by John Slaughter  

I have been pleased to welcome five new members to the Society.

Keith Harding first became attracted to family history when his sister gave him three very tatty bibles that contained a list of names of his relatives going back over 130 years. Tucked inside one was a newspaper cutting concerning the death of William Saul in 1902. William was Keith’s great great grandfather and who had married Sebra Arnott at Wigton Register Office, Cumberland on 11 November 1871. They had five known children including Sarah Ann from whom Keith is descended. William appears on our largest Cumberland tree that includes the Lamplugh Sauls and originates in Holme Cultram, Cumberland in the 16^th century.

Keith’s sister is Lily Wood who I am pleased to say has also joined the Society. Lily has kindly offered to write an article for Soul Search on the Sauls in Cumberland particularly those in the period 1840 to 1920 in the Wigton and Aspatria areas and which will include the newspaper article on William’s death.

Rachel Roberts lives in Texas, USA but her 3 x great grandmother Margery Dillon Sawle married Richard Kemp in Australia in 1851. Margery Dillon Sawle was born in Gerrans, Cornwall in 1829 and emigrated to Australia in 1839 with her parents and siblings. Her father James Sawle was the author of the letter “Emigrants! Take care of your Pockets” that we publish in Soul Search December 2004. Janet Drinnan had provided this letter and I understand that Rachel and Janet have exchanged information.

Belinda Dettmann recently established that her 3 x great grandfather John Farmer had married Mercy Saull at Edgcote, Northants in 1795. They had three children before Mercy died in 1804 apparently in childbirth. The third child, also named Mercy, was baptised on the same day as her mother’s burial and it is from this child that Belinda is descended. Mercy, the mother, has been identified as having been baptised at Byfield, Northants in 1766 the seventh child of thirteen born to Thomas Saull and Hester Boot. Belinda therefore adds to the number of our Saull members who can trace their ancestry back to Byfield and will be distantly related to some.

The final new member this time is Mary Fround, who we can also link back to Byfield. Mary’s maiden name was Saull, her grandfather being John Charles Saull who had been born in Aston, Warwickshire in 1877. The only information I had on John Charles Saull was taken from the 1881 census so Mary has been able to provide me with some very useful information on his descendants. He had married Elizabeth Genevieve Kenny, though the place and date of marriage is unknown, possibly Ireland. They had three children Edith, Charles Arthur and Leslie. John Charles Saull was one of ten children born to Tom Saull and Mary Gittings. The places of birth of the children showed that Tom and Mary lead a fairly nomadic existence though Tom’s roots were in Long Buckby, Northants where he had been baptised in 1840. Two generations back from Tom takes us to Byfield.

On the enquiry front I received an e-mail from Paula Lermit- Hill whose 3 x great grandmother was Emily Genn Saul who hade been baptised in 1822 at St Botolph without Aldgate, London the daughter of Abraham Saul and Elizabeth. A Google search on Abraham Saul led Paula to my Coordinator’s report in the December 2004 journal where I had mentioned the Saul connection of member Judith Russell. It is possible that their families are related and I have referred Paula to our members who are actively researching this line.

My report in the last journal gave details of the Saul ancestors of Magda Breadmore. When Christine Muschamp read the report she recognised some of the names as also being those of her forebears. This links Christine to both Magda and Robert Hina. Furthermore from research that Robert has recently undertaken we appear finally to have established the connection to Frank Saul, the Spurs Footballer who played for the club in the 1960s. It appears that Frank connects to this tree making him is a distant relation to Robert, Magda and Christine. Research is ongoing and, no doubt, further details will appear in a later journal.

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