Compiled by Fred Harman's research |
Julie Harman was the second daughter of my great-great grand parents William and Charlotte Harman. She was born in 1850 at Frogs Hole. On 4th January 1852 at the age of two she was taken with her elder sister Eunice Ann her brothers Herbert, my great-grandfather Joseph, and James to be baptised at St. Denys, Rotherfield. Julie at the age of 3 was living at Frogs Hole at Rotherfield and at Frogs Hole lived all her father's brothers, their wives and families. Julie was to live at Frogs Hole with all her uncles and aunties and with many cousins up to the age of about 16. In 1854 she had a younger sister named Harriet born to my great-great grand parents William and Charlotte. She was four years younger than Julie. Her brother William was born in 1856 and was six years younger. In the year 1869 after twenty years at Frogs Hole her parents William and Charlotte moved back to Stone Cross where they had lived previously in 1846. William and Charlotte were to remain at Stone Cross to the end of their days. Eunice Ann her sister was now working and living in as a servant at Lewes in 1871 and in that year my great- grandfather Joseph married Margaret Turner who was also living at Stone Cross. Julie's younger sister Harriet had commenced to be courted by John Walters a farmer's son. Richard Walters, his father, had a farm at Crowborough, known by the name of High Broom farm He also had another son named Stephen the elder brother of John. Harriet married John Walters on the 20th April 1872. She was only 18 years of age, and he 25. Julie at this time was 22, but she must have fallen in love with John's elder brother Stephen Walters for in the following year Julie and Stephen were married on the 18th October 1873. Julie at the age of 23, with Stephen being aged 30. At the wedding Julie's sister Harriet Walters (nee Harman) was a witness. They were both older than their brother and sister John and Harriet who had married in the previous year. Stephen when he married Julie was a labourer probably working on his father's farm with his brother John. |
However in the course of time Stephen and Julie moved to Hadlow Down and there they settled to farm their own land. This farm was known as "Hole farm" and in a document I obtained from Norman Walters, Julie and Stephen's great-grandson still living at Hadlow Down. The document described the farm is as follows:- 'The house is substantially built of brick and timber, and tiled. Containing two sitting rooms, kitchen, dairy, larder etc, with five bedrooms, and attics over. The farm buildings consist of a stable with granary, and a lean-to cart shed, a timber and tiled barn with a cow shed adjoining, yard with cow-lodge stall and two pig pounds.' Stephen and Julie were to need all that room in the house for as can be seen by the family tree they had eleven children. The actual farming land consisted of 135 acres of land, consisting of arable, pasture, and shaw (shaw being a thicket of wood). In the mean time her sister Harriet and her husband John were farming at Aldebrook Crowborugh where they had two children. The photo's are of Waste farm which eventually was also farmed by the Walters boy's of Stephen and Julie. This was a smaller farm consisting of only 50 acres of land. In the photo you can see the farmhouse. The farmhouse had a sitting room, kitchen scullery, dairy, two larders, three bedrooms and an attic. The outside buildings were a barn timbered and tiled, cattle lodge, cow shed, open shed and yard, stable, harness room and wagons lodge. Again the land was same as Hole farm - arable, pasture and shaw. The farmhouse had a pleasant outlook and a elevated frontage that looked out and over to the road leading from Poundsley to Hadlow Down. In the photo can be seen the sons and a daughter posing while gathering in the harvest. |
Julie and Stephen continued farming and raising their children:- Mary Jane born 5th December 1873; William; Stephen born 9th April1878; Motague; Edward Samuel; Richard; Ethel Maud; Mable; Minnie; Faith; Adelaide May and Lily Julie born 1891. When great-great grandfather William died in 1900. Julie with her brother Herbert were the named executers by their father William in his will. It was Julie who told her daughter Lily Julie that her uncle Joe, who is my great-grandfather drunk a row of house's away. Lily Julie told me this was her mother Julie's exact words. But after the death of her father William in 1900 further tragedy was to strike Julie and Stephen for in the following year in 1901 Mary Jane their first child born 6th December 1893 died at the age of 27 on the 20th February and was buried at St. Marks church, Hadlow Down. Julie's husband Stephen Walters followed eleven years after the death of Mary Jane, on the 23rd July 1913, aged 72. Following his death was that of her brother Herbert in the same year but on the 4th September 1913 two months after Stephen. Stephen is buried in an adjoining plot to Mary Jane. It was George Dabson the husband of Lilly Julie, the daughter of Stephen and Julie, who took the coffin of Stephen on a horse and cart for the burial. This information given to myself whilst visiting George and Lily Julie at Little London near Cross-in-Hand where they lived and were looked after by their daughter Ena Dabson. Two month's after the death of Stephen in 1914 the great war commenced and George Dabson served in the army in France and India as a horse ambulance driver. After the death of Stephen, Julie continued to live at Waste farm but she had built a little garden house in the woodlands. And it was here she spent most of her time until her death twenty years after Stephen had died. In the intervening years after Stephen's death, Julie was to lose her brother Herbert in 1913, Joseph in 1922, her older sister Eunice Ann in 1929 and Harriet in 1930. The only brother still alive was William and he died two years after Julie. The youngest sibling of the family. Julie herself died on 11th September 1933 at the age of 82. She was buried with Stephen at St. Marks, Hadlow Down. Her tombstone is to the left as you enter the church yard. |
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