We
find our first traces of the Prentice family in the Oxfordshire parish
Ascott-under-Wychwood, at the end of the sixteenth century. The
following three centuries were to see migration north, first to the
parish of Deddington, where most of the family remained for several
generations, then to Drayton, near Banbury, at the extreme north of the
county. Some Prentices remained here, and in neighbouring Oxfordshire
parishes, but others left the county, some to the West, into
Gloucestershire, but most to the North, into Warwickshire. Our
ancestors followed this latter route, settling in the Parish of Priors
Marston. It was there in February 1828 that a certain John
Prentice, recently arrived from Drayton, near Banbury, married local
farm worker's daughter Ann Masters. John and Ann raised eight children
in Priors Marston, the youngest, born in 1850, named John William
Prentice, was my great grandfather.
Young John
grew up in Priors Marston, and in 1871 he married local herdsman's
daughter Sarah Ann King. To this point, all the Prentice ancestors
had been farm workers, but young John was to break with this
tradition. By the late 1870's the steady migration of people in Britain
from the countryside to the towns, which had started to build up in the
1850's, was now advancing rapidly, and already 70% of the population of
Britain were living in towns. Running in parallel with this rapid
process of urbanisation, both helping to enable it and feeding off
it, was the explosive growth of the railway network, which must have
represented a major source of employment. John Prentice joined the
railway - probably the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company,
which had installed lines close to Priors Marston. By 1881,
John was working as a railway goods guard, based in Manchester,
and he and Sarah Ann, and their young family had joined the migration
from countryside to town, had left Priors Marston and were living in
Manchester.
Oxfordshire Resources and Research Aids
In tracing
the Prentice origins in Oxfordshire I have been greatly helped by
the extremely efficient Search Services (special thanks to Alan
Simpson) and the excellent range of Parish Register Transcripts on
CD-Rom from the Oxfordshire Family History Society. I also got off to a flying start with my Oxfordshire research thanks to the Rootsweb Oxfordshire Mailing List, and particularly to Listowner Wendy Archer.
