Friday 22 July 2011

Tales from the Parish Clerks’ Memoranda No.3: Hang Sorrow! The Remarkable Recovery of the Heavy-Hearted Widower


I was intrigued to read the following account of a grieving widower who, within the space of three weeks, had found the cure for his heavy heart – the gaining of a new wife:


17 Octobris 1615
Thomas Addis Gun-smith in the Minories Street, who continued a havie widower almost three weekes, was Maried again to one Anne Basse a widow of Stepney, by a Licence from Mr Kempe[s] office the Seaventeenth day of October, Anno domini 1615. he was a heavie man, at the death of his other wife but now is lightlie geven, and Saies, hang sorow.
P69/BOT2/A/003/MS09223 f223r

This seemed rather a quick recovery to me, and I wondered if this was common practice. I didn’t have to look far to find another widower who had taken the same route to renewed happiness:


23 Octobris 1615
Henry Jaques, who has continewed a widower almost a moneth, was maried to Mary Sussex, a widow the xxiiith day of October. Anno domini
P69/BOT2/A/003/MS09223 f233v

The only information I could find about their respective first wives were their funeral details. They were buried within a day of each other:


24 September Anno Domini 1615,
Ffrancis Addis, wife to Thomas Addis Gun-smith in the Minories street, was buried in the Church the xxiiith day of September, Anno dm, who had a knell wth the great Bell, the black Cloth not vsed, but paid for, Shee was a Auncient parishioner,
P69/BOT2/A/003/MS09223 f231r

25 Septembris 1615
Elizabeth Jaques, wife Henry Jaques of Cock Alley in Eastsmithfeild was buried the xxvth day of September, Anno dm 1615. Coffind in the old Church-yard, and had the Blacke Cloth
P69/BOT2/A/003/MS09223 f231r

Once ReScript is fully operational, it would be interesting to do an analysis to find the average timespan between the death of one spouse and the marrying of the next in 17th century London, whether this differed between men and women, and whether Thomas Addis and Henry Jaques were unusual in their alacrity.

I did find one further interesting fact about the Addis household: they kept lodgers in their house on Minories Street, including the “seafaring man”, Henry May in 1615. According to the Parish Clerks’ Memoranda, there were quite a few sailors who lodged in the area, some of whom returned from the sea in poor health, and who subsequently died in their lodgings. But Thomas Addis’s lodger, Henry May, appears to have had a former career – or at least training - in the textile industry.


26 Maii 1615
Henry May, a Seafaring man, who lodged in the house of Thomas Addis Gunsmith in the Minories street, was buried in the new Churchyard neer Rosemary lane the xxvith day of May, Anno dm 1615. he was free of the Cloth workers
P69/BOT2/A/003/MS09223 f220r

I consulted my colleague Mark Merry, IHR Digital Projects and Training Officer, about this. Mark supplied the following information:


Ah, a salty sea-dog - there were lots of those in Aldgate in the 17th century! Being free of the Clothworkers doesn't necessarily mean he worked in the textiles industry, but it is quite likely. It means he was trained at the Company, and whether or not he did actively work with cloth, the being 'Free' makes him a man of some social standing. That he ended up as a seafarer and a lodger is interesting, suggesting one of two scenarios:

1) He fell on hard times, and made a living as a sailor signing on as crew as and when a voyage was available
2) 'Sea farer' might imply a more senior figure, a ship's master or perhaps owner/master, and he was involved in trading textiles overseas, which would suggest he was quite well off. That he ended up lodging was common for mariners (even the rich ones), as they were often taken in by parishioners if they came off ship after a voyage and were sick.

As the record shows that the clerk received no payment for his burial, this might suggest that May was the poor kind of sea farer, rather than the more successful kind. I don't think we know enough about him to decide definitively either way. However, if you want a bit more information on him, it so happens that one of the Centre for Metropolitan History's other projects (http://www.history.ac.uk/projects/livery-company) has digitised the membership records of the Clothworkers, and we have May's freedom record. He was made free in 1597 by patrimony - meaning his father (John) was a member of the Clothworkers too. Unfortunately the record in this instance is one of the least informative in the database, so we don't know much more than that...

Making connections such as these is one of the joys of using online digitised resources such as ReScript. You never know where a simple query, such as that into the background of a heavy-hearted widower, may lead you.

Many thanks to St Botolph without Aldgate and London Metropolitan Archives for permission to reprint extracts from the Parish Clerks' Memoranda.

The Parish Clerks' Memoranda transcripts were prepared by the Centre for Metropolitan History team as part of their Economic and Social Research Council-funded Life in the Suburbs project (Grant Reference: RES-062-23-1260; http://www.history.ac.uk/projects/life-in-the-suburbs).

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Risk analysis


Action to prevent / manage risk

1. Loss of key staff
The proposed staff are already in post, and are enthusiastic about the project. In addition there is a large pool of digital project staff on whom to draw within the Institute, should anyone leave or be otherwise unavailable.

2. Low participation of user community in usability / learnability testing
The pilot project established an excellent relationship with the user community, many of whom expressed a willingness to be involved in the further development of ReScript. The project will maintain and build upon this relationship.

3. Inability sufficiently to implement the recommendations from the usability / learnability testing exercise
The prioritised recommendation and the AGILE approach to implementation will ensure that the most important recommendations will be implemented first. Realistic user and funder expectations will be ensured through regular communication.

4. 'Onion' interface model proves to be technical or conceptually unfeasible
The essential idea that the editing and research interface offers an array of functions with differing complexity will invariably remain correct. The careful analysis and implementation of the project will, in any case, result in an interface considerably improved in terms of usability and learnability.

Timeline and work packages



Timeline

Work package 1: project management
Ensure the timely delivery of all project outputs to the required standard, and keep stakeholders informed throughout the project.

Outputs
  • Project plan
  • Project blog
  • Dissemination of outputs across IHR communication channels
  • Final budget and completion report

Work package 2: analysis of public interface
The analysis work package will encompass the first quantitative and qualitative evaluation from the usability / learnability testing exercises and deliver a prioritised list of recommendations to be fed into the build phase.

Outputs
  • Task definitions
  • Individual user interviews and task observation
  • 4 focus groups from workshop held at the IHR
  • System usability scale (SUS)
  • Remote testing using VerifyApp
  • Case study report of usability issues identified

Work package 3: build phase A
Using report from WP2, extend and build new functions which better support users accessing the public query interface

Outputs
  • Build prototype solutions to usability issues, which may include
  • Modifications to nomenclature and navigation
  • Enhancements to statistical tools
  • Creation of graphing tool
  • Contextual help
  • Addition of devices to better reflect temporal or spatial relationships

Work package 4: analysis of administration interface
Focus within this work package will shift towards identifying scholarly editing requirements using quantitative and qualitative techniques and delivering a prioritised list of recommendations to be fed into the subsequent build phase.

Outputs
  • Task definitions
  • Individual user interviews and task observation
  • Focus group held at the IHR
  • Remote testing using VerifyApp
  • Case study report of usability issues identified

Work package 5: build phase B
Using report from WP4, extend and build new functions which better support editors creating new content and marking up existing data

Outputs
  • Build prototype solutions to usability issues, which may include
  • Modifications to nomenclature and navigation
  • Tools which look at existing patterns of mark up to identify variance
  • Permissions and workflow tools

Work package 6: evaluation
Undertake follow-on research to uncover satisfaction with actual / proposed revisions to services.

Outputs
  • (Shorter) individual user interviews and task observation
  • Interview with selected user from Focus group
  • Continued monitoring of SUS
  • Repeat remote testing using VerifyApp
  • Report drawing together issues and feedback for remedial solutions

Friday 8 July 2011

Tales from the Parish Clerks' Memoranda No. 2: The Intriguing Tale of the Newgate Newlyweds



Continuing in my quest to key tag the entire contents of the Parish Clerks’ Memoranda from St Botolph’s Church in Aldgate (1583-1625), I came across a very unusual wedding announcement from 5 September 1615.



Christopher Edwardes of the Cittie of Gloucester, Gentleman, and Martha Ffoster of St Michaells parish in Cornehill widow, were Maried (also) by a Licence from the Lord Archbishoppe of Canterbury, ye fift day September Anno domini 1615, The abouenamed Gentleman and his new maried wife, were both Lodged in Newgate, the same weekes, and hang'd Shortly after
(City of London, London Metropolitan Archives, P69/BOT2/A/003/MS09223 f.229r)
Who were Christopher and Martha, how did they end up in the notorious Newgate Prison, and what were the crimes for which they were hanged? The PCMs had no further information to offer – this was, after all, a wedding announcement, not a court record. So where to turn? My first instinct was to search the excellent resource, Old Bailey Online, but their records only begin in 1674 and so could not help with this. Clearly, we need more online digitised historical databases!

So I appeal to the online community of historians: do you have any clues to this mystery? Answers on a blog post...


Many thanks to St Botolph without Aldgate and London Metropolitan Archives for permission to reprint extracts from the Parish Clerks' Memoranda.


The Parish Clerks' Memoranda transcripts were prepared by the Centre for Metropolitan History team as part of their Economic and Social Research Council-funded Life in the Suburbs project (Grant Reference: RES-062-23-1260; http://www.history.ac.uk/projects/life-in-the-suburbs).