Transcription of John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1862

This transcription is the first result of the new transcription team.  In this case Ian Pearce did most of the work; I transcribed the Boroughbridge entries, deciphered some of John's more difficult handwriting and added more annotations.  I'm posting it now, before the team really starts work, because it's one of the most interesting diaries.  

On the one hand, it's full of significant names.  It's clear that during 1861, the year of the missing diary, John had met many of the men who would form Middlesbrough, that "Infant Hercules".  In fact he was present in 1862 when Gladstone famously used the phrase to describe the new town.

And on the other hand, there is his visit to London.  In 1860 John had enjoyed London life in the company of other students.  This time he is two years older, a professional man, and out on the town with ironmasters – young men who, like himself, had come to Middlesbrough to make their fortunes.  Prepare for the seamy side of Victorian London ...

At the time of the 1861 Census, John was lodging with bricklayer Thomas Johnston and his wife Emma at No. 31 Sussex Street, Middlesbrough.

Wednesday 1 January   
I rode Joe's mare to Heaton House for my pipe case which I had left there.  I only saw Charley.  I met Marianne and turned back with her.  Joe dined with us at the Bridge Foot.  I was about house in the afternoon.  I left by six o'clock train for Middlesbrough.  Met Jno Peacock and Griffin at Northallerton Station, we came home together.  I went with Muller to the Club and had a game at billiards.
[Charley – the son of Charles Francis George Clark of Heaton House, Ellinthorp.  Marianne was the daughter.  Muller – Charles Muller.  JRS acted for him in obtaining naturalisation]

Thursday 2 January   
At the office all day.  Had tea with Elgee then went to the Club, from there I went home with Dixon and had supper.  Stayed till about twelve then went home to bed.
[Mr J F Elgee was Manager of Backhouse's Bank.  "The Club" is assumed to mean The Cleveland Club.  In the C20 this was situated in Cleveland Street.   Raylton Dixon (1838-1901), future shipbuilding magnate, was the same age as John but from a very different background.  His Draft Bill of Costs ledger shows that John acted for Backhouse & Dixon in December 1861]

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1862

 

Settlement on the marriage of Richard Walls and Anne Raper, 1737

This is the settlement made on 26 July 1737 for the marriage of Richard Walls, yeoman of Milby, and Anne Raper, daughter of John Raper, yeoman of Langthorpe.  It was made between Richard Walls (1) and John Raper of Langthorpe and Richard Raper, yeoman of Norton Conyers (2), and the witnesses were William Leadley and Sam Lunn.

Details of Richard Walls and Anne Raper are to be found in The Genealogical History of the family of the late Bishop Stubbs on p47.  Anne's mother's Will can be found on pp 299-300.

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