THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — the Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain great stories from her home village of FINDON, West Sussex, U.K.    Everyday tales about real people...... in fact, a potted history of the village.   The topics today, are history tomorrow.

JACK PASKINS — WHIPPER-IN AND JACK OF ALL TRADES (1769 - 1836) TO THE SQUIRE

Copyright Valerie Martin 2008

Jack Paskins was said to be the most useful of the Lord of the Manor, Squire William Westbrooke Richardson's servants and was described as "a Jack of all trades".   In his spare time (if he had any from being the Squire's whipper-in)....he was also the Squire's gamekeeper.   He was a gentleman who was highly esteemed by all and when the Squire was absent, he took charge of the hunt.

These was an era when it was different from today.   The quiet Findon landscape seemed to be waving with corn waiting for the bustle of reapers and as soon as dusk approached there was the shrill melancholy cry of the curlew from the uncut fields..... not the hum of traffic from the A24.

William Richardson was known to be a sporting character and became the famous hunting squire of Findon. I understand that he built the original Huntsman's House c. 1800.   Extensive flint walled stabling was also constructed at the Manor and he kept a pack of harrier hounds for his own use — the harriers were later upgraded to foxhounds.  In the Squire's absence, Jack Paskins (who had previously been employed by Lieutenant Colonel George Wyndham) took his place with the harriers and portraits of him once hung in Findon Place so he must have been held in somewhat great esteem by the Lord of the Manor of the day to have such work commissioned.  

The hounds in Findon were certainly given delightful names by their owner.

It is rather interesting to see on the back of the above the notation .....

John Margesson (1794-1866) saw Jack Paskins and his wife on 26th May 1832 and noted that he had been huntsman to the Margesson family as was his father, but that he was then (in 1832) the huntsman to William Richardson of Findon. 

I cannot help but wonder where those delightful paintings are hanging today?   Perhaps someone, some day.....  will tell me?

Finally, the end came when Jack broke his neck in 1835.   This was reputed to be while out hunting with hounds one very inclement day when his horse stumbled in a rabbit burrow, galloping down the Lambleys just north of nearby Sompting.

In mid-April 2011 I heard from Sharon Paskins..."Hi...I read with great interest your page on Jack Paskins of Findon village.

You state that he died when he fell from a horse on the road to Sompting - where did you find this information? Everything I look at keeps telling me he fell from a house!!

Kind Regards........Sharon"

I told Sharon that if she was a descendent of the great Jack Paskins, she should have inside information and it did not seem likely to me that a huntsman would fall from "a house" and die.    Was she trying to pull my leg?

If anyone wonders about what "Lambleys" means I had better explain.    It is north of the A27 at Sompting, OS reference TQ 1505. There is for certain a Lambleys Lane running out into the countryside ..shown here.....

... but I very much doubt if the area looked the same in Jack's time..... 176 years ago..... and no, I'm not exactly sure where he was galloping at the time he fell off!   All lost in the mists of time.

Continue if you would like to read about George Champion the Squire's Huntsman (1829-1903)

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.