A number of us
appearing in the database have lived in or are currently living in
Hampshire, but most of us cannot claim to have roots there so that is
not the principle reason for including Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
in this section of the website.
The family which had
ancestors living in these parts for several generations in the
eighteenth century and probably earlier, were the Chessells. We can
trace the Chessell line back with certainty to the birth of Charles
Bartholomew Chessell in the early 1800's in the parish of Stoke Damerel
in Devon. But Chessell was not a Devon name and there was no sign of a
Chessell in Devon until Charles' father, John Chessel married Ann
Corbitt in the parish of Stoke Damerel in December 1800. The main
employer in the parish of Stoke Damerel was the Devonport Naval
Dockyard, where young Charles served an apprentiseship in
ship-building, and where his father, John Chessell, also almost
certainly worked. I am speculating that John Chessell may have arrived
there from the other principle Naval Dockyard on the south coast - in
the Solent in Hampshire.
I am
encouraged in this belief by the fact that, in addition to the
ship-building link, the area around the Solent - both Hampshire and the
Isle of Wight - had one of the few concentrations in Britain of this
uncommon surname, and that there are records of baptisms in the
1760's and 1770's (which would tie in with John Chessell's believed age
at the time of his marriage) of no less than four John Chessells -
three on the Isle of Wight (two in Northwood, one in Godshill) and one
on Portsea Island. There are also Chessels in Beaulieu in the early
nineteenth century with names and ages that suggest a probable
connection. Indeed, it is likely that all the Chessells in these
locations were related; Beaulieu, Portsea and Northwood were all
ship-building centres. Clearly there is more work to do here, but there
are some encouraging signs which we must follow up.
