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| Landford St Andrews church |
As I began researching my Tucker ancestors in Hampshire and Wiltshire in the 19th-century census and baptismal records, I found that all of them were described as either labourers of some sort or agricultural labourers. Many of the widows were laundresses and their daughters were domestic servants. Some were even described as paupers. Additionally, many of them were illiterate, especially the women.
My 3x great grandfather George Tucker (1802-1886) and his wife Hannah were living on the Downton Common by 1871. Most of the common land in Landford and Hamptworth where they worked and probably lived as tenanted labourers were enclosed by 1861. They could no longer supplement their labouring wages with grazing their stock and foraging for food or timber in these now private properties.
By 1881, George - now a widower - was living in the region's Poor House at Alderbury. This often served as an aged care facility for the few people like him who lived into old age. I often wonder why neither of his locally married daughters could not take him in. Maybe they too lived in crowded housing with too many children.
Extending my search to siblings of these 19th-century ancestors, I found them most of them also were described as agricultural labourers. It was only when some of them moved to towns and cities and compulsory education became the norm that their offspring were able to gain a middle-class standard of living. By the Edwardian period, my Tucker great grandparents in Southampton were sending their sons to private schools and their wives were well-educated. They moved to better areas of town and built or bought property.
However, once I began researching 18th-century records, mostly through the Wiltshire Archives, I discovered that my Tucker ancestors had a higher standard of living, if not a more comfortable life. The earliest records I could find were at Minstead, Hampshire. Some of them were yeoman farmers - generally leasing land from the landed gentry. Some held copyhold title ie the lease was passed on to them by their father or other relatives.
Some did very well, better than their yeoman farming ancestors. John Tucker 1799-1773 was first a blacksmith with apprentices in Bramshaw on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border but by 1735 he had moved to Landford, Wiltshire where he was a very successful farmer, able to leave his daughter Mary 500 pounds and his son John all his other freehold property and assets. He was not the oldest son, so whether he married particularly well or was an excellent blacksmith, I do not know.
Whilst studying the Pharos Tutors Family History Skills & Strategies (Intermediate) Certificate in 2013, I researched and wrote about a will of my ancestor's first cousin John Tucker (1736-1811). He was not "landed gentry" but he was certainly a gentleman farmer. I doubt he got his hands particularly dirty.
Will of John Tucker, proved 1812 at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury
The will
This document from the Wills
Register at the National Archives PROB 11/1538/130 (Catalogue Reference) is the
Will of John Tucker, gentleman of Landford, proved 14th October 1812 at the Prerogative
Court of Canterbury. The will was dated
3rd July 1811.
The Salisbury and Winchester
Journal of Monday, May 25th, 1812 announced:
“On Sunday the 17th
instant died, Mr. John Tucker, of
Landford, in this county, aged 76 years; a truly honest and upright character.”
Summary of the will
After stating his good health and
mental state, he desires that all his just debts and financial exposure be
settled, as well as the expenses relating to proving the will and discharging
his debts.
He gives powers to settle his
debts and money owing to him, to sell or auction his property and possessions to
his executors, John Hicks (yeoman of Landford), Thomas Wilmot (solicitor and
gentleman of Salisbury) and John Saunders the younger, gentleman of Broughton
in the County of Southampton.
He leaves his plate and china to
three female friends, Sarah Doyley of Fisherton Anger (near Salisbury) and Ann
and Sarah Burke, daughters of Nathaniel Burke of Ipswich, surgeon.
His property consisting of a
“freehold messuage, tenement or dwelling house wherein I now live with the
garden, orchard, barn backside and one piece of Meadow” situated at Landford,
and also other properties, freehold, lifehold, leasehold and copyhold, various
acreages, a blacksmith’s shop; freehold,
leasehold, copyhold pieces or parcels of meadow bushy or arable land which he
holds under Corpus Christi Oxford College[i] which he
holds in his own life and the life of William Bishop situated living and being
in Landford; and all his books, furniture, silver and other possessions of
whatever quality are to be sold in whatever way the .
The monies raised are to be used
in the following ways:
·
to invest £500, the interest from which is to be
used to educate and maintain until the age of 21, a child Thomas Jeffrey
Bumstead, the son of the late Rev James Hewett Bumstead, and after the age of
21 to give him the principal sum for his own use.
·
To provide annuities for some cousins (first and
second) with legacies- James Winter £15 per annum; William Bishop, a servant of
Fritham and George Tucker of Hamptworth (a second cousin) £8/10/- per annum,
paid quarterly. George Tucker was the
older brother of my direct ancestor William Tucker.
·
To provide legacies for a large number of first
and second cousins of between £30 and £50.
Most of them were labourers. He
also left his second cousin Sarah Maury (nee Tucker) £100 and another £50 if
she was living with him at the time of his death. He also left the previously mentioned friends
Sarah Doyley (£100) and Sarah and Ann Burke (£300 between them) and the
relatives of his late wife Sarah Moulton (£200).
Any additional monies raised from
the sale of his properties was to be shared amongst all his first and second
cousins.
Death duties
These were recorded in 1812 at
the Canterbury PC, with John Hicks and others paying the duties[ii].
Genealogy
John Tucker’s will was crucial
for my family history research, since it, and his father, another John Tucker’s
1773 will provided me with information that connected my direct ancestor
William Tucker (1764-1843) born in Hamptworth, back to William Tucker of
Fritham near Bramshaw, Wilts whose will was proved in 1712[iii] and
his wife Mary whose will was proved in 1724.
The testator’s father John Tucker
senior (c1700-1773) was the younger brother of my 6th great-grandfather
William Tucker (1697-?) born in Bramshaw, Wilts who was a yeoman of Hale near
Downton, and was a grantee for the administration of his mother-in-law Mary
Henbest’s estate in 1745. William married Christian Henbest from Bramshaw in
1724. In succeeding generations, the
Tucker families were baptised, married, lived, worked and died in the parishes
of Downton, Landford and the district of Hamptworth, a corn and sheep raising
community within walking distance of both villages.
The Parish of Landford and its surrounding districts
Nowadays, Landford is a scattered
commuter community divided by the A36, but in 1801, 12 years before John Tucker
died, it was a thriving agricultural village of 186 people, 97 males and 89
females with 37 families living in 32 households. Nearly everyone was employed
in agriculture, 148 people, with only 13 employed in trade, manufacturers or
handicrafts. [iv]
It had grown from 80 people in 1675[v]. Landford and its near neighbours Bramshaw,
Downton, and Hamptworth were agricultural parishes which in the early 1800s
were undergoing great changes, both through the continuing enclosure of lands,
and the mechanisation of farm machinery.
It is likely that the Tuckers were beneficiaries of these changes,
unlike some of their relative who became agricultural labourers by the 19the
century. Downton would continue to grow,
particularly after the coming of the railways by 1844, but not before its
population and that of nearby towns was poverty stricken through famine and
changing economic times.
Our testator John Tucker died
during the Napoleonic wars, and the parish records show that he was a
churchwarden, handing out alms to soldiers who were passing through the
village, probably on their way home from the ports. The old road from Salisbury
to Totton went through Landford and Bramshaw. But otherwise, it is unlikely the
war affected the village much. Landford
was a mixed agricultural village, with arable land and pastures, and on the
edge of the New Forest where doubtless some villagers would have been employed
as woodsmen. Common areas were reducing
rapidly, and many fields were enclosed.
A man of substance
During the visitation of the
Bishop in 1783[vi],
John Tucker was described in the Glebe terrier as a gentleman farmer who
occupied Whitehouse Farm and had several other small holdings. He also owned Landford Cottage, and farmed on
a substantial scale. The UK Land Tax
Redemption record of 1798[vii] shows
he leased four land-holdings from John Eyre, Esq. one of two of the large
landowners in the area. He also had
copyhold of another property owned by the other, Robert Dumcom Shafto, to which
he added the oldest son of my 4th great grandfather as a third party.[viii]
It is obvious from the will that
John Tucker was a man of substantial means, doing well from his freehold,
lifehold, leasehold and copyhold properties.
He had a good start in life. There
was evidence of Tucker holdings in Landford from 1708[ix]. His father, John was a blacksmith in Bramshaw
in 1730[x]
(Apprenticeship record for John Hatch, indentured to John Tucker) but by 1735
he was listed as a constable in Landford[xi]. He
would have been an experienced farmer as well, working for his father William
Tucker, a farmer of Bramshaw. But as a
younger son he didn’t inherit property, and would have had to start out on his
own, opening a blacksmith’s shop in Landford. He died in 1773, a yeoman farmer
leaving his son property and a blacksmith’s shop. John Snr may have been a beneficiary of the land
enclosure, and as a blacksmith in a village with a rising population, he may have
done well. He would have educated his
son John, and even his own father William Tucker of Bramshaw could sign his
name.
John Jr did not leave any of his
estate to the parish, which seems unusual for the 19th century, but
he was very loyal to his own extended family, particularly those who were not
as prosperous as he was. Many of them
were labourers, including my ancestor William Tucker, his second cousin (more
correctly in genealogical rules his first cousin once removed), who was left
£50. William’s older brother George, a
labourer who was involved in settling his estate and earlier described as a
yeoman was left an annuity of £8/10/-.
He was to live another 20 years.
Like John Jr, George had no children.
Being a gentleman farmer, John
Tucker would have had the leisure to keep up a circle of distant friends. No family connection can be found with the
Bumstead family. Thomas Jeffrey
Bumstead, the legatee was born in Broughton Gifford in 1799 and became a
minister. He died in 1883 with a
personal estate of £10,397 2s 9d[xii], so he
was given a good start through this legacy.
John Tucker Jnr had married Sarah
Moulton in Landford in 1789, the daughter of William Moulton of Boxford,
Suffolk and she died in 1809. He
remembered her relatives with a legacy.
He also had a soft spot for spinster friends with china and legacies
being left to three women, presumably all family friends.
Winding up the estate
His administrators were kept
busy, with advertisements appearing in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal:
·
Monday June 8th, 1812 – calling for
persons indebted to the estate to pay their debts; and all those who have
demands on the estate to present their accounts;
·
Monday 15th June, 1812 – notice of an
auction of “seven clever draft horses… fit for wagon masters or brewers; three
narrow-wheel wagons, two broad-wheel dung cart carts and much more; farming
utensils, free hold and leasehold estates, dwelling house, furniture, crops of corn
on ground on different farms, dairy cows, young beasts.
·
Monday September 28th, 1812 – notice
of auction on late Mr Tucker’s premises of remaining property – with
description of furniture, animals, brewing and animal utensils.
Summary
The will therefore not only gave
us information about John Tucker’s status, lifestyle, his date of death, an
indication of where to look for advertisements of property sale, but also a
list of relations and their relationships to him.
[i]
I could find no reference to explain this.
Did he hold a lease for land owned by Corpus Christi College,
Oxford? Or was it a form of lease?
[v]
Ings, Stephen Landford: a Wiltshire village in the New Forest. Landford, Wilts, Laneford Books, 2005 p 54.
[xi]
Ings, Stephen, ibid., page 57
[xii]
www.ancestry.co.uk England & Wales,
National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966
Record for Thomas Jeffery Bumpsted
