John was Ari's 5x great-grandfather, born in about 1798 in the parish of Martley, Worcestershire, known for its "luxuriant orchards of apple and pear trees". I have found no record of his baptism or marriage, which must have taken place in about 1823. I know that his wife was Mary, born in Lower Sapey which was five miles away. Their first child was John, born in 1825, and they went on to have seven children altogether.
The 1841 census shows the family located "Near Tomkins" in Martley. (Tomkins Farm is on Hope House Lane.) John is an agricultural labourer, and there are three children, William (10), Thomas (8) and James (1).
I hadn't noticed this before, but the head of the household is not John, but Frances Amphlett, aged sixty-eight, an agricultural labourer. So this could well be John's mother (she died in 1850).
In 1851 the family are at Tomkins Green, with John now a farm labourer aged fifty-two, and in 1861 they are at Brook Farm.
John died in 1870 and was buried at St Peter's in Martley on the 7th of October.
Ari, this is how you are related to John:
