Henry and Sarah Edgar Cross the Stour

As I showed in my first post,[1] our branch of the Edgars spent over half a millennium in the same tiny corner of Suffolk. It wasn't until the Great Disaster of 1880/1881 - the subject of a future post - that we began to scatter all over the world. But one Edgar pioneer actually left Suffolk voluntarily, as it were, some time before 1861. Mind you, he didn't get very far.

Henry Edgar was Johnson and Sarah's second boy and third child.  He was born in about 1826 - the 1841 Census, which finds him still living at home, lists Henry as 15. On June 21, 1849 he married Sarah Kensey (or Kinsey) of Felsham. Felsham's about 5 miles to the north of Preston, and my guess is he met her because he'd become the tenant of a mill there, although I can't be sure of the order of events because I don't know when he took over the tenancy. Sarah was born in Felsham in the period 1821-3 - her age seems to fluctuate in the different census returns!

As I explained in my post on Johnson's economic activities, the family were windmill owners as well as tenant farmers. Henry's elder brother ran Johnson's mil in Preston St Mary, before moving to one in Bury St Edmunds- I'll trace his career and problems as a parent in my next post. At some point in the 1840s Henry decided to follow the same path. I think this must have been before March 1849:

Robert Lee, aged 16, stealing 2 sovereigns, the property of Mr. Edgar, of Felsham, 14 days' imprisonment and to be whipped.[2]

 The first definite record of Henry's work is an advertisement which appeared on July 24, 1850 on page three of the Bury and Norwich Post:

FELSHAM SUFFOLK

TO BE LET

A POST WINDMILL

WITH two Patent and two Common Sails, two pair of French Stones, Flour-Mill Jumper, and Going-gears complete. A very commodious Round-house, together with a convenient DWELLING-HOUSE, stable, Cart-shed, &, now in the occupation of Mr. EDGAR, whose tenancy expires on the 11 October next.

The above Property is situated within 8 miles of Bury, and 6 of Stowmarket.

For further particulars, enquire of Mrs. Barnes, Boxhall.

The first point to  note is that as his tenancy was expiring in October 1850 he must have been there at least a year before that, possibly up to five. That windmill is first mentioned in 1824 and in 1867 it was demolished and the milling moved to Gedding.[3] A little research online helps clarify the nature of the building and its operation:

The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. The defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. [4]

Post Mill (not Henry's)

"Pitstone-windmill.600px". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pitstone-windmill.600px.jpg#/media/File:Pitstone-windmill.600px.jpg

That issue of moving the sails so they can take advantage of the changing winds is one of the most important aspects of milling. 'Common sails' were the first type of sail and go back to the middle ages. There were different kinds, but what characterised them all was that the mill had to be stopped to adjust them. 'Patent sails' were a relatively recent invention (1813) and could be adjusted without stopping the mill. 'French stones' are used for milling wheat. A 'jumper' enabled three or four different grades of flour to be produced. 'Roundhouses' were built around the supporting trestles to give them protection and also provide storage space. I don't know what 'Going-gears' are, but they're mentioned in almost all the historical windmill adverts I've found online, so they were obviously standard equipment. There's an excellent website on the history of Felsham which provides a photomontage that enables us to get a sense of the windmill Henry was tenanting and its place in the village landscape:

http://felshamhistory.blogspot.co.uk/

The author tells us that the mill would have rivalled the church tower in height and must have dominated this part of the village. Next to the mill is the Live and Let Live beer-house on Upper Green - presumably Henry's local, as future developments will. prove he was no teetotaller.

In any case, either the owners failed to find a tenant who'd pay a higher rent, or Henry himself agreed to stump up more. In the 1851 Census he's still the Felsham miller living at 5, the Green, and employing one man. Although he's described as 'head' of the household there was nobody else at home for him to rule over. Where was Sarah? She was visiting her father William, 67 years old and a widower. He kept the Bell Inn in Felsham, which might have given her husband ideas, as we shall see. Sarah's mother had died some time between the 1841 and 1851 Censuses.

When we next find Henry and Sarah they've arrived in what is generally regarded as 'the heart of Constable country'.

 John Constable - Self Portrait

"ConstableSelfPortrait". Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ConstableSelfPortrait.png#/media/File:ConstableSelfPortrait.png

Dedham Vale 1802

"Constable DeadhamVale". Licensed under Public Domain via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Constable_DeadhamVale.jpg#/media/File:Constable_DeadhamVale.jpg

Unfortunately we can't be sure when Henry took the momentous step of crossing the Stour and becoming a publican in Dedham which is just on the Essex side of the river. 

River Stour running through Dedham Vale

"Cmglee Manningtree River Stour" by Cmglee - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cmglee_Manningtree_River_Stour.jpg#/media/File:Cmglee_Manningtree_River_Stour.jpg

Another family is linked to the Sun Inn between 1851-1855,[5] so it must have been after that. The first definite reference to Henry as landlord comes in 1859.[6] The 1861 Census has Henry and Sarah keeping the Sun with the help of John Knock, an ostler aged 65,[7] and the financial support of two married lodgers. Adverts in the local papers make it clear that the landlords of the Sun also supplemented their income by hiring out 'the Large Room' for auctions.

Trade directories link him to the Inn in 1862, 1867, 1870, 1871, 1874[8] so I think we can assume that he stayed at the Sun continuously until his death in 1877. He's also on a list of residents in 1863, and from this we can get an idea of the competition:

Inns and Taverns
Anchor, Robert Smith
Compasses, John Hicks Symonds
Gun, Samuel Askew
Lamb, Samuel Osbome
Marlborough Head, Mary White
Rose and Crown, Arthur George Saunders
Sun Inn, Henry Edgar[9]

The Sun is a splendid coaching Inn in Dedham High Street, with its origins in the fifteenth century. The seventeenth century external staircase was considered a fine feature,[10] as was the view from the courtyard:

(S)ometimes the local church-tower comes in, across the roof-tops, in a partly benedictory and wholly sketchable way, as at the village of Dedham, near Colchester, where the yard of the “Sun” inn and the church-tower combine to make a very fine composition. A relic of the bygone coaching days of Dedham remains, in the small oval spy-hole cut through the wall on either side of the tap-room bay-window, and glazed, commanding views up and down the village street, so that the approach of coaches coming either way might be clearly seen.[11]

You can see that church in the background of another Constable picture:

Dedham Lock and Mill, 1817
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/constable-dedham-lock-and-mill-n02661

But I doubt that the Edgars moved because of the historical associations of the Inn or the romance of the surrounding countryside. We can only guess as to their motives - which might have been as simple as another attempt to raise rent; but what's certain is that the life of a miller was uncertain and the labour was heavy. Periods of enforced idleness (with no earnings) were followed by ones of continuous labour, everything dependent on the whim of the winds. While no-one would claim a Victorian landlord had it easy, the life of the proprietor of a well-established might well have seemed easier and more secure than that of a miller.

In any case, as the years go by we catch a few glimpses of Henry and Sarah.

The first of these, in 1868, brings one of those moments that family historians love: Henry's history links up with that of the broader story of our country. In 1867 the Tory Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, determined to take what one of his own supporters called 'a leap in the dark' in order to steal a march on William Gladstone's Whigs (soon to become the Liberals), gave the vote to most male 'heads' of households in the towns. Henry Edgar's name appears as one of these 'New Voters' on the 1868 electoral register.[12]

The next year shows us a scene, that in one form or another, probably happened a lot. Every year Dedham held a two-day fair,[13] and like other such gatherings in the region this seems to have attracted people keen to get very drunk indeed:

About 2 a.m. on the morning of April 1, 1869 on the second day of the fair, the landlord of the Sun Inn called P. C. Murrells because 4 miscreants were drunk and behaving riotously. They refused to leave. Each was fined 5s. with 9s. 6d. costs, or two weeks.[14]

In the 1871 Census  Henry and Sarah have one servant and an ostler. Dedham's development is typical of nineteenth century Britain. After the construction of the Great Eastern railway in the 1840s the town, which had no station, became a 'social backwater',[15] and no doubt the trade in coach passengers went into gradual decline. The Inn gave the Edgars employment for the rest of their lives, but the evidence of the probate summaries of their wills suggests it was at best a very modest prosperity they enjoyed.

Henry's died  at the Inn on August 15, 1877,  aged 53;[16] he left his wife less than £450.[17]  Sarah was obviously a strong-minded woman as she took over the difficult task of managing a Victorian Inn on her own. Trade directories link her to the Inn in 1878 and 1882,[18] and in the 1881 Census she was employing a live-in barmaid. She had one lodger, who was also her nephew, Jeremiah Pryke (an unemployed engineer), and a visitor.

Sarah had to cope with the efforts of the Church of England Temperance Society which was at work in Dedham in 1882 (and perhaps before), but happily with little effect. In 1895 there were 10 inns, about one for every 150 inhabitants.[19] I suspect Sarah's last years were rather sad though. She died on July 22, 1883 leaving a personal estate of £150 5s. 6d. Bertha Jarrold, spinster of Dedham, was the sole executrix.[20] Bertha was that live-in barmaid in the 1881 Census, and she was then aged 21 - so Sarah, who had no children, also seems to have had no other family or close friends of her own age. Bertha didn't take over the Sun though; later that year one Mr. Page was landlord.[21]

So ended the first Edgar colonisation of Essex. But, as Sarah was spending her last years hosting the Sun, another move into the county - this time enforced by economic necessity - was already taking place.

Note:

For an update on the Sun Inn, see:

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/apr/01/pub-walk-the-sun-inn-dedham-essex-constable

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[1] http://edgarfamilyintheworldblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-early-history-of-edgars.html

[2] Bury and Norwich Post and East Anglian, March 21, 1849.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_windmills_in_Suffolk

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_mill

[5] http://pubshistory.com/EssexPubs/Dedham/sun.shtml

[6] http://www.camulos.com/inns/2015part4refs.pdf

[7] There's a question mark here: the street number (9) is different to later Censuses (40) and the buildings in the street are also different. There was a 'Gun Inn' in Dedham, but the details don;t match up either. As the Edgars are linked to the Sun Inn in 1859 and 1862, I've assumed that's where they were in 1861.

[8] http://pubshistory.com/EssexPubs/Dedham/sun.shtml

[9] http://www.historyhouse.co.uk/placeD/essexd08d.html

[10] http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924015353463/cu31924015353463_djvu.txt

[11] Charles G. Harper, The Old Inns of Old England, Volume 2, 1906, 223-225.

[12] Ancestry.com. UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

[13] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/pp154-161

[14] Essex Standard, 16 April 1869, 6.

[15] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/pp154-161#h3-0003

[16] Essex Standard, 31 August, 1877, 5.

[17] Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.

[18] http://pubshistory.com/EssexPubs/Dedham/sun.shtml

[19] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/pp154-161#h3-0003

[20] Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.

[21] Essex Standard, Suffolk Gazette and Eastern Counties Advertiser, 15 December 1883, 2.