What makes Harry go for broke?

Burlingham St Edmund church, Norfolk. Harry Skinner, his wife Emma and their first children, Gertrude Emma and Mildred Louise are buried in the churchyard. The image is from "A church near you". The Church of England website.
In 1887 events begin to take a disastrous turn for the Tunstall Skinners and their Thrigby cousins.
    After farming at Tunstall, James Thomas Skinner took a farm at Reedham and married Clarissa Postle. They had a little daughter called Mabel. Sadly, she died at Brown's Farm Reedham on 8th June 1887 aged only eighteen months. Not long after that, her father, James Thomas died on 10th August at St George's Road, Great Yarmouth, aged 40. His death is followed swiftly by a series of auctions.
   On 13th August, sale notices for farming stock at the farm of James Thomas Skinner (deceased) at Reedham and at Mr H Skinner's farm at South Burlingham, appear next to each other in the local newspapers.
   On 3rd September 1887, the horses, carts, tumbrils, farm stock, equipment and implements at James Thomas's farm at Reedham are all up for sale on 24th September. The horses "principally bred by the late Mr Skinner," have similar names and pedigree as the ones sold at Tunstall eleven years earlier. For instance, Boxer, Prince, Diamond and Beauty fetch good prices in guineas, but don't quite match the earlier Tunstall sale.    
   On 30th September there is a sale of furniture, more farming stock and equipment on behalf of H.B.Skinner at Manor Farm, Burlingham. This is followed on 1st October with a sale of furniture at the late James Thomas Skinner's farm at Reedham. His in-laws, the Postles, advertise a sale of farming stock at Lound on 4th October.
   After the second sale at Burlingham, Harry Skinner is advised to file for bankruptcy for the amount of £1,467.3s. 6d, by his solicitor Mr Rising. His court hearing is on 29th October and reported in the local press.
   According to the report, he used £494, which was his sister Rosa's share of their father's estate to invest in a Burlingham St Andrew farm in 1885. This his mother knew about, he said, but his sister didn't. Rosa was underage at that time. His mother lent him a further £500.
   Rosa had served Harry Skinner with a writ for her £494 share in September. Another sister, he said, (probably Laura) had previously sent him a writ for her share of their father's estate. According to Laura's letter to my great grandmother Emma Jane, she had received her share in 1886. After taking advice from his solicitor Mr Rising, Harry held the auction on the farm to pay his sister Rosa. Auctioneer, Spelman paid over the proceeds to Mr Rising for Rosa. There wasn't  quite enough, so Harry said he borrowed £30 against his life policies to make up the balance.
  Under cross examination from one of our Norwich solicitors on behalf of his father's will trustee (Alfred Neave), Harry said he took out a mortgage on a property at Freethorpe for £450 for his mother's annuity top up. He had saved lawyer's fees on the transaction, therefore he did not have documentation. He sold the property, five years later, and pocketed the money. These transactions, he said, his mother did not know about. The registrar remarked Harry had saved lawyers fees at the expense of his mother and Harry admitted it to be the case.
   There is another problem with this mortgage of Harry's. I discovered  the shop and premises, where Harry and his family lived in Freethorpe from 1876 to 1880, were copyhold. Either he had some other property mortgaged at Freethorpe, or Harry is covering up a further loss. He said he had also borrowed £500 from his mother-in-law as it had cost him more than £2,000 to take the farm at Burlingham St Andrew.
   According to these bankruptcy reports in the press, my 2nd great grandfather, James Pollard Skinner left his family  £2,920, gross. By 1887, everything had been sold up and spent. In addition, his only surviving son, Harry, had gone bankrupt for half the gross amount.
    Harry Skinner, the son of a farmer, who ran the farm at Tunstall when his father was ill and after he died, had made a huge loss on a farm at Burlingham St Andrew within the space of two years. He had been farming nearby at Burlingham St Edmund since the beginning of the decade. Had he taken on too much or is he covering up further family losses?
   Harry's mother, my 2nd great grandmother, Jane Betsy Skinner and my 3rd great aunt Eliza Charlotte Skinner, were Bately sisters. Together, they had a third share in their father's properties and estates at Tunstall and Cantley. The Bately trustees were now trustees of the remains of James Pollard Skinner's will (£450) for Jane Betsy's top up fund, owed by Harry. The Bately and Skinner trustees were Sherwood William Page and Alfred Neave. These two landowning farmers were part of the extended family. They were married to the two other surviving Bately sisters, Louisa Page (in secret) and Emma Neave.
   Was it the unprofitability of farming in the 1880s together with the demands of Laura and Rosa May which put their brother into debt? 
    

   

Comments

Barbara Critchley said…
Re-reading this and other events in this complex story of my ancestors at Tunstall and their close cousins at Thrigby, it occurs to me that my great great grandmother Jane Betsy's annuity and her late husband, my great great grandfather James Pollard Skinner's will were inextricably linked through great great great grandfather James Skinner's bond to great great great grandfather Stephen Bately's Tunstall Estates. Assuming the obligation is hereditary, this would have fallen on his only surviving grandson, Harry, after the death of Harry's father. The question arises whether it was only James Pollard Skinner who inherited this obligation or would John Pollard Skinner and his sons have shared it? Could this be the explanation for the weight of the Norfolk sheriff and bailiffs coming down on John Pollard Skinner's eldest surviving son Stephen in 1895? My ancestors at Tunstall and their cousins at Thrigby had exactly the same heritage. Jane Betsy and her sister Eliza Charlotte were Bately sisters who expected an annuity from the proceeds of the Bately estates in Tunstall and Cantley. Their husbands, James Pollard Skinner and John Pollard Skinner were brothers whose father had been bonded to ensure those estates prospered enough to supply these annuities. What neither the Batelys or the Skinners could have foreseen was the slow decline in profitability from farming and the rise in cheaper imports, which put undue pressure on limited resources.
March 28, 2024 at 3:33 AM
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