Robert is shown on 26th April, 1753 as being paid 10/- expenses "for
removing Savage to Colemans & back again" Savage was a pauper
whom Robert was taking back to his place of Settlement,
but presumably the Parish rejected him. Robert's expenses would be for
horses, food etc. Robert later paid to the Overseers 7s0d which appears
to be the profit for hay reaped for a man called Groves, who perhaps
was too ill or had died and could not mow his meadow.
In 1755 or 56, Robert gave up the land which he had rented from Mr
Denis.
On 22nd November 1757, after 25 years of married life, Robert's second
wife, Elizabeth was buried at Kempston, she was 49 years old.
Robert was now aged 67. Several of his children and grandchildren lived
in the village. There was his son Thomas with his wife Elizabeth and
his children. Elizabeth and her husband John Brooks
with their children. Mary probably lived at Bedford with her husband
William Prudden, but that was not far away. His daughter Ann was
married on 3rd January, 1758 to William Biggs, a miller, son of
Robert's friend Abraham Biggs. Robert signed
the register as one of the witnesses, the other being Ann's
brother-in-law John Brooks. No doubt there was a family gathering to
celebrate the wedding. Ann & William settled in the village
with their children. Robert's youngest son John does not appear to have
married. |
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Robert appears to be still hale &
hearty and well involved in the life of the village. He was chosen as
Overseer of the Poor
for East Endside for 1758-9. He had to make regular payments to the
poor of the village, the widows, the aged & infirm. Special
payments when necessary, sometimes in money, sometimes in goods or
services. He had to pay for food for the workhouse - cheese, malt,
flour, meat, yeast, milk, butter, apples & other goods.
The expenses involved when he and another villager valued Dame Lacy's
goods when she died, cost i0/-. In October he had to pay 5/- for Elilu
Negus to be examined before a magistrate to
find out his place of legal settlement and for an order to remove him
from the parish, plus 4s.3d for 3 horses and expenses involved
in the journey. In January, 1759 he went to Bedford to pay the
collection money and spent I/- there. 5/- was the expenses for the
"Rejourned" i.e. adjourned Meeting for letting of boys, that is when
they arranged for poor boys to be apprenticed.
In 1759 Robert was Constable for the parish, his expenses came to 2s
6d. He was again Constable for the following year 1760 when his
expenses were 3s 2d. From this time Robert Barratt's circumstances
changed and in 1760 he gave up the pieces of land which he had rented,
in fact he
disappears for a while from the rate books. He was now aged 70,
possibly not in good health and may have lived for a while with one of
his children. There is a doctor's bill, the back of which was used in
1762 to write a note on. The bill amounted to £2.18s.5d for 10 visits
at 2/- or 2/6d a time plus the supply of embrocation and emulsion. He
no longer supplied milk & butter to the workhouse and probably
no longer farms.
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THE BARRATT FAMILY
