More Oliver snippets from the 'Witney Gazette'

Shane Bywaters · Guru

More Oliver snippets from the 'Witney Gazette'

jane · Senior Member

Well, I've been trying to work really hard these last couple of weeks but those pesky Olivers keep jumping out of the newspapers at me.

This first one's from the Witney Gazette of 28 September 1889. It's in the Stonesfield news section and the headline is 'An Old Offender'. Now I wonder who that might be? Any guesses, Shane? wink

Linda · Senior Member

Hello Jane

Yes, I agree with you about the jigsaw puzzle and I think all of us on this website are part of it and connected not just by Olivers but in ways that we haven't realised - yet.

Bye for now - Linda

rene oliver · Senior Member

Hi,

Take your wellies!

Irene

Shane Bywaters · Guru

Hello,

Slightly tangental, but inspired by Linda's mention of that 'lovely walk' down past Lower Riding Farm.

Theres also a really nice 10mile circular walk that is part of the 'STEP INTO THE COTSWOLDS' series of walks that also passes that farm, starting in Stonesfield, it goes out to East End, Northleigh Roman Villa, Combe, across the Blenhiem park and back to Stonesfield.

Here's a link to the flyer.....

http://www.oxfordshirecotswolds.org/xsdbimgs/walk3.pdf

A very nice way to spend an afternoon on a sunny bank holiday in May!

Thanks,
Shane

jane · Senior Member

Hi Linda

I think the scene of the accident must be that very farm you 'chose' to walk past (or was it William Augustus who chose it for you?!?). Here's why. I thought the farmer's name, Mr Chichester, rang a bell and have been trying to work out where I'd come across him before. Now I have just found one of his sons in my database of old pupils of Witney Grammar School. The headmaster's records show that when the boy was admitted in the 1890s his father Mr W.H. Chichester was of Lower Riding, North Leigh. The family is still there on the 1901 census.

It is quite weird how all these separate fields of research start crossing over! It's like finding a jigsaw piece that fits into two separate puzzles.

Jane

Linda · Senior Member

I agree this definitely sounds like my Gt Grandfather. Sometimes he's referred to as William and sometimes Augustus. Two stories about him this week. First he's being fined for not sending Sidney to school and then he's falling off of hayricks and rendering himself senseless. What next I wonder!

One of his daughters was my Grandmother - Elizabeth. I think she would have been in service in 1899 so it was probably one of the younger ones helping him. They were all very capable women!

AND by 'strange coincidence' we have been for a lovely walk this evening down past the Roman Villa to the river right past Lower Riding Farm and I think this is probably the Lower Riding Farm referred to unless there is another in Combe itself.

Thanks Jane - a fantastic find.

Linda

Shane Bywaters · Guru

Hi Jane,

Wow, what a fantastic find! - I hope Linda (and all of her cousins) are reading this messageboard thread!

It certainly does seem to be William Augustus doesn't it.

There were in fact two William Olivers in Combe in 1899, however, using the clues from the newspaper, only one of them had a daughter in 1899, and only one was a thatcher, that being William Augustus.

Here the 1901 census:

As for the daughter, well her is WA's family, it could have been one of 4 girls:

Great find!
Thanks
Shane

jane · Senior Member

Another postscript to the 'Rick accident' posting:

If this is William Augustus (which seems likely, since he was said to be the only thatcher in the village when he died nearly 20 years later) then he must have recovered from this nasty injury.

Jane

jane · Senior Member

After a bit of digging in dialect dictionaries I have come up with several names for what is called a 'jillot' in the Witney Gazette.

The nearest is from a Dictionary of obsolete and provincial English..., which lists a 'gillet' as an instrument used in thatching.

The dialect and folklore of Northamptonshire includes the fantastic word 'grom', meaning a forked stick used in thatching.

In Kingham, Oxfordshire, they used 'jacks' for carrying their 'yelms' (bundles of straw) when thatching ricks, as you will hear in the oral history recording of Harry Pierce of Kingham talking about building ricks and then adding a wheat-straw thatch:
http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=021M-C0908X0017XX-0200V0.xml
(There are some other Oxfordshire recordings in this collection.)

From the above meaning of 'yelm' you can see where the term 'yelm-stock' or 'elm-stock' comes from: this is defined in A glossary of words used in Wiltshire as a forked stick for carrying straw for thatching.

Jane

jane · Senior Member

Another year's worth of Witney Gazettes (1899 this time) and another Oliver making the news . . . this time we get more clues as to his identity, as it comes under the heading "COMBE":

‘RICK ACCIDENT–An accident of a serious nature has happened to William Oliver, a resident of this village, and a well-known rick-thatcher in the neighbourhood. On Monday last he was employed a Mr. Chichester’s, Lower Riding Farm, assisted by his daughter, thatching a rick, and it appears from what can be ascertained that he had occasion to shift the ladder, and stepped off the hurdles on to the side of the rick for the purpose, instead of going to the ground. He is supposed to have slipped off the side of the rick, and in his fall alighted on what is known amongst thatchers as a jillot, which consists of two upright sticks formed in the shape of a V, and is used in carrying the straw to the thatcher. Assistance was obtained from Mr. Chichester’s fam adjoining, and Oliver was conveyed home by a horse and trap. He was quite insensible, and has not spoken since the accident. Dr. Ellsmore, Woodstock, was at once sent for, and considered the internal injuries so serious that it was found impossible to remove him to the Radcliffe Infirmary, and he now lies in a most precarious state.’
(Witney Gazette, 8 July 1899)

I can't find a "jillot" in the OED etc. so guess it is a dialect word, but the description seems to fit something illustrated in Jacqueline Fearn's book on Thatch and Thatching (click on title for a link to the relevant page) and there labelled as a "long-straw yoke". Not a good thing to land on! (I didn't spot any further updates, so don't know what happened next.)

Jane

jane · Senior Member

Hello all

(If you feel like you've read this before, you probably have, as I accidentally posted it in the Member Introductions section first. Here it is again in a more sensible place.)

I've been trawling through the 1906 Witney Gazette looking for other local history stuff, but couldn't help finding some Oliver stories along the way. First here is the more cheerful story:

(1) report of the distribution of prizes at Finstock National School (Witney Gazette, 6 January 1906)

Six children were awarded books (and promised medals, though these had not yet materialised) for complete attendance during the preceding year. One of them was Albert Oliver.

Those who had attended on 99%, 98% or 97% of occasions were given 'suitable reward books', worth between 2/6 and 1s. These prize winners are also named and include two Olivers (Annie and John) both with 97% attendance.

There were also prizes for 'progress in school work', one of these going to Rosie Oliver who was in Standard IV.

Now the sad story, about a Minnie Oliver:

(2) How 1906 proved an eventful year for a Minnie Oliver

The newspaper of 19 May reports how Minnie Oliver was called as a witness at an inquest held at the Fox Inn, Stanton Harcourt, into the death of her employer, James Edwin Merchant. Minnie, a domestic servant who apparently lived in with the Merchants, described how she went into her master's bedroom one morning and found the bed in flames, with Mr and Mrs Merchant in it. She ran for help. John Merchant (son of James Edwin) managed to get his parents out of the house, but his father later died of his burns.

Just a few weeks later (newspaper dated 30 June), John Merchant and Minnie Oliver were in the news again, this time for a happier reason. They were getting married ... to each other! According to the paper they had married on 25 June at the Register Office in Witney, by licence. Both were then described as of Stanton Harcourt.

Then comes the twist in the tale. Minnie must hardly have had time to get used to the idea of being Mrs Merchant before she was widowed. Exactly nine weeks after his father's death (and less than a month after the wedding) John Merchant stocked up on cartridges for his shotgun, and went to call on his sister, a Mrs Kent, who lived at 'Mr Kingerlee's Lodge' (at Boar's Hill?). He announced that he had come to kill her. When his brother-in-law intervened, John Merchant turned the gun on himself, inflicting a fatal wound.

What became of poor Minnie I have not discovered: there's no obvious remarriage (not in the Oxfordshire area anyway). Perhaps someone with access to the 1911 census could see where she was and find out if she was an Oxfordshire Oliver?

Jane

-- Edited by jane on Sunday 25th of April 2010 08:59:09 PM