Looking Backwards – A Matter of Life & Death (1)

Looking back over my ancestry records over the past month or so has thrown up some very interesting, and honestly mysterious, long lost relatives. It’s also highlighted that, generally, my family are quite long lived despite coming from common stock and, presumably, having correspondingly hard lives. It’s certainly not unusual going back into the 18^th or even 17^th century and fining members who lived well into their 60’s and beyond. This is an era when average life expectancy was around 40. But I guess that the average was rather skewed towards the lower end of things because of high infant mortality. Get past you first 5, and definitely your first 10, years and reaching 50 or beyond was a lot easier.

But I think the most interesting thing I’ve come across is not how long people lived but where they died. Unsurprisingly most of my ancestors died pretty much within a stone’s throw of where they were born and lived out their lives. At best they might have moved to another town in the same county or moved to an adjacent county at some point. Long distance migration seemed to have been very much the exception. So singular exceptions REALLY jumped out at me.   

First on that list was John Lee (1751-1784). He was my 5^th great-grandfather and was born in Limerick, Ireland. Interestingly all of the ancestors listed here are from my maternal line (largely from around the West Midlands of England) rather than my father’s Southern Irish line. The odd thing was where he died – in Richmond, Georgia aged 33. I wonder if he was going for a new life in the Colonies due to famine conditions in Ireland.

Then, there’s Ann Woodroffe (1640-1696) my 12^th great-grandmother. She was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire and married John Padmore II in her teens following him back to his sugar plantation in Barbados where she gave birth to a son when still 17. That same year her husband died but Ann stayed on in Barbados where she died aged 56.

Another interesting example is Elizabeth Woodley (1646-1720), my 11^th great-grandmother who was born in Barbados but died, aged 74, in Isle of Wight County, Virginia in 1720. I wonder what her story was. I am, of course, naturally concerned with any connection to Barbados during this era because of its very strong connection with sugar and slaves. Was Elizabeth part of this trade with property in both locations? Good question!

Somewhat more mysterious, and possibly more disturbing, are the details surrounding Mary Reade (1610-1655), my 12^th great-grandmother. She was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire which 100 years later was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution. In 1646 she was in Barbados (again!) giving birth to a daughter. The most intriguing part though is where she died, aged just 45. She died – in 1655 – in West Nimba, Liberia. I looked at the map and Nimba is significantly inland from any coastal settlement or trading post. What on earth was a woman doing there in the mid-17^th century? With her husband trading maybe, either for pepper (a very valuable commodity at the time) or for slaves to take back to Barbados. Not a particularly nice thought process there. It seems clear that the Padmore family (mentioned above) must have kept slaves to harvest their sugar crop but was Mary Reade’s family TRADING in slaves?

I’ll leave it there for now. Fascinating stuff though and much food for both thought and future research. Watch out for books on much of this going forward.