The Quaker Connection

THE ELLINGTONS

Andrew ALDIS’s first wife was Hannah ELLINGTON of Mildenhall in Suffolk. Other Ellingtons appear, however, in the Norfolk Quaker records, one of them being Rachel ELLINGTON, daughter of Joseph ELLINGTON of Mildenhall, who married in Norwich in 1702. There are no surviving Suffolk Quarterly Records prior to 1776, and the Bury Monthly Meeting Books record marriages only from 1762. Births are recorded from 1713 and burials from 1705, but there is no mention of the children born to Andrew and Hannah or of Hannah’s burial. Though patchy, the records do provide names which recur. Joseph ELLINGTON and Frances POWELL sought permission to marry in 1714 followed by the births of their children, Elizabeth in 1715, Sarah in 1717/1718, Joseph in 1719/1720, John in 1722, and Mary in 1725. Joseph ELLINGTON, a woolcomber of Mildenhall (probably the Joseph born 1719/1720) and Mary BREWSTER of Stock (ie. Stoke) in Norfolk declared their intention to marry in 1745. Their son Joseph was born in 1749, and Hannah ELLINGTON is named as the midwife. The same midwife attended the birth of their son Henry in 1753. Andrew’s wife Hannah was renowned for her nursing/healing abilities, as we shall see later, and her son Daniel was a noted surgeon. So there seems to have been a strong medical and nursing leaning amongst the Ellingtons which was passed on to Daniel and to several of his children. Other Ellington recorded events include the intention to marry at the Sudbury Monthly Meeting of Francis ELLINGTON of St. Ives and Mary PETTIT of Haverhill in 1706. Joseph ELLINGTON jnr. aged 31 of Mildenhall was buried at Holy Well Row, Bury Monthly Meeting in 1780; and Henry ELLINGTON, a farmer aged 31, was buried at Holy Well Row, Bury Monthly Meeting in 1782. From these various pieces of information it has been possible to construct, with some confidence as to accuracy, the family tree for Hannah ELLINGTON which accompanies this account. Her parents were Joseph ELLINGTON, clothier of Mildenhall, and Rachel. Joseph died in 1714, Rachel in 1722, and each of their Wills mentions daughter Hannah as the wife of Andrew ALDIS. We can be reasonably certain, moreover, that Hannah had seven siblings: Rachel, Thomas, Joseph, Francis, Elizabeth, Sarah and Rebecca. Rachel married William SEAKINS and had four children. Joseph married Frances POWELL and had children between 1715 and 1725. Francis married Mary PETTIT with whom he had nine children; and he married for a second time Hannah SCIPPER who was the midwife mentioned in later Ellington births in 1749 and 1753. Elizabeth ELLINGTON married Edward PEACHEY, and had sons Benjamin and Joseph. Rebecca married Thomas PERRY. The only certainties to emerge from these details are that Andrew and Hannah were man and wife and that they had four surviving children by 1722. We can assume, I believe, that they married in the late summer of 1713 and that by 1731 Hannah was dead. Since they had six surviving children, their births span the period 1714 to 1731. We know that Joseph was the first born, and it seems probable that Daniel was their last child. Hannah is unlikely to have been born before 1690.