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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LINTON'S OF EAST SURREY, ENGLAND
The earliest record of this family is at the time of the death of Henry VIII when the churchwardens of Barnes Parish Church paid HUGH LINTON, a blacksmith of Wandsworth, for the repairing of the bells.
Hugh would have been born around 1525 and a likely grandson of his is a GEORGE LINTON who appears twice in the registers of Streatham Parish - the first when he married JOANNE SMYTH in 1578 and the second when his daughter ELDRED was born.
Another possible grandson JOHN(1) LINTON probably followed in his grandfather's footsteps by becoming Wimbledon's village blacksmith towards the end of the sixteenth century. He appears in both the 1585 Tax List and the Earl of Exeter's Survey of his manor in 1617 living in a cottage on the edge of Wimbledon Common adjacent to which was the "Smith's Forge".
At this time Wimbledon was only a tiny village with some 200 or so inhabitants. However the village suddenly sprang to life when in 1588 Sir Thomas Cecil built his new Manor House. This brought much needed work and prosperity to the villagers, one of those benefiting the most being the blacksmith. He must have been a good worker, as in 1589 Sir Thomas leased John an acre of land just north of Worple Way on condition that 'he shall shoe a great horse with four good iron horse shoes yearly'. Strangely enough only two years later the same Lord fined him 10s for cutting down poles in his wood.
Around 1575, some seventeen years after Elizabeth I ascended the throne, JOHN(1) was married and with his wife MARGERY produced a number of children over the next few years. Only three of these are known to have survived childhood, all of these being sons. They were named JOSEPH, THOMAS and JOHN(2), the last having been born in 1590. Not long before JOHN(1) died in Sept 1617 he built small cottages for two of his sons in the garden of his family home.
After this date Joseph disappears from the Wimbledon records but his brother THOMAS(1) LINTON is probably the same THOMAS who marries an ALICE TEGG at St. Saviours, Southwark by Archbishop's Licence in June 1616 and set up home in Beddington, a parish a few miles to the south of Wimbledon.
In September of the same year they had their daughter ALICE baptized. Three further children followed, ELLEN in 1617, THOMAS(2) in 1619 and JOHN(12) in 1622. The two daughters both died in their infancy but THOMAS(2) grew up and married JANE FULLER at Beddington in 1641. In 1661 he contributed 2/- to the "Free and Voluntary Gift to Charles II” which was collected by order of Parliament following the Restoration of the Monarchy, At the time he described himself as a labourer but he must have been one of the "better off" villagers as most others only contributed half that sum. The registers of Beddington Parish show that he and JANE had three children FRANCES born in 1643, THOMAS(3) in 1647 and RICHARD (who died three years later) in 1654.
Around 1615 (some five years before the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America in the "Mayflower") JOHN(1) and MARGERY'S eldest son JOHN(2) was married and, with his wife MARGERET, set up home in Wimbledon, presumably occupying one of the cottages built by his father. They had a number of children over the next few years, the first being yet another JOHN(4) in 1617, followed by WILLIAM in 1619, HENRY in 1622 and NICHOLAS in 1624. Later evidence strongly suggests that there was indeed a fifth son named EDWARD whose baptism went unrecorded - a common occurrence in those days.
At about the same time as the start of the Civil War in 1642 JOHN(4) was marrying and setting up home in Wimbledon with his wife ANNE. This was probably his first marriage as evidence suggests that he later married an ELIZABETH CROFTS who died in 1674. JOHN and his first wife ANNE had seven children. ANN, their eldest daughter, was baptised in 1643 but died the same year. Four more daughters followed - MARGARET in 1644, ALICE in 1646, PRUDENCE in the same year that Charles I was executed (1649) and RUTH in 1652. In 1659, the year before the Restoration, JOHN and ANNE had their first son baptised CHARLES. This event was followed by the baptism in 1662 of their second son JOHN(5).
JOHN(4) presumably inherited the family blacksmith business as he was described in the 1649 Parliamentary Survey as holding land, like his grandfather before him, by the service of four horseshoes a year to the Lord of the Manor of Wimbledon. However, by 1661 at the time of the collection of the "Voluntary Gift to Charles II" he described himself as a carpenter. By 1664 he was one of the wealthier inhabitants of the village as the Hearth Tax returns of that year show that he lived in a house with three hearths, being one of the largest houses in the village.
JOHN(4) 's elder son CHARLES followed his father's later occupation by becoming a carpenter. He married an ANN and had two children. The first was a daughter who they had baptised MARY and the second was a son JOHN(6) baptised in 1688 in the year of the Resolution that deposed James II and handed the throne over to William III and Mary.
JOHN(6) married ANNA GARETT about 1710 and had four daughters all born in Wimbledon. Due to the lack of male heirs the connection between Wimbledon and the Linton surname comes to the end with this family, the connection having lasted for over 140 years.
JOHN (4)’s younger son JOHN(5) married and set up home in Streatham in the early 1690's. He took on the tenancy of the farm at Tooting Beck in the Parish of Streatham owned by his cousin JOHN(13). JOHN(5) had seven children between 1694 and 1708 of which six were girls. The only son, yet another JOHN(7) inherited the lease of the farm and, in 1731 married his first wife MARY MOORE. They had six children until MARY died just after the last one was born in 1741. JOHN(7) married then for a second time and his new wife GRACE gave birth to a further four children. Out of these ten children they had only three sons. ROBERT(3), the elder son of the first marriage, inherited the farm following the death of his father in 1761 and, at about the same time married MARY CHARRINGTON. They had fourteen children all baptised at Streatham. The younger son of JOHN(7)’s marriage, another JOHN(8) married MARTHA ARNOLD in 1765 and had five children. The only son of JOHN(7)'s second marriage, a CHARLES married JANE GAMBEL who gave birth to five children between 1779 and 1789 and had them baptised at Croydon. Further research is needed on this Streatham side of the Linton family but it is known that some work has been completed by Mrs. Frances ROBERTSON of Ashburton, Canterbury, New Zealand who is a descendant of the ROBERT(3) / MARY CHARRINGTON marriage of 1761. _______________________________________
Back in the late 1640's EDWARD(1) LINTON (the assumed brother of JOHN(4) of Wimbledon) was married within a year or so of the execution of Charles 1. He and his wife MARY produced seven children - CHARLES(1) in 1651, MARY in 1653, EDWARD(2) in 1657 followed by JOHN(13), ROBERT(2), WILLIAM and last of all SARAH. EDWARD (1) died in 1668, some two years after the Great Fire of London which, of course, followed the Great Plague of the year before. EDWARD(1) was a yeoman farmer owning some twenty acres of land in and around Wandsworth and Tooting. In his will he divided the land in a very unequal way. He left his eldest son, CHARLES(1) the two acres, house, garden and orchard in Mitcham.
To his second son EDWARD(2) he left three acres, house, barn and orchard also in Mitcham. To his third son JOHN(13) he left the tenement, barn orchard and garden in Tooting Beck. To his fourth son ROBERT(2) he left the two acres, tenement and barn lying in the Common Field in Wandsworth. However, to his youngest son WILLIAM he left a house and the remaining ten acres of land in Wandsworth.
At the beginning of the reign of George I EDWARD(l)'s eldest son CHARLES(1) no longer owned one of the smallholdings in Mitcham but had acquired the two in Wandsworth. When he died a bachelor in 1719 he also leased a farm and house in Tooting to his brother-in-law's son WILLIAM BIGNELL. He also left bequests of £25 each to his brother EDWARD(2)’s three children EDWARD(3), MARY and ELIZABETH and also to his late brother ROBERT(2)'s two children MARY and SARAH. He also left £5 to a JOHN LINTON, "the tenant of the farm at Tooting Beck", and 4 guineas to a CHARLES LINTON. The only John and Charles alive in 1719 are JOHN(5) and CHARLES(2), both of Wimbledon.
When CHARLES(l)'s brother JOHN(13), also a bachelor, died in 1714 he left a will in which he bequeathed to his brother-in-law's son WALTER BIGNELL his "freehold tenement, barn and orchard at Tooting Beck now in the occupation of my loving kinsman JOHN LINTON". The use of the words "loving kinsman" at this time usually referring to, at least, a cousin relationship. Again the only other John alive in 1714 is the same JOHN(5) of Wimbledon that CHARLES(1) refers to in his will of 1719.
This then is reasonable proof that the Tooting and Wimbledon / Streatham Lintons are related and that the common ancestor is JOHN(2) born 1590 in Wimbledon.
EDWARD(3) grew up, married and had five children all baptised in Wandsworth when the family had presumably taken over occupation of one of the two smallholdings. CHARLES(3) was baptised in 1710, ELIZABETH in1713, EDWARD(4) in 1714, MARY in 1715 and JOHN(14) in 1717.
Of the three sons nothing more is known of JOHN(14) whilst CHARLES(3) moved to Eltham in Kent, married and had three children and two illegitimate grandchildren. In his will, dated 1750, he left his son CHARLES(4) a parcel of land at Mitcham (presumably one of the original smallholdings that his great grandfather had owned some one hundred years before). He also refers in his will to his brother EDWARD (4) but not to his other bother JOHN(14) which suggests that he may have been dead by that time. __________________________________________________
EDWARD(4) is, unfortunately, shrouded in some mystery. There is no evidence to suggest he ever married but it does seem likely that he did have an affair with a MARY MORGAN. What is certain is that a MARY MORGAN gave birth to a son and had him baptised at Wandsworth Parish Church with the name of EDWARD in 1737. It may be significant that, unlike the vast majority of baptisms recorded at the church, no father's name is given. Unusually Wandsworth Church at this time did not have a policy of describing illegitimate children as such.
The next piece of evidence is that in 1761 an EDWARD LINTON MORGAN, a bachelor of Wandsworth, aged 24, married a JANE FRANCIS at Battersea Parish Church and this event is immediately followed by an EDWARD & JANE LINTON having nine children baptised in Wandsworth between 1762 and 1779.
No records have come to light of any baptisms of children with the surname MORGAN in Battersea or the surrounding parishes in the years following 1761.
In pre-Victorian times the common way of showing paternity in the case of an illegitimate male child was to give him his father's full name followed by the surname of his mother. The idea behind this being that if the parents married at a later date then the mother's surname could be dropped.
It would thus appear probable that EDWARD LINTON MORGAN was an illegitimate chid of EDWARD(4) LINTON and MARY MORGAN. However, it would seem that this time the father only admitted paternity some time after the child was baptised which would explain why EDWARD(5) was baptised EDWARD MORGAN by his mother.
After his own marriage in 1761 EDWARD LINTON MORGAN then seems to have dropped the MORGAN surname altogether. ______________________________________________
In 1776, at the time of the American War of Independence and when George III was on the throne of England, EDWARD(5) and JANE had their son EDWARD(6) baptised at Wandsworth.
EDWARD(6) married MARY MOORE GRANVILLE, a native of Westminster, at Streatham in 1797 in the year of Nelson’s battle off Cape St. Vincent when both France and Spain had declared war on England. EDWARD(6) died in 1819 in Mitcham after having been employed as a calico printer at one of the big textile mills situated on the River Wandle in Merton. His wife died twenty years later in 1839 at Merton, being described as a schoolmistress.
EDWARD(6) and MARY had seven children - JANE baptised in 1793, CHARLES(8) in 1801, GEORGE GRANVILLE in 1803, JOHN MOORE in 1805 (the same year as the Battle of Trafalgar), ROBERT HENRY in 1808, MARY GRANVILLE in 1811 and EDWARD FRANCIS in 1816. Interestingly EDWARD(6) and MARY tended to use associated surnames as second forenames. GRANVILLE and MOORE came from the mother's side - likewise the FRANCIS must surely have come from EDWARD(6)’s mother.
CHARLES (8), like his father before him, was employed as a calico printer and married ELIZABETH BANKS in 1832. They had only two sons - CHARLES(9) in 1833 and WILLIAM HENRY(1) baptised in 1836 at Merton.
WILLIAM HENRY(1)’s first wife was a JANE EVA, a daughter of a shoe manufacturer, and they were married at St. Johns Church in Waterloo Road, Waterloo in 1857. At that time WILLIAM HENRY(1) described himself as a pawnbroker’s assistant. WILLIAM HENRY(1) and JANE had one son born in 1859 but he only lived a few months, the cause of death being recorded on the death certificate as "loss of breast-milk". There is no evidence of any other children. WILLIAM HENRY(1) and JANE, along with a daughter from JANE's previous marriage, moved to Hackney where they were living at the time of the 1881 census in Mayfield Road. A few years later they moved to 229 Graham Road, Hackney where, in 1897, JANE died.
Early the next year WILLIAM HENRY(1) married ALICE ANN ORAM who had been employed as a maid at 229, Graham Road. ALICE ANN gave birth to a son in April 1899 a month after her husband, WILLIAM HENRY(1), died. For a number of years before his death WILLIAM HENRY(1) was employed as a furniture warehouseman.
ALICE ANN named her son WILLIAM
HENRY(2) presumably in memory of her husband. WILLIAM HENRY(2) grew up and
married his first wife SARAH BUTFIELD in 1918 which ended in divorce a few years
later. They had two sons WILLIAM GEORGE EDWARD and HENRY JOHN who were brought
up by WILLIAM HENRY(2) and his second wife MINNIE CROFTS.
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