This is the third blog on the history of Icen Cottage in Fordington. In our previous blog concerning Icen Cottage we mentioned a bundle of documents concerning the transfer of the Copyhold of a cottage and garden in Fordington known as Dolls Hole and later as Icen Cottage. In that blog we wrote about Ambrose White and Ann Seager, who are named as previous tenants in these documents. In this blog we’ve looked further into the Masters family who occupied the cottage for three generations.
—
In the demise of 1789, the earliest document in the bundle, John Masters the Elder is described as a Carpenter of Fordington, now of Dorchester. His sons John the Younger, a carpenter of West Stafford, and Reuben are also mentioned. Later documents mention his grandsons William and John.
One of the biggest problems we had researching this blog was the multiple John and William Masters that appear in the records and in many cases it is impossible to know exactly which member of this family documents are referring to.
It is likely that it was John Masters the Elder who took Charles Critchell on as an apprentice in 1754. This apprenticeship is recorded in a settlement dispute from 1770.
In August 1770 Charles Critchell was in Puddletown and had applied for relief from the parish for himself and his family. Relief for paupers was paid by the parish where they were legally settled and to determine which parish this was they would be given a settlement examination.
Ways a person could gain a legal right of settlement included being born in a parish where their parents were legally settled, working for a settled resident for a year and a day or serving a seven year apprenticeship in the Parish.
The overseers of Puddletown determined that, because of his service to John Masters, Charles was legally settled in Fordington and removed him and his family to that parish, however the overseers of Fordington disputed this claim.
The agreement that had been made between John and Charles was not a formal apprenticeship indenture, but a written agreement where John Masters, described as a Tradesman in this agreement, but as a carpenter in Charles’ statement, agreed to instruct him in his trade, welcome him into his house and provide him with food and drink for three years in return for a fee of 5 pounds and 10 shillings. The advice given to the overseers of Fordington was that as this was not an official apprenticeship or a ‘hiring service’ it did not grant settlement and they successfully appealed the removal.
The overseers of Puddletown then issued an order removing the family to Holy Trinity Dorchester. Holy Trinity initially planned to appeal this removal, but on 17th January 1771 accepted the family being settled in their parish.
John Masters the Elder was probably also the John Masters who served as a parish constable in Fordington and his son John, recorded as being from West Stafford in one of the documents, may well have been the John Masters, carpenter, acquitted of breaking into an outhouse and dog kennel in West Stafford in 1765.
There is even a newspaper report from 1823 in which John Masters of Fordington was sentenced to seven years transportation for stealing tools from John Masters of Fordington. As far as we can tell the John Masters who was transported was not a descendant of John the Elder, but may well have been from a more distant branch of the family.
Icen cottage remained in the Masters family for at least three generations. The last Masters mentioned in the documents that we hold connected to the property was William Masters, probably the son of John the younger, who was named as one of the lives that the cottage was held for when it was surrendered by John Masters in 1830.
The other two lives mentioned in this document were Lieutenant George Cull and his son James and you can find out more about them in our next blog.
—
If you’ve missed the earlier blogs in this series, you can view them here:
An Introduction to Icen Cottage
Icen Cottage – The Earliest Documents