I am looking at the last little books in my collection. They came via a lady who was a music teacher many, many moons ago, in fact when I was a teenager. They belong to a different century and I wonder how young people would accept them now ? The title "Maggie's Name and how it helped her" gives you a flavour of what is inside. The dedication inside says "Richmond Congregational Church Sunday School. William Lambert. Reward for Good attendance 1887. " I am sure that William justly deserved this prize but how did he feel about this ? A story for GIRLS ! William would have been about fourteen, and having read the book it would have been rather young for his age. This is the Congregational Church on Dundas Street in Richmond which was opened in 1884, so would have been very new. It was really beautiful inside, and sadly has not been a church for many years but converted into offices. William was baptised at the Anglican Parish Church in Richmond on 6 April 1873 son of John and Jane Lambert, cabinet maker of Richmond. By 1881 John had added Innkeeper to his cabinet making. This is the entry for the Ship Inn on Frenchgate in 1881. John Lambert b 1833 Richmond, cabinet maker & Inn Keeper Jane wife b 1833 Richmond Charles b 1864 Richmond, Coach smith John b 1867 R’mond Errand Boy Thomas b 1869 R’mond scholar William b 1873 R’mnd Scholar Walter Lambert b 1874 grandson b Saltaire + a lodger John Dinsdale of Masham ag lab b 1819 Unfortunately the Ship has gone the way of many pubs and was recently on the market. I don't know if it has been sold and re-opened, I hope so, it is part of Richmond's history. By 1891 William Lambert was an apprentice draper living on Newbiggin in Richmond with Arthur Mangles, draper, and next door, or in part of the same house, was John Benson, draper. I lived in a flat in a house on Newbiggin in the 1970s which was owned and occupied on the ground floor by a Mrs Benson who at the time was very, very old, I thought about a hundred ! But looking through the census I think that William Lambert and the drapers were on the opposite side of the street. William Lambert married Lilian Maud Byers see blog entry for April 2019, and then he tragically died one year later and never met his daughter. But his daughter kept the book and somehow it came into the possession of my parents and I found it when clearing out their home. The story involved a little boy who could not walk without a crutch, a step mother, a step daughter, a lovely Sunday School teacher. Of course there was a death, and many quotes from the Bible. In the 1881 census the Lambert family at the Ship Inn included a Walter Lambert, grandson. In 1901 he was in Flint's Yard in Richmond learning the grocery trade. By 1911 he was a shopkeeper in Gilling West. One of his sons was John Maurice Lambert born in 1904. I think that this was Maurice Lambert who played the organ at the Congregational Church on Dundas Street in Richmond, and very good he was too. He was a lovely man and had also kept the shop and post office in Gilling West before retiring to Hudswell. This book is also quite tiny, the back cover is missing, the front cover is not attached, and it is a Lord Wharton Book of Common Prayer. The dedication says quite simply William Lambert, Richmond 1883. Most books connected to Lord Wharton are Bibles, but this is an Anglican prayer book, William's family must have been very ecumenical. Inside it say "Philip Lord Wharton died February 4th 1694 aged 83 and by his will left to his Trustees certain Yorkshire estates, the proceeds of which are to be devoted each year to the distribution of Bibles and other books..." Of course Philip Lord Wharton also had a local connection to Swaledale as about 1690 he built a non-conformist chapel in Swaledale at Smarber. I know that Lord Wharton Bibles and Prayer books were very much prized by the recipients. The last little book is entitled "Holy Communion with Collects, Epistles and Gospels". Inside it says John William Fryer March 16th 1894. With the Rev R B Nesbit's best wishes. This is the 1881 census for the Turf Hotel in Richmond. James Fryer innkeeper and malster born 1851 Brompton on Swale wife Christiana b 1846 Brompton on Swale , Jane Ann Fryer b 1874, John William Fryer b 1879, James J Fryer 8 months + 2 servants This is the Turf Hotel, right in the middle of Richmond and still very popular. Who was the Rev R B Nesbitt ? He was born in 1859 at Stockton on Tees, the son of William Nesbitt a school teacher. William the father then moved to Ainderby Steeple near Northallerton. Robert also became a school teacher and took a job at Ulverstone in the bit of Lancashire across the sands before he went to study at Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham University. Here he was a notable scholar with the highest marks in his exams. He then became ordained into the Anglican Church in 1884. First he went to Eccleshill near Bradford before he took a living at North Cowton, just to the north of Northallerton. By the 1901 census he was in Richmond, but from the dedication in this book he must have been there by 1894. Here is the Reverend Robert Bailey Nesbitt in the Vicarage at Richmond in 1901 with his wife Mary who was born in Brazil but a British Subject. By 1911 the Nesbitts had moved to Ainderby Steeple and remained there for many years. The Reverend Nesbitt was also a talented musician and played the piano in concerts. Whilst in Eccleshill a Bradford newspaper reported on the Eccleshill Sunday School concerts and when he left the parish he and his wife were presented with an "American Organ", a lamp and a photograph of the Young Men's Class. Anyone know what an American Organ was like ? It seems a most generous gift ! But the hint about the Young Men's Class is perhaps a clue as to how John William Fryer was given this book, it is very likely that he had a similar class in Richmond. The Reverend Robert B Nesbitt died in 1934 at Ripon and had been the Vicar of Ainderby Steeple for 22 years. This is the church of St Helen at Ainderby Steeple, on the main road between Bedale and Northallerton. Back to the Lambert and Fryer families. John William Fryer had a younger brother called James Johnson Fryer born in 1881. The family were brewers and innkeepers and by 1891 were in Brompton on Swale. William Lambert who died so tragically young in 1900 had a posthumous daughter born in 1901 called Lilian Maud Lambert. She became a teacher in Darlington then latterly in Brompton on Swale. Here she met and married as his second wife James Johnson Fryer in 1944. So I have ended up with some tiny, tiny books that belonged to her mother, her father, her brother in law, and they were all very much treasured. She was a music teacher and passed on her love for music and literature and poetry. Sadly many of the books she gave to my parents, they did not keep. I managed to save some before they disposed of them ! I am so glad that I did. But what will happen to them when my time is over ?
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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