History of Lonely Farm, Parham, Suffolk through its Deeds

	Table of events in the recent history (1831-1992) of Lonely Farm [ same table with more columns, but smaller if printed ] mostly through deeds held as originals, some as copies; with other events recorded that were recited in those deeds.
	Transcription and scanned images of the oldest deed held for Lonely Farm Conveyance from Francis Baldry Newson and his Wife Mary to Rev'd William Cann, 1837
	Map of Lonely Farm copied from the Ordnance Survey 25-inch : 1-mile, surveyed 1888, With the fields included in Lonely Farm's history shaded pink (extent for most of the period). The green area was added in 1924, then in 1988 the green and the hatched pink areas were sold off. Link to the same map online [North | South |, courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

The Name 'Lonely'

• The name 'Lonely' first appears in the 1860 will of the landowner at the time, Rev'd William Cann, referring to 'the dwellinghouse called "Lonely",' as distinct from the farm.
• Prior to that, as was common, only the fields have names.
  
• When the Rev'd Cann bought the farm in 1837, the estate was described by listing its 'pedigree' of previous owners and occupiers (as was also common):
• "the Estate of Joseph Tisdale formerly in the occupation of Jerepins Pipe afterwards of John Jenny late of Samuel Newson and now or late in the occupation of Collings Sampson"
• By the time the Rev'd Cann's daughter next sold it (1897), the whole estate was called "Lonely Farm" and that name stuck (with the addition of 'Little' in recent times.

Absence of Landed Gentry

• Over the period covered by the deeds Lonely Farm was owned by 'little people', not landed Gentry: a Miller (1831); a Clerk, who was also a Reverend, associated with baptists (1837); his wife then daughter by inheritance, whose second marriage was to a Woollen Warehouseman (1887); a Dairyman (1897). Then Sarah Wiglesworth, bought it (1906) with no reference to a husband, later gifting it to her three boys (1928). My enduring memory of them was always at the bottom of a ditch with just their bobble hats showing, continually digging deeper ditches, until they gradually reduced in number, finally reaching zero in the winter of 1986.
• Ownership of Lonely Farm sometimes involved a high mortgage relative to the sale price, e.g. ~80% (1831), 54% (1837), 60%? (1897), 30% (1898), 59% (1902). However, there is no sign of any mortgage associated with Sarah Wiglesworth's purchase.
  
• Prior to the 1840s, the owners hailed from nearby villages (e.g. from Pakefield, Cratfield). But from the mid-Victorian era on, there is a noticeable shift as folks from Outer London move in (e.g. Fulham, Stratford, Yiewsley in Hillingdon).
• Admittedly, the little people did not hold all the land freehold. The landed Gentry were still at the head of the Manors that held about one third of the extent of Lonely Farm. But the little people had the upper hand, because they held this area copyhold. This form of tenure allowed the little people to buy, sell or inherit their Manorial land, only requesting in retrospect that the Manorial books be updated to reflect the new ownership. Deeds describe this retrospective process as 'praying' to the Lord's Steward or Deputy Steward and a small fee had to be paid to be admitted to the Manorial Lands. But the Lord of the Manor could not refuse as long as the process was followed. Anyway, in 1898, Julia Valentine (the Rev'd Cann's daughter) took advantage of the 1852 Act for the Enfranchisement of Copyholds, and for relatively small sums (£24 & £6) she bought out the Lord and Lady of the two Manors in exchange for freehold tenure.

Which Fields were Manorial Land? 

• The 1837 conveyance to Rev'd William Cann is the last to include the field names Kittlescroft and Mill Mount, but unfortunately it includes no map or description of which field is which. It would be useful to place these two, because they are respectively the names of land of the Manor of Campsey with Haugh and Northland (9ac) and the Manor of Parham Hall (2ac). Also, they indicate the possible sites of not one but two mills (but not necessarily at the same time), as we shall see.
  
• The area of Kittlescroft is indeed given as just over 9ac, but Mill Mount is 6a 3r 16p, not 2 acres. So one can only assume that the larger field named Mill Mount in 1837 was the result of a previous merge with other fields.
  
• Neither of these field names carry forward to the next conveyance (1897), which is the first to cross-refer field names (from the 1838 Tithe apportionment [1838a]) with fields numbered on a map (from the 1840 Tithe map [1840a]).
• Below are my conjectures as to which fields are which, based on their areas, other clues and a process of elimination. The order in the list was not useful, because the list in the post-tithe conveyance was re-ordered in field-number sequence. Also, unfortunately, the 1837 conveyance did not specify the area of the parcel(s) containing the house, farm yards and orchards. So I used the same areas as in the Tithe for the yards, and I worked out that the yards must have included the Long Meadow (perhaps it was an orchard?), but not the Home Pightle, which was listed as a separate field (and even the 1888 OS map shows it was yet to be built over). This results in an overall 1837 area only one rood (1/4 acre) in excess of the total area in 1897.

• Area/a.r.p.			Field Names in 10-Oct-1837 conveyance	1840 Tithe apprn't no.	Field names in 11-Oct-1897 conveyance (from 1840 Tithe appm't)	Area/a.r.p.			Difference /ac
  0	2	24	House bldgs yds & orchards (areas unstated)	10	House bldgs yds	0	2	24	0.000
  1	1	25		16	Long Meadow	1	1	25	0.000
  0	2	24	further pightle	21	Pond Meadow	0	3	8	0.150
  6	3	16	Mill Mount	17 19	Three Acres Further Three Acres	6	0	32	-0.650
  0	2	8	Home Pightle	11	Home Pightle	0	1	34	-0.088
  4	1	4	Barn field	20	Further Four and a half acres	4	1	31	0.169
  4	2	13	Four acre piece	15	Four and a half acres	4	1	27	-0.163
  1	2	24	Little Meadow	22	Low Meadow	1	1	14	-0.313
  9	0	1	Kittlescroft or Skittlescroft	23 34	The four acres; Further Field	9	2	24	0.644
  29	2	19	Totals (not given in conveyance)			29	1	19	-0.250

  
  

Identification of Haugh and Northland

• It was surprising to find that Kittlescroft was part of the Manor of Campsey with Haugh and Northland.
• The discovery of lands held of this Manor at the North end of Parham increases the probability that:
• the 'Haugh' in this Manor's name stems from Parham's current Mill Green (believed to have been called Greshaugh or Grese Haugh in medieval times [1999BB] [1433a])
• In medieval times, Parham's North Green was called Northland Grene [1999BB] [1433a].
  
  "Henry VIII. in his 35th year, granted to Sir William Willoughby, knight, the. ſite of the manor of Campſey, with the lands belonging to this nunnery, and all the manor of Campſey, and the lands called Valenes, in Valens and Blaxhall, and all the meſſuages and lands in Haugh, Northland, and Blonnyvile, in the pariſhes of Haſketon and Parham, in Suffolk, to hold of the King in capite†."
  
  † Book of Inquiſitions penes C. 0. 1790.
  
  
• 'Blonnyvile' must surely be a mistranscription of Blomyvile, in turn a muddled spelling of Blomvyle or Bloomvyle.
• Haſketon could be Hasketon, but it is more likely to be Hacheston, given Bloomvylle Manor straddles the parish boundary between Parham and Hacheston [1671a][1747a].
• Perhaps incidentally, Lonely Farm's deeds included the right to pasture cattle on Parham Green (later deeds call it Parham Common) of 7ac. This is most likely to have been present-day  North Green, being nearest, although it's 9ac today not 7ac (Mill & Silverlace Greens are 2a and 6a resp.)

Where was the 1433 Mill called Potelottes Croft?

• The name of the parcel that is 'of the Manor of Campsey with Haugh and Northland' is given as Kettles Croft of the tenements Albans and Randolfes
• 'Albans and Randolfes' are always spelled consistently. However, the name of the Croft evolves through the years:
• 'Kittlescroft or Skittlescroft' and 'Kettles Croft' (both in the same 1837 conveyance, but each reciting different earlier deeds);
• Spittlescroft (in the mortgage accompanying the 1837 conveyance, so possibly an isolated clerical error);
• Kettlescroft (1838)
  
• Kettles Croft (1865 onward)
• In a 1433 Extent of the Manor of Bloomvyle Hall [1433a], the following passage was interpreted by Gwen Dyke as probably locating a mill called Potelottes Croft on the site of Lonely Farm:

• 9 a by mill called POTELOTTES CROFT

  E. Way from NORTHLAND GRENE to VISDELEWS W. Land called WABBES LOND. N. The Kings Way from OKENELD MELL to      NORTHLAND GRENE. S. Close.

• However, the abuttals (listed on the right) place this very precisely on the same 9 acres as the parcels numbered 476 & :477 on the above 1888 OS map, just where Kettles Croft is located.
• 'Visdelewe' is Fiddlers Hall, so this parcel is west of the road from North Green to Cransford
• 'Wabbes Lond' is definitely the land around Kilderbee's Grove (numbered 487, 478 & 419 on the 1888 OS map), which were called Great Wabbs, Little Wabbs & Webb's Field in the 1838 Tithe Survey [1838a][1840a]
• 'Okeneld Mell' must be a mill somewhere near present-day Oakenhill Hall in Badingham, so this places Potelotts Croft south of the road from North Green to Badingham (interestingly called the Kings Way), which passes to the west of Lonely Farm (over the present cross-ways).
  
• The name of Potelottes Croft might have been changed to Kittlescroft, perhaps due to a change of occupier.
  
• But it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the initial 'P' of Potelottes Croft was at some time mistaken for a 'K' (or perhaps the mistake was the other way round --- on the 1433 extent itself, given we cannot examine the lettering of [1433a] because it is in anonymous private hands). And 'o' in medieval script is easy to mistake for an 'e'.
  

References