Isaac 'Harry' Harwood Vernon was born on 7th February 1869 at Fowl House, Iddesleigh, near Okehampton, Devon, to William Vernon (about 40), a husbandman and agricultural labourer, and Martha Vernon (nee Dyment) (about 36).
Harry was the eighth of twelve children (five daughters and seven sons):
- Susan 1855 -
- Thomas 1857 -
- William Robert 1859 -
- Sarah Ann 1860 -
- Silas 1862 -
- Mary 'Jane' Jane 1864 -
- Arthur John 1865 -
- Isaac 'Harry' Harwood 1869 -
- Martha 1871 -
- Louisa 1872 - 1874 (16 months)
- Samuel 'Sam' Reuben 1875 -
- Ernest 1878 - 1903 (25 years)
In the early 1870s, Harry and his family still lived where Harry was born, at Fowl House, Iddesleigh, near Okehampton.
1871 Census:
By the early 1880s, Harry, only twelve, and his older sister Jane, seventeen, were living and working away from home. They worked as servants - Harry a farm servant and Jane a domestic servant - on a farm in Westacott, North Tawton. Their employer was farmer of 202 acres, George May.
1881 Census:
As he grew older, Harry went from farm servant to farm labourer.
On the 6th May 1890, Harry (21) married Lucy James (22), a former domestic servant, in Kennerleigh. The young couple set up home at Turnpike Gate Cottage in Kennerleigh, near Crediton. This may not have been a match made in heaven. My father's family history research from the mid 1990s notes that Lucy's sister Emily "always had ill feelings towards Isaac Harwood Vernon - he was a brutal man".
1891 Census:
Harry and Lucy had four children (one daughter and three sons):
- Edith Ellen 1891 - 1971 (79)
- Walter Charles 1892 - 1965 (73)
- William John 1894 - ? (?)
- Frank 1896 - 19?? (?)
Alas Lucy was ill with pulmonary tuberculosis and passed away from the disease, aged twenty-nine, on 25th March 1897, in Kennerleigh, when Isaac was twenty-eight.
Before Lucy passed away, Harry either began an affair with Ellen Tonkin, which resulted in the birth of Fred Tonkin (later known as Fred Vernon) in Apr/May/Jun 1897 in the district of Crediton; or, after marrying Ellen, Harry adopted Fred. Time wise the former event seems the more likely.
Harry (28) married Ellen on 31st December 1897, in Chawleigh. Before they married, Harry was Ellen's lodger. Harry and Ellen left only their mark on their marriage certificate, implying neither could write.
Harry and Ellen had ten children:
- Fred (born Tonkin, later Vernon) 1897 - 1915 (18)
- Mabel Ellen 1898 - 1994 (95)
- George 1900 - 1900 (0 - 3 months)
- George Henry 1901 - 1973 (71)
- Ernest Isaac 1904 - 1997 (93)
- Isaac Harry 1906 - 1964 (58)
- William Harwood 1908 - 1972 (64)
- Florence Emily 1911 - 1993 (82)
- Sidney 'Sid' 1913 - 2004 (91)
- Percy 1915 - 2002 (86)
Alas their son George passed away as a very young baby in 1900. Harry and Ellen named their next son after him.
The family moved around mid Devon a lot, likely as Harry followed farming work. In late 1897, they lived in Chawleigh; by late 1898, when Mabel was born, they had moved back to Crediton; in late 1899, the family could be found in East Combe, whilst the elder children attended school in Stockleigh Pomeroy; in March 1900, the children changed to Cadbury School, when the family moved to West Bowley, Cadbury; and by mid 1900, the family had moved again to Thorverton.
In August 1900, Harry was fined for not sending his eldest daughter Edith regularly to school. He would be fined again in December 1915, for not sending his younger children regularly to school.
1901 Census:
In the early 1900s, Harry and his family lived in Nettacott, Upton Pyne, but, by late 1904, they had moved back to Crediton.
In Apr/May/Jun 1903, when Harry was thirty-four, her mother Martha passed away, in the district of Crediton, aged about seventy. Alas a short time later, on 10th July 1903, Harry's youngest brother, Ernest, aged twenty-five, was tragically killed by a train at Stafford level crossing, a few miles from Exeter. Harry named his next born son Ernest after his late brother.
In 1904, the family lived on Priorton Hill, Sandford, and Harry's eldest children from his second marriage - Fred, Mabel and George - attended Sandford School from June 1904 to July 1907.
In the summer of 1905, when Harry was thirty-six, his eldest son, Walter, aged twelve, was arrested for attempting to steal a silver watch and chain. Consequently he was sent to an industrial school for three years. The case was reported in local newspapers. Harry is reported as saying "the boy was troublesome. He could do no good with him. He was sorry to say the boy had stolen before". I wonder what the relationship was like between father and son. A small note in my father's family history research from the mid 1990s says "Walter tells how he was knocked out by his father". Was Harry a strict father? Was he a violent father? Harry's youngest sons believed their father to be a very religious and straight-up man. With children being physically disciplined alas commonplace until very recently, I wonder if Harry and others believed they followed Proverbs, 13:24: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes".
It seems Harry and his family moved briefly back to Crediton, before moving to Sowton Cottage, in Dunsford, in early 1908. From September 1910, they lived at Beer Cottage, Hittisleigh; but by February 1911, when Florence was born, were living in Beara Cottage, on or near Pitton Farm, Cheriton Bishop.
1911 Census:
From late 1911 to late 1912, the family lived in Drewsteignton. In early 1913, they moved to Turnpike Gate, South Tawton, where Sidney was born in April 1913. And by early 1915, were living at Toll Bar House, Whiddon Down, South Tawton, where Harry's youngest child, Percy, was born in February 1915. After this point, with records from 1911 less available, it is more difficult to track the movement of Harry and his family.
Harry was forty-five, when the First World War began, so too old to fight; however, his eldest sons, Walter and Fred both fought. After attending industrial school and a brief period as a farm labour, Walter had joined the army as a private in 1910, two days before his eighteenth birthday. When war began, he was serving in India with the 13th Hussars. From 1914 to 1916, he fought on the British East Front in France; and from 1916 to 1919, fought on the Mesopotamian Front in Iraq. Miraculously he survived the whole war, and left the army in 1922, an 'exemplary' sergeant. Alas, his younger brother Fred was not so lucky. Aged only eighteen, Private Fred Vernon passed away in France, on 30th September 1915. After Fred's death, "a fellow soldier visited Fred's parents... and told them Fred was hit by a shell, he was killed instantly, no remains were found" (from my father's mid 1990s research).
A few years later, when Harry was forty-eight, his father William passed away on 1st October 1917, at his home of Hollow Tree, Chawleigh. The cause of death was recorded as senile decay. Though on his death certificate, William's age at death was recorded as eighty, we know he was baptised in 1829, meaning he would have been in fact about eighty-eight.
Harry's youngest sons recalled that around 1919, the family lived between Bow and Down St Mary. Harry's son Sid later remembered that, whilst the family lived there, Harry would often send young Florence and Sid into Bow to get cider and tobacco for himself. By 1922, the family had moved to Westwood, between Exeter and Cullompton.
In the mid 1990s, my father began researching the family history and made contact with his Great Uncles Sid and Percy, Harry's youngest sons, then in their early eighties. They recalled their father as "a straight man who always told the truth". They said he "used to preach when younger, he knew all the bible references etc, but could not read or write". Great Uncle Sid believed these "were drummed into him by William, Isaac's father". In the end, Harry "gave up preaching as he was not educated and could not answer the mockers/hecklers".
They also recalled that as an older man, Harry suffered from bad arthritis.
This brutal, straight and truthful man - as such he was recalled by his relations - passed away on Christmas Eve 1934, aged sixty-five, in the district of Tiverton.
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