THE PATTLES OF SUFFOLK

The Pattle family of Suffolk has been traced back to about 1520 by Roger Pattle. There are three main branches:

1. Roger’s forebears comprise the ‘Main Branch’, dating back to 1520. One present descendant is Roger’s brother Mary Hover, who lives in Florida.

2. Another ‘Suffolk Branch’, which has been linked to the main branch, dates back to approximately 1750, includes the parents of Thomas and Henry Pattle.

3. The ‘London/India/South Africa Branch’, dating back to 1650, based largely in London, is believed to have originated in Suffolk, but the connection with the other branches has not yet been established. They were prosperous, deeply involved in Indian civil affairs with the Honourable East India Company.

Much of the following information comes from Ray Pattle, who lives in Victoria, Australia. He is the direct descendant of Thomas Pattle’s younger brother John Percy, who was born at Campbell’s Creek, Victoria in 1864. Ray has written The Pattle Family in Australia, parts of which are quoted below.

Thomas Pattle of Bury St Edmunds

The Barcham connection is with the Suffolk branch. Those of interest are Thomas Pattle (b. 1779, d. 1875) and his wife Mary Ann (née Marrow). Their children included three sons: Thomas, born in 1823 at Wickhambrook, Suffolk; Henry, born in 1827 at Bury St Edmunds; William, born about 1830, emigrated to Australia in 1857. The name of the vessel on which he sailed from England is not known, however, the Argus Shipping list, 1856–1860, shows that he arrived at Hobson’s Bay on 4 May 1858, aboard a coastal vessel the Spirit of Sydney.

The places and dates of their births show that, in about 1825, Thomas and his young family moved from Wickhambrook to Bury St Edmunds, where he established a grocers and cheesemongers business. He is listed in the trades’ directory of Bury St Edmunds in White’s 1844 Directory of Suffolk, page 654:

Grocers and tea dealers: Pattle, Thomas, 1 Traverse;

Carriers from the inns: Pattle, ---, 3 Risbygate St, from the ‘Waggoner’ to Denham.

Wickhambrook is described in the 1844 Directory of Suffolk, page 654:

WICKHAMBROOK, a large scattered village, in the pleasant vale of a rivulet, . . .11 miles S.W. of Bury St. Edmunds, has in its extensive parish 1623 inhabitants, and about 4000 acres of fertile clayey land, including many scattered farm houses and the hamlets of Ashfield Green, Genesis Green, Boyden End and Clopton . . . The Church (All Saints’) is a neat structure with a tower and five bells . . .

Thomas Pattle died in 1875.

Thomas Pattle

Thomas Pattle, born in 1823 at Wickhambrook was the eldest child of Mary Ann and Thomas Pattle. In May 1841, he married Mary Ann Towler (b. 1823) at the registry office in Bury St Edmunds. She was the daughter of Mary and Robert Towler. Mary Ann and Thomas had 15 children, nine of whom were born in Suffolk, the first four at Wickhambrook, the following five at Bury St Edmunds: Mary Hanna Melinda (b. 12 June 1842); Emma Lois Miriam (b. 28 February 1843); Sarah Ann (b. 10 October 1844); Frederick William (b. 16 May 1846, d. in New Zealand in 1902); Henry Leander (b. 26 December 1846); Annie Marie (b. and d. in 1848, at Bury St Edmunds); Julia Ellen (b. 1850); Laura Sophia (b. March 1852); Constantine Paris (b. September 1853).

In 1855, two years after Constantine was born, Thomas, Mary Ann (both aged 32), Frederick (9) and Henry (7) sailed as unassisted immigrants to Australia aboard the Stebenheath. They arrived at Melbourne in December 1855, fifteen months after Henry Barcham landed at Portland from the Nestor. From Melbourne, Thomas and his small family group travelled by horse and wagon to Forest Creek, according to shipping records. There is little evidence that Thomas actually fossicked for gold. Instead, it is believed that, shortly after his arrival, he became a grocer’s assistant at the Five Flags General Store in Campbell’s Creek.

When they left England, it must have been traumatic for the family to leave their five remaining daughters and baby son in the care of Mary Ann’s parents. However, the six children were listed among the 384 unassisted immigrant passengers aboard the Almora, which sailed from Liverpool on 9 October 1857. After a separation of more than two years, the reunion with their parents must have been very emotional when the ship docked at Melbourne on 29 December.

Mary Ann and Thomas had five more children, all born at Campbell’s Creek: Annie Louisa (b. 1856, d. May 1858); Ida Jane (b. 1859, d. 1860); Thomas (b. 1861) see below; Alice M, (b. 1863, d. 1864); John Percy (b. November 1864, at Campbell’s Creek. John Percy was the forebear of Ray Pattle presently the President of the Castlemain Historical Society and living in Guildford, Victoria.

Mary Ann died on 30 August 1868, aged 46, while giving birth to a stillborn child. At the time of her death, five of the ten surviving children had married; and Thomas was left with four children aged from 16 to four years to care for. In February 1870, Thomas married a widow Annie New (née Townsend), who brought with her two surviving children from her first marriage. Annie and Thomas had two sets of twins, both born at Campbell’s Creek: Frederick George and Alice Maud (b. September 1870, d. February 1861); Roger (b. September, d. November 1873); Alma (b. September 1873), the only surviving twin.

The marriage certificate of his daughter Mary Hanna Melinda shows that Thomas’s occupation was a grocer in 1860. Later, he became postmaster and returning officer at Campbell’s Creek. The original postmaster’s residence at 167 Main Road is still standing, but only the foundations of the post office remain in the front lawn of the residence.

In about 1861, Thomas left his wife and children at Campbell’s Creek and joined the gold-rush to Gabriel's Gully in Otago, New Zealand. From a microfilm at Christchurch Public Library listing passengers inbound from Australia it appears that Thomas Pattle sailed from Melbourne on 28 December 1861 aboard the Nor’Wester: Nothing more has been found about his time on the goldfields. [In 2004, Chris Farrow visited Gabriel’s Gully and searched the records in the museum at Lawrence, but did not find any references to Thomas Pattle.] Thomas must have returned to Australia at least nine months before his next child, Alice, was born in 1863. It is a coincidence in that William Edwards Williams, the future husband of Fanny Elizabeth Barcham was also in the rush to the Otago goldfields.

Annie died of gastro-enteritis in 1904, aged 71. Seven years later, Thomas died in 1911, aged 89.

Henry Pattle

Henry, son of Mary Ann and Thomas Pattle, was born at Bury St Edmunds in 1827. In 1850 he married Rebecca Maria ---, who was born at Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, in 1827. After they married Henry and Rebecca lived at various places in Suffolk before returning to Bury St Edmunds and eventually taking over his father’s grocery business. Henry and Rebecca Maria had eight children all born in Suffolk: Henrietta Ellen (b. 1849); Ellen Mary (b. 1851 at Finningham); Elizabeth (b. 1854); Henry T (b. 1856, d. 1859); Mary Jane (b. 1858 at Sudbury); Emma Florence (b. 1859, d. 1898) married William Barcham; Henry George (b. 1864, d. 1937); Edith Emilie (b. 1868, 1926) married Herbert Clarence Barcham.

Henry, Rebecca, Ellen, Mary, Emma, Henry and Edith, together with three live-in servants, were enumerated at Bury St Edmunds in the 1881 Census of Suffolk. Henry’s occupation was a wholesale grocer. Henry’s business, which employed 15 men and three boys, was at 1 The Traverse and his home was ‘Paradise House’ in Risbygate Street. The size and location of the house, which is now a dental surgery, indicate that Henry was quite wealthy. The Bury St Edmunds Past and Present Society owns the Spanton Jarman Collection of early photographs of Bury St Edmunds, some of which may be seen on their website; it includes photos of ‘Pattles House’ (K505-2505) and the shop at 1 The Traverse (K505-1219). (Another photo of the house from the 1880s is reproduced in The Barchams of Edingthorpe). However, the business failed eventually, according to Ray Pattle. Emma and William Barcham, Edith and Herbert Clarence Barcham, and their descendants are described in Chapters 5, 6 and 7 of The Barchams of Edingthorpe.