AUTHOR’S NOTE
The people, places and institutions in this book are fictitious. But I am indebted to many real-life people and organizations who have done so much to help my own family history research in ways which have inspired this book, or have given me other advice. They include the following:
Devon Record Office: www.devon.gov.uk/record_office.htm
Westcountry Studies Library: www.devon.gov.uk/index/community/libraries/localstudies
Genuki genealogical website: www.genuki.org.uk
Access to Archives: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a
Arthur Warne, Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century Devon. David & Charles, 1969
Eve McLaughlin, Illegitimacy. Varneys Press, 2009
National Archives: BT 98 (information on crew lists)
Tom Davy, for his talk to Devon Family History Society conference
Brenda Hopkin, for the Clarkson-Clayson research
Mary Evans, for advice on dialogue
While I have given free rein to my imagination here, many details owe their inspiration to people and places in my own family history research:
Adam’s baptism record – baptism in 1727 of Jane Nosworthy, daughter of Jane, a base child. St Andrew’s, Moretonhampstead, Devon.
Birth of William Eastcott – Mary Arscott, baptized one month after the marriage of Sarah Arscott to William Lee. St Michael’s, Doddiscombleigh, Devon.
Elizabeth Radford’s marriage after her father’s death – Jane Nosworthy of Moretonhampstead, who bore one child out of wedlock, and married Walter Hutchings one month after her father’s death, when she was six months pregnant.
Charlotte Downs and her illegitimate children – Elizabeth Bushell of Deal, Kent, mother of three illegitimate children.
The lease on Hole – lease for Rose Barton, Rose Ash, Devon, between George Smith, knight, and Henry Eyme alias Zeale, yeoman, 1616.
Corley Barton – Rose Ash Barton, Rose Ash, Devon.
Norworthy – Great Wooston Farm, Moretonhampstead.
The stone barn – Laployd, Bridford, Devon.
The theft of gooseanders – Manor Roll of 1510 for Morchard Cruwys, Devon.
The shift from Clarkson to Clayson – this is not recorded in the south-west, but it is in Kent.
The bastardy bond – John Turner of Chulmleigh for Mary Baple’s child, 1758.
The runaway apprentice – John Pook of Berry Pomeroy, Devon, 1776.
Table of Contents
A Selection of Recent Titles by Fay Sampson
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Author’s Note