In the 19th century news

When a name on our 19th century register is uncommon, a trawl of the local papers on the British Newspaper Archive, together with the usual genealogy sites and search engines, can turn up some interesting potted biographies and social history.

Take Cornelius Kingdom.  He was born in Hull in 1851.  He crops up in the Hull papers first in December 1867.  He was apprenticed to the owner of a Hull fishing smack, but absconded and was caught in Grimsby.  He was sentenced to 7 days in prison.  He must have decided that a life at sea was not for him and on the 1871 census he was a fishmonger.  At some point he went back to fishing.  He next turns up in November 1894 as the skipper of the steam trawler Madras.  The boatswain had a bad accident while they were at sea and Kingdom had to return to Hull.  A journal published in 1900 tells us that the Madras was the first Hull trawler to have a the otter trawl fitted, with great success.  But in 1901 the vessel was involved in two collisions with other trawlers, in the Humber in calm conditions, and after the second the Madras foundered without loss of life.  We can't be sure that Kingdom was still the skipper at this point.  His last mention in the news came in 1904 when he was in command of the steam trawler Jed.  It was involved in what became known as the Russian outrage, when the Russian Navy attacked the British trawler fleet by mistake.  Kingdom and his ship apparently were unscathed.  But he left the fishing life and the 1911 census describes him as a general labourer.  In February 1924 he was admitted to the Charterhouse and died two years later.

An earlier resident, Samuel Mozeen, had a very different life.  Born somewhere in Yorkshire in around 1799, he was apprenticed to gunsmith George Wallis Jnr, the son of a famous gun maker who had taken over the business when his father died in 1803.  When Wallis junior died in 1833 Mozeen advertised that he had taken on the business at the same Mytongate premises.  Shortly afterwards he took over from another famous gunsmith, John Blanch Jnr, at 26 Silver St.  Mozeen did not advertise again until late in 1849, when he announced that he had sold all his stock to William Needler of Scale Lane.  A year later he was awarded a room in the Charterhouse; the register says he was 54, though he was probably a couple of years younger.  Either way, he was too young.  He died in July 1850.

Cornwell Baron didn't appear in the papers very often, but when he did it was for the wrong reasons.  Born in 1785 in Ulrome, he went into business as a timber merchant, with a partner, but went bankrupt in 1810 and 1812.  By 1819 he was insolvent again and imprisoned for debt.  In July 1833 a very small item appeared in the Hull Packet: "Cornwell Baron (47) was charged with embezzling certain sums of money, namely £3 5s.4d. and £2 10s."  On the 1851 census he is described as a merchant's clerk, and lived in Providence Row, Walker St.  His wife Elizabeth died in 1853, and Cornwell was admitted to the Charterhouse in July 1854.  He died on 21 Mar 1862, leaving a will but effects of less than £20.

One of quite a few Charterhouse men in the clothing trade was tailor and draper Robert Bellard.  He was born in 1785 in Welton near Hull and christened in Swanland Independent church, so came from non-conformist stock.  His first advertisement appeared in the Hull Packet in April 1819.  His shop is at 14 Bridge St.  He says that he just returned from London with the latest fashions (dubious, but all the tailors and dressmakers said it) and various kinds of cloth the names of which mean nothing now.  In 1821 his ad reported that he had moved to Dock Office Row, and his ads in subsequent years show that is where he stayed.  In 1845 he said that he had taken on a cutter.  There are no more newspaper advertisements, and he was admitted to the Charterhouse in January 1856.  He died in 1858.

Theophilus Routledge was another tailor, but of menswear.  Born in Easington, Co Durham, in 1827, he was in Hull by 1851, staying with his older brother John on Hessle Rd.  Both were tailors, although the census says that Theophilus employed 6 men and John only one.  They appear to have been rivals rather than partners.  The only advertisements that Theophilus placed were all in 1854, when he had premises at 32 Queen St as a "merchant tailor, hatter and gentlemen's outfitter".  The first ad offered an Aberdeen hat (?) for 12/6d.  The other two, both in December, promote a raglan cloak with sleeves, and a reversible overcoat.  Routledge was still described as a tailor in 1871 and 1881, but is in lodgings in East Hull, and had perhaps fallen on hard times.  He was admitted to the Charterhouse in December 1893 but in February 1901 he was "removed for drunkenness" and went to the Willerby Asylum, where he died in June 1901.

Born in 1802, Michael Parker worked for 25 years for the W & J Walker iron works before announcing in the spring of 1849 that he was setting up in business as an ironmonger on his own account at 32 Scale Lane.  A year later he moved to 75 Lowgate ("four doors from the Town-hall" as his ad pointed out).  He seems to have concentrated on bathrooms and showers.  In 1855 he expanded into premises with "commodious and elegant showrooms" at 57 Lowgate and had taken over another local firm.  Perhaps he overreached himself.  January 1857 he was advertising a large variety of goods.  But By 1857, however, he was bankrupt, with his valuable stock being sold at auction.  He climbed out of bankruptcy in 1859 and started up his business again.  But it didn't last.  He was bankrupt again in 1865.  His wife died in the same year.  But he was back in business as a "tinner" by 1871, and a supplier to the Workhouse.  We next hear of him when he was admitted to the Charterhouse in February 1879.  He died in December 1884.

Remarkable Residents 3: Colley Bedford

He is another resident on our 19th century register whose life shows that having the right connections helped in getting a place in the Charterhouse until well into the 19th century.  Colley Bedford was born in Folkingham, Lincolnshire, in 1789.  He married his first wife, Louisa Kirk, when he was only 17, in Sheffield.  We know nothing about his subsequent work and travels until 1821 when Louisa died in Hull "in the prime of her life" [Stamford Mercury].  By this time Colley was a tailor.

This ad is from the Hull Advertiser of 31 May 1822.  Whether or not he had "just returned from London" is dubious, since he said exactly the same thing in an ad a year later.
In 1825 Bedford remarried, to Sarah East, the daughter of a Lincolnshire farmer.  By the 1830s he had become involved in public life.  In 1833 he was elected Surveyor of the Highways, and also as a church warden for Holy Trinity church.  The latter post was contentious.  James Acland was another man proposed but rejected.  How involved Bedford was with Acland at this stage is not clear, but by 1835 he was on the committee of the Hull Reform Association, Acland's campaigning radical political group.  Another future Charter-house resident, John Jackson, was also involved.  At some point Bedford was elected to the Board of Guardians and on 5 December 1836 he was appointed their auditor.  In 1837 he put forward a motion to eject the man who had been Surgeon to the Guardians for 35 years.  This sparked a move to get him disqualified as a Guardian.

The Board of Guardians were very powerful, administering the Poor Law, overseeing workhouses and other forms of poor relief.  It was meant to be politically neutral but that was clearly impossible.
Bedford also became prominent in Freemasonry, becoming Master of the Minerva Lodge in Hull.  He was also a member of the Brough Hunt, enjoying hare-coursing.
In his business life Colley Bedford had formed a partnership with John Turner Milner, described as a pastry cook, in 1834 or earlier.  In 1840 the partnership was declared bankrupt.  Bedford soon tried to bounce back.  By 1841 he had moved both his business premises and his home to a house on King Street.

By 1845 he was advertising in the local papers again.

(Google does not offer any help with what exactly a "pantelot" was.)  He makes plaintive reference to his four years of  "considerable difficulty" and the "real friends" who continued to support him.  But he could not recover his former prosperity.  In April 1846 his wife Sarah died, "after a long and painful illness, borne with Christian resignation" according to the notice in the local paper.  She was only 46.

The Freemasons stood by him, presenting him in February 1847 with an inscribed arch jewel, a masonic emblem.  But by 1848 Colley Bedford was an insolvent debtor again.  He was discharged in March 1849, but in order to pay off his debts he had had to sell his house and its contents.  There was no way back.
His connections proved valuable.  On 2 October 1851 he was elected to a room in the Charterhouse.  He died on 26 April 1857.

Remarkable Residents 2: John Merriman

To get a room in the Charterhouse in the 19th century it certainly helped to have the right political connections.  One who did was John Merriman.
He was born in Durham on 17 August 1804.  Nothing is known of his early years, but by 1836 he was in Hull and in partnership with a man whose surname was Hansell*.  Together they set up a business at 13 Silver St as high class drapers.  The Charterhouse owned much of Silver St, but this may well be a coincidence.

Silver St, Hull

Hull Packet, April 1837

It is well worth googling the unfamiliar fabrics, and the accessories are fascinating.  They were clearly aiming at a fairly affluent clientele.  In 1846 John married Hannah and they appear to have lived above the shop.

Ten years later fashions had changed and furs were added to the stock.  This is from April 1847.

But by 1853 they had decided to get out of the drapery business.

It's interesting that the firm to which they sold their stock, Edwin Davis & Co, were still in business in Hull up to the 1960s.

Merriman & Hansell now went into ship-owning and insurance (the two often went together in this period), with offices at 11 Parliament St.  By 1876 Hansell was out of the picture and John had an office at 33 Pemberton St. in East Hull - a distinct step down from Parliament St.  But by then the couple were living at 6 Hornsea Parade, Holderness Rd.

We know of two ships owned by the partnership.  One was the barque Guiding Star, built in Sunderland in 1853 and registered to Merriman & Hansell from 1865 to 1872.  This was abandoned while carrying coal in 1872.  The second was the Kathleen, a German-built barque which was six years old when John acquired it in 1870.  This was detained after an inspection in 1875 in Hull and found to be rotten and unseaworthy.  It was broken up.  It appears that ship-owning had not been a success.

After leaving the drapery business John also entered into civic life.  In 1858 he was elected as a commissioner in the Humber Pilot office.  In 1860 he was a church warden at St Peter's, Drypool.  And in August 1861 he became a City Councillor.

It's interesting that he beat a Reckitt.  By 1866 he was a member of the Board of Health.

By 1881 John and Hannah were living in Argyle Terrace; we are uncertain which of two possible streets this was, but neither suggest that the elderly couple had much money, and they may well have been in poor health.  On 15 January 1885 they were awarded a room in the Charterhouse but died within a month of each other in October and November of the same year.

* This may have been Thomas T Hansell, who was a Hull merchant but this is a guess.

Remarkable residents 1. Robert Rivers Melbourne

He was admitted to the Charterhouse on 9 November 1868 when he was only 56, a clear breach of the rules.  But Robert Rivers Melbourne was a local celebrity.
There are a number of confusions about dates.  It's not clear, for instance, where he was born; the 1861 census says London.  It's also unclear exactly when he became manager and lessee of the Queen's Theatre on Paragon St, Hull.  Most reports say 1854, but a newspaper story in 1933 tells of his pioneering balloon ascent from the Zoological Gardens in 1849.  However, he was in Belfast in 1848, managing the Theatre Royal there and marrying Caroline Lewis of Bristol.  (She was 27; he was 37).
Melbourne was in partnership with Joseph Henry Wolfenden, and the pair got the licence to run the Hull theatre in 1857 - or perhaps earlier.

Queen's Theatre, Paragon St, Hull

In the same year Melbourne and Wolfenden applied for a licence to run the Theatre Royal in Sheffield.  When there were objections to this, they argued that their licence to run the Queen's in Hull had already been renewed several times because it was all legal and successful.  There is no further record of this application.
Wolfenden died in 1861 after being thrown from his horse.  He was only 34.  Melbourne paid for his grave in the Hull General Cemetery.  Wolfenden's widow, Henrietta, took his place in the partnership with Melbourne.  [Caroline Melbourne now becomes something of a mystery.  On the 1861 census she is a visitor at the home of a family in Sculcoates (Hull).  In 1864 and 1867 the local papers report three occasions on which a Caroline Melbourne is charged with theft, twice of bed-linen, but one would have expected them to mention the fact if this is Robert's wife.  We don't know whether she entered the Charterhouse with Robert, but after his death she would have been evicted and she tried to earn her living as a dressmaker, lodging with various families.  She died in 1885.]
The theatre seems to have been successful if the number of advertisements for shows is any indication.  For much of the 1860s these appear frequently in the local papers, particularly in 1864 and 1865.

This one is from February 1864, advertised for the "benefit" of Henrietta.  It shows a typical theatre programme of the time, a mixture of short plays and music.  Notably, Melbourne himself acted in the "farce" which concluded the evening.

Also from 1864, this one advertises a visiting opera company, including a benefit evening for the leader of the company, Louisa Fyne.

There was also an annual pantomime.  This one ran through January 1865 with special trains advertised to bring people from places like Grimsby and Withernsea.  In 1866 Henrietta Wolfenden died and was buried in the same grave as her husband.
The pantomime staged in January 1867 proved to be the last.  In February Robert filed for bankruptcy, with liabilities of about £1,500 (about £94,000 in today's values).  He had been generous with his money, but the debts suggest that the theatre had been losing money for some time.  His friends rallied round.  There was a benefit performance at the Theatre Royal and, with what we would now call crowd-funding, the debts were paid and the bankruptcy discharged in June 1867.
Robert tried to start again.  In September 1867 he acquired the use of the lecture hall in the old Mechanics' Institute building in George St to set up a music hall.

The venture seems to have failed.
His theatrical friend Mr Coleman helped out again, engaging him to take part in a 7-night performance in the spring of 1868.  But that was the end of Robert's career.  He was  already a sick man when he was given a room in the Charter-house in November 1868.  He died only 2 months later on 15 Jan 1869.

 He was buried in the same grave as Joseph and Henrietta Wolfenden.  The headstone no longer exists.
The Queen's Theatre was closed for good in 1869 and its contents auctioned off.