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From: "Caroline" <>
Subject: Re: CHRISTIE - 1861 Boarding school, Harlow - Fawbert & Barnard 1 of 2
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 13:17:44 +0100
References: <000001c58085$839b35c0$29280150@animausdjz8jw8>


The book 'Seedtime and Harvest' is actually about William Barnard a tenant
farmer at Harlowbury from 1798 until his death in 1852. John Barnard was his
older brother - he was a 'prosperous and respected miller and malster at
Harlow Mill'. Apparently William acquired the lease of Latton Mill in 1832
and established his son, Charles there. The Barnard family were prominent
Baptists.

As a matter of interest there is also a Fawbert and Barnard school in
Sawbridgeworth.

Caroline

----- Original Message -----
From: "La Greenall" <>
To: "'Colleen'" <>; "'Caroline'"
<>; <>; "'Janice Doughty'"
<>
Sent: Monday, July 04, 2005 11:45 AM
Subject: RE: CHRISTIE - 1861 Boarding school, Harlow - Fawbert & Barnard 1
of 2


Hi Colleen et al.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Colleen [mailto:]
>
>
> Here's a Waltham Cross related query for you, Lawrence, from
> my History of
> Harlow by Linley Bateman - and another Churchgate Street
> school to add to the pot of confusion...


Apologies for the delayed response but I was initially quite stumped by
your request and it's taken some time to find out the very little that I
have done, and even so, most of what follows is either surmising,
assumptive, illustrative or incidental in nature. If anyone wishes to
correct or 'update' anything please don't hesitate!

Firstly, Colleen, can you clarify whether George Fawbert was of Waltham
Cross (in Hertfordshire), or of Waltham Holy Cross (i.e. Waltham Abbey,
in Essex? I have seen a reference that says he was actually of Waltham
Abbey, but would be interested to know if you know different. In
particular, do you have a transcription of his will and if so could I
ask for a copy?

I can only say that Fawbert would have chosen Barnard as his executor
because he trusted him. Fawbert is described as a maltster, not that
common an occupation in either Waltham Cross or Waltham Abbey due to the
lack of suitable land for growing the hops; however he could (and I'm
only surmising) have been more of a merchant or warehouseman, what we
would call a wholesaler, than a producer, as both these places were then
very much market towns. Consequently it doesn't seem unlikely that as a
farmer Barnard could have been the principal producer of Fawbert's raw
material, which would most likely have been sent from either Waltham to
London by barge down the Lea - the town of Ware a few miles upstream was
then replete with maltings lining the river's banks. Old Harlow being on
the Stort Navigation does beg the question why Barnard didn't send his
malt directly to London himself; perhaps he did to a certain extent but
couldn't as a grower devote as much time to 'retailing' as he might have
done. But again I am only guessing wildly here.

At any rate, Fawbert must have been considerably successful, for he
evidently entrusted Barnard with overseeing a very substantial legacy. I
have found one source that says his legacy to the school amounted to
£8,000; I can put this into partial context by stating that my own
ancestor William Greenall (c.1763-1836), a successful flour merchant of
Bolton, Lancs, donated a sum equivalent to one quarter of this amount
towards the building of Mawdesley Street Congregational Chapel in that
town in 1810, and that this seemed to cover 2/3 or 3/4 of the overall
costs; therefore Fawbert's very substantial bequest would have allowed
quite some school to be founded.

It would be normal for a school founded by a benefactor's bequest to be
named after him, a local example (to me) would be the Leverton School in
Waltham Abbey which was founded after a bequest made in the 1823 will of
Thomas Leverton of Bedford Square, London. He left £6,000 in stock and
gave specific directions as to how the money should be used (see below),
including the running of a school to be set up after his widow Rebecca's
decease, however he made no allowance for establishing the actual school
building, and she undertook this herself during her own lifetime and at
her own expense, though with the considerable help of the bequest of
Fawbert no less (see below).

Very unusually for the time, Leverton specifically required his school
to educate and clothe 20 poor boys and 20 poor girls (see below) - as we
know, girls - especially poor ones - rarely learnt anything more than
domestic duties and needlework in those days, so for any poor girl to
receive a 'decent education' (i.e. the three R's) would have been a
small miracle back then! As it turned out, his school was established on
a slightly more modest scale, accommodating 15 boys and 10 girls, though
that's still ten more girls than many other schools properly catered
for.

Therefore, for Fawbert's name to be given to the school he left a
bequest for is quite usual. For his executor's name to be used as well
seems a little more unusual, and purely in itself with no supporting
evidence this would suggest that Barnard had, at least locally, at least
as much standing as a local benefactor as the merchant who gave £8,000
to the village. Of Barnard's local standing I have no knowledge at all,
but it would seem from odd references I find that he was quite a local
notable, almost a noble it might be said. In particular, it seems that
the book 'Seedtime and Harvest' mentioned recently by Caroline has a lot
to say about him, but I don't have a copy so cannot add any more.
Caroline, are you still reading it, and if so, does it have an account
of Barnard in it? Would I be right in assuming that he was indeed a
noted local benefactor of some repute locally?

Part two to follow...

Lawrence.



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