The Dawes and Robbins Families

The Dawes and Robbins Families

Introduction

The Dawes and Robbins families were both originally from Draycot Cerne but partially migrated to Sutton Benger; they were also connected by marriage. And both have fascinating histories.

The Dawes Family

Several documents in our local History Centre archives show that in 1848 a local firm of solicitors was engaged to search for the heirs to the estate of Thomas Dawes, who prior to his death had been a shopkeeper at a house known now as 41 High Street, Sutton Benger. Thomas had married twice and had six children who survived to adulthood. Although the surviving children had left Sutton Benger, all bar two were tracked down by the solicitors and received their legacies. However, finding the two remaining sons, John and his younger brother Thomas, was difficult in the 1840s as they had both been transported to Australia. Obviously, at this time it was difficult for the solicitors to locate them, particularly in a country thousands of miles away from England.

The official records of the day show that the eldest son John was convicted in Bristol of forgery in April 1823. His initial death sentence was commuted to transportation to Australia for life, and he arrived there in March 1824. He later married and had five children, and died in Australia in 1886. He was eventually tracked down and received his share of his father’s estate.

As for his brother, the Internet has court records which state that a Thomas Dawes was convicted of theft in Monmouth, Wales in March 1838; this was probably Thomas junior. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, and – like his older brother – was transported, arriving in Tasmania in January 1839. Modern records show that he was living and working in Melbourne by 1847, and was married with children. Unfortunately, the solicitors failed to find him in 1848 – possibly because his surname had morphed to become ‘Davies’ – and he did not receive any legacy; he died in August 1857, aged 47 years. It would be very unlikely that he even knew that his father had died.

Thomas Dawes senior had originally worked for the Long family at Draycot House; his story can be found under 'The Butlers' on Tim Couzen's History of the Draycot Estate website at Draycot Estate. His wife Elizabeth was also part of a family who worked at Draycot, the Robbins (or Robins) family. The name 'Robbins' continued as a second name in later generations of the Dawes family, including Thomas’ youngest son George Robbins Dawes. In fact, George Robbins Dawes liked his name so much that he christened his own son with exactly the same name; or perhaps he simply wanted to confuse future generations of genealogy researchers? When Thomas senior died he left substantial bequests to all of his children except the two who had been transported. He named all the surviving children in England, but he certainly seems to have disinherited John and Thomas junior, who were not mentioned at all. However, he left the bulk of his estate to his widow, with instructions that after her death it should be sold, and that the proceeds should be divided between all his surviving children, without making any stipulations about the two ‘black sheep’. Which is why the solicitors were trying to find not just the family in England, but also the two of them in Australia, when they had been excluded from the original will.

The Robbins Family

The Draycot Cerne parish records show several people in the 1700s with the family name ‘Robins’ – the name seems to have gradually morphed into ‘Robbins’ by the early 1800s. John Robins (senior) was the miller in Draycot Cerne; after he died in 1777 he was succeeded by his wife; the 1808 shows Susanna Robbins at ‘the mill’ (on todays’ B4122). After she died in 1814 their youngest son Joseph took over as the miller.

John Robbins (junior); miller of Draycot Cerne

Susanna’s husband was almost certainly the John Robbins who appeared in the Gloucester Journal newspaper on 8 June 1777; a lady called ‘Miss Plunkett’ was claiming credit for having cured cancers in a number of people. This included ‘John Robbins of Draycot, Wilts’ who had been cured of a ‘cancer in his under Lip, which he had been afflicted with 15 years.’

For some reason, Susanna failed to carry out the required formal administration of John’s estate after he died. Probate did not take place until after she died in 1814, when youngest son was appointed Executor of the estate. However, no Inventory has been found, and it is not possible to know how wealthy John had been, and whether he left significant bequests to his sons.

John Robbins (senior); tea dealer of Bath and Sutton Benger

John and Susanna’s eldest son, John Robbins junior, was born in Draycot Cerne in 1750. We do not know anything about his youth; we do not know whether he received a significant bequest from his father’s estate after his mother’s death. However, what is clear is that, by the time he died in 1839, John Robbins was one of the wealthiest people in the parish. He had gone to work in Bath, but had a house in Sutton Benger in 1808, on the south side of High Street near today’s Starlings; by 1839 both he and his son James had houses in the village. Both John and James were described as ‘tea dealers’.

But not only did John have a house in Sutton Benger, he owned ten (yes, ten (10) – this is not a typo) houses in the suburbs of Bath, in the Batheaston / Bailbrook area, which he divided between his children. His Will shows that he was owed substantial amounts of money, and held various Bonds and Mortgages, suggesting that he was also making money as a money lender (or ‘private banker’ as part of the economy of credit). In total, he left assets worth well in excess of £300,000 today. This places him at #1 on the Unofficial List of Sutton Benger’s Wealthiest People Ever (before 1900).

George Robbins

George Robbins (1789-1874) was the youngest son of John (junior); in 1811 he became a member of the Moravian Church at East Tytherton and later Censuses show that he became a Moravian Minister in West Yorkshire. However, his daughter is shown as having been born in St Kitts (West Indies); so he probably spent some time in the 1830s as a Missionary. He died in Pudsey, West Yorkshire.

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