Hunnisett Family History

Stephen Hunneysett (ca.1820 - 1887), Blacksmith of Hellingly

From census records, Stephen is believed to have been born in Wartling around 1820. No baptism has been found but at his marriage his father was given as Thomas Hunneysett, blacksmith. It seems probable that Stephen was an illegitimate son of Mary Honeysett, born a couple of years after her husband, Thomas, was transported to Australia. She later married Thomas Humphrey, a blacksmith.

Stephen became a blacksmith, presumably apprenticed to his step-father, and in 1841 he was recorded as a blacksmith in Hellingly. Stephen married Mary Goldsmith (1824-1859) in Hellingly on 25 December 1843. They lived in Hellingly and are believed to have had eight children:

In 1851 Stephen, a master blacksmith, and his wife were in Hellingly with their first four children.

Mary died soon after Ebenezer was born and then Stephen married Elizabeth Lambert (1815-1899). Two marriages to Elizabeth seem to have been recorded; at Hellingly on 27 March 1859 and at Upper Dicker on 5 April 1859, but neither was registered with the GRO. At the 1861 census Stephen and Elizabeth had all his children with them except Mary who was boarding out as a servant with Edwin Akers. In 1871 only Cornelius and Ebenezer were with them at Boship Pottery, Hellingly. Cornelius was with them again in 1881, having been married and widowed.

Stephen died in Hellingly on 8 June 1887 and Elizabeth in 1899.

Of Stephen’s children:

• Stephen was a plumber and gas fitter and lived in Camberwell with his wife, Maria, and son William. He may have died in 1885.
• Mary married William Sweetman in Hellingly on 15 June 1869 and lived in Hailsham.
• Caleb, known as William, worked on a ship and settled in Middlesbrough where he married and worked as a blacksmith.
• Dorcas appears to have married in 1872.
• Alice married Harry Pierce, a bricklayer from Eastbourne, in Hellingly on 20 May 1876. They were in East Dean in 1881 with two sons.
• Cornelius married twice and lived in Hellingly.
• Ebenezer married Caroline Buckwell and lived in Eastbourne.