Birth
William, the second child of Robert and Amy Eastment, was born at Hardington in about 1824.
Occupations
William worked as a farm labourer for most of his life. However, the 1861 census records him as a railway labourer.
Marriage
On 4 February 1844, William married Elizabeth Gillingham at North Perrott. They were under 21, and Elizabeth was pregnant with their first child.[1]
Elizabeth was the daughter of James and Martha Gillingham. Three years earlier, she was a servant at White Vine Farm.
Residence
William and Elizabeth spent their entire married life together at Hardington Marsh.
Complex family structure
In April 1861, William and Elizabeth were raising a large family. with three sons and two daughters at home. Their oldest son, James, was a dairy boy at Hyde Dairy House, Sutton Bingham.
In 1867, this son, James, married Emma Higgins of Hardington. When Emma died in 1870, leaving two young daughters, James placed them in the care of his parents. Mary Ann, the older of the two girls , lived with her aunt, Harriet Eastment, by the age of twelve. The other one, Emily Kate, stayed longer with her grandparents, eventually entering domestic service in the 1880s.
In the late 1870s, William and Elizabeth’s older daughter, Elizabeth, had two illegitimate children while living with her parents. She had a third in 1886.
Somerset Lunatic Asylum
On 17 July 1884, William was admitted to the Somerset Lunatic Asylum, where he died on 15 October 1891, aged 64.
Elizabeth’s later life
Elizabeth’s older daughter, Elizabeth, married Jonah Delamont in 1887. She and her three children then joined him at Hardington Moor.
Elizabeth was then left by herself. In April 1891, she lived alone in a two-room house at Cobb Hill Lane, Hardington Marsh. Ten years later, she was still there.
Elizabeth probably died in 1902, aged about 78.[2]
Children
William and Elizabeth had four sons and two daughters.
References
[1] The child’s birth was registered in Q2 1844.
[2] The Civil Registration Death Index includes an entry for Elizabeth Eastment, Yeovil Q2 1902, aged 85. It should be noted that Elizabeth exaggerated her age after her husband’s death.