John Morton
John Morton,Saviour of Bucklebury Common
1788-1871
Imagine what it must have been like to have been born into a poor family in 1788 and when eight years old, your father dies. Disaster! Mrs Morton moved with her son, John, from Sunninghill to Hope Cottage, in the small hamlet of the Slade, Bucklebury, went to live with relatives, Henry Hoare and Sarah Hoare, nee Hope, probably his sister.
John would have found himself in a large parish with a Lord of the Manor and one of the biggest commons in Berkshire. The common provided a livelihood for the 170 families living there who depended on its resources. These were many, including grazing and bracken for bedding their animals, water for their households, and wood for their fires.
John was fortunate because, in the days long before compulsory state education, the family must have been able to survive without his daily labour. Within walking distance, over the common and down the Harts Hill to the village of Thatcham, there was a Bluecoat School, that is, a charity school, which John attended. In those days only reading, writing, arithmetic and scripture would have been taught, but that was a good education when so many poor children had none. He could not have achieved all he did in his life if he had been Illiterate.
One day, the story goes, when he was about 13, on his way with his class mates, up the steep hill home from school, he fell ill and they had to carry him home. He had a terrible fever from which he nearly died and when he recovered he was left with a bad limp. Although it was difficult from then on for him to join in the games with his friends, he did his best not to be left out and would join in where he could or go hunting squirrels with them on the Common.
On leaving school he started to work on local farms and eventually moved to run Holly Farm.
In those days many people went to church. John and his mother attended St. Mary’s, the parish church of Bucklebury, but at that time nonconformist worship was gaining in popularity and when the newly formed congregational church opened in Thatcham, John found he preferred that. He became a Sunday school teacher and in 1816 started to preach in the open air, travelling round the local villages. Some people who worshipped at the established church did all they could to disrupt his simple sincere preaching and mocked and harassed him, throwing eggs, threatening him with cudgels and pouring derision on his sermons. Undeterred he continued, becoming a good public speaker and he became a familiar figure in the area. He attracted quite a following and his headquarters became a disused blacksmith’s shop on Turner’s Green, so called because this was the area on the common where the local bowl turners plied their trade.
John married Mary, nee Lyford and they had six children, two boys and four girls. Peter, born 1819, Lydia, born 1822, Mercy, born 1822, Mary born 1824, David, born 1826 and Dorcas, born 1828. They all survived into adulthood and married. Some of John’s great, great, great, great grandchildren still live in the parish.
In 1834, the new Lord of the Manor, Mr Winchcombe Hartley, following a national farming trend, decided to enclose the common and a Bill was presented to Parliament for its enclosure. John, in his late forties, was obviously by now an influential and well known person in the Bucklebury area and he decided to take a leading role in fighting the Bill, knowing what hardship and impoverishment this enclosure would bring to the commoners.
John engaged council from his own purse to support his cause, contacted the MP for Reading, Mr Walter, asking for his support and rode to London, arriving on April 16th 1834, to defeat the bill before both Houses of Parliament. In his absence, his wife ran the farm and he sent letters from London sending her instructions on what needed doing.
Letter from John to his wife Sarah;
“Be sure and take care of all the cattle and that sow that is to pig shut up and I think the sheep should have some water to drink at night and give them plenty of hay”
He and the other witnesses were detained in London adding to the expense. He wrote home
“Tell all the people to pray earnestly to God, and we will do all in our power here. I am afraid the money will not be enough, some had better go to them that have promised to give”
John started the list by donating £10.00 and another fifty- five people contributed with amounts varying from one shilling to £10.00.
The expenses incurred in opposing the Bill, fees to the House -Parliamentary Agents, solicitors charges and council fees: £126.7.0
Land Surveyors £ 10.0.0
Witnesses travelling expenses £ 41.0.0
Total £177.7.0
After numerous worried letters home and more fund raising and many prayers, the bill was defeated and freedom of Bucklebury Common was ensured for all time on May 8th 1834.
After the Bill was defeated John Morton’s congregation raised nearly £400 from public subscription and finally built a chapel on the site of the old blacksmith’s shop in Turners Green. It was opened on July 31st 1840. John preached in his chapel until he died
John continued to farm the 130 acres and by 1851, when he was 63, he employed 4 labourers.
The beautiful common is now part of the North Wessex Downland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Parts of it have been restored to that increasingly rare habitat, lowland heath, home to nightjars, adders and glorious displays of heather in late summer.
Owing to the number of footpaths created by commoners in the past, taking their animals to graze, Bucklebury is said to have more footpaths than any other parish in England and is now an enormous asset to walkers. and is buried on the site
John Morton died in November 16th 1871 aged 83. He was buried in the chapel grounds. (Newbury Weekly News Nov.16th). The chapel still stands: a testament to this remarkable man.
He could never have guessed the benefits his actions would have on future generations, and Bucklebury Common would be a lasting memorial to one man’s courage and dogged determination to stand up to the local Lord of the Manor and authority, buck the national trend of land enclosure, and against the odds pitted against the poor, win.
