Jonah Delamont, weaver, farm labourer and hawker

Introduction

Jonah’s early years were difficult. He lost his half-sister when he was 13 years old, his father when he was 22, his sister when he was about 23, and his mother when he was 27.

At the age of 23, he married a widow who was nine years older than he was, and they had five children together. Following her death in 1884, he married a much younger woman who had three illegitimate children, with whom he had three children.

His household finances were precarious, and he was convicted of theft twice. However, he continued working until the end of his life.

Birth

Jonah was born at Hardington in about 1828, the first of three children born to Jonas and Sarah Delamont. His father, Jonas, was a shoemaker, while his mother, Sarah, was a shoe binder.

His mother had an illegitimate daughter named Sarah, born in about 1823, who lived with the family.

Death of his half-sister

The 1841 census recorded Jonah and his sister, Charlotte, in the household of Michael Apsey at Oil Moor. They may have been staying there due to their half-sister Sarah’s serious illness. She died ten weeks later, on 18 August 1841, from a broken back at the young age of 19.[1]

Death of his elderly father

Jonah and Charlotte were the children of Jonas Delamont by his second wife, Sarah Delamont, whom he married in 1826 when he was in his mid-fifties. By the time Jonah reached his teenage years, Jonas was over seventy years old. Jonas died in July or August 1850 at the age of 80.

Following Jonas’s death, his widow lived with the gardener, George White, and his wife. She died in December 1855 at the age of 71.

Death of his sister

In 1851, Charlotte was admitted to Taunton Hospital for an operation on her foot. Unfortunately, her body responded poorly to the surgery, and she died on 19 March 1851 from pleuropneumonia and erysipelas at just 20 years old.[2]

Move to West Coker

By March 1851, Jonah was a weaver living at West Coker with Elizabeth Sartin, a widow, as his housekeeper. Her husband, Richard Sartin, had died nine years earlier from an abscess, leaving her with one child, Mary Ann, who also lived with them.[3]

First Marriage

On 12 October 1851, Jonah and Elizabeth married at West Coker. He was about 23, and she was about 32.

Children

Their first child, Charlotte, was born in Yeovil in late 1852 or early 1853. They later had another daughter, Sarah Ann, born in Hardington in late 1855 or early 1856, followed by three sons: Edwin, Albert, and John.

Life at Hardington Moor

Jonah lived at Hardington Moor for the remainder of his life, probably in his parents’ former home.

The census returns recorded Jonah and Elizabeth as both canvas weavers in 1861. By 1871, Jonah had become a farm labourer, and by 1881, he was a hawker. In 1891, he was recorded as a labourer. However, the death certificate of his second wife describes him as a hawker and his own death certificate as a hawker of fish.

By April 1871, their two oldest daughters, Charlotte and Sarah Ann, had left home and found work as servants in nearby villages. One of them gave birth to an illegitimate son, Henry George, in 1873, who was raised by Jonah and Elizabeth. By April 1881, two of their sons had also moved out, and the third son married and left home the following year.

Crime

Jonah was in trouble with the law on several occasions.

In May 1847, he was arrested on a charge of assaulting Ann Taylor, a single woman about his age, with intent to commit rape. However, during the Quarter Sessions in July, the Grand Jury concluded that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with the case against him.[4] The jail register recorded his height as 5 feet 2 and a half inches, with sandy hair, grey eyes, and a fresh complexion. [5]

On 2 January 1852, he was committed for trial for breaking and entering the home of Alfred Bartlett of Hardington on the previous day and stealing one counterpane and other articles.^[6] At the sessions, the case was thrown out.^[7] On 23 March 1852, Jonah again appeared before the magistrates charged with the same offence.^[8] At the assizes, he was acquitted.^[9]

On 19 January 1870, Jonah appeared in court charged with obtaining money under false pretences. He had duped various gentlemen into giving him money by telling them that his only cow had died when, in fact, he never had a cow. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 21 days of hard labour.^[10]

On 6 June 1883, he pleaded guilty to stealing straw from Albert George Squire and was fined 10s, which included costs. James Packer, a journeyman baker employed by Squire, testified that on 12 May at about 4.15 a.m., he saw Jonah leaving his master’s premises with some straw. When Packer asked Jonah who had given him permission to take the straw, Jonah replied, “For God’s sake, don’t say anything about it”. ^[11]

Elizabeth’s death

Elizabeth died in 1884 at the age of 64.[12]

Second marriage

In 1887, Jonah married Elizabeth Eastment, who was twenty-seven years younger than him and had three illegitimate children under the age of ten. Over the next four years, they had three children together: Frank, Gilbert and Mabel, though only Frank survived infancy.

Death

Jonah died on 19 March 1892 from a stroke at the age of 63.[13] Elizabeth died on 1 April 1893 from tuberculosis at the age of 36.[14]

Children’s lives

John and his first wife had three sons and two daughters. Their son, Edwin, stayed at Hardington Moor, working as a carter and later as a roadman. Albert went on to own a cab business in Sutton Coldfield, while John emigrated to Canada in 1909. Their daughter, Charlotte, married John Wethey Partridge, a Hardington labourer, and their daughter, Sarah Ann, married Austin Chick, a Pendomer farmer.

With his second wife, John had two sons and one daughter. Their son, Frank, ran a business making poultry appliances at Martock. The other two children died in infancy.