Rainbow's end and the promised land
When chasing facts and figures, there are many possibilities to be considered. Was the money or land there in the first place? Had it been invested in a loss-making venture? Had it been spent? Were there swinging debts to pay? Did someone make a mistake?
From Jane Betsy's daughter Laura's letter of 1886, with her husband Job's overwritten part on the back, the will of Jane Betsy's husband James Pollard stipulated there should be an amount to top up the annuity from land inherited from her father.
Jane Betsy's father Stephen Bately bequeathed her and her five sisters an annuity from land rents. Jane Betsy, Harriet Virtue, Eliza Charlotte, Louisa, Emma and Charlotte benefitted from this. They all married farmers. Until legislation later in the century, they could not own/inherit the land themselves. Also, the annuities depend on the land being retained and farmed profitably. It is now clear farming in England was becoming less profitable in the 1870s and continued to be so.
Sherwood William Page was the first farmer, married to one of the Bately sisters, to become a widower in 1856. He and Harriet Virtue had four sons, three survived into adulthood. He had studied farming in the Netherlands and was probably competent at managing the low lying and marshy terrain in East Norfolk. When he was running the farm at Stokesby, his mother in law, Harriott Crow Bately was living with him, his second wife and three sons. Harriott was under strict instructions from her late husband's will to treat all his daughters equally. Sherwood William Page was married Harriott's youngest daughter Louisa, at the time Harriott lived with them, although the marriage had been kept a secret. He predeceased Louisa in 1894. After that Louisa lived in Yarmouth. Her unmarried niece Annie Skinner lived with her.
Francis Allard was widowed in 1880, when his wife Charlotte died. According to Jane Bennett's letter of 1873, the Allards had paid a levy of near £50 to a sister that year, no doubt to top up a shortfall in her annuity. Francis and Charlotte had employed a governess when they lived at Moulton St Mary. Like Jane Betsy's sons, their sons were being educated for different roles in life. Their oldest son Horace Bately Allard emigrated to Australia in 1880.
Eliza Charlotte outlived her husband John Pollard Skinner of Thrigby and retired to Great Yarmouth. She died in 1914. Her children took over the farm at Thrigby. In 1891 Annie Skinner is described as the head and she has a sister Harriet and her two brothers Stephen, who is the farmer and Arthur living there too. Stephen married Rebecca Fabb in 1894. In 1895, they suffered levies imposed by Bailiffs and the Sheriff at Corporation Farm. From his letter, it seems it is demands from his brother and sisters which have initiated the levies. They turn to Mr Rising of Yarmouth for help in sorting out how to pay these taxes. Stephen Skinner died the following year. His surviving brother Arthur Skinner emigrated to Australia in 1926, taking his large family with him.
Last, but by no mean least, Alfred Neave married Emma Bately. She, Charlotte and Louisa were the youngest Bately daughters. Their father died in 1853. Alfred Neave and Sherwood William Page, both from Ludham were successful as farmers and notable locally in other roles they undertook. It is these two distinguished men who are Bately trustees and also, in 1887, took over the management of the trust fund of James Pollard Skinner, for Jane Betsy.
Following the fortunes of Emma Jane and her cousins into the 20th century, I have come to this conclusion. The actions of the farmers, the women who stay single and the others who marry are all part of a desperate attempt to keep Crow, Bately and Skinner inheritances in the family, to support the single women and widows and to make the land profitable.
My direct ancestors are not, apparently, involved. They are living and working in London until they buy a property in Stamford Hill with their portion of the sale of the Bately properties; The proceeds of the sale were shared between the Bately sisters/or their children.
The properties and fortunes of the Skinners is something separate. The Skinners had leased and run Staithe Farm at Tunstall for more than 40 years, from at least 1840 until the end of the final lease in 1883.
Staithe Farm Tunstall is remote, the farm had not been doing well according to letters, but the Skinners did have some success with breeding and running Norfolk horses.
When Emma Jane received that enquiry from Somerset House in 1907, Tunstall and Norfolk must have been a dim and distant memory for her.
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