17th Century Country Life

As far back as records let us go, the Davis family line originate from Abbey Dore, Herefordshire; a small village on the Welsh border; a village which can be traced as far back as the 12th Century. Herefordshire was, and still is largely an agricultural county. In 1855 a writer named Camden in wrote that the county “was good for corn and cattle feeding”.

17th century England was fully of crowns, wars and plagues. The death of Elizabeth I in 1603 also saw the death of around 30,000 Londoners from the bubonic plague. The disease swept England causing the high fevers, muscle cramps and painful swollen glands to those infected.

Further plagues ravaged England in 1625 and 1636; the worst was the 1665 epidemic; the summer heat caused the infection spread quicker than normal. It was estimated that a fifth of London’s population succumbed to the deadly virus. In a diary written by Samuel Pepys he wrote “ This day, much againest my will, I did in Drury Lane lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the door, and ‘Lord Have Mercy upon Us ‘ writ there - which was a sad sight to me, being the first of the kind’. The General bill of morality ending December 1665 stated 97,000 death in London; 68,000 of those were of the plague. It was once said the the Great fire of London in 1666 stopped the plague. Although now it is thought that the plague was slowing down before the fire. Living with the fear that you or your family might contract this terrible disease must have been very hard on our ancestors.

News was traveling fast across the country that about fierce fire that started in Pudding Lane, London. In Abbey Dore far from the burning streets of London, lived John Davis born C1666. John and his family most likely worked as agricultural labours on a nearby farms.  Farming at this time was hard work, every was done buy hand including sewing seeds. This was until 1701 when Jethro Tull invented the first seed drill. He also invented a horse drawn hoe which hoed the land and destroyed weed between rows of crops. These simple inventions would have revolutionised the farming industry and making our ancestors lives easier.

Many people would have learnt to read at the local Sunday School. Sunday School’s taught the poor, both children and adults to read but not write. Like most villages, there was also a school house in Abbey Dore which they would have attended.

Around 1700, witchcraft trails were taking place in Abbey Dore, it was said that no school master would stay for long as witches were particularly feared around the school house. All school masters gave the same reason for leaving: thumps in the night, windows shaking as if the panes were about to fall out, noises would be heard as if people were moving chairs and the plates and dishes would rattle. This is said to of continued for years until the witch died and nothing was ever heard again. Sadly written accounts of witchcraft trials are scarce in Herefordshire so many of the accounts are pure hear'say. In 1727 John married Margaret Clark in Saint John Baptist, Hereford. A few years later

Britain's streets were buzzing with news from the foreign land, a new French Emperor; Napoleon Bonaparte was on the rise. At the time, the government was offering cash incentives to young men who joined up into the reserve army. Most were unable to make the same amount of money in their usual line of work so many men joined up. Many men are listed as served in the British army but verifying who is who would be very difficult unless he was of significant rank.