Family History

Sex : Male

Date of Birth : 1808

Place of Birth : Great Wymondley, Hertfordshire

Date of Death : 1865

Place of Death : Hitchin, Hertfordshire

Number of Children : 5

John Worbey was baptised on 3rd January 1808 at Great Wymondley in Hertfordshire. John was the eldest of 8 children, who were all boys. On 23rd July 1831 John was married at St Mary's in Hitchin to Ann Stokes, who was also from Walsworth. Later that year they had their first son, another John, baptised in Hitchin. At the time of young John's baptism they were living at Hitchin Hill, and John was described as a labourer. By the time their second child, Alice, was baptised in 1842 they had returned to Walsworth. By the time of the 1841 census the family had settled at The Riddy, a small group of cottages surrounded by fields to the south-east of the town. John and Ann were to stay at The Riddy for the rest of their lives. In May 1842 John was a witness in the trial of his brother-in-law John Stokes, who had been charged with stealing wheat from his employer, William Hainworth. John was described as a tasker working in Mr Hainworth's yard. In John's evidence he admitted that he had helped John Stokes lift the sack of wheat which was being stolen and that once John Stokes had sold the wheat (for 2 shillings), Stokes, Worbey and another tasker in the yard had split the money between them. John Stokes was found guilty, but Mr Hainworth asked for mercy for Stokes, partly on the basis that he considered John Worbey the more guilty party. The Deputy Chairman of the court agreed, and said that "the Court, too, felt that the witness Waby [sic] was the most guilty", and "he [Worbey] might think himself exceedingly fortunate that he did not stand in the position of the prisoner". John Stokes was sentenced to two months in prison. John and Ann went on to have a son named James in 1848 and a daughter named Emma in 1850. Overall they had five children, two boys and three girls. The 1851 census finds the family living at The Riddy, along with a Hannah Stokes, who was Ann's niece (John Stokes' daughter). John was still working as an agricultural labourer, whilst his eldest son by this time was an apprentice shoemaker. In 1856 John's eldest son died as a young man of only 24 years old. Later that same year John's wife Ann died aged 45. She was buried at Hitchin on 18th December 1856. She and John had been married for 25 years. After Ann's death John continued to live at The Riddy. His daughter Fanny was married in 1860 and after her marriage lived at The Riddy with her husband Thomas Moles, next door to John and his youngest two children. The 1861 census records four cottages at The Riddy, with John and his two youngest children in one, his daughter Fanny and her husband and baby in another, and John's brother James and his wife and children in another. Therefore of the four cottages, John's family occupied three of them. John died at The Riddy on 25th January 1865, aged 57. He had been suffering with phthisis (tuberculosis). He was not buried at Hitchin, as his wife Ann had been, but back at Great Wymondley, where he had been baptised. At the time of John's death his mother Charlotte was still alive. She wrote her will two weeks after John's death, making clear that she wanted her grandchildren whose fathers had died still to inherit what would have been their fathers' shares of her estate.

Ann Stokes ( 23rd July 1831 - )

Children : John Worbey - Alice Worbey - Fanny Worbey - James Worbey - Emma Worbey

Relationship notes : Hitchin, Hertfordshire