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Previous:     Chapter 23: William of Inglesham

Section 24
The children of William of Inglesham
From Wiltshire to London

24.A Samuel of Harrow

Until 1800 my own branch of the BRUSH family of Gloucestershire was steadily moving east, though they only migrated 25 miles in over two centuries.  William BRUSH and his family (considered in Chapter 23.A) ended the 18th century at Inglesham, which is a small village in a finger of land at the very North East corner of Wiltshire.

From about 1800 the four sons of William - Samuel, Thomas, Isaac and William - moved away from rural Wiltshire and headed for London.  The first recorded appearance there is in 1808.  My own ancestor was Thomas (considered in Chapter 24.D) but we will begin with the eldest son, Samuel.

Samuel [D66(9)]{Wikitree Brush-626} , was baptised in Inglesham on 20October 1776, the son of William D58 and Mary (MOULDER).  At this time Inglesham was part of Berkshire; a small detached parish surrounded by Wiltshire.(1)  From 1844 it became a part of Wiltshire

Some time around the turn of the century Samuel moved to Wanborough, a village in Wiltshire on the south side of Swindon.  Although Swindon now dominates the area it was, before the railway era, simply a small market town.(2)  Wanborough on the other hand had been (in the Middle Ages) a significant location but had then declined into a small village.   By 1831 its population was down to 1,016 - maybe 200 households? (3) It sits on Ermin street which runs north-west directly to Cricklade and then on to Brockworth - locations that appear earlier in this history.

Samuel marries Lucy EGELTON at St Andrews, Wanborough in 1804 (both described as of the parish) and they baptise their first child, Elizabeth, there in 1805 (just 5 months after marriage - this is becoming a family habit).  Sadly Elizabeth is buried just 13 days later.  The ancestry of Lucy is considered in Appendix 1 (not online yet).

Samuel and Lucy then up-sticks and move to Harrow in Middlesex, just north of London.  We do not know where their second child, Isaac, was born (in 1806/7)(4) but the third child is baptised at St Mary, Harrow in December 1809.  Five more children are then baptised at Harrow up until 1825 .

This is a key move for this family group.  After at least 3 centuries in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire the family is moving to the London region - where it will mostly stay for another 150 years.  It is not clear whether Samuel, the eldest of William's sons, was the first to move or not.  The first London reference is actually the marriage of Thomas D67 in 1808 but by 1813 all four sons had made the move.

We do not know what Samuel did in Wiltshire but it must surely have been agricultural for once he moves to Greenhill in Harrow (that well known farming community!) he has a range of farming roles.  Greenhill is a small hamlet just to the north of Harrow on the Hill.  At this period, it was not a separate parish but simply part of the parish of Harrow. In modern times it is roughly the triangular area roughly bounded to the west by the main railway line from London to Birmingham and the NW, to the east by Station Road - though it probably extended a little further west to include the present site of Greenhill Road, and to the south by the Metropolitan line between Northwick Park and Harrow on the Hill stations. According to the Victoria County History:

"On the west of Greenhill Lane was Finch's, later Hill's Farm, with three other houses south of it, one of them the Six Bells Inn, first mentioned in 1746 (fn. 749) and after 1775 called the 'Marquis of Granby'. (fn. 750) Opposite the inn lay a farm sometimes called Greenhill Farm. To the east lay the farm soon to become the demesne or Manor Farm, with Greenhill's manor-house and two buildings, possibly cottages. Five cottages east of Greenhill Lane had appeared by 1805 (fn. 751) and by 1841 (fn. 752) there were 28 houses, supporting a population of 151."

It is not clear which of the three farms at Greenhill Samuel worked on but there are some clues in the story which follows.

In 1817, when George is baptised, Samuel is described as a labourer but when Charles Alfred is baptised in 1825 he is described more favourably as a farmer. In 1818 he is identified as a farm steward - the bailiff of a farm owned by Sir John Dean PAUL and Robert SNOW. The record identifying him in this role has much more of a story attached.

On 14th Janary 1818 Samuel is in London. I guess he would be in his Sunday best for he was to appear at the Old Bailey as a witness in the trial of William WHITE and John READ. Maybe he travelled in the previous day and stayed overnight at the London home of his master or in lodgings. Harrow is twelve and a half miles from the City of London and the railway would not be running for another years when Harrow and Wealdstone station first opened on the London and Birmingham railway.  According to the Victoria County History "It still took a whole day for a waggoner to drive a team to London from Harrow c. 1800. By 1826 there were two daily coaches from Harrow-on-the-Hill, from the 'Crown and Anchor' and the 'King's Head' to and from London."    The trial is detailed in the Old Bailey Online record

WILLIAM WHITE and JOHN READ were indicted for stealing, on the 20th of December , at Harrow on-the-hill, one ewe sheep, price 20s. , the goods of Robert Snow , Esq. , and John Dean Paul , Esq.

SECOND COUNT, the same, only stating that they feloniously killed the said sheep, with intent to steal the carcase.

SAMUEL BRUSH. I am bailiff to Robert Snow and John Dean Paul, Esqrs., who are in partnership in a farm at Greenhill, Harrow . On the 21st of December I missed an ewe sheep between eight and nine o'clock in the morning; I had seen it on the 20th at noon; I went to the prisoner, White's, house in the evening of the 21st, near Harrow-weald Common, with Howell, the constable, and found the whole of a sheep, except two breasts and one leg, hanging up in a room at the top of the stairs; it was cut up into joints - I found the head in a cupboard below. White was not at home-in about half an hour he came to the door with a beatle on his back; Howell and Clark came in and secured him, and told him we had found the meat at the house; he said we might find the sheep-skin on Harrow-weald Common, among some furze-he took us there, and shewed it us; I have got it here, and know it to be my master's, by the mark on the left hip, which I put on it myself.

BENJAMIN CLARK . I took the prisoner, White, into custody, and went with him to the place where the skin was found. I took Read about half an hour after, and told him White had said that he accompanied him in killing the sheep from Messrs. Snow and Paul; he made no reply, but went quietly with us. Next morning we took him before the magistrate.

WILLIAM HOWELL . I assisted in taking White, and went with Clarke to take Read. I told him I had taken White for stealing Messrs. Snow and Paul's sheep at Greenhill, and that White had said he was with him, he made no answer - I had seen them together that evening at Greenhill, at a public-house; they left there between two and three o'clock in the afternoon; they went towards Messrs. Snow and Paul's farm, which is not their way home. I was present when Read was examined before the magistrate; what he said was taken down, and he put their marks to it-(looks at a paper)-this is it - I saw them put their marks to it.

SAMUEL BRUSH re-examined. I saw the prisoner, Read, after he was taken-there were marks of blood about the field, as if the sheep had been killed there, and the footmarks of two men. They persuaded White to confess.

WILLIAM HOWELL re-examined. I was in the room when Read was brought before the magistrate - He asked him if he knew any thing of White, and if he was in his company on Saturday night? he said he was, that he was in liquor, and that White persuaded him to go and kill the sheep.

(The confession of Read was then put in and read as follows: "On Saturday night last I went with William White , and saw him kill one sheep, the property of Messrs. Snow and Paul, and assisted him in carrying it home, and concealing the skin, and afterwards received part of it."

(Signed) JOHN READ , X his mark.

Taken before me, A.R. Chauvel, December 22d, 1817.

READ's Defence. I was on the other side of the road when he did it.

WHITE - GUILTY. - DEATH . Aged 37.

READ - GUILTY. - DEATH . Aged 34.

Recommended to Mercy .

First Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Justice Abbott.

It appears from the Victoria County History for Middlesex that Samuel's period at Harrow was not a good time for farming.

"The correspondence between Lord Northwick at Northwick Park (Worcs.) and his bailiff, Quilton, at Harrow, is almost entirely concerned with payments by the lessee farmers. Northwick complained of Quilton's supineness and threatened to withhold his salary, while the bailiff, although generally obsequious, tried to persuade his master to reduce the traditional rents. One grievance was that Northwick would not repair the farms; in particular James Hill at Sheepcote and George Hicks at Wembley, where windows were stopped up with paper, complained about the shocking state of their premises. In 1830 the lessees of Sudbury Court, Ilotts, Greenhill, and Woodcock Hill jointly drew Lord Northwick's attention to the general depression and asked for a reduction in rent. Thomas Trollope wrote, separately, that in the 17 years during which he had had his farm the produce had never sufficed to pay the rent. Northwick accused him of being the ringleader of a conspiracy, and distraint was made on his crops. The other lessees were also in difficulties. Perry of Greenhill said in 1831 that he had lost £100 each year he had been at the farm, which he relinquished in 1832. In the same year Northwick wanted to distrain on Thomas Hodson, the tenant of Woodcock Hill, but he was apparently dissuaded by Quilton. At the end of 1833 Hicks of Wembley was caught while trying to do a moonlight flit, his goods were distrained, and he himself was ejected. When Trollope finally left the parish in 1834 he too had his crops distrained. Northwick, finding it difficult to attract new tenants, was forced to lower his rents and repair the premises. Repairs were carried out at Sheepcote in 1832, just after the lessee had surrendered against Northwick's will, but in 1833 the new tenant complained that vermin had destroyed his beans, which had to be kept in the bed-room for lack of any other place. Considerable improvements were effected at Greenhill in 1834, a year after it had been leased, and in 1842 Sudbury Court was said to have been repaired at great expense. As late as 1846 Lord Northwick claimed a loss of £3,270 on Greenhill Farm and about the same on Sheepcote Farm. On other estates the depression proved equally crippling. In 1829 Samuel Greenhill of Roxeth hanged himself and Thomas Foster, a small landowner in Pinner, Roxeth, and Harrow Weald, was 'all to pieces' because his estate had to be sold. Anthony Trollope described his father's farm in Harrow Weald at about the same time: 'a wretched, tumble-down farm-house. . . one of those farmhouses which seem always to be in danger of falling into the neighbouring horse-pond. As it crept downwards from house to stables, from stables to barns, from barns to cowsheds, and from cowsheds to dung-heaps, one could hardly tell where one began and the other ended!' The depression was even worse for the farm labourers, and the warnings of those who had opposed inclosure seemed to have come true. Lord Northwick mentioned a scheme in Worcestershire, whereby allotments were granted to labourers, but Quilton replied in 1834 that it had already been tried in Pinner, Roxeth, and neighbouring places, without success. In 1831 a small committee rented two fields (13 a.), one of them Roxborough Field, and sub-let them as allotments, but the soil was water-logged and the potato crop failed. In 1851 the Harrow Young Men's Society revived the scheme and by 1853 there were 49 allotments. The project was apparently successful until 1861, when the land was sold for building."

Samuel and Lucy appear to have had seven children, all at Greenhill, Harrow and baptised at St Mary's Harrow.

Isaac : As discussed earlier, the baptism of Isaac on 17 May 1807 records him as the son of Joseph and Lucy Bush. But there is a burial record for Isaac, age 11, son of Samuel and Lucy Brush on 17 July 1818. Normally two naming errors would make me nervous of the record but the burial record, the reference (below) to four children dying in infancy and the absence of any other Bush records in Harrow at that period seem to confirm thatthe baptism is incorrectly recorded.
Mary Ann : Unusually, baptised twice - once in December 1809 and then again in Jan 1810.
Sarah : baptised 1812 buried 13 June 1813 age 1
John : born and died 1815, buried age 'week'
George : baptised 1817
Samuel : died 1826 age 8, so born 1817 or 1818. But there is no baptism record then, though there is a Samuel baptism in 1821 but no early birth date is given ( which is unusual in this parish register). I am inclined to the view that Samuel's age at death was overstated. All the register entries were in the same hand, regardless of who performed the ceremony - so maybe a transcription error from 5 to 8?
Charles Alfred : born 29 May 1824 bap 2 Jan 1825, Samuel identifed as of Greenhill, farmer.

My father's notes (Slip) say there are multiple entries about Samuel in the Parish Vestry Minutes during 1830 and 1831. His notes also say that his occupation was Farm Steward ( which could come from the trial notes, though he does mention that event), that he was a steward for the Greenhill family and that at his death his occupation was 'Gardener'. They akso record that on 28 July 1817 Samuel was a witness to the marriage at Harrow of William MILES and Mararet SMITH, widow, at St Mary's.

Samuel died on 17 December 1839 and was buried on Christmas Day at St Mary's Harrow on the Hill.  The burial register says he was age 65, which would make him born in late 1773 or 1774. But his baptism was in 1776 which if he was, conventionaly, an infant would make him only 63.  There is a memorial inscription on a slab inside the church(5) which (according to my father's transcription) says he was 68. Who knows?

After his death, his widow Lucy goes to work for Edward Lyall, or "Edwaudes" as the 1841 census index records him. Simply as a servant - the census entry just shows 'F S'. He was a solicitor - age between 20 and 25 with a wife, 1 child and 5 staff living in. His address is given only as Greenhill - which was a hamlet rather a single farm.

At 1851 Lucy is still in Harrow living as an 'annuitant formerly ??'. The only other person in her household is 10 year old Alexander Christie, a visitor. Lucy dies in 1861 age 78 and is buried at St Mary's on 13 January 1861 (incorrectly transcrbed in Ancestry as 1860).

Samuel and Lucy's surviving children

It seems that Samuel was able to secure places 'in service' with his employer, for at least two of his sons, George and Charles Alfred, appear in the 1841 census record at the London house of Sir John Dean PAUL (the elder) at 218 The Strand - close to the bank in which he was a partner.  Also employed there in 1841 was Elizabeth LILLINGTON who George married in 1847 at St Clement Danes Church in the Strand. The 1841 census refers to him simply as Charles and refers to him as a servant "age 7". This is surely an error and should be 17 which fits the birth date for Charles Alfred.

I can find no evidence that Sir John Dean Paul also had a house at Greenhill.  The farm of which Samuel was steward seems simply to have been owned by PAUL and SNOW. The Paul and Snow families were banking partners, owned at least one other farm and were inter-married. Sir John Dean PAUL the elder is described in Wikipedia as "an English landowner, banker, painter, and occasional author.  Most of Paul’s works as a painter were landscapes and paintings of horses. In 1821 he was created a baronet, a revival of an honour previously held by another branch of the Paul family."   The BRUSH 'boys' were perhaps fortunate to have left the family's employ a few years before his son, the second Sir John Dean PAUL, was disgraced, sentenced to transportation on 27th October 1855 and made bankrupt over a banking fraud. It's an interesting story but too much to include here.

George BRUSH set up as a fruiterer and greengrocer at 15 Goswell Road in Clerkenwell, where son George Charles was born in 1848.  He soon moved to premises in Holborn.  By 1850, when their second son Samuel Isaac is born, George and Elizabeth are at 28 Red Lion Street in Holborn.  In the 1851 census he is recorded as a greengrocer and they have a live-in servant of their own.  

Every morning for two years from 2005 to 2007, on my way to work, I used to sit having my breakfast in a café right opposite number 28 Red Lion Street, which is on the corner with Princeton Street.  Unfortunately Red Lion Street suffered bomb damage in WW2 and number 28 looks to be a post-war building.  But the neighbouring properties (the Chinese restaurant on the left in the picture) are of a style which suggests they were there in George's time.  Today it is a quiet side street full of small cafes but in the 19th century it was a busy "high street" - a main thoroughfare from north London.

Their second son Samuel dies in 1851. At 1861 they are sharing a house with two other families at White House Yard near Drury Lane in the parish of St Clement Danes and George is a coal dealer. Both George and Elizabeth die in 1869. The surviving son George goes on to marry twice and have a number of children as discussed in chapter xx.

At the 1851 census Charles Alfred is living at 6 Bow Street near Covent Garden, which was the office of the Strand Union workhouse. I think the entry gives his occupation as "messenger" to the Strand Union. He was 'living above the shop' in the household of John Lockhart, Relieving Officer of the Union. He is then unmarried.

Charles Alfred marries twice. The 1860 baptism of Alfred Charles at Lambeth identifies his parents as Charles Alfred and Mary BRUSH, their abode as Maynard Street, Bloomsbury and his occupation as ?Time? Keeper. A helpful marginal note identifies the birth date as being eight years earlier on 6 November 1852. However, Mary Brush died in 1859 so the baptism appears to have been done after she died.

Several family trees on Ancestry identify his first wife as Mary Giribreeck, born 1811. The key seems to be the 1861 census.  Alfred BRUSH, age 8, is living at 23 Maiden Lane. He is identifed as the nephew of Gerhard and Charlotte Ernsting. Charlotte's maiden name was Giribreeck and she had a sister Mary. Mary's first marriage was to Frederick Willhelm Paetsch.

At the 1861 census Charles Brush, widower, foreman,(transcribed/indexed by Ancestry as Chas A Bursk)is living as a lodger in the Lambeth St Mary cnesus district Waterloo Road First. Later in 1861 when Charles Alfred marries Harriet BATTEN in Kennington he is again described as a widower. Harriet was a housemaid at The Grove, Clapham Road in nearby Lambeth and it is this address which is given as Charles's address on their marriage.

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(1) The population of the whole parish in 1821 (an early census) was only 1,580.  This was after the coming of the canal. Pigot & Co's National Commercial Directory for Cornwall, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Somersetshire and Wiltshire, 1830 quoted in Genuki.     back to text   

(2) In 1801 it had just 1,198 people according to A Brief History of Swindon by Tim Lambert. www.localhistories.org/swindon.html back to text   

(3) See http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~jimella/wanbrgh.htm including a quote from: Wiltshire 1791-97 Benjamin Baker in the Universal Magazine. "Wanborough was once much more important than it is today, as well as being larger in area than the present parish. ….. The parish then was about 5 miles north to south and 1.75 miles to 2.5 miles east to west. Later the width was reduced by about a third when Little Hinton became a separate parish. An old book refers to the "Town of Wanborough looking down on little Swindon". It lies on a Roman road, the Ermin Way or Ermin Street, about one and a half miles north of where that road crosses the even older Ridgeway, and where it crosses that other pre-Roman road the Icknield Way. back to text   

(4) Based on his age at death. There is a baptism recorded at St Mary's Harrow in 1807 for Isaac BUSH, but, although the mother is identified as Lucy, the father is clearly named as Joseph. Two naming errors looks like one too many but searches for Joseph, Lucy and Isaac Bush have drawn a blank, so maybe… back to text    /p>

(5)FWB handwritten notes refer to 123 - slab number - located near juction of left transept and nave back to text   

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