When George's father died in 1829 at the age of 65, he inherited the New Barton Farm Lease. Whereas farming had been in their blood for many generations, when George's first son grew up, farming it seems was not for him, at least not at first. George married Hannah Banyon, whose family were Quakers and whose father was a wealthy barge-owner, in 1837 when he was 37. their first child, a girl, died two days after birth, and Robert their son was born in 1840. Within the next twelve yrs, 7 more children were born but the two we ar mostly concerned with, George and Fred were born two and three yrs later. He was a successful farmer, leasing some 1500 acres (600 hect.) known as New Barton Farm, from the parish of Winchester. He and his family lived in a large confortable house Chilcombe House which still stands today as a preserved feature, it has since been modernised completely inside but on the outside, so we have been told by authorities occupying it, it is just the same as it would have been 150yrs ago.
At the New Barton farm there is some evidence that all was not well. Prices of farm products were dropping, the lease was high, 1500 pound sterling a year, as it was the largest owned by the parish. George died in 1858. According to one of his grand-daughters (known to us as Cousin Alice - actually our father's cousin - daughter of Robert's brother Fred) George's death was caused, if indirectly, by one of his Labourers striking him on the head with a stone. Although she does not record the exact date of the incident, it evidently affected his brain and his eventual collapse, a few yrs later.
Not long after George's death the lease was given up. The children scattered George (jr) went to canada, Fred and Charles joined Robert in Uruguay, Edward farmed elsewhere in England, William disapeared in mysterious circumstances and the two girls Kate and polly married well Their mother died in 1878.
Went to the USA
His father was John Thomas Plant a shoemaker from Lancashire. Born 1844. He had two sisters Polly who became Mercer and Rose who became either Howarth or Hollister when they married. I have two addresses Bill and May Hollister nee Howarth, 10 Brook Street, RISHTON, Blackburn, Lancashire and Dolly Howarth, neice, 79 Sourton Street, Rishton, Lancashire. Grandad married his first wife Annabel Gregory and they had George Bede Hornby Plant - I think he may have been born in Norfolk or Jarrow. He was killed in the first world war at 18 years old. Grandad was in the Missions to Seamen and travelled from Liverpool on 18 January 1895 to Belize British Honduras with Annabel on a ship called 'Engineer' on the Harrison Line and was bound for Colon, Panama. On the 24 August 1899 he travelled again from Liverpool to Buenos Aires with I think Bede and Annabel on a ship called Oravia, The Pacific Steam Navigation with 63 passengers. He was on the Falkland Islands for a while and then Lomas de Zamora near BA. But other than that I don't have much more info. Hopefully you may be able to find out a bit more Judith, but it's a start. He was born in 1869 and died in 1946
Thomas was a curate at Christ Church in Jarrow-On-Tyne, and he married his sister Rose Emma at St. Peter's & St. Pauls in Rishton, Lancashire. in 1898
George Bede Hornby PLANT Lieutenant
EPEHY WOOD FARM CEMETERY, EPEHY SOMME FRANCE
Epehy is a village between Cambrai and Peronne about 18 kilometres north-east of Peronne. Epehy Wood Farm Cemetery is a little west of the village and on the north side of the road to Saulcourt.
Historical Information: The village of Epehy was captured at the beginning of April 1917. It was lost on 22 March 1918 after a spirited defence by the Leicester Brigade of the 21st Division and the 2nd Royal Munster Fusiliers. It was retaken (in the Battle of Epehy) on 18 September 1918, by the 7th Norfolks, 9th Essex and 1st/1st Cambridgeshires of the 12th (Eastern) Division. The cemetery takes its name from the Ferme du Bois, a little to the east. Plots I and II were made by the 12th Division after the capture of the village, and contain the graves of officers and men who died in September 1918 (or, in a few instances, in April 1917 and March 1918). Plots III-VI were made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from smaller cemeteries and from the battlefields surrounding Epehy. The cemetery now contains 997 burials and commemorations of the First World War. 235 of the burials are unidentified but there are additional special memorials to 29 casualties known or believed to be buried among them, and to two casualties buried in Epehy New British Cemetery, whose graves could not be found when that cemetery was concentrated. The cemetery was designed by Sir Herbert Baker.
No. of Identified Casualties: 762