The Descendants of William Pluck and Sarah Cutts
Origins
What do we know about William Pluck (PL0803)?
- 1832 Marriage: He married Sarah Cutts in Braintree parish church on 31 October 1832. His residence was given as Bocking (just north of Braintree) and hers as Braintree. He would have been aged about 18, and Sarah 20.
- 1841 census: 27 year old journeyman shoemaker, born in Essex and living in New Street with wife and three children.
- 1851 census: 37 year old shoemaker, born in Saffron Walden, with wife, born in Braintree, and five children, all born in Braintree. Still living in New Street.
- 1861 census: 46 year old journeyman bootmaker, born in Braintree, with wife and three children, all born in Braintree. Still living in New Street.
- 1871 census: 56 year old bootmaker, born in Braintree, with wife and three children, all born in Braintree. Now living at 2 Pound Field, Braintree.
The census tells a fairly consistent story. He was born 1814/15 and lived in Braintree for most of his adult life. In spite of the 1861 and 1871 records I am inclined to believe that he was born in Saffron Walden, firstly because it is not the sort of thing that you get wrong, particularly when you are young, and secondly because there is little evidence, in the parish records, of any Plucks living in Braintree before 1821.
So who, living in Saffron Walden around 1814/15, could have been his father?
- John Pluck Jnr 1765-1834 (PL11): John married his third wife, Elizabeth Ward, in Saffron Walden on 10 February 1813. I know of only one child of this marriage: Nehemiah Pluck Snr (PL42). Nehemiah was not baptised as a child; the Saffron Walden parish register clearly showns the baptism of "Nehemiah, son of John and Elizabeth Pluck, cordwainer", on 13 June 1830. Nehemiah's date of birth was given as 17 April 1814. He would have been 16 years old. See Tree 7. William could have been Nehemiah's twin.
- John Pluck (the convict) 1788-1845 (PL40): son of John Pluck Jnr. He had nine children, all baptised more or less regularly. In spite of his unruly lifestile, which ended in transportation to Australia, he seems to have had a more orderly attitude to baptisms than his father or his brother. Or perhaps it was his wife who should be given the credit? On balance, he seems an unlikely candidate.
- James Pluck 1791-???? (PL17): another son of John Pluck Jnr. He married Ann Linton in Saffron Walden on 6 April 1814. I have been able to identify only one child, Henry, who was born circa 1821 but not baptised until 1832. There may have been other children of this marriage.
In 1826 there was a removal order from Braintree to Saffron Walden for James Pluck with wife and 2 children, so he appears to have had another child. Only Henry appears in the 1841 census, by which time James's first wife has died and James has married again. In 1831 he takes on his nephew Nehemiah as an apprentice cordwainer. If William was Nehemiah's brother (? twin) you would expect both to have been apprenticed.
On balance, it seems more likely that William was the other child of James and Ann who was removed from Braintree to Saffron Walden in 1926. Without further documentary evidence, however, this is just speculation.
Notes
PL No |
Surname |
Forenames |
Notes |
| 2737 | BUTCHER | Joseph | C1901: farm labourer; |
| 0804 | CUTTS | Sarah | C1841: b. Essex 1812, silk thrower; C1851: b. Braintree 1812; C1861: b. Braintree 1813, boot closer; C1871: b.Braintree 1813; C1881: b. Braintree 1812, annuitant partly dependent on lodgers (grand-daughter Ellen [PL2999] aged 19, a silk winder is also living with her); C1891: living in Braintree with her son Charles (PL0810); C1901: still living with Charles, her place of birth is now given as Bocking. |
| 0820 | DYER | Mary Ann | C1891 |
| 2736 | GODDARD | William H | C1901: sorter at GPO; |
| 0825 | HALLS | Rose Alice | C1901; |
| 2732 | KING | Charles | C1871: police constable |
| 2731 | LEWSEY | Frederick | C1871 |
| 2748 | LORD | Edgar Alfred | C1901: railway guard |
| 2730 | PARTNER | Arthur | C1881: living in Stisted with Hannah and four children aged 12 to 6 months. A possible death in the GRO index is: Q1 1887, St George Hanover Square, 1a, 370, age 60. This fits the age recorded in the 1881 census. |
| 0827 | PLUCK | Ada Alice | C1901; |
| 0823 | PLUCK | Alma | C1891; C1901: now married with a one year old daughter and living in Leyton. Her brother, Herbert, is a boarder. |
| 0810 | PLUCK | Charles | Died on 11Jan1916 in 30 Albert Road, Braintree.Principal Probate Registry Calendar. Will not held by me, but PPR Calendar notes that probate was granted to Emily Pluck, spinster, (his daughter) on 16 February 1916. Effects £167 (approx £6000 in 1998 values). C1851; C1861: boot closer (living with family); C1871: boot maker (unm living with family); C1881: Overseer factory (manager); C1891: overseer silk factory; C1901: boot maker |
| 2728 | PLUCK | Clara | C1891; C1901: a servant in a girls' boarding school in Braintree (a number of girls born overseas - Rissia, India, Canada, ? parents in overseas occupations). |
| 0833 | PLUCK | Edith | According to the 1901 census Edith was born in Braintree c 1897. There were two Edith Plucks born in Braintree at about this time, this Edith (PL0833) and the Edith (PL0829) who was the daughter of Frank William Pluck and Kate Adams. However there is only one Edith in the GRO birth index. It is possible that one of the births has been missed from the index. This happens from time to time. There is another, more likely explanation, however, which emerges if you look at the children of Walter (PL0818) and Elizabeth (PL0832). Walter and Elizabeth Emma Cowell were married in Braintree during the first quarter of 1898; their second child, Bertha Minnie, was born during the next quarter. Clearly their first child, Edith, was born out of wedlock. A search for the birth of an Edith Cowell was unsuccessful. |
| 0829 | PLUCK | Edith Winifred | See the note for Edith (PL0833), the daughter of Walter Pluck and Emma Cowell. |
| 0807 | PLUCK | Eliza | twin (with Emily). C1841; C1851; C1861: a housemaid at Grange Farm, Little Coggeshall, in household of Joseph Unwin a farmer of 739 acres employing 43 men and 22 boys. C1871: married and living in Bethnal Green with two young children. Her brother George is also there. |
| 0809 | PLUCK | Elizabeth Mary | C1851; C1861: servant (living with her family); C1871: general servant in household of Frances Blanchard, landlord of the King's Arms, London Road, Bromley St Leonard (her age is recorded as 21, but otherwise this record fits). Not yet found in subsequent censuses or in marriage or death indexes. |
| 0808 | PLUCK | Emily | twin (with Eliza). C1841; C1851; C1861: servant in household of Henry Shelley, tallow melter (employing 3 men and 1 boy); C1871: now married to Charles King, a police constable, with two young children. |
| 0821 | PLUCK | Emily | C1891 |
| 0817 | PLUCK | Frank William | C1881; C1891: bootmaker; |
| 0805 | PLUCK | George | C1841; C1851 shoe maker; C1861: bootmaker (master) now married and living in Coggehall Lane; C1871: in Bethnal Green with his sister Eliza and her husband Frederick Lewsey (occupation - bootmaker); C1881: bootmaker; C1891: bootmaker |
| 0826 | PLUCK | George | irth from 1901 census. However, I can't find a birth registration for a George Pluck but there is a possible registration of a George Frederick Halls in Q1 1895, Braintree 4a 703, which fits date and place. "Born in the vestry? |
| 0813 | PLUCK | Henry | 1861; C1871; C1881: unm, bootmaker; C1891: corn factor's labourer; C1901 in the Braintree Union workhouse, pauper, aged 42, single, "feeble minded. |
| 0824 | PLUCK | Herbert Thomas | C1891; C1901: a boarder in Leyton (living with his married sister, Alma), unmarried, railway mechanic. His brother in law is a railway guard. |
| 2735 | PLUCK | Joseph | A death certificate is needed to confirm this death, but Joseph does not appear in the next census. His twin, Henry, is recorded in the 1901 census as feeble minded. The birth of twins would not have ben easy at that time, and brain-damage is a possibility. |
| 2733 | PLUCK | Marjorie | C1901 |
| 2734 | PLUCK | Olive | C1901 |
| 0822 | PLUCK | Ralph | C1891 |
| 2729 | PLUCK | Sidney | C1891 |
| 0819 | PLUCK | Thomas James | C1881; C1891: scholar; C1901: not found. There is a possible marriage: Q4 1906 Islington 1b, 354 - Thomas James PLUCK to either Sarah COATES or to Elizabeth Louisa DEADMAN. Neither mother's maiden name appears in the post 1911 birth index. |
| 0818 | PLUCK | Walter | C1881; C1891: errand boy; There must have been other children born between the 1901 census and September 1911 when the GRO started to record the mother's maiden name in the birth index. |
| 0803 | PLUCK | William | William's origins are unknown. Three censuses (1841, 1851 and 1861) all clearly indicate his date of birth as 1814. However, the 1851 and 1861 give his place of birth as SW, and the 1871 gives Braintree (where he had lived most of his adult life). It is possible that William is a son of John Pluck Jnr and Elizabeth Ward. John and his third wife were married in SW on 10 Feb 1813. Nehemiah Snr was born on 17 Apr 1814 but was not baptised until 13 June 1830. So the lack of a christening record for William is understandable. Nehemiah and William could have been twins. C1851: shoe maker; C1861: bootmaker (journeyman); |
| 2727 | SAYER | Gertrude Alice | C1901 |
| 0980 | SIBLEY | Hannah | 1901 census records her birthplace as Stisted, which is a couple of miles east of Braintree. She is now a widow, a domestic servant in the household of Elizabeth Scott, an 83 year old widow. |
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