William Venn of Tarr: 1819 - 1889

William was baptised at Stogumber Parish Church on 14 November 1819, the eldest son of Esau and Sarah Venn of Curdon, Stogumber. Esau is listed as a thatcher and the baptism took place approximately five months after his parents married.

When William was ten years old, his father died. His mother remarried two years later. In total, William had at least two brothers, two sisters, one half-brother and three half-sisters; however, his two brothers did not survive to adulthood. Being the eldest, William's youngest half-sister was younger than William's eldest son.

From about 1844/1845, William and Elizabeth were farming Middle Tarr at Lydeard St. Lawrence. They lived there for over 30 years. Whilst there, a further seven children were born, bringing them in total seven sons and two daughters.

During this period, William is sometimes referred to as a miller as well as a farmer in the records. Certainly a mill pond was still visible at the farm in 1998. If Hazel Clark's memories, written in 1945, are accurate (and there are some errors in there), then it is probably this mill pond that Elizabeth Ann (William and Elizabeth's second daughter) was heading towards with baby Ephraim when she woke from sleepwalking. See: http://northbloomfieldohio.homestead.com/f_history.html

In 1840, when he was just about 21 years old, William married Elizabeth Amery. Elizabeth was from a local family; the Amerys seem to have been centred around Lower Vexford in Stogumber for several generations and many of the males in the family were carpenters.

For reasons unknown, William and Elizabeth travelled the 12 miles into Taunton and married at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. According to the marriage certificate, they were both of the parish of St. Mary Magdalene however, we do not know if they had taken steps to satisfy that requirement.

Immediately after their marriage, they seem to have settled with William's mother and step-father at Bottom, in Stogumber, as this is where they appear on the 1841 census. However, they then moved to the parish of Bishops Lydeard as the baptisms of their two eldest children, Esau and Sarah Jane, were recorded there. We do not know exactly where they lived. We do have a photograph that Sarah Jane's daughters took in the 1930s which purports to be the house where Sarah Jane was born. However, they claimed it was Hoccombe House in Lydeard St Lawrence.

Family legend has it that Elizabeth "got" religion whilst she was living at Middle Tarr and this is why the naming of William and Elizabeth's children changed from naming them after relations (a gift to future genealogy research if only we understood the clues!) to naming them from the Old Testament. If so, this would date this to between 1849 (birth of Thomas Robert) and 1850 (birth of Noah).

The legend also has it that, as a result, Elizabeth and her family helped build Scarr Chapel, just down the hill from the farm. This may mean more than just the Venns as Robert Amery, Elizabeth's eldest brother, was living in Pyleigh, Lydeard St. Lawrence, with his wife and family during this same period. Robert was a carpenter and probably the reason that William's son Thomas Robert was so-named (NB Thomas was Elizabeth's father's name).

During her later years, Elizabeth's elderly widowed mother, Ann Amery, lived with William and Elizabeth at Middle Tarr. She died in December 1875 and was buried at Lydeard St. Lawrence. A few short months later, in May 1876, the farm was sold. We do not know whether William decided to give up the tenancy or whether it was forced upon him and, if it was his own choice, whether it was related to the death of his mother-in-law in any way. His own mother, Sarah, had died five years earlier in 1871.

William, Elizabeth and their son Job seem then to have moved to Shiplake Rise Farm, near Henley in Oxfordshire. How this move came about is not known. Unfortunately, on 25 March 1882, Elizabeth died, aged just 65.

William did not wait long to remarry; within the year he was married to Elizabeth Biggenden - described in the 1891 census as a "female missionary". She was some 15 years his junior, so at time of marriage he was about 63 and she 48 years old.

Five years later in 1887, William's son, Job, who was still farming Shiplake Rise Farm with him, also married. As his wife, Emily, was called Emily Elizabeth Biggenden before marriage, it is extremely likely that she was already related to her future mother-in-law and that it was through Elizabeth Venn that Job met Emily.

However, on 2 June 1889, William died, of spinal paralysis of the lower extremities. He was aged 69 years old. Job and Emily continued to farm Shiplake Rise for many years.

William was a very successful man, from a childhood that must have been bleak and uncertain at times, he became a man of some status. One gets the impression that there was something about him that drove both himself and set his children up for their future successes.