In 1841, the village was a small farming community, with houses scattered across the countryside, which was typical of rural England in the early Victorian period. Population density was low, with an equal number of males and females.
Tag: Great Bricett
A Patriarchal Family
From the Suffolk Chronicle, 22 October 1870:
“A PATRIARCHAL FAMILY.—A family named Prentice, living in Flowton and Bricet, seems to be of remarkably good stuff. The hero of the quartette, Robert, living at Bricet, is 95; Henry and John, living at Flowton, are a couple of boys aged 89 and 82 respectively; and Mary, living at Bricet, is 77—the average age is 85 years, nine months.”
This little snippet about the Prentice family of Great Bricett and Flowton is very informative, although not entirely correct.
All four mentioned were baptised at Great Bricett. Robert was baptised 1781, Henry in 1786, John in 1791, and Mary in 1803 (although born in 1800). They all appear to be siblings but Mary’s parentage is unclear (father’s name not recorded).
Children were not always baptised soon after their birth (such as in Mary’s case) but in this case, Robert seems to have been. He was baptised early 1781 and considering his parents were married the previous year, 1780/1 seems a likely birth year.
This would make Robert 90 at the time of this article, not 95. Henry’s age was closer to 85 than 89; John’s was 79 rather than 82; and Mary’s was 70 rather than 77.
They probably did believe these to be the correct ages though, since they match the ages given 6 months later in the 1871 census. (Except for Mary, whose age was given as 73.)
All four died within 8 years of the article being published – Robert in 1871, Henry in 1874, John in 1875, and Mary in 1878.
Robert and Mary were buried in Great Bricett churchyard and Henry and John were buried at Flowton (about 4 miles southwest of Great Bricett).
Related posts:
A Week at Bricett
This postcard shows the interior of Great Bricett church, facing the altar.
The stamp shows the postcard was received/processed at Great Bricett post office on 16 September 1929, and was addressed to:
Miss Edith Robinson
Trickers Green
Combs
Nr Stowmarket
Suffolk
The note reads:
Dear Edie
We are just having a week at Bricett. How is the harvest work going on
Dearest Love,
Ruth
Fortunately, I was able to find an Edith Robinson living at Trickers Green, Combs in 1911, who just happened to have a younger sister named Ruth. The girls, their parents, and their brothers were all born in Combs meaning there was no apparent connection to Great Bricett.
However Ruth uses ‘we’, and since further investigation shows she married in 1920, it seemed highly likely her travel companion was her husband.
And this is where the Bricett connection lies – Ruth’s husband, Stanley Kitchener Barton, was born in Great Bricett.
Stanley was born and baptised in Great Bricett, as were both his parents, Willie Barton and Eliza Sayers. His parents had even stood at the altar featured in the postcard when they married in 1891.
Willie and Eliza lived almost their entire lives in Great Bricett. After Eliza died in 1936, Willie appears to have lived with daughter Evelyn for a time at Great Blakenham, before becoming a patient at Stow Lodge Hospital in Onehouse, and apparently dying there 1940. Willie and Eliza are both buried in Bricett churchyard.
Stanley and Ruth married at Combs in 1920 and settled at Woodbridge where Stanley worked as a chauffeur and motor driver. His father, Willie, had worked as a groom and domestic coachman, so Stanley’s career seems to have followed the modern progression of the trade.
When the postcard was sent in 1929, the couple were likely staying with Stanley’s parents on New Road (now B1078).
More details of Stanley Barton and his family can be found on WikiTree
Research Note: In the 1891 census, Eliza was recorded as a servant in the Makens household at Ringshall, while Willie was recorded as a visitor of Eliza’s parents at Great Bricett. They would marry later that year. In 1921, Willie was recorded as an employee of Miss K. Makens, Ringshall.
A Bundle of Worry
The above postcard was shared with me recently, featuring a photograph of two children standing in front of Great Bricett church.
The stamp on the reverse side shows that the postcard was received/processed by Chiswick post office on 16 June 1906, and was addressed to:
Mrs Gomm
4 Hogarth Lane
Chiswick
4 Hogarth Lane
Chiswick
The note reads:
Dear Mum
Just a card to wish you many Happy Returns of Your Birthday & also ask you if you remember this spot where the Millers daughter was turned into your bundle of worry and mine
Ernest
Just a card to wish you many Happy Returns of Your Birthday & also ask you if you remember this spot where the Millers daughter was turned into your bundle of worry and mine
Ernest
The sender was Ernest Albert Gomm, a postman from London, who married miller’s daughter, Cinderella Clark. Cinderella was the daughter of Aber John Clark, who was the miller at Bricett Mill, as was his father before him.
The ‘bundle of worry’, Cinderella, was born ‘up the road’ in Barking (Suffolk) while her father was running the mill there, but Abner was born in Great Bricett (likely in Mill House). Her family appears to have been in Barking between (roughly) 1868 to 1880 before returning to run the mill at Bricett.
Ernest was born in Buckinghamshire but appeared to live most of his early life in Chiswick, London – at the address on the postcard even – 4 Hogarth Lane.
They married in Great Bricett church (as referenced in the postcard) on 3 October 1900, and the couple set up home together in Chiswick. They were recorded just around the corner from ‘mum’ in the 1901 census the following year, on Mawson Lane.
At the time Ernest sent this postcard, the couple had just one child, Gilbert Walter, but the next year, their daughter Grace Minna would arrive. I’d love to know why Cinderella was referred to as a ‘bundle of worry’ – I like to think it was a term used affectionately.
What a wonderful personal insight into their lives!
More details of Cinderella Clark and her family can be found on WikiTree
A note on the photograph:
The photographer was Percival Walter Finter – a ‘native of Needham Market’ who opened a business as a photographer and hairdresser in Bildeston in 1906. As the mark says Needham Market, I would presume the photo was taken before then. He was working as a grocer’s assistant in Ipswich in 1901 so we can probably narrow the date of the photograph down to between 1901 and 1906.
How I’d love to know who the boys were posing out the front!
Three Weddings, Two Churches, One Day
On 29 October 1892, Selina Bramford and Arthur John Double married in the parish church of Great Bricett, Suffolk.
On the same day, in the same church, her elder brother, Frederick Bramford, married Mary Ann Emsden.
One of Frederick’s witnesses, Ellen Morphew, was his married eldest sister, while the other, Edward William Sparrow was the husband of his second eldest sister, Maria.
The event was such an interesting occurrence that the Reverend Frederick R Lee made note of it next to Selina’s marriage entry (one and a half years later).
“note. Selina Bramford of Entry no. 98 and Frederick Bramford of Entry no. 99 are sister and brother. F. Lee. 14/3/94.”
But what makes it even more notable, is that on the very same day, their brother, Albert Bramford, was ALSO married, only 12 miles away in Ipswich.
The three Bramfords were three of six siblings all born in Great Bricett – Ellen, Maria, Frederick, Albert, Selina, and Alice. Their mother died in 1878, just over a year before the eldest sibling, Ellen, married in 1880. Less than two months later, their father died. In 1881, the rest of the siblings (except one) were recorded at Great Bricett with their Aunt Mary. Frederick (18) was listed as the head of household, but their aunt had presumably stepped up to care for her brother’s orphaned children and keep house for them.
Maria, the second eldest, was the next to marry in 1885, before Aunt Mary died in 1887. The youngest, Alice, married in 1890. The three remaining siblings, Frederick, Albert and Selina, were still recorded together in Great Bricett in the 1891 census.
I’m surprised Albert didn’t also marry at Great Bricett. All six siblings were baptised there, their parents (and Aunt Mary) were buried there, and all the siblings were married there, except Albert. His bride, Emily Marian Brode, was from Hertfordshire, but the previous year was recorded in the 1891 census, at the School House in Ringshall, as a ‘National Governess’. Albert’s residence was given as St Matthew (Ipswich) on the marriage record but we don’t know how long he was resident there – a week? a year? He had been recorded in Bricett the previous year as an agricultural labourer, but was now a general dealer.
What conversations had been held around all three weddings being held the same day? Was it planned? Did any family attend Albert’s wedding in Ipswich? Had there been a falling out? I’ll just have to add this to the list of things that we will never know.
Bramford Family Timeline (1878-1892)
1878 mother died
1880 Ellen married (Jan)
1880 father died (Mar)
1885 Maria married
1887 Aunt Mary died
1890 Alice married
1892 Frederick, Selina and Albert married
More details of Selina Bramford and her family can be found on WikiTree