Introduction
Abraham Partridge spent his life at Hardington Moor, where he worked mainly as a farm labourer and at times as a lime burner. He and his wife, Joan Churchill, raised a large family at Lyatts. Several of their sons later emigrated to Australia, while their daughter Sarah became an innkeeper.
Childhood
Abraham was born at Hardington in around 1781, the fourth of five children born to Moses and Mary Partridge.
Married life
On 11 June 1805, Abraham married Joan Churchill at Hardington Church. Both were about 24 years old. Abraham was able to sign his name, while Joan made her mark.
Between 1805 and 1829, they had ten children, one of whom died in infancy.
The family also suffered the early deaths of two daughters in the 1830s: Elizabeth, who died in 1831 at the age of 25, and Edith, who died in 1833 aged 27.
In 1816, an estate survey noted that Abraham was building a “respectable cottage” on a plot at Oil Moor. By the time of the 1843 tithe survey, he was recorded as occupying a house and garden at Lyatts (plot 82), along with an allotment at Cold Harbour, which was a field in the parish divided into strips for cultivation.
Abraham worked mainly as a farm labourer, but the 1841 census listed him as a lime burner. Lime burning was a seasonal and arduous occupation that produced quicklime for improving acidic soils.
By 1841, three of Abraham’s sons had married, leaving three sons and one daughter still living at home.
Death
Abraham died a few months after the census, on 18 June 1841, at the age of 60.[1] His death certificate gave the cause as inflammation of the lungs — a condition consistent with the hazards of heavy agricultural work and exposure to lime dust.
Joan’s later life
After Abraham’s death, Joan remained at Lyatts with her four youngest children. Gradually, they left home: William married in 1844, Sarah in 1845, and Richard in 1849. Richard and his wife continued to live with Joan, but in 1849, three of her other sons left for Australia.[2]
Joan herself died in September 1851 at the age of 70. Within a few years, Richard and his family also emigrated, departing for Australia in 1854.[3]
References
[1] Death certificate of Abraham Partridge.
[2] New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896.
[3] New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896.
