John Chicken: Carrier and Criminal?

Not to long ago, I discovered more articles on the life of my 4th great grandfather Joseph Chicken that made me desire to once again, take up all the information I have and seek out my 5th great grandparents. I compiled all the information I knew about his parents.

They are from England.

His father's name is John and he is a carrier.

He had no memories of his mother from a young age.

Not a very in depth list for sure but something to go on at least. I did know that Joseph had lived in Durham county, England in 1841 when he was listed at being 25 and that he immigrated to America with his wife and three children in 1849 when he was around 34 years old. So I started searching in Durham county and came across a hit fairly quickly.

John Chicken was baptized in Durham County on 4 May 1791. Assuming he was born that same year, he was 21 years old when he married Ann Hutton also in Durham County on 13 Dec 1812. This latter date creates a problem because I have always listed Joseph's birthday as Nov 1811 which would make him an illegitimate child by nearly two years. This just didn't happen back then. The couple who got pregnant while unmarried just got married quickly and hoped nobody would do that math. I have lots of ancestors in my tree born 7 to 8 months after their parent's marriage. But I don't have a lot of faith in the Nov 1811 birthdate anyway. It was what was recorded on the 1900 Census when Joseph would have been 89 and probably had forgotten how old he was. The rest of his census record trail supports this  because when back figuring from his age recorded by the census taker, he was born anywhere from 1811 to 1820.  

Assuming Joseph Chicken was their son, he had a brother born to John and Ann around 1816 due to baptismal records. Unfortunately John Jr. as he was named only lived to be 5 years old before dying on 18 Jan 1821. His record says he is the son of John Chicken, carrier, of New Elvet which is a town in Durham County. Also, the burial records indicate Ann Chicken, died on 8 May 1816 and is buried at St. Oswald, Shincliffe, Durham County and is noted as the wife of John, the carrier. 

So the birth of son John Jr and death of Ann Chicken both in 1816 lead me to suspect she died in the process or shortly after giving birth. Her death record lists her as being 31 at the time. This also would mesh with Joseph Chicken stating he never knew his mother or had any memories of her since he would have been just over 4 at the most and most likely younger than that. 

John Chicken Sr would remarry 15 Mar 1818 to Mary Martin and would get in a fair amount of trouble. I have two articles which I will post at the end for those interested in reading them. In one, John and Mary were found guilty of fraud and sent to prison for a short time because they were unable to pay their fine and in the other a month later, he was declared insolvent in debtors court. I have found other articles of John being fined for parking his wagon (as a carrier) illegally. Right or wrong, I don't get the impression he was of the finest cloth in the social fabric of England.

He and second wife Mary would go on to have at least four more children eventually moving to Witton-Gilbert, Durham County where he is found on the 1841 Census, about 15 miles as the crow flies from where Joseph was living. John died the following year at age 51 and is buried in the same town. Wife Mary would continue to be found in census records through 1861 living with her oldest daughter Mary before disappearing from records. One person has her dying soon after in 1861 but I haven't seen any records verifying this.

Joseph left with his family in 1849, 7 years after his father's death. To me this isn't really surprising, His only biological brother (guessing here) died many years earlier and with the death of his father, there were no ties to bind him to England. Being a coal miner, there probably wasn't much upward mobility in his status in life and so it made perfect sense to sail off for America and leave his stepmother and 4 half siblings behind. Combine all that and the numerous records listing John as a carrier, or person who delivers people or cargo by horse, Joseph's marriage record stating his father John was a carrier and Joseph himself saying he did carrier duties as early he could remember with his father's team, I have a high degree of confidence that these are probably his parents. 

It would help if I could turn up a baptism record for Joseph like I have for all his other full and half siblings but I can't. Either it was never recorded or maybe never happened. Perhaps he was a bastard child after all which could explain the lack of baptismal records too. Another convincing piece of circumstantial evidence is that Joseph, names his first born son John. It was very common practice to name the first born son after the father's father and the second son after the wife's father. Also common was to name the third born son after the father's grandfather. That son happens to be my 4th great grandfather Joseph Chicken.

Also in the records of Elvet, Durham County, England is a Joseph Chicken, also a carrier, who died 29 Dec 1829 and is buried in the same cemetery as John Chicken's first wife Ann Hutton Chicken. I may have also found my 6th great grandparent.

Tyne Mercury Northumberland and Durham and Cumberland Gazette
23 Oct 1821 - page 4

Tyne Mercury Northumberland and Durham and Cumberland Gazette
20 Nov 1821 - page 3

[Post written in March 2023 but never made it out of draft status until recently.]