The Addis family of Badsey
Pete Addis of Badsey has loaned some interesting documents relating to his Addis forebears.
At the beginning of the 20th century, it was common for "In Memoriam" cards to be printed for relatives who had died. The first card relates to Pete’s great-grandfather, George Addis (1821-1904); the second relates to his grandfather’s brother, William (1870-1907), who died a bachelor.
The National Registration Identity Card was issued during the Second World War to Pete’s Aunt Daisy, who lived at The Alley.
This photograph shows Daisy’s elder sister, Phil (Hannah Phillis), outside her Alley cottage.
The next photo shows a group of women (which includes Pete’s Auntie Daisy and Auntie Phil) taken at the Remembrance Hall about the late 1950s. It is believed to be a picture of the Women’s Institute.
Maureen Spinks has provided the following notes on the Addis family, extracted from the parish records.
George Addis was born in Cropthorne, Worcestershire, about 1821. The Addis family may originally have been from Herefordshire, as in July 1865, there is a record of George proving the will of his spinster aunt, Sarah Addis, at Sellack, Herefordshire.
George Addis (abt 1821-1904) married Ann from Cropthorne some time in the 1840s, and they had a son, Joseph Gould Addis, born at Cropthorne about 1849. By 1851 they were living in Badsey, the family comprising of George and Ann, 54-year-old Sarah Procter (Ann’s single mother), and toddler Joseph. A daughter, Sarah Ann, was born later in 1851. Ann Addis (George’s wife) died of consumption in 1854, aged 27. It is believed that from the 1850s, until his death, George lived at what is currently No 17 Old Post Office Lane.
In 1861, widower George was living with his children Joseph and Sarah, and his widowed mother, Ann, who was acting as housekeeper, his mother-in-law, Sarah Procter, having died just before the census in March 1861. Ann Addis (abt 1784-1871) died in December 1871 at Cropthorne. Her will was proved at Worcester by her son, George; her effects were under £100.
In 1863 (September quarter), George Addis married again (in Evesham registration district), to Hannah Barnard (née Glover), widow of Henry Barnard. Earlier in the year, in January 1863, Thomas Addis Barnard (1863-1869), the illegitimate son of Hannah, was baptised, who was undoubtedly George’s son. George and Hannah went on to have four more children: Elizabeth (1865), Fanny (1867), Willie (1870) and Charles (1872). In 1871, the combined Addis and Barnard household lived together in the village: George and Hannah with George’s son Joseph, Hannah’s children Mary Ann, William, George and James, Hannah’s grandchildren James and Sarah, and George and Hannah’s own children, Elizabeth, Fanny and William. George was now described as a Market Gardener. By 1881, George and Hannah had their four youngest children at home.
In 1891, George and Hannah with three of their children, Elizabeth, William and Charles, were described as living on Old Road (the old name for Old Post Office Lane). They had staying with them George and John Barnard, Hannah’s youngest sons by her marriage to Henry Barnard. In 1901, they had living with them, their son, William, daughter Elizabeth, her husband William Pethard, and their child Lucy Pethard, and another granddaughter Mary Addis (Fanny’s illegitimate daughter before her marriage to Thomas Marshall). George Addis died on 7th April 1904. Probate of his will was granted to his son-in-law, William George Pethard (the husband of his daughter, Elizabeth). Hannah Addis died in 1914.
In 1873, Joseph Gould Addis, George’s eldest son, married Mary Ann Barnard, who was actually his step-sister. In 1881, they lived near the Manor House, and had living with them Mary Ann’s children, James, Sarah and Rosanna Barnard (assumed to be Joseph’s children), and Joseph and Mary’s daughter, Clara. It is believed that the Barnard children were Joseph’s son and daughters, rather than his step-son and step-daughters. Joseph was a Market Gardener. Joseph Addis died in 1885, aged 36. In 1891, his widow, Mary Ann, was living in The Alley, with her eldest son, James Barnard, and her youngest daughter, Clara Jane (known as Jane); she also had her five-year-old niece, Polly, staying there, and it seems from school records that she was Polly’s guardian. In June 1895, widow Mary Ann married 57-year-old widower, George Harwood, and she went to live with him at Aldington, where she was in the 1901 census (known to the family as "Granny Aldington"). Mary Ann’s daughter, Clara Jane Addis, married Walter Harwood in 1900; he was the son of her step-father George. They were in Badsey in 1901.
Sarah Ann Addis (1851), George’s daughter by his first wife, married Henry Houghton in 1873 and had left the village by 1881.
Elizabeth Addis (1865-) married William Pethard (not in Badsey) and they had one daughter, Lucy, who regretfully died aged ? They remained in the village until their deaths.
Fanny Addis (1867), became a teacher. Fanny married Thomas Marshall in December 1885 and remained in Badsey. She had had an illegitimate daughter, Mary Elizabeth (known as Polly) earlier in June 1885, who was brought up by Mary Ann Addis (the wife of Fanny’s half-brother, Joseph, who had died in March 1885). Mary Addis, never married, and died, aged almost 90, in February 1975; she then lived at 18 Bretforton Road.
William Addis (1870-1907) died a bachelor, aged 37, and was buried at Badsey.
Charles Addis (1872-1916), married Eliza Kyte in 1893. They had seven children: Hannah Phillis (1893), George Alfred (1896-1896), Walter (1897), Daisy May (1900), George Edward (1903), William (1904) and Winifred Ellen (1908). In 1901, they were living on Mill Lane; Charles was a Market Gardener’s labourer. By 1904, they were living at The Alley, where some of the younger members of the family remained until the cottages were demolished. Eliza died in 1911 when her youngest child was just three. Winifred was brought up by her aunt, Elizabeth Pethard, of The Leys (in 1913, when she enrolled at Badsey Council School, Mrs William Pethard was listed as her Guardian). Elizabeth’s husband, William, and only child, Lucy, had both died in 1908. It was Charles’ branch of the family which were to keep the name Addis in Badsey in the 20th and 21st centuries.