The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.48 No.3 | December 2021

Member’s article

who has so long and so offensively to those beneath him, lorded it over Shotover and its neighbourhood”. Perhaps few then would shed a tear when in 1870 Gammie was made bankrupt and in 1871 the estate was sold to Colonel James MILLER . By 1871 Matilda’s father John had moved to a new situation at Great Tew in Oxfordshire. This was dominated by the estate owned by Matthew Piers Watt BOULTON , grandson of Matthew BOULTON the founder of the Soho Mint, so perhaps John was his coachman. But in 1881 John was at Farnborough in Hampshire where he was living over the stables at Farnborough Park on the south side of Rectory Road, along with his wife and youngest son. The main house was occupied by George Henry ELLIOTT , a local magistrate and retired captain in the cavalry who had moved to Farnborough Park by 1861. In the grounds of Farnborough Park was the medieval parish church of St. Peter’s, while further along on the opposite side of the road was the Rectory and it was here in 1881 that Matilda was a parlourmaid. The Rector at the time was the Reverend Arthur Sutton VALPY . Born in 1849 and educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he had been appointed to the Farnborough living in 1878 but on census night the only occupants aside from Matilda were the housekeeper Eliza SMITH and her schoolteacher daughter Mary. Valpy and his wife were instead at the home of his parents in Westminster, London, however, it seems Valpy was often absent and on these occasions the Reverend SUTTHERY was left

the post in 1882. His successor was the Reverend Arthur KINCH but Valpy’s career didn’t end with this set back. After the wardenship of the Church of England Soldier’s Institute at Aldershot, and then the post of Rector at Holy Trinity, Guildford in Surrey, in 1895 he was appointed as a residential Canon at Winchester Cathedral and remained here until his death. As no other servants were present at the Rectory in 1881, we cannot establish the exact status of Matilda within the household or the nature of her duties. The second parlourmaid was Rosa RANDALL who was baptised on the 27th July 1862 at Crookham cum Ewshot, Hampshire, the sixth of nine children born to George RANDALL and his second wife Eliza. Advertisements in 1857 for the sale of underwood on the banks of the Basingstoke Canal show that George was working for the canal company and in 1861 they were living at the “Canal Bridge” in Crondall Road, later known as “Chequers Bridge” after the nearby public house in Crookham. This cottage (now called Canal Cottage) was once thought to have been the office of the canal company when it opened in 1794 then later used as the base for the lengthmen and bailiff, with the company maintenance boats usually moored in the basin behind. George continued to live here until his death in June 1881 when his position was then taken by his son William. As for Rosa, in 1881 she was a parlour & housemaid to the Reverend Gordon Bolles WICKHAM at “The Parsonage” at Crookham. Though it would seem she had a lower position than Matilda, Rosa was one of five live-in servants and had two servants that ranked below her, a housemaid and a kitchen maid. Gordon Wickham had been baptised

in charge of the parish. Perhaps these absences were due to the “domestic

circumstances” (Surrey Advertiser 1885) that eventually brought about his resignation from

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