The life and information gained on great-grandfather Joseph and great grandmother Margaret is limited to a certain extent. Joseph did not have a very successful life. My own grandfather his son William left the area to move to Portsmouth in 1906. His son Frederick Joseph who was my father never really knew his granddad Joseph as he was only four years of age when they moved from Jarvis Brook. The rest of the family also scattered. Great grandfather Joseph ended his days at Uckfield Workhouse. Great-grand father Joseph Harman was the second son my great-great grand parents William and Charlotte Harman.

Joseph was born on the 27th June 1846 at Stonecross near Rotherfield. He was christened on 4th January 1852 at St. Denys with some of his other brother and sisters. This being four years after he was born. When Joseph was at the age of 6, his parents William and Charlotte moved to Frogs Hole at Rotherfield, and at Frogs Hole also lived all his father's brother's with their wives and families. Joseph was to live at Frogs Hole with many of his uncles and aunties, and with many cousins up to the age of about 20. In that time he had a younger sister born in 1854 to his parents named Harriet. She was nearly eight years younger, than Joseph. His brother William was born in 1856 ten years younger than Joseph and was the baby of the family.

In the year 1866 with the growth of the Harmans family at Frogs Hole his parents William and Charlotte after twenty years at Frogs Hole moved to Stonecross, where they had lived previously in 1846, and where Joseph and Herbert his older brothers were born. All the other brother and sisters were born at Frogs Hole, Rotherfield.

In the year 1867 William and Charlotte were at Stone Cross for on the 29th September my great- grandfather Joseph married my great-grandmother Margaret Turner who was also living at Stone Cross. Joseph was 21 and Margaret 18. Eunice Ann Harman his sister was one of the witnesses with Margaret's father Edward Turner the other. Joseph trade is given as a bricklayer, and both Margaret and Joseph lived at Stone Cross prior to the marriage. After the marriage they moved to Coldharbour at Crowborough, and on the 21st March 1870 they had a baby girl who Joseph named after his sister Julia. In the census of 1871 Margaret is called Abigail and I am inclined to believe this was her second christian name, and it is here that they were now living in the year of the census. In 1871 a baby boy was born to my great- grand parent's Joseph and Margaret. This baby boy was to be my grandfather William Edward. He was named after his grandfather William Harman.

In the following year Joseph's younger sister Harriet at the age of 18 married a John Walters the son of Richard Walters a farmer - John being a labourer and age 28. Harriet's elder sister Julia was one of the witnesses at the wedding. The marriage took place on 20th April 1872 at St. Denys Rotherfield. On the 18th October 1873 Julia Harman married the John's brother Stephen Walters also a labourer. Stephen was aged 30 and Julia aged 23. Her sister now Harriet Walters (nee Harman) being witness at the wedding. Harriet and John Walters had two children, girls Rose and Eliza Annie. For most of their life they lived at Alderbrook farm Crowborough. Julia and Stephen Walters had a farm at Hadlow Down where they had 11 children. These farms which were known as Waste farm and Hole farm.

One of Stephen and Julia Walters children I met during my field research into the family history, who was still alive in 1988, was Stephen and Julia's daughter, Julia Lily cousin to my grandfather William Edward. Julia Lily Walters was born in 1891 and was therefore aged 97 when I met her. She talked about her uncle Joe - he being my great-grandfather Joseph. She stated that her mother Julia said that her brother Joseph had drunk away a row of houses left to him by his father William - my great-great grandfather William. Joseph's brother Herbert was Deacon of the Star Voss chapel and a successful builder. So probably would have viewed great-granddad Joseph's drinking with horror. In fact, Ernest Edward Harman (Ted) his grandson said that they had very little to do with Joseph.

In the year 1881 Joseph and Margaret family increased with the birth of Abigail born 1872, Elizabeth on 10th November 1874, with a son Owen born on 3rd June 1877, Charlotte on 7th December 1878 and lastly Alice born 25th October 1881. Probably Alice being born in the October, the census for 1881 was in the April of that year so she did not appear on the census form for 1881. In that year 1881 great-great grandfather and grandmother, William and Charlotte were living at Stone Cross.

Joseph's younger brother William the youngest son of William and Charlotte had married in the year 1879 though the actual date of marriage is not known. What we do know is that he married the daughter of Frederick John and Anna Novice, the innkeepers of the Bricklayers Arms, Whitehill. William his younger brother also was a heavy drinker. In 1881 William and Mary Ann were also living at Coldharbour.

My great grandfather and grandmother, Joseph and Margaret had moved to Jarvis Brook this a small hamlet about 15 minuets walk into Rotherfield. The cottage that they lived was called Forge cottage, and my grandfather William Edward was also to live at Jarvis Brook when he married, and my father being born there at no 2 Ferndale Terrace, Western Road, Jarvis Brook, Rotherfield.

By 1889 Joseph and Margaret's family had grown. They had eight children: Julia born 1870; my grandfather William Edward 1871; Abigail 1872; Elizabeth 1874; then Owen 1877; Charlotte 1878; Alice Bridget 1881 and lastly Dora Margaret 1889.

The following year Joseph and Margaret's daughter Julie married George Barnes in 1890, and then my grandfather and grandmother in 1898. The next year Charlotte married Frank Chewter in the year 1899. Two years later in 1901 Alice Bridget married George Fry. Owen married in 1904 to Charlotte Ann Brinn. Eunice Ann, great-grandfather Joseph's sister who had married Henry Neville a widower on 1st July 1877 also lived at Jarvis brook where her husband farmed. Also living at Jarvis Brook was David Harman and his wife Ellen he being the son of James and Mary Ann. David and Joseph, being cousins, would have been very close as they had been brought up together with their parents over twenty years when they had all lived at Frogs Hole. The cousins would not have been a good influence to live in close proximity to one another, as by research David was as big a drinker as my great-granddad Joseph.

This information was obtained by Mary Harman who married Percy a grandson of David and Ellen. Most of what Mary Harman told me was obtained from Percy's father - Alan Stewart Harman - who lived with his son Percy and wife Mary after the death of his wife Minnie. David and Ellen had had fifteen children but not many survived to adult hood. Alan Stewart Harman would run away from home from time to time and this would always to the same area, which was a farm near Blackboys said Mary. I am an inclined to believe that he went to Hadlow Down to Stephen and Julie's Waste farm which is adjacent to Blackboys. Funnily enough Mary only lived four doors away from Ted, son of Esli and Minnie (nee Hoath) but she didn't know and neither did Ted, that she was related to him, by her marriage to Percy Harman.

In the census of 1881 and 1891 I am aware of the following: that of the four brothers of great-great-grandfather William three had died. His brother Thomas in 1866 at the age of 43 (his wife Ann died at the age of 78 in 1898 and was buried with Thomas in St. Denys church where there is a monument stone that still stands. On the loss of Thomas, his wife remained a widow and lived at Cottage Hill, where her sister Rhoda and John Harman also lived). In May 1891 James the eldest brother and named after his father my great-great-great grandfather James died at the age of 75. He also was living at Ferndale cottage's at Jarvis Brook. His wife Mary Ann (nee Boerdon) must have proceeded him, as there was no mention of her in his will but her date of death is unknown. The executors of the estate where his brother John, and John's son, Frank, living at cottage hill.

The previous year saw the death Joseph's mother Charlotte Harman (nee Moon) on 28th July at the age of 76. She was buried at All Saints church at Jarvis Brook. By this time all William and Charlotte's children were married and settled down. The girls having married farmers. Granddad Joseph was not as successful as his two other brothers Herbert and William who were prominent builders.

Alice Bridget, my grandfather Joseph's daughter, who married George Fry lived at Burwash Common. It is there that I met their son George Harold Fry and his wife Mabel (nee Hobden). George Harold Fry was my father's cousin and I met him at Vicarage Lane, Burwash Common as well as George Harold Fry's wife Mabel who also was born at Unity Cottages, Jarvis Brook. Mabel said her father was in business with Owen Harman granddad Williams brother, who also lived in the Unity Cottages at Western Road, Jarvis Brook. Owen was uncle to George Harold. George also remembered my grandfather William who would visit his sister Alice and her husband George Fry. He said his uncle Bill worked in a dockyard in Portsmouth. This information was news to me as I thought that when my grandfather left Rotherfield he never returned. Obviously he did visit from time to time. George Harold also remembered his grandfather Joseph Harman visiting at the week ends for sunday dinner. They would pretend to fight over baked potatoes left over - at this point in time grandfather Joseph was in the Uckfield workhouse. George said he received 10/- shillings per week. He also said that after sunday dinner his grandfather would sit in the arm chair, and what George specifically remembered was the habit he had of twiddling his thumbs. My own father who never really saw his grandfather Joseph also had this habit and funnily enough so do I. George had no information of his grandmother Margaret Harman or when she died.

Great grandmother I have since found out died in 1901 age 51 and was buried on the14th September 1901. My great grandfather Joseph lived for a further 19 years and died at the Uckfield Workhouse in 1922 at the age of 76.