Farming families in 19th century Eastrington

Batty - Horsley - Norwood - Vause - Stogdale - Shaw - Scutt - Goundrill

The Batty family

John Batty was born in 1767 and was a yeoman freeholder in 1806. He was married to Elizabeth and they had at least two children: Elizabeth [born 1812] and William [born 1814], who died aged 6 months. Mrs Elizabeth Batty died in 1819 aged 46. John Batty was allotted 17 acres at enclosure and in 1822 he was living in High Street, and owned a homestead and croft to the west of Nanrock Lane. He also owned a croft down Moor Lane. John Batty died in September 1841 aged 74.

In 1830 his daughter, Elizabeth, married George England and they had a daughter Elizabeth born at Keyingham. After the death of her husband Elizabeth married again to William Thompson, but sadly he was killed on the railway in 1875 and she died the following year. Her daughter Elizabeth married John Buttle from Hive and they lived in what was probably the Batty family home in the centre of the village until Elizabeth's death in 1885. It was for many years where the Kay family had their coal yard, and has now been demolished to make way for new housing.

The Horsley family

Thomas Horsley was a freeholder and yeoman in 1806 and was allotted 9 acres at enclosure. His father was John Horsley, a cordwainer from Market Weighton who married Elizabeth Brigham in 1763. The couple had at least seven surviving children: sons William, Thomas, Robert, Richard and John and daughters Grace and Elizabeth, who intermarried with many local families including the Bletchers, Burns, Stephensons and Jacksons. The family stayed in the area until the 1870s, farming for a time at Belby. The last of the family to live locally was George, a butcher, who moved to the Sheffield area.

For more on William Horsley of this family who emigrated to Canada follow this link to the emigration page

The Norwood family of Townend farm

John and Ruth Norwood [nee England] moved to Eastrington from the Laxton area in the 1770s. They came as tenants to Townend Farm, which was owned by John Dunnington Jefferson, the lord of the manor. John Norwood served as churchwarden many times from 1774 to 1803 and was prosperous, farming one of the largest village farms. He rented several fields in the Farmses area as well as Captain Garth [now behind the 'council houses'], Great and Little Leys [to the south off Sandholme Road], Cobble Butts croft [a small croft, opposite the farm] and Nanrock croft [behind Townend farm and Amethyst house].

Their son William [b.1774] married Hannah Barrat in 1811 and, although John and Ruth were by now quite elderly, with the birth of baby William in 1813 the future seemed secure. Mrs Ruth Norwood died in June 1816 aged 83 but John and William continued to farm at Townend and were able to pay the rent. Then tragedy struck when, after giving birth to her sixth child in the summer of 1827, William's wife Hannah died. She was 38 and left five children, ranging from three to fourteen years old. Baby Thomas was christened on 29th July 1827 but did not survive and was buried with his mother two days later. Two years later in 1829, old John died aged 85.

William Norwood brought up his family, possibly with the help of his unmarried sister Alice. He was elected churchwarden in 1831 and was one of eight villagers listed on the electoral roll of 1834 as being qualified to vote as occupier of 140 acres of land. But, like so many others, this once prosperous family were about to fall on hard times. In November 1837, William's brother Joseph died leaving a wife and 12 year old son; in May 1838, sister Alice died, and in December William himself died, aged 64.

By 1841 William's children were still trying to keep the farm going. The eldest of the family was William, who was now 28 and living with his brother John, who was 25, and sisters, Ruth, 24, Ann, 20, and Eliza, 15. Also living with them was their cousin John, aged 15. But young John's half sister Hannah was in Howden workhouse, having just given birth to 11 week old Joseph.

And ten years later, in 1851, matters were even worse. The Norwoods had given up Townend Farm. Young William himself was now in the workhouse and described as a 'pauper farm labourer'. Baby Joseph, now 9, was still there too and William's brother John was living in Eastrington with his aunt, Mrs Elizabeth Stogdale, but not working.

In 1881 Joseph was a gas works stoker and lived with his family in Sunderland

The Vause family

After the Norwoods, the new tenants of Townend farm were Charles and Sarah Vause. Charles was from Laytham and Sarah originally from Givendale. In 1851 they employed an amazing 23 laboureres but by 1871, although still farming 140 acres, they were now employing one labourer and two boys and their 17 year old daughter Ann was living with them.

However, by 1881, Charles and Sarah, now in their 60s, had given up the farm and were living on High Street, with Charles Vause being described as a farm labourer. Charles Vause died November 1893 aged 82.

The Stogdale family

The Stogdale family came to Eastrington from the Bubwith/Spaldington area in the 1830s. They originated at Burn near Selby. John Stogdale [b. 1771] and his wife Elizabeth Stogdale, nee Barratt [born Asselby] probably lived at Amethyst house. Their son Joseph [b. 1813] was, by 1837, the tenant of the Manor House and its farm. John Stogdale died aged 71 in 1841.

By 1851 Joseph and his wife Elizabeth had a family of 4 children. A year later, they moved to High Metham, where 4 more children were born. Joseph's mother died in 1862 [aged 71] and the family seem to have moved back again to Eastrington [possibly to Amethyst house]. Then, two years later, in November 1864, Joseph and Elizabeth's eldest child, 21 year old Mary, died. Soon afterwards in 1865 George Nurse was writingto his relatives in Canada, '...Poor Joseph Stogdale is very bad. He cannot live longe and very greate famaly and not much to live one....say he as allmost got through wat he 'as...' Sadly, George was right, as Joseph died in January 1865.

His widow, Mrs Stogdale, tried to make ends meet by running a little shop and taking in lodgers, but by 1881 the family had left the village. Mrs Stogdale was living with her daughters Hannah and Elizabeth [who were working respectively as a saleswoman and a machinist] and her sons William [a shopman] and Joseph [a vanman] in Chorlton on Medlock in Lancashire, while her son John [then 32] was a carpet planner in Sheffield. By 1901, William was a grocer and Joseph a greengrocer in South Manchester and their unmarried sister Elizabeth, aged 50, was a shirt machinist - all a long way from farming in Eastrington.

Joseph Stogdale's son, Joseph Stanley Stogdale, with his wife Hannah and son Joseph emigrated to Montana in USA.

The Shaw family

Henry Shaw, originally from Swanland, moved to Eastrington with his wife Ann and young daughter Sarah in around 1848. In 1851 he was aged 30, and the family now included two year old Thomas and baby Elizabeth. Henry was farming 76 acres and employing one labourer and it seems likely that he was the tenant of Elm Tree farm. The Shaws prospered and Henry bought land of his own [possibly at Ousethorpe] so, by 1871, he could describe himself as land owner and farmer of 200 acres, employing one labourer and three boys. A second son, Nathaniel, was by then 13.

Ten years later, Henry Shaw and his wife had moved to School farm and he was farming 50 acres.

He was closely involved with the school, holding the post of chairman of the school board for several years. In fact, when he died in April 1910, the school was closed for the afternoon of his funeral as a mark of respect as he had 'been connected with the school from its inception'. His son Nathaniel became a coal merchant, running a business from the Hull and Barnsley yard at Howden. Meanwhile, in 1881, Morris Featherstone from Spaldington was farming Elm Tree [as the tenant of Mr Thomas Jackson] and was living there with his wife Emily and their young family. Sadly, Mrs Feathersone died aged 29 in 1884 and by the following year the 154 acre farm was occupied by John Scutt.

The Scutt family

The Scutt family of Eastrington are descended from a local family with long established roots in Hook. Yorkshire. The family names of Jonathan and Marmaduke run through the generations. Many were farmers in the Marshland area. John's father was a Jonathan and his father in turn was a John.

John Scutt was, in 1885, almost 60 and was originally from Whitgift. He was married to Susannah Stamford who was ten years younger than him [born West Butterwick] and they had five daughters [Jane, Sarah Ann, Minnie, Florence and Lilian] and one son, Jonathan, who was then aged about 20. The family had moved several times before they came to Eastrington - the older children were born at Staddlethorpe and the younger ones at Adlingfleet, while by 1881 they were living on a farm of 120 acres at Amcotts.

For a time Florence Ada Scutt, daughter of John and Susannah, was school monitor. Her brother Jonathan, the only son, married Eliza Jane Holey on June 16th 1890, which was 'Feast Monday'. Two years later the couple moved to farm at Duncotes, which stood opposite Gate farm at Balkholme. They had a large family of eight sons and five daughters but not all of them survived to adulthood. In January 1901, John William 'Willie' Scutt, their 10 year old son, died of scarlet fever and in January 1923, Norman Scutt, aged 12, their youngest son, died of croup. In 1908 Mr and Mrs Jonathan Scutt moved to take over Elm Tree farm from Mr Scutt's father and they remained there until about 1937, when they moved to a smaller house ['The Nook' on the corner of Pinfold Street]. Their youngest surviving son, Arthur Calvert Septimus Scutt, took over at Elm Tree. They celebrated their golden wedding in 1940 and Mrs Scutt then recalled how at one time she made and sold a hundred pounds of butter a week, which was sold at 8d a pound.

The Goundrill family

The Goundrills were a large family, with branches at Metham, Newland and East and West Lintons as well as at Eastrington. Their family tree is a little confusing to follow as every generation had several Williams and Davids. A David Goundrill married Sarah Beaston at Eastrington in 1756 and it was their son William Goundrill who, in 1789, sold a barn and small piece of land in Manor Garth to the Eastrington followers of John Wesley, which they converted into a chapel.

In 1822, William Goundrill was listed as the owner as the rest of the field adjoining the chapel [now occupied by old peoples' bungalows] and which was called then Uccleby croft. He also owned the farm next door - School farm - but it was occupied by his son William and his family. William Goundrill Snr also owned the farm and stackyard in the centre of the village, known later as Anelay's, with the farmhouse standing on the village green and backing onto the churchyard and the yard stretching through to Pinfold Street. This was occupied in 1822 by David Goundrill, William's eldest son. David Goundrill also rented the garden and orchard on the corner of Queen Street, where the school now stands, and the family also owned the area now used as the school playing field, as well as 7 acres down Westfield lane and a 5 acre field north of Sandholme Road.

William Goundrill was living at West Linton when he died in 1831 aged 70. He left much of his Eastrington property to his daughter, Jane, who had married William Robinson of Newland. In 1840 she sold the Wesleyans a little more of the field around the chapel. She died in 1844 aged 37.

The family had several branches, but briefly: Jane's half brother, William, who was living at School farm died aged 51 in 1837, although his wife Elizabeth was still farming in her 70s in Eastrington. One of their daughters, Jane, married William Nurse and emigrated to Canada. Their son [another William] farmed at East Linton and had a large family of at least 10 children. William Goundrill Snr [1762- 1831/2] had a brother, David, who farmed in the Laxton/Saltmarshe area. His son, also David [born at Carr House], married the 'girl next door', Hannah Eland of Metham. She inherited a farm at Metham but eventually, after her husband's death, agreed that she would sell it and her two sons, William and David, would benefit and that she would receive an annuity.

Part of the money was used to buy Eastrington mill and William moved there from Metham. But he didn't stay long and soon moved away. In 1865 George Nurse wrote, '...I think old Mrs Goundrill is getting fast through her money as William as taken a mill at Kellington near Snaith but she as not gon with him. He ass not been over.' He did not return but, by 1880, the William Goundrill who had been farming at East Linton was living in the mill cottage with his wife Elizabeth, his sister Maria and his son Blanshard, who was working the mill and 23 acres of farmland. Another son, Robert, was farming Townend farm in 1881.