Introduction
Matthew Bartlett was the landlord of the New Inn, Hardington, from the 1850s until his death in 1877. Under his management, the house developed from a beerhouse into a recognised inn. He and his wife had six children who reached adulthood, including Francis, who emigrated to Australia, John, who joined the Royal Marines, Elizabeth, who ran a pub at Southampton with her husband, and Jane, who, along with her husband, took over running the New Inn after Matthew’s death.
Childhood
Matthew was born at Hardington around 1809, the fourth of eight children of Matthew and Elizabeth Bartlett. His father initially worked as a baker, a role he later combined with farming from the mid-1820s and running a beerhouse starting in 1830.[1]
In the 1820s, two of Matthew’s older sisters married into local farming families: Harriet married Dennis Farnham in 1820, and Sarah married Abraham Genge in 1824.
Early married life
On 21 February 1828, Matthew married Mary Ann Eastment at Hardington. Matthew was about 19, while Mary Ann was two years older. Both signed the marriage register.
Between 1828 and 1844, they had seven children.[2] The Hardington baptism register consistently described Matthew as a labourer. The 1841 census recorded the family living at Hardington Marsh with Mary Ann’s parents, Robert and Mary Eastment, but Matthew was away from home at that time. By 1843, he had secured a house, garden and orchard at Hardington Moor, which he rented from Lord Ilchester (plot 134 in the tithe survey), and the family was still there at the 1851 census.
Landlord of the New Inn
The death of Matthew’s father in December 1853 was a significant turning point.[3] Matthew appears to have taken over the beerhouse following his father’s death. His mother died on 18 February 1855, leaving behind a modest estate of “under 200,” of which Matthew received one-sixth.[4]
In September 1859, Matthew applied for a spirit licence, but the magistrates denied his request.[5] Three years later, he tried again, supporting his application with a petition signed by the leading inhabitants of the village and a letter from the parish doctor. This time, he was successful.[6] By securing the licence, Matthew enhanced the pub’s reputation and income. In June 1866, he and his daughter, Elizabeth Collins, provided a dinner for the village’s club day.[7]
The children leave home
The Bartlett children dispersed more widely than many local families of the period. Their eldest daughter, Elizabeth, had left home by the age of 13 and later lived in Dorchester, Greenwich and Southampton. Francis married in 1854 and emigrated to Australia that same year. John enlisted in the Royal Marines Artillery in 1860, serving for twenty-one years. By the time of the 1861 census, Robert and Christopher had also left, working as labourers in Southampton.
Only Jane, the second daughter, remained at home in 1861, accompanied by her nephew James Frances Collins, Elizabeth’s son. Jane married Henry Sandiford in 1864, and by 1871, James was serving an apprenticeship as a wheelwright at Martock. The census of that year recorded Matthew and Mary Ann living alone at the New Inn, apart from a labourer, George Purchase, who was described as a visitor.
Death
Matthew died on 30 November 1877, aged 68, after suffering from “senile gangrene of leg” for three months and ten days.[8] His daughter, Jane, returned from London to help care for him, and after his death, she and her husband took over running the inn. The licence may have formally been transferred to Mary Ann, as reports of Club Day from 1880 to 1883 referred to the hostess as Mrs Bartlett.[9]
Mary Ann herself died in January 1885 at the age of 77, leaving behind a small estate valued at £15-7s-6d, which Jane administered.
Children
Matthew and Mary Ann had seven children, one of whom died in childhood.
1828- Elizabeth Tamar (married James Collins, a blacksmith, in 1853; lived at Dorchester; widowed by April 1861; worked in Greenwich as a nurse; married Richard Joslin, an innkeeper, in 1870; resided at Southampton; died in 1916);
Circa 1830- Robert Matthew (married Susan Fox in 1860; lived briefly at Southampton with brother, Christopher, before moving to East Greenwich; by 1881, he lived in Yeovil, where he worked as a gardener; died in 1917);
Circa 1833- Francis William (married Elizabeth Partridge, the daughter of Abraham and Susan Partridge, in 1854 and emigrated to Australia the same year; died at West Maitland, New South Wales, in 1908);
Circa 1835- Jane Augusta (married Henry Sandiford in 1864; resided for several years in Bermondsey before returning to Hardington to run the New Inn with her husband; died in 1907);
1838- Christopher Thomas (lived at Southampton with his brother, Robert, and then in Bermondsey with his sister, Jane; married Ann Harwood in 1870; settled in Greenwich, where he worked in a chemical works and later as a watchman; died in about 1926);
1841- Mary Ann (died in infancy)
1844- John (served in the Royal Marines Artillery from 1860 to 1881; married Charlotte Partridge in 1881, but she died the following year; married Ann Pearson Belton in 1884; died in 1887 after falling from a ship.
References
[1] Hardington baptism register; Hardington jury lists; Sherborne Mercury,14 September 1852, p.2.
[2] The Hardington baptism register records the baptism of Amelia Bartlett, the daughter of Matthew and Mary Ann Bartlett. However, the civil registration birth records do not refer to the birth of an Amelia Bartlett in the Yeovil district with a mother whose maiden name was Eastment. Additionally, no other records suggest that Matthew and Mary Ann Bartlett had a daughter named Amelia. It is possible that the baptism entry was made in error and actually refers to Amelia Bartlett, the illegitimate daughter of Sarah Bartlett, who died on 27 April 1844 at the age of four.
[3] Death certificate of Matthew Bartlett.
[4] Death certificate of Elizabeth Bartlett; national probate register.
[5] Sherborne Mercury 13 September 1859, p. 5; 4 October 1859. p.5.
[6] Sherborne Mercury 9 September 1862. p.6; 30 September 1862, 6.
[7] Western Gazette, Friday, 22 June 1866, p.7.
[8] Death certificate of Matthew Bartlett.
[9] Western Gazette, 18 June 1880, p.6; 17 June 1881, p.5; 16 June 1882, p.6; 15 June 1883, p.6. The 1881 article refers to “Host and Hostess Bartlett”, which was probably a mistake.
