It was in the reign of King George III, when the French Revolution was just a year away, that in 1788 Anselm and Mary Bailey attended the christening at Blaisdon of their first child William Fowle. Though his father was a millwright, when William grew up, he learnt the trade of blacksmithing - he was the first of many family members to do so.

In l8l5 at Flaxley he married Elizabeth Hill who came from Westbury on Severn. She was the youngest of her family and they may have been in straitened circumstances and supported by the Parish, as she was registered as Poor.

After their marriage the couple went to live at Newent, where William had been working and when their first child Charles was born in August 18l6, they were living at Littleford House, Compton Tything. In those days a Tything was a group of about 10 houses who formed a sort of self-contained community which was responsible for the behaviour and actions of each member of that community. Perhaps there was no more work for William so the family moved about ten miles away to Hartpury before the birth of Eliza in 1820 the year that King George III died and whilst they lived there two more children, William and George were born.

Once again the family shifted house, this time about 8 miles to the southwest to Little Dean before May 1827, where Henry was born and the last three children Samuel, Elizabeth and Edwin were christened there between 1829 and 1834 during the years when King George IV died and was succeeded by his brother William IV.

The first record of Baileys in Little Dean is in 1562 when the will of a Thomas Bailey was proved on 15 July. He was a labourer, his wife being Joane and they had 2 daughters Mary and Margaret and 2 sons George and Thomas. As well as legacies of stock and money, Thomas left debts amounting to over four pounds, including two shillings to Edward Afowle for 'techyng'. A John Bailey baptised in 1620, whose father was Richard may have been a relation, as well as the Thomas who was mentioned in 1608 muster with the curious occupation of Radlecaryer. A Rad(d)le is variously a hurdle or lath, part of a weaving loom or a red powder used to mark sheep. This latter may perhaps relate to the powdery red iron ore mined around this time in the Forest of Dean.

It is possible these families may be related to the Wheatenhurst ones, contemporary with our own, but whether they lived at Little Dean prior to the birth of William Fowle's son Henry in 1827 has not been researched.

The house the Baileys are said to have lived in was not in Little Dean but in Temple Lane about 2 miles south west of that village and it was on 'extra parochial land' and may have been built in 17th century. For many centuries almost all the land in England was owned by the Church or some noble lord, but here and there were small pockets that belonged to neither.

It had become the custom that any person who could build the walls of a house and put on the roof in one day between sunset and sunrise would be given the right to occupy the land it stood on. Over the years, groups of people banded together to build houses, one at a time and the house at Little Dean was probably built, bit by bit in this fashion. The walls and later the floor were built of a local dark grey stone, with low ceilings hardly more than five feet high and probably with a roof of thatch. By having the stone slabs cut and stacked on site and bundles of thatch partly assembled, many hands working together made sure the house was finished in time and so another small piece of land came into the possession of the villagers.

The area where the house stood was known to the locals as Blaise Bailey, from the wood of that name, Blaise being a corruption of Blyth, the family who lived at Culver House, near Newnham, who also had woodwardship rights over that piece of forest. When this land was tithed in 1836, William owned and occupied a piece of pasture just over one acre, called Homepiece, which perhaps included the area on which his house stood.

In l836, two years after Edwin's birth, his mother Elizabeth died, when she was only 44 years old and she was buried at St. Ethelberts Church in Little Dean. William was left with 8 children, whose ages ranged from 20 years to young Edwin, scarcely 2, so for a while their care probably fell to the elder daughter, Eliza.

Before William had married again, King William IV's niece Queen Victoria had succeeded to the English throne and she ruled until 1901.

In 1839 Eliza Bailey married William Ferris and as William's second wife Charlotte was a witness to the wedding perhaps she had been looking after the family for some time. It was only a week later, at Charlton Kings, near Cheltenham that Charlotte and William were married and they came back to live at Little Dean. In June 1841 on census night, four of William's boys were either away from home for the night or had left the family to be apprenticed. We know that William then aged 19 was working as a policeman at Hewelsfield near Coleford, but perhaps George, who was a tailor may have gone to London to learn that trade, while Samuel and Henry may have been apprenticed to a blacksmith nearby. Still at home were Charles 20, Elizabeth l2 and Edwin 7, as well as Emmanuel Underwood an agricultural labourer, who may have been a child or relative of Charlotte's, having been born in the same parish, Eastington.

As well in the same house were Elizabeth Ferris and her husband George together with baby George, then 8 months old. They were probably waiting to go into another house in Temple Lane, mentioned in a later census.

By the time of the next census on 31 March 1851, young Edwin was dead and only Samuel was at Little Dean. He was shown as a journeyman blacksmith i.e. one in the last year of his apprenticeship and was most likely the one man working for William.

It may have been sometime before April 1861 that William sold or disposed of Homepiece, because at that date, he and Charlotte were living with or visiting his second son William and his family at Lydney. The only Baileys at Little Dean were Eliza and her husband William Ferris and some of their children and it may be that William was with them when he died at Little Dean in February 1862 and a few days later, he was buried in the graveyard of St. Ethelberts Church.

William had not made a will, so Letters of Administration were granted to Charlotte on 11 September 1862, but all that was mentioned was Effects under two hundred pounds, which went to his second wife - there was no mention of any of his children. So far we have found no more details about Charlotte, nor when or where she died.

Various members of William's son Samuel's family from New Zealand have returned to visit Little Dean over the years and they report that the Bailey house is still standing. About 1966, it was bought by a young Welsh couple Mr and Mrs L Daniels with the intention of enlarging it somewhat and restoring its 17th century features. Later visitors in 1987 mention the restoration of the original hand hewn exposed oak rafters and mantel pieces and a bakers oven for breadmaking. Outside a large circular stone has been lifted into place to complete the cider press as cider making was a big industry in William's day. In the yard is a well 26 feet deep, lined with slabs of hand hewn stone, fitted together without mortar which is unique in that part of England and often inspected by those interested in old wells. The original smithy has had its stone walls heightened and is now a garage for the Daniels' cars.

In May 1993, Ted Bailey and his grand daughter Kerry Ann Munko visited Blaise Bailey and they report there are no less than four houses that locals now call 'Bailey' houses. The most prominent is the Daniel's house, which is said to have been made from 2 smaller houses plus William Fowle's house. The old nail factory is now completely covered by a house belonging to Henry Baker, who gave Ted one of the old moulds, into which red hot iron was poured to make nails in Samuel's time. A beautiful 2 storey stone house, down from Daniel's, belongs now to Bill Davis, while another smaller house, close to the nail factory, is probably nearer to the size of an original house.

Between this house and Davis' is an oak tree, similar to the one under which the Bailey children played in 19th century. The nearby Forest of Dean still contains many similar oak trees, but many thousands have been cut down over the years as fuel for the numerous iron forges around the forest, as well as many large ones which were used in Henry VIII's time, to build fighting ships for the British Navy.

William and Elizabeth's eldest son Charles was a witness at his sister's wedding in l839 and he could only sign his name with a cross. In England, it was not until 1880 that schooling was compulsory, but there were private schools in Newnham as early as 1818, but perhaps William could not afford the fees. The other boys in the family could all read and write, so perhaps they had been educated at a Dames School in Little Dean. There are details on the Benefactions Board at St. Ethelberts Church there of provision made for a 'School Dame for teaching 10 Poor children to read and the sum of four guineas yearly to be paid a guinea quarterly' plus 'books for the use of the school a half guinea'. Other donations listed include money for Sermons on Good Friday and New Years Day with Penny Loaves for the Poor in Church that day, Linen for the Poor, Green Coats for Old Men and Women, and Bibles for the Poor. The latter would have only been for display, as very few of the Poor could even sign their names, let alone read a book.

Charles was still living with his family in 1841, but sometime after that he went to live in Gloucester or Newnham where he may have been a coach driver or owner, his occupation on his marriage to Eliza Hill in l845 being given as 'Omnibus Proprietor'. They were married in the Gloucester City Parish Church of St. Mary de Lode and the register says they both lived in that parish and that Eliza's father Joseph was also an omnibus proprietor. Perhaps Charles owned or drove the local coach between Newnham and Gloucester City, because he and Eliza went back to Newnham where their first child Joseph was born at the end of December. Between 1847 and 1851 Eliza had three more children Ann, Charles and Emma but in 1851 the railway station at Newnham was opened, probably putting the coach service out of business. In the birth records of Fanny Jane in 1855 and Elizabeth in 1859 Charles is shown as a Coal Merchant, but we are not sure whether the family were living at the corner of Station Road and High Street, Newnham , which was later the site of Bailey grocery store. It was not until the births of the twins John and Ellen in l863 that Charles was shown as a Grocer, which in those days meant any kind of a Storekeeper. In The Gloucester Journal for 1873 there is a report about an important Newnham identity who was declared bankrupt and Charles was listed with other tradespeople whose large bills had not been paid.

Charles and Eliza’s daughter Fanny, havinmg spent her life helping in the family grocery store died unmarried and their other four children Charles, Emma, Jane and Ellen all died in infancy.

In the last years of his life Charles and Eliza went to live with his son Joseph at Evesham, where he died in 1893 though he was brought back to Newnham for burial and there Eliza was also buried in 1911.

Charles' eldest son Joseph had married in 1868 and gone to live in Evesham, where he was involved in the timber trade.After his grandfather Charles died in 1893, Josephs' son Joseph Edward came back to Newnham to live, but it was Fanny who ran the shop until she died in 1939. Joseph Edward had a carrying business, but his wife Ellen at times helped in the shop. For a while their son, Joseph Ancell and his wife Phyllis lived over the shop and Phyllis also lent a hand. Joseph Ancell’s sister Gwen also worked in the shop, helping her mother Ellen. In 1946 she married William Stayt and after her parents died, Gwen ran the store until her husband died. She still owns the store and lives above it, but these days it is leased out to other people.

It was a son of Joseph at Evesham, Harry Leonard, who went to USA to work, and when he came back to visit his family there, he met a local girl Emily Hartwood, whose father had emigrated to West Sutton in 1882. When Harry Leonard returned to USA, he courted Emily by mail and they were married at West Sutton in 1906. Emily hated her given name and was always called "Dorothy" by the family. Harry Leonard had a daughter Marion and she married Lawrence Talbot and they had a son Curtis, who is a member of the priesthood of the Church of Latter Day Saints ('Mormons'). Curtis has spent a great amount of time investigating his English ancestors and has passed on all the details to people in Australia and New Zealand, so they could publish them in The Family Saga. Curtis has is a geologist and works for an energy company and he and his wife, Varian live in Worland Wyoming USA.

Charles and Eliza's eldest daughter Ann was 34 when she married Thomas Campbell in Bristol in 1881. They had 14 children and their daughter Norah born in 1883 was very delicate so she went to live with her grandparents in Newnham before going to work in Bristol. When she was 77 years of age she came out to New Zealand to live.

Another daughter Fanny born in 1855 married Austen Joyce in 1907 and in 1924 they also came out to New Zealand with their 2 surviving children. You can read both their stories of life in that country in The Family Saga.

The second son of William Fowle - his namesake William, left home before 1841 when at l9 he was working as a policeman at Hewelsfield near Coleford. It may have been while living there that he met his wife Ann, who came from Redbrook only a couple of miles away. Their first child Eliza was born in 1846 at Lydney and by 1851 William was working as a blacksmith at Newerne near Lydney living with his wife and Eliza and 2 more children Richard and William.

In 1861, when his parents were staying with him, William had a new wife called Francis, who came from Somerset and his nephew Charles, third son of Samuel was there also. William's business must have really prospered for in 1871, 10 years later he was employing 4 men and he had acquired another new wife, Mary Ann from nearby Awre. There were also 3 nieces staying at the house including his sister Eliza's daughter Elizabeth Ferris. William died sometime before 1891, as in the census for that year, his third wife, Mary Ann, was working as a sick nurse, visiting Purlieu Farm in the Lydney area.

William and Elizabeth's third son, George then 27 was recorded in 1851 census as a Master Tailor, employing 2 men and living with his wife Mary at Newerne near Lydney. For a long time that is all that was known of him, but a chance meeting in a Gloucester library between Ann Lloyd of Newnham and one of his descendents, Alex Pope of Cinderford has revealed details of the somewhat tragic story of George's son and namesake.

This son was born on 23 May 1851, only 3 days after George himself was buried. His widow later remarried and George's stepfather was Alfred Pope of Lydney, who was also a Master Tailor.

After his mother's remarriage, George called himself George Bailey Pope and in 1877, he had a job as Chief Clerk with The Western Gazette a paper published in Yeovil, a town about 35 miles south of Bristol. By a coincidence, a George Augustus Pope (no relation) also joined the paper as Chief Printer and the two became close friends. In March 1879, George Bailey Pope married Emma Fisher, whose parents came from Lydney and they were very happy together until about 1881 when Emma, then about 31 died while expecting their first child and this event had a devastating effect on the rest of George's life. George and Emma had lived in Yeovil and their next door neighbour was a Mrs. Charles, who often had as visitors her three nieces Julia, Alice and Kate Kennerell, who came from Hertford, some 20 miles north of London. George became very friendly with the three girls and he introduced George Augustus to them. This led to the latter's marriage in June 1883 with one of the sisters - Alice.

Still unsettled after Emma's death, George resigned from the paper in Yeovil and returned to Lydney, where in 1885 he was given the post of Assistant Overseer to the Lydney Parish. Early in that year, Mrs Charles and George Augustus had come to visit George and his mother Mary and stepfather Alfred and while they were there George had suffered a very strange breakdown. He was still grieving over the loss of Emma and the death of his mother in August of 1885 added to his sorrow. Later on, George renewed his acquaintance with Kate Kennerell, and though he was 35 and she was 13 years younger, they were married in April 1886 and had 2 daughters, Ethel in 1887 and Dorothy in 1890. However serious problems had arisen with the account books of the Parish and the day after his daughter Dorothy's first birthday, George left Lydney, taking the account books with him. Next day, his colleagues in Lydney received letters apologising for the muddle he had got into with his book-keeping and hoping to put things right in due course. He also apologised for their distress he was causing them and his wife and family and though the letters had been posted in London, there was no clue as to the address where he was staying. Despite extensive enquiries, nothing further was ever heard again of George Bailey Pope after May 1, 1894.

Our line of descent passes down through William and Elizabeth's fourth son Henry and the details of his life and family are in the next chapter.

The fifth son, Samuel trained as a blacksmith and by 1851 returned to work for his father at Little Dean probably having just completed his seven year apprenticeship, being recorded as a journeyman blacksmith in the March census. Later that year he married Sarah Kear a school mistress from English Bicknor a small town to the west of Little Dean. Samuel may have spent the next few years working with his father, to complete the extra three years training needed before he could be called a Master Blacksmith as he was in 1861 census, when he and Sarah and their family lived at Hendon Lane, Little Dean. Up to 1859 Samuel and Sarah had seven children, and in 1860 Sarah had twins, Joseph and Mary, but their first daughter Mary died three months later. Prospects in England in 1860s were very poor, so Samuel decided to emigrate to New Zealand, but first he and Sarah had to wait until their next child George was born, in 1852. After his birth, the whole family started packing up to go to New Zealand and the local carpenter, Jacob Rillons made all the chests and cases the family needed, while Samuel made all the nails, locks and hinges. The family still has one of these cases, 120 years later. When everything was packed, the family are said to have gone to stay with Samuel's brother Charles at the Bailey grocery store in Newnham while they were waiting to go to London to join the barque Brothers' Pride. In those days the building that housed the grocery store was three stories high, so there was plenty of room for everyone, but one storey was removed later on, when it became dangerous.

It cost 66 pounds 10 shillings for Samuel and the family to go by ship to New Zealand, and after deducting the immigration subsidy of 24 pounds, the balance was, according to his grand daughter, Gwen Stayt, paid by Charles who felt rather let down when he never heard from Samuel again.

There is quite a mystery about the sale of the nail factory back at Temple Lane by Samuel. Visitors to England in 1978 report that it had been turned to a cosy cottage owned by the Bakers and they were shown the parchment deed dated l863 and signed by Samuel, selling it to their forebears for 45 pounds. It may have been to work at the nail factory that William came to Little Dean before 1827 when Henry was born, as his occupation was shown as Nailer. How Samuel came to own this building is not known, unless William gave the deeds to him. But if Samuel had the proceeds from its sale, why did he need to ask Charles for the passage money?. Perhaps he kept the whole thing secret, so as to have a little nest egg to set himself up in New Zealand after the family arrived in December 1863.

Sadly, the baby of the family was lost on the voyage out to New Zealand on the Brothers' Pride, but by February 1864 there was another Joseph in the family, followed by James, Isabella and Arthur. You can follow the lives of Samuel and Sarah and those of their families in the chapters of The Family Saga. In the Cyclopaedia of New Zealand in entries paid for by each entrant, there is a Canterbury section, in which there are reports of Templeton featuring Samuel as an "Old Colonist", whilst his second son, William is mentioned as a "Farmer".

Back in England, William and Eliza's younger daughter, Elizabeth had left home and by end of March 1851 was working as a servant with Mary Ann and her brother Alfred Barnard in a grocers shop at Newnham (High) Street, Newnham. Could it have been this shop that was bought later on by her brother Charles and became the Bailey grocery store. Elizabeth left the store and married John Jordon who was a Forgeman and they went to live at Lydney where in 1861 their child, Elinor was born. So far, no record of their marriage, nor any other children has been found.

In the genealogy below all places mentioned are, unless otherwise stated, in Gloucestershire, England.

[3/2.105 ] William Fowle BAILEY bp 23 Oct 1788 Blaisdon d 23 Feb bu 27 Feb 1862 Little Dean (LD)

[3.1] Family of Charles BAILEY and Eliza (Hill )

All births at Newnham

[3.2] Family of Eliza (Bailey ) and William FERRIS

All births at Little Dean

[3.3] Family of William BAILEY and Ann (?? )

All births at Lydney

[3.4] Family of George BAILEY and Mary (Saunders)

[3.6] Family of Samuel BAILEY and (Sarah) Ann (Kear)

[3.7] Family of Elizabeth (Bailey) and John JORDON

[3.9] Family of Joseph BAILEY and Elizabeth (Gardiner)

All births at Evesham Worcs

[3.16] Family of John BAILEY and Mary Ann (Walker) 1891 Cs may be incomplete

[3.18] Family of George FERRIS and Emma (??)

[3.19] Family of William FERRIS and Hester (??)

3.55 Albert b Dec 1870 WOS

[3.27] Family of Richard BAILEY and Ellen (??)

Living Berkeley 1881 Census

[3.29.2] Family of George Bailey POPE and Martha Kate (Kennerall)

All births at Lydney

[3.47] Family of Joseph Edward BAILEY and Ellen (Chapman)

All births at Newnham

[3.49] Family of Harry Leonard BAILEY and Emily Kate (Harwood)

[3.68] Family of Joseph Ancell BAILEY and Phyllis Ruth (Vearncombe)

[3.70] Family of Harold Frederick BAILEY and Marjorie Louise (Foss)

Al births at Mass

[3.72] Family of Marion Evelyn (Bailey) and Lawrence Ernest TALBOT

All births at Waltham Mass

[3.73] Family of Robin BAILEY and (??)

[3.74] Family of Glenys (Bailey) and Ben PATTMAN

[3.79] Family of Curtis Lawrence TALBOT and Varian (Despain)

[3.80] Family of Glen Bailey TALBOT and Jan (Thall)

[3/2.105.1] Elizabeth (Hill)

[3/2.105.2] Charlotte (Underwood)

[3.2] William FERRIS

Ann Lloyd of Newnham has supplied details of this family

[3.6] (Sarah) Ann (Kear)

Father John KEAR Occ Labourer

[3.9] Elizabeth (Gardiner)

Father John GARDINER

Mother Patience (White)

Curtis Talbot has further details of this family

[3.29] Emma (Fisher)

Father Thomas FISHER Mother Elizabeth (??)

[3.49] Emily Kate (Harwood)

Curtis Talbot has further details of this family

[3.71] Ione Mary (Miles) Previous Marriage 8 June 1935 to William E Graham d c 1950

[3.72] Lawrence Ernest TALBOT

Father Louis Benjamin TALBOT Occ Watchmaker

PGF Louis Benjamin TALBOT II PGM Josephine Augusta (Ogden)

Mother Nettie Louise (Sweetsir)

MGF Seth F SWEETSIR MGM Marcia Grosvenor (Cobb)

Curtis Talbot has further details of this family

[3.79] Varian (Despain)

Father Gordon DESPAIN

PGF Robert Henry DESPAIN m Salt Lake City Utah PGM Julia (Thomas)

m Salt Lake City Utah

Mother Lillian (Gardner)

MGF Frank Richards GARDNER m Salt Lake City Utah MGM Leone Angela (Rich)

Curtis Talbot has further details of this family

Revised October 2001