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June, 2014:

Tolpuddle Personalities

Jun 29th, 2014
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The dates for this year’s Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival are the18th to 20th of July. There will be speeches, entertainment and marches, It is a useful and fascinating exercise to look into the personalities of some of the considerable number of people who were in an important way caught up in the drama of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

Methodism, founded on an evangelical basis in the previous century, was in the early 19th. century becoming also a social force for the working class, and it meant everything to George Loveless, a man with a charismatic name and the foremost of the Martyrs. George had a strong character and was persecuted for his faith. He taught himself to read and write and was a lay preacher in the Weymouth circuit. There is no evidence that he mixed politics with his addresses in church, however.

One of a family of 10 surviving children, he was a few inches over five feet, with red whiskers and a strong chin. His wife was from Dewlish, a nearby village. He was 37 on his arrest.

James Loveless, his brother, was 25 and married with two children, Like George, he gave Methodist addresses. Thomas Standfield (44), was again a strong Methodist. James Brine, an Anglican, eventually married Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Standfield. John Standfield was, like Brine, only 21. James Hammett, born in 1811, was married three times and was not a Methodist.

It has been said the Celtic strain was visible in the physical characteristics of most of the men.

Fashionable Lord Melbourne, Home Secretary, was educated at Eton, Cambridge and Glasgow University. Earlier in life, he often ended his day at the gaming tables. He had a mentally deficient son. But what concerned him at the time of the Tolpuddle affair was the rise of trade unionism, despite the fact that the unions had been made legal. He had a family connection with Dorset, so was extraordinarily interested in the county.

The magistrate James Frampton, of Moreton House, not far from Tolpuddle, was a member of the upper class, believed in the monarchy, Great Britian, Church and Constitution. He had been to Paris and seen the Revolution at first hand. He was to be laid to rest in his home village at the age of 77.

Edward Legg, who gave evidence of a secret oath being administered, only did so under pressure. He apparently did not go to the meeting intending to become a spy.

So the six were sent out to New South Wales and Tasmania. George Loveless did not want his wife and family brought out, to the “distress and misery of this colony…” On his return to his cottage at Tolpuddle, and before leaving the district for good, he wrote the publication: “The Victims of Whiggery”. Tasmania and the separation from his family had done their worst, but his enthusiasm was undimmed. No doubt about it, here was a real union man, and it is difficult to over-emphasise his importance to the movement in general, and the significance of the annual memorial events at Tolpuddle.

But what of the judge? King William IV knighted Judge Baron Williams shortly after he had sent the Martyrs to the prison ships, and he was appointed to the King’s Bench. He died in 1846 aged 69, at his country seat in Suffolk.

 

 

Dorset: a Woman’s View

Jun 27th, 2014
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Celia Fiennes was born on June 9th 1662 in the manor-house at Newton Toney near Salisbury and died in 1741 at the age of 79. She inherited Puritan and Parliamentary sentiments from her parents: her father was Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes who served Cromwell as a member of the Council of State and as Keeper of the Great Seal. Her grandfather, who died the year she was born, was William Fiennes the 1st Viscount Saye and Sele; he had been a staunch Parliamentarian but he was also in favour of negotiating a settlement with the King. He accepted the Restoration in 1660 and was appointed a Privy Councillor to King Charles II.

Celia Fiennes is remembered today largely because of a travelogue she wrote as she toured the country on horseback. Travelling the length and breadth of the country from Hadrian’s Wall to Land’s End and from Yarmouth to Shrewsbury her words were intended for her near relatives but in 1888 Robert Southey and Mrs Emily Griffiths published Celia Fiennes work as: “Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary”.

Poole and Brownsea

In Part 1 of her Journeys (c. 1685-1696) she comes to Dorset from Salisbury and Wilton and on arrival has this to say: “I went to Blandford in Dorsetshire 18 miles through a hare warren and a forest of the kings – (Cranbourne Chase) – Blandford is a pretty neate country town – thence to Merley by Wimborne over a great river called the Stoure by a large arched bridge to a relation’s house, Sir William Constantines – thence to Poole  a little sea-port town 4 miles off where was a very good Minister in the publick church Mr Hardy”.

From Poole, Celia went to Brownsea Island, about which she has this to say: “We went by boate to a little Isle called Brownsea where there is much Copperice made, the stones being found about the Isle in shore in great quantetyes, there is only one house there which is the Governours, besides little fishermens houses, they all being taken up about the Copperice works…This a noted place for lobsters and crabs and shrimps, there I eate some very good”. The Copperice that Celie Fiennes refers to is a sulphate of iron or green vitriol which was used in the dyeing industry and the manufacture of inks.

The Isle of Purbeck

“From Merly we went to the Isle of Purbeck. At Warrum (Wareham) we passed over a bridge where the sea flowed in and came by the ruins of Corfe Castle,which stands on a hill yet surrounded by much higher hills that might easily command it, and so in the Civil wars was batter’d down with Granadeers, thence you rise a great ascent of hills called the Linch (Lynch), or rather the ridge, being so for 3 or 4 miles, rideing to Quare (Quar) which was 16 miles from Merly to a relations house Cos’n Colliers”.

From the ridge Celia looked out over the Isle of Purbeck with its “pleasant meadows and woodlands” and she tells us of “many quarys in these hills of that which is called the free stone, from hence they dig it”. She tells us most of the houses on the island are built of stone.

Continuing, she says: “the shores are very rocky all about the island, we went three miles off to Sonidge (Swanage) a sea faire place not very big;… they take up stones by the shores that are so oyly as the poor burn it for fire, and it’s so light a fire it serves as candle too, but it has a strong offensive smell”.

From Swanage she journeyed on to “a place 4 miles off called Sea Cume (Seacombe) where she observes “it being a spring tide”; she saw the “craggy rockes” lashed by the billows of a turbulent sea and heard the caves of that coast reverberate the sound of the waves “like some hall or high arch”. Celia notes that “In this Island are several good houses” and mentions  “At Kingston Sir William Muex (Meux) has a pretty house and att Income (Encombe) Mr. Coliffords, Doonshay (Downshay), Mr Dollings, and 7 miles off Quare  at Tinnum (Tyneham) Lady Lawrences there is a pretty large house but very old timber built”. This place was especially agreeable to Celia and she tells us: “there I eate the best lobsters and crabs being boyled in the sea water and scarce cold, very large and sweet”.

From Tyneham she travelled north-west to Bindon, Piddletrenthide, “…where was a relation Mr Oxenbridge” and then on to Dorchester which “stands on the side of a hill, the river runs below it, the town looks compact and the streets are very neately  pitch’d (paved) and of a good breadth, the Market-lace is spacious, the Church very handsome and full of galleryes”.

Bridport and Lyme Regis

She continued travelling westward until she came to Burport (Bridport). “The ways are stony and very narrow, the town has a steep hill to descend through the whole place: thence to Woolfe(?) to a relations Mr Newbery”. She describes this gentleman as “a man of many whymseys, would keep no women servants, had all the washing, ironing and dairy etc., all performed by men: his house looks like a little village when you come into the yard, so many little buildings apart from each other”. One of these was a “stillatory” (still-house), another a “long building for silk wormes”. But, she says, all was “in a most rude confused manner”.

From Mr Newbery she travelled to another relation, Mr Henlys, at Colway near Lime (Lyme Regis). In her writing Celia Fiennes wrongly places Lyme Regis in Somersetshire. For her the most interesting feature of this “seaport place open to the main ocean” was the “Cobb or Halfe  Moon”.

She observes the residents of the town have to contend with “…so high a bleake sea that to secure the Harbour for shipps they have at a great charge to build a Mold from the town with stone, like a halfe moon, which they call the Cobb, its raised with a high wall and this runns into the sea a good compass, that the Shipps ride safely within it: when the tide is out we may see the foundations of some part of it; that is the tyme they looke over it to see any breach and repair it immediately, else the tide comes with so great violence would soon beate it down”. Celia mentions that the Springtide “does sometimes beate up and wash over the walls of the forte and so runns into the town”.

After taking a step into Somerset she starts her return journey commenting as she often does on the condition of the roads: “From Lime the ways are difficult by reason of the very step hills up and down, and that so successfully as little or no plaine even ground, and full of large smooth pebbles that make the strange horses slip and uneasye to go; the horses of the country are accustomed to it and travel well in the rodes…”

 

Footnote: George Roberts in his History of Lyme Regis (1823) traces the history of the manor of Colway and says: “It has become the property of the Henly family who lived there in great style for many years. The house was large, and a road between two rows of stately trees, which have been long since cut down, led to the church, to which some affirm there is now a subterraneous passage. The house has gone to decay – some of the ruins are visible at the back of the present farmhouse. No courts are held nor any symbols of a manor preserved”.

To be continued…

William Mabey (1848-1931)

Jun 16th, 2014
by Dorset Ancestors.
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On April 19th 1848 Emmanel and Charlotte Mabey took their second child to St. Mary’s Church at Beaminster to be baptised; the child was named William, after his grandfather, and he was destined to enjoy a long and successful life. In his later years he was a respected member of the Master Builders section of the Bournemouth Chamber of Trade; he built the Solent Cliffs Hotel and the South Western Hotel in Bournemouth and produced most of the furniture for the Grosvenor Hotel in London as well as making carts for London’s Covent Garden Market.

He passed away in 1931 but a few months before he died he recorded his memories of Sutton, the village where he lived as a teenager. He describes a small village hidden away under the Downs with many old houses and an Inn called ‘Springbottom Inn’. Mabey also reminds us that in the time of George III a main road leading to the Downs passed through Sutton and that at the top of the road there was gate right across it; nearby there were some large trees about which it was said people had been hung and quartered there.  He remembered a very old lady living in an ancient house who told him she could remember as a child opening the gate to let the soldiers through.

He also recorded his memories of the murder, in 1862, of Dr. Puckett, who was the Union doctor from Upwey treating a man named Cox for a brain disease, apparently with little success. Cox lived at the bottom of Sutton Knapp.  William Mabey recalled “..one haymaking time when we were busy making hay in the field near Chalbury Hill (through which there was a public footpath to Broadwey) Dr. Puckett happened to pass and he told my father he was going to see Cox who was lying ill at Sutton. Dad strongly advised the doctor not to go alone as this man was a dangerous lunatic, but the doctor said he would be alright.”

“Well, about an hour later word came through that the doctor had been murdered and that the man had gone in the direction of Osmington, so we all took our prongs and hurried off to try to catch him. We eventually ran him to earth in the stable of the Plough Inn. My father was the first to arrive and found the door barred, so he called out to Cox to open it. Cox said “who is it?” and my father answered “Mabey.” My father then told him to hurry up and come out and that he would help him, so believing this he came out and was soon made safe.” It seems that Cox had heard that Dr Puckett was recommending he be sent to the asylum at Forsten.

This was a horrific murder. It seems the doctor quickly realised he was in danger and made for the door but Cox jumped up and broke off one of the bed posts. Meanwhile, the doctor on the other side of the door held it shut before running off. Cox, realising he could get out of the cottage chased after the doctor throwing a brickbat at him which hit the doctor on the head. The doctor fell, Cox seized a saw and sawed off the doctor’s foot before sawing off his right hand and head. Cox then went back to the cottage got his clothes and ran off to the Plough Inn at Osmington.

Cox was tried for murder at Dorchester, certified insane and sent to an asylum where he died many years later. William Mabey said: “the murder of Dr. Puckett was a great shock to all the village. I saw the body before it was removed.”

In 1863, a year after the doctor’s murder, William was 15 years of age. He witnessed the public hanging at Dorchester of two men, Preedy and Fooks. (See our article The Prisoner a Padre Befriended, published February 9th 2010 in the Real Lives category.) William says of the event: “About this time two men were hung in Dorchester, being the last to be hanged in public. I went from Sutton to see this, staying at my cousin’s house in Glyde Path Hill where from one of the bedrooms we could see everything quite clearly. I waited the hour and then they were cut down and laid in their coffins. Thousands of people came from all parts to witness the hanging and the meadows near the river were crowded. People even climbing trees so that they would have a good view, It was an awful sight, I should not like to see anything of the sort now.”

William also reported that some enterprising builders had erected a grandstand and sold seats for 2/6d; apparently the stand collapsed under the weight of spectators.

Born at Waterhouse, Bettiscombe, William moved with his parents and siblings to Kingcombe in the parish of Toller Porcorum, from there to Preston with Sutton Poyntz before marrying and settling with his young bride in Melcombe Regis and Weymouth.

Emmanuel Mabey came from the parish of Mapperton and married Charlotte at St. Mary’s Church, Beaminster on July 21st 1845. The couple lived at Waterhouse, Bettiscombe, but by  1861 the family was living at Kingcombe in the parish of Toller Porcorum; the census reveals the family had grown and William had four brothers and two sisters. The youngest child is just six months old and has been named George; further research reveals that Emmanuel and Charlotte’s first born child, also named George, had died early in 1860.

His mother’s maiden name was Elliott and her father claimed relationship with Charlotte Elliott, the poetess. His mother of necessity had a very strong personality, for she had to cope with her husband’s frequent bouts of depression.