I’d Like To Meet

# 52 Ancestors 52 weeks – Week 4

While there are a myriad number of ancestors that I would like to meet, I have one that is clamoring to be at the front, Edward Waller LOADES. Edward Waller LOADES is a family name that has been handed down from the early 1800’s. So the question remains which Edward Waller LOADES

We first see the name Edward Waller LOADS in the baptismal records of Great Yarmouth in May 1819. Edward Waller was born to Edward Loads and Harriot BELL. It is Edward LOADS the father of Edward Waller who I would like most to meet. He is one of my biggest brickwalls and I have not been able to move move past him to determine who is his family, where he originally came from and where he died.

Both the records above provide evidence of his name and the fact that he passed his name Edward onto his first born son. It is during this time that the middle name Waller if first found in the records. Where the name Waller comes from has been the source of much searching as well as much frustration. The obvious reasons, that it was a family name has not been able to be verified. All the children born to Harriot and Edward had Waller as their middle name. Edward Waller has since been passed down the generations of the LOADES family, with no understanding of where the name was derived from. The Freeman papers for Edward Loads provide us with evidence that the father also used Waller as a middle name. One can only imagine that Waller was important to the family in some way, but this has been lost through time and distance

A astute reader would also have noticed that the name LOADES has been spelt in the registers as LOADS. Both names and spellings are common around the NORFOLK area. Was LOADES the original spelling and the baptismal records an error by the curate of the church. By the 1841 census the family was consistently using the spelling LOADES. Asking where and how the spelling was derived may help to further understanding the LOADES family prior to 1800.

We know from the records that Edward was a carpenter and joiner and that he passed these skills on to his son. After the 1841 Census Edward senior disappears from the records. There are no death or burial records. He is not listed in the 1851 census when his wife Harriet BELL is listed as living in the Poorhouse at Clerkenwell [6]. It states that she is married. When Harriet died in 1854 in the workhouse she was listed as being the widow of Edward Waller Loades, carpenter [7]. Like his birth nor records of his death have been found.

One further mystery that I would like to ask about is.. did he go on the Lady Bruce as a settler to Natal for 40 acres of land or was this another Edward and Jane [8]. The website British Settlers in Natal 1824 -1857 has Edward LOADES listed as a settler but not Jane [9]. I have often wondered did Edward senior replace his son and wife and emigrate to Natal. His son and family migrated to the colony of South Australia four years later. Additional information has been sort from the web owners, but this service has ceased, so no records have been forthcoming. So meeting with Edward senior may provide me with answers to the questions that I have been searching for over a long period of time.

Meeting Edward would help me to understand the early history of the LOADES family. We know he completed his apprenticeship in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk prior to moving the family to London in the late 1820’s. Was Norfolk the original county of the LOADES family? I am sure that there is so much more to learn about the LOADES family is one could only get past where Edward was born and where he died.

1. Loades, C. 2012. Photo of Saint Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Photo taken by the author.
2. Norfolk Record Office; Norwich, Norfolk, England; Reference: PD 28/26. Ancestry.com. Norfolk, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
3. Norfolk Record Office; Norwich, Norfolk, England; Reference: Y/WE 1-67. Norfolk, England, Transcripts of Church of England Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers, 1600-1935 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018.
4. Nofolk Record Office; Freemen’s admission rolls, 1706-1848 (Y/C 22/1-32).
5. Class: HO107; Piece: 662; Book: 4; Civil Parish: St James Clerkenwell; County: Middlesex; Enumeration District: 8; Folio: 37; Page: 26; Line: 12; GSU roll: 438779. Ancestry.com. 1841 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2010.
6. Class: HO107; Piece: 1516; Folio: 665; Page: 11; GSU roll: 87850 .
   Ancestry.com. 1851 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005
7. General Register Office, Copy of death certificate, Middlesex, St James 1854, 442 Harriet BELL.
8. Clark, J. 1972. Natal Settler Agent. The Career of John Moreland, Agent for the Byrne Emigration Scheme of 1849 -51. A.A. Balkema. Cape Town.
9. O’Bryne Spencer, S. British Settlers in Natal 1824 -1857 website http://shelaghspencer.com/settlers/?highlight=Loades