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Sommerwill -a Devon Family: Group D

Group D (John)

The JOHN PROBLEM - Too many births, too many marriages, too close to each other to identify them (also too many burials of John without age given).

Births			Marriages
son of Robert & Charitie	1707	Group B2	to Joan Berry (Joan buried Swimbridge 31 Oct 1767)	Landkey	9 May 1736
son of Lewis & Elizabeth	1716	Group B2	to Thomasin Mills	Landkey	1743 (see below)
son of George & Grace	1719	Group C16	to Elizabeth Beauney (Elizabeth buried Swimbridge 10 Mar 1773)	Swimbridge	1 Jan 1765
son of Thomasin	1722	Group E	to Susannah Watkins	Landkey	1768 (see below)
son of Edward & Ann	1722	Group C7	to Margaret Delbridge	Swimbridge	1776 (see below)

Tempting as it is to assume that the birth-order and marriage-order were the same, it would make several of them rather old at the time of marriage and would only be a guess. It seems likely that the son of Robert did not marry as no wife is named on his gravestone.

Another John, son of George & Mary 1743 (see Group C3 and Group C4) is in this same category, but he is assumed to have married Elizabeth Stukely, Swimbridge 1768, on the grounds that his marriage entry describes him as a mason, the eldest son of John and Elizabeth was a mason, and his death in 1810, aged 67, accords with a 1743 birth.

(1) JOHN: (may have been son of Edward or of Thomasin - see above); married THOMASIN MILLS at Landkey 2 Feb 1743; Thomas buried either 2 Jun 1751 or 4 Feb 1772 Swimbridge

DOROTHY: baptised Swimbridge 18 Nov 1744; buried 6 Dec 1750
MARY: baptised Swimbridge 2 Nov 1746; possibly married Thomas Lane 6 May 1774 (see also Mary born 1747, daughter of George & Mary, Group C3)
AGNES: baptised Swimbridge 26 Dec 1748; married William Badcock (mason) 16 Nov 1774 Swimbridge

(2) JOHN: (see above) married MARGARET DELBRIDGE 25 Mar 1776 Swimbridge; Margaret born c.1749, buried 12 Oct 1815, age 66

MARY: baptised Swimbridge 29 Jul 1777; burial could be 14 Sep 1777, daughter of John & Elizabeth (a mistake?); otherwise might have been mother of illegitimate son Lewis

LEWIS: baptised Swimbridge 30 Jan 1803, illegitimate son of Mary

ARMANEL: baptised Swimbridge 11 Jul 1784; married Henry Squire, labourer, Swimbridge 28 May 1810
GRACE: privately baptised Swimbridge 25 Jul 1787; buried 31 Jul 1787, dau of John & Mary (transcription error for Marg ?)

(3) (Landkey) JOHN: Possibly son of Lewis & Elizabeth (nee Rendel), baptised Swimbridge 7 Feb 1715/6 (see Group B2), but see other eligible Johns above; married SUSANNA WATKINS, Landkey, 19 Jul 1768. Susanna born c.1740; buried Landkey 18 Apr 1827, age 86. In Land Tax Assessments 1789-95 she pays £1/16/4 on a tenement in Swimbridge owned by Dennis Rolls

JOHN: baptised Landkey 16 Sep 1769; married ELIZABETH PARKIN (dau of William Parkin and his wife Betty (nee Thorn) - Ray Hayes), Landkey 16 Feb 1791. Lime burner and boat builder according to an account in Brain's 'The Men Who Made Barnstaple'. John buried Landkey 24 Aug 1822, age 52. Yeoman. Elizabeth born c.1771; died Landkey 25 Mar 1843, age 72 (gravestone)

JOHN: born c.1791; baptised Landkey 22 Sep 1792. In 1837 assignment for mortgage arranged between John Sommerwill, Pilton, yeoman, and Philip Jones, Landkey, yeoman; consideration £115; premises - 4 fields called Hurlis Ground at East Newland. In 1851 (as Summervill) at Langland Bay, Swansea, age 59, farmer of 8 acres. Newspaper stories #72 1857 and 1863 about John as bridge-opener and anti-railway protester. In 1861 census at Braunton, head, unmarried, age 69, limeburner. Newspaper story about a wheelbarrow, #32. Another #78 about hay harvest. Buried Braunton 20 Dec 1866, age 75; death regd Barnstaple Dec 1866
WILLIAM: baptised Landkey 23 Jan 1794; died Landkey 28 Jun 1823, age 29 (gravestone)
BETSY: baptised Landkey 21 Dec 1796
GEORGE: baptised Huntshaw 8 Dec 1799 (IGI). In 1841 census at Pottington Cottage, Pilton, with brothers James and Lewis. In 1851 with John (Summervill) at Langland Bay, Swansea, age 58, labourer. In 1861 at Braunton Village with brother John, unmarried, age 67, limeburner. Newspaper report #61 about dog attack: could be George, Lewis or James
LEWIS: baptised Huntshaw 7 Nov 1802. In 1841 with George and James at Pottington Cottage. In 1847 rented a limekiln with Culm Court Cottage and 3 fields with fishing rights on the River Taw for a term of 9 years at £50 rent from the Rev Francis Hole of Georgeham. Declared bankrupt in 1849. In 1851/61/71 with Mary and brother-in-law; limeburner;buried Landkey 22 Nov 1879, age 78 (gravestone)
JAMES: baptised Landkey 3 Jun 1805; died Landkey 21 Nov 1855, age 50 (gravestone). Lime burner according to an account in Brain's 'The Men Who Made Barnstaple'.In 1841 census at Pottington Cottage, Pilton, with brothers George and Lewis. Declared bankrupt in 1849. In 1851 census at Pilton, living with sister Mary. Lime merchant. The jug pictured right (click on it to enlarge it) was acquired in 1965 by the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea as part of a large ceramics bequest by local collector Kildare Meager. Nothing is known of its earlier provenance. It is a puzzle jug (i.e. one with holes around its rim so that it cannot pour normally. It was a novelty jug, a challenge to drink from, probably by sucking one of the bird heads, which would have a pipe attached that acted like a straw. It has the name 'James Summerwill 1835' on it. It is Swansea pottery from the firm of Dillwyn & Co. described thus in Meager's catalogue: 'PUZZLE JUG 1835 h8¾. White ware, wide curved lip and high double curved and moulded handle: pierced with circular, diamond and heart-shaped holes and with three sucking spouts shaped as birds' heads; decorated in underglaze green transfer with the ORIENTAL BASKET PATTERN and inscribed in overglaze brown: JAMES. SUMMERWILL. 1835.' This James is the only only in the 1841 census who is at all likely to have been its owner. His brother-in-law John Lauder (see below) may have had a hand in it.
MARY: baptised Landkey 15 Jun 1808; married John Lauder, Whitechapel, Middlesex, 10 Jun 1832. [Ray Hayes has a reference to them at St Andrew Holborn, Middlesex, in the 1841 census, with John as an engineer. He is a lime merchant in the later censuses, employing 5 men in 1861. Born Scotland c.1807. See 'Brain's 'The Men Who Made Barnstaple'] Two newspaper mentions of Mary sailing between Neath/Swansea and Barnstaple in 1841. In 1851/61/71 censuses at Pilton with husband and brothers (widow in 1871) (Children: Alexander 1836 Middlesex; Elizabeth 1839 Landkey; John 1844 London - Ray Hayes)
SUSANA: baptised Landkey 23 Feb 1813. Married Christopher Shapland, Barnstaple, 7 Mar 1837. Both died Queensland, Australia 1877. [John Turner]

Memorial Inscriptions in Landkey Churchyard
(south-east corner)

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
JAMES SOMMERWILL
WHO DIED NOVR 21st 1855 AGED 50 YEARS.
ALSO OF LEWIS SOMMERWILL
WHO DIED NOVR 22ND 1879 AGED 78 YEARS

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
WILLIAM SOMMERWILL OF THIS PARISH
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
ON THE 28TH DAY OF JUNE 1823 AGED 29 YEARS.
ALSO TO THE MEMORY OF ELIZABETH SOMMERWILL
MOTHER OF THE ABOVE WILLIAM SOMMERWILL
WHO DIED ON THE 25TH DAY OF MARCH 1843 AGED 72 YEARS.
“Farewell my Children Friends & all,
’Twas God that did me from you call.
Now in my silent grave I sleep
Free from all pain and grief.
Tho’ my disease was very sharp
My Jesus sent relief.
Draw nigh kind Friends that’s passing by;
As you are now so once was I.
As I am now, so you must be;
Prepare for death and follow me."