Hemingford Abbots village map (RGL2025)

Hemingford Abbots – Data

History of Hemingford Abbots

Locating a number of 19th century pubs in Hemingford Abbots has proved difficult. One of these was the Fleur de Lys.

1851 (Fleur de Lis, High Street)

James Stocker, 41, publican, b Swavesey

Frances, 39, b Houghton

John, 17, ag lab, b Hemingford Grey

James, 15 ag lab, b Hemingford Grey,

Sarah Cole Stocker, 12, b Hemingford Grey

William, 5, b Hemingford Grey

Martha, 2, b Hemingford Abbots

Thomas, 1 m, b Hemingford Abbots

John Newman, lodger, 25, drover, b Great Staughton

In 1861 the Stocker family are still in Hemingford Abbots but James is now a farmer of 10 acres.

In 1871 James is a farmer with 12 acres; his wife Frances and son Joseph are living with him.

In 1881 Frances is a widow, 69, a dairy woman, living with her son Joseph, 25, farmer of 16 acres, daughter in law, Annie and two grandchildren, James and Martha.

In 1891 Frances is described as living on her own means, together with son Joseph and his family which now includes 5 grandchildren.

Frances Stocker, b 1812, is of  interest, because we have an account of an event in her her life: Grandma Goes To Town by Henry Garratt (2000). After her husband died, sometime after 1871, Frances went to London  to visit her son Thomas who lived in Putney. Her other son William was also living in London and had a small fleet of Hansom Cabs.

---

1844 Samuel Baxter aged 10 was sentenced to 15 years transportation for setting fire to four stacks of straw, property of Captain Daintree.

Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 20 July 1844

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

HUNTINGDON.

ARSON.

Samuel Baxter, a little boy, aged 10 years, having pleaded guilty to a charge of firing four straw stacks, the property of Robert Daintree, of Hemingford Abbots, on the 11th May.

Mr. Wells, on the part of the prosecutor, begged to recommend the youthful incendiary to mercy. His father was his farming bailiff, and had filled that position for eight years with the greatest credit. The prisoner himself was always considered a very deserving boy, and every one was surprised at his having confessed to the perpetration of this crime. The prosecutor said that the boy had told him that his reason for committing the crime was a wish to live in the village, and he thought the house would be burned as well as the stacks, in which case he and his family must all have gone into the village. To accomplish this wish it would appear that he had thrust a lighted stick into one of the stacks.

The boy having been placed on a chair in the dock, Baron Alderson thus addressed him:—Samuel Baxter, your case has given me great pain and difficulty; but I cannot exercise any discretion as a judge. We must make the same example of boys as we would of men who commit such an offence as that to which you have pleaded guilty. What circumstances there may be in your favour which her Majesty the Queen may see I know not. I can only say that you shall have the benefit of my most favourable recommendation to mercy. At present I must pronounce the sentence of the law, which is, that you be transported for 15 years, and I hope other boys will take notice of it.

In fact the law in 1844 distinguished between those of:

Under seven: could not be held criminally responsible

7 to 14: presumed incapable of crime unless they had sufficient understanding to distinguish right from wrong

14 and above; ordinarily held responsible as an adult.

In the case of R v Smith Smith, the judge said that the ten year old’s guilty understanding had to be proved separately. He was not guilt just because it could be shown that he started the fire.