The Cleall Connection
The name Cleall appears in the Shepard ancestry and although to date I have only encountered one member of the Cleall family in connection with them (Mary Watts nee Cleall) I thought some investigation into the distribution of this family would be interesting from a historical perspective and might possibly provide useful information for future research into the Watts/Cleall families.
As far as I can, tell the area around Beaminster consisted of nine separate census enumeration districts in 1841. They are
Beaminster
Broadwindsor
Burstock
Cheddington
Corscombe
Netherbury
North Poorton
South Perrot
Stoke Abbott
As far as I can, tell the area around Beaminster consisted of nine separate census enumeration districts in 1841. They are
Beaminster
Broadwindsor
Burstock
Cheddington
Corscombe
Netherbury
North Poorton
South Perrot
Stoke Abbott
The Watts and Cleall families in the Beaminster area during 1841
I have divided the Beaminster enumeration districts into 3 areas and analysed the occurrence of the Watts and Cleall family names in each of these. The following map shows the distribution of the names by village. The triangle in the centre is the area in which the Watts families in this document can be found in 1841.
The three grey areas show the distribution of the families throughout the Beaminster districts and also the area around Toller Porcorum and Wraxall from where the Watts family name eminated.
The three grey areas show the distribution of the families throughout the Beaminster districts and also the area around Toller Porcorum and Wraxall from where the Watts family name eminated.
Yellow markers - Village census checked
Red markers - Cleal families found
Blue markers - Watts families found
Red markers - Cleal families found
Blue markers - Watts families found
Mary Watts (Cleall) was 55 in 1841. Taking the head of each family occurrence in the tables above and assuming a 20 year period as reasonable for the likely span of ages for siblings in a family then if she was the youngest child her probable siblings are those indicated in column 1. If she was the oldest then they would be those in column 2. But if she was in the middle of the family those values in column 3 would be more likely giving us 10 possible siblings of whom 5 are still living in South Perrott in 1841.
In view of this I think that those most likely to be her brothers or sisters are :
If either of her parents were still alive in 1841 then I would expect her father to be William age 85 or John age 74. Thomas age 95, William age 85 and Ambras age 80 are probably too old for the role. As only John Cleall age 74 is resident in South Perrott then he is probably the best option for a surviving parent and would put Mary as an oldest child changing her possible siblings to the following list.
I have narrowed this list down still further to residents of South Perrott and the nearest villages and eliminated duplicate names and ages. It is likely that Sarah and Ann are married and therefore not directly related to Mary. So my final list is restricted to 5 possible siblings who I think are worthy of further investigation.
It would be useful to check out the parish birth and baptism records to try and gain more insight into any possible family relationships.