The Hart family of Tasburgh, Hapton and Tharston

George Hart died in 1759, and his Will dated 26th November 1757 records him as "of Tasburgh". Details of his birth and marriage are unknown but his Will names three sons, George, William and Charles, and two sets of non-Hart grandchildren from which it would seem that he also had two daughters who both predeceased him, as must his wife of whom there was no mention. There is also a legacy to another grand-daughter, Sarah Hart, so it is possible there may have been a fourth son who had also predeceased him.

To his son George he left his messuage (house) and lands in Hapton and Fundenhall, to son William his messuages and lands in (Lower) Tasburgh, which from Manorial Court records are known to have included Cottage Farm as well as Limes Farm, and to Charles his messuages and lands in Tasburgh Upper Street. It's not known where George Hart may have been living in Tasburgh at the date of his death, but it may have been Rainthorpe Hall, often referred to as Tasburgh even though just in Flordon, because in the manorial court records of the transfer of Cottage Farm and Limes Farm to William in 1760, William was referred to as "tenant of Rainthorpe", perhaps in succession to his father. George is thought to have been a member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, and his children certainly were.

Son George married Mary Piggott of Tharston in 1732 and the Friends' Register of Births records them as having eight children, the first six of whom were born in Tharston and the last two in Tasburgh. In 1736 one of his sisters, Ann, married John Muskett, son of Andrew Muskett who was a landowner and farmer from Thelveton and also a staunch Quaker who for a while was imprisoned in Norwich Castle for refusing on principle to pay tithes to the Church. A year later in 1737 William married his brother-in-law's sister, Elizabeth Muskett from Thelveton, and in 1741 the other brother Charles married Ann Elliot of Bressingham at the Friends Meeting House in Tivetshall. William and Elizabeth didn't have any children and when he died in 1761 his widow and his brother Charles from Newton Flotman were appointed as the administrators of his estate as he didn't leave a Will. The manorial court records show that in accordance with the rules of intestacy Cottage Farm and Limes Farm passed to his older brother, but it is thought his widow, Elizabeth, took the freehold property Malthouse Farm (now Tasburgh Grange) as part of her half share. On her death in 1801 the farm was bought by her nephew John Muskett who had married Mary Hart, daughter of Charles Hart of Hapton Hall.

Although William and Elizabeth had no children, both George and Charles went on to produce large families. In those days it was common for the eldest son to be given the same name as their father, and so it was that the eldest son of George and Mary born in 1732 became the third in the line of George Harts. His brothers and sisters in order were John (1735), William (1738), Mary (1740), Thomas (1743), Ann (1748), Elizabeth (1750) and Benjamin (1752). Their father George Hart "of Tasburgh" died in 1787 having made his Will in 1776. As the Will makes no provision for his wife Mary it seems she must have died before 1776 as had his daughter Mary, since there were gifts to her five children, and probably also Benjamin of whom there is no mention. Son George inherited his father's properties in Tasburgh, whilst John and William received properties in Ditchingham, and the three of them shared their father's properties in Fundenhall. Further land in Hapton was left to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of William Wright for her lifetime, and then to their children. For some reason, son Thomas was only left a legacy rather than land but he and his wife Elizabeth Hales from Long Stratton had a son Thomas of Hapton, who with his wife Rhoda Gardiner had eleven children.

Based on the 1797 Will of the third George Hart who died in 1804, he and his wife Rachel had at least five children, the first born being the fourth in the line of George Harts, but he must have died before 1797 as his father's Will instructs his executors to sell his properties in Tasburgh which he had inherited from his own father, then let to William Wright, possibly his brother-in-law, and to divide the sale proceeds equally between his late son's nine children, the eldest of whom was the fifth George Hart. George and Rachel's other children mentioned in their father's Will were Mary, who married Ephraim Muskett, a grandson of Andrew Muskett referred to earlier, Elizabeth who married Matthew Rackham, Ann who predeceased her father but left two children, Charles and George Woodcock, and Dorothy who in 1784 had married another of Andrew Muskett's grandchildren, Thomas Muskett of Wacton.

Charles Hart's family was no less extensive. In 1741 he married Ann Elliott and their eldest child, Charles Hart the second, was born in Diss a year later followed by Ann, Mary, Sarah and then finally George in 1748. Following the death of his wife, he married Mary King in 1757 and their daughter Elizabeth was born the next year. It would appear that by then he was probably living in Newton Flotman, because in an Assignment of the Tivetshall Quaker Meeting House dated 29th June 1760 held in the Norfolk Record Office, he was referred to as a maltster of Newton Flotman, and his son Charles was another of the trustees named in the document. However by the time of his death in 1788 he was living in Hapton with his third wife, Hannah, and as he was then described as a gentleman of Hapton, he was probably living in  Hapton Hall as Hapton House, being the only other substantial house in the village, was the parsonage for the Minister of the adjoining  Chapel. Under the terms of his Will he left his tenanted lands in Tasburgh to his eldest son but charged with various payments to other members of the family, and also gave to Charles "the farm and lands now in my own occupation", presumably  Hapton Hall, as that was where he died in 1814.

In 1769 his eldest son had married Mary Muskett, a widow from Wacton, so another relative of Andrew Muskett, albeit by marriage, and then his daughter Mary married one of Andrew's grandsons, John Muskett of Thelveton, who in 1802 bought Malthouse Farm as referred to ealier. One of John's descendants, Ros Goodfellow (nee Muskett) has lived at Rookery House, Tasburgh since 1976. Of his other children, Ann married John Everett, Sarah married John Coleby and in 1779 Elizabeth married a banker, Thomas Mildred, who built Tasburgh Lodge as their new home, now the substantially remodelled Tasburgh Hall.

The third Charles Hart born in 1770 married Elizabeth and amongst their eight children their eldest son was named Charles and their second son, the youngest, was George. These were clearly the dominant male names on this side of the family because his brother, George's two sons were also called Charles and George. All very confusing!