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March Tree

ROBERT SMITH and JANE CACKETT (10)

 

ROBERT SMITH. Robert was the elder son of the yeoman farmer Robert Smith senior and his wife Mary.

Some websites have his birthdate as 1710.[1] This is based on a badly eroded tombstone. One transcriber has his age as “…9 years”, another as “79 years”.

There are problems with this early birth date:

1. There is no baptism for Robert Smith in 1709 or 10 in the register of this family’s favoured parish of Westerham, or in any of the surrounding parishes.
2. It would make his father 14 the time of Robert’s birth.
3. Robert would be 11 years older than his brother John.
4. He would be a 48-year-old bachelor at the time of his marriage.

These sites do not mention that there is a much more plausible baptism for Robert in the Westerham register.

Baptism. St Mary the Virgin, Westerham.
1719 Apr 10  Robert ye son of Robert Smith.

This makes his father 21. Robert is two years older than John. He is 38 when he marries. This is later than usual, but makes him of a similar age to his bride, who was 35.

This is much more convincing, and does away with the problem of what happened to this Robert if he is not Jane Cackett’s husband.

He had one younger brother.

The family lived in Brasted in NW Kent, but their fields overlapped the boundary with the neighbouring parish of Westerham, on the Surrey border. They found it more convenient to use Westerham’s parish church, rather than Brasted’s.

Five months before Robert’s baptism, on 4 Nov 1718, there were four other baptisms at St Mary’s: “Anne Moore an Indian aged 20 years, Sarah Blackman an Indian aged 15 years, Jane Larrick an Indian aged 15 years, Mary ye daughter of Anne Moore an Indian infant.
Just what was meant by “Indian” is unclear. These were almost certainly enslaved people brought to England by their white masters, except for Mary, who may have been born in Westerham. The young women would have worked as servants in one of the big houses nearby. Dark-skinned servants were fashionable and sometimes shown off in family portraits.
Mary Moore, “an Indian infant”, was buried in Westerham on 18 Dec the following year.
It is unlikely that these were the only slaves in the area. They were part of the society in which Robert grew up.

Robert became a yeoman farmer like his father.

In 1751 we have the following baptism in Westerham.

Baptism. St Mary the Virgin, Westerham.
1740/1 Mar 6  Kibble Rob^t (A Bastard) Son of Sarah and Rob^t Smith the Reputed Father.
Our Robert Smith would have been 21 at the time, so it is very likely that he was the father.
This is almost certainly the Sarah Keeble who was baptised in Brasted in 1725, herself the daughter of an older unmarried Sarah Keeble. She would have been only 15 when her son was born.
We have been unable to find what happened to either Robert Kibble or his mother. 

 

JANE CACKETT. Jane was also from Brasted.

Baptism. St Martin, Brasted.
1722 Nov 1  Cackot Jane Da of Walter and Mary.
There are many spellings of her surname: Cacot, Cacott, Cacket, Cackett, etc.

Jane was the second of the six children of Walter and Mary, but two of her younger siblings died within days of their births.
Her mother was Mary Moon. Both her parents were of Brasted families.
John Cave-Brown in his History of Brasted included Cacott among the most frequently occurring surnames in the early Brasted registers.

The churches of Brasted, Sundridge and Chevening were under the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury and collectively known as the Archbishop’s Garden. Cave-Brown also writes: “This portion of the valley, from its fertility and picturesque beauty, is commonly known as The Archbishop’s Garden “.
Brasted stands on the edge of the Weald overlooking this fertile valley.

Marriage. St Martin, Brasted.
1758 Jan 26  Robert Smith of this parish Bachelor and Jane Cacket of this parish Spinster.
Both groom and bride sign their names.
Witnesses: Richard Booker, Joseph Croplane.
Both of them were older than usual for a first marriage. Robert was 38 and Jane 35.
They came from similar families. Both were the children of first-generation yeoman farmers. Jane’s paternal grandfather was a blacksmith and Robert’s was a millwright.

When Robert’s father died intestate the following year, his mother Mary relinquished her right to administer his estate in favour of this younger Robert.

Robert and Jane began their family in the year following their marriage. Unlike Robert’s parents, who had used the parish church in Westerham, Robert and Jane had theirs baptised in Brasted.
The church of St Martin of Tours was largely rebuilt in the 19^th century, but the medieval tower is still as the Smiths would have known it.

Baptisms. St Martin, Brasted.
1759 Jul 12  John
1760 Nov 18  Sarah
1766 Oct 20  Mary

In 1760, the parish of Brasted paid “Robert Smith’s boy” for 4 hedgehogs. This cannot be his son John, who was only one. His natural son Robert Kibble, if he was still alive, would have been 20. Or it may also have been an employee.
Hedgehogs were regarded as vermin who attacked food crops. The churchwardens paid for every hedgehog brought to them, as well as other “vermin”. The list varied across the parishes, but it might include sparrows, foxes, badgers, polecats, weasels, stoats, wild cats, otters, rats, mice and moles.

Robert Smith was churchwarden from Easter 1764-Easter 1766.

Brasted parish was divided into Town or Ville, around the village, and Upland outside. From 1764-1765 Robert Smith and Robert Cackett are recorded as living in Upland next door to each other. Robert Cackett was Jane’s elder brother. In the 1766 returns he is no longer there, but Robert Smith is.

This 1766 return gives Robert as “Mr Robert Smith”. At this time, the title “Mr” was only given to the gentry. This is the first time we see it used for Robert.

From 1771-1776 Robert Smith was again a churchwarden.

In 1771 Robert bought Styles, a farm in Westerham adjacent to his home at Obriss. Only a minority of farmers owned their land. Most rented from major landowners.

In the Manor of Westerham Rental book for 1773 we find Robert Smith paying Joseph Eyre esq 8s 9d for the tenancy of Overeis Farm and little Mead in Upland. He also paid 3½ d for part of Stoyles and Laggs. “Overeis” is Obriss.

Robert grew up at Obriss when it was a rented farm and this continued into the 1770s. He is recorded as owning and occupying it from 1780 to his death in1789, but it does not appear in the farms he left to his son.

In 1774 he served as a juror for the Brasted Court Leet. His son John was also a juror. The following year it was Robert only.

He also owned and occupied Petleys in Hever. This is a parish to the south of Brasted. It is chiefly known for Hever Castle, where Anne Boleyn was born and Anne of Cleeves spent her final years.

Robert first appears in the Hever rates in 1777, when he paid 14s rates. Petleys is near Four Elms, a hamlet midway between the villages of Brasted and Hever.

For the rest of his life, Robert Smith paid 14s rates in Hever. From 1780 he also paid 9s Land Tax per year.

1780 Robert Smith was himself the assessor of Land Tax.

In 1780 Robert and Jane’s 20-year-old son John fathered a child on the unmarried Elizabeth Leigh. She was named Mary Smith Leigh.

Since the father was known, there would almost certainly have been a bastardy bond. Elizabeth’s father Edward Leigh, John’s father Robert Smith, and John himself would have signed an obligation to pay a certain sum to the Overseers of the Poor to prevent the child falling into poverty and becoming a burden on the rates.

As we shall see later, there are reasons to think that the link between Robert and Mary went deeper than legal obligation, and that he played a significant part in his granddaughter’s upbringing.

Four years later, Jane died.

Burial. Westerham.
1784 May 27  Jane wife of Robert Smith
She was 61.

Jane and Robert had their children baptised in Brasted, but were themselves buried in the neighbouring parish of Westerham, as Robert’s parents had been.

In 1785 Robert was an Overseer of the Poor.

His son John took over Stiles and Petleys in 1785, four years before Robert’s death. Robert may have been in failing health, or wanted to set his son up for the future. He himself remained at Obriss.

He was, however, still the owner of Petleys, which carried certain obligations. In 1788 Robert Smith was responsible for maintaining a 7 ft stretch of the Hever churchyard wall.

Robert died in 1789. Although he has played an active part at St Martin’s in Brasted, he was, like Jane, buried in the churchyard at Westerham.

Burial. St Mary the Virgin, Westerham.
1789 Jun 13  Robert Smith of Oberres

There is a badly eroded tombstone at his grave.
Lionel Coles gives several attempts at transcriptions:
“In Memory of
Mr Rob[er]t Smith … h … 44ys
of the parish of Brasted who died
June 9 17 Aged
_9 years”

“In Memory of / Mr. Rob Smith –0 Berts / in the parish of Brasted who died / June 9 17-9 aged 79 years”.

“In Memory of Mr Rob Smith ?? Oberies in the Parish of Brasted who died June 9 1789”.

We believe the last of these to be a misreading of this weathered inscription. As we discussed earlier, there is no baptism in the registers of Westerham or the surrounding parishes that matches this age of 79 years, even approximately. The birth date also results in several other anomalies. There is a far more plausible baptism for Robert Smith in the Westerham register for 1719.

Robert had made his will in April of that year.

Will of Robert Smith, Yeoman of Brasted, Kent.
In the Name of God Amen. I Robert Smith of the parish of Brasted in the County of Kent yeoman being weak and infirm of body but of sound and disposing mind and memory blessed be God therefore do this thirtieth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty nine make publish and declare this my last will and testament in manner and form following that is to say first and principally I commend my Soul unto the, hands of almighty God who gave it me and my body to the dust from whence it came in hopes of a joyful resurrection at the last day thro the merits of my blessed Lord and savior Jesus Christ and as to that worldly Estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me with I give and bequeath unto my daughter Sarah Smith the sum of three hundred pounds of Lawful money of Great Britain to be paid to her within one year next after my decease also I give devise and bequeath unto my said daughter Sarah Smith the sum of twenty pounds a year being the Interest of two hundred pounds by and at the rate of four percent perannum which is my will shall be paid out of my Estates for and during her natural life and then and after her  decease I give and bequeath the said sum of five hundred pounds to the heirs of her body lawfully begotten all which sum of five hunded pounds and  annuity of twenty pounds a year I do hereby charge on my real Estate and not on my personal Estate  Item I give and bequeath unto Mary Leigh natural daughter of my Son John Smith by Eliz[abet]h Leigh the sum of one hundred pounds to be paid to her on her arriving at the age of twenty and five years Item I give devise and bequeath unto my Son John Smith all those my real Estates situate in the several parishes of Westerham and Hever and all other my Estates whatsoever and wheresoever subject nevertheless to the payment of the sum of five hundred pounds and in annuity of twenty pounds as aforesaid to hold to him his heirs and assigns for ever also I give devise and bequeath unto my said Son John Smith and his heirs all my Stock in the funds or Bank Stock Bonds Book debts mortgages stock on my farms and all that my 5Estate whatsoever and wheresoever after paying my just depts legacies and funeral expences to hold to him and his heirs forever lastly I so hereby constitute and appoint my said son John Smith and my good friend Mr Edward Kallett of Westerham aforesaid to be Executors of this my last will and Testament and doo hereby revoke and make void all other will and wills by me made declaring this to be my last will and Testament in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hands and seal the day and year above written Robert Smith

Signed sealed published and declared as and for the last will and Testament of the within named Testator Robert Smith in the presence of us who at his particular request in his presence and in the presence of each other in the room where he then was in have severally signed our names as witness hereto John Saunders – Wm Bellingham – Samuel Walker 

This Will was proved at London on the third day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine before the worshipful James Henry Arndis Doctor of Lawand Surrogate of the Right Worshipful Sir William Wynne Knight doctor of Laws Master keeper commissary The prerogative Court of Canterbury lawfully substituted by the oaths of John Smith the Son of the deceased and Edward Kallett the Executors named in the said Will to whom Admon was granted of all and singular the goods chattels and credits of the deceased having been first sworn duly to administer.

 This is a remarkable will. It would have been very unusual for a man to leave any legacy to an illegitimate granddaughter. But in 1789 £100 would have been worth over £19,000 today. This is vastly more than a token sum.
It suggests that Robert had taken a keen interest in Mary’s upbringing, and that a genuine relationship had formed between them.
The feeling seems to have been mutual. Throughout her life, Mary gave her name as Mary Smith Leigh, or later Mary Smith Belsom. She also gave her first two children the baptismal names Elizabeth Smith and Sophia Smith.

Mary was nine when her grandfather died. The money was to be paid to her when she was 25.

We are reminded that Robert himself fathered a child Robert Kibble on the unmarried Sarah Kibble when he was 21. We have been unable to find what happened to either of them. His relationship with Mary may be an expression of his remorse, especially if Sarah and her son had died in poverty.

By contrast, when John Smith died, he made no mention of his natural daughter Mary in his will.

Robert was the grandson of millwright, who left his children one shilling each. He himself died owning at least two farms, and leaving legacies of six hundred pounds, as well as the unquantified bulk of his estate that went to John. 

[1] https://www.stamboomonderzoek.com/parkhoward/getperson.php?personID=I29545&tree=parkhoward. I am deeply indebted to Lionel Coles for detailed research into local parish documents, other than the parish regisers. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LZ2J-CCK/robert-smith-1710-1789.

 

NEXT GENERATION: 9. SMITH-LEIGH

PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 11. SMITH

11. CACKET-MOON

March Tree