Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

In trying to research the above ... I've found another chap of the same ancestry - so he's somewhere on my tree, as "brother of" somebody, somewhere.....

This one's quite interesting too. Died in 1804 absolutely stinking rich.

Such were the rumours about where the heck he got the money from that many newspapers printed his life story... which is how I know he needs to be lobbed onto my tree when I find out where.

He'd been born poor, with the rest, but had gone to London and become a servant, for life, to the Earl of Mansfield. When the Earl died he had left his servant £5k/year in his will.

After that he took a new job with a Lord of Stormont, that paid him well.

He also had the good fortune to marry well and stay married to a woman whose dad was "a bit rich", an attorney in Lincoln's Inn.

He had also taken the advice of somebody and invested well in stocks and shares.

EDIT: I need to dig around more. He left a lot of money to total strangers - including what looks like £50k (1804 price, so millions by now) - to a stranger simply because the stranger had the same name as him.

All very .... odd.

This would be the same Lord Mansfield of Dido Belle fame? He left her, his adopted daughter, £500 + an annuity of £100 pa. I find it really surprising he left his servant an annuity of £5000 pa.

For comparison, Darcey in Pride and Prejudice was one of the richest men in the country, with an income of £10,000 pa.

Pyxis

Re. the new-looking headstone........maybe the church got it cleaned up when it put the plaque up, 40 years ago?

Or maybe Mary had never had a headstone, so they made her a new one ditto 40years ago?

It does look too clean to be 200 years old.

silvercar

" In 1804 Lewis Way, ‘the Wandering Jew’, had bought Stansted House about eight miles west of Chichester with money from an unrelated benefactor who shared his distinctive surname. John Way, former agent of the Earl of Mansfield, died leaving £300,000, which Lewis spent on buying the estate, intending to set up a college to convert Jews to Christianity and resettle them in Israel"

Why would you want to convert Jews to Christianity in order to send them to Israel? and why, in 1804, would they talk of sending to Israel (which didn't exist in 1804) rather than Palestine?

Pyxis

silvercar wrote: »

Why would you want to convert Jews to Christianity in order to send them to Israel? and why, in 1804, would they talk of sending to Israel (which didn't exist in 1804) rather than Palestine?

I must admit, I thought that sounded odd, but then in them there days, they often had very strange ideas, especially where religion was concerned!

Perhaps he was talking of Israel metaphorically, as in the biblical Israel that was.

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

It does look too clean to be 200 years old.

Trotting round the overgrown graveyard, of the closed church, today, I saw a random "brand new gravestone" so I took a look, just out of nosiness. It was entirely brand new, with big new surrounds and new coloured gravel - and must have been a new purchase by descendants of people that died 100+ years ago.

There was also a sad little one by the gate, I nearly photographed it. Some lad aged about 11 had died of a tragic accident in the 1930s - and there were fresh little pots/flowers on that and I thought his sister/s must be visiting it still... (Yes, you make up this guff when you wander round places and see stuff).

Pyxis

PasturesNew wrote: »

Trotting round the overgrown graveyard, of the closed church, today, I saw a random "brand new gravestone" so I took a look, just out of nosiness. It was entirely brand new, with big new surrounds and new coloured gravel - and must have been a new purchase by descendants of people that died 100+ years ago.

There was also a sad little one by the gate, I nearly photographed it. Some lad aged about 11 had died of a tragic accident in the 1930s - and there were fresh little pots/flowers on that and I thought his sister/s must be visiting it still... (Yes, you make up this guff when you wander round places and see stuff).

Sometimes a local bod, usually a lady, 'adopts' a grave that doesn't have anyone visiting it, and takes it on themselves to tend it.
Rather nice.
It might also be someone who lost a child at the same age.

Masomnia

2nd Interview confirmed for Monday!

silvercar

Masomnia wrote: »

2nd Interview confirmed for Monday!

:T Everything crossed for you.

PasturesNew

Masomnia wrote: »

2nd

Good luck with that.
Wear your lucky underpants.

Masomnia

Thanks both. It would have been a bit embarrassing if I didn't get it after saying the assessment was straightforward! It's a a bit of a pay cut and I'm a bit over qualified but it'll get me nicely back on my feet.