Family History

William Dexter was born in 1818 in Melbourne, Derbyshire, to parents William Bull Dexter of Shepshed and Jane Smedley of Melbourne. William and Jane were married in Melbourne Parish Church on 4 March 1811. Jane’s parents John Smedley and Mary Toone are buried in Melbourne Baptist cemetery.

The 2016 Annual General Meeting of the Neptune Association was held at the National Arboretum at Alrewas. Captain Craig Mearns from the Clyde Naval Base HMS Neptune attended and the meeting concentrated on the search for and discovery of the wreck of the Neptune.

It’s surprising what you can find out from the comfort of an armchair. All manner of weird and wonderful stories can be found in old local newspapers, which can be looked up on the internet. Most present some sort of human interest. And all the more interesting when it involves your own family!

Canadians Jane Roberts and husband Malcolm are in Ticknall exploring the places where Janes ancestors lived and worked in the days when beer, bricks, malt, pottery, coal, lime, bread, tailoring, education and veterinary services (to name but a few) were all sourced locally.

Might you still have Dexters in your midst in the lanes of Ticknall? The last Dexters to live in Ticknall (or rather the last people named Dexter) were probably Alfred and Helena Dexter who fittingly lived in Dexter’s Cottage until this burned down in the mid 1960s.

The Dexter family were in Ticknall from at least the early years of the 18th century. This same family is now spread across the country and across the globe. The name Dexter itself may have died out in Ticknall in the 1960s. But it is a fair bet that their descendants, via the female line, are still living here today.