Historic Occupiers.
Description: 1813= 170 acres 1833= 305 acres (as owned by William James Atkinson and a further 256 acres is listed as owned by Sir William Robert Clayton, bart. 1863= 140 acres mostly arable. 1870= 150 to 318 acres arable depending on source! Corn and sheep farm. New farmhouse erected recently then. 1880= 140 acres arable and woodland. The 1833 parish assessment lists Marlow Bottom Farm twice, one owned and occupied by William James Atkinson, and the other is owned by the Clayton's and occupied by David and James Webb. Through the years there seems little attempt to distinguish these two properties with individual names, and note "Bottom Farm" can refer to either or to Burford farm. Hence more than one tenant is often listed as occupying "Marlow Bottom Farm". In everyday use, land was often referred to as "Mr Jones farm" etc so it was not as confusing to contemporaries as to us. The land of the two farms may at one time have had the same owner.
Occupiers are not necessarily the owners.
C1767 - Webb family occupy "Marlow Bottom Farm", tenants of the Claytons.
1829- 1832 Richard Webb. (This is the part owned by the Claytons) Wife Mary. Leased the farm and also Burford Farm in Marlow Bottom which had previously been occupied by James Webb, presumed father of Richard, and Thomas Rolls. Also had land elsewhere in Marlow as well as other property, especially in the Dean Street area. Burford was his by lease from 1813. Appointed executor of will of Elizabeth Winter written 1813, proved 1814. He himself died 1832. Photo of his grave here. In 1825 his former employee Edmonds was executed for twice stealing his horse (the same horse, stolen, recovered and stolen again). Richard said Edmund's had been a good employee once and asked he be treated with mercy to no avail. To read the full peculiar story, see Kathryn's post here! In 1830 he was one the local farmers threatened by letter for using mechanization on the farm. He does not seem to have given in to demands to remove his machines or been attacked by the Swing Rioters. For more on the Swing Riots in Marlow see Kathryn's post here.
1833- William James Atkinson owns and occupies "Marlow Bottom Farm" of 305 acres. He continued to live elsewhere. For more on William and his family see here. William continued to own the farm even after he later let it to others rather than farming it himself. The farm thereafter is usually given as much smaller so he may have kept some land back for himself or let to others than the main farm occupiers. In addition to this Sir William Clayton also occupied "Marlow Bottom Farm" of 256 acres, which is in the occupation of James and David Webb.
1838- 1843 James and David Webb who were brothers, the sons of Richard and Mary Webb above. (Clayton portion) In 1841 John Perry and Henry Green were fined for poaching on their land. The Perry family were notorious poachers. For more on them see my post here. In 1842 the two Webbs went bankrupt. Amongst money owed was to the parish for unpaid poor rate taxes. They had to sell off their horses, implements and crops of hay, wheat and turnips but obviously managed to continue at the farm for some while as both were still farming there 1843 and David at least was still at the farm when he died in 1846. Warrants were out for their arrest in 1842 because of the tax issue. At the same time there was a warrant out for David's arrest over an alleged assault of Eliza Frith. I don't know what happened about the latter charge. James and David also occupied Burford Farm Marlow Bottom until ejected by their landlords in 1843. In addition they farm 90 acres at Hill Farm.
1844-46 David and James Webb (Clayton portion) David died in 1846 while away visiting his brother Alexander. James continued the farm until Michaelmas 1847.
1848- Crops sold off, barley, wheat, oats from the farm of William James Atkinson "Marlow Bottom Farm". He continued to farm land here until his death in 1850 when his property descended to his nephew Benjamin Atkinson who owned the farm until at least 1862 when he let this and Town End farm. Benjamin is covered in detail in this post.
1851- John Miller. Wife Mary. Mary raised the fowls on the farm, two chickens were stolen from her in 1853. Unsure of whether he is at the Clayton or Atkinson farm. John gave evidence at a hearing on local political corruption -see here.
1854 - 1860 Mary Miller, by then a widow, left and sold up her crops of barley, clover, peas and chaff as well as her stock of poultry. Ducks were stolen from her that year, as was a sack. For the latter offence Charles Frith was sentenced to a month in jail. Mary died in Kilburn London in 1865.
1860-1861 Mr Wells [George?]. He fell out significantly with a Mr Hall who had bought some of Mary Miller's crops which were still on the farm when he tried to come in as a tenant. Plus Mary Miller was still in the house and wasn't giving him a key to even his barns. His issues with Hall lead to a suit in court, a counter suit for slander and then more suits. George Cannon the bookseller and chemist of Marlow High Street, unfortunate mutual friend of both parties, tried very hard to mediate but was ultimately unsuccessful. No wonder Mr Wells didn't stick around for long. He must have been sick of the sight of the stressful farm!
1862- Benjamin Atkinson as owner farmed his "Marlow Bottom Farm" himself for a while but decided to give it up and put it up to let again in 1862. He was a doctor and did not reside at the farm at any point. It took until 1863 to get a new tenant. Benjamin said that he was giving up farming altogether so sold off the stock of that and Town End Farm in 1862.
1863-1871 William Spiller. Not sure if he was at the Clayton or Atkinson farm. He was fined 20 shillings for beating a boy who worked for him who had disobeyed him [Reading Mercury 14th July 1866, British Library]. All but one of William's hens were stolen from the hen house in 1869. Left once his lease was up.
1871-1880 Joseph Birch. Wife Emma. In 1874 John Todd of Marlow was fined for taking turnip greens from Joseph's field. Joseph went bankrupt in 1878.
1878 - "Marlow Bottom Farm" for sale. Described as a "capital sheep and corn farm" with "dry and healthy land". Offered with modern farm house, 5 labourers cottages and a little over 315 acres.
1881 - up for sale again.
1889- 1902 Henry White. Originally from Cornwall. Raised chickens, bees and field crops.
1903- 1920 William Chappell. His wife offered rooms at the farm to rent to tourists.
Farm occupier listings are compiled by me by cross referencing property records, ads, trade journals, censuses, wills, court cases and more.
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For other posts related to Marlow Bottom and nearby see here
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©Marlow Ancestors.
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