The Barfoot Family - Langham Village History Group

Although Thomas does not refer to a wife, it seems he did havea child whom he acknowledges in his Will as ‘my natural sonJames Sharpe otherwise James Stevenson’. This may suggesthis son was illegitimate and James’s baptism in February 1795at Oakham mentions only his mother’s name. If his mother wasJane Stevenson who was baptised in 1780 in Pickwell, then shewas only fifteen when he was born. However, Thomas does thedecent thing, and ensures James receives an inheritance ofthree hundred pounds from his estate.In the census of 1881, James Stevenson Sharpe is living inBarleythorpe with his occupation stated as carpenter and buildereven though he is by then 86 years old! Some years earlier,he had farmed a smallholding of twenty six acres in Langham.He and his wife Mary had four children, two sons, who becamecarpenters, and two daughters. According to census records threeof them had been born ‘deaf and dumb’ and they remained livingwith their parents throughout their lives. In 1901 only Susannah,the one child who was not deaf, and her older brother Thomaswere still alive living together in Barleythorpe.It is also interesting to note that Thomas Sharpe left sevenshares in the Oakham Canal, one to each of his Barfoot nephewsand nieces. Construction of the canal, some fifteen miles inlength connecting Oakham to Melton Mowbray, began in 1793and was completed in 1802 at a huge cost of £70,000. The canalwas purchased by the Midland Railway in 1846 and it employedMr Cubitt, in his first major contract, to dismantle the canalso that it could no longer be used for transport. A reliable,year round source of water for the ten miles of navigation intoOakham proved a major problem disrupting traffic during dryspells. I have read that a preservation society has recently beenformed to revive the canals fortunes. 8When Thomas’s brother Samuel Sharpe dies in 1822, 9 he too leavesall his estate to ‘the children of my sister Mary Barfoot’. One ofthese children was the Reverend Henry Barfoot who had beeneducated at the expense of Colonel John Frewen Turner (1755‐1829).Page 6