My interest is in the Elizabeth Burn who baptized her base born son Joseph Burn in Mary Tavy in 1806. We have long known that she is the mother of our progenitor but I have had some doubts that she is actually the Elizabeth Burn daughter of Roger and Susanna Bromblecombe Burn born in 1789 in Mary Tavy. Records have pointed this direction. The sister of this Elizabeth Burn, for example, is the informant for the death certificate of Joseph Burn. My central doubt has been around names since neither Joseph nor his children would reference either Roger or Susanna in the naming of any of their children– not necessary of course but remarkable nonetheless.
I am pleased to report that Elizabeth is proven as the daughter of Roger. It starts with the record of Elizabeth Burn who married James Unsworth in Plymouth, England in 1813. He is a member of the Royal Artillery. This caught my eye because I think it likely that the father of Joseph Burn met Elizabeth in Plymouth because he was linked to the navy. I am still not sure why this happened but Burn descendants appear to match with Dorset’s Joseph Hyde and the easiest way to make this happen is through the port city of Plymouth because Mary Tavy is just not a place that would have drawn a lot of folk outside of miners. I say more about this in the blog for Joseph Burn and Joseph Hyde.
James Unsworth and Elizabeth Burn have one child Richard James Unsworth born 1814 in Mary Tavy. So Elizabeth seems to have stayed in her home village, while her husband probably continued in the military. He died sometime before 1839 (but likely closer to 1814, since they did not have any more children). At that point, Elizabeth Unsworth, the widow, remarried to James Williams who was the widower of her sister Ann Burn Williams. The marriage record actually identifies her as the daughter of Roger Burn. Since Unsworth is not a local name, this is, as they say, a smoking gun, proving that this Elizabeth is the sister of Ann and Tammy and daughter of Roger.
and we can be pretty certain that she is the mother of Joseph but this is a little more inference. James Williams is found in the 1841 Census almost next door to Joseph Burn in Blackdown with his wife Elizabeth who is 45 and his daughter Ann and son Richard. Elizabeth Williams died in 1845. He then remarries 13 day apart from Joseph Burn’s marriage to his second wife in consecutive entries in the Tavistock register.
Royal navy ships in the Battle of Trafalgar – 2 Oct 1805
In 1806, in Mary Tavy, Devon, Joseph Burn was born out of wedlock–a fact that undoubtedly made his life difficult. The certificate for his second marriage, for example, clearly states “base born” for both him and his wife. It also threatens to make him a genealogical dead-end.
However, It has been possible to piece together a plausible theory about his origins, even if I have not been able to prove it to date.
While his mother was Elizabeth Burn; she was not the only one of that name in Mary Tavy. There were at least two Elizabeth Burns of the right age born in Mary Tavy around the right time. Nevertheless, because Tammy Burn Skelly (the sister of Elizabeth by father Roger Burn) signed Joseph’s death certificate, was a close neighbor and seemed to maintain otherwise close ties to the family, it seems likely that she was Joseph’s aunt and my own database makes this connection.
Who was Joseph Burn’s Father?
Joseph’s potential father might seem like a real dead-end. No record of a bastardy suit has been unearthed (such a record was very helpful for unearthing a hitherto unknown child of his grandson, John Lloyd Burn, for example.) However, it is possible to dream a rather far-out theory.
This all started with an autosomal DNA match to my mother in an Ancestry DNA test. The match is 32 centimorgans–relatively significant. Ancestry reports this is a predicted relationship of 4th to 6th Cousin. For comparison, some of my mom’s cousins who are direct descendants of Joseph Burn, and for whom I can count on well-confirmed paths match at 32cms or below. I knew because of shared cousin matches that this match was on the line of Joseph Burn. This is useful because I could focus on Joseph himself, the Burn lines and, ultimately, as none of those lines coincided with anything in this person’s tree.
Yet, that was a challenge even narrowed down to the Burn family because nothing, no nothing looked familiar. The first issue is that this tree had little in common with mine geographically. There were almost no families in the Southwest of England (from whence originate the Burns) in this person’s trees. Since along some lines of the Burn family it is said that Joseph Burn “came from” Scotland, I focused on the Northern England and Scotland lines of this family. But I came up cold. The tree also has a little corner in Cornwall. Excitement was short-lived; nothing connected. OK, that took me a long time.
What I know about Joseph Hyde
The naming of Joseph’s children is a big clue. Joseph names his first two sons, John Lloyd Burn and Josiah Princemeet and his grandson was named Josiah Prince Frederick Burn. As it is tradition to name the first born son after the father’s father, it is possible that Joseph’s father was a “John Lloyd.” This name is also repeated for several generations. At one point, I found a local John Lloyd, petty gentry, within the proximity of Mary Tavy. But after collecting wills and all the records around the life of this fellow, I concluded that a connection, at least to the father of Joseph Burn for whom I was searching was highly unlikely.
That took me back to basics. Elizabeth Burn named her son “Joseph,” a name that was neither her father’s nor any of her brothers’. Soooooo, in maybe bad form, let’s start the inquiry by raising the possibility that the base born boy was named after a father, also named “Joseph.” That led me to a Joseph Hyde in the online tree, the father of a Sarah Hyde who are on the tree’s direct line. By the way, I am avoiding giving the name of the tree’s contributor.
This Joseph Hyde lived in the county of Dorset, where I have done relatively little research in the past in an a small farming village called Shipton Gorge. I even had a moment of realizing that Dorset is the next county over from Somerset and by sea not far from Plymouth. Let’s look at what is knowable about this Joseph Hyde.
Joseph Hyde senior was born in Burton Bradstock in 1773 to a family with property and history in Shipton Gorge. He had four children, the twins Catherine and Sarah (1766), Betty (1769) and Joseph (1772). His will, written probated between his death in 1790 and 1807 leaves bequests to his daughters Catherine and Sarah and his son Joseph Jr who is under 21 years old. Apparently his daughter Betty has died before this since she is not mentioned.
20 Jan, Under 100 lbs, Abstract of will of Joseph Hide, the elder, yeoman Joseph Hide of Shipton Gorge, executor My son of Joseph shall attain the age of 21 years Sarah Hide, daughter Catherine Stone, daughter I give and bequeath unto my nephew Joseph Hide in trust for my son Joseph Hide all the residue and remainder of my estate and effects whatsoever and wheresoever. (Accessed Dorset Archives Online)
The nephew in the will, I believe is, the son of Joseph’s brother Edward Hide. This is important because in the next probate record we find Joseph Jr., a bachelor, has apparently passed away by 1806, leaving his cousin Joseph (son of Edward) with his property.
1806 Shipton Gorge 18 Oct, Under 300 lbs, Joseph Hide, bachelor. Joseph Hide of Shipton Gorge, the lawful cousin and next of kin, administrator. (Accessed Dorset Archives online)
Thus, Joseph Hyde Jr died young several months before Joseph Burn was baptized in Mary Tavy, Devon. Joseph Burn was baptized the 21st of September 1806, with a little math we can imagine that he was conceived around 21 December 1805. Whoever his father is would have had to be in the proximity around that date.
What opportunity would Elizabeth of Mary Tavy have to meet Joseph Hyde?
Mary Tavy is a small mining village on the western edge of Dartmoor about 18 miles from the city of Plymouth to the south. Plymouth was a major shipping and navy port with industry that revolved around both shipping and war activities. I can imagine that for Elizabeth Burn it was the big cosmopolitan city. It is hard to know exactly, Tavistock, was much closer, but I imagine that in 1806 Plymouth was quite a draw. I know I found a record that suggests that she may have lived in Plymouth in 1805. I will have to locate it. If Elizabeth were in Plymouth, of course, she could have met people from across England and the world. She could have met a young Dorset-born sailor named Joseph Hyde.
To take this further in 1805, there was a war raging in Europe. The British had just turned back Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805. The battle involved around 300 British ships and the famous Horatio Nelson lost his life aboard the HMS Victory. Many other marines were killed or wounded in the battle as well. They were brought to navy hospitals in Britain. One of these was in Plymouth, called the Royal Naval Hospital (Stonehouse). Among the hospital ships in the Battle of Trafalgar was the HMS Prince Frederick (there is probably a full list somewhere, but a quick search shows that this ship was, in fact quite active in this period of time).
We also know that the HMS Prince Frederick was in Plymouth Dock from 1803 to 1815:
17 Apr 1803 was commissioned at Plymouth Friday last, as a receiving and convalescent ship for recovering convalescent seamen and marines sent from the Royal Naval Hospital, [Stonehouse ?], previous to their being put on board their respective ships. May 1805 Plymouth Navy Office 19 Jul 1816 Lying at Plymouth ; offered for sale for 31 Jul 1816. 28 Aug 1816 lying at Plymouth ; offered for sale (source: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~pbtyc/18-1900/P/03641.html )
In a war, hospitals become overwhelmed and they tend to engage young woman as employees or volunteers to help care for the wounded.
I suspect that 17-year old Elizabeth Burn might have been among the volunteers at the Royal Naval Hospital. Perhaps she travelled the 19 miles from Mary Tavy and lived with a family member or friend (or stayed in a boarding house). This hypothetical can place Elizabeth in Plymouth from October 1805 to March 1806. Now she would have had the reason to meet quite a few sailors, wounded or not, from the British fleet. I am thinking that, perhaps, one 26-year old Joseph Hyde had become a sailor at some point. Perhaps he was at the Battle of Trafalgar and was wounded. His time in Plymouth would have been for recovery. One possibility is that he succumbed and died in Plymouth by end-of-March. In this scenario he could not have been too wounded for a tryst. Of course, he could have recovered and gone back out to the war, dying shortly thereafter. While I have found no proof of a Joseph Hyde among them, I know that the Royal Navy Hospital in Plymouth had many wounded marines as evidenced by the wills below. There are lists at the UK Archives of the patients and staff; unfortunately, they have not yet been scanned but accessing them might be a next step.
1806 Wills left at the Royal Naval Hospital in Plymouth. John Blade, of the HMS Prince Frederick left his will in March 1806 to his family in Norfolk and Felix O’Neal, of the HMS Prince Frederick left his will in March 1806 to his family in Sligo, Ireland.
For a long time, I thought that the names “Princemeet” and “Prince Frederick” referred to perhaps an event where someone in the family, perhaps Elizabeth Burn, met with Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827), who was a British field marshal and second son of King George III. Princemeet would thus commemorate meeting the prince an Prince Frederick would be in honor of the man. Perusing the life of this historical figure, however, led to nothing. Except, it did make sense that the father of Joseph Burn was likely in the navy as the simplest way in which the prince could have been met.
Whenever I was hunting for information on Prince Frederick, I would see but ignore information on the ships–there were at least three that were named after this man. But it could make sense that Elizabeth met a sailor, say Joseph Hide, while his ship, say the HMS Prince Frederick, was in Plymouth dock. Looking through the history of these ships and searching the UK National Archives, I found that the HMS Prince Frederick could have been at Plymouth Dock in the end of 1805. At least, the following records might place it there between August 1805 and March of 1806:
I imagine Elizabeth working at the hospital under the supervision of a John Lloyd. I know he was a “clerk” but beyond that it is just my desire to explain every loose end.
For any of this to make sense, Joseph Hyde would have had to be in the navy in this period. I have found no proof of this. On the other hand, the British navy was very active in 1806 with significant casualities (This Wikipedia wiki documents some of the Atlantic campaign of 1806). It is quite possible that someone like a young Joseph Hide never returned home from a battle at sea.
Back to the DNA
So far this is a just a story, with scant records and certainly no proof. Starting from an autosomal match, eliminating much of the possibilities on that line and pursuing one of two Josephs (the other was far away and of much higher class), and then seeing if I could tell a story that would fit within the very odd naming clues, that is where I arrived.
Armed with this story, I began to fill out the family of Joseph Hyde of Shipton Gorge and his wife Elizabeth Brown. I must say, that there are many links low confidence here and many Joseph Hydes! But on the whole, using wills and parish registers, I think it is a reasonable telling going back three to four generations.
When this task was complete, I returned to the cousin matches on Ancestry and began to look in the unmatched Burn family matches of my mom for missing links. Here I was quite pleased, I found 12 matches that suggested distant cousins through Joseph Hyde (trying to scour each to make sure there were no other matches. Of course, no tree is complete but I found that a combination of two factors–a person was a shared match with my known Burn cousins, and their tree included this small region of Dorset, gaive me some confidence). The centimorgans range from 9 to 32. Out of the twelve matches, three link to the Brown family and eight link to the Hyde family of Burton Bradstock/Shipton Gorge. That led me to a Joseph Hyde in the online tree, the father of a Sarah Hyde who are on the tree’s direct line. By the way, I am avoiding giving the name of the tree’s contributor.
This DNA proof has two related issues. The matches tend to be at the top of or slightly above Ancestry’s predicted range. For example, my two matches of 32 cms have a predicted range of 4th-6th cousins (meaning my mom should be a cousin of the test taker within that range). But in one case she is a 7th cousin and then other she is in the range as a 5th cousin. And the second issue is that I have not been able to recreate the original Ancestry tree that led me to Joseph Hyde to begin with to my satisfaction.
Conclusion
All of this leads me to a conclusion that Joseph Hyde is a good bet to be the father of Joseph Burn…if he was in the navy…if Elizabeth Burn was in Plymouth in 1805…if he died, perhaps never knowing that he had a son born in Devon.
William Pedrick Burn kept a journal from 1879 to 1929. It covers his travels from Millom, England to Pennsylvania, South Dakota, New Mexico and finally to Leadville, Colorado, where he made his home. The journal is largely comprised of daily events. It includes an amusing encounter with a skunk near Deadwood, South Dakota, his accounting for gifts and presents, mentions of family and his political and mining interests. A sample entry follows:
August 7, 1879 (Leaving Millom, England for the United States) My brother, Samuel and I wished and kissed good-bye to Mother and Sisters and Brother Joseph. Father said he would go with us to the Station. So off we started and got as far as Annie Louder Shaft, a distance of two minutes only, when Father said, Boys, I can’t go further and kissed us goodbye. He returned home to Mother where we left her which was the old office aside the Lighthouse of the Hod-barrow Mining Company.
For the full journal follow this link (PDF is 750kb) –
Samuel Burn grew up in Leadville and married Mary Grace Phillips. Grace, who was an adopted child (raised by William Phillips and Kate Nichols but apparently the daughter of Simon Phillips and Mary Higman), did not want her husband or children to grow up in the mines. So she insisted that the family move to Denver where Samuel found work on the city trolleys. Grace outlived Samuel by many years.
In Leadville, Sam Burn was a stationary engineer (he ran the hoist and the engine) for the Little Johnny Mine.
The LITTLE JONNY is on Breece hill in the Leadville, Mining district at an altitude of 11,475 feet. It had a mass of copper ore, sand carbonates 1-3 feet thick with 40-50% lead, and upwards of 30oz of silver to a ton. Sam later worked as a car repairman for the CNS railroad. In 1910, he was an engineer at the York Mill.
He left Leadville with his family around 1922 moving into a house on W. 29th (3600 blk) at Lowell in Denver, and taking a job at the Card Iron Works. The family moved to an apartment on the 3500 block of Bryant St. for a short time and also moved across the street to a house on the corner of 36th and Bryant. Moved to 3333 W. 31st Ave. till 1929.
