On 13 December 1864, Hannah Hibbs gave birth to a son. The child was named Frank Edwin Hibbs. The birth took place in the Union Workhouse at Wareham. The child’s father, Hannah’s own brother, John, had also left the family home, but his circumstances were very different from Hannah’s. Five months earlier, in July 1864, John had married.
The workhouse had provided a refuge for Hannah, but she could not remain there indefinitely. What was to be become of her and her child and in what manner did Hannah’s situation exercise the mind of her father? He had lost the benefit of her services in the cottage, but did he want her to return and could he let her do so? Her absence from home would have been evident to neighbours and the reason apparent. Moreover, any attempt to conceal the paternity of Hannah’s child would not have prevented speculation among the Blacknoll community. Yet Hannah was to return to Blacknoll.
The sequence of events that unfolded over the next three years is unclear. However, early in 1867, just two years after the birth of Hannah’s child, the Hibbs’ neighbour Jonathan Cheeseman died, aged seventy-four. Perhaps James Hibbs and the newly-widowed Amelia Cheeseman were already on friendly terms. Possibly James had confided in Amelia and sought her advice about Hannah. Whatever the nature of their previous acquaintance, following the death of Jonathan a closer relationship developed between them. It would not have been unreasonable for James and Amelia, widower and widow, to have sought mutual solace and support.
It is not known whether Hannah had by then returned to Blacknoll, with her child. However there can be little doubt that she was the subject of discussion between James and Amelia and it is not unlikely that it was Amelia who proposed a remedy to Hannah’s predicament. Whether Amelia took the initiative or whether the proposal arose in another manner, Hannah’s situation was to be resolved. She would marry Amelia’s son, William Cheeseman, a bachelor twenty years Hannah’s senior. William had first encountered Hannah as a young girl or at latest when she was just adolescent. He would have seen her grow into a young woman.
For William the prospect of entering his later years alone, without help or companionship, must have been unwelcome. Perhaps his nature had prevented his marrying previously; perhaps a lack of opportunity. Yet even had he felt strongly the wish to marry, could he in normal circumstances have contemplated marriage with Hannah or, importantly, she with him? But circumstances were not normal and Hannah’s feelings towards William and marriage were probably of little account. Practical considerations would have prevailed. .
William and Hannah were married at Winfrith on 6 August 1868. Hannah was aged twenty and William was forty (though on the marriage certificate claimed to be only thirty-seven).
Their marriage was not the only one to take place in Winfrith church in that summer of 1868. Exactly one month later, on September 6, Hannah’s father, James, and William’s mother, Amelia, became man and wife. James was sixty-seven years of age and Amelia was seventy. The witnesses at the marriage ceremony were their newly-married children, William and Hannah.
William and Hannah set up home at Blacknoll. Hannah, long used to domestic chores and living in a male household, was perhaps better prepared than William. The latter now found himself in an entirely new situation as head of a household and with a young wife. He also found himself with a stepson. More than that, it was the child of his wife’s brother, a younger man well-known to William and a man whom he would continue to encounter. Some sense of resentment on William’s part would be understandable. It is not impossible that this might have reinforced any feeling he harboured that Hannah was indebted to him for having rescued her from her plight.
William Cheeseman began his married life in a less uncertain world than that into which he had been born. In 1837 the young Victoria had come to the throne and by the second half of the nineteenth century Britain was a confident and prosperous nation. Not every citizen, however, shared in that prosperity. Life for agricultural workers remained far from idyllic. Employed as a farm labourer, William would have led a relatively hard working life for poor wages and would have been fortunate if he enjoyed security of employment. It is possible that the Cheeseman’s situation had been eased if, as seems probable, William’s elderly father-in-law, James Hibbs, owned or rented a little land, which through subletting or exploitation, would have augmented meagre incomes.
In July 1869, within a year of their marriage, William and Hannah had their first child, a daughter, Amelia Annie, known as Annie. A year later Hannah gave birth to a son. He took his father’s name, William. By 1878 a further two daughters and a son were born to the couple. Surprisingly perhaps the Cheesemans’ younger son was given the name John. If William had felt antagonism towards Hannah’s brother, would he have allowed his own son’s name to remind him of John Hibbs? Meanwhile, however, Frank, the child of Hannah and John, had left the Cheeseman home to live with his own father and his stepmother.
Interestingly, in this period the surname of the family was evolving. In the church records the children remained Cheeseman, while in the civil records the family name had become Chisman.
This period also saw the passing of the older generation. In December 1875 Hannah’s father, James Hibbs, had died and was buried at Winfrith. He was aged seventy-five. He and Amelia had enjoyed seven years of marriage. Widowed for a second time, Amelia lived only a further eighteenth months and died in June 1877, aged seventy-eight. She too was buried at Winfrith.
Then, sometime between the latter part of 1878 and early 1880, William and Hannah moved with their children from Blacknoll to Higher Hewish, in the parish of Milton Abbas. It is possible that the deaths of James and Amelia changed the circumstances of William and Hannah; possibly releasing them from an obligation of care, possibly removing from them the use of land. At Higher Hewish William took employment as a shepherd and probably received better wages than he was getting at Winfrith. The family had earlier connections with Milton Abbas, where Jonathan Cheeseman had once worked, and the choice of Higher Hewish was probably determined by the fact that William’s half brother also worked there in that period.
At Milton Abbas in December 1880 Hannah bore another son, George. Any joy at the birth of a further son was to be short lived. A few months later, in May 1881, the Chisman’s eldest son, William, was killed in an accident in which he was run over by the wheel of a coach. He was just ten years old.
At that time child mortality through illness or accident was high, but that fact would have been of little comfort to the family. The children had lost a brother; and Hannah, having just brought a son into the world, saw another taken from her. William too could not have been indifferent to the death of his eldest son and namesake.
Young William’s fatal accident took place at Winfrith, suggesting that the family had returned there; a suggestion reinforced by the fact that William was once more working as a farm labourer. It is possible that the Chismans had never intended to stay long at Higher Hewish. It is equally possible that William had been hired there for a fixed period and that for some reason was not re-engaged.
Whatever circumstance prompted the return to Winfrith, events of the ensuing years would suggest that all was not well in the Chisman household.
To be continued……..