The Dean family

George (1840-1875)

James (1832-1872)

The Dean family presence in Nibley poses a question. They were tenant farmers, who were only in the parish for 21 years, between 1829 and 1850. Yet Daniel Dean held land in the western end of the parish. There’s also an absence of wills to indicate where those holdings might have come from, or to point to earlier members of the family in the parish. The Berkeley map and terrier of 1762 don’t mention the family.

On 1841, Daniel and Sarah Dean were living at either Nibley House Farm, behind Nibley House, or at Nibley House itself. Most researchers have said that they were living in Nibley House. The Jortins were away from Nibley House at the time of the Census, and the Dean’s could have been living in the house or the farm.

As can be seen on the map below, in 1847, Daniel owned (and farmed) scattered fields in the east end of the parish (shown in pink), but also leased a block of land in the centre of the parish, and 3 fields on the northern edge of the parish (shaded yellow). Notice at the far left, the cottage on The Green, owned by Daniel as well. He also leased New Road and the older, original, road running parallel to it.

reproduced by the kind permission of Geoff Gwatkin

Daniel and Sarah had seven children, but only four were at home when the census was taken. Three of them were nearby at Elizabeth Parson’s school on Nibley Street, including James. The first of the children to be baptised in Nibley was Arabella, in 1829. The older three children had been baptised in Elberton and Thornbury.

Sarah died in 1844 and was buried in St Martins churchyard. Two years later, in Devon, Daniel married Georgianna Lewis and went on to have another nine children, the last of which was born when he was 78.

The family moved to Haresfield, where Daniel is recorded as a farmer of 157 acres, in 1850. I can be fairly exact about this, as Albert Daniel Dean was baptised there in March 1851, while his elder brother, Frederick Lewis, was baptised in Nibley in 1849.

There was also notice of an auction of ‘all the live and dead farming stock, implements of husbandry, part of the household furniture’ of Mr Daniel Deane, who is leaving the farm, on 23rd February 1849.

James was in the army from 21 to 28, having enlisted in the 46th South Devon Infantry Regiment. At 28, he was assessed as being ‘unfit for further duty’ because of epilepsy and discharged.

In 1864, James married Joanna Hunt in Kingswood, Bristol, aged 32. In ’71, they are living on Bath Road, Bristol. James is recorded as being a hawker, and Joanna is running a ‘small grocery business’.. James died, aged 40, and is buried at St Georges, Bristol. In his death certificate, he is recorded as being a dealer in marine supplies, and his cause of death was phthisis.

In 1861, Daniel was at Mill Farm in Siston. In ’71, he was in Bitton, a farmer ‘occupying 30 acres of land’. So perhaps, at 74, he was going into semi-retirement. He died, aged 82, in 1879. Georgianna died twenty years later and is buried with her husband in Bitton churchyard.

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In 1854, George married Elizabeth Bush and in 1871, they were living in the same area of Bristol as James, on the London Road, with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Emily. George was recorded as being a labourer, and Elizabeth a shoemaker.

Bristol Mercury 27^th February 1875

A man named George Augustus Dean, who lived near the Cherry Orchard, St Georges, has been missing from his house since the 15^th inst, he was in the employ of Mr Sinnott, and was last seen alive one the evening of the day mentioned near the River Avon at Crews Hole. The following is his description :-he is about 33 years of age, and is 5’ 4” high. He had dark-brown hair and whiskers, and wore an old black bowler hat, dirty moleskin jacket, waistcoat, and trousers, and clogs. No reason can be given for his disappearance, and it is feared that some harm has befallen him.

George’s body was found at the New Cut on the 15th March, and the inquest found that he had died by drowning, but no reason could be ascertained. His body was buried, like his brother’s, in St George’s churchyard.