Rebecca Culliford
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| Culliford This was originally a Saxon place name predating the Norman invasion and apparently first used in Devon. It is place-derived, probably from two places both called Cullaford, in near South Tawton and in Buckfastleigh. Alternatively ome suggest a connection to Coleford in Gloucestershire, and others from Gulliford in Dorset. So it is securely a West Country name, Somerset being home to many Cullifords. Some cite an Old English form Coleford, literally meaning ‘the dweller at the ford belonging to Cula’. There are many variants – Colliford, Collyford, Culliford, Cullyford, Collaford, Cullaford, Culiford, Coliford, Culliforth, Colliforth, Collaforth, Collyforth… Robert Culliford (1617-1698) was an English pirate from Cornwall who worked with Captain William Kidd. Culliford and Kidd met as shipmates aboard the French privateer Sainte Rose in 1689, they and other British comrades mutinied against a French prize crew, taking the ship and renaming it the Blessed William, with Kidd put in command. But in February, 1690, Culliford led his own mutiny and deprived Kidd of his command. Culliford sailed with the pirates through the Caribbean, sacking ships and attacking a town. They went to New York to sell their booty. Culliford eventually made his way to India in 1692, where they robbed and abused the local population. The Gujaratis captured Culliford and seventeen of his comrades. Culliford spent the next four years in a Gujarati prison. In 1696 Culliford and some of his comrades escaped and made their way to Bombay, where they signed aboard the East India Company ketch Josiah. In Madras they commandeered the ship, returned to piracy, and sailed for the Bay of Bengal. Pierre Culliford (1928–1992), aka Peyo was the Belgian creator of the Smurfs. |
Note that purple text indicates that these entries are used at the beginning of the other branches too.
| Jane Alison (Allen) Denton – 1948 – Bristol, England married 2 Nov 1968 Tyndale Baptist, Bristol | |
| F – Ivanhoe Wilfred Allen 1919 – 1996 – Bath, Somerset M – Violet Evelyn Eileen Stiles 1921-2012 – Chew Magna/Pensford, Somerset married 5 Sep 1942 at Bristol | Jane Alison Allen (Denton) |
| GF – Walter Thomas Allen 1877-1930 – Bath, Somerset GM – Elizabeth Amy Perry 1880-1967 – Bath, Somerset married 10 Mar 1898 Bath Registery Office, Bath | William Charles Allen 1898-1917 Walter Reginald Allen 1902-1931 Leonard Alfred Allen 1903-1939 Percy Douglas Allen 1906-1964 Reginald Allen 1908-1975 Dennis Roy Allen 1910-1980 Dorothy Gertrude Mary Allen (Iles) 1913-2005 Phyllis Emily Allen (Eades) 1915-2009 Margaret Ruby Allen (Macfarlane) 1917-1994 F – Ivanhoe Wilfred Allen 1919-1996 |
| GGF1 – Wiliam Charles Allen 1851-1935 – 36 Kingsmead Street, Bath, Somerset GGM1 – Rebecca Culliford 1851-1918 – Walcot, Bath, Somerset married 21 May 1871 Parish of Widcombe, Bath | Ada Louise Allen (Hales) 1871- William Charles Allen 1874-1922 Walter Thomas Allen 1877-1930 Henry F Allen 1819-1961 Dennis Allen 1879- Alfred A Allen 1880-1967 Rebecca Allen 1882- Reginald Herbert ‘Bertie’ Allen 1884-1957 Elizabeth Maggie Allen (Piles) 1886-1961 Caroline Louisa Allen (Power) 1888- Frank Allen 1889- Elsie Ellen Allen (Humphries) 1890-1992 Kate Allen (Millar) 1892-1977 |
| GGF2 – Walter Culliford 1817-1876 – Walcot. Bath, Somerset GGM2 – Rebeccca Brockbrow 1821-1884 Wiltshire married 26 Jan 1846 • Bath, Somerset | Elizabeth Culliford 1846-1918 Emma Culliford 1848 Emily Culliford 1849-1912 GGM1 – Rebecca Culliford 1851-1918 |
| GGF3 – George Culliford (II) 1778-1860 – Bampton Devon GGM3 – Susanna Jenkins 1779- – Richmond, Surrey married 29 Aug 1802, St Marys, Putney, London | George Culliford 183-1814 Thomas Culliford 1805-1864 William Culliford 1807-1816 Mary Anne Culliford (Lamb) 1808-1924 Sophia Culliford 1811- James Culliford 1812-1901 Frederick Culliford 1814-1875 George Culliford 1815-1878 GGF2 – Walter Culliford 1817-1876 Emma Culliford (Adams)1819-1881 |
| GGF4 – George Culliford (I) 1739-1805 – Bampton, Devon GGM4 – Jane Jenny Philips 1740-1785 – Devon marriage 1769 | John Culliford 1771- Betty Culliford 1772- Hugh Culliford 1776-1859 GGF3 – George Culliford (II) 1778-1860 Mary Culliford (Tobin) 1780- Jenny Culliford 1783- |
| GGF5 – Nicholas Culliford 1710-1757 – Bampton, Devon GGM5 – Jane Charity Goodman 1714-1780 – Bampton, Devon married 1737 | Hugh Culliford 1738- GGF4 – George Culliford (I) 1739-1805 Mary Culliford 1743- John Culliford 1746- |
GGM1 – Rebecca Culliford 1851-1918 is the first of the Culliford family tree. Rebecca married my wife’s great grandfather GGF1 – William Charles Allen on 21 May 1871 and they had thirteen children together across the next twenty years.
 William Charles Allen (1851-1935) |  Rebecca (Culliford) Allen (1851-1918) |
On 10 Oct 1873 at twenty-two years of age Rebecca is recorded as receiving a two-month jail sentence in Shepton Mallet gaol, for stealing an umbrella at Bath on 3 October, worth ten shillings and sixpence, the property of Matilda Slade. She served her sentence until 12 Dec 1873.
The gaol register recording this sentence shows that she could read and write ‘well’ but also adds her ‘priors’. In June 1867 Rebecca, just 16 years old, had been given six months in jail for stealing a dress and an umbrella. In July 1868 she was convicted of obtaining a dress worth ten shillings by false pretences from Sophia Wallace, and separately endeavouring to obtain a dress from Ann Webb. For this she was sentenced to nine months and a day. For this earlier offence her occupation was shown as ‘servant’.
It is easy to dismiss these as trivial thefts by a child and reflect on the harsh regime applied to someone who was clearly very poor, but the prior offences were made while she was single and living at home.
Between the two offences, the 1871 census shows her occupation as ‘laundry’. She was aged twenty, living at home with her 54-year-old labourer father (Walter Culliford), and her 50-year-old charwoman mother (Rebecca [Brockbow] Culliford).
However, the later 1873 offence was when she had been married to William Charles Allen for two years and her first child was born that year too.
At the time of the 1881 census William and Rebecca lived at 24 Bathwick Place in Bath. William was a ‘draper’s porter’ – presumably working with his father William Charles Allen, Rebecca was shown as a laundress and they had four children living at home (Ada 10, William Charles (II) 6, Walter Thomas 4 and Alfred A at just 6mths. I found no subsequent records of any misdemeanours by Rebecca.
Here is the full list of their thirteen children:
| Ada Louisa Allen (1871–1915) George Blay (1871-1901) married bef 1893 | Dorothy Blay 1893- John R Blay 1896- George Noel Blay 1897- |
| William Charles Allen (1873–1938) Mabel Annie Stanton (1883-1962) married 1908 in Bodmin Cornwall | |
| Walter Thomas Allen (1877–1930) | |
| Dennis Allen (1879–) | |
| Henry F Allen (1879–1961) | |
| Alfred A Allen (1880–1967) | |
| Rebecca Allen (1882–) | |
| Elizabeth Maggie Allen (1884–1961) | |
| Reginald Herbert ‘Bertie’ Allen (1884–1957) | Dennis Roy Allen |
| Caroline Louisa Allen (1888–1978) | |
| Frank Allen (1889–1938) | |
| Elsie Ellen Allen (1890–1992) | |
| Katherine ‘Kate’ Allen (1892–1977) |
Baptised at St Swithins Walcot on 16 Sep 1873, William Charles was a military man. He joined up at twenty years of age on 07 Jun 1893, joining the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (DCLI) and was posted to 2nd Battalion at Dublin.
In 1895 he was posted to India, earning medals for his 1897-8 service on the Punjab frontier and the Tirah valley (close to the Khyber Pass).
In 1899 he he won the South Africa Medal when posted to the Cape Colony and Orange Free State and participated in the Oct 1899- May 1902 South African (aka Boer) War. His unit’s engagements included Paardeberg, Driefontein, Johannesburg, the capture of Pretoria and the defence of Ladysmith.
He married Mabel Annie Stantion in 1908 at Bodmin Cornwall.
They had six children:
 William Percy Charles Allen (1907–1983) born in Cardinham, Bodmin, Cornwall Gwenda Annie Giddings (1906–1990) married 1935 (aged 28 and 29) | they had one child (name not published on Ancestry)  William in the Royal Artillery at Nottingham, and at age 60. |
 Francis Ralph Allen (1910–1944) | served in the Navy 1928-1944 Died on 23 Jan 1944, aboard HMS Janus, sat off Anzio, Roma, Lazio, Italy.  HMS Janus, a J-class destroyer, had fired 500 rounds of 4.7″ shells over the first two days of the Anzio landings. She was hit by a Fritz X guided bomb dropped from a German He-111 torpedo bomber. The ship sank within twenty minutes with a heavy loss of life, Francis Ralph among them. |
 Mabel Rose Allen (1912–1991) John Edward Adams (1913- ) married 1938 | They had four children |
 Anthony Herbert Allen (1914–2003) born in Tidworth Wiltshire  Dorothy Drury (1916-1957) married Apr 1940 at St Barnabas, Swindon, Wiltshire | They had two children |
| Audrey Agnes Allen (1918–1937) | |
| Victor Bernard Allen (1921–1999) |
In the 1911 Census Mabel was shown as visiting the Stantons in Cardenham Cornwall. The head of household is shown as Mabel’s brother Percy Stanton (30 yrs), a farm labourer, and their widowed mother, Jane Stanton (74 yrs old). Mabel was said to be of private means (presumably William’s army pay), she had Percy (3 yrs) and Francis Ralph (7mths).
William arranged to be discharged from the Army and to take a pension on 3 Dec 1913. But he re-enlisted and rejoined the DCLI on 1 Mar 1915 – and served the whole of WWI, joing the Army Reserve on 23 Feb 1919. But was then included in the General Demobilisation on 23 Feb 1919, having served for 27 years!
In 1922 the family moved to 63 Edinburgh Street, Swindon, Wiltshire, where he found work as a general labourer at the Swindon Railway Works.
William died, at age 65, from a haemorrhaging gastric ulcer on 27 June 1938 at the Medical Fund Hospital, Swindon, Wiltshire. This progressive hospital was to prove instrumental, and used as an exemplar, when the National Health Service was formed a decade later in 1948.
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