Woodgate family
Biographical Details:
Mary Woodgate
Born, 1773
Married, Henry Harben
Died, 30 August 1844
Austen Chamberlain writes, in Notes on the families Chamberlain and Harben.
“Coming back now to her daughter, my great-grand-mother, Mary Woodgate, who became Mrs. Harben, Cousin Fanny writes: ‘I will leave you her portrait also. It is a very inferior picture but really very like her, and I remember her in the very cap (an awe-inspiring structure) in which she is represented; but my chief remembrance of her is through a certain large black silk bag (your father may again bear me out in this) which held her netting, and from which also there appeared macaroons which were cut up by a little silver pocket knife, that I remember well, for the expectant little grandchildren around her.’ “
Henry & Mary had eighteen children and these are listed with Henry Harben’s entry.
She is buried at the Hackney Parish Churchyard – with several of her children and close to her husband.
Images: Right top, is the painted version of the likeness described above and Right bottom is the same image as appeared in the Notes on the families Chamberlian and Harben.
Biographical Details:
Thomas Woodgate
Born about 1743 (based on his age in the marriage record)
Married, Mary Austen, 5 February 1773, at St Anne’s, Lewes, Sussex
Died, 1777
Very little is known about Thomas Woodgate.
There is an IGI record of a Thomas Woodgate christening on 10 August 1743 in Leigh, Kent. It is quite likely that this is the same Thomas as there are very few Thomas Woodgates and this is the only record for decades. If this is a match, then his parents were Robert and Elizabeth Woodgate.
In the Marriage Record he is described as being from the Cliffe, in Lewes. His occupation as a linen-draper. It is assumed that George Woodgate (born abt 1758), also of the Cliffe with an occupation of linen-draper, who marries in 1781, is the brother (or close cousin).
In Notes on the families Chamberlain and Harben it is stated that he was a draper and, lived in Lewes, Sussex.
He appears as “Mr. Thomas Woodgate, Cliffe” in the Poll for the Knights of the Shire to represent the County of Sussex – 1774. Which indicates that he was a property owner – or that his father was!