William and John Shoveller

The Shoveller (according to some in the family, the pronounciation is “shove-ELL-a”) branch of my family tree comes from my paternal grandmother’s side:

William Shoveller is my fifth great grandfather and was born around 1768 in England. He married Mary Bignell, my fifth great grandmother in 1789 and John, my fourth great grandfather was born in that same year. What interests me about these two men is that in certain records, they are listed as being a “gent”. From what I can gather, William has possibly earned this status during the course of his life and this has helped his children with furthering this status.

But my first question, upon finding records that state this was what exactly is a gent? Does that mean that they were part of the aristocracy somehow? In researching this, it appears that the concept of a “gent” is rather complex and that no, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they were a part of the aristocracy. Gentleman could be recognised as such for the occupation they held (for example, clergymen, officers in the army, etc) but even that had it’s limitations…the definitions of what a respectable occupation was back then differed slightly, other jobs that we today would consider ‘respectable’ weren’t seen as such back in the 19th century (check out David Cody’s information provided on Victorian Web for more on that!) A gentleman could also be named as such for owning and renting out land, thus earning his sole income from that.

I believe that my Mr William Shoveller may have started out with this…my next question is how did that eventuate? Did he inherit land, were his parents also well off? Or was he one of the lucky ones who managed to circumvent the rather rigid social classes of the time? As I’ve been unable to locate an exact birth record for William as yet, I haven’t been able to confirm who his parents were and whether they had a hand in his “gent” status.

There are records stating William as a proprietor of some properties and also records that state a William Shoveller as being an apprentice to a surgeon. I am currently attempting to confirm this! When and if I do, Part II of this blog post will be published!

His son John, however can be seen as being listed a gent in the Hampshire, England Allegations for Marriage Licenses (1689-1837): 

On that same page, William’s marriage to John’s mother is listed:

Note no mention of being a gent in William’s section!

John went on to study at Oxford University and shows up in the Oxford Alumni records:

LL.D…this abbreviation looked familiar to me. I had spent a short time studying Law and recognised this as being indicative of a Doctor of Laws degree. As it happens, John is referred to in obituaries and the like as either a Dr. or a Reverend…and often if he was referred to as the latter, the “LL.D” abbreviation would be tacked on to the end…quite the accomplished fellow it would seem! Are there any other qualifications I could be forgetting that would also use the abbreviation LL.D.? 

John and his wife Elizabeth went on to have ten children, a number of which died in infancy. What I love about John is that he wrote an entry in the parish book listing his children and their birth/baptism dates. Wish all my ancestors thought to do this!! The page was added to Ancestry by a wonderful user who is also researching the Shovellers:

 

It reads:

The following are the children of John Shoveller LLD, late of Portsea in the county of Southampton and now [illegible] Surrey and Elizabeth his wife whose former name was Eastman-all ought to have been registered in their proper places in this book, but some have been inadvertently omitted. 

Sarah Sabine, born Dec 21st 1812, baptised [January?] 30th 1813. Died February 21st 1813. 

Mary Elizabeth, born Dec 7th 1813, baptised February 13th, 1814. Died May 6th, 1814. 

Jane [Allen?], born Oct 22nd, 1814, baptised [illegible] 27th 1814.

Sarah Sabine, born July 19th [1816?], baptised Sept. 17th 1816. Died January 6th, 1825. 

John, born June 10th 1818, baptised July 14th 1818.

Thomas Eastman, born April 11th, 1820, baptised Sept. 8th 1820. Died June 18th 1825. 

Mary Elizabeth, born March 14th 1822, baptised June 7th 1822.

William Henry, born April 30th 1824, baptised [illegible] 31st, 1824.

Martha, born April 26th 1826, baptised June 9th 1826. Died April 1st, 1827.

Thomas Eastman, born May 25 1827, baptised July 11th, 1827. 

Witness my hand this fourth day of August, one thousand eight hundred and thirty seven. 

John Shoveller LL.D. their father. 

Losing five of your children is absolutely unimaginable. But I am so glad that he thought to write this all down. To his descendants it is invaluable.

Being an educated man, I thought there was a possibility that John may have written some papers that could be floating around still today.  A list of Wesleyan and Methodist churches was shown to me by a lovely lady in a genealogy Facebook group I’m a part of, this list was put together by a John Shoveller…could it be my John? Time and further research will tell.

John and his father William, and a few others in their family left considerably sized Wills:

John’s begins towards the end of the first page above…and continues beyond the second page…I will be transcribing these, wish me luck!! Such beautiful script, but terribly hard to read, at least for me.

The Shoveller (“Shov-ELL-a”) family are extremely interesting and there will be more to come on them as more information comes to light. A massive thank you to Pam from Genealogy My Ancestors Came to Australia Facebook group, who helped to find records and suggested places for me to look–I always feel comfortable asking for help in this group and it’s people like Pam who make it that way for new genealogists such as myself.

*Featured image is a painting by Robert Lefevre “Citizen Guerin“.