Page 558

Reconstruction of Two High Street Farms [25 and 26].

Page 559

34. Two High Street Farms [25 and 26].

Gybbs [25].

1614: John gybes uz...ijd ....1624: Thomas Gibbes et uxor... ijd
..........Thos gybes uz .ijd ...............widdow Gibbes ...............ijd
..........edward gybes.. ijd ...............Edward Gibbes ................ijd
..........a mayd.............. ijd ...............John Scott ........................ijd
..........Anne More ......ijd ...............Mary Robins my md gave it her

The average in that household for the 8 listed years was 6.16.

The Gybbs family lived on the High Street with a farm entrance onto Backside. This was a prime site on the west side of the town with a front entrance opposite Church lane. Was their old timber house right against the verge and pulled down to rebuild in stone? The property which acquired the name of "The Knobb" had been built just south of a pond called the Hobb's Pool. This stretch of water separated the paddock and the High Street, preventing another farm being made between Gybbs and their neighbours the Robins [26] to the north. Geese and ducks took advantage of the pool and the returning cows would descend to drink. To prevent this New Street Lane was cut through from Backside to the junction of the High Street with Creampot lane.

There were two Gybbs families mentioned in the survey of 1552 for both William and Thomas had a yardland and their own messuage. They each leased a second yardland containing 22 acres and 2 acres of meadow, but still no mention of any leyland. It is not clear which Gybbs was on this site and where the other Gybbs farmed leaving the problem of where exactly widow Elizabeth Gybbs was living when she died in January 1576/7. Neither is it easy with the lack of inventories to establish which generation of Gybbs rebuilt in stone. This was an important site and the man most likely to have been the tenant was John Gybbs who was married in 1575. He unfortunately died in 1617 leaving a will but no inventory. The house has been altered over the years, but a detailed survey of the house ought to reveal some clues.

Ezra Eagles who arrived down from Bourton in about 1699 could have begun to add the stone lintels to windows as he later did to out buildings at [28] around 1709. Robert Eagles took over the Knobb [25] in 1723 where he carried on farming alongside his carrier and chapman business, but may not have had time to make extensive alterations while travelling long distances.This was revealed when he had a fatal accident at Newberry in 1743. Apparently he died from a fall from his waggon. His widow married Daniel Parish who farmed until her son Ezra could take over. Ezra was also a carrier and chapman and it was he who was offered the freehold of the farm. It was not a good time to take on a morgage as the Turnpike tolls and then the coming of the Oxford canal threatened his profits. His daughter Mary had married Samuel Anker and he was the next owner occupier. Samuel had opened a brickyard on the Oxhay road and it is likely Samuel, or his nephew, altered the front of the house, changed the stairs and rebuilt the farmyard in a combination of brick and stone. His nephew Samuel who had married Martha Toms of Hill farm was the next occupier by which time slate was coming down the canal and repacing Anker's tiles.

The house has a generous inner width of eighteen feet. The east facing main entrance opened onto a passage with a farmyard door at the western end. The hall was to the right with a north gable inglenook fireplace. Below the entry they had a chamber at first without a chimney. Sometime after 1629 the hall was divided to make a sleeping chamber next to the entry passage. An unusual arrangement, but repeated at Robins next door.

Page 561

At first the hall was much larger and the chamber below the entry would be their parlour.The hall gable had to accommodate the newel stairs in the northwest corner next to the chimney. Was the oven in the other corner? Spine beams ran the length of the building. The spine beam in the Below the Entry chamber was covered in wood as Huxeley's [36] had been. As the building was tucked into the north eastern corner of the close the buildings had to bend with the boundary as it narrowed. The rear extension behind the hall was therefore at an angle. The kitchen with a hearth was next to the hall with a dairy behind. It is not clear when the well's pump was placed in the kitchen.

Attached to the south end of the house was a narrower range. It measured fiftythree feet in length and internally had a depth of fourteen feet.The nether bay of this was taken into the house but left at one and a half storeys even though the main house was two and a half storeys high. The rest of this range was used as a cowshed sufficient for fourteen cowstalls. The cowshed had a hay door on the south gable next to the front farm entrance. The roof had apparently very old timbers and the thatch had been replaced with tiles. Behind the cowshed it would be reasonable to expect the cattle yard. The stable yard would be beyond the house and backyard, for the stables were to the west of the house extension and set back by building in the paddock to the north. The west gable of the extension could then have steps up to the granary loft with the dog kennel underneath. It is not clear when these improvements took place. The stables had remnants of an earlier stone slate roof, which only gain a mention at the vicarage [21], Woodroses [8] and possibly at [28], being rare in Cropredy. Anker's rebuilt the western barn using stone lined with brick. They curved the southern range round the farmyard. A late encroachment was the stone and tiled hovel beside the main High Street entrance. It was seen to advantage from Church lane where it once provided a fitting full stop to the range of buildings descending southwards and set off by the tall Wellingtonia, planted around 1832, in the front garden encroached from the verge.

The Gybbs House.

Old Elizabeth Gybbs in her inventory of 1577 had a hall, chamber and a kitchen with a chimney, but did Elizabeth belong to the Knobb [25]? John (d1617) son of William and Alyce was too young to build or extend the house in the 1560's before his marriage though they could have begun afterwards, or delayed until their children were older. Their son Thomas lived in a large house with a chamber over the hall, parlour and kitchen as well as a milk house.

Thomas Gybb's inventory was taken in May 1629:
Hall [hearth] .......................................Barne
Plor [1 bedsteed] ...............................Colt house [3 colts]
Roome over the plor [1 bed] ............Cow house [8 cows]
Chamber over the hall [2 beds] .......[stable for 5]
Kitchin [hearth]
Milke House
Chamber over the kitchen [1 bed].

The kitchen fire had been used for roasting meat:

"one saltinge troe six tubbes one/
mashing fatt one leade and doe Coule one boultinge hutch/
two spitts one paire of Cobirons one heare for/
a kill [kiln] seven fleeches of bacon...." £5.

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The stairs beside the hall fire had a one light window on the first floor and the north cockloft had a three light casement both on the gable end. The rear elevation may only have acquired casement windows later, but there must always have been the door at the end of the entry passage leading out onto the rear yard. Later on, perhaps in Anker's time, the workforce came in through this door, washing their hands at a bowl set in the sill of the one light window near the door. The waste water went into a bucket in the cupboard below. They could then receive their pay from the desk in the parlour below the entry. It has been suggested that the built in corner desk was there in the sixteenth century. It was fixed to the wall, rather like a cupboard. Was this where the Gybbs did their farm accounts and entered up their money out on bonds?

The newel stairs took them up to the reasonably furnished hall and parlour chambers. The rear kitchen also had a chamber over with a door near the stairs. These went on up to a three room cockloft. There was a gable window at each end to light two of the rooms and a third west window was later added for the middle bay. The house had plenty of space for extra chambers and storage of cheese and apples.

In 1629 the barn held corn and hay. The colt house had a scaffold and so did the cowhouse. There must have been a stable as they had five horses and colts. The farm had equipment for two yardlands sown with a corn crop worth £30. Enough had been put by to lend out £33-14s-10d while waiting for the next lease which would require an entry bond.

Plan of Gybbs Farm [25].

Page 563

The Gybb's still leased the farm's yardland, but took on extra land when they could. On family farms no couple had the privilege of remaining a nuclear family for very long. After William Gybbs death in 1562 his wife Alyce managed to hold the farm for her son John, who married when he was twentyfour. John and Annes would have their own chamber in his mother's house. Alyce had suffered the loss of four sets of twins (and possibly more only there is a gap in the register) and somehow kept going. The twins had been born twelve months, twenty months and then fifteen months apart. Three of the youngest twins have no burial record and were not mentioned in their father's will. Were they buried in one coffin together? Fortunately two further sons survive, but at what cost to the mother? After such a traumatic start she may have found it hard to relinquish the care of a surviving son to a wife. Widow Alyce was clinging to her hearth, furniture, land and stock (p114), but she was not in a position to rebuild. It would have to be John the surviving son, but although he left a will the inventory has gone (p125). Would John build before 1574 when he married Annes?

John and Annes had three sons and a daughter. Edmund the youngest lived at home helping on the farm and leasing any spare commons he could get. Edmund married a local girl, Alice Bokingham [55], when he was forty and then they must leave Cropredy to set up elsewhere. Their father John went on farming into his mid sixties.

This was confirmed by the Easter lists as the vicar places John with his wife Annes at the head of their household. As a widow Annes hung onto the hearth in the Gybbs family tradition after their son Thomas, by then thirtyfive years of age, was married at Cropredy. Why did Thomas wait until 1610 before he brought Elizabeth Batchelor from the farm in West Adderbury to the family home? They would have had their own chamber, but shared the rest. The young wife was well protected by a marriage covenant (p118), if she was to become a widow, but she entered a house where the older generation were still actively in control.

Thomas and Elizabeth shared with his parents for seven years and the widow lived on for seven more. In 1617 John's will shows a man still the master to the end, though on his death the lease went entirely to his son. As his wife was apparently not entitled to a third of the land he commands his son, then aged fortytwo, to keep his mother Annes in meat and drink and all necessities "fyttinge her estate." Annes would be well cared for in her own chamber and was able to reach her seventies. She may not need to milk a cow, but she surely retained her husband's chair by the hearth. Annes leaves no will, had she become too frail, or could it be because she was without the necessary land, or had she given away all her goods to the children? All the household strength must now come from Elizabeth.

Over fifteen years Elizabeth gave birth to nine children. One of the twins struggled for two years, but after again becoming pregnant it cannot have been easy for Elizabeth to continue to breast feed him. When baby Michael arrived Thomas the twin was thirtytwo months old. Two months later Thomas died and Michael survived, but was presumably still being fed when Timothy was conceived and in due course arrived. Timothy died. Four more pregnancies take their toll on her health. Out of the nine babies the eldest boy William survived and so did Michael, Alice and Mark, but once again the survival rate of four out of nine was one of the poorest in the town. The house was new. The chambers not overcrowded and they do not lack wealth, in fact far from it. Twins can never have been easy, but what did the other three babies succumb to? Elizabeth their mother led a very busy life for there was a household of six adults to feed and an adult maid only five years out of eight to help them, but even if her duties were at times more than her strength Elizabeth was still able, in spite of her pregnancy, to cope with fresh burdens soon to arrive.

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When Elizabeth's mother needed looking after she came with her furniture taking up the late widow Annes Gybbs place and there she stayed, obviously sick enough to make her will on the 3rd of April 1628. Mark, her daughter's youngest son, was baptised a few weeks later on the 27th. In her will Mrs Batchelor left four marks from the profits of her Adderbury farm to two of the grandchildren and the rest to William as the eldest. Young Alice must have the "joyned bedsted," but would it be added to her father Thomas's estate until she married? Unfortunately Thomas took ill the following year and died aged fiftyfour. Again a late marriage leaving more problems for a young, but fortunately capable widow. He left William and Michael, then sixteen and thirteen £30 each and Alice and Mark, then five and one, £20 each. This sum Elizabeth must put aside pound by pound over the next three years. Thomas's estate was worth a high £220, but most of this was essential to the running of their farm. Six years later William married aged twentytwo, though his mother may only be able to allow him a third of the lease until his brother Mark was eighteen. William could still have had the land in West Adderbury, or did he exchange properties with his mother? Elizabeth may have moved back to Adderbury as she was not buried in Cropredy. On the other hand having had a father who made some provision for her prior to marriage Elizabeth might have attracted some attention and remarried even though she was in her late forties when William finally took over at Cropredy.

The family name was not to last, in spite of their success as farmers. William and Joyce had only girls. The eldest, Elizabeth, was allowed to marry at eighteen and it is her husband Nicholas Tompkins who was to run the farm immediately, as Joyce died rather suddenly that year, while visiting her brother-in-law Michael Gybb's house? William's death has been lost. Did he die while away on business?

The Gybbs family shows that the average age of 28.6 for marriage on a Cropredy farm (p108) was all too often ignored on this farm, yet they still managed to live as a three generation household. They were hopefully in reasonable harmony even though each of the widowed mothers held onto their hearth and siblings were given houseroom in return for farming until their marriage, however old they were. With all the family adults around staff could be kept to a minimum. Both mothers and mothers-in-law find a place by the hearth, but the tragic deaths of infants must have sent them, as the custom was, to search the scriptures to see how they were failing. Because their women were younger at marriage three out of the four generations were left with a widow successfully running the farm.

Was it difficult for this family of husbandmen, especially for the younger ones if they worked at home, to find a girl to marry? Most Cropredy girls went away to work and then were able to meet men to whom they were not related. Thomas may have worked for a time in Adderbury, or elsewhere, and so met Elizabeth. Who would try to find them a wife if they had no legacies, land or trade? Easy for those with the lease to inherit, but not so for the younger brothers. They may end up taking a longer period to work for their parents, or the eldest brother to "earn" their own portion before being able to buy into a lease. Not all would marry.

Some of the Gybbs could sign their name, but were missed out of the school records. Few asked for them to witness a will. In a way they may keep themselves to themselves much more than their neighbours the Robins.

Page 565

The Gybb's still leased the farm's yardland, but took on extra land when they could. On family farms no couple had the privilege of remaining a nuclear family for very long. After William Gybbs death in 1562 his wife Alyce managed to hold the farm for her son John, who married when he was twentyfour. John and Annes would have their own chamber in his mother's house. Alyce had suffered the loss of four sets of twins (and possibly more only there is a gap in the register) and somehow kept going. The twins had been born twelve months, twenty months and then fifteen months apart. Three of the youngest twins have no burial record and were not mentioned in their father's will. Were they buried in one coffin together? Fortunately two further sons survive, but at what cost to the mother? After such a traumatic start she may have found it hard to relinquish the care of a surviving son to a wife. Widow Alyce was clinging to her hearth, furniture, land and stock (p114), but she was not in a position to rebuild. It would have to be John the surviving son, but although he left a will the inventory has gone (p125). Would John build before 1574 when he married Annes?

John and Annes had three sons and a daughter. Edmund the youngest lived at home helping on the farm and leasing any spare commons he could get. Edmund married a local girl, Alice Bokingham [55], when he was forty and then they must leave Cropredy to set up elsewhere. Their father John went on farming into his mid sixties.

This was confirmed by the Easter lists as the vicar places John with his wife Annes at the head of their household. As a widow Annes hung onto the hearth in the Gybbs family tradition after their son Thomas, by then thirtyfive years of age, was married at Cropredy. Why did Thomas wait until 1610 before he brought Elizabeth Batchelor from the farm in West Adderbury to the family home? They would have had their own chamber, but shared the rest. The young wife was well protected by a marriage covenant (p118), if she was to become a widow, but she entered a house where the older generation were still actively in control.

Thomas and Elizabeth shared with his parents for seven years and the widow lived on for seven more. In 1617 John's will shows a man still the master to the end, though on his death the lease went entirely to his son. As his wife was apparently not entitled to a third of the land he commands his son, then aged fortytwo, to keep his mother Annes in meat and drink and all necessities "fyttinge her estate." Annes would be well cared for in her own chamber and was able to reach her seventies. She may not need to milk a cow, but she surely retained her husband's chair by the hearth. Annes leaves no will, had she become too frail, or could it be because she was without the necessary land, or had she given away all her goods to the children? All the household strength must now come from Elizabeth.

Over fifteen years Elizabeth gave birth to nine children. One of the twins struggled for two years, but after again becoming pregnant it cannot have been easy for Elizabeth to continue to breast feed him. When baby Michael arrived Thomas the twin was thirtytwo months old. Two months later Thomas died and Michael survived, but was presumably still being fed when Timothy was conceived and in due course arrived. Timothy died. Four more pregnancies take their toll on her health. Out of the nine babies the eldest boy William survived and so did Michael, Alice and Mark, but once again the survival rate of four out of nine was one of the poorest in the town. The house was new. The chambers not overcrowded and they do not lack wealth, in fact far from it. Twins can never have been easy, but what did the other three babies succumb to? Elizabeth their mother led a very busy life for there was a household of six adults to feed and an adult maid only five years out of eight to help them, but even if her duties were at times more than her strength Elizabeth was still able, in spite of her pregnancy, to cope with fresh burdens soon to arrive.

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When Elizabeth's mother needed looking after she came with her furniture taking up the late widow Annes Gybbs place and there she stayed, obviously sick enough to make her will on the 3rd of April 1628. Mark, her daughter's youngest son, was baptised a few weeks later on the 27th. In her will Mrs Batchelor left four marks from the profits of her Adderbury farm to two of the grandchildren and the rest to William as the eldest. Young Alice must have the "joyned bedsted," but would it be added to her father Thomas's estate until she married? Unfortunately Thomas took ill the following year and died aged fiftyfour. Again a late marriage leaving more problems for a young, but fortunately capable widow. He left William and Michael, then sixteen and thirteen £30 each and Alice and Mark, then five and one, £20 each. This sum Elizabeth must put aside pound by pound over the next three years. Thomas's estate was worth a high £220, but most of this was essential to the running of their farm. Six years later William married aged twentytwo, though his mother may only be able to allow him a third of the lease until his brother Mark was eighteen. William could still have had the land in West Adderbury, or did he exchange properties with his mother? Elizabeth may have moved back to Adderbury as she was not buried in Cropredy. On the other hand having had a father who made some provision for her prior to marriage Elizabeth might have attracted some attention and remarried even though she was in her late forties when William finally took over at Cropredy.

The family name was not to last, in spite of their success as farmers. William and Joyce had only girls. The eldest, Elizabeth, was allowed to marry at eighteen and it is her husband Nicholas Tompkins who was to run the farm immediately, as Joyce died rather suddenly that year, while visiting her brother-in-law Michael Gybb's house? William's death has been lost. Did he die while away on business?

The Gybbs family shows that the average age of 28.6 for marriage on a Cropredy farm (p108) was all too often ignored on this farm, yet they still managed to live as a three generation household. They were hopefully in reasonable harmony even though each of the widowed mothers held onto their hearth and siblings were given houseroom in return for farming until their marriage, however old they were. With all the family adults around staff could be kept to a minimum. Both mothers and mothers-in-law find a place by the hearth, but the tragic deaths of infants must have sent them, as the custom was, to search the scriptures to see how they were failing. Because their women were younger at marriage three out of the four generations were left with a widow successfully running the farm.

Was it difficult for this family of husbandmen, especially for the younger ones if they worked at home, to find a girl to marry? Most Cropredy girls went away to work and then were able to meet men to whom they were not related. Thomas may have worked for a time in Adderbury, or elsewhere, and so met Elizabeth. Who would try to find them a wife if they had no legacies, land or trade? Easy for those with the lease to inherit, but not so for the younger brothers. They may end up taking a longer period to work for their parents, or the eldest brother to "earn" their own portion before being able to buy into a lease. Not all would marry.

Some of the Gybbs could sign their name, but were missed out of the school records. Few asked for them to witness a will. In a way they may keep themselves to themselves much more than their neighbours the Robins.

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Robins at the corner of the High Street and Newstreet Lane [26].

1614: Robert robins ux .......ijd........ 1624: Robert Robins et uxor...... ijd
.........wyd robins .................ijd................... widdowe Robins ..............ijd
.........wam tusten .................ijd................... Richard Hall ......................ijd
.........his man........................ ijd ...................Isabell duckets ................ijd
.........his shepherd ..............ijd ...................Thomas devotion ............ijd
.........his mayd..................... ijd ...................Robert Saule .....................ijd
.........his mayd .....................ijd................... Elizabeth Alan.................. ijd

The average in the household for the 8 listed years was 8.5.

[With the four marriages of Robert Robins and the gaps in information for the previous generations the Robins family reconstitution awaits further confirmation].

Page 566

Robins were tenants in 1552. Richard had one and a half yardlands containing 33 acres of arable and 6 acres of mead. Thomas has a messuage, yardland and one nocat of land equal to 8 acres of arable and one of meadow. Again this lack of pasture until after the reorganisation. Richard and his son Thomas who were sharing the one house [26], were both trustees of the Bell Land in 1557 [Royce 1880]. Just over a year later both had died. The Robins were involved as all husbandmen had to be in the town affairs. From their bequests it would seem they took this role of serving their town very seriously.

Over three generations they changed the way they provided for their children. Traditionally legacies were of stock and goods which in 1558 Richard left to grandchildren. In 1603 his son Robert left money for legacies and the only sheep mentioned went to a god-daughter (a grand gesture when most left them a few pence). The next generation of Robins left money and land to their children.

When Richard made his will in 1558 he followed the custom of leaving the two sons of Robert certain stock and goods which was one way of helping to secure their future status as husbandmen. Richard was then aged eight and Thomas five. Richard was left "a cowe, a bullocke, x shepe, one yron bound cart, a coffer and a payre of shetes, a new bord, ij platters, a candlesticke and the greatest potte." Richard died aged twentyfour and never inherited the lease. To Richard's brother Thomas came a "cowe, a bullocke, x shepe, the best pott save one, a old tyer of a cart, a coffer, ij payre of shetes, ij platters, ij pewter dyshes, ij sawcers, a candellsticke, a coverlett, and the best shete..." Thomas may not have survived for in 1564 another Thomas had been born and baptised by his parents, but on the other hand some families repeated christian names (p135).

The records are confusing and it would appear that Richard's other son Thomas (who was to die before his father) had married Jone [Johan] Kench in 1547. It was widow Johan who carried on actively farming her third of land. Her son Richard did not remain in Cropredy and her brother-in-law Robert became entitled to take over the lease. Was widow Robins living in the High Street [26] where up to 1579 her house had a hall, chamber and kitchen as well as the nether house below the entry? No mention of upper chambers yet, but perhaps her son used these chambers? Johan left her daughter as executrix for she had not yet received her son's acquittance for his father's legacy. If he failed to provide one again then none of the following goods would be his, only £2.

 
He was to have "on doune mare, a redd heiffer, farrowe pigge, one yonge store, a cocke and iij hens, ij geese, viij strike of bread corne, viij strike of mault, iij bordes, ij biddle steedes [bedsteads], iiij paire of sheets, a boulster, a blanckete, a belle helinge, a double winnow sheete, one table, a forme, a stoole, a tableclothe, ij table napkins, one of the great fatts, one troffe that standeth in the nether house, ij lombes to put drinke in, one payle, one bright hanginge kettle, one little brass pote, a pewter platter, a pewter dishe, a sawcer, ij porringers, a salt seller and halfe a dowsen of pewter spoones, one coffer, half a hundred of furse bushes, one reasonable lode of woode, one reasonable lode of hey, and one reasonable lode of barley straw."

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She spoke to the scribe in August 1578, when the various harvest loads of corn had just been brought in, and then Johan lived on until February. Her inventory revealed the nether house in which six flyches of bacon (worth 10s) were hanging, and yes the heavy trough was still in there waiting for Richard.

Johan's brother-in-law Robert Robins married four times and had four, none, four and then seven children by Margery, Allys (dying in childbirth?), Annes and Joanne. The first four children all died. In the third marriage two boys went to school, one died and a daughter married. The last marriage was to Joanne Cox who bore him six girls and his son Robert. The son was to stay on in Cropredy to take over the lease. Five of Joanne's six daughters survived, and when Alice was aged twenty and Elizabeth aged thirteen, if still at home, would sleep in an upper chamber. Joanne became a widow in her forties and had the use of the southern bay for the next twentyfour years. Her late husband Robert senior had been a husbandman, their son dies a yeoman and their grandson went to university and became a clergyman, due to the marriage of Robert junior to Anne Holloway, the vicar's daughter.

When Robert died in 1603 he left a two and a half storey house. Had he moved in after Johan died in 1579 and rebuilt in stone? The house faced east across the High Street at the north eastern corner of his close which ran back alongside New Street Lane. The house was sixteen feet deep inside and three bays long. The farm entrance was between the house and the large barley barn, but without a gate house. A loaded cart could pass through to reach the yard and the smaller wheat barn. The large barley barn coming forward a little from the house was four bays long facing the High Street.

By 1631 his son had not only a large barley barn, a smaller wheat barn, but a peas barn in his farmyard (p323). In 1603 there would be a rickyard and cattle pens which were needed for ten, soon rising to thirteen cows, heifers and two calves. By 1631 his son's stable had to house seven horses, mares and colts. A flock of five score sheep were looked after by a shepherd. The hog house was used for fattening seven hogs and a separate sty was required for the sow and her piglets. Poultry were about the yard and several hives for their bees may have been in the orchard to the west. The whole close measured 1a 0r 31p. They had two wells, one for the yard, the other for the house. Or was one for drinking and the other for washing? When Robert died in 1631 he was only fortythree and would have been at the peak of his farming activities.

The Farm house.

The front entrance led into a passage, which had a stone inner gable wall to the left. The second chimney in the "Chamber Next to the Entry" was at the front of the south bay. At the rear of this end bay was a small buttery/lobby with an entrance in the south gable. In widow Joanne Robins' time the end of the passage by the south door was made into her store, or left as her own lobby entrance until her son took over and turned it into the wool house, with the outer door convenient to the farm entrance and yard. The righthand wall of the front entry and passage belonged to the lower chamber which was in an unusual position being reached before the hall. Gybbs' house followed this arrangement. The entry passage had a rear door to the courtyard. There was also the four foot wide stone flagged passage which ran along the rear wall from the south gable entrance to the hall door. The hall was at the north end with a gable fireplace. In the northeast corner the newel stairs went up to the upper chambers and on again to a hall chamber cockloft. The house had spine beams supporting the floor joists. Behind the hall there was a narrow extension for a kitchen and "bolting" house.

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The boulting house became the brewhouse. The loft over the kitchen needed a ladder. The kitchen acquired a chimney backing onto the brewhouse probably when Robert married Anne Holloway in 1611. It was first recorded in 1631. The south wall facing across the yard was never tied into the side walls. The kitchen chimney flues were complicated and took in an oven as well as the brewing furnace. Several alterations and improvements were made over the years. Two inventories remain:

Robert Robins 1603 .............................................Robert Robins 1631
The Hall [chimney]............................................... Hall [Fire]
Chamber [2 beds] ..................................................Plor [1 "bedsteed"]
"In the Chambers over ye Hall"......................... Chamber over hall [2 beds]
Innermost Chamber [cheese+]
The 2 Chamber [2 beds]
The 3 Chamber: servants [2 beds] ......................In Men's Chamber [2 beds]
................................................................................. Apple Chamber
................................................................................. Cheese Chamber
In the Chamber next ye Entry [F] ........................Best Chamber [bed & truckle. F]
Buttery [2 small rooms in 1627] ...........................Buttery & Wool house
Kitchen ...................................................................Kitchen [F] + loft over
Bolting House ..................................................... .Milk house
................................................................................. Malt house
Barley Barn
Wheat Barn
Stable [5 + 2 colts] ................................................Stable & loft
Cowhouse [10 beasts] .........................................Cows [13 + "heyfers" &2 calves]
............................................................................... .Pease house.

The newel stairs went up to the three upper chambers. Those sleeping in the two inner rooms had to cross the servants' hall chamber with their two small (presumably single) bedsteads. Some of the servants went on up to the cockloft, which was also in the north "hall" bay and had a two light window on the north gable. Widow Joanne made the downstairs room below the entry into her private living room. The chamber over was called the innermost room and had been used for storing the cheese. Joanne changed the use and made it into her bed chamber. Did she have her own stairs, or must she traipse through the rest of the house? The cheese and apples had to go into the cockloft next to the men servants' chamber. The inner cockloft had a small window low down under the thatch. The floor went under the dividing partition and anyone moving in the store could be heard in the men's room [Local Information]. By 1721 they called the loft the "garrett." This last inventory was similar to the 1631 list and few structural alterations were done except for the windows in 1694. The lintels remained wooden and the casements were widened by extra lights, but not changed to transom windows which were being put in around that time in Cropredy. George and [H]ester Blagrave added a fashionable date stone to commemorate their improvements to the old stone house.

"B" for Blagrave and "G - E" for George and Esther.

Page 569

Reconstruction of Robin's House [26] in 1694.

Page 570

Reconstruction of Robin's House [26] in 1603 with 1694 windows.

Robert's (1588-1631) mother Joanne who was a widow for twentyfour years, still kept her third of the farm for sixteen years after her son married. Joanne was a young woman when she married Robert in 1576 and came to live at the Robins' farm. There she remained for fifty years. When his father died Robert junior was only fifteen, but would swiftly become a man working for his mother, or sent to train under another husbandman elsewhere. Had they spoilt the only surviving son amongst five sisters? Why did his father leave him "my best yron bound cart... as long as his mother and he doe occupy together" ? She had every right to use the end bay and continue with half the lease until the children were settled, whereupon Joanne was then allowed to farm the customary third with a small flock of sheep.

Page 571

By 1627 Joanne had need of a seat in church and no longer had her own mare to ride pillion to market, or travel to see her relations. The saddle she left with her warming-pan to her second daughter Ann Hall. There were more than twelve grandchildren to leave money, goods and sheep to. Apparently Joanne still had assets and paid her share of the town rates judging by her bequests recorded in her will. The scribe may have been Ambrose Holbech, a relation of her daughter-in-law's. Joanne's loans had been called in which meant she had £45 in her purse.

The appraisers did not put Robert junior's cart onto his father's list, which is one of the rare instances that children under eighteen did sometimes have goods of their own, not automatically becoming their fathers. Usually these were held in trust for them. How could the appraisers prove this unless it had been mentioned in a will? When Robert (1588-1631) reached the age of twentythree he asked Thomas Holloway for the hand of his eighteen year old daughter Ann. She came to the Robins' household where her mother-in-law widow Joanne still kept her own hearth and continued to do so until their youngest son was eight years old. Of Robert and Ann's three sons and a daughter only Elizabeth remains in Cropredy when her husband John Blagrave eventually takes over the Robins' lease [26] in about 1635. The eldest son Thomas moved with his mother to Wardington. In 1623 Robert had purchased fiftysix acres of land with a tenement in Wardington, all of which was left to his wife and Thomas. The Robins became a nuclear family for only four years after his mother died, then Robert caught the 1631 epidemic flying round the town and died. Thomas was still at university on his way to becoming a clergyman. Gamaliells, possibly the godson of his mother's brother the Rector of Kislingbury, died an infant. Robert the son they hoped would farm the land died before doing so. One more family which had a satisfactory stone building lost two of the four children.

By the 1630's Robert's clothes and whole estate had moved into a higher class for he considered himself a yeoman. Half his Cropredy assets were in stock and crop, with a quarter in household items and the rest in money. £58 was out on loan and £20 in his purse. The valuable Wardington property could not of course be counted in the inventory total of £343 for it was not "moveable" property.

Part of the Inventory taken on June 11th 1631 by "Gamaliell Holloway, Clarke, Ambrose Holbech and John Hunt" [From the personal estate of the late Robert Robins].

"... Item the cropp of Corne on the ground................ £40/
Item the soile on the land ..............................................£1/
.......Cattle/
Impris five score sheepe ................................................£45/
Item thirteene cowes & heyfers & two calves........... £40/
Item seaven horses mares & colts............................... £28/
Item seaven hoggs & one sowe & piggs.....................£4/
Itm poultry ................................................................................5s/
Itm money due to the testator from severall p'sons... £58/
Item all other implements lefte unprised
...........& eight stocks of bees ..........................................£2... 5s/
.......................................................................somma tot £343- 19s 4d/"
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