Introduction
The Derbyshire population of Jowetts is one of the oldest in the country and features significantly in the early IGI entries; indeed it may well be older than the Yorkshire population. It has been related that the original Norman holder of the name moved out from his lands in Cheshire to Derbyshire and that the family expanded from there to Yorkshire (if you believe that derivation of the name!). Whether the Derbyshire population is actually connected in some way to either the Yorkshire group or the southern groups based in the northern Home Counties is not clear - one could hypothesise that it is THE link between the two populations making them all one, or indeed that the three populations are totally unconnected.
I am indebted to David Hooley for handing to me a comprehensive but disorganised collection of extracts and lists from various records relating to Jowetts in Derbyshire generally and the parish of Wilne specifically. This is clearly the result of more than one worker, though most of them (David Hooley excepted) are anonymous. My sincere thanks go out to all of them whoever they are! I am presenting them here in the hope that they will be of use to all researching the name in Derbyshire and the neighbouring county of Nottinghamshire (there is little doubt that the Jowett communities in these two counties are connected). I have as yet made no attempt to add value to the records by establishing family links or connecting the wills and miscellaneous entries. This will be done in due course, but in the meantime I merely present them as organised lists of baptisms, marriages, burials and wills indexes. Needless to say I have not been able to compare them with the original records so accept no responsibility for their accuracy nor their completeness.
The records centre on Wilne (as do the IGI entries for the name in Derbyshire) and its two townships of Draycott and Breaston, and are probably complete for that parish for the periods covered:
top
Baptisms:
Marriages:
Burials:
The records also contain entries for Breaston (BTs 1719 – 1812 - three baptisms recorded) and Risley (just two Marriage entries from David Hooley who searched the BTs for the period 1720 – 1730 and 1739 – 1812 out of total coverage of 1696 – 1812). There are also 2 entries Leicester Marriage Bonds and Allegations 1570 – 1729.
There are also some wills indexed, taken from the full index in the Lichfield Record Office. This does not look like a complete list of Derbyshire Jowetts though.
From Pigot's Commercial Directory of Derbyshire 1828-9:
Risley: township and village, about seven miles and a half east from
Derby, is partly in the parish of Sawley, and partly in that of Sandiacre. This manor was
formerly held by Sir Hugh Willoughby, the celebrated navigator, who sailed on the 10th of
May 1555, with three ships, in search of a north-east passage, and was frozen to death
with all his crew in the January following, in the frozen ocean. in "Thomsons
Seasons" this melancholy event is most feelingly and emphatically described. the
village contains about 300 inhabitants.
Draycott or Dracote and Wilne Liberty contains a village, about seven miles south-east of Derby. A manufactory for spinning cotton gives employment to some of the inhabitants, but the majority are employed in agriculture: the number in the liberty, in 1821, was about 1,000.
top
Copyright S D Jowitt