The Burtons of Tisbury, Wiltshire, England

Here's something interesting. The earliest Burton patriarch I know about, Joseph, had several sons -- John, James, Henry, William, and Thomas. Thomas was my great, great grandfather and the youngest. In the 1851 census, father Joseph claims to be "farming 28 acres" in the village of Tisbury, Wiltshire. Joseph passed away in 1859, at which time the farm was taken over by son William.

Normally, a farm is passed down to the oldest son. Not so in this case. John, the oldest son, became a mason. James, the next son became a carpenter. Next came Henry, who worked as a innkeeper for a time, then moved to the southern coast of England and worked the remainder of his life as a vegetable gardener and general laborer. It's not until we get to William Burton that we find a son willing to take on the family farm. In 1851 we find him working as a hired hand on a nearby farm. Then, in 1861, he we find him farming his father's 28 acres. Oddly, in 1871 he claims to be farming only six acres. No clue as to what happened to the remaining property.

By the time of the 1881 census, William had passed away, possibly without having any children. At that time the farm doesn't seem to have passed to the other sons as Henry and Thomas had moved away by then and James had died. And I found no evidence that John ever left his work as a mason and took up farming before his death in 1893.

Oddly enough, my great, great grandfather, Thomas Burton, continued to work in agriculture, but not in Tisbury where the family farm was located. By 1851 he had moved 30 miles to the north to the village of Monkton Farleigh where he found work first as an agricultural laborer, then a sheppard, and, by 1881, a farm baliff.

So, I wonder what became of the family farm on Hindon Lane after William died?