10. William and Charlotte Little of Lambeth

The Little family name is probably a simple descriptive. Our family descended from Wiltshire, with five generations living around Corsham, Brinkworth nr Chippenham and Broad Hinton nr Swindon, with further connexions to Devizes, and Owlpen nr Dursley in Gloucestershire. A surprising local root close to my adopted home.

Broad Hinton church (my photo)

Before that, the family may have descended from Thomas Lettle of Looe, Cornwall (1590), and there appear to be other Cornish connexions. According to American researchers, Thomas Little (1700, Broad Hinton) emigrated to the USA and died in Delaware. Prior to that he married twice in Wiltshire and had three children. One of these was Burgess (1738, Broad Hinton) who moved to Battersea, South London and married Sarah Smith. One of their eleven children was William (1777).

The name Crocker is habitational and comes from one of several places in Normandy, France, called Crèvecoeur ('heartbreak'), a reference to the infertility and unproductiveness of the land. Our family may have come from Devon but Benjamin (1744) married Elizabeth Richardson in Southwark, South London, in 1769. Their daughter Charlotte was born in Holborn in 1770.

For the record, and with the usual cautions, my oldest direct ancestors we know about in this part of the family are: Thomas Lettle (1590), Priscilla Even (1590), Margery Jones (1621), Robert Sprye (1576), Jane Smith (1576), Tamzine Johnson (1625), Anthony Rogers (1650), Anne Wroughton (1650), Richard Fords (1672), Richard Holder (1658), and Sarah Smith (1740).

William and Charlotte married in St Martin-in-the-Fields in 1798. They subsequently lived in Lambeth, which was still in Surrey. Lambeth once belonged to the Archbishop of Canterbury, with LambethPalace prominent on the Thames. It had industrialised - for example Royal Doulton's main pottery was there for centuries. By the time our family arrived, the area had a rapidly rising population, many of whom were considerably poor. In response, the Lambeth Poor Law Parish was formed in 1835. My photos of Lambeth are here.

Church of St Martin in the Fields, Westminster (my photo)

The family's children were all born in Lambeth, and baptised at St Mary (where Admiral Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame is buried).

Church of St Mary, Lambeth (my photo)

• 37.2.1 Benjamin Little (1800)
• 37.2.2 William Burgess Little (1804)
• 37.2.3 Harriett Cassandra Little (1806)
• 37.2.4 Dinah Loveday Little (1808)
• 37.2.5 Thomas Little (1810)
• 37.2.6 Burgess Little (1812). Burgess died in 1813.
• 37.2.7 Sarah Hannah Little (1814)
• 37.2.8 Edward Little (1816)
• 37.2.9 Charlotte Little (1819)

More on these individuals in Chapter 37.

By 1841, they had moved to West Wickham nr Bromley, Kent, where William was a tailor. Charlotte died in 1844 and was buried at St Mary, Lambeth. William had retired by 1851, and he died in 1863, leaving up to £8000 in his will.

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