III Cakebridge Lane (site of the first council houses)

Page 9	Bennett	William	40
		Eliza	44
		John	29.6.56
		Emma	29.6.58
		Arthur	27.11.60
		Dorcas	6
		Eliza

William Bennett and his wife Eliza (born Elizabeth Hobert in Elmsett in 1826) lived in Chelsworth throughout their married life, and indeed William was born here in 1830. He was the son of John Bennett (born 1775) and his wife Mary Peacock, who were married in 1828.

John was the illegitimate son of Grace Bennett, who - two years after their son’s birth - married Francis Waterman. So if things had been just a bit different, the family name might have been Waterman, not Bennett.

William’s father worked as a farm labourer and died in 1843. His mother Mary was John’s third wife but she died in 1838 when William was only eight. John’s first wife was Catherine, who died aged 45 in 1819, and his second was Mary Finch, whom he married in 1822 (and who was buried in 1828 at the age of 22, for some reason under the name Elizabeth).

William himself was also a farm labourer. In 1852 he married Eliza, a servant at Barrards working for Georgina Smyth, daughter of the Rev John Gee Smyth. William died in 1886, and was survived by his wife.

Their first son, William, was born in 1854, but died in infancy. Eliza, the last-named, was baptised in January 1870, which helps to date the survey at that time. By 1881, both Emma and Dorcas were in service - Emma as a parlourmaid in Diss, and Dorcas at Lindsey Vicarage. Young John was a cocoanut mat shearer, probably in Bildeston.

Page 11	Claydon	John	38
		Elizabeth	8.5.45
		Daniel	10.12.67
		John	21.10.69

John Claydon was the new young blacksmith of Chelsworth. He was the son of Copford-born Daniel of The Old Forge and Elizabeth Claydon, from Bures, and was born in Monks Eleigh in 1842. In 1866, he married Elizabeth Cutter of Chelsworth. She was the sister of William in Parsonage Lane, and the daughter of John and Jemima who lived in The Red House nearby.

Elizabeth and John had two more children in addition to these two sons: Daniel (born in Elmsett) and John (born in Bildeston), but Elizabeth had already had a daughter Ellen in 1866, before they married. This baby died a year later. Rose, the youngest, was born in 1871.

Sadly, John committed suicide in his smithy in July 1884. The inquest was told that he had been worried about money for some time, and also that there was a history of insanity on his mother’s side. His body was found by 11-year-old Felix Gage and maltster William Bruce.

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