Canon Mahé's
Essai sur les antiquités du département
du Morbihan published at Vannes in 1825
was used by Charlotte Mew
in
Men and Trees (1913)
About 1825: Birth of Elizabeth Goodman, the
"Old Servant" of
Charlotte's essay, born at Barton On Humber, Lincolnshire.
(link to GENUKI website).
The
life story of the real Elizabeth Goodman, traced through the censuses, is
very close to that of the Old Servant described by Charlotte.
"That grey remote village on the hillside" does not describe
Barton, which is a market town on the Lincolnshire bank of the river. It
could be a village outside Barton in the Yorkshire Wolds. Charlotte wrote
that it as a village none of the Mew children ever saw, but
"all the ways of which we knew so well by hearsay".
The census descriptions show the Goodman's district (from 1841) as mixed
farms, brickworks and potteries. Their street, "Newport", appears to have
been on the edge of Barton in an area that was being absorbed - The "new
road" (Queen Street) was opened "in 1827... It cuts across the former
gardens of the great house which stood on the site of the present police
station. Its grounds originally occupied most of the area bordered by High
Street, Finkle Lane, Newport, Catherine Street and Marsh lane"
(Barton on Humber virtual Victorian Walk).
Elizabeth's
mother, also Elizabeth Goodman, was born at Horkstow in Lincolnshire about
1782. She was a widow by 1841. In the 1861 census she is shown as a
"farmer's widow". Living with her in 1841 were William Goodman, age 20, an
agricultural labourer, and our Elizabeth, age 16, shown as a female
servant. By inference from Charlotte Mew's story, Elizabeth came to London
in 1845, 20 years old, and became a servant in the Kendall grandparent's
house. In the
1851 census she is shown (26) as the children's nurse. The
Kendall household had high care needs. There were three nurses in 1851: a
"nurse" who may have cared for Mary Cobham, Charlotte's great grandmother,
Elizabeth, who is the "children's nurse" and a "children's nursemaid". It
seems likely that the nursemaid cared for Arthur (2) and Mary (4) and that
Elizabeth cared for Anna Maria (14), Thomas (10) and Edward (6). There was
no live-in governess.
By 1861 Elizabeth had returned to her mother's residence in
Barton. Her profession as "quilter" suggests this is more than a visit.
Perhaps she stayed with her mother until her death in
1866. If so, this means
she was not with the Mew family until after
their marriage, in 1863, and after
the birth of Henry Herne
Mew in 1865. But, this is not the impression given by
Charlotte's story, which says [Elizabeth] was "chosen to follow her young
mistress on her marriage". In the
1871 census Elizabeth is shown as "cook". But she was the kind
of cook that takes care of children when they are ill: She recorded the
deaths of baby
Frederick in 1867, and Christopher and Richard
in 1876.
See
1841 census -
1845 -
1851 census -
1861 census -
1865 -
1866 -
1867 -
1871 -
1874
(Chapel) -
1875 -
holidays -
1876 -
1881 census -
1891 census -
1892 -
1893.
The Every-Day Book by William Hone appeared in weekly instalments in
1825 and 1826. Bound volumes appeared in 1826 and 1827. Kyle Grimes has
created
an online version. The blessing of the apple tree takes place on
January 5th
(see index)
Here's to thee, old apple-tree,
hence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow!
And whence thou mayst bear apples enow!
Hats full! caps full!
Bushel-bushel-sacks full,
And my pockets full too! Huzza!"
A very similar "jolly couplet" is
quoted by Charlotte Mew in Men and Trees
About 1826: Birth of Richard Mew, Charlotte's paternal uncle
(older than
her father)
who was
to farm
New Fairlee Farm. He was born in Lymington,
as was his sister, Frances. Their father,
Henry Mew was ran the Anchor and Hope Inn in Lymington
in 1828, before moving to the
Bugle Inn about 1829. In 1841,
Richard appears to be in charge of
New Fairlee Farm.
(Charlotte's father,
Frederick, and
uncle
Walter are also there). A letter Richard wrote in
1843 survives. At this time, Frederick had just returned from a
trip to London. In
1851 Richard is
shown as "bailiff for his father". In
1861, Richard Mew is shown as a wine merchant living with his
widowed mother,
Ann Mew (aged 65, born Lymington), plus a female general servant
and a groom, in Lugley Street, Newport
(external link) and Walter was in charge of
the farm. An 1865 trade directory shows Richard as the farmer
and also
lists the family business as Henry Mew, farmer - and sons,
Bugle Inn.
and wine importers. Richard married
Fanny Read in
1866. He is shown as the farmer in subsequent censuses.
Charlotte Mew spent time, as a child, with Richard's family on the Isle of
Wight and Fanny's family in Somerset. Richard
acted in the place of father to
Freda Mew after the death of her father in 1898. He died
in
1903, but I suspect his family would have
continued with some responsibility for Freda in the Isle of Wight Asylum.
Charlotte remained in contact with this part of the family throughout her
life and they were a major source of information for
Mary Davidow's biography.
About 1827: Birth, in
Lymington, of
Frances (known as Fanny) Mew, Charlotte's paternal aunt
(older than
her father).
In 1841, "Fanny Mew", age 14, was living with
fifteen other girls ("pupils") of about the same age, in a house on the
south side of Neport High St -
In 1851 she is shown as "housekeeper" at New Fairlee Farm - She
married
Daniel Barnes of Ryde in 1853 - see
1861 -
1871 -
1881 - She may
have died on the Isle of Wight in the April/June quarter of 1911, but that
Frances Mew as age 87
23.10.1827 The consecration of
St George the Martyr, Ramsgate.
Designed by Henry Hemsley and H E Kendall and constucted between 1824 and
1827, it seats 1,300 people and has a lantern tower (placed at the request
of Trinity House) as a navigational aid to passing ships.
Described as one of the two "most architechturally
distinguished" Kent churches in the first half of the nineteenth century.
However it is in a "free versions of Gothic". This style became
"unacceptable" after the launching of the Cambridge Camden Society and
ecclesiology in the 1840s. "The ecclesiologists wanted to return the Church
of England to an idealised version of the Middle Ages, both for the
architecture of its buildings and the arrangements for public worship."
[Detailed discussion in Jonathan Smith's (1994)
Architecture and Induction: Whewell and Ruskin on Gothic
]
1828-1829 Henry Edward Kendall
senior and
junior were the architects of the esplanade
and tunnel for Kemp Town, the fashionable new eastern extension to
Brighton.
"the principal feature is an extensive crescent and square, the
opening between the wings of which is 840 feet, and the wings, each 350
feet in extent, present a frontage towards the sea of 1,540 feet: the
glacis is terminated by an esplanade commanding a beautiful and sheltered
prospect of the ocean: beneath this, at the base of the cliff on which Kemp
Town stands, a road is carried to the west end of the Marine-parade and is
united with the gardens and lawns in the centre of the crescent by a
tunnel."
(Kelly's 1867 Directory - GenUKI website)
Penelope Fitzgerald
1988 p.14 says that during the development of Kemp Town, the
Kendalls became a Brighton family of distinction. They had a seaside house
in Brighton at
6 Codrington Place