Farming the future

At the time of writing, the most distant direct relative I been able to confirm in the direct Mayhew line is John Mayhew, a rural farmer, who lived through a key time in British agricultural history.  I have been able to piece together a little about his life and family mostly through surviving copies of parish records and bishop transcripts.

The story of British birth, marriage and death records starts way back in 1538 when Thomas Cromwell, the Vicar General to King Henry VIII, declared that all marriages, baptisms, and burials should be recorded.  Initially, the parish priest generally recorded the rites he performed during the year often on blank sheets or scraps of writing material, which might be bound into a single volume.   It was not until the second half of the 16^th century that Henry’s daughter Elizabeth I instructed that these records should be preserved in a bound book and, from 1598, every parish was supposed to make a copy of his parish register and send this to the archdeacon or bishop every year.

Depending upon the priest, these records can be very difficult to decipher, as he would transcribe what he thought he heard as he entered the information by hand, and spellings can vary greatly.  Some of these records are now available to view online, but generally these are kept at local county record offices or local archives with microfiche copies available for visitors to view onsite via a special reader. 

Since 1837, when the Civil Registration Service began in England and Wales, every birth, marriage, and death has been registered by a local registrar and all records are available via the General Records Office, which hopefully makes a family historian’s research a little less challenging!

John, was born just over a year after his parents John Mayhew and Sarah Hall were married in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on 16^th August 1715[i].  John Jnr was baptised on the 24^th of November 1716 in what is now the Minster Church of St Nicholas, the third largest church in England, which was consecrated in 1119 during the Norman period. 

During the early 18^th century, Great Yarmouth was a vibrant and prosperous coastal town which thrived as a prominent port and fishing hub, attracting traders, sailors, and visitors from near and far.  To date, I have not been able to find out any more about John Mayhew Snr and his wife Sarah, nor their connection with the town, or anywhere else in East Anglia for that matter.

The years passed until, on 24^th September 1737, young John stood at the altar of St. Margaret’s Church in the village of Pakefield in Norfolk to exchange marriage vows with his sweetheart Sarah Harvey[ii].  John by now was a young man of 21 years of age living in the rural parish of Henstead St Mary less than five miles south west of Pakefield, where he was probably employed as a farm labourer helping with the work on an open-field system where the local community would each cultivate their own strip of land and graze animals on areas of common land such as the village green. 

Shortly after their marriage, John and Sarah moved to Mundham, another rural parish with a small village just a few miles west of Pakefield, where their first child, a daughter Sarah, was born and baptised in the pretty Norman church of St Peter on 8th November 1738[iv].  

Over the next eighteen years, at least twelve more children were born to the couple and were baptised[vi] in the 13^th century Purbeck marble font which still exists today in a corner of the church, although in poor condition as it might have been pressed into service as an animal trough and later returned to the church after it was replaced during restoration in 1880[vii].

During the 1700 to 1875 period, many families followed a tradition of naming children after their elders.[ix]  Generally, the pattern was that the first son was named after the father’s father, the second son after the mother’s father, the third son after the father and the fourth son after the father’s eldest brother.  With daughters, the first daughter was named after the mother’s mother, the second daughter after the father’s mother, the third daughter after the mother and the fourth daughter after the mother’s eldest sister.  However, if the pattern resulted in the duplication of a name, for example if both grandfathers shared the same name, the parents would skip to the next name on the list.

Looking through the records, several of the Mayhew children seem to have been given the same name, which was not unusual in those days.  Tragically, infant mortality peaked in the mid-eighteenth century when around half of children born did not survive infancy and, when a child died, the next child of the same sex would often be given the name of their deceased sibling.  John and Sarah’s children were:

• Sarah baptised 1738 (her paternal grandmother was Sarah)
• John baptised 1740 (his paternal grandfather was John)
• Michael baptised 1741 (who could have been named after his maternal grandfather who has not yet been identified)
• Samuel baptised 1743 and buried 1749 (his father was John, but his older brother already has this name, so he could have been named after his father’s eldest brother- if he had one)
• Roger baptised 1744
• Anne baptised in 1745 and buried aged just 5 days
• Isaac baptised in 1746
• Samuel baptised in 1749
• William an infant buried in 1751 (he could have died before baptism, but the priest still allowed him to be buried in the churchyard)
• William baptised 1751 and buried in 1752
• William baptised 1752 and buried in 1753
• Anne baptised in 1754 and buried the same year aged 5 months
• Margaret baptised in 1756 and buried the following year

It is simply impossible to imagine the grief Sarah and John would have felt as year after year they carried each tiny coffin to be buried in the churchyard which still surrounds the church today.  Tragically, most of their children who were born alive died before they reached the age of seven.  We can never know the cause of each death but there is no indication of any clusters of deaths in these burial records which could indicate an epidemic of disease – or even starvation after a bad harvest.

Of course, life for a farmer and his family working the land was very hard.  For centuries all the land around villages or small towns in England had been divided into three huge fields where each farmer owned some strips of land in each field.  Each year, two of the fields were sown with crops while the third was left to go fallow (not used), however times were changing and during the 18^th century land was becoming enclosed.  This meant that each farmer had all his land in one place, instead of being scattered across a huge area, and allowed him to use the land more efficiently. 

It’s likely that John embraced the innovative ‘Norfolk four-course system’ of farming, a revolutionary approach that significantly enhanced crop production and maintained soil fertility.  Using this system, John would have divided his fields into four sections, implementing a rotation of different crops within each part.  This system was like a puzzle for the land and ensured that the soil stayed healthy, and the crops grew well. 

In the first year, John would have planted wheat, in the second turnips to feed his cows and sheep during winter, then in the third oats or barley, and in the fourth year he would have grown clover or rye grass for his animals to graze.  The productivity of the farm was thus maximised, as no land was left uncultivated and the well-fed animals thrived, growing larger and healthier and producing large quantities of nutrient rich manure, which would further enhance the soil’s fertility.

Over the years, John and Sarah’s surviving sons grew older and stronger, and would have been able to help their father work the land.  John’s success in implementing this system not only improved his own prosperity but also demonstrated the significant advantages of sustainable and efficient farming practices.

John and Sarah’s eldest and only surviving daughter Sarah was married by Banns in St Giles Church, Norwich, to John Spilling in 1761.   Unlike her new husband, who made his mark on the record, Sarah had been educated enough to write her own name, and her father witnessed their marriage.

Sadly however, the harsh reality of life on a farm and having given birth to so many children, had taken its toll John’s wife, also Sarah, who was only in her forties when she died and buried at St Peter’s in Mundham on 27^th February 1764. 

After his wife Sarah’s death, John continued to work the land assisted by their surviving sons and employed a young servant Mary Millis to help around the home.  Having clearly been successful during his life, during his later years John may have considered himself a ‘yeoman’, a term used at the time to describe landowners who wished to sound grander than their ‘mere farmer’ neighbours.

Accepting his own mortality, John wrote a will in June 1766 in which he expressed his wish to leave a legacy to each of his surviving children.  This will, discovered by my lovely cousin Pam in 2014, probably contains the most comprehensive evidence of John’s life and family and, as the will was witnessed by three of his peers, this is evidence that he was by now a land or property owner.  

John’s two elder sons, John and Michael, were each bequeathed £25 each from his personal estate.  John also hoped to provide for his youngest two sons’ future once they reached adulthood, so bestowed £25 to Isaac and £20 to Samuel, specifying that and they would receive their inheritance once they reached the age of twenty-two.  From his personal estate, John also recognised his daughter Sarah, wife of John Spilling, with a bequest of £20, and Mary Millis his servant, was bequeathed £5 as recognition of her dedication and service to the Mayhew household throughout her service. 

In the event that any of his children mentioned in the will died before receiving their legacies, leaving behind a child or children, John ensured that the bequests would pass to those grandchildren.  This was his way of safeguarding the future of his lineage and providing for the next generation.

With the distribution of his personal estate settled, John turned his attention to remains of his estate, which included goods, chattels, and farming stock, which he bequeathed to his third son, Roger, entrusting him with the responsibility of the management of the farm after his death.  John also appointed Roger as the sole executor of his last will and testament, entrusting him to pay any outstanding debts, funeral expenses, and charges associated with the execution of the will.  It is quite unusual that this responsibility was not passed to one of Roger’s elder brothers, so this appears to be a gesture of trust and confidence by John, and a reflection of the bond they shared as father and son. 

John died three years later aged 53 and was buried at St Peter’s Church, perhaps alongside his beloved Sarah, on 22^nd November 1769.  His will was proven valid in court the following month, with Roger Mayhew stepping forward as the executor, ready to fulfil his father’s wishes.

The legacy of John Mayhew, the dedicated farmer of Mundham continued to live on, serving as a reminder of the love, care, and resilience that had been the foundation of his family’s journey through life.

Footnote: Roger would marry their servant Mary Millis in February 1770 and their first child, a daughter Mary, was born just five months later. 

Roger’s younger brother Isaac, who would become my 5^th great grandfather, was not as fortunate as his father as, in time, he and his family would become paupers reliant upon public money for survival – but that’s for another story…

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