The yeoman farmer was usually a reasonably well off individual as he owned the land he cultivated. He was not beholden to the local landowner for the land he farmed.

Their homes were quite substantial in that they could be two stories high and containing a large central hall where the family entertained.

If the Yeoman farmer employed servants they would be fed in the hall.

If there was no separate kitchen the cooking had to be done in the hall fireplace, although I say fireplace  there probably wasn’t a fixed fireplace at all. Fires were built up against a wall, or against an iron panel which could be moved about, or even on a stone plinth in the middle of the hall.

It wasn’t until the late 1500’s that chimneys started to appear, until that the smoke had to escape as best it could through a louvre in the roof. I cannot imagine that the atmosphere in those great halls was very good. This would be when static fireplaces came into being.

Glass for windows was not generally introduced until the early 1600’s. There were often latticed windows but they did not contain any glass.

Glass was such an expensive commodity that it was often bequeathed in a will, as well, would you believe, as chimneys! Can you imagine taking down a chimney brick by brick or painstakingly removing every pane of glass?

Yeomen seemed to own an amazing number of beds in their homes, but I suppose that would be because families were generally large. To have 8 or 10 beds was not at all unusual.

One wealthy Kentish yeoman left 7 feather beds, 9 flock beds and 1 of down.

They seemed to have quite a lot of bed linen too, but that was to be expected given the number of beds they had. Even a poorer yeoman could have owned 15 or 20 pairs of sheets.

Most bedrooms would contain chests, sometimes 2 or 3 to hold anything that needed to be kept out of the way of mice of the prying eyes of the servants. Another might hold special pieces of pewter or silver that were only brought into use when important guests were being entertained. Usually the chest in the Masters bedroom would hold all his documents and all ‘evidence’ of his property plus any money he had about him.

At different times rooms may have been added to the main building, perhaps an extra room for a kitchen or a storeroom or extra bedrooms.

Usually the dairy house, the bakehouse, the malthouse etc. were separate buildings. Most yeomen’s homes produced their own ale, they baked all their own bread etc. and produced their own cheeses.

There could have been a storeroom in the main house where they stored bags of wheat or rye, flitches of bacon. Perhaps pieces of timber or spare beds would be kept here to keep everything in good order.

The wealthy yeoman may have had one suit of clothes and his wife a best dress made by a tailor but everything else was made by the yeoman farmer’s wife, or by others under her supervision.

Altogether the yeoman farmer’s properties were generally quite substantial and quite a homestead for his family and servants.

The tax on armorial bearings seems to have been looked upon as a very lucrative source of public revenue.

It also seems to have been looked upon as a vanity to display a crest or escutcheon and as such the tax was going to be set at the highest rate that the largest number of people would submit to.

We are talking here of the late 1800’s and the rate at that point was one guinea [one pound and one shilling] for arms or crest; 2 guineas if these were used on a carriage and 10pounds sterling on any grant of arms by the Herald’s College.

With this rate of tax, in 1878 the Inland Revenue admitted that the amount produced was 82,600 pounds in England and Scotland, out of that amount  was 40,600 pounds from 42shillings per year for armorial bearings which had been used on a carriage, and 21 shillings a year when the bearings had been used in other ways. That is on rings, seals, envelopes or writing paper etc.

A surprising fact was that in 1878, the number of licenses in England for armorial bearings on carriages was 17,700, or around 13% of the four-wheel carriages and about 10% in Scotland.

the 21shillings per year tax in armorial bearings used in other ways produced 37,000 licenses in England and 3,000 in Scotland.

There was also evidence that a 10shillings and 6pence tax would raise a lot more money when the Inland Revenue made it possible for the licenses on dogs, guns, carriages, armorial bearings and other  things to be obtained at any money order office.

This information comes from an article published in the New York Times on September 19th, 1880.

My 3xGt. Grandfather served in the 57th Regiment of Foot in the East India Company Army. He signed on in Maidstone, Kent, UK in August 1811 when he was just 16 years old.

He married my 3xGt. Grandmother, Mary Ronayne in 1819 in Waterford, Ireland where he was stationed at the time. He had already served in England and France before he was sent to Ireland.

He eventually became a Colour Seargeant and this meant he was responsible for protecting ensigns, the most junior officers who were responsible for carrying their batallions’ Colours [flags or insignia[ used to rally troops in battles.

According to Wikipedia the rank of Colour Seargeant was quite a prestigious one and given normally to courageous seargeants who had attained accomplishments in battles.

In my family history, legend has it that his wife used to work on the regimental flags, under heavy guard for absolute secrecy, and used to sew messages into the flags. I believe the idea for this was to be able to pass messages between officers in great secrecy and security. I haven't as yet been able to find out any more about this practice.

You know what family legends are! When you are pursuing your search for family genealogy you come across all sorts of stories. Some are true, or as near as possible - others are not.

According to family records plus possessions that I have actually seen, I do know that my 3xGt. Grandmother used to wear a fur muff inside of which were two small pockets which contained two small pistols. I have actually seen this rather ratty looking muff and one of the pistols, I don't know where the other one went.

When you seek to trace family history it can be a very rewarding and fascinating experience. The only thing I regret is that I didn't even know my Gt. Grandmother. I believe she had died before I was born. Having come from this family who travelled all over with the Indian Army she would have had some brilliant tales to tell.

Apart from France, Ireland and England, the family travelled together to Australia and India. I also know that one of the family was baptised on the island of St. Helena. In point of fact I believe that my 3xGt. Grandfather, Bernard Balcombe died in India in 1837 and is buried somewhere, possibly Madras.

It is quite difficult to find out anything about burials. I did unearth a link to a site which dealt with cemeteries in India and contacted them, but didn't get a reply. So - this is another bit of family tracing for the future !!

The unfortunate result of all this travelling around, mostly on ships, meant that out of seven children born to the couple, only 2 survived. Their first born son James and their 6th child, a daughter named Catherine, whose line I descend from. I know from records that one journey on board ship, to Australia I believe, the 57th Regiment of Foot were escorting convicts, there were two ships full of convicts. I have read about convict ships and I don't see how there could have been any comfort for other passengers on that type of ship.

It must have been a hard life, travelling around with your family [or what was left of them] if your Husband was in the army. I have great respect for any woman who chose to accompany her Husband in this way. As mentioned above, there must have been times when she was in danger, but she stayed with her husband to the end.