Alas, poor Pretty One

In the summer of 1788 Henry Watts sued William Luton in respect of Rights of Common on Rodway Hill, Mangotsfield, Gloucestershire. The court heard that in 1754 the estate was let to Luton’s father who died in 1773. Luton and his mother continued in occupation, paying rent to a Mrs. Comyns.

Various locals were called by Luton as “proofs”, among them Stephen Britton, a coalminer of Bitton, aged “70 years upwards” whose “evidence” gives a first hand, if rambling, glimpse of the rough and tumble of local life.

Britton said

Poor Pretty One, but knowing her name adds so much to the story.

Notes

The MS of the above is in Bristol Record Office 13999/6. The outcome is not revealed. The Lac[e]y family were associated with the Kingswood area mines from at least 1666 when they ran “cole horses” on the common land to 1874, when George Lacy, who had a coal yard in Warmley, was sent to gaol for 2 months for assaulting a man who went to work during a miners’ strike. Lacy “expressed a wish that the rope would break and all the men who worked would break their necks.” The Brittons have an even longer pedigree, in and out of the mines, and are still very much in evidence in Kingswood. The Woodwards were Mangotsfield gentry who intermarried with the Newtons of Bitton and both had coalmining interests. The Colstons, Alexander & Sophia, died at Mangotsfield in 1764, but the mines remained in the family at least until 1856 when Mrs Mary Ann Colston, proprietor of New Engine Pit, was summoned for a misdemeanour. Comyns, Medlicott and Chancellor are mysteries. “Old” Rich is also not easy to identify; though Rich is probably his surname. Luton/Lewton and Watts, local names too numerous to mention. The name Punter appears in my family tree.

An article similar to this one appeared in a past number of the SGMRG Newsletter.

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