Pile Family
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Westbourne Family
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Kelly's Directory 1911
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WESTBOURNE
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The earliest reference to a Pile found in Westbourne’s parish records occurs on 19 January 1799 with the Removal Order of Sarah Pile and her children to East Meon in Hampshire. Under the provisions of the Poor Law the Churchwardens and Overseers had complained to the Justices of the Peace that Sarah Pile had no legal right of settlement in Westbourne and become chargeable to the Parish and they ordered that she and her children; Sarah 14, Henry 12, William 9, Charlotte about 6, Harriet about 4 and Benjamin about 2 should be removed to East Meon.
Sarah's husband, Henry is described in the Removal Order as “beyond the seas” which suggests transportation to Australia. On 22 January Westbourne Overseer William Hoare delivered Sarah and her family to Richard Ayles churchwarden of East Meon.
Henry and Sarah's four eldest children were born and baptised at East Meon. Sarah was baptised on 1 Apr 1785, Henry on 27 Mar 1787, William on 11 May 1790 and Charlotte on 29 June 1792 (she was born on 17 June); the baptisms of Harriet and Benjamin have not been found.
The removal order may imply that Henry and Sarah Pile had come from East Meon to Westbourne between 1792 and 1799 but when and for what reason is unknown.
Their second son, William was living at Westbourne in 1841 and died there in 1859, his elder brother Henry also lived at Westbourne until his early death in 1812.
On 18 November 1804 James William Mayhew Pyle was baptised at Westbourne parish church, he is recorded as the illegitimate son of Sarah Pyle. Sadly, at less than five months old, on 15 April 1805 James Mayhew becomes the first Pile burial. There is no mention of a father's name in the parish register but convention would suggest that his father’s name could be William Mayhew, a name which does appear in Westbourne records. It is interesting to note that there was a Benjamin Mayhew Piles born (apparently also illegitimately) to Mary Piles in Hambleton, Hampshire in 1797, there are other connections between some of the Westbourne Piles and that area of Hampshire but whether their ancestors came from there is unclear.
On 8 December 1809 the parish register records that Sarah Piles was buried in the churchyard although there is no indication as to who she is. She was 44 years old when she died which would have meant she was born around 1765 and is likely to be the mother of Henry and William Pile.
In February 1810 Henry Piles married Elizabeth Robinson at Westbourne parish church, Elizabeth was pregnant at the time and just three months after the wedding she gave birth to a son, who was named Henry, he was christened at the parish church on 29 April.
Elizabeth fell pregnant again in 1811 but before the child was born Henry died and was buried in the churchyard on 8 October 1811, unfortunately no age is given in the parish resister.
Henry Piles had made his will on 13 September 1811. In it he states that he owns “five freehold Messuages or Tenements Gardens, Hereditaments and Premises situate at Warnford in the county of Southampton” (Hampshire), these properties were occupied by Messrs. Mansbridge, Goodall, Green, and Gregory. Henry bequeathed the property together with his household goods in trust to “my respected friends, Joseph Smith of Westbourne, Merchant and Michael Turner of the same place Yeoman their heirs and assigns” to be sold to provide for Elizabeth and his son Henry on condition that Elizabeth does not remarry. Elizabeth is in addition left the sum of thirty pounds “for her own use and benefit and pay”. Smith and Turner are appointed with Elizabeth as the child’s guardians. Unfortunately Henry does not mention his family by name in the Will but merely refers to his wife and son.
Probate was granted to Henry’s executors at London on 11 November 1811. The original document is in the Public Records Office however a handwritten copy also appears in the back of the Westbourne Church Memorandum Book 1797-
The following year Elizabeth’s second child, a daughter Elizabeth was born, she was christened at the parish church on 15 March 1812. Following her husband’s death Elizabeth Pile remarried at Westbourne church on 22 November 1813 to Mark Meggs and therefore relinquished her right to Henry Pile's estate; she may have considered that marriage would provide more security for her and her children. On 4 September 1814 Elizabeth and Mark Meggs baptised a son William.
Henry Pile who died at Westbourne in 1811 is likely to be William’s brother born in 1787; in his will he bequeathed property at Warnford, which is less than four miles from East Meon. Sarah who died in 1809 and the mother of James Pile born in 1804 is likely to be William and Henry’s mother; at the age of 44 years she would have been born around 1765 making her twenty when Henry and Sarah’s first child, Sarah was born at East Meon.
There is no record of Henry and Sarah’s marriage at East Meon but a Henry Pile married Sally Pidgeon at Alverstoke near Gosport in 1784. There is nothing positive to suggest that this is the couple that are in East Meon except for a further connection between the Meon area and Alverstoke in the wills of William Pile of Warnford and John Pile of West Meon, William’s will was proved in 1789 and a witness was William Spearing who also appears as the occupant of a cottage at Warnford in John Pile’s will of 1818. In 1785 at Alverstoke near Portsmouth William Spearing married a widow Mary Pyle.
Source: http://pilefamilyhistory.blogspot.co.uk/p/westbourne.html
PILE FAMILY HISTORY 1800 to 1824