Welcome to the fifth part of our series exploring the history of Icen Cottage, Fordington. In previous blogs, we have introduced you to the cottage, shown you some of the earliest documents relating to the cottage, discussed some of the problems when trying to identify the people who lived in the cottage, and introduced George Cull as one of the previous owners.
This time, we will take a look at the two families who followed Cull as tenants of the cottage…
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In June 1832 George Cull advertised Icen Cottage to let.
The first people to rent the property were Henry John Revely Mitford and his wife Anne Mitford nee Sayers. We know this thanks to the following announcement in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal on Monday 24th December 1832:
Births – At Icen Cottage, Dorchester, the lady of Henry J. Revely Mitford, Esq, of a son.
Henry and Anne had been married in the Holy Trinity Church, Dorchester on June 23rd 1831 and their son Henry Revely Mitford was baptised in the same church on January 9th 1833.
Henry was the grandson of the historian William Mitford of Exbury House in Hampshire. His son’s baptism record shows that he was a Naval Officer, a profession followed by several members of the family.
The Mitfords appeared to only stay at Icen Cottage for a year as there is an advertisement in the Dorset County Chronicle advertising the cottage to let from Midsummer 1833.
Henry John Revely Mitford was buried in Gloucestershire in 1836 aged 26 and Anne was buried at the same place in 1855. Their son married Dora Broughton in Pembroke in 1857. The marriage certificate shows that he was a captain in the 51st regiment. They and their 6 children were living in Warwickshire in 1881 and his death was registered in Thanet in 1909.
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The next people that we know lived in the cottage were Dr James Henry Arnold and his wife Georgiana.
Dr Arnold was a relative of the Frampton’s of Moreton and was a doctor of Law who served as Vicar-General, Advocate of the Admiralty and Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester. He is listed as the occupier of Icen Cottage in the Fordington Poor Rate book for 1836, but as he died in the January of this year it is likely he and his wife moved in earlier than this date.
After he died his wife is listed as the occupier in the Poor Rate book from 1837-1839. She was a great friend of Mary Frampton, a diarist and botanist. Mary was the sister of James Frampton, who played a part in the conviction of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and would have played a large role in local society.
In her journal Mary mentions going to dinner with the Arnolds in London and it seems likely that during the Arnold’s tenancy Icen Cottage was host to some of the most influential people in the county.
After she left Icen Cottage, Georgiana went to live in Calne in Wiltshire and on the 1841 census Mary Frampton is also listed at her address, but this census didn’t record if she lived there or was just a visitor on the night the census was taken.
Georgiana did not lose all connection with Fordington upon leaving the cottage as in 1846, the year Mary Frampton died, Georgiana continued her friend’s tradition of giving charitable donations of beef to the poor of the parish. This was reported in the Hampshire Advertiser.
You can find out about more tenants of the cottage in our next blog!
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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