William and he served his time to his Father a
Shoemaker’. In the years that followed, there were no further references
to settlements and such simple entries as ‘Alice d of A Traveller’
were the rule rather than the exception.
In April 1751 were buried ‘A Travellers. Child’ and,
three days later, ‘The Mother of the Child, her name unknown’. In
August 1762, three Irish travellers were buried within the space of a
week, two of them on the same day. A happier occasion in September of the
following year was the marriage of’Richard Hasel Traveller’ to ‘Nuty
Freeman Traveller’. 'A Traveller boy kill’d by a fall from a horse’
was buried in July 1764. The first week of September, 1780 saw the burials
of Jane Payne, an Irish woman, of ‘Thomas Coesar Traveller’ and of
Mary, Thomas Coesar’s wife.
The Revd Thomas Lambard usually managed to discover the names
of travellers, but during his incumbency their numbers began to tail off.
From 1782 to 1799, only two travellers’ children were christened, |
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although eleven travellers were buried; these last
included several who died of 'Fever'
During the remaining years of the old registers, a traveller’s
child was christened in 1800, another was buried in 1801 and a woman
traveller died of ‘Ague & Fever’ in 1808. It could be that by this
time some travellers were, whether willingly or not, away at the wars and
that others had found semi-permanent employment on the land.
Over the whole period, twenty-five or more travellers’
children were christened, one travelling couple were married and at least
forty-six travellers were buried. The great majority of the recorded
instances belong to the fifty years from 1745 to 1795. As not all
travellers who arrived in Ash would have given birth, married or died
within the parish, the register entries can only reflect the fact that in
those days very many of the travelling fraternity must have come that way. |