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Pleasant Harbor Baile formerly Trott, nee Tapley

Jews Harp Alley
2 Coach House
4 Crown Court
Eastry Union Workhouse

Occupation: Nurse, Wife & Mother

Pleasant was the eighth of the eleven children born to James Tapley and Anne Wilkins. James had moved, from Folkestone, into Deal,  in around 1801 when he married Ann the daughter of John and Mary Wilkins. James and Ann lived with her parents in Crown Court and it is here that they had all their children. By the time Pleasant Harbour was born five of her siblings had already died including one also named Pleasant Harbor who had died in 1808 at just a few months old. 

James and Ann moved into Jews Harp Alley,  now South Court, sometime in the late 1830s.

In 1830 Pleasant signs the St. George’s parish register as a witness to the baptism of Elizabeth Forster, the daughter of William and Sarah Forster who lived in King Street. Presumably, they were friends of hers.

Two years later Pleasant married William Trott, he like her father, was a boatman and they set up home together in Jews Harp Alley where they had their five children. 

Pleasant Harbor Baile formerly Trott, nee Tapley
Probably taken around the time of Jeremiah’s death in 1860

The lives of the Boatmen and their families was particularly hard in the winter months when bad weather hampered sea travel and food supplies even if you could afford what there was available, became short. In later years a Soup Kitchen was set up but even then many were forced to ask for help from Eastry Union and its Board of Guardians. It appears that this was the case for the Trott family who were probably receiving outdoor relief. At a meeting held by the Board of Guardians for Eastry Union on 14 January 1845 a letter is read out from the  Medical Officer who complains “…about the disregard given to his advice by William Trott, a pauper under his care, both as it regards going out in most improper weather and resorting to the Public House.” William was then suffering from consumption, he died a few months later on March 16, 1845, leaving Pleasant to fend for herself and their young family; and the workhouse beckoned.

By August 1846 Pleasant, no longer able to support herself and her children, had to make her way to Eastry Union Workhouse. Did she walk the six miles with her children perhaps carrying the youngest? We obviously just don’t know but she like many, many others from Deal and the surrounding towns that fell under the Eastry Union had to do just that to survive.

Once there she didn’t let the harsh regime break her. Indeed she fought back and her strength of character has left its mark in the Eastry Union Records.

Meeting held 21 April 1846

“The Master reports that …….. Hannah May, Pleasant Trott,  Ann Knight, Frances Dixon and Alice Castle, for having caused the children in the School to refuse and destroy the food provided for them and thereby creating insubordination and violent disturbance in the School and throughout the House. Each of the women to be placed in solitary confinement for 12 hours on 2 separate days on Bread and Water.”

Meeting held 26 May 1846

“The Master states that on 19 May Ann Knight and Pleasant Trott, both of Deal, were reported by the Matron to have absconded during the night, but had taken no Workhouse Clothing. He Immediately informed Mr. Gibbons, the Relieving Officer, the former having left 6 and the latter 5 children in the Workhouse.”

Meeting held 28 July 1846

“Pleasant Trott and Ann Knight having lately taken their children out of the Workhouse and forsaken them immediately afterwards, it was determined that if they repeat such practice, proceedings will forthwith be instituted against them and that they will be called before the Board and admonished.”

It seems that far from forsaking her children Pleasant was within days back in the Workhouse where she was defending her eldest son Edward.

Meeting held 4 August 1846

“ The Master stated that Pleasant Trott had complained to him that her son Edward had been severely punished by the Schoolmaster, which he found to be on enquiry to be the case. He, therefore, directed the attention of the Schoolmaster to the Workhouse Rules with a request that he would firmly adhere to them in the future.

The Chairman read a note from the Schoolmaster explaining the offence committed by Edward Trott and for which he had punished the boy. Pleasant Trott having requested to come before the Board said she wished to know if the Schoolmaster was allowed to beat her child and that last week he was black with beating from head to foot.

The Schoolmaster and the Boy were called in. The Boy stated he was flogged last Saturday week, the marks complained of had disappeared. The Chairman reprimanded him for his conduct and after his departure, the Schoolmaster was advised to abide by the Rules and punish cautiously.

Meeting held 13 July 1852

“ The Poor Law Board informed the Board of Guardians that Sir John Walsham had received instructions to institute the necessary Inquiry into the charge against the Master and appointed this day at 12 o’clock to investigate the charges and the following persons were called for examination as witnesses, viz. F W Parker the Porter, Abraham Easter a pauper, Mr R S Leggatt the Medical Officer, Pleasant Trott a pauper and Mr Fisher the Master in his own defence.”

Mr. Marmaduke William Fisher, the next month was fined for drunkenness; the following year he emigrated with his family to Australia.

Jeremiah Baile

In 1854 Pleasant married Jeremiah Baile. He too had been in Eastry Union Workhouse from about 1840 when he was discharged from the army. He had joined the 13th Dragoons in 1821 when he was just fifteen. The following year he was to become a boy trumpeter and was assigned two guineas from Horse Guards “…to equip him with necessaries.” Most of his service was spent in the East Indies but by the early, to mid-1840s he had developed Epilepsy and was discharged on the 26 August 1840. His Discharge papers tell us that he was then only thirty-four and was 5 foot 9 ¾ with Dark Brown Hair, Hazel eyes and having a brown complexion.

South Eastern Gazette – Tuesday 18 August 1840 The Funner s Journal. No. 1 vol. 13

He was certainly in Eastry Union from September 1841 when he is recorded as receiving ‘Indoor Relief’. Then in May 1842, it was decided that his pension was to be claimed to defray the costs of his maintenance in the Workhouse. He is still an inmate in August 1852 when the Master of the Workhouse, Marmaduke Fisher, was fined for drunkenness. The Eastry Union Records state that during in his drunken state he had a knife and a pistol and “… the Constable was called & Baile a pauper & others seized the pistol.”

Epilepsy probably made Jeremiah unreliable for employment and as his army pension of seven shillings a week wouldn’t have gone far he seemed to have remained in the Eastry Union at least until 1854 when he married Pleasant. We don’t know when or how they met or even, as no parish record can be found,  where they married. We do know though that Jeremiah died in Deal 1860 in Coach Yard and was buried in Hamilton Road Cemetery on the 8 December.

Pleasant was living at 2 Coach Yard when the 1861 census was taken when she says she is a nurse. Strangely she gave her name as ‘Trott’ though maybe the enumerator knew her by that name and recorded her as such. By 1871 she has moved to Crown Court possibly number 4 where she is, with her young granddaughter, sharing a house with a North Sea Pilot and his family. By 1881 Pleasant is again an inmate in Eastry Union. Whether she remains there or until her death we don’t know but she is there in 1891 when that year’s census was taken and it is where she died in 1892. Pleasant isn’t buried with Jeremiah but was buried in St. Mary’s Walmer on 27 February. We don’t know why she was buried in Walmer but her sister-in-law Sarah, wife of Edward Thurrel Tapley, was living in the parish at the time with her daughter, so it is quite possible that they had her brought to St. Mary’s for burial.

 

 
Sources and further reading:
Image of Pleasant Harbour Tapley is a copy of a daguerreotype kindly shared by the Hughes family who are decendants of William Trott, Pleasant’s son.
Extracts of Eastry Union records found in Deal Library
Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)