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Ancestors of Mandy Willard |
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Family History is my hobby - I am not a professional genealogist.
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The WILLARD Family of Sussex
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My Willard Ancestors
The Willard Family circa 1946
My Grandfather William Charles Willard (1894-1948) was born in Portslade, Sussex and died in Southwick, Sussex. During WW1 he was in the army and was gassed twice, resulting in him being invalided out of the service before the end of the war. He married my Grandmother Bessie Warman (1900-1987) in 1920 and they settled in Southwick. My Grandfather spent all his working life as a stoker and labourer at the Gas Works in Portslade. He earned very little and the work was hard, which probably contributed to his early death at the age of 54 years. My Great Grandfather was also a William Charles Willard who was born in 1866 in Portslade. He married my Great Grandmother Annie Back (1871-1935) in 1891 and they had 4 sons, although only 2 survived to adulthood. The family story is that William left Annie for another woman and went to live in Lewes, Sussex, but so far I have not been able to prove this story. He died in Lewes in 1950. William's parents were George Willard (1835-1902) and Mary Wedge (1840-1911) who were both born in Pulborough, Sussex and married there in 1857. They moved to Portslade sometime between 1864 and June 1866. Prior to moving to Portslade, the family lived briefly in Greatham, Sussex. A little over a year after George's death, Mary married Thomas Thorpe, who was 15 years younger than her.
I can trace my Willard ancestry back through the Pulborough parish
registers, via
Clement Willard
(1813-1895),
John Willard
(1773-1846), There were earlier Willard families in Pulborough, but I have not found William's baptism (which I would guess was around about 1680) so cannot take this line further back. Between 1676 and 1696 a Richard Willard (c1650-1726) had 5 children baptised in West Chiltington, Sussex and he seems to be the only possible parent around, but I have not found that he had a son named William. West Chiltington is to the east of Pulborough. There were also Willard families in Petworth and Kirdford, Sussex, and again I have not found any links between them and the Pulborough Willards. Willard is a fairly common surname throughout Sussex and their ancestral home is said to be Chiddingly, not far from Eastbourne, in East Sussex (Pulborough is in West Sussex). The majority of Willards lived in the east of the county and any connection between the East and West Sussex Willards was probably before parish registers were kept. Although I am a Willard, I have not made an extensive study of Sussex Willard families and only have a small amount of data on other Willard families. However, I do jot down the occasional note, so I might just have something that may help others with Willard ancestors. I would also be grateful for any further information on the Willards which I could included in these web pages. |
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