George Jackson 2
From Washfield to Templeton
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George Jackson 2 From Washfield to Templeton |
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By the time Albert was born, on July 14th 1835, the Jacksons had moved from Washfield, across the main road, over the hill beyond Calverleigh to the village of Templeton. The name of the village indicates its origin at the time of the Knights Templars during the crusades. A road runs along the ridge between Calverleigh and Templeton, marked by Calverleigh Cross and then Temple Cross, before dipping down steeply to Templeton Bridge and then on westwards. Crosses abound on these uplands, marking where the old roads met and how the mediaeval wayfarers carefully avoided the wet valley bottoms if they could.
South Combe Farm The rent and expenses book which he used from May 7th 1846 to November 2nd 1864 has been preserved by the family and is a valuable source of information on both the family and their background. There appears to be a note entered in pencil in 1842 on the inside cover. Perhaps there was another book for the earlier years, now lost. |
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The first Census, in 1841, also lists the Jackson residence as Lower South Combe. George was then 40, Mary 30, Emma 14 and Albert five.
The countryside round Templeton is typical of Devon. ‘On top’ the surrounding countryside appears to be gently rolling, all the way to Exmoor in the north, and Dartmoor, a low purplish smudge in the far south, a patchwork of fields and hedges and copses. ‘Combes’ are narrow, deep wooded valleys, cut by streams over the centuries. The names seem very apt as you approach Templeton by plunging into a green gloom under hedges that meet over the road, splashing across a muddy ford and then driving warily up a steep and narrow lane with grass growing in the middle and a gradient that seems worse than one in four, hoping that you don’t meet a milk tanker on its way down. There are some slightly easier routes, but there must have had been many problems with horses and carts in bad weather!
The two streams join at Templeton Bridge, and it was here, at Combe Mill, that William Cornwell, the miller, lived with his wife, Ann, and four daughters, paying a rent of £3.10s a year to the Chichesters.
The Besley family lived at that time at Higher South Combe, a larger farmhouse, also still in existence, two fields higher up the lane from Lower South Combe. There were nine of them in the family, and five servants, though unfortunately as the 1841 Census rounds up ages to the nearest five, there is no way of knowing whether the Besley children were of an age to play with Albert. This house and farm also belonged to the Chichesters and in 1836. George Besley paid £60 rent, and later, from 1846 to 1864, according to George Jackson’s accounts book, he paid £80 a year so was probably using more fields.
On the 1851 Census another Besley family is recorded at Great Esworthy, the next farm to the south. James, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Ann had a son, Henry, who was three years younger than Albert.
George could already have been steward for the Templeton estates, but there are no accounts preserved for the period before 1846. He was certainly a gamekeeper and a familiar figure at Calverleigh Court, especially to Charles Chichester who was very partial to rabbit pie. On the 17th of January 1837 Charles, aged 67, lay dying. His unmarried daughter, Eliza was in tears as she wrote to her sister, Mary Anne, Lady Constable, at Burton Constable, near Hull. She said:-
“I have been down to dinner as usual, but the first thing I saw was a rabbit - it had been shot on purpose for him by my desire by Jackson.”