Reverend Allsopp’s children

The Reverend Allsopp was the first Vicar of Easterton. He was appointed in 1876, arriving with wife and the first of what grew to be a large family. We have a photo of Richard Allsopp’s youngsters.

Children of Reverend Richard Allsopp, first Vicar of Easterton

This picture was taken outside the Vicarage which was on Vicarage Lane and is now called Easterton House. The children are (in age order and with years of birth), Frederick George (1874), Richard (1876), Marian was born in about 1877, Margaret in 1878 and Jerome in 1880. Next came Dorothy in 1881, Robert in 1883, Francis in 1885, Agnes in 1886 and Joan in 1887.

The picture dates from about 1889.

We think Jerome is the lad in light clothes in front of the cart. Jerome, sadly, was killed in World War One. In 1901 his dad had become Vicar at West Lavington so he is recorded there, rather than in Easterton where he spent his childhood.

The following comes from Richard Broadhead’s book, ‘The Great War – Devizes and District Soldiers’.

Regular soldier Jerome was the third son of the Rev. Richard Winstanley Allsopp the vicar of West Lavington and Harrietta Baker Boileau Allsopp. He was educated at Stubbington House School where he was a keen cricketer. He was training in engineering at the outbreak of the South African War when Jerome joined the Imperial Yeomanry where he was given a commission and was severely wounded at Philippolis and received two medals with five clasps.

In May 1902 he was posted to the 1st Battalion South Lancashire Regiment and served with them in India until November 1916. While in India he married Gertrude Hilderbrand at Bombay and served as Adjutant of the South Lancashires from 1912 to 1915. He was given command of a company in March 1914 and promoted to Major and was sent to the Western Front in January 1917. In April 1917 he was given command of the 8th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment and led them at the Battle of Messines in June 1917 and the Third Battle of Ypres in August 1917 where he was mentioned in dispatches three times.

He was wounded during the latter and returned to the Front in November 1917 and in February 1918 he was transferred as commanding officer to the 2nd Battalion South Lancashire Regiment with whom he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in April 1918.

Jerome was killed in action on Monday 27 May 1918 near Bouvancourt, northwest of Reims, France, during the Third German Offensive.

He is remembered on the Soissons Memorial and has no known grave.

 

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The Army Temperance Association

With the 100^th anniversary of the First World War, one rather imagines that many a soldier felt in need of a stiff drink, to relieve all sorts of symptoms – fear, pain, utter discomfort and, at times, a goodly dose of boredom.

However at some time in the past there was an Army Temperance Association and this medallion, found by local metal detectorist, Norman, is for that organisation.

Army Temperance Association medallion found in Market Lavington

We know very little about this organisation, beyond the obvious. Presumably members of the army could join. And the association was anti-alcohol. The Fusilier Museum, London has more information which you can see by clicking here.

We believe this item was a 6 month medal and we guess this was given to members who stayed dry for 6 months. 1889 was, presumably, the year in which it was issued and that may have been about the high water mark for association membership.

As ever, we’d love more information on this item which was, of course, found in Market Lavington.

Freddy Chapman

 

For many years Freddy (sometimes Fred and sometimes Freddie and sometimes Frederick) Chapman was the manager of Walton’s store in the middle of Market Lavington.

Freddy Chapman of Market Lavington

Freddy, as we see here, was a dapper little man. We judge from his dress that his heart was in the men’s tailoring side of the business.

Freddy was born in 1889. His father, William, was a market gardener in the Fiddington area. Freddy’s mother, Ann Kyte, came from a family who had been Fiddington market gardeners back in the 1860s.

As a small boy, Freddy lived at Fiddington Clay but in 1898 his father died and in 1901 his widowed mother, with five boys and a daughter to bring up was a tailoress, living on Lavington Lane, just in West Lavington.

By 1911, mother Ann and four of the children were back in Market Lavington and living on High Street, Freddy was a clerk working for a draper – surely Mr Walton. We do, in fact, have a picture of a tiny Fred, outside Mr Walton’s shop in 1907. (Click here).

Our next formal record of Freddy is on the 1926 electoral roll. He was still living with his mother on Market Lavington’s High Street.

Frederick died locally in 1976

 

In the Garden at Beech House

This photo has recently arrived at Market Lavington Museum.

In the garden at Beech House, Market Lavington in 1889

It shows the Welch family in the garden of their home – Beech House in Market Lavington in 1889.

The Welch family relax in their Market Lavington garden

But we are going to concentrate on the gardener who chanced to be in the photo as he wheeled his wheelbarrow in the background.

It isn’t the best photo in the world, but it’s a fair bet that for this chap photos were a rarity. And because the Welch family continued (and continue) to live in the village, we know who he was. This chap was John Lawes.

John Lawes’s birth was registered in the Devizes district during the third quarter of 1839. On censuses, he says he was born in Market Lavington. There is no surviving 1841 census for Market Lavington so our earliest document is on the 1851 census when 11 year old John lived with presumed parents, Luke a gardener and Sarah and three younger siblings. The address was Fiddington House which was a private asylum, then run by Charles Hitchcock. Luke, would have been a gardener in the extensive and attractive grounds.

In 1861 Luke was working in Lambeth with Sarah and family. John was not with his parents and we haven’t traced him.

John married Sarah Bash (probably Baish) in 1865. In 1871 the couple and their daughter, Emma, lived at White Street in Market Lavington. John was an agricultural labourer.

In 1881, with James added to the family, the address was Sargants Hill Farm Cottage number 2. This was up on Salisbury Plain and John was still labouring.

Sarah died in 1882 and was buried at St Mary’s, Market Lavington on 21^st June.

John remarried – to Jane Thomas in 1884. We can’t trace them on the 1891 census.

In 1901 John and Jane along with a granddaughter (probably of Jane’s) were living at Market Place, Market Lavington. John was a gardener.

The couple were still in Market Lavington in 1911 – after 27 years of marriage. John was calling himself a general labourer. He wrote the census form with a very neat hand.

Jane died in 1912 so John had a second wife buried in the churchyard in Market Lavington

He followed them to the churchyard in 1914.