THE DANGER OF GUNPOWDER

 

George CHERRIMAN was born at Shipley on 5 December 1851 the ninth child of William CHERRIMAN and Zilpah COOPER. He married Sarah FREEMAN on 4 September 1875 in West Grinstead.  Their first child, Sarah Anne, was baptised on 3 February 1878 but sadly she only lived for 5 months. However, their following seven children (five boys and two girls) all survived to adulthood. 

 

George led an unremarkable life toiling away as an agricultural labourer in and around West Grinstead. By the mid 1890s the family had moved south to the rural hamlet of Coombes.  Their son, Frederick, was baptised at the tiny church on 18 October 1896.  They lived at Hill Barn with George working for Walter WHITE of Applesham Farm.

 

In 1892 Walter WHITE had placed an advertisement for a Labourer.  The labourer needed to come with a son and would be provided with a house and garden together with a wage of 12s a week.  Well George had two sons over the age of 10 so it seems likely that this was the position that he heard about.

 

 

It has to be said that Mr. WHITE's name appeared quite often in the newspapers for allowing one or another of his employers to work horses when they were injured or in ill health. Then in 1893 there was a case of attempted suicide at the farm.  The Sussex Agricultural Express 1 July 1893 reported the case as follows:

 

CHARGE OF ATTEMPTED SUICIDE - At the Police-court on Thursday, before Colonel R.B. INGRAM, Henry TIZZARD, employed as a labourer at Applesham Farm, Coombes, a small parish between Shoreham and Steyning was charged with attempting to commit suicide by cutting his throat on the farm on 10th. inst. - Thomas TIZZARD son of the prisoner said on the morning in question about a quarter past six he found his father in the garden lying on his back with his throat cut and a razor by his side.  He was insensible.  Witness saddled a horse and drove to Steyning for a doctor, the latter taking the horse and riding back to the farm.  Questioned by the Magistrate's Clerk (Mr. G.A. FLOWERS) prisoner spoke quite rationally.  He said he knew no more than that he was quite 'gone'.  He recollected the razor dropping out of his hand and that was all he did know.  He was very sorry for what had happened.  There was nothing troubling him.  Mr. J.R. CLOUTING, surgeon, practising at Steyning said he examined the wound and found that no vital part had been injured and as it was his opinion that the man would be better off at the hospital he dressed the wound and had him removed to the Sussex County Hospital at Brighton. Prisoner had had a great deal of illness and had been low-spirited complaining of general debility.  At this point the prisoner was remanded till Monday, bail being allowed.

Following up on the case the next week Mr. W. WHITE was called.  He said the man had worked for him for eight years and had the best of characters although he believed he had problems at home.  As WHITE agreed to continue employing TIZZARD the Bench discharged the case.

Four years later Walter WHITE found himself giving evidence again, this time at an inquest into the death of our George.

The following reports appeared in the West Sussex Gazette on 27 May and 3 June 1897:

 

THE DANGER OF GUNPOWDER - Mr. A.W. Rawlinson, Deputy Coroner for West Sussex held an inquest on Saturday evening at the Old Rectory, Coombs on the body of George CHERRIMAN, labourer who was killed on Friday morning while engaged in blasting the roots of an elm tree.  Before taking the evidence the Deputy Coroner said they would not be able to complete the enquiry that day.  In consequence of the death having resulted, as he was informed, from the effects of an explosion it was necessary that he should communicate with the Home Secretary before the inquest was concluded in order that he might, if he thought proper, send an Inspector.  

 

Sarah CHERRIMAN, the widow, stated that her husband lived at Hill Barn and was a farm labourer.  He was 40 years of age.  Witness last saw him alive on Friday morning about 6.15 when he left home to go to work.  He told her he was going to grub up some trees, but he did not say what he was going to use.  

 

Mr. Walter WHITE, farmer of Applesham Farm, deposed that the deceased was in his employ.  On Friday morning he started removing the roots of some elm trees that had blown down in Coombs churchyard.  Witness saw deceased about 8 o'clock at the spot where he was at work with another man named Frederick LEE and as there was a particularly heavy root to be removed witness believed CHERRIMAN suggested that gunpowder should be used saying that he had helped to blow up several.  Witness then went into the church where a carpenter named TRUSSLER was at work and asked him if he had ever had anything to do with blasting tree roots.  He said he had done two or three.  Witness having shown him the tree both men looked round and decided they could do the work with other help.  Deceased then walked back with witness who gave him half a pound of powder.  Deceased was a sober and steady man and had been in witnesses employ a little over two years.  He was perfectly sober on this occasion.

 

Henry TRUSSLER of Beading a carpenter stated that he had blown up several roots before.  They obtained about half a pound of powder from Mr. WHITE.  Witness' plan for blowing up tree roots had been to bore a hole and after putting in the powder to plug the hole with a wooden plug dipped in sand.  He also bored a small vent hole to put the fuse in.  On this occasion witness bored the hole making it about 7 inches deep and then filled it with powder to a depth of about 4 inches.  The diameter of the hole was 1 1/2 inches.  Witness also bored a small hole in the wooden plug for the fuse.  CHERRIMAN then fitted the fuse and plugged the hole up.  The fuse was generally made of brown paper and damped gunpowder rolled up tightly and put through the hole made in the plug for the purpose; and it was usual to attach another and longer fuse to this in order to give time to get out of the way.  As soon as CHERRIMAN had put in the short fuse, however, and while witness was getting the paper to make the longer fuse, he apparently set light to it for the next thing he heard was the noise of the explosion.  Witness turned round and saw CHERRIMAN fall against the tree and then reel over on the grass.  Witness went to his assistance but he only murmered 'water' once and then expired.  LEE was standing beside CHERRIMAN at the time.  Before he went away to make the longer fuse he told him to let the job alone as soon as he had put in the short fuse as witness intended to light the fuse himself.  

 

Frederick LEE who was working with the deceased and the last witness gave similar evidence and stated that when TRUSSLER turned away to make the longer fuse he saw CHERRIMAN put the short fuse into the plug and strike a match and apply to it. Almost immediately there was an explosion.  Both witness and CHERRIMAN were knocked down.  Witness had his right arm injured and felt partly stunned.  Deceased asked witness if the fuse was big enough before he put in the plug but he never said anything about lighting it or witness would not have been there.

 

Mr Henry ROCKS of Shoreham deposed that he was called to the deceased.  He found the man quite dead.  There was a severe puncture wound in the lower part of the ribs on the right side of the body from which there had been very extensive hemorrhage.  There was also the ordinary marks due to a gunpowder explosion.  Witness thought the wound was caused by some hard substance which had entered the walls of the abdomen - probably part of the plug.  The inquest was adjourned until Monday 31st in order to enable the Coroner to communicate with the Home Secretary.

 

THE GUNPOWDER FATALITY:  At the Old Rectory on Monday evening Mr. A.W. RAWLINSON Deputy Coroner for West Sussex resumed the inquest into the death of George CHERRIMAN, labourer, who was killed on May 21st whilst engaged in blasting the roots of an elm tree for Mr. Walter WHITE of Applesham Farm.  The inquest was adjourned in consequence of its being necessary to communicate with the Home Secretary in order that he might, if thought desirable, have an Inspector of Explosives in attendance.  Mr. RAWLINSON now read a communication to the effect that it was not considered necessary that such an officer should be in attendance.  He then recapitulated the evidence taken at the last enquiry and said there could be no doubt, from the evidence of the witness, that deceased applied the light to the fuse in direct opposition to the instructions of TRUSSLER with whom he was at work at the time.  The deceased might have thought that as the fuse was of damp brown paper it would have burnt slowly and have enabled him to get a good distance away before the explosion but the powder became immediately ignited and exploded.  The jury unanimously returned a verdict that CHERRIMAN by lighting the powder caused an explosion which by misadventure inflicted on him certain mortal injuries.  The deceased leaves a widow and seven children.

 

George was buried in the quiet churchyard where he had lost his life.  The service was conducted by Thomas William COOK, Clergyman and 2nd. Master at nearby Lancing College.  Thomas was later Vicar, Rural Dean and Archdeacon of Hastings and was consecrated Bishop on Michaelmas 1926.

George was the grandson of my 4x Great Grandparents Richard CHERRIMAN and his wife Sarah MITCHELL through their second son William CHERRIMAN and Zilpah COOPER.  

 

As a point of reference if any reader would like to include this blog or a specific post as a Web Link to their family tree on Ancestry or other family history site be my guest.  All I ask is that my research is not Copy and Pasted somewhere else and made to look like original work.  Web Links are the way to go. I am able to give advice on how to do this on Ancestry but other sites may be different.

 

 

 

CHERRIMAN's IN THE PARISH CHEST

HENFIELD

One day about 20 years ago I paid a visit to West Sussex County Records Office and spent the morning trawling through frame after frame of murky images on a seemingly endless reel of microfilm looking for references to the name CHERRIMAN within the Henfield settlement, bastardy and apprenticeship records.  Needless to say when I found nothing throughout the 18th. and 19th. centuries I became rather despondent.  The CHERRIMAN family settled in Henfield at the start of the 18th. century and by the 19th. century were a reasonably large family within the parish.  After lunch I settled down to search the Churchwarden and Overseers receipts.  It was in the latter category that I hit gold.  These were real Parish Chest records which had survived on scraps of paper - a bit like the bottom of my shopping bag where receipts tend to build up at an alarming rate.

William CHERRIMAN had been born in Henfield in 1741. As a young man he travelled to Ringmer some 20 miles to the east where he married 16 year old Elizabeth MILES on 15 November 1769.  In the spring of 1774, having produced three children, the couple fell foul of the Settlement Laws.  On examination William declared that he had been born in Henfield which resulted in a Removal Order being served.  During the following seven years a futher three children were born in Henfield: Thomas, John and Lucy.

 

Times were hard and the parish came to the assistance of the family by providing new shoes.  Those for William cost 3s 3d whilst those for Thomas and John were 3s 1d and 2s 9d - all came with hobnails in the soles to increase their durability.  As winter approached Elizabeth was pregnant with their next child but food was scarce.  On 29 November the Overseers of the Poor came to the aid of three families by giving them barley.  William WEST and William CHERRIMAN were both given 8 pecks costing £1 (1 peck is approx. 14 lbs.); Harry EDE must have had a smaller family for he was given just 4 pecks at 10s.  A week later five sacks were sent to assist those unfortunates who found themselves in the workhouse.

William and his family were not yet in need of the workhouse but they could not survive without some help. On 6 December Richard LEWIS billed the parish for 10s 6d - the sum required for delivering William and Elizabeth's new baby.  Three days later the parish were paying out another 4s to William as an allowance.  The new addition to the family was a baby girl and she was baptised Jenny on 6 January 1782.  Over the next five years Elizabeth had another three children and then, in December 1789, William and Elizabeth had twin boys.  The babies, Richard and George, were poorly at birth and were privately baptised just in case they did not pull through. Two and a half years later 51 year old William died and was buried on 29 June 1792.  But Elizabeth was again pregnant and gave birth to Abraham in the Autumn.

In December 1796 William and Elizabeth's daughter, Lucy, died at the age of 17.  The parish bought her coffin from Mr. MARTIN for the sum of 3s - she was buried the day after Christmas. 

 

Some five years after her husband's death Elizabeth again became pregnant. Dinah was baptised on 29 January 1797 and buried on 14 February.  On this occasion Mr. MARTIN's receipt shows that the coffin was for the child of 'Dame CHERRYMAN' rather that 'CHERRYMAN daughter child' as Lucy had been described two months earlier.  More evidence to the illegitimate birth appears in the Overseers accounts dated 1797 Chichester Ephphany Sessions when Alexander COMBER is shown as 'begetting a child on the body of Elizabeth CHERRYMAN'.  This part of the case cost the grand sum of £7 16s 2d.

 

On 15 May 1797 Joseph, the tenth child of William and Elizabeth, was provided with breeches at the cost of 3s 3d a pair.  James WOOLGER appears to have been even more in need for he was given two pairs at the cost of 6s.  Abraham and Richard were OK for trousers but they needed hats which were provided at a cost of 2s 3d and 2s respectively.  The following month all three boys needed shoes.  Joseph's, being the largest, cost 5s 9d; Richard's 5s 2d; whilst little Abraham's cost 4s 4d.  George, Richard's twin brother, did not feature on this receipt but by October he was having his shoes mended for the sum of 8d.  Joseph worked really hard throughout the summer and on 5 October needed his shoes 'sould and naild' at the cost of 2s 4 1/2 d.  Elizabeth was being paid 1s 6d per week out of the poor rate but another member of the village - Widow WICKHAM - was raking in 6s 6d.

Over the next few years the Overseers accounts continue to show similar payments for the children.  By 1804 George was 15 years of age and the accounts show a payment of £5 2s to Thomas LANAWAY for keeping George CHERRYMAN for 51 weeks at the cost of 2/- per week.  Thomas operated the Tanyard where cattle hides were scraped, cleaned and soaked in urine as part of the tanning process.  No doubt George formed part of  Thomas' labour force and was paid by the parish for his trouble.

Henfield is situated within the Low Weald of Sussex where the soil is generally heavy clay.  The community was dependent on agriculture with mixed farming, cattle fattening and dairying providing employment. The village had not been granted a market but did have two fairs a year - one on St. George's Day within the town and on the common and the other on St. Margaret's Day at Pilory Green.  The course of the River Adur provides the natural boundary to Henfield Parish on the north and north-west where two sources of the river unite near Lashmars Hall.  The river continues to define the boundary on the western side whilst the northern and southern boundaries are defined by tributaries.

 

 River Adur below Wineham

It is likely that Richard, twin brother of George, left the village in his late teens to seek employment elsewhere.  To the north only one road led out of the parish over one of the tributaries to Shermanbury and Cowfold.  To the south the road led to Upper Beeding, whilst to the south-east a road led to Woodmancote and then wound its way back towards the north to Twineham and Bolney.  Just to the north of Woodmancote the Blackstone Bridge provided another crossing point over the tributary.  Richard appears to have taken this route for on 2 August 1815, at the age of 26, he married Sarah HEASMAN in Twineham.

 

TWINEHAM

 

Twineham was a small village with a population of only 238 in 1801 compared with 1037 for Henfield.  Richard had no inclination to return home so the couple made their way north to the more wooded parish of Bolney which during the 1801 census had a population of 497.  It was there, just five months later in January 1816, that they too fell foul of the Settlement Laws.  Sarah was heavily pregnant and the Parish of Bolney did not want the expense of supporting strangers.  A removal order was served on 12 January and confirmed at the Quarter Sessions.  On marriage Sarah had inherited her husband's parish of settlement so the couple were sent back to Henfield.  Their son, Thomas, was born in Henfield in the Spring.  From then on they and their expanding family settled in Henfield.  The local surgeon C. MORGAN put in a bill for 5s on 12 March 1819 for vaccinating 'Cherryman and child'.

By 1833 Richard and Sarah had four children and their second son, Richard, was apprenticed to the farmer Geoge HERRINGTON.  A receipt dated 25 March 1833 shows the parish paying £2 12s to Mr. HERRINGTON for Richard's keep for 52 weeks.  According the the tithe apportionment list George HERRINGTON was the occupier of a farm in the north-east of the village (Nymans Farm) owned by Lucretia WOOD.  Lucretia also owned a cottage and garden in the Neptown area of the village occupied by Richard CHERRIMAN.

 

Richard's younger brother, Abraham, travelled a little further afield and reached Ardingly when he was in his mid 20s.  This parish was half the size of Henfield and 16 miles to the north-east as the crow flies - right up in the High Weald.  It was there on 15 July 1818 that he married 17 year old Elizabeth BOTTEN.  Three months later the couple had a removal order served on them by the parish who wanted them despatched to the neighbouring parish of Lindfield.  A question must have been raised as to where Abraham had actually been born and the order respited.  By January the Quarter Sessions were examining the case again and this time it was quashed.  A few days later Elizabeth gave birth to a baby daughter, Mildred.  By the next Quarter Sessions in April it had been decided that Henfield was the rightful parish of settlement and this time there was no disputing the fact and the order was upheld - with the inclusion of baby Mildred. Abraham, like his brother, settled down and raised his family in Henfield.

 

Suffice to say that 'Dame Elizabeth' lived to the ripe old age of 90 and was buried in Henfield on 25 May 1843.  No doubt at the expense of the parish! 

 

How am I related to this branch of the CHERRIMAN family?  Well, the William CHERRIMAN who was married to 'Dame Elizabeth' was the second son of William CHERRIMAN and Mary PEPPER.  This couple were my  6xGt. Grandparents via their youngest son Thomas who by the 1770s was in West Grinstead.  In the grand scheme of things this is a very distant connection but tracing this branch of the family through the parish receipts has given me a much better understanding of life back then.

 

It is interesting to note that William and Elizabeth's third child - William CHERRYMAN born 1774 in Ringmer- travelled to America with his family in 1824 having, it seems previously served in the War of 1812.  For the first 20+ years they settled in Monroe, New York before moving west to Cattaraugus.  I would be delighted to hear from any American cousins who might be out there to learn more about this pioneering branch of the family.

(this is not a direct link but does give the required info.)

 

As a point of reference if any reader would like to include this blog or a specific post as a Web Link to their family tree on Ancestry or other family history site be my guest.  All I ask is that my research is not Copy and Pasted somewhere else and made to look like original work.  Web Links are the way to go. I am able to give advice on how to do this on Ancestry but other sites may be different.

 

 

OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB

    

My Great Uncles Dick and Bert CHERRIMAN 1925

 

Oh what a tangled web of spellings: Cherriman/Cherryman/Chereman and the list goes on.  It all depended on which parish clerk was entering the details in the parish register or how the census enumerator decided he wanted to spell the name - or these days how a computer has decided to interpret a handwritten entry.  Not an easy task when it comes to genealogy, but who wants research to be easy. The solution for most people researching this surname has been to break the family down into distinct parishes:  The Cherriman's of Henfield, The Cherriman's of West Grinstead, The Cherriman's of Ashurst etc.  But of course later generations left the rural countryside and made for towns along the south coast so we get descendants from all these parishes ending up in Brighton.  Confusion reigns supreme.

I started researching my Grandmother's family back in the 1980s.  This was back in the day when the most useful aid to research was the IGI (or International Genealogical Index for those who are far too young to have heard of those initials).  It was a wonderful index produced by the Latter Day Saints and normally accessed on flat pieces of plastic known as microfiche.  Think of old negatives and you will be on the way to visualising the technology of the time.  The individual microfiche had to be inserted between glass plates on a microfiche reader for the image to be displayed on a screen where it might or might not be legible - that all depended on whether the reader needed a new lamp.  I spent hours peering into dark screens and scribbling down details of Cherriman's from Henfield, West Grinstead and Ashurst.  Having separated the wheat from the chaff I would then visit St. Catherine's House and spend days going through weighty index ledgers of birth/marriag/death to find a reference for certificates.  The bare dates were never enough for me.  I always wanted to know a little more.  Details that only the certificates could provide.  Who were the witnesses to a marriage?  Was the spouse a widow or widower? And most important of all - what was the cause of death?  Oh the joy when a death certificate arrived for some long lost ancestor showing that a coroner's inquest had been held.  That would lead to a day trip to the British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale where I would spend hours fighting with reels of microfilm and again peering into dark screens trying to find a short article about yet another Cherriman suicide.  Yes, this appears to have been a trait of the Cherriman family. Then there were visits to County Record Offices where the Parish Chest and Poor Law records could be found.  Sometimes a mere scrap of paper would show that the parish had bought a pair of shoes for a young boy named Cherriman. 

These days the IGI has been digitised and forms the basis of the Family Search database.  Add to that the databases on Ancestry and Find My Past etc. and us researchers can breathe a sigh of relief at the advances in technology.  It really has never been easier to gain the basic details of birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial.  But how much is missed if we never go near what used to be called a County Record Office or we never order a death certificate?

Over the past 40 years I have collected a number of stories about Cherriman Characters and would hate the thought of all my research dying with me.  Hence this little blog where I hope to share The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. 

 

If any reader should also be researching the Cherriman family please let me know as I would love to hear any quirky stories that you may have uncovered - or just say hello to a distant 6th. cousin goodness knows how many times removed.

 

 

As a point of reference if any reader would like to include this blog or a specific post as a Web Link to their family tree on Ancestry or other family history sight be my guest.  All I ask is that my research is not Copy and Pasted somewhere else and made to look like original work.  Web Links are the way to go. I am able to give advice on how to do this on Ancestry but other sites may be different.