Growing up by a Graveyard and Church

the path down from St. John the Baptist to their white house
When the Walton children  - Annie #1, Lydia #2 (seated in the banner  photo that titles Walton Lodge blog, second row left between her standing grandson and seated daughter, her husband William Bird Hackett standing behind her), Tom #3, George #4, Ada #5,and James #6 -  were growing up in this 200 year old white house (the old vicarage) it was the new building on the block.[i] 

The grassy area seen down the path was the graveyard. People were being buried here for 500 years before our Waltons arrived. Early wealthy church members are buried under the floor inside. Others are buried outside. In the 1900’s the caretaker moved the tombstones to the side off the grass, "For easier mowing," he proudly told Jim Hackett and me on our visit in 2006. We found reading most of the tombstones impossible for the overgrown bushes.  FindaGrave [ii] (the international group documenting cemeteries) has as, of today, only 29 names listed for the 700 hundred year old St. John’s graveyard, and none taken from reading a tombstone. Early wills give the known burial information. Earliest church records available to us begin in 1564.[i] [iii] 

St John the Baptist 2006.

The well-used path past the house still leads from the stable and carpark to the church.  Brides and Grooms strolled up the hill to their weddings. Babies in their christening gowns were carried to the baptism font. The walkway every Sunday saw crowds of worshippers head to and from services dressed in their finery to pray together.

Granwilla imagined her grandmother “Sarah Atkin Walton, small and frail, felt very proud as she walked to church each Sunday with her three tall, silk hatted sons beside her.”[iv]  This may be a fanciful image, though groom Harry Franks in the banner photo IS holding a tall silk hat. The first three Walton kids were baptized here, but Ava #5 wasn't baptized until age 8, the same day as her 3 month old baby brother, James #6 was, and I haven't found a baptism record at all for George #5. 

Along with celebrations and church services, the path often brought pallbearers carrying wooden coffins to the graveyard. Gravediggers dug deep holes. Mourners wept as their loved ones were lowered into the earth, and when they visited the graves later. All this happened right outside the windows of the Walton home where six children ate, learned, slept, and in the yard where they played.

 Annie #1 told her children two stories about growing up by the graveyard. One was about a ghost. She told of
“a white ghost that flitted nightly for a time in the cemetery and frightened the people. Finally, the doctor could stand it no longer. With gun in hand he waited for the ghost to appear. When it did, he called out, “Man or monkey, God or devil, whoever you are, speak now or I shoot.” The ghost did not speak, he shot, and soon after a man came to his home to be treated for a gunshot wound. That laid the ghost.”    
 
 Annie said they saw many burials in that church yard.
“One day young Jim [#6] and a friend decided to stage a burial of their own. They dug the shallow grave and the friend stretched out in it. Jim shoveled dirt over him and was reading the burial service when one of the family found him, just in time to rescue the lad.”[v]  

         Jim, Pawtillo, and I searched for stones that said Walton, Atkin, or Batchelor. I now that know none of James and Sarah's Walton family are buried here but James' father and mother could be.

Pawtillo and Jim explore the graveyard
moved headstones

St John the Baptist graveyard 2006

 It was tough slogging. Pawtillo enjoyed the exploration. We saw that nature was embracing the stones with brambles so we decided to walk to the canal to see the locks which is when we first saw Badsey’s Pub where we would meet other Waltons at our 2010 July 4th reunion.

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Who were James Walton and Sarah Atkin? -- stories from daughter Annie #1 and 's son, Tom Hackett--the tallest man in the banner photo

 

Annie said her father, James Walton, was “a handsome man, well over six feet, weighed 250 pounds and was not considered a fat man. He had a foot that really was a foot, just 12 inches long.”

James' father William Walton

The portrait on the right is not James, but is his father, William whose family had a story straight out of Dicken’s “Bleak House” of a court case in chancery that depleted the family fortune. There was apparently a fight over the Walton title and estate between twin sons who each claimed to have been born first. One burned the important documents, and the case dragged on in court through years of technicalities, procrastinations and evasions. If Annie had been born a son, she said, she could have reopened and fought the case, as her younger brother Tom actually might have. He, however, according to her “decided not to pursue the matter further.” They were told that the family once had rich farm lands which had been sold to fight the suit, and that later coal had been discovered under the farm. “Had they not sold they would have become wealthy.” 

In his portrait photo on the right William proudly wears his medal awarded for service in the Peninsular War against Napoleon 1807-1814.




Annie said her mother, Sarah Favel Atkin, was a tiny woman “with big brown eyes”. 

Sarah's Atkin family also was remembered through stories of fate and lost prestige. Prominence was insecure, wealth and status just out of reach.

From Granwilla: "Sarah Atkin was the daughter of a gentleman farmer. Her mother was the daughter of a large silversmith. The Atkins were of an old Lincolnshire family of unbroken descent from the time of Wycliffe.[i] In old registers her grandfather was mentioned as a “thane”.[ii] Sarah was given two dozen of each for her wedding silver. (I have some of it.) Her father’s brother, Samuel, was a big builder. He built or restored thirty churches and chapels. Her sister, Lydia, became Mrs. Bachelor.

Sarah's father, George Atkin, a man with a ladder

    One Sunday, when the children were little, the Atkin family went, as usual, to church. They found the door of the pew they had always occupied locked. Without a word her father turned and walked out of the church, the family following. He went home and returned with a ladder. He set it up and one by one they climbed up and down into the pew in the presence of all. A man, who said he would contribute very generously to the church had wanted that pew. It was the Atkins’ pew from that day on.”

          Sarah was born in Holbeach. An early vivid memory she had was of a great storm which washed away the cliffs. Many homes and lives were lost. She remembered walking on the beach after the storm subsided and seeing the bodies of several of her playmates laid out side by side. Not long after the great storm of 1825 the family moved slightly inland to Spaulding where her brother William and sister Lydia (our Australia cousins' ancestor) were born. ([iii]

Spauling and Holbeche in the Fens, Lincolnshire, England


 Stories from Tom Hackett, Lydia #2's son, about his Walton grandparents:          

When Tom Hackett was young his family lived with his grandparents, James and Sarah Walton and their youngest son Jimmy#6 (ancestor of cousins Tony and Maurice Walton). Tom was 7 when his grandfather was killed in a railway accident and 18 when his grandmother Sarah died. Having never met them Granwilla asked what her grandparents were like:

“Winnie Miles of Chipping Norton, England, is the daughter of Sarah Walton’s grandson, Tom. I wrote to her and asked her to send me some of her father’s recollections of his an my grandmother. She replied that, as a boy he was somewhat in awe of his grandmother, and remembers her as rather an overbearing woman who enjoyed a drop of whisky, which she probably thought would relieve her asthma. He called to mind asked his father to get him some fireworks with a precious shilling he had saved up for Guy Fawkes night and, when he handed them over to the small boy, his grandmother briskly said, ‘Now take them out and let them off, and they’ll be finished with.’       

Sarah (Atkin) Walton. widow

The only photo your author has of Sarah is late in life, a tiny woman with big brown eyes. The last years of her life she was an invalid with a collapsed lung, and remained in her bedroom.[i]. 


[i] All quotes in this blog post are from Granwilla’s memoirs written 1968 when she was 81. Granwilla lived to 99 and could translate Latin right up to the end.

 


[ii] Thane: an Anglo-Saxon term in England for a man who had land granted by the king. A thane was a nobleman ranking between a freeman and a hereditary nobleman.

[iii] This could have been the violent storm of Feb 1825. Her family moved to Spaulding not long after. Map from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fens       weather  https://www.pascalbonenfant.com/18c/geography/weather.html  


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Children of James and Sarah Walton

Sarah and James' six children. (five with spouses -- Eva married later)

Annie #1, Lydia #2, and James #6, had children of their own. The middle three, Tom #3, George #4, and Ada #5, did not. Born over a period of 19 years, the oldest two, Annie and  Lydia, were out of the home when James #6 was born. They were sent to "dame school" and London to master fine sewing, embroidery and needlework as preparation to go into service. James was 7 when Annie left for America.

Some used nicknames, some went by middle names. #1 was Annie in America but Liz or Lizzie to her sister Ava #5.

We have no photos of the Walton children when young, but in 1939 one group and four individual photos of the younger four were sent from England to California by Ava #5 to Annie #1's granddaughter, Betty Gilbert. 

The garden group photo was taken in late 1899 or 1900 based on the age of James #6's  children (born in 1898 and 1899). I have added pictures of Annie #1 (and  spouse William Truman Sale), and Lydia #2 (with spouse William Bird Hackett) to complete the six. Tom's wife is Dinah Crisp; George's Nellie French; Eva, here alone, later married Harry Harbord; James' Fanny Quarmby (seated with children). The baby is William Joseph Walton, the toddler is James "Bill" Walton.
James and Sarah Walton's children with spouses
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History: very old settlements at Hillmorton and a modern speedy trip on the canal thru the locks

A little more about Hillmorton before I put up the photos sent to California in 1939 of Sarah and James' children as adults. For future reference, I usually add their birth order number after their nicknames to keep them in order and clearly distinct from others in the extended family with the same given name - Annie #1, Lydia #2, Tom #3, George #4, Eva #5, Jimmie #6. 

The town name, Hillmorton, is a blend of Hull (the upper ground), and Morton, (the lower ground) where St. John the Baptist was built in the 1300’s. In 1086 Hull, the hundred of Marton (now Hillmorton), had 5 landowners and 44 households.[i] It was part of the 100 manors given to Hugh Grenmesnil, a proven companion of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. William I commissioned the Domesday Book, “the Great Survey,” of England and Wales in 1085. 

original Domesday Book pages reprinted

Men were sent all over the country to gather information about how many hundreds of hides were in each shire, what land was the king’s, who lived there, what occupations they worked, and what dues he ought to have from them annually. Hillmorton had been a community for a lot longer than that. Roman pottery was unearthed in 2017 during a dig for a new housing development.[ii] And there is evidence of  inhabitants there during the bronze age.[iii]

Hillmorton was a market town from a 1265 charter, and St. John the Baptist church was built in the 1300’s.[iv] Today Hillmorto may be best known for its flight of canal locks on the Oxford Canal. Originally single locks were built in the late 1700’s. They were turned into paired locks in 1840 to relieve traffic (like adding a lane to a freeway). The 1840's is when our Walton and Atkins kin came to town.

Oxford canal before and after the change

Today holiday makers and canal enthusiasts make pilgrimages through. An earlier post had link to a youtube video ride down the Oxford Canal from Brinklow to Hillmorton. This one is the journey (speeded up) from the south through all the locks. The short tunnel over the canal near the end goes right by Badsey’s pub on the right where we had our 2010 reunion. Old Vic is across the canal from Badsey's. The last two locks are after the tunnel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPnlCXWkPWk   If you prefer a more leisurely ride here is the same route slowly.[v]


Hillmorton Wharf 2006

  James and Sarah lived at this wharf in   1851. But after he chose the railway as his   work, they moved to Old Vic where   Annie  #1, Lydia #2, Tom #3, George #4,   Eva #5, and Jimmie #6 had a parade of   boats to watch each day, along with the   christenings, weddings, and burials in the   churchyard by their house which is now   wildly overgrown.

 

Old Vic and cemetery stones moved in 1900s

 

St. John the Baptist overgrown cemetery



[v] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHvChzDB7HQXWkPWk

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James Walton married Sarah Favel Atkin 1 November 1847

James Walton married Sarah Favel Atkin 

1 November 1847 

The Banner photo is not their wedding - it is the 1913 wedding of a granddaughter, Sarah Hackett (daughter of their 2nd born Lydia Walton) marrying Harry Franks. We have no pictures of James or Sarah.

Elizabeth Anne (known as Liz in England and Annie in America) was their first born. She told her children, “One afternoon in England young James Walton in a jovial mood was walking in town with some friends. His eye caught sight of Sarah Atkin, a petite young woman with large brown eyes. She took his fancy. “If ever I marry, that’s my wife,” he announced, and somehow he managed to do just that.”[i]

In autumn, after the Banns were read, James and Sarah married in the canal town of Hillmorton, Rugby, Warwickshire, England.                                                    

St. John the Baptist

Banns


marriage return James & Sarah Walton

James' father, William Walton

James was born nine miles north in Brinklow. He moved to              Hillmorton with his family when his father, William, came to work on the canal.[ii] James' mother, Elizabeth (Wilson) Walton, died before    James married.
Sarah's father, George Atkin

Sarah, daughter of George Atkin and Martha Esther Oliver, was born in Holbeach, Lincolnshire, 80 miles east. I don’t know when or why she moved to Hillmorton. Her younger sister, Lydia Anne, also came to Hillmorton some time after Sarah's wedding. In a few years Lydia would marry William Batchelor, a local, and raise their nine children in Hillmorton.

Sarah signed her marriage documents with a fine signature. Her mother had signed hers with an X. Education would be a big deal in this family. Sarah’s six and Lydia’s nine children were all born and raised in Hillmorton. Sarah's girls as well as the boys were scholars.

Descendants  from both Sarah and Lydia have kept in touch for 144 years. Down from Sarah  come Walton, Franks, Hackett, Hayes, Miles, Boddington, Clements, Bason, Brookins, Smith, Fitzpatrick,(in England), and more; Sale, Gilbert, Holt, Sockwell (in America). Down from Lydia  come Batchelor, Coggins, Heath, Kaberry, Davidson (in England and Australia)  and more. Many have written, visited, and kept a connection over the years.

Two of Sarah & James great great grandchildren (Jim Hackett and your author) took a 175 mile day trip to see each of the houses James and Sarah  were counted in on the English censuses 1851-1891. See brief timeline below. A future post will present "Jim and Vinnie's Excellent Adventure."

Briefly, here is where they lived, worked, and raised six children -- three boys and three girls:

1851 – The Wharfe, Hillmorton. James and Sarah and their first child, Elizabeth Anne "Liz" or “Annie”  lived at the wharf with his brothers and widowed father. His father worked on the canal, James and one brother were “Ag lab”i.e., "agricultural laborers", another brother was a “blacksmith boy.” Sarah was “housekeeper” for them all. (on a boat?)

1861 Weslyan Chapel, Hillmorton. James and Sarah mostly lived in the Old Vicarage of St. John the Baptist church and cemetery, close to the canal locks. But in 1861 they were counted at the "Methodist Chapel."  James was a successful railroad man. The children were all scholars.

1871    Old Vicarage, Hillmorton. Annie and Lydia were sent to London to learn fine needlework to go into service. Annie’s work as a lady’s maid/companion would take her to America. The boys were RR workers. NOTE: In 1871 Annie was enumerated as in “Serv. Out of place.” 

1881  13 Wood Street, Rugby. James and Sarah moved to Rugby and lived near the RR station and livestock corral. James was “leading coalman of the "R loco dept.” Their son George, a RR “engine fitter,” lived with them, as did daughter Lydia with her husband William Bird Hackett, who was a Railway Engine Driver and first two sons, Frank and Tom (penpal to Granwilla). RR engine driver was such a prestigious job that Lydia was listed as “wife of Engine Driver” and his two young sons  as“son of Engine Driver.”

1891  166 Emscote Road "WALTON LODGE ," Warwick. In 1887 James was killed in a railway accident. Widowed Sarah divided her time between living with the daughter Lydia and her Hackett family in Warwick, or son Tom and his wife on Wood Street in Rugby.

Hillmorton: red circle is St. John the Baptist church

The red circle on the map is St. John the Baptist and the Old Vicarage in Hillmorton where James and Sarah raised their six children right near the two Hillmorton locks.

Below is a photo someone in England sent to Granwilla of the Old Vic on the right, St. John the Baptist on the left. There's a large cemetery attached to St. John the Baptist between the two.

    photo St. John's & Old Vic - sent to Granwilla

Here are two photos taken in 2006. The red arrow shows Old Vic with St. John the Baptist to the right up the hill. An red arrow shows the same house just visible through the trees.This house is not the one marked "Walton Lodge" on the wall, but I think of all their homes as part of our Walton Lodge.

[i] Granwilla’s 1968 memoirs p1. family story

[ii] 2016 video of traveling by canal from Hillmorton to Brinklow, note nearby RR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-_dmMYQcEA



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Welcome

WELCOME to WALTON LODGE

A place for wandering Waltons to keep in touch

 

 

Just who are the Waltons? 

In 2010 I was on a ten day walking tour of Yorkshire led by George Redmonds, “the leading authority on the origins of English (especially Yorkshire’s) personal names, place-names and language” (according to his Guardian obituary).[i] I asked him why I kept seeing signs saying "Walton" with arrows pointing here and there. George explained that there was a town called Walton, and that very early on "Walton" became a word for travelers from Wales who worked from town to town. It pointed to places where they would find lodging for themselves and their families. I recently found a similar explanation on a deep diving historical website:



“In the beginning. . .

. . . the name “Walton” is fairly common in England, there are several villages and districts with the same name. One of the origins of the name is as a reference to a “village of the Welsh” or serfs. The Welsh being the native Britons living in what we now know as England. When the Romans left and the Romano-Britons had to fend for themselves, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived from the area now known as Germany and the Netherlands to occupy large areas of the former Roman province. Some of these folk were already here, employed as mercenaries by the Romans. A settlement was already in existence when the Saxons arrived in the 7th century. The name has changed over the centuries from Weala-tun in Saxon days, through Waleton in the Domesday Book, Waton later in Norman times, settling on Walton in the Middles Ages. . ."      https://overtown.org.uk/about-walton/history.html  

 

Our DNA  places us clearly in the Midlands, in area call “the Potteries.” When you get to the DNA part of our blog, you’ll see that our early Waltons didn’t move outside of Warwickshire. When they moved within, it was for work.  

 

Dedication: Niece Deb Gilbert and I have chosen WALTON LODGE as our blog name, and dedicate it to James Walton  & Sarah Favel Atkin, and her sister Lydia Anne Atkin & William Batchelor, their families and descendants. We are all Waltons at Walton Lodge no matter what our names are now.



             Lavinia (Gilbert) Schwarz - great greatgrandaughter of James & Sarah Walton             

 

 


 

[i] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/21/george-redmonds-obituary   

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