John Hudson was born in 1794 in Breedon on the Hill, the son of John and Mary Hudson. He was baptised on 25th December 1794 at the Church of St Mary and St Hardulph. John lived at Breedon on the Hill for no more than three years, and by 1798 he had moved with his parents to Shepshed.
On 15th April 1816, John married Martha Mountney at St Botolph’s Church, Shepshed.
Martha was born in Belton, Leicestershire, the daughter of William Mountney, and was baptised on 18th June 1797 at St John the Baptist’s Church.
After their marriage, John and Martha lived at Ticklow Lane Gate, Shepshed, with John working as a labourer and also farming a small piece of land. Their home appears to have been where Ticklow Lane meets Ashby Road, a toll gate perhaps having been there.
Their first child Mary was baptised in Shepshed on 25th December 1817, followed by John who was baptised on 30th January 1820. After John came Sarah, baptised on 30th December 1821, and William, baptised on 4th July 1824, both at Shepshed.
By 1826, John was working as a gamekeeper, most likely for the nearby Garendon Estate. Gamekeepers were usually former agricultural labourers who already had good knowledge of the local countryside.
Two more children followed; Martha baptised on 20th June 1830 and Hannah baptised on 1st July 1832, both taking place at Shepshed. By this time the family were living at Charnwoood Forest on the south side of Shepshed.
Between 1832 and 1836, the family moved to Loughborough, with John continuing to work as a gamekeeper. Their eighth child Emma was born in 1834 and baptised at All Saints’ Church, Loughborough, on 7th December 1836.
Notes made by John and Martha’s great-great-great-grandson Leslie Cox1 record that in 1840 ‘the family moved to Ticknall, where John was employed as a gamekeeper by Sir George Harpur-Crewe, Baronet of Calke Abbey on the Derbyshire/Leicestershire border...During their time at Ticknall, John and Martha Hudson lived at the Keepers Lodge in Calke Park.
‘In 1840 tragedy occurred in the Hudson family. In January of that year their son William, together with his friend John the son of William Atkin the Ticknall clockmaker, both aged 15, were returning from work across Calke Park but never arrived home. It was first thought that the boys had, for some unexplained reason, run away from home, but a search was started and after nine2 days Sir George Crewe ordered his men to break the ice on one of the ponds in the parkland to drag the pond, when the bodies were found.’
On their way home, the boys are believed to have gone sliding on Little Dog Kennel Pond, into which water from other ponds on the estate drained before being discharged over a weir into Big Dog Kennel Pond, the later now part of Staunton Harold Reservoir. The ice on this pond was thin, gave way, and the boys drowned. They were buried side by side in a corner of of the churchyard at Ticknall; their headstone can be seen here. The parish register records their burial in more elaborate handwriting than other entries, and contains the side note ‘Drowned together at Calke’.
John and Martha’s granddaughter Hannah Hudson wrote a solemn poem in 1879 recalling the anguish William’s parents would have suffered during this event. The poem can be found here.
A View of Calke Park with a View of Lower Dog Kennel Pond, Figures, Cattle and SheepJohn Glover (1767-1849)
John and Martha’s next children, Thomas, born in 1838, and Samuel, born in 1840, were both baptised at Ticknall on 22nd November 1822. In his thirties, Samuel was injured in a farming accident, making him lame, although later he worked as a gamekeeper and then a farmer at Twyford.
At the time of the 1841 census, John and Hannah, together with five of their children, were living at Calke Middle Lodge. This was one of the gatehouses to the estate and today the adjoining archway serves as the main entrance the park. John was still working as a gamekeeper, although his occupation was recorded as a labourer when his son John married at Shepshed in 1842.
Their eleventh and final child was named William, after their earlier son who had drowned. He was baptised on 24th August 1844 at Ticknall.
In 1844 Sir George Harpur-Crewe, for whom John worked as a gamekeeper, died. Between 1846 and 1846 John and Martha moved back to Shepshed, while their son John Hudson moved to Smisby to take the job as a gamekeeper under Sir John Harpur-Crewe. John and Martha lived on Ashby Road in Finney Hill on the south side of Shepshed.
The Hudson’s home at Finney Hill, Shepshed
In April 1851, the family were still living at Finney Hill, where John Hudson was working as an agricultural labourer. They were living at a property where Tickhill Lane meets Ashby Road, the former home of John’s parents, which had two acres of land. Martha was visiting her son John and his family at Twyford at the time of the census.
On 23rd October 1851 John appeared at the Loughborough Petty Sessions.
John and Martha continued to live at Ashby Road, Finney Hill. They saw their daughter Hannah marry in 1857, and their son Thomas marry in 1862. John continued to work as an agricultural labourer into his late seventies.
John died on 5th May 1877. He was 84 years old.
John had written his will on 19th January 1877 in which he bequeathed to his sons John and Samuel his real and personal estate ‘upon trust to permit my dear wife Martha to use and enjoy’. He directed that after Martha’s death, John and Samuel were to receive his ‘messuage, dwellinghouse or tenement together with the two acres of land adjoining situate in the parish of Sheepshed’, which he was then occupying, as tenants in common. However, one month later John changed his mind and signed a codicil bequeathing this property and land solely to Samuel. The other bequests in his will remained; the household goods, furniture, and effects in his house were to be shared between John and Samuel, and the remainder of his effects were to be sold ‘by Public Auction or Private Contract’ to first settle his funeral costs, and then divide the residue equally between ‘my eight other children’.
Martha continued to live at Shepshed. In April 1881 she was living with her nephew John Blackwell and his wife Elizabeth. She appears to have an income, perhaps from the sale of property mentioned in her husband’s will, since under occupation is recorded ‘annuitant’. A few months later, Martha died in June aged 84. Both John and Martha were buried in the churchyard of St James the Greater Church in the neighbouring village of Oaks in Charnwood.
John and Martha Hudson were my great-great-great-great-grandparents.
1 Leslie Carl Cox 1923-2011
2 The boys are said to have drowned on 12th January and were buried on 17th January, so the ice would have been broken within a few days, rather than after nine days.