Time travelling in 2019

I’m relatively new to the genealogy research ‘game’, I’d dabbled a few times with immediate family and the free sites but that was about it. As I said before family rumours and whispers have always tantalised that there was something interesting in the past but no royalty or landed gentry have been found so far, neither has any international relations.

Some things that were laid down in stone have been challenged like all good tales passed down through generations, my wifes family were told that a gt gt grandfather had fought at Rourkes Drift, made famous in the Michael Caine film ‘Zulu’ . Through some trawling through army records and online medal sales I found out that he hadn’t fought in that famous battle, much to the joy of some family members…you know who you are ;o) however he was in South Africa at that time and his regiment had been ordered to reinforce the forces in KwaJimu as it was known in the Zulu language. They encountered elements of the Zulu army and were forced to make camp about 15 miles away, the war diary of the regiment records who they could hear the battle but were powerless to intervene, a story that seems to have grown in the telling.

My own family have supposed links to the Caribbean, something I havent been able to find so far, the way our name is spelt has also changed over the generations. The double T we all insist is important, really wasn’t when you consider it has swapped with its single T’d version at least twice in the records. Malaband, spelt with one L as a way to identify the family has been single L double L and began life as Mallabone, which brings me to the time travel.

Sometimes you luck into a situation, something wonderful will drop into your lap and you just have to thank whatever lead you to it and vice versa. In this case I was travelling along the Malaband/Mallabone branch line and came across another genealogist who had Robert Mallabone b. 1683 in their tree. However the information on their tree was Private and I had to request that they share the information, I had no great expectations beyond find a possible father for Robert or maybe just his children, imagine my suprise and delight when the very kind Sue (the ladies name) a distant cousin, sent me the following.

Robert Mallabone was christened in Nuneaton, Warwickshire 11 November 1683.

He was the second son of Robert Mallabone and Mary Morris.

He seems to have arrived as a bachelor in Berkswell from Arley by 1707, having been nominated as schoolmaster 14 May 1707 and licensed on 30 May of the same year. Below is his nomination by the parish council and license to teach grammar school by the Church of England.

May the 14th 1707 Memorandum that the day and yeare above written It is agreed between Mr Thomas Walker and the Parishioners of Berkswell That the said Thomas Walker shall resigne up and leave the Schooll of Berkswell he having been for sometyme School Master thereof In the weeke before Whitsunday next In consideration whereof the said Parisioners doe agree and promise to pay the said Thomas Walker the sum of Seeven pounds within the spase of one Month-next ensueing the day that he leaves the schooll Also the said Parishioners doe agree and promise to pay to Mr. Suffolke the sum of Tenne pounds in consideration of his service & Officiateing as Schooll Master for some tyme retained by the said Parishioners And the said parishioners doe all Unanimously agree upon and elect Robert Mallabone of Arley in the County of Warwick gent. to serve the said parish as Schooll Master for one yeare to commence from Whitsunday weeke next ensueing the date thereof And then to give such security at his dutys ende as the Counsell for the said Parishioners shall advise to remove from and leave the said schooll within halfe A yeare after notice given at the at the exepyration of the said first yeare the major part of the parishioners at a publik meeting of the said Parishioners upon A Monthly notice given in the church for the said meeting doe agree and order that the said Robert Mallabone shall resigne and leave the said schooll And the said parishioners doe agree and promise to pay the summe of Twentye markes by four payments in the yeare for every yeare that he shall officiate as Schooll Master there And proporsanably for a lesser tyme And in case the said Robert Mallabone should marry within the yeare commenceing from Whitsunday week as aforesaid He the said Robert Mallabone doeth agree & promise either to leave and resigne up the said schooll or otherwise to give securitye to indempnifye the said parish of Berkswell. Witnesse our hands the day and yeare aforesaid William Gibbs }Churchwardens Thomas Robinson I consent G. Smyth Tho. Walker to elect Mr. Mallabone Arth. Lugg Tho. Suffolk Schooll Master Geo. Dyall Robt. Mallabone & likewise to pay George Lugg _______________ him 20 marks per annum John Savage Junr. & allso 7li to Mr John Allen John Freeman Constable Walker & all the rest of the William Perkins Tho. Daffern Articles I disent Gilbert Dorker John Downes from witness Clement Banwell my hand John Bennett John Wolf Josiah Cates Lichfield 30 May 1707 Let Robert Mallabone be licensed to teach boys in the free grammar school established in the parish of Berkeswell, to which post he has been named by the parishioners of that place. Signed in our presence W. Walmirley Written by R. Ridersum N.P.

The Subscription Book of the Bishop of Lichfield and Canterbury indicates that Robert was ‘literate’ or ‘literatus” indicating that he did not possess a degree, but that he was judged by the bishop to possess sufficient learning to qualify for ordination.

The Berkswell School was housed in the Tower of the parish church, St. John the Baptist, in the room above the porch, a half timbered addition. The benches used by the children are still around the room as well as the pegs above for their hats.

On September 9, 1713, at the age of 29, Robert was ordained a deacon.

Two years later, on September 25, 1715 Robert was ordained a priest. In preparation for this, a letter testimonial was written and signed by four churchmen from neighboring parishes, the Master of the Hospital of Basall and several prominent laymen declaring his worthiness for the position. To all the faithful in Christ, to whom this present letter will have reached, Greetings. As is the custom in the ancient and venerable Church of England, that they who have joined probity of life with the study of letters should be adorned with honor, by the trusty public testimony of proper men; We the undersigned, witness that we have known Robert Mallabone, beloved in Christ, for the last three years, that his life and morals have been established piously and soberly, that he has diligently exhibited study in good letters, above all that his loyalty to their Majesties is manifest, also that he has never, as far as we know, held to anything that the Church of England does not approve of, and also that he especially defends its discipline, he distinguishes himself in all respects. To all this things we set our names plainly and with conviction. 5 September 1713. Ed. Hayward Vicar of Fillongly Charles Yardley Vicar of Corley William Wight Rector of Arley Moses Cotterell Vicar of Ansley Paul Lowe Master of the Hospital of Balsall George Smyth Gent. George Walker Dyall Gent. William Sleath

On September 11, 1718 Robert was appointed Curate of the Parish of Berkswell. As such he would have assisted Robert Boyce, rector of the parish.

Less than a year later, on August 25, 1719, Robert was appointed Vicar of Shustoke Parish and served there until his death on 14 October 1759.

The assignment also included the parish of Bentley which at one time had a small chapel which had long ceased to function when Robert was appointed Vicar of Shustoke. He would however, have administered the pastoral and ecclesiastical needs of Bentley Parish.

From 1721 to 1748, in addition to his duties as Vicar, Robert also acted as schoolmaster of the nearby English School founded by Thomas Huntbach of Shustoke in 1699. Here Robert taught about thirty pupils which would have included the children of both the Bentley and Shustoke Parishes.

In 1738 Robert was also licensed by Lord William Digby, as the Perpetual Curate of Over Whitacre. He served in this position until his death. Lord William Robert Mallabone appears by name in the charity accounts of Over Whitacre receiving an annual sum for “teaching six poor Children to write and Read” from 1742-1746. This was probably in his capacity as master of the English School.

From 1749 until his death in 1758 Robert is listed as the minister who made the charitable distributions. One interesting entry is a charitable gift of three shillings made Christmas Day 1744 to purchase “a Duty of Man” for “Mrs. Mallabone’s maid.” Besides performing christenings, marriages, burials and distributing alms to the poor, Robert also saw to the maintenance and repair of the church.

In 1736 the Treble Bell in St. Cuthbert’s tower was recast at the foundry of William Brooke, of Broomsgrove, Birmingham. The inscription on the recast bell was in the form of a rhyming couplet and reads: Mr. Robert Mallabone Vicar, as I do tell, And Josias Allen, Churchwarden, when I was made a bell. W.B. Bromsgrove.

1736 Robert and his family would no doubt have lived in the Vicarage in Shustoke that stood on the site of the house now known as The Old Vicarage, a large house situated to the left of the drive that leads to the church of St. Cuthbert’s with the church farm on the right. Here Robert and Sarah reared their seven children.

At least four of these children died as young adults.

No Mallabone gravestones survive in the churchyard of St. Cuthbert’s.
The graves of both Robert Sr. and his son Robert were reportedly located within the Nave of the church and marked by inscribed stone slabs laid in the floor. It is generally believed that these slabs were destroyed during the disastrous fire of 1 June 1886 caused by a lightning strike on the church.
Ref Jeanette Hurst

As you can see it doesnt answer the questions I thought it might but it does bring a life lived 300 years ago right into the present day. The documents transcribed within it are windows into the past, showing how a young man matured into an adult and became a pillar of his community.  It also opens a whole new area for research, is the church still there, does the bell still exist, neither of which I had any idea about this morning.

As part of his work this man hatched, matched and dispatched hundreds if not thousands of people, he played a huge part in peoples lives for decades and even had his name cast in a bell! Yet until today his story was unknown to a branch of his family, his name forgotten, his surname mutated beyond memory but still he survived all of this and his story eventually resurfaced and transfixed his 9x gt grandson….

 

A chip Offlow the old block

I’ve been doing some genealogy recently, looking backwards through time at where I come from. It’s been a fascinating thing to do, I knew bits and pieces from grandparent’s tales, but you only tend to get the interesting bits that are part of family folklore and sometimes the devil is in the details that are either forgotten or buried through some sense of shame.

Late 19th century image of some Gt x grandfather on their boat at a wharf somewhere on a river. Not much is known as you can tell.

I have found the promised connections to a major canal carrying company, Samuel Barlow’s through a Gt Gt Grandmother, a Gt Nan whose Birth certificate states proudly under Birthplace “A Boat, On the canal at Fazeley, Tamworth’  But I’ve also found stuff that was unmentioned beyond whispers of not talking about it because it was too upsetting.

Family members who fought and sadly died in both World Wars, photos seen as a child that I wasn’t allowed to talk about, young men in uniform who would never grow old. Gt Uncles who never had time to create their own family tree branches, it has really brought me closer to who I am, not an easy thing to do. Still searching for international connections, but it might be they are still to come in earlier generations.

A small section of the 1939 census from Old Birchills, you can see Ernie Thomas is listed as well as the Foster and Moore families both well known on the BCN.

As part of the research old census returns have been most helpful, they take a bit of getting used to and you are relying on your ancestors literacy and also the spelling ability of the person recording the details… not always as accurate as you’d think for an official recorder.

The details recorded on the census forms are mainly about individuals, address, relationship, where born and occupation. Every item is a doorway into the past, you can see how many people lived in the houses, small two bed terraced houses with three generations living in them often with 5 or 6 kids. It’s times like that you realise Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was accurate in the description of Charlie’s family situation, people would have been top and tailing on a bed, if they even had a bed. In some cases it was probably sacking full of straw covered by whatever clothes they had to try and keep warm and comfortable. You see occupations handed down from father to son, Brushmakers passed through 3 generations on one branch,  cordwainers (posh shoemakers) is a popular one in a branch of my family, white smiths (tin wear makers(plates, cups etc)) was another along with the ubiquitous miners of various materials and Ag Labs or agricultural labourers, women were often silk winders if they weren’t listed as unpaid domestic duties or in quite a few cases domestic servants to other families, often being a servant not to a wealthy family but to another family in a similar situation to their own, the work they did being paid for with board and lodgings seemingly to get them out of the family home and off the family ‘payroll’.

Another part of the census was the districts the people lived in, alongside the more recognisable areas such as Walsall or Walsall Foreign (Explained here on The Bloxwich Telegraph) there was another area often listed on the headers of the census sheets, that of The hundred of Offlow. Now I have to admit I’d not heard of it before, I have heard of the Chiltern Hundreds, that fabled place MPs go to when they want to resign their seat. It turns out ‘Hundreds’ are an ancient way of dividing a shire for military and judicial purposes under the common law (Thanks wikipedia) and Offlow Hundred comes from Offa, the chap with the Dyke and hlaw meaning a mound or high place.

More details on Offlow can be found on wiki here including details of the origin of hundreds under Alfred the Great and Offlows inclusion in the Domesday book.

My reason for this post comes from the great map I found online marking the boundaries of the hundred, it dates from 1610 and many of the place names are still recognisable if a little different.

Its not just the facts it contains but it’s the sheer art that it conveys from the map maker, here was someone who really had a skill, the penmanship is a joy to behold. I love old maps but I dont really know much about them, having found the map I looked up Offlow on wiki where the map was again reproduced as an illustration this time with the maker listed as John Speed. Now I would love to say I leapt from my chair shouting Eureka as the name was already known to me but alas, I cant. What I can say however is that a simple Google soon informed me that he is probably the most famous of British map makers, I think its easy to see why this was the case, if you want more information on him this is a great place to start. If you are feeling flush you could even buy an original map of Staffordshire drawn by his fair hand…or a copperplate of one anyway, they are certainly things of beauty.

Vanishing crane

Back in the early 80’s we had our narrow boat out of the water at Birchills, the old Ernie Thomas’ yard, I wrote in more detail about this yard here. Nice and local for us to do maintenance on the hull including painting it with blacking (a tarry substance put onto boat hulls to protect them from rust) and caulking the join between the iron hull and the wooden top. Caulking is when you get a length of old rope and unpick it into a looser, thinner strand and hammer it into the join between two planks or in our case the iron and wooden join. This was an old skill well known to wooden boat builders of all hues and creates a watertight seal once the planks expand when wet. My Granddad was an old boatman and his whole family were well known on the BCN working for different carriers and boatyards so it was a skill he picked up during his working life and as a 12/13 year old I learnt from him how to do it.

Caulking a boat, driving the oakum into the gap between two planks.

A reefing tool, used to pull old caulking out so that it can be replaced with fresh.

An array of caulking tools, two caulking mallets, a reefing tool and a caulking iron. Nice fat blade to cover more area in a short amount of time.

Now these jobs, caulking and blacking, were usually done in a dry dock, thats a bit like a lock where you take the boat in but instead of taking you down to a lower level the water runs out and the boat sits on blocks so you can do work on the hull. In our case my granddad knew this crane was available and as far as I know free, which was probably the best bit for him, so he could get the boat onto the bank and do the work needed.

Now the crane was in Birchills, it was about 30 ft high, had two arms which reached out over the canal and had a hoist on each arm that ended in a cradle. These cradles would be sunk into the canal and the boat then floated over them, the cradles were then raised out of the water bringing the boat with them.  It was a really simple and efficient way of docking single boats at a time and must have been installed at the end of Thomas’ working period. Earlier photographs show extensive docking facilities of the traditional kind with side slips and movable sheds for cover. As seen bottom right on this image from the wonderful Britain from Above website.

A more general shot of the yard, the dock is front right. Empty boats awaiting orders or docking can be seen moored on the main line with a loaded boat heading for Birchills top lock to work its way down towards Pleck and maybe beyond.

The crane was totally hand powered, with large chains slung around the drums which controlled the length of cable that the cradles were hung from. Blocks and tackles reduced the effort needed to raise the easily 10-15 tonne boat to something a youth such as I could do, the only drawback was each cradle ran on a separate drum so two people had to coordinate what they were doing to ensure the boat came out level and was sat on the land trucks the same.

The trucks were like larger versions of the cradles, each one had four wheels and ran on rails, or used to, by the time we used them the shed they ran into was in use by a different business so the trucks were basically used as supports while the work was done.

I didn’t understand why we were so rushed to get the work finished on our boat, we had moored at Birchills for a few years, the crane wasn’t busy in fact we were the only people to use it in that time, so I couldn’t understand the rush to get the boat out docked and back in the water. The reason was clarified the day after we got the boat back in the water, inspectors arrived to cut down the crane they had condemned the week before we used it.

Now we come to the vanishing part, there are no photos of this crane that I and other researchers have managed to find. In fact there are some who have doubted its existence, thinking I have it confused with the yard crane that was a lot smaller and situated near the dry dock alongside Ernie Thomas’ house. Are there any readers out there who may have memories of this large crane, even better with any photos?
I have checked Jack’s (Haddock) archives online through the clickintime website and nada… over to you.