Wood Barn Farm Little Marlow /Woodbarn Farm

Compiled and written by Charlotte Day.

Spelling of farm is haphazard.

Historic occupiers (who are not usually the landowners).

Note: this was part of the Westhorpe estate. A mixed farm historically. 1.5 miles from Great Marlow.

Gaps in dates represent gaps in our knowledge. We have a lot of old notes to wade through. No doubt more gaps will be filled in the future!

HISTORY TIME LINE

1825 - Mr Cozens left the farm selling off all stock and the contents of his house. Grain and sheep were raised there.

1835 - 47 John Stone Miller was the occupier, possibly earlier. In 1835 two men who had had words with him set fire to a clover rick on the farm in revenge. The rick was entirely destroyed.

In 1841 Mrs Clark, wife of one of the farm workers resident at the farm left her toddler child in the care of another worker's wife who lived nearby. The latter got distracted and the child wandered out of the cottage. Searches could not find the child anywhere that day or night. The next morning the little thing was found curled up under a hay rick where it had crawled for warmth. Despite this effort the child had died of exposure during the night. The discovery caused devastation in Little Marlow. Mrs Clark was probably the wife of John "Clarke" mentioned below.

Also in 1841 John was given notice to quit by landlord George Nugent in order to pressure him into voting for Nugent's preferred candidate in the upcoming parliamentary election. All Nugent's tenants were so treated. Marlow elections were very dirty- we were famous for the fact. If the tenant voted the right way the eviction would be rescinded. John simply didn't vote at all, a brave decision but not one that would necessarily have guaranteed he could stay on his land. On the day of the election he was shot at by his farm door by drunken supporters of Nugent's preferred candidate. John refused to alter his decision not to vote for anyone if he couldn't vote freely. He was unhurt in the shooting but perhaps only because the gunmen were too drunk to shoot straight. The frame of the doorway he was standing in was hit. John's eviction was not proceeded with, probably because the shooting incident had already been too embarrassing for the Nugent camp and they needed the matter swept under the carpet as quickly as possible. There is no suggestion anyone from on high ordered or encouraged the attack but they had set a tone of intimidation in the election campaign and the consequences of that were probably more than they had bargained for.

John was assaulted by two men in 1844 resulting in a dislocated arm and also that year suffered six break ins in the space of as many weeks. It cannot be ruled out that these were further acts of political intimidation. Such things happened in Marlow. This decade was a time of violence and tension in both the Marlows, for many reasons however, not only political ones. Little Marlow and the nearby Handy Cross area suffered from a lot of theft. No wonder John probably got sick of the place. He left the farm in 1847 and his remaining crops were sold off at once - oats, wheat, hay and "spring tares". He had also been sheep farming there. John still retained some land in Marlow as two years later the Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News reported that beech fagots from "Monk Wood" in Marlow property of John had been stolen. John caught the men red handed and they were traced thanks to their identification by John Clarke, Miller's long term farm assistant. Attempts to have the men arrested caused civil disturbance in the town but eventually succeeded. 

1847-52 Thomas Parrott occupied the farm. After suffering from repeated thefts of barley from one of his barns he hid his ink stand deep in the barley. When police searched for further stolen barley he told them they'd know the thief because embedded in their booty would be his inkstand. Thanks to this ingenuity the thief, a farm worker for Thomas, was caught.  Thomas died in 1852 but in 1854 a Mr Parrott was still the occupier, obviously a relative.

1859-63 William Banwell has the farm. It was mostly a poultry and arable farm under him. He paid £400 a year rent. In 1859 he was robbed of turnip greens. The theft of these from fields occurred multiple times over the years from the farm as well as others around Little Marlow. Most thieves were impoverished women trying to feed their families, or children sent out by them to gather greens. Farmers often tolerated this to a certain degree with prosecutions coming because of the observations from police officers on patrol rather than complaints from the farmers. Turnips and swedes were largely grown for animal feed not human food at this period but some of the growing tops would be picked off and cooked like spinach and were available at local greengrocers. William Banwell left in 1863.

1860 - Westhorpe estate sale includes Wood Barn Farm consisting of 335 acres of farmland plus 20 acres wood. John P Ellames became the owner until his death. He later swapped his  Westhorpe estate for Little Marlow manor but retained Wood Barn. 

1863-72 occupied by William Curtis. He also had Seymour Court Farm though lived at Wood Barn. In 1868 extreme heat caused Thomas Clark working at Wood Barn Farm reaping wheat for William Curtis to die of heat stroke in a scorching July. He was one of two farm workers to die in similar circumstances across the two Marlows, and two more became seriously ill. 

The next year a 12 year old boy Edmund Clark who worked at the farm, presumably a relative of Clark above, set fire to a hayrick at the farm "for mischief".

William Curtis himself died suddenly of a fit of apoplexy while out in his fields in 1872. His son James Curtis took over.

1872-78 James Curtis (the son). He decided to give up in 1878 when his lease expired and all the farm stock was sold off. The Ellames then kept the farm for their own use with the bailiff James Brock in day to day charge of things. The Ellames main function of the farm became the supply of dairy produce to the Manor House and grain for feeding the game birds used for "sport" by Manor guests. Sheep, turkeys and other poultry were also raised commercially at the farm.

1878 + James Brock as above in charge of the farm. He lives on it too.

1899 - John P Ellames had died so farm stock and implements sold off.

1900 Mr W Wooldridge had taken over the farm but had already decided to leave and was selling up stock= 19 dairy cows, cattle, poultry, a few pigs. Farm had been let to someone else.

1901- Benjamin Hornby was now the farmer.

1904 - Benjamin Hornby prosecuted for cruelty by shooting a stray dog in the eyes and leaving it to die in agony. The full details caused widespread revulsion and are too distressing to repeat here.

1907 Benjamin's widow sold up her stock and left including a herd of  29 dairy cows and 9 cart horses. An Ernest Hornsby was mentioned at the farm also in this year.

1912 - 25 George Field kept the farm as well as Cressex Farm where he actually lived. In 1915 George was fined for the stomach churning condition of the room he placed uncovered pails of milk in prior to them being put into churns. This room was a sheep slaughtering room too and the pails were placed on the bloody floor. Animal matter was found by an inspector on the pails and animal hairs in the milk. Hungry anyone? It must be said George was not personally on the premises supervising at the time of the observed hygiene offences.

George died aged 71 in 1925.

1917 Farm for sale again. Now said to be of 314 acres and with four worker cottages not mentioned in previous sales.

1939 - Field Bros ran the farm. Henry Field lived in the farm house. A Mr C Field was also a farmer here.  Only one worker's cottage now obviously connected to the farm but 3 are in the sake a year later so 2 were probably just being rented out to non employees for a while. 

1940 for sale again 214 acres and 3 cottages plus farm house. Arable and pasture.

1943 -53  (at least) Mr Robert Barnes and Mrs Barnes. Robert had bought the farm and at least one  farm cottage. In 1944 in the Bucks Free Press Mrs Barnes advertised for a lady companion for an elderly lady at the farm (perhaps a live in relative unless Mrs Barnes herself was not young) and home help. She assured the applicants that she had a modern farm house with an aga.

1956 R Barnes and Son.

FURTHER INFORMATION 

For other posts on Little Marlow & nearby see the index here

Information on other specific farms can be found in the index here

To look for an individual on the blog (there's now info on 7,200 individuals here) use the A-Z person index on the top drop down menu. 

Compiled by Charlotte Day.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use our research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.

Selected References=

Oxford Herald and University Press 17th November 1835. Reading Mercury 25th July 1868. British Library Archives via the British Newspaper Archive.

Maidenhead Advertiser 3rd Oct 1900, Baylis Media Archive.

Kelly's Post Office Directory of Buckinghamshire etc, Kelly's Directories Limited.

Census of England and Wales 1841-1901, transcribed by me National Archives. 

Solicitors Journal and Reporter, July 1860, Law Newspaper Co, 1860.

Private letters.

Slavery And Its Abolition

Updated June 2024- more to come

Involved With The Trade

Daniel Moore (born circa 1701)- was an American with British ancestry. He emigrated to his ancestral homeland of England about 1747 when he bought Widmere Manor in Marlow. He was M.P, though apparently a largely inactive one, for Marlow 1754 to 1761. He shortly after that moved back to the Caribbean. He is usually given as a merchant however I believe he was also the Daniel Moore who owned a plantation in Jamaica and had on it over 100 enslaved people.

Charles John Bloxam- lawyer of the High Street was one of those who did the paperwork for some slave owners when they were granted financial compensation for the abolition of the slave trade. The two people he acted for were not locals.

John Ashley - buried aged 73 in Little Marlow churchyard. Grave says he of Ashley Hall in the parish of Vere, Jamaica. This was a sugar plantation with slaves. His ownership of this property seems to have become complicated and disputed. He certainly however owned slaves, at least 10 of them. He died while on a visit to Little Marlow, hence his burial there. The Ashley family were from Gloucestershire and Jamaica, not locals. Transporting bodies at that time was difficult so many people had to be buried wherever they died, not where they would have wanted. John lived York Crescent, Clifton, Gloucestershire having moved there from Jamaica.

Above: John Ashley's grave in Little Marlow churchyard.

Involved With Abolition Of Slavery

Pascoe Grenfell (born 1761)- M.P for Marlow 1802-20 was "on every ground of  humanity, justice and policy" a vocal supporter of the abolition of slavery and Wilberforce's efforts to get that done. Pascoe's son appears to have grown up to have financial investments partly dependent on the slave trade, something which must have disappointed him. The son also possibly owned a slave personally.

In 1792 residents of Marlow met in the Vestry at the behest of the Reverend Richard Hunt to discuss slavery. It was unanimously agreed to send a petition to parliament from the town calling for the "abolition or reform of the slave trade". This was part of a nationwide push by abolitionists to get local people from around the country to come together and petition parliament on the issue. Similar meetings took place in Wallingford and Newbury for example. The "abolition or reform" wording was a template for the petition. Those at Marlow unanimously passed an additional vote of support for Wilberforce who wanted full abolition.

The Wesleyan congregation of Marlow sent a petition to Parliament again calling for full Abolition in 1831.

A local emancipation committee to promote anti-slavery sentiment was being set up in Marlow in 1861. James Carson of Spinfield House was instrumental in this. In October 1861 he presided over a lecture meeting in Marlow where African American Reverend J Sella Martin and Canadian Reverend T.M Kinnaird who had himself been a slave spoke of the Civil War in America and the anti - slavery movement in general. The speakers, praised Simpson for his efforts to remove slavery from plantations he had any business connection to in Jamaica. His family had never had any slaves themselves he later said. A lot more on James Carson in this post 

Other

Field Marshal Sir George Nugent and his wife Maria lived for a while at Westhorpe House, Little Marlow. George had been a commander in the American Revolutionary War and for five years governor of Jamaica. They left Jamaica for England in 1806. American-born Maria kept a journal of her time in Jamaica which was published posthumously. This is considered a key text in Jamaican history and is an interesting read. Her attitude to the slaves she encountered was bafflingly contradictory. She was willing to dance with a slave and continually asserted that slaves had souls just like anyone else and so were worth saving in the religious sense. She criticized the enslaved population for laziness and immorality but thought that the fault for that lay not with them but with the bad example of their lazy and immoral masters. Overall she thought most slaves well treated, being willfully oblivious to the fact someone declared a slave [e.g a non person] is by definition being appallingly treated even if no additional suffering is heaped upon them by violence etc. It also stretches credibility when Maria tells us that a boatload of newly arrived slaves which she examined to see if they looked sad and in need of spiritual succour surprised her by looking happy and being more interested in her carriage than taking in their new surroundings or circumstances.

For more about this family and the general history of Westhorpe too see a dedicated post here

Enslaved People

George Alexander Gratton, born into slavery in St Vincents, stage name the "Spotted Boy" is buried in Marlow and has a dedicated post of his own here

In 1861 "fugitive slave" John Jackson was on a local speaking tour describing how he escaped from slavery and bringing to the people a first hand account of life under its grip. I do not believe John came to Marlow but interested Marlovians may have travelled to sites like Chesham Town Hall, or had friends and family who told them about his testimony. His appearances were widely advertised in advance. The following year, fellow escaped slave Washington Duff did reach Marlow on his lecture tour. He spoke in the Lecture Room (aka The Music Room, now the Masonic Centre, St Peters Str.) Washington spoke about the cruelty he and others had recieved at the hands of their "masters", including sadistic punishments which left the audience shocked and revolted. Washington bore the scars of one such assault on his legs. He was from Kentucky and had escaped to Canada. 

***

June 2022 for more Marlow slavery links see here

All mentions of someone on this blog can be found on the Person Index.

To find other content about every day life in old Marlow see the post listing here

***

Sources:

Bucks Herald, 27th April 1861. Copy held British Library Archives and accessed via the BNA March 2021.

Reading Mercury 17th March 1792. As above.

South Bucks Free Press 28 November 1862

https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/moore-daniel-1701. Accessed March 2021.

https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/grenfell-pascoe-1761-1838 Accessed March 2021.

'Charles John Bloxam' Legacies of British Slave Ownership database , http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk./lbs/person/view/46245 Accessed March 26th 2021.

©Marlow Ancestors. You are welcome to use this research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog and a link here so that my sources listed above retain credit.

The People Of Westhorpe House, Little Marlow

Westhorpe House is a Georgian mansion by Little Marlow. It previously sat in around 100 acres of parkland and was often sold and occupied in conjunction with nearby Westhorpe Farm and Little Marlow Manor. In this post I aim to shine a light on some of the people who made the house their home above or below stairs.

The house was built in the late 1600s by the Chase family.

Field Marshal Sir George Nugent and his wife Maria were perhaps the most prominent residents of the house. George had been a commander in the American Revolutionary War and for five years governor of Jamaica. American-born Maria kept a journal of her time in Jamaica which was published posthumously. This is considered a key text in Jamaican history and is an interesting read. Her attitude to the slaves she encountered was bafflingly contradictory. She was willing to dance with a slave and continually asserted that slaves had souls just like anyone else and so were worth saving in the religious sense. Also while she criticized the slave population for laziness and immorality she thought that the fault for that lay not with them but with the bad example set by their lazy and immoral masters. At the same time she thought most slaves well treated, being willfully oblivious to the fact someone declared a slave [e.g a non person] is by definition being appallingly treated even if no additional suffering is heaped upon them by violence etc. It also stretches credibility when Maria tells us that a boatload of newly arrived slaves which she examined to see if they looked sad and in need of spiritual succour surprised her by actually looking happy and being more interested in her carriage than taking in their new surroundings.

Maria and George left Jamaica in 1806 and were at Westhorpe by 1819. Four years later they threw a party at the house to celebrate the 21st birthday of their son George junior.

Maria was the driving force behind the couple gifting 100 blankets as well as items of warm clothing to the poor of Little Marlow every year. England had seemed particularly cold to her she said after her time abroad in Jamaica, India and the USA.  

Maria became suddenly ill while taking the air in her carriage in 1834 and died shortly afterwards.

At the time of the 1841 census the widowed George lived at Westhorpe with his married daughter Maria [sometimes given as Mary] and her husband Rice Richard Clayton AKA Richard Clayton for company, not to mention a whole pack of servants.

George died in 1849 aged 91 and was buried at Little Marlow. Following his death the contents of the house were sold including a large library of quality books and a cellar full of expensive wines. 

Maria's sudden demise was not the only unexpected death at Westhorpe. In 1859 occupier Sir Arthur Buller's butler William Forward committed suicide by shooting himself in the face in the cellar of the house. He had been complaining of ill health and acting in a subdued manner. The jury at the inquest [which took place at the house!] thought that his long time separation from his wife Sarah was a key factor in his low spirits. It seems that this marriage was not known of by his fellow workers. Only when going through his personal papers did they discover evidence of it. 

Arthur Buller was born in India in 1808 and worked for the British state there, in Sri Lanka and in Canada before moving back to England, his family's ancestral home.

It is not certain how long Arthur had been at Westhorpe when his butler died. Certainly not quite as far back as the time of the 1851 census when Lt Edward and Eliza Simeon lived there, but probably soon afterwards. Edward and Eliza had moved in in 1849 after George Nugent's death. With them in 1851 were 10 servants including two footmen MJ Rogers and Phillip Eaton. One of the female servants F Hinzel had come all the way from Switzerland. 

Both Edward and Eliza were the  survivor's of their previous marriages. Her parents resided at Leeds Castle, Kent. His was a Berkshire and Oxfordshire family.

A few months after the census Edward died and was buried in Reading. It is likely that Arthur Buller moved into Westhorpe soon afterwards.

He moved to London eventually and the house was sold in 1859 to George Jackson Esquire. George put the house up to let in 1862 for a minimum period of 7 years but perhaps there were no takers as he apparently continued to live at Westhorpe until his death in 1896. He had previously resided at Little Marlow Manor. 

The 1863 property to let adverts say that the house and gardens had both recently been overhauled. The house interior, prospective tenants were reassured, was decorated with "taste and simple elegance". Outside were the luxuries of hot houses, melon pits and  an expanse of ornamental water not to mention a trendy rock garden [The gardener from at least 1869 to at least 1890 was George Davis].

During George Jackson's time at Westhorpe there was another sudden death in the house- an unnamed nursery maid aged just 22 whose heart gave out as she changed her clothes after coming back from a walk with her charges.

The 1861 census shows George a widower with 11 children from just a year old up to 19 years old. 

One of those children Felix, away working at a brewery in Burton Upon Trent when in his 20s, fell into some machinery and was killed instantly.

Keeping the Jackson family going in 1861 was a group of 10 live in servants. 

By 1871 with the number of children at home reduced, only 7 servants were kept.

The 1871 cook Ann Chaplin had had an impressive rise from being the 16 year old sole servant in a London household on the 1861 census, to the cook in the large household at Westhorpe in 1871. She was the daughter of James and Elizabeth Chaplin and was born circa 1840 in Easthampstead Berkshire. I was not able to find her in 1881. The cook at Westhorpe then was Fanny Gilbert, and Eliza Humphrey in 1891.

1871 footman Enoch Watts, born circa 1827 had risen to butler by 1881. Enoch was a married man whose wife Theresa and family did not live with him at Westhorpe though, they were staying in the village of Little Marlow.  This was quite an unusual situation for a butler who tended to be unmarried or married to the cook/ housekeeper of the same household. He continued to live in Little Marlow after his retirement with his married daughter Sarah Piggott. Theresa died 1881. She worked as a laundress, as did Sarah before marriage. (To see the grave of Enoch and Theresa see here)

Westhorpe House was sold in 1896 following George Jackson's death. He left an estate worth over £100,000.  A Mr Gordon was the resident in 1899.

The estate was again sold in 1917.

The 1917 sale guide said that the house had 19 bed and dressing rooms, 2 bathrooms, a billiards room and library amongst other things. In a sign of changing times some of the stabling had given way to motor garages.

Our blog primarily deals with Marlow people pre 1920s so with that I will bid farewell to this handsome house.

For more on Marlow's links to both slavery and its abolition see here . More Little Marlow content can be found listed under Other Places on the menu. All mentions of an individual on the blog can be found on the Person Index.

To find posts about everyday life in old Marlow, see the listing here

Sources:

Reading Mercury 31st December 1849 [suicide], 18th April 1863 [nursery maid death] and 19th August 1882 [Felix Jackson death]. Bucks Herald 17th May 1862 [property description] Copies at the British Library accessed via the BNA October 2020.

Little Marlow Parish Registers.

1841, 61, 71 and 91 censuses transcribed from microfilm by Jane Pullinger. 1851 and 1881 census my own transcription from microfilm.

Wikipedia articles on Sir George Nugent, Sir Arthur Buller and Sir John Simeon [father of Edward] all accessed October 13th-15th 2020.

Lady Nugent's Journal, reprinted 1907 by the Institute of Jamaica. Can be purchased on Amazon if you want to read it.

Auction sale guide, 1917. Loose. Poor condition. Partial.

GRO Death Index online. Accessed February 2021.

Researched and written by Charlotte Day.

©Marlow Ancestors. If reusing this research (which you are very welcome to do for family or local history purposes) please give credit to this blog and link here.