Agriculture Unrest in Stanford Rivers 1841

The following article was written by Rob Brooks to accompany a walk that the group undertook in 2001. It is printed here for the first time. It is being spoken by James Miller of Repentance Farm who was our ‘guide’ on the walk.
‘My name is James Miller. I live in Repentance Farm, just outside the parish in Grinstead. I’m a tenant farmer. Now I understand that you are of the middling sort so maybe this walk will give you some feel of the Parish today. We are walking to Coleman’s Farm and down Mutton Row and back to this substantial church.
In the parish we continue to live through hard times. The Napoleonic Wars, now 25 years over, took so many of our young people from us that farm labour was in short supply; thus wages were good. Since then our wages and conditions have worsened. Around here summer wages in agriculture used to be about 12 shillings a week but over the last five years they have been near to 10 shillings. In the rest of Essex wages have been nearer to 8 shillings and that is not a living wage.
That and the labourers out of work! The new machinery that is being brought onto the farms for threshing, and the like, can do the work of many men. There are many now in Essex able to work who have no work to go to. Indeed about 7,000 labourers out of the 41,000 in Essex are without honest work.
It will be no surprise to you that there has been much unrest. There have been many instances of petty theft, of chickens and the like, just to feed one’s own children. Those who are caught are better fed in Springfield gaol than they would be in their sparse dwellings.
Some have taken it upon themselves to directly oppose the introduction of the new machines. Groups have refused to work. A year or so ago in Stapleford Tawney, Samuel Whitbread wrote a letter rallying the workers in the neighbouring parishes. Samuel demanded 15 shillings in summer and 14 shillings in winter in exchange for labour. This is all right if you are united locally, otherwise it is just cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Others have set fire to the machines. There have been many instances east of here. There is little chance of you being caught when you are with your friends and neighbours. If you are caught, you may be deported, but in the county we all remember the example made of James Ewen who was hanged for arson in Springfield on Christmas Eve of all days.
The Government brought in the New Poor Law. This has meant the end of the old Speenhamland system where the overseers of the poor in the parish supplemented the wage of the poor from the rates. Many farmers just paid less since they knew the lowest wages would be supplemented. The number of poor rose as a consequence. This new Act of Parliament introduced a new system based on care for the poor across unions of parishes. You may have seen the Ongar Union Workhouse, recently enlarged to hold 240 inmates.
Other workers have sought changes in the political system. The London Working Men’s Association recently set down a 6 point Charter. The Charter demands universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, annual Parliaments, payments of members, secret ballots and no property qualification of MP’s. Those who support this are called Chartists.
George Loveless is one of those behind the movement. You may remember that George was one of the Dorset labourers, now rightly returned to these shores. He now lives in New House Farm in Grinstead. George, of much bitter experience, has held Chartist meetings at the farm. Newspapers have reported that the Chartist Association in Grinstead recruited the local farm labourers ‘by the combined or alternate influence of persuasion and of terror.’ Terror? The terror is only caused by the inability of honest folk to care for their families.
Anyway it is going to be a long time before we see any progress here, and our wages will not increase in the next week.
Stanford Rivers in 1841.
The Tithe Commission has recently completed the tithe apportionment for this parish. This has given us our first large scale map and survey of the parish. There is much of interest in the maps and schedules. It is this map that we will use for our walk.
From the work of the commissioners, we know that the total acreage of the parish is nearly 4,387 acres. Sir Charles Cunliffe Smith, Baronet, is the major landowner, owning approximately 1,354 acres, all tenanted. Mr Capel Cure rents out 816 acres to tenants, but he also owns Ongar Park Wood adding a further 292 acres to his landholding. Thomas Wilson owns Stanford Hall Farm of 704 acres. These account for 72% of the parish acreage..
Hannah Andres and Maria King, widows of Stanford Hall, rent the whole of the farm at the hall. Tabrum Mosely and John Stallibrass farm 252 acres and 319 acres respectively, but there are a further 14 farms in the parish with an acreage of 100 to 160 acres, and a number of smallholdings. The farming is mixed.
The population of the parish from the recent census is 438 males and 393 females, with a further 46 males and 30 females living in the workhouse. There are 158 occupied houses in the parish, but a further 6 were inhabited at the time of the census.
James Miller, June 1841.