The cottage known today as Jasmine Cottage sits on the corner of Truggist Lane and the private driveway and footpath that was once Picknill or Peckenhill Lane, leading to Beechwood Common. Because it was a copyhold cottage, transfers of ownership are detailed in the Berkswell Court Rolls, which show that between 1690 and 1867 it belonged to just two families: the Reaves (1690-1783) and the Kelseys (1783-1867).
The Reaves family
The earliest record identified with Jasmine Cottage is the Court Roll of 22 April 1690, which notes the death of John (I) Reaves and shows the cottage passing into the ownership of John’s widow Mary. In line with the conventions of Berkswell Manor, their youngest son William was found heir, although he died before he could inherit.
It isn’t certain that the Reaves family lived in the cottage. When John (I) was buried at Berkswell in 1689, his address was given as ‘of Balsall’ (the neighbouring hamlet). Did Mary move to Berkswell after his death? She may have wanted to be near her eldest son John (II) Reaves and his family who owned two nearby properties, today’s Cromwell House and the Tower House, which remained in the Reaves family for many years.
Mary’s probate inventory of May 1711 can’t be conclusively identified with Jasmine Cottage, but it shows a property of similar size. Her home had two rooms downstairs with chambers over, plus a buttery, kitchen, and weaver’s workshop. Mary likely slept downstairs in the parlour, with its ‘joyn bedstead with featherbed and pillows and blanketts and curtains,’ as well as a chest, court cupboard and box for storage, and a chair and warming pan. The ‘dwelling house‘ (an unusual name for what was more often called the hall) was the family room, with a table, 8 stools, chairs, brass pots and bottles. Upstairs, the chamber over the [dwelling] house had two bedsteads with flock beds and pillows and blanketts, two coffers and a box, while Mary used the chamber over the parlour for storing her bed and table linen.
On Mary’s death in 1711 the cottage was inherited by her youngest surviving son Thomas, who shared the tenancy with his wife Katherine. After their deaths, the tenancy was divided between their two daughters, Ann and Mary. Ann immediately bought out Mary’s half and retained the property until 1783, when she sold it to her sub-tenant, William Kelsey.
Kelsey family
The new tenant of Jasmine Cottage, William Kelsey (1755-1789), was the son of a cordwainer, John (I) Kelsey, and Mary Edwards, who had married in Berkswell in 1752. William had grown up just around the corner from Jasmine Cottage at today’s Spencer’s End, which his brother John (II) inherited on their father’s death in 1776. John (II) sold the family home in 1785, moving to the farmhouse on what would eventually become today’s Kelsey Lane.
William and his wife Elizabeth Brooks (c.1753-1819) had married at Berkswell in 1776. They likely took on the sub-tenancy of Jasmine Cottage soon afterwards, since William is listed as Ann Reaves’ tenant in Land Tax records from 1781. The cottage came with a substantial parcel of land, which William and Elizabeth evidently didn’t have the time or inclination to farm. In March 1789 they sold one parcel of meadow land on the far side of Spencer’s Lane to John (III) Reaves,1 and another adjacent to the cottage, described as ‘two copyhold closes … called the Pecklings … and the Gate field adjoining’ to William Gibbs.2
William Kelsey died in October 1789, leaving Elizabeth with six children under the age of 12. In 1797 she remarried at Stoneleigh to a tailor called Samuel Perks (c.1767-1835), and the couple settled in Berkswell, presumably at Jasmine Cottage, where Land Tax returns for 1795-1815 show her as owner-occupier under the names Widow Kelsey and Elizabeth Perks. When Elizabeth died in July 1819, in line with Manorial custom, the tenancy passed to her youngest son Thomas.
Thomas Kelsey (1786-1858) was an agricultural labourer who married Catherine Adkins (c.1783-1867) at Berkswell in 1822. They settled at Jasmine Cottage, which by now had no land of its own other than a garden and orchard.3 Thomas died in January 1858 and Catherine appears on the 1861 census living alone at Jasmine Cottage and described as an ‘Ag lab widow’. She died at the age of 84 in July 1867 and was buried at Berkswell.
Thomas and Catherine’s only son, William (b. 1826) had moved away from the village, and so Catherine’s death brought the Kelsey family’s tenancy of Jasmine Cottage to an end.
Timeline of Jasmine Cottage, 1689-1867
| Date | Details | Source |
| 9 Nov. 1689 | John (I) REAVES of Balsall buried at Berkswell | Parish records |
| 22 Apr. 1690 | Death recorded of John (I) REAVES. Mary REAVES, widow, given her free bench. Wm his youngest son found heir. | Court Roll |
| 13 Jul. 1698 | William, son of Mary REAVES, widow, buried at Berkswell | Parish records |
| 12 Apr. 1710 | Mary REAVES, widow surrenders to Thomas REAVES, her son | Court Roll |
| 12 May 17114 | Inventory of Mary REAVES, late of Berkswell, widow, by Gilbert DOCKER, John BAKER, and Richard CATTELL. | Probate |
| 16 Jul. 1711 | Burial of Mary REAVES at Berkswell | Parish records |
| 20 Apr. 1720 | Thomas REEVES surrenders to Self & Kath ux [wife] | Court Roll |
| 25 May 1728 | Burial of Katherine REAVES at Berkswell | Parish records |
| 18 Nov. 1746 | Burial of Thomas REAVES at Berkswell | Parish records |
| 22 Apr. 1747 | Thomas REAVES surrenders to self for life; rev in fee to Ann REAVES and Mary REAVES his two daurs as tenants in common; death of Thomas REAVES; Mary REAVES surrenders moiety to Ann REAVES | Court Roll |
| 1773 | Ann REAVES (2s 4.5d) | Land Tax |
| 24 Sep. 1776 | William KELSEY mar. Elizabeth BROOKS at Berkswell | Parish records |
| 1781-5 | Ann REAVES, occ. William KELSEY | Land Tax |
| 23 Apr. 1783 | Ann REAVES surrenders out of court to William KELCEY [sic] | Court Roll |
| 9 Mar. 1789 | copyhold piece or parcel of meadow land adjoining at the one End to Beechwood and at the other end to a lane leading from Beech Wood to a place called the Brick kiln, all in Oldnall End. William KELSEY of Berkswell, yeoman and wife Elizabeth ==> John REAVES of Berkswell, weaver | Court Roll |
| 9 Mar. 1789 | two copyhold closes or parcels of inclosed land called … the Pecklings, lying near a lane leading from the house where Abraham Gifford dwelt to a common called Beech Wood AND the Gate Field … adjoining … the Pecklings … in Oldnall End [1839: Great/Little Picknill; the Gate Field]. William KELSEY of Berkswell, yeoman, and wife Elizabeth ==> William GIBBS of Berkswell, yeoman | Court Roll |
| 26 Oct. 1789 | Burial of William SKELSEY [sic] at Berkswell | Parish records |
| 5 Apr. 1790 | Death recorded of William KELSEY of Berkswell, yeoman | Court Roll |
| Apr. 1791 | William KELSEY, deceased surrenders to Elizabeth KELSEY, widow | Court Roll |
| 1795 | Widow KELSEY, owner-occupier | Land tax |
| 10 Apr. 1797 | Elizabeth KELSEY mar. Samuel PERKS at Stoneleigh | Parish records |
| 1798 | Widow KELSEY, owner-occupier | Land tax |
| 1802 | Enclosure Act | |
| 1805 | Widow KELSEY, owner-occupier | Land tax |
| 1810 | Elizabeth PERKS, owner-occupier | Land tax |
| 1815 | Elizabeth PERKS, owner-occupier | Land tax |
| 7 Jul. 1819 | Burial of Elizabeth PERKS, age 66, wife of Samuel PERKS, tailor at Berkswell | Parish records |
| 1820 | Thomas KELSEY, owner-occupier | Land tax |
| 14 Jul. 1822 | Thomas KELSEY mar. Catherine ADKINS at Berkswell | Parish records |
| 1825 | Thomas KELSEY, owner-occupier | Land tax |
| 1830 | Thomas KELSEY, owner-occupier (house and land) | Land tax |
| 1839 | Thomas KELSEY, owner-occupier of house, garden & orchard | Tithe Apportionment |
| 6 Jun. 1841 | Beech End [Truggist Hill], Berkswell: Thomas KELSEY. 55. Ag lab. Y [born in county] Catherine. 55 William. 15 | Census |
| 30 Mar. 1851 | Dockers Lane, Berkswell [Truggist Hill]: Thomas KELSEY. h. 65. Labourer gardener. Berkswell Catherine. w. 67. Berkswell | Census |
| 21 Jan. 1858 | Burial of Thomas KELSEY, 70, of Berkswell | Parish records |
| 7 Apr. 1861 | Truggist Hill, Berkswell: Catherine KELSEY. h. wid. 78. Ag lab widow. Berkswell | Census |
| 12 Jul. 1867 | Burial of Catherine KELSEY, 84, of Berkswell | Parish records |
- This is the plot to the north of Spencer’s Lane that is divided into 3 fields on the 1839 tithe: Home Field, Further Field, and Over Piece. ↩︎
- The Pecklings presumably derive from Picknill / Peckenhall Lane, a name that appears on the 1802 Enclosure map but hasn’t survived. The 1839 Tithe Apportionment names these fields as 1129 Little Picknill, 1130 Great Picknill and 1131 Gate Field, all owned and occupied by William Gibbs. ↩︎
- The Tithe Apportionment records Thomas Kelsey, owner-occupier of a house, garden and orchard (No. 1134) on Truggist Lane. ↩︎
- The inventory is clearly dated 12 May, while Mary’s burial is clearly dated 16 July, and her probate is dated 22 August, all in the year 1711. It is unlikely that the burial is incorrect (since burials are recorded in chronological order), but could it be that the assessors of the inventory recorded the wrong date? ↩︎
Oldnall End One Place Study 