{"id":19796,"date":"2022-01-21T15:39:20","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T20:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=19796"},"modified":"2022-01-21T15:39:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T20:39:55","slug":"episode-516-edward-freeman-the-grandfather-i-never-really-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=19796","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 516: EDWARD FREEMAN…THE GRANDFATHER I NEVER REALLY KNEW"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 516<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Jan. 21, 2022<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 516    PART 1: HEAD GARDENER EDWARD FREEMAN \u2026.WHO WAS HE?   THE GRANDFATHER I NEVER REALLLY KNEW<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Jan. 19, 2022<\/div>\n

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pics\u2026left to right\u2026Alan Skeoch, Eric Skeoch, Edward Freeman (grandfather),  circa 1945<\/div>\n

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I THOUGHT I KNEW MY GRANDFATHER\u2026BUT I DID NOT KNOW HIM AT ALL<\/div>\n
(and by the time I was interested, it was tool late.  He had died.)<\/div>\n


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EDWARD FREEMAN was my grandfather.   I thought I was close to him but now realize, thanks to my cousin Ted Freeman, that<\/div>\n
I never really knew him.  He never told me a word about his life in England as head gardener on the Eywood Estate except<\/div>\n
some weird comment about tipping his hat.  \u201cNever liked tipping my hat to Gwyers.\u201d   That comment meant nothing to me.  What\u2019s<\/div>\n
the big deal about tipping a hat?  Some do it to indicate a good morning or a sudden meeting of an aged friend.  No meaning<\/div>\n
except greeting.<\/div>\n

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Well, I now know that the issue of tipping the hat in England in 1900 had a lot of meaning.  It meant you knew where you <\/div>\n
stood in the hierarchy of English life.  It was a deferential act.  \u201cI am tipping my hat because I know you are better than I am.\u201d<\/div>\n
It acknowledged and accepted inferior status.<\/div>\n

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  This was drilled into me when I became a teen ager and our 38th Scout Troop went camping<\/div>\n
with a British scout.  We did not get along at all.  \u201cYou know the trouble with you Allan\u2026you are COMMON.\u201d  In short, he regarded<\/div>\n
me as an inferior person.   At that moment as we sat around our campfire I  thought, \u201cDoes this son of a bitch<\/div>\n
want a fight for some reason?\u201d  I am not a fighter so let the comment slide away.   But I did not tip my scout hat to the bastard.<\/div>\n

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And Granddad\u2019s comment about his hat began to have meaning.<\/div>\n

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He never said another word to me on that subject.  He never really said much\u2026but he loved our visits. That was unsaid.<\/div>\n
He listened in amusement to the events of our youth.  He even got involved<\/div>\n
when I had a bad case of pin worms and mom and granddad pulled me from under the bed to give me the cursed enema.<\/div>\n
He made Eric and me each small wheelbarrows\u2026hand  carved.  He smoked his pipe and tended his large kitchen garden<\/div>\n
with the neatly trimmed cedar hedges retaining heat in the garden rectangle.  He managed a huge rhubarb patch beside the<\/div>\n
backhouse\u2026something we have never been able to do ever since.  From that patch he made a barrel of rhubarb wine. <\/div>\n
He carved picture frames containing old black and white]<\/div>\n
photos of some distant place called  “Eywood\u2026.with an \u2018E\u2019 not an \u2018H\u2019.\u201d<\/div>\n

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The pictures I have of granddad Freeman have nothing to do with England\u2026no grand English estate\u2026.no scramble to<\/div>\n
make his way through a class system\u2026.no 15 year apprentice ship\u2026no need to grow a beard to make him look older.<\/div>\n

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OLDER?  Granddad had always been old.  He was born in 1871 which means he was 80 years old in 1951when I was in Grade 7<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

  reading cowboy westerns by Zane Grey and Luke Short.  A North American kid unbroken by being \u2018in service’
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\u2026he would have been 89 in 1960 when I had the chance to sleuth out the Freeman roots roots in Herefordshire. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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But by then he was dead\u2026died in 1958.<\/div>\n

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Alan Skeoch, Eric Skeoch, Edward Freeman, Arnold Skeoch (out of picture)<\/div>\n

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Edward Freeman, former head gardener of Eywood,  PICTURE TAKEN CIRCA 1950 in Canada<\/div>\n

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Of course I knew Granddad.  He made me a wheelbarrow\u2026.he spent a lot of time cutting and splitting firewood\u2026.and<\/div>\n
even more time keeping his garden spotless.  But I never knew him really.  I never knew his life as a kid.  I  only knew mine.<\/div>\n
I knew I  failed him a couple of times.  Like when I stole one of his special chisels and<\/div>\n
got caught;  I hid in the long grass Timothy field\u2026ashamed…  Because I got caught.  If I had<\/div>\n
succeeded that memory would have faded.  He never chastised me.  Looked amused.  My biggest failure<\/div>\n
was refusal to shoot a porcupine chewing maple buds high up in a sugar maple tree back in the bush.<\/div>\n

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\u201cGranddad, I found a live porcupine back in the maple bush.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFetch the rifle\u2026we\u2019ll get it.  Show you how to shoot.<\/div>\n
\u201cShoot?\u201d  I did not want to kill.   But killing seemed to be a rite of passage for farm kids.<\/div>\n
I was a city boy really.  No gun. But I went along with granddad.  I remember he was crippled by then and had to<\/div>\n
hobble to the back field using a sturdy cane.  He had me carry the rifle.  I hated that moment.  I was too<\/div>\n
gutless to say No.  What I did know was that the porcupine incident would be one of the last \u2026 one of the<\/div>\n
only times Granddad and I would share an experience.<\/div>\n
\u201cThere it is\u2026way up there in the maple.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTake careful aim and shoot it.\u201d  I Took aim\u2026.careful aim to deliberately miss the creature.<\/div>\n
\u201cTry again.\u201d  \u201cTry again.\u201d  \u201cTry again.\u201d  There was no escape so my final shot hit the poor thing.<\/div>\n
\u201cJust wounded it, Alan, now you are going to have to climb the tree and knock him down.<\/div>\n
What a traumatic event.  Must have been 70 years ago but I can still pick the spot in the bush.<\/div>\n
The big maple is gone now.  I climbed that tree with a stick in hand.  The porcupine looked at<\/div>\n
me\u2026little beady black glossy eyes the size of ball bearings.   I  poked and poked.  Blood dribbled down on<\/div>\n
my face\u2026.even some quills fell.  But the porcupine held fast.  Finally I gave up.  And Granddad <\/div>\n
gave up.  Both of us hobbled back through the winter snow to the big stove in the front room. <\/div>\n
\u201cWell, Lou, someone is going to find a dead porcupine.  Let\u2019s keep Laddie tied<\/div>\n
up for a while,\u201d he Said to Grandma (Louisa Amelia Freeman)<\/div>\n
And sure enough a dog did find the porcupine\u2026got quills in its lips and mouth requiring<\/div>\n
a visit to the veterinarian.  Word spread up the road.  Granddad never ratted on me.<\/div>\n

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But I never really got to know him.  But Thought I did. Until this January 2022 when I sent<\/div>\n
a note to my cousin Ted Freeman who spends the winter in Texas.  I had asked him about<\/div>\n
Grandma and Granddad Freeman.  Simple questions like the  life of a head gardener<\/div>\n
on a 1500 acre country estate in England circa 1900.<\/div>\n

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the FREEMAN FAMILY\u2026EDWARD FREEMAN IN BACK ROW WITH DERBY<\/div>\n
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EDWARD FREEMAN AND HIS GARDENERS CIRCA 1900<\/div>\n


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\u201cGranddad didn\u2019t like tipping his hat to the Gwyers,\u201d Alan  \u201cAnd he did not like being head<\/div>\n
gardener for people like the Gwyers.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow did you know that, Ted\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe talked a lot as we did things on the farm.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTed, I stayed with grandpa in the  farm house every other week-end but we never talked<\/div>\n
about his life as a boy.  I never asked.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMy middle name is \u2018Edward\u2019, named after grandpa.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTed, my middle name is also Edward\u2026never thought that was important.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMore important than just grandpa I think   The Edwards family took in grandma<\/div>\n
after she was born.  Illegitimate .\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMom did mention that.  Some man by the name of Dr. Price was the father.  I was<\/div>\n
told that grandma almost became a street child in Birmingham if she hadn\u2019t been rescued<\/div>\n
by Mrs Webb, whoever that was.  Mom seemed to believe that grandma was rejected.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, she was rescued by Mrs Webb and brought up on the Edwards Farm along with<\/div>\n
a boy.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo education then?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cQuite the contrary.  Dr. Price paid for half of grandma\u2019s education.  Eventually she graduated<\/div>\n
from the Hawkins Ladies Academy in Kington.  She graduated as a lady.  Very high up the<\/div>\n
social ladder.  So high that granddad would be emxpected to tp his hat to her.  Which he never did.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat is a lady?  Means nothing to me.<\/div>\n
\u201cMeant  a lot in 1890\u2019s..meant she had risen above her station in life.  Louisa Amelia Bufton was a lady.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhen did you talk to granddad?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLots of time.\u201d\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDad and I helped him with the haying\u2026.Dad liked to rest the horses and we sat down <\/div>\n
and talked.  He liked to light his pipe and talk about the past.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAbout Eywood?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSometimes.  He said he did not like the Gwyers.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cOnly head gardener from 1898 to 1905 \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cPrestige job but not worth the aggravation \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cSome head gardeners grew old in the job because pay was so poor.  So maybe granddad sensed that<\/div>\n
decided to take a cjce on a better life in Canada.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWas the risk worth it?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHe thought so and tried to get his brothers and sisters to follow him.  Cliff, Chris and Annie did emigrate.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Emigration cost money.  Edward and Louisa with their children Frank (8 or 9) and Elsie (5) boarded the Victorian<\/div>\n
in 1908 bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia and then a train all the way to Toronto..<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhere did granddad get enough money to migrate?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHe told me he bought some stocks and wold them at a profit”<\/div>\n
\u201c<\/div>\n

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\"Cassier's<\/div>\n

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The Passenger Steamship \u2018Victorian\u2019 built in Belfast and launched in 1904 for transatlantic trade.  Converted to a warship in 1914 and finally scrapped <\/p><\/div>\n

in 1929.  Edward Freeman and family boarded the Victorian in 1908 heading for a new life in Canada.  The Victorian was virtually brand new at the time.

WHO WAS EDWARD FREEMAN?<\/div>\n

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EMAIL to Ted Freeman,<\/div>\n
January 10, 2022<\/div>\n

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Hi Ted\u2026<\/div>\n

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Some facts about Granddad and Grandma are confusing. Can ou help?

Granddad, EDWARD FREEMAN was head gardener at Eywood from 1896 (?)  TO 1904 or 1905 when family board the steamship \u2018Victorian’ for Canada

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IF BEING A HEAD GARDENER WAS SUCH A PRESTIGIOUS JOB THEN WHY QUIT?

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1) did he not get along with the Gwyers?
2) was Canadian propaganda just too persuasive (and wrong)
3) He hated his father and just wanted to get away
4) head gardener\u2019s job had prestige but poor pay
5) British class system was suffocating<\/div>\n
6) also Grandma, Louisa Amelia Bufton\u2026role of Mrs. Wwbb<\/p>\n
\u2014illegitimate by Dr. Price?  did nothing to help? Why take name Bufton and not Price?
-her mother seems an odd duck  \u2026was Bufton, became Anson before migration to Clendennan Ave., Toronto
-was Grandma abandoned child on streets of Birmingham?  
-rescue byMrs. Webb  and raised onEdwards farm\\
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-info I have makes her life sound like a mystery novel<\/div>\n
7) Dr. William Price\u2026a very weird man, eccentric, did not believe in marriage, Druid \u2026could<\/div>\n
he be father of Louisa Freeman?   -an unlikely stretch of truth?<\/div>\n
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THE ENCLOSED GARDENS OF EYWOOD CIRCA 1960<\/div>\n


FILLING IN THE BLANKS\u2026.CAN THAT BE DONE?<\/div>\n

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ALL family histories have blank spaces I imagine.  Some family histories must even be totally blank due to disinterest or danger of <\/div>\n
discovering rather nasty events.   The next Episode I will try to fill in the blanks.     To do this i have two people that must<\/div>\n
get credit, my mom who  wrote a long letter a decade or so ago and my cousin Ted Edward Freeman who filled in a lot<\/div>\n
of interesting details in January 2022.<\/div>\n

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Will readers be bored?  I think not.  THIS IS PART ONE\u2026PART TWO IS COMING<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 516 alan skeoch Jan. 21, 2022 EPISODE 516    PART 1: HEAD GARDENER EDWARD FREEMAN \u2026.WHO WAS HE?   THE GRANDFATHER I NEVER REALLLY KNEW alan skeoch Jan. 19, 2022 pics\u2026left to right\u2026Alan Skeoch, Eric Skeoch, Edward Freeman (grandfather),  circa 1945 I THOUGHT I KNEW MY GRANDFATHER\u2026BUT I DID NOT KNOW HIM AT ALL […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}