Pontrhydyfen Viaduct, 1897

Figure 1, Pontrhydyfen Viaduct in 2015

For most of us with an interest in family history, we discover what our ancestors had been up to by trawling through dusty archives and libraries, or by spending many hours scouring computer databases.

In the case of my maternal Great Grandfather Alan Railton, this has been a really frustrating experience, because despite his being one of my most recent ancestors, who I have been researching, he has been one of the hardest to find.

Yet as a Civil Engineering contractor he holds a particular fascination for me because , I find myself following in his footsteps in my career as a contractor. In Alan Railton's case, it is not on paper that I have found this story, but in a huge brick & stone structures.

Pontrhydyfen Viaduct, which I was fortunate enough to visit recently is one of the finest of these records.

Figure 2, Pontrhydyfen Viaduct under construction in 1897. [1]

Alan was born on the 31st August 1864, in Manchester. He was the son of Joseph Arthur Railton, (1830-1902) and his second wife Miss Davies. Joseph was a successful Manchester merchant (of what I do not know) who was able to retire early, become a Justice of the Peace and the Chairman of the Union Bank of Manchester. His second wife is believed to have been the daughter of a brick maker or factor originally from the Isle of Man, which might account for his grandsons involvement in construction.

Figure 3, Pontrhydyfen Viaduct constructed in 1897

Alan started his career in Civil Engineering with the newly established Lancashire County Council bridges department, however by 1888, he was working on the staff of the Manchester Ship Canal Company in the Chief Engineers Office.  He produced many of the detailed drawings for the works on the canal under the direction of Sir E Leader Williams and Mr. W. H. Hunter. At that time the Ship Canal was one of the very largest projects in the World, linking Manchester to the sea, with the aim of bypassing Liverpool that had been exercising a stranglehold on Manchester's trade to the Empire and America.

The main contractor on the Ship Canal was Thomas Walker, an extremely able and experienced contractor with a track record that went back the great days of the 1850's Railway Mania.  He had worked in Canada and Russia, and was instrumental in rescuing the unfinished and disastrously flooded Severn Tunnel, as well as building many other projects.  Walker took great pains to look after his workforce, building camps for them, which at the time were greatly better than those of other contractors. He also applied the latest in technology to his work. At Manchester he amassed a great many of new steam excavators, that had only been used to up to that date to any great extent in the United States.  He also assembled about 171 locomotives and 14,000 men. Unfortunately on the 25th of November 1889 Thomas Walker died, leaving the work unfinished. [2]

Walker who had been born in 1828 had planned for the continuing of the work in the event of his death, and the Ship Canal Company made arranged to take over the plant and men.  

Alan's career progressed along with the construction of the canal, and as he gained experience.  Starting in the design office, he progressed to become Chief Resident Engineer on the Irlam Division of the Canal.  In 1894 he was appointed Resident Engineer in place of Mr. Congreve, continuing in the post until 1897 when the construction of the Canal was substantially complete. Alan is believed to have overseen the construction of the Barton Swing Bridges while Resident Engineer.

Figure 4: Barton Swing Bridges Under Construction [3]

The plant that had been used on the canal now became available for sale, and a new company was formed, Messrs Topham, Jones and Railton, who were able to rapidly acquire a great deal of the machinery, and to start to win major contracts on several ports and railways.

The member of the Railton who seems to have been instrumental in founding Topham Jones and Railton, was not Alan Railton, who appears to have been more of an engineer,  and to have been a more retiring person, but to have been James Railton (1863-c.1944).

James was the son of another James Railton from Malpas in Monmouthshire.  I do not know exactly how he was related to Alan, or if he was a cousin or close relative of Alan Railton.  I would be fascinated to learn more, if you happen to know the answer.

James Railton had joined the staff of T.A. Walker in 1882, and had worked on Penarth and Barry Docks as well as the Severn Tunnel.  In 1890 he became a partner in J.J. Bithell, for whom he went out to Argentina where he built 200 kilometres of the Great Southern Railway in about two years.
  

Like Alan Railton, W.H. Topham had worked on the Canal acting as Works Superintendent and labour supplier to Thomas Walker.  After Walker's death, when the contract was taken in-house by the Manchester Ship Canal Company, he had supplied direct labour from 1889 to the company.  He took over the direction of the labour on the Ship Canal after the death of Thomas Walker.

Topham's business W. H. Topham & Co. had the telegraphic address, "Canal", and a London Office at 2.Great George Street, Westminster by 1893.

The other partner was Sir Evan D. Jones, (1859-1949) who came from Fishguard, and who had previously worked on the Severn Tunnel. [4]

In 1892 Topham Jones and Railton Limited was formed and rapidly began to made its mark bidding for, and winning railways projects.  By September 1894 they had become one of seven successful contractors winning sections of the Great Central Railway winning the Aylestone to Rugby section, 15 miles and 69 chains long. [5]

Figure 5: Pontrhydyfen Viaduct showing the timber centring, and the brick hoist, in the centre.

Figure 6: The original tender winning submitted by Topham, Jones & Railton for Pontrhydyfen Viaduct

Figure 7: In additional to the viaduct several other bridges were included in the tender

Figure 8: The bill of quantities showing costs to construct elements to build the viaduct broken by items. 

[1] Photo copied from "Port Talbot Railway & Docks Company and the South Wales Mineral Railway Company, Volume 1: 1853-1907, by Robin G. Simmonds, published by Lightmoor Press in 2012, to whom I am indebted for much of the research here.  The photo comes originally from the West Glamorgan Archive Service.

[2] See http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Thomas_Andrew_Walker for more on this extraordinarily able but largely unknown man.
[3] http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/aimages/T1672.jpg
[4] See http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s2-JONE-DAV-1859.html more about Sir Evan Jones.
[5] From Alan Railton's training record and application for Membership to the Institution of Civil Engineers.

[6] http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=1103
[6] LTC Rolt, The Making of a Railway, published 1971, London page 15.
[7]  RAIL 574/7

Sir John Baber & his loans or bonds to the East India Company between 1671 & 1683

 

A couple of days ago was a red-letter day.  I was able to return to the British Library for the first time in over three years, visiting London for the first time in nearly four years.  It had been my intention to visit the library regularly once I retired, however COVID, lockdowns, other commitments & rail strikes had prevented this.

I have been visiting the library for 30 or more years.  Initially, I thought that there were perhaps 30 documents in the catalogues that would be relevant to my particular research, however as time has passed the list to documents to read, just gets longer and longer.

With a spreadsheet of books & documents identified for future reading, the hardest choice was which book or document to pick first.

Several years ago, I had discovered that there was a reference in the British Library catalogue to Sir John Baber (1625-1704) being a bondholder in 1671, 1672 & 1673 in the East India Company.

This was a considerable surprise to me as I had had no idea that this twig of my family tree had had any connection with India before 1763 when Edward Baber arrived in Calcutta as a Writer in Bengal.

This bond had to be the first choice to study.  What a document it turned out to be.

Sir John Baber was one of my 8 x great grandfather’s and lived a very interesting life, which I have been researching for several decades.

Sir John Baber was a Physician who had commenced his training at Oxford University in 1642 arriving days before the first major battle of the English Civil War.  He was forced to leave in 1646 for exile in the Netherlands where he attended Leiden University studying medicine.  He returned to England during the 1650’s and took up practice in Covent Garden in London.  On his return he appears to have been engaged in supporting Royalist efforts to bring King Charles II back to the throne.

I don’t know exactly what he did, but whatever it was, had secured for him a knighthood from King Charles II within a few days of the King arriving in London following his restoration to the throne.

Soon afterwards, Sir John was appointed as one of three Royal Physicians.  He was required to attend on the King at the Court for 112 days of the year.  As the King was young and relatively fit, his duties were not particularly heavy, but he had particularly good access to the King, and he was soon acting as a lobbyist for several groups in the Court.  He is primarily known for representing the Presbyterian Interest at the Court acting as a clandestine means of communications between the King and prominent members of the Presbyterian establishment.

He was also associated with several efforts by the Court to fund the King, by methods that did not require the King to have to seek approval from Parliament that was not particularly sympathetic to the King & the Court.

The catalogue entry gave no indication of the extremely interesting volume that the bond was filed inside.

When you order volumes in the India Office section of the British Library, you have to wait for them to be brought up, which typically takes about an hour.  The anticipation grows, as you walk to the desk to see if your ordered documents have arrived.  You have no idea of just what size the volume or folder might be.

My surprise was great when I was shown the volume lying on a large trolley.  The slight young librarian apologised that she was unable to lift it.  It was the largest volume that I have ever borrowed, and it was all that I could do to lift it from the trolley onto the desk.  It must have weighed about 20 kg.

I later worked out that it contained about 1000 pages of 1670’s paper on about 500 folios.

It was a General Ledger drawn up by two clerks working at the EIC head office at Leadenhall Street in London, between 1671 & 1673.  It contains details of very large numbers of different transactions broken down by categories.  Most entries at double entry, with details of where goods or money came from on the left-hand page, and details of where payments were made, or goods were dispatched on the right-hand page.

The volume provides the names of hundreds & quite possibly thousands of people from the King down to quite humble seamen & warehouse keepers.

I became so absorbed by the details contained in the Ledger that I decided to photograph as many pages as I was able.  I was able to do this on my mobile phone, but as it was not possible to lay the volume flat, and as I had no rig to hold my camera you will have to accept that many of the photos are a bit crooked.

The volume was so large that it was only possible to photograph it by standing over it.  Eventually after taking about 360 photos, my phone decided that enough was enough.  Something that my back concurred with.

I realised as I went through the 1000 pages, that I already know who quite a few of the people listed are, and some are “old friends.”

The pages above shows the entries for Sir John Baber.  John Duncombe listed below was a very young man at the very beginning of his career working for a goldsmith. He would go on to become a banker, MP and be involved in many of the negotiations that led to the founding of the Bank of England.

A photo of a miniature of Sir John Baber, that my great uncle owned, and fortunately lent to an author writing a book called Restoration Rogues.

Sadly, the miniature disappeared in unfortunate circumstances during the 1990's.

I had seen it and held it, but it has disappeared.  It was painted by Gibson, whose studio was about 3 doors away from Sir John's house in Henrietta Street in Covent Garden.

There is more about Sir John here http://nick-balmer.blogspot.com/2012/07/covent-garden-sir-john-baber-plague-and.html

Here are the two entries concerning the payment of interest and principle to Sir John Baber.

Remembering the Pforzheimer 400 at the Battle of Wimpfen, 6th May 1622

Figure 1. Sebastiaan Vrancx - Battle of Vimpfen on 6 May 1622

 (From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository). 

(Please click on this image and any of the others for a larger image.)

Most families have a foundation myth. These can often be difficult to confirm the veracity of, however they will always contain at least some germs of the truth. 

For many years I have been slowly compiling a "family" chronicle which was originally intended for my children, but as I have now taken so long to write it, it must now be for my grandchildren. If I only tell the story of my ancestors, 50% of my children's history would be missing or 75% of my grandchildren's history. 

This has presented a major challenge as 50% of what is missing is central European in origin. No chronicle of my children's history can possibly be complete without the story of my in-laws-family.

My wife is originally from Hungary, and when I first visited her in the 1970's, I was taken to see an old pharmacy that had belonged to a forebear of her family who had arrived in Hungary as a refugee from Germany "during the Thirty Years War." It was during this trip that I first learnt the tale of Samuel Küttel.

It was while I was a young backpacker Interrailing during the 1970's, that I had first become aware of mainland European history, which is rarely taught in British schools, unless it involved our army actually fighting there. 

One of the most formative events in Germany and central Europe of the 17th Century was the Thirty Years War, which was barely mentioned in Britain when I was a schoolboy. This war was to have the most devastating impact on the populations of Europe leading to the movement of huge numbers of people across Europe, leaving enduring effects that persist to this day. 

Several years later after our marriage, my mother in law, gave me some copies of a photocopy of an article in Hungarian from the late 19th Century, and in subsequent years that set out the basic elements of the story as it was understood then. 

Since then I have slowly been able to piece together a far more detailed account of these events, overcoming the challenges of languages, and far distant archives. 

400 years ago this month (May 2022) events in the south-east of Germany in the Rhine Valley occurred that were to change my wife's Küttel family history dramatically. Up until that moment her ancestors had been living peacefully in Weiße Lederstraße in the town of Pforzheim. The town at that time had a population of less than 3,000 people, but had played an important role in developing Protestant learning in Germany, where it was situated close to major trade routes across the country. At one point the earlier Markgraf had tried to develop a university in the town that would have predated Heidelberg University.

Intended to teach the new Protestant learning, it had been crushed almost at birth in an earlier war, but many of the pioneering Protestant preachers from 1530 onwards had preached in the town, tolerated and encouraged by the local rulers. 

Had the Küttel sat through these sermons in their local church? Sadly, at present it is unlikely that I will ever know. 

Hans Küttel had become a member of the local part time cavalry unit raised in the town by their ruler Markgraf Friedrich V. von Baden. 

Family legend as told to me by my late mother in law, was that Hans Küttel had been caught up in the rout that had followed the explosion of the Protestant armies ammunition reserve during the battle. The powder had been held inside a wagon fortress that formed the core of the Markgraf's position.

The advent of the four hundred year anniversary of the Battle on the 6th May 1622, has led in recent weeks to a spate of articles and posts appearing online, in books and the media, which I have been tapping into. 

Unlike events in almost contemporary English Civil War, which have a huge literature about every single battle and campaign which is then described and analysed, there does not appear to be such a volume of research available on the events during the Thirty Years War as we are fortunate enough to have available here for the civil war. 

If you stumble on this post, and you are a German researcher into either local history in Baden or of the battles of this conflict, I would love to hear from you. My email is balmer.nicholas@gmail.com

In future posts I will explore aspects of how my own Welsh & English ancestors would themselves caught up in this terrible conflict in the middle of Europe. 

Sebastiaan Vrancx in his painting (Figure 1)  Battle of Vimpfen on 6th May 1622, which shows Tilly's Imperialist Army in the foreground, the huge explosion that took place inside the Protestant wagon laager can be seen. Ever since the days of the Hussite warriors, who were proto-Protestants from Bohemia had developed and deployed wagon forts to counter the massed cavalry of the Habsburg & German feudal armies, and wagon forts seem to have remained a feature of Protestant war planning into the Thirty Years War.  

The wagons of the Protestant army can be seen, in Vrancx's painting with their draw poles interlocked to form a formidable obstacle. The Pforzheim cavalry formed the Markgraf's bodyguard and reserve. Perhaps this unit can be seen at the extreme right of this painting drawn up just outside the wagon laager. 

Are those famous Spanish tercios arriving on the battlefield on the left?

The battle took place on a very hot day in early May, and during the morning on part of Tilly's Imperialist army had arrived on the battlefield. Tilly's crack Spanish tercios were still distance away, and would not arrive for some hours. 

The Margrave's army had been holding out well until the middle of the day. By lunchtime both armies had become exhausted by the heat and exertion, so that the fighting slowed down, and came to a temporary halt. The Protestants started to eat their supplies which were contained in the wagons kept in the wagon laager. 

As this was happening Tilly's Spanish elite infantry Tercios began to finally arrive on the battlefield and launched an immediate assault on the Protestant army. In their surprise at the renewed attacks being made on them, somebody in the Protestant army who was presumably trying to get more gunpowder from the powder reserve succeeded in dropping a spark into one of the barrels of power leading to a catastrophic explosion. 

Within moments the Protestant army began to collapse and flee. Presumably Hans was somewhere in the middle of this terrible event, and would shortly be rescuing Markgraf Georg Friedrich von Baden-Durlach by pulling him up onto his horse behind him.

Figure 2. This painting shows Pieter Snayers (1592-1667) interpretation of the Battle of Bad Wimpfen.

Snayers was a painter who specialised in paintings of battles and sieges, who based at Antwerp where be became one of the Imperialist Habsburg main war artists. In 1628 he moved to Brussels, where he was closely associated with many of the Imperialist Spanish army officers. It is very possible that he had discussed the battle with either Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1585–1635) or Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly the two principle Imperialist officers present at the battle, many years later while these officers were in Brussels.  These paintings were intended to record the most significant events during the battles on a single canvas. This means that the painting is nearly always "very busy".  It is often also broken into two or three horizontal bands.

Snayers had access to very accurate maps of many of these battlefields and sieges, which when compared to modern maps are often recognisably accurate depictions of the area.  This painting lacks the upper part of most of Snayers works which are in effect maps.

The upper half of this painting shows the events from the battlefield, but misses out the Protestant wagon laager, but emphasises the Spanish Tercios. It is hard to be that this painting actually depicts the battle of Wimpfen.

The lower half of the painting from the battery of cannon downwards shows what may well be the Imperialist cavalry falling onto the fleeing Protestants.  The Spanish and Imperialist German cavalry can be seen caracoling on the left.  It is possible that the cavalry in the centre in disarray is the gallant Pforzheimer unit  going down while defending their rulers escape.  

Perhaps Hans Küttel is in the fleeing troopers on the right with the Markgraf on his horse with him? The swirl of cavalry at the top of this painting is an accurate depiction of a very well known Spanish tactic called the caracole or caracol (from the Spanish caracol - "snail"). The troopers in these units were armed with wheel lock pistols or carbines to fire in turn at enemy massed infantry. These wheel lock pistols could be re cocked by winding up a spring inside the weapon operated by a spanner that the trooper carried around his neck on a leather thong. He was able to reload, if he could find a sheltered spot on the battlefield. Failing that he had to thrown the wheel-lock into the face of his opponent, to gain time to draw his sword to slash his way to safety. 

Each trooper in turn advanced to fire with his loaded piece, which he discharged as close as possible to the faces of the pikemen as he could get, without being spiked, before wheeling away to allow the other troopers following him to fire in turn. The men who had fired would then reload their pistols as they retired to the rear of the formation, so that an endless stream of firing troopers would in theory occur until the infantry pike block started to break up as individual pikemen became wounded or died, and the others became disordered enough, to allow the pike block to be broken, or its men chose to flee.

Figure 3.  A contemporary engraving of the battlefield.

This engraving was made for the popular German market shortly after the battle had occurred, and would have been widely available in Germany in the years following the battle.  The map shows the battle as it was occurring, and the explosion towards the left of the engraving.  The River Neckar can be seen sweeping around the battlefield.

Like Snayers and Vrancx's painting, these engravings generally depict as many of the key manoeuvres as possible on a single sheet of paper. In practise each of the tactical moves took place in a sequence over many hours. Many of these prints like this one have a key on them, with small letters from the alphabet that were used to show the order of events.

I believe that the unit labelled "B" may be the Pforzheimer unit, perhaps with other Protestant cavalry units brigaded together. 

The battle field is still largely open fields to this day. The A6 Autobahn runs around the perimeter of the battlefield today.

It lies along on our route when we drove with our children on family holidays to Hungary, so we have visited the battlefield at Wimpfen several times over the years. 

When we first went there we were reduced to asking local farmers and villagers the way. Most had no idea what we were talking about, until we happened on to a potato farmer tilling his field.

He was really helpful, and I got the impression that he was only happy to find anybody else who had the slightest interest in the battlefield site.

He pointed out an overgrown bramble and thorn bush, which had grown up on a monument erected on the battlefield during the 19th Century.

In the last year or so some information boards have been erected.

Figure 4 showing the approach marches towards the battlefield recently posted @vor400

Figure 4. Map showing the moves by the opposing armies in the lead up to the battle at Wimpfen, being posted regularly by @vor400 on Twitter. This excellent map showing the approach routes taken by the forces during the days leading up to the battle. The author of this map @vor400 posts daily updates on Twitter. He started posting a few years ago, and intends posting every day until the end of the conflict. I  am unsure if I will still be around in 2048 to see his last posts.

If you would rather not reply in English to this blog, my wife is able to read German and Hungarian, and would translate for me.  I have a small basic knowledge of both languages, but am very far from being fluent.

Figure 5.  A map showing the approximate routes taken by the Küttel family from 1622 until the 1660's, intended to show the key locations in this blog. 

Most of what we know about the battle and the four hundred Pforzheimers comes from 19th Century books and plays, which are probably a bit misleading in places.

"Der tod der 400 Pforzheimer bei Wimpfen nicht eine sage sondern eine thatsache. Genaue untersuchung der streitfrag auf grund des ältesten hiesigen taufbuches mit benützung der ältesten geschichtlichen quellen"

 

Figure 6. Der tod der 400 Pforzheimer bei Wimpfen 

This title about the death of the 400 Pforzheimers by Ernst Ludwig Deimling was written published in 1873, and very probably drew on old archives that survived until then. Sadly during 1944 and 1945 a series of very heavy air raids by the USAF and RAF destroyed much of the centre of the city. Sadly, nearly all of the old town centre had to be redeveloped after the war, and it became a rather a soulless place. Ernst Ludwig Deimling includes a list of the 400 men in this unit. He marked the men who died with a cross. 

It can be seen that the publisher had overegged the title of this book. There is an interesting article here on the development of this legend of the 400. https://de.wikisource.org/.../2._Die_Sage_von_dem...

Figure 7. Hans Küttel listed amongst the 400.

Rather intriguingly there is a Michael Balmer also present on the list. This is not entirely surprising as there are far more Balmers in the old records from Switzerland and the Palatinate downstream of Switzerland than there are in Britain.

Most come from areas strongly associated with the Protestant reformation. While I can trace my Balmer ancestors back to about 1700, I cannot go any further back here unless my ancestors were a spelling mistake away from being Bulmer's.

Both the Küttel and the Balmer family feature in Swiss Chronicles fighting against the Austrian Habsburgs at the Battle of Sempach back in 1386. Both families were living near Interlaken at that time.

Many seem to have left Switzerland over time and many appear in lists of soldiers in the coming years, but who was who is almost impossible to work out currently.

Figure 8. Martin Balmer listed as a member of the 400.

Here is the Markgraf Georg Friedrich von Baden-Durlach (1573-1638). I hope that he hadn't had a full set of armour on when Hans Küttel had to pull him up onto his horse. The Markgraf had received a very nasty cut to his face and head caused by a lance during the battle, and this shows up in later pictures of him that can be seen here https://en.wikipedia.org/.../George_Frederick,_Margrave...

Figure 9. Markgraf Georg Friedrich von Baden-Durlach (1573-1638)

In the summer of 1627 the Markgraf was appointed lieutenant general of the Danish army by King Christian IV of Denmark, who was involved in the Danish-Lower Saxon War. 

Oddly enough another close member of kin to my ancestors Sir Charles Morgan, a Welshman in the service with the Dutch to English troops to fight on behalf King Christian IV of Denmark. Charles and his men had to endure a long siege at the port of Stade, living off the bodies of cats and dogs at one point.

Figure 10. "Die vierhundert Pforzheimer Bürger, oder die Schlacht bey Wimpfen ein vaterländisches Trauerspiel in 5 Aufz" By Ernst Ludwig Deimling · 1788

This earlier book was published in 1788 by Ernst Ludwig Deimling, who may have been father or grandfather to the author of the other book posted here. "Die vierhundert Pforzheimer Bürger, oder die Schlacht bey Wimpfen ein vaterländisches Trauerspiel in 5 Aufz" By Ernst Ludwig Deimling · 1788

This play presents the events surrounding the battle as a drama.

Figure 11. Sámuel Küttel in Hungarian early 20th Century documents

By the 1690's Sámuel Küttel who is seen as the founder of the Hungarian Küttel family had arrived in Köszeg, or Güns as German speakers called the town in those days. Here he married the daughter of the Protestant Apothecary called the Fekete Szerecseny Pharmacy, which the family owned until the early 1950's when it was taken over by the Communist authorities. They effectively stopped it developing, and by the 1970's it became a museum, which can be visited to this day. 

Figure 12. The Küttel family in Hungary contained historians in most generations, not least of which was my late mother in law, so that there are quite a few references to them in Hungarian.

Covent Garden & Sir John Baber, the Plague and a vanished monument

 

Fig. 1. Covent Garden in 1737 by Balthazar Nebot 

[Please click on image for larger version.]

The following blog is written in the hope that it might attract the attention of somebody with a deeper knowledge of events in Covent Garden during the period between 1650 and 1700 than I currently have, or who may have had access to records or accounts that I have yet to find. My interest in Covent Garden stems from the discovery that one of my great x 8 grandfathers, Sir John Baber was a physician living in Covent Garden at the time of the 1665 Plague and the 1660 Great Fire of London.

At the time he was one of three physician's to King Charles II, and it is clear that he played a leading role in events during the plague of 1665.

That his role had been very important is demonstrated by the gratitude of the local community expressed by the erection of a stone column that once stood in the centre of the Plaza at Covent Garden, and which can clearly been seen in Balthazar Nebot's painting and several other paintings from the period. The column was erected in 1668-9 and stood there in the square until about 1750. It was erected by a Mr. Tomlinson, a churchwarden using funds raised by the parishioners of Covent Garden.

Fig. 2. Extract from Nebot's painting showing the column.

“The churchwardens of St Paul's Church accounts record that "Upon due consideration of those many signall services, that the Honorable Sir John Baber hath don this Parish from Time to Time Wee thought it good to affix his Coate of Armes, in one of the Sheilds belonging to the Colume, as a Perpetuall acknowledgement of our gratitude, and to Refuse any present from him that should be tendered Towards the Charge thereof.”

 

                                Fig 3. Photo of a miniature of Sir John Baber by Gibson.

By 1665 Sir John Baber had been physician to King Charles II for about four years.  He was one of three physicians who took it in turn to attend at court on the King, for which he was promised payment for 112 days per year.

During October 1667, Sir John petitioned "for a warrant for payment from the Exchequer of 954l 4s. arrears of his pension of 12s a day, from 1st December 1662 to 16th April 1667, there being no fund at the Green Cloth from which it can be paid."

He annexed a  "Note of monies due to Sir John Baber; for 1597 days, total., 958l 4s." [2]

It is thought that Sir John had obtained this post through the recommendation of a near neighbour, Dr. Manton, rector of St. Paul's Covent Garden, who with other Presbyterian divines, had taken prominent part in the restoration Charles II. He had however had the honour of Knighthood being also bestowed on him 19 March 1660 at the Restoration, immediately after the King had returned from exile, which suggests that he had played some part in those events.

I have no detailed knowledge of what this role during the period up to the Restoration had been.  Can anybody point me in the direction of any accounts that cover his involvement in these events, or which might have clues in them?

However, a fascinating clue survives in the following extracts from the Journal of the House of Common’s records a debate that took place on: -

"Saturday, March 10th, 1659; Afternoon.

London Militia.

A BILL for settling the Militia for the City of London; and Liberties thereof, was this Day read the First and Second time; and, upon the Question, committed unto Major-General Alderman Browne, Sir Wm. Wheeler, Mr. Attorney Lechmere, Mr. Pryn, Sir Walter Earle, Mr. Weaver: And that they do presently withdraw; and amend this Bill.

Resolved, That Alderman Major-General Browne's Name be placed in this Bill, next after Alderman Vyner.

Resolved, That the same Qualifications be inserted in this Bill, as are in the general Bill for settling the Militia.

Resolved, That this Bill shall continue for One Year, or until the Parliament take other Order.

 A Rider was tendered to this Bill, That Colonel Thomas Lister, John Baber Esquire, Thomas Bayles, Alexander Pym, Charles Pym, Ralph Halsell, Robert Payton, and Captain Thomas Wytham, be added Commissioners for the Militia for the City of Westminster, and Liberties thereof: Which was read; and agreed unto; and ordered to be Part of the Bill."

A role within the London Militia would have provided John Baber a very useful position from which to provide information to Royalist spies. The London Trained Bands who had made up the militia were the core of England's standing army.

It is a great pity that no accounts seems to have survived of Sir John’s role during the Great Plague. That he had played a significant role is however clear from the following document, which describes arrangements that were made so that the Court could return to London, from it’s self imposed exile to Oxford made to avoid becoming caught up in the epidemic.

December 19^th 1665. Westminster.

Edm Godfrey to Fras. Lann.  Memoranda to be imparted to Mountjoy Earl of Newport.

            The workhouse in the New Churchyard is finished, and the vault made the largest burying place in England.  The Lords Chamberlain’s letter, published by the King’s order in all churches near Whitehall, has been of great use to prevent the swarming of rascally lodgers, who, if they have not occasioned, have greatly spread the plague there, and brought more charge on the inhabitants than they are able to support.

            All the common Sewers and watercourses have been cleaned against the return of the King and Court.  Has paid Dr. Innard at the pest house 200l, for services till All Hallow’s Day.

            Since which he pretends to higher terms, on some agreement with Sir John Baber.  He and all his regiment are to be dismissed the pesthouse, except three warders and a nurse or two, to prevent its being pulled down as formerly.

            Has met Mr. Warcupp twice a week in Convent Garden Vestry Meetings; they have agreed well, and the people seem satisfied with there government, except some poor, who cry out through dearness of fuel, and want of employment because King & Court are away, and some of the nobility and gentry forget their debts as well as their charity.  They have ordered all churchyards where many have been buried to be filled up with fresh mould, and earth a yard high laid on the graves etc. etc.[4]

From the above text it would appear that Sir John must have been one of those people in authority, who had remained in London to battle with the disease amongst those who could not flee.

He is listed as one of only 27 doctors and physicians out of about 200 who had been resident in London who had remained in London throughout the plague. 

As both one of the local doctors and also a Justice of the Peace, I expect that he must have been amongst those who attended the meetings of the St. Paul’s Vestry which took twice a week. I expect that Sir John had had to promise Dr. Innard and his brave staff a great deal, in order to get them to remain at their post in the Pesthouse.

Sir John who had been born in 1625, had married during the early 1650’s, probably shortly before 1653 to Elizabeth Richards, who was the daughter of Sir John Richards, of Yaverland on the Isle of Wight.

Their first child Martha had been born in 1656.  John was born on 27th December 1656, followed by Francis on September 11th 1657, and William on or about October 1658. Sadly his wife had died the following year on 28^th April 1659, and was buried in Saint Paul’s Covent Garden.

As a widower Sir John must have been bringing up his children alone, probably with the aid of servants.  With plague breaking out so close to his home, he must have decided to send his children out to the countryside. Lady Richards who may have been the children's grandmother, took the children to their home at Yaverland on the Isle of Wight.

The islanders, by late August were very aware of the plague in London, and must have been terrified that people arriving from the mainland would bring the plague to the island.  They tried to prevent Lady Richard's crossing the island to her home in Yaverland.

Inhabitants of Yaverland to Sir W. Oglander.

The Humble desire of ye Inhabitants of yaverland August the 30th (65)

Sr
These few lines are to entreate yo^r wor^pp for to send to Bradinge yt they might sett a watch & ward to keepe out all newport people out of the towne wee are resolved to keepe a gard day & night att yarbridge & wee have beene with Major Holmes att the fort & he hath promise that none shall come that way & we doe understand that the Lady Richards is minded to come to Yaverland too morrow but we are resolved for to stop her & not to lett her come in & wee are fearfull if she might come in thorough Brading & soe to come over the wall by ye sluce therefore we thought fitt to acquainte your worshipp with it hopeinge that yo^r worshipp will send to Bradinge that they might secure that way 

[5]

This effort to stop Lady Richard cannot have been successful. 

Over much of Europe there was a tradition of building ornamental columns to celebrate a city or towns deliverance from the Plague.  The Piazza at Covent Garden when it was originally laid out had an empty square.  At some point in the 1630’s a single solitary tree was planted in the centre of the Piazza surrounded by some wooden railings.  In 1668 it was decided by the parishioners that a column be erected to replace the tree which was not growing very well.  A Mr. Tomlinson, who was probably Richard Tomlinson, a churchwarden, proposed the erection of the column.  In 1668 he informed the vestry: -

“that he and his gentlemen had a desire to erect a Doricke columne of polished marble, for the support of a quadrangular dyall in the midst of the railes where now the trees are, it being very improbable that they should ever come to any maturity.” [6]

The Churchwarden’s accounts for 1668-9 record the receipts of gifts “towards the Erecting of the Columne - £20 from the fifth Earl of Bedford, and £10 each from Sir Charles Cotterell, master of ceremonies, and Lord Denzil Holles. 

£90 was paid to “Mr Keizar at the Sculpture of the Pallas for the Columne”, 8s. 6d. to Mr Wainwright for the four gnomons, and £2to Mr. Browne, “the mathematician, for his paines about the dial.”

10s. was paid for “ Drawing A Modell of the Columne to be presented to the Vestry.”

Then the churchwardens accounts go on to record that “Upon due consideration of those many signall services, that the Honorable Sir John Baber hath don this Parish from Time to Time Wee thought it good to affix his Coate of Armes, in one of the Heilds belonging to the Columne, as a Perpetual acknowledgement of our gratitude, and to Refuse any present from him that should be tendered Towards the Charge thereof.” [7]

John Baber had lived in the area from at least 1655.

The following entries in the cover page of the Overseers of the poor record that he was paying contributions for the poor, along with his neighbours.

Handberrye Overseers

For the Poore of the Parrish

Of Convent Garden [8]

Anno Dm

1655

Page 1

Poore of the Parrishe of Convent

Garden Anno Dm 1655.

West Division

Henretta Street

Imprimis
Right Honoble Earles of Bedford	03:00:00	02:10:00	0:10:0
Jerfox Braves	00:17:04	0:17:4
Honoble Lady Wootton	02:00:00	2:0:0
Will Lord Munson	02:00:00	2:0:0
Samuel Cooper	01:00:00	1:0:0
Mary Norfolk	00:10:10	0:10:10
John Jerman	00:10:10	0:10:10
Richard Doe	00:10:10	0:10:10
Abr Soaudebrug	01:00:00	1:0:0
Ralph Snillorke	00:08:08	0:8:0
Hugh Sharpington	00:10:10	0:10:10
John Baber	00:16:00	00:16:00
John Bradshaw	00:10:10	0:10:10
John Share	00:10:10	0:10:10
Edward Wallinger	00:10:10	0:10:10
Solloman Moore	00:06:06	0:6:6
John Staley	00:08:08	0:8:8

Fig. 4. An engraving dating from 1690 showing a bonfire next to the column in the Piazza at Covent Garden [9]

As Sir John did not die until 1704, it is very possible that he saw the events portrayed above in 1690.

He was buried in the St Paul's Church and the family erected a large monument to his memory. Sadly the church was burned out in the 19th Century destroying the interior and the monument.

Fig. 5. John Rocque drew the Piazza in 1742 when

 the monument can still be clearly seen.

Fig. 6. Covent Garden by Samuel Scott showing . Scott lived on the east side

of the piazza until about 1758 when he moved to Twickenham. 

[Click on image for a larger version] 

It is not known when the column finally came down, or what became of it. I don't suppose that anything survives, but it would be fun to find it hidden away like Temple Bar.

If you can add any thing to the information above, I would love to hear from you. I can be contacted at balmer.nicholas@gmail.com

[1] Survey of London, page 79, Covent Garden Churchwarden's Accounts
[2] C.S.P.D. Volume CXCVII paragraph 93
[3] C.S.P.D. Volume CXXXIX 1665-1666 paragraph 68
[4] Source: (OG/89/11) from http://www.btinternet.com/~rob.martin1/bem/plag.htm
[5] See “Survey of London, Volume XXXVI, page 79, and 331, originally from British Library scrapbook
[6] See “Survey of London, Volume XXXVI, page 79, and 331, originally from British Library scrapbook entitled “Gleanings relating to the Parish of Covent Garden Westminster” pressmark 1889 a 20
[7] Covent Garden Churchwardens Accounts, Westminster Records Office.
[8] House of Commons Journal Volume 7: 10 March 1660', Journal of the House of Commons: volume 7: 1651-1660 (1802), pp. 868-71
[9] See Survey of London, volume XXXVI, page xv.  Original is part of the Crace Collection in the British Museum, Views portfolio xviii.
[10]  entitled “Gleanings relating to the Parish of Covent Garden Westminster” pressmark 1889 a 20.