In the Matter of Thomas Nash of Felthorpe in the County of Norfolk, Miller & Farmer.
Notice is hereby given that all persons having any claims or demands against the Estate of Thomas Nash of Felthorpe in the County of Norfolk, Miller & Farmer, by whom a Deed of Conveyance & Assignment in Trust for Creditors was executed on the 10th day of September 1869 ... pursuant to the Bankruptcy Act 1861 & the Bankruptcy Amendment Act 1863 ...

I have a detailed map of Felthorpe printed in 1797, Mill Farm (built 1793) should be on that map but it’s not, the windmill on Mill Hill is shown very clearly, as it took several years from starting a survey to printing a map, I’m guessing that the survey was carried out before 1793. I know Elizabeth Springall married Christopher West in 1797 and then lived in Mill Farmhouse, Christopher West then became the miller at Felthorpe. It’s likely that Christopher West was using the Mill Hill windmill until the windmill on Mill Farm was built. I can’t find a date for the Mill Farm windmill being built but I would guess about 1820. I do know that the postmill was built at the peak of windmilling technology, it would have been a fine mill indeed but time was running out and the last date I can find for the windmill still working is 1908. That’s a very short working life for a windmill, it’s possible that it carried on in a limited way until the early 1900s.
Andrew Bryan - September 2005

The son of Christopher (d.1847) emigrated to the US in 1833. He established himself in Baltimore, lived his entire life there, and never returned to England. Many of his family also stayed in Baltimore, as did mine. That is where I grew up.
Our family progressively moved south from Wells-next-the-Sea, where they had resided in the 1600s. I presume - but do not know for sure - that they fished there, as did much of the coastal population. I can understand how they might move thence into farming. But to buy (or build) and operate a mill must have taken some capital to begin with, and it is hard to imagine how a farmer might have accumulated such in the 1700s. Perhaps there were other means of entry of which I am unaware.
I do note from your website that in 1775 Robert Critoph advertised to "lett" the Felthorpe Mill Hill mill. It is possible that Christopher took upon this lease with the prospect that milling revenue would cover his lease costs. This seems a likely explanation.
Most of the descendants of Christopher (d.1847) moved to northern Pennsylvania and farmed there. Christopher was a successful farmer and miller himself, with much to pass on to his children. So, again, it is curious why these children would trade one lifestyle and assured livelihood for another of substantially similar nature of a riskier nature in an area of the world that was largely still wilderness (log cabin versus brick home, lean-to open air kitchen on a back porch, etc.). We have some evidence from preserved diaries that this next generation yearned for greater political freedom than they felt existed at the time in England.
The son Christopher (d. 1890), however, moved to the big city and involved himself very successfully in the oil lamp business and then later in the oil refining business. Quite a leap from the farm life in Felthorpe! Clearly, he was not particularly taken with farming as his life's path.
Page West - 29th April 2022

Copyright © Jonathan Neville 2005