Introduction
Thomas Genge inherited a life interest in Struckmead Farm, which he left around 1900, possibly due to financial difficulties. He spent the remainder of his life working on various farms in East Dorset and Hampshire.
Childhood
Thomas Genge was born late 1851 or early 1852 at Hardington Mandeville, the youngest of five children born to Thomas and Elizabeth Genge of Struckmead Farm.[1] The 1851 census recorded his father as a farmer of 35 acres employing one labourer.
Marriage
In 1877, Thomas married Ann Studley, the daughter of Walter and Elizabeth Studley of Mosterton, Dorset.[2] Her father farmed at Woodcock Farm before retiring in 1903.[3]
Ann joined Thomas at Hardington, and their first child, Sam Studley Genge, was born on 10 February 1879.[4] Shortly after, Thomas’s mother died, and in March 1880, his father, Thomas Senior, remarried. Around this time, Thomas Senior retired, and Thomas Junior took over the farm.
On 29 October 1886, Thomas Senior died, leaving an estate valued at £1,102 19s 11d. He bequeathed Thomas Junior his freehold house, orchard and lands for life, and then to his grandchildren, Thomas Genge, Mabel Genge and Samuel Genge, upon reaching the age of 21.[5] In effect, Thomas Junior carried the financial risks of farming while the capital value of the land was preserved for the next generation.
Thomas Junior continued living at the farm until about 1900. He had a second son, Albert John, in 1887, and a daughter on 11 January 1890, who appears to have died in infancy.[6]
In August 1895, William Henry Powney, a grocer of Middle Street, Yeovil, successfully sued him to recover £1 19s 6d.[7] Although the sum was small, the case suggests that Thomas was experiencing cash-flow problems.
Later life
By March 1901, Thomas had moved from being an independent farmer to working as a hired dairyman, living with his family at Bunny Crook Farm Cottage, Ringwood. According to the Hardington voters’ lists, he lived at Barfield Cottage, Bar End near Winchester, from about 1902 to 1910.
By April 1911, they had moved to Titchfield, where Thomas worked as a farm foreman. While working for Mr Bunney as a cowman at Titchfield, he had a strange experience. At about 3:30 pm on 8 August 1911, he came across a seven-year-old boy lying under an oak tree with his face covered in blood. He asked the boy whether his nose had been bleeding, and the boy replied that it had. Thomas offered to take him to the farm to wash his face, but the boy said he was going home and would get a wash there. After urging him to go at once, Thomas left him. Later that day, the boy was admitted to the Royal Portsmouth Hospital, where they discovered that his jaw was smashed and his face severely injured. Although in a critical condition, he survived. One newspaper speculated that his injuries may have been caused by a horse.[8] This incident illuminates Thomas’s work environment and his response to an unexpected rural accident.
The Hardington voters’ lists recorded Thomas at Grove Farm, Titchfield, in 1912 and later at Totton, Hampshire, in 1914. In September 1914, he was struck off the voters’ lists for Hardington because he had gone away and left no address.[9]
For reasons that are not understood, Ann returned to Hardington, where she died at Hillside, Hardington, on 21 February 1919, aged 65, from bronchitis and heart failure. Her death was registered by her son, Sam, who returned from the Isle of Wight to be with her.[10] Ann left an estate valued at £514 14s.[11] Thomas died in the Fareham area later that same year at the age of 66.[12]
Sam moved to the Isle of Wight as a young man, where he worked as a groom and footman. He died there in 1963. Their other son, Albert, emigrated to British Columbia in about 1901, where he lived until 1980.
Conclusion
Thomas Genge’s career highlights the economic pressures that increasingly shaped rural life in the late nineteenth century. Restricted by a life interest that preserved capital for the next generation, he bore the risks of farming without the security of full ownership. His transition from independent farmer to wage labourer is consistent with a common pattern of quiet downward mobility within the agricultural economy.
References
[1] Civil Registration Birth Index.
[2] Civil Registration Marriage Index.
[3] Bridport News, 2 January 1903, p.4.
[4] Western Gazette, 21 February 1879, p.5.
[5] The will of Thomas Genge, dated 22 July 1881, proved 1 February 1887.
[6] Southern Times and Dorset County Herald, 11 January 1890, p.8.
[7] Western Gazette, 16 August 1886, p.6.
[8] Hampshire Post and Southsea Observer, 11 August 1911, p.8; Hampshire Chronicle, 12 August 1911, p.7.
[9] Taunton Courier, 30 September 1914, p.3.
[10] Death certificate of Ann Genge.
[11] Civil Registration Death Index (age recorded as 57); National Probate Calendar.
[12] Civil Registration Death Index.
