Headford

Headford of Bristol, Somerset & New Zealand

The grandmother of Barbara Faulkner was Elizabeth Headford. She was born in Bristol in 1871 but Headfords were not of long term Bristol stock. Many years of research has not established our family line before the arrival of James Headford around 1800. Other Headford arrivals in Bristol around the same period indicated a possibility that they all came from the Bridgwater area of Somerset, a theory examined here.

Fig 6a. "Charley" 1810

Courtesy Bristol Record Office ref. Picbox_6_misc_11

The Bristol Headfords made no great name for themselves; at one time they were among the very poorest in a poor area. Their situation prompted research into the living conditions of the poor, conditions scarcely believable to modern minds. It also led to an insight into the maintenance of civil law and order before the establishment of the modern police force. We now know just why a person is called a "Proper Charlie".

There were minor brushes with the law, mainly in order to survive. In 1834 one 11 year old Headford lad was, for stealing some cheese, sentenced to "one month’s solitary & twice whipped".

By the 1920’s the despair at employment prospects in the UK led to the vision that things must be better elsewhere with the result that many emigrated.

The history written here was first written as a book and copies are deposited in Bristol Record Office and the Society of Genealogists in London. Hopefully it will prove of interest to others.

We are in contact with Christine Headford a collateral descendant living in New Zealand. Her data base of Headford information is quite remarkable and we have included a contribution by her about her father’s emigration to New Zealand.

She can be contacted at::

c.headford@auckland.ac.nz

She would welcome contact with other interested parties.

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