Introduction

George Purchase’s life illustrated how even the family of a skilled craftsman were vulnerable to incarceration in a workhouse. The 1841 census recorded him as a stonemason living in Barry Lane, Hardington, with his wife, Edith, and their five children. However, within a few years, their lives took a tragic turn. Edith and their children were compelled to enter the Yeovil workhouse, where both she and their son, Giles, died. What happened to George during this time is unclear, but by April 1861, he was running a junk shop at West Coker, helped by his oldest daughter, Susan. He died in 1869.

Childhood at West Coker

George was born at West Coker in about 1807, the son of Thomas and Ann Purchase.

Life at Hardington

On 9 April 1829, George married Edith Bartlett at Hardington. Edith was the youngest child of Edward and Sarah Bartlett. Her father was a yeoman.

George and Edith lived at Hardington for about four years.

Life at Halstock

The couple then moved to Halstock, where they lived from about 1833 to 1838. During this time, George continued to work as a stonemason.

Return to Hardington

By June 1841, they had returned to Hardington and lived in Barry Lane.

Crisis

During the following dozen years, the family faced hardship and grief. Their poverty was so great that Edith and their children entered the Yeovil workhouse. Edith died there from rheumatism on 12 February 1843, aged 36.[1]

By March 1851, their two youngest children, Mahala and Giles, were still living in the workhouse. Tragically, Giles died there in 1853 at the age of 10.

Widowhood

George has not been found on the census of 1851.

In April 1861, he was a “marine store dealer” (or junk dealer) at West Coker Street, West Coker.

Death

George died in August 1869, aged 62.

Children

George and Edith had seven children.

Circa 1829-Susan (never married; had an illegitimate son in 1852; housekeeper to her brother Alfred at Winchester in April 1871; later kept a boarding house at Southampton; died in 1897);

Circa 1831-Alfred Bartlett (married at Winchester in September 1852 and became a whitesmith in that city; died in 1885);

Circa 1833- Ann (died in 1842, aged 9);

Circa 1835- George (possibly died in childhood);

Circa 1836-Joseph (a baker’s apprentice at Yeovil in March 1851; later whereabouts unknown);

1838-Mahala Bartlett (married Frederick Wilkinson, a master tailor, in 1880; died in Southampton in 1905);

1841- Giles Bartlett (died in the Yeovil workhouse in 1853).

References

[1] Death certificate