BROOKER – Molly – The Waggoner’s Tale
THE WAGGONER’S TALE by Molly Brooker
Molly Brooker was related to the Brooker family, so many of whom lived in Leigh in the 1920s and 1930s. Molly, who died some years ago, gave us this story.
“The story began when I found a watch in my mother’s possession which on investigation had obviously belonged to my great grandfather, John Stiff, who had spent his short, married life from 1854 to 1863 in Leigh and became father to five children.
“My interest in him set me to start delving into the family history, back to the mid-17th century in Putney. The next generation moved to Norton, Suffolk where the next three generations worked as agricultural labourers. My great-grandfather, John, worked as a waggoner at Norton until, at the age of 21, he left. The area was producing sugar beet and it is thought that maybe a year when the sugar beet harvest failed, work for a waggoner was short, so John travelled to Kent and settled in Water Works Cottages, Upper Hayesden in the Parish of Leigh. It was a brave thing to do. He left his family to travel a long distance and I would think, with very little money, and I am told he would have had to have a permit to leave his home parish to find work elsewhere, to show he was genuinely looking for work and was not a vagrant.
“A twist in this tale is that Susannah Wretham, a girl of the same age, born at Great Ashfield, the neighbouring village to Norton, joined John at around the same time. [They had both lived in Hunston Road in Norton St Andrew in 1851] Everyone enjoys a love story and the two 21-year-olds were married on 18 November 1854 in Hildenborough Church, for at that time Leigh Church was being rebuilt. John and Susannah had five children, Anna; Clara; James, my grandfather, born 1859; Ellis and Mary. John sadly died on 1 November 1863 aged 30 of “Atrophy of the Heart”, leaving Susannah with the five young children. She eventually moved into Tonbridge and died aged 59. Four of their children outlived her and grew to be fine, upstanding people with strong Christian beliefs. I remember Anna, Clara, Mary and James in my young days and believe John and Susannah would have been justly proud of them all.”
The burial register for Leigh shows that John was buried there in 1863 and his daughter, Anna, in 1868. Unfortunately, there is no visible headstone in the churchyard for either. Probably Susannah did not have the money for a headstone to mark their graves.
Chris Rowley (Parish Mag. April 2025)
John Stiff b. 1833 Suffolk.
(The Stiff name is very common in Norton area of Suffolk – and similar use of Christian names)
1861 Leigh Hayesden
John Stiff aged 28 ag lab b. Norton Suffolk
Susannah aged 27 b. Ashfield Suffolk
Anna 5 b. Tonbridge
Clara 3 b. Leigh
James 1 b. Tonbridge
John Wretham visitor aged 25 b. Ashfield (n.b. John is Susannah’s brother)
1851 Norton St Andrews Hunston Road
John Stiff unm. Farm lab aged 19 b. Norton (not living with his family)
1851 census
Hunston Road, North St Andrews: Susannah Wretham
1841 Norton Suffolk
James Stiff 40 ag lab
Mary 35
Murial 13
John 9
Emma 7
Wm 4
May 1
near neighbours:
Robert Stiff aged 40 ag lab
Frances 20
Ellen 12
Frederick 9
James 10
George 6
John Stiff death 1863 registered at Sevenoaks
John Stiff mar. Susannah Wretham 1854 registered at Tonbridge
Date of marriage was 18 November 1854