John Wyld ⁴⁵

  Noted events in his life were:

• History: The Nottingham Date Book, 1 Feb 1772, Calverton, Nottingham, England. It was recorded in The Nottingham Date Book 1 Feb 1772 that, on this date, there was a heavy snow fall with a cold North-East wind. A Mrs Ann Webster set out on horseback with a neighbour to return to her home in Calverton, but only managed to get within a mile of the village. In the morning ".....the poor woman and the horse were discovered on the road, quite dead, she, however, retaining the bridle in her frozen grasp....."

• History: Woodborough Enclosure, 24 Feb 1798, Woodborough, Nottingham, England. John and Joseph WYLD are both mentioned in the Woodborough Enclosure document, 24 Feb 1798. Richard is not mentioned, suggesting that he had already died.

• Land: Woodborough Enclosure, 1798, Woodborough, Nottingham, England. John WYLD had a house on Main Street opposite Lingwood Lane. A house stands there today called "Davenport House" but as the original conveyance dates from 1839, it is likely that it was built on the site of John's house. There are some outbuildings behind the house which could date from the eighteenth century.
John retained an acre of land called "Willow Style Close" on Shelt Hill, and he was allotted a further six acres to form two fields either side of Shelt Hill. The basis for the tenure of all his lands was copyhold in the manors of Oxton Over Hall and Nether Hall.
Joseph had a house immediately behind John's.

• History: Local - Lord Byron, 1798, Nottingham, England. The problems of travel in the early 1800's were recorded by John Hobhouse, Byron's travelling companion for the first year: 'After stumbling through several narrow lanes in a blinding storm, we came to the miserable hovel prepared for our reception. The room was half full of maize in stalk; the floor was of mud, and there was no outlet for the smoke but through the door.'
Byron inspected ancient ruins and learnt a great deal about romance and vermin. His chief correspondence was with his mother - he thought a deal better of her at a distance than in her company. He later remarked that he had seen everything remarkable in Turkey, Greece, Constantinople and Albania, though he did not know that he had done anything except swim the Hellespont in emulation of Leander. He added that he had acquired nothing from his travels except a smattering of two languages and a habit of chewing tobacco; but since he had written Childe Harolde's Pilgrimage and become fired with the wish that Greece be freed from Turkish rule, he was not entirely truthful.
Maiden Speech Byron's mother died before he returned home. The news of her death reached him in London and he travelled to Newstead for the funeral. Augusta wrote him a letter of sympathy and they renewed their correspondence - he had not written to her for over two years. After differences had been ironed out with his publisher, John Murray, who objected to some of the religious sentiments in Childe Harolde: 'they may deprive me of some customers among the Orthodox' - the poem was ready to go to press. At that time a Bill had been introduced into the House of Lords to make frame-breaking a capital offence, and in March 1812 Byron made his maiden speech on behalf of the Luddites. The irony and indignation that he felt for the frame-breakers, 'loud and fluent enough, perhaps a little theatrical,' came stinging into life but his oratory was not enough. The cause was lost and the Bill became law. As Byron himself recognised: 'I was born for opposition.'

Luddites When Lord Byron arrived in Nottingham in 1798, wild crocuses carpeted the meadows but St. Mary's workhouse was 'dark, verminous, ill-ventilated' and appallingly overcrowded. In that same year a gentleman complained that 'he had lived 17 years in the town and during that time there had been 17 riots.' Byron himself wrote of 'that political Pandemonium, Nottingham.' Well into producing textiles, the town was so short of space that much of the work was done at home by stockingers whose upper floor windows were made bigger for extra light. Four bad harvests in a row, Napoleon's ban on British goods, and war with the United States sank stockingers' fortunes. Wages fell. To add to it, manufacturers brought in cut-ups to increase output and lower prices - the stocking was not knitted to shape, but knitted straight, cut out, and then seamed together. It threatened the living of stockingers and thousands near starvation applied for parish relief. Ned Ludlam, a Leicester apprentice, smashed his stocking-frame in a temper and the Luddite movement began. At Arnold, Nottingham, on 11 March 1811, a group of Luddites broke 63 frames. The Riot Act was read. These were not besotted fanatics but a disciplined, secret organisation who only attacked hosiers who produced cut-ups, or who paid below agreed rates. Their letters and proclamations were signed 'Ned Ludd' or 'King Ludd'. The Council offered 50 guineas reward and a free pardon for information on frame-breakers. It was never claimed. A Bill was brought in to impose the death penalty instead of deportation for frame-breaking and Byron spoke out in their defence in the House of Lords: 'I have been in some of the most oppressed provinces in Turkey; but never under the most despotic of infidel governments did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return to the very heart of a Christian country.' The young poet could not sway his lordships and the Bill became law. The authorities drafted thousands of troops into Nottinghamshire, set up camp in Sherwood Forest - the Luddites met up there at night - quartered redcoats in every village whilst a curfew was proclaimed in the town of Nottingham. They had little success. Women paraded, sometimes in their thousands, carrying placards: 'We Ask for Bread' . . . 'Help Our Children' . . . 'Pity Our Distress.' Men solicited contributions door to door. Improvement in conditions came only slowly - except for a brief lace-boom in 1823 that was much like a gold rush - Heathcoat's patent adapting the stocking frame to make lace expired and mechanics flocked into town to modify machines. Rich rewards flowed for a time. Some workmen arrived at factories on horseback with a pint of champagne for their breakfast instead of their usual mug of beer. But output soon exceeded demand and the champagne days ended.

• Spelling. John's surname has also been recorded as WYLDE on the Parish Plans showing the Woodborough Enclosure.

• Will, Nov 1826, Woodborough, Nottingham, England. John cites two pieces of land in Calverton. One is freehold land at Burnor Close, with the "......messuage or tenement buildings, brick yards, kiln sheds, garden and appurtenances.......", which is subject to a £400 mortgage to John HIGGINBOTTOM, a Nottingham Surgeon. The other piece of land is copyhold land at Intake Close which is subject to a £150 mortgage to William DONNELLY. Both properties are put in trust to John's son, William WYLD, and his son-in-law Samuel PALIN, with the income from rents and profits going to Rebecca as long as she remains unmarried.
When Nathaniel reaches the age of 21 years (in 1840) he is to receive Burnor Close and he is charged with paying a legacy of £25 to each of his three sisters within 12 months, and with maintaining his mother, with a contribution of 2 shillings a week from his younger brother, Richard.
Richard is to receive Intake Close when he reaches the age of 21 years.
Rebacca is to select one cow from the stock that John possess at the time of his death.
John's dwelling house, outbuildings and homestead in Woodborough, together with Laneside Close, Willow Style Close and a part-share of lands in Lambley are bequeathed to William.

Rebecca remarried in 1827, so no longer received any income from the trust fund.

Probate was granted to William WYLD in September 1829, with the personal estate of John WYLD valued at less than £200

John married Elizabeth Pepper, daughter of John Pepper and Ann White, on 26 Nov 1782 in Hoveringham, Nottingham, England.¹ (Elizabeth Pepper was born about 1765 and was christened on 4 Mar 1768 in Nottingham St Mary, Nottingham, England ¹³.)