Henry Crickmore was the middle child of Henry and Sarah Crickmore’s family. He was born in Ellingham, Norfolk and lived most of his life close by in Kirby Cane. By the time of the 1841 Census, the family were based in Kirby Cane, with three brothers working away on different farms. Henry and his elder brother William had left the family home and were keeping house together not far away. They lived next door to The Swan pub: many years later, in 1888, Henry’s son Jarvis would become the landlord.
Henry was a brick-maker at this point but by the time of his marriage two years later he was a “labourer” – no doubt working on a farm like most of his family. The record of his marriage is interesting in that the only person who was able to sign their name was Elisabeth Crickmore, his sister-in-law. Her family, the Spillings, were substantial farmers in the area. Perhaps Henry was working for them.
For the next twenty years Henry and Eliza would live in the same place, near the Swan pub – which was probably the same house he had originally shared with his brother. He and his son Charles were both farm workers in the 1861 census.
My the time of the 1871 census, the family had moved to the Wardley Hill Road, to a farm where Henry was bailiff and his son (our ancestor) Harry was a labourer. Henry would remain at this farm until at least 1901, still working as an agricultural labourer at the age of 82. By this time his wife had died and his unmarried daughter Sarah was living with him, taking care of him and their lodger Robert Simmons, the farm shepherd.
Henry died in 1908 – no doubt there was a fabulous wake at his son Jarvis’s pub!
Father of Harry, son of Henry and Sarah Crickmore
Baptised Henry Crickmore on 28 March 1819 in Ellingham, Norfolk
Married Eliza Savage on 2 November 1843
Buried 29 October 1908 at Kirby Cane