Albert Oliver, his family and the Stonesfield Friendly Society

jane · Senior Member

RE: Albert Oliver, his family and the Stonesfield Friendly Society

jane · Senior Member

Hello Irene

Attitudes to crime certainly do seem to have changed a lot since the early nineteenth century, don't they?! I suppose when they were desperate for cheap labour, they thought they could kill two birds with one stone by sending all those able-bodied men across the seas.

From what I read there are only 13 marked graves in the cemetery on Ireland Island at Bermuda, and most of those 13 don't have a name on them! But I am sure there must be other sources we could explore. I see from Amanda Bevan's "Tracing your ancestors in the National Archives" that there are records at Kew for baptisms/marriages/burials at the Naval Dockyard, Bermuda from 1826 onwards. I've no idea if this includes convicts but it is always worth a look. I've also just discovered that a publisher right here in Witney has published a book by Averil Kear about some Forest of Dean convicts who went to Bermuda. It might give us some ideas of what sources are available so I'll see if Witney Library can get hold of a copy for me.

In the meantime I hope you have a quieter night tonight!

Jane

rene oliver · Senior Member

Hi Jane, I have just finished reading the Bermuda piece from the www link in your previous e.mail. It was very interesting - especially the piece about the convicts who labored from dawn to dusk in the dockyard. I was woken up at 2.00am this morning by a gang of about 12 young teenagers (12-14 yr. olds), sitting on my neighbours wall right outside my bedroom. Yelling, screaming giggling and swearing. The Police arrived about 20 mins. after they had moved on at 3.30a.m. At that time of the morning the Convict Ships and that Dock in Bermuda seemed a good place for them!! If only....

I too, thought that Maria could have been Sophia. It is a pity that only a few gravestones have names in the cemetary in Bermuda - perhaps we might have traced Joshua there.

Keep up the excellent work.

Regards, Irene

jane · Senior Member

Hello again

I wonder if maybe Maria and Sophia might be the same person? The combination of names "Sophia Maria" seems to have been quite popular so perhaps Sophia was her actual first name but she preferred to be known as Maria? That would be the simplest explanation but of course life isn't always simple.

Solomon (or his wife) certainly chose some unusual names for their children: I wonder where 'Spencer' and 'Urban' came from? It makes a change from all the usual boys' names like John, William and Thomas.

Going back to the Bermuda story, I read somewhere that around 9000 convicts were shipped out there to work on building the dockyards and that around 2000 of them died of yellow fever, so that's one possible end of Joshua Oliver's story. But perhaps he survived, got a taste for travelling the world and ended up who knows where, unlike Solomon who chose to return to Stonesfield.

I hadn't connected the 'Cataraqui' William Barrett with the turkey-stealing one who was up in court with the two Olivers, so that was interesting. Did he and Solomon reappear in Stonesfield at around the same time? I wonder if they came back together.

What eventful lives our ancestors lived!!! When I first started out on family history I thought that once you got back a couple of centuries people would be less mobile, but it doesn't seem to be true at all.

Jane

Shane Bywaters · Guru

Hi Jane,

Thanks for that.

Yes, I've always felt quite sure that Alberts father was our 'Bermuda' Solomon.

He's quite a puzzle in the family tree is our Solomon, firstly, his baptism in the Stonesfield Parish Registers aren't immediately clear as to his parents, then we have this whole 7 years in Bermuda episode, which he may, may not, may not have fully served as in 1833 he is back in Oxfordshire marrying Maria Butcher, but then, he has 5 children where the parish registers show Solomon and Sophia as the parents, but both the 1841 and 1851 census records show him a living with Maria and with the supposed children of Solomon and Sophia.

Marriage
Solomon Oliver & Maria Butcher September 16th 1833

Children
Prudence Oliver Daughter Soloman Maria 1834
Thomas Oliver Son Soloman Sophia 1837
Spencer Oliver Son Soloman Sophia 1839
Albert Oliver Son Soloman Sophia 1841
Urban Oliver Son Soloman Sophia 1844
Maria Oliver Daughter Soloman Sophia 1847

So, quite a colourful character - perhaps someone out there has or is getting to the bottom the life and times of Solomon Oliver!

As for Joshua, who I believe was his brother, I've no further trace of him at all - numerous scenarios.

As for William Barrett, well, his fate is possibly saddest of all, similarly to Solomon he too found his way back to Oxfordshire married and raised a family but in 1845 he, his wife and his four children aged just 10, 9, 7 and 6 were all aboard the Cateraqui with James Oliver bound for Australia which as we know disastrously sank so close to the end of their long journey.

Thanks,
Shane

jane · Senior Member

Just had a quick scout around online to see if I could find anything on transportation to Bermuda. There’s quite a bit at

www.bermuda-online.org/rnd.htm

On its list of the ships that took convicts out to Bermuda is the ‘Weymouth’, which (I forgot to say in my previous posting) was the ship that Solomon & Joshua were on.

I don't know if there would be anything more at Kew about the Olivers' time in Bermuda ... I will check the new edition of David Hawkings' "Criminal Ancestors".

Jane

jane · Senior Member

Shane, re. the Solomon at the top of this tree, do you think this is the same Solomon Oliver who (with Joshua Oliver and William Barrett) was sentenced to 7 years' transportation in 1827, for stealing four turkeys from Fawler? According to Carol Richmond's book "Banished! Sentences of transportation from Oxfordshire courts 1787-1867", Solomon and Joshua were sent from Oxford gaol to the 'Leviathan' prison hulk at Portsmouth before being transported to Bermuda. (Not sure of the historical background but I think there was a naval dockyard at Bermuda, so perhaps convicts were sent over there as labourers?). If he is the same man, he must have had some stories to tell, after travelling all that way and back, and surviving to tell the tale.

Jane

Shane Bywaters · Guru

Hi All,

I've added a new small peice to the 'Facts and Happenings' section about the Stonesfield Friendly Society.

Until recently I'd never even heard of the Friendly Societies, and certainly wasn't aware of the Stonesfield Friendly Society that existed for almost 150 years between 1765 and 1912.

Therefore it was really interesting to discover that many Olivers where members of the society and that two Olivers in particular were at the head of the society in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Just for context, I thought it may be worthwhile to detail were the two Olivers, Albert and his son Ernest, fit into the overall tree.

Albert was the son of our parental puzzle Solomon, and was a Stonemason who married Hannah Hanwell in 1862 and raised 9 children.

Included in those children is Ernest, who was a builder, as well as secretary of the Stonesfield Friendly Society and Ernest married and raised 2 children, one being Ernest Henry Albert Oliver, better known as Harry Oliver who moved to Hanborough in 1918 and established the Oliver Garage business that still exists today.

Another of Albert and Hannahs children was William Edgar who crossed the border into Coombe in the late 1890, married and started the Olivers of Coombe building dynasty - as well as a being fine organist - as well as starting a line of fine Oliver sportsmen ever since.

albert

Other children departed to Canada, other children we're also musically talented and sang in the Stonesfield choir and there's more to be found for sure, so all in all this makes for a pretty interesting leg of the family tree.

Okay, thats all .....
Thanks
Shane