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| From the Exeter Flying Post
16 February 1804
"Whereas I, William Stentiford, an Artillery Driver, did on
Friday the 27th day of January last, in the Fore Street of the City of
Exeter, carelessly ride over a woman called Bicknell who thereby
received considerable injury in consequence thereof. A prosecution was
justly commenced against me, but which with the consent of the
Magistrates, has been withdrawn on my making satisfaction to the woman
for the injury she received, and thus publicly acknowledging the
impropriety of my conduct. Now I do promise never to be guilty of the
like again and return thanks for the lenity* shown me.
Dated this 11th day of February 1804.
The mark X of William Stentiford
Witnessed by Thomas Wood"
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When Ann Stentiford, then aged 43, married Richard
Allen in Winkleigh on 28 Jan 1861, she named her father as
"William"** and his occupation as
"soldier" and so helped to confirm the identify of this rather
elusive family character. He flits in and out of the pages of the
Hayward-Osborne family history as "Robert Stentiford's brother" and
"Fanny Westaway's father" and was indeed both of these things.
He returned from the army, probably at the end of the Napoleonic
wars, married and ended his days at Woodbridge, a tiny hamlet in
the parish of Coldridge on the banks of the River Taw, some distance
northwest of Coldridge village. Eliza, Ann's first child, was born here.
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William Stentiford
ba 23 May 1779 Coldridge
m 3 Dec 1815 Coldridge
bu 3 Jan 1847 Coldridge (68) |
Mary Hayward
b ?1776 Coldridge
m 3 Dec 1815 Coldridge
bu 30 Nov 1831 Coldridge (55) |
| Ann |
ba 3 Nov 1816 Coldridge m 28 Jan 1861 bu ? |
Richard Allen |
| Richard |
ba 10 Apr 1818 Coldridge m ? d 1903 Jun
St Thomas (87) |
Mary Ann? |
| Joanna |
ba 12 Nov 1821 Coldridge m 31 Dec 1849 Winkleigh
bu? |
William Saunders |
| Fanny |
ba 8 Aug 1824 Coldridge m 13 Mar 1849 Tormoham
bu ? |
Samuel Westaway |
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After 1813 all marriages were required to be witnessed by
two responsible adults, it having proved all too easy to deny that
a marriage had taken place. There was no issuing of a certificate at
this time and in larger towns especially, the bride and groom were often
unknown to the person conducting the ceremony. Richard witnessed the marriages of his sisters Ann and Joanna.
Joanna's husband, William Saunders was a witness to the marriage of Ann's
daughter Eliza to Samuel Western. Charles Williams, the village saddler,
was the other witness to Ann's wedding and Robert Williams, who kept the
village pub was second witness to Joanna's marriage.
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Richard lived to be 87, dying in the Workhouse at
St.Thomas, Exeter,
in which he had been resident for many years.
Joanna's Apprenticeship Papers still survive. She was bound over to
George Woolway, a miller, in 1831 when she was 9.
Fanny and Samuel Westaway went to live in Torquay and brought up a
large family there - we shall be hearing more about them in another
Issue. |
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* Leniency
**A Bastardy Order survives among the
Coldridge papers naming a William Stentiford as the father of Sarah
Luxton's little boy who was born on 19 Jun 1816. An order was made for a
weekly sum of 1/6 a week for maintenance plus a sum of one pound and
fourteen shillings to defray the expenses of the lying-in. There was at
least one other William Stentiford living in Coldridge who might have
fathered her child so this is a puzzle we cannot resolve . . . yet!
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