Granny's Tales and Treasures
Our Buckinghamshire Ancestry
Robert and Charlotte Howe
The nineteenth century was not a decade old as the Reverend St. John Priest, sat in his vicarage in Scarning in Norfolk, compiling the second edition of the General View of Agriculture for the County of Buckinghamshire.[i] With a population on the rise and Napoleonic blockades preventing the imports from Europe, it was essential that Britain worked towards self-sufficiency as regards food and the Board of Agriculture had commissioned a series of county surveys, to investigate the current state of the rural economy and suggest methods of improving output. Reverend Priest, a mathematical genius, had made a two week visit to Buckinghamshire in order to gather information about the county and it is his words that help us to understand what life was like in rural Buckinghamshire at this time.
Just three miles south-west of the busy market town of Aylesbury, on the road towards Thame, is the little village of Stone. Lying on rich Kimmeridge clay and loamy soil, well-watered by the tributaries of the River Thames and with no extremes of climate, this area was good farming country. The parish was tiny and in the first decade of the nineteenth century, there were just four farms and seven cottages in Stone.[ii] It is almost certain that one of those cottages was the birthplace of 3x great grandfather Robert Howe. He was likely to have
​been the son of William and Avice, or Alvo, Howe née Widdenborough who married in Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire, in 1806 and went on to have children baptised in Stone.[iii] In the 1851 census, one of William and Avice’s children specifies that they were born in Bishopstone, which was part of Stone parish.[iv] If this is the case, then perhaps Robert was also born there. No baptism has yet been found for Robert under the surname of Widdenborough or Howe. Nor has a baptism been found that suggests that Robert was William’s by a previous wife.​
St. John the Baptist, Stone
Image by R Birkby via Wikimedia Commons
​If this is indeed the correct Howe line, then it can be taken back a further three generations to seventeenth century Waddesdon, about eight miles to the north of Stone and Robert was the eldest of ten children. William and Avice moved their family to Weston Turville, to the south east of Aylesbury, when Robert was in his early teens. If he does belong to this family, as an agricultural labourer, Robert may well have already been at work and not made this move.
The farms in Stone, were larger than average for the area, being between 400 and 450 acres, with about three quarters of the land in the parish being devoted to arable farming. Fifty to 100 acres of pasture was regarded as being enough for one cow and two sheep. The farms typically operated a three year crop rotation, alternating between growing wheat, barley and beans. Sometimes, the rotation included a fallow year, or peas or clover might be substituted for beans. Oats were also grown, as were turnips, the latter being used largely for animal feed.
Livestock was reared, with cattle bred for meat and dairying. Local farmers favoured Hereford and Devon cattle. Herefords were a stocky, beef breed with characteristic russet coats, white faces and chests. Devonshires were often known as Ruby Reds, for the colour of their coats. Sheep might have been South Downs or what Priest called ‘Gloucesters’, possibly Cotswold sheep. Berkshire pigs and Aylesbury ducks were also reared.
It is perhaps surprising that, in this pre-railway age, ducks and lambs were fattened for sale to the London market, especially as Priest made a particular point of referring to the poor state of the roads but drovers roads had been used for centuries and turnpike trusts, set up in the eighteenth century, were improving some routes.[v]
As a farm labourer, Robert, like his potential father, might have been earning up to nine shillings a week.[vi] Labourers were often hired to do a specific task, rather than being permanent employees, so earnings could be irregular and with the increasing use of threshing machines, work may have been difficult to come by. It was common to hire a man for a month to help with the harvest. For this, he might be paid a guinea[vii] and be supplied with beer. The average payment for completing eight yards[viii] of ditching was twelve shillings and six pence.
On the northwestern slope of the Chiltern Hills lies the parish of Great Kimble. Here, the soil is chalky and more suited to pasture, with only about half the parish being made up of arable farms. By the time he was in his mid-twenties, Robert was living in Great Kimble, This was a much larger settlement, about three times the size of Stone, with further farms and cottages in Little Kimble next door.
Robert’s first confirmed appearance in the records is on the 31st of May 1828, when he married Charlotte Chilton in Great Kimble,[ix] about five miles south of Stone. They had six children baptised in Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire.[x]
​
Great Kimble
© Janet Few
Robert and Charlotte’s eldest child was Mary, she was baptised at Great Kimble on the 3rd of August 1828.[xi] She was with the family, living in Great Kimble, in 1841[xii] and died of consumption, or tuberculosis, on the 25th of July 1850, at the age of twenty two.[xiii]
Robert Howe was an agricultural labourer[xiv] at a time of great change for such workers. When his first son, William, was born, in 1831,[xv] rural Buckinghamshire was still reeling from the agricultural unrest of the Swing Riots of the previous year. These violent disturbances were a reaction to poor wages and conditions in the wake of the Agricultural Revolution. Agricultural workers were increasingly obliged to live-out and were being hired on short term contracts, leaving them destitute for the rest of the year. The inadequacies of poor relief under the old poor law were exacerbated by the burden of the Church Tithes.
The riots spread throughout Southern England and beyond and were particularly prevalent in areas such as Buckinghamshire. The targets of the rioters, such as the clergy, wealthy landowners and overseers of the poor, were sent threatening letters ostensibly from ‘Captain Swing’. Labourers demanded cuts in tithe payments, reduced rents, better conditions and wages and the destruction of threshing machines. Failure to act would result in large groups of agricultural labourers damaging property, rick burning and smashing the new threshing machines that they viewed as a threat. As an agricultural labourer, even if he was not actively involved, Robert Howe must have been affected by the causes and consequences of these troubles.​​
St. Nicholas, Great Kimble
© Janet Few
The next children of Robert and Charlotte were twins, Philip Chilton and Thomas Howe, born about 1834 and baptised at Great Kimble on the 4th of May 1834.[xvi] Both boys were with the family in 1841[xvii] and Thomas has been traced to Kimble Wick in 1851, when he was working as a farm servant for Richard Tapping.[xviii] Thomas married Mary Smith in Amersham registration district in 1856.[xix] They had five children and moved to King’s Langley in Hertfordshire, where Thomas worked as a shepherd and an agricultural labourer.[xx] He died in 1902.[xxi]
In 1851, Thomas’ twin, Philip Chilton Howe, was working as a farm servant for John Hearne at Cottage Farm in Little Hampden, Buckinghamshire.[xxii] He married Harriet Horwood in 1858[xxiii] and went to live in her home village of Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, where he worked as a gardener. Philip and Harriet are known to have had three children born in Aston Clinton; William c.1858, Mary Letitia c.1861 and another William c.1864.[xxiv] About 1865, the family moved to Aylesbury, where two more children were born; Sydney A c.1866 and Minnie c.1872.[xxv] Philip worked as a groom and gardener, living first in Rew Road, Walton[xxvi], then at Walton Grove[xxvii] and finally at 51 New Road, Aylesbury.[xxviii] He died in 1906.[xxix]
John, the youngest son of Robert and Charlotte Howe, was born on the 26th of August 1840 in Great Kimble.[xxx] He was living with his parents in the 1841[xxxi] and 1851 censuses. Although he was only ten in 1851, he was already working as a farm boy.[xxxii] He disappears from the records after this.[xxxiii]
Ann Chilton Howe was born to Robert and Charlotte in 1843 and was baptised at Great Kimble on the 22nd of October. She caught scarlatina and died in 1844.[xxxiv]
In 1841, Robert, Charlotte and their five eldest children, were living with Charlotte’s father, Philip Chilton, in Great Kimble. Both Philip and Robert were agricultural labourers. Ten years later, their address was given as Tinker’s End in Great Kimble. Philip was dead[xxxv] and only the youngest child, John was still at home, working as a farm boy. Charlotte was contributing to the domestic economy by making lace.[xxxvi] Buckinghamshire was particularly known for its lace and lace making was one of several home industries undertaken by women and girls on a piece work basis. What is of interest is that Great Kimble was only five miles from Aston Clinton, the home of the Stratfords, with whom the Howes intermarried. In Aston Clinton, straw plait making dominated as a home industry, yet there were no plait workers in Great Kimble.[xxxvii] Instead, it was lacemaking that provided employment for a significant number of the girls and young women.
As with most of these trades, a skilled worker might earn a reasonable sum but may well be working a twelve hour day in order to do so. Bobbin, or pillow, lace required the use of several threads attached to small turned wooden sticks, or bobbins. Early bobbins might also be made from carved bone. Intricately decorated bobbins might be given as a love gift. The threads were wound round pins that were stuck into a hard, straw-stuffed pillow.
In a similar way to some other home industries, lace making was often taught in lace ‘schools’. These were not in any way educational establishments but women and girls would gather together to make lace and to enable the children, some as young as five, to learn from the more skilled workers. The intricate, close work often resulted in failing eyesight and sitting hunched over a pillow led to problems with posture. Government Reports refer to the propensity to tuberculosis amongst young women in lace making areas and this was, in part, attributed to the humid atmosphere and lack of ventilation in the lace schools, exacerbated by the charcoal burning ‘dicky pots’ that they used to keep warm. These were used in preference to an open fire as the smuts and soot from a fire would discolour the lace. Perhaps Charlotte’s daughter, Mary, had been a lace maker before her death from tuberculosis.
As with many repetitive tasks, the workers would chant rhymes, or sing songs, to alleviate the boredom but also to ensure that they kept up a steady rhythm. The nursery rhyme ‘Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick,’ is thought to be a lace making rhyme. Many of the lace makers’ chants involve counting, such as: “Nineteen long lines being over my door, The faster I work, I’ll shorten my score, But if I do play, I’ll stick to a stay, So Heigh Ho little fingers, I’ll crank it away.”
By 1861 and again in 1871, Robert and Charlotte were living in Risborough Road, the main road through Great Kimble, an address that might not be incompatible with Tinker’s End. Robert continued to work for local farms and Charlotte to make lace.[xxxviii]
Charlotte died on the 21st of February 1876 of bronchitis and exhaustion.[xxxix] Robert died at the Aylesbury Infirmary two years later, on the 6th of January, from gangrene.[xl] This may have been a result of diabetes, certainly, his great granddaughter suffered from late onset diabetes and it is thought to be hereditary.
​
[i] Priest, Rev. St, John The General View of Agriculture of Buckinghamshire drawn up by the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement Richard Phillips (1810). History of Stone
www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol2/pp307-311 accessed 4 November 2024.
[ii] Priest, Rev. St, John The General View of Agriculture of Buckinghamshire drawn up by the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement Richard Phillips (1810) History of Stone
www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol2/pp307-311 accessed 4 November 2024 p. 395.
[iii] Index to parish registers of St. John the Baptist, Stone, Buckinghamshire compiled by Buckinghamshire Family History Society via www.findmypast.co.uk.
[iv] 1851 census for Church End, Weston Turville, Buckinghamshire HO107 1721 folio 442.
[v] Priest, Rev. St, John The General View of Agriculture of Buckinghamshire drawn up by the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement Richard Phillips (1810)
[vi] There were twelve pence in a shilling and twenty shillings in a pound.
[vii] One pound one shilling.
[viii] 7·3 metres.
ix Index to marriage registers of St. Nicholas’, Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire compiled by Buckinghamshire Family History Society via www.findmypast.co.uk.
[x] Baptism registers of St. Nicholas’, Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire via Lorna Brooks née Rutland.
[xi] Baptism registers of Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire via Lorna Brooks née Rutland.
[xii] 1841 census for Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire HO107 41/14 folio 5.
[xiii] The death certificate of Mary Howe, 1850 digital image from the General Register Office
[xiv] 1841 census for Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire HO107 41/14 folio 5.
[xv] Baptism registers of Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire via Lorna Brooks née Rutland.
[xvi] www.familysearch.org; 1851 census for Cottages, Tinkers End, Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire HO107 1720 folio 432. 1851 census for Cottage Farm, Little Hampden, Buckinghamshire HO 107 1720 folio 299.
[xvii] 1841 census for Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire HO107 41/14 folio 5.
[xviii] 1851 census for Kimble Wick, Buckinghamshire HO 107 1720 folio 414.
[xix] Marriage indexes of the General Registrar.
[xx] 1861 census for Langley Hill, King’s Langley, Hertfordshire RG9 837; 1881 census for King’s Langley, Hertfordshire RG11 1442 folio 53.
[xxi] Death indexes of the General Registrar.
[xxii] 1851 census for Cottage Farm, Little Hampden, Buckinghamshire HO 107 1720 folio 299.
[xxiii] Marriage indexes of the General Registrar; 1861 census for Wright’s House, Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire RG9 867 folio 9.
[xxiv] Birth indexes of the General Registrar 1861 census for Wright’s House, Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire RG9 867 folio 9. 1871 census Rew Road, Walton, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire RG10 1412 folio 43.
[xxv] 1871 census Rew Road, Walton, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire RG10 1412 folio 43.
[xxvi] 1871 census Rew Road, Walton, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire RG10 1412 folio 43.
[xxvii] 1881 census for 14-16 Walton Grove, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire RG11 1473 folio 70.
[xxviii] 1891 census for 51, New Road, Aylesbury RG12 1145 folio 112.
[xxix] Death indexes of the General Registrar
[xxx] The birth certificate of John Howe 1840, from the Local Registrar.
[xxxi] 1841 census for Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire HO107 41/14 folio 5.
[xxxii] 1851 census for Cottages, Tinkers End, Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire HO107 1720 folio 432.
[xxxiii] Census indexes via www.findmypast.com.
[xxxiv] Baptism registers of Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire via Lorna Brooks . Rutland. Death certificate of Ann HOWE 1844 digital image from the General Register Office.
[xxxv] Death certificate of Philip Hilton 1849 digital image from the General Register.
[xxxvi] 1851 census for Cottages, Tinkers End, Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire HO107 1720 folio 432.
[xxxvii] 1851 Census for Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire.
[xxxviii] 1861 census for Risboro Road, Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire RG9 861 folio 100. 1871 census for Risboro Road, Great Kimble, Buckinghamshire RG10 1408 folio 102.
[xxxix] Death certificate Charlotte Howe, 1876 from the Local Registrar.
[xl] Death certificate Robert Howe, 1878 from the General Register Office.