Embedded Files
The old Parish Church of St Andrew, Kingsbury
On 29th March 1866, James Bray married Mary Muddle at the Church of St Andrew, Kingsbury in Middlesex.* Their two families had been connected before ~ Bray's step-sister Finetta was married to Mary's brother John Abrey, and Mary's sister, Eliza, had been married to Jemuel Muddle ~ the father of her first husband, Alfred.
James Bray was born in Edgware c.1827. His Father, William Bray, was a tenant farmer ~ leasing or renting a succession of farms from one of the large landowners.** In the 1851 Census he is listed as farming 153 acres and living at Goldbeaters Farm. He was still at Goldbeaters in 1858 by which time James was farming on his own account at the neighbouring Shoelands Farm. In 1861 William is listed at Broadfields Farm on Hale Lane in Edgware, his son presumably working with him. James Bray then continued to farm at Broadfields after his father's death in 1866.
Goldbeaters Farmhouse
Photo: London Borough of Barnet Archives
Mary Abrey had married Alfred Muddle in 1847. Alfred was a builder living in Clapham in Surrey and working for his father, Jemuel. Mary and Alfred had two children ~ Henry George, born in 1848, and Charles, born in 1851, before Alfred's early death in 1854. In the 1861 census, the widowed Mary is listed as living at Bromells Road in Clapham with her two sons. At the time of her marriage she gave her address as 'The Hyde' ~ part of Hendon in Middlesex and the home of her brother and his family. This was just a short distance from James Bray's home at Broadfields.
The Morning Advertiser 4th May 1833
In the 1871 census, James and Mary Bray are listed as living at Broadfields Farm ~ with Mary's eldest son, Henry, listed as a lodger. At that time, Bray was leasing the seventy-six acre farm from George Bright-Smith and a further 42 acres at the hamlet of Edgwarebury from All Souls College, Oxford ~ which held the Manor of Edgware. He paid a total of £238 in annual rent for his land. The main crop on most of the farms in that area was hay ~ which was still in huge demand. Bray must have been quite successful as a hay farmer because on 18th May 1875 he leased Bury Farm at Edgwarebury from All Souls. In the census of 1881, he is listed as farming a total of 305 acres and by 1885 was paying more than £517 in rent for his All Souls land alone.
Bury Farm
Photo:City of London Metropolitan Archives
Edgwarebury was a small, isolated community, about two miles from the centre of Edgware, and was referred to as a 'Hamlet' or 'Farm Town' in contemporary accounts of the area. It comprised Bury Farmhouse ~ by tradition the 'Manor House' in Edgware, the 18th century Farmhouse at Edgwarebury Farm, and a number of cottages for farmworkers as well as other outbuildings. The Hamlet was surrounded by land that belonged to All Souls and farmed by its tenants. After James and Mary moved to Edgwarebury it is probable that Henry Muddle remained in the house at Broadfields ~ or that he returned to live there after his marriage to Caroline Bishop in 1879. Broadfields was almost certainly the birthplace in 1880 of their son, Henry George Muddle.
James Bray's gilded and embossed Prayer Book
Oxford University Press 1865
Notes:
*The date on James Bray's Marriage Certificate is not clear ~ so the marriage may have taken place on the 24th. However, the prayer book which was probably given to James Bray by his wife to commemorate their marriage is inscribed ~ 'Mr James Bray, Broad Fields, Edgware 29th March 1866'.
*********
**In the late 19th century, most agricultural land was still in the hands of The Crown, the Church of England, Oxford and Cambridge Colleges, the aristocracy, or the wealthy families who had made their fortunes during the industrial revolution. Tenant farmers leased or rented whole farms and even individual fields for varying periods of time ~ often from multiple landowners and sometimes over several generations. Henry Child, who farmed 391 acres around Edgwarebury in the 1850s, leased or rented land from eleven different owners. Also, some of the landowners themselves often leased land from the Lord of the Manor ~ and then rented that land to tenant farmers. Of the 76 acres that James Bray rented at Broadfields, 50 were freehold and belonged outright to George Bright-Smith and the other 26 were ’Copyhold’ ~ held by Bright-Smith from the Manor. So, farms were constantly changing in size as leases expired and new ones were obtained.
In 1886, the land that Bray leased from the Bright-Smith family was the subject of an important legal case. The resulting judgement is still used as 'precedent' and routinely quoted in law text books and journals.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse