Find Ancestors

The family name of Hainsby or Ainsby before 1800 is rare suggesting that either it evolved from another spelling i.e. Handsley, Ainslie etc, or it was established by immigration to this country. There are one or two references to the name during the 1700s but all are isolated and there appears to be no connection to the main body of families with the name. The best bet is a family living within the City of London during the 1750s who baptised four children at St Boltophs without Aldgate. One of these children could be the parent of Thomas Hainsby 1780-1853 , the first Hainsby whose life is reasonably documented. Thomas appears to have settled in Stoke Newington London in the early years of the 19th century, when it would have been a small hamlet on the great North Road into the City of London. He was a tailor by trade and when he met Rhoda Crow he proceded to marry her in St John of Hackney in 1808. They produced seven children between them, five baptised at St Mary Stoke Newington and two at St John Hackney, Henry 1822 was my gt gt grandfather. After this, a bit of a mystery occurs, Thomas continues to have four more children by a Mary, one in Hackney , one in Wimbledon and two in Chelsea, she is stated as being his wife in the baptismal records of St Lukes, although we know Rhoda is still alive because she re marries in 1839. On her marriage certificate she says she is a widow although Thomas is alive and well back in Hackney in the census of 1841. They must have gone their seperate ways and had no contact with each other and then just assumed the other was dead. Thomas and his family are listed in 1821 census for Hackney, the 1841 census has him and his daughter Mary and youngest son in the workhouse in Hackney, and the 1851 census finds the same three in Hornsey . Frustratingly Thomas states that his place of birth is not known , which would have given clues as to his origins. Of the children of Thomas from both ladies we have varying degrees of information. Mary Ann 1810 married a E.Newman no more is known. George Thomas 1812 nothing at all is known. Thomas 1814 a general labourer, married Eliza Higgins in Chelsea they had ten children and are the root of many Hainsbys and Ainsbys that are alive today. Rhoda 1820 married a Steven Mack late in life. John Henry a tailor by trade, married Selina Foster and they had seven children all girls in the St Pancras area of London. Sussanah 1821 died in infancy. Henry 1822 was a silk weaver by trade he married Mary Ann Rawlins and had four children in Bethnal Green although only his eldest son survived past twenty. This is the family line that my immediate family stem from. Mary 1823 was born in Hackney ,a bootbinder by trade , no other information. Louisa 1828 no information. Robert 1833 born in Chelsea a green grocer or costermonger by trade, a profession carried on by a lot of his descendents. This family line produced a great many Hainsbys in the West of London. Henry 1836 he was a shoe maker by trade and married Martha Pitts , having five children in the Bicester area, only one a boy, William Pitts Hainsby, whose only son Fernley Winter Hainsby was killed in action over France in 1918