Zephaniah Jarvis (1865-1955)
Zephaniah (aka Zechariah or Jack) Jarvis was born in 1865 in Whitwell, about ten miles northwest of Norwich. He started his working life on farms, but by his early twenties was a self-employed carpenter. His mother died when Zephaniah was very young and his father moved to Middlesborough (it is not known if Zephaniah went with him, or stayed with grandparents in Norfolk) where a second marriage produced a large crop of children. By 1879 the family had moved back to the Bawdeswell area and by 1891 Zephaniah was plying his trade from the Ram Inn in that village. He settled here, marrying Edith Harrowen in 1894 and having one child, Violet (later Warner) soon afterwards.
By 1901 the Jarvises had taken on the licence of the Bawdeswell Crown. They were there until 1905 and then moved on to the Lodge pub in nearby North Tuddenham and then to the Dial Inn in Swanton Morley, where they stayed until about 1921. Zephaniah continued to work as a carpenter and wheelwright throughout this period and by the time of the 1921 census in June, he was working as a carpenter employed by William Pells and he and Edith were living with their daughter Violet who was married to farmer, James Warner, still in Swanton Morley.
More details of Zephaniah’s life are known from two articles in the The Journal (the Dereham and Fakenham Times) from 10th December 1954 and 17th June 1955, the latter being an obituary. The articles state that he had made seven dulcimers, the last one quite recently. He was evidently well known in the area as a musician, originally playing the violin (he made his first one himself) and then going on to the dulcimer. His last dulcimer was described as being made from ‘yellow pine, a piece of walnut and some spare parts from an old piano’. From the 1954 article we also know that his dulcimers had four strings per course, and that he was usually known as Jack.
The 1955 obituary mentions that the earlier article had resulted in ‘two Hingham’ men visiting him and playing duets on his two dulcimers. One of these would undoubtedly have been Billy Cooper, and it sounds as if they had not met before.
N.B. The two newspaper articles are the only place where his name is given as Zechariah. All censuses and other official documents give his name as Zephaniah – although often mis-spelled!
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