This post provides some additional background on William Craddock, the main subject of Ambush at Wallbank
A personal note and the Craddock family
William Craddock’s grandfather was this author’s 7xGreat Grandfather. In theory, everyone has 256 7xGreat Grandfathers, although this number can be slightly less as a consequence of intermarriage. Sadly, it would not be unusual to find some miscreants among their descendants.
For over 200 years, members of the Craddock family were millers in several villages in central Northamptonshire: Maidwell, Tichmarsh, Earls Barton, Hardingstone, Harlestone, Overstone and Kingsthorpe. Notably in Kingsthorpe, the family operated two mills: the upper watermill, later known as Walker’s Mill and a windmill that stood opposite the Windmill public house on the Welford Road, Northampton. Our interest focuses on the Kingsthorpe branch descended from William Craddock and Christian Bailey. It is not certain where William was born but he may have been the son of Francis Craddock and Ann Wilson a husbandman (farmer) in Overstone.
William and Christian were married at St Giles, Northampton but lived in Kingsthorpe, where they had nine children who were all christened and St John the Baptist, Kingsthorpe. William was one of the Kingsthorpe millers and was succeeded by his eldest son also William. It was from William and Christian’s second son John that this author’s family is descended. John seems to have been a farmer and married Mary Dickenson, from another established Kingsthorpe family. The youngest son, Francis, moved to Wellingborough, where he married Susanna Chapman, the daughter of a baker. They had at least one son, William, born in 1749. He later worked as a weaver. His father may have died when he was young in 1755 at Wellingborough and subsequently moved to Northampton with his mother, Susanna, as she was the subject of a settlement examination initiated by St Peter’s Overseers of the Poor in 1795 against the Wellingborough parish overseers1. It appears she remained in Northampton as she was buried at St Peter’s, Northampton in 1801.
- Examination of Susanna Craddock, 240P/073/41, Settlement papers; Northampton, St Peter, Overseers of the Poor, Northamptonshire Archives.
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