William was born in Diseworth, Leicestershire, in 1800, the son of William Dexter and Elizabeth Hinds. He was born before his parents married, so was known as William Hinds.
William worked as a labourer and on 25th May 1823 he married Martha Mason at St Nicholas’ Church, Diseworth.
Martha was born in Chaddesden, Derbyshire, the daughter of Ann Mason, and was baptised at St Mary’s Church on 24th April. By 1823 she had moved to Diseworth where she met William.
Their first child was born in November 1823 and named Caroline Dexter. She was followed by Elizabeth in 1829, Selina Dexter in 1832, William Dexter in 1835, Martha Dexter in 1837, and James Dexter in 1839.
Between 1839 and 1841, the family started using William’s father’s surname Dexter, with Hinds becoming a middle name. By 1841 they had moved to the nearby village of Kegworth, although by 1851 they had returned to Isley Walton, where William found work as a shepherd.
On 11th August 1861, William found his wife Martha dead.
Another account of the inquest reported that ‘the deceased had been suffering from neuralgia, but had not been so deranged in her mind as to lead anyone to suppose that she intended committing suicide’ and that the jury ‘returned a verdict of temporary insanity’. Martha was buried in the churchyard at St Andrew’s Church, Kegworth, on 14th August 1861.
After the death of his wife, William moved to Twyford to live with his married daughter Caroline Hudson and her family at Ferry House. In his notes, Leslie Cox1 recorded that William was over six feet tall and had spent most of his working life as a shepherd at High Barns Farm, Isley Walton. Leslie noted that when William moved to Twyford he took with him ‘the specially made long couch on which he used to rest at night during the lambing season. From all accounts he was quite a character, stubborn and paid deference to no-one...One Sunday the vicar had forgotten his sermon notes and asked William to fetch these from the vicarage. He refused saying that he thought nothing of a parson who could not preach a sermon extempore. On another occasion he was working in the garden at Twyford when the vicar walked by expecting William to raise his hat. He did not do so and the vicar, thinking he had not seen him, called out “It’s me Dexter”. “Ar sayed ya” came the reply.’
William’s daughter Martha had moved to London and in 1862 married Charles Thomas Hillier, a gun maker. Martha worked as a laundry maid for Theobalds Park, although the building in which she worked was some distance from the Meux’s family mansion. William’s son William, a blacksmith, had also moved to London by 1861, and lived at Waltham Abbey in a single-room wooden hut surrounded by trees. William senior is said to have walked from Twyford to Waltham Cross to visit Martha and her children, and his son William. This was a distance of 116 miles which would have taken at least two days to walk.
Back in Twyford, William worked as a farm labourer. In his book, Leslie wrote that William ‘was always up first each morning, and if his grandsons did not rise at his first call, would go upstairs, and set about them with a stick. On one occasion when the river was in flood, and water came into the cottage, driving the family from the kitchen to other rooms at a higher level, William refused to leave his seat in front of the kitchen fire. He insisted on his grandsons setting up his chair on bricks above the water level, where he remained until the water had subsided.’ 2
William Hinds Dexter
William died on 12th July 1883 aged 83 and was buried in the churchyard at Twyford on 15th July.
‘In affectionate remembrance of WILLIAM DEXTER, of Isley-Walton and late of Twyford, who died July 12, 1883, aged 83 years. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.’
William Hinds and Martha Dexter were my great-great-great-great-grandparents.
1 Leslie Carl Cox 1923-2011
2 L. J. Cox, Over the Hills to Calke: 150 Years of Memories of Calke Abbey and the Harpur-Crewes (2000), pp. 70-71.