A modern-day view of Bitterley, where my ancestor Elinor (who married into the Mound family) was born.
The surname Mound exists in various forms across Britain. It is not an uncommon surname in England, and even today it is found in higher concentration in the West Midlands, which is roughly where my own ancestors were from.
My earliest confirmed ancestor to have borne the surname Mound was a Thomas Mound who lived at the end of the 18th century and at the start of the 19th. It is possible he is the same Thomas Maund (sic) who is listed in the 1841 census living with his wife Anne in Brimfield, on the border between the counties of Herefordshire and Shropshire. I say possible because I have yet to confirm a link between this couple and the children they appear to have had, who were all born at the turn of the century in Hope Bagot, a parish also on the southern edge of Shropshire near the Herefordshire border. It was there that Thomas Mound worked as church warden, as mentioned in the church registr of his children’s baptisms; he may also have been a tradesman. Be that as it may, and whatever their origins may have been, Thomas and Anne Mound had at least five children born in Hope Bagot. This is the story of each one:
- William Mound was born around the year 1796 and baptised that same year. He appears to have gone into service by his mid-40’s, and he is consistently mentioned in the various census returns as a servant, a groom and, later on, as a coachman. His marriage to a woman called Mary produced five children: Harriet (d. unmarried in 1860), Helen (d. young), Anne, Thomas and Mary. As far as I know, only Thomas fathered any children, all of whom were born in Cheshire and Merseyside. William Mound passed away in 1878.
- Thomas Mound was born in 1798 in Hope Bagot. Unlike his eldest brother, he does not appear to have gone into service, but worked the land instead. His 1817 marriage to Elinor Cooper, a native of Bitterley, produced five children (three of whom were recorded in the baptism register as Munn): Mary, Ann (aka Ellen), Thomas, Sarah and Richard. Ann (aka Ellen) was my grandmother’s great-grandmother. Thomas Jr. was a domestic groom in the household of the Rev. James E. Grassett, vicar of Allensmore, Herefordshire, while his wife was the cook. His sister Mary also went into service, earning a living as a housekeeper. Her sister Sarah married Henry Pearce and had many descendants, while the youngest sibling, Richard Mound, married his first cousin Harriet Savigar. Thomas Mound Sr. died in 1870 of dropsy.
- Richard Mound was born in 1802; he married Mary Hughes, of Ludlow, in 1836, but the couple do not seem to have sired any children. Richard worked variously as an agricultural labourer, a stable man and as an undergardener. He passed away in 1875.
- John Mound was born in 1805, and died in Ludlow in 1869. He married Elizabeth Bailys in 1825 and had only one daughter, Harriet. She in turn had an illegitimate son named Aaron before marrying a man named Preece, by whom she had an additional five children.
- Mary Mound, Thomas and Anne Mound’s only daughter, was born in 1808 in Hope Bagot. Her 1837 marriage to Thomas John Savigar produced six children, two of whom married first cousins: Mary Ann, Harriet (who married her cousin Richard Mound), Emma (married John Wilson), Thomas (married Fanny Halley and had three sons including one called James who was killed in Italy during WWI), James (who married his first cousin Emma Page) and Anne. Mary Mound Savigar died in Ludlow in 1881.
Hope Bagot church and churchyard.
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