I am grateful to Judy Marsh for some of the information on this page.
Jeremiah Birch was born 29 June 1823 and baptised 12 July 1823 at Barrow, Suffolk, a son of Robert Birch and Ann formerly Jolly.
In the 1841 census of Barrow Green, he was with his family, aged 18 and born in Suffolk.
On Friday 8 February 1850, Jeremiah Birch was handed over to PC John Carlo on Barrow Green for stealing a ram’s horn. He was taken into the Crown beer house where there was a scuffle when handcuffs were placed upon him. Birch’s wife (probably sister, Eliza) interfered and so did William Payne, who was drunk and who was subsequently charged with assaulting Carlo, and was fined 6d with 12s costs (County Petty Sessions at Shirehall on Wednesday 13 February). The charge of felony against Jeremiah was dismissed.
In the 1851 census of Barrow Green, living with his family, he was aged 28, a licensed hawker, born in Barrow.
At the quarter sessions in Bury, reported in the Bury and Norwich Post 24 March 1852, Jeremiah Birch was found not guilty of the theft of 4 bushels of oats the property of FC Halls of Denham. On 28 January a policeman keeping watch on Halls’s property saw two men take oats from a barn and leave the sack behind a hedge. Jeremiah is then alleged to have come back with a horse and was helped to put the sack on the horse by two others. When challenged Jeremiah allegedly ran off towards Denham leaving a coat and the horse behind. Jeremiah apparently claimed the coat. Isaac Birch (his brother) was alleged to have helped him and his father collected the horse from the Red Lion at Barrow. The evidence was considered to be unsubstantiated and several gentlemen gave good character references for Jeremiah.
It is possible that Jeremiah bought Knowles Green Farm at the auction held on 27 September 1853 at the Plumbers Arms Inn at Denston. The estate was the property of the late Mr James Kemball and was being auctioned by order of the High Court of Chancery in Kemball v Fyson. It consisted of a farmhouse, outbuildings, 2 detached cottages and 28a 3r 13p of land. However, Jeremiah in newspaper reports is described as being of Barrow until after 1855.
At the Borough Petty Sessions on Thursday 27 April 1854, Jeremiah Birch of Barrow appeared to answer the charge that he obtained 2d from William Macavoy by falsely pretending that he was a collector of market tolls. He approached Macavoy with a book in his hand, demanded the money and said he was the toll collector. The Bench took the view that this was done as a ‘lark’ and dismissed the case.
At the Borough Petty Sessions on Thursday 14 June 1855, Jeremiah Birch, a pig jobber (a pig trader) of Barrow, was charged with ill-treating a hog. On 6 June he was driving a hog from market and struck it on the snout so violently that blood flowed freely from it. In his defence he said that the hog was very troublesome. He was fined 1s with costs of 15s.
There was no entry for Jeremiah Birch under Barrow or Hargrave in White's Directory of Suffolk 1855.
In the Post Office Directory 1858 he is listed as a pork butcher at Barrow and as a farmer, Knowles Green at Hargrave.
On 10 April 1858 at Hargrave, two tumbrils (a two wheeled cart drawn by a single horse) belonging to Jeremiah Birch were being used. The two boys, Thomas Palmer and Robert Suttle, were riding without reins and, after pleading guilty, were fined at the County Petty Sessions Court held on 21 April. Jeremiah was fined 10s with 5s costs at the County Petty Sessions held 28 April and cautioned for not having his name properly painted on them. In his defence, Jeremiah said that one was bought about a month ago and he had delayed as he was about to remove and the other had his name chalked upon it, which, as the Bench observed, was of no use.
On 11 July 1859 at the Bull at Hargrave, Jeremiah, butcher and farmer, and Jacob were involved in a drunken brawl with Charles Seeley and Elias Manning of Great Saxham. At the County Petty Sessions, 20 July, for the assault on Charles Seeley, Jeremiah, Jacob and Charles Seeley were each bound over to keep the peace for six months in the sum of £10. At the County Petty Sessions 27 July, for assaulting Elias Manning, Jeremiah was fined 1s with 11s costs. There had apparently been a feud between the Seeley and Birch families and whenever they met mutual recriminations took place. On this occasion Seeley had been in the pub since 11.00 am and Jeremiah arrived at about 5.00 pm. At one point Jeremiah sat the landlord’s little boy on his knee and Seeley called him a ------ old rascal and made a very serious accusation. There was then some exchange of words and during the rest of the evening Seeley did all he could to provoke Jeremiah into a fight. Seeley left the pub at about 11.00 pm and Jeremiah then came out after him and began to fight in the road, with Jeremiah stripped to the waist. Mary Seeley, Charles’s mother, who had been in the pub tried to separate the men and confirmed what had taken place. Elias Manning, an employee of Seeley also seems to have got between the men and was stuck in the course of the fight. Apparently Seeley was knocked down and Manning was struck three times and knocked down. Jacob Birch (his brother) jumped out of a cart, stripped to the waist and threatened Seeley with his fist but did not hit him. There seems to have been a conspiracy between Seeley and Manning that if Seeley’s summons the week before was ineffective then Manning would try to get Jeremiah fined with his own summons.
At the County Court, Bury, 10 March 1860, William Grimwood, a dealer, sought to recover 18s from Jeremiah. He had called on Jeremiah to see whether he had anything to sell and offered Jeremiah £12 for 12 pigs he liked the look of. Jeremiah wanted £14 but agreed to sell for £12. Grimwood then went away for a while and when he came back found that Jeremiah, without Grimwood’s authority, had sold them to another person for a profit, Jeremiah said, of 6d per pig. Grimwood doubted that this was the truth and rode after the person who bought them, only to find that that person had paid £15 for 14 pigs. No deposit had been paid and no written contract had been given. The Judge ruled that as all contracts over £10 had to be in writing to be binding (a statute of Charles II) there was no case for Jeremiah to answer.
12 February 1861 in the Bury and Norwich Post: "On Monday, Jeremiah Burch of Hargrave was charged with stealing a large quantity of wine from Thomas Nice of Gt Bradley Hall. The prisoner is well known in the neighbourhood and is the owner and occupier of 112 acres at Hargrave and carries on a business as butcher and higgler. For Trial, bail was refused." [Higglers were middlemen — they went round the farms of the local area, buying up produce such as poultry, rabbits, eggs and cheese to sell in the market. In return they supplied goods the household needed. Some of the trade was done by barter rather than by money changing hands, but all of it involved haggling — which is where the name came from; it is a variant spelling of haggler.]
23 February 1861 in the Bury Free Press: there was
a serious charge against a farmer on Monday; Jeremiah Burch of Hargrave was
charged with stealing a large quantity of wine from the cellar of Thomas Nice
of Gt Bradley.
The prisoner is the owner-occupier of a considerable amount of land in
Hargrave and is an overseer of the parish. The prosecutor said that ‘on Monday the 4th of
February I discovered I had lost a quantity of wine from my cellar, I always
keep the keys to the cellar myself, there is a window on the outside, I found I
had lost wine from several bins, several dozen in all, the lock is a common
one, easily picked’ - committed for trial. 6 April 1861 in the Bury Free Press: "Jeremiah
Birch, farmer, was charged with stealing 15 dozen bottles of port and sherry,
the property of Thomas Nice of Gt Bradley. 12 Months hard
labour."
In 1861 (census taken 8 April for the night of 7/8), at Great Knowles Green Farm, Eliza was head and farmer (with father Robert Birch) and Jeremiah was not there. So far Jeremiah has not been found in the 1861 census. The reason is that he was in prison, and prisoners are identified in the census by initials only. This accounts for the head of the household being Eliza, his sister.
The Trade Directory of 1864 lists Jeremiah as a farmer, Knowles Green. This entry is also in the directories of Morris Trade 1868, Kelly Post Office 1868, Harrods 1873 and Whites 1874.
At the County Petty Sessions, held at Bury 8 June 1864, Jeremiah, farmer of Hargrave, was charged with assaulting George Sparrow on 30 May. George was a copyhold farmer, and as such, with rights to a share of the commonage, though he did not know exactly what those rights were, felt he was entitled to instruct his little boy to gather muck from the common (Great Knowles Green). Jeremiah caught the lad and upset his barrow of muck. When the boy refilled the barrow, Jeremiah upset it again and pushed George Sparrow away. Jeremiah claimed that even though he was a freeholder he had bought Great Knowles Green Farm with commonage rights attached and he kept more stock than all the rest of Hargrave put together. The Bench decided that since this depended upon rights of commonage, the case was outside their jurisdiction and dismissed the case.
At the County Petty Sessions at Bury, 28 September 1864, Jeremiah was charged with assaulting George Sparrow on 9 September, in the evening at Wickhambrook. Jeremiah was attending an auction at the White Horse Public House. George Sparrow was also there and made several observations on Jeremiah’s character and claimed to be a better man than Jeremiah. Jeremiah made threats and attacked him by putting his open hand over George’s mouth and nose and forcing his head backwards. This was repeated. Henry Sparrow, George’s son gave evidence that the assault took place. Jeremiah said that he never touched George Sparrow. George was vexed because Jeremiah had outbid George on a farm and could pay for it much more quickly than George could. George then claimed from Jeremiah £8. 6d for newspapers (which seems excessive, perhaps this is a misprint for 8s. 6d.?) and half a crown for damage done by a cow that had trespassed into one of George’s fields. Since no great violence was used Jeremiah was fined 5s with 11s costs.
On Saturday 10 December 1864 George Sparrow had obtained a judgement against Jeremiah Birch in the County Court for debt. This led to the appearance of Eliza Pettit (his sister) at the Petty Sessions in Bury on 15 December for assaulting George Sparrow.
On 22 December 1864 at Wickhambrook Petty Sessions, Jeremiah was charged with leaving his horse and cart unattended in Moulton on 11 December. Jeremiah had tied the horse to a gate but the horse had escaped and had run to another part of Moulton where it remained for three quarters of an hour. Jeremiah had frequently been cautioned. The Chairman told Jeremiah that he must adopt another plan and as he agreed with him reduced the fine from £10 to £1 with 9s. costs.
Jeremiah appeared at the Wickhambrook Petty Session held Thursday 14 June 1866 charged with allowing 6 heifers on the highway there on the 20th May. Jeremiah claimed a right of pasturage and the case was dismissed after payment of costs.
At Wickhambrook Petty Session held Thursday 27 September 1866, Jeremiah was fined 5s with 6s. 6d. costs for allowing store stock to stray on the highway on Friday 7th September.
In the 1871 census of Great Knowles Green, Hargrave, Jeremiah Birch was head, aged 47, an unmarried farmer farming 185 acres and employing 8 labourers and 6 boys. He was born at Barrow.
At the Petty Session at Bury 16 August 1871, Jeremiah was charged with allowing sheep on to the New Road at Chevington, between 5.30 and 9.00 on 7th August. A man and a dog were with them but the man had lain down and gone to sleep. Even if he had a right to the grazing he must not allow his animals onto the metal. Jeremiah was fined 1s with costs of 4s. 6d.
In 1873 Owners of Land, Jeremiah owned 153 acres, 1 rood and 32 perches with a rental value of £214.1s.0d. He was the owner of more land than anyone else in Hargrave.
On Saturday 19 July 1873 at about noon, Jeremiah’s stock was again obstructing the highway, this time at Wickhambrook towards Ousden. He had allowed a number of sheep to lie upon the metal for an unreasonable time. He was summoned to the Thingoe and Thedwastre Sessions on 6 August and was fined £1. 1s with 19s costs. Inspector Chapman said that there were about 250 sheep present altogether with a young man with them. Another witness, William Hoy, said that the sheep had been there since about 8 o’clock. Jeremiah, in his defence said that he had tried to keep the sheep in a green lane, adjacent to land which he held, where he had sent them to graze but it had been impossible to stop them straying.
At Thingoe and Thedwastre Sessions held 20 October 1875, Jeremiah was charged with allowing two bullocks to stray on to the highway in Chevington. A man named Boggis was in charge of Jeremiah’s farm at Chevington and had sworn that he had done all he could to keep the animals in the meadow. He was certain that the gate onto the road had been fastened securely the night before. There was a footpath through the field and someone must have left the gate open. Jeremiah said that he would put a stile on the gate to prevent such happenings in the future. As foot and mouth disease was so prevalent at this time the Bench took the view that this was unlikely to been carelessness on behalf of Jeremiah or his man Boggis so dismissed the case.
On Saturday evening, 13 January 1877, there was an incident at Dalham. Jeremiah Birch alleged that Philip Turner, labourer, of Dunstall Green, Dalham, stole 22 lbs of pork and bacon, of value 12s, from his cart, whilst it was outside Mr Woods’ public house at Dalham where Jeremiah was apparently supplying Mrs Woods with sausages. Jeremiah stated that he had been sober and thought that Turner had entered the beerhouse after he did and then asked him to deliver a sack of flour to him, and Jeremiah noted this down in his book. When he left at about 6.30 pm he felt in his cart (it would have been dark) and missed the pork. Shortly after he left for home, his cart became unhitched from the horse as the harness broke, and the cart fell forward onto its shafts. He denied that he had overturned the cart. There were some people helping to reattach the cart and Philip Turner held one of the shafts up. According to a witness, Stephen Bond, a farm labourer, Jeremiah arrived at the beerhouse about 5.30 pm and left about 7.00 pm and was drunk and quarrelsome. He further stated that Philip Turner was in the public house the whole time that Jeremiah was there. However, a search of Turner’s house by a police constable on the 15th January revealed the missing pork, which was identified as Jeremiah’s by the way it had been cut. Turner said he found the pork over a field gate after he left the public house about two hours after having returned to it following the breakdown of the horse and cart. Another witness, George Outlaw, was the first on the scene after the cart broke down and said that Jeremiah was drunk, and that Turner was calling for assistance. Mr George Jennings, Turner’s employer stated that he had been an honest and obliging labourer for 20 years. The jury at the quarter sessions (13 March at Shirehall, Bury) returned a verdict on Philip Turner of ‘not guilty’ and the prisoner was discharged.
In Dec 1877, Jeremiah had land at Ousden.
Jeremiah’s sheep were again on the highway at Wickhambrook on 19 August 1879. He was charged at the Thingoe and Thedwastre Sessions on 27 August and was fined 20s with 9s. 6d. costs. Robert Pettit, a nephew of Jeremiah was with 120 sheep and lambs, when about 60 of them were lying on the metal for about half an hour between 7.40 am and 8.15 am. A farmer, Mr Hubbard had complained to the Police Constable, who had then been taken by him to see for himself. The sheep were about 300 or 400 yards away from any field of Jeremiah’s. There had been many complaints by all the farmers and Mr Hubbard and Jeremiah had had words. It seemed that despite what Robert Pettit claimed, that he was only moving the sheep from Jeremiah’s sheep-fold to Jeremiah’s farm at Wickhambrook in order for them to feed and then to bring them back, it was the intention to allow them to graze on the roadside verges. Damage to the fences was caused in this way and the Bench was not surprised that Mr Hubbard or any other farmer should complain about it.
In the 1881 census of Knowles Green, Hargrave, as head of the household, Jeremiah was unmarried and aged 57, and farmed 310 acres, employing 9 men and 8 boys. He was born at Barrow. With him were his brother-in-law, John Pettit aged 40 and John’s wife, Eliza, aged 42 born at Barrow (sister to Jeremiah), and their children. There were two others, Mary A. Cross 15 a domestic servant and Joseph Nunn 22, a farm labourer indoor.
Reported on the Bury Free Press for 10 September 1881 was an accident that happened to Edward Musk whilst he was working for Jeremiah. Two ladders were tied together and one broke whilst Edward was carrying straw up them causing him to fall and so injuring his back that he was admitted to Suffolk General Hospital.
Jeremiah died 4 May 1882 at Hargrave. His death was announced in the Ipswich Journal, Saturday 13 May 1882, Issue 8034; “Birch – 5th inst at Hargrave, Jeremiah Birch farmer.” (The date of 4th is given in a number of sources and is much more probably correct).
His will dated 24 April 1878 left everything to his sister Eliza Pettit, the wife of John Pettit and appointed her his sole executrix. It was proved at Bury St Edmunds, 22 July 1882, by Eliza Pettit. His estate was valued at £1,879 5s 1d. gross, £1,574.6s.11d net.
He was buried 11 May 1882 at Hargrave. His headstone reads “In affectionate remembrance of Jeremiah Birch who died May 4th 1882 aged 58 years. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Ps 90:12). There is no evidence that he ever married.
Posted December 2016