Biography of William Rudd

William was born on 7 June 1828 in Banham, Norfolk to parents Zachariah (an agricultural labourer) & Honora Rudd, and baptised on 2 August 1828.

In the 1841 census he's 13, living with his parents & brothers Charles (10), Zachariah (8), George (5) & Henry (3) at Banham. By 1851 he's an agricultural labourer, age 22, at home with parents, Zachariah (18), Honor (13) & their grandson William (4).

William married Ann Spurgeon on 31 August 1857. Soon after they sailed on the SS Patrick Henry from London to New York, arriving on 28 October 1857. Ann's older brother William had already emigrated to Michigan, married and began farming in Newark, Gratiot County, Michigan in 1853.

The 1860 census records William (30), Ann (26) & baby Jennette (8 months), living together with Ann's brother William (32) at Addison, Oakland, Michigan.

In 1863 William, age 36, a labourer, was registered to be drafted to join the Union Army for the Civil War: no record of his service has (yet) been found.

By 1870 William (40) & Ann (36) are living at Newark, Gratiot, Michigan with their daughter Jennette Bertha (10) & son Frank William (1). William Rudd's personal estate was valued at $130 plus real estate $500.

A topographic map of Gratiot County from 1876 shows William Rudd owning a 40 acre plot in Block 26 (zoomed), just north of Ann's brother William's 2 plots in Blocks 34 & 35. Also shown on a 1889 map.

William's wife Ann died of consumption on 9 August 1877, age 43.

On 3 July 1879 William married Emily (Emma) Heckman - note that the marriage record shows 1877, but this is before Ann's death, and all adjacent records show 1879, so maybe the entry is a mistake. In the 1880 census he's 51, living with Bertha (20), Frank (11), new-born Cyntha May (1 month), & sister-in-law Lillie Frances Heckman (15).

William & Emma had 4 children: Lucinda (Cyntha) May, Agnes, Mabel, & Arthur; Emma died on 19 September 1887, shortly after Arthur's birth.

William married a widow Mary McCreery on 8 October 1899; the 1900 census has William (70) living with Mary (71) on a farm in Newark, Gratiot. Mary owned a 40 acre plot of land in Block 28, west of William's plot (under her widow's name Mrs M Stull). Mary died 11 years later on 22 November 1908.

William died age 86 on 30 July 1914.