Joseph Seaman and Josiah’s mother. The oldest gravestone that I could read relating to my family stated that "John son of Joseph and Rachel Seaman died 1812 aged ?21 years". I now think that age was in months or one year. Gislingham Parish Church registered the marriage of Joseph Seaman of this parish to Rachel Taylor of this parish in 1811; four miles east of Walsham. This Joseph Seaman was described as a tea dealer of Gislingham in 1841 and as a Baptist Minister there in 1851, when his age was recorded as 65 and his birthplace Westhorpe; half way to Walsham. The Westhorpe Parish church registered "Joseph son of Philip and Mary Seaman late English born June 15 1787." They were married there in May 1773 and Phillip could sign his own name, unusual at the time. It suggests that he could teach the Bible independently. They had several other male children recorded as being born at Westhorpe. Phillip in December 1773 is probably the Phillip Seaman who was buried at Gislingham in December 1817, aged 43, and perhaps also son of Phillip Seaman son of Phillip and Dinah Seaman baptised there that year. This Dinah died at Gislingham in 1846 aged 67 and Mary English, wife of the oldest Phillip at Westhorpe in 1802 aged 48. It is therefore possible that this oldest Phillip was married again to Dinah or some other younger woman, who was the unknown mother of the mother of Josiah Fakes, born at Gislingham around 1813 as Mary Seaman, and who used to send his older sisters Hannah and Sarah Ann (Sally) Fakes to live with the Baptist Joseph and Rachel Seaman at Gislingham because they were his nieces (census of 1841 and 1851).

This discussion illuminates the know documents about the marriage of this younger Mary Seaman to John Fakes, father of Josiah, and like his father Samuel, a carpenter of Walsham-le-Willow. The earlier Baptist gravestone has two implications. Independence produced a paucity of documents in the established Church of England and self-education reflected in the subsequent work of Josiah as a teacher in the Sunday School of Walsham Congregational Church for many years.
The Gislingham Parish Church register states that with parents consent "John Fakes of Walsham-le-Willows and Mary Seaman of this parish married on 2nd September 1831 in presence of Joseph Seaman and Maria Seaman." John Fakes signed with his mark X but soon was improved and wrote a neat ink inscription in his carpentry book (published 1828) "John Fakes, Walsham May 31, 1832."

The approximate dates of birth of their own children at Walsham can be deduced from census returns as Hannah 1833, Sarah Ann 1839, Mary Ann 1840 (they are all described as aunts in Emma Fakes letters, the latter dying in 1900 and Sally being the mother of Alfred Fordam (1872-1964) of Vancouver, Canada), Abigale 1841, Charlotte (via death in parish record that year), Josiah 1848 (actually April 3 1849 from family documents), John 1850 and Agnes 1855 (died Mrs. Corbet Wathemstow, London 1950-1). There was no family or local knowledge of John, Mary, Abigale and John Jr. Fakes, so perhaps they soon died after 1861 census.

The Walsham Fakes family and non-conformism. Andrew Gosden has written for more information about the Fakes family. His Father Vernon born in April 30 1915 was I think a Baptist lay-preacher, and his mother sent a surviving letter from Birmingham in 1947 saying she had just been to a Christian youth rally attended by over 2500 (long before Billy Graham at Harringay). Her slightly older son Eric was a non-conformist missionary in Japan from roughly 1932 to 1970 and I will reproduce one of his interesting letters from 1939. The non-conformism came from the Josiah Fakes side of the family at Walsham, where his funeral took place in the general village cemetery opened in 1890, after a short service at his house on Summers Road, conducted by a minister in the congregation Church at Walsham that Josiah attended for most of his life. Many people did that but he also taught in the Sunday School there for many years. The congregational church, as a building, did not exist in Walsham until 1856, when Josiah was seven. He may have gone before that to the Baptist chapel or informal meeting house, which existed before the Walsham Baptist Church, opened in 1866. There was a Baptist burial ground at Walsham before 1866 and several of Josiah’s relatives were buried in it with still legible gravestones when I studied it. On the other hand his wife Emma has a photograph of the parish church on her notepaper, and the father of Josiah, John Fakes, was baptised in it in 1806. The independent protestants probably became a dominant influence just afterwards. (to be continued…)