Framing History- Elizabeth McArthur, Descendant of Devonshire Landed Gentry-3.

Here we continue the story of Elizabeth Veale, born 1766, and a descendant of Devonshire Gentry. She later married John McArthur and emigrated to Australia on the Second Fleet in 1790.

Elizabeth Veale was about 12 years of age when her mother remarried and moved away from Bridgerule.

It is believed that it was at this time, she moved into the household of the Rev John Kingdon. Although John and Jane Kingdon had several sons, they only had one daughter at this time.

The Rev John Kingdon was also from a landed family of Holsworthy. He was born in 1735, the eldest son of  Roger and Judith Kingdon. He began his education at Holsworthy and later is believed to have attended a Grammar School in Exeter, before going to Exeter College, at Oxford University. In later years, he was well known for his great scholarship.

John Kingdon was appointed Vicar of Bridgerule in 1765 but lived at nearby Holsworthy.

On 25 June 1766, the Rev John Kingdon married, Jane Hockin, of Okehampton, Devonshire.

Bridget Kingdon, their eldest child was born at Holsworthy in 1767 and was baptized there on 21 July.  The family moved into the Bridgerule vicarage, known as East Park, soon afterward. All their subsequent children were born there and baptized at St Bridget’s.

Elizabeth Veale had grown up in the village with Bridget Kingdon, and she was welcomed into the household as a suitable companion.

St Bridget’s Bridgerule, Devon

John Kingdon also believed that girls should be well educated to run the family estates, while their husbands were absent, and so privately tutored his daughter, Bridget, and Elizabeth Veale. Not only to read and write well but also to study literature and sciences. She lived there several years before returning to the Hatherly home.

John Hatherly, Elizabeth Veale’s grandfather is known to have doted on his granddaughter and was preparing her for a ‘good’ marriage. Although Lodgeworthy in Bridgerule, was now in the hands of Edmund Leach, it had prospered and was intended for Elizabeth Veale’s dowry. Life was good on those Devonshire farms as Elizabeth Veale grew into womanhood.

Meanwhile down in Stoke Climsland, Edmund and Grace Leach had also prospered and they had had a daughter, Mary Isabella. She had been born in late 1780 and was baptized at All Saints Parish Church, Stoke Climsland on 14 January 1781.

However, when the American War of Independence ended in 1782, it changed life everywhere including those farming communities in Devon. Depression hit Britain quickly and severely with few markets, failing crops and increasing population by migration and immigration. Over the next five years disaster was to slowly engulf many families in that part of the country.

The result was that Edmund Leach gradually sank into bankruptcy, and had to sell all his property, including Lodgeworthy at Bridgerule, leaving Elizabeth Veale without any means for a dowry.

Elizabeth’s mother, Grace Leach, along with her youngest daughter Mary Isabella, returned to her father, John Hatherly’s home at Bridgerule, on the death of her mother, Grace Hatherly, in 1785. Her husband Edmund Leach remained at Stoke Climsland, where he died a pauper and was buried in All Saints Churchyard on 1 April 1791. His grave is unmarked.

In 1787, Elizabeth Veale was just 21 years of age when she met the dashing John McArthur. He was a tutor at the school where the young Thomas Hockin, a son of the Rev John and Jane Kingdon, was a pupil. He was invited by Thomas’s parents, to visit them at the Bridgerule vicarage. Thomas’s sister, Bridget was a close friend of Elizabeth Veale, and she too was invited to the vicarage to meet the charming young man.

Elizabeth Veale married John McArthur the following year at St Bridget’s, Bridgerule. The McArthurs left the parish soon afterward, and within a short time emigrated to the other side of the world.

Bridgerule, Devon. St Bridget’s on the hill with Vicarage.

In 1792,  shortly before her father’s death, Grace Leach married on 27 March, John Bond, a friend of her father, who had known Grace all her life.  Her father was ill and wanted someone, who could take care of her after he died. He died at Bridgerule and was buried in St Bridget’s Churchyard on 16 August 1792.

Elizabeth McArthur, when she heard her mother had married him, made a comment that leads us to believe that she thought him not socially acceptable, and her mother had married beneath her. Something Elizabeth’s mother thought Elizabeth had done when she married John McArthur.

Elizabeth, by this time, was in New South Wales far away, and no comfort or help to her mother.

Grace Bond’s youngest daughter Mary Isabella Leach, was only eleven years of age when her mother remarried. John Bond died on 16 July 1824 and Grace Bond died 22 June 1836 aged 89 years.

Mary Isabella Leach married Thomas Hacker on 22 January 1801 at Poundstock (Cornwall) and had a family of seven daughters. She later emigrated with some of her children and their families in 1852, to Prince Edward Island, Canada, where she died in 1858.

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Framing History- Elizabeth McArthur, Descendant of Devonshire Landed Gentry-2.

Here we continue the story of Elizabeth McArthur, a descendant of Devonshire landed gentry. She later emigrated to Australia in 1790, with her husband, John McArthur, on the Second Fleet.

After their marriage in 1764, Richard and Grace Veale (nee Hatherly) settled on Lodgeworthy Farm, on the edge of the village of Bridgerule in Devonshire.

Elizabeth, their eldest daughter, named for her Paternal Grandmother, was born there on 14 August and baptized at St Bridget’s on 1 October 1766.

When Elizabeth was two years of age her mother had another daughter, who was named Grace, for her Maternal Grandmother. She was baptized at St Bridget’s on 11 May 1769. Unfortunately, she died as an infant and was buried in St Bridget’s Churchyard on 24 January 1772.

A few months later Elizabeth’s father, Richard Veale, died and was buried on 22 May 1772, in the churchyard beside his infant daughter. A (Welsh) slate headstone was erected over their graves and is still in the churchyard today.

Grace Veale was devastated by losing her youngest daughter, and her husband within a few months. However, she had her parents close by. Her father, John Hatherly helped and supported her in every way he could, and she was able to continue farming the land. All the family hopes for continued prosperity lay with Elizabeth, aged about six years of age, at the time. It was imperative that she be educated, and make a suitable marriage for the support of her mother, and aged grandparents, and to safeguard the family land and social position.

St Bridget’s Bridgerule, Devon

Elizabeth remained an only child under the control of her mother and her Maternal Grandfather, John Hatherly. She was educated at the local school, which was under the tutorage of Rev John Kingdon, the Vicar of Bridgerule. He was a renowned scholar and a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.

Both boys and girls were educated to read, write, and other useful subjects such as basic mathematics and science.

The boys were expected to carry on farming on the family property or enter the Navy, Marines, or even the Anglican Church. The girls were expected to be able to overseer those properties when their husbands, fathers, or brothers were absent for any reason.

The ‘union’ of families was often arranged by parents and announced to the community by the calling of Banns on three consecutive Sundays before the wedding.

The Hardwick Marriage Act of 1754 was an Act of Parliament, which arose out of concern, of abuse of Marriage Licenses. This had become a major problem, particularly in large cities. Not so much in rural areas, where a Marriage Licence was obtained, in the rare case of a bride marrying outside the parish, or the groom was from a distant parish. The groom was expected to purchase the Licence from the local Bishop along with supplying the necessary fee and bondsman.

The matter of a Marriage Licence was so rare in the parish of Bridgerule that in the period of the fifty years after the Marriage Act came into force (1754-1804), when 132 marriages were entered in the specially printed parish register, there were only twelve marriages by Licence.

The first was in 1759, the second in 1774, and the third in 1778. This was the marriage of  Grace Veale (Elizabeth Veale’s widowed mother), when she consented to marry, Edmund Leach, a widower of Stoke Climsland. This was a parish several miles away on the Cornish-Devon boarder. He also had land and was a successful farmer, especially since England was at war with the American Colonies.

All Saints, Stoke Climsland, Cornwall

The laws at the time stated that when a woman married, all her property became the property of her husband. So in 1778 Grace Leach moved to Stoke Climsland. Her new husband already had a family, and John Hatherly believed it was in Elizabeth’s best interest, that she should remain at Bridgerule, under his supervision.

In my next blog, I continue the story of Elizabeth McArthur (nee Veale).