{"id":531,"date":"2023-10-10T15:30:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T15:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/?p=531"},"modified":"2023-10-10T15:30:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T15:30:56","slug":"notes-sources-v","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/notes-sources-v\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes & sources (V)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My longish story, \u201cThat We Maye with Free Heartes Accomplishe Those Thynges,\u201d appeared not too long ago in Beneath Ceaseless Skies<\/a><\/em>. As always with this series of historical fantasies, it all started with what little is known about one of my ancestors, in this case one Benjamin Blowers. Because it\u2019s set in Georgian-era London and aboard a convict ship bound for the colonies, I ended up doing lots of thoroughly enjoyable research\u2014although of course I didn\u2019t feel bound to keep everything strictly accurate, plausible, or even possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s begin:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin Blowers was born 22 December 1741 and christened 4 January 1741\/2 (both dates Old Style) at St Martin-in-the-Fields, as recorded in the parish book indexed in \u201cEngland Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,\u201d a database maintained at familysearch.org. His parents are named as Jonathan and Mary of that parish. Jonathan was a victualler at Hungerford Market and a householder in One Tunn Lane (both places now buried under Charing Cross Station), where he sometimes let rooms to boarders; in 1751, and probably other years, he served as constable in the parish; and he was confined in Bridewell Prison, most likely for debt, for at least a portion of 1761, being listed on 12 April as owing 4 shillings 3 pence for bread distributions. Ben himself was prosecuted and convicted for an unspecified felony at the Westminster Quarter Sessions of January 1767 held in \u201cGuild hall in King Street Westmr.\u201d The prosecution was pursued by one Joseph Stephenson, a cordwainer of the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields (according to a 1768 mortgage)\u2014presumably, as was the custom of the time, because he was the victim. Stephenson was compensated 11 shillings for expenses incurred in the prosecution, and his receipt, dated 19 January 1767, is the only extant record of Ben\u2019s trial. I examined these documents and others thanks to the superb resource \u201cLondon lives 1690\u20131800: Crime, poverty and social policy in the metropolis\u201d (londonlives.org).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The convict passenger list for the Tryall<\/em> is printed in Peter Wilson Coldham, The King\u2019s passengers to Maryland and Virginia<\/em>, pages 194\u2013196. The Virginia Gazette<\/em> (23 April 1767, p. 2, col. 1) prints a letter from London noting that the Tryall<\/em> left there 9 January 1767 \u201cbound to Potowmack river in America, 82 convicts [Coldham lists 149 names], under sentence of transportation in Newgate.\u201d An Admiralty pass issued 22 January 1767 records the destination as Maryland, and notes as well as the name of the ship\u2019s master, the number of crewmen, and so on. I accessed the Gazette<\/em> through the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation\u2019s digital archive (research.colonialwilliamsburg.org), and found the pass in the Williamsburg Rockefeller Library\u2019s microfilm copy of Admiralty records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Somervell was born 1726 into an ancient Scottish family that had immigrated to Maryland after the failure of the Stuart cause (George Norbury Mackenzie (editor), Colonial families of the United States of America, in which is given the history, genealogy and armorial bearings of colonial families who settled in the American colonies from the time of the settlement of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775<\/em>, volume 2, pages 691\u2013693). This voyage of the Tryall<\/em> was his first and apparently only posting as master on the Atlantic crossing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bampfylde-Moore Carew\u2019s life story is recorded in The life and adventures of Bampfylde-Moore Carew, the noted Devonshire stroller and dog-stealer; as related by himself, during his passage to the plantations in America. Containing, a great variety of remarkable transactions in a vagrant course of life, which he followed for the space of thirty years and upwards<\/em>, to which is appended, in my edition, a useful \u201cDictionary of the canting language.\u201d (You’ve got to love eighteenth-century book titles, and I couldn\u2019t resist citing them in full. Why are they so ridiculously long? Because at that time books were sold unbound, leaving it to the purchaser to have them bound to best suit their taste and budget. Thus the book\u2019s title page had to do all the work that dust jackets do today, attracting the eye and giving a sense of the book\u2019s matter and manner; in short, the title had to sell the book.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transportees\u2019 song is quoted from James Revel\u2019s The poor unhappy transported felon\u2019s sorrowful account of his fourteen years transportation, at Virginia, in America. In six parts. Being a remarkable and succinct history of the life of James Revel, the unhappy sufferer who was put apprentice by his father to a tinman, near Moorfields, where he got into bad company and before long ran away, and went robbing with a gang of thieves, but his master soon got him back again; yet would not be be kept from his old companions, but went thieving with them again, for which he was transported fourteen years. With an account of the way the transports work, and the punishment they receive for committing any fault. Concluding with a word of advice to all young men<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a sympathetic treatment of the Georgian homosexual underworld, I highly recommend Rictor Norton\u2019s Mother Clap\u2019s molly house: The gay subculture in England 1700\u20131830<\/em>. The description of Mrs Gibbs\u2019s premises quotes from the court testimony of Samuel Stevens, a constable who posed as an intimate acquaintance of an informer, concerning a visit he made to Mother Clap\u2019s establishment on Sunday, 14 November 1725. The mollies\u2019 song is quoted from A genuine narrative of all the street robberies committed since October last, by James Dalton, and his accomplices, who are now in Newgate, to be try\u2019d next Sessions, and against whom, Dalton (call\u2019d their Captain) is admitted an Evidence. Shewing I. The Manner of their snatching off Womens Pockets; with Directions for the Sex in general how to wear them, so that they cannot be taken by any Robber whatsoever. II. The Method they took to rob the Coaches, and the many diverting Scenes they met with while they follow\u2019d those dangerous Enterprizes. III. Some merry Stories of Dalton\u2019s biting the Women of the Town, his detecting and exposing the Mollies, and a Song which is sung at the Molly-Clubs: With other very pleasant and remarkable Adventures. To which is added a key to the canting language, occasionally made Use of in this Narrative. Taken from the mouth of James Dalton.<\/em>, a pamphlet issued anonymously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Princess Serenissima is very loosely based on John Cooper, an unemployed gentleman\u2019s valet, known as the Princess Seraphina. See Rictor Norton\u2019s essay \u201c\u2018Princess Seraphina\u2019 steps out at Vauxhall Gardens,\u201d vauxhallhistory.org\/princess-seraphina-at-vauxhall-gardens, and Mother Clap<\/em>, pages 156\u2013160.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Baron is loosely based on Pierre-Fran\u00e7ois Hugues, called Baron d\u2019Hancarville, who was, however, in Naples in 1766, cataloguing Greek vases for William Hamilton, the British ambassador. He did later take up residence in London before being driven abroad again by scandal and debt. He published a book of pornography lightly disguised as scholarship, Monumens de la vie priv\u00e9e des ouze c\u00e9sars, d’apr\u00e8s une suite de pierres et m\u00e9dailles, grav\u00e9es sous leur r\u00e8gne<\/em>, in Nancy (France) in 1780; a scanned copy is available at the Hathi Trust (babel.hathitrust.org\/cgi\/pt?id=gri.ark:\/13960\/t3nw0t47k). The best biographical source is Francis Haskell\u2019s essay \u201cThe Baron d\u2019Hancarville: An adventurer and art historian in eighteenth-century Europe,\u201d reprinted in Past and present in art and taste: Selected essays<\/em>, pages 30\u201345. The Baron\u2019s speech on ancient morality quotes and paraphrases a few pages of Edward Ryan\u2019s The history of the effects of religion on mankind; in countries ancient and modern, barbarous and civilized<\/em>, but turns the sense of the quotation on its head, making a paean out of a vicious condemnation. See also Rictor Norton\u2019s \u201cHomosexuality in eighteenth-century England: A sourcebook of primary documents\u201d (http:\/\/rictornorton.co.uk\/eighteen\/index.htm).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter Stern\u2019s exhaustive history The porters of London<\/em> was invaluable for details (most of which I\u2019ve omitted) of the business of transporting goods by hand, as was Johnstone\u2019s London commercial guide, and street directory; on a new and more efficient principle than any yet established for the particulars and locations of various establishments<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The description of shoe-black boys and most of the street cries are quoted from Charles Hindley\u2019s A history of the cries of London, ancient and modern<\/em>. George\u2019s first poem is adapted from \u201cThe vain dreamer\u201d in John S. Farmer (editor), Musa pedestris: Three centuries of canting songs and slang rhymes (1536\u20131896)<\/em>, pages 46\u201347.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text of the handbill that George finds in the mud was cobbled together from several of Mrs Cornelys\u2019s advertisements in period newspapers for her entertainments at Carlisle House. George\u2019s second poem is slightly adapted from \u201cThe poetess\u2019s bouts-rim\u00e9s\u201d in Roger Lonsdale (editor), The new Oxford book of eighteenth century verse<\/em>, p. 414.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The account of Carlisle House\u2019s interior arrangements is partly dependent on the journal of Samuel Curwen, quoted in F.H.W. Sheppard\u2019s Survey of London, volume 33, \u201cSoho Square Area: Portland Estate, Carlisle House, Soho Square.\u201d<\/em> The costumes present are drawn from the article \u201cAn account of the masquerade at Mrs. Cornelys\u2019…\u201d in The town and country magazine, or universal repository of knowledge, instruction and entertainment<\/em>, March 1770, pages 118\u2013119. The first meeting of her Society in Soho-square this year did not actually take place until 20 November (Gazetteer and new daily advertiser<\/em> (London), 21 October 1766).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben\u2019s shipboard tale is also drawn from Life and adventures<\/em>. Some of Ben\u2019s remarks in the hold are adapted from Henry Mayhew, London labour and the London poor<\/em>, volume I, page 48.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening paragraphs of the Covent Garden scene are based on, and partly quote from, Hell upon earth: Or the town in an uproar: Occasioned by the late horrible scenes of forgery, perjury, street-robbery, murder, sodomy, and other shocking impietie<\/em>, pages 8\u201310. Dan Cruickshank\u2019s The secret history of Georgian London: How the wages of sin shaped the capital<\/em> and M. Dorothy George\u2019s London life in the eighteenth century<\/em> together provide an exhaustive account of Georgian London\u2019s street life. Thomas Beddoes\u2019s public demonstrations of pneumatic medicine (and subsequent craze for the same) actually occurred some thirty years later\u2014he was six years old at the time of our story\u2014although on 29 May of this year (1766), Henry Cavendish presented his paper \u201cOn Factitious Airs\u201d before the Royal Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first stanza of George\u2019s third poem is adapted from \u201cA Remonstrance\u201d by John Gerrard (floreat<\/em> 1769), and the second stanza from \u201cThe Emulation\u201d by Sarah Fyge Egerton (1669?\u20131722), both to be found in Eighteenth century verse<\/em>, pages 554 and 37. The chatter about current events relies on The annual register, or a view of the history, politics, and literature, for the year 1766<\/em>, fifth edition (1793), pages 149\u2013151. Pomegranate Molly\u2019s remark about the miasma is paraphrased from Vitruvius\u2019s De architectura<\/em>, I.4.1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The description of Ben and the Baron\u2019s meal draws on John Timbs, Clubs and club life in London: with anecdotes of its famous coffee houses, hostelries, and taverns from the seventeenth century to the present time<\/em>. An account of Mr Drybutter, his shop, and his misadventures may be found in Rictor Norton\u2019s essay, \u201cThe Macaroni Club: Homosexual scandals in 1772,\u201d rictornorton.co.uk\/eighteen\/macaroni.htm, and Mother Clap<\/em>, pages 311\u2013317.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Baron\u2019s remarks on art rely on snippets of d\u2019Hancarville\u2019s introductions to volumes 2 and 3 of his Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman antiquities from the cabinet of the Hon. W. Hamilton his Britannick Maiestys envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary at the court of Naples<\/em>. The jokes (rather mirthless to modern ears) about macaronies are lightly paraphrased from The macaroni jester, and pantheon of wit; containing all that has lately transpired in the regions of politeness, whim, and novelty. Including a singular variety of jests, witticisms, bon-mots, conundrums, toasts, acrosticks, &c.\u2014with epigrams and epitaphs, of the laughable kind, and strokes of humour hitherto unequalled; which have never appeared in a book of the kind<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visit to Bedlam draws on Ned Ward\u2019s description in The London spy compleat<\/em> and Edward Geoffrey O\u2019Donoghue\u2019s monograph The story of Bethlehem Hospital from its foundation in 1247<\/em>. The speeches of the Baron\u2019s mad-act are based on the pamphlet l\u2019Art de p\u00e9ter, essai th\u00e9orie-physique et m\u00e9thodique, \u00e0 l\u2019usage des personnes constip\u00e9es, des personnages graves & aust\u00e8res, des dames m\u00e9lancoliques, & de tous ceux qui font esclaves du pr\u00e9jug\u00e9. Suivi de l\u2019histoire de Pet-en-l\u2019air & de la Reines des Amazones, o\u00f9 l\u2019on trouve l\u2019origine des vuidangeurs<\/em>. The rantings of his neighbor derive from the famous delusions of James Tilley Matthews as recorded by John Haslam in Illustrations of madness: Exhibiting a singular case of insanity, and a no less remarkable difference in medical opinion: developing the nature of assailment, and the manner of working events; with a description of the tortures experienced by bomb-bursting, lobster-cracking, and lengthening the brain<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A full moon fell on December 16, 1766. George\u2019s final poem is adapted from the poem by Anonymous, \u201cIgnotum per ignotius, or a furious hodge-podge of nonsense: A pindaric,\u201d Eighteenth century verse<\/em>, p. 61. Emily Cockayne\u2019s Hubbub: Filth, noise and stench in England, 1600\u20131770<\/em> offers invaluable data about city lighting at night, as well as of many of London\u2019s other, less savory aspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George and Ben\u2019s route from Bonds Stables to Distaff Lane may be traced on the anonymously published map, A plan of the CITIES of LONDON and WESTMINSTER and BOROUGH of SOUTHWARK with the new buildings, 1767<\/em> (mapco.net\/anon\/anon.htm). I\u2019ve also consulted John Rocque\u2019s more detailed 1746 map A plan of the cities of London and Westminster, and borough of Southwark; with the contiguous buildings; from an actual survey, taken by John Roque, land-surveyor, and engraved by John Pine, bluemantle pursuivant at arms, and chief engraver of seals &c. to his Majesty<\/em> (hdl.loc.gov\/loc.gmd\/g5754l.ct004187). The description of the Air-Loom is roughly based on the plate in Haslam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newspaper account of the fire is lightly adapted from The annual register<\/em>, pages 153\u2013154.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have not been able to trace the Tryall<\/em>\u2019s arrival in America\u2014certainly she did not call at Annapolis or Alexandria, and the Baltimore port records for that period are lost. But the Maryland Gazette<\/em> (7 June 1770, p. 3, col. 1) prints \u201cA LIST of LETTERS remaining in the POST-OFFICE, June 6, 1770,\u201d including one for \u201cBenjamin Blowers, Elk-Ridge Landing,\u201d so presumably he was sold and was then serving his indenture in that area. The Gazette<\/em> may be read online (msa.maryland.gov\/megafile\/msa\/speccol\/sc2900\/sc2908\/html\/mdgazette.html), although it is not indexed. Benjamin Tasker\u2019s speeches and the oath he requires of Somervell are adapted from a proclamation printed in the 9 July 1767 Maryland Gazette<\/em> and from letters printed in the 30 July and 20 August issues, signed A.B., \u201cPhilanthropos,\u201d and C.D., so this scene is slightly anachronistic, taking place as it must sometime in late March or possibly early April, 1767.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The snake-swallowing act is described in Mayhew, vol. III, pp. 117\u2013119\u2014a nineteenth-century record, but the performance was probably not then a novel one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, finally, the auction scene is based on The sufferings of William Green<\/em> and the Old Bailey sessions papers quoted in Peter Wilson Coldham, Emigrants in chains: A social history of the forced emigration to the Americas of felons, destitute children, political and religious non-conformists<\/em>, pages 120-21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My longish story, \u201cThat We Maye with Free Heartes Accomplishe Those Thynges,\u201d appeared not too long ago in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. As always with this series of historical fantasies, it all started with what little is known about one of my ancestors, in this case one Benjamin Blowers. Because it\u2019s set in Georgian-era London and … Continue reading “Notes & sources (V)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scribbledehobble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":533,"href":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions\/533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmwaldroon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}