John Richard Stubbs (1838-1916), Boroughbridge-born Middlesbrough solicitor

John Richard Stubbs (1838-1916) came to Middlesbrough in February 1861 as a newly qualified solicitor some eight years after the new town was incorporated as a borough in 1853.  An active and gregarious man and an excellent shot, he soon took his place in the social, professional and sporting life of the area.

John was born in Boroughbridge, the son of Thomas Stubbs and Mary Henlock.  His family tree is set out in The Genealogical History of the Family of the late Bishop Stubbs (1915, Volume 55 of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society).  John and Bishop William were cousins on both their fathers' and mothers' sides – their fathers were brothers and their mothers were second cousins. John's immediate family is to be found on page 71 with one error.  His sister Alice did not die in 1891 but survived until 1921.

His diaries cover the years 1853, 1855-7, 1858/9, 1860, 1862-74 and 1876-1907.  The entries are not descriptive or reflective, but consist of short notes of his activities.  They give us a glimpse of the daily life of his home town of Boroughbridge and the nearby villages, his school days in Settle and his adult life in Coatham and Middlesbrough, but the principal value to Teesside historians must lie in the record they provide of the circles of professional connection,  friendship and kinship which lay behind the municipal and business life of Middlesbrough.

I plan to begin on John Stubbs' papers next and to post pieces from research I did some years ago – one result of this can already be seen in the article on Branwell Brontë's Honest & Kindly Friend.  I have decided that the best way to make the contents of the diaries available to fellow local historians is to photograph the pages and add a note of the names mentioned to each blogpost so that they will be found by a search engine.

We shall see (eventually) how this new project goes!

Ledgers of the Stubbs business in Boroughbridge, 1790-1830

The Stubbs family business has already appeared in this blog in the account of the Five Guinea Note from the Boroughbridge Bank.

Ledgers of the Stubbs business for the years between 1790 and 1830 are held at the North Yorkshire County Record Office [NYCRO ZGB].  What follows are the notes I made for NYCRO in 2008, when the ledgers returned from conservation:-

These ledgers relate to the business established by Thomas Stubbs (1761-1838) at the house and premises known as the Bridge Foot, Boroughbridge. 

Thomas Stubbs was the grandfather of Bishop William Stubbs of Oxford, the eminent historian.   Stubbs “recommended the following up of local and personal history as leading to a connexion with the greater streams and lines of social and political history that is full of direct interest, which a man can have all to himself” [1].  He used his own family history as an example:

“... My grandfather’s house stood on the ground on which Earl Thomas of Lancaster was taken prisoner by Edward II, on the very site of the battle of Boroughbridge; he, too, was churchwarden of the chapel in which the earl was captured....” [2]

The Bridge Foot was a house the Bishop knew well.

Thomas Stubbs  was born in Ripley, the son of Thomas Stubbs (born in Hampsthwaite, 1735-1805) and Elizabeth Walls of Milby (1743-99) [3].  His father had chosen to leave Nidderdale, where the family had lived and farmed for many generations, to become a grocer in Ripley. 

In his turn, Thomas junior left Ripley for the thriving town of Boroughbridge, where he set himself up as a grocer, tea dealer and wine and spirit merchant living and working at the Bridge Foot. 

Boosbeck Steam Saw Mills Co Ltd, 1874

This is rather hard to read! (The triple dots mark the point where I have given up for the moment.)  But I can't think that much can have survived from this company, which was wound up a couple of years later, so I think it is worth posting here.  Here is my (partial) transcription:

Boosbeck Steam Saw Mills Company Ltd

7 Sept 1874 

to JR Stubbs Esq Middlesbro 

Dear Sir
At a meeting of the Directors of the above company the following minute was entered
"That Mr Stubbs & Mr Macfarlane draw up a report to present to shareholders, and that the report be embodied under the following heading" viz.
"That proper machinery in first instance having been obtained, consequently the house to be taken down and suitable machinery erected in its place, thereby entailing extra cost - The dullness arising from recent strike, and the great difficulty in obtaining lathes, saws &c owing to the disturbed state of the trade [...] and the want of system in keeping the accounts and separating them under their proper headings"
"The Books have now been remodelled and all the proper machinery processed and the Directors hope to be able to write off this loss by next year"
I may add that the meeting of shareholders was fixed for Saturday September 19th at Boosbeck at 3 pm.  You will however receive due notice of this shortly.  The above resolution was proposed by Mr Walker & seconded by Mr Anderson
I am yours faithfully [...]

John Richard Stubbs was Official Receiver in Bankruptcy.

The War Department requisitions The Manor House at Carlton-in-Cleveland, 1940

The War Department requisitioned many large houses across the country in the Second World War. 

The paperwork for the requisition of the Manor House at Carlton-in-Cleveland has survived.  This is the Agreement with the War Department and the Notice of Requisition.  You can see that Robert Raby is employed as gardener, maintaining the ornamental grounds:

Old picture postcards

More from Ellis Stubbs' postcard album:

Guisborough Priory and Lily Pond

Old Ormesby

Roseberry Topping

Trafalgar Terrace,Coatham

Loch Katrine

High Row, Reeth

Sandsend

(Sorry about the sloppy photography - I was watching the Tour de France in the Dales at the time!)

John Macfarlan Charlton, 21st Northumberland Fusiliers

John Macfarlan Charlton 1891-1916

Jack Charlton was the son of the artist John Charlton (1849-1917) and his wife Catherine Jane Macfarlane (known to family and friends as Kate).

John Charlton senior was born at Bamburgh, and was a celebrated painter of historical and battle scenes.

Kate died in 1893 at the age of 31 leaving two little boys.  She had grown up at Gunnergate Hall and Ugthorpe Lodge – she was the daughter of Catherine Jane Macfarlane (1839-1903) and Thomas Vaughan (1834-1900), the less successful son of ironmaster John Vaughan.

John Macfarlan Charlton was killed on his 25th birthday.  His brother Hugh Vaughan Charlton had been killed the week before.  Their names are recorded on their mother's grave in Marton-in-Cleveland and at Lanercost, where their afflicted father died the following year.

The 'Recent Wills' notice published in the Yorkshire Post on 10 November 1916 noted that John was "an enthusiastic naturalist [and] had written and illustrated several short works on ornithology".

This card is from the postcard album of Elizabeth Grace Ellis Macfarlane (always known as Ellis), the wife of John Richard Stubbs.  Kate Vaughan, the young officer's grandmother, was Ellis's cousin.

Joseph Beresford Shields 1879-1918

I don't know how these papers came to survive in a Deed Box from Meek, Stubbs & Barnley, solicitors, Middlesbrough.

A small envelope contains a letter from Joe Shields to his mother, his birth certificate and a letter from his mother to Mrs (or Miss) Wilson, his friend.  Joe's letter is dated 17 August 1916 and is sent from B Company, 9th Bedfordshire Regiment, stationed at Sittingbourne, and it's about the food he is looking forward to enjoying on a short leave:

His mother was Emily Julia Shields, née Mullen, and Joe was born in Stockton:

In July 1918 Mrs Shields wrote to a Mrs (or Miss, the title is altered in pencil) Wilson at Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.  The letter was forwarded to the Victoria Naval Hospital, Southend:

Joe has been reported missing, although his mother is still hoping for good news.  Her letter shows no address but one has been written in pencil on the reverse:

Sadly, there was to be no good news.  Joseph was killed in action on 24 May 1918; his grave is at Pozieres Memorial Cemetery.

It seems likely that the Mrs or Miss Wilson to whom Mrs Shields wrote this touching letter is the Miss Elizabeth Ann Wilson named as an executor of his Will.  She kept the boarding house in which he lived in Leigh-on-Sea.

His last address as a civilian (and the address given in the National Probate Calendar) was 19 Southend Southsea Avenue, Leigh-on-Sea.  He was living there at the time of the 1911 Census, which shows that the boardinghouse keeper was Mrs Elizabeth Ann Wilson, aged 46 and born in Boosbeck, Cleveland, and that Joseph was then 31 years old, unmarried and a draughtsman at the Marine Engine Works.

So it seems probable that Mrs Shields is addressing this Elizabeth Ann Wilson when she writes

I always felt my Dear Son had a good friend in you which I can assure you has taken a load off my mind.  I shall always count you as one of my dearest friends always write to me dear it will be such a consolation to me 

If there are any members of Joe's family out there who would like this letter, do please contact me ...