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The Burdett Family

Burdett, Bourdet, Burditt, Bordet, Bowdett, Burdeth, Burdon or Bourdon may be diminutives of the Old German BURDO �mule� introduced from France or from the Old French BOURDON �a pilgrim�s staff�.

Hugo Bourdet was one of the 450 companions of William the Conqueror. In return for his services Hugo was given lands in Leicestershire. Only surviving records can fill in some of the story of the family and there is much that does not survive or which has not yet been translated. It is with this caveat that we begin our story.

William Burdet founded the Benedictine Alvercote Priory in 1159. In 1230 Almaricus Burdet was born and married Agnes de Denby who brought lands around Denby under the Burdet influence.

In 1535, Richard Burdet was accused of treason by his son Aymer Burdet.

Between 1659 and 1707 Tobias Burdett and his son Samuel Burdett lived in Denby and christened their children in St. John the Baptist�s Church in Penistone, Yorkshire. They were clothiers. The term �clothier� described a farmer-weaver whose wife and children helped to produce a piece of cloth each week for the various Piece Halls in the market towns.

In 1721 Matthew Burdett and his son Amos Burdett lived in Denby, Yorkshire and christened their children in the village church. They were handloom weavers by trade. The term �weaver� was used for a man who worked full time at his loom in an upstairs chamber.

By 1778 William Burdett lived in Ingbirchworth, Yorkshire and the following four generations were christened at Denby Church. The family stayed in Ingbirchworth, Yorkshire and the men were weavers or fancy weavers until 1891.

John Burdett was then a journeyman draper. His family soon moved to Denby Dale, Yorkshire. John was known as �Stocking Johnny� as he went on foot from place to place selling stockings, pinafores and herbal remedies. His children and grandchildren, however, worked in the local mills. Family members still live locally. Their lives have been touched by war, illness and premature death but the strong bonds of a close family continue to support them to this day.

Who were our Grandparents?

The answer to this question gives us glimpses of four extended, ordinary families whose ancestors had lived in their particular locality for generations.

In the nineteenth century all their lives were touched by the rapid changes brought by the industrial revolution.

The twentieth century brought the upheaval of two world wars, the rise of nuclear families and greater population mobility.

Owers

The Owers Family worked as agricultural labourers in Essex. It was a hard life and families were large. John Owers took advantage of the new steam age and in 1871 began to work on the railways in Essex. Infant mortality was high and John lost five of his eight children in childhood.

After serving in France during World War 1, Bertie Newman Thomas Owers settled in Canterbury, Kent, working as a draper salesman before moving, to Evesham, Warwickshire as a hotel proprietor. Later he moved to Wimbledon, Surrey.

Raymond Owers qualified as a chartered accountant and worked in the City. His children, Janet and Jim, have lived in Kent, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk, Oxfordshire and Derbyshire.

Derbyshire

The Derbyshire Family worked in the cotton mills of Derbyshire and Cheshire.

In the early 1880s James Derbyshire became the manager of a cotton mill in Compstall, Cheshire and had great responsibility.

His son, James Derbyshire, served with the Lancashire Fusileers but was killed on the Somme in 1916 six weeks before the birth of his only child, a daughter.

Walshaw

The Walshaw Family had, for many centuries, lived simple lives in their rural community near Silkstone, Yorkshire, undisturbed by the outside world. They were woollen weavers or agricultural labourers.

Later the family moved to Ingbirchworth when, after the demise of the hand loom weaving trade, Edward Walshaw became a general labourer and often times were hard.

Ronald Walshaw, the only boy in John Edward Walshaw’s family, worked as a spinner in the woollen mills in Denby Dale and Huddersfield. All his life he lived within five miles of his birthplace. He had one daughter.

Burdett

The Burdett Family lived in Denby, Yorkshire for generations and the men were hand loom weavers. In 1778 the family moved the two miles to Ingbirchworth, Yorkshire. In the late 1890s John Burdett, known locally as Stocking Johnny, was a draper pedlar and he lived in nearby Denby Dale. His children and grandchildren all worked in the local woollen mills. Today the Burdett surname has no male heir.

We are a nuclear family. Jim has one sister and Lyn is an only child. We live in the Isle of Wight, well away from any family members. Many details of our joint family histories may not have been passed on to our two children without this research.