Introduction
Joseph Parsons Partridge ran the Royal Oak public house at Hardington Moor from about 1864 until his death in 1904, combining his role as a pub landlord with farming. His children included James, who later became the pub’s landlord, Susan, who married Walter White, Jane, who married Walter’s brother, Theophilus, and Rose, who married her second cousin, George William Partridge.
Childhood
Joseph Parsons Partridge was born at Hardington on 26 July 1839, the third of eight children born to Abraham and Susan Partridge.[1] His parents lived in Lyatts Lane (plot 82 in the tithe survey), and his father was a weaver who later became a farm labourer and sheep skin dealer.
In 1862, after Joseph had left home, his father was fined £3 and costs for selling cider without a licence. One of the magistrates who presided over the case remarked that the proceedings at Partridge’s house were disgraceful. On Sundays, a man would be put in the chair, and those present would caricature church services. [2] This pantomime, if accurately reported, was probably driven by drink and high spirits rather than religious dissent. For what it is worth, Abraham had most of his children baptised in infancy at Hardington church. The exceptions were Joseph, who was baptised at the age of five, and Jane, who was baptised at the age of three. [3]
By the age of 12, Joseph was working as a farm labourer.
Marriage
On 7 February 1860, Joseph married Louisa Saint at Hardington, just three weeks after her father’s death. At the time, Joseph was 20 years old, and Louisa was 19. By April 1861, they were living at Hardington Moor, with Louisa’s maternal grandmother, Mary Delamont. Joseph worked as a farm labourer while Louisa was a dressmaker.[4] Their first child, James Saint, was born on 15 December 1860.[5]
Occupations
Joseph probably began his married life as a farm labourer.[6] However, when Louisa registered the births of their first two children, she recorded Joseph’s occupation as farmer, suggesting he was a smallholder by then.[7]
Around 1864, Joseph opened a beerhouse, later known as the Royal Oak, alongside his farming activities. His son James told a Yeovil court in 1910 that the family had been licensees for forty-six years, suggesting Joseph began in 1864. [8] This matches the occupation of “innkeeper” recorded on the birth certificate of his third child in February 1865.[9]
The “Royal Oak” name was not new to Hardington. In July 1854, Edward Hopkins of the Royal Oak Inn, Hardington, advertised a marquee to let; in May 1860, a labourer named James Rendall was refused entry to the Royal Oak Inn by the landlady, but later fell and fractured his skull after entering the kitchen; and in November 1861, an inquest, was held at the Royal Oak.[10] Whether Joseph’s house occupied the same building or simply adopted a popular, patriotic pub name is uncertain; by the late 19th century, “Royal Oak” was among the most common pub names in England.
Joseph’s first recorded legal trouble as a publican came on 3 November 1869, when he was fined 10s, plus 6s costs, for having his beerhouse open at 10:30 p.m. on 9 October, with sixteen people present and a quart of beer on the table.[11]
By June 1871, “Host Partridge of the Royal Oak” was providing dinners for the village club on their annual club day.[12] He catered for them again in 1877, 1890, 1893, 1894, and every year from 1896 to 1899. [13]
In addition to running the pub, Joseph also ran a farm. In 1890, he advertised a dairy of 14 cows to let, and in 1903, he occupied 75 acres.[14] Such dual occupations were typical for rural beerhouse keepers, whose agricultural income often supplemented precarious pub earnings.
Children
By April 1871. Joseph and Louisa had five children living at home; another five followed over the next twelve years.
The period from 1874 to 1880 was particularly difficult for the family, as three children died. Francis, born on 24 September 1871, died from scarlet fever on 15 November 1874.[15] Seventeen months later, on 31 March 1876, Harriet died of heart disease at the age of thirteen.[16] Lastly, Louisa was diagnosed with tabes mesenterica (tuberculous disease of the mesenteric glands) in 1878, and she died on 29 August 1880 at the age of three.[17]
By April 1881, James had left home for Godshill on the Isle of Wight, not returning until 1902 or 1903.[18]
By April 1891, Joseph junior was a dairyman at Parsonage Farm, Pendomer, with his sister, Elizabeth, as his housekeeper.
The first of the children to marry was Susan in 1890, followed by Jane in 1900 and Rose in 1905. Two other daughters married in their forties, while the two sons remained single.
Death
Joseph died on 4 May 1904 from heart disease at the age of 64.[19] The probate record described him as a beer retailer with an estate valued at £265. He left his entire estate to Louisa, who took over running the pub and farm.[20] She died on 17 January 1911 from a cerebral haemorrhage at the age of 70.[21]
Children
Joseph and Louisa had ten children:
1860- James Saint (became a baker at Godshill; later returned to Hardington and took over the family farm and pub; never married; died in 1938);
1863- Harriet (died from heart disease at the age of 13);
1865- Joseph (became a dairyman; resided at Hardington and Pendomer; died in 1905);
1867- Susan (married Walter White in 1890; resided at Hatch Beauchamp and Hardington; died in 1956);
1868- Elizabeth (worked as a housekeeper at Pendomer, South Petherton and Fordingbridge; married Percy William Turner, a farmer, in 1918; lived near Wimborne; died 1949);
1871- Francis (died from scarlet fever at the age of 3);
1874- Jane (became a schoolteacher; married Theophilus White in 1900; resided at Grove Farm, Hardington Marsh; died in 1944)
1876- Louisa (died from tabes mesenterica at the age of 3);
1881- Rose Harriet Louisa (married George William Partridge, a stonemason and later a farmer and innkeeper, in 1905; resided at Hardington and Corton Denham; died in 1935);
1883- Ethel Mary (married Henry George Partridge, a farm labourer disabled in the First World War, in about 1927; resided at Hardington; died 1956).
References
[1] Family list of births and deaths.
[2] Sherborne Mercury, 11 March 1862, p.5.
[3] Joseph was baptised with his younger brother, Abraham, at Hardington church on 2 February 1845. Abraham’s birth was registered in the third quarter of 1844.
[4] The 1881 census recorded Louisa as a dressmaker and her daughter, Susan as a dressmaker’s apprentice.
[5] Birth certificate of James Saint Partridge.
[6] The 1861 census recorded his occupation as farm labourer, and the baptism register of 3 February 1861, as labourer.
[7] Birth certificate of James Saint Partridge; birth certificate of Harriet Partridge.
[8] Western Chronicle 6 May 1910 p. 8; Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser 11 May 1910 p.5.
[9] Birth certificate of Joseph Partridge.
[10] Sherborne Mercury, 4 July 1854, p.2; Bridgwater Mercury, 6 June 1860, p.8; Weymouth Telegram, 21 November 1861, p.4.
[11] Western Gazette 5 November 1869 p. 8. The newspaper report gives Joseph’s surname as Parbridge.
[12] Western Gazette 16 June 1871, p. 5.
[13] Western Gazette, 15 June 1877, p. 8; 13 June 1890, p.7; Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 20 June 1903, p.8; 19 June 1894, p.5; Western Chronicle, 19 June 1896, p.6; Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 22 June 1897, p.6; 21 June 1898, p.6; 20 June 1899, p.6.
[14] Western Gazette 19 December 1890 p. 4.
[15] Death register of Francis Partridge.
[16] Death certificate of Harriet Partridge.
[17] Death certificate of Louisa Partridge.
[18] Isle of Wight County Press, 8 November 1902, p.7; Western Gazette, 27 March 1903, p.7.
[19] Death certificate of Joseph Partridge; Western Gazette, 6 May 1904, p.12.
[20] The will of Joseph Partridge, dated 26 April 1904, proved at Taunton on 24 February 1905.
[21] Death certificate of Louisa Partridge; Western Gazette, 27 January 1911, p.3.
