The Charnocks of Cinnamon Brow

When I received Elizabeth Charnock’s marriage certificate, I was not surprised to find that her father’s name was James. While there were other Charnocks in the Wigan area, I suspected James, simply because she named her oldest child James and there was a likely James about. The tendency for children to name one of their children after their parents was more common back then. Perhaps it had something to do with fewer public records and heredity rights. In any case, I later found that James also named his first born after his father, Edward.

I also found that the James Charnock family did not live in Wigan, but 4 miles northwest in the town of Upholland. The 1841 census taker reported that the Charnocks lived in the “Village of Cinnamon Brow” on the outskirts of Upholland. But the census taker was being generous in his designation for the “Village” of Cinnamon Brow contained only five homes. The census of 1851 and all future censuses list Cinnamon Brow as part of Upholland, which it still is today. Incidentally, the word Brow refers to the crown or high point of a hill; the English use it in much the same way that we use the word Ridge in the United States.

It is fortunate that the Charnocks lived in Upholland because the parish of St. Thomas the Martyr was one of the first to go online with their baptismal, marriage, and burial records. Through baptismal records we learn that James and his wife Elizabeth had nine children: Edward, Mary, our Elizabeth, George, James, Anne, Ellen, Charlotte, and Henry – the last two being twins.

The St. Thomas records also reveal that James Charnock was baptized in Upholland on August 15, 1790. He was the son of Edward Charnock, who in turn was born in Upholland and was the son of Edward Charnock, Sr. Both Edwards worked as “husbandmen” or, as more commonly referred to today, as farmers. The first St. Thomas Church record for the family was the baptism of Edward’s son John in 1737, which means the family was residing in or near Upholland by at least that date. Edward, Sr. would eventually father 8 children and his son Edward, Jr. had 11 of his own.

We don’t know where the Edward Charnocks lived prior to Upholland, but like all Charnocks they obtained their surname from either Charnock Richard or Heath Charnock, which are two settlements 7 and 11 miles northeast of Upholland, respectively. The name itself is thought to have derived from the Celtic carn from ‘cairn’, a pile of stones raised as a boundary marker or a memorial.

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We will return to Cinnamon Brow in the next blog. I've been asked to keep these blogs short -- so I will. But before I go let me leave you with this inanity: when I was writing this blog I wanted to say there were a lot of Charnocks living in the area. I was looking for a dressier word than ‘lot,’ but less pretentious than a ‘plethora’ of Charnocks. Then it hit me - if a group of steers are called a herd, what should a group of Charnocks be called? Answer: a Pile of Charnocks. Cute, huh? Why stop there? Question: What is a group of Walchs called? A Pod of Walchs – coming from Wales. A Flock of Storks is easy. And, so is a Fleet of DeFords. Your homework for tonight: What is a group of Brachs called?

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Lineage: Edward Charnock, Sr., Edward, Jr., James, Elizabeth, William F. Walch, Stephen F. Walch