Henry Pearce (1813-1882): Biography Replace with image alt text

Henry Pearce (1813-1882): Biography

Note: This biography, written during October and November 2008, by W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah, based on what is currently known regarding Henry Pearce, seeks to tell the story of his life and times. A bibliography of sources appears at the end.

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Born to a life of hard work and poverty as an agricultural laborer in rural England at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Henry Pearce had little prospect of ever benefiting from education, travel, leisure, or wealth. Moreover, as far as we know, he never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached in its fullness, either. He could only hope that these blessings, and more, would eventually find their way into the lives of his subsequent posterity. His vital role, while pursuing the back-breaking labor and social ostracism then common to his class in Great Britain was to serve as the link for his descendants in time and eternity.

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Henry was baptized 10 March 1813, in Broadwinsor, Dorset, England 1, the third of eight children, six boys and two girls, born to Thomas Pearce and Jane Staple. 2 Two decades later, the 1841 English Census, the first official census for the country, showed members of his parent’s family living at Cockpit, Broadwinsor, all working as agricultural laborers. On this tally, Henry is listed as being 25 years of age. 3

Essentially, English agricultural land occupation in the nineteenth century proceeded in a three-fold fashion, as follows: First, most of the land was under control of the landed nobility, or gentry, who inherited the property by right of birth. Second in line were the free-holder farmers, yeomen, who had either purchased their property from the gentry, or had tenancy on farm land, usually lifelong, for which they paid a yearly rent. Lastly, at the bottom of the social hierarchy were agricultural laborers, or farm workers. They owned no land; moreover, they were socially ostracized. This disagreeable situation for the farm workers had existed since earliest times and at the beginning of the nineteenth century seemed unlikely to change. Indeed, as one modern commentator observed:

The society which imposed such wretchedness on the laboring majority was dedicated to the ideal of an unchanging social structure which locked each man securely in his place. In this context, nothing frightened the wealthy favored classes more than a trades union. Though perfectly legal since 1824, the idea of workers combining for concerted action stirred fears which, in some quarters, reached pathological proportions…

There was little health or happiness to be found in the wretched unsanitary hovels most employers grudgingly provided, nor in the constant presence of children hollow-eyed and gaunt from lack of food. There could be nothing industrious about men who knew that however hard and long they worked, they could never earn enough to give their families any hope of anything better. 4

But interestingly, although he was probably not fully aware of it, nor was he a beneficiary at the time, Henry’s life encompassed the period during which, eventually, these unsavory conditions came to change for the better. Here is what happened.

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Beginning in the latter half of the 18th Century and continuing on into the nineteenth, enabled by astounding new inventions and innovations, the great Industrial Revolution swept through Great Britain. A grand metamorphosis from an agrarian to a mechanized society was underway. But living conditions for poor farm workers were desperate.

Unlike other countries, where most people who earned a living from the soil were peasants, occupying a small plot of land from which they could feed their family, in Eastern and Southern England most farms were worked by a few landowners, or by the larger number of their tenants. The bulk of the rural population was waged laborers. But even by 1750, many laborers in Dorset could not find regular work, and most large villages had their Poor Houses…

In the past there had been two kinds of farm workers: farm servants who were (usually unmarried) men and women living in the farmhouse, employed on ongoing work as horsemen, carters, dairymaids, shepherds, etc. and normally paid by the year; and laborers coming in to work, paid by the week or day, or sometimes by piecework—on hedging, specialist jobs like sheep-shearing, or haymaking and harvest. 5

It is estimated that weekly expenditures for food, housing and bare necessities for the average families of farm laborers at the time totaled 13 s 9d. Yet most workers received but 9 or 10 shillings wage per week.

[Moreover,] between 1770 and 1830, enclosures changed the English rural landscape forever. Landowners annexed vast acreages, producing even greater wealth from the now familiar pattern of small hedged fields. Peasants no longer had plots to grow vegetables nor open commons for grazing their single cow or sheep and pigs. Diet was basic—tea, bread and potatoes. As a result, the people were badly nourished and small…

Thus wages of 9 or 10 shillings reduced families to starvation level unless they could be supplemented by working wives and children…

Additionally, largely because of an increase in the labor pool with the demobilization of 250,000 soldiers into the labor market at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars a few years earlier, periodic poor crops, advances in threshing-mechanization, plus governmental cutbacks in support of the poor, many farm workers around England during the late 1820’s and early 1830’s were caused to suffer even more. As the bulk of the rural population at the time was waged laborers, many were without work and could not support themselves.

The result was rioting in the south eastern counties of England, especially Dorset, eventually known as the Captain Swing Riots—a fictitious person said to have written inflammatory letters inciting the outbreak—where marauding mobs demanded increased wages and payments of landowners and farmers. Crops and buildings were burned and machines destroyed.

The government came down hard on apprehended perpetrators. Many were jailed or sent to penal colonies. Some were executed. In reality, those holding governmental power, desirous of maintaining their advantaged status quo, feared a French-type revolution. 6

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Against this backdrop of hardship and despair, in 1834, in a small Dorset county village, Tolpuddle, some 22 miles east of Broadwinsor (Henry’s birthplace) six stalwart men, all farm workers, moved to effect a drastic social change. Furthermore, they were well within their legal rights.

In 1824 the Combination Acts, which made 'combining' or organizing in order to gain better working conditions illegal, had been repealed, so that trade unions were no longer illegal. 7

Change was sweeping through the towns and cities and, with the passage of the Reform Act of 1832, the first trade unions were deemed legal. Factory workers had already banded together to gain increased wages and improved conditions.

So, in November 1833, the six men, under the leadership of George Loveless, a man who had taught himself to read and write and later became a Methodist lay preacher, formed the Tolpuddle Lodge of the Agricultural Laborers Friendly Society. They took a solemn oath of brotherhood with the intention of fighting for better wages.

Their aim was to secure affiliation with the national Consolidated Trades Union which, founded a year earlier, already had 500,000 members. News of the Dorset laborers’ stand threw local landowners into a frenzy... 8

The landowners, of course, were worried about loss of their longstanding land control.

Thus, in 1834, the six patriots, having acted within their legal rights, became victims of a monstrous conspiracy between the British Home Secretary, Lord Melbourne, a corrupt judge and James Frampton, a local landowner.

[The six Martyrs of Tolpuddle, as they eventually were known]… could no longer be prosecuted for forming a trade union, but Frampton and Lord Melbourne found another way. Back in 1797, sailors of the Royal navy had staged mutinies in protests against wretched conditions and brutal officers. An Act of Parliament had been rushed through, banning secret oaths on pain of seven years of transportation to the colonies and it was decided that this little-known law would be ideal to trap Loveless and his comrades. 9

The trial at nearby Dorchester was a travesty. The defendants were found guilty and sentenced to the penal colonies in Australia for seven years, including some time being chained in prison hulks [ships], before eventually being assigned as farm servants.

However, as the results of the unjust trial became known, the hue and cry from the public was so great that the government eventually reversed itself and pardoned the six Martyrs. They returned to England as triumphant heroes. One spent the rest of his life in England, but the other five immigrated to Canada with their families. Nonetheless, their brave actions in large part began the process which eventually led to farm land reform in England. Still, it wasn’t until several decades later, in the 1870’s, that the National Agricultural Laborer’s Union (NALU) was finally formed.

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Certainly Henry would have been well aware of what was transpiring in regard to social equalization. However, changes were slow in coming. Consequently, although perhaps now a bit more hopeful of eventual positive changes in the offing, he went on with his life.

On 22 October 1844, he married Rachel Caddy, spinster, father John Caddy, labourer by bands, in the Parish Church of Broadwinsor, in the County of Dorset. 10 Rachel, twelve years his junior, was baptized in Broadwinsor, 13 March 1825. 11 Then between them, over the next two decades, the couple had six children, as follows:

Their first child was Susan Jane Pearce (1845-1928), born 10 March 1845, at Broadwinsor, Dorset, England. 12 (She married Patrick Herlihy, 26 June 1871, in Weymouth, Dorset, England 13, followed later, after Patrick’s death, by Frank Harris Drouard, 16 August 1890, in Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales. 14 She died 10 September 1928, in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. 15)

The second child was Henry Pearce, born 12 September 1849, at Broadwinsor, Dorset, England. 16 (He married Maria Clement, 11 July 1885, in Kendal, Westmorland, England. 17 An exact death date and death place have not been found, as yet. 18, 19)

Matilda Pearce (1851-1942) was third. She was born 5 November 1851, at Broadwinsor, Dorset, England. 20 (She married Edwin Thomas Hatcher, 3 September 1874, in Milton Abbas, Dorset, England 21, and died 25 August 1942, at Winterborne-Monkton/Dorchester, Dorset, England. 22)

Ann Pearce was fourth-born. She was born 26 February 1854, at Broadwinsor, Dorset, England. 23 (It is thought that her husband’s name was Frederick Churchill, but an exact marriage date and place, as well as the death date and place have not been found. 24)

The fifth child and second son was John Aveis Pearce (1856-1940). He was born 6 October 1856, at Broadwinsor, Dorset, England. 25 (He married Sarah Abba, at Burnside, Westmorland, England, 8 September 1883 26, and died 28 May 1940, at Kendal, Westmorland, England. 27)

The third son and last child born to Henry Pearce and Rachel Caddy was Charles Pearce. He was born 11 April 1859, at Broadwinsor, Dorset, England. 28 (He immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in July 1883 29, but, to date, no records of his marriage or death have been located. 30)

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Regarding Henry’s and Rachel’s places of residence during their married life, they remained in Dorset County the entire time. Following their marriage in 1844, like their parents before them, they continued to live in Broadwinsor through 1859, at which place all of their children were born.

(Interestingly, although the two census records for this time frame [1841 and 1851] list their address as being Cockpit, Broadwinsor 31, 32, birth records for their last five children indicate Speckel or Spickel Lane, Broadwinsor. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 However, it would appear that they must have occupied the same dwelling during this entire decade and a half period, the dwelling being identified differently in the various records, since the 1861 census again lists them as living at Cockpit, Broadwinsor. 38)

At any rate, in this 1861 census record, neither Henry nor their oldest daughter Susan Jane (who would have been 16 years old at the time) were listed as living with the family in Broadwinsor. It is presumed that they were away, employed elsewhere during the enumeration, for times were hard39

Thereafter, his wife, Rachel died 25 October 1869, at Poxwell, Dorset County, some 20 miles SE of Broadwinsor 40 Then, two years later, in the 1871 census, Henry, John, Charles and Matilda are shown living together at Poxwell. 41 Moreover, in this census, Henry and both of his sons are now shown as farm servants, evidently a step up from agricultural laborers, which status they had always occupied previously. Thus, it is assumed that sometime after 1861, and before Rachel’s death in 1869, Henry secured this more favorable work status, and moved his family SE from Broadwinsor to Poxwell.

Other insights about the family for this decade can be gleaned from the previously referenced records, as well. Susan Jane evidently left the family for good sometime after 1861, as she was employed elsewhere as a domestic servant, and then married in 1871. 42 Son Henry apparently joined the military and departed for India just prior to 1871, at which time Matilda was keeping house for her father and two brothers in Poxwell, before she eventually married in 1874. Meanwhile, Ann was more than likely employed outside the family home; following which she must have married sometime around 1876. 43

The next record from which we are able to document Henry’s exact whereabouts is the 1881 English Census for Dorchester, Dorset, England. All of his children had now departed to start their own families and make their way in the world, and he, at age 69, now a pauper, widow[er], and farm labourer, had become an inmate of the Fordington Union Workhouse (Poor House) in Dorchester. 44

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Delving into the history of workhouses or poor houses, one of which, as just noted, Henry became an inmate, is a revealing exercise. Furthermore, interestingly, to a significant degree the current-day National Health Service in Great Britain, founded in 1948, traces its origins through this same history.

Beginning with the Black Death plague in the 14th Century and its aftermath of unemployment, multiple beggars, transients, and paupers, eventually, in 1601, at the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, an Act for the Relief of the Poor in England, the Old Poor Law, made parishes responsible for looking after the poor.

This was ordered funded by the collection of a poor-rate tax from local property owners (a tax that survives in the present day “council tax”).

[Initially,] parish poor relief was dispensed mostly through “out-relief”—grants of money, clothing food, or fuel, to those living in their own homes. However, the workhouse gradually began to evolve in the seventeenth century as an alternative form of “indoor relief”, both to save the parish money, and also as a deterrent to the able-bodied who were required to work, usually without pay, in return for their board and lodging….

By 1732…it is estimated…that about 700 workhouses were in operation. Parliamentary reports in 1776-7 list a total of almost 2,000 parish workhouses in operation in England and Wales—approximately one parish in seven….

However, by the late 1820’s, there was growing dissatisfaction with the whole system, particularly from the well represented land-owning classes who bore the brunt of the growing poor-rate burden. There was also growing unrest amongst the poor, particularly in rural areas, which even led to rioting and attacking of poorhouses [e.g., Captain Swing Riots, in Dorset County]…In 1832, the British Government decided to appoint a Royal Commission to review the whole poor relief system….

The result was the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the New Poor Law. To begin with, it mandated that the 15,000 or so parishes in England and Wales be divided into new administrative units or Unions, each run by a locally elected Board of Guardians.

[Furthermore, to partially summarize other changes from the report now being quoted,]... the Old Poor Law can be broadly characterized as being parish-centered, haphazardly implemented, locally enforced, and then some of its most significant developments (e.g. the operation of workhouses) being completely voluntary. The New Poor Law, based on the new administrative unit of the Poor Law Union, aimed to introduce a rigorously implemented, centrally enforced, standard system that was to be imposed on all and which centered on the workhouse.

At a more profound level, the New Poor Law saw a fundamental change in the way that the poor were viewed by many of their 'betters'. The traditional attitude had been one of poverty being inevitable (exemplified by the oft-quoted biblical text 'For the poor always ye have with you'), the poor essentially victims of their situation, and their relief a Christian duty. The 1834 Act was guided by a growing view that the poor were largely responsible for their own situation and which they could change if they chose to do so….

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The Dorchester Poor Law Union was formed on 2nd of January 1836. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 43 in number, representing 39 constituent parishes… [including Fordington, where Henry became an inmate for an unknown period of time, beginning before 1881.]

People ended-up in the workhouse for a variety of reasons. Usually, it was because they were too poor, old or ill to support themselves. This may have resulted form such things as lack of work during periods of high unemployment, or someone having no family willing or able to provide care for them when they became elderly or sick.... [Of course, we have no way of knowing for sure why Henry found his way into the workhouse. It might have been for several reasons.]

Unmarried pregnant women were often disowned by their families and the workhouse was the only place they could go during and after the birth of their child….

Prior to the establishment of public mental asylums in the mid-nineteenth century (and in some cases even after that), the mentally ill and mentally handicapped poor were often consigned to the workhouse. Workhouses, though, were never prisons, and entry into them was generally a voluntary although often painful decision. It also carried with it a change in legal status—until 1918, receipt of poor relief meant a loss of the right to vote.

Regarding the admission procedure and one’s eventual stay in a workhouse:

Whatever the regime inside the workhouse, entering it would have been a distressing experience. New inmates would often have already been through a period of severe hardship. It was for good reason that the entrance to the Birmingham union workhouse was through an arch locally known as the 'Archway of Tears'.

Admission into the workhouse first required an interview to establish the applicant’s circumstances…. Formal admission into the workhouse proper was authorized by the Board of Guardians at their weekly meetings, where an applicant could be summoned to justify their application. This would no doubt have been an intimidating experience….

After all the necessary paperwork had been completed, paupers were stripped, bathed, and issued with a workhouse uniform. Children (although not adults) could be required to have their hair cut. An inmate’s own clothes would be washed and disinfected and then put into store along with any other possessions they had and returned to them when they left the workhouse….

While residing in a workhouse, paupers were not allowed out without permission. Short-term absences could be granted for various reasons…. Able-bodied inmates could also be allowed out to seek work….

Despite the lengthy admission and discharge procedures, some paupers treated the workhouse as a free lodging, leaving and departing as the fancy took them…. Many inmates were, however, to become long-term residents of the workhouse. A parliamentary report of 1861 found that, nation-wide, over 20 percent of inmates had been in the workhouse for more than five years…. These were mostly…elderly, chronically sick, and mentally ill paupers. Fifteen inmates in the survey had been workhouse residents for sixty years or more….. 45

Once again, we do not know exactly when or why Henry became an inmate at the Fordington Union Workhouse (“Poor House”) in Dorchester, or how long he remained there. However, his death certificate indicates that he died outside of the workhouse. He died 30 November 1882, of bronchitis, in Bincombe, in the County of Dorset. He was 72 years of age, and is listed as a farm labourer. His daughter, Matilda Hatcher was present at the time of his death. 46

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In brief conclusion, then....

Unable to read or write; without advantage of education, wealth, leisure, or social standing; but most of all, without a knowledge of the full Gospel plan, which resulted in an incomplete understanding of his relationship with God and his true purpose in this life and in eternity, Henry nevertheless stayed the course to the end.

Accordingly, as I have reviewed the very few actual details that reveal and define him personally, studied the comtemporary history of his era, and now taken the opportunity to write about the life and times of this humble progenitor, my heart goes out in appreciation to him.

There is much that can be learned here. He suffered and endured a great deal in his day, in order that we might enjoy so much more now, in our day.

I am grateful, and look forward to meeting and personally thanking him in the hereafter.

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Bibliography:

1. Certificate of Baptism: No. 7. Baptism solemnized in the Parish of Broadwinsor, in the County of Dorset, in the year 1813. Henry, son of Thomas, laborer, and Jane Pearce, baptized 10th March 1813, in Broadwinsor. Document certified, 18 April 1972, by the vicar of Broadwinsor, and in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

2. Family pedigree records and family group record information of Thomas Pearce and Jane Staple, in possession of W. Bart Christenson, Provo, Utah. See the World Connect section on this website for further details.

3. 1841 England Census for Broadwinsor, Beaminster, Dorset, England: Source Citation: Class: HO107; Piece: 280; Book: 13; Page: 1; Civil Parish: Broadwinsor; County: Dorset; Enumeration District: 7; Page: 1; Line 14; GSU roll: 241337. http://ancestry.com.

4. Brenda Ralph Lewis, The Tolpuddle Martyrs, http://www.britannia.com/history/tolpuddle.html.

5. Cyril Coffin, Captain Swing in Dorset, http://www.thedorsetpage.com/history/Captain_Swing/Captain_Swing.htm.

6. Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum Trust, http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk.

7. Tolpuddle Martyrs, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolpuddle_Martyrs.

8. Margot Pitkin, The Tolpuddle Martyrs, http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~lovelace/tolpuddle.htm.

9. Brian Baker, The Tolpuddle Martyrs, Six Men Who Kick-started the Trade Union Movement, http://georgian-victorian-britain.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_tolpuddle_martyrs.

10. Certified Copy of an Entry of Marriage, MB 038744, No. 53, solemnized at the Parish Church, in the Parish of Broadwinsor, in the County of Dorset, 22 October 1844, between Henry Pearce, full age, bachelor, laborer, and Rachel Caddy, full age, spinster… in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

11. Certificate of Baptism: Baptism solemnized in the Parish of Broadwinsor, in the County of Dorset, in the year 1825. Rachel, daughter of John, laborer, and Sarah Caddy, baptized 13 March 1825, in Broadwinsor. Document certified, 8 April 1974, by the Dorset County Archivist, and in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

12. Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 10 Mar 1845, given at the General Register Office, Somerset House, London, BX 563631, PAS 135426/68/44, No. 248, Susan Jane, girl, to Henry Pearce, labourer, and Rachel Pearce, formerly 'Caddey', of Sandpitt, 'Broadwinser', Beaminster, Netherburg, in the County of Dorset. The certified copy is in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

13. Certified Copy of an Entry of Marriage, MA 799598, No. 141, solemnized at the Church of the Holy Trinity, in the Parish of Weymouth, in the County of Dorset, 26 June 1871, between Patrick Herlihy, age 38, bachelor, gunner Royal Artillery, and Susan Jane Pearce, age 26, spinster… in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

14. 1890 Marriage solemnized at the Register Office in the District of Cardiff, in the Counties of Cardiff, Glamorgan, and Monmouth on 16 August 1890: between Frank Harris Drouard, bachelor, mariner, and Susan Jane Hurley, widow. Book No. 174, Entry No. 43. A photocopy of the original document is in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

15. State of Utah—Death Certificate, State Board of Health File No. 1462-620: Susan Harris, age 84 ½, died, 10 September 1928, in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, from apoplexy contributed to by hypertension… copy in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

16. Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 12 September 1849, given at the General Register Office, Somerset House, London, BC 834256, No. 54, Henry, boy, to Henry Pearce, labourer, and Rachel Pearce, formerly 'Caddey', of Specket Lane, Broadwinsor, Beaminster, Netherbury, in the County of Dorset. The certified copy is in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

17. Certified Copy of an Entry of Marriage, MB 131200, No. 435, solemnized at the Parish Church of St. George, in the Parish of Kendal, in the County of Westmorland, 11 July 1885, between Henry Pearce, age 33, bachelor, labourer, and Maria Clement, age 29, spinster… in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

18. 6 January 1969 letter received from Miss Nora Hatcher of Abbotsbury, Dorset, England (now deceased), daughter of Henry Pearce’s daughter Matilda Pearce Hatcher, and in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

19. 19 February 1974 letter received from Miss Nora Hatcher of Abbotsbury, Dorset, England (now deceased), daughter of Henry Pearce’s daughter Matilda Pearce Hatcher, and in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

20. Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 5 November 1851, given at the General Register Office, Somerset House, London, BC 788105, PAS 114781/7/1/72, No. 443, Matilda, girl, to Henry Pearce, labourer, and Rachel Pearce, formerly Caddey, of Sandpitt, Broadwinsor, Beaminster, Netherbury, in the County of Dorset. The certified copy is in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

21. Certified Copy of an Entry of Marriage, MB 038620, No. 222, solemnized at the Parish Church, in the Parish of Milton Abbas, in the County of Dorset, 3 September 1874, between Edwin Thomas Hatcher, age 21, bachelor, labourer, and Alice Matilda Pearce, age 21, spinster… in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

22. Certified Copy of an Entry of Death, DX 175609, No. 19, death in Winterborne-Monkton/Dorchester, in the County of Dorset, 25 August 1942, Matilda Hatcher, female, age 90, widow of Edwin Thomas Hatcher, a farm carter… in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

23. Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 26 February 1854, given at the General Register Office, Somerset House, London, BXA 013280, PAS 111172/73/F/5, No. 367, Ann, girl, to Henry Pearce, labourer, and Rachel Pearce, formerly Caddey, of Specket Lane, Broadwinsor, Beaminster, Netherbury, in the County of Dorset. The certified copy is in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

24. 10 November 1972 letter received from Miss Nora Hatcher, Abbotsbury, Dorset, England, (now deceased), daughter of Henry Pearce’s daughter Matilda Pearce Hatcher, and in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

25. Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 6 October 1856, given at the General Register Office, Somerset House, London, BXA 013417, PAS 111172/73/F/3, No. 315, John Aveis, boy, to (no father listed), and Rachel Pearce, formerly Caddy, of Specket Lane, Broadwinsor, Beaminster, Netherbury, in the County of Dorset. The certified copy is in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

26. Certified Copy of an Entry of Marriage, MB 070708, No. 177, solemnized in the Church, in the Parish of Burnside, in the County of Westmorland, 8 September 1883, between John Pearce, age 24, bachelor, labourer, and Sarah Abba, age 21, spinster… in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

27. Certified Copy of an Entry of Death, DA 610466, No. 314, death in Brockbeck/Kendal, in the County of Westmorland, 28 May 1940, John Avis Pearce, male, age 84, a retired outside porter… in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

28. Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 11 April 1859, given at the General Register Office, Somerset House, London, BC 788607, PAS 114781/72/F/2, No. 236, Charles, boy, to Henry Pearce, a farm labourer, and Rachel Pearce, formerly Caddy, of Spickel Lane, Broadwinsor, Beaminster, Netherbury, in the County of Dorset. The certified copy is in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

29. Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945 [Database on-line]: 1883, S.S. British Princess, Arrival Date: 25 July 1883, showing Charles Pearce. Source Citation: Year: 1883; Micro publication: T840_3. RG085; Rolls # 1-181. National Archives, Washington, D.C. http://ancestry.com.

30. Op. cit.: 19 February 1974 letter received from Miss Nora Hatcher of Abbotsbury…

31. Op. cit.: 1841 England Census for Broadwinsor, Beaminster, Dorset, England…

32. 1851 England Census for Broadwindsor, Beaminster, Dorset, England: Source Citation: Class: HO107; Piece: 1860; Folio: 193; Page: 1; GSU roll: 221008. http://ancestry.com.

33. Op. cit.: Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 12 September 1849…Henry

34. Op. cit.: Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 5 November 1851…Matilda

35. Op. cit.: Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 26 February 1854…Ann

36. Op. cit.: Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 6 October 1856…John Aveis

37. Op. cit.: Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, 11 April 1859…Charles

38. 1861 England Census for Broadwindsor, Beaminster, Dorset, England: Source Citation: Class: RG9; Piece: 1364; Folio: 77; Page: 1; GSU roll: 542801. http://ancestry.com.

39. freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~chrisandhowellsfam/pearcesj.html.

40. Certified Copy of an Entry of Death, DX 194092, No. 94, death in Poxwell, Upweg, Wemouth, in the County of Dorset, 25 October 1869, Rachel Pearce, female, age 45, wife of Henry Pearce, agricultural labourer… in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

41. 1871 England Census for Poxwell, Weymouth, Dorset, England: Source Citation: Class: RG10; Piece: 1999; Folio: 109; Page: 1; GSU roll: 831751. http://ancestry.com.

42. freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~chrisandhowellsfam/pearcesj.html.

43. Op. cit.: 19 February 1974 letter received from Miss Nora Hatcher of Abbotsbury…

44. 1881 England Census for Fordington, Dorchester, Dorset, England: Source Citation: Class: RG11; Piece: 2111; Folio: 94; Page: 35; GSU roll: 1341509. http://ancestry.com.

45. http://www.workhouses.org.uk/.

46. Certified Copy of an Entry of Death, DX 175976, No. 62, death in Bincombe, Weymouth, in the County of Dorset, 30 November 1882, Henry Pearce, male, age 72, farm labourer… in possession of W. Bart. Christenson, Jr., Provo, Utah.

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