David Dolamore (1803-1871).
My 3rd great-grandfather.
I don’t know when David was born but he was baptised on 28 January 1803 at St Lawrence Church, Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, to parents William Dolamore and Charlotte Kimpton.
His father died when he was about 16, in 1819, and William’s will requested that his wife support the boy with clothing during his apprenticeship (if she were to die, the will made provision for David to receive £5 a year instead).
In January 1820, David signed on to a three-year apprenticeship with the baker John Sexton of Stanmore in Middlesex. His mother paid £10 to Sexton to cover the apprenticeship and agreed to buy all the clothes he needed. As part of the contract, David agreed not to indulge in card games and dice and to avoid taverns and playhouses – a typical if puritanical requirement for apprentices. Later census records show that David worked as a carpenter as an adult so it’s unclear whether he ever worked as a baker after his apprenticeship ended.
David married Mary Ann Walker on 23 June 1823 at St Lawrence’s in Abbots Langley and the family then moved on to live in nearby Leavesden. She came from Stanmore so it’s likely they met there during his apprenticeship.
The Bucks Herald of 3 April 1858 reported a court case involving the Dolamores and I’m sure the David mentioned is our man as there are no other candidates locally. It’s likely the beerhouse keeper was a relative. The report said that a Mrs Dollamore, beerhouse keeper at Gander’s Ash near Leavesden, was summoned for selling beer during prohibited hours. The case was bought by PC Dunn, who said he went there at 9am in plain clothes and saw her at a cask in the cellar as if drawing beer – although she then stopped. “I went into the taproom where I saw five persons, three Kimptons, Dollamore and another person whose name I do not know. One of the men was Dollamore the parish constable. They were smoking. I went to the other room where I found a pint measure with half a quartern of beer in it,” Dunn said.
Benjamin Kimpton told the court that he went to the house to see Sweeting, a lodger, but had nothing to drink and denied that all the people Dunn had mentioned were even there. David Dollamore said he was in the house as he’d gone there to see his son, who lodged at the premises. He had no beer, hadn’t asked for any and was reading the paper when Dunn came in. The court chairman, however, said it had been admitted that the house was open and therefore fined the defendant 10s and 23s 6d costs.
The report suggests that David was the parish constable, a position that was unpaid, obligatory and involved various law and order responsibilities. Residents were invariably appointed whether they wanted to serve or not.
David was then involved in a dispute, reported in the Herts Guardian, involving the copyhold cottage he lived in at Leavesden Green in 1865, although quite what the dispute was about is not clear! Copyhold tenants were restricted in what they could do with their land and needed permission from the manorial court to inherit, sell, sublet, buy or mortgage their copyhold property. They were also subject to certain customary payments. Copyhold was abolished by the Law of Property Act 1922.
David died at Leavesden Green in 1871 and his will showed that he left effects valued at under £100. His wife Mary Ann was his sole executor and beneficiary.
Mary Ann, who’d been baptised on the 7 August 1803 at St John the Evangelist in Great Stanmore, was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Walker. After the death of her husband, she was described in the 1871 census as a ‘proprietor of houses’, which is usually a term for a landlord. She died just two years later in Leavesden. Her sole executor was daughter Ann, a spinster at the time, and she left effects of under £100.
See the Dolamore family page for details of David’s children and ancestors.
Sources: Hertfordshire County Archives (many are online). BMDs, census and apprentice information from Ancestry.com and Findmypast.com. British Newspaper Archive.