Birth

Charles, the fourth child of Richard and Sarah Dodge, was born at Closworth in about 1797.

His father died in June 1823, aged about 62.

Marriage

On 1 September 1823, Charles married Ann Genge at Hardington by licence.

Ann was the daughter of John and Elizabeth Genge and the sister of Abraham Genge and Sarah Ingram.

Residence

Charles and Ann lived at Hardington.

The position of their household in the 1841 census enumeration book suggests Charles lived at Hill End.

In his will proved at Wells in 1842, Ann’s father, John Genge, directed his executor to let the house and orchard occupied by his daughter, Sarah Ingram, to Sarah and her sister, Ann Dodge, at the yearly rent of £5.[1]

The tithe survey recorded Charles Dodge and his sister-in-law, Sarah Ingram, as the owner-occupiers of a house and garden (number 319) and an orchard (number 320).

In March 1851, Charles and his wife, Ann, lived next door to John Bishop, a farmer of seventy acres.

Occupations

Charles was a farmer in the 1820s.

In the 1840s, he was a miller.[2]

By March 1851, Charles’s circumstances had declined, and he was a farm labourer.

Ann’s death

Ann died in November 1854, aged 56.

Charles’s later life

After his wife died, Charles left Hardington.

By April 1861, Charles lived at Catcott, boarding with the village postmistress and working as a farm labourer.

He became too infirm to support himself and entered the Yeovil Union, dying there in August 1866, aged 69. The authorities sent his body to Hardington for burial.

Children

Charles and Ann had three children:

Circa 1824-Albert, who became a cabman at Weymouth;

Circa 1826-Louisa, who married a Taunton blacksmith;

Circa 1829-Sidney, who became a coachman at Westbury on Trym.[3]

References

[1] The will of John Genge, dated 25 November 841, proved at Wells on 11 March 1842.

[2] The 1841 census, the marriage record of his daughter, Louisa, in 1847 and son, Albert, in 1853. The marriage record of his son, Sidney, in 1854 gives Charles’s occupation as a baker.

[3] Albert was either baptised twice or had an older brother of the same name who died in infancy.