John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1880

This diary has interleaved (blue) blotting paper - which means more pages ...

Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 30 September 1914

Wednesday 30 September
… Madge is coming back tomorrow [from Alnmouth] to see Lt Hughes who hopes to come here and go with me to the service on Friday.  It is most kind of him to come all this way and we are looking forward to seeing him immensely …

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1879

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1878

Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 28 September 1914

Monday 28 Sept
I returned in the evening to Camp.  Mr Kitchen very kindly asked Madge to stay, which she was glad to do as she liked the place so much, so I left her there for a few days.  A memorial service is to be held at Ormesby on Friday at 5pm.

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1877

Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 27 September 1914

Sunday 27 Sept 
A letter from Lieut Hughes, our dear boy behaved like a hero, going down below to wake a boy (Riley) who had not been wakened by the explosion, when the ship was

Memorial to Herbert Riley, RNC Dartmouth

heeling over and likely to go at any moment.  Lt Hughes spoke most highly of our boy and how he liked him, a delightful letter, but he could not give any definite news of the end.  It must be presumed without doubt that our boy could not hold out long enough.  They were rescued in that part about 2 hours after the Cressy sank.  Duncan got safely to the Cressy and was in her sick bay when she was struck, after that he was on a plank for a long time in the water but no one knows what happened at the end.  I got Mr Dixon, one of the masters at Peter’s school to make me a number of copies of the letter and sent it to my most intimate friends. 

Letters are pouring in, we have had over 100.  We talked to such a nice coastguard, he was once on the Cressy training.  Jock  came over from Darlington and Peter came to lunch and tea.

Herbert Riley did not survive the sinking of the Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy 

Jock Richardson (1895-1915) was Averil's eldest son.  He died of meningitis in camp a few months later.  He and Duncan are commemorated on a plaque in St Nicholas' Church, Guisborough

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1876

There is no diary for 1875 ...

Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 26 September 1914

Saturday 26 Sept 
Averil had to leave, Peggy being ill with a bad cold, Katharine and she went to Guisbro on Thursday.  Madge and I spent the day together.  She likes the place and is feeling better.  We went by train with Averil on her return journey to Warkworth and Madge and I walked back from there.  Miss de la Chemette [?] the Matron is most kind we had Peter to several meals during our stay, he is a dear little fellow.

Peggy Richardson was Averil's daughter. 
Katharine was the nine year old daughter of Major Stubbs and his wife Madge

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1874

 (Next year's calendar is pasted into the front cover, as you can see from the photograph above)

Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 25 September 1914

Friday 25 Sept 
Averil, Madge and I went to Alnmouth a delightful little place very small and pretty, and we spent the afternoon quietly there.

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1873

Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 24 September 1914

Thursday 24 Sept 
Another terrible day.  I don’t know how we got through it.  Many letters from friends but awful.  We arranged to go to Alnmouth over the weekend, Averil doing this through the matron of Peter’s school there.

Peter Richardson (1903-52) was the son of Averil, Madge Stubbs' sister, and her husband Willie Richardson of Guisborough

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1872

 No entries until February - and you can see why they were busy from the photograph below

Major Duncan Stubbs' diary entry for 23 September 1914

Wednesday 23rd September
I went up to the Camp and during the morning a telegram from the Admiralty announced that they deeply regretted our dear boy was not in the list of saved.  I returned and broke it to dear Madge and Katharine – I can hardly write of the next few days. 

I wired the Admiralty to ask Lieut Hughes the gunnery Lieutenant of whom Duncan had so often spoken to communicate with, I also wired Meakin, Willie and Dr Mackinlay asking him to tell them at Trafalgar Terrace, and I asked Averil to come, which she did at once and her presence helped poor Madge very greatly.  Everybody is most kind, the general telling me to take what leave I wanted.  Mrs Wilson wired her sympathy and that her boy was saved.

Lieutenant John Bernard Hughes was the son of Canon Walter Octavius Marsh Hughes of Tarporley, Cheshire.  He was born in 1888 in Houghton-le-Spring; his father must have been clergyman there at the time.
 
Mr Meakin was headmaster of Pembroke Lodge, the school that Duncan and his brother Hugh had attended on the South Coast.
 
Willie Richardson was a solicitor in Guisborough, husband of Madge Stubbs' sister Averil
 
Dr Mackinlay, family friend (grandfather of the late J L Mackinlay of Pinchinthorpe Hall and Simonstone Hall, Hawes.)
 
Trafalgar Terrace was the home of Major Stubbs' parents
 
Alistair Wilson was one of the 4 midshipmen of the Aboukir to survive.  He was posted to HMS Vanguard a month later and was killed on 9 July 1917 when one of her magazines overheated and blew up.  His head, found miles from the scene, was the only identifiable body part of any crew member to be recovered.

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1871

Local solicitors and World War One

The Record of Service of Solicitors & Articled Clerks with His Majesty's Forces, 1914-9 contains a list of lawyers who served during the First World War.

It isn't complete.  This can be seen from the fact that it does not include George William Wynne Barnley of the Royal Garrison Artillery.  He was one of the local solicitors to win the Military Cross (four more are listed below).

George William Wynne Barnley was the son of George Edward Barnley, solicitor, and his wife Emily.  The elder Mr George Barnley was born in Teignmouth, Devon; the younger was born in Middlesbrough in 1883.  The 1911 Census finds the family living in Danby. 

Edinburgh Gazette, 26 September 1918
Capt. (A./Maj.) George William Wynne Barnley, M.C., R.G.A.
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in command of his battery.  By his untiring energy and skilful arrangements the battery occupied many positions during the retreat, and was brought out of very difficult situations without the loss of guns, stores or transport.  It never failed to answer all calls made for maintenance of fire in support of infantry.
(M.C. gazetted 3rd June, 1918) 

Northumbrian Heavy Battery RGA - GWW Barnley is 2nd from left

This story was told with great affection by those who knew him: 
George Barnley suffered from a slight stammer.  On one occasion he led his men forward with the cry, "F-f-follow m-me, men!" and disappeared into a water-filled crater, from where he could be heard to shout, "D-don't b-bloody well f-follow me here!"

The loss of HMS Aboukir, Hogue & Cressy

Major T D H Stubbs was stationed in Newcastle with his Battery, with his family in lodgings in Jesmond.

From his diary:

Tuesday 22nd September 1914

I had been out with the Battery on the moor, and I wrote several postcards, one to my mother another to Lucas I remember, in both of which I told how our little Duncan had been getting on.  Madge, Hugh, Peggy, Katharine came on to the moor while we were drilling, it was a lovely day and we were all so jolly and happy, little did we think that our dear Duncan had that morning given his life for his country when the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue were torpedoed in the North Sea off Holland. 

I went down to 84 St Georges Square about 5pm to take Madge and Katharine out for a walk, as I entered the gate Mr Bell, the owner of the house, had a newspaper in his hand which he shewed to Mrs Grieg, he was very white and looked much distressed when he saw me.  I guessed in a moment, he asked me to go into the house and then asked the name of the ship our boy was on.  I told him.  He shewed me the paper in which the stop press news stated in a couple of lines that the Aboukir had been struck by a torpedo.  Nothing further.  I wired the Admiralty for news and he very kindly took the telegram.  I then went out having left Madge writing a letter without telling her until I could get more certain news. 

I met Grieg and we got another paper which published an official report that the three vessels had been struck and that a considerable number had been saved and lists would be published as soon as possible.  We arranged not to tell Madge anything about it for the moment and to keep newspapers from her.  I returned to camp and waited for news.  While in the Mess tent Mr Bell came to say that Madge had received a telegram from Averil asking whether we had news and consequently she knew that the Aboukir was lost.  I immediately returned to St Georges Terrace to be with her. 

I wired Mrs Wilson the mother of one of the other boys asking if she had news and stayed that night at St Georges Terrace.  Neither of us slept and the suspense was too terrible, Mrs Wilson wired about 1.30 am to say she had no news yet.

Madge was his wife.  Hugh and Katharine were his children, aged thirteen and nine.  Peggy Richardson of Guisborough was the eighteen-year-old daughter of Madge's sister Averil.  Lucas was a fellow solicitor in the firm of Lucas, Hutchinson & Meek.

HMS Aboukir was hit by a torpedo fired by the U9 submarine under the command of Otto Weddigen at 6.20 am on 22 September 1914.  HMS Hogue was hit at 6.55am and HMS Cressy at 7.20am.

Duncan was fifteen years old.  He was senior midshipman on board HMS Aboukir and when the ship began to sink he went below to rouse another midshipman who had not been awakened by the explosion.  He and the other boys swam from the Aboukir and while in the water he and Midshipman Kit Wykeham-Musgrave tried to save a drowning marine, holding him up for a considerable time.  They reached the Cressy and got on board.  They were swaddled in blankets and drinking cocoa when she was hit.  They took to the water again.  Duncan was a strong swimmer.  He was last seen with another boy taking the oar to which they were clinging to go to the help of a seaman who was beginning to sink.  They were drawn under with the drowning man.
 
The loss of the cruisers is being remembered today at the Historic Dockyard Chatham.  Of the men and boys who lost their lives 1,264 were from the Chatham Port Division.

When the Last Post is played by buglers of the Royal Marines 1,459 poppy petals will fall, each petal commemorating a life lost.

For more, see the website of the Live Bait Squadron

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1870

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1869

John Richard Stubbs' diaries for 1868

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1867

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1866

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1865

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1864

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1863

Names & places mentioned by John Stubbs in his 1862 diary

 I post this in case it's of any use to readers, either to identify people mentioned in the diary or to look for particular names ... it's a bit scrappy, I'm afraid ...

Adelphi Theatre, London
Alice – his youngest sister [Boroughbridge]
Appleton, Sarah [Boroughbridge]
Appleton, the Misses  [Boroughbridge]
Archbishop of York
Argyle Rooms, London
Armstrong

Bains/Baines, Nellie [at Redcar]
Baldrey [Boroughbridge]
Baltic Tavern
Barracks, the
Barroby, Miss [Dishforth – relations of Stubbs]
Bath Terrace, Redcar (No. 4)
Beaumont, D  [Boroughbridge]
Beaumont, Miss, of Knaresborough 
Bell, Aunt – his mother's sister [Boroughbridge]

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

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1860