Devon Blacksmiths
HEARDs of Beaford
Trades were often past from father to son down the generations. With the HEARD family we have traced blacksmiths for four generations.
Robert HEARD [2594] and Jane nee SNELL [2595] had 13 children all born in Beaford. Robert died before any useful census was taken and occupations were routinely recorded in registers. We therefore do not know what his occupation was. However we know that his sons were very practical tradesmen, two became gunsmiths, one a glazier and two were blacksmiths.
William HEARD [6051] was born in 1792 Beaford the tenth child of Robert and Jane. He married Elizabeth CARPENTER in Huish in 1813 and had their first child Mary baptised there. William and Elizabeth then had 11 children baptised in Beaford between 1815 and 1843 where he was a blacksmith. This occupation is given on every census until 1861. He died in 1871 before the census was taken.
William and Elizabeth’s second child Robert [6175] was working as a blacksmith in Bridgewater, Somerset in 1841. He married Mary WESTLAKE later that year in Bristol. Later he was an engineer/engine driver working on land drainage in Weston Zoyland, Somerset. Their daughter Sibina Elizabeth married George HEARD [10751], son of Edward and Ann, who was a blacksmith.
Their fifth child George [6114] was a Blacksmith in Beaford in 1841 living with his father. He married Susan GOODING in High Bickington in 1844 and they lived in Beaford where they had two children baptised. In 1851 he was in Bedminister, Bristol where he is on the census as James HEARD, a police constable born in Beaford with wife Sarah and children Helen, Charles and Silas. His wife and children's ages and birthplaces match with those on the 1861 census return so we are sure that this is George. The 1861 census reveal that he had lived in Tiverton and Collumpton before returning to Beaford to resume his trade as blacksmith and had been joined in the smithy by his sons, Silas and William in 1871. George died in 1876 in Great Torrington.
Silas [10757] continued working in Beaford and in 1881 was also a machinist and had an apprentice, John PIPER. He was employing his two eldest sons George and Edward in 1891 and his mother, Susan, was a baker and grocer on the next schedule. Silas was still in the smithy in 1901 joined by his 21 year old son Charles, both were also machinists. He was a widower working on his own account in 1911. His youngest son Archibald was assisting with the business.
George [10777] moved away but continued as a blacksmith. He was in South Mimms, Middlesex in 1901 and in Peckham, Sussex in 1911. In both censuses he was single.
Edward [10782] married Selina SLUGGETT and was smith and machinist working on his own account in Great Torrington in 1901. By 1911 as well as being a blacksmith he was also a Cycle Agent and Motor Agent developing the business into the up and coming forms of transport.
Charles [10794] married Mabel BOND and by 1911 had set up business in Great Torrington as smith, Innkeeper and cycle agent at the Hunters Inn.
William [10758] married Hannah HEARN in Beaford in 1876 when he was a smith and sojourner in Beaford. Although his wife appears on census in Beaford as a married dressmaker we have not found any record of him until 1901 when he was living on his own means in Beaford with his widowed mother and widowed sister Ellen. His wife Hannah is then recorded as being a widowed dressmaker.
Their sixth child, daughter Betsey [6115], married Thomas PETHERICK. One of her sons, Silas PETHERICK [10741] worked for his uncle John before moving to Llangyfelach, near Swansea, Glamorgan. He married Sarah BOWDEN in Swansea and was a blacksmith in Llangyfelach in 1881, 1891 and 1901. In 1911 he was living in Morriston where he was a blacksmith in the tin works.
Their eighth child William [6074] was a blacksmith with his father in 1851 and may have joined the RMLI and on board the Royal Navy vessel Meander in 1861.
Their tenth child John [6100] stayed in Beaford all his working life he died in 1912. He trained at least two apprentices including his nephew Silas PETHERWICK. There was an entry of him in Kelly’s directory for 1902. His son William [10762] born 1863 was working with him in 1891 and 1901. His daughter Amelia married Ernest James TRIGGER [26698] who was a blacksmith in Beaford in 1911.
William [10762] married Julia WESTCOTT later in 1901. He had been a pupil teacher in 1881 and Julia had been a schoolmistress / school teacher. In 1911 Julia was the head teacher and William an assistant teacher working for the County Council.
Their eleventh child Edward [6101] was working with his father and brothers in 1861. He moved to Plymouth where he was a brewer’s traveller and married three times before retiring to Dolton.
The youngest son of Robert and Jane was Edward [6053] born in 1798 and moved to West Anstey where he was the blacksmith in 1841, 1851 and 1861 and was a retired Blacksmith in 1871. His sons Thomas [10747], Edward [10749], William [10750] and George also became Blacksmiths. In 1861 Edward and sons Edward, William and George appeared together as blacksmiths in West Anstey.
Edward's eldest son Thomas [10747] was working with his father in 1851. In 1856 he married Mary COLE, the daughter of a blacksmith, in Bishop's Nympton. He had moved to Bedminster, Somerset in 1861 where he was a journeyman blacksmith. 1871 he was in Lucombe, Somerset and in 1881 was in his wife’s birthplace of Bishops Nympton where he had probably taken over his father in law’s smithy.
Edward [10749] married Sarah THORNE and was a smith in Uffculme, Devon in 1871. By 1881 he had taken over his father in law's farm in Uffculme and, according to the census return, was a Farmer of 120 Acres employing 2 Men. His father in law was a retired farmer.
William [10750] was a blacksmith living and working with his father in West Anstey in 1861. In 1871 he was a blacksmith boarding with his brother George in Bedminister. By 1881 he was married and was a blacksmith in Bristol. He retired before 1901.
George [10751] married Sabina the daughter of Robert and Mary HEARD and therefore his 1st cousin once-
