Charles Alderman
Charles Alderman
By Neil Rees
Charles Alderman was born in 1812 son of John Alderman and his wife Phillis (nee Casemore) Alderman. He lived all his life in Nearton End, Swanbourne. On 25th January 1830 he married Hannah Tarry at St Swithun’s Church in Swanbourne. She had been christened in Ashendon in 1811.
Charles Alderman 1812-1885
Children of Charles and Hannah Alderman
Charles and Hannah had 15 children and their birth dates are recorded in the Alderman-Gurnett family Bible as: Mary 30th March 1830; Grace 18th March 1832; Sophia 24th Dec 1833; Rebecca 5th Feb 1836; Thomas 2nd Jan 1837; Charlotte 16th Jan 1839; Susanna 29th Jan 1841; Joseph 24th Jan 1843; Jasper 13th Dec 1845; Charles 12th Nov 1846; Henry 7th Oct 1848; Edwin 13th Oct 1849; Alfred 2nd Oct 1851; Daniel Richard 29th Oct 1855; Hannah Jane 16th Dec 1856. Of the 15 children only Grace and Henry died in infancy, 13 survived into adulthood, and 12 married and had children.
Religious Affiliation
The first child Mary was christened at Ashendon, and all the others were christened within a few months of birth at St Swithun’s. However sometime after this the family joined the Primitive Methodist chapel in Nearton End and the family became stalwarts of that congregation.
Census Returns
For most his life Charles Alderman lived with a large family unit in a cottage in Nearton End. In 1841 Charles and Hannah Alderman were living next door to his parents John and Phillis Alderman. They were living with six children: Mary, Sophia, Rebecca, Thomas, Charlotte and Susannah who was only three months old. In 1851 he was living in Nearton End next to his parents, with his wife and children Thomas, Charlotte, Susanna, Joseph, Jasper, Charles and the youngest was Edwin aged one. The three oldest girls were then working as domestic servants elsewhere. In 1861 he was living with his wife and children Charlotte, Susanna, Joseph, Charles, Edwin, Alfred, Daniel, and Hannah and he had his mother Phillis, then aged 84, living with them. In 1871 Charles and Hannah were living with their children Alfred, Daniel and Hannah and their grandson Albert Buckingham was visiting.
Three of his children moved to the Peterborough area: Joseph Alderman who had a tailoring business there, Mary and her husband George Harrison who moved there for work and Thomas Alderman who ran a farm at Luddington near Peterborough.
Hannah Alderman
Charles’s wife Hannah Alderman died in 1876 aged 65. It was recorded under deaths in the Bucks Herald on 25th November 1876 “ALDERMAN – At Swanbourne, on the 13th inst., Hannah, wife of Charles Alderman, died 64 years.”
Second Wife
Sometime after his wife’s death, Charles Alderman lodged with Elizabeth Yates in Nearton End, who herself had also been widowed in 1876, when her husband Henry Yates died. In the 1881 census Charles Alderman is recorded as a lodger to Elizabeth Yates. They must have been good company to each other, because on 18th April 1881 aged 68 he married his landlady Elizabeth Yates (nee Pitkin) aged 64. She was born Elizabeth Pitkin and was related to two of Charles’s son-in-laws: Daniel Pitkin and Alfred Pitkin. She had had four children by her first marriage, so as a result of this Charles Alderman acquired a further four step-children.
Charles Alderman death notice
Killed by a bull
Later, Charles’s son Edwin Alderman, who was living in Cheshire, commissioned a portrait of his father which hung in his house and remains with his family. One day Charles was walking through a field in Swanbourne when he was gored by a bull. An inquest was held on 14th May and he was buried on the 16th May at Swanbourne. The death announcement card said he “died a violent and sudden death by being gored by a ferocious bull May 13th, 1885, aged 73 years. He was interred May 16th, 1885, and is deeply lamented by a large and loving family.” The large and loving family had included 15 children and 85 grandchildren, not counting step-children and step-grandchildren.
Sources
family history, Bucks Herald, Swanbourne parish records, Alderman-Gurnett family Bible
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