#On This Day - 9th December

On this day in 1821 Ann Yielding was buried in Battle, East Sussex, England.  1821 was an eventful year so I am highlighting two English events.  Firstly George IV was crowned king of the United  Kingdom on July 19th and secondly John Constable completed his famous painting, The Hay Wain, in April/May . It's doubtful Ann knew about Constable or his paintings, considering her simple country life.

Ann Yielding, the daughter of Richard Yielding (c. 1770- ) and Elizabeth Sinden (1766-1843), was baptised in Battle on 24 May 1799. 

Ann was my 5x great aunt on my grandmother's father's side and also my 4th cousin 6x removed through the same grandmother's mother's side!

On this same day, December 9, in 1608, John Milton was born in Cheapside, London. Milton is most famous for his epic poem "Paradise Lost," published in 1667, well before Ann's time. He was also a strong supporter of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Additionally, Milton served as a civil servant under Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth of England. 

The Hay Wain

I really don't know much at all about Ann as she desn't appear in any census records which came after she died so I thought I would expand the post to talk about the traditions we had when I was a child. 

We always had our Christmas dinner in the middle of the day; it didn't matter if we had been to midnight service, my Mum still got up really early to get the turkey into cook so there was plenty of time later on for my Dad to carve the turkey whilst she was cooking roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, roast parsnips, stuffing and yorkshire puddings.  The extras that got added to our plates were a few crisps or Pringles when they were popular, bread sauce, a lovely home made flavoursome gravy, cranberry sauce and vegetables which were always carrots and sprouts and had been cooked on top of the hob.  Afterwards we had a home made Christmas Pudding to which had been added "old ale" from the pub and brandy butter.  When we were very small we were given custard and the adults had brandy butter.  We were only allowed that as teeenagers!!