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The Farthest Promised Land — English Villagers, New Zealand Immigrants of the 1870s

6 Oxfordshire and Wychwood Forest

6 Oxfordshire and Wychwood Forest

1 IM 15

2 AJHR 1873, D-2, p.23

3 Two illustrations of the unsatisfactory nature of the county information in the passenger lists: Joseph Leggett appears on the Ballochmyle's list as from Berkshire, as also do his two older daughters, of 14 and 12. One might therefore conclude that this is a Berkshire family. But the 1871 census schedules of Milton-under-Wychwood show his wife and all his children as born in Oxfordshire (in Milton village), with only Joseph himself Berkshire born. On the other hand, William Lewis appears in the 1871 census schedules of Fulbrook, Oxon., as a 26-year-old shepherd, born in Gloucestershire (his wife and older child are shown as Oxfordshire-born, his younger child as born in Gloucestershire), but the passenger list of the Wennington, sailing from London on 26 January 1874, shows him as from Oxfordshire.

4 R. Lawton, ‘Population movements in the West Midlands, 1841–61’, Geography, 43 (1958), pp.164–77

5 A. F. Martin and R. W. Steel, eds., The Oxford Region, Oxford 1954, p.2

6 C. S. Read, ‘On the Farming of Oxfordshire’, JRASE, 15(1854), p.189

7 Ibid., p.257

8 VCH Oxfordshire, II (1907), p.207

9 Chapter 3, above.

10 LUC, 25 April 1875, p.7

11 Chapter 4, above.

12 J. N. Brewer, A Topographical and Historical Description of Oxfordshire, London, 1810, pp.28–29

13 This account is based on Hammonds, Village Labourer, 1, pp.83–92.

14 Quoted in V. J. Watney, Combury and the Forest of Wychwood, London, 1910, p.206

15 Brewer, Oxfordshire, p.43

16 M. Sturge Gretton, A Corner of the Cotswolds through the Nineteenth Century, London, 1914, p.155

17 PPGB 1868–69, 13, p.588

page 366

18 The account which follows is based on Read, ‘Farming of Oxfordshire’, pp.141, 224, 239.

19 The description which follows is based on personal observation, assisted by John Orr, Agriculture in Oxfordshire: A Survey, Oxford, 1916, pp.50–52.

20 Gretton, A Corner of the Cotswolds, pp.123–24

21 This account of the forest is based on Watney, Cornbury, pp.10, 202–209, 244; John Kibble, Historical and Other Notes on Wychwood Forest … Charlbury, 1928.

22 Watney, Cornbury, p.204

23 For the Forest Fair see Kibble, Wychwood Forest, pp.19–22; Gretton, A Corner of the Cotswolds, pp.120–35; Watney, Cornbury, p.208

24 Gretton, A Corner of the Cotswolds, p.135

25 C. Belcher, ‘On the Reclaiming of Waste Lands as instanced in Wichwood Forest’, JRASE, 24 (1863), pp.271–85

26 VCH Oxfordshire, II (1907), pp.55–59, gives a history of the ndustry.

27 VCH Oxfordshire, X (1972), p.144

28 Ibid., p.131

29 VCH Oxfordshire, II (1907), p.257

30 Muriel Groves, The History of Shipton-under-Wychwood, London, 1934, p.57

31 PPGB 1868–69, 13, p.575

32 On this see the discussion of ‘the privatised worker’ in D. Lockwood, ‘Sources of Variation in Working Class Images of Society’, Sociological Review, 14 (1966), pp.249–67, and P.E. Razzell's relating of the concept to the Victorian period in his ‘Introduction’ to P.E. Razzell and R. W. Wainwright, eds., The Victorian Working Class, London, 1973, pp.xxix–xxxix.

33 Pamela Horn, ‘Agricultural Trade Unionism in Oxfordshire 1872–81’, Oxfordshire Record Society, 48 (1974), p.10. For a study of the Revolt in Oxfordshire see Pamela Horn, ‘Agricultural Trade Unionism in Oxfordshire, Dunbabin, Rural Discontent, pp.85–129.

34 Kibble, Wychwood Forest, p.82

35 Ibid

36 Ibid

37 Ibid., p.83

38 Minute Book, Oxford District of N.A.L.U., Horn, ‘Agricultural Trade Unionism in Oxfordshire’, p.25 - hereinafter cited as Horn, ed., Minute Book, Oxford District. (The Oxford district of the National Union is the only one for which a minute book has survived. It covers the period 16 April 1872 to 2 May 1879. The original MS is in the library of Nuffield College, Oxford.) See also Dunbabin, Rural Discontent, pp.85–6.

39 English Labourer, 20 November 1875, p.5

40 Horn, ed., Minute Book, Oxford District, p.28

41 Ibid., pp.28–29

42 Ibid., p.29, citing Royal Leamington Chronicle, 25 May 1872.

43 Ibid., pp.31–32

44 Horn, ‘Holloway’, pp.127–29, for this account of the Wootton branch. See also Dunbabin, Rural Discontent, pp.89–91

45 Pamela Horn, ‘Farmers' Defence Associations in Oxfordshire - 1872–74’, History Studies, 1 (1968), pp.63–70, for this account of the farmers' reaction.

46 The Times, 29 July 1872, p.9

47 Richard Heath, The English Peasant, London, 1893, pp.222–25

48 Ibid., p.227

49 Horn, ‘Holloway’, p.128, citing Jackson's Oxford Journal, 10 August 1872.

50 Jackson's Oxford Journal, 27 July 1872

51 AJHR 1873, D-2D, p.30

52 Hawke's Bay Herald, 1 January 1873, p.[2]

53 IM 10/2

54 RFNZ, p. H83

55 Horn, ed., Minute Book, Oxford District, p.33

56 Lowering of the ages of elderly immigrants is common in the passenger lists.

page 367

57 IM 10/2

58 RENZ, p. C62

59 CNZ, VI, p.499

60 Horn, ed., Minute Book, Oxford District, pp. 30, 31, 37

61 LUC, 26 September 1874, p.3; English Labourer 3 February, 1877, p.3

62 LUC, 20 September 1873, p.5

63 The Times, 7 June 1873, p.10

64 The Times, 21 June 1873, p.5

65 The Times, 2 June 1873, p.8

66 LUC, 14 June 1873, p.2

67 The Times, 2 June 1873, p.8; Midland Free Press (Leicester), 31 May 1873, p.6

68 In 1952 Mrs Doris Warner of Ascott-under-Wychwood, a niece of one of the imprisoned women, wrote a play, ‘Over the Hills to Glory’, telling the story of the ‘Ascott Martyrs’, and it was performed in several villages in the district. She drew largely on village memories, and much of the dialogue takes place between the women as they are gloving.— Personal interview with Mrs Warner, at Ascott, 23 July 1972.

69 Midland Free Press (Leicester), 31 May 1873, p.6, reprinting from Daily News. The party referred to must have been Brogdens' emigrants on the Chile.

70 The Times, 7 June 1873, p.10; LUC, 7 June 1873, p.2

71 LUC, 7 June 1873, p.2

72 Report by Daily News special correspondent, reprinted in Midland Free Press (Leicester), 31 May 1873, p.6

73 LUC, 14 June 1873, p.2

74 This account of events following the trial is based mainly on The Times, 26 May 1873, p.12; Royal Leamington Spa Courier, 24 May 1873, p.8

75 The Times, 3 June 1873, p.10

76 LUC, 5 July 1873

77 The account which follows is based on LUC, 7 June 1873, pp.2, 7; Midland Free Press (Leicester), 7 June 1873, p.3

78 LUC, 7 June 1873, p.2

79 Ibid., p.7

80 LUC, 28 June, 1873, p.6; Midland Free Press (Leicester), 28 June 1873, p.7

81 Hansard, 3rd series, 216, pp.501, 548, 639

82 LUC, 5 July 1873

83 LUC, 9 August 1873, p.7

84 Ibid

85 Ibid

86 LUC, 2 August 1873, p.6

87 LUC, 23 August 1873

88 Pamela Horn, ‘Agricultural Labourers' Trade Unionism in Four Midland Counties (1860–1900)’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leicester, 1968), p.202

89 AJHR 1874, D-3, p.22; Lyttelton Times, 12 February 1874, p.2; LUC, 15 November 1873, p.5 (from which the details of Carter's address are taken).

90 Horn, ed., Minute Book, Oxford District, pp.31, 36, 63

91 LUC, 26 September 1874, p.3

92 The Taynton 1871 census schedules show Joseph Lousley as a 52-year-old farmer of 585 acres, employing 14 men, 6 boys and 2 women. The Pinfold family is shown living next door.

93 Horn, ed., Minute Book, Oxford District, p.76

94 LUC, 22 August 1874, p.3

95 Horn, ed., Minute Book, Oxford District, p.26

96 Ibid., pp.36, 41. The 1871 census schedules show him as an unmarried labourer living with his widowed mother in High Street, Churchill.

97 Horn, ed., Minute Book, Oxford District, p.76, — union emigrants sent back from Plymouth, the vessel being full.

98 See Chapter 4 above.

99 LUC, 10 January 1874, p.7

100 Ibid

101 Information from marriage certificate.

102 Horn, ed., Minute Book, Oxford District, p.54

page 368

103 Ibid., pp.30, 40, 53, 63, 68; English Labourer, 25 December 1875, p.15

104 LUC, 13 June 1874, p.7

105 LUC, 19 September 1874, p.6

106 LUC, 16 May 1874, p.7

107 For details of the relationships between members of the party I am indebted to Pamela Horn, ‘To those who perished on the sea’, Witney and West Oxfordshire Gazette, 9 October 1969, pp.14–15

108 AJHR 1875, D—2, pp.86–88

109 LUC, 7 November 1874, p.7

110 LUC, 24 April 1875, p.7

111 LUC, 12 June 1875, p.6. For Jesse Clifford see VCH Oxfordshire, X (1972), p.155

112 English Labourer, 7 August 1875, p.4

113 Ibid., 11 September 1875, p.9. Thomas Rathbone, 43, labourer, emigrated with his wife and five children on the Adamant in May 1874.