Who Were They

Top: Old village shops, Willingdon

Centre: Wish Hill, Willingdon

Below left: View from Downs

Below right: Old village pump, Willingdon

Thomas Mewett and his wife Catherine had come to Willingdon from Alfriston and the baptism of  their two daughters and three sons were the first Mewett entries in the parish register at Willingdon. Their son, Edmund (b 1700), named Edward in the register,  and Mary Manser were married at the very old St Mary-The-Virgin church in Willingdon. Their children were: Thomas (b 1725), Mary (b 1729), William (b 1732, died 1734), Samuel (b 1733), Lucy (b 1736), Allen (b 1738, died 1754).

There was no record of the marriage of Thomas to his wife Sarah, but the register details the baptisms of their children: Thomas (b 1752), Mary (b 1755), William (b 1757), Lucy (b 1760), Samuel (b 1762). Sarah, the wife and mother, died in 1765. Thomas, aged 50, remarried Anne Stretton in 1775 and  two sons were born to this second marriage: Edward (b 1776), and John (b 1778).

Edward Mewett (b  1776) married Elizabeth Rigelsford at Brightling, 12 miles north-east of Willingdon, in 1798. They established a line of descent to the Mewett families in Newcastle, New South Wales; Mewett families in New Zealand, and to Alan Mewett Beattie of Lerwick, Scotland, who has assiduously researched Mewett family history world-wide.

John Mewett (b 1778) married Elizabeth Wooller of Willingdon in 1803 and they established a line of descent to our Australian families through their eldest son. Their family of ten included Samuel (b 1803), Elam (b 1805), Maria (b 1807), Harriett (b 1810), Sophia (b 1812), Naomi (b 1813), Lucy (b 1816), Moses (b 1819), Ruth (b 1821), Barbara (b 1824). (Readers will notice that the names of the sons forming a direct line of descent have been given in bold type.)

Before moving on to the 19th Century history, I should go back to Mewett origins in the 16th Century in my next post before I attempt their emigration to Australia.

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