Thomas Hendy and Eliza Fluen
THOMAS HENDY was the second son of (HYRCANUS) CHARLES HENDY (1818-1857) and MARY GRACE (1824-1899), who married at St Dunstan in the West (Fleet Street), London on 23. December 1847 witnessed by Charles' brother and sister-in-law, James Saul and Maria Hendy nee Harriskind.
July - Sept 1851, his birth was registered in Strand, London, England. Census 1851 (30./31. March) reports that his family lived in 21 Queens Street, Mayfair, Westminster, short before his birth.
THOMAS HENDY worked as general labourer and gas stoker before he settled with his family in Middlesbrough. He died in the year 1912 buried North Ormesby Cemetery (plot 36, 8/45) on 16. June.
The Hendy family as such was deeply rooted in Andover area and can be well traced back to the late 17th century on certain branches. The earliest known HENDY, who was linked to the family, was WILLIAM HENDY, who died 1716 in Penton Mewsey, at some time after the 31. March as he was the bondsman on the marriage of his daughter Mary Hendy (1694-1750) with William Meade of Bristol, then.
WILLIAM HENDY hisself married ALICE SHEPPARD in Goodworth Clatford, Hampshire on
10. Feb. 1688. She was buried in Penton Mewsey on 17. Dec 1728. Although it is not known, where and when Wiliam and Alice were born, it can be assumed though that their families were settled previously either in Penton Mewsey respectively Goodworth Clatford itself or at least in parishes near Andover, too.
William's and Alice's son, JOHN HENDY (1706-1769) was THOMAS' 2nd great-grandfather and a Master craftsman of some sort, who got buried in Penton Mewsey on 30. May 1769. His gravestone (photo) reads: "By Death I rest from Care & Pain In Hope with Joy to meet again."
The history of the present village almost certainly dates from late Saxon times during the 10th or early 11th century, when many other villages around Andover and the town itself first appeared from what had been Royal hunting forest. Domesday Book (1086) has two entries for ‘Penitone’ : one belonging to King Edward the Confessor and the other (now the adjacent hamlet of Penton Grafton within the present civil parish of the same name) to Matilda, his Queen. Development over the past 100 years has effectively made Mewsey and Grafton one community with a combined population (2010) of c. 800. ‘Penitone’ probably derives its name from ‘ton’ a farm worth a ‘penny’ geld or tax. Mewsey (spelled in various ways) first occurs in 1167 when the manor (landholding) belonged to the Anglo-Norman family named Maisey. It also owned other manors in Wiltshire and a member was constable of nearby Ludgershall castle. Holy Trinity Church was built c. 1365 probably by the then new Lord of the Manor, Edmund Stonor, whose family’s wealth was also built on wool and whose connection (though not residence) with the village was to last for almost another 300 years.
In the middle ages Penton had many sheep and produced fleeces and wool, sold through Andover for export to the Low Countries. Arable cultivation took place in open fields divided into strips. From the 16th century onwards Penton, like many communities in north west Hampshire continued to rely upon sheep and corn for income and its open fields were progressively enclosed into larger fields in single occupation.
However it looks like as if the HENDY family as such held no land of their own, but were rather craftsmen as not only JOHN HENDY, but at least also his elder brother, Manwell (1701-1749), was a craftsman as he belonged to the crafts-guild of tailors.
(Station opened 06. Mar 1865 and closed for passengers 07. Sept 1964. It joined the London and South Western Railway.)
She was the daughter of JAMES FLUEN (1829-1911) and LOUISA RUDDOCK (1829-1869).
Their three eldest children did not stay in Andover, but moved away looking for work. Eliza's family had left Andover latest by 1881 and lived in East Preston, Arundel, Sussex at first, where four of their children were born. They continued to move to Middlesbrough between 1888 and 1891 as they lived in 52 Worsley Street, North Ormesby, then.
NOTE: North Ormesby lies to the south of the River Tees in the middle of Middlesbrough. The town was built to house an influx of workers who arrived in the area to work in the ironstone business when a large seam was discovered there. This saw a boom in work at the mines, blast furnaces and foundries as well as on the river and at the port. The old town was built with grid like streets around a market square. It was into this environment that the family moved.