Bloxham Family

BLOXHAM family of Warmington

Bloxham was a fairly common name in the Banbury area, because the early bearers of the name originated in Bloxham, a village only a few miles south of the market town.

The Bloxham family in Warmington traced its descent from William BLOXHAM who had children Ann and Thomas baptised in Warmington parish church in 1799 and 1801. His older children had been baptised at Yelvertoft (Northants.) and Burton Dassett (Warwickshire). William’s wife was Mary YERROW, daughter of William YERROW of Burton Dassett, and the young couple christened their first son John Yerrow BLOXHAM.

After fifteen years or so of married life, William BLOXHAM died, leaving Mary with a young family. In 1803 she married James HOWE, described as “mealman” of Warmington. Her father bequeathed Warmington windmill to her, with half an acre of land, and she probably ran the mill, on the top of Windmill Hill, with the help of her BLOXHAM children for she was described as “miller” in various documents.

Mary died in 1836, leaving the property to her eldest son, John Yerrow BLOXHAM, who sold it two years later. John had married Mary CLIFTON at Burton Dassett in 1813, and the couple had ten or more children, some baptised in Warmington and some in neighbouring Radway. John was variously described as farmer and pig dealer of Arlescote, hamlet of Warmington.

One of John and Mary’s younger children was Noah, and it was from him that later generations of Warmington BLOXHAMs descended. Noah was baptised in Radway in 1833, when he was about six years old. When he was twenty, Noah married Hannah KING, a girl from Whitfield, Northants. The couple had a large family:-

William born 1847 but died in infancy;

Edmund born 1849;

Ellen born 1851 who died a toddler;

George born 1855 who married Ann MULLIS;

William born 1858 who died in Warmington in 1927;

Emily Ellen born 1861;

Walter born 1863 who moved to Sidcup in Kent where he was a coachman, but married a Warmington woman, Emma COGGINS;

Owen born 1866 (see below);

John Arthur born 1870.

Most of these BLOXHAM men were agricultural labourers, no fewer than six BLOXHAMS during the 1880s working on George STRANKS’ farm.

Noah BLOXHAM lived his long life in Warmington, dying at the age of 84 in 1907, his wife Hannah having died a year earlier. Their son Owen attended the brand-new Board School on Church Hill for a few years before he started work at fourteen. In 1892 Owen married Lydia JACKSON and the couple had ten children:-

Amy Elizabeth who married Rowland BOULTER in 1923;

Harry and Charlie (twins) born in 1895. Charlie married Ivy K BURDEN in 1928 and they had a daughter Gillia;.

Ada May born in 1897 married Thomas Howard SECCULL in 1927;

Ted born 1900 died a year later;.

Polly Alice born 1902 married 1930 Maurice Herbert GRAN;T

Emily Kate born 1905 married 1930 Sidney John ROS;E

Arthur born 1908;

Ethel Sarah (known as Sally) born 1910, married Alfred John WATTS in 1935;.

Jean was born in 1913 and in 1937 married Edgar George CROCKER.

And where in the village did the BLOXHAMs live? For many years Owen and Lydia lived in a cottage belonging to the STRANKS family next to The Plough. Owen died in 1938, while Lydia lived on till 1950. In 1939 she was living in a cottage in Keys Lane with her son Arthur. In that year another of her sons, Charlie, was living with his wife Ivy in a cottage on the Green. When Southam Rural District Council built new houses in Court Close, Charlie and Ivy were the first tenants of No. 3.

Charlie BLOXHAM was buried in Warmington churchyard on 30 November 1966 aged 71. His widow Ivy Kathleen BLOXHAM was buried on 18th January 1972.