The New World had for long existed as a place where fortunes might be made. I do not remember hearing of any adventurous Hillesley men who had joined the gold rush to the Yukon or picked up nuggets in California. In my boyhood the more solid promise of 160 acres of free land in Canada was that appealed to our practically-minded young men. There must now be, in Canada and America, many descendants of those who left Hillesley for a new life abroad.
Those emigrants which I can remember were George Davis, eldest son of the blacksmith family. He returned and brought up a large and still well-known family in his native village. Frank Cooper, eldest son of Mr. Dan Cooper's large family, went with George and he remained in the States to become a distinguished minister of large church. He spent many holidays in Hillesley and will be well remembered by many villagers.
I think two of the Shipton family went to Canada and one of them, Jack, returned in the Depression years to live in a caravan in the Back Common. I expect he found his surroundings there very similar to those in which he pioneered in Canada.
A whole family of Smith's went from Kilcott. The eldest son, Leslie, came back on the outbreak of war as an officer in the Canadian Scottish. We children could not believe that the impressive figure in kilt and sporran was really the boy we had known at Kilcott.
John Purnell, the baker; the two Alway boys, Bill and Ben, and I expect some I cannot remember were others of that adventurous band who raised families and, I expect, prospered in North America.
The exodus to Canada was only a part of the continuous outflow of young people - an outflow which had for centuries been necessary. I expect that, except in periods when fever or plague had temporarily halted population increase, there has always been a surplus of young people who have had to seek opportunities in the wider world.
Before my time there had been a Mr. Pocock, or perhaps it was Pillcock, who had left Hillesley for London where he established a successful clothing business. Because of his Connections with the village, this gentleman, as his business increased, encouraged a number of Hillesley families to join his enterprise in London. 1his must have been in the late 19th century and I can remember a number of Visitors coming to the village which their parents had left.
One member of the Chappell family left the village to found, if not a fortune, a family in London.
My second cousin, and Mr. Cyril Stinchcombe's first cousin, Stanley Chappell who now lives in Clevedon, is now the last surviving descendant of great, great uncle Daniel's London-born family.
Somehow Daniel Chappell had acquired some engineering knowledge and when St. Pancras became the first London station to be lighted by electricity, he was in charge of the generators.
I write about him because the way in which he met his wife has an appeal which perhaps only villagers of a past generation can understand.
Feeling lonely, probably homesick and surrounded by quick-talking Cockneys, he heard a girl using his own soft, slow Gloucestershire speech. The young woman was one of a group leaving their work at a millinery establishment and the young Daniel soon found a way of speaking to her, It transpired that she had come from a village near Stroud, and the bond of common background made them eventually man and wife. They produced between them four sons. Daniel was an amateur string player and may be it is from him that Stanley has inherited his musical ability.
A bit later than this another young man left Hillesley to become the Borough of Battersea's Chief Engineer. He was one of the four Sons of 'Grannie' Hayward, a woman who had been widowed early in life. Everybody admired her for the way in which she had reared her four sons. George, the eldest, was an insurance agent; Walter became a dispenser or chemist; Victor was foreman at Spiller's Mill in Cardiff, and Tom, as I have described, reached a very responsible position with a London Authority. There were no apprenticeship charities that I ever heard of but in spite of this, hard-working parents sometimes managed to 'prentice' their sons so that they could get away from the cow's tail, or in other words, the low wages and long hours of the farm.
Long and scantily paid these apprenticeships often were and I suspect that some employers looked upon them as a means of providing cheap labour. My cousin, Jesse, was one of those apprenticed for four years, beginning at four shillings per week and rising by one shilling every year. For four years the boy walked or cycled to John Workman's premises-in Bradley Street, getting there at six o'clock. The firm of Jotcham were the leading builders in Wotton then as they are now, but the Workman's also built and repaired houses in the town. Jesse often found himself at Coombe or North Nibley at six o'clock at night and he had then to get home to Hillesley. This sounds like slavery today yet from long talks with my cousin about this he always seemed to indicate that he found time for games, concerts and political meetings.
I should think the family of Mrs. Mary Ann Jotcham at the Fleece Inn used the opportunities available to them to the best advantage. Mrs. Jotcham was widowed early in life but she saw to it that her sons had a chance to get on in the world. John joined the Police Force and quickly became Superintendent for the Cirencester Division. George was apprenticed at the iron works at Yate. He afterwards joined the firm of T. H. White at Devizes. He was a cricketer of some note and a popular figure in a wide area. Fred, the youngest, was also an engineer and for many years was with Westinghouse at Chippenham. Their sister Nelly is still one of Hillesley's most respected citizens.