Where did all the Hammonds go in 1841?

[Rishile]

I have four Hammonds in Manuden that are all missing at the 1841 census.  These are father and his sons.  They are all Ag Labs and the wives and children can all be found in 1841 but not the men.  Does anyone have any idea where they may have been?  I am thinking they must have been away working somewhere - but where?

They are:
James Hammond - born 1786
Joseph Hammond - born 1809
David Hammond - born 1814
James Hammond - born 1821

Some sons are shown in Manuden in the 1841 census with their families.

Any thoughts would be appreciated
Rishile

[Nic.]

Did they reappear in 1851

I’ve found reference to a David Hammond of Manuden in The Essex Lent Assizes 1832 receiving 3 months hard labour.



Nic

[Stanwix England]

I was once caught out looking for a family of Hawtins. I assume because of their accent, the enumerator had written them down as 'Oughten' or something along those lines for one census record. It was a one of mistake that was never repeated.

I wonder if you've got a similar issue with the Hammond name? Maybe they are somewhere under Ammond or something that sounds similar?

[Rena]

The history of the village is quite interesting and could be the reason your family vanished from the area.  You might need to look for how people removed themselves from the place to find more lucrative work in a coal mine (which is what my ancestor did).  For example, did they travel by the nearest canal, train, road, river  :-

"During the 1800s there was considerable unrest in agricultural communities in Essex, and Manuden was no exception.The farmers who introduced mechanized farm machinery were hated. There were many instances of incendiarism where barns and buildings were torched, including Manuden Hall (Swing Riots).Shortage of jobs and subsistence wages forced many agricultural workers to abandon village life for the cities.This exodus hastened the demise of many associated trades like blacksmith, and hurdlemaker. The First World War 1914-18 further emptied the countryside followed by a farming depression in 1920 when many Manuden farms were unoccupied.The village had become terminally ill. "

https://www.recordinguttlesfordhistory.org.uk/manuden/manuden.html

[Rishile]

Thank you for all your replies.

Nic - thank you for that information.  That is very interesting - I will look into that.

Stanwix - I'm not sure this would be the case because they were not living together at the time.  They all had their own families but they did live very close to each other.  Thank you for your thoughts.

Rena - Thank you for this.  That is very interesting.  However, they all reappeared in 1851 and the families of the men can be found in 1841 so it appears a short-term problem, whatever it was.  Thank you for the information regarding Manuden.

Rishile

[Rena]

Thank you for all your replies.

Rena - Thank you for this.  That is very interesting.  However, they all reappeared in 1851 and the families of the men can be found in 1841 so it appears a short-term problem, whatever it was.  Thank you for the information regarding Manuden.

Rishile

When I was young my then boyfriend, who was a farmhand, was sent by his farmer employer to another northern farm over 40 miles away to help out for a few weeks - (I can't recall whether it was to get the crops in before bad weather broke or whether it was to do with lambing season).

When I was researching my Speight family in the West Riding of Yorkshire, my director ancestor  21 year old William disappeared from the village of Swinton.  but reappeared in the next census.  Luckily another Yorkshire FHS had put some databases online and there was my William living many miles away at an address in the large town of Leeds noted as "William Speight of Swinton".  I have no idea why he was sent to Leeds.

Apparently what had happened was that an Agent had arrived in the Swinton area looking for temporary workers.  The "of Swinton" meant that he was still eligible for Swinton parish relief if he became incapacitated.

[Rishile]

Thank you Rena.  I am wondering if this is what happened to all of them.  I have tried everything to find them but without success so think they may have been living rough.  The family were very poor by the sounds of things so anything is possible if they want to find work.

Rishile

[Rena]

The first job my late husband got as a 15 year old  city boy was working on a farm several miles away.

He lived in the farmhouse with the farmer and his wife who looked after him like a mother.  There were also two old Irish farm workers who travelled around the country doing "seasonal work" and they slept in the barn  (!)

I have a story about the barn.  When it was my OHs birthday the two Irish workers took him to the local pub for his first alcoholic beverage.  All three arrived back home in a very happy state but too late for my OH to get into the locked farmhouse so he took off his shoes and curled up on some hay in the barn just like the men.  Next morning he awoke to find the end of his toes were all tingling.
Looking down he found most of his toenails had been nibbled away by rats, who needed the calcium contained in his toe nails 

[Nic.]

1841 Census was in June so it’s extremely feasible that as Agricultural Labours that they could be moving around for seasonal work.

Nic