John Richard Stubbs goes to Middlesbrough, February 1861

John Stubbs' Manifold Letter Writer contains the carbons of letters written between 1860 and 1871.  

He began in mid-August 1860 by looking for a post, writing in reply to various advertisements and placing an advertisement himself in the Law Times:

A Gentleman recently admitted wishes to pass a year or two in an office of Good General Practice either in Town or Country.  Improvement being more an object than remuneration. 

Address  J.R.S care of Messrs Waterlow & Sons Law Stationers 24 & 25 Birchin Lane London

No satisfactory job offers were forthcoming, and by early 1861 he had taken a bold decision.  He wrote on 14 February to a friend in London:

Boroughbridge
14 Feby 1861

My dear Sharpe
    I have been so strongly recommended to try Middlesbro’ that I have taken an Office there & am going next week.  I can only leave it if I find anything better turns up.  I have got an introduction to Mr Crosby the County Court Registrar at Stockton & to Mr Brewster the principal Solicitor in Middlesbro who received me in a very friendly way & I hope to get a few more introductions to some of the leading people in the neighbourhood.  If you can do me any good I shall feel greatly obliged & now I am going to give you a great deal of trouble but if you will undertake for me you will save me a journey to Town & that is to select a library for me  I enclose a List of Books which I shall want & if you can improve upon it please do so & I need not say let me have the latest editions.  Butterworths sent me a Circular in which they say they send books Carriage free & allow 10 per lb but I fancy it ought to be 20 pr lb discount.  If you will ascertain the cost of the books I will send you the Cash & I should not like the parcel to be sent off until next Wednesday or Thursday when it can be addressed to me at Middlesbro' as I hope to be there next Thursday.  Should you ever come my way I shall be exceedingly glad to see you.  I shall only be 6 miles from the Watering Place Redcar -
I am My dear Sharpe
Yours very truly
J R Stubbs

J A Sharpe Esqre

Luckily, the carbon for this letter is quite dark - some are very hard to read.  He attached a List of Books:

Some work on preparing Abstracts
Archbolds Landlord & Tenant
Chitty on Contracts
Brooms County Court Practise
Okes Magisterial Synopsis
Sugdens Vendors & Purchasers
Stephens Lush’s Common Law Practise
Stephens Com. Law Procedure Act 23 & 24 Vic c 126
Allnutts Wills
Hughes’ Conveyancing
Rouses Practical Man
Lawyers Companion for 1861 edited by H. Moore Esqre
Jarmans Precedents for Wills
Roscoes Nisi Prius
Addison on Torts
A Work on Solrs General Costs
Kains Cash Journal        Kains Ledger Journal  ruled for carrying out Kains System    
Law Journal Reports for 1860 unbound if you can get them as I have 5 yrs previously to 1860 unbound

Unfortunately, his diary for 1861 has not survived.  So disappointing for Middlesbrough historians!

Margaret Spence's jointure, 1695

This is a counterpart of Margaret Spence's jointure upon her marriage with John Newsome, dated 26 July 1695.

It was made between John Newsome the elder, yeoman of Langthorpe near Boroughbridge, and his son John Newsome the younger (1) and Richard Robinson, yeoman, and John Raper of Langthorpe, yeoman (2), and it was made in consideration of the marriage of John Newsome the younger and Margaret Spence, spinster of Ripon.  Unfortunately, the deed is very worn at the point where it tells us whose daughter she was!

You can also see that somebody has removed the seals.

Young men in London: 1860

On 1 February 1860 John and his sister Alice arrived in London at the house of their cousin Jane Hirst.

Jane had married Charles Stewart Stubbs (her second cousin once removed) and was known in the family, to distinguish her from the many other Jane Stubbs, as "Mrs Charles".  A tragic accident left her widowed in 1848, only four years after her marriage.  Charles's death in a riding accident in the Park left Jane at the age of twenty-four with their two very young children and pregnant with the third.  She remained in London near her husband's family and must have had the financial benefit of her marriage settlement and the support of her father and her father-in-law.

In February 1860 she was aged thirty-six and lived with her son and two daughters in Islington at 15 Cloudesley Square.

Islington was on the cusp of change.  Cloudesley Square was some thirty years old, in an area of pleasant terraces laid out with gardens in open countryside from 1825 onward, with the Holy Trinity Church designed by the young Charles Barry.  The rural quality of Islington began to disappear from the middle of the century, when it became rapidly built up.  A fashionable shopping "bazaar" had been built on the High Street in 1850, and in 1860 the Grand Theatre or Philharmonic Hall was under construction, while the open land remaining at Stoke Newington was soon to be built over.

London was already beginning to undergo the vast changes that would create a modern city.  Huge trenches were being dug to house the new underground railway and the Houses of Parliament, destroyed by fire a few years before John was born, had been rebuilt.  After the Great Stink of 1858, plans were afoot to create the sewerage system that would rescue the city from stench and disease, but it would be ten years before the opening of the Albert and Victoria Embankments began to create the riverside panorama that we know today.

Alice, aged fifteen, was on her way to school in Blackheath – accessible by train from London, growing rapidly and with many schools, it was an ideal place for her and her cousin Polly Redmayne to complete their education and broaden their experience. 

John was twenty-one and after his years in Uncle Hirst's office was in London to complete his law studies and take the examination which would qualify him as a solicitor.  He would be in London for the next four months, so Mrs Charles helped him to find lodgings with a Mrs Pirmiger at 23 Upper Islington Terrace, just north of present-day Cross Street.

Transcription of John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1860

3 ½ in x 6 in black notebook:  “Renshaw’s Diary and Almanac for 1860”

Sunday January 1
In the morning to Aldbro church  in the afternoon to Kirby Hill & In the eveng to BB church

Monday January 2
To office   At night Steele Sedgwick  Scholfield  E.C.Clark & I dined at Owens & a very pleasant evening we had   got home about 12.  At Noon walked to Langthorp  Miss Stamper left them today

Tuesday January 3
To office.  At night Lizzie & I dined at Dr Sedgwicks   Had a rubber  got home about ½ past 10

Wednesday January 4
To office.  At Night Read law at the office   attended a Meeting at the Newsroom  bought the Times for Mr Hirst at 22/-    Supped at Uncles

Thursday January 5
To office.  At night Read law at the office

Friday January 6
To office   At noon walked with Joe to Langthorpe   at night Drove Capes as far as Hazel Bank  he had tea with us

Saturday January 7
To office.  Capes went by noon train to York & was met at Cattal & from there he drove to Minskip   I drove the trap   Capes came from Knaresbro in to Minskip & we both had tea at Clarkes & attended a sale of township property     after the sale I went home with Capes to Knaresbro to stay till Monday

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1860

Transcription of John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1859

Written in the same diary as 1858

Saturday January 1
To office.  At night walked with Steele to H.E. Clark’s to tea (the last time as a bachelor) as he is to be married on Wednesday.  Jacob Smith & Thos Lund were there    played cards.  Steele was called away   I got home a little before 12

Sunday January 2
Twice to BB Church   Joe spent the day with us   Sarah was in York.  He & I walked to Kirby Hill Church in the afternoon.  LW Sedgwicks child was christened in the evening

Monday January 3
To office.  A Noon Had a walk with Capes   At Night went with Miss Stott, Steele & EC Clark in Stotts phaeton to Clarks of Minskip to tea   Miss Calder   The Misses Appleton & Miss McCleod were there   Had a good dance   John Clark drove the Sedgwicks & Alice & Lizzy & me home   got home about 12

Tuesday January 4
To office   At Noon rode Joes mare to Sugar Hills near Givendale to see some coursing  Had some pretty fair sport   At Night was about home

Wednesday January 5
To office  At Night went to Capes’s   stayed supper

Thursday January 6
To office   Spent the evening at Joes

Friday January 7
To office   At Night went to supper at Mrs Parkers at Langthorp   played Bagatelle

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1859