250 years - baptism of Stephen ADAMS of Sturminster Newton, Dorset

Stephen ADAMS was my 4th great-grandfather. He was a Butcher in Sturminster Newton, Dorset.

250 years ago today he was baptized, the son of Thomas Adams and his wife Susanna YOUNG. Stephen was the youngest of eleven children baptized by his parents between 1736 and 1760, three of whom died as infants or young children.

Stephen married at the age of twenty-one to Betty HARVEY, on the 26th of December 1781. They, too, baptized eleven children:

1782 Ann - married Samuel Jackson 1805
1784 Susanna - married Thomas Wheeler 1808
1786 Jane
1787 John - married Maria Rose 1806
1789 Sarah - married Thomas Duffett 1811
1791 Elizabeth
1793 Thomas - our immigrant ADAMS ancestor, married Elizabeth DICKS 1839 Burin, Newfoundland
1795 Stephen - married Margaret Newman 1833
1797 Henrietta
1800 Edith
1802 James

Stephen's wife died in 1823. Stephen died at the age of 71 and was buried 12 Mar 1832 in Sturminster Newton.

many records available at Sturminster Newton OPC (online parish clerk)
Thomas Hardy lived there for two years while writing The Return of the Native. Traditionally, the economy was based on the dairy industry.Hardy called the area "The Vale of a Hundred Dairies". Stephen Adams, as a butcher, would have faired well here I imagine.  Stephen would have been in his 60s when the town widened the bridge over the historic fording point on the Stour from 12 to 18 feet in 1820.

Domesday Book entry and old maps
Photos, history, threat of transportation to those found injuring the bridge

"On Sturminster Foot-Bridge" by Thomas Hardy


Reticulations creep upon the slack stream's face
   When the wind skims irritably past,
The current clucks smartly into each hollow place
That years of flood have scrabbled in the pier's sodden base;
   The floating-lily leaves rot fast.

On a roof stand the swallows ranged in wistful waiting rows,
   Till they arrow off and drop like stones
Among the eyot-withies at whose foot the river flows;
And beneath the roof is she who in the dark world shows
   As a lattice-gleam when midnight moans.

Butchers in Sturminster Newton, 1801 - out of a population of roughly 1500

John Stafford

Thos. Ridout

Saml. Rose

John Adams

Thos. Hutchings

Thos. Duffett

Stepn. Adams (ours)

Thos. Bleathman

John Ridout

Saml. Duffett

James Rose

James Foot

Henry Rose

Josh. Rose

Thos. Sweet

Robt. Rose

Ambrose Knott

Geocaches

Church Micro 763, St. Mary's, Sturminster Newton multi (photo of the church)
Sturminster Newton Mill micro
Riverside Meadow small