Neatishead – Death of James Cubitt in 1821

I hardly dare let myself read old newspapers as I get endlessly distracted, which has happened again when looking at what was happening in Norfolk exactly 200 years ago. I thought that this (clicking on the image makes it larger) was really rather sad, a mother left begging in the local press after her husband James Cubitt died. The advert notes that the farmer and his wife were already in “pecuniary difficulties” and there were five infant children.

James died at the age of 40 on 18 September 1821 and was buried at Neatishead Baptist Church on 23 September 1821. This church was relatively new, having opened in 1811 and it’s still there and used for worship over 200 years on. The first pastor at the church was William Spurgeon and it was he who supervised the burial of James. James had married Clarissa Harcourt (daughter of John) on 18 July 1810 in the Church of England building in Neatishead and he was the son of William and Mary Cubitt.

The financial arrangements lingered on for some time, there was ultimately a creditors’ meeting held in January 1823 to discuss the matter, held at the White Horse pub in the village which is still trading. Which is something that I find quite intriguing in itself, as James would have known the village church, the baptist church and the village pub, all of which are still standing and used for their original purpose. Clarissa died at the age of 61 in January 1843, 23 years after the death of her husband.

Anyway, an irrelevant distraction and a little reminder of how different things were 200 years ago.