William Fradd was born about 1744 in Little
Petherick, Cornwall, England. He married
Ann Ball (nee Clemoes) on the 18th of March in 1765, also in Little
Petherick, Cornwall, England.
John
Ball died in February 1763 at just 48 years of age. His wife Ann, shortly after,
gave birth to Jonathan Ball in about August 1763. With six children to support
(two had died in childhood) Ann, not surprisingly, remarried a year later:
William and Ann had two children. William, who was
born in 1871, and Elizabeth who was born in 1767.
The Village of Little
Petherick
The focus of the settlement is on
the west bank of the creek around the church. In the centre of the village a
narrow stone bridge carries the busy Padstow – Wadebridge road across the
creek. The present bridge dates from 1830.
The old Cornish name
'Nansfonteyn' meant 'the spring in the valley', but from the 14th century the
village has been known as Little Petherick. 'Petherick' is derived from Petroc,
the Celtic saint to whom the church is dedicated. 'Little' distinguishes it
from the larger earlier monastic foundation at nearby Padstow.
Today this small village is part
of St. Issey parish. Apart from the church, there is a village hall and a
hotel. A parking area for public use is provided behind the village hall. In
summer this is well used by visitors walking along part of the historic Saints
Way route between Padstow and St. Issey.
Historical Context
The history of Little Petherick
mirrors that of other settlements around the Camel Estuary such as Chapel Amble
and St. Kew. From Padstow, a landing point, for Irish and Welsh Celtic Christian
missionaries, the surrounding area was colonised. Little Petherick was
developed as a subsidiary settlement by the Welsh missionary St. Petroc who
arrived in the early 6th century and \vas active in the
neighbourhood for about 30 years. The elevated position of the church of St.
Petroc Minor is typical of many in the area [e.g. St. Tudy, St. Teath and St.
Kew) and is indicative of the site's original function as a preaching point and
place of religious assembly.
The choice of site is probably
related to the historic limit of navigation on Petherick Creek. Some of the
wharves and quays where goods such as lime and grain were loaded are still
clearly visible on the west side of the creek. There are also old quarries
nearby. Immediately upstream was the lowest convenient bridging point on creek
for t h e old pack-horse route between Padstow and London. Following the
extension of the North Cornwall Railway in 1889 barge and horse traffic gradually
ceased.
Little Petherick is also situated
on a historic route now known as the Saints Way. This was used in early mediaeval
times by pilgrims travelling to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain.
Pilgrims set out from South Wales and the Bristol area, disembarked at Padstow,
went overland to Lostwithiel from where they sailed for Brittany. They then
journeyed through France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.
The surrounding countryside back in the 1700s was
made up of many small farmlets. There was a small scale copper mine at Creddis
in Little Petherick which employed about 40 men and another called Legossick in
the adjoining parish of St Issey.
William Fradd's occupation was that of an
agricultural labourer; and so was his son William.They didn’t own the land that they farmed but rented it from well-to-do yeomen.
It was common back then to name your first borne son
after your own name. There are 17 Williams identified in the Fradd family tree
so far.
Over the centuries, some
families used the following naming pattern:The first son was named after the father's father,
The second son after the mother's father,
The third son after the father,
The fourth son after the father's eldest brother.
The first daughter after
the mother's mother,
The second daughter after the father's mother,
The third daughter after the mother,
The fourth daughter after the mother's eldest sister.
Others named children
after people who had been influential in their lives. Not everyone adhered to
the above patterns, especially if some family relationships were
"strained".The second daughter after the father's mother,
The third daughter after the mother,
The fourth daughter after the mother's eldest sister.
Biblical names such as Saint
Augustine were also popular for some time, (William Augustine Fradd – born
2008) as were those of famous heroes such as Napoleon, Nelson and Kitchener
(Colin Kitchener Fradd – born 1917); so named after the British Field Marshall
who played a central role in the early part of the First World War.
When infant mortality
rates were high; if a child died, the next child born in the family (of the
same sex) was often given the same name. These apparent duplications are very
common.
Elizabeth Fradd – born 1832
and Elizabeth Ann Fradd – born 1838 occurred in the same family. When the use
of second (middle) names became more common (sometimes due to the increasing
population and the necessity to distinguish between individuals) the maiden
name of the mother was often used. Therefore, a name such as Harvey Pearson
Fradd – born 1826 gives a very good clue to the mother's maiden name.
It also became popular
for unmarried mothers to use the father's surname as the second name of the
child. Because of the various Poor Law
Acts passed over the centuries, parishes were loath to take responsibility for
any 'illegitimate' children (understandable when some women produced such
children year after year!), and mothers were encouraged to disclose the name of
the father, so he could be charged for support. Alternatively, when old enough,
the child might have been apprenticed to someone else in the parish.
William died on the 13th of April 1792 in
Little Petherick Cornwall whilst Anne died in 1791 at Ballaminers farm nearby,
eight months later. William epitaph reads:
Here lies the body of William
Frad of this parish
Who departed this life the13th of
April 1792 aged 75 years
Near this place lies the body of
Ann wife of the above named
W Frad who departed this life the
19 day of Nov 1791
William Fradd has one ‘D’ inscribed on his headstone and is buried in a quaint little churchyard in Little Petherick, Cornwall. Ann is probably buried nearby with her first husband.
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