Introduction

The two sets of charming reminiscences of Mrs Jane Inskip were written in March 1915 (while she was recovering from a severe illness) and in December 1924, a few weeks before her death at the age of 90. Mrs Inskip was born on 23 August 1834, Jane Street, the daughter of Thomas Street and his wife, Ann Her grandfather, George Street, whom she mentions in these reminiscences, had been a tenant of a farm of Samuel Whitbread's at Cardington called Harrowden Great Farm, from at least 1793. There is a bird's eye view of the farmhouse itself on a map of this date and the fine looking building seems to go well with her description of her grandfather as a man who “was led into a more expensive style of living than he could afford”. After his death in a riding accident in 1808, leaving a family of two sons and three daughters, his wife, Elizabeth, and his eldest son, Thomas, carried on the farm.

In 1816, this son, Thomas married Ann Malden, one of the family of four children (two sons and two daughters) of James Malden, who was a founder member of Cotton End Baptist Church, and had been appointed deacon there in November 1815. Thomas himself attended this church and had been received into church fellowship in the year before his marriage, on 2 April 1815. The year after his marriage (June 1817) saw the wedding of his sister Eleanor to Ebenezer Malden. Another sister, Sarah, married George Swannell of Filgrove, Bucks, in September 1824, and a third sister, Mary Ann, married Samuel Swannell of Felmersham, at Pavenham Church on 17 December 1824. Mrs Inskip states that her parents started married life as tenants on a farm in Clapham, but there seems to be no evidence of this. Certainly no Thomas Street is recorded as a tenant in Clapham on any of the Land Tax returns at any date, whereas he is recorded as a tenant of the Duke of Bedford's Yew Tree Farm at Cople from Lady Day, 1817, taking over the farm after the death of the former tenant, George Brooks. This would only leave six months for any tenancy at Clapham.