ANCESTRY 25 



Richard, in 1772, married Fanny Lucketl at Lechlade, in 

 Gloucestershire. This pair lived for some time at Rod- 

 bourne Cheney, near Swindon ; and there, in or about 

 1780, was bom their eldest son, James Luckett, and, in 

 1784, John, the grandfather of our Richard Jefferies. 

 Fanny Jefferies died in 1805,* and a descendant writes of 

 her that she ' must have been a woman not only of parts, 

 but of means and refinement, her many journeys to Bath 

 being noted at a time when only the wealthy and high- 

 born frequented that " city of waters." 'f Her husband, 

 Richard, who survived until 1822, purchased Coate Farm 

 in 1800, together with a mill and bakery at Swindon. It 

 is on record that J he was a stiff man, who twice stood out 

 against the sum demanded by the Vicar of Chisledon as 

 tithe ; his son John did the same after that in 1832 and 



1833- 



The Jefferies' of Draycot must have been substantial 



men, who made money when the price of com w^as high 

 in the early nineteenth century — men like ' Uncle Jona- 

 than ' in ' Round about a Great Estate.' Some of their 

 tombs at Chisledon are weighty and important. 



Of the two sons of Richard — James Luckett and John — 

 not much is knowTi. John is the grandfather Iden of 

 ' Amaryllis,' and the ' little old man with silver buckles 

 on his shoes ' of ' My Old Village.' As a young man, he 

 went to London, and was with a Mr. Taylor, printer and 

 publisher of Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. § It was in 

 London that he married Fanny Ridger, and there he lived 

 until he came to Swindon in 1816 to look after the Swindon 

 business. In London four children were born to him. Of 

 these, James Luckett, the eldest boy, but not the first- 

 born, was the father of Richard Jefferies, the author. 

 John Jefferies is said not to have liked the bakery. He 

 was a lover of books and curious in bindings — a ' prodigy 

 of learning,' someone calls him — and London attracted 



* 'Forbears of Richard Jefferies,' Country Life, March 14, 1908. 

 t Ibid. X Ibid. ^ Ibid. 



