by John Slaughter  

This is the first opportunity I have had to comment on the Northern Gathering that took place on 9 April 2006 at Whitkirk nr Leeds.

I was particularly keen that we held an event in the North of England as I knew that we had a good percentage of members interested in the Saul name in that region and hoped that it would attract members that had been unable to attend our previous Gathering’s. In the event the numbers attending greatly exceeded my expectations and I was very pleased to meet, in particular, several members who were making their first visit to a Gathering. The day was very successful and flew by. Although we allowed a good amount of time for the Group Sessions the numbers made it difficult for me to spend as much time with everyone as I would have liked, however I think that everyone gained something from the day. We had one particular success in that Peter Saul and Eileen Wolfenden, who had long suspected that they were distantly related, were able to confirm this from comparing their respective trees and notes. I would like to express my thanks, in particular, to Christine Muschamp for making the arrangements on behalf of the Society and making sure that things ran smoothly on the day.

One of those attending at the Gathering was a new member, Peter Saul (so as not to confuse him with the Peter Saul mentioned above, we will call him Peter2). Peter2 is a descendant of the Sauls at Loversall in the Doncaster area of Yorkshire. John Amos who is the Coordinator for that area has been assisting Peter2 with his research and further details may be forthcoming.

As well as Peter2 we have had a further three new members join the Society since my report in the last journal. Firstly, a warm welcome to Sue Watson who is related to Michael Saul, details of whom were mentioned in my report in the May 2006 journal. Michael has been busy tracing living descendants and made contact with Sue’s aunt and cousin. Sue is descended from a Peter Saul born in 1830 at Hatfield, Yorkshire and who married a Sarah Shaw in Sheffield in 1852 and then via succeeding generations of William who married Frances Saddington, Ebenezer Cecil who married Minnie Ashling and William who was Sue’s father.

Sandra Daniels has also joined. Sandra has both a Saul and Sewell connection but, at the time of writing, exact details are awaited. I hope to be able to provide an update in a later journal.

The final new member this time around is Richard Sawle. Richard has provided me with information that strongly suggests that he is a descendant of the Isaac Sawle born in Gerrans, Cornwall in 1828. Brief details about Isaac were given in my report in the May 2006 journal. The line back from Richard, as far as I have been able to construct it, starts with his father William John Sawle born in the West Derby area of Liverpool in 1916. His father also appears to be a William John Sawle who was born in 1881 in the West Derby area and married a Gladys Shacklady. We can establish from the 1901 census that William John (Senior)’s father was a Samuel Sawle and who appears to be the Samuel Sawle born in 1857 to Isaac and his first wife Caroline.

The Discussion Forum continues to prove a useful source for attracting new contacts and information. Kevin Saul posted a message enquiring abut his 3 x great grandfather Joseph Saul who was believed to have been born in Islington, London between 1832 and 1838, and had married Emma Mansfield. Their son Herbert Henry was born in Coventry on 19 January 1868 and emigrated to Australia on “The Bann” on 17 August 1882. As Herbert Henry would only have been 14 years of age I assume that the whole family emigrated and am hoping that Kevin will be able to confirm this. We can pick up Joseph and Emma on the 1881 census residing at Hope Street, Coventry. Joseph’s occupation is shown as a watch cap maker, aged 43 years and born in Islington. There are four resident children Emma E (19), Herbert H (13), John T (9) and Agnes Mary (7). It looks very likely that Joseph was in Coventry as early as 1851 as in that years census is recorded a Joseph Saul, aged 17 years, an apprentice, born Pentonville, Middlesex and resident in a household of a watch maker. There is a possibility that Joseph may connect to the tree of Robert Hina as his earliest known Sauls were also Islington based. 

I have been corresponding via the Forum with Julie D’Orset Hodge. She is another of the descendants of William Saul who was born in Cawston, Norfolk and who with his brother James emigrated to Australia and founded the Saul families on the Macleay. Lorraine Stacker and I have written extensively about this family in past journals. Julie has however been very helpful in providing details from gravestones at Frederickton Cemetery, some of the information being new to me.

I was contacted by a book dealer who had recently come into possession of a bundle of original documents that related to the Saul family of Yealand Redmayne. He was willing to sell them for a reasonable fee. From the details I recognised that some of these related to ancestors of Peter Saul. Peter has now purchased the relevant documents and has been able to confirm that some do relate to his ancestors. The earliest document in the bundle is a land indenture dated 5 March 1716. Peter now has a wonderful collection and is wading through the documents and, no doubt, will tell us more in a journal article.  

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