A little about their ancestors and the place they come from Wrawby Lincolnshire:
Jonathan was born in circa early 1774 and
baptised on 12th January 1774 in Wrawby,
Lincolnshire, England and Elizabeth in 1759
also in Wrawby Lincolnshire England.
Elizabeth was baptised 28th August 1776.
[refer red on map below]. They were married
on 17th July 1796 in Wrawby and their first born
daughter Frances [our grandmother]
was born in 1797.
Jonathan was the son of William Green born
1750 and Hannah Wray born 1751. William had
married Hannah in Wrawby on 27th November
1772. His father was William Green. We know
Jonathan had a sister Frances baptised 24th November 1775
and know the whole family came to Australia.
His first-born daughter and our grandmother was obviously
named after her.
Hannah’s parents were John Wray also of Wrawby born 1729 and Alice Wilson b: 1722. We can trace this line back even further. John Wray was the son of John Wray [born 1691 Wrawby] and Sarah Medford [born Jan 1700 Wrawby]. The Medfords stop there but we have one more generation of Wrays. John Snr’s dad was William Wray born 1666 , we don’t know where though. His mum was Frances born 1670. There is mention of a John Wray son of John Wray being indentured as a glover in London in 1737. This could be our John Jr. John Snr was listed in the indenture documents as being from Castor and an Innkeeper . Castor is close to Brigg and can be seen on the 1870 map below.
Elizabeth Cooper was the daughter of Christopher Cooper born 1754 in Wrawby and Hannah Spright born 1758. Her father was Thomas Spright. Christopher and Hannah had married in Barton-Upon-Humber on 18th Sept 1775. We know a little more about Christopher’s parents, we will call him Christopher Jr. He had two brothers one also called Jonathan baptised 9/1/1757 and died 1836 in Brigg near Wrawby. They had an older brother Thomas born 1751. The boys father was also Christopher Cooper and born in Wrawby baptised on 14th November 1726. Their mother was Elizabeth Nichols also born in Wrawby in 1723. Elizabeth and Christopher Snr had married in Wrawby on 30th Nov 1749. Christopher Snr died in Wrawby in 1795.
We can trace Christopher Snrs parents to William Cooper born 28th April 1696 yes in Wrawby and Frances Ellis. They had married on 26 Oct 1714 in Saint Crux, York. It is believed William Cooper’s parents were William and Elizabeth but nothing more is known.
Let’s have a look at Wrawby.
Lying 1½ miles north east of Brigg in North Lincolnshire, the ancient village of Wrawby is known to have been the site of a settlement from as early as Roman times. It derives its current name, however, from the time of the Danelaw when it was known as Wraghebi, or Wraghi's farm. The Domesday Book tells us that the village comprised a church with a priest and farming land, meadow land and woodland at the time of the Norman Conquest. Wrawby's roots were firmly in the soil then as now, although in recent years farm buildings and farmland have been sold to provide new homes. The oldest surviving building in the village is the church of St Mary, which is probably Saxon in origin. The current structure has a 13th century tower and pillars. The font is 14th century with a carved Jacobean cover. There is an altar tomb of the Tyrwhitt family, lords of the manor until the mid 17th century (a role subsequently assumed by the Elwes family). A tapestry of "Christ blessing little children" hangs in the church. Its manufacturer, Thomas Tapling of London, who was born in the village, donated it. He also endowed the Parish Reading Room (now demolished), hoping to provide all the villagers the opportunity of an education. The graveyard surrounding the church was closed in 1857 when a new cemetery was opened on a larger site on the outskirts of Brigg, but there are still a number of fine headstones in situ for the family historian to view. The original vicarage house was burnt down in 1713, when all the parish records were lost. The oldest register in existence dates from 1675. [http://www.wrawby.org.uk/history/history_3.html]
Although education had been provided for some of the Wrawby boys from the foundation of an old grammar school (now within the town of Brigg) in the Tudor period, education for all the children of the village was not readily available until the building of the National School in 1842. http://www.wrawby.org.uk/history/history_3.html. It is therefore unlikely that Jonathan and Elizabeth or their ancestors were literate.
The town of Brigg originally sat at the meeting point of four parishes (Broughton, Kettleby, Scawby and Wrawby), although it lay mainly in the last, and was officially regarded as part of that village. In the 1190s, the lord of the manor of Broughton, Adam Paynel, founded a hospital for the poor within the town. Several small chapels also existed during medieval times, with another hospital and chapel founded by William Tyrwhitt in 1441. However, the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536–41 also affected hospitals and chapels, leaving the town without ecclesiastical coverage except the parish church in nearby Wrawby.
Long after Jonathan and Elizabeth left in 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Wrawby like this:
WRAWBY, a township and a parish in Glanford-Brigg district, Lincoln. The township lies 1½ mile NE of Brigg r. station; and contains W. village and Brigg work house . Real property, £5,258. Pop. in 1851, 931; in 1861, 1,257,-of whom 143 were in the workhouse . Houses, 257.—The parish includes Brigg township, which has a head post-office. ...
The Wrawby post mill stands on a
small hill and can be seen on the approach
to Brigg from the A18. The Postmill is an
example of an early type of windmill that
was once common across the UK.
There are now less than 45 surviving
examples with even fewer being fully
operational.
http://www.wrawbywindmill.co.uk/.
The earliest record of a mill in Wrawby is 1585.
This charming picture to right from the Luttrell
Psalter, made for Sir Geoffrey Luttrell of Irnham, Lincolnshire around 1330, gives an idea of an early local post mill.
The present mill was built around 1760 on the site of an earlier mill and was restored to working condition in the 1960’s.The mill, high on the Lincolnshire Wolds, is the last surviving post mill in Lincolnshire, and indeed in the north of England. It was part of the Elwes
estate until 1910, when it was sold.
[http://www.wrawby.org.uk/history/history_2.html]
Wrawby lies halfway down the Ancholme valley. In pre-Roman times
the Ancholme valley would have been marshland, separating the
Lincolnshire chalk wolds to the east from the end of the limestone
Jurassic ridge to the west. Archaeologists believe Wrawby was more
than farmland and clay pottery manufacture is possible.
https://archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/roman-wrawby-a-site-that-cant-decide-its-status.htm
What might Jonathan and Elizabeth’s forbear’s have done?
Likely they were farm and mill workers but one family history
from Michael Beldon states Jonathan was a nail maker. We know this
from an article in The Sydney Monitor Wednesday 28 September 1836 which described Jonathan as a free man and a nailer residing in Pitt St Sydney. Was he a nailer before coming to Australia? His death certificate lists him as a nailer also but this does not indicate whether he picked this up as an occupation in Australia. Listing him as free suggests he lived out his sentence and obtained a free pardon. Not sure this is correct.
