The Barritts of the Fenlands - Page 4

Samuel's eldest son, Robert

Robert was born in 1811, the year prior to his parent's marriage, and as we have seen, he was baptised Robert Terrington Barritt on 17th March 1813 at Feltwell, the same day as his younger brother Richard. From now on all reference to the name Terrington was dropped by Robert.

Unlike his three brothers, he became a carpenter and ultimately, a millwright. The fens had been drained but as the land was lower than the river levels, it was a constant battle for the fenland farmers to raise the water from the numerous drains, ditches and dykes to the higher level of the rivers. This was done by numerous windmills and Robert was employed in building and maintaining the mills. The 1837 tithe maps show S mills along the Creeks End Mill Drain on Feltwell Fen. None exist now. A good example of a fenland windmill has been built by the National Trust on Wicken Fen.

Robert's trade took him all over Fenland and at the age of 21 he formed a relationship with Sophia Attlesey of Soham who was 19 years old. This resulted in the birth of a daughter who was baptised Lucy Attlesey at Soham on the 7th April 1833. By an order of Filiation dated 12th February, 1833, Robert had to pay two shillings per week towards the support of a female bastard child by Sophia Attlesey. Lucy remained with her mother at Soham.

At the age of 23, Robert met and married Mary Sayer of Ely on 14th October 1834 at Ely Holy Trinity. This parish has now amalgamated with Ely St. Mary, but in 1834 the parish church was the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral. In this chapel, all the niches around the walls have effigies of the saints and without exception, the heads of all the saints were knocked off in a wanton act of vandalism by Puritans in Oliver Cromwell's time.

The marriage register of Ely Holy Trinity shows that Robert was a bachelor of Feltwell and Mary Sayer a spinster. Both signed the register and Robert's signature (Robt Barritt) clearly shows that he was literate and he was spelling his name Barritt. None of Robert's three brothers could at any time write their names. Robert's mother couldn't write, so either his father, Samuel, taught him, or perhaps he was sent to a school at Southery, or Littleport.

Robert and Mary lived at Manea, near Chatteris, where they had a son, Samuel Sayer Barritt, baptised 6th November 1836, and a daughter Mary, baptised 2nd April 1839, both at Southery. Five days after the birth of their daughter, Mary was buried at Hilgay on 24th March 1839. Robert was now a widower with one son just over 2 years old and a baby daughter. The baby only survived five months as she died of debility and was buried at Feltwell on 19th June 1839.

Robert must have maintained contact with Sophia Attlesey at Soham, as three months after his wife died and just five days after his infant daughter was buried, Robert went to Soham and married Sophia in the parish church at Soham. Robert now lived on Feltwell Fen with his new wife, his daughter Lucy Attlesey and his son Samuel Sayer Barritt. This son, as a young man, went to Riplingham, about eight miles south west of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire, married Hannah Dinsdale there on 26th December 1859 and had eleven children, all born at South Cave. There are no Barritts now at South Cave.

Robert and Sophia had seven sons and three daughters, all born on or near Feltwell Fen, between 1841 and 1858.

The following anecdote, told by Sophia to a relative and recorded by a grandson, concerns her husband when he was a young rnan and a coven of witches:

About the year 1850 he had to repair the drainage mill near Prickwillow, on a lonely site by the river Lark. As the mill was some distance from his home on Feltwell Fen he spent the working week in the derelict millman's cottage, sleeping in the loft and returning home at week-ends to collect food for the following week.

One night, after he had had his supper out of doors as usual, he climbed the ladder and was soon fast asleep. During the night he was awakened by noises below and, on peering through the trap door in the floor of the loft, he saw two old women preparing to light a fire on the hearth with pieces of wood he had discarded during his work. Wondering what it was all about, he lay face-downwards on the floor and, by the light of the fire as it blazed up, saw four more women open the cottage door and come into the room. One of them he recognised as coming from his own village.

Each of the old women had a rush basket containing food and drink and soon they were all squatting on the floor, eating and drinking. After their meal they sat in a circle, talking in whispers. Presently the room got warm, so they took off their long cloaks, revealing that they had little on beneath them. Round one woman's bare leg was a garter of plaited horsehair, which she proudly showed her companions, one of whom triumphantly displayed her own pair of garters, made, she declared, from a viper's skin. The third woman pointed to her breasts, which were cupped with ferret skin, while the fourth rose from the floor to show that she was dressed in a lambskin chemise.

At this juncture Robert inadvertently touched the open trap door. It fell with a load bang, startling the women, who, grabbing their cloaks, ran shrieking from the cottage. The unseen watcher found, next morning, that one of them had left behind her black cloak and rush basket, and these he delivered, the following Saturday, to the old woman from Brandon Creek, who, he knew, was considered by everyone to be a witch. 'Here you are', he said, 'these were left behind by you or your pals the other night in the millman's cottage down in Prickwillow Fen.' The old woman seized the basket and cloak and then, spitting in the young man's face told him that as surely as he lived by making windmills a windmill would finish him off.

Years later, Robert was crushed by a windmill which toppled over when he was moving it to another site. However, he died of a chronic stomach ulcer on 23rd May 1877 at Feltwell aged 66, and was buried in the churchyard of St. John Little Ouse on 28th May.

© Copyright Ron Barritt - March 1995

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