The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson (Part 5)

[alpinecottage]

I have a sub to The Genealogist where you can enter addresses into the census searches (and no other details).  Putting in "Wharf" for 1841 and 1851 brings up 20 or more wharves where people are living, but none called Eccleston or anything like it.  Putting in Eccleston brings up Eccleston Mews, Street etc in Westminster.  Most of the occupants seem to be servants, either people with families or houses full of unrelated individuals who are all servants.  Perhaps NB was just referring to a particular house which had its entrance by the Wharf Office.

[Ruskie]

Welcome to rootschat drykid and in particular our Nathaniel Bryceson thread.  It's great that you have joined us and well done for managing to read ALL of our discussion. You have great staying power!

I have spoken to Westminster Archives about how they obtained the 1846 diary and they were going to look into it. I haven't heard anything more about this unfortunately. Perhaps Mongibello could do a bit of detective work when he's next at the Archives.  And you're right drykid, perhaps there is a descendant of the diaries previous owner who may know more about how it came into their family.

To be honest, I would rather not have known that Nathaniel wrote other diaries. It is extremely frustrating to not know their whereabouts if they still exist. I know that there will be a great emptiness come December when the diary finishes.

[Siamese Girl]

Aleck Abrahams is very elusive - he writes lots of articles for N&Q, and corresponds with people and a search on Google Books comes up with lots of results but he's very hard to trace as a person.

I don't think you need to be Sherlock Holmes to imagine him - a solitary academic minded bachelor living in rooms stuffed full of books with piles of papers everywhere and a lot of spare time on his hands - but who was  he

Carole

[ShaunJ]

Eccleston Wharf lay between numbers 37 and 41 Upper Belgrave Place per the 1851 PO Directory

[Ruskie]

I wonder if Aleck is traceable through the censuses, bmd's etc? (or have you already tried Carole). I wonder if he has any living descendants who may hold some more clues?  

[Ruskie]

Eccleston Wharf lay between numbers 37 and 41 Upper Belgrave Place per the 1851 PO Directory

Thanks Shaun - I'll see if I can locate it on a map.

[ShaunJ]

It was between Eccleston Street and the end of Upper Belgrave Place.

The 1851 Directory has:

35. Hill, William hairdresser & perfumer
37. Day Miss Ellen, teacher of music
      Lea Geo & co, Coal Mers, Eccleston Wf
      Read Fras. builder & stone saw mills
      Pimlico Slate Works
                G E Magnus, proprietor
      Lambert Joseph, timber & Brick Merchant
41. Irvine Alexander Robert esq
     Lambert  Thomas coal merchants St George's Wharf

43. Ball Thomas William esq
 (end of street)

[ShaunJ]

Eccleston Wharf is no longer listed by 1856:

36. Lefeu George, Dyer
      Read Fras. builder & stone saw mills
39 & 40. Pimlico Enamlled Slate Works
              G E Magnus proprietor
     Lambert Joseph, timber merchant
     St George's Wharf:
     Lambert Thos. wharfinger & coal merchant
43. Bell Thomas William esq
     Bennett & Holdsworth, builders
      (Bridge row wharf)

[drykid]

Welcome to rootschat drykid and in particular our Nathaniel Bryceson thread.  It's great that you have joined us and well done for managing to read ALL of our discussion. You have great staying power!

Thanks  Well to be honest I couldn't stop once I'd started.  It's like a detective novel.

I have spoken to Westminster Archives about how they obtained the 1846 diary and they were going to look into it. I haven't heard anything more about this unfortunately. Perhaps Mongibello could do a bit of detective work when he's next at the Archives.  And you're right drykid, perhaps there is a descendant of the diaries previous owner who may know more about how it came into their family.

I hope Westminster can come up with something, although realistically it's unlikely that whoever sold them the 1846 diary had the other ones in their posession, even back then.  Surely the question would've been asked about any other diaries, and efforts made to acquire those too at the same time.  (Unless I guess there was a huge amount of them, and for cost reasons it was decided one was sufficient for the archive. But that doesn't seem very likely.) But they may have information nonetheless about what became of the other ones.

To be honest, I would rather not have known that Nathaniel wrote other diaries. It is extremely frustrating to not know their whereabouts if they still exist. I know that there will be a great emptiness come December when the diary finishes.

Yeah, I'll feel the same way come December.  But it's best to look on the positive side; if other diaries have survived this long, then they're probably in the hands of someone who has taken good care of them.  And I'm sure a lot of these kinds of things do exist in private hands.  Take this for instance:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1877-Daily-Diary-Jan-Dec-Manchester-Clara-Hems-Chapel-/350279562034?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Antiquarian_Books_UK&hash=item518e49f332

I doubt that will show up in any public archive listings, but nonetheless it's still managed to survive almost as long as the NB one has.  So there's always hope