The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson (Part 5)

[Ruskie]

I have to say I find something depressingly callous about today's entry. His mother was was so fatigued and ill that she was obliged to be brought home in a cab and was expected to die on the road. Yet he seems more interested in buying a new penknife 

Carole

That's why I think he might have written the diary in stages throughout the day.

Say Mum got home at midday in the cab ... he might have helped her up stairs, tucked her into bed, made her a cuppa, written in his diary.

Then he popped out for a walk while Mum was sleeping and just happened to pass by the penknife shop, so he decided to buy a new one as he'd broken his old one.

Then he went home, made sure Mum was comfortable, checked out his prints, had tea then just before bed wrote in his diary that he'd bought a new penknife ...

What do you think? 

Just a different take on the entry. 

[Ruskie]

... I was wondering if he would mention how he was going to go further with Ann and how thrilled he may have been by the night before's 'wicked tricks'

You live in hope Deb! 

[Ruskie]

Karen, where did you check for George Ridsdale? That sounds like a northern surname.

We do have George Lea in all the censuses Deb - I'll try to dig them out. I also thought that the nursery maid may have worked for the Leas.

[Ruskie]

This is the stuff about the Leas I extracted from Part 2. All found by Deb. I'm sure I have some more somewhere but can't seem to find it at the moment 

"Sunday 15th February 1846
Clara Lea, eldest daughter of George and Anna Matilda Lea, this day completes her second year."

marriage:
George LEA = Ann Matilda DELL
22 Oct 1842, after Banns
St Pancras Parish Church

George = Batchelor, full age, coal merchant, father: CHARLES LEA dead
address: Northumberland wharf, Regents Park

Anna Matilda = Full age, spinster, father: William Mostly?? Dell, Gent
address: ?chol House, Havenlook? Hill

witnesses:
Charles Lea and Mary Lea

could Granny Shepard be his aunty??  There is a Charles LEA born about the same time as Granny Shepard in Birmingham. so George is s/o Charles Lea who could be Mary's brother...

By 1861 George Lea is 41, b St Pancras and is "out of business", Anna M is with him along with several more children:
at 5 Gloucester ter., Camberwell
Clara 17
Hannah 15
George D 14
Jessie M 12
mes?? G 1

Baptism:
St Pancras
George LEA 30 April 1820
s/o CHARLES and Lydia
Charles's Occ looks like Smith
can't make out address.

Guess who Charles married ...LYDIA WOOD who was present at Granny Shepards marriage :
10th May 1796
St Andrew by the Wardrobe
John Shepard batchelor of the parish of ??, Blackfriars and Mary Lea spinster of the same parish were married by banns
both signed
Witnesses: Charles Lea and Lydia Wood (?)


Charles Lea= Lydia Wood
Married by Banns on 2 August 1796 in the presence of John Dodd and Hannah Moody
St Andrew, Holborn

I think I have Lydia in 1851 ...she is b Stafford and living in Chipping Barnet, Middlesex.
The Leas travelled to Barnett in Jan or Feb 1846.

added The above Lydia Lea is living with her granddaughter Sarah Hawkins. Charles and Lydia had a daughter (IGI) named Lydia who married Charles HAWKINS in St Pancras, 1827
Where is Lydia in 1841 

Lydia is buried 16 sept 1854, Barnet, age 82
Kensington & Chelsea
All Souls Cemetery, Kensal Green

I think this may be Charles Lea:
Buried 27 Feb 1838 age 62
Add:  Augustus Street, Regent Park, St Pancras
buried at the same cemetery as Lydia

[Ruskie]

Karen I can't see George Ridsdale in 1841, but I found him in 1851:
HO107/1496/264/31
living at 1 Euston Square (age not known) living with wife Maria and loads of servants (maybe one of them gave the census info and didn't know his age). George is a Medical Practitioner and born in Ireland.  Maybe he's there in 1841? They don't appear to have any children.

Marriages Sept 1843
George Ridsdale and on the same page Maria Henrietta Alewyn
St Pancras
1/295

And from the London PR's:
they married August 1st
St Pancras Church
both full age
bachelor/spinster
he's a surgeon from St Pancras
she's from St Marylebone
his father is George - dead
her father is James - merchant
 

[Siamese Girl]

The other way of looking at Nat's apparent callousness is that he is self denial, and his way of trying to cope with his mother's illness is to try and distance himself from it. I feel so sorry for poor Mary. We know what they don't - that she has over another year to live 

Carole

[steve_gus]

hehehehe!!  Hadn't realized how OLD that naughty word was!!

Go to Wikipedia and look up Pepys diary. You will see an extract of when he was caught with a housemaid by his wife in the mid 1660s and he uses a derivative of the word there. Also, at one time it was common, im told, that roads with much prostitution in them were called "gropec**t lane". I read this on the normally respectable BBC website in the last year or two. For some reason, all of these roads have been renamed.

[Ruskie]

The other way of looking at Nat's apparent callousness is that he is self denial, and his way of trying to cope with his mother's illness is to try and distance himself from it. I feel so sorry for poor Mary. We know what they don't - that she has over another year to live 

Carole

Yes, it could be that ... he is a young lad after all and it must still be hard for him even though he appears not to be close to his mother ... 

Yes it is as though we are seeing Nat's (and his families) life through his eyes but we can also see into their futures.  It feels weird.

I read that wiki article too Steve. It's interesting. I knew that many of today's 'rude words' had earlier origins. 

[waiteohman]

Ruskie not sure if they could afford a physician. They weren't paupers/poor house.

There is a Thomas Ridsdale age 35, living King St., St. Anne Soho in 1841 with wife Eliza, his occupation tailor and not born in county. Could have been friends with Thomas and Mary and somehow related to George.