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For ten years and more we have been interested in finding out more of the family tree going backwards and have an extensive family tree. We had no co-operation from previous generations which stopped us dead for years. We are also very intersted in the Warren background/Bird/Goldsmith
Newton 2005

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There appeared to be two distinct Childs families in Cornwall in the 1800's. One based in and around Madron Penzance, Artisans, shopkeepers, printers, tailors, lodging house keepers etc

The other based in Liskeard, these were Solicitors, Attorneys, Ministers of the Church etc These Childs appear to have originated in Melbury Osmomd in Dorset.

David Child b 1727 is the first recorded member of our family in Penzance, although we have no confirmation that he was born in the county, he married twice , his first wife Jane Booth again there is no evidence that she was born in Cornwall his second Marriage in 1800 was to Mary Hosken his 2nd set of children with Mary were known as Childs with an 's'.

Joseph Childs is the first recorded member born in Liskeard in 1776 his father also Joseph married a Miss Huddlesdon, there is no record of his birth place. Joseph jnr married Anne Borlese from a very well known family in Cornwall. He was from the Childs of Melbury Osmond.

On early Census sheets various members of the Liskeard side were living in Penzance so there may have been a connection originating in Dorset.

Why did John Childs move his family and Tailor's business to Dudley? Possibly because it was an area with new money and men were eagar to have a new Sunday suit made or was there a family connection?
Another Childs family who originated in Pensax Worcs are listed on census sheets and we wonder if this is a mis spelling or a coincidence?

A branch of the Childs family born in Penzance , David born 1801, had moved to St Marylebone London by 1830 Son of David Child(s) and Mary Hosken married Parthenia Letter 1826 from Hampstead. He was a plumber, painter and decorator employing men. The couple had seven children - William, David, Henry, John, Thomas, Emily and Anne

Will dated 7.09.1870 David Childs formerly of 14 Duke Street Portland Place but late of Bushey Hertfordshire died 28 May 1870 effects of under £3000 to Perthenia Childs of Limes Villa Bushey.

CHILD

The surname also spelt Childs, Child, Childe and Chyld is one of the oldest English family names, the Progenitor was probably a Saxon Chief who assumed the name toward the end of the Saxon domination in England. After the Norman Conquest some of the Family took the Latinized French form of L'Enfant for some generations and several of that name were concerned in the conquest of Ireland in the Reign of Henry lll , and in the government of the country in the 12th century. Others had seats at various places in Worcestershire and at Shrewbury, England.
Richard Le Childe was Lord Mayor of the Manor of Northwick in 1320 and was succeeded by his sons William and Thomas, and Grandson of Thomas Le Childe who was the High Sheriff for the county in 1428.

The word Childe has had the following meanings from which the surname Child originated. Childe was originally a title given to Norse, French, and English Kings during the 4th through the 10th centuries. It was also a title given to the eldest son or to heirs and finally, it was a title given to young nobles awaiting knighthood during the 13th and 14th centuries

There were many different Childe families in England, with the addition of the title Childe, or le Childe to their first names. These Childe families are not related to each other, being descendants of different young nobles, and are found in most counties of England. Many of the younger sons who received no inheritance found it necessary to look for work elsewhere. They often crossed county borders to work for someone else until they were able to purchase their own land and property.

The Child Family Motto is 'Imitare Quam Invidere ' which means Imitate Rather than Envy.

The following persons all have David Child or David Childs listed as their father

David Child born 1727 - married Jane Booth 1755 - died 1820 aged 93

William Child 1756
David Child 1760 Married Joanna Perryman 1788
John Child 1764 Died 7.10.1831
Jane Child 1766

Children of David Child(s) b 1760
Grace Childs 1790
Mary Childs 1795
Elizabeth Childs 1795 twins
Jane Childs 1797
William Childs 1798
John Childs 1799 married Ann died 1869


David Child Senior Widower - married 2nd wife Mary Hoskin (Hosken) 17.3.1800

3 possible baptisms of Mary Hoskin in Madron (supplied by Peter & Jo)
1 Mar 1776 father Martin
17 Mar 1776 father James
1 Dec 1776 father Thomas

Stephen Child Hoskin 1800 born 23.02.1800 ( A month before his mother married )
David Childs 1801*
Grace Jeffrey Childs 1802 Jeffrey being Mary Hoskin's grandmother's name
Elizabeth Childs 1803
Mary Childs 1805
John Childs 1808 married Maria Eastaway (2nd wife) - moved to Dudley
First wife possibly Elizabeth - a baby Elizabeth Childs was born in 1836 (died in childbirth?)

* David Childs moved to London and ran a Painting & Plumbing Business he had 7 children none of whom appeared to have moved back to Cornwall

From these statistics it is presumed that Mary Hoskin was much younger than David Child Senior she gave birth to Stephen Child Hosken (Hoskin) a month before she was married
There appear to be two Mary Hoskins ( Hoskens) born 1776 in the Madron records

The couple had a son Thomas Tonkin Child b 25.7.1802 and a daughter Dorothy b 27.1.1805
She had a relationship with Ralph Sheldon KINDLEY ( no marraige found ) who owned the Tarbert Hotel Clarence Street. He had married a Sarah Holley in 1824 in Stepney London, there was one son Ralph Holley Kindley born 1825. No death found for Sarah.
"The Hotel is part of a Georgian Terrace of houses which were originally built in 1830 by Harrods Investment Corporation as homes for the Merchant Sea Captains who sailed the world in search of exotic goods for Harrod's discerning clientele. The original owner, Ralph Sheldon Kindly was lost at sea ( in 1850 ) in his quest for such treasures."
The couple had three daughters as far as we know Jane Childs Kindley born 1826 and Dorothy Childs Kindley born 1828 and Kate born 1830.

In 1834 Ralph married Jane Berryman in Madron, she was from a very long established Cornish family, They had three sons, Arthur , Christopher and William. Christopher Sheldon Kindley was tried for embezzelment in Plymouth, he died on 29 June 1870. On the 1851 census widow Jane was running a lodging house at 22 North Parade Penzance. William emigrated to New Zealand. Ralph certainly did not take his daughters to live with his new wife. They appear to have been taken in by the Childs family.

We have no idea what happened to Dorothy b 1805 ( no death records found) but on the 1841 census her daughter Dorothy was staying with her great uncle John Childs in Cornwall Terrace and a Kate Kindley was staying with her grandmother Jane Childs in North Parade. No trace of Jane Childs Kindley but in 1850 she married John Sandow in Madron. There is one record of Dorothy marrying a William Penrose in Redruth in 1848 but this hasn't been confirmed.

1841 Census

John Childs born 1799 died 1869
The family always lived in Cornwall Terrace at various numbers

John Childs 40 Assessor - Cornwall Terrace
Ann Childs 45 Wife
Martha Bryant Childs 12 (niece on all census sheets)
Mary Jane Childs 10
Thomas Childs 9
Margaret Childs 8
Dorothy Kindly 12
Ann Cook 25 Female Servant

Jane Childs 69 North Parade Independent means
Elizabeth Childs 20
Kate Kindley 10

(Jane often had a grandaughter staying with her on various census sheets)

1851 Census

no 83,Cornwall Terrace,John Childs,Head,M,52,,Proprietor Of Houses,
,,Ann Childs,Wife,M,,54,,Penzance Cornwall,,
,,Mary Jane Childs,Dau,U,,20,,Bath Somerset,,
,,Martha B.Childs,Niece,U,,22,Mariner's Daughter,Penzance Cornwall,,

- Martha worked in a Drapers shop

John Childs 1843 , printer, married Elizabeth Anne Matthews from Gulval Cornwall in 1868 in Dudley, the couple went to Dudley with the family and had a son David John in 1870, he died in Oldbury 1950 - Elizabeth Anne died of Consumption on 27.10.1874 and John went on to marry Phillis Gill on 15.06.1875
Elizabeth was one of six siblings, Richard, John, Thomas, Susannah and Catherine
Elizabeth's sister Susannah Matthews married John Weekes Maddell ( a grocer from Penzance) in Dudley in 1870, perhaps the two sisters went together with the Childs to Dudley?
Elizabeth's niece Susan Jane Matthews daughter of brother Thomas married Frederick Arthur
and went to the USA to live she died in 1953 in Washington.
John Childs went to work at the Dudley Herald after working on a newspaper in Penzance
Phillis died in 1925 in Wakefield Yorkshire aged 79
On the 1911 Census she was a widow 65, living with her daughter Dora in Ilkley

Thanks to various contributors to the site.

Pigot's Directory 1844
Tailors and Woollen Drapers Registered in Penzance

Billen[?] James, Parade st
Bonner John Cobbett, North st
Childs John, Chapel st
Cook Samuel, East st
Cowley John, East st
Daniel James, East st
Gawn Richard, Alverton st
Hewett Richard, Alverton st
Kingston William, East st
Matthews Richard, Queen st
Pascoe Francis, Alverton st
Paul William, North st
Richards Alexander, North st
Rogers Robert, Alverton st
Rogers William, Queen st

John Childs not listed as having a Fancy Repository in 1844
...................................................

Gentry and Clergy

Mr John Childs Cornwall Terrace Tax Collector (1844)
....................................................

Chapel Street. 1864
1. Alexander Hampton, Confectioner.
2. John Kinsman, Bookseller.
3. John Tonkin Cocking & Son, Hatters. (see Advt.) The advertisement says 4 Chapel Street
4. William Hosken Richards, Auctioneer, &c. (see Advt.)
4. Edward Paddy, Printer and Bookseller.
John Tonkin Cocking & Son, Hatters. (see Advt.)
5. John Basset, Shoemaker.
6. Mrs. Mollard, Fancy Drapery Establishment. (see Advt.)
7. Edward Lavin, Mineralogist. (London and South Western Bank.)
8. Henry Coulson Cornish, Corn merchant.
" John Childs", Tailor and Outfitter.
9. William Henry Penhaligon, Hairdresser, &c.

John Childs (born 1808) the great great grandfather of today's older Childs generation was listed in the 1856 Kelly's Trade Directory for Penzance. He was registered at no 7 Chapel Street with his family and had a Tailors Shop plus a 'Fancy Repository' (warehouse) in the street. Although the Census pages state the Parish was Madron, part of West Ward, Chapel Street is actually in Penzance itself leading down to the quay. By 1871 he had moved some of his family north to Dudley in Worcestershire. (Daughter Maria went to work in Somerset she married in Penzance in 1862 to Alexander G Budden a baker from Chard, they remained in Somerset )
John and his wife Maria Eastaway had six children. Maria, Sarah Jane, John, David, Mary & William
Within twenty years he had retired back to Penzance to 15 South Terrace a stone's throw from Chapel Street to run a lodging house, near to where his wife's family the Eastaways, who had been running a lodging house since 1871 at 1 Cornwall Terrace. (Perhaps a property that was in the Childs family ?) William Henry moved to London, married Alice Martha Nicholls in 1882 and brought up his family there.

Kelly's 1856

Description of Penzance circa 1850

SINCE 1825 many new streets and terraces have been built. South Terrace was the only row immediately in front of the sea. In 1826 Marine Terrace was begun, and was at first inhabited by masons, carpenters, and small tradesmen; the idea of lodging houses in such a locality would at that time have been considered absurd. The Mount's Bay House, Queen's Hotel, and Mineral Shop adjoining the hotel are much more recent, having been erected within the last twenty years. A Mr. Burt built the middle part of the Baths about 1840; there was then no Promenade in front of it, and the house stood at the edge of the high-water mark. The Baths were afterwards much enlarged by Mr. Norton. In 1825 a great part of the present Promenade consisted of a succession of sand hills, covered at intervals with a short green turf, hence the name of the Western Green: the Promenade as it now stands was not completed until 1844. All the rows of small houses at the back of Marine Terrace, and going further east-Coulson's Terrace, Coulson's Place and Buildings, have been built within the last fifty years

Cornwall Terrace has been built in three distinct blocks,-first in 1827 the small houses in the middle, then those nearer the sea, and lastly the upper part. The top house long stood detached, and on its garden about 1860 were erected the larger houses of Cornwall Terrace.

The name Penzance means 'holy headland' from the Cornish Pen Sans, probably because the chapel of St Mary in Chapel Street, first mentioned in 1327, was built on the ridge. A Spanish raid in 1595 burnt the town accounts records for the lack of very old buildings. This ecclesiastical parish was formally created in 1871 though it had long had its own chapel and had been registered since the new church was built in 1832 when it became separated from Madron parish. The architect, Charles Hutchens, being a native of St Buryan, a few miles west of Penzance. The Church replaced a chapel which had been on the same site, and when it was completed it was still actually a chapel as it came under the parish of Madron. St Mary's became a Parish Church with a Vicar of its own on 24 March 1871, the Bishop of Exeter being the patron, although he still had to consult the Vicar of Madron before he could appoint a priest.

PENZANCE
Created 1st July 1837.
Sub-districts : Merazion; Penzance; St. Buryan; St. Just in Penwith; St. Ives; Uny-Lelant.
GRO volumes : IX (1837-51); 5c (1852-1930).
Gulval, Ludgvan, Madron, Marazion, Morvah, Penzance, Perranuthnoe, St. Buryan, St. Erth, St. Hilary, St. Ives, St. Just in Penwith, St. Levan, St. Michael's Mount, St. Paul, Sancreed, Sennen, Towednack, Uny-Lelant, Wolfe Rock Lighthouse, Zennor.

The parish of Madron (or St Madern) is situated in the deanery of Penwith, and in the western division of the Hundred of Penwith. Named after an unknown saint, this parish is located north-west of Penzance with pleasant views across Mounts Bay and St Michaels Mount. It was formerly known as Madderne. It comprises two parts: the larger is bounded by Gulval to the north, to the east by the Borough of Penzance and the sea, to the south is Paul and Sancreed and on the west is Morvah. The lesser detached part is bounded on the east, south and west by Gulval and to the north by Zennor. Madron is not mentioned as such in the Domesday Survey of 1086; Madron Church, Tregwainton and Landithy were originally part of the Manor of Roseworthy in Gwinear. However the rest of the parish was taxed under the jurisdiction of the Manor of Alverton.

Its history goes back into the early middle ages. It possesses the mother church of Penzance and the famous holy well of St Madron, where it is claimed many miraculous cures took place. North of Madron is the prehistoric holed stone known as Men-an-Tol, also believed to have had the power of healing. Naked children suffering from rickets were passed through the hole three times in the hope of restoring their health.
Anglican. The Parish Church is located in OS Grid Square SW4531; it is dedicated to St Madernus (or Madderne).
A church had been here since the earliest of times. In 1203 Thomas de Chimelly had been appointed to the benefice of Madron for life. In 1309 the Knights Templar had turned the living of Madron from a rectory to a vicarage, which it has remained ever since. This arrangement allowed the church taxes to go to the Order. This income was used for their work in helping pilgrims and building Hospitals. The church remained with the Order until 1540 when it was supressed and its possessions confiscated by Henry VIII.
A new church was begun about this time, and the church building was consecrated on July 10th 1336 by the Bishop of Exeter. However it was not finished before 1500. It comprises a chancel, nave, and north and south aisle. In the base are 3 funeral hatchments: two of which are of the Borlase and Price families. The arcades each have six arches; those in the north are four-centred, those in the south are pointed. The material in both arcades and pillars of of Caen stone.
The tower is in two stages, the second resting on a corbel table. It is finished with battlements and pinnacles; it contains five bells; these bells were refurbished and rehung in 2005

An English writer, Morgan in his ' England Under the Normans', page 135 says that "there are several persons in the Doomsday book bearing the surname or title of Child". The Book of Doomsday was begun by five justices in the year 1081 and finished in 1086. Members of the Child family were connected with King Henry III’s conquest of Ireland and its government in the twelfth century. Other family members settled at Shrewsbury and Pool-Court, Pennock and Northwick in the county of Worcester. Bearers of the old and distinguished Child name make up a small fraction of the population, although there are a number who have established for it a significant place in history. They include: William Childs (Child) (1607-1697) English musical composer whose works are recorded in "Biography universal Des Musicians." Sir Josiah Childs (Child) (1630-1699) English merchant and eminent writer on commerce and political economy. He became very wealthy and was one of the Owners/Directors of the East India Company. In 1668 he published "Observations Concerning Trade and the Interest of Money," which he argues that the rates of interest should be kept low by legal restrictions. George W. Childs, American publisher (1829-1894), who was distinguished for his liberality and enterprise. In 1849 he became a member of Childs and Peterson. During 1864 he published Public Ledger. William Childs (b.1865) American restaurateur, who founded with his brother (1889) a restaurant chain bearing their name, and extending throughout the United States and Canada. Sir John Child of Surat, East Indies, Sir Josiah Child and Sir Frances Child of London were, perhaps, the most noteworthy and distinguished individuals of any bearing the name of Child. They raised themselves to importance, occupied prominent positions, both in public and private life, and became the founders of wealthy families in the last half of the 1600s. Sir John Child as a civic and military ruler, Sir Josiah Child a merchant, political economist and philanthropist, founder and president of the East Indies Company, and Sir Frances Child as a banker, goldsmith and sociologist, founder of Child & Co., one of the wealthiest if not the wealthiest bank of England. A Baldwin Childe and Robert L’Enfant are mentioned in the Cartulary of St. Nicholas, Esquire. Robert L’Enfant was Provost (officer in charge) of Shrewsbury during the reign of Henry III, 1509-1542. This man signed Robert L’Enfant as a witness and Robert LeChilde on other documents. This could be the same Robert that received a legacy from Sir Robert Cook, near Bury, Suffolk in 1587. These men are most likely descendants of 1353 Thomas LeChilde of Northwick, Worcester . Other descendants of the family are: Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph; Eli Whitney inventor of the cotton gin; George Herbert Walker Bush, President of the United States and his son George W. Bush, also President of the United States; Frank W. Childs, inventor and entrepreneur; Norman C. Childs Sr., religious author and Bible scholar; Norman C. Childs, Jr. (Sonny) is a nationally known religious author and orator of the Word of God; Sandy Childs Rowlette entrepreneur.

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