Category Archives: Milton Abbas
Six Little Girls Dressed in Blue: Lady Caroline’s “Spinning School”
Clive Barnes writes: On September 7 1789, six village girls walked up to Milton Abbey mansion house to meet King George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte. When the queen returned to Weymouth with “the K”, as she referred to … Continue reading
Fisherman’s Grave
While researching the field names of Milton Abbas and adding to our spreadsheet of 1185 of them, I was reading A D Mills ‘Place Names of Dorset, Part 3’. Page 225 mentions a field called Fisherman’s Grave. He found a … Continue reading
Field Names in Milton Abbas
The Milton Abbas Local History Group have some great resources for locating the field names of this parish. We have large scale maps of 1652, and 1770 which name the fields. We have put all this information into a spreadsheet. … Continue reading
The name of GERRARD
Whilst searching our transcriptions of Milton Abbas documents for GERRARD it is surprising just how many different spellings of this name there are. The Oxford Names Companion gives: GARRATT, GARRIT, GARRED, GARRAD, GERRETT, GERATT, GERRAD, JARRETT, JARRATT, JERRITT, JARRED, JARAD, … Continue reading
The wealth of the Damers
Just before the death of Joseph Damer, Lord Milton’s daughter in 1828 this list of paintings to be found in just one room of Milton Abbey House was published by Neale in his ‘Views of the seats of noblemen and … Continue reading
The Role of the Overseers of the Poor
Following two brilliant presentations to the Milton Abbas Local History Group by members Clive Barnes and John O’Quinn, a number of questions were asked about the Overseers of the Poor of Milton Abbas. The presentations are available on the Members … Continue reading
Combination Acts 1799 and 1800
The Combination Act of 1799 was an extraordinarily oppressive piece of legislation. After the French revolution it is extraordinary that the Houses of Commons and Lords would risk such an unjust act. There had been acts before against workers in … Continue reading
Vestry Minute Book
One of our amazing transcribers, Shirley Chick, has just completed the Milton Abbas Vestry Minute Book 1863 – 1924. The original book is in our possession. The resulting 65 page document is now available for our members to research. The … Continue reading
Walking in History’s Footsteps
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 – the Millionaire of Milton Abbas
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 … Continue reading