In association with

Issue No. 52 | August 2017

Dates to remember
Appointment diaries as research tools
e name game
Trends and traditions in naming

Read all about it

The role of newspapers (and newsagents) in society
SOCIAL HISTORY » RESEARCH ADVICE » REVIEWS » PLACES IN FOCUS
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}
the Periodical
Welcome to the August issue of Discover Your
Ancestors Periodical, your regular digital
family and social history magazine.
When we name our children, we probably
think we’re doing so on our own terms, but in
fact it’s hard to avoid being part of wider
trends in society. When we named my first son,
I was surprised to discover his name was in
the top 100, although we thought it was a bit
unusual! This month we have two articles on the subject of
names: Denise Bates looks at Victorian forename trends, and
Nick Thorne explores the research challenge of a family with
changing surnames.
A reminder that Discover Your Ancestors is running this year’s
new Family History Show in Esher, Surrey, not far from London –
that’s on Sunday 24 September and you can find full details at
www.thefamilyhistoryshow.com. We’d love to see you there!
In the meantime, do enjoy the usual varied and fascinating
range of articles in this issue! Andrew Chapman, Editor
INSIDE THIS MONTH
}
4 ‘Put it in the diary’: Ruth A Symes looks at what
our ancestors’ appointment diaries can reveal
8 What’s in a name?: Denise Bates explores the trends and
traditions of Victorian forenames
12 Changing names: Nick Thorne unravels a family of name
changes and finds a black sheep exiled for his crime
18 Here is the news: Margaret Powling surveys the history of
newspapers, and remembers her own family’s role in the trade
22 Woodcuts and witches: Jon Crabb explores how develop-
ments in publishing influenced the early modern fixation
with witches
27 History in the details: Jayne Shrimpton on underwear
26 News/Events 28 Place: Ipswich 30 Books 31 Classifieds

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parish marriage record transcriptions for Dorset and civil birth, marriage and death indexes.
RESEARCH ADVICE
} ‘Put it
U
nfortunately, appointment
diaries are often the first
items to be thrown away
when a descendant is checking
through the papers of a deceased
relative. Archives too tend to dispose
of such diaries unless they are part of
a much larger estate of papers and/or
belong to someone famous. Multiple
volumes of these ‘mere’ records of
engagements are often considered to
be too scantily filled to be of any real
historical value, and too bulky to
warrant storage space. The
sentimental stuff that absorbs us in
other kinds of personal diaries simply
isn’t there to be analysed. But, surpris-
ingly, appointment diaries can open
up many different of avenues of
research about an ancestor, so do try
4 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS
in the
diary’
Ruth A Symes
looks at what
our ancestors’
appointment diaries
can reveal
 In the industrial era, the managing of time
became a national obsession.
to have a good look through before
consigning them to the tip.
Appointment diaries were kept by
all sorts of people from the late 19th
century onwards. These diaries were
not for keeping personal reminis-
cences of the past or for recording
Yale University Medical Archives
feelings. Unconcerned with the
writer’s intimate emotional life, they
were more mundane and practical
containing mainly factual jottings
(entries usually amounting to no
more than a few words or, at most, a
few lines). And primarily, appoint-
ments’ diaries were for planning –  The Dental Cosmos: Dentist’s Pocket
Diary and Appointment Book for
even micromanaging – the future. Registering Appointments for Dental
Indeed, they were necessary Operations, White et al 1890. Some
accessories in a rapidly expanding appointments’ diaries for profession-
als such as doctors and dentists,
industrial world – a world that was started to mark in slots of half (or even
(more than ever before) governed by quarter) of an hour


INTIMATE RECORDS: EMMA DARWIN
Emma Darwin (1808-1896), wife of the naturalist Charles Darwin,
kept detailed appointment diaries from the age of 16 until the last
year of her life. Kept as part of the Darwin Archive in Cambridge
University Archives, the digitised pages of these diaries are now
freely available to view online
(via Darwin Online:
www.darwin-online.org.uk ).
They include mention of
important family events,
illnesses and remedies, visits
to and from relatives and
friends, dinner parties at
which Emma entertained
scientist colleagues of her
famous husband, visits to
London, concerts, trips to the
pantomime, dental appoint-
ments and various charitable
 Water-colour portrait of Emma
engagements. Emma even
used a symbol in the diary to
record the date of her menstrual
periods and those of her
daughters..
considerations of time. No longer
tethered to the age-old patterns of
market days and seasonal fairs, the
experiences of working life began to
dance to less predictable commercial
and political factors. Patterns of work
could no longer be so easily guessed
at, with important events appearing
on the calendar without much
warning and then, potentially, being
postponed or cancelled equally unex-
pectedly.
When diary publisher John Letts
established a stationery business in
1796 in the arcades of London’s Royal
Exchange, his first publications set out
to meet the needs of traders and
merchants in keeping control of their
stock. Several decades later, the
company had virtually cornered the
market in notebooks that were
primarily for time-management
purposes. An appointments diary
allowed people to make sense of the
new fast-flowing river of experience.
Like the watch, it was a portable
DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk
RESEARCH ADVICE
Darwin (1808-1896), wife of the
naturalist Charles Darwin, from the
late 1830s by George Richmond.
Emma kept a detailed appointments’
diary for 72 years
timepiece that gave people the sense –
if not the actuality – that they were in
charge of their own destinies. Indeed,
The Northampton Mercury of
Saturday 8 January 1870 expressed the
view that the Letts’ Appointment
Diary was a kind of ‘moral disci-
plinarian’, keeping a tab on people’s
lives, or rather allowing people to
keep a tab on their own lives.
The popularity of appointment
diaries can be illustrated by their
growing variety as the 19th century
progressed. In 1812, Letts produced
only one kind of diary; by 1836, they
offered 28 different varieties; and by
1862, there were 55. By 1870, Letts
(and other diary publishers such as
Renshaw and Harwood) were
producing different diaries for each of
the following categories: ladies, the
nobility and gentry, clergymen,
physicians, lawyers, teachers, the
army and navy, merchants, bankers,
engineers, farmers and agricultural-
ists, and warehousemen and
}
mechanics and tradesmen. The
diaries were differently bound,
leather, silk and velvet for the ladies,
for example, ‘morocco’ or ‘russia’ with
‘spring locks’ for the nobility and
gentry. As the 19th century
progressed, a variety of useful printed
information suitable to the user came
to be included in appointment diaries
including poetry, signs of the planets
and zodiac, lists of eclipses, holidays
and feast days, puzzles and charades,
and the words to new songs. Towards
the end of the 19th century, the
printed ‘extras’ in diaries started to
take a commercial turn and included
advertisements for purchasable goods.
If you have a family appointment
diary its worth considering these pre-
printed parts carefully because they
can give you an idea of what interests
and preoccupations were expected of
a person of your ancestor’s station in
society.
The types of appointment that your
ancestor recorded in his or her diary
will give you an idea of the way
society operated at the time he or she
lived. As the 19th century moved on
into the 20th, there were more
appointments to be kept both outside
and inside the home. Businessmen
noted down non-personal appoint-
ments such as calls from suppliers and
 Appointments’ Diaries were
sometimes known as ‘remem-
brancers,’ ‘memoranda books,’
‘almanacs’, ‘agendas’ or ‘calendars.’
Remarkably, they allowed time to be
carved up in different ways: five days
per page; or a single day sliced up into
morning, afternoon and evening,
according to the diarist’s requirements
5
RESEARCH ADVICE

}
 MISSED APPOINTMENTS: VIRGINIA WOOLF member. Any of these can then be
further researched on the internet.
Writer Virginia Woolf kept appointment diaries between 1930 and Women were often the keepers of
1941 which are now kept by the University of Sussex. The diaries the diary for whole families, marking
show that Woolf was at times very sociable with a packed calendar in the birthdays and anniversaries not
of engagements. But, at other times, some of the entries have been only of their own brood but also of
scored through and replaced with the single word, ‘bed’. These, it is acquaintances and other family
believed, indicate the periods when Woolf was suffering from a members, and organising the
depressive illness. Woolf’s forthcoming visits of friends and
psychological troubles are well relations. Emma Darwin’s
recorded in other sources but appointment diary for 1863 – a
her appointment diaries alert us Harwood’s Diamond Diary with
to the fact that she was Almanack – describes the full and
regularly so incapacitated that varied life that she led with her ten
she was prevented from children: ‘Thursday 15th April, Began
carrying out her routine reading with H, Tuesday 21st April, H
obligations. went to conjuror in village; Thursday
23rd April, G. came from school;
 The British author and feminist Wednesday 29th April, Walked out
Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882 –
March 28, 1941), by George Charles
with pony; Friday 31st April, Children
Beresford. Her diary records of went to Brambletype; Friday 29th
appointments missed reveal a May, Hen and Hilary to dog show’
great deal about her mental health
and so on.
An appointment diary can also give
buyers, hirings and firings, meetings, an idea of an ancestor’s public stature, you an idea of where your ancestor
trips overseas and to other businesses. the social groups to which he or she was at certain times, allowing you to
Socially-active middle-class ancestors belonged, the clubs and interest draw up both a geography and a
might have marked in lectures or groups of which he or she was a chronology of his or her movements
concerts that they wished to attend in

www.europeana.eu
the evenings or at weekends, outings
to the theatre, museums or
exhibitions. For women, there were
also an increasing number of services
to be organised in the domestic
environment: the visits of tradespeo-
ple and dressmakers, the term dates of
schools, interviews with prospective
domestic servants and nannies, the
services of chimney sweeps, piano
tuners and gaslight repairers, for
example. The number and variety of
appointments in a diary will give you

 This diary belonged to gunner Joseph

Allen, a railwayman from Nottingham
who joined up in 1915 and served as a
gunner in the 83rd Brigade Indian
Expeditionary Force in France. The
appointment diary format allowed
young men who had perhaps had no
reason or occasion to write anything
much before the War, tempting and
unintimidating morsels of space in
which to record the extraordinary
experiences of their time in the
trenches

6 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS

 RESEARCH ADVICE

}
 Appointment diaries, such as this one
belonging to businessman Denis
Nealon of Rathbun Company
Industries, America, often included a
section for accounts (here for May to
June 1874). In the industrial world,
time was much more closely allied to
the making of money than it had been
in earlier centuries and time and cash
were tracked much more carefully

when no other evidence for these

exists. Place names can be researched
on online maps and the AA route-
planner site
(www.theaa.com/route-planner/) can
give you an idea about the distances
between places. Historic train

Deseronto Archives
timetables
(www.railarchive.org.uk/research.htm
) can give you an idea of how long
train journeys might have taken.
What times of the day, week or month tionship was between your ancestor for evidence that you have acquired
were the busiest for your ancestor? and his or her appointment diary? about your ancestor from other
When were holidays taken? You How much time and effort was sources such as letters, fuller diaries,
should make a note of any regularly invested in keeping such a calendar, and even registrations of birth,
repeated names of people, businesses how well was it adhered to? Who marriage and death records. You
or places which might be followed up made the appointments? Who should also ask yourself whether your
in other family or local history cancelled them and why? Bear in family appointment diary contradicts
sources. mind that appointment books provide or corroborates any other written
Ask yourself exactly what the rela- useful pointers to and corroboration material about a particular ancestor
(to be found in other sources such as
 SECRET ASSIGNATIONS: CHARLES DICKENS letters, diaries, employment records,
and newspaper reports). 
Literary celebrity Charles Dickens (1812-1870) kept appointment
diaries which it is believed he destroyed at the end of every year. Useful books and websites
One such diary however went missing – it was probably stolen - in Aylmer, Felix, Dickens Incognito edited by
Felix Aylmer, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1959.
1867 whilst he was on a speaking tour of America. The diary turned Steinitz, Rebecca, Time, Space and Gender in
up again in 1943, and was found to reveal many mysterious entries the Nineteenth-Century British Diary,
recording appointments with ‘N’. It is now believed that this abbrevi- Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/read/17135 On
ation refers to the young actress
the appointment diaries of Virginia Woolf.
Ellen (Nelly) Ternan (1839-1914), http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroduc-
reputed to be Dickens’ lover for tions/Browne_EmmaDiaries.html Emma
many years. When, for the sake Darwin’s diaries online

of secrecy, Dickens set Ellen up in

a house outside London in 1867,
the abbreviation ‘N’ in the diaries
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
changed to ‘Sl’ for Slough.
RUTH A SYMES (www.search
 Man of different agendas: Charles myancestry.blogspot.co.uk) is a
Dickens is pictured here with freelance writer and historian.
members of his marital family on Her latest book, It Runs in the
the doorstep of his home at Gad’s Family: Researching Ancestors
Hill, 1864-1867, but his Within Living Memory was
appointment diaries reveal he had published by The History Press
other secret commitments away in December 2013. She is a
from home. regular writer for Discover Your Ancestors.

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 7

NAMES
}
W
hen registration of births,
marriages and deaths
became compulsory in
Britain in 1837, any strait-laced men
who were appointed to maintain the
new registers may have had a shock.
Although most parents opted for a
traditional name such as Charlotte,
Elizabeth, George and William, some
had a less conventional approach to
naming their offspring. Unusual
choices were only a small proportion
of names registered, but personal
values and wider public opinion can
be inferred from some of them.
8 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS
Tribute names
Admiration, deference and hero
worship are apparent in some cases
and recent reports of a surge in
popularity of both Jeremy and Corbyn
is the latest example of a long-
standing trend. As soon as Admiral
Nelson’s naval victories turned him
into a national hero at the end of the
18th century, children began to be
named Horatio Nelson or Lord
Nelson. When the Duke of Wellington
finally defeated Napoleon Bonaparte
at Waterloo in 1815, his names Arthur
and Wellesley were bestowed on
What’s
in a
name?
Denise Bates
explores the
trends and
traditions of
Victorian
forenames
youngsters as well as Wellington, the
name of his dukedom. Waterloo, the
field of the victory was also celebrated
as a forename.
Military heroes and the battles they
won are newsworthy at a certain point
and the popularity of such names was
often confined to a few years or even
months, though an anniversary of a
battle, or the death of a hero may have
sparked a brief resurgence, which can
give clues to an ancestor’s probable
age.
Although many tribute names are
strongly associated with a specific

time, a few people enjoyed decades of
popularity, across social class divides.
From 1855 until well into the 20th
century, Florence Nightingale
[Surname] was registered more than
500 times, reflecting the enduring
reputation of the pioneering nurse.
Florence was not a well-used name in
1820, when Nightingale’s parents
called her after the Italian city where
they were living. The previous year,
her elder sister, Frances Parthenhope
Nightingale, was named after her
mother and the part of Naples where
she had been born.
One of the most admired men of
the 19th century was the four-times
prime minister, William Ewart
Gladstone. Between 1861-1910,
almost 5000 boys were registered
William Ewart [Surname], Ewart
Gladstone [Surname] and Gladstone
[Surname]. In addition to those who
used one of Gladstone’s names for
DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk
their child’s first name, plenty more
used it as second or subsequent
forename instead, so the extent of
tribute-naming was much higher than
these figures.
Parents who were lucky enough to
share the surname of their hero or
heroine took advantage of it. Several
Dickens families called a son Charles.
Literary characters also found favour.
Coal miner Richard Holmes and his
wife, Martha, named their eldest son
Sherlock and the next Mycroft after
the fictional detective and his brother.
To have been so aware of Mycroft
suggests that this couple were avid
readers and great fans of Conan
Doyle’s work, because Mycroft was a
very minor character who really came
to prominence in 20th century
adaptations of the stories.
In the 1940s, the names Scarlett and
Amber increased their popularity after
they were used for the feisty heroines
NAMES
}
 Plenty of children were names after
battle sites or commanders in the
Boer War
of the best-selling novels Gone With
the Wind and Forever Amber.
Patriotic fervour
From Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee
in 1887, many parts of Britain were
gripped by an increasingly fervent
nationalism that peaked in the Boer
War at the dawn of the 20th century.
A decade later, the country became
embroiled in a more serious conflict,
the First World War. These events
were reflected in contemporary
forenames. Early examples relate to
the Queen’s Jubilees when Victoria,
Diamond, Jubilee and Royal were well
used, either singly or in combination.
The names of other members of the
Royal family soared in popularity and
their titles were also used as
forenames. Princess May (who
became Queen Mary) was especially
popular.
In South Africa, the Boer War
erupted in 1899 and sparked a crop of
conflict-related names. The surnames
of key military commanders,
Kitchener, Roberts, Baden Powell and
Redvers Buller were widely used
across the country. The sites of sieges
 Parents flocked to name a child after
Charles Dickens and some of his
characters
9
NAMES
}
and battles were also bestowed on
babies and include Ladysmith,
Mafeking, Pretoria and Tugela. While
some parents combined the conflict
name with a traditional one, very
patriotic parents used two, three or
even more, or combined war names
with royal ones.
During the First World War, the
incidence of war names was less
obvious, because there were many
smaller fields of conflict rather than a
few large ones and the tendency to
use a commander’s name had
declined. An unusual change
occurred with the girl’s name Lily,
which changed its spelling to Lille, an
important military site. It reverted
back to the standard form in the
1920s. In the Second World War the
fashion for naming a child after a
leader in the conflict had abated,
possibly because the inter-war years
had seen ordinary people become
more questioning of authority. The
name Winston gained popularity
between 1940-5, but the use of
Winston Churchill was very muted.
Regional names
While many titles of royalty, the
peerage, the baronetage and the clergy
were used across the country as
forenames, Lord, Sir and Squire, were
strongly associated with the West
Riding of Yorkshire and East
Lancashire. Several other names also
had a local identity. Christmas was
regularly used in Wales and East
Anglia. It may be that where the name
was used in other parts of the country,
the family had migrated there. Place
names including Cornwall, Leicester
and Wiltshire were used for births in
different parts of the country,
suggesting migration and nostalgia
for roots.
Gendering of names
When a tribute name was used the
child was often the same gender as the
person whose name was used. When
the name was of a place or event, a
few rules of thumb seem to have
applied but there were many
exceptions. Names which sound
masculine tend to have been given to
a boy. There are plenty of British girl’s
names which end in the letter ‘a’ and
this practice seems to have been
adopted. Pretoria and Alma were
much more likely to have been female
than male. Parents who wanted to
commemorate a man in their
daughter’s name, may have chosen a
feminised form. Lord Roberts could
be commemorated by Roberta and
Prince Albert by Alberta.
The child’s view
An unusual name could be a curse or
blessing and how a child fared was an
individual response, which would
have depended on their personality
and the wider use of the name in the
place where they lived. Names from
the Boer War and World War One
would have raised few eyebrows with
contemporaries, but perhaps

 THE BABY WHO NEVER WAS?

provoked questions from curious
grandchildren who were unfamiliar
with the conflicts.
Barnsley birth records for 1863 include Princess Some names may have been embar-
Alexandra McQuillan. This is the only mention of the rassing and a child could have become
child anywhere and my initial thought was that, after a target for teasing or worse,
sober reflection, the girl had always been known by a especially when education became
conventional name instead. Curious to know
where Princess Alexandra fitted into my
extended family, I obtained the birth
certificate, because, as far as I could tell, the
births of all the McQuillan girls of this age in
the family could be identified.
The date of birth, 10/3/1863, immediately
suggested that there was more to this regis-
tration than met the eye. This was the day
when Albert Edward, Prince of Wales
married Princess Alexandra of Denmark.
Knowing that the McQuillans did not always
appear to respect authority, and after
noticing that Princess Alexandra’s mother
was described as a midwife on one census, I
concluded that the birth had never taken
place and that a phantom baby had been
registered. It seems possible that a bet or wager was involved.  Titles were used as forenames, but did
this little Princess ever exist?

10 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS

 NAMES

compulsory and class registers were
called out each day. It is noticeable
that on Merseyside the use of names
relating to the Boer War was muted
and the conflict name tended to be
the second one. At this time, Irish
nationalists and the British
government were involved in a
struggle about how Ireland should be
ruled. In a city such as Liverpool,
which had a substantial Irish
population, it may have been prudent
not to show public approval for the
British army.
Some people dropped their unusual
first name in favour of something
more mundane and titles appear
especially problematic. Even though
some children may have emigrated,
}
Some people clearly revelled in
their unusual name and passed it on
to the next generation. Orange Lemon
found favour in a couple of families.
Orange was used until the early 20th
century, for both daughters and sons,
particularly in the South of England.
It is unclear whether the name was
linked to orchard areas or whether it
denoted support for William of
Orange and the Glorious Revolution
of 1689, when the catholic King James
II, was deposed by his protestant
Dutch son-in-law. As the use of Apple
and other fruits was much more
muted, it seems likely that its use was
sometimes a political statement.
Negative vibes

 Named after the Italian city where she

there seem to more titles in birth Occasionally parents opted to cock a
registers than can be accounted for in snook at the established order rather was born, Florence Nightingale’s
later records. Even when a person can than to identify with it. Guy Fawkes, name was regularly given to girls for
be traced, the title may only have been Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon over half a century

used for official purposes such as Bonaparte and the South African
marriage, or registering the person’s Boer leader Paul Kruger all feature in the time she began to campaign
death. Parents too may have had a 19th century birth records. There actively for votes for women.
change of heart, as a child with an were fewer subversive names for girls, Woodbine, an alternative name for
unusual name on one census can have but the respectable middle-classes honeysuckle, soon fell out of favour
an ordinary one ten years later. probably winced at the popularity of after a brand of cigarettes was
Interestingly, death records for the Vesta towards the end of the 19th launched in 1888.
19th century suggest that there were century, in homage to music hall idols
more people with unusual or tribute Vesta Victoria and Vesta Tilley. Conclusion
names than would be expected from Sometimes a negative association Forenames are often overlooked while
baptism records. It may be that parish led to a decline in a forename. doing the family tree, especially if the
priests refused to condone this type of Emmeline was falling in popularity person is not a direct ancestor.
naming and steered parents towards before the suffragette leader Unusual names may contain pointers
something more traditional if the Emmeline Pankhurst sprang to to detail that has not been recorded
child was baptised. notoriety, but this accelerated from elsewhere, such as parental character,
family origins or to something that
 INTERESTING FACTS left a decisive impression. A rose by
any other name would smell as sweet;
• Babies have been named after every day of the week. Tuesday, but it might not hold as much
Wednesday and Saturday seem to have been the least popular. promise. 
Among the months, February and November were the least well
used.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• ‘Early’ appears frequently as a forename. It might indicate a baby
who was born prematurely. DENISE BATES is a
historian, researcher
• Children of migrant families were sometimes given names relating and author. Her interest
to the country of family origin. Some such as Garibaldi or Bismarck in forenames began
suggest that parents kept abreast of developments abroad. after finding several
interesting examples in
her family tree.

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 11

RESEARCH STORY

}
Changing names
Nick Thorne unravels a family of name changes and

A
finds a black sheep exiled for his crime
s family history researchers

[Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

we often find people who
have a common surname,
such as Smith, to be troublesome
when investigating a branch of a
family tree. Finding them in records is
often a problem, especially when the
last name is allied with a first name
that is also commonplace. Recently I
was looking for someone named
Smith, but in this case this particular
branch of Smiths had seen fit to give
their offspring a very distinctive
forename of Culling. They then
changed their last name to Eardley in
1847 by royal licence, as a result of
inheriting an estate that came to them
by marriage. A generation on and
another union would see the good
name of the family dragged through
the courts and newspapers.
Born in London in 1805 Sir Culling
Eardley Eardley was the 3rd Baronet
in his family, his father, Sir Culling
Smith, 2nd Baronet (1768–1829),
could trace his lineage back to
Huguenot stock. At his birth in 1805
the child, who would eventually
become the 3rd Baronet, was
christened with the name Culling
Eardley Smith. It was the death of his
maternal grandfather, Lord Eardley,
that then brought much of the Eardley
estate into the family as his mother,
Charlotte Elizabeth (d 15 Sept 1826)
was the daughter of Sampson Gideon,
1st Baron Eardley of Spalding. While  Sir Sampson Gideon who became the 1st Baron Eardley by Pompeo Batoni
Lord Eardley had been brought up a
Christian, his father was a Jewish City the younger Sampson Gideon legally Gideon. It was clear that changing
of London banker and confusingly changed his surname to that of Eardley. surnames ran in this family causing
was also named Sampson Gideon. So I now had a Smith who took the confusion for researchers. The Index to
name Eardley, in honour of his Change of Names 1760-1901 for UK
Changing surnames ran in the family maternal grandfather and who, in turn, and Ireland is about to go live on
Just as I was getting my notes in order I had changed his surname to Eardley TheGenealogist and can be used to find
then discovered that on 17 July 1789 from previously being known as someone who changed their surname.

12 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS


 Index to Change of Names 1760-1901 for UK and Ireland
Searching in the Education records,
that are on TheGenealogist, finds Sir
Culling Eardley Eardley in the Eton
School Lists 1820 under the surname
Smith and the next column gives his
first and middle names as Culling and
Eardley.
By moving on to take a look at the
 Eton School Lists 1820
DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk
RESEARCH STORY
census records on TheGenealogist for
20 years later I was able to find Sir
Culling E Smith, as he was known at
the time, in the 1841 census of Hert-
fordshire. Their address was Bedwell
Park in Essendon and this led me to
look for an entry for this property in
the tithe records.
}
 1841 census of Bedwell Park,
Essendon, Hertfordshire
A search of the National Tithe
Collection on TheGenealogist finds
the estate at Essendon as it was
surveyed on the 1838 with land
owned and occupied by the Sir
Culling Smith as well as that for
which he was the landlord and were
occupied by other people. The
Baronet can be also be found as a
landowner in a number of other
counties in the tithe collections.
Exploring TheGenealogist’s
Peerage, Gentry & Royalty records
finds Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage
1921. This resource, lists the estates
that Sir Culling still had ownership of
after the First World War and he is
recorded as being ‘of Hadley,
Middlesex; Bedwell Park, Hatfield and
Belvedere, Erith’. The last of which, we
are told, he had inherited from his
grandfather, Lord Eardley.
Burke’s usefully points us to Sir
Culling’s children and in particular to
his son Sir Eardley Gideon Culling
Eardley. His birth was recorded in the
General Register Office index and so
it can easily be found on TheGenealo-
gist. We may wonder what hopes the
family had resting on this son and
13
RESEARCH STORY
 Tithe map of Essendon, Hertfordshire 1838,
pinpointing Bedwell Park
heir at the time of his delivery? They
probably never would have thought
that he would grow into an adult that
would cause a scandal that would see
him summoned before the Justices at
Bow Street and sent to trail!
 Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage 1921 on TheGenealogist
14
 Eardley Gideon Culling Smith birth registered in the third quarter of 1838
in St George’s Hanover Square district of London
In the Educational records on young man Eardley was admitted to
TheGenealogist we can see that as a Trinity College Cambridge and that
age twenty he matriculated from that
university, but did not graduate.
A search of the Newspaper and
Magazines collection, on TheGeneal-
ogist, finds both the father and the
son get mentioned in The Illustrated
London News. While the father
appeared for worthily chairing a
Christian Evangelical Alliance
session, in which they listened to the
Canon of Durham request that the
Alliance join him in a consultation to
reconcile the various denominations
of Christianity; the son’s mention in
the news, however, was to do with the
legality of his marital condition.
Bigamy
From a quick look at Thom’s British
Directory for 1873, on TheGenealo-
gist, in the section on Privy
Councilors Sir Eardley’s entry notes
the dates of his two marriages as if
there is no scandal. One in December
1859 to Florence the only child of
www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS

 Trinity College Cambridge Admissions Vol 5 1851-1900
James Magee esq of New Orleans and
his second union to Miss ME Allen
on 12 September 1867.
What this doesn’t reveal is that the
second wedding, in England, was
actually a bigamous marriage as Sir
Eardley Gideon Culling Eardley was
still married to another! This fact can
be discovered by a search for the
Eardley name in the newspapers
which finds an entry on 14 December
1867 in The Illustrated London News.
In this Law and Police report the
Baronet, was brought up at Bow Street
magistrates court to answer the
charge of bigamy. The court was
shown evidence that the defendant
had married in New York to Miss
McGee. Sir Eardley Gideon Culling
 Thom’s British Directory 1873
DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk
RESEARCH STORY
Eardley was unable to convince the
magistrate of his argument and so the
prisoner was committed for trial and
refused bail for good measure.
This marriage to Miss McGee was
found to be perfectly valid when it
came to trial. It does not appear to
have been registered in the Consulate
records of marriages abroad that can
be searched on TheGenealogist as this
was not a compulsory requirement.
His bigamous marriage in London,
however, can be easily located in the
GRO index on TheGenealogist. We
are able to find it in 1867 in St George
Hanover Square, Middlesex.
While Sir Eardley Gideon Culling
Eardley may have thought that his
American marriage was not valid –
}
 The Illustrated London News 14
December 1867
the courts, however, decided
otherwise and sentenced him to
eighteen months in prison with hard
labour. Further articles appear in the
newspapers that publicises that the
Baronet found his prison sentence
hard to endure with it having a
detrimental effect on his health that
his life was in danger. A piece in The
Illustrated London News on Boxing
Day 1868 explains that he was to be
released from prison on the under-
standing that he would exile himself
from Britain until his term of impris-
onment had been spent. The
newspaper noted that he had gone to
Madeira. In April of the next year the
same paper reported that The
Secretary of State had then granted Sir
Eardley a free pardon.
The papers, throughout their
reporting of the Eardley case seemed
to be never very sure what the
delinquent baronet’s first name was. In
1867 he is Sir Eardley Gideon Culling
Eardley at the start of the paragraph
and then Sir Culling Eardley two lines
later. In 1869 the same publication,
when referring to his free pardon,
printed his name as being Sir G
Culling Eardley. As with my confusion
with the family surname it would
seem that the unusual first and middle
15
RESEARCH STORY

}
 Marriage 1867 in St George Hanover
Square

Miss Mary Allen but a search in the

Peerage, Gentry & Royalty records on
TheGenealogist tells us that his
widow, Emily Florence, remarried a
Royal Naval Commander. Not just a
British naval officer, but one with a
foreign aristocratic title as well. Her
new husband was Count Francis
Clifford De Losada y Lousada,
youngest son of the Marquis de
Lousada and grandson of a Spanish
 The Illustrated London News 26 December 1868
Duke.
What indeed is in a name? 

 Burke’s Dictionary of Peerage &

Baronetage 1885 on TheGenealogist

names bewildered the journalist so names and the

that they covered as many versions as detail of the
they could. change by Royal
On his death, in 1875, in Paris The licence of the
Illustrated London News gave him surname and
honour of an obituary of an eminent adoption of the
person and correctly printed his full arms of Eardley.
Interestingly no
mention of his
fall from grace,
or exile abroad,
are made in the
obituary and
only his
legitimate
marriage to
Emily Florence
McGee is
referred to.
 The Illustrated London News 1875 As a
Obituary of Eminent Persons postscript to this
case, with his
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
death the
NICK THORNE has been Eardley
researching his family tree for a baronetage
decade, and is a regular writer
became extinct.
for Discover Your Ancestors.
You can find his family history It is not certain
guides and learning materials at from the
www.noseygenealogist.com research what
happened to

16 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS

FHS-Online.co.uk
Instant access to society records
With Parish Records, Census, Electoral
Records and More
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for societies
“ We would thoroughly recommend S&N Genealogy to
any Family History Society who is considering publishing
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” Gordon Taylor: Chairman, MFHS
Brought to you in association with

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SOCIAL HISTORY
}
Here is the news
Margaret Powling surveys the
history of newspapers, and remembers
I
her own family’s role in the trade
f you wanted to know what was
going on, at home and abroad, in
the reign of Emperor Gaius Julius
Caesar, c60BC, you wandered down
to the Forum in Rome and read the
news bulletin of the day. Called Acta
Diurna – a government announce-
ment literally about ‘daily doings’ – it
was affixed somewhere convenient, a
pillar or wall, and in style was direct,
much like newspaper journalism
today. It was, in fact, the world’s first
newspaper.
Until the advent of printing – first
in Europe and then here in the UK –
all information was, by necessity,
communicated orally or was
handwritten, a long, laborious
process. The breakthrough in news
coverage and distribution came when
18
William Caxton (c1422-c1491) an
English diplomat, merchant, and
retailer of printed books introduced
the printing press to England. In
collaboration with a 15th century
scribe, Collard Mansion, and after
seeing one in action in Cologne, he
set up a printing press in Bruges
before similarly setting one up in
Westminster in 1476.
Being able to print the news – even
though it was only one sheet of paper,
printed on one side – was a break-
through as remarkable as Sir Tim
Berners-Lee’s internet in 1989.
However, the vast majority of people
were illiterate and they relied heavily
on town criers for their news; by the
16th century, though, those early
‘news’ papers, if not exactly flying of
www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS
 A 17th century London coffee
house, with patrons catching
up on the news
the presses, were at least available to
those who could read.
In England, and while printing was
now possible, the right to print was
being strictly controlled by the Star
Chamber – privy councillors and
common-law judges – and this was
probably the reason that the first
newspaper in the English language,
Corrant, was printed in Amsterdam in
1620. Such strict control was
eventually relinquished after the
abolition of the Star Chamber in 1641.
Between 1640 and the Restoration in
1660 around 30,000 ‘news’ papers
were printed and some can be seen in
the British Museum.
The first English newspaper to
contain domestic news was called
Diurnal Occurrences and related the

activities of Parliament. It was
followed in 1665 by The Oxford
Gazette which became The London
Gazette and which was the official
paper of the government, still
published today (its archives are
available for free online at
www.thegazette.co.uk).
So where did one read these
newspapers when there wasn’t a WH
Smith in every high street? Our
growing taste for coffee coincided
with the emergence newspapers.
Putting the two together was a
winning combination.
“Coffee houses were introduced to
England in the mid-seventeenth
century. The first in London, Pasqua
Rosee’s Head, was opened in 1652 by
 A wounded British officer reading The Times’s report of the end of the Crimean
War, in John Everett Millais' painting Peace Concluded
DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk
SOCIAL HISTORY
}
a Turkey merchant, Daniel Edwards,
in St Michael’s Alley, Cornhill,” says
historian, Margaret Willes. “These
houses were like clubs, where men
(and only men) of similar mind could
meet. In Pall Mall, Tories frequented
the Cocoa Tree, while the Whigs
favoured St James’s.” And it was in
such coffee houses that for about one
penny chaps could get their caffeine
fix from the new bitter drink
introduced from Turkey, exchange
gossip, converse on all manner of
subjects from politics and science to
literature and commerce… and read
the newspaper. Such places earned
themselves the name ‘penny universi-
ties.’
“In 1702 [in the reign of Queen
 The Daily Courant pioneered general
interest news
Anne] The Daily Courant was
published. This was the first English
paper to appear daily with factual
news of general interest rather than
political comment. It cost one penny,”
says writer WD Siddle. Those who
could read were eager to learn what
was going on both here and overseas,
but in order to suppress the
popularity of newspapers and public
opinion they generated and which
might be against government actions,
a stamp tax was imposed, making the
newspapers too expensive for many
people to buy.
“Despite the tax, a total of over
seven million copies of newspapers
was sold during the year 1753,” says
Siddle. Therefore the government not
only raised the tax but also imposed
further restrictions on the press:
writers and reporters were barred
from the House of Commons and
note-taking was disallowed. One or
two smuggled-in reporters with
exceptional memories were able to
remember almost everything that was
said, and wrote their accounts
afterwards. But by 1803 such restric-
tions were relaxed and reporters were
19
SOCIAL HISTORY

}
 A FAMILY BUSINESS

My interest in
newspapers is more
than academic: I was
brought up in my
parents’ newsagent’s
shops, their first in Toad Lane, Rochdale (the area
best known for where the Rochdale Pioneers first
set up their co-operative) and then in St
Marychurch, Torquay, where we moved in 1951.
We quite literally lived behind and over the shop.
Life was never boring, though, as there were always

 The author’s parents, Frederick George and Gladys Sidlow

customers with whom I could chat, and
newspapers, comics and magazines readily
available for me to read. There were far more titles than there are today; we have lost the News Chronicle,
The Sunday Graphic, The Sunday Pictorial, The News of the World, and The Daily Herald, but of course,
new ones, such as The Sun and The Independent were launched, some of which have been more success-
fully than others.
When my parents bought their business it was a very run-down affair. Indeed, I can’t imagine what
possessed them to part with money for such deplorable premises and where there was little to no trade to
speak of, but no doubt they could see its potential. It had been owned by two elderly spinster sisters – the
Misses Peters – and the surviving sister sold the business to my parents. She had 17 cats and my parents’
first job was eliminating the fleas!
The two sisters did not speak to one another and had divided the living accommodation so that there
was one staircase directly out of the shop to a room above a carriageway (through which neighbours had
access to a row of cottages) and another staircase leading from the hall to the bedrooms. Behind the
shop, on the ground floor, was our tiny living room and scullery/kitchen with just a cold-water tap. There
was no proper bathroom until my parents had one installed soon after we moved in, along with an Ascot
gas-fired geyser in the kitchen.
A decade later, my parents’ business had grown into what was then the largest newspaper business in
Torquay, with around 14 newsboys delivering to customers in all the various parts of the town. My father
also had his own daily ‘round’, and in the school holidays I would be up and dressed by 5.30am, ready to
accompany him in his grey A35 Austin van, distributing bundles of newspapers to all the major hotels in the
Bay, as well as to private houses. We would then return home to the shop where my father would make us
both a hearty breakfast after which he would tidy himself up before taking his place behind the counter,
thereby relieving my mother of the task so that she could attend to
household chores.
A very early memory from
when I was about five years old, is
of going with my father to
Edwards and Brynings, who then
published The Rochdale
Observer, and watching the
printing presses rolling into
action. The clatter of those huge
machines and the smell of hot
metal is one I’ve not forgotten.
Long may newspapers continue
for reading news online just isn’t
the same thing at all.  The author at her parents’ shop in 1958

20 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS


 The author’s family took over this newsagents in the 1950s
permitted entry to the Public Gallery.
What is considered the country’s
oldest national newspaper, The Times,
began life as The Daily Universal
Register in 1785. In its early days it
was, according to Liddle, “a rebellious
newspaper. Papers did not have the
same freedom to express their
opinion as they have now. The first
owner, John Walter, fiercely criticised
the Government, and served several
short sentences in Newgate Gaol as a
result.” Thus, the nickname for the
paper was ‘The Thunderer’.
On 29 June 1855, there appeared
the first issue of The Daily Telegraph.
It was founded by a British-born
Canadian army officer, Colonel
Arthur B Sleight. However, like a lot
of new ventures, it suffered teething
troubles. The Times had agreed to
print the paper, but Sleight found he
was unable to pay the printing costs,
and so the owner of The Times, Joseph
Levy took over the newspaper.
Further titles then followed but I
was surprised to learn that when
Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord
Northcliffe) founded the Daily Mirror
in 1903 it was to be a paper “for
women run by women”. Of it he
reputedly said, “I intend it to be really
DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk
SOCIAL HISTORY
}
from news’ gathering agencies around
the world, such as Reuters, founded
by Paul Julius Reuter in the 1850s.
Reuters was the first news agency to
report Abraham Lincoln’s assassina-
tion in 1865 and telegraph this tragic
event to the waiting publishing world.
From reporter to printing house; by
road, rail and plane to wholesaler and
retailer; to the newsboy on a bicycle.
Eventually newspapers found their way
into millions of homes each day in
time to be read at the breakfast table. 
Further reading:
Scenes from Georgian Life by Margaret
Willes (National Trust)
The Story of Newspaper by WD Siddle (Wills
& Hepworth, Ltd)
a
mirror of feminine life, as well on its
grave as on its lighter sides.” It wasn’t
an immediate success and in 1904
Harmsworth decided to turn it into a
pictorial newspaper. Furthermore, all
the female journalists were sacked.
With a drop in the price from one
penny to one half-penny, and
marketed as a newspaper “for men
and women” circulation took off and
by 1919 it was the largest selling daily
newspaper in the UK.
Newspapers, first available in coffee
houses, eventually became available in
public houses and later in newsagent’s
shops. As early as 1792, Henry Walton
Smith and his wife Anna opened a
small news vendors in London, and
after their deaths the business passed
to their sons Henry Edward and
William Henry. William Henry was  The Times from 4 December 1788
the more capable and the business
became the one we are all familiar with ABOUT THE AUTHOR
today: WH Smith. This business grew
and by 1850 was recognised as the MARGARET POWLING
is the antiques columnist for a
principal newspaper distributor in the
monthly style magazine but also
country. enjoys researching social history,
But before any newspaper is ‘put to historic houses and gardens,
bed’ (signed off by the editor so that style and décor, costume and
accessories. She is a regular
printing can take place) there has to writer for Discover Your
be news for it to publish. This may Ancestors.
come from eyewitness accounts or
21
SOCIAL HISTORY

}
Woodcuts and witches
Wellcome Library, London

 Witches presenting wax dolls to the devil, featured in The History of Witches and Wizards (1720)

Jon Crabb explores how developments in publishing

influenced the early modern fixation with witches

T
he publishing revolution of
the 16th and 17th centuries
witnessed an explosion of
printed material, democratising
information and pushing it into the
hands and sight of more people than
ever before. A large single sheet of
cheap paper could be printed with a
proclamation, adorned with a
woodcut, and sent out among the
masses. These broadsides were sold
for a penny on street corners, pasted
on alehouse walls, and stuck up on
market posts. In 1592, the playwright
and stationer Henry Chettle described
how ballads “infected London the eie
of England”, then travelled through
the country via ballad-mongers, who
could “spred more pamphlets by the
State forbidden than all the
Booksellers in London”. There was a
hunger (then as now) for tales of sex
and scandal and, for the first time, a
network of illustrators, printers, and
distributors were able to glut this
desire. The Jacobean playwright
Thomas Middleton referred to ballads
as “fashions, fictions, felonies,
fooleries”. Cheap print was the
medium of the masses, and the crude
woodcuts were the visual language of
early modern England.
This revolution in publishing
coincided with what has been termed
“the European witch-craze”: a moral
panic and collective psychosis that

22 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL

 SOCIAL HISTORY

spread through Europe and
Scandinavia during the 16th and 17th
centuries. The seed of this hysteria
was planted in 1484 when two
Dominican Inquisitors appealed to
Pope Innocent VIII for permission to
launch a witch hunt, and he
responded by issuing a papal bull
authorising their efforts. Two years
later they published their treatise,
Malleus Maleficarum (‘Hammer of the
Witches’), which, for the first time,
elevated witchcraft to the crime of
heresy and justified its extermination
with papal authority. Leaning heavily
on the supposed papal endorsement,
}
obsessed with the subject. In Britain,
the witch-craze hit later, but was
rewarded with numerous pamphlets
and ballads devoted to salacious
details of devilish mischief.
One of the earliest and most
notorious British witchcraft
pamphlets was published in 1579: A
Rehearsall both Straung and True, of
Hainous and Horrible Actes
Committed by Elizabeth Stile, alias
Rockingham, Mother Dutten, Mother
Deuell, Mother Margaret, Fower
Notorious Witches. Stile was a 65-year-
old widow and beggar accused of
bewitching an innkeeper. The

Wellcome Library, London

Malleus Maleficarum painted a
terrifying picture of witchcraft and
preached the absolute necessity of
vanquishing this largely unrecognised
evil.
Apparently, witches were
everywhere. Torture was
recommended for extracting
confessions, the death penalty was
revealed as the only remedy against
sorcery, and burning at the stake was
proposed as a suitable method of
execution. With one fell swoop, the
persecution of witches was begun and
an entire methodology was
established. The book was a bestseller
and strongly influenced the obsession
with witchcraft for 200 years,
spreading slowly through continental
Europe and then the Scandinavian
countries, which became particularly
British Library Board
pamphlet describes her association
with three other old women known as
Mother Margaret, Mother Dutten and
Mother Devell, as well as a man
named Father Rosimunde, who could
transform himself “into the shape and
likenesse of any beaste whatsoever he
will”. Woodcuts show these old
women and several animal familiars,
which they reportedly fed on their
own blood.
The folkloric image of the crone
was established through these images
and repeated in similar pamphlets
over the next century. These witches
were usually bitter old women, who
lived on their own, and kept cats or
other animals as pets. The Wonderful
Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of
Margaret and Phillip Flower,
Daughters of Joan Flower neere Beuer
 Title page to Malleus Maleficarum
Castle (1619) and A Most Certain,
Strange and True Discovery of a Witch
(1643) are particularly famous
examples that reinforced this
archetype. Latent sexism and fear of
those who lived on the fringe of
society doubtless motivated much of
this persecution. The latter pamphlet
manages to mix sexism with scorn by
doubting that women are even
capable of performing the same
sorcery that certain men have
achieved:
Royal paranoia
In 1589, King James VI of Scotland
sailed to Copenhagen to marry
Princess Anne of Denmark. The
return journey was troubled by bad
weather and during their voyage to
Scotland terrible storms forced the
ship to seek shelter in Norway. The
voyage was finally completed safely,
but all involved were suitably rattled.
In a stunning series of events, Danish
courtiers subsequently accused
women of sabotaging the journey

 Witch pictured feeding her familiars

with blood, in A Rehearsall both
Straung and True (1579)

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 23

SOCIAL HISTORY
}
using magic, prompting witchcraft
trials first in Denmark and later, when
James decided to follow suit, in North
Berwick, Scotland. Several Scottish
nobles were implicated and the
seething jealousies and suspicions of
two Royal houses bubbled into
further accusations on both sides of
the North Sea. King James grew
paranoid that his life was in danger
from witches, personally examined
those on trial, and caused over a
hundred people to be arrested. A 1591
pamphlet, Newes from Scotland,
Declaring the Damnable Life of Doctor
Fian, a Notable Sorcerer, who was
Burned at Edenbrough in Januarie
Last, 1591, chronicled the sensational
trials and featured two illustrations
with a number of interesting details.
The primary woodcut condenses
several episodes from the story into a
single image (see below). The witches
were accused of sending devils to stir
up waves, and in the top left of the
image, demons are seen swimming
around James’s ship. In the top right,
women are portrayed toiling around a
cauldron, suggestive of sorcery, as
they watch the fire burn, and cauldron
bubble.
24
 Title page of A Most Certain, Strange
and True Discovery of a Witch (1643)
Interestingly, this particular illustra-
tion was actually a stock image that
appeared in other pamphlets divorced
of any nefarious magical implications;
woodcuts were often repurposed for
different stories either on their own or
incorporated into larger images. The
Doctor Fian of the title was a local
schoolmaster accused of leading the
www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL
coven, and in this image he is
portrayed as a clerk for the devil,
who preaches from a pulpit. Fian
suffered extreme torture, including
having his feet crushed by an iron
boot, before being burned alive at a
stake. Newes from Scotland is one of
the only illustrations of Scottish
witchcraft from this period but had
lasting significance as an influence
on ‘the Scottish play’, Shakespeare’s
Macbeth, which includes several
references to the North Berwick
trials and saw its first performance
during a visit by Queen Anne’s
brother, the king of Denmark, in
1606.
This episode in King James’s life
was a profound one and inspired a
deep interest in sorcery and
witchcraft, some of which he
absorbed through his young Danish
wife and the Scandinavian court,
which had already witnessed consid-
erable hysteria around the
phenomenon of witches. The
monarch’s interest in the dark arts
even gave birth, in 1597, to his very
own work on the dangers of black
magic, Daemonologie, which included
Newes from Scotland as an addendum.
Six years later the Scottish and
English crowns were unified for the
first time and James VI was declared
King James I of England and Ireland.
Although he grew more lenient and
sceptical later in his reign, James took
his interest in magic with him to the
English courts and was so surprised
by England’s permissive legislation on
the subject that he had the law
changed.
Death was now the penalty, even for
a ‘good’ witch. As a result, famous
sooth-sayers and ‘cunning folk’ were
prosecuted by an increasingly
suspicious and vengeful population.
Matthew Hopkins, the notorious and
self-styled ‘Witch-Finder Generall’
behind the deaths of at least 300
 First woodcut in the pamphlet Newes
from Scotland, as reproduced in an
1816 facsimile

Wellcome Library, London
 Witches on broomsticks, featured in The History of Witches and Wizards (1720)
women, cited James’ Daemonologie as
a primary influence on his own work.
Arguably, a bad storm off the coast of
Scotland was responsible for inspiring
the deaths of hundreds of people, and
an entire paradigm shift in the
perception of British ‘cunning folk’.
An exact number of witches killed
during the 16th and 17th centuries is
hard to arrive at, but, according to
court records, there were about 3000
executions in Britain, most of them in
Scotland. Across the whole of Europe
the figure is likely to be in the tens of
thousands and includes men as well as
women. Although this number is
shocking enough, the attempts by
some neopagans to characterize the
period as ‘The Burning Times’ – a
holocaust of several million women –
appear to be a well-meaning but
misguided exaggeration.
Cultural archetype
Some of the more significant cases of
the period were immortalised in
plays, novels, and longer books. And
the woodcuts that illustrate these
works have been largely responsible
DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk
SOCIAL HISTORY
for the cultural archetype of the
‘witch’ now so familiar to us: pointed
hats, broomsticks, cauldrons, cats.
The same woodcut would often be
used multiple times in different
sources, and with each new
appearance, the trope repeated and
solidified into a recognisable
iconography. Eventually some of the
best stories and images were collected
into popular reference works, such as
The Kingdom of Darkness: Or, the
History of Dæmons, Specters, Witches,
Apparitions, Possessions, Disturbances,
and Other … Supernatural Delusions
… and Malicious Impostures of the
Devil … Collected from Authentick
Records … With Pictures of Several
Memorable Accidents, by RB (1688).
Most of the really iconic images found
on the internet today come from just
one collection, The History of Witches
and Wizards: Giving a True Account of
All Their Tryals in England, Scotland,
Sweedland, France, and New England
… Collected … By WP (c1700).
Here we find witches and demons
dancing together, wax poppets
baptised by the devil, spirits leaping
}
from a circle of flames, and a feast at
the witches’ sabbath. This is an
energetic and dynamic portrayal of
witchcraft, much more tantalising
than old women with a chip on their
shoulder. Whether the authors
intended it or not, they managed to
make witchcraft seem rather exciting
and attractive. The stories are easy,
compelling reads and the images
feature young men and women doing
extraordinary things. There is also a
clear undercurrent of eroticism
running through both books. There
are numerous mentions of carnal
acts, lusty satyrs, undressings,
drunken feasts, love spells and
devilish, handsome men appearing
to innocent, young maids.
After the initial witchcraft
pamphlets in the late 16th century,
the publications became increasingly
stylised in the 17th. As King James
grew more and more sceptical about
the reality of witches, his kingdom
slowly grew more and more paranoid.
It took decades for the hysteria to
subside. While the early pamphlets
were based on relatively sober court
records, later pamphlets took more
time to describe the accused’s terrible
tortures, or the wondrous miracles
they had performed.
By the time popular histories of
witchcraft were published, sensation-
alism ruled and the woodcuts became
more striking. In a period racked with
plague, civil war, and poverty, there
must have been a certain sympathy
for the devil. 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JON CRABB is a writer and
editor with interests in the fin-de-
siècle and forgotten culture. He
works as editor for British Library
Publishing. This essay draws on
material from Crabb’s Graven
Images: The Art of the Woodcut
(British Library Publishing).
This article was originally published in The Public Domain
Review under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
licence (see http://publicdomainreview.org/legal/ for reuse).
25
NEWS & EVENTS

}
1.4m records for 1921 census substitute

T
TheGenealogist has also just

Northumberland released a new ‘circa 1921’ resource,

covering 23 counties, with over one
million records. These form part of
heGenealogist.co.uk has expanded its UK Parish Records collection the Trade, Residential & Telephone
with the release of more than 1,363,000 new records for Northumber- record sets on TheGenealogist
land. These records make it easier to find your ancestors’ baptisms, covering a period currently not
marriages and burials in these fully searchable records that cover the ancient served by a census.
parishes of the northernmost county of England. Some of the records can take The fully transcribed, searchable
you as far back as 1560. In this release you can find the records of: 903,314 records released today will allow
individuals in Baptisms, 157,329 individuals in Marriages and 302,378 researchers to:
individuals in Burials. • search on forename, surname
Use these records to find the names of ancestors, parents’ forenames (in the and profession
case of baptisms), father’s occupation (where given), abode or parish, parish • search by street, town and county
that the event took place in, the date of the event, in the case of marriage • look for a business name
records, the bride’s maiden name and the witnesses’ names. • discover your ancestors’ addresses
In these records, for example, you can find Grace Horsley Darling, the • find professions listed
famous lighthouse keeper’s daughter who saved the crew from a shipwrecked These 1921 directories cover the
paddle steamer. She was born on 24th November 1815, at her grandfather’s North, South, East and the West of
cottage in Bamburgh in Northumberland and was baptised the following England, the Channel Islands and as
month. far up the country as Aberdeen. If
Grace was the daughter of William and Thomasine Darling who, when only a you have ancestors who you are
few weeks old, was taken to live in a small cottage attached to the lighthouse on tracing in 1921, this new release
Brownsman Island, one of the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland. from TheGenealogist adds a
Her father ran the lighthouse there and she is famed for participating in the fantastic name rich resource to your
rescue of survivors from the shipwrecked paddle steamer Forfarshire in 1838. family history research armoury.
It was carrying 62 people when it foundered on the rocks, split in two, the For examples of some of the
survivors managed to clamber onto Big Harcar a rocky island and were spotted famous names to be found in this
by Grace looking from an upstairs window. She and her father rowed out in a collection, see the article at
four man boat for a distance of about a mile and between them rescued the www.thegenealogist.co.uk/feature
nine survivors. darticles/2017/addressing-where-
Search these and millions of other records on www.thegenealogist.co.uk. they-were-in-1921-571/.

 FORTHCOMING DIARY DATES

Events at the Society of Genealogists in August:
• 03/08/2017, 11:00 - 13:00, £10.00: Walk: Potter with Pepys
• 05/08/2017, 10:30 - 17:00, £35.00: From Raj to Independence:
Researching British Families in India
• 05/08/2017, £0.00: Advice Sessions - Beginners' Online Family
History
• 12/08/2017, 11:15 - 12:45, £0.00: Tour of the Library
• 12/08/2017, 14:00 - 17:00, £20.00: Seventeenth to the Twentieth
Centuries- British Population Listings
• 16/08/2017, 14:00 - 15:00, £8.00: Tracing Family History in
Lincolnshire: Lincs Links
• 19/08/2017, £0.00: Advice Sessions - Beginners' Online Family History
• 23/08/2017, 14:00 - 15:00, £8.00: Historic Greenwich
• 25/08/2017, 11:00 - 13:00, £10.00: Walk: Historic Greenwich
• 26/08/2017, 10:30 - 13:00, £20.00: In the Name of God, Amen: Wills
Workshop
• 26/08/2017, 11:15 - 12:45, £0.00: Tour of the Library
Discounts are available to Society members. Free events must be
booked. For full details see www.sog.org.uk/books-
courses/events-courses
London Show at Sandown Park Racecourse
TheFamilyHistoryShow.com
Run by Discover Your Ancestors, also organisers of the
Yorkshire Family History Show, this new London event
is attracting exhibitors and family history societies
from all over the UK. You don't have to have London
ancestors to come to this fair - they can be from
anywhere in the country! Everyone is very welcome
and there will be lots to see. There will also be free talks
running throughout the day.
There is plenty of parking and refreshments are
available all day. Tickets will be £4.80 at the door – and
visit the website for a two-for-the-price-of-one ticket offer!
Sunday 24 September 2017, 10am to 4.30pm
Sandown Park Racecourse, Portsmouth Road, Esher, KT10 9AJ
Admission: Adults £4.80, Children under 14 FREE

26 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS

U
HISTORY IN THE DETAILS: UNDERWEAR
A brief history by costume and picture expert Jayne Shrimpton
ndergarments have long been
worn for modesty, warmth,
comfort and hygiene. Biblical
references to the fig leaf and ‘girded
loins’ indicate early types of covering
for the genitals, probably initially
sourced from the natural world, later
fashioned from woven cloth. Paintings
demonstrate that medieval men wore
either drawers formed like a simple
loincloth of fabric passing through the
legs and tied about the hips with a lace,
or looser girdled Saxon ‘braies’ of
varying lengths, sometimes indistin-
guishable from outer breeches. In
general, fine linens were worn by the
wealthy, coarser linens or leather
drawers by the masses. Tudor trunk
hose were underlined with linen and
during the 1600s and 1700s most men
wore washable linen breeches linings,
tied at waist and knee, with or without
separate flannel or linen drawers.
From the early-1800s cool cotton
materials were used and Regency and
early-Victorian male undergarments
comprised a shirt and loose cotton or
calico (stout cotton) drawers. Much
discussion ensued as to which fabrics
were best worn next to the skin and
creamy-coloured woollen flannel was
prescribed for warmth. By the late-
1800s, men wore long, close-fitting,
woven or machine-knitted drawers
and vest – or one-piece ‘combinations’,
still favoured by older wearers between
the wars. Yet briefer styles were more
fashionable and young men adopted
slender knee-length drawers or
‘trunks’, these growing shorter in the
1920s/1930s.
Historically women’s main under-
garment was the long shift: although
girls wore drawers or pantaloons, there
is little evidence of adult female
drawers until the 19th century. During
the early-1800s and 1810s, some ladies
layered ‘flesh-coloured pantaloons’
beneath diaphanous neoclassical
gowns and eventually narrow calf-
length drawers evolved comprising
two separate overlapping legs (without
a gusset) attached to an adjustable
waistband. Their use may have
advanced during the severe winter of
1840. In 1841 The Handbook of the
Toilet proclaimed: ‘…drawers are of
incalculable advantage to women,
preventing many of the disorders and
indispositions to which British females
are subject. The drawers may be made
of flannel, calico or cotton, and should
reach as far down the leg as possible
without their being seen.’ Late-
Victorian dress reformers
recommended women’s wool, flannel
or cellular cloth combinations,
although high fashion favoured more
alluring lingerie, the most luxurious
sets hand-made in coloured silk, with
embroidery and black lace. From the
early-1900s, the growth of sports
prompted a preference for modest
closed drawers or ‘knickers’ and these
grew briefer, rising above the knee
during the 1920s. Improved artificial
rayon fabric enabled ordinary women
to wear glamorous silk-like knickers or
‘panties’/‘pants’ by the 1930s, both
camiknickers combining slip and
knickers, or separate bra and French
knickers in vogue. 
JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress
historian and picture specialist, and author of
several family photo and dress history books.
www.jayneshrimpton.co.uk
In the print edition: look out for Jayne’s
article on menswear in Issue 6

 This painting of Saint

Jayne Shrimpton
Roch, c1480,
attributed to Carlo
Crivelli, provides a
rare glimpse of a
medieval linen male
loincloth tied in front
with a lace

 This advert from

1914 shows the
enduring popularity
of functional
Victorian combina-
tions combining vest
and drawers and the
new closed
Directoire ‘knickers’
(after ‘knickerbock-
ers’)

 Short camiknickers combining slip and knickers were fashionable

1920s-1940s. This advert for camiknickers made at home from
synthetic fabrics dates to c1940

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 27


PLACE IN FOCUS
Ipswich }
I
pswich in Suffolk has been an
important English port since Saxon
times, and claims to be one of the
country’s oldest towns.
Under the Roman empire, the area
around Ipswich formed an important
route inland to rural towns and
settlements via the rivers Orwell and
Gipping. The modern town took shape
in the 7th–8th centuries around Ipswich
dock, essential to trade with north-
western Europe.
Towards 700AD, Frisian potters from
the Netherlands area settled in Ipswich
and set up the first large-scale potteries
in England since Roman times. Their
wares were traded far across England,
and the industry was unique to Ipswich
for 200 years. With growing prosperity,
in about 720AD a large new part of the
town was laid out in the Buttermarket
area. Parts of the ancient road plan still
survive in its modern streets.
After the invasion of 869 Ipswich fell
under Viking rule. The earth ramparts
circling the town centre were probably
raised by Vikings around 900 to prevent
its recapture. The town operated a mint
under royal licence from King Edgar in
the 970s, which continued through the
Norman Conquest until the time of
King John, who granted the town its
first charter in 1200.
In the next four centuries it made the
most of its wealth, trading Suffolk cloth
with the Continent. Five large religious
houses stood in medieval Ipswich.
There were also several hospitals,
including the leper hospital of St Mary
Magdalene, founded before 1199.
During the Middle Ages the Marian
Shrine of Our Lady of Grace was a
famous pilgrimage destination. Around
1380, Geoffrey Chaucer satirised the
merchants of Ipswich in the Canterbury
MEET SUFFOLK RESEARCHERS
• Suffolk Family History Society,
www.suffolkfhs.org.uk
28
TheGenealogist.co.uk
Tales. mixture forming the basis of Fisons
Thomas Wolsey, the future cardinal, fertiliser business.
was born in Ipswich about 1475 as the The Tolly Cobbold brewery, built in
son of a wealthy landowner. One of the 18th century and rebuilt in 1894–
Henry VIII’s closest political allies, he 1896, is one of the finest Victorian
founded a college in the town in 1528, breweries in the UK. There was a
which was for its brief duration one of Cobbold brewery in the town from
the homes of the Ipswich School. 1746 until 2002.
During the 14th to 17th centuries Ipswich was subject to bombing by
Ipswich was a kontor (trading post) for German Zeppelins during World War I
the Hanseatic League, the port being but the greatest damage by far occurred
used for imports and exports to the during the German bombing raids of
Baltic. World War II. The area in and around
In the time of Queen Mary the the docks were especially devastated.
Ipswich Martyrs were burnt at the stake Exclusive census analysis from the
on the Cornhill for their Protestant data at TheGenealogist.co.uk reveals
beliefs. From 1611 to 1634 Ipswich was that common Ipswich surnames
a major centre for emigration to New include Clarke, Cook, Bird, Turner,
England. It was one of the main ports of King, Cooper, Baker, Parker and Day;
embarkation for puritans leaving other in 1841, Allen, Green, Read, Cole,
East Anglian towns and villages for the Harvey and Chaplin were also common
Massachusetts Bay Colony during the here; as were Woods, Barker, Last,
1630s and what has become known as Garnham, Abbott and Webb in 1911.
the Great Migration. Suffolk Archives has a branch in
In 1824 Dr George Birkbeck, with Ipswich, in Gatacre Road – see
support from several local www.suffolkarchives.co.uk– and
businessmen, founded one of the first is developing a major new archive
Mechanics’ Institutes, which survives to centre called The Hold on the town’s
this day as the independent Ipswich waterfront, due to be opened in
Institute reading room and library. 2019. 
In the mid-19th century coprolite This month all subscribers
(fossilised animal dung) was can access Pigot’s 1823
discovered; the material was mined and Suffolk directory, thanks
then dissolved in acid, the resulting to www.thegenealogist.co.uk.
 IPSWICH RECORDS ONLINE
Leading data website TheGenealogist.co.uk has a wealth of records for Ipswich and
Suffolk. Here is a quick run-down of what you can find (in addition to national
collections):
• Trade directories: 11 directories from 1844 to 1939 cover Ipswich, including a 1939
Ipswich phone directory.
• Census records: Ipswich records for every census from 1841 to 1911.
• Parish registers for Ipswich St Nicholas, and a book of marriage licences for the
town.
• Nonconformist registers: Numerous Nonconformists from the town are covered in
the site’s collections.
• Land owners: the site’s huge collection of tithe commutation records and maps
includes Ipswich; plus an 1873 survey of Welsh and English landowners includes the
region.
• Wills: many people from Ipswich can be found in Prerogative Court of Canterbury
(PCC) Wills 1384-1858, plus the site has a calendar of Suffolk wills from 1383 to 1604.
www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL
BOOKS
}
Flesh and Blood: A History of My
Family in Seven Maladies • Stephen
McGann • £20 • www.simonand-
schuster.co.uk
Flesh and Blood is the story of the
McGann family as told through seven
maladies – diseases, wounds or
ailments that have afflicted actor
Stephen’s relatives over the last
century and a half, and which have
helped mould him into what he now
perceives himself to be. It’s the story
of how health, or the lack of it, fuels
our collective will and informs our
personal narrative. Flesh and Blood
combines McGann’s passion for
genealogy with an academic interest
in the social dimensions of medicine
– and fuses these with a lifelong
exploration of drama as a way to
understand what motivates human
beings to do the things they do.
Emigrants: Why the English Sailed
to the New World • James Evans •
£20 • www.orionbooks.co.uk
During the course of the 17th century
nearly 400,000 people left Britain for
the Americas, most of them from
England. Crossing the Atlantic was a
major undertaking, the voyage long
and treacherous. There was little hope
of returning to see the friends and
family who stayed behind. Why did so
many go? Emigrants casts light on this
unprecedented population shift – a
phenomenon that underpins the rise of
modern America. Using contemporary
sources including diaries, court
hearings and letters, James Evans
brings to light the extraordinary
personal stories of the men and women
who made the journey of a lifetime.
One Hot Summer: Dickens, Darwin,
Disraeli, and the Great Stink of 1858
• Rosemary Ashton • £25 •
www.yalebooks.co.uk
A unique, in-depth view of Victorian
London during the record-breaking
summer of 1858, when residents both
famous and now-forgotten endured
‘The Great Stink’ together. While 1858
30
in London may have been noteworthy
for its broiling summer months and
the related stench of the sewage-filled
Thames River, the year is otherwise
little remembered. And yet, historian
Rosemary Ashton reveals in this
compelling microhistory, 1858 was
marked by significant, if unrecog-
nized, turning points. Ashton mines
Victorian letters and gossip, diaries,
court records, newspapers, and other
contemporary sources to uncover
historically crucial moments in the
lives of three protagonists – Charles
Dickens, Charles Darwin, and
Benjamin Disraeli. She also introduces
others who gained renown in the
headlines of the day, among them
George Eliot, Karl Marx, William
Thackeray, and Edward Bulwer Lytton.
The Most Extraordinary District in
the World: Ironbridge & Coalbrook-
dale • Barrie Trinder • £16.99 •
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
The Ironbridge Gorge, a cradle of the
Industrial Revolution, in the late 18th
century was a magnet for writers,
artists and industrial spies. The latest
wonders of engineering and metallur-
gical technology were to be seen in a
spectacular natural setting, where the
fast-flowing Severn passed between
towering cliffs of limestone, and
www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL
hillsides honeycombed with mine
workings amid the smoke of furnaces
and the clanking of engines. Barrie
Trinder, the acknowledged authority
on the subject, has selected the most
interesting descriptions and pictures
to provide an invaluable anthology,
through contemporary evidence, of
the place and the people in that
pioneering period, when this corner
of Shropshire was changing the world.
Jane Austen at Home:
A Biography • Lucy Worsley
• £25 • www.hodder.co.uk
On the 200th anniversary of Jane
Austen’s death, historian Lucy Worsley
leads us into the rooms from which
our best-loved novelist quietly changed
the world. This new telling of the story
of Jane’s life shows us how and why she
lived as she did, examining the places
and spaces that mattered to her. It
wasn’t all country houses and
ballrooms, but a life that was often a
painful struggle. Jane famously lived a
‘life without incident’, but with new
research and insights Lucy Worsley
reveals a passionate woman who
fought for her freedom. A woman who
far from being a lonely spinster in fact
had at least five marriage prospects,
but who in the end refused to settle for
anything less than Mr Darcy.
The Last Wolf: The Hidden Springs
of Englishness • Robert Winder • £20
• www.littlebrown.co.uk
It is often assumed that the national
identity must be a matter of values
and ideas. But in Robert Winder’s
account it is a land built on a lucky set
of natural ingredients: the island
setting that made it maritime; the rain
that fed the grass that nourished the
sheep that provided the wool, and the
wheat fields that provided its cakes
and ale. Then came the seams of iron
and coal that made it an industrial
giant. Travelling the country, Winder
looks for England’s hidden springs not
in royal pageantry or politics, but in
landscape and history.
 CLASSIFIED ADS

ESSENTIAL RESOURCES
DORSET FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY
W: www.dorsetfhs.org.uk
E: contact@dorsetfhs.org.uk
Treetops Research Centre, Poole, has knowledgeable
volunteers to assist ALL researchers including those
with non Dorset ancestors. Access to Internet sites,
very extensive Parish Registers and Monumental
Inscriptions. Library and sales area. Monthly meetings
with speakers and computer group. Membership
includes quarterly journals and access to Members'
Interests. Coach trips to National Archives and other
Repositories. More information on website.
DISCOVER YOUR
CONTINENTAL ANCESTORS!
W: www.histoires-de-familles.org
E: mariecappart@gmail.com
Belgium, Northern France, The Netherlands.
Research, translation, look-ups and tailored visits.
GUILD OF ONE-NAME STUDIES
T: 0800 011 2182 (freephone)
W: www.one-name.org
E: guild@one-name.org
Guild members have the history of over 8000
surnames. Check our website for your surname and
obtain details from the Guild member. Why not
extend your hobby and join the Guild to start a world-
wide one-name study? Members enjoy many
benefits which assist their study and share their
expertise and know-how.
HUNTINGDON FAMILY
HISTORY SOCIETY
T: 01480 390476
W: www.huntsfhs.org.uk
E: secretary@huntsfhs.org.uk
For those with family links with the old county of
Huntingdonshire before it became part of
Cambridgeshire in 1974. Monthly meetings. Society
journal published three times a year. Details of
membership, meetings, journals and publications,
}
plus news of our BIG Family History Fair on Saturday
2nd May 2015 at Burgess Hall, St Ives, Cambs PE27
6WU can be found on our website.
RESEARCH IN GERMANY
T:+49 5321 39 88 514
W: www.woerteragentur.com
E: info@woerteragentur.com
Woerteragentur provides research assistance in the
following areas of Germany: Hamburg, Bremen,
Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Fee-based
research carried out by Woerteragentur in parish and
church records, regional and national archives etc.
searches sources such as original documentation in
church registers, wills and probate, registration cards,
address books, obituaries in local newspapers etc.
The fee-based service includes transcription and
translation of sources into English.
SOCIETY FOR ONE-PLACE STUDIES
W: www.one-place-studies.org
E: info@one-place-studies.org
An innovative international society bringing together
the disciplines of local and family history. This online
organisation provides help, support and encourage-
ment for those conducting an in-depth study of a
place, be it a single cottage or a whole town. Learn
from the website and online publications, exchange
ideas via the Forum or Hangouts-on-Air and take part
in joint research projects.
WILTSHIRE FAMILY
HISTORY SOCIETY
T: 01380 723830
W: www.wiltshirefhs.co.uk
Our Society is the focus for people worldwide with
Wiltshire ancestors, linked by seven Wiltshire
branches, a popular Journal and a useful website. Over
thirty years of advising, collecting, and transcribing by
our members has created a wealth of knowledge and
information shared: plentiful via our website, and
much, much more in our publications and CDs.

To book an ad visit www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk/classified

Gift subscriptions: At just £24.99 a year, this publication represents fantastic value for all
budding family historians. Please email subs@discoveryourancestors.co.uk with 'Gift' in the
subject line to set up a gift subscription.
Looking ahead: In the next issue, read about Caribbean history, glass etching, Branwell
Brontë and more!
Look out for Issue 53 of the Periodical at the start of September!

DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS PERIODICAL | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 31

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