The Hemmants are from my father’s maternal side and do not appear to have been researched to any great degree. I have 2 family bibles, a handful of photographs when we cleared my parents house in 2002 and, with other resources, I have been able to gain an understanding of their movements and lives. My Grandmother Emily Hemmant(4), a drapers daughter, was born in Pontefract, married James Edwin Green in 1904 and died in 1959, aged 81 when I was 7. I remember her as a child – but only just, as quite a plump, austere woman with not much time for children!
The furthest I have gone back to is my Grandmother Emily’s Gt Grandmother Elizabeth Burnham (1) She was 91 in the 1851 census (birth prior to
1760) living with her daughter (also Elizabeth (2)) who married John Hemmant (2) on 19th February 1821 at St Mary’s Whittlesey, Cambridge. Their children were baptised at St Mary’s:-
Mary(3) 28th January 1822,
John(3) 14th November,
George(3) 25th January 1828,
and my Thomas(3) on 1st September 1831.
They farmed at Towns End and latterly Low Cross in Whittlesey at this time. John?? (2)was buried 9th March 1850 aged 43 and Elizabeth (2) on 7th December 1874 aged 82 at St Mary’s Whittlesey. These dates would have John marrying at 14 and Elizabeth at 31 but a Cambridgeshire archivist I used suggested that as these are the only John and Elizabeth at St Mary’s we have the right people but records did not always give accurate dates and ages. I cannot find another death for John Hemmant, nor can I find him on the 1841 census but his wife Elizabeth is down as a widow in the 1851 census. Perhaps we have the right John Hemmant?
In the 1841 census we have Elizabeth Hemmant (2) nee Burnham living with children Mary(3)- 15, John(3)- 15 and my Thomas (3)- 9 together with 80 year old Elizabeth Burnham(1), confirmed to be her mother in the 1851 census when she was 91. In 1841, father John(2) is missing, but son George(3) aged 13 was found in Leeds staying with a Thomas & Isabella Hemmant who is a Linen Draper. Their 3 children, Elizabeth, William and John were born in Leeds but the parents were not, so the inference currently drawn is that Thomas and George’s father John(2) were brothers. There are a number of Hemmants in and around Whittlesey which predate the 1841 census so further research into parish records might establish siblings to John(2).
My Gt Grandfather Thomas(3), was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire in the Fen district (Towns End & Low Cross) to a farming family on 1st Sept 1831. In the 1851 census aged 19, we find him apprenticed to a draper in Bradford. We find George(3) (Thomas’s(3) younger brother) with Sarah Hemmant in 1861 living at East Dereham, Norfolk as a Grocer & Draper employing 5 people but 30 years later we find George, now retired and Sarah in Norwich with a 23 year old Thomas(4) Hemmant, born in Pontefract visiting as a nephew and as draper’s assistant. The nephew Thomas(4) is the son of Thomas(3) and Fanny and is Emily’s (4) brother.
Thomas(3) (d.1882) married Fanny Webster (b.1831 d.12th Sept 1900 see her photograph), on 13th June 1855 at the Parish Church, Bradford. Around that time he was back in Cambridgeshire farming at Witcham. Fanny’s parents were Isaac and Hannah Webster and he was an ironfounder born in York.
Newspaper articles in 1859 have two arson inspired fires on 9th and 11th April at Thomas’s farm at Witcham and a farm sale notice dated 16th April 1859 stating that Thomas Hemmant was ‘ quitting the farm’. Their 1st 3 children were born at Witcham of which 2 died young and even the 3rd, Mary Elizabeth died aged 10 in 1868. It sounds like he was having a tough time and a significant change of direction was required.
In the 1861 census we find Thomas(3) back in Yorkshire with Fanny and his daughter Mary Elizabeth, as an assistant draper at Belts Court, Pontefract – the apprentice draper training now being put to good use. In 1871 he is a Draper partner with Fanny and 4 children, Mary Elizabeth having died in 1868. In 1881 he is with his children, as a Draper & Grocer at Beastfair in Pontefract. By 1891 Thomas(3) had died and we find Fanny with 5 of her children, John at 24 is a Draper, down to Francis Alice who is just 12. Fanny died in 1900 and her three daughters, Anna Webster, Emily and Frances are living at 1 Bar Terrace, Pontefract.
Hemmant Family Bibles – pdf’s
Annie-Hemmant-Family-Bible-1
Thomas and Fanny had 13 children between 1856 to 1878, details below:-
John(2) b & d 29 Nov 1856.
Mary Elizabeth(2) b 9 Apr 1858 d 17 Dec 1868. Bur. Pontefract Cemetary F1626
Alice(2) b 25 Mar 1860 d 9 Oct 1860. Bur. Bradford Moor
John William(2) b 18 Jul 1861 d 23 Apr 1918.
m. Alice Shaw on 26th Mar 1907 – no children
George(2) b 1 Aug 1863 d 24 Oct 1952.
m. Alice Mary Taylor on 15th Oct 1889. I have a record of Dorothy but she died young at 5 months. I believe that John owned and ran a draper’s shop in Ponterfact.
I have a little information on this connection, including 2 photographs below and a reference in a Pontefract Express newspaper interview with George Hemmant, during the first week of WW1 whereby many were ‘hoarding’ grocery provisions to the detriment of the poor. Kelley’s Trade Directory of 1881 has Routledge and Hemmant as Drapers of Beastfair, Pontefract and later versions have Geo Hemmant Ltd on Woolmarket, Pontefract and G. Hemmant on Beastfair, Pontefract.
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Herbert(2) b 7 Aug 1865 d 20 Dec 1870.
Thomas(2) b 22 Jul 1867 d 20 Nov 1940.
Thomas married, firstly Caroline ‘Carrie’ Baxter on 22 Apr 1897 at the Weslyan Chapel, Pontefract. Caroline died, then he married Winifred Kershaw on 21 Sept 1916, at St Peters, Shipley, when he was aged 48. In 1911 Thomas and Carrie were at Heathcliffe, Bingley as a Grocer and Provision merchant with no children. In the Robin Press book he has reference to Thomas ‘amongst Muriel’s papers were a photograph of a man’s head and separately a label such as might be attached to a packet of tea, on which the same man’s face appeared, with the words “Bingley Blend”. This turned out to be Emily’s brother Tom Hemmant’s special tea blend for Bingley, which is where he went, on striking out leaving his brothers, one of whom ran a grocer’s shop (George) and the other a draper, (John) in Pontefract.’ From Thomas’s second marriage there were 2 children, Margaret Winifred ‘Peggy’(1)born 1918 who married Kenneth Hollingdrake Siggs (b.23rd May 1917 d. 21st July 1976) in 1941 at and Thomas(1) born 1919 died in 1935 and is interred at Bingley Cemetary ending the male Hemmant name in this line.
I recall Peggy Siggs and she is mentioned as a beneficiary in Frances Alice’s Will dated 6th October 1965 along with my father, Granville Green and Kathleen Cottis – all 3 being the only neices/nephews from these 13 children of Thomas and Fanny. I have manged to identify Roger, Peter and Heather as children from this marriage from public imformation.
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Frederick(2) b 7 Feb 1869 d 8 Jul 1869. Bur Pontefract Cemetary F1626
*Anna Webster(2) b 2 Jan 1871 d 20th July 1946.
Anna appears on a few of the photographs below. She died in 1946 in the Ludlow registration District (Shropshire) but is buried in Pontefract.
Fanny(2) b 21 Oct 1872 d 10 Jul 1875.
Florence(2) b 7 Aug 1874 d 16 Nov 1898. Bur Pontefract Cemetary
Emily(2) b 29 Oct 1876 d 1959.
Emily married my Grandfather (James Edwin Green) at Horsefair Weslyan Chapel in 1904 and in 1911 the 2 remaining sisters (*Anna Webster and *Frances Alice) and a servant are still at 1 Bar Terrace, Ponterfact. (For reasons of development, 1 Bar Terrace became 35 Mill Hill Road and is now called 5 Carleton Road). They continued to live together there until Anna’s death in 1946 and Francis Alice in 1965. Francis Alice visited us at Tookeys Farm in Astwood Bank and I remember her fondly. The 2 family bibles I refer to in the first Hemmant paragraph belonged to Anna Webster Hemmant and my Grandmother Emily Green nee Hemmant.
*Frances Alice(2) b 24 May 1878 d 6 Oct 1965.
My Aunt Alice was a popular visitor to my family at Tookeys Farm to spend time with sisiter Emily and family. She and Anna Webster were visiting there at the time of the 1939 Census. Both my sister recall visiting her in Pontefract and my Cottis cousins recall her visits to Epping. She always signed her name as ‘Alys’.
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