HENHAM
- Census Returns for 1841
The
1841 Census shows there were 693 people (352 male & 341 female).
There were 148 inhabited and 4 uninhabited houses. The identifiable
livelihoods were –
Robert
Seabrook, miller of Henham Mill; male (indecipherable) Clerk at the
Vicarage;
the Snow family of whom 3 were bricklayers;
John Green 75 years of age, tailor; James Bright, apprentice tailor;
Benjamin Little, tailor;
John Christmas, John Knight, Thomas Holgate, Joseph Francis, James Bush,
and John Smith were all shoemakers;
William Smith, farmer of Little Henham Lodge; James Day, farmer; William
Marshall, farmer of Little Henham Hall; William Canning, farmer of Old
Mead Farm; James Bush, farmer at ‘The Farm’; Charles Hall, farmer at
The Parsonage; Charles Titchmarsh, farmer at Henham Lodge; his brother
John was a veterinary surgeon; John Houghton, farmer;
William Hayden 65 yrs, blacksmith (his wife Ann shown as 60 yrs); James
Hayden 35 yrs , blacksmith (his wife Sophia is shown as 30 yrs); James
Ricket, blacksmith;
Freeman Collins, independent; Phillip Dixon, thatcher; William, George,
John, Charles, & Philomon Turner were all carpenters; William Shard,
carpenter; William Milbank, harness-maker; Edward bright, carrier;
Thomas Heard, wheelwright; Henry Brand, deputy wheelwright; Dan Bush,
apprentice wheelwright; Benjamin Ling, timber merchant; William
Thornton, dispensing ?;
Alfred Canning was a clerk in a bank;
William Phipps, shopkeeper; William Nash, junior baker; Henry Sterling,
deputy shopkeeper; female (indecipherable), milliner;
John Barker, publican at ‘The Cock’; Elizabeth Heard of ‘The
Jock’, publican; John Wright, watchmaker. The remaining men were all
recorded as being agricultural labourers.
The
enumerator John Mumford, also responsible for identifying
unusual/abnormal changes, reported that since 1840 some 31 people had
gone ‘to the neighbourhood of London for haymaking, labourers, males
from 15-60 years’ and that 37 had gone ‘to the Union
Workhouse’.
From
his returns, you can see that he entered the village by Henham Mill,
then to the ‘Cock’, walked eastwards probably on the north side of
the High Street, down to Wood End, onto Henham Lodge, retraced his steps
on the south side of the High Street, up to The Parsonage, then Henham
Hall and around the village before going off to Little Henham.
When
you scan down the ages of the men, it is apparent that there were very
few aged in their forties in the village at the time of the census in
June. So it would seem that the eldest of the fittest temporary left the
village for the lure of a higher wage harvesting in the fields of
Tottenham and Enfield.
HENHAM
- Census Returns for 1851
The
1851 Census (John Mumford was the enumerator again) shows there were
754 people (396 male & 358 female). John took a different route this
time – firstly to Henham Mill, then Old Mead Road, past a railway
crossing, out to Little Henham, across to Henham Lodge, through Wood End
Green, then into the village.
He
found 160 inhabited and 8 uninhabited houses. The identifiable
livelihoods were –
Joseph Bush,
miller at Henham Mill; William Packer, railway inspector of Old Mead
Road; Edmund Cox, railgate keeper of Railway Crossing; Charles Robbinson,
railway porter of Henham village;
William &
John Canning, farmers employing 39 people;
Charles Marshall, farmer of Little Henham with 200 acres employing 8 men
& 4 boys;
William Smith, farmer of Little Henham with 500 acres;
Peter Cowell, farmer of Henham Lodge with 408 acres;
Charles Titchmarsh, farmer of Wood End Green with 107 acres; James Bush,
farmer of Henham village with 220 acres employing 6 men & 6
boys;
George Collin, farmer of Parsonage Farm with 215 acres employing 17 men
& a number of boys;
James Kirkby, farmer’s bailiff/steward of The Jock Farm with 230 acres
employing 15 men & a number of boys;
John Houghton, farmer with 7 acres; John Turner of Wood End, carpenter
employing 2 men; William Turner of Henham village, carpenter employing
both Charles & George Turner as apprentices; Alfred Little,
carpenter; George Turner, carpenter and pauper;
Frank & Stephen Snow of Wood End, bricklayers; Simpton Snow,
bricklayer; Richard Davey & Henry Patrick both of Wood End, Chelsea
Pensioners;
William Markwell of Wood End, butcher; the cordwainers
(shoemakers/leather workers) were
Mathew Holgate of Wood End, employing 3 men & 1 boy; Thomas Holgate
employing 2 men & 2 boys; James Bush of Wood End; John Knight;
Joseph Francis; Ebenezer Houghton; Henry Stock; Benjamin Ward employing
7 men & 2 boys;
Kitty Dennison of Wood End, schoolmistress; Anna Hallibury,
schoolmistress; Ann Snow, schoolmistress; Mary Phipps, schoolmistress;
James Donelly, grocer; William Phipps, grocer assisted by Sarah Phipps
& William Mahon; Peter Dennison, dealer; Ann Heard, seamstress;
Peter Gardner, warehouseman; his wife Hester, a dressmaker; his son
George, a warehouse boy; Edward Mead, carrier; James Bush, carrier;
William Bright, carrier; Henry Chipperfield, wheelwright; his wife Amy,
dressmaker; son Charles was an errand boy and son Thomas was a footman;
George Head was a groom/gardener; indecipherable Curate of Henham;
George Orme, Independent Minister; John Dixon, thatcher; Philip, Levi,
and another of another Dixon family, all thatchers; James Cox,
Essex Policeman; Elizabeth Westwood & Charlotte Brand, straw-bonnet
makers; Elizabeth barker, licensed victualler; Elizabeth Heard,
innkeeper; John Titchmarsh, veterinary surgeon;
William Hayden aged 75, blacksmith who employed 2 men and a boy,
his wife Ann aged 69, his son John also a blacksmith aged 39 plus a
granddaughter; James Hayden
was shown as 46, Sophia his wife & dressmaker as 43; James Bright,
blacksmith.
The
remaining men and older boys were all shown as agricultural workers. The
1881 Census showed 809 people but by 1917 the population had fallen to
741, possibly the consequences of increased public mobility and WW1.
I’ll
be putting a copy of both returns in the ‘Cock’ as company for the
1881 print.
Ray
G.
