Born: 17/12/1772 Colyton
Baptised: 25/12/1772 Colyton
Died: 15/11/1845 Staddiscombe, Devon
Jasper married Jane (also known as Joan and Jenny) HARTNELL (baptised: 25/11/1777 Churchstanton, buried: 1857 Plymstock aged 80) daughter of Edward Hartnell and Betty Poole. (Edward had a twin sister Dorothy. Jane also seems to have had twins.) They married at West Bagborough, Somerset 2/12/1796 and after the birth of their first child, Joseph, moved the family to Staddiscombe near Plymstock, Devon. Agriculture in Devon at the turn of the 18th Century was become a difficult and unrewarding profession. Devon lagged behind some of the other major farming counties in terms of technique and technology. This meant that the move towards large fields and mechanisation was a prolonged business.
Jasper became a labourer and herdsman in Staddiscombe. He and Jane had some 13 children over their lives together. They must have been a close family as the tythe map of 1861 shows no less than 4 members of the family living in different houses in Staddiscombe and the 1851 census shows Jane, 76, was living with her youngest son Henry, Jasper having died some 6 years before.
During the 19th Centuary, Devon doubled in size. Unlike some areas of the country, Devon didn’t have the iron and coal resources to power the industrial revolution; instead tourism and retailing became the growth areas. Farming employed 1 in 4 and during the French wars the trade became prosperous. Labourers and farm workers didn’t benefit from this prosperity until the late 19th centuary. Their wages were poor (less than 3/4 of national average) most earning about 10 shillings a week, with bonuses at Harvest and Michaelmas time. A fathers wage would often be supplemented by older children who would have worked as servants or in the fields. Indeed, Jasper and Jane’s grandchild Henry Hartnell appears on the 1881 census aged 14 employed as a House Servant for Richard POPPLESTONE, farmer of Staddon Farm, Plymstock, who employed 3 labourers to work his 270 acres. Henry’s father was probably employed by Popplestone.
To get an idea of the cost of living, a typical labourer’s diet would have consisted mainly of bacon or pork (which would have come from the family pigs), bread and weak tea. To keep even a basic standard of living, the fathers wages of 10s would barely cover costs.
| Bread | 6s 5d | Sugar | 1s 8d |
| Bacon | 2s 1.5d | Tea | 5.5d |
| Butter | 1s 8.5d | Soap | 6d |
| Oil/Candles | 3d | Tobacco | 1s |
| Wood or coal | 2s | Rent | 1s |
The family may have paid the local baker to bake bread or roast meat for 1/2 penny. When the pig was slaughtered, half of it would be sold to the local butcher, while the rest was either preserved or given to neighbours who had helped feed it on scraps. Occasionally, wild rabbit, hedgehog or pigeon may have supplemented the diet, but this was the exception rather than the rule.
In contrast, Plymouth was the boom area of Devon. The growth of Devonport as the regions main port both for military and civilian ships, together with it prosperous industries meant that the city was growing out of all proportion. This is probably what prompted Jasper and Jane to move to Staddiscombe. As Plymouth grew, so the population would need feeding, and the farms around the city would reap the benefit. Plymstock, even at that time, would have been very close to Plymouth and as such the farms would be busy. This movement of labourers was not unusual at the time. Many left the villages of Devon for other areas of England or even abroad to countries like Canada or the US.
Jasper and Jane had at least 13 children:
Joseph (baptised: 10/9/1797 Axmouth) *1
Maria (born: 1798 Staddiscombe, died: 1823).
Richard (born:1801, became a Stoker in the Royal Navy)
Robert (born: 1801, became a boatman at Hooe)
Bettey (baptised: 20/4/1803 Staddiscombe)
Jane (baptised: 1/6/1806 Staddiscombe)
John (baptised: 25/12/1807 Staddiscombe)
Jasper (baptised: 25/12/1807 Staddiscombe, died: 1883 Honiton, Devon)
Hannah (Anna) (baptised: 18/5/1811 Staddiscombe)
Jane (born: 19/5/1811, baptised: 9/5/1813 Staddiscombe)
Thomas (baptised: 14/5/1815 Staddiscombe, died: 20/10/1894) *2
Henry Hartnell (baptised: 25/1/1818 Staddiscombe, labourer) *3
William (baptised: 21/5/1820 Staddiscombe, labourer)