Hannah HoweI’m researching my ancestors’ connection with Pennsylvania. Part One of their story can be found here 👇
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But for a rock, I would not be here. In February 1895, my 2 x great grandfather William Howe, then aged forty, nearly lost his life. Thankfully, he survived, became the foreman at the quarry, led the teaching at the Sunday School, and became a deacon at the local Methodist chapel.
On 27 April 1828 in Tetford, Lincoln, my 5 x great grandfather Hutton Foreman fathered his eleventh child, his ninth daughter, Eliza. He was sixty-four at the time. Mary Blades, Hutton’s second wife and Eliza’s mother, was forty.
In later life, on 2 April 1888, Eliza, now Mrs Coupland and the mother of ten children, found herself standing before the Boston magistrates, charged with larceny. She was acquitted and discharged.
In 1449, my ancestors Sir Henry Stradling, his wife Elizabeth Herbert, and their daughter Elizabeth were kidnapped by Colyn Dolphyn and his pirates near Lundy Island. Dolphyn demanded a ransom of 1,000 marks from the Stradling family.
The ransom was not forthcoming, so over a period of two years the price went up to 2,200 marks. At that point the Stradlings were forced to sell their manors of Bassaleg and Rogerstone in south Wales, two manors in Oxfordshire and the Lordship of Sutton in Monmouthshire. With the ransom paid, Dolphyn released Henry and his family.
A few years later, Sir Henry Stradling gained his revenge. A storm blew Colyn Dolphyn’s ship, the Sea Swallow, on to the rocks near Nash Point. The locals alerted Sir Henry, who raised his men. They captured Colyn Dolphyn and his men, and dispensing swift justice hung them the following day.
This is a sad document, a grave layout for soldiers killed during the Great War of 1914 – 1918. It includes my ancestor Sergeant George Noulton, killed on 27 September 1918 at Pont de Nieppe, France. Look at all the references to “Unknown Soldiers”.
On 14 December 1868 my 3 x great grandparents Fanny Brereton and William Bick married in St Mary’s Church, Lambeth (pictured). I think it’s fair to say that my ancestors did not rush into this marriage – Fanny had already given birth to five of William’s children before she walked down the aisle. After her wedding day, she gave birth to five more.
Fanny and William arrived in London via Bristol, their home town, and Portsmouth. Fanny had relatives in London, and that no doubt influenced her decision to live there.
Fanny’s father, James Richard Brereton, was a skilled silversmith, goldbeater and cutler. Sadly, Fanny never knew him because he died shortly before she was born.
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Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton aka “Humph” (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008) was a talented broadcaster, humorist, cartoonist, trumpeter and jazz band leader. Musically, he is remembered for Bad Penny Blues, a hit in 1956, while as a broadcaster he presented The Best of Jazz for forty years, and hosted the hilarious comedy panel game I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. Louis Armstrong was so impressed with Humphrey Lyttelton’s playing that he referred to him as “that cat in England who swings his ass off.”
Born at Eton College and related to the nobility, Humphrey Lyttelton turned his back on titles and honours. A turning point in his life arrived upon leaving school when he worked at Port Talbot Steel Works. His experiences there forged his political beliefs, which he termed as “romantic socialism”.
A second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards, Humphrey Lyttelton saw Second World War action at Salerno, Italy during Operation Avalanche. When he came ashore, he held a pistol in one hand and a trumpet in the other.
On VE Day, 8 May 1945, Humphrey Lyttelton joined the celebrations in London by playing his trumpet from a wheelbarrow. Inadvertently, the BBC broadcast his performance in a recording that still survives.
My latest article for the Seaside News
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In 1825, my 4 x great grandmother Ann Lowcock travelled from the West Country to London to seek Poor Relief for herself and three young children – Thomas, Sarah and James – because her husband, James Richard Brereton, was ill. James Richard Brereton was a skilled metalworker, and London was his parental home – hence the journey.
Thankfully, James Richard Brereton recovered and his family returned to the West Country. There, he resumed his trade working as a goldbeater and a travelling tinker. James also fathered three more children: Elizabeth, Maria and Francis. Sadly, Maria and her elder brother James died in infancy.
When, in 1834, James Richard Brereton fell ill again, his wife Ann Lowcock and her surviving children Thomas, Sarah, Elizabeth and Francis travelled to Portsmouth, where the family had lived, in the hope of obtaining Poor Relief. However, they were then sent to London. The Breretons were travelling around in circles, both figuratively and literally, trying desperately to keep the family together.
Eventually, Ann Lowcock returned to Somerset where, on 3 April 1833, she baptised my 3 x great grandmother Fanny Brereton. Tragically, James Richard Brereton died the same year. The date of his death has not survived in the records, but it’s possible that he did not live to see the birth of Fanny.
Now a widow with five children in tow, Ann went on her travels again. Her comfortable upbringing no more than a distant memory, she had to find a way to survive.
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Music Notes
Jane Morgan (pictured) enjoyed a long career on Broadway, on record, on television, and in nightclubs and movies. Her career blossomed in America and Europe, and featured a number of million sellers including The Day the Rains Came (number one in Britain in 1959), which she released as a double A side, an English version of the song and a French version – Le jour où la pluie viendra.
Later in her career, Jane Morgan released an answer song to Johnny Cash’s A Boy Named Sue called A Girl Named Johnny Cash. She performed this song on Cash’s television show, 1971. Check it out, it’s clever and amusing.
Jane married twice and her second husband, Jerry Weintraub, was instrumental in Elvis Presley’s re-emergence in the early 1970s.
Jane Morgan celebrated her 100th birthday on 3 May 2024.
Some artists write and record a song in half an hour. With ‘More Than a Feeling’, Boston’s Tom Scholz took five years. During that time, Scholz worked for Polaroid, and used his wages to build a recording studio in his basement. Boston’s rich sound, built around Scholz’s harmonised guitars and Brad Delp’s long-held notes, arguably, created the blueprint for the American rock sound of the mid to late seventies.
Incidentally, Scholz cited ‘Walk Away Renee’, the Left Banke version, as his main ‘More Than a Feeling’ influence.
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A pop music curiosity: The Specials’ Too Much Too Young (1980), at just under two minutes, was the shortest number one since the Beatles’ From Me to You (1963).
“And every song was short and sweet, and every beat was fast
And every paper in the land said rock-and-roll won’t last
You know it just won’t last, it’s such a rapid burn.”
Class of ‘58 – Al Stewart
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Originally established in 1931 to broadcast in German and French, in 1933 Radio Luxembourg began Sunday broadcasts in English on 208 metres medium wave. After 1945, the station broadcast an English service daily and introduced a new feature – a top twenty based on sheet music sales.
With the BBC indifferent to popular music, Radio Luxembourg’s evening shows became an important source for British listeners. Indeed, the station dominated the pop music airwaves until the arrival of pirate radio ships in 1964.
In 1971 Radio Luxembourg abandoned its pre-recorded shows and adopted an “all live” format with disc jockeys presenting their programmes from Luxembourg.
In the late sixties and early seventies strong competition from BBC Radio 1 and British commercial radio stations reduced Radio Luxembourg’s audience. Listeners also preferred the cleaner sound of the BBC programmes to Radio Luxembourg’s “fade in-fade out” reception.
Despite the heavy hand of sponsors interrupting the music, and the dodgy reception, Radio Luxembourg played an important part in the development of 1960s pop culture.
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Hannah Howe