Crisps

This is another blog for the excellent Perfect Pint website. 

Without doubt the most popular pub snack is the potato crisp. Tens of millions of bags pass over the bar counter every year. 

Like most other things in the pub their exact origins can be debated. What is certain is that their introduction into Britain is the responsibility of Frank Smith, a curiously shadowy figure.

In the early 1920s, so the story goes, Frank packaged crisps cooked by his wife in greaseproof paper bags selling them from his pony and trap around north London. He also included a twist of salt for flavouring.  

Why and how he had this idea we will probably never know.

Crisps became so popular that within a decade Smiths Crisps dominated the infant savoury snack industry.

Crisps were originally marketed as being a nutritious convenience food for busy housewives, which could be enjoyed reheated as well as straight from the packet.

Smiths were also keen to break into pubs. Before crisps, pub snacks largely consisted of pickled eggs, stale sandwiches and, as George Orwell found: “those large biscuits with caraway seeds in them which only seem to exist in public-houses”.

Crisps had the advantage of having a reasonable shelf life, the packets looked attractive, and of course the salt encouraged thirst.

But they were expensive. A packet cost 2d, when a pint was 4d or 5d. So take-up was limited.

Their success in pubs probably results from the fact that they were one of the few foods not rationed in wartime.

Originally crisps only came with little packets of salt that the customer sprinkled on themselves. Maurice Gorham in The Local urged crisp-eaters not “to miss the salt which is in a little blue bag inside the main bag.”

The first flavoured crisps were marketed in the 1930s, including a celery flavour. But they really took off in the 1960s. The top flavours of the swinging sixties - cheese & onion and salt & vinegar - are still the most popular today.

I've only just scratched the surface of crisp history. There's a lot more to be discovered. The fate of Smiths Crisps in the 1960s, when the company was taken over by American asset strippers, and the pointless and almost fatal rivalry with Golden Wonder (itself owned by Imperial Tobacco) is a good example of how a British industry was almost destroyed for short-term gains. And over the last fifteen years are have seen the rise of 'artisanal' chips and crisps reinvigorating the savoury snack market. Something to think about when opening the next packet of Port and Cranberry.

Pigs may fry - a recent history of pork scratchings

I know, I know I have been remiss in keeping the blog up. However, I've just agreed to blog for the Perfect Pint website. And here's my first go. It's on a subject dear to my heart.

For me it was love at first bite – the hard skin the melting fat, the saltiness. And above all the certain knowledge that the scratching was doing me no good at all.

If there is a world centre of scratchings it has to be the Black Country. Every pub worth its, err, salt has a range of crunchy porky snacks. I still remember standing at the bar at the Bull and Bladder in Brierley Hill thinking I had died and gone to heaven with a choice or three brands of scratchings and three varieties of pork crunch (scratching’s inferior cousin).  And if you are lucky the pub might offer home-cooked scratchings. On a rare warm day in July I enjoyed a packet sitting in the garden of the White Lion in Bridgnorth. Wonderful!

You might think that drinkers have been breaking their teeth on scratchings for centuries. Surprisingly, however, they don’t seem to have appeared behind the bar counter until the 1970s.

In June 1977, the Sunday Times Prufrock Column reported on “an unlikely product with a distinctly unpalatable name that has become the latest delicacy in pub grub.” Their journalist interviewed John Vizko of Birmingham’s V&T Products who said “We can’t make enough. It has definitely got some people addicted.” Vizko proudly mentioned a lady in Eastbourne “who was clamouring to have scratchings sold in the town.”

But not everybody liked them (and the world is definitely split between fans and haters). A drinker told the Prufrock column they were: “unappetising.. fatty… a poor companion for a pint of real ale. Awful.” 

And scratchings really don’t have a good reputation. One can sort of see why.

But their image is being buffed up with help from trendy food writers Tom Parker Bowles, Matthew Fort and Rupert Ponsonby who have launched their own brand of Mr Trotter pork scratchings. Oops, they insist that they selling pork crackling made from the pampered skin of superior British pigs (most scratchings come from pigs reared in Denmark). 

Personally I find them slightly unpleasant, rather cloying on the palate. Which is perhaps just as well as Mr Trotter’s crackling is sold at frighteningly high prices at Fortnum and Mason, Chatsworth House, and several gastropubs.

But perhaps they ignore the whole point. Scratchings are best in local pubs accompanied by a pint of local ale.

Mystery researcher: James Clavell Library and Archives

I've recently been to the grandly named James Cavell Library and Archives in Woolwich. It houses the  archives of the Royal Artillery and is attached to the Firepower Museum in Woolwich Arsenal. I didn't go into the Museum (it cost money) but it looked slightly rundown.
I had imagined the James Clavell Library and Archives to be housed in some splendid 18th century premises, but it turned out to be a smallish overheated room with a surprising amount of naval memorabilia, for a regimental museum, on display. The atmosphere was friendly, although not particularly quiet because the searchroom also has the library assistant's desk and a scanner.
There was supposedly space for a dozen people to work around a large table, but there were three of us researchers surrounded by records and books, so there wasn't really room for anybody else.
Admission is by appointment only. I had ordered war diaries, which were ready when I arrived. And they quickly dug out a selection of related memoirs and diaries which had been suggested by the archivist, Paul Evans, in a previous email.
There didn't seem to be any public catalogue. If you wanted to know what they had you had to ask. As is common in small archives basically the catalogue was in the archivist's head, which was great because Paul really did seem to know a huge amount about the Artillery, its history and records right up to the present day, but when he wasn't present things rather fell apart. That said he was extremely helpful, rather beyond the cause of duty, and very knowledgeable.
Photocopying is 20p a sheet which is done immediately by the library assistant. But only Paul could take the money and issue a receipt. There was a long wait while he took a long phonecall before I could pay up.

Room: 5; Staff: 8; Experience: 7; Catalogue 3

Books

My Tracing Your Ancestors book has been out for a few months now and has had lots of very positive reviews, which you can read at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Ancestors/p/3003/

Pen & Sword will be publishing my new guide to Tracing Naval Ancestors at the end of November. You can read about it (and order a copy) at http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Tracing-Your-Naval-Ancestors/p/3270/ Surprisingly it is the only book on an important aspect of genealogy currently in print.

Meanwhile Family History: the Experts (now renamed Family History: Digging Deeper) is chugging through the editorial processes at The History Press and should be available in time for the Who Do You Think You Are Show at the end of February.  

Pub History Society

I'm organising the Pub History Society Conference and Workshop which takes place on 26 November at Canterbury Halls, Cartwright Gardens, London WC1. We have speakers on a variety of subjects from freemasons to maps and plans. I will be giving a short paper on Taverns on Trains: a bizarre attempt by the newly nationalised British Railways to offer something new to travellers.  

 

More details are at www.pubhistorysociety.co.uk

Mystery researcher: Essex Record Office

It's some years since I last went to the Essex Record Office. Since then they have moved to a purpose built archive, just south of the city centre. It is well signposted and appears on many local maps. The searchroom is light and airy (and a delight to work in) with a separate map and large document consultation area as well as a surprisingly busy microfilm and library area. Admission is through a CARN card. As mine had expired I had to renew it which was easily done. Before you go into the reading room you have to both sign in and be logged-in to the system. This was not made clear so I managed to circumvent the system to the annoyance of the staff. Everything is done through the SEAX catalogue and you have to log in to order material. SEAX is an excellent system and is easy to use. I had used it at home so knew what I wanted to look at, but had forgotten to note down the reference. A rather officious staff member tried to show me how to use the system, ignoring my feeble protests that I knew what I was doing. We found what I was looking for, but had I been a complete beginner I would have been none the wiser about how to use the catalogue. The document was produced in about fifteen minutes. There were a couple of items I wanted to photograph but was told it cost £10 a day. I could see no sign with this information, so it came as a shock. As it was a quiet day, the buzz in the reading room mainly came from a woman and her daughter looking through a parish register.
Room: 8; Staff: 5; Ease 6; Catalogue: 8

I’m writing a book on Advanced Family History for The History Press which is due out at next year’s Who Do You Think You Are Show and I’ve spent some time thinking about what records are and why we keep them. I could find very little written about this topic at least in regard to post-medieval records. In the end the paragraphs below didn’t make it into the book, but I share them below in case readers have any comments:

Records can perhaps be divided into two types active and passive. We might say that they are active when they provide evidence that a particular action took place and was recorded be for legal, business or personal purposes. From July 1837, for example, births, marriages and deaths have had to be registered by law in England and Wales.  And it is basic business practice to note down when invoices are issued and paid. Photographs, letters and memoirs are also records of evidence as they confirm a particular event. A family holiday may be recorded in postcards, photographs and even remembered in an autobiography written years after the event. Active records, because they record actions or decisions, are more likely to survive than passive records.

Passive records those which were used for planning and analysis, where the evidence of a particular action is not required or assumed. Any notes you make while working out where ancestors should sit on the family tree fall into this category. More seriously The National Archives has file after detailed file planning the D-Day landings in 1944, in which almost every eventuality was accounted for.  And afterwards it is often sensible to analyse what went well and what didn’t, so that lessons can be learnt for the future. War diaries are kept, for example, so that official historians can examine what each unit did under fire. Also included are working papers, such as drafts of novels or scientific workings.

Occasionally there are overlaps when sets of records fulfil both functions. Account books not only record payments made and received but can be analysed to reveal a company’s or a family’s financial state of health (see below). RAF Squadron Records Books record each operational flight made by individual aircraft and show which aircrew flew in which plane. But they were have been examined by academics studying particular campaigns or losses of aircraft Indeed they are divided into the daily “Summary of Events” forms (Form 540) and the more analytical “Detail of Work Carried Out” forms (Form 541).  

A particular study might well involve both types of records. Research into the loss of The Titanic could use the blueprints of the ship’s construction and the voluminous enquiries into the disaster conducted by the Board of Trade and the US Senate, which are both examples of passive records of planning and analysis. Also under consideration might be the passenger and crew lists and copies of wireless messages, which are active records, showing who was on board, the survivors and those who drowned, and that messages had successfully been sent.

Traditionally historical sources have roughly divided into two: primary and secondary. According to Arthur Marwick: “primary sources are sources which came into the actual period of the past which the historian is studying, they are relics and traces left by the past while secondary sources are those accounts written later by historians looking back upon a period in the past.”

In practice, primary sources might be regarded as being original material, such as registers and files, while secondary sources is material which provides background rather than unique information about your ancestors. Unique is the key word here for secondary material is usually printed and available in multiple copies in libraries and elsewhere. Reference books, for example, are secondary material. There is some overlap, such newspapers and directories which can provide unique information about individuals but which are available in multiple copies.

I am not sure that the divide between primary and secondary sources means very much in family history. Our interests and goals are very different to those of traditional historians. We are less concerned with secondary sources, for example, as we are searching for names which may not always be found in reference books. More importantly the divide is meaningless for a number of key genealogical resources, such as newspapers and directories. As printed items both newspapers and directories are not unique (a criteria of secondary sources), but they refer to contemporaneous events (so primary).     

The divide in genealogical record sources should perhaps be between “direct” and “indirect” sources. Direct sources are by far the most important because they directly describe our ancestors. Photographs reveal what our ancestors looked like, baptismal registers record individual baptisms, while muster rolls list sailors and soldiers one by one. Directories and newspapers are also direct sources, because they include names, but both of course they can be used indirectly. For example directories often include descriptions of the towns which they are covering as well as list all the innkeepers, while newspapers will graphically describe the flood in which an individual was drowned.

Indirect sources are unlikely to mention individual ancestors, but can provide important background about their lives. War diaries and regimental histories may well describe a unit’s activities but not mention individuals, although they are a key source to understanding an uncle or grandfather’s wartime experiences. Maps too are important as they can show the area where an aunt lived or the land she owned. You are unlikely to use indirect resources when you begin your family tree, but you may turn to them as your research progresses or if you decide to research an interesting forebear in depth.

‘A bonnie fighter’: Jenny Foster Newton (1853-1937)

Years ago I researched an early female social campaigner in Richmond and wrote an article for the Local History Society journal. This is an edited version of the piece:

Miss Foster Newton played a considerable part in the religious, political and social life of Richmond was part of a remarkable generation who shook up towns and villages up and down the country.  They did not have the high profile of the suffragettes, such as the Pankhursts, but it can be argued that these women played as big a part in gaining the vote through their good work at local level.

That they could do this largely came about because of an anomaly in electoral law which gave women who were ratepayers, normally spinsters, the right to vote in local elections and to stand for election as councillors, poor law guardians and for local education boards.  From the 1870s a small number of strong-minded women took advantage of this loophole to gain places on these various bodies where they principally successful in trying to humanise the poor law and improve the lot of the poorest in society.

Jenny Foster Newton was born into a prosperous nonconformist family in Brighton.  Her family moved to Richmond in 1866, when she was thirteen.  Her early years were not untypical of young ladies of her class and generation.  She later recalled

Before I became a thoughtful woman I spent my time in riding, boating, and other amusements… I used to scamper across the Brighton Downs with my father, and even now I think I could ride across country with any pack.

Like so many from her social background she was drawn into social work through visiting the poor in Holy Trinity parish which she began at the age of 24 in 1877. 

As she grew older she became involved in many of the charitable causes in the town.  She became secretary of the Princess Mary Adelaide Home for Servants (which was on Richmond Green), the Sanitary Aid Association, and of a branch of the Christian Police Association.  She also served on the committees of local branch of the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Rescue Home.

It was perhaps inevitable that she would be drawn towards the poor law.  During the 1880s a few women were being elected as guardians of their local poor law union.  Miss Foster Newton was elected in 1888 when she came top of the poll with a majority of 495.  It is likely that the local Liberals encouraged her candidature.  She herself later suggested that:

public opinion was right for this movement; the support of an influential committee, together with the valuable support of the Press secured  this position for women, which I feel more and more convinced, is amongst the useful spheres for women’s work.

Even though she admitted she knew nothing about the duties of the poor law guardians on her election, Miss Foster Newton threw herself into her new role with considerable force.  She was a breath of fresh air insisting for example, the right of guardians to visit the workhouse at any time.  Miss Foster Newton took a particular interest in pauper children, many of whom came from broken homes.  She set up a scheme whereby they were boarded with foster parents in Westmoreland.  For the youngest orphan children she insisted that the guardians provide a nursery ‘as bright as possible.’  

As a result of her hard work she was regularly re-elected.   Her example also encouraged other women.  By 1900 there were three other lady guardians.

Miss Foster Newton’s concern for the poor was intimately bound up with the temperance movement.  In mid-Victorian England drink was a major destroyer of people’s lives especially amongst the poorest in society.

At the same time that she took up district visiting she also took over responsibility for a British Workingman’s Coffee House, known as the Traveller’s Rest, in Sheen Road.  She later said that the Traveller’s Rest was started to meet the demand ‘for temperance refreshments.  At the same time there was great difficulty in obtaining refreshment at other than licensed houses.’

She established the Richmond Branch of the British National Women’s Temperance Association.  The annual reports tells the reader as much about Miss Foster Newton as it does about the work of the Association itself.  She ruled the branch with a rod of iron, which may help explain the high turnover of members, and entered into the somewhat disputatious affairs of the Association nationally with enthusiasm. 

Despite early successes such as organising ‘a happy day for the working classes’ in Petersham which was attended eight hundred people and placing an advertisement on the bus which ran between Richmond and Kingston, it is quite clear that the Association had little influence in the town.  The town council almost always rejected her suggestions for closing pubs or reducing licensing hours. 

Every year there was a symbolic vote about providing alcohol at the Christmas luncheon for the paupers in the workhouse.  Occasionally Miss Foster Newton secured enough support to prevent beer and other stimulants being served, but this was rare.  It became quite an issue with candidates supported by local licensees standing against her at election time.  In turn she mobilised women electors urging:

all women who have votes for the election of guardians and town councillors to see that they make use of their privileges and cast their votes in favour of candidates who will support measures of temperance reform.  A large number of people now living on the rates would not be in our workhouse were it not for the excessive use of strong drink.

Although a number of local clergy and the concerned middle classes supported her, she had little support amongst working people.  One annual report of the Association noted:

By the courtesy of Rev G.G. Normadale, the Primitive Methodist Schoolroom was opened from 12 to 1 o’clock for the free use of the men working on the roads.  Coffee was on sale at 1d a cup. The response was so indifferent the effort was soon discontinued.

Campaigns for prohibition in Britain, unlike America, had little real impact.  Too many of its supporters were cranks.  And, sadly, to their number must be added Miss Foster Newton.  She must have lost a lot of support with such small-minded actions as:

Just before Xmas Day [1902] your secretary wrote and issued in circular form nearly 2000 letters to residents in Richmond and the neighbourhood pointing out the dangers of giving alcoholic refreshments to carriers, dustmen, postmen and others which is often thoughtlessly done at this season of the year.  Several replies were received expressing approval and promising co-operation in the effort to promote sobriety amongst the working classes.

As she got older she seems to have become rather a lonely person, opinionated and difficult to deal with.  She never married, although she lived for a number of years with a Miss Rachel Sanders, ‘a great and intimate friend’ who died unfortunately early in 1896. A Gorham bedstead with fittings was given to Richmond Royal Hospital in her memory.

Women like Jenny Foster Newton no longer exist.  She was a lady of independent means with firm views which she had the confidence to advocate.  In a less certain age we can only admire her for this.  When she took up a cause, as with temperance, she gave her all.  An admirer, Miss Anne Hall, JP of Wanstead, told the press after her death:

What a bonnie fighter she was!  This year, at 84 years of age, she went straight from her bed after an illness, to the court at Richmond to plead for a cause she was interested in. Nothing deterred her, she would beard a cabinet minister, face a court, or write to the press with equal fervour if, in her opinion, the case was good, and needed a defender.

Richmond is the poorer for no longer having people of the strength of will and opinion as Miss Foster Newton.  She fought for what she believed and left a legacy of good work behind her. 

Biographical note

There is some material about Jenny Foster Newton at the Richmond Local Studies Library in the Old Town Hall (http://www.richmond.gov.uk/home/leisure_and_culture/local_history_and_heritage.htm).  In particular there is a thin file of press cuttings.  The other useful source at the Library is the annual reports of the Richmond Branch of the British National Temperance Association (1894-1923).  She is also mentioned in Patricia Hollis’s Ladies Elect: women in English local government, 1865-1914 (London, 1987) which is where I can first came across her.

General news

1. You can now pay for my research services by PenPal.
2. I'll talking about Researching Brewery and Publican Ancestors at  the Family History Society for Essex at the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford on 21 May (2.30pm) and The National Archives on 13 October (2pm).
3. Look out for articles by me in May's Who Do You Think You Are Magazine. One is the first guide to The National Archives' spiffy new catalogue the Discovery System.

Oddities at the PRO (written April 2000)

This week I thought I would be perverse and talk about sources at the Public Record Office (PRO) [Ed. Now of course The National Archives or TNA]. It is partly because somebody's just sent me the reference for the 1881 census for the Island of Heligoland (CO 122/37) which I've been looking for - though heaven knows why as I have no Heligoland ancestry.

The main reason however is that I've found a notebook of references to PRO material mainly relating to officers in the Army and Navy which is full of some interesting oddities. It seems to have been compiled by a Miss E.H. FAIRBROTHER at about the time of the Second World War. The notes have been typed up and placed in the SoGs Armed Forces tracts box.

PRO references have been included in brackets just in case you want to check out the material for yourself. Most of the material seems to come from the Colonial Office (CO) lettercode which confirms my long held belief that these records contain much of interest to family historians but are impenetrable to all but the most dedicated researcher.

Do you suffer from Asthma? Well this might help: 'Get some blotting paper and saturate it well in strong solution of saltpetre take out and dry it then take a piece [the] size of your hand. On going to bed light and lay it upon a plate in your lodging room, however badly afflicted persons will find that they can sleep almost as well almost as ever they did in their lives.' (CO 199/12 27 Nov 1844). Are you deaf? - CO 153/8 may offer a cure.

Did you know that George WASHINGTON apparently 'drew his last breath in the last hour of the last day of the last century' that is 31 December 1799 (CO 258/2), that NELSON and WELLINGTON were descended from Edward I (CO 53/34), or that Rev John WRAY the first Christian missionary to British Guiana was born at Skirlaugh near Hull on 1 December 1779 (CO 116/5), or that in 1798 'Lord' John Machon DERWENTWATER a sergeant in the 31st Foot claimed to be the only lawful protestant heir to the throne through his mother (T 1/813/266)[but see below], and lastly that in 1831 Mrs MCKENDRICK was aged 102 she emigrated to Prince Edward Island sixty seven years ago from 'Argarlshire' (CO 231/1).

Details of the marriage of Peter THOMISON and Mary SULLIVAN who were married on board HMS AMERICA in San Francisco Bay on 7 August 1845 is in ADM 8/1946. Indeed the whole of piece CO 53/11 is apparently full of 'facts for the curious' perhaps rather like this column!

 During the Irish Famine of the 1840s 'Amidst the din of battles and the wild hurrahs of victory the wail of distress from his native land reached the Irish soldier on the remote banks by the Sutley [India]... Within a few days the Irish soldier subscribed no less than 840 to the relief of their suffering fellow countrymen...' (CO 115/2) A most remarkable action considering how extremely poorly paid the ordinary soldier was at the time.

 For anybody interested in the Battle of the Somme the following words of the Duke of Wellington will particularly apposite: 'I have found that raw troops however inferior to the old ones in the manoeuvring are far superior to men in down right hard fighting with the enemy: at Waterloo the young Ensigns and Lieutenants who had never before seen a battle rushed to meet death as if they had been playing at cricket.' (CO 53/12) Nothing seems to have changed in a hundred years except on 1 July 1916 young officers substituted soccer balls for cricket bats.

The First World War also enters into the last extract. CO 116/3 describes a prophecy which predicted the fall of the Ottoman Empire for 13 June 1844 'It appears that the downfall of the Empire will be the signal for universal war and will prepare the way for the return of the Jews to their own land.' The Great War, in part at least, was caused by instability in the Balkans resulting from the break-up of the Turkish Empire in Europe. The war led to the Balfour Declaration in 1918 which established a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Spooky, eh!

Incidentally John Machon DERWENTWATER seems to have had no claim to his title let alone to the throne of Britain. According to the 'Complete Peerage' the third and last Earl of Derwentwater was found guilty of high treason and executed on Tower Hill on 24 February 1715/6 having sided with the Old Pretender during the 1715 rebellion. In a footnote the editor 'GEC' writes 'Even at this distance of time it is difficult to read without emotion his touching and chivalrous speech from the scaffold.’ 

Heartfelt letters (written March 2000)

For many years there was a large metal box in the basement of the Society. As my shins will testify the box was very easy to fall over when one went into the store room. One day I said I'll look inside. And when I did the contents proved to be a treasure trove of items, mainly relating to the PESCOD family. So far I've got as far as cataloguing a fascinating series of letters relating to the Taylor family of Wiltshire, Jamaica, Portugal and Canada. Some of the most interesting correspondence is from Phillpotts Wright TAYLOR to his spinster sister, Anna, that covers a thirty-five year period between 1829 and 1864.

The correspondence begins promisingly with passions of the heart. Taylor writes to Anna on 25 April 1829: 'You are aware that I was partial to Miss Selena HALE, for the last sixth months we have regularly corresponded and nothing was known of it though we used to see one another almost every week. About a month ago her Mamma caught her writing to me and nothing more was done by her parents than threatening to punish her. Last Monday week at 7 in the evening I heard that she had been sent out of the house, bag and baggage. No one knew where but those that [did] would not tell me... The other day in going into Bath I saw a girl's school in my path and low and behold Selena... Mr WILLIAMS the master took me up to his lodgings. He said that it was not on my account she was sent out of the house, but he refused to tell me where she was living... I wish I could get your clothes that I put on at Easter then I would go as a Miss somebody... [PS] I love her better than myself.'

The affair seems to have been mere teenage infatuation and was soon forgotten. Subsequent letters a few weeks later make no mention of Miss Hale. He writes however on 21 May 'I am a most awkward creature in company, always blushing and making mistakes...' An experience we must have felt when in our teens.

Wright choose the Army as a career, buying a commission in the 96th Regiment of Foot. He subsequently served in Ireland, Bristol, Nova Scotia and eventually spent many years in Canada. Eventually Taylor rose to become Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Canadian Rifles, retiring on half pay in 1854. The choice of these unfashionable regiments may well have been dictated by relative poverty.

Taylor was incurably romantic for he eloped with a young lady called Charlotte. This caused a massive family row. As a result in January 1836 he was ejected from his uncle's house (after whom he was named) at Clapton 'near London'. 'I should have never believed it possible' he wrote to Anna, 'had I not learnt it by experience.' A note by Uncle Philpotts on a subsequent letter says 'The answer to a strong remonstrance against Wright's marrying to a girl without a penny when he was an ensign in a foot regiment and with little more than his pay to keep him - I only begged him to wait until he became Captain and then promised to receive his wife as a sister.' A few days later Taylor protested to his sister 'I will not allow myself to think that anything but your affection for me had dictated to you the course that you are pursuing to wound me and one who is still dearer to me than myself. Till you can cease to write in that very virulent style may I beg that you not address me again...'

Fortunately subsequent letters suggest that the family made up. Indeed he writes excitedly to Anna on 31 May 1841 about the birth of his second son 'On my arrival in Chatham this afternoon I found my family increased a little boy lying by the side of my darling Lotty', but his concerned that his eldest son 'Georgy' who has whopping cough might infect the baby.

At about this time Taylor is posted to Canada. His family follow him there. By July 1843 is stationed at Chippawa where is 'ensconced with wife and chicks, but where you must not go out of doors at certain hours if you do not wished the serenity of your mind disturbed for at the hour of 11AM the Yankee steamer of 30 tons and 2.5 horsepower disgorges her cargo of buffalo's beauty and fashion at a wharf 6 feet by 8.' A couple of years later, in February 1845, the family (by now there are three sons George, Arthur and Colin) are based at Amherstburg. He declines to attend a wedding: 'The groom was a jolly ensign of our regiment who took his bride home to barracks within an hour of the ceremony... he is however a Canadian and knows no feeling of delicacy.' Indeed he does not seem overly impressed by the natives, in another letter of 1848 he complains that 'the youth of Canada are indeed brought up badly.'

Phillpotts Wright Taylor comes across in his letters as a devoted family man, but also somebody who was rather naive. This innocence was to lead him into trouble after he left the Army, as a stiff letter from Anna to his wife, Charlotte, in January 1864 suggests. This is incidentally the only letter from Anna to survive. Evidently Taylor was at this time in some financial difficulties. Some o16,000 left to him by the will of an uncle had been squandered, possibly by unwisely investing in Canadian companies. Anna, not mincing her words, wrote 'I hope this crisis will rouse him from the indolent selfish life he has been leading for ten years at least - if he has a spark of masculine self-respect he will exert himself and support his wife...' Wright and Charlotte had expectations of receiving sums from his sisters Anna and Georgina MAYNE, but Anna made it clear that it was not coming from her. 'Both you and Wright have exaggerated ideas of my income - It is carefully portioned out and I live up to it. I do not hoard. Certainly at my age I have a right to a house and two maids...' She urges that Charlotte lets her house 'to PAYING, not to only fashionable tenants... have the rent paid quarterly.' and suggests that George and Colin resign their commissions in the Army where they were officers (no mention is made of Arthur, perhaps he died as a child) 'two healthy young men with no money MUST earn their bread, and ought, if need be to support their mother.' Whether Wright and Charlotte heeded this sisterly advice is not known, but some how I doubt it.

The letters offer an fascinating glimpse into a mid-Victorian family and their concerns and worries. At times there are hints of the novels of Thackery and Dickens. It would of course be interesting to know more about the family. Perhaps there are other papers in the metal box which will shed light on them; and of course there should be records at the PRO about Wright and his two sons' military careers. 

Miscellanea (written February 2000)

During closed week staff and volunteers do all the tasks and chores they can't do when the Society is normally open. I have been sorting out the Society's own archives as well the Topographical Collection which, thanks to a team of dedicated volunteers, is looking better than it has for many years. Closed week throws up all sorts of minor problems and a great pile has landed on my desk to sort out. Well, that's what I'm here for. I thought I'd share a few of the more amusing discoveries with you.

Many of these items come from newspaper clippings that the Society has acquired over the years and for which no obvious home could be found.

On the top of the pile is a review of Anthony Wagner's 'English Genealogy' from the 'Sunday Times' for 1960. In it the reviewer, Cyril Connolly, sums up genealogy as: 'This harmless foible can become an obsession of the elderly who seek to cheat death and decay by receding ever further and further into the recesses of their pedigree; as if salvation depended on an examination in family history.' So now you know.

The next is a pedigree which was worked out from a newspaper advertisement published in July 1921 seeking relatives of Mary DAINS who died on 20 February 1913 at Trimley St Mary, SFK. According to the newspaper she 'belonged to the Eastern Counties and were Nonconformists and the most part Independent.' The Pedigree goes back to 1737 and includes families BRETT, DAINS, FISON, HARWOOD, KERSEY, NEWSON, OLIVER, PRENTICE, and TOKELOVE. If you think you have a claim on the money: forget it. Claims had to be submitted by 18 January 1922.

Another, sadly, undated press cutting concerns the age when children have been fathered. The subject has a resonance in the week when it was announced that a Star Trek actor is to become a father at the age of 79. The cutting began by saying that Mr JACKSON ' a north country farmer' was to become a father at age 82 and then describes other notable elderly fathers, such as Sir William NICHOLSON of Glenbervy who became a father at 92. 'Sir Stephen FOX's last child was cradled when her father was within a few months of completing his hundredth year. Sir Stephen was born in 1627, and had by his first a daughter who died in infancy in 1655. The child of his old age survived to the year 1828 and was thus able to say 'I had a sister who was buried 173 years ago!''

Other notable elderly fathers mentioned were William PREST of Ripon, William BEATTY of Drumcondra, Co Dublin 'who celebrated his one hundred and second birthday on the very day on which his youngest born entered the world' and Thomas PARR who married for the second time at the age of 122. How accurate these ages are of course is a matter of conjecture.

One of the librarians found this poem in a box of books he was sorting out. Titled 'Fellows' Interests' the poem originally appeared in 'The Pedigree Register' in June 1913. It is too long to reproduce in its entirety but a couple of stanzas may give a flavour of the whole.  'First, what became of grandpa's son - the eldest - and his history/has always been to dad and me an unabated mystery./ He might have fought a duel, or gone to sea, or bet/Nay done some things for which the courts incarcerate for debt./ His name? I have a sheet in front, at top, the prefix "Jo..."/But (how very aggravating!) a blot's behind the o.'  'The ivory knob herewith is borrowed from the bones/ (remaining in our family vault) of auntie's Cousin Jones/ Will you leave it on the table for the members' kind inspection?/The send it back to use who view the relic with affection.'  The author remains unknown, but signed himself 'John Montmorency Brown' On the whole the poem suggests that nothing in the world of genealogy nothing changes... 

Newspapers are a fine genealogical source. But one place where family historians may not look are the personal columns where solicitors put appeals for information about missing people. They could be a useful source for ancestors who suddenly disappear. Notices such as these have largely died out, but at the turn of the last century they were an important way of getting in touch with people 'who might hear something to their advantage' as the phrase went. Thousands of such notices appeared each year.

They were well known enough for Arthur Conan Doyle to use newspaper appeals as a plot device in a number of Sherlock Holmes stories.  The Society has a clipping from an unidentified newspaper dated 1912 listing 'curious next of kin jottings' for 1911. 'Many of these notices, apart from their monetary value, possess a curious air of romance' noted the paper. Perhaps seventy stories are contained in the article.  They include 'Walter Crosskill who died in Canada and whose wife was reported to have been killed at a railway crossing has left unclaimed property.... the heirs of James Davies, stonecutter, who left Cardiff for America in 1874 are wanted to claim a large estate... particulars are wanted for Lt R.A. Cammell who was accidentally killed whilst flying at Hendon... money is due to William Holding who left for New Zealand in 1881... Any inquiries as to the estate of Miss Isabel O. Newton who was brutally murdered by her native servants in South Africa will be answered by the solicitors to her executor... news is sought of Constance Goodrich, last heard of in Manchester, when she applied at a convent for employment.'  Lastly I am able to report a triumph for the Internet. Y

I have had an enquiry from Lloyd Lewis, editor of 'Cronicl Powys' published by the Powys FHS. He had been contacted about Thomas 'Old' PARR (1483?- 1635) who is buried in Westminster Abbey reputedly aged 152. I sent Lloyd details from the Concise Dictionary of National Biography, which was distinctly sniffy about his longevity, and suggested he e-mailed my colleagues at Westminster Abbey for further information.  They e-mailed Lloyd an entertaining short note about Thomas Parr. Old Parr's tomb is probably a favourite at the Abbey and the archives there must get a large number of enquiries about him.

The information is taken largely from John Taylor's pamphlet 'The Old, Old, Very Old of Man or the Age and Long Life of Thomas Parr' (1635).  Thomas Parr was apparently an agricultural labourer the son of John Parr of Willington near Shrewsbury. He married at the age of eighty, but his children died in infancy. At the age of 100 he did penance by standing draped in a white sheet in the parish church for being unfaithful to his wife and having an illegitimate child by Katherine Milton.  Parr's fame spread and eventually reached the court. In 1635 he was summoned to the court of Charles I. By then blind the journey was made in easy stages and the king provided a jester for his entertainment on the long trip to London.

But the bright lights and fast life was too much for him. Old Parr died within a few weeks of his arrival in the capital. His portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.  What was the secret of his longevity? A diet of green cheese, onions, coarse bread, buttermilk or mild ale (cider on special occasions) and no smoking kept Thomas healthy. His recipe for long life was reputed to be 'Keep your head cool by temperance and your feet warm by exercise. Rise early, go soon to bed and if you want to grow fat [i.e. prosperous] keep your eyes open and your mouth shut.'

I am sure readers already follow this sound advice. 

Murder in Northamtonshire (written February 2000)

In recent weeks I have been sorting out the papers of Ralph Hall, a long standing member of the Society of Genealogists who died in 1998. He was particularly interested in Cornwall, Devon and Northamptonshire.

But Mr Hall was best known for his work in indexing the 'London Gazette' - the British government's official daily newspaper. The Society has his index to Devonian names in the Gazette. His papers contain further lists of Cornish people and Londoners, as well as London coffeehouses.

His work suggest that the Gazette is a seriously under used resource for family historians, particularly for the first fifty or so years of the journal's establishment in 1665 when it contained many news items, such details of runaway apprentices, bankrupts and the arrival of ships in port, which would eventually find their way into more conventional newspapers. A set of the London Gazette is held by the Public Record Office (class ZJ 1) and the British Library. I am sure sets are also held elsewhere.

Ralph Hall was particularly interested in the small town of Raunds and its neighbouring villages on the Northamptonshire/Bedfordshire border. This is where his HALL ancestors came from and, as a result, he undertook a detailed study of the town and the people who lived there from the medieval times up to the 1930s. Unfortunately his work has never been published, which is a pity because there is some very useful material here.

Probably the most exciting thing ever to happen to the neighbouring parish of Ringstead was the discovery of the body of Lydia ATLEY (sometimes called ASTLEY or ATLEE in the newspapers)in 1864. The unsolved murder is still remembered today. Murders then, as now, sell newspapers and the unusual circumstances received considerable coverage. A verbatim account of the examination by magistrates appeared in the local 'Northampton Mercury' and the story also appeared in 'The Times' and other national papers.

A body was discovered in a ditch in February 1864, which was supposed to be that of Atley who had disappeared thirteen years previously. At the time of her disappearance she had been co- habiting with the married village butcher, Weekly BALL. Indeed she was pregnant by him at the time of her disappearance and was close to confinement.

On the evening of 22 July 1850 at about 9.45pm Ball's neighbours heard them argue in his orchard. Joseph Groom, Atley's brother in law, who lived opposite remembered her screaming 'Get off me for I believe you mean killing me tonight, Weekly Ball... The Lord have mercy upon me if I'm to die in the state I'm in.' But Groom being a complacent fellow did not investigate further. Next day she had disappeared.

A few weeks later one of the villagers received a letter from a son in Northampton 'I write a few lines to inform you that I saw L. Atley in Northampton.... There was a man with her with a long smock frock on and a cape' The examination cast doubt about the truth of the letter for Ball had apparently asked the writer to send it.

The local police soon began to investigate the disappearance. Notices were put into the 'Police Gazette' and hand-bills were circulated locally offering a reward of œ50 for information about her. She was described as being 'a young woman, middle size, very fair skin, very light hair and eyes; her face is quite red from scorbutic eruption. She was badly dressed at the time she left home, and had an old bonnet and shawl on...' But no information was received.

Certainly Atley was no saint. One of the doctors had mentioned that she had had another child in Thrapston Workhouse a few years previously. She clearly spread her favours widely amongst the local men. Under examination her own brother in law, Joseph Groom, had to deny the rumour saying that 'There never was any ground that I had been improperly familiar with Lydia Atley.'

The 1851 census indicates that BALL, a butcher, (age 33) was living with his wife and niece both called Hannah. Incidentally Ringstead was the home to Margaret Thatcher's great-grandfather John ROBERTS, although he was not involved in the case at all. Although not prosecuted at the time, Ball felt compelled to leave the village for good in the summer of 1851.

Because of the primitive state of forensic science at that time it was not possible to prove the body was that of Lydia. The doctors who testified before the magistrates thought it was not her's, because they could find no evidence of her having given birth. Indeed she was found in a place which tradition said was a gypsy burying place.

The village however was more certain. After the trial in 1864 song about the murder soon circulated in the district, which made clear the feelings of local people. The chorus went 'O cruel butcher he hung should be/for killing of Lydia Atley.'

Was Ball guilty? We shall never know, but from the newspaper reports it is clear that he had a strong case to answer. Had forensics been more advanced he might well have been found guilty and eventually hung.

Perhaps this miscarriage of justice why the ghost of Lydia Atley was supposed to have haunted the village for many years after the tragedy. According to Christina Hole's 'Haunted England' her ghost was often seen to be walking from the orchard sometimes towards the place where the body was found and sometimes towards the church.

Even in the 1990s the case was not dead. According to Paul Roberts, a local historian who corresponded with Ralph Hall: 'Even today if bones are found the story resurfaces... As a child when out for my parents for the Sunday evening was and we passed the spot where the map marks the supposed burial spot father would say that this was where the ghost of Lydia Attlee haunted, and being a lonely place on the road we never really believed in the ghost, but we always kept close to Mother and Father until well cleared of the place.' 

Genealogical reasons (written January 2000)

This week we are looking at reasons why people undertake genealogical research. As some of you may know I am doing a PhD thesis on the Great War [Ed – this had to be abandoned in 2002]. Last week I visited the Birmingham University Library where I looked at the papers of Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940). From his diary it seems that Neville was in his spare time a bit of a genealogist. Was he the only family historian ever to become prime minister?

At the time of the outbreak of the First World War he seems to have been actively tracing his family roots. This may possibly be as the result of a feeling of inferiority resulting from mixing amongst the aristocratic politicians of the day.

The family background was in trade. His father, the statesman Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), although of impeccable middle class background, made his fortune as a screw manufacturer in Birmingham. Joseph's entry in the Dictionary of National Biography notes that his father 'was the master of the Cordwainers' Company with which his family had been connected with for four generations, carrying on the business of wholesale boot and show manufacturers in the same house and under the same name for 125 years.'

Neville himself became a successful businessman in Birmingham before turning to politics. His diary for the winter of 1914/15 records a family visit to Bradford-upon-Avon, where the family originated in the sixteenth century, to look for the ancestral home.

They knock on the door of the cottage which is opened by one Daniel Chamberlain, who Neville notes was a typical 'rustic' wearing a smock. A few minutes stiff conversation before the visitors from Birmingham depart. Neville reflects that his ancestor three hundred years previously must have looked the same.

If the Chamberlain family were on the way up the next Victorian genealogist I want to write about, the Lucas', were on their way down. Perhaps the most attractive collection held by the Society are two beautifully illustrated albums compiled by Miss Louise Cecilia Bazalgette Lucas Lucas. She deposited them with the Society in July 1945, together with related paperwork. The albums however were compiled sixty years earlier.

The genealogy in the albums is by modern standards undoubtedly dubious. Any doubt however about the quality of the research however is immediately overwhelmed by the visual feast: page after page of hand-coloured coats of arms or gold leaf marginalia take the breath away.

The whole point of the album however was to commemorate a family however which Miss Lucas felt had suffered generations of decline. In the introduction she wrote 'We used to be big people once, but have gone done in the world. People at who a hundred years ago we turned up our noses, now turn up their noses at us... We had married heiresses had gone mounting up to the top of fortune's wheel, and it had been well with us - But alack, in these later days we had been too well known at Epsom and Newmarket. We had been very much at home at Crockford's [gambling club]... [and] had generally misbehaved ourselves, and in consequences, our many acres had passed into the hands of Manchester gents, with fat snug faces, who wage war of extermination against the letter h and use big words when little ones would have done better.'

Men, in fact, like the Chamberlains.