Introduction
Peter Hodges was a journeyman carpenter who moved to Hardington Moor with his family in about 1844, when he was in his mid-thirties. He had previously lived at Mudford, Marston Magna, and Ryme Intrinseca. He lived at Hardington for about eighteen years, during which time he served as the parish clerk. In about 1855, his house burned down, and he had to rebuild it. Following the death of his first wife in 1861, he remarried and moved to Ash, Martock, where he died in 1868. His two children pursued middle-class professional lives, which included time spent in India. The life of Peter’s second wife, Sophia, is interesting because she came from London and was married four times.
Early life
Peter was born at Mudford in about 1810, the sixth of seven children born to Jonathan and Eleanor Hodges. His father was a carpenter.
On 22 July 1834, Peter married Mary Ann Wilton at Ryme Intrinseca. She was his half-first cousin. His brother, George, had married Mary Ann’s sister, Betsy, the previous year.
By June 1841, Peter and Mary Ann lived at Camel Street, Marston Magna, where Peter worked as a carpenter—an occupation he continued throughout his life.
In late 1842 or early 1843, their first son, Edward, was born at Ryme Intrinseca.
Life at Hardington
Peter and his wife moved to Oil Moor in about 1844. Their daughter, Emily Ann, was born there on 5 January 1845.[1] In 1846, their son, Walter Wilton, was also born there, but sadly, he died in infancy.
At the Yeovil petty sessions held on 25 September 1847, John Hallett of Hardington and Betsy, his wife, were charged with assaulting Peter outside Hardington Church. The assault was in retaliation for Peter having flogged their son in the churchyard for misbehaving during service. The Magistrates ordered the Halletts to pay the costs and dismissed the case.[2] While the newspaper report referred to Peter as the schoolmaster of the parish, it is more likely that he was acting in his capacity as the parish clerk.
In March 1852, Peter complained to the magistrates that four labouring men of Hardington had threatened him with violence and unlawfully obstructed him while he was performing marriage duties as parish clerk. [3]
On 22 February 1854, Peter was present at the death of Harriet Galpin, an assistant in the village school, and he registered her death.[4]
In about 1855, Peter’s house burned down, and he had to rebuild it.[5] He could ill afford the expense, and in February 1857, a mason of Ham Hill, named Mitchell, sued him to recover money owed for the stone used in the rebuilding.[6]
In March 1861, John Glyde, a solicitor of Yeovil, advertised two properties at Hardington for sale or let. One was “a substantial freehold dwelling and offices, with a good garden and small orchard adjoining…in the occupation of Peter Hodges.” The other was “a freehold cottage, with orchard and garden adjoining…in the occupation of Frederick Burt.”[7]
In 1860, Peter’s wife, Mary Ann, became ill with tuberculosis. In 1861, she moved to her mother’s home at Galhampton, where she was cared for by her mother and her sister’s daughter, Mary A’Court. After a year of battling the disease, she died on 27 July 1861 at the age of 44.[8]
Peter is recorded on the 1862 voters’ list as the owner of a freehold house at Hardington Moor.
Second marriage
On 15 June 1862, Peter married Sophia Cheesewright at St John the Baptist Church, Hoxton. She was a widow from London, whom Peter had met while she worked as a cook in a private house on Pen Hill, Yeovil. Peter and Sophia both signed the marriage register, entering their address as Haberdasher Street.
Sophia, the daughter of a baker named John Kleinhen, was born in Bethnal Green in about 1818. Her maiden name suggests German heritage. In 1837, Sophia married Ebenezer Cheesewright, a baker, but he died in 1850. After his death, she lived with her unmarried sister, Mary Ann Kleinhen, in Limehouse, where she worked as a general dealer.
After their marriage, Peter and Sophia lived briefly at Sherborne before moving to Ash, Martock, where Peter rented a house, workhouse, and garden, continuing his carpentry trade.[9] He also served as the parish clerk.[10]
Peter may have chosen to live at Ash because his first wife’s sister, Anna A’Court, lived in East Street, Martock, where her husband, Charles, was a blacksmith.
Peter died at Ash on 30 September 1868, at the age of 57, leaving effects valued at under £100. He bequeathed £25 and one-third of his household furniture—or equivalent value—to Sophia, with the remainder going to his brother, Thomas Hodges, to hold in trust for Peter’s son and daughter.[11]
The auctioneer, Stephen Harris, sold Peter’s stock-in-trade, furniture and effects by auction on the premises on 9 March 1869.[12]
Sophia’s later life
Sophia married twice more. On 24 January 1870, she married James Collins, a widower, at St John’s Church, Yeovil. The marriage register gives her address as Queen Street, Yeovil. They lived in James’s home town of Milborne Port, where he worked as a basket maker and later as a carrier. He died in August 1885 at the age of 64.
On 21 June 1886, Sophia married Joseph Robinson, also a widower, at Milborne Port. Joseph was a retired licensed victualler who was born in Potto, Yorkshire. The 1891 census shows Joseph and Sophia living at Knap Cottage, Rosemary Street, Milborne Port. Joseph died in 1894 at the age of 81, and by March 1901, Sophia was a patient in Wincanton Workhouse. She died in 1906 at the age of 87.
Children
Peter Hodges’s son, Edward, qualified as a civil engineer and worked in India, where he died in 1892. Peter’s daughter, Emily, married in India in 1867 and later returned to England, where her husband served as the principal at private schools at St Helens on the Isle of Wight and Wembley.
References
[1] Birth certificate of Emily Ann Hodges. The Hardington baptism register states that she was baptised on 7 December 1844, but this date precedes her birth.
[2] Sherborne Mercury 2 October 1847 p. 3.
[3] Sherborne Mercury 9 March 1852 p. 2.
[4] Death certificate of Harriet Galpin.
[5] Sherborne Mercury, 17 February 1857, p.4.
[6] Sherborne Mercury, 17 February 1857, p.4.
[7] Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 5 March 1861, p.2.
[8] Death certificate of Mary Ann Hodges.
[9] Hardington voters’ list of 1862; Western Gazette, 5 March 1869, p.4.
[10] Western Gazette, 16 October 1868, p.5.
[11] The will of Peter Hodges, dated 6 November 1867, proved at the Principal Registry on 8 February 1869. Francis A’Court was one of the witnesses to the will.
[12] Western Gazette, 5 March 1869, p.4.
