Tuesday 21 June 2016

The Grasshopper, Tatsfield

I recently received an interesting communication from a reader which I thought to share here. 

He wrote:“I began researching my family history when I was a child, speaking to my Granddad – I was born in Redhill Hospital and brought up in Oxted. He always said that my ancestors ‘ran pubs’ and when I become a bit more serious about genealogy about 15 years ago this was borne out by my research. My Great Grandfather William George Church and his wife Annie Louisa (nee Westbrook) ran the Wheatsheaf Inn in Old Oxted at the end of the 19th Century (1891 census), and my Great-Great-Grandfather Reuben Robert Church was the landlord of the Grasshopper Inn at Moorhouse, Tatsfield near Westerham from about 1885 until his death in 1904. I have found his will and his entire estate of £155 (worth over £17,000 in today’s money!) all went to Granville Charles Gresham Leveson Gower, who I believe owned the pub. I would like to know why the considerable estate did not go to Reuben’s descendants – was there a debt to be repaid or some other reason? I have not found the answer to this question yet. 
These ancestors were originally from Netteswell in Essex (now part of Harlow new town) where my Great-Great-Great Grandfather Thomas Bray ran the Greyhound Inn (which I have visited as it still exists, sat rather incongruously on the old village green amongst the brutal architecture of Harlow). The earliest connection I have found in my family tree to running a pub is Reuben’s grandfather (and my 4th Great-Grandfather) Daniel Coleman (1754 – 1819) who was recorded as a licenced victualler in his will, I presume in Netteswell (possibly of the Greyhound pub, although this isn’t specified in the will). 
I discovered that Reuben (he anglicised his name to Robert for some reason) and his wife Eliza (nee Bray) divorced in 1893 (which was quite a surprise as this was almost unknown at the time) and from the divorce petition that they lived in Penge, Norwood in between their time in Netteswell and moving to Tatsfield. I presume their relocation was related to the licenced victualler trade they were in, but have not yet found any evidence for this nor which pub they ran in Penge.”

If any historians out there can shed any light, your observations would be most welcome!