Jeffries and Treacher Family History

 

 

 

General

This section gives brief summaries of the main places with which our ancestors were associated.

The majority of the roughly 120 ancestors of whom we know, lived south of a line drawn through Oxford and a point about 4 miles north of Ipswich.  The main exceptions are those dozen or so from Scotland.

Counties

The main counties involved are -

Banffshire

Main ancestral surnames - Flaws and Riddoch.

Main ancestral places - Sandend, Cullen and Keith.

The ancestral places are in the north of the county.  Sandend and Cullen are on the coast of the Moray Forth, and Keith about 12 miles inland.

Berkshire (now Oxfordshire)

Main ancestral surnames - Jeffries, Belcher and Bason.

Main ancestral places - Kingston Bagpuize and Ardington.

The villages of Kingston Bagpuize and Ardington lie in the Vale of the White Horse, which was transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire as part of the local government reorganisation of 1973.  Throughout the site, therefore, the villages are always described as being in Berkshire.

Hertfordshire

Main ancestral surnames - Treacher, Biggerstaff and Betts.

Main ancestral places - Watford and Bushey.

London (Middlesex / Kent)

Main ancestral surnames - Treacher, Jeffries, Fisher and Carpenter.

Main ancestral places - Woolwich, Stepney, Limehouse and Shadwell.

Some of the places where this group of ancestors lived were swallowed up by London at the formation of the London County Council in 1889.  Dad's mother, Margaret Ann Fisher, and her ancestors were born in places that were then in Middlesex and are now part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.  When Mum's grandfathers first arrived in Woolwich it was still part of Kent.  Throughout the site, therefore, you may see a place described as being in Middlesex or Kent and then, elsewhere, as being in London.

Orkney

Main ancestral surnames - Flaws and Laughton.

Main ancestral place - South Ronaldsay.

Our Orkney ancestors lived in the north of the island of South Ronaldsay in Brandyquoy, Garth, a few miles east of St Margaret's Hope, the main town on the island and in Merrybraes, Grimness, a litttle further east.

Suffolk

Main ancestral surnames - Abbott and Catlin.

Main ancestral places- Sproughton (pronounced Sprooton).

The Suffolk places are all within about 20 miles of Ipswich.

Surrey

Main ancestral surnames - Jeffries, Cooper and Inwood.

Main ancestral places - Bletchingley, Croydon, Godstone, Tandridge and Upper Norwood.

Croydon now has a postal address in Surrey, although it is a London Borough.  Upper Norwood is part of London but at one time was part of Croydon, at a time before Croydon became a London Borough.  Because of this and because Bletchingley, Godstone and Tandridge are still in Surrey, I have kept this ancestral group together under the heading of Surrey.