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1. The Shirley Family in Cropredy.

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Colin Shirley’s Letters.   

[Letter 1 dated: 6/01/1975]  I am afraid I can’t tell you much about my family.  I just remember my grandfather.  I understand from my father that he (my grandfather) came, in about 1860, from Hempton, a village near Deddington.  He was born on Christmas day 1831 and died in 1917.  If the name Shirley appears before 1831 perhaps I am mistaken and it was his ancestor that came from Hempton (This was my mistake. A branch of the Shirley family had lived in Cropredy before 1792 when Ed snr, wheelwright left a will (Pec.15.145:Pec.52/2/108), on the site of the 1881 Chapel.  Apparently these may not have been the direct ancestors of Colin Shirley. In Letter 2 Colin was replying to my wrong information. It was still a mystery to me why the Dews considered they were related to him). My grandmother was Sarah Wilson born in 1836 and died in 1906.  I was told she went out to the old school at Williamscote that stands on the left in the drive to Williamscote House, which I have been told was at one time a public road. 

My father was Albert Shirley and my uncle John Shirley.  He was a wheelwright and worked all his life in the yard where Mr Pettifer’s blacksmith’s shop is. (In 2002 Mr.G.Wheeler’s site now Agricultural Motors and General Engineer The Forge, High St) I think when he started work it was for James Lambert, (Clifford Lambert, son of William James Lambert, son of James Lambert (1834-1916) a wheelwright -  Book 5 The Wheelwright’s Apprentice by Arthur & Lucy Pettifer.) then it was taken over by Sumner and Neal, and lastly by Mr Frank Sumner (Mrs Constance Hollis’s father: Book 5).

My father was a mason.  At one time he had some bullets from the battle of Cropredy  Bridge, which he found in the river while working at the bridge.  I am sorry to say I don’t know where they are now, perhaps I fired them away with a catapult. 

[2L. 24/01/75]  When I wrote last I quite forgot to say that there were two other Shirleys in Cropredy when I first remember.  One a William Shirley, I remember well, lived down Creampot Lane.  He lived in the bottom cottage of four, where Mrs Medcalf and Mrs Underdown live now (William Shirley worked for Thomas Cooknell. Book 2 Cooknell’s of Cropredy Green by Mabel Durrant. Mrs Medcalf Snr. Lived at Elderberry End the bottom 2 cottages. Mr & Mrs Underdown Jnr.in the 3 bays of building next door called Creampot Cottage). I think I heard he had been a shoemaker. 

The other was a Stephen Shirley who lived  in a cottage at the top of Red Lion Street. 

I remember the name, but not him.  After he and his wife died, his wife’s sister, Mrs Plumb, lived there (Mr Roland Plumb’s grandmother).  I didn’t know they were related to us, but after studying the family tree you sent I see my grandfather had a brother Stephen and that his second wife was a Phoebe Dew.  We used to have an old recipe book with the name Phoebe Dew written on the fly leaf.  I remember too  a good many years ago my mother having a letter from a Mrs or Miss Dew from somewhere out Daventry way, but as she didn’t know anything about her she didn’t answer it.  I have an idea that Mrs Plumb’s maiden name was Dew. I know she had relations in the Daventry area.   The cookery book with Pheobe Dew in was given us by Mrs Plumb. 

[4L. 2/03/76]  The other names in the family Bible are all Shirleys beginning with my grandfather born 1831, d. 1917, his wife Sarah b.1837 d. 1906, then my father and their sister.  My uncle John married Elizabeth Cox.  I think she came from Bishops Itchington.  I know she had brothers there.  They had one son Arthur W. Shirley, he was a baker with his aunt Mrs Godson at Great Bourton. After Mrs Godson gave up the business he moved to Rugby and eventually to Dunchurch where he died in 1949.  He was married but had no family.  Mrs Godson’s daughter, Gertie, is Mrs Norman Smith who lives in Cropredy (Mrs N.Smith lived at Holmleigh, Round Bottom. For Marie Godson see Book 1 The Baker and the Carrier’s Daughter by Mrs Eddie Bassett & Mrs Marie Godson.). Do you know the Mrs Marie Godson who lives in the bungalow near the Plantation? Her husband was Mrs Gertie Smith’s cousin, their father’s were brothers. One [William] had a bakers business at Cropredy and the other [John] at Great Bourton.  The Bible is dated 1840.

  [Colin Shirley’s nephew John Taylor, son of his sister Christina, kindly added the following information ]:

[1L. 4/03/2002]  Colin’s mother was born at Kilchoan, Knoydart but more correctly Kilchoan, Inverie, Knoydart as Kilchoan is (now) just a single dwelling. The Inverie area of Knoydart even now is not accessible by road, although there is about five miles of road in that area.  The only regular access is by passenger ferry from Mallaig, which I took this last summer to have a look at the area. Whilst in Mallaig I discovered at the Heritage centre that Colin’s mother’s parents (from the 1861 census) both worked for a sheep farmer Mr MacDonald at Barrisdale, Knoydart.  He was a ploughman and she was a dairymaid.  This was before they were married.  Although her surname was the same as the farmer I don’t think there was a close relationship, if any at all, as they were both listed as servants.  Barrisdale is an even more remote place, being six miles from the nearest road and I think with no buildings permanently occupied.  There is a walker’s bothie there as it showed it on T.V. programme “Wilderness Walks”! 

[John’s letter of the 25/03/2002 mentions Mrs Shirley’s sister].  I cannot tell you much about Mrs Golby.  She was of course an old lady when I knew her.  She died in 1957, but cannot find any paperwork to verify where or when she was born.  You will see from my mother’s writing on the back of the mounted photograph that she lived in Bloxham at that time (She’s the one standing, Colin’s mother sitting)[Photo7].  I know that she was in private service and at one time worked for a Mr John Dewar-Harrison at Willaston near Fringford.  She also lived at Goodrest in Cropredy for a while, but when? (In 1897 H.Golby lived in Old Yard. Mr & Mrs Henry Golby lived at Goodrest from c1900 to c1909 (Rate Books). Mr Pratt took over R.O. post by 1910 (Sch log bk). Golby’s next heard of in Bloxham in1914.  They moved back to 2 Chapel Row.  Henry kept his donkey in stable behind.  He died in 1923 His widow worked away but returned to No.2. Maria Adkins of No.3 said She liked to have a clean white cloth & things just so. She kept a small chair for me to sit on. Shared pump with No.3. Upstairs a partition but no doors. Windows leaded with thick green glass making it very dark in the bedrooms.  Her sister lived with her: G.528 May McGillivray of Cropredy bur 28 Aug. 1948 aged 74 yrs Book 2 p55 and Book 3 Pettifers of Creampot Lane by D.Monk & G.Mold). Mr H.L.Golby was born 6/2/1866 and died13/4/1923 and his wife Eliza died 26/12/1957 aged 86.  Both are buried at Bloxham.