CHAPTER III
The Children of Thomas Shelacres and Mary Green Marry
The first child of Thomas and Mary to marry was their second born child MARY, who, when she reached 22 years of age, married a JOHN FREEMAN of that same parish on Saturday 1st March 1788 in the local church in Ridlington.
Around three years later another marriage. HANNAH, at the age of 21 years married on the Wednesday 25th May 1791 at the age of 21 years, probably in the church in Lyndon. Her husband was JOSEPH FREEMAN.
A further six years pass and at the age of 27 years, the third child JOHN, marries ANNE REEVES a girl from the nearby village of WING. The marriage took place in the parish church at HAMBLETON in Rutland on the 19th November 1795. After their marriage John and Anne lived in the Rutland villages of Glaston and later in Manton. This marriage produced at least seven children, details of whom will be included further down this section.
Two centuries after the wedding of Hannah and Joseph I received correspondence from one of their descendants:
PATRICK AND (EDITH) ANNE SESSIONS
I have not personally researched the children of Hannah & Joseph Freeman, however over a decade ago, shortly after I joined the Leicestershire and Rutland Family History Society and declared my interest in the family names of ‘Shellaker’ / ‘Shelacres, I received correspondence regrading Hannah & Joseph Freeman from a Mr. PATRICK KING.
Patrick was researching the family history of his wife (EDITH) ANN SESSIONS, and he discovered she was a descendant of Hannah (née Shelacres) & Joseph Freeman. Therefore I share a common ancestry with Patrick’s wife Ann in that we are both directly descended from Richard & Anne (née Hill) Shellaker, who were married in Loddington on the 29th December 1726.
- Richard & Anne (née Hill) Shellaker are the great-great-great-great-grandparent of (Edith) Ann Sessions.
- Richard & Anne (née Hill) Shellaker are the great-great-great-great-great-grandparent of me - David Leedham.
Patrick’s explanation of this link is as follows;
- Richard Shellaker married Anne Hill in Loddington parish church on 29th December 1726.
- One of the children of Richard & Anne (née Hill) Shellaker was Thomas, baptised in Lyndon on 22nd May 1737.
- Thomas Shelacres married Mary Green in Ridlington in Rutland on 14th November 1762.
- Thomas and Mary had a daughter named Hannah, who was baptised on 15th December 1769.
- Hannah Shelacres married Joseph Freeman in Lyndon on the 25th January 1791.
- Hannah and Joseph Freeman had a daughter, named Hannah after her mother.
- Hannah Freeman married the Reverend Joseph Haughton.
- They had a child named Mary Haughton, born in 1841.
- Mary Haughton married a man named William Sessions (who was born in 1843 and died in 1886).
- Mary and William Sessions had a son born in 1878 who was named William Haughton-Sessions.
- William Haughton-Sessions married (the name of his wife is unknown). He died in 1966.
- They had a daughter named (Edith) Ann Session, born in 1919.
- (Edith) Ann Session married Patrick King, who himself was born in 1922.
Following the initial correspondence, I regularly received a Christmas card from ‘my cousins’ Patrick and Ann but sadly, in recent years, receipt of these cars ceased. I hope that other members of their family will one day find this website via Google and make contact with me again.
Our story now moves on a decade and into the next century…….
1803 – A YEAR OF DOUBLE TRAGEDY FOR THOMAS SHELACRES
In the spring of 1803 three of the children of Thomas & Mary were now married and these marriages produced several grandchildren for Thomas & Mary. Their first born child ANNE remained unmarried and was at this time, 39 years old.
However in that Spring of 1803 Thomas’ wife Mary (née Green) Shelacres died and was subsequently buried in the churchyard in Ridlington on Thursday 5th May 1803. I do not know the date of Mary’s birth but I speculate it was around 1740. She married in 1762 which would make her 22 years old on her wedding day. She gave birth to at least six children between 1763 and 1773 which, if she was born in 1740, would make around 33 years old when her final child was born. This speculative date of 1740 for her birth would have made her approximately 63 years when she died.
But a second death affected Thomas in the Winter of that same year. Anne the unmarried daughter of widower Thomas, also died at the age of 40 years and was buried in the churchyard at Ridlington on Wednesday 7th December 1803. The record of the burials of Thomas’ wife Mary and their daughter Anne is on the same page of the Ridlington parish records which can be seen below as the second and third entries on the page.
Burials 1803
Mary, Wife of Thomas Shellakers was buried
May 5th 1803.
Ann, Daughter of Thomas and Mary Shellakers was
buried December 7th 1803.
Reproduced by permission of Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland
Below is the a section of the family tree showing the family of Thomas and his children at the end of 1803 following the death of his wife Mary and eldest daughter Anne. This tree shows the details of the weddings of his three surviving children. Click on the family tree to view a larger version of this tree.
Nest Page: The Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren of Thomas & Mary