The Fraser Family Album

Parish marriage record of my great-great grandparents George Hatten and Elizabeth Buckle, Great Finborough, Suffolk, 24 May 1848

This page shows pictures of the Hatten and Cooper Families.

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 The purpose of this small web-site is to share the family pictures I've inherited myself or received from other members of my extended family. I still need information on many of the people pictured. For my complete family tree, see here.

Revised: 17 December, 2023

The earliest mention of the Hatten family in East Anglia I've found so far is that in 1637 Christopher Hatton/Hatten of Norwich, pot seller of earthen vessels, born in Bradish Norfolk, aged about 36 years, requested permission "to pass to Holland to buy commodities and return in a month". There is no such place as Bradish in Norfolk, but it's been suggested that the name of the village of Brockdish in South Norfolk (on the border with Suffolk) sounds like "Bradish" in Norfolk dialect. This Christopher may have been the grandfather of the Christopher Hatten who lived at Kirby Cane, near Beccles, and was born round 1700 - see below.

I am related to every Hatten in Suffolk and Norfolk in the 1881, 1901 and 1911 Censuses. All are descended from Christopher Hatten of Kirby Cane, near Beccles, and his wife Magdalen, who had two sons: Christopher (1725-1825) and William (1727-1804). I'm descended from William and his son William (1765-1835), as were Harold Blomfield Hatten, his brother Frederick Stanley Hatten and Frederick's granddaughter Eva Evdokimova, whose stories are told on these pages. Christopher, born around 1700, may have been the son of the Rev. William Hatten. The Poppy family below are descended from Christopher, who lived to 100 years and 10 months! Harold and Frederick's father George Nelson Hatten (1839-95) was the great-grandson of William Hatten (1727-1804). There is no-one with the surname Nelson in the Hatten family tree, but the younger brother of George's father Robert Hayward Hatten (1796-1873), was Nelson Hatten born 1798 - they were both elder brothers of my great-great grandfather George Hatten. We can only assume their father William Hatten (1765-1835) was an admirer of Admiral Horatio Nelson!

Descendants of Christopher Hatten (1725-1825)

The Poppy family detailed at the end of this page are descended from Christopher Hatten (1725-1825), who lived to 100 years and 10 months! He was the elder brother of my ancestor William Hatten (1727-1804), the father of William Hatten (1766-1835).

Willam Hatten (1727-1804)

William married Elizabeth Boult in 1764. I only have details of his son William born in 1766, and Robert (1771-71) although they may have had more children.

Thanks to Christopher John Hatten, son of John David Hatten and Emily Jean Motyer (see "The Family of Robert Charles Hatten" here) for information from the British Newspaper Archive that this William Hatten was one of the 840 local notables and merchants who signed the following petition to King George III, reported in the "Ipswich Journal", Sat 9 Dec 1775:

To the KING’s Most Excellent MAJESTY.

The Humble Address and Petition of the Merchants and Inhabitants of the Borough of Great Yarmouth, in the County of Norfolk, whose Names are hereunto subscribed.

Most Gracious Sovereign,

At this alarming crisis when many of your Majesty’s subjects come with address to offer their sentiments with respect to the unhappy differences with our fellow subjects in America, we should think we failed in our duty to your Majesty, our country and ourselves, did we by concealing ours, tacitly admit them to be what they are not.

Permit us Sire, to approach your throne with hearts full of gratitude for the many blessings the subject enjoys under your Majesty’s government in Great Britain.

At the same time we lament the evils that threaten this kingdom from the present measures taken with the Americans, should the extensive British settlements in North America be compelled by force to submit to claims which they appear united to oppose, we fear the many scenes of bloodshed which must precede that event (if ever it should take place) will totally alienate the minds of our fellow subjects there; and that this kingdom will not for a long continuance enjoy the advantages arising from those establishments, which a reconciliation will most likely to render durable.

We therefore most humbly beseech your Majesty to lend an ear to petitions for peace; and instead of coercive measures, to adopt such gentle means as may bring about a reconciliation with America. Happy shall we be to see all parts of the British empire vie with each other in strengthening union between them, and enjoy the advantages of a mutual increasing commerce, its grand support.

Sadly this very reasonable petition (and perhaps many similar from round the country) was totally ignored, with disastrous consequences!

Descendants of William Hatten (1766-1835)

[Family of William Green Hatten and Sarah Anne Turner Day] [Family of George Nelson Hatten and Harriet Griffin Blomfield] [Family of Robert Charles Hatten and Mary Nunn Bishop] [Family of Rev. Charles William Hatten and Rozalie Jane Palmer de Verinne] [Cooper Family]

The family of William Green Hatten and Sarah Anne Turner Day

William Green Hatten (1828-74), the son of Robert Hayward Hatten and his first wife Mary Green, married Sarah Anne Turner Day (1832-1919) at Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk, in 1862. They had six children: Ellen Sarah (1855-1940); Mary Emilia (1857-1937); Alice Maria (1860-1947); Elizabeth Day (1862-1940); Robert (born 1865) and Minnie Emmaretta (1866-1951). Their family details are now here.

The family of George Hatten and Elizabeth Sharman Buckle

My great-great grandfather George Hatten (1802-78) was born in Great Finborough, Suffolk, son of William Hatten (1765-1835) and Ann Hayward (1768-1841). The Haywards were also a prominent family in the area, and Ann's heritage can be traced back to John Hayward, born around 1540 in Seething near Norwich, and whose parents were possibly Rowland Hayward, born in 1518 in Bracondale near Norwich and his wife Joan Pilsworth born in Bracondale in 1522. George married Elizabeth Sharman Buckle (1811-91), also of Great Finborough, in 1848, and had five children: Thomas Buckle Hatten (1841-1925), William Hatten (1844-1907), Ann Hatten (1847-49), George Hatten (1854-1929) and Ann Hatten (born 1857). My great-grandfather William Hatten married Esther Cooper in Ringshall. Suffolk, in 1874 - for my Hatten photographs see below, for the Cooper Family Album see here.

Thomas Buckle Hatten born 1841 married Laura Isabella Burr in 1864 and had two daughters: Laura Elizabeth Hatten (1865) and Annie Hatten (1867). Laura died in 1875, aged 34, and Thomas married Harriet Louisa Gibbons in 1876. They had one daughter, Gertrude Gibbons Hatten (1878). Laura Elizabeth married Alfred Alexander Gibbons (a relative of her stepmother) in 1888 and had five children: Stanley Alexander (1890-1962), Frank Leslie (1891-1973), Kathleen Elizabeth (1892-1965), Margaret Eveline (1893-1949) and Alfred Arnold (1896-1980). Stanley Alexander Gibbons joined the Royal Sussex Regiment [8th Battalion] in 1914, and was gazetted as temporary 2nd Lt., Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) on 22 Sep 1915, but was wounded on 24 Sep 1915. His commission was cancelled and a question was asked in the House of Commons by Sir Daniel Ford Goddard (MP for Ipswich from 1895-1918) on 22 Jun 1916, the reply from the Minister of War being that the commission was cancelled because Stanley had been unable to take it up. Laura Hatten's younger sister Annie sadly died in 1884, aged 17. Her half-sister Gertrude Gibbons Hatten married George Augustus Burck in 1897, but no children are listed for George and Gertrude in 1901 or 1911, and George died in 1916. In 1919 and 1920 Gertrude Gibbons Burck was living in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. I have no information about their further lives or photos of this branch of the Hatten family.

The nine children of William Hatten and Esther Cooper were Lillian Esther Hatten (1875), George Cooper Hatten (1876), Ernest William Hatten (1878), Mabel Elizabeth Hatten (1880), Ethel Florence Hatten (1881), Dora Annie Hatten (1886), Francis Jonathan Hatten (1889), Olive May Hatten (1891) and Stanley John Hatten (1896). My grandmother Mabel Elizabeth Hatten was born in Haughley, Suffolk, in 1880. She married William Hughes in 1905 in Nayland, Suffolk, and died in Ipswich, Suffolk, on 24 Mar 1950. For their photos, see below. In 1881 William Hatten was a wealthy farmer, but like several other Hatten family members on this page, he was greatly affected by the Great Agricultural Depression in the late 1800s. By 1891 William was a licensed hawker living in Nayland, Suffolk, after having spent time in Norwich, Norfolk (my great aunt Dora Annie Hatten was born there in 1886) and Lexden, Essex (my great uncle Francis Jonathan Hatten was born there in 1889). Their first five children were born in Haughley and the last two in Nayland.

George Hatten born in Great Finborough in 1854 married Sarah Louisa Howe in 1876, but they divorced in 1882. Divorces were very uncommon in those days! In her divorce petition (found for me on Ancestry by Anne Callanan) Sarah not only accused George of physical and verbal abuse, but also claimed that he had repeatedly committed adultery with a servant, Mary Ann Grimwood, who had given birth to a child fathered by George on 13 Apr 1878. No affiliation proceedings were brought because George gave Mary Ann £25 to prevent her doing so. Sarah herself had given birth to a daughter, Agnes Ellen Louisa Hatten, in 1877, but she sadly died in July 1878, which must have made the birth of Mary Ann’s child even more galling. Surprisingly, my grandmother's sister Lillian Esther Hatten, aged 6 (see below), was living with George and Sarah on their Great Finborough farm in 1881, three years after this incident, not a suitable environment for a child I would have thought.

"Chronicles of Ringshall" by Maureen June Wills (Lever Press Ltd., 2000)	George Grimwood from "Chronicles of Ringshall"	George Grimwood from "Chronicles of Ringshall" (he actually died in 1966)	Ringshall Chapel Sunday School 1941 with George Grimwood from "Chronicles of Ringshall"	Ringshall Chapel Sunday School 1943 with George Grimwood from "Chronicles of Ringshall"
George Grimwood at the Ringshall Coronation Celebration, 1953, from "Chronicles of Ringshall"		As Mary Ann’s child was not named in the documents, finding him or her was a challenge, as there were around ten Grimwoods born in Suffolk in June quarter 1878. I posed the question on the Suffolk Surname List on Facebook, and was recommended to look at the Grimwood/Grimwade One Name Study web-site, run by Maggie Driver. Maggie found him in five minutes, George Grimwood, born in Ringshall, Suffolk, on 13 Apr 1878. George lived in Ringshall for almost all of his life, found with his grandparents in 1881 and 1891, and with his grandmother alone in 1901 and 1911. He appears several times in a book called "Chronicles of Ringshall" compiled and edited by Maureen June Wills, and was nicknamed "Hatten", which shows his parentage was common knowledge in Ringshall, despite his father George Hatten having paid £25 to Mary Ann Grimwood to keep it a secret. George Grimwood was an agricultural labourer, and in later life a respected senior member of the Ringshall Free Chapel. He ran the Free Chapel Sunday School with a Miss Barbara Goodchild.

George died on 4 Apr 1966, only nine days short of his 88th birthday. There is no evidence that he ever married, so I have no new living relatives to seek out! (George was the first cousin of my grandmother Mabel Elizabeth Hatten and her siblings, but I doubt they ever knew of him, even though their mother, my great-grandmother Esther Cooper, had her family home at Charles Hall, Ringshall.)

Mary Ann herself was born in Battisford, Suffolk, in 1869, daughter of Robert Grimwood and Elizabeth Mudd, who are incorrectly shown as George’s parents on one Internet site, and with whom George was living in 1881 and 1891. She married Walter Garrod, son of David Garrod and Mary Squirrell, on 30 Nov 1883, in Ringshall, Suffolk, and gave birth to a daughter Florence Mary Garrod, in 1884 (George Grimwood's second half-sister). Florence married Arthur Herbert Caley in 1904 and the couple had seven children between 1905 and 1920, George's nieces and nephews.

Sarah Louisa Howe was a young woman who certainly did not deserve the treatment meted out to her by George Hatten (nor does any woman, of course). She was born in Alpheton, Suffolk, in 1857, daughter of farmer Samuel Howe and Emma Leech (also spelled Leach), who married in 1855. However, by 1861 Emma was a widow, and Sarah aged three was living at Bricett Hall, Great Bricett, Suffolk, with her mother, elder brother William Samuel, aged five, and her grandparents William and Martha Leech. Her mother Emma also died in Mar 1864 at the age of only 32. In 1871 orphan Sarah aged thirteen was separated from her family, a pupil at a boarding school in Berners Street, St. Matthew’s, Ipswich, Suffolk (her grandmother Martha had died in 1869, while her grandfather William died in 1880), and in 1876 she married George Hatten at the age of 19 in Great Finborough. After all the events described above, Sarah left the family farm on 7 Jan 1882, moving back to Great Bricett, and was granted a decree nisi by Sir James Hannen (a famous divorce judge known to the Victorians as "The Great Unmarrier") at the High Court in London on 14 Dec 1882, while still only 25.

Sarah reverted back to her maiden name of Sarah Louisa Howe and married another farmer, Arthur Edward Gowing, at Linton Register Office, Cambridgeshire, on 29 Nov 1884, but that marriage too failed! In 1891 she was living separately from Arthur in Hove, Sussex, in reduced circumstances working as a general servant at the home of Charles and Rachel Nye. In 1896 Sarah went through her second divorce! Arthur Edward Gowing divorced her because of her adultery, and she married Arthur Henry Adames in Hove in late 1896, this time using the name Sarah Louisa Gowing. A son, also Arthur Henry Adames, had been born in Ipswich in 1895. In 1901 and 1911, Sarah Louisa Adames was living with her husband and son in Hove, her birthplace correctly listed as Alpheton, Suffolk. Her son Arthur Henry Adames Jr. married Sylvia R. Goddard in Hove in 1917, and her granddaughter Marjorie S. Adames was born in Hove in 1920, followed by a grandson Arthur R. Adames born in Prescot, Lancs, in 1928. Sarah L. Adames died in West Derby, Liverpool, in 1933, which means the whole family must have moved to Lancashire in the 1920s. In 1939 Arthur Henry Adames Sr. was a widower living with his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren at 23 Albert Road, Crosby, Lancashire. He died in Crosby in 1943, and Arthur Henry Adames Jr. died in Liverpool in 1959. Marjorie Adames married Francis L. Robinson in Crosby in 1941 and they had four children, Sarah's great-grandchildren, all born in Crosby: David L. (1942), Doreen J. (1947), Rita M. (1949) and Susan A. (1954). Sarah's grandson Arthur R. Adames married Shirley T. Neary in Crosby in 1952, but I can't find a record of any children.

Sarah's second ex-husband Arthur Edward Gowing married his first cousin Harriet Rachel Wilden in 1908, and was living with her in Great Bricett in 1911. Arthur died in Ipswich aged 87 in 1947.

Going back to George, after Agnes Hatten and George Grimwood, he had three further children, as I discovered before I knew George Hatten and Sarah had divorced: Honoria Daisy Hatten (born Ipswich, 1890), Benjamin George Hatten (born Hackney, London, 1898) and Arthur William Hatten (born Hackney, London, 1900).

The birth of Honoria Daisy Hatten at 19 Portman Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, on 16 Jan 1890, informant Lizzie Mather Hatten, formerly Last, of Great Finborough.

Honoria Daisy Hatten was born in Portman Road, Ipswich in Jan 1890, father George Hatten, farmer and landowner, and her mother was listed as Lizzie Mather Hatten, formerly Last, of Great Finborough. However, on the 1891 Census Honoria was being fostered in Bury St. Edmunds at the home of Edward Alfred and Jane Mary Rands in Hatter Street, while George was still living on his farm in Great Finborough with his "housekeeper", the same Elizabeth Mather Last, born Hadleigh, 1856. At some stage in the 1890s George left the farm and moved to London, where he became a bus driver, a vast step down for a former farmer and landowner. He finally married Elizabeth in Hackney, London, in 1899 (after the birth of Benjamin George), and on the 1901 Census in West Ham and the 1911 Census in Wandsworth, George's wife is indeed listed as Elizabeth (on both Censuses Honoria Daisy, now living with them, is listed as just "Daisy"). In 1911 George had become a gardener! George Hatten died in Wandsworth in 1929, but Daisy Hatten had previously died in St. Pancras, London, in 1924, aged only 33. Elizabeth Hatten died in Chelsea, London, in 1938. Her sons had longer lives - Benjamin George, listed as George Benjamin, died in New Forest, Hampshire, in 1996 aged 98, while Arthur William died in Watford, Hertfordshire, in 1969 aged 69. A George Benjamin Hatten married Irene Grove in Wandsworth in 1921. They had two children, Rose M Hatten born in Wandsworth on 1922, and George S Hatten, born in Chertsey, Surrey, in 1924. Rose M Hatten married Boleslav R Roganowicz in Hendon, Middlesex, in 1948, but I can't find any further information about them, or any evidence that Arthur or George S Hatten ever married.

Again, apart from the photos of George Grimwood from "Chronicles of Ringshall" kindly supplied by Maggie Driver, I have no photos of this branch of the Hatten family. This story is the subject of an article by me in "Who Do You Think You Are?" magazine, June 2016.

I have no information about what happened to the second Ann Hatten born 1857, but an Ann Hatten's death was registered in the Stowmarket district in Mar quarter 1859 - that may have been her. If so, like her elder sister of the same name, she sadly died in infancy.

My Hatten Photographs

The family of William Hatten and Esther Cooper

Elizabeth Buckle (1811-91), wife of George and mother of William Hatten. Children: Thomas Buckle (1841-?), William (1844-1907), Ann (1847-49), George (1854-1929), Ann (1857-59?)	William Hatten (1844-1907), married Esther Cooper in 1874	Esther Cooper (1856-1941), married William Hatten in 1874 - for her Cooper family photos see here	Lillian Esther Hatten (1875-1927?) - she married Sydney Ernest King in 1907 and emigrated to Western Australia in 1912. Children: Ernest William (1909), Barbara Esther (1910), Arthur Eric (1911) A Lillian E King who died in Perth, WA, 1927, may have been her Lillian was living with her uncle George Hatten and his wife Sarah in Great Finborough in 1881, see above	Ernest William Hatten (1878-1935) - he married Mabel May Oakes (1885-1951) in 1906. Children: Hilda Janet (1907-87), Vera Grace (1910-58, mother of Sheila Waterfield), Leslie (1920-96)	Mabel Elizabeth Hatten (1880-1950) - she married William Hughes in 1905. Children: Cyril William (1905-86), Marjorie Mabel (1906-91), Mildred Elsie (1909-2007), William Charles (1912-45)
Ethel Florence Hatten (1881-1968) - never married	Dora Annie Hatten (1886-1973) - never married Also George Cooper Hatten (1876-1938) - never married; Francis Jonathan Hatten (1889-1953) - never married (no photos of either)	Dora Hatten, Nayland, Suffolk, 1950	Olive May Hatten (1891-1971) - never married, lived in Swanage, Dorset	Olive Hatten's home at 4 Grosvenor Road, Swanage, Dorset, 1979	Stanley John Hatten (1896-1977) - he married Elsie Chapman in Ipswich in 1920. Children: Ernest William (1920-2016), Barbara (1923-2009), Gordon (1925-67)
Hattens, Nayland, Suffolk, about 1933: back row - Elsie Hughes, Gladys Hatten (daughter of Ethel), Ethel Hatten, Mabel Hughes née Hatten; front row - Marjorie Hughes, Barbara Hatten		Hattens, Nayland, Suffolk, about 1933: back row - Elsie Hughes, Barbara Hatten, Mabel Hughes née Hatten; Stanley Hatten, Elsie Hatten née Chapman, front row - Gordon Hatten		Marjorie Hughes and Olive Hatten, Swanage, Dorset, 1930s
Hattens, Swanage, Dorset, about 1950: Marjorie Fraser née Hughes, Vera Grace Sadler née Hatten (1910-58), Carolyn Sadler (born 1944), Olive Hatten, Sheila Sadler (born 1935, now Waterfield)		Hattens, Swanage, Dorset, about 1950: Vera Grace Sadler, Marjorie Fraser, Carolyn Sadler, Sheila Sadler		Hattens, Swanage, Dorset, about 1950: Vera Grace Sadler, Marjorie Fraser, Carolyn Sadler, Sheila Sadler
Dora Hatten with Marjorie Fraser née Hughes, Jaywick, Essex, mid 1960s		Dora Hatten with Marjorie Fraser née Hughes and Elsie Hughes, Jaywick, Essex, mid 1960s		Dora Hatten with Marjorie Fraser née Hughes and Elsie Hughes, Jaywick, Essex, mid 1960s
Dora Hatten with Marjorie Fraser née Hughes and Elsie Hughes, Jaywick, Essex, mid 1960s		Dora Hatten with Marjorie Fraser née Hughes and Elsie Hughes, Jaywick, Essex, mid 1960s		Dora Hatten with Marjorie Fraser née Hughes and Elsie Hughes, Jaywick, Essex, mid 1960s
St. James' Church, Nayland, Suffolk, photographed in Sep 2016 My branch of the Hatten family moved here between 1889 and 1891		The Village Stores, Bear Street, Nayland, Suffolk, photographed in Sep 2016 (closed in 2017) This building formerly housed The Compasses Inn, bought by Stanley John Hatten in 1918, so the shop would have celebrated its 100th Anniversary in Oct 2018/		As an interesting aside, the Hatten family of Great Finborough owned the "Coach and Horses" pub, 3 Station Road West, Stowmarket, which was used as an ale house from 1866. They leased it to various breweries including W.G. Ranson's Stowmarket Brewery and later Morgans Norwich Brewery. For more information, see here
The page from "1918 Remembered", a book by Mary George about Nayland at the end of World War 1, lists the sale of the Nayland Brewery and all its premises in Oct 1918. Among the unlicensed premises sold for other purposes is The Compasses, Nayland, bought by the Hatten family (misspelled as "Hatton" in the caption).		Page from "1918 Remembered"		Nayland School, 1929, with Ernest William Hatten (1920-2016) seated at front row left Photo from "Nayland & Wiston 1860s-1950s: A Portrait in Photographs" compiled by Wendy Sparrow and Andora Carver

The Oakes Family Connection

In December 2016 I discovered the connection between the Oakes family of Mabel May Oakes (1885-1951) who married Ernest William Hatten in 1906, and the family of my great-great-great grandfather Philip Baalham, see the Hughes page. Nicola Clapp, who sadly died in Sept 2019, gave me much information about the Oakes family a few years ago and was the 3x great-granddaughter of Robert Flack Oakes and Eliza King. What I didn't know then because I didn't have access to censuses earlier than 1881 was that Eliza born in 1853 was the daughter of Edward King and Ann Baalham, sister of my great-great-grandmother Jane Baalham. Eliza was a witness at the wedding of my great-grandfather Philip Hughes to Eliza Vine at St. James' Church, Nayland, on 27 Oct 1876, but I didn't know then she was his first cousin. I also now know she was the first cousin to Eliza Vine born Eliza Vince and daughter of her aunt Sarah King! So, at that 1876 wedding both the bride and groom were her first cousins, even though they weren't related to each other! (This is quite normal - my Fraser first cousins and my Hughes first cousins are completely unrelated, although in this case both Suffolk families lived in the same village. For a family tree explaining the connections, see the Hughes page.) In the latter half of the 19th Century, the Oakes, Hughes and Hatten families all lived in Fen Street, Nayland. Mabel May Oakes born 1885 was the daughter of George Flack Oakes and Louisa Guyes, George being the son of Robert's elder brother John Flack Oakes and Louisa Coker.

John (born 1840) and Robert (born 1845) were the sons of Nathaniel Oakes (1808-80) and Rebecca Flack (1810-96). Nathaniel and Rebecca had four children: Nathaniel Oakes Jr. (1836), John Flack Oakes (1840), Robert Flack Oakes (1845) and Eliza (1852). Nathaniel and his three sons were all bricklayers. Nathaniel Oakes Jr. married Harriet before 1861, but I cannot find their marriage online. In 1861 he was also living in Fen Street, Nayland, with Harriet. I can't find him in 1871, but in 1881 he was living in Newland Lane, Nayland, aged 40, with new wife Susannah (26) and sons Nathaniel (5), Charles (3) and Robert (1). John Flack Oakes married Louisa Coker, daughter of Ambrose Garbland and Frances Coker, in 1861. They had children Louisa (1862), George (1863 - father of Mabel May Oakes), Emily J (1865), William (1868), Alfred (1870), Amelia (1872), John (1877), Annie (1880) and Bertha A (1886).

Members of the Oakes family in Nayland, Suffolk, 1933 - Arthur Robert Oakes (1890-1945), Nina Oakes née Mecca (1896-1978), Hilda Oakes (born 1921) and Mabel May Hatten née Oakes (1885-1951), wife of Ernest William Hatten

Robert Flack Oakes married Eliza King in 1871 and they had a son Arthur Robert Oakes born 1890. Private Arthur Robert Oakes served in the Royal Lancaster Regiment from 1908-24. Lieutenant Arthur Robert Oakes of the Indian Army Corps of Clerks aged 54 died on 31 May 1944 and is buried in the Delhi War Cemetery. Nicola Clapp, Arthur's great-granddaughter, tells the story "Robert Oakes lived in Nayland with his wife Eliza King. He was a man who loved the countryside. He used to spend hours walking in the countryside loving nature. He had an allotment and he loved to grow vegetables. He was a great lover of birds – robins, bluetits etc and spent time talking to them, singing to them and I believe reading poetry to them! Robert had a son called Arthur. Arthur came late in life when Eliza was in her 40s. He was their only child. But Nayland had nothing to offer Arthur. They were all so poor, there were no jobs and no prospects for Arthur and he had a terrible chest. He suffered with asthma and hay fever through living in the countryside which made him very ill, so he packed his bags and joined the Army where he was sent to India. He had perfect health in India because the climate suited him very well. As he grew older he had a desk job but spending so many hours at his desk in the Indian Army Corps of Clerks and not doing any sort of exercise brought on heart disease and he died in 1944 from a heart attack. He is buried in Delhi. Arthur was married to Nina Oakes née Mecca. She met him in Egypt in 1920 when he was visiting Alexandria and they married. She was from an Italian family and after they married had a daughter by the name of Hilda and moved to India for his job. Hilda Oakes married George Roberts, a Welsh soldier from Treharris, mid-Glamorgan, who like Arthur had joined the army to find an occupation, and ended up in India."

Arthur Robert Oakes (1890-1944)

Up to Jan 2017 I didn't know I was related to Nicola, but her mother Patricia is my fourth cousin! Sadly Nicola died in Nov 2019.

Eliza Oakes born 1852 died in 1917 aged 65 and did not marry. In 1884 George Flack Oakes (1863-1938) son of John Flack Oates and Louisa Coker married Louisa Guyes born in 1859 in Marnhull in Dorset and they had two daughters: Mabel May Oakes (1885-1951) who married my great-uncle Ernest William Hatten and was the grandmother of Sheila Waterfield, and Amy Gertrude Oakes born 1887. On 5 Aug 1907 Amy Oakes was a witness to the wedding at Nayland Congregational Church of my great-aunt Lilian Esther Hatten and Sidney Ernest King. She married William H Snell in 1911 and in 1939 was living in Ipswich, Suffolk with her husband and her widowed mother Louisa, who died in Ipswich in 1951 aged 92. Amy preceded her, dying in Ipswich in 1928 aged 60.

Other Hatten Photographs

I am related to every Hatten in Suffolk and Norfolk in the 1881, 1901 and 1911 Censuses. All are descended from Christopher Hatten of Kirby Cane, near Beccles, and his wife Magdalen, both born around 1700, see above.

The Family Of George Nelson Hatten

The Family Of Charles William Hatten

My maternal grandmother, Mabel Elizabeth Hatten (1880-1950) was born in Haughley in Suffolk in what was then a wealthy farming family. Her father was William Hatten of Great Finborough (1844-1907), and his cousin, Charles William Hatten (1838-1918), also born in Great Finborough, was a Church of England vicar who spent time in India in the 1860s and married there.

The Rev. Charles William Hatten, MA (Cantab), born in 1838,  was the son of Charles Hatten (1805-64) and Caroline Matilda Baker (1811-69). The elder Charles was the younger brother of William Hatten’s father George Hatten (1802-78), my great-great grandfather. Full details of his family are now here.

The Family of Robert Charles Hatten

The family of Robert Charles Hatten, Suffolk, 1914, with
(back row): Charles Febery (the photographer below), Anna Sibley Febery née Hatten, Robert Samuel Hatten holding Marion Lucy Hatten, Mary Theresa Hatten née Tustain, Mary Bishop Hatten, Lucy Harriet Hatten; Sarah Elizabeth Hatten née Guy, William Joseph Hatten, Helen Elizabeth Hatten;
(front row): Charles William Guy Hatten (Bill), Mary Nunn Hatten née Bishop, Robert Joseph Bishop Hatten

Robert Charles Hatten (1834-71) was the eldest son of Robert Hayward Hatten and the eldest brother of George Nelson Hatten above. Like them he was a farmer and lived at Thelnetham, Suffolk. Thelnetham was the home village of Edmund Gonville who in 1348 founded Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, the same college where Charles William Hatten above was a scholar over the period 1857-65. Robert Charles married Mary Nunn Bishop in Wattisham in 1860. Full details of his family are here.

The Poppy Family

The Poppy family are descended from Christopher Hatten (1725-1825), who lived to 100 years and 10 months! He was the elder brother of my ancestor William Hatten (1727-1804).

William Hatten Poppy (1856-1898), son of Thomas Poppy and Emma Hatten (daughter of William Hatten and Emily Edwards Wright) William married Mary Elizabeth Nash in 1885, daughters Alice Poppy (1888-88) and Rose Poppy (1890-)	Poppy Family, Homersfield, Suffolk, ca 1897 Thomas Poppy in centre, a widower because Emma Poppy née Hatten died in 1885, William Hatten Poppy who died in Jan 1898 is top right Grandson at front is George Kilbourn Poppy (1889-1955)	Wedding of Emma Sarah Poppy to Robert Johnson, Heath Farm, Homersfield, Suffolk, late 1901 (originally owned by William Hatten and Emily Edwards Wright, parents of Emma Poppy née Hatten)		George Bryant Poppy (1862-1942), son of Thomas Poppy and Emma Hatten George married Elizabeth Mary Kilbourn in 1885, son George Kilbourn Poppy in group photo above
Amelia Poppy (1871-1955) and Emma Sarah Poppy (1866-1950), daughters of Thomas Poppy and Emma Hatten, around 1892	Wedding of Ernest Frederick Poppy to Norah Amelia Creasy, Eye, Suffolk, 1906	Wedding of Grace North Creasy, sister of Norah Amelia Poppy née Creasy, to Eric Devereux in 1908		Ernest Frederick Poppy (1875-1939), son of Thomas Poppy and Emma Hatten, with wife Norah Amelia Creasy, 1906 (grandparents of Diane Poppy)
Ernest Frederick Poppy (1875-1939), son of Thomas Poppy and Emma Hatten, with children, 1912 (Norah died in 1911)	Wedding of Florence Amelia Poppy, daughter of Ernest Frederick Poppy and Norah Amelia Creasy, to Sydney Dennis Dingley in 1934 (Dennis Dingley was a Major in the 45th Heavy Artillery in World War II and fought with General Orde Wingate's Chindits in Burma)	Ernest Frederick Poppy (1875-1939), son of Thomas Poppy and Emma Hatten, 1935

Emma Hatten (1836-85) was the great-granddaughter of Christopher Hatten. In 1854 she married farmer Thomas Poppy (1825-1902). They had 14 children, only five of whom survived Thomas Poppy. The children of Ernest Frederick Poppy on right (left to right) are Florence Amelia (1908-2001), Frederick George (1910-2000, father of Diane Poppy) and Kathleen Nora (1907-1996). Ernest Poppy later married Sebra Annis White (1875-1930) in 1915.

[Family of William Green Hatten and Sarah Anne Turner Day] [Family of George Nelson Hatten and Harriet Griffin Blomfield] [Family of Robert Charles Hatten and Mary Nunn Bishop] [Family of Rev. Charles William Hatten and Rozalie Jane Palmer de Verinne]

The Cooper Family

Thanks to Patricia Helen Bridges, Anne Callanan, Helen Catchpole, Anthony Creasy, Gary Antoine DeBeaubien, Maggie Driver, Patricia FitzSimmons, Brian Gudgeon, Chris Hatten, Beverley Hitchcock, Charlotte Hoare, Elsie Hughes, David Alan Jones, Jim Kimpton, Roz King, Dr. Annemarie Kleinert, Ray Long, Phil May, Denise Santini Meinardus, Diane Poppy, John Stewart Richards, Ianthe Roper, Gail Sherratt, Sarah Talmage, Sheila Waterfield and Angela Watts for information and photographs. Copyrighted photos are included in accordance with the principle of "fair use" for non-commercial purposes.

 For my complete family tree, see here.

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If you have any more information or pictures to share please contact me: alanfraser87@gmail.com. You will be credited for every picture included.