The Thompson Family (draft)
This section has been contributed by a descendant of the Thompson family, Michael Watkins. We are very grateful to Michael and his family for this.
It deals with the Thompson family who arrived in Pirbright in 18XX and farmed several parts of Pirbright, including Wickhams Farm, XXXX and XXXX. We don't think that there are any members of the family with the name Thompson still living in Pirbright, although some descendants of the original Thompson family are still involved in Pirbright life in one way or another (IS THIS TRUE?).
TABLE OF CONTENTS TO FOLLOW
Lucy Thompson & Family
The oldest Thompson gravestone in Pirbright churchyard, that is still standing and legible, is that of Lucy Thompson. Lucy’s short life raises several queries but was relatively uneventful. Certainly it was nothing like as dramatic as those of her parents, William and Harriet Luff. Unfortunately the effect on Lucy of her upbringing will never be known.
William Luff (1827-1893)
Lucy’s father was William Luff, born into a farming family at Quinnell House, Kirdford, Sussex in 1827. Kirdford lies within a triangle of villages astride the Surrey/ Sussex border of Lurgashall, Alfold and Wisborough Green, each about 6 miles from each other; Loxwood is a hamlet within Wisborough Green and 2 miles south of Alfold. In the mid 1800s at least 20 heads of household in this triangle were named Luff, though the majority were in Lurgashall.
William was married in June 1844 to Harriet Saunders, when both had just turned 17 and Harriet was already 8 months pregnant with their first child, Charles. Harriet had been born in Lurgashall but worked in a grocer’s shop in Kirdford in 1841, which was very close to Quinnell House. After their marriage the couple moved to the inauspiciously named Winefield Wood Common on the edge of Lurgashall. Their son Charles was baptised in the village in July. During the next 2 years William’s father, James Luff, moved to a bigger farm in nearby Dunsfold and William was able to move back to Quinnell House, where his second son, William, was born in 1847. Quinnell House was a farm with 160 acres and employed 3 men and 2 boys according to the 1851 Census by which time a third child, Lucy had been born.
In late 1852 or 1853 William and Harriet moved to Pirbright. Another son, Lewis, was baptised in Kirdford in September 1852 but William was on the electoral roll in Pirbright in 1853 occupying buildings and land in West Heath, which were almost certainly Wickhams Farm, where he is recorded in the 1861 Census.
The mobility of farmers in the 1850s, though unusual today, was quite common in those days. In the 1851 Census Pirbright had 21 farmers, but only 4 of those had been born in Pirbright with a further 5 from the neighbouring villages of Worplesdon and Frimley. Another 8 came from within 15 miles but there was also one from Berkshire and one from Sussex. The latter was William White at Mill Farm, who had also been born in Kirdford and his sons and grandchildren in the neighbouring villages of Dunsfold and Wisborough Green. Almost certainly William White would have known William Luff’s father, and their sons would have been acquainted too. So it would seem very likely that it was William White who passed the information to William Luff that Henry Halsey was looking for a new tenant for Wickhams because Richard Honer was moving to Chobham. What prompted William and Harriet to move is less clear. But Quinnell House was no longer a farm in 1861 so it could have been that the landowner was reorganising the tenancies. Possibly, in the light of subsequent events, there might have been other issues, like debts, which made them want to leave Kirdford far behind. Certainly Wickhams was a much smaller farm (80 acres) though it also employed 3 men. So it was not a step up.
The land which formed Wickhams in 1841 is coloured yellow on the 1873 OS Map (with thanks) reproduced below. In 1841 Richard Honer, the copyholder, was the occupier and the farm was owned by the Lord of the Manor, Henry Halsey 2.
In 1865 the Pirbright Parish Officers decided to sell off various plots of land including a one-acre field next to Wickhams, shown blue on the map. See the advertisement, left, from the Surrey Advertiser (with thanks). The land must have been bought by Henry Halsey as it was part of the estate in 1919 and William Luff was already the tenant. The same year Halsey bought other land, as Wickhams was enlarged by a total of 20 acres and William Luff was granted a new 14-year tenancy.
By then the eldest sons, Charles and William had left home. Both married Pirbright women but, after a stay in Lurgashall, William (the son) was married in Wandsworth in 1872 to Harriet Harding, who had lived near Wickhams as a teenager. William stayed in West London for the rest of his life. Charles married in 1870 and he and his wife, Jane, took on a small holding of 6 acres called Hode Farm at the junction of the B4305 (Stanley Hill) and the road to Mychett (Grange Road). It was also known as Hodge or Hodds Farm and had been a farm since at least 1841. We have shown an extract from the Tithe Map of 1841 below. The farm lay on the east side of the junction and probably in 1871 comprised the fields shaded green, ie numbers 480, 482 and 483 (which are just over 6 acres in total). The farm burnt down in 1884 and as a result Charles and his family moved to his father-in-law’s on Dawneys Hill and stayed there until he died in 1901. But he must have continued to work the land at Hode Farm - and perhaps owned it. My mother and her sister, Amy, both referred to the location as “up at Charlie Luff’s.”
But some time during the next 2 years William (the father), in effect, ended his marriage to Harriet by forming a relationship with Catherine Keddie, a widow of about 35. How she came to be in Pirbright can only be guessed. She was born in 1836 in Loxwood, Sussex to Elizabeth and George Chapman. Loxwood is about 5 miles from Kirdford, but given their age difference it is unlikely that she and William knew each other from childhood. But her father, a saddler, could have had business with the Luffs.
Catherine married Peter Keddie, a gardener, born in Scotland, in Wisborough Green in 1856 and went to live in Alfold. During the 1860s they moved first to Shinfield, Berks and then to Shiplake, near Henley, Oxfordshire. Peter died in 1869, leaving Catherine with 5 children. By 1871 she was working as a paper sorter in Henley and her eldest son, William had gone to live with her parents and subsequently became a saddler.
Later that year or 1872 she decided to change her life. She arranged for her youngest son to move to her parents as well and her 2 eldest daughters to move to Scotland to live with their uncle. But her youngest daughter (aged 2) seems to have stayed with colleagues or friends in Henley. This is where she was in 1881 when she was living with Thomas Rogers, a machine operator in a paper mill, and his family. Catherine was then free to move herself and probably became a domestic servant, presumably in Pirbright and possibly at Wickhams itself. However she might have moved back to Loxwood and by chance met William at some social event in the area where both had relatives or friends.
William and Catherine’s relationship soon produced a child, Walter, who was born in Pirbright and registered in Guildford in April 1873. But they arranged for him to be baptised in Cold Waltham, Sussex in May. William must have decided at the last minute that he did not want to be recorded in the Baptism Register. In the column for parents’ Christian names was written William and Catherine, living in Pirbright. In the column for parents’ surname was written Keddie. But William was then crossed out together with some now illegible letters, which might have said Luff. In the column for occupation of father was just a squiggly line.
In July William auctioned all his livestock, farming equipment and some household furniture and some time that year assigned his tenancy to Albert Thompson. See attached Notice (right) from The Surrey Advertiser, 5 July 1873. He must have moved out immediately if the household furniture was sold. By the end of 1874 he and Catherine were in Fisherton, (in the middle of Salisbury) where they were married on 16 December. Catherine gave birth to their second son, Ernest, 2 weeks later and William is recorded erroneously as a farmer.
But the family did not stay in Salisbury as by April 1875 they were living in Battersea where Ernest was baptised. William was said to be a corn and coal merchant It is possible they were staying with William’s son, Lewis, who was probably working there by then as a gardener. However, the family did not stay long in Battersea either, as by the next baptism (Anne) in 1878, William was a grocer and licensed victualler at the Bell and Bottle in Shinfield, where Catherine had lived with her first husband 10 years earlier. Each of William’s 3 children by his first marriage who married after 1873 - the first of which was in 1876 - gave their father’s occupation in the Marriage Register as grocer or greengrocer. So he was probably at the Bell and Bottle by then. But the children clearly stayed in touch with their father. Indeed his new wife, now calling herself Kate, was (years later) a witness at the wedding of her stepdaughter, Ada.
By 1891 William and Kate had moved to a different pub in Shinfield, the Royal Oak. William died in 1893 and his gravestone can still be seen in Shinfield churchyard. Kate may have stayed in Shinfield for a while but by 1901 she was living with her stepson, William, in Teddington. 10 years later she had her own flat in the Guinness Buildings in Hammersmith. She died in Greenwich Hospital in 1922.
In 1871 William’s 2 younger sons Lewis and Arthur, were working on the farm. There was also his second daughter Ada. So his abandonment of the farm would have made them all, as well as Harriet, homeless. Lewis, by then 21, may have moved to Battersea and he was certainly living there in 1876. But he would have needed time to find work and, unless he moved in with Charles, he may have had a short stay at Duchies Cottage next to Rails Farm, the home of Henry Boylett. Henry may have worked for Richard Thompson on Rails Farm. His daughter, Rhoda, certainly knew Lewis and they were married in Battersea in September 1876. The couple maintained their link with Pirbright as both their first 2 children were not only baptised there but their births were recorded at the Guildford register. Lewis remained a gardener in Battersea for the rest of his life and died there in 1901.
Arthur Luff, 18 in 1873, was also old enough to fend for himself and he too became a gardener in London. By 1901 he was running his own business, Heathersett Nursery, in Wimbledon. He had been a witness at his brother’s wedding in 1876 together with his future wife, Emily Turner. Perhaps he and Lewis stayed somewhere together until both had work. Emily was from Norfolk but had been working as a servant in Lambeth in 1871 and married Arthur in 1881.
But Ada was only 14, though old enough to be employed as a domestic servant. If so, this could have been in Guildford, where, in 1879 she married Edward Harnes. They were living together at Edward’s parents and as mentioned above, Ada’s stepmother, Kate, was a witness. By 1881 however, they had their own home nearby and a son, Frederick, had been born in 1880. Also with them was a Jessie Thompson, born in Guildford, aged 3 and therefore born before Ada was married. Jessie was listed as a boarder not a daughter, though the word “stepdaughter” appears against Ada’s name. Clearly Edward had trouble completing the Census form accurately, as he had in signing the Marriage register 2 years earlier.
By 1891 Jessie had become the couple’s daughter and was called Harnes. It is possible that Jessie had been born to a Thompson family in Guildford, became an orphan and was then adopted by Ada and Edward just after their son was born. But it is more likely that Jessie’s father was a Pirbright Thompson, possibly someone with whom Ada had stayed after she had to leave Wickhams in 1873. An obvious candidate was John Thompson, youngest son of Richard Thompson of Rails Farm, as Ada may have stayed there or next door at Duchies Cottage. However, his brother, Charles, who was also living there, could not be ruled out. Jessie’s birth was never registered under either Thompson or Harnes and she was not baptised either. Ada went on to have other children with Edward, lived in various places in Guildford and Worplesdon and died in 1922.
But the effect was greatest on Harriet. She probably went to live either with Charles or Lucy as she definitely stayed in the village. But dependence for survival on her children meant she had no money for alcohol, unless William had given her some of the proceeds of the sale of Wickham’s assets. If so the money had run out by the autumn of 1874 and, in despair, Harriet drowned herself in the Basingstoke Canal. See report from the Surrey Advertiser, left.
Lucy Thompson
Finally, to Lucy herself. She was born Lucy Luff in Kirdford in late 1849 and baptised in January 1850. After moving with her parents to Wickhams, she married Charles Thompson in September 1869 when already in a late stage of pregnancy. Their daughter, Lily, was born on 28 December 1869 but was baptised in Richmond, Surrey, where perhaps Charles was working. By 1871 Lucy and Lily were at Wickhams, possibly on a semi- permanent basis, and Charles was back with his parents at Rails Farm. Lucy had no more children so there is no evidence that she ever lived with Charles again. However, she must have needed a new home after July 1873 and this could have been Rails Farm or with her brother at Hode Farm.
Lucy died in January 1876 and was buried in Pirbright on the 25th. The Burial Register recorded her as Lucy Luff, but later Luff was crossed out and Thompson written above it. It would seem that she was known as Luff even to the minister or church officials. Charles Thompson remarried only 6 months after Lucy’s burial to Annie Turner. The wedding was in Edbrook Road, Paddington, where, it is recorded, both were living. But it seems unlikely that Charles moved to London in February 1876, met Annie, moved in with her and married in July. They did not stay at Edbrook Road but moved back to Pirbright and it is more likely that Annie had been working as a servant in Pirbright, met Charles there and that their relationship began before Lucy’s death. The wedding in Paddington was to make it easy for Annie’s father to attend as he was a live-in butler nearby. However it is also possible that Lucy was ill in her final 5 years and this is why she was at Wickhams in 1871 and why she and Charles had no more children. Another straw in the wind is that Lewis and Rhoda did not get married until after she died. If Lucy had been staying with the Boyletts at Duchies Cottage, not Rails Farm, then Rhoda might have been looking after her.
So many possibilities and queries, none of them answerable 150 years later.