The Case of the Stolen Currants

 

Picture:  Copyright: Proceedings of the Old Bailey Project 

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey make for interesting reading.  A long running project has resulted in the published proceeding being uploaded and therefore easily available.   The reports of criminal trials at the country’s most famous court are invaluable to historians.  They largely consist of the accounts taken down by shorthand writers.  They only ever include snippets of the evidence and many names etc, are recorded as they were heard by the shorthand taker (an issue that will appear in a later blog based on the proceedings).  They are therefore an imperfect record of what said but they represent a rare chance to hear the voices of our forebears.

The TRENDALL (and related) families make occasional appearances in these records.  One such case was heard in 1851.  Thomas TRENDALL (1820-1878), my Great Great Grandfather, was running a Grocers together with his brother in law, Frederick BENHAM (described as Bennett in by the shorthand writer), at 59 Farringdon Street which was just in the City of London.  Trendall and Benham had an apprentice, George PERRY.  He had been apprenticed to them in 1850 by the London Orphan Asylum (later to be called the London Orphan Home).  It sounds like PERRY had quite a tough time as an apprentice but it could, given other contemporary accounts, have been worse in other trades.

The evidence given by Thomas TRENDALL and others was very simple:

THOMAS TRENDALL . I am in partnership with Frederick Bennet. The prisoner was our apprentice—on 21st Feb. I gave him leave to go out—it was the anniversary dinner of the London Orphan Asylum, where he had been educated—I saw two parties waiting for him outside—he went to dress—I went to his room, and saw a parcel lying on his box, and said, "Whose parcel is this?"—he said, "It is mine"—I asked what it was—he said it was books—I said, "We will open it, and see what it is"—as I was going to open it, he said, "Oh, Sir, they are grocery," and I found this grocery (produced)—it is 1 1/2 lb. of currants, 2lbs. of sugar, 1 1/2 lb. of cocoa, 3/4 lb. of citron, 1 1/2 lb. of muscatels, 1/2 lb. of almonds, 5oz. of Spanish juice, and 5oz. of sugar-candy—I said, "This is a strange game you are carrying on"—he said he meant to pay for them—I said, "How could you pay for them when they are odd quantities?"—he made no answer—I gave him into custody—they are odd weights.

Cross-examined by MR. PARRY. Q. What do they amount to? A. 4s., the trade price; he was apprenticed to us on 9th July, 1850—here are the indentures: I brought them because I thought you might ask the question—he was to serve us five years—we received 20l. with him—I do not know whether I shall have to return the premium if he is convicted and the indentures cancelled—I was to pay him no wages, but he boarded and lodged with me—I do not know whether the youth and the young lady who were waiting for him were connected with the Orphan School—he may have had goods for his friends twenty times, but I always weighed them myself—I will not swear I have not received more than 5l. of him—

---

he may have worked half a dozen times, about Christmas time, till two or three o'clock in the morning—we do not work, but we have taken stock once on Sunday—we usually work till ten.

MARY WARREN . I am in Mr. Trendall's service. On the evening of 21st Feb., while the prisoner was dressing, I went to call him, because I wanted to make the beds, and saw a brown-paper parcel on his box—two or three Sundays before that I saw him in the shop, with the scales in his hand—I said, "George, what are you about?"—he said, "He knows what I have got; I am going to take it to a friend's house"—he said Mr. Trendall knew it—I did not see what he had.

EDWARD COTT (City policeman, 285.) I was sent for—I saw the prisoner come down-stairs, took him into custody, and asked him how he came to do it—he said he did not know—I asked who he was going to give it to—he said he did not know—I said, "Is it possible you are going to give this to anybody you know nothing about?"—he said he would give it to anybody.

The disjointed nature of the speech is due to the fact that the shorthand writer could catch only part of the proceedings.  The suggestion was, as is often the case in workplace theft, that the detected incident is only one of many.  This is probably why Thomas thought it necessary to involve the police.  However the court could only consider the case as charged.

The evidence is quite straightforward but the policeman was rebuked by defence counsel for interviewing the youth without any form of caution:

Cross-examined. Q. Do you know that in examining the prisoner in that way, you did that which no Magistrate or his Lordship dared to have done? A. No; I have been thirteen years in the police, and am thirty-six years old.

(The prisoner received a good character.)

We do not know who provided the character evidence for George PERRY.   This was the second time the case appeared in an indictment.  In the same session it became clear that the indictment was faulty as the name of the victim had been misprinted as FRENDALL.  This had to be corrected and the case started again.   Despite the weight of evidence, and possibly because of how the police officer dealt with it PERRY was found NOT GUILTY.

Within a couple of weeks Trendall and Benham had a new apprentice with a similar sounding name – Thomas PARRY.  We lose sight of George PERRY.  A common name at the time.  We do not know if this was to be his only experience of a criminal trial.

The witness Mary WARREN remained in service with the Trendalls, for a short while at least.  Thomas TRENDALL’s partnership with BENHAM was later dissolved and Thomas became bankrupt.  He died in 1878.

Philip Trendall December 2023

With thanks to the Proceedings of the Old Bailey Project and website.

 

 

 

 

Former Marquis of Lansdowne Still Closed

 In June 2023 I reported that the cafe of the Museum of the Home (the former Marquis of Lansdowne) had closed down (probably at the end of 2022).  I regret to report that it is still closed.  I took a detour today and had a look.  The building is looking a little sorry for itself.  Enquiries at he museum resulted in no further information.  It appears that some work started on the site during the summer, but was short lived.  I have written to the Museum asking for further information and I will update this blog when more is known.  A museum without a cafe is sadly lacking an important facility.  

Pictures taken 28 December 2023 after a year of being closed.

 

The Closure of Randal Cremer School

 

Randal Cremer School in modern times (Picture: RC School)

News that Randal Cremer School (RC) is to close next year (2024) has been received with much sadness by those of us who had a good time in those iconic Victorian buildings.  Hackney Council are closing two schools and merging four others.  Although the Borough (or parts of it at least) is a popular location for young single people and couples it seems that they go elsewhere when they want to have children.  School funding is almost entirely dependent on numbers so the options open to a cash poor local authority are limited.  Randal Cremer is currently classed as a ‘good’ school by OFSTED so it seems a particular shame that it should be lost to the people of Hackney.

At least seven members of our extended family were pupils at RC, from the 1930s through to the 1960s.  We all went on to different schools and places of education, but RC was our first experience of formal teaching.  I left the school to finish my primary education in Tottenham when we moved out of the Marquis of Lansdowne.  It was only then I realised that RC was actually quite a good school – at least compared to what was on offer further north.  It helped that we were ‘known’ at RC.  As the youngest I would hear teachers speak of the time spent at the school by older members of the family.  They had quite a lot to say about Fred as I recall!

When it first opened the school was known as Shap Street.  The street itself (which ran to the east of the school buildings) no longer exists.

Until the passing of the Education Schools Act 1870 provision for the education of children was pretty haphazard.  In any given location there might be a number of Sunday schools, ragged schools or ‘national schools’.  The reforming zeal of the Victorians turned its attention to education when it was realised that a modern workforce needed to be literate.  The 1870 Act created School Boards for the whole of England and Wales.  In London the task of creating schools for thousands of children was a huge one.  The School Board for London (also known as the London School Board - LSB) wasted no time.  By 1874 it had opened 65 schools (with nearly 62,000 pupils) with work underway on another 35 schools (26,736 pupils) with yet another 34 schools in the pipeline.  Shap Street School was one of the ‘35’. (1)  Built to a contract price of £7,980, plans for its extension were being prepared before the school opened.  Houses and businesses were demolished to make space for the school but the general view seems to have been that they were no great loss to the area.  The adjacent railway between Broad Street and Dalston had been opened in 1865.

The scale of the work undertaken by the LSB would be intimidating to any modern local authority.  It was an elected body with women able to vote and stand for positions on the same terms as men.  The LSB covered the area of what we now think of as inner London.  By the 1880s it was providing school places for 350,00 children. (2)

LSB schools were constructed to a high standard and followed the distinctive designs of the architect to the Board: Edward Robert Robson.  Many of the buildings are still standing and some are still used as schools.  For modern property investors they are tempting sites for redevelopment into ‘luxury apartments’ (the concept of the ‘flat’ seems to have been consigned to history).

In the top picture the word 'GIRLS' can be made out above the door.  In the lower image the large black door on the left was for boys and the one on the right for girls.  The original infant entrance was to the right of the boys entrance in the corner. (Picture December 2023) 

There was one element of the construction that caused concern at Shap Street and other LSB schools.  Sanitation.  Whether this was an issue of design or, more likely, of the execution of the design by sub-contractors, is not 100% clear.  The problem cropped up at meetings of the LSB on a regular basis and in 1904 the Shoreditch Vestry took legal action against the LSB to ensure that ‘trough’ flushing was replaced by ‘closet’ flushing at Shap Street.  I recall the toilets in the playground being far from perfect.

There is no doubt that Sharp Street was well built.  It was extended in the Edwardian period to create an industrial school.  That extension was at the back and was built on arches to maintain the playground space.  I remember the upper space being used as the school canteen which, during my time, served revolting food that had been cooked elsewhere and delivered in metal coffins.  I remain traumatised by being force fed pease pudding, or rather a slurry like imitation of the dish, in that extension.  I digress – others may have had a positive experience of catering at the school.

The extension at the back of the school with the lower arched areas now filled in.  Behind this building were houses which have now been demolished to create an additional playground (Pic Dec 2023)

Shap Street was in a very poor area.  Further along the road there was a permanent soup kitchen and the local ‘mission school’ (which held Sunday/RE classes in the school buildings) regularly advertised for funds to take local children to Epping Forest so that they could see the countryside (3).

The school buildings were divided into three sections for Infants, Boys and Girls.  The signs for each were built into the brickwork and can still be seen.  Each section operated independently of each other, although there was some co-operation, for example when classrooms were out of use for fittings to be completed.  During a recent visit to the London Municipal Archives I could not resist the temptation of reading some of the entries in the Log Book for the first year of operation of the Boys School.  It made compulsive reading and provides a rich resource for anybody wishing to learn about the early days of elementary education.  The first headteacher was Mr Thomas Webling(?)  His entry for 20 August 1875 includes:

              “Open school.  Admitted 217 boys…divided them into three sections”

The division was based on rough examinations.  Many of the pupils had little experience of education or school.  He was assisted by 2 other staff and 2 pupil teachers.  He commented:

              “This is totally inadequate to the number and classification……” (4)

Pupil teachers were trained at the school and this was to take up much of his time.  A week later (27 Aug 1875) some additional staff were appointed and more pupils were enrolled.  They were visited by senior members of the LSB in the same week.  The Headmaster obviously intended to list the names of the visitors as he left a gap in the text that remains blank.  Throughout the entries in the early months it is clear that setting up a school was not an easy task.  Things were made more difficult by the fact that so many schools were opening and that there was a huge shortage of teachers and no culture of regular school attendance.

Pupil numbers continued to increase but at the beginning of the second term there were seven teachers.  The pupil teachers struggled to keep order and had themselves to follow an intensive course of study. One of the pupil teachers really struggled and is the subject of many comments in the Log Book.  He received considerable additional support over a long period – but his colleagues wanted him to succeed. A crisis arose in November 1875 when a member of staff contracted scarlet fever and was put on sick leave.  Unfortunately he shared his lodgings with other teachers who also had to be kept away from the school.  Throughout the early period the large ‘halls’ were used as classrooms.

Complaints were received in March 1876 about the use of blackboard pointers by pupil teachers to maintain discipline.  A number of children sustained bruises in the distinctive shape of the pointed end of these devices.  Nobody questioned the need for corporal punishment but its use was carefully monitored by the headmaster and school managers. In an unusual case in 1884 the attention of the LSB was drawn to a former pupil who had been admitted to St Leonards Hospital suffering from ‘an unsound mind’ caused by either over work or excessive use of corporal punishment.  There was no evidence that the boy had been 'struck on the head' but a pupil teacher was dismissed for administering corporal punishment contrary to the regulations of the Board. (5)

The 1870 Act did not make attendance at school compulsory.  It took several years for this oversight to be corrected and in the meantime the LSB tackled the problem directly by introducing a Bye-Law in London to make parents send their children to school.  The LSB developed a policy that schools would not use corporal punishment for truancy as it was the responsibility of parents to get their offspring through the school gates.  This approach did not last long and had unintended consequences.  On 20^th July 1876 the Head records that a mother brought her son to see him requesting that he be punished for failing to attend school.  It was explained to her that ensuring attendance was a family matter.  The next day the boy was again brought him to school and the Headmaster was shown the effects of punishment administered at home.  His back …”was covered in bruises from top to bottom, a ghastly sight” (6)  Corporal remained an option at the school until the 1970s and in the 1960s I recall a teacher who had his own version of a cat o’ nine tails.

In the mid 1880s a new Head, Mr J.S. Gilbert, was appointed.  He was a successful and popular head and was able to develop the school into an institution fit for the twentieth century.  In 1906 he started an Old Boys Association which was very active in the years leading up to the Great War.  In the same year he died tragically, together with his two sons, in a bathing accident on the Thames at Medmenham.  He had been Head for 22 years and was celebrating his Silver Wedding anniversary at the time of his death.  A special memorial service was held at St Mary’s Church Haggerston.  (7).

The school changed its name to Randal Cremer in memory of the local MP who died in 1908.  Sir William Randal Cremer was a Liberal MP who was an active trades unionist and peace campaigner.  He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1903.  In 1902 he attended the coronation celebrations held at the school.  The occasion saw 550 people sit down (in two ‘companies’) in the playground for tea. (8)

Sir William Randal Cremer (he rarely used the name William)

Hopefully somebody will write (or maybe somebody already has) a proper history of a fine school.  There is plenty of material available.    The collective efforts of generations of teachers, other staff and pupils is surely worth remembering.  History must extend beyond our own limited memories because the latter will quickly fade.  I am grateful to the staff I remember:  Miss Humphries, Miss Giuseppe, Miss Morris, Miss Ambler(?) Mrs Shaw and Mr Ashmore.   I am sure that others can add many more names to the list.   The disruption and uncertainty caused by closure will mean that this is a difficult time for staff, parents and pupils.  I wish them well.

All corrections and comments welcome.

 

Philip Trendall

December 2023

 

 

 

 

 

(1)     Building News 09 October 1874, P447

(2)    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_School_Board  citing The Morning Post 4 Nov 1885, p5

(3)    See for example the Hackney and Kingsland Gazette 18 Jun 1883, p3

(4)    Log Book Shap Street School. (1875). London School Board/London County Council (LCC/EO/DIV04), London Municipal Archives, London. 

(5)    Hackney and Kingsland Gazette, 26 May 1884, p3

(6)    Log Book, op cit, 20 Jul 1876.

(7)    Lloyds Weekly Newspaper  05 Aug 1906 p1 and Gen Reg Office, Death 1906 Sep Henley 03A 557 (“drowned in attempting to rescue his son”)

(8)    Hackney and Kingsland Gazette 12 Jul 1902 p3

The Marquis of Lansdowne, Closed Again

 

Or, to be more up to date, the refreshment rooms (café etc) at the Museum of the Home (formerly the Geffrye Museum), that occupies the buildings that were once the Marquis of Lansdowne, has shut.

An earlier blog (May 2021) told the tale of the opening of ‘Molly’s’.  This was the name chosen for the café.  Since then it has changed hands and now stands empty.  I believe it shut before Christmas 2022, leaving the museum without a café.  It seems that running a café of that size in a Hoxton exclave has proved to be a financial challenge. (as other occupiers of the site have found in the past!)  The staff at the museum report that extensive refurbishment has also been required which comes as a bit of a surprise given the rebuild is only two years old.  I didn’t have the heart to mention that the building was condemned by the old Borough of Shoreditch.  Perhaps the large crack that used to run up the side has returned.

The old pub is owned by the developers who created the modern flats but there is still a connection to the museum somehow which means that the closure results in a financial loss to the museum.  There is also the small question of not having a place to get a cup of tea, an essential part of any museum visit. 

Hopefully things will be sorted out soon.  I look forward to reporting further when it has re-opened.

 

Phil

 

30 June 2023

The Tragic Death of Tom Moore

 

Picture:  View of the village of Standburn, early 20th century, Source U/K

I know very little about the family of my Grandfather, George SCOTT (1906-1971).  Known to me as ‘Pop’ he was the Father of my Mother, Jean Duncan McGAVIN (later PALMER, subsequently TRENDALL (1924-1982).  I know that he was her Father because she told me and it was common knowledge in the family.  This fact is also confirmed by DNA.  The paper record shows a different story.  According to her Birth Certificate she was the daughter of John Simpson McGAVIN.  He was the husband of my Grandmother;  Helen Kirk McBeth DUNCAN (1896-1971).   I will write another time about the stigma and pain created by being born out of wedlock in times past.  For the purposes of this note the foregoing explanation is intended only to set the story into context and to act as a reminder of the dangers of leaning too heavily on the written record.

I am trying (slowly) to unpick the story of ‘Pop’ SCOTT.  Like all of my Scottish relatives very little is straightforward.  Good record keeping was not one of their strong points and often names seem to have been a fairly loose description.  I have got as far as looking at Pop’s Father (my Great Grandfather).  He was born in Ireland in 1879 and was another George SCOTT.  He married Agnes NICOL in 1900 and they went on to have 5 children, including George (Pop) and the lady who I knew as Great Aunt Jenny (who appears in the records at different times as Jenny, Janet and Jane).  One child died in infancy.  George SCOTT (B1879) was a coal miner, a job also undertaken by his son for a few years.  A tough job even for a fit young man, and one that saw him move around the Scottish coal belt.

The main subject of this post though is a single tragic incident that must have haunted George SCOTT (B1879) for the rest of his life.

When not at work George had a group of friends who were also miners of a similar age.  They would meet on their days off and would travel to locations around Standburn (a small village near Falkirk) where some of them lived.  His best friend was Thomas MOORE (19). They were close, described at the time as being on terms of friendship, even on terms of affection’.(i)  They were like brothers. They had both acquired handguns and used to go target shooting in the countryside.  On Sunday 15^th October 1899 they met a group of friends and they all took turns in firing at targets.  George loaded four cartridges and fired twice.  He handed the gun to another person in the group who also fired (or so he thought) twice.  George and Thomas made their way home and continued to play with the revolvers.  George pointed the gun at Thomas, believing it to be empty, and pulled the trigger.  In fact the companion to whom he had lent his revolver, had in fact, only fired once, leaving one bullet in the gun.  Thomas was struck in the chest and died after a couple of minutes, despite the very prompt attendance of a local doctor.  George was grief stricken and inconsolable.  His was arrested the next morning and charged with Culpable Homicide (a Scottish offence similar to Manslaughter in English law). 

Things moved very quickly.  George appeared before the Sheriff (Judge) on the day of his arrest and made a declaration of the circumstances and indicated that he would plead guilty. He was remanded until his trial.  The local police sergeant gave evidence that “Scott bears a very good character in the place, and that the utmost sympathy is being expressed for him and his friends in the unfortunate position in which he is placed” (ii)

Tom MOORE’s Father (also a miner) registered his death on 18^th October, reporting that his son had died after being ‘shot accidentally through the heart’ (iii). This entry in the Register of Deaths was amended, slightly, a few weeks later by order of the Procurator Fiscal to read “shock from bullet wound” (iv)

The speed with which trials took place in Victorian Britain can come as a surprise.  Justice was swift, but this often left little time for defendants to prepare their defence and to gather their evidence.  In this case George’s solicitor moved quickly.  It was, after all, a very straightforward case.

On Monday 23^rd October, 8 days after the incident, George appeared before Sheriff BELL at the Falkirk Sheriff and Jury Court.  He pleaded guilty to Culpable Homicide.  The Fiscal opened for the Crown by briefly stating the facts of the case:

              “It appeared that both lads had their pistols and were flourishing them and jesting with each other.  Scott pulled the trigger of his pistol and the cartridge it contained was discharged and entered into Moore’s left breast, causing him to die a few minutes afterwards.  He (the fiscal) believed that the affair was purely accidental, and he believed that the boys were on the very best terms of friendship” (v)

George’s solicitor, Mr Andrew HUNTER, then made a detailed and comprehensive plea in mitigation.  He pointed out that there was no hint of a criminal intention and that this was nothing other than accident.  He referred to George’s age, his remorse and the friendship between the MOORES’ and the SCOTT’s and between the defendant and the deceased in particular.  He cited various similar cases from around Scotland to show that there was room for mercy in such cases.  The largest part of his speech was devoted to evidence of George’s character.  He produced numerous testimonials to his good character and pointed to the absence of any previous appearances before the courts.  His referees included his former employer, the doctor who treated Tom and the local minister.  He had also received that morning a petition supporting George, signed by 115 residents of Standburn (vi).  But, perhaps most persuasive of all, was a letter from Tom’s Father asking the judge not to punish George as it was an accident.

The Sheriff addressed the accused directly, reminding him that the person he had killed:

              “…was not a stranger, but an intimate friend…and the fact that he had put an end to his life in such a manner would no doubt be a matter of reflection to him as long as he lived” (vii)

The Sheriff reminded the court that this was a reckless act.  Blame lay with George, he was guilty of a serious offence, Culpable Homicide.  He decided that imprisonment would serve no purpose and he put him under caution in the sum of £25 for a period of 12 months or, as an alternative 30 days in prison.  This is similar to the concept of being bound over to be of good behaviour in an English court, except that the money had to be found up front.  The Sheriff finished with a reminder of the dangers of playing with weapons and he hoped that the tragedy would be a lesson to all parents.

There is much still to find out about George SCOTT (B1879) and I will continue to research his life, I am intrigued by his link to Ireland amongst other things.  I know that at the time of the death of his wife Agnes in 1951 she was a widow but I have not pinned down the date of George’s death.  Whenever it was I am sure that the judge was right – the death of Tom MOORE would have stayed with him for the rest of his life.

 

 

The Power of Smell

 

Recently I was visiting an old block of flats (Edwardian?).  Climbing the communal stairs I was struck, to the point of pausing my ascent, by a vague smell.  Not an unpleasant smell.  Not one that I would associate with rubbish or neglect.  Indeed, the block is very well maintained.  It took me a moment to appreciate the significance of aroma.  It was exactly the same smell that I associate with the tenement block in Cambridge Heath Road, east London, that my Grandparents lived in.  I say ‘associate with’ but I don’t think I have ever encountered or even thought about the smell since I was a young child.  In a moment I was back to the flat occupied by Nan and Pop (as I knew them).  They moved from that address in about 1968 to go to a flat in Hackney.  They stayed there only a short while before moving to a another, newly built, ground floor flat around the corner from their original address.  The other smell I associate with visits to the grandparental home is that of home cooked lentil and bacon soup – a staple that has continued through another couple of generations and probably goes back long before my grandparents.

Smells are very powerful memory triggers.  Not long ago I noticed the smell of the London Underground.  At Lambeth North I detected the smell of the Underground as it was many years ago, as I remember it from childhood.    Like the smell in the block of flats I cannot describe the components of the odour – just the immediate connection with times past.    

How reliable are such memory triggers?  I don’t know.  Our minds play tricks on us.  Unlike sights and sounds we don’t have photographs, films or recordings to evidence our memories (or even to corrupt the evidence of our memories).

There is a lot of academic literature on the link between memory and smell.  It is of course possible to imagine smells that aren’t there (phantosmia).  It seems that the memory of smells is a complex subject that touches on the ancient needs of our ancestors to detect dangers and food.

I do know just what an impact olfactory memories can have.  The sense of time and place is almost overwhelming.  Impactive enough to set me off again on the long neglected task of researching the complex background of the Scott/Duncan/McGavin families. 

 

Philip Trendall

April 2023 

Never Trust the Internet!

 

It has been a while since I have looked at the TRENDALL family tree.  I have been working on other families, but I will get back to it soon.  I do always keep half an eye open for developments and my attention was drawn to an interesting item that popped up during an internet search.  Our family is a little short of exotic adventure.  There is the connection to India of course and side bars to Australia and Canada, but little else.  I was therefore rather pleased to see a reference to my 3 x Great Grandfather in Mexico!

An entry on a well known genealogy site has Joseph TRENDALL (1770-1838) in El Higo, Veracruz which is west of Mexico City, in the 1830s.  What was an elderly retired baker doing in Central America?  Is there a Mexican branch of the family?  Do I have distant cousins in the land of the Aztecs?  Did he introduce the bloomer to the Americas?  Alas, like so much else in the world of on- line family history the entry was a load of nonsense.

 It didn’t take me long to realise that the entry related to his death in 1838.  I know where he died.  I have his death certificate and burial details.  He died in Shoreditch, half a mile from where I was born (although the family lived in lots of other places before returning to that part of east London).  He was buried in the modern Borough of Barnet where he had spent many years running a bakers shop and bringing up his family.  On looking at the on-line entry which references Mexico it records him in the region described above.  The exact location was a small hamlet called…….El Hoxton, El Higo, a place of a handful of residents.  Sloppy data entry is the curse of on-line family trees.  The author probably selected the wrong drop down box or was especially inattentive in geography lessons.

The lesson is a simple:  Be careful how much trust you put in the internet.   The problem is I now have a mental image of Joseph wearing a poncho.  It’s going to be hard to shift!

 

21 March 2023