John Wyatt, 1752-1795

Something of the position, comforts and responsibilities that made up the life of John Wyatt, Gent. of Shearsby can be found from the listing of material properties put up for auction after his decease. The auction was run by Mr. Boott on Wednesday 3rd June 1795 at the Talbot Inn, Welford, Northamptonshire and the following days.

Freehold estates

Lot 1: Three ‘ancient inclosed grounds’ in the lordships of Knaptoft and Mowsley (or either one of them) containing about 33 acres adjoining Husbands Bosworth and alongside the turnpike road and commonly known as Pinchley Closes.

Lot 2: A close in Kilby containing 26 acres, 2 roods and 14 perches.

Lot 3: A farmstead: ‘messuage, tenement or manor-house’ in Shearsby with a garden, orchard, homestead and appurtenances containing about 3 roods and 15 perches. Also included in this lot were the 6 adjoining fields, with a spinney containing another 59 acres, 1 rood and 18 perches once owned (after the enclosure of Shearsby lands in 1773) by George Turvile and called the New Farm.

Lot 4: A farmhouse in Shearsby, formerly the residence of John Wyatt himself, with all the buildings, yard, garden, orchard, housestead and appurtenances containing about 71 acres, 26 perches or thereabouts.

More land was sold the following day at Shearsby, including the house of Mr. Burdett with 1 acre, 19 perches and two other ancient homesteads, one of 2 roods, 14 perches and another the other of 2 roods, 20 perches. The servants of the late Mr. Wyatt were on hand to show anyone interested around these properties.

Furniture and livestock

Three days of auctions were held in Shearsby dealing with ‘all the valuable stock of neat cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, manure, implements of husbandry, household furniture and other effects’ once belonging to John Wyatt. Household furniture was offered on the first and third days (Thursday and Monday) and the livestock and implements on the second day. These consisted of:

Cattle

6 new milch cows and 4 calves
3 three-year old steers
4 two-year old heifers
4 two-year old steers
4 yearling cow calves
3 yearling steers and 1 bull

Sheep

97 ewes and lambs
49 barren ewes
47 sheerhod wethers
60 wether hogs
65 ewe hogs and 1 ram

Horses

4 cart mares
1 three-year old cart filley
1 yearling cart colt
1 Galloway

Pigs

1 breeding sow
6 store pigs

The rest

5 quantities of manure
2 waggons, 2 carts, ploughs, 3 harrows, shaftrolls and gearing for 5 horses
fan
a quantity of fence fleaks and hurdles
sheep and cow cribs
ladders, sieves, riddles, and several quantities of timber
four-post and other bedsteads, clothed with various hangings
feather and wool beds and bedding
oak chest
tables and chairs
pier and swing glasses
smoke jack, kitchen requisites, brewing vessels and dairy utensils
etc., etc.

With this John Wyatt being named after his father it is not always going to be clear who did what. But it seems likely that this was the person who greeted John Throsby on his 1790 visit to Shearsby. Whereas the ‘John Wyat’, with a single ‘t’, who voted in the 1775 election would be the same John Wyat who married Alice Tebbs on 30 November 1751 and was the father of John Wyatt in 1752.

John Wyatt was buried in the church graveyard on 13 April 1795. His death brought to an end a connection between the Wyatt family and the village of Shearsby that extended throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was only survived by his sisters Elizabeth (christened in Shearsby in 1754) and Alice (christened in 1764).

Wyatt surname

The British Surnames website give a possible derivation for the Wyatt surname as an Anglo-Norman diminuative of the personal name ‘Guy’. This was common in the times of King John as ‘Guyot’. The passing of John Wyatt in 1795 also broke an Anglo-Norman connection with the village that when back at least as far as the days of Clement’ q’ fuit’ ux’ Galfr’ Danteloc’ in 1327.

References

DE425/1 Certificate of Letters of Administration of personal estate of John Wyatt of Shearsby, gent., granted 15th April 1795 to his sisters – extract from Leicester Archdeaconry Court Registry

Northampton Mercury, Saturday 23 May 1795, page 2.

Thomas Miles, 1748-1825

Thomas Miles was one of the Shearsby freeholders who cast their vote in the election of 1775, but did not add his name to the Loyal Declaration of 1820. Although originally from Cosby, about 8 miles from Shearsby, he did have some family connections to the local Wyatt family, which helped him to develop contacts in Arnesby and Shearsby. He married Elisabeth Abbott in Arnesby on 13 March 1770. They had several children born in Shearsby:

Elizabeth Miles, baptised 25 February 1771. Elizabeth married Thomas Jelley of Gumley on 29 December 1794.
Ann Miles, baptised 8 January 1773.
Sarah Miles, baptised 31 March 1776, buried in Shearsby 1 December 1796.
Grace Miles, baptised 26 September 1779. In 1841 Grace Miles aged ’70’ and Sarah Miles ’25’ were staying in the residence of William and Mary Abbott in Kirkby Mallory, Leicestershire. She died in 1846.
Mary Miles, baptised 5 January 1783,

A Mary Miles was buried in Shearsby 16 December 1811, though another was in Shearsby in July 1815 when a daughter Sarah Miles was baptised, though, sadly, this child may not have lived beyond one year.

Thomas’ wife Elizabeth Miles died and was buried in Shearsby on 3 April 1785. He died aged 77 and was buried 7 February 1825.

Thomas may well have been a member of the Miles family present in nearby North Kilworth in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries as they too favoured names like Grace, Elizabeth and Anne. However, the best candidate for a Thomas Miles born in 1748 was the son of Richard and Elizabeth Miles (nee Wyatt, from Arnesby) of Cosby, baptised there on 8 January 1748, and, perhaps, brother to the Richard Miles living in Arnesby in 1799 and father to Thomas and William.

This post requested by my father, Peter Adams, whose mother’s maiden name was Miles.

Thomas Ward, 1785-1846

There were two people with the name ‘Thomas Ward’ adding their names to the Loyal Declaration in December 1820. That both had children added to their families the previous year helps to distinguish one from the other. On 3 January 1819 Thomas and Ann christened their daughter Elizabeth Simons Ward; followed by Thomas and Elizabeth, on 11 April, with their son Joseph.

The 1841 Census found only Elizabeth Ward (50), living in Severt Alley, Knaptoft (Shearsby being counted as part of Knaptoft parish), with sons William and Thomas and daughters Mary and Jane. Elizabeth was noted as being a pauper and evidently a widow. A 20 year old Joseph Ward could be found in nearby Kimcote in the household of William Baxter. By 1851 William Ward had also moved away from the village and was working on the railways in Bedworth, Warwickshire, while Mary (24) was living as a servant and working for John Chamberlain in Peatling Magna.

On 7 April 1846 a 60 year old Thomas Ward was buried in Shearsby churchyard. It seems likely that this was the same Thomas Ward as the one whose birth in Kimcote was recorded as 12 July 1785 upon his baptism in 11 August 1788. Perhaps a clue to his occupation and status in life can be found among Elizabeth’s 1841 neigbours in Severt Alley: Leonard Robinson was an agricultural labourer, as were George Dyson and Richard Bishop, while Thomas Jelley was a stocking maker.

Shearsby, December 1820: The Loyal Declaration of the County of Leicester

The Loyal Declaration of the County of Leicester was a response by Government supporters to the protests against the Peterloo Massacre of 16 August 1819. Though far from the events themselves in Manchester and the political pressure-points of London, Leicestershire had not entirely escaped from the turmoil of the times. On 23 March 1820 the radical leader Sir Francis Burdett had been brought to trial in the Leicester assizes on a charge of Seditious Libel.

On 9 December 1820 the Leicester Petty Sessions agreed to a Resolution to adopt the Declaration and send it out across the county. Local landowners like Henry Halford in Wistow, Thomas Burnaby of Misterton and the Duke of Rutland received printed copies of the text of the Declaration. The Rev. James Tindall held the post of Rector of Knaptoft as the Duke’s appointee and it was he who brought the Declaration to his chapelries in Shearsby and Mowsley.

Tindall had been asked to call a meeting for any ‘Gentlemen, Clergy, Freeholders and others’ who may be sympathetic or persuadable to the cause. The most likely venue in the village would have been the New Inn on the Turnpike Road since that was large enough to accommodate hunting parties. It is telling that George Hardey of the New Inn was the last person to add his name, bring the proceedings to a close. The population of Shearsby amounted to 310 when counted in the third annual census of May 1821, so the names added to the Declaration were just a small sample from the village as a whole, but the Rector was aiming to include as many of the influential males in the parish as he could.

James Tindall had been appointed as Rector of Knaptoft in 1817 and so was relatively new in the post in which he was to serve until 1852. Nevertheless his role commanded enough respect that when he called a meeting people would show up. Those gathered; the gentlemen, freeholders and others of the parish, listened to Tindall outline the main themes of the Declaration. He criticised the protestors who ’caused disaffection in the country’; aligned pride in one’s country with support for its government and pointed a finger of blame at newspapers and pamphleteers for upsetting the moral as well as political order in the kingdom. This done he signed the document himself and looked to those present to add their names to the Declaration. One by one, fifteen names were added.

William Walker was still noted as the major freehold farmer in 1846 in William White’s ‘History, Gazetteer and Directory of Leicestershire‘ (even though he had died in 1841). The Walker family, represented by Thomas Walker’s two sons William and Job, had built up their land holdings after the Enclosure Act of 1773. They were used to being involved in affairs beyond their own village. Later in the 1820s, for example, they were founder members of the Leicestershire General Association for the Prosecution of Horse, Cattle and Sheep-Stealers.

The other two freeholders noted in 1846 were William Ward and William Reeve. The Ward family had participated in the Enclosure of the village lands, paying in the second highest amount, almost £70, for their allotted areas. Thomas Ward ran the mill alongside his farm. His brother William was not among those signing the Declaration, and nor was William Reeve, though his interests in developing spa at the Bath to the south of the village may have prevented him from taking part.

Thomas and Joseph Read also had diversified beyond agriculture and were involved in fellmongering: processing the skins of sheep and other animals into leather for the shoe and glove-making trades. Much of the character and prosperity of the village in the nineteenth century was based on their combination of farming and leather manufacturing.

Richard Messenger and Thomas Simons were both involved in the daily life of the village. Richard Messenger had taken his turn as constable. This role was more a village liaison than policing role, though his successor had to take charge of leading the investigation into the disappearance and murder of James Read a few years later. Thomas Simons had served as the village clerk for as long as anyone could remember. Both would have been involved in managing the two charities set up to look after the welfare of the poorest among the villagers. For them December was a busy month with coals to distribute on St. Thomas’ Day (21st of December) and bread on Christmas Day. Thomas’ son William would become the village schoolmaster in the 1840s.

There were two people signing who shared the name Thomas Weston. One was landlord at the Old Crown supplying ale to the village and the other was the son of John Weston. That both father and son were to end their days outside the village shows that their family interests spread beyond the parish. John Weston died in London and Thomas in Gateshead in 1834. Thomas’ sisters were running a boarding school in the village by the end of the 1820s.

The Rev. Tindall had succeeded in gathering the most important and influential men of the parish and encouraged them to put their names to the Loyal Declaration. There may have been some absences, but these were people with responsibilities, even in Winter. In nearby Bitteswell it was noted that none of the dissenters had signed the Declaration. With a Baptist Church in Arnesby so close by there would have been some in the village with less sympathy for the Loyal Declaration’s aims.

The Declaration that was signed in Shearsby read:

We, the undersigned Noblemen, Gentlemen, Clergy, Freeholders and others, of the County of Leicester, deeply feeling it to be the Duty of Englishmen to avow their Principles, whenever the welfare of the Country may demand it, and observing that the present State of the Nation imperiously calls upon every TRUE BRITON solemnly to declare himself, do make the following DECLARATION.

That we, as faithful and loyal subjects, maintaining an inviolable allegiance to the THRONE of the REALMS and the person of our most glorious SOVEREIGN, behold with the deepest abhorrence the attempts which factious and designing men have long been making, in an infinite variety of ways, to excite disaffection in the Country; and that we consider it the first duty of Loyal Subjects and Honest Men, to Honour and Support the CROWN and GOVERNMENT under which we enjoy the blessings of Liberty, Protection and Comfort, of which no other Nation under Heaven can boast.

That we hold the fearless, just, and equal maintenance of the Laws to be the great safeguard of every National and Private Blessing;- that it ought to be the Pride and Glory of every Englishman, not only to Venerate our Legal Institutions (lately so disgracefully insulted) but by every Means of his Power, to assist both in honouring and obeying these Laws, which are so wise in their Enactment, and so equitable in their Administration, as to be an object of Imitation to many other Nations, and the Envy of all.

That we see with horror and detestation the venerable and sacred fabric of the Christian Religion, attempted to be thrown down by unparalleled Art and diabolical Industry; and we are grieved to find these Evils inflicted through a blasphemous, abandoned and licentious Press- which, indifferent to the Miseries, both Temporal and Eternal, it may be creating, insults the Majesty of Heaven, and outrages everything that Man, in a civilised state, has been used to hold in awe and veneration. With this conviction on our minds, we feel it our duty, and Men and Christians, to express our utmost detestation of the many blasphemous and seditious Publications of the present day, wherein Religion is defamed – our Sovereign openly insulted and reviled – and the Authority of the LAWS defied. We pledge ourselves to discourage, and, to the utmost of our Power, to suppress such Publication; and we earnestly call on our Fellow Subjects, to discountenance the Dissemination of Sentiments alike injurious to Domestic Morals and Public Peace,

Leicester 9th December 1820

Signed by:

Joseph Jelley

Thomas Weston

References

National Archives. Loyal Declarations 1819 and 1820. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/f415b7e8-036d-411a-aa4e-d53b867fb44c

Ralph Hobill, 1735-1821

Ralph Hobill was born in Bruntingthorpe in 1735. In December 1770 he and Susanna Meadows were married in Shearsby and their daughter Elizabeth was baptised in February 1772. He was one of the land-owning voters in the election of 1775, though had not taken part directly in the enclosure of the parish lands two years previously. He was also one of those putting their names to the Loyal Declaration in December 1820

He died in September 1821, aged 86, and was followed by his wife Susanna in November. Both were buried in the Shearsby churchyard.

Ralph’s daughter Elizabeth had married Thomas Read in December 1796. Through her the Hoball name continued in Shearsby: a son Ralph Hobill Read was born in 1817.

‘Ralph’ was a popular forename for members of the Hoball family, such that there were two people living in Shearsby in the early years of the nineteenth century. Another ‘Ralph Hobill’, was born in Shearsby in 1792, the son of Thomas and Anna Mariah Hobill (née Ward).

References

Ralph Hobal, christened 8 December 1735 in Bruntingthorpe, son of John and Elizabeth. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPWB-1SRY : 6 June 2018), Ralph Hobal, 8 Dec 1735; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page , Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Marriage of Ralph Hobill and Susanah Meadows, 9 December 1770. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4H-6BNS : 6 June 2018), Ralph Hobill and Susanna Meadows, ; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Marriage Banns, Shearsby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page , citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Burial of Ralph Hobill, 5 September 1821, aged 85. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP47-W6VQ : 6 June 2018), Ralph Hobill, 5 Sep 1821; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Burial, Shearsby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 7, citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Birth of Susanah Meadows. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4M-SNPZ : 6 June 2018), Susannah Meadows, 7 Feb 1750; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Shearsby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page , Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Elizabeth Hobill, born in 1772. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4M-MKLZ : 6 June 2018), Elizabeth Hobill, 9 Feb 1772; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Shearsby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page , Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Ralph Hobill, born in Shearsby, 1792, son of Thomas and Anna Mariah Hobill. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4M-FL8N : 6 June 2018), Ralph Hobill, 13 May 1792; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Shearsby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page , Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Shearsby marriages http://www.tinstaafl.co.uk/eandwhmi/leicestershire/church%20pages/shearsby.htm

Joseph Read, 1783-1833: Shearsby grazier

Joseph Read was born in Lubenham in January 1783 to John and Sarah Read and had moved to Shearsby by the early years of the nineteenth century. He lived and farmed in the village until June 1833.

Joseph’s father, John Read was buried in the Shearsby village church in 1828. It looks as though there was a family move from Lubenham to Shearsby. Generations of Reads remained in the village for the next century and a half and helped to shape its agricultural and industrial development through their farming and leather-working activities.

Joseph’s brothers and sisters included John, born 1781; James, born 1786; Mary, born 1788; David, born 1790, Susanna, born 1792 and Job, born in 1798. Thomas Read 1775-1843 was, it seems, an older brother. Joseph married Susanna Elliott from Shearsby at the St. Margaret’s Church, Leicester on 19 August 1811. Susanna Sutten was christened in Shearsby on 17 September 1793, the daughter of ‘Benjamin’ and Ann Elliott.

Joseph and Susanna’s children were all daughters and born in Shearsby:

Harriott Read, chr. 5 January 1812. Married Thomas Stableford of Shearsby in July 1834.
Rhoda Read, chr. 17 October 1813. Married John Spence of Kibworth in 1840.
Mary Ann Read, chr. 11 November 1815. Married Charles Hill of Kibworth Harcourt in June 1841.
Elizabeth Read, chr. 21 December 1817
Priscilla Read, chr. 19 December 1819, died 10 November 1821.
Priscilla Sutton Read, chr. 28 Apr 1822. Married William Stevenson in September 1850

Joseph was a grazier and among those signing the Loyal Declaration in December 1820.

References

Joseph Read, born in Lubenham, 23 January 1783, son of John and Sarah. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPW1-FSTY : 6 June 2018), Joseph Read, 18 Jan 1784; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Lubenham, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 9, Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Joseph Read, died in Shearsby, buried 19 June 1833. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4Q-QCYY : 6 June 2018), Joseph Read, 19 Jun 1833; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Burial, Shearsby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 18, citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

John Read, buried in Shearsby, 11 Jan 1828. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP47-CSRZ : 6 June 2018), John Read, 11 Jan 1828; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Burial, Shearsby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 12, citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

John Read, born 2 December 1781. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4M-6TPY : 6 June 2018), John Read, 26 May 1782; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Lubenham, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 37, Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

James Read, born in Lubenham, 24 April 1786, son of John and Sarah. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPW1-R5C8 : 6 June 2018), James Read, 16 Jul 1786; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Lubenham, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 12, Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Mary Read, born in Lubenham, 19 April 1788. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4M-S6BN : 6 June 2018), Mary Read, 29 Jun 1788; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Lubenham, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 42, Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

David Read, 17 April 1790. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4M-6336 : 6 June 2018), David Read, 4 Apr 1790; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Lubenham, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 45, Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Susanna Read, 1 April 1792. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPW1-NB4P : 6 June 2018), Sara in entry for Susanna Read, 1 Apr 1792; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Lubenham, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 49, Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Job Read, born in Shearsby, August 1798. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4M-4ZXZ : 6 June 2018), Job Read, 19 Aug 1798; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Shearsby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page , Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Susanna Sutten, born in Shearsby. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 1533-1991,” database,FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPW1-58X6 : 6 June 2018), Susanna Sutten, 17 Sep 1793; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Baptism, Shearsby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page , Citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Marriage of Harriot Read to Thomas Stableford, 28 July 1834. “England, Leicestershire Parish Registers, 15 33-1991,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP4W-G9PH : 6 June 2018), Thomas Stableford and Harriot Read, 28 Jul 1834; records extracted by findmypast, images digitized by FamilySearch; citing Marriage, Shearsby, Leicestershire, England, United Kingdom, page 15, citing the Record Office of Leicestershire, Leicester, and Rutland, Wigston, UK.

Featured image: A ram and ewe of the Leicestershire and Lincolnshire breeds of sheep. Etching, ca 1822 – https://www.europeana.eu/portal/record/9200579/yhtcs83b.html. Wellcome Collection – https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yhtcs83b. CC BY – http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Baghdad, 22 June 1916: John Samuel Watts

The name of Gunner John S. Watts R.G.A. appears on the Shearsby Roll of Honour, though it is not immediately clear where his connection to the village lay. He appears to be a late addition to the list, being the fifth of the ‘four cases to die for their King and Country in the World War of 1914-1919’ following those of Lionel Burton, William Clowes, Horace Hensman and Robert Simons. The ink used to add his name is thinner and paler and seems to be squashed into the gap below the original four identified fallen soldiers.

John Samuel Watts was born in Swinton, Nottinghamshire and lived in Bulwell just north of Nottingham at the time of his enlistment. He served in the 86th Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Gunner (No. 25481) and took part in the Mesopotamia Campaign of 1915-1916: a clash between the British and Ottoman Empires.

He died in Baghdad, Mesopotamia (Iraq) on 22 June 1916 and remains buried in the North Gate War Cemetery there. To have been in Ottoman Baghdad he must have taken part of the defence of besieged Kut al Amara and been taken prisoner after that defeat. There are historians who place the surrender of the British and Indian Army at Kut al-Amara, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) among the most infamous events of British military history, alongside Yorktown (1781) and Singapore (1941). The surrendering army in April 1916 consisted of 2970 English and 6000 Indian troops. Weakened after the month’s long siege, they were marched first to Baghdad and the survivors on to Anatolia.

John Samuel Watts is also remembered on the Nottinghamshire County Council Roll of Honour.

References

Military-Genealogy.com, comp. UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.

National Army Museum; Chelsea, London, England; Soldiers’ Effects Records, 1901-60; NAM Accession Number: 1991-02-333; Record Number Ranges: 353501-355000; Reference: 188

Medal card of Watts, John S Corps: Royal Garrison Artillery Regiment [Online] https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D5787676

Çetinsaya, Gökhan (1917). Kut al-Amara. In: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin 2017-12-18. DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.11204.

French, D. (2015), The Siege of Kut-al-Amara:: At War in Mesopotamia 1915-1916, The Journal of Military History. Society for Military History, Lexington.

“BRITISH DISASTER AT KUT-EL-AMARA” (1916), Current history & forum, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 551.

Crowley, P. (n.d.) The siege of Kut-al-Amara, 1916. The History Press [online] https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-siege-of-kut-al-amara-1916/ Accessed 12/11/2020.

Featured Image: ‘British Capitulation at Kut-El-Amara’, 1916. Out of Copyright image from National Army Museum.

Seamus Heaney, 1987: A Ship of Death

Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘A Ship of Death’ appears in The Haw Lantern (1987). It is a translation of lines 26 – 52 of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. Readers would have to wait for twelve years before the full translation was published in 1999.

I am writing from Shearsby in the ‘foggy Midlands’ of England. The village is set about 30 miles south of Breedon-on -the-Hill, where Beowulf might have been composed and 30 miles east of Tamworth, a centre for the Mercian court whose members would have listened to the poem performed with interest. Shearsby may well have been the farmstead of someone called Skeifr (Institute of Name Studies), perhaps a warrior from the Great Heathen Army turning his sword in for a ploughshare. The Initial Old English ‘Sc’ softening to ‘Sh’ in an area of only light Danish influence. Behind the village name might be an early association with the mythical Sceafa: the Sheaf in ‘Scyld Sheafson’ (Anon.).

The Beowulf passage translated from the Anglo-Saxon and included in The Haw Lantern as ‘A Ship of Death’ captures a dual moment of both origin and death as the funeral of a much-loved king, Scyld, draws in memories of the surprise arrival of a lone baby washed up ashore: a foundling in a boat. It describes the preparations for launching a boat out to sea, carrying the body of ‘the chief they revered’ and laden with ‘far-fetched treasures’ and ‘precious gear’. In the midst of this practical stacking of weapons, armour and ‘battle-tackle’ a memory is triggered of a child arriving unexpectedly, alone in a small boat, similarly laden with treasures. The funerary ship will be launched on a voyage into the afterlife. Whilst the Beowulf poet is at first sure, from his Christian perspective that Scyld has ‘crossed over into Our Lord’s keeping’ by the end of the section he admits that no-one ‘knows for certain who salvaged that load’

The lines in this translation mirror some effects of the original poem. Each line has four beats and can be split into parts after the second beat. These parts are usually linked by alliteration, for example:

His warrior band did | what he bade them

The passage also contains vivid imagery helping to set the scene:

A ring-necked prow | rode in the harbour,
clad with ice, | its cables tightening.

It may be a surprise to find a translation of a very English poem in the midst of an Irish poet’s work, but Beowulf makes itself feel at home in the The Haw Lantern. There are direct and indirect links to it from many of the other poems in the book. It is introduced in the preceding poem From the Land of the Unspoken with

but solidarity comes flooding up in us
when we hear their legends of infants discovered
floating in coracles towards destiny
or of kings’ biers heaved and borne away
on the river’s shoulders or out into the sea roads.

And the following poem, The Spoonbait has

Then exit, the polished helmet of a hero
Laid out amidships above scudding water.

Further on in the book, in Holding Course, there is an image of ‘spikes that kept vigil overhead / Like Grendel’s steely talon nailed / To the mead-hall roof.’ The presence of Beowulf can be traced even to individual words passing between the Angle-Saxon of that poem and the local vocabulary; words like ‘thole’ and ‘hoke’ make their ways back and forth across the word hoards.

Translations

A chunk of translation also fits in with the theme of translation appearing in poems like In Memoriam: Robert Fitzgerald, commemorating a translator friend and Alphabets, the book’s first poem that charts the growth of a poet’s mind against the languages and scripts he encounters.

Theme of (re)birth

There is a theme of birth recalled that shows up in this poem with the moment of the child’s arrival and what “those first ones did / who cast him away when he was a child / and launched him out alone over the waves”. This moment of arrival recalled in loss can be found as a childhood reminiscence in the last of the Clearances sequence:

Deep planted and long gone, my coeval
Chestnut from a jam jar in a hole,
Its heft and hush become a bright nowhere

The theme can also found expressed as tragedy in Wolfe Tone, whose hero arrives ‘Light as a skiff’ and recalls:

I who once wakened to the shouts of men
rising from the bottom of the sea

men in their shirts mounting through deep water
when the Atlantic stove our cabin’s dead lights in

and the big fleet split and Ireland dwindled
as we ran before the gale under bare poles.

Wolfe Tone’s shipwreck is a far echo of Scyld’s becalmed finding of safe harbour, but an echo none the less.

Another retelling of the legend of Scyld

Seamus Heaney is not the only northern Irish writer intrigued by the legend of Scyld and his strange origins. Belfast-born C.S. Lewis also reused this story for the origin of his hero, Shasta, in The Horse and in Boy, the fifth of his Narnia series.

Listen Now Again

The National Library of Ireland has an exhibition celebrating the life and work of Seamus Heaney during 2020. A virtual book club discussion of The Haw Lantern poems was held on 28 August where this poem was shared.

References

Heaney, S. (1987) The Haw Lantern. Faber.

Heaney, S. (1999) Beowulf. Faber.

Lewis, C.S. (1954) The Horse and his Boy. Geoffrey Bles.

North, R. (2010), The origins of Beowulf: from Vergil to Wiglaf, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Institute of Name Studies. Shearsby: Key to English Place-names. http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Leicestershire/Shearsby

Anon. Origins of Village Names: Shearsby. [Online] Access from https://www.shearsbyparishcouncil.gov.uk/uploads/history-origins-of-the-name-shearsby.pdf 18/08/2020.

Wistow Hall, 28 August 1833: Forgotten Slave Owners of South Leicestershire

In August 1833 legislation was passed in Parliament abolishing slavery in the British Caribbean, Mauritius and the Cape, a key part of which was a massive compensation scheme to cover the losses of the former slave owners. For 144 years, since the end of the monopoly control in the hands of companies like the Royal African Company, owning a slave had been treated almost like holding company shares and become distributed widely across the economy. During that time slave ownership had spread way beyond the trading ports of Bristol, Liverpool and London. As far inland as South Leicestershire, slave owners compensated in 1833 were to be found in places like Wistow and Gumley.

Researchers at the UCL Department of History have put together a database built from these compensation records that aims to track the Legacies of Slave-ownership in Britain.

Wistow Hall may have looked a picture of innocent isolation in those days, but was well connected to the corridors of power. Sir Henry Halford was physician-extraordinary to George III from 1793. His medical expertise was called upon by that king and his successors: George IV, William IV, and Queen Victoria. He was made a baronet in 1809 by George III, who is said to have liked him. In the same year he changed his name, by act of parliament, from his original family name of Vaughan to Halford, after inheriting property from distant Halford relatives. In 1813 he was present when Charles I’s coffin was opened and was able to examine the axe marks left on the executed king’s vertebrae.

In 1796 he married Elizabeth Barbara St John, the grand-daughter of Peter Simond and through her acquired substantial slave owning interests in Grenada. Sir William Edward Rouse Boughton and Sir Robert Heron had been appointed as executors of Halford’s mother-in-law Lady St John and so were awarded the 1833 slavery abolition compensation for the enslaved people on the Beausejour, Tempe, Simond, Requin and Sagesse estates on Grenada. These estates had been reputed to bring little or no profit for a number of years and to be a source of disputes among members of the St. John family. Even so, Halford shared in the £5844 18s 8d compensation for 231 people enslaved on the Sagesse Estate in Grenada alone.

Land-ownership and professional interests would have made a more significant contribution to Sir Henry’s finances. Once, when travelling to Windsor to visit the king in the company of a fellow royal physician, the two doctors spent their time comparing their professional incomes, Sir Henry could rely on a regular £9,500, though this was topped by the £9,600 of Dr. Baillie (Mitford, 1844). Permitting the cutting of the Grand Union Canal through his estates must also have led to some financial compensation.

Halford’s slaves in Grenada were not freed with the passing of the legislation, but had to wait until 1 August 1834 and even this was followed by a period of compulsory apprenticeship lasting until 1838.

The Hon. Lady Barbara Elizabeth Saint John Halford died on 17 June 1833, aged 71. She was buried in St Wistans Church, Wistow. Sir Henry himself died in March 1844.

If you are looking for the legacy of Sir Henry Halford, you might start with the Wistow landscape: the small lake in the Wistow Hall grounds opposite the church; renovations made to the Church and the Hall; the building of both Wistow Grange and Wistow Lodge elsewhere in the parish, all made during Sir Henry’s time. In 1831 he published a collection of his essays and orations, including his thoughts on the madness of Shakespeare’s hamlet and the discovery of the tomb of Charles I.

Sir Henry was succeeded by his only son Henry (1797-1868), who became the MP for the Southern division of Leicestershire in 1832. This placed him among the MPs with slave-holding interests voting on the Slavery Abolition Act, abolishing slavery and setting up the Slave Compensation Commission to cover the slave owners losses.

Wistow remains a beautiful spot in the Leicestershire countryside in no small part due to the changes made during the time Sir Henry Halford was its guardian, but a connection runs through his wife’s inheritance of a number of individual slaves, who were forced to live and work on her family’s estates in Grenada, linking linking leafy Leicestershire to the hardships of slavery in the Caribbean.

References

‘Sir Henry Halford Bart. né Vaughan’, Legacies of British Slave-ownership database, http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/-1249307988 [accessed 28th July 2020].

Mitford, J. (1844) Sir Henry Halford, Bart. The Gentleman’s Magazine: and historical review, London (May): 534-537.

Bettany, G., & Bevan, M. (2009, May 21). Halford [formerly Vaughan], Sir Henry, first baronet (1766–1844), physician. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 28 Jul. 2020, from https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-11919.

Broughton, H.E., (1991) Family and Estate Records in the Leicestershire Record Office. Leicestershire Museums, Arts and Record Service.

Pettigrew, W (2014) How to Place Slavery into British Identity. Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_PI_nMW_3Y

Britain’s forgotten slave owners, part 2: The Price of Freedom. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MsvxAJJ18A

Historic England. WISTOW HALL, INCLUDING FLATS, AND, IN WING, BROWN’S FLAT, DAIRY COTTAGE, LAUNDRY COTTAGE, BREW HOUSE, FORGE COTTAGE. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1061546

Wistow. British History Online. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/leics/vol5/pp336-345

Featured image

Sir Henry Halford: autograph letter signed and line engraving of his Leicestershire seat, Wistow Hall, 1827 (engraving printed in 1818). https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/9200579/wreurs3y

Exhibition Ground, Bowen Hills, Brisbane, 18 August 1888: J.P. Clowes on furlough

The idea of being ‘on furlough’ (effectively being paid not to work) was uncommon before the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 brought it to prominence. One individual who would have immediately recognised the experience, if not the term itself, was J.P Clowes, the non-playing member of the squad selected for the first British rugby tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1888. He was prevented for fulfilling his role in the team having fallen foul of the game’s administrator’s distaste for what they saw as ‘professionalism’. He could only follow the team round for most of the tour, but there were opportunities for him to come ‘off furlough’ when the conditions were right.

At first glance the payment of a £15 clothing allowance might seem innocent enough. The things people find comfortable to wear in Halifax and Brisbane are likely to be different. Nevertheless it was this payment that raised an apparent whiff of professionalism and led to the eventual ban on his taking part in any rugby matches during the 8-month tour.

John William Preston Clowes was born on 31 July 1866 in Philadelphia and was the eldest son of Stephen Clowes, from Shearsby and Mary Preston from Kilby. His parents married in 1865 and then left for America. In 1871, John William Preston Clowes was born on 31 July 1866 in Philadelphia and was the eldest son of Stephen Clowes, from Shearsby and Mary Preston from Kilby. His parents married in 1865 and then left for America. In 1871, though, he was back living with his Shearsby grandparents, moving to stay (or visit) with the Kilby grandparents in time for the 1881 census. By the following year he had caught up again with his mother, who had moved on to Halifax in Yorkshire. While there he worked as a factory hand and took up playing rugby.

In the build up to the tour the Otago Witness alerted its readers to his growing reputation as one of the best rising players of the North of England. He was a “very fast forward, good tackler and an expert dribbler”. He was then 21 years old, five foot eight and a half inches tall and weighing 11 stones and 7 pounds. Though only taking up rugby at 16 he had moved from a local junior team, the Halifax Free Wanderers to the team that had won the prestigious Yorkshire Challenge Sup in 1886. In the previous season he had been the highest scorer for his club.

Unfortunately for him and the Australian audience hoping to see him on the Unfortunately for him and the Australian audience hoping to see him on the field, Clowes had been caught up in the ongoing dispute about professionalism in the English rugby game. Regulations restricting the payment of players had been made in 1886, but it was March 1888 when they began to make themselves felt in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Fifteen northern players (and a further six from the south) had been selected to take part in a tour of Australia and New Zealand, playing both the Rugby and Victorian (Australian) rules games. The tour was organised by a pair of Cricket professionals, Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury, who were open about their hope of making money from the tour.

All would have gone well but for the rivalry between the West Yorkshire All would have gone well but for the local rivalry between Dewsbury and Halifax teams, which dated back to at least 1883. The president of the Dewsbury team had withdrawn two players, known to be selected for the proposed tour, from the team to play Halifax in the second round of the Yorkshire Cup. When his team lost, he appealed against the result on the grounds that Halifax, in Clowes, had fielded a professional in what was supposed to be a purely amateur match.

A hearing was held and Clowes offered to pay back his £15, but by the time the Yorkshire committee declared him to be a professional, he had already set sail for Australia. He found that he had been banned from playing rugby, A hearing was held and Clowes offered to pay back his £15, but by the time the Yorkshire committee declared him to be a professional, he had already set sail for Australia. He found that he had been banned from playing rugby, even in Australia, only when it was too late to turn back. He was by no means the only player to receive payment and others received far more for their services while escaping the immediate attention of the rugby authorities. For the tour organisers Clowes was an economic burden: “he won’t be able to play a single game and we shall have all his expenses to pay”. But overall the amateur regulations suited tour organisers like Shaw and Shrewsbury perfectly. As Shrewsbury admitted before the tour “if the Rugby Union can get players to come out without paying them anything, all the better for us”.

Not that the tour organisers did get away without paying their players anything. The drinks bill for the voyage over set them back £68. The players too had been promised expenses (up to £90 for the 30 week tour for one player) or bound to take part by a £50 advance. If all the returning players were to be treated in the same way as J.P. Clowes, then English rugby teams the length and breadth of the whole country risked losing their best players.

The tour captain, Robert Seddon, was interviewed about Clowes while the team were in New Zealand. “We cannot play Clowes at all. I think the Rugby Union have dealt harshly with him. Had he known that he would become a professional for accepting a comparatively small sum of money for his outfit he would not have taken it. he wanted to give the money back through the secretary of the Union. The Yorkshire County have been trying to get the disqualification removed without success.” (Evening Star, 4 July 1888). Seddon added that if he were to be asked about any such payments he would ignore the matter all together as ‘they must prove me to be a professional”.

The Pan-Britannic Rugby Tour to Australasia

As Clowes followed the tour round he would have had the opportunity to compare the English and Australian rules games. The tour arranged 19 matAs Clowes followed the tour round he would have had the opportunity to compare the English and Australian rules games. The tour arranged 19 matches of Australian Rules games, of which the tourists, surprisingly, won nine and 15 rugby matches where they were more dominant, winning 13 and drawing the other two.

While the tour organisers were reluctant to jeopardise the careers of their players by including Clowes in the team for their rugby games, the ban did not seem to apply games with the local Australian Rules. In Maitland, New South Wales the tourists played what the local paper described as “one of the most interesting football matches ever played in the Northern district under Australian rules”. The game was played on 14 August 1888 at the Albion Ground in Maitland before a crowd of 1200. Two of the tour members were feeling ‘a bit off colour’ and their places were taken by locals, but among the rest of the players to take the field was the J. P. Clowes.

At first the match looked unequal, as the Northern team were ‘a weedy lot, compared to their opponents’, however there was a local advantage for the Australians who had more experience of the game and its rules. The Sports Reporter of the Maitland Mercury reviewed the match; “As to the contest itself it can at once be set down as a bad one, as the Englishmen did not know enough about the little points of the game to be a fair match for the Northerners…”.

The day ended with the majority of the players visiting Maitland’s Adelphi Skating Rink. The following day had no matches arranged, so the captain, Robert Seddon, took himself off skulling for a day on the Hunter River. Tragically the 27-year-old he got into difficulties there and was drowned.

‘There the matter ended’

On their return in November 1888 there was still confusion about whether the playing tourists would be considered as professional or not. The Yorkshire Rugby Union conferred with the national RFU, who surprised everyone by lifting the ban on Clowes and calling on the other players to declare that they had not received payment, other than expenses, for their services.

The Reverend Frank Marshall, a keen opponent of rugby players being rewarded as though sport was a job rather than a pass-time of gentlemen reflected on the RFU’s decision making:

“On the return of the team, each player was required to make an affidavit that he had received non pecuniary benefit from the tour, and there the matter ended.”

However the incident laid bare the contradictions and pressures present within the way the sport was organised and ‘was symptomatic of the festering wound that finally erupted with the split of the Northern Rugby Union in England, leading to the advent of Rugby League in 1895’ (Horton, 2012).

Clowes on the rugby field with the tourists at last

Jack Clowes did finally join the rugby field as a member of the Pan-Britannic team, but only after the return of the tourists to England. In March 1889 a match was arranged between the team at Swinton (Manchester) and the available members of the touring team. Fellow tourist Arthur Paul was normally a member of the Swinton squad and may have helped organise the match. Among those who had promised to play was one J. P. Clowes, finally unfurloughed onto the rugby field.

Shearsby History Notes

John Wyatt, 1752-1795

Freehold estates

Furniture and livestock

Cattle

Sheep

Horses

Pigs

The rest

Wyatt surname

References

Thomas Miles, 1748-1825

Thomas Ward, 1785-1846

Shearsby, December 1820: The Loyal Declaration of the County of Leicester

References

Ralph Hobill, 1735-1821

References

Joseph Read, 1783-1833: Shearsby grazier

References

Baghdad, 22 June 1916: John Samuel Watts

References

Seamus Heaney, 1987: A Ship of Death

Translations

Theme of (re)birth

Another retelling of the legend of Scyld

Listen Now Again

References

Wistow Hall, 28 August 1833: Forgotten Slave Owners of South Leicestershire

References

Archives

Featured image

Exhibition Ground, Bowen Hills, Brisbane, 18 August 1888: J.P. Clowes on furlough

The Pan-Britannic Rugby Tour to Australasia

‘There the matter ended’

Clowes on the rugby field with the tourists at last

Further reading