STRANGE BUT TRUE

When the squire gave a party

The squire’s party for the entire village is now a rarity but in past times was a major event to celebrate family and national occasions and few such gatherings can compare with that given by General William Johnson of Witham Hall near Bourne almost 200 years ago.

He was jubilant over the passing of the Representation of the People Act in 1832, also known as the Reform Bill, which introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system in England and Wales, so ending abuses that had long prevailed over the election of members of Parliament.

General Johnson had inherited the Witham estate in 1814 and retired from active service with the army to run it. He had also been M P for Boston (1821-26) and was a keen supporter of the legislation and on Wednesday 1st August that year soon after the bill had become law, he summoned the entire village of Witham-on-the-Hill to the big house to celebrate the victory.

It was, reported the Stamford Mercury, “an entertainment in the old English fashion for all of the tenantry and labourers of Witham, Manthorpe, Toft and Lound, and to all other persons who thought it proper to join the jovial party”

Four sheep were slaughtered and cooked for the occasion and 183 people sat down to dinner which was served on tables set out on the lawn in front of the general’s house, the donor of the feast himself presiding. Every man had a quart of ale with his dinner and a ticket for another quart afterwards. In the afternoon, 127 women from the parish and hamlets were entertained with tea and cake “with the addition of a drop of comfort in the cups”.

The bells of the village church rang merrily throughout the day, the Stamford, Bourne and Glinton ringers assisting on the occasion, and a good band of music in the evening gave spirit to a general dance which closed the festivities of a day of as great enjoyment as ever was witnessed.

“In the honest overflow of feelings”, reported the newspaper, “some of the tenantry suddenly seized the general, raised him aloft and chaired him through the village of Witham amidst the delighted shouts of the multitude, all eager to testify their grateful regard to the man whose kindness of disposition led him so to identify himself with his neighbours and to see his own gratification in the happiness of those around him.”

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