The Longford and Winfield/Wingfield Families

From DAVID HAYWARD, Automotive Historian" :

I am researching the family of WILLIAM LONGFORD. He was born around 1822 in Stroudwater, and evidently moved to Kempsey, where he married a local girl, SARAH WINFIELD, born around 1827 in Kempsey. Their son, WILLIAM WINFIELD LONGFORD was born 24 February 1856 and was christened at St Marys Church, 18 March 1856, evidently by The Rev. George Foxton. At the christening, William's middle Christian name was changed to "WINGFIELD". William, Senior's job was then listed as "Malster". Was there a Maltings or Brewery in Kempsey then? (Yes, there was. - Andy) (Continued below:)

William Wingfield Longford died on 15 July 1939 in Northfield, Birmingham, where he had lived since 1906. He had been a schoolmaster, a Birmingham City Councillor and a partner and Company Director of his son's company that made sparking plugs in Birmingham since 1904: he resigned from what was then AC-SPHINX SPARKING PLUG COMPANY LIMITED in 1925...the same "AC" that makes sparking plugs, and other automotive equipment today.

William Wingfield Longford married and had a son, born in either Kempsey or Aston, also called WILLIAM WINGFIELD LONGFORD, who died in 1965? as The Rev. Doctor William Wingfield Longford having had a distinguished career in the Church. His son was born around 1922, and is alive today: The Rev. Canon Edward DE TOËSNY Wingfield Longford.

It can thus be seen that the family name of "Winfield" or "Wingfield" has descended to the present day!

If anyone has any information on the "Winfield" or "Wingfield" family, and especially any Maltings, Brewery, Grainery, then this will be of great value to the present day descendants.

We now know that Richard Longford, whilst being a "Maltser", eloped with his girl in 1851 to Birmingham, where they were married. They then came back to Kempsey. Richard Longford's father, Thomas Longford, was born in Stroud in 1790 and buried there in 1872. His occupation in 1851 is also listed as a "Maltser", so presumably father and son worked in the same business. I have no idea how Richard met his wife, other than the thought that Richard was apprenticed or trained by his father, and when he was old enough was perhaps introduced to another Maltings in Kempsey. There he and his future wife met, though perhaps the families disagreed? His bride was one Sarah Wingfield, whose father was a "Hair Dresser", Thomas Wingfield, born around 1800. They had two known children: THOMAS WINGFIELD who was christened in Kempsey parish church on 26 March 1824. His sister SARAH WINGFIELD was christened also at Kempsey parish church on 22 October 1826, and so she must have been born September/October 1826, in Kempsey. They eloped and lived in Key Hill Birmingham, and were quoted as being of "full age", which they were! As I said, they then returned to Kempsey where their son was born in 1856. The Longford family tree is a massive exercise, and shows that they lived in Gloucestershire for a few hundred years. As to the Wingfields, they were apparently a Kempsey family, but the author of the Longford tree has Sarah Wingfield as of "Croome D'Abitiot" wherever that was! (It's the next parish to the south-east of Kempsey - Andy) I assume that a Hair Dresser prepared and sold wigs for ladies and gentlemen... I wonder if there was an aristocratic clientele about the area? (Yes, officers and their wives from Norton Barracks in the next parish. Also some military men retired and lived in Kempsey - Andy.) David

 
(If any other reader with ancestors from Kempsey would like to have their family information on this site, please contact me at andymorrall@geocities.com and send me your research - Andy.)

© Andy Morrall

Last updated 1^st July 2000.

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