Introduction
People with the surname Clinkard (also spelt Clinckard, Clinckeard, Clinckett, Clinkeard, Clynckard, Clynckarde, Clynkard and other variants) have lived in Toot Baldon from over 470 years ago until modern times. The name appears in a variety of documents through the centuries, some of which are mentioned below. This article is not intended as a comprehensive genealogical record, but rather to illustrate of the diverse ways in which the history of one family can be viewed over time.
All sources used are listed at the end of the article. With a few exceptions this article uses the spelling “Clinkard” even though source records may use a variant.
Clinkard, and all its variants, was a fairly common name in South Oxfordshire for several centuries, with particular concentrations in, for example, Garsington, Bix, Grove, Princes Risborough, Towersey and Thame. It appears to be rather less common now than in previous centuries. Parish records show that Toot Baldon clearly was also a stronghold of the family, where (incomplete) church records show there were 40 baptisms (1614-1818), 17 marriages (1605-1831) and 25 burials (1627-1838) of people with the surname Clinkard. Marsh Baldon has also had resident Clinkards through the centuries, but far fewer than in Toot Baldon.
16th to 18th Centuries
The earliest record we have found is from 1553 (the 6th and final year of the reign of King Edward VI) when William Clynckarde / Clynkard was one of those accountable for verifying the inventory of the church in Toot Baldon. (This was deemed necessary as many churches and other institutions had been plundered during the reign of Henry VIII, largely to help fund wars with Spain and France). William, along with John Willmowte / Wilmott, took oaths to the effect that certain items had been taken since the previous inventory including 2 crosses, 4 candlesticks, a handbell, vestments, surpluses and an alter cloth.
In 1571, William Clincarde was one of those who recorded the inventory of John Battene, a husbandman (a small-scale farmer) from Marsh Baldon. There is also reference to a William Clinkard of Toot Baldon in 1575 Court Rolls (but this has not yet been examined).
The next oldest record found is the will of Anthony Clynckard of Toot Baldon, dated 1616. He was a yeoman (someone who farmed their own land, ranking above a tenant farmer) leaving an estate valued at £62 8s 4d, a reasonably large sum in those days. (There is also a record of an Anthony Clinkard leasing land in 1581, but this has not yet been examined). The will lists his wife Elizabeth, his sons Richard, Henry and Augustine, his daughters Joan, Agnes and Elizabeth and various grandchildren. As well as bequeathing money and unspecified goods and chattels, his will leaves half a quarter of barley, a bushel of maslyn (thought to be a mix of wheat and rye), half of his crop of corn, grain and hay and two sheep. The Will of Elizabeth, Anthony’s wife, was written in 1622 but probate was not granted until 1631/2. Her estate was valued at only £8, whereas the 1627 will of Henry, Anthony’s son and the principal beneficiary of his will, left an estate valued at £64 1s 8d.
In 1665, of the nine households in Toot Baldon which were liable for payment of the Hearth Tax, three were the responsibility of Clinkards. The house of Thomas had nine hearths (i.e. a sizeable house, the largest in the village by some margin), Richard had three and another Thomas had three.
The family connection with the church continued through the 17th and 18th centuries, when several Clinkards acted as church wardens. The church warden was responsible for reporting on the fabric of the church building and lands, but also for reporting misdemeanours amongst the parishioners. From 1667/8 Thomas Clinkard (possibly the Thomas with the large house?) was the church warden for Toot Baldon. He was succeeded in that role over the years by Clinkards Richard, Richard jnr, Thomas jnr, William, and (probably) yet another Richard, up to 1796 after which there are no further transcribed church warden records.
Wills also have been transcribed of three Thomases and two Richard Clinkards from Toot Baldon, from the period 1689 to 1720 – the churchwardens must be amongst them, but it is not possible to identify which will belongs to which Thomas or Richard.
In 1695, Richard Clinkard was allowed to graze two cows on Marsh Baldon green.
In the 1717 annual Land Tax Assessment for Toot Baldon, Thomas Clinkard’s property was valued at £3 12s 0d, the seventh highest in the village, whereas Richard Clinkard’s was valued seven times less than Thomas’s at just £0 6s 0d.
In 1770, Richard Clinkard Junior is credited with helping direct The Queen’s College, Oxford with the survey of their lands, as recorded in the “Baldington Measurement” (see extract above).
By 1808, a Mr Clinkard (first name unknown) was renting land in Toot Baldon from The Queen’s College, Oxford.
John and Susannah and their descendants
John Clinkard (b.1816) married Susannah Gardner (b.c1821) in 1842. He worked as an agricultural labourer but was also the parish clerk. They had at least six children – Jane, Anne, William, Emma, Sarah and David.
Several auctions for timber took place in Toot Baldon in the 1830s and 1840s. An advertisement in the Oxford Journal from November 1848 (and several others) advises that “John Clinkard, of Baldon, the woodman, will shew the lots …”. We don’t know for sure whether the woodman is the same John.
John died in June 1882, at the age of 66. His grave is marked by a cross in a circle on a plinth on the north side of St Lawrence’s churchyard (see below). The cross also commemorates Susannah who died in May 1894, aged 72. In November 1882, a stained glass window was installed in the church, near the pulpit, to the memory of John, presumably for his loyal service to the parish and the church.
On the left, gravestone in St Lawrence churchyard. The inscription reads: In loving memory of John Klinkard who entered into rest 20 June 1882 aged 66 years. Susannah wife of the above died May 29th 1894 aged 72. Thy will be done, We have loved the habitation and the place where thine honour dwelleth. On the right is the stained glass window on the north wall of St Lawrence church, near the pulpit, installed in honour of John Clinkard. Below is an enlargement of the bottom of the right window pane, which reads: Posuit JCR 1882 (i.e. installed by the vicar James Coulman Ross in 1882).
Other nearby plinths and headstones in St Lawrence’s graveyard commemorate John and Susannah’s daughters Jane (died 1930, aged 84), Emma (died 1912, aged 59) and their grandson Ernest Frank Clinkard (died 1896, aged 19).
In 1878, John and Susannah’s daughter Sarah became, at the age of 21, school mistress as assistant to William Lewis at Toot Baldon school, working there until at least 1885, on an annual salary of £20. In 1893, at the age of 36, she married Albert Richens, a coachman, also from Toot Baldon. By 1911 they were living in Enstone with their two sons, but later moved back to Toot Baldon, where she died in 1939, aged 82.
William Richard Clinkard (b.1851), son of John and Susannah, married Clara Webb (b.1851) in 1871. They had at least 6 children – William, Anne Elizabeth, John Henry, Susan Clara, Edith Sarah and Winfred Mary. William (b.1869) joined the Oxfordshire Light Infantry in 1892, at the age of 23. In September 1886, The Oxford Journal reported that William (presumably William senior) was summoned as a witness in a case relating to the selling of alcohol without a license from a houseboat at a fete at Nuneham Courtenay. He confirmed that he “had a drop of beer on board a houseboat” but did not know who was responsible for the license. In January 1891 The Oxford Journal reported that William and two others were summoned for assaulting John Barrett of Toot Baldon. William was dismissed when it was made clear that they were defending Mrs Barrett who was being beaten by her husband.
In 1883 and in 1887, Mrs William Clinkard was in receipt of funds (along with over 40 other villagers) from the Wilmot’s Charity to assist the poor. This possibly was Clara, although William Richard was still alive – he died in 1898 at the age of 48.
Also by 1883, David Clinkard (b. 1862, the son of John and Susannah), had become the parish clerk, taking over the role from his late father, John. He died in 1945, aged 83 and his headstone is in St Lawrence’s churchyard (see below).
Gravestone in St Lawrence churchyard. The inscription reads: Sacred to the memory of David Clinkeard died 25 Nov 1945 aged 83 years RIP
In 1887, William Clinkard was renting a garden in Toot Baldon, presumably for growing produce, from The Queen’s College for an annual rent of 1s 6d.
James William Whittle Clinkard was born in 1900 to Annie Elizabeth Clinkard (daughter of William and Clara), who was a “single woman”. Soon after James was a baby it appears that he lived in Toot Baldon with his grandmother Clara Clinkard, not his mother – possibly because of the stigma associated with being seen as a single mother. He is listed on the wooden plaque in the entrance to St Lawrence’s Church as one of those who served in WW1 in 1914-1918. Presumably, because of his age, he wasn’t able to enlist until towards the end of the war. Fortunately, he survived the war and returned to live with his grandmother again, in Toot Baldon, working as a farm labourer and as a gardener at Marsh Baldon rectory. In 1939 he was working as a hospital porter, still living in Toot Baldon, still single. He married in 1952 and moved to the Croft, Marsh Baldon until his death in 1956
Sources:
The Chantry Certificates and the Edwardian Inventories of Church Goods, Ed. Rose Graham, Oxfordshire Record Society, 1919
Household and Farm Inventories in Oxfordshire 1550-1590, Ed. MA Havinden, Oxfordshire Record Society, 1965
Churchwardens' Presentments in the Dorchester Peculiars of Dorchester, Thame and Banbury, Ed. Sidney A Peyton, Oxfordshire Record Society, 1928
Twelve generations of Clinkards, Lois Prout, Oxfordshire Family History Society, 2004
Oxfordshire Family History Society website www.ofhs.uk – source of the transcribed wills
The People of the Baldons, The Eureka Partnership, 2019
A Pastoral Charge and other booklets produced by Rev JC Ross between 1871 to 1883
The Queen’s College archive: The Baldington Measurement, 1770 and 19th Century rent books
Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk – sources of parish records, statuary records, censuses as well as newspaper archives.