Moses Linford (1777 to 1839) of Martham
Moses was born in about 1777 at Martham and was baptised on 24th August 1777 at St Mary the Virgin. His parents were William & Sarah Linford. In 1792 he was employed as an apprentice wheelwright to William Woods and on 6th October 1805 he married Martha Slegg (sometimes recorded as Stagg) at Great Yarmouth.
When his father, William, died in 1822 Moses inherited land and dwellings his father had owned at Black Street. This included houses known as Church Gate Cottages on the west side of Black Street opposite St Mary’s that are now numbers 67 to 71 Black Street plus the land to their rear that later became Kirby’s Yard and is now Oak Tree Close. Moses & Martha probably lived there in one of the cottages as he is listed in the 1835 Martham Directory as a brickmaker and owner of a freehold house and land at Black Street. Moses certainly lived there between 1832 and 1835 when he appeared in the Martham Poll Book as eligible to vote in West Flegg which means that at that stage he was a property owner.
Moses and his wife were leading lights in what was then the new Baptist movement in the village. It was almost certainly him (or perhaps his son William) who donated land to the north of what is now Oak Tree Close where the first Baptist Church in Martham was established and where the Baptist graveyard can still be seen.
Moses died in 1839 and although he died in the Flegg area there is no record of him being buried at St Mary’s Church and this may have been because he is buried in the Baptist graveyard at Oak Tree Close but if he is his grave is unmarked.