Recorded family connections
Family trees, marriage records and wills preserve different parts of West Mersea’s family history. The family connections article follows marriages joining the Hewes, French, Mussett, Green and Pullen households; the individual family histories below record their separate lines.
The Hewes, Green, May and Pullen pages include named relatives, properties and work across several generations. The Bean and May records also document the marriage of Alexander Bean and Eliza Henrietta May on 26 October 1852.
Families in the oyster trade
Oyster fishing appears particularly clearly in surviving wills. A 1657 will in the oyster families history lists fishing gear and layings in Salcott Fleet. Thomas Overall’s 1795 will and three later codicils distinguish boats, an oyster-barrel business and property inherited by relatives.
Individual working lives
Individual accounts include William Haward, whose 1794 will dealt with oyster work, Samuel Boatman King, an oyster merchant recorded in 1819, and the working lives of Harry Thomas Mussett and Cecil Mussett.