White House Farm, Long Street, Great Ellingham
Courtesy Justin Wilkins
From Great Dunham to Great Ellingham
It may well have been around 1839 that Thomas and Elizabeth Rix moved from Great Dunham to Great Ellingham. Thomas Rix purchased White House Farm, which included several acres of arable land.
Marriage
Prior to moving to the village, Thomas Rix had married Elizabeth Blockwell on the 1st January, 1830, at St Andrew’s Church, Great Dunham. However, I do not believe there were any children of the marriage.
White House Farm
The Great Ellingham Tithe documentation shows Thomas Rix as the owner and occupier of the farm in Long Street. The premises then comprised a house, barn, stable, yard, garden and hempland. Rix farmed around 22 acres.
The 1841 census captures Thomas and Elizabeth Rix living in Great Ellingham. Unfortunately, the census does not specifically say where they were living. However, I have no doubt that they were at White House Farm.
Thomas Rix ‘leaves his farm’
Nevertheless by 1844, it seems that Thomas and Elizabeth Rix moved out of White House Farm. The Norwich Mercury of the 28th September, 1844, includes a notice of an auction sale at Great Ellingham of the live and dead farming stock and effects of Mr Thomas Rix “who had left his farm”.
Death of Elizabeth Rix
The 1851 census taken on the 30th March, finds 54 year old Thomas Rix with his 94 year old widowed father Henry Rix in an area known as ‘Wylands’, Great Ellingham. This area is near to Long Street.
The household also includes 14 year old housekeeper Eliza Rix.
Even though the census shows Thomas’s status as ‘married’, his wife Elizabeth had died earlier in the month.
Elizabeth Rix aged 68 was buried in the churchyard of St James, Great Ellingham on the 10th March.
Thomas marries his Housekeeper & Niece!
Two years’ later, widower Thomas Rix marries his housekeeper Eliza Rix in St James’s Church on the 5th April, 1853. The marriage entry shows that widower and farmer Thomas is of ‘full age’ and his bride Eliza a minor. Thomas’s father is Henry Rix who is also described as a farmer. Eliza’s father is shoemaker, Benjamin Rix.
Given that both Thomas and Eliza share the same family name, I wonder if they are related. Indeed the 1851 census states Eliza to be a niece to Thomas Rix! A brief look at the Rix family tree shows that Eliza was more likely to be Thomas’s great niece. Even so, a marriage between an uncle and niece was prohibited – but was a marriage between great uncle and great niece also prohibited?
Age Gap of Over 40 years!
Nevertheless there was also a huge discrepancy in the ages of Thomas and his new bride.
Thomas Rix was baptised in Great Dunham on the 11th August, 1793. His parents were Henry Rix and his wife Mary (née Trundle). Accordingly, Thomas was around the age of 60 when he married Eliza.
Eliza was baptised in Sedgeford on the 21st July, 1836. Her parents were Heacham born Benjamin Rix and his wife Susannah. Therefore, Eliza was no more than 16 when she married Thomas Rix!
The marriage entry shows that the couple married by licence. Accordingly, there was no reading of the banns prior to the wedding. Was there some haste for the couple to marry? I think there may well have been.
Birth of Emma Eliza Rix
At the time of the marriage, Eliza was either heavily pregnant – or had not long given birth.
Thomas and Eliza’s first child, Emma Eliza Rix, was baptised in St James’s Church on the 17th July, 1853 – some three months after Eliza’s marriage to Thomas Rix.
Further Children between 1856-1860
Eliza Rix gave birth to three more daughters between 1856 and 1860. Mary Ann was baptised in the same Parish Church on the 24th February, 1856, Susannah Maria baptised on the 2nd May, 1858 and Elizabeth Victoria on the 26th April, 1860.
1861 census
The national head-count of 1861 finds the Rix family living in Long Street.
Thomas Rix is now 66 years old and described as a Landed Proprietor. His wife Eliza is 24 years old. All four daughters are still living. Emma Eliza is 8, Mary Ann 6, Susannah Maria is now 3 and Elizabeth Victoria is one year old.
Three Further Children
The couple welcomed three further children between 1862 and 1866.
Anna Eliza arrived in 1862, and was baptised on the 18th April. She was followed by Louisa Charlotte who was baptised on the 23rd March, 1864.
After giving birth to six daughters, in 1866 Eliza finally gave Thomas a son, whom they named Benjamin Robert. By this time, Thomas Rix was into his seventies.
Sadly just a month after his baptism, Thomas and Eliza buried one year old Benjamin Robert in the churchyard of St James on the 3rd April, 1867.
Death of Thomas Rix
Given the huge age gap between Thomas and Eliza Rix, it is no surprise to find that at the age of 33, Eliza Rix is widowed. 76 year old Thomas Rix was laid to rest in the local churchyard on the 28th February, 1870.
Thomas Rix’s Last Will & Testament
Just 11 days prior to his death, Thomas Rix signed his last will and testament on the 17th February, 1870. His mark ‘X’ to the will was witnessed by Robert Utting and Hannah Bridgman, both of Great Ellingham. The will is interesting.
Wish to be Buried with his First Wife
It was Thomas Rix’s wish that he be ‘decently’ interred “in the grave of my first Wife Elizabeth Rix in the churchyard of Great Ellingham.’ Elizabeth Rix had died some 19 years earlier. Was his wish fulfilled?
It seems it was. A transcription of the Memorial Inscriptions in Great Ellingham churchyard carried out in 2010, reveals that Thomas and Elizabeth Rix do indeed share the same grave.
Thomas’s Assets
There is no reference to any property in the will. Accordingly, I am confident that any property or land which Thomas Rix had once owned, had been sold prior to his death.
Nevertheless, Thomas had £500 deposited in ‘the Norwich & Norfolk Bank known as Gurneys Birkbecks Barclays and Buxtons’ as well as the sum of £30 in the ‘Attleborough Bank’.
He directed his executors and trustees (Great Ellingham Baptist Minister John Charles Wells and local builder William Lebbell), to pay the £30 to his ‘present wife’ (Eliza) within 14 days of his decease.
In addition, Eliza is to receive £1 per week ‘as long as the remainder of the aforesaid monies shall last this sum of one pound per week shall be paid for the maintenance of my children’. However in the event of Eliza’s death, the remaining monies to be equally divided between Thomas’s surviving children.
Furniture & Effects
Thomas gave all his household furniture and effects to Eliza. However this was limited to her lifetime. Following her death, such items and effects would pass to Thomas’s eldest surviving daughter.
Bequests to Executors
Thomas left each of his executors, John Wells and William Lebbell, the sum of £5 ‘for their trouble’ in proving his will and administering his estate.
Eliza Rix Remarries
Three years after the death of her husband, Thomas Rix, his young widow Eliza (then aged 33) married 30 year old labourer William Kerrison. The marriage took place in St James’s Church, Great Ellingham on the 12th January, 1873
William Kerrison had been Eliza Rix’s lodger since at least 1871. You can read about Eliza’s life following her marriage to William Kerrison here.
Sources:
Great Dunham Parish Registers. Norfolk Record Office PD 684/8. Viewed via www.ancestry.co.uk
Great Ellingham Parish Registers. Norfolk Record Office PD 609. Also available via www.familysearch.org and www.ancestry.co.uk
Sedgeford Parish Registers, Ads & BTs. Norfolk Record Office. PD 601. Viewed via www.ancestry.co.uk
Great Ellingham Tithe Map 1843. Tithe Apportionments, 1836-1929 [database online]. TheGenealogist.co.uk 2023. Original data: “IR29 Tithe Commission and successors: Tithe Apportionments” The National Archives
1841 census HO107/781/8
28 September 1844. Norwich Mercury. Viewed via The British Newspaper Archive
1851 census HO107/1823/126
1861 census RG9/1237/95
1871 census RG10/1841/92
17 February 1870. Will of Thomas Rix. Copy obtained via https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/