Georgina Chappell
I received an email from our cousin Adrian Sheppard, who visited the UK last year. While there, he located a document about the history of the Hillesley Baptist Church, with the following entry:
Hillesley Baptist Church 1730-1980, by Kathleen CHAPPELL Page 18. “Three members, Frank Cooper, George Davis and Jesse Chappell, emigrated to America in 1906. George Davis later returned from Missouri, bringing an American wife. Frank Cooper trained for the ministry, achieved his doctorate and was for many years a Baptist minister in Decatur and in Princeton, Illinois. Jesse Chappell also became a Baptist minister but did not keep in contact with this Church, so no details of his ministry are known.”
Adrian was also kind enough to provide a certificate of birth for Jesse’s sister, Georgina. The following links will bring up either a jpg image or pdf file. Note the absence of identification of the father, as was the case with Jesse’s certificate. It indicates the father’s occupation as “domestic servant”, however, this may actually have referred to Charlotte rather than the father. I’ve noticed, however, that the certificate gives Georgina’s date of birth as Jan. 1, 1807, obviously an error. The upper portion of the certificate recites that it’s an 1861 birth which is consistent with information we already had. Note, also, that her birth name is given as Georgina Rose, rather than Sarah. One of Jesse’s brothers, Charles, had children whom he named “Jesse” and “Rose”, apparently naming them after his brother and sister.
Kim says:
Wow. That’s pretty cool. A church that has documentation of Jesse. Can’t wait to see it for myself.
John says:
I couldn’t tell from Adrian’s description whether it was actually church records, or some pamphlet or book that Kathleen Chappell wrote about the church. Might be a good guess that the author is one of our relatives! Here’s what Adrian said, “I came across the document at the Gloucestershire County Record Office http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1348. They do have their catalogue online, but I was unable to find the reference there. It was really just a small booklet, and not something that was officially published. That is about all I can tell you.” So, apparently, it was something he found there while sorting through other stuff, and he apparently copied that line from it.
Stephen says:
Did you ask Adrian about the 1807 error? Because it’s written 1807 in the date recorded (February) as well as the date of birth (January). That seems rather odd.
Stephen says:
Er. Nevermind. Actually, upon closer inspection, I think they both say 1861, just the 6 and 1 merged. In the DOB, the ink or scanning of the 6 is broken – I guess they wrote their 6’s starting with the loop at the bottom, so the 61 is one pen stroke?
John says:
Yes, Adrian’s answer was the 6 looped over to join the 1 so looked like 1807 but was really 1861. The printed reference above says it’s an 1861 birth. So, I think all is okay. Lousy penmanship, IMHO.
Ed says:
Interesting – found this purely by chance by searching for “Hillesley” in Technorati. I’m from Hillesley myself, hence the search 🙂 I take it you do know that there are still some Chappells living in Hillesley? No idea if they’re any relation or not, but still.
John says:
Thanks for stopping in, Ed. Yes, I gathered there are yet Chappells in Hillesley, though my impression is they probably don’t descend from my great-great-grandparents; maybe from a sibling or uncle of a great-great-grandparent. Quite a number who aren’t closely related to our line emigrated to Australia, and a number of others to, I think, North Carolina in the USA. Those of most interest to me seem to have scattered, possibly to escape some scandal associated with my great-grandmother, although she, herself, remained near Hillesley ’til her death and was buried at Frampton-Cotterrell. I could, on the other hand, easily be mistaken. If you had a chance to look at our “Ancestry” page, and saw anything you might be able to complement, we’d be very interested in hearing further from you. Actually, we’d possibly be interested even if you don’t have anything to add! 🙂 Would that be you standing before the wave rock in the photo on your blog?