The Diaries of Jeffrey Whitaker, Schoolmaster of Bratton, 1739–1741
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wiltsbire ilizcurh énrietp (formerly the Records Branch of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society) VOLUME XLIV FOR THE YEAR 1988 Impression of 500 copies THE DIARIES OF JEFFERY WHITAKER SCHOOLMASTER OF BRATTON, 1739-1741 EDITED BY MARJORIE REEVES AND JEAN MORRISON TROWBRIDGE I989 © Wiltshire Record Society ISBN O 901333 21 2 Produced for The Society by Amaranthus, 2 Blenheim Crescent, London W11 INN Printed by PM Print 42 Church Street, Warminster, Wilts. CONTENTS Preface page ix List ofAbbreviations X List of Illustrations xi INTRODUCTION Bratton in the eighteenth century x111 The Whitaker family in the Westbury neighbourhood xxiii Jeffery Whitaker, schoolmaster xxix The school xxxviii The social scene xlv Nonconformity in Bratton Iii Local administration Iv The notebooks lxiii THE DIARIES OF JEFFERY WHITAKER March 1738/9 1 April 1740 31 November 1740 54 NOTES ON SELECTED FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS 83 GLOSSARY 98 INDEX OF PERSONS AND PLACES I00 INDEX OF SUBJECTS 107 List of Members I09 List of Publications 116 PREFACE The editors wish to thank Mr. K. H. Rogers, F.S.A., who took the photographs to illustrate the volume, and gave much personal help, and the staff of the Wiltshire Record Office for constant assistance. They are also indebted to Miss Melissa Willcox who drew the map of Bratton. J. L. KIRBY LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Agricultural Records J. M. Stratton & J . Houghton Brown, Agricultural Records A.D. 220-1977, ed. Ralph Whitlock (Lon- don, 1979). D.N. B. Dictionary of National Biography. Freehold Book Wiltshire Quarter Sessions and Assizes, 1736, ed. J. M. P. Fowle, W.A.S. Records Branch, xi (1955). Appendix II. Meeting House Wiltshire Dissenters' Meeting House Certificates Certificates and Registrations 1689-1852, ed. J. H. Chandler, W. R. S. xl (1984). T.R.H. S. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. V. C. H. Wilts. Victoria County History. Wiltshire. W.A.S. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society. W.N.Q. Wiltshire Notes and Queries. WRO Wiltshire Record Office. W. R.S. Wiltshire Record Society. Longleat Leases were consulted in the WRO and are referred to here as LL. MSS. OS. (i.e. Old Survey, 1743). They are now in the Longleat archives. All the Parish Registers referred to here are in the WRO. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page ii 1 Two pages from Jeffery Whitaker’s third diary. Following page xxviii 2 Front page of John Drewett’s ‘Multiplication Table’, 1701. 3 Advertisement for the School, 1750. 4 Fragment of a home made geometry book. 5 Fragment of a home made school book. 6 Advertisement for the School, Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 5 Feb ruary 1787. At end of volume 7 Map of Bratton, circa 1740. 8 The Whitaker Family tree. INTRODUCTION I. Bratton in the eighteenth century I came along the north side of the famous hill called Bratton Castle, so renowned in the annals of the Romans and of Alfred the Great. My road was now on the line of separation between what they call South Wilts and North Wilts, the former consisting of high and broad downs and narrow valleys with meadows and rivers running down them; the latter consisting of a rather flat, enclosed country; the former having a chalk bottom; the latter a bottom of marl, clay, or flat stone; the former a country for lean sheep and corn; and the latter a country for cattle, fat sheep, cheese and bacon; the former, by far, to my taste, the most beautiful; and I am by no means sure that it is not, all things considered, the most rich. All my way along. I had the steep and naked downs to my right, and the flat enclosed country to my left. The land here is very good; better than almost any I ever saw. The turnips are very good all along here for several miles; but this is, indeed, singularly fine and rich land. The orchards very fine; finely sheltered, and the crops of apples and pears and walnuts very abundant. William Cobbett, Rural Rides (1826)‘ Bratton lies in West Wiltshire under the northern edge of Salisbury Plain, three miles east of the town of Westbury. It is one of a line of villages strung out along a band of greensand below the chalk of the Plain and above the gault clay of the vale which stretches north towards Trowbridge and Melksham. The site of the village was determined by the never-ending flow of pure spring water at this level. ln the eighteenth century it still fell into the three hamlets of Bratton, Milbourne and Stoke. Like most parishes in this part of the county, it consisted of threc distinct types of ground. The southern part lay on the undulating chalk downs of Salisbury Plain, approximately 500 ft. above sea level, open, windswept, almost totally without trees. The higher downs provided grazing for hundreds of sheep, the more level stretches grew heavy crops of wheat and barley while some areas were reserved for growing furze for fuel.’ The Steep escarpment between the Plain and the village provided more grazing. The shelf of greensand, about 300 ft. above sea level, on which the village was built, was ideal soil for gardens and orchards, while the low-lying clay grew good hay and deep grass for cattle, with some ploughed land On the dryer parts. In the mid-eighteenth century farming had little changed from mcdieval strip cultivation, each tenant having his l William Cobbett, Rural Rides, ed. E. F. Daglish (London & Toronto. I932). lot-1-9. 2 See Diary, entry for 8.1.40/l: ‘Willm. Whitaker's plow fetch at Load of Furze.' Plow. cart, cart and horses together (dialect). Furze was used particularly in bread ovens. xiv INTRODUCTION allotted acres in the common fields and his allotted number of sheep, cattle and horses which he might graze on the common pastures and fallows. Lands in Bratton at this time belonged to several estates. The largest was Bratton manor, owned by Lord Weymouth of Longleat. But there were also lands which were part of the manors of Westbury Arundel, Westbury Stourton and Westbury St. Maur, belonging to the Earl of Abingdon, as well as Westbury Chantry, held by Mr. Bennett of Norton Bavant. In addition, Mr. Drax of Wedhampton owned Manor Farm and Grants Farm, while the Ballard family possessed some freehold property.” Thomas Davis, author of A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Wilts, written in 1794,‘ gives a detailed picture against which we may view Jeffrey Whitaker’s farming activities. Davis was for over forty years steward of Lord Weymouth (later Marquess of Bath) and though he was writing fifty years after these diaries, he was looking back over his experience of the Longleat estates, to which the manor of Bratton belonged, and describing old farming methods so that he might the better put forward his reasons for advocating the enclosure of common land. He writes: Under the common field husbandry, little or no variation of crops could take place. .. Before the introduction of artificial grasses, the arable lands of each manor were usually laid in three common fields, of which the round was, Wheat, Barley or Oats, Fallow. But the tenants, in many common fields, being convinced at length of the profit of sowing ray grass, clover, &., came to an agreement to sow it in all or part of their spring crop, and to mow all or part of it in the next summer, previous to a wheat crop, instead of suffering the ground to lie fallow. The general courses of husbandry in the common fields may therefore now be said to be these, viz. in those cases where the occupiers can agree to sow clover. First, Three field husbandry. 1. Wheat 2. Barley, with clover 3. Clover, part mowed, part fed Then wheat again. Secondly, the bad four field husbandry. 1. Wheat 2. Barley 3. Oats, with clover 4. Clover, part mowed part fed. 3 For estates in Bratton, see V.C.H. Wilts. viii. l48—50, I53, lol. Manor Farm. the ‘Farm’ of the diaries, had originally been part of the estate held by Edington Priory. It passed through a succession of owners to Scfton Bromwich whose memorial is in the south aisle of Bratton Church. From this family it passed to the Ernleys of Etchilhampton and finally through Elizabeth Ernley to Henry Drax whom she married in 1720. This was the Squire Drax who dined at the Farm (Diary. entry for l7.l(l.39). 4 Part of Thomas Davis’s work was published under the title ‘Extracts from a General View of the Agriculture of the County of Wilts, &. &.' in Letters‘ um! Papers on Agriculture. Planting, Jr. .sclcr'tcd from the r'0rrt'.\‘p0mlr'nrt’ of the Bath and West of Euglaml S'o<'iet_r - . (Bath, 1795), vii. ll3-22]. The whole work was republished by- Thomas Davis’s son in I813. INTRODUCTION XV But neither of these systems can exist unless they have good sheep downs.” Bratton common fields in the eighteenth century were not yet enclosed, there were extensive sheep downs, and farming practice seems to have followed Davis’s first system. Leases in the manors of Bratton, Arundel, Stourton and St. Maur show that Jeffery Whitaker held over 100 acres of land, both arable and pasture. A lease in Bratton manor, dated 1735, describes ‘Jeffrey Whitaker’s home living’.“ House, garden, orchard a. r. p."' 2 little Grounds‘ 3 - — Stoke Mead & Grounds 7. - - Stoke Parrock° 1 Butts . - Patcomb hillside - North Side of Longcomb — Heaven Cleeve“’ — Hipley — Yerburies Hill — Horsheads on North Side of Longcomb - Lower end of Longcomb — King Oak on lower Stoke Hill — Upper end of Longcomb — Upper or West Stoke Hill .