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August, 2011:

The Late Parish of Stoke Wake

Aug 29th, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The parish of Stoke Wake is no more. Its church is redundant, pensioned off to a life as a farm store, its cottages and farms thinly spread over little more than a thousand acres incorporated, not so many years ago, into the neighbouring parish of Hazelbury Bryan.
 
On the brighter side the effort of a climb up Bulbarrow Hill to Rawlsbury Camp will be rewarded with magnificent views. “Surpassing imagination” is how John Hutchins described the vista from the summit of this Celtic encampment, one of the highest points in the County. From here on a day when the skies are clear you will see Shaftesbury some 15 miles to the north; peer south and you will pick out the monument to Thomas Masterman Hardy at Portesham and, beyond that, the English Channel shimmering in the sunlight.

We must go back beyond 1086 and the Conqueror’s ledgers to find the origin of the name of this ancient place. In The Domesday Book it appears as Stocke, possibly a derivation of the Old English word stoc, which is a reference to an outlying settlement or farm.  Looking around this wooded landscape we might agree with John Hutchins’ suggestion that ‘Stoke’ is a derivation of the Saxon word stocce, which means wood or stock.
 
The first reference to ‘Stocke’ is relayed to us in Thomas Gerard’s work written early in the 17th century and known as Coker’s Survey of Dorsetshire (See our article about Thomas Gerard.) “In A.D. 941 King Edmund, King of Wessex, gave to Eddric, his vassal and friend, two manors in Stoke to him and his heirs forever.” At some later time these manors seem to have been given or sold to the Abbess of Shaftesbury as, according to the Domesday Book, “The Church of St. Mary of Sceptesberie held Stocke.”

The Abbess of Shaftesbury’s first tenant lords were the Cusins or Cosyns and the manor was known as Stoke Cosyn until the 13th century. We know that in 1227 John Wake held the manor. In his book, written around 1625, Thomas Gerard records: “The river passing Hollwell, leaveth on the hill over it Wakes Court, now a ruinate place, but antientlie the seat of the noble family of Wakes branched from Lord Wake of Lydell and from who a fair inheritance descended to John Caybes, Hugh Titell and John Mitchell, who married the daughters and heirs of John Wake.” No trace remains of the two dwellings but the Wakes were very rich and we might expect them to have lived in some grandeur, their homes enclosed by some 200 acres of parkland.

Indeed in 1485 Henry VII referred to the Wake manors as Stoke Park but by then they had passed to a Somerset family, the Keynes of Compton Pauncefort, although the place continued to be known as Stoke Wake.  The Keynes arrived in 1416 and departed two centuries later in 1614, when the Seymour and Pitt families bought them. The Seymour family bought out the Pitt family and continued to hold the manor into the 19th century.

John Hutchins tells of an ancient church here and there is a record from 1305 that shows a John Wake as patron of that church. Hutchins in 1770 describes a church here built in 1540: “Small late Perpendicular fabric, dedicated to All Saints. It consists of a nave and chancel, a south porch and embattled tower containing four bells, one dated 1626…Over the west door with two scrolls – nearly illegible – are the initials of Robert Childe, Rector 1545. Against the north pillar was painted a beggar and under him the words “He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man,” The font and shaft are octagonal, of good Perpendicular type, with carved panels. In the north aisle are some curious fragments of stained glass, design, chalice wafer and cross. In 1542 Richard More by his will ordered his body to be buried in the new aisle here.”
 
Two churches gone and another, All Saints, arose on the same site in 1872. It was designed by G. R. Crickmay with, we are told, a little help from Thomas Hardy. Built at a cost of £900, the four bells from the earlier church were sold to help meet the cost. Being in private hands it is no longer freely accessible so we turn to Pevsner for a brief description: “nave, chancel with apse and a north aisle with a three-bay arcade.” It is built of squared rubble with a red tiled roof with a western bell turret housing just one bell to summon the dwindling congregation, which in the end led to its demise and redundancy.

Near the church, too the north is the Old Rectory described by John Hutchins’ editors as “a commodious and substantial house.” Built by Revd. Thomas Wickham Birch, Rector of Stoke Wake from 1817 to 1872. To the south of the church is The Manor House built in the 18th century.  In 1817 the patron was H Seymour Esq. and the living was a rectory in the archdeaconry of Dorset and diocese of Bristol rated in the king’s books at £8. 8. 9d.

To recap, Stoke Wake is a redundant church and parish, its remaining cottages and farms too scattered to be recognised as a village or even a hamlet. A traveller could pass through it and never know its name.

John Calcraft: Father of a Rempstone Dynasty

Aug 19th, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The ancestry of John Calcraft of Rempstone Hall, like that of many other Dorset families, did not have its roots in the county with which they are most associated, but in another. Calcraft was born on 14th August 1726 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, son of another John Calcraft who was a lawyer, and a woman called Christian Bursbie. At least, that is the genealogy according to the penned inscriptions in three family Bibles.

But official records tell a rather different story. It is now more likely that John Calcraft was an illegitimate son of the famous Whig parliamentarian Sir Henry Fox by Christian, who also appears to have been the mother of John’s Brother Thomas. For it has been noted that the name Christian occurs more than once in both of these Lincolnshire families; added to that there is a marked resemblance between John and Henry Fox that can be seen in portraits handing at Rempstone Hall in Purbeck.

There are no surviving records about the younger John’s education, but by the age of 18 he had meteorically risen to the position of Deputy Paymaster to the army in Scotland. At 19 he had been entrusted with considerable responsibilities. This entailed commanding and escorting consignments of money from Newcastle to Edinburgh – in winter, often through deep snow. Furthermore, Calcraft was appointed Clerk of the War Office towards the end of 1746, and was to effectively act as Fox’s private secretary. By 1749 the latter was securing army agencies for him and for several years was even recommending him as “a dear relative.”

In March 1753 Fox promoted Calcraft to Deputy Commissary General at 23 shilling a day. One of Calcraft’s friends was General Edward Braddock, who the British had charged with expelling the French from the American colonies in 1754. Braddock however, was killed in action in Quebec soon after, but not before he had made a will in favour of John Calcraft, leaving his table silverware to him. Calcraft was also well acquainted with many of the military leaders of his day, including the Duke of Cumberland and General Wolfe.

Another friend was a cavalry hero, John, Marquis of Granby, who in collaboration with Fox and Calcraft is known to have shared as mistresses two leading stage actresses of the day, Georgina Bellamy and Elizabeth Bride. By 1753 Calcraft had moved in with Georgiana in London, and was amassing a fortune in his work as banker and contractor to the forces. Besides his residence in Parliament Street he acquired a property on Sackville Street and also Ingress Abbey. His relationship with Georgiana seemed to be founded on a lasting basis for several years, but was eventually fated to end when Calcraft was distracted by an attraction to Elizabeth Bride, leaving Georgiana in distress and saddled with many debts. Georgiana had kept house for John from about 1752 to 1761. Calcraft then lived with Elizabeth from 1764 until his death.

Calcraft’s children by Elizabeth were Katherine, born at Parliament Street in 1764; Granby at Ingress Abbey in 1766; Richard at Sackville Street, 1770 and William at Ingress Abbey in 1771. His heir was John, born at Ingress on 16th October 1765, though it is not certain that Elizabeth was his mother. However, since all five children were left to her guardianship after their father’s death, it is thought that John, too, must have been Elizabeth’s son. From his will Elizabeth inherited from Calcraft £3000 and an annuity of £1000 for life.

In 1757 Calcraft acquired the sprawling eleven square mile estate and manor of Rempstone in Purbeck and the manor of Wareham ten years later from Thomas Erle Drax; the same year he bought from John and George Pitt and John Bankes all the remaining Wareham land.

In 1763 Fox, who had gained a reputation for affluence and corruption, was deserted in his cause by Calcraft, in favour of an alliance with William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. Calcraft stood as MP for Calne, Wiltshire from 1766-68, and for Rochester from 1768 to 1772. He also had his younger brother Thomas elected for Poole in 1762 and 1768. Ideologically, he stood for liberty of the people and for Parliamentary reform but only one speech of John has been recorded: during a debate on the Liberty of the Press Bill on December 2nd 1770. In the hope of persuading voters to return the men he favoured to Parliament, Calcraft used his great wealth to buy up boroughs and other property such as Ingress Abbey.

Not long before he died, Calcraft had been the subject of several satirical cartoons and malicious attacks mainly instigated by Fox and Georgiana Bellamy. He was further lampooned by his detractors under the derisory label of “Crafterio.” It is recorded that in appearance Calcraft was a rather tall man with a ruddy complexion, handsome, of easy address and facility of speech that recommended him to others.

John Calcraft died on August 23rd 1772 at the age of only 46. He had not lived long enough to warrant the title of Earl of Osmonde.

St. Martins – Broadmayne

Aug 14th, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Straddling the main Dorchester to Wareham road, Broadmayne, it has to be said, is not one of the prettiest of Dorset villages. In the 18th century there were kilns here producing bricks made from local clay so it is surprising that only one brick-built cottage of the period, dated 1732, has survived here and you will not find many other examples from this period in the county. Don’t be fooled by the appearance of the 13th century Manor house; what appear to be bricks are simply tiles added in the 19th century for protection. Modern housing detracts from the few surviving older cottages.

Dedicated to St. Martin the parish church is at the north-west end of the village, visible from and alongside the main road.  The walls are faced, roughly squared and coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, all of Portland stone; the roofs are tiled, with stone-slated verges. Depending on your point of view the church benefited or suffered from extensive restoration during the Victorian era. The architect Thomas Hardy, later novelist and poet, while articled to the Dorchester firm of J. Hicks, drew up the plans for the work in 1865-66 and his drawings are on display in the vestry.

St. Martin’s is unusual in that it has a south tower with the lower stage ground floor doubling as a porch where there is a piscina and stoup and on the outside wall, east of the door, is a scratch dial. The positioning of the tower was probably dictated by the land, which slopes away quite sharply to the west of the church. The tower is of the 13th century but the upper stage was rebuilt late in the 15th century or early 16th century.

 The entrance is through the porch into the 14th century nave. The window by the font and the large west window over the west door are 15th century in the Perpendicular style. The font of Portland stone is of the 15th century and has been restored. There are stoups outside both the south and west doorways. The north aisle, north arcade and vestry were added during the 19th century restoration and the entrance to the vestry from the north aisle is through the original 14th century chancel arch.

Hardy’s plans for the restoration work clearly show that there were galleries on the north and west sides of the nave. The windows in the north aisle are all of similar design and of the 19th century with the exception of the most easterly one which, though of the same design, is 14th century.

Dating from the 13th century the chancel is the oldest part of the church with original windows. From the outside it is possible to see the priest’s door in the south wall – now blocked up. The chancel arch is Victorian; the original 14th century arch, as we have seen, is still employed in the church.

In the 12th and 13th centuries this place was known as Maine Martel and the Martel family were the Lords of the Manor. In the north aisle is a 13th century coffin lid that was found in the churchyard during work on a 1980’s road widening scheme. The floral cross carved on the lid can still be made out. Other monuments within the church include ones to Eliza, wife of John Gardiner 1834; Laura Hussey 1845; several to members of the Urquhart family during the 19th century. In the churchyard William Gatch and his wife 1691 and 1698; John Sherren and his son Henry and Thomasine, Henry’s wife, 1714, 1752 and 1761; Jeremiah Pount 1692; John Tibbes 1712;  Phillip Tibbes 1703; Phillip Bard 1700; and Jeffrey Samway 1737.

Iwerne Courtney (Shroton)

Aug 6th, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Five centuries before the birth of Christianity, the folk living here in the early days of the Iron Age occupied the huge earthen ramparts they had built for themselves on Hambledon Hill, which rises above the village of Iwerne Courtney, also known as Shroton.
 
Following the conquest by Roman Armies under General Vespasian the people left their hill town and made their homes in the valley and lowlands. We know the Romans were here from remains of a Roman residence discovered at nearby Preston in 1880 by General Pitt-Rivers.

The dual place names relate to the ownership of the manor before the Tudor period. Iw(erne) or Yw(erne) is from the Celtic for yew tree and the chalky soil here would certainly favour that tree. But what of (Iw)erne? Possibly it is a reference to a heronry, as one was mentioned in a Charter of King Edwy in 986 as a “cranemere” or heron pool and there is a Heron Grove on Preston Hill. In 1244 the affix Curtney appears and relates to the Earls of Devon who owned the manor from the early 13th century; their family name was Coutney.

Seward, a Saxon thane, owned the manor at the time of the Norman invasion but we learn from the Domesday Book that twenty years on in 1086 the manor was the property of Baldwin of Exeter, the Sheriff of Devon. Locally the parish is often referred to as Shroton, a derivation of scir-refa and tun, which translated from the Old English, means the sheriff’s estate.

The village is found in an expansive valley off the main Blandford to Shaftesbury road. It hasn’t changed very much down the centuries; its thatched cottages and interesting church remain but the fairs and sales allowed under a Charter granted 750 years ago died out in the early years of the 20th century. Shroton Fair was held on the Fair Field every 25th and 26th of September for the sale of horses, cattle and all manner of produce. William Barnes wrote in 1888: “Some high holidays of Dorset people have been those of their great fairs such as…Shroton, to which were formerly brought stores of all kinds of wares for the life-gear and house-gear of Dorset homes and to which the house-wives were wont to lay in the year’s stock. I have heard that a ball-room was put up at Shroton Fair where, I was told, young ladies were brought out in a County Ball.” There were stalls and booths, games and sporting events including boxing with bouts between local champions.

Gallows corner on the road from Iwerne Courtney to Farringdon probably got its name from a gibbet erected to display some sad soul from Monmouth’s rebellion, or to frighten deer poachers; something that was rife here during the 18th and 19th century.

Soon after it was rebuilt in the early years of the 17th century the church was to play a cameo role in the Civil War. Parliamentarian dragoons rounded up some 400 protesting Clubmen off Hambledon Hill and locked them in the church overnight. Such was the reputation of Cromwell that they feared they would never see their families again. The following morning they were doubtless much relieved to be released and sent home. (For the full story see our article: “Poor Silly Creatures.”)

All that remains of an earlier church is the 14th century battlemented tower. In 1610 Sir Thomas Freke, owner of several manors in Dorset, rebuilt the church in the Gothic style. There is a monument in memory of Sir Thomas in the mortuary chapel on the south side, enclosed west and south by a carved wooden screen that has been described as the most beautiful in Dorset. In 1871 the south aisle was extended and the roof replaced. The inside of the chancel was much altered in 1872 when new windows and a terracotta reredos were added; the outside of the chancel is as it was built in 1610.

An Inventory of Church Goods made in 1588 includes some grand priestly vestments: “one greene velvet with birds, one blue sylke with pecocks, one changeable green and yellow.”

A Muster Roll of 1542 lists the names of able bodied men possessed of arms and may be of help to family historians. The following names were included: Goodbynes, Burden, Baker, Copp, Gellet, Tyllet, Hancke, Here, Simons, Trevell, Sanysberry, Candeljou, Mychel, Swetnam, Hogger, Smythe, Mullens, Porter, Pyres, Danys, Best, Somers, Pyllwyn, Lamere, and Talbot.

The summer of 1756 saw a military camp established at Iwerne Courtney and for a short while it was home to six battalions of infantry and two troops of light horse, with twelve pieces of artillery. General Wolfe wrote: “the men were encamped upon a pleasant spot open to the wind which scoured the camp and purified it.”  This was three years before the General fell during the battle of Quebec in 1759.

About a quarter of a mile to the east of the St. Mary’s church and set in 100 acres surrounded by woodlands is Ranston House, seat of the Baker Baronetcy from its creation in 1805. On the death of her father, Sir Randolf Baker, Mrs Selina Gibson Fleming inherited the estate in 1959; she passed away in 2010. With her husband, Major William Gibson Fleming, she made significant changes to the estate and the Grade I listed house, which was built in 1755, is considered one of the finest in Dorset.