HERITAGE by Annie E. GOATCHER (122.html)
Annie never married and left no descendants. However, for many years in Monreal, QC, Canada, Annie lived with and supported her widowed mother, Sarah Jane nee GOULTON GOATCHER. This article mentions various ancestors and family members of Annie GOATCHER. Her pedigree can be seen in Source 5. In the 1911 photo shown below, we see three of these people, including Annie GOATCHER, herself.
Sarah Jane nee GOULTON GOATCHER (1853-1946)
Hannah Mary GOULTON DRAKE (1846-1929)
Annie Elizabeth GOATCHER (1883-1970)
In her article, Annie mentions James Banks (1766-1858) and his daughter, Mary nee Banks GOULTON (1791-1871). His tombstone is mentioned in Source 2. Note that his second wife, Mary, not his daughter is buried with him. James Banks was a wood-turner and church-warden of Selby Abbey. More about James Banks can be found in Source 4 at the WikiTree genealogy site. This site is available to the public.
In her article, Annie also mentions Grandfather William James Goulton (1818-1906), the flax farmer. He appears in a family photo named "The GOULTON Family c1905)". A copy of this photo appears in Source 3. All of the people in the photo are named in Source 3.
2 Goulton Sisters: Sarah Jane nee Goulton Goatcher, Hannah Mary nee Goulton Drake and Annie Goatcher
(To enlarge .....Click it)
L-R: 2 Goulton Sisters: Sarah Jane nee Goulton Goatcher, Hannah Mary nee Goulton Drake and Annie Goatcher (sitting) in 1911
HERITAGE - An article written by Annie E. GOATCHER (1883-1970)
Heritage
[by Annie GOATCHER]
First think of that body of knowledge, etc., handed down from past times - from primitive man, his food, his shelter, his means of transportation, to our present day; meals in which the poor consider necessaries what were luxuries to their grandparents. The same with shelter - our homes within modern comforts and conveniences; transportation from the time many did not travel twenty miles from the place of their birth to the present when travel by air is an everyday matter. These things are our heritable from our forebears. Their thoughts and energies from age to age have given us the many advantages we enjoy. The results of their errors are also handed down to us.
Most of us have some knowledge of our grandparents, and sometimes of our great grandparents. Going back to the latter we inherit from six on the father's and six on the mothers side. All these personalities blended in us, and some of their characteristics can be traced from generation to generation. Here are some of the heirlooms that I treasure and plan to pass on to the next generation with their tales of family life and characteristics:
The old man with the white curly locks in that [James] photograph of an oil painting is [Annie's] great, great grandfather Banks, born 1776, died 1858. He looks somewhat weary and a bit sour, but nowhere in the family do I see that sour look unless it be in his great great grandson, Dan, in that group photograph of children where he, like his ancestor, had to stand still. We know little of James Banks, but surely it is from his daughter Mary that the succession of charming old ladies comes. They were probably gay and sometimes erring in youth but were loved and revered in old age. That delicate china cup and saucer were Mary's and I have her visiting card which perhaps indicates her social standing; but apparently she was not highly educated, as evidenced by the book of Wesley's Hymns which I hold. It was published in 1831 with a preface, dated October 20th, 1779, by John Wesley. In it Mary nee Banks Goulton, has written in a somewhat shaky and chidish hand the following:-
"William Goulton, his book, God given him grace in it to look
not to look but understand that ler[n]ing is better than
'ouse or land when 'ouse or land is gone and spent, lerning
is most excelent. this book I give to my son William wen I
die it been his farthers."
All we know of Great Grandfather, William Goulton, is that he was a Yorkshire man of Norman descent, occupying Stainers Hall and farming the land. With him, however, appears another strain, better educated and more intellectual than the former. The venerable looking man in that photograph is his son, Grandfather William James Goulton, the one to whom the Wesley's Hymnbook was willed. He was dictatorial. No card playing or smoking in his home. A staunch Methodist, leader of the orchestra in the chapel; perhaps respected rather than loved. However, in spite of his severity he sympathised with the underdog, and by his efforts succeeded in improving the lot of the farm labourers of his day. He was venturesome, bought and improved farms and sold them, bought a coal mine and it failed, and had an interest in tin mining in Cornwall. But his chief interest was in flax growing on which he became an authority. Finally he lived as a dependent in his son, William's home, where he was found one morning eating his breakfast with the carving knife and fork, having suffered a slight stroke in the night. This left him with a disability in regard to names; and once, when his granddaughter was visiting him, she was told that he called all men William and all women Nellie; so when he asked how Nellie was, she would know that he meant her mother. His grandson, Dan, had once been loitering outside a hardware store at closing time when a tin bath which was hanging outside was unhooked and fell on his head. Grandpa knew of this and enquired "How is the boy - the boy - - the boy with the bicycle on his head?" He is quite well, thank you, Grandpa, was the reply.
It was probably when he, Grandfather Goulton, went over to Ireland to hire women to work the flax that he met his wife, Harriet Moore, a gentlewoman in the truest sense of the word. Here is her Bible, in which is pasted a letter written to her daughter. It is well written and composed and tells of a coming event in the family - another child. There were ten, and she died at age 43. How she ever found time or energy to make those exquisite little bonnets that you see there is a marvel. One is knitted in exceedingly fine silk, others have tiny even stitches, with tucking and a very fine cord inserted to draw them closely round the little heads. It is said that the women from the mill would hurry to the house to see who would be first to help her in some way.
Of the ten children warmhearted William was the edest, and he followed much in his father's ways, promoting this and that, inventing certain things, but seldom making money. In him we first notice the family failing of unpunctuality. It is said that he lived near the railway station where the train could be seen approaching. He would be at breakfat, and his daughter Alice [Source 6] watching for the train. When she gave the alarm, William would catch up his boots and spring for it, put his boots on in the train, toss his slippers out at the next station, and ask the porter to give them to him on his return from the city.
At the Ladies Aid of which she was secretary, William's sister, Aunt Hannah, earned the sobriquet of "The Late Mrs. Drake". Though slow in her movements she was not so in her mind, and her wise and kind letters were a delight to receive. This gold locket and chain were hers. The chain is part of her mother's watch chain which was divided into five and a piece each given to her daughters. The hair in the locket is that of her grandmother, and the locket itself was given to her by the son of the house where she was nursery governess in Bordeaux during its seige in the Franco-Prussian war. She once remarked that she considered it a great achievement for a woman to mainain her virtue, and I imagine she must have had difficulty now and again with that young man.
Other treasuers are that beautiful tray with the beadwork, made by Aunt Annie, and this delicate milkglass vase with the green fluted edge, a gift from Aunt Grace when she left for South Africa to nurse her sister in her last illness. A letter indicates that she loved the man her sister married, but stood aside for Annie's sake. She never married, and, when she was an inmate of the Princess Christian Home in Cape Town, the Princess Alice would chose Aunt Grace to sit beside her when she took the ladies for a drive.
This ruby and pearl ring (originally her sister Hannah's engagement ring), was Sarah Jane Goulton's, and she was perhaps the best loved of all the sisters; she became the wife of William Goatcher. In her were blended the natures of both her father and her mother Throughout her whole life her innate refinement was evident. She was beautiful, autocratic, passionate, and practical; quick in mind and temper; always self denying, and as the years went by, she became gentle and patient - but spirited to the end. When a girl, her father once told her not to contradict hm. She replied "I will when I know I am right!" Near her ninetieth birthday, when she heard what Hitler said he intended to do to England, she drew herself up to her full five fee, almost stamped, and cried "How dare he! How DARE he!" One occasion when her quickness of mind came into play was on the evening of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee when she went out to view the illuminations, and in passing a somewhat secluded house she saw that the lace curtains had caught fire from the candles in the window. She rushed in and tore them down, much to the relief and lating gratitude of the occupants, an old lady and her maid.
The books, the jewels and other articles mentioned are relics of the maternal side of the family, but all there is on the paternal side are a marriage certificate and one letter. The marriage certificate was pasted to the inside of a sea chest which had gone to sea with seven good shirts in it. If the shirts were those of Daniel Goacher [Source 7] he must have gone to sea before his marriage to Mary Harling, at which time he was parish clerk and farm bailiff in a little Sussex village. Sometimes when driving on those country roads with his son a carriage might be seen approaching, and he would say "Pull aide, Will; here comes King Billie." Indications are that he was of Huguenot descent. Nothing has been recorded of his characteristics, nor is anything known of his wife, but they were your great-grandparents.
Their son, William Goatcher [Source 7], born 1825, was brought up in that little village where there was no school, so he got his eduation from life, and he learned to read and write as an adult. This letter is one he wrote to your Grandmother, the former Sarah Jane Goulton, and the letters in the words are not joined. He was a man of deep thought, absolutely fair in all his dealings, kindhearted; and his sense of humour was delightful. In middle age, as his second wife, he married Sallie Jane Goulton when she [was] only half his age, and this spelt trouble. Too soon his health broke down and Sallie had to become the breadwinner. She was brave, but so was he. In the midst of dire poverty and faced with further trouble he[his] efforts and his kindness never failed; and that beautiful voice of his would often be raised in song - old songs - The Bay of Biscay, the poachers song "Oh, twas my delight of a shiny night in the season of the year!" or perhaps his own wording "Round goes the world, and troubles we'll defy - - - or in spite of old Brown's donkey we will have a jolly good try!" Dying in extreme poverty, almost his last words were those of forgiveness to one who had grievously wronged him, and he is remembered as a loving and noble man.
What a wealth we have in the records of these people! They were ordinary men and women like ourselves; sometimes saints and sometimes sinners. Resemblance to them in form and feature as well as in character occurs here and there right down to posterity; but all the way through two things are outstanding - their sincerity and kindness; and "Kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith [more] than Norman blood." Surely heritage is something to prize. It gives us a priceless sense of continuity and belonging. Sometimes there are who, for one reason or another, have no knowledge of their ancestry, but, lacking it, they can become ancestors and so create for others the riches of heritage.
NOTE For Gould put Goulton; for Frank put William; for Mrs. Dodds put Mrs. Drake for Any put Annie; for Charles Bonner put William Goatcher (or Goacher) for Daniel Bonner put Daniel Goacher. Sallie was Sarah Jane Goacher, nee Goulton, my Mother.
[A typewritten note by Annie E. Goatcher, transcribed by David K C Cole, a son of Annie's niece, Marion nee Goatcher Cole.]
/Heritage17K18.txt
References
Web Sources
Web Source S122:01: Goatcher Photo Archive (80.html) 
by David COLE (originally by Neville GOULTON)
Web Source S122:02: Gen: James BANKS - Abraham Window (14.html) by David COLE
Web Source S122:03: Gen: Goatcher Family Reunion 2019 (121.html) by David COLE
Web Source S122:04: James Banks (1766-1858) at WikiTree by Profile Manager David COLE
Web Source S122:05: Fan Chart (Pedigree) of Annie E Goatcher (1883-1970) at FamilySearch by David COLE
Web Source S122:06: Alice Harriet nee Goulton Kirby (1877-1914) at FamilySearch by David COLE
Web Source S122:07: Daniel Goacher and William Goatcher at FamilySearch by David COLE
Updated 2019 B Feb 04
Created 2019 B Feb 04
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