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| Revd. Edward Henry Lisle Reeve, Rector of Stondon Massey 1893-1935 (previously Curate at St Botolphs, Colchester, 1885-1893) Author of 'Commonplace Book, 1881 |
After
Dinner Anecdotes
In 1881 Edward Henry
Lisle Reeve (known as Lisle to his family) had just completed his University
studies to become a Minister of Religion in the Church of England. He was 23 years of age, born into a
well-to-do family, whose father was Rector of Stondon Massey. Lisle became the parish’s rector in 1893. His late grandfather, Edward Reeve (known in
the family as “the Captain”), had served in the West Suffolk Militia. Having then been a gentleman farmer in
Dedham, in 1849 he purchased the Rectory and advowson of Stondon moving into
retirement and appointing his son as the incumbent.
This series is entries is
taken from a manuscript in Lisle’s hand entitled ‘Jottings’ dated 1881. In his words:
“My father you know is
always telling us the same old stories, and then he will turn to me and ask ‘if
I remember that’.
“Well, I should say you
have no doubts how to answer that question.
If he were to ask you whether you had forgotten it, it might create a
difficulty.
“Most of these little
heirlooms we are indebted to the Captain who took a burning interest in all
that related to his ancestors”.
‘Jottings’ is a family
book which came into my possession via a relative of the Reeve family. It casts light on the ordinary lives of the privileged
classes in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In short, it is a fascinating social history.
Andrew Smith
Captain Reeve
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| Captain Edward Reeve, dressed for the Ball 1810 |
When
my father [Revd. Edward James Reeve (1821 – 1893)] first came to Stondon Massey
as Rector, Captain Reeve [Edward Reeve, (1785 -1867)] lived at the Rectory
House at Stondon with him, with my grandmother and Aunt Mary.
They
had lately become possessed of a young donkey which Miss Mary Reeve used to
drive about. One day the animal was not
forthcoming, and Captain Reeve with characteristic activity put an
advertisement in the paper offering 1£ reward for its safe restoration. Three or four days passed, and the beast did
not appear; at last the coachman had occasion to go to an old cowshed where the
main supply of hay was kept, and there to his astonishment was the truant
donkey. Evidently it had got in when the man last went to the shed in the
evening, and the key had been turned on it.
The donkey had enough to eat, but his good fortune had been somewhat
tempered, for he had nothing to drink, and when the door was opened he made
immediately for the pond, and began to drink with an energy which bade fair to
prove fatal. Captn. Reeve, though glad
to recover his lost property, was still annoyed to think of the disturbance
which his advertisement had created, and the more so that friends would from
time to time gently chaff him upon the subject.
Mrs
Edward Reeve [the Captain’s wife] was the eldest daughter of Mr James Stutter
of Higham Hall [Suffolk]. She was a
great invalid in her later years, and during her residence at Stondon seldom
was seen outside the house. When a new
domestic was wanted, great troops of applicants would appear at the window to
be called in one by one, and the Capt. would be outside and wink significantly
if he saw one approaching whom he thought would suit! On one occasion Mrs Reeve in questioning one
more likely than the rest, asked her if she had been confirmed, and received a
somewhat amusing reply, that she “had not yet, but that she was good at her
needle”.
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