"A major investment opportunity arose at Bath in late 1768 with the announcement of a project to build a fresh suite of assembly rooms among the terraces and crescents of rapidly expanding Lansdown". Fawcett examines the details of their construction, as well as their use by various societies and individuals.
Tag: eighteenth century
Crewing the Bristol Slave Trade: the Bristol Ships’ Muster Rolls, 1790-1795
In this article, Mike Breward looks at the use of Muster rolls on ships, noting what their purpose was and why they are so important. "Muster Rolls, listing ship's crews by name together with their service details, became a legal requirement on ship owners by an Act of Parliament in 1747. Their original purpose was to record monies paid into the 'hospital fund', a levy from seamen's wages for a relief fund for the injured and the provision of payments to widows and families of deceased sailors".
A History of the Cirencester Brewery, 1798-1949
'In March 1792, the Gloucester Journal advertised the forthcoming sale of 'one of the most complete breweries outside London'. Could this be the earliest known record of Cirencester's most important brewery - a business that would later become the biggest industrial complex in Cirencester and the largest employer in the town? The Brewery played a vital role in the regional economy until closure in 1949, but the date of its foundation is a little more difficult to place. With the Cirencester Brewery's own records dating rather uncertainly from 1798, Joyce Moss examines the evidence for its development'.
Topographical Prints and the Image of Bristol: 1995-1860
From the time when urbanisation was first recognised as a radical and permanent phenomenon, debates and questions surrounding the physical, political, and social consequences of urban and industrial development accompanied every topographical modification; urban migration, expansion, and the industrialisation of the landscape became the object of popular scrutiny. Throughout the 19th century, commentators continued to compile both historic and prophetic accounts of rapidly evolving conurbations in an attempt to comprehend the future of these sites and their implications for the British nation and empire. In this article, Katy Layton Jones examines some of the ways in which engraved images of Bristol produced during the first half of the 19th century were informed by, and in turn informed, changing attitudes to that city and to urbanisation in general.
Gleanings from Wiltshire Parish Registers 1538-1812
Parish registers have long been regarded as the preserve of family historians, and, more recently, demographic historians. They should be regarded not only as bureaucratic records of the rites of passage, or sources of population data, important as these are, but also as chronicles of communal memory and experience. In this study, Steve Hobbs reveals the wide range of historical research that can be informed by the memoranda and jottings found in these sources.
The Origins of the Royal Bath & West Society and its Trial Grounds
The Royal Bath & West Society, as it is now known, has its origin in a society founded in the City of Bath in 1777 'for the encouragement and improvement of agriculture, arts, manufactures and commerce'. The founder, Edmund Rack, was soon appointed Secretary and the 1inch pin of the group. He vigorously conducted a wide range of correspondence and guided a programme of field experiments and prizes and rewards for improvements in agriculture and related practices. In this essay, Owen Ward uncovers the story of one of the Society's more 'spirited' and ambitious plans.
The Spanish source of the name of The Malago, Bedminster
“The poor do not need long epitaphs”: the provenance of some West Country memorials
An epitaph may be defined as something written about the dead. Often epitaphs found on gravestones and memorials are wholly or in part some fitting quotation or poem which, from the perspective of the bereaved, seems to befit the departed. In this article, Michael Weller explores the provenance of those epitaphs found on gravestones of south west England, and the very different form of writing found on memorial plaques and the like
Magistracy and the Crisis of Paternalism in the 1790s: The case of George Donisthorpe of Somerton
George Donisthorpe was the resident magistrate of the town of Somerton in Somerset. In 1796 he was tried for 'wilful neglect of his duty as a magistrate' in refusing to assist in quelling a riot and 'with having rather encouraged it.' The public prosecution of a Justice of the Peace was a rare occurrence. Traditionally, the local magistrate was represented as a paternal figure 'guiding the conduct' and ensuring the wellbeing of the deferential poor. Their wealth and status placed them beyond reproach. In this article, Rose Wallis illustrates the increasingly precarious position of magistrates in the period, as their discretionary powers and paternal authority were eroded by the centralisation of government control.
The Unquiet Grave: a fresh look at the Scipio Africanus story
The passing of the Slave Trade Act in London in March 1807 did little to ease the burden of slaves already held in the British Caribbean. They had to wait until the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 which began the slow move towards emancipation. The bicentenary of the 1807 Act was accompanied by new publications, exhibitions, and an urging of urban communities to engage in a commemoration of Abolition 200. English Heritage invited people to follow in the footsteps of the abolitionists and recall the lives of those slaves who were to end their lives here in Britain, far from their ancestor's African homelands. Visits to the graves of Africans were encouraged; one such grave was of Scipio Africanus. Colin Godman uncovers the life of Africanus through the information that is available about his master, the Earl of Gloucestershire.