Samuel Holmes: Rogue and Vagabond

After his baptism in 1784, twenty-two years passed before Samuel Holmes again got his name in a record book. It was another Record of Baptisms, this time at All Saints Church in Wakefield, Yorkshire where "Frederick S.[son] of Samuel and Elizabeth Holmes" was baptised on March 1, 1806. Frederick had been born on December 17, 1805 in Green Hill, Stanley, Yorkshire, and although he was baptised as the son of Samuel Holmes, he apparently was known for at least the first ten years of his life as Frederick Askew. It's not clear whether Frederick was named for his mother's family, or for a supposed husband of Elizabeth. 

St. Peter's and St. Paul's Church, Mansfield, Nottings.
where Samuel Holmes married Elizabeth Askew

Samuel and Elizabeth were married at Mansfield St. Peter and St Paul on March 1, 1807, some fifteen months after Frederick's birth. Samuel clearly dragged his feet in marrying Elizabeth, and might have been forced into the marriage. A reference to a "bastardy order" issued on behalf of Elizabeth against Samuel was found in the Derbyshire Records Office, but, sadly, the documents relating to the order no longer exist. Only the year of the order is known (1807), and I can't help but guess that the exact date was between January 1 and the marriage date. 

Samuel and Elizabeth moved around quite a bit between February 1805 and March 1807: Green Hill, Yorkshire to Wakefield, Yorkshire to Ashover, Derbyshire to Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Was Samuel keeping one step ahead of the authorities?  

On June 17, 1816, Elizabeth Holmes was questioned by Ashover parish authorities regarding her request to allow her ten-year old son, Frederick Askew, to remain in the parish. (Anyone the parish had to support needed a good reason for living there; otherwise he'd be shuttled off to be a burden on some other parish.) Elizabeth attested that Frederick Askew belonged with her because he was (despite his surname) actually the son of her husband, Samuel Holmes. She explained she had been married to someone else at the time of Frederick's birth, and "that the Birth of the said Frederick was a Bastard". Elizabeth then had to admit (to the undoubtedly judgmental parish authorities who oversaw the care of the parish poor) that Samuel married her fifteen months after Frederick's birth, "since which she hath four children and that he [Samuel] hath ran away and left her and she hath not seen him since Jany last."

Chesterfield, Derbyshire
House of Correction

Ashover's Overseer of the Poor wasted no time in charging Samuel Holmes "with running away and leaving his wife and family chargeable to the said parish." By July 1, "Samuel Holmes a Rogue and Vagabond" was in the custody of James Glossop, Keeper of the House of Correction at Chesterfield, Derbyshire. In English law, the term "Rogue and Vagabond" means that Samuel had been begging door-to-door or on the streets within his own parish (vagabond) and then had the nerve to resist arrest, or maybe even escape the authorities grasp (rogue). For some reason, when Samuel appeared at the Quarter Sessions trial on July 16, no charge was made against him, and the court ordered his immediate release.

During his time away from his family (prior to his arrest and incarceration), Samuel apparently made a little trip to Nottingham St. Mary (where he and his family would later settle) and got Elizabeth Vickers of that parish pregnant. Elizabeth Vickers had "a male bastard child" on December 27, 1816, and told the parish authorities that Samuel Holmes, "late of Ashover", was the father. 

Nottingham House of Correction

The records of  the Nottingham Quarter Session of Easter 1817 awarded Vickers a maintenance order, Samuel having admitted paternity. Samuel was to pay the Overseers of the Poor of Notthingham St. Mary 25 shillings for the birth costs, 2 shillings per week from then, and a whopping £1 11s 6d for the cost of the filiation order. Samuel was unable to pay, and since he happened to be incarcerated in the Nottingham House of Correction at the time of the maintenance order, the court ordered he could just stay there. It's not known when or why Samuel was jailed in Nottingham, or how long he was kept there. The child was baptised Henry Vickers on February 19, 1817.

Samuel Holmes was in trouble with the law at least one more time. Another maintenance order was issued against him "for a male child called William born on 16 June 1826 to Sarah Kirke of Notthingham St. Mary". Assuming Henry Vickers was still alive, Samuel was already paying a weekly maintenance fee of 2 shillings, plus providing (presumably) for his wife and children on the meager earnings of a framework knitter. Now the Nottingham Quarter Sessions of Michaelmas [September] 1826 ordered he pay 2 more shillings plus £1 1s for another filiation order. William Kirke was baptised on July 3, 1826.

Samuel was 42 years old when William Kirke was born; he'd fathered his last child (my great-great grandmother Emily Holmes) with Elizabeth two years earlier. It's possible he decided it was time to settle down (no other run-ins with the authorities have come to light), and lived the next 24 years quietly with Elizabeth, attending his children's weddings, playing with grandchildren, and forever slaving away at that stocking loom. 

Even if he did eventually settle down, Samuel certainly wasn't a good role model for his children in their formative years, so it's not surprising that at least one got into trouble with the law. In 1843, Reuben Holmes was sentenced to three months in the Nottingham House of Correction for larceny. Reuben and his family emigrated to Philadelphia about 1851. There Reuben made such a decent living in the textile trade that he died prosperous enough to bequeath several hundreds of dollars to his children and grandchildren, and to leave one of his daughters a house. His will begins "...I Reuben Holmes of the City of Philadelphia, Gentleman...." although he still had to sign the will with an X.

St. Mary's Church where Samuel's "bastards" were baptised,
as were his and Elizabeth's two youngest children