Richins Brothers: Henry and Thomas Richins
Henry was the younger of the two sons born to Thomas Richins and Sarah. His brother, Thomas, was two years his senior. They were probably young boys when they moved to Painswick with their parents.
For many years, the Richins family has searched, without success, to find the birthplace of Thomas and Henry and the marriage of their parents, Thomas Richins and Sarah. There was a Temple Index Bureau (T.I.B.) card that stated Henry Richins was born April 9, 1769 at Rodbury. Another card had no date of birth, but listed him as being born in Rodbury. In all of our searching, we have not been able to find Rodbury. The 1841 census states Henry was born in the county of Gloucestershire, England, but there is no parish of Rodbury listed in the index of parishes. An index of towns in Gloucestershire did not have a Rodbury, but we still hope and search.
We have verified that Henry was born in the year 1769 by his age on his death certificate. We also were able to set Thomas’ year of birth as 1767 by his age on his marriage license or allegation. There were no Richins entries in the Painswick Parish Record until 1790, when the burial of Sarah Richins, wife of Thomas Richins, was recorded on May 28, 1790. By then, Henry was a young man of 21 years. He was then of age to receive his inheritance of five pounds from his grandfather, John Richins. Five pounds may not sound like much on today’s market, but it was a respectable sum in those days and certainly helped him to get a start in life.
The following year, 1791, Henry’s brother, Thomas, was married by license to Ann Wilkins. He had to pay a bond of several hundred pounds, but he did not have to wait the four weeks while his coming marriage was publicized. The allegation listed Thomas as age 24, a bachelor and a yeoman of Painswick. A yeoman was a gentleman farmer who held a small estate in the country. We can see that Thomas, being the eldest son and heir, had a great advantage over Henry, who was a farm laborer.
Henry Richins and Sarah Haynes
Henry was 23 when he sought the hand of Sarah Haynes in marriage. She was the daughter of Edward Haynes and Ann Cook. She was 22, having been christened at Painswick October 21, 1770. Henry could not afford to be married by license, so they were married by banns and waited out the required four weeks while their intentions to be married were announced in church. The purpose of banns was to allow anyone who might oppose the marriage the chance to present their opposition before the marriage took place. Since no one objected, the Vicar of Painswick, the Reverend John Moseley, married them on April 10, 1792 at he parish church. Sarah’s father, Edward Haynes, was one of the witnesses and there were probably other family members present to wish them happiness.
Neither Henry nor Sarah could read or write, so they had to place the usual “X” by their names. Edward Haynes also placed an “X” by his name. There were no national schools until 1870 and schooling was not required or thought important. Parents were more concerned that their children received training in a labor or trade and find employment than be in a schoolroom learning to read and write. It has been told that Henry was concerned about education and one of his sons attended Oxford, but Sarah and Henry were a generation too soon.
After the marriage, Henry took his new bride to Sheepscombe to live. It was a beautiful country with green rolling hills crowned by trees and woods and forests. In early morning, sometimes the mist lays low among the trees and as the sun broke forth above the treetops, it turned the meadows a brilliant green. The cottages reflected the sun and wisps of curling smoke rose from the chimneys as the families prepared to meet another day. Sheepscombe was an isolated village north of Painswick, but included in the parish.
There were two large estates that required farm laborers, the Manor of Sheepscombe, which included part of Cranham and the Ebworth estate that consisted of 300 acres of land and a substantial Gable House from the early 17th century and a contemporary stable block. In 1715, the house was heightened and enlarged during remodeling. It was sold many times from 1715 to 1800 and each owner made his own alterations to the house and stables. Most of the owners held large estates and homes in other cities and used Ebworth as a country estate for fox hunting and fishing. It had a game park patrolled by gamekeepers to protect the game and fish from encroachment by the public.
Henry apparently obtained employment at the Ebworth estate, for according to the 1841 census, Henry and Sarah were living at Ebworth Park in House #196. (It was the custom of the Lords of Manors and the gentry with large estates, to build houses for the tenant farmers and farm laborers. The house would have included a garden spot, ranging from a small plot to several acres and they also had the privilege of pasturing a few cattle on the commons, for which they paid rent or lease.
Ebworth was north of Sheepsombe village and was bounded on the north by the Sheepscombe stream that divides it from Cranham. Brookthrape and Harrescombe lie to the west, Miserden (home of the Wagers) is on the east and southwest is Painswick. This is the heart of the Cotswold country, known for its beauty and the Cotswold stone—a soft sandstone pushed up from the sea. It was easy to cut and work with, but has also proven very durable. Most of the homes and buildings are several hundred years old. The post office at Painswick dates back to 1428. The stone ranges in color from soft grays at Painswick to the golden honey hue of Stanton, often called the most beautiful village in England. The weathering and moss has etched beautiful designs and markings in the stone.
Henry and Sarah settled in their home with a few sheep and cattle to pasture on the commons and several acres of ground to grow crops and though the wages were low, they were able to manage and raise a family. Their first child was their daughter, Sarah. Since there was no church at Sheepscombe, they had to travel several miles to Painswick to have her christened at the Painswick church on June 9, 1793. The Reverend John Moseley, who had married them, performed the christening. Sarah was followed by another daughter, Elizabeth, who was christened on February 3, 1798 by a curate, as Reverend Moseley had passed away.
One wonders how they traveled to Painswick in the cold winter with a newborn baby. Most children were christened soon after birth as possible because they were warned that if the baby died before it was baptized, it would burn eternally in hell. What anguish this teaching must have caused! Christening was their form of baptism. The baby’s head was held over the font, which held the holy water, and the minister dipped his fingers into the water, sprinkled the baby’s head and gave it its name at the time of baptism.
Henry and Sarah took Elizabeth in the cold winter to be christened. Some farmers had a cart that was pulled by a small horse to take products to market and used it to travel if they had to go far. Did they borrow a cart or did they walk? Most people in the working class walked. Sarah probably wore patterns in the mud and snow, which consisted of wooden soles mounted on iron rings that raised the shoes above the mud.
With each new child, Henry probably wished for a son. It was important in England to have a son to carry on the family name. So we can imagine how pleased he was when the next child was a boy. He was christened November 20, 1800 and given the name of Richard. Usually, the first son was named after the father or a grandfather. Was Richard the name of his mother’s father? Or a friend? It would be someone who was close or dear to them. He also was christened by the curate.
Religious Dissension in Painswick
There was dissension in the Church at this time. For 200 years, the people of the parish had been able to choose their Vicar, but in 1752 when they presented their choice to the Council, he was rejected. The Council who presented John Moseley as the new Vicar, but the people were unwilling to accept him and instituted a suit to establish the choice of the people. Finally after ten years the people submitted and John Moseley served as Vicar until his death, October 8, 1794. His finely carved tombstone can still be admired near the Lyk-Gate in the Painswick churchyard.
On the first Sunday after Reverend Moseley’s death, the church wardens called a meeting to call a new Vicar. They chose Mr. John Fearon, but the trustees refused to appoint him. They claimed the right to choose without interference from the parishioners. Mr. Fearon filed a bill in court to compel the trustees to present him. The trustees instead placed the parish in charge of the curates. Mr. Fearon was about to take charge of the parish in 1823, but his health declined and he became too ill. He died June 10, 1823.
Once again a meeting was called to elect a new Vicar. There were eight names presented, but only two names were included in final voting—Reverend Robert Strong, who was at the time one of the curates in charge of the parish and William Knight, who had also been a curate in charge of the parish. The people were divided into two hostile camps. The contest became so vigorous that the men went so far as to engage in fistfights. The women even embroidered the name of their choice on their caps and aprons. Although Robert Strong was eventually elected, the hostile feelings were not wiped away for twenty years and affected the relationship of the Vicar with his flock.
Another son was born to Henry and Sarah during these troubled years. He was named Henry, after his father. He was christened on Christmas day, December 25, 1802, by the acting curate. Three years later a daughter was born. She was christened and received the name Meriam on November 11, 1805. Child number six was William who was born at Sheepscombe, December 27, 1806 and christened February 15, 1807 at Painswick. Their seventh and last child was Joseph. He was christened September 2, 1810 at Painswick. Henry and Sarah raised their children through trying times. The anger and feelings in the Church weakened the parish spiritually and the rough environment of Sheepscombe must have given them grave concern. There was also the depression, the industrial revolution, plagues, disease and war to cause them worry.
War and Plagues
In 1803, England was under the threat of invasion from Napoleon. He had made his escape and had been able to raise a large army. They had conquered Europe and now threatened to invade and conquer England. There were many sympathizers to the French cause, especially in Ireland, so England was plagued with informers and treason as well. When Nelson won his naval victory at Trafalgar and England became the “Mistress of the Seas,” it decreased the threat of invasion. The fighting continued for ten years before Wellington defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo.
With the end of the war, England had to face many problems at home. The war had curtailed trade and other countries had taken over her markets and the depression had caused unemployment, as machines replaced men. The return of the soldiers swelled the unemployment ranks even more. There was a great housing shortage in the industrial areas as small towns became a city almost overnight. As a mill or factory would go up, the unemployed rushed to get work and would discover there was no place to live. Two and three families would crowd into one small cottage. People lived in attics and in cellars and dugouts. With no way of disposing of the waste and garbage, the unsanitary conditions brought on an epidemic of cholera that took so many lives there was no place to bury the dead. Gravediggers were known to dig up older graves and remove the bones so that the new victims could be buried. Although Painswick and Sheepscombe seemed to avoid the overcrowding and plagues, they could not avoid the depression.
Painswick was noted for its weaving and quality cloth. The Painswick wool was of high quality and long fiber and there were many qualified weavers. Many of the homes had a room set aside for a hand loom. There were shelves to place the sacks of wool and weaving and spinning tools. The looms were seldom idle, as weavers in the family took turns at the loom. With the invention of the power loom by Cartwright and the use of waterpower to run them, mills began to spring up all along the streams of Painswick and Sheepscombe. At the height of the industry, there were 20 or 30 mills along the streams. They were well known for the fine woven broadcloth, especially the brilliant red that the army used for their “red coats” and for the coats used by those who enjoyed the fox hunts. There was also navy blue for the Navy and green for the billiard tables of the gentry. The weavers with their hand looms could not compete and lost their market. In anger they marched to destroy the mills that had destroyed their living, but it was all in vain.
Sheepscombe was called the “Peaceful Valley,” but it didn’t deserve the name. One moralist wrote [source unknown], “Sheepscombe is a wild and lawless place where 700 people live in poverty and ignorance with scant regard for other’s welfare.” Another author [source unknown] wrote concerning the condition of the mills: “The licentious ballads and filthy jesters and oaths profane were wont to echo in the walls, while drunkenness, not infrequently, went so far as to suspend the mills operation.”
There was no church in Sheepscombe, but many ale shops and many unlicensed houses where beer and ale were sold were plentiful. What a challenge Henry and Sarah faced to raise a family in this environment. Their home life must have been a source of strength to have raised a noble family in those
Two weavers, John and William Twinning tried to upgrade the lives of the children by opening a school to teach reading and writing, but most parents preferred the meager wages of their children to their learning to read or write. Discouraged by the apathy of the parents, they finally closed the school. Then the Reverend Charles Neville came to Painswick as a curate. He noticed John and William Twinning’s regular attendance at church and became interested in their work with the school. He and his wife, Agnes, determined to help the “godforsaken” people of Sheepscombe and Painswick.
Religious Revival in Sheepscombe
Agnes Neville was an energetic, dark-eyed girl of 22 years. She had a cheerful disposition and determination. At first she received very little encouragement in Sheepscombe and her critics were convinced that no woman could keep order, much less teach these wild ruffians. They predicted she would meet insults if not actual violence. The young couple found it rough going indeed and received little encouragement that they would succeed. They persevered and even in the cold winters, they walked in tracks of mud and snow to reach this isolated village. Agnes began to hold classes in the village and to visit the families in their homes. She acted as nurse, doctor and midwife. Reverend Neville began to hold cottage meetings in Sheepscombe after his meetings in Painswick. Through their love and patience and kind understanding, they gained the love and respect of the village people and soon the cottage meetings were filled to overflowing. The change was miraculous. Agnes even convinced the unlicensed beer houses to stop making beer.
The people of Sheepscombe desired to have a church of their own where they could meet. Reverend Neville acted quickly and within three months had permission to build the church and had obtained the site. He worked ceaselessly to raise money for the building. Knowing the poverty of the village he approached his friends and family and acquaintances outside the valley for contributions. Thomas Crome, the Lord of the Manor, donated the site for the church and promised to furnish the stone from his quarry. The people were asked to furnish the labor. After a full day’s work at the mills or farms, the people worked on the church, sometimes by moonlight. One worker was heard to say, “We never felt weary, we worked with such hearty good will.”
On Easter Monday, April 12, 1819, they laid the cornerstone and by February 21, 1820, the church, dedicated to St. John, was consecrated and a clipping service was held. This custom was for the children and adults (if desired) to hold hands and dance or march around the church singing a special song for the occasion.
The church was a simple design, compromising of the present have today, only it was shorter. The communion table then was a board with hinges that could be raised or lowered. A small vestry was built on the south wall. Reverend Neville didn’t stop with the church but built a school and Vicarage besides, where the doors were always open to welcome everyone.
The church was soon filled and overflowing and had to be enlarged by 1831, but Reverend Neville and Agnes were not present to see it. He had to resign his post in 1827 because of ill health. Sheepscombe was saddened by the news that Agnes had died after the birth of a stillborn baby in 1831 at age. Joseph Richins was instrumental in raising funds for plaques in memorial of their service. Joseph Dunan Osterhan replaced Reverend Neville.
The church has been remodeled and enlarged several times. The “ugly old pews” were replaced to the delight of the congregation, but when the plans called for tearing down the tower and replacing it with a new one, the people rose up to the man to protest. It didn’t matter that the tower had been criticized and poked fun at, this was their very special tower and it was dear to them.
When Dr. Verry had written concerning buildings in England [source not listed], he mentioned the St. John’s church in Sheepscombe: “The original church has a most amusing west end, with a minuscule tower which thinks it’s a turret with an okra lead roof, but then tries to be a tower with four tiny corner pinnacles and a pygmy ringing stage below…” Henry Warren [source not listed], in writing about the Cotswold years wrote concerning the tower:
“The first impulse…is to laugh for it is the most extraordinary tower. It is as if those zealous amateur builders became so excited at the miracle they had wrought that they let their fancy run wild, all they had wrought that they let their fancy run wild, all ecclesiastical decorum was thrown to the winds. One said there must be a pinnacle, another said there must be a cupola; so they simply combined the two. A third said there certainly should be a stone caping and the fourth said what was really wanted was some nice fancy turrets so they erected caping and turrets as well.”
– Henry Warren
To the people of Sheepscombe, it was this extraordinary tower that gave the church its charm and character. Take away the tower and it would become just a small, ordinary church.
When I, Hazel Richins, visited the church in 1983, they were having an open house to raise money for repair of the church. The Vicars from Sheepscombe and Painswick were there to welcome the people and invite them to tea at the Vicarage. The church was decorated with flowers from their gardens. I was so enchanted by the beauty of Sheepscombe and it was a very special moment to be in the church where Henry and Sarah worshipped with their family and may have helped to build. I felt a desire to have this special church preserved, so I left a pound note in the name of the Richins Surname family. It was gratefully and graciously accepted.
Although the environment had improved there were still many stressful years of struggle. The depression was felt deeply on the farms, as the wages of the workers had been cut until many were listed as paupers. Six men tried to organize the farm workers into a union and strike for higher wages, but they were seized and put aboard a ship bound for Australia and they were not allowed to return for seven years.
The Industrial Revolution: A changed way of life
Painswick and Sheepscombe also became victims of the industrial revolution when the steam engine was invented. It began to replace the water-powered mills. Without need of water, mills and factories sprang up in towns all over England. Then it was the water mills that could not compete with the steam engine mills. As the mills along the Sheepscombe and Painswick streams began to close, some of the larger mills tried to avoid closing by replacing men, women and children in the less important jobs, so they wouldn’t have to pay the higher wages. This failed and caused wages to take another drop.
Henry and Sarah struggled through the depression with very little money. Their few sheep and cattle and land provided the food so they were able to feed the family, although the diet was sometimes monotonous. When William told his grandchildren of his life in England, it was not negative things, but of a green valley with rolling hills and woods and streams where his father took then to fish and hunt. He spoke of meadows and flowers where he tended his father’s sheep, showing they had a happy childhood in spite of being poor.
Through living in an isolated village they were able to avoid the crowding, the crime, the riots, etc., but they could not escape the dreaded disease of consumption. One fifth of all the deaths were from it. It was fatal before they developed drugs to cure it and inoculations to prevent it. We now call it tuberculoses or TB for short.
People were not aware consumption was caused by bacilli and it spread through families unchecked. It was spread from the sputum of the patient and also by drinking the milk of an infected cow. At first it was believed that the bloody sputum was caused by a broken blood vessel in the lungs when coughing from a cold. They believed that the cold was caught from a draft, so to avoid catching a cold, they shut the windows and doors even in hot weather. The hot stuffy room soon filled with bacilli from the patient’s cough.
The first symptom was the swelling of the glands in the neck. As the tuberculosis began to form in the lungs, they coughed up the bloody sputum. They became anemic and suffered from cold sweats at night. They became dehydrated and feverish. Ulcers formed in their mouths and on their skin. They became emaciated and the lower limbs swelled with fluid in the tissues. This caused ever-present pain and suffering. As the disease advanced to affect the brain, the victims suffered from a high fever and delirium. Then they lapsed into a coma and then death. How frightened and heartsick the parents must have been to see the dreaded symptoms appear in one child or loved one after another. Not surprisingly, many of the Richins fell victim to this disease.
Except for Sarah, Henry’s and Sarah’s family reached maturity and married. We can find no other entry for Sarah after her christening and therefore feel she must have died young. Following is a brief synopsis of Henry’s and Sarah’s other children:
- Child #2—Elizabeth, better known as Eliza, married Daniel Pearce and they were the parents of nine children. Some of their children died as a result of consumption. Elizabeth died of heart disease, June 19, 1868.
- Child #3—Richard married Charlotte Priscilla Wager and they were parents of eleven children—some of them also died of consumption. Richard died in 1848.
- Child #4—Henry, married Rachel Twinning—he saw some of his children die because of consumption before he became its victim in 1861.
- Child #5—Meriam married John Dickinson, a cloth worker, by banns on July 29, 1827 at Painswick church. Robert Strong performed the ceremony. Neither Meriam nor John could read or write and so they placed the usual “X” by their names. They began their life in Sheepscombe. Their first child was a son born in 1828. He was christened George. He was followed by another son, Peter, born in 1829. A daughter, Ellen, was born in 1832. After Ellen’s birth, the family disappeared from the records.
With the closing of the mills, did they move to a more industrial area to get employment? The Richins Surname Association has searched the 1851 census of England to try to find them, but to no avail. We have also searched the surrounding areas, without success. Many families emigrated at this time—did they emigrate? We are still hoping to find them in order to do the work for all of them and seal them as a family. The work has been done for the individuals listed above.
- Child #6—William was a farm laborer like his father. He married Charlotte Guy. After joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he emigrated to Utah.
- Child #7—Joseph was the last born. He married Ann Davis.
With all the children married and in homes of their own, Sarah’s younger sister, Hannah Haynes, who never married, went to live with Henry and Sarah. She must have been a great help to them.
In 1843, Henry developed gangrene in his leg. There is no indication of the cause. He was still listed as an agricultural laborer, so it may have resulted from a farm accident. Without sterile dressings and drugs to combat infection, gangrene caused many deaths. Henry fought his infection for four months before passing away on April 23, 1843 at the age of 74 years. John Lambe was present at his death. Was he a doctor who had come to ease his pain? Or even amputate his leg? Morphine was available to ease pain and for use as a sedative. Henry was buried April 30, 1843.
Sarah, left bereaved and a widow, had yet another sorrow to pass through—she sat by her son, Richard, and watched him die from intemperance on November 8, 1848, leaving five orphaned sons. The following spring Sarah was at the home of Richard’s son, Charles Richins when she passed away on April 1, 1849. She was buried April 8, 1849.
It is interesting that both Henry and Sarah were buried one week after their deaths. There was no means to keep a body that long without deterioration. I wonder if the delay in providing for their burial was because of the Mormon missionaries teaching the Richins family. In many parishes, the ministers refused to bury a member of a Mormon’s family in the churchyard. I wonder if this was the situation, that they hesitated because the Richins were being taught the gospel by the Mormon missionaries.
The LDS Church and the Richins Family
In Luke 8, Jesus tells the parable of the sower. In verse eight, He said, “Other seeds fell on good ground and sprang up and bear fruits and hundredfold.”
The seed of the gospel found fertile soil in the Richins family. The gospel was introduced in the British Isles in 1837. The Twelve Apostles, according to revelation, were to lay the cornerstones of the Far West temple and leave for their missions to England. The anti-Mormon mobs bragged it was one of Joe Smith’s revelations that would not be fulfilled.
The Apostles laid the cornerstones without incident, but Satan was determined to stop them from going on their missions to England. They were attacked by illness and so were there families. Some of the men had no money to pay for their passage to England. The Lord allowed them to be tested. They placed the sick families in the hands of the Lord and though too sick to walk, set forth to fulfill their calls from the Lord. They left without purse or script, but were given money and clothing along the way.
As we see the results, we can understand why Satan tried to stop them. Branches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were organized in Liverpool and spread outward across England. Wilford Woodruff was teaching the gospel in Stanley, Stratfordshire, when the spirit told him to go south—that there were people who were praying for guidance. Although he was having success in Stratfordshire, he bid them farewell and traveled south to Herdfordhshire.
Upon his arrival there, he found a whole congregation of United brethren who had become dissatisfied with the Wesleyan Methodist Church and had formed a church of their own and were praying for guidance. Wilford Woodruff and his fellow missionaries were able to baptize all of them but one. Miracles followed their conversion. He then opened the counties of Worcestar and Cloucestershire for teaching the gospel. The Cheltham Conference was oraganized in 1840, whereupon Charles Shill and Elder Blackwell were sent to the area of Painswick, Syde and Sheepscombe.
They found fertile ground in the Richins family as well as the families they had married into. These were choice spirits that our Heavenly Father sent at that time to strengthen the Church. There had been a spirit of apostasy in Kirtland, Ohio—even some of the Twelve Apostles had apostatized and joined the enemy. These faithful converts strengthened the Church by traveling to Zion and faithfully serving wherever they were called.
The first of the Richins to be baptized was Charles, son of Richard and Priscilla. He was baptized by Charles Shill, December 26, 1849. He was ordained a priest on June 1, 1850 and was able to baptize his cousin Leonard Richins, son of William, on July 7, 1850.
Charles Shill baptized William and Charlotte Guy Richins on January 1, 1850. Their children, besides Leonard and Peter, were baptized as follows: Meriam, November 3, 1856 by Robert Jones; Joseph, January 1, 1850 and confirmed January 3, by Charles Blackwell; Enoch, April 21, 1850 by Charles Blackwell. William was ordained an Elder on August 27, 1854 by J. W. Edwards. William emigrated to the United States in 1866.
In addition to Charles, Richard’s other surviving sons were also converted. Thomas was baptized January 1, 1850 by Charles Shill and confirmed January 5, 1850 by William Davis. Edward was baptized February 28, 1853 by George Humphries and confirmed March 2, 1853. John was baptized February 5, 1854 by George Taylor and confirmed February 2, 1854 by William Edgeworth.
The Savior gave the interpretation of the sower in Luke chapter 8, verse 15: “But on the good ground are they which in honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience.”
How proudly we should carry the name of Richins.
