5 Mar 2025

I’m continuing my systematic review of all parts of my family tree and I’ve been looking at the chamberlain family. Previously Sarah Chamberlayne, my 3x great grandmother, had been the only member of that family that we knew of but I found her baptism in Runwell, Essex and her parents: Joseph Chamberlain and Susannah Dockrell. The Dockrells were originally from Rettendon and I have explored that branch thoroughly now, reaching the limits of the surviving parish registers. This post is about Joseph who has proven to be a little more elusive.

In the 1851 census Joseph claimed to have been born in Great Bentley, a parish about 30 miles to the northwest of Runwell where he was living at the time. His marriage to Susannah Dockrell also took place in Great Bentley in 1805 but by the next year they were living in Runwell.

Another clue to Joseph’s origins is a Benjamin Chamberlain who was a witness to his wedding. This could be a brother or other relative. In 1787 a Benjamin Chamberlain, of the Parish of St. Botolph, married Ann Blunden in Great Bentley (St. Botolph is likely to be Colchester St. Botolph where perhaps he was apprenticed). Benjamin moved to the neighbouring parish of St. Osyth for a number of years before, in 1821, marrying Sarah Serjeant in Great Bentley. Rather frustratingly Benjamin died in 1850 just before the 1851 census. His age, 85, suggests he was born in 1765.

This evidence points to Joseph having been born in Great Bentley and having family connections but there is no trace of a baptism for him in that Parish. His age was recorded as 80, making his year of birth 1771. This is consistent with his death certificate the following year where his age is given as 81. However in the 1841 census his age is given as 65-69 which puts his year of birth in the range 1772-1776.

Nor is there any trace of a baptism for Benjamin.

There are two Chamberlain families in the area at that time, brothers Richard and Joseph, sons of Richard Chamberlain and Mary Ham. Both brothers were born in Elmstead, a parish just a couple of miles to the northwest of Great Bentley. Joseph married Mary Rudkin in the neighbouring parish of Wivenhoe on 10 Sep 1769, while Richard married Elizabeth Buxton (or Burton) on 18 Mar 1763 in Great Bentley.

Richard went on to have children in Great Bentley:

• Robert, buried in Dec 1763
• John, 1763 (recorded as son of Richard and Mary Chamberlain)
• William, 1764
• Samuel, 1766
• Elizabeth, 1770

Elizabeth Buxton and her daughter Elizabeth both died in 1770. The following year Richard married Mary Steed and they had a daughter, Mary, later that year. There don’t appear to be any further Chamberlain baptisms in Great Bentley.

There is also no trace of a Joseph or Benjamin Steed, working on a theory that they were adopted by Richard.

Joseph had several children in Wivenhoe:

• Mary, 1769-1771
• Susanna, 1771-1774
• Joseph, 1773-1773
• Joseph, 1774-1774
• James, 1775
• Mary, 1779
• Susannah, 1781-1781
• Susannah, 1782
• Ann, 1785
• Martha, 1788
• John 1791

So, no sign of a surviving Joseph Chamberlain nor of a Benjamin, yet both were active in Great Bentley just a few years later and Joseph stated on the census that he was born there. I have also checked many of the surrounding parishes for baptisms around this time with no luck.

There is a baptism of a Benjamin Champion, son of William and Mary, on 7 Apr 1765 in Great Bentley but with the surname and father both not matching then I have to reject it.

Benjamin married by license but I haven’t managed to find a copy.

I did find that Essex record office holds a “Certificate of discharge of Benjamin Chamberlain from his apprenticeship to Daniel Blyth of Elmstead, mariner” for 1785¹. This was issued in Colchester St. Botolph which matches his abode on his marriage entry in 1787. Interestingly the notes state “Issued by local justices on Blyth’s complaint concerning apprentice’s disorderly behaviour and frequent absences.” so it seems he wasn’t a compliant apprentice.

If Joseph and Benjamin weren’t children of Richard or Joseph then could they have been second cousins of the Chamberlains in Great Bentley?

There were several Chamberlain families in the local area and these are possibilities for brothers of Richard Chamberlain, the father of Richard and Joseph. If they are siblings then grandchildren of these couples would be second cousins of the Great Bentley Chamberlains.

• John Chamberlain and Mary Bones, Brightlingsea, 1731 (she of Elmstead)
• John Chamberlain and Ann Madder, Wivenhoe, 1739
• Stephen Chamberlain and Sarah Harrison, Colchester St. Peter, 1730
• William Chamberlin and Mary Goodiff, Colchester St. James, 1731
• Robert Chamberlain and Mary Harwood, Colchester St. Peter, 1741

I can’t find any children of these couples, except Stephen and Sarah who had the following:

• Sarah, Colchester St Peter, 1732
• Stephen, Colchester St Peter, 1735
• Kelurah, Colchester St Peter, 1735
• Susanna, Colchester St James, 1736
• Mary, Colchester St James, 1744

There are some baptisms that could be children of Stephen above:

• Mary, Colchester St James, 1759
• Stephen, Colchester St James, 1761-1765
• Elizabeth, Colchester St Nicholas, 1762
• Ananias, Colchester St Nicholas, 1764
• Susanna, Colchester St Nicholas, 1766
• Joseph Chamberlin, Colchester St Nicholas, 1769
• Sarah, Colchester All Saints, 1771
• Elizabeth, Colchester St Nicholas, 1773

How did I not find this Joseph baptism before? I’ve checked to see whether he was buried shortly after and found nothing (having been caught like this before)

There is a burial of a Stephen Chamberlain in Colchester St Nicholas in 1808 which may be the father of Joseph.

No sign of the marriage on first look. His wife was called Mary.

I managed to find and clean up an entry on FamilySearch for Stephen Chamberlain which suggests that his wife’s name was Mary Hazelby and that they married in Colchester St Nicholas on 1 Jul 1759 which I managed to find on the Essex Record Office site.

I was interested in Ananias Chamberlain since it’s quite an unusual name. I found a will dated 1835 in Colchester² that lists his children and some grandchildren but no mention of Joseph (who was still alive at that time)

Despite this Joseph having a baptism close to 1771 I still feel that something is off. It doesn’t explain the connection to Great Bentley and it doesn’t explain the mystery of Benjamin Chamberlain, even though he was apprenticed in Colchester.

I also took a look on ancestry for people with Ananias Chamberlain in their tree, and checked six of them to see if there was a DNA connection. There wasn’t. That’s not conclusive of course but it doesn’t help build confidence. Also, none of my DNA matches have Hazelby as a surname in their tree. If I could find a DNA match with a Hazelby sibling then it would be a excellent indirect corroboration.

I made a list if all Joseph Chamberlains I could find in the Essex records in the 10 years around 1770:

• 1775, Lambourne, Joseph Chamberlain son of Samuel
• 1773, Wivenhoe, Joseph Chamberlain son of Joseph (dies 1773)
• 1774, Wivenhoe, Joseph Chamberlain son of Joseph (dies 1774)
• 1769, Colchester, Joseph Chamberlin son of Stephen

Lambourne is in the far west of the county about 40 miles from Great Bentley.

There are no Benjamin Chamberlains in the period. In fact there appear to only be two across all periods, Joseph’s son in 1812 and one in 1679 in Chelmsford. This, of course, only covers the indexes, there could still be Benjamins in the actual records,

In Lambourne, Samual Chamberlain had the following children:

• William Harrison, 1766
• William, 1768
• Charles, 1771
• Charles, 1773
• Joseph, 1775
• John, 1776

Finally, I checked nonconformist records for Joseph and Benjamin but found nothing of interest

I think I will have to leave this problem here. I don’t have a convincing lead so far but there are some clues and possibilities that I could follow up on in the future.