Flour List

Pile Family

Catchlove Family

Edmund

Scott Family

Mary

Westbourne Family

History

References

PostOffice 1851

Kelly's Directory 1911
Listed Buildings
The River Ems

The River Westbourne
Wartime Experiences
Church War Memorial

Village Cemetery

Any comments?

WESTBOURNE

A village history in West Sussex

YESTERYEAR

George Pile returned to Westbourne and on 7 January 1831 applied to the Select Vestry for relief. On 21 January George’s family were relieved once more, this time being placed on the “Flour List”, this was a means of supplementing income and probably assumes that George had managed to obtain work. The Flour List seems to have been a version of the Speenhamland system established in Berkshire in 1795 and linked relief to the price of bread and therefore the cost of living. The system allowed a man to buy three gallons (8lb 11oz) of bread for himself and 1¼ to 1½lbs for each dependant.

The family was granted a further four shillings on 4 February and on 18 July yet another four shillings with the record Pyles’ boy sick. There is no indication whether this is William or David or even Henry Suett.

This is the last entry in the Select Vestry Minutes before 1834 when the Poor Law Amendment Bill of 1834 caused its duties to be passed to the Guardians of the Westbourne Union.

In late 1831 George Pile was a witness at the settlement examination of Charles Ranger. A removal order was issued on 19 November 1831 to send Charles to the parish of South Bersted near Bognor. Who Charles Ranger was is not known but he may be a relation of George's wife, Martha.

On 15 March 1832 Henry Pile (the son of Henry Pile and Elizabeth Robinson) married Sarah Kearvell of Funtington at Portsea in Hampshire.

Tragedy struck the Pile family in July 1832 when their first daughter, Sarah died; she was just four years old and was buried in the churchyard on 17 July; cause of death is not recorded. It is estimated that in the nineteenth century as many as one in four children died before their sixth birthday. Almost exactly nine months later a third daughter was born and christened Jane at the church on 20 April 1833.

On 21 July 1833 Martha Pile’s eldest daughter Emma Martin married Richard Mathews at Westbourne. Emma, like her mother, was a pregnant bride. Her first child, Martha being born in January 1834, three further children are recorded; Henry in 1844, Emma Kate in 1850 and Emily in 1854.

The parish baptism register records on 20 April 1834 the baptism of Ellen Ann Pyles the daughter of Henry and Sarah Pyles (nee Kearvell); Henry’s occupation is listed as horse dealer. In nearby Funtington on 7 June 1835 Elizabeth Pile, the daughter of Henry Pile and Elizabeth Robinson married James Elliott. The wedding was witnessed by Elizabeth's sister-in-law Sarah Pile nee Kearvell.

A third son was born to George and Martha in 1836 and named George after his father, he was baptised on 15 May.

On 1 April 1839 Martha gave birth to George’s fourth daughter and their last child, Charlotte, she was baptised on April 28. Martha was now forty-nine years old and had been bearing children for twenty-four years! Charlotte’s birth certificate also confirms Martha’s previous marriage as it gives the mother’s name as Martha Pile late Martin formerly Ranger.

FLOUR LIST during 1831 to 1839

Top of page