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A Southwater
centenarian remembered
Frank Evershed took a keen interest in
his family tree, and in the 20 January 1900 issue of
the local paper contributed a most interesting letter
about another member of the family, from a separate
branch, who had just died. It was thought that Jane
Evershed, who had lived latterly in Southwater, was
107 when she eventually passed away, but there seemed
to be no way of proving it one way or the other at the
time, although Frank was rightfully suspicious.
However there was no denying that the lady was very
old indeed, and a bit later on we can cast a little
light on her actual age – something he had failed to
do.
But what he did do, thank goodness, was commit to
print the record of a visit he had paid her and her
husband James from his home in Surrey, some years
earlier in 1876, when she was merely in her 80s. At
that time the couple, neither of whom could read,
lived in a little cottage ('hardly more than a hovel')
by the side of the road at Weston's Hill in
Itchingfield. Apparently it was known either as
Woodlark or Sharpenhurst Cottage.
Jane, as do all old folk, loved to chat about times
past, and although her larder 'was woefully ill
provided' she still managed to be hospitable, bringing
out the home made wine and a very good mead. She was
still a handsome old lady, with white hair and
'spectacled brown eyes', and kept herself busy. She
was still fit enough to walk the six miles to Horsham
and back to do the shopping, although it took her four
hours and she fretted all the way about her husband.
James was over 90, and nowhere near as sprightly. He
was up to picking beans from the garden from time to
time, and getting in a few logs, but that was about
it. With a round, good humoured face, and dressed in
his round smock and round hat, he spent most of the
time in the chimney corner, and as his wife said: 'Any
little talking puts him out'. Presumably Frank had
arrived at their cottage unannounced, as Jane also
observed to her husband: 'You said we should have a
stranger, Father, yesterday - the fire caught up all
at once'. (And I wonder what ancient folk belief that
stems from.)
Her parents were Henry and Elizabeth Pullen, and she
thought she was born in Kirdford in June 1792. We will
see. For 58 years James and Jane had lived at Bashurst,
described as 'a plain little farmhouse of brick and
boards' and he had worked for the Knight family of
Fulfords (firstly Nathaniel and then Robert Knight) as
a farm hand. His father, William Evershed, had
occupied Bashurst before them, and had also worked for
the Knights as a labourer and cow hand. He died in
1830, and is buried with his wife in Itchingfield
churchyard.
William, unlike his son, could read and write well,
and he and his three brothers were described as
labourers 'of a superior sort, and excellent
ploughmen'.
Their father was Thomas Evershed, a small farmer and
timber merchant/carter of Pensfold Farm, Slinfold, who
was locally celebrated for his fine team of horses.
But a businessman he was not, and he struggled along.
People spoke of him, shaking their heads: 'He kept a
fat team – and sure enough he lost his money'.
He was one among four sons of another Thomas Evershed
of Slinfold, who died in 1765 aged 86. An old worn
stone marked his grave in the General Baptist church
in Billingshurst, which his nephew William Evershed of
Great Daux helped to found and who was its first
minister.
So the Eversheds were a very local family, and many
did not stray far from Itchingfield and Slinfold.
James and Jane, the old couple we started with, in
turn had children and grandchildren, and the family
name is still familiar in the Horsham area today.
Remember Evershed and Cripps?
So just how old was Jane when she died? The truth can
now be revealed. Her relative Frank was right to have
his suspicions; 107 does seem a bit unlikely. But to
be fair, she was not far short, and the parish
registers for Kirdford show that little baby Jane, the
daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Pullen, was baptized
on 9 July 1797 – the year of the French Revolution, of
Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner and, believe it or
not, a financial crisis in Britain. Jane lived into
her 103rd year, but did not quite reach her birthday.
Her life may not have been remarkable, and no doubt it
was hard, but the fact that it neatly spanned the full
hundred years of the 19th century, plus a little bit,
is certainly something to marvel at. |
