Every cloud has one they say. Following the “demo” on 18th August my granddaughter and I went to the meeting at The Pilgrim. En route I met Heidi of Milbanke Close, with her children. She is one of the organisers and I thanked her and promised support to Protect Brislington’s Green Spaces.  At the pub we signed the petitions. Not that petitions do much good from my experience of working for a Member of Parliament.

The Pilgrim has Pillinger connections – the widowed Maria Pillinger (her husband was accidentally killed on Brislington Hill) was landlady there in the middle of the 19th century.

In the pub, I struck up a conversation with a kindred spirit, Jill Jacobs. Much to my surprise, after such a brief acquaintance, Jill thrust a sheaf of old photos into my hand and said she would trust them with me, until we should meet again.  I must have an honest face.

The photos were of the Burt family who lived in Brislington at the turn of the 20th century. I scanned the photos – see below. The family groups, Bob & Agnes Burt and their children were dated 1914 and 1905, making them ideal for census investigation.

In 1911, the family is listed as follows:

Robert Burt, head, married 36, bricklayer, born Bristol

Agnes Burt, wife, 37, born Wellington, Somerset, and their children:

Elsie, 14, scholar, born Taunton, Clifford, 13, scholar, born Taunton, Hilda, 11, scholar, born Taunton, Gladys, 10, scholar, born Bristol and Ivy, 8, born Bristol.

And here’s the surprise. They were living at Nelson’s Glory, Brislington. So what, you may say. Readers of The History of the Pillinger Family, Part 2, will know that Nelson’s Glory, in the 1820s was the abode of Henry Pillinger and his family! Synchronicity, or what?

So there we have Maria, the landlady of the Pilgrim and Henry at Nelson’s Glory, not to forget Julia from Bath in a previous post, I can’t help thinking that they’re all upstairs holding a Pillinger symposium to which they are trying to invite me. Not yet, I earnestly hope.

The following are the photographs of the Burt family:

In 1905: Mother : Agnes Burt. Father: Bob Burt

children from left to right Hilda, Ivy, Elsie, Gladys, Clifford.

 

In September, 1914:

Mother: Agnes Burt; Father Bob Burt and in between, Lena, the latest arrival.

adult children, from left to right: Hilda, Elsie, Cliff, Gladys, Ivy

Gladys Burt in 1922, with unnamed boy friend at Poplar House, School Road,  Brislington.

Bob Burt, 1935 at Poplar House.

Agnes Burt, with “Bob” – a grandson? and John Evans also at Poplar House

Agnes & the family dog, what a shame we don’t know its name.

Robert Burt married Agnes Thorne in 1897 at Wellington and by 1901 they were living at 34 Sandgate Road, Brislington. As a bricklayer, perhaps Bob had a hand in the building of these new houses. It must have been a recent move for as we have seen their children, aged 3, 2 & 1, Elsie, Clifford and Hilda, had all been born in Taunton.

In 1891 Robert, then about 14, was living at Road, Stoke St Mary, Taunton with his elder brother Albert (18) and widowed mother Sarah, aged 44. Though the two boys had been born in Bristol, Sarah’s birthplace was Old Cleeve in Somerset. Robert and Albert were the sons of Sarah’s marriage to Robert Burt and she had a previous son, William Tarr, born 1863.  Robert senior died in 1876, the same year that his son and namesake was born.  In 1881, Sarah, then 36, was living at 14 Kenilworth Terrace, St Philips, and working as a charwoman. Two of her sons were with her, William Tarr, aged 18, (a porter in a printing office who was born at Washford in Somerset) and young Robert, a scholar of five. Brother Albert, aged seven was staying at the time of the census with his paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Burt, aged 60, a widow, who was farming at Thurlbear in Somerset, assisted by her son, Andrew Burt.

In 1871, young William Tarr, aged seven, was a boarder at a house at St Decumans, Highbridge, belonging to a Sarah Sully, aged 68. Among other boarders was a John Burt, a freestone sawyer, born Montacute, but without further research I cannot say whether John Burt and Robert Burt senior were related or if this was simply coincidence.  Meanwhile, Robert, senior, 21, was living on his father’s farm, Netherclay, Thurlbear with six brothers and sisters. His father, Worthy Burt, born about 1823 married Mary Ann Williams at Taunton in 1847. Her father, Robert Williams, an “Ag lab” born 1789 was living with the family in 1871.  I have yet to establish with any certainty the whereabouts of Sarah Burt, formerly Tarr in 1871.  

In order to find more about Agnes Thorne, I would need her marriage certificate to discover her father’s name. So far, census searches have proved inconclusive.

Mary Dafter was employed by the Newtons of Barrs Court (who were rarely at home) as their steward – remarkable in itself for the time – and wrote to her master or mistress on a weekly basis for ten years between 1713 and 1723 with the nitty gritty business details of the workings of a large estate. Mary’s letters are preserved at the Gloucester Record Office and a transcription came into my possession following the untimely death of Mollie Ashley of the Kingswood Local History Society. This correspondence is a story in itself, but during a period when Mary was at her wit’s end, she unburdened herself to her employers with the personal details of her life. What they thought is not preserved. The family background is as follows:

Thomas Dafter, a yeoman of "Wollen" (i.e. Oldland in the parish of Bitton) in Gloucestershire, took out a marriage licence on 8th November 1684 to marry Mary Pollen, of St Augustine’s, Bristol. (The groom's parish is given as "Woolastone?, Glos" in the published version of Bristol Marriage Licence Bonds, which is incorrect.) The marriage was to be in the bride's parish church.

Their sons John, William and Thomas were born during the next few years and Mary Pollen must have died sometime in 1690 or early 1691 for Thomas senior obtained a licence on 30th May 1691 to take a second wife, Mary Davis, again of St Augustine's parish. Mary Davis would become the Mary Dafter of the letters. The bondsman to the licence was Richard Davies, of Bitton, clothier, who made his mark on the document. This Richard Davies or Davis was the father of the bride.

Thomas and Mary II had two children, Mary, baptised on 17th April 1692 who grew up to marry Joseph Long, Richard, born ca 1701 and Sarah.

Thomas Dafter of Barr’s Court made his will in 1713 leaving his “dear wife” his goods and estate with instructions to bring up their daughter Sarah until she was 21 or married whichever was first and after his wife’s  decease the estate was to go to his son Richard.  His daughter Mary Long was to receive £50, as was Sarah when she became 21. The bequests to the elder sons were £20 to John, a token sum of twenty shillings to William (he was to be let off his debt of £25 which he had borrowed from his father the year before ) and £20 to Thomas.

Thomas Dafter senior duly died and Mary took over his business as steward at Barr’s Court.

HER GREAT TROUBLE began on 17th December 1720, when she wrote:

"It is a very sickly time here. I thank God that I and my family is all pretty well at present. Mr Liddiart is dead this week; he was sick about a fortnight and some days was taken with shivering fits and vomiting."

On 19th April 1721, she apologised for not writing sooner, as "my father have been very ill and I was in great fear I should have lost him, but now I thank God he is able to ride out again." Richard Davis, though now a very old man, (he had been born about the year 1638) was obviously a great support to Mary.

On 10^th June she reported the death of a Mrs Warner (or Wornell), and said three heriots were due, but she had so far failed to collect them……and then the bombshell drops: "I should have gone before this, but she is next neighbour to Mrs Liddiart and she and I are now at a great dispute for my son courts her, or else she courts him. I have got very good gentlemen to try and break it, but I find it has gone too far before I knowed of it. My greatest reason that I upgate (sic) against it is the disagreeable (sic) of age for she is now 43 years and he is going in 21 years. I thank God he have a very good character and be need not to (have) wanted a wife according to his age but what God have ordered it shall be whether for a cross or comfort. She is counted a very sharp, sensible woman, but I think comes short in this."

On 26th July, Mary had been busy with the hay harvest, made more difficult owing to "my son being from me about this intended disagreeable matter." The happy couple had apparently asked her to baby-sit whilst they got married, for she notes crossly "Liddiard's son have had the small pox so that I could not suffer him to come to me in the house on my account and some of the servants, but now the child is well."

Richard Dafter, described "yeoman of Bitton", duly took out a licence in Bristol, to marry Martha Lydiard, of St Philip & St Jacob, Bristol, with his half brother John, a cooper of St Peter's, as bondsman, (and more of him later). The happy couple were married at St Augustine’s which seems to have been the family’s favourite church on 12th September 1721.

October 14^th, and Richard Davis was ill again: "I must beg your pardon for not writing sooner but my father have been very ill this 6 weeks but I thank God he is got up again, though very weak, but I am glad to keep him (even) if it is in his chair."

On December 2nd, she appended a postscript, (with which most of us who have children can readily identify): "I beg the favour to let one of your servants write a line to Frances Lewton which is Madam Archer's under cook’s-maid, and to tell her that her mother takes it very undutiful that she have never sent to her since she have been gone."  I hope the wretched Frances responded and put her mother’s mind at rest.

Mary makes no mention of the fact that Richard and Mrs Lydiard were now married though she refers to her son riding out on her behalf, so she had decided to grin and bear it. In April 1722, Richard engages with Squire Trye, the local Justice of the Peace, to prosecute a gang of robbers who among other depredations in the district had stripped the lead from the roof at Barr's Court, and stolen several horses from Mary herself. She names three men, King, Kanton & Harvor and says briskly that they were hanged but another called, Fortis and two women were transported. Although Fortis was condemned with the rest, she says he, "met a great friend in Squire Trye and in my son", and they spoke up for him. "His mother was a cook to my old master many years and is now very sensible among her neighbours when they be sick and no-one can accuse her of anything of these crimes, so her son have friends for her sake."

In this month too, Mary gets handed a parish orphan, one of a family of four, "from poor honest parents. The grandmother was my lady's washerwoman….I desire to know whether I shall take to him. It is a sprake (sprack) boy, but he is but small. Mr Merredith have gave him some clothes once, but that is gone and he is all in lice and rags."

By January 15^th 1723, Mary wanted to discuss personal business with Sir John Newton, even suggesting a visit to London, but he vetoed the idea. She wrote "As for my coming up to London, I should have been very glad if you would have admitted me to come; the reason is my son was of age the 12^th February last and he was left joint executor with me and is willing to have something from me and would willingly come to Barr's Court to take to the business if your Honor please, which I am very willing and nothing shall be wanting in me to assist him, provided we can agree on terms and we have a discharge from him, which I have no friend but your Honor to advise me, because I am not willing anyone should know my circumstances." These were not in a very good state, for she goes on, "My son do not know how things lie and I am not willing his wife shall know nothing of it. I have praised my stock and do find myself near the same as when my husband died. It would have been better but everything runs very low with renters. This five or six years have had bad crops and this year have lost by sheep near £40 by a bane which was general with us."

February 17^th 1723

"….as for my son coming to Barr's Court to assist me, he is very compliable to do what your Honor and I shall desire. I do want him very much, my father being ancient and cannot ride out as he did, and though he (the son) is young he understands the business very well and he never was undutiful till this unfortunate match."

November 11^th 1723

"I am still in a great deal of trouble. My son have been very ill and he and I have not put things right between us relating to his father's will. We had deferred ourselves to Squire Trye to end all disputes between but he is much biased by a wife and she have had an own councillor and I feel she will not let him agree to it. I fear that my family and myself will be ruined……there are a great many loopholes for trouble…I must rely on your Honor to advise me. I have no other friend in the world…".

January 8^th 1724

"My father is taken very ill that I have been up with him all night and day. My daughter have lay in and been very bad. I feared I should have lost them both but thank God both is better but very weak still."

February 26^th 1724

"I am ill with a swelling in my face occasioned by a cold, unable to hold up to do business."

April 19^th 1724

"Very ill again this month, and more like an ague and fever, but now this week, I thank God, much better."

July 25^th 1724

"My son and I not agreed as yet. Once more proposed to put it into Squire Trye's hands. It is agreed to be done soon after the fair if his wife do not alter her mind."

October 7^th 1724

"My son & I have not agreed and I am afraid never shall, for through a wicked instrument he proposeth unreasonable."

November 4^th 1724

"My son is very bad and like to die and my friend Squire Trye is once more a trying to make up our business which is the greatest trouble I ever knew and I think my son have laid to heart what he have done, but still being biased by a wife he do not consent yet to reasonable terms."

November 18^th 1724

"My dear son is dead the 12^th of this instant and I cannot express my trouble, but I desire I must go to him, for he cannot return to me. As soon as I compose myself, I shall go on with my accounts. I cannot tell you how his wife will deal with me which is a trouble because we had not agreed before his death."

(Richard Dafter was buried at Bitton, November 15^th 1724.)

November 30^th 1724

"Squire Edwards & Mr Offield both in London and I am waiting to have them advise me on my husband's will to know what was my son's right and where there is not the survivorship belonging to me by reason there has been no contract between us since he was of age. My son have made a will and made his wife executrix so she is very urgent to know his right so she is best to administer for she have been and is still to get what she could from me."

And now, there was even more trouble for Mary's stepson was in prison for debt.

"John Dafter my son in law, severely used by his creditors and no-one can say but that he is an honest man, and have a good trade as a cooper, free of Bristol, but having the misfortune that belongs to our family. Not having a good wife to manage what he gets to the right use occasions this confinement. The debt is but £10 but they have proceeded in law in his absence at sea, and it is amounted to £25. I have employed Mr Edward his clerk to see if he can bring it to some compassion."

December 16^th 1724

Opinions of legal men were sought about Mary's dispute with her daughter in law, but Mary thinks "…the case is back on my side. I do know he have had from me more than his right but I have nought to show for all he have had…. my son's widow is not respected by poor nor rich for her ruining such a boy and she have brought the debts that was with Will Liddiard's (her previous husband) that she created to be my son's now, so I fear it will be very hard on us, but I shall trust in God in the midst of my trouble will remember poor Mary and deliver me out of the Lion's Mouth".

December 19^th 1724

"As to my son in law John Dafter, he is still soliciting me to work for his redemption. I have employed Mr Edward, his clerk and he have brought the whole debt and law suit that amounted to £28 and his creditor now being in want and is in confinement in the goal (sic) with him (!) Now he will take £14 and £4 is due for his fees and debts in the prison, so £18 the whole to clear him out. I have been helpful to my husband's former children according to my ability and to do more is to give that as is not mine. Their father was a good husband to me and I cannot say that his former children was but very respectful to me, so was I of ability, I would soon have him out, but my troubles is now so great."

January 20^th 1725

As relating to my son-in-law in prison, I have offered two months ago £10 to release him, but they will not take under £14, besides his (keep?) in the prison. I am informed there is an Act of Grace that will come out for debtors in a little time, but that was in Midsummer last. The keeper have offered to take his note for his debtor which makes it. I desire your Honor's advice in this. "

(Nothing further is heard about John Dafter. I am somehow doubtful that Sir John put his hand in his pocket.)

March 13^th 1725

I am to wait on Squire Edward on Monday next about the Bond of Ward between my son's widow and me and I hope he will end it."

April 14^th 1725

But the meeting was postponed … (as legal proceedings always are)… "Squire Edward have sent for me this day and I am now going to wait on him to see to the bond that is between my son's widdow and me to be ended by the 1^st day of May next. Her lawyer have been out of town and would do nothing on it."

April 24^th 1725.

Squire Edward tells Mary her troublesome business is not ended, "they brought it to the threshold of the door and then stumbled". (again, Plus ca change)

May 26th 1725

"Squire Edward have not ended my troublesome business as yet."

June 23^rd 1725

"My dear father I have lost this last Sunday which was aged 87 years, had but 3 days sickness, the tenderest father that ever child had, and as good a Christian, in that I do comfort myself that he have reaped what he have sowed from his youth."

August 16th 1725

"Squire Edward is very sensible on the account he have to make up with my son's widow, that he have hurted me very much and this last 3 years have been so dry that it have pulled me back. I have a good stock of old wheat which will now bear 5s 6d - 6s a bushel which I will make out and other money I expect to raise and as fast as possible will pay it in. I have always ate the bread of carefulness."

September 13^th 1725

"….I am mighty busy it being a catchly time and likewise with my son's widow, she now threatens me that she will come to your Honor to inform you of all the affairs and then she will prefer her bill and swear herself not to be worth £5, and to have her law for nothing, suing under the King. I hope God will in his good time deliver me out of her hands, is my daily prayers."

October 20^th 1725

"I have been very ill with a pain in my side. My adversary threatens me with a bill in Chancery. I sent to Squire Edward and told him my circumstances that I had no money and he professed himself extremely kind. He said that it had not cost me much and it should not, for he will take care of it to my satisfaction."

December 1^st 1725

"I have paid in to Squire Edward the 30^th November £50, and I hope to pay in next week £100 more, for I am making out of old wheat and other stock to raise money. I am to wait on Squire Edward on Saturday to give him the best account I can relative to my encumbrances which it would not have been so with me had I not had three bad years together and likewise an undutiful child in my son being biast by a wife which hath hurted me very much."

April 9^th 1726

"My daughter is a widow and liveth with me and is my right hand to assist me, which was the same when her father was living, being brought up to keep the markets, which I hope your Honor will not dislike of, for she is a careful industrious woman which is a great comfort to me being left a widow so young."

(Mary Long had four children, a daughter of 11, and sons of 9, 6 and 2. The nine-year-old had been taken "at reasonable rates by the week to give him learning" by a Minister in Bristol, and he came home every Saturday. The baby had been ill, with what was thought to be small pox, but turned out to be measles. On April 23rd, he was still "very weakly, and I question his life for a fever attend him every day".)

Things went from bad to worse. Mary was on the verge of a breakdown. On August 13^th 1726, she wrote a begging letter to Sir John:

"Hon'd Sir

I waited on Squire Edward yesterday when he gave me an account of your Honor's orders which is such a trouble to me. I humbly beg of your Honor that you would not expose my trouble to the world and that you would be pleased with the bowels of compassion to look on the widows and fatherless children and you let me continue to be your steward, if not to be a tenant which have been always just and will to the end. I always depended that your Honor would let me continue in it in my lifetime and at my death which cannot be too long in this trouble, my daughter shall be bound to see to everything……and I shall make her sensible of all your business that you may not lose none of your of your rights, for she is an honest careful woman and no-one will say other, but my adversary which have been my great ruin. If your Honor is not pleased that she shall stay with me, she will go back into Bristol or some other place as soon as she can get a convenient place which I thought should not have parted from me but death. I always comforted myself in all my troubles of your kind letter at my husband's death. I cannot tell what to say more, but that my husband often said in a bad year that he had a good master and when you went from Barr's Court that you left a charge to him to be just and his answer was that he would be as true as your own heart to you, and that he did believe that your Honor would never let him want, nor his, which I have and shall be the same, if may be permitted, and if I perish it shall be at your Honor's feet, is all from your almost broken hearted and dutiful servant to death, Mary Dafter. "

On the same date , Mary wrote to Lady Newton, begging her to intercede, to let her and her daughter try for one more year: "parting from my daughter is tearing one limb from the other…..I am almost at my wits end."

In the event she was relieved of her post, but seems to have been compensated in some way, for she writes thanking Sir John for his goodness, and "that I shall always walk worthy of so great a favour. I agree with your Honor that it is not proper for me to continue on the farm, being but a woman and I had never attempted so great affairs had it not been for your goodness to entrust me with your stock, and was persuaded to it for the good of my son, which now he and his wife have been my ruin. I shall conform to your Honor's command and what Squire Edward would have me do in everything and shall always be ready to serve your Honor's interest what lieth in me even if it was to lay down my life."

And then as usual, she goes back to business, She has sent a box to London, carriage paid to be picked up in Piccadilly. Good news that the level where Mr Good and Squire Player have been prospecting for coal is blown up (!) and that the tenant Nicholls, is coming in the middle of the month to have his lease made. At which she finishes as always, "with my hearty prayers for your Honor's health and my good Lady's, I am your dutiful servant to command, Mary Dafter.

The family gravestone in Bitton churchyard reads: Thomas, son of Joseph & Mary Long, and grandson of Thomas & Mary Dafter, died 7.2.1761 aged 41, Mary Bartlett, daughter of Joseph & Mary Long, died 15.10.1760 aged 46, Richard Davis of Oldland, died 29.6.1725 aged 85, Sarah, wife of Richard, died 6.6.1671, Eleanor wife of said Richard Davis, d. 12.5.1696.

Mary’s younger daughter Sarah evidently did not live to be twenty one. If there were memorial stones to Richard and Martha Dafter, Joseph and Mary Long, to Thomas Dafter and either of his two Marys, they did not survive.

Mary Dafter of Barr’s Court made her will on the 5th April 1730 leaving her granddaughter Mary Long (Mary Bartlett, above) a “silver caudle cupp which cup holds about three pints and is markt with three letters, T. D. & C. also the silver cover thereto belonging” and several pieces of land in Bitton when she reached the age of twenty one. All the rest and residue of real and personal estate was left to her daughter, Mary Long, widow and relict of Joseph Long, of Bristol, mariner and also to be executrix.  Mary Dafter died in 1734 and Mary Long proved the will on 15th July that year.  The will may be found at Gloucester Record Office under reference D2957/47/5.

Of Mary’s bitter adversity, her son’s widow, Martha Dafter, I have no further information.

The Mansion at Barr’s Court was burnt down in a later era and all that remains is the moat. http://moat1.homestead.com/homepage.html

Priscilla Lydia Sellon, 1821-76, was a Anglican nun who played a part in the English Catholic Revivalist movement of the 19th century and founded an Order called the Sisters of Mercy. Devoutly religious, she had intended going abroad as a missionary but instead was “called” to work amongst the poor naval families at Devonport, being particularly active during the cholera year of 1849. She was suspected of being a convert to Rome which aroused much controversy, even bigotry. It was stated with ill-concealed satisfaction that a mob had pelted her house in Plymouth, threatening to raze it to the ground. It appears however that male churchmen, who never went into the slums themselves were active in stirring up such events. Rev Hobart Seymour denounced Miss Sellon from the pulpit in Bath, calling her “unladylike” “a petty despot” and likened her to a crafty old owl who caught her Sisters “poor little mice” in her claws. Another clergyman said “God forbid we stop the flow of Christian Charity but we much protest against the system of drawing young ladies from their homes.” As well as feeling threatened by Miss Sellon’s alleged Roman Catholicism it appears to me that newspapermen and clerics alike were even more outraged because she was a woman.

The papers were delighted when things went wrong, as when a Miss Bowring “daughter of Dr Bowring, now in China” had left the Order and returned to her mother in Exeter. It was said she had “been unhappy in the home of her adoption and is now seriously ill.”

Miss Sellon opened several houses in Bristol, at 7 Park Row (unlisted in 1851) and 14 College Green (lodging houses in 1851) when an Irish woman, Catherine Callahan, a Roman Catholic, who seems to have been taken on as a maid of all work described at length and in lurid detail, certain practices supposed to prove that the “Lady Superior” now adhered to Rome but the “evidence” becomes somewhat suspect when it later transpired that Callahan was suing the Sisters for wages which she said were owed to her. A court at Stroud awarded her £1. 5 shillings, which the Sisters appealed, saying she was and always had been aware that they did not pay wages!

In July 1854, the Bristol Mercury reported pompously “Miss Sellon, whose migrations from house to house in Bristol have been so exceedingly numerous that she must have over and over again experienced the truth of the adage that ‘two removes are as bad as one fire’ has made another change of residence and taken the large house in The Fort on St Michael’s Hill which has long been untenanted.”

For the decade 1850-60, Miss Sellon was a celebrity, as well known as Florence Nightingale. She declined to go to the Crimea with Miss Nightingale as she felt to do so might lead to a division of authority, however, the party which left for the war in October 1854 included “a number of recruits from Miss Sellon’s establishment”. 

After 1856 when there was another reported move to The Priory in Bath, Miss Sellon dropped out of the limelight.  It was said that her experiences during the cholera epidemic of 1849 had weakened her and subsequently she could only sit for short periods at a time. She often took her meals in a reclining position, eventually becoming paralytic. It is not possible to say whether this affliction was hysterical but it does seem to compare with the experience of other Victorian lady “invalids” like Harriet Martineau and   Florence Nightingale herself. Miss Sellon died at Malvern in 1876 aged 55.

Miss Sellon should have made appearances in the censuses 1841-71 but I have failed to find her. Her father, William R.B. Sellon, a retired Commander RN and a Magistrate who had changed his name from Smith because of an inheritance can be found under neither name in 1841. In 1851 he was at Gravesend, Kent, aged  60, with his second wife Martha, 43, children Anna, 33, Frederick, 16. John, 14, Gertrude, 8, Elizabeth, 7 and Melville, 4. Another daughter, Caroline aged 10, was living at the Orphans’ Home, Wyndham Place, Plymouth where Catherine Chambers, an associate of Miss Sellon was Matron. Despite her tender years, Caroline is tellingly described “Sister”. Of Miss Sellon herself, there is no sign. It seems she was determined not to be counted. The Plymouth Journal describes the woes of the enumerator who called at her establishment and was greeted by a nun, all in black, who told him Miss Sellon was away and had taken the papers with her. He called again with two forms to be completed but the same nun again refused, “determined to brave the law rather than disclose the secrets of the prison house”, he added, “there is a great mystery as to who is who in the Eldad Nunnery.”

I had not heard of Miss Sellon before I discovered that she had considered taking a house in Brislington which is one of my principal local interests. Nothing seems to have come of it, but I cannot but wonder if it was the forerunner of the Convent at Arno’s Court which became a reformatory for Catholic girls in the late Victorian era.   I think that Miss Sellon, despite the topic being unfashionable nowadays would make a good subject for someone’s dissertation!

The recent funeral of Harry Patch, "the last fighting Tommy" of the First World War, prompted me to look again my uncle's war records which I obtained a few years ago from the National Archives at Kew.
He was Private Thomas Unsworth of the Middlesex Regiment and unlike Harry, who was a very young man when he joined the Army, Uncle Tom was already thirty three years old when he was called up.
He was a Londoner, and served with the Middlesex Regiment as part of the British Expeditionary Force 11th October 1916 to 17th November 1917. These dates include the time his Regiment spent at Ypres, and thus, like Harry, my uncle was at Passchendale. He rarely spoke of the war, though I do recall the expression "ock-eyed in mud", (e.g. hock high!).
He was eventually invalided home with bronchitis - presumably from being weighed down with the heavy khaki uniform and wet through for days on end. This probably saved his life for he lived well into his eighties. He finished his war service with the Suffolks, for men were often transferred to other regiments to fill the gaps left by the dead. One of the few things I know is that at some time he had been an officer's batman.
Unfortunately he died more than 40 years ago when family history was only in my head as an idea because my time was taken up with my first baby. I guess I thought he'd be around forever. If only I had asked - even the name of his officer - I would have had a starting point. Take this as a lesson. Most people will demand "How far have you traced back?" And it's always good to boast. But it's far more important to ask those alive now about their lives. The official records will still be there long after individuals are gone.
Even so, the records often give up previously overlooked secrets. Today, as I was glancing through his papers again, I noticed something I had not spotted before. At his attestation Uncle Tom was asked "Have you ever served in any branch of his Majesty's forces, naval or military?" He had replied "Yes". Well, well. I never knew that. Surely he had not joined up for the Boer War? It just shows there is always another trail to follow.

Flying saucers have landed..........?

He lives in a niche in Crail churchyard. Did he come from outer space? What do you think?

This is the Dead House at Crail: the caption reads "Erected for securing the dead MDCCCXVI" i.e.1816. It was used to keep bodies safe from professional "Resurrectionists" who supplied the brisk demand for corpses for dissection by medical men, no questions asked. Some years later, not far away in Edinburgh, Burke and Hare could not keep up the supply and "cut out the middle man", turning to murder.

"Resurrectionists” generally, but not always, low life, worked under cover of darkness digging up freshly buried bodies. It seems to have been a widespread activity and struck horror into most people at the time. The corpses of executed felons were often handed over to anatomists as in the case of Bristol's John Horwood in 1821.

Young John, only 18, was not only hanged but also anatomised and his skin used to bind a book which was displayed at Ship and White's (booksellers and newsagents) in Kingswood in 1951 as part of a local "Festival of Britain" exhibition. At the age of 14, being of a rather macabre bent, I spent much time gazing at this grisly relic through the shop window. My friend, Eddie White, the son of the business, then half my age, but now almost catching me up, denies all knowledge of the thing. (The book is now held at Bristol Record Office, and have I indented for it? No thanks!)

As to Brislington, St Luke's never aspired to a dead house, but we do boast graves with iron railings to keep out potential robbers and where it would be possible for the bereaved to picnic within the enclosure, as at Crail. On February 1828, two grave robbers were caught in our churchyard and taken in charge before the magistrate. They were revealed as Dr Wallis, founder of a Bristol school of anatomy and Dr Riley, another noted anatomist. They got off lightly: fined six pounds, perhaps because they were "posh". It was reported: “The parties then bowed very respectfully to the worthy magistrate and, wishing his worship a good day, left the house.”

Back to Crail. Having married into the Danelaw, so to speak, I soak up all things Viking. The Danes' Dyke, a bank or wall, about 4 foot high, made of uncemented flat stones, popularly built by Danish invaders, stretches from our holiday cottage at Little Craighead down to the foreshore. At one time it terminated at a rock in the north face of Constantine's Cave.

This is me and our dog Patch at Constantine's Cave where in 874, according to legend, the Scottish King of that name fought and died in battle against - "the Danes" - who had double crossed him in a land deal.

A little farther along where the golf course meets the sea, a widowed French princess, Mary of Guise landed in 1538 - by accident - en route to meet her bridegroom, James V of Scotland. After losing two baby boys in infancy, in December 1542 Mary gave birth to a daughter and in the same week King James died. The baby, six days old, ascended the throne. She was Mary, Queen of Scots.

On 6th June, 2009, I visited Tyntesfield, near Wraxall, www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-tyntesfield with my daughter and three grandsons, the fabulous Boothroyd Boys, aged 3, 2 and five months.

When I visit a place I always like to know a little about the inhabitants and though the history of the Gibbs family en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyntesfield is well documented, I could not resist delving a little for myself.

On the night of 2nd April, 1871 when a census of England and Wales was taken there were two little visitors to Tyntesfield, Cyril Gurney aged 3 and William Hampden Gurney aged one. How appropriate - did they scamper, whoop and career about like our two elder boys? Did our boys' games echo those of the two ghostly boys, near enough to them in age, but separated by 138 years in time? Did they run their nursemaids ragged, romping in the lovely grounds, hiding among the daisies in the meadow or get lost among the rhododendrons and then laugh?

But sadly not. There was no fun in that April of 1871 for Tyntesfield was a house of mourning. The boys' mother, Alice Blanche Gurney, the daughter of William and Matilda Gibbs had died less than three weeks before on 12th March, aged 27.

Listed at the Tyntesfield house on census night were William Gibbs, the guano magnate, aged 80, his wife Matilda, much younger at 53, their son Anthony, Alfred Gurney, their son in law with his two orphaned boys, Miss Low, a cousin and a clergyman. Alfred Gurney had hardly registered the shock of his young wife's death, for he was recorded as "married" rather than "widowed". The family was looked after by twelve servants, starting with a housekeeper and ending with William White, quaintly titled "odd man."

By the time the next census was taken ten years later, Alfred Gurney was the Vicar of St Barnabas, a fashionable parish at St George, Hanover Square, London. He had not remarried and lived at the parsonage with his spinster sister. His two sons now 13 and 11 had been sent away to boarding school, at Mortlake in Surrey.

Cyril grew up, married Margaret Trotter and became a "West Indian Merchant". By 1901 he had his own three children aged 5, 2 and one month old. I have not located William Hampden Gurney in censuses after 1881, but know that he died in 1903, in London, aged 33 years.

By 1891, Anthony Gibbs, now a magistrate, uncle of Cyril and William Gurney, and his wife Janet were living at Tyntesfield. They had nine children at home, from teenagers to two babies, Janet aged three and Lancelot aged one, who must have played in the lovely gardens. Perhaps their Swiss nurserymaid pushed the tiny ones around in the ancient high iron pram we saw amongst the heaps of lumber piled high in the stables awaiting cataloguing and refurbishment.

Incidentally, when doing this small piece of research, I was pleased to see a name I could add to my "Kingswood Index". In 1861 when the Gibbs' family was living at 16 Hyde Park Gardens in London, among the resident servants was Mary Haskins aged 21, born Bitton, Gloucestershire.

I received the following from Bob Lawrence:

As promised, here is some information about the BALLIN family of the Bristol area. I have no personal connection to them - this research started because one of them married a Sargent from Winchelsea in Sussex, and my Sargent ancestors also come from that area. I have not listed all the Ballins I have found, nor all the details, but these can be found on RootsWeb World Connect at http://wc.rootsweb.com.

I have come across a number of other Ballins in the area, but have not been able to link them in with this family. There seem to be a lot of cousin marriages, which makes me think that Isaac Samuel Ballin and his wife Maria Ballin were cousins. Isaac Samuel seems to have been a practicing Jew, and his daughter Ada, who was a well-know author and is listed in the Oxford Dictionary of National biography, also published a Hebrew grammar and won a Hebrew Scholarship at university. Samuel Ballin I, on the other hand, was married and is buried in an Anglican church, and his children were baptised as Church of England. It is perhaps the unusual surname, the choice of first names, and the occupations followed that means one assumes they were Jews.

There is no obvious connection between the Ballins and the Joseph Cohen who committed suicide in the Bridewell, but he was also a Jew who married a Christian. I wonder how common that was, and how it was considered in the Jewish community. Judith Samuel's book on the Jews in Bristol makes great use of the synagogue records, and so concentrates on practicing Jews.

Here are the details:

Isaac Samuel BALLIN

Isaac Samuel Ballin was born in 1811 at Wells, Somerset, England. He was in partnership with Frederick Maggs as a fur manufacturer in 1832 at 26 High Street, Bristol, but this partnership was dissolved in the same year. Between 1833 and 1845, he was a fur manufacturer, wholesale and retail, at 45 Wine Street, Bristol. He married Susanna Ballin, daughter of Samuel Ballin and Elizabeth Whittern, and possibly his cousin, on 25 Sep 1833 at the New Synagogue, Bristol.

From 1836 to 1858, he traded as a fur manufacturer and importer at Wine Street, but also operated at Redcliff Street and Park Street at different times in addition. He is also recorded as a straw bonnet maker and wholesale straw plat dealer. At times, he shared premises with I. Cohen. His wife Susanna died in 1849, and in 1858 Isaac sold his Bristol business to Messrs Lodge & co and he moved with his family to London. He married Annie Moss in 1860 and died on 1st December 1897 in London, having been a furrier and straw hat dealer in Woburn Place and Tavistock Square. His daughter Ada, born 1862, was a well-known author and journalist on health and childcare.

Samuel BALLIN I

Samuel Ballin I was born in 1776, place of birth unknown. He married Elizabeth Whittern, daughter of William Whittern and Elizabeth Shellard on 22 Nov 1813 at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, Somerset, England. They had previously had six children who had been born at Wotton under Edge, but baptised at Hawkesbury, the birthplace of Elizabeth Whittern. Samuel worked as a silversmith at Bradley Street, Wotton under Edge, although his marriage record describes him as an ironmonger. He was declared bankrupt on 27 Feb 1826. He died in 1830 and was buried at St Mary's, Wotton under Edge.

Samuel BALLIN II

Samuel Ballin II was born in 1809 at Wotton under Edge, Gloucestershire, the son of Samuel Ballin I and Elizabeth Whittern, and was baptized on 8 Oct 1809 at St Mary's, Hawkesbury. In 1830, he and his sister Susanna were straw hat makers in Wotton under Edge, but by 1832 he had moved to 2 Old Market Street, Bristol, where he was in the same business with his sister Ann. He married Maria Sargent, daughter of William Sargent and Susannah Whittern, on 1 Dec 1834 at Winchelsea, Sussex. Maria was his cousin, and her father William Sargent was a miller and later Mayor of Winchelsea. In 1836, he was a fur manufacturer at 2 Redcliff Street, Bristol but by 1841 was living at 6, Corridor, Bath, described as a fur manufacturer. He remained there and at 16 Union Street, Bath, until his death on 21 May 1879.

Ann BALLIN

Ann Ballin was born in 1808 at Wotton under Edge, Gloucestershire, the daughter of Samuel Ballin I and Elizabeth Whittern and was baptized on 11 Dec 1808 at St Mary's, Hawkesbury. She was the daughter of Samuel Ballin and Elizabeth Whittern. From 1832, she was in business with her brother Samuel as a straw hat maker in 2 Old Market Street, Bristol. She married Arnold Beeston, son of John Howton Beeston and Alicia on 9 Jun 1835 at Horfield, Bristol, but Arnold died in 1836, and Ann returned to her previous business, moving to 13 Peter Street, Bristol. She married James Thomas in 1842, but was a widow again by 1851.

 

 

Elizabeth BALLIN

 

Elizabeth Ballin was born in 1800 at Wotton under Edge, Gloucestershire, the daughter of Samuel Ballin I and Elizabeth Whittern and was baptized on 23 Mar 1800 at St Mary's, Hawkesbury. She married John Box on 13 Sep 1821 at St Mary's, Wotton under Edge and their first two children - Henry Oborne Box and Mary Box were born at Wotton under Edge. Subsequent children were born at Dursley, where John was in business as a watchmaker. Elizabeth died at Dursley in 1887. Their son Edward married his cousin Susanna Sargent Ballin, daughter of Samuel Ballin II and Maria Sargent, and Edward's sister Frances Anne Box married Robert Ashton Lister, the well-known Dursley industrialist.

 

Joseph COHEN

 

Suicide in the Bridewell. On Wednesday night, Joseph Cohen, a prisoner in the Bridewell, charged upon remand with having a quantity of cloth in his possession, supposed to have been stolen, hung himself in his cell. An inquest was held upon the body on Thursday before the Coroner, J.B.Grindon Esq., and from the evidence adduced it appeared that the deceased had formerly been of the Hebrew persuasion; but having married a Christian, he had not for some years attended upon the religious worship of that people. His business lay a good deal among public-houses, and he was, to some extent, addicted to habits of intemperance; but he was described by his father-in-law and mother-in-law (his wife having been dead some years) as kind and considerate to them, and careful of, and affectionate to, his daughter, a girl of about 15 years old. He was last seen alive at half-past six o'clock, when, in compliance with the rules of the Bridewell, his supper was left with him, and he was locked up for the night. After his cell door was closed, the turnkey on duty in the passage heard him moving about as if walking up and down, but after a time the sounds ceased, and it is supposed that he must then have hanged himself, for on his cell-door being opened at about nine o'clock he was found suspended from one of the bars of his cell-window by a silk handkerchief. His feet were about five inches from the ground, and the handkerchief was so loosely tied that upon the officer lifting the body, he was enabled to remove it without difficulty. Medical assistance was promptly obtained, but the unfortunate man was "beyond the skill of surgery", and had evidently been for some time dead, as his body had begun to stiffen. His supper was untouched. The jury having attentively considered the testimony adduced, returned a verdict that the deceased - who had appeared both frightened and grieved by his detention in prison - "Hanged himself while in a state of temporary insanity."

Bristol Mercury, 22nd March 1851

 

Joseph Cohen married Sarah Totterdown at St Peters on 30th September 1833. Their daughter Elizabeth Mary Cohen was baptised at SS Philip & Jacob on 7th December 1834.

 

1841 Census

Waterloo Place, SS Philip & Jacob, Bristol

Joseph Cohen, 27, Tailor

Sarah Cohen, 24, Tailoress

 

 

Bob Lawrence

I have just completed Part 3 of the Pillinger Family History, 160 A4 pages packed with information. This volume includes the family trees and stories of those whose ancestors lived and worked in Box, Wiltshire, and migrated, probably from Gloucestershire, in Tudor times. Though I can tie myself to Box, alas, the thread is fragile and is only through a lonely grave in Box Churchyard, that of my many times great-grandmother, Mary Pillinger, who died in 1692. Shortly afterwards, her widower, Samuel, specifically stated to be "of Bradford" - Wiltshire, of course not Yorkshire, having remarried, upped sticks for nearby Yatton Keynell, where my branch of the family had dealings, (not always happy), for almost two centuries. Unfortunately, I have never been able to find Samuel's baptism which was in the period of the Civil War and Interregnum when records, if kept at all, were often lost, so though I am convinced he belongs with the "Box lot", I cannot prove it. The story of the Yatton Keynell/Bitton/Kingswood Pillingers who include my brother, Professor Colin Pillinger, of "Beagle 2" fame, is called for obvious reasons "From Yatton Keynell to Outer Space" and is told in Part 1. Part 2 covers those members of the family, also originally from Box, who migrated to Brislington and Bedminster.

I would be delighted to hear from anybody either with the name Pillinger or who has connections with the family. Anecdotal memories of the type not found in the public records are particularly welcome.

I have a particular fondness for the lady who reminisced: "They weren't 'alf rough, mind. They kept fighting cocks."

Anybody researching their family tree in the Bristol Area should in the first instance join the Bristol & Avon Family History Society. I was very nearly a founder member, being 113 on their membership list! In fact I have just reached across to my bookshelf and found issue No. 1 of their Journal - dated Autumn 1975.

Please go to www.bafhs.org.uk for full details.