John Gaywood was my ggggrandfather....... Born 1769 in Wickham Bishops Essex

John Gaywood was a butcher in Hatfield Peverel and died in 1829 aged 60 years and was buried at St Andrews Church Hatfield Peverel. His wife and 9 of his children were still alive at his death. Sarah, John, James and Abraham were also butchers in Hatfield Peverel. William (the one I believe is my ancestor)  it would seem had to be different and left Hatfield Peverel and became an ostler/ servant/ coachman in London. Samuel and Isaac became a bricklayer and carpenter respectively. All the children were buried in Hatfield Peverel or nearby in Essex  excepting William and Samuel.

John's sons died at the following ages:-
John at 49 years
James at 74 years
William at 62 years
Samuel at 59 years
Abraham at 68 years
Isaac at 70 years.

The Gaywood family would have been a large contingent of the village of Hatfield Peverel from the mid 1700's to mid 1800's and would have undoubtedly  been well known as butchers in that area, surely getting to know all the inhabitants and local farmers and suppliers of  livestock. Possibly an abattoir would have been part of the premises at that time and keeping and slaughtering the animals as well as cutting up the meat before sale, would have been part of the butcher's responsibilities. This was long before refrigeration so any preservation of the meat once cut would have been very difficult. One wonders whether the meat would have been hung for much longer than is the fashion to-day, or, if freshly slaughtered animals were offered, this would have been only after a definite order had been placed. However salting down the meat might have been an option.
 
It could also have been the case that the ordinary inhabitants of Hatfield Peverel, a small rural village at the time, could not afford to eat meat very frequently and that most of the sales would have been to the manors or large houses and richer inhabitants of the area. Consequently it could have been that part of the service of the butcher was also to deliver the meat on horse and cart to the outlying farms and manors. I feel that although this must have been a respected profession requiring many skills it must also have required good physical strength and fortitude, working in sometimes cold conditions. On the positive side it would have been quite well paid and helped with the support of this relatively large Gaywood family. Several family members were also involved in the family business and with meat at their disposal the family probably ate better than many other villagers.

 I wonder if it was just a big stew pot or whether Sally the mother had other culinary skills. One can be sure that all parts of the slaughtered animal would have been used in the 18th century. I was surprised to read that John's unmarried daughter Sarah had also entered the same profession because it must have been very unusual for a girl/woman to be working at anything other than domestic work in those years. I think that as people were migrating away from the countryside and moving towards the work becoming available in the big cities, the amount of livestock and potential purchasers went into decline and the rural butcher suffered harder times.

 Maybe this is why myself and my fellow cousins descended from this family have not been able to unearth any Wills for John or his siblings or children. It had been all hard work with no apparent disposable assets left after a life's toil.

Fortunately for us the most valuable legacy was most likely a relatively healthy family to continue and spread the family tree of Gaywood!
How strange!
Long before I was aware of any links to these 18th century Gaywoods and whilst my son Ian was growing up, he wanted to earn some pocket money at week-ends while he was still at secondary school. He said he had a yen to work at the local butchers and revealed that he liked the smell of the meat and the sawdust which was still used in this particular shop. He did in fact write to the butcher and eventually got the job. As it was nearing Christmas he was involved in preparing poultry and working long hours to help get the meat ready for the festive season. He carried on with this part-time work until entering university. Later when he took a trip to Israel and lived on a Kibbutz for several months the job he did there was looking after 1000's of chickens and turkeys from hatching through to their demise of being slaughtered for the food chain. Before I had studied our family history we used to joke that he and meat seemed to be linked. Folklore maybe! Especially liking the smell of the meat and the sawdust. Maybe we were just focusing on the coincidences but who knows!

ESSEX.
From the internet and written about Essex the county:-[Barclays Complete & Universal English Dictionary, 1842-1852] wrote:-

"A county in the east of England, lying on the German Ocean, bounded by Suffolk, Cambridge, Hartfordshire and Middlesex; and separated by the Thames from Kent.
It is about 54 miles long, and 48 broad, and is divided into 18 hundreds.

Its surface is level, yet sufficiently varied not to be monotonous; but, excepting at a few points, the coast is flat and marshy. The rivers are the Thames, the Stour,
the Lea, the Chelmer, the Blackwater, and the Coln. The soil is varied, but on the whole it is an admirable corn county. It has also excellent pastures; and some woods of considerable extent, such as Epping Forest. It produces in addition to farm produce, oysters called natives, and some few textile manufactures.

Chelmsford is its county town, Colchester is a place of some importance."

Hatfield Peverel.
Doomsday Book entry:-
"Bishop of Bayeux; Ranulf Peverel and Serlo, Arnulf and Richard from him. 5 men- at -arms. 2 mills. 5 cobs, 4 foals, 5 cows, 7 calves, 20 goats. The church is the nave of an ancient priory church founded by Ranulf Peverel."

Modern Hatfield Peverel has now been annexed from the main route east to Colchester by the A12. As one approaches Hatfield Peverel the initial impressions are of a quiet village/town with one straight main street, several old public houses, a village post office a small Co-op supermarket and a small single storey village library. There are a few fairly small shops dotted about either side of the Street and quite surprisingly a gourmet restaurant called the Blue Strawberry. Half way along the high street and taking a right turn you pass through modest housing estates with a school and then on past more open countryside and pasture before reaching St Andrews Church and graveyard. This is lying to the right and about 1-2 miles from the High Street. The whole village is 'sleepy' and apart from the area where the church is located is fairly plain and not very commercial. The main road is busy with local traffic and the surrounding villages of Witham and Wickham Bishops, Utling and Totham are only a short journey away. A mainline from London stops here before going on via Chelmsford.

Modern Hatfield Peverel 2005

St Andrews Church.
Founded by Ingelrica daughter of Ingelric wife of Ranulph Peverel a Norman Knight, and mistress of William the Conqueror. Her son sired by William the Conqueror was  William Peverel and he converted the college to a Priory of Benedictines in 1278. John de Souenhamtone was appointed as the first vicar of the church. The Priory was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538 and the estate bought by John Wright in 1764.

  This group are five of seven 'internet' cousins all

descended from the above list of Hatfield Peverel Gaywoods

and together exchanging and advancing their genealogical findings

In 2005 the cousins met and visited the St Andrews graveyard in search of Gaywood graves and found the following in plots to the right hand side of the main path leading to the church entrance.
Written on the graves were the following epitaphs:-

PLOT 29
"ELIZABETH WIFE OF ISAAC GAYWOOD WHO DIED NOV 20TH 1871 AGED 58 YEARS. ALSO OF THE ABOVE ISAAC GAYWOOD WHO DIED FEB 5TH 1881 AGED 70 YEARS AND OF
JOHN THEIR SON WHO DIED IN THE ISLE OF WIGHT JAN 28TH 1870 AGED 27YEARS ALSO OF ESTHER THEIR DAUGHTER WHO DIED JULY" 
 
The next headstone had slipped and sunk into the soil at this point. I must return with a small trowel to dig away the soil and read the bottom line, the rest reads:

PLOT 31
." SACRED TO THE MEMORY ELIZABETH WIFE OF JAMES GAYWOOD WHO DIED THE 20TH OF FEB 1854 AGED 56? YEARS ALSO OF JAMES GAYWOOD WHO DIED THE 19TH/JUNE/1871 AGED 76 YEARS."     
 
and thirdly but tricky to read:-

PLOT 162
."SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF ISAAC WEBB WHO DIED ? APRIL 1842, AGE?
?
SARAH GAYWOOD ?"
( Sarah was buried on 18th February 1852 aged 56 years and Isaac was)

I took some photos but the wording is difficult to make out and in the case of the grave for Isaac Webb and Sarah Gaywood the surface of the stone has crumbled away in the centre.

From the monumental inscriptions for Gaywoods in Essex there are a great many Gaywoods who have been buried at St. Andrews Hatfield Peverel, but there are very few graves that have survived and the three we found are the only ones visible to-day. We had scoured the graveyard searching for more clues but without success. The area where the Gaywood graves were located was uneven and there were some spaces in the proximity of the stones we found, so no doubt our other ancestors remains are 'resting' not far from this site. It's really worth a visit, it is such a strange thought provoking emotion to be standing on a spot where many of our ancestors had stood so many years before, mourning the burial of family members.

  2007 Remaining  Gaywood graves in St Andrews churchyard

Hatfield Peverel Essex