Introduction

Though this volume throws light on people of varying position and character, nearly all of them are responsible, respectable members of the community, who are, after all, the most likely to keep a record of what they do. This account of Henry Taylor, for diary is hardly the right word, reminds us of the other side of eighteenth century life. It was written by his brother, George Chalkley Taylor, presumably to help prepare evidence for the many law suits mentioned, and is in a small note book, part of the collection of documents deposited at the Bedford Record Office by Messrs. Hawkins of Hitchin, by whose kind permission it is published here. Much of the story is confused, and some parts inexplicable, but enquiry shows that behind it all was a framework of fact.

The beginning was the death in 1728 of George Chalkley, a substantial yeoman of Bendish in St. Paul’s Walden, Herts. He had two daughters, one of whom died without children, and the other, Mary the wife of Henry Taylor, had two sons, Henry and George Chalkley. To George Chalkley Taylor and his heirs the grandfather left an estate at King’s Walden and Offley, Herts., and to Henry Taylor and his children property at Pulloxhill, Beds. If either grandson died without issue, then his estate was to go to the brother and the brother’s children.

We know nothing of the boys’ early life, except that they were brought up as Quakers, but Henry showed signs of instability from his youth. George Chalkley married, and had a son of the same name as himself, so his inheritance from the grandfather was secure, but Henry does not appear to have had any legitimate children, so he possessed only a life interest in the land at Pulloxhill which, on his death, would revert to his brother. Both brothers had other property, Henry at Pulloxhill and King’s Walden, and George Chalkley in 1772 was owning land at Breachwood Green and Bendish, Herts., at Fenlake, Beds., and houses in Newport Pagnell, Bucks.

George Chalkley Taylor lived much of the early part of his life at Maulden in Bedfordshire, and attended the Quaker Meeting at Ampthill and Pulloxhill.