The Stents of Stratford
The theft of a horse and chaise
On Sunday 21st June 1829 a 15 year old lad by the name of James Pilbeam was passing through the village of Stratford in Essex. In those days it was a quiet rural area deep in the coutryside. James Pilbeam was there for a reason. He came from a very poor family in West Ham and knew that there was the annual horse fair in Great Bardfield the next day 22nd June. His plan was to steal a horse and chaise and make his way to Great Bardfield, about 40 miles away, where he would sell the stolen items. His plan went well to start with. He took a bay gelding and harness belonging to a Robert Martlin, and a chaise belonging to a John Stent, a miller of Stratford. He then made his way to a paddock just outside Great Bardfield.
The next day at the horse fair James Pilbeam attempted to sell the items. He must have seemed suspicious because a man named James Burton notified the police and James Pillbeam was arrested on suspicion of having stolen the items. Meanwhile the owner of the horse, Robert Martlin, had noticed that it was missing and put two and two together. He set off to Great Bardfield in pursuit, accompanied by William Stent, another miller of Stratford. When they reached Great Bardfield, Robert Martlin identified the horse and harness as his property, and William Stent identified the chaise as the property of his uncle John Stent.
James Pillbeam was tried for the theft on 1st August 1829 at Essex Assizes in Chelmsford. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. The jury recommended that he be shown mercy because of his age and the impoverished circumstances of his family. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he was transported to Australia, arriving in New South Wales on 18th February 1830. He died there in 1862 aged 48.
William Stent, the miller who gave chase with Robert Martlin, is our great great great grandfather.
John Stent 1757 - 1841
William Stent 1786 - 1861
John was born in 1757 in Hardham, near Pulborough, Sussex. When he was 15 he was apprenticed to George Chorley in Midhurst as a millwright. Seven years later in 1779 he finished his apprenticeship and at some point over the next few years he moved to Essex. In 1788 when he was aged 30, he took out a fire insurance policy with the Sun company for his newly built Stent's Mill valued at £400. Here it is in a watercolour dating from the early 1800s.
In 1800 John Stent took out another fire insurance policy with the same company, this time covering grain that he stored in a granary near Bow Bridge Stratford. The sum insured was £1500, something like £100,000 in today's values. His business was thriving, and around this time he took on his nephew William Stent (our great great great grandfather) aged about 14 as an assistant. William Stent was the son of John Stent's brother George who had a small farm in Coldwaltham near Pulborough, Sussex.
Things were going well for the Stents. The milling provided a good living, and both John and William married with families. John expanded into brewing with William assisting him in that as well as the milling.
But there were signs that it was becoming more difficult to make ends meet. In 1827 William was listed as an insolvent debtor. By this time he had three children. Whatever the outcome of the insolvency, he was still working as a miller in 1829 when he assisted in the pursuit of James Pilbeam to Great Bardfield.
The milling came to an abrupt end in 1834. During a violent storm Stent's Mill was blown down and so badly damaged that it was never rebuilt.
John Stent continued with the brewing and beer selling business and died in 1841 aged 83.
William became a shopkeeper, running a tobacconist in Stratford High Street. He had three more children one of whom was Charles Stent born in 1831. Charles had a daughter called Ellen, who later married Henry George Hooper, the butcher from Bethnal Green. Charles' story is told here.