In April 1891, Edward Hayward, aged 68, was a stone mason living in North Lane.

Life at West Coker

Edward was born in West Coker in about 1823. His father, Edward, was a farm labourer, born in West Coker, and his mother, Susan, was also born in West Coker.

Edward appears to have been a mason for most of his adult life.

On 13 July 1846, at West Coker, he married Sarah Gould, the daughter of Richard Gould, a labourer.

Their early married life was spent in West Coker except for a brief interlude in 1848 when they lived in Vicarage Street, Yeovil. In March 1851, they lived in Chur Lane, and in April 1861, in West Coker Street.

Life in Kent

They moved to Kent sometime in the next ten years. In April 1871, they lived at 17 Range Road, Denton, near Gravesend, Kent.

Return to West Coker

By April 1881, Edward and Sarah had returned to West Coker village.

On 2 February 1883, Edward was fined 5s and 6s costs for allowing a horse to stray on the highway on Sunday, 22 April.[1]

Move to Hardington

Edward and Sarah moved to Hardington in about 1887 or 1888. From 1888 to 1893, Edward was on the Hardington voting lists for a freehold house in Broad Lane.

In February 1891, Edward was a witness in a poaching case. In the case, it was stated that he lived in a house 300 yards from Chur Lane and owned a field where rabbits were bred.[2]

The freehold house, coach house, and land (numbers 184, 189, and 190 on the tithe map) were sold by auction on 23 October 1894.[3]

Edward died on 11 May 1897, aged 73; Sarah died in April 1898, aged 70. They were interred at West Coker.

Children

Edward and Sarah had seven children, five of whom died in childhood, including a twenty-month-old daughter who died after spilling a cup of hot tea on her chest.[4]

Their eldest son, George Gould Hayward, followed in his father’s footsteps as a stone mason and was married in Settle, Yorkshire, in 1873. He may have worked on the Ribblehead Viaduct, built between 1869 and 1874. Their second son, Edward, also pursued a career as a mason, working at Denton in Kent in April 1871.

References

[1] Western Gazette, 4 May 1883, p.6.

[2] Western Gazette, 9 January 1891, p.6.

[3] Western Chronicle, 12 October 1894, p.1.

[4] Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 23 August 1859, p.2.