by John Slaughter  

Welcome to new members Steven Saul, Angela Moorefield, Christopher Lucas and Helen Howarth.

Steven Saul found details of his great grandfather’s military record on our web site. His great grandfather, Thomas Saul, had married Ada Ramshead in Preston, Lancashire in 1908. From the GRO indexes I was able to identify that they had 11 children although 4 died as infants. The number of children came as a surprise to Steven as his father could only recall two. Steven had no family knowledge prior to Thomas and at that stage I could not link this family with our Preston trees. Subsequent research revealed that Thomas’s father was Thomas William Saul born in Preston about 1860 and who had married Bridget Campbell. Thomas William appears on one of our charts though we had not previously identified any of his descendants. This is the same tree that Trevor Saul descended from and on which Trevor carried out much research. The tree is therefore fairly well documented back to a Christopher Saul who married Elizabeth Brining at Garstang, Lancs in 1758. Though we have added several earlier generations, back to 1634, based on Trevor’s research, these earlier generations are fairly speculative.

Angela Moorefield is a descendant of the Sauls that lived at Ashleworth in Gloucestershire. Angela’s great grandmother was Louise Saul born at Ashleworth in 1816, one of seven children baptised there to Josiah Saul and Elizabeth (nee Alder). They had six daughters and one son so male descendants are a bit thin on the ground. Angela has however proved a lot of information about the descendants of Josiah and Elizabeth including those of the only son Jasper Alder Saul. He ended up at Oldbury, Worcestershire where there were other Saul families. However there does not appear to be any connections between the families. Josiah and Elizabeth had married at Hartpury, Gloucestershire in 1801. Given that Josiah is not a very common name it is very likely that he is the Josiah listed in the IGI as being baptised at Oddington in 1776, though Oddington is quite a distance from Hartpury. The parish registers of the various places need to be consulted to confirm the IGI based research.

Christopher Lucas’s membership appears to be on behalf of Angela Saul with whom I have corresponded. Angela’s grandfather was John Robert Patrick Saul an illegitimate son of Polly Saul. Polly’s parents were Herbert and Fanny Saul both of whom died young leaving her an orphan by the age of seven, when she went to live with her grandparents. Herbert and Fanny were from Knottingley in Yorkshire and they died in 1898 and 1893 respectively. We had not previously been aware that they had any issue.

Our fourth new member is Helen Howarth from Tasmania. Helen is a descendant of Charles James Saul who emigrated to Australia in 1872 aboard the Agamemmon. He married Lily Woods in 1875 in Victoria and they had three children, Lucy Mary (born 1876), William Silas (born 1879) and Charles George (born 1884). Charles James came from a well known family of solicitors in Carlisle. His father Silas Saul was educated at the Carlisle Grammar School and entered into his father’s solicitor practice. His father was also named Silas Saul and it is thought that it was he who founded the business. Helen says that one of her relations has researched the family in both Australia and England.

An interesting enquiry was received from John Westerdale who made contact after finding a number of items when going through his mother’s estate. Amongst these items was a Teak Writing Desk together a note stating that the desk had been used by William Saull whilst in India circa 1860. A further note records that William was awarded the Victoria Medal whilst serving in the British Army as a survivor of the siege of Cawnpore during the Indian Mutiny. Further artefacts found were cuff links and studs belonging to William Saull and a locket of his sister hair. The sister is said to have died whilst visiting William in India. John thinks that a photograph on our website of a William Saull is him. This would make him the William Saull who was born in Long Buckby in 1840 to parents John Saull and Sarah Bamford. The photographs on our website of William Saull and some of his siblings were supplied by members David and Annette Miller and I have provided John with contact details.

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