Selway of Somerset - part 3

In the previous post (Selway of Somerset - part 2) we noted that Mary Selway married Thomas Porch in Wisconsin, USA, although both had been born in Somerset, England.  Mary Elizabeth Maidment Selway was baptised on 16-Jan-1830 in the church of St Mary Magdalene, Chewton Mendip, daughter of James and Eliza (formerly Maidment).  Her husband Thomas Porch had been baptised 12 years earlier on 15-Feb-1818, less than 10 miles away in St Peter, North Wootton, son of John and Ann.

Did these two families know each other in Somerset before they emigrated and were linked through marriage in Wisconsin?

When Mary was baptised as a baby in 1830 she was given the name Mary after her father's mother.  Later when she married she took the name Porch and, whether or not she knew it at the time, this was her grandmother's maiden name.  Grandmother Miss Mary Porch became Mrs Selway and her granddaughter swapped names the other way, going from Miss Mary Selway to Mrs Porch.

Could Thomas Porch, baptised in North Wootton in 1818 be connected to his bride's grandmother Mary Porch, whose marriage placed her in the same parish in Somerset?

The St Peter North Wootton parish register entry for Mary's grandparents in 1781 lists:

• Bride: Mary Porch
• Groom: James Selway of Green Ore, Witham Friary
• Witnesses: Sarah Selway and Mary Read [Reed]

In the same parish 25 years later, the entry for the marriage of Thomas' parents in 1806 lists:

• Groom: John Porch
• Bride: Ann Clark
• Witnesses: Henry Clark Senior and Junior

With no mention of Porch relatives for either of these marriages there is little evidence to make a link other than the basic facts of same surname and same parish.

Selway of Somerset - part 2

In the previous post (Selway of Somerset - part 1) I pointed to a Find a Grave memorial which says about Mary Selway, daughter of James and Eliza (formerly Maidment): "James and daughter, Mary, went back to England to settle an estate when James became sick and died in Somersetshire. Mary stayed in England."  The source is quoted as "Beaverhead Co. History Book, Vol. II".

Elsewhere (Tribune-Examiner, September 03, 1980, Page 19), the same details and more are found.  I read in that Centennial Edition of the newspaper about the children of James and Eliza in Beaverhead County, Montana, "The four boys took up homesteads in the county. [...] The girls married local ranchers except for daughter Mary who remained in England after her father's death and married Tom Porch in Somersetshire. When her two sons, Henry and Tom Porch, were grown they came to Dillon to ranch".

A family memoir available on the internet (by Florence Carter Backus, 1952) says much the same, "James Sr. and daughter Mary (oldest child) returned to England to visit. James died there. Mary stayed there and raised a family."

All these sources, and some others, suggest that Mary Selway returned to England, remained in England, married in England and had children in England.

However, although parish records show that Thomas Porch was baptised in North Wootton, Somerset, England, civil records in the USA show a marriage between Mary Selway and Thomas Porch in Wisconsin, in 1849, a few years after the Selway family emigrated.  Then in the same place four children were born to Mary and Thomas Porch.

All things considered, the return trip to England seems not to have been James Selway and an unmarried daughter Mary Selway.  It was James Selway, his married daughter Mary Porch plus Mary's husband Thomas and their children.  The long journey included three generations of a family across an age range of under 5 years old up to about 75 years old.

Selway of Somerset - part 1

Puzzle pieces and solutions come in all shapes and sizes.  James Selway, my great-great-great-great-uncle, was baptised, married and buried in the same church - St Mary Magdalene, Chewton Mendip, Somerset, England.  All of his brothers and sisters were baptised in the same church across a period of more than 20 years.

Their father before them, also James Selway, was baptised (1755) and buried (1816) in the same village, although he had married Mary Porch (1781) in her parish church of St Peter North Wootton nearly 10 miles away.  These were my great-great-great-great-grandparents.

James Selway, son of James and Mary, was married in 1829 to Eliza Maidment and they were recorded in the 1841 census with seven children living at Double House, East End (note: map drawn in 1884).  An eighth child was born the following year.  Then the whole of this family disappeared from Chewton Mendip until 26 years later when James was buried there in 1868, noted as age 78.  I will not list the unsuccessful approaches which I tried to find them in the intervening years ...

Then I came across the Find A Grave memorial entry for Eliza.  The record matches her first name, maiden name and married surname, as well as mentioning Chewton Mendip.  It told me that she died only two years after her husband James but more than 4,500 miles away!

Wonderfully, that database includes a biography for Eliza which says, "James and daughter, Mary, went back to England to settle an estate when James became sick and died in Somersetshire."  In fact many people have recorded information about this pioneer family, which included another child who was born in the USA.  The sources are rather varied, such as:

• an article in a newspaper Centennial Edition, Dillon Tribune-Examiner, Sept 03, 1980, Page 19,
• a 119 page scholarly work with the title "Ranching in Beaverhead County, 1863-1960" from Liza Nicholas, Graduate School, the University of Montana,
• a memoir called "Origin of the Selways" written by Eliza's granddaughter Florence who was born in 1884 and
• an audio memoir by Florence on YouTube!

So it seems that James and Eliza emigrated to the USA in 1846 and about 18 years later Eliza stayed there when her husband returned to their starting point, never to see each other again.  James was indeed buried in the place where he was born and baptised, after a round trip of nearly 10,000 miles.