Enoch Smith
My great grandfather Enoch Smith grew up as a Gypsy boy in and around
Oundle and King's Cliffe. He was born the son of Thomas and Harriet about
1871 near Stanion and his (probable) grandparents Robert and Rhoda Smith
lived in King's Cliffe at the time. Enoch's grandfather Robert was a "Gypsy
fiddler and basket maker"; his father Thomas was a tinman and clothes peg
maker. Enoch's grandfather Robert was born about 1808 and his father
Thomas about 1832.
The family of Thomas and Harriet Smith included a son Aaron, daughter
Harriet, and at least three more sons Robert, Absalom, and the last born
Enoch. Robert and Absalom were both born at King's Cliffe in the 1860s. The
Smith family mostly lived in a caravan and moved about the local countryside
and villages. In the 1871 census they were noted to be living "in a van on
Benefield Rd." near Oundle. Not long ago I discovered several references to my
family in "The Memoirs of Mr. James Roberts", King's Cliffe Heritage Collection
Item No. 2531. Mr. Roberts wrote, "I can recall the gypsy folk who came to
settle in 'Cliffe, they were all decent enough folk. I remember one of them in
particular: Tom Smith. He used to come each year for several weeks and then
move on, making his quarters in Miss Dennis' field, just inside a tall hedge
where you now go up to the cemetery...Tom Smith was respected by all; he and
his family members would travel for miles around selling pegs, wooden spoons,
tapes, boot laces, etc., and tell fortunes." Mr. Roberts also mentioned in his
reminiscence that a Cinderella Green brought him into the world, serving as a
midwife. Cinderella was a daughter of Robert and Rhoda Smith and the aunt of
my great grandfather Enoch.
In 1881 and 1891, according to the census records, only one Thomas Smith
(adult) lived in King's Cliffe. He must be the "Gypsy Tom Smith" to whom
James Roberts referred. In 1881 he and his two boys Absalom and Enoch lived
at Workhouse Lane; in 1891 Tom and his 18 year old son Enoch lived on
Bridge Street. Absalom may have joined the army, the 2nd Norfolk Regiment.
The family legend is that Thomas Smith much disliked living in the house and
preferred his caravan.
Sometime in the very early '90s Enoch moved to Peterborough, then married
Martha Matilda West in 1894. The couple had one child Ethel, and they resided
in Peterborough for the rest of their lives. According to family history, one of
Enoch's brothers, probably Absalom who had also grown up in King's Cliffe,
was badly wounded in the Boer War. He went to his brother Enoch's house to
be cared for and died in the front parlor.
Once married and settled in Peterborough, Enoch was employed in more
traditional work than that to which Gypsies were traditionally accustomed,
namely as a railway worker and ironworker as well as in farm labor. He died in
Peterborough in 1953 and is buried at Fletton Cemetery.
With the passing of Enoch Smith the romantic Gypsy connection ended in our
family. My mother and Enoch's granddaughter Ethel Brown, however, recalls
riding to King's Cliffe from Peterborough as a child with her mother and sister
in the 1930s to visit a Gypsy aunt named Mary Ann. My mother, who is now
85, remembers that Mary Ann was married to a Gypsy horse trader who was
away often and that his name was likely Smith. They lived in "one of three
stone cottages on the Main Street of King's Cliffe" which she thinks were built
in the 1600s but have been torn down. Her aunt Mary Ann would often tell
their fortunes. After the War my mother Ethel Brown married an American GI
stationed at Alconbury and currently lives in Tampa, Florida.
This photograph of Enoch Smith was housed in a locket. It was probably taken
in the 1890s about the time he left King's Cliffe.
Stephen Altic
Columbus, Ohio