General

Twixt Thistle and Rose Project

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Cover of a guide to Berwick upon Tweed featuring an embossed rose and thistle and the text Twixt Rose and Thistle

RE-CATALOGUING THE BERWICK-UPON-TWEED BOROUGH ARCHIVES

Twixt Thistle and Rose is an Archives Revealed funded Project to re-catalogue the Borough Archives with additional deposited material. The National Archives in partnership with the Pilgrim Trust has started a programme of awarding cataloguing grants through the Archives Revealed scheme and this project was one of only 9 chosen from over 80 applications. This is a new initiative so Berwick is one of the first beneficiaries.

The project relates to the records of the administrative or governing bodies of the town that are held at the Berwick Record Office –  part of Northumberland Archives. With the exception of the Charters, these date from the early sixteenth century up to 1974 when local government re-organisation led to the creation of a larger District Council.

Extract from Charter of Mary I, 25 April 1554 (Ref: BA/A6)

In the late 1970’s the District Council, with assistance from the Northumberland Record Office, organised and listed the borough records and created the Handlist of the Archives of the Borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed that is still used today to access the collection. It has been much amended, re-organised and expanded over the last forty years.

Title page of the 1978 catalogue of Berwick Archives

PROJECT AIMS

Berwick’s records have been very well used over the years but until now the handlist and supplementary lists have not been available online.  The main aim of the project is to provide an electronic catalogue that will bring all the finding aids together and encourage as diverse as possible use of the records in future.  The new catalogue will include all previous catalogue and location references so past researchers can be assured they will be able to match any references they have to the new ones. The Berwick Record Office has benefited from a very dedicated group of volunteers who transcribe and index the records under guidance of the Berwick Archivist. They research and link this information to other source material where possible. So, the task of creating purposeful content for the electronic catalogue is already well established.

Berwick is a Border town and was at times during the mediaeval period a Royal Burgh of Scotland – one of the Court of Four Burghs along with Edinburgh, Roxburgh and Stirling. Ownership of Berwick passed back and forth until it was finally ceded to England in 1482 where it has remained ever since. As part of the project we will be looking, in the sixteenth century records in particular, for any vestiges of that Scottish heritage in the style of record keeping.

Extract from rules for the Garrison and Town of Berwick 1560-1577 (Ref: BA/B7/8)

WHO IS INVOLVED WITH THE PROJECT?

The Berwick Archivist is managing the project and has appointed a Cataloguing Archivist to work exclusively on the project for one year from 7th January 2019. A key task will be to look for opportunities for existing and new volunteers to become involved in the re-cataloguing project. There will be more about this aspect of the project in later posts. Volunteers will receive training and the Berwick-upon-Tweed Guild of Freeman and Friends of Berwick & District Museum and Archives have kindly agreed to provide funding for volunteer and outreach activities.

The project has a Steering Group that includes representatives from The Berwick-upon-Tweed Guild of Freemen, The Friends of Berwick & District Museum and Archives, Northumberland Archives and Northumberland County Council. The Chair is a representative of the Berwick Civic Society. The group meets bi-monthly to receive reports from the project archivist, agree key steps and monitor progress.

GETTING STARTED

The first task is to agree the classes of information that will form the structure of the catalogue. It must meet cataloguing standards and make searching meaningful and easy for anyone who is interested in the fascinating history of Berwick.

The Handlist with it’s many sections is the starting point …

When the classification is agreed by the Steering Group in February it will be all hands to the deck cataloguing, conserving and, with any luck, uncovering the occasional hidden gem!

This is our first post and we hope that it explains what we aim to achieve. Look out for further posts on our project and the hidden gems we uncover.

Thrown Overboard!

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Aircraft in difficulties often jettison fuel before making emergency landings. A practice that is less well known is that the master of a ship in trouble may throw overboard cargo and even parts of the ship if he considers it necessary for the safety of the ship and those sailing on her. At the end of the voyage, however, those who shipped the lost cargo would be left seriously out of pocket, were it not for a long-established practice called ‘General Average’. This provides for the losses on the voyage to be shared between the ship owners and all the shippers, the compensation payable taking into account the value of the ship and all the cargo.

In November 1880 the Steam Ship ‘Roman’ set off from Southampton bound for Cape Town and encountered severe storms, especially off the Bay of Biscay. 2438 items of cargo were jettisoned, all of them cases or boxes of ammunition.  A Statement of General Average for the Voyage has recently been found amongst the T.J. Armstrong Collection at Northumberland Archives (NRO 309/S/2/2). It contains a graphic description of the voyage abstracted from the ship’s log, an account of the losses and provides a snapshot of some of the items being shipped to the Colonies at the time.

The Steam Ship ‘Roman was owned by the Union Steamship Company Ltd. who held the Royal Mail Contract between the United Kingdom and South Africa. As built in Deptford in 1863 she had an iron hull 276 feet long, and was of gross tonnage 1282.  She had two masts rigged for sail, and single screw giving her a maximum speed of 9 knots. There was accommodation for 60 First Class and 60 Second Class passengers. On her maiden voyage she set a new record of 30 days and 20 hours southbound to Cape Town. In 1870 she was lengthened and re-engined to increase her maximum speed to 11 knots.

More information on the ship and the shipping company can be found at www.theshipslist.com  The following statement has been copied from the original with minor editing to improve clarity. There is no mention in the document of passengers, but it must have been a terrifying experience for them.

Statement of General Average

By the Roman S.S., Captain Edward John Griffin

From Southampton bound to Cape Town.

12th November 1880 at 7pm  Proceeded from Southampton with a fresh head wind from W.S.W the weather shortly after becoming hazy. Midnight the wind was increasing and the weather became overcast.

13th about 1am. Vessel shipped a large quantity of water forward.  About 5am arrived and anchored off Plymouth. The wind increased to a gale during the day and continued so until the

15th when at about 2 am proceeded towards Madeira with a Westerly breeze and heavy swell. At 10am the breeze had increased to a hard gale with a high sea which caused Vessel to ship much water over all. This continued until 6pm. when the weather moderated and the sea subsided though later there was a heavy S.W. swell at times. At 10pm the wind and sea began again with furious squalls which caused Vessel to ship much water.

16th.This strong gale continued throughout the night and following morning causing vessel to labour and pitch heavily and continuously ship large quantities of water and at 10am there was a hard gale blowing with high mountainous sea Vessel taking in immense seas. At 11am it was found necessary for general safety to jettison some cargo (consisting of cases containing cartridges) from forward in order to lighten the vessel and 706 large boxes and 292 small boxes were thrown over-board from between decks forward through the fore saloon companion, this high sea and strong gale continued until 2pm when the gale began to moderate. At 8pm the gale again increased with a heavy Westerly swell which caused Vessel to roll heavily and ship much water fore and aft. At 8.15pm a heavy sea struck the starboard lifeboat and carried away the Spar. At 11pm the pin to the goose neck of the topsail boom snapped off and the sail (which was set) had to be taken in and the boom secured.

17th  The heavy gale and high sea continued until 3am when the wind and sea began to decrease, at 6am there was a moderate gale, vessel rolling heavily and taking on a great quantity of water.

18th At midnight the breeze increased. At 6am there was a strong increasing gale and mountainous seas which caused vessel to pitch and labour heavily and ship volumes of water over all. At 6.30 am it was found necessary to jettison some more of the cargo and remainder of the Cartridge cases forward were thrown overboard. At 7am the jettison of cases of cartridges from aft through the after companion was commenced and was finished at 3.15pm. 555 large cases and 554 small boxes being thrown over on this day, this was found to have eased the vessel considerably. The strong wind and high mountainous sea continued throughout the day and vessel laboured and pitched heavily taking in tremendous seas over all. The weather remained the same throughout the night.

19th At 3.30 am a heavy sea was shipped aft which smashed the horse box on main deck aft to atoms. At 7am the gale had increased to the strength of a hurricane causing vessel to be almost continuously enveloped in water. At 7.10am in Lat. 440 10’ N. and Long 110 42’ W. a heavy sea struck the vessel causing great damage, the crew at once commenced to secure the wreckage. At noon the wind and sea began to moderate. It was then found that the following damage had been sustained viz.:-

On the Port side forward the horse box stove in & the horse canted down, on the starboard side forward a horse box smashed and turned over, the horse lying on deck, the foresides of both Nos. 2 & 3 horse boxes stove in & useless and the covers gone, the Third Officer’s cabin completely gutted, the First Office’s cabin badly started, the Second Officer’s cabin also badly started, fore gangway after stanchion carried away. Ship’s barometer lost, rail across after part of forecastle bent double and fowl coops washed away, fowl coop in front of the deck house smashed. At about 2pm the vessel was turned and steered for Vigo such a course being deemed prudent for general safety. At 3pm the mail room was visited and found to be leaking badly the mails being quite wet as were also the packages in the parcel room. The wind and sea continued moderate throughout the night.

20th.  About 9.30am arrived at & anchored off Vigo & remained at anchor until 4pm on the…

 21st. (The crew and carpenter being employed in repairing the damage done) when the anchor was weighed [at 4pm] and they proceeded towards Madeira.

22nd.   At 4pm it blew a strong breeze with squalls of rain. At 12pm it was blowing hard with a high cross sea, vessel rolling and pitching and shipping much water.

23rd. It was blowing a fresh Northerly gale with squalls and a very heavy S.W. swell causing vessel to roll heavily and ship much water. At 10am the breeze freshened accompanied by a cross sea vessel rolling and pitching at times.- about this time the Engine telegraph was broken by the sea, vessel continued rolling until 8pm.

24th. The Carpenter repaired the Engine room telegraph, about 7.30 anchored vessel in Funchal Roads Madeira where she remained until the 25th.  at 1am when they proceeded.

11th December at 8pm there was a moderate gale blowing with a heavy head sea causing vessel to pitch violently and take in water over all.

14th. December Arrived and anchored in Table Bay

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Extract from letter of the Union Marine Insurance Company Limited dated London 4th May 1881:

“With reference to the number of cases thrown overboard from the ‘Roman’ I have to inform you that this was undoubtedly 2438, as although the log books shew 2437 we think there must have been a mistake in the tally”

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This vivid description of the voyage is followed by 3 lists:-

  1. Detailed accounts for the unscheduled call at Vigo where there were expenses for pilotage, clearance, boat hire and porterage, and documentation, including translation. There were also charges for telegrams to and from the Union Steamship Company in London and some legal expenses.
  2. A statement of the cargo jettisoned. All 2438 items jettisoned appear to have been wooden cases and boxes of cartridges shipped by the Crown Agents for the Colonies, containing in all some 1,060,000 cartridges for various small arms.
  3. A list of all the other Shippers and Consignees showing Port of Destination, Marks (sketched), Numbers, Number and description of packages, value and the proportion of the General Average and Outward Charges. There are 371 entries on the list representing 218 firms and individuals, many sending items to more than one consignee or destination. The ‘packages’ are variously  described as, bags, bales, barrels, bundles, cases, casks, coils, drums and  tanks, The contents of only a few are  given but they include: wearing apparel and books, show cards,  saddlers’ ware, truss samples, iron axles, wheels, ironmongery, 4 wagons, 20 cases of sardines,  210 cases of cheese, and several private shipments of cartridges. It is clear from the log of the voyage that horses and hens were being carried on deck. 6 horses, 1 mare and a filly are listed. There were also 5 bulls and 197 goats. These were all valuable animals.

In the final reconciliation the value of the jettisoned cargo plus charges, less a proportion of the General Average is given as £5408-9s-2d. The steamer was valued at £31,000 and the Cargo, including that jettisoned, at £ 70,478. After deductions the Steamer owners paid £1898 and the other cargo owners paid £ 3510-9s-2d. also making £5408-9s-2d.

Robert Armstrong, to whom an invoice and the whole document had been sent, had shipped 15 casks valued at £ 11 to a Mr. Hughes in Natal, his bill was for 14 shillings and 8 pence.

It should be noted that the whole of the General Average would have been calculated manually in pounds, shillings and pence.

 

 

 

 

 

A Tale of Two Marys: The Bowes-Lyon Family

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On 14th March 1797 Mary Elizabeth Lyon wrote to Charles Wren, possibly her family solicitor, from her home at Hetton House, County Durham. She warned Charles that they ‘should be on their guard’ when dealing with ‘Sir H. Vane’s coal’ and ended her letter by sending ‘her regards to Mrs Wren and Emma’.

Correspondence between Mary Elizabeth Lyon and Charles Wren, dating from the late 1700s, can be found within the Dickson, Archer and Thorp Collection. It is thought this vast collection of letters came to the Dickson, Archer and Thorp firm when they took in Wren’s business documents and accounts. Wren had served in Northumberland as an ‘Under-sheriff’ during the 1780s.

The letters mainly contain legal advice regarding coal mining, accounts and business deals, but they also contain personal information and family updates. During the summer of 1797 Mary Elizabeth sent Wren a bill to be paid to a Mrs Hann for a pianoforte, bought for Mary Elizabeth’s children Elizabeth, John and Charlotte. The pianoforte was taken to Mr Broadwood’s of Putney to be fitted for stands and additional keys. Mary Elizabeth’s letters often refer to the illness of her children, with all appearing to suffer from breathing issues. She specifically mentions her daughter Elizabeth, who experienced long bouts of illness in the spring of 1797.

In another letter, dated 17th September 1797, Mary Elizabeth apologised for her ‘sad, tiresome family’ and described how ‘Bessy’ (most likely the sickly Elizabeth) was doing well and enjoying the ‘waters of Bristol’. The family to which Mary refers could be either her own family or her in-laws.

Mary-Elizabeth was the daughter of Farren Wren and had been born in Binchester, County Durham. She married the Hon. Thomas Lyon on 13th June 1774. Her new husband was the third son of Thomas Lyon, 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and his wife Jean Nicholson, who originally hailed from Rainton, County Durham. Thomas had matriculated from Pembroke College Cambridge in the late 1750s and was a Fellow at the university during the early 1760s. During the late 1760s Thomas won a difficult election battle to become MP for the Aberdeen Burghs. He was re-elected to this position in 1774. Thomas and Mary resided at Hetton-le-Hole in County Durham. The estate had belonged to Thomas’ mother, Jean, and Thomas believed it possessed ‘good coal’. The couple had eight children; John (d. 1829), Mary (d. 1803), Anne (unknown), Frances (d. 1863) who married Thomas Thurlow, Charlotte (d.1871) who married Henry-George Liddle of Ravensworth Castle, Susannah (d. 1864) who married Rev J Fellowes, Mary Anne (unknown), and Charles (d. 1859).

The Lyon family are perhaps most notable for being the ancestors of Queen Elizabeth II, through her mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Mary Elizabeth’s ‘tiresome’ family also included one of the most complicated characters of the eighteenth century – Mary Eleanor Bowes. Mary Eleanor was Mary Elizabeth’s sister-in-law. Whereas Mary Elizabeth had married the younger Lyon son, Mary Eleanor had married John Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Mary Eleanor became heiress to the Bowes fortune on the death of her father, George Bowes, in 1760. George was a powerful coal magnate and had held great estates and castles across the North of England, including Gibside and Streatlam. He stipulated in his will that any man who was to marry his only daughter, and heir, Mary Eleanor would have to take on the name the ‘Bowes’ in order to inherit. This stipulation was an unusual act  in the patriarchal society of eighteenth century England. Hence John Lyon became John Bowes, although their children often hyphenated their name thus creating the well-known ‘Bowes-Lyon’.

John Lyon, 9th Earl of Strathmore and Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore

Relations between Mary Eleanor and her Lyon in-laws became strained when John died in 1776. In 1777 the Dowager Countess remarried in a dramatic ceremony. Her new husband was the little-known Andrew Robinson Stoney, a lieutenant in the British Army. He had fought a duel to protect her honour from slanderous gossip which had appeared in a national paper, The Morning Post. During the duel, with The Morning Post’s own editor, Stoney was ‘mortally wounded’ and physicians believed he would not last the night. Mary Eleanor heard of the duel and rushed to Stoney’s death bed. She agreed to marry him in a hastily arranged ceremony conducted at St James’ Church whilst Stoney lay on a stretcher, believing it to be his dying wish. But the duel and fatal injuries had all been a ruse; Stoney now possessed the Bowes fortune and Mary Eleanor.

Andrew Robinson Stoney

News of the ad-hoc ceremony shocked the Lyon family. Thomas, Mary Elizabeth’s husband, was particularly infuriated at the situation. He had been made responsible for the financial welfare of his nephews and nieces through his brother’s will and proceeded with legal action to remove the children from their mother and new step-father.

Almost immediately after his ‘miraculous’ recovery from the brink of death Stoney turned violent towards his new bride; subjecting Mary Eleanor to eight years of physical and emotional abuse. During this time the Bowes-Lyon children remained under the jurisdiction of their uncle Thomas, who became responsible for their education and care. In 1785 Mary Eleanor escaped from her brutal marriage and filed for divorce through the ecclesiastical courts.

During the court process Mary Eleanor hid from her abusive husband, but Stoney sent a gang to find and abduct her. Chased by her relatives and the authorities Stoney forcibly took her through the harsh Northern countryside and attempted to beat her back into submission. The horror became national scandal and the Lyon family were once again thrust into the spotlight. Mary Eleanor was eventually rescued and Stoney stood trial for abduction. He was found guilty of conspiracy to abduct Mary Eleanor and sentenced to three years imprisonment. Their divorce was never officially granted, but Stoney lost any rights to the Bowes-Lyon fortune. Mary Eleanor died in 1800 and has since been immortalized as the ‘Unhappy Countess’.

The letters found in the Dickson, Archer and Thorp collection reveal Mary Elizabeth’s feelings towards the Bowes-Lyon children in the years following the scandal. These letters are especially important as they reveal how the familial relationships endured after a particularly fraught period, and reveal Mary Elizabeth’s family-centric character. In one letter, dated January 1797, generous payments were made to Lady Anne Jessop (Mary Eleanor’s third child, a head-strong girl who eloped with Henry Jessop only to return to her family when her experience began to mirror that of her mother.) In drafts of Thomas’ own will, also held amongst the documents, Mary Eleanor and her eldest son John, the 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, are frequently mentioned, as Thomas verified their claim to the Lyon’s Scottish estates and reiterated his loyalty to the young Earl.

Thomas Lyon died on 13th September 1796, Mary Elizabeth Lyon died 13th May 1811.

 

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