Diary extract 1846-1856 - Travel looking for work

 

 Extracts from the dairy of Edward Sendall 1831-1907

From 1846 to 1856 (15 years old to 24 years old) Edward travelled for work. He did a variety of jobs and finally trained as a wood carver. In 1857 he arrived in Lincoln where he settled. He died in Linclon, my grandfather was born in London and died in Lincoln. My father was born in Lincoln.

1846 - Waiter

"In the Autumn of 1846 I got myself a situation as under Waiter at a large Temperance Hotel and Eating House in the Market Place Norwich it was kept by a man by the name of A. Seeley. I had charge of one room on Market Days I have had as many as 200 diners to serve. I stopped there until April 1847 and then went home to Hockering."

1847 - Page boy at Physicians

"I did not stop long at home. I got up early one morning in May and walked to Lynn (there were no trains then) so I had a long walk for one day 33 miles. I went to my Aunt Garrods who brought up my Sister Amelia - next day I went to a Register office and got a situation as Page Boy at a Physicians by the name of Tweedale he was a Liberal in Politics but not Liberal in anything else he was related to the Marquis of Tweedale, he had been in the Royal Navy and was at St. Helena with Napoleon."

Then follows accounts of movement from one place to another and different situations. He stayed with the Tweedale for one year and eight months during which his mother dies on October 31st 1847 at the age of 43 "there being no Railway I could not get to the funeral".

1848 - Footman 

1848 to a Miss Brodwell a large Farmer at Burnham Deepdale near Burnham Market, looked after ponies and waited at table and drive the pony carriage - too much work so he did not stop long. Footman to Mr Pitcher a solicitor at Kings Lynn a good place, in charge of all wine and plate; they gave up keeping a footman so he left. Footman with Mr Marshall near Wisbech."

1848/9 - Learn trade as wood carver

"Then to a Mr Fox to learn carving. 

1849 - sees public hanging

21st April 1849 saw James Bloomfield Bush hung for the murder of Mr Jeremy, Recorder of Norwich, he his son, wife and ladys maid were shot at Stanfield Hall, Wymondham. There were 100,000 on Castle Hill.

Wikipedia: The Murders at Stanfield Hall were a notorious Victorian era double murder on 28 November 1848 that was commemorated in print, pottery, wax, as well as a novel by Joseph Shearing. Additionally, it was the inspiration for the 1948 English film, Blanche Fury. The victims, Isaac Jermy and his son Isaac Jermy.  Jermy were shot and killed on the porch and in the hallway of their mansion, Stanfield Hall, Norwich. The perpetrator, James Bloomfield Rush (1800–1849), their delinquent tenant-farmer, who had conducted a complex, devious scheme to defraud them of their property and their lives, was hanged at Norwich Castle on 21 April 1849. The unwitting accomplice to the attempted fraud was Emily Sandford, whom Rush had employed as a governess but who was also his mistress.

1854 - travelling looking for carving work

27th December 1854 left Lynn walked to Boston 34 miles

28th walked to Spilsby, 29th to Grimsby and worked there from 1st January to end of April, then to Hull by steamboat and on to Newcastle and saw Brother Richard at Camperdown near Newcastle, and went down a pit. Then Fox was taken and he was sent to work for him at Lynn, May 1855, to middle of July. Then to Wisbech to work for a Cabinet Maker, Harrison. Various journeys for various carving jobs, worked a short while in Newcastle, then back to Lynn, then to South Shields (ships carving) and Sunderland, Darlington, Durham

7th December 1855 walked to Thirsk 24 miles

8th December 1855 walked to York 23 miles

10th December 1855 to Selby and Askern 27 miles

11th December 1855 to Doncaster 6 miles

14th December 1855 to Castleton 16 miles

15th December 1855 to Macclesfield 18 miles

18th December 1855 to Winsford 19 miles

19th December 1855 to Chester 18 miles

"204 miles since I left Sunderland on 23rd November"

Christmas 1855 and 1856 travels

Spent Christmas 1855 with Grandmother Middleton who was living with her daughter Charlotte... she died at East Tuddenham aged 101 and had her faculties to the last. January 1856 went again to Chester, Birkenhead, Liverpool finding no work. Then to Newport, Shropshire, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Leamington, Towcester, Dunstable, London, "On Easter Monday 1856 went to work for Messrs Hunters Cabinet Makers Finsbury Pavement [Might be William Hunter and Son of Finsbury Place], worked there until the middle of August left there in consequence of a strike...Then I went to work for a Mr Bray a Carver in Hoxton and worked for him until the 8th Sept 1856." 

Then to Hull, Grimsby, Beverley, Goole, Selby, Doncaster where worked till Oct 1856.

More walking around...spent Christmas 1856 at Lynn and Hockering.