THE TRIBE BOOK FIRST GENERATION From Arthur Tribe's Book on Tribe
William Tribe (Primus), the Founder of the Race Born 1760 to 1770-- Died 1813 to 1820
In writing this History of our family I am unable to go farther back in the dim and distant past than the time of my great-grandfather, the head and founder of our race, and of him I am able to give very few particulars. Unfortunately the little I know of him is hardly to his credit, and, indeed in the bulk greatly the reverse; however, I give it frankly, for if this history is to be truthful and in any way reliable, the dark side must be recorded faithfully as the bright and honourable. I intimated in my preface that our family had never turned out a rogue, and, should the reader incline, after reading this page, to the opinion that our ancestor was certainly near akin a rogue, if not actually one, let me hasten to say that my meaning was that no member of our family, since I can remember, no member that I have known, has led any but the most straightforward of lives. In a few words, then, our paternal ancestor was a smuggler! It is not a fact to be proud of; yet time has robbed it of the sharpness of its sting, and a recollection which might well be regarded with shame and a certain amount of ignominy, if it related to our parent, or even to our grandparent, loses its power of reproach and ability to humiliate when it concerns one so far removed as a parent's grandparent, and a period of over a hundred years ago; or, at least eighty, since he died. The shame dies, and in its place is left only a kind of romantic interest which attaches to the 'glamour of the past' as when one reads the tales of the old smuggling days, and (unmindful of the fact that the smugglers' life was one continual career of crime, and the smuggler probably worth not one single grain of pity or consideration) thinks kindly of them as [relics]of the past, and with fancy's ardour paints them in all kinds of manly attitudes, and invests them with corresponding attributes and virtues. So, in our own particular case we, his descendants, forget all else, and can even afford to indulge in a certain amount of family pride when we recall the story of our ancestor's hardihood, doggedness and indomitable spirit; his pluck, and determination to fight to the death. One story is told of him for which I cannot vouch, though it is probably true; it was related by my uncle William to my brother George, who in his turn passed it on to me. The scene of the story is Beachy Head, Eastbourne, Sussex, and Beachy Head, as everyone knows, was in those days infested with smugglers; and this fact lends possibility to the story. The story runs that William Tribe and his partner - for he worked in partners with another man - were one night in winter riding together on the Down in the neighbourhood of the famous Beachy Head, each mounted on one [of] the pair of horses which drew their van with which they were wont to do their 'business', and perhaps were even then in the act of riding them out to hitch them on the van. A snowstorm was raging at the time, with a fury which one who has battled with the elements in that bleak neighbourhood, - as has the writer- can appreciate.* Blinded by the fury of the storm, and baulked by the intense darkness, they rode nearer the famous Head than they intended, and before they realized their danger were upon the extreme edge of the cliff. Escape was impossible! *I find since writing the above that it is improbable that a van was employed by the adventurers, owing to the need for great mobility. Pack-saddles were probably used. AWT Down they went over that awful height, down that sheer drop of [blank] feet to the beach below; down to what they must have realized as utter destruction. Almost, it would seem, by a miracle, our ancestor escaped with his life; his horse was killed. His companion was less fortunate and lost his life, though his horse survived; William Tribe therefore rode out on his companion's horse; the state of the tide at the time is not recorded. History neglects to say whether our ancestor brought his late comrade's body out with him, or whether he informed the Eastbourne Coastguard of the accident and sent them to the rescue of his unfortunate partner-in-crime. As, however, his intent and inclination up to that time had been to avoid the 'men in blue' as much as possible, the latter supposition is not at all probable. Another story I must give, and this one bears a greater foundation of fact than the other, and comes from a member of the family alive at the present time. It is interesting as showing the tenacity and bulldog courage of our doughty ancestor. This story is undoubtedly true as the authority is unimpeachable. William Tribe was one day cornered by the coastguard and 'held up' by one of them whilst in the pursuit of his calling and accompanied by his horse. He was unable to escape, and, reconciling himself to the loss of his stock-in-trade, he determined to defend his own precious person and life to the last. He fought the exciseman for two hours, with a club against his sturdy opponent's trusty sword, and, after a fierce struggle, was at last successful, though he came out of the encounter with a broken skull. This, however, was but a detail in those stirring times. The date and place of the struggle are unknown, but the scene was probably the neighbourhood of Beachy Head, Crow Link and Birline Gap, three places on the coast surrounding the Downs, close together, and formerly well known as smuggling resorts. After this affray, our ancestor had his skull mended with silver filling, and eventually settled in Kent, in the neighbourhood of Tenterden, where he married. I am unable to learn whether he from this time discontinued his smuggling exploits, or whether the ride over Beachy Head occurred before or after his marriage, but at all events I have it on good authority that he was by no means a good provider for his large family. His son John declared that he never had a meal at home after he was seven years of age, but was obliged to go out to work, and I suppose, to live away from home. I can only estimate the date of our ancestor's birth and death from the very scant data I have at command, but, from the very scant data I have at command, but, from the details I have been able to gather, I am inclined to place the time of his birth from 1760 to 1770, and his death about 1813 to 1820. I must state, however, that the figures as to his death are but little better than guesswork. Of his wife [Eleanor Hosmer] I know nothing; good, bad or indifferent; and this is all I am able to place on record of our great-grandfather, which, if it is not greatly to his credit, at least has the merit of being candid and frank. As to his family, it appears to have been a large one. As, however, nothing is known of any but two of them, and indeed, their very names are forgotten, I must content myself with tracing the careers of those two alone. William, the eldest son, was born in August 1802, and will appear on the next page. John, who may have been the second son, was born in 1806, and founded the American House, and will be done justice to in due course. There was also a Charles, and I believe, several other sons and daughters, but as nothing is known of any of them, I have to other course than to pass on in my record to the career of William Tribe (Secondus).

William Tribe (Secondus) Born 1802 Died 1886 and the firm of 'Tribe and Company'

William Tribe (Secondus), the eldest son of William the Founder, was born in August (I believe on the 19th of the month) of the year 1802, in or near the borough of Tenterden, in Kent. He was a tall, robust man, of magnificent build and enormous strength, nearly approaching six feet in height, and broad in proportion, and at eighty years of age would have proved the equal of many men in their prime. He married Mary Crittenden and had several children. He lived during the great part of his life in or around Tenterden, and was at one time a tollgate keeper, at another a dogwood [scraper] and dogwood merchant, and he also at one time kept a stud of carthorse stallions, among which was the famous Black Prince, in his time the champion horse of Kent. Later on he crossed the Sussex border and settled at Burwash, near Heathfield, Sussex, where he hired Waterloo Farm, Burwash. This he farmed successfully for a number of years, when he again set his face and feet Kent-wards, and hired Cold Bath Farm, Tunbridge Wells, on the edge of the border, but on the Kentish side. Here he laid the foundations of the business which eventually became one of the largest and most successful dairying concerns in the borough of Tunbridge Wells, doing business in Hungershall and Neville Parks, Broadwater Down, and many other of the principle parts of the borough. Here it was, too, that he died, after many years of sucessful business. In character William Tribe was, on the whole, a genial, easy-going man, with a strong vein of wit and humour, and a jovial temper in public life, and this, combined with the reputation he enjoyed as a shrewd, far-sighted, thorough-going business man, and a sound-principled, honest, straightforward man to boot, rendered him a favourite with all his neighbour farmers, and indeed with all who had any dealing or other business with him. This is one side of his character. There is another and, unfortunately, worse one. In his treatment of his family, and as a father and a husband, he was not always a model of what a parent should be. His treatment of his family was often harsh and unfeeling in the extreme, and often led to bitter quarrelling with his wife and children. He appears to have had a rooted objection to his children marrying, and many were the quarrels in consequence. At least two of his sons left home at different times on account of this fact, and general harshness; yet at times he showed obvious tokens of remorse after his worst outbreaks of passion, and charity would fain concede that his harshness may have been to some extent unintentional, and somewhat in keeping with the ruggedness of his character and build, and with the spirit of the times in which he lived. As regards religion, he was of the Baptist persuasion, and his children were strictly brought up to that faith. At Tenterden he probably attended the Zion Baptist Chapel; at Heathfield the family worshipped at Ebenezar Chapel; and at Tunbridge Wells, Rehobath Chapel was the scene of their devotions. He was a rugged old nonconformist of the old fashioned type. Although not an abstainer with regard to alcoholic beverages and spirits, he was a very moderate drinker, and here I may state that I have never known of a habitual drunkard, or any given to excess in drinking, to exist in the family. Mary, the wife of William Tribe, died at Cold Bath Farm on March lst 1881, at the age of 74, and was buried at Ebenezar Chapel, Heathfield. William Tribe died on March the fifth (5th) 1886, at Cold Bath Farm, at the age of 84, and was buried beside his wife at Ebenezar Chapel, Heathfield, Sussex. His death was due to pneumonia, with complications. He had eight children; four sons, William, Peter, Charles and John; and four daughters, Mary, Elizabeth, Jane and Harriet. (There were three others, who died in childhood.) After his death the business was carried on by his eldest and third sons, William and Charles, and his daughter Elizabeth, who managed it jointly for over four years, when the death of Elizabeth left the two brothers in possession. William, however, wishing to retire from the business, a sale was held of the stock, farming implements, etc., at which sale almost everything was sold, Charles buying in such horses, cows, stock and implements, etc. as he required and afterward carrying on the business under the title of "Charles Tribe, Cowkeeper and Dairyman." Before entering into undivided possession of the business, Charles had lived with his family at Rusthall, a village about a mile from the farm, walking the distance to and from the farm mornings and nights; but when at length he became sole proprietor he removed his wife and family into the farmhouse. During their residence in Rusthall his wife and elder children had worked up a small milk business, independant of the farm, buying their milk wholesale from Tribe and Company, but under the new order of things this was, of course, thrown into the parent business, and a year or two after, on the marriage of- his eldest son, a small shop was opened at Rusthall, and Charles installed therein his eldest son, Charles, and his wife, as managers of the Rusthall milkround and business. William Tribe's Children William Tribe (tertius) was the eldest son of William (2) and was born at Tenterden in March, about the year 1832 or 1833. Although not of such great proportions as his father, he was yet a big man, being tall and thick-set. He had not, however, by any means his father's business qualities, and in fact, was always inclined to be somewhat of a scapegrace and ne'er-do-well. He was subjected to a good deal of ridicule from his brother and sister, and the higher placed men about Cold Bath Farm, and was often severely lectured by his father for his ease-loving, apathetic temperament, his eccentric ways, and his lack of the elements of businesslike qualities. He was by no means suited for his position of senior partner in a thriving business, he never did a wiser act than that of giving up that position. On severing his connection with the firm, he tried one means after another of gaining a livelihood, generally with but indifferent success, so that he very quickly disposed of the money he realized as his share of the farm, and was driven to great extremes to procure enough to supply himself. (His children, happily, had long been grown up, and providing for themselves and his wife was living apart from him.) This went on for a few years, until at length he was reduced to brier selling, and even to pedlaring oranges for a living. His brother Charles assisted him at various times, as he was able, but affairs at the farm had fallen to a low ebb, as shall afterwards be recorded. At last the tide turned for William, and he obtained a good position as night-watchman for a large business firm, which he kept for years, and where he was still engaged when last heard. He married at about the age of thirty-five, and has two sons, John and Ernest, and a daughter, Dora. His married life was by no means a success, and he has for years lived apart from his wife; his whereabouts is not known to the writer, nor are his own sons and daughter, according to their own accounts, aware of his present address. If still living, his age would be about seventy-three at the present time. There is an old joke of long standing in the family that he once went out in a field, rabbit shooting, and, seeing what he thought to be a rabbit near a tree, shot at it, the supposed rabbit still remaining in exactly the same position as before, he went forward to solve the mystery. At his first step the 'rabbit' started, and proved to be his own shadow, thrown on a bush. The story in some way leaked out, and for a long while after his approach was greeted with the words, "Who shot his shadow?" Another tale is told of his favourite cat. For some reason this animal was condemned and was thrown into a pond in one of the fields with a rope around its neck, to which was attached a large brick. The pond was wide and deep, but the cat by some means managed to slip the string from its neck, and swam the width of the pond [missing word(s)] the bank, turning up later in the day, fresh and dry, and with the stains of battle and its cold bath gone from it, having wandered about until dry and comfortable when it should have been drowning. The animal was thenceforth spared, and eventually rejoiced in the name of 'Miracle'. What my father, his brother Charles, has described as the best and most sensible act of William's life was the following: When in February 1886 his father lay on what proved to be his deathbed, the old gentleman constantly expressed a longing to see the cowl on the old oasthouse, which had been for some time most persistantly pointing northeast, change its position for the south, believing that with the return of warmer and kindlier weather he might hope for another span of life, if not a complete return to health. William hearing his oft-repeated wish, and with the object of raising the man's spirits, entered the oasthouse, and with a strong [rod] secured the cowl, and fixed its obstinate finger to point in the so much desired direction, causing it to err from the truth, and, in the face of a strong nor'easter to indicate a south wind. History does not state the effect on the sick man of this perversion of the morals of the weathercock, but the latter's death shortly after seems to indicate that the ingenious trick did not meet with the success it deserved. I will give one tale more of this scapegrace of the family. One of the sons of the Marquis of Abergavenny, to whom, of course, Cold Bath Farm belonged, Lord Henry Neville, I believe, was one day riding with a party of friends through the Cold Bath fields when William Tribe, who was at work in one of the fields, not recognizing the young Lord, ordered him and his party off the premises. It was a foolish action, and might have had serious consequences. Lord Henry and his party turned back, but the next day the steward rode out to the farm and, calling on the head of the firm of Tribe and Co., demanded the reason of the insult offered to his lordship. The senior William, who well knew how to soothe the ruffled temper of the steward, enquired carefully as to the appearance of the man who had dared so insult his lordship, though he knew perfectly well who was the culprit, and at length from looking grave and stern his face lighted up with an apologetic smile as he exclaimed, "Oh, Sir, but you must not take any notice of him; he's an old fellow I keep about the place, a handy man, but he's not just right in the head." "Oh! If that's the case, no more shall be said of the matter," answered the steward, and the situation was saved; but what would have been William the younger's feeling on the matter had he known of his father's stated opinion of the quality of his brain and reasoning power [is] perhaps better imagined than described. Peter was the second son of William (Secondus) and was born at Tenterden. He emigrated to Australia, and there married a Miss Spridgen and founded the Australian House of the family. He will be more fully dealt with in the [History] of that branch. Charles (Secondus) was the third son of William (2) and was born at Tenterden on November the fifth (5th) 1838. He married on April 21st 1867 Lydia Elizabeth Moore and had ten children, viz:- three sons, Charles William, George Albert, and Arthur William, and seven daughters, Lydia Elizabeth, Grace Fannie, Mary Eliza, Katey, Dorothy May, Mabel Jane, and Gertrude Nellie. He died on March the sixth (6th) 1895, of consumption, following on influenza and left his widow and nine children. John, the fourth and youngest son of William (2) was born at Tenterden in the year 1849. Being a weakly boy, and like his brothers, rather harshly treated, he succumbed to consumption, and died on June 25th 1872, at the early age of twentythree (23). He was buried at Ebenezar Chapel, Heathfield. Mary, the eldest daughter of William (2) was born on October 13th 1834, at Tenterden. She lost her reason as the result of a love affair, and was for several years confined in the Barming Lunatic Asylum, near Maidstone, Kent, and afterwards removed with others to Chartham Asylum, near Ashford, Kent. She was once released but upon becoming worse was confined again, and after several years, during which she completely regained her reason, was finally released about 1898, and has since taken situations as housekeeper, entirely retaining possession of her reason. About three years ago, 1902, she was cook and housekeeper to Mr. Charles Peacock, of Lower Green, Rusthall, and in the year 1904, at the age of seventy, she became cook-housekeeper at a private school for young gentlemen at Upper Grosvenor Road, Tunbridge Wells. This she left a few months ago, and is now on a visit to a friend at Smarden, Kent, close to her birthplace and early home. She has a wonderfully clear and long memory, and still writes a remarkably good, clear hand for a person of her advanced age. She has never been married. Elizabeth, the second daughter of William (2) was born at Tenterden. She was never married, and after her mother's death kept house for her father and brothers at Cold Bath Farm and held a share in the company of Tribe and Co. She was born in September 1840. She died of cancer at Cold Bath Farm on November lst 1890, and was buried at Ebenezar Chapel, Heathfield on Nov. [3]. Jane, the third daughter of William (2), married a man of the name of [Bal ?I and lived at Staplehurst. She died of brain fever, was was buried at Staplehurst. Born at Tenterden. Harriet, the fourth and youngest daughter of William (2), was born at Tenterden. She married George Humphrey and has several children. They lived at one time at Denny Bottom, Rusthall, but their present whereabouts is unknown. Harriet is, or at all events was, anything but a credit to her family, and her husband, a respectable working man, is decidedly her better half. The careful and cleanly upbringing in the farmhouse were entirely lost upon her, and for years past tidyness and thrift, and even cleanliness, have been strangers to her. She is still living, and is probably now, as ever, a stain and a disgrace to a respectable family. She is the youngest of the family, and the only one of whom that family has cause to be ashamed.