baker and yates family history: December 2009

I recently came across a post card which was sent to Ron and Bib from their parents when they were staying with their grandparents - it very sweet - it reads :

Dear Ronnie
I wonder how you boys are getting on now ? Hope you are good and not cheeky and do as Grandma tells you. We feel so lost without you both, and how is dicky does he want to come home ?

We went to Morley on Sunday and .... has come back with us for a few days. If there had been a bus from Morley to Spondon we should have called to see you. Both of you wear your jerseys when it is cold. Hoping you are both A 1 and all at Grandma's. Love from Dad amd Mam. Let us know when you are coming home.

postcard addressed to Master R Baker c/o Mrs Yates 'Field House' Spondon Derby.

HAMLET YATES and his two wives each side of him are buried in Brailsford church yard - you can find the graves if you enter the churchyard from the car park and through a little side gate. The graves are situated just inside to the left, there are quite a number of Yates' buried in this church yard.

I called in recently when I had to go to Ashbourne with work and copied what was written on the gravestones.

The middle one HAMLET YATES (my great great grandfather) reads :

Hamlet Yates

of Brailsford Old Park

Who died 7th July 1871

aged 70

Also Sarah Ann Yates

daughter of Hamlet and Sarah

died March 30th 1872

aged 25

His first wife was Sarah

Life how short - eternity how long

Sacred

to the memory of

Sarah wife of Hamlet Yates

of Brailsford Old Park

and daughter of William and Sarah Allen

in the parish of Muggington

Departed this life 8th May 1854

in the 35th year of her age

my griefs remain but thine are ore

my loss thy endless gain shall be

I weep but tho canst weep no more

I still am bound but tho my wife art free

His second wife was Mary Millington (mother of Ernest Yates and my great great Grandmother) She married Hamlet when she was 20 years old and he was 53 ! On the marriage certificate it states him as 'full age' ! They got married in 1857, 3 years after the death of his first wife. I have been told Mary was a school teacher and wonder if she taught any of his children. They were married about 14 years when he died. Mary then continued to farm at Brailsford for many years. (Cuscas Farm)

Mary

beloved wife of the late

Hamlet Yates

died June 9th 1925

aged 87

I would like to find out more about Brailsford Old Park where they farmed (about 230 acres and 4 labourers) and Cuscas farm (see previous photo's - it is on Cuscas Lane in Brailsford)

Also how Sarah his first wife died and following the Millington family line of Mary Millington (on Hamlet and Mary's marriage certificate her father William Millington was recorded as a labourer and she was from Kniveton, Derbyshire)

Hamlet had about 15 children between his two wives !