This is the concluding composition of my time-line "John Field 1522 - 1587"
My original aim was to prove a thread from my ancestor John Barber-Field,
baptised at St.Mary's, West Ardsley on Easter Day 1778 to his ancestor a Tudor
court astrologer "John Field" entombed in the same church 191 years earlier.
I almost achieved my aim although in an unexpected way.
The common factor happens to be one of location, in fact the
Westminster district of London, home of the great Abbey
and St. Margaret's church.
The latter day John Barber-Field
1778 - 1851 is my
3rd great-grandfather.
a saddler of Woodkirk, near Wakefield and now focussing on
him,
here is his 19th century odyssey in a nutshell.
c.1800 JBF the young 'saddler' left his Yorkshire home, presumably on horseback.
He met and married Sophia Crockford
of Borden near Canterbury.
They were in the area for some time as some of his children were
baptised there.
They moved to London where John
went into business as a 'hog'
butcher and
'saddler' close to the
Borough High Street, Southwark, LONDON.
He had two of his sons christened at the famous St. Margaret's church Westminster.
And when he died in 1851 the
registration was at the same St. Margaret's church.
(Alas, so were the remains of the decapitated Sir Walter Raleigh.)
So why did our
north countryman end
up in the parish of Westminster?
I can only assume that through primitive archives his Woodkirk
family had a fairly
comprehensive knowlege of their roots. I think they were literate folk
who had
recorded their 'folklore' in an exceptional way.
So, thus informed it seems
that John Barber-Field wended his
way
to London out of curiosity to
see Westminster for himself.
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GEOFF ROYLE
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