William Ratford/Radford

c1816-1887

William was born in North Heath, Berkshire, he was baptised on the 8^th September 1816, in Chieveley, Berkshire, the son of Moses and Hannah Ratford

William’s father Moses was baptised in Speen, Berkshire, in 1789, the son of Edward and Ann Ratford (nee Wicks) who were married on the 26^th May 1782, at St Nicolas Church, Newbury (Edward’s surname recorded as Radford on marriage record, witnesses, Jane Cock and James Purdue)

William’s mother Hannah was born c1796, in Berkshire

William married in 1841

Marriage details:

Place: Great Shefford, Berkshire

Date: 16^th October 1841

Groom: William Radford, full age, bachelor, occupation, Carter, abode, Great Shefford

Bride: Elizabeth Walters, full age, spinster, occupation, Farming Servant, abode, Great Shefford

Fathers: Moses Radford, a Shepherd and Richard Walters, a Carter

Witnesses: John Willoughby and Ann Radford

(Elizabeth was born c1817, in Coombe Hampshire. She was baptised on the 9^th November 1817 in Coombe, the daughter of Richard and Jane Walters)

William and Elizabeth had the following children:

John Radford 1847

Jane Radford 1850

Fanny Radford c1853

James Radford 1856

Sarah Ann Ratford 1858

In 1851 William (33), a Farm labourer, Elizabeth (33), John (4), Jane (1) and Elizabeth’s widowed mother Jane Walters (73), were recorded living in North Heath. (Surname mistakenly recorded as Peatford on ancestry)

The 1861 census records William Ratford (44) as an Agricultural Labourer, living in North Heath, with Elizabeth (43) and their children, Jane (11), Fanny (8), James (4) and Sarah Ann (2).

William was widowed in 1864. Elizabeth Radford died aged 47, she was buried on the 26^th September at St James the Less, Winterbourne.

In 1871 William Ratford (54), a Farm Servant, and his son James (14), also a Farm Servant, were living at Hill Fort Farm, Bucklebury, Berkshire.

The 1881 census records William Radford (64), living alone in a cottage in Leckhampstead, Berkshire.

William Radford died aged 71 on the 17^th September 1887, in the Newbury Workhouse. He was laid to rest in the Newtown Road Cemetery on the 20^th September

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