Unteasing the Halstead Cardinalls: William and his family

William Cardinall had two wives and several children, and he is, I think, the grandfather of Thomas Cardinall (c1783-1841).

We first meet William in 1722, when he and his wife Ann baptised their six-month-old son William. Tragically, a burial was recorded on the same day for the wife of William Cardinall. She isn’t named, but she must have been Ann.

William married again the following year, in Pattiswick. The parish register (PR) for this period in Pattiswick hasn’t survived, but the marriage licence has. It tells us that his bride was Mary Chaplyn, a 22-year-old spinster from Halstead. William described himself as a widower from Halstead, aged about 30, and signed his surname “Cardenell”. Their bondsman was Christopher Cardenell, who was also from Halstead.

Records like these can shed so much light on people. If William was about 30 in 1723, then he was born in about 1693. He could be the son of Christopher, whose son John was baptised in Halstead in 1687; Thomas, whose daughter Sarah was baptised in Halstead in 1688; or Christopher, whose daughter Ann was born in about 1698.

It raises a question as to who the bondsman was for William and Mary’s marriage licence. He signs “Chris Cardenll”, using almost the same spelling as William – losing the “i” which follows the “d” and turning it into an “e”. Having compared the bondsman’s signature with that of Christopher Cardinall who lived in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, until his death there in 1766, I’m confident that the bondsman and the man of the same name living in Tolleshunt D’Arcy aren’t the same person. The most likely candidate for William’s bondsman is the Christopher Cardinall whose 18-month-old son William was baptised in Halstead in 1715.

Mary Chaplin

William’s second wife came from another Halstead family. She was the daughter of Thomas Chaplin and Mary Edwins, and they appear to have been a non-conformist family. Or at least Thomas was, as it was only after his death and his widow’s remarriage that their six children were baptised. It would’ve been busy around the font on 23 Oct 1712, as six children of Thomas and Mary were baptised,^[1]The baptisms of the Chaplin children give their ages. along with a baby called Stephen Harper Gernon, the son of Mr Stephen Gernon. Thomas’ widow had married a man called Stephen Gernon, and Stephen Harper was their son.

Mary Edwins/Chaplin/Gernon’s mother, also called Mary died by 1726.^[2]Mary Edwins wrote her ERO will on 28 Oct 1725, and it was probated on 4 Nov 1726. She was living in Steeple Bumpstead when she wrote her will. I haven’t found her burial yet. Her will is a goldmine, naming her daughter Mary Gernon, and her children by her late husband, Thomas Chaplin. They were: Mary wife of William Carnel of South Halstead, cordwainer, Elizabeth Chaplin, Robert Chaplin, Thomas Chaplin, and James Chaplin. She then names her other two daughters – Elizabeth wife of James Allen of Steeple Bumpstead, and Sarah Mayhew – and their children.

Returning to the Chaplins, Thomas Chaplin was the son of Thomas Chaplin and Susanna Carter, and Thomas senior can in turn be traced back, thanks to wills, where we discover that he was the son of Thomas Chaplin and his wife Rose. Thomas senior can be found in the will of Peter Chaplin of Stansted Hamlet (at that time in the parish of Halstead), his uncle.

The Carter family are very interesting, too. Thanks to her mentioning her brother Samuel Carter in her will, and stating that her late brother Thomas Carter of Sudbury, gentleman, had left her some money in his will, it’s possible to trace her back even further to her parents, Barnard Carter and Rose. Thomas Carter was very wealthy, and established a charity. His memorial plaque in the church of St Gregory in Sudbury can still be seen today.

I had wondered if these Carters are the same family that Frances Carter came from, as she was also from Sudbury. She became “Mrs Andrews”, the young woman in the blue dress in Gainsborough’s famous portrait, “Mr and Mrs Andrews”. But, alas, I couldn’t find a link.

William and Mary’s children

The couple had seven children, all baptised in Halstead:

• John, baptised 22 May 1724
• James, baptised 23 Nov 1729
• John, baptised 10 Oct 1731
• Mary, baptised 7 Oct 1733
• John, baptised 18 Oct 1736
• Ann, baptised 8 March 1737/8
• Christopher, baptised 18 Oct 1742

We return to the problem I mentioned before, about burials where it just says “child” or “a child” after a name, and we don’t know if it’s a child of that name, or the father’s name. Clearly, William and Mary’s first two sons called John must’ve died – the first before Oct 1731, and the second before Oct 1736. I haven’t traced their son James or their daughter Mary beyond their baptisms.

Their last son to be called John married Mary Senior in early 1754. I will go into their family in more depth, but I’ll just mention here that they had several children; among them was a son called Thomas, who became a surgeon. In 1787, John Chaplin of Halstead – brother of Mary Chaplin/Cardinall – wrote his will, and he said that his nephew Thomas Cardinall of Halstead, surgeon, owed him money. By nephew, he must mean great-nephew. And this mention in John Chaplin’s will helps us to follow William and Mary Cardinall’s son John from his baptism.

William and Mary’s daughter Ann appears to have married Jacob Wright in Halstead in 1766, but I’m not sure what happened to them after their wedding.

Their son Christopher is very likely to be the Christopher Cardinall who appears in the “church book” of Halstead Independent church. He was “taken in” – became a member – on 5^th March 1767, and married Anne Challis in Halstead on 18 Dec 1770. They, I think, are the parents of Thomas Cardinall (1783-1841), but I’ll explain all in another article.

What happened to William’s son William, from his first marriage? It seems likely he’s the William Cardinall, single man, who married Sarah Cook in Halstead on 1 July 1751.

Adding Thomas Cardinall to the mix

A few years after William and Mary’s last child was baptised, a man called Thomas Cardinall and his wife Mary appear in the PR, baptising their children. William and Thomas were related to each other, as Thomas’ daughter, Mary, called James Cardinall, currier, of Halstead her cousin when she wrote her will in 1821.^[3]Will of Mary Kirkham of Halstead, widow, 1822, Essex Record Office. James was a son of Christopher, and Christopher was a son of William and Mary. If by “cousin” Mary Kirkham meant her first cousin (or half-first cousin, seeing as it’s unlikely Thomas was Mary Chaplin’s son), then Thomas was William’s son, likely by his first wife Ann. It looks as if William’s son William and Thomas Cardinall married sisters or cousins, as both their wives had the maiden name Cook, and they married within two years of each other. Or she could’ve meant a more distant cousin – perhaps half-first cousins once removed if William and Thomas were brothers, not father and son.

It’s worth noting that when Mary Cardinall married John Kirkham in Halstead in 1783, one of the witnesses was Christopher Cardinall. His signature is identical to the one Christopher Cardinall used when he married Anne Challis in 1770 – and they were James’ parents. With James being her executor, and his father being one of the witnesses when she married, we can see that Mary was close to that side of her family.

Two diagrams showing their “theories of relativity”, if you like, are below.

Mary Chaplin/Cardinall died in 1753; she was buried on 24 Nov 1753 as Mary wife of William Cardinall. There are two possible burials for William: one on Christmas Day 1763, and the other in Dec 1770. One of them could be William’s child by his first wife. Neither left wills, but there might be administrations for them at the Essex Record Office which would help us to identify them.

And next we’ll meet Christopher Cardinall and his wife Anne Challis.

Theories of relativity

1: if Mary Cardinall/Kirkham and James Cardinall were half-first cousins

Tree diagram showing how they were related if their fathers were half-brothers.

2: if Mary Cardinall/Kirkham and James Cardinall were half-first cousins once removed

Tree diagram showing their fathers as uncle and nephew, with an unknown Cardinall at the top of the tree.