Reference
Z1288/1/1
Title
Typescript volume, dedicated thus: "To My Son in Cape Town August 20 1926" and titled thus: "The Story of twelve years in the life of a villager orphan 1846 to 1858 told by himself", a supplementary title thus: "CHAPTERS From the Autobiography of a Village Lad Showing the hardships and superstitions of Village Life in England In The first half of the last Century From 1846 to 1858". The author's preface states "The incidents I have herein attempted to record, are in no way overdrawn, but are accurately described as witnessed by me in my Boyhood days. I am much afraid I have fallen very short of the high ideals ever set before me by my mother. But if I have succeeded in pleasing those for whom these lines are intended (my dear children) then, indeed, I am amply rewarded for my pains".
Chapters run as follows, with brief notes of content:
- the first chapter is untitled but gives the author's background in terms of family and life in Turvey (born there on 26 Mar 1846) "at that time it was the most superstitious village in England" where in the 1840s the predominant trades were boot making for the army and making pillow lace; the author describes the actions of the Vicar [actually the curate William Breaghton Russell?] towards the family;
- "The Story of a Knife": how the author dropped his late father's knife, his mother's prized possession down a well and how his sister had an accident with a bucket which nearly killed her; the author relates village customs; how the author gave his father's knife away for sweets and money and his mother's reaction;
- "A Lie with a Double Meaning": how the author waded out to the statue of Jonah in the River Great Ouse;
- "My Illness": how the author suffered an unspecified illness which involved delirium; how the author's house was demolished and "several bags of old gold coins" were found, claimed by "Mr.Higgins" [presumably either Charles Longuet or Thomas Charles Higgins] "quite sufficient to prove to the villagers that the house was really haunted"; the family were given part of a disused farmhouse to live in;
- "My First Offer of Regular Employment": the end of the Crimean War (1856) and the author employed by Higgins to pick up walnuts in Turvey Park (2/- per week - "It will be seen that underlying the severe austere nature the Higgins family they had a strain of real good nature - but withal were always determined to keep people in what they called their proper station"); May Day celebrations in the village described;
- "An Interview Arranged for Mary": how the author worked for Mrs.Wooding, housekeeper at Turvey Lodge; how the author's sister Sarah became a probationary Nurse Attendant at the Three Counties Asylum [the author's memory may be at fault here, it is implied that this was about 1856 but the Three Counties did not open until 1859, it is possible that he meant the County Asylum in Bedford];
- "My First Engagement on a Farm": the author's work at Great Oaks Farm and how the farmer's wife kept a tame jackdaw;
- "A Criminal in the Making": how William Crawley beat the farmer who had first attacked him and could not find work and how he consequently resorted to poaching; a description of how organised poaching was at that date; how Crawley was imprisoned for snaring a hare at Stagsden; he was transported to Australia for attacking a gamekeeper who tried to arrest him;
- "My Mother's Influence": how the author's mother taught him natural history;
- "A Bit of Boyish Mischief": how the village blacksmith [either Thomas Covington or William Green] made the author a pellet gun and how he used it to shoot a deaf mute in the village; how the author had a job dibbling wheat at Great Oaks Farm; how the author smashed his fingers on the cog wheel of a threshing machine; superstitions in the village; how the author's mother died [buried 19 Sep 1858, aged 53]
- "I Leave My Native Village. My First Railway Journey": the author journeyed to London to stay with his mother's sister in Cannon Row "on the site where now stands Cannon Row Police Station"; the author describes a spectacular comet and fears of "the end of the World";
- "My First Visit to Chelsea": the author describes a visit to Chelsea Hospital and a friendship with a street dwelling orphan and pickpocket;
- "My First Meeting with Fanny": how the author met her in a sweet shop in Chelsea, and that she was an orphan who lived with the shop keepers; the author describes how he was sent back to Bedfordshire
Names index:
- Bailey, Robert: child who died [buried 2 Nov 1855, aged 9]
- Bell, Elizabeth: sister;
- Bell, Mary: sister;
- Bell, Phebe: mother;
- Bell, Sarah: sister;
- Bell, William: father;
- Bellamy "Dummy": deaf mute in the village;
- Bolton, George: farmer at Great Oaks Farm;
- Crawley, William: poacher;
- Higgins, Charles Longuet: Chairman of the Board of Guardians;
- Higgins, Thomas Charles: Chairman of Quarter Sessions;
- Higgins, William Bartholomew;
- Wallace: sweet shop-keepers in Chelsea;
- Woodem, Billie: playmate as a child;
- Wooding, Mrs.: housekeeper at Turvey Lodge
Date free text
1926
Production date
From: 1846 To: 1926
Level of description
item