The family lived in an area made famous by Prosperous Farm, the place where Jethro Tull perfected the seed drill, in Shalbourne parish, often mentioned in William Cobbett’s ‘Rural Rides’, and for some dramatic events during the Captain Swing riots in 1830/1 and after. Many threshing machines were destroyed by rioters, and farmers would have been subjected to arson attacks and personal attacks. The farmers in the Hungerford area formed militias to round up the miscreants. The Washbourns would have been in the thick of this.