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BURITON (HAMPSHIRE) - HAW, SEWARD AND ALDOUS ANCESTORS
page last updated 12 July 2010
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In the early 1800s, Buriton and Petersfield were two little Hampshire villages, and the originally 1100s Church of St Mary the Virgin in Buriton was their mother church.
Then the railway happened. Petersfield got the station and Buriton the tunnel. In 1886 the fast growing Petersfield became a separate parish, and Buriton never even managed a shop!
I went to Buriton in search of Ancestors from the Seward family and found a veritable Aladdin's cave of family history.
The main land owning families of the parish were the Hugonins and Bonham Carters, and the church's chancel is full of wall plaques commemorating various members of both families as well as a few of the parish's rectors.
The complete surprise was the south wall of the nave, which has been given over to wall plaques commemorating the Seward family and the Haws - a seemingly well heeled London couple who married their daughter into the yeoman (tenant) farmer Sewards in the early 1800s. Here were memorials to my great great grandmother, who died from scarlet fever on Christmas Day 1862 at the age of 38, and my long lived great great great grandparents Seward and my also long lived great great great great grandparents Haw. Outside were their large sarcophagus tomb and several other later Seward graves.
Adrian Fletcher - September 2009
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Petersfield lies to the north of Portsmouth in Hampshire. The little village of Buriton can be seen just to the south, close to Butser Hill (271M), the highest point of the South Downs. Weston, a small hamlet of farm houses, was home to the Samuel Seward families in the 1800s. The area is one of great natural beauty and conservation, and popular with walkers. In spring there are carpets of wildflowers including snowdrops and bluebells.
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The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Buriton - discovery morning, Tuesday 22 September 2009. The Seward / Haw sarcophagus is in the sunlight just outside the south porch.
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Late afternoon light on the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Buriton.
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The direct ancestors involved - going backwards ........ Nick Fletcher (b1980), Emily Fletcher (b1978)(not able to be present), and James Fletcher (b1975) ........
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Adrian Fletcher (b1943) .......
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Peggy Fletcher (Sproule) (1917 - 2005 (88)) ........ |
Clare Sproule (Aldous) (1891 - 1958 (67)) ....... |
Dr George Aldous (1861 - 1937 (76)) ...... |
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Going further back ........ the main Buriton Parish Church tombs and memorials .........
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Elizabeth Haw Aldous (Seward) (1824 - 1862 (38))
Elizabeth tragically contracted scarlet fever and died on Christmas Day 1862, leaving behind surviving children George (1) and Florrie (4).
Elizabeth's elder brother was another Samuel Seward, aka Colonel Seward (1822 - 1895 (73)) - more about him below .....
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Samuel Seward (1787 - 1867 (80)) Yeoman (Tenant) Farmer of Weston, nr Buriton (Hampshire). Born in Loxwood (near Wisborough Green), then moved to Weston with his dad & family c1804. Started by building the mighty Weston windmill.
Married on 6 March 1821 in the Old Church, St Pancras
Old Church, St Pancras, early 1800s
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Thomas Seward of Loxwood, then (c1804) Weston (nr Buriton).
As there was then only a cemetery-less chapel in Loxton, main events took place in Wisborough Green over the wooded hill (where there is also a great pub called The Cricketers Arms).
There are 4 Seward tombs in the mapped part of the cemetery of the Church of St Peter, none directly linked to us (yet!).
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Elizabeth Seward (Stevenson)
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Elizabeth Seward (Haw) (1792 - 1858 (66))
The Haws had at least 10 children, most of whom survived infancy.
How, one wonders, did the girl from St Pancras meet the Hampshire Yeoman Farmer in the first place?
p.s. in September 2009 - we knocked on the door of Samuel's Weston farm house to say hello, but were told by an outstandingly unfriendly young man that they "did not like Australians". A sad contrast to everyone else we met in Buriton who did and were most friendly and helpful.
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William Haw (1764 - 1839 (75)) of Oxford St (East) and St Pancras, London. Retired to Weston Farm, Buriton, after his wife died.
We presently have no information relating to the Haws except the dates / address on their Buriton tomb / memorial. Strangely we have not been able to find Bill Haw in early London commercial directories - the nearest we have come is Haws Shoemakers in Tottenham Court Rd.
Probably Bill Haw had lots of moolah, judging by the two generation burst of church monuments which appeared after his retirement move to Buriton and subsequent death and burial in the Parish Church in 1839. We'd love to find out more!
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Elizabeth Haw ( ) (1767 - 1829 (62))
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Colonel Samuel Seward (1822 - 1895 (73)) and his wife Mary (1840 - 1915 (75))
Elizabeth Aldous' elder bother was, like his father, a "Samuel" Seward (1822 - 1895 (73)), aka Colonel Seward. He eventually took over the Weston farm (nr Buriton) from Samuel Snr (who died in 1867 aged 80) and is now the best remembered member of the family. In the 1871 census he is recorded there as "Farmer, Limeburner, Miller of 680 acres employing 32 men and 9 boys". The Colonel increased his tithage by a couple of hundred acres over the years. Both he and his father were big in prizewinning sheep and hops - each year hundreds of East Londoners came down for their hop picking summer holidays. They were significant millers via the huge windmill next to Weston Farm House.
In 1810 it was reported that the relatively new windmill "drives two pairs of stones, a thrashing and winnowing machine, and a chaff-cutter at the same time. The work performed per hour in this mill, when going with a brisk steady wind, is: grinding wheat and barley, six bushels each; thrashing and winnowing wheat, 12 bushels; and straw cutting with Winlaw's three-bladed engine, as fast as any person can conveniently feed it."
The land around Weston also produced wheat, barley and oats and they mined lime from the hills of the South Downs, which was fired in their own kilns. On the pleasure side there was a lot of huntin' and shootin' and other country squire stuff. The Colonel is buried in the family sarcophagus in St Marys Buriton (inscription on the lid if you apply yourself) and remembered as an add-on in his parent's plaque inside (maybe fashions had changed or financial times were a bit harder for the family then because after this the plaques were full-up and no new ones appeared !).
Why "Colonel" ? - probably via his participation in the Third (Duke of Connaught's Own) volunteer (Territorial) Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment - not a regular soldier and thus in today's values an act of bad taste / pretentiousness to use a military title (though it may have not been then).
The Colonel married Mary from Siddlesham, Sussex (1840 - 1911 (71)) around 1863, when she was 23 and he 42. They had 10 children - five born before the 1871 census came round. At the next census in 1881 the Colonel was at Weston with some kids, whilst Mary, aged 40, was at a lodging house at 50 Kings Road, Brighton with another two kids. She was back at the farm for a 1890 family photo (below), but at lodging house "Dalhousie", West Hill Rd, Holdenhurst, Bournemouth with daughter Florence Helen at the following census (1891) - presumably the Colonel (who died in 1895) was still around Weston in 1891 but we have not found him yet. For the 1901 census Mary had returned to Great Weston Farm (with single son Charles running the joint and two unmarried daughters Ethel Mary (d1913) and Mary Victoria (d1955) living there also). In the 1911 census Mary, who died soon afterwards aged 71, is back in Brighton at another boarding house (102 Kings Road) with Ethel and Mary Victoria.
Mary Seward died in Brighton in 1911, and is buried in the Buriton churchyard down the hill from the Seward sarcophagus containing the old Sewards and Haws and her hubbie the Colonel. Her grave is marked by the cross on the right above. Around her are the graves of the first five of her ten children. Link to junior Seward grave inscriptions.
Samuel Thomas (d1930) and Mary Victoria (d1955) Percy William (d1941), his wife Olive Geraldine (d1957) and their three year old daughter Mary Olivia. (Percy's first wife Christine (d1903 aged 23) is in a tomb next to the sarcophagus) Ethel Mary (d1913), eldest daughter Charles Wilfred OBE JP and his wife Mary (both d1955 )
Percy was a church warden from 1895 to 1941, and Olive was a significant church benefactor whose funds eventually paid for the building of the 1957 church vestry and the 1994 "Seward Room" on the north side of the church.
Team Fletcher look at a photo of their Seward rels at the 2009 Buriton Family Heritage day. Colonel Samuel Seward was the brother of Adrian's g-g-grandmother Elizabeth Haw Aldous (Seward).
LINK TO THE EXCELLENT BURITON (FAMILY) HISTORY SITE LINK TO BURITON VILLAGE WEB SITE
LINK TO ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET "THE WEALTH OF WESTON"
At the other end (agewise) of Samuel and Elizabeth's family (and not buried in Buriton) was George Haw Seward - son number 5 and child number 10, who was born in 1835. Not for him a life in the shadow of big brother Colonel Samuel, and in the census of 1871 George can be found running Manor Farm in the beautiful countryside of nearby Harting (Sussex) with 500 acres, 12 men and 5 boys, a wife (Ann), 4 little children and several house servants. The Ship Inn at South Harting is a more than pleasant spot to sink a few pots and have Sunday lunch.
The name Seward now seems to have died out around Buriton.
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Above: The Seward memorial Plaques on the south wall. Over the Norman stone font where she was christened on 26 May 1824, is the white cross memorial to Elizabeth Haw Aldous (Seward), who was married here on 24 May 1855 and only seven year's later died from scarlet fever on Christmas Day 1862, aged just 38 years.
Elizabeth Harriette is in the family sarcophagus outside but there is no mention of her mum Elizabeth Haw or little James - maybe they were buried in St Kevin's, Southsea - wherever that was.
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Adrian's great great grandmother
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Adrian's great great great great grandparents Haw, and as add-ons their grand children Margaret (died aged just 13 months) and William, Elizabeth Haw Aldous' brother, who died in Mauritius aged 38.
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Adrian's great great great grandparents, and as an add-on at the bottom, "Colonel" Samuel Seward who took over the Great Weston Farm businesses from his father, and died on 26 December 1895 aged 74. The Colonel's wife Mary died in 1915 but gets no mention here. Her grave in the churchyard is with those of her children down the slope from the family sarcophagus.
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The big Seward-Haw sarcophagus (vault?) outside the south porch of the Buriton Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin. The Seward inscriptions are on the south side (above photo), and the Haws are remembered on the other side. The legible wording is transcribed below, revealing a couple of discrepancies with the church plaques - which should take credibility precedence? There are two inscriptions on the lid, very difficult to read. The second seems to be to to (Colonel) Samuel William Seward (d 1895). Whilst it is probable that the colonel's sister Elizabeth Haw Aldous (d 1862) is in the box, we are not sure.
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Great great great great (great) grandsons James and Nick Fletcher at the Seward / Haw tomb / vault in Buriton on the morning of Saturday 26 September, 2009.
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Looking down the sloping graveyard from the edge of the sarcophagus towards the duck pond - not a bad spot to spend the next 170 years (so far). The "cross tomb" belongs to Christine, first wife of the Colonel's son Percy Seward, who died in 1903 aged 23.
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