Little is known about this man.  He is possibly the 18 year old Jesse King who, in 1901 is living at The Swan Inn and working as a carpenter’s apprentice.  Alfred King (aged 48) was the inn keeper and farmer and he and his wife (Ellen King, aged 49), had three children living with them at the time the census was taken: Jesse, Kate King (aged 15 and noted as a “mother’s help”) and 12 year old Stephen King.

 

Jesse appears only briefly in Chailey’s Parish Magazine and does not appear to have served.  He is noted in January 1916 as having attested and appears again in the same list in March and April 1916.

 

Mick Pateman remembers Jesse King in later life: “He used to build the coffins and that.  He had a carpenter’s shop on Chailey Green when I went to school.  There was a carpenter’s shop, blacksmith’s shop, post office, butcher’s shop.  Durrant’s had the butcher’s shop.  The Post Office was in what they called the Reading Room.  Beard’s shop was on the Green.  There was a tailor there sitting up there cross-legged, sewing.  Chailey Green was the centre, everything was there and that seemed to keep South and North Chailey away [apart].”

 

 

Sources and Acknowledgements

 

• 1901 Census of England and Wales
• Chailey Parish Magazine
• Interview with Mick Pateman in 2003