Howards of Northamptonshire

Profile manager: Chris Willoughby [send private message]

Purpose

The primary purpose of this page is to attempt to re-construct the HOWARD line from the Walgrave/Titchmarsh area of Northamptonshire, England. In order to do so it may cover other areas.

Please feel free to contribute.

The genesis of this analysis is the unexpected discovery of DNA matches that appear to come from the HOWARD line of the profile manager — but that didn't come from the two known sons of John Howard (1785-1864).

John's sons were known to us through their combined emigration to South Australia:

• Halford 'Alfred' HOWARD (1817-1892)
• Christopher Jaquest Howard (1822-1884)

Both Alfred and Christopher were baptised in Titchmarsh.

The more recent discovery of two more sons, baptised in Walgrave (the location of their parent's marriage), was a surprise:

• Shadrach Howard (1811-)
• John Howard (1814-)

Shadrach was sentenced to death for burglary but his sentence was subsequently commuted to transportation for life. He arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1830 on the Royal George. He apparently married in VDL, but then moved to Adelaide alone in 1846.

The profile manager and his mother have DNA profiles on FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, GEDMatch, and Ancestry. There have been two surprises from the analysis of DNA matches across these sites:

1. The discovery of the New Zealand arm of the HOWARD family and the connection of an adopted child with her HOWARD ancestry.
2. The discovery of two matches that descend from Frederick Howard (c1811-1872) that remain unconnected to the HOWARD tree.

Known Children of John HOWARD (1785-1864)

Shadrach HOWARD (1811-)

Baptised in Walgrave, Shadrach HOWARD and William BARRATT were sentenced to death in 1830 but these sentences were commuted to transportation for life. They arrived in VDL in 1830 aboard the Royal George.

He gained his freedom by 1843 when he married Margaret LOGAN in Hobart Town.

He arrived in Adelaide, alone, aboard the Timbo in April 1846.

Shadrach disappears from the record at this point. Perhaps coincidentally, Frederick Howard appears in Adelaide at this time.

John HOWARD (1814-)

Baptised in Walgrave. This is all I know.

Halford 'Alfred' HOWARD (1817-1892)

Baptised in Titchmarsh, Alfred and his brother (Christopher) emigrate to South Australia aboard the Magdalena in 1853.

Alfred becomes the estate manager and cellarmaster for the Tintara vineyard, working for Thomas Hardy (1830-1912).

Christopher Jaquest HOWARD (1822-1884)

Baptised in Titchmarsh, Christopher and his brother (Alfred) emigrate to South Australia aboard the Magdalena in 1853.

Seemingly more inclined to savour the fruit of the vine than to tend it, Christopher remains in the Marryatville area as a carter and labourer.

The Mysterious Frederick HOWARD (c1811-1872)

Despite much research by Frederick's family, no arrival in South Australia has been found for Frederick HOWARD. There is an unclaimed letter waiting for him at the Adelaide post office in June 1846, and this is currently the earliest known documented evidence for him.

The story passed down to the family is that he was the son of a participant in the Battle of Trafalgar, and that he's from Yorkshire.

There was one Frederick HOWARD (c1810-1835) that fits the birth year and location — a convict that was either shot or drowned aboard the George the Third when it struck a reef in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Van Diemen's Land, on the 12th March 1835. Unless he managed to escape, this cannot be the Frederick in Adelaide.

The BRISTER Connection

Frederick HOWARD married Rosina Ellen STRATTON on the 12th November 1849 in Adelaide. The witnesses at the wedding were James BRISTER (1805-1856) and his wife Ann KILLICK (married in June 1849). Ann KILLICK arrived in South Australia on board the Susannah in May 1849 — as did Rosina Ellen STRATTON. The two women would have known one another from the journey.

There is an additional intriguing possibility, though: that James BRISTER and Frederick HOWARD knew one another from Van Diemen's Land. James BRISTER arrived in VDL in 1843 aboard the King William. He moved to Adelaide some time before his wife died there in 1848. Frederick HOWARD and James BRISTER are mentioned together in the newpapers in 1847 — before the arrival of their future wives in 1849:

• Tuesday, 5th January, 1847. (1847, January 6). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), p. 3. Retrieved April 26, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48545648
• Tuesday, 5th January, 1847. (1847, January 9). Adelaide Observer (SA : 1843 - 1904), p. 6. Retrieved April 26, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article158923693

The BARRETT/BARRATT/BARRITT Connection

Frederick's will mentions an executor, William BARRIT of the Old Port Farm, Queenstown.

Extract from Frederick's 1867 Will.

This appears to be the father of Jane (BARRITT/BARRETT) DESLANDES (1842-1861):

DESLANDES.— On the 17th September, at the residence of her father, Mr. William Barritt, Port Farm, Reedbeds, Jane, the wife of Mr. George Deslandes, Lefevre's Peninsula, aged 19 ^[1].

William Barrett publishes a livestock destruction notice in 1861, stating section 924, Reedbeds.

From The South Australian Advertiser, Monday 29th April 1861, page 1:

NOTICE.—All PIGS, GOATS, and POULTRY found TRESPASSING on Section 924, Reedbeds, will be DESTROYED after this date.

WM. BARRETT, Reedbeds ^[2].

From the following map, we can see it is very near Queenstown.

Location of Section 924, Hundred of Yatala, relative to Queenstown.

Given that Shadrach HOWARD is transported with a William BARRATT, are these the same?

Yes, yes they are:

THE LATE MR. W. BARRETT.

In our obituary columns appears a notice of the death of the late Mr. William Barrett, an old and respected colonist, who died on Sunday at Exeter, at the age of 87. Mr. Barrett was Northampton man, born on April 3, 1812. He went to Tasmania in 1834, and in 1851 left that colony for South Australia to take up farming, but on the discovery of the Victorian diggings he started overland to Ballarat and Bendigo, where he worked successfully as a digger. Returning to South Australia, he resumed farming, and in due course retired, settling at Exeter, where he owned some land. He enjoyed good health, hearing, and eyesight, up to the day of his death. Like the majority of old colonists, he had a great store of reminiscences, and his memory being excellent he was fond of recounting his experiences in the other colonies and here. The late Mr. Barrett married in 1840, and his widow is now aged 78. He leaves six daughters, all married, and three sons—Mr. T. J. Barrett, of the Terminus Hotel, Adelaide; Mr. John R. Barrett, of Wolseley Hotel; and Mr. F. R. Barrett, in the Railway Department; also 36 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren ^[3].

• https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1242962
• https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/827230

Frederick HOWARD, James BRISTER and William BARRATT are all in court together in 1851 — William is sleeping on the couch at Frederick's house shortly after arriving in Adelaide:

From the South Australian register, Thursday 30th October 1851, page 3:

Philip Lackay, of Kensington, schoolmaster, appeared to the information of James Brister, of the same place, carter, charged with having, on the 16th instant, in the Local Court, committed wilful and corrupt perjury.

...

The information was then read, which charged James Brister and Frederick Howard with having on the night of the 16th October, unlawfully, wilfully, and maliciously broken down and injured some fruit trees in the garden of Philip Lackay. The evidence of Philip Lackay was read, which stated that somewhere between the hours of 1 and 3 he saw the defendant deliberately destroy two of his fruit-trees, when the Court fined the defendant £1, the value of the trees, and £3 costs. Frederick Howard was discharged, on account of Lackay being unable to swear that he was with Brister on the night in question.

James Brister, of Kensington, carrier, said that his residence was about 100 yards from the defendant's house, and that there was a space of four feet between their fences. That on the 16th of October, at about half past 8 o'clock in the evening, he was at Ingham's public-house, at Kensington, in company with a man called Andrews and his son. They both left the public-house at about 12 o'clock and returned home, when he retired to bed, and remained there until half past 5 o'clock the next morning. He would positively swear that he was not in Lackay's garden either on the night of the 16th instant, or on the morning of the 17th, and had never broken any trees in his garden, although he had passed by on the morning of the 17th instant, and on looking over the fence saw that some trees had been damaged.

...

Ann Brister, wife of the last witness, recollected the night of the 16th instant, when her husband, who went out between 8 and 9, returned home about 12 o'clock and went to bed, where he remained until the morning, and she was quite sure that he did not get up during that time.

Frederick Howard stated that he knew Brister, and that on the night of the 16th instant he arrived home between 7 and 8 o'clock in the evening, when he found a Mr. Barratt there, who remained at home all night, and that they all retired to bed at about 9 o'clock. He was never in Lackay's garden on that night, or on the following morning, and that he never got out of bed after 9 o'clock until the next morning at daylight.

By Mr. Fisher—He was examined on behalf of Brister before the Magistrate in the Local Court. He was a married man, and slept with his wife on the night in question; and that when he got up in the morning he assisted Brister to load a cart with bricks.

Rosina Helen Howard, wife of Frederick Howard, corroborated his statement.

William Barratt deposed that he slept in the house of Frederic Howard, on a sofa near the street door, on the night of the 16th instant, when they all retired to rest at about 9 o'clock; and he was sure no person went out again, as the slightest noise would have aroused him, as he was a very light sleeper.

This was the case for the prosecution ^[4].

The DNA Results

I'll expend a paragraph here lamenting that the most popular DNA site (Ancestry) has woefully inadequate tools for analysing the same. There is no facility for triangulation, and no Chromosome Browser. PLEASE consider using ANY OTHER SITE when getting your DNA analysed - or download your DNA data from Ancestry and upload it to the sites that do provide adequate tooling (FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, GEDMatch).

There is one triangulated segment between the profile manager (TT8), his known 3rd cousin (TT5), and a descendant of Frederick Howard (c1811-1872) (TT2):

Triangulated segment

Chromosome 2

Genomic position: 46481819 — 77757132

RSID: rs60485010 — rs2861049

Segment size: 31.8 cM

Number of SNPs: 17,408

These three individuals are highlighted by a thick red border in the attached diagram. These results are from MyHeritage.

The attached diagram shows all known DNA test takers the descend from John Howard (1785-1864) or Frederick Howard (c1811-1872) across both Ancestry and MyHeritage. They are the larger boxes with thick red or black borders.

The names of the test takers have been anonymised by giving them an identifier consisting of TT (test taker) and a number.

The numbers underneath the identifier are the match lengths in the form of: centiMorgans/number_of_segments. The numbers in parentheses are from MyHeritage, otherwise Ancestry. The three lines represent matches with (in order):

1. the profile manager's mother (TT7),
2. the profile manager (TT8), and
3. the profile manager's nephew

There are three anomalous readings where the match length to the profile manager's mother is shorter than that to the profile manager (TT2, TT3, and TT12). This can be the result of:

• Some shared DNA coming through the profile manager's father, or
• The fact that the profile manager's mother took her Ancestry test a long time ago, and the tests have improved since then.

I am inclined to believe these anomalies are due to the age of the Ancestry test. The MyHeritage test results for TT2 show that a more recent test does not show this anomaly.

Howard Test Takers.

Y-DNA

A Y-DNA test would prove a connection between the line of Frederick HOWARD (c1811-1872) and the line of John HOWARD (1785-1864). Unfortunately only one known test taker (TT2) has an unbroken HOWARD male line. He is therefore the only individual that can meaningfully take a Y-DNA test and join the HOWARD Group at FamilyTreeDNA (which he has done).

Unfortunately the group administrators for that project have limited their project to only those individuals who are male and have the HOWARD surname. The results are not public. We must wait for another male HOWARD, from the line of John HOWARD (1785-1864), to take a Y-DNA test and join that project before a definitive connection between the two families is made.

Current Hypothesis

That Shadrach HOWARD and Frederick HOWARD are the same individual, and that Shadrach changed his name to remove the stigma associated with his convict past.

The connections to Van Diemen's Land, through BRISTER and BARRETT, and the latter's connection with Shadrach through his conviction and transportation, seem unlikely to be coincidence.

Sources

1. ↑ Family Notices (1861, September 28). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), p. 2. Retrieved April 29, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50083300
2. ↑ Classified Advertising (1861, April 29). The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1858 - 1889), p. 1. Retrieved April 30, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article833416
3. ↑ THE LATE MR. W. BARRETT. (1899, December 11). The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide, SA : 1867 - 1922), p. 4 (ONE O'CLOCK EDITION.). Retrieved April 29, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article209519373
4. ↑ POLICE COURT, ADELAIDE. (1851, October 30). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), p. 3. Retrieved April 30, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38446687