The Purser Hair Bracelet/Ring

The Purser/Stokes Mourning Ring – its trail from 1803 to the present

Quote - Burke’s “General Armory” records that another family of Stokes settled in Pembrokeshire in the time of King John (1199-1216).  They also came from Caen and had the same Coat of Arms as the Stokes of Stanshawes.

While researching Llanteg village history we ordered a copy of the Will of Mrs Anne Jane Purser, a widow who lived at Llanteglos, Llanteg, and who had died in 1903.  The Will, worth over £1 million at today’s value, was interesting in regard to its detailed lists of jewellery and other items (given in full in our book Llanteg - Turning Back The Clock).  However one item made us do a ‘double take’ as we read it:

In trust for Winifred Laura Purser – a hair bracelet with fastening containing Charles 1^st’s hair and monogram surmounted by the Royal Crown.

This hair bracelet aroused our curiosity, but as we knew nothing of the Purser ancestors or descendants, our search had begun.

Not being able to trace the bracelet, we did however track down a mourning ring (also mentioned in the Purser 1903 Will) to descendants of the Purser family in Australia, and were both very surprised and delighted in the autumn of 2010 when Mr David Purser in Australia very generously and unannounced gifted the mourning ring to Llanteg Local History Society. 

Two articles relating to our researches into the Purser family ancestors and descendants were published in 2010 in Llanteg – Looking Back, and also one in Pembrokeshire Life magazine in July 2003.

Inscription on reverse of ring

Although in the Purser family the ring has an inscription to Thomas Stokes which reads:

‘Thomas Stokes Esq. died Jan 15^th 1803 aged 70’

The Thomas Stokes mentioned on the ring was traced back to Yate in Gloucestershire and is remembered on a marble memorial in St Mary Church, Yate, and he is shown as a magistrate.  The family seat was at one time Stanshawes Court, at Yate in Gloucestershire.

After Thomas Stokes the ring presumable went to his son Thomas and then to we jump to his grandson Edward Stokes who was a surgeon from Gloucestershire but who had moved to Manorbier and who died in 1828.  Edward Stokes also had a brother, Thomas, who was a surgeon at New Milford (now Milford Haven). 

Edward Stokes had a daughter Sarah Eliza Stokes, who was born around 1818.  Sarah was born in Wickwar, Gloucestershire, and ran a boarding school with her sister before marrying Thomas Purser in 1854.

Thomas Purser had been born at Monkton, Pembrokeshire, in 1815 and we have traced his family line back to the first evidence of Pursers with the Will of Henry Purser of 1663, a Husbandman residing at Bosherton.  His Will made on 6 April 1661 was proven in the E.C.C. of St David’s on 30 April 1663.  Whilst his wife and son, Margarett (sic) and Henry Purser, were executors, Henry also makes reference to his five other children: sons Francis, John, William, and Rice Purser, plus his only apparent daughter Abra.  Reference is also made to unidentified grandchildren who in 1661 were all minors (research by Owen J.Vaughan).  The following Pursers found in the 1670 Hearth Tax returns are possibly the sons of Henry and are recorded as:-
Rice Purser                              of Pwllcrochen Parish            - two hearths
William Burser (sic)                of Stackpool                            - one hearth
Henry Burser (sic)                   of Bosherton                           - two hearths

The ring then passed from Sarah (on her death) to her husband Thomas Purser (b 1815), who in turn passed it on to his second wife Jane Purser, Llanteglos, Llanteg.

Jane Purser died in 1903, and her Will leaves ‘a gold ring set with black diamonds in trust for Thomas Picton Purser (son of William Edward Purser, her stepson [and grandson of Thomas Purser] who had died in 1898) at the age of 21’.

Thomas Picton Purser was born in 1896 and received the ring when he was 21 years old – this was also the time he went to fight in World War 1. 

Thomas was working for the London City and Midland Bank, later the Midland Bank, in Carmarthen when he enlisted and was living at Suffolk House in Narberth. 
Thomas gave the ring to his fiancée.

However when Thomas Picton Purser was killed in action, his fiancée kindly gave the ring back to Thomas’s mother, Mary Anne Purser (remarried name Collins). 

Thomas Picton Purser

It was Mary Anne who removed whatever was in the centre of the ring (probably hair) and inserted a picture of her deceased son Thomas Picton Purser.

Thomas Picton Purser was living at Redstone Cottage on the 1901 census but by 1911 the family had moved to St James Street, Narberth.

Thomas’s Attestation Papers of 1916 show his residence as Suffolk House Narberth (13 Market Street).

War Service

Thomas Picton Purser, Private, 6785, Honourable Artillery Company.

Thomas was the Son of Mrs. M. A. Collins (formerly Purser), of Suffolk House, Narberth, and the late Mr. W. E. Purser.

c. From Steve John's Pembrokeshire War Memorial website

Thomas enlisted at Armoury House, London into the 1st Battalion, Honourable Artillery Company.  In March, 1917 the Division fought in the Arras Offensive, and captured Gavrelle during the Second Battle of the Scarpe, where Thomas was wounded. Thomas Died of Wounds the next day, aged just 20, on the 17^th April, 1917 and was buried in Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension.

 

Mary Anne Purser then passed the ring to her elder son, George Frederick Purser.

After marriage in 1923 George Frederick Purser emigrated to Australia, and it was on his death in 1954 that the ring passed to his son David Picton Purser, who had the ring until 2010 when it was passed to Llanteg History Society.

With the quote at the beginning of this article suggesting a connection between the Gloucestershire Stokes and those of Pembrokeshire, with Edward and Thomas Stokes moving down to Pembrokeshire in the early 19^th century as well as the use of the Christian name Adrian in both the Stanshawe Stokes and those of St Botolphs, Pembrokeshire, we wondered if there was more of a connection to Pembrokeshire.  The ring has gone almost full circle, from Gloucestershire, then in the Purser family and being in Llanteg in 1903, only to go all the way to Australia and then come back again to Llanteg in 2010.

Thanks

With grateful thanks to many who have helped over the years - Mr Robert Stewart of London, who had coincidentally contacted our churchwarden regarding his own research into Pursers and their graves; the King Charles the Martyr Society, who, in the person of Mr Jeffrey Monk, also became interested in our quest; Researcher O.J.Vaughan and also relatives of the Llanteglos Pursers – the late Mrs Hilary Lestner of Lyme Regis and her cousin Mr David Purser in Australia, who have both been very helpful in our researches.

Llanteg History Society Blog – www.llanteghistorysociety.blogspot.com

Llanteg – Looking Back 2010

Llanteg – Turning Back The Clock 2002

Pembrokeshire Life July 2003 – The Lost Bracelet