I am the direct descendant of John Wickson, born August 25, 1734. He was born in the village of Enysham (Ensham) Oxfordshire.

ENSHAM, a parish in the hundred of WOOTTON, county of OXFORD, 5? miles (E. by S.) from Witney. During the English Civil War, Cromwell's Parliamentarian forces engaged in a siege of the Royalist stronghold at Blenheim, were stationed in the area. The church is dedicated to St. Leonard and in John's time there was also a place of worship for Independents. In 1700, John Bartholomew gave ?350, to be applied to the education and apprenticing of ten poor boys: in the year following the school was built by subscription.

This place derives its name from the Saxon Egonesham, and was formerly a Saxon frontier town. King Ethelred held a council at Ensham, on the advice of Alphege and Wulstan, Archbishops of York and Canterbury, at which many ecclesiastical and civil decrees were enacted. At one period it was famous for its abbey, founded by Ethelware, Earl of Cornwall, in the reign of Ethelred, who confirmed the charter in 1005: its revenue, at the dissolution, was valued at ?443. By 1830 there were no remainsof the abbey left.

The oldest surviving building within the villiage today is the White Hart Inn, which was established on the site was in 1750, the license being issued in the name of the Rose and Crown. This was changed to the Haunch of Venison in 1780, and finally to the White Hart in 1835. During these times, the Inn was famous for its Piggery to the rear of the property (now the garden area) and was a centre for Cock Fighting.

John was the third child of Robert Wickson (1706 - 1770) and Ann Curtis (1710 - 1781)whom had married at Enysham on July 20, 1731.

John married three times in all, and his first wife was Hannah Goodman. Hannah was born in 1736, and died giving birth to thier second child in 1763. they married on November 13, 1757.

The two children are James Wickson, born on 1st November 1758, and died one month later. The second child Mary was born on October 12, 1763, and died with her mother Hannah.

John then married Elizabeth Lay on May 29, 1766. the couple had three children. Robert born September 17, 1768, (died 1855) who went on to marry Mary Ashworth (1773 - 1855), John, (my direct ancestor) in 1772, and James in 1775.

When Elizabeth died in 1775, he married her sister Sarah.

Sarah and Elizabeth were the daughters of Thomas Lay (1724) and Elizabeth. Elizabeth, Johns second wife, was thier second daughter, born 1740. Sarah was thier last (seventh) child born in 1755. Sarah married John on January 2, 1776, and provided John with two more children.

The first was Thomas, born October 29, 1776. he married Elizabeth Dawson (1782 - 1811) on July 22, 1805.

The second child was Sarah born June 13, 1779, whom married John Burden (c1769) on October 13, 1795.