John More, the Knacker

         John More died in 1705. We don’t know much about him, except that he was a knacker. A knacker was a harness-marker. In an agricultural village where horses provided the motive power for ploughs, carts and wagons, or transport for lone riders, that would be an important trade, and in his workshop he worked with leather and iron, buckles and girths. He must have done well at his trade because he had three houses to leave in his will: the one he lived in, and two he rented out. And it seems as if he didn’t have much family. The only family member he mentions in his will is his kinswoman Sarah Barber (or Barker).

         Like most village tradesmen, he did a little bit of farming on the side. He had hives of bees, and a small area of saffron ground. Saffron was a profitable crop, much grown in Cambridgeshire. The yellow stamens fetched good prices. He ate from pewter plates and drank from pewter vessels. He had one bed and the bed sheets to go with it. His goods and chattels came to £16 10s 2d in value.  The men who did the inventory of his goods were not learned men, and two of them signed with their “mark”, a wobbly cross. But someone must have done the writing, and his spelling was a bit wobbly too: he called it an “Immitary”, not an inventory, and “Matteralls” not materials. But spelling in those days was an inexact science, and we get their drift.

         Now I’ve said he didn’t have much family, because he didn’t name anyone much in his will. What he did was to leave his three houses to the men who were responsible for the poor in Shelford – the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor. His own home was to be sold to realize the money, while the other two were to be rented out and the money used for the poor. Though one of those was left to Sarah Barber for the term of her life, and only afterwards to the overseers.

         But this bequest was to be used “amongst the poorest people of the town when they shall be in extreme want, either payment of their debt or to buy them a cow or other such like case of great necessity”.

         This bequest has remained a village resource for the poor ever since. The Great Shelford Parochial Charities still exist, now renamed Great Shelford Village Charity, and though More’s actual properties were sold off long ago, the charities still own and rent out, at affordable rents, much property in the village: at the development known as More’s Meadow. As far as I know he is the only Shelford person to have left a charitable bequest. There's more about the Parochial Charities here .