The family of John Yeo and Charlotte Widger, who married in Plymouth, has intrigued many researchers [notes 1, 2].
The John Yeo who married Charlotte Widger probably descends from cordwainer Walter Yeo of Stratton (who died in 1692), via his grandson Richard Yeo of St Breward [note 3]. John was born at St Austell in 1831 to parents Isaac Yeo and Ann Harvey. Isaac was a sawyer born at St Breward in 1796 and had married Ann at St Austell in 1820; John was the third of their seven children, and he joined the Royal Navy, which explains his presence in Plymouth.
The record of John and Charlotte’s marriage, at the parish church of St Andrew in 1863, shows John as a 26-year-old bachelor, a mariner serving on HMS Indus. Charlotte is recorded as a 23-year-old spinster of 20 Willow Street (which no longer exists but was in the parish of St Andrew, near King Street), with her father identified as John Widger, a wool comber [note 4]. Charlotte had been born in Ashburton in 1839; she and John had two children:
– Charles Henry John Yeo (see Charles Henry John Yeo and Frances Elizabeth Baker)
– Florence Louisa Charlotte Yeo (1867–1908, married Alfred Burrows)
before they moved to Ireland, where John commanded a customs vessel in the area near Achill Island in County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland. Their other four children were born there:
– William James Yeo (1869–1909, married Emily Barham [note 5])
– Henrietta Ellen Rogers Yeo (born 1870)
– Amy Maud Yeo (1872–1938, married George Dray)
– Lillie Rogers Yeo (1874–1943, married William James Edgar Buck).
John Yeo died in Kent in 1899. No record has been found for Charlotte after the 1891 census.
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Notes
1. Including Humphrey Toms and Reg Walter. Other researchers have confused John with the draper and businessman John Yeo who ran a department store in Plymouth – see John Yeo and Julia Longley.
2. John is sometimes referred to as John George Yeo or John Thomas Yeo, although there doesn’t appear to be any evidence for a second forename.
3. Richard was an ancestor of another Richard Yeo, who married Rosina Victor and emigrated to Ontario; see under John Yeo and Eleanor May. Also in this line from Stratton is Isaac Yeo of Blisland – a parish on on Bodmin Moor – who married Mary Cary at Tintagel in 1711.
4. Widger is not a common name; might there be a connection to Henry Widger Yea, who was born in Torquay in 1859? See Descendants of William Yeo and Agnes Savery by Mike Darch and David Yaw.
5. Emily later married William’s brother-in-law George Dray.