In family history, as in life, some things niggle. I recently posted about Mary Ann Nelson
TRENDALL and I said that the source of her maritime middle name was unknown and
that there was no evidence of any earlier use of the name in the family.
I was partly right about the evidence bit but the explanation
as to the name is, probably quite simple.
My great great great grandfather, Joseph TRENDALL
(c1770-1838) married Ann BARTLETT (c1789-1829) at St Clements Danes Church
London on 03 May 1807. The interface between
the BARTLETTS and the TRENDALLS is quite complex as I have mentioned
before. One of this couple’s children
was William TRENDALL (1820-). He was the
Father of Mary Ann Nelson TRENDALL (1846-1914) (as described in my last post). Living with William’s family was Elizabeth
BARTLETT (?-1849). At one point she is
described by another member of the family as their grandmother suggesting that Elizabeth
was the mother of Ann BARTLETT.
However a few searchs on line suggest that Ann BARTLETT’s
Mother was in fact Ann NELSON. This
would make sense for the purposes of the naming pattern. The problem is I cannot find any actual
regards of a marriage involving Ann NELSON and William BARTLETT, who we know was
the father of Ann BARTLETT from Ann’s baptism record from 1787. Nor can I find
a baptism record for Ann NELSON. All we
have is the repeated claim in secondary sources that this is Ann NELSON. I say ‘we know’, and this is always a
dangerous phrase. There are, for
example, several other baptisms of ‘Ann BARTLETTs’ in the period and at least
one other with parents called William and Ann.
Unpicking these things is never straightforward and we must
proceed with caution.
The strongest indication that Mary Ann Nelson TRENDALL was
named after her grandmother is that she was not the only member of the family
to be given the Nelson name. Ann’s brother,
Thomas BARTLETT (c1796-1841) had a middle name that he didn’t seem to use
much. His full name was actually; Thomas
Nelson BARTLETT. For a while Thomas and
his family were living at Cromer Street, the address of William TRENDALL. In the 1841 census when he was living in Henry
Street Pentonville there were some young children in the household with the
surname NELSON. Moreover Joseph TRENDALL names Thomas BARTLETT
as his executor in his Will. The fact
this is the same person is confirmed by the address cited at the time of
writing the Will. It would have been
helpful if he had mentioned his middle name and the fact that he was his
brother in law. A reminder that documents
are not written with future historians in mind. Finally we note that Thomas
called his youngest daughter Mary Nelson BARTLETT (c1833-? ).
Therefore on the balance of probabilities, I would conclude
that Ann NELSON married William BARTLETT and their children included my great great
great grandmother Ann BARTLETT (later TRENDALL).
Having solved this puzzle almost to the level set by the
international Genealogical Proof Standard another problem arises.
How does Elizabeth BARTLETT fit into the family picture? We
known that she ran the pawnbrokers business
in Cromer Street for many years before it passed to William TRENDALL. Her death certificate suggests that she was
90 years old in 1849. She is described
as the widow of ‘a barrister’s clerk’ – a name would have been helpful! I have a theory.
A bit more work to do, hopefully followed by another post
updating this update!
Philip Trendall
(1961- )
July 2026
#Trendall #Bartlett #Nelson #Cromerstreet #
