David Dycher  ddycher@gmail.com is looking for other people interested in the history of the 5th Devons

FROM OUR NEWSLETTER
(Contact us for a free full P.D.F. version of our latest newsletter)
Josephine Browne – Tom Greeves
On 8 February 2011 members of the Society heard me talk about an album of more than
350 watercolours of Devon, Cornwall and elsewhere, painted by amateur artist
Mary Josephine Browne of Tavistock. The album had been acquired by my mother at
auction in 1969 and in the 1970s she skilfully rebound it. It had been given
for sale by A.K. Hamilton-Jenkin, the well-known mining historian – it would
seem that Mary Josephine was a first cousin of his grandmother. Family
tradition suggests that the Brownes originated from Landrake and that many of
them were Quakers.

 

Mary Josephine Browne was born in Tavistock in the autumn of 1845, the daughter of
Joseph and Anna Browne. She seems to have always used the name Josephine in
preference to Mary. Her father Joseph had been born in Sandford, Devon in about
1802, and Anna was from St Cleer in Cornwall. Josephine had an older sister
Anna Elizabeth who was born in January 1844 and a younger brother Joseph John,
born in July 1847.

 

Joseph Browne senior was manager of the Devon and Cornwall Bank in West Street,
Tavistock. The family home was at 29 West Street in 1851 and 1861. Josephine
and her sister were recorded as boarders at Leighcourt School, Upper Lincombe,
in Torquay at the time of the census of 1861. By 1871 Joseph had retired and
was living at 8 Watts Road (Osborne Villa), Tavistock with his wife and two
daughters. The family home was still Osborne Villa, Watts Road in 1881. In 1871
Joseph junior was employed as a mechanical engineer, lodging in Cleveland
Street, Birkenhead, but by 1881 was a ‘master engineer’ employing twenty men
and lodging in Cobham Street, Gravesend in Kent.

 

Joseph senior died in the autumn of 1889 aged 88, but his widow and daughters
continued to live in Watts Road. In 1894 both Josephine’s sister and her mother
died, aged 50 and 91 respectively. Her brother Joseph died in Syria in 1906 – a
bequest of his resulted in almshouses being built on Launceston RoadTavistock,
above the hospital.

 

Josephine dedicated a stained glass window (the work of Charles Kempe) on
the north sideof St Eustachius’s church in 1909, to the memory of her parents
and siblings.Josephine was still living at Watts Road in 1911 and it would
seem that she took in lodgers, as the Revd Greville Cooke recalled
‘rhapsodising’ on thepiano of his landlady, Miss Browne of Watts Road, after
the First World War when he was a curate in Tavistock.

Abbotsfield, Tavistock,  6 June 1879 by Josephine Browne

 Mary Josephine Browne died on 25 April 1927 and friends presented a hammered silver
paten to St Eustachius’s church, in her memory.

Any further information about the Browne family would be most welcome.

Acknowledgement - The bulk of material for this
item is based on the researches of my wife Elisabeth and also on information
received from Gerry Woodcock, to both of whom I am most grateful.




TAVISTOCK MATTERS

Reminiscences of Events Chiefly connected with Tavistock in the Fifties of the 19th Century

 In 1914 a Mr T Vanstone wrote a series of six articles with the
above title.

Thomas Vanstone was born in Buckland Monachorum c1839 and married
Tavistock born Elizabeth Ann Foot in Tavistock in 1864. Thomas was a grocer at 22/23 King Street in 1901. He died in Tavistock in 1918 aged 78 and his wife in the same year aged 79. They lie together in Plymouth Road cemetery.

Thomas' first piece  was published on 14 April 1916 and covered the Great
Exhibition in Hyde and subsequent articles dealt mainly with Tavistock events. Articles 2 and 3 were covered in our  Newsletters No 46 and 47 respectively.

Below are extracts from Article number 4, published on 26 May 1916. 

THE TAVISTOCK GAZETTE
The stamp duty and paper duty hampered the
newspaper press to a serious degree, and although the stamp duty was reduced to one penny per copy in 1836, the paper duty was not repealed until 1861. The honour of repealing the stamp duty fell on Sir George Cornwall Lewis, although Mr Gladstone had made an attempt to get the bill passed in the previous year.
The effect of this repeal was that 80 new journals were started in the first
year and in the beginning of 1857 there were 107 new journals started in London and the provinces. When in 1861 the paper duty was abolished the last tax on knowledge was removed. On the 4th September 1857 the first number of the “Tavistock Gazette” was published, at a time when we were in the throes of another election. Mr Byng, who was elected for Tavistock in 1854, resigned suddenly, and Mr Arthur Russell, a nephew of the Duke of Bedford, was sent down to solicit the votes of the electors. He was opposed by Mr Edward Miall, a gentleman who for many years both by pen and voice had opposed Church rates and advocated the severance of the Church from State control. The meetings of the candidates were held at the Assembly Rooms of the Bedford Hotel, where the nomination took place, but by the polling, which was held on the following day, Mr Russell was returned by a majority of 44, the final state of the poll
being  - Russell, 164; Miall, 120.
The Hustings, a wooden structure, was erected in the Guildhall Square and from it speeches were made by both candidates. During the delivery of the speeches the hustings gave way, and the occupants fell in a heap, Whigs and Tories altogether. A young lad who was under the hustings, had his leg broken by the falling wood.

 The “Gazette” in its infancy was a small
sheet of four pages, and was increased in size in the course of years as
success attended the venture. Previous to this step being taken Mr George
Spencer issued a small quarto monthly called the “Tavistock Advertiser,” and a monthly pamphlet called the “Monthly Register,” being a series of reviews of
the books issued in the preceding month. Both of these were short-lived, but
the “Gazette” is with us today, and reached its jubilee in 1907.”
To the Editor of the Tavistock
Gazette – January 20 1858

 

“SIR
– What is the law in reference to the time of shutting up public houses at
night? If I am informed right, it is eleven o’clock, and if so, certainly the
police authorities of this town cannot be doing their duty. Some of these are
open all night, especially Saturday nights, and very often until Sunday morning
– full of men making such a fearful noise – drinking, fighting, and cursing one
another, like unloosed demons.
I am so unfortunate as to have my bed-room near one of these so-called
respectable houses, and I am sure, Mr Editor, you would pity me if you knew
what a confusion of noise and uproar I am compelled to hear; the noise being so great it is impossible to sleep.
I hope our policeman will give a sharp look out after these houses, and that it
will be put a stop to.
I am, Sir, your very obliged, W H R.”

 Ed Note – Spoilsport!

 
 ...Plus la meme chose ...

A bright spring day in 1971 and the participants in the Bere Alston carnival procession are readying themselves for the road.This small girl deserves to be in a class of her own, out ahead in more ways than one. Full marks for her tiny, encumbered float to be sure and a top score for high hopes, for the negotiations for British entry  are still far from completion and it will not be until 1973 that the U.K. finally joins the E.E.C. In the chilly days of 2012 optimism over Europe is not to be found easily amongst supporters or sceptics, but for it or agin it you surely can’t fail to be touched by the enthusiasm of this little Europhile in the recreation field in Bere Alston some forty years ago.