“So what happened to the rest of the family?”

~ Wilfred Gayleard

The first evidence I can find of Gayleards in Portsmouth is William Gayleard listed as a saddler. I find him marrying a Elizabeth Ashford around 1803. Although the spelling is often different, I do find him spelled Gayleard in the Portsea Island rate books from 1821 to 1832 either on Oyster Street or Prospect Row. In 1831 he is found in Pigots as running a store.

This is the parish marriage record for William Gayleard and Elizabeth Ashford. Although it if you search for it you will either find it as Gaylard or Gaylord. However what is really interesting in this marriage record you can see that they actually write out their names, and if you look closely enough you can see the name spelled Gayleard.

William and Elizabeth went on to have several children, I have found most of the baptism records for them and I am currently searching the records for more. So far; Elizabeth(1) William, George, Elizabeth (2) and Sarah. There are a few more possibilities, but I will post about them later.

I have edited the information on all the pages to show persons and dates as possible, so it isn’t all crowded. Here is the baptism of both Elizabeth and William Gayleard showing their parents and Elizabeth Gayleard. You will also notice that I have included on the same date William and his daughter Elizabeth Ashford being baptized. I believe that William Ashford is most likely Elizabeth Ashford/Gayleard’s brother. It shows their parents also having the names William and Elizabeth. The date being June 10, 1806. You will notice that Elizabeth is born November 17th, 1804 and William is born October 2nd, 1805.

Here is the baptism record of George Gayleard son of William and Elizabeth Gayleard, the date April 19th, 1807.

I believe this to be Elizabeth Gayleard daughter of William and Elizabeth Gayleard there is a second Elizabeth born to the couple. It appears that they named their second daughter after the first.

Elizabeth daughter of William and Elizabeth Gayleard born July 29th, baptized on September 22nd. And unfortunately she seems to have died a year later.

“So here is William Gayleard’s death…”

~ Wilfred Gayleard

Although Sarah would become the fifth child for this couple

What is good about this record is that the writing is better than previous records and that they list the father’s occupation. As you can kind of see it lists him as “sadler”, you will see it properly spelled saddler on some occasions and on others sadler.

I have included this marriage certificate because I believe it to be Sarah Gayleard as we see a Sarah Pearce associated with both William and Elizabeth later on.

So here is William Gayleard’s death, in it you will see several pieces of information, one is that Sarah Pearce who is present at William’s death, also lists his occupation as Saddler and third that he died on Crown street. Although William and his family rented in several locations, both Crown street and Oyster street seem to come up.

What is a surprise in the burial record is that it lists William Gayleard’s age at 87 and his death certificate as being 68. Now usually records are a few years off but that is change of 19 years. However I have found a few in the family that have played a little loose with their ages.

Searching in the 1841 census I couldn’t find most of the family members, however this is the closest I could find to Elizabeth. It is spelled Gaulard, an unusual spelling but most likely the person writing it didn’t complete the letter “y” and it ended up as a “u”. At this point she a widow, age 60 and living at an Alms house.

Here is Elizabeth Gayleard and Sarah Pearce in 1851, both are widows and they are again living on Crown street. Elizabeth is age 70 which stays consistent and Sarah is listed at age 29. Although if this is Sarah Gayleard she should be 36 years old.

Here is Elizabeth Gayleard in the census records of 1861, the age is consistent and she is now listed as being 79 years old. She is now living at an Alms House in Portsmouth.

Elizabeth Gayleard passes away in 1862, she is listed as being 82 years of age and the widow of William Gayleard, Saddler. She also listed having passed away while living at the Workhouse in Portsmouth.

So what happened to the rest of the family? To answer that I am still looking for records to make the connections. The problems are always missing information, as you can see with William Gayleard and Elizabeth Ashford’s marriage there is no mention of who the parents are and even with Sarah Gayler (Gayleard) So making connections is rather difficult. I will at some point gather a few records that show some names with similiar spelling. It is also important to note that in Portsmouth there is a family that goes by the name Gaylard, Samuel and his family. But I also liked to find out who Sarah Gayleard/Pearce is and one last record that I have for her

Sarah Pearce, age 46, born circa 1815, living in an Asylum in Fareham, Hampshire as a charwoman (cleaner), born in Portsmouth. A strong possibility.

Moving forward I will post or try and make a page for those who are related in family groups and some point try and connect them all. Thank you reading along.

Continue Reading: 2. William Gayleard 1804 to 1871