Introduction
Job Eastment served with the Royal Marines from 1867 to 1888. After leaving the Marines, he lived with his sister, Harriet, first at Hardington and then at High Ham and Langport. Their relationship was unconventional, as Harriet had five illegitimate children.
Childhood
Job was born on 18 April 1847 at Hardington Marsh, the second of six children born to William and Elizabeth Eastment.[1] His father worked primarily as a farm labourer but was recorded as a railway labourer in the 1861 census. At that time, Job was listed as a ploughboy living at home with his parents at Hardington Marsh.
Military career
Job enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry on 18 April 1867.[2] At that time, he was 5 feet 5 inches tall with brown hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. The 1871 census recorded him aboard HMS Sealark, a training brig stationed off Drake Island, Plymouth, while the 1881 census listed him aboard HMS Warrior in Portland Roads. His service record lists his conduct as mostly good or very good.[3] He left the Marines on 21 November 1888.[4]
Return to civilian life
After his military service, Job returned to Hardington, where he lived at Rose Cottage with his sister, Harriet. On 4 January 1889, he placed an advertisement seeking work as a nightwatchman, horse driver or cow milker.[5]
Move to High Ham
His advertisement may have been successful, as Job and Harriet moved to a four-room house at Picts Hill, High Ham, later that year. The 1891 census recorded him as a farm labourer.
Harriet’s five children
Before Job left the Marines, Harriet had a daughter named Kate Beatrice, born on 30 September 1885. Harriet obtained an affiliation order against William Park for this child.[6] She subsequently had four more children, starting with Sidney William John, who was born in late 1889 at High Ham. Sidney died in June 1891, but the others survived. The 1891 and 1901 censuses are completed as if Job were the father of all the children.
Move to Langport
By April 1911, the family lived in a four-room house at Ham Down, Langport. The oldest daughter, Katie, married and left home in 1905, leaving three children at home. The 1911 census recorded Harriet as the head of the household, with Job listed after the children.
Death
Job died in 1916 at the age of 69.
Harriet’s later life
By June 1921, Harriet and her three children had moved to Ten Gore Lane, Huish Episcopi. She died in 1933 at the age of 76.
Her son, Sidney James, worked for Messrs. Kelway & Son, seed merchants, and married in about 1923. Her other two children, Ada and Gilbert, remained single.
References
[1] ADM 159/1/192 (records date of birth as 18 April 1848); Civil Registration Birth Index (birth registered Yeovil, Q1 1847); family reconstitution.
[2] ADM 159/1/192.
[3] ADM 159/1/192.
[4] ADM 159/1/192.
[5] Western Gazette, 4 January 1889, p.4.
[6] Western Chronicle, 26 November 1886, p.6.
