A Saunders Family Bible
This family bible was started in 1855 by Robert Saunders and is
now in the possession of Kenneth Adams. Pages 1-3 are at the front of the bible and pages 4-6 at the back.
Handwriting analysis, together with personal acquaintance with the more recent owners, allows the history of the family
bible to be identified with a fair degree of certainty:
- The first owner of the bible was undoubtedly Robert
Saunders. He probably acquired the bible in 1855, writing his name on
page 1 and his children’s names and dates of birth (retrospectively) on
page 2. Later, he added his children’s dates of death on page 2 but for
some reason wrote his wife’s date of death on page 6. Robert spelt the
first word on the last line of page 2 as "Daid".
- It
seems likely that the bible remained at his brother John's house in
Chawleigh after Robert died there in 1866. John did not write anything
about his own family in the bible, possibly because he was illiterate.
- Most of the entries on pages 3-6 were made by the
same person, no doubt (since so many of these entries relate to his
family) William James Pepperell Saunders. He could have taken
possession of the bible when he visited his uncle John in Chawleigh in
1871. He first wrote the names and dates of birth of himself and his
brothers on page 3 and the date of death of his uncle Robert on page 6;
he also corrected the misspelling of “Died” on page 2. Later, he added
the death date of his father William
on page 6, wrote his own date of marriage on page 4, and then
started to write the names and dates of birth of his children on page
5.
The last entry he made refers to his son William's death (page 5).
The rather slack handwriting could possibly indicate his state of
grief
at the loss of his son, which could in turn explain why he abandoned
the
family bible at this point.
- It is not clear who recorded the marriage of Emanuel on page 1. It was
not Robert or William JP, and William senior was illiterate. Possibly
Emanuel wrote this entry on a visit to William JP soon after his
marriage.
- The next person after William JP to look after the bible, recording
births of her the next six children on page 3, was most probably his
wife Ann Maria. She also recorded William JP's mother's death on page 6.
- Martha Frances Gifford next inherited the family bible. In all
likelihood, it was she who recorded the deaths of her brother Wilfred on page
5 and her father on page 3.
- The bible then passed to Martha's eldest daughter Lily, who recorded
the death of her mother in 1963. Her husband Arthur Adams
recorded the husband of Lily's aunt Lily, and his death, on page 5.
- The bible then passed to Lily's elder son Kenneth.
