Stevens 1879-12-17

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Divine Service this evening. Charles Legge’s wife came and asked me to bury his brother’s child in churchyard. She died today aged 2 yrs of measles. The father (Lively) has lived in Banbury some years ?past? as coachman to Mr C Gillett whose service he left because Mr G had appointed a bailiff or steward or foreman to look after his outdoor servants etc and he (Lively) having been accustomed to receive his orders directly from his master refused to take them from anyone else. He then got another situation for a time but has lost that for some reason or other. He has a large family and talks of coming back to Sibford to live by doing thatching!! I told his sister that I was not desirous of hurting his feelings by refusing to bury his child, but that our churchyard was getting so full that I was very unwilling to allow graves to any but parishioners, and that she must give him to understand that it was a special favour which must not be taken as a precedent.

“his brother’s child” is presumably a mistake for “her brother’s child”