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84 posts categorized "Writing"

21 January 2025

John Galsworthy – Author, playwright and activist

The social issues publicised in two plays by John Galsworthy suggest he should be remembered for his philanthropy, not just for writing The Forsyte Saga.

The personal papers of John Galsworthy (1867-1933) have been acquired by the British Library and are now fully catalogued (Add MS 89733).  Although relatively unknown today, Galsworthy was a big name during his lifetime, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.

Portrait photograph of John Galsworthy sitting at his desk, with a pen in one hand and a pipe in the otherJohn Galsworthy by an unknown photographer, circa 1929 NPG x14353 © National Portrait Gallery, London CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

John did not write for fame and financial success, but realised his popularity gave him a platform to support causes close to his heart.  Galsworthy’s compassionate nature was reflected in the subjects he was inspired to write about.  Beyond the subtle satire of the acquisitive middle class in A Man of Property and the other Forsyte novels, it was John’s plays that most obviously brought social issues to the fore.

Annotated typescript of The Silver Box giving Jones’ response to his sentenceAnnotated typescript of The Silver Box giving Jones’ response to his sentence - Add MS 89733/2/10 f. 126

In 1907 his debut play, The Silver Box, utilised Galsworthy’s legal training to highlight prejudices in the British justice system.  When an unemployed labourer, Jones, takes a cigarette box as well as a purse he knows was stolen by the son of an MP, the truth is suppressed to spare the young gentleman’s reputation.  In court the case partly rests on their drunken recollections of meeting in the early hours of the morning.  Although Jones cries: 'My word’s as good as yours', his physical defence of his wife when she was arrested combines with his social status to seal his fate.

Typescript draft of Galsworthy’s report on Separate ConfinementTypescript draft of Galsworthy’s report on Separate Confinement - Add MS 89733/13/2 f. 35

Galsworthy was also concerned about the overuse of solitary confinement as a punishment in British prisons and therefore requested permission to visit and interview inmates.  He then wrote to contemporary politicians including Winston Churchill, published an open letter to the Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone, and wrote a new play Justice.  First staged in 1910, its success increased public pressure on the government and resulted in a legal limit on hours prisoners could be in solitary.

Manuscript of the script of Justice showing Galsworthy’s drawing of the protagonist’s cellManuscript of the script of Justice showing Galsworthy’s drawing of the protagonist’s cell - Add MS 89733/2/5 f. 125

These are just two of John’s early plays and represent only a part of the social topics covered by his dramatic output.  Strife brought an industrial dispute onto the London stage, Loyalties touched on British antisemitism, and A Family Man covered the changing role of women in society.  He also wrote poems and articles on behalf of a number of charities and worthy causes, including animal rights, women’s suffrage, and the rehabilitation of disabled servicemen.

Matthew Waters
Curator, Modern Archives & Manuscripts

 

15 January 2025

Letter by Gandhi written with his left hand

The India Office Records and Private Papers, held at the British Library, contains many very interesting documents relating to M K Gandhi and the Indian Independence movement.  Among these is one letter which often attracts comment from visitors to the Library.  This is a letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, and dated 28 August 1931, just prior to his travelling to England to attend the Second Round Table Conference.

First page of letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, 28 August 1931First page of letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, 28 August 1931 IOR/R/3/1/289

In the letter, Gandhi criticised the tactics of Government in recent negotiations: ‘This is to tell you how grieved I felt in Simla over what appeared to me to be your obstructive tactics.  I hope I am wrong in my fears and that you were not responsible for the exasperating situation that led to the waste of precious three days.  The securing of a constitution is nothing to me compared to the joy of discovering human contacts by which one could swear'. However, Gandhi was keen to reassure Emerson that he bore him no ill-will: ‘I shall soon forget the sad memories of the past three days and I know you will forgive me if I have unwittingly misjudged you'.  He went on to say that the future filled him with fear and misgivings and warned Emerson that if Government continued to distrust men such as Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Abdul Ghaffar Khan, then an explosion would be almost unavoidable.  He continued: ‘You will most certainly avoid it by trusting them.  I think I know the influence you have.  May I assume your promise to use it right’.

Second page of letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, 28 August 1931Second page of letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, 28 August 1931 IOR/R/3/1/289

Gandhi ended the letter by saying that he had written freely in the exercise of a privilege of friendship and so hoped not to be misunderstood.  He then explained that ‘My right hand needing rest, I have to write with the left hand.  I could not dictate a personal letter like this’.  It might seem surprising to have such informal and friendly communication with government officials to whom he was so completely opposed.  However, a core component of Gandhi’s philosophy was that a free India must be based on a respect and love which encompassed everyone, even British officials.

First page of Emerson's reply to Gandhi, 1 September 1931 Second page of Emerson's reply to Gandhi, 1 September 1931Emerson's reply to Gandhi, 1 September 1931 IOR/R/3/1/289

Emerson replied to Gandhi on 1 September and commented: ‘I did not know you were ambidextrous.  May I congratulate you on the excellence of your left hand writing.  It is neater than I can achieve with the right hand’.  He thought it was hard to be accused of obstructive tactics, and assured Gandhi that the Government wished to keep the peace.

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Correspondence with and noting about Gandhi, 1922-1932, reference IOR/R/3/1/289.
Amar Kaur Jasbir Singh, Gandhi and Civil Disobedience. Documents in the India Office Records 1922-1946 (India Office Library and Records: London, 1980).

 

07 January 2025

A Shakespear in the Naga Hills, 1900

In the days of the British Empire, North-East India provided temporary homes to a handful of European women, all with a common fascination for the Naga people.  The Nagas are a group of indigenous hill people, of Mongoloid origin, speaking diverse languages who shared a warrior culture prior to the imposition of the British administration.

Apart from the American Baptist missionary, Mary Mead Clark, these women were linked to British government representatives, military or political.  Some left written accounts, the best known being the books of Ursula Graham Bower.  These accounts cover events and comment on the people amongst whom they lived.  As such they have a historical and ethnographic value.  One of these is the diary of Connie Shakespear.  She writes of her time in the Naga Hills in 1900-1902 and includes photographs.  The world of amateur photography had just dawned; hand-held cameras were now available.  She and her husband captured traditional village culture in the Naga Hills, hardly altered for centuries, before the great social and cultural changes brought about by Baptist missions.  This unique record sets Connie’s work apart.

Naga people in Themakodima village, with a man and child in the centre of the photograph'Gwasen and his protege. Themakodima village. February 1902’ – image copyright of author

Connie comments on graves, dress, custom and ‘court proceedings’. Examples of her observation and description abound, such as:
‘… the unfailing good temper of the people.  I have never yet seen any exhibition of bad temper among them, no children quarrelling or fighting, no angry mothers scolding or cuffing their children, nor, as I say, any quarrelling at all, nothing but good temper and good will’.

A mithun (similar in appearance to an Indian bison) and a group of Naga people at Ghuckia's village January 1901'Mithun and group at Ghuckia's village' January 1901 – image copyright of author

Another example: ‘The Judge was a fine old fellow who standing up was haranguing the Court, (lines of men seated opposite him on the opposite bank of the street) and pointing each period of his speech by a violent dig of the spear he held in his hand into the mud in the middle of the street’.

Although Connie held the imperial mindset of her time, her ability to interact with Naga villagers, and with some individuals particularly, show a respect and a feeling for shared humanity.

Ayo and Impi, two Naga villagersAyo and Impi -– image copyright of author

Bidding farewell to Ayo from Tamlu she writes: ‘It was quite touching.  He explained how, having his photo I should go into many countries but could always look at this and say “this is Ayo”.  He expressed his regret in many quaint little ways, and then finally laying one hand on my shoulder, and the other on my chest, with this sort of embrace he turned away, and we went our several ways’.

Moimang and Ayo in ceremonial dressMoimang and Ayo, Lengta Nagas, Tamlu, February 1902 – image copyright of author

Although not in the same bracket as her cousin John Shakespear (1774–1858), who wrote on the peoples of the Lushai Hills, Connie’s photographs and writing are interesting for what they tell us of the lives of the Naga people then.  Her diary shows her love for the Naga Hills and enduring respect and feelings for the Naga people which she shared with the other ladies, notably Ursula Graham Bower, Mildred Archer and Mary Clark.

CC-BY
Nigel Shakespear
The Highland Institute, Fellow

Creative Commons Attribution licence

Further reading:
Connie Shakespear, The Diary of Connie Shakespear The Naga Hills 1900-1902 (Highlander Press, 2021)
Ursula Graham Bower, Naga Path (John Murray, 1950)
Mary Mead Clark, A Corner in India (American Baptist Publication Society, 1907)

 

09 October 2024

Papers of the Clay and Baylis Family

A recent acquisition to the India Office Private Papers has now been catalogued and is available for researchers to view in the British Library’s Asian and African Studies reading room.  The collection consists of correspondence, files, diaries, printed papers and maps of Robert Francis Sarjeant Baylis (1903-1996), Indian Civil Service (District and Sessions Judge, United Provinces) 1927-1949 and his wife Edith Audrey Baylis (née Clay) (1910-1998) relating to their family life in India.  
 
Detail from the Naini Tal Guide Map (Survey of India  1938) Detail from the Naini Tal Guide Map (Survey of India 1938) Mss Eur F765/8/2
 
Robert Baylis was born on 11 June 1903, and educated at Christ's Hospital and Lincoln College, Oxford.  He joined the Indian Civil Service on 20 October 1927, and arrived in India that December.  Initially appointed as an Assistant Magistrate and Collector in the United Provinces, he subsequently worked as District and Session Judge around various stations in the UP, including Bara Banki, Meerut, Allahabad and Cawnpore.  He finished his career in the ICS at the time of Independence as the District and Session Judge for Kumaon.  Robert’s papers only contain a few files relating to his work as a Judge, with most of his official papers in the collection relating to his preparations for retiring and leaving India in 1947.  There are also letters to his wife Audrey, letters he received from friends and family, and an unpublished memoir of his life as a Judge in India. 
 
Invitation to Independence Day celebration  15th Aug 1947Invitation to Independence Day celebration 15 August 1947 Mss Eur F765/1/28 f.3
 
In 1934, Robert was engaged to Edith Audrey Clay, and they were married in Lucknow on 15 January 1935.  Audrey, as she preferred to be known, was the daughter of Sir Joseph Clay, who had been a senior member of the United Provinces government, and advisor to the Secretary of State for India.  She was a dedicated diary writer, and the collection contains her diaries recording daily events in her life from 1920 to 1950.  There is also a large collection of her correspondence including letters to her husband Robert and from family and friends in India and England.  Audrey enjoyed writing, and the collection includes examples of short stories she wrote and chapters from an unfinished memoir ‘The Years Between’.  Her book about her early life in India is in the British Library’s printed collections. 
 
The collection also contains papers relating to other family members.  Robert and Audrey had four children, and there are papers relating to their early childhood in India.  Audrey had two sisters, Daphne and Betty, and the collection includes examples of their letters and diaries.  There are also letters from Audrey’s parents Sir Joseph Clay and Lady Clay, as well as from Robert’s parents and siblings. 
 
The collection contains many very interesting papers relating to the Second World War.  When war broke out, Robert and Audrey were on leave in England, and Robert was immediately recalled to India.  It was several months later before Audrey could travel back with the children and their Indian nanny, and Robert’s letters to her are full of worry over the threat of German submarine attacks.  The letters from family in England between 1940 and 1945 are fascinating for giving descriptions of life during wartime.  In India, the fear of Japanese invasion was very real. 
 
Programme for War Week  St John Ambulance Brigade Overseas  Programme for War Week St John Ambulance Brigade Overseas Mss Eur F765/2/48 f.38
 
Audrey was a serving member of the St John Ambulance Brigade Overseas, and the collection contains material relating to the Air Raid Precautions which every family was expected to take, including on what to do before, during and after an air raid; emergency first aid and treating snake bites; obscuring headlights; and building air raid shelters.
 
Air Raid Precautions information leaflet Air Raid Precautions information leaflet Mss Eur F765/7/5 f.5
 
Notice issued by Delhi Rationing  1947 Notice issued by Delhi Rationing 1947 Mss Eur F765/7/18
 
John O’Brien
India Office Records 
 
Further Reading:
Papers of the Clay and Baylis family, Mss Eur F765 – a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room. The book And Then Garhwal by Audrey Baylis (London: BACSA, 1981) is available in the British Library printed collections
 

 

12 September 2024

John Fenwick political radical and journalist (2)

From 1801, John Fenwick worked as a journalist and newspaper editor.  Noted as either purchasing or editing the radical newspaper the Albion in 1801, when its proprietor Allan MacLeod was in Newgate, and the Plow in 1802.  For the latter, Fenwick wanted to develop a network of regional correspondents.  The extent to which he was successful, or harnessed a news communications network to political purposes, is not known. In the years that followed, he occasionally travelled from London for work.

Report of a political meeting in Nottingham by an ‘able pen’, Statesman 31 May 1810Report of a political meeting in Nottingham by an ‘able pen’, Statesman 31 May 1810 British Newspaper Archive

From April 1810, if not before, Fenwick likely worked on the radical daily newspaper the Statesman which continued to print while its proprietor and publisher Daniel Lovell was in Newgate in 1810-15.  Other than a letter from Charles Lamb to Barron Field in 1817, direct evidence that Fenwick edited the Statesman is scant.  Political meetings were occasionally reported by an unnamed ‘able pen’.  In October 1810, the Statesman published a warmly appreciative theatre review which focused exclusively on the Covent Garden debut of Eliza Ann Fenwick, John and Eliza Fenwick’s daughter.

Statesman 6 Oct 1810Theatre review on the Covent Garden debut of Eliza Ann Fenwick, John and Eliza Fenwick’s daughter, Statesman 6 October 1810 - British Newspaper Archive

John Fenwick’s family relied partly on Eliza Fenwick’s income as a children’s writer, and neither parent had guaranteed earnings.  Fenwick was briefly subject to the rules of Fleet prison as a debtor.  The creditors named alongside his discharge in April 1808 confirmed that his unpaid bills comprised those of the school master Samuel Boucher Allen, who may have taught their son Orlando Fenwick; and the apothecary surgeon James Moss, of Somers Town where the Godwins lived, who might have prescribed for or been called to attend any member of the Fenwick family.  A John Fenwick published a well reviewed A new elementary grammar of the English language (1811), shortly after William Hazlitt completed A new and improved grammar of the English tongue (1810) for Godwin’s Juvenile Library.

Masthead for The London Moderator and National Adviser printed and published by Thomas James FenwickMasthead for The London Moderator and National Adviser 14 October 1818 printed and published by Thomas James Fenwick - British Newspaper Archive

In March 1812, John Fenwick’s brother Thomas James Fenwick (1768-1850), a draper and slop seller in Limehouse, started a weekly newspaper The London Moderator and National Adviser which continued to print until 1823. Eliza Fenwick noted that

My brother has offered to pay me, if I will write, by the sheet, as I advance. He has bought printing premises types etc for a newspaper he has started, and as he must keep a certain number of men he wishes to purchase manuscripts to print.

It is likely that John Fenwick edited this weekly newspaper from 1812, and he may have continued to do so until 1823.  On the masthead, John Fenwick appeared as the proprietor of this newspaper in December 1818, before the paper was purchased in January 1819 by a John Twigg.

London Moderator JFMasthead for The London Moderator and National Adviser 30 December 1818 printed and published by John Fenwick -  British Newspaper Archive

Fenwick briefly employed Charles Lamb to write for the Albion in the Summer of 1801.  Two decades later, in 1820, Charles Lamb lampooned his former employer as the ‘excellent tosspot’ Ralph Bigod, an impecunious republican newspaper editor.  And so commenced the laughable legend, which led the academic Lissa Paul to bluntly reinvent the hard to research John Fenwick as ‘a deadbeat’, in her 2019 biography of the novelist and children’s writer Eliza Fenwick.


CC-BY
Dr Charlotte MacKenzie
Independent researcher
@HistoryCornwall

Creative Commons Attribution licence

Further reading:
British Newspaper Archive - much free content, including The London Moderator and National Adviser and Statesman

John Fenwick political radical and writer (1)

 

10 September 2024

John Fenwick political radical and writer (1)

This post shares new research about the political radical and writer John Fenwick (1757-1823).

John Fenwick lived in Newcastle upon Tyne as a child.  He was the son of the Methodist preacher John Fenwick (d. 1787), who left the itinerancy and traded in 1756-77, after marrying Priscilla Mackaris (1735-71).  The younger Fenwick likely attended Newcastle Free School when Hugh Moises was schoolmaster.

Copper token with a cat issued by Thomas Spence, inscribed MY FREEDOM I AMONG SLAVES ENJOY, London 1796Copper token with a cat issued by Thomas Spence, inscribed MY FREEDOM I AMONG SLAVES ENJOY, London 1796 - image courtesy of the British Museum

Fenwick was a contemporary of the working class radical Thomas Spence (1750-1814), who first promulgated his plans for ‘democratic parishes’ at the Newcastle Philosophical Society in 1775.  Before moving to London in the late 1780s, where Spence became well known as a radical bookseller, and later produced the meme like cat token here.  Charles Lamb noted to the Parliamentary clerk John Rickman that Fenwick ‘in youth conversed with the philosophers’.

Lieutenant George Belson, Corps of Marines, outside the Guard Room of the Marine Barracks, Chatham, 1780Lieutenant George Belson, Corps of Marines, outside the Guard Room of the Marine Barracks, Chatham, 1780. Image courtesy of the National Army Museum.

Fenwick was described by others as an Army officer in his youth.  The only ‘J. Fenwick’ listed as an Army officer in 1773-87 was a second lieutenant of the British Marine Corps on half pay.  First listed in 1773 (when John Fenwick was aged 16), then as a second lieutenant in 1775, 1777-78, and 1784-87.  He might have been assigned without a commission in the intervening war years.  In 1793, Fenwick downplayed the extent of his military experience in a letter to General Miranda of the French republican army.

Aged 31, Fenwick sprang fully formed onto the pages of William Godwin’s diary in August 1788.  When he, Godwin, and Thomas Holcroft dined together at the White Hart in London.  He was proposed and accepted as a member of the Society of Constitutional Information in 1792.  He probably attended the Philomathean Society, at which Godwin, Holcroft and others met to debate, with a maximum 21 members.

Fenwick was a republican.  He travelled to France in 1793, and earned his living partly as a translator from French to English.  In 1796-7, payments were made to Committee members who produced The Moral and Political Magazine of the London Corresponding Society, among whom the ‘Fenwick’ who offered to complete these tasks without payment for two months, in December 1796, probably was John Fenwick.


Satirical print entitled 'Promenade in the State Side of Newgate' -a portrait group of whole length figures who are identified at the bottom of the page, London 1793.Satirical print entitled 'Promenade in the State Side of Newgate', London 1793. The figures are identified at the bottom of the page. Image courtesy of the British Museum.

Fenwick was closely associated with some men convicted of sedition in the 1790s.  The London Corresponding Society made donations to support the family of Joseph Gerrald (pictured here with a newspaper) after he was transported following the ‘British Convention’ in Edinburgh.  His daughter Fanny Gerrald (b. 1791) stayed with John and Eliza Fenwick and their two children in 1798-9.

At that time, Fenwick also attended the trial and execution of the priest James Coigly, was entrusted to edit and publish Coigly’s papers, and separately published his own pamphlet on the trial.  Soon after, Fenwick travelled to Dublin, in February 1799, where he remained until late April.

As the millenium turned, Fenwick looked for new ways to further radical politics and earn a living.  His short biography of Godwin appeared in the second volume of Richard Phillips’ Public Characters (October, 1799).  He wrote a stage comedy The Indian: a farce, derived from the pre-revolutionary French opera Arlequin sauvage, which opened in London in October 1800 and was not a success.  From 1801, John Fenwick sought to earn his living as a journalist, which is the subject of our next post.

CC-BY
Dr Charlotte MacKenzie
Independent researcher
@HistoryCornwall

Creative Commons Attribution licence

John Fenwick political radical and writer (2)

06 August 2024

Cataloguing the Harley Manuscripts ... continued

The Harley Manuscripts, over 7,000 volumes spanning the period from the 8th to the early 18th century, are one of the 'foundation collections' of the British Library.  Over the last few years, the Library has been working to make revised catalogue descriptions for them available online.  So far, cataloguing of medieval manuscripts in the collection has been completed, throwing up some fascinating discoveries on the way, as keen readers of the BL’s Medieval Manuscripts blog will already know.  But beside these medieval treasures, Robert Harley (1661–1724) and his son Edward Harley (1689-1741) collected many later manuscripts, dating from the 17th century and the early years of the 18th century.  Post-1600 manuscripts make up nearly half the entire collection.  Some had already been re-catalogued as part of previous projects (Science manuscripts; Greek manuscripts; Hebrew manuscripts; Tudor & Stuart manuscript pamphleteering; etc.), but until 2018 the bulk of post-1600 manuscripts remained to be added to the online catalogue.  The current project aims to update descriptions for post-1600 manuscripts given in the four volume printed Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum (1808-1812), in line with modern cataloguing practice, and add them to the online catalogue.

Book binding showing the monogram of Pierre Seguier and his wife Madeleine FabriSéguier binding showing the monogram of Pierre Séguier and his wife Madeleine Fabri (Harley MS 3979)

Notable manuscripts include the collections of Sir Simonds D’Ewes (1602–1650), politician and antiquary, one of the first libraries acquired by Robert Harley in 1704, forming about one twelfth of the Harley Manuscripts as a whole, and the copious heraldic collections of the four-generation Holme family of Chester.  Besides English, Welsh and Scottish material, the Harleys used overseas agents to purchase manuscripts from the Continent, especially France, Germany and Italy,.  These included manuscripts from the libraries of the German scholar J. G. Graevius (1632-1703), the French statesman and patron Pierre Séguier (1588-1672), and other collectors.  Besides political, heraldic, theological and legal manuscripts, there are ships logs and travel narratives, journals, verse collections, writings on the occult, surveys, and more.

How to make oneself understood in France  from Penson’s Short ProgressHow to make oneself understood in France, from Penson’s Short Progress (Harley MS 3516 f. 44v)

Owing to the size of the collection, some works appear in several guises, reflecting contemporary manuscript copying and circulating practices (e.g. Harley MS 2224 and Harley 4619, papers relating to the parliament of 1628-9 and the imprisonment of Sir John Eliot and others in the Tower for non-payment of King Charles I’s forced loan).  In many cases manuscripts surprise the reader with humdrum incidental features, such as doodles, pen trials, shopping lists, bills, and recipes, bringing to life their writers, illustrators and former owners.

Doodles in a volume from Randle Holme’s libraryDoodles in a volume from Randle Holme’s library (‘Cheshire collections’, Harley MS 1988 f. 2v)

An incidental note in one of Randle Holme’s heraldic manuscripts - a bill from the indexer  complaining about past underpaymentAn incidental note in one of Randle Holme’s heraldic manuscripts: a bill from the indexer, complaining about past underpayment (Harley MS 1985 f. 127).

The current phase of the cataloguing project runs from April 2024 to April 2026.

Tabitha Driver
Cataloguer, Modern Archives and Manuscripts

Further reading:
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812).
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A study of the sources of the Harleian collection of manuscripts preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972
Cataloguing the Harley manuscripts - Medieval manuscripts blog (May 2019)

 

Some discoveries during the cataloguing projects:

Unexpected encounters of the fragmentary kind - Medieval manuscripts blog (June 2019)

New Prophecies of the Ancient Sibyls - Medieval manuscripts blog (December 2020)

A newly discovered manuscript from Byland Abbey - Medieval manuscripts blog (April 2021)

Deciphering an English exorcism manual - Medieval manuscripts blog (March 2022)

Records of homosexuality in 17th century England - Untold lives blog (April 2019)

Henry Stubbe: Islam and religious toleration in Restoration England - Untold lives blog (May 2019)

 

30 May 2024

The Victorian Diary of William Fletcher of Bridgnorth

As part of Local History and Community month, David Fitzpatrick discusses the compelling diary of a young Victorian bank clerk living in a quiet corner of Shropshire.

Talking With Past Hours: The Victorian Diary of William Fletcher of Bridgnorth comprises a personal diary for 1858-60, edited by archaeologist Jane Killick.  Since 1996, the original handwritten diary has resided in the University of Birmingham’s Special Collections, following its purchase from a dealer.  Its prior whereabouts remain unknown.

Front cover of Jane Killick  Talking With Past Hours The Victorian Diary of William Fletcher of BridgnorthFront cover of Jane Killick, Talking With Past Hours: The Victorian Diary of William Fletcher of Bridgnorth. Copyright Moonrise Press.

William Fletcher was born on 20 October 1839 and was baptised in the Catholic Apostolic Church in Bridgnorth, where his father, also William, became a minister.  When eighteen-year-old William begins his diary in June 1858, he is a devout attendee at church and a well-respected clerk in Cooper’s and Purton’s Bank, located at the southern end of the high street (now the local HSBC branch).  He often works at a sister branch in nearby Much Wenlock and sometimes walks the eight miles there.

Oldbury Terrace  Bridgnorth  where William lodged from February 1858 to June 1859Oldbury Terrace, Bridgnorth, where William lodged from February 1858 to June 1859. Photograph by David Fitzpatrick, 2024.

William documents almost every aspect of his life in succinct yet candid entries, recording details of his correspondence, work, and social activities in Bridgnorth and beyond.  He appreciates a good sermon, smokes tobacco, and enjoys ‘some splendid ale’.  He takes an interest in local affairs and comments on the construction of the Severn Valley Railway, which would open in 1862.

View from Castle Hill  Bridgnorth.View from Castle Hill, Bridgnorth. Photograph by David Fitzpatrick, 2017.

Central to the first year of the diary is what initially appears to be a budding romance with a young woman named Mary Anne Jones (often referred to as ‘my dear Marianne’), with whom William eventually breaks off correspondence in frustration, following an apparent lack of reciprocation.  His failed courtship touches on universal romantic themes, yet readers who have lived in Bridgnorth will find it especially evocative, given the familiar setting.  For instance, in one entry, William recounts how Mary Anne’s brother, also named William, relayed to him that Mary Anne and her sister Martha had heard that William ‘had been seen with some girls on the Castle Hill’, which he dismisses as ‘utterly false’.  It is easy to imagine young people making similar accusations and refutations almost every year since then, all centred on Castle Hill, with its fine views of the Severn Valley.

Report of William Fletcher’s sudden death – Shrewsbury Chronicle 7 August 1863Report of William Fletcher’s sudden death –Shrewsbury Chronicle 7 August 1863 British Newspaper Archive

Also prominent throughout the diary is William’s struggle with tuberculosis (though not named as such), including consultations in Birmingham, and a trip to Bournemouth for ‘a change of air’.  As Killick’s supplementary notes inform us, William’s illness ultimately led to his premature death in Bridgnorth on 29 July 1863, aged just 23.  On 7 September 1863, Mary Anne married a man named Thomas Titterton, in Port Elizabeth [Gqeberha], South Africa. 

The Fletcher family headstone in Bridgnorth cemetery  made with local sandstoneThe Fletcher family headstone in Bridgnorth cemetery, made with local sandstone. Photograph by David Fitzpatrick, 2024.

William’s diary is an absorbing read, enhanced by Killick’s footnotes and additional biographical information (and an appendix containing an aborted diary by William, dated March-April 1857).  It is a fascinating insight into daily life in Bridgnorth during a time of great change, and a reminder of the fragile and ephemeral nature of life.

David Fitzpatrick
Content Specialist, Archivist, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership

Further reading:
Jane Killick, Talking With Past Hours: The Victorian Diary of William Fletcher of Bridgnorth (Ludlow: Moonrise Press, 2009)

 

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