The Cranham Family, potters of Cove ca. 1800

Preliminary answer to Borderware Notes & Queries QB9 from Peter Tipton 6 Aug 2008

The discovery that the property of James Cranham, potter of Cove was named Reynolds in 1796 may possibly be an important breakthrough in helping us to locate the pottery of Thomas Reynolds one of the earliest Cove potters, who died in 1636.

We were aware that the Cranhams were potters in Cove around 1800 since the registers of St Peter's Yateley record two Cranham marriages giving the occupation of both grooms as potters. James Cranham married Ann Mullard on 19 Oct 1772, and a George Cranham, potter of Cove, son of Thomas Cranham, also a potter, married Eliza Bare at St Peters Yateley on 17 May 1845. Since there were over 70 years between the marriage of James in 1772 and this George in 1845 he could be the grandson of James Cranham potter, and son of Thomas Cranham, potter.

George Cranham, potter of Cove

It is therefore possible that George Cranham may still have been living and working in the family pottery in Cove named Reynolds after he married in 1845.

In the 1861 census this George Cranham was living with his wife Eliza and family in Badshot Lea - still a potter aged 37. His place of birth was Cove. In 1851 he was a potter in Farnborough. www.ancestry.co.uk has made a complete hash of these census transcriptions: Farnborough, Hants has been misplaced as Farnborough, Kent and the two later Cranham surnames (1861 and 1871) are mistranscribed - giving Cranham as a possible alternative. However for each census year George Cranham's wife in each case is Eliza, his occupation is potter, and the names and ages of the children are consistent. So unfortunately George's whereabouts in the 1851-1871 census returns, which is never Cove, does not help us find out where James might have lived in Cove in 1796.

In the 1841 census George Cranham is recorded as a 15 year old potter living in Cove with James Siggery, a 55 year old ag lab; James' wife Charlotte Siggery; and William Cranham, a bricklayer aged 20. James Siggory had married Charlotte Cranham, widow, on 14 Apr 1832. The two young Cranham men are likely to have been her relatives. In fact the census of 1851 informs us that James Siggery's household consisted of himself, his wife Charlotte born in Elvetham, and Thomas Cranham, an ag lab aged stated to be 'a Relative'. It appears that Charlotte Siggery probably had at least sons, William, George and Thomas Cranham, by her first husband.

There are at least three possibilities as to the identity of James Siggery's wife Charlotte:

• Charlotte may have been the youngest daughter of William, the elder son of James Cranham, using her maiden name at her second marriage rather than her married surname, as is usual. There is a very confusing entry in the Yateley marriage registers on 31 Mar 1822: John Knight, a labourer of Yateley, married Sarah Cranham according to the entry made by the Rev Lewin. But when his wife signed the register she signed as Charlot Cranham. It is therefore unclear as to the real identity of the bride, and which one of two daughters of William Cranham actually married John Knight. However Charlotte, the daughter of William Cranham, born in Cove, cannot be the wife of James Siggery since the 1851 census states the latter was born in Elvetham,
• James Cranham married Charlotte Wright in Yateley on 10 Sep 1831. There is no record of a burial of a James Cranham but this Charlotte could have become a widow within months and married James Siggery almost immediately. FreeBMD records the death of a Charlotte Cranham in Hartley Wintney registration district after 1837, so this possibility seems unlikely.
• the probable identity of the wife of James Siggery is that she was the mother of William and George, living with her in 1841, and therefore the former wife of their father, a Thomas Cranham who died before she remarried in 1832. However we have absolutely no records in Yateley of a marriage of a Thomas Cranham to a Charlotte, nor the baptisms of any of their children. All we have to go on is the marriage certificate of George in 1845 stating that his father was Thomas Cranham.

The Siggerys were also an important potter family in Cove. We know of 9 potters having surname Siggery between 1745 and 1889. However it seems unlikely that James Siggery was resident in the property names Reynolds since his occupation was Ag Lab.

There are a lot of 'ifs and buts' and unanswered questions in the above analysis. But further research into the descendants of James Cranham, both in the male and female line may reveal who inherited his pottery. It would be most helpful to obtain the Hampshire Genealogical Society member's own family tree.

James Cranham potter of Cove

From the Yateley parish registers I can only partially reconstruct the family of James Cranham. From his will we learn that James had four living children in 1796:

• William
• Thomas
• Ann the wife of Arthur Goddard
• Charlotte

The Yateley registers record only two baptisms for children of James and Ann Cranham:

• Charlotte baptised 4 April 1787
• John baptised 19 October 1790

John's burial was recorded on 19 December 1790, aged 9 weeks.

Since the IGI is unhelpful, the baptisms of William, Thomas and Ann were probably in Farnborough, a church closer to Cove than St Peter's Yateley.

The Yateley registers record the marriage of a William Cranham to Ann Mason on 24 January 1795. This William is likely to be the eldest son of James and Ann who married in 1772, perhaps making William about 22 on his wedding day. The witnesses were Ann Cranham, likely to be his sister, and Arthur Goddard, his future brother-in-law. The Yateley registers then record the baptisms of three children of William and Ann Cranham:

• Sophia baptised 19 June 1796 and born in Cove. Sophia had an illegitimate child named Charles baptised on 28 April 1822, and was herself buried in Yateley aged 28 on 7 Feb 1824;
• Sarah baptised 28 July 1798 and born in Cove. She may have been the husband of John Knight;
• Charlotte baptised 2 January 1800 and born in Cove.

William and Ann baptised only girls in Yateley, so William Cranham may not have had any male heirs. His father may therefore have bequeathed his property to his next male heir. However Thomas may have baptised sons elsewhere.

William's wife Ann Mason came from another important potter family in Cove. Thomas Mason, a Cove potter, married Mary Woolveridge in 1771; John Mason married Susanna Reynolds in 1773; and Robert Mason married Sarah Watts in 1800, and was probably the Robert Mason, potter of Cove who left a will in 1836.. William's wife Ann was probably the daughter of John & Susanna Mason, baptised at St Peter's Yateley on 27 Nov 1774, making her much the same age as her husband.

The most significant outcome of this analysis is that the George Cranham who married in 1845 was born around 1824, apparently to a father named Thomas who was alive nine months before he was born. The only Thomas Cranham to appear in the Yateley records was buried on 12 May 1811. He also left a will reference 1811A/023 in the Hampshire Record Office. This Thomas was 71 when he died in 1811 so he was not the son mentioned in James Cranham's will written in 1796, and since this Thomas died well before 1824, he was not the father of George Cranham who married in 1845. So did the Thomas Cranham, son of James, survive until after George was born in about 1825, and did he take a younger second wife name Charlotte when he was about 50 and have a second young family?

Cranham Property Records

Having failed to find any likely inheritors for James Cranham's property which would take us into the years of the census returns,, and therefore to locate 'Reynolds' on the tithe map, are there any other property records of the Cranham family?

Significantly the Hampshire Record Office has the title deeds to the property mentioned in the will of James Cranham, potter of Cove. The collection of Odiham manorial court books and miscelleaneous deeds has the finding number 25M63 and contains 17 documents referenced 25M63/T8 described as the title deeds to a messuage and lands at Cove dating between 1736 and 1817.

The description in the CALM database states that the surnames of the parties to the succession of the title are Harrison, Cherrot, Ridgers, Cranham and Goddard. The bundle also includes the probate of the will of James Cranham of Cove dated 1808, presumably the year he died 12 years after writing his will. It seems likely that the last two surnames listed are those of James Cranham himself, and Arthur Goddard his son-in-law. Harrison, Charrett, and Ridgers are all Yateley surnames but do not occur in the Cove Poor Rates 1693-1752. The property may therefore have been owned by an absentee landlord and occupied by different ratepayers, possibly each one being a potter.

Suggested Work Plan

Title Deeds at Hampshire Record Office

Extending ownership of the property to the date of the Tithe Apportionment and map:

Checking property ownership in Tithe Apportionment, and location on Tithe Map:

Bridging the gap between 1832 and 1844 may be difficult if we are unlucky enough to find that there was a crucial change of ownership between the end of the extant Land Tax returns and the date of the Tithe Apportionment. The Poor Rate books for this crucial period were destroyed in the church fire in 1979.

Tracing the ownership of James Cranham's property before 1736

It is possible that the property was owner-occupied before 1736, and therefore that the owner paid poor rates. It may therefore be quite easy to trace the property back to 1693. However even if the rates were paid for part of this period by an occupier who was not the owner, tracking the property may become difficult. There are no records noted for Cove on the Manorial Documents Register. The best chance of tracking ownership of the property will therefore be through wills. Unfortunately the probate of Richard Charrett (bur. 2 Apr 1737), yeoman of Yateley, was an admon (HRO 1737AD/023). So not a promising start.