BENTLEY and RELATED FAMILIES
Chapter 11: GETHING\GETHINGS\GETHIN (from 1743)
The name Gething and its related forms such as Gethin(s), Gittin(g)(s), Guto, Gethen(s) and Gethan, is derived from the Welsh word cethin, meaning dark, swarthy or fierce, or, ugly or hideous, via Gutyn. It was used as a first name before becoming a surname.
The Gittins family of Alberbury, Shropshire can trace their ancestry back to Col(l)in ap Tangno c.1010. Tangno was a minor Welsh king, widely written about in Welsh poetry and folklore, who would have been born around 990. Most English occurrences of the name originate from families that left Wales via Shropshire, through the area known as the Welsh Marches. Ultimately all Welsh and English Gethings (and related names) may share a common ancestry in Wales. As late 1881 the distribution of Gething(s) and Gethen individuals still showed a heavy bias towards mid-Wales and the Welsh Marches.
Relative abundance of Gethin(g)(s) in 1881
Our Gething line are known to have been in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, in the 1740s, at which time William married Ann(e) Harper. There were however Gethin(g)s in Much Wenlock as early as at least 1617. Much Wenlock is one of the oldest settlements in Shropshire and has been a market town for at least 700 years. There is square in the centre of town. Across the road from the square is the Guildhall, which was built in 1540 as a free-standing Court House following the dissolution of the Priory. There is still a set of handcuffs on one of the stanchions, which was a whipping post, and mobile stocks, last used in 1852. The town council still meets in the Guildhall. The ruins of the St Milburgas Priory, originally founded in 680 by St. Milburga, granddaughter of the pagan king Penda the Terrible, are still visible. The priory was sacked by the Danes in the 9th century and later re-endowed by Lady Godiva. The remains visible today were built just after the Norman invasion in 1066.
Having married in Much Wenlock, William and Ann(e) raised their family in the neighbouring parish of Benthall. One of their children, Charles moved to Coreley, near Ludlow, in the south of Shropshire. Here Charles and his wife Rebecca, had twelve children. Only two of whom are known to have had families of their own. The first, Richard, had at least four children by his wife Hannah. The second, Benjamin, is the ancestor of our immediate family.
Like so many of his generation Benjamin left the countryside and took up an urban existence, becoming a pit sinker (digger of mine shafts) and later a retail brewer in the Black Country (Dudley and surrounding area). He married Rebecca Martin in Dudley on 12 July 1814. In the proceeding twenty years the couple had children born in Bilston, Wednesbury and Oldbury. By 1851, with his family growing up, Benjamin was running his retail brewing business from 70 Halesowen Street in Langley. He was of sufficient means to employ a house servant, Sarah Malpas, at that time.
Benjamin and Rebeccas daughter Rebecca married glassmaker, John Field. Two sons became engineers; Jonathan an engine tender and Joseph an engine tester. The two brothers lived in the Oldbury/West Bromwich area and will have worked in the manufacturing factories that abounded in that vicinity. Jonathan married but is not known to have had any children. Joseph married twice and had seven children by his second wife Matilda Rhodes, a glassmakers daughter. One of Joseph and Matildas daughters, Caroline, had a son who was born in the local Workhouse, fifteen months before she married the childs father. Joseph and Matildas son Edward was a mill furnaceman. He married Eliza Onions in 1899 and had seven children. The last arrived in 1916, the same year as Edward left to fight in the First World War. He joined the Northumberland Fusiliers and attained the rank of corporal. He survived the war, dying in 1940 during the Second World War.
William GETHING m.Ann(e) HARPER
....Ann GETHEN b.1744
....Mary GETHING b.1745
....Margaret GETHEN b.1745
....Sarah GETHING b.1746
....William GETHING b.1748
....Charles GETHING b.1750 m.Rebecca -
..William GETHIN b.1777
..Sarah GETHIN b.1779
..Richard GETHIN(G)/GETHEN b.1781 m. Hannah -
Rebecca GETHIN b.1806
Joseph GETHIN b.1811
.
..Elias GETHEN b.1817 m.Lucy CARLESS
.Richard GETHEN m.Mary PALMER
..David GETHEN m.Elizabeth GILLIARD
Godfrey GETHEN m.- -
.female GETHEN m.male WHITHORN
William GETHING b.1823
..Charles GETHIN b.1783
..Rebecca GETHIN b.1785
..Mary GETHIN b.1787
..Joseph GETHIN b.1789
..Benjamin GETHING\GETHINGS\GETHIN b.1789 d.>1851 m.Rachel MARTIN
Sarah GETHINGS b.1814
Richard GETHING b.1824 d.<1841
Benjamin GETHIN b.1824 d.>1841
John\Jonathan GETHING b.c1827 d.>1881 m.Mary -
Rebecca GETHING b.1831 d. >1881m.John FIELD (Chapter 10)
.Joseph GETHING b.c1834 d.>1899 m.#1 - - m.#2 Matlida RHODES
..Richard GETHING b.c1869 d.>1881
..Benjamin GETHING b.1869
..Caroline GETHING b.c1870 d. >1881 m.Benjamin BIRD
Jonathan GETHING BIRD/GETHING
................. male BIRD
................. female BIRD
..Joseph GETHING b.1873
..Sarah GETHING b.1875
..Jonathan GETHING b.1876
..Edward GETHING b.c1877 d.1940 m.Eliza ONIONS
Albert GETHING b.1902
Eliza GETHING b.1902
Lily GETHING b.1902 m.James Thomas HIPKISS
Matilda GETHING b.1905 m.Benjamin HOLDEN
Joseph GETHING b.1907 m.Doris STEVENS
Marion GETHING b.1913 m.#1 Frank GODWIN m.#2Edward OLDBURY
. ..Edward GETHING b.1916 d.1995 m.Francis Olive HESSON
.female GETHING m.#1 male WITHINGTON m.#2 male BRINADON
..#1 female WITHINGTON m.male BROOKES
. ..male BROOKES
...female BROOKES
.#2 male BRINADON
.female GETHING m.male DUFFIELD
..female DUFFIELD m.male MAYNE
male MAYNE
..female DUFFIELD m.male DOWNES
male DOWNES
female DOWNES m.male ALLEN
female ALLEN
..male DUFFIELD m.
female DUFFIELD
female DUFFIELD
..male DUFFIELD m.female LIDDELL
female DUFFIELD
..female DUFFIELD
Mary Ann GETHING b.1834 d.>1851
..Anna GETHIN b.1792
..George GETHIN b.1794
..Elias GETHIN b.1798
..Hannah Maria GETHIN b.1801
.Susana GETHING b.1753
.Martha GETHEN b.1755