Everatt, William (1839-1914)

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Transcription of obituary published in the Primitive Methodist Magazine by J.B.

William  Everatt sprang from the sturdy East Anglian peasantry, being born at Flitcham, near Sandringham, and having many personal recollections of the boyhood of the late King Edward. When a young man he joined the Army. He began to educate himself, and soon learned to read and write, and acquired a knowledge of Pitman’s short-hand. A militant spirit, on leaving the Army he became a colleague of Joseph Arch and threw himself heartily into the work of organising the Agricultural Labourers’ Union, occupying the platform at times in company with W.E. Gladstone, John Bright, and other reform leaders of the Victorian period. He was a member of society for nearly sixty years, and a local preacher for fifty-eight years. 

The latter part of his life was spent at Scunthorpe, where he passed away on October 15th, 1914, in his seventy-sixth year.

Family

William was born on 1 January 1839 at Flitcham, Norfolk, to parents James Everett, who worked the land (1851) and Phoebe Large. He was baptised on 6 January 1839 at Flitcham.

Census returns identify the following occupations for William.

• 1861 agricultural labourer
• 1871 agricultural labourer
• 1881 manager of Co-op stores
• 1891 retired grocer
• 1901 domestic gardener
• 1911 gardener worker for Board of Guardians

He married Mary Ann Burton (abt1837-1883) on 24 June 1860 at Great Massingham, Norfolk. Census returns identify three children.

• Lucy (abt1863-1936) – married Johnson Clarke, a tailor (1911), in 1883
• Leah (1868-1879)
• James William (b1870) – grocer’s assistant (1891)

He married Hannah Burnett (1847-1902) in early 1885 in the Caister Registration District, Lincolnshire. 

William died on 15 October 1914 at Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.

References

Primitive Methodist Magazine 1915/414

Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers

Note: Many online records spell the surname “Everett”