JOHN HUXTABLE

= THIRZA COOK

The following information was contained in an E-Mail that I received from Stuart Windsor:-

"John Huxtable was born at Brayford, the son of John Huxtable, a blacksmith, and his wife Elizabeth Thorne. Following his invention of a particular kind of turn-wrest plough, he started a plough works first at Brayford, possibly in his fathers shop (called the Eclipse Pough works I think), and then later moved to West Buckland where he started a larger works. I don't think that John jnr actually stayed long in West Buckland - the works had a waterwheel, and a hot summer during which the water dried up and stopped work, was followed by a harsh winter, again halting work. The final straw came when John's son, also called John (perhaps we should adopt the american John III !!!) was playing around the waterwheel, with one of the employee's, a youngish lad (can't recall his name) - they were, from what I gather, trying to run either inside the wheel, or on top of it. Anyway, the lad (not John's son) slipped and got trapped between the wheel and the wall, and was killed almost instantly. Following this John (II) moved to Barnstaple and started the Alexandra Iron works, a steam driven plant. Incidently, John's first wife Thirza Cook was killed in 1904, when her horse drawn carriage went out of control at Bickington. I also believe that John's (II) brother Frank (Francis) ended up a trap in London."

 Best wishes,

Stuart

Can anyone help me with more information?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 9 April 1997

This page last updated 21 February 2020