The Peplow name appears regularly in my family history and among my DNA matches. According to SurnameDB, Peplow is an English medieval name originating from the small hamlet of Peplow near Hodnet, about 14 miles from Shrewsbury. The following chart shows that some Peplows did not stray far from the old homestead. Later generations of Peplows lived in the Stews of Frankwell and as fishermen at Bagley Bridge Shrewsbury.
Five of my DNA matches connect via Podmore Peplow born in 1641 at Dawley Parva. Among his descendants are our late wonderful Queen Elizabeth and Oswald Mosley, Britain’s most notorious fascist. Despite Mosley being a fourth cousin of the Queen Mother, she and King George VI opposed his beliefs and had nothing to do with him or his second wife Diana Mitford.
These DNA matches hint at a connection between the Cheshire and Peplow families. Samuel Edward Ellis claimed he was 17 years old when he joined up with the 3rd Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry on 7 Jan 1890. That was about eight months before my grandfather Samuel Cheshire was born. Was there a liaison between Samuel Ellis and Eleanor Cheshire? She was a 23 year old unmarried mother at the time and she apparently never divulged the names of the fathers of any of her many children, but she named her son Samuel.
On 12 Jun 1891, Samuel Ellis re-enlisted and served for 7 years at home (i.e. in England, Scotland or Ireland) before embarking for South Africa and the Boar War in 1900-1. For this he was entitled to the South African War Medal with clasps for the Orange Free State, Cape Colony and Johannesburg.
Samuel was transferred to Class II Army Reserve on the 12 Jun 1898 on the expiration of his period of army service. He married Sarah Jane Bishop on 14 Jan 1899 and their daughter Sarah Jane was born soon afterwards. A son Samuel Ellis was born in 1904.
Following his wife’s court case in 1907 (see Bishop page), Sam made his own appearance in court in strange circumstances…
Ex-soldier’s thefts at Shrewsbury… Samuel Edward Ellis, labourer, Bodkin Row, Ditherington, charged on remand with stealing overcoat. Witness saw prisoner take the overcoat from Cash Clothing in Pride Hill. Witness thought the prisoner must have been doing it for a bet, or was out of his senses. He took the coat quite openly, and walked a lttle way down the street, and then started to put the coat on, although there was a large card on it. Prisoner had another overcoat [from James Baker and Son, Castle Gates] and a pair of boots [Briggs & Co., Mardol] in his possession. Prisoner who is an ex-soldier, and had seen a lot of foreign service, was very strange in his manner. He said he had never stolen anything in his life, and was not guilty of any of the charge. When he was in prison he was bordering on delirium tremens, and witness told him if he is not careful he would finish up in the asylum. Even after being released on bail, he endeavoured to steal a bicycle from the railway station. The Mayor said prisoner would go to gaol for two months for each charge, the sentences to run concurrently. The Bench trusted prisoner would sign the pledge. (Ludlow Advertiser, 28 Nov 1908).
Samuel died on 9 Dec 1911 at the County Lunatic Asylum in Bicton Shropshire. Cause of death was “General Paralysis of the Insane” (late stage manifestation of untreated syphilis) since before admission on 9 Jun 1910. This would explain his erratic behaviour. Tragically, his daughter Sarah Jane died in 1919 in the same place and of the same condition (described as “Dementia Paralytica”) at the age of just nineteen.
Travels Through Time 