Reeves, Joseph

Summary

Father: Joseph REEVES
Mother: Margaret COOKE

Birth: 1821
Birth Source: Baptism

Death: 1861
Death Source: FreeBMD and Burial

Spouse1:

Narrative

Joseph REEVES is the fourth of seven known children of Joseph REEVES and his wife Margaret (nee COOKE). He was baptised during August 1821 at the Parish Church of St James in Ludgershall. In the baptismal register his parents are referred to as "Joseph and Margaret Reeves the younger" to differentiate them from his paternal grand-parents who were coincidently also Joseph and Margaret Reeves.

On the 1841 census taken on 6 June, Joseph appears in his parent home on Castle Street, Ludgershall. He is 19 years old and was born in county (that is to say, Wiltshire). There is no occupation recorded for him.

At the time of the 1851 census, on 30 March, Joseph again appears in his parent's household in Ludgershall. Due to subsequent over marking of the Enumeration schedule his age is difficult to read, but is most probably 27. He is unmarried and was born in Ludgershall. Again no occupation is recorded for him.

Joseph has not been identified on the 1861 or subsequent census returns.

FamilySearch records the burial of a Joseph Reeves during February 1861 at Ludgershall and the GRO Index to Deaths has a corresponding entry for a Joseph Reeves, age 37, during 1q1861 in the Andover Registration District, which at that time included the civil parish of Ludgershall. Whilst the age is two years less than his probable actual age, it is consistent with the 1851 census.

FamilySearch has a second entry Joseph's burial, giving the same burial date and location (Ludgershall), but this additionally notes he was resident at Andover Union Workhouse at the time of his death and that he was 39 years old/born in 1822.

Research Notes

(1) It is likely Joseph never married. FreeBMD has no likely entries in its marriage index between 1851 and 1861 for a Joseph Reeve(s) in Andover Registration District or any nearby Registration District.

(2) The difference in age between the GRO Index and the burial record may stem from who reported the death to the Registrar. A copy of Joesph's death certificate may reveal his death as reported by a close family member, which would perhaps explain the consistency between Joseph's age on the 1851 census (age 27) and the Death Register, (age 37). The age in the burial register may have been calculated by the curate who would have had access to the baptismal register of the parish.

(3) Peter Higginbotham's wonderful web site The Workhouse has a page about the Andover, Hampshire Workhouse at http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Andover/. In the section "The Andover Workhouse Scandal" it includes a passing reference to an inmate named Reeves in the mid 1840s. There is no reason to suppose this inmate was our current subject, Joseph. At the time of the 1851 census there were approximately seventy R*v*(s) individuals in the Hampshire and Wiltshire parishes of the Andover Poor Law Union.

Sources

Birth:       
Baptism:   Ludgershall Register of Baptisms, page 16, item 121 at Ancestry
Marriage:
Death:      FreeBMD     1861, March quarter, Andover Registration District
Burial:     FamilySearch     https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J8C9-ZP6
                  FamilySearch     https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JZLL-JYF

1841 Census: HO107, Piece 1165, Book 10, Folio 6 reverse, Page 7
1851 Census: HO107, Piece 1683, Folio 258 face, Page 4, Schedule 12
1861 Census:
1871 Census:
1881 Census:
1891 Census:
1901 Census:
1911 Census: