Author Archives: admin

In the summer of 1874 an article appeared in The Times in which Sir Duncan Gibb, MD, claimed Elizabeth Leatherland, a Gypsy whom he had examined, was more than a hundred years of age, yet remained physically in good health.  He developed the story of her life, her birth as … Continue reading →

When Isaac Fisher married Hannah Gubbins at Aldenham, in Hertfordshire, on 2nd December 1729, he was just 19 years of age, and recorded as ‘of Bushey.’ He had been baptised in Aldenham on 4th April 1710, the cleric noting it was also the day that he was born, the son … Continue reading →

It has long been thought that the Thomas Grey who married Susanna/Susan Faben had a considerable family with her, including the famous, or infamous, John Budd Grey. However, recent research offers a different explanation with the union of Thomas Grey, a widower, to Susannah Budd in Hilgay, Norfolk in the … Continue reading →

Ishmael Organ was baptised in the parish of Llantilio Pertholey, Monmouthshire, on 21st August 1887, the son of Joseph and Trinity Organ. The couple claimed to have come from Cardiff, and the cleric noted that they were ‘strangers, Gypsies, travelling by van.’ Ishmael’s father, Joseph, was one of the six … Continue reading →

The Monmouthshire Beacon of December 1869 mentioned a significant Gypsy family when it noted that ‘Mary Ann Organ, daughter of Henry Organ, who is a hawker and travels the country with a horse and cart was charged . . . with hawking without a licence.’ Mary Ann had been less … Continue reading →