Page 11. In 1849 William, a widower, married for the second time, to my gt grandmother, Sarah Stuteley. She was born in 1818 (1851 Census) and her childhood was spent in the town of Swineshead in Lincolnshire.

Swineshead lies seven miles from the city of Boston. Nothing to do with the head of a pig, its name derives from the Old English word “swin”, meaning a tidal creek or inlet and “Heda”, meaning a dock or landing place. The surrounding countryside, previously “a foule and woosie Marsh” had been drained and was still subject to flooding. It was not suitable for arable farming and was mainly used for cattle. The village serviced the basic farming economy with blacksmiths, millers, saddlers, wheelwrights, butchers, bakers, grocers, drapers and shoemakers, of which Sarah’s father was one. Sarah would have gone to Sunday school with the children of Noah Thompson, the spinning wheel maker, Joseph Powdrill, the glove maker and William Johnson, the rope maker and flax dresser. Mail was delivered to the Wheatsheaf Inn from where it could be collected and outgoing mail was dispatched from the Wheatsheaf. If Sarah and her family wanted to go to Boston in 1826 they would travel with the local carriers, John Allbones or William Cooke, leaving every Wednesday and Saturday at 6am. Sarah may have gone to school at Cowley’s school and been taught by Mr Turfitt who taught there from 1780 until 1827, retiring at the age of 83. The school was accommodated in part of St Mary’s church for 100 years until a new school building was built in 1826. The cheese and onion fair was held on Cheese Hill on October 2 each year where, among other entertainments, groups of travelling players would set up their stall and act out plays. In May each year the Swineshead Statute was held in the paddock of the Green Dragon and included stalls and a coconut shy.

Sarah Stuteley’s Book of Psalms and Hymns, New Testament and Book of Common Prayer.

Sarah was able to read and write. She attended the Swineshead Sunday school and received a small book of Psalms and Hymns "Given as a Reward for Good Behaviour by the conductors of Swineshead Sunday School" on June 2 1831. Sarah was a religious woman. In 1838 she was given a small, embossed leather bound New Testament. Inside the front cover is written, "Sarah Stuteley, The Gift of a Friend, 2nd August 1838". These are passages she has marked in the New Testament:

• "Be not slothful in business; be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord" (Rom 12:11).
  "Bless them which persecute you. Bless and curse not" (Rom 12:14).
  "If it be possible as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." (Rom 12:18).
  "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect."(Matt 5:48).

Perhaps her striving to improve herself rubbed off onto William because by his marriage to Sarah in 1849, he was able to sign his own name in a stiff, careful, cursive writing. It is possible that Sarah taught him.

Certificate inserted into "Book of Psalms and Hymns for the use of Families, Schools and Congregations" published in 1829

Frontispiece of New Testament published in 1836.

Swineshead village sign

The Wheatsheaf Hotel, Swineshead market square

St Mary’s church, Swineshead