Ancestors of Mandy Willard

Joseph WEBB (1806-1871)

and Martha NOYES (1808-1885)

Joseph Webb and Martha Noyse married on 13 November 1836 at St. Marys, Reading, Berkshire.  (They were not my direct ancestors, but were the 2x Great Grandparents of Geoff Webb.)

Joseph Webb was born on 19 July and baptised on 5 August 1806 in Beenham.  He was the youngest son and tenth and final child of Elisha Webb (c1760- 1810) and Judith Ham (1761-1834).  He died on 30 May 1871 in Beenham.  Joseph was a Carpenter.  He was mentioned in his Mother’s Will.  Joseph left a Will dated 28 October 1850 and proved on 20 September 1871.  One of his executors was my 3x Great Grandfather 5 49 George Warman (1804-1883).  (George’s son, John was also a Carpenter and married Joseph’s niece.)

Martha Noyes was baptised on 15 May 1808 in Tadley, Hampshire and was the daughter of William Noyes and Jane.  She died on 14 January 1885 in Mortimer, Berkshire.

Joseph Webb and Martha Noyse had 10 known children:

1. Sarah Elizabeth Margaret Webb was baptised on 29 November 1829 into the faith of the Primitive Methodists of the Reading circuit.  She was mentioned in her father's will of 28 October 1850 and that of her mother dated 24 April 1872.  She emigrated to the USA and married John Cunningham on 11 April 1866 in Newark, New Jersey.  There were no children from this marriage.  The couple were buried in Bloomfield, Essex, New Jersey.

2. Robert Elisha Webb was baptised on 15 May 1831 as a Primitive Methodist.  He died on 11 December 1896 in Inglewood.  Robert was also mentioned in both his parents wills.  He married Mary Coar or Cohr.  She was born about 1837 in Clones, Fermanagh, Ireland and died on 16 May 1918.

3. Mary Judith Webb was born on 9 April 1833 in Beenham.  She emigrated to the USA.  Mary was also named in her parents wills.

4. William Webb was born on 28 December 1835 in Beenham.  He was mention in both his parents wills.  He was a Gardener and remained single.

5. Martha Webb was born in March 1840 in Beenham.  She died aged 14 years on 13 August and was buried on 15 August 1854 in Beenham.  She was mentioned in her father's will.

6. George Webb was born in December 1841 in Beenham.  He died at 22 Vachel Road, Reading on 10 August 1908.  George was a Blacksmith.  He was mentioned in both wills of his parents.  George married Sarah.  She was born about 1842 in Inkpen, Berkshire and died on 22 February 1913 in Reading.  The couple had at least 5 children.

7. Benjamin Webb was born on 10 December 1842 in Beenham.  He died on 24 December 1894 in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.  Benjamin married Caroline Webb on 10 July 1872 at Eaglehawk.  (They were Geoff Webb's Great Grandparents.)  Caroline was born on 16 October 1848 in Tullamore, Kings County, Ireland.  She was the daughter of Richard Webb (1813-1871) and Maria Telford (1815-1901).  Benjamin and Caroline had 8 known children.

8. Jabez Webb was born in 1844 and was buried in Beenham on 1 June 1854.

9. James Webb was born in 1847 and died in October 1863.

10. Elizabeth Ann Webb was born in 1850.  She married Matthew Ford.  He was born about 1846 and was the son of George Ford and Ann.  Matthew died in 1904.

Joseph WEBB (1806-1871)

Joseph was the youngest of ten children born to Elisha Webb and Judith Ham, at Beenham Hill on 19 July 1806.  Joseph's parents were aged in their mid forties when Joseph was born.  Beenham is a small village in the Bradfield district, situated around fifteen kilometres to the SSW of the Berkshire capital of Reading and five kilometres to the north of the Hampshire boarder.

Although Beenham's population appears to have stagnated at around four hundred, the English population rose from less that 10 million to in excess of 20 million people, by the end of Joseph's lifetime.  Joseph's mother originated from Basing, Hampshire, some fifteen kilometres to the south of Beenham, but Joseph's father Elisha, like his father before him, was also a native of Beenham.  The Webb name is linked to Beenham church registers, dating back to the register's very beginnings in the early 16th Century, needless to say if you weren't related to a Webb from Beenham, then you weren't a local.

Joseph's second eldest brother Richard Webb took over the family estate, Hill Foot Farm at Beenham, which was sometimes known as Beenham Lodge Estate.  Richard was eighteen years Joseph's senior and the 1851 census listed Richard's farm as sixty-four acres employing four labourers.  A total of twenty-one persons with the surname of Webb resided at Beenham in 1851.  By 1881 the farm had been transferred to Richard Webb, junior and the farm had grown to 75 acres.

When Joseph left school, Elisha paid for Joseph's four year carpenter's apprenticeship, giving Joseph an opportunistic start to the workforce.  On 13 November 1836, Joseph married Martha Noyse daughter of William Noyse and Jane, a native of Tadley from just over the Hampshire border.  The wedding ceremony was held at the Primitive Methodist Church, in St. Mary's Reading.

At the time of their marriage, the couple had produced no less than four children:  Sarah born in 1829; Robert in 1831; Mary in 1833; and William in December 1835.  The Webbs lived in several locations around Reading, including Carthe Street and Provelance Place, where their first two children were born.  Following Joseph's mother's passing in 1834, the returned to Beenham.  In those pre-Queen Victorian times, children born before a marriage were common practice and families moved about far more often that today's folk give them credit for.

After their marriage, the couple produced a further six children:  Martha in 1840; George in 1841; Benjamin in 1842; Jabez in 1844; James in 1847; and finally Elizabeth in 1850.  Jabez died in May 1854 and his sister Martha just a few months later.  The Webbs lost a third child James in October 1863.

The Webbs eldest daughters Sarah and Mary went to the USA, and although Sarah married a John Cunningham of New York, both girls are thought not to have had any children.  Robert and Benjamin migrated to central Victoria, Australia.  George became a blacksmith and eventually resided at 22 Vachel Road, Reading.  He and his wife Sarah had at least five children.  William never married and became a gardener, residing at 30 East Street and later number 5 Boult Street, Reading.

The youngest daughter Elizabeth married Matthew Ford of Mortimer, approximately ten kilometres to the east of Beenham.  Martha's will, which was written some three years prior to Elizabeth and Matthew's wedding in 1875, named Matthew as a nephew.  Matthew was a timber merchant and the Ford family of six children resided at Mortimer, West End and Padworth, Berkshire before settling at Heatherbrae, Silchester in Hampshire.

The Fords were reputedly related to Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company.  Laura Ford corresponded with Benjamin's descendants' in Victoria, from 1905 until she had a stroke which left her unable to write in 1974; so ending contact with our relatives in England.

Joseph died at Beenham on 30 May 1871 aged sixty-four years.  Following Joseph's death and Elizabeth's marriage, Martha moved in with the Fords, finally passing away at Mortimer on 14 January 1885, she was seventy-six.

WEBB