The Norman and Marshall Families - Paupers and Peasants
John Norman
John Norman next appears in Holton in 1799 when he married Hannah Day. There is no known relationship between Hannah Day and Thomas Day, but with a gap in the parish registers it is not possible to draw any conclusions. John and Hannah were my great great great great grandparents.
Hannah Day was the illegitimate daughter of Kezia Day. She was baptised in Holton in 1782. It is likely that Kezia's parents were Stephen and Hannah Day. Hannah senior died shortly before Hannah junior was born, being buried in Holton in 1782. The Days seem to have been as poor as the Normans, though the Poor Books show no attempt to identify the father of Kezia's child, so maybe he was known to them. In 1761, however, Mr Punknettle is recorded as paying 6sh 3d for Stephen Day's houserent, and Hannah Day was later paid for 'tending Elizabeth Pitman'. Stephen was buried in Holton on 6 June 1805. There were families called Day in Holton since the late 1500s; one, Robert Day, was an early licencee of the Old Inn.
If the Holton baptism registers are to be believed, John and Hannah had an extremely large family, stretching over a period of 28 years. Hannah would have been 52 when the last child was born. It is possible that some of the later children were grandchildren being passed off as children for the sake of respectability - something that had not worried either John or Hannah's mothers!
John and Hannah spent the rest of their lives in Holton and can be traced through the census returns. In 1841 the family were living in Holton and the household consisted of John, 65, an ag.lab; Hannah his wife aged 60; Ann 25; Elizabeth, 29; Hannah 15; and Kezia 10.
The family were still in Holton in 1851. Now John, aged 76 was an ag.lab and pauper. Hannah called herself a farm Labourer's wife, aged 69. The only one of their offspring still at home was Mary who was unmarried at the age of 44 and engaged in 'farm work'.
By 1861 John had died. Hannah's fate might have been the workhouse, but fortunately her daughter Eliza gave her a home. Eliza was living in nearby Compton Dundon with her husband, John Marriott aged 70. With the couple were Joseph Norman, aged 50, an unmarried Carter. He was listed as a nephew. Nieces Elizabeth Ann and Ellen Emma Parsons aged 16 and 10 were also living with the family. They were the daughters Samuel Parsons who married Eliza's sister Jane in 1843. The Marriotts appear to have offered a number of relatives a roof over the head at the time when the only alternative for paupers was the workhouse.