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 JOHN DENMAN and PHILADELPHIA TILLY (8)

 

JOHN DENMAN was married in the village of Worth in Sussex in 1788. We have found only one plausible baptism for him.

Baptism. St Nicholas, Worth
1757 Oct 2  John son of Christopher and Mary Denman.

Worth is in north Sussex, near the Surrey border, just east of Crawley.

He was the third of eight children.

He almost certainly came from a family of agricultural labourers and became one himself.

He may have worked on a farm like that surrounding the 16^th century yeoman’s house of Caxtons in Worth.

He appears to have married twice.

Marriage. Worth, Sussex.
1779 May 31  John Denman and Jenny Goring

There were two children from this marriage.

Baptisms. Worth.
1779 Sep 10  Mary
Jenny must have been 5 months pregnant when she married.
1783 May 18  John

In the first baptism, the mother’s name is given as Jane, and in the second as Jenny.

Jenny is thus the Jane Denman who was buried in Worth on 29 Sep 1783.

Five years later, John remarried, to 17-year-old Philadelphia Tilly.

 

PHILADELPHIA TILLY. She was married in Worth, which means that she was almost certainly living there at the time. We have found no baptism there for her.

The most likely one is in the village of Ifield, some 3 miles west of Worth, on the other side of Crawley

Baptism. Ifield.
1770 Jun 3  Philly daughter of Richard Tilly and Sarah his wife.
Philly is a common abbreviation for Philadelphia.

Her mother was Sarah Borer. Philly had three older siblings.

She was under three when the family moved two miles north to the village of Charlwood, just across the border in Surrey. This is where Philly’s father came from. A younger sister was born here.

Philly was only 10 when her mother died.

At some point, she appears to have moved to Worth, since she married there. In most parishes, Philadelphia would be an uncommon name. In Worth, there were 13 girls baptised Philadelphia in the 18^th century, including a Philadelphia Denman.

 

Marriage. Worth, Sussex.
1788 Dec 2  John Denman and Philadelphia Tilly.

We have not found a second John Denman of a suitable age, so this would seem to be the widower of Jenny.

Six children were baptised at St Nicholas, Worth.

Baptisms. St Nicholas, Worth.
1789 Apr 5  John
1794 May 18  Richard

Things were hard for labourers. The high price of corn in the 1790s, exacerbated by the export of corn abroad, led to riots across England. The situation was made worse by a series of poor harvests. The protests were sparked by the first largescale exports of grain.

Early in 1795, there was a furious riot in Worth. The crowd only dispersed after a considerable struggle. On 2 March, Lord Sheffield apprehended a number of men involved. They were later examined and released, with only a stern reprimand.

In early June, a farmers’ barn at Worth was fired and totally destroyed.[2]

 On 27 Oct 1795 five-year-old John junior was buried.
Four more children were baptised.
1796 Nov 27  Philadelphia
1799 Jul 21  Thomas
1802 Jul 11  Sarah
1805 Jul 26  Elizabeth

By now, Britain was at war with France. Elizabeth was born in the same year as the Battle of Trafalgar.

If, as is very likely, John was an agricultural labourer, he would not only have witnessed, but taken part in a major change in farming in the Weald during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars of 1792-1815. The heavy clay soil had led to it being used mostly for pasture, rather than arable farming. The greater demand for corn during the war led to much of this ancient pasture being ploughed up to grow cereal crops.

The 1830s saw a new outbreak of agricultural unrest. Innovations like threshing machines were taking jobs away from farm labourers.

In addition, the New Poor Law Act of 1834 largely did away with outdoor relief, where the poor were granted help while living at home. Most of the poor were required to go into the workhouse to receive relief, where conditions were deliberately harsh.

On 21 November 1836, a meeting of the Guardians of the Poor Law coincided with the Petty Sessions at Cuckfield, south of Worth. Fifty labourers from Worth and Ardingly, armed with ‘very fat sticks’, marched to Cuckfield, complaining about a lack of employment and a consequent want of food.[3]

Philadelphia lived to the age of 61.
Burial. St Nicholas, Worth.
1831 Nov 11  Philadelphia Denman                       

John’s is likely to be the following burial.
1840 May 11  John Denman
He would have been 63.

This was just too early for the 1841 census, which would have confirmed his occupation, but all the other Denman men in Worth in this census were agricultural labourers, so it is highly likely that he was too.

 

[1] The Move Market- Caxtons, Turners Hill Road, Worth.
[2] Griffin, Carl James, As lated tongues bespoke: popular protest in south-east England, 1790-1840. University of Bristol. 2001.
[3] Griffin.

 

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