Born: Unknown, about mid 1500s
Died: May 1612
Although Robert is not the first Collier in the Axe area to be known, he is the first whom we have any real information on. He was what was known as a Husbandman. That means that he was a small farmer,
renting land probably from Sir Walter Earle, who owned all the land in Axmouth at that
time. The Collier family would typically hold the land originally for three ‘lives’ (three generations). A large fine was usually paid initially and then a very small annual rent. One of their fields was the Mill Meadow, for which permission to dig a drainage trench was given on an agreement on the very first page of the Axmouth church register, dated 1603:
NOTES FOR THE VICARS IN PERPETUAM
Md I Tho. Colliar do acknowledge yt the mill-stream at tymes purveyed by a trench to water the mill-meadow and to digge the ground there to that end; is merely of sufferance and with ii ame I give willingly one dayes cariage with ii horses at harvest, as oft as I shall take every year the same.
signed Thomas Colliar
testibus Richard Kerswell
Thomas Collins
Note also yt Jo. Newton whose Hye Meadow was and evermore take my leave breaking my ground when
he presumed at last to do it wtout, I forbad him upon pain of action & hold him from it, v or vi years before his death & filled up the trench. But afterward it was opened by Tho. Collier upon this agreement as is above mentioned.
So by intreatie Henrie Treviliam used it also.
Note also that the 5 & 6 leaves of this booke were cutt away when it was first bought by and at
the book binders at Exeter.
Testo.Richd Harvud
John Abott came in clerke the 14th. of November in 1653.
Md that between the 3 and 4th leaves of this booke there were 2 leaves found to be cutt out when
this book was bought, and before anything was registered therein.
Testibus Rd Harvey vicar
Jeffrey Carswyll
Rbt. Collier
No. 1
THE REGISTER BOOKE of the parish of Axmouth in the ach are contained the names of all such marieages
christenings and buriaaalles as have been sithend the yere of our Lord 1603 being the yere in wch
our most noble King James of famous memory came to be King of England.
There can be seen the marks of both Robert Collier and his son Thomas. Neither could write, so the marks are simple crosses. The Reverand Richard Harvey of Lyme Regis was vicar of the ancient church at Axmouth from 30th of March 1590 to 1632. Through marriage he was the Uncle of Thomas Earle. In the agreement, Thomas accepted to dig the trench from Mill Stream to Mill Meadow “merely on sufferance” and that in payment he was required to supply two horses at harvest time for one day’s work to help the vicar.
A husbandman is reckoned to have farmed 18-20 acres, enough to keep a family. Robert would plough the
land and plant rye for bread, using the common ground for grazing his Black Cattle and long-haired sheep. Like everyone else, he would have at least one pig, which the family would feed to an enormous size for bacon. This was nearly all fat. Oxen, as well as horses, were used for ploughing, but horses did all the carrying work. The West Country was very late to see any wheeled vehicles. In fact, loads were moved using a ‘truckamuck’, a sort of cart dragged along the ground. It was made of two trees tied together.
Food was very simple but, needless to say, the women of the family would be expert in making cream. That, together with the bacon and bread, seems to have been staple food of the period. Places near the sea, like Axmouth, would also be able to have fish. Axmouth itself was a fairly major port since the Roman occupation of Devon. By the 1600s it may well have started to silt up, but even today some fish live in the river. To see the tiny village today, it is difficult to imagine that it was described as ‘an olde and bigge fischer toune’ in Robert’s time. The two modern pubs there now were preceded by 14 ‘hotels’ catering for the sailors and fishermen.
And then there was the cider, of course! All cottages had orchards attached, and the people made the cider individually with crushed apples. But Robert, as shown by his will, was one of the few farmers in the parish who actually had his own equipment for pressing his and other people’s apples. His cider making apparatus, the “wringer and stone and vat and knife” was very previous, and was to go to son Thomas after the death of Robert’s wife Alys.
His house would have been quite small, but it did have an upstairs, for “the chamber over the hall” is mentioned. It would be something like the cottages we see now in many villages. In fact, it might be there in Axmouth somewhere, and still lived in. The hovels that the farm labourers and poorer folk inhabited have all disappeared, and a good thing too!
The house would have been sparsely furnished, with a bedstead and feather mattress and pillows and bedclothes, with perhaps a chest or chair, in the chambers, or bedrooms. Downstairs in the hall, the main living room, there might have been a long table with a form to sit on, a couple of chairs or stools, and maybe a little cupboard. In the open fireplace there would have been some porter pots and pans, fire irons, and crocks to eat from. Maybe there was meat hung up in the rafters for smoking, for there was always plenty of smoke about!
The will mentions the names of several people who are possibly related in some way. The church records are not much help, but Robert Kerswell married Margaret Davis on 14th May 1604, and their daughter Mary was christened in 1604 and Elizabeth 1607.
We are very lucky to be able to read Robert Collier’s will. Many were made, but most were destroyed in the Exeter Blitz. The 14 recorded husbandmen of this time whose wills remain showed an average of £56 in their inventories. Robert’s was £66. As a matter of interest, the recorded yeomen of this time averaged £312 in their inventories.
The original will was destroyed, but a copy was made before the war, bound with others, and is now in the West Country Studies Library in Exeter. We know that Alys also left a will when she died in 1624, but hers was not transcribed, and so is lost, as is the will of Thomas Collier of Axmouth, died 1630.
Robert’s will is transcribed thus:
COLLIER (Collyeare) Robert of Axmouth
Date of will 5 May 1612
Proved 22 May 1612 and executrix sworn by commission.
To John Collyeare of Uplyme my bedsted in the chamber over the hall after me and my wife.
To An Maynes the bedsted in the chamber within the hall after my desese and my wife.
To Mote Davis goods after deaths of me and my wife.
To Thomas Collyeare my wringer and the stone and the vate and the ropesse and leveare and the knife, after my wife.
I do give to foweare of my godchildren to oarye me to the church twelfe pense a pesse.
To Mary bages a heifer.
To Elizabeth Collieare dasteare of John Collieare 12d.
To Thomas Collieares 3 children 12d each.
To Robert Casswell 10s.
To Thomas Davie 5s and to Joane Davie 5s, children of Richard Davie.
To Mary Carswell and Elizabeth Carswell 12d each, children of Robert Carswell to be paid after my wifes death.
Residue to my wife Allse Collyeare, executrix.
Rulers: Robeart Ford and Thomas Collieare
Witnesses: Richard Clearke, Robert Ford, Thomas Colieare.
Invent. £66.
Robert and Alice had 3 children:
Thomas
John
Alice