zstory•

libraries urt1ers In this issue -

• Hackney parsonage house, and the Tudor courtiers who lived there

• A 'Who's Who' ofdissenting clergy in the reign of Charles II

• Victorian chrysanthemum enthusiasts in Stoke Newington

• Finsbury Park's first voluntary library

• Hackney's first Labour council

Hackney History is the annual volume of the Friends ofHackney Archives. The Friends were founded in 1985 to act as a focus for local history in Hackney, and to support the work ofHackney Archives Department. As well as the annual volume they receive the Department's regular newsletter, The Hackney Terrier. Hackney History is issued free ofcharge to subscribers to the Friends. Membership is £8 for the calendar year.

For further information telephone 01712412886, fax 01712416688, e-mail [email protected].

ISSN 1360 3795

£4.00 free to subscribers HACKNEY H£story

volume jive

Abbreviations used 2

'Naboth' s Vineyard': Hackney rectory in the 17th century Martin Tcrylor 3

Restoration Hackney, haven for the ejected Philip W Plumb 12

Stoke Newington and 'the golden flower' Anne Wilkinson 22

Culture comes to Finsbury Park: the public library movement in South Homsey, 1890-1900 Riry Hidson 30

Labour in power: Hackney Borough Council 1919-1922 Barry Burke 35

Postscript: the symbolism of the Rebello token Robert H. Thompson 46

Contributors to this issue 47

Acknowledgements 47

About this publication 48

THE FRIENDS OF HACKNEY ARCHIVES 1999 Published by the Friends of Hackney Archives Hackney Archives Department 'NABOTH'S VINEYARD': 43 de Beauvoir Road Nl 5SQ HACKNEY RECTORY IN THE 17TH For further details see page 48 CENTURY

Edited by Isobel Watson Cover design by Jacqueline Bradshaw-Price Printed by Sackville Printers, Heddon St Wl Martin Taylor ISSN 1360 3 795

© Friends of Hackney Archives and contributors, 1999 Introduction recover the rectory. These are John's 'Danyells In late May 1601, officers of the Court of Dysasters', and Jane's 'The Misfortunes of Jane Star Chamber at Westminster arrived in Hack­ Danyell'.1 They offer a marvellous insight into ney with warrants for the arrest of the tenant their characters, as well as casting light on of the rectory. He was a country gentleman their way of life in Hackney. There are two from Cheshire and would-be courtier, in his inventories of the Rectory - or Parsonage - fifties, called John Daniell. He had moved to house itself: one of the house prepared for the Hackney less than a year previously with his Exchequer Commission, and a second of the wife Jane, a Protestant exile from the Low gatehouse prepared by Jane Daniell herself. A Countries, and their children. He was accused third inventory lists agricultural produce and of blackmailing £ l, 720 from the Countess of tools ('certayne necessaries for husbandrie') Essex, by threatening to reveal to the authori­ in the outbuildings of the Parsonage. 2 These ties the contents of letters to her from her records give a unique picture of one of Hack­ husband the Earl. She had deposited these ney's 'lost' houses of the Elizabethan period ABBREVIATIONS letters for safe keeping with Jane Daniell, during which a number of aristocrats, courtiers whom she had formerly employed as her gen­ and office holders made residence in Hack­ HAD Hackney Archives Department tlewoman. The Earl of Essex, Elizabeth I's dis­ ney fashionable. This article seeks to inter­ DNB Dictionary ofNational Biography graced favourite, had been John's patron but pret this evidence of the way of life of such LMA London Metropolitan Archives the relationship had not produced the mate­ people, and to give an impression of one of PRO Public Record Office rial rewards he had expected. This was the their houses. motive for the crime. John was found guilty, All publications cited are published in London imprisoned, and fined £3,000. In part payment Rectors, patrons andfarmers unless otherwise indicated. of the fine, Hackney rectory was seized by The rectory of Hackney - that property Commissioners of the Exchequer and eventu­ which pertained to the rector - included the ally sold to the Heybourne family of Parsonage house and the glebe land surround­ Tottenham. ing it. In 1622 there were about five acres of Unusually, John and Jane Daniell left manu­ glebe, lying to the west of the house,3 and in script autobiographies which told their side 1650 this land was farmed as pasture.4 By 1650 of the story, and described their attempts to two tenements, or houses, had been built on

3 HACKNEY History 'Naboth's Vineyard'

6 the glebe. All this property lay on the west the hearth tax return of 1664 or that of 1671 and gardens formerly leased to John Rawlinson the Assembly Rooms, had been erected on side of Church Street ( as the northern part of list the then farmers as being resident in and the capital messuage with yard and gar­ the line of Sweet Bryer Walk, which had dis­ Mare Street was called until 1868) and north Church Street. After passing through a number dens 'now in the possession of --Wood'.8 appeared. The Assembly Rooms were used for of the confluence of Hackney and Pigwell of hands, the farm of the rectory, together with This is clearly the Parsonage house, and a plan a wide variety of functions - 'subscription Brooks. the manor of Lordshold with which it became appended to the lease enables us to identify balls ... public meetings .. .in science, religion, or As well as the glebe, the rectory also in­ associated, passed in 1697 to Francis Tyssen the property exactly. politics' .10 The land, which already appears cluded the tithes of the arable produce of the the elder. The Parsonage house is a good sized build­ from the 1766 plan to have undergone some parish, and_ an estate, the manor of A flurry of quitclaims extinguishing the ing, standing detached 50 yards or so behind formal planting, perhaps by John Rawlinson, 5 Grumbolds. This was a compact property run­ rights of numerous former patrons and farm­ the west side of Church Street at the end of tenant of the grounds of the Parsonage in the ning along both sides of Church Street. ers followed Tyssen's acquisition. It is some an alley way marked as Sweet Bryer Walk. early 18th century, was laid out as pleasure Copyholds of the manor included the Black consolation to the modern reader trying to We know from the evidence ofJane Daniell's gardens and a trap ball ground, according to a and White House to the south of the church, master the legal complexities of the transfers inventory that at one time the Parsonage had further plan of the Mermaid premises of 1810.11 and its grounds in Church Field; house prop­ of the rectory leases that the residents of Hack­ a gatehouse. Presumably this lay at one end The 1810 plan also suggests that the Par­ erty in Church Street; and at least part of ney at the time were equally perplexed. In or the other of this passage. The two acres or sonage house survived until that date. Cer­ Dame Sairey's Croft, a field at the top of the October 1659 the churchwardens gave notice so of land leased to Brunn were presumably tainly a building of much the same size and street, on the north side of Dalston Lane and to Richard Blackwell 'or whom it does con­ the vestiges the of the five acres of pasture position as in 1766 appears. It is described as cern to take care for the repayres of the Lower Clapton Road. which surrounded the house in 1650. 'cottages'; presumably it had been divided up, chancell'.7 Blackwell had been farmer of the In 1535 the rectory as a whole was worth Brunn's motive for leasing the Parsonage and perhaps to accommodate staff of the Mermaid. the sizeable sum of £26 per annum. It was rectory in the early 1650s, but appears to have its grounds was to expand the facilities of the If this hypothesis is correct (and it must be estimated in 1650 (after a long period of in­ relinquished his interest as early as 1654. Who Mermaid. A plan attached to the renewal of admitted that in 1790 a fire did 'considerable flation) that it could be let for £140 a year. It should assume the responsibility of the rector 9 the lease in 1 777 shows that a large block, damage' to the outbuildings of the Mermaid), was therefore a worthwhile piece of prefer­ seems to have been a contentious issue in the a watercolour of Captain Sadler's balloon as­ ment, and had the added attraction of being parish. cent from the Mermaid gardens in 1811 may a sinecure, with no pastoral responsibilities R / ;.,.,,,.,,{ A,,,..,,.., C , ;., ,,, ,,{ ,✓, ;.,,. u · ,, )' , /~, ;:/,,..', be the only surviving illustration of the Par­ other than the repair of the chancel of the Where was the Parsonage house? 12 D .(·.·, t,~·}1 i: ,t /1, '"•'• sonage house. The view is over Buck Horse church. Cure of souls in Hackney parish was Although the early 17th century is the pe­ ~. E ...... , ✓, : .,, , , , l / /,::'l ll lt or House Lane, later Cold Bath Lane ( and the responsibility of the vicar, although his riod for which we have most information about + + + + now Kenmure Road) to the wall of the gar­ living was worth a third of the value of the the Parsonage house, its location is only iden­ ++ , /,,,1, ,;/.(p-u,ll1.',, r,,/;,,~,,,,, ,;/ (! .., { ;,A.. ,, dens. The high roofed building above which rectory in 1650. tifiable from 18th century evidence. The ~ _, ....alcii$Td - I f . ~, I the church tower emerges is the Assembly As most rectors were absentees it became records of the land tax in 172 7 note that ~·( • ~ Rooms. The former Parsonage house is the common practice during the course of the Francis John Tyssen, as farmer of the rectory, ~. . building to the right of the Assembly Rooms, was assessed for the Parsonage at a rental value century for the rector to lease out the rec­ gable end on to the viewer. It is a substantial tory, including the tithes, glebe, parsonage and of £20. Presumably the house was unoccupied. :: V ~ two storey house and has the appearance of Grumbolds manor to a layman who 'farmed' By 1735 William Wood is recorded as tenant, ♦♦ an older timber framed building which has again at a rent of £20. Wood was still tenant H it - paying the rector a fixed sum and enjoy­ been adapted over the years. The two small ing the profits himself. The extent of the farm­ in 1760, but at a rent of £10, and this fell to chimneys emerging from either end of the ers' authority' is indicated by their holding of £8 in 1764. This may reflect the fact that building below the edge of the roof may have Wood was reducing the amount of land he the manorial courts for Grumbolds in lieu of been added when the house was divided. the rector. William Sutton, rector 1588-1622, rented, rather than representing a fall in the But we can learn rather more about the Par­ leased the rectory to George Smyth, who as­ value of the parsonage property. sonage house than its site and (conjecturally) signed it to John Daniell in 1600. Daniell also 1764 is the last year in which the land tax its early nineteenth century appearance. The acquired the right to appoint the rector - the records show William Wood as tenant of the ! events of 1601, and their aftermath, produced advowson - and after his disgrace both estate Parsonage house. In 1768 the tenant is records which give a unique picture of agri­ Anthony Brunn. A lease of 12 March 1766 and advowson were obtained by Ferdinando I cultural and domestic activity in Hackney at L___ Heybourne. details the transaction between F. J. Tyssen the turn of the 17th century. The later 17th century farmers seem to have and Brunn, landlord of the New Mermaid tav­ been primarily interested in the rectory as an ern, who leased over 2 acres of property be­ The rectory estate £n 1601 hind the Mermaid and its existing bowling investment. Most of them are described in The Mermaid grounds in 1764, before Brunn's enlarge­ The actual seizure of Hackney rectory and the deeds as citizens of London, and neither green. The property rented out includes houses ments. The 'capital house', D, is the Parsonage house site. its administration until the lease was trans- 4 5 HACKNEY History 'Naboth's Vinryard'

bleak field. the rooms of the house were as follows. There Besides the tithes, the inventory of the Par­ were a hall, parlour, buttery, kitchen and sonage indicates other agricultural activity, and milkhouse. These are likely to have been all as indicated by an autobiographical fragment on the ground fl oor. Mr Daniell 's chamber, a among the State Papers,15 John Daniell had study, Mrs Daniell's chamber, a chamber at spent some time on his Cheshire estates ap­ the head of the stairs and another chamber plying h imself to 'husbandrie' earlier in his were, presumably, on the first floor. T he career. 'In the groundes' of the house the com­ number of rooms makes the Parsonage com­ missioners recorded four geldings ( one perhaps parable in size with contemporary small manor was the horse which fell into the Lea). The houses, yeomen's houses and parsonages of inventory of farming equipment lists harness South East England. 16 for seven horses. The five 'mylch kyne' or dairy The evidence indicates that John had un­ cows presumably grazed in the five acres of dertaken repairs and new building at the Par­ pasture which surrounded the house. T hey sonage. The questions prepared by h im for were valued at 30s a head, although John witnesses to his case against Heybourne in the claimed that they worth £4 a head. T h is was Court of Requests show that the sizeable sum presumably what he had paid. The milk was of 100 marks had been paid to a Robert processed in the milk house, one of the rooms Houlder for building work. T he inventory The building in the centre, gable end on, shows what thep arsonage house mqy have looked like in 1811 in the Parsonage, which was equipped with a records that boards and timber remained there, churn, a cheese rack and butter crocks. presumably from this work. ferred to other hands was carried out by a gathered in kind from the common lands, and The 'sow and three pigges' kept at the Par­ The work may have been more than just prosperous middle-aged yeoman from Church in cash from the enclosed fi elds of the sonage, would also have been processed do­ necessary repairs to the existing building. The 13 Street called Ralph Bell. He was appointed wealthier inhabitants. mestically. Listed in the inventory of the gate­ period 1575-161 5 saw the beginning of the under the Exchequer Commission of 29 June Also subj ect to tithe were peas, wh ich must house are 'syx fl ytches of Bacon and iii Rooles 'Great Rebuilding' when gentry and yeomen 1601 and wasted no time in taking up h is have been mainly a cash crop fo r the London [rolls] of grease', and 'a great drye fa tt [vat] to in the more prosperous south east of the coun­ new responsibilities. The first payment re- markets. John Whally for example was grow­ powder [salt] h ogs in.' try began to make their existing timber framed corded in his accounts is brutal and to the ing over three acres. In the last week of July The Parsonage was equipped with two long hall houses more comfortable. Chimneys were point - 6d to a smith to break open the lock Bell received 33s 8d for the tithe on peas. carts, a dung cart and a waggon, together with inserted for more convenient cooking and of the Parsonage house. 14 According to the Commissioners' inven tory a plough, harrow and assorted mattocks and heating, often replacing a fire in the middle As steward of the rectory for the Commis- of the Parsonage house, other tithes on peas pitchforks. This is indicative of agricultural of the hall with a smoke hole in the roof. At sioners till at least the end of August, Bell 's were customarily paid about Christmas. activity on some scale, apart from the annual this period such halls often had a ceiling in­ first responsibility was to gather the tithe on G athering tithe crops was not always a gathering of the tithes. It may well be that serted to provide space for chambers above, the agricultural produce of the parish. The straightforward undertaking. The week begin­ some of the glebe was farmed as arable, and and access to such chambers was provided by detailed accounts of his transactions show that ning the 3rd August was a difficult one fo r indeed if we presume that some form of crop the building of framed staircases to replace at this point most of the tithe was gathered in Bell. On Monday one of the cart horses de­ rotation was practised by the farmers of the simple ladders. Cooking began to be done in kind. Bell continued to employ Daniell's men, veloped the staggers and fell into the River rectory, the five acres surrounding the house a purpose-built kitchen rather than in the hall. but because of the scale of the harvest, 'stran- Lea. It was rescued and treated with blood need not always have been laid down to grass At the same time the growing fashion for pri­ gers', presumably labourers from another par- letting and a butter and tar dress ing at a cost as they were in 1650. The inventory and ac­ vacy, which spread down from the aristocracy, ish, had to be employed on a daily bas is. of 4s 2d. O n Wednesday it rained all day. A counts highlight the degree to which Hack­ led to gentry and yeoman families living in a The hay, gathered in July, and the wheat number of Hackney townsmen spent the day ney was already a market gardening commu­ parlour, leaving the hall to accommodate serv­ harvested in August were sold on to London out on the marshes in Mr Heynes' wheat field nity in the early 17th century. ants. merchants and tradesmen. O n 28 July 1601 with Bell , deciding where the boundary be­ I would suggest that John was undertaking for instance one and a half loads of hay were tween Hackney and Stepney parishes lay. Had The Parsonage in 1601 similar work in the Parsonage house. The ex­ sold to 'a carrman or a brick man' at his neighbours not been with him, comments We now know where the Parsonage stood, istence of a kitchen, a parlour, chambers and Shoreditch . Total receipts for the hay harvest Bell , the tithe would have been lost, wh ich and perhaps what it looked like at the begin­ a staircase is explicit. The presence of fire irons were £20.15.3, and the receipts of the wheat perhaps suggests that Stepney parish was ac­ ning of the 19th century. The records of the in several of the rooms (parlour, kitchen and harvest were £5. 10.8. O ther tithes were paid tively trying to encroach into Hackney's ter­ Daniell case give us more details of the build­ buttery) indicates fireplaces and chimneys. in cash. Mrs Whitmore at Balmes paid over ritory. 5s 4d was paid to compensate Mr Law­ ing at the beginning of the 17th century. There are at least fo ur chambers and a study ten shillings. It seems probable that tithes were rence, Mr Keyes and others for a wet day in a According to the Commiss ioners' inventory, (perhaps little more than a closet) upstairs.

6 7 HACKNEY History 'Naboth's Vinryard'

To accommodate these I think we can assume mentioned above, at the end of the sixteenth There was also a fifth picture; among the items John's chamber. Jane's chamber is furnished that the upper part of the hall must have been century gentry families no longer lived in the left in the gatehouse by Jane was 'the countesse in some style with a 'standing Bedsted of floored over, and it may be that the boards hall of their houses, but usually dined and re­ of Essex pycture'. This was in a chest, so may waysncote' - a substantial item of carpentry noted by the Commissioners were left over laxed in the privacy of their (often new) par­ have been a miniature. Perhaps this was a far removed from the straw pallet in the hall from this. It seems likely that John and Jane lour. The inventory suggests that the Daniells valued gift from the Countess, and a poign­ - with the necessary curtains and covers of would try and make their new house as up to lived in this manner. The hall is furnished ant one, as it was Lady Essex's trust in Jane green 'stuff' (a quality woollen material), a date as possible. with two trestle tables and five stools, together which gave John the opportunity of black­ court cupboard, stool and table; a window If John did adapt the Parsonage in accord with an old straw bed and its linen. This sug­ mailing her. Perhaps some of the other pic­ curtain; and two bibles. There was also a 'trun­ with current fashion, the question arises as to gests that it was a room in which servants ate tures in John's chamber portrayed his own dle bed', one which could be pushed under what was there before. The court rolls of and slept. We know from Bell's accounts it patrons, the Earls of Essex and Ormonde. the main bed during the day, in which a child Grumbolds refer in 1487 to property 'oppo­ was normal practice for the farm labourers to Perhaps little more than a closet leading out or a servant may have slept. site the Church, in the Highway and next to be fed by Daniell. Presumably it was also the of 'Mr Daniell's Chamber', the study contained In one other chamber there was a similar the Rectory of Hackney' .17 This suggests that entrance to the house. just two hats, two rapiers and a pair of scales suite of furniture - standing bed, chair, stools there was a Parsonage house on the same site, The parlour appears to be rather more com­ with weights. This is a reminder that a gen­ and cupboard. The furniture of both cham­ more or less, in 1502 when Christopher fortable. A pair of andirons 'garnished with tleman, to appear as such, usually carried a bers was valued at £8 4s, a sum which out­ Urswick was appointed rector of Hackney. brasse' suggest a fireplace. There was a wick­ sword, and indeed John possessed a 'string of raged John who claimed that he had spent Urswick held a number of high church offices erwork chair with a trimmed cushion. There gould' from which to hang his weapon. The £3 2 on the furnishings of the chambers. Once as a result of an active diplomatic career, but were also a chess set, and a number of books: scales, together with nearly £7 in coin in a aga in it appears that John and Jane were keen retired to Hackney soon after his appoint­ a French herbal, a psalter and a 'little French box perhaps hint at John's money lending to be seen to be spending money on their ment.18 It has been thought that Urswick lived booke called the contentment of the Spirit' - activities which we know of from other living arrangements. at the house which bore his name, and which an interesting reminder ofJane's Flemish Prot­ so urces. Conspicuous consumption on furniture and was subsequently acquired for the use of the estant origins. A map of Ireland (bizarrely At an earlier period, a great chamber served fittings was matched by lavish outlay on parish. Alternatively known as Church House, valued in the same lot as an old brush, all at as a gentleman's bedroom as well as his main clothes. There are detailed descriptions of this stood on the site of the Old Town Hall to 10d) perhaps indicates John's association with reception room. By the 16th century the two John's clothes, contained in chests in 'Mr the south of St Augustine's Tower until its an earlier patron, the Anglo-Irish Earl of functions were served by two separate cham­ Danyell's Chamber'. Jane's are recorded as demolition in 1802. According to Robinson, Ormonde, or later military involvement in bers. The room described as 'Mrs Daniell's being in chests in the gatehouse, where they an inscription in the front of the house re­ Ireland with Essex. The parlour seems to have Chamber' is I think the principal bedroom in had been presumably moved when she was corded that it had been built in 1520.19 This been the room in which the Daniells spent which both of them slept. There is no bed in thrown out of the Parsonage house in June suggests that Urswick must have lived else­ most of their leisure time. 1601. Such items as a 'Flannell wascote where in Hackney until his new house was While it was normal for the parlour to be wrought with red Cruell', 'twoe dubletts of built, and he may have resided at the Parson­ used for informal living by gentry families, blacke stuffe', a lace ruff and 'one dammaske age house. If so, this must have been, or be­ more formal occasions typically took place in Cloake with sleeves garded with vellet' sug­ come during his residence, a suitable dwell­ the great chamber. 20 While no great chamber gest the clothes for attendance at court which ing for a church dignitary. One can perhaps is specifically mentioned, 'Mr Daniell's Cham­ John records he bought after receiving Lady imagine it to have been a timber framed hall ber' appears to be furnished as such. A table, Essex's money. house on the wealden pattern; a hall of some three covered stools and a court cupboard are Jane's clothes and accessories were similarly size rising to the beams, between a service listed. The last was a side table or cabinet splendid. The inventory of the gatehouse block at one end and a parlour block at the used to display plate, and we know that John records stomachers ( a sort of externally worn other, all under the same roof. By 1600 when spent £300 of his illgotten gains on gilt and decorative bodice), one wrought with gold, John Daniell took over the property, such a silverware. This is all furniture of some sub­ another decorated with 'sylke twyst', a gold house was old fashioned, and it is likely that stance and suggestive of formal entertaining. and silk fan, and a fine holland apron. Even he undertook the work outlined above to bring This chamber is also the only room in the some of the childrens' clothes are magnifi­ it up to date. Parsonage in which any form of decoration is cent; a child's mantle of crimson taffeta with mentioned, in this case four pictures. Pic­ a gold and silk fringe was perhaps a christen­ The Daniells' lifestyle tures, usually portraits, were still a rarity even ing robe. The childrens' linens in a chest in The Commissioners' inventory not only in wealthy households at the end of the six­ the gatehouse must have been their every day names the rooms in the Parsonage house and teenth century. Four suggests conspicuous con­ wear. their contents, but also allows us to reach some sumption on some scale. It is a great shame Most of the clothes mentioned were for for­ Frances, Countess of Essex conclusions about how they were used. As we do not know the subject of the pictures. mal occasions such as visits to court. The in-

8 9 HACKNEY History 'Naboth 's Vineyard' ventories also suggest some of Jane's daily ac­ milk house has already been discussed in the In her 'Misfortunes', Jane refors to 3. HAD D/F{fYS 2, 53-54. 4. HAD D/F{fYS 15, 53-55. For the rectory see VCH,116. tivities. Fourteen yards of 'houswyves flaxen' context of the agricultural activity of the Par­ Ferdinando Heybourne's ambition to acquire 5. VCH, 79-80. suggests that Jane spun her own yarn, perhaps sonage. It was also used for the storage of cut­ the rectory with reference to the Book of 6. LMA MR{fH4 (1664); MR{fH13 (1671). on the little old spinning wheel in the but­ lery and plate. Most of the latter was of pew­ Kings: Heybourne 'thirsting after the parson­ 7. HAD D/F{fYS 2, 275. 8. HAD M523. tery. In her 'Misfortunes', Jane quotes Prov­ ter, including trencher plates, fruit dishes, age of Hackney, as Ahab did for Naboth's vine­ 9. HAD M529. 24 erbs to emphasise her matronly virtues: 'She pottingers and saucers. The ten trenchers - yard, because it lay near him ... prevaile[d]'. 10. Benjamin Clarke, Glimpses of Ancient Hackney and seeketh wooll and fl ax and laboreth with her wooden plates - were presumably used by the Not only does this reference suggest that Stoke Newington, (1894, 1986) 11 6. 11. HAD M550. 21 hands'. We also see Jane undertaking the servants. A Venice glass and two narrow Heybourne's territorial expansion was particu­ 12. HAD WP4428. amateur health care which Elizabethan house­ mouthed glasses kept in the milk house were larly ruthless, it also implies that the Rectory 13. The will of Ralph Bell, proved in the London Commis­ wives commonly performed. The French probably for family use. Notable by its absence was something precious to its occupiers. Cer­ sary Court in 1606/7, is transcribed at HAD D/F{fYS 30/3, tainly the next decade was spent by the 509. He states that he holds sums for tithe paid by named herbal in the parlour would have been a source from either the Parsonage house itself or the parishioners, indicating that he continued to be steward of of information on herbal remedies for com­ gatehouse is the gilt and silver plate on which Daniells in fruitless attempts to obtain its res­ the rectory until 1606. mon complaints. Two other items carry hints the Daniells had spent £300 of Lady Essex's toration. It would be nice to think that al­ 14. Bell's stewardship accounts are transcribed at HAD D/F/ TYS 15, 357 ff. of superstition, if not witchcraft, 'a stone for money. This may have been concealed from though the move to Hackney was one of so­ 15. State Papers Domestic, CCLXXXI, 7711. the spleen' and an 'e[a]gle stone'. The former the Commissioners, or more likely liquidated cial betterment, appropriate to aspiring 16. See M. W. Barley, The English Farmhouse and Cottage is a charm worn against internal disorders, the to meet the expenses of John's trial and im­ courtiers who had come into money (how­ (1961) part 2. 17. HAD D/F{fYS 40, 49. latter was a hollow pebble with grit inside prisonment and the family's move from Hack­ ever dishonestly), John and Jane had acquired 18. DNB, vol. 58. which rattled, and which was worn about the ney. Nonetheless as with the furniture and an affection for the place. 19. W. Robinson, History and Antiquities of the Parish of arm by pregnant women to prevent miscar­ clothes, the impression of the domestic ar­ Hackney (1842) 1, 91. Notes 20. Mark Girouard, Life in the English Country House (1978) riage. Once labour had begun, the stone was rangements given by the inventories is one of eh. 4. placed upon the abdomen to aid delivery of comfort if not luxury. 21. 'Misfortunes', 76; Proverbs 31, v13. the child. 22 Jane records that she was in 1. HAD, D/F{fYS 71/9, 'Danyells Dysasters'; D/F{fYS 71/9, 22. Alison Sim, The Tudor Housewife (1996) 16. 'Misfortunes of Jane Danyell'. Both appear to have been 23. Stow, Survey of London (1720) II, Appx, 122. childbed in January 1600, about the time John Conclusion written in 1606, and were addressed to King James I. The 24 . 'Misfortunes', 124. put into effect his blackmail plot. In Hackney, at the beginning of the 17th manuscript is at PRO SP46/50/l. We can also presume that Jane supervised century, to quote the antiquarian John Strype, 2. For the transcripts of material in the case of Daniell v. Richardson (Ferdinando Heyboume was known as Richardson 23 the domestic affairs of the Parsonage. We know 'divers Nobles .. .had their country seats.' Of in the earl ier stages of h is career) see HAD D/F{fYS 15, the names of two of the servants, Mary Harper these seats only Sutton House remains to ex­ 233-428. This includes the gate house inventory, and the and Hugh Bramfield. There were three serv­ emplify such houses and the way of life of accounts of Ralph Bell, the Commission's agent in Hackney. The Commissioners' inventory of the Parsonage house is at ice rooms, kitchen, buttery and milkhouse. their inhabitants. The appearance, plan and PRO SP12/282, as is the inventory of the farm ing equip­ Kitchens as part of houses, as opposed to sepa­ some details are known of the grandest of them ment, SP46/56/236. A copy of the Parsonage house inven­ rate buildings, were a relatively new develop­ all, Brooke House; knowledge of others, such tory is at HAD Z45. ment in 1600. Used for preparing food, not as the Black and White House, is confined to all of them had fireplaces at this date, cook­ illustration; and some, such as Lord Zouche's ing being done in the old fashioned manner house in Homerton with its famous garden, in the hall. We can probably assume from the are known only from documentary sources. presence of bellows, coal baskets and fire forks John and Jane Daniell were only briefly resi­ in the Parsonage kitchen that there was a fire dent in Hackney, and their attempt to estab­ for cooking here. Many different varieties of lish themselves among the higher gentry there cooking utensils are listed, including brass was a spectacular failure. However there is kettles, spits, a frying pan and a gridiron. No every reason to believe that their domestic food is mentioned, although this is perhaps arrangements, agricultural activities, and even not surprising, as the house appears to have their social aspirations were typical of their been unoccupied for three months by the time gentry neighbours such as the Suttons and the when the inventory was made. Machells. We know that such grandees lived The buttery was a principally a room for in Hackney; thanks to John and Jane Daniell storing drink. It contained beer fir kins and we now have a better idea of how they lived various other tubs and containers, as well as here, and one reference suggests that the the spinning wheel already mentioned. The Daniells liked living here.

10 11 Restoration Hacknry

Parliament. This was designed to deprive them Charismatic preachers such as William Bates of the support of friends, and to exclude them settled in Hackney, and the religious .climate from towns where there might be some way was favourable to the Nonconformist ethos. of making a living and where the presence of The City of London merchants were largely several was considered to be a danger to the sympathetic to Nonconformity and many had Church and State. houses and estates in Hackney. Some employed RESTORATION HACKNEY - This catalogue of repressive laws bore hardly the homeless and destitute ministers as chap­ on those many ministers who put their faith lains or otherwise subsidised them. These pi­ HAVEN FOR THE EJECTED above their material welfare. Where, as in most ous refugees enriched the religious life of the cases, they had no other income but had fami­ area and contributed greatly to the schools lies to care for, there would have been im­ for which Hackney was already renowned. posed almost intolerable strains on conscience. From records of births, marriages and deaths, Philip W. Plumb Some found it possible to take the oath of from wills and letters and from the labours of non-resistance and thus evade the conse­ Calamy and other writers, and particularly quences of the Five Mile Act; but many could A.G. Matthews, it is possible to show how, not. Fortunately for the future of noncon­ between the Act of Uniformity and the end formity, the laws were not enforced with uni­ of the century, many ejected ministers from Introduction refused to swear oaths of allegiance, supremacy versal severity and this explains why many London and many other places came to settle The restoration of Charles II to the throne and non-resistance, who refused to take com­ instances of their defiance, either openly or in, or have close connections with, Hackney, in May 1660 meant the return of episcopacy munion in the Church of England and who covertly, were recorded by Edmund Calamy Stoke Newington and the neighbourhood. to the English Church. The Presbyterians, who refused to reject the Solemn League and Cov­ and others. 2 Something of the order of three times as many had played their part in the restoration, and enant. This hit the Presbyterians particularly On 15th March 1672 Charles II issued the ejected divines came to Hackney as settled in the other denominations, hoped for recon­ severely, as they had possessed great influence Declaration of Indulgence to suspend 'all man­ similar parishes such as Islington. ciliation either by absorption into the Church in the corporations. This bar was not lifted ner of penal laws in matters ecclesiastical The bishops feared that such concentrations or by freedom of worship outside it. The lead­ until 1828. against whatever sort of Nonconformists or would be bad for the Established Church and ing roles played by William Spurstowe and The next, and most far-reaching, Act was other ministers from Hackney, Stoke the Act of Uniformity, 1662. Those clergy­ recusants'. It now became possible for licences for the Government; and there is no doubt Newington and the neighbouring area have men who had not received episcopal ordina­ to be obtained for places of worship for those that the exiles materially and spiritually aided been described in Hackney History 4. tion were barred from office in the Church. not prepared to conform. These were largely each other. The Conventicle Act was due to The hardships and indignities suffered by All ministers who refused to read the Book of the houses belonging to preachers or one of be renewed in 1668 and Archbishop Sheldon the Anglican clergy and their families ejected Common Prayer, or conduct the service in their followers, but also included barns, out­ ordered all the clergy in the province of Can­ from their livings during the Commonwealth accordance with the authorised liturgy, were houses, malting-floors, cellars, even orchards. terbury to make a return of what Conventicles were not forgotten when the Cavalier Parlia­ deprived of their livings. A similar burden was In addition, preachers were licensed individu­ there were in their parish, how many attended ment made its religious settlement. The new placed on the dean and chapter of every ca­ ally to preach in any licensed place. Parlia­ them, of what sort of people they consisted Parliament met in May 1661. The City of thedral, tutors and professors in the universi­ ment objected to the King's Declaration, and London returned only Presbyterians and In­ ties, and every schoolmaster. Some two thou­ on the 8th March 1673 it was cancelled. In dependents, but the rest of the country, largely sand ministers were consequently deprived of 1675, the licences were rescinded and again in reaction to the severity of the Puritans, their living, livelihood and home.1 it became illegal to hold nonconformist wor­ overwhelmingly sent strong royalists and Nonconformity flourished despite these pe­ ship in public. churchmen to govern the nation. nal laws, and meetings for worship were widely attended. The Conventicle Act, 1664, was Sanctuary in Hackney Oaths and licences passed to make such meetings illegal. In 1665, Hackney, particularly, became the sanctu­ Various measures were enacted, known as the Five Mile Act was passed. This required ary of many ministers deprived of their liv­ the Clarendon Code, although Edward Hyde, nonconformist ministers to take an oath of ings not only in London but throughout the Earl of Clarendon, after whom they were non-resistance to lawful authority on pain of country. The venerated William Spurstowe, although retired from the living, continued named, was much more tolerant to noncon­ being prevented from living within five miles ,, . "',,. ,:: ;':, ·· u.·,• ,· ; 1t'" • formists than these statutes provided. The first of any parish, town or place where they had to live in Hackney and with his private for­ tune and his charitable disposition undoubt­ was the Corporation Act of 1661, which exercised their ministry before the Act, or any Newington Green: a permanent meeting-house was banned from municipal office all those who city, town or borough that sent burgesses to edly aided many of his impoverished friends. constructed in this Nonconformist community in 1708.

12 13 HACKNEY History Restoration Hacknry and who were their leaders and preachers. This at one time nearly 300 pupils. He later re­ of longest standing or most learning, the other is ordination of London Nonconformists since return, preserved in the Library of Lambeth moved to Haxton Wells. His will was as of for the younger and later coming. He has at least the ejections, became co-pastor at Newington 60 boarders, for, when Mr. Button, who the same Palace, shows that three Presbyterian preach­ St. Leonard's Parish, Shoreditch, 25 th July school at Islington, died a year or two ago, most Green until 1699. Wickens assisted him until ers and four Congregationalists held a 'lec­ 1691. of his scholars went to Mr. Morton, so, his house his death at the age of 85; he was buried in ture in concert' at Hackney. From this begin­ A Cambridge Fellow, John Hutchinson, af­ being too small, he made use of a greater and, Bunhill Fields on 21st September 1699. Bennet ning stemmed the Tuesday morning Mer­ ter a very varied career which included lexi­ when he reads lectures or on great debates, they served as sole pastor until 1708, when he went chants' Lecture, which continued into the cographical work, training in anatomy in all appear in the great house. as assistant at the Old Jewry. He was living in 20th century. Otherwise the influence of these France and practising as a physician in Haxton Square in 1719. In 1685, Morton was so 'infested with Proc­ concentrations of Nonconformists had a sub­ Hitchin, Hertfordshire, for thirty years, finally Another chaplain , Thomas Senior, who esses from the Bishops Court' that he decided tle effect on the religious life of the nation, moved to Hackney where he kept a boarding lived the later part of his life at the house of to sail to New England. He tried to persuade rather than the cataclysms feared by some of school and taught Latin and Greek for nine Alderman Bewley and also preached for many Edmund Calamy, then aged 14, to go with the Anglicans. years. He was buried at Hackney on 24th Feb­ years at the house of Alderman Ashhurst, both him, promising to look after him like a fa­ ruary 1714-15. in Hackney, was deprived of his lectureship at ther; but when Calamy's mother heard of the Academies and schools The principal Congregational Academy in Cambridge where he was a Fellow of Trinity proposal (apparently second-hand from Thomas Cruttenden, Fellow of Magdalen London was opened at Newington Green, as College. He married Anne Johnson, of Hack­ Calamy's friends) she refused to allow it. College, Oxford, on his ejection went to live an indirect result of the Great Fire. Charles ney, widow, age 35, at A ll Hallows, London Morton became the first pastor of the church in Hackney with his wife Sarah. Here he as­ Morton had been Rector of Blisland, Corn­ Wall on 31st May 1671. He was licensed as at Charleston and, amongst other matters, ap­ sisted his mother-in-law, Mrs Salmon, in her wall, until his ejection, when he settled in St. Presbyterian to preach at his house in Clapton proved the prosecutions for witchcraft at 'great Boarding-School', preaching as often as Ives, preaching privately to a few people from on 12th April 1672. His will, dated 18th De­ Salem. he had the opportunity. He died of small-pox a neighbouring village. He sustained a great cember 1680, as of Hackney, provided that and was buried at Hackney on 2nd October loss by the Fire of London and moved there his son Nathaniel should be educated for the Chaplains and conventicles 1674. There were a son and a daughter both to better look after his affairs. There, wrote ministry. Henry Newcome preached for him When Morton left England his place at the baptised at Hackney. John Burgess, formerly Calamy, by the entreaty of several friends he at Hackney in October 1668. Academy was partially filled by friends who Rector of Ashprington, Devon, moved to was prevailed upon to undertake the instruct­ Arthur Barham, ejected from St. Helen's, privately lectured to Morton's pupils. One of Hackney after the death of a friend in ing of Youth in Bishopsgate, moved with his family to Hack­ these was William Wickins or Ul'J°ckens, who Dartmouth with whom he and his family first ney until the Five Mile Act, when he left his had a notably varied ministerial career. In 1643 lived after his ejection. There he and some Academical Learning. He set upon this Work at family there and retired into Sussex. With the he was chaplain to Sir Edward Scott of Scott's other ministers joined in carrying on Newington-Green, and was extraordinarily well Declaration of Indulgence he moved back to qualify'd for it. Many of his Pupils are now very Hall, Kent. In 1646 he held the sequestered Hackney and was licensed as Presbyterian at Useful men, both in Church and State. Some rectory of St. Andrew Hubbard, London, but a Private Lecture, and other Exercises of Reli­ scores of young Ministers were Educated by him, his house there. gion, to a Society of about Thirty Families. He allowed the former rector to use the house. as well as many other good Scholars. A conventicle was held at the house of was much tempted by the Offers of Preferments After 1657 he moved to St. George's, South­ Margaret Hammond, widow, in 1665, and in the Church to have Conform'd: But he re­ wark, another sequestered living. He became One of these was Daniel Defoe, who praised eight of the 25 people present were fined, in­ fused them all, and sate down contented at Is­ preacher at the Poultry Compter, but was lington, to keep Boarders of Citizens Sons, who him in particular for giving instruction in cluding Thomas Barnardiston , and some of ejected in 1662. He was offered £5 after his went to School to Mr. Singleton, who had then English rather than in Latin. He retained both his family. Thomas H ammond, a Con­ ejection but asked that his friend, Edward a flourishing School at that Place ... a genteel po­ his house at Kennington, which he licensed gregationalist, her late husband, was previously lite Man, of a graceful Presence, and a charitable Lawrence, who was more in need of it than on 11 th April 1672 as a Presbyterian meeting Lecturer at St. Nicholas, Newcastle on Tyne, generous Temper ... of extraordinary Abilities ... he was, should have it. He went to live in the place, and at St. Ives; an application for the where he preached on Sundays and lectured house of Alderman John Forth, of Hackney, latter was refused. on Thursdays. He left the city on 15th July When Burgess was buried at St. Mary's, Is­ to whom he was chaplain, and was licensed, One of Morton's pupils, Samuel Birch, was 1662, before being suspended, and sailed the lington, on 6th September, 1671, Philip Henry on 16th May 1672, as a Presbyterian preacher considered to have dangerous political senti­ next day for Hamburg. His wife and children wrote that there were 100 to 120 ministers at in that house. He was fined £60 for twice ments and a London bookbinder, after giving fo llowed. He became minister to the society the funeral but even there they were divided, preaching in October 1682, and the next information in 1682 to the authorities about of merchants there, but their charter had 'pt. staying ye office for ye dead, pt. going month was fined £20 for preaching at a meet­ him went on to describe Morton's establish­ nearly expired, and Lord Chancellor Hyde re­ out'. ing-house in Clapton. In 1689 he was certi­ ment: fused to renew it if they retained Hammond. Thomas Singleton, Head Master of Eton fied as preacher at Newington Green, where College from 1655 to 1660, then briefly Mas­ He returned to England via Stockholm and Mr. Morton, master of the college at Newington he assisted John Starkey. Later, Joseph Bennet, ter of Reading School, opened a school in Danzig in 1665, settling at Hackney amongst Grove [sk] , has not broke up, but has two houses, a former pupil at Morton's Academy, who was some of the merchants whom he had been Clerkenwell Close, Islington, where he had one bigger than the other. In the biggest are those ordained on 22nd June 1694, the first public with abroad. He preached occasionally in his

14 15 HACKNEY History Restoration Hacknry

Hertford, refused to conform and was ejected ber 1679 and his widow, Dorothy, was buried in 1662. He went to live in Hackney and was at Hackney on 24th September 1719. described by Calamy as An interesting sidelight on the huge con­ gregations often attracted to popular preach­ a Worthy Man, of good Substance, till the Fire of ers in the 17th century is shown by the com­ London consum'd it: afterwards indeed he was in ment by Calamy on John Johnson, Fellow of Straits, and had many Children, and very little New College, Oxford, that 'He was much af­ to stibsist on, and had considerable Offers if he wou ld have conformed ... flicted in his Old-age with a Rupture, that was occasioned by his straining his voice to He was buried at Hackney on 24th October preach to a great Congregation'. He was bur­ 1671, leaving nine sons and a daughter. ied at Hackney, from Homerton, on 8th No­ Other Nonconformists who lived at Hack­ vember 1686. Matthew Poole, formerly Rec­ ney at some stage after the Restoration ac­ tor of St. Michael le Querne, London, appar­ cording to wills, place of burial, baptisms of ently preached little after his ejection and children or other documentary evidence in­ eventually fled to Amsterdam during the Pop­ clude Daniel Batchelor, ejected Rector of St. ish scare and died there on 2nd October 1679. Anne and St. Agnes, Aldersgate; his will has However letters to John Lightfoot, 1667-8, him as 'late of Hackney now at Leatherhead, were written from Hackney. 'Subject to mel­ Surrey, 12th October, 1683'; John Batchelor, ancholy' was Calamy's comment on John The oldAbnry congregational chapel, on the north side of Church Street, built c. 1706 to replace the original Restoration Fellow of Eton College, will as of Hackney, Sayer, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Ox­ building. A sketch c. 1840 fry Thomas Hosmer Shepherd 24th August, 1674, buried at Hackney, 23rd ford, who although licensed, on 5th Septem­ September; William Blagrave, curate of ber 1672 as Presbyterian to preach at his fa­ own and other families, but died shortly, and and married in 1669, Sarah, Spurstowe's Woburn, Bedfordshire, ejected for refusing to ther's house in Hagbourne, Berkshire, made was buried at Hackney on 10th December widow, as either his second or fourth wife ac­ read the prayer book service, died at Hack­ his will at Hackney on 3rd March 1675-6. 1665. cording to source. His son, Jonathan Tuckney, ney; Nicholas Cary, vicar of Monmouth, who Martin Simson, rector of Stock, Essex, made Martin Morlandhad to leave the rectory of a Fellow in the same college, on ejection after ejection came to London, studied medi­ his will as of Hackney on 21 st February 1664- Cliddesden, Hants, in 1660 on the restora­ moved to Hackney and was licensed Presby­ cine and was particularly successful in treat­ 5, and was buried there on 17th July 1665. tion of the sequestered rector. He then went terian in his own house there. Three sons and ing eye and ear diseases. His will was as of Marmaduke Tennant, rector of Therfield, to Weld in the same county but was ejected a daughter were all baptised at Hackney be­ Hackney, 6th May 1696. He left £50, to be Hertfordshire, who had been presented at the from there in 1662 when he went to live in tween 1672 and 1679. A man of 'good learn­ distributed by Dr. Bates, to poor ministers not Quarter Sessions on 14th July 1661, for not Hackney where he was licensed, Presbyterian, ing' but 'rendered useless by melancholy', he of the Church of England. reading common prayer, made his will as of at his house, on 16th May 1672. At Middle­ died in 1694. John Goodwin, vicar of St. Stephen's, Hackney on 3rd October 1682, and was bur­ sex Sessions on 2nd November 1682, certi­ Roger Morrice, one-time vicar of Duffield, Coleman Street, London, was considered to ied at Hackney eleven days later. Although fied as of Clapton, he was fined £60 for preach­ Derbyshire, a wealthy Nonconformist, died at be the acutest and most liberal of Puritan con­ not beneficed, Edmund Trench was regarded ing twice there in the previous October. His Haxton on 17th January 1701-2, aged 72. He troversialists of his time. His will, as of Hack­ by Calamy as 'worthy of any Living in the will, as of Hackney, was dated 11th May 1685, made many charitable gifts in his lifetime and ney, 7th January 1658-9, was proved on 3rd County' [Kent]: in his younger years he had and he was buried there on 16th June in that left some of his books to Wilkes, vicar of St. May 1666. George Hitchcock, Fellow of Lin­ been 'loose and careless, and drawn aside by year. One son, Martin, was buried at Hack­ Leonard's, Shoreditch. Peter Sterry, one of the coln College, Oxford, refused to leave his ill Company: Afterwards he became an emi­ ney from Clapton in December 1692. Another lecturers in concert at Hackney in 1669, had rooms in the College, and was removed by a nent Instance of serious unaffected Piety'. He son, Benjamin, carried on 'the school' at Hack­ been chaplain to Oliver Cromwell. Never ben­ party of soldiers and imprisoned. Later he had lived in Hackney from 1670-74 and left a ney until appointed High Master at St. Paul's eficed, he was not ejected. On 16 May 1672 the Vice-Chancellor arrested in London for 'printed Account of his Diary' ( which is in in 1721. Samuel, a third son was a school­ he was licensed, Presbyterian, in Edward fa lse imprisonment. Calamy said he lived at the Tyssen Collection at Hackney Archives). master at Bethnal Green and in 1690 was as­ Bushell's house, Hackney and also received a Hackney and attended the Ministry of the Giles Woolley, although not ejected, afterwards sisting his brother in the school at Hackney. license for Little Berkhampstead, Herts. Nonconformists. Edward Hulse was Fellow of became a Nonconformist and preached at Anthony Tuckneywas Master of St. John's Possession of property was, in the tumultu­ Emanuel College, Cambridge, and possibly not Hackney. John Wowen, chaplain to Lord College, Cambridge, but neglected his reli­ ous times following the Restoration, not a himself a Nonconformist; but was physician Ward, in Worcestershire, who was known to gious duties when the prayer book was reintro­ permanent guarantee of well-being. Joseph to many, after studying at Leiden c.1669. His have been preaching in Northamptonshire c. duced, and on 22nd June 1661 was asked to Church, Rector of St. Catherine Coleman, child was buried at Hackney on 23rd Novem- 1682, was buried at Hackney on 16th No- resign by the King. He moved to London London, and one-time vicar of All Saints,

16 17 HACKNEY History Restoration Hack11ry vember 1 713. ministers. He even obtained one for Philip gave the first lecture at Pinners' Hall, Old The vicar of Leyton, Ph1lip Anderson, taught Henry without Henry asking him. He used to Broad Street, the meeting place of a Congre­ school in that parish after ejection and was preach at Armourers' Hall, Coleman Street, gational church where City merchants funded buried at St. Mary's, Islington on 31st August in the morning and at Haxton, where he had a series of Tuesday morning lectures. Gordon3 1669, but his will, of 24th May 1669, was as been certified as preacher in 1689, in the af­ commented that he excelled as a preacher but of Kingsland. It stipulated, after bequests to ternoon. His will was as of St. Leonard's par­ did not study brevity. Lord Bolingbroke, in a his wife and three sons - ish, Shoreditch, but he was buried at St. letter to Jonathan Swift, wrote that 'Manton Bartholomew the Great in November 1692. taught my youth to yawn, and prepared me to Nothing to be given at my funeral but a sprig of Thomas Vincent was one of the courageous be a high churchman, that I might never hear rosemary only half dozen pair of black gloves to divines during the Plague, preaching to and him read or read him more'. William Bates, six nonconforming Ministers whom I desire may succouring the stricken population of London. privately inter my corpse without any funeral ser­ in preaching Manton's funeral sermon, asserted mon from any conformist. He published an account of the Plague. He that 'a clear J udgment, rich fancy, strong became a preacher and schoolmaster at Memory, and happy Elocution met in him, Sanctuary in Shoreditch Haxton and died there on 15th October 1678, and were excellently improv'd by his diligent Samuel Stancliffe, rector of Great Stanmore, but was buried at St. Giles, Cripplegate. Peter study'. A son, Thomas, was baptised at Stoke Middlesex, although active elsewhere follow­ Vnke or Vinke, vicar of St. Catherine Cree, Newington on 7th October 1645, and another ing his ejection, was buried at Hackney on London, came of a Flemish refugee family set­ son, James, was buried there on 18th June 19th December 1705. His will, of 13th No­ tled in Norwich. After ejection he was licensed 1656. Thomas Manton died on 18th Octo­ vember that year, described him as 'gentle­ Presbyterian on 11 th April 1672. In 1690, it ber 1677 and was buried in the chancel of St. man of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch'. William was said, he 'preacheth to a few in his own Mary's, Stoke Newington on 22nd October. Beerman or Berman, formerly chaplain of St. house in Dalston'. A widow of Hackney, Alice When Thomas Manton went off to his new Thomas Manton Thomas's Hospital, remained in Southwark, Hinton, left him £10 in her will. He died at church in Covent Garden his place at Stoke preaching in various locations including a Dalston on 6th September 1 702, and his Newington was taken by Daniel Bull who Cawthorn, rector of St. George's, Stamford, malthouse. Later he lived in Haxton Square, daughter, Mary, was buried at Hackney on 8th came to Middlesex from Wyke Regis, Dorset. Lincolnshire, was licensed as Presbyterian at Shoreditch, and built and endowed almshouses July 1704. He was elected to the rectory by the vestry on Stamford on 10th June 1672, but went to for eight poor women on land adjoining his 27th September 1657. The whole parish, 'sicke London later and was licensed as preacher in house, c. 1701. An itinerant preacher from Stoke Newington and poor, good and bad' signed his call. Al­ the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate in 1689. Cumberland, James Cave, after ejection moved Thomas Manton was intruded into the rec­ though the sequestered rector, William Heath, He settled at Stoke Newington, where he was south in stages, marrying at Daventry, tory of Stoke Newington in July 1645, some was restored in 1660, Bull continued to preach a successful and respected minister for several Northants, and finally lived in Whitecross months after the sequestration of Thomas until August 1662. He was licensed, Presby­ years. He worked with Joseph Bennet, who Alley, Shoreditch, which was certified as a Heath. He was one of the leaders of the Pres­ terian, at his house at Stoke Newington on preached his funeral discourse on 9th March place of worship in June 1690. byterian ministers and took a prominent part 19th April 1672, and also in the house of Mrs 1 706, the day after the burial at St. Mary's, Henry Esday, Rector of Pentlow, Essex, one in the Westminster Assembly and the Savoy Stock, widow there. He later became assist­ Newington. of many Nonconformists ejected when the Conference. He resigned from Stoke ant to John Howe at Haberdashers' Hall. Al­ Theophilus Gale, formerly preacher at Win­ former incumbent was restored, had a consid­ Newington in 1656 and became rector of St. though his wife had died in 1671 he was dis­ chester Cathedral and Fellow of Magdalen erable estate left him by a relative after his Paul's, Covent Garden, a newly built church. missed in 1681 for adultery - an incident which College, Oxford, after ejection went to Caen, ejection and 'liv'd and dy'd privately' in He worked for the restoration of Charles II caused a great deal of criticism by his col­ Normandy, as tutor to the sons of Lord Haxton Square. and was one of the deputation to Charles at leagues.4 Calamy described him as a 'good Wharton: a post for which, apparently, he was Richard Steele, a friend and colleague of Breda. He was offered the deanery of Rochester scholar and agreeable preacher' and went on ill suited. When he returned to London he Philip Henry, had been vicar of Hanmer, but refused it. After the Act of Uniformity he to chide his critics with lack of charity for found to his horror that the street in which Flintshire, and was presented twice at the Flint was ejected in 1662. His successor, Simon this 'single Instance'. Bull went to preach in lived the friend to whom he had entrusted Assizes for not reading common prayer. After Patrick, objected to Manton attending his Carlisle , but returned to London where he his desk containing papers, on which he had ejection he continued to live at Hanmer un­ services and Manton then preached in his own died ('a Penitent Sinner and a returning Back­ been working for ten years, had been con­ til the Five Mile Act, and was imprisoned with house in King Street, Covent Garden. In slider'), probably in February 1697. sumed in the flames of the Great Fire. Fortu­ Henry in October 1663. Eventually he arrived March 1670 he was arrested under the Five James Ashurst, Fellow of Magdalen College, nately, his friend, in carrying off his own be­ in London and became licensed as Presbyte­ Mile Act and spent six months in the Gate­ Oxford, and Dean of Divinity in 1658, after longings to safety, had found that on the last rian, 2nd April 1672, and then became Lon­ house prison. With the Declaration of Indul­ leaving Oxford preached at Newington Green, load he had spare room in the cart, so had don agent in procuring licenses for country gence, 1672, he was licensed to preach. He as he had opportunity, until his death. Joseph included Gale's desk.

18 19 HACKNEY History Restoration Hacknry

Gale was not thought a very good preacher. town was in fl ames so that his mother was was the Common Fund set up in 1690 to sub­ The Fund did valuable work, aiding students In 1666 he opened an academy at Newington forced to give birth to him in a fi eld, spent sidise by concerted action, dissenting minis­ for the ministry, and making up stipends to a Green. His will, as of Stoke Newington, 25th most of his life in Dorset, suffering many hard­ tries in need of financial help. Seven minis­ level, which, if not generous, at least made February 1677-8, left £5 each to 31 ejected ships for his faith. At one stage he moved to ters of each denomination were chosen as the the minister's life a little more bearable. ministers, and the residue of his estate for the London; his son, Robert, was baptised at Stoke first managers of the Fund. The Presbyterians Among the students thus aided were Edmund maintenance and education of poor scholars. Newington on 14th June 1650. Samuel Lee included William Bates, Richard Mayo ( fa­ Calamy and Isaac Watts. Most of his library was left to the College in was not actually ejected, but resigned the rec­ ther of Daniel, later minister of the Gravel By the middle of 1693, the doctrinal differ­ New England, and formed more than half the tory of St. Botolph's , Bishopsgate, in 1659. Pit Chapel, Hackney) and Daniel Williams. ences between the two denominations had library of Harvard until destroyed by fire in He travelled to America in 1666. When he On the C ongregational side were Isaac caused a crisis in the working of the Common 1764. returned to England he received a licence to Chauncy, Matthew Mead and others. Fund, and the Fund was reconstituted on 5th William Gilbert, Lecturer at Witney, Ox­ preach at his house at Newington Green on Individuals and congregations were invited February 1694/5, with Presbyterian Ministers fordshire, was buried at St. Mary's, Stoke 13th May 1672. He sailed for Boston, Mass . to subscribe through the Fund, earmarking if only as managers. A separate Congregational Newington on 5th June 1678. In 1672 he had in 1686 and became pastor of a congregation required the particular ministers, congrega­ Fund was established in December 1695. been licensed as a Presbyterian preacher at at Bristol, Rhode Island. He sailed back from tions, missions or students to be helped. The Meanwhile, in 1694, Daniel Williams was Stanton Harcourt. Jonathan Grew, from War­ Boston 2nd Oct 1691 but was captured by a first subscription list, which ran from 9th April expelled from the Merchants' Lecture by a wickshire, was a Nonconformist but was not French privateer and died at St. Malo. 1690 to 16th June 1691, was printed in majority of its supporters, resulting in the other ejected, as he held no office in 1662. He was John Starkie or Starkey, formerly lecturer at Gordon's Freedom after Ejection, and shows Presbyterian lecturers (Bates, Howe and Alsop) offered various posts but settled in a school at Grantham, after ejection moved to Lancashire the great generosity of the ministers them­ withdrawing and forming a new Tuesday morn­ Newington Green. A child of his was buried and was licensed as Presbyterian at Ormskirk selves. Matthew Mead, Vincent Alsop, John ing lecture series at Salters' Hall. from Newington Green in 1671, as was his 29 June 1672. In 1690 he became minister at Howe, Samuel Annesley, and Richard Mayo Despite all the obstacles put before those wife, Elizabeth, in 1673; and possibly another Newington Green with 'competent supply'. each contributed £100, and John Faldo, Dan­ who in good faith could not accept episco­ son, Obadiah. In 1682. Grew moved to St. His will was as of Newington Green, 11 th iel Williams and William Bates each gave £50. pacy and the Prayer Book, nonconformity Albans, Hertfordshire as pastor, and died in June 1692. Edward Terry, rector of Great Williams made 'an additional subscription' of emerged in all its variety in the eighteenth 1711. Greenford, Middlesex, resigned in December £20 six months later. Lay people such as century with Hackney still providing ideas, Formerly rector of Feniton, Devon, Samuel 1661 . He returned to Amersham, where he Thomas Abney, Lady Priscilla Brookes, Joshua idealism and education for nonconformity. Hieron, following ejection, returned to his had previously been rector and was licensed Brookes and many other names appear in the birthplace, Honiton, and after attending serv­ ( Congregational) for a house in Chalfant St. list as do anonymous contributions from 'a Notes ice in the parish church would preach in his Giles on 16th May 1672. He was described in citizen', 'a person, 'a Gent.' and so on; a col­ 1. Hackney History 4, 3 -12. own house . He suffered greatly under the pe­ the list of 1690 of 'London ministers not fi xed' 2. E. Calamy, A n Abridgement of Mr Baxter's History of His lection from Pinners' Hall amounted to £120. Life and limes, 170 2. Calamy was the grandson of Spurstowe's nal laws and had his goods, even his bed, car­ as 'Mr. Terry at N ewington'. l s. 4d. collaborator in the Smectymnuus tracts. The second edi­ ried away and sold in the market place, where In order to make the best use of the funds tion, 1713, grew to 864 pages. A. G. Matthews, an English he had a friend buy them back on his behalf. The Common Fund Congregational minister, in Calamy Revised(Oxford, 1934), raised, a survey was made by sending a gen­ wh ich forms the bas is for this paper, augmented Calamy's He was wealthy and used his money to help The effect on the survival, strengthening and eral letter to correspondents all over the coun­ work and traced the subsequent lives of the ejected. How­ poor children, ejected ministers and others in development of nonconformity of so many try asking for names of survivors of the ejected ever fo r reasons of space Matthews omitted much personal need. Not succeeding in finding a peaceable ejected ministers and others forced from their detail, so it is necessary to refer to the original work for a divines who remained Nonconformist, lists of rounded picture. existence in his home town, he moved to livings and settling in Hackney, Shoreditch settled congregations, their ministers and how 3. A. Gordon, Freedom after Ejection (Manchester, 1917). London and shortly after died at Newington and Stoke Newington is perhaps more subtle they were maintained, and a list of religious 4. Although a widower, Bull was considered to be guilty of and was buried there on 4th January 1685-6. than obvious. The foundation and growth of adultery by virtue of a relationship with a woman to whom assemblies discontinued and places where there he was not married. Henry Jessey, lecturer at St. George's, South­ nonconformist academies was certainly one were possibilities of public service. The re­ 5. See Hackney History 4, 12. wark, was a Baptist minister who had many result. The fears of the Church party that gov­ sults of this survey are printed in Gordon 7 and 6. On the east side of Moorfields, extending east to New brushes with authority, and at one stage was ernment and religion would be overthrown Broad Street, enclosed for a churchyard by Sir Thomas Roe show that at Hackney the 'Ministers yt haue in 1559. Later the site was taken fo r Broad Street Station. kept prisoner at the Lamb Inn, St. Clement were, of course, not realised. The Happy a competent Supply' were Or. William Bates 7. op. cit. Danes. According to informers he met often Union,5 if short-lived, and the Merchants' and Mr Woodcock. A lso at Hackney was Mr. at Lady Hartups at Newington. Four or five Lecture were two developments in which lo­ Webb, 'his low estate in ye world fully Stated'. thousand people attended his funeral on 7th cal nonconformists took a prominent part. Mr. Math: Mead and Mr. Lawrence were at September 1663 at Bethlehem new church­ Another joint enterprise which owed much Stepney; Mr. Vnick at Dalston, Mr. Starkey yard.6 Christopher Lawrence, born in to local leadership and funding but which was at Newington and Mr. Hodges at Bednall Dorchester in 1613 at the very time that the put into jeopardy by the doctrinal differences greene (sic) .

20 21 Chrysanthemums

round 'on circuit' to inspect them. By th~ early vating the new arrivals and selling them lo­ l 9th century the variety of flowers available cally. He was described by The Gardeners' in Britain increased because of commercial Magazine in 1890 as 'the father of the chry­ collectors bringing many new plants into the santhemum'. He eventually sold his nursery country. Florists became interested in a wider when the land was required for building the STOKE NEWINGTON AND variety of plants, and commercial nurserymen Northampton estate and emigrated to became more active as florists. The hollyhock, America. At the same time there were two 'THE GOLDEN FLOWER' pelargonium, dahlia, and many others became active horticultural societies locally. The Hor­ subjects for the florist, and a lot of money ticultural Society for Stamford Hill, which h ad could be made by producing a good, new flower been instituted in 1833, was 'strictly confined and selling it to other florists. By the middle to the Gentry in the vicinity'. It had 300 Anne Wilkinson of the century it seems that the term 'florist' members and held three exhibitions a year in was almost synonymous with a nurseryman members' gardens. 1 The professional garden­ who bred particular fl owers for sale, although ers, many of whom worked at the great gar­ there were still many amateurs growing flo- dens of Stamford Hill, h ad formed their own rists' flowers as well. Many parts of Hackney society, the Stamford Hill, Clapton and Stoke and the Lea valley, like oth er outlying parts Newington Gardeners' Association. They held Go where you will in the chrysanthemum sea­ plays of chrysanthemums at a time of year of London such as Chelsea and Hammersmith, classes, maintained a library and presented son, and you will meet people who want to know when few other flowers were in bloom and were full of market gardens and nurseries, ready monthly lectures on horticultural and scien­ 2 how things look at Stoke Newington, or they shows were confined to indoor halls because to exploit the new fl owers. Florists' societies tific subjects. may be able to tell you how things look, for lov­ were particularly active in Islington, although One of the favourite meeting places for the ers of the November flower make long journeys of the weather. But how did the chrysanthe­ the sign on the Canonbury Tavern, where flo- local gardeners was the Rochester Castle on to see it 'at home', the village in the northern mum become such a favourite in Stoke suburbs which has so long been famous for its Newington? rists met, now somewhat inaccurately features Stoke Newington High Street. Its landlord, cultivation, attracting pilgrims from the most re­ an aspidistra. Robert James, a Gloucestershire man, aged mote parts, not a few of them expecting when Flon'sts' societies about 45 in 1846, was an amateur florist and they reach this rural haven, to see something Chrysanthemums was particularly interested in chrysanthemums. supernatural... Flower shows did not begin in the 19th cen­ The first chrysanthemum appeared in Eu- Shirley Hibberd, the horticultural writer, who (Shirley Hibberd in The Gardener's Magazine, tury. Since the 17th century, enthusiasts, November 25th, 1876) known as florists, had grown particular flow­ rope from C hina in about 1790, and the first lived in Stoke Newington, takes up the story ers, such as carnations, tulips, hyacinths, pinks, new plants were grown in this country at in The Gardener's Magazine: The chrysanthemum, or 'golden flower', was auriculas and primulas, for competitions in Colville's Nursery in King's Road, Chelsea. said in the 19th century to be 'a metropolitan connection with annual 'florists' feasts'. (The By 1823 about thirty varieties were known. Picture if you can, one of our own old-fashioned flower' because of the interest in growing it in In 1834 an article appeared in Paxton 's Maga­ wayside hostelries, and call it the 'Rochester Cas­ people we now know as florists would have tle'. Go back five and twenty years, and picture London and other great cities. Stoke zine of Botany stating that 53 varieties were been referred to as market florists at the time.) the low-roofed parlour wherein every evening a N ewington and the surrounding areas became The idea was to breed new flowers that con­ in cultivation. The plants undoubtedly became number of the better class of tradesmen and small famous throughout the country for their dis- formed to the strict and complicated rules of popular because of their late-flowering sea­ gentlemen of the village enveloped themse lves the societies and show that the new qualities son, when most other flowers had faded. There and each other in clouds of tobacco-smoke, and while stirring their toddy discussed the politics of in the flowers could be reproduced in suc­ are records of exhibitions being held in New­ the day and the latest scandal of the district, and Lail: 'Wcdnc(day was held the :i.nnual Florifls Fe:ifl: castle, Swansea and Norwich in the 1830s and .it Mr: Hugh Kenc

22 23 HACKNEY History Chrysanthemums

bled. This, the sixth annual meeting, even sur­ and that more money was taken during one or Lilliputian varieties were also shown . The judges included Mr Charles Turner of the passed the magnificent display in the same local­ hour after 6 p.m. at any chrysanthemum show ity last year, even now vividly in our recollec­ than at any other time of the day. Royal Nurseries, Slough. Eight collections were tion: Plants, cut blooms, company, and general By 1850 members were meeting regularly shown in the first class and six prizes given. arrangements, each vied with the other for mas­ through the year, discussing methods of grow­ In the second and third classes up to 14 col­ tery of excellence, and a perfect whole was the result. 6 ing the plants and new varieties. In March lections were shown. In 185 1 John Edwards became president. 1850, at a meeting chaired by Mr Laidlaw, Receipts at the door were £40. Dinner fol­ Edwards was a well-known florist-nurseryman William Holmes read an essay on the cultiva­ lowed at the Rochester Castle. By this year from Holloway, who was later editor of a tion of the chrysanthemum and there were there was also a Stoke N ewington Dahlia monthly journal, Gossip for the Garden, and remarks on new varieties and discussion on Society, with many of the same members and a founder of the longer-lasting periodical, Th e the difficulty of obtaining seed. Old varieties exhibitors. In 1852 it amalgamated with the Florist. In February 1851 George Taylor gave were still thought to be the best. Mr Croxford, chrysanthemum society, and in that year three a lecture at the Rochester Castle, which Mr Tant, Robert James and George Taylor all silver cups were presented to prize-winners , as formed the basis of the first book on chrysan­ took part in the discussion. George Taylor was well as prize money of £36.l ls. There was said themum growing. In April 1851 Mr Nicholls a professional gardener in Stamford Hill; to have been an example of a Queen of Eng­ had to retire from the secretaryship due to Shirley Hibberd described him as 'a loveable land chrysanthemum with a bloom six inches 5 'visual infirmity'. At a dinner in his honour man, huge in frame, awkward in gait'. across. Hibberd points out that at the beginning of he was presented with a silver cup, which was filled with wine and passed round the mem­ the Rochester Castle shows, there were no Two societies Robert James rules about judging chrysanthemums. No one bers. By 1858 the Horticultural Society of Lon­ knew what was a good flower or a bad one, At the show in November 1851 prizes were don (later the Royal Horticultural Society) They called their group 'The Stoke they simply exhibited their plants and waited offered by James Bird, Robert James ( treas­ recognised the popularity of the chrysanthe­ Newington Florists' Society for the Cultiva­ for comments. Gradually, precedents were es­ urer) and Edward Sanderson (secretary). By mum by holding its own exhibition with its tion and Exhibition of the Chrysanthemum' tablished and by 1850 a show schedule with this time, a separate society had been started autumn fruit show. This was the year of the and they held a competition for 'a stand of separate classes was produced. It included a in Highgate, whose competition included sepa­ first great split in the Stoke Newington soci­ twelve blooms in a little room above the stairs' class for 24 blooms in not less than 12 varie­ rate classes for 'private growers' as well as those ety. On January 1858 The Gardeners' Chroni­ and a dinner took place afterwards. The found­ ties; a class for 12 blooms in 12 varieties; a open to nurserymen. Many members attended cle published a notice that the Stoke ing members were Mr Tant, William Holmes class for six blooms in six varieties; and classes and competed in both societies' shows. That Newington society would now be holding its (later of the Frampton Park nursery), Mr for six plants and specimen plants. Pompone year the Stoke Newington show even received meetings at the Manor Rooms, Church Street, Merry, Mr Argent, Mr Hayes and Mr Nicholls the admiration of The Gardeners' Chronicle, not the Rochester Castle. Gossip for the Gar­ ( who was appointed secretary). The next year the most conservative of the horticultural den reported that the treasurer (Robert James ) the show was held outside in the skittle ground papers: had been insulted by the president and he of the pub and specimen plants ( as well as cut had turned them out of his pub. The presi­ If ever the merits of a gorgeous, and for its season flowers) were introduced. By 1849 they needed dent said they would henceforth prefer not to of blooming, an unrivalled fl ower, were promi­ more space and the show went to the Manor nently and successfully established with the pub­ be associated with a pub. The two societies Rooms, Church Street, which is believed to lic by the energy of "the few", that flower must then grouped as follows: have been a conversion of the old Abney be the Chrysanthemum; and those "few" who have Chapel (pictured on page 16). Hibberd de­ brought this pre-eminence about, it must be ad­ Rochester Castle faction - Edward Sanderson scribed it as 'a horrid barn-like place, which mitted by all, are the founders of the Stoke (chair), Arthur Wortley of Stoke Newington com­ Newington Society, whose triumphs arrived at the chrysanthemums converted into a classic mon (secretary), Robert James, Mr Holland of the very summit of perpetual fame by the pro­ Spring Grove, Hounslow (gardener to R. W. ground. The result was a splendid show.'4 By ductions last Thursday, submitted for the gratifi­ Peake), Mr Butcher, Mr George (gardener to J. this time, societies were being formed in other cation of an immense assemblage, in numbers Nicholson of Stamford Hill) and Adam Forsyth areas, for example, Bermondsey, Kennington larger than hitherto known, not only from the of the Brunswick Nursery, Shacklewell. and Camden Town. Hibberd attributes the in­ immediate locality, but the neighbouring coun­ ties of Essex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Buckingham­ Manor Rooms faction (claiming to be the origi­ terest in chrysanthemums in London to the shire, &c. The Manor Rooms, in which the ex­ nal society because they kept the original mem­ fact that in the month of November there hibition was held, presented a spectacle of the bership book) - John Edwards (president) of greatest interest - one which must be longed fixed was practically no daylight because of the soot Holloway, Mr Howe (secretary), Mr Scruby, Mr in the minds of Flora's votaries that day assem- and fogs caused by it. He noticed that the Argent, Mr Ward, Mr Merry, Mr Wiggins (gar- golden flowers looked magnificent by gaslight George Taylor

24 25 HACKNEY History Chrysanthemums

dener to Edward Beck of Is leworth, also a well­ themum Society. The Floral World judged it of Crimsons, General Marceaux, Annie Salter, known florist-nurseryman), Mr Holland (again), 'most complete in its effect as a spectacle'.8 It and (predictably) Hero of Stoke Newington. James Bird, nurseryman of Green Lanes, and cited the society as 'an example of what may Robert Oubridge (later of Church Walk Nursery, Sometimes plants were trained into standards Stoke Newington). be accomplished by amateurs trusting to un­ and pyramids, and specimen plants were pro­ ion among themselves, independent of any duced with as many flowers as possible. By Adam Forsyth was described by Shirley extraneous source of support'. Nearly 4,000 the 1880s they managed to create plants of Hibberd in a letter to an American horticul­ visitors attended. over seven feet in diameter with as many as tural journal as 'the first trade grower.. . a culti­ In 1859 again the Manor Rooms society 280 blooms. vator - his display consists wholly of grand staged a better show. This year there were also In 1864 the Stoke Newington society took specimens; he furnishes the amateur with the listed9 societies in Kennington (South Metro­ its show to the Kingsland Tabernacle, said to model of a perfect plant; he trains and trims, politan), Bermondsey (South Eastern), be only one shade better than the Manor and thins and coaxes, and at last puts upon Norwood, Tower Hamlets (1,700 visitors), Rooms. But the Stoke Newington men, as the stage gigantic plants, evenly convex in South Essex, North Western (under the rail­ usual, made an impact on the first show to be outline like the crust of a well-made pie, with way arches of the North London railway, but held at the Guildhall, in 1865. The show was the flowers as symmetrically disposed as if put in 'no way remarkable for its excellence'), as organised by Shirley Hibberd and James Crute on singly by hand, and the plants averaging 4 well as the Crystal Palace show. The Eas t of Tufnell Park, who provided a 'bank of long­ to 5 feet in diameter'.7 Forsyth later emigrated London amateurs did well again, including rod chrysanthemums' as well as a spectacular to New Zealand and his plants were sold to some entertainment by the band of employ­ centrepiece consisting of a mound of grass Dixon's nursery in Hackney. ees of Mr West's brewery. After the show, the mowings supporting a 'noble' fem, a circle of In the same article, Hibberd describes Robert plants were taken to Mr West's pub, The Three chrysanthemums and concentric circles of red­ Oubridge as a Newcastle man, 'round as a Crowns in Woolwich, 'where they constituted leaved iresines, centaurea plumosa and white Dutchman, made of sturdy stuff', who had a very attractive exhibition in a quarter where and crimson Chinese primulas. 10 worked for Mr Foster in Stamford Hill and the chrysanthemum is not yet an old inhabit­ However, they were all surprised by a new­ later opened his own nursery, in which he ant'. comer to London, Mr Morgan of Plymouth, 'lnvo/utum', an early incurved chrysanthemum specialised in fuchsias. Some of the other In 1860 Mr Edwards retired as president and who took two first prizes. This showed the members are also described: Shirley Hibberd took his place at the Manor New types offlower Stoke Newington men that they would have Rooms society. The season was wet and cold In 1862 Japanese chrysanthemums had been to work hard to keep their reputation and also The aged Merry; the young Wortleys; Mr Heale and the flowers not of good quality. However, introduced to Britain, again by Robert For­ that they needed new ideas to bring people to at that time with Messrs Low & Co, the eccen­ Mr Wiggins of Isleworth produced some gi­ tune. These had a more open, wild appear­ their shows. For the next few years the shows tric and not always agreeable, but always loud, gantic plants of interest to all growers. The ance and extra classes were created for them were held in the schoolroom at West Hack­ James Bird; that perfect gentleman Mr Bickerton Hargrave; the very curious and somewhat learned old differences between the growers began to in the show schedules. Eventually there were ney, then the British Schoolrooms opposite Mr Laidlaw. disappear and in 1862 an Amalgamated Soci­ several specific types of flower: Japanese, Abney Park cemetery, the Luxembourg Hall, ety was formed, which brought all members reflexed ( with petals bent back and turned Ashwin Street, near Dalston Station, and the In 1858 each society held an exhibition a back together again and they resumed meet­ downwards), incurved ( where the petals Assembly Rooms, Defoe Road. Between 1869 week apart and the breakaway faction under ings at the Rochester Castle. Their first exhi­ curved upwards and inwards like a ball), porn­ and 187.3 they found a permanent home in Mr Edwards was said to be better, with a larger bition was held at the Agricultural Hall in pons or Lilliputian (smaller plants with small the Assembly Rooms, which turned out to be contribution and better grown plants. On 6th November 1863, immediately following the compact flowers) and anemone flowered ( with successful for the shows and at the same time November a grand exhibition of chrysanthe­ last show in the Manor Rooms. However, a a closely packed centre surrounded by looser they began to realise that the revolutionary mums was held at the Crystal Palace, in which decline had set in: Hibberd comments that petals). Golden yellow, orange and rust were idea of mixing chrysanthemums with fruit and the Stoke Newington growers 'carried the day'. these shows had now ceased to surprise any the predominant colours, but there were also foliage plants added interest and brought in This took place between the other two shows more, as there were so many others being held. red, purple and white varieties. Of course, try more exhibitors and spectators. on 2nd and 3rd November and 9th and 10th Indeed, in February that year a chrysanthe­ as they might, breeders did not produce a blue In 1872 Robert James of the Rochester Cas­ November respectively. It must have been a mum society had been started in Islington, its chrysanthemum. In typical florists' tradition, tle died on the very day the chrysanthemum particularly busy autumn that year for local inaugural meeting being chaired by Hibberd the names described the colour, or alluded to dinner was to be held. It was cancelled. H e enthusiasts as in the following week, on 15th himself at The Angel Inn. noble families, classical stories, or the breed­ was buried in Abney Park cemetery. In 1874 and 16th November, an exhibition took place er's own family. Here are a few: Golden Clus­ to 1876 the shows moved to Hackney Town at the Albion Hall, Albion Square, Dalston, ter, Queen of the Yellows, Queen of England, Hall and the society named itself the Bor­ held by the East London Amateur Chrysan- Clustered Yellow, Minerva, Satyr, Vesta, King ough of Hackney Chrysanthemum Society. 11

26 27 HACKNEY History Chrysanthemums

the roll of members contained a large number claimed that the rate of suicides reduced once of country subscribers, rapidly growing in ex­ chrysanthemum shows were introduced to tent. They also decided to reserve certain London. classes in the competitions for borough culti­ Although gardening changed forever after vators. For the next few years the shows were the impact of the First World War, when a held at The Old Four Swans in Bishopsgate. whole generation of young gardeners was killed The setting up of the society was largely the and many large estates destroyed their glass­ work of William Holmes junior, who had taken houses and let their kitchen gardens decline, over the Frampton Park Nursery on the death amateur gardening flourished as never before. of his father. Sadly, he suffered from diabetes There were probably fewer changes in flower and himself died at the early age of 38 in 1890. growing for competitions, as much of this had He was said to have increased membership of always been done by amateurs in their spare the society from 52 to 700 and produced an time. The allotments that were established in income of £850 per year. 12 war time now started to be used for flowers, Although the Hackney and Stoke and the chrysanthemum became, and still is, Newington societies no longer existed, the the most popular competition flower of all. local cultivators continued to play a large part The national society is now run from Staf­ in competitions for many years. In 1889 and fordshire, and perhaps few of its members know 1890 'Chrysanthemum Conferences' were held the story of how it began. to celebrate a hundred years of cultivation of the flower in England. There were huge exhi­ Notes bitions, meetings, lectures and a dinner with 1. Turner's Hackney Directory (1849) 255. visitors coming from all over Britain and 2. Gardeners' Chronicle, 26th September 1846. 3. Gardener} Magazine, 26th August 187 1, quoted 25 th abroad. November 1876. Throughout the Victorian era horticulture 4. Gardener} Magazine, 25th November 1876. The Society's exhibition at Hackney Town Hall, 1876 thrived through public exhibitions of flowers, 5. Gardener} Magazine, 26th October 1889. 6. Gardeners' Chronicle, 22nd November 185 1. In 1877 an exhibition was held at the Royal Hawke of Bathurst Road, Stoke Newington, both as displays of bedding plants in parks 7. Gardeners' Magazine, 26th October 1889. Aquarium, Westminster, but this was unpopu­ displayed mushrooms. The annual dinner was and in competitions held by local and na­ 8. Floral World (1858) 268. lar with older members who seemed to have held at the Weavers' Arms, Stamford Hill. tional societies. In an age before television 9. Floral World (1859) 369; (1860) 5. 10. Gardeners' Magazine, 1st November 1890. started meeting in Stoke Newington again. and glossy magazines it would be difficult for 11. This does not seem to have coincided with the metropolitan The result was a Hackney society and a re­ The National Socie-ty gardeners to see new plants in any other way. borough, but probably re ferred to the parliamentary borough. vived Stoke Newington society. In 1883 discussion took place in The Gar­ The impact of walking from a dark, damp or 12. Gardeners' Magazine, 20th September 1890. By 1881, with exhibitions being held at the deners' Chronicle about forming a national foggy street into a brightly lit hall with the Unreferenced information comes from the horticultural periodi­ Assembly Rooms, Church Street, and a mem­ society for the chrysanthemum. Many national colours and, most of all, the scent of flowers cals mentioned above, Becton} All About Gardening (Ward Lock, bership of 166, paying a guinea subscription societies had been formed for other plants by concentrated together must have been over­ undated) and James F. Smith, Chrysanthemums (1975). each, the Stoke Newington society's fortunes that time and it was thought wrong to leave whelming. No wonder Shirley Hibberd were improving again. The prize-winners for out such a popular flower as the chrysanthe­ 1881 were Mr Langford, Coleman House, mum. Some readers pointed out, however, that Stamford Hill, Mr W. Monk, Forest House, it would be counter-productive to form a new Leytonstone, Mr Wells, The Limes, Woodberry society when the existing ones were thriving Down and Mr Gilbey, Cazenave House, Up­ and a new society would simply compete with per Clapton. There were prizes for gardeners them. At a meeting on November 6th at the within the boroughs of Hackney and Finsbury Milford Arms Hotel is was resolved at the and for amateurs. Some winners came from as end of the current season to alter the title of far away as Bagshot and Virginia Water. Robert the Borough of Hackney Chrysanthemum Oubridge of Church Walk Nursery put on a Society to The National (late Borough of display of fine foliage plants, Miss Annie Hackney) Chrysanthemum Society as the so­ Oubridge displayed hand bouquets and Mr ciety was held to be national in its aims and

28 29 Finsbury Park voluntary library

majority of ratepayers at a meeting held fol­ all to provide good books for the benefit of lowing a requisition from ten of their number. the young who left school so early'. Mr B. L. Should any ratepayer disagree with this a bal­ Cohen, Conservative candidate for East Is­ lot of the whole parish could be held. lington, responded: 'He spoke as a humble CULTURE COMES TO FINSBURY In 1890 the neighbouring Parish of Stoke member of the London County Council, and Newington had adopted the Acts following a considered that a public library would attract PARK: THE PUBLIC LIBRARY public meeting. Apart from Clerkenwell, from the streets people who spent their spare founded in 1888, north London was poorly time in places anything but enlightening'. MOVEMENT.IN SOUTH served by public libraries. Homsey had not Speaking in favour, a Mr Rankine mentioned adopted the Acts, and both Hackney and Is­ that there was 'a building in Clissold Park HORNSBY, 1890-1900 lington had stoutly resisted their establishment which would do very well for a library'. for decades.3 The meeting was well attended and voted Mackenzie and his committee were well in favour of the establishment of a voluntary aware of this fact. The success of the 1890-91 subscription library. The Revd. James Jeakes, series of 'Evenings for the People' had resulted Rural Dean of Homsey, was unable to attend in a modest cash surplus. The committee now the meeting but stated 'I can assure you that RoyHidson hoped to found the nucleus of a public li­ your mother church, if I may venture to rep­ brary. It was to be a subscription library serv­ resent it, heartily sympathises with you'. ing the Finsbury Park area .. It was hoped to On June 20th 1892 Mackenzie and his com­ show the local authorities the need for such a mittee approached the South Homsey Local South Hornsey and Finsbury Park a very successful series of 'Evenings for the service and that when the Acts were adopted Board with the proposal that they unite with The district known as Finsbury Park takes People' to which admission cost only a penny. it could be handed over to them as a going Stoke Newington for library purposes. The new its name from the public park opened in 1869. These were held at Wortley Hall, which ad­ concern. library in Church Street could be its centre It covers 115 acres and was originally formed joined a drapery store at the corner of St On January 30th 1892 the North Middle­ with small branches at Milton Road and from the old Homsey Wood. Until the late Thomas's Road and Seven Sisters Road. A sex Chronicle reported a public meeting held Brownswood Park. Their reply came on De­ nineteenth century the area was largely rural. number of prominent inhabitants of South at Wortley Hall, with Joseph Howard, MP for cember 16th when the Clerk to the Board Finsbury Park has always had the disadvan­ Homsey were active in the League. The chair­ Tottenham in the chair. Mackenzie stated that replied that under the Public Libraries Act tage of being within the boundaries of three man was Alfred William Mackenzie, a local 'They had collected between £60 and £70 and 1892 a ballot of the parish would need to be local government bodies. In 1890 these were solicitor and Churchwarden of the newly­ had also about 400 books. They were not rub­ held. Another consideration was the forth­ the Vestry of St Mary Islington, the Homsey founded church of St John the Evangelist, bish, but very good works. Money of course coming London Government Act which was Local Board and the South Homsey Local Brownswood Park. His brother was the cel­ was wanted and he had to ask for £150 a year to alter the map of London for the next half Board. South Homsey comprised two divi­ ebrated physician Sir Morrell Mackenzie which would carry on such an institution, and century. sions - Brownswood Park and Milton Road. It (1837-1892), who had become involved in a have the desired success. Books were also de­ Following an the public meeting a subscrip­ was governed by its own Local Board with controversy following his treatment of the sired - not refuse but real good literature'. tion list was set up to meet expenses until the headquarters in Milton Road. South Homsey German Emperor, Frederick III.2 (Another Libraries Acts were adopted. The President of tended to be middle class, but other parts of relation had become an actor, taking the name ~ healthy and enlightened tone' this new enterprise was the MP for Homsey, the Finsbury Park area varied, showing a great of Compton; he was the father of the actress Howard warmly supported the scheme and H. C. 'Inky' Stephens, whose new factory, built disparity between rich and poor. Fay Compton and the writer Compton Mac­ reminded them of some current Victorian in the Venetian style, was rising in nearby St In an attempt to give poorer people access kenzie.) thinking on the matter. He 'was glad to know Thomas's Road.4 Meetings were held in Mac­ to worthwhile and respectable forms of enter­ that there was no intention to have the place kenzie's home at 2 Gloucester Road (now tainment the National Sunday League was Voluntary action filled simply with trashy books, such as all Gloucester Drive). The Committee now founded in 1855 by R. W. Morrell. Its objects Although the first Public Libraries Act was fiction. There was far too much of that class sought premises and on March 25th 1894 were 'The opening of Museums, Art Galleries passed in 1850 it required a ballot of local of reading in some of the libraries. What they rented No. 1 Blackstock Road at a monthly and Libraries on Sunday afternoons, maintain­ ratepayers before it could be adopted, and the wanted was to get a stock of books of a healthy rent of £3.00. The owner was Mr Beale of ing the 'Sunday Evenings for the People', adoption of the Acts in London had been slow. and enlightened tone'. Another local resident, Beale's restaurant. Beale left the committee Sunday Excursions, Sunday bands in the parks, As ratepayers came mainly from the middle Charles Welch, the Librarian of the Guild­ to clean and equip the house but gave five and generally to promote intellectual and el­ classes and local tradespeople, they were re­ hall, commented that 'Wood Green had now guineas towards expenses. 1 evating recreation on that day' . luctant to vote for an increase in their own a library, and most certainly it was the duty of The library was to be called the Finsbury The Finsbury Park branch of the League held rates. The Acts could also be adopted by a

30 31 HACKNEY History Finsbury Park voluntary library

Desperate finances By 1896 the financial situation had become A GRAND day from 6-10 p.m., but books could only be desperate and on January 6th it was reported read in the library. Lending could only begin that 'between 50 and 60 circulars had been once the stock had exceeded a thousand vol­ DRAMATIC RECITAL sent round through Highbury but the only Di Arn o}· TrIE rrxns or umes. response so far has been the receipt ( tonight) l8 0P8N En·: lt\' ~lGUT FINSBURY PARK FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, Eventually the Lending Library was open WILL IJE Glvt:~ IX of a donation of £1.00 sent by Mr Hughes between 7 and 9.30 p.m. on Monday and­ Hughes JP'.7 It was then resolved to approach FINSBURY PARK HALL, Thursday only. Books were issued for a week Fi•om 6 "to l.O, f }Jactly Oppu,r"f.e tl,t Stfl lion), the South Homsey Local Board with the re­ and available to all householders residing quest that the books be transferred to their And is supplied with the lead­ On WEDNESDAY, MAY 29th, 1895, within a half mile radius of Finsbury Park Sta­ AT EIGHT O'CLOCK, BY Milton Road headquarters and run by a vol­ ing Daily and W eekly Pape1·s, tion. A room was also available for lectures untary committee with no charge on the rates. and classes. These were to include shorthand Mon1hly l1.1E1gazines, MISS BA TEMAN This was agreed, the stock remaining the prop­ (Mrs. CROWE), and mechanical drawing. 1V. 1·., ~-.: , ·, Having opened the library the question was erty of the original committee until the Pub­ Mrs. EDWARD COMPTON lic Libraries Acts were adopted. The new com­ (Of the COMPTON COMEDY COMPANY), how to finance it and Mackenzie as Treasurer mittee was called the Committee of the South And other Ladies & Gentlexnen. was constantly appealing in the press for do­ nations of books and money. An article in Homsey Free Public Library. The services of Scenes from THE MERCHANT of VENICE, ROMEO and JULIET, Gunthorpe were to be retained and services the North Middlesex Chronicle in October The Lending Department at Blackstock Road were to be scaled down AS YOU LIKE IT, THE HUHCHBkCK, &c., &c., &c. 1894 did not please him. Criticising the li­ and discontinued upon the expiry of the lease. N um be red and Reserved Seats ··· 2/6 brary's lack of resources the article concludes Contains over 2,000 Volumes, The new library opened in January 1897 with Unreserved Seats ··· 1/- 'And yet it is just within the bounds of possi­ 219 readers and 2,400 books. Some of the And is Open on Monday and Tickets may 1.Jc had at the Library, Ko. I, Blackstock bility that the inauguration of the lending Roa.d; a.t the Hall; at Messrs. W. & W. J . ![izen, Printers, original committee, including Mackenzie, Thursdr1y Evenin gs from 7 .30 department of this comparatively insignificant 13, Stroud Green Hoad ; of Mr. A. W. Mackenzie, Treasurer, joined the new committee. However, fund­ 2, Gloucester Iload; Mr. It. Bentley, 31, Adolphus Hoad; library will bulk largely in the record of the to 9 o'c loc k. Dr. Kaines, 8, Os!Jornc lload; Ur. 'l'. J. P(,'

32 33 HACKNEY History

There had been no update of the catalogue more recent, professional observer, K. A ,. since 1896 and Gunthorpe complained - Manley, writing in 1974.

Without a complete catalogue the library is, as No voluntary library could hope to be successful Carlyle said, a Polyphemus without an eye in his in the long run. They existed on pious hopes and head .. . Last winter I had to carry coal in my expectations of benefactions which never mate­ hands from the entrance hall. I should be glad if rialised. The local population was only too pleased LABOUR IN POWER: I could have a scuttle and shovel. .. The best place, to take advantage of a service it was under no on the whole, for the new shelves would be, I obligation to pay for. All these voluntary librar­ HACKNEY BOROUGH COUNCIL think, over the fireplace where room could be ies only provided a frugal service. Book selection found for 400 or 500 volumes. was virtually impossible, since they relied on do­ nations, and where money was available for pur­ 1919-1922 Attempts had been made in conjunction chases it was usually spent on second-hand books with Stoke Newington to set up a branch li­ which did little to improve the appearance or reputation of the library. They were often run by brary in the Brownswood area, but these had well-meaning but inexperienced amateurs who come to nothing. In 1899 South Homsey had little or no idea of library administration. Barry Burke was taken over by Stoke Newington and on- Their chief aim was to increase education and 25th March 1901 the Milton Road Library the standard of literacy by stocking 'good' litera­ was closed and the stock transferred to the ture but they were always disappointed by the high rate of fiction issues. Fiction was what the Stoke Newington Library in Church Street. public wanted, and it is unlikely that a library A histon·c victory although it contained a number of factories There were 3868 lending volumes of which the size of the Finsbury Park Voluntary Library In November 1919 the Labour Party became and workshops mainly situated in the south 1661 were fiction and 788 reference books. could have competed with the cheap but well­ the majority party on the Hackney Borough and east of the borough. In 1921, according stocked commercial circulating libraries then so Gunthorpe was made redundant and disap­ 6 10 Council for the first time. Their victory mir­ to the Medical Officer of Health, there were peared into obscurity. Mackenzie remained popular. rored that of other boroughs in London, where no fewer than 1021 factories, of which 699 with the new committee and his name ap­ the election resulted in twelve boroughs re­ employed women. 465 of these were work­ pears on the plaque, in the lending library of Notes turning majority Labour councils and two more shops forming part of the clothing trade. There Stoke Newington Library, commemorating the 1. The Free Sunday Advocate and National Sunday League Journal, where Labour became the largest party. In were also many small workshops where boots enlargement of the library in 1904. He finally LXII, no. 4, 1st April 1928. Hackney, Labour's majority was tiny, being and shoes, furniture, cardboard boxes, glass­ moved from the district in 1906.9 This saw 2. R. Scott-Stevenson, Moffell Mackenzie, 1946. only four out of a total of 70. There were 32 ware and a variety of other goods were manu­ the end of an experiment in sel£,help in the 3. R. Hidson, The birth of a library service: Islington 1855-1904 (1991). 4. It was demolished in the 1960s. One wall remains, in front of Labour councillors, 15 Municipal Reformers factured. A good deal of outwork was done. tradition of Samuel Smiles. Gillespie Park. and 13 Progressives. The other ten places The poorest areas, in the south, were to be The wheel seems to have come full circle 5. UbraryAssociation Yearbook, 1900, 1901. were taken up by appointed Aldermen with found in Homerton and Hackney Wick wards, and we are now in an era of library closures, 6. North Middlesex Chronicle, October 1894. 7. HAD HOR/ M/ 1. five from Labour and from the Opposition. which contained, according to the New Sur­ However, the spirit of self-help is not dead 8. ib. This essay will try to answer two questions. vey ofLondon Life and Labour, 'a good many and it is still believed that libraries can be 9. LMA [minute book, 1906, Church of St John the Evangelist Firstly, why did Labour win this historic vic­ mean houses whose doors open direct on to kept open staffed by unpaid volunteers ad­ Brownswood Park]. 10. Journal of Ubrarianship, 6 (2),April 1974, 98-114. tory; and, secondly, what did they do with the pavement'.7 In contrast, the northern part ministering donated stock. In light of this it 1 the power that they had achieved? of the borough, around Clapton and Stamford may be as well to note the comments of a The borough of Hackney was created in Hill, contained a high percentage of upper 1900, along with the other metropolitan bor­ and middle class homes. The area has been oughs in London. It was situated to the north described as 'a prosperous area of substantial of Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Poplar. The houses inhabited in the main by wealthy fami­ River Lea formed its eastern boundary with lies, even some City merchants'. There were Leyton and Walthamstow beyond it. Isling­ houses with extensive wine cellars and spa­ ton and Stoke Newington were on the west cious rooms, set in their own grounds and with with Tottenham to the north. Some histori­ their own driveways leading out to charming ans, such as Millicent Rose2 and Donald tree-lined roads. Not surprisingly, this part of Olsen,3 have spoken of Hackney as being part the borough was regarded as 'the best part of of the 'East End', although others such as Julia Hackney' and '100% Tory'.8 This division Bush4 and William Fishman5 differ. It was, between a wealthy north and a poor south and remains, essentially a residential district, can be illustrated by the population density

34 35 HACKNEY History Labour in power of the borough, which ranged from 51.2 per­ nicipal Reformers were essentially geared to­ concessions from the government with regard sons per acre in the north to 98.4 persons per wards the protection of ratepayers, local busi­ to labour representation at a local level. acre in the south west. 9 Hackney was, thus, nessmen and tradesmen against expensive so­ quite dearly a divided borough. cial reforms. In Hackney, local government The advent of war Up until the advent of the First World War election victories before the First World War The war created immediate distress for work­ the franchise was severely restricted. Partici­ were divided between the two parties with ing class communities. During the first week pation by the working class in party politics the majority going to the Municipal Reform­ of the war, food prices rose by an average of was almost non-existent. At the end of the ers. They won the elections of 1900, 1906 16 per cent; but to make matters worse, many last century, working class politics in Hack­ and 1912, whilst the Progressives won the elec­ of the biggest increases were on such staple ney revolved around the working men's clubs tions of 1903 and 1909. The appearance of items as bread, margarine, sugar, eggs and fish. and the trade unions. The Labour Party be­ the Labour Party as a viable force in the bor­ Relief work was a major priority and although gan in the borough in 1900 as the Hackney ough upset this division of the spoils between many of the clothing workers of East London Trades and Labour Council, with activists the two established parties. An editorial in were able to transfer to working on govern­ being delegates from local trade union the Hackney and Kingsland Gazette a few ment contracts for army uniforms, etc, the rise branches. It continued as Hackney Trades months before candidates were selected for in food prices was to have a devastating effect Council and Labour Representation Associa­ the 1919 election made the point that on almost every family in the borough. By tion until 1918, when the national party 'Progressives and Municipal Reformers have December 1915, food prices were 46 per cent changed its organisational structure to accom­ had a clear field for such a long while that above the August 1914 level. A year later, rr~ . modate individual membership in constitu­ the intervention of a third party is occasion­ the overall increase had reached 8 7 per cent. ency branches and the name was changed to ing something like alarm'. It went on to pre­ Nationally, Labour leaders formed a War ff~p~,J-:f: Hackney Labour Party. Labour representa­ dict that the two parties would unite as 'Coa­ Emergency Workers National Committee ~~t- ~":-t:t,,.1t: tion in Parliament and on local authorities, litionists' to fight 'the common foe', but al­ (WNC) to protect workers' interests and for­ William Parker local representative committees and Boards though this did happen in some boroughs, they mulate proposals for the relief of distress. It of Guardians was their number one priority, could not agree and so fought the election produced a monthly memorandum which it plaining to the national Labour Party that he but, despite the pressure from both labour and against each other as well as against the La­ circulated widely throughout the country to had recently had a recommendation for relief the women's suffrage movement, it was the bour Party, splitting the anti-Labour vote. all sections of the labour movement, giving turned down by the Executive of the relief effects of the First World War that finally Why did the Labour Party become such an statistical information on prices and profits fund because 'they cannot relieve cases where brought about moves to increase the franchise. important force in such a short time? It is whilst lambasting the government for its in­ normal wages are earned, merely on the ground In Hackney, as far as the local government quite true to say that the Liberal Party was action in curbing price rises or alleviating dis­ of increased food prices'. This was a case of a electorate was concerned, this meant doubling already on the decline as the Labour Party tress. widow who had four children of school age to the number of people who were entitled to emerged during this pre-war period. More and A Prince of Wales Relief Fund was set up to look after working as a waitress for 16 shil­ vote. At the 1912 council elections, the elec­ more workers were looking towards the trade be administered by specially constituted local lings ( 80p) a week. After rents, fares etc. she torate in the borough numbered only 39,000 unions to better their conditions of life whilst committees. In an effort to ensure that the only had 7/ 8d (3 7p) per week to support her­ out of a total population of 220,000. As a the trade union leaders were in turn realising sch eme was acceptable, the government self and her children. result of the new legislation this figure went that without political power they could go so stressed the importance of labour representa­ Bush points out that 'as the war continued, up to 79,000 who would be entitled to vote far and no further. Together with the social­ tion on these committees. Julia Bush makes more and more local committees were set up in the election of November 1919. Inevita­ ist societies, the Independent Labour Party the point that 'the WNC and its affiliated to supervise the growing tangle of wartime bly, this meant a large increase in the work­ and the British Socialist Party, they cam­ bodies soon demonstrated their determination legislation. Labour representatio~ was always ing class vote. paigned incessantly for independent labour to make labour representation an effective stipulated'. Local conscription tribunals, pen­ In opposition to the Labour Party were the representation and looked on the two estab­ reality'. sions committees, national service commit­ two large traditional parties, the Conserva­ lished parties as two sides of the same coin. William Parker, a carpenter by trade and tees and food control committees were all cre­ tives and the Liberals. For local government With the advent of the war, the Government secretary of the Hackney Labour Party, be­ ated with Hackney Labour representatives as purposes these took the names Municipal were only too anxious to co-opt the labour came chairman of one of the District Com­ members. However, they were not prepared Reformers and Progressives respectively. For movement into the war effort. Some labour mittees of the Hackney Local Representation to be regarded just as token representatives most of East London before the war, the leaders resigned but others were only too happy Committee. He worked vigorously on relief allowed on by local political leaders as a con­ Progressives, an amalgam of Radicals, Lib-Labs, to get a foot in the door. It not only gave work but was often frustrated by the impo­ cession. Once again, we find Parker protest­ small masters and some trade unionists were them a place in the corridors of power but tence he felt in trying to do something effec­ ing, this time on behalf of the Hackney and the ruling party in local politics. The Mu- also put them in a good position to demand tive. On 10th May 1915 we find him corn- District Food Vigilance Committee, a body

36 37 HACKNEY History Labour in power set up by the local labour movement, to the main speaker was William Parker, who, mak­ This was one of a number of deputations that they had come back to had a considerable WNC about 'the very unsatisfactory wording ing it quite clear that he was speaking on be­ they received from the demobbed soldiers, effect on the first real contested election in of the Food Controller's circular on reference half of the Labour Party, castigated the LCC usually protesting about lack of jobs or lack of the borough in November 1919. Although to the formation of local committees. The for their recent fare increases, and called for suitable accommodation. The local paper was the Hackney and Kingsland Gazette had phrase 'at least one representative of labour' less crowded trams, buses and trains and more also the recipient of many letters from ex­ warned a few months earlier that Labour can­ will be taken advantage of by many reaction­ frequent services. He maintained that 'it was soldiers complaining about the conditions that didates would probably stand at the council ary municipalities to give to labour only the the duty of the County Council to provide they had come back to. (Another leader of elections, it had never quite come to terms minimum representation'. cheap means of transit to and from ... places the Hackney ex-servicemen at this time was with the fact that the electorate might be faced Wartime conditions on the home front thus of employment'. He was followed by Henry Herbert Butler, who was later to have a very with a three-way contest. It hoped that right gave the local labour movement an unprec­ Brown, Chairman of the Hackney Labour long career as local councillor, leader of the up to the last minute a deal could be worked edented opportunity to strengthen their or­ Party, who stated that 'by putting men with Council, Mayor of Hackney, Labour MP and out between the two main parties as they had ganisation and obtain for many individual vested interests on public bodies they are go­ member of the Labour Government.) done at the LCC elections. This was not to activists experience of local administration ing to look after their own private interests' The politicisation of those coming back from be, and so the paper appealed to the elector­ that would have been unthinkable before the so that 'the best way to improve matters was the front and the disillusionment with what ate not to vote for a party but to make sure war. Labour Party members held differing views to put working men on public bodies instead as to the rightness or not of the fighting across of business men'. What they had to do, he the Channel, but at a local level they had went on, was to see that the workers ran the never worked so closely together before. This business men'. Another speaker at the meet­ unity in action meant that there emerged, with ing was a man who was to play a very promi­ the armistice, in Hackney, in East London and nent role in Hackney's affairs in the future - the country at large, Labour Party branches Herbert Morrison, who was Secretary to the which were stronger, more able and more London Labour Party. 12 united, and determined to take on the two Hackney Council were not unduly put out major parties. by this protest meeting as it was aimed at the County Council rather than at them. How­ After the armistice ever, there was a lot of pressure building up as However this was not immediately obvious. a result of the end of the war and the rising The snap general election called by Lloyd tide of expectations of those people who were George at the end of the war came and went coming back from the front. A number of with no visible sign of Labour Party activity pressure groups representing demobbed soldiers in the borough. The London County Coun­ had a tremendous effect on local councils, cil elections in February 1919 were not con­ particularly in East London. There were at tested by Labour. Neither were they contested least three rival organisations, of whom the by the other two parties who carved up the most socialist was the National Union of Ex­ seats between them, putting up three candi­ Servicemen, a breakaway from the National dates each for the six seats available. The elec­ Federation of Demobilised Sailors and Sol­ tions for the Hackney Board of Guardians fol­ diers. It campaigned on behalf of the ex-serv­ lowed a month or so later but once again there icemen and their families, led deputations to was no contest for any of the seats. 10 It was the council and brought many people into not until early July that we see a stirring of politics for the first time. 13 In September 1919 the Hackney Labour Party. This was a de­ the Hackney branch of the NUX sent a depu­ mand for a Town's Meeting to 'protest against tation to the council led by John Beckett, who the excessive increase in the LCC tram fares, was later to become a Labour councillor in the inadequate services of the railways serv­ the borough. He urged the council to make ing Hackney, and, generally to consider the representations against the reduction in un­ measures necessary to protect the inhabitants employment pay that many of them were suf­ against the extortions of the traffic combine'. 11 fering and also to undertake work to improve The meeting was duly held on 8th July. The the borough thus alleviating their distress. 14

38 39 HACKNEY History Labour in power that they vote against one. It spoke about most exclusively, with the issues of employ­ keys' years for this necessary reform' and that 'the new and revolutionary element that has ment and unemployment, concentrating 'if it was a question of health, a l¼d rate would been introduced into the elections under the mainly on the conditions of service of those be well spent'. Emma Boyce, the only woman title of 'Labour' with its policy of rank Social­ who worked for the council and trying to pro­ on the Labour benches, stated that there were ism or camouflaged Bolshevism. It makes no vide employment for those who were unem­ thousands of houses in the borough let out secret of its intentions ... If the electors are ployed. As a result, major schemes of munici­ into tenements and furnished apartments, and wise, they will consign these wild men and palisation were forced into the background. she 'happened to be one of those women who their wild schemes to an electoral oblivion Nevertheless, quite early on, soon after gain­ had to take her turn in a little diminutive where they should be forced to remain until ing power, the new Labour council agreed to washhouse designed and built by men, with a they develop saner ideas ... 115 increase its stocks of emergency coal by 2,000 tap in one corner and a copper in the oppo­ However, the electors did no such thing. tons and investigate the possibility of munici­ site corner. She regarded the scheme as an A!fred Pcryne, first Labour: mcryor 23 When all the returns were in and the votes palising delivery to residents who were suffer­ absolute necessity'. counted, Labour had an overall majority, thus most expert physiognomist would probably ing hardship during the winter, if local deal­ Once again letters arrived at the Hackney 21 taking control of the council. The new Leader have discovered in their faces any resemblance ers were unable to carry out the task. and Kingsland Gazette from a number of of the Council was William Parker, who had to the low-browed and fire-eating Bolshevist Later two schemes were put forward which 'housewives' complaining that the council was probably done more than anyone to keep the to which some of them had been likened. had the opposition up out of their seats. First, forcing them to carry their washing across the Labour flag flying over the years. When inter­ Events will prove how far, if at all, appear­ a daily refuse collection carried out by coun­ borough to a central place to do it! The op­ viewed by the local press after the results were ances belie their true characters' .17 cil operatives was introduced as an experiment. position included a joint petition organised known, he gave the reason for Labour's suc­ During the three years from 1919 to 1922 This was a daily collection from dustbins that by the local Chamber of Commerce and the cess as 'the general disgust of the workers with that Labour were in power at the Town Hall, were to be left outside their houses by the Middle Class Union who complained that the existing conditions, and the inability of other the councillors worked hard to change the residents and emptied into electrically-pow­ time was 'not opportune for carrying out such 22 parties to find any proper programme of re­ face of the borough. However, their first year ered vehicles by the council workers. It re­ a project' as the government was asking local construction'. He went on to mention hous­ in office was set against a backdrop of uncon­ placed a system whereby the men entered authorities to curb expenditure. Like the first ing and rents together with food prices and trolled inflation during which prices soared houses on a weekly basis and carried out refuse scheme, this was not to survive the end of the profiteering as major concerns for the new and private fortunes were made followed by to horse-drawn carts. The scheme generated year. It was quietly abandoned to be replaced council.16 two years of slump, rising unemployment and a number of letters in the local press from so­ by a scaled-down version of public baths which 24 The picture of wild Leninists rampaging curbs on public expenditure. 18 They never called 'housewives' complaining that they were opened in June 1922. through the Town Hall was quite quickly re­ achieved a fraction of what they wanted. could not carry their bins to the front of their The Council also supported the call for the placed by a more sombre one. The Gazette's houses whilst the opposition railed on about establishment of municipal laundries. The report of the mayoral ceremony when Hack­ Municipalisation increased council expenditure. The scheme local paper headlined this as 'Labour Party's ney's first Labour Mayor, Alfred Payne, was In looking at their achievements, I will con­ was, in fact, short-lived and did not survive Drastic Scheme'. In an effort to refer back appointed, explained that 'those who expected centrate on two major issues that set Labour many months being replaced by a weekly the Baths Committee's report, Alderman anything novel and revolutionary ... were apart from the other parties: municipalisation municipal collection. Williamson (Municipal Reform) said that he greatly and, maybe, pleasantly disappointed. and housing. In February 1921, the second major scheme 'believed in encouraging householders to be The proceedings were quite orthodox and Prior to the election, the Hackney and was announced for the erection of a public self reliant' and that 'this municipalisation of conventional', while one of their regular col­ Kingsland Gazette had called on the elector­ washhouse and slipper baths in the Homerton everything was wrong'. The Council accepted umnists described his impressions at the first ate to vote against the Labour Party because area of the borough at a cost of just over £6,000 the committee's recommendation and agreed council meeting: 'After the anything but flat­ 'it is practically out for the municipalisation per annum. The crucial difference between to demand an amendment to the Baths and tering descriptions which I had read of the of all things'. This was something of an exag­ the parties on the council can be seen from Washhouses Act so as to give them discre­ 25 Labour candidates I attended Monday's meet­ geration but it can be justifiably said that 'the the language used in the various debates on tionary powers. ing with visions of men unshaven and un­ major difference between Labour and the op­ the issue. Henry Brown, Labour Chairman of There was, in fact, a basic ideological differ­ couth, attired in shabby clothes with mufflers position on the Hackney Council was about the Finance Committee spoke about 'an ex­ ence between the ruling party and the oppo­ round their necks ... This mental picture was the scope of municipal enterprise'.19 penditure of £6,285 a year' whereas Colonel sition on the Council. This originated out­ soon to be blotted out, for there sat in the During the years that Labour had control a Loweth of the Municipal Reform opposition side the Council Chamber, with opposition Council chamber as alert and spick-and-span number of schemes were put forward, not all said that the undertaking would involve 'an crystallising around the local Chamber of a body of working men as any could hope to of them coming to fruition. Their first year, annual loss of £6,285 a year or a l¼d rate'. Commerce. In July 1921 they protested to the find in any municipal assembly ... All looked according to Donoghue and Jones, was 'some­ Councillor Wigan, Chairman of the Baths Council about the move to create municipal exceedingly business-like and not even the what undistinguished'.20 It was taken up, al- Committee, said that they had waited 'don- supply depots and stated that 'municipal trad-

40 41 HACKNEY History Labour in power ing in whatever form or guise presented ... as a 'genuine endeavour to protect the gen­ ' ... as far as I am aware, no scheme for building proper repair before any increases come into strikes at the root of private enterprise, the eral body of ratepayers against the evil effects is included in the schemes before the local operation'. They did, in fact, do just this and, great incentive to economy and industrious­ of private monopoly' .26 authority ... We are working here to get work under the powers given to them by the gov­ ness, which is the lifeblood of a nation'. The Municipalisation formed a maj or part of 28 put in hand but it is uphill work ... ' ernment, they drastically increased the number Council in its reply pointed out that whilst Labour's policy for local government. Much With the end of the war, the clamour for of notices served on private landlords to make they 'appreciated the importance of the point of the credit for this must go to Herbert 'homes fit for heroes' was overpowering. The them bring their properties into a decent stand­ of view of the Chamber, it must ... h ave re­ Morrison who, as mentioned earlier, was sec­ Government produced the Housing Bill of ard of repair.3 2 gard to the interests of the ratepayers as a retary to the London Labour Party and from 1919, which required local authorities to sur­ There were a number of other measures car­ whole rather than to the interests of that small October 1920 until November 1922 was ei­ vey the housing needs of their areas and pro­ ried out by the Labour Council in the private number of contractors who supply mun icipal ther Mayor of Hackney or Leader of the Coun­ duce schemes to satisfy those needs. Finan­ sector during their period of office. These authorities with goods and services'. They cil. He was very much the council 'boss' and cial aid from the government via the Minis­ included the abolition of the system of com­ went on to state that there h ad been 'an ex­ his philosophy was neatly encapsulated in a try of Health was included in the package as pounding for the payment of rates by private ceedingly serious advance in the cost of ma­ council debate on the extension of direct la­ an incentive. In July 1919, Hackney Council tenants. This had meant in the past that the terials supplied to local authorities .. . and bour in January 1922. He stated that 'if only appointed a Housing Committee in anticipa­ council had given an allowance to private owing to the operation of the rings and com­ we had the power, and got the Local Authori­ 29 tion of the Bill becoming law. landlords who collected the rates from their bines, the general body of ratepayers are be­ ties enabling Bill through [Parliament], we The local press was inundated with letters tenants on behalf of the council. By allowing ing wickedly exploited at the present time'. could run various services now in private hands from demobbed soldiers and their families tenants to pay direct to them, the council Moreover they maintained that 'it is a well­ at prices no more and perhaps less, and the complaining about the lack of accommoda­ saved something like £20,000 a year. In addi­ known fact that many of so-called competi­ borough could be pretty well rate free ... and tion. Many of the letters were couched in tion, where landlords continued to charge tive tenders submitted to local authorities we could do it all over London'. He derided unashamedly racist, anti-semitic terms stating inclusive rents, the council agreed to list in nowadays are made by arrangement and are the opposition as being 'accustomed to deal­ that alien immigrants had taken the homes the local press those who were not reducing not really competition at all'. They supported ing with little businesses and utterly unaccus­ that had been left empty. Local politicians rents when their rate demands were reduced.33 the move to create a local authority enter­ tomed to dealing with big undertakings and and the local press fanned the flames that were Also an Information Bureau was set up by the prise, the Municipal Mutual Supply Service, taking a broad view [they] cannot see the produced by this genuine desire for decent council in the Town Hall to assist people who possibilities of municipal enterprise'. He fin­ 30 homes for working class people. were in doubt or difficulty over their rents ished by declaring that 'I have no doubt it is When Labour won power in November, and rates, and proved 'a popular and useful something like a sin against the Holy Ghost Parker spoke to a local journalist and made it institution'. The number of empty houses in to suggest that Hackney could do without clear that Labour saw housing in the borough the borough worried Labour councillors and capitalists'. 27 as a major issue that they had to deal with; they decided to list them with a view to urg­ Unfortunately for the Labour Party, in Hack­ but it could not be solved by the borough ing the government to compel the owners to ney and elsewhere, the crucial phrase in council alone. 'We shall insist on the LCC let them. They also advocated the rating of Morrison's statement was 'if only we had the moving, and negotiations for the solution of property that had. been empty for six months power'. housing problems must be opened up with as an 'incentive' to landlords to take in ten­ Greater London'. To this end they called, ants or their compulsory purchase for let as Housing along with other local authorities, for hous­ council properties. 34 The second major issue crucial to Labour's ing to be built outside the East London area It was, however, in the field of council build­ success or failure in Hackney was housing. The on the land around Dagenham to alleviate ing that Labour had a dismal record. In 1920, situation, particularly in the south of the bor­ the area's homelessness. This was to be the the LCC proposed the issue of housing bonds ough, was acute. Overcrowding, insanitary beginning of the great Becontree estate built which Londoners could buy through their conditions, ill health and lack of hygiene were 31 by the LCC. borough councils for the purpose of financing all problems that needed solving as a matter At the same time, Labour in Hackney were the building of houses. Most boroughs sup­ of urgency. Slum clearance and rebuilding very aware of the problems encountered by ported the move but Hackney ( together with programmes were essential. At the beginning tenants in private accommodation. There was neighbouring Bethnal Green and Shoreditch of the war, when people were still thinking a general fear that landlords would put up rents councils) rejected the whole idea. Hackney th at it would all be over by Christmas, we fairly steeply, taking advantage of the post­ Council felt that it was the duty of the gov­ find Parker, as secretary of the Hackney TC war boom. Parker made it quite clear that ernment, not individuals, to come up with & LRA , writing to the n ational Labour Party 'one thing we are determined upon is, that the money. This was put succinctly by Alfred on the subject of council building schemes this particular class of houses shall be put into Herbert Morrison Payne, the first Labour mayor, when he told 42 43 HACKNEY History Labour in power

bour officials and from Westminster by anti­ the Gazette that 'the first charge on the gov­ that they 'would have put the maisonettes up .12. 9 July 1919. ernment exchequer should be the health of long ago if only they had had the money', Labour politicians. Henry Brown's call for 13. Bush, 228-9. the people and the health of the people is and that 'nothing would move Sir Alfred the workers to run the business'men or 14. Gazette 12 September 1919. Morrison's wish for Hackney to do without 15. ib. 29 October 1919. disastrously affected by the want of houses. Mond [the Minister] to lend it ... '; Time and 16. ib. 17 November 1919. The government did not spare any expense time again Labour councillors blamed the capitalists was just pie in the sky. For Labour 17. ib. 12, 14 November 1919. 18. C. L. Mowat, Britain Between the Wars 1918-1940 to save the country from the foreign enemy Ministry for delaying tactics and retarding councillors to have power at local government level in order to change the conditions of life (1955), 25-8, 129-32. and they should not spare any expense in sav­ housing activities in the borough. One mem­ 19. Gazette, 29 October 1955; Donoughue, Bernard and Jones, ing the country from its other enemy - dis­ ber, Alderman Anning, pointed out that al­ of their constituents, they had to have a sym­ 55. pathetic government in power at national 20. at 44. ease' .35 The problem with this stand by the though the council had been successful in ac­ level. This the Hackney Borough Council of 21. Gazette 5 December 1919. council was that it seemed to damn the coun­ commodating 21 families as a result of con­ 22. ib. 24 January 1921. cil in the eyes of the very people that they versions, the Housing Board had even stopped 1919-1922 simply did not have. 23. ib. 9 March, 28 February 1921. 24. ib. 6 and 26 June 1922. had to deal with - the officials of the Ministry these because the Council wanted to obtain a 25. ib. 28 April 1922. of Health. For the rest of their tenure, La­ reduction in rent for them.38 26. ib. 25 July 1921. bour had a running battle with them over -fi­ Finally, in January 1922 a deputation of about Notes 27. ib. 13 January 1922. l. Hackney and Kingsland Gazette ('Gazette\ 5 & 12 No­ 28. Party correspondence. nancing housing schemes, with the govern­ 30 members of the Council led by the Mayor vember 1919. 29. Mowat, 44. Gazette, 25 July 1919. ment winning ever time. went to the Ministry of Health 'to lodge a 2. The East End ofLondon, 1951. 30. See for example Gazette 23, 27 June, 1 September 1919; vigorous protest against the action of the Min­ 3. The Growth of Victorian London, 1976. 23 April 1920. 4. Behind the Lines: East London labour 1914-1919, 1984. 31. ib. 7 November, 17 December 1919. Council and Ministry istry in the matter of housing in the borough'. 5. The Streets ofEast London, 1979. 32. ib. 7 November 1919; Donoughue, 56. In the Spring of 1920, before Payne's state­ After lengthy discussions, a compromise was 6. Gazette 25 August 1922. 33. Gazette 20 July 1920, 9 March, 25 May 1921. ment, the council had lodged plans with the reached. The Minister passed the Council's 7. 1932, III, 361. 34. ib. 6 August 1920, 3 July 1922; Donoughue, 56. 8. B. Donoughue and G. W. Jones, Herbert Morrison: por­ 35. 16 July 1920. Ministry's Housing Board for the erection of plans, as long as the price could be brought trait ofa politician (197 3) 51. 36. Gazette 9 January 1922. maisonettes in South Hackney.36 The plans down a bit more! Even before this, the gov­ 9. Gazette 12 August 1921. 37. ib. 14 December 1921. were accepted by the Board in August, but ernment had clamped down on the amount 10. Gazette, 28 February and 2 April 1919. 38. ib. 1 July, 19 December 1921. 11. ib. 4 July 1919. 39. ib. 9 January 1922, 15 July 1921. trouble soon arose over the tenders accepted of money available from them for council by the council. The Board rejected these house building. The previous July, a Gazette outright, saying that whereas the council editorial had noted that Sir Alfred Mond had wanted the houses built of brick, it would be put a limit on the number of council houses cheaper to do them in reinforced concrete. that could be built with government assist­ The battle went backwards and forwards for ance. 'The news will be received with dismay almost two years, neither side being prepared by Borough Councils [like Hackney] whose to budge. No building was able to start and schemes have not yet matured owing to fi­ the whole issue became something of a local nancial and other difficulties or have not ob­ scandal. A columnist on the local paper com­ tained the approval of an exacting and dilly­ mented 'that a deadlock should continue on dallying Housing Board'. It went on to say a matter so vital to the health and well-being that 'this sudden change of policy is one that of the inhabitants is as intolerable as it is de­ will be deplored by those who have been look­ plorable', whilst the editorial in the same is­ ing forward to progress in housing as a means sue maintained that 'because the Ministry of of removing social discontent'.39 Health considers the prices quoted by con­ The two issues examined, municipalisation tractors as too high ... there is only one obvi­ and housing, give some indication of the dif­ ous alternative to contract work and that is ficulties faced by the new Labour council. direct labour'.37 Five months earlier, the leader Arriving on the scene full of good intentions, of the Progressives on the Council, Council­ wishing to change the face of their borough, lor Chapman, had said virtually the same in a desperately wanting to alleviate the distress Council debate: 'build them by direct labour that they saw all around them, the Labour if necessary'. The problem was that it could councillors came to realise that they were not be done as the Council simply did not impotent in trying to work within an eco­ have the money. Councillor Barton, Chair­ nomic policy run from Whitehall by anti-La- man of the Housing Committee, explained 44 45 POSTscnpt Contributors to this issue

Barry Burke worked for a number of years for Hackney Council and is now a Robert H. Thompson lecturer in higher education. He has written Rebels with a cause: Hackney Trades Council 1900-1975, and, with Ken Worpole, Hackney Propagada: working class culture and politics 1870-1900. He is currently researching into the educational role of 19th century working men's clubs. The symbolism of the Rebello token Roy Hi'dson was a librarian for the Borough of Islington from 1955 to 1998. He is the author of a number of publications on local and library history, a Fellow of the Library Association and holder of London University's Diploma in Archaeology. In Hackney History J Melvyn Brooks gave an ac­ The illustration here shows Rebello's bookplate. count of David Alves Rebello (1741-96), a wealthy Above the decorative initials D A R, similar to those Martin Taylor is senior assistant archivist at Hackney Archives Department. After on the token, is the crest of a bird's wing erect. Wings, Jewish merchant resident in Hackney, best remembered graduating from St Andrew's University he trained as an accountant, until he saw the for having issued what is usually considered the first says Randle Holme, are hieroglyphics of speed, and private token of the 18th century. The reverse has sometimes of protection and coverture. 1 If the signifi­ light and moved into archives. He has worked at the Churchill Archives Centre and 'HACKNEY PROMISSORY TOKEN' around the cance of a bird's wing could not be so much the speed Hereford and Worcester County Record Office, before moving to Hackney in 1998. swash letters D A R, a laurel wreath above, and in the of travelling as the fact of travelling, then the wing exergue the date 1795. Between the initials and the accompanying Rebello's initials on the bookplate might date are two objects the significance and meaning of mean much the same as the aplustre and rudder ac­ Philip W. Plumb, Robert H. Thompson and Anne Wilkinson are contributors to which have been controversial. Dr Brooks mentions companying D A R on the token. Of an aplustre, earlier volumes of Hacknry History. alternative descriptions of these as (a) a palm branch Addison had written in 1705 'The one holds a sword and scuppet, a scuppet being a shovel, of a type very in her hand to represent the Iliad ... as the other has useful for filling up if not for digging graves; and (b) a an Aplustre to represent the Odyssy, or Voyage of quill and penknife case. Ulysses.'2 Here there is no indication of speed; indeed the voyage of Ulysses lasted twenty years. Ackowledgements

The illustrations in this volume except those noted below appear by permission of the Archives Department of Hackney Borough Council, and the better ones were produced by the technical wizardry of Michael Kirkland. The portrait of Lady Essex (at the time, Lady Sidney) on page 9 appears by permission of King­ ston Lacy, the Bankes Collection (National Trust), and those on page 24 by In an accompanying article I pointed to the pres­ permission of the Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library. ence of the same objects on pattern halfpence of 1788, and identified the 'scuppet' or 'penknife' as, alterna­ tively, a rudder for steering an ancient ship. Robert Thompson's contribution is based on his article for the Token Corre­ I was assured by Dr Jonathan Williams of the British sponding Society Bulletin vol. 6 no.3. The pictures are reproduced by permission Museum, when in search of a convincing illustration of the author (Dalton & Hamer: Middlesex 309) and of the British Museum of an ancient rudder, that the 'palm' is an aplustre, an (Rebello's bookplate). ornament for the stern of an ancient ship, composed The suggestion of this note, then is that the aplustre of curved planks with streamers to show the direction and rudder in saltire on the reverse of the Hackney of the wind. This certainly fits with a rudder; but why promissory token relate to Rebello's voyage to Britain Martin Taylor wishes to thank David Mander; Jonathan Pepler, Cheshire Record should Rebello have wished to adopt a crossed rudder from the country of his birth, Portugal. Such a private Office; Dr Amanda Bevan, PRO; and Jenny Moran, Nottinghamshire Archives. and aplustre? I suggested then that the aplustre, a sym­ and personal reference, on what was after all a private bol of triumph, might allude to Rebello's commercial token, may offer the most satisfactory explanation of a The editor wishes to thank Jacqueline Bradshaw-Price for the cover; John Finn, success in bringing goods to Britain from Portugal and difficult device, of which the symbolism is not imme­ as ever; and the long-suffering, surviving, skeleton, splendid staff of Hackney · elsewhere. The rudder (gubernaculum) in the context diately apparent. of Britannia suggests 'government', though the closest Archives Department. to steering the ship of state Rebello is known to have 1 R. Holme, The academy ofarmory, Chester 1688, II , reached is the position of head borough in the parish of 303 . Hackney. z Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. 'aplustre'.

46 47 About this publication

Hackney History is published by the Friends of Hackney Archives. This is the fifth volume of an annual series dedicated to publishing original research into the history of the area of the London borough of Hackney ( the former metropolitan boroughs of Hackney, Shoreditch and Stoke Newington).

The Friends of Hackney Archives were formed in 1985 to act as a focus for local history and to support the work of the borough council's Archives Department. Membership is open to all. Members receive the Archives Department's newsletter, The Hackney Terrier, three times each year, and Hackney History each summer. The subscription for the calendar year is £8 for mailing to UK addresses, £16 (if paid in sterling) overseas.

Enquiries and correspondence can be addressed to the Friends of Hackney Archives, Hackney Archives Department, 43 de Beauvoir Road, London Nl SSQ, telephone (0171) 241 2886, fax (0171) 241 6688, e~mail [email protected]. Contributions to Hackney Historyare welcome. Intending contributors are invited to get in touch with the editor before putting text into final form.

Volume 1 Pepys and Hacknry - two mysterious Hacknry gardens - the Tyssens, urds of Hacknry- Nonconformist church­ building - the silk makers' house at Hacknry Wick - the rise of the high rise

Volume2 Balmes House - highwqys in Hacknry before 1872 - letters from a homesick curate - Tjzacks, toolmakers of Old Street - mysterious goings-on at Abnry Park Cemetery

Volume} The Tjssen collection of sermons as a historical source - an 18th century Jewish resident and his place in the history of British coins and tokens- the development of the Middleton estate on the Shoreditch-Hacknry boundary- Shoreditch vestry as pioneer housingproviders in the 1890s.

Volume4 The beginnings of nonconformi!J in Hacknry anmd Stoke Newington - Stoke Newington's forgotten gardener, Shirlry Hibberd - Victorian values and public health - Shoreditch Town Hall - scientific instrument-making in undon

Copies of volumes 2 to 4 can be obtained from Hackney Archives Department, 43 de Beauvoir Road Nl SSQ (telephone 0171 241 2886) or the National Trust bookshop at Sutton House, 2-4 Homerton High Street, E9 (0181 986 2264).

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