Shields Gazette Published on Wed Dec 17 14:53:41 GMT 2008
A WEEK before Christmas, two years into the reign of Queen Victoria, Israel Venus signed as an apprentice to the sea.
His employer, a South Shields ship owner, was a woman, Elizabeth Gare - not unusual in 1839 - and Israel's indentures show that he was responsible for providing his own sea-bedding, clothes and other necessaries, while at the same time refraining from dice and cards, and frequenting taverns unless on his mistress's business.
Handling the stiff, grey document today, you can almost hear the solicitor's clerk's nib scratching over its waxy surface. The red wax seal is redolent of candlelight in the dark depths of winter.
This was the year Olive Twist was published. It is our own glimpse inside lost Dickensian world.
But it's only where the story begins. Over the course of it, other folk weave in and out: a farmer, a soldier, a shopkeeper and that wonderful trade of by-gone days, a tripe dresser.
But there are also mysteries. Whose was the lock of pale red hair, lovingly kept wrapped in paper, alongside a worn wedding ring?
Contained in battered cardboard that once held chocolates, and an even older and even more knocked-about metal cash box, it's one family's history. Is it yours?
"A friend did a house clearance some years ago and these were among the things that were salvaged," said reader Kerry Bailey, who recently dropped the finds into Cookson Country.
"Some of it is really interesting about different, old places in Shields," said Kerry, who lives at The Nook and who would like to return the memorabilia to the original owner's family, if any are still in the area.
There are photographs, birth, death and marriage certificates, funeral bills, letters, pertaining mainly to people who, it would appear, were either Israel Venus's descendants or members of families that they married into.
So what more do we know about Israel? After four years, during which he earned a total of 30 - equivalent to about 1,300 today - he had completed his apprenticeship to Mrs Gare's satisfaction.
He then re-appears 30 years later, in 1873, when his daughter Mary, 25, marries a trimmer, Robert Foster, the son of a farmer, Thomas Foster, at St Stephen's Church on The Lawe.
Later again, in 1888, another daughter, Charlotte Venus, aged 29, marries Alexander Chappel, again at St Stephen's Church.
At this time both families are living at 13 Thrift Street, on the riverside below The Lawe, and Israel is described as still being a seaman.
Alexander Chappel is interesting because, at the time of his marriage, he was also seafaring.
But four years later, he was obviously seeking to settle ashore.
After Israel Venus's indentures, one of the loveliest documents in the collection is the confirmation, in 1892, of Alexander Chappel's purchase, from a James Wetherell, of a "tripe boiling house and stable hut of brick and wood" located at the back of Thames Street, which ran from behind Mile End Road to the riverside.
It cost 60, equivalent to about 3,500 today, which was paid in instalments of between 5 and 7, and which included "pots, tubs and other sundries, also a long cart barrow."
Subsequent family developments are more hazy.
In 1906, a Mr Chapel (sic) paid a bill of 9 18s 6d to a funeral director, Deacon's, in Keppel Street, South Shields, the biggest outlay of which was for an "adults coffin" at a cost of 3 15s. But whose was it?
Things grow hazier. By the time of the First World War, an Alex Chappel is writing home while serving with the British Expeditionary Force in France.
In the summer of 1916, there is also a letter from Dora Chappel, of 74 Mile End Road, to a Pte Matt Brown, serving with the 3rd Battalion Tyneside Scottish, also in France.
"Alex was here from France for (?) day and he looked a treat," she writes.
"Walter has his four days leave and has to return on Wednesday....You are right when you say I am tired of the war and will be glad when it is over..."
Much of the subsequent correspondence dates from the inter-war years and reflects everyday family life of the era, such a doctor's club card for Dr Ord, who had surgeries in Mile End Road and at Laygate, to whom payments of a shilling a fortnight were made, this in the days before the National Health Service.
There are bills, receipts and financial agreements, even a rather odd and shirty letter, dated December 1931, from Howard Stores in Clayton Street, Newcastle, which reads: "On Tuesday of this week, Mrs D....... of Cedar Grove, Cleadon, called and asked for goods on Hire Purchase. She stated that you had informed her that she could get anything, even boots. We may state that this not correct"!
Sadly, though, none of the paperwork tells us what happened to Israel Venus, but one sad letter does record the death of his daughter Charlotte, at the age of 80 in 1935, at the hospital in the East Riding of Yorkshire where had been a patient for more than 20 years.
Much of the later correspondence is addressed to a Mrs D Harrison, general dealer, of 39 Fawcett Street which, again, was off Mile End Road.
Altogether, this is someone's family treasure trove.
If anyone can prove a claim on the documents, get in touch with me - but, please, not until after Christmas now.
