This is the second blog on the history of Icen Cottage in Fordington, looking at the earliest documents we hold concerning the cottage. If you have missed the first blog, giving an introduction to Icen Cottage, we’d recommend you give that a read first!
In the collection of Andrews, Son and Huxtable Solicitors of Dorchester there is a bundle of 6 documents concerning a copyhold cottage and garden called Dolls Hole, later known as Icen Cottage.
A Copyhold was a form of ownership where the original deed was held by the Manor, in this case the Manor of Fordington, who still owned the land, and a copy was given to the tenant who had the right to live and work on the land. The exact details of the agreement varied. In the case of Icen Cottage the tenant could hold the property for the lives of the people named in the copyhold agreement. Usually three people were named. When one person died a fee could be paid to have a new person added. A fee could also be paid to change the names.
The earliest document in this bundle is a demise from 1789, but it is the second document dated 1794 that gives some information about the earliest occupants. On the front of this document is written – ‘Dorset. Fordington Manor. 25th September 1794. Surrender of a cottage in the West Tything within the said Manor formerly Ambrose White’s, since Ann Seager’s and late John Masters.’
The document gives no further information about Ambrose White or Ann Seager so we have not been able to identify exactly who they are, but we can make some educated guesses.
There are Seagers in the parish register for Fordington St George with the latest of these being the baptism of Sarah Seager, daughter of Sarah Seager in September 1773. There are no baptisms or burials for anyone named Ann Seager, but we have found entries for the baptisms of 4 children of William and Ann Seager between 1664 and 1669. This may be too early to be the Ann named in the Surrender, however there are several gaps in our records where registers have not survived, including the period between 1640 and 1663, so it is possible Ann was a part of the same family.
In her will of 1576 Agnes White of Fordington left one acre of wheat and half an acre of barley to her son Ambrose White. The 220 year gap between this document and the Surrender makes it extremely unlikely that this is the same person as the Ambrose who occupied Icen Cottage, but as names are passed down through families it is likely that he may be a descendant.
There are surviving wills, administrations and inventories for several members of this family. These wills are held at the Wiltshire Archives as Fordington came under the jurisdiction of the Dean of Sarum, but are available to view on the Ancestry website. As well as fields of wheat and barley, they mention cows, pigs and harnesses for horses so the family probably worked strips of the fields surrounding Fordington.
To find out more information about John Masters, the third person named in this document, look out for the next blog in this series.