Blog: The reflections of Tom Pearcey – a shepherd – or was he?

Picture for illustration purposes. Not really Tom! Or even Welton.

Early on in our community history project we were sent an interesting document – a musing about Welton, written in 1841 and signed by Tom Pearcey.

It’s a fanciful piece of writing – you can read the full document here. But what it gave us were some wonderful clues to characters in the village in the mid 19th century.

The first pair that we meet are Jane and John Farr:

In the 1841 census, Jane Farr appears as the wife of Isaac Farr, a baker. Living with them were their SON John, then 35 and also working as a baker, a woman named Mary, and young William, aged four. We know the couple had a daughter called Mary and so this may be her, or it may be John’s wife. We also know they had a daughter Elizabeth although she is not on this census.

However, the Farr’s residence in Welton goes back much further. We have details of a transaction in 1819 on a cottage opposite the church (demolished in the 1960s). It is described as “that new erected messuage tenement or dwelling house with the baking shop outbuildings.”

Isaac Farr had purchased three cottages on the site from William Roberts which were demolished. Isaac built a new house on the site, and our document records the legal transfer of the newly built property to Isaac Farr and Samuel Arlidge, a trustee. We don’t know for sure if Issac was married to Jane at this time but they were certainly together as their son would have been born in 1806.

By the time we reach the 1851 census, Jane is a widow in her seventies, Isaac having died in 1848, and is now recorded as a Beer House Keeper. She’s running the beerhouse with the help of a servant, Hannah Houghton, while her nephew Thomas Brouth also lives with her.

Next door lives her son John, now 45, listed as both a tea dealer and a baker. His wife is recorded as Elizabeth — older than he is — suggesting this may have been a second marriage. So the John referred to in the memory is Jane’s son, not her husband.

Next is a name we knew – Richard Travo Clarke of Welton place.

“He farmed the fields on Monks moor for prior of the town, our Daventry.”

Colonel Richard Trevor Clarke inherited Welton Place from his uncle and made a name for himself in the world of horticulture. He was a founder member of the RHS Scientific Committee, is quoted in one of Charles Darwin’s books and spent considerable time developing hybrids of common garden plants and cotton plants.

He was also a Northamptonshire County Magistrate.

He died in 1897. Here he is on the lake at Welton Place (left hand side). Learn more about the Clarke family here.

Tom then goes on to reminisce about the inns in the village ……….

The 1851 census for Welton records the following for the cottage we believe to be the Red Lion and confirms the Pearcey account that “Jo Benjamin” was indeed both innkeeper and builder:

• Joseph Benjamin – Head – 45 years old – Builder and Publican – born Welton
• Catherine Benjamin- Wife – 50 – born Kilsby
• Eliza Benjamin – daughter – 17 – unmarried – dressmaker – born Welton
• George Benjamin- son – 14 – scholar

As for Harry Harris, in 1841 Henry Harris and family are living in Welton. Harry is a common diminutive of Henry. The press cutting below from 1892 shows the Harris family ran the pub for 50 odd years.

But then Tom mentions something revealing –

This was our first clue to the third pub in the village – read our blog about how we discovered the Wheatsheaf had existed by clicking here.

“What a funny place is Welton. Churchill House was once Manor House, a seat of Edmund Singer Burton.”

Another very familiar name, Edmund Singer Burton was a solicitor and in 1828, from his offices at the Moot Hall in Daventry, managed the letting of Welton Manor on behalf of the Clarke family. Perhaps he then took on the lease or purchased the property, as by 1844, the property was owned by him.

That year, newspapers reported an attempted arson attack on the house. Burton’s wife, Anna Maria, spotted flames and an intruder who had entered, it seems, through a larder window. All in the house escaped safely.

The Burtons remained in residence for many years and ultimately had twenty children, eighteen of whom survived to adulthood. Learn more about Welton Manor here.

Tom then goes on to say

Yes Daniel Darnell was the vicar – Welton’s longest serving – from the late 1840s to the late 1890s and indeed, Henry Jackson was a butcher – and organist! The advert below is from 1840. He was clearly selling up, however he remained in Welton as in 1851 he’s listed living in the village with his wife Maria, their daughter and Maria’s father.

The next characters were trickier – the census couldn’t help us.

“Then there was Wokley Roberts he was of the school. Wilbe of the Warf. And John Field, came every Wednesday and Saturday. Carrier he was to Daventry.“

But the Fawsley Hundred listing could. On this document we see: Wilbee, F agent at Welton Wharf, a William Wokley who may have been a relative of Wokley Roberts, and there in black and white – Carrier to Daventry – John Field, Wednesday and Saturday.

Absolutely – where IS the urn of Welton? We’d all like to know! We found this information about it. But where it is now, we have no clue.

Finally, we looked more into the identity of Tom himself –

“But I was just a sheepherdsman, merely passing by.”

Well, we don’t believe you Tom.

Literacy levels for agricultural labourers in mid 19th century Welton would be extremely low – maybe Tom could have signed his name. He certainly wouldn’t be able to construct the flowery language and complex vocabulary of this piece of writing.

We think he was being a little self effacing – Thomas Pearcey was a farmer and landowner born in 1803 and dying in 1884. He owned land in the vicinity of Well Lane and he farmed 37 acres, employing at least one man. He married Mary Shaw in Coventry in 1851 and seems to have lived in Welton all his life.

So yes, he may have been a shepherd in the way that Elon Musk is a car salesman! But whatever his status, his memories have allowed us to unearth some of the characters of the village, giving a wonderfully personal snapshot of a moment caught in time.

It was a fabulous historical find and we thank David Grainger for sharing it with us.