Mine Host And A Ghost

Meet my Great-Grandparents. He is William S. and he married Eliza T.who was the daughter of an East End of London Shoemaker.

His birth is a mystery. Despite years of research no birth certificate has ever been traced although we know that he was born in Lincolnshire, son of John S. whom he stated on his marriage certificate was a farmer but this was more likely to be Agricultural Labourer.

Great-Grandfather was a real character, so I have been told and he certainly moved around. When he married Eliza he gave his occupation as Mariner. One elderly cousin does remember that he might have been at sea, whilst others hotly deny this and said that he plied the canals for much of his life. From studying the various births, deaths and marriage certificates of his eleven children it shows that he had several occupations, Mariner as above, Farm Labourer, Oil Miller, Wharf Labourer, General Labourer, Carpenter’s Labourer and from then on only Carpenter. Carpenter appears on his own death certificate. We do know that at one time he worked for the Great Eastern Railway and perhaps he was a carpenter building locomotive carriages.

Although a hard worker he never earned much money at least in the early years. He earned less than 30 shillings per week. How do I know this? Because at one time he and his family lived in Peabody Buildings, Shadwell, East London . These buildings and others around London were paid for by the American philanthropist, George Peabody. You could not be admitted and have rooms there if you earned more than 30 shillings per week. Even then you had to do your share of cleaning, not only your own rooms but also the corridors and the laundry room. These buildings were bleak and gloomy places but they did provide a decent standard of accommodation compared to other places. I have in my possession, a fascinating article about “the buildings” from a newspaper of the day. Times were certainly much harder then.

What came as a complete surprise to me was that he was, at one time, the Landlord of a Public House. I found this out through Friends Re-United when I found a long lost second cousin (I had not been looking for any family). She told me that he had been the Landlord of “The Lamb” in Hertfordshire. This pub stands opposite a canal so that would tie in with him working the canals for much of his life and also for his fondness of talking about them.

Relatives of mine outside the Lamb during the late 1960's or early 1970's.

When I acquired this information I immediately tracked down the current Landlord , one George M. He was somewhat shocked to hear from me but was very helpful. Unfortunately he had no old records in his possession but gave me the address and number of the current owners. I wrote to them but alas, the pub had changed hands many times over the years and along the way all old records had been destroyed because it was not thought they were of any value. So much history thrown away by thoughtlessness. So, I have no idea what dates Great-Grandfather would have been there but I can estimate it as being sometime between the late 1870’s to the early 1880‘s. I have been told he was there less than two years because he was a “friend” to everyone and gave away so many free drinks that the establishment was making a loss! George M. was disappointed that he could give me no dates but he did tell me the history of the place and he wondered whether my Great-Grandfather had ever seen the ghost.

The pub today.

The Ghost

The Lamb itself came into being c. 1542. The actual building was much older than that because it had been a cottage that was turned into an alehouse. Business boomed so the adjoining cottage was subsequently incorporated into it. The pub is built on the site of an old Roman cemetery which is very deep down but there is also a Royalist cemetery in the rear garden. During the Civil War the town was a Royalist stronghold but it eventually fell to the Roundheads. The ghost is of a little girl aged around seven or eight. The story goes that her Father was a Royalist and she was staying at the “inn” with him because he was to attend a secret meeting. He set off to the meeting but was captured by the Roundheads and did not return. The little girl was left totally alone and as the hours passed she became more and more scared. She ran all over theinn looking forhim. Finding no trace, she went back to their room. She heard a sound and thinking that she had heard his footsteps approaching outside she excitedly opened the upstairs window and leant out to call to him. She lost her balance and fell smashing her head on the cobbles below. Her ghost still haunts the place but she only appears to men. No woman has ever seen her! Can it be that after all these centuries she is still searching the faces of male customers and staff hoping desperately her Father has come back to her?

After the death of his beloved Eliza, William always had a little dog which he took with him everywhere. If offered food he always presented some to the dog first, if the dog refused it then so did he, no matter how delicious and fresh it was. He insisted that if it was not good enough for the dog, it was not good enough for him!

Great-Grandfather could neither read nor write, he never knew exactly what year he was born and it could have been anytime between 1837 and 1845. My own Mother stated that he was just short of 100 years old when he died in 1939. I will never know for sure but two of his daughters lived to ripe old ages, one reaching 101 and another 102.

William spent many happy hours at my Grandmother's (his daughter-in-law) house, the one I have written so much about where he would sit in the garden during the good months quietly smoking his pipe which was his lifelong pleasure. He adored children and always had a shining penny ready for his grandchildren. It is thought he cleaned them up especially.  For some reason he always kept a piece of cotton tied around one of his thumbs. There is little more that I can add as my knowledge of his life is so limited.

There is a strange footnote to this story of William which came to light during my research. William lived out the last few years of his life with his second son, James, in the suburbs of London. I was surprised to find that William’s death certificate revealed that he did not die there but in Billericay, Essex. He died in a hospital that was later to become a famous burns unit (now closed). There were many hospitals much closer to where he lived so why he ended in Billericay is a mystery. However, from the ages of 20-22 I worked in Billericay just a few yards from this very hospital. Whenever I passed it, I always used to get the odd feeling that someone waswalkingbeside me. I did not acquire his death certificate until 8 years ago so I could not have known that my Great-Grandfather drew his last breath in the very building that I was passing daily.

I would so very much have liked to have met him. I am sure he had many tales to tell. If only.........

Picture taken two years before his death.