The 1871 census found a diminished household at the vicarage – Robert, his sister Mary (here called Maria), whose age is now given as 75, and his sister Isabella (here for some reason called Jane), whose age is given as 72. They had one maid of all work living in the house – 20-year-old Mary Chipchase, born in Appleton Wiske.
New industries had come – there were now jet miners living in the village and working in Scugdale and a busy timber mill stood at the top of Sexhow Lane. George Wilson's Sailcloth Mill employed 24 men and 9 women and was being converted from water to steam power, while over on the Rudby side of the river, the bleach house employed three men.
Mr Barlow was occupied with a new project.
Not for him the usual topics of the clergyman scholar – he was engaged in a lively volume of disguised autobiography and colourful anecdote, under the pen-name Walter Fitzallen. It is interesting to note that nearly all the names he gives his characters were used by Sir Walter Scott – Graham, Clutterbuck, Barnard, Seymour and the name Fitzallen itself. Perhaps, although he does not mention reading Scott, he was so fond of his works that he had absorbed the names without noticing.
The novel was printed for Mr Barlow in 1872 by Wyman & Sons of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields – again, he had evidently no desire to use the local printers – and appeared as a small octavo volume (19cm tall) of 406 pages divided into 34 chapters.
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Monday, 31 December 2012
Chapter 21. "My intense exertions"
In Mr Barlow's notebooks we can catch a glimpse of his interests and activities in the latter part of his life.
In the Middleton Book in his early years in the village he had written out a "Catalogue of Books", which appears to be a record of his library.
It naturally included the classical authors and a range of religious works, such as Hebrew grammars, a Hebrew Psalter, sermons, commentaries, and Waldo on Liturgy [1], but also poetry and French authors such as Pascal, Racine and Mme de Sévigné, together with dictionaries. There were also works by the Evangelical philanthropist Hannah More, who had sought to counter the arguments of Tom Paine (the author so admired by the radicals of Stokesley) with her Cheap Repository Tracts urging the poor to work hard, respect the gentry and trust in God – views echoed in Barlow's sermon of 1833.
However Mr Barlow, though classically educated, was not interested in the usual pursuits of the scholarly Victorian cleric.
He had little interest in theological debate, and the great questions of his day that had tormented so many – from the Tracts for the Times to Essays and Reviews – seem to have made little impression upon him.
Practical matters and technology fascinated him above all, and, as can be seen in the draft of a letter [2] entitled "Suggestions upon the construction and armour of ships of war", his preoccupations were not those normally expected of Victorian clergy. The letter must date from the mid-1860s, as the Armstrong gun itself was only introduced in 1859:
In the Middleton Book in his early years in the village he had written out a "Catalogue of Books", which appears to be a record of his library.
It naturally included the classical authors and a range of religious works, such as Hebrew grammars, a Hebrew Psalter, sermons, commentaries, and Waldo on Liturgy [1], but also poetry and French authors such as Pascal, Racine and Mme de Sévigné, together with dictionaries. There were also works by the Evangelical philanthropist Hannah More, who had sought to counter the arguments of Tom Paine (the author so admired by the radicals of Stokesley) with her Cheap Repository Tracts urging the poor to work hard, respect the gentry and trust in God – views echoed in Barlow's sermon of 1833.
However Mr Barlow, though classically educated, was not interested in the usual pursuits of the scholarly Victorian cleric.
He had little interest in theological debate, and the great questions of his day that had tormented so many – from the Tracts for the Times to Essays and Reviews – seem to have made little impression upon him.
Practical matters and technology fascinated him above all, and, as can be seen in the draft of a letter [2] entitled "Suggestions upon the construction and armour of ships of war", his preoccupations were not those normally expected of Victorian clergy. The letter must date from the mid-1860s, as the Armstrong gun itself was only introduced in 1859:
My Lord Duke. Having carefully studied the experiments lately made at Shoeburyness upon the Hercules target which resisted a 300lbs shot propelled by a 60lb charge target coated with 9in armour backed by wood and iron the bolt having merely penetrated the 9in plate … and finding that such target resisted a 300lb Armstrong gun with a charge of 60lbs of powder …
… bearing all this fully in mind I am of opinion that the plan I now submit to your Grace will in several respects be found superior to the Hercules target. On the other side I give the sketch of a ships side from which it will be seen that my plan is to reduce the vital part of a ship to a minimum and to surround that portion with an impregnable belt …
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Chapter 20. "A very queer chap"
While Robert Barlow contemplated the success of his pamphlet, the nation was horrified to hear of the uprising in India.
In late July 1857 Lieutenant Hector Vaughan sailed with his regiment from Portsmouth on the Champion of the Seas. She was a clipper charted by the government as a troop transport, and she made the journey in only 101 days. Lieutenant Vaughan's regiment was to be present at the capture of Lucknow in 1858, and he would later receive the Indian Mutiny Medal. It was the beginning of Empire. Meanwhile, the old way of life in Cleveland was rapidly changing.
Middlesbrough, which had been a farm and a few cottages when Mr Barlow arrived in the area, was made a municipal borough in 1853; ironstone had been found in the Eston Hills.
Railways were spreading across the countryside – the line from Middlesbrough to Guisborough was built in 1853, and on 2 March 1857 the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway opened a line from Picton station to Stokesley.
It was an age of technological marvels, which Mr Barlow must surely have enjoyed – the first iron ship built on the Tees was launched at South Stockton in 1854, and in 1858 an iron steamer was built at Middlesbrough.
Improvements of all kinds were being carried out.
In Osmotherley, the open drain in the middle of the main street was covered over at last in 1852. By 1856 Yarm's trade as a port had almost entirely disappeared, but they had the railway and gas street lights. Stokesley had gas lighting, paved streets and a new Town Hall. The "odious unsightly shambles, situated in the centre of the main street" described by Ord in 1846 had finally been demolished, and neat new buildings erected in their place. Mr Barlow himself was improving his glebe land, and his notebooks contain records of field drainage undertaken.
In late July 1857 Lieutenant Hector Vaughan sailed with his regiment from Portsmouth on the Champion of the Seas. She was a clipper charted by the government as a troop transport, and she made the journey in only 101 days. Lieutenant Vaughan's regiment was to be present at the capture of Lucknow in 1858, and he would later receive the Indian Mutiny Medal. It was the beginning of Empire. Meanwhile, the old way of life in Cleveland was rapidly changing.
Middlesbrough, which had been a farm and a few cottages when Mr Barlow arrived in the area, was made a municipal borough in 1853; ironstone had been found in the Eston Hills.
Railways were spreading across the countryside – the line from Middlesbrough to Guisborough was built in 1853, and on 2 March 1857 the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway opened a line from Picton station to Stokesley.
It was an age of technological marvels, which Mr Barlow must surely have enjoyed – the first iron ship built on the Tees was launched at South Stockton in 1854, and in 1858 an iron steamer was built at Middlesbrough.
Improvements of all kinds were being carried out.
In Osmotherley, the open drain in the middle of the main street was covered over at last in 1852. By 1856 Yarm's trade as a port had almost entirely disappeared, but they had the railway and gas street lights. Stokesley had gas lighting, paved streets and a new Town Hall. The "odious unsightly shambles, situated in the centre of the main street" described by Ord in 1846 had finally been demolished, and neat new buildings erected in their place. Mr Barlow himself was improving his glebe land, and his notebooks contain records of field drainage undertaken.
Saturday, 29 December 2012
Chapter 19. 'The Queen, the Head of the Church'
Mr Barlow had now reached the age of fifty and the full implications of his situation had become unavoidable.
As a boy, he was
Not far from Mr Barlow's own parish, men of enterprise were developing new industries. People of his own acquaintance made epic journeys.
As a boy, he was
ambitious of distinction and learning … content with nothing if anything loftier stood forth for competition.As a man, he had an enormous interest in the outside world, and his leisure time was evidently spent in
the profitable perusal of scientific reasoning [1].One of his favourite books, referred to in his novel, was Alexander von Humboldt's Cosmos, on which he took copious notes:
The limit of perpetual snow depends not on the mean temperature of the year but of the summer which melts the snow … The Chinese had a waggon with a needle to direct them across the deserts 1000 years before Christ …Humboldt was a traveller, explorer and mountaineer, father of the earth and life sciences we know today, who conceived of projects unimaginable in his time, such as the Panama Canal and a United Nations.
Not far from Mr Barlow's own parish, men of enterprise were developing new industries. People of his own acquaintance made epic journeys.
Friday, 28 December 2012
Chapter 18. The early 1850s
In 1851, some months after her marriage, Marian Digby Beste and her new family left the country. They sailed for the United States in a large party consisting of eleven children (Beste's eldest son remained behind), several canary birds, a lapdog and a dormouse. They hoped to find a better future for the boys in the new world.
Back in Yorkshire, some of Mr Barlow's activities at this time can be traced in his notebooks, and particularly in the one that survived amongst the logbooks for the Hutton Rudby school. In it he recorded
the beginning of what was to be a long-running boundary dispute with his neighbour, the tailor William Jackson, who lived in the cottage where Drumrauch Hall now stands:
The 1851 census found Robert Barlow and all his family together in the vicarage: his wife, his three sisters and his nephew Hector.
They had a very suitable complement of servants – cook, housemaid and groom – indicating a well-to-do middle-class household. The cook and maid were two Hutton Rudby girls aged 20 and 17, Catherine and Elizabeth Bainbridge, and the groom was an Irish lad, John McLaughlin, aged 18.
Hector Vaughan was then 18 years old and must soon afterwards have begun his career in the army, entering the 1st Battalion 20th Foot (East Devonshire) Regiment [1]. At this time an army officer was generally expected to have a private income in addition to his pay. Hector may have inherited money from his father's family, or possibly his mother passed on to him some of the income from his father's Will and her own marriage settlement.
For this census Mr Barlow gave his age as 47 and reduced his wife's age from nearly 70 to 45. His two eldest sisters are described as aged 30 and 28 years old, while their younger sister Nanny has a mere fourteen years taken off her age, which is given as 36.
Back in Yorkshire, some of Mr Barlow's activities at this time can be traced in his notebooks, and particularly in the one that survived amongst the logbooks for the Hutton Rudby school. In it he recorded
the beginning of what was to be a long-running boundary dispute with his neighbour, the tailor William Jackson, who lived in the cottage where Drumrauch Hall now stands:
The time when the hedge at the foot of Jackson paddock Jacque Barn was cut by my order and in my presenceSome jottings show his open-handedness in giving and lending money to his parishioners, as for example:
after harvest 1850 by Ramshaw
after harvest 1851 by Thos Brown
Teddy has paid towards his boots 0 – 6 – 7 Decr 27th 1851Other entries include notes of the number of days worked for him by the Meynells, Hebron, "Joe" and Pat Cannon and details of the substantial sum of £309-19s he had made in 1854 on sales of crops grown on his glebe land.
The 1851 census found Robert Barlow and all his family together in the vicarage: his wife, his three sisters and his nephew Hector.
They had a very suitable complement of servants – cook, housemaid and groom – indicating a well-to-do middle-class household. The cook and maid were two Hutton Rudby girls aged 20 and 17, Catherine and Elizabeth Bainbridge, and the groom was an Irish lad, John McLaughlin, aged 18.
Hector Vaughan was then 18 years old and must soon afterwards have begun his career in the army, entering the 1st Battalion 20th Foot (East Devonshire) Regiment [1]. At this time an army officer was generally expected to have a private income in addition to his pay. Hector may have inherited money from his father's family, or possibly his mother passed on to him some of the income from his father's Will and her own marriage settlement.
For this census Mr Barlow gave his age as 47 and reduced his wife's age from nearly 70 to 45. His two eldest sisters are described as aged 30 and 28 years old, while their younger sister Nanny has a mere fourteen years taken off her age, which is given as 36.
Thursday, 27 December 2012
Chapter 17. 1844 to 1851: Changing Times
The parsonage house once completed, Mr Barlow and his household could leave Linden Grove and establish themselves in their new home.
He seems to have been more than usually disorganised at this time. His brother's death, the building work and the removals must have absorbed much of his attention; probably papers lost in the move contributed to his failure to make entries in the parish registers. His household may also have been distracted by anxieties for the condition of Ireland, now in the dreadful grip of the Famine.
Possibly he was too preoccupied with these matters to pay sufficient attention to the village school. However the 1845 report of an inspector visiting the village school may reflect something more seriously amiss in the original construction ten years earlier – he found the condition of the building and especially its roof to be "not good" [1].
In August 1846 Lord Falkland returned from Nova Scotia at the end of his term of office. He and his wife were to spend less than two years in England, and much of this time will have been spent in London where he had been given the post of Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of Yeomen of the Guard. In the spring of 1848, he and his household left for India ,where his term as Governor of Bombay began on 1 May.
He seems to have been more than usually disorganised at this time. His brother's death, the building work and the removals must have absorbed much of his attention; probably papers lost in the move contributed to his failure to make entries in the parish registers. His household may also have been distracted by anxieties for the condition of Ireland, now in the dreadful grip of the Famine.
Possibly he was too preoccupied with these matters to pay sufficient attention to the village school. However the 1845 report of an inspector visiting the village school may reflect something more seriously amiss in the original construction ten years earlier – he found the condition of the building and especially its roof to be "not good" [1].
In August 1846 Lord Falkland returned from Nova Scotia at the end of his term of office. He and his wife were to spend less than two years in England, and much of this time will have been spent in London where he had been given the post of Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of Yeomen of the Guard. In the spring of 1848, he and his household left for India ,where his term as Governor of Bombay began on 1 May.
Saturday, 22 December 2012
Chapter 16. Melancholy Intelligence: the death of James Barlow Hoy
Local life at this period is brought vividly to life in the Stokesley press.
The Stokesley News & Cleveland Reporter was launched by the young George Markham Tweddell in 1842. It was critical of government and an ardent supporter of the Anti-Corn Law League in a time of deepening recession. Tweddell's employer William Braithwaite had printed the first two issues for him until Tweddell refused to tone down the political content. The Cleveland Repertory & Stokesley Advertiser was Braithwaite's response – politically conservative and carrying far fewer political items, it was also a more enlivening read [1].
In their pages we find accounts of local events: births, deaths and marriages, the Cleveland Cattle Show, the Cleveland Agricultural Society, balls at the Crown in Osmotherley and the Fox and Hounds at Carlton, cricket matches, lectures in favour of teetotalism and against slavery, meetings of the local branches of the Oddfellows Society, visiting circuses, agricultural accidents, the Stokesley and Redcar races, police reports and local and national politics.
Mr Barlow can be spotted at the fifth anniversary meeting of the Cleveland District Committee of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, held in the Great Room of the Mill, the Earl of Zetland presiding [2], and also conducting the funeral service of Jeremiah Raney, landlord of the Wheatsheaf. As Mr Raney was a member of the Oddfellows, this was extensively reported by George Markham Tweddell, himself an officer of the Cleveland Lodge, and was well attended by members "wearing the usual funeral regalia of the Order" [3].
By 1843 Mr Barlow was ready to undertake a new major project in his parish.
The Stokesley News & Cleveland Reporter was launched by the young George Markham Tweddell in 1842. It was critical of government and an ardent supporter of the Anti-Corn Law League in a time of deepening recession. Tweddell's employer William Braithwaite had printed the first two issues for him until Tweddell refused to tone down the political content. The Cleveland Repertory & Stokesley Advertiser was Braithwaite's response – politically conservative and carrying far fewer political items, it was also a more enlivening read [1].
In their pages we find accounts of local events: births, deaths and marriages, the Cleveland Cattle Show, the Cleveland Agricultural Society, balls at the Crown in Osmotherley and the Fox and Hounds at Carlton, cricket matches, lectures in favour of teetotalism and against slavery, meetings of the local branches of the Oddfellows Society, visiting circuses, agricultural accidents, the Stokesley and Redcar races, police reports and local and national politics.
Mr Barlow can be spotted at the fifth anniversary meeting of the Cleveland District Committee of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, held in the Great Room of the Mill, the Earl of Zetland presiding [2], and also conducting the funeral service of Jeremiah Raney, landlord of the Wheatsheaf. As Mr Raney was a member of the Oddfellows, this was extensively reported by George Markham Tweddell, himself an officer of the Cleveland Lodge, and was well attended by members "wearing the usual funeral regalia of the Order" [3].
By 1843 Mr Barlow was ready to undertake a new major project in his parish.
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