PAILTON AND MONKS KIRBY LEATHERLANDS

An attractive house in Pailton

Pailton, Monks Kirby and Stretton under Fosse are three adjoining villages in Warwickshire. My Leatherland family line probably moved to Pailton in the 1810s / 1820s.

SAMUEL LEATHERLAND (1791 – 1880)

Samuel was probably my great x three grandfather. He was a farm labourer who lived in Pailton and Monks Kirby for all of this adult life. Born in 1790, he married Elizabeth Langton when he was twenty eight. They had nine children although four predeceased them. In old age his wife was admitted to an asylum with dementia Samuel died aged 90.

Birth / Baptism

According to the 1851/61/71 censuses Samuel was born in Kilsby. His probable baptism is recorded in the Kilsby Parish Register and Bishop's Transcripts on 25th December 1790 as "Samuel son of William & Ann Lealon". Despite the unusual surname, I believe this to be him because

(a) His parents' forenames William and Ann fit with William and Ann Leatherland a married couple who we know were living in Kilsby in the 1790s

(b) There is an earlier Ann Lealon baptism with the same parents.

(d) No trace of a Samuel Lealon was found in any later records.

It is possible that the name was written as Leatherland but that the edge of the page was not photographed correctly, although other names do not appear to be affected.

Possible Problem

Samuel's mother died in 1801. His father remarried and had nine more children with his second wife Jane. But there was another Samuel born in 1810 to William and Jane. It is unusual to have another child given the same forename as an earlier child, unless the first child died. There is no evidence of the premature death of the Samuel baptised in 1890 so I can only assume that his parents liked the name.

Childhood

We know little about Samuel’s early life, but his mother died when he was ten and his father remarried and had nine more children, so it was probably a crowded household. At some point Samuel moved from Kilsby to Monks Kirby in Warwickshire which was twelve miles away.

Marriage

The parish register of Claybrooke, Leicestershire, shows that Samuel Leatherland of the parish of Monks Kirby bachelor and Elizabeth Langton of Claybrooke spinster married by banns on 29th October 1818. Samuel signed the marriage register, Elizabeth made a mark. The witnesses were George Bailey and Maria Smallbones or Shallcross. Although Claybrook is in Leicestershire, it is close to the border with Warwickshire and only five miles north of Pailton. I expect that Elizabeth was working there perhaps as a servant.

Children

Samuel and Elizabeth had nine children. One died in infancy. None of their children's baptisms have been found either in the Monks Kirby registers or anywhere else. The surviving children were : Mary (1821), Elizabeth (1823), Sarah (1826), Ann (1827), Emma (1830), John (1831), Hannah (1835) and Samuel (1835). The lack of baptisms may indicate that the parents were nonconformists, but in censuses they all stated they were born in Pailton which indicates that they were brought up there.

There is other evidence of the family's presence in Pailton in the 1820s. Elizbeth Leatherland witnessed a baptism in 1822. And the Monks Kirby school records show several of their children attending that school.

Coventry Road, Pailton in the 1900s

(Image produced from the Windows on Warwickshire service http://www.windowsonwarwickshire.org.uk with permission of Landmark Information Group Ltd. www.landmark-information.co.uk and Ordnance Survey www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk )

The 1841 census shows Samuel and Elizabeth Letherland living in Pailton. Samuel was a 45 year old agricultural labourer, Elizabeth was 35. Ages were rounded down to the nearest five years in the 1841 census, so Samuel was really between 45 and 49. Their daughter, Sarah, was living in Monks Kirby half a mile away but in a separate household at Monks Kirby Lodge with a farming family.

In the 1851 census, the parents remained in Pailton. Samuel was now 60, Elizabeth 57. This enables us to pinpoint his birth to around 1791. Their grandson, William (Sarah's son) was living with them. Sarah was not with her son or parents - she was living in Coventry in the household of Charles Sabin, an innkeeper, and unmarried (William had no father named on his birth certificate). So it seems that Samuel and Elizabeth were looking after or bringing him up their grandson.

In 1861 Samuel and Elizabeth were still in Pailton with their son, John, now a 29 year old railway labourer ; their granddaughter, Hannah Leatherland, aged ll ; and their grandson, John Warpole, aged 8. Hannah is a bit of a mystery, but she may be the girl whose birth was registered as Harriet, daughter of Emma Leatherland in 1849 in Brinklow, a village two miles away. Emma married Francis Walpole in 1852 and John Warpole was their son.

In the 1871 census Samuel was 80 and Elizabeth 76. They were living in Coventry Road, Pailton, with their forty year old son John who was still unmarried. Elizabeth died of senile decay in a lunatic asylum eight years later. Samuel died the following year at the grand old age of ninety.

SAMUEL AND ELIZABETH LEATHERLAND's CHILDREN

Mary Leatherland was born around 1821. She appears in the Monks Kirby Grammar School admission register (held at Warks Record Office) which names her parents Sam and Eliz. Leatherland, and said she started school aged four leaving in 1831, observations "Left with a good character".

Mary married James Jones in Monks Kirby in 1840. Both of their occupations were servant on the marriage certificate. In 1841 census she was living at Stretton Under Fosse (a hamlet just south of Monks Kirby) with a three month old daughter. From 1841 the baptisms of her five children were recorded in the Stretton under Fosse Congregational Chapel Minute book which suggests that Mary and her husband were members of that chapel.

James died of consumption (TB) in 1853. In 1861 Mary was a 39 year old widowed house keeper living with her widowed brother in law Simeon Salisbury. Mary died in 1864 from heart disease, she was only 42.

Elizabeth Leatherland was born in about 1823 in Brinklow. In 1841 she was a farm servant in Brocklehurst, Monks Kirby with the Foster family. When she was 18 she has an illegitimate child who only survived for a few months. She married John Smith in 1847 in Brinklow. In 1861 she was still living in Monks Kirby with a four year old daughter. In 1847 she married John Smith in Brinklow. Both were unable to sign their name on the marriage register.

By 1854 she had moved to Darlaston, near Walsall where she had two more daughters. But in 1861 they were back in Stretton under Fosse. Her husband John Smith died between 1861 and 1870 but his death certificate has not yet been found. Elizabeth died in Lutterworth Workhouse in 1870 aged forty six.

Sarah Leatherland was born about 1826. In 1841 she was a 15 year old farm servant in Monks Kirby Lodge living with a farming family. In 1845 she had an illegitimate son, William, born in Pailton. She went on to have two more children in the early 1850s but both died in infancy.

In 1851 Sarah was a 26 year old cook living in Coventry in the household of Charles Sabin, an innkeeper. There were a large number of visitors in the household so it was probably a hotel. By 1861 Sarah had moved to Birmingham where she was a cook. In 1863 she married Henry Palmer, a soldier in the Royal Artillery, in Birmingham. By 1871 they had moved to Northampton where Henry ran a refreshment house. Henry died the same year. Sarah has been hard to trace after that although she was possibly living in Cambridge in 1881.

Ann Leatherland was born in about 1826. In 1841 she was 15 years old living in Pailton with her parents. In 1850 she married Simeon Salisbury, a labourer of Stretton–under–Fosse. In 1851 they lived in Brinklow. They had three children during the 1850s but Ann sadly died of inflammation of kidneys at the age of thirty. Simeon went on to remarry and continued to live in Stretton-under-Fosse.

Emma Leatherland was born around 1830. At the age of 17 she had an illegitimate daughter, Harriet. In 1851 she was a house servant in Willey, Warks, in the household of Nicholas Wallin, a farmer. The following year she married Francis Warpole. They had a son John who later became a railway fireman in Rugby.

Francis died probably a few years after their marriage, although his death has not been traced. In later records Emma reverted to her maiden name and told census enumerators she was single for some reason. In 1861 she was a house servant in a large household. In 1871 she was a cook in Barford, Warks in household of William Wallis. In 1881 she was a domestic cook at the Crewe Arms Hotel, Crewe, but now describing herself as a widow.

In 1883 Emma married John Davenport in the chapel of Newnham Paddox, a manor house owned by the Earl of Denbigh in Monks Kirby. She died thirteen years later.

John Leatherland was born around 1831. In the 1851 census he was a farmer's servant in Cheshire. He later returned to Pailton and lived with his parents, working as a railway labourer. In his forties he married a widower who already had two children. He went on to have four more children of his own, but only one survived into adulthood, a son dying aged twelve and a daughter aged ten. His son Samuel Willie Leatherland went on to became a crane driver, married and had two daughters.

In his later years John worked as a carrier - a man who carried goods and people to by horse and cart. His life ended rather tragically. He died in a pit at Carter`s Farm, Pailton at the age of 82 having suffered "asphyxia caused by drowning having committed suicide while temporary insane". I examined the coroner's records at Warwickshire County Record Office. They show that at the inquest a jury came to he verdict that John drowned. The records consisted of two poignant statements, from his daughter-in-law and a neighbour, describing the circumstances leading up to his suicide.

This was his daughter in law's statement to the inquest :

'Jane Leatherland Pailton (daughter-in-law of the deceased) states I identify the body of that of my father-in-law John Leatherland age 82 he has been in ill-health for some time past, latterly getting worse, I have been nursing him and his invalid wife, on 19th April he gave me his money and told me to take care of it for him until he wanted it, he afterwards commenced to put on his boots, I was surprised at this as he had never been out of the house for a fortnight & I asked him what he was putting his boots on for & he said I am going out to get a breathe of fresh air as I feel very ill & I think it will do me good he then put on his hat, took his walking stick & went off in the direction of the pit where his dead body was afterwards found I started to follow him & he turned round & said something but I could not say what it was. Mrs Clarke then followed him across the field.'

Lutterworth Road, Pailton c 1900

Horse and cart in Coventry Road, Pailton 1890s

(Image from www.windowsonwarwickshire.org.ukwith permission of Landmark Information Group Ltd. www.landmark-information.co.uk and Ordnance Survey www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk )

Hannah Leatherland was born around 1835. By 1851 she had moved to Coventry where she remained living for the rest of her life. In that year's census she was a 17 year old domestic servant in the household of John Adrian, a licensed victualler.

From 1861 to around 1900 she worked as a domestic servant for John and Ann Dalman who worked as hairdressers in Coventry. They must have had a close relationship as she received an annuity under John Dalman's will in 1900. She continued to live in Coventry for a few years then but moved back to Monks Kirby where she died 1905 aged 70. Hannah never married or had chidlren.

She made a will with a local schoolmaster as executor. She left her estate equally to brothers John and Samuel, and nephews William and Joshua. Her net estate at probate was £277.

Hannah's will was the key piece of evidence connecting the Pailton Leatherlands to the Churchover ones because it proved that brother Samuel was descended from the Pailton branch.

Samuel Leatherland is more direct ancestor, he was my great great grandfather. He was born around 1835, but like all his siblings he was either never baptised, or his baptism record (perhaps in a nonconformist chapel) has not survived.

In 1851 Samuel was 15 a farm servant in Monks Kirby. A farm servant was a farm worker who lived with the farmer’s family. By 1861 census he was a shepherd, in Farm Town, Coleorton, Leicestershire. In 1866 he married Susanna Foster from Churchover. They settled in Churchover and had thirteen children. He died aged 75 and a headstone marks his burial in the churchyard.

You can read more about Samuel and his children in Churchover Leatherlands.

Some of Samuel's Grandchildren

Samuel’s grandson Samuel Willie Leatherland became a farm labourer and married Jane Wood in 1909. He later became a crane driver.

Another grandson, William Leatherland, was born in 1845 in Pailton. In 1851 when he was 5 years old he was staying with his grandparents. In 1861 he was a 15 year old plough boy living in Heath, Churchover in the household of farmer James Lee and their two daughters, as a boarder. William later became a servant, shop assistant, and then a provision dealer /grocer working in the centre of Birmingham.

William's children are interesting. He had three sons : Charles Benton, William and Bertie Alfred. Two of them became stage acrobats. You can read more about them in "Leatherland Family Biographies".

Pailton Village

Lutterworth Road, Pailton in an old postcard scene of Pailton

"1756 Acres : A History of the People of Pailton, Warwickshire" by Roy Bourne (1984) is a fantastically detailed history of Pailton from the eighteenth to the mid twentieth century, looking at a number of topics, including land enclosure, the Pailton Riot of 1836, some prominent Pailton families and benefactors, Pailton's churches and schools, commercial Pailton, societies and clubs, local government, and agriculture.

Pailton is a Saxon name meaning "homestead" or enclosure surrounding a farm. In 1554 an Act of Parliament changed the use of Pailton Pastures from arable land to sheep pasture. The King owned the Rectory and Patronage of Monks Kirby but Henry VIII gave them to the newly created Trinity College, Cambridge. This included Pailton Pastures and the tithes from the farms of Pailton .

The Enclosure Act of 1761 led to the enclosure of three of the open fields of Pailton. Over the next century enclosure and tithes caused many disputes in the area between smaller land occupiers, both Trinity College and a local lord of the manor, the Earl of Denbigh. The location of many Pailton farms and consequent housing were often shaped by these dispute.

The opening up of Pailton with the building of the turnpike roads sparked an expansion of commercial facilities and the village became a thriving community from the 18th century with wheelwrights, blacksmiths grocers, butchers and bakers, tailors and shoemakers, millers, millwrights and timber merchants, building and metal trades. Pailton had good road links and transport businesses developed of both people and goods, starting with horse drawn vehicles and progressing into successful coach and lorry firms.

An example of this is John Leatherland (1831-1913) who worked as a carrier in his later years - a carrier carried goods and people by horse and cart. Over the years there were many pubs and inns in Pailton : the Bell, the Saddlers Arms, the Three Hats, the Fox, the Plough and the White Lion, all now closed.

Pailton is actually in the parish of Monks Kirby, the largest of the three villages. A Benedictine Priory was built there in 1077 which gave the parish its name. It is the largest parish in north east Warwickshire.

St Denys in Pailton built in the late 19th century [photo courtesy of the Revel Group of Parishes website]

The parish church of St Edith is enormous in comparison to the size of the village. You can see the tower of the church dominating the view from Pailton one and a half miles away. The church was rebuilt in the fourteenth century and extended in the fifteenth. The stately home of Newnham Paddox is nearby, seat of the Earls of Denbigh from the fifteenth century to 1952.

Stretton-under-Fosse

Stretton-under-Fosse is one and a half miles from Pailton. It straddles either side of the Lutterworth to Coventry Road. The Oxford Canal runs a mile from the village and the M6 motorway is nearby. Stretton is very small with only about 70 houses. Many old farm houses, cottages and barns have been attractively restored. There wass no village church, but there was an Independent Nonconformist chapel.

The village has a Malt Kiln Farm Shop with a plant and specialist food centre and coffee shop. There are some small businesses by the canal at The Wharf, including Rose Narrowboats boat building and holiday boat hire. There is a small Village Hall. Like Pailton and Monks Kirby the village is still surrounded by farmland, mostly arable but with some livestock : cows and sheep. Stretton also has attractive light woods criss-crossed by a network of footpaths.

Newbold Revel

Near Stretton-under-Fosse is the entrance to Newbold Revel, the ancestral home of the Skipworth family. Before they rebuilt the house in 1716, it was owned by Sir Thomas Malory, a Knight in the Wars of the Roses, who translated the medieval legend of Morte d'Arthur into English. The building was later used by St. Paul's Training College for Teachers. It is now a Prison Officer Training College.