THE HADEN FAMILY
With regard the Haden family (see blog post 10th April 2007), Danny Howell has now corresponded again with Sue Kirkwood-Lowe of Mudeford in Dorset. He writes:
Dear Sue Kirkwood-Lowe,
Further to the information/photos I sent you a few days ago concerning the Haden family of Warminster, I write again, this time with regards the Hadens at Trowbridge.
You may recall that I said to you on the phone that there had been an engineering firm called G. and J. Haden at Trowbridge.
I enclose a copy of an advertisement for that firm, reproduced from The Book of Trowbridge, by Kenneth Rogers, which was published in 1984.
More importantly, I enclose two or three pages from Volume IV of the Victoria County History of Wiltshire, giving details about the firm of G. & J. Haden.
You will see that a George Haden is mentioned, "born at Handsworth, Birmingham, in 1788." In the details of the 1861 Warminster Census I sent you, James Burnett Haden’s birthplace was recorded as "Handsworth, Staffordshire."
Looking at the present map, Handsworth is located near Birmingham and West Bromwich in what is now known as the West Midlands. It seems that Handworth, Birmingham; Handsworth, Staffordshire; and Handsworth, West Midlands; are all references to the same place. Is it just coincidence that George Haden and James Burnett Haden both came from Handsworth, or is there, as seems most likely, a family connection?
I will leave it to you to try and fathom it all out, but if there is a connection, the Haden engineering history at Trowbridge is going to take you down a new avenue of genealogical research.
I am asking myself why did James Burnett, from Handsworth, come initially to Wiltshire (where he ended up meeting and marrying a Melksham woman, and running an ironmongery business at Warminster); what made him travel to Wiltshire to begin with? Maybe he first came to Wiltshire, to work for family relations at Trowbridge? Maybe you can confirm this or maybe there’s nothing whatsoever in any of this speculation?
Yours sincerely,
Danny Howell.
Dear Sue Kirkwood-Lowe,
Further to the information/photos I sent you a few days ago concerning the Haden family of Warminster, I write again, this time with regards the Hadens at Trowbridge.
You may recall that I said to you on the phone that there had been an engineering firm called G. and J. Haden at Trowbridge.
I enclose a copy of an advertisement for that firm, reproduced from The Book of Trowbridge, by Kenneth Rogers, which was published in 1984.
More importantly, I enclose two or three pages from Volume IV of the Victoria County History of Wiltshire, giving details about the firm of G. & J. Haden.
You will see that a George Haden is mentioned, "born at Handsworth, Birmingham, in 1788." In the details of the 1861 Warminster Census I sent you, James Burnett Haden’s birthplace was recorded as "Handsworth, Staffordshire."
Looking at the present map, Handsworth is located near Birmingham and West Bromwich in what is now known as the West Midlands. It seems that Handworth, Birmingham; Handsworth, Staffordshire; and Handsworth, West Midlands; are all references to the same place. Is it just coincidence that George Haden and James Burnett Haden both came from Handsworth, or is there, as seems most likely, a family connection?
I will leave it to you to try and fathom it all out, but if there is a connection, the Haden engineering history at Trowbridge is going to take you down a new avenue of genealogical research.
I am asking myself why did James Burnett, from Handsworth, come initially to Wiltshire (where he ended up meeting and marrying a Melksham woman, and running an ironmongery business at Warminster); what made him travel to Wiltshire to begin with? Maybe he first came to Wiltshire, to work for family relations at Trowbridge? Maybe you can confirm this or maybe there’s nothing whatsoever in any of this speculation?
Yours sincerely,
Danny Howell.
