Chapter 11: SALTERS of HILLFARRANCE, SOMERSET
Clayhidon is one of the largest parishes in Devon, some seven miles long and three miles wide. Situated on the central eastern side of the county it adjoins the county boundary with Somerset. It forms an important part of the Blackdown Hills. The nearest towns are Wellington, Somerset, four miles to the north and Honiton, Devon, ten miles to the south. Even today the population is small and scattered with the village centre consisting of six houses based around St. Andrews Church and the Half Moon Inn. Nothing sensational or headline breaking has occurred in the parish, the most notorious event being the murder of a tax collector in 1853. John Salter was an agriculutal labourer living in Cleyhidon at about that time.
During the period 1840 to 1850 John had at least five children by his first wife. Following the death of his wife, possibly as a result of the birth of the their daughter Mary, John moved to the Taunton area in Somerset. Once there he married his second wife, Jane. The couple had two children in Jane’s home parish of Norton Fitzwarren before moving to Hillfarrance in about 1861, where they had seven more. Of their nine offspring there was only one boy, Levi. John remained and agricultural labourer until his death in1886. Following her husband's death Jane and despite being of advancing years Jane had also to work as an agricultural labourer until she was so infirm that she had to resort to parochial relief which was a form of payment to the elderly and inform who would otherwise have no income.
Matilda was one of John and Jane’s daughters. In 1881 she was in service in the home of Emma Hewett at Trull, Somerset. She later went to went to work as a cook in St. Helier on Jersey, then moved to St.Fagans near Cardiff, where she got engaged at John Sutton (Chapter 10). Matilda died 1958 Died of heart disease at 70a Church Street, Tredegar in Monmouthshire. Matilda’s sisters Amelia and Sarah Ann were both working but still at home with their widowed mother in Hillfarrance in 1891. The former was an agricultural labourer, the latter a silk weaver. Sarah Ann’s twin, Elizabeth Jane, was blind. She married Walter Charles Cork and had four daughters. The family lived in Bradford on Tone. Elizabeth Jane was 100 years old when she died. Another sister, Lucy, died at 105 years old. She had a son and daughter by her first husband. The son also living to be over 100 years old! Lucy’s second husband, Thomas Henry Hayes, is remembered as keeping a cider mill in the house.
Hillfarrance in 1889
John SALTER b.c1821 d.1886 m.#1 - - #2 Jane -
#1 Maria SALTER b.c1840 d.>1851
#1 Charles SALTER b.c1842 d.>1861
#1 Emma SALTER b.c1846 d.>1851
#1 Eliza SALTER b.c1848 d.>1851
#1 Mary SALTER b.c1850 d.>1851
#2 Ellen SALTER b.1857 d.1870
#2 Amelia Susannah SALTER b.1860 d.1866
#2 Rose SALTER b.1862
#2 Matilda SALTER b.1863 d.1958 m.John SUTTON (Chapter 10)
#2 Levi SALTER b.1865 d.1870
#2 Amelia SALTER b.1866 d.>1891
#2 Sarah Ann SALTER b.1869 m.Joseph LLOYD
#2 Elizabeth Jane SALTER b.1869 d.c1969 m.Walter Charles CORK
Sarah J. CORK b.c1899 d.>1901
Florence CORK d.young
Lucy CORK m.- -
Elizabeth ( Betty)- d.c1993
Cissie CORK
Dolly CORK
#2 Lucy SALTER b.1871 d.c1976 m.Thomas Henry (Tom) HAYES
Levi John ( Jack) SALTER b.1893 d.c1993 m.- -
Walter John SALTER
Lena May SALTER b.c1899 m.Alfred Edward MANNING
male MANNING
male MANNING
E-mail