| Abstract | There have been two separate families GREEN living in West Mersea for over two hundred years. I am the product of a union of the two families when my father Leslie Green married my mother Edna Mehala Green on November 11th in 1927. Not only have the two families lived on Mersea Island during that time, they have lived in the same part of the island around The Fox to Mill Road, Blue Row and Waldegraves. My father's side Greens came to Mersea with Abraham who was born Colne Engaine 1782 and died West Mersea July 1855. He married Mary Salmon born Peldon 1789 I don't have a date for the wedding but their first child Abraham was born in 1815. He married Mary Ann Bush at West Mersea Parish Church on October 21 1835. She was the widow of William Whiting. Two of their children were another Abraham born about 1838 who married Emma Mortlock of Peldon at West Mersea Parish Church on June 3rd 1865 and Roger born June 1844 who married Emma's sister Rosena at West Mersea Parish Church Sept 17th 1870. Abraham c1838 and Emma were my great grandparents and lived in Workhouse Cottages in Waldegraves Lane. Of their children Emma married Charles Farthing and Florence married Arthur Vince so I am related to the Farthing and the Vince families. My Museum colleagues have traced the Colne Engaine Greens back to a Roger who was born there in 1715.
The Greens on my mother's side first came to Mersea with John Green born in Langenhoe in 1805. He was married to Sarah Surry at West Mersea Parish Church on 11th October 1832 by the Rev Nathaniel Forster. The couple lived for most, if not all of their married lives in a cottage near the Fox. The tithe returns for march 1838 lists John Green as occupier, with others, of a cottage and yard by the Fox. Sarah died on the 15th Sept 1898 and John died on 9th Sept 1899 aged 94, a good age at that time of day. John Green was a horseman and ploughman and worked for my late wife Wendy's great great grandfather Charles Cock at Brickhouse Farm. Of their children Susannah married William Pullen of Yew Tree House on Feb 9th 1861. So I am related to the Pullens. Sophia married William John Farthing and Robert Chinnery - always known as Chinnery born Feb 1851, married Susanah Maria Radford (or Ratford) in 1875, these were my great grandparents. Their son Roland Percy 'Roly' was my maternal grandfather. In the 1901 census he was a horseman at The Firs Farm.
Abraham 'Ham' Green with eel shears after fishing off the beach
Sarah Green née Surry, born about 1814.
Article published in Mersea Life October 2022 |
