THE LIMBRICKS

notes by P John Partington

 INTRODUCTION

According to research conducted by Rev Warren Limbrick of Selwyn College, Dunedin, New Zealand in the 1960s, the Limbricks first appear in the historic records when Sir Richard Limbrick was taken prisoner at the battle of Wakefield, in the War of the Roses: this Gloucestershire man was beheaded in 1460 at Pontefract in Yorkshire. The name is relatively uncommon, and largely confined until a hundred years ago to Gloucestershire. Since then, a significant number seem to have emigrated to Australia and New Zealand. It seems likely that most, if not all, of the Gloucestershire Limbricks are interrelated, but many links remain to be proven.

ISAAC LIMBRICK  (1690 - 1744)

Our earliest known Limbrick ancestor was Isaac, born in 1690. On 29 September 1728, at Charfield, he married Joan Cullimore. They had at least six children:  Joseph born in 1729, Sarah, Mary baptized in 1734, Elizabeth in 1736, William in 1738, and Hannah in 1741. William died on 11 July 1744, without having made a will; Joan died on 5 October 1762.

THE CHILDREN OF ISAAC  (1690 - 1744)

Isaac’s first child, Joseph, was born at Wotton under Edge in 1729.  He married Anne Long on 17 July 1752 at Yate.  The couple had two daughters baptized at Yate:  Mary on 19 September 1753 and Betty on 7 August 1755.  Joseph had died by October 1759, and of the children only Betty was named in Joseph’s mother’s will dated that month.  On 28 February the following year Betty’s grandmother Ann, wife of Samuel Long, became her guardian, and so it seems very probable that Anne junior had also died by then.

Isaac’s second child, Sarah, married Matthew Weekes in Yate on 19 March 1754.  They had three children, all baptized in Rangeworthy:  John in 1755, Matthew in 1757 and Isaac in 1760.

Isaac’s third child, Mary, was baptized at Yate on 19 January 1733/34.  In her early twenties she had two illegitimate daughters, baptized with her surname – Hannah, born in 1755 ( baptized on 15 June that same year, and died February 1777);  and Mary, born in 1756, (baptized on 3 November, and died 12 January 1777).  On 16 May 1758 she married Daniel Bennett at Thornbury.  The couple went on to have eight more children:  Isaac baptized in 1761, Daniel in 1762, Ashfield in 1764, Joseph in 1767, Joanna (date unknown), Mabel in 1771, Sarah in 1773 and Anne in 1775.  Mary died on 24 February 1777, a few days after both of her eldest daughters;  all were buried at Tortworth.

Isaac’s fourth child, Elizabeth, was baptized in Yate on 25 April 1736.  She married Thomas Pullen on 7 January 1755, still at Yate.  They had five children:  James baptized at Iron Acton on 11 March 1753, Nathaniel baptized there on 8 July 1757, Sarah on 28 January 1759, Thomas on 24 July 1763 and Daniel, buried there on 29 October 1765.  Elizabeth was buried at Iron Acton on 21 May 1780, and Thomas on 17 November 1802.

Isaac’s fifth child, William, was baptized in Yate on 19 August 1738.  He married Mabel Collins on 4 April 1763 at Thornbury.  At the time of the marriage William’s parish is given as Yate, but he is later described as of Wickwar.  He died in 1809, leaving a “numerous family”, of whom two sons, Isaac and Thomas, went to America.  Children identified so far are Isaac (probably the eldest), William baptized in 1768, Thomas in 1770, James and Joseph in 1785 and Anne in 1787 (details below).  Mabel died in 1822.

THE CHILDREN OF WILLIAM  (1739 - 1809)

William’s first child, another William, was baptized at Yate on 17 October 1768.

William’s second child, Thomas, was baptized at Yate on 5 November 1770. He emigrated to America.

Another son, Isaac, also apparently emigrated to America.

James and Joseph, perhaps twins, were baptized at Falfield, Thornbury on 19 June 1785. Joseph apparently married a Miss Long.

A daughter, Anne, was baptized at Wickwar on 6 April 1787. On 14 May 1811 she married John Oldland at Wotton-under-Edge. Anne died in 1820, while John lived until 18 June 1861, being buried, like his wife, in Berkeley.

APPENDIX

A later member of the Limbrick family, whom I’ve not yet been able to place, was William, a farmer, who had a son Thomas in about 1829.

On 15 March 1856 at Hawkesbury this Thomas “of Hawkesbury and Wickwar” married Sarah Shipp.  The couple had at least nine children:    Hannah M born in 1858/9, Thomas W in 1860/1, Frederick J in 1862/3, Albert G in 1863/4, Sarah A in 1865/6, Mary E in 1866/7, Fanny Jane in 1868, Bence J in 1869/70 and James P in 1871.  The 1861 census records the family at Chipping Sodbury, and that of 1871 at Hampstead Farm:   Thomas was a “farmer of 226 acres”.  Sarah died on 14 October 1901 and Thomas on 2 June 1902.

Of these children I have details so far only of Fanny Jane.   In 1897 she married Frederick Isaac (the son of Alfred and Hannah née Bennett), by whom she had two children:  Hilda born in 1899 and Alfred in 1902.

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