Names are in alphabetical order, using birth names. Married names in parenthesis.

BATES

b 20th Sept 1879 Rushden. Baptised 13/2/1888.  d 1949 Northampton. Illegitimate son of Charles(2) Lawrence and Deborah Bates.  Married in 1903 in Higham Ferrers to Lucy Elizabeth Lucas, (bc 1879) daughter of George William Lucas & Priscilla Bird. Father of Herbert Ernest (b 1905, d 1974), Edna Florence (b 1907, d 1973) and Stanley George (b 1916, d 1991).  His early home was in Little Street, Rushden, living with his mother and grandmother. Following his mother’s death in 1883, he was looked after by his grandmother, Eliza Bates, until she too died five years later, he was then taken in to his father’s family and brought up as their son. He is listed in his father’s home, North Cottage, Rushden, without reference to his correct surname in the 1891 census. When old enough he was taken in to his father’s boot and shoe manufacturing business of Knight & Lawrence Ltd, as a ‘clicker’ (cutting out boot and shoe leather), initially working part time whilst attending school. He rose through the ranks to become traveller (salesman) and eventually a director.

Albert Ernest & Lucy Elizabeth on holiday (honeymoon?) in Weston super Mare

His original married home was a modest terraced house, 51 Grove Road, Rushden, initially shared with his father, Charles Lawrence and his wife. Albert and his family moved to his father’s new house, 15 Essex Road, Rushden, following the departure of his father to Australia in 1907, followed by Mrs Lawrence a few years later. A much grander residence! Died of kidney failure in the Northampton Infirmary. He was a keen gardener, a Liberal and a staunch member of the Methodist Church. Notes: Kelly’s Directory shows Charles Lawrence living in Essex Road in 1910. This may be because he was owner of the house and that his wife Elizabeth was still living there. Little Street was originally part of the main road to Bedford. With the coming of the turnpike in the late 18th century, Little Street was bypassed.

Albert Bates in his 30's

            Ann

Daughter of Thomas Bates & Elizabeth Perkins.

b 14/10/1780.

d Feb 1838 in Higham Ferrers.                          

Ann may have married Thomas Bird from Houghton, Cambridgeshire on 2/11/1805 but this is not certain. Was he related to George Lucas’ wife?

            Ann Catharine (Sudlow / Bourgein).

b 1932.

Daughter of Herbert Ernest Bates & Marjorie / Madge Cox.

Married Michael Sudlow 1952.

Mother of Stephen (b May 1955), Jeremy (b 1957) & Emma (bc 1960) (Sudlow).

Educated at initially at Little Chart, moving on to Hothfield School in 1938, Bedford Modern School 1943-45 and Ashford School 1945-49.

Childhood home was The Granary, Little Chart Forstal, Kent.

In 1949 she took a 3 month short course at the Constance Spry School of Floral Art. This led to jobs with various florists in Ashford, Dover and Canterbury. In 1952 she married her first husband, Michael Sudlow and went back to work when he left to do his National Service in Malaya. On his demob they had a new house built in Little Chart and started a family. Ann and Michael divorced c 1980. In 1983 she remarried to Leonard Bourgein, alas, he died in 1994. Now lives in Charing, Kent.

Ann Bates as a little girl - in her teens - and at 70

           Daphne (Dickens/Cooley).

b 21/3/1942 in Northampton.

Daughter of Stanley George Bates & Frances Joan Shoosmith.

Married to (1) Philip George Dickens (b 26/1/1936, d May 2002) on 23/3/1961, divorced 1982. (2) Norman Vale Cooley on 23/8/1982.

Mother of Heather Frances (b 1963), then twins, Fiona Jane Charlotte, & Alisdair Philip (b 1965) (Dickens).

Following the start of her education at small private school, ‘Miss Carter’s’, she went on to Northampton High School, leaving at 16 to take a shorthand & typing course, followed by secretarial work at the firm of solicitors, Shoosmith & Harrison of Northampton, founded by her great grandfather. Two years later we find her at Wood & Co, estate agents and auctioneers, also in Northampton, leaving in 1962.       

The next job was in the wardrobe dept of the Northampton ‘Rep’, part time initially, whilst dealing with a young family, then full time. After a break of four years working in libraries, she went back to the theatre in 1980. In 1981 she took a 12-month stage management training course with the Bristol Old Vic. and, apart from a brief time in a Brighton shop, she remained in theatrical jobs until 2007, when she took a job in a garden centre. This did not last long, the lure was too great and later in 2007 she returned to the theatre! Has done much globetrotting, visiting India, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, The Cook Islands, USA, The Caribbean and Norway.      Childhood homes were in Northampton, then in two Northants villages, Astcote and Scaldwell. Following marriage to Philip Dickens they had three homes in Northampton. Now lives in Bournemouth.

Daphne Bates as a schoolgirl and at about 40

           Deborah

b 1856 Rushden.

d 1st qtr 1883.

Daughter of John Bates & Elizabeth/Eliza Partridge.

Unmarried.

Mother of Albert Ernest Bates (b 1879) (by Charles(2) Lawrence).

Her family home was in Little Street, Rushden, where she brought up Albert until her death in 1883, then her mother Elizabeth/Eliza took over this responsibility until she too died a few years later.

1871, employed as a machinist, presumably sewing shoe uppers, by 1881 she is a “shoe fitter”, living with her widowed mother and her son Albert.

Shown as living in both Higham Hill & Rushden Hill.

NB: Neither Rushden Hill or Higham Hill are shown on modern maps. It is thought the two are one and the same, possibly depending on which way you approach! It is now called Higham Road.

            Denise Rhea/Maria (Collins / Barham).

b 25/4/1944 in Northampton.

Daughter of Stanley George Bates & Frances Joan Shoosmith.

Known as Maria instead of given name Rhea, because of teasing at school!

Married (1) September 1963 to John Collins, (2) Desmond Barham (div 2005).

Mother of Michael Gordon John (b 19/4/1961, father’s name unknown!), Paul Antony (b 1964), Philip Martin (b 1966), & Vickey Denise (b 1968) (Collins).

Keen to join sister Daphne at Miss Carter’s school, she started at age 4 and hated it! She moved on to Northampton High School for Girls, she enjoyed English and sporting activities but little else and left at 15 avoiding exams to take up a course at a secretarial college to learn shorthand and typing.                 

Whilst at college, she became pregnant with her son Michael, who from six months of age was cared for by her mother Joan, allowing her to take a job at The Halifax Building Society.   Her marriage to John Collins was not a happy one and they parted in 1973. Three years at a local auction house was followed by various ‘temping’ jobs until, in 1977, she became secretary to a chartered surveyor at a firm of estate agents and the Sheriff’s Office. By the early 1990s the company was concentrating on Sheriff’s Office work of debt collecting. During the period with this company, she remarried to Desmond Barham but after 14 years they parted and Denise bought her own house in Northampton, living there until 2004 when she moved to Ottery St Mary in Devon, only to return to Northamptonshire in 2006. She describes herself as “Misfit and Teenage OAP!”

Denise Bates

        

            Edna Florence (Gray)

Daughter of Albert Ernest Bates & Lucy Elizabeth Lucas.

b 21/7/1907.

d 1973.

About 1914 the family moved to 15 Essex Road, Rushden, the home of her paternal grandfather, Charles Lawrence, who had emigrated to Australia. Schooling was at Newton Road, Rushden and Wellingborough High School for Girls. After leaving school, it is thought she had a secretarial job, until she married Fred Gray and moved to London, initially to St John’s Wood, then Islington. With a small child to raise, she did not work again until WW2 when she took a secretarial job with a local carpenters and undertakers in Rushden, the family having moved back to Rushden (Wellingborough Road) just before WW2. The garden - Essex Rd and a studio portrait After husband Fred joined the RAF, she and son John moved in with her parents in Essex Road, then to a bungalow in Allen Road, then back to Essex Road.  She loyally followed Fred around in pursuit of his many jobs, living in Kent, Sussex, Devon, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Warwickshire! She was always cheerful and never complained. In her 50s, she revealed a talent for watercolour painting, executing a number of very competent botanical studies very much in the style of Reduté.  In latter years she suffered with cruel arthritis and it was complications arising from use of painkillers over many years that eventually caused her death in 1973 at the Good Hope Hospital, Sutton Coldfield.

Edna with husband Fred Gray

          Eleanor/Ellen

bc 1835.

d 1851 (Buried 29/5/1851), age 16.

Daughter of Joseph Bates & Sarah West.

There is evidence to suggest that she was baptised, possibly because of illness, on 29/9/1850, at about 15 years of age, only 8 mths before her death.

          Eli(1)

bc 1845 in Rushden.

Baptised 28/7/1861 in Rushden.

d 3rd Qtr 1924.

Son of John Bates & Elizabeth/Eliza Partridge.

As a 5 year old scholar in 1851, he is living with the family in Little Street, Rushden.

By 1861 they have moved to Higham (or is it Rushden?) Hill, Rushden. He is now a cordwainer.

Shoemaker in 1871, living with parents, still in Rushden Hill.

Was not apparently baptised until 28/7/1861, when he was about 16.

By the 1871 census, he is married to Eliza (bc 1845 in Wellingborough), with two children, Elizabeth (bc 1868, Rushden) and Alfred (bc 1870, Rushden).

In 1881 he is shown as “married” but with no sign of Eliza, he is living with his daughters Elizabeth (bc 1868) and  Florence (bc 1883 in Rushden) in Rushden Hill, with the trade of shoemaker.

Ten years later he is in Kilsby’s Cottages (which may have been in Rushden / Higham Hill), with his daughter Florence only, presumably his wife Eliza has died.

Cannot find him in 1901 but there is a Ely Bates, born about 1845 in Rushden, living with a widow, Sarah Harris (age 44) and her son William (20) in 13 North Street, Rushden as a boarder and working as a Bill Deliverer. Could this be him?

          Eli(2)

bc 1846 in Sywell.

d 1^st Qtr 1927 in Burton.

Son of William Bates and Mary Bailey.

In 1851 he is living in Sywell with his parents and siblings.

Cannot find him in 1861 or 1871, this may well be because he is in the army, with the 45th Regiment of Foot. If that is the reason he is missing in 1861, he must have joined as a boy soldier. He may have been serving abroad for at least some of the time, for the 45th were stationed in India and elsewhere in the 1860s and 1870s. They were also involved in the brief Abyssinian campaign of 1869-70.

He reappears in 1878 on the birth certificate of his son, Henry William Bates, born 11/9/1878 in the army Hospital at Shorncliff Camp, Folkstone. He is described as a “Private 45th Foot” and the mother is named as “Annie Bates formerly Riddell”. 1881 finds Eli in barracks as a private in Aldershot with The 45th Regiment Sherwood Foresters, as the 45th Regiment of Foot is now renamed. His status is listed as “Unmarried”. By 1891 he has left the army and is now living in 17 Blackpool Street, Burton upon Trent, working as a brewery labourer. He is listed as married and his wife’s name is given as Eliza, born in Clerkenwell, London, about 1863. Henry William Bates is living with them, together with Thomas W (William?) born in Burton aged 5 (which implies that Eli may have left the army about 1885), Albert E (Eli?) aged 4 and Alice aged 2 also born in Burton.

Badge of the 45th Regiment of Foot

In 1901 there are two more children, Elsie, bc 1892 and Arthur bc 1894, both born in Burton. Eliza’s birthplace is now listed as simply “London”.

Looking for Eli’s son Henry William Bates in 1881 was almost a fruitless search. However in that year, there was to be found a William Henry Bates, living with a family named Collins in Etchingham, Sussex, where he is described as “Nephew”, born about 1878 in Shorncliff.

When we learn that James, the head of the Collins family, hails from Hannington, Northamptonshire (about a mile from Eli’s birthplace of Sywell), his wife Hannah was born in Sywell in 1837 and is almost certainly Eli’s sister, it is a reasonable assumption that this is ‘our’ Henry William, his age and birthplace are the same even if the name is not quite correct!.

Searching for Annie Bates / Riddell prior to 1878, drew a blank, as did looking for Eli’s marriage, both before the birth of Henry and after 1881.

It looks as if Annie died, for one Annie Bates, aged 20, died in the 2nd Qtr of 1879 in Farnham, the registration district for the Aldershot Army Camp where Eli was based in 1881, surely no coincidence?    

          Eliza

bc 1846 in Rushden.

d See below.

Daughter of John Bates & Elizabeth/Eliza Partridge.

In 1851 she is a scholar living with the family in Little Street, Rushden.

Still shown as a scholar at age 15 in 1861, which sounds very late to be at school in a working family at this time. By now home was Higham/Rushden Hill.

In 1871 she was putting her education to good use as a closer in the boot and shoe industry! We loose track of her by 1881. Records show an Eliza Bates getting married in December 1870 and also a death in the same name in September 1874. They both cannot be the same person and may not even be ‘our’ Eliza. 

          Elizabeth(1)/Eliza

bc 1813 in Poddington (1861 census) or Hinwick (1881 census).

d 1st Qtr 1888.

Daughter of ? Partridge & ?.

Wife of John Bates (bc 1810 in Odell, Beds, died 1st Qtr 1871).

Mother of John (bc 1833 in Poddington), Hannah (bc 1836 in Poddington), Joseph (bc 1842 in Rushden), Eli (bc 1845 in Rushden), Eliza (bc 1846 in Poddington) and Deborah (b 1856 in Rushden).

In 1851 Eliza and John are living in Little Street, Rushden with their children, except Deborah, who is yet to be born.

By 1861, Deborah is added to the list, and they have moved to Higham Hill, Rushden. Hannah appears to have flown the nest by this time.

Eliza is shown as a widow and head of the family in 1871, John having died early that year. Daughters Eliza and Deborah are still living with her but we now have a grandson, Jabez, son of Joseph Bates and Naomi Cox (b 1/11/1863). It appears that Jabez may not lived long, for he does not show up in later census returns.

In 1881 all Eliza’s children have left home with the exception of Deborah and we now have Deborah’s infant son Albert living with them.

Note: On an 18th century map the spelling of ‘Poddington’ is shown as Puddington. In 19th century census returns the name is variously as “Puddington”, and “Paddington”. One modern transcriber has assumed that it was “Paddington, London”! By the 20th century the spelling is Podington, O and one D. The spelling ‘Poddington’ is used in this text.

          Elizabeth(2)

b 21/4/1780.

Daughter of Thomas Bates & Elizabeth Perkins.

          Elizabeth(3) (Norman)

b 9/1/1808 bapt 9/1/1808.

d poss 1^st Qtr 1877.

Daughter of Richard Bates & Sarah Hey.

Married to Thomas Norman on 29/9/1828.

          Herbert Ernest / ‘HE’        

HE as a baby - by S Powell HE & Madge on their wedding day Madge at 18 b 16/5/1905 at 51 Grove Rd, Rushden. Baptised 11/6/1905. Park Rd Methodist Chapel, Rushden. d 31/1/1974. Eldest son of Albert Ernest Bates & Lucy Elizabeth Lucas.

A successful author Married to Marjorie/Madge Cox, (b 23/5/1909 at 17 North End, Higham Ferrers, daughter of Herbert Cox & Fanny Bailey (William Bates married a Mary Bailey, any connection?) of 102 Harborough Road), Rushden in 1931. Father of Ann Catharine, Judith, Richard Lucas & Jonathan Edward. Educated at Newton Road School Rushden and Kettering Grammar School. HE Bates, prolific and well known author. Awarded CBE in 1973. Home from c 1914 was 15 Essex Road, Rushden. Married home was The Granary, Little Chart Forstal, Kent. A lengthy biography has not been included, as there are many sources of details of his life, including his three volume autobiography The Vanished World, The Blossoming World and The World in Ripeness.

          John(1)

b 28/9/1810 in Odell, Beds. (1851 census shows 1811, in Poddington,) We also have a baptism date of 25/9/1810, both cannot be correct!

d 1st qtr 1871.

Son of Richard Bates & Sarah Hey.

Married in 1832 to Elizabeth/Eliza Partridge (bc 1813 in Poddington (there are also references to Hinwick, Beds), dc 1885).

Father of John (bc 1833 Poddington), Hannah (bc 1836 in Poddington), Joseph (bc 1842 in Rushden), Eli (bc 1846 in Rushden), Eliza (bc 1847 in Rushden) & Deborah (b 1856 in Rushden).

Their early married home was in Poddington, later they moved to Rushden, firstly to High Street, then to Little Street.

Shoemaker in 1851, living in Little Street, Rushden.

Cordwainer (shoemaker) in 1861. Living in Higham Hill, Rushden.

          John(2)

b 1833 Poddington.

d Last Qtr 1895.

Son of John Bates & Elizabeth/Eliza Amelia Partridge.

Shoemaker in 1851, living with parents in Little Street, Rushden.

By 1861 was still with parents but now in Higham Hill. Described as cordwainer (shoemaker).

Shoemaker in 1871, living with parents in Rushden Hill.

By 1881 he is living in Bunkers Hill, Higham Ferrers and is married to Eliza Partridge (bc 1848 in Poddington d 1st Qtr 1900), she was possibly the daughter of Thomas & Elizabeth Partridge.

If that is correct, it is a strange coincidence that his wife’s maiden name is the same as his mother’s (ignoring the ’Amelia’), could he have married a cousin. They are living with their children, Walter (bc 1873 Rushden), Emma (bc 1877 Higham Ferrers), and George (bc 1880 Higham Ferrers). John is still a shoemaker.

Ten years later John is still making shoes but Eliza is having to supplement the family income by becoming a washerwoman. George is still at school, Emily/Emma is now a machinist and Walter a buckmaker.

Notes: Walter’s trade of “buckmaker” does not appear to be connected with the boot and shoe industry. It may be a maker of bodies for farm carts and wagons.
Bunkers Hill is not shown on mdern maps, it is just off the eastern end of Northampton Road, the area adjacent to Westfields Avenue.

            Jonathan Edward     

b 1st Nov 1939. Son of HE Bates & Marjorie/Madge Cox. Childhood home was The Granary, Little Chart Forstal, Kent. From 1947 to 1956 educated at Kings School Canterbury. Married to Jennifer Thompson elder daughter of Sir Edward and Lady Thompson, in 1965. Jonathan Bates Father of Timothy Edward (b 27/6/1967) & Catherine Ann (b 10/8/1971) and grandfather of Olivia and Dorothea. Lives in Kingston upon Thames. His career was in the film industry. Initially as a trainee at Ealing and Elstree Studios under the guidance of Sir Michael Balcon. After two years on the stages, he moved into editing and remained there until the MGM Studios closed in 1959. He then joined Walt Disney Productions at Pinewood Studios, working as an assistant. After two years he became sound editor for the company, working for them for a further two years. Then came a change to being a ‘free lance’ technician working on some eighty feature films, many of them well known classics. He retired in 2003, having just finished work on the latest production of Nicholas Nickleby.

          Joseph(1)

b 1805 (baptised 13/6/1805) in Hinwick, Bedfordshire.

d Jan 1886 (bur 14/1/1886).

Son of Richard Bates & Sarah Hey.

Married to Sarah West 2/4/1829 (bc 1807 in Poddington, d 1886. Lace maker in 1851 & 1861, described as “domestic” in 1871, by the time she is 73, in 1881, there is no occupation shown).

Father of Mathilda, Harriet, Eleanor/Ellen, William (b 1838), Miriam & Mary (bc 1850).

Gamekeeper in Poddington in 1841 & 1851, by 1861 he is farm labourer at Manor Farm, Poddington, 1871 he was woodman on the Orlebar estate at Hinwick Hall, living in Turret Cottage, part of Hinwick House and by 1881 he is cottage gardener in Hinwick House (presumably still in Turret Cottage).

          Joseph(2)

bc 1842 Rushden.

d 1^st Qtr 1912.

Son of John Bates & Elizabeth/Eliza Partridge.

Married (1) Naomi Cox in 4th Qtr 1862 (bc 1839, d 1st Qtr 1856) daughter of John & Lucy Cox of Duck Street, Rushden. (2) Sarah Louisa Curtis in 1870. (bc 1843 in Islip, Northants, daughter of Thomas & Mary Curtis of Islip).

Father of Jabez b 1/11/1863 by Naomi. It would appear that Jabez might have died young for he is not to be found in census returns after 1871. On census day 1871, Jabez was either living with, or visiting, his grandmother Elizabeth Bates widow of John.

Unlike his sister Eliza, at 9 years of age Joseph was already at work as a shoe closer, living in Little St, Rushden. Ten years later in 1861 he had moved with the family to Higham Hill and was described as cordwainer.

By 1871 he has remarried to Sarah Louisa Curtis and is living in 2 Northampton Road, Wellingborough, working as a clicker.

It appears that he and Sarah Louisa were childless.

In 1881 he is still a clicker and has moved to 10 Orchard Terrace, High Street, Wellingborough.

1891 sees a change of occupation, to that of taxidermist. Still living in Orchard Terrace.

He is still a taxidermist ten years later but the address has changed to 19 High Street (this may be still be Orchard Terrace, renumbered). He is self-employed, working at home.

Note: In my childhood, I recall visiting a taxidermist in (High Street?) Higham Ferrers with my mother. Could there have been any connection? It cannot have been Joseph but could it have been a relation?

          Judith/Judy (Wicks)

b 30/11/1933. Daughter of HE Bates & Marjorie/Madge Cox. Married Brian Wicks, a veterinary surgeon, in October 1955. Mother of Andrew (b 1957) & Beverley/Victoria (b 1959). Childhood home was The Granary, Little Chart Forstal. Following marriage she, her husband and family lived in rented accommodation in Chippenham, Wiltshire, until moving into their own house, also in Chippenham in 1959. Schooling started in at Hothfield School, then from 1943-45, Bedford Modern School, then from 1945 to 1950 at Ashford School. On leaving school, she trained and worked for two years as a milliner at Mary Lees, Tunbridge Wells, following which she did a secretarial course in London and worked for Henry Sherek, impresario, until March 1955.

Judith as a teenager and at seventy

Later in 1955 she briefly worked in the Conservative Office in Ashford before getting married and moving to Chippenham, where she worked for a local accountant until becoming pregnant. In addition to family duties, she not only helped her husband in his practice but also found time to become an active member of the Hardenhuish Branch of the WI, becoming its president in 1966.   If this was not enough, in 1969 she started voluntary work for the WRVS, joining the County staff and eventually becoming County Organizer for Wiltshire, a full time job, in effect, the CEO. She retired from the WRVS in 1991. In addition to her WRVS duties, during 1976-9 she took a City & Guilds course in dressmaking and fashion, obtaining a credit. She was the only one to finish the course!

Brian Wicks

          Mary(1)

b 1771 (bapt 7/4/1771).

d ?

Daughter of Thomas Bates & Elizabeth Perkins.

If her parents were married on 25/6/1771, as records seem to show, then this baptism date suggests they beat the starter’s gun!

          Mary(2)

bc 1839 In Sywell.

d ?

Daughter of William(2) & Mary Bailey. Possibly a twin with Martha, also bc 1839.

In 1951 we find her living with her parents and siblings in Sywell.

By 1861 she is in service with an 85 year old widow, Elizabeth Cox, at Pytchley Lodge, who is described as a farmer with 147 acres, employing four men. Also in the household are Mrs Cox’s two single daughters, Elizabeth (60) and Louisa (45). 

          Mary(3)

b 1849.

d Poss March 1910, (if she did not marry).

Daughter of Joseph Bates & Sarah West.

At age 11 she is working a lacemaker and living with her family at Manor Farm, Poddington, after that we loose contact. She has presumably married or died.

          Miriam

b 1841.

d ?

Daughter of Joseph Bates & Sarah West.

In 1851 she is living with her widowed mother and siblings and is employed as a lacemaker.

Cannot find her in 1861 but by 1871 she is in service with Mr & Mrs Nathaniel P Sharman in London Road, Wellingborough, working as a parlourmaid.

She married 2^nd Qtr 1872 but we do not know her husband’s name! 

          Richard(1)

b 1775 (baptised 27/8/1775).

d Oct 1848 (buried 7/10/1848).

Son of Thomas Bates & Elizabeth Perkins.

Married to Sarah Hey 9/6/1800 (bc 1775 in Farndish, buried 24/2/1860).

Father of William (bc 1801), Thomas (bc 1803), Joseph (bc 1805 in Hinwick), Elizabeth, John (bc 1810 in Odell, d 1871) & Richard (bc 1817).

By the 1841 census, Richard is an agricultural labourer. Richard and Sarah are alone, living in Poddington, presumably all the children have flown the nest.

          Richard(2)

b 1817 (baptised 19/10/1817).

d ?

Son of Richard Bates & Sarah Hey.

Can find little about Richard, did he die young?

          Richard Lucas

b 5/7/1937.

Son of H E Bates & Marjorie/Madge Cox.

As with his siblings, his childhood home was with his parents in The Granary.

Married to; (1) Isobel Lawson, (2) Irene Cullen.

Father of Jonathan, Lydia & Justin (Lawson).

Schooling was at King’s School Canterbury. Did not do well academically, preferring to indulge his two passions of rowing and music. His future was not to be in either of those two interests. Instead, following in parental footsteps, he started writing, encouraged by his father. After National Service in the RAF, he had a number of jobs and in 1963, found himself in television as story editor for the successful series The Avengers. Three years later he became a producer for ABC Television. Since then he has worked in almost every film and television studios in the country, producing many television dramas. In 1987 in partnership with Philip Burley he formed his own production company and produced a twenty part series The Darling Buds of May based on his father’s novels about the Larkin family.

Richard Lucas Bates

Association with the actor David Jason in making this series led to Richard and Philip to the making of the long-running series A Touch of Frost. Lives in Laleham, Middlesex. Note: Richard’s father ‘HE’ was informally known as Richard in his youth. This may be the reason for giving his eldest son this name.

Note: We also have record of another Richard Bates, also living in Podington in 1841, also aged 67, agricultural labourer, married to Ann - who was he?

          Stanley George

b 14/6/1916 in Rushden.

d 24/7/1991 (8 months after his wife).

Youngest son of Albert Ernest Bates & Lucy Elizabeth Lucas.

Educated at Newton Road School, Rushden and Kettering Grammar School.

Home until marriage was 15 Essex Road, Rushden.

Married on 15/10/1940 in Northampton, to Frances Joan Shoosmith (b 21/12/1915 in Rushden, d 20/11/1990 Northampton).

Father of Daphne (b 1942) and Denise (b 1944). 

Started working life as self employed painter and decorator. As a ‘Lad’ 4278063 Pte Bates SG Joan & Stanley Stanley Initially after marriage he and his bride lived with Joan’s mother, firstly in Pinewood Road and then Cranmere Avenue, both in Northampton. They may also have lived in Mountfield Road, Spinney Hill, Northampton but dates are unknown. After army service during WW2 he went back to painting & decorating, until 1950, when following the death of Joan’s mother, they moved to Orchard House, Astcote where he followed in his grandfather’s footsteps and had a small holding.

Some six years later they moved to The Old House, Scaldwell and Stanley went into the grocery trade, until the supermarkets killed off small local shops. After which he took a job as a porter at Pitsford Hospital, until Joan became ill in 1962, he then retired to look after her. During the 1970s they moved to Coppice Drive, Northampton.

          Thomas(1)

b ? in Grendon.

d 1795.

Married 25/6/1771 to Elizabeth Perkins of Poddington (b?, bapt 7/10/1774, d 1784. See note under Mary 1).

Father of Mary, Lilian, Richard, Ann, Elizabeth, Lucy & possibly others.

          Thomas(2)

bc 1803 (baptised 23/10/1803).

d poss 2^nd Qtr 1870.

Son of Richard Bates & Sarah Hey.

Married to Betty Arnold on 11/8/1829.

Searching for Thomas proved difficult. There is a Thomas Bates, born 1803 in Poddington, working as an agricultural labourer living in Buckden, Huntingdonshire but his wife is Martha! Of course, Betty may have died and Thomas remarried.

          William(1)

b 1773.

d ?

Son of Thomas Bates & Elizabeth Perkins.

Have no further information.

          William(2)

bc 1801 in Higham Ferrers (baptised 25/10/1801).

d ?

Son of Richard Bates & Sarah Hey.

Married to Mary Bailey on 10/1/1823. (bc 1807 in Rushden). It appears that Mary was only 16 when they married.

Father of William (bc 1823 in Rushden. If this date and that of his mother’s birth are correct, it suggests there was a good reason for Mary marrying so young!), Joseph (bc 1828), John (bc 1831), Samuel (bc 1835), Hannah (bc 1837), Martha (bc 1839), Mary (b 1839) (were Martha and Mary twins?), Sarah (bc 1841), Jonathan (bc 1843) & Eli (2) (bc 1845). Ten in all!

All the children except William were born in Sywell.

Moved to Sywell shortly after marriage. Employed as agricultural labourer, when he wasn’t otherwise engaged!

Like their father all the sons were employed as agricultural labourers apart from Eli, who turned his back on farming and joined the army.

          William(3)

b Sept 1838.

d ?

Son of Joseph Bates & Sarah West.

Can find no details, he may have died in childhood.

Introduction

Lawrence

Lucas