Picture of the farmland at Hunger Hill, near East Stour, in the Blackmore Vale, Dorset. This is Thomas Hardy's 'valley of the little dairies'. The Hiscock family were here in 1841 and farmed in the area for many years.
Origins of the name - Hiscock. The name Hiscock is believed to be derived and modified from the first name Richard. This is from Hich or Hitch which was a pet form of the name Richard, particularly in 13th century Chesire. In 1891 the name was most common in Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire with some Hiscocks in Somerset and Berkshire.
Hiscock family history 1918 to date. My grandmother was baptised Violet Doris Hiscock and her father and mother were Robert and Sophia Hiscock. Violet grew up in Shaftesbury on Boyne Farm on the Salisbury Road. I remember visiting her frequently at her home on Christys Lane when I was young and she used to babysit for my parents on occasions. She loved children and was a friendly and tolerant lady who liked her sherry (the Hiscocks for at least a few generations seem to have had a fondness for drink which my father and I seem to have inherited) and a bit of Elvis! Apparently she was a good looking woman in her younger days and throughout her life she liked to make herself up and look nice. The whole family were upset when she passed away at a relatively young age after illness in 1985 and I attended her funeral at Mampitts Lane cemetary with the service at St Peter's Church in Shaftesbury. Violet met her husband Sidney when he was living just
down the road from Boyne Farm at Coombe. Robert Hiscock, her father, was first a farm manager having at one time worked a farm at Chitterne. He and his family then lived at Mampitts Farm in Shaftesbury before then going to Boyne Farm. It was whilst at Boyne that Robert starting thatching. Robert came from a farming family and this livelihood was something with which he would have been familiar. Robert died in Wimborne area of Dorset where he lived in later days. Sophia, his first wife, is buried in Cann Churchyard in Shaftesbury. Sophia was born a Kelly and she and her family were from the village of Berwick St John just over the border in Wiltshire from where Robert Hiscock was in Farnham/Tollard. Alot of the family were grooms/stablemen or labourers and apparently worked on the Ferne estate for the Grove family. Kelly is an Irish name and the family have always thought that there was a little bit of Irish ancestry through this link. However it
would appear that from Sophia back for many generations these Kellys were all from Berwick St John so the Irish link may be distant if at all. The fact that they were an 'Irish' family though may be evidenced from the fact that in 1901 they were host to a visitor from Ireland so they may well have kept links with friends and family from 'the old country'.
1870 to 1918. Robert's father was Francis Rogers Hiscock who with his wife Emily (nee Riman) lived at Rookery Farm, Farnham on Cranborne Chase. Rookery Farm is next to the Larmer Tree Gardens owned by General Pitt-Rivers and which in the 1890's was the scene of revolutionary entertainment events which Francis must have attended. My ancestor was certainly invited to one of the General's events as his name appears on the guest list from the Pitt- Rivers collection. General Pitt-River was a paternalist of the old-school Victorian nature and took an interest in educating children of local labourers and gypsies. Francis was a tenant farmer on Pitt-River's land and we have copies of his rent payments schedule in the late 19th century. One sad story connected with Francis and Emily concerns the sons of their eldest daughter Edith. Both her sons were killed in the First World War both aged 19 but 18 months apart, one in 1916 and
the other 1918. There are memorials to Francis George Harris and Walter James Harris on Francis Rogers and Emily Hiscock's grave in Farnham churchyard and this acts as testimony to the affect that the sad loss of these two brothers must have had on the family and local community. Their deaths are commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves website (see links). Their father Charles was also a local farmer. (See my documents page for some quotes from Mark Harris from the book 'Dorset Man). Francis Rogers Hiscock died aged just 53 in 1903 but Emily his wife would have experienced the loss of the grandchildren in the war and she died in 1923 (when she was living in West Gomeldon in Wiltshire). I do not know how Francis came to meet Emily Riman when he was from East Stour and she from Handley and they are a fair distance apart. However they met when Emily was young and they they travelled to the USA to marry when she was just 17 and he 22. They then
returned to Handley working in the timber trade which he probably developed in the USA. They later settled at Rookery Farm (a farm with an attachment to the Chase woods and timber trade) nearby where they would remain for the next 20+ years. Robert, their son and my great grandfather, had to finish school aged 12 when Francis died to help her mother with the farm and trade but I don't know how long after 1903 they were at Rookery and when Emily moved to West Gomeldon.
1840 - 1870. Francis Rogers Hiscock was the son of Edwin and Anne Hiscock and he was brought up on Edwin's farm which was Lyde Hill Farm, Stour Provost in the Blackmore Vale. Francis Rogers Hiscock would appear to be named after his grandfather on his mother's side who was Francis Rogers Gray. Francis Rogers Gray was a small farmer in the area originally from Tisbury. He and his wife Hannah have a splendid memorial still visible in East Stour church (see Hiscock pics) which is testimony to how wealthy he must have been and how high up the social scale of the village that the family must have been. Edwin and Anne Hiscock have a similarly impressive grave but less well preserved (see pics). Lyde Hill Farm farm was inherited by the eldest son Elijah when Edwin retired (Elijah and his wife later gave up farming and he became a publican in Somerset). Edwin was evidentally successful as a farmer in the 19th century which was
actually a time of agricultural depression. In 1851 he was a farmer of 100 acres employing 3 labourers whilst in 1871 this was 168 acres employing 4 men and 3 boys. By the time his son Elijah took control the farm was 250 acres with 6 men and 3 boys. The family obviously prospered whilst others were failing and possibly bought land as it became available in these difficult times to expand their concern.
1750 - 1840. The Hiscock family farming pedigree is evident from the fact that in 1841 Edwin Hiscock was farming Hunger Hill, East Stour, with his sister Jane. Edwin was just 19 but recorded as a farmer and his sister Jane 20 was on the census as a dairywoman. It is possible that Hunger Hill was either inherited from their father Edward or purchased with some inheritance. The fact that Edward was of wealthy means is evidenced by the fact that he was on the 1807 electoral roll as being resident in Motcombe with freehold in Marnhull. It is not clear at this time where Edward held this land but it is almost certain that he was farming, as testified by the birth certificate of one of his offspring as he was recorded as a farm bailiff. There is a Hiscock's farm that exists today in the parish of Marnhull and it is quite possible that this farm took it's name from Hiscock's that had it in the early 19th century or late 18th.
Beyond Lazarus the Hiscocks appear to be traceable in the Gillingham area by direct line to the mid-17th century and possibly as far back as the mid-16th century as the name appears in documents in that area.
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