"In 1838 from the Tithe Map, which you can see in the museum, it was occupied as Plot 618, and known as Backway Paddock, by the celebrated Thomas Oatley Bennett (senr), which you can also see on the image of that part of the Tithe Map that I attach. It is clear from the Tithe Map that T O Bennett was living at Plot 615, now Hamilton House, though he also owned, but did not live in Tolbury House. He also owned several other small paddocks in the area of Tolbury (see attached).
This is confirmed by the 1841 census, which I attach, which shows the unmarried T O Bennett, with his mother and sisters, living on the High Street. Thomas Oatley Bennett was born in 1797, and christened on 14 October, 1797, the son of William and Elizabeth Bennett. He married Mary Besant Mathews in 1842. He died in 1878, and was buried on 14 December, 1878.
The 1851, 1861 and 1871 censuses, which I attach, show him continuing to occupy the house on the High Street, with in 1871 his son, Thomas Oatley Bennett (jun) and family next door. It seems clear to me that T O Bennett and family were probably occupying the paddock as a garden and as part of Hamilton House, possibly for grazing a pony, and there is no evidence that there was ever a separate dwelling there.
As to Tolbury House, although Thomas Oatley Bennett (senr) is said to have owned it from the 1838 Tithe Map, I have no evidence that the Bennetts actually occupied it until the 1881 census. It was occupied by Lydia Goldesborough in 1851, Hubert Randolph in 1861 and Edward Hall in 1871(see attached). Phyllis Couzens (p 91) says "In the mid 19th century Mr T.O.Bennett bought Tolbury House and altered it considerably making it as it is today."
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