My 3rd Great Grandmother Maria Bishop lived in the beautiful little village of Dalham in the county of Suffolk. A village which is filled with lovely thatched cottages and is watched over by Dalham Hall which was previously owned by the Affleck family and is located next to the village church of St. Mary, where Maria and her family probably attended.
She was the seventh child of Frederick Bishop and Anne Fitch. Frederick was a journeyman Miller and during his life he worked in the Windmills of nearby Gazeley, Barrow and in Dalham. One of Dalham’s windmills is still standing though unfortunately it has lost its sails, could this have been the mill where Frederick worked?
Frederick was born in Worlington, Suffolk, a little village near Mildenhall, right on the boarder of Cambridgeshire, he was the youngest son of John Bishop and Elizabeth Webb.
On the 9th February 1801, aged 26, he married Anne Fitch in the large church of St. Mary’s in Mildenhall. After their marriage they lived in the little village of Gazeley, where their first four children where born and christened and Frederick most probably worked in the Windmill in Gazeley.
When their fifth daughter Harriet was born they were probably living in the nearby village of Barrow as Harriet and their next two children, Robert and Maria where all christened at the All Saints Church of Barrow.
Whilst the children were still young the family probably moved to Dalham where Frederick was able to work in the Windmill there. All three villages, Gazeley, Barrow and Dalham are very close to each other so it is also possible that the family lived in one location and that the children where christened at different churches.
Maria’s mother Ann died around 1820 whilst Maria was still a small child and father Frederick remarried a few years later to Elizabeth and had a daughter named Jane by his second wife.
Maria eventually married William Henry Tozer on the 27 August 1837 in Newington, South London. Even though though William was born in Dartford, Kent and was living and working in London it seems that he too had connections to Suffolk.
In a previous Blog I wrote about his mother Elizabeth Archer, a few years after William’s father died his mother remarried a William Rashbrook, William Henry Tozer was 14 years old at the time and his brother Charles was 11. Their new step father William Rashbrook was born in Barrow, Suffolk, one of the villages where Frederick Bishop lived and worked.
Did William Henry Tozer maybe visit Suffolk with his mother and stepfather and did he meet his future wife Maria Bishop during one of these visits? His younger brother Charles also married someone from Bury St. Edmunds, the main town of the area and lived and worked in Bury St. Edmund’s as a Corn and Seed Merchant. The house that Charles Tozer and his family lived in on Risbygate Street is still standing.
After William Henry Tozer and Maria Bishop married they lived in London for several years where William Henry worked as a painter, grainer and decorator. Eventually they moved to Northampton where he set up his own business together with his sons. More about their life together in another Blog.
