Francis SHEARD 1801 to 1876

Francis SHEARD was the father of Joseph SHEARD. There is not much detailed knowledge about him. As will be seen his name occurs regularly on birth and marriage certificates (although on Joseph SHEARD’s marriage certificate it is misrepresented as being Thomas SHEARD which is hopefully a transcription error) and Census entries.

For some time there was some doubt as to whether he was the Francis SHEARD born in Sutton on the Forest in 1801 to Rachael SIGSWORTH and Francis SHEARD or some other Francis SHEARD that came to Sutton on the Forest at a later date. The confusion arose with there being two LDS records of a Francis SHEARD marrying in Sutton on the Forest within just a few years. The first marriage involving a Margaret WHITE and the second involving Catherine Margaret GREEN (Joseph SHEARD’s mother). Investigation of the National Burial Index shows that Margaret WHITE died in 1831 shortly after the tragic death of her infant daughter in 1831. The likelihood is that Francis SHEARD did marry a second time after losing both wife and daughter.

We applied for searches of the parish registers of Sutton on the Forest firstly for the marriage of Francis SHEARD and Margaret WHITE and they found:

• Francis SHEARD of this parish and Margaret WHITE of this parish were married by banns 8 February 1827. Witnesses: John CHAPMAN and Rachel BELL. Borthwick Institute Ref: (PR SUT/F 5)