On his father’s death in 1806, as the eldest son he took over the running of the farm, and he and his eldest sister Catherine were “mother and father to the rest of the family” until the youngest, Anthony, came of age (21) in 1812.

In around 1812/13, the farm was sold to Mr Wildman of Chilham Castleand the proceeds distributed amongst the six surviving sons in accordance with the will of Edward’s father. Edward junior built a house in The Street, Chilham, opposite Cumberland House, believed to be the property which today is called Wisteria House and which has been the village post office since the late 1930s. Around 1820, Cumberland House came on to the market, and although Edward bid as much as he could afford for the property he was unsuccessful.

Edward and Elizabeth had three children (although they had married in 1802 [1808?], perhaps they needed to wait until the situation with the farm had stabilised before starting a family):

•John Rayner, born around 1813
•Elizabeth, born around 1814
•Jane Elizabeth, born around 1816.

It seems that Edward was keenly involved in the Chilham parish community (mainly agricultural land spread over 4400 acres, with a population of around a thousand in the early 1800s and growing slowly by up toabout 1% per year), being a member in 1808 of what was termed the parish’s General Committee, which considered applications for financial assistance from parishioners, and also a church warden in 1810. He became a clockmaker; a photo exists of a grandfather clock he made in 1824, latterly owned (prior to its theft in 2000) by the brother of Mrs MPellett in New Zealand and believed to have been in their family (the Hoare family of Chilham and Godmersham in the1800s) for five generations. By the time of the 1841 census, he was described as a watchmaker.