Author Archives: admin

The Palmer tribe, descended from Lydia Smith and ?Robert Palmer, were principally horse dealers and can be found traversing the south and south-west of England before, in several cases, emigrating to the United States. It was Noah Palmer who first led me to America, claiming in the 1861 census in … Continue reading →

In the spring of 1831 a family of Travellers were removed from Somerford Parva, Wiltshire to Chedworth, Gloucestershire: Emmanuel Stephens/Stevens, his wife, Elizabeth, and their children Maria, 13; Moses, 11; Amos, 9; Mark, 5; Ann, 3; Ezra, 2; Eli, 6 months. Chedworth was indeed home territory for Emmanuel Stevens and … Continue reading →

Chedworth is a Gloucestershire village nestled in the Cotswolds, just seven miles from Cirencester, and was considered home territory by the Traveller family descended from Robert and Eleanor Stephens/Stevens from at least the late eighteenth century. In 1787 the Gloucestershire Overseer’s records list Robert Stephens, claiming to come from Cirencester, … Continue reading →

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 →