service attestation at the start of January 1916 when he was 19. He started as a private in the 13th London Regiment but seems to have been transferred several times and was finally demobbed on Mar 02 1919. He received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Alfred, currently no information found on Alfred’s war history. Do you know differently?

Did they survive?

In the 1939 register I’ve found the five sons and their father :-

Charles Joe is a widower, he is a retired bailiff and an inmate in an establishment in Uckfield. Alfred is also in Uckfield, he doesn’t appear to be married and he is also listed as an inmate.

Charley and wife Jane L, are listed at Tile Barn Farm, Uckfield, he is a heavyworker on the farm. This is the farm he worked on before he enlisted.

William is possibly in Tunbridge Wells, married to Agnes M.

Frederick is possibly in Lancashire married to Olive with children James & Freda (later Fisher)

Jim is possibly in Tunbridge Wells and married to Ivy.

Tracing back this Honeysett line – is it yours?

Charles Joe was born in 1865 in Guestling in East Sussex, to Joseph & Caroline Honeysett. His father Joseph was born in Stone, Kent in about 1822, but as a young man aged about 14 he was working as a labourer on a farm in Guestling. Joseph & Caroline Medlock married in 1862, stayed in Guestling and had 5 children.

Charles married Sophronia Jenner in Rye district in q2 1889, and the 1901 and 1911 censuses show they moved around on the Sussex/Kent borders and then they were in Hartfield, Sussex, during WW1. They had two daughters, Lily Flora and Annie in addition to the 6 boys.

This blog is part of the Hunnisett & Honeysett One Name Study.

Sources:

Kent & Sussex Courier – Friday 11 May 1917, British Newspapers Archive, www.bna.com

British Army War records 1914-1920 – Ancestry

www. forces-war-records.co.uk

1939 register – Findmypast or Ancestry

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

https://www.gro.gov.uk

https://www.ww1cemeteries.com/

The first gas masks -https://simonjoneshistorian.com