The Descendants of
Thomas and Elizabeth Hickmott
of Lamberhurst

(last updated 13 October 2007)

lamberhurst churchThomas Hickmott (1769-1854) and Elizabeth Wibley (1766-1837) were married at St Mary's Church of England (pictured on the left) at Lamberhurst in Kent on 2 May 1788. The registration of marriage shows that Thomas was 'of this parish' and that he was both a minor and a batchelor. Elizabeth, the daughter of David and Elizabeth W(h)ibley, was a spinster from the parish of Frant. The couple were married by William Liptrott by licence and with the consent of Thomas' parents. They signed the certificate with a 'mark' and in the presence of Robert Figg and Samuel Martin.

The local parish registers show that Thomas and Elizabeth had twelve children all of whom were baptised at Lamberhurst. We know that two of these, Susannah (1788-1805) and Thomas (1791-1794) died when they were young. Two others, Thomas (1794-1871) and Samuel (1799-c1872), were transported to Australia. The remainder appear to have stayed in England although some of their descendants later left the country for other lands. Below are summaries of what we know to date about Thomas and Elizabeth's other eight children (the details supporting these narratives are shown on my Rootsweb site, the Hickmott Family).

It seems that Thomas and Elizabeth lived all their lives at Lamberhurst although it is possible that they spent some of their time, and may even have been buried, at the nearby village of Staplehurst (where some of their children were married). The Staplehurst parish registers show that a Thomas Hickmott, aged 83 years, was buried there on 25 January 1853. It is noted that he had been in the Coxheath Union House. According to Jean Winning (who has a copy of his death certificate), Thomas died at Upper Stone Street in West Maidstone from accidently choking while eating. The parish registers also show that an Elizabeth Hickmott, aged 61 years, was buried at Staplehurst on 8 July 1842.

The 1841 census shows a Thomas Hickmott, a 70 year-old agricultural labourer, living at 'Furr Fritt' Cottage in Lamberhurst (note that the 1841 census also shows a Thomas Hickmott (a 70 year-old agricultural labourer) and Elizabeth Hickmott (60) living in the village of Staplehurst). In 1851, the widowed Thomas, aged 83, was living on Jarrett's Road in Lamberhurst with his son Charles and his wife Eliza and family.

1. Edward Hickmott (1790-) and Elizabeth (1812-)

Edward may have been a witness at his younger brother Samuel Hickmott's marriage to Harriet Hartridge in Staplehurst in Kent on 25 January 1819. Data from the censuses indicates that he was married (possibly twice) and had at least two children: Theodore C. Hickmott (born in Staplehurst in 1844) and Emma Hickmott (born in Clapham in Surrey in 1854). It also shows that he was at different times a dairyman and a farmer, and that he and his family lived first in Staplehurst Kent and later in Clapham in Surrey. He had at least one grandchild, Charles Edward A. Hickmott, the son of Theodore and his wife Mary Ann (who was born in Soho in London). Theodore died in 1879. In 1901 his widow Mary and son Charles were living and working in London.

2. Mary Hickmott (1794-c1854) and George Wheeler (c1790-<1851)

The Lamberhurst parish records show that a Mary Hickmott gave birth to a first son, James Hickmott, at Lamberhurst in 1809 and a second son, Thomas Hickmott, at Lamberhurst in 1813. There was no indication of the father in either case. Although we have not been able to confirm this Mary is Thomas and Elizabeth's daughter, it does seem possible given the absence of any other obvious contenders and in light of the fact Mary doesn't seem to have married until 1814 (the registers show that a Mary Hickmott married George Wheeler, an agricultural labourer, at Lamberhurst on 2 June 1814). The 1841 census shows George (60) and Mary Wheeler (50) living at Windmill Field at Tunbridge Wells (next door to a James and Mary Goldsmith and their daughter). By the time of the 1851 census George had died. Mary, then a 56 year-old widow and laundress who was born at Lamberhurst,was still living at Tunbridge Wells with a 43 year-old lodger, Thomas White, from Wiltshire. The Catherine House Records show a Mary Ann Wheeler died in the Tonbridge district of Kent in the January quarter of 1854 (volume 2a, page 234).

What of James and Thomas? It is possible, although not yet proven, that James emigrated to Australia. Marilyn Mason tells us that she descends from a James Hickmott who was born in Lamberhurst in around 1809 and married Sarah Clark(e) there in 1835 before, with their son Thomas, emigrating to Australia on the emigrant ship the MAITLAND (this sailed from Gravesend and arrived at Sydney Cove on 6 November 1838). Marilyn continues that because some of its passengers had scarlet and typhoid fever, the ship was immediately placed into quarantine at Spring Cove where it remained for a further 23 days. After their release, the family eventually moved to Portland Head and then to Sackville Reach on the Hawkesbury River where James worked as an agricultural labourer. While there they had two further children: Mary Ann (born in 1846) and James (1848). They later moved to Burrendong where James and Sarah died and were buried in 1881 and 1886 respectively (note that the Lamberhurst parish records contain no mention of James and Sarah's marriage although they do indicate that banns were issued for the marriage of a James Hickmott and Sarah Clifton (a widow) at Lamberhurst in 1838).

3. William Hickmott (1796-1860) and Hannah Wingate (1802-1861)

all saints church maidstoneWilliam was born at Lamberhurst in 1796. He married Hannah Wingate at the All Saints Church at Maidstone (pictured on the left) on 15 March 1821. The census data indicates that he and Hannah had at least six children: Charles Thomas (born at Lamberhurst in 1823), Harriet Hannah (Chatham, 1829), William Richard (Chatham, 1833), Karen (Hendon, 1834), Alfred (Staplehurst, 1836) and Hannah (Staplehurst, 1838). William and Hannah appear to have spent their later lives at Maidstone, William dying there in 1860 and Hannah a year later. As for their children, we have discovered nothing to date about William Richard, Karen or Hannah beyond their dates and places of baptism. The three members of William and Hannah's family who have figured in the various censuses are Charles Thomas, Harriet Hannah and Alfred Hickmott as follows:

3.1 Charles Thomas Hickmott (1823-1885)

Charles was born in Lamberhurst in 1823. He married Hannah Lawrence Jupe (1828-1906) in Maidstone in 1846. Hannah had been born in Maidstone in around 1828. In his family tree on the MyTree.com website, Maxwell Coughlan states that Hannah's parents were Thomas deJupe and Hannah Lawrence. He further says that the de Jupes were originally French Huguenots (and silk weavers and paper makers) who came to England from La Rochelle in France sometime between 1625 and 1650. Charles Thomas and Hannah had at least six children: Charles William (born in 1847), Hannah Lydia (1849), Annie (1851), Elizabeth Emma (1859), Laura Lily (1864) and Alice Maud (1864) where all were born in Maidstone. Like Charles' parents, Charles Thomas and Hannah Lawrence Hickmott lived most of their lives in Maidstone, Charles dying there in 1885 and Hannah in 1906.

We know from the various censuses that Charles worked first as an agricultural labourer and then as a 'beer retailer' and publican in Maidstone. The 1861 census has him living at 5 Waterloo Lane in Maidstone with his wife Hannah (who was said to be a worker at the paper mill), son Charles and daughters Hannah, Ann and Elizabeth. In later years he and Hannah and their family resided at their Maidstone pub, 'The Hammer in Hand'.

In 1870 the couple celebrated the wedding, in Maidstone, of their eldest son Charles William Hickmott to Anne Gammon. Anne worked at the local paper works and was the daughter of John Gammon a former soldier. She had been born in India while John was serving there in the British Army (to distinguish her from Indian nationals her name was consequently annotated in the English censuses with the words 'British Subject'). At the time of his marriage Charles William was working as an attendant at the Kent County Lunatic Asylum at Maidstone. A few years later Charles and Hannah's eldest daughter Hannah Lydia Hickmott married George Weeden (a paper maker who came from Loose in Kent). The 1881 census shows both new families living in Maidstone. By this stage Hannah and George had three children: Beatrice, Frederick and Alfred. Charles William and Anne had five daughters: Lilly, Bertha, Grace, Annie, Laura and Alice. The number of Charles and Hannah's grandchildren was growing quickly.

Charles Thomas Hickmott died at Maidstone on 20 January 1885. His widow Hannah lived initially on Upper Stone Street in Maidstone with two of her unmarried daughters, Elizabeth and Laura (then working as a dress maker). By the turn of the century Hannah, aged 73 and living on her own means, was at 12 Havock Lane in Maidstone. This was the home of her son-in-law Philip Lewis (who was born at Lylbury in Shropshire) and had married Laura Lilian Hickmott in the late 1880s. Also present was another of Hannah's daughters, Elizabeth E. Hickmott, who was then 42 years old and also living on her own means. Charles and Hannah's oldest daughter Annie Hickmott had, during this time, married an Irishman, Job Mason, and seems to have gone to live in Ireland (where their daughter Keziah Mason was born in 1884).

In 1901 Hannah's daughter Hannah Lydia Weeden was living at 96 Union Street Maidstone with her husband George and two sons Ernest (a paper maker), and Clifton (apprentice paper maker). Her eldest son, Charles William Hickmott, was dead and his widowed wife, Ann, was now the head of the household at 175 Boxley Road Maidstone. With her were eight of her children: Lily (a paper maker at Springfield Mill), Grace (dressmaker), Laura (a paper hand at Springfield Mill), Annie (23, dressmaker), Alice (20, paper hand Springfield Mill), Maria (an upholsterer's apprentice), Albert (an invalid) and Mabel (a scholar).

3.2 Harriet Hannah Hickmott (1829-)

Harriet was born at Chatham in Kent in around 1829. She married Jesse Beecher at Maidstone in November 1846. The 1851 census shows Jesse (a 26 year-old wheelwright journeyman) living on Pizen Well Road in Wateringbury (near Yalding) in Kent with Harriet (23 and born at Chatham) and their three children: Jesse (3), Theodore (2) and Emily (1). According to one of their great grandsons, Fred Beecher, Jesse and his eldest son Jesse W. emigrated to New York in the United States in November 1857. Harriet and their surviving six children followed them out in June 1859. The family lived at Sherman, Chatuaqua County in New York where they had three more children: Henry Ward, Richard Edwin and Mary Hannah ('Molly') Beecher. Fred continues that 'Jesse Beecher died on 24 April 1865 of typhoid fever in Wilmington North Carolina. He was at the time a private soldier in the Union Army. Harriet Hannah remarried in around 1870. She died at Neodesha, Wilson County in Kansas sometime after 1875'. He adds that Harriet's second husband was C. S. Bradburn who was born in Canada in 1833. 'When she married him the US Government took away her widow's pension, including her farm'.

Details of Jesse and Harriet's family can be obtained from the Rootsweb sites maintained by Fred Beecher ('fbeecher' last updated 1 November 2001) and Allen Hume ('Allen Hume's Reunion File' last updated 1 Mar 2005).

3.3 Alfred Hickmott (1836-)

Alfred was born at Staplehurst in 1836. The 1861 census shows him working as a tea dealer and book seller and living at Mill Street in Maidstone with his wife Elizabeth (29) and children Henry (2), Albert (1) and Alfred (2m). Elizabeth and the boys were all born at Maidstone. A draper in 1871, Alfred later worked as a bookseller and credit dealer before becoming an 'election agent' sometime before the 1891 census. He and Elizabeth continued to live in Maidstone and eventually had nine children there, in addition to those earlier mentioned: Arthur (born in 1862), Edwin (1863), Lydia (1866), William T. (1867), Elizabeth (1869) and Joseph (1872). All the children were born at Maidstone except Elizabeth who was born at Seal, in Kent.

4. John Hickmott (1797-) and Patience Price (c1797-)

John Hickmott was born in Lamberhurst in 1797 and married Patience Price in Staplehurst in 1819. Both were said in the parish registers to be 'of this parish'. The marriage was witnessed by Harriet Hickmott (most likely his sister although it could also have been the wife of his younger brother Samuel, Harriet Hartridge, who married Samuel in Staplehurst earlier in the same year).

The 1841 census has a John Hickmott, aged 50 and born in Kent, in the 'General Penitentiary' in Westminster in Middlesex. Another John Hickmott, a 42 year-old agricultural labourer, was working on Bletchenden Farm at Headcorn. It seems that John died sometime before 1851 for the census for that year shows Patience (a 54 year-old widow who was born at Marden) living in the Frith Building at Eltham in Kent. Also present were Charlotte (28), Henry (26, labourer) and Caroline (24) where all the children were born at Lamberhurst.

The Catherine House indices show that a 'Patient' Hickmott was married in the October quarter of 1855 in the Lewisham registration district of Greater London in Kent (vol. 1d, page 900). Unfortunately, we don't know who to. Jim Baker, from Michigan in the United States, tells us that Patience had at least two brothers: Isaac and Joseph Price. 'Isaac's family moved to the Dunkirk area of Kent, and...Joseph moved to the Eynsford area'. Details of the Price families are contained on his Rootsweb site The Ancestors and Family of William Bernard Robinson (12 November 2006).

What of John and Patience's children? We are not sure what happened to Henry. The censuses and information provided by one of their descendants, Pam Kemp, and her husband Ken, indicate that Caroline married Joseph White, a carman from Eltham, in 1851 and lived in Lee in Kent until her death in 1899. Caroline's sister, Charlotte, married Mark James Evenden at East Farleigh in Kent in 1852. They had two children: Harriet Elizabeth Evenden who married a soldier, William Darby, at Lee in 1878, and John Joseph Evenden who married Margaret Druscilla Sadler in London in 1885. These two marriages produced nine grandchildren we know of: Ethel, William and Frederick Darby, and Charlotte, Julia, Margaret, John, Percy and Alice Evenden.

5. Elizabeth Hickmott (1801-) and Samuel Gates (1796-bef 1851)

Elizabeth Hickmott was born in Lamberhurst in 1801. The parish registers show that she married Samuel Gates there on 1 October 1832. according to Dawn Miles, the 1851 census shows Elizabeth, then aged 55, as a widow and living in Lamberhurst.

6. Charles Hickmott (1802-) and Eliza Rochester (1804-)

Charles was born in Lamberhurst in 1802 and married Eliza Rochester from Rotherfield at Lamberhurst on 27 August 1827. The birth places of their children show that they lived initially at Lamberhurst before moving to Brenchley in around 1840. The couple had at least six children: George Hickmott (born in 1831) who we think married Mary Ann Butcher in 1852; John Hickmott (1833), Frances Hickmott (1836), Mary Ann Hickmott (1838), Sophia Hickmott (1841) who, as described below, married William Pearman; and Elizabeth Hickmott (1843).

Sophia Hickmott (1841- ) and William Pearman (1836- )

Born at Brenchley in 1841, Sophia lived initially with her parents before working as a servant in Tunbridge Wells. On 19 July 1865, she married William Pearman at the St Mary's parish church at Romney Marsh in Kent. According to her great, great granddaughter, Vyv Mathews William was born at Brockhurst in Hampshire. He joined the Royal Navy in 1856 and the Coast Guard in 1864.

After their marriage William and Sophia lived initially at the Coast Guard station at Folkestone where their first two children, William and Alfred Ernest Pearman were born. William left the Coastguard sometime between 1871 and 1881 to become a green grocer. In 1881 William and Sophia were living at 29 Saxton Steret in New Brompton in Kent with four of their children: Emily Elizabeth, George Henry, John F. and Frederick James Pearman where all were born at New Brompton. The couple's two eldest boys, William and Alfred, were at school in Greenwhich. The 1891 census has the family at 'Hampshire House' on Gillingham Road in Gillingham in Kent. William and Sophia were still there in 1901 with three of their unmarried children - Frederick, Arthur Ernest and Florence Alice - and their married daughter Emily Elizabeth Avent and her son James George.

Vyv continues that William and Sophia had altogether eight children between 1868 and 1885: William C. Pearman (1868- ), Alfred Ernest Pearman (1870-1954), George Henry Pearman (1875- ), Emily Elizabeth Pearman (1871-1945), John F. Pearman (1877-1953); Frederick James Pearman (1880-1956), Arthur Edward Pearman (1883-1953) and Florence Alice Pearman (1885-1969). Vyv and her mother, Joan Pearman, have been able to find out a little more about William, Alfred, George, Emily and Arthur as follows:

William C. Pearman

Born at Dover in around 1868, William was with his parents at Folkestone in 1871 and at school in Greenwhich in 1881. I couldn't find him in 1891. The 1901 census shows William, aged 33 and single, as a Petty Officer First Class on HMS TYNE stationed at Malta.

Alfred Ernest Pearman (1870-1954) and Mary ('Minnie') Louise Parker

Born at Dover in around 1870, Alfred was with his parents at Folkestone in 1871 and at school in Greenwhich in 1881. His great granddaughter, Vyv Mathews, tells us that Alfred served in the Royal Navy between 11 May 1885 and January 1922 when 'he was placed on the retired list as medically unfit', and in HM Coastguard from 1894. The Catherine House records show that Alfred Ernest Pearman and Minnie Louise Parker, from Chatham in Kent, were married in the Medway district of Kent in the October quarter of 1894 (vol 2a, page 1023). While I could not find him in the 1891 census, the 1901 census shows Alfred (a 33 year-old boatman for HM Coastguard) living at 2 Coastguard Cottage at Westgate-on-Sea in Kent. Also present were his wife Minnie and their three children: Ernest, Bertie and Mabel Pearman. Ernest and Bertie were born at Reculver in Kent while Mabel was born at Westgate. Ernest Pearman married Lilian Tucker and had three children. Bertie John Pearman married Amelia Bertha Tucker at Gillingham in Kent in 1920 and had two children. Mabel Alice Pearman married Horace Goodchild and had three children. And Ada Florence Pearman married Charles Smith and had five children.

George Henry Pearman

Born in New Brompton in Kent in 1875, George married Rose Mary Beard in the Medway district of Kent in the January quarter of 1898 (vol 2a, page 786). The 1901 census has George (a 26 year-old greengrocer) living at 65 Duncan Road Gillingham with his wife Rose M. (26 and born at Gillingham), daughters Winifred M (2, Gillingham) and Mabel F. (1, Gillingham) and George's single sister-in-law Eliza Beard (28, Gillingham).

Emily Elizabeth Pearman

Born in Dover in 1871, Emily was with her parents in 1881. The Catherine House records show she married James George Avent in the Medway district of Kent in the July quarter of 1895 (vol. 2a, page 1060). At the time of the 1901 census she and her son James G. Avent (4) were at the house of Emily's parents in Gillingham.

Arthur Edward Pearman

Born in New Brompton in 1883, Arthur was with his parents in 1891 and 1901. According to Vyv Mathews, , he married Daisy Hockley and had seven children: Arthur E. (1913-1979), George W., Leonard E., Leslie, Joyce B., Ronald E. and Daisy. The Catherine House Records show a Daisy Knight Hockley was married in the Medway district of Kent in the July quarter of 1906 (vol. 2a, page 1476).

Amber Heath nee Pearman, who descends from Frederick James Pearman, tells us that Fred married Estella Margaret Alice Elven at the Church of St Barnabas in Gillingham in Kent on 26 December 1901. The couple's wedding certificate indicates that Fred (and his father) were printers by trade and that the marriage was witnessed by his younger sister, Florence Pearman. A copy of the wedding certificate plus details of Fred and Estella's family can be viewed on the Heath Family Tree located on the Ancestry.com website.

pearson family in waAmber continues that Fred and Estella and their three youngest sons - Frederick Elvin Wreham (1902-76), Ivan Arthur (1904-66) and George Alfred (1906- ) - emigrated to Western Australia in around 1910. They had three more boys in Perth: Maurice Charles (1911-1920), Horace James (1915-1951) and Vernon Stewart Ottway (1919- ). The photo on the left shows the family outside their home at East Guildford in Perth in 1914 (from L-R: George, Ivan, Estella, Frederick Jr and Frederick Sr holding Maurice).

A year after this photo was taken, Frederick, like so many others who had come from England, enlisted in the Ist AIF. His records in the Australian War Memorial show that he was then working as a boiler maker's assistant, enlisted on 4 February 1916, and was allocated to the Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC) Reinforcements. He departed Fremantle on the HMAT A8 Argyllshire on 9 November 1916 and arrived at Devonport in England on 10 January 1917. He was posted to the 3rd Australian General Hospital in Brighton where, six months later, he was diagnosed with serious heart disease and invalided out of the Army. He returned to Australia on the Hospital Ship Karoola on 3 July 1917 and died in the 8th Australian General Hospital in Fremantle on 26 February 1919. Amber tells us that sadly, Fred's wife Estella died later the same year from Spanish influenza and their young son Maurice died in 1920 from Enteric/Typhoid Fever.

Hickmott family Rootsweb site Hickmotts of Lamberhurst
Samuel Hickmott Henry Hickmott

Image sources:
St Mary Church of England, Lamberhurst, private collection
'All Saints Church, Maidstone c1862' from the Francis Frith Collection"
Frederick James and Estella Pearman and family, courtesy of Amber Heath.

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