William Budgen (1785-1867) and Sarah Rice (1791-1871)

William Budgen (1785-1867) and Sarah Rice (1791-1871).
My 4th great-grandparents.

William Budgen was baptised at St Margaret of Antioch’s church in West Hoathly, Sussex, on 1 August 1785. His parents were William Budgen and Betty Streeter.

The Budgens were an established West Hoathly family by this time but William married Sarah Rice at St Nicholas Church in Worth, Sussex, and it appears that he never returned to live in the village. The marriage was on 2 November 1808.

West Hoathly is an attractive village. In its early years it was known variously as Hadlega and Hodlega – later standardised to Hodlegh and Hothelegh, then (West) Hoathly. This Anglo-Saxon word signifies a heath-covered clearing and the parish lay on the edge of the Ashdown Forest.

In the 1841 census William was listed as an agricultural labourer and was living and working at Standing Hall Farm in Worth – where Budgens would continue to live and work for several decades. Several of his sons were employed as labourers there, even 12-year-old Edward. Ten years later William and his wife were living at another farm with sons Richard and Edward, employed as gardeners and agricultural labourers.

In 1861 William and Sarah were living at Hall Farm in Worth, part of the Worth Hall estate, with grand-daugther Ellen. William died on 23 March 1867 and he was buried at Worth five days later. The death certificate described him as a gamekeeper, and noted that he died of ‘general decay’. Gamekeeping was a job that mainly involved controlling vermin, preventing poaching, breeding game birds and training dogs, depending on the estate.

William’s wife Sarah was baptised on 3 July 1791 at St Mary’s Church in Balcombe, Sussex – just a few miles across the fields from his birthplace. Her parents were husbandman George Rice and Mary Harman. George’s will, read on his death in 1827, stipulated that £5 should be paid to son-in-law William Budgen every year for 10 years.

After William’s death there is no record of Sarah until the 1871 census, when she was living on parish allowances as a widow in School Cottages, Worth. She died a few months later and was buried on 5 June 1871 at St Nicholas’s in Worth.

William and Sarah had many children:

• Mary Budgen (1809-1883), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Mary was born on 18 January 1809 in Worth, Sussex, and baptised on 19 February at St Nicholas’s Church. This suggests her mother was very pregnant at the time of her marriage. Mary married agricultural labourer Henry Hall on 1 May 1826 at St Nicholas’s. Census records suggest he was born in Brasted, Kent, in 1796 but I’ve found no record to prove it. The couple had children and lived in Cuckfield and the satellite village of Whiteman’s Green in Sussex, where Henry died on 7 November 1871. The cause of death was given as intussusception, a painful condition in which part of the intestine slides into an adjacent section of it. He was buried on the 11th. The 1881 census described Mary as a nurse. She died on 29 December 1883, the death certificate recording the cause as peritonitis. She was buried in the village on 2 January 1884. Their children were:
  • David Hall (1830-1884) was baptised in Cuckfield, worked as an agricultural labourer and married Mary Ann Harber / Harbour in Worth in 1850. They raised children and lived for many years in West Hoathly, Sussex, before moving to Horley in Surrey, where he was a carter. She died in 1902.
  • Harriet Hall (1832-1880) was baptised in Cuckfield and married James Chatfield in Staplefield, Sussex, in 1854. He was a carter and agricultural labourer. They lived in Cuckfield and had children. Harriet was buried in Staplefield, Sussex. James lived until 1903.
  • Thomas Hall (1833-1918) was baptised in Cuckfield and married Martha Leadbetter in her home village of Rusper, Sussex, in 1856. He worked as an agricultural labourer in Sussex, although for a period they lived and worked in Northamptonshire. Martha died in 1902.
  • James Hall (1838-1911) was baptised in Cuckfield married Sarah Ann Etherton in Brighton in 1862 and settled in the town. They had children and James worked as a general labourer and carter. Sarah outlived her husband, dying in 1917.
  • Charles Hall (1840-1922) was baptised in Cuckfield. An agricultural labourer, he married Emma Hards in 1863 but she died six years later. In 1881 he married Hannah Hards in Cuckfield and raised a family. They emigrated to Queensland in Australia in 1887 and, curiously, remarried in Biggenden in Queensland in 1901, he listed as a farmer and both residing at Belleview Farm. Charles died of cystisis in 1922, a few years after moving to Childers, and was buried in Apple Tree Creek, Queensland. The Brisbane Courier of 19 August 1922 noted that he was one of the European pioneers in Biggenden and had stuck to farming despite flood and drought. Hannah died in Monto, Queensland, in 1943.
  • Ann Hall (1845-1924) was baptised in Cuckfield and married blacksmith Alfred Burchfield in Staplefield in 1867 but he died in 1871 leaving two children. Ann then married Charles Edwin Kimber in Brighton, Sussex, in 1875. They later settled in Hornchurch, Essex, where he worked as a dairyman. He died in 1922, two years before Ann.
  • William Hall (1848-????) was baptised in Cuckfield and was working as a garden labourer in Patcham, Sussex, at the 1871 census.
  • Emily Hall (1851-1927) was baptised in Cuckfield and was working as a servant in Slaugham, Sussex, at the 1871 census. She married labourer William Gardner, who went on to be a watercress grower and dealer and market gardener, in 1872. They continued to live in Sussex and had children but Emily had to endure many years of domestic violence. The Bognor Regis Observer of 13 November 1901 reported that William had been imprisoned for four months for assaulting her – one of several convictions. He died in 1922, Emily in 1927.
• Benjamin Budgen (1810-1891), my 3rd great-grandfather. Benjamin worked as a gamekeeper in Sussex.
• Thomas Budgen (1812-1835). My 3rd great-grand uncle. Born on 1 April 1812 in Worth and baptised on 7 June at St Nicholas’s Church, he died around the new year of 1834/5 and was buried in the parish on 4 January with his age given as 22.
• Harriet Budgen (1815-1818). My 3rd great-grand aunt. Baptised on 18 January 1815 at St Nicholas’s in Worth, she died aged three and was buried there on 19 November 1818.
• James Budgen (1817-1881). My 3rd great grand uncle. James was baptised on 1 June 1817 at St Nicholas’s Church in Worth, Sussex. He married Amelia Brooker, also of Worth, on 19 September 1840 at the village church. Amelia had been baptised on 7 April 1816 to farmer James Brooker and his wife Catherine. James was described as an agricultural labourer or gardener in census and baptism records. At the time of the 1841 census the couple were living, along with his parents and siblings, at Standing Hall Farm in Worth. Ten years later they were, again like their wider family, at Hall Farm in the village. However, by 1861 they’d broken away and were living at 3 Church Lane in Worth. In later years they lived in Crawley Lane. James was buried on 5 May 1881 in Worth. Amelia was living in Frogs Hole, Worth, in 1891 with her son Edward but died in January 1897 and was buried in the village on the 23rd. James and Amelia had a large family:
  • Susannah Budgen (1840-1884) was baptised in Worth and married farm labourer Thomas Holman there in 1863. She died in 1884 but Thomas lived until 1916. They don’t appear to have had any children.
  • Catherine Budgen (1840-1867) was baptised in Worth and died a single woman there.
  • Edward Budgen (1847-1903) was baptised in Worth, stayed there his whole life and remained unmarried. He worked as a farm labourer but also lived with chronic asthma, dying in 1903.
  • George Budgen (1849-1923) was baptised in Worth and worked as a gardener. He married Emily Charman there in 1877 and raised a family. For many years he was a gardener and labourer for the London Brighton and South Coast Railway at Three Bridges train station, dying in 1923. Emily lived until 1928.
  • Alfred Budgen (1852-1927) was baptised in Worth and worked for many years as a footman at various posh houses in Ifield, Sussex, and Marylebone in London. He married Mary Ann Coleman in Chelsea in 1883 and settled in Brixton, where they raised a family and he worked as a waiter. By 1911 he was living in Bermondsey separately from his wife and children, who were with Mary Ann’s father in Forest Hill, now South London. In the following years Alfred was in and out of Bermondsey Workhouse and the Parish Street Institution, described as destitute. He was in the latter at the 1921 census while Mary Ann and her children were in Forest Hill. He died in 1927, his wife in 1939.
  • Henry Budgen (1856-1885) was baptised in Worth and worked as an agricultural labourer.
  • Albert Budgen (1861-1863).
• William Budgen (1820-1864), my 3rd great-grand uncle. William died a gruesome death on the railways and left behind a young family.
• Elizabeth Budgen (1822-1898), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Baptised on 14 July 1822 at St Nicholas’s Church in Worth, she appeared in the 1841 census living locally with her parents at Standing Hall Farm. She married James Mitchell on 9 May 1846 in Worth and then moved to the village of Balcombe in Sussex, where her husband had been baptised on 9 September 1827 to parents Thomas Mitchell, a farmer, and his wife Rachael. James worked variously as a gamekeeper and gardener and the couple were recorded in the various censuses as living in Balcombe Lane, Balcombe. They died within days of each other in July 1898, Elizabeth buried on the 16th and James on the 26th. They appear to have had the one child:
  • Henry Mitchell (1853-1911) was baptised in Balcombe and worked as a sawyer and carpenter. He married Julia Tester in Balcombe in 1875, had children and lived in the village until his death. The Sussex Agricultural Express of 29 December reported that he drowned in a pond in Balcombe Forest. The hearing heard he had told his doctor earlier in the year that he wanted to die following an injury to his nose and a bout with sunstroke. Julia died in 1919.
• Ann Budgen (1824-1903), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Ann was baptised on 26 December 1824 at St Nicholas’s Church in Worth and married Charles Malthouse at St Nicholas’s on 28 June 1845. He came from Cuckfield in Sussex, where he was baptised on 30 November 1823 to parents Charles Malthouse Snr and his wife Mary. The name was sometimes given as Mortis. Ann and Charles lived in the Worth area for the rest of their lives, Charles working variously as a stockman, shepherd and general agricultural labourer. After his death – he was buried in Worth on 23 May 1892 – Ann lived as a widow in Church Road, Worth, and died there on 19 November 1903 from heart disease and senile decay. She was buried alongside her husband on 25 November. The couple had a large family in the village:
  • Charles Malthouse (1846-1848).
  • Mary Malthouse (1849-1924) was baptised in Worth and married carpenter Robert Kateley in Croydon, Surrey, in 1879. They raised their family there and in the Surrey village of Tatsfield, where he died in 1917 after a long illness (Westerham Herald 21 April 1917). Mary went to Willesden in north London to work as housekeeper (1921 census) and died there in 1924. She was buried back in Tatsfield.
  • Sarah Malthouse (1851-1942) was baptised in Worth and married gamekeeper William Holman there in 1873. He also worked at Standing Hall and together they had children but he died in 1892 of heart failure after a hive of bees he was working on swarmed around him (Mid Sussex Times 6 September 1892). The following year Sarah married carter and gas fitter’s labourer Stephen Young, who was some years younger, in Worth but he died in 1905 in an incident at a steam joinery works in Ifield, Sussex. Sarah lived in Wallingford, Berkshire, later in life and died in 1942.
  • William Malthouse (1855-1859).
  • Eliza Malthouse (1857-1888) was baptised in Worth and married lithographic artist Joseph Asher Carr in Islington, London, in 1884. She died young. Joseph remarried and lived until 1910.
  • Charles Malthouse (1861-1864).
  • George Malthouse (1863-1878).
  • Henry Malthouse (1869-1934) was baptised in Worth and married Elizabeth Theresa Watson there in 1896. A coachman who had a family and lived in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, he later became a jobbing gardener. Elizabeth died in 1935, the year after Henry.
• George Budgen (1827-1893), my 3rd great-grand uncle. George became a publican in the coastal town of Brighton, Sussex.
• Edward Budgen (1829-1892), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Baptised on 1 March 1829 at St Nicholas’ Church in Worth, he was still living with his parents at the time of the 1851 census and working as a gardener. He married Mary Taylor on 5 November 1853 at St Nicholas’s – she came from the village and was baptised on 1 February 1829 to bricklayer Thomas Taylor and his wife Ann. Mary died just three years later and was buried in Worth on 19 October 1856. He then married spinster Sophia Macer on 4 February 1860 at St John’s in Lambeth, South London. She came from Wormley in Hertfordshire, where she’d been baptised in 1819, but they moved to live in various places in Staffordshire, including Cresswell (1861 census), Seabridge (1871) and Wolstanton (1881). Edward earned a living as a gardener. Judging by the census records, the couple didn’t have any children. Sophia died in Staffordshire in 1887 and was buried in Wolstanton on 14 May. Edward died in 1892 and was buried back in Worth on 23 February 1892. Perhaps he had moved back there after his wife’s death.
• Eliza Budgen (1831-1910), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Eliza was baptised on 6 February 1831 at St Nicholas’ Church in Worth, Sussex. She married farmer Maurice Collins (sometimes referred to as Morris) on 27 May 1855 at St James’ Church in Bermondsey, South London. Maurice had been baptised on 25 July 1830 at St Mary’s in Slaugham, Sussex – his parents were labourer Richard Collins and Susan. Eliza may have met her future husband while working as a cook in Slaugham, as registered in the 1851 census. By the 1861 census Eliza and Maurice were living at Regent Street in Lambeth and Maurice was working as a railway policeman. In subsequent census returns he was referred to as a night policeman or police constable. Eliza and Maurice then moved to live in Battersea (Winstanley Road in the 1881 census and Speke Road in 1891). Maurice died on 30 January 1893 and left effects worth about £160. In the 1901 census, Eliza was listed as a charwoman and was living with her grandchild Alice Weller at Speke Road. She died in 1910. Maurice and Eliza had several children:
  • Sarah Ann Collins (1859-1920) married whitesmith George Weller in Battersea in 1877 and for a time lived in Fulham but he died in 1885. She then married mantle maker Walter John Goodchild in Lambeth in 1889 and lived in and around the area, bringing up a family. She died in 1920, Walter in 1943.
  • Alice Jane Collins (1862-1928) was baptised in Lambeth and married groom and stableman Reuben Kettle in Battersea in 1891. They moved to Croydon and had children. He died four years after his wife, in 1932.
  • Kate Collins (1867-1933) was baptised in Lambeth and married Brighton-born stage-coach driver Frederick Albert Parkinson in Battersea in 1885. They settled in Islington in London and had a large family, while Frederick became a horse-bus driver. Kate died in 1933, Frederick in 1941.
  • Jessie Collins (1870-????) was born in Lambeth and married Harry Burton of Staffordshire in Croydon, Surrey, in 1893. By 1901 he was a butler and she a housekeeper in Marylebone but they later moved to Battersea. In the 1921 census they were recorded as innkeepers at the Sea Horse Inn, Deene, Northamptonshire, Harry having the licence of the Sea Horse rom 1912 (Northampton Mercury 12 April 1912) until 1926 (Peterborough Standard 15 October 1926). I’ve not found any death records.
  • Rose Collins (1873-1932). From Lambeth, Rose became a servant as a teenager and married George William Simpson in Battersea in 1894. He worked installing telegraph wires. The couple lived in Battersea and Twickenham (now in Greater London) and had children. Rose died in 1932, George in 1957.
• Richard Budgen (1833-1906). My 3rd great-grand uncle. Baptised on 25 August 1833 at St Nicholas’s Church in Worth, at the 1851 census Richard was living with his parents in the village and working as an agricultural labourer. On 1 August 1858 he married Mary Scott at St Bartholomew’s Church in Burstow, Surrey, but her ancestry is unclear. Census records suggest she was born in Worth in 1836; the marriage record lists her as a spinster but with her father named as cleaver Henry Holmal (possibly Holman). Either way, I’ve found no baptism records I’m confident in. The couple raise a family and lived at various addresses in Bermondsey, now South London, including Grange Terrace and Willow Street. Richard had now become a tanner, an occupation he would retain for the rest of his life. Mary died in 1902, her funeral held in Southwark on 26 July. Richard followed in 1906, his funeral held on 31 January also in Southwark. Their offspring were:
  • Mary Budgen (1858-1940) was baptised in Worth and married Scottish-born tanner John Alexander Affleck in Bermondsey in 1885. They had children but he died 10 years later. Mary remained in Bermondsey and then Lewisham, living with various family members, dying in 1940.
  • Rosa Budgen (1861-1940) was baptised in Bermondsey and worked as a domestic servant and cook for much of her life – mostly in Clapham, now South London. She was unmarried.
  • William Budgen (1869-1871).
  • Arthur Richard Budgen (1874-1954) was baptised in Worth and began working in the printing industry as a teenager. He married Esther Arnold in Walworth, now South London, in 1897 and raised a family in Bermondsey and Deptford. By the 1921 census Esther was living with a daughter, working as a cook in a central London restaurant and still said to be married. She was living with a relative at the 1939 census, although still said to be married. Arthur’s fate is unclear but he may be the man buried in Worth in 1954 – he married Winifred May Box in 1921. Are these different people?
  • Amy Budgen (1876-1948) was baptised in Bermondsey and worked for many years alongside her sister Rosa as a domestic servant. By the 1939 Register she was at the East Grinstead Public Assistance Institution in East Grinstead, Sussex, and she remained there for many years. She was unmarried.
  • James Edward Budgen (1879-1937) lived in Bermondsey from birth to death. He was a tin packer who married Ellen Arnold in 1906 and raised a family. He died in 1937. Ellen outlived him for many years, dying in 1970.

Sources: Sussex Family History Group records, along with BMD, census and other records at Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk. British Newspaper Archive, titles referred to in text. Trove Australian newspaper archive, titles in text. BMD certificates from the GRO. George Rice’s will at Ancestry.