And the next prize is …

In the early 1800s, the Staffordshire Agricultural Society, with Sir George Pigot as President and the Lord Talbot as Vice-President, held an annual meeting at which various awards were handed out. The 8^th August 1803 edition of Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, at the not inconsiderable price of 6d per copy, reported on the awards. There were numerous awards given to farm owners – Mrs. Wright, of Whittington, for instance, won a Gold Medal for the best grey-faced two shear wether. (A wether is (apparently) a castrated male sheep and a two shear version has had two shearings.) There were awards for all sorts of animals – sheep, pigs, cows etc. – as well as for ploughing, growing various crops etc.

There were also awards given to labourers rather than to farm owners. The awards were quite varied and were given as cash prizes. Edward Robinson of Hamstall Ridware for example won a 2 guinea prize for 38 years service with Mr. Butler and Mr. Woolley of Rowley Farm.

William Hyden of Armitage also won 2 guineas – for having raised 11 children as a labourer in husbandry without having received any Parochial relief i.e. money from the Overseers of the Poor. One stipulation for this award was that the children had to be born in Wedlock.

In order to be eligible for such a prize the applicant must describe the grounds for the claim which must be accompanied by a certificate, signed by the Minister of the Parish or by the Master or Mistress under whom he had served, or two creditable householders having a positive knowledge of the facts certified. Given that the Parish register of Mavesyn Ridware shows that on his marriage to Catharine Rowley on 7^th July 1786 that neither could write, it is safe to assume that he did not submit the claim himself. (The marriage certificate also spelled his name differently as Heyden.) It was also stated that no person could receive the award more than once in four years.

At the time of the award, William and Catharine lived in Holly Bank, Armitage, and had had at least 12 children. They may have had more children as not all of them that I know about were baptised, probably because baptisms were relatively expensive for a labourer. Their first four children were born in Mavesyn Ridware with the rest being born in Armitage.

Four years later, in August 1807, William won another two guineas from the same Society although this time his name was shown as Hoyden in the newspaper report. Receiving the award for a second time shows that William’s reputation for industry and independence continued to impress the Society.