 | | | The Rare Divorce of Sarah Ann Pickett | |  The Picketts of Sandford were for generations shopkeepers and
tailors. It was probably this trade connection that took Harry Pickett to Maidstone, Kent, where he worked as Shopman for Woollen Draper Joseph Butcher, living with the Butchers at their Week Street home in the centre of the town. Less than 700 metres away Widow Eliza Gasson was licensee at the Kingsley Arms, Melville Road, Maidstone. Harry's local pub? In any event he met Eliza's only daughter Sarah Ann, and in July 1872 23 year-old Harry married the 20 year-old at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square. The marriage was doomed. Three children were born to the couple, and all three died within 5 years. According to Sarah, about two years into the marriage Harry began a systematic course of cruelty against his young wife, striking and beating her. They moved from Maidstone to South London, living in Camberwell and Brixton. The cruelty seems to have intensified. "Whilst there my husband constantly beat me, and I was afraid he would kill me... he reduced me to a state of starvation and day after day left me without any food in the house. " Harry was seeing other women. In 1876 he contracted VD, but Sarah Ann did not find out until August 1877. This was the final straw, and at last she moved out. After her departure Harry entertained himself with Maidstone prostitutes, but Sarah seems to have retained that hope that he would reform, and that perhaps their marriage could be salvaged. Then in early 1879 Harry sailed for Australia. In July 1879 Sarah filed a petition for divorce. Her sworn statement was supported by a witness, and the divorce was granted on 30th April 1880 and became absolute in November of that year. Sarah returned to Maidstone to live with her mother, who had by then remarried. On 21st June 1881 Sarah married builder William King of Old Brompton. They have sons George, and Simmonds and daughter Mary and in 1901 Sarah seems to be enjoying a comfortable marriage to a successful tradesman.
Harry settled in Sydney, Australia, where initially at least he worked as a warehouseman. He settled down, married Surrey emigrant Jemima Lancashire in July 1882, and together they had 4 children who went on to establish a Pickett clan in New South Wales.
In the latter half of the 19th century there were only about 200 divorces per year, and very few of these granted to women. Harry sacrificed his opportunity to give his side of the story. Had he done so there is some doubt that Sarah would have been granted a divorce, as the law was so stacked against women. Indeed it may only have been the fact that Harry had emigrated that convinced her to attempt the divorce. That she did, and that she was successful was rare indeed for the times.
Maidstone | | | | The Sad and Unfinished Story of Ellen Wright | On 30th December 1882, Ellen Huxtable, of Berrynarbour in North Devon married Sandford blacksmith James Wright. Twenty-four year old Ellen was the daughter of farmer and churchwarden John and Harriet (nee Perrin) Huxtable. 
Less than a month after the wedding Ellen was incarcerated in Exeter Prison, (left) where she would give birth to her first daughter. How did this newly married woman, from a respectable family find herself in such circumstances?
Around the time of their marriage husband James left the family business and moved to Swansea where he was working as a blacksmith, leaving his new bride with her parents. There were several Huxtable family members working in South Wales. Perhaps this prompted James to seek work there too. In any event his absence seems to have greatly upset his new wife. Did she know she was pregnant when he moved there or did the discovery contribute to her subsequent behaviour? What is certain is that she suddenly became desperate to be with her new husband. And this desperation drove her to a foolish crime. On 19th January 1883 she cashed a forged cheque for £30 (the equivalent of perhaps £1400 today) at the National Provincial Bank in Ilfracombe. Her actions were muddled, and betrayed an ignorance of the banking system. She was bound to be apprehended, and she was, almost immediately. She made no attempt to deny her crime. She claimed that nobody else had been involved, and that she needed the money to join her husband in Swansea; she had already sent her husband £2.
She appeared before Ilfracombe magistrates the next day, and was remanded to the County Assizes in Exeter the following week when she appeared before Mr Justice Grove. A medical certificate confirming the prisoner's pregnancy was presented. The prosecuting counsel said that before the offence the prisoner had borne a most irreproachable character and the officials of the National Provincial Bank would be glad if the judge could pass a merciful sentence. The judge said there had been a number of forgery cases that day, which suggested sentencing in the past had not been sufficiently severe. Clearly of the view that he was being lenient, he sentenced Ellen to 6 months imprisonment with hard labour.
The Nominal Register for Devon County Prison, Exeter records that Prisoner 860 Ellen Wright had two cuts across her left wrist. Was there anything more sinister about Ellen's desperation to join her husband? Or about her pre-nuptial pregnancy?
Daughter Lilian was born to Ellen Wright on 19th May 1883 in HM Prison, Exeter. Ellen and Lillian joined James in Wales after her release, and a second daughter Florence was born in Cardiff in 1886. By this time James was working as a signal man on the railway. After this Ellen disappears from the record. The children are brought up by their grandmother in Sandford. James reappears in the 1901 Census working as a railway porter in Bradford, Yorkshire. But of Ellen I can find no further trace.
Download a more detailed version of Ellen's story here  | | | Some unusual names in my tree:
Keturah Reep Lillicrap, b. 1878 in Halwell
Mustdie Milton, b. 1706, Crediton
Frederick Flood-Paddick, b.1886
Elisha Gullett, b.circa 1790
Seraphin Hooker, b.1837 Exeter (one of several so named)
Maurice August A Izambard, b. circa 1885
Jemima Blackburn Lancashire, b.1861, Newington
Sabina Gribble, b.1824, Crediton
Lewis Lewis, b. 1850, Crediton
Some Gems from Cornwall Record Office
Boadicea Basher, b. 1825, St Hilary
Foscurinus Turtluff Dyer, b. St Germans 1755
Honour Fraud, buried 1791, Bodmin
Obedience Ginger, married 1639, Kilkhampton
Guy Guy, Helston druggist, 1847
English Heard, married 1688, Quethiock |  | | | | | | | Letters of Lewis Wright and Mary Martha Berry | |   Agricultural Implement Maker Lewis Wright, son of Sandford Smith James Wright, courted Mary Martha Berry, daughter of Crediton plumber John Berry, during the 1870s.
In his youth at least Lewis seems to have been something of a lad. He recorded his first trip to London at the age of 15. It is evident from his letters that his social life encompassed many such trips.
Mary Martha Berry was a striking beauty. She was more reserved than Lewis, but clearly had tremendous spirit. The letters that survive between the couple reveal their characters, and make charming reading.
"Sandford, Dec 1st 1872.
My Dear Mary, I have not heard whether you arrived home safe or not as when I was at Crediton they have not heard but I hope you are. I am happy to say that I feel in much more comfortable state of mind than I did when I wrote to you last for believe me I shall never forget that Sunday evening when you spoke that dear little word 'yes' for I am sure if I loved you before that, I know it is a great deal more now and more especially now that I know that you love me in return....There is a Grand Yeomanry Ball to be held at Crediton on Decr 12th for Mr Bullers troop in full dress uniforms.... The best of it is Jim [his brother] can't dance, so me, Jim, Mr Snow and Mr Butt have spoken to Mr Harvey to give us a few lessons. I thought I might as well learn too. So we commence on Tuesday for five nights, two hours of a night. ...Just fancy me going dancing. I expect it will be very funny at first but I shall soon learn....With love that will last for you as long as I live and believe me to remain yours affectionately, Lewis. (I never pass that road without thinking of that little word 'yes')"
"Sandford, August 13th 1873.
My dearest Marie, I was very much pleased to receive your letter yesterday morning and to see that you were arrived safe.....There was an accident happened to the N Devon train on Monday afternoon, the engine got into the water at Cowley Bridge. Mother was in Exeter on Monday but fortunately came home by the train before. They have not got the Engine out yet...I have not been in to Crediton since and I don't think I shall until Sunday evening. I shall miss your dear company on Saturday night, the company that I value more than any one else in the world, for without your love Marie I should be miserable. (May I expect another letter if you have time) I must conclude as I am very busy. Accept my love and believe me to remain your ever affectionate, Lewis
May Heaven protect me for your sake
Pray both night and day
That I some day may call you mine
My own dear MMB
For you are all the world to me although so far away
I often think of the pleasant walks
And little MMB"
Mary's replies are rather more restrained, though we get a hint of her character here. Lewis is on one of his London trips. "Union Terrace, Crediton Dec 17 1875
My dear Lewis, I am very glad that you arrived quite safe and that you had it so nice going up. I thought you would be almost frozen, it was such a cold day, the coldest we have had. We had such a quantity of snow in the afternoon. I was obliged to go out in am. Whilst coming home I thought I would walk fast. The consequence was I almost fell and to save myself I leaned against an old woman's umbrella almost throwing her down. She looked very indignant while I only laughed....I can just fancy how much you enjoyed yourself last night at the Alhambra, And I suppose the final entry in today's programme will be Drury Lane Theatre or some other nice one. Tomorrow Thursday I wonder where you will be going. I shall be almost if not quite on the bars of the grate dreaming over the pages of the Family Herald. I think you told me you would not go the Crystal Palace as you had been there. I am sure you will have a lot to tell me when you return....I shall conclude wishing that you may enjoy yourself very much, and now accept the love of yours affectionately, Marie" The couple were married at Crediton Parish Church on 1st August 1877. They had six children who survived to maturity. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1927. Lewis died less than a year later, and Mary Martha, who was held in great awe by her grandchildren, survived until 1939.
 Mary Martha, Lewis and 4 of their children in 1922.  Bill for birth of Mary's first child | | | | | | The Connibeer Family of Colebrooke - Not Quite Respectable | | Robert Connibeer and his wife Elizabeth, nee Salter, seem to have been the kind of family that might attract attention in a small rural community, and perhaps at the beginning of the 19th century not for the best of reasons.
Robert was from Sandford, and Elizabeth from Dawlish. They tried to settle in Dawlish after their marriage in 1788, but the Dawlish Overseers would not have it, and in the same year Robert and Elizabeth were removed to Robert's home parish of Sandford. But in about 1805 or 1806 the family moved to neighbouring Colebrooke and settled there legally. They had at least twelve children - seven girls and five boys. Two of the girls died in infancy, perhaps three.
The remaining four girls seem to have been most active in the parish when they reached adulthood. Between the four of them they produced 9 illegitimate children - Elizabeth (Betty) - 2, Ann - 1, Mary - 3 and Grace - 3. Collectively the four Connibeer girls were responsible for 25% of the base children baptised in Colebrooke parish between 1813 and 1837. There were a series of bastardy orders taken out against a number of different men, including my first cousin 4 times removed, James Fey.
The youngest age at which any of the sisters gave birth was Elizabeth whose first son William was born when she was just 15 or 16. According to the bastardy examination " in the month of February last past (1806) she was mett on the road leading to Crediton by a Man whose Name was unknown to her who had Connection with her and he alone is the Father of the said Male Bastard Child, he the said Stranger having had carnal Knowledge of her Body on the Spot once and not since". Betty may, of course, have been protecting the true identity of the father, or the stranger may have forced his attentions on her, though there is no suggestion of that in the bastardy examination. | | 
| The orders made against the fathers (only four appear to have been identified - cousin James Fey of Colebrooke, William Preston of Drewsteignton, John Screech of Colebrooke, and Richard Stentiford of Zeal Monachorum) were for the sums of £1.00 - £1.8s for the lying-in of "the said Bastard Child" and the sum of 15-18 pence weekly maintenance. The mothers were required to pay 7-9 pence weekly to the Parish if they were not able to look after the child themselves. This was at a time when Ann Connibeer as a farm servant girl was earning 1s weekly plus board and an adult able-bodied male agricultural labourer would have earned 6s- 7s per week. Rents were about 1s per week.
Even the girls' sisters-in-law were of questionable character for the times. Sarah Hingston who married brother Samuel Connibeer had herself been responsible for two of the other base children born in the parish, to different fathers, before she married Samuel. And brother James Connibeer's wife of less than 6 months, Elizabeth, nee Burgoyne, received 6 months hard labour with 4 weeks solitary, when she and her brother G. Burgoyne appeared at the Devon County Sessions in February 1832. Her brother had stolen two pairs of shoes valued at 4s from his master J. Berry, for which he was sentenced to one month hard labour, two weeks solitary and a whipping. The new Mrs Connibeer had feloniously received the shoes, knowing them to be stolen. | | | | These are quotes from actual correspondence received by the staff of a Record Office somewhere. He and his daughter are listed as not being born. I would like to find out if I have any living relatives or dead relatives or ancestors in my family. Will you send me a list of all the Dripps in your library? My Grandfather died at the age of 3. We are sending you 5 children in a separate envelope. The wife of #22 could not be found. Somebody suggested that she might have been stillborn - what do you think? I am mailing you my aunt and uncle and 3 of their children. Enclosed please find my Grandmother. I have worked on her for 30 years without success. Now see what you can do! I have a hard time finding myself in London. If I were there I was very small and cannot be found. This family had 7 nephews that I am unable to find. If you know who they are, please add them to the list. We lost our Grandmother, will you please send us a copy? Will you please send me the name of my first wife? I have forgotten her name. A 14-year-old boy wrote: "I do not want you to do my research for me. Will you please send me all of the material on the Welch line, in the US, England and Scotland countries? I will do the research."
| | | | | | James Wright, West of England Iron Works | | In May 1881 the Devon County Show was held in Crediton. Great Great Grandfather Wright took a stand for his West of England Iron Works, and advertised the fact in all the local papers. According to the report in Trewman's Exeter Flying Post, he had one of the largest and most varied collections of implements and ironwork to be found in the show. His exhibits included specimens of ornamental gates "for which he has been honoured with Royal and most distinguished patronage including the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Somerset, Earl Portsmouth, Earl Devon and others."
The list of implements displayed on James's stand is fascinating. Ploughs included the A.1 Champion, fitted with steel breast plate and several implements and other general purpose ploughs "of his own invention and manufacture". Evidently the Champion Plough had been very successful , winning ploughing competitions throughout the county, and critical acclaim at the Taunton Show, the Royal Bath and West Show and at agricultural shows throughout Devon. | | 
| | The West of England Works was also exhibiting an improved self-lifting wheel drag "made from the pattern of his well-known Bath and West show's first prize drag", the Royal Invincible horse-rake with wrought iron wheels and steel teeth, reapers, steel rakers, manuals, Bamlett's, Hornsby's, Woods', Hendyside' s, and Burgess and Keys mowers and reapers,Woods', Hendyside' s, and Burgess and Keys mowers and reapers,Nicholson's first prize hay machines, Reeves and Son's patent improved manure, turnip and mangold drills, Reeves' patent elevators with horse gear attached, liquid manure cart with pump attached, Hendyside's patent flexible chain harrows, cider presses, iron folding, bar, and other rail fencing, unclimbable, game-proof, self-fixing iron sheep folding, ox and cattle hurdles, root pulpers, cake breakers, Cambridges' patent plod roller, ornamental tree seats, Ganett's combined corn drill, Baker's winnowing machines, Bartlett's weighing machines, superior two-horse waggons, farm carts and harvest carts. "The entire stand comprises as varied and superior a collection of implements as can be produced in an exhibition field". Brother and business rival Robert, of the Britannia Ironworks, Sandford, gets a rather more patronising review. " Robert Wright makes a very respectable display at stand 21".
In earlier times James and Robert had been partners in the West of England Iron Works, but something happened between the brothers that caused the partnership to be broken up in 1859. Robert started his own business - the Britannia Iron Works, and by the next generation the rivalry between the cousins was marked. It seems that by the early 20th century when great grandfather Lewis Wright should have had the business it was in trouble, and was being run by his wife. Shortly after that it was taken over by the cousins' Britannia Iron Works. | | 
Wright's implements
|  | | | | | | The Abandoning of Sarah Hector | | | | Sarah, daughter of pioneer Crediton photographer William Hector, inherited the creative genes in the family, as she was a music teacher, and several of her descendants were musicians. Edwin Fey probably met Sarah through his brother William, who lived next door to her in Crediton. Sarah married Edwin in 1870 in Bristol. Many of the Crediton and Shobrooke Feys had moved to Bristol, for as skilled tradesmen they could make good money in the expanding city. For 10 years Edwin, who was a builder, seemed content with his lot in Bristol, and he and Sarah had five children. But the Feys seem to have had an adventurous spirit and Edwin, like two of his brothers, went to the USA looking for work. He returned to Bristol and tried to persuade Sarah to emigrate. As she was then expecting their sixth child she was reluctant to make the journey, and could not be persuaded to go with him. Feeling that he had left his family well-provided for, Edwin left his wife and "eloped" with her best friend to the USA. This companion supposedly killed herself. Edwin changed his name to Frank Green, and bigamously married Rose. It is believed that Sarah heard nothing more of Edwin. Thinking herself to be widowed, in 1911 Sarah married George Bigwood in Bristol. She died in 1939. Edwin died in California in about 1923, having been a successful builder. Family stories say that Edwin always had tears in his eyes when he spoke of the family he had abandoned. |   Sarah Hector and Edwin Fey | | | | | | | Isolation and Death in Winkleigh - a Rural Tragedy | | | In 1796, a year after Susanna Crossman married militiaman John Heard in Sandford, Charity, a distant Wensley relative, married farmer John Luxton in North Tawton. The Luxtons had been landowners around Winkleigh for generations and could trace their line back to the 14th century.
Charity's great grandson Robert John Luxton of West Chapple Farm, Winkleigh, had been raised by his father Laurence on a creed of ruthless self-sufficiency and thrift as the only way to survive the pressures on late 19th century agriculture that had ruined his less prudent and wealthier farming cousins. In Robert John this creed developed into a tyrannical Puritanism and fear of intrusion. He drove off the suitors of his daughter Frances, hoping perhaps she would marry a cousin as so many of the Luxtons had before, keeping the land within the family. Her brother Robbie, the eldest son, inherited his father's suspicion and resistance to change, and in turn destroyed his younger brother Alan's wedding plans. |  West Chapple Farm | |   Left, Laurence Luxton, 1829-1832. Right Robert John Luxton, 1872-1939 with wife Wilmot, nee Short, 1882-1949, daughter Frances Wilmot, 1908 -1975 and son Robert 1911-1975. The pedigree of William Thomas Heard can be followed back to Grace Sharland and through her brother Francis Sharland b.1837, to Grace Wensley, and thus back to Laurence's g-grandparents, John Wensley and Charity Reed. | After Robert John's death in 1939, his children Frances, Robbie, and Alan lived on, unmarried, in the remote farm. Frances and Alan sought to assert their independence, and to break out from the smothering gloom of brother Robbie's parsimony. The war brought US flyers to an aerodrome on the outskirts of Winkleigh. And for a while Frances and Alan in particular were caught up in the changes wrought by this great upheaval. After the war Alan joined the Young Farmers and strove to modernise West Chapple's farming methods. But Robbie resisted this, and in many ways West Chapple continued to be farmed much as it had been in the mid nineteenth century. There was little mechanisation. Old almanacs served as textbooks for good husbandry. The farm thrived under this care, but in some respects it was as if the dead hands of their ancestors strived to shut out the twentieth century. Robbie even made the farm less accessible, closing off an entrance. Alan suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalised. When he came home he would stay in his bedroom for weeks on end. Frances too became more withdrawn, rarely venturing out except perhaps to visit family graves in Brushford churchyard three miles off, where today a bench commemorates her visits. | | | Gradually the two brothers and the sister became more reclusive, miserly and eccentric, and turned in on each other and the brooding archaic farm. For a while in the 60s and early 70s Frances seemed about to escape, and would embark on long foreign tours with a friend. But always she was drawn back into the closed world of West Chapple. As old age encroached on their isolated existence it became clear that with the youngest, Alan, unfit to work the farm, their anachronistic lifestyle could not be sustained. In 1975 it seemed certain that they would sell the farm and retire to a modern bungalow in Crediton perhaps. There was talk that they had bought a bungalow, that a deal had been struck for West Chapple: but in fact there had been rows, anxiety and uncertainty. "We were born on the farm and we should die here". A worry that Frances was heard to utter again and again. This may have seemed sinister to city-dwelling outsiders, but a farming colleague of mine, much more worldly than the Luxtons, told me that the only move he had made in his life was to a different bedroom when he got married, and that it was a soul-tearing wrench he still felt whenever he had to sell any land - land that was his birthright. |   
l to r: Frances 1908 -1975, Robbie 1911-1975, and Alan Luxton 1921 -1975 | | 
Left: Grave of Frances Luxton at Brushford Church, alongside the tomb of John Luxton 1767-1827, husband of Charity Wensley.
Above: Memorial Stone for Robert and Alan Luxton, on the grave of their parents and grandparents in Winkleigh Churchyard, where their cremated remains are interred.
| Alan in particular seems to have objected aggressively to the sale, arguing with both his brother and sister. They had sold their cattle, but were still not absolutely committed to the sale of the farm. But it seems that Robbie was convinced it must go forward.
On 23rd September 1975 a grocer's roundsman calling at the farm saw a white scarecrow lying next to the barn. On closer inspection he found that it was Alan Luxton in pyjamas and boots, his brains blown out. He summoned police, who cautiously searched the farm, as no gun had been found, and the gunman might still be lurking in the outbuildings. The house was deserted, but after some time the bodies of Frances and Robbie were found in the garden, both too with their brains blown out. Frances was on all fours, her knees drawn up as if in prayer. An old shotgun was beside Robbie.
The inquest found that Alan had killed himself first, Robbie had then killed Frances and committed suicide. Victims of their past and of their own dark and claustrophobic lives.
Frances is buried in Brushford churchyard. Alan and Robbie were cremated, and their ashes interred in their parents' grave in Winkleigh churchyard. John Cornwell has told the story of the Luxtons and West Chapple in Earth to Earth, published in 1982, and now apparently out of print. Genealogists should note that some of the Luxton family history there is inaccurate. | | | | | | | Miller Willing & his mysterious crime | | | Richard Willing was born in Loddiswell in about 1820, eldest son of miller Richard and Amy Willing of New Mill, Loddiswell. Willings had been and continued to be farmers around Loddiswell for generations, but our Richard's father seems to have been the first of the family to become a miller.Son Richard determined to follow in his father's footsteps, and in 1841 he was working as a servant at Washbrook Mill, Dodbrooke, where Phillip Hingston was miller. Richard married Phillip's daughter Jane in 1843, by which time he had himself learned the trade and was a miller, at Chittlesford Mill, Halwell. Jane bore Richard two children, John and Dorothy, but she died in childbirth in 1845, and the child Dorothy did not survive.
Richard did not grieve long. On 22 January 1846 he married Elizabeth Harley in Dean Prior. Elizabeth also bore Richard two children - Richard and Mary. Richard and Elizabeth moved to Lurgecombe Mill, Ashburton, where Elizabeth too died, in 1849, probably in childbirth again. Richard did not allow the grass to grow under his feet, and was remarried in a little over a year - this time to Susanna Sherwill, of Widecombe. The 1851 census finds Richard and Susanna still at Lurgecombe Mill, with 2 year-old Mary. Richard's sons are both with their grandparents in Loddiswell. | 
Washbrook Mill, Dodbrooke
Chittlesford Mill, Halwell
| |
Convicts in Kingston Penitentiary in 1875
Kingston Penitentiary
| Soon after this, disaster seems to have struck the family. By the beginning of July 1851, Richard was declared bankrupt. The bankruptcy hearings were completed by the end of July. Richard's response was to leave the country, more or less immediately. We next meet him in Canada East (Quebec) in the 1851 census, which in Canada was in fact taken in January 1852. Son Richard and daughter Mary accompanied Richard and Susanna to the New World, but eldest son John Hingston Willing stayed with his grandfather in Loddiswell. The Willings were sharing a log cabin with another emigrant family in the parish of Saint Malachie, in Beauharnois County at the time of the census. Richard described himself as a miller.
We do not know if Richard actually established himself in his trade. Within a few years he was in trouble again in Canada.
By the 1861 census he was in Frontenac County, Canada West - incarcerated in the provincial penitentiary in Portsmouth Village (now Kingston Penitentiary). His crime was arson, for which he received a ten year prison sentence. The crime was committed in Leeds and Grenville, a nearby county in Ontario. No details of Richard's crime have yet emerged. Was he in financial trouble again, and engaged in an insurance fraud, or is that a twentieth century crime?
Richard died in the penitentiary on 5th June 1865, of consumption, and was buried the same day in a common grave.
Thanks to Jane Sweet for her diligent research | | | | | | Tragic Fire at Shobrooke | | | Shobrooke House, some two miles from Crediton, has featured in the family history in several ways. The manor house and park was known as Little Fulford for most of its history, and was in the hands of the Tuckfield family and their descendants. In the late 18th and early 19th century Day Books of our builder John Prawl, and then his protégé , John Berry, Fulford appears as a source of much work, and almost daily one or more of the builders' craftsmen are working there.
With its pleasant parkland and ornamental pond, it became a favourite place for a picnic, particularly when courting. At least one Heard made a photographic record of trips to the park.
The Shelley family, cousins to the Tuckfields, took over the estate in 1880. In the mid nineteenth century the name had been changed from Fulford to Shobrooke Park. |  | |
| During the Second World War, St Peter's Preparatory School was evacuated from Broadstairs to Shobrooke House. Former pupils had included the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Gloucester. Amongst the pupils evacuated then was Peter de la Billiere who was to become General Sir Peter, Commander of British Forces in the Gulf War of 1991.
Rachel Wright, nee Pett (1922-2007), was cook at the school. Separated from husband Jack by his wartime posting, Rachel was one of a handful of domestic staff who lived in at the mansion, some of whom had moved with the school.
Some time before 4.00 am on 23rd January 1945 the alarm was raised. The mansion was ablaze. The telephone lines had been destroyed by the fire, so a schoolboy in pyjamas and his bare feet ran to Crediton to raise the alarm. Children and staff, including Rachel, jumped from the upper floors to the frozen snow-covered ground to escape the smoke and flames that had engulfed the building. Ladders were made from sheets and blankets, and several boys escaped down these. The fire brigade arrived from Crediton in time to rescue a group of 18 boys who were trapped on a porch. | | Despite their efforts two boys and a school nurse were overcome by smoke and perished in the fire. Rachel was one of nine people taken to hospital, suffering from burns and other injuries. Her father-in-law John Berry Wright had seen the fire from Sandford, and cycled to Shobrooke, anxious for his daughter-in-law. Husband Jack had been posted to the North of England. He heard on the BBC wireless news of the fire at Shobrooke. Unaware of how serious were her injuries, Jack was given compassionate leave, and rushed back to Devon to be with her in hospital. Rachel was made of strong stuff, and recovered from her ordeal.
The house was never rebuilt and its ruins are there to this day.
Read a contemporary newspaper account of the fire | 
Rachel Wright, nee Pett 1922-2007 | |  | Perhaps it's easy for us to forget these days how great a hazard fire was for our ancestors, in their thatched cottages, with open grates and scant regard for fire precautions. I can remember in my childhood decorating Xmas trees with real miniature candles in clip-on holders!
My grandparents lost all their possessions when their cottage at Redhill, Morchard Bishop (left) was destroyed by fire in December 1939. Kate Pitts, her daughter Sadie and a blind lodger, Miss Willmet, were at home, Nicholas Pitts and son Laurie having gone to work. About 8.45 am a spark from the chimney ignited the thatched roof. In no time at all the cottage was ablaze, and the fire quickly spread through the entire row of four cottages. A passer-by raised the alarm, and a retired policeman who lived nearby helped to rescue some of the elderly residents who were still in bed. The cottages stood on the brow of a hill, and the December wind fanned the flames. There was no time to retrieve much in the way of furniture or possessions. When the fire brigade arrived 45 minutes later the blazing roof had fallen in; nothing could be done to save the buildings. 13 people were left homeless. No trace of the cottages remains today. They have been replaced by smart bungalows.
Read a contemporary newspaper account of the fire | | | | | | | John Berry - the Boy Done Well! | | | 
John Berry 1780 - 1863 | In about 1791 11 year-old John Berry seems to have left home, to live with family in Crediton, perhaps to ease the burden on his twice-widowed father, Sandford thatcher George Berry. Somehow he is taken under the wing of Crediton builder John Prawl, and about 1794 apprenticed to him. Prawl was mason to the Governors of the church in Crediton - the highest office open to a local craftsman. The young John seems to have impressed his master, and the business day books reveal that often Prawl and Berry would work together on a job. The young man became a close confidant of his master. In 1802 they went off together to the militia muster, when the Napoleonic threat seemed particularly strong. The bond between Master and Worker was strengthened even more when the apprentice was given the hand in marriage of the boss's daughter. In 1803 John married Martha Prawl at Crediton. The event passes with little comment in the day book - "Self, Berry, Edwards, Tremblett, Wreford and Manley not at work". Berry, Edwards, Tremblett, Wreford and Manley were not at work the next day either, but two days later, all, including the groom, were back in harness. John Prawl seems to have been a good master, making loans to his workers, and not pressing them for clearance of their debts, to the extent that some were never cleared. | | By 1819, when he was well advanced in years John Prawl had passed effective control of the business to his son-in-law, for John is given an agreed wage and 50% of the profits. In 1822 on the death of master and father-in-law, John Berry took over the business, and proceeded to develop it into a more ambitious undertaking. From the day books it was evident that much of John Prawl's work had been for the large estates around the town, at Fulford estate, at Downes and at Newcombes. John Berry seemed to have continued with that business and began to win contracts for local civic improvements, including the contract for the construction of brick built drains for the town.
Canny John apprenticed his three sons to different trades. John [my g-g-grandfather] was a plumber, Thomas a mason, who had no taste for building, and went to sea, and William a carpenter, who took over the business from his father. Father and son secured a maintenance contract for some 20 road bridges around Crediton. When John retired, comfortably off, in 1850, he had established a dynasty of builders and contractors. | Crediton Railway Station 
| |  Right: The business today.
Below: William Berry sustained fatal injuries during the building of this bank.
 | Son William gained lucrative work with the expanding railways, for the building of stations and bridges, including those at Newton St Cyres and at Crediton. Work began on the latter on 5th August 1846. (The opening of the railway was delayed for several years after its construction by legal disputes. On 18th July 1850 William Berry noted "Agricultural Show. Self and wife went to Exeter by Railway in a 'trawler' and was accompanied by about 20 others and 2 horses". So the tracks were pressed into service without the engines! The railway was inaugurated finally on 2 May 1851) William suffered severe injuries after falling from a ladder whilst building a bank in Crediton High Street. He eventually died from the injuries sustained. William was succeeded by his son William Boddy Berry. As well as continuing with the expansion of the business, William became a pillar of the community. He was Chairman of the Council , a Magistrate and a Grand Juror. | | Despite his generally benign treatment of his workers, apparently not all were happy with their lot under Prawl. On 26 May 1808 a small advertisement in the Exeter Flying Post announced that Apprentice John Manley, aged 19 had run away from his master, John Prawl, Mason of Crediton. "Whoever employs, harbours or detains the said John Manley after this notice will be prosecuted as the Law directs" | By 1890 the business became " Builder and General Contractor, Stone and Marble Monumental Mason, Undertaker and Dealer in Building Materials". William's son Hubert ran it from about 1900. Edwin Vincent became a partner in 1923, and the business survives to this day, though there are no Berrys involved. | | | | | | Some Tragic Accidents in the Family Captain George Blackler, lost at sea from the SS Archimedes, 1923, aged 53
Ernest Fey, knocked down and killed by an army truck in 1945, aged 77 Mary Dicker, knocked down and killed by a Harrods electric van in the blackout in 1939, aged 70 William Berry, Builder, fell from a ladder while building a bank in Crediton; he never fully recovered, dying in 1874, aged 67
John Perrin Huxtable died of injuries received in a railway accident in Australia in 1893. Charles Procter, died as a result of an accident whilst working for his father's haulage firm, in 1936, aged 38 Gerald Manning Goding, who worked for the railway in Queensland, died aged 59, in 1936, following a collision between two rail trolleys when his head struck a rail sleeper. Solomon Hughes, Trinity Pilot, died on his schooner Margaret, caught up in an anchor whilst trying to disentangle it, in 1878, aged 45 John Dunn, run over by a train, in 1866, aged 25
Sidney Willing, 4 years old, fell from the mast of the Yalta whilst en route to Australia in 1869. Kate Pitts, blown over by high winds whilst on holiday, and suffered a brain haemorrhage, in 1954, aged 76 Neville Stone, overcome by fumes, fell down a manhole and was killed whilst working for the Sewage Authority in Brisbane, aged 25, in 1928.
Gertrude Horsell, killed in a rail accident in Sydney in 1954, aged 91
Alfred Harris, working for the Grand Trunk Railway in Montreal fell from "Black's Bridge",Verdun, Montreal into the Verdun aqueduct and his body was retrieved when they drained the canal. |
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