The family of William and Mary Sanders.

We know from William Sanders' will that at the time of his death in 1819 he had eight living children- three sons and five daughters. If you note all of the Enfield baptisms of children born to parents named William and Mary Sanders from 1780 to 1812, there are sixteen entries ranging from William Thomas Sanders in 1787 to John Sanders in 1812.

My William and Mary were born in c. 1759 and 1758 respectively, so it would be highly unlikely that this Mary would be the mother of John born in 1812 when she would have been aged about 54 years old. The sixteen baptismal entries in question, all occurring at St. Andrews, Enfield, are as follows:
September 12, 1787: William Thomas Sanders
May 9, 1790: Job Sanders
22 May 1791: Job Sanders
February 1, 1795: Thomas Sanders
February 13, 1795: Mary Anne Sanders
November 6, 1796: Susan Sanders
February 18, 1798: Frances Sanders
July 28, 1799: Susannah Sanders
February 2, 1800: Elizabeth Sanders
December 19, 1800: Alicia Sanders
November 8, 1801: William Sanders
July 31, 1803: Anne Sanders
February 3, 1805: Mary Sanders
February 12, 1806: Edward Sanders
February 11, 1807: Anne Sanders
May 3, 1812: John Sanders

I cannot find a record for a Sarah Sanders being born to William and Mary Sanders in c. 1791-94, which is the period suggested by her ages as given in census returns from 1851 and 1861, and at her death in 1863. There IS a Sarah Saunders baptised St Andrews, Enfield, on October 28, 1792, daughter of William and Mary Sanders, who is most likely our Sarah Sanders.

From William Sanders' will, the married names of two of his five daughters is known...Sarah Sanders by 1819 was Sarah Robinson, and Mary Anne was Mary Anne Marsh. Daughters Susan, Alicia and Elizabeth were still unmarried.
Sarah Sanders married miller Isaac Robinson on December 1, 1816, at All Hallows, Tottenham. There is a note for marriages on this page of the register that says : " The following banns were published in Edmonton Church, this church being under repair."

I can't find a marriage record for Mary Ann Sanders or Saunders to a man named Marsh or March anywhere in England let alone Middlesex. There is, however, a Marsh family in Enfield in the 1841 census with parents Mary and James, and a family of children baptised at St Andrews Enfield between 1809 and 1825 with parents James and Mary Anne. Because of the lack of a record of a marriage of a James Marsh to any Mary or Mary Anne around 1808-09, I am assuming that this family from Clay Hill is the family of our Mary Anne Sanders (until proven otherwise, anyway)

Daughter Susan or Susannah Sanders married Benjamin Warby in 1821; and brothers William and Thomas both married Sarahs:-
Thomas Sanders, bachelor, married Sarah Simmons, spinster, at St Andrews, Enfield, on February 21, 1819, and:
William Sanders, bachelor, married Sarah March, spinster, All Saints, Edmonton, by banns in November 1823.
Youngest son, Edward Sanders, of course married Jane Draper. the fate of sisters Elizabeth and Alicia I have not as yet uncovered.
I believe that the two children baptised Job in 1790 and 1791 also belonged to our William and Mary Sanders. The first child died in infancy in 1790, and the second Job married Rachel Hankins in 1810 and died in 1817. I believe that he wasn't named in the will of his father William simply because he had died two years before his father.
I will now add a small blog entry for each of the individuals whom I believe to be the issue of my William and Mary Sanders of Enfield.

Two marriages of William Sanders in Enfield

Above: Which of these two Marys - if in fact either- is my five-greats grandmother???

Burials of William and Mary Sanders

Wills of William Sanders and his wife Mary.

Above: The will of Mary Sanders, wife of William, was both written and proved in 1825. I had to order it through the London Metropolitan Archives as, unlike that of her husband, it was not registered as a PCC will. It proved to me that I had been correct about my research into her youngest child, Leticia/Alicia Sanders, who I thought had married Robert Dickenson...her mother names her in her will as 'Leticia Dickenson.'

Above: The earlier will of William Sanders, husband of Mary.

William Sanders, father of Edward Sanders.

As can be seen above in the baptismal record of Edward Sanders, his parents were William Sanders and his wife Mary, maiden name unknown. It has proved difficult specifying Edward's siblings, because two different Sanders families with parents William and Mary were being born in Enfield in the period late 1700s to early 1800s, and it is near impossible to separate them.

The location of William Sanders' will several years ago helped no end to identify his children , naming as it did his three sons and five daughters:

"My three sons William, Thomas and Edward" and my five daughters "Mary Ann Marsh, Sarah Robinson, Elizabeth Sanders. Susan Sanders and Leticia Sanders" (although the latter was actually 'Alicia' Sanders)

The will was quite short, but it did specify that funds should be set aside to "place out my said son Edward as an apprentice". This was obviously done as asked, as Edward became a cordwainer/shoemaker, an occupation that would have required an apprenticeship.

Using the names given in William Sander's will, we can find the following baptisms in the registers of St. Andrew's, Enfield:

Thomas Sanders baptised February 1, 1795

Susan Sanders baptised November 6, 1796

Susannah Sanders baptised July 28, 1799

Alicia Sanders baptised December 19, 1800

Elizabeth Sanders baptised February 2, 1800

William Sanders baptised November 8, 1801

Anne Sanders baptised July 3, 1803

Mary Sanders baptised February 3, 1805

Edward Sanders baptised February 12, 1806

There are two prospective marriages for a William Sanders/Saunders in Enfield for the correct time period...on September 16, 1781, William Saunders married Mary Cracknell, and on April 24, 1794, William Saunders married Mary Acrus. On both occasions the groom was a batchelor, and both marriages took place in St. Andrews' Enfield. This is assuming, of course, that the marriage of William and his Mary was carried out in the borough of Enfield and not some other parish. I did check several other William/Mary marriages in London/Middlesex for the period 1780-1800, and none of them matched.

I had chosen Mary Acrus as the most likely bride for my William Sanders, due to the dates of births of the children listed above, with the eldest son, Thomas, being born in 1795. This would fit in with the first child of a couple who married in 1794, such as William Sanders and Mary Acrus.

When consulting the entire list of children baptised at St. Andrews, Enfield, to parents William and Mary Sanders/Saunders in the 1780s-1790s, however, we had these additional children:

September 12, 1787: William Thomas son of William and Mary Sanders

January 29, 1789: Mary Anne daughter of Wm and Mary Sanders

May 9, 1790: Job son of William and Mary Sanders

February 13 1795: Mary Anne daughter of William and Mary Sanders

February 1, 1795: Thomas son of William and Mary Ann Sanders

February 18, 1798: Frances daughter of William and Mary Sanders

There were also two children born to parents William and Mary Sanders in 1807 and 1812:-

February 11 1807: Anne daughter of William and Mary Sanders

May 3, 1812: John son of William and Mary.

I still think that it may be Mary Acrus who married my William Sanders...taking that she would have been about 20 at her marriage in 1794, her birth year would have been around 1774 or earlier. Similarly, we can roughly put the Mary Cracknell who married in 1781 as being born in c. 1761 or earlier. I think that it would be more likely the former giving birth to my Edward Sanders in 1806 at the age of about early-to-mid thirties than Mary Cracknell being his mother when in her mid to late 40s.

When we check for the burial of William Sanders who wrote his will on March 29, 1819, we find two William Sanders of Enfield who died in 1819:

William Sanders, buried November 14, 1819; buried St Andrews Enfield, aged 69 years. Late a shopkeeper of Enfieldtown. His wife was buried at the Meeting Ground, Chaseside.

William Sanders, buried St Andrews, Endfield, April 17, 1819, aged 60 years. A farmer, Chaceside(sic), Enfield.

Our William Sanders' will proves beyond doubt that the latter is our man...he wrote his will on March 29, 1819, and it was proved on May 4, 1819. This means that it couldn't have been written by the William Sanders who was buried in November 1819. Also there was a note written on November William's burial entry that stated that his wife had been buried in the Meeting Ground, Chaseside, a Quaker burial ground. We know that our William's wife Mary was still alive in March of 1819 as he mentioned her in his will.

Searching for a death or burial for our Mary Sanders, widow of William, we find:

Mary Sanders, buried April 17, 1825, St Andrews, Enfield. Widow of William Sanders, a farmer, Chaseside. Age 67 years.

This is fantastic, locating the burial of both of my five-greats grandparents, but it throws my theory about which Mary had married my William right out the window. Our Mary Sanders was 67 when she died in 1825, which puts her birth year as c. 1758. Her husband William died aged 60, putting his year of birth as about 1759.

This changes my view of things...I now favour Mary Cracknell as the Mary who married our William in 1781. The Mary who married William would have then been aged about 22, and at the time of Edward Sander's birth in c. 1806, was aged about 48...unlikely but not impossible.

Mary Acrus who married William Sanders in 1794 would have been aged 36 at the time of her marriage if she had been born in 1758. Acrus appears to be an exceedingly uncommon name- the only instance of a marriage of a Mary Acrus is to William Saunders(not Sanders). I thought it may be a misspelling of 'Acres', but the name appears as 'Acrus' both in Pallot's Marriage Index and in the Parish Register for St Andrews Enfield. Both of the parties in the marriage entry for the William Sanders and Mary Acrus wedding had to sign there name with a cross, suggesting illiteracy and therefore increasing the possibility of a misspelling of names. Our William also signed his name with a cross on his last will and testament.

A Mary Cracknell of the correct birth year was born on March 14, 1758, the daughter of John Cracknell, a waterman, and his wife Martha. She was baptised at St. Johns, Horselydown, Southwark, on April 16, 1758.

Arrgghhh...let's face it...at the moment, I just don't know which Mary was the wife of my William Sanders! I will welcome all suggestions and debate re. the Mary Acrus vrs Mary Cracknell question.

1891 census Edward Sanders & Family

1901 Census Edward Sanders

Edward Sanders Jnr 1881 Census

Edward Sanders Junior 1871 Census

Edward Sanders Junior in 1861 Census

Edward Sanders, 8th & final child of Edward Sanders & Jane Draper

Edward Sanders was born at Chase Side in 1849, the third son and eighth child born to Edward Sanders and Jane Draper. He was baptised at St Andrews, Enfield, on February 17, 1850.
Edward was the only son to follow his father's trade of bootmaking (also referred to as shoemaking or cordwaining). He married at the age of 18 years Elizabeth Dunklin, the daughter of another cordwainer, William Dunklin. They were married at St. Leonards, Shoreditch, on May 1, 1868 (see certificate above)
  Like his father, Edward remained in the Enfield district for his entire life. He and Elizabeth raised a family of  eight children- Jane, Thomas, Alfred, Annie, Frederick, Henry, John and Alice

Sarah Sanders, 7th child of Edward Sanders and Jane Draper

Sarah Sanders is the mystery child thus far in my research into this family. She was born in Chase Side, Enfield, in 1847, and was baptised on December 5, 1847, at St. Andrews, Enfield.
She last appears as a witness on the marriage certificate of her sister Emma's marriage to Charles Crawley in 1866, then disappears. I will return to Sarah at a later date and make a more concerted attempt to track her down.

Emma Sanders in the census returns 1871-1901

Baptisms of Emma Sanders Crawley's children

Emma Sanders, 6th child of Edward Sanders & Jane Draper

Emma Sanders was born in Chase Side, Enfield, in 1843, the sixth child and fourth daughter of shoemaker Edward Sanders and his wife Jane Draper. Emma was baptised at St Andrews, Enfield, on August 27, 1843.

On August 27, 1866, aged 23 years, Emma Sanders married Charles Crawley at the Jesus Chapel, Enfield. The couple remained in Enfield and raised a family of six children; Lydia; Emily; Alice;Florence; George and Charles.
At the age of 13 Lydia was missing from the family home in the 1881 census, and my first thought was that she died in childhood. A quick search found her still in Enfield, working as a servant for the family of widow Clara Hewlett and her three grown children.
Charles, or 'Charley' as he was known, worked for years as a coach driver. In the census returns from 1881, 1891 and 1901 the family were living in Parsonage Lane, Enfield, and in 1891 and 1901 Charley's occupation had changed from coach driver to care taker.

Probate Index Elizabeth Sanders & husband Charles Welch

Elizabeth Sanders Welch through the census returns.

Baptisms of Henry, Benjamin, Emily, Bertha and Rose Welch.

Baptisms of Alfred and George Welch.

Baptisms of Frederick, Florence,Albert & Minnie Welch

Marriage of Elizabeth Sanders and Charles Welch.

Elizabeth Sanders

Elizabeth Sanders was the fifth child and third daughter born to Edward Sanders and Jane Draper. She was born at Chase Side, Enfield, in 1841, and baptised at St Andrews Enfield on July 18, 1841.

On March 7, 1859, at St Botolph, Bishopgate, Elizabeth Sanders married gardener Charles Welch.The couple had a large family of children:- Frederick b 1860; Florence born 1864; Albert b 1866; Minnie b 1869; Alfred Ernest b 1871; George Edwin b 1875; Henry William b 1878; Benjamin Arthur b 1880; Emily Edith b 1881; Bertha Marion b 1883 and Rose born 1885.
Charles Welch died at 105 Chase Side, Enfield, on December 17, 1913. He left effects valued at 520 pounds, and administration of the will was granted to his widow, Elizabeth Welch, on January 25, 1916.
Elizabeth Sanders Welch died at 105 Chase Side, Enfield, on April 8, 1921. Probate of her will was granted to John Strange Stribling, insurance agent, and her effects were valued at 1110 pounds.

Susan Sanders in census returns 1851 to 1901

Above: Susan Sanders as she appeared in census returns from 1851 to 1901, with the exception of 1861, where I cannot locate the Houlton family anywhere!

Baptisms of the children of Susan Sanders and William Houlton