Our members, Clive Barnes and Sheila and Peter Arnold have been walking the old roads and tracks of Milton Abbas and compared maps of the 18th century when Joseph Damer, Lord Milton moved the roads to build his landscape.
John Ham was baptised on 21 May 1760, the youngest son of James Hobell and Charity Ham (neé Gould, later Hallett).
His parents were married in 1747. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1749 but she only lived for a few days so John may not even have known about her. His older brother James was baptised in 1751 and his sister Molly in 1754, followed by Ann in 1758. Sadly their father, James Hobell Ham died in 1765 when John was just five years old. His mother remarried the same year to John Hallett.
John and Eleanor are both shown on the 1841 Census aged 80, so being born around 1760. The census states he is a farmer but in his will written in 1844 he describes himself as a Gentleman.
John Ham died a very wealthy man, in fact he would be described as a millionaire today.
According to his will, written in 1844, he distributed just over £11,886 in cash, along with numerous properties he owned. This is quite extraordinary in a village of almost all agricultural labourers in tied cottages.
The will states that he has £20,000 in stocks and shares; this is the equivalent today of:
£1,208,340
But where did his wealth come from? There is no doubt that some of it was inherited, but according to the Rev. Herbert Pentin writing in the Parish Magazine in May 1904:
“Lord Milton founded John Ham’s fortune by employing him to glaze the whole of the Abbey House, and also the Abbey Church at its restoration in 1789. When Lord Milton commissioned Ham for the work he said significantly:- “Now, John, if you don’t make a fortune by these jobs you’re a fool.” And it is generally supposed that John Ham profited by the hint.”
© Pamela Phillips 2021
Our Old Town Project group have been busy researching our rural Dorset village over the past few years. We have found out the things that you won’t find in the history books – forget mad King George and his profligate and dissolute son, find out how the vast majority of people lived and worked and struggled for justice. Why were six MIlton Abbas men sentenced to two months hard labour by the notorious James Frampton, 30 years before he sentenced the Tolpuddle Martyrs? What had they done, and how did they break the law? This is such an important part of our nation’s culture and heritage that the story of the Milton Abbas Martyrs should be more widely known and appreciated.
Come and find out more at our major new exhibition 28 – 30 August in the Reading Rooms and St James Church Milton Abbas.
We can’t wait to share our research with you!
Do you know how people lived in Georgian Britain? Most of them didn’t go to Bath to take the waters, nor live in towns. Most of them, 80%, worked on the land, were very poorly paid and lived in crowded and dilapidated cottages. All Dorset villages were like this. We have found some bills which show just what the farm labourers were being paid, their names, and what work they were doing throughout the year.
If you would like to know more about them come along to our new major exhibition 28 – 30 August in the Reading Rooms and St James Church Milton Abbas. The farming year is just one of the many features that we will be showing.
To find out more click here.
We very much look forward to discussing all our recent findings with you.
We are working our way through transcribing the Surveyors of the Highways records that we have in our possession. They show both the people paying the poor rates and their assessment, and the accounts which give the names of the labourers being paid and how much. This is important information because it comes before the first Census of 1841 for Milton Abbas.
We have completed the rate book for Milton Abbas 1837 (our ref #496). This shows the names of those paying poor rates:
| The Honorable H Damer |
| The Revd L Masterman |
| Thomas Fox Esq |
| George Roberts |
| Robert Ingram |
| Samuel Jerrard |
| George Tett |
| John Keynes |
| Robert Rogers |
| Jacob Webber |
| James Wallis |
| Robert Miller |
| John Ham |
| Mariah Hawkins |
| David Bertie |
| John Jacobb |
| William Jeaffery |
| John Masey |
| Fanny Dyer |
| John Jukes |
| Robert Lovell |
| Jonathan Morey |
| Revd T Tyrwhitt |
| William Smith |
| Lititia Spinney |
| Richard Bellamy |
| Thomas Caddy |
| Palmer |
| John Keynes |
| John Ham |
| Elizabeth Bellamy |
| John Cross |
| Elizabeth Woodward |
These are the wealthy people of Milton Abbas. If you have any of these people in your family tree then please contact us for more information. We would love to hear from you.
There will be a list of the labourer’s names coming soon. And a long list of those who were too poor to pay the rates! Then there will be a list of the poor who were being paid for mending the roads for a little as 6d per day. Poor indeed.
There will be more information about the ag labs of Milton Abbas at our forthcoming exhibition 28 – 30 August in Milton Abbas. Looking forward to seeing you there and discussing your ancestors.
The Milton Abbas Local History Group have transcribed 60 000 records of all their Overseers of the Poor Account books from 1771 to 1836, and we are finding they are a fantastic resource for researching local and family history. They are unique records in which the poor are detailed with their names, and what things cost. Every aspect of life is covered – illness, doctors, medicines, treatments, nursing care, moving, funerals, lying in, travelling, old age, clothing, shoes, bedding, chimney sweeping, house rent, who is paying rates and how much. This information gives an insight into the social history of each parish. As just one example, this entry occurs in the Overseers accounts for Milton Abbas in April 1800 “Mr White for Extra Gristing £7 8s 6d”. This led me to explore the events around this time concerning the poor, and write an article and a presentation on the subject. It was possible to chart the price of grains, the amount spent by the Overseers, the amount received by each of the farmers and the amount of rates paid. This information, together with the mortality and birth rates for just this parish show just how tough the years around 1800 were, and how the tenant farmers, miller and overseers handled the situation. Another example is how smallpox was dealt with by the parish – but that is for another blog.
Also for family historians the Overseers of the Poor account books can tell the story of their individual ancestors in need, what illnesses they had, when they suffered from poverty, when they had enough to live on. This information with other documents such as bastardy records, removal records allows a full picture of an ancestor’s life to be told.
I am surprised that family historians are not using their parish records of the Overseers of the Poor moor. A trawl through magazines such as Who Do You Think You Are? and Your Family Tree produces nothing relevant. The great thing about these records is that they are available for many parishes before the censuses and the Union Workhouses, so if you have traced your family back before 1841 they are an essential resource, why not check out the Dorset History Centre catalogue to see if your parish Overseers Accounts are there? Also search this website to our progress on the Overseers of the Poor.
At last! Now we can hold our exhibition. We have so much to show that it will be in both St James Church, Milton Abbas and the Reading Rooms, Milton Abbas.
Lots more details here.
We do hope you can get here to meet us – there is lots to talk about over a cup of tea and cake, and we are very much looking forward to meeting you in person to share our excitement.
In case you can’t make it, we are hoping to video our displays with a commentary and put it on this website.
A huge thank you to our researchers who have made this possible.
Researching history can be lonely, we know what it is like, we have been doing it a long time! But it is exciting too – the chase for that vital piece of information, that brick wall broken through, that old document revealing something that you hadn’t even considered before.
Even when you have done the research, the writing up is just as challenging and time consuming. You have to make judgements based on imperfect information, you might be frightened of making mistakes or being criticised when your work is seen by others.
That is where just talking to others who share your passion and interest is so helpful. Come along to our meetings whether on ZOOM or live and the ideas of others will inspire you. Sharing your ideas and research is so helpful, and you will be making such a contribution to our shared culture and heritage.
Our members will help you research and publish, whether it be by exhibiting or presenting or website or blog or article or book.
You can join us for just £10/year. Contact us here.
It would be great if you followed our website – just click on the blue button to the right of any page.
From a lease of nearly 250 years ago!
We have recently transcribed this lease which is in the Dorset History Centre. It confirms that in 1773 the trustees of the school were active and looking after the free grammar school of Milton Abbas, which was then already 250 years old. In fact this grammar school was founded in 1521 so would be celebrating its quincentenary this year.
The income for the school to pay the master and maintain the buildings was considerable at £129 per year plus £5 per year for every acre of meadow at Little Mayne Farm. The school would have been considered well endowed indeed. We have not found any evidence that the pupils at the school paid any fees – hence its status as a “free school”. However since most children were at this time needed to help with the land, it is likely that only those of the better off tradesmen and farmers could take advantage of the education.
Little Mayne Farm had been endowed to the trustees to run the Milton Abbas Free Grammar School since 1521 and this endowment paid for the running and maintenance of the school..
The trustees were the great and good of Dorset, with the exception of Joseph Damer, Lord Milton, who the trustees never accepted to join them despite his demands to do so.
The thirteen trustees named in this lease of 1773 were:
The Trustees were soon to be involved in a long running legal battle with Lord Milton, who claimed to his peers in the House of Lords that the school was ‘much decayed’, which the evidence from this lease shows was not the case.
The grammar school continued until 1929 despite being moved by Lord Milton to Blandford in 1785.
Is in West Knighton parish, 3½ miles east of Dorchester. Its recorded history begins in Domesday Book, but it passed through several owners until it was acquired by the Abbot of Middleton from Thomas Kirton in 1521. There was once a medieval village here and the remains lie in the area to the north, south and south-west of Little Mayne Farm.
This is called “An Indenture”, and many deeds and other legal documents started with this phrase. It simply means that it was copied on to one sheet and then the copies separated with a wavy knife cut, a copy given to the two parties involved.
Note that there is no punctuation, nor paragraphs in the document, which is typical of legal documents, so that the meaning could not be changed by inserting a punctuation mark or extra words. There are many repeats, for example the full list of thirteen trustees are listed fourteen times, this makes it very tedious indeed to transcribe. Many words of the 18th century, especially legal terms, have different meanings to our modern understanding – see the glossary below
Certain key words are highlighted in bold, such as Witnesseth – these separate the parts of the deed.
This is a lease for 8 years to a farmer. The owners of the land are the trustees of Milton Abbas Grammar School. The master of the school had to maintain the school buildings and teach the pupils, but probably had direct access to the money from the rent.
There were a lot of conditions on the farmer as to what he could do with the land, he did not have any rights over the trees, he had to supply 200 reed sheaves for thatching the farm buildings, he had to provide two days carriage with his horse and cart, and he had to maintain all the buildings, fences and gates on the farm. If the rent was more than 28 days late then the trustees could repossess the farm.
If you are intrigued by this type of document and what it means to local history then please get in touch via our contact page.
There will be more information on Milton Abbas Grammar School at our planned exhibition – 28 – 30 Aug 2021.
Did you know that there was a Poor House in the new village of Milton Abbas? This was not called a work house in our records until 1804, and was built after the houses in the Street but before the map of 1806.
One of the people in this poor house may be your ancestor. If their name was one of these then get in touch and tell us more about them.
ARNOLD
ALLEN
CHURCHILL
GUY
HALL
JERRARD
RIDOUT
SCOTT
STURMEY
TRAVISS
VACHER
We have quite a lot of records about the people at this time, including the Overseers of Poor and the Surveyors of the Highways, so we know if they were working ‘on the roads’, how much they were being paid, and whether they were receiving benefits.
By the 1841 Census it was called the ‘Old Poor House’ and was then housing fourteen families, their names can be found in the opcdorset transcription. There were 68 people living here in one large house which is no longer there, but occupied the land between what is now the Hambro Arms and the Post Office. We have an image of it from about 1810 with men outside in ‘stovepipe’ hats. It must have been crowded as there were 14 men, 14 women and 40 children. There were some young couples included, and most of the men were able bodied and their occupation is given as ‘Agricultural Labourer’, probably working on the Milton Abbas estate and its six farms. It seems that even when it was called a workhouse the inmates were not forced to work at picking oakum or other menial task. That all changed after 1836 when paupers were sent to the Blandford Union Workhouse, and we know the names of some of the people who went from Milton Abbas there. From our transcriptions of the Overseers of the Poor accounts we know that bread, butter, beef and cheese was being supplied to the ‘workhouse’, so it appears that they had a reasonable diet compared with the dreaded Union Workhouses where gruel was the order of the day.
If you would like to share more of the social or family history of the rural poor then we would love to hear from you.
If you would like to use our transcriptions of the Overseers of the Poor, or the bills and receipts of the shopkeepers and suppliers to the poor, then you can join our group for £10 per annum.
