In 1882, the British Parliament passed the 'Married Women's Property Act'. This act gave women the right to own, buy and sell property independently of their husbands. It also made a husband and wife two completely separate legal entities with regards to debt, the right to sue and be sued, and the holding of stock. There is evidence that twenty-seven years later, Mary Jane may have exercised one of her newly-acquired rights and become a property owner.

In 1909, the Muddles were living at 'Oak View', a new house recently built on Gresham Road in Edgware. Henry George is listed in the Electoral Register for that year, but not as a householder in division one as would be expected. His entry in the register is found in the section listing Lodgers, with Mary Jane recorded as his Landlord, receiving eleven shillings and sixpence a week from her husband for 'one room, second floor, front, unfurnished'.

There can really be only one explanation for this unusual situation: If Henry George was not the householder at Oak View, either as an owner or tenant, the only way he could retain his place on the Electoral Register was to be listed as a lodger paying his landlady no less than £10 a year in rent.

We do not know if Oak View was rented or if Mary Jane had purchased it. It is possible that Mary Jane had inherited enough money from her father, who had died the previous year, to purchase the property. We do know that two years later, Joseph Taylor was granted planning consent to build a house on Gresham Road - probably right next door to his sister's home. This makes it more likely that both houses belonged to the Taylors. There is also the possibility that Henry George's father had helped to finance the purchase, on the condition, maybe, that the house was put in his daughter-in-law's name only. Whether the house was rented or purchased makes little difference - it is clear that Mary Jane, not her husband, was the legal tenant.

In the early years of the twentieth century, men still had the dominant role in most households. Despite changes in the law which gave women more rights, most wives took second place in the home ~ they deferred to their husbands and accepted, cheerfully or otherwise, the decisions that were made for them. This was not to be the case for Mary Jane Muddle, and her husband's status as a lodger in her home was just the start of a necessary, inevitable process.

This process continued in 1911 when the census return for Oakview was completed, not by Henry George who was, nominally, the 'Head of Household', but by his wife. Furthermore, it contains clues which suggest that the move to Gresham Road may have been part of an effort by Mary Jane to gain the respectability that her husband seemed ill-equipped to provide.

When asked to state the number of completed years of marriage, Mary Jane records ten ~ though she had only been married for nine complete years. She may have misunderstood the instruction, or she may have been attempting to conceal the delicate situation of having a nine year-old son from a nine year marriage. Then, when asked to list her husband's occupation, she describes Henry George, not as a 'Farm Worker' or 'Agricultural Labourer', but as a 'Farmer's Son, working on farm'. A subtle, but important distinction.

In 1901, most people would have considered her marriage to a member of a prominent local family to be a step up on the social scale for Mary Jane. But by 1911, her husband had become something of a financial and social liability, with several unfortunate stories in the local papers. So although she may not have been spared the embarrassment of having Henry George as her lodger, she could be forgiven for implying that he was more than just an ordinary farm worker.

Three years later, Henry George and Mary Jane's marriage may have faced its greatest challenge to date. Although Mary Jane was able to do much to counteract her husband's financial irresponsibility, there was little that she could do about Henry George's drinking, or the unfortunate behaviour it seemed to generate. His periodic court appearances on other charges were embarrassing for them both, but the incident reported in the local newspaper in 1914 was very different and must have been a source of considerable worry for Mary Jane's family. There is no public record of similar incidents and the magistrates clearly believed there to be underlying issues.

The photograph of Henry George and Mary Jane at the start of this chapter was taken c.1912. It is a typical photograph of the period, but in a subtle way it reveals the changes that had taken place in their marriage. Mary Jane sits bolt upright in a formal dress, the picture of middle-class respectability. There is also the steely look of authority about her. Her actions since 1909 had been essential for the preservation of herself and her young family. Over the next forty years, she played a part not because she wanted to, but because she had no other choice. In contrast to his wife, Henry George leans on the arm of his chair and stares indifferently towards the camera.

Henry George is not listed in the 1915 electoral register, but Mary Jane is still listed at Oakview - there could be two reasons for this: either Henry George had enlisted, which seems unlikely (see 'Private Muddle'?) or, after the incident the previous year, that the couple were living apart, with Henry George living at Edgwarebury and not registered. No electoral registers were compiled during the First World War, but the register published in 1918 shows the Muddles living at Little Stanmore Farm. They may have gone to live with Mary Jane's family as a condition of reconciliation, or to prevent Henry George's conscription. Whatever the reason for their move, if workers at the farm were being taken for the war effort, Joseph Taylor would have appreciated the help of his sister and her family. By the time of the 1921 Census, Joseph Taylor was dead and Angus Keen had leased Little Stanmore Farm. The Muddles are still listed as living at the farm - along with Elizabeth Taylor and Mary Alice Taylor. Although Henry Muddle III and Charles Muddle are listed as working for Keen, Henry George is listed as 'Out of Work'. The dairy was still a very busy operation and Henry George Sr was still employing a number of men on his farm at Edgwarebury.* So we can only assume that both he and Angus Keen had good reasons not to employ Henry George.

At about that time, Devonshire Dairy Farm at Mill Hill became available to let. Having a total of 130 acres, the farm belonged to the Revd Alfred Williams and had been leased for many years by George Woolley, who was also the Rate Collector in Hendon. It had been known as 'Sanders Lane Farm' until the next tenant, a Walter Westacott of Devonshire renamed it. The only known photograph of the farmhouse shows an impressive building ~ eleven rooms according to the 1911 census, while the number of outbuildings shown on Ordnance Survey maps of the time suggests that the farm had substantial dairy production. The farm was also some distance from the public houses to be found in both Mill Hill and Edgware ~ which may have been one factor in Mary Jane's decision to rent it.

By the time of the 1922 Electoral Register, Henry George and Mary Jane along with their sons, Elizabeth Taylor and Mary Alice Taylor, had left Edgware behind them and moved to Mill Hill.

Little is known of the five years that Mary Jane and Henry George spent at Mill Hill. There was another unfortunate newspaper story in 1921 involving not only Henry George but one of his sons. It has to be said that Henry George seems to have been involved in an unusually large number of legal disputes and court appearances.

In 1923, there was happier news when Henry George's eldest son, Henry George III married Vera Passmore. On the marriage certificate, Henry George is recorded as a 'Dairy Farmer'. His son and new daughter-in-law lived at the farm, as well as Henry George's two Grandsons, one born in late 1923, the other in 1925. In December of that year, there was another wedding when Mary Jane's niece, Mary Alice Taylor married into the Cross family and the reception was held at Devonshire Farm.

Since the move to Gresham Road in 1909, Mary Jane had effectively supplanted her husband as 'Head of Household' in their domestic arrangements. As they started their own dairy business, Henry George was once again sidelined ~ it is almost certain that Devonshire Farm was rented or leased in his wife's name only. When Kellys published their Handbook of Middlesex in 1926, Mary Jane's dominance in their business dealings is confirmed also. Henry George had little choice but to accept this situation with equanimity ~ he had long since become entirely dependent on his wife.

By the middle of the 1920s, there was a huge demand for building land in both Edgware and Mill Hill. The heirs of Serjeant Cox and his son Irwin E. B. Cox, who had amassed considerable land holdings in the area, started to sell off their inheritance ~ including the Moat Mount Estate, Coventry, Stoneyfields and other farms. Broadfields was finally sold in 1925. The last tenant of the farm was Isaac Taylor ~ Henry George's uncle. Over the next few years, hundreds of new homes were built on or around the seventy-six acres that had comprised James Bray's Farm ~ the resulting housing estate was named 'Broadfields', which stands to this day.**

In his will, the Reverend Williams had instructed his executors to buy and sell property in order to maximise the income from his estate, so it was only a matter of time before the trustees accepted an offer from one of the many companies wanting to build houses in and around Mill Hill. In the early 1920s there were reports in the local and national press that it was planned to build up to 340 houses on the 125 acres at Devonshire Farm.** Mary Jane must have realised that their days at Mill Hill were numbered and by the summer of 1926 she and her family along with her sister Elizabeth, were on their way to a new life in Hertfordshire.