The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson (Part 6)

[Aniseed]

Thanks everyone for finding the links and the portraits, both of Mrs Patten and the Leas...wouldn't it be great if they were Nat's Leas!

I'm interested that no one seems to question Margaret Patten's age at all...surely they must have thought she might have been mistaken at best, fibbing at worst. It must have been sufficiently out of the ordinary for someone to ask themselves whether or not it was likely...unless her baptism entry had been found and it had all been put to rest already.

[Steven Bryceson]

Steven Saxby Diary entry for 15th August 2010

"Rose early, 8am (well early for the summer holidays) and made use of the last few hours of our hire car to visit the grave of my 3x great grandfather Nathaniel Bryceson. Grateful to Montigbello without whose guidance I would never have found the grave. Thereafter to Greenford to inspect graffiti in church porch of which much but could not find NB 1846. Returned car to London City Airport and then went shopping in Oxford Street for wife's birthday presents. Later visited historic pub in Kentish Town for a swift half (at my own expense) and home to Walthamstow. My wife has painted a (kitchen)cabinet today which I am about to inspect."

[Aniseed]

Glad you got to see Nat's grave, Steven. Hope your inspection of your wife's cabinet was agreeable.

[drykid]

I happened to be in the city today, so I thought I'd have a poke around Richmond Buildings myself.  As has been said before, there isn't that much to see on the south side, sadly.  But I took a pic of the office block at 9-11 Richmond Buildings, which is where Nat's house would once have stood, as well as the office at No. 12, which I suspect survives from the original block (the brickwork looks pretty old to me, anyway.) So maybe that gives us an idea of what no. 9 also looked like, although I suspect it didn't look quite as spruced up back in Nat's day.

The numbering of the buildings doesn't really add up to me, no. 12 as it is today seems almost as wide as 9-11 combined, which doesn't tally at all with the 1790 map.  It would make more sense if the office block was actually where 8-10 originally stood (rather than 9-11), and what's currently numbered 12 is actually the old nos. 11-12 combined into a single address.  But I'm just speculating.

[Daisy Loo]

  - shame there isn't a little icon that laughs and cries at the same time....

Nice pics of Richmond Buildings btw

[Ruskie]

Hi Deb,

Love the pictures. It would be wonderful if they were our Leas - and they're just how I imagined them to look.

I saw another portrait of Margaret Patten which I'll try to find again if I have time today. It seems like she was a real curiosity in her day. You can just imagine the attention she must have received. It almost doesn't matter that she wasn't really as old as she said she was - it's such a great story!  Earlier in the diary Nat gave some money to an old man just because he was old.

Ian I love your photos of Richmond Buildings. Many thanks for taking the trip and the photos. Sad that 9 has been replaced by that horrible modern monstrosity. It does look like No 12 might be an older building which has been restored - as does the building beside it. I don't think a repro would be built set back from the road like that or with the lower ground floor and the steps in that style. Though it does look like it has really had the treatment - replacement windows and everything else that could be replaced.    I thought that the building at the end (the one on which the 'Richmond Buildings' street name is attached) looked like it might be a survivor too - it looks a bit run down. The bricks are probably London Stock Bricks and, like the modernised building, would be the same golden colour under all that pollution.

[Ruskie]

Thanks everyone for finding the links and the portraits, both of Mrs Patten and the Leas...wouldn't it be great if they were Nat's Leas!

I'm interested that no one seems to question Margaret Patten's age at all...surely they must have thought she might have been mistaken at best, fibbing at worst. It must have been sufficiently out of the ordinary for someone to ask themselves whether or not it was likely...unless her baptism entry had been found and it had all been put to rest already.

I had a (quick) look on Scotland's People but couldn't find her birth/baptism. Perhaps some did question her age, but maybe there's just no documentation which survives about this. Margaret would have been a huge star so and you can imagine that people must have made money off the back of her, so any rumours about her not being the age she claimed to be, would be quashed. The media of the day may have kept up the pretense?

[Aniseed]

Margaret would have been a huge star so and you can imagine that people must have made money off the back of her, so any rumours about her not being the age she claimed to be, would be quashed. The media of the day may have kept up the pretense?

You may well be right about that. One of the Google books linked to earlier by Shaun mentioned that the Workhouse Keeper wouldn't have made any more money if he'd exhibited poor Margaret in a freakshow. So he at least was going to keep up the pretence, and the story probably sold a few papers as well.

Interesting that you couldn't find her baptism. Did you look under her maiden name? Sorry, I know that's basic, I don't mean to insult your genealogical abilities, but I only found out she had one from reading one of Shaun's links. Unfortunately I've already forgotten it...

[Ruskie]

Steven Saxby Diary entry for 15th August 2010

"Rose early, 8am (well early for the summer holidays) and made use of the last few hours of our hire car to visit the grave of my 3x great grandfather Nathaniel Bryceson. Grateful to Montigbello without whose guidance I would never have found the grave. Thereafter to Greenford to inspect graffiti in church porch of which much but could not find NB 1846. Returned car to London City Airport and then went shopping in Oxford Street for wife's birthday presents. Later visited historic pub in Kentish Town for a swift half (at my own expense) and home to Walthamstow. My wife has painted a (kitchen)cabinet today which I am about to inspect."

That's fabulous Steven!   I love it!

Now, tell us more. Were you able to read anything more on Nathaniel's headstone? Do you think you would like to, or be able to, clear the area a bit?

You said that there is a lot of graffiti in the church porch - is that old grafitti or new grafitti? If old, I still hold out hope that Nathaniel's NB 1846 still remains ...   Further searching and investigation is required on that one.  

Did your wife really paint a kitchen cabinet cupboard?