Box People and Places
Latest Issue 31 Spring 2021 
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    • Celebrity Visits
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Box’s Greater Little Family
Janet Gale
August 2019


When Janet read Annette Grindle’s article about Louise Jane Little of Charlotte Cottage, it recalled her own research into the Little ancestors, part of her wider Marsh extended ancestors’ family, one of whom Richard Marsh was Box’s parish clerk in 1601.
​Janet wrote
:
​Tracing the Little Family
At first, I thought that Margaret Little mentioned in Annette’s story was the daughter of James Little and his wife Hester. But no. My records tell me she was baptised on 21 January 1776 but not in Box, in Corsham, and moved to Box later on. There are a lot of Littles around the area and she may be a sister of the James Little baptised 22 November 1767, son of Moses and Ann Little. Both Margaret and her husband John Marsh were very active in the Baptist Church, Hullavington especially John.
 
Margaret Little was born on the 1 January 1776 and baptised on the 21 January at Corsham, the daughter of James and Hester Little. She may have been their first child depending on where they were married and that I could not establish. That is not a problem as Hullavington and a few other parishes are mainly non-conformist and parish records are not always inclusive. She married John Marsh of Hullavington, Gentleman, in 1806, both signed, and the two witnesses were Edward Mullins, brother of Box parish clerk, and Francis Little. John was 44 and she was 30. John Marsh was the eldest son of Aaron Marsh of Hullavington, yeoman, and Rhoda Watts, born in Marshfield where his father was working prior to moving back to The Cottage, Hullavington. John and Margaret moved into The Cottage on their marriage as his mother had died recently and his father had retired and went to live in Colhern (Colerne) with one of his daughters who married there. As with the rest of this family, he and his wife were buried in Hullavington and have table-top tombs there.
 
The family had copyhold leases to The Cottage on the Street and some 48 acres of land outside the village since about 1582 when a Thomas Marsh arrived in the village from Biddestone and married Margery Punter about 1581.  The Cottage had been owned by Joseph Punter de la Forge before Thomas Marsh.  As Thomas was a blacksmith, it was obvious the connection and Margery was probably his daughter.
 
John Marsh’s will was dated 30 June 1830 and he died 28 September 1830 aged 68, leaving £800 pounds to Margaret (£84,000 in today’s values). The money was in cash and mainly bonds. As The Cottage was leasehold from Eton College, it was not mentioned in the will. He only had the lands for life and his wife could inherit it as dower land only if she did not violate the chastity of her widowhood by remarrying or having illegitimate offspring. They did not have any children.
 
Margaret Marsh (nee Little)
Margaret was a strange lady! John Marsh was wealthy and left her very well off. She proceeded to put a tenant in The Cottage and moved into another house in the village possibly on the other side of Frog Lane although hard to work out from the 1841 census. The tenant was Joseph Taylor of Hullavington, yeoman, who also attended the Baptist Chapel, Hullavington, where both Margaret and John went. Before the chapel was built, they are registered as receiving a licence to hold meetings in their home. This was required by the government until some date in the 1820s, when it became legal for non-conformists to build their own churches.
 
Joseph Taylor’s wife Sarah died on 20 November 1835 and Margaret Marsh married the widower Joseph in March 1836, four months later and moved back into The Cottage. However, Joseph himself died on 13 May 1839, aged 65 years, so she was once again a widow within nine years. That was when she tried to sell The Cottage to a relative of hers, Thomas Little of Biddestone, where a lot of Littles have lived. This was against the manorial rules and my three-times great grandfather Aaron, her brother-in-law, heard of it. He was the next to take under the Court Roll after his brother John’s death and was mayor of Thornbury, Gloucestershire at that time. So, he took action to stop her and she had to move out again as she had breached the Dower Rules of Eton College by remarrying or having any illegitimate offspring. It was acceptable if she was the wife of the tenant but not otherwise. She died on 31 May 1846 aged 70 years in another cottage in the village where she was living with a servant.
 
Mystery
The saga goes on! On my visits to the churchyard, I have photographed the large table top grave of John Marsh and can see distinctly Margaret wife of John Marsh who died 30 May 1846 aged 70 years. That date is incorrect as Margaret died on 31 May 1846 which was recorded on her Death Certificate as Widow dying of Apoplexy survived ¾ hour. By then, she was actually Margaret Taylor so who authorized the tombstone? Her Death Certificate was not issued until 6 September 1847, over a year later, in Malmesbury by the Coroner of Chippenham and unfortunately no coroner’s reports are available for that period.
 
On my first visit to the churchyard many years ago there was a small headstone nearby dedicated to Margaret Taylor with the date 1847. Since then, I have never found this second headstone – was it removed or is it currently under the grass? The burial records of the churchyard are non-existent and nobody knows where anyone is. The churchyard was closed off in 1888 so, less you have a readable headstone, it is just bad luck!
​
Janet is working on a book about her ancestors, most of whom lived in North Wiltshire. She has lived in Australia for many years and makes occasional visits to UK to further her research. She has had a number of articles published by the Wiltshire Family History  Society and recently she was awarded  an honorary doctorate degree by Macquarie University, Sydney, for her efforts to promote ancient history studies there. We hope to carry a review of her book in due course.
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