From Wivenhoe back to Hitcham

William James Kemble was born in Acton, Suffolk, on 13 Feb 1887. He was the third of eight children born to Walter Kemble and his wife Jane Dewes. In fact, Walter was Jane’s second husband as she was widowed when she was only 22 years old.

When William was only a toddler, in late 1888 or early 1889, his family moved en masse from Acton to Fingringhoe in Essex. So, along with his parents, two sisters and his half-brother, William’s grandparents James Kemble and Mary Elizabeth Gant, and several aunts and uncles moved to Fingringhoe as well.^[1]His aunt Emily, the eldest of James and Mary Elizabeth’s children, stayed in Suffolk. Elizabeth, their third child, moved to Clacton. The other children – James, Hannah, Charles, Sarah, … Continue reading Fingringhoe was and still is a small place; so many Kembles descending on the village must’ve been a surprise for the locals.

When my grandma was in her nineties, she used to talk about her memories of her family, and insisted that her grandfather drove a wagon across the rive Colne between Fingringhoe and Wivenhoe. My dad thought her mind was wandering, but then we realised that one of the Kembles delivered milk from Fingringhoe across the river at low tide, something that seems eminently possible before it silted up. Wivenhoe Memories even has a photo to prove it!

No doubt the Kemble’s move from Acton to Fingringhoe had been spurred by the agricultural depression in the late 1800s, which led to populations in towns like Ipswich and Colchester swelling. The Kembles did find farmwork in Fingringhoe – in 1891, Walter and his brood were living Holmwood House in the village, and he was an agricultural labourer – but by the tine of the 1901 census, they’d moved again, this time to Wivenhoe (maybe at low-tide via horse?), where they lived on West Street, and Walter was working as a shipyard labourer.

William met a Brightlingsea girl, Amy Field, and they lived in Wivenhoe, where they had three children. But let’s trace back to Hitcham and meet the Kemball/Kemble brickwall.

Walter and James

Walter Kemble was born in Boxford in about 1863, the son of James Kemble and Mary Elizabeth Gant. By 1871, the family were living at Malting House, 1 Scotland Place in Stoke-by-Nayland. James was an agriculatural labourer, as was his brother Robert Kemble who was living with James and his family. By the time the census was taken on 3 April 1881, James and co. had moved back to Acton, living “near Potters Tye”. His father, Thomas Kemble, born in Hitcham, was living with James, his wife, and his six children. Thomas passed away not long after the census was taken, on 12 June 1881. His surname was spelt “Kembell” on the death certificate.

James is my 3 x gt-grandfather, whose surname was spelt four different ways. When he was born in Boxford in about 1839, his surname was spelt Kemball. The family was also Kemball on the 1841, 1851, and 1861 censuses. Then, when he married Mary Elizabeth Gant at Boxford’s Independent Chapel in 1862, his surname was spelt Cambell. Yes, this did mean that at first I was scratching my head because I couldn’t find “James Kemble” getting married. In fact, the marriage was my first tip-off that my grandma’s family were not originally called “Kemble” – I wonder if she ever knew?

When James and his family appear on 1871 census, they’re called “Kemble”, and the spelling sticks from then on, apart from the 1891 census in Fingringhoe when their surname is spelt “Campbell”. If anything can be said for carving words in stone, James and Elizabeth have a headstone at Fingringhoe, with their surname spelt “Kemble”.

[A quick word about the spelling variations: the family from the Hitcham area were Kemballs, but there’s variation there too, with Kimball, a version that was carried across the Atlantic; descendants of Kemballs who migrated in the 1500s and 1600s still use “Kimball”. But the parish registers and other records also give us Kembould, Kimboll, and other fun versions which soundex searches find very confusing! The change to Kemble seems to have been influenced by the family from Wiltshire called “Kemble”, who are presumably named after the Wiltshire village of the same name.]

James was the son of Thomas Kemball and Phoebe King, the third of their eight children. Phoebe was born in Boxford, which is where Thomas had moved to by the time of their marriage in 1835. She would live there for the rest of her life, and passed away in 1870. Thomas, however, had moved to Acton by 1881, where he passed away. Seeing as Thomas takes the Kemball thread back to Hitcham, he’s the next person we’ll visit.

First published: 1st February 2026.