The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson (Part 7)

[alpinecottage]

Perhaps Mrs Mitchel's husband or even the lady herself had a horse and cart and went round the streets like a rag and bone man, selling coal by the bucketful.  I imagine there were plenty of people in those days who had to buy coal in very small quantities.

[Siamese Girl]

Perhaps Mrs Mitchel's husband or even the lady herself had a horse and cart and went round the streets like a rag and bone man, selling coal by the bucketful.  I imagine there were plenty of people in those days who had to buy coal in very small quantities.

Yes that's possible.

This is what really interest me about history - all the little everyday things that made up everyone's lives.

Carole

[Ruskie]

Perhaps Mrs Mitchel's husband or even the lady herself had a horse and cart and went round the streets like a rag and bone man, selling coal by the bucketful.  I imagine there were plenty of people in those days who had to buy coal in very small quantities.

That makes perfect sense. 

I wish Nat had told us where Mrs Mitchell lived. As he was so brief I wonder if she lived at Richmond Buildings?  It just seems a bit odd to me that he should say she was a 'first floor lodger' - Why is this significant?

[deb usa]

Hi all

Looked for Mrs Mitchell ...In 1851 she is by herself with 3 children in Richmond Buildings.
I believe Mrs Mitchell is Eliza Simpson who married George Mitchell, a plasterer, in 1843. He is from Huntingdon and seems to stay a plasterer all his life.

1851
9 Richmond Bldgs
Eliza Mitchell mar 36 b Middlesex
George T son 6 b ditto
D Elizabeth dau 4 b ditto
William J son 2 b ditto

George, bc 1820, the husband, is visiting in Berkshire in 1851.

I was hoping she, Mrs Mitchell,  was Ann/Eliza Thomas ... Mary Shepard Bryceson Ward's friend who pops in with food.


deb

[Ruskie]

Hi Deb! Just as I suspected.   

I was just about to try to look Mrs Mitchell up but you beat me to it - lucky I checked first. 

[deb usa]

Hi Ruskie

ESP! 

The daughter has quite a name :
Deaines Elizabeth Mitchell, bpt 13 Dec 1846, born;  15 Nov 1846
parents; George, plasterer and Eliza, of Richmond Buildings
St Pancras Parish Church, Camden

can't find the boys' baptisms 

[Dinkydidy]

Being on the first floor, (next one up from the ground for our American cousins) or even the second - where WOULD they store their coal. If it was down in the cellar, it meant a lot of running up and down.

Still, I guess that was standard in any multi-storey building back then.

[deb usa]

A ton of coal ...

Wonder what the weather was like that winter.

Eliza Mitchell would have had a young son and also have been heavily pregnant with Deanis ...hopefully her husband was home to get the coal from the coal bunker.

When I was young and living in Devon I remember we had a room (ground floor) with a coal bunker in it...my dad also used the room to hang up the pheasants and rabbits he caught ...arrgghhhhh 
Under the stairs was a box where we had to put in shillings to keep the electricity going .

deb

[Daisy Loo]

Both my parents, and my grandparents had coal bunkers outside in the backgardens, but these were semi detached houses, not temenant buildings.