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possession. It was perhaps more from kindness of heart
than convenience that the purchaser, James Lance, made available to the
dispossessed tenant of Old House the ten-acre field near Turner’s Oak
that became known, by way of distinction from its neighbours, as ‘Oliver’s
Mill Field’.
In his later years Joseph III was also, in a modest way, a
freeholder, owning property described as ‘The Poor-house, Hop-kiln and
Hop Garden’ that fronted the south side of North Ash road. The
Poor-house, which had presumably become redundant as such, may have been
one of what subsequently became known as the ‘Black Cottages’ and
which survived until the early days of New Ash Green. In the hop garden
Joseph grew two and a half acres of hops.
After Joseph III’s time, his widow remained at Oliver’s
Farm until her death some four years later. The farmland near Billet Hill
had been given up when her husband died in 1799. As eldest son, Joseph IV
may have been allotted the Poor-house, if not much else, and have chosen
to live there. From such glimpses as we catch of him, that might have been
for him a not inappropriate abode. In only one respect did he achieve |
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greater success than his father; he lived much
longer.
Joseph IV married a Southwark girl called Sarah Ribbens who,
in 1804, presented him with a daughter. By 1812 five more daughters had
been born, four of whom survived; also by 1812, while the farming world
still prospered, Joseph’s status had sunk from that of ‘farmer’ to
that of ‘labourer’. In 1841, when he was approaching his eighties, he
was still a labourer and was living in North Ash, perhaps at the Poor-house,
where he was looked after by one of his daughters, Elizabeth. Ten years
later, when he was allegedly aged eighty-nine and was probably one year
less, he had really fallen on hard times and was described as ‘Pauper
Butcher’, the only evidence found that be had ever participated in the
family trade. Happily, he had been spared the Dartford Union workhouse; a
married daughter, Mary Accolton, and her husband, who was a tailor at West
Yoke, were then sharing their home with him.
More successful than Joseph IV was one of his younger
brothers, George, who seems to have taken over the butcher’s |