The marriage of Christopher Smith and Hannah Farmery

In this previous post I had mentioned that I had had some trouble with finding the marriage record of my ancestors Christopher Smith and Hannah Farmery. Christopher was from Alne and Hannah was from Huby, both of which are parishes in the North Riding of Yorkshire. I had been unable to find the marriage record in the Alne parish records and had not had time to look at the Huby records. However, a kind person on the Yorksgen genealogy mailing list saw my problem and drew my attention to an IGI entry which I had foolishly overlooked. This appears to be the right marriage record:

Christopher Smith & Hannah Farmery - 19 MAY 1836 - at Saint Michael-Le-Belfrey, York.

This marriage took place one year before the birth of their eldest child, William, and therefore I'm pretty sure that it is the right record. What is intriguing is that they married at St. Michael-le-Belfrey, a church (pictured) which stands adjacent to York Minster.

The question remains, why did they marry here? I have seen in some articles that describe the ancient parish of St. Michael-le-Belfrey that this parish included some extra (or 'peculiar') areas of the North Riding of Yorkshire - I'm still uncertain whether Huby was amongst those. If so, this church may have been their usual (or at least Hannah's family's) place of worship. Another reason why they may have married there is that they may have frequented York often to sell produce - I know that several other of my ancestors who were agricultural labourers in parishes up to 30 miles North of York sold produce regularly in York. Finally, I have heard that in the early 1800s many people were drawn to worshiping at St. Michael-le-Belfrey as there was a particularly inspiring preacher there by the name of William Richardson. It is unlikely, however, that he brough Christopher and Hannah to this church as the rest of their church 'footprints' are in the Alne registers. I would like to find out more about why Christopher and Hannah got married at this church - perhaps one of the best ways forward will be to find out whether they married by license or banns, and also I must obviously find the original entry.

Nevertheless, it is fascinating to know that one's ancestors got married at such a prominent church in the history of York. Indeed, 166 years before their marriage in the very same church on April 16, 1570 there was the baptism of a certain Guy Fawkes.

Christopher Smith of Alne 1815-1890

Introduction













I previously described how I traced back my great-great-grandmother Ada Smith's parentage to a Richard (b.1843) and Elizabeth (b.1847) Smith, from Alne in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Above is a recent picture I took of the Alne Church. Below is a street scene from an Alne postcard which is un-dated. See here for a brief history of Alne.













Following this, I was able to go back another two generations of the Smith family in relatively quick time - I was able to spend a day at the North Yorkshire Record Office where I transcribed all of the Smith records in the parish registers. Adding this data to the original census records that I was also able to transcribe I could build up a picture of all of the Smiths in the parish of Alne. Subsequently, I visited the parish church of Alne and found the gravestones of several of the Smith family. Unfoturnately, the Alne Church is quite exposed to the elements which made reading the tombstones quite difficult, but nevertheless some good information was gleaned. Finally, I was also able to gain some information about the Smith family from online and libary-based trade directories. I had thought that researching Smith family history and genealogy may be quite arduous, but as this family were contained for such a long period in one place my task was quite easy.


Putting the details together
Christopher Smith was baptised in Alne on 5th February 1815 to Robert Smith (a labourer) and Ann. I then have little information on Christopher until he marries a Hannah in about 1836-7. I have calculated this marriage date as their first child William Smith was baptised in Alne on the 26th April 1838. The next children were Jane (1841), Richard (13/1/1843 - my direct ancestor), Robert (1849) and Elizabeth Ann (1856). According to the census, Hannah was born in Huby, near to Alne. I have not yet found the marriage of Christopher in the Alne parish records, but a member's entry in the IGI says that a Christopher Smith b.1814 in Alne married a Hannah Farmery in Yorkshire in 1836. This rather vague entry appears to fit with the evidence that I have as Christopher was baptised in February 1815 in Alne, and the Farmery name is a very unusual surname in Yorkshire - except in Huby. I need to spend another visit to the Borthwick Institute to see if the marriage is in the Huby parish records. I could also find out Hannah's maiden name by purchasing the birth certificate of one of Christopher and Hannah's children. - see this post for an update on this marriage record.


After marriage, Christopher and Hannah lived their entire lives in Alne, living at the following places:

1841 - John Street

1851 - Alne Street

1861 - 'Poorfact?' House


1871 - Town St

1881 - 'Alne Village'.

From 1838 to 1881 in the parish and census records Christopher is described as being an agricultural labourer or just labourer. By 1881 his wife Hannah is 'deaf and lame' at the age of 67. She died two years later, being buried on the 17th September 1883 two days after she died (as mentioned on his picture). Christopher was buried seven years later in Alne on 24th July 1890. He died on the 22nd July as mentioned on his headstone in Alne parish church (also see picture). As you can see I took the image just as it was getting dark which has made the image difficult to read. Even when I was there it was extremely difficult to read as it was heavily weathered. Nevertheless, it is always pleasurable to find the gravestone of one of your ancestors.