Introduction
Born in Charminster in 1811, George White, the son of a labourer, entered domestic service and worked for several years as a servant at East Chinnock Rectory. Later, he secured a position as a gardener at Hardington Rectory. In 1848, he purchased a cottage in Barry Lane, Hardington, for £115, which he owned until 1870. In the late 1850s, George left Hardington and moved to Merriott, where he continued to work as a gardener into his eighties.
Childhood at Charminster
George was born on 14 January 1811 at Forston, Charminster, the second child of John and Sarah White.[1] His father, John, was a labourer.[2]
Servant at East Chinnock
In 1841, George was a servant at East Chinnock Rectory in the service of Rev. Charles Smith Coxwell. Another servant in the household was Marianne Feaver Lake, a native of Evershot. She had probably entered service with Coxwell when he was a curate at Evershot and then moved with him to East Chinnock in 1840 when he took up his duties as rector there.[3]
In May 1845, Coxwell’s wife died, which may have prompted Marianne to move to Hardington Rectory to enter the service of Rev. Henry Helyar. George, meanwhile, remained at East Chinnock until after they married.
Gardener at Hardington
George and Marianne married at Hardington on 24 February 1846. On 9 December 1847, George agreed to buy a cottage in Barry Lane from Henry Sandiford for £115, of which £50 would be paid to Dennis Farnham to repay the capital and interest due to him under a mortgage on the property. On 15 June 1848, Henry Sandiford assigned the property to George for the remainder of a term of one thousand years.[4] How George managed to raise £115 is unclear.
George and Marianne then moved into the cottage, situated in the Barry Lane dip. While living there, they had two children: William and Frances Elizabeth.
At the time of the 1851 census, their household comprised George, Marianne, their two children, Marianne’s illegitimate son, Henry Lake, and Sarah Delamont, a sixty-seven-year-old widow who was probably a lodger.
On 24 June 1856, George Witnessed the codicil to Helyar’s will, and on 8 January 1857, he signed an affidavit concerning the validity of that codicil.[5]
Gardener at Merriott
In April 1861, George was a gardener living at the vicarage in Merriott, but his wife and two children remained in the Barry Lane cottage.[6] He may have moved to Merriott after Rev. William Vassall succeeded Rev. Henry Helyar at Hardington Rectory in 1857.[7]
On 31 October 1870, George assigned his Barry Lane cottage to Rev William Vassall for £75, which was 35% less than he paid for it.[8]
By April 1871, George and his wife lived at Merriott, where George was a groom and gardener at the vicarage. Marianne was not at home on census night and may have been serving as a nurse at a farm in Yeovil.[9] Their son, William, was a butler at Clifton and their daughter, Frances, was a dressmaker in Yeovil.
By April 1881, George and Marianne had moved to Edgwood House, Merriott. By April 1891, they lived in a four-room house next to the Vicarage in Church Street, with George continuing his work as a gardener although he was 80 by then.
Death
George may have died in 1891, aged 79, and Marianne in 1896, aged 84. If the relevant entries are correct, they died in the Barton Regis registration district, probably at the home of their son, William, in Morley Street, Bristol.
Children
George and Marianne had two children:
1847- William (became a butler at Clifton; married Sarah Turner, a cook in a lodging house on Sion Hill, at Clifton in 1871; became a grocer and beer house keeper in Morley Street, Bristol; died in 1937);
1850-Frances Elizabeth (married Onesiphoros William Durston at Merriott in 1878; he was a seaman who rose to become a Master at Arms; they resided at Stoke Damerel, Falmouth and Stratton; she died in 1951).
Marianne’s illegitimate son
Marianne had an illegitimate son named Henry F Lake, born at Newport on the Isle of Wight in about 1833. He lived with George and Marianne in 1851, but his later whereabouts are unknown.
References
[1] Charminster baptism register.
[2] Baptism entries for George’s younger siblings, Rebecca, Samuel and Henry.
[3] Dorset County Chronicle, 19 December 1839, p.4. Coxwell was appointed rector of East Chinnock in 1839 but did not commence his duties until the spring of 1840 (East Chinnock burial register).
[4] The title deeds of Laurel Cottage. Barry Lane, Hardington.
[5] The will of Rev Henry Helyar, dated 26 April 1855, and codicil, dated 24 June 1856, proved in London on 31 January 1857; George White’s affidavit, dated 8 January 1857.
[6] The 1861 census recorded Marianne’s occupation as a needlewoman.
[7] George’s employer at Merriott, Rev James Higdon Evans, moved to Merriott in 1856 (Dorset County Chronicle, 31 January 1856, p.6).
[8] The title deeds of Laurel Cottage, Barry Lane, Hardington.
[9] RG10, piece 2417, folio 36, p.8: Mary Ann White, mar, 56, Nurse. However, the place of birth is recorded as Lovington, Somerset.
