10. MACKNEY

Cory Tree

SIDRACH MACKNEY and ANN (10)

 

SIDRACH MACKNEY was born in the little village of Ripple, just outside Deal in Kent. He was the eighth of the eleven children of Richard Mackney and Constance Holloway, though one had died before Sidrach was born.

Baptism. St Mary the Virgin, Ripple.
1628 Oct 12  Sidrach sonne of Richard Mackney.

Richard was a farmer of some standing in the parish, since he became a churchwarden. Sidrach’s mother also came from a farming family.

Sidrach’s name is a version of the more familiar Shadrach.

In the Book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are three faithful Jews. They were thrown into a furnace for refusing to worship a statue of King Nebuchadnezzar, but miraculously saved from the flames. The choice of this unusual Old Testament name may mean that the Makeney family were Puritans.

Sidrach was 14 when the Civil War broke out. Unlike Scotland, the English Civil War was not primarily about religious differences, but the powers of King and Parliament. Political differences were, however, underscored by religious beliefs. Royalists tended to be on the Catholic wing of the Church of England or Roman Catholics. Parliamentarians were typically Dissenters or on the Puritan wing of the Anglican Church. 

 Sidrach followed his father into farming, and became a substantial yeoman farmer.

 His surname appears in Kent in a variety of spellings, e.g. Makeny, McKinny, Mackenny, and others.

In early 1642, all adults were required to take an oath of loyalty to the Protestant Religion. Sidrach’s father and eldest brother took the oath, with Richard jointly presenting the return as churchwarden. Sidrach was too young to sign.

Nor did he sign an oath in July 1643, vowing loyalty to the Parliamentarian cause against the king’s army. But he did put his mark to another oath six months later. This time it vowed loyalty to the Protestant religion, and to the houses of Parliament, but also pledged to uphold the king’s authority.

Sidrach was then not quite 16, and, like the rest of his family, unable to write his name.

 

ANN. We have no record of Sidrach and Ann’s marriage, and consequently we do not know Ann’s surname.

Like Sidrach, she grew up in turbulent times. The Civil War broke out in 1642. King Charles I was beheaded in 1649. The monarchy gave way to a republican Commonwealth. But by 1660 many Parliamentarians had become disillusioned. Under the Puritan Commissioners, the country had become a joyless place. Sport was forbidden on Sundays, the only free day most people had. When Oliver Cromwell made himself Lord Protector and dismissed Parliament, he became king in all but name. After his death in 1658 he was succeeded by his son, who did not have his father’s leadership qualities. Charles II, son of the executed Charles I, was invited to restore the monarchy. Things then went to the other extreme. Charles II’s court became a byword for licentiousness.

We do not know what part Ann’s family played in these violent times.

 

Ann and Sidrach must have married in or before 1666, the year of the Great Fire of London.

We meet Sidrach Mackney again in the Kent Hearth Tax Assessment of 1664. He is taxed in Ripple for 3 hearths. Also on the list is John Mackny, taxed for 4 hearths. Eleven households are chargeable, with hearths ranging from 9 to 1. Four of them are called ‘Mr’, meaning that they are gentry – a high proportion of the total. Four households are not chargeable, because of their low income. Each of these has one hearth.

Three or four hearths is not a grand house, but considerably above a humble cottage. At his death, Sidrach was living in a farmhouse that had a hall (main living room), a parlour, a kitchen, 3 bedrooms and other smaller work or storage rooms

1665 was the year of the Great Plague in London. It spread to many parts of England. The Deal area could not have remained unaffected.

We know of three children baptised in Ripple.

Baptisms. St Mary the Virgin, Ripple.
1666 Sep 4  Elizabeth
1668 Nov 29  Shadrach
1671 Dec 14  Ann

Around 1795 Zechariah Cozens wrote[1]:

“Leaving Walmer, the slender spire of Ripple Church next drew our attention. It is situated one mile to the Westward of the last described village [Walmer]. This Parish is very thinly inhabited, and has but few houses of consequence within it; though there is a tolerable one for the Rector adjoining the church-yard.
The Church is a small building of one aile and a chancel, with a small square tower at the West end, containing two bells, but which have no inscriptions on them, and is covered with a tall timbered spire.”

Ripple is a small parish. The Mackneys would either have lived at the 16^th-century Ripple Farm or one very like it.

In 1759, the antiquarian, the Rev Bryan Faussett, visited Ripple. He listed the Memorial Inscriptions inside the church and added: [4]
In The Church Yard, is an Altar Tomb for Valentine STANLEY 1632 and Memorials of MACKNIE, STANLY, and WARMAN.      

Faussett does not tell us the dates on the Macknie grave, or whether there was more than one of this name. He lists only four surnames on memorials outside the church. The Macknies must have been a family of some means to be able to afford an inscribed tombstone, though not as prestigious as the families buried inside the church.

Sidrach died in early 1684.

Burial. Ripple.
1683/4 Feb 7  Shadrach Mackney.

This time, his name is spelt in the more familiar way,

We do not have Sidrach’s will, but we do have extensive inventories for his possession, inside and outside the house.

It was evidently a considerable farmhouse. It had a hall (living room), parlour and kitchen, each with a bedchamber over it, a “bunting room”, a milk cellar and a beer cellar.,

In the hall, there was pewter, brass, iron things, earthenware, a table and form, two cupboards and shelves, five chairs, a cricket (wooden footstool), a little table and stool.

In the parlour, a table, form, cupboard, small table, 3 chairs, a pair of andirons, a pair of creepers (small iron ‘dogs’ between the andirons).

In the kitchen, a furnace and brewing vessels.

In the hall chamber, a bed, 2 flock beds, 2 chairs, 15 pairs of sheets, 5 pillow coats, 1 dozen napkin diapers, 1 tablecloth and sideboard cloth, 1 dozen napkins, a tablecloth, 2 cupboard cloths, more homemade, 2 silver cups, a bed sheet.

In the parlour chamber, bed, case of drawers, a chest, a chest, a stool and box, a pair of creepers, chair.

In the kitchen chamber, bedding.

In the bunting room, a shout and meal tub, scales, weights, coal iron, an iron crow. cheese press.

In the milk cellar, provision stores of pork, 2 brine tubs, churn and milk vessels, tables, shelves and crocks.

In the beer cellar, 7 barrels and a great tub.

Outside:

In the barn, wheat, horse-meat, the orchard, 18 wattles, iron tooth-rake, 20 sacks, harness and wagon, 2 ploughs and harness, 6 harrows, the roll, 2 courts, 3 rakes, firewood, 3 lodges, a podware house (podware were pulses. A podware house is usually associated with the stables and coach house.), a hen house, straw, poultry, things belonging to the barn with a bucket and rope, husbandry stuff, lumber and things forgot.

Cattle and other stock:

2 mares, stone-horse (stallion ), bay mare, jack horse (male donkey), 3 colts, 3 cows, 3 heifers and a weaning calf, 16 hogs, 10 pigs, 40 wethers, 30 ewes, 15 lambs, wool, 14 acres of wheat, 48 acres of barley, 31 acres of peas, tares, beans and oats.

Total value: £415.15,08.

This would be a little  short of £90,000 today.

This was a sizeable farm, with 93 acres under cultivation, as well as pasture.

There are two possible burials for Ann in Ripple.

Burials. Ripple.
1689/90 Jan 27  Anne Mackney of Deal.
1713 Oct 6  Ann Mackney of Deal.

Ann may well have gone to live with one of her children in Deal, but would have wanted to be buried in Ripple with Sidrach.

 

 

[1] www.kentarchaeology.org.uk
[2]   © Copyright Martin Dawes and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.