Donkey Lane Community Orchard - The Inhabitants of Guntrip's Lane 1851

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Drawing courtesy of Bernard Braun

Donkey Lane Community Orchard – The Inhabitants of Guntrip’s Lane – 1851

1. John & Sarah Guntrip

In 1851 all three cottages in the Donkey Lane “Orchard”, containing the six households, were occupied. The lane, branching off as it does from the present “High Street”, not yet severed off from the village by the railway line, and stretching uphill over the fields to the Upper Icknield Way, had seen a change of name since 1841 when it was enumerated, or certainly the lower part which led from Hill Farm and past the cottages, as Holland Lane. Now in 1851 it is described as “Guntrip’s Lane”. One family living in the lane bears the surname of Guntrip and it would appear that the Lane took its new name from this fact.

Ten years earlier, in 1841, John and Sarah Guntrip, along with Sarah’s widowed mother, Mary Gomme were living there. Mary had passed away in 1842 leaving John and Sarah as the only occupants of the cottage. John Guntrip, of Thame, had married a Sarah Gomm/Gumm on the 7th December 1818 when John would have been about 37 years of age and Sarah about 36 - indicating that they had married quite late in life. No details of any children have been found so perhaps the marriage was childless. We do not know when they moved into the cottage in Holland’s Lane but this cottage formed their matrimonial home during the latter stages of their life together.

John, although now aged 73, had not retired and was still working as a “dealer in wood” who, we assume, would therefore have been purchasing timber from the local woods either by bidding at auction or buying certain areas of trees in the wood, arranging felling and taking the huge tree trunks back to the village. He probably stored the trees in the garden of his cottage or in a yard somewhere in the village and in some cases may have left them several months or years to “season” before being ready for use and sale. He may have cut the trunks down to smaller sizes. The wood and timber would then have been available for sale to local businesses who converted the timber into other smaller, saleable items - the chair maker, the chair turners, if the turners did not have a pitch within the woods themselves, the wheelwright, the cabinet maker, the carpenter and any other artisan who used wood to produce a finished article.

Sarah is noted as a “Lace Dealer”, allocating lace business to the numerous lacemakers in Chinnor and she collected, or had delivered to her, the finished lace articles. And there were numerous lacemakers. Within Chinnor and Oakley, and excluding Wainhill and Henton, there were a total of some 264 lacemakers out of a total of 620 occupations, which is over 42% of those declaring an occupation - with most households having at least one lacemaker at home. If Sarah dealt with a reasonable proportion of these households she would have been well known to several inhabitants and visits to and from the Guntrip’s cottage may have been plentiful. 

As a result of Sarah’s numerous contacts with householders and John’s with local businesses in the village their name would have been known to a great many locals and this may be the reason why locals referred to the lane as “Guntrip’s Lane”, and the Census enumerator, in 1851, appears to have followed suit. The Census enumerator was a Mr William Thomas Webster. He was an assistant overseer to the parish and was himself noted in the 1851 Census as being a Land Measurer living in the village. Therefore, he would have had an intimate knowledge relating to local events and the names that the villagers gave to the roads and lanes. 

Interestingly there was a Guntrip Lane in the parish of Boarstall in Buckinghamshire. In 1848 there had been complaints in the newspaper that this Lane, and a Painshill Lane, were in an abominable condition. Like the lane in Chinnor, it probably was not a main thoroughfare but a minor road. Unlike Chinnor the census for Boarstall in 1841 and 1851 makes no mention of an official Guntrip’s Lane. There was a Thomas Guntrip living in that village in 1851. In 1841 he was recorded as a publican, in a trade directory of 1848 as a Beer Retailer and in 1851 census as a farmer. It would suggest that this Guntrip’s Lane had taken its informal name from this family - thus mirroring the reasons why the Guntrip’s Lane of both Boarstall and Chinnor were so named.

John Guntrip died in 1854 leaving Sarah a widow. Sarah survived for a further 5 years and the Church records reveal that she was buried within Chinnor Churchyard on the 22nd February 1859 aged 77. Thus, a cottage in Guntrip’s Lane became vacant - the Guntrip name had come to an end. In the next Census, two years later, in 1861 the name of the lane had formally reverted back to “Hollans Lane”. It seems, however, that the Guntrip name did linger on in the memory of some residents. 25 years later, in the 1885 Polling Registers, despite the fact that some 24 years previous, the Lane name had “officially” reverted back to Holland’s Lane, three of the Roger’s family, eligible to vote, have their qualifying address noted as “Guntrip’s Lane”.

2. Esther Wade (& Mary Munday)

Esther Wade, 76 years of age, still remained as an occupier in one of the cottages along with a Mary Munday, a widow, aged 70. Esther is now also a widow since husband John’s death in 1847.

Like so many others, Esther and Mary both make a small income as one of the numerous lacemakers within the village. Sadly, Esther did not see another year and aged 77 died and was buried within the Chinnor churchyard on the 26 January 1852. Mary Munday, died 4 years later meaning that another house in Hollands Lane was then empty and ready for habitation by others. 

3. The Bishops - Jacob, Ann, Martha

Also still living in the Lane in 1851 are the Bishop family. Jacob and wife Ann and daughter Martha occupy the cottage. Jacob, aged 53, is yet another agricultural worker gaining employment on one of the local farms. It appears that they had lost one of their daughters, Susan/Susanna, in the intervening years since 1841 leaving only the one surviving child, Martha. She is also one of the many lacemakers residing in the village bringing a small income into the family purse. 

However, the household lost one of its occupants very shortly after the 1851 census was carried out when Ann Bishop, the wife, died in April 1851 aged 55. Jacob’s widowerhood and period of mourning, however, was not to last for more than a year when, in 1852, banns were issued for a marriage between Jacob, widower, and an Ann (also possibly known as Hannah) Avery, spinster. Ann was originally from Bledlow but was now an occupant of Chinnor parish. So the cottage had seen the departure of Jacob’s first wife, Ann, in 1851, but by 1852 Jacob’s second wife, Ann/Hannah, had moved into the family cottage along with Jacob and daughter Martha. Although Hannah was noted in the Marriage Banns as a Spinster, she may well have given birth to a daughter in 1842 - and if so, presumably out of wedlock. This assertion is made because in the 1861 Census living within the household is a Mary Ann “Bishop”, noted as a “daughter in law”. And on the death Certificate of Hannah Bishop in 1888 the informant of the death is a daughter “Mary Ann”. So, by 1852 the cottage may have contained four occupants following Jacob’s second marriage. By 1855, however, the household was reduced by one when Martha, the daughter, aged merely 28, died unmarried. 

Families departed since 1841 Census

Since the 1841 Census, some families had moved away and some new families have arrived.

a. The Ways

One family who had left in the last ten years were the Way family. In 1841 William & Elizabeth were living with their 4 children in one of the cottages. But in 1844 an unforeseen tragedy was to strike. In this year William was buried in Chinnor Churchyard and the church register interestingly noted that he was “killed on the Thame Road being overridden by a horseman”. According to local newspaper reports he was returning back to Chinnor from Thame Market, walking behind a donkey cart. A Mr Horpwood, a farmer from Kingston, was riding back along the road. Mr Way seemingly moved away from the cart to go to the off side of the road, either with the intention of making way for the horseman or, because there is a report that he was hard of hearing, he was merely wandering across the road and did not hear the oncoming hooves. Whatever the reason Mr Horpwood, on spotting Mr Way, was unable to stop the horse which struck him in the back. The force of the collision caused William to fall heavily under the horse causing instant death. At the Inquest held on the following day no blame was attached to Mr Horpwood as it was held that it had been impossible to avoid the collision. The Inquest issued a verdict of “Accidental Death”. The circumstances were fatal to poor William - and the further result was that it left Elizabeth with no main wage earner and four fatherless sons. In consequence, in 1851, having moved out of Holland Lane into a cottage in “The Street”, Chinnor, she had become a pauper relying on assistance from the Parish to supplement her meagre earnings from lacemaking. Additional household income was provided by her three sons William and Heden, as farm labourers, and Alfred, the youngest, aged 16, as an errand boy. George, a fourth son, had moved away from Chinnor to Woolwich. He lived with a Henry Saw, a grocer, employing three men one of whom we assume was George, employed as a Porter. Also living in is Henry’s brother, Joseph Saw, a shopman, who was, coincidentally, born in Chinnor. We assume that Joseph has assisted in taking George away from Chinnor to gain employment elsewhere. 

The newspaper reports at the time of the accident involving William Way stated that as well as returning an “Accidental Death” verdict it also stated “a deodand of 5 shillings on the horse”. A deodand related to a chattel which a coroner decided had caused a death. In the case of an animal its value was assessed and the owner was expected to pay a fine equal to the value. This fine appears to have been paid to the Court rather than to the victim’s family. Sadly, for Elizabeth Way the accident occurred just two years before the introduction of the Fatal Accidents Act 1846 which enabled families of those killed to claim some form of monetary compensation. 

b. Thomas Williams & the Houletts/Howletts

Thomas Williams and his family have also left the lane to live in “The Street”/“The Old Workhouse” and the Houlet (Howlett) family have since moved into the lower part of Chinnor Village. Thus, three cottages have become available for occupation.

Newcomers to the Lane

4. The Stratfords - Phebe, Joseph, William, Caroline, John

One of these new residents is a Phebe Stratford and her family who had moved into one of the cottages. Ten years earlier she was residing in Winnal (Wainhill) with two children Joseph 9 and William 3 - all three at that time claiming off the parish for support as “paupers”. As a Phebe Young she had married an Edward Stratford in 1834. They had lived together at nearby settlement of Wainhill but when Edward died in January 1839, aged only 26, he left Phebe a widow with two small children (Joseph 7 and William 1) to maintain. It will be noted from the census details that son Joseph was born in 1832 which was, of course, a couple of years before Phebe had married Edward, so there are questions as to who his father was. 

Phebe continued to reside at Wainhill and she was residing there in 1841 with the two children Joseph and William now aged 9 and 3. Of course, with the death of her husband, she now had no main wage earner within the household and therefore needed the assistance of the parish in order to survive. By 1851, having moved to Guntrip Lane, Phebe still claims for assistance from the Parish but there is also some income, however small, earned by Phebe as a lacemaker and her two sons Joseph and William, bringing in an income as labourers on one of the local farms. But there are also two other occupiers in the cottage namely a Caroline Stratford and John Stratford, aged 8 and 3 respectively. They have obviously been born after the death of Phebe’s husband Edward and cannot therefore have been fathered by him. It is unlikely that Phebe has remarried as she is still designated as a widow in 1851. So, who was the father of these children? The answer is to be found the church registers. In 1848 Caroline, born on the 18th May 1843, having now reached the age of 5, is baptised, not within the precincts of the church but baptised “privately”, presumably within Phebe's home at Wainhill. The Church records also note the father of Caroline was a Jesse Ing. At this time Jesse was a labourer residing, not in Wainhill, but in nearby Bledlow. The next entry in the parish register reveals a similar private baptism for son John, born 28th March 1848. In this case the father is not Jesse Ing but a Samuel Mead, a labourer, who, like Jesse, resided at Pitch Green in Bledlow. It transpires that this baby John also had a twin sister, Sarah, and she was also baptised. However, Sarah did not survive her second birthday as a Sarah Stratford, just 1 year 9 months, was buried in Chinnor Churchyard on the 15th January 1850. 

As the baptisms did not take place within the Church was this because of the illegitimacy of the three children? Did the parish attempt to get money out of Jesse and Samuel to assist in the maintenance of the children? Why did Phebe bother to get the children baptised at all? There is a school of thought that in order to claim assistance as a pauper from the parish for children it was necessary to prove that the children were born within the precincts of the parish. The evidence of baptism would be proof of this and thus would greatly assist in any claim made against the parish for assistance. 

It is interesting to note that Jesse Ing, the son of John Ing, butcher of Pitch Green, did marry - but not Phebe. He married an Ann Smith in 1848. A Jesse Ing was charged in 1849 with assaulting an Eliza Smith - Jesse maintaining that the alleged assault arose from a family quarrel. Was this Eliza a relation, perhaps sister, of Ann? He was found guilty. In the early 1860s he became the landlord of the Three Crowns Public House or beer house - an establishment that lay at Cross Lanes on the Road between Chinnor and Pitch Green. Ann may have done well to have persuaded Jesse to marry her because when he died in 1887 a grant of representation valued his personal estate (he obviously did not own land or a house) of some £ 30.00. 

5. The Marriotts, William, Ann, Caroline, Rebecca, Joseph

Another set of newcomers to the Lane cottages are the Marriotts. The occupants consist of farm labourer William, head of the household with wife Ann. They, like the Guntrips, are elderly, both aged 66. They are born and bred Chinnorites. The house is shared with two daughters, Caroline and Rebecca. Also living there is a Joseph Marriott who is the younger brother of William, being aged 62. It would seem that Joseph had moved in with brother William, and family, following the death of his wife. Like William he is contributing to the family income as a farm labourer.

William and Ann (previously Hester) had married later in life - they had only become spouses one year previously in 1850. This late marriage probably took place as both had lost their former spouses. In 1841 William was living in Chinnor Road with a wife named Charlotte and 5 children which included Catherine (8) and Rebecca (4). But wife Charlotte had died in 1847 leaving William a widower. In 1841 Ann Hester, Jacob’s wife to be, was living at Hempton/Wynall aged 45 with a John Hester and a James Hester (both aged 15, so we assume twin sons) - but no husband is mentioned.

William, now a widower, had obviously struck up a bond with Ann and Marriage Banns were issued in Chinnor Parish Church in April and May 1850 so that he and Ann could marry. The marriage ceremony took place on the 25th May 1850. William was described as a widower and Labourer and Ann a widow and Lacemaker - both of them applying their “mark” indicating that neither were able to sign their names. This was not unusual as many people at this time, who may have lacked a formal education, would be able to read but had difficulty in writing. The happy event was witnessed by a Henry Marriott and a Mary Marriott. It would seem that following their marriage they moved, as a couple, into the cottage in Guntrip’s Lane.

6. The Folly family

The last family residing in the cottages are the Folly family. The family household consists of 6 occupants. The head of the household is John Folly, who is married to his wife Elizabeth. Living with them are John’s two sons Thomas and Joseph and a daughter Elizabeth. The final, and sixth occupant, is John’s “son-in-law” John Peckyns/Parkyns. The latter is, in fact, not a son in law as we would understand but John’s stepson. This John Parkyns is the son of John’s wife, Elizabeth, by a former marriage.

John had married Elizabeth at St Andrews Church some 20 years previous on the 4th July 1830 in the presence of a Daniel Seymour and an Edmund Stevens - the records showing John as a batchelor but Elizabeth has been married previously and is noted as a widow. Both John and Elizabeth made their “mark” indicating that neither of them was able to sign their name. Elizabeth is some 5 to 10 years older than John (her birth-dates in the various census vary as to her birth year)!

Whilst Thomas the eldest child at 18 is a farm labourer the remaining two boys are shown merely as labourers. However, John Folly is a bricklayer. He is a member of the local Folly family who had been connected with the bricklaying business for at least a century as in a deed dated 1736, relating to a house and garden in Chinnor, a James Folly is referred to as a Bricklayer. John and other Follys were connected with this trade during the 1800s. At this time an Edward Folly was trading, in Oakley, as a bricklayer. Henry Folly and a William Folly were trading as Bricklayers in 1864.

10 years earlier, before moving to Guntrip’s Lane, John and Elizabeth were living in Wainhill interestingly a mere 4 houses away from Phebe Stratford (referred to above in “the Stratford family”) so it seems as though both John Folly and his family and Phebe Stratford had moved from Wainhill to Hollands/Guntrip’s Lane sometime between 1841 and 1851. In John’s somewhat crowded household at Wainhill ten year earlier living with him and Elizabeth are four children from their marriage namely Thomas Folly 9, Joseph Folly, 6, Mary Folly 4, Elizabeth Folly 2 and also a Rachel Parkyn 15, Lacemaker, and finally John Parkyn, Agricultural Labourer, also 15. Daughter Mary had sadly died at the age of only 12 in 1849 so does not appear in the 1851 household and Rachel has seemingly moved on.

Bernard Braun February 2022

If you are interested in knowing more or you have further information or photographs to add to the ‘Story’, we would love you to contact us either by email greeningchinnor@gmail.com or phone Carol Stewart on 07764 452777.

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