Chapter 13: The People of Hargrave Part 2
n the opposite side of the main road from John(1545.28) and Margaret's land stood John's brother William's(1555.28) farm. William's(1555.28) land was not freehold like his brother's, it was copyhold203 from the manor. The agreement came into force when the manor was devolved in 1558 and was therefore probably taken out by either father or grandfather Roger. Whoever took it out, it gave opportunity for Roger(1530.) to keep his original land as a unit passed on through the eldest son John according to the terms laid down, while providing for William to farm also.
If you think John(1545.28) and Margaret were wealthy then William and Alice were too. William(1555.28) was a successful yeoman living within the estates of Hargrave Manor. Like John his brother, by the time William wrote his will206 Thomas(1582.36) was running most of the farm while William and Alice had moved into the smaller house on the north edge of their estate. Alice was given seven pound per half year and an apartment on the north west side of his estate, (where he and Alice were living already)207. A point of interest revolves around the fire and chimney208 mentioned in the will. Alice is ‘ given rights of use for the term of her life’. This was an external kiln of some sort, situated on the access lane to the Hall. The description of the estate in the will, places it at the opposite end of the village to a blacksmiths yard marked on a later map209. The blacksmiths forge may not have been there in Alice’s day but the fire and chimney certainly were. Therefore, the question is, what was the ' Chimney and fyre'210 mentioned in the will? Several sources211 indicate a brickyard and brickworks possibly in or before King Henry VIII’s time.
Hargrave Tithe mentions ‘Brick Lane’ and ‘Brick Kiln Field’ in Hargrave these appear on William’s land in the middle of Hargrave. This kiln seems to have been present during the monk’s time (before 1550). But why would Alice need rights to the furnace? Was she a business lady212? Maybe the kiln was used for firing clay products. Clay pipes would almost certainly be made at the brickworks on William’s land before his time. If clay, then maybe pots and plates. Archaeological reports by the Suffolk Industrial Archaeological Society tend to focus on bricks but there is no reason to suppose that was all the furnace produced. In fact, most kilns for one product would also accommodate a blacksmith, even if it were just for family use.
The monks made the bottles into which they put their distilled beers and wines so there is no reason to suppose this kiln was for glass blowing. While Hargrave was owned and farmed by the monks of Bury, there is evidence that they maintained the buildings by local industry. Horenger supplied the bulk of lime for cementing. Horenger did have a lime kiln. Tiles were manufactured at Chevington, while stone was brought down from Nottingham. Hargrave seems to have supplied brick and pipe. The most probable story is that the kiln started out as brick kiln used by the monks and doubled as a lime kiln, (given that William was a progressive farmer and grew crops on clay soil). With a growing family and lowering prices for grain ( and increased taxes), William would have diversified to take advantage of the rising demand for bricks and mortar at this period of history.
From this, we can assume the chimney and fire were used for both brick and clay pipe. In the neighbouring village of Denham, (the village that adjoined William’s fields), the Potter family were beginning to establish themselves, adding to the speculation that this furnace was only one of a number in that area.
The suggestion that this was a bread-baking oven is ruled out on the basis that bread would still have been done in domestic ovens until 1700’s. However, as the kiln seems to be near Alice’s annex, William might have just been concerned his wife Alice had access to heat in cold winters. What we can assert however, is the kiln would have supplied some lime by around fourteen-fifty in response to the recommended practices in ‘Goode Husbandry’213, in order to “s weeten the clay land and increase grain yields”.
From his will, William(1617.37) Limmer reveals his first daughter Alice(1586.36) married Nicolas Nobell while second daughter Mary(1587.36) married Samuel Palmer.215 Descendants of both these family names go out to America from England as Puritans on the “White sails”216 before 1660. There is no clear evidence to show Alice or Mary went to America, they probably did not. But there is a lot of Puritan movement around Hargrave at this time. While William Limmer’s family unsuspectingly worked their copyhold217 grounds in Hargrave, the Sibbes218 family attended to their blacksmith and wheelwright business less than ten miles away in Thurston. Almost certainly, these two families would have met in the business world if not in the church at Thurston. Thurston Church, becoming interested with the new Bible that its congregation could read for itself, began to lean toward this new Puritanism. Little did these two families know that two generations on from here, they would be related as grandparents-in-law.
William(1584.23) died in 1667 at the age of 68 years.219 The farm was divided up on his death. Henry Frost, Anne's eldest son took charge of 16 acres and messuage Sept 24 1668 220, gaining rights as a yeoman. Son William(1633.25) of William and Anne received the Hargrave farm land as a yeoman.221 Anne continued to live at the messuage by contract until her death.
Elizabeth(1635.23) died unmarried, two years after her father in 1669 being buried on the 11th of February 1669 at the age of 34 years of age.222
