Reference
X135
Title
Deeds of Eaton Bray and Totternhoe, Agricultural, literary and other MSS. of Thomas Batchelor of Lidlington, author of A General View of Beds. Agriculture, 1808; parish documents of Marston Moretaine; and farming accounts of the Franklin family of Marston Moretaine.
Admin/biog history
Thomas Batchelor appears to have been the son of Joseph and Ann Batchelor of Lidlington. His baptism does not appear in Lidlington parish register. His brothers Joseph (b.1778), John (b.1780), James (b.1783) and Mary (b.1787) were baptised on 18 January 1811 being all "of riper years". Samuel, who appears in the documents below, but not in the register, may have been another brother. Mary m. Wm. Sinfield, (see below). Thomas m. Eliz. Franklin 6 August 1807. He was alive in 1838. A short account of his early life appears in Dugdale's New British Traveller, (n.d.), i, p.31. Thomas Batchelor's chief work was "A General View of Bedfordshire Agriculture", written for the Board of Agriculture and published in 1808. He also wrote poems called "Village Scenes" 1804 (see below); "An Orthoepical Analysis of the English Language"; 1809; an anonymous pamphlet published by the Farmers Journal called "The Rights of the Farmer"; and various articles for the Farmers Journal. At the Board of Agriculture's request he partly revised the Survey of Dorset", but this was published without his name. For most of these, see below.
Scope and Content
Agricultural, literary and other MSS. of Thomas Batchelor of Lidlington, author of A General View of Beds. Agriculture, 1808; parish documents of Marston Moretaine; and farming accounts of the Franklin family of Marston Moretaine.
Archival history
Deposited October 1946 by Thomas Batchelor's great-nephew Charles Franklin esq, Woodlands, Leighton Buzzard
Reference
Level of description
fonds