Peter and Ann Floyd

This item is listed in Social Snapshots 1900-1968 inc. listed under date 1929

click Families for other local families

click Floyd for others in this family

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(Click to enlarge) Peter & Ann Floyd were already at Floyds Farm in the 1861 census till they died. Peter in 1924 aged 93. Ann in 1929 aged 95

(Click to enlarge)

Peter Tyler Floyd born 1831 born in Speen was the son of John Floyd & Sarah nee Tyler

Ann Horwood born 1834 was the daughter of James and Sarah Horwood. See James Horwood born 1808

Peter Floyd married Ann Horwood in 1854

The Horwood family moved to Loosley Row from Aston Clinton 1847 when Ann was 14

Before her marriage Ann Horwood lived with her father in Loosley Row. Her father was the gardener for the vicar of Lacey Green Church who was living at Loosley House at that time as the Vicarage in Lacey Green was not yet built. Later Ann was a domestic servant for the vicar.

Before his marriage, since his parents' deaths Peter had lived with his cousin William and family at Lane Farm Church Lane Lacey Green.

Peter and Ann's 4 children were as follows -

Mary Ann Floyd born 1855 married Eldred Tilbury in 1892. Click Eldred & Mary Ann Tilbury

Sarah Elizabeth Floyd born 1861 married Thomas A Leonard in 1882. Lived in Willesden, Mddx.

Joseph George Floyd born 1865 married Annie Janes in 1865. See George & Annie Floyd

Frederick William Floyd born 1871 married Caroline Emma Saunders in 1905. See Fred Floyd. Also see 1905 Marriage at Lacey Green for details of the ceremony, the guests and the presents at Fred and Caroline's wedding.

1851 Census. Lane Farm.

William Floyd, 26,cordwainer and farmer of 20 acres, Sophia 26, Lucinda 7, Julia 3, Cora 1.  Peter Floyd, cousin of William, Shoemaker, Benjamin Hawes, 22, cousin of William, shoemaker.

1861 Census Floyds Farm. Peter Floyd 30 shoemaker, Ann Floyd 27 shoe binder, Mary Ann 5

1871 Census Peter Floyd 40 shoemaker, Ann Floyd 37 lace maker, Mary Ann 15 lace maker, Elizabeth 9, George 5, Frederick 3 months.

1881 Census Peter T Floyd 50 bootmaker, Ann Floyd 47 lace maker, Frederick W Floyd 10.

1889 Court Cottage, Church Lane, Lacey Green, purchased by Peter Tyler Floyd of Floyds Farm from Sarah Ada Cheshire, widow of Thomas Cheshire. See John & Ann Cheshire

1891 Census Peter Floyd 60 bootmaker, Ann Floyd 57

1901 Census Peter Floyd 70 farmer, Ann Floyd 67, Frederick Floyd 30 farmer single.

1901 Conveyance. Peter Tyler Floyd conveyed to William Robson for £60 See Reverend William Robson

Schedule. All that orchard or meadow land, adjoining to a close. now or late of William Stone on the N or NE and to a lane or passage there South or South West, containing one acre two roods twenty-six perches, formerly in the occupation of William Floyd afterwards by David Floyd and now in the occupation of the said Peter Floyd. To hold the same in fee simple subject to the succession duty (if any) to become payable on the decease of Dan Floyd of Lacey Green in respect of his life interest in the premises here conveyed as mentioned in a conveyance dated the 19th day of June 1885 made between Dan Floyd of the first part, Arthur Floyd of the second part and Peter Floyd of the third part. Witnessed and Signed. (This Conveyance is archived in Lacey Green Village Hall)

1911 Census Peter Floyd 80 farmer, Ann Floyd 77, Fred Floyd 40 widower working in business

Peter Floyd was one of the churchwardens of Lacey Green Church.

1924 ARTICLE in the DAILY CHRONICAL.   SEVENTY YEARS in THEIR HONEYMOON COTTAGE (a copy of this article is archived in Lacey Green Village Hall)

Americans have been searching up and down the English countryside this summer for old buildings and old furniture which speak to them of a passing England.

  I could show them (writes a Daily Chronical representative) an old couple whose everyday life, as they live it today, is a link with the past, far more eloquent than any sticks and stones can be.

  About three miles out of Princes Risborough is a little village with the story book name of Lacey Green.   The cottages are green embowered and have latticed windows.   A long winding lane now rich with blackberries and trailing Old Man’s Beard leads to the village.   At the side of the village Inn is a narrow track leading to a little cottage which is just crying out to be put in a fairy-book illustration.

In this little house, with its leaded windows and silvery oak, live Mr. and Mrs. Peter Floyd.   Seventy years ago they entered it newly married; and they have never left it since.

  Mr. Floyd is 93 years old.   A fine-looking old man, with a wise face.   He is now so deaf that his rich store of memories is sealed to the stranger.

  Mrs. Floyd, aged 91, is also rather deaf, but the little effort required to talk to her is fully worthwhile, for she has a mind stored with incidents of a long life.

  Mrs Floyd was born at Aston Clinton, near Tring, in 1833.   She still wears the same picturesque sun-bonnet which country-women wore when she was married.

  She is small, but pluck and determination are shown in every line of her vigorous body.  She reads two or three newspapers every day and will discuss their contents with anyone, especially their political contents.

  At the age of 14, she came to Lacey Green, where she and her father were in service to the vicar, she as a domestic servant.   A few years later, the vicar, impressed by her unusual ability to read, asked her to start a little village school. See Lacey Green School

  She taught the little girls patchwork, and both little boys and girls their letters.  There was a little ‘summing’ done also, and a few of the older pupils used to learn a form of sampler work on canvas.

  Mothers sent their children’s clothes to school already tacked, so that the little pupils might be usefully employed by adding to their wardrobes.

  “At a penny a week, I think their mothers were glad to get rid of them” was old Mrs. Floyds comment.

  For all this the young teacher was paid 2 shillings and 6 pence a week by the parish.  Old men and women of 70, passing down the village street, still point out “my governess” when old Mrs. Floyd goes by.

  Mr. and Mrs. Floyd, helped by a son, keep cows and pigs and hens.   I was shown a dark, cool shed down three on four steps, where Mrs Floyd makes her butter twice a week.   Shallow pans of milk were cooling and golden pats of butter gave evidence of the old housewife’s industry.

  Mrs. Floyd has apparently never known the sensation of boredom in all her life. I asked what were her amusements as a young woman.   “I never had any” she said “I was always a home bird.   If you can’t get amusement in your own home, you’ll never get it outside.”

 In her young days Mrs Floyd used to come up to London by stage-coach, changing at High Wycombe and Edgware.   The last time she visited London was on the occasion of the marriage of King George and Queen Mary (June 1911).   A young relative brought her up to see the illuminations, but she was kept out all night and swore she would never visit London again; and she has kept to her word.

  Neither she nor Mr. Floyd has ever seen the sea, and neither of them wants to. “I don’t even like to look at the reservoir outside the village,” old Mrs. Floyd confided in me, “so I don’t know what I should have to say to the sea.”

Deaths Peter Tyler Floyd died in 1924 aged 93. Ann Floyd died in 1929 aged 95

RESEARCHER’s NOTE.

Ann’s grandson Harry Floyd recounted how she taught the local children.   She and her father were in service to the local vicar.  When he realised that she could read and write he asked her to start a school, or so Harry understood.

The local school at Lacey Green is thought to have started in 1851.   There was certainly a schoolmistress in the 1851 census.   It does not say where she taught.   Her name was Mary Ann Floyd.   See John Floyd & Mary Ann Cook.   There were 24 scholars aged from 4 to 10 years.

Mary Ann Floyd died in 1852.   Ann Horwood is listed in Kelly's Directory of 1854 as 'Infant School Teacher, Lacey Green'. Ann married Peter Floyd in 1854, but Kelly's Directory would have been prepared some time before publication. Were her teaching years from the time of Mary Ann’s death to the time Ann married, or had her first child in 1855?   Harry did not know, but it does appear that she was not the first teacher.  

Ann told Harry that she called herself their “governess”, teaching the children to read and write and do some summing.   The girls did sewing, bringing their clothes ready tacked to make them.

SALE BY the EXECUTORS OF THOMAS DELL of PARSONAGE FARM, SAUNDERTON.

June 9^th 1915.   Sale by auction.   Lot 4. Conveyance.  Purchased by Frederick William Floyd for £640: -

Schedule. Freehold accommodation at Lacey Green, comprising 4 rooms together with 6 acres of arable and grass land, barn, pig styes, stable, and hen houses, let to Mr Peter Floyd, an old standing tenant, at a rental of £15 per annum.   Land tax of 12 shillings and eleven pence.  Peter Floyd, tenant, was the father of Frederick William Floyd, purchaser. click Fred Floyd