11 March 2002
On the trail of a dead man's friend
A letter posted in Norwich in 1847 came into my hands not long ago. Surprisingly, this was not another case of the Royal Mail dragging its heels, but the start of a fascinating detective story.
The epistle was found in a collection of stamps and letters left after the death of a collector. Addressed to “My Dear Son” and signed, I thought, “Thy true affectionate mother, H Buckhouse”, it is about the funeral of an obviously prominent man. Someone called “dear Eliza” seemed to be the widow.
How could I pin the dead man down? The first step was to search the internet for someone called Buckhouse. Here I drew a blank. I was also unable to find a record of the funeral deep down in the newspaper vaults here at Prospect House.
Then it occurred to me that Buckhouse might be Backhouse, and here I struck lucky: the trusty Google search engine turned up a web page about papers left by the Backhouses of Darlington, a prominent banking and Quaker family. In my letter was the phrase “our Darlington friends”, and the address was Polam Hall – now an independent school for girls, but at the time the home of the Backhouses.
Looking more closely, I found that Hannah Chapman Backhouse (1787-1850), was the daughter of Joseph Gurney (1757-1830), Quaker banker of Lakenham Grove, Norwich. I was clearly getting somewhere.
It was not long before I was able to discover that it was Joseph John Gurney who died in January 1847.
Any remaining doubt vanished with the information that his third wife was named Eliza – in fact an American, Eliza Paul Kirkbride, born in Philadelphia.
In this world of evangelical Quakerism, almost all the names were Quaker ministers, including Joseph, Eliza and Hannah. All were related to arguably the most famous Quaker of all, prison reformer and mother-of-11 Elizabeth Fry, who died two years earlier. She was Joseph’s sister. Hannah was their cousin.
Other names in the letter fell into place. “Samuel, Eliza and myself were put into the first carriage,” wrote Hannah, who also mentions an address at the funeral by Bevan Braithwaite. Samuel was undoubtedly Joseph and Elizabeth’s brother, while Bevan Braithwaite was another prominent Quaker minister.
How did Joseph John Gurney come to marry an American? As well as organising relief for the poor during the depressions of the 1820s and 1830s, and a service for jobless fishermen at Cromer in 1842, he had close links with Quakers in America.
After his death Eliza moved back to New Jersey and was active in social reform, meeting and corresponding with Abraham Lincoln.
I feel some affinity for JJ, because he and I were born in the same place – Earlham Hall, Norwich. Admittedly it was a nursing home by the time I made my late appearance, but I feel sure that something must have rubbed off.
Why the police are confused
Hard to argue with the Mayor of Cromer, who feels that the police should be cracking down on vandalism and loutishness in towns instead of devoting three officers to stopping him for what may or may not have been speeding.
The police said they were following “publicly agreed priorities”. Exactly who agreed is open to conjecture, but I suspect the usual craftily worded questions to a carefully selected group of people.
I don’t blame the police, really. They are bigger than me; so I find not blaming them is a sound policy.
If I was a policeman, I would certainly rather tackle a harmless citizen in the company of two colleagues than try to control drunken yobs fouling up town centres. Especially when magistrates seem to regard beating someone up to within an inch of death as an amusing aberration meriting the lightest sentence possible.
The previous paragraph was written before Sir John Stevens’ broadside at the pathetic performance of the criminal justice system, and I have the utmost sympathy with him and the police in general on that issue.
However, I can’t help a little twinge of irritation when I see a sparkling new Speed Camera Promotion Partnership van ready to pounce. I mean, when was the last time you read about a fatal or serious accident caused purely by driving fast?
No doubt we will continue to suffer from unthinking TV journalists who can find no other sensible question to ask than “Was speed the problem?”, even when a policeman has just told her that the accident was caused by something quite different. But perusal of newspaper reports will reveal that accidents are caused by poor judgment – errors in overtaking, for instance.
Paradoxically, one of the reasons such an accident may happen is that a driver is not overtaking fast enough, a mistake which the current climate of speed cameras encourages.
Another huge cause of accidents is error at junctions, and it is good to see Norfolk police using their valuable time not only to name the county’s nine most dangerous, but to park police cars there as a warning. I wonder how many police cars they have.
Shrimp's epic film plan
To mark his 103rd birthday this month, Norfolk legend and curate Henry (Fred) “Shrimp” Houseago will be releasing an epic Norfolk motion picture which he has been working on in secret. Called Crouching Coypu, Hidden Rabbit, the film will attempt to portray the very essence of Norfolk.
The central theme will be the martial arts of the typical ancient Norfolk “bors”, who spent days in meditation on the traditional “gate” before venturing out to do battle in almost supernatural fashion against great crested newts and other foreigners.
Purists have complained that the newts are a late invention and were never part of real Norfolk, but Mr Houseago has insisted on their inclusion, together with a selection of attractive “mawthers”. The climax takes place on the vast and mysterious Beeston Bump.
Other scenes have been shot in secret at Pondhenge, Kelling Heath and Pingoland.
Mr Houseago refuses to release details of the plot, but says: “It will be even bigger than Harry of the Rings.”