Click on any of the childrens names for more details
Joseph was a millwright - a trade he had learnt away from Bridford. We find him in Chagford in the 1851 census as an apprentice living in Fore Street. In the same house were two journeyman millwrights - James Jennings and George Babb - so perhaps it was with these that he picked up the skills. The head of the household was Samuel Lee, an agricultural labourer. Other occupants of the house included three sisters - Elizabeth, Priscilla and Ann Dicker.
Joseph Wills married Ruth Yelland sometime between 1852 and 1856. Unlike his father he was not a farmer and became a millwright, having been apprenticed in Chagford. On the death of Ruth (around 1870) he married Priscilla Scanes and the last two daughters were by this marriage. Priscilla was a widow and it is pure speculation that she was the Priscilla Dicker he had met some 20 years earlier.
Joseph and his family lived at Venn Park Cottage during the 1870's and 1880's but by 1891 they were back at Furzeland.
For more details of Ruth Yelland and her ancestors click here
Died at the age of 11 on 15th July 1867.
He is buried in Bridford Churchyard.
The inscription reads:
HIS TRUST WAS IN THE BLOOD
THE NEWS OF WHICH HAD TOLD HIM
THAT SPOTLESS AS THE SON OF GOD
HIS FATHER COULD BEHOLD HIM
AND ALL HIS TRUST WAS IN THAT NAME
THROUGH WHOM THIS GREAT SALVATION CAME
Never married. In 1881 she was
in domestic service to a builder called Chubb in Tormohan but in 1901 was sharing a house in Kingswear
with her brother Philip Henry.
Died in 1875 aged 16
Died, unmarried, in 1895.
Albert was also known as Albert Edward and Walter Albert. He married Sarah Saunders (or Sanders) in 1889 and they had seven children. Descendants of Albert Wills are detailed on his page.
Married James Reynolds in 1886 in Barton Regis and had three children before his death in 1893. She then married John Chown in 1896 and had a further five children. Hannah died in 1952
Hannah and John, and John Chown on his own
Descendants of Hannah Chown (nee Wills) are detailed on her page.
Next in the direct line of descent, he and his wife have their own page