Upwey House.

Despite it’s proximity to Weymouth Upway, now spelt with an e not an a, just clings on to it’s village status. Nearby was Bincombe, another of John Martins inclosures. On the 27th June 1745 a petition of Dame Trehane Chapple and John Gould was presented to Parliament “setting forth that the petitioners being owners and proprietors of certain houses, farms, common grounds and hereditaments in the said Parish which lie intermixed with each other and are enjoyed in common by them in proportion to their several interests therein are willing and desirous to inclose and divide the same and make several exchanges…in order to make the said inclosures and divisions more commodious and beneficial to the parties.”

This initial inclosure seems to be just what it says a limited consolidation of the lands of two landowners and judging by the number of partially inclosed parishes at the time of the tithe commutations [roughly 1837-45] something similar must have gone on for centuries. Another bill was introduced in 1834. It’s full name was “An act for Inclosing Lands in the Manors and Tithings of Elwell otherwise Ridgway and Stottingway in the parish of Upway” but is referred to as the Upway inclosure. Surprisingly it does not appear in the House of Commons Journal of that year under any name. John Baverstock Knight was once again the sole inclosure commissioner and he began work on 25th September 1834 when he called his first meeting to appoint bankers and the very next day, on the 26th, he held his second meeting to receive claims.

Nothing more is heard until the 23rd March 1835 when he issued two notices, the first was about a perambulation that was to take place on the 14th April 1835 but the second was about a meeting to be held the day before. It is unique, certainly for John Martin’s inclosures in that it names those whose claims have been objected to.

When the tithe commutation was performed two years later , The Feoffees of Williams Charity, Sarah Bowditch [presumably wife to William ], George James Wood, Michael Miller and Elizabeth Sherren and the Procurator of the Cathedral church at Sarum were all landowners only Levi Luckham and the Reverend Burgis were not included. Burgis was instituted Rector at Upway in 1802 but may have died, as the Rector in 1837 was Robert Bentley Buckle, the Archdeacon of Dorset.

We do not know what objections were made or what the outcome was but what a wonderful collection of people and organisations eager to get their share of the parish. In so far as Martins work is concerned neither inclosure appears to have been remarkable although it is during his work on Godmanstone that his wife became ill and subsequently died. The Tithe Commutation of the parish also started in 1837 and was conducted by John Baverstock Knight. John Martin is the accredited maker of the inclosure map but not the tithe map yet it seems difficult to believe that the inclosure map was not used in the commutation.

Upwey was the last of the inclosures that Martin carried out as surveyor. His time for the next few years would be taken up with tithe commutations and when he did return to inclosure work in 1845 it was in the combined role of commissioner and surveyor. One final inclosure deserves mention.

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