1758 - Helen Creswicke, widow of Henry Creswick, Lord of the Manor of Hanham Abbotts and grand-daughter in law of Sir Henry Creswick, (knighted by Charles II in 1663), Mayor of Bristol, who bought the manor of Hanham in 1653, made her will.
In the name of God, I Helen Creswicke of Hanham Court, in the parish of Bitton, in the county of Gloucester, widow, being in an indifferent state of Health and (God be praised) of sound and disposing mind, memory and understanding do hereby make my last will and testament in manner following: First I commit my soul to Almighty God, hoping to receive remission of my sins throe the merits and medication of my blessed saviour and redeemer, Jesus Christ and desire that my body may be decently buried in the same grave where my husband lies interred & as to my worldly substance I dispose thereof as follows:
Emporiums, I give and bequeath unto my two daughters Sarah and Susanna Creswicke all that my messuage or tenement and stable garden and premises situate in Frog Lane in the city of Bristol, now let to John Clark, share and share alike a Tennant's in common.
To Sarah, my repeating gold watch with a gold chain to it, three chains of pearl, one large diamond ring and two other gold rings.
To Susanna. my other gold watch and gold chain and two chains of pearl, one green emerald ring set with diamonds and two other rings.
To my daughter Helen my gold chain and locket, one witch is wash’t in gold and my equipage, all my small pearls, two gold locket's, one red ring set with diamonds and one silver sauce boat.
To my son Henry Creswicke, my Chariot, one large diamond ring which was his Father’s, one silver snuff box and a piece of gold three pounds twelve shillings value as a token of my love.
To my son Samuel Creswicke, one large stone ring, one silver snuff box and one piece of gold three pounds twelve shillings value as a token of my love.
To my Aunt Eves, three guineas.
To my sister Brockhirst, the like sum of three guineas for mourning.
To Sarah and Susanna, £500 and such plate, linen and other things as were given them my late Aunt Opie.
To Mr James Boucher of London, gent, two guineas.
To Rev. Dr Creswicke, Dean of Wells, his brother in law, Mr Hammond of the city of Bristol and Mr Richard Parker of the same as trustees, for assisting the executrices and to take care of my papers and writings till my children come of age, to whom I give five shillings each.
To Sarah, Susanna and Helen as Tennant's in common of my tenement at Stouts Hill in Bitton, now in tenure of Hall and appurtenances; and all my wearing apparel and all the rest of my rings, Jewell's, moneys, effects and personal estate after funeral expenses paid etc to be equally divided between my three daughters and for them to be executrices in witness thereof signed Helen Creswicke.
(Helen was born in 1711, the daughter of John Hart of Westbury on Trym. Of her children, Henry (born 1736) inherited the lordship of the Manor. Samuel (born 1740), unmarried, lived at Long Ashton, though died at Hanham in 1778. Susanna, (born 1735) married David Clark of Westerleigh at Bitton in 1764. Helen (born 1739) married Richard Barrow and Sarah married Reverend C. Elwes, the vicar of Bitton at St James’s church in Bristol in 1779. Helen died in June 1757 and is buried at Bitton.
All was not as prosperous as it seem's from the above. Francis Creswicke, Helen’s father in law, who died in 1732, led an extraordinary life which included several spells of imprisonment variously for debt, for the attempted murder of the Irish Attorney General and for being involved in the Monmouth Rebellion, a trumped up charge brought by his enemy, the influential Sir John Newton of Barr's Court with whom he was in almost continuous litigation. Legal fees crippled the estate, Hanham Court was mortgaged and the family was eventually reduced to ruin. Helen’s legacies were presumably her own fortune, inherited from her father.)
1762 - 'A few days ago, one Nurse Brain, a poor old woman upwards of sixty, near Grimsbury in Kingswood was burnt to death together with an infant in her arms. ‘us supposed their clothes caught fire while asleep whereby she was suffocated. The cries of the child alarmed the woman’s son who immediately ran into the room but too late to preserve either his mother or child who expired in extreme agonies soon after.' )
1763 - Thomas Harris of Hanham and Oldland, coalminer went to Benjamin Caines’s house and called for a quart of ale, paying Lydia Caines, his wife, 3d. The house was unlicensed and Ben and Lydia were summonsed at the Gloucester Quarter Sessions.
(They could become the grandparents of the notorious Caines brothers of 'The Cock Road Gang')
1777 - A dog nosing about in Kingswood dug up the decapitated corpse of a child aged about six weeks. 'Wilful murder' said the jury. 'The inhuman mother has made her escape' said the Gazette.
1774 - 'Tuesday the wife of a poor man without Lawford’s Gate went to an apothecary’s to get some medicine for a child that was ill of the small pox and lock’d her three children in the house; the while one of them about 4 years of age getting too near the fire it caught its cloth's and by the time the mother returned was burnt in a shocking manner. It was taken to the Infirmary but died next day. This is the second misfortune of this kind which has befallen the family.'
1779 - 'Saturday night, about 9 o’clock as Mr Charles Wilcox, late clerk to Messrs Reeve, Son & Hill was going to his lodging at Two Mile Hill, he unfortunately fell into a coalpit forty fathoms deep but happily for him, he lodged in what is called the binns about five or six fathoms down where he lay till next morning when he was discovered, taken out and carried to his lodgings seriously bruised.'
1779 - 'Wednesday evening, a collier riding in his cart near College Green, the horses took fright and ran away which he hastily jumping out in order to stop them, unfortunately fell down and the wheels of the cart going over his body he was bruised in so terrible a manner that he died yesterday in our infirmary.'
1779 - 'Tuesday night a melancholy accident happened to a woman in Kingswood. She had been in Bristol that day when she heard that a party of soldiers were to visit Kingswood to secure the sailors concealed there.
On her return home, happening to meet with one of then, she communicated her intelligence, to which he replied he was arm’d and did not care for them. He then drew out of his packet a brace of pistols when unfortunately one went off and lodged in that part from whence it has not yet been extracted. She lies without hope of recovery.'
(So once again the Press Gang sought experienced men for the grim ships of the Royal Navy. The fact that this sailor was walking about freely in Kingswood demonstrates just how far it provided a haven for those on the run. The fate of both woman and mariner is unknown).
1779 - One John Abbott, a wheelwright of Hanham for some time has been disordered in his senses and the first objects of his bloody rage were his wife and a female acquaintance both of whom he treated in so horrible a manner that the latter is said to have died of her wounds and his wife’s life is despaired of.
He then sallied forth from his own habitation armed with a hatchet when unfortunately two innocent children returning from school fell sacrifice to his barbarity. He cleaved the head of the first child and gave the other such a blow as to cause instant death. This inhuman wretch was overpowered after much resistance by some persons who were distant spectators and last night he was lodged in Lawfords Gate Bridewell.'
(Hanham people were almost always buried in the churchyard at Bitton, thus Lydia Abbott buried there on 27th June. There were only five other interments that month: Elizabeth Cribb, on the 14th, Hannah Stone, the 15th, Hannah Lear, the 18th, Sarah Bright and Martha Hulbert, both on the 25th. The burial register rarely gives extra details, other than name and date. It is impossible to tell which of these, if any, are the other three victims.)
1782 - Mr Parry of Castle Street was robbed between the three and four mile stones beyond Stapleton. The highwayman -behaved very civil and afterwards rode off towards Frenchay. He was a thin man of a sallow complexion with dark curled hair and rode a dark brown nag’s tail’d horse about 16 hands high with a black mane and tail and no mark on the face.'
1783 - In this year, Thomas Palmer of Kingswood became engine minder of the world’s first compound steam engine at Radstock, Somerset.
John Armitstead, a relative of the Burchill family and well known as a coal adventurer — a colliery proprietor had a pit between Church Road and Whitehall Road, St George where he installed a pumping engine for raising coal. Power was generated from water by means of a fire and ergo the device was called a Fire-engine. It stood on Colt’s or Boulter’s Ground but the land came to be known as the Engine Ground. To this day, a pub in the area is called the Fire Engine.
1783 - 'Saturday, as two men were mowing some grass in a field at Wick Farm, Bitton, having some words together, one of them took his scythe and struck the point of it in the other’s belly upon which his bowels gushed out and he died soon after. The man is committed to Gloucester Gaol to take his trial at the next assizes.'
1783 - 'A man living at Pile Marsh, near Crew’s Hole near Kingswood, was going into a field to look at his cows left a horse which he rode in the care of his son, aged about eight, at the gate. The boy soon after tied the halter to his arm and the horse taking fright, ran away dragging the boy after him, which mangled him in so shocking a manner that before any assistance could be given, he was quite dead.'
UNIQUE MEMORIAL STONE WHICH CRUSHED GIRL TO DEATH
During the late 1800s a family called Perryman lived in Hanham. While mother Martha stayed at home, young daughter Mary went to work with her father Jacob, who was a stonemason.
Jacob used to go the quarry in Longwell Green (it was where Comet, Asda and the rest of the shops and houses are now situated) to get large slabs of stone which he carved into head stones.
One day he went off to work with a couple of other men and his daughter. Having got one large slab of stone, he rested it against his horse and cart and went off to get another. But whilst he was gone something startled the horse - which bolted.
The slab of stone toppled over and crushed his daughter to death. Jacob Perryman used the stone that had killed his daughter as her gravestone, and on it he inscribed: 'This is the stone that spilt my precious blood. 'Mary Perryman, the daughter of Martha and Jacob Perryman. Died February 19th 1783. Aged 7 years.'
This gravestone can be found in the church yard of Hanham Baptist Church in the High Street. This is just up from the Blue Bowl Public House, on the same side as the local chip shop.
26 December 1749 - 'A house was broken open at Grimsbury, near Hanham and a blue narrow cloth coat, a blue damask waistcoat trimmed with silver and a purple pair of plush breeches were carried off. The rogues took pains for these trifles to enter the house by making a breach of the wall with pick-axes, and it seems a little surprising that they carried off no other things.'
21st May 1759 - 'Mr Whittick’s house in Hanham was robbed whilst the family was at a meeting by a woman and her two sons which she did by putting them in at a window she broke. They took thereout a watch, some money and several gold rings. They are all since apprehended and taken to Gloucester Gaol.'
(The Whittick family - or as they were more usually called Whittuck owned coalmines in Kingswood. The un-named woman and her two little boys predated the method of burglary favoured by the fictional Bill Sykes and Oliver Twist by almost a hundred years.)
