Introduction
This article traces the Oxenbury family over four generations, focusing on how capital accumulated through trade was subsequently redistributed within the family.
First generation
Lawrence Oxenbury (c.1793-1866), farmer and publican
Lawrence Oxenbury spent his life at Chideock, where he combined farming with keeping the Farmer’s Inn. In 1815, he married his first cousin, Ann Fooks, and they had eight children, though one died in infancy.[i] Although Lawrence was prominent in the parish, he accumulated little capital. He left a will and an estate valued at under £100, and probate was not obtained until nine years after his death.[ii]
His children followed varied paths. Lawrence worked as a farm labourer, while Mary Anne and Ellen both married farm labourers. The other four children were more entrepreneurial. Joseph became a miller and farmer at Chideock; John Charles Fooks moved to Sockety Farm in South Perrott; Charlotte married a butcher named Bernard Elliott and settled in Guernsey, where she later kept an inn; and Charles Fooks Oxenbury entered the grocery and baking trade.
References
[i] Chideock marriage register; family reconstitution.
[ii] National Probate Calendar.
Charles Fooks Oxenbury (1833-1912), baker and grocer
Second generation
Charles Fooks Oxenbury, known as Fooks, was the youngest son of Lawrence and Ann. By 1851, he was working as a baker’s apprentice in Sidwell Street, Exeter, where he remained for about two years. He then moved to Guernsey, probably helped by his aunt, Charlotte Elliott. There, he met Susannah Jane Wheadon, whom he married in 1863.[i]
After their marriage, Fooks returned with Susannah to Chideock and established a grocery and bakery business.[ii] They had three sons: twins, Charles Wheadon and George Wheadon, born around 1865 (the first twin died in infancy), and Walter James, born in 1867.
In 1873, Fooks and Susannah’s relationship came under some strain when John Orchard, the landlord of the Farmer’s Inn, accused Fooks of behaving amorously towards his wife. Orchard became so threatening that Fooks complained to the local police constable, and the “curious case”, as the Bridport News called it, was heard by the Bridport magistrates. During the proceedings, Harriet Orchard testified that Fooks had merely touched her on the shoulder to indicate that she was to put a glass of beer to his account as he had no cash in his pocket. Orchard was required to pay sureties and was bound over to keep the peace.[iii] Orchard, who had previously been a good friend of Fooks, left the inn soon after, owing money to the brewery, suggesting that financial difficulties may have contributed to his jealousy.[iv] The episode also serves as a reminder that village life was not uniformly harmonious and that the reputation on which Fooks later depended had to be maintained within a close, sometimes tense social environment.
By 1881, both of Fooks’s surviving sons were working in the business: George as a baker’s apprentice and Walter as a grocer’s apprentice. They continued to work with their father throughout the 1880s and may have become partners in the business, as a tea advertisement in local newspapers in 1891 named “C. F. Oxenbury & Sons” as agents.[v]
The business thrived, benefiting from Fooks’s prior experience in Exeter and Guernsey, as well as his personality and honesty. In 1891, Fooks retired, and George succeeded to the business.[vi]
Fooks invested his business profits into property. In 1893, he purchased two freehold cottages in Symondsbury, adjacent to other property he owned.[vii] In 1901, he owned three cottages that were destroyed by fire after a lightning strike; one was occupied by his brother Lawrence and Lawrence’s wife, and another by his cousin, Caroline Oxenbury.[viii] In 1905, when a gale damaged property in Chideock, the local newspaper reported that property belonging to Fooks suffered the most.[ix]
Fooks was a strong supporter of the church, serving as a churchwarden and school manager for many years.[x] In 1880, he was on the church restoration committee, donating £5 himself.[xi]
He was also a loyal supporter of the Weld family, the district’s principal landowners, and was particularly close to Charles Weld (1812-1885), the Roman Catholic lord of the manor residing at Chideock House. Well-known for his charity to the poor, Charles Weld often sought Fooks’s advice on village welfare matters.[xii]
Fooks’s commitment to helping the poor extended to serving as one of the two parish overseers for many years, including most of the 1870s, and in 1885, 1889, and 1891.[xiii] He also contributed to the village in other ways, such as helping to organise the annual village sports in the 1890s and participating in efforts to improve the village’s water supply in 1893.[xiv] Additionally, he was a long-serving member of the Oddfellows, often attending their fetes and anniversaries.[xv]
Among his hobbies was keeping caged birds, and one of his canaries had four broods in 1903.[xvi]
In retirement, he began farming on a small scale, entering eleven sheep in the Bridport Spring Sheep Fair in 1900.[xvii]
In 1901, he, his wife, and their son, Walter, lived in a four-roomed house in Mill Lane. Within a few years, he purchased 2 Bridge House, a semi-detached property with nine rooms.
Susannah died there on 1 December 1907 at the age of 78.[xviii] The following year, Walter married Mabel Mary Rossiter, and she moved into Bridge House. Fooks lived long enough to see two grandchildren born before he died on 5 May 1912 at the age of 79.[xix]
His death elicited many communal expressions of respect: a tolling church bell, blinds drawn in many houses on the day of the funeral, a long procession that included Humprey Weld, the lord of the manor at that time, and a printed memorial tribute by George John Edwards, an old friend. Fooks’s newspaper obituary praised his warmth and goodwill, his honesty and integrity, and his simple, unpretentious manner.[xx]
George John Edwards, the old friend, was the son of a Bridport hemp and flax manufacturer. He had known Fooks in the 1860s and later looked him up again after moving to Chideock a year or two before Fooks died. Although he had lived in Cardiff during the interim, he maintained a keen interest in local affairs and often contributed articles to the Bridport News.[xxi] In his tribute to Fooks, he wrote about Fooks’s lucrative business built on honesty and fair dealing, his charitable acts towards the poor, and his staunch support for the established church, the Conservative Party, and the Weld family.[xxii]
Fooks left an estate valued at £2,575 7s 5d. By his will, he made detailed provision for his son George by placing a £200 life policy and six houses in Chideock into a trust. The income from the trust was to be payable to George for life, subject to protective provisions. The capital was to pass to George’s children, but in default of such issue, it would revert to his younger son, Walter. He also left two £100 life policies to his grandson, Walter Fooks Oxenbury, and the residue of his estate to Walter.[xxiii] The arrangement ensured George’s financial maintenance while preserving the capital for the next generation.
To have amassed this capital was a considerable achievement. By comparison, his brother, John, who farmed at South Perrott, left £371 4s 7d when he died in 1908.[xxiv]
Refernces
[i] Bridport News, 10 May 1912, p.8.
[ii] 29 May 1891, p.4; 10 May 1912, p.8.
[iii] Bridport News, 25 July 1873, p.2.
[iv] Bridport News, 22 May 1874, p.4.
[v] Bridport News, 1 May 1891, p.4; and others.
[vi] Bridport News, 29 May 1891, p.4.
[vii] Bridport News, 20 October 1893, p.6
[viii] Bridport News, 5 July 1901, p.5.
[ix] Bridport News, 17 March 1905, p.5
[x] Bridport News, 10 May 1912, p.8.
[xi] Bridport News, 1 October 1880, p.3; Bridport News, 30 July 1880, p.4.
[xii] Bridport News, 10 May 1912, p.8.
[xiii] Bridport News, 14 April 1871, p.2; Bridport News, 11 April 1873, p.4; Bridport News, 17 April 1874, p.4; Bridport News, 16 April 1875, p.4; Western Gazette, 21 April 1876, p.3; Bridport News, 13 April 1877, p.4; Bridport News, 10 April 1885, p.4; Bridport News, 13 April 1888, p.6; Bridport News, 10 April 1891, p.6.
[xiv] Bridport News, 16 September 1892, p.5; Bridport News, 7 September 1894, p.8; Bridport News, 6 September 1895, p.8; Bridport News, 22 September 1893, p.5.
[xv] Bridport News, 10 May 1912, p.8.
[xvi] Bridport News, 6 November 1903. P.5.
[xvii] Western Gazette, 4 May 1900, p.1.
[xviii] Bridport News, 6 December 1907, p.8.
[xix] Bridport News, 10 May 1912, p.8.
[xx] Bridport News, 10 May 1912, p.8.
[xxi] Bridport News, 14 November 1913, p.5.
[xxii] Bridport News, 10 May 1912, p.8.
[xxiii] The will of Charles Fooks Oxenbury, dated 28 May 1910, proved at Blandford on 28 August 1912.
[xxiv] National Probate Calendar.
Third generation
George Wheadon Oxenbury (c.1865-1925), baker
George served as his father’s apprentice and then worked as a baker in the family business, probably becoming a partner with his younger brother, Walter.
In 1891, Charles retired, and George succeeded to the business.[i] However, things did not go well for George. In October 1892, he was thrown from his horse and broke his leg in two places, and in April 1893, a fire broke out in his bakehouse, which spread to neighbouring properties, destroying eight properties, including the Castle Inn.[ii] Whereas previously, he had been active in parish affairs, he suddenly disappeared from the local newspapers, and in October 1895, he announced that he had disposed of his baking business to Walter.[iii] By 1901, George was working in a bakery at Lyme Regis, although he later returned to Chideock. He lived in lodgings and never married. The 1921 census recorded him living in Mill Lane and working for S. Moores, bakers of Morcombelake. He died on 1 December 1925 at the age of sixty from bronchitis and a cerebral haemorrhage, and Walter registered his death.[iv]
It appears that George may have experienced a crisis in his early thirties from which he never fully recovered, although the extent to which this was due to physical injury, accumulated misfortune, or some other difficulty remains unclear.
References
[i] Bridport News, 18 29 May 1891, p.4.
[ii] Dorset County Chronicle, 20 October 1892, p.6; Pulman’s Weekly News and Advertiser, 18 April 1893, p.4.
[iii] Bridport News, 18 October 1895, p.1.
[iv] Death certificate of George Wheadon Oxenbury.
Walter James Oxenbury (1867-1935), farmer
Although Walter formally took over George’s business in 1895, it is not clear that he did any more than shut it down.[i] He had been engaged in farming since his school days, and this became his principal occupation.[ii] The 1901 jury list for Chideock recorded him as a farmer, as did the 1901 census. Over the following years, he steadily expanded his holdings, with his assessment for the poor rates increasing from £21 in 1902 to £45 in 1905 and then to £89 in 1908.[iii]
As a young man, Walter was sociable and outgoing. He came first in a pony race in 1898, was captain of a winning tug-of-war team in 1902 and sang at a village concert in 1903.[iv]
In the early 1900s, he began to take on communal responsibilities. He served as a clerk and attendance officer to the village school and sold tickets to dances held in the schoolroom.[v] In March 1901, he was elected to the parish council and in 1907, he was part of the committee that organised the village celebrations for the wedding of Humphrey Weld.[vi]
His mother died in December 1907, and among the close family mourners at her funeral was Mabel Mary Rossiter, Fook’s great niece.[vii] Mabel had lost her own mother a few months earlier. Her father, Charles Henry Rossiter, ran a bakery near the Quiet Woman Inn at Halstock.
Walter and Mabel married in 1908, when he was 40 and she was 24. Mabel joined Walter and Fooks at Bridge House. The couple had five sons: Walter Fooks (1909), Philip George (1911), Stanley John (1913), Donald Joseph (1916) and Thomas David (1918).
The year after his father’s death, Walter joined the Freemasons, which became an important part of his life. He was initiated into St Mary’s Lodge (No. 707) in December 1913 and, by 1922, had risen to the position of Worshipful Master, the lodge’s senior officer. He went on to hold county-level offices, including Provincial Grand Senior Deacon.[viii]
Like his father, Walter supported the Conservative Party. In 1909, when West Dorset’s Conservative MP, Colonel Robert Williams, visited Chideock, Walter seconded a vote of confidence in him, and in 1920, he proposed a vote of thanks to Williams’s nominated successor, Major Philip Colfox, when he visited the village.[ix]
During the First World War, Walter was elected to the Rural District Council and in 1917, was appointed to a committee to implement Food Control Orders.[x] He also served on a village committee to organise a fund-raising concert for the British Red Cross Society. [xi] A trade directory of 1915 listed him as the deputy registrar of births and deaths for the Whitchurch Canonicorum sub-district, which may have been a wartime position.[xii]
In August 1918, he and Mabel received the tragic news that Mabel’s younger brother, Francis Charles, had been killed while serving in France. His loss was deeply felt by many people in the village, as he had lived with Walter and Mabel for a few years before the war, worked on their farm, and joined the Chideock detachment of the Territorials when it was formed in 1913. In 1914, he emigrated to Canada and enlisted in a cavalry regiment two years later. When news of his death reached Chideock, the flag on the church tower was flown at half-mast and a memorial service was held the following Sunday.[xiii]
Soon after Francis’s death, Walter and his family moved to Roadstead Farm, Chideock. The reason for the move is unclear, as the new farm was no larger than Bridge House Farm, being assessed to £87 for poor rates in 1918 and £80 in 1920 and 1921.[xiv]
In April 1920, the Labour Party targeted Walter’s seat on the Rural District Council, but he won with ease, securing 148 votes compared to the Labour candidate’s 39.[xv]
The 1921 census recorded the family living at Roadstead Farm with Mabel’s brother, Ernest Howard, who worked on the farm, her sister, Catherine, and Catherine’s husband, Alfred William Hardwick, a former 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force.[xvi] This arrangement suggests that Mabel was close to her siblings and helped them whenever she could. This conclusion is also supported by two of her sisters marrying at Chideock with Walter acting as a witness: Bessie in 1916 and Beatrice in 1920.[xvii]
Beatrice and her husband, Edward Noel Gulliford, initially settled at Hardington Marsh, where they lived for four years before emigrating to Australia to join Edward’s brother, Frederick.[xviii] Frederick had fled to Australia in 1915 after assaulting his wife while he was the tenant of White Vine Farm.[xix] It may have been Beatrice or Edward who informed Walter of the forthcoming sale of White Vine Farm.
In 1920, Henry William Paget Hoskyns of North Perrott Manor House organised the sale of outlying portions of his estate, probably to better protect the core of the estate from high taxation and other threats. An auction was scheduled for 23 March to sell White Vine Farm (180 acres), Wyke Farm (200 acres) and Kingwood Farm (153 acres), but only Kingwood Farm was sold.[xx] The other two farms were auctioned again, along with other land, at the Three Choughs Hotel, Yeovil, on 3 June 1921. Reserve prices were set, including £2,000 for each farm. The acreages were different from 1920, with Wyke now covering 157 acres and White Vine covering 146 acres.[xxi]
Walter purchased White Vine Farm and possibly other land, as the parish rate book for December 1923 listed the farm as 180 acres 1 rood and 26 perches plus a cottage and garden of 12 perches. According to a piece that Bert Rendell wrote much later for the Hardington parish magazine, Walter moved his livestock to his new farm by herding them along the lanes.
The purchase of the farm represented a remarkable achievement for Walter and Mabel, largely secured by their own efforts. While Walter did inherit part of his father’s estate in 1912, he did not receive the bulk of it until after his brother’s death in 1925.
Walter quickly made friends and became a well-known figure at Crewkerne market. However, how well he adjusted to the change remains unclear. He did not seek the same responsibilities in public life, and he maintained close ties with West Dorset, cultivating old friendships and remaining an active member of the Freemasons in Bridport during the 1920s.[xxii]
In 1935, his health began to fail due to heart trouble. He died on 16 December 1935, at the age of 68, and was buried at Hardington. At his funeral, Rev. Richard James Hunt spoke warmly of Walter, describing him as a man of culture with many interests and a broad outlook, “ready to converse on any subject under the sun.” [xxiii]
Although the 1939 register described Mabel as being incapacitated, she outlived Walter by nearly thirty years, passing away on 5 January 1965 at the age of 80.[xxiv]
References
[i] Bridport News, 18 October 1895, p.1.
[ii] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 25 December 1935, p.8.
[iii] Chideock jury lists.
[iv] Western Gazette, 29 July 1898, p.8; Bridport News, 15 August 1902, p.7; Bridport News, 27 February 1903, p.8.
[v] Bridport News,15 March 1901, p.4; Bridport News, 21 December 1900, p.6; Bridport News, 22 December 1905, p.5; Bridport News, 2 February 1906, p.4.
[vi] Bridport News, 8 March 1901, p.5; Bridport News, 20 December 1907, p.5.
[vii] Bridport News, 6 December 1907, p.8; Bridport News, 13 December 1907, p.8.
[viii] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 25 December 1935, p.8.
[ix] Bridport News, 31 December 1909, p.9; Western Gazette, 30 January 1920, p.4.
[x] Bridport News, 1 December 1916, p.5; Western Gazette, 6 July 1917, p.3.
[xi] Bridport News, 20 August 1905, p.5; Bridport News, 27 August 1905, p.8.
[xii] Kelly’s Directory of Dorset, 1915, p.80.
[xiii] Bridport News, 6 September 1918, p.3.
[xiv] Chideock jury lists.
[xv] Dorset County Chronicle, 8 April 1920, p.6.
[xvi] RAF Officer Service Records, 1918-1919.
[xvii] Chideock marriage register.
[xviii] Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960.
[xix] Western Gazette, 6 August 1915, p.3; Find a Grave Index.
[xx] Western Gazette, 5 March 1920, p.3.
[xxi] Western Gazette, 20 May 1921, p.1.
[xxii] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 25 December 1935, p.8.
[xxiii] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 25 December 1935, p.8.
[xxiv] Monumental inscription at Hardington.
Fourth generation
Walter Fooks Oxenbury (1909-1970)
Walter married Winifred May Toms of Haselbury in 1933 and became the licensee of the New Inn, Hambridge, that same year.[i] In January 1941, he transferred the licence to his wife because he was serving in the armed forces.[ii] The licence was transferred back to him after his wife’s death in 1947.[iii] His son, Michael, was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of 19.[iv]
References
[i] Langport & Somerton Herald, 16 December 1933, p.6.
[ii] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 11 January 1941, p.8.
[iii] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 24 January 1948, p.5.
[iv] Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser, 17 November 1956, p.1.
Philip George Oxenbury (1911-1994)
Stanley John Oxenbury (1913-1980)
Stanley served with the 242nd Battery of the 69th Medium Regiment of the Royal Artillery during the Second World War, taking part in the North African campaign, the fighting in Italy, and the final advance through France into Germany.[i]
After the war, he lived at White Vine Farm, but pursued a career as a plumbing and heating engineer working with Ken Marsh of Hardington Moor. Stanley never married.
References
[i] British Army World War II Medal Cards, 1939-1945.
Donald Joseph Oxenbury (1916-1988)
Donald married Mary Josephine Antionette Conroy at Clapham in 1941 and settled in Wallington.
Thomas David Oxenbury (1918-2008)
After his father’s death, Thomas assisted his brother, Philip, in running White Vine Farm.[i] In July 1940, he joined the East Coker Patrol, part of Churchill’s secret army formed to mount guerrilla actions against the Germans in the event of an invasion. His service with the patrol ended in December 1944.[ii] In 1946, he married Phyllis Jean Sanders, who had worked as a librarian at Paignton at the start of the war.[iii] They lived at White Vine Farm until the early 1950s, and later moved to Exeter.
[i] 1939 Register.
[ii] https://www.staybehinds.com/patrol/east-coker-patrol. Accessed 17 April 2026
[iii] Civil Registration Marriage Index; 1939 Register.
Conclusion
The most noticeable feature of this history is the link between character, business and community, as seen in the careers of Fooks Oxenbury and his son, Walter. Their commercial ambitions, combined with a reputation for honesty and fair dealing and reinforced by visible participation in parish life, would have yielded clear economic advantages. Another prominent theme is the strength and continuity of mutual support within both the Oxenbury and Rossiter families.