Northumberland Archives

One of the great things about visiting an archive is you never know just what will turn up. We have more than 6 linear miles of material here at Woodhorn and getting to know the collection is a lifetimes work, perhaps even two! 

One of the more interesting things I came across the other day was the Agreements and Accounts of Crew of Foreign-Going Ships 1863-1905.

The documents give details of ships registered locally and the crew aboard them, the documents themselves are often ornately stamped and sealed with the details of the ports they called at. The first one I saw detailed the travels of a Barque ship registered at Blyth in 1874 called the “Lucy” owned by Robert Gray and captained by Carnaby Gray it was sailing from Ipswich in Suffolk to Riga, then part of the Russian Empire, now the capital of The Republic of Latvia. 

It goes on to say that “thence to any port or ports in the Baltic, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Spain, Portugal or the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Sea of Azof [Azov] or continent of Europe and back to a final port of discharge in the United Kingdom. Probable length of voyage about twelve months. Ship fully manned with eight hands all told.” 

They set sail on the 31^st of July 1874 and reached Riga, which, in fact, was their only port of call, on the 22^nd of August 1874. On board with the captain were actually nine crew, rather than the “eight hands all told” as previously stated. The nine consisted of the captain, a ship’s mate, cook and steward, four able bodied seamen and two ordinary seamen. There is also someone with their job recorded as “BS” so this might have been boatswain, i.e., second mate. 

We also get to find out a little of what their life on board was like because listed upon the crew list is their rations for the week, which were:

	Bread lb	Beef lb	Pork lb	Flour lb	Peas Pint	Rice lb	Tea oz	Coffee oz	Sugar oz	Water qts
Sunday	1	1 ½	–	½	–	–	½	½	2	3
Monday	1	–	1 ¼	–	⅓	–	½	½	2	3
Tuesday	1	1 ½	–	½	–	–	½	½	2	3
Wednesday	1	–	1 ¼	–	⅓	–	½	½	2	3
Thursday	1	1 ½	–	½	–	–	½	½	2	3
Friday	1	–	1 ¼	–	⅓	–	½	½	2	3
Saturday	1	1 ½	–	–	–	½	½	½	2	3

Also written alongside was “No spirits allowed, when 2 oz of butter is issued daily per man ½ lb of meat less per man per day”, so this begs the question would you accept these terms and conditions? 

Ahh what of pay I hear you cry… well that depended upon your role on board. The captains pay is not stated. The mate was to receive £5 10s. The cook and steward £5, the second mate £4, the able seamen £3 10s. First ordinary seaman £1 and the second ordinary seaman £1 7s. 6d. 

Sound like a good deal? Well all contracts have two sides to them and the last page of the agreement lists offences and punishments, as sanctioned by the “Board of Trade in pursuance of the Merchant Shipping Act s. 149.” 

So, if you were caught swearing or using improper language you could be docked a day’s pay, sleeping or gross negligence while on the look-out would cost you two days’ pay and secreting contraband goods on board with intent to smuggle, well that could cost you a month’s pay. 

The thing I found most interesting though was the record for the cook/steward, who is recorded as being, a James Black of Jamaica aged 32, now whilst we cannot assume that James was a person of colour, people who had either been enslaved themselves, or were descendants of enslaved people were often given ‘English’ names and often the colour of their skin became their surname. Slavery was abolished in Britain in 1833 but continued in the U.S until 1865 James would have been born in 1842 and Jamaica at that time was a British Colony and had shipped thousands of enslaved African people to work on the sugar plantations. A James Black also appears on the ancestry website on a crew list for a vessel named the “Semantha” 

It may well be the same person as the Semantha was also a Barque, the ship sailed three years after the “Lucy” and James Black is the cook/steward, born in Jamaica and was able to sign his name, just as he did on the crew list of the “Lucy”. Unfortunately, as ancestry only have a transcription of the record, we are unable to compare the signature. If it is the same person, then happily his wage has increased to £6 10s and this time he got a cash advance of £3 0s. 5d. 

As for the “Lucy” she returned to Dover on the 21^st Oct 1874, with all men discharged the following day. So now you know that the Ship returned three months after leaving with all hands on board safe perhaps the Ts and Cs listed above sound quite good? 

Happy searching, or should that be sailing!? 

N.B. The crew list documents have not been item listed so are not yet available to the public in the study centre, but we are able to carry out postal research using the records, should you be looking for a relative for example. 

N.B. More information about crew lists can be found on the excellent crew list website https://www.crewlist.org.uk/ where you can search for ships or crew, they cover the period 1863 to 1913. The National Maritime Museum also have a searchable database on their website if you are looking for later ships or crew https://1915crewlists.rmg.co.uk/#home they cover the period from 1915 onwards. 

One of the most varied and interesting roles that Northumberland Archives staff fulfil is that of visiting sites to view material that the archive would potentially like to take into its care. Historically significant documents can find their way to the archive from many different sources; from an interesting scrap of paper being found in the back of a cupboard, to the closure of a business resulting in the wholescale clearance of the organisation’s offices. Having the opportunity to visit places and view archives in situ can be incredibly useful for archivists, whose role also includes making sense of the material so that it can be accurately catalogued and made available to researchers in as obvious and logical order as possible. This process can also vary in difficulty; for every site that contains well-organised, clearly labelled, and boxed collections of records, there is the prospect of piles of unsorted papers dumped on desks or the floor. Happily, on a recent visit to view material from Hexham Racecourse, the former was very much the case.

Earlier this year, Northumberland Archives were contacted by Major Charles Enderby, the previous owner of Hexham Racecourse, to ask whether we would be interested in the course’s archive. Hexham Racecourse was established by Major Enderby’s great grandfather, Charles William Chipchase Henderson in 1890, and the majority shareholding remained in the family until it was sold to its current owner in 2015. The racecourse is known as one of Britain’s most scenic and is positioned amongst stunning Northumbrian countryside, two miles outside of Hexham. 

The racecourse archive contains swathes of interesting material that show the development of the site and the business from the early twentieth century up to the 2010s. Accounts, plans, minute books and correspondence all feature, which give an intriguing picture of the development of an important local sporting institution over the century. The archive also includes a comprehensive collection of race cards from the 1980s onwards and several photograph collections, providing an excellent resource for both local and sporting historians.  

The process of selecting material for transfer to the archive is an important and not always straightforward one. Archivists must often make informed decisions on what material should be permanently preserved and what can be housed elsewhere or discarded. In most cases we look for unique material of historical significance that shows how a business, individual or organisation functioned and operated. Luckily in the case of Hexham Racecourse’s records, it was straightforward to make these decisions and we were able to ensure that all the appropriate material could be taken to form the racecourse archive. By the end of our visit, roughly 32 boxes were ready to be transported back to Woodhorn. Once this material has been processed and catalogued by archives staff, it will be made available for consultation in our Searchroom. We look forward to sharing interesting stories from within this collection as they are uncovered during cataloguing.  

A project began earlier this year to add descriptive content to documents held at Northumberland Archives relating to the Lord Crewe Charity; this has been made possible by a grant the charity itself made to the Northumberland Archives Charitable Trust. 

Can you imagine organising an outing for 400-450 children?  In May 1855 Rev. William Atkinson of Gateshead organised such a trip to Bamburgh Castle.  

Letters received by Mr. Tuer, agent of Bamburgh Castle, reveal that the Archdeacon had previously been contacted about the children using a room in the Castle for tea.  Rev. Atkinson wrote that ‘our young people’ were boarding a carriage at Lucker Station at 10.15 to Bamburgh, returning to Lucker at 4.30.   Tea, sugar and cake would be taken on the journey, Mr. Tuer was asked if he could arrange the provision of mugs and milk.  The cake itself was anticipated to weigh 12 stones and a separate cab or cart was sought to help with its transportation, the cooks would travel with it.  Due to the number of pupils attending, it was proposed that about 70 children would have tea at a time, based on the number of mugs available.  When not having tea, Rev. Atkinson proposed “marching the children through the main entrance down the Court […] by the low side on to the sands to amuse themselves”.   

Rev. Atkinson wrote again to Mr. Tuer after the trip to report on its success; the group had had a ‘delightful day’, and Mr, Tuer was thanked for the ‘excellent arrangements’.  Mrs Tuer in particular was remembered, “for defending the door of the Coach House so stoutly, when the young people were taking their tea; […] she must remember the difficulty of keeping at bay a host of 400 hungry children”.