James Dengate

James Dengate

Jim Dengate

KEY DATES:

Birth: 12 February 1869, Peasmarsh, East Sussex

Baptism: 2 May 1869, St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh, East Sussex

Married: 19 May 1895, Rye Wesleyan Chapel, East Sussex

Died: 1949, Rye, East Sussex

Buried: 4 October 1949, St Peter and St Paul's Church, East Sussex

BIOGRAPHY:

James (Jim) Dengate was born 12 February 1869 in Peasmarsh to Thomas and Frances Dengate. He was baptised in St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh on 2 May 1869.

St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh

The 1871 census shows James as a two-year old scholar living with his parents and brothers and sisters in the Kings Head pub, Peasmarsh.

James began at Peasmarsh school on the 1 January 1877 and left 22 November 1878, going to "Norman's [or Nowman's] Adventure school."

Peasmarsh School, 2003

In 1881 he was still living with his parents and brothers and sisters and nephew and niece on Main Street, Peasmarsh as an eleven year-old scholar. Jim and his two brother Charles (Charlie) and John Thomas (Tom) were the only children of Thomas and Frances who remained in the village for their whole lives, some of whom they did not see from the 1890s until 1939.

Jim married Ellen Farley, a widow, on the 19 May 1895 in the Rye Wesleyan Chapel. Witnesses to the marriage were Kate Funnell and John Thomas Dengate. The couple had 2 children; Ivy and Bernice Dengate, both born in Peasmarsh. Ivy May was baptised in the Rye Methodist Chapel. In 1901 Jim and Ellen are living in Hawarden Cottage with a daughter, Nellie Farley (born in America) from Ellen's previous marriage. James' occupation was listed as a stone carrier. He also worked for 'Farmer Funnel', a relative of his wife's. His nephew Charles Phillips remembers him walking the fields of Peasmarsh with a pail and seat milking Funnel's cows.

Ivy Dengate

Neither of their children married, although Ivy had a daughter, Kathleen Margaret Dengate in 1920 in Peasmarsh.

Kathleen Dengate

Jim Dengate attended the Dengate Reunion in 1939 alongside his surviving five brothers and two sisters at the Masonic Hall in Hastings.

The Dengate Family

Seated (left to right) William (Bill), Ernest Alfred, John Thomas (Tom)

Standing (left to right) Caroline (Carrie), Jim, Frederick (Fred), Charles and Hannah

Ellen Dengate died January 1940 aged 74 years in Peasmarsh and was buried 6 January 1940 in St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh. After this Jim lived in Laburnham Cottage, Peasmarsh with his daughter Ivy, grandaughter Kathleen and great-grandaughter Stephanie. The family then moved to Lea Avenue in Rye.

Laburnham Cottage

Jim Dengate died in October 1949 aged 80 years at 46 Lea Avenue, Rye, East Sussex, the home of his daughter Ivy Dengate. He was buried 4 October 1940 in St Peter and St Paul's Church, Peasmarsh. A Methodist minister performed the ceremony. Although no headstone exists for his and Ellen's grave in the churchyard, it has been possible to identify where they are buried using the local undertaker of the time, Percy Jempson's burial maps and log book.

Jim and Ellen's grave (immediate foreground of picture), Peasmarsh, 2004

LINKS:

CENSUS:

Grateful thanks to Stephanie Tagg for her memories and photographs and to Charles Phillips for additional memories used in this biography.