Introduction
James Saint Partridge was a prominent figure in Hardington from about 1903 until his death in 1938. He never married, but combined farming and keeping the Royal Oak Inn with service on the parish council, the rural district council, and the Yeovil Board of Guardians. As a young man, he spent over twenty years on the Isle of Wight, working in a bakery and later running his own dairy farm before returning home.
Childhood
James was born on 15 December 1860 at Hardington, the first of ten children born to Joseph and Louisa Partridge.[1] His middle name was derived from his mother’s maiden name. At the time of James’s birth, his father was a farmer, but he soon became an innkeeper as well.
Tragically, three of his siblings died in childhood: Francis from scarlatina in 1874, Harriet from heart disease and dropsy in 1876, and Louisa from tabes mesenterica in 1880.[2]
Isle of Wight
By April 1881, James had moved to the Isle of Wight, where he lodged and worked at a bakery in Godshill run by William Reynolds. He stayed with the Reynolds family for over a decade and became part of their household.[3] After leaving the bakery, he ran a dairy at Cloyes Farm, Rookley, on the edge of the village, about a quarter of a mile south of the Bible Christian Chapel. Despite the demands of his job, he served on the Godshill Parish Council. He was first elected in April 1898, when he secured thirty-three votes.[4] Three years later, he obtained sixty votes and published a letter of thanks to his supporters.[5] He had a practical can-do attitude, and once offered to paint footbridges in the parish.[6]
By this time, he was forty and probably contemplating his future. He decided to leave the island and return to Hardington. He held his sale at the farm on 26 September 1902, which was well attended. The advertisement listed nine dairy cows, a roan mare with foal, a fat Berkshire boar, over twenty pigs, 200 head of poultry, seven tons of meadow hay, as well as a pony chaise and household furniture. It noted that his lease was expiring and that he had “taken a farm on the mainland.”[7] The scale of the sale shows that he had built up a substantial enterprise in a short time. After the sale, he remained on the island a little longer, attending his last council meeting on 3 November.[8]
Return to Hardington
By March 1903, he was at Hardington Marsh, probably living with his sister, Jane, and her husband, Theo White. That month, he advertised four freehold cottages on the Isle of Wight for sale, the first of many such adverts used to sell property, livestock and equipment.[9]
On 4 May 1904, James’s father died from heart disease, leaving an estate valued at £265, which he left entirely to his widow.[10] The following year, his brother James died from heart disease, dropsy and bronchitis at the age of forty. [11] With the death of Joseph, James became the only surviving son and took over the management of the inn and farm at Hardington Moor, while his mother remained the nominal licensee.
James soon became involved in civil affairs, building on his previous experience at Godshill. In March 1907, he secured a position on the parish council with 32 votes and in 1908, he was elected to the District Council.[12] By December 1907, he was serving as a Poor Law Guardian and a District Councillor by February 1908.[13] In March 1909, he was elected to the committee of the Yeovil Agricultural Show.[14]
James was in charge of the Royal Oak Inn in April 1910 when two policemen found a customer drunk on the premises at 9.40 p.m. The police prosecuted Louisa Partridge as the licensee, but, after hearing the evidence, the magistrates dismissed the case. They accepted James’s testimony that he had asked Haggett to leave at 7 p.m. because Louisa was ill. Haggett returned to the tap room without James’s knowledge and drank with the connivance of the other customers.[15]
James’s mother died on 17 January 1911 from a cerebral haemorrhage.[16] She left no will, and no letters of administration were granted, suggesting she had nothing to bequeath. The 1911 census recorded James as the head of a household that included his sister Ethel and a servant, Charlotte Rendell. Ethel remained his housekeeper until she married her second cousin, Henry George Partridge, in about 1927.
A good Samaritan
In 1912, James helped an old friend from the Isle of Wight, Lillie, the youngest daughter of his former employer, William Reynolds. Following Reynolds’ death in February 1911, Lillie had gone off the rails and become pregnant at the age of 29 while unmarried. James arranged for her to come to Hardington for the birth, which occurred on 9 December 1912.[17] Lillie later returned to the Isle of Wight, where she had a second illegitimate child in July 1914, before marrying a baker in 1916. Meanwhile, her daughter, Hilda Maud, was raised by Matthias and Elizabeth Baker at Hardington until Elizabeth’s death in February 1922, after which Hilda moved to the care of Elizabeth’s unmarried sister, Mercy Rendell, who lived in Yeovil.
Later career
By August 1912, James was calling himself a home and estate agent, and acted as an agent for the Norwich Union.[18] However, he sometimes overextended himself. In September 1912, he was fined 15s for moving pigs without a licence, and in July 1918, he was prosecuted for not complying with two orders to crop land he held at Hardington.[19] The Somerset War Agricultural Committee had ordered him to plough and crop two allotments. James blamed illness, poor soil, the unavailability of horses, and adverse weather, but the court rejected his excuses and fined him 10 shillings for each order. During the hearing, he stated that he farmed 80.5 acres and had one horse, one plough and twenty head of stock. His rent was £60 a year for the land, buildings and the public house. He considered farming the most important of his undertakings, but he was also an innkeeper and property buyer. He was, he said, “all sorts.”
After the war, he remained a popular figure in the village. In 1919, he topped the parish council poll with 74 votes and defeated the vicar, Rev. Beddoe, for the district council seat by 81 to 31.[20] In 1923, he was the only Yeovil Board of Guardians member to vote against a proposal to revise the land valuations for Hardington.[21] The following year, when the board discussed the delays in producing the new valuation, James remarked that he could value Hardington from his armchair.[22] The peak of his popularity may have been 1925, when he secured 109 votes in the parish council election.[23] His involvement with the council continued until at least 1931.[24]
In the estate sale of 1920, he bought the Royal Oak with its farm buildings and 54 acres as the sitting tenant.[25] As he approached his 65th birthday, he put his affairs in order by making his will. He appointed his brother-in-law, George William Partridge, and his nephew, William Joseph Allan White, as executors. He bequeathed his bungalow, an orchard (318 on the tithe map) and his furniture and effects to Ethel for life, with the remainder of his estate divided equally among his sisters, Susan, Elizabeth, Jane, Rose and Ethel.[26]
Later years and death
His later years were marked by illness and the loss of his sister Rose in 1935.[27] He probably suffered from heart disease for several years, which caused fluid build-up in his lungs and episodes of breathlessness.[28] He placed his last property advert in June 1937, but he may already have given up farming and innkeeping by then.[29] He died at his home on 23 May 1938 at the age of 77, leaving an estate valued at £488 1s 9d.[30] A sale of his furniture and effects was held at the bungalow on 20 July 1938.[31]
References
[1] Birth certificate of James Saint Partridge.
[2] Death certificates of Francis, Harriet and Louisa Partridge. Tabes mesenterica was a term used in the nineteenth century for a wasting disease of the abdominal lymph nodes, most often caused by tuberculosis in children.
[3] Reynolds’ eldest daughter, Annie, who was two years younger than James, married in 1889, but the other three daughters and one son lived at home the entire time he was there.
[4] Hampshire Telegraph, 9 April 1898, p.5.
[5] Isle of Wight County Press, 9 March 1901, p.7; 30 March 1901, p.5.
[6] Isle of Wight County Press, 31 August 1901, p.7.
[7] Isle of Wight County Press, 13 September 1902, p.4.
[8] Isle of Wight County Press, 30 August 1902, p.4; 27 September 1902, p.8; 8 November 1902, p.7.
[9] Western Gazette, 27 March 1903, p.7.
[10] Death certificate of Joseph Parsons Partridge; The will of Joseph Partridge, dated 26 April 1904, proved at Taunton on 24 February 1905.
[11] Death certificate of Joseph Partridge.
[12] Western Chronicle, 29 March 1907, p.5
[13] Western Chronicle, 12 July 1907, p.6; Western Gazette, 21 February 1908, p. 5.
[14] Western Times, 19 March 1909, p.11.
[15] Western Chronicle, 6 May 1910, p.8.
[16] Death certificate of Louisa Partridge.
[17] Birth certificate of Hilda Maud Reynolds.
[18] Western Chronicle, 16 August 1912, p.1.
[19] Western Times, 5 September 1912, p.4; Western Chronicle, 5 July 1918, p.7.
[20] Western Chronicle 21 March 1919 p. 3; 18 April 1919 p. 11; Western Chronicle 4 April 1919 p. 9.
[21]Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser 21 February 1923 p. 7.
[22] Western Chronicle 21 March 1924 p. 13.
[23] Western Chronicle 10 April 1925 p. 6.
[24] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser 16 September 1931 p. 7.
[25] The lot included a field of 11 1/2 acres on the north side of the pub, which comprised allotments (OS no. 30).
[26] The will of James Saint Partridge, dated 25 November 1925, proved at Bristol on 7 September 1938.
[27] Western Gazette, 13 September 1935, p.5.
[28] Death certificate of James Saint Partridge. Ron White of Moor Cross registered his death, his first cousin once removed.
[29] Western Gazette, 11 June 1937, p.8.
[30] The will of James Saint Partridge, dated 25 November 1925, proved at Bristol on 7 September 1938.
[31] Western Gazette, 15 July 1938, p.1.
