William Yeo and Caroline Fry

This couple married at the parish church in East Putford in 1857. They were both from established local families. Researcher Gill Badcock has kindly provided a great deal of information about their family.

William, a great grandson of Benjamin Yeo and Grace Oke of Bradworthy, was baptised at Bradworthy in 1831. Caroline, the fifth of seven daughters of William Fry and Elizabeth Leach, of Wares Tenement, East Putford, took charge of the farm there when her father died in 1855. She was a redoubtable woman, who had fourteen children and again took charge of the family farm after her husband’s death.

William and Caroline married at the parish church in East Putford in 1857 and lived at Wares Tenement and at nearby Northcotts until moving to Abbots Bickington in 1862. This parish has a tiny church, situated adjacent to Court Barton, where William and Caroline farmed. Their children were:
– William Fry Yeo (see below)
– Alfred Yeo (see below)
– Annie Yeo (1861–1948)
– Kate Yeo (1862–1945, married William Fry Harris)
– Edward Owen Yeo (1863–1885, did not marry)
– Mary Elizabeth Yeo (1865–1930, married Edward Jewell)
– Stephen Yeo (1866–1867)
– Emma Norah Yeo (1867–1903, married Thomas Turner)
– Edith Yeo (1869–1938)
– Robert Yeo (1871–1962, married Clara Ann Edwards, two daughters)
– Thomas Yeo (see below)
– Minnie Yeo (1874–1952, married Henry Alfred Reynolds)
– Phoebe Yeo (1876–1933, married Alfred John Bendle)
– Benjamin Yeo (1879–1903, did not marry).
William Yeo died at Court Barton in 1883. Caroline survived him by ten years.

William Fry Yeo (1857–1844, son of William Yeo and Caroline Fry), emigrated to Australia in 1881 but returned two years later following the death of his father. He married Sarah Ann Tucker at the register office in Holsworthy in 1898. Their twelve children were:
– Annie Jane Tucker (1897–1984, married Percy Frank Watts)
– Caroline Yeo (1899–1993, married Vesey Thomas Towl)
– Rosa Yeo (1900–1991, married William John Sanders)
– William John Yeo (1901–1992, married Mabel Grace Gifford, four children)
– Owen Yeo (1903–1981, married Maud Mary Saunders, two children)
– Norman Fry Yeo (1905–1921)
– Charles Yeo (1906–1906)
– Elsie Maud Yeo (1907–1997, married Stanley Braunton)
– Ada Mary Yeo (1908–2011, married William Charles Jewell)
– Leslie Yeo (1912–1975, did not marry)
– Robert Yeo (1915–1999, married Mary Elizabeth Hill, one daughter)
– Russell Yeo (1918–1982, married Christina May Heard, six children).

Alfred Yeo (1858–1924, son of William Yeo and Caroline Fry) became a draper and had a shop in Holsworthy. He married Harriet Emeline Moore in 1889; they had four children:
– Reginald Alfred Yeo (1891–1914, died on active service in France)
– Courtney Cyril Yeo (1892–1981, married Phillis May Hayward and Louisa Ethel Marie Greenaway, two children)
– Norman Edgar Yeo (1897–1898)
– Kathleen May Yeo (1899–1900)
– Stuart Archibald Yeo (1904–2005, married Doris Irene Power, two daughters).

Thomas Yeo (1872–1934, son of William Yeo and Caroline Fry) remained at Court Barton for the rest of his life. He married Setha Jane Harris at Bulkworthy in 1902; they had three children:
– William Percival Yeo (1903–1958, married Christine Anne Brimacombe, two children)
– Thomas Cyril Yeo (1904–1962, married Nora Fowler, one daughter)
– Robert Harris Yeo (1905–1973, married Ethel Maria Harris, three children).

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