The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson Revisited

[Malcolm33]

   Well I hope it has all the sketches as these are what make the journal so memorable and give us such an insight into 1840 life.
 
     Another one in the same vein is 'A Girl at Government House' - "An English girl's reminiscences: 'Below Stairs in Colonial Australia'"   This is another treasure as it has such wonderful sketches and photos as well.     Helen Vellacott discovered an old volume on a London bookstall which was entitled "The Autobiography of a Cook", but when she examined it found that it was more an account of a girl who went out to Australia and worked in the Government houses.   It begins with 'An English Childhood, 1867 - 1886'.     Helen then just had to try and trace who the girl was who had once lived in Richmond.     It was published anonymously with a warning that the reader would not find the author anywhere in the county which she described.   The Foreword then goes on to describe how Helen traced the writer and identified her as Agnes Stokes.     This alone makes the book a treasure for any family history enthusiast.

[Ruskie]

Yes the online version of Richard Doyle's book does have illustrations:
http://archive.org/stream/journalkeptbyric00doyl#page/n11/mode/2up

The Girl at Government House sounds intriguing.

So many diaries, so little time. 

[Malcolm33]

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=eNfHNcPTUc8C&pg=PA260&lpg=PA260&dq=agnes+stokes&source=bl&ots=_wASZgT8gm&sig=lB41ZwQdZnq462fRcUcVvfcREpA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EJiIUfSZCcujigeX3ICADg&ved=0CFIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=agnes%20stokes&f=false

[Jo A]

Well WA are happy for me to post the cutting on here so I'll transcribe it in sections over the next few days.

Talks About Old London
The Octogenarian Book Lover of Stepney
Volumes by the Ton
Collector who never earned more than £2 a week

Mr Nathaniel Bryceson, 83 years old, is the subject of the 123rd talk.  His learning is one of the objects of Stepney's highest admiration.

'Two tons of books - I had two tons.  I know they weighed two tons, because when I was moving they broke the carman's van and it was guaranteed to carry two tons.'

The bent, white-haired old man moves a slow hand round the crowded walls of his little back room.
From bed to door old books.  In the drawers of the old desk old books.  On the walls - old prints of old churches.

'Churches.' he says 'where my ancestors are to be found.  That's a picture of 'the Dook,' in the room he died in - nearly as plain as mine.'


Well something to think about....

[Ruskie]

Thanks Jo A! 

I'm fascinated already!

On the walls - old prints of old churches.

'Churches.' he says 'where my ancestors are to be found.  That's a picture of 'the Dook,' in the room he died in - nearly as plain as mine.'

We know Nathaniel loved churches. His weekend walks and other jaunts often included exploring churches. 

What on earth is 'the Dook'? Who died in it?

This is very timely Jo A, as I was just about to ask you what context Nathaniel had said that his grandmother had 11 children.

I have had a reasonably good forage around and though I found a couple of possibilites, they are not in St Pancras Old church where both Mary and John were baptised, so there is no way of knowing if they are the correct children to the correct parents. Of course the family may have moved around therefore christening children in various places, but still no certainty about who belongs to who. However even taking this into account there are nowhere near 11 children born to a John and Mary Shep*d in Middlesex in a reasonable time frame. It seems that Mary (mother of Nathaniel) is the first child after John and Mary (Granny Shepard) married. I am not sure about the number of records of the area which are available online, so perhaps this is why I can't find these children. 

[avm228]

I wondered if in context "the Dook" was a person, pictured in the room he later died in?

"Dook" being a jokey pronunciation of "Duke", perhaps?

[ShaunJ]

I think "the Dook" is a reference to the Duke of Wellington. Who else would be referred to simply as "the Dook"?

[Ruskie]

Dook sounds like Duke said with an American accent. In the context in which it was written it makes sense for Dook to be a person. Maybe the Duke of Wellington - as Shaun says, who else would be known simply as 'the Dook'?

I'm not sure how Nathaniel ended up in a "little back room", as he can't have been a pauper. We know that in 1901 he was in Clerkenwell with a servant, and in 1911 he died in the house of his daughter and son in law, but in between he may have been living elsewhere.

I also wonder if the article has been exaggerated for dramatic effect. 

[Jo A]

yes I thought that the Dook was the Duke of Wellington as well.  I'm wondering if the little back room was 'his' room in his daughter's house.  The article locates him in Stepney which is where they lived.  It's also quite possible that he was still able to work in 1901 but not for much longer and it must have been hard to maintain an income in those days once your capability to work worsened.

Anyway here's the next instalment..

'That's an oil painting of 1442. No one knows who it is. Oh! I'm a bit of an antiquary.'

'Clerks never were overpaid in London. I was reckoned quick at figures, something of a writer and I worked day and night and never had a Sunday off for twenty years.'

'I kept books for as many as eleven people at once.  And I never earned £2 a week in my life'

'But I managed to collect two tons of books.  No novels - nothing of that kind! History, philosophy, theology.'

'London had its old book shops from one end to another, haunted by eccentric old characters like me.  I'd suppose you'd call me a bit eccentric.'

'Look at the kind of Bibles we used to buy.  There's one now. Printed in 1579 in old English black letter type.  Look at the size of it'