A Casket of Lives

A Casket of Lives A Casket of Lives An account of the life & times of the Marshall and Bond Families by Gilly Hodkinson Page 1 A Casket of Lives For my Dearest Biddy, Lotty & Romy “If I could give you anything it would be a quietness at the very heart of your life that would remain tranquil & certain whatever befell.” Page 2 A Casket of Lives Friday 18th January 2008 When I started teaching a class a History project I always gave them a family tree and we talked about the fact that, being here now is evidence that we all had ancestors who hunted, lived in caves, were Tudors, Victorians, Flappers and the rest. So, although each one of us is an individual, an original, we are also thousands of bits of all kinds of people, some good, some bad, some talented some dull, the plain and the beautiful but always, I hope kind. So, never underestimate or undervalue yourself because, in the words of Arthur Krystal: “I am appalled at the prospect of my own extinction, outraged at the loss of someone I know so well. Now, you might think the universe minus me is no great matter, and of course, you’d be right. In my defence, however, I should like to point out that no one remotely like me has ever been born; no one remotely like me will ever come again. Do I need to say, I am speaking of you as well?” So, perhaps if you know a little about your ancestors it may help you to know who you are. Bear in mind there will be huge gaping holes in places and, undoubtedly inaccuracies as this is almost all from memories, passed down to me in my childhood and later by precious people like my Mum and Dad, my beloved Granny & Grandpa, my adored Aunty Doris, the famous (or should that be infamous?) Uncle Ronald. There are of course many, many more, too numerous to mention. They will crop up no doubt in the telling of the story and sometimes there may even be a picture because touch the story of any family and it is a web – impossible to touch one part of it without another vibrating; impossible to understand one part without having a sense of the whole. Very little of the source material, apart from certificates, references and ships papers was ever written down and family letters, such as they were, tended not to be kept. Grandpa, Gilly, Granny. Rose, Bruce. Auntie Dot. Ronald & Margaret. Page 3 A Casket of Lives Families such as ours probably worked too hard to write many letters (postage was expensive too) and diaries and journals were kept by “our (not always!) betters”, the people who had leisure time – something of a luxury for the working classes who only had Sunday off and by the time you’d been to church twice (or even three times in some cases) on the Sabbath, cooked a Sunday lunch and caught up with yourself there wasn’t much time left because as you will know, one of my favourite sayings is: “One man’s Sunday lunch is one woman’s Sunday gone!” With only an open fire or kitchen range –no microwave, no cooker- the lot of a housewife was hard. So, my loves, to begin at the beginning as they say –or at least as far back as I can go at present… Page 4 A Casket of Lives Our Generation We were the generation who survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun. We drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because...... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits/legal from these accidents. We played with worms (well most boys did) and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out any eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! Page 5 A Casket of Lives The Bonds William & Maria(?) Page 6 A Casket of Lives My maternal great- grandfather, (i.e. Bonny /Big Mama’s grandfather), William Bond was born in 1839 (sorry but I don’t have a date for his birth) but his birth was registered at Sculcoates, a district of Hull. William’s address is given as 5,Wellington Lane and although I’ve tried to look up various streets mentioned in the few records that exist, that part of Hull would seem to have been demolished which is hardly surprising when you think how rapidly towns and cities change with re-development. In 1860 aged 21, William was living at Vincent Street, Hull. William married Maria Newsome from Edward Street. (Marriage certificate number 423.) And, to the best of my knowledge there were 3 children, Alfred (or Alf as he seemed to be known), James (my grandfather- James Bond I ask you!!!) & Polly (her given name was May Ellen). Maria obviously died (sorry, again no details as I have no certificate but maybe one day Parish Records might give up the secret) I suspect that it was either as a result of, or soon after the birth of Polly that Maria died, as in the past when infant and maternal mortality rates Hull Docks were very high this was an all too common occurrence. The mortality rate was extremely high for children under 5 years and without the benefits of modern medical intervention many women did not survive giving birth. Page 7 A Casket of Lives When you have half an hour to spare take a walk around an old churchyard and notice how many women died during the child–bearing years. I would put money on the fact that a lot of them died giving birth or shortly after as there were some terrible traditions associated with childbirth one of which was to pass down in the family what were known as the ‘lying- in sheets’. These sheets were only put on the bed when a birth was imminent –many poor people had no bed linen at all- and the sheets were never washed. Consequently these fouled and stained sheets were a source of the direst infection to both mother and newborn baby. It’s really a wonder anyone survived at all! Mind- improving piece now over we return to William. On April 8th 1878 William married for the second at St.James's church Kingston-upon-Hull. (Register page 155). Frances Thompson, his second wife was also his housekeeper and Frances's address is given as New George Street in the parish of Sculcoates. It was quite common at this time for a man to marry his housekeeper or a household servant –why keep a servant who has to be paid when a wife comes free? - Also a respectable man would not live under the same roof as an unmarried woman (or vice versa) to whom he was not related. We have no way on knowing if this was a love match or a purely business arrangement but William, if he was to avoid putting his children in an orphanage, had to have someone look after them when he was away on long voyages to the Baltic, Rangoon, New York, Karachi, the Mediterranean, Trieste, Odessa, and who knows where else as some of the ships papers simply state ‘foreign’ for the voyage undertaken.

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