One man’s memoir of being a Knight tenant on Exmoor from 1845 to 1858. This blog will be used to collate social media and other postings about researches into William Hannem’s book.
UPDATE November 6th, 2025
William Hannem’s lease for Cornham Farm with John Knight 1847
The entire Hannem lease has now been transcribed and is currently being ‘interpreted’ and turned into plain English. It is a minefield of legal jargon with the added difficulty that, although beautifully handwritten, there is not a single full stop, comma, or any other form of punctuation.
We’ll be back with more info soon but here’s an interesting snippet…..
A sample paragraph from the lease reads ….
Together with the use of the water flowing from Hearlake to Cornham as heretofore accustomed and together with all and singular the rights members and appurtenances to the said lands and heriditments except unto the said Lessor his heirs and assigns all woods wood grounds coppices underwoods timber trees pollards saplings Imps hips and standels of what nature or quality so ever likely to become or fit and proper to be let up and preserved for timber or timber-like purposes and all other trees whatsoever And all rocks mines and quarries opened or otherwise with liberty to cut down work and carry away the same and the produce thereof in any manner howsoever and also except all Red Deer and Game and Royalties with liberty for the said Lessor his Heirs and Assigns friends and servants to hunt shoot fish sport and to come on the premises at all times for all purposes whatsoever.
In plain English this says that the tenant, William Hannem, has rights to everything on the land he his leasing EXCEPT all of the Red Deer and Game which is only for the Knight (or his heirs or friends or servants) to hunt, shoot, fish and have sport. Plus Knight has the right to come onto William’s land and into his house at any time for any purpose linked to this huntin’ and shootin’ activity.
Interestingly, Nora – our wonderful Scottish friend of The Friends – grew up in an era when her childhood home was subject to this same stricture – that the Laird could come and use their house as he wished for hunting/shooting/fishing. There were two rooms built on the side of her childhood home for this purpose which she remembers being kept clean and tidy by her mother for when the Laird might drop in – alone or with friends. In time the rooms were used by her own family but were always made available if needed by the Laird for hunting or shooting parties.
Thanks to Somerset Archive and Local Studies Library who hold the original Hannem/Knight lease and gave permission to photograph it and use it for educational/research purposes.
OTD 29th September 1850, William Hannem ‘shedd maney Tears.’
A research ‘rabbit hole,’ recently investigated by the Friends, is the story of William Hannem who became a tenant of the Knight family in the mid-19th century. He took the tenancy of Cornham Farm between 1845-1857 – an unusual length of time as few Knight tenants lasted so long. But William Hannem is probably even more unusual in that he hand wrote his memoir of that time called ‘A History of Twelve Years Life on Exmoor.’ Sadly, it was never published but The Friends tracked down the original manuscript, lodged in the Bodleian Library, and arranged to have it digitised. Currently in the process of transcription it was fascinating to see that William Hannem clearly wanted his memoir to be published as he says, more than once, “I mention these Matters for the Publick to see.”
Written in the vernacular it enables one to really ‘hear’ William Hannem’s voice telling of his hopes, dreams, ambitions, successes and failures experienced as a consequence of becoming a Knight tenant on Exmoor. He describes catching ‘typheis’ in 1847 and how ‘Mr Knight was verey antios on my behalf’ (anxious). He gives names and details about the many Knight tenants who came and went and the trials and tribulations they faced – an amazing record in its own right of this period of Exmoor history. Hannem’s greatest bugbear however, were the injustices suffered at the hands of Land Agent Robert Smith whose behaviours Hannem describes in full, frank and politely critical detail. On this very day, the 29th September in 1850, William Hannem felt in such despair after a particularly difficult meeting with Robert Smith that he describes how, on his ride back home, he sits on his pony looking at his farm at Cornham and: “A feeling came over mee. I confess I shedd maney Tears.”
There is so much more to share about William Hannem and what we can learn from his extraordinary memoir about the mid-1800s on Exmoor. The digitised copy is currently being transcribed so it can be easily read and searched digitally in order to pull out the facts about what Orwin and Sellick called Knight’s ‘Landlord and Tenant’ phase. (The Reclamation of Exmoor Forest (Pub:1929) (Rev:1970) Orwin and Sellick)
For The Friends the real interest is in Hannem’s recording of the social history of this same period – what happened to the men, women and children caught up in Knight’s Landlord and Tenant phase – and how their lives were impacted by taking on an Exmoor tenancy.
We have no photo of William but we have tracked down some of his history after leaving Exmoor including his burial site at St Peter & St Paul Muchelney Church https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/11004/ overlooking the stunning Mulchelney Abbey near Langport. The search for ‘what happened next’ gave fascinating insights into William’s daughter, Mary Jane, and her ground-breaking career as a manager of a Cheese Dairy in High Ham and Instructress in the new movement for women’s collegiate agricultural education. Mary Jane seems to have been very much in charge at the end of William’s life and she made sure his headstone in Muchelney churchyard reminded ‘the publick’ that he was ‘Late of Exmoor’. A charming epitaph to an interesting chap.
If anyone fancies helping out with transcribing a few pages of Hannem’s original manuscript your hand will be bitten off!!! Email info@clients.jacobstow.com.
