In his book ‘Snapshots of Welsh History without the boring bits’ and on his BBC Wales Blog, Phil Carradice writes about Cardiff entrepreneur, Solomon Andrews. He was a self made man who was, Phil writes, ‘Born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire in 1835, Solomon Andrews came to Cardiff equipped with just a wooden tray to sling around his neck and a stack of trinkets and sweets to sell in the street’. By 1856 he was able to lease a shop and began a bakery and confectionery business.

Longfield Trowbridge, early 20th century

Having been born in Trowbridge myself I was naturally interested in the early life of this fellow Trowbridgean. I found him on the 1841 census living in Mortimer Street, in a house built for workers in the local cloth factory in the 1820s. His mother, Charlotte, was a woollen weaver and he had 5 brothers and sisters aged between 1 and 13 years. A look in the Parish registers for the Church of St. James showed that four of the children – James ( 6yrs 7m), Caroline (4yrs 3m), Jacob (2 yrs 3m) and Solomon (3 months) were all baptised on 5 June 1835. This could well indicate that they were non-conformists which the majority of people were at that time (I later found they were Methodists), and had decided to have all their children baptised after the birth of Solomon. The parents were listed as John and Charlotte Andrews; John was a hemp and flax dresser. This was a slightly unusual occupation in Trowbridge at this time as much of the industry was the production of woollen cloth.

Had father John died recently or was he somewhere else? Solomon was in Cardiff in 1851 so had the whole family moved there by 1851? The 1851 census throws up more questions. The family, with father John, but without the 16 yr old Solomon are living in King Street, Carmarthen, and John has changed his trade and become a confectioner with his two eldest sons helping in the business. I could find no trace of Solomon on the 1851 census for England or Wales, but as he set up as a baker and confectioner 5 years later it is interesting that his father and brothers had taken that occupation. On the 1851 census John Andrews is said to have been born in Malmesbury (Malmesbury Abbey parish register states that a John Andrews, son of Thomas & Elizabeth, was baptised 24 May 1807, which would be the right age for our John), while his wife Charlotte was born in Stroud. Where was John in 1841?

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Readers of my earlier blogs will know I am often guided by those twin pillars of research: serendipity and curiosity. It was these two trusty old friends that led me Henry Charles “inky” Stephens (1841 – 1918). While tidying my desk as part of my New Year resolution I was left with just a few paper clips and two rulers on the work surface, which reminded me of a patent I had spotted in our indexes for “the parallel ruler” (yes, sadly someone had invented this before me).  The patent seems to enable …er…two parallel lines to be drawn, more seriously it was used by navigators to draw parallel lines on charts and originally invented by Fabrizio Mordente in 1584 and others sought to improve it. But there was more, with the documents were further patents for inkstands and an adjustable pencil, plus specifications for various ink manufacture and the chemistry behind them. Of course, what I had started to look at was part of an archive relating to the Cholderton estate, once owned by the family and an individual whose single small invention arguably helped change the course of writing.

Patent for an adjustible pencil point, designed by Henry Stephens, 1852
Ref: 1340/76

It was actually “Inky’s” father, Dr Henry Stephens of Redbourne, Hertfordshire, who in 1832  invented the  famous 'Blue-Black Writing Fluid', or Stephens writing ink as it became known,  a "carbonaceous black writing fluid, which will accomplish the so long-desired and apparently hopeless task of rendering the manuscript as durable and as indelible as the printed record". It is the forerunner of the waterproof inks we use today and literally at a stroke became the Archivist’s friend, ensuring better survival of some of our precious written heritage (though for obvious reasons we don’t recommend its use by our researchers, please stick with pencils!). The government made it the mandatory ink for legal documents and ships' log books, and saved businesses and organisations time and money, where much time previously had been spent mixing inks and cleaning nibs. His son, Henry Charles, took the process forward, ultimately building a factory and research laboratory in Finchley, creating new processes and manufacturing ink and wood stains on a large scale. “Inky” was also an MP for Hornsey (1887-1900), a chemist and a philanthropist, with an interest in subjects such as public health and agriculture. He purchased the Cholderton estate in the late nineteenth century and its archive shows the range of interests he had, which included setting up the first and only private water company in England, the Cholderton and District Water Company in 1904. On his death his house in Finchley was left for the use of the public and is now a museum.

“But about other Wiltshire inventors?” I hear you say. A perfect companion for “inky” Stephens would surely have been Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897), born in Trowbridge and inventor of stenographic sound-hand or, as we know it, Pitman shorthand. But our greatest Victorian inventor surely was William Henry Fox Talbot (1800 – 1877) who’s inventions and innovations in photography, including the first negative process, are world famous. He was also interested in other sciences and his work included patents for “gilding and silvering” metals and “obtaining motive power, and improvements in atmospheric engines.”

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I regularly mention the fantastic objects that you can find in Wiltshire’s museums but did you know that they also hold impressive art collections?

Museums of all sizes have paintings and prints depicting local scenes or created by artists who lived in the area. Not all of these will be household names, but they are still a valuable part of the story of life in Wiltshire which museums tell.

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Newly discovered papers reveal the background to the making of a will and the family conflict involved in its probate in late 17^th century Wiltshire.

Hester's will
Ref: P/3/M/200

In early June 1692 worn out by her travails Hester Minchin of the village Cleverton, near Malmesbury, took to her bed and decided that the time had come to make her will. She sent her son Thomas, known as Vicessimus because he was her twentieth child, to the nearby village of Little Somerford to summon John West, a writing master. In the presence of her servant Joan Kyte and Elizabeth Kyte she declared her will. John left the chamber and wrote the will which was read out and signed be Hester and the witnesses. For some reason Elizabeth signed as that of her former married name of Woodford, but this was subsequently scratched out and her current name written over it. The elaborate and flourishing letters of the opening line are evidence of John’s skill as a calligrapher.

The will was disputed by one of Hester’s sons, Giles, whose debt to his mother was bequeathed to his brothers Samuel and Thomas. However the case was overturned and the will was proved in 1694. Found among a bundle of miscellaneous church court papers these documents have been re-united with the will and associated papers which all bear the tell-tale holes proving that originally they had been pinned together. The whole group will be filmed under the Wiltshire Wills Project.  (P/3/M/300)

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A year into my one and a half year contract I am responsible for locating and collecting the files and papers produced by the District Councils. Spanning a period from 1974 to 2009 this means some of the files are 35 years old. Unsure what to expect, it has and continues to be a very rewarding role meeting lots of people in a great many roles and locations, who are all passionate about preserving the history of the county.

                                                                     North Wiltshire District Council Minute Books

Why start collecting now?

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The registers and records of South Marston parish were recently deposited in the History Centre. Although the impact of this is somewhat lessened by the fact that we have had microfiche copies of the registers pre 1900 for over twenty years, nevertheless it is significant because it leaves only one Wiltshire parish, Ludgershall, outside the fold of the History Centre, quite an achievement in securing the permanent preservation of these vital records. Along with the registers, which go up to 1991, are records including a church rate book, 1847-1857, which is a useful source of names of parishioners at the end of the period of compulsory rating for Anglican churches.

 
A 'Defence of the Realm' register entry found in the Winterslow parish registers. It shows the Wiltshire returns of 1803.

If you are interested in parish registers, you might like to look at a new publication by our very own Steve Hobbs: “Gleanings from Wiltshire parish registers”, which forms volume 63 in the excellent series of Wiltshire Record Society publications, available for use in the History Centre. Steve has uncovered a wealth of information about life in Wiltshire which goes beyond the bare facts of baptisms, marriages and burials. For example, did you know that the 1695 assessments of tax on births, marriages and burials provided the first national census? Very few of the full assessments survive, but the register of Donhead St Mary includes the full asessment, and records the status of all parishioners and amount of tax due. The population of that parish in 1695 is stated as 814. To find out more, please 'read more'...

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The story of how archives have survived can be almost as interesting as the documents themselves; but not quite. Last year a furniture restorer in Sussex sent some papers of the Hazland family of Woodborough which he found in a drawer in an antique chest that he was working on. We recently received a document written in 1804 that had been found in a wall in a cottage in Tetbury, Glos, in 1949. This find was of particular interest because it illustrates the social structure the parish of Charlton near Malmesbury around the time that Nelson was killed at Trafalgar.
The Schedule

It is a schedule of Assessed Taxes which included duties on houses, windows, carriages and servants. 93 people, of whom 52 are described as poor, are listed with their occupation or status. The completeness of the picture is confirmed by the 1801 census (for which no personal details were kept), which counted 88 families. The document suffered somewhat by its immuration, and subsequent treatment with adhesive tape, but the paper of the time, made from rags as opposed to wood pulp, is very durable and only one name is lost. 

By a strange coincidence a few weeks after this document was deposited we received a similar for Tisbury, dated 1825, which was found in a wall space in a house in the village, lived in by one of the assessors. It seems that filing away tax returns was taken to rather extreme lengths...

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Documents in WSA suggest that the famous Time Lord may have spent time in Malmesbury in the mid 17^th century.

A Dr Qui [the Latin for who] is mentioned several times between 1657 and 1675, and was an important person in the town. He was described as a surgeon in his marriage licence bond, when aged 40 he took a bride aged 26 from Wroughton. In Easter 1673 he signed a letter filed in the Quarter Sessions records as Alderman (Mayor) of Malmesbury.

He was buried in Malmesbury abbey church yard 1675, and his will was proved in the following year. However as fans of the TV series know only too well the Doctor has been re-incarnated at least ten times so evidence of his death may well have been exaggerated.

Alderton deeds saved for Wiltshire
Although most of the archives placed in our care are deposited on loan or outright gift, we do purchase material of particular importance. In August we were alerted to sale of about 150 medieval deeds relating to the estates of the Gore family of Alderton, a small parish in North West Wiltshire. Unfortunately in order to maximise the vendor’s profit they were broken up into many separate lots. Principal archivist Claire Skinner spent a stressful but exciting morning bidding by telephone at an auction taking place in Norfolk, and managed to purchase about half of the lots (95 deeds) which covered the earliest documents. This was achieved by a combination of our own budget and generous contributions from the Friends of the National Libraries, and Wiltshire Family History Society.

Close-up of the earliest Alderton deed purchased in 2009 – reference 3815/1/1
Grant by William Lycame of Alderton (spelt Aldrynton here) to John Bovetoun and Christine his wife, of the rent of a grain of wheat for a tenement, dated 1332. The deed is in Latin, which was the language of the law until 1733.

Many of the deeds have seals attached which illustrate the craftsmanship and vitality of medieval small scale sculpture. A good example is the punning seal of William Gore which has a bull’s head between his initials. To find out more and see if you can help us with identifying a family and church in some photographs dating back to the 1950s please 'read more'...

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