Tinker Traveller Hawker

(The Story of Henry Hughes)

My great grandmother's marriage certificate revealed that her father was a "Tinker". Knowing little about such people I was curious to find out more about him and his family. I thought that if I could find his children, where they were born and whom they married I might get a feel for where and how he lived. My 2xgreat grandfather, Henry HUGHES, variously referred to as a tinker, hawker, traveller and a variety of other occupations, appears to have spent most of his life travelling in Berkshire, Hampshire, and Wiltshire. From the nature of his way of life I did not expect to find many records of him and his family, but was surprised how much his life had interacted with officialdom and how many times his name appeared in church records.

The 1861 census, the only one which appears to record his existence, gives his place of birth as Hungerford in about 1810. The Henry HUGHES who was baptized in Hungerford in 1808, father, James, and mother, Mary, may be him.

In 1833 at Burbage, Wilts, a Henry HUGHES married a Harriett JONES and these are almost certainly my 2xgreat grandparents. Harriett was a member of another hawker family who lived and travelled in the same part of the country.

The first child that can definitely be attributed to Henry and Harriett, by means of a birth certificate, is Robert, born at '7 Morning' on 23rd January 1839 at Corsley Heath, Wilts, registered at Warminster on 1st February and baptized on 10th February at Corsley parish church. Although the occurrence of a recorded time of birth may indicate twins there is no evidence of such in this instance. Henry's occupation on Robert's birth certificate is given as a travelling brush seller, though in the baptism register it is "Travelling tinman" and his abode as Devizes. It is probably fair to assume "tinman" can be interpreted as "tinker".
Before Robert, however, there are two earlier baptisms of interest in Wiltshire given in the IGI with parents' names Henry and Harriett; a Mary Ann "HUGES" (1834) in Amesbury and a Caroline "HUGHS" (1836) in Easton Royal. The record of Mary Ann's baptism gives Henry's occupation as "Vendor" and his abode as Devizes, as with Robert. The marriage of a Mary Ann HUGHES in Hungerford in 1853, but with the name and occupation of her father left blank may relate to my family, but there are discrepancies in the Mary Ann's age, so it is not possible, therefore, to know with any degree of certainty whether she is part of my family. The baptism record of Caroline gives her father as a "travelling smith" of no fixed abode. My Henry certainly did have a daughter called Caroline as is recorded on her marriage certificate in 1862, so this is probably her, though she wasn't completely honest about her age. To be fair to her, however, she may not have known. her age. Interestingly Caroline's marriage was on the same day and in the same place, Newbury Primitive Methodist Chapel, as that of her brother Robert, each couple witnessing the other couple's marks and both members of the HUGHES family identifying their father as Henry HUGHES, a tinker.

There appears to be no trace of Henry or Harriett in either the 1841 or 1851 censuses and consequently no trace of their children. The most probable reason for this is that the enumerators for these censuses were instructed only to record those people living in buildings. Being travellers Henry's family probably lived in some form of tent. It is quite likely that my great grandmother, Charlotte HUGHES, and all her siblings were born in a tent on one of the many areas of common land which existed at that time. The relative comfort and rather romantic picture of a horse-drawn 'gypsy' caravan was not common until later in the 19th century. Even in 1881 the census records list people living in tents on common land near Newbury.

Another daughter of Henry and Harriett, Esther, was born in 1842 in a deprived area of Newbury, referred to locally as 'The City', which comprised probably no more than 50 poor dwellings. The month was January and perhaps the family was using this as their winter quarters. It was not unusual for some hawkers or tinkers to be semi-itinerant and settle in some more sheltered accommodation for the winter months.
After Esther, who died in 'The City' aged 18 months, the next child of Henry and Harriett appears to have been my great grandmother, Charlotte. She was born at Crookham, possibly Crookham Common, near Newbury in March 1847 and then came Catherine born on the adjacent and now famous Greenham Common in October 1849. Finally Matilda was born at Whitchurch, Hants in August 1852, although the 1861 census gives her place of birth as Newbury. In later censuses Caroline's place of birth is given as Whitchurch and Newbury, and Robert's as Newbury, Leycock and Crookham, probably all places with which they were familiar. With constant movement of the family it is probably not surprising that they perhaps never knew for certain where they were born. In any case it probably didn't matter to them and any answer would do for the enumerators.

The 1861 census also gives, in addition to Charlotte, Catherine and Matilda, another daughter for Henry and Harriett, named Ellen aged 17, supposedly born in Newbury. I can find no obvious birth registration for her in 1844 +/- a few years within the area in which they appeared to travel. Perhaps her birth was never registered, but the search for her baptism in parish registers still continues.
Neither Robert nor Caroline was living with their parents at the time of the 1861 census, although they were all living in 'The City'. At this census Henry was recorded as a grinder (presumably of knives, scissors etc), while Harriett and four of their daughters were listed as hawkers. Robert, who was lodging close by, was also recorded as a grinder. Caroline was living as an unmarried mother with her 3 year old daughter and the man she later married. Also of interest in this census is that Harriett is given as born at Bucklebury Common, which is also close to Newbury. The Bucklebury parish baptism records give 6 children of a Samuel and Esther (Hester) JONES, one of which is Harriett. Samuel was given as a hawker, pedlar or chopman. Perhaps not surprisingly hawkers and travellers generally appear to marry their own kind. Another example of this is the marriage in 1843 of a Moses HUGHES to a Caroline JONES at Greenham Chapel. This Caroline was certainly one of Harriett's sisters and it is possible that Moses was Henry's brother, but that is being difficult to prove. Both the bride's and groom's father at this marriage, Samuel JONES and James HUGHES, and also the bridegroom himself were recorded as hawkers. In 1861 and 1871 Moses is a hawker of brushes living with his wife and children in Devizes; yet another connection with this town. One of the witnesses at the marriage was a Mary Ann HUGHES. Was this the Mary Ann baptized at Amesbury? If she was baptized as a baby she would have only been 9 years old at the time of this marriage, though it is not unknown for witnesses to be this young. Henry's wife, Harriett, died of dysentery in May 1863 in 'The City'. Henry was not the informant; perhaps he was on the road hawking or grinding knives.
My great grandmother Charlotte married Henry WITHERS, a farm labourer from Enborne, in 1865 also at Newbury Primitive Methodist Church and so settled down and left the semi-itinerant life to which she would have been accustomed. This is the last official document I have seen relating to Henry until his reported death from cancer in Newbury Workhouse in November 1869. However, on 24th October 1867 in the Newbury Weekly News, there appeared the following report of the Petty Session: "Henry HUGHES, a gypsy, pleaded guilty to stealing half a gallon of potatoes, growing in a field, the property of Mr. Henry DODD, of Inkpen, and was committed to Reading for 14 days." Was this my Henry? If so, perhaps he was hoping for a custodial sentence to tide him over the winter.
So far I have copies of 16 documents referring to Henry and 4 others that may also relate to him. This is far more than I imagined when I started my research.

Don Barlow

Sources: