Notes |
- First Southey to live at Pitt House. From Captain Robert Southey's History of the Southey Family: "Richard and Robert were present when their youngest brother Laurence made his will in 1645. Under the Will they were asked to administer the testator's finances should his widow remarry . Laurence was survived by his widow less than a year so she did not remarry." and "Laurence was the sixth son and youngest of the sons of Thomas mentioned in his will. He must have been born after 1581 because the testator dated his will in 1600, when his son Thomas was under twenty-two years of age ; Richard and Laurence were both younger than Thomas. Probably Laurence was born after 1590 as his two older brothers , Robert and John, lived until 1675 and 1673 respectively . We therefore conclude Laurence was a child when his father died and for that reason probably he continued to live with his widowed mother at Woodford until his marriage in 1623. It seems likely he acquired a knowledge of the wool and cloth trade at home. Very probably his mother continued to manufacture cloth after her husband's death as she remained one of the highest rated citizens of Wellington until her own death in 1627. Laurence never paid rates in Wellington although he inherited property there as a minor. In view of this and the fact that he inherited property jointly with his brother Richard, we may conclude Richard bought the inheritance from Laurence when the latter moved to Culmstock after marrying Agnus Mapledurham in 1623. On that occasion Laurence was required to pay to his future father-in-law £100 as part of a marriage settlement. Agnes Mapledurham was then the elder of two daughters and a co-heiress of John Mapledurham, who owned small estates in the parishes of Culmstock and Sampford Arundell. She eventually inherited her father's Culmstock property known as "Mapledurham" alias "Maldrum," latterly called "Pitt" probably because the house is built in a deep depression on the side of a hill. This small estate is very ancient with title deeds dating from 1480: the estate then belonged to the Mapledurham's but when that family acquired the property we do not know. Descendants of Laurence Sowthey and Agnes Mapledurham have lived at Pitt since their marriage in 1623. The last of them to live there was a brother and a sister, Henry and Anne Sowthey, who today occupy a house close by. They were born in Pitt House where they continued to live until it was pulled down in 1886 because, according to them, it was tumbling down. Apparently an Architect stated the roof was in danger of falling in and the whole house was beyond restoration . Henry and Anne Sowthey are unmarried and they now represent the senior branch of that ancient family. In spite of the remoteness of kinship their features closely resemble those of the writer's father and the latter's two sisters Henrietta and Adelaide. When the writer called on them in 1932 Miss Sowthey was sitting at a mahogany table in a small front room with her grandmother's Bible at her elbow. She was neatly dressed in black trimmed with white cuffs and collar and looked very like a seventeenth century puritan. Notwithstanding her rather severe appearance she was most charming. At seventy-seven years of age Henry Sowthey's memory had faded while his sister Anne, though his senior by two years , was very alert and talked freely. She spoke of Pitt and said that her great grandfather came there from West Buckland when he was about eight years old, and that he died at Pitt in 1808 aged 70. This story has been verified. Miss Sowthey described her home with colour and emotion. She said the words "Laurence Sowthey " had been burnt with a candle more than three centuries ago on a heavy oak beam supporting the ceiling above a big open fireplace in the main downstairs living-room, and she then took the writer into an adjoining room to see a bookcase she had had made from a similar beam when the house was pulled down. She described Pitt as a large rambling two-storied thatched house with two staircases and many windows, a number of which had been blocked up to avoid paying window tax and this, she said, had rather disfigured the house. Today nothing remains of the original Pitt beyond a barn and some cellars. A small red brick farm-house has replaced it. The owner of this new Pitt and its ancient title deeds is Mr. Samuel Corner, who, on his paternal grand mother's side is of Sowthey extraction . For this reason alone he bought the property. To continue chronologically with our story we must carry in our minds this glimpse of Mapledurham (or Pitt) back three centuries to the day when Laurence, probably encouraged by his mother with whom he was living, courted the heiress of Mapledurham. At that time Laurence and his brothers owned small properties in Wellington. They were educated sons of a successful and respected clothier, and as such, eligible young men . Laurence courted and won Agnes Mapledurham, we learn, from a document signed by them on June 4th, 1623. This tri-partite indenture was made between John Mapledurham a yeoman and Margaret his wife for the first part; their two daughters and co-heiresses Agnes and Emlyn Mapledurham for the second part; and John Sowthey a yeoman of Wellington, Humphrey Shorland, a yeoman of Culmstock, and Laurence Sowthey , a yeoman of Wellington, for the third part; to bear witness of a marriage about to be solemnized between Laurence Sowthey and Agnes Mapledurham. In it mention is made of £100 Laurence Sowthey was to pay "John Mapledurham in respect of the said marriage and for the better selling assuring and dividing of the messuage lands and tenements of the said John Mapledurham upon and between his aforesaid daughters and their issues such as it shall please God hereafter to give them.'' From this document we learn that John Mapledurham was the owner of two small properties: "Mapledurham alias Maldrum of 60 acres in the parish of Culmstock in Devon, and "Atwood" of 41 acres in the parish of Sampford Arundell in Somerset. John Mapledurham entailed "Mapledurham alias Maldrum" on Laurence Sowthey and his wife Agnes and their heirs, and "Atwood" he entailed on his younger daughter Emlyn and her heirs. John Ridd of the parish of Oare in Somerset (vide Chapter XVII "Lorna Doone, by R. D. Blackmore) tells us that about the year 1673 "the wisest person " in all our parts was reckoned to be a certain wise woman , well known all over Exmoor by the name of "Mother Meldrum .'' He goes on to say her real name was "Mapledurham'' as I learnt long afterwards; and she came of an ancient family, but neither of Devon or Somerset. According to John Ridd, Mother Meldrum died before 1685. In view of John Ridd' s remarks and what we know about Emlyn Mapledurham of "Mapledurham alias Maldrum" situated on the border of Devon and Somerset it seems very possible Emlyn Mapledurham was that "wise woman" or witch so-called. The property known as "Mapledurham alias Maldrum" consisted of a dwelling house with outbuildings and a garden, orchard, and 60 acres divided into 40 acres of land, twelve acres of meadow , six acres of pasture, and two acres of woods in Mapledurham and Culmstock; and "common of pasture," or all manner of beasts in Blackdown, Maidendown Hackpendown Healemore (Hillmore) in the County of Devon. "Atwood" consisted of a dwelling house with outbuildings and a garden, orchard, and forty-one acres divided into twenty acres in land, six acres of meadow , ten acres of pasture and five acres of woods in Sampford Arundell and Wellington in Somerset. The document giving us these particulars is signed by John and Laurence Sowthey, and Humphrey Shorland ; and Agnes and Emlyn Mapledurham who signed with their marks. The seals have broken away. After his marriage Laurence became a clothier of Culmstock . He was the first Sowthey to live at Pitt House and we know little more than this about him. His wife Agnes must have been fully occupied with domestic affairs during twenty-three years of married life and that is really all we know about her. Their ten children were sufficiently educated to write tolerably well and grow into useful men and women. Three of them became clothiers; others became a tanner , a yeoman of West Buckland, and a London tradesman. At their father's death each son receive d £180 and each daughter £220 . In this way,£1,920 (worth ten times what it is today) was divided between the surviving children. Since Laurence died in 1646 and Agnes the following year and seven sons and three daughters survived them we calculate that if a child was born to them each year of the first ten years of their marriage life then in 1646 when Laurence died the eldest child would have been twenty-three and the youngest thirteen years Old. This being so the chances are the youngest was not then thirteen so we may feel reasonably sure that the sixth son, Peter (the writer's great great great great grandfather) was orphaned early in life."
|