Childhood

Lazarus faced severe challenges in his childhood.

Born at West Coker in about 1835, he was the illegitimate son of Harriet Burt, who already had an illegitimate daughter, Emily. Lazarus was baptised at West Coker and his mother’s home parish of Pendomer.

Lazarus’s mother, Harriet, was the illegitimate daughter of Ann Burt of Pendomer. In 1833, Ann Burt married Thomas Bailey of Hardington. Thomas and Ann Bailey raised Harriet’s two children while Ann worked away in domestic service. Lazarus’s sister, Emily, died in 1844, aged 14, his maternal grandmother in 1858 and his mother in 1860.

First marriage

In 1858, following the death of his maternal grandmother, Lazarus married Elizabeth Pike of East Chinnock. Elizabeth was the daughter of Charles Pike, a farm labourer. Lazarus and Elizabeth established their first home in the High Street at Hardington.

Occupations

Lazarus began working as a farm labourer, following the same occupation as his grandfather, Thomas Bailey.

The construction of the railway through the parish opened up new opportunities for Lazarus. By April 1861, he was one of sixteen men in the village employed as railway packers. However, he did not stay in this role for long. By April 1871, he was a farm labourer. Ten years later, while still a labourer, he also ran a general shop with his wife.

Death of first wife

His wife, Elizabeth, died on 2 May 1884, aged only forty-eight.

Second marriage

Lazarus soon began a new relationship with Caroline Mann, who lived at East Chinnock with her daughter, Alice. Although she was the daughter of an East Chinnock farm labourer, she had led an unconventional life in London and Winchester.

Second wife’s scandalous past

As a young woman, Caroline went to London and found employment as a servant in a coffee house at 39 High Street, St Giles. Her employers were William Cattle Mann and his wife, Elizabeth. William was a disreputable figure who had fathered at least two children with another woman since his marriage. By April 1861, Caroline was pregnant with William’s child. William’s wife presumably moved out, and William and Caroline remained at the coffee house until 1863, when they moved to the Bakers Arms, Winchester.[1] William and Caroline had two children in London and two in Winchester. Their only son, William, died at Winchester in October 1870, aged seven.[2] Their two-year-old daughter, Lucy, died in the same quarter.

William Mann’s business dealings extended beyond the inn. In 1868, he took a three-year lease on some land to make bricks.[3] However, production stopped in June, and in April 1869, he advertised the brickyard to let.[4] The lack of demand for his bricks probably forced him to sell at least 12,000 bricks to the site owner at a knockdown price.[5]

In January 1872, William Mann left the Bakers Arms.[6] His wife petitioned for a divorce three months later. However, the legal papers do not record one being granted.[7] William remained in Winchester and became a coal merchant. He died there on 23 May 1881, aged 59, after a long and painful illness.[8] He left an estate valued at £1,107-11s-8d gross and £656 7s 1d net. He bequeathed £25 to his nurse, £50 to his natural daughter, Emma, £50 and the residue to his natural daughter, Dora. He left nothing to Caroline or her two daughters.[9]

Caroline must have returned to her home parish of East Chinnock even before William died. She called herself Mrs Mann, but there is no evidence that she and William were ever married.

Landlord of Butcher’s Arms, Yeovil

Lazarus married Caroline Mann in the second quarter of 1885, and straightaway, he took on the tenancy of the Butchers Arms Inn, Hendford, Yeovil. The evidence regarding the tenancy is a court case of 3 August 1886 in which the police prosecuted Lazarus for serving a female customer with intoxicating liquor when she was drunk. His solicitor, Sidney Watts, told the court that Lazarus came from Hardington thirteen months ago and was of excellent character.[10]

Tragic death of second wife

Unfortunately, their life together was cut tragically short. On the evening of 9 October 1891, while returning from a visit to her sister at East Chinnock, Caroline’s cart was hit by another vehicle as it descended Hendford Hill. Caroline was thrown into the road and suffered severe head injuries, from which she died at Yeovil Hospital early the following morning.[11] She was fifty-eight years old.

The Yeovil magistrates committed John Mitchell, the other vehicle’s driver, to trial at the autumn assizes. There, the jury decided that although Mitchell had displayed a certain amount of negligence, it was not enough to convict him.[12]

Caroline died intestate, leaving an estate valued at £416-13s-9d. The Taunton Probate Registry granted the powers of administration to Lazarus, who may have inherited the whole estate depending on the intestacy rules of the time.

Lazarus could not continue at the Baker’s Arms without her support and expertise. A few weeks after her death, he quit the inn, holding a public auction of his furniture and effects on Tuesday, 17 November.[13] He transferred the licence to William Sansom, the husband of Caroline’s daughter, Alice.[14]

Third marriage

Lazarus’s life was not over. In 1897, he married Sarah Bishop. By March 1901, they lived at Rusty Well, Yeovil, and Lazarus was living on his own means.

Death

Lazarus died at Rusty Well on 14 August 1906, aged 70, leaving effects valued at £720-13s-2d gross and £60 12s net.[15]

Will

Lazarus Burt appointed his sons, Albert and William Giles, executors and trustees.

He instructed them to convert his real and personal estate into money, invest the proceeds and pay his wife 8s per week for life for her sole and separate use. On her death, he left £35 in equal shares to Emily and Alice, the daughters of his late wife, Caroline, and the residue to his four children, Albert, Henry, William Giles and Emily Jane, equally. He instructed them not to call in the loan at 3.5% interest to his son, Albert, so long as Albert paid the interest and, when his wife died, to set £200 against the share of the residue to which Albert was entitled.

Wit: Wm Marsh, solicitor, Yeovil

Henry Fort, his clerk.

Children

1860 Charles (died in infancy)

1862 Alfred Charles (died in Yeovil, aged 26)

1864 Albert (became a boot and shoe dealer in Lichfield)

1865 Henry (became a gas works foreman in Colchester)

1867 William Giles (became the landlord of the Three Boars’ Heads Inn, Lydlinch)

1872 Emily Jane (married a Lichfield Brewery Clerk)

References

[1] Hampshire Advertiser, 26 December 1863, p.11.

[2] Hampshire Chronicle, 22 October 1870, p.5.

[3] Hampshire Advertiser, 27 February 1869, p.11.

[4] Hampshire Advertiser, 27 February 1869, p.11; Hampshire Chronicle, 17 April 1869, p.1.

[5] Hampshire Advertiser, 27 February 1869, p.11.

[6] Hampshire Independent, 3 February 1872, p.8.

[7] Civil Divorce Records 1858-1918. Elizabeth Mann accused her husband of cruelty, assault and adultery with numerous women, including Caroline, who she called Catherine. Her evidence is not wholly reliable as she accused her husband of cohabiting with someone named Ann Brown from September 1853 to August 1861, when the 1861 census shows William living with his wife on 7 April 1861. She may have painted William blacker than he was to help secure a divorce.

[8] Hampshire Chronicle, 28 May 1881, p.5.

[9] The will of William Cattle Mann, dated 20 April 1881, proved at the Principal Registry on 1 November 1881.

[10] Western Gazette, 6 August 1886, p.6.

[11] Western Gazette, 16 October 1891, p.3

[12] Western Chronicle, 27 November 1891, p.5.

[13] Western Gazette, 17 November 1891, p.1.

[14] Western Gazette, 6 November 1891, p.5.

[15] The will of Lazarus Burt, dated 13 April 1901, proved in London on 14 September 1906.