Letter from Cape Town

Can any one help with my Dorset Cherrett missing links?

Little did I know Corfe Mullen would be at the centre of things when I started researching my birth family tree. I was adopted out of the family and have had tremendous fun in the last three years researching “who I am’ and my links to Corfe Mullen. I have also met the most amazing and interesting people along the way.

My birth mother’s maiden name was “Cherrett before she married George Christodoulou. It was a surprise to find I had a sister Helen, who was fostered by a family in White Close Parkstone when she was quite small. Helen went to Kemp Welch School then worked at Max Factor as well as the The Dorset Soldier in the evenings. She was saving hard to buy their first home at Creekmoor. Helen had a little boy, David, when she was just 16, born in 1956 in Poole, who was also adopted out of the family. In those days teenagers were not encouraged to keep babies and the only support offered was to forcibly take the baby away for adoption. Helen seems to have led quite a difficult life especially with the traumas of bombings in London in 1942, before being sent to her relatives in Dorset and then because there really was no extra room, to foster parents. Her parents split up after the war so Helen never had the chance to return to a home amongst her own family. She married in March 1961 and seems to have been happy until she died in March 1970 at 29 years of age. The hunt continues for Helen’s son as he is the only missing link alive today.

My CHERRETT forefathers came from Corfe Mullen when it really was just a small village. The earliest relative that I have traced was John Cherrett born in Corfe Mullen in 1752 and married Elizabeth Legg in September 1772 at Lytchett Matravers. During my research I have found several people researching the “Cherrett” name and derivatives. Many of my ancestors are buried in St Hubert’s Churchyard’.

John and Elizabeth had 6 children that we know about. Sarah born in 1774, John born 1775, Hanah born 1777, Elizabeth born 1779, Lucy born 1781, Jane 1873 and Martha 1786. They were all born in Corfe Mullen and subsequently multiplied and spread across the globe.

The first records of the CHERRETT name in the vicinity is in the National Archives dated 1538 – 1544;
“Henry WILLUGHBY, esquire, administrator of the goods of Edward Willughby, knight, deceased, v. John CHARETT, yeoman.: Messuage, mill and land at Knolton (in Horton) demised to defendant on condition that he should not grind grain from the manor of Woodland at a profit.: DORSET”.

I feel sure that this record is connected with my John Cherrett born in 1752 in Corfe Mullen but have not been able to substantiate it.

When did the first Cherrett name first arrive in Corfe Mullen and where from? The Church of St Hubert’s had its first rector in 1152, so it is very possible that there was a Cherrett family in Corfe Mullen long before my records of 1752. It is also possible way back then that people would have traveled from village to village by river on the River Stour. I would be very interested to hear from any historians or family history researchers who may have information and can fill me in on my historic missing links.

From a blisteringly hot Cape Peninsula,
South Africa
Tess