John and Harriet Spriggs headed up a typical agricultural labouring family in Toot Baldon in the nineteenth century; they were both born there, he in 1816 and she in 1820, and were married at Toot Baldon church in 1840. Harriet and John were both agricultural labourers as had been their fathers before them.
Rent books from The Queen’s College archive show that John, Harriet and their family lived in Baldon Row and that they had a garden for the cottage, rented separately, which may have helped feed the family.
Harriet and John had nine children born between 1840 and 1865 including two who died young. The Spriggs daughters worked as servants as younger women, and married agricultural workers; a Spriggs son later moved to Yorkshire for work as a ‘cowman’. So in the Spriggs family there was a high dependence on working on the land and little social mobility. This was perhaps unsurprising given that in 1851 60% of women and 74% of men in Toot Baldon were working as agricultural labourers.
Poverty in Toot Baldon
There was much poverty in the village – in 1881 the vicar Reverend James Ross had described Toot Baldon as ‘an entirely poor parish’ and it is clear John and Harriet Spriggs lived a tough life. Agricultural workers were still amongst the poorest and worst housed, and agricultural wage rates were particularly low in Oxfordshire. The agricultural depression in the last quarter of the 1800s, caused by an increase in cheap grain imports, led to a reduction in labourer wages and ‘dismissals of labourers’ were earlier in the season than previously.
John’s widowed mother was living with the Spriggs family in Toot Baldon in 1851; she was a pauper (receiving poor relief). She died in 1854 in the Abingdon workhouse and was buried in Toot Baldon.
The Toot Baldon Community helps out
A letter from the vicar’s wife Elizabeth Ross to the bursar at The Queen’s College in 1884 shows that John was under notice of eviction after falling into rent arrears following Harriet’s illness and death (presumably he was looking after her and unable to work). It records that the village had raised £6 10s which Elizabeth hoped would allow ‘this poor old man’ to remain in his house (the alternative surely being the workhouse as it had been for John’s mother). The letter and collection obviously succeeded, since rent books show he was still living there a year later (but died shortly after); the college was clearly willing to be a flexible landlord. This touching letter, as well as demonstrating John’s impoverishment, showed that the village was ready to join together to help fellow villagers.
Letter from Elizabeth Ross (wife of Rev James Ross) to The Queen’s College Bursar.
Text of letter
Feb 25th 1884
Dear Mr Armitage (The Queen's College Bursar)
I believe John Spriggs is under notice to leave his house unless he can pay up his arrears of rent by Lady Day (25th March). A subscription has been raised amounting to £6 10s 0d which we fear is not the full amount he owes to the College but we hope that in consideration of his infirmities and the long illness of his late wife that the sum collected that the sum collected will be accepted and that he will be allowed to remain in his house.
His son Edwin Spriggs will guarantee to be regular in the future in paying the rent; if he does not keep his word he cannot then expect the College to allow them to remain in this house but for the sake of this poor old man we should be very grateful if you would use your influence to secure them one more chance of retaining their old house.
With kind regards to Mrs Armstrong.
Yours sincerely Elizabeth Ross
Literacy
John Spriggs had been a trustee of the Toot Baldon Primitive Methodist Chapel (this was Chapel Cottage in Toot Baldon). It appears that John and most of his fellow trustees were unable to write their names on the chapel conveyancing document when The Queen’s College bought the chapel for £180 in 1877.
Marriage registers show that the Spriggs offspring were also unable to write their names and this may have limited their options for work in Oxford for example. It is not clear what schooling they had, but they were born too early to benefit from compulsory primary school education introduced in 1880.
John died in 1885 aged 69; Harriet had died two years before.
Sources:
The Queen’s College Archive (Illustrations reproduced by kind permission of the Provost and Fellows of The Queen’s College, Oxford)
Toot Baldon Pastoral Charge, 1881 Reverend James C. Ross
Births, Marriages and Deaths Registers, Ancestry.co.uk
1851 Census, Ancestry.co.uk