Early Life
William Privett was born into an average, working class family in 1835[1]. His father, another William, was an agricultural labourer[2] and his mother had no listed profession, but it’s likely, as so many other women did at the time, that she took in laundry for her neighbours to make money on the side. William had five siblings, Jane, Elizabeth, Henry, Edward, and Charles. They lived in Hampshire for the entirety of their lives, across various parts of county not moving above, or much below, their status as the “industrious poor”.
William, as the eldest child, would have felt the pressure to help support his father’s growing brood as quickly as possible. In an age where children were farmed out to service or apprenticeships before they hit their teens, it’s probable he started working with his father.Arduous work, digging ditches, fixing fences, any labour to increase their meagre income and all likely before he had turned 12.
Crime
By the time William turned 20, he had possibly grown sick of the endless drudgery. Perhaps the death of his grandfather at only 51 had soured him or maybe it was bad companions who persuaded him, but whatever the cause, in October of 1853 our young man divested Daniel Stockman of his Silver pocket watch[3]. He was caught and sent to prison remarkably quickly: where he would stay and rot for 4 years.
Imprisonment
William spent time in Millbank first, then Portland before finally being removed to Woking, as prisoner number 3. There he would eke out the last few months of his penal servitude helping to build the invalid wings of the prison[4]. Privett was released at the end of his sentence in October 1859, with no license granted to this poor convict; normally well-behaved inmate who committed a non-violent crime were eligible for early release. At the end of his sentence, he returned home to Hampshire.
Aftermath
William did fairly well for himself for a time, he became a fitter, a skill no doubt taught to him whilst incarcerated. In addition to utilizing a new skill he had also met a new woman, Eliza Jane Stripe. They became incredibly close, incredibly quickly, as within 3 months of his return from prison, eighteen-year-old Eliza found herself pregnant[5].
William did the right thing by her and they eventually married in May of 1860,in Portsea and awaited the coming of their first child. A son, William, arrived in October of 1860. Sadly he only survived just 3 months.
The pair may have taken this as their piece in life, such was the infant mortality of the time, or they may have been devastated by the loss of their child. It must have been a bitter pill to swallow, marrying to have children, only for their first to die. Even so William and Eliza continued on for another two and half years before she fell pregnant again[6].
Just a month before Eliza was due to deliver; disaster struck the Privett family again. William’s mother Elizabeth, aged just 55, died [7]. It’s impossible to tell how the surviving family handled this tragedy, but as William Senior never remarried after the loss of his wife, it is probable that theirs was a happy marriage and that the loss of it would have been felt for many years.
William and Eliza went on to have a daughter, a girl they named Jane. Jane would later become a seamstress but would die young; she would be buried at 27, a spinster placed in unconsecrated ground.
But William was feted to never know what happened to his daughter, as in 1866, at the grand old age of thirty-one, he died. His three year old daughter Jane was left in the sole care of his now 24 year old widow.
[1] ‘1851 England Census’ (Ancestry.co.uk, 2019) <https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/8860/HAMHO107_1669_1669-0161/5943375?backurl=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/35855863/person/28670971309/facts/citation/145268589229/edit/record> accessed 28 July 2019.
[2] ‘1841 England Census’ (Ancestry.co.uk, 2019) <https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/8978/HAMHO107_389_391-0151/4976049> accessed 28 July 2019.
[3] Salisbury and Winchester Journal, ‘Hampshire Quarter Sessions’ (1855) <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000361/18551020/025/0004> accessed 28 July 2019.
[4] Search.findmypast.co.uk. (2019). Woking Prison log 1. [online] Available at: https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record/browse?id=tna%2fccc%2fpcom2%2f142%2f00027&parentid=tna%2fccc%2fpcom2%2f142%2f00027 [Accessed 20 Aug. 2019].
[5] Ancestry.co.uk. (2019). Civil Death Index q1 1861. [online] Available at: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/8914/ONS_D18611MW-0320/27356850?backurl=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/35855863/person/172034738384/facts [Accessed 20 Aug. 2019].
[6] ‘Hampshire, Portsmouth,Burials – Register Of Burials In The Burial Ground For The Parish Of Portsea Pg 144’ (Search.findmypast.co.uk, 2019) <https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=S2%2FGBPRS%2FPORTSMOUTH%2F105363418%2F00145&parentid=GBPRS%2FPORTSMOUTH%2FCEMETERY%2F00102716> accessed 28 July 2019.
[7] Ancestry.co.uk. (2019). Civil Registration Death Index 1863 q1. [online] Available at: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/8914/ONS_D18631FP-1502/27356396?backurl=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/35855863/person/18915711578/facts [Accessed 20 Aug. 2019].