life
ISLAND HISTORY
Isaac pictured outside his make-shift home
A Cameo Portrait
of Isaac Sheath.
By Jan Toms
It is amazing how much one can deduce
from a few facts. Starting from 1841,
on one day in every ten years a national
census takes place recording the name,
address and occupation of every person
in the country. From this information we
can discover where our ancestors lived,
who shared their homes and what they did
for a living. Frustratingly, after 1901 that
information is confidential and until 1911
when the next census becomes available we
must be patient.
It is not only family members who
are interesting however. From the brief
recorded facts about any person we get a
peephole into the past.
Take eight year-old Isaac Sheath who in
1841 was living at Stroud Green Farm at
Chale along with his father William (50),
30
his mother Jane (40) and assorted siblings.
The eldest was Anne then aged 26 and the
youngest Fanny just four months. William
as head of the household was described
as an agricultural labourer. Stroud Green
was the former name for Chale Green and
the farm stands at the junction with Town
Lane.
By 1851 Isaac was living in Oxford
Cottage Chale, along with his parents
and sister Fanny who was then ten. The
other siblings had left home, Mark (19)
to work as a shepherd at Heasley Farm
and Emily (16) as a servant at Redway in
Arreton Parish. The eldest girls Anne and
Ellen may have married and changed their
names.
Some time before 1861 Isaac left home
to follow in his father’s footsteps as an
agricultural labourer and carter working
at Atherfield Farm. His master Theophilus
Rogers owned 250 acres and employed
seven men and two boys. Also living in the
house was Theophilus’s sister Amelia (57)
a spinster, Henry Young (30) like Isaac a
farm labourer, Sarah White (18) a servant
and twelve year-old George White who
was probably her brother and employed as
a shoe boy.
We don’t know how long that
employment lasted but by 1871 Isaac, now
38, was back at home with his parents
living at Town Lane Cottage at Chale.
Also living with them was Isaac’s eleven
year-old niece Mary *(see footnote). By
now William Sheath was 80 years old and
still listed as a labourer, his wife Jane
being 75.
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