The Weald - People history and genealogy

Buckhurst Park written by Richard Jefferies at The Downs
An old beech tree had been broken off about five feet from the ground, and becoming hollow within, was filled with the decay of its own substance. In this wood - sorrel had taken root, and flower and leaf covered the space within, white flower and green leaf flourishing on old age. The wood-sorrel leaf, the triune leaf, is perhaps more lovely even than the flower, like a more delicately shaped clover of a tenderer green, and it lasts far on into the autumn. When the violet leaves are no more looked for, when the cowslips have gone, and the bluebells have left nothing behind them but their nodding seed-cases, still the wood-sorrel leaf stays on the mound, in shape and colour the same, and as plea-santly acid to the taste now under the ripening nuts as in May. At its coming it is folded almost like a green flower; at Midsummer, when you are gathering ferns, you find its trefoil deep under the boughs; it grows, too, in the crevices of the rock over the spring. The whortleberry leaves, that were green as the myrtle when the wood-sorrel was in bloom, have faded some-what now that their berries are ripening. Another beech has gone over, and lies at full length, a shattered tube, as it were, of timber; for it is so rotten within, and so hollow and bored, it is little else than bark.
more at Field and Hedgerow

1886

Published

Field and Hedgerow

The Country-side: Sussex written by Richard Jefferies at The Downs
On the wall of an old barn by the great doors there still remains a narrow strip of notice-board, much battered and weather-beaten: "Beware of steel ----" can be read, the rest has been broken off, but no doubt it was "traps." "Beware of steel traps," a caution to thieves - a reminiscence of those old days which many of our present writers and leaders of opinion seem to think never existed. When the strong labourer could hardly earn 7s. a week, when in some parishes scarcely half the population got work at all, living, in the most literal sense, on the parish, when bread was dear and the loaf was really life itself, then that stern inscription had meaning enough. The granaries were full, the people half starved. The wheat was threshed by the flail in full view of the wretched, who could gaze through the broad doors at the golden grain; the sparrows helped themselves, men dare not. At night men tried to steal the corn, and had to be prevented by steel traps, like rats. To-day wheat is so cheap, it scarcely pays to carry it to market. Some farmers have it ground, and sell the flour direct to the consumer; some have used it for feeding purposes-actually for hogs. The contrast is extraordinary.
more at Field and Hedgerow

May 1886

Published

Field and Hedgerow

Hours of Spring written by Richard Jefferies at The Downs and printed in Longmans' Magazine
It is sweet on awakening in the early morn to listen to the small bird singing on the tree. No sound of voice or flute is like the bird's song; there is something in it distinct and separate from all other notes. The throat of a woman gives forth a more perfect music, and the organ is the glory of man's soul. The bird upon the tree utters the meaning of the wind - a voice of the grass and wild flower, words of the green leaf; they speak through that slender tone. Sweetness of dew and rifts of sunshine, the dark hawthorn touched with breadths of open bud, the odour of the air, the colour of the daffodil - all that is delicious and beloved of spring-time are expressed in his song.
more at Field and Hedgerow

Aug 1886

Published

Field and Hedgerow

Wind of Heaven written by Richard Jefferies at The Downs and printed in Chambers' Journal
The window rattled, the gate swung; a leaf rose, and the kitten chased it, 'whoo-oo' - the faintest sound in the keyhole. I looked up, and saw the feathers on a sparrow's breast ruffled for an instant. It was quiet for some time; after a while it came again with heavier purpose. The folded shutters shook; the latch of the kitchen door rattled as if some one were lifting it and dropped it; indefinite noises came from upstairs: there was a hand in the house moving everything. Another pause. The kitten was curled up on the window-ledge outside in the sunshine, just as the sleek cats curled up in the warmth at Thebes of old Egypt five or six thousand years ago; the sparrow was happy at the rose tree; a bee was happy on a broad dandelion disc. 'Soo-hoo!' - a low whistle came through the chink; a handful of rain was flung at the window; a great shadow rushed up the valley and strode the house in an instant as you would get over a stile. I put down my book and buttoned my coat. Soo-hoo ! the wind was here and the cloud - soo-hoo! drawing out longer and more plaintive in the thin mouthpiece of the chink. The cloud had no more rain in it, but it shut out the sun; and all that afternoon and all that night the low plaint of the wind continued in sorrowful hopelessness, and little sounds ran about the floors and round the rooms.
more at Field and Hedgerow

1886 to 1887

Home

At The Downs

1887

Published

Amaryllis at the Fair

Richard Jefferies

Jun 1887

Published

Field and Hedgerow

The Country Sunday dictated by Richard Jefferies to his wife at The Downs and printed in Longmans' Magazine
Roses bloomed on every bush, and some of the great hawthorns up which the briars had climbed seemed all flowers. The white and pink-white petals of the June roses adhered all over them, almost as if they had been artificially gummed or papered on so as to hide the leaves. Such a profusion of wild-rose bloom is rarely seen. On the Sunday morning, as on a week-day morning, they were entirely unnoticed, and might be said in their turn to take no heed of the sanctified character of the day. With a rush like a sudden thought the white-barred eave-swallows came down the arid road and rose again into the air as easily as a man dives into the water. Dark specks beneath the white summer clouds, the swifts, the black albatross of our skies, moved on their unwearied wings. Like the albatross that floats over the ocean and sleeps on the wing, the swift's scimitar-like pinions are careless of repose. Once now and then they came down to earth, not, as might be supposed, to the mansion or the church tower, but to the low tiled roof of an ancient cottage which they fancied for their home. Kings sometimes affect to mix with their subjects; these birds that aspire to the extreme height of the air frequently nest in the roof of a despised tenement, inhabited by an old woman who never sees them. The corn was green and tall, the hops looked well, the foxglove was stirring, the delicious atmosphere of summer, sun-laden and scented, filled the deep val-leys; a morning of the richest beauty and deepest repose. All things reposed but man, and man is so busy with his vulgar aims that it quite dawns upon many people as a wonderful surprise how still nature is on a Sunday morning. Nature is absolutely still every day of the week, and proceeds with the most absolute indiffer-ence to days and dates.
more at Field and Hedgerow

14^th Aug 1887

Died

At Sea View, Goring in the Parish of Worthing, Sussex; aged 38 years

Richard Jefferies
Probate Registry of England and Wales

after 14^th Aug 1887

Buried

At Broadwater Cemetery in the Parish of Broadwater, Sussex

Richard Jefferies

3^rd Sep 1887

Probate

At Principal registry; Effects: £184 12s

Probate Registry of England and Wales

1889

Published

Field and Hedgerow: Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies

Field and Hedgerow

1892

Published

The Toilers of the Field

Richard Jefferies

m: 12^th Jul 1772 St Lawrence, Lechdale, Gloucestershire

Fanny Luckett

b: 1738 Wiltshire
d: 21^st Jan 1825 Swindon, Wiltshire

b: 1748 Gloucestershire
d: 26^th May 1805 Swindon, Wiltshire

Fanny

James Luckett

John Luckett

b: 7^th Aug 1773 Swindon, Wiltshire
d: 23^rd May 1835 Swindon, Wiltshire

b: 12^th Nov 1775 Swindon, Wiltshire
d: 7^th Jan 1850 Swindon, Wiltshire

b: 7^th May 1784 Swindon, Wiltshire
d: 12^th Apr 1868 Swindon, Wiltshire

Great-
Grandfather
record

John Luckett Jefferies

m: 30^th Nov 1809 St Pancras Old Church, Camden, London

Fanny Ridger

b: 7^th May 1784 Swindon, Wiltshire
d: 12^th Apr 1868 Swindon, Wiltshire

b: 1783 Chertsey, Surrey, daughter of John Ridger & Elizabeth Underwood
d: 3^rd Mar 1858 Swindon, Wiltshire

b: 30^th Jun 1812 London
ch: 4^th Nov 1812 St Pancras Old Church, Camden, daughter of John Jefferies & Fanny Jefferies
d: 28^th Jan 1901 Uxbridge, Middlesex

b: 1813 Dukes Row, London
ch: 8^th Sep 1813 St Pancras Old Church, Camden, daughter of John Jefferies (printer) & Fanny Jefferies
d: 30^th Sep 1894 Swindon, Wiltshire

b: 1815 Dukes Row, London
ch: 8^th Feb 1815 St Pancras Old Church, Camden, daughter of John Jefferies (printer) & Fanny Jefferies
d: 24^th Jan 1862 Swindon, Wiltshire

b: 8^th Dec 1816 Somers Town, London
ch: 15^th May 1822 Swindon, Wiltshire
d: 23^rd Dec 1896 Bath, Somerset

b: 12^th Jul 1818 Swindon, Wiltshire
ch: 15^th May 1822 Swindon
d: 22^nd Jan 1902 Swindon, Wiltshire

b: 3^rd Mar 1820 Swindon, Wiltshire
ch: 15^th May 1822 Swindon
d: 20^th Oct 1864 Gloucestershire

b: 1822 Swindon, Wiltshire
ch: 15^th May 1822 Swindon
d: 1832 Wiltshire

b: 1824 Swindon, Wiltshire
ch: 30^th Sep 1824 Swindon
d: 3^rd Aug 1856 Wiltshire

Grandfather
record

James Luckett Jefferies

m: 10^th Sep 1844 Holy Trinity, Islington, London

Elizabeth Gyde

b: 8^th Dec 1816 Somers Town, London
ch: 15^th May 1822 Swindon, Wiltshire
d: 23^rd Dec 1896 Bath, Somerset

b: 3^rd Nov 1817 Islington, London, daughter of Charles Gyde & Elizabeth Estcourt
d: 1897 Wiltshire

b: 1845 Coate, Swindon, Wiltshire
d: 1851 Coate, Swundon, Wiltshire, aged 6 years

b: 6^th Nov 1848 Coate, Swindon, Wiltshire
ch: 1849
d: 14^th Aug 1887 Sea View, Goring, Worthing, Sussex, aged 38 years
bur: after 14^th Aug 1887 Broadwater Cemetery, Broadwater, Sussex

b: 14^th Jun 1852 Coate, Swindon, Wiltshire
ch: 26^th Sep 1852 Chisledon, son of James Jefferies & Elizabeth Jefferies
d: 7^th Sep 1920 Texas, USA

b: 2^nd Jul 1853 Coate, Swindon, Wiltshire
ch: 7^th Aug 1853 Chisledon, daughter of James Jefferies & Elizabeth Jefferies
d: 16^th Nov 1913 Guildford, Surrey

b: 26^th Nov 1858 Coate, Swindon, Wiltshire
ch: 2^nd Jan 1859 Chisledon, son of James Jefferies & Elizabeth Jefferies
d: 1934 Guildford, Surrey

Parental
record

John Richard Jefferies
journalist and writer

m: July 1874 Chisledon, Wiltshire

Jessi Baden

b: 6^th Nov 1848 Coate, Swindon, Wiltshire
ch: 1849
d: 14^th Aug 1887 Sea View, Goring, Worthing, Sussex, aged 38 years
bur: after 14^th Aug 1887 Broadwater Cemetery, Broadwater, Sussex

b: 2^nd Feb 1853 Wiltshire, daughter of Andrew Baden & Emma Smart
d: 12^th Jul 1926 Cornwall

Richard Harold

Jessie Phyllis

Richard Oliver Launcelot

b: 1875 Long Ditton, Surrey
d: 3^rd Nov 1942 Quebec, Canada

b: 6^th Dec 1880 Long Ditton, Surrey
d: 28^th Nov 1958 Seaford, Sussex

b: 18^th Jul 1883 Brighton, Sussex
d: 16^th Mar 1885 Greenwich, Kent

Family
record