Chapter 11
1857, the first week of June Friday It has been a long time since I last reached for my diary. Must be three years by my reckoning. I just couldn’t bring myself to write. It was the wife that encouraged me to start again. You never know what to expect. It knocked the stuffing out of both me and the wife. Young Petal was only three years old. She was right as rain, a real bundle of energy. And then she just didn’t wake up one morning. She was playing happily in the brook a few days before. She was catching sticklebacks with the other kids. The wife was expecting young John at the time. His birth has helped but the wife thinks that she will never see a daughter grow up. We miss Petal’s laughter and her fun and games. Old Sarah Parrott has been a big help to the wife. She was there with the laying out of course and again with John’s birth. It has been all change at the wheelwright’s since old William Parrott died. Mary finally got to go to her own wedding at the age of 44. That carter from Aylesbury had been turning up in Piddington no end of times. He managed to carry her off last year. Henry is his name, Henry Impey. Sarah told the wife that Young George made the going away box, just like Old William. Had the same parrot mark just below the lid. The two of them are living just the other side of Aylesbury now. Sarah said that Mary gets to see her brother Joseph and his young family in town quite often. Young Edward Parrott left home at last. He and his wife Emily have two young boys now, as well as Clara. Old Sarah is often around there helping with the kids. Young Edwin is still living at home but is spending half of his time over in Launton. He still seems to be set on farming. He has some cattle grazing on a bit of land over there. The big news is young William Parrott. He certainly managed to get into farming. A big surprise to everyone. He got himself a farm, a wife and a 20-year-old daughter all in one go. Last autumn it was. He got married to Widow Sarah Hickman from down Cowleys. Her husband John died nearly 10 years ago. She is older than young William by a bit. They went right over to Witney way for the wedding. To Bampton, where she was born. He certainly seems to have landed on his feet. It’s only young George Parrott who is working full time at the wheelwrights now. How things have changed in the few years since Old William died. A few more have gone since. I was sorry to see Old Jim Parker buried in the churchyard. I shall miss chatting to him next to the brook. He made it to eighty-one. I expect he wouldn’t be happy with all of the goings on in the village nowadays. William Bottrell died just two years back. His three daughters are left on their own in the farmhouse. They are getting help to run the farm. Martha was twenty-four when Billy died, Sarah eighteen and young Elizabeth just fifteen. I must go and see Old Henry tomorrow. See if I can persuade him to go to the Stars tomorrow night. He hasn’t been out since his wife Phoebe died. It was just last month. There were a lot of villagers at her funeral. Her family from Launton as well. Henry still has his daughter Ruth and young John Wallington living with him opposite the wheelwright’s. He has another grandson under his feet. I am hoping he can tell me what’s being going on with the vicar. Saturday A bit of rain overnight. The vegetables have perked up bit with the rain this week. The old black fly were after my second crop of broad beans. I had already pinched the tops out of them. Might have to harvest some of them before too long. Not sure what we will eat them with. More beans perhaps. I saw Old John Reynolds and Topsy Turvey this morning. They were talking about the vicar. Topsy thought he could be on his way out. Old John said that he thought that he hadn’t been well but he hadn’t thought that he was about to croak! Topsy said that he didn’t mean that he was about to die! He thought he may be on his way out of the village! Apparently, the vicar had been selling up all his books and his furniture. That was what all the folks in their carriages had turned up for on Monday. He thought the vicar had set up an auction of his belongings. They tried to remember when they had last seen Vicar Hill or his young wife Cecilia. Topsy could remember seeing them after their young son Charles was born last autumn. We couldn’t recall seeing them for the last four or five months. Topsy said that the Ludgershall vicar and the young curate from Bicester had been taking his services since February. The three of us thought that Old Henry is the person to speak with. He would know what’s going on. Old Henry was in the butcher’s shop. He thanked me for the beans and let me have one of his Launton rabbits from the back of the shop. Before I could ask him how he was he told me some news about Young Charles Brown’s wife, Elizabeth, James Griffin’s daughter. He had just heard from Manor Farm that she had died giving birth over Wretchwick. Her first time and twin boys. All three of them lost. He reckoned she can only have been about twenty-four-years old. Old Henry said that it made him realise how lucky he had been with Phoebe. She was sixty-five when she died and they had forty years of married life together. Henry knew about the auction at the vicarage and thought the vicar might be struggling to pay his bills. He was no longer letting the vicarage have meat on account. He thought the vicar must be buying his meat elsewhere or going without. He said that he had heard that the Bicester coal merchant had been trying for ages to get the vicar to cough up what he was owed. He said something about pride coming before a fall. He reckoned that the vicar got all puffed up when he got the Bishop of Oxford and that long line of vicars in for the reopening of the church. Made out all the work and the new pews was all his own doing. Early this evening I told the wife what I had learned about the vicarage. She said that there had been some talk in the village a few weeks back about the vicar running up some debts with a Bicester ironmonger. Me and Old Topsy are going to call in for Old Henry and walk him up to the Stars. Sunday A sunny day and I had a chance to do some work amongst the vegetables even though it’s Sunday. From what I heard last night I thought that there would be no way that the vicar would be checking up on folk in the village. All the talk in the Stars last night was about the auction at the vicarage. As soon as we arrived Jim Maycock showed Old Henry one of the sale listings for the auction. There were pages and pages of the vicar’s furniture, beds, tables and even their piano. Old Topsy thought that they may be planning on going on a trip and maybe needed the money. Jim pointed out that the auction wasn’t of Vicar Hill’s doing. He said that the catalogue showed that the sale was ordered by the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire. He reckoned that the vicar must have been in a lot of debt and perhaps he had been declared bankrupt. Folk couldn’t believe that. Old Topsy was wondering how you could get in to so much debt that you had to sell all of your possessions. Billy Dumbleton shouted up that he would need to sell all of his possessions if it was his turn to get the next round! Old Henry said that the vicar can’t just clear off. He said that he is paid to do his vickering in Piddington even if he is as poor as a church mouse. Old Topsy had been reading down the auction list. He said that by the look of this he will no longer have a pot to piss in! Young Mark Burgess made a rare visit to the Stars late last night. He took quite a ribbing when he showed his face at the door. Everyone knows he is a bit of a rogue. Trouble is he is always getting caught. Most folk made quite a show of guarding their pockets when he approached the bar. Billy Dumbleton wondered if young Mark could get hold of some firewood for him in time for next winter. He said that he was sure that Thomas Brown would let him gather some wood. That was greeted with a lot of jeers. Old Henry asked what was wrong with his Piddington pork and why did he have to go all that way to Ludgershall to pinch some from the Ludgershall butcher? Everyone in the Stars gave young Mark a good impression of a load of pigs snorting and grunting. Monday A really hot day. Hard going under the sun today. I was out in the open at Gravel Pits Farm. Only managed to get in the shade for a short break mid-day. The wife went to see Bill Elliott’s wife Mary yesterday. We have been up to St Nick’s with her and her young family twice in the last couple of weeks. On the Tuesday we were burying Bill, and on the Friday we were there for baby Leah’s baptising. Bill’s death came as a big shock to everyone. I had been working with him and his lads up at Corball Farm the week before he died and he was pleased as punch about his new daughter. He was only forty-four years old. Mary told the wife that she will find it difficult to make ends meet without Bill’s earnings. She said that it’s a good job her eldest lads are able to find work at present. I stopped to chat with young Sarah Dumbleton at the Toll Gate on my way back from Gravel Pits. She told me that it’s been four years now since she swapped the shop and pub with the Busbys. Sarah has struggled since young Jonathan’s death. She has a bit of a living from the toll gate but that ain’t much nowadays. She has little Henry to look after now as well as the two girls by Jonathan. Kath Busby is running the shop and the pub now. Her husband Thomas was keen on being the publican and attracted quite a few regulars in a short space of time. Didn’t last long though. He went and died about eighteen months after he took over. He was just forty-six. Kath seems to be making a go of the pub. She has young Ann to help with the shop. She must be fifteen or sixteen now. I saw Sarah today. She’s a bit younger and has just started working in the dairy at Gravel Pits. Thomas May’s wife Rachel is keeping her straight. Tuesday A clear sky last night. A crescent moon tethered over Arncott when I went to bed. A warm night and another hot day. I spent another day amongst the hay at Gravel Pits. I worked alongside William Hillesden. We had quite a chat in the shade. He had brought a bottle of Kath Busby’s beer to have with his bread and cheese. He offered me a few swigs. He won’t drink Piddington water. He told me that he had to give up the smithy work and now does field labouring when he can get the work. He says there just isn’t the regular smith trade in the village and the building needs a lot of money spent on it. He said that his brother John’s blacksmiths in Ludgershall is doing all right. His brother and Sarah have three young boys and a girl already. The boys are all keen to become blacksmiths one day. Picked a few goosegogs this evening and all the rhubarb that was worth having. I can imagine Old Jim saying that we could do with some more rain. Sources & Inspirations Mary Parrott’s marriage to Henry Impey: Aylesbury Q1 1856; Henry Impey; 1861 census shows Henry 56 & Mary 48 living in Walton on the edge of Aylesbury. Henry is listed as a Carrier. William Parrott’s marriage to Sarah Hickman: Bampton 30th October 1856. Sarah was born in Bampton, Sarah Elizabeth Seary and returned there for her marriage to William. Sarah is recorded as a widow and her father William Seary, a farmer. Interestingly William is also listed as a farmer and his father, William Parrott as a builder. I was surprised to find William marrying a widow in Bampton. It took me some time to find her in Piddington at the time of the 1841 census. Sarah and John had four girls, all born in Piddington. Selina and Theresa died as infants. Helen at the age of six. Her husband John died in 1841 at the age of 41. Their daughter Anne was 18 at the time of her mother’s marriage to William. Jim Parker’s death: Burial James Parker 7th September 1855, 81. William Bottrell’s death: Burial 23rd February 1855, 65. Phoebe Jordan’s death: Burial 7th May 1857, 65. Old Henry – another grandson: Thomas Wallington, son of John and Ruth. Born 1856, not baptised in Piddington. Death of Elizabeth, wife of Charles Brown: This is described by Colin Matson in Piddington Postscript “..and with her died twin boys.” No date was given. I have not been able to find any record of her burial in parish records. I believe Charles had left Winchendon by this time and was farming at Wretchwick just outside Bicester. “Pride before a fall?” The vicar and the reopening of the church: The service led by the Bishop of Oxford Sunday 4th November 1855. Full description in “Pyders’ Pieces.” The work was funded by voluntary contributions. His own description of his career: “In the years 1854 and 1855 he restored the Church at a cost of £500 the money being collected among his Parishioners and friends.” The vicar missing church services: Parish records show the vicar of Ludgershall and curate from Bicester officiating at baptisms and burials. Vicar Charles Hill and his financial difficulties: Bicester Herald Saturday 16th May 1857 Reporting County Court proceedings of May 13th.
The Auction at the Vicarage: Monday 1st June 1857 “Under the Execution of the High Sherriff of Oxfordshire” Announced in the Oxford Journal Saturday 23rd May and Bicester Advertiser Saturday 30th May 1857. The Oxford Journal announcement can be seen below. |
Young Mark Burgess:
Death of Bill Elliott: Burial 21st May 1857 William Elliott, 44. Birth of Leah Elliott: Baptism 24th May 1857 Leah Elliott daughter of William and Mary. Little Henry Dumbleton: Baptism 26 July 1856 Henry Herbert Dumbleton son of Sarah, illegitimate. Death of Thomas Busby: Burial 7th October 1854 Thomas Busby, 44. William Hillsden giving up the smithy: The baptism of his daughter Catherine records him as a labourer: Baptism: 26th October 1856 Catherine Hillsden daughter of William and Ruth, labourer. We also know that in 1861 land next to the church was purchased from William Hillesden “where a building used as a Blacksmiths shop formerly stood but which has since fallen down.” Author’s Notes Another jump forward in time. Always difficult to decide how to account for my absence and then to describe the significant changes that have taken place in the intervening years. A three year jump this time, landing back in Piddington in 1857, a time when I believe the school is in operation in some form, but I do not know where. I therefore have made no reference to it in this chapter. I have prepared carefully, recording births, marriages and deaths and some other significant events. Last week I took out an on-line subscription to the British Newspaper Archive. I have been aware that the Bicester Advertiser started in the mid-1850’s and I hoped to pick up some further details on stories I had made a note of years ago when in the Oxfordshire Records Office. I have found this useful but also time consuming and sometimes distracting. The one thing that I wasn’t expecting to unearth was the Vicar’s financial difficulties! I have tried to find further information but so far without success. The auction “Under the Execution of the High Sherriff of Oxfordshire” would seem to suggest a major court action. I had been aware of Mark Burgess and his court appearances for a number of years. I found out about the Ludgershall pork last week. I also found a Mark Burgess charged with helping himself to pork in Brill three months later! It has taken me some time to establish the timing of the move of the widowed Sarah Dumbleton to the Toll House, swapping with the Busby family, especially as I couldn’t originally find Thomas Busby in 1861. The 1853 Lascelles Directory lists him as a beer retailer and shopkeeper. He died in 1854. Catherine Busby is listed as a widow and publican in the 1861 census. This information has allowed me to establish the continuous operation of the pub from 1851 through to it being named as the White Swan in 1877 and later. I have undertaken a major update to “Pubs & Ale Houses” under “The Village.” This week I found details of the auction of properties in Piddington in May 1853. One of the 4 lots is the “old Established Licensed Public House known as the Seven Stars, in the centre of the Village with good stabling, yard, and garden; a large building used as a Butcher’s Shop; the whole let to Mr Maycock, a yearly tenant, at the low rent of £9 9s per annum. The property constituting this Lot, possesses the advantage of being the only Public House and Butcher’s Shop in the Village.” This gives the firm location of the Butcher’s Shop and also erases my assumption that Old Henry was running the butchers from his home next to the bakery. It also doesn’t rate Dumbleton’s (Publican ’51 & ’52) and Busby’s (Beer Retailer ’53) as providing much competition. I have made changes under “The Jigsaw” to reflect this information. Finally, a postscript to the early chapters. In the diary I have written that Mary Rogers didn’t disclose the father of her child Rhoda. I think I may have made the wrong assumption:
David Cook 27th June 2020 |