susanah’s journal – xmas party

From the journal of Miss Susanah Wellington (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somersetshire.

2nd. We had a letter from Mrs D Marshall informing us she would not be able to pay us a visit on account of the weather.

3rd We had our Xmas family party: the young men & Mr Vincent supped here.

15th Uncle Smith & Uncle Tom came down and spent Sunday with us.

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In Susanah’s previous journal entry of December 1836, we read about Rev Jukes and the Jews meeting.

The Wellingtons of Yeovil had friends and family visiting for the 1837 new year holidays. The weather was very bad. Heavy snow started to fall on Christmas Eve, 1836. There was a great east-north-easterly gale and snowstorm on 25th and 26th. Many lives as well as livestock and crops were lost. Roads throughout England were impassable for days, snow 5 to 15 feet (1.5 to 4.5 metres) deep in many places, a few great drifts 20 to 50 feet (6 to 15 metres).

An extract from a newspaper report, gives an idea of how the severe weather impacted life throughout England. Western Flying Post, Sherborne and Yeovil Mercury, 02 January 1837.

The snow storms in late December 1836 covered the roads in large drifts. The regular stage and mail coaches were disrupted which brought business to a stand-still. The stage coaches and mail coaches could not get through, goods and shipments could not be delivered, and general trades could not do business or work outdoors in such bad weather.

Illustration of a bountiful Christmas feast from a Comic Alphabet, designed, etched and published by George Cruikshank, 1836.

The Wellington family held their Christmas party on the 3rd of January. It may have been a tradition to celebrate with family in the new year, or their gathering was delayed due to the bad weather. Susanah mentions the young men and Mr Vincent shared Christmas supper with the family. The “young men” may have been the chemist apprentices and shop assistants in her father’s employ. Mr Vincent was probably a family friend.

On the 15th January Uncle Tom and Uncle Smith visited the family in Yeovil. Thomas SAMSON (1806-1879), was a younger brother of Susanah’s mother Elizabeth SAMSON (1764-1833). Uncle Smith was William SMITH (1801-1879) the husband of Elizabeth’s youngest sister Susannah Sharp SAMSON (1806-1843). They lived in Wayford, about 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) south-west of Yeovil in Somerset. You can read more about the SAMSON family connections here.

I am sure Susanah enjoyed good cheer with her family and friends in spite of the cold and miserable weather, which continued well into March, April and May. The English Spring of 1837 still holds the record of the coldest ever seasonal average at just 5.6 degrees C.

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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; www.dorsetshire.com. You might like to see other work by George Cruikshank; British Newspaper Archive; Historical Weather Events.

our troops – recruitment 1914

I found this article on NLA Trove newspaper archive, in the Sydney Morning Herald, dated Tuesday 22 September 1914. It gives an insight into the new recruitment arrangements for those enlisting in the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF), one hundred years ago.

Extract from article in the Sydney Morning Herald, 22 September 1914.

OUR TROOPS.

RECRUITING CHANGED.
COUNTRY ENROLMENTS.

The new arrangements for recruiting from the country came into operation yesterday, and there was a marked improvement in the number of these men coming forward. It is now no longer necessary for applicants to pay their own fares to Sydney and have a receipt in order to get a refund at this end. When passed by local Government medical officers the men are given a pass, as ordinarily used by the Police Department, the Commonwealth Government subsequently making good the amount to the Railway Department. These passes can be obtained at any country police station. In the case of those under 21 years of age the written consent of parent or guardian is required. With this Lieutenant Colonel Antill, the enrolling officer is prepared to take men under 19 years of age – the limit first provided – but they must be over 18 years. The acceptance of applicants, particularly these minors, is a matter left to his discretion.

Volunteers queuing to enlist outside Victoria Barracks, Sydney, 1914-1918. [AWM negative A03406]

The service will accept married men and widowers with children provided they can state that they are aware that no separation allowance will be issued either before or after embarkation and that they signify, on the form of attestation their willingness to allot at least two-fifths of their pay (not including deferred pay) while abroad to their wives, or in the case of a wife and children at least three-fifths. Applicants for enrolment are not to be over 45 years of age and must of course be of the required physique.

Privates are to receive, while in Australia 4s per diem and 1s per diem deferred pay, and while abroad 5s per diem and 1s per diem deferred pay. The period of service is to be for the duration of the war and four months thereafter, unless the men are sooner lawfully discharged, dismissed or removed. No members of either Commonwealth or State Public Service are to be accepted without their departmental head being first consulted.

Intending recruits from the metropolitan area can apply as usual at the barracks and be allocated to duty, subject to their passing the medical examinations, which after tomorrow will be conducted at the Rosehill Racecourse. Batches will be sent away by train leaving each day at about 3 p.m. The recruits will then be taken in hand by the different officers and placed in their respective ranks. A matter of interest to city men is the requirement of good artisans for the Army Service Corps. Fifty-five men were sent there yesterday as drivers. Now word has been received to enlist men (not too heavy) who are qualified saddle or harness makers and others who are good at tent making.

Detail from Private Ernest Clive Buck’s WWI Attestation Papers.

THE PRESENT VACANCIES

The ranks of the artillery and engineers are filled as far as the New South Wales quota of the second contingent is concerned but the other branches to make up the 3,000, have vacancies for over 1,000 altogether. The enrolling officer is being inundated with letters from country applicants seeking advice, and he wishes it to be made public that the police everywhere have been instructed what to do. Men cannot, he says, pick their jobs. What they are required to do is to get their medical certificate of fitness and a free pass to Sydney. Their services will thereafter be placed to the best advantage. All cannot go to the Light Horse the Army Medical Corps or the Army Service Corps, but men will not be sent to the infantry if they are specially qualified for these other divisions.

As to those who want commissions in the expeditionary forces it is pointed out that it is no use applying to the enrolling officer for these as many are doing. Colonel Antill does not doubt that some of the applicants are deserving of appointment but all he can do is to have their names registered. It rests with the officers commanding the respective divisions to select those considered to be most suitable, and make recommendations accordingly to headquarters.

Recruits undergoing medical examination at Victoria Barracks, Sydney, 1914-1918 [AWM negative A03616]

STEADY ENROLMENT

Yesterdays enrolments did not constitute a record but the total (270) was a distinct improvement. The country was well represented and all the men were of excellent physique. One applicant was from the Northern Territory. He said he had been doing “kangarooing and driving,” and being in Sydney he thought he would “give a look in.” “Can you ride a rough horse?” asked the Colonel. “I must have slipped a lot if I can’t,” was the quaint reply. “We shoot kangaroos on horseback-and,” he continued “I can cook and track.” He was sent to the Light Horse. Another man could “shoot a bullock on sight.” “Can you ride?” the officer asked of another. “I cannot say that I am exactly a sticking plaster, but I can stick on as well as most of them.” “You look it,” said the officer who included him also in the Light Horse. A man who had driven live horses in George-street and four in a plough was sent to the Army Service Corps. This corps benefited also by a physically strong man, who was designated a stretcher-bearer. A hod-carrier equally powerful was sent to the ammunition column. In reply to the Colonel he said, “he did not care how heavy the shells might be so long as some good might be done with them.” A “bushman” from Gosford was sent to the Infantry. An undergraduate never added “Sir” to his replies and was told to cultivate the habit. He was sent to the Infantry. The day’s total included about a dozen men who had served in the Boer war.

The 1st Infantry Brigade exercised yesterday at the Kensington Racecourse, there being no route march.

ROUTE MARCH TO-DAY

The 2nd battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade will leave the Kensington racecourse this morning at 8 o’clock for a route march via the Central Railway Station to Harris-street. The force, which should pass the station at about 9.15, are expected to return to camp in time for lunch. Colonel Braund will be in command.

Mr. Dunn M.L.A., will, the enrolling officer says, be eligible for inclusion in the Light Horse Brigade when he has completed his private arrangements. Dr. A. Mark Stanton of Granville has been gazetted captain in the Army Medical Corps of the Commonwealth defence forces, and has been attached to the 20th Regiment with headquarters at Parramatta. Mr. William Barry, son of Senior-sergeant Barry of the North Sydney police, who is leaving with the expeditionary force, was yesterday presented with a purse of sovereigns at a social gathering in the North Sydney School of Arts.

New recruits moving through the Army camp lines at Liverpool, New South Wales, c1914 [AWM negative H03358]

CIVIL SERVANTS VOLUNTEER

The Minister for Public Health stated yesterday that nearly 10 per cent of the general staff attached to the administration of the Lunacy Department has been accepted for service with the Expeditionary Forces. The male staffs of the various hospitals for the insane exclusive of officers comprise 586 men and 53 of them are going to the war. One of the matrons Miss Pocock of Gladesville is going to the front having joined the Army Medical Service, in which she served during the South African war.

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Sources: NLA Trove newspaper archive; images from Australian War Memorial collection, read more about WWI voluntary recruiting here.

susanah’s journal – rev jukes & the jews

From the journal of Miss Susanah Wellington (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somersetshire.

Poor Wm Etheridge died on the 2nd of November 1836 his funeral sermon was preached by Mr Jukes at his chapel on Sunday Evening Novr 13th 1836.

January 1st 1837. Mr Ewald and Mr Davis preached two sermons in behalf of the Jews 30 pounds were collected at the doors. 2nd The Jews Meeting was held at the Mermaid Inn.  When we returned we found quite a large party assembled in our dining room from Martock.  Sophia Vining was with us.

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I found a notice in the Salisbury & Winchester Journal, Monday 14 November 1836:

Died, at Yeovil, on Wednesday, the 2nd inst., aged 18 years, after a few days’ illness, of effusion on the brain, William, fourth son of Mr. H. Etheridge, auctioneer. He was a very promising youth, and much and deservedly respected in the circle in which he moved.

William’s parents were Henry and Ann. Henry ETHERIDGE was a surveyer, auctioneer, real estate and insurance agent. William ETHERIDGE was born 24 June 1818 and christened in an Independent Chapel in Yeovil on 26 July 1819.

Auction of dwellings by Mr Henry Etheridge, Sherborne & Yeovil Mercury, 02 June 1834.

Mr John JUKES was a protestant non-conformist minister of the Independent Chapel in Yeovil, aligned with the Baptists. Mr JUKES served on the Yeovil Board of Health during the 1830s, along with Dr John PENKIVIL and chemist George WELLINGTON. Rev JUKES ran a school in Yeovil until 1835 when he resigned from teaching to concentrate on his ministry.

Rev John Jukes relinquished his school in Yeovil at the end of 1835.  Sherbourne & Yeovil Mercury, 19 October 1835.

Susanah mentions that on the first day of 1837 there were two sermons preached and 30 pounds collected “on behalf of the Jews”. When I first read this journal entry I wondered if the sermons and donations were in aid of Jews that were persecuted and displaced from their homelands in Europe. Not so.

It appears from this advert in the Sherbourne & Yeovil Mercury, the Christian congregation were on a mission of conversion rather than of aid or charity. The meeting of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews was held at the Mermaid Inn and Mr EWALD and Mr DAVIS were in attendance.

A newspaper notice for the meeting Susanah Wellington mentions in her journal. Sherborne & Yeovil Mercury, 26 December 1836.

This 1839 painting of High Street, Yeovil by Henry Burn (1807–1884) shows the Mermaid Inn archway and large overhanging sign on the left.

After the family returned home from their meeting, they found “quite a large party from Martock” in their dining room. Not much to go on here but they were most likely cousins – John WELLINGTON (1774-1845) and his wife Ann MARTIN (1774-1852) and their children. John WELLINGTON was a chemist and the elder brother of George WELLINGTON, chemist of Yeovil – Susanah’s father.

Sofia VINING was the youngest sister of James Tally VINING who was married to Mary Webb WELLINGTON. Sofia/Sophia VINING (1824-1848) was 12 years old, around the same age as Susanah’s sister Rosa WELLINGTON (1823-1889).

It has taken me quite a long time to research and identify all the players in this journal entry, but it is amazing the resources now available online at the British Newspaper Archives.

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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. British Newspaper Archives. 

frederick george noble wellington

This post is follow-up research on Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON (1824-1887), Chemist of South Petherton. You may like to read some of my earlier posts:

• the chemist shop that time forgot
• susanah’s journal – wild beast show

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

As Susanah WELLINGTON notes in her journal, her younger brother Frederick went to boarding school at Sherborne in July 1836, a few months before his 12th birthday.

Frederick was 15 years old when he left school in 1839 and went to work as a chemist’s apprentice. Frederick took over the chemist business in St. James Street, South Petherton after his half-brother William Edwards WELLINGTON‘s death in 1850.

Frederick married Mary ADAMS in 1850 and he became an active and valued member of the South Petherton community. He sat on many parish committees and was a churchwarden for many years.

I made contact with Liz Randall of the South Petherton Local History Group which holds the archive of White’s pharmacy and general store. Liz was very helpful and sent me a copy of a bill of sale which dates back to the 1880s then Frederick WELLINGTON owned the business.

The old stationery appears to have been reused as scrap paper or as a sales journal by the White family in September 1918, during WWI, when paper was scarce in England.

Bill of Sale header of FGN Wellington, Pharmaceutical Chemist of South Petherton between 1850 and 1887. [photo source South Petherton Local History Group]

Frederick WELLINGTON sold the business to William Charles WHITE in late 1886 or early 1887. I found a news article dated April 1887 which mentioned Frederick had recently left South Petherton so they held an election for a new churchwarden.

News report from the South Petherton Church vestry meeting notes that Frederick Wellignton had recently left the town. [Western Gazette, 22 April 1887]

Declining health may have been the reason Frederick retired and sold the business. The Western Gazette reported the sudden death of FGN Wellington on Wednesday 25 May 1887 at the age of 62, in Bristol.

Notice of the sudden death of Frederick GN Wellington in Bristol. [Western Gazette, 27 May 1887]

The following article is a very detailed account of the funeral of Mr WELLINGTON in South Petherton. It appears he was very well respected and much loved by the people of the town. Among the family mourners were his children: Louisa Mary WELLINGTON (1851); Rev George WELLINGTON (1852), Assistant Curate of Whitechurch Canonicorum, Dorset; and Frederick WELLINGTON (1857), Chemist of Taunton, Somerset.

Account of the funeral of Frederick George Noble Wellington held in South Petherton on Saturday 28 May 1887. [Western Flying Post, 3 June, 1887]

The report mentions that Frederick was buried in the grounds at the north-east side of the chapel, close to his wife Mary who died 6 June 1884. Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON has a memorial in one of the beautiful stained glass windows of South Petherton Church, Somerset, England.

Thank you to Liz Randall and the South Petherton Local History Group for the wonderful work you are doing to bring the history and heritage of your town to life.

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Sources: http://www.southpethertoninformation.org.uk, South Petherton Local History Group; British Newspaper Archive; Wellingtonia, The History of the Wellington Family, by John Evelyn; GRO Indexes and documents, Pigot’s Directories of Somerset and Dorset 1830 to 1885.

Life Interrupted: Personal Diaries from WWI

5 Jul 2014 – 21 Sep 2014 
Exhibition Galleries, State Library of NSW

I saw this wonderful exhibition at the State Library of NSW a few weeks ago.

From 1918 the State Library of NSW began collecting the WWI stories of servicemen, doctors, nurses, stretcher-bearers and journalists so that future generations would know about their experiences.

This extract from the exhibition program gives an insight into the Library’s collection:

By 1921 the total number of war diaries in the Library had reached 247, complemented by collections of letters and in some cases photo albums as well. Today the collection stands at around 550 diarists and over 1100 volumes.

A small number of diaries were acquired from the families of men killed abroad but the majority in this collection were purchased from men who made it home, survivors, many of them diarists over two, three or four years.

The diaries take many forms. Some were written on odd sheets of paper or in memo books or signal message books. Others were cloth or leather bound.

The soldiers, airmen, sailors and nurses who kept a diary, knew they had a big story to tell. For some their diary was a way to connect to home. They were writing for an imagined audience, for the family and friends they left behind. The importance of a  ‘conversation’ with home can hardly be overstated. Along with letters and postcards and sometimes photographs, the diaries were the Facebook of their day.

Last but not least, these wartime chroniclers wanted a record of duty done. They wrote of hard times, of battle and death and ruin everywhere. There are lines, hastily scrawled upon the eve of battle, by soldiers who knew this entry might be their last.

These are voices full of life and fun and fear; and resolute purpose. They are voices from the greatest tragedy of the twentieth century, a tragedy that engulfed an age.

Peter Cochrane – July 2014

Over 500 World War I diaries on display at the State Library of NSW.

The exhibition Life Interrupted: Personal Diaries from World War I is beautifully curated by Elise Edmonds. The chronicle of the war is highlighted by the captivating personal accounts of those who enlisted – farmers, doctors, nurses, photographers and artists – and is supported by newspapers, photographs, artworks, maps and ephemera.

Many of the photographs in the exhibition are by Private Henry Charles MARSHALL (1890-1915) who enlisted in Sydney in the same week as my grandfather Ernest Clive BUCK (1895-1974).  My grandfather’s service number was 571 and MARSHALL’s was 577. They were both in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), 1st Infantry Battalion, E Company. They served together throughout training billeted at the racecourse at Kensington. They embarked on HMAT Afric out of Sydney for the Middle East.

Henry Charles Marshall (1890–1915). Kensington to Cairo and from Cairo to Gallipoli: Album of photographs, 1914–1915. [State Library of NSW PXA 1861]

Henry Charles MARSHALL photographed his journey from the military camp at Kensington in Sydney, to Cairo and then on to Gallipoli. He captured the daily lives of the 1st Battalion setting up camp and pitching their tents at Mena in Egypt near the pyramids.

Pitching tents in sight of pyramids, Henry Charles Marshall (1890–1915). Kensington to Cairo and from Cairo to Gallipoli: Album of photographs, 1914–1915. [State Library of NSW PXA 1861]

MARSHALL photographed the 1st Battalion rowing towards the enemy shore at Gallipoli on the afternoon of 25 April 1915. He captured candid scenes of his mates from E Company in the trenches and relaxing with mugs of tea during a lull in the fighting.

Uncaptioned photo of Australian servicemen at Gallipoli, Henry Charles Marshall (1890–1915). Kensington to Cairo and from Cairo to Gallipoli: Album of photographs, 1914–1915. [State Library of NSW PXA 1861]

 On 5 June 1915, both Henry Charles MARSHALL and Ernest Clive BUCK were severely wounded in fighting. Henry received a gun shot wound to the chest and died aboard a hospital ship and was buried at sea. Ernest was shot and bayoneted in the chest. He was evacuated to a hospital ship and then to the base hospital on the island of Malta a fortnight later; and then on to England to recover from his injuries. Ernest was one of the few who survived such severe injuries.

Private MARSHALL’s, films, photos, letters and equipment were sent back to his family in Devonport, Tasmania. His father and sister organised the photos in chronological order and created an album using information in Henry’s note books as a photo index.

I believe the Marshall family offered copies of the photos and albums to the ex-servicemen of the 1st Battalion. My grandfather Ernest had an album, Kensington to Cairo, but not the Cairo to Gallipoli volume. Maybe he did not need photos to remember the horrors of the Gallipoli campaign.

This is why we wear our hats turned up on the side, Lieut PV Ryan (1881-1950). Sketchbook purchased by the State Library of NSW in 1919.

The exhibition doesn’t only focus on Gallipoli, it gives a voice to all the brave servicemen and women, from the beginning of the war in Ausust 1914, through all the desert campaigns of the Middle East and the muddy trenches of France.

One of the diaries featured in the exhibition is that of Anne DONNELL, a nurse stationed near Ypres, France. On New Year’s Day 1918 she sat on her bed and wept, homesick and exhausted. She had been away from home for three years. Sister Donnell was working in the acute medical ward. Her patients were mainly suffering from gas poisoning and there were lots of pneumonia cases. As she wrote in her diary, she could detect the smell of sickly sweet pineapple in the air – the tell-tale sign of poison gas:

‘10 p.m. Will this restless life never end. As I write the shelling is going on again – heavier too. I am not undressing – It’s a terrible life this’.

The Life Interrupted exhibition at the State Library of NSW is free and runs until 24 September 2014. I recommend you block out a day in your diary to visit the Library, and reflect on the personal accounts of these extraordinary men and women of the global conflict a century ago, which profoundly affected and shaped Australia and its people.

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SOURCES: State Library of NSW; Kensington to Cairo and from Cairo to Gallipoli: Album of photographs, 1914–1915. Henry Charles MARSHALL [State Library of NSW PXA 1861]; Kensington to Cairo: photo album, 1914–1915. Henry Charles MARSHALL, Buck/Brooks family collection; WWI service records of Henry Charles MARSHALL and Ernest Clive BUCK.

susanah’s journal – wild beast show

From the journal of Miss Susanah Wellington (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somersetshire.

Frederick went to Sherborne School July 1836. In October 1836 there was a wild beast show here the animals were very good though the collection was small.

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Susanah’s younger brother Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON (1824-1887), was sent to boarding school at Sherborne in July 1836, a few months before his 12th birthday.

A short history on the school’s website tells us Sherborne School was founded in the mid-16th century under the auspices of the monastery at Sherborne, and survived the Reformation to become established as a Free Grammar School during the 17th and 18th centuries. The school took on its current form as a boys’ boarding school in the early 19th century.

Rachel Hassall, Archivist at Sherborne School provided me with information she had from the school registers:

• Frederick George Wellington, son of G. Wellington, Yeovil. Arrived 1836 – left 1839.
• William Wellington, son of George Wellington, Yeovil. Arrived ? – left 1830.

William Edwards WELLINGTON (1813-1850) was Frederick’s elder half-brother. William was 17 when he finished his education at Sherborne. We went to work in his father George’s chemist shop in Yeovil and took over his uncle John WELLINGTON’s (1774-1845) chemist and grocery businesses in South Petherton and Martock in 1845.

Frederick was 15 years old when he left school and was apprenticed to his father and half-brother William. Frederick George Noble WELLINGTON took over the business in South Petherton after William’s death in 1850. You can read more on Frederick here.

Watercolour of Sherborne School by Walter Tyndale (1855–1943).

What a shame Frederick missed the wild beast show in Yeovil in 1836. I wonder what animals they had on exhibition?

The University of Sheffield’s National Fairground Archive has a wealth of information on the history of fairs, circuses and travelling menageries, here are some of the highlights:

The travelling menagerie evolved at the town fairs. A canvas was usually erected on poles with the animal cages or trailers lining the sides. The public paid for admission to view the exotic species. Most visitors to these wild beast shows would never have the opportunity to see such animals in their daily lives so their arrival in a town would cause great excitement.

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century there were several menageries travelling – amongst the better known are Polito, Ballard, Pidcock, Miles and Wombwell.

Thomas Frost, in The Old Showmen, and the Old London Fairs (1875) cites the following example from 1743:

This is to give notice to all Gentlemen, Ladies, and others, that Mr Perry’s Grand Collection of Living Wild Beasts is come to the White Horse Inn, Fleet Street, consisting of a large he-lion, a he-tiger, a leopard, a panther, two hyenas, a civet cat, a jackal, or lion’s provider, and several other rarities too tedious to mention. To be seen at any time of the day, without any loss of time. Note: This is the only tiger in England.

As colonial expansion brought further and more regular contact with remote regions, birds and animals unseen in Europe arrived at the ports. Collectors encouraged sailors to return with animals from the exotic ports they visited. It is believed George Wombwell started his menagerie with two snakes bought from a sailor at the Port of London.

There is an interesting advert in the Bristol Mercury and Universal Advertiser from September 1807:

Extraordinary Reptiles
Amongst the Number of Natural Curiosities arrived in this City, there seems none to equal or rival the Two wonderful Siboya Serpents. Those Ladies and Gentlemen who have already seen these extraordinary Reptiles, are so highly gratified with the sight of them, that the Proprietor flatters himself, from their high Recommendation that all ranks of people will gratify their curiosity, as they are undoubtedly the only ones of the Kind ever exhibited in the kingdom alive. To be seen at a commodious room at the White Swan, St. James’s Back. N.B. The Proprietor gives the utmost value for Foreign Birds and curious animals.

As the trade in exotic animals developed they were stocked in dealers’ yards forming the basis for permanent animal exhibitions in zoological gardens. The exhibition of new and bizarre animals was seen as both entertaining and educational. Scientists and naturalists found that observing live animals was a much better way to classify the variety in the natural world than studying long-dead and stuffed specimens. This gave impetus and respectability to the menageries.

The exhibition practices of the menageries changed over time, as the population grew more accustomed to the species on display, a variety of extraordinary gimmicks and tricks were required to draw the crowds. Entertainments such as the following were reported in the Clifton Chronicle and Directory of 3-6-1868:

Musical Prodigy
Of all Modern Prodigies certainly the most prodigious is the Royal Modern Musical Elephant at Wombwell’s which plays several popular airs and polkas, by Handel, not known to be by that immortal composer, a fact which beats “Creation” or any other Oratorio – or Menagerie.

By 1850 the travelling menageries, with their big cats, trumpet-playing elephants, dancing stallions and boxing kangaroos, were amalgamating with acrobats, strong men, bearded ladies and clowns from fairground sideshows. They formed the big top circuses such as Astley’s Amphitheatre in England, Barnam & Bailey in the United States and Ashton’s Circus in Australia which began in Tasmania in 1847.

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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.  Rachel Hassall, Archivist, Sherborne School Archives. Transcript of travelling menageries is taken from The University of Sheffield’s National Fairground Archive website. The nineteenth century animal illustrations are from Designs of Nature, Pepin Press, 1997.

You may also like to read:

two penny worth of arsenic

the runaway apprentice

the chemist shop that time forgot

susanah’s journal – 51 leeches

From the journal of Miss Susanah Wellington (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somersetshire.

After my return from Weymouth I spent a month at Stalbridge with Sarah & Mrs White and a few days at Marnhull which I enjoyed very much. Soon after my return I had another severe attack though not so violent as my last illness. I was again obliged to apply leeches to my chest which amounted to 51 from the 5th of May 1836 but I am thankful to God I am now much better though still not very strong.

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Susanah spent a month visiting with her recently married half-sister Sarah. She and her husband James DAVIS lived in the small market town of Stalbridge, Dorset, situated about 20 km east of Yeovil. The marriage notice for the newly-weds confirms that James DAVIS was in the same profession as his father-in-law George WELLINGTON.

Davis-Wellington marriage notice in the Bristol Mercury, Saturday 16 January 1836

I have no clues in my research as to who Mrs WHITE was. She was most likely a family friend or a relative of James DAVIS. The journal’s chronology suggests Susanah spent July 1836 in Stalbridge and Marnhill.

When she returned home to Yeovil her health deteriorated and she had another bad attack of pulmonary tuberculosis. The doctor was consulted and, unfortunately for Susanah, the treatment he prescribed so ease her fever and chest congestion was bleeding with leeches.

The use of leeches in medicine exploded during the mid-1800’s. There was such a high demand for Hirudo medicinalis, that its population in the wild was almost wiped out in England and Europe. Physicians would prescribe the leeches for all types of illnesses – everything from headaches to pneumonia and even anaemia. The blood-suckers were prescribed so often by physicians, that doctors were actually referred to as “leeches”.

In an article Breathing a Vein published in November 2011 on www.phisick.com, Dr Laurie Slater writes:

The bleeding of patients, practised since Babylonian times probably represents the most widespread application of ‘quackery’ in the history of medicine. The complexity of humoral theory was such that doctors could promote their own rationale for bleeding in almost any circumstances.

Poor Susanah suffered a life-threatening lung and chest infection as well as having her life-blood drained from her every few weeks. 51 leeches within three and a half months – is it any wonder she was not feeling very strong? Susanah celebrated her 17th birthday on the 20th August 1836, I hope she was well enough to enjoy herself with family and friends.

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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. Medical antiques and historical information courtesy of www.phisick.com.

Related Posts:

1. susanah’s journal – eclipse of the sun

2. susanah’s journal – weymouth 1836

3. george wellington’s letters

4. diseases and remedies of the 1800s

 

local children awarded for bravery – 1923

Certificate of Merit awarded to James Gascoigne in 1923 by the Royal Shipwreck Relief & Humane Society.

Tragedy struck the Tuggerah Lakes community on 6th November, 1922 when Ethel MASCORD drowned whilst swimming in Tuggerah Lake at Pipeclay Point. It could have been far worse if not for the efforts of James GASCOIGNE and Edna CRAIGIE who saved the lives of several other children, all pupils at Kanwal Public School. The following year they received an award from the Royal Shipwreck Relief & Humane Society of NSW.

An extract from a 1923 newspaper reads:

Edna M. Craigie (aged 11 years), Dair James Gascoigne (aged 13 years), on the 6th November, 1922, saved the lives of several children who were carried out whilst bathing at Tuggerah Lakes. A party of children, including the rescuers, named Maisie Beldon, Gwen Gascoigne, Beryl Aylward, Edna Playford, Bonnie Craigie, Connie Beldon, Max Playford and Ethel Mascord, were bathing on a shallow flat when a heavy wave washed them into deep water. Edna Craigie, assisted by James Gascoigne, rescued Gwen Gascoigne, sister of the latter. Edna Craigie and James Gascoigne again dived to the assistance of the others and were successful in bringing them all to the shore. In the case of Ethel Mascord, however, who was unconscience when rescued, all efforts to restore her failed.

Edna M. Craigie, aged 11 years

Mr. W. E. Kirkness, J.P., Coroner, Gosford, at the magisterial inquiry held by him as to the cause of death of Ethel Mascord, added the following rider to his finding:

“I wish to place on record the meritorious conduct of the two children James Gascoigne, aged 13 years, and Edna Craigie, aged 11 years, both of whom repeatedly dived into deep water and rescued four girls from a very perilous position. They showed great bravery, and deserve the thanks of the community.”

Royal Shipwreck Relief & Humane Society Silver Medal

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Sources: TROVE; NSW Births, Deaths and Marriages; Play the Game – The History of Kanwal Public School by Greg Tunn, 2011; Dair James Gascoigne’s certificate donated to Wyong District Museum & Historical Society.

 

susanah’s journal – weymouth 1836

From the journal of Miss Susanah Wellington (1819-1838) of Yeovil, Somersetshire.

The summer of 1836 we all went to Weymouth. Papa took Mr Welsfords house on Green Hill. I enjoyed myself pretty well considering I could not walk out but was obliged to submit to be drawn in a wheel chair.

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Susanah fell very ill in May of 1836 [read about it here] and, to aid her recovery, her father George WELLINGTON took the family to the seaside in Dorset for the summer.

Map of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis (c1830) R. Creighton.

The harbour towns of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis became popular after 1789 when King George III was advised to “take the waters” to help with his medical conditions. George III visited the area regularly over the next fifteen years, even taking a dip in the sea in one of the first bathing machines. With his patronage, the King changed the fortune of Weymouth, and many of the buildings along the seafront were built during his reign. When the King went on vacation the court came as well, and of course the newspapers reported the event. Weymouth became ‘the place to be’ in the summer.

Weymouth print circa 1870 [www.dorsetshire.com]

By 1836 royal patronage of Weymouth had wained and the town become a holiday destination the middle class could afford. The Wellington family rented a house at the east end of Weymouth Bay on Green Hill. I’m sure Susanah and her sisters enjoyed social events and shopping with friends, as well as taking strolls along the esplanade and meeting new acquaintances.

Invalid wheelchairs from the 1800s. [image reblogged from http://www.biomedicalephemera.tumblr.com]

Poor Susanah was still too weak to walk distances and had to submit to travelling about in a wheelchair. I hope the fresh air and good company improved her health. The English summer lasts four months in theory, but that doesn’t reflect the true number of clear and sunny days to be had in that season. I wonder how long the family stayed in Weymouth? Maybe just for the month of June?

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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; www.dorsetshire.com; www.biomedicalephemera.tumblr.com

letters in jane austen’s novels

I hope my ancestors, Susanah and Jane WELLINGTON, were as fond of the novels of Jane AUSTEN as I am. Letters and letter writing play a vital role in the plots of all of Jane Austen’s works. Letters are keystones in the plots of Emma, Northanger Abbey as well as Mansfield Park.

Mr Darcy writes a letter to his sister on a small portable desk. Still from Pride and Prejudice (2005) starring Matthew Macfadyen and Keira Knightley.

Pride and Prejudice includes a letter from Darcy to his sister Georgiana; the pivotal letter from Darcy to Elizabeth; the pompous letters from Mr Collins; and of course the poorly addressed letters from Jane to Elizabeth informing her Lydia has gone off with Mr Wickham.

Catherine Moorland writes a difficult letter to Eleanor Tilney. Northanger Abbey (2007) starring Felicity Jones.

In Sense and Sensibility the lovelorn Marianne Dashwood sends letters to the fickle Mr Willoughby without a reply. When he finally does write to her, his manner is cold and hurtful as he delivers the news of his engagement to Miss Gray. Colonel Brandon also receives an important letter as the group of friends is setting out on an excursion and he leaves immediately without an explanation.

I think my favourite letter of all is from Persuasion, where Captain Wentworth writes to Anne Eliot while she is in the same room speaking with his friend Captain Harville on the constancy of hearts and natures of women and men who have truly loved.

“I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago.” Captain Frederick Wentworth writes his love letter to Anne Eliot in a scene from the BBC teleseries of Persuasion (1995) starring Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root.

These sorts of letters definitely need a suitable writing desk complete with paper, quill and ink-well. This post at Jane Austen Today gives a good account on how letters were written, sealed and delivered. If you would like a more detailed account of the importance of letters in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, you can read the Jane Austen’s World blog.

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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. Jane Austen Today, Jane Austen’s World.