Durham County, England

 

As I put together facts in chronological order, I find myself in unfamiliar terrain. Knowing the terrain is useful information when you are dealing with multiple families of the same surname. If a family spends their life in roughly one location but has one outlier, it is wise to scrutinize the outlier for authenticity. My Chicken family origins begin in Durham County, England along the North Sea, a place wholly unfamiliar to me. So I found a period map of the time and started plotting various milestones along it to see if everything looked plausible.

My 5th great grandfather John Chicken was born in Durham City which is located at point A on the map above. He marries my 5th great grandmother Ann Hutton Chicken at St. Andrew Auckland, point B above, but she gives birth to two sons, my 4th great grandfather Joseph Chicken and John Chicken 1 (more on the 1 later) back at point A. It is also at point A where Ann Hutton Chicken dies two years after the birth of John and when he dies a few years after that, they are both buried at the St. Oswald church. So other than their marriage, the bulk of their lives are spent at point A.

After Ann Hutton and John 1 died, the next record I have is of John marrying his second wife Mary Martin Chicken in Bishopwearmouth which is noted by point C on the map above but they are soon back to point A where their four children were all most likely born. (I have baptismal records for two of the four.) The first of those four children was John Chicken 2. He was born less than a year after his older step-brother John Chicken 1 died and I suppose is why he was named as such. It gets quite confusing keeping records separated between the two Johns when they have the same father but different mothers. 

My main focus however is on John 1's older brother and my 4th great grandfather Joseph Chicken. He was born at Durham City, point A, and was maybe around 8 when his father married second wife Mary Martin Chicken in Bishopwearmouth, point C. I have no record of them actually living there so perhaps that is where Mary was from and why they were married there. When Joseph Chicken became an adult, he quit helping his father John with his carrier work of hauling cargo from the port, presumably Sunderland which is near point C, and moved to Evenwood, point D, where he worked in the coal mines. I have no more records of him until his departure from Liverpool 170 miles across England to the southwest. 

All this plotting makes me feel as if I have a pretty good handle on the family.  The distance between the farthest points C and D is only 30 miles and so a day's journey by horse and wagon. The bulk of the time was spent around Durham City, point A until Joseph Chicken came of age and moved to Evenwood, point D, probably out of necessity for money and where the coal jobs were hiring. After his father died, he really had no blood ties other than 3 or 4 half siblings and possibly is the reason he picked up stakes and immigrated to America.

The only one issue I have is John Chicken's death. Every single record I have for him is in one of the above points A, B or C and most list him as a "Carrier" or lists his wives Ann or Mary for me to verify that it is actually him. The last record I have for John is the 1841 England Census in a town called Witton-Gilbert which is on the outskirts of Durham City at point A. By the time the next census rolls around in 1851, he is absent and second wife Mary is listed as a widow. Conveniently, there is a a John Chicken of roughly the same age that dies in 1842 in Witton-Gilbert but his occupation is listed as "Farmer". I suppose it is him given the proximity to his last where abouts and similar age but there is at least one other John Chicken in the vicinity but older and it bugs me this is the only record that lists him as a farmer. It would help if he was buried next to his first wife and son in Durham City instead of 10 miles away in Witton-Gilbert but I rationalize that perhaps second wife Mary had a hand in that decision. 

So for now, I have John as dying in 1842 and that he gave up being a carrier for farming sometime in his late 30's before dying at age 50. I suppose I could tie it down a bit more by researching more into Mary's life after the death of John. I don't know when she died or where she is buried at this point. If she were buried next to John, I think I would be able to put a bow on this and call it done. Until then, it is only plausible.