Supplying Milk to Derby, the farmers tale.

A modern Longhorn Cow and Calf [1]

In recent days, I have found the following description of one of my maternal 4 x gt grandfather William Greatorex's (1742-1822) cows.

The cow was an "Old Longhorn Cow" which came from a breed that is seen today as being endangered because is some rare these days. These cattle were probably the origin of the far more common Texas Longhorn, but the two breeds have both diverged from their common roots.

The situation for Longhorns in England had become absolutely critical about 30 years ago, when they nearly disappeared. My parents and I were fortunate enough to live near to two of the very few remaining herds that were then in existence, and so we used to see them often, and my mother used to visit them to draw them. They became firm family favourites.

It is quite sad not to be able to tell my late mother that her great great great grandfather had had these cows on his farm, as she was quite passionate about them.

The description of the cow comes from a book called General View of the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire: with ..., Volume 3, by the Board of Agriculture, written by John Farey and printed in 1817.

Sadly, I cannot date the life of this cow precisely, however it was probably born in about 1798 and and would have lived throughout most of the Napoleonic War period.

The original description of the cow in John Farey's work. [2]

I have been aware that my maternal ancestors from the Greatrex (or Greatorex) family [4] had lived at Littleover in Derbyshire for several years, after finding an entry in the Census Reports for my great x 3 grandfather, Francis Greatrex who was then living in Hornsey.

I had been unable to locate his parents farm, as I did not know its name, and had been searching unsuccessfully in the centre of village of Littleover itself, which was where I had been expecting to find the farm.

Having the actual name of the farm has finally allowed me to locate the correct farm at Littleover.

The farm went by the rather unprepossessing name "Foulbrook Farm" and was located well away from the actual village of Littleover itself, in a position right up against the parish boundary on the Uttoxeter Road as it comes out of Derby right on the boundary between the villages of Littleover and Mickleover.

An extract from the 1899 Edition of the Ordnance Survey Map of Derby. [3] (For a larger version of this image and any of the others, please click on this image)

A side by side version of the images, showing the relationship with modern maps.

The extract above shows the location of the farm on the 1899 Edition of the Ordnance Survey Map of Derby and compares that map with a modern aerial photo.  It demonstrates that the farm was very well located for servicing the town of Derby with milk.

It also shows just how much Derby has grown since 1899. In 1800, when this cow grew up Derby only had a population of between 11,000 and 13,000, so that it had been very much smaller still.  Many of the houses shown on 1899 map had been built over fields which had been full of cows and horses when William was farming here.

Farey makes it clear that dairy farming was the major farming occupation in Derbyshire. He states that farmers within two to three miles of Derby were able to make the highest achievable income per acre from their farms by selling their milk to the households of Derby, and this is what the description of the cow suggests William Greatrex was doing.

Most farmers in the more rural areas of Derbyshire were unable to transport their milk into Derby quickly enough for it to arrive in a saleable state in the form of milk due to the dire state of the roads. It would be very difficult to stop the milk going off or separating due to the jolts it would have been subject to as it travelled to the town in churns on pack horses or in carts. 

These farmers had to convert their surplus milk into cheese, which could be transported more easily without going off, and which could be sold at one of the three major fairs held annually in Derby at which cheese was sold.  It is possible that William Greatrex may also have supplied butter and cheese to Derby.

At the commencement of the 19th Century, a cow worth £4 to £6 was expected to be able to make £26 of annual income for the farmer, compared with only £20 if the milk had to be made into cheese. [5]

The surveys by the Board of Agriculture of the farming in each county were started by Arthur Young (1741 - 1820) who was small scale struggling farmer from Suffolk, who eventually became a hobby farmer and journalist on agricultural matters. He wrote thousands of letters to farmers all over England inclosing questionnaires from about 1805 onwards. This led to his becoming a highly successful author and advisor on farming matters.

As a young man Young was a close neighbour of my Rodwell ancestors who lived just north of Bury St Edmunds at Great Livermere. Young was the second son of Arthur Young, the rector of Bradfield Combust, which was just ten miles away. Young corresponded later on with both my gt x 4 grandfather Josiah and my 3 x gt grandfather Joshua Rodwell (from my paternal family tree) who were both improving Suffolk farmers.

Some of these letters still survive and I have found some of them in the British Library. Extracts of others appear marked "J.R." in the footnotes in the Suffolk volume of the survey.

John Farey (Senr) who wrote the three volumes on Derbyshire took over Arthur Young's role at the Board of Agriculture. He was not primarily a farmer, but a Surveyor. He worked for the Duke of Bedford who lived at Woburn in Bedfordshire.

The Duke had a huge estate encompassing Woburn and several neighbouring villages so Farey had an excellent job, with very great responsibilities. He had previously trained in surveying under John Smeaton who was the most important of the newly emerging professional Civil Engineers.

The Duke was interested in Geology, so he had invited William "strata" Smith, who was the first man to understand the importance of strata and the new science of Geology to inspect the Duke's estate and to report on any minerals that might be present under it.

Smith was a self taught geologist, who had been a foreman on a gang of navvies digging canals in Somerset near Bath.

The geology is really complex in the Somerset Coalfields, and from observing the changing layers in the muck as they were uncovering as he and his men were shifting it to construct the canals he had learnt how strata worked. Smith at his own expense then set off for many years to walk from one end of the British Isles to the other mapping the surface geology, and from these notes he produced the very first geological map of England.

Apparently Smith interested Farey in geology by showing him how the geology worked on the Woburn Estate.

Farey then used this knowledge to good effect in his work on the three volume Survey Derbyshire, which started in 1811, which includes a great deal on the mineral wealth of Derbyshire.

I am trying to track down the report by Thomas Brown the text refers to.

The yields are not easy to convert into metric, as some special measures were used that were unique to the wholesale milk trade in those days.

A barn gallon equalled 17 pints.
A normal gallon equals 8 pints (or at least it did when I was at school.)
A barn gallon equalled 2 Imperial gallons.
A barn gallon equalled a dozen quarts

The 17th pint in the barn gallon was supposed to compensate the milk man for the milk that had adhered to the sides of the farmers barrel or to the milk mans jug when he had poured the milk into the jug as he delivered it the Derby housewife.

The concept was a bit like that of a "Bakers Dozen." made up of 13 buns rather than say 12 eggs in a dozen.

I expect that poor cow was a very poor producer by the standards of today. However, in the early 19th Century Longhorns were seen as a very advanced breed.

Robert Bakewell who had started to revolutionise the breed (which is believed to have originally come from Westmoreland, where my Nicholson ancestor's almost certainly bred them at Kirby Thore) lived only 17 miles to south of Littleover at Dishley near Loughborough on the main road from Derby to London which is called the A6 today.

There was a lot of controversy at that time amongst the general run of farmers, and the "Improving Farmers" like Bakewell, over the relative importance of characteristics like producing more milk, or more meat, or even its hauling ability,  over which characteristic should be the primary aim in developing new cross breeds at that time.

Some farmers feared that the newly bred cattle varieties would require better grazing than the older unimproved Longhorns needed. I expect that William Greatorex was still using the old unimproved variety.

The following photo shows the location of the farm. Sadly today it almost entirely lies under the asphalt of the public car park at Derby General hospital. While I might like to get an archaeological dig underway to find the farm, I don't think I could mobilise quite the level of interest that was behind the recent campaign to undertake an excavation under the car park in Leicester. [6]

The original farm was only about 30 acres, which was a small farm in the 18th Century and one that was only just viable as a  farm at that time and in this area.

William Greatrex was a tenant farmer who rented his farm from a Charity called Houghton's Charity.

Many villages and towns had received bequests of land in the Tudor or even Medieval period, which were used to fund charitable work for the destitute or for things like providing education to villagers.

When villages were enclosed, it was common for these charities to receive small packages of land on the outskirts of the villages as compensation.  It appears that Foulbrooke Farm was one of these farms.

As the following advertisement from the Derby Mercury in December 1796 shows, William was the sitting tenant.

Advertisement for Letting the Farm in 1796. [7]

On 1st of October 1789, William Greatorex at Foulbrooke was listed as having a Game License. This may have been at the commencement of the previous seven year period of his tenancy.

In notices of his death in 1822, he was stated to have been 80 years old.  This would mean that in 1789 he would have been 47 years old. I have been unable to trace the history of the farm at an earlier date, however he might have had the tenancy over several of the previous seven year tenancy periods.

Was he farming at Foulbrooke from about 1760?

He was able to secure the farm once more in 1796.

It appears that William Greatorex had had some standing in the local community. In the absence of a police force, life was often very difficult for farmers, who were frequently robbed on their way back from market of the cash they were known to be carrying.  Their farms and livestock were very often plundered for valuable animals, in times of shortage by local villagers or by gangs from the nearby towns.

In order to protect themselves farmers would band together to form Societies for the Apprehension of Felons.  The members of these societies would join together to offer rewards for the tracking down and prosecution of thieves who had attacked one of their members persons or property. They organised search and pursuit parties in some cases.

Several of my Suffolk farming ancestors were stalwarts of these Societies, which held bi-annual dinners in local pubs, like the Fox at Barking.

I think that it is possible that William Greatrex was in one of these associations, as on Thursday February 2nd, 1792 the following advertisement was placed in the Derby Mercury.

Derby Mercury - Thursday 02 February 1792 [8]

Note how his name is given as Greatrex. Presumably William had given the newspaper office the text of this advertisement, and therefore must have approved of its spelling.

What was a Red Stag doing in Mr Wade's barn?  In those days the ownership of stags, dead or alive was fairly restricted. Does anybody know who Mr Wade was, or where he came from?

I believe that William's wife was called Elizabeth. We don't know when she was born, or when they married, or even what her maiden name had been.

One possibility, is that it was Banning, and that she may have come from White House in Ticknell, which is a farm a little to the east of the village of Ticknell. We have in our possession several letters from this address from an Ann Banning, who appears to have been a relative of the family.

Elizabeth lived until August 1839, which is 17 years after her 80 year old first husband had died.  

I think that she might have been a much younger than he was, because in June 1831, she was still seen as being a lady who was eligible for marriage. Possibly, she had been William's second wife.

"Yesterday morning, at St. Peter's Church, by the Rev. Mr. Frizell, Mr. Thomas Richardson, of Littleover, to Mrs. Elizabeth Greatorex, late of Foulbrook House, near this town."[9]

We know that this Elizabeth Greatorex was originally William's wife as this fact is referred to in the notices published in the Derbyshire Courier on the 17th of August 1839 following her death. 

"At Long Eaton, a few days since, Mrs. Richardson, relict of the late Mr. Greatorex, of Foulbrook Farm, near Derby." [10]

An interesting advertisement appeared in the Derbyshire press in January 1831, which suggests that the farm carried a lot of trees during William's time.

Advertisement for the sale of trees from Foulbrooke Farm, January 26, 1831. [11]

The fact that a 30 acre farm was carrying 119 trees must have meant that it was fairly well wooded.  I have no idea how many cows, and horses the farm was carrying, but this number of trees must have taken up quite a lot of room, and have shaded a lot of the grazing.

There are some other tantalizing bits of evidence that the family were farming land in at least two other locations nearby.

In 1824 the road from Uttoxeter to Derby that ran past Foulbrooke Farm into Derby was realigned as it entered Derby.

The following extract comes from a much longer advertisement placed in the Staffordshire Advertiser dated Saturday 28th August 1824, as the process of getting access to the land was carried through.

"NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, Application is intended to be made to Parliament in the next ensuing Session, for leave to bring in a Bill for repealing an Act passed in the year the Reign of his late Majesty King George the 3d, intituled an Act for reviving the term, and continuing, altering and enlarging the powers two Acts passed in the 32nd year of his late Majesty, and in the third year of his present Majesty, so far as the same relate to repairing and widening the Road from the town of Derby, to the town of Uttoxeter, in the county of Stafford, and for granting further and more effectual powers and provisions for amending, widening, diverting, altering and otherwise improving the said Road,in which Bill provision is intended to be made for making a new Branch of Road commencing from the said Road at or near to a certain house in Stockbrook Field, in the parish of Saint Werburgh, in the borough of Derby, in the occupation of Joseph Harpur, and passing along or near to a certain Lane there called Dayson Lane, to and into the town of Derby, or near Saint Werburgh's Church. Also a deviation from the said Road commencing at or near to the south east corner of piece of land called the Near Booth Close, in the parish of Markeaton, in the county of Derby, in the occupation of the Executors of the late John Wallis, and extending in a westwardly direction to and into the said Road at or near the westwardly end of a piece of land called the Paddock, in the said parish of Markeaton, in the occupation of Elizabeth Greatorex. Also another deviation from the said Road commencing at or near the southeastwardly corner certain piece of land called the Intake, in the parish of Mickleover, in the county of Derby, in the occupation of John White, and extending in westwardly direction to and into the said Road at or near to the southwestwardly corner a certain piece of land called the First Day's Close, in the said parish of Mickleover, in the occupation of the said John White. "[11]

I cannot presently identify the location of "a piece of land called the Paddock, in the said parish of Markeaton, in the occupation of Elizabeth Greatorex" and I would be very pleased if any body reading this blog is able to locate the field. I am intrigued to know where it was, and how big it was.

When William Greatrex's death was announced in the Monthly Magazine, or, British Register, in 1822 it was in the following terms...

“At Foulbrook Farm, near Derby, 80, Mr. Greatrex, well known for many years to the sporting world" [12]

It is hard to be certain what was meant by the sporting world, however I believe it is a reference to horse racing. One of William's sons, John Greatrex became a very successful breeder and trainer of thoroughbred horses including Pocahontas during the 1830's and 40's.  [13]

One of his other sons, Francis who I am descended from was considerably less successful with horses, however he still appears to made much of his living from working with horses, as he is listed as a commission salesman for horses, and also as running a livery stable in Islington, with a small rented farm at Hornsey Lane.

It is very likely that William Greatrex was training horses on his land.  There are quite a few references to a Mr Greatrex running horses at racing courses like Lichfield, Leicester and Newmarket during the period when William Greatrex was likely to have been most active as a trainer, however because the papers refer to Mr. Greatrex, without giving his christian name it is not possible to be certain, which Mr Greatrex it was, and there were several other possible Mr Greatrex alive at this time.

"Mr. Greatorex’s chef. Colt, Cannon-Ball came third." in the Leicester Races in 1781. [14]

and "Mr. Greatex’s chestnut gelding, Harold, 5 years", that was running in the Newmarket Second October Meeting on Wednesday October 18, 1786. [15]

If I am correct in assuming that William was the Mr. Greatorex or Greatrex who was training race horses, it is very likely that he had access to other parcels of land rented nearby.

There are other indications, that this was so.

After William had died it appears that at least two of his sons tried to run farms of their own in the Littleover area. A Charles Greatrex was farming in Littleover a decade or more later in the 19th Century.

My own forebear Francis Greatrex appears to have continued to have run the milk delivery side of the business after his father's death, as he had been renting three small paddocks of land at Dunkirk in the Parish of St Werburgh's in Derby up and until shortly before April 1827, by when he had left for London.

Advertisement for the sale of land formerly rented by Francis Greatrex, milkman.[16]

The location of these three closes is intriguing because if you carry on down the Uttoxeter Road from Foulbrooke Farm past the paddock previously referred to at being located in Markeaton, you arrived in 1826 at Dunkirk Farm which was on the outskirts of Derby.

In 1765 it was described as being fit for a Gentleman's family, 

"with convenient Offices, Stables, Garden, Coach House, and a Seat in St. Weburgh's Church.  And also a House, Tan yard, two Cottages, and nine Acres of Meadow, and Pasture land, called Dunkirk Farm." [17]

An extract from Burdetts map of Derby in 1791, showing Dunkirk Span, and also a nearby Dairy House [18]

It appears as if 2 acres had been retained with the house, and that the other 7 acres had been rented to Francis Greatrex. Had it previously been his father's tenancy perhaps?

It is proving difficult to reconcile Burdett's map with modern maps of Dunkirk Street which is located just off the A601, adjacent to Dewry Lane. The area was extensively re-developed in the latter half of the 19th Century and is covered with densely brick built terrace housing from that period.

If you happen across this blog, and are interested in any of the topics discussed I will be pleased to hear from you. I would be especially happy to hear from you if you are a local historian in Derby, Littleover, Markeaton or Mickleover if you can help me locate any of the fields discussed above.

I can be contacted on balmer.nicholas@gmail.com

I would like to acknowledge the huge contribution made to this article, which would not have otherwise been possible, by the online British Newspaper Archive run by the British Library, from which all of the newspaper extracts come from, and for the maps from the National Library of Scotland. Paul Klein has also provided a considerable amount of information about William Greatrex children's lives in London.

[1] From https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:English_Longhorn_cow_and_calf.jpg">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:English_Longhorn_cow_and_calf.jpg

[2] From John Farey, View of the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire: with ..., Volume 3 published 1817.
[3] From the National Library of Scotland online OS Map collection. 

https://maps.nls.uk/os/25inch-england-and-wales/
[4] My later Greatex ancestors who moved down to Hornsey & Highgate in about 1827 used the spelling Greatex.  However, my Derbyshire forebears used the name Greatorex.  My Grandfather Reginald Cuthbert Greatex Hancock, used to believe that the name had been acquired because one of his ancestors had been an illegitimate offspring of one of the Hanoverian Royal family probably via Hannah Lightfoot.  We now believe that this was a "cover story" to hide the fact that his grandfather, Ferdinand Greatrex, a servant in the house, had eloped with his masters daughter.  Researchers into the Greatrex name and its associated Greatorex, and Greatrakes variants which occurred frequently from at least Tudor times in Derbyshire suggest an origin in the Rakes, which were outcrops of lead ore that occur near Buxton and Wirksworth.
[5] Dairying in South West Derbyshire in the late nineteenth century: a study in historical geography.  A Master’s thesis by G. A. Tomson. 1986, especially Chapter 2. Although this Thesis is mainly about changes in farming brought about by the railways, it has a good section on the situation earlier in the 19th Century.
[6] The grave supposed to be of King Richard III was dug up in recent years from under a carpark in Leicester.
[7] Derby Mercury, Thursday 17th November 1796.
[8] Derby Mercury - Thursday 2nd February 1792

[9] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 22nd June 1831.
[10] Derbyshire Courier, Saturday 17th of August 1839.
[11] Staffordshire Advertiser, Saturday 28th of August 1824.
[12] Monthly Magazine, Or, British Register, Volume 53, 1822, page 89
[13] http://www.tbheritage.com/Portraits/Pocahontas.html
[14] Stamford Mercury - Thursday 20 September 1781
[15] Stamford Mercury - Friday 27th October 1786
[16] Derby Mercury - Wednesday 9th May 1827.
[17] Derby Mercury - Friday 8th March 1765.
[18] From an article by Ron McKeown on the Derby Heritage Forum  http://www.derbyheritageforum.co.uk/Gallows.html

John Baber, Vicar of Great Chesterford (1716-1792)

Great Chesterford Church

For many years, I have been aware that John Baber (1716-1792) was Vicar of Great Chesterford, a village between Cambridge and Saffron Walden in Cambridgeshire. However, until quite recently, I could find only a very little about his life, beyond the theft of his Madder plants that had taken place, and that he had been a pluralist, as were so many of his fellow Church of England clergymen at this time: I had assumed that his life and career was one of quiet contemplation, punctuated the weekly round of services.

However, with the recent appearance of the Church of England Database, [1] and the explosion of information coming available via the Internet, I am finding that his life has considerable interest.

John was the brother of my 5 x great grandfather, Thomas Draper Baber, the fourth son of John Baber 1684 – 1765 of Sunninghill in Berkshire.

John was born shortly before the 4 July 1716 at Sunninghill in Berkshire.

Sunning-Hill Park, Berkshire. [2]

John and Anne had previously had three boys, Thomas Draper Baber, born on the 19th of May 1711, William born on the 2nd of September 1712, however he only lived a short while, dying on the 5th of November that year, and in April 1714, Peregrine was born and baptised on the 4th of the month. A further daughter, Charlotte arrived during August 1718.

They were brought up at Sunninghill Park in Berkshire, which had been inherited by their father on the death of their grandmother in 1719.  Their grandfather had died in August 1718.

We know nothing about John’s upbringing, beyond the fact that in 1722, it was costing his father £100 a year to educate all of his children.  It is probable that John went to Reading school, as had his elder brother Thomas.  John Loveday of Caversham described John’s father as “an admirable Grecian and polite scholar.”

John's father had inherited the estate from his late Grandmother, Mary the daughter of Sir Thomas Draper; however, much of the money had already been spent, and it is probable that John’s father was one of those who lost heavily with the bursting of the South Sea Bubble.

John’s father had been a passionate stag hunter, who also ran a literary spa based around the Wells Inn Public house. The house was run as a spa which became a resort for many of the local gentry, and literary names of the day, including Lord Hervey and Lady Montagu Wortley.

However, family life must have been strained, because on 7^th of July 1727 his parents separated. This must have been a traumatic event for the children. His mother was Lady Anne Stawell, who had married John Baber of Sunninghill on the 28^th of April 1710.

Until the 1720's the marriage had endured, however it was to end in a complex divorce, which in those days entailed the passing of an Act of Parliament. A huge document survives in the National Archives at Kew that sets out John's case for divorce, based on desertion.  Anne was absenting herself to London, and spending £500 a year on dresses and extravagant living.

John's father meanwhile was building sets of farm houses and buildings at £400 on his estate at East Ham for each and spending freely on books, amassing at least 2,500 titles.

When John was 19, he went up to St John’s College Oxford, where he Matriculated on February the 6th 1735 – 6. He took his B.A. there in 1739.

In the following year he was ordained Deacon at Bangor on the 1st June 1740. It is not known what John did for the following six years, but on the 10th of October 1746, John became the domestic chaplain to Edward 4th Baron Stawell of Somerton in Somerset.

Edward 4th Baron Stawell (1685-1755) by Michael Dahl.[4]

Edward, Baron Stowell was the nephew of John's mother Anne. Edward Stawell lived at Hinton Ampner in Hampshire, Aldermaston Court, and occasionally at Somerton in Somerset. It is very probable that he also occupied a house in London as well. It is not possible to say just how much time that John Baber would have spent in his role as domestic chaplain to Baron Stawell, but presumably it must have been a fairly comfortable time.

The Surviving gates to Aldermarston Court.

Stawell's home at Aldermaston, was the closest to to the Baber family home at Sunninghill, and was most probably where John Baber acted as Chaplain to the Baron.  The fact that the Baron felt able to employ John, when his sister Anne had been divorced by John Baber's father, suggests that John and his mother had maintained contact following her divorce.

We don't know where Anne lived after her divorce, but it is very likely that she spent some of her time at Aldermarston. After her death, she was buried in the Baber family vault at Sunninghill Church.

A year or so later, on the 2nd of December 1747, he took his M.A. degree at Cambridge. On the 6th of March 1747-8 he was ordained at Lincoln, and became Rector of Little Chesterford on the 9th of March 1748, and Vicar of Great Chesterford on the 22nd of March 1748.

Little Chesterford Church

While we know that John married Elizabeth Bate Prissick, at present I cannot establish when the marriage took place, or indeed where.  What I have been able to establish is that her father was Codrington John Prissick who came from Carlton in North Yorkshire [5]

Codrington John Prissick had been baptised in 1701 at St Dunstan's in the East End of London. He was the son of Christopher Prissick and Sarah (nee Codrington), who had been married in 1691 in Barbados, where Sarah had been the daughter of one of the major landowning families on the Island at that time.

Codrington Johns' father, Christopher, originated from Carlton in Yorkshire, and was a wealthy merchant, who appears to have lived in London, but then moved back to Carlton before his death in 1718.

Codrington John Prissick was married in 1723, at Whorlton, North Yorkshire, to Elizabeth Perrott [6], daughter of Charles Perrott, sometime Mayor of York, and they had at least 7 children, who were baptised in Carlton between 1724 and 1736.

Codrington John Prissick inherited significant properties from his father in 1718, including the manor of Carlton and its associated Alum mines. 

The Manor House at Carlton, probable childhood home to Elizabeth Prissick.

The alum mines have a particular significance, as Alum could be used not just as part of textile dying process, but was also used extensively for the refining of raw sugar loaves.

It is probably significant that her father was Codrington John Prissick.  The Codrington family under Christopher Codrington (c. 1600-1656) had been amongst the most successful of the pioneering settlers in Barbados. Christopher Codrington married Frances Drax, who had several sons, including John Codrington (c.1642-c.1688) who had married Sarah Bate, daughter of Colonel William Bate of Barbados.

This marriage produced at least five children, including Sarah Codrington, who had married Christopher Prissick of London, parents of Codrington John Prissick.[7]

Former Alum Mines on Carlton Bank, looking north towards Middlesborough

Note how Elizabeth Bate Prissick has as her middle name Bate.  This naming pattern was very common during the 18th Century, with my great x 4 grandfather Samuel Hawkins, a London solicitor and promoter of loans to South Wales mining interests calling his sons by long strings of names including Bennett, Popkin, and after a number of other mining owners who were amongst his clients.

John Baber appears to have suggested this practice to his brother Thomas. John's living at Great Chesterford was within the gift of the Hervey family, major East Anglian landowners, with the result that my 3 x great grandfather was called Henry Hervey Baber, and he had Thomas Hervey Baber, and James Hervey Baber for brothers.

There were many members of the Bate family active in Barbados and Antigua while Elizabeth was a child, and it is probable that one of them was invited to become her Godfather.

Late 19th Century Mapping of Carlton Bank, showing both the former Alum mines,

but also the Jet Workings.

Many early colonial planters tried to vertically integrate their sugar plantations, by using brothers or other close family members to organise the marketing of the sugar in England or to the Continent. Two thirds of the sugar arriving in England was for onward sale to Europe.

It looks as if the Prissick family had repatriated funds to England, and had bought up the Alum mines so that they could supply Alum to the processing works in Antigua where their main plantations were.

The Alum mines at Charlton have been restored over the past 30 years, removing much of the former workings, but as the following image shows, their effect on the landscape is still clearly to be seen from the following aerial photograph.

Alum and Jet Mines on Charlton Bank.  

The village is situated in the plain to the north of the escarpment.

Because it is not at all clear where Elizabeth and John were married, and because a gap of about five years exists in John's documentation, it is entirely possible that John had made the voyage to the West Indies, and this may have been where they met.

John Baber's father had spent some of his childhood in Spain, and when his library was sold in 1766, it contained what was then the largest collection of Spanish and Italian books in England. These included a number of titles on the Spanish colonies in South America and the Spanish Main.  John's brother Peregrine Baber had been a member of the expeditionary force sent to the West Indies as a officer in the Marines where he had taken part in the ill fated siege of Cartagena in 1746.  The regiment of Marines Peregrine served had been was raised with recruits from Hartlepool and South Shields.

It does appear however that not all was well, with Elizabeth's father as the properties were passed on to his Uncle John Prissick during the 1740's.

By October 1746, John was active and appears in the records in England once again.

Appointed Vicar of Great Chesterford on the 22nd of March 1748, he now had two parishes to run, situated a little over a mile apart.  Great Chesterford was not situated on the main London to Cambridge road, although these were not far removed. It was however on the main London to Newmarket route, much used by crowds visiting the horse races. As such the village was well supplied with pubs and inns.

Interior of Great Chesterford Church.

As far as we can tell John and Elizabeth Baber lived in Great Chesterford for the next twenty years. There is no record of their having had any children, and it is not entirely clear where in the village they lived.  There are at least three former vicarages in the village. One in the grounds of the other two, which is a modern post 1970's vicarage, while the second larger one behind the church appears both too recent for the family to have lived in, as well as too large.

Next to the church gate is the "Old Vicarage" which appears to have a considerable amount of 15th Century, or possibly earlier woodwork in its structure.

I believe that this is most likely to have been the house that was the home to John and Elizabeth Baber.

The Old Vicarage, Great Chesterford. 

The Church gate can be seen to the right of the photo.

Codrington John Prissick died in 1753, at which time he was living in York. The administration of his estate was granted in that year. A possible clue to the loss of his property being that the administration was granted to his principal creditor, a Joseph Hawksworth of the City of York, a Wine & Spirit Merchant. [8]

Ockley's History of the Saracens.

One of the frustrations of historical research into ones ancestors, is that it is very hard to find out what caught their interest.  In the case of John Baber, we get a tantalising glimpse from the fact that he was interested enough in Islam and the rise of the Saracen Empire to buy Simon Ockley's book, The History of the Saracen's. The book had been written in about 1708 by Ockley who was Vicar of Swavesey and was appointed professor of Arabic in 1711.  Ockley who fell into debt was imprisoned in Cambridge Castle in 1718, and had died in 1720.  The life of Mohammed was added by Roger Long who reissued the book in 1757 as a way of relieving the distress Ockley's destitute daughter was in. Perhaps this is why John bought the book. Perhaps he was aware of her plight.

The subscription page for surnames beginning with B.

Aged 47, on the 3rd of March 1763 John became Chaplain to Robert Carteret, 3rd Earl of Granville (1721-1776). Robert Carteret had succeeded to his father’s title on the death of the latter on the 2nd of January 1763.

Robert Carteret, 3rd Earl of Granville (1721-1776) by John Smart [9]

It is not clear why John Baber should have wished to take up this post, however the Carteret family, who came originally from the island of Jersey, had owned a mainland property at Sunninghill in Berkshire for most of the previous hundred years, and as such must have known the Baber family.
 

Robert Carteret was the only surviving son of John Carteret, 2nd Earl of Granville. He is described as being of weak intellect, although through influence he had been secured a seat as MP for Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight in December 1744. An unsuccessful attempt had been made to have him adopted as a candidate for Cornwall in April 1744.

Elizabeth Wyndham wrote in 1744:

"Young Carteret has been at Wooburn, where he has raised the Devil in a manner so indecent that I cannot give you details. The Duke has told his father that he ought to have him put under control, for his head appears to be turned, as it may well be, for he drinks brandy from morning till night."

On 16 Aug. 1744 Horace Walpole wrote to Mann:

“About a fortnight ago he was at the Duke of Bedford’s and as much in his few senses as ever. At five o’clock in the morning he waked the Duke and Duchess all bloody and with the lappet of his coat held up full of ears; he had been in the stable and cropped all the horses.”

It is possible that John Baber was being expected to try to exercise some control on a less than rational being, who had lost any restraint his later father might have tried to impose.

20 years later, and at about the time John Baber became his Chaplain, Elizabeth Montagu wrote of him:

"It is grievous to see such a creature represent the late Earl, who had all the grace and dignity of manner added to great talents".

Robert Carteret had had a mistress for over forty years who was called Elizabeth, and was probably of French origin.  He eventually married her, but died without heirs.

Elizabeth, Lord Carteret's Daughter?

The National Gallery of Victoria has a second portrait of “Lord Carteret’s Daughter” also by John Smart. Robert Carteret is not believed to have had any heirs. Was this a daughter who died before him, or is this really a portrait of his mistress?

It is quite possible that it was John Baber’s role to try to moderate Robert Carteret’s extremes, but if this was the case, he does not seem to have been at all successful, because another contemporary report described Carteret in 1776 as:

"rather deficient in his intellects, fond of low company, profuse, fickle and debauched. He appeared constantly in the mean garment of a groom or coachman, shunning his equals, and rioting in taverns with pimps and prostitutes. The conclusion of his inglorious amours was a Fleet marriage with one Molly Paddock, a woman of vile extraction, bold, loose and vulgar, the superintendent of a bagnio".[10]

Along with his estates in England and on Jersey, Robert Carteret had inherited a large amount of land in North Carolina from his father.

When in London, Carteret appears to have lived at 3 New Burlington Street in London from 1764 to 1775, where presumably John Baber must have ministered to him.[11]

Carteret also inherited Hawnes Park, in Bedfordshire situated in the village of Haynes, which was about 35 miles due west of Great Chesterford.

Hawnes Park, in Bedfordshire situated in the village of Haynes.

We don't know how John Baber divided his time between his duties for Lord Carteret and his parochial responsibilities. Presumably he employed curates to minister to the villagers at Chesterford.

There is an interesting possible indicator both of the fact that with the vicar spending less time in the village, the locals felt that they could help themselves to his property.

Madder Roots, used to make red dyes.

ESSEX

CHESTERFORD, Jan. 7, [1764]

Whereas a small Plantation of MADDER, containing near a Quarter of an Acre, lying in the Parish of Little Chesterford in the County of Essex, and belonging to the Rev. John Baber, has been robbed of a considerable Quantity of Plants and Roots, to the great Detriment of the Owner; this is to give Notice, that anybody who will inform against the Person or Persons who have robbed the said Plantation, so that he, she, or they, may be lawfully convicted there- of, shall receive the Reward of Ten Pounds, by the said J. BABER. [12]

John Baber's signature.

In amongst a set of family autographs collected, very probably by my five times great grandfather Thomas Draper Baber, are two signatures from two documents dating from February 1766. This was the year when his father's estate at Sunninghill was being broken up and sold. Nearly a hundred years of their family life was being dispersed.

John Baber's second signature.

In 1770, Christopher Prissick, Elizabeth's brother died at Havannah in Cuba.

Havannah at about the period HMS Rippon and Christopher Prissick arrived there.

Christopher Prissick's will gives interesting detail of her wider family.

Prerogative Court Canterbury, Admons:

8 March 1770

Adm granted to.. 

- Hannah Gisborne (wife of Thomas William Gisborne) the daughter and admr of William Gyles decd (who whilst living was a creditor of the said decd)
- Elizabeth Prissick, widow, natl and lawful mother and next of kin
- Elizabeth Bate Baber (wife of the rev John Baber) and Hannah Rennie, widow, natl & lawful sisters
- Elizabeth Prissick, spinster, niece of the said decd having renounced and Ann Prissick, spinster, Codrington Charles Prissick, Thomas Prissick & Bate Hannah Prissick, spinster, the nephew & nieces of the said decd having also renounced by Elizabeth Prissick widow their natural and lawful mother and curatrix or guardian lawfully assigned.

With his previous employer dead, aged 60, and possibly finding parish duties too much, John obtained a new post as domestic chaplain, and then resigned his livings at Great and Little Chesterford.

On the 1st April 1776 John became domestic chaplain to David Kennedy, 10th Earl of Cassilis (c. 1734-1792.) The Earl of Cassilis estates lay near Alloway south of the River Doon. His home was at Culzean Castle, which he re-built, commissioning Robert Adam as his architect. The cost of the re-building greatly exceeded the Earl’s income, and by the time of his death he owed £60,000 to his creditors.

Culzean Castle built in stages between 1777 and 1792

Again, we face the frustration of not knowing how much time each year John had to spend with the Earl, or indeed where the Earl himself was living.  Presumably with the Castle being substantially re-built throughout much of this period, the Earl and by implication his chaplain must have only visited the site of Robert Adams work.

James Boswell described the Earl of Cassillis as ”a good honest merry fellow.”

Before succeeding to the Earldom, David Kennedy had worked as an advocate living at Newark.

In June 1776, the following notice appeared in the Ipswich Journal.

The Rev. Edward Waterson, B. A. is presented by the Earl of Bristol to the vicarage of Great Chesterford in Essex, void by the promotion of the Rev. Mr. Baber.[13]

Possibly with a view to retaining a living in the South of England in the event that his employer died, or his role came to an end, John took the living of Little Chishall which is about nine miles west of Chesterford, set into the folds of the Chiltern escarpment, not far from Royston.

John became Rector of Little Chishall on 13^th May 1776 and remained in that post until his death in 1792.

St Nicholas Church, Little Chishall.

The village of Little Chishall is very sparsely populated even today, and John's parish duties cannot have been onerous. It is probable that for most of the year he lived with the Earl of Cassillis as part of the Earl's household, and that he employed a curate to take the services in Chishall.

The Rectory, Little Chishall.

By  1782, Thomas Draper Baber, John's brother had taken a house in Newton, a village about nine miles due north of Little Chishall.

A map showing the locations of Great Chesterford, Little Chishall and Newton

In 1792 during his seventeenth-year Henry Hervey Baber recorded: -

“Went in July with my fath sic. (to) Great Chesterford and staid there 2 days in which time the Rev.d John Baber died aged 75.”[14] 

An entry in the diary of Henry Hervey Baber's recording the death of the Rev'd John Baber.

What is interesting, is that it shows that John had returned to Great Chesterford for his final years. Little Chishall was such a small village, that it must have been very isolated. 

It is unknown where John is buried. As late as 1827, it was hoped to bury Thomas Baber in the family vault at Sunninghill, but this provided not to be possible at the time because the church was being re-built in that year. It is quite possible that John was placed into the family vault at Sunninghill, as there is no obvious monument to him at Great Chesterford.

Great Chesterford Graveyard, the dates on several gravestones

 are those people who must have been his parishioners

A curious entry in the Clergy Database suggests that on the 22 February 1793 John had become Curate of St George Hanover Square, however this must be a mistake as he had died in the previous year.

The River Cam at Great Chesterford.

If you should stumble onto this blog perhaps because you are researching the history of your village or family, and you recognise any of the people and places named, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I am particularly trying to fill in the gap during the 1740's. Can you find John and Elizabeth, perhaps in the West Indies? Or perhaps you are aware of where in England they were?

Do you know of any accounts of visits to the homes of  Edward 4th Baron Stawell, Robert Carteret, 3rd Earl of Granville, or the Earl of Cassillis as I would love to be able to establish how John Baber fitted in his role with these domestic chaplain posts and those in his parishes.

I can be contacted at balmer.nicholas@gmail.com

[1] http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/DisplayCcePerson.jsp?PersonID=114947

[2] From http://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/images/sunninghill_park.jpg

[3] http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/persons/CreatePersonFrames.jsp?PersonID=114947

[4] National Trust, Hinton Ampner.

[5] In Cleveland since the changes to the County Boundaries during the 1970's.

[6] http://www.davekinggenealogy.co.uk/Resources/f10.htm

[7] See Matthew Parker's book, The Sugar Barons, for simplified family trees, and much much more on the Codrington, Prissick, Drax and Bate families. Published 2011.

[8] “In February 2003, we received the following information from Mr David King who came across the Societies website whilst researching one of his Ancestors; Codrington John Prissick, Captain of the Arrow in 1726.  From http://www.scortonarrow.com/vol00/popupcap1726.htm”

[9] http://content.ngv.vic.gov.au/col-images/api/Ff003455/xxl

[10] http://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php/Robert_Carteret

[11]http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols31-2/pt2/pp566-572#highlight-first

[12] The Ipswich Journal- Saturday 21 January 1764.

[13] The Ipswich Journal - Saturday 29 June 1776.

[14] From “Memoranda relating the life of Henry Hervey Baber”, a handwritten diary of H H Baber’s life.

Buckden & Henry Hervey Baber's Ordination 1798

Buckden Bishops Palace and Church, December 2016.

For many years I have known that my great x 3 grandfather Henry Hervey Baber had been ordained at Buckden in Huntingdonshire.  The village used to sit astride the Great North Road, from London north to Edinburgh, although it is now bypassed.  Recently, I had occasion to drive past the village, and unusually I had time to go into the village and explore it in more detail. It was a cold drizzling afternoon a couple of weeks before Christmas.

Returning home, I looked up Henry's diary, and was agreeably surprised to see that we had by chance visited Buckden almost to the day, 218 years after he had arrived.

Entries from Henry Hervey Baber's Memorandum for December 1798

(Please click on this image and the others for larger versions)

In the life of any clergyman, the day of his ordination is always going to be a particularly important day.  Fortunately for me, a record of the events surrounding Henry's ordination survive, and recently I was able to visit the locations where these events took place.

Dec'r

11  Set off from Oxford for London -- Set off

12 On the following day went to Mr H Cowpers - and received my Title for Orders

-- which was at Ibstock in Leicestershire.

-- the Rector - Mr Madan.

Henry Cowper (1758-1840) was the third son of General Spencer Cowper and Charlotte nee Baber, who was Henry's great aunt  Henry Cowper was a lawyer at the Inner Temple,  grandson of William Cowper, clerk of the parliaments 1739–40, and great-grandson of the judge Spencer Cowper.

Family connections were being used to the full here, as the Rev'd Spencer Madan who was Rector of Ibstock, in Leicestershire, as well as St. Philip's, Birmingham, and Canon Residentiary of Lichfield Cathedral, as well as being one of the King's Chaplains, was a close relative of the Cowper family.

In 1723 Judith Cowper (1702-1781), a skilful poet, had married Colonel Martin Madan, groom of the bedchamber to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and MP for Wootton Basset. He had died at Bath on 4 March 1756, aged 53. Their sons included Rev Martin Madan, author of Thelyphthora a defence of polygamy and the Right Rev. Spencer Madan bishop successively of Bristol and Peterborough.

Spencer Madan, Rector of Ibstock, was the son of the Bishop of Peterborough, and Lady Charlotte Cornwallis, sister of the first Marquis Cornwallis.  His uncle was Bishop of Lichfield. His father had been Chaplain in Ordinary to the King until 1787, when he resigned his post, which was then handed on to his son.

As a puralist, with so many posts to fill, Spencer Madan must have needed several curates to service his other livings.[1]

Henry's entries for December 13th to the 25th, 1798.

1798

Dec.

13 met ( Isham there - on Thursday set

off from the White Horse, Fetter Lane by the

York High Flier for Buckden 61 miles, 

took up my abode at the George Inn, where I met

the rest of the Candidates for H. Orders. -- on the 

14, 15 Friday and Saturday examined by Mr

16 Maltby - and on the Sunday ordained a Deacon

by the Bishop of Lincoln.  There were

18 Candidates - 2 of whom were pluck'd. --

returned to London on Sunday night

on the outside of the Glasgow Mail.--

The White Horse, Fetter Lane in Holborn, 

departure point on December 13, 1798 for Buckden.  
The inn had been refurbished in 1794 by Landlord John Roberts [2]

The journey must have been an anxious one for Henry as he would face a searching interview and examination on his arrival. The route to Buckden up the Great North Road through High Barnet, Baldock, Biggleswade and St Neots, was not totally unknown to Henry as he had previously travelled down from it from Stamford in 1782, when he had been aged 7. Now aged 23, he was to face the final hurdle into his chosen profession.

As he checked in to the George, he must have apprehensively viewed the other eighteen candidates.

The George Inn, Buckden in December 2016.

Over the following two days the candidates were all interviewed and examined by the Reverend Edward Maltby. [3]

Maltby was the Vicar at Buckden. In 1794, Maltby had also become domestic chaplain to George Pretyman, Bishop of Lincoln.  His career had become assumed when his cousin Elizabeth had married the Bishop in 1784, and they subsequently mentored Maltby's career.  He was made a Prebend at Lincoln Cathedral, and then he had received the parishes of Buckden, in Huntingdonshire, and Holbeach, in Lincolnshire.

Buckden had been one of a number of travelling palaces, that had belonged to the Bishops of Lincoln since Medieval times.

In those days, the Bishops of Lincoln had occupied some of the most important roles in government, and had control of a diocese that stretched from the Humber to the River Thames at Dorcester.  By the end of the 18th Century, most of the palaces had gone, and many new dioceses had been split out from the original Medieval one.

The palace complex, which is on the opposite side of the road, a short distance north of the George survives to this day. It has become a Catholic Conference Centre these days.

The entrance to Buckden Palace from the former Great North Road.

Henry does not make it clear from his diary, however, it is very probable that it was inside the Palace that the interview took place.

The Reverend Edward Maltby (1770-1859)

The Palace had been at its most opulent during the 16th Century, when it was used by the Tudor Royal families on a number of occasions, as well as the Bishops.  By 1798, it was becoming quite run down, and in the 1830's large sections were demolished.

The Bishops Palace at Buckden, and the parish church

 where Henry was ordained as a Deacon

The Rev'd Maltby, who ran a private school at Buckden, was known to be a fierce inquisitor.  He would later become Bishop of Chichester  from 1831 until 1836, and Bishop of Durham from 1836 until 1859.

In any event, Henry must have passed the examination, as on Sunday the 16th of December, he was ordained as a Deacon by the Bishop of Lincoln.

Sir George Petyman, Bishop of Lincoln.

Sir George Petyman came originally from Bury St Edmunds, and went up to Pembroke College, Cambridge. Following his graduation, he stayed at the College as a Fellow, and had the good fortune have been appointed tutor to William Pitt the Younger, who had arrived at Pembroke as a 14 year old.  In 1780, Pitt stood unsuccessfully for parliament for the Cambridge University seat, but in January 1781, Pitt was able to secure the backing of the Lowther family who controlled the Pocket Borough of Appleby.  By 1784, Pitt had become Prime Minister, after the Fox North government had fallen.

Petyman was made Pitts Private Secretary, and used his considerable mathematical skills to advise Pitt on suitable financial methods to fund the government, and which were to play a major role in enabling Pitt to successfully fund the Coalitions set up in Europe to wage war on Napoleon's France.

At first Pitt's government was not expected to survive more than a few weeks, but it eventually ran for seventeen years.  There was considerable criticism of Petyman for having taken on the role of Private Secretary to Pitt, whilst still a clergyman. [4]

However, it did his career no long term harm, as Pitt in his role as Prime Minister, was able to appoint Petyman first as Bishop of Peterborough, in 1787.  In 1820 Sir George became Bishop of Winchester.

Interior of Buckden Church.

Although Henry does not say as much, I believe that it is most likely that he was ordained inside Buckden Church.

From the Clergy of the Church of England Database [5] it has been possible to assemble a list of eleven of the eighteen candidates at Buckden on that December day in 1798.

Richard Barnett
John William Robert Boyer
William Cowley
Peregrine Curtois
John Dolignon
Thomas Cotton Fell
John Tottenham O'Keefe
Martin Sheath
William Tate
William Thistlethwaite.

All that remained for Henry to do, was to return to London. This he did on the outside of the Glasgow Mail.  He appears to have travelled through the night, and it must have been a long and very cold ride, perched on the roof seats, in the position of the man in the brown coat in the following image as he was.

London to Glasgow Coach.  

Although this painting dates from 1815-1830, the earlier coaches were little different in style. [6]

If you are aware of any other details of the events discussed above, I would be very pleased to hear from you. I can be contacted on balmer.nicholas@gmail.com 

[1] See The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 7, page 205 and 206 for Revd Spencer Madan's obituary. [2] The Cambridge Telegraph Coach at the White Horse Tavern and Family Hotel, Fetter Lane, London, by James Pollard (1792–1867) from http://artuk.org/visit/venues/national-trust-arlington-court-and-national-trust-carriage-museum-4917 National Trust, Arlington Court and National Trust Carriage Museum

[3] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Maltby for more details of Maltby's career.

[4] For more on Sir George Petyman see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pretyman_Tomline

[5] http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/search/index.jsp

[6] See http://www.scotcities.com/railways/beforetrains.htm for more on the Glasgow to London coach services