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CANVIN
Preface
For the
litigious at heart
Potted History
Along with others we believe that the Northamptonshire Branch of the CANVIN Family originated in Somerset but we have a suspicion that the roots of the Family are in Wales. From Somerset a major descendant branch is traceable to Durham and from there to Canada. The work you are viewing was originally concerned with the Northamptonshire Branch dating from the appearance in that county of Richard (1) CANVIN c1800 but it has now grown to involve all CANVINs where ever they may be.
CANVIN Family Members are recorded over the years as having been involved in industry, agriculture, trade and commerce. Family Members are known to have migrated to Canada, the United States of America, Australia New Zealand and possibly to South Africa. Members have served in their respective Armed Forces with distinction and held high Civic Offices. Today they are employed in a wide range of fields including the professions and new technologies.
When Richard (1) CANVIN arrived in Northamptonshire he became a publican. His sons Daniel (1) CANVIN and Richard (5) CANVIN both entered the trade. For a time Daniel (1) CANVIN worked on the canals, Robert (2) CANVIN became a farmer, Thomas Richard CANVIN became a butcher, George CANVIN, Mathew CANVIN and Ann (5) CANVIN are all believed to have emigrated to the United States of America.
Daniel (1) CANVIN was recorded in the 1858 will of Ann HARRIS his Mother as a 'Boatman' starting a connection with canals that was to be carried on during the 19th and 20th centuries for over 70 years by three generations of the Family.
Unlike canals in other parts of the country large numbers of Canal boats working between Birmingham and London had owner operators known as 'Number Ones' and among them were members of the CANVIN Family. There is in existence a photograph of one James CANVIN standing on his canal boat named 'Elizabeth' [1]. Robert Wilson writes that James CANVIN supplied coal to small businesses on the Oxford Canal. We believe that this James CANVIN is our James (1) CANVIN 1842 - 78 (the eldest recorded Son of Daniel (1) CANVIN) who was married to Elizabeth BROOKS and was described as a 'Coal Merchant' in the Letters of Administration that were granted on his early death aged 36 to his Father.
The Grand Junction Canal had an eleven mile branch from its main trunk canal at Cosgrove Junction (near Stony Stratford) to Buckingham: This branch was then known as the 'Buckingham Arm'. Approximately one mile from the junction was a wharf named 'Canvin's Wharf' [2]. We are attempting to trace those who operated from this wharf, we already do know that Mathew Henry CANVIN was a one time boatman and coal merchant as was his son Mathew Henry Frank (1) CANVIN. In 1897 Charlotte BOWEN the Wife of Mathew Henry CANVIN gave birth to Florence Annie CANVIN and the place of birth was given as The Wharf, Leckhampstead being on the 'Buckingham Arm'.
In 1919 a Government Survey of the Nation's Canals recorded a Mrs CANVIN as a 'Canal-boat owner' on the Grand Junction Canal. Who was she? Was she Charlotte BOWEN the Wife of Mathew Henry CANVIN or possibly Elizabeth Eliza GOODGER the Wife of Mathew Henry Frank (1) CANVIN?
On its way to Buckingham the 'Buckingham Arm' canal passed close to the home villages of a number of CANVINs: Passenham and Deanshanger both of which had their own wharfs. Unfortunately the 'Buckingham Arm' is now derelict but there are still some identifiable short sections.
George (7) CANVIN the second son of Daniel (1) CANVIN described himself on the 1881 Census as a 'Boatman Captain'; he interspersed his time on canal boats working ashore as a labourer. George (7) CANVIN's son John William (1) CANVIN also worked on the canals, his daughter Florence Eleanor (2) CANVIN (Mother of Phyllis) told us that her Father had worked his boat out of the Apsley Paper Mill of John Dickinson but that after the birth of their fourth child her parents had decided to seek a life ashore.
Two more sons of George (7) CANVIN who worked on or around canals were Albert George Edwin CANVIN and George James (1) CANVIN.
On the 1881 Census George James (1) CANVIN entered himself as 'Boatman' but by 1903 on the Birth Certificate of his Son John William (2) CANVIN he had become a 'Carman and Contractor'.
In 1901 Clara Ann NORMAN the Wife of Albert George Edwin CANVIN gave birth to Dorothy Gertrude CANVIN at Lady Capel's Wharf, Watford. On the Daughter's Birth Certificate the employment of her Father was entered as a 'Miller's Carman'. Lady Capel's Wharf was situated on the Grand Junction Canal near Watford, Hertfordshire.
In 1907 Ellen Maud NEAL the Wife of Edwin (1) CANVIN (a son of Daniel (1) CANVIN) gave birth to Fanny Edith Phyllis CANVIN also at Lady Capel's Wharf, Watford. On the Daughter's Birth Certificate the employment of her Father was entered as 'Poultryman'.
Sheila Stewart writes In her delightful book 'Ramlin Rose - The Boatwoman's Story' [3] (fiction based on fact) about a Nell CANVIN (we now know that she was in fact a widow - Ellen CANVIN. She married DOUGHTY in 1932) who was the second Wife of Dan DOUGHTY whose photograph interestingly appears in 'The Number Ones' [4], unfortunately the lady in the picture with him is unnamed however although we do not have a lady that matches by name we believe that she may be Clara (2) CANVIN the daughter of Mathew Henry CANVIN. We have in our possession a photograph that we believe to be her beside her second cousin Daniel Allan CANVIN another son of George (7) CANVIN.
Whilst Members of the Family were directly involved with the canals a number used them to move and promote their principle undertaking: Coal. We know that James (1) CANVIN, Mathew Henry CANVIN and Mathew Henry Frank (1) CANVIN were all in the trade.
A constant downturn in
demand for cargo carrying canal-boats had been occurring since the end of the
First World War and this precipitated in January 1929 the formation of the Grand
Union Canal Company by the amalgamation of a number of canal companies operating
between the River Thames and the Midlands. 'Number Ones' came under ever-greater
competition from larger multiple boat owners as well as the canal owning companies
who were themselves now operating more of their own boats. Although there was
a rise in traffic during the Second World War the decline soon reasserted itself
at war end. From 1947 the State began to take an ever expanding interest in operating
the canals but could do nothing to reverse the goods traffic decline however leisure
traffic has grown and today is a major portion of the inland leisure boating industry.
In
2003 a contract was awarded for the carrying of a large quantity of aggregates
along the Grand Union Canal. Does this herald a change in the future commercial
life of the Canal?
We believe there
to be no Member of the Family currently operating a commercial boat on the canals
(?).
[1] Robert Wilson The
Number Ones Robert Wilson Designs 2001 p 43
[2] British Waterways Board,
facsimile brochure Arteries of Commerce p 73
[3] Sheila Stewart Ramlin
Rose The Boatwoman's Story Oxford University xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxPress
1993 pp 109 and 167
[4] Robert Wilson The Number Ones Robert Wilson
Designs 2001 p 37
Further reading:
Joseph Boughey Hadfield's British
Canals Sutton Publishing Ltd 1998
David Perrott Ordinance Survey Guide
to the Waterways Nicholson 1993
L T C Rolt Navigable Waterways
Arrow Books Ltd 1973
To be continued