Category: 18th Century - Meandering Through Time

Sir Humphry Davy

17/12/2016

On the 17th December 1778, one of Cornwall's famous sons, Sir Humphry Davy was born in Penzance.

Davy was educated in Cornwall's county town of Truro, and this was followed by an apprenticeship to a
Penzance surgeon. In 1797, Davy took up chemistry, and was taken on as an assistant at the Medical Pneumatic Institution
in Bristol. It was here he experimented with various new gases by inhaling them which nearly cost him his life on more than
one occasion, eventually though, this experimentation led to the discovery of the anesthetic effect that we know as
laughing gas.

In 1815, George Stephenson from Newcastle, claimed he was the inventor of a safety lamp for the use in coal mines but
it is Davy who is credited with the invention. This lamp allowed coal to be mined from deep coal seams reducing the dangers
of explosions from methane gas. The lamp, consisted of a wick with the flame enclosed inside a mesh screen, Davy
discovered that if the mesh was fine enough, it would not ignite the methane.

Sir Humphry Davy died in Geneva, Switzerland, on 29 May 1829

Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Malborough.

18/10/2016

Being a beautiful, clever and articulate woman was what made Sarah Churchill the woman she was, however these
attributes in conjunction with her friendship with Queen Anne, lead to a massive quarrel and ultimately her dismissal
at the beginning of 1711.

Sarah was not afraid to speak her mind, but she was also unable to control her feelings when she did not get what she wanted.
Sarah was the wife of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, her quarrel with the queen resulted in the loss of her place in
court, her dismissal from her position as Mistress of the Robes among others, and the replacement in the queens affections
by Abigail Masham. Her husband's demand for the position of captain generalship for life was the straw that broke the
camel's back and he felt the toe of the royal boot twelve months following Sarah's ejection.

The Duke of Malborough, for Queen Anne at least, represented all that was wrong with the country at that time. The fall out from the Spanish succession crisis had hit England hard. The people of England had become very sick of the fighting and
they had also become sick of paying for it.

Sarah and John Churchill were shrewd, capable and wealthy and classic examples of those who got too big for their boots.

The Duke of Malborough died in the June of 1722 and was buried at Westminster Abbey. Sarah died on the 18th October 1744 at Marlborough House. Following her burial at her beloved Blenheim, John Churchill's body was taken from
his resting place and re interred alongside her.

Reading the Riot Act

1/8/2016

As a child, I can remember being told that I would have the "the riot act" read to me for misbehaving, can you?

I took it to mean that I'd would be told off for causing trouble. I realised what that term meant even when I didn't exactly understand its origins.

After the 1st August 1715, if you and eleven of your mates were hanging around making a nuisance of yourselves, being
rather loud and throwing cabbages at a statue of a local dignitary, those in authority would deem that you were 'unlawfully assembled." You could be asked nicely to go home, but if didn't you would be dragged off to the local lock up and eventually find yourself standing in front of the local magistrate.

The Riot Act of 1715 went by the rather long title of "An Act for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies, and for the
more speedy and effectual punishing the rioters." It was introduced a year earlier when the country was troubled by a
number of serious disturbances with the intention of "many rebellious riots and tumults that have been taking place of
late in divers parts of this kingdom" and gave the warning

"Our sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse
themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act
made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King."
If you chose to ignore this new act you could find yourself imprisoned for a couple of years with just a hammer
and large rocks to keep you occupied."

The act was read in 1819 at Peterloo in Manchester to a number of people who were peaceful campaigning for
parliamentary reform by magistrates who were panicked at the sight of the crowd. A year later in 1919 in Glasgow
the city's sheriff had the 'act' ripped from his hands as he was reading it to a crowd of over ninety-thousand people.
The Riot Act soon fell into disuse, however the last time it was read was in 1929 following a bonfire in Chiddingford
in Surrey, to one small boy and the attending police officers.

Birth of John Wesley

9/6/2016

John Wesley was born in the last two weeks of May 1703 in the village Epworth in Lincolnshire.

Lincoln Collage Oxford writes:

"After completing his BA, Wesley followed the traditions of his family by taking Holy Orders and was made a deacon in Christ Church Cathedral in September 1725. Three years later he was ordained.

In 1726 a vacancy became available for a Fellowship at Lincoln College, which at that time was open only to those born in the diocese of Lincoln. Wesley's father had connections with Dr Morley, Rector of Lincoln College, and after being examined in Homer and Horace he was duly elected to a fellowship on March 25th. Samuel Wesley was very content that his son was to become one of the twelve fellows and wrote:

"What will be my own fate before the summer is over, God knows, sed passi graviora, wherever I am, my Jack
is a fellow of Lincoln."

You can read the whole of this article by clicking on the link below:

www.linc.ox.ac.uk/Famous-AlumniJohn-Wesley-1703---1791

You can read more about John Wesley on another of my blogs here
meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/history-bites-historical-facts-on-a-daily-basis/category/john-wesley

Mutiny on the Bounty

28/4/2016

On the 28th April 1789, Captain William Bligh and eighteen crew members had been cast adrift from the HMS Bounty that had been sailing from Tahiti to the West Indies. It was on the 14th of June that they finally reached the island of Timor after travelling nearly 4,000 miles in a small boat.

Captain Bligh eventually returned to England arriving on the 14th of March the following year to find the the country was already talking of the mutiny. He was at first proclaimed a hero, but later court martialled for the loss of his ship. This resulted in his acquittal.

The crew of the HMS Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied just off the Friendly Islands. Following setting their captain adrift, they headed for the Pitcairn Islands

Who was the goody and baddie in this sad tale? Was it Bligh, the supposed cruel and brutal Captain? Was Fletcher Christian a hero for not being afraid to standing up to a bully or was Bligh doing what he was supposed to do, that is captain his ship and keep control his men. Was Christian a rebel who mutinied when he was denied what he wanted.

What was the truth I wonder?

William Hogarth

10/4/2016

William Hogarth, artist and satirist, was born in 1697 in London, his paintings gives us a glimpse of eighteenth
century England at a time when few had much and many had little and this comes across in many of his images.

Three of his most famous works are A Rakes Progress, Gin Lane and the one pictured here Marriage a la Mode

In Marriage a la Mode, Hogarth warns of the pit falls of marriage for financial gain.
It is one of six painting depicting the progress of a betrothed couple ending in the death of both of them. Symbolism is
abound here, from the paintings on the walls depicting doom to the reason this marriage is taking place......money!

The poor bride and groom have no interest in each other, the bride's bored with the situation and the bridegroom is more concerned with himself and his appearance. The soon to be father in law rests his bandaged foot on a stool and points to a family tree, he might as well shout

'Look at what you get for your money!'

Not one of my favorite artists, but none the less Hogarth was a talented artist and an intelligent and wise man.

Hogarth died on the 26th October 1764 and this was said of him.

Farewell great Painter of Mankind
Who reach'd the noblest point of Art
Whose pictur'd Morals charm the Mind
And through the Eye correct the Heart.
If Genius fire thee, Reader, stay,
If Nature touch thee, drop a Tear:
If neither move thee, turn away,
For Hogarth's honour'd dust lies here.

Changing the New Year

19/7/2015

Here in England, the date of the beginning of the new year has changed many times during our history.

When William the Conqueror first placed his Norman boots on English soil, he decided to do away with the old Anglo Saxon New Year celebration of the Winter Solstice on the 25th December, he forced us to celebrate it on the 1st of January, so it would fit in nicely with the organisation of his coronation.

No doubt the king went around shouting that it was his idea, but it wasn't, in fact it was Julius Caesar's. Caesar decided that the God Janus, represented the New Year very well seeing as he could look into the past and the future at the same time. So everyone dressed up fancy clothes, (togas were a big favourite,) went around being nice to one another, doing as little work as possible, and consuming large amount of wine, dates, figs and honey.
Sounds familiar.

Janus didn't spot poor Caesar downfall though did he? You know what happened to him.

No more spiced wine and figs after that!

In the year 567, the Council of Tours decided that the New Years should not be celebrated, prayers were to be said instead and there was to be no dancing whatsoever .

This new law wouldn't have concerned the clergy that much, they were worried about other changes the council was making. The bishop, for instance, had to treat his wife as a sister, monks worried that if there was more than one of them in a cell they each had to take turns in staying awake and reading to the rest, and no women were allowed in religious houses at all.

What a load of party poopers!

On the whole people of the secular community were less worried, the medieval Europeans considered the New Year to be a Pagan festival, and therefore couldn't care less. The only ones to care were the party organisers, now they would have been up in arms about the date change, think about all that printed stationary and party balloons gone to waste!

However, they need not have worried, it took another 550 years for the date to be changed again. As time passed England went along with the rest of Europe and we moved our New Year to the 25th of March, it remained at this date until 1752 when we decided that Caesar's idea was a good idea after all and we reverted back to using the 1st of January as the beginning of the year.

And on that note I would like to wish you all a very

Happy New Year

Famous Retorts: Samuel Foote.

29/5/2015

John Montague, fourth Earl of Sandwich gave his name to the Sandwich Islands, and (allegedly) to the 'sandwich' as a
result of his reluctance to leave the gaming tables but requiring a quick and easy snack to munch on.

In a famous exchange with actor Samuel Foote, John Montagu, declared,

"Foote, I have often wondered what catastrophe would bring you to your end; but I think, that you must either die of the pox,
or the halter."

"My lord", replied Foote instantaneously,

"that will depend upon one of two contingencies; whether I embrace your lordship's mistress, or your lordship's principles."

This retort is often misattributed to John Wilkes.

Blackbeard the Pirate

11/3/2015

On the 22nd November 1718, Edward Teach, buccaneer and scourge of the seas met his death.

Teach was more famously known to us as the flamboyant and fearless Blackbeard the Pirate, who is said to have been born in Bristol and surprisingly known to be
'amiable, forgiving and generous.'

It wasn't until he was in his thirties that much is known of him, but it is more than likely that his early years were spent at sea as a mariner.

By 1716, Teach was known to be captaining a ship belonging to one Benjamin Hornigold, an English pirate who turned pirate hunter. The following year Hornigold and Teach went their separate ways, but Teach kept Hornigolds ship the Revenge. It was with this ship he attacked a French merchant vessel, La Concorde, which was carrying a cargo of slaves. Teach abandoned the Revenge replacing it with the La Concorde renaming her Queen Anne's Revenge. The following year, Teach attacked another merchant ship captained by Henry Bostock and it is from Bostock that we get the first description of Teach as a

"tall spare man with a very black beard which he wore very long"

it is from Bostock's account that Teach gets his name Blackbeard. Later descriptions say that his

'thick black beard was braided into pigtails, sometimes tied in with small coloured ribbons.'

Captain Jack Sparrow do you think?

Teaches reputation soon spread, and he used his new name to his advantage. He wore several pistols and cutlass at his waist and let his hair and his beard grow even longer, he was known to have put a lit, slow burning hemp cord under his hat so that would smoke and envelop him which added his menacing appearance.

Teach spent much of the next year attacking ships and taking what he wanted, but his days were numbered, for he was being pursued by the HMS Pearl, whose captain was Lieutenant Robert Maynard.

Maynard eventually found Teach's ship anchored at Ocracoke Island, North Carolina and a battle, the sort that we see in the swashbuckling, peg-legged, sword fighting Hollywood movies, ensued. This battle left ten of Teach's pirates and and eleven of Maynard's men dead, also killed in the skirmish was Teach himself. Blackbeard the Pirate had twenty cuts and fives bullet holes in his body, later his decapitated remains were thrown into the sea and his head was suspended from the front of the Maynard's ship the Pearl.

Blackbeard has been portrayed many times in films, my favourite is the 1952 Blackbeard the Pirate where Teach is played by veteran actor Robert Newton. Blackbeard's most recent appearance was in 2011 in the fourth film in the Pirates of the Caribbean series entitled, On Stranger Tides where Teach is played by Ian McShane.

Leicester Waites

19/12/2014

A wonderful Victorian painting by Henry Reynolds Steer.

My interest in Leicester's history runs along side my interest in Richard III and through this painting I can glimpse the city
as it was in the time of my great great grandparents.

In Steer's painting, I wonder if that is my great great grandmother buying apples or maybe that is my great great grandfather bringing fabric he made on his stocking frame into the city, its a nice thought, but I know that the lives my ancestors lived in Leicester were not, in reality, what the Victorian artist painted or those who purchased them wanted to see.

Most towns in England, from as far back as the medieval period, had a troupe of musicians called Waites who played
their instrument through our towns at night, and woke the inhabitants on cold and dark winter mornings by playing under
heir windows. Their other duties included welcoming royal visitors at the town gates and playing at important events. Their
name may originate from instrument they played called a Wayte Pipe.

You can see Leicester's Waites depicted in the image above, finely dressed in their red and gold livery. They stand at Market Cross, at the junction of High Cross Street and High Street, the buildings you see here were gone by the mid 1800's as are the Waites themselves, they ceased playing in Leicester in 1947.

However, this is not the end, in 2002 Leicester's Waites were back and the position is currently held by the Longslade Consort, a small group of musicians who play early musical instruments, you can see here at Leicester's Guildhall.