The Dove family
fl. 18th-19th century

Among the most important citizens in the Bourne area two centuries ago were the Dove family who were also owners of the site now occupied by the Old Maltings in West Street and responsible for the early rebuilding of this property. 

The Dove family came to prominence at the time of the Enclosure Award of 2nd January 1770 when John Dove received a substantial allocation of land. He was granted just under 230 acres, mainly in the fields around Cawthorpe, Bourne and the North Fen. He was the owner of eight commonable houses and toftsteads, as was also John Pell, whose allocation of land for enclosure, amounting to over 172 acres, lay chiefly in the Cawthorpe fields and in Dyke Fen. John Pell's father had come from Edenham, and the younger John had lived at Swinstead before coming to Cawthorpe, but the farm there had been in their tenure since about 1750, if not earlier. It is interesting to see that after the younger John died in 1773, the property at Cawthorpe came into the hands of John Dove, who then became the largest farmer in the district. 

In the manorial records, this farm which the Pells had occupied was described as "a messuage or tenement, and Malting Office, with yard, barns, etc. and 13 acres 2 roods and 6 perches of land . . . held under the yearly rent of 18 shillings, one Cock and two Hens . . ." This rent, which by now would be a purely nominal one, was no doubt a medieval survival and a reminder of times when manorial rents were not necessarily paid in money. A malting office was not so very unusual in the 18th century when farmers would be quite likely to brew their own ale and indeed, John Dove possessed a similar office with an orchard in West Street, now the site of the Old Maltings that we know today.

It appears that the Doves were making their way in the world during the 18th century and when John Dove died, he had prospered sufficiently to leave property in Bourne and Cawthorpe to each of his three sons, Hargate, John and Thomas. This was about the year 1800. When Hargate Dove died, circa 1811, his possessions went, either in whole or part, to his brother John. 

From the will of this John, dated 1818, we can see that he had become a man of substance in the parish. One part of his property he bequeathed to his son, John Hurn Dove, consisting of a house and about 50 acres of land in Cawthorpe, 42 more acres lying in several closes at Cawthorpe, 18 acres in Gobold's Park, near Dyke, and just over nine acres in Dyke Fen. There were also seven acres in Bourne North Fen and 51 acres in South Fen. This bequest was subject to the payment within a year of John Dove's death of £1,000 in equal shares to his three daughters, and also to the payment of £37 1s. 0d. as an annuity for life to his wife Henrietta. The other part of his property, much of it in Bourne, was left by John Dove to two trustees who were to sell and dispose of these possessions as conveniently as possible after his death. 

They included "my new Malting with the Beast Hovel, Barn, etc" in West Street. The Maltings appear to have been rebuilt sometime after 1790, when a fire had destroyed part of the property which occupied the site, hence it could still be called new in 1818. There were also three houses in West Street, one of them occupied by John Dove himself, and
another attached to a basket maker's shop. There was the former Quakers' Meeting House, now used as two cottages and also a public house, the Marquis of Granby in Star Lane [now Abbey Road], with two cottages adjoining it. In Dyke, John Dove left a house and paddock, three small pieces of land in South Fen and Gobold's Park, five acres near Eastgate Bridge, Doctor's Close near Manor Street in Bourne and a house with outbuildings and four acres of land at South Witham. Obviously, a man of considerable property.

The cottages used as a Quaker Meeting House are particularly interesting. Although the Quakers were not so numerous as the Baptists in Bourne, they continued to have their own meeting house for part of the 18th century at any rate. An entry in the manorial records for 1757 confirms this but when a further entry was made in 1775, showing the surrender of the building to John Dove of Cawthorpe, there was no reference to the property being a Quaker Meeting House, nor was John Dove a Quaker, so it is probable that by this time the building was no longer used as a place of worship. There was only one family of Quakers in Bourne in the early part of the century and presumably by 1775, there was insufficient Quaker interest in the town to keep a meeting house going. By 1811 then, when the property is referred to in the will of Hargate Dove, it is described as "my two cottages, formerly the Quakers' Meeting House".

In accordance with instructions, the trustees sold these properties to a variety of purchasers. The West Street maltings, the former Quaker building and John Dove's own house, all went to John Clifton, a maltster and merchant who had moved from Market Deeping to Bourne. In fact, he purchased the maltings jointly with Edward Arden, a gentleman of Morton. 

John Dove and his family were also associated with a considerable amount of new building that was taking place in Bourne as a result of the rising population of the town during the 19th century where there were several instances of business premises being rebuilt or extended. For example, the old malting office which John Dove had owned in West Street was replaced in 1806 by "a new malting, with beast hovel, barn, etc." and in 1816, we have a reference to a "spacious new erected Warehouse" on the north side of the Bourne Eau in Eastgate [demolished in August 1969]. In 1825, when John Mawby, grocer and draper, obtained a house, buildings, and former kitchen garden in South Street, he also received "the Granaries, Warehouses, Buildings, and Offices which have since been erected and built upon the said Garden". Part of this complex are the properties known today as Wherry's grain warehouse and Bourne Eau House.

From this summary of John Dove's will, we can see that his family must have been very well established in Bourne and Cawthorpe by the early 19th century. It seems that he had at least one more son, apart from John Hurn Dove, who inherited a part of his estate. This other son, William, and his wife Frances, had three sons of their own. The eldest
of the three, who was also called William, emigrated to South Australia, and in 1860 sold his land at Cawthorpe to his youngest brother. The middle son became a clergyman, first at Spalding and later in London while the youngest, Henry Draper Dove, continued to live and farm at Cawthorpe. 

After their father's death, their mother married again to Joseph Mawby, a gentleman of Market Deeping, who at his death in 1878 left several of the former Dove properties. One of his trustees was his stepson Henry Draper Dove, who by now had moved to Langham, Essex. It is not certain whether by this time any of the Dove family still resided in Bourne or Cawthorpe, but at least for over a century they must have figured prominently in the affairs of the town and their tombstones can still be seen in the churchyard, a short distance from Church Walk.

NOTE: This article was compiled with the help of extracts from 
A History of Bourne by J D Birkbeck (1970).

See also   Ledger stones    The Corn Trade

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