A 30-YEAR-OLD Wirral man is appealing for help from Somerset locals for details about his family history in a “needle in a haystack” search.

Rob Earnden’s search for his Somerset family history centres around a letter, addressed to his family and dated 1876, a copy of which was given to an Australian tourist when she visited a Somerset B&B in 2001.

On hearing that the visitor was from Newcastle, Australia, the Somerset B&B owners brought out the 148-year-old letter to show her. The letter was written by a pub landlord in the Australian harbour city to his English relatives in London – from whom Rob is a direct descendent.

It was only when an Australian publication, the Newcastle Herald, wrote an article on the history of the Newcastle publican who wrote the letter [from his pub, the now-closed Lighthouse Hotel on Bolton Street, Newcastle, Australia] that Rob discovered the existence of the letter — which offers Rob’s three-times-great-grandmother and her half-sisters work in Australia with her aunt and uncle.

The Australian news article recalled Josie O’Donnell’s experience visiting Somerset and being sent a copy of the letter by the B&B owners. However, unfortunately, it didn’t detail which Somerset B&B had the letter, or where in Somerset they visited in 2001, and Rob has not been able to make contact to get these details.

Thankfully, Josie, the Australian tourist who was sent a copy of the letter, had given a copy to the Newcastle (Region) Library in her city, which is how Rob was able to get hold of a copy of the letter. 

Now Rob wants to track down the owners of the mystery Somerset B&B in the hopes that they may have further clues about his family’s history and to ask how they came to have the letter in their possession.

The letter is written by John Dunbar Grant, and asks if his brother-in-law's only child, Sarah Matilda Hearnden [known as Tilly] who would have been 20 years old, or her half-sisters Polly, and Honor, would like to move to Australia to work in his hotel.

Thomas Hearnden, Rob’s four-times-great-grandfather, drowned in the Thames at 26 years old when his only child Tilly was just eight months old. His wife Matilda Ann married again a couple of years later, to Joseph [William Willeter] Tilt, who took Tilly on as his step-child and the letter is addressed to him.

John wrote to his sister-in-law’s second husband explaining that he had recently acquired a hotel and, after hearing about the hard times that had befallen his brother’s widow and her family in London, that he could offer his niece Tilly or her half-sisters a job in Australia.

John writes that although he’d never met Joseph and would "not wish to deprive" him of his "children’s affections", he was making the offer of work "in all kindly and Brotherly love and feeling". 

Rob Earnden told the County Gazette: “I'm hoping your readers can help me find this Somerset B&B, the owners, or their descendants. In pursuit of my family history, I came across a news article from an Australian website in 2018, it was about a lady who had visited a Somerset B&B 17 years prior, so about 2001."

He added: “The eldest daughter mentioned in the letter, Joseph’s stepdaughter, referred to as ‘Tilly’, is my three-times-great-grandmother who grew to become the mistress of Charles William Sharpe Kirkpatrick, son of the sixth Baronet of Closeburn.

“They had at least three if not four children, who would never take his name. It was their story that bore the origins of my name, ‘Earnden’. It was only through extensive family history and DNA research that our heritage was discovered, and I'm on a mission to learn as much as I can to share with my 87-year-old grandad and his cousins while I'm lucky enough to have them.

Rob said: “I am VERY interested in how the owners of this Somerset B&B came to have this fascinating piece of my family history. Are they descendants too?

“I know this is a needle in a haystack. But miracles happen.”

Please get in touch with Earndendna@gmail.com if you have any information.