William Barlee Linford and Sarah Elizabeth Pain (Payne) and their Ancestors in Norfolk-England
The surname Linford is an English place name. There are towns and villages in several of the counties of England with a variant of the name including Great Linford, and Little Linford in Buckinghamshire and, Lynford in Norfolk. Alternatives to the name are Linforth and Linfoot. A Geoffrey de Linford is on record as living in England in 1202.
The Linford family from whom William Barlee was descended is first met at Martham, in Norfolk, about 1770. It appears that the family must have moved there from elsewhere shortly before that time. Martham is a small agricultural village about 17 kilometres North of Great Yarmouth and is inland from the coast, on a canal link to the North Sea. (See maps below for its location and detail). It was once a Saxon settlement, named after the Martens or Polecats, which abounded in the area.
The local Anglican Church is St. Mary-the-Virgin pictured below. The Doomsday Book mentions a church there built on an ancient Pagan site, but the present building dates from about 1377. Registers and other church records exist from Elizabethan days.
The Church of St. Mary-the-Virgin
The first record in Martham of the family from which William Barlee was descended is in 1772 when, on 11 October, Christiana and Robert, twin children of Crisp and Sarah (maiden name not known) Linford were baptized. Other children of the couple were subsequently baptized, Crispin and Elizabeth on 15 August 1779, William (aged 17), James (aged 15) and George (aged 13) on 31 July 1803 when the fathers name was given as Christopher.
The son Crispin, baptized in 1779, married Elizabeth Utting on 10 October 1803. Elizabeth, baptized on 12 October 1788, was the base-born daughter of Elizabeth “Uttern” and was therefore possibly just on 15 years of age when she was married. Crispin was 24 years of age. Elizabeth’s mother Elizabeth “Uttern” later married John Simnet, a widower, on 29 November 1798.
Elizabeth and Crispen Linford had nine children — Charlotte born 10 September 1803 and baptized 9 October 1803 (i.e.: before their marriage). James born 16 July 1805 and baptized 23 July 1805. Sarah born 1 May 1807 (a) and baptized 3 May 1807. William born 25 August 1809 and baptized 27 August 1809. Samuel born 19 April 1812 and baptized 26 April 1812. Francis baptized 23 October 1814. Benjamin baptized 18 May 1817. Johnathon baptized 3 July 1820, and George baptized 21 October 1822.
It was Sarah Linford born 1 May 1807 (a) who gave birth to William Barlee Linford who was baptized on 4 June 1825 in the Church of St. Mary-the-Virgins at Martham. She was then aged 18 years and was not married.
The name of the father is not recorded, but the child’s second name Barlee, raises the possibility that he was the son of a Barlee or Barley. Families of the latter name are on record as living in Great Yarmouth and in the Lakenham Parish both not far distant from Martham about this time.
William himself stated in the papers recording his arrival in Australia, that his father was William Linford, which is believed, is incorrect, but the Christian name could be i.e.: He was the son of William Barlee or Barley or possibly Barlow.
Little is known of William Barlee’s boyhood. When he arrived in Australia he was said to be unable to read or write, so apparently he did not go to school. In view of his subsequent history, it is highly probable that he was occupied as a farm boy. At the time of the 1841 census of England, a William Linford of about the right age was listed as an agricultural laborer working at Caister, Norfolk, not far distant from Martham.
On 6 April 1848 William Barlee Linford married Sarah Elizabeth Pain, (also spelt in the alternatives of Paine and Payne) at the Church of St. Mary-the-Virgin at Martham. Sarah Elizabeth Pain, the daughter of Richard and Sarah Pain of Repps with Bastwick, near Martham, was the sister of Charles Pain who appears to have been a friend of William. The wedding of William and Sarah Elizabeth was the occasion of a double wedding as Charles Pain, at the same time married Frances Cook, of Rokesby, Norfolk. Charles Pain and Frances Cook witnessed the wedding of William Barlee Linford and Sarah Elizabeth Pain. And William and Sarah Elizabeth witnessed the wedding of Charles Pain and Frances Cook.
The family from which Charles Pain and Sarah Elizabeth Pain were descended had been in the Martham area at least since 1730, when Thomas Pain, the great grandfather of Charles and Sarah was christened. Thomas married a Mary Littleboy on 11 October 1754 at Martham, and the couple had five children, of whom the youngest, William, was christened at Martham on 12 November 1766. William married Elizabeth Rust on 1 May 1787 and there were nine children born to that marriage, including Sarah’s father, Richard. Richard in turn, married a Sarah Chapman (more accurately London, because her father had not by the time of her birth married the mother) and Sarah Elizabeth was the third child of a family of nine from that marriage. Richard was a carpenter who at the time of the 1851 census had moved to Martham from Repps where most of his children had been born.
Sarah Elizabeth Pain, at the time of her marriage to William Barlee Linford, was eighteen years of age; she had been born in 1829, and her brother, Charles, a sawyer by trade, was about two years older.
Almost immediately after their marriages the two couples emigrated from England to Australia. The vessel by which they travelled was the London-registered barque, “Fairlie”, of 755 tons; the master was William Davis. On board was 290 Government emigrants, 32 boys up to the age of 14 years, 29 girls, and three infants. The ship left Plymouth 30 April 1848 and arrived at Port Jackson 7 August 1848, a passage of 14 weeks.
The voyage appears to have been uneventful and the health of the emigrants generally good. The shipping records show that William was then aged 23 years and Sarah Elizabeth 20 years. It was recorded that William was the son of William and Sarah Linford, both dead, and that he had been born at Yarmouth. That he was an agricultural laborer and bricklayer, that his religion was Church of England, he could neither read nor write and that he had no relatives in the Colony of New South Wales.
Sarah Elizabeth was listed as a domestic servant, born at Yarmouth, the daughter of Richard and Sarah Payne, both of whom were living near Yarmouth. Of, Church of England religion, unable to read or write and without relatives in the Colony. (Note: – There are some inaccuracies with dates, etc in these details.)
As to William Barlee’s mother Sarah, no information is available beyond what was stated by William Barlee at the time of his emigration, i.e.: – that his mother was dead. Nothing has come to light to dispute this.
Some people will have seen earlier notes from Bob Linford, that mention, that William Barlee Linford’s mother, Sarah Linford, later married a Hood. Bob Linford has proven this information to be incorrect. We do not know any further history of Sarah Linford, we only know, that she was the mother of William Barlee Linford.