Jonathan German Drewery

1768 – 1837

✓ Validated against records · 2026-07-03

Jonathan German Drewery was baptised at Fleet on the 8th of July 1768, one of at least eight children of Jonathan “Jarman” Drewery the elder and Catharine Marsh. The byname ran in the family — his father bore it, he bore it — and no two clerks spelt it alike: Jarman, German, Germon, Germains. In the registers of the silt parishes he is often simply “German Drury”, and that is the name the sessions court, the county newspapers and the burial book all used to the end.

His adult life was built, and rebuilt, around three marriages. At Moulton in May 1799 he married Ann Johnson — by licence rather than banns, and both of them signed the register. She died in 1803, in childbirth, and the baby John followed her at eight months old. In November 1805, at St Mary's, Long Sutton, the widower married Ann Pikeitt, a spinster of twenty-two; he signed, she made her mark, and over sixteen years at Long Sutton, Moulton and Whaplode she bore him ten children, Robert among them. Then, in one week of March 1821, the loss of 1803 repeated itself in a crueller form: he buried his two-year-old daughter Maria on the 7th, lost Ann in or soon after the birth of a son, and on the 14th had the newborn baptised with his own name, Jonathan.

The last act belongs to Moulton. In January 1823 the Holland Sessions at Spalding sentenced a labourer to seven years' transportation for stealing German Drury's ducks — a flash of ordinary life that shows him, in his fifties, a man with a yard worth robbing and the standing to prosecute. That October he married Sarah Whitfield, signing the register in the same bold hand as in 1799 while his bride made her mark; five more children followed. He died on the 12th of January 1837, aged seventy, and was buried at Moulton on the 15th, his death noted in both the Stamford Mercury and the Lincolnshire Chronicle. What followed him is its own record of the age: by 1841 Sarah and the three youngest children were inmates of the Spalding Union Workhouse.

Composed from validated records · 2026-07-03

Baptism: Jonathan German Drewery 8th July 1768 (to Jonathan German and Catherine) at Fleet, Lincolnshire
Marriage: May 18th 1799 to Ann Johnson in Moulton 6th November 1805 to Ann Pikeitt* at Fleet, Lincs *Anne was the daughter of William Pikeitt and Elizabeth Howard and was 22 years old at the time of marriage. October 13th 1823 to Sarah Whitfield in Moulton
Burial: 15th January 1837 at Moulton Lincs ‘aged 70’
Parents: Jonathan German Drewery and Catharine Marsh on 11 October 1763
Siblings: Mary Harrison Drewry baptised May 25th 1754 Whaplode John Drewry baptised November 20th 1759, Fleet Jonathan Drewry baptised January 18th 1764, Fleet Ann Drewry baptised August 25th 1764, Fleet Hannah Drewry baptised January 2nd 1767, Fleet Jonathan German Drewry baptised July 8th 1768, Fleet Robert Drewry baptised June 27th 1770, Fleet William Drewry baptised May 29th 1775, Fleet (There is a Henry and Susanah Drewry who have children in Long Sutton around the same time as Ann and Jarman)
Children: John Drury baptised August 14th 1803 died December 16th 1803, Fleet Meriah Drewry baptised 6th November 1806 Long Sutton (to Ann and Jarman) (buried 20 Feb 1807 'age at death 1' parents Ann and Jermyn) Hannah Drewery born February 6th baptised15th May 1808, Long Sutton (to Ann and Germon) Robert Drury baptised 17th March 1811, Long Sutton (to Ann and Matthew) Eliza Drury baptised 25th September 1813, Long Sutton (to Ann and Germains) Anthony Drury baptised 4th August 1816 Long Sutton (to Anne and German) (probably buried 6th September 1816 - recorded as A Drury) Jonathan Drury baptised August 20th 1817, Moulton Maria Drury baptised September 1st 1818, Whaplode died 7th March 1821 aged 2 Jonathan Drury baptised March 14th 1821, Moulton George Drury baptised January 24th 1824, Moulton Rebecca Drury baptised February 23rd 1826, Moulton Matthew Whitfield Drury baptised July 14th 1829, Moulton Esther Ann Drury baptised May 22nd 1831, Moulton Charles Drury baptised June 8th 1834, Moulton
1799: Marries Ann Johnson in Moulton Jonathan Jarman Drury of this parish, singleman and Ann Johnson of the same were married by licence the 18th day of May, 1799 in the presence of Will Ducket and ? (illegible) Jonathan signed his name Drewry; Ann also signed. Licence gave Jonathan's age as 27 and Ann's as 26
1803: Death of wife Ann in childbirth Death of son John aged 8 months John son of Jonathan Jarman Drewry by Ann his late wife died at Gedney December 14th and was buried December 16th 1803, Fleet, aged 8 months
1805: Marries Ann Pikeitt in St. Mary, Sutton Jarman Drury of the parish of Fleet, widower, and Ann Pikeitt of this parish, spinster were married in this church by banns in the year 1805 in the presence of Mary Pikeitt and William Cooper. Jonathan signed his name as Drewry; Ann made her mark
1807: Death of daughter Meriah aged 1
1821: March 7th death of daughter Maria aged 2 years, burial Moulton. March 14th death of wife Ann in or following childbirth, burial Moulton
1823: SPALDING George Street of Moulton, labourer for stealing ducks from German Drury to be transported for seven years January 24 1823 Stamford Mercury
1823: Marries Sarah Whitfield in Moulton
1837: Death of German Drewry, Moulton "German Drewry burial 15th January 1837 born 1767 aged 70" At Moulton on the 12th instant German Drury aged 70 Stamford Mercury 27th January 1837
1841c: Living in the Spalding Workhouse Sarah Drury aged 40 Charwoman, not born in Lincolnshire Matthew Drury aged 11, Pauper, born Lincolnshire Esther Ann Drury aged 10 Pauper Servant born Lincolnshire Charles Drury aged 7 born Lincolnshire Eldred Drury born 1840 George Drury is living with his sister, Hannah who married David Pepper in 1832

In your grandmother’s words · from her notebook

Family

Parents

JDFatherJonathan Jarman Drewery1726–1794

The children of Jonathan Jarman & Elizabeth Donson

The children of Jonathan Jarman & Mary Harrison

The children of Jonathan Jarman & Mary Scales

The children of Jonathan Jarman & Catharine Marsh

· · · Jonathan German Drewery b. 1768this page · ·

Marriages

The children of Jonathan German & Anne Pikeitt

RDChild · the line continuesRobert Drewerymain line1811–1884

The children of Jonathan German & Ann Johnson

The children of Jonathan German & Sarah Whitfield

Life

Confirmed — anchored to a recordEstimated — inferred

1768

Baptised

8 July 1768

Jonathan German, son of Jonathan German & Catharine Drewry — [baptised] July the 8th, 1768.— Baptism — Fleet, 8 July 1768 (Mum's photographs)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

Baptism — Fleet, 8 July 1768 (Mum's photographs) — Fleet parish register, Baptisms 1768 — photographed by Janet, with her own close-up of the entry; both images are shown here. The same opening carries two of his siblings: “Jan'y 2d: Hannah Dau. of German & Cathaine Drewry” (Baptisms 1767) and “June 27: Rob[er]t Son of Jonathan German & Catharine Drury” (Baptisms 1770) — the father's name flickering between German and Jonathan German within a single book, exactly the habit that follows this family through the registers for two more generations. from Mum’s research

1799

Married Ann Johnson

18 May 1799 at Fleet

No. 39: Jonathan Jarman Drury of this Parish, singleman, and Ann Johnson of the same, singlewoman, were married in this Church by Licence this Eighteenth Day of
May in the Year One Thousand seven Hundred and ninety nine — by me, Wm Maugham, Curate. This Marriage was solemnized between us: Jonathan Jarman Drewry — Ann Johnson. In the Presence of: Willm Ducket, Lydia Everard, Thomas Harvey.
— Marriage — Moulton, 18 May 1799 (register read online)

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Marriage — Moulton, 18 May 1799 (register read online) — Moulton marriage register, page 10, entry No. 39 — image read in the Lincolnshire Marriages and Banns set (findmypast; original at Lincolnshire Archives). Both bride and groom signed. Mum could read only the first witness; the register yields all three — recovering Lydia Everard and Thomas Harvey. A separate licence transcript gives his age as 27, against a 1768 baptism: stated ages on licences were often loose (see the research note). read at the image

1803

Ann and the baby lost

1803

Death of wife Ann in childbirth Death of son John aged 8 months John son of Jonathan Jarman Drewry by Ann his late wife died at Gedney December 14th and was buried December 16th 1803, Fleet, aged 8 months— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1805

Married Ann Pikeitt

6 November 1805 at Long Sutton

Jarman Drury of the parish of Fleet, widower, and Ann Pikeitt of this parish, spinster, were married in this church by banns [the 6th of November] 1805, in the presence of Mary Pikeitt and William Cooper. Jonathan signed his name as Drewry; Ann made her mark.— Marriage — St Mary's, Long Sutton, 6 November 1805

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

Marriage — St Mary's, Long Sutton, 6 November 1805 — Janet's transcription, confirmed by the Lincolnshire FHS transcript (“Jarman Drewry… JD wid Fleet”, 6 November 1805, Long Sutton, East Elloe deanery). Her page header said “at Fleet” — the register says the wedding was at St Mary's, Long Sutton; the groom was of Fleet. Ann Pikeitt was a daughter of William Pikeitt and Elizabeth Howard, twenty-two at her marriage, by Janet's note. She is Robert's mother — the grandmother of the East Riding Drewerys. from Mum’s research

1807

Meriah

1807

Death of daughter Meriah aged 1— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1821

The worst week

1821

March 7th death of daughter Maria aged 2 years, burial Moulton. March 14th death of wife Ann in or following childbirth, burial Moulton— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1823

His ducks, and a transportation

1823

Holland Sessions — Spalding, Thursday and Friday the 16th and 17th January… George Steel, of Moulton, labourer, for stealing ducks from German Drury — to be transported for seven years.— Stamford Mercury — the Holland Sessions (1823)

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

Stamford Mercury — the Holland Sessions (1823) — Stamford Mercury, 24 January 1823, page 2 — the full sessions report read in the British Newspaper Archive copy (findmypast). Mum's note named the thief “George Street”; the paper prints Steel. The sessions sat at Spalding on the 16th and 17th of January; the same column sentences another labourer to seven years' transportation for “various articles”, and a carpenter to six months and two private whippings for a silver spoon. from Mum’s research

1823

Transported for ducks — the criminal law of 1823

The England of German Drury's fifties punished small theft with a severity now hard to credit. Transportation — shipment to the penal colonies of Australia, usually for seven years — was the standard sentence for ordinary larceny, and the same column of the Stamford Mercury that records his case shows the going rates of that winter's Holland Sessions: another labourer transported seven years for stealing “various articles”; six calendar months and two private whippings for a silver spoon; two months for a linen handkerchief; a man who abandoned his family adjudged “rogue and vagabond”. Against that scale, ducks were no small matter. The case also says something about the man who brought it: a fen labourer with poultry worth stealing, and the means and standing to carry a prosecution through Quarter Sessions. Peel's reforms began to soften the criminal law within the decade — too late to matter to George Steel, sentenced at Spalding to seven years on the far side of the world.

Historical context Evidence

Background composed for this site from published history. It frames the family’s world; it is not one of Mum’s records.

1823

Married Sarah Whitfield

13 October 1823 at Moulton

No. 126: Jarman Drewry of this Parish, Widower, and Sarah Whitfield of this Parish, Spinster, were married in this Church by Banns this Thirteenth Day of
October in the Year One thousand eight hundred and Twenty three — by me, Saml Oliver, Officiator. This Marriage was solemnized between us: Jarman Drewry — ✕ Sarah Whitfield's Mark. In the Presence of: ✕ James Beeston's Mark — ✕ Mary Beeston's Mark.
— Marriage — Moulton, 13 October 1823 (register read online)

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Marriage — Moulton, 13 October 1823 (register read online) — Moulton marriage register, page 42, entry No. 126 — image read in the Lincolnshire Marriages and Banns set (findmypast; original at Lincolnshire Archives). At fifty-five he signed in the same bold hand as in 1799; Sarah and both witnesses made their marks. read at the image

1837

Buried

15 January 1837

No. 1028: German Drury — Moulton — buried January 15th, 1837 — aged 70 — Chas. Moore.— Burial — Moulton, 15 January 1837 (register read online)

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Burial — Moulton, 15 January 1837 (register read online) — Moulton burial register, page 129, entry No. 1028 — image read in the Lincolnshire Burials set (findmypast; original at Lincolnshire Archives). The county papers both carried the death — Stamford Mercury and Lincolnshire Chronicle, 27 January 1837: “At Moulton… on the 12th, German Drury, aged 70.” He died on the 12th and was buried on the 15th; Mum's header carried the burial date. read at the image

1841

His widow in the workhouse

1841

Spalding Union Workhouse, Spalding — Sarah Drewry, 40, charwoman, not born in this county; with Matthew Drury, 11; Esther Ann Drury, 10; Charles Drury, 7; and Eldred Drury, aged about 1.— The 1841 census — Spalding Union Workhouse

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

The 1841 census — Spalding Union Workhouse — 1841 census, HO107 piece 610, book 9, folio 36, page 3 (transcript, findmypast) — Sarah Drewry, 40, in the Spalding Union Workhouse; the institution's return lists its inmates singly, and Mum's reading of the household stands. The infant Eldred, born about 1840 — three years after Jonathan's death — is a puzzle the research note carries. from Mum’s research

1841

The New Poor Law and the Spalding Union

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 swept away the parish relief the fen villages had always known. In its place came unions of parishes, each with a central workhouse deliberately made forbidding — relief was to be had indoors or not at all, and conditions were kept below those of the poorest independent labourer, to deter all but the desperate. The desperate, in practice, were rarely the idle: they were the old, the sick, the orphaned — and the widows of labouring men. Sarah Drewery, left in 1837 with children of eleven, ten and seven and no breadwinner, is the system's textbook case. The 1841 census finds her in the Spalding Union Workhouse, set down as a charwoman, her youngest children beside her — four years a widow, with the old parish round that had carried her husband's family for generations no longer there to catch her.

Historical context Evidence

Background composed for this site from published history. It frames the family’s world; it is not one of Mum’s records.

Our research

German, Jarman — and the wall behind Fleet

Open research · Fleet, Moulton & Spalding

The 1799 licence gives the wrong age. The Lincolnshire marriage-licence transcript has the groom at 27 — a birth of about 1772 against his 1768 baptism. Stated ages on licence allegations were casual, but worth checking. To do: view the licence bond and allegation for 18 May 1799 (Lincolnshire Archives; indexed in the findmypast Lincolnshire licence transcripts) for his sworn age, occupation and parish.
Who is Eldred? The 1841 workhouse return lists Eldred Drury, aged about one — born some three years after Jonathan died. Sarah's child by another man, or a grandchild lodged with her? To do: GRO birth index, ~1840, Spalding district, for Eldred Drury/Drewry (civil registration covers him); then the 1851 census for Sarah and Eldred.
Sarah Whitfield was not Lincolnshire-born — the 1841 census marks her born outside the county, and her son's name, Matthew Whitfield Drury, carries her family with it. To do: find her baptism (~1801) and her 1851 whereabouts; her own page will need both.
The first Jonathan. A son Jonathan was baptised at Moulton in 1817 and the name was used again in 1821 for the baby whose birth Ann Pikeitt did not survive — the 1817 boy had presumably died. To do: Moulton burials 1817–1821 (register images online in the Lincolnshire Burials set).
For the wall page above this one: his siblings' baptisms carry two oddities that belong to his father's story — Mary Harrison Drewry (Whaplode, 1754) baptised nine years before the father's 1763 marriage to Catharine Marsh, and Jonathan (January 1764) and Ann (August 1764) seven months apart. An earlier marriage of the elder Jonathan, or a second Drewery couple on the same ground. To do: sweep the Whaplode and Fleet registers 1750–1775 (both parishes are imaged in the findmypast Lincolnshire sets) before trusting the sibling list.
George, the eldest of Sarah's brood (b. 1824), was not in the workhouse in 1841 — Mum found him living with his half-sister Hannah, by then married to David Pepper. The Pepper household keeps catching this family.