Where in Wareham? Galton and Stockley.

[Paul Caswell]

Hi All,

I have let my Ancestry membership lapse so would appreciate a little help.

I have discovered an article amongst the 19th century newspapers collection dated Wednesday November 28 1849 that mentions a family I expect is in my tree somewhere. I would appreciate any help in listing the names of the children in the family so I can work out who they are. I suspect they will still be there in 1851.

The following extracts ought to locate them. I would appreciate any help in finding the family.

I am posting the sections in full as I find them a fascinating insight into the lives of these families.

First the location:

...
In enquiring into the condition of the labourer in the neighbourhood of Wareham, I first directed my attention to the district lying immediately south of the town, known as the Isle of Purbeck. This district varies much in its surface and general character, some of it being high and fertile, and other portions low, heathy, and irreclaimable. Close to the town, and between it and the arm of the sea into which the Frome discharges itself, a portion of the low-lying lands has been reclaimed from the waste, and now extends in one dreary and monotonous level of damp meadow land. The greater proportion of its surface is but little elevated above the high water mark, and during the night it is generally overspread with noxious malaria, which commences to rise from it with the setting of almost every sun. Yet in this ungenial spot are several cottages, containing in all nearly 100 human beings. I examined several of them, and will describe a few, taking their inmates as I found them, bargeman, claypit men, and farm labourers together.

The cottages and the families (I am interested in the Stockleys in the second cottage). I will post them in following posts.

Paul

[TomRees]

I have let my Ancestry membership lapse so would appreciate a little help.

try the 10 day free trial - you'll probably get a lot of pleasure doing the search yourself 

[Paul Caswell]

The Stockleys:

...
My next visit was to a hut but a few yards removed from that just described. It was one of a row consisting of four, bein all thatched, and the crumbling walls constructed of mud and brick. In front of the door was a small close porch entered from the side. From this porch I stepped into the hut, in doin which I had to descend a step. The situation was as low and damp as that f the other cottage, nor was the house improved in this respect by the step down which had to be taken to gain the floor. There were but two rooms, one below and one above, which, as usual, served as the sleeping apartment. The lower room was dingy in the extreme, its dimensions scarcely exceeding 12 feet by 10. The floor was composed of small, rough and regular flags, and so close were the two floors together, that I had barely room to stand erect, without my hat, between the beams supporting the upper one. The tenants name was Stockley, a common name in these parts. He was 6 feet 2 inches in height, and had never stood erect in his own house. There was not a corner of it in which he could do so. All the wood-work was blackened by smoke, and clammy with moisture. The wall was bulging in on all sides, and seemed scarcely capable of supporting the crazy roof. The family consisted of seven - viz., the father and mother, and five children, all boys. The eldest boy was 16 years of age, and worked with Farmer Boyt, at 3s. a week. The second son was earning 4s. a week at the clay-pits. Both of them could read a little, but the second only could write - that is to say, he could write his own name. They all slept in the apartment upstairs. It contained two bedsteads, in addition to which a bed wa smade n the floor. One corner of the sleeping room had to be avoided, on account of the floor having given way; it hung partly down into the the lower room, so that the weight of a child almost would have brought it down altogether. About the middle of the floor the rents were so large, that I could see almost the whole of the sleeping-room through them. But the most extraordinary feature connected with this house was the provision made by the inmates for baling the water out, when the hut happened to be flooded by it. For this purpose, three of the flags were kept movable. I desired them to be lifted, and on their being so, discovered under each a large hole scooped out in the clay, each hole capale of containing about a gallon. When the water began to rise on the floor, which was not infrequently the case, to a height which threatened to extinguish the fire, these flags were raised an the intrusive flood was drained into the holes in question. From these it was easily bailed out by means of a tin dish. But for this device, the floor would be frequently several inches under water. When the water subsided the flags were replaced, not to be removed again until the next heavy rain should be followed by a tide within the dwelling. One of the three holes, which was under the only table in the house, was deeper than the others, and had always mre or less water in it. But for this, the floor would never be dry. It was very damp when I saw i, but Mrs. Stockley called it dry. Fr this wretched den no less than œ3 a year are paid as rent to Mr. Denis Brown, of Wareham. There is much, however, which might be done to it to render it mire comfortable than it is. As it now stands, the whole fabric is scarcely worth one year's rent paid for it. I inquired why the family stayed in such a hole, and was informed that they had no alternative but to do so, as it was the only house they could get "convenient to their work". The ague was seldom out of it. Both father and mother had it on first taking the house, and not a year passed without some of the children being for a time stricken down by it. The youngest was just recovering from a sever attack of the small-pox. The mother was still anually attacked by premonitory symptoms of the ague, but she was now accustomed to the disease, and stifled it at once by the use of active remedies. The other three houses of the row were somewhat larger and drier than this; but they, too, were damp, dark, filthy, an dunwholesome. The whole row was not much more than fifty feet long - it contained in all eight rooms, and accomodated twenty-three people. They all slept in the roof of their respective domiciles, so that f the whole roof were thrown into one elongated chamber, and the occupants of the four houses lay side by side across the floor, each would have a strip of little more than two feet wide; in other words, they could scarcely so lie without touching each other. Distributed as they were, each sleeping room averaged about six occupants.

[Paul Caswell]

The Galtons:

The first that I visited was a cottage occupied by a family of the name of Galton. The family consists of six persons - the father and mother, a son, and two daughters, and a grandchild, the illegitimate offspring of one of the daughters.When I entered, the only persons at home were the mother and the younger daughter. The mother informed me that her husband had steady work from Farmer Boyt, at 8s a week, with he cottage free, and turf carried in. On the whole, the wages might be taken as amounting to about 9s. 6d. a week. They kept a pig, which they intended to kill at Christmas, and to which they looked as the only animal food which they were likely to have for the season. An open ditch, which served as a sluggish drain for the meadow, after touching one of the back corners of the house, which was a thatched mud hut, turned at a right angle, and extended along the back of it, right under the wall. The character of this ditch was indicated by the vegetation which thickly incrusted its stagnant contents. A little in front was another ditch, filthy in the extreme, though not quite so bad as the other. In front of the house was an ash-heap, where it would remain until the farmer chose to carry it away. The pigstye was behind, leaning against the wall of the fuel-house, which formed part of the building. So low was the hovel situated, that whenever it rained heavily it was completely inundated. Some time ago, after a heavy thunder-storm, the intrusive waters took posession of the whole floor, invaded the cupboard of the dresser, and rose, in an inner room, "half way up the legs of the bed". It was a long time afterwards ere the house got dry - indeed, it was not thoroughly so ere it was again flooded. It was about three years since the family had entered the house. They had all had ague shortly after doing so. The youngest daughter, the one at home, had never been rid of it. Her sunken cheek, languid motions, and jaundiced complexion, all but too well attested the presence of the disease. The smells, I was further told, were sometimes very bad, but they were thankful that they were neither so numerous nor so offensive as those to which they had been accustomed at Newton, some miles off, where they formerly lived. There they had occupied a house from which the ague was never absent. Such was the domicile which they got rent-free, instead of an extra shilling in the shape of money-wages. But had they had two extra shillings, the poor creatures knew not where to get a petter house, for there was none vacant in the district.

[Paul Caswell]

In summary. I am looking for a family of six Galtons, father, mother, a son, two daughters and an illegitimate grandchild of one of the daughters.

Next door is a family of 7 Stockleys, father, mother and five boys, the youngest aged about 16 at the time so probably nearer 18 in 1851.

That you for your help.

Paul

[Paul Caswell]

I have let my Ancestry membership lapse so would appreciate a little help.

try the 10 day free trial - you'll probably get a lot of pleasure doing the search yourself 

I plan to take advantage of one of those over Christmas when I have plenty of time to browse. Thanks for the reminder though.

Paul

[Paul Caswell]

Having done some complicated searching through my data I think the family is:

Charles Stockley b1810 (Corfe Castle)
Martha (nee Hibbs) b1816 (Dorset)
John William b1833 (Church Knowle)
Charles b1835 (Studland)
Levi Frederick b1838 (Dorset)
James b1841 (Wareham)
Albion b1845 (Sudland)

later there will be

Emma b1852 (Ridge)
Fanny b1855 (Ridge)

Paul

[June Horsham]

Sounds as if these cottages could be near Ridge - Redcliffe is a small outcrop of the first bend of the river Frome east of Wareham.  If you go onto the Old maps  or the Interactive maps sites you will find Redcliffe farm on the outcrop, with six small cottages to the east.  These cottages lie between the farm and the tramway that ran from the Pike's claypits at Norden (and elsewhere around there) to the clay wharf on the Frome.

June's husband

[Paul Caswell]

Thank you June's Husband. I can't find the cottages but I now have a much better idea where they are. It all fits together quite well as the later children were all born in "Ridge".

Is this more or less where we are talking about?

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0i93/

Paul