Gems from the archives

[TressiliansStone]

Random things that tickled me, and I just have to share. Feel free to add your own.

I've posted about the first one before.

GD237 Records of Messrs Tods Murray and Jamieson WS, lawyers, Edinburgh [1331]-1937
Repository: National Records of Scotland
Reference: GD237/21/55
Title: Miscellaneous papers
Dates: 1810-1819

1. 1810 June 18. Edinburgh
Petition of George Cotton to the Lord Provost and magistrates of the city of Edinburgh, asking that they may remove a hamper containing human bones left with petitioner by a woman of decent appearance accompanied by a porter, in petitioner's shop.
Containing warrant, 19 June, allowing petitioner to bury the bones.

i don't see anything funny in that at all.

Well thank you so much for taking the trouble to post, alexdgr8.

I meant things that caught my interest.

(No, this thread is not going to be derailed into pedantic discussion of common English phrases. Go start another thread if you want that. )

A vignette from the register of passports issued by Edinburgh’s Lord Provost.

They’re usually really bland, eg “Adam, Alexander Forsyth W.S., [To] Antwerp, Ostend, &c, 5/-” but this one was beautifully detailed.

1847
June 1st
1 Allwood J[oh]n W[illia]m Musician
2 Davis Ed[war]d Do
“ W[illia]m Do
“ Geo[rg]e Do
3 Mackenzie J[oh]n Do
Do Fra[nci]s Do
4 Platt George Do
5 St Vincent W[illia]m Do
6 Stewart J[oh]n Do
7 Foster Pat[ric]k Do
8 Buckley J[oh]n Do
9 Erskine W[illia]m Do

These Compose a Co[mpan]y of Musicians who have Entered into an Engagement with Mon[sieu]r Fred[erick] W[illia]m Delang of Berlin to accompany him to Berlin to perform Concerts chiefly of Scotch Music – period of engag[men]t 12 mo[nth]s @ rate of £90 each & 2d that sum to the Leader Allwood. Besides a Scottish dress. To Hamburgh & Berlin
9 @ 5/ = 45/ Paid

From Edinburgh City Archives; Edinburgh Scotland; Lord Provost Passports 1845-1916; Reference: SL 165/1/1

you said things that had tickled you.
that suggests laughter to me.
so i assumed you found these clippings funny.
i am not being pedantic.
just can't see them as funny.

It is boggling. The reporting is so matter of fact as well. One feels for the shopkeeper.

Mine is from memory I'm afraid. 1901 census for the impoverished Black Country village where a large number of my ancestors lived. Entry for one of their neighbours, a youngish widow with the usual umpty million kids. The "profession" column read "Has a mangle". I've always found this rather touching and brave, somehow.

Yes, the completely straight-faced account! Amazing!

"Has a mangle" speaks so much, doesn't it? All the hardship and labour of their lives in a few words of census entry.

Another unusual profession in this burial register.

Dec[embe]r 1793

[date:] 6
Isobella Abercromby Late Spouse of Mr Lamasson[?] Comedian from Lieth Walk Died of A Cramp in the Stomach, Burial 3 ft SE from the SE C[orner] of Ann Gells Stone Aged 26 years.

Old Parish Register Deaths 692/2 310 Leith South

Exactly, I just wished I'd found it when my grandmother was alive. She was a child in 1901 but had a fantastic memory and may have recalled the lady with a mangle. I hope she went on to have a happy and more prosperous life, although I remember a worrying number of her boys were the right age for WW1.

The comedian! I think it might have been a bit more than "stomach cramp", but what, as clearly quite a sudden thing? Burst gall bladder/appendix? Such an early account, too. You have some really great finds, thanks for sharing them.

From the "Roll of Edinburgh Burgesses, 1761-1841."

12 Oct. 1785.— "The Council in testimony of their sense of the undaunted Courage of Vincent Lunardi Esquire of Lucca in ascending with a Balloon and passing the Forth to Fife, with the wind at south west at the manifest Risk of his being blown into the German Ocean, admitted and received him a Burges & Guildbrother of this City."