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How is William Sanders related to us? We inherited an elaborate portfolio of "Specimens of Penmanship" and drawings by William Sanders dated Xmas 1841 from College House, Edmonton. However we still don't know who this William Sanders is... We have found him, age 13 at College House, a boarding school in Edmonton in the 1841 census but no other record of him whatsoever. The portfolio came from Lily Walsh (nee Sanders) who received them from her first cousin once removed Evelyn Elizabeth Sanders... |
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| William
Sanders
We know so little about William. All we know about his birth was that it was that if his schoolmaster got his age correct he was born between 8th. June 1827 and 7th. June 1828 and that if the schoolmaster was right that he was born in the same county, that is William was born in Middlesex. I understand that the age is much more reliable than the "whether born in same county" bit. I know nothing of William after xmas 1841 He is not in the 1881 census, so presumably was dead by then. It would be helpful to find him in a later census (1851, 61 or 71) but he may be dead and I don't know where to look anyway. |
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| James
& Mary Ann Sanders
One set of my great great great grandparents are James Sanders baptised 25 Dec 1785, in Allhallows, Kent and Mary Ann Williams baptized 25 Dec 1805 Newport, Isle of Wight. They were married 14 Jan 1827, Newchurch, Isle of Wight, and they were still on the Isle of Wight in 1841, but in Clapham in 1851 (where they both died). James and Mary-Ann had a son James (1833) whose only child was Evelyn Elizabeth Sanders, and that's why this seemed to be a likely line to follow that William was an uncle to Evelyn Elizabeth; William being a son of James & Mary-Ann. However it seems unlikely that William is their son (and hence my g-g-g-uncle). There is no William Sanders son of James and Mary Ann baptized around that area of the Isle of Wight around that time - but there is an Edward Sanders, son of James and Mary Ann baptized 01 Jul 1827 in Ryde, Isle of Wight who was with his parents at the 1841 and 1851 census and later married Harriet. Anyway the indications from the 1841 census are that William was born in Middlesex anyway. |
Where to next ?
| James (1785)
probably had just one sibling: a brother John who was baptized 06 Oct 1792
at High Halstow, Kent. So John (1792) could be the father of William
(Drawings) - John (1792) would have been about 35 when William (Drawings)
was born, But how to investigate that? Either work forward from possible
marriages of John (1792) or backwards from possible baptisms of William
(Drawings).
a) Possible marriages of John (1792). John would have married between about 1810 (when he was 18) and 1827 (when William was born), possibly in Kent or Middlesex (or somewhere else, even the Isle of Wight), and we don't know anything about his wife (except that she would have given birth to William in 1827/8 - so presumably born between about 1790 and 1810. In the computer records alone there are 10 marriages of John Sa(u)nders in Kent between 1810 and 1827, none anywhere near Hoo but a couple on the Kent side of London which might be possible if John went there for work. Also in the computer records there are a further 61 marriages of John Sa(u)nders in the Greater London and Middlesex area and no way of telling which might be this John (even those with exotic middle names can't be ruled out, because if John was going up in the world - if he was able to spend a fortune on his son's education by 1827 - he might have added an impressive middle name). So altogether not a lot to help us there. b) Possible baptisms of William (Drawings) Sanders. IF we assume John (1792) is William (Drawings)'s father AND IF we assume the 1841 census is perfectly correct then we can tie down the baptism of William (Drawings) Sanders to between June 1827 and June 1828 in Middlesex (or London or Kent), son of John Sanders. There is no entry at all in the IGI computer records matching that (plenty of William Sanders with father John baptized either side of that year and plenty of William Sanders baptized within that year, but with a father other than John). So I'm not sure where to go along that line. |
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Marriage or Death of William (Drawings)
Sanders.
I guess that William (Drawings) died without children and possibly didn't marry (because otherwise his schoolbook might have gone to his widow or children). Given that I don't know whether he married, let alone where, when, to whom and what his occupation and father's name might be, I probably would not recognise his marriage even if I found it. He must have died and there is no obviously matching record for him in the 1881 census, so I guess he died between 1841 and 1881 (or was abroad in 1881?). Again I could look for his death, but without any further details on when and where that may be extremely difficult - we know that a William Sanders (or Saunders) dies sometime between 1841 and 1881, we don't know where or when, there could be thousands, and even if I found it, it may not tell us a thing - just when, where and of what he died. It might just be worth searching wills (but they are only collected centrally from 1858) to see if I can see a William Sanders will where Evelyn Elizabeth is a beneficiary, but that's unlikely because Evelyn was not 21 until 1882 and William was very probably dead before then. |
Baptism of William (Drawings) Sanders.
Without assuming that William (Drawings)
is the son of John (1792), even in the IGI there are just too many William
Sa(u)nders born in Middlesex (or London or Kent) around that time to find
out which one is this one. If his baptism is not in the IGI then I've got
to know which Parish to search, otherwise the search could take forever.
He would have been baptized between about June 1827 and July 1828.
Suppose I went through every one and found all the baptism entries: all
I'd find are the parents' names and since I don't know what I'm looking
for that doesn't help much, it could still be any of them.
| Death of Evelyn Elizabeth Sanders. The admons say that she died intestate with no children or siblings (presumably none alive) and two beneficiaries were Victor Norman Fuller and Ethel Rosetta, wife of George Deal, being (full) cousins once removed. However although investigating that might help me learn more about Evelyn it is extremely unlikely to help with William. For Victor Norman Fuller and Ethel Rosetta Deal to be full first cousins once removed they would be grandchildren of Evelyn's aunts and uncles. We don't know Ethel Rosetta's maiden name but it could be Sanders or Baker (if it were important we could look for the marriage of George Deal starting from 1954 and working backwards, but that could be a very long slog). Evelyn's father was James (1833) and we know many of his great-nieces and great-nephews (excepting children of John William Sanders - we know there were quite a few children, but nothing much more about them). Evelyn's mother was Frances Lavinia Baker born 13 Sept 1841 (I have a copy of her birth certificate), but again without a search I can't find her siblings and that definitely wouldn't help much with William Sanders. |  |
College House School Edmonton
Unfortunately this was a one-off venture by James (Darius) White, perhaps
founded in the late 1830 (using an existing large house) and probably not
lasting beyond the 1870s - when the railway came to Edmonton. So it seems
extremely unlikely that any school records from such a small, old and obscure
school still exist - and if so where would they be. Could try asking
at the London Metropolitan Archives next time I'm there? It sounds
as if they mostly catered for the schooling of children from better off
London families. The £25 a year or so fee was about what a carpenter
might make in a year so where did the money come from?
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William Sanders may not be related. I'm still not convinced that this William must be related - there is no link to Middlesex by 1827/8 - in fact our Sanders were still on the Isle of Wight in the 1841 census. Could it be that in say the 1890s when Evelyn was starting her teaching career she or a friend or relative found a 50 year-old Schoolbook (presumably not worth much at all) with the same name, for instance in a junk shop and bought it for Evelyn (but then why would she bother to pass it on to Lily?)? William Sanders clearly did exist at the school in 1841 - we can see him in the census, so finding out more about this William (Drawings) Sanders might show that he is not related, or most unlikely to be related. |
Look at the Drawings yet again.
We've already looked - they are mostly just copying exercises, probably
including the drawings which may have come from a book, so I really don't
see any clues there - there is nothing of his home or family. Some
of them are now also shown on this page.
Stephen E. Tarling Family History Home Page