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| The Puzey Ancestral Home as it looks today on Google Maps Streetview |
No - not the Pusey Estate in Oxfordshire which was up for sale in 2010 for 27 million pounds. There is no established connection in the family to that property.
This is where William (1786-1849) and Jane (1802-1855) Puzey raised their family including a young Joseph Henry Puzey before he left home and eventually emigrated to the United States in 1866 and crossed the plains to settle in Salt Lake City, Utah. Henry's brother, William Jr. lived in the home next but the rest of the history of this home is still left to be uncovered.
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| screenshot from Google Streetview |
To see what the home looked like back in the days when the Puzey's occupied it, you can view this in Findery - just click here.!
It hasn't changed much. Mostly changes to the shrubbery (Ni!) and the addition of the classic red phone box.
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| screenshot from Google Streetview |
Here's some more information about the village.
Excerpt from the History, gazetteer, and directory of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight By William White as found in Google Books.
In this, we can see in the residents' list that William Puzey was a farm bailiff (*definition at the bottom of the post) to George Arthur Jervoise Scott, Esq. - the lord of the manor of and owner of nearly all the parish which includes his seat called Rotherfield Park.
For all you Austen and Downton Abbey fans, just the name Rotherfield Park conjures up quite an image! You may imagine it was like Netherfield Park where Mr. Bingley took up residence or Rosings Park with the Rt Hon. Lady Catherine de Bourgh. While these were imaginary addresses which Jane created, she no doubt was influenced by the grand homes of her youth. Jane, in fact, lived not far from this Rotherfield Park (just 4.2 miles) at one point and her brother Edward inherited a grand estate called Godmersham Park in which William Puzey (Jr.)'s wife, Charlotte Gillman, had worked in as a laundry maid!
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| Rotherfield Park by HerryLawford (shared on Flickr) |
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| Godmersham Park by angelaakehurst (shared on Flickr) |
George Scott was the grandson of Thomas Scott the man who secured the family fortune as a brickmaker (not a royal), and it was George's father who had purchased the property in 1808 from the Marquess of Winchester. Rotherfield Park was comprised at William Puzey's time of 2,648 acres with a rental income of 2,400 pounds which the farm bailiff would oversee. The chief crops for the property were wheat, oats and barley. As a man in Scott's employ, William Puzey would have had access to the reading room which had been established for the working men.
The Puzey home was directly across the lane from the Gatehouse for Rotherfield Park to the west and across from St. James church to the north (I couldn't find a picture of this church that copyright would allow me to post but follow this link to see what it looked like.)
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| screenshot from Google Streetview |
*Definition of a Farm Bailiff: n. An overseer appointed by the possessor or proprietor of a farm to direct and superintend the farming operations.
8 comments:
That is incredibly cool.
Hi. This is great! Thank you. Henry was my great-grandfather. I learned a lot that I never knew from this including that my Grandpa Ed identified his dad's body. All I knew was that Henry died while on a walk at Fort Douglas. Somewhere I have a copy of a letter that Henry sent back to family in England years after moving to Utah. I've also been bothered and puzzled by his leaving all those kids behind. I supposed that he came to Utah with his eldest son to establish a home with the plan that the rest would join them later, which seems to have been common Mormon emigrant practice, but then they didn't.
I'm not certain about this home - there is a second picture of a home and it is a bit further down the lane - not the same picture. They had both in their collection but I'm hoping to get some confirmation of who actually lived here and when.
Burials of the PUZEY family of East Tisted - All have headstones and buried at East Tisted.
PUZEY William of East Tisted born 28TH June 1796 died 27th May 1849 age 53 years (BR165) and his wife Jane PUZEY (Nee BRYER/BRIAR) born 8th June 1802 in Alton buried 14th October 1855 age 53 years (BR184) and their daughter Jane Maria SMITH (Nee PUZEY) of East Tisted born 16th October 1822 died 29th July 1850 age 28 years (BR169) Jane BRIAR married William PUZEY on the 26th December 1821 at Alton. Their children included: Jane Maria (1822-50, married Francis Bingham SMITH), Frederick (1824-90, married Adelaide Sabina LEAVER), William (1826-1904, married Charlotte Sophia GILLMAN), Henry (1828, married Mary Ann WATERIDGE 1848), Eliza (Bapt.1837-92 died on the Isle of Wight, married George Cook (son of James HAYDEN) 1862), Charles (Bapt.1840-1912 died in the King’s Norton area, married Charlotte (daughter of Charles BROWN and Mary ALLAM) 1868) and Vernon (1843-73). In 1851 their grand-daughter Jane (daughter of Jane Maria SMITH (Nee PUZEY) who died in 1850 age 28) was staying with her. Jane’s father remarried to Mary Ann (daughter of Henry GILL) in 1860. Their daughter Jane Maria married Francis Bingham (1823-97, son of William SMITH) on the 30th August 1846 at Kennington, Surrey. Their children included: Jane Elizabeth (1847, married John (son of John OVER) 1871). Francis remarried to Mary Ann (daughter of Henry GILL) on the 19th November 1860 at Brixton. Francis died on the 2nd February 1897. (JOINT HEADSTONE WILLIAM/JANE/JANE MARIA) (PLOT 106)
PUZEY Vernon born 18th September baptised 19th November 1843 at East Tisted buried 22nd December 1873 age 30 years (BR233) Vernon was the son of William PUZEY and Jane BRIAR. In 1871 he was working in Pancras, possibly as a porter (difficult to decipher). (PLOT 105)
PUZEY Henry baptised 12th July 1863 at East Tisted died 10th December 1884 age 21 years (BR282) In 1881, aged 17, Henry (known as Harry) was an elementary teacher in the Romsey area. He was admitted to the Hampshire Lunatic Asylum on the 2nd July 1884 and died there on the 10th December 1884 (see newspaper article below – he is mentioned……. ‘Life is not worth living when a man has ruined himself in his boyhood, as both Harry and I did’.). It is no known what his brother Charles refers to. (PLOT 104)
PUZEY Charles baptised 29th January 1865 at East Tisted died 22nd February 1889 age 24 years (BR288) “SAD SUICIDE – Mr Henry White, one of the County Coroners, held an inquest at the Social Club Room, on Monday, touching the death of Charles Puzey, who committed suicide. Mr. J. Ward was foreman of the jury. Charlotte Puzey, wife of William Puzey, deposed that the deceased was her son. He was a farmer, at East Tisted, and was 24 years of age. She last saw him alive on Friday. He had dinner with her, living at home, during which he was very well and cheerful. After dinner he went to his bedroom for a short time and then came down again and took his gun, which was not an unusual thing for him to do. He left the house without making any remark. About 20 minutes after witness had occasion to go to his bedroom, and on the drawers in a box was the paper produced, and which is in deceased’s handwriting, written in pencil, and is as follow: - “Dear Father and Mother, - Most likely when you get this I shall be no more. Oh, you say, why did I do this? Whey I can’t endure life no longer; the very same thing that killed poor Harry is killing me. If I live I shall soon lose my reason; it is no good. Life is not worth living when a man has ruined himself in his boyhood, as both Harry and I did. It is done innocently, then. You must know what I mean. Oh, the days and days that she suffered. Your trials are terrible, I know, but you must think of me as far happier out of this world than to live. It is miserable, this weakness is something terrible….I can work no longer, death comes as a happy release. Oh, that we had been stopped when we were boys, we might have been a blessing to you, but it is gone too far – Charlie” When witness found the letter she went into the fields in search of deceased, and discovered him in a plantation not far off, dead, shot in the head with the gun lying beside him. The body was quite warm. She was not aware he had anything to trouble him. Mr. E. J. L. Leslie, surgeon, of Alton, said he saw the body of the deceased on the Friday afternoon. The right side of the head was blown to pieces, and from the direction of the wound it was in all probability self-inflicted, and sufficient to cause immediate death. A brother of the deceased was sent to an asylum some years since on witness’s advice. Deceased was not strong-minded, and decidedly of excitable temperament. The jury returned a verdict of “Suicide whilst of unsound mind”. (HAMPSHIRE CHRONICLE 2 MARCH 1889) (PLOT 103)
Thanks to the Unknown poster who shared the details from the Puzey deceased and buried in the East Tisted church yard. Despite the tragic accounts, it is wonderful to have these glimpses into the lives of the family I am descended from.
You are welcome - I am a graveyard biographer based in Hampshire. I have just finished mapping out the churchyard at East Tisted.
Nessie Wright
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