William Saunders & Bethia Janes
From Lacey Green History
Research started by Dennis Claydon, continued by Joan West, taken from the census, deeds of Stocken Farm, interviews with all alive post 1950s and added to by Miles Marshall
William Saunders Jnr. was born in 1851, at the Rose and Crown public house, the son of William & Louisa Saunders, click William Saunders, born 1815 & Louisa, nee Lacey.
Bethia Janes was born in 1854, the eldest daughter of Henry & Mary Janes
William and Bethia married in 1877
William and Bethia had 7 children as follows :-
Mary Bethia Saunders (Bessie) born 1879 at the Rose and Crown. Married Sidney Ing. click Sidney & Bessie Ing for their life story.
Emma Caroline Saunders born 1880 married 1905 Fred Floyd. click Fred Floyd for Fred and Carries story
Ethel Saunders born 1883 married 1912 Ralph Dell, carpenter, g.g.grandson of Thomas and Ann Dell. See Thomas Dell snr & Ann Dell. William gave Graham Cottage no 1 and Graham Cottage no 2 to his daughter Ethel. click Ralph & Ethel Dell for their life story,
Louisa Saunders born 1885 married 1918 William George Wilkins, soldier
Alice Saunders born 1887married Philip Sidney Pitcher, farmer. Click Philip & Alice Pitcher. When their farm failed they moved into Hillcrest.1893
Harry Saunders, born 1889 the only son married Pamela Saunders (no relation) from Bradenham click Harry & Pamela Saunders for their life story
Researcher's note. Harry worked for his father. William was very strong willed and no doubt difficult and certainly unlikely to retire, although he had built Hillcrest House, Goodacres Lane supposedly for his retirement. Life was not easy for Harry. However he made a very happy marriage with Pamela (Pammie) Saunders from Bradenham. They had four daughters, themselves happily married, when Harry was devastated by the death of his wife in a car crash, tragically driven by his son-in-law.
Annie Daisy Saunders born 1893 married Ernest Smith in 1919. click Ernest & Daisy Smith for their story. Also click 1919 Wedding of Daisy Saunders & Ernest Smith.
1871 Census. William Saunders Jnr. was working for his father who was renting Speen Farm
1877 circa, William Saunders purchased two plots of land from Josephine Irving, mortgagee of the land of John Cheshire. One was at the bottom on the north-west side of a track, made to access this field and also the other which was straight ahead at the end of the track. The second was a large field later known as ‘Hillocks’. The track years later became ‘Goodacres Lane’.
Note. The only house on the Goodacres Lane track, right at the entrance to it, was a bakehouse, built by Henry Janes. Interestingly, about the time he purchased the above fields William married Henry's daughter Bethia.
William and Bethia started their married life at the Rose and Crown, Saunderton Lea. He rented the nearby Pound Farm.
Set on by Footpads. William and Bethia started their married life at the “Rose and Crown” but he was also a farmer. For many years Pound Farm nearby at Saunderton Lea was in the family (rented?) so that may have been where his land was.
He supplied hay and straw to London and went on the train from Princes Risborough to collect his money. One night he was set upon as he was walking home from Risborough. After that, Bethia would go to the bottom of the garden to the railway line which ran behind the house and he would throw the money out to her.
Next Move in 1893 to Smalldean Farm, in Smalldean Lane.
1911 census at Smalldean Farm
1911 Purchase of Stocken Farm. He was still also farming Pound Farm at Saunderton Lea when he bought Stocken Farm in Lacey Green for £3,400, 167 acres, 1 rood ,24 poles, including the farmhouse and two semi detached cottages, Graham Cottage no 1 and Graham Cottage no 2, built in 1885 on the main road by the previous owner Mr.Forrest of Grymsdyke.
Researcher's Note. It was a sign of the difficult farming times that Mr Forrest had paid £8,250 for it in 1877, added two houses and sold losing£4850, 33 years later. There had been terrible weather starting in 1870 right through the first world war. click Weather for more
Land Added. William Saunders already owned the two fields in Lacey Green, which he had bought about 1877, from Josephine Irving, mortgagee of George Cheshire land that had been part of the old Common of Princes Risborough. They were at the bottom of Goodacres Lane on the north west side, later known as Hillcrest Field, and straight ahead to a field called ‘Hillocks’. William had a barn built in Hillcrest Field. From 1911 these fields became part of Stocken Farm. In 1934 the smaller one was sold off to George Hawes. of Woodbyne Farm.
1911 William Had a Bonus ! See 1911 Visit of an airman
1914 William taken to court. Report in the South Bucks Free Press March 25th 1914. See 1914 William Saunders guilty
WW1 Horses Taken Information by Mabel Janes
William produced hay and straw for which there was a ready market in London. (There were many small dairy herds of a few cows for fresh milk consumption and a great many horses.) A team of his best horses was taken from his wagon at Holtspur on the A40 during the first world war for the army, leaving him stranded with a loaded wagon at the top of White Hill. See 1916 Horses taken by the Army
Reports by Alan Luxford, g.grandson of William and Bethia, grandson of Sidney & Bessie Ing talked of him :-
Market Days. He always went to Thame market on Tuesdays and Wycombe market on Fridays. He did a lot of dealing, often buying and selling-on without taking the stock home. William couldn`t read or write and Bethia went with him to do the writing.
He bought his own horses from John Baillie,Theobalds Road, London, usually keeping them in the field behind Hillcrest House where he had built a barn, ( sadly no longer there). The field grew a lot of mushrooms which people liked to collect. He kept a little donkey and trap and would rush across and stop them, and take what they had picked. See 1924 William's easy pickings
He owned the field below Goodacres Lane, called “Hillocks and gated it across so that he could drive the horses across the lane into their field. This would block the way into "Glebe Field", the other field down there, causing considerable inconvenience and a lot of mud. Many bad words were exchanged.
It is said that on another lane he met another trap and being unable to pass the two sat there best part of the day.
He would never change his clocks for summertime, calling it “Fools Time”. Sometimes the families would be asked for Sunday lunch; they often arrived an hour early or late having forgotten this.
Mabel Janes of Sunnybank, Highwood Bottom, knew of him and his exploits. She related :-
Illiterate. Mrs Wyatt, daughter of George & Annie Floyd said "William couldn't read or write and Bethia went to market with him to do the writing. He always went to Thame market on Tuesdays and Wycombe on Fridays. He did a lot of dealing often buying and selling on without taking the stock home. He would never change the clocks to summertime. I remember him swotting flies which particularly annoyed him He bought his horses from John Baillie, Theobalds Road, London. He had a pony and trap and a horse and trap".
William could not read or write, but Bethia could. She would go to market with him to do any writing or reading required. He dealt in horses, cattle and sheep, often buying and selling them on, without bringing them back to the farm.
Trading in London. His own horses he bought from John Baillie of Theobalds Road, London. He sold hay and straw in London. There were numerous small dairy farms in London. They would have up to six cows each, and were always kept inside. He brought back manure to put on his fields. There were also thousands of horses. Not only horses and ponies kept for working but also for riding.
That he was remembered for swotting flies which particularly annoyed him. He had a very loud voice she could hear him from her home in Highwood Bottom and so had the donkey which would bray loudly if he left it.
William also continued to farm Pound Farm down at Saunderton Lee. When he needed extra workers he would shout instructions down to them from near Lacey Green Windmill.
William was very much the boss of his family. He did not work on Sundays.
Bethia was remembered as a short, stout, gentle woman, a good wife and mother. She brought up Harry Floyd, their grandson from the age of 2, starting when they lived at Smalldean Farm.
Bethia died in 1932, aged 78, and William died in 1934. Aged 83. Even then he managed to be controversial as his name was mentioned when the uproar about the poisonous water in the villages hit the headlines. See 1934 Lacey Green Water in the News
The following report is by Miles Marshall
"William Saunders My Father" as told by Daisy Smith, his daughter to Miles Marshall in 1983
William Saunders, Mrs Smith's father, was the son of another William, of Speen Farm, now the Home of Rest for Horses, whilst he was still working there for his father, young William demonstrated his initiative by driving a team of horses to London with a wagonload of hay which he quickly sold to the occupant of one of the large private houses which then stood in Piccadilly. It was good quality hay at a fair price so that he soon developed a lucrative trade with the London gentry.
Set on by Footpads. When he was first married he took over the Rose and Crown public house at Saunderton for a short while before moving to Small Dean Farm in 1894, on his own account. Meanwhile he continued to develop his London hay trade and would make regular monthly trips by train to collect his accounts which were mostly settled in golden sovereigns in those days. This was before Saunderton Station was built so that he had a lonely walk back to the Rose and Crown from Risborough station and on one such evening he was set upon by two footpads and robbed.
Problem Solved. After this experience, as his train approached the back garden of the Rose and Crown, which extended down to the track, he would open the carriage window and hurl his bag of gold into the garden. As his wife heard the train approaching she quickly ran down the garden to secure the money. He was not robbed again.
William and his Farm Hands. It was not unknown, however, despite the amity which existed between the Saunders family and the families of the farm hands, for George Maunder, the hasty tempered carter, to have a tiff with his boss who could at times be equally short. On more than one occasion George was off to the Michaelmas Fair, with the traditional twist of whipcord in his buttonhole, denoting his trade, and fixed himself up with a new master. But when all the family’s chattels had been loaded onto a wagon for departure to the new home, master and man would make up their differences and it all had to be unloaded again. On one notable occasion though, they did leave and worked a whole year at Wardrobes Farm (Row Farm). But Mrs Saunders, the peacemaker, went over there at the end of his contract and brought them back again to Small Dean where they stayed for many years.
A Hansom Cab in the Hedge. And can anyone remember the old London hansom cab which William Saunders parked up in ‘Double Hedge’ so that in wet weather he could sit up there and shoot rabbits?
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