Charity, the poor rate, the doctor and the clinic
Before the welfare state, a village looked after its poor, its sick and its children through a patchwork of gifts, rates, clubs and kindness. Somerton never had a workhouse or a resident doctor that we know of. This page gathers what we have found so far about who looked after the village, and how.
Much of this comes from the Victoria County History and from wills, with the later part from villagers' memories. It is a beginning, not a full history, and there are questions at the end.
Wills often remembered the poor. When Harrye Wysedome, a husbandman, made his will in 1611, he left three shillings to the poor of Somerton to be given out on the day of his burial, and another five shillings besides. William East senior, whose will was proved in 1738, left twenty shillings to the poor at his funeral. William Juxon, who had been rector here and became Archbishop of Canterbury, left £50 to the poor of Somerton by his will, proved in 1663, but the Victoria County History found no later record of it being used.
In 1684 William Lovell, the village blacksmith, left one shilling to each family among "the poore Inhabitants of Somerton" whom his executors judged most in need. He also left something to Richard Coleburne's wife, to be paid to her in instalments as his executors thought "most needfull for her only Releife". The will does not say how much she was to have, and as with all these gifts we do not know whether the money was actually paid.
Sources: The Church Bells; Somerton's Farmers; Oxfordshire Family History Society, transcribed will of William Lovell, 1684 (TNA PROB 11/379; transcript only); Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, vol. 6 (1959), Somerton, Charities.
The longest-lasting gift was a rector's. By his will of 1766 the Revd John Watson left £20 to buy bread for poor members of the Church of England. By 1787 it brought in 16 shillings a year, but the charity was then neglected and lost. In 1806 his nephew, the Revd John Martin Watson of Aynho, gave the parish £62, the original money with its interest, to set it going again. In 1824 £2 19s 6d was given to the poor in bread at Christmas, and the Christmas bread was still being given out in 1954, when the charity's income was £1 12s 8d.
Another gift, of £43 from an unknown donor, was bringing in £2 6s a year in 1787, but it had been lost by 1824.
Source: Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, vol. 6 (1959), Somerton, Charities. See also The Good, the Bad & the Absent.
Most help for the poor came from the poor rate, raised from the parish and paid out by the overseers. In Somerton it rose steeply during the wars with France: the average raised between 1773 and 1775 was about £120 a year, and in 1803 it was £272. The Overseers' Book for 1819 to 1823 has a note that all women who were able to work were to go to the overseer, who would tell them where to go on their rounds and pay them sixpence a day.
Source: Victoria County History of Oxfordshire, vol. 6 (1959), Somerton, Economic and social history. The Overseers' Book itself has not yet been seen.
Thomas Fermor's will of 1580 founded Somerton's free school. From 1815 Lady Jersey paid for a school for girls and another for young children, and from 1814 poor boys from Somerton could also go to the new National School at Deddington.
See The School.
Many villages had a friendly or benefit society, a club into which working people paid a little each week to help them through sickness and pay for a funeral. The Somerton Benefit Society is listed in Kelly's Directory in 1895 and again in 1911. We do not yet know when it began, where it met, how many members it had or when it ended.
See Economic Life.
Former pupils of the village school, remembering the 1930s and 40s, said that the doctor held a surgery once a week in the Old Post House in Church Street: "you queued and went up the steps". They remembered Dr McCloud, Dr McCabe and a Dr Lee Wolf, and said the surgery later moved up to the New Rectory. A school nurse, "Nitty Nora", came regularly, and Miss Edwards gave each child a spoonful of cod liver oil and malt.
A children's clinic was held at the village hall, where Mrs Waddup, who kept the shop, would stand outside in her big white apron and beckon the children in for their cod liver oil.
Source: School Days, notes of a meeting of former pupils in 2009.
In the twentieth century the village's own gifts took other forms. Mrs Barnes gave the village hall in 1924 in memory of her husband, the rector. The Emberlin sisters left a bequest to the church in 2008. The Social Club, the Teatime Club and SWIG have raised money for the playground, the hall and charities.
See The Village Hall, the Social Club and Talks, Groups and the Youth Club.
Did you grow up in Somerton, or does this article bring back a memory? Do you spot something that needs correcting or adding? Rosemary Arnold and Della Paviour would love to hear from you.