Details of the two families and their known descendants are contained in my 'Frittenden Hickmotts' family tree on Rootsweb. A separate listing of known births, deaths and marriages of Hickmotts in Frittenden can also be downloaded in pdf format by clicking here.
The LDS IGI shows that James and Elizabeth had at least five children baptised at Frittenden: Hannah (1749), Elizabeth (1751), Mary (1752), Sarah (1754) and Jemima (1760). The local parish registers (covering marriages between 1754 and 1813 and burials between 1813 and 1874) suggest that they may have had a further four children at Frittenden - Stephen (1746-1822), James (1748-1823), William (1756-1839) and John (1758-1828) - although this has still to be confirmed.
We know nothing of James, Hannah, Mary, Sarah and Jemima beyond their baptism dates. We think it likely that Elizabeth Hickmott may have married Thomas Fullagar at Biddenden on 10 October 1784. The parish registers show that two John Hickmotts were married at Frittenden between 1789 and 1794. The first was to Ann Pillben on 13 November 1789. John was recorded as a bachelor and Ann a spinster and both were said to be 'of this parish'. The second marriage was between John Hickmott and Elizabeth Rotter where, again, both were 'of this parish'. I am assuming at this stage that the two Johns were the same person and that Ann died before 1794 although this has still to be confirmed.
Information from the censuses and other sources has enabled us to construct a more detailed picture of the remaining two brothers and their families and descendants.
1. Stephen Hickmott (1746-1822)
The local parish records show that Stephen married Elizabeth Burgess or Burges at Frittenden on 21 December 1783. The record of marriage states that Stephen was a bachelor and Elizabeth a spinster and both were 'of this parish'. The wedding was witnessed by Sarah and James Hickmott (probably Stephen's father although it could have been his younger brother).
The Tithe schedules (carried out during the 1830s and 1840s) for Ulcombe show that a Stephen Hickmott owned the following pieces of land there: First Field, Bantry Field, Little Garden Field and homestead, Barn Meadow and lodge, Hop Garden Field and Hay Barn Meadow. The schedule further shows that the land was occupied by a William Hickmott. The 1841 census shows a William Hickmott, a 40 year-old farmer, living at Eastwood (Farm) at Ulcombe with his wife Lydia (35) and two children William (3) and Elizabeth (1). Lydia died the following year and was buried at Frittenden on 4 February 1842. William seems to have returned to Frittenden for the 1851 census shows him as a 52 year-old widower and farmer of 130 acres and living at Lashenden in Frittenden (where William had been born). With him were his two children, William (12, Ulcombe) and Elizabeth (10, Ulcombe), and his younger brother, James (49 who was born at Frittenden). My guess at this stage, still to be confirmed, is that William was the son of Stephen's younger brother William Hickmott and that the tithe schedule refers either to William senior or his son.
Local parish records and the LDS IGI indicate that Stephen and Elizabeth had nine children all baptised at Frittenden: Sarah (1784), James (1785), Thomas (1789), Elizabeth (1790), Mary (1791), (H)Anna (1794), Jemima (1795), John (1795) and Ann (1797). They further show that Elizabeth married Stephen Bate(s) at Frittenden in 1810 (the wedding was witnessed by Stephen Hickmott) while Thomas married Mary Ann Bate there in 1813. The censuses indicate that John was married in around 1824, probably at Biddenden where his wife Elizabeth was born. Stephen Hickmott senior died and was buried at Frittenden in 1822. He was 76 years old. His wife Elizabeth probably predeceased him.
The censuses and other sources have enabled us to trace the family and descendants of two of Stephen and Elizabeth's children, Thomas and John Hickmott, as follows:
1.1 Thomas Hickmott (1789-1866)
As described above, Thomas married a local girl, Mary Ann Bate(s) at Frittenden in 1813. Like Thomas' parents, they had nine children all born at Frittenden: Stephen (1813-13), Thomas (1815-47), Stephen (1817), James (1819-1852), John (1822), William (1824), David (1826), Edward (1827-95) and Mary Ann (1830-48). The parish registers show that the first Stephen died as an infant while their last child and only girl died at Frittenden at the age of 19 years. All their other children married: Thomas to Elizabeth Judge at Frittenden in 1837, Stephen to Harriet Powell from Cranbrook, James to Sarah Watts, John to Harriet Hayter, William to Mary Unknown, David to his cousin Caroline Fletcher Hickmott in 1850, and Edward to Elizabeth Goddard in 1855.
The local parish records show that two of Thomas and Mary Ann's sons, Thomas and James, died relatively young, aged 32 and 33 respectively, and were buried at Frittenden. We don't know if Thomas had any children. The censuses show that James Hickmott and Sarah Watts, who died in 1859 aged 34 years, had four children: James, Rachel, Stephen and Thomas Hickmott. At the time of the 1861 census, Rachel was with her uncle, David Hickmott, at Upland farm in Smarden. Stephen and his younger brother Thomas were at 'Dingleton' Farm House at Beneden with Esther Watts, a 30 year-old unmarried servant (I would guess that Esther was their aunt). The farm was owned or run by two brothers, George and William Pope who were probably related to their cousin-in-law, Charles Pope. The censuses further indicate that Stephen married Emily Chapman from Cranbrook in around 1870 and that they lived first at Mill Cottage in Headcorn and later on Union Street in Maidstone. Stephen and Emily had at least seven children: Emily, Marion, Kate, Lily, Rose, Eva and Oliver Thomas Hickmott where all were born at Cranbrook.
Another of Thomas and Mary Ann's sons, Stephen Hickmott (1817-86), farmed initially at Sissinghurst and then at Frittenden (Pore Farm). He and Harriet Powell (1822-1888) had three children, all born at Cranbrook: 1) Mary Ann who married a bookmaker, Charles Pope, in 1888 and had at least one daughter, Winifred Pope; 2) Stephen, who worked as an agricultural labourer and married Fanny Haywood from Cranbrook in 1881. He and Fanny had eleven children, all born at Frittenden: Stephen George, Beatrice Mary, William Charles, Olive, Horace, Jeffrey, Alice, James, Herbert and Solomon. We think that Horace enlisted in the British Army at Maidstone on 23 November 1908, and served as a gunner in the 4th Battery of the Royal Field Artillery in India - at Rawalpindi and Campbellpore - between 4 January 1911 and 7 June 1919 when he was discharged and returned to England to live at Marden. While in India he contracted malaria and was charged and received 10 days CB for striking a native. 3) James, another agricultural labourer, who married Ellen Warsley Rofe from Frittenden in 1888 and had at least two boys, Edwin and Harold, before James' death some time before 1901 (the census for that year has Ellen (38) as a widow and working as a servant at Ivy House in Frittenden).
Thomas and Mary Ann's son John Hickmott and his wife Harriet Hayter seem to have lived all their lives at Frittenden. They had two children we know of, William Thomas and Harriet who married Frederick Gates at Frittenden in 1875 and had at least three children: Frederick, George and Alfred Gates. Another of their sons, William Hickmott and his wife Mary lived first at Ulcombe, then Headcorn and, in 1881, at Cole Farm near Frittenden. They had five children: Julia; Thomas who married Kate Amelia Brown at Staplehurst in 1883. Thomas was a journeyman carpenter, he and Kate had five children, Thomas, Kate, Elizabeth, Bertha and Ann between 1884 and 1896; William who married Eliza Wickens at Frittenden in 1878. At the time of the 1901 census, William, then a 41 year-old farm bailiff, and Elizabeth (38) were at Reed House in Marden with their five children: William, John, George, Edith and Beatrice; John who married Kate Stevens in 1894 and by 1901 had three children all born at Frittenden: Charles, John and Helen; Mary Susannah who married Edwin Fread, an agricultural labourer fron Frittenden there in 1890. They remained at Frittenden after their marriage and by the time of the 1901 census had had three children, Susannah, Herbert and Kate.
Thomas and Mary Ann's youngest son, Edward Ernest Hickmott, was also a carpenter by trade. He married Elizabeth Goddard from Bilsington in Kent in 1855 and seems to have lived at Folkestone until his death in 1895. He and Elizabeth had nine children all born at Folkestone: Mary Ann (1856), Edward (1857-86), Edgar (1859), Elizabeth (1861), Edna (1864-1874), Ellen Clara (1867) who probably married Edward Jarrett in 1916, Eugenie Lily (1870), Elwyn Walter (1873) and Ernest Alfred (1877). The British First World War pensions contained on Ancestry.co.uk shows that Ernest enlisted in the 18th Battalion of the King's Royal Rifles on 15 November 1915. He was then 39 years old and a furniture painter by trade. He was subsequently wounded in action on 9 August 1917 and again on 4 November 1918 (a gunshot wound to the right forearm). He was demobilised on 18 June 1919 and received no war pension. There was no indication of whether he was married.
1.2 John Hickmott (1795-1861)
The 1841 census shows John Hickmott, a 45 year-old farmer, living at 'Little Bubhurst' in Frittenden with his wife Elizabeth (born at Biddenden in 1799) and their eight children: Elizabeth, Caroline, Mary, William, Sarah, Olive, Hannah and Eleanor where all were born at Frittenden. In 1851 John and Elizabeth and five of their children were at Malcombe House in Frittenden. They were still there at the time of the 1861 census and about eight months before John's death the same year. By 1871 Elizabeth had moved to Croydon in Surrey where she was living with her youngest daughter Eleanor.
What of their children? Mary, Olive, Hannah and Elizabeth seemed not to have married. The first two died in their twenties, Elizabeth worked for a time as the cook and housekeeper for her sister Sarah and her husband Thomas Walter of Staplehurst. At the time of the 1871 census, she and Hannah were at the home of their sister Eleanor West and her family who were living at Croydon in Surrey. Eleanor Elliott Hickmott had married a butcher, William West in 1862 and had at least four children: Eleanor, William, John and Kate. Her sister Caroline Fletcher Hickmott married her cousin David Hickmott, who was farming land at Smarden, at Frittenden in 1850. They had at least one daughter, Caroline Hickmott, who was born at Frittenden in 1857. Another sister, Sarah Thirkill Hickmott, also married a farmer, Thomas Walter from Staplehurst, in 1855. The censuses indicate that they lived for a time at Sissinghurst, although two of their children, Thomas John and Harry Hedman Hickmott, were born at Cranbrook.
The girls' only brother, William Hickmott, married a girl from Ticehurst, Hephzibah Ann Huntley, at Ticehurst in 1864. They had one son, George Hickmott, who worked as a corn merchant and traveller, and married Haddie Beaumont Hoadley at Lewes in Kent in 1892. George and Haddie had four children we know of: George, Dorothy, Helen Charlotte and Ann Margaret all of whom were born at Frittenden.
2. William Hickmott (1756-1839)
The local parish registers show that a William Hickmott married Sarah Gower at Frittenden on 12 November 1794. Both were said to be 'of this parrish' and the wedding was witnessed by a Stephen Hickmott. The registers also show that a William Hickmott, aged 83 years, and Sarah Hickmott, aged 53, were buried at Frittenden in 1839 and 1815 respectively.
We think that William and Sarah had at least four children, all born at Frittenden: William (1799), James (1802), Stephen (1802) and Silas (1806). James and Stephen seemed not to have married. William married Lydia Unknown (who died at Ulcombe and was buried at Frittenden in 1842, aged 38 years). At the time of the 1841 census, William was farming land, possibly owned by his uncle Stephen Hickmott, at Ulcombe. Following his wife's death in 1842, he returned to farm at Frittenden where he remained until his death in 1871. William and Lydia Hickmott had two children: William and Elizabeth who were born at Ulcombe in 1838 and 1840 respectively. The censuses indicate that William junior lived as an annuitant at Biddenden for all of his life and that he never married. Elizabeth may have been married in 1866 although this needs to be confirmed.
2.1 Silas Hickmott (1806-1870)
William and Sarah's youngest son, Silas Hickmott, married Jane Bridger, from Halden in Kent, in 1839. The censuses show they lived at Frittenden after their marriage, where Silas farmed land. The couple had nine children, all baptised at Frittenden: James (1840), Jane (1842), Mary (1844), Benjamin (1846-47), Elizabeth (1848), William (1851-69), Ellen (1854), Silas (1857) and Nancy (1857). The Monumental Inscriptions for Smarden indicate that Silas died and was buried there in 1870, and that his wife pre-deceased him by 13 years.
We know nothing of the life of Silas and Jane's eldest son, James Hickmott. Their eldest daughter, Jane Hickmott (pictured on the left) took over the running of 'Friend's Farm' following her father's death in 1870. She never married and by the time of the 1901 census was living on her own means at Elderden House in Chart Sutton (south of Maidstone) in Kent. We think that she died in Lewisham in London in 1917 aged 75 years. Her sister Mary Hickmott married Philip Collison of Staplehurst in 1872. She was widowed in 1897 and went to live with Jane at Chart Sutton. Mary and Philip had no children we are aware of.
One of her descendants, Marge Walker, tells us that Jane and Mary's sister, Elizabeth Hickmott, married Ernest James Mace Joy at Frittenden in 1866. Ernest was the son of James Albert Joy who ran Wadd Farm near Brenchley in Kent. Marge continues that two years after they were married Ernest and Elizabeth and their son Harold Ernest Joy emigrated to the United States. The photo below, taken just before their departure, shows Elizabeth with her four sisters and younger brother, Silas.
Marge adds that Elizabeth and Ernest lived first at Utica in New York and then Akron in Ohio (where the family appear on the 1880 census). They had a further eleven children in America: Elsie Florence (1868-68), Rufus James (1869-1939), Lionel Mace (1871-1956), Oliver Hickmott (1874-1953), Herman Horace (1876-1907), Eli Bede (1878-1967), Bessie Clora (1881-1915), Laura Ellen (1883-1971), Minnie Estella (1885-1929), Albert James (1888-1961) and Eunice Mildred Joy (1893-1975). Elizabeth Joy nee Hickmott died at Akron in Ohio in 1894. Four years later Ernest married married Eliza Payne Akehurst). He died in Akron in 1910.
Provided by Marge Walker, this studio photo was taken in England in around 1868,
just before Marge's great grandmother, Elizabeth Joy nee Hickmott emigrated to the United States.
It shows the children of Silas and Jane Hickmott nee Bridger, from the rear and left to right:
Mary, Jane, Elizabeth (nursing her son Harold), Silas, Nancy and Ellen Hickmott
(the couple's eldest son, James, was not present).
Ellen Hickmott (also pictured on the right above the group photo) married Thomas Reader in 1880. The 1881 census has her and Thomas (said to be a 38 year-old farmer of 350 acres) living at Old Hay in Meredith (near Yalding) in Kent. They were still there in 1891. Silas Hickmott jnr helped his older sister, Jane, run Friend's Farm. He married Annie Sarah Munday, from Mersham in Kent, sometime between 1881 and 1891. The The 1901 census shows he and Annie living with Annie's mother, Frances Munday, on Water Lane in Headcorn. The youngest child of Silas and Jane, Nancy Hickmott was living with her sister Mary Collison at the time of the 1880 census.
Click here to see more photographs of the family of Silas and Jane Hickmott nee Bridger.
Last updated: 11 August 2008
Image Sources:
Frittenden Parish Church from The Weald of Kent, Surrey and Sussex Website.
Jane Hickmott, Ellen Hickmott and Elizabeth Hickmott and siblings, courtesy of Marge Walker.
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The records we have been able to access to date indicate that the Frittenden and Headcorn lines of the family descended respectively from a James and Elizabeth and a William and Elizabeth Hickmott. William was born in 1714 and James in around 1720 so it is conceivable, although not yet proven, they were related (a possibility further supported by their relative proximity and the degree of commonality in the names of their children). Nor do we yet know whether James and William were born in their respective villages or whether they came from somewhere else.