Introduction

Giles Hodges was the tenant of Budge Farm in the High Street at Hardington for more than forty years, and his long tenure at a farm with such a central location contributed to his prominence as a notable figure in the village. Following the untimely death of his first wife, he applied himself to raising their large family mainly on his own. He was also active in parish affairs.

 Birth

Giles, the third child of Jonah and Mary Hodges, was born on 19 January 1835 at Seavington St Mary. His father, Jonah, was initially a farmer but experienced a decline in socio-economic status during the 1840s, becoming a farm labourer.

First marriage

On 3 January 1861, Giles married Mary Ann Paul, the widow of his cousin Thomas Paul, at St Marylebone Church in London. Mary Ann’s first husband had died of inflammatory fever and congestion of the lungs in 1858, aged 27, leaving her with two young sons, Edward and Giles.

After their marriage, Giles joined Mary Ann at Budge’s Farm, Hardington. By April 1861, he farmed 63 acres and employed one man and one boy.

Over the following seven years, Giles and Mary Ann had three sons and two daughters. Tragically, the physical toll of these pregnancies culminated in severe complications during Mary Ann’s final childbirth, leading to her death on 14 August 1868, at the age of 36, due to exhaustion. The loss of his wife thrust Giles into the demanding role of a single parent to seven children, including two stepchildren, a position he maintained for seven years before remarrying.

Second marriage

Giles’s second marriage occurred on 4 February 1875, when he married Eliza Beaman at St Mary Magdalene Church in Taunton. Eliza was the sister of Mary Ann Baker, who, along with her husband, Matthew, kept the Duke of Edinburgh Inn, a beer house between West Coker and Yeovil often frequented by Hardington people. Giles probably first met Eliza during visits to the inn on his way back from Yeovil.

Eliza and her sister came from the Essex village of Fairstead, where their father worked as a farm labourer until he died in 1869. Her sister probably came to Yeovil to work as a domestic servant before marrying Matthew Baker in 1857.  Before her marriage to Giles, Eliza had also worked as a domestic servant in and around London.

Interestingly, Eliza, out of vanity or self-interest, misrepresented her age from her thirties, adjusting it down by a decade. Although the Taunton marriage register records Giles’s age as 40 and Eliza’s as 39, Eliza was ten years older. This marriage lasted for twenty-three years until Eliza’s death on 30 June 1898.

Parish offices

Giles was actively engaged in parish matters, holding the position of overseer in 1863, 1873, 1874, 1884, and 1885.[1] In addition, he was appointed the parish’s poor law guardian in 1887 and 1888.^[2]

However, his attempts to obtain a place on the parish council proved unsuccessful. In December 1894, he withdrew rather than force a vote.[3] In March 1896, he was one of fourteen men who stood for five places but lost out.[4] His final attempt in 1898 yielded only nineteen votes, insufficient for election.[5]

Retirement

Giles organised a farm sale on 26 January 1905, followed by another on 14 February 1906, marking his retirement from farming.[6]

Death

Giles passed away on 6 September 1908 at his home in Hardington at the age of 73. His physician, Ptolemy Colmer of Yeovil, determined the cause of death as a cerebral haemorrhage accompanied by asthenia (generalised weakness). His son, Charles, travelled from Frome to be by his father’s side during his final moments.[7] Notably, Giles left no will, and the absence of a grant of letters of administration suggests that his estate was small.

Children

1861-Bessie (worked as a domestic servant in London; married James Atkinson, a widowed coachman, in 1893; died at Medstead, Hampshire, in 1914);

Circa 1863-Robert Bartlett (unmarried throughout his life; became a labourer at Frome);

Circa 1864-Marian (married Albert Zenthon, a London policeman);

1865-John (impounded Leonard Wakeley’s horse in 1890; later life details are unknown);

1867-Charles Bartlett (pursued a career as a butcher in Frome and married Annie Maria Wheeler).

References

[1] Western Gazette, 4 April 1863 p. 3; 4 April 1869 p. 5; 3 April 1874 p. 5; 7 April 1882 p. 5; 3 April 1885 p. 6.

[2] Western Gazette, 6 April 1888 p. 6.

[3] Western Gazette, 7 December 1894 p. 7.

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

[5] Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 12 April 1898 p.6.

[6] Western Gazette, 13 January 1905, p.1; 2 February 1906, p.1.

[7] Giles Hodges’s death certificate.