Ann Dimes

  General Notes:

ANN DIMES, BAPTISED IN CRONDALL IN 1763.

The third Nathaniel had a younger sister, Ann, and she had a cousin Ann, daughter of the second Nathaniel. Both were baptised in Crondall but the second Ann would appear to have died as a baby. However, later, there are two Anns in the parish and I have not been able to find another Ann Dimes baptised elsewhere. At their deaths each claims to be Ann daughter of John, baptised in1763.

The first of these Anns married John Hoar on 27th February 1783. The Hoars were a Crondall family and this couple stayed in the parish and raised six boys, Henry, John, Edward, Samuel, Thomas and William. Her burial entry in the Crondall register in 1831 gives her age at death as 67, which would be correct for John's Ann. I think she is more likely to be the right Ann.

The second Ann is first recorded as coming to Crondall in May 1792 bringing with her a certificate from the parish of Greywell stating that it was her parish of settlement. If John's daughter Ann had been working at Greywell for over a year her settlement parish could have changed. This Ann seems to have had a colourful life. She was the mother of two illegitimate boys, John Godfrey born in July 1792 and Thomas born in 1798 but they may not have lived long after their baptisms as nothing more is known about them. She also had banns of marriage called in 1795 with William Pierce named as the groom, but no marriage followed. She finally married Thomas Taplin of Dogmersfield, an adjoining parish, in February 1803, at the same time as he enrolled in the North Hampshire militia. In March he was questioned by the Overseers about his parish of settlement, as the family of a man sent for militia duty from his parish could expect maintenance from that parish, this being the time of the Napoleonic wars. Thomas was about to be posted elsewhere. Ann continued to live in Crondall and in April she received her first maintenance payment. From May 1804 to September 1806 she received 6s. a month. In August 1806 she gave birth to their only child, a daughter Jane. In that year it is clear that her money came from Dogmersfield. In April 1807 when she was ill she had extra payments of 2s. 6d. and 3s. In September 1807 Thomas transferred from the militia to the 77th Regiment of Foot. He was substitute for a man from Bentley, another neighbouring parish. That parish paid Ann £4 13s. each year for the next two years. At the same time she was getting 3s. a week from Dogmersfield although still living in Crondall and getting her rent paid. The Dogmersfield Overseers recorded, 'Paid Mr Snuggs of Crondal for forty weeks rent for Sarah (sic) Taplin from 11th July last. Paid at 9d. per week. £1 10s.' The Dogmersfield Overseers usually referred to her at this time as 'Taplin's wife of Crondal.' In 1809 Ann was not managing on her allowance and on August 19th they recorded 'Paid Taplin's wife two weeks pay at 2s. 6d. per week per order of Mr Salmon to pay off Bartholomew's bill. 5s. 6d. per week was deducted until the beginning of November, when Ann was removed to Dogmersfield from Crondall under a settlement order. In the winter of 1809/10 Dogmersfield allowed her 3s. 6d. per week and in February she received 'a quarter hundred of bavins', sticks for the fire. With the arrival of spring, her allowance returned to 3s. a week. Between 1810 and 1814 she occasionally got an extra 1s. when ill. In 1816 there is the first mention in the Dogmersfield records of daughter Jane, '21st July, Ann Taplin and child. 2s. 6d.' Ann was widowed at some time between 1810 and 1820. The first mention of widow Taplin is in July 1810 but it is not clear whether this refers to Ann or to her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Taplin. In 1820 they are referred to as widow Taplin and old widow Taplin and in 1822 as 'Widow Taplin and girl 4s. per week' and 'Widow E. Taplin 3s. per week'. In the following year Ann's regular allowance was stopped and she was given 1s. 6d. a week if there was no work available, a state of affairs which lasted from October to March, but she was given 2s. 6d. for a pair of shoes in the February. This new state of affairs was probably due partly to daughter Jane being old enough to support herself and partly to the financial pressure that faced the Overseers at that time. In June 1824, Jane, then 18, married William Freeman at Dogmersfield.

The next mention I have of Ann is after the Poor Law Reform Act and the setting up of Poor Law Unions comprising a group of parishes. It is in a list of paupers from the parish of Dogmersfield relieved by the Hartley Wintney Union in 1837. She was given relief outside the workhouse of roughly £1 12s. a quarter of which about a half was in goods. This document records her age as 68, changing to 69 between the end of March and the end of June. This would make her born in 1769, but was this her true age? In 1841 the census shows that she is living with William and Jane and their six children at Bayleys Bridge in Dogmersfield. Ten years later the family were at the same address and the census enumerator noted that Ann had formerly been employed in a silk manufactory but was then a pauper. She was recorded as being 85 years old. (Born in 1766?) In 1861 Ann was still living with her son-in-law but her daughter had died. She was cared for by her eldest grand-daughter, another Jane, and her age was given as 97. (Born in1764?) Ann died in March 1865 and has a fine tombstone just inside the gate of Dogmersfield churchyard which states that she died in her 102nd year and had been baptised in July 1763 at Crondall.

Was this true or did her daughter, born in Crondall, assume her mother was also born there and did the grandchildren ask to see the Crondall parish register? Who knows!

This information has made me believe even more strongly that Ann Hoar is the sister of Nathaniel and daughter of John.

Ann married John Hoar, son of John Hoar and Elizabeth Berry, on 27 Feb 1783 in Crondall, Hampshire, England. (John Hoar was born in 1759 in Crondall, Hampshire, England, christened on 20 Jul 1759 in Crondall, Hampshire, England and died on 11 Nov 1815 in Crondall, Hampshire, England.)