William White (c1705-1798) & Mary Riddington (1730?-1754)
William White was a yeoman farmer, who lived in Radwinter in Essex. Although there is no record of where and when he was born, the research done by his descendants indicated that he was local to the area but without any certainty about from where he came. There was a suggestion that he came from a parish a few miles to the north of Radwinter, but there is no record in parish records which correspond to William’s birth circa 1705 (his approximate year of birth based on his burial record).
William married Mary Riddington on 30 November 1748 at Radwinter. Mary was possibly the daughter of Ralph and Sarah Riddington, baptised at Ashdon, Essex, on 17 January 1730. The Riddington (or Reddington) family can be dated back to at least Ralph Reddington, a yeoman farmer of Radwinter, who made a will in 1652 as well as appearing in the records of other nearby parishes.
William and Mary had three children: William baptised on 15 October 1749, Richard baptised on 1 December 1751, and Elizabeth baptised on 16 June 1754.
Mary died shortly after the birth of her third child and was buried in July 1754 at Radwinter.
On 5 December 1758 William married again, to Mary Plum. Mary Plum was the daughter of Richard and Sarah Plum of Radwinter and had been born in 1730. William and Mary had two sons: Thomas who was born in 1763 and died in 1778, and James who was baptised on 1 April 1763.
William appeared to have continued to live and farm in the parish of Radwinter. The 1798 land tax records for Radwinter showed William as the owner-occupier of land, with the sum assessed £4 12s. In his will, dated 1793, William made reference to the his “messuage or tenement farm and lands both freehold and copyhold with their and every of their appurtenance situated being in Radwinter aforesaid called Richmonds or Maynotts and now in my own occupation”.
This farm was located at Radwinter End, some 1½ miles north-east of Radwinter church, off the road to the neighbouring parish of Ashdon. In 18th century maps showed these parishes to be scattered farming areas in relatively wooded and hilly countryside.
In the eighteenth century (a time described as “almost entirely uneventful at Radwinter”[i]) the church was a “a good handsome building consisting of a square tower at the west end, in which hang five bells, and on it a neat spire of lead” (1798).
The church was later extensively restored in 1869-70 and the 1880s. William Eden Nesfield, who undertook the restoration, wrote in 1868: “the church is unusually interesting as it possesses, nearly intact, its original character when first built in the early part of the 14th century”.
Unfortunately, given structural issues in the original fabric found in (or caused by) the restoration, very little of the original church remains. In a pre-restoration drawing (shown here) the porch was a single storey. The Essex Herald (2 June 1888), reporting on the dedication service for the final phase of rebuilding which included the tower and west end, noted: “the parvis, which was demolished some 80 years ago on account of its dilapidated state, has been re-erected over the porch”.
In 1772 William and Mary’s daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Giblin, a farmer who rented land at Ashdon. Thomas Giblin and Elizabeth had two sons, Joseph and Thomas.
Ashdon parish records for the “relief of the most aged, necessitous and honest poor of Ashdon” dated 1775 included the names of Thomas Giblin, Nathaniel Bowtell and Joshua Ruce (as the Ashdon parishioners linked to the management of the feoffments), and these were most likely connections of William through his children’s marriages. An earlier feoffment of 1746 also referred to the Redingtons and Bowtells. These families appeared regularly in both Radwinter and Ashdon parish records.
In 1798, William’s son Richard, of Radwinter, married Susannah Bowtell at Ashdon.
William died in 1798 and was buried at Radwinter on 23 November 1798.
In his will dated 1793, William left his farm (“Richmonds”) at Radwinter End to his youngest son, James, with the proviso that a payment of an annuity of ten pounds a year was given to his son Richard (“free from all taxes”, and to last 20 years “in case he should so long live”) and that William’s “loving wife Mary” could live and board with James during the term of her natural life with an annuity of ten pounds (to cease if she were to remarry).
Richmond’s farm remained in James White’s ownership and was referenced in the 1841 census, 1848 Essex directory, and the 1851 census when it was 51 acres and James employed 2 men. James had a large family, all baptised at Radwinter, where James was buried in 1852 aged 89.
“All that very valuable estate called ‘Richmond Farm’, situate and lying by the road side at Radwinter End; comprising a homestall, 2 cottages, and 52 acres of very good arable and pasture land” was advertised for sale “by the order of the trustees named in the will of the late Mr J White” (Essex Standard December 1853).
There is still a “Richmond farm” building at Radwinter End.
Its Grade II listing: “C17th timber-framed building timber-framed building plastered on the north side and weather-boarded on the south. Considerably altered on the exterior. One storey and attics. Casement windows. Roof tiled, with a modern dormer and end chimney stacks.”
Footnotes:
[i] A description in “A Deuce of an Uproar” (1988) based on WE Nesfield’s letters to the Rector of Radwinter. It is worth noting that the C19th was a bit more eventful. In 1874, a fire destroyed much of Radwinter and around this time the church was also extensively restored in two phases, 1869-70 and 1880s.