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Abbott Family
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of Ringstead
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William Abbott, a shoemaker from Ringstead, married Phebe (Phoebe) Wilson in the Parish Church on 21st July 1853. Phoebe had been a servant. Probably working for draper, Margaret Ball who had a draper’s shop in Oundle. She was the younger sister of Hannah Wilson who had married William Weekley Ball and Rebecca who had married John Ball, William’s brother. It was John who was the witness who signed the Marriage Certificate.
The 1861 Census for Ringstead reveals that the couple had married quite late for William is now 40 and Phoebe 35. They have made up for lost time, however, for with them are their children Emma 5, Joseph 4, Elizabeth 3 and John 1. It is three of the sons of John and Joseph whose stories we are telling here. Joseph Abbott married Annie Forscutt on 22nd April 1880. In the 1891 Census he is a grocer and coal dealer, living with Annie in Chapel Road, Ringstead. With them are children, Lilian, 9, Evelyn, 7, Olive 5, and William Henry 1. By 1901 Joseph and Annie are still at 2 Chapel Road with daughters, Lilian 19, Evelyn 17 and Olive 14, who is a pupil teacher. Meanwhile, younger brother John Abbott had married Eliza Manning on 5th May 1884 in Ringstead. They too, quickly produced a family, Eva Emma in 1885, George was born on 12th January 1888, Ted (sometimes Teddie) on 27th August 1890 and Reginald followed. One suspects that Benjamin, born on 22nd March was not expected to live and John and Eliza decided to baptise the other children as well. All were christened together on 10th May 1896. A final daughter, Kathleen was born in 1897 and her father, John was buried the following year, aged just 38. By the 1911 Census we find George (23) and Ted (21) are living with their widowed mother Eliza in a four-roomed house in Allen Yard, Ringstead. In this small cottage and Eliza has 3 children and one grandchild living with her. George is a stitcher and Ted a worker in a shoe factory making military boots and shoes. Meanwhile, in the High Street (with seven rooms) Joseph and Annie Abbott just have their two grown-up daughters at home: Lilian (29) is a manageress of the “Drapery and Boot Department” of the Co-operative Stores and Evelyn is a shop assistant. In this Edwardian period of comparative peace, the military boot and shoe trade was in recession following the temporary boost of the Boer War. As we now know, just a few years later, another more terrible war was to suddenly explode across Europe and the globe. By its conclusion 8½million people had died and some 29 million wounded or missing. It is the men of Ringstead who served in the First World War who we are looking at here. The three cousins, George, Ted and William Henry Abbott are the first names on the Ringstead Roll of Honour. |
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