There is a little book about his life!
William was a weaver and silk throwster.
There was an article in the Taunton Courier dated 14th July 1814 relating to the Silk Manufactory and a meal. In his death announcement he was described being "in the 81st year of his age; a Christian of exemplary piety and benevolence"
From David Ballance . . .
William served his apprenticeship from 7 June 1771; the Indenture is in the Myres collection. He became a member of the Commonalty of the Weavers in 1780. Two years later, when he was apparently living in Shoreditch parish (though this may have been a claim by that church for jurisdiction over Norton Folgate), he married at St Leonard's Elizabeth Cannon. She is traditionally supposed to have come from Braintree, a great silk-weaving centre, but was resident in Shoreditch at the time of the marriage. Investigations at Chelmsford have revealed a William Cannon and his wife who were resident in Church Street, Bocking, in August 1793; Bocking is in effect the same place as Braintree, and he was a weaver. The Registers of Bocking have Cannons back into the sixteenth century, but William's in-laws, William Cannon and Elizabeth Dunt, were in fact married at Halstead, on 31 March 1755, when they were both resident in that parish, and she had been baptised there on 26 November 1728, the daughter of John and Mary Dunt. Her marriage entry shows her to have been illiterate.
About 1783, William's father (William) "was called by the providence of God" to leave London and go to live at Staines. William and Elizabeth went with him, and it is not certain whether the move was dictated by business or by the need to be closer to his ministry at Harlington. Here William and Elizabeth's first son, William, was born on 24 February 1784. They stayed there for two years, after which they "removed on account of business to Homerton." The next son, John, was born there in 1787, and between 1790 and 1795 William (the elder) was described in the Weavers' books as "of Homerton, weaver". I have not been able to discover anything about his business there. Homerton is the SE corner of Hackney, which certainly had an active weaving community, and it was also well known for its dissenters. The property there was small, for "William Hudibug" paid only 5/- Land Tax on the 1792 assessment for the parish. It is not clear whether he was throwing or weaving silk.
William's family was enlarged by the births of a son, Samuel, in 1788, and a daughter, Mary, in 1791, both at Homerton. There were four further children, two girls and two boys, between then and 1801, but none lived more than two and a half years.
William died at Taunton on 27 January 1837, and, as The Taunton Courier put it on 1 February, "in the cheering hope of the Gospel", since he was a Christian "of exemplary piety and benevolence". I have not been able to trace a copy of his funeral sermon, which included a short Memoir. The entry in the Paul's Meeting Burial Register calls him "a man of full faith". He was a writer of verse, some religious, some light and occasional. Some of his poems and his Bible are in the Myres collection.
The Heudebourcks were not rich. William left less than £ 6,000, mostly in Taunton house property: Mount House; four houses in Mount Terrace (which he had built before 1827); and four other houses and a cottage in the same area around the Barracks. His four surviving children received only £1,222 each, so they had to make their way in the world.
At his death, William divided his house property into four parts. He left his own house, two cottages and No. 4 Mount Terrace to his daughter Mary Hine; on her death in 1876 her husband bought the Mount Terrace house from his surviving children. John received his own house, three others and a cottage; Elizabeth Ballance had Mount House; Samuel had Nos. 1 and 2 Mount Terrace; and Mary's children had 2,000 between them. The residue was equally divided between the children, with Mary's children having one of the shares. William and his wife (who survived till 1843) were buried with his already deceased children, in a vault in Paul's graveyard. A much-worn stone on the west wall commemorates them all, including his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Cannon. An iron plate with the names of himself and his wife was found in 1983 loosely placed on top of the vault. Another inscription, re-cut in the twentieth century, commemorates separately his son William III, who also has a memorial in the Bishop's Hull Chapel, now half hidden behind the organ and hard to see. |
