The Arkesden Branch

 

This is not a large branch, containing only 38 people, but it covers a period when people were starting to be more mobile.  In this case the main Arkesden branch, itself descended from the nearby Littlebury tree, splits into trees covering Wendens Ambo (only a couple of miles away), Melbourne in Cambridgeshire, East Anglia and Edmonton in north London.

Tree 4 now includes the former Twig 5.  This includes several members of the Monk family, not my normal practice, but it helps to illustrate the unusual (for the time) lifestyle of Emily Mary Pluck.

Notes on some individuals

PL No	Surname	Forenames	Notes
0414	HARRIOT	Sarah	The assignment of the death record depends partly on age, which fits well enough with what one would expect in the absence of any other evidence, and the lack of any other candididate. In the 1851 census of Arkesden she is a 'lodger' in the household of William Pluck, almost certainly her son.
	MONK	Elizabeth	I have not found a birth for Elizabeth in the GRO record. The best fit is Eliza Emily Monk, Q1 1867, Saffron Walden 4a 396. This would be almost a year before her parents married. This would also make her 4 rather than 2 at the time of the census. Perhaps her grandfather had only a hazy idea of when she was born?
1748	MONK	Sarah	C1841; C1851;C1861; C1871.
1749	MONK	Stephen	His father was Charles Monk a baker. Stephen is in the 1851 census of Meesden (32, married born Wendon) which is in Hertfordshire but only five or six miles from Arkesden. He is working for William Rolfe, 32, unmarried and born in Arkesden. Mr Rolfe farms 600 acres and employs 20 men and 11 (or possibly 61) boys. Stephen is his bailliff. Also in the household are Letty Monk, servant, married, 54, born Arkesden and her son Charles, 15, born Wendon, also a general servant. Stephen would have been only 16/17 when Charles was born - a youthful indiscretion with an older woman, possibly? If this is the Stephen who married Emily, then his wife would have died some time between 1851 and 1867. The only entry in the death index which comes anywhere near "Letty is Ellice Monk, Q1 1852, Saffron Walden, 4a 232.
0402	NEGUS	Mary	The marriage register recorded that both William and Mary were from Arkesden and both were single. Both made their mark . Witnesses were Nathaniel Haydon (probably the parish clerk), and Richard March (who made his mark). Married, after banns, by the Vicar, Wentworth Bradbury.
0467	PARKER	Philip	C1861: Langley Road Farm, Clavering, age 56, ag lab, born Clavering, with wife Rhoda, two sons aged 16 and 13, and a 2 year old granddaughter
0415	PLUCK	Ann	The marriage register shows that they were both previously unmarried, both from Arkesden, and both made their mark. Witnesses were Martha Dean and James Harvey (parish clerk?). There is a possible death record: Q2 1853: Saffron Walden 4a, 243.
0410	PLUCK	Benjamin	Connects to the Melbourn branch (Tree 17).
1746	PLUCK	Emily Mary	C1851; C1861: shopwoman. In 1867 Emily married Stephen Monk, a shopkeeper, of Wenden Lofts, which is a couple of miles from Arkesden [Emily's mother was a member of the Monk family]. They married on 13 Nov 1867, she was aged 24, he 48. He died a little over a year later and was buried at Debden on 11 Dec 1868. They had at least two children: Elizabeth, who was almost certainly born before their marriage, and Ada who was born approximately nine months after Stephen's death. 1871 census: The widowed Emily and the two children are living with Emily's parents. Also in the 1871 census of Arkesden are the family of David Pluck (almost certainly related to Emily) at 16 Arkesden Street, while at 17 Arkesden Street are Daniel Monk and his family. 1881 census: both of Emily's parents are dead and she appears to be running the grocer's shop by herself: Emily a widow, aged 35, a grocer with four children Elizabeth, 12, born Arkesden; Ada Fanny, 11, born Henham, Peter William, 9, born Henham and Harry, 6, born Thetford (which is in Norfolk and some 50 miles from Arkesden). The father(s) of Peter and Harry are unknown. 1891 census: age 46, widow, shopkeeper. Peter and Harry are still with her and working as agricultural labourers. She has acquired another son, Walter William aged 6. No further records found.
0412	PLUCK	John	No further record has yet been found.
0418	PLUCK	John	Head of Tree 15.
0420	PLUCK	Rhoda	C1861.
0408	PLUCK	Sarah	C1841: age 70, not born in Essex (which contradicts her baptism record and is wrong). John and Sarah had at least ten children, all but one of whom emigrated to Australia. Sarah is Harold Newman's 3xgreat grandmother.
0416	PLUCK	Sarah	There is a possible death record: Q2 1860: Saffron Walden 4a, 234.
0406	PLUCK	Stephen	Head of Tree 8 (Wendens Ambo branch).
0409	PLUCK	Thomas	Thomas, and his wife, Mary Pearce, are at the head of Tree 18.
0407	PLUCK	William	Witnesses to the marriage were John Monk and John Negus. Both surnames occur elsewhere in this tree.
1747	PLUCK	William	1841: carter; C1851: grocer, he has an 80 year old "lodger, Sarah Pluck, who is probably his mother; C1861: grocer; C1871: grocer & baker. William and Mary were married in 1820. The only child that I have found is Emily (PL1746) who was born in 1843. There could be other children.
0464	SANDERS	Thomas	C1841: age 75, ag.lab., not born in Essex
0468	UNWIN	Elizabeth	See Tree 15. Elizabeth was a widow when she married John.