Jul 25th, 2009 by Andy
TOM CLADPOLE’S RETURN. TOM I’LL say so agin as I sed it afore, I woll stay at home, an leave Mother no more ; Wud Bowler an Capten, I’ll harrar an plow, Swack out all de barley an fother de cow. Derry down ! Down, down Derry down ! MOTHER To hear ye say so [...]
Jul 25th, 2009 by Andy
Richard Lower was born at Alfriston, Sussex on the 19th of September 1782. He opened a school about 1803 in the parish of Chiddingly, where he must have known many of our Funnell ancestors. He resided there until a few months before his death in 1865. In 1830, his first work was printed as a sixpenny pamphlet: Tom Cladpole’s Jurney to Lunnon, told by himself, and written in pure Sussex doggerel by his Uncle Tim.
Spiced with typical British humour, his text offers not only an insight into the changing world our rural ancestors lived in (the London Bobbies were formed in 1829) but also as to how “they spoke Sussex”.
You will not regret reading on…
Jul 12th, 2009 by Andy
Born in the tiny Sussex village of West Firle, Robert Funnell found work on merchant ships at the age of just 16. He later joined the Royal Navy only to find himself, in the late 1850s, on a contreversed mission in which his commodore was accused of avoiding combat with Russian warships at De Castries Bay, discovered an island and fought piracy on the China Seas. In the early 1860s, Robert was in Western Africa, defending her Majesty’s interests on the Congo River…
Jul 4th, 2009 by Andy
Thanks to Geoff Isted and his modern marketing techniques, I was amongst the first visitors to the exhibition at Fletching Village Hall last Friday, 26th June 2009. There was so much information that it took me several days to digest and place in three hundred years of the sociological/political picture I had of my ancestors.
May 31st, 2009 by Andy
An eight-day weight driven clock with pendulum made by Edward Funnell, Brighton, and held by The British Museum. The technical description is as follews : Eight-day spring driven mantel regulator with remontoire/detent escapement and compensation pendulum…
Apr 25th, 2009 by Andy
Before 1754, marriages in the “Union of Crowns” which became the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 were regulated by ecclesiastical law which required that banns be pronounced on three separate Sundays or a special licence obtained. However, many couples sought a quick marriage with no questions asked. In the Fleet area of London, or [...]
Apr 14th, 2009 by Andy
This is the story of four generations of Funnells and their contribution to the building of the “American way of life”. Henry Funnell and his wife, Mary Sargent, left Chiddingly against the wishes of their family and settled in Huntington on Long Island, New York where daily chores continued throughout the Civil War, World War [...]
Apr 9th, 2009 by Andy
The clock is quite massive, standing 22 inches (56 cms) high, completely original, a three train fusee gong clock with a pull-repeat chime and strike. Pulling the repeat cord strikes the quarter, half, quarter or full hour last struck. In those times when there was no electric or even gas lighting, this would be very handy in the dark…
Sep 22nd, 2008 by Andy
As mentioned in this article, in the 1830′s, like many others, the parish of Chiddingly was having a hard time feeding it’s poor. Someone came up with the idea of financing settlers to the “new world”. Thomas, his wife, Ann and their 9 children settled in Ontario, Canada, a land which offered them many more opportunities than the parish ever could.
Sep 20th, 2008 by Andy
You can find it here and you can search it using CTRL+f or the dedicated site search tool. It contains a 150 years of UK state registered Funnell wills and administrations from 1858 onwards.
Sep 10th, 2008 by Andy
In his book « My Own Brand » published in 1980 (1), the Canadian politician Jack Horner (1927-2004) writes of his wife Leola (née Funnell) and her father, Arthur, who was shipped to Canada, to further the economic interests of the British Empire by working in a pioneer family. This was not an isolated case, [...]
Aug 30th, 2008 by Andy
James was born in 1822 in Barcombe (near Lewes, East Sussex), son of William Funnell and Catherine “Kitty” Locke. The seventh of nine children. Like six of his brothers and sisters, he was christened at the local church, St Mary the Virgin, on the 24th of March 1822. No doubt, he cried before his godparents [...]
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