Frederick Buckler
Frederick Buckler (1910 or 1911 – 1967) was… … read more
Frederick Buckler (1910 or 1911 – 1967) was the husband of Mary Williams. He married her in 1936 and came to live at the farmhouse of Great House Farm; they had seven children. From 1944 he ran the farm as manager for his father-in-law, John Williams, and from 2 February 1949 he held an unwritten yearly agricultural tenancy from Western Ground Rents. The already-obtained 1939 WGR–John Williams agreement/plan depicts Parcel B, the eastern agricultural fields, only. The 1949–1953 unwritten yearly tenancy is treated by the Court of Appeal as a real protected periodic agricultural tenancy. The family’s case is that its scope followed the Parcel-B agricultural line and did not make Mary’s separate Parcel-A occupation permissive. A distinct further attempt to make Frederick a tenant is identified for 1954; see GHF-E182, whose original source is pending. Frederick was the only defendant to the 1955 possession order. The family’s established account is that on 4 July 1955 WGR took Parcel B and also seized the north forest and south-east green ground of Parcel A under the “whole farm” wording. He died in 1967, aged 56.
Method and evidence key: Main Page · title test
Chronology
- 1910/11 — born (below)
- 1936 — marries Mary Williams (below)
- 1944 — gives up his job to run the farm as manager for John Williams (1944)
- 1949 — unwritten yearly agricultural tenancy from WGR; 1952 agents’ letter; last rent 1953 (below). The family disputes that it extended to Parcel A.
- 1954 — further attempt to make Frederick a tenant, treated in the family chronology as an unsuccessful attempt to make Parcel-A occupation permissive; original source pending (GHF-E182).
- 1955 — tenancy ends by notice on 2 February; High Court order against him alone for “the whole of the farm” (1955 order); enforced 4 July except the farmhouse and garden (enforcement)
- 1962 — named with Mary in the Cardiff County Court order, 11 December (1962 order)
- 1963 — suspended committal order against him, June (committal)
- 1965 — January–February: negotiates with WGR, which would not let him the agricultural land (WGR correspondence, January–March 1965, recited in the 1987 judgment; catalogue GHF-E013-13) (1965)
- c.1965–67 — rumoured sale by his eldest son (rumoured sale)
- 1967 — dies, aged 56 (below)
1910 – 1911: Birth
Location: Family archive / privately held material
What it will record: Frederick’s birth. He died in 1967 aged 56, so he was born in 1910 or 1911.
1936: Marriage to Mary Williams
Location: Family archive / privately held material
Evidence: Mary Williams’s statement (extract) · Obituary of William Buckler, June 1992
Evidence description: Frederick married Mary Williams in 1936 and “came to live with me at the Farmhouse” (Mary’s statement). They had seven children, among them an eldest son and William (Billy), the middle child, born at the farm (obituary).
Parcel AHe lived in the occupied farmhouse/buildings/garden group within the full Parcel A as Mary’s husband, in her family’s home, not as anyone’s tenant of that occupied group. The full Parcel A also included the northern forest and south-east green later registered as VG41.
1949 – 1953: Unwritten WGR agricultural tenancy of Parcel B
Location: Family archive / privately held material
Location: Not yet established from the present record
Evidence: Court of Appeal judgment, 1987 (Dillon LJ), [1987] EWCA Civ 2
What the judgment says (verbatim):
“… a new yearly agricultural tenancy commencing at February 2 1949 to be granted to Mr Williams’ son-in-law, Mr Frederick Buckler …”
“It was intended that Mr Frederick Buckler should have a written tenancy agreement, but this did not happen because Mr Frederick Buckler also failed to pay the rent.”
“There is a letter from the landlords’ agents to their solicitors of October 10 1952 stating that they did not propose to proceed with the letting to Mr Frederick Buckler.”
“However, the conclusion must be that, even though there was no written agreement, Mr Frederick Buckler had a periodic tenancy which was protected by the Agricultural Holdings Act.”
What it means: there was never a written tenancy; in 1952 the landlords’ own agents said they would not go ahead with the letting; the court still treated Frederick as a periodic agricultural tenant. His last rent was paid in 1953, under a judgment for arrears. None of these passages says which land the tenancy covered.
Parcel BAn agricultural tenancy following John Williams’s 1939 tenancy of the fields (Parcel B). The farmhouse was already his wife’s family home.
1967: Death
Location: Family archive / privately held material
Evidence: Mary Williams’s statement (extract) · catalogue GHF-E013-16
Evidence description: “I am a widow, my husband Frederick Buckler having died in the year 1967” (Mary’s statement). He was 56. Mary then reverted to her maiden name and continued “in occupation of the farmhouse and land surrounding it”.
Parcel AFrom his death Mary held the house parcel (Parcel A) alone.
See also: Mary Williams · Williams / Buckler… … read more
See also: Mary Williams · Williams / Buckler family · Master timeline · Evidence Library