Church of England Records Centre, Bermondsey, London

Copyright: Clare McMurtrie, 2015

Days Out With The Dead | Eltham Palace, London

Clare McMurtrie, 2015

Clare McMurtrie, 2015

Clare McMurtrie, 2015

Clare McMurtrie, 2015

Clare McMurtrie, 2015

Clare McMurtrie, 2015

First Night of the Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark | A Shakespearean Diary Imagined

This is an extract from a creative writing piece, written for the FutureLearn online course 'Shakespeare's Hamlet':

June 1603 

Last night I did see a play called The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. It is by that playwright William Shakespeare. I went to see it at the Globe theatre by the Thames with sister Mary and Master Forte. The Lord Chamberlains Men did quite a job – I have never seen a play like it! We ate oranges and hazelnuts as the performance went on quite late, but I had to stop eating when the scenes were dark and frightening. We did see a ghost and it was quite like seeing it right there in front of you, haunting your night! There mention of purgatory and heaven and I do think Mr Shakespeare was quite brave in saying that as I’m quite sure our dear Queen does not share those sentiments with her sister. Richard Burbage played Hamlet and was quite the handsome prince. I do like Shakespeare's plays - he made Denmark a dark place unlike Mr. Kyd could.

To find out more about FutureLearn and upcoming online courses visit: https://www.futurelearn.com

Poverty, Child Prostitution and The Children's Society

(Image: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/books/non_fiction/article1123840.ece)

Much of the classical tale of charity is based upon the child saved from the extremes of poverty who goes on to have a prosperous, respectable life. Many of the case files in The Children's Society archives describe in detail the families and poverty in which these children were living before they went to the Society. Case File A described concern that the child should never "return to the miserable court and life of starvation" and that all of the children in the family were "ill-kempt half fed and very dirty". The majority of the Society's cases were born into poverty related either to unemployment, alcoholism, disease or death, and the work of charities such as the Society helped usher in the sea change of prosperity in these children's lives. 

Case Files B and C are a severe example of the situation many of the children had been living in. These Case Files are for two young sisters, under the age of 10, and describe them as being "found residing in a house for the purpose of prostitution". Whilst shocking in our time these two girls were part of the "veritable slave trade" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/20097046) of child prostitution in Victorian England. Attitudes to sex and prostitution at the time are mirrored by the fact that the age of consent was only raised from 12 to 13 in 1875, and finally to 16 in 1885. The extensive sex trade in Victorian England was a daily reality for many, especially city dwellers, and these changes in law doubtless helped to change the situation.

To find out more about the Unexplored Riches in Medical History project see the website:

http://www.hiddenlives.org.uk/unexplored_riches/about.html

Or the project blog:

http://chilsoc-blog.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/category/unexplored_riches

The Suffolk Connection: A Family History Holiday

Through an odd turn of events I ended up staying in the village where my 5th great grand aunt Mary Freeman is buried. We uncovered her memorial stone under the altar at the village church, which describes her unusually as having died after 'a life of purity, piety and benevolence, and after having borne a long and painfull illnefs with truely Christian resignation and fortitude'. She had a brother John and sister Sarah and, confusingly, her parents were also John and Mary Freeman.

The link to my paternal grandparents is through Mary's sister Sarah, who married Edmund Lincoln, governor of the South Caribbean and St Vincent 1783-87. The mystery continues!

Adoption and My Granpa

My maternal granpa Peter Wright was born in Wandsworth in 1922. His mum apparently pregnant 'out-of-wedlock', he was born in the house of Dorothy Cooper, who later adopted him. They moved to Sussex where the family included a stream of fostered and adopted children, and where he lived for the rest of his life. In the 1911 census his mum (my maternal great-grandmother) Clara Wright (14), is living with her parents William (37) and Clara (37), brothers Frank (9) and Frederick (3), and sister Ida (7). The family were poor and lived in South London; the census shows that Clara gave birth to 2 children who later died.  Her father was a bricklayer and possibly Jewish. The area where Clara's family lived, and where my grandfather was born, is now high-rise flats.