John Bracknell and Martha Welch married at All Saints, Odiham, in 1808 and their marriage anchors the main Bracknell line in this parish. Their lives and those of their eight children tie together many of the places, records and families explored in this study.
Households on the Map
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Early Married Life and Children
John and Martha’s first recorded child, Henry, was born on 4 May 1809, almost exactly nine months after their wedding, and baptised on 4 June 1809 in All Saints Church, Odiham. Henry was the eldest of eight children. In the baptism register his surname is first written as Brackwell, and then the “r” is overwritten with an “l”, resulting in the form Blackwell.
In 1811, John Brackwell, the second son of John and Martha, was baptised at Heckfield, a village about 12 km north of Odiham. By 1814, Martha’s sister Sarah and her husband William Vaus/Vass were also resident in the Heckfield and Mattingley area, suggesting that John and Martha’s time in Heckfield may have been linked to this wider Welch–Vass family network.
Parish register entries for John and Martha’s children trace the growth of the family and show how their surname and circumstances evolved over time. From 1813 onwards, parish registers also recorded the occupation and abode of the father. From Jane’s baptism in 1813 onwards, the entries consistently place the family at Lodge Farm near Odiham, and describe John as either a labourer or “suckler”, almost certainly in connection with pig‑rearing. These details show John and Martha in a stable agricultural household at Lodge Farm for more than a decade.
- 4 June 1809 Henry son of John & Martha BRACKWELL, Odiham
- 24 Feb 1811 John son of John & Martha BRACKWELL, Heckfield, Hampshire
- May 28, 1813, Jane dau John & Martha BRACHWELL, of Lodge, Lab
- Sep 17, 1816, Martha dau John & Martha BRACKWELL of Odiham Lodge, Lab
- Apr 23, 1819, Anne dau John & Martha BLACKWELL of Lodge Farm, Suckler
- Jun 1, 1821, William son John & Martha BRACKWELL of Lodge, Suckler
- Jul 28, 1823, James son John & Martha BRACKWELL of Lodge, Suckler
- Jun 25, 1825, George son John & Martha BRACKNELL of Lodge, Lab
Across these eight baptisms, the registers allow us to see the family’s surname and circumstances taking shape. In the early entries the name appears as Brackwell (or Brachwell), with occasional corrections to Blackwell, before finally settling as Bracknell in 1825 at the baptism of the youngest son, George. The surname given at the baptisms of John, Jane, Martha, William and James is generally Brackwell, but for Ann the same correction appears as for Henry, with Brackwell altered to Blackwell. The baptism of George on 25 June 1825 is the first where the surname appears as Bracknell without correction.
Legal Settlement and Removal
The parish records also hint at the precariousness that lay behind this apparent stability. In 1812, an order was issued “for the removal to Odiham of John Blackwell, his wife Martha and their sons Henry, aged 2, and John, aged 1, from the Hamlet of Frimley in the parish of Ash”, confirming that Odiham was judged to be their parish of legal settlement.
Under the Settlement Acts of 1697, families who could not prove a right of settlement in the parish where they were living could be sent back to their home parish if they became chargeable to the poor rates. The removal order shows John and Martha on the edge of poverty and mobility in the early 1810s—moving from Heckfield to Frimley and then compelled back to Odiham, before their longer‑term anchoring at Lodge Farm is reflected in the baptisms of their later children.
Later Life
The surviving records fall silent for John and Martha between the last baptism at Lodge Farm in 1825 and the 1841 census. By 1841 they appear at Hook Common near Odiham, recorded as John (70) and Martha (60) Bracknell, living with their married daughter Ann (now Ann Martin) and Ann’s infant daughter Martha Martin, then about seven months old.
John died in Odiham in 1845, his death attributed to “decay of nature”. In the Hampshire burial register for All Saints Parish, his surname is recorded as Bracknell and his age as 75. The informant, Sarah Englefield, is named in the death registration, but her relationship to the family has not yet been established.
After John’s death, Martha married widower William Sawyer (the surname rendered as Shoyer in the marriage registration) in Odiham in 1848. The couple continued to live in the parish for several years. A possible match appears in the 1851 census in Odiham, although Martha’s birthplace is given there as “Cheltenham, Gloucestershire”, which does not align with other evidence. By 1861, William and Martha Sawyer are enumerated together in The Bury, Odiham.
In February 1863 Martha died in York Town, Frimley, of heart failure. She was probably staying with her son John Bracknell at the time, and it was John’s wife, Sarah, who acted as informant for the death registration. Martha was buried at St Michael’s, Camberley. By 1871, William Sawyer had moved to Newnham; he died and was buried there in 1873.