18th Century Chesham Bois
October 25, 2024
The Rise of the Gentleman Farmer
The Posse Comitatus, taken in 1798, was a survey of all men between the ages of 15 and 60 who could form an army if needed, due to the fear that Napoleon may imminently invade. This proto-census, also excluded clergymen, Quakers or those already serving in the military.
It recorded 34 horses, 11 wagons and 14 carts in Chesham Bois, held by 6 men, although it is noticeable that three of those men do NOT appear in the person lists, which means they must be excluded for some reason. The person list shows Chesham Bois comprising one gentleman (Charles Kensie), five farmers, nine papermakers, a cordwainer (shoemaker), eight servants and nine labourers – a total of 33 men of active age[1]. The census of 1801, which recorded no names, showed 135 people living in the village, in 29 families across 23 dwellings.
The land upon which High Bois House was built was originally part of a paddock surrounding the older houses of The Warren and Bois House.
The Duke of Bedford divested himself of his manorial lands in Chesham Bois in the late eighteenth century, to (amongst other people) Rev. John Fuller, the non-Conformist minister, who was living at Germains in Chesham and also owned Hyde House in Hyde Heath. The duke retained the Lordship of the Manor and so retained the right to appoint the Rector of Chesham Bois. Other farms in the parish were sold to the Morten family and the Garrett family, among others.
On John Fuller’s death in 1825, the land he had purchased was inherited by his youngest son, Benjamin Fuller, who had married his cousin Charlotte Stratton. The Fullers were enormously wealthy in their own right, as well as through their marriages and business dealings with the Stratton family who were Russia merchants[2]. The 1838 Tithe Map for Chesham Bois shows that, amongst other holdings, Benjamin Fuller owned Bois House, The Warren and the field surrounding them, although all the properties were rented out to other users.[3]
Chesham Bois was hardly a settlement at all at this point – Bois House, the Warren and the church stood isolated by parkland from what is now The Old Rectory and the original Manor Farm. The Old Rectory was built in 1833 and faced a few cottages slightly to its right, next to where the early 18th century drive to the manor house had joined the road.
There would have been little traffic past the area down to the watercress beds at Chesham Moor, as the New Road (now Amersham Road) through Great Bois Wood down to Amy Mill (on the corner of what is now Amy Lane, where the road crosses the river Chess) had been cut through the woods in 1827, to give a direct route to Amy Mill.
It was during this period that a nascent “gentleman farmer” class grew up around Chesham Bois, Chesham and Amersham which created its own social circle. All the families intermarried and owned most of the private land in the area forming a hugely complex matrix, with extended family groups acting as a network for land exchange and control.
Chesham Bois was made up of four major farms – Mayhall, Bois, Manor[4] and Ivy House – and two mills – Amy Mill and Bois Mill (not to be confused with Bois Steam Mill, next to Amy Mill) which provide the background of Chesham Bois in the early 19th century when things began to shift away from large farms and towards the growth of new towns.
[1] Beckett, Ian F. W., “The Buckinghamshire Posse Comitatus 1798”, Buckinghamshire Record Society No. 22 (1985), p. 148 and 170.
[2] This was the technical name for groups trading in Russia at the time. The firm Stratton and Rodbard, linen drapers and merchants, appear in trade directories from at least 1754, importing and selling linen and other goods from St Petersburg. The firm went through a number of different names and partnerships until 1810 when they became Stratton, Gibson & Fuller. They ceased trading in about 1825.
[3] Byng, Arthur H. and Stephens, Stephen M, “The autobiography of an English gamekeeper (John Wilkins of Stanstead, Essex)” (London, 1892) contains interesting recollections of the writer’s father acting as gamekeeper to John Fuller and his son Benjamin, from 1825 onwards, in the woods around Chesham Bois. Available at https://ia802803.us.archive.org/18/items/autobiographyofe00wilkrich/autobiographyofe00wilkrich.pdf
[4] Manor Farm, which originally supplied the manor house, was eventually split into two – the farm opposite the Rectory and a smaller property called Dairyhouse Farm centred around The Warren and Bois House.