Norfolk

People: The Tuddenham Family

Updated on 3 August, 2013

sir ralph shelton brass

St Agnes Church, Cawson, Norfolk

The family connections of the Tuddenham family of Little Snoring with others named in this website means that I have to attempt a page on their behalf.

That will be difficult, as the story is long and complicated, but I plan to pick out a few interesting highlights, and illustrate them with such photos as I have.

Tuddenhams & The White House

The Tuddenhams are a large and notable family in England. Some have traced this particular Norfolk lineage back to Thomas Tuddenham born about 1640 in Cawston, Norfolk.

In Little Snoring, John Tuddenham senior was a cordwainer, that is a shoemaker, also from Cawston, the son of Stephen Tuddenham and Elizabeth Harrod. This couple had 15 known children, mostly born in Cawston, but after 1806 they relocated to North Tuddenham, Norfolk having more children there.

One of their sons was called John (born in 1775) and for some reason he ended up in Little Snoring. It may have been because he married Sarah Ann Palmer of Lt Snoring in 17 Oct 1803.

quotesThe ancient village(s) of East and North Tuddenham in Norfolk and Tuddenham St. Martin in Suffolk are the definite origins of this locational surname. The villages are recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as "Tudenham", and as "Tuddenham" in 1199, and it must be almost a record to retain virtually the original spelling, both in village and surname, over nearly one thousand years. The village name translates as "Tudda's homeplace", with "Tudda" being a popular Olde English (pre 9th Century) personal name, found from Kent (Tudeley) to Durham (Tudhoe) as a placename element. Surnames were usually derived from former residence at a village, however, there is a much smaller group who derived their name from ownership of the village, and Tuddenham would seem to be in this category. An early Coat of Arms was granted to Tud(d)enham of Norfolk, this being the famous lozengy of silver and red, portrayed in most heraldic displays. Examples of the name recording include: Agnes Tuddenham, who married William Rose at Holme Hale, Norfolk, on October 10th 1585, and Thomas Tuddenham, who was christened at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, London, on June 15th 1617. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Tudeham, which was dated 1191, in the "Pipe Rolls of Suffolk", during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "The Lionheart", 1189 - 1199.

Their surnames vary in the records, being Tudman (1803 and 1804), Tuddenham (1812), Tedman (1815), Tuddenham (l8l9 and 1821), Teddenham (1 829) and Tuddenham thereafter. No doubt this reflected the pronunciation of their name.

John and Sarah Ann had these children, all born and baptised in Little Snoring:

  • Elizabeth born 1804 m. William NOBBS
  • Phoebe, born 1812 m. John TUCK & Luke SKIPPON (see below)
  • Matilda, born 1815 m. Edward Barrett ADAMS (secondly he married her neice Matilda TUCK)
  • Mary Ann born 1819 m. John LEE
  • John born 1821 m Anna Eliza SOUTHGATE (dau of Charles & Anna, the Millers) and others

red fwdPhoebe Tuck (nee Tuddenham). Her story is an interesting one as she (or her first husband John Tuck, a horse trainer) were something akin to village 'healers' and I possess their notebooks of remedies for animals and people that were in some cases deadly! And in other cases they were downright superstitious. I have put the scanned books on this website and plan to do a transcript of them. Further details to be found on the Tuddenham and Tuck pages.

ALSO SEE: Phoebe Tuddenham/Tuck in a unique 1874 post-mortem photograph, and her story.

  • Folk Medicine of Phoebe Tuck Book One (1867)
  • Folk Medicine of her daughter Sarah Ann Tuck Book Two (1879)

The Brides of John Tuddenham Jnr

John Tuddenham Junior married three times.

  • (1) He firstly married, on Christmas Day 1849, Sarah Ann FARROW, a 21 year old spinster of Fulmodestone, the daughter of Robert Farrow a millwright. They were married at the Independent Chapel, Fakenham. Their children - John Robert Tuddenham  and Sarah Ann - both died as infants. Their mother also then died.
  • (2) John Tuddenham married for the second time on 10 June 1855, to Anna Eliza SOUTHGATE, spinster of Little Snoring and daughter of Charles Southgate , a millwright of Great Snoring. They had seven children, and Anna Eliza died on 19 April 1871, eight months after the birth of the last, Matilda Ann.
  • (3) John Tuddenham then remarried yet again on 3l July 1872, to Matilda GRANGE, a widow living in Little Snoring (on their marriage certificate she signs herself Martha Grange but family tradition is adamant that she is Matilda).

Matilda GrangeMatilda Grange (seen here) was in fact born at Middlemarsh in Dorset, the daughter of Stephen Gilbert; a farmer. Sometime of the Feathers in Holt, by her first husband Robert Grange she had at least three children, Matilda "Big Tilly" (who married her step-brother William Tuddenham), Laura (known to her stepsisters as Laura Grange of the Royal Exchange, because of the way she spoke) and Ann E. Grange.

She raised John Tuddenham's six children, who were apparently very fond of her. She was said by those who knew her to "speak lady's talk" in other words was posh. Family member Ethel Goude said that she was John Tuddenham's dairymaid before marrying him, "a very precise lady and we had to behave ourselves mightily". She would use nothing but Pear's soap. On another occasion she was described as a big stout woman.

John Tuddenham spent his whole life in Little Snoring and was variously described as cordwainer, baker, grocer, shopkeeper and butcher. It is said that he didn't collect his debts from the poor of Fakenham. He died in 1897, after eating mussels. He received the Householders Award from the Charity Trustees in 18%, and his widow received it every year thereafter until she died in 1913.

John Tuddenham's Children

John and Anna-Eliza (Southgate) had eight known children, before she died in 1871.

(1) The eldest was William (1855-1908). He married Matilda Grange's daughter Matilda (his stepsister). who was known as"Big Tilly" in contrast to her stepsister Matilda Ann Tuddenham, "Little Tilly". William went to London and lived in a tall house near the Angel, Islington, where he carried on a business as a cloth merchant. According to family member Ethel Goude he was a fine, tall, kindly man and his whole family were very musical. He had eight children born in Holborn and Islington, London.

(2) The second child was Anna Eliza, baptised in Little Snoring 27 Sep 1857. She went on to marry William or Walter Sands in 1877 in Durham, West Hartlepool, where their first child William was born in 1879. They later moved to London where their other three children, Robert, John and Elsie were born.

(3) The third child was Mary Ann (1860-1950), known as Polly. She married John Wills; a "sweet and gentlemanly" marine engineer from Montrose. They had the Hollyrood House Hotel in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, now the Palmerston House Hotel (and are said to have employed sisters Rose and Matilda Ann, and stepsister Laura Grange); and then a tobacconist shop at 49 Barking Road, Canning Town, and subsequently another at the Poplar entrance to the Blackwall TunneL Polly died in November 1950. They had six children, Ethel, Elsie, Edith, John, George and Alice. (Edith is the wife of Albert ELSDON and you can see more detail about the Elsdons in their book. Albert Elsdon managed the second shop until it was bombed in 1940: then went to live with Hubbard Tuddenham [see below] at the White House, which they presumably inherited on Hubbard's death; sold it 1963 and moved to Beeston Regis).

(4) The fourth child was Rose Anna (or Rosanna, born 1863) and she was in service in London. At the age of 47 in 1910 she married a Stephen Holmes of Fakenham (or Norwich?), and lived in Bintree. They did not have any children. She had most beautiful hair, which Ethel Goude liked to brush; and called Ethel "her torment".

(5) The next child was a son, Edward but he was to come to a tragic end. At the age of six in 1870, he was accidentally shot. Tragedy was also to befall the next son.

(6) John and Anna's sixth child was Charles Ernest, (1865 - 1935). He went to London and was at Matilda Ann's wedding. He was himself married to Emma Lucy BARNS but his wife died in childbirth in 1889 in London. Charles returned to Little Snoring and after their father's death lived with his brother Albert. Charles was struck on the head with a gun by a gamekeeper (Mr. Gidney?) who claimed he was poaching. His father John started a long law suit for compensation, spending a huge amount of money, but eventually lost. The death of Charle's wife and this tragic accident seem to have driven him insane. Ethel Goude remembers him "snoring up a cherrytree" and considered him "quite mad after his wife died in childbirth". He received the Charity Trustees Householders Award in 1905,1906 and 1907 and died in Norwich Asylum.

(7) The seventh child was Albert Henry, commonly known as HUBBARD (1868-1947). At one time he lived in Keeper's Cottage, which was pulled down to make way for the airfield. He apparently continued his father's butchery business in Fakenham, and in 1908 married Elizabeth Flowerdew, widow of George Flowedew, the licensee of the (now demolished) Bell Inn in Little Snoring. She was 12 years older than Albert and described by a family member as "an old witch". They had no children. Latterly Hubbard was described as a smallholder and lived at the White House, Little Snoring. Hubbard was on the parish council from 1901 until 1935. He received the Charity Trustees Householders Award from 1934 until he died in 1947. He was very ill early in 1922. Throughout her married life, Matilda Ann [Goude] Tuddenham used to receive hampers of farm produce from her brother.

(8) John and Anna 's eighth and final child was Matilda Ann, born 29 August 1870 at Little Snoring, and baptised 9 October 1870.She too had beautiful waist length hair. She was living at 16, Devonshire Street, London when she married James William GOUDE of Wisbech at the parish church of St George the Martyr, Queen Square on 5 June 1892. Her brother Charles was present and witnessed the certificate. They had six chidren, one of which was Ethel Goude mentioned on this page.

After her marriage, Matilda Ann Goude and her family used to visit her relations in Little Snoring until well after the Great War, possibly until near her death in 1931. They travelled from Liverpool Street to Fakenham by train, and were taken to Little Snoring in Hubbard's pony and trap - a great excitement for the London children.

Ethel had vivid memories of Hubbard's "character horse Tom" which once frightened her (in a white dress) by chasing her round a pond until Hubbard rescued her. She and her sister Nellie Eveline (who played the organ in Little Snoring Parish Church) believe this incident took place at Jex's Farm, which Nellle Eveline said was occupied by relatives - at that at the time it was occupied by James Hall, and Matilda Ann's daughters Nellie Evellne and Ethel claimed they were related to the Halls.

This photograph shows the family on one of their visits to Little Snoring. They are standing on the verge of the road opposite the White House and the cottages of Cockspit Hill are behind them. Click to Enlarge and see names.

Tuddenhams outside White HouseThere are also some old photographs of the White House in Little Snoring in the sidebar.

Many years later - about 1955 - Nellie Eveline drew a map of the village showing the properties occupied by her family at the turn of the century. Clearly shown are the Bell; a shop and a house on the the west side of the road; what are now Hill House and the White House; and Jex Farm. She also stated that her grandmother's cousin (possibly Rose SOUTHGATE, who married a clergyman) used to live at the Vicarage.

 

Image Gallery

Find your ancestors in Norfolk Parish Registers and Records for Norfolk Ancestors and Genealogy for Norfolk The Family Trees of Norfolk Church Records of Gt & Lt Snoring Norfolk Great Snoring Memorial Inscriptions

Information

The Snoring Villages: a website for those researching their family trees, and for anybody curious about the history and whereabouts of these two small villages in Norfolk, UK.

Contact The Snorings

I no longer live in Norfolk. I cannot visit graves, make local enquiries or provide contacts for you. Please be aware that I have no information other than that on this website..

Address: Derbyshire, England
Telephone: Unavailable
E-mail: tricia (at) the-snorings.co.uk