have included a chapter on the Mildenhall line because of its interest in two ways. First it shows Limmers having that urge to travel again. It has been almost a thousand years from the time Limmers paddled a boat from Germany to England and they appear to have been happy here. Moving from Hampshire to Norfolk – or perhaps even as high as the Midlands, seems to have been the limit of their ambition. There may be a few that made to trip to Scotland and Ireland but generally there is no great spirit of adventure.
By the end of the seventeen-hundreds, things are getting harder in England and the thought of greater prosperity stirred that spirit of adventure which had laid dormant so long. With the advent of steam and the steam ship, some of this line decided to travel far and wide.
The second reason is to show the way the family is now large enough to develop an independent spirit. Early Limmers and early days show the family had been fairly well looked after by the church. But since the reformation and the decline of the Catholic church, Limmers had dabbled with the reformers in the established church. We have no record of Limmers, up to this point, leaving the church of England for newly formed churches like Methodist, Quaker or Baptist. This line takes the lead.
Edmund Limmer(1778.U) 319 a shepherd from Tuddenham (1778) married Mary Anne Sharpe 1801 at Mildenhall. Just where Edmund fits into the picture at either Tuddenham or Mildenhall is not clear but here he was and thus deserves a mention.
The family moved to Herringswell soon after the birth of Stephen where they had two other children. In 1820, they moved again to Brinkley in Cambridgeshire. A sixth child baptised at Brinkley Cambridgeshire 1821, and described as the daughter of Edmund and Mary, was Mary Anne, Mary Anne died less than a year later in Brinkley in 1822.
Philip and Jane, you will remember from page 173 and Family Line 46, were the loving couple who lived to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary in 1880. We pick up the story of their son Stephen(1784.56), (from Family Line 56 on page 200), who married Frances Norman 320. After their Marriage on the 22nd July 1808 in Barton Mills they set up home in Tuddenham. First-born Lucy(1809.43) was baptised on 22nd May 1809 in Tuddenham.
Shortly after, second child Philip(1810.43) was baptised on 23rd August 1810 in Tuddenham, the family moved to Diss in Norfolk where Charles(1814.43) was baptised.
Moving from there, when Charles(1814.43) was just one year old, they settled in Mildenhall, where they stayed for the rest of their married life together.
According to the local History society, West row and its surrounding hamlets were hotbeds of nonconformity. West Row had both a Baptist chapel and a Methodist hall leaving only a few loyal people in the congregation at St Mary's. Philip and Jane joined the local Baptist church, becoming members321. So when Stephen(1816.43) was born 23rd July 1816 he was dedicated at Mildenhall West Row Baptist chapel. According to Baptist doctrines, a person must be of an age to choose and give a reason for wanting to be baptised. Early reformers had long since rejected the idea that baptism was a right of passage into the church. However, as the parish register was also the means of keeping track of local population and legally required by the state, Baptists used a dedication service to register new born children. This, nonconformist churches did so until the state took over the role itself and registered them separately.
Elizabeth(1821.43) then, was born 28th August 1821 and dedicated at Mildenhall West Row Baptist chapel. Followed by Matilda(1824.43) born 16th April 1824 and dedicated at Mildenhall West Row Baptist chapel. Elizabeth and Matilda were both married in Tuddenham but moved to an unknown location soon afterwards.
Stephen(1784.56) married his cousin, Frances Norman at Barton Mills. The marriage licence dated 22nd July 1808.
Their children were:322
1) Lucy who died in 1811.
2) Philip baptised 23rd August 1810 Tuddenham. Died 2nd December 1859 at Marylebone.
3) Charles baptised Diss, Norfolk.
By 1817, Philip and Frances had decided to join the Baptist church at West Row, so the next four children of Philip and Frances were brought for dedication.
4) Stephen was born 23rd July 1817 and later dedicated Mildenhall West Row Baptist.
5) Elizabeth Born 28th August 1821 dedicated Mildenhall West Row Baptist.
6) Matilda Born 1824 and dedicated at Mildenhall West Row Baptist.
7) Henry born 1829. Henry married Louisa Goodyer 16th April 1854 Clerkenwell.
Charles(1814.43) was born in Diss, moved with his parents to Mildenhall where he lived until his marriage to Sarah Green in January 1837 at Ely St Mary Norfolk. After their marriage they settled for eighteen years in Ely St Mary. There they produced seven children all of whom were baptised in the local church.
1) John born 1837, died 1913 New Zealand.
2) William born 1842, married Eliza Grooby died 1915 Moteuka.
3) Lucy born 1844, married William Hale. She died 1893.
4) Charles born 1847, born 14 married married Martha Nealie and died 12 Dec 1935 Te Kowhai.
5) Betsy born 1849,
6) Henry born 1851.
7) Stephen born 1853, married Henrietta Starnes. He died in 1901.
All the family boarded the steamer ship Sir Alan MacNab to New Zealand, arriving at Nelson on 8th August 1855.323 Charles worked in the hotel industry eventually becoming the owner of the Globe Hotel in Papakura. Charles was granted Publicans licence for Globe Hotel in 1878 324 Charles died 1896 Papakura New Zealand.
Stephen(1816.43) married Mary Anne. He was born Tuddenham St Mary but died September 28th, aged 71 years. at Tottenham Rise, Lower Moutere , New Zealand.
George,325 'a quiet retiring man', settled in Brook Street and endured the hardships of the old pioneers, 'but thrift and integrity surmounted all difficulties, and he settled in the Lower Moutere, where, he had lived for the last 44 years' of his life.
