The Slack family of Cambridgeshire

My Slack family research takes me back to the marriage of my 9x Great Grandparents Jeremiah Slack and Elizabeth Fuller who walked the aisle of St. Andrew's Church at Soham, Cambridgeshire, England on 1st October 1713.

Slack family at Soham

Jeremiah and Elizabeth settled down in Soham, and had at least four children - all sons.

The family appeared to have kept a farm, and according to modern ordnance survey maps for Soham, you can see an area called 'Slack's Hill' in the fenland to the north of the town's bypass, close to an area named The Hasse.

Whilst it is unclear as to what happened to three of the Slack sons, the oldest - my 8x Great Grandfather Jeremiah Slack - married Rose Fanham at the town of Bury St. Edmunds in the neighbouring county of Suffolk in 1793.

What brought the couple to Bury St. Edmunds is unclear, but I speculate that it may have been Rose's home parish.

Jeremiah and Rose appear to have had 5 children, all at Soham - with my 7x Great Grandmother Elizabeth Slack being the oldest.

She would go on to marry into the Clements family in 1765.

Accident at Slack's Farm

In 1817, a Mr Slack owned 'Slack's Farm' in the fenland north of Soham, in an area known as Hasse Fen (possibly where Poplar Farm now stands adjacent to Slack's Hill), where during that April a 14 year old Robert Bishop is 'killed by a large roller going over him on Mr Slack's farm' (roughly where the map pin sits below).

This accident is bizarre to imagine, but must have been absolutely traumatic.

Whether it was due to playing near agricultural machinery, or a result of poor supervision during child labour, the Mr Slack in question was most likely a member of his maternal grandmother's family. Records do not identify the relationship between Robert and Mr Slack, so it is open to debate. Either way, it's a sad occasion.

Slack family connections

The Slack family is connected to a few known ancestral families so far: