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2010:

Storm at Marnhull – 1843

Nov 15th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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In July of 1843 a severe storm brought death and destruction to the Dorset village of Marnhull. The villagers suffered thunder and lightning, accompanied by very high winds with huge hail stones raining down on them. Several men were knocked senseless by lightning and injured; John Hasket, Joseph Warren, Robert and Sara Blackmore were lying injured days after the storm and narrowly escaped the fate of one young fellow, John Fudge, who was killed outright when lightning struck them. Livestock were killed, some animals being burned alive as the hayrick they were sheltering under was struck by a bolt of lightning. The apples, plums, gooseberries, and currants were beaten off the trees; banks and walls carried away with the water, hailstones measuring three inches still remained after 24 hours.

This storm was the harbinger of worse to come though it isn’t clear how badly Dorset was damaged by the second storm that tore across the country in August, and which thundered its way from Norfolk through Cambridgeshire and on into the Midlands. Following this second storm the General Hail Insurance Company was formed, later to become Norwich Union.

In the late 18th and early 19th century it was not unusual for people to live out their lives where they were born, their history recorded in the registers of just one parish church. So it was for John Fudge the second son of Samuel and Elizabeth Fudge; he was followed into this world by another brother and five sisters. His life, though, was cruelly extinguished by the storm.

John was baptised at Marnhull on the 8th of December 1816. On the 25th of February 1837, he married a girl from the parish, Frances Abigail White. Four years older than John, she was baptised at the church on the 18th of May 1812. In their turn they took their first child Henry to be baptised on Christmas Day 1839, a duty they performed for George White, their second son, on 19th of November, 1842.

The following year proved disastrous for this small family. The Register of Burials at Marnhull records that John Fudge at the age of just 26 years was buried on the 16th of July 1843 and worse was to follow. Henry we think may have pre-deceased his father and George, while still a babe in arms, lost his mother a few weeks later; her burial was recorded on the 22nd of October 1843 with no second chance of happiness for her. Sadly there is every reason to think George didn’t survive infancy.

We know about this devastating storm from a letter sent from Marnhull on the 16th of July 1843. Written by William Lewis and addressed to his daughter Mary Ward who he asks to pass it on to her brother John: they both lived in King Street, Wimborne Minster.

Mary was married to George Ward a Tallow Chandler and Robert the son of Mary’s brother Edward was Ward’s apprentice: George and Mary had a son and a daughter. John Lewis was married and employed as a Rural Post Messenger; he was married to Sarah Masterman Fripp; the couple had three sons and three daughters.

William and Lydia Lewis, just like John Fudge, were both born and lived out their lives in Marnhull achieving their allotted three score years and ten by a distance. William, baptised on 1st of February, 1778 was the son of Thomas and Mary Lewis and Lydia, baptised on 2nd of April 1782, was the daughter of Edward and Lydia Young. William and Lydia married at Marnhull on the 22nd of February 1810 and they had four children: Edward (1810); Mary (1813); John (1815); and Elizabeth (1821). We learn from the census of 1851 that William was a Hosier and Lydia a Dressmaker. We know William was literate and the Militia List tells us he was 5’4” tall. William’s passing is recorded in the Marnull Burial Register on 10th of August 1860 and Lydia, the Register reveals, was buried five months later on 28th of December 1860.

William Lewis’s graphic description of the storm continues “…there was another wagon near where William Galpen and Edward Acouts sister-in-law was and seeing what was happening they ran and dragged them out, else they could all have been burnt to death as all of them struck senseless and some crippled.. Mr Foox was coming that way and says he never witnessed such a scene.” And he goes on to say “…your dear Mother was in the pantry on her knees praying for herself and her dear children…”

Minterne Magna

Nov 8th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The parish church dedicated to St. Andrew sits in beautiful and mostly wooded countryside in the Cerne Valley about eight miles south of Sherborne. The main route from that town to Dorchester runs through the village past, and some might say dangerously close to, the entrance.

With a population of only about 200 it is not surprising that the village lacks all the usual amenities. There are no shops, post office or garage, but it does enjoy the benefit of Minterne House with its gardens and parkland that are open to the public and draw in many visitors from March to early November.

Minterne Magna has connections to many powerful and influential families both at home and overseas, a boast confirmed by memorials to members of the Churchill, Napier and Digby families inside the church. In the churchyard is the tomb of Admiral Sir Henry Digby, who was presented with the Sword of Honour for the part he played as the Captain of the HMS Africa at the battle of Trafalgar over two centuries ago.

The church has walls built from local rubble and flint with dressings of ashlars and Ham Hill stone. It is entered through the slim west tower and comprises a nave, chancel and north chapel. The nave and chancel were built in the early part of the 15th century; the north chapel was added about two hundred years later and the west tower was rebuilt in 1800 and heightened during restoration work carried out in 1894. The tower is home to two late medieval bells.

The chancel has a partly restored east window with three lights; in the north wall is a 15th century window with two lights and in the south wall are two windows: the western modern and the eastern similar to that in the north wall. The doorway is 15th century, as is the chancel arch.

As you walk down the nave from the west tower entrance towards the chancel, there are the huge wall-mounted monuments to Napier’s and Digby’s. They tell of famous ancestors: Sir Nathaniel Napier who built the Alms Houses in Dorchester known as Napier’s Mite; of Charles Churchill who as a boy was page to King Christian of Denmark and later became a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Prince George. He fought with his brother The Duke of Marlborough at Blenhein.

In the south wall of the name are three windows, the middle one modern, the other two of the 15th century. The late 17th century arch is partly obscured by the gallery and the organ. The octagonal bowl of the font is 15th century, though the base is modern.

On my previous visit to St. Andrew’s in 2005 the east wall of the north chapel was scarred back to the stone. This was because of emergency action taken to remove the huge Napier monument after it had become dangerous, with bits and pieces falling off it while the whole monument was moving away from the wall where it had hung for more than two and a half centuries. Enquiries revealed it was likely to need £12,000 to repair the monument and place it safely back in position; a fund had been started but it was anticipated some time would pass before the monument would be seen again.

It is now returned to its place in the north chapel. The white veined marble monument has Corinthian side-columns, entablatures, continuous cornice, cartouche-of-arms, putti and allegorical female figures. To Sir Nathaniel Napier, Bart., 1708-9, and Jane (Worsley), 1692, and Catherine (Alington), 1724, wives of his son Sir Nathaniel Napier, Bart. For all its size and dominance the monument cannot detract from the wonderful north chapel window of five four-centered lights, the middle light higher than the rest.

The monuments here are huge and overpowering and arguably unsuited for such a small church but the windows are beautiful. There are several photographs of the church, monuments and windows in the gallery. If you visit St. Andrew’s take care as you leave – you could be just one step from heaven!

Toller Fratrum

Nov 1st, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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During the 11th century the Knights Hospitallers, the brethren of St. John of Jerusalem, came to the area below Beaminster Heights and Toller Down and settled in what became known as Toller Fratrum. Toller is a reference to the Hundred of Tollerford and Fratrum is Latin for Brothers. Here the knights set up home and built their storehouses.

The church we see here today is from the 19th century but inside there are two ancient relics. In the wall and dating from the 12th century is a fragment of a relief illustrating Mary Magdalene wiping Christ’s feet with her hair and the tub-shaped font strangely decorated with archaic figures including a two headed monster that may be of Saxon date. The church is of a simple single cell design comprising a nave, chancel and small bell-turret.

It is one of only three churches in England dedicated to St. Basil the Great, an honour more usually bestowed on churches in the east. St. Basil ruled over fifty bishoprics in the fourth century. Over looking the river Hooke, a tributary of the river Frome, the church is set a little aside from the manor house, farm buildings and workers cottages that make up this hamlet, the smallest of the three Tollers; the others being Toller Porcorum or Great Toller and Toller Whelme.

The Manor House, built on the site of the original Knight’s home and nowadays known as Little Toller Farm, and the thatched outbuilding were erected in 1540 by John Samway of Winterbourne Martin, who purchased the estate in 1540. The west of the house was added later. There is a chimney breast near the centre with two tall twisted stacks and a gable finial carved as a monkey with a mirror.

On John Samway’s death in 1586 the manor passed to Robert Samway, who left it to Bernard Samway when he died in 1620. Through marriage Toller Fratrum became the property of Francis Fulford of Devon and remained in this family for over a century. The Tudor work including several Tudor windows must be credited to John Samway but it was the Royalist Sir Thomas Fulford who was responsible for adding the west part of the building.

The Fulford family were also joined in marriage with the Sydenham’s who, in the middle of the 16th century, moved into the Manor of neighbouring Wynford Eagle, coming originally from Somerset. The marriage of Thomas Sydenham to Elizabeth Fulford is recorded at Wynford Eagle on 15th of June 1581 and in 1694 there is a record of the marriage of John Sydenham to the widow Susannah Fulforde. Wynforde Eagle was a chapelry of Toller Fratrum.

Mappowder

Oct 29th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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In rural communities, more so than in towns and cities, the parish is the twine that binds the people together. Parishes, villages and hamlets have a reason for being and a history deserving to be heard, not least by the people who hold temporal ownership. The name Mappowder is derived from the Anglo Saxon word mapuldor, which means maple tree. As Mapledre this place is recorded in the Domesday Book, giving authority to the suggestion that a settlement existed here well before 1086.

Mappowder has been dismissed as being no more than a few cottages and a nice church, when actually the parish comprises almost 2,000 acres and historically was a part of the Royal Forest. Mappowder Court stands on the site of the original hunting lodge and has been home to several wealthy and important families. A more modest house in the village served as a retirement home and retreat for a famous author and, yes, it does have an interesting church.

As the crow flies Mappowder is about 10 miles north of the county town, directly west of Blandford Forum, south west of Sturminster Newton and south east of Sherborne on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, a beautiful area of the county that Hardy refers to in his novel ‘Tess of the D’Ubervilles’ as “the Vale of Little Dairies.”

A tributary of the River Lydden flows north and west in the southern parts of the parish and another branch of the Lydden forms the north east boundary. According to Isaac Taylor’s 1765 map of Dorset the land south of Mappowder Court and around Thurnwood farm is the 15th century manor and hamlet of Thurnet. Land surrounding Old Boywood farm was, in the 14th century, the manor and hamlet of Hull. The village lies in the south of the parish.

In the 16th century the Coker family set-up home here and built Mappowder Court, which was by all accounts a grand mansion: they reputedly made their fortune from the slave trade. The entrance pillars to their estate topped with sculptured Negro heads proclaiming and celebrating the importance of the family and their involvement with this dreadful trade. The Coker’s left the parish in 1610 and sold the house and estate in 1745. Some members of the family remained in Mappowder between 1610 and 1745; this is evidenced by memorials in the church and cursory glance through the parish register will also confirm this.

It was The Hon. John Spencer who acquired Mappowder Court from the Coker’s. His descendants became the Earls Spencer and one of their daughters, before her untimely death, was the mother of a future King. The Spencer family demolished the grand mansion and replaced it with a smaller house. Later the Wingfield-Digby family purchased the property and held it until the outbreak of the First World War; it has been sold and bought several times since.

On a suitably wet and dismal afternoon I stood outside the entrance to Mappowder Court, it was easy to imagine the Coker family in their mansion with their friends making small-talk over dinner with little thought given to the business being conducted at Bristol in their name or the misery experienced by countless souls to pay for their high living. Today those mounted heads still stand and serve to remind us of a dark period in our history. We might wonder that this business could have been conducted from the seclusion of the Dorset countryside.

John Hutchins tells us a school was built near the church in 1846. It consisted of a single room with large windows and was entered through a porch. The 1851 census records that the schoolmistress had charge of 33 scholars – a ratio we are still trying to improve on a century and a half later.

There were several farmers and dairymen employing 57 agricultural labourers including three women. At this time Sherborne had a thriving button industry and much of the work was out-sourced to home workers in the neighbouring parishes. 37 women and one 1 man in Mappowder worked as buttoners. Of the 290 people living in the parish then, only 182 were born there and the parish overseers had 8 paupers to provide for.

Looking forward forty years we see in 1891 a drop in the population to 195 and it appears the button industry has collapsed. There are still several farmers and dairymen, but employing only 32 men. In the parish are 37 children of school-age and the schoolmistress now has a monitor. The Glove industry employs 13 home workers; there were three laundresses, two carpenters, a mason, a baker and a photographer in the parish.

In 1940 the novelist and unconventional religious thinker Theodore Francis Powys retreated here from the coastal parish of Chaldon Herring where he had lived since 1904. It is said he spent many hours in meditation in the church but was rarely seen at Sunday services. He died in 1953 and he is buried in the churchyard.

The parish church is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul and is a good example of 15th century architecture. The walls are built with squared and coursed rubble with ashlar dressings of Greensand and local limestone. The roof, presently in need of repair judging by the large tarpaulin draped over a part of it when I visited, is covered with tiles and stone-slates. The Nave, South Aisle, West Tower and South Porch date from the late 15th century but some restoration work was carried out during the 19th century, probably in 1868 when the 15th century chancel arch was rebuilt. There is a squint from the South Aisle that opens in the south west corner of the Chancel. Light, even on the dreary day I visited, streams into the church through clear glass there being a noticeable lack of stained-glass.

There is a tiny effigy of a 13th century knight said to commemorate the death of a crusader whose heart was brought back to his parish for burial and carved on a capital near the lectern is a symbol of a Green Man with foliage sprouting from his nostrils. The screen under the tower described by Pevsner as looking Victorian and “prettily flamboyant” was by the Rev. G.A. Coleman and his friend Mr Ringrose and is c.1925.

A 12th century font, some 12th century head-corbels and a reset 14th century window indicate as earlier church stood here.

The West Tower has two stages topped by a plain parapet. The four pinnacles are modern restorations and at each corner a grotesque gargoyle in the form of two monsters and two musicians can be seen. In the upper stage each side of the tower has a belfry window. Until 1999 the belfry housed five bells by W. Knight dated 1735. An anonymous donation of £50,000 was received in time for the millennium to refurbish the bells, which were re-tuned, and a further bell was ordered from The Whitechapel Foundry. The church of St Peter and St Paul at Mappowder now has a peal to rival the best in Dorset.

Ashmore – Ancient and Modern

Oct 24th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Ashmore, at 700 ft above sea level, is the highest village in Dorset. It is situated on the county border with Wiltshire about six miles south east of Shaftesbury. The village is built around a large pond that was probably artificially enlarged during Roman times and which is likely the reason a settlement grew up here. The existence of this village is recorded in Domesday Book as Aismere with its great dew pond or mere.

In times past the pond would dry-up about once in every twenty years. On these occasions the villagers would follow ancient customs and hold a feast. The mud would be removed from the bed, a fire lit while “figgy pudding” was eaten. Local cattle owners who depended on the pond for water used to supply the puddings. Following a feast in 1921 a new water suppply was provided in 1923 so it is likely this tradition has died out.

There is mention of Round Barrows in the parish and RCHM reports that bones were recovered from a barrow when it was removed in the 19th century. The Roman road from Badbury Rings to Bath passes through the east of the parish.

Our Victorian ancestors were busy all over the country restoring or rebuilding the churches and Ashmore gained a new church, but before we look at that let us see what we know about the earlier church.

First thing to say is it was not the first rebuild; that was in 1423 and the Chancel was reconstructed again in 1692.  The old Church of St. Nicholas was a small structure of stone and flint, consisting of a Chancel, Nave, porch and a small wooden tower housing two bells. The west end was an example of Early English work, with side buttresses and two narrow windows. The solid projecting piers of the Chancel arch were Norman. It is thought the single window in the Nave was from the 15th century rebuild. Important items disappeared during the 1874 rebuild: the font, probably Georgian was dumped in the churchyard and monuments to several Rectors as well as two floor monuments bearing coats-of-arms were lost.

The old church featured a gallery at the west end where the singers and musicians would sit and the pews on paved slabs over the vaults had been known to collapse, falling into graves below – an unseemly business that hastened the need for a new church.

Church accounts back to 1755 record the continuing deterioration of the church. £37 was spent on repairs during 1768-9 and a further £23 expended in 1773. In 1801 there was a succession of vestry meetings to discuss the roof that had become dangerous to worshippers. Also cause for concern were the rotting pulpit and altar rails and the gallery and seats in it as well as the steps  into it, along with seating in the body of the church were all in need of repair. In 1813-14 the church was re-roofed and tiled at a cost of £80 and in 1831 there was a carpenter’s bill for £33. Nothing further seems to have been done until 1873 when preparations got underway for the building of the new church.

The present church, the work of Charles Edwards of Exeter, was dedicated on the 20th of October 1874, the service being conducted by the Ven. the Archdeacon of Dorset, the Revd. T. Davidson and the two Churchwardens, Mr G. Rabbets and Mr G. Hare. There was by all accounts a large congregation.

Hanging above the entrance is the Royal coat of Arms, dated 1816 and signed by K. Wilmot. The Royal Arms at St. Peter’s Church in nearby Shaftesbury is dated 1780 and signed by M. Wilmot.

Not much from the old church survived. The Chancel arch is now used as the entrance from the vestry into the Church; the stone step at this entrance is part of a monument to John Carver. A blue slab formerly in the Chancel of the old church was laid in the new porch but many years ago it was removed and joined the old font in the churchyard. Most of the memorials from the old church were installed in the new building including the oldest surviving one dated 1652, which is damaged and defaced and remembers John Mullen, a man who “feared God and loved peace.” The bible from the old church was given to Mr G. Hare who was a churchwarden in the 19th century and in 1960 the Hare family, who have been in the village since the 16th century, returned it to the church.

The present church consists of nave, chancel and side chapel. In 1933 John Skeaping, an animal sculptor whose work was not well known then but who went on to become a Professor at the Royal College of Arts, was commissioned to carve some hunting scenes on the corbels of the chancel to illustrate the parish’s connection with Cranborne Chase. Carvings of St. Nicholas, St. Anthony, St Denis and St. Michael were also added.

In the nave is a window of two lights on the south side illustrating Christ feeding His sheep on one side, and restoring sight to the blind on the other. The font used in the new church is believed to be Norman and it is mounted on an 18th century pedestal. It has a carved mahogany cover edged with gilt and surmounted by a gilt dove.

In the churchyard there is a monumental slab dated 1662 with a shield of arms to George Barber, who purchased Ashmore in 1634. Two members of the family were High Sheriffs of Dorsetshire: Robert Barber in 1670 and his great grandson of the same name in 1742. The Revd. James Ivie was Rector of Ashmore from 1682. He was responsible for the 1692 restorations and married Elizabeth Barber.  James Ivie died in 1710 and his son of the same name became Rector in 1711. Charles Barber, the Rector, was the last member of that family to live or be buried at Ashmore. His brother Robert Barber sold the estate in 1765.

The purchaser was John Eliot, a London merchant whose daughter Mariabella married Luke Howard, well known in his day as a chemist and meteorologist. Following the death of Mariabella’s unmarried brother the estate passed to the Howard family and remained in possession of that family for over two centuries.

William Cox – Australian Pioneer

Oct 18th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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William Cox was born in Wimborne in 1764 and was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. He joined the army and quickly rose to Paymaster and at Cork he served against Irish rebels, many of whom were captured and ordered to be transported to Australia. He joined the New South Wales Corp and sailed on a convict ship to Botany Bay.
 
In Australia he acquired farming land and later became active in the construction of a major highway and several building projects. A natural leader of men he appears to have been well liked and a master at managing human resources, getting the best out of people whether they be his superiors, his workforce or convicts. Like a lot of successful people throughout history his financial affairs drifted into muddy waters but with these issues behind him he went on to become one of Australia’s pioneers.
 
After leaving school William’s father, Robert Cox, moved his family to Devises in Wiltshire and William married Rebecca UpJohn, the daughter of a Bristol merchant, with whom he had six sons and a daughter. The daughter does not seem to have survived.  He was a member of the Wiltshire Militia and joined the army in July 1795 receiving a commission as ensign in 117th Foot. In February of 1797 he became a lieutenant 68th Foot and in September the following year he was appointed Paymaster and ordered to Cork where he served against Irish rebels.

At Cork, Cox joined The New South Wales Corp and was given the same rank of Paymaster. The Corp left from Cork on the 24th of August 1799 for Port Jackson (Sydney) on board the Minerva which, after twice escaping raids from Spanish pirates and Spanish galleons, arrived in Sydney on 11th January 1800. On board the ‘Minerva’ were some 160 convicts including General Holt and the Revd. H. Fulton and Cox, recognising that the majority were political prisoners rather than criminals, made sure all were treated well and often allowed up on deck to get fresh air. It was this generosity of spirit that earned him the respect of all those under his rule.

On his arrival in Australia he immediately saw the opportunities and bought a farm of 100 acres and had General Holt, who was still officially a prisoner, manage it for him. Over time more acreage was added.

With William were his wife, Rebecca, and their four younger sons. The older boys remained in England to finish their education and didn’t join the family in Australia until 1804. James stayed in Australia but William returned to England with his father in 1807 when his father was facing financial ruin and disgrace.

In 1803 his estate was placed in the hands of trustees even though he had substantial sums of money owing to him and he believed the value of his assets far exceeded his liabilities.  He was suspended from office. In 1807 he was ordered to return to England to account for financial irregularities in his accounts while he was Paymaster. There are differing accounts of the outcome of these enquiries: on the one hand we are given to believe he was discharged the service and another account says he cleared himself; as a result was promoted to Captain in 1808. The later account seems more likely because back in Australia in 1811 he was the principal magistrate at Hawkesbury, New South Wales.

On July 14th 1814 Cox received a letter from the Governor accepting his offer to superintend the building of a road from a ford on the river Nepean on the Emu Plains across the Blue Mountains to a point on the Bathhurst Plains, a distance of about 100 miles.

He was given 30 labourers and a guard of 8 soldiers. The task took six-months to complete from starting work in July 1814 to completion in January 1815: this was an amazing achievement and in April the Governor drove his carriage down it from Sydney to Bathurst.The road opened up the opportunity to settle the land beyond the mountains and this began almost at once.

Cox, now a prosperous man, established a farm near the junction of the Cugegong and Macquarie rivers. Following the death in 1819 of his first wife Rebecca, William Cox married Anna Blackford with whom he had a further three sons: Edgar, Thomas and Alfred and a daughter, between 1822 and 1825.

William junior did not return to Australia with his father but stayed in Europe, served in the Peninsular War and did not return to stay permanently in Australia until 1814 when he was 24 and married. The other four sons born in England were significantly younger:  the third son, Charles, died, unmarried, on missionary work in Fiji when he was only eighteen.  And the sixth son, Frederick, died young.  That left George and Henry, who were only about three or four when they left England and their Australian-born brother Edward, born at Hawkesbury in 1805.

William Cox died at Windsor, New South Wales on 15th of March 1837. In St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney there is a window in his memory. “This window is the gift of George Cox of Wimborne and Edward Cox of Fernhill, Mulgoa, in memory of their father William Cox, of Clarendon, Richmond, N.S.W. Arrived in Port Jackson in the Minerva 10th January 1800 in command of a detachment of the New South Wales Corp, of which he was an officer.”  These days the house at Clarendon is in the care of the National Trust of Australia.

General Holt, who had worked for Cox, described him as “a man of great kindliness and fine character.” Only a man of real ability and a genius for managing men could have built a road across the mountains in so short a time, and it would be difficult to find an equal feat during the early history of Australia.

Lady Mary Bankes – The Mistress of Corfe Castle

Oct 12th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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When talking about womenfolk asserting themselves, and in particular the lady heroines of Dorset, the mind immediately switches to Lady Mary Bankes, who held besieged Corfe Castle, one of the impregnable fortresses of the kingdom for hundreds of years, for several months during the Civil Wars.

It was a remarkable achievement, and one showing great valour. The Bankes family were Royalists and Sir John Bankes, Chief Justice of England, was with King Charles II at his Oxford headquarters during the conflict.

Lady Mary, who came of Norman stock, had with her her six children when the fortress, the only one in the county not taken by the Parliamentarians, was surrounded. With a few retainers, never more than 40, she kept it secure. Hot coals were dropped on the heads of Cromwell’s men as they tried to scale the walls.

Sir John returned, but in a second attempt in 1644 the postern gate was traitorously opened from within the castle complex and it fell to its attackers.

A bronze figure of Lady Mary stands by the marble staircase at Kingston Lacy at Wimborne Minster, one of the great houses of Dorset, which was built on the site of another which had once belonged to the Crown and had come by marriage to a son of John Lacy, Earl of Lincoln.

The keys of the castle were kept and were hung up in the library, and many old pictures were saved too by Lady Mary. As for the castle, it was looted and partially destroyed. King Charles II was to restore the ruins to Sir Ralph Bankes, the heir, and today they make up one of the most striking landmarks in the south of England.

The Princess of Wales planted a rare Liquidambar tree when she visited the castle and had lobster tea at the Bankes Arms in 1908.

Corfe Castle saw the suppression of the Anglo-Saxon dynasty, murder, assassination, and attacks of the Danes in its long life. Standing on a steep mound within the Purbeck Hills, it was the scene of a murder as early as 978 AD by Elfrida of Devon, who had inherited it from King Edgar, her husband.

She had a son who was not hers stabbed in the back. And 22 French knights were starved to death in the dungeons during the reign of bad King John, who today lies in Worcester Cathedral. Edward II was a prisoner in the castle before being taken to Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire to die in brutal fashion before being buried in Gloucester Cathedral, in an ornate tomb.

George Duke of Clarence, who was drowned in a barrel of malmsey wine in the Tower of London, as Shakespeare tells, was an owner of the castle. A resident at one time was Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII. Another was Sir Christopher Hatton, who was granted Corfe Castle by Queen Elizabeth I.

In the same period the town of Corfe Castle at the foot of the mount was granted the right of returning two members of Parliament, and cannon were mounted on the walls as a defence against the Spanish Armada in 1588.

From the time of the Norman Conquest the building was held as a royal castle, a castle of such strength and in such a superb defensive position that only the invention of gunpowder was to undermine its prestige. It was in this part of the southwest that the Lancastrian lords assembled an army.

Much later, Parliament captured Dorchester, Lyme Regis, Melcombe, Weymouth, Wareham and Poole. On May Day 1643,the rebels from Dorchester attempted to take the castle during the annual stag-hunt. Later, guns were brought into it from all over the island, to defend it. Threatening letters were delivered to Lady Mary.

At that time the castle had become almost the only place of strength between Exeter and London, holding out for the royal cause.

When Lord Chief Justice Bankes died in 1644 all his property was forfeited because of his loyalty to the King. After nearly three years of residence his brave lady had been dispossessed of her previously redoubtable fortress, which was left to the plunderers.

Many mansions in Dorset have been constructed out of its stone and timber. And it may be that the whole of the family plate lies at the bottom of a deep well within the castle boundary.

Henry Lock – From Winfrith to South Australia

Oct 3rd, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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We can only surmise why Henry Lock uprooted his family from the familiar surroundings of the Clay Pitts area of Winfrith Newburgh to embark on a one way, once in a life-time journey to Australia. It was a courageous decision probably driven by the grinding poverty endured by agricultural workers in Dorset in the mid 19th century and aggravated by a measure of religious intolerance. Henry was a follower of Wesley although he married Hannah Riggs and their children were baptised at the parish church, so he may have been a recent convert.

Henry (40); his wife Hannah (nee Riggs) (41) and their six children: William (18); Harriet (16); Mary (14); John (11); Elizabeth (8) and Edith (3) embarked on board the emigrant ship Marion at Plymouth, which weighed anchor at about 7 pm on the 24th of March 1851. On board there were 350 emigrants from all over the United Kingdom; the Lock family were the only passengers from Dorset.

The Marion was a 3-masted wooden emigrant ship of 919 tons built in Quebec in 1850 and under the command of Captain Kissock. The 350 emigrants had endured 128 days at sea and were within hours of reaching Adelaide when the ship struck the outer edge of Troubridge Shoal at about 10 pm on Tuesday 29th of July 1851. This area of the South Australian coast was known to be treacherous but when the Marion hit the reef only a slight fog and a calm sea prevailed. The ship was wrecked but miraculously all of the passengers and crew made land safely.

The shore was only a few miles away but the Captain ordered the long boats to be launched believing they could carry passengers ashore and return for the crew. Even though the long boats had compasses, some of the boats rowed east instead of west so rowing far more than necessary to make landfall.

Some 18 months later Henry wrote to his old friends and neighbours back in Dorset and he was able to tell them that his family “want for nothing” and that they were making a good life for themselves.

William Goodchild wrote to Henry in 1854. That letter has survived and brings sharply into focus how difficult life was for a labouring man living in rural Dorset in the middle of the 19th century. On a personal level William tells his distant friend that he has been in hospital following an accident and reports the birth of an addition to his family: a daughter, and delivers news of new births and the passing of some old friends and how the fledging church is growing. Henry learns of other friends who have departed for the New World and that still more are preparing to follow him to Australia. William reports on the weather and forecasts a better wheat harvest that year.

Below we publish a full transcript of William Goodchild’s letter, which includes mention of many Winfrith families: it is a gold mine of snippets of information for the family historian. References to “Mr Dear Brother” and people being “on trial” should be read in a religious context.

The number of people of European descent living in South Australia in 1836 was virtually zero and by 1851 when Henry Lock and his family arrived, that figure had grown to 65,000 but in that year there was a major exodus of people heading for the goldfields in the neighbouring state of Victoria. We believe Henry and Hannah’s eldest son, William, was amongst them.

A descendant of William Lock has told us that during the following 30 years as many as 75 people connected with the Lock and Riggs families and to Winfrith Newburgh emigrated to the Gawler area of South Australia.

The Letter

Winfrith April 18th 1854
Dear Friend and Brother,
   After a long absence of time I take the pleasure of answering your kind and most welcome letter which I received in the month of August and should have answered your letter before but about that time I met with an accident and cut off my ear with an axe and was in Dorchester Hospital for a month, but thank God I am quite restored and I hope you are all well, as it leaves us all at present.

I should very much like to see you once more and ………(unreadable)…….what I think upon you ….(unreadable)…. if we never meet again on earth my prayer is that we may meet in heaven.
I’m very glad to hear that you were getting on so well in this life for the times are much worse here now than when you left. Bread now is 10 (?pence) per loaf, Butter (?1 shilling ) per pound, Potatoes 16 s to 1£ per sack. Beef and Mutton is 8d per pound but we can hardly remember the taste of it and I sometimes wished that I lived along with you, for you said you do not want of anything and a sovereign is thought no more of than a shilling but thank God our table has been spread in the wilderness and we have had sufficient while others have been destitute. We have had an increase in our family, a daughter now few months old; Grandmother Hibbs is still alive and living with us.

Dear Brother I suppose you will like to hear some of the news of your native village. The state of our society is much the same as when you left. George Ellis, Stephen Simmonds, Fredk. and John Selby and Sally Chaffey are on trial and I hope they will hold fast to the end. Charles Selby has lost 2 children out of 3. Dairyman Andrews is dead killed by his horse with cart – coming home from Lulworth. Mary Brine, Margaret Bishop, John Farr, Mr John Talbot of Burton, Thomas Hooper and Mrs Scott likewise, young John Baker (killed on the railway) and his aunt Rebecca Simmonds is dead. Mrs Kerley and family are all well and has had an invitation from Daniel Wallis to come to America but I do not think he has decided to go. John Pearce is gone there and is doing very well and several more is going from Oraer (Unreadable) now and John Riggs and his family from here. I am very happy to inform you that our Sunday School is re-established and has got from 50 to 60 children and our congregation is much the same as usual, our members are all well and desire to be remembered to you and family. I am also glad to inform you that they have a nice little Chapel at South Down and it was opened last August when there was 300 to tea there. Old Esquire Greg (Cree?)is dead and John Hibbs has got liberty to hold a class meeting at his house.

Dear Brother, I saw your sister Kitty and family this evening and with tears she desired to be kindly remembered to you and said she should like to see you once more but if not she hopes to meet you in heaven, her son Robert’s wife has got a daughter and her daughter Ann, a son and they are all well. You said that Robert Davis would inform us of how you were getting on but he has never returned and his mother has desired me to ask you where you could give any information concerning him and send home when you write next. Thomas Angel has received the ‘plan’ that you sent him and likewise John Allen ‘the letter’ and Henry Burt and John Allen has been trying to emigrate but I cannot tell whether they will succeed or not. Mrs Reader is much the same as usual and has had 2 or 3 newspapers from Australia and I have had 2, and we suppose they came from you. There is much agitation at present concerning the war with Russia, about 10 or 12 has gone from this parish on board a man-of-war. Please to give my kind respects to John Riggs and family and Thomas Allen and tell them that William Toms has sent 4 letters and received 3 and was very glad to hear of their welfare. They are living now at Clay Pits near me, their son Thomas is dead and Henry gone on board a man-of-war. Sarah is at home and very good to her mother and father and Mrs Toms hopes that Elizabeth is a good girl and takes care of herself the last letter they received was on the 6th of April, they intend to write soon, they received what she sent them and very much obliged it was very acceptable, their kind love to all.

Dear Brother, I do not know but what I have told you all the news, we have not had but a few drops of rain these seven weeks, we had a very wet summer last year but I hope we shall have a very prosperous one this year. The wheat is looking very well at the present.  Betsy Allen has had another child and since that it is burnt to death. Joseph Ellis, wife and family are quite well. I never pass by the house which you used to live without thinking of you. I have to inform you that Mrs Atherton is dead and Mr Atherton married again. Miss Caster (Carter?)is dead where my son was stopping.

Now I must conclude wishing you every blessing in this life and in that which is to come and I desire to be kindly remembered to your dear wife and family and hope that they are all decided for the Lord for that will be better than all the gold of Australia and I hope we shall never grow weary in well doing. I should like to hear from you often and please to answer this as soon as you can make it convenient.
So no more at present
From your Friend and Brother
William Marks Goodchild.

June no 11 1854.

 

Dorset’s Roman Mosaics

Sep 28th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Mosaics can be traced as far back as the third millennium BC and were widely applied in Greek and Roman homes of the classical period. They are a pictorial form of enduring decorative ceramic for floors or walls, and demanded considerable skill in their assembling. Until the classical period only coarse pebbles were used, but in the 3rd century BC square, trapezoidal, or triangular glazed tiles or tesserae, varying from a few millimetres to 1 square centimetre in size were introduced.

When Britain became a province of its empire Roman techniques and designs were inevitably imported into the country through growing trade and commercial links with the continent. Mosaic floors were then laid in villas of the civil zone including in Dorset, and several examples of the art have come to light during the excavations of the residences of which they were once a part.

The mosaics found in the Dorset villas were not necessarily contemporary with the original building. A floor could have been laid after many generations of occupation, perhaps at a time of greater status attainment or affluence. Since the floors are usually the only part of the buildings to survive, the mosaics are often all that is known about a villa. But in any event the villas in Dorset seem to date mainly from later in the Roman occupation period, i.e. from the late 3rd century onwards. From the 1st century onwards there appeared a recognised Durnovarian school of mosaicists.

The Durnovarian school was based in Dorchester and at Illchester, now in Somerset but then well within the canton of the Durotriges (the native people of Wessex.) their style is characterised by fine-figured work of common themes and unusual reliefs which point towards a quite restricted cliché or school of expert artisans. The motifs employed are not so much geometric as concentric and were routinely framed by elaborate inter-twinning or guilloche.

While most of the floor would have been laid under the direction of a single mosaicist, there is at least one example of a villa floor in Dorset, which shows traces of completion by another worker of inferior skill to that of his master. There is also evidence to show that parts of some floors were repaired sometime after they were laid. Although more than half a dozen villas are known in Dorset, four in particular have yielded remains of mosaic pavements of sufficient extent to be worthy of conservation and description. These came from Frampton, Hinton St. Mary, Dewlish and Hemsworth.

The villa at Frampton was one of the earliest to be discovered and excavated, in 1796. It was found to have considerably large areas of well-preserved mosaic flooring laid around 350 AD, which were subsequently cleaned and drawn. Here dolphins are a prominent element in the designs, a motif also popular in Christian art. Hinton St. Mary is perhaps the most famous of the villa sites following its fortuitous discovery by the village blacksmith in 1963. As at Frampton virtually all that is known about the villa in through the mosaic, later bought by the British Museum.

But what is most interesting about the floors at both here and Frampton is that they include the earliest yet known icons of Christianity to be found in Britain as well as – and in tandem with – traditional pagan motifs. At both villas the mosaics featured the popular scene of the god Bellerophon slaying the monster Chimaera, as well as other hunting scenes and the popular inclusion of the wine god Bacchus. Yet at Frampton there is also the singular appearance of the Chi-Ro monogram – so called after the first two letters of Christ’s name in Greek (a reverse “P” superimposed on an “X”.)

This monogram appears again in the Hinton flooring, but here it was taken a stage further by the inclusion beneath the symbol of a portrait, which is difficult to interpret as anything other than a likeness of Christ himself. This element of the design appeared to be accorded special status, for it was positioned within an apse or semi-circular embayment seemingly provided for the purpose.

The villa at Dewlish was discovered in the grounds of Dewlish house and found to have almost complete mosaic floors in several rooms. In the entrance passage was a Greek key pattern, while a floral motif bordered by a guilloche with vines adorned the dining room. A room (numbered 11) showed a leopard killing a gazelle. Users of the bath suite changing room would have stood on a design with Cupid, a ram, leopard, dolphin, and a sea creature procession or Theasos. These probably surrounded a centrepiece showing perhaps Neptune, though this detail was missing when excavated, presumed destroyed in antiquity. The leopard and Gazelle fragments were mounted for display in Dewlish House; some of the other pieces went to Dorchester Museum, but the remainder was re-buried.

Excavation of the villa at Hemsworth exposed a fine, complete rhomboidal mosaic laid for the plunge bath in the bath-house. This piece was lifted and presented to Dorchester Museum by the executors of Lord Allington in 1905. In the museum’s conservation section is a roundel of Neptune or Oceanus lifted from the centre of a pavement at Hemsworth in 1908 and presented by the Allington estate executors. This shows the head of a sea-god with crab legs and claws growing from the forehead.

Apart from villa floor sections the County Museum also displays a number of other mosaic fragments discovered during excavations of townhouses around Dorchester, or during the laying of foundations for new buildings. For example a townhouse found in the grounds of the former county hospital yielded a rich 13’x21’ geometric mosaic of rope and diamond patterns in black, white, red, grey, blue and yellow tesserae. This was re-laid in the entrance to a residential home on the site.

In the Victorian Gallery can be seen a fragment from Durngate Street lifted and re-laid in 1905. This shows typical Durnovarian work with crested serpents and leaves similar to a design in the Hinton mosaic in the British Museum. This Durngate piece however is one of the few to show a fruit and leaf motif signature. Also in the gallery is a mosaic unearthed at a site in Olga Rd in 1899. Alfred Pope presented the fragment, which shows a vessel with ornate handles similar to a motif on a Cirencester mosaic, to the museum.

Fordington High Street has yielded a polychromatic mosaic also similar to one at Cirencester, and possibly dating from the 2nd century AD. Found in 1927 it was set up in the temporary exhibition gallery and shows a repair carried out in antiquity to the 3-strand guilloche surrounding one of the circles containing a stylised flower. Six red tesserae of a figure once occupying the central octagon are also present.

A fragment of orange-brown guilloche with flowers can be seen in the Roman Section of the museum. The then Devon and Cornwall Bank (now Natwest) discovered the piece when laying foundations for the new bank. By the main staircase is a fragment of mosaic from near South Street found in 1894 – the first piece to be acquired for the museum by Alfred Pope. Halfway up the staircase a geometric mosaic from the prison burial ground is displayed. It was found in 1858 when a grave for an executed man was being dug and was re-laid in the Prison chapel until that was re-built in 1885, whence it was moved to the museum.

The museum’s entrance lobby is laid with a mosaic made up in 1908 with tesserae from a mosaic surround found behind 45, South Street in 1905. The floor of the Dorchester Townhouse conserved in Colliton Park remained under cover after its excavation between 1937 and 1939 until 1997, when the mosaics were re-exposed and conserved.

Storm – 1824

Sep 21st, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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“Dreadful Effects of the Late Tempest”….The “Western Flying Post, Sherborne and Yeovil Mercury and General Advertiser for Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall” made much of its reports of the great storm of November 1824 and the associated tidal wave which swept far inland.

“We have rarely had a more melancholy duty to perform than the recital of the tremendous effects of the gale of Monday night last” began the account in the weekly newspaper of November 29th. “A tempest teeming with more frightful terrors is scarcely within the memory of man.” The storm beginning at 4 a.m. on November 22 appears to have come from the SSW direction and to have been accompanied at times by rain, lightning and thunder.

The pier at the entrance of Weymouth harbour was demolished by the sea, and the quays inundated. The esplanade was destroyed, and a stone bench carried over 200 yards. Lower apartments were filled with water and boats seen floating in all directions. Two smacks were lost and seamen were drowned. A 500-tonne vessel went down with all hands, and a Dutch galliot broke from her moorings and went ashore. Other vessels rode out the storm but were dismasted.

At Portland, in the village of Chisel 80 houses were swept away by the sea and 30 people died, while the ferry passage-house was almost demolished and the ferryman drowned. Along the coast to the west, a ship was wrecked in West Bay and 17 men from her were picked up and buried at Portland. To date 25 bodies had been picked up on the Isle of Portland. The fishermen had lost all their boats and nets.

Among the wrecks was that of a West Indiaman laden with rum and cotton, which foundered opposite Fleet, the whole of the crew perishing. The water swept over the barrier of Chesil Beach and inland to the village of Fleet, where it demolished the church only leaving the chancel or east end. Later the church was to be replaced by another nearby. Many houses were destroyed.

Although well inland, Dorchester did not escape. “The devastating effects of the storm were felt in every quarter of the town,” says the newspaper report. Here a heavy chimney stack fell on the home of the Rev. H.J. Richman, rector of Holy Trinity church, crushing him to death.

At Poole a roaring wind broke windows; trees were torn up by the roots and blown down, together with around 50 chimneys. The tide flooded the quays and craft were at the mercy of the wind and waves, and the town was surrounded on all sides. Some captains sank their own vessels to avoid them being damaged. Some £7,000 of damage was estimated to have been sustained before the tide retreated.

The Cobb at Lyme Regis was damaged, and a large number of houses were carried away at Bridport and sheep drowned. Damage there estimated at £20,000. And the effects of the storm were felt in Southampton and Portsmouth and even inland as far as Salisbury.

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