Re: 'I suppose we will never know who the girlfriend was that he loved and lost - a blacksmiths daughter'
Just had a look at the 1801 Stonesfield census and found the following:
Family: SMITH John Occupation: Blacksmith Total Household: 6 Males: 2 Females: 4
Tracking back into the Stonesfield Parish Registers I could find the following Baptisms:
1785 Aug 14 William s John, Blacksmith & Mary (Burial 1785 Oct 9 inft, s william & Mary) 1788 Dec 25 Sarah d John & Mary 1790 Feb 7 Joseph s John, Blacksmith & Mary 1792 Jul 29 Rachael d John, Blacksmith & Mary 1794 Oct 19 Mary d John, Blacksmith & Mary
John and Mary plus Sarah, Joseph, Rachael and Mary would equal the 6 in 1801.
So, if this should be the family, the question would be which daughter.
I couldn't immediately find marriages for any of the daughters, so looked instead to see if there were any Stonesfield burials around the time that Joseph was discharged when he said he was 26, as Joseph as said she had died whilst he was in Ireland prior to him arriving back in Stonesfield in December 1818.
I discovered this in the Stonesfield burials:
1818 Aug 4 SMITH Mary 23 St Aldates, Oxford
It's a lead, but I wonder if this, John Smith's youngest daughter, could be could be the love he lost?!?
Well I'm just back from a lovely family holiday and checked in on the website to find this wonderful new piece on the life of Waterloo Joseph.
The discovery of Joseph within the tree and his gravestone in Stonesfield was one of the first stories that really got me hooked into the Family History research, and of course since then we have learned more about some of the stories from within his own line and we even had two direct descendants of Joseph join last years family history day, but the information we can take from this newly found extract from 'All The Year Round' takes the detail to a whole new level - wonderful - thank you Mervyn for locating and sharing!
On the 'I suppose we will never know who the girlfriend was that he loved and lost - a blacksmiths daughter' you posted Linda, I'm wondering if we might be able to figure this out actually. I remember looking through the 1801, 1811, 1821 and 1831 census records for Stonesfield and the Blacksmith family of that time was the (ironically enough) 'Smith' Family - I think in Stonesfield there was probably only the one Blacksmith, maybe two - I will take a look into the available records but we might be able to figure out who the Blacksmith was around that time and piece together his family and see if anything fits with the facts from Joseph's memoir.
Wow, I need to go a read that memoir a few more times now, truly remarkable to read his story in his own words.
Thanks again Mervyn for sharing this. It really is a fascinating article. Such an insight into both his army life and his family life. I suppose we will never know who the girlfriend was that he loved and lost - a blacksmiths daughter. It does raise some interesting queries about his family. He says his mother died when he was between three and four and he lived with his maternal Grandfather until he was about six and then went back to his father who had married three times. Looking at Shane's family tree, Joseph's mother was Elizabeth Barrett and she died in 1798. This would make Joseph around six when she died. Soooooo, I am wondering if Elizabeth Barrett was not his mother and that his father, David, had a wife before Elizabeth and another after Elizabeth???
My connection to this part of the Oliver family is that my Gt,Gt,Gt Grandfather was James Oliver (1774-1836) married Margaret Tempero Herbert. I think a cousin to Joseph - their fathers were brothers?? James was also a soldier. His army record is under Facts and Happenings - Army records.
Thank you for your reply, I have managed to find the copy of his memoir that appeared in the 18th August 1866 edition of All The Year Round edited by Charles Dickens. It is a fascinating article and have attached the images of the pages.
Hope it is readable at this size, if a problem let me know.
Thanks for sharing this with us Mervyn. What a great article, such a lot of information. We know that he did get his wish and was able to leave the Workhouse but, as you say, it would be interesting to know how much money was raised for the 'Waterloo Rifleman's Fund'. Also there is a tantalizing mention of Joseph's brief memoir being in a publication called 'All the year round' - Mmmm - a copy could be out there - somewhere!!!
Whilst undertaking a general search for Stonesfield newspaper articles in the 1860's I happened upon this following article that was printed in the Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette on the 25th August 1866. It is a copy of a letter written by William Sanders detailing the plight of Joseph Oliver, who is the facts and happenings section. This article also includes statements that are attributed to Joseph. It may be quite interesting finding out if possible how much was raised!
