susanah’s journal – births, deaths and marriages

An extract from the journal of Miss Susanah WELLINGTON (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somerset. Susanah was almost 14 years old when she transcribed the following family register into her notebook.

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Susanah’s account of her family births, deaths and marriages was most likely transcribed from the front of the family bible.

The family register begins with the birth dates of Susanah’s parents as well as the date of their marriage:

George Wellington born 26th Jany 1781.

Elizabeth Samson born 7th March 1794.

George Wellington & Elizabeth Samson married
22nd Septr 1817.

It is interesting to note that Susanah spells her mother’s maiden name SAMSON and not SAMPSON, which is the more common spelling I have found in the parish registers and GRO records. Presumably Susanah transcribed these word-for-word from a record her father and mother kept in their family bible.

Elizabeth SAMSON’s death on 28th June 1865, has been added at a later date by Susanah’s sister Jane Penelope WELLINGTON who is the first born child listed:

Jane Penelope Wellington born 6th July 1818,
½ past eight A.M.

Susanah Wellington born 20th Augt 1819,
20 minutes before 2 o’clock A.Noon.

Jane has also added the date she married William Henry SUTTON on 23rd December 1842.

The recorded entries follow with a son, Richard who was born to George and Elizabeth in 1820. Sadly he died three months after his first birthday.

Richard George Wellington born 30th Novr 1820,
¼ before 7 O’C A.M. and Died the 1st March 1822, at Eight O’C P.M.

The Wellington family register also includes the time of day of most births and deaths. A detail I have not seen before in the front of old family bibles.

The family continued to grow, year after year:

Frances Elizabeth Wellington born 28th Febr 1822, at 7 o’clock in the morning.

Rosa Wellington born 16th May 1823, 10 o’clock P.M.

Frederick George Noble Wellington born 30th Novr 1824, ¼ to 10 P.M.

Lucy Wellington born 13th May 1826, ¼ past six P.M.

And then, two more sons die in their infancy:

Richard Wellington born 2nd Augt 1827, ½ past 6 P.M. and died the 5th Jany 1828, at 5 O’C in the evening.

Alexander Samson Wellington born 24th Augt 1831,¼ past one A.Noon & died 10th May 1833, at a ¼ past five o’clock in the morning.

Little Alexander’s death in May 1833, at the age of 20 months, is the reason Susanah has taken the time to record these details. After Alexander’s funeral, the family would have added his date of death to the register in the front of their family bible and I can imagine Susanah would want to take a copy of her family tree to keep for herself and pass on to future generations.

Susanah left space between entries so she would have room to update the records in her journal with marriages and deaths. I think the entry of Rebecca’s birth was written by Susanah two years later, added to the bottom of the page.

Rebekah[cca] Wellington born August 11th 1834, 10 minutes after three P.M.

Ellen Marianna Wellington born Febry 1st 1840.

The correction to the spelling of Rebecca’s name and recording of Ellen’s birth was done by her sister Jane after the death of Susanah from consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis) on 6 June 1838, aged eighteen years and ten months. I find it strange that Jane did not add Susanah’s date of death to the journal as she did when her mother died.

This is not a very uplifting story – it’s quite tragic that Susanah did not live long enough to marry and have children of her own. But, she was loved by her family and friends, and her little journal is helping us to learn about her short life and the life and times of our ancestors.

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Sources: Susanah Wellington’s Journal, BUCK family collection. You can read more about it here: susanah’s journal – somerset to sydney. You can read other post on members of the WELLINGTON family here: george wellington’s letters; the chemist shop that time forgot;

the chemist shop that time forgot

There has been a chemist shop at South Petherton, Somerset since the early 1800s. It belonged to an apothecary and grocer named John Wellington (1774-1845), son of John WELLINGTON (1747-1827), chemist of Chard, and a brother of my great-great-great-grandfather George WELLINGTON (1781-1847), chemist of Yeovil.

John WELLINGTON Jnr married Ann MARTIN in 1807 and had four children. Their three daughters Mary, Sarah Jane and Ann; and a son George William who also became a chemist in Taunton. John was a member of the South Petherton town council and ran a successful business until his death in 1845 at the age of 71.

The business in St. James Street, South Petherton passed to John’s brother George’s son William Edwards WELLINGTON (1813-1850) and then to another son Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON (1824-1887). They were qualified druggists and apothecaries and also sold groceries, tea, wine and spirits in their shop. They had a second business in the nearby town of Martock.

Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON (1824-1887). Chemist of South Petherton, Somerset, England

When Frederick retired he sold the shop and all its stock to William Charles WHITE in about 1887. W. C. WHITE practiced as a chemist until 1909 and when he died the business passed to his son Charles Edger who was a grocer but not qualified to dispense medicines. The chemist department was abandoned and boarded up behind a locked door, complete with the dispensary and its contents.

Charles WHITE continued as a grocer for several decades, the business then passed to his unmarried daughters Margaret and Eveline who, with the change to decimal currency in 1971, gave up the struggle and upon the death of the surviving sister in 1987 the whole shop came up for sale.

When the door was unlocked an amazing time capsule was discovered. The dispensary, complete with its old balances and scales, medicine jars, bottles and ancient cures, gave a unique glimpse into the life of a Victorian pharmacy.

White’s chemist shop in South Petherton, as it was found when the door was unlocked in 1987.

The complete contents and fittings of the apothecaries shop was purchased at auction by Flambards Amusement Park in Cornwall and re-assembled in their Victorian Village as close as possible to how it appeared 70 years earlier – with the dust and cobwebs, but without the poisons and more dangerous compounds which were confiscated by the British Home Office.

W. C. White’s chemist shop recreated in the Victorian Village at Flambards Amusement Park in Helston, Cornwall. Photo by John King on http://www.flickr.com

The South Petherton Local History Group owns the archive of accounts and records of White’s pharmacy and general store. I have written to the group asking if they have any documents dating back to when the WELLINGTON family owned the business.

ADDENDUM: I have made contact with the South Petherton Local History Group – you can read more about the life of chemist Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON here.

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Notes: William Edwards WELLINGTON and Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON were the sons of George WELLINGTON, chemist of Yeovil; and brothers to Jane and Susanah WELLINGTON.

Sources: http://www.southpethertoninformation.org.uk, South Petherton Local History Group, Wellingtonia, The History of the Wellington Family, by John Evelyn; GRO Indexes and documents, Pigot’s Directories of Somerset and Dorset 1830 to 1885. Flambards Amusement Park. You can see and listen to the story of apothecary William White’s lost time capsule at Flambards at this Youtube link.

susanah’s journal – dictionaries and dominoes

An extract from the journal of Miss Susanah WELLINGTON (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somerset. Susanah attended Mrs Eason’s School in Yeovil, she was 12 years old when she transcribed this letter into her notebook.

Letter from Charlotte Bowles to Miss Allen, dated 14 February 1832.

The transcript of a letter from Charlotte Bowles (possibly a head teacher) in reply to a letter from one of her pupils, Miss Allen.

Yeovil Feby 14 1832

My dear Miss Allen

You have pleased me highly in the attention you have bestowed on my little note and in the endeavour you have made to comply with my requests.

It is true that I invited you to this recent effort merely with a view to your own improvement and it may therefore seem natural in you to have obeyed my injunction.

But how often are children unwilling to advance their own welfare! When study gives them trouble they grow impatient and seem to be regardless of the curse of ignorance while they are deceived by the pleasure of sloth.

If you want an illustration, I will give you a case in point. When you meet with a sentence or even a word that you cannot understand you immediately apply to your teacher for an explanation. You hear, and for a moment remember but in a day or two afterward the word and its meaning are both forgotten.

Now I would advise you never to enquire of anyone the explanation of a single term that is not clear to your apprehension, but refer at once to the dictionary and possess yourself fully of what you wish to comprehend, then look again to the volume or the page in which your difficulty began and you will generally find that the sentence which seemed cloudy and obscure is now as clear as noonday.

For this reason I must beg you to read my communications attentively nor would I have you shrink from examining Johnson, though it may impede your perusal and lessen your pleasure. To guess at the meaning as you hear or perceive it to be used by another is to forfeit your own command of that word when it might be of use to you if it lay within your reach.

You may receive it as a truth, my dear that what money is to the affluent, that language is to society. It will take you where you please and purchase for you whatever you want. How necessary then is it for a Christian to enjoy this intellectual wealth that he may dispense it for the benefit of his fellow man!

You will observe the truth of these remarks when you are placed by friends in a delicate situation as for instance when you are invited to join in a game at cards and yet you feel reluctant on account of your principles. And since you ask my counsel in this affair, I will give it you freely. Games of chance, as they are called, ought to be prohibited by every cultivated mind apart from the requisition of piety for in such recreation there is no exercise for the intellect any more than for the heart.

Now in the game of dominoes there is a little arithmetic needed, but this is all. And in the game of Whist a great deal of skill is required in order to play with success. But viewed in a more extensive latitude, cards and dominoes are games of chance. I should therefore abstain from them on the grounds of my rationality no less than my religion. But even if I could prove them to be innocent, when looked upon merely as pastimes yet I should account them criminal if they were regarded as a sign of conformity to the world.

If by my playing at cards with the irreligious they will reckon me one of their number, I will not touch a card while the world stands. Then again it should be asked Who are they that invite you to play at cards?

If they be ungodly, I have told you why I would not join them and if they be professors of religion, I am afraid they do not live beneath its power or else they would learn to deny themselves and abstain from the very appearance of evil. If you [find] these reasons satisfactory, you can offer them the next time you are solicited to play at cards.

I have suffered this subject to engross my time till the last moment of it is nearly expended, else I would notice your request concerning the tuition of Sabbath Scholars, but I shall find an opportunity for this another day. You will be so good as to let the other young ladies read my observations on language and assure them as well as yourself that I am their sincere friend and yours

Charlotte Bowles

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A week earlier Charlotte BOWLES wrote her first letter to her students. She encouraged them to enlighten themselves by asking questions and invited them to write to her. It appears she may have been inundated by correspondence from the girls looking to her to provide the answers to all their questions.

She thanks Miss ALLEN for confiding in her, and is very encouraging. But, I get the feeling Charlotte BOWLES is mildly disappointed that the girls are asking her for explanations on subjects they could find the answers to themselves, if they only read their textbooks.

She strongly suggests Miss ALLEN should consult Dr Johnson’s Dictionary in order to seek clarification on unknown words, so that, “the sentence which seemed cloudy and obscure is now as clear as noonday”.

Dr Samuel JOHNSON (1709-84) was an English poet, essayist, editor and lexicographer. Dissatisfied with works of the period, a group of London booksellers contracted Samuel Johnson to compile a dictionary. Johnson spent nine years working on it, virtually single-handed, and his Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1755. It had a far-reaching effect on Modern English and has been described as “one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship.” Johnson’s was viewed as the pre-eminent dictionary for libraries, schools and colleges throughout Britain and the Empire, until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 170 years later.

Title page of Dr Samuel Johnson’s dictionary beside an image of the man himself pulling a book’s cover back and concentrating intently on its words – from a 1775 portrait by Joshua Reynolds.

Charlotte BOWLES shares wise words with her student when she says, “what money is to the affluent, language is to society”. It will take you where you please and purchase for you whatever you want.

The teacher then continues her letter with a moral lesson on the subject of games of chance. She definitely frowns upon card games. Even the popular parlour game of Whist is too much of a corruption and she will never play it. She does concede that the game of Dominoes has a small educational value as “there is a little arithmetic needed”.

Various games of chance not deemed suitable for pious young ladies in the 1830s.

But that seems to be her only concession, as she advises Miss ALLEN to stick to her principles and abstain from this kind of recreation on the grounds of rationality and religion. Who, in this day and age, imagines a game of Dominoes could be responsible for the corruption of respectable young ladies? Could it really be the “slippery slope” that sends them into a life of vice and gambling?

I can’t imagine it would, in fact I’m of the belief that card games and board games can aid in the education of children. Life isn’t always fair, and games of chance help teach an important lesson. In an age of instant gratification, with parents that over-indulge their children and prize ribbons for all, it can be a real shock to the emotional state of a young adult when they find things do not go their way. They just don’t know how to cope.

Is there a reason a young woman in a short skirt, high heels and with a fascinator stuck on her head spends a boozy day at the Spring Racing Carnival? Maybe it’s because she loved to play the board game ‘Steeplechase’ as a child.

Playing a game of Monopoly or Risk can be very frustrating. When you have been leading all the way, and you have victory snatched away at the very end because of an unlucky roll of the dice, you feel like tipping the board on the floor and stamping your feet. Life is like that, and kids need to learn to lose graciously, and then develop strategies so they are better prepared the next time they play.

I am sure that Miss ALLEN, Susanah WELLINGTON and the other young ladies growing up in the 1830s did not need games of chance to teach them that life was not all springtime and country dances. They would have seen the reality of life and death on a daily basis. Holding on to their belief in God, following a pious life and educating themselves would have given them comfort and enjoyment. But surely a game of Dominoes every once in a while would not harm the soul.

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Sources: Susanah Wellington’s Journal, Hastings family collection. You can read more about it here: susanah’s journal – somerset to sydney. Journal transcription by Terry HASTINGS.

two penny worth of arsenic

Coronial inquest by Mr Richard CAINES, coroner of Somerset – 30 June 1830

At Trent, near Yeovil, on Mary SYMES, aged 47.

The deceased had latterly been an occasional servant at the public house in that parish, but had left about three weeks, not being able to perform her work; having got better, she applied to be again employed, but was told she was not wanted; since which time she had done but little, and had received some parochial relief.

On Friday last she went to offer service at Yeovil, and on her return showed a paper containing some powder, which it appeared she took, and died in about two hours afterwards.

George Edwards WELLINGTON and his brother, sons of Mr WELLINGTON of Yeovil, druggist, proved that on Friday last she bought at their shop two penny worth of arsenic, saying that it was to kill rats, and that it was for Mr WHITTLE.

It was proved that the deceased was of weak mind, and in great poverty, and the Jury returned a verdict of Lunacy.

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Yes, you guessed it – my ancestors sold the arsenic to the unfortunate Mary SYMES.

Arsenic was used in the manufacture of practically everything in Georgian and Victorian England. It was used as a green dye in cloth and wallpaper manufacture, in food, beer, cosmetics as well as rat poison. As evidenced in the inquest above, you could buy arsenic over the counter at your local chemist shop for “a penny worth an ounce.” In minute doses it’s a slow and silent killer that can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin and just one hundredth of an ounce is enough to kill. The “two penny worth of arsenic” poor Mary SYMES bought and consumed was enough to kill 50 people and all the rats in Trent and Yeovil combined.

For an interesting read on arsenic and the history of poisons in the Victorian era you might like to view Jen Newby’s blog post Arsenic Century. Jen writes about women’s history because, as she says “our great-grandmothers weren’t all chained to the kitchen sink“.

[Sources: Somerset Inquests and Murders 1825-1830; The Arsenic Century by James C Whorton]

the runaway apprentice

Sherborne and Yeovil Mercury, dated 14 June 1773.

Ran away last Monday, from his master, Francis Pyle, of Tallerton, in the county of Devon, Richard Wellington, his apprentice. About nineteen years of age, five feet eight or ten inches high, in his walk stoops a little forward, and bends his knees inwards; straight black hair, and is of a tawney complexion. Carried off with him a light coloured drab coat, let out by the sides, very short, with yellow metal buttons, an old scarlet waistcoat, and a dark colour’d coat and waistcoat, with yellow buttons, figur’d; had in his shoes, when he went off, a pair of double ring’d brass buckles. – Whoever harbours or employs the said apprentice after this notice, shall be prosecuted as the law directs. Or whoever shall bring him to his said master, shall receive a Guinea reward.

Well I’m intrigued, and I bet you’re wondering where the rebellious, raven-haired and pigeon-toed Richard WELLINGTON fits into the family tree.

Richard’s parents were John WELLINGTON (1727-1759) and Sarah LEY (1729-?) who lived in Talaton, Devon in England. I don’t know what John did for a living, he may have been a farmer at Talaton – a small rural town about 20 kms north-east of the port of Exeter and approximately 10 kms west of Honiton.

John and Sarah WELLINGTON had 4 boys (John 12, William 10, Richard 5 and Simon 3) and Sarah was again “with child” when her husband died in early November 1759 at the age of 32. His death must have been a devastating blow to Sarah who gave birth to another son Michael in April 1760. With a family to support she would have found life difficult even if they had freehold land and John provided for her and the children in his will.

Their eldest son John was 12 and probably still at school. As first-born he may have been received a sum of money in his father’s will to secure an apprenticeship with an apothecary in one of the larger towns in Devon or Somerset.

Craftsmen usually took on apprentices at about 13 or 14 years of age, although it was not uncommon for children as young as 10 to be indentured in some trades and the term of the apprenticeship was commonly 7 years or until the child reached the age of 21. Masters required a premium to be paid by parents for securing their child’s livelihood. A father’s early death could mean a low premium and poor trade for a child of prosperous parents if provision was not made in the man’s will.

Premiums paid in trades in the mid 18th century varied greatly depending on where the business was – boys bound to London apothecaries had premiums of between £150 and £200 while provincial masters took £50 on average.
Examples of the range of premiums paid to various trades circa 1750:

• £10-£100 – stationer, printer, bookmaker
• £20-£200 – apothecary, attorney, hosier, jeweller, draper
• £30-£100 – Ironmonger
• £50-£100 – artist, coachmaker, conveyancer, sugar baker, timber merchant.

A high premium did not ensure comfortable living conditions for the child. It compensated the master for an apprentice’s errors made as a novice; it provided a child with food, room and basic board in the master’s house or workshop, instruction in a profitable livelihood, and established him in a prosperous career with appropriate marriage and social prospects. Apprentices weren’t paid for their work, except occasionally in the last years of their apprenticeship.

The following is an extract from a parish apprenticeship indenture dated 1 October 1694, at Stockleigh English, Devon. The apprentice could well be an earlier ancestor:

Between Richard Moorish, Churchwarden, Thomasine Bradford, Widow, and William Quicke, Overseer, of the one part, and Henry Bellow, Gent, of the other – binding Susannah Wellington apprentice to Henry Bellew to the age of twenty-one years, to be brought up in housewifry & found in meat, drink, apparel, lodging, hose, shooes & all things fit and necessary & at the end of term to discharge her well apparelled.

An indenture in the early 1700s had the Churchwarden Thomas WELLINGTON binding a poor parish apprentice until the age of twenty-one:

Indenture made on 6th June, eighth year of Queen Anne, A.D. 1709, between Thomas Wellington, Churchwarden, and Henry Bellow and William Morish, Overseers for Stockleigh English Parish, and Mary Pope, Widdow, have bound Joan Drew to Mary Pope till the age of twenty-one years to be brought up in huswifry.

Another indenture two years later, had Thomas WELLINGTON taking on a parish apprentice until the age of twenty-four. Joan and Elias DREW may have been from the same family and fell on hard times due to the death of a parent:

Indenture made 4th April 1711, tenth year of Queen Anne, A.D. 1711, between John Brown, Churchwarden, and John Bradford and William Blackmore, Overseers, Stockley English, and Thomas Wellington, Yeoman, of the said Parish and County (of Devon) have bound Elias Drew, Parish Apprentice, till the age of fower and twenty years in husbandry, Thomas Wellington providing for him and to discharge him at the end of term well apparelled.

Still another contract in 1742, had a James WELLINGTON taking on an apprentice for the parsonage. This one was quite firm in its conditions that the poor lad should no longer be a financial burden on the parish:

Indenture made sixteenth day of September, sixteenth year of George II., King, etc., A.D. 1742, between William Wyat, Churchwarden of Stockley English, County Devon, and William Wyat, and Robert Avary, Overseers, etc., bound John Pomeroy, Apprentice to James Wellington, for the Parsonage, until the age of twenty four years, the Apprentice to do as Statute requires. James Wellington to instruct or cause to be instructed in Husbandry work, and find him the said Apprentice, competent and sufficient meat, drink and apparel, lodging, washing, and all other things necessary and fit for an Apprentice, he not to be any way a charge to said Parish, or Parishoners of the same, and to save the aforesaid harmless and indemnified during the said term. At the end of term to provide the said Apprentice double apparel of all sorts, good and new, one for the holy days and another for the working days.

We know that our John WELLINGTON from Talaton completed his apprenticeship and became a qualified apothecary and druggist. He set up a chemist shop in Chard in Somerset and married Molly BOWDEN in 1772 at the age of 25 years.

He appears to have over-extended himself, as I found a notice in the Sherborne and Yeovil Mercury of 10 May 1773. John WELLINGTON, druggist of Chard – bankrupt. This turn of events may have been a contributing factor in his younger brother Richard’s elopement from his master one month later.

From my research at Devon Records Office I found Francis PYLE was a gentleman freehold farmer in Talaton. He held deeds for land and estates within the Hayridge Hundred during the late 1700s. Richard WELLINGTON would have been apprenticed in a trade on the estate or farm such as blacksmithing or husbandry.

Richard was totally reliant on the good will of his master. Fellow workers or members of the master’s family may have bullied the young man. He could have been mistreated, become very unhappy or homesick and have only one means of escape which was to run away.

At the age of 19, Richard was not the only apprentice to feel the need to spread his wings and experience some of life’s temptations. The Sherborne and Yeovil Mercury was a regional newspaper published in Dorset whose readership also included the counties of Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. During 1773 there were at least 40 notices posted by masters whose apprentices had eloped or run away.

By 1773, Richard had already worked at least 5 or 6 years as a farm apprentice with still another 2 years left to serve. He would have toiled long hours and resented his lack of leisure and personal freedom. He probably read about his eldest brother’s bankruptcy and set off to walk the 30 km to Chard to visit him. Or Richard might have longed for more excitement in his life and headed to the busy port of Exeter in the hope of gaining paid employment on a ship or by joining the navy.

If Richard did run away to sea (which is the most likely scenario) he made sure he was going to be “well apparelled”. I can find no further records on Richard WELLINGTON’s life after this notice so I don’t know if he ended up a sailor or returned to farming.

There is better news on his brother John WELLINGTON, the apothecary and druggist of Chard. It appears he traded his way out of bankruptcy, as a notice in the Sherborne and Yeovil Mercury on 26 September 1774 announced payment of a dividend to his creditors.

In 1777, after 5 years as a bankrupt, John was expanding his business and advertising for journeyman coopers and cabinet makers. It appears he learned from his early mistakes and went on to become very successful. He was the founder of a family dynasty of pioneering chemists in Devon and Somerset.

John WELLINGTON died in Chard in 1827, at the age of 79. Three of his children (John, George and William) were druggists and grocers in South Petherton, Yeovil and Chard. They were also respectable civic leaders, each holding office on their town councils.

[Sources: www.familysearch.org/Apprenticeship_in_England; Apprenticeship in England, 1600-1914, Joan Lane;  Sherborne and Yeovil Mercury or Western Flying Post 1773-1778; index of adverts at this link]; Erskine-Risk, J. Apprenticeship indentures from Stockleigh English Parish Church. Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. 33 (1901) pp.484-494. [Index].

trains, turkeys and tobacco – 1879

Letter from William Henry SUTTON to his son Frederick SUTTON – 4 April 1879

George St. Waterloo
4th April 1879

Dear Fred,

I have spoken to Mr Smith (head clerk in the manager’s office) respecting your leave of absence; and he promised me if you applied for it about a week before hand, he would arrange it. I forward a copy of application for your guidance, so that you have only to make a neatly written transcript, with no false spelling, and send it in due time, addressed as I have given.

I thought it better you should apply for a week’s leave at once, which of course will prevent your obtaining another week’s leave before the expiration of twelve months from the time of your getting it. We will make the best arrangements for yourself and Maggie that we can, George having Mr Saxon with him at present, and John and Mary having an old couple living with them.

The turkeys are splendid birds, especially the larger one; and if they get back in condition it will not be their fault, as they are famous gobblers. I expect one of them will be victimised when “the event” comes off (which I forgot to say is fixed for Wednesday the 23rd April), but as we shall be obliged to eat it cold, I fear we shall not have it in perfection.

There seems to have been some mistake about Mrs Cunio’s letter; Mary says she has received but one, which she has answered; and she means to rate you soundly for accusing her of neglect when she did not deserve it.

I propose forwarding your ring in a small package of tobacco by next Tuesday’s morning train – so look out for it. As you have so recently heard from your mother I suppose you know as much of the news as I can tell you. When you have obtained leave you had better let us know your intended movements.

With love to Maggie and kind regards to Mr and Mrs Cunio when you see them.

I am dear Fred,
Your affectionate father,
W H Sutton.

A copy of this letter was given to me in about 2006 by Mrs Win BRANDER. Win’s late husband Robert BRANDER was a grandson of Frederick SUTTON (1851-1919), the person the letter was written to.

In 1879 Fred’s parents William Henry SUTTON and Jane Penelope WELLINGTON and his four youngest sisters were living at George Street, Waterloo – an inner suburb of Sydney, Australia. William Henry worked for the Great Southern Railway as a writing clerk in the parcels office of Central Station. His son Fred also worked for the railway and lived in southern NSW at Murrumburrah between Young and Yass.

Fred is applying for a week’s leave (the only leave he is entitled to within a twelve-month period) so he is able to attend “the event” – his sister Honor SUTTON’s marriage to Robert BUCK on 23 April 1879 at the Church of St Silas, Waterloo.

Fred’s father says; “We will make the best arrangements for yourself and Maggie that we can, George having Mr Saxon with him at present, and John and Mary having an old couple living with them.”

• Maggie is Fred’s wife Margaret Madeline CUNIO (1862-1949).
• George is Fred’s older brother George Wellington SUTTON (1846-1929) who was an engineer on the railways and lived in Union Street, Newtown.
• John and Mary are John Simpson TAYLOR (1847-1927) the husband of Fred’s eldest sister Mary Jane SUTTON (1845-1928), they lived in Station Street, Newtown.
• Mr and Mrs CUNIO are Fred’s wife’s parents, Antonio CUNIO (CUNEO) and Catherine BYE. They lived at Binalong between Murrumburrah and Yass.
• Mr Saxon and the old couple are most likely renting rooms in the family homes.

Let us hope Fred’s ring arrived safe and sound in the tobacco pouch on Tuesday’s morning train and he enjoyed his one week leave with his family in Sydney.

The gobblers we can assume were fattened up and at least one of them graced the wedding banquet on the day.

This event would have been the last time Fred saw his father. William Henry SUTTON died less that four months later of disease of the heart and liver on 5 August 1879. He was 71 years old. You can read a little more about William Henry SUTTON in this post.

graveyard ramblings

I have a confession to make – I love wandering around in overgrown cemeteries.

You can rest in peace folks (both above and below), I have not gone all Buffy the Vampire Slayer or teamed up with the Scooby-Doo Gang. I love wandering in overgrown cemeteries in the day time.

A brilliant summer’s day at Rookwood Cemetery, rambling through the marble, sandstone and wildflowers.

One of my favourite places to visit is Rookwood Necropolis (city of the dead) in Sydney, Australia. It’s the largest multicultural necropolis in the Southern Hemisphere and it’s estimated about one million people have been buried in the ‘suburb’ which covers an area of over 300 hectares.

In 1862 the government purchased a large piece of land for the new necropolis on the newly built railway line at what was then known as Haslam’s Creek, 17 kilometres from the Sydney CBD. It was planned out like a suburb with streets, avenues of trees, buildings for contemplation and divided into denominations according to their numbers in the 1861 census.

Rookwood was served by a rail spur from the main line from 1867 until 1948. The train carried mourners and the deceased in special ‘hearse’ carriages and left at 9.30am and 3pm from the small Mortuary Station (recently restored) at central Sydney. It stopped at pre-arranged stations on the journey in order to pick up mourners and coffins.
At the terminus inside the cemetery the coffins were unloaded by funeral directors and finally laid to rest with the appropriate rites and ceremonies.

Great great grandfather William Henry SUTTON (1808-1879) is down there somewhere, along with his son, also called William Henry SUTTON (1844-1868). Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney
[C of E / Section A / Plot 175]

William Henry SUTTON and his son are in an unmarked grave in the very oldest section of the Anglican area of Rookwood. William Henry, Jr. died of tuberculosis aged 23 years. He was buried at Rookwood just four months after the cemetery was opened in 1868.
His mother, Jane Penelope WELLINGTON and sister Henrietta SUTTON are buried together in a plot with a small flat headstone a few sections away.

Jane Penelope SUTTON (nee WELLINGTON) (1818-1896) and her daughter Henrietta SUTTON (1858-1933) are buried at Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney [C of E / Section CCC / Plot 1697].

In the old Anglican section I also found the family memorial of Robert BUCK. This grave is overgrown and rather crowded – 1 headstone covers 3 plots containing 9 souls:
1 husband, 2 wives and 6 young children. The fading inscription reads:

To the memory of Ann Emma Buck
the beloved daughter of Robert & Sarah Anne Buck
who departed this life December 22nd 1872 aged 10 months
—
also Sarah Anne
the beloved wife of Robert Buck
died 24th Jan 1876 aged 32 Years
—
also George Frederick
died March 7th 1876 aged 1 month 11 days
—
also Charles William
died 28th October 1876 aged 2 years 11 months
—
Blanch Honor Buck
died Dec 1st 1883, aged 11 months
—
Walter Sutton Buck
died Oct 20th 1886, aged 13 months
—
George Harold Buck
died March 7th 1890, aged 7 months
—
also Robert Buck
beloved husband of Annie & Honor Buck
died 4th July 1895, aged 72 years
—
also Honor Stretton wife of the above
died 1st March 1926, aged 73 years
—

Together in life and in death. The close-knit family of Robert BUCK (1822-1895), a draper and
hat merchant who emigrated from Grantham, Lincs. to Sydney, Australia. Robert’s first wife
was Sarah Anne COLLIER (1844-1876), his second wife was Honor SUTTON (1853-1926).
Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney [C of E / Section C / Plots 147, 148, 149]

In August 2004 I went on holiday to England and enjoyed a couple of weeks driving around the counties staying in B&Bs and researching the branches of our family. I spent a lot of time in libraries, county archives and wandering about in parish churchyards.

“The Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury” Friday 13 February 1824
DEATH – At Grantham on Thursday the 5th inst. Mrs BUCK, wife of Mr Hart BUCK,
of that place, aged 33, leaving seven small children, with a disconsolate husband,
to lament the loss of a most valuable wife and tender mother. Her remains were interred
at Grantham on Sunday and six of her children were christened at the same time.

There is no record of an enbloc baptism of BUCKs. The BUCK children’s baptism records are recorded as and when they were born and baptised between 1814 and 1824. Christenings were a different event to a baptism at that time.

Jane SMITH (1791-1824) first wife of Hart BUCK of Grantham, Lincs, England. Detail of a large granite headstone laying flat in the churchyard of St Wulfram’s, Grantham.

Memorialised on the same headstone are two of Jane and Hart’s children. The complete transcript reads:

Sacred
to the memory of
Jane, the wife of
Hart Buck
who died 5th Feb 1824
aged 33 Years.
__
also Thomas son of the above who
died 19th July 1824, aged 6 months
__
and Emma daughter of the above
died 16th March 1829, aged 8 years.
__

Under the lichen covered slab tomb on the far left are the remains of Hart BUCK (1787-1855), his second wife Mary HALL (1787-1861) as well as two of Hart’s granddaughters Caroline (1851) and Annie (1855) who died in their infancies. A neighbouring plot holds Hart’s eldest son William BUCK (1815-1882) and his two wives, Charlotte SHARPE (1827-1873) and Louisa DICKINS (1832-1897) in Grantham Cemetery, Lincolnshire [Plots 10 / 12x].

William BUCK was the eldest son of Hart BUCK and Jane SMITH and brother to Robert BUCK who emigrated to Sydney, Australia. William was a tailor in Grantham for much of the nineteenth century. We was a well-educated man and very keen on writing and performing comic songs and skits. He was an amateur thespian and put on concerts in the town. I will write more about this life in a few months, but here is a snippet – a poem full of puns he wrote down in his scrapbook about a graveyard and its contents.

A Graveyard and its Contents
Published in Frazer’s Magazine, July 1850
There lies levellers levelled, duns done up in themselves,
There are booksellers finally laid on their shelves;
Horizontally there lie upright politicians,
Dose-a-dose with their patients sleep faultless physicians;
There are slave drivers quietly whipped underground,
There bookbinders done up in boards, are fast bound;
There the babe that’s unborn, is supplied with a berth,
There men without legs get their six feet of earth;
There lawyers repose, each wrapped up in his case,
There seekers of office are sure of a place;
There defendant and plaintiff are equally cast,
There shoemakers quietly stick to their last;
There brokers at length become silent as stocks,
There stage drivers sleep without quitting their box.

Sometimes I actually need to search inside a church to find family memorials. I found our chemists, George WELLINGTON (1781-1847) and his son George Edwards WELLINGTON (1807-1843), inside Yeovil Parish Church of St John the Baptist in Somerset.

The stonemason has wrongly carved “1849” into the marble memorial to George WELLINGTON (1781-1847) [Yeovil Parish Church of St John the Baptist / West Wall of South Aisle]. George was a chemist and druggist, assistant overseer of the poor and a former town portreeve in Yeovil, Somerset. He definitely died in November 1847, I have his death certificate and an account of the coronial enquiry into his death – he was “found drowned”. Watch this blog for the full story.

George Edwards WELLINGTON (1807-1843) a chemist and druggist was only 36 years old when he died of a heart attack. [Yeovil Parish Church of St John the Baptist / West Wall of South Aisle] His brother William Edwards WELLINGTON (1813-1850) also died at the age of 36 years. William died of consumption (pulmonary tuberculosis).

George Frederick Noble WELLINGTON (1824-1887) has a memorial etched in one of the beautiful stained glass windows of South Petherton Church, Somerset. Frederick was a pioneering chemist and druggist along with his father, brothers and several of his brothers-in-law. The glass shows the marriage at Cana in Galilee; raising of Lazarus; and the miraculous gathering of the fishes. Along the bottom of the three lights are the words:
To the glory of God, and in memory of F.G.N. Wellington, for 40 years a resident in this Parish who entered into rest May 25 1887 aged 62 years.

Moving on to Leicestershire and the rain set in. Hard to keep your shoes dry rambling about in soggy churchyards, but wet headstones are much easier to read.

George BUCK and Priscilla are from the Lutterworth BUCKs. I have not yet found where this branch connects to our branch, but I am close. St Marys Parish Church, Lutterworth, Leicestershire.

While I was wandering around the slate headstones in Lutterworth churchyard, looking for the Leicestershire branch of the BUCK family tree, I came across a couple of monuments I found interesting enough to copy and photograph.

 

In loving memory of
Frederick RAINBOW 
who died April 21st 1884 aged 73 years,
also Sarah, wife of the above
who died November 2nd 1893 aged 76 years,
and of Edwin Thomas, second son of the above
who died December 9th 1906 aged 58 years.
– He hath done all things well. Mark 7:37 –

 

Wouldn’t it be great to have the colourful name of RAINBOW? I have since found someone researching the RAINBOW family history who was happy to include these souls in their family tree. I’m glad I took the time to transcribe the headstone.

 

In Memory of William BANBURY Killed by Robbers upon Over Heath, Nov 23, 1676. A very old headstone found in Lutterworth parish churchyard.

Another intriguing find was a small slate stone covered in orange and pink lichens. It is a memorial to William BANBURY who met his maker in 1676 when he was murdered and robbed for half a sovereign on Over Heath. 335 years later I came across an enquiry about William BANBURY on a family history forum and was able to email this photo to one of his descendants.

 

Another mystery solved, maybe I could join the Scooby-Doo Gang.

…

 

the teachers

During the early 1800s there were few national public schools, children were either taught at home or attended a school run by the town council or parish church. Boys from upper-middle class families would be taught by governesses alongside their sisters until they reached the age of 10 or 12 and then would often be packed off to boarding school and college to complete their education, or apprenticed as a clerk to a solicitor or similar profession. Less wealthy families endeavored to secure an apprenticeship in a trade for their sons and daughters. Most girls would not have the opportunity to enter into higher education, some attended private finishing schools in order to learn the social skills and artistic graces required to attract a husband of means.

William SUTTON and Susan MAY were married in 1806 at Exeter, Devon. They were both teachers, and during the early 1800s they lived at ‘Cadhay’ an historic Tudor manor house and estate in the parish of Ottery St Mary, Devon. William was the school master and music master at Cadhay school. By 1830 they had moved to Taunton, Devon and in Pigot’s Directory 1830, Susan SUTTON is listed running a ladies boarding academy in High Street, Taunton. They also had a boarding school at their house in Cannon Street where William SUTTON was school master. Susan MAY died about 1835 in Taunton. On census night 1841 the SUTTON family is living at Cannon Street – William SUTTON, age 60, school master; his son William Henry, age 30, school master; daughter Eliza Susan, age 25; also two servants and several pupils. William SUTTON died in October 1841 of consumption.

His daughter Eliza Susan SUTTON is found in the 1851 Census as governess to the family of Mr James CULVERNELL, a farmer employing 37 labourers at Clavelshay, North Petherton, Somerset. Ten years later she is governess to the five children of Mr Charles FORTER, attorney and solicitor of Stoke Road, North Curry, Taunton. In 1871 Eliza Susan is a governess and schoolmistress to about eight or nine children of the HOLE families at Harwood House, Timberscombe, Somerset. She died in 1873 in Bridgwater, aged 60 years.

William Henry SUTTON was the eldest child of William SUTTON and Susan MAY. He married Jane Penelope WELLINGTON in December 1842, in Glastonbury, Somerset. For the first three years after their marriage they lived in Melcombe Regis, Weymouth, Dorset where William Henry is recorded on his children’s birth certificates and baptisms as a school master.

Between 1846 and 1851 William Henry’s occupation is recorded as ‘Land Surveyor’ and the family was living at ‘Bathers’ 13 East Street, Broadway, Somerset. From the late 1700s, there was a boom in developing the country’s network of transport and communications, and many surveyors were employed in making maps, plans and surveys for the new roads, canals and railways. There was regular employment and good money to be made by men who had the mathematics and cartography skills to draw an accurate tithe map.

In 1852 Slaters Directory of Somersetshire lists Mr Wm Henry SUTTON as school master of ‘Legers’ a private boarding school in Wiveliscombe, Somerset.

On 19 November 1853, William Henry SUTTON, his wife Jane and their eight children, sailed from the port of London on the ‘Graham’ bound for Port Phillip and Sydney, Australia. Their 5-year-old daughter Eliza Susan died during the five month sea voyage. In the first few years in the colony they lived in the Wollongong area where William Henry worked as a school master, they then spent about two years in the new settlement of Purfleet, Manning River. The SUTTON family moved back to Sydney in 1860 when William Henry secured a job with the Great Southern Railway as station master at Petersham on an annual salary of £150 + £25 per annum in lieu of a house.

William Henry SUTTON was dismissed as Station Master in January 1868 under controversial circumstances involving a crash of a goods train and a passenger train between Petersham and Newtown stations. There was a coronial inquiry and a Supreme Court case which exonerated William of blame. He took the job of Writing Clerk, working 7 days a week, in the parcels office at Sydney Station at a pay cut of about £65 per annum. In 1868 William Henry and his wife were supporting six unmarried daughters and most likely their 18 year old son Fred. In April of the same year his eldest son William died of tuberculosis, and burdened with mounting debts William Henry filed for insolvency in October 1869. He continued to work in the parcels office until his death from cardiac arrest, aged 71 at his home at George Street, Waterloo, Sydney in August 1879.

Henrietta and Ada SUTTON were the youngest daughters of William Henry SUTTON and Jane Penelope WELLINGTON. They were both born in Australia and were home schooled by their father, mother and elder siblings. Neither of them married and they ran a small private school from their home ‘Merton’ 106 Station Street, Newtown, from the 1890s until the 1920s. Those in the family who recall the sisters in their old age, remember Henrietta (or aunt Ettie, as she was known) was a tall, thin woman and aunt Ada was short and round. One sister was quite deaf and rarely spoke, and the other evidently spoke enough for three people.

Frances Elizabeth and Rebecca WELLINGTON were two daughters of George WELLINGTON, a chemist of Yeovil, and his second wife Elizabeth SAMPSON. They were sisters of Jane Penelope WELLINGTON and aunts to Henrietta and Ada SUTTON. The two sisters became governesses and took up positions with families who could afford a live-in tutor for their children. A governess would have to be accomplished in many subjects in order to teach her young charges. The WELLINGTON sisters were most likely well-read, had a good grasp of mathematics, spoke french, would be able to draw, play an instrument, dance and sing.

From her signature inside a book, we know that Frances Elizabeth WELLINGTON spent some time living in Heidelberg, Germany, so she most likely spoke german. In 1851 she is the 28 year old governess to Rosanna GODWIN and her family of Blandford, Dorset. Frances’ half-sister Elizabeth was married to Simon GROVES, a chemist in Blandford Forum, so she had family close by. Frances does not appear to be in England on Census nights in 1861 and 1871 so perhaps she was living abroad with a family in Heidelberg during this time. In the 1881 Census she is either visiting or living with her sister Rosa and brother-in-law, Frederick HAYDEN, a chemist of Fordingbridge, Hampshire. Frances died in Bristol, England, aged 82, while living with her youngest sister Ellen, a retired draper.

In 1851 Rebecca WELLINGTON is working as the 16 year old governess in the houshold of Henry RICHARDS, farmer and land surveyor of Winterbourne, Kingston, Dorset. 10 years later she is the governess in the Reverend Walter ALFORD, the perpetual curate of Drayton and Muchelney, Langport, Somerset. In 1871 Rebecca, aged 37, is employed as the governess to the children of Joseph and Emma SYMES, a surgeon and medical superintendent of the Dorset County Mental Asylum, at Charminster. She is still employed in this position 10 years later in 1881. Rebecca died in Fordingbridge, in 1885, aged 52, most likely while living with her sister Rosa.

As a governess was usually single (I hate the word ‘spinster’), she relied heavily on savings she banked or put in an annuity fund to sustain her in her retirement. Many single women relied on their families to accommodate and support them between assignments and in their old age.

NEXT MONTH – The Rag Trade – Tailors and Drapers

teacher, tailor, chemist, sailor, rich man, poor man, fisherman, thief

As the rhyme above suggests our ancestors have been involved in some varied occupations and professions. Some very reputable; some patriotic; some have reaped the benefits of hard work and risk taking; others have not been so lucky; some have made a living on the waters, rivers and lakes of our country; and, still others have taken unlawful risks and paid the penalty.

Each month I profile some of our ancestors in their various professions. Click on the home page and select from the menu on the right to view.

Who are these people?

Don’t you recognise them? These are the people who made us what we are today.

William Henry SUTTON (1808~1879) – School Master;
Robert BUCK (1822~1895) – Tailor;
Jane Penelope WELLINGTON (1818~1896) – Chemist’s daughter;
Thomas Basil (Gunner) GASCOIGNE (1891~1961) – Sailor.