Banbury journal reveals the forgotten story of three families who migrated to the USA in the 1830s

The fascinating story of the three families, who migrated from Aynho to the United States, appears in the annual issue of Cake & Cockhorse, the journal of the Banbury History Society.

The article has been researched and written jointly by Shawn Doyle in the USA and Barrie Trinder, vice-president of the Banbury Historical Society.

John George and his wife Ann (née Terry) left Aynho for America in 1832 and settled in Richland and nearby Pulaski in upstate New York, near the south shore of Lake Ontario.

They were followed by John’s parents and his brother Thomas, and by Ann’s three sisters who were married to three brothers of the Eely family.

“The article includes some details of their journeys and describes the wild nature of the countryside in which they settled,” said Mr Trinder. "One of the Eely brothers, late in life, cherished the axe which he took from England with which he cut down his first tree in America."

The article describes how the families overcame hardships they encountered. The next generation were better educated than they would have been in England, and generally, they prospered. Some moved to distant parts of the United States but most remained firmly attached to the area around Richland and Pulaski.

The article has a long history. It is the joint work of Shawn Doyle, president of the Half-Shire Historical Society in Richland, and Barrie Trinder - vice-president of the Banbury Historical Society.

When a young historian in 1970 doing research which led to the publication of Victorian Banbury (1982), Mr Trinder came across a letter in the Northampton Herald, written by John George in 1833, which was reproduced the following year in Cake & Cockhorse.

Mr Trinder happened to consult the letter in 2022 when he realised that Richland was close to Syracuse - the home of a friend who had invited him to visit.

In 2023 that friend took him to the headquarters of the local historical society which had done detailed research on the Terry family and were in contact with a direct descendant of John George who provided marvellous sources from the family archive. A memoir by Elizabeth Erskine (née George, 1836-1901) was a principal source for the article.

“Ann George was one of the many women and girls from the Aynho area who worked making pillow lace. She took to America the canvas pillow stuffed with hay and straw that she used, and amazingly it was kept by her descendants until 1990, when they donated it to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. An illustration of the pillow appears in the article.

The 2024 issue of Cake & Cockhorse can be purchased either online or in the Banbury Museum shop. Contact: [email protected] or call 01295 236165.

Members of the Banbury Historical Society receive Cake & Cockhorse each year as part of their membership. Email [email protected]