The urge to research my family history led me into using the computer to help, and I was struck by the awesome power of modern technology to search records at a rate which would have been unthinkable even five years ago. Census information, records of births, marriages and deaths, and now even phone books - all are available online. Searching has never been easier, cheaper, or quicker – and it is getting better all the time.

Barry Smith’s 1992 piece ‘A Walk to Britford’, reprinted in the Kilvert Society Journal  mentions the Morres brothers, ‘soldier and priest’ who married the Hills sisters of Britford Vicarage. Looking in the Journals, I couldn’t find anything on the Morres brothers, and my Kilvert Who’s Who was silent, so I thought I might use the computer to see what I could find.

This family was much troubled by spelling – other people’s. Morris or Morres ? Francis or Frances ? Elliot or Eliot ? Enumerators were often inaccurate in recording information, and across the years the family appear with either spelling, as Frances ducks in and out of sight in both male and female forms, and Eliots are allotted different numbers of consonants. Even Kilvert – or was it William Plomer ? – does it. On 27^th August 1875, Kilvert began his memorable walk to Stonehenge with ‘Morris’ and later that day Major Fisher invited ‘Morres and myself to come to his hawking lodge’.

This slight confusion makes searching tricky but exciting. Here goes.

The Morres brothers

The two Morres brothers were Arthur Phillip and Elliot J Morres, sons of Beatrice and Eliot Morres, who appears is the census with one ‘L’, while his son has two. Eliot senior was born around 1795, and enjoyed a military career. He is described in the 1871 census as a Commander in the Royal Navy.

Born in Reading in 1832, Elliot J was the soldier. Elliot J was an Oxford graduate, and was, like his father, a military man. The rather blurred page of the 1881 census notes that he had formerly been a Lieutenant of the 47^th Regiment.

Arthur Phillip was born in 1836 in Wokingham. He was the priest and Morres minor. In 1861, aged 25, he was boarding with the schoolmaster in Bishops Lydeard where he himself was curate.  More of him later.

The Hills sisters of Britford Vicarage

Richard Hill was born in 1801, and appears in the first census (1841) as ‘Clerk Curate’ of Britford. Richard had married Mary Barton (born 1811) and by 1841 their family was already growing. Mary’s mother, also called Mary Barton (born 1786), lived with the family.

The Hill family was large by today’s standards, and eventually 11 children are recorded in the census records. The first child, John, was born in 1828. The second was Susan P Hill, born in 1830, followed by her sister Mary Ann in 1835. They were followed by Robert (1837), Walter (1839), Jane B (1841), William (1843), Frances J (1845), Geoffrey (1847), Alfred (1849), and Arthur (1851). The regularity of the dates between the children’s births suggests that there may have been an additional child somewhere between Susan’s birth in 1830, and Mary Ann’s in 1835, and that this child died in infancy.

By 1851, Richard Hill was Vicar of Britford. His mother-in-law was still a member of the household, but, with his youngest son aged just 10 months, there is no sign of his wife, though his marital status was recorded as ‘married’, rather than ‘widower’. Where was his wife ? Had she fallen ill following the birth of their latest child ? Or had she perhaps already died, and for some reason Richard’s marital status on the census was inaccurate ? None of the above.

Mary Ann Hill, described as ‘Clergyman’s wife’, is living with her three daughters in Bournemouth. Both she and her husband each employed two servants one of whom, Eliza Bugg, remained with the family for at least the twenty years between 1841 and 1861.

By 1861 Richard is described as a widower and the family was reunited at Britford. His daughter Mary Ann, aged 26, is described as ‘B.A.: Oxford’. By 1871, Richard disappears from the census, and his son-in-law, Arthur Phillip Morres, had succeeded him as vicar of Britford.

Marriages

When such research was more arduous than it is now, the indefatigable Teresa Williams discovered the 1862 marriage of Mary Ann Hill and Arthur Phillip Morres.

Elliot J Morres had already married her sister, Susan P Hill, and in 1881 they were living at Raglan Villas in Bath, with daughters Mary Ann (aged 22) and Susan E (aged 20). Also living with them was Frances Hill, who is described as ‘wife’s sister’.

The two families were united exactly as Kilvert describes: two bothers marrying two sisters. 

Francis Hill

On 26^th May 1875 (Vol 3 p192) Kilvert finds ‘the Morreses at dinner and Francis Hill with them.’  Francis was Frances J Hill, the younger sister of Susan and Mary Ann. Alone of her siblings, she was born at Coombe Bissett in 1845. Dogged by her final syllable, Frances wanders through the census records, appearing in 1851, living with her mother and sisters In Bournemouth. Ten years later, she is still at home, as might be expected at age 16. By 1871, she is living with Arthur Phillip and his wife, and in 1881 changes teams, living this time with Elliot and Susan Morres, with whom she remained until at least 1991, when, aged 46 and unmarried, she is described as ‘living on own means’. In 1901 she is living with her brother Walter in Oxfordshire, where he was a ‘Clergyman of the Church of England’.

Soldiers and priests

It seems likely that Elliot and Arthur Morres were not the first brothers in the family to be soldier and priest. Eliot Morres senior had been born in Isleworth. A Thomas Morres was also born in Isleworth in 1796. They may well have been brothers. Thomas was Chaplain of Lucas’ Hospital and Perpetual Curate of Wokingham in 1851, and by 1871 is described as Rector of Wokingham and Master of Lucas’ Hospital.

Missing link

Let’s go back to Kilvert’s Stonehenge expedition with ‘Morris’. It is 1875, and Kilvert is staying at Britford with ‘the Morreses’. The Morreses in this case were not the brothers, but Arthur Phillip and Mary Ann Morres. Arthur Phillip had been vicar at Britford since at least 1871. As they walked through the meadows towards Salisbury, Arthur Phillip told stories of Edward Hill hunting grizzly bears. Rev Edward Hill was Rector of Ashurst in Sussex between at least 1871 and 1891. In 1871 he is living at the Rectory with his brother, Alfred Briscoe Hill. Born in 1833, Edward fills the gap between his sisters Susan (1830) and Mary (1835) that the census information threw up. So why was he missing in 1851 ? A quick check shows him at Magdalen College, Oxford, aged 19.

The army, the navy, the church and the stage. The Morres family had links with the first three. If any of them were actors, I have not tracked them down yet. And I have no clue as to when Edward was shooting grizzly bears. Even computer technology has its limits.