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My Dear Henry
I want to tell you all I know about your ancestors with the hope that some day you will be interested enough 
to find out more about them yourself.
The first one we hear of is James Padfield, who was born on March 3 1791 at Chantry near Frome, he came to 
know a girl named Mary Treasure, born April 24 1794, who lived in a little village called Little Elm near 
Frome in Somerset. The Treasures were a farming family of some considerable standing and James Padfield 
was not considered a suitable match for their daughter Mary, so the outcome was that they eloped in 1815. 
Where they were married I do not know, but they lived at the farm at Chantry next to the Public House and 
then raised a family of 8 sons and 3 daughters. Apparently J.P. took up farming when he married, they kept 
cows and made the milk into cheese. Mary was very religious and used to read the Bible while she made the 
cheese, which she said, was why her cheese always took prizes at the fairs. Their first son was born on 
November 19 1816 and he became your grandfather’s father. His name was Shem James and another son, Stephen 
became your grandmother’s father, so your grand parents were cousins.
The names of their other family always rather amused me so I will tell you what they were, Shem, Seth, Samuel, 
Silas, Simion, Stephen, James and George, their daughters were, Mary, Martha, and Mahalia. When the elder sons 
grew up they used to do contracting work with horses and carts or waggons, carting all manner of different 
things quite long distances for those days and would sometimes be away for a week or two at a time. Eventually 
Shem rented Middle Farm, Walton, near Glastonbury with his brother Seth, and when they had been there two or 
three years Shem married Sarah Crossman. The farm was part of the estate of the Marquess of Bath, and they l
ived there for the rest of their lives and had a family of 5 sons and 2 daughters, Shem died in 1882 and his 
wife in 1892, they were buried in Walton churchyard. Their sons were George, Hamilton, Albert, Henry 
(your grandfather), and Herbert, and their daughters, Caroline, and Mary.
Now about Stephen. He married Jane Cray and lived at Great Elm, nr. Frome and had a family of 1 son and 
3 daughters, Edwin, Mary Jane (your grandmother), Louisa, and Margaret. In the early 1880's the whole family 
left Somerset (the first Padfields to do this) and rented a farm at Neasdon, North London. After a few years 
they moved to Bridge Farm, Loughton where Stephen died about 1892 and was buried in Loughton cemetery. The 
lease was taken over by his nephew, George, of Walton, son of Shem. He lived there for about 25 years, and 
when he died the farm was taken over in turn by his youngest son, George, who lived there until all the land 
was built on.
Next to come up from Somerset was your grandfather, Henry, and he married Mary Jane at Loughton in September 
1893 and settled at Pages Farm, your father was their eldest child, then came your aunts, Nellie, Jo, Bell 
(Alban, Nellie, Josephine, Isabel), we all lived at Pages until 1921 when Mother, Father, and I moved to Weir 
Farm, Rayleigh. Mother and Father moved to the Anchorage, Ingrave Road, Brentwood in 1932, where mother died 
in 1938, aged 74 and father lived until he was nearly 90, dying on July 2 1955. They are buried in Shenfield 
churchyard.
After your grandfather came to Essex, his other three brothers soon followed and they all started farming. 
George had six sons, Hamilton three, Herbert three, and your grandfather one (Alban). All of those in turn 
had sons and grandsons who are all farming in Essex today, so it is no wonder that the county is full of 
Padfields'.
In the summer of 1952 I visited Little Elm to see if I could find out anything about James and Mary, about 
all I learned was that Little Elm used to be one end of the village of Chantry and it no longer exists, the 
whole village being known as Chantry. The church at Chantry is only just 100 years old so that did not help 
us at all, but previous to that the nearest church was Whatley, a couple of miles away. No doubt James and 
Mary's children would have been baptised there, and they (J&M) are most probably buried there too, so the 
church register would be well worth looking at. If only we knew where they were married, we might be able 
to find where James was born. I hope some day to be able to do a little more investigation on the subject.
I do hope that you will take great care of this accompanying book and value it as much as I do for this 
irreplaceable writing inside the cover and when the time comes hand it on to your son and try to awaken in 
him an interest in past generations.
     Your affectionate aunt
     Isabel Saunderson