Martha Slade (1776-1850)

Some thoughts regarding Martha Slade, great-grandmother of Edward William Willis, who married Benjamin Goodman at Earnley Parish Church, Chichester, on 17 Dec 1799.

Records of Martha after her marriage to Benjamin, leaving aside the baptisms of their children, are very few. The 1841 census return for Lambeth stated her age to be 60, but this would have been rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5. If stated accurately her date of birth would have been somewhere between 7 June 1776 and 6 June 1781. Her burial record of 21 Mar 1850 stated her age at death to be 73. If accurate this puts her date of birth approximately between late March 1766 and early March 1777. A date of late 1776 or very early 1777 is consistent with both of these, and this fits well with the date of her marriage.

The parish marriage record states that Martha was a maiden of the parish. The strong inference is that she was born in the parish, although we cannot be sure of this without additional evidence. The parish records show only one family with the surname Slade living in Earnley at the time. They baptised seven children at the church, but none of them was christened Martha. The parish records are quite complete for the years in question, although very faint on many pages. For the Slade family the records are as follows.

15 Nov 1774	John Slade married to widow Ann Forder
2 Jul 1775	daughter Patty baptised
26 Jan 1778	son John baptised
25 Jul 1779	daughter Elizabeth baptised
18 Jun 1781	son George baptised
28 Jun 1782	son Anthony baptised
9 Nov 1783	daughter Sally baptised
3 Jul 1785	son William baptised
26 Apr 1795	Henry, born to unmarried Patty Slade, baptised
17 Dec 1799	Martha Slade married to Benjamin Goodman

It is possible that there was an additional daughter, Martha, between Patty and John, but this is unlikely for two reasons. The first is that this would have required John and Ann Slade to forget, or deliberately neglect, Martha’s baptism. The second is that giving birth three separate times in a two and a half year period would be quite unusual.

An alternative possibility is that Patty and Martha were actually the same person. If so then Martha was born in 1775 rather than 1776 as implied by later records, but such discrepancies occur frequently. The FamilySearch website provides a list of traditional nicknames used in historic documents. This records that “Patty” was used as a nickname for three alternative formal names: Martha, Matilda and Patricia. When children were brought for baptism the name was typically communicated by the parents orally to the officiating cleric, and it is entirely conceivable that in this case the informal name that John and Ann were in the habit of using was conveyed. It is also just as conceivable that as an adult Martha preferred to use her formal name rather than her nickname.

If this second explanation is true then it means Martha had a four year old son, Henry, when she married Benjamin. Two of Martha and Benjamin’s first three children died soon after being born – John in Aug 1800 and Harriet in Sep 1803. These were both buried at Sidlesham church. It seems significant that Henry also died in Feb 1801, just six months after John, and was also buried at Sidlesham church. (In passing it is noteworthy that at this time smallpox was a major killer, particularly of children, and it continued to devastate families until vaccination was made compulsory in the 1850’s.)

That Martha Slade and Patty Slade were the same person cannot be proved, but it seems to be the most likely explanation to fit the available evidence.