Ian Watson (eiwatto44 @t hotmail.com) of  Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, is trying to confirm that his Kent-based ancestor comes from Hertfordshire. We have exchanged emails and it is clear that key evidence relating to the Hertfordshire connection could be in records held by the Kent Archives Service. As a result I give edited extracts of Ian's emails, together with my interpretation, and suggestions for further research.

William and Elizabeth Cutts lived at East Wickham, Kent, and familysearch lists 13 children, Sarah (1785), Elizabeth (1787), Ann (1788), William (1790), Mary (1791), Richard (1793), Thomas (1794), Jane (1797), Eleanor (1798), Samuel (1799), Daniel (1801), Christiana (1804) and Orbell Vale (1806). My direct ancestor is the second born of this marriage, Elizabeth Cutts (1787). She married Thomas Pilven and their first two children were also born at East Wickham, before the family eventually moved east to Gravesend, Kent. Thomas Pilven's occupation  was an ostler in the 1841 census and coffee-shop owner in the 1851 census.

My first reaction to this list (which is not unusual for this period) is that Orbell Vale Cutts is very much the odd one out - as all the other names are single good old English names (See The Inheritance of Single Christian Names). The eldest son was named after the father, and as the second daughter was named after the mother it is possible that the first daughter was named after the paternal grandmother. Other names may well be other members of the family. Why the change in naming policy? Something significant may have happened.

There is an online index of the West Kent Quarter Session Index on Rootsweb (LINK) relating to a removal appeal in 1801 for William Cutts of East Wickham to Bengeo, Hertfordshire, in 1801. His wife was Elizabeth and children affected are William (11), Ann (9), Mary (7), Richard (5) and Eleanor (2).

This is clearly the family - the older daughters may already have been working (and hence self-supporting), and the missing younger names may have died in infancy. (The parish burial index may clarify this - and may also provide an age at death for William Cutts and his wife.) The index of the court records also indicates that William Cutts came from Hertfordshire.

The fact that William and Elizabeth had lived in East Wickham for 15 years shows that the family was not initially considered a liability but for some reason things had gone wrong and the family had become a problem by 1801. Removal means that the Overseers of the Poor of East Wickham must have been looking for a way of off-loading the costs of supporting the family. As the family continued at East Wickham the appeal against removal must have been successful. The index entry does no more than draw one's attention to the fact that there are records in the Kent Archives relating to the family and the appeal. These records are likely to explain why the family were in difficulty (had William had an accident which stopped him working?) and the link to Bengeo. There may also be references to payments to the family in the Overseers' account books (if they have survived). Clearly there is significant work to be done on the Kent records, which may well include details of the family that would not normally be available.

I now return to Orbell Vale. The removal appeal proves that something significant happened to the family in 1801 and we know the first son born after this event was called Orbell Vale Cutts. It is not uncommon for a child to be named after a "patron" of the family so it is likely that someone called Orbell Vale stepped in to the removal case and provided funds to allow the family to stay in East Wickham. The Court records may well make it clear. (However as the family had been in East Wickham for about 15 years the parish of Bengeo would have also strongly opposed resettlement - and there may be relevant records at HALS.)

Familysearch shows that an Orbell Vale married on 24/10/1780, Mary Cutts at St Andrew's, Hertford, the next parish to Bengeo. Clearly William Cutts is somehow related to Mary Cutts & has named his youngest son after Mary's husband Orbell Vale. Orbell Vale was born in Brinkley, Cambridgeshire (Ch. 16/4/1758)

Probably Mary was William Cutts' sister. The marriage register needs to be examined as William Cutts may have been a witness (giving you an example of his signature or mark). The name Orbell Vale is so unusual that a connection is extremely likely and the fact that there is a matching baptism at Brinkley indicates that Orbell was comparatively mobile for the UK, where the Poor Laws made it hard for the poor to move from one place to another.

I note that the British Vital Records Index shows that Orbell Vale and Mary Cutts had three children baptised at St Andrew's, Hertford - Ann  (1784), William (1786) and Mary (1789) - which clearly indicates that he was living in Hertford for some time. He is not listed in Hertford in the Universal British Directory of 1791, but this should not be treated as significant as the directory was highly selective and has many omissions.

For a while I thought this family came from Buckland, Herts., where a William Cutts married an Elizabeth on 6/4/1781(familysearch), but I now think this a separate family.

William Cutts must have moved from Bengeo, Herts, to East Wickham, Kent, by 1785, perhaps because of his occupation (as yet unknown). Assuming there were no earlier children he probably married Elizabeth in 1793/4 - and may have already left Hertfordshire by the time he married. Another possibility on familysearch is the William Cutts who married Elizabeth Diver at Folkestone, Kent, on 4th March 1783. However a child called Thomas baptised in Folkestone in 1787 seems to eliminate this marriage as well.

I suggest that it would be best to see what additional information can be obtained from the Kent records before taking the search in Hertfordshire much further.

There is a Web Page for Bengeo

If you can add to the information given above tell me.

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