John Wagstaff and Sarah Humberstone (couple 5)

[Dad's maternal grandfather's paternal Grandparents]
[Albert Leland Wagstaff > Albert George Wagstaff > Wagstaff/Humberstone]

JOHN WAGSTAFF and SARAH HUMBERSTONE

John Wagstaff, son of Isaac Wagstaff and Mary Bathsheba Gillions was born in the village of Caldecote, Bedfordshire, England on April 25, 1816. John was married on November 25, 1844 at Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, to Sarah Humberstone. Sarah was born August 6, 1821 at Biggleswade to William Humberstone and Elizabeth Chamberlain. Awesome link HERE. We know little of the early life of John, or of his wife, Sarah. John's parents were probably farmers on small acreage plots. A descendant of John's brother, William, wrote: "His [William's] parents were tillers of the soil, honest hard-working, industrious, and religious, insisting upon their children's regular attendance at Sunday School, rain or shine, though they had to walk a mile and a half there and back again".

John's father, Isaac Wagstaff, died in 1844. John was the member of the family who reported the death to the Registrar of Vital Statistics two days following the death. William George Wagstaff, grandson of John and Sarah, served a mission in England from 1910 to 1912. He brought back a picture of the house where the Wagstaff families had lived for a period of over two hundred years. He said his own father, William, was born in that house on January 21, 1848.

from Here.

 The 1851 Census of England and Wales was taken on March 30, 1851. Listed as living in the parish of Northill, Upper Caldecote village, are several Wagstaff families. On page 100 of that census the John Wagstaff family is listed: John Wagstaff, age 30, is listed as a Gardener of 3 acres; his wife, Sarah age 30; daughter, Fanny, age 5: and son, William, age 3. Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had converted many people in this area, and John and Sarah probably had been taught by the missionaries, and also by family members. They accepted baptism in the year 1854, John being baptized on February 8th, and his wife, Sarah, on March 22nd.

John and Sarah, like others of the Wagstaff family who had joined the church, were anxious to join the Saints in Zion. On May 14, 1862 the family left Liverpool on the sailing ship, William Tapscott. The journey from Liverpool to New York City was long and hard. There were over eight hundred people on the ship, and seven weeks of sailing before they reached New York. They probably were transported by train from New York to Florence, Nebraska where they were outfitted for the journey across the plains. They traveled to the Salt Lake valley in an independent company with Isaac A. Canfield in charge. In many groups crossing the plains there would be several hundred persons. In the Canfield company there were about one hundred and twenty people and thirty-two wagons. Some of the wagons carried merchandise belonging to Isaac Canfield and his brother. The company left Florence on August 1st, and arrived in Salt Lake City on October 5th. John's brother, William, had come to Salt Lake City in 1853, and in the same company was his mother, Mary Bathsheba Gillions Wagstaff, and sister, Rachel Eleanor, who became the bride of John Hayes in a ceremony performed on board the ship in mid-ocean. John and his family stayed with William in Salt Lake City for a week and then went to Lehi, Utah. During the winter of 1862, John worked at anything he could find to do to make enough to take care of the needs of his family. The next spring he went to farming on shares for William Bail and Samuel Briggs. He helped make ditches and dams, and worked in the canyon getting poles and logs for fences and building purposes. During the next winter he took military training. Sarah, his wife, had lost two infant daughters before the family left England, and she was not a strong woman, so found life in this new country difficult. On June 11, 1865 her last child, a son, was born at Lehi. He was given the name Albert George. On March 1, 1866 the family moved to Salt Lake. John moved his family to the old Fort Block, which was owned by A. O. Smoot. Here he farmed on shares, raising all kinds of vegetables and some grain. Another move was made in 1871, this time to Farmer's ward. This farm was also the property of A. O. Smoot, and again John worked the farm on shares. William, the oldest son of the family, married in 1872 and brought his bride to live in the home of his parents, and their first two children, William George and Arthur John, were born there. John and Sarah lived in Salt Lake City all the rest of their lives, and John was always a tiller of the soil. Sarah died in 1899 and two years later in 1901, John passed on to his reward.