< Previous | Contents | Next >
Mr. Samuel Morley. Here may be mentioned several items in connection with the late Mr. Samuel Morley, whose firm have for generations been employers of labour in the parish.
A Nottingham elector residing in Arnold in 1865 was asked to vote for Paget and Morley. "What are you going to pey for it?" "Nothing; a vote is a trust to be used for the public good." "Ah, that's all very well, but if a man is to put hissen about to please fellows he ou't to be peyd for it." That was a common attitude before the ballot came in force.
Mr. Morley decided to give all his aged workpeople a pension of six shillings per week. The wife of one of them, Vincent Saxton, who lived in a very small house near Cross Lane, shall tell her own story. "When my mester cum hom' and said as how we'd got a pension of six shillings I could have jump'd out of my skin. To think as how we were gentle-folks for life. We neither of us had a wink o' sleep that night."
Joseph Phipps was a schoolmaster for many years, occupying Chestnut House as an academy. He had a number of boarders as well as day scholars. He was fond of scientific experiments, and one of his strongest points was the teaching of mental arithmetic. His wife was a true helpmeet in attention to the boys. He died in 1880, aged 63.
Thomas Redgate, always called "Clerk" Redgate, was for 60 years Parish Clerk, but he was more. Mrs. Crouch, a lady of 80 remembers when the Parish Clerk, having conducted the responses at the desk under the pulpit with considerable dignity, in knee breeches, white stockings and low shoes with buckles, marched down the aisle, and went up into the singing gallery to join the choir, and there, having drawn his bow across the bass viol, he announced in a very deliberate voice, "Let us sing to the praise and glory of God, hymn" so and so, and then all the violins and other instruments started, conducted by the Clerk. He died June 29th, 1860, aged 84.
After the death of their father, the Misses Redgate continued to live in the small house adjoining the steps entering the churchyard, and they had the care of cleaning the church, etc. Sarah died in 1910, aged 93.
Mrs. Crouch also remembers when the choir had offended Mr. Holcombe he decided to dispense with their services, and before commencing the service waved with his hand to the singers in the gallery to depart, and would not commence the service until they had gone.
John Rogers built the house on the Plains Road, now called "Arnold Hill House," where he died in 1845, aged 56. He was buried in the Nottingham General Cemetery. He had long taken an interest in Arnold, for in his young days he, with his brother Joseph Rogers and his two sisters, were in the habit of walking from Nottingham on Sundays to teach in the Baptist Sunday School at Arnold morning and evening. For some years he held a responsible position in the firm of I. & R. Morley. In 1822 he was a hosier in Park Street, and in 1832 was appointed one of the Sheriffs of Nottingham. In 1832 he was actively associated with the Rev. R. W. Wilson, the Roman Catholic Priest who built St. Barnabas Cathedral, in ministering to the spiritual needs of the victims of Asiatic Cholera, then raging in Nottingham. He was elected one of the first members of the Town Council under the reformed Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and two or three years later was made an Alderman. He was an active church worker, especially among children.
One of his daughters became the wife of Mr. Henry Ashwell, J.P., late of Woodthorpe Grange.
The Rogers family are descended from the Rev. John Rogers, who held various clerical appointments in London, and became Prebendary and Divinity Lecturer of St. Paul's. He was the first martyr burnt at Smithfield in 1555, during the reign of Queen Mary, the sentence being that "John Rogers, a priest, otherwise Matthew, was guilty of most detestable heresies in that he denied the doctrine of Transubstantiation, and being a priest did marry, and therein maintain that he offended no law." But his greatest crime in the eyes of his judges was that of which they were morally certain, but failed to find legal proof, that John Rogers and Thomas Matthew was one and the same person, for under Mathew's name the first Authorised Version of the English Bible was published in 1537, and it became the foundation of succeeding versions. This was Rogers' work. The present local representative of the Rogers family is Mr. John Rogers, Tennyson Street, Nottingham.
The Duke of St. Albans. The 10th Duke was elected County Councillor for Arnold in 1889. He was Lord Lieutenant of the County and of the Town of Nottingham from 1880 to 1898, in which year he died, aged 58. His Grace was a good, useful and unassuming man, who desired to do his duty. He bore a sad affliction for some years with great fortitude and courage.
Bestwood has always been closely associated with Arnold in regard to its mansion, its tenants, and its workpeople, as well as forming for three miles its western boundary. From unknown times it was a great wood belonging to the King, and described as "a mighty great park." It was in 1350 enclosed with trenches and palings, and stocked with deer, and King Edward III came and resided here, as a hunting lodge. In 1532 there were 700 fallow and 140 red deer. The custody of Nottingham Castle, and of "Bestwode in Shirewood," were often joined in the same official. In 1445, the famous Lord Cromwell held the office of steward and custodian of Bestwode. In 1650 there was described a Hall, built of wood, lime, and plaster, and containing 38 rooms. In 1683-4 Charles II gave Bestwood to Henry Beauclaire, then recently created Duke of St. Albans. In 1780 the entire park was cleared and made fit for cultivation. 1864 the present hall was built by the subject of this notice, on the site of the hunting lodge of King Edward III, and there followed the building of the church, the diversion of the road from behind the White Hart, the erection of the lodge in Red Hill Road, the establishment by a company of the Colliery, and its railway, and iron furnaces, thus finding work for many of the men who reside in Arnold.
General Sir John Coape Sherbrooke was a brave and accomplished soldier. He was the second son of William Coape, Esquire, of Arnold, and Sarah his wife, who was the youngest daughter of Henry Sherbrooke, of Oxton. He was born in 1765, and entered the army at an early age, where his services secured rapid promotion. He became Major in 1794, and went through various stages, becoming K.G.C.B. in 1815, and General in 1825. He was present at the storming of Seringapatam; he had command of the English forces in Sicily, and was afterwards in Portugal opposing Marshall Soult, etc. He became Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, and afterwards Governor-in-Chief of Canada. He died at Calverton in 1830.
James Shirtcliffe was a framework knitter. He was a poor man, struggling with poverty and bad health nearly all his life. He had however received a fair education for those days, and had improved his spare time with books and study. The result was that in the days when few of the artizan classes in Arnold could read or write, he acted as the village scribe, being always willing to help poor people in writing letters for them. He was often used as a link in the administration of charity. As a local preacher he went out most Sundays in the country villages. He served on the Arnold School Board. He died in 1893, aged 62.
Thomas R. Starey, J.P., was a Coachbuilder, and lived in Daybrook House. He was active as a Captain in the Robin Hood Rifles. He introduced to the Nottingham Town Council the question of the Free Library, of which he became Chairman. He was on the Council of the University College, and in many other ways was useful. He died in 1891, aged 72, and was buried in the Nottingham Church Cemetery.
William Stumbles, in 1875, published a small volume of poems and articles entitled "Snatches of Mental Recreation after Daily Toil." In the preface he says, "The lectures were prepared and delivered when the author was supplying the General Baptist Church at Arnold, with the concurrence and support of the late Mr. Arthur Morley." "The sermon was a tribute of respect and affection for that gentleman, so suddenly cut down in the midst of a life of growing promise in every good work. It was also thought such an impressive event should not be allowed to pass unimproved at Arnold and Calverton, which contain a large number of the workpeople employed by the firm."
One lecture in the volume entitled "Glimpses of Arnold the last 100 years," was delivered "to the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society of the General Baptist Chapel, on Shrove Tuesday, 1859, and again (by request) Easter Monday, April 29th, 1859." This lecture contains much information that has been utilised in these notes. The sermon referred to was preached in the same building January 15th, 1860. Mr. Stumbles' gravestone will be found near the lodge in the General Cemetery, Nottingham. He died October 16th, 1880, aged 69, and is properly described as "a good Soldier of Jesus Christ."
John L. Thackeray, Alderman, resided in and rebuilt the house called Arno Vale. He was a large employer of labour as cotton miller at Radford. He was Mayor of Nottingham, 1854 and 1856. He died 4th September, 1886, aged 74 years.
The Rev. George Wall, was as a young man, connected with the Daybrook Cotton Mill, and with the New Methodists, who afterwards built the Meadows Chapel. He had some education and rare abilities, and in 1799 was sent out as a Methodist minister, and so continued for over fifty years, becoming three times President of his Denomination. He died in 1852.
John Scott Wells was a hosier who bought, and about 20 years resided in, and largely rebuilt Arnot Hill House. He was one of the trustees of the British School. He for many years gave £50 a year towards the stipend of a minister at the Daybrook Baptist Chapel, in the Sunday School of which his son and three daughters were teachers. He died in 1895, aged 75.
Joseph Whitaker, of Ramsdale, was quite a celebrity in his time; a man of big frame and great pluck, he would ride over hedge and ditch anywhere. In Hunting Songs and Poems, collected by John Chaworth Musters (1882) is included a song of "The South Notts. Hunt," a verse of which runs as follows:—
"See Rolleston ! you'd think that he sat in a chair; Old Musters, a man in ten thousand, is there; The Great Duke of Limbs,* man of muscle and bone, On Shamrock is taking a line of his own."
Joseph Whitaker died in 1874, aged 75. He was one of the finest sportsmen of his or any other day. He bought Ramsdale from Mr. Houldsworth in the thirties, and sold the estate to Colonel (now Sir Charles) Seely in 1875. Mr. Whitaker was quite one of the best heavy weights to hounds in Notts, or Leicestershire, a fine shot, and took great interest in all manly sports.
Further details about him, including his love of cock-fighting and pugilism, may be read in Ditchfield's book, "The Old English Country Squires," pp. 180—184.
In "Notts. Facts and Fictions" (2nd series), edited by J. P. Briscoe, F.R.H.S., are two poems by Samuel Mullens, entitled "Sweet Kate of Arno Vale," and "The Maid of Arno's dead." Space does not admit of their reproduction here.
< Previous | Contents | Next >
* Joseph Whitaker, Esq. The other references are to Lancelot Rolleston, Esq., Master of the South Notts. Hounds; Mr. Musters, of Annesley.