Introduction

George White was a prominent figure in Hardington from the 1870s to the 1930s. He ran his own business as a carpenter and master builder, securing contracts over a wide area. He was also active in parish affairs, being both popular and respected. George served as one of the village’s first parish councillors and presided over meetings to organise future elections. Sadly, his wife died at the young age of 43, and he spent forty years as a widower, passing away in 1938 at the age of 88.

Childhood

George was born at Hardington in July 1850. His parents, William and Emma White, had married at the South Street Chapel, Yeovil, on 11 May 1850. Soon after, his father took on the tenancy of Romsey Farm, Hardington, a remote holding in the southern part of the parish.

The 1861 census shows George as a ten-year-old schoolboy living with his grandparents, Thomas and Mary Guppy, at Hardington Moor. Ten years later, he still resided with them, suggesting they played a significant role in his upbringing.

Marriage

On 5 December 1872, George married Jane Partridge at Hardington church. Jane was the youngest child of Abraham and Susan Partridge, who lived at Lyatts and farmed a smallholding of 24 acres.[1]

Residence

In 1880, George qualified to vote because he occupied a house at Hardington Moor. From 1888 onwards, he owned the freehold of that property.[2]

Occupations

George’s closeness to the Guppy family probably influenced his decision to pursue carpentry as a career, as three of his Guppy uncles were carpenters. Samuel, the oldest of the three, ran a carpentry and building business at West Coker from about 1858 to the 1880s, and George may have trained with him. By his mid-twenties, George had his own business, which was listed in a trade directory.[3]

George’s only son, George Walter, joined his father when he left school in the 1880s. By June 1921, George Walter’s two eldest sons, William and Sidney, also worked in the family business.

By the 1890s, George was undertaking building projects far from home. In 1890, he advertised for five or six carpenters and joiners for a project on a farm at Castle Neroche, located twenty miles west of Hardington, offering liberal wages and winter work.[4] The following summer, he sought four or five walling masons for a job at Spalsbury Farm, Uplowman, Devon, which was forty miles from Hardington.[5]

George occasionally undertook work for Hardington parish council. In 1898, he offered to build the parish bier house for £14 10s, which was accepted.[6] He also volunteered to paint the roof inside and out free of charge.[7] In February 1910, the parish council asked him to put new rails on stiles in the parish.[8]  In July 1924, they accepted his tender of £2 to repair a river footbridge on a path from Hardington Marsh to Haselbury.[9]

In addition to working as a carpenter, William carried on a dairy business. On 10 February 1891, owing to its decline, he organised a sale of his farm stock and equipment, which included cows, bulls, pigs, a cheese press and a two-horse putt.

Parish offices

In the 1890s, George was a dominant figure in parish affairs. In December 1894, he was one of five men elected to Hardington’s first parish council and presided over its inaugural meeting.[10] In March 1896, he chaired a meeting at the schoolroom to elect parish councillors but did not stand himself.[11] He presided over similar meetings in March 1898 and March 1899.[12]

He was appointed overseer in 1896, 1911 and 1914.[13]

Chapel

George and his family were active members of the chapel. He lent an organ for a concert at the chapel on Boxing Day 1901.[14] In July 1902, he and Mr Taylor of Marsh Farm lent wagons to take the chapel Sunday School children on an outing to Ham Hill.[15] The following year, the annual treat was held in George’s field in Barry Lane.[16]

Family life

George and Jane had three children within seven years of their marriage, followed by a fourth, Florence, in 1892. When their eldest daughter, Jane Elizabeth, was about 14, she began to show symptoms of tuberculosis. Although she lived for another eighteen years, her declining health must have weighed heavily on the family.

The family faced further tragedy when Jane died from a stroke on 9 April 1898, aged 43.  The 1901 census shows George living at Hardington Moor with all four of his children still at home. George Walter married in 1901 and Susan Emma in 1906. Jane Elizabeth eventually succumbed to her long-term illness in 1907. Two years later, when she was only 17, Florence became pregnant by a village lad, William Delamont, and the couple married in April 1910, when she was four months pregnant. After Florence’s marriage, George lived alone and never remarried. However, all three of his children and four of his siblings lived in the village, and his mother, Emma, lived nearby until her death in 1915.[17] Towards the end of his life, George lived at Ivy Cottage, Hill End, probably with Florence and her husband.

Property

From 1903 to 1915, William rented about six acres in Partway Lane and six acres in Barry Lane. In 1920, he occupied about 17 acres in Hardington belonging to the Portman estate.

Death and will

George died on 17 December 1938, aged 88, leaving an estate valued at £930-14s-6d.

He appointed his brother, Theophilus White, as his executor and trustee, instructing him to sell all his lands and houses and divide the proceeds equally between his three children.[18]

Children

1872-George Walter (became a carpenter; married Ellen Florence Leach Partridge in 1901; died in 1948);

1875-Jane Elizabeth (became her father’s housekeeper; died from tuberculosis in 1907);

1879-Susan Emma (became a teacher at Hardington school; married her cousin Francis Henry Hawkins in 1906; died in 1952);

1892-Florence Frances Mary (married William George Delamont, a bricklayer, in 1910; lived at Hill End; died in 1979).

References

[1] 1871 census.

[2] Hardington voters’ lists.

[3] 1875 Trade Directory. The 1891 census shows George’s status as “employed”, but this must be a mistake.

[4] Western Gazette, 28 November 1890, p.4.

[5] Western Gazette, 28 August 1891, p.4.

[6]  Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 13 September 1898, p.7; Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 27 September 1898, p.6.

[7] Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 17 January 1899, p. 4.

[8] Western Chronicle, 4 March 1910, p. 5.

[9] Western Chronicle, 11 July 1924, p. 11.

[10] Western Gazette, 7 December 1894, p. 7; 21 December 1894, p.6.

[11] Western Chronicle, 3 April 1896, p.6.

[12] Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 22 March 1898, p.7; 7 March 1889, p. 6.

[13] Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 21 April 1896, p.6; Western Gazette, 28 April 1911, p. 4; Western Chronicle, 24 April 1914, p. 6.

[14] Western Chronicle, 3 January 1902, p. 5.

[15] Western Chronicle, 25 July 1902, p. 5.

[16] Western Chronicle, 17 July 1903, p. 8.

[17] George’s siblings, Frances, William, Walter, and Theophilus, lived in the village; in her widowhood, Emma White lived with her daughter, Frances, the wife of John Henry Hawkins.

[18] The will of George White, dated 16 June 1937, proved at Bristol on 24 March 1939.