Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

John Siret (127)

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JOHN SIRET; 1772 -1854

Little is known of John’s early life save that he was born in Upper Winchendon, Bucks, where he was baptised on 4^th September 1772. His parents were Ralf and Ann Siret.[1]

John spent most of his adult life in Berkhamsted. We do not know the date or the reason he moved to the town, but on 21^st September 1797 John, 25 years old, married in St Peters, Berkhamsted. His bride was Ann Wilkinson, who was from Berkhamsted and the marriage certificate refers to John as also being “of this Parish” so we can conclude that he was already settled in Berkhamsted prior to that date.  

Unfortunately, the marriage did not last long as Ann died and was buried in the graveyard at St Peter’s Church on 1^st March 1800. Although there is no evident record of her birth, a Sophia Siret was buried in St Peter’s churchyard on the 3^rd June 1827. She was 27 years old when she died and her date of birth was recorded as 1800. It may be that Ann died giving birth to Sophia.

John remarried in1801. His second wife, Elizabeth Taylor, like John, came from Upper Winchendon, which is where the marriage was celebrated. It seems likely that John knew Elizabeth from his earlier life in Winchendon. Although the marriage took place in Upper Winchendon, John and Elizabeth returned to Berkhamsted where the couple’s first child, John, was born and baptised on 11^th January 1802.  A daughter, Mary, was born in 1806 but she died in the infancy and was buried on 28^th December that year.

After 28 years of marriage, Elizabeth, also died and on 19^th April 1829 she too was buried in St Peter’s churchyard.

Once again John remarried. On the 21^st September 1832, he married the widowed Harriotte[2] Thompson in St Peter’s Church. In this instance it was John who was to die before Harriotte. John died on 3^rd January 1854 at the age of 83 years. His memorial recorded that “He was universally respected.” Unlike his two previous wives and deceased children, John was buried not in St Peter’s Churchyard, which was then full, but in Rectory Lane Cemetery which had been opened as the new parish graveyard in 1842. Harriotte died at the age of 68 two years after John and was buried with him on 24^th February 1856.

For some fifty years John was the landlord of The Goat, a public house on Berkhamsted’s High Street which continues in business today.  The pub dates back at least to the late 18^th century, originally a straw thatched inn that was rebuilt in the 19^th century.[3] It was owned in 1782 by Sarah Turney, a widow.[4] By 1806, John was the landlord[5] but he evidently did not own the pub. The 1839 tithe records that whilst the pub and the meadow to its rear were occupied by John, both parcels of land were owned by one William Tomlin. Although John did not own The Goat, the tithe records show that he did own 9 cottages in the town and a meadow in Doctors Commons Road.

Local historian Percy Birtchnell noted that “In 1824 John Siret, landlord of the Goat, made a speciality of catering for drovers.”[6] The meadow at the rear of the pub was a favourite halt for cattle drovers on the way to London who pounded their cattle in closes in the meadow (hence Three Close Lane).[7] “Victoria Road was the site of a close or paddock attached to the Goat Inn, where, at certain times in the year, were to be seen large herds of Welsh cattle grazing and resting on their way to Barnet fair.”[8]

There remains today an old stone cattle trough outside the pub, now containing plants. "Once again I am asked if I know the age of the horse-trough outside the Goat Inn. I don't think anyone knows the date. It may or may not have preceded the Victorian rebuilding of the inn.”[9]

As well as providing food and drink for cattle, customers were also well provided for, as this newspaper report from 1824 attests:

“A man of the name of John Head, called at Mr. Sirett’s, at the Goat Public-house, Berkhamsted, where he ate 4½lbs. of bacon, two plates of potatoes weighing 4lbs., a quartern loaf, two penny rolls, 1½lb. of plumb pudding, 2½lb. of pickled salmon and washed the whole down with four quarts of beer, in the short space of an hour; the weight of the food and beer was upwards of 24lbs.”[10]