Reminiscenses Of Old Sheffield

[Sheffield History]

REMINISCENCES OF OLD SHEFFIELD
CHAPTER I.
PARADISE SQUARE, CAMPO LANE, HARTSHEAD, AND WATSON'S WALK.

Mr. WILLIAM WRAGG, Ancient Citizen of Sheffield.
Mr. GEORGE LEIGHTON, Ancient Citizen of Sheffield.
Mr. SAMUEL EVERARD, Ancient Citizen of Sheffield.
Mr. F. TWISS, The Antiquary

Mr. RICHARD LEONARD, A Modern Citizen of Sheffield

Period - 1872-3.
Scene - A room in Leonard's house.

LEIGHTON: So the old steps in Paradise square have gone at last. Have
you secured the top stone for your collection, Mr. TWISS ?

TWISS: No, it would have been rather too large ; but I wish it could be
preserved somewhere ; otherwise, like so many other things that
disappear, it will be consigned to oblivion.

EVERARD : What eloquence has rung from that stone

LEONARD: And what nonsense !

EVERARD : Brougham, Morpeth, Bethel, Milton, Elliott, Dunn, Roebuck, and
Mundella have thence charmed thousands of eager listeners.

LEONARD : And others have thence uttered rant enough to cause the very
stones to cry out.

LEIGHTON : There were few finer sights in Sheffield than a great meeting
in " t' Pot square," when the people were really in earnest and the
speaker a man of power.

LEONARD : Tile finest sight of all was when Mr. Henry Hoole, flourishing
his arms in a burst of exuberant eloquence, brought down his fist on
Mr. Leader's hat and knocked it over his eyes. That was a notable time,
too, when Roebuck, sitting in his carriage at the bottom of the steps,
listened to Campbell Foster's fulminations against him. There has seldom
been so much use made of a white waistcoat, and a loud voice. But this
is not "Old Sheffield."

WRAGG : The eloquence from the steps has often been exceeded by the wit
from the crowd, which always displayed a keen sense of the humorous and
a quick perception of humbug.

LEONARD : Does anyone know when meetings were first held in the Square ?

TWISS, : The first on record that I have found was in 1779, July 15,
when Wesley preached " to the largest con gregation he ever saw on a
week-day." Then, in 1798, Rowland Hill came down and preached there one
Sunday evening, after an afternoon service in Queen Street Chapel. He
had an immense congregation, and confusion was caused towards the end
by some fellow drawing his 'sword upon the people. Before that, out-door
meetings were held on the Castle hill, or at the Church gates before the
old Town Hall; sometimes on Crookes moor, or pieces of waste land
anywhere handy.

LEONARD: Pray spare us the old story about somebody who knew somebody
else who remembered the Square as it corn-field.

WRAGG : Why should we? There are people still living, or were not long
ago, who remembered it a field of oats, entered from the top by Hicks'
stile. An elderly lady, who died not many years ago, had gone with the
maid to milk her father's cows, which were pastured there. There seems
always to have been a footpath across, which was, indeed, the only
thoroughfare from that side of the town. Pedestrians going up Silver
street head (busier then, I believe, than High street) had to cross to
Wheat's passage by Mr. Ryalls' office, if they were going to the Market
; or if to the old Town Hall, they went over Hicks' stile, up St.
James's row (or West row, or Virgin's row, for it has borne all three
names)there were stops at the bottom the whole width of the row-and then
across the Churchyard.

EVERARD : The lamp in the centre of the Square has taken the place of
the old cross shaft, removed there from Snig hill head ; but the steps
up to it are, I should think Unchanged. The stocks were removed there
from the Church

WRAGG. : And drunken men were placed in them on Sundays
for punishment. The practice had to be dropped because of the
disturbances it caused. The last instance of a drunken man being placed
in the stocks was forty-three or forty-four years ago.

LEIGHTON: What became of the stocks in the Square?

WRAGG: When they got out of order, the two pieces of wood that confined
the delinquents' feet became loose, and the late Mr. W. H. Clayton, the
broker under the steps in the Square, removed them into his back yard
for safety. There they remained for years, and no one ever inquired for
them.

EVERARD: There were stocks also at Bridgehouses, opposite the end of the
iron bridge; at Attercliffe; near Ecelesall Chapel; and near the old
Sugar House, Sheffield moor.

WRAGG: Paradise square was the residence of notable men. I believe it
was the first suburban place to which tradesmen retired away from their
works.

LEONARD: Do you think so? There were surely suburban residences before
that, and farther out than that. I have been told by a gentleman still
living, whose father resided there when he was a boy, that the Square
has scarcely changed at all in appearance since very early in the
century. It was then built all round as it is now, and with the same
buildings, except a few which have been modernised on the east side.

WRAGG: Well, at any rate, many of the first families in the town lived
there.

LEONARD : Dr. Gatty, in a note at p. 177 of his Edition of Hunter, says
that " Thomas Broadbent took a lease of the field in 1776, and built the
houses on the east side." Now, I happen to know that the lease to Thomas
Broadbent-so far at least as concerns the land at the top of that side
of the Square-is dated 1736. He had five daughters, and he built the
five houses at the top- afterwards Bramley and Gainsford's offices and
the adjoining ones-for them. On his death, they came into their
possession. The date 1776 must be a clerical or a printer's error.

EVERARD : But that date suits better the corn-field recollections of the
old inhabitants who have now passed away; unless, indeed, the Square
remained a field after the houses on the cast side were built. And this
is very possible.

WRAGG : I have been told. by a man who was in the service of her father,
whose business was in Hollis croft, that Miss Harrison was born in one
of the houses at the top side of the Square. Then Chantrey set up here,
in what was then No. 14, as an artist, and advertised that he took
portraits in crayons. That was in 1802. Two years later he made a step
nearer his proper vocation, for he had commenced taking models from
life.

EVERARD : It would be interesting to know if many of his crayon
portraits are extant.

LEONARD: Yes, numbers. You will find a long list of them in Mr. John
Holland's Memorials of Chantrey. The whereabouts of most of them was
known when that was published, in 1850.

EVERARD : You may see in the Old Church his first piece of sculpture,
the monument to Justice Wilkinson, which the Iris, shrewd enough to
predict the future celebrity of "the young artist," praised as a "
faithful and affecting resemblance." The bust of Dr. Browne, in the
board-room of the Infirmary, is also by Chantrey, executed in 1810-four
years after the Wilkinson monument.

LEIGHTON : Another worthy who lived in the Square up to the time of his
death, in 1817, was the " Rev. George Smith, curate of Ecelesall, and
assistant-minister at the Parish Church-the father of Mr. Albert Smith.
He lived near the bottom on the east side.

LEOONARD : I see a window has been inserted in place of the old door
at the top of the steps, but the pillasters remain to show where the
door entered Mr. Hebblethwaite's school.

WRAGG: That room was originally built as a Freemasons' lodge. It was
afterwards put to various uses---a dancing school and a preaching-room. I
remember hearing the notorious Robert Owen lecture there. At one time a
considerable congregation of Independents assembled there, under the
ministry of the Rev. Mr. Parish. They contemplated building a chapel,
but they let the opportunity slip, and much they regretted it
afterwards. The last three survivors of that congregation were Mr.
Spear, of the firm of Spear and Jackson; Mr. Peter Spurr, tobacconist,
father of Mr. Spurr, chemist and druggist; and the late Mr. Joseph
Brittlebank, scale-cutter. The leases have now fallen in, or are falling
in, so that possibly it may not remain long in its old state.

TWISS : Yes; the lease of part fell in two years ago (not of the other
part, for it is built on two leases), and that shows that it is just
over a century old, as the lease would no doubt be a ninety-nine years'
one. The room was built by Mr. Nowill, who had a shop in High street,
opposite George street.

EVERARD : The pot market that was held in the Square on market days has.
quite disappeared, or is only represented by the crockery shops on the
north side.

TWISS : There was a sort of pet market formerly by the Church gates.

WRAGG: The Square has been the scene of degrading transactions, as well
as of honourable ones. Some brute once, for a wager, ate a live cat on
the steps. I knew a person who bought his wife in the Square, whither
she had been led in a halter.

LEIGHTON : " Q in the Corner " was an old public-house much frequented
by fiddlers, since it was kept by Sam Goodlad, first fiddler on all
important occasions.

WRAGG : The blind fiddlers were quite an institution. At one time there
were six of them, several of whom were excellent performers on the
violin. Their names were James Knight, Samuel Hawke, Thomas Booth,
Alexander Clayton (brother of the late W. H. Clayton, broker), William
Brumby, and Joseph Ward. They had their circuits, chiefly on the
outskirts of the town, to which they went in pairs, playing firsts and
seconds, and they kept to their own districts. At Christmas they went
round " a Christmas-boxing," dropping into' public-houses, and being
liberally rewarded for the tunes they played.

LEONARD: There is a good story of a blind fiddler in John Wilson's
edition of Mather's Songs, p. 55. This was Blind Stephen," who was,
I imagine, of earlier date than those you have mentioned.

EVERARD : The house at the top corner of Paradise square and Campo lane,
now a dram-shop, was, sixty years ago, a respectable grocer's shop, kept
by Mr. Newton (who was sueceeded by Mr. Benjamin Ellis), and at that
time was much celebrated amongst the grinders, both in town and country,
for the quality of the articles of emery, crocus, and glue.

WRAGG: Yes., that shop had almost the monopoly of the trade.

TWISS : More recently the shop was occupied by Mr. Crossland, noted for
his regular and punctual attendance to it the whole day long. His only
recreation was it walk up Glossop road after his shop was closed at
night.

EVERARD: Then came, as now, the barber's shop, at that time occupied by
the father and predecessor of the Mr. Copley who was recently burnt to
death in a shocking manner by an explosion of gunpowder. The " Ball "
Inn, next door, then the " Golden Ball," was kept in my youthful days by
Antipas Stevens, a very intelligent and respectable man, who kept his
house in proper order. I believe he took to it at the time Mr. Crich
removed to the " Black Swan," Snighill. Mr. Stevens was by trade a
silversmith; and I have an impression that he had been apprenticed to
Ashforth, Ellis, and Co., or, at least, had worked for them. The
Braziers' Sick Club met at his house, and the inn was, moreover, at that
time, much frequented by country people on the market days, and more
especially by the grinders from the neighbourhoods of Wadsley, Loxley,
and Rivelin. After refreshing themselves there with the good "
home-brewed," they would call at the adjoining shop of Mr. Ellis for
their weekly supply of emery, and crocus, and groceries. In the
watchmaker's shop a little further on, long occupied by Mr. David
Johnson, and now by his son, was Mr. Zaccheus Dyson, whose active
figure, dressed in a brown coat, drab small clothes, and broadbrimmed
hat - for he belonged to the Society of Friends -still lives in the
respectful remembrance of many of our townsmen. Mr. Dyson, it is
related, once received a letter from a Quaker correspondent addressed "
For Zaccheus Dyson, clock and watchmaker, Sheffield, near to a great
heap of stones called a church."

TWISS: Mr. Dyson retired to Handsworth Woodhouse, and died there 4th
June, 1861.

WRAGG: Narrow as Campo lane is, it was once still narrower, a slice
having been taken from the Churchyard to widen it.

LEONARD: On the site of the offices of Burbeary and Smith, at the corner
of North Church street, a worthy lady named Ward kept a school. She was
much respected by her pupils and her friends, and she now enjoys a quiet
old age in the Shrewsbury Hospital.

[Mrs. Ward died after this conversation took place, on the 31st
December, 1872, aged 86. It is recorded that she enjoyed almost
uninterrupted good health up to the hour of her death.]

EVERARD: The first shop past that was long occupied by the late Mr. John
Innocent, bookseller. Before that it had been the lawyer's office of Mr.
Brookfield, uncle of the late Mr. Charles Brookfield; and in 1839 Mr.
Innocent there found the legal documents which were issued for the first
prosecuon of Montgomery in 1795. Mr. Innocent placed in Montgomeryg
hands the papers he found, and from them he first learnt, and possessed
certain proof, that he had been the victim of a state Prosecution. These
documents stated, amongst other things, that " briefs were to be given
to Counsel with the Attorney. General's compliments;" and that this
prosecution is carried on chiefly with a view to Put a stop to the
associated clubs in Sheffield; and it is to be hoped, if we are
fortunate enough to succeed in convicting the prisoner, it will go a
great way towards curbing the insolence they have uniformly manifested."
The papers, which were shown at an exhibition at the Music Hall, in
1848, were given to Mr. Innocent by Mrs. Brookfield, and he gave them to
Montgomery, refusing all payment, although the poet offered any money
for them.

LEONARD : I have heard that a third and still more bitter prosecution of
Mr.Montgomery was threatened.

EVERARD: This was in 1806. Montgomery actually received the legal
notices for a prosecution, based on his strictures on the campaign in
Germany, when General Mack and 39,000 Austrians laid down their arms.
He himself said, I never knew how the blow missed me, for it was aimed
with a cordiality that meant no repetition of the stroke. The death of
Nelson probably saved me, for in the next Iris I spoke of that event
in a strain of such Patriotism that my former disloyalty was perhaps
overlooked."

TWISS : A fortunate escape.

EVERARD: A few doors further on the lane were the Scantleburys, worthy
Quakers, who dealt in looking-glasses. There was old Thomas Scantlebury,
of The Hills; and he had three sons, John Barlow Scantlebury, Joseph
Scantlebury, and Samuel Scantlebury. Thomas Scantlebury and his eldest
son, John Barlow, were very prominent oponents of church rates. Meetings
used to be held in the Churchyard adjoining, and the speakers stood on
the tombstones. Some of the family emigrated to America.

LEONARD: Yes; the two younger sons, Joseph and Samuel. The latter is still
living in Chicao and retains his connection with the Society of Friends;
as I see from a letter to the Independent respecting the opposition to the
church rates. " Thomas Scantlebury,"' he says " was the adviser, chiefly;
while his son, John Barlow Scantlebury, took the more prominent part. I well
remember that, on one occasion, the opponents of the church rates would
have fatally committed themselves but for my father. The momentous question
had been put and seconded in his absence, but the people refused to vote on
it until they had heard his views. When he came in, he very briefly stated his
opposition to the motion, showing that it would form a very dangerous
precedent. The motion was then withdrawn. The people said that the
Vicar' and his set could get on the blind side of everybody but old
Thomas Scantlebury. I remember old Thomas Rawson was at that meeting, as
active as ever. I believe I never saw him afterwards."

TWISS : Mr. Thomas Scantlebury died at " The Hills," on the Grimesthorpe
road, August 14, 1821 ; his son, John Barlow Scantlebury, died April 28,
1837. Old Mrs. Scantlebury was the daughter of John Barlow, the last of
the family that had carried on the old business of manufacturers of pen
and pocket cutlery on the premises in Campo lane, just beyond Mr.
Scantlebury's, the east front of which looks down the Hartshead. They
had been there as owners and occupiers of the property ever since the
year 1679, "and I cannot tell how long previous," says Mr. Samuel
Scantlebury in the letter Mr. Leonard has just quoted. It was Obadiah
Barlow, the great-great-grandfather of Samuel Scantlebury, who had the
premises in 1679. Whether the Barlow of Neepsend, who died in 1740, was
of the same family or not is doubtful. John Barlow died in 1798, and one
of the best businesses in Sheffield died with him. The trade mark was
the simple name

LEONARD: I have spoken of old Mrs. Ward. Before her time there was
another lady of the same name, some six or eight doors from the Barlow
property. She had been housekeeper to the John Barlow who has been
mentioned, and he set her up in the grocery business. Her shop looked
more like a greenhouse than a grocer's shop. She always had her window
and every bit of spare room filled with some beautiful flower or plant.
Mr. Samuel Scantlebury writes, " If I remember right she had a geranium
that used nearly to fill her front windows. It was there I first saw the
hydrangea. There cannot be many who remember her; she must have been
dead more than 65 years. The dear old woman remembered me in her will.
She left me a guinea for pocket-money!"

WRAGG: Well, this brings us in our journey along the lane to the
Hartshead, and to the Broadbents' house fronting York street, a few
years ago occupied by Messrs. Pye-Smith and Wightman, and now by
Messrs. J. and G. Webster.

EVERARD : Before you tell us the history of that house, let me just say
that in the workshops at the back of Mr. Scantlebury's premises yet
another member of the Society of Friends, Mr. William Chapman, carried
on for many years the business of an engraver.

TWISS : I well remember his burial (one of the last interments in the
graveyard of the Friends' Meeting-house), and the solitary sentence
uttered by Friend E. Baines-" After death the judgment."

EVERARD: He was a very amiable and intelligent man, highly esteemed in
his denomination, and at one time he was actively engaged in promoting
the welfare of its members by visiting the country districts. His grave
and Christian deportment, combined with his kindly disposition and
courteous manners, secured the confidence and respect of those who had
any intercourse with him.

TWISS: We shall still keep among the Friends, for Joseph Broadbent, who
died in 1684, was one of the first generation of the Society in the
town. I believe it was his son Nicholas who built the house in the
Hartshead. He died in 1736, and was father of Joseph Broadbent,
merchant, said to have been the first banker in Sheffield, who died in
1761.

LEONARD : Is it worth while to go into matters that may be found by any
of us in Gatty's " Hunter ?"

TWISS: No; but the point I want to get at is, were the Broadbents the
first bankers in the town ? I have been told that the first person who
practised this profession in Sheffield was one of the fraternity of
pawnbrokers. In the--Hallamshire," it is said, "In 1778, Messrs. J. and
T. Broadbent opened a bank in Hartshead, on the failure of Mr.
Roebuck's bank, which was the first known in Sheffield, and only lasted
eight years ; and in 1780 the Broadbents failed."

LEONARD: If Joseph Broadbent died in 1761, how could he be a banker in
1778 ? Your information and Hunter's do not seem to agree.

TWISS: They were the sons of Joseph-Joseph and Thomas, who wore the
bankers of 1778; but had their father been a banker before them ? I saw
the other day an early Sheffield bank note, of which I took a copy:

No. R t 0 6

Sheffield 0ld Bank, January 22 ,1783.

We promise to pay the bearer on demand Fire Guineas. At Sheffield, value
received.

HAN, HASELHURST and SON.

£5. 5s. R t 0 6

Haslehurst and Son, it seems, became
unfortunate; for the note was endorsed with an exhibit under a
commission in bankruptcy, 23rd June, 1785. But in the fact that it is
called the Sheffield Old Bank, I am led to inquire : Did the bank,
afterwards carried on by Messrs. Parker, Shore and Co., arise from the
ashes of this one, for it bore the same name ?

WRAGG : Whether Mr. Joseph Broadbent was the first banker or not, he
was, at any rate, the first merchant who traded with America. There is a
good story told of one of the Broadbents, at the time of the suspension
of the bank. That suspension took place on a Monday morning. On the
preceding Sunday, some Derbyshire man came knocking at the bank door. A
voice from within asked what he wanted. The countryman replied, " I have
come to the bank." " We do not transact business on Sundays," was the
answer. Then the countryman said, " I have not come for money, but I
have brought some." The other replied, " That is quite a different
thing." So the door was opened, and the Derbyshire man left his money.

LEONARD : That would be called by a hard name now-a-days.

WRAGG : The Messrs. Binney were afterwards in the Hartshead premises.

TWISS: Yes, but the first successor of the Broadbents was Mr. John
Turner, a merchant, who died in 1796. He was uncle to Henry Longden and
to Mrs. Binney; and thus we see how the premises came into the
occupation of the Binneys.

WRAGG: I have been told that the Binneys had at one time the best
country trade in the town as merchants, and the largest steel furnaces
(they have just been pulled down, and the bricks are in heaps in the
yard). I believe they were the first steel manufacturers who had a tilt.
One of their best travellers was the father of Mr. Joseph Haywood. I had
the impression that the father of the late Mr. G. W. Hinchliffe, of Eyre
street, was also a traveller for the Binneys, but that, I find, was a
mistake.

LEONARD : So long ago as 1825, the building had been turned into
lawyers' offices. In that year it was occupied by Mr. Copeland,
solicitor.

WRAGG: While we are among the Friends, and so near their Meeting-house,
permit me to say, one of them told me that, in his recollection, he can
count more than a score who have left Sheffield and gone to America and
become ministers, who, had they remained in the town, would never have
been able to open their mouths.

LEONARD : I thought there were no ministers among the Quakers.

LEIGHTON: You must forgive the abrupt transition when I say-Now, hail to
thee, old " Dove and Rainbow!' Sixty years ago, the drum and fife were
scarcely ever absent from thy door, when Sergeant Kenyon and Sergeant
Barber were on the look-out for recruits. Well do I remember seeing one
of them come forth with his corporal, two or three rank and file, with
drum and fife, and march boldly to Water lane, and there draw up his
detachment in line. Then did the sergeant, with streamers flying in the
air, sheathe his sword, and he and his men marched boldly into the
publichouse, and, like a gallant warrior as he was, called for his
"tankard " of foaming ale. The sergeant had ready for each recruit a
spade-ace guinea, with his Majesty's portrait impressed upon it, pigtail
and all. The warlike song was



Roll up, so merrily, march away; Soldier's glory lives in story : His laurels are green when his locks are grey, And it's heigh for the life of a soldier.



In my youth, I and others of my own age were in the habit of singing
songs about " Lord Wellington in Spain," and Campo lane sent out its
quota both for the navy and the army. I could mention names, were it
necessary-John Dawson, himself the son of a soldier who died fighting
in India, and Artilleryman Dixon, and others.

WRAGG : I have heard very old people say that the Dove and Rainbow was
once on fire. The landlady had made her escape from the flames, but she
turned back to rescue a considerable sum of money, and perished.

TWISS: That, I imagine, would be in 1782. The landlord's name was Thomas
Oates, and a servant girl perished as well as his wife.

WRAGG: The old Iris office was at one time the largest shop in the town,
and had the two largest windows-rounded so as to form the are of a
circle, like a few that are still to be seen, with small panes,
unsupplanted as yet by big squares of plate glass.

EVERARD : Montgomery's last apprentice, Mr. Robert Leader, has spoken
feelingly of the shutters which he had to put up and take down. They
were " very many, very heavy, and had to be carried a considerable
distance. Whenwork in the office closed, at 6.30 or 7 p.m., the unfortunate
apprentice had to return to the place at 8 or 9, to put up the shutters."

TWISS: Apprentices in newspaper offices have not to submit to such tasks
now.

WRAGG: Before Mr. Gales's time this house was the residence of Dr.
Buchan, who wrote there his celebrated work, Domestic Medicine. At one
time the book was in the hands of almost every one on both sides of the
Atlantic, wherever the English language is spoken.

TWISS: Another of Montgomery's apprentices, years earlier, was the
eldest son of the Rev. George Smith. He was named Matthewman, after his
maternal grandfather, and he became a partner of Montgomery's. He
afterwards entered the East India Company's army and died in India.

LEONARD : I have heard Mr. Montgomery's sanctum described as an upper
room behind the shop, over the office coal-place. It had a most
depressing out-look upon back premises and dingy walls and roofs. The
editor poet had a standing office-desk in the room, but his favourite
writing place was a round table which stood near the fire. At the time
my informant best remembers the room, Montgomery was compiling his
collection of hymns, and the table was covered with the books that he
used in his work.

LEIGHTON : It has often been told how the poet sometimes served
customers, but it was simply an accidental or exceptional thing. My
feeling towards him when I was sent to make a purchase was one of
fear-he was so curt. Then, of course, I was only young-, and so great a
man could not be expected to be civil to a boy !

LEONARD: Numbers of incidents connected with Montgomery's life might be
mentioned, but most of them would be such as have already been published
; and I take it the great object of our conversations is to gather
together unwritten folk-lore.

WRAGG : I suppose there's no great harm if one does tell a story twice
over ?

EVERARD : At any rate, the subsequent history of the Gales family, which
is second only in interest to that of Montgomery himself, has not often
been told, and I should suggest that Mr. Leonard read it to us.

LEONARD: I've no objection whatever. This is it "When Mr. Joseph Gales,
printer, bookseller, auctioneer, and editor of the then popular
Sheffield Register, left the town in 1794, he went, as you all know, to
America. The fact is, Mr. Gales had to flee. A meeting held on Castle
hill in April of that year had passed strong resolutions and spoken
fierce words against the Government, which led to a prosecution. Mr.
Gales was present at that meeting, and appears to have sympathised with
its objects, but he was not included in the prosecution. In June, a
letter from a Sheffield printer to Hardy, the secretary of the London
Corresponding Society, was seized, and Gales was suspected, though
unjustly, of being the writer. A warrant was issued against him, and he
only escaped arrest from the officers sent to execute it by a prompt
flight. In the following week's Register Mr. Gales took a formal leave
of his friends and readers, denying most distinctly that he had written,
dictated, or been privy to the letter addressed to Hardy. If his
imprisonment, or death, would serve the cause which he had espoused-the
cause of peace, liberty, and justice, it would, he said, be cowardice to
fly; 'but, convinced that by ruining my family and distressing my
friends by risking either would only gratify the ignorant and the
malignant, I shall seek that livelihood in another land which I cannot
peaceably obtain in this.' Under such circumstances and with such
feelings, Joseph Gales, after sundry concealments, got out of the
country. After a short stay in Germany, he went to America and began
life afresh. He was a clever, forcible writer and a keen politician, and
his proclivities speedily drew him to his old profession. Arrived at
Philadelphia, in August, 1795, he began business as a printer there. In
about a year, judging from the numbering of one of his papers which is
in our possession, dated June, 1797, he became the proprietor, by
purchase from Mr. Oswald, of the Independent Gazetteer of that city. He
called it ' Gales's Independent Gazetteer;' but he did not keep it
long, re-selling it at the end of the first year to Mr. S. H. Smith, of
whom we shall hear again. In September, 1799, Mr. Gales went to North
Carolina, and there he established the Raleigh Register, which he
published for forty years, only retiring from the concern a year or two
before his death which took place at Raleigh, on the 24th August, 1841,
at the advanced age of eighty years. His youngest son, who was born in
North Carolina, succeeded to the newspaper. When Mr. Gales arrived in
America he had with him a son, also named Joseph Gales, then about nine
years of age. This Joseph Gales, Junior, kept in the journalistic track.
In 1806 he joined, as a reporter, the National Intelligencer a paper
that had been established in Washington, in 1800, by the Samuel H. Smith
previously mentioned, with the object of maintaining a newspaper in the
capital, Republican in politics, which should yield to the
Administration a vigorous support. In 1809 Gales was made a partner, and
in 1810 he became sole proprietor of this journal. It lived until the
year 1869, when the New York Evening Post, noticing its death,
said:-'Mr. William W. Seaton, a brother-in-law of Mr. Gales, and
previously editor of the Petersburg Republican and North Carolina
Register, became associated with him in the enterprise in 1812. The
Intelligencer was a vigorous supporter of the war with Great Britain,
and enjoyed a high reputation as a public journal. Messrs. Gales and
Seaton used to do their own reporting of debates in Congress, one always
sitting in the Senate and the other in the House of Representatives,
during the sessions. Their Register of Debates is regarded as a standard
source of American history. The tone of the paper under their management
was firm, moderate, and cautious. With a rearrangement of parties, the
National Intelligencer adhered to Mr. Clay, and was a Conservative-Whig
journal so long as the Whig party had an existence. The proprietors
stood high in public confidence, and in 1840 Mr. Seaton was elected
mayor of Washington, and held the office for twelve consecutive years.
Mr. Gales died in 1860. The style of the Intelligencer's editorial
management deserves a mention. There used to be often a sparseness of
leading articles, succeeded at intervals by the production of a paper
covering a page or more, always written with force and ability, but at
the same time rather too solid for the general reader.' Into the cause
of the death of the Intelligence). we need not here inquire. It was
prosperous under the son of our old townsman, Mr. Gales, who, in the
free atmosphere of the New World, followed out the career his father had
begun here. After he ceased his labours and went to his rest, the paper
grew more and more out of harmony with the spirit of the times, and paid
the penalty that all newspapers so managed must pay-death. In the autumn
of 1868 an old contributor to the Intelligencer visited Sheffield, and
being curious-as so many Americans are-to see the place from which his
former employer went forth, visited the antique shop in the Hartshead
where Gales commenced and Montgomery continued the then dangerous trade
of editor and publisher. The poetic nine have long deserted the narrow
alley. Where flowers of Parnassus once bloomed, the votaries of Bacchus
then. revelled. In short, the building had been turned into a beershop.
Joiners were removing the quaintly-carved door-case with the ancient
fan-light, to replace them with some more convenient structure in plain
and vulgar deal. The stranger was horrified at the desecration, and,
inquiring, found that the old wood was being removed, with some lumber,
for lighting fires. His plea. for mercy was admitted ; triumphant, he
carried off the old door-case, and out of it had constructed a number of
boxes, one of which is placed in the National Museum at Washington,
suitably inscribed, and bearing a photograph of the premises rendered
sacred by the memory of Gales and Montgomery."

TWISS : It should be added that Montgomery's Hartshead shop is, at the
present time, not a beershop, but a grocer's. The Gales family lived at
Eckington for many years ; the first of the name of whom there is
record, Timothy, was appointed parish clerk in 1707. His son Timothy
married Sarah Clay, of Eckington, in 1735, and their eldest son, Thomas,
was the father of Joseph Gales, of the Hartshead, the proprietor of the
Sheffield Register. He was born February 4, 1761. I have here a copy of
the inscription on the tombstone of the family in Eckington churchyard :

Under this Stone Lie the Remains of three Daughters of THOMAS and SARAH GALES, Of Eckington, and sisters of JOSEPH GALES, who died at Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., August 24, 1841, aged 80 years. ELIZABETH GALES, Departed this life, February 16, 1821, Aged 49 years. Farewell, beloved, we meet again. ANNE GALES, Died January 17, 1838, aged 70 years. Jesus saith unto her, I am the Resurrection and the Life." SARAH GALES, Died February 18, 1857, aged 84 years. With these sisters, together andseverally, lived for more than sixty years (dying in the presence of the last-named, at Sheffield, April 30,1854), JAMES MONTGOMERY, The Christian Poet, Patriot, and Philanthropist. Requiescat in pace.


WRAGG: It was in the Hartshead and Watson's walk (so called from Messrs.
Watson's silversmiths' factory) that the first eating-houses were
established; now there is not one left.

LEONARD: Yes, I understand the name of the proprietor of one of the
cook-shops there was Thornhill. He lived at a house down Harvest lane,
popularly called " T' hen hole,"because there was a tradition that poultry
feloniously obtained was pushed through a hole into his cellar at night.

LEIGHTON : A little below, too, in Hartshead, Matthias D'Amour kept a "
cook-shop "-the first, I believe, in the town.

LEONARD : D'Amour's " Autobiography " was written for him by the late
Mr. Paul Rodgers, if you will excuse the bull, which is not mine, but
theirs. It is an interesting story of his adventures as a kind of
confidential servant to various gentlemen, and as valet to the Duchess
of Gordon ; but the strangest part of all is that he should settle down
at last in the Hartshead, in Sheffield, as the keeper of " an
eatinghouse and poulterer's shop."

LEIGHTON : That is accounted for by his wife, who had also been in the
service of the Duchess of Gordon, having connections in the
neighbourhood.

LEONARD: In the course of the book we are not once told what was her
maiden name, but her mother lived at Wood hall, some eleven miles from
Sheffield, and she had a brother in Cheney row, whose name also is
omitted. At first, D'Amour set up a canal boat, and conveyed coal
from Whittington and Norwood collieries to Retford; but jealousies
arising, he sold his boat. He came, to Sheffield on the very last day
of the eighteenth century, began his. eating-house at 4, Market street,
did well there, and in four Years removed to the Hartshead, where- he
remained until 1826, when, "trade being much depressed after the panic
of 1825, he and his wife willingly retired front all kind of lit
point of fact, they seem to have lost their money. D'Amour was a native
of Antwerp, and was eighty-six years of age when his life was published.
He lived to the great age of ninety three, not dying until 1842.

LEIGHTON : ln the Hartshead, some sixty years ago, the late Mr. Thomas
Pearson carried on business as a wine merchant, and there realised a
large fortune.

WRAGG : It is said that on his late premises there are two cellars cut
out of the solid rock, one, underneath the other. They are now occupied
by Messr,.J. S. and T. Birks, grocers and wine dealers.

LEIGHTON : Then there was " 'T" oil i' Wall " (The Hole in the Wall) ;
and the house now occupied by 'Mr. Alleroft, with entrances both front
Hartshead and Watson's walk, was kept by Mr. Sam Turner-" Gin Sam," as
he was called, to distinguish him from " Flannel Sam" the draper.
" Gin Sam" was the most gentlemanly landlord I ever met with, both in manner
and conduct. He was particularly good-looking, had it pleasant smile and
a kind word for all about him, and took a pride in waiting upon his
customers himself

TWISS: And his customers included the most respectable business men in
the town. There was more sociableness among the shopkeepers at that time
than now, and the public houses were so kept that orderly folk could go
to them, without injury to themselves or to their reputation.

WRAGG: The doorway of Sam Turner's public-house used to be almost
blocked up on a Saturday night by men crowding to get in and by others
trying to get out. Turner had formerly been a carpet weaver, and had
worked for Mr. Wildsmith, of the Crofts. He got, however, by an
accident, his arm broken, and during the period of enforced idleness
which followed, he married a widow woman, whose name I forget, but who
kept a public-house that was taken down to build the Town Hall. That
would be about 1805.

LEIGHTON : Lower still in Watson's walk was Mrs. Keats's eating-house,
once well known. On. the opposite side, the premises now swallowed up by
Messrs. Cockayne's carpet warehouse were occupied (though somewhat later
than the time we have been speaking of) by a coffee-shop on the ground
floor, the Mechanics' Library and a billiard-room up-stairs. In the
corner 'now engulphed in Messrs. Cockayne's shop were the offices to
which Mr. B. J. Wake-a most honourable man, of whom I always think with
respect and gratituderemoved from Norfolk street about the year 1816 or
1817. What is now the Waterloo Tavern was originally the manufactory of
Messrs. Watson. They were, I believe, silversmiths before plating on
copper was invented. and the premises now occupied by Messrs. Birks and
Mr. Atkinson formed their frontage.

TWISS : It was, if I am not mistaken, in one of the houses you have
named that the amusing interview of Justice Wilkinson with the pugilists
took place.

LEONARD: What Was that?

TWISS : Oh, you must know the story. The old Vicar was noted in his time
as an amateur pugilist; and one day, when he was dining with some local
officials at the house that is now the Turf Tavern, two strangers called
and sent in an urgent request that he would see them. The Vicar, quietly
leaving his companions, complied. What was it they wanted? With some
apologies they told him how great a distance they had come in
consequence of having heard of his fondness for boxing, and buoyed by
the fond hope that he would not disdain, as a particular favour, to give
them a display of his skill. Nothing could please the old Justice
better. With great urbanity he at once assented, the gloves were
procured, and were used with a " science " that convinced the visitors
they had not taken their journey fruitlessly; and in the end they left
well pleased with the success of their mission.

EVERARD : A good story, which I will cap with another, also appropriate
to the locality, and also with a clerical flavour. About the middle of
the last century there lived at Malin Bridge a working man, in humble
circumstances, but who bore a good character amongst his neighbours for
integrity and moral worth, and who was, moreover, a strict Churchman. He
had a son named William, who had attained to an age suitable to receive
the rite of confirmation, according to the ritual of the Church of
England, and his father became very solicitous that this matter should
be attended to without any unnecessary delay. On a certain day the
Archbishop of York held a Confirmation service in the Parish Church, and
this worthy man accompanied his son to Sheffield for the purpose of
attending it. From some misunderstanding *as to the time, it so happened
that on their arrival at the Old Church, the Confirmation service was
over, and the Archbishop, clergy, and congregation were dispersed. What
was to be (lone ? A man of ordinary character would just have returned
home. But, instead of doing so, he ascertained that the Archbishop had
gone down to the house Mr. Leighton has spoken of, in Watson's walk, and
thither the father and son followed him. The servants refused them
access to the Archbishop, as he was just sitting down to. dinner; but,
happening to overhear the altercation, his lordship came to the top of
the stairs and asked what was the matter. The father explained the
circumstances, and the Archbishop, after asking some questions, and
hearing young William. repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, confirmed
him on the stairhead of the public-house! The father and the boy, we may
well suppose, trudged home highly gratified with the enjoyment of so
special a privilege. The son was afterwards the grandfather of a highly
esteemed magistrate recently deceased.

LEONARD : I do not see why you should hesitate to add that the boy so
confirmed was the grandfather of the late Mr. Thomas Dunn. He who had
shown so much determina ion to get the rite administered to his son was
the first of the Dunns-the first also of the Thomas Dunns-resident in
this neighbourhood. He had come from Boston about the year 1780, to be
apprenticed to an ancestor of the late Col. Fenton. His Malin Bridge
house was a neat, substantial cottage, with a pointed gable, covered
with a fruit-tree. It was swept away, along with adjacent buildings, by
the great flood of 1864. The son, William Dunn, the hero of the
confirmation story, was, as that sufficiently shows, brought up a
Churchman ; but, as he subsequently married a strict Dissenter, his son
Thomas, father of the late Mr. Dunn, was educated as a holder of
Nonconformist tenets, and, with his family, he attended Queen Street
Chapel for many years. He was a self-taught man, of much natural
ability, and his tastes are indicated by the fact that he was the first
person who lectured in Sheffield on electricity. His wife was a Holland,
the daughter of a resident at Shiregreen. She was eight months old in
1745, when the Young Pretender and his followers wore marching south;
and, as it was confidently affirmed and implicitly believed that the
rebels would impale every baby on their swords, she was hidden in a
holly bush. The rebels are said to have been within a mile of her
father's house at that time, and every man in the hamlet had gone out to
fight.

LEIGHTON : The fighting may be problematical.

LEONARD : Yes; it is possible that curiosity, rather than valour, had
taken the men away, for we know, as a matter of history, what an
unopposed march the rebels had. This story, however, reminds one of the
tradition that, on his return northwards, Prince Charles Edward visited
Sheffield, and was a guest of the Heatons, in the Pickle. I went into
that question once (as Mr. Brooke, in " Middlemarch, " would say), and I
came to the conclusion that the evidence in support of the story was
very feeble. lt consisted chiefly of dim remembrances of mysterious
transactions, handed down by old Mrs. Heaton, who was a little girl in
1745, to her descendants, and the cherished belief of the family that a
harpsichord, a sword, a wine-glass, and other articles were presents
from the Prince. On the other hand, the known facts of the Young
Pretender's progress and retreat lend no countenance whatever to the
legend.

EVERARD: Mr. Leighton has mentioned the Mechanics' Library, and I think
perhaps you may be interested in hearing some account of an institution
very popular and useful in its day, that has been drawn up by one who
was intimately associated with its management. Do you care to hear it?

ALL: Much.

EVERARD (roads) Half a century has nearly elapsed since the Mechanics'
Library was first established, by resolutions passed at a public
meeting, held in the Town Hall, on December 27th, 1823. Most of the
individuals who took a prominent part in that meeting have passed away,
including Montgomery, the Rev. Dr. Sutton, Sir Arnold Knight, Mr. Edward
Smith, Mr. Asline Ward, the Rev. Thos. Smith, and others.

" From a small beginning the institution went steadily forward,
advancing year by year in public esteem, and strictly adhering to its
original intention of the purchase and circulation of books, without
allowing its funds to to diverted to any other object. In the course of
thirty years it had accumulated 8,000 volumes, enrolled six hundred
members, and had a weekly issue of six hundred books. Of the general
charactor of these works Mr. Montgomery, who was from the first the
president, on a certain occasion bore this testimony:' I offer it as my
deliberate opinion that there does not exist in this kingdom a public
library of miscellaneous literature in which will be found a smaller
proportion of objectionable volumes than in this of the Sheffield
Mechanics. Without meaning the smallest disparagement to what is called
the Gentlemen's Library here, the proportion of books not calculated to
be particularly profitable to the reader, or permanently enhancing the
value of the property itself, is far greater ;' and which difference he
attributed to the large admission of novels, romances, and plays.

" By a certain clause in the 24th rule of the Mechanics' Library,
'novels and plays' were excluded. After things had gone on quietly for
some years, at length the abrogation of this law became the subject of
animated and even stormy debates at the annual meetings. On the one side
the ' Repealers' asserted that to exclude so large a portion of the
current and popular literature of the day was inconsistent with the
library being regarded as a public institution, and also with the fact
of the actual admission of works of ' fiction ' at all; and that it was
unfair towards those members who possessed the taste for that kind of
reading, and was opposed to the entire spirit, freedom, and liberality
of the age. To all this, on the other hand, the ' Constitutionalists'
stoutly maintained that the clause in question was a fundamental
principle of the institution, and could not be repealed without a broach
of faith with the original donors of money and books, which had been
solicited and given on that express under. standing; that to make the
change required would be to alter the entire character of the library,
and to lessen it in public esteem and confidence; that the funds were
much more wisely and profitably expended in solid standard works, which
would tend to improve the intellectual and moral character much more
effectually than the reading such ephemeral productions as 'novels;' and
that, whatever the library might happen to lose in subscriptions by
adhering to the rule, it would be likely to lose much more by cancelling
it.

" So the controversy went on at the annual meetings with more or less of
acrimony, common sense, wit, and logic on both sides; but, on the whole,
it was carried on in the spirit of fairness. This yearly breeze did the
institution no harm, but rather good. It tended to purify the atmosphere
and invigorate the life, and was not the occasion of anything worse than
a very slight and temporary interruption of the general good feeling
prevalent amongst the members.

" In 1853 a soiree was held in the Cutlers' Hall, on which occasion the
Mayor, Francis Hoole, Esq., was in the chair, and

the late Earl Fitzwilliam was present and made an excellent speech. The
object in view in holding this meeting was of a strictly practical
nature, namely, that of placing more prominently before the public the
claims and privileges of the institution. One thing that especially
commended it to favour was that it was not sectarian either in religion
or politics. Its members consisted of every class of religion and all
shades of politics.

" The Mechanics' Library thus went on year by year in its unostentatious
course of practical usefulness, furnishing the means of self-improvement
and intellectual gratification to hundreds who, without such provision,
would not have entered on the course of life with the same advantages,
and many of whom now, in middle life or advanced in years, look back
upon the institution with no ordinary feelings of kindly regard and
thankfulness.

"The Mechanics' Library had been established about seven years when Mr.
Hebblethwaite was appointed secretary, which office he sustained, with
only a brief interruption, for nearly thirty years. He had been a member
from its comenencement, and, in a speech delivered on the occasion of
the presentation of a testimonial at the close of his services, he
remarked:-' I was present at the origin of this library, at a meeting in
the old Town Hall, on Saturday morning in Christmas week. It was an
inauspicious time, but yet the room was crowded to excess. I have now
before me the names of those who addressed the meeting. I was then a
stripling, but I was intensely interested in the proceedings. I stood
for three hours-for I could not get a seat-to hear the addresses, and
none made a greater impression upon me than a speech of the late Rev. T.
Smith, who was then at his best. It had a great influence on me at the
time. He beautifully depicted the benefits such an institution might
confer on the working men of Sheffield, and he mentioned the case of a
working man of his acquaintance who, though spending forty years of his
life in a cotton manufactory, had mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, was
well versed in mathematics, and had considerable knowledge of medicine.
This man had had a wife and seven children to maintain by his own
labour, but no family in the town was more respectable, no children were
better fed, clothed, and educated, and several of them were reading
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew with their father. This account of what a
working man had done stimulated me to desire to do likewise, and renewed
my ardour in the studies in which I was engaged. Thus the institution
has imparted a bias to my life and character, and no doubt it has done
the same thing for many others. It was no slight *privilege as secretary
of this institution to enjoy intercourse with its late president, Mr.
Montgomery. I frequently saw him, and received from him such kindness as
was most important to a young man in the position I was called to. The
benefits that have resulted from this library, directly and indirectly,
have been great. It has been the pioneer of some other institutions that
have since flourished.'

" The office of secretary, to which Mr. Hebblethwaite was appointed and
which he so long satisfactorily filled, was not one of honorary
distinction, but required much time, thought, and work. These duties he
discharged with a punctuality that seldom failed, and with uniform
courtesy. One of his chief qualities was that of aptitude in matters of
business. In fact, he may justly be said to have been a ' model'
secretary. All that he advised and did bore a certain impress of clear-
sightedness, promptitude, and despatch. At the committee meetings (at
which Montgomery, as long as he could, attended) there was scarcely ever
a document wanting, an account incompleted, or minutes unentered, or any
special business that he had engaged to do unattended to. All the
matters to be considered and determined were clearly and orderly
arranged. The discharge of these duties involved an amount of time and
labour, cheerfully devoted to them, of which few can form any adequate
conception. There can be no question that the institution was greatly
indebted to his steady attentions and personal influence for the extent
of its usefulness and the estimation in which it was held by the public.
Besides his connection with the library, Mr. Hebblethwaite, for not less
than thirty years, was the teacher of a large and efficient day school,
and also, for more than the same period, the superintendent of a Sunday
school; so that it may be safely affirmed that few menperhaps no manever
exerted a greater or more beneficial influence on the minds of the youth
in this town. Highly and generally esteemed by the members, as well as
by the rest of the community, after a long course of honorary service,
Mr. Hebblethwaite retired a short time before the institution was merged
into the Free Library.

" On the formation of the Free Library it became quite evident that an
institution supported by a public rate levied on all householders must
seriously injure, and eventually destroy, one sustained by voluntary
subscription. Such was the result. The Mechanics' Library became
absorbed into the Free Library, and now only exists as a pleasant memory
of the past.

" But as naturally identified and long connected with that institution,
we now proceed to notice the librarian. Mr. Alfred Smith was as much a
Sheffield notability, and in certain respects of a similar old-fashioned
type, as the late Mr. John Holland. His father was a currier, for some
time living in Queen street, but afterwards he removed to Fig Tree lane.
Mr. Smith brought up his two sons, Alfred and Frederick, to the
business; and I have myself often seen Alfred with his apron on and
shirt sleeves turned up above the elbows, standing at the shop-door.
That shop was a stone building, apparently two centuries old, with small
leaded window-panes, a little above Mr. Haxworth's surgery, in Fig Tree
lane. Alfred's father was a respectable and shrewd man, possessing more
than an ordinary share of information, and well known to the public men
of that day. He greatly admired, and was intimately acquainted with `
Montgomery, and stood by the poet on one of the occasions when he was
examined and committed to prison by the magistrates, and went to fetch
the persons who became his sureties.

"Mr Smith, the father, was a stanch Liberal in politics, and the old
'currier shop' was a kind of meeting-place, where the most active local
politicians of the time used frequently to resort for the purpose of
learning the news and discussing public affairs. To that spot the late
vicar, Dr. Sutton, used to repair to obtain information as to any event
that was exciting public interest. It must be remembered that at that
time there were no daily penny newspapers, or railway conveyance, or
transmission of communications by telegraph. Young Alfred, as he
listened to these discussions with attentive ears and eager interest,
imbibed those political views and principles which, in a modified form,
he ever afterwards held and believed in. He became in early life well
known to Montgomery, and ever entertained for the poet a profound
respect. He often spoke of Mr. Montgomery in such terms of high eulogy
as seemed almost to amount to a kind of idolatry.

" For some time after the Mechanics' Library was first established, the
work of librarian was done by voluntary services. Afterwards, Mr. Clegg
was appointed to that office, and, on his resignation, Mr. Alfred Smith.
On the occasion of the election Montgomery spoke of him in very kindly
and favourable terms. On being duly installed into the office, his
manners of old-fashioned politeness and efforts to oblige soon won the
good-will and esteem of the generality of the members. With kindly
feelings will many of them, recall to memory his personal appearance.
There was certainly something striking about it, including the bald
head, high forehead, and long, pale, and unwhiskered face. His
countenance, it will be remembered, was naturally grave, and on certain
special occasions it was apt to assume that stronger expression of
gravity that approached very nearly to the stolid and impassive.

" But, unlike this outward appearance, he was of a very cheerful,
kind-hearted, and genial disposition. He had an extensive knowledge of
books of a certain kind, and his ordinary conversation was rendered
interesting by curious scraps and quaint conceits. His memory was very
extraordinary, and, indeed, was the chief faculty of his mental
constitution. He knew the greater part of Hudibras by heart, and could
give citations to any length. Montgomery, of course, was a very
favourite author; and he often repeated passages both from his published
poems and also from some others, which I suspect have escaped even the
keen scrutinising search of the late Mr. Holland. In his younger days
he had himself composed a considerable amount of poetry, which he
could repeat to any extent. But it was in the doggerel style and
Hudibrastic vein ; and it is very doubtful whether he possessed the
requisite literary taste and ability to have written anything that would
at all have stood the critical ordeal if printed in a volume.

" Notwithstanding some manifest imperfections, he yet succeeded to a
considerable extent in giving satisfaction; and it may be questioned
whether a more clever business man would, on the whole, have served the
interests of the library better than the good-tempered, humorous,
gossiping, and somewhat eccentric ' librarian.' He certainly bad often
to manifest a great deal of patience ; but, on the other hand, it is
only fair to say he frequently required a large exercise of that said
excellent quality towards himself. On certain occasions, whilst he was
reciting poetry or telling some ***** story, might be seen more than
half-a-dozen youngsters waiting for an exchange of books, who, with
eager looks were listening with delight to what he was saying; whilst
amongst them might be a man who thought his time of some value, who
would, with signs of anger and impatience, remonstrate against such
delay. Instantly the tale would be cut short, and the applicant's wishes
attended to, with many apologies and efforts to conciliate and oblige.

" On the occasion of Montgomery's funeral, with a large scarf around his
hat, Alfred Smith was mounted on the box beside the driver of the
carriage in which were the secretary, vice-president, and other officers
of the Mechanics' Library leading up the procession. All along the road
lined with spectators he was quietly recognised, and thus, by mere
Accident, occupied a prominent position in paying his tribute of respect
to the venerated poet. Soon after this event his health began visibly to
fail, and he gradually sank into a debilitated condition; but still,
notwithstanding all persuasions to the contrary, he resolutely attended,
to almost the last day of his life, at the library, thus finishing his
twenty-five years of faithful and conscientious service. During that
period it was the writer's privilege to enjoy very frequent and pleasant
intercourse, and also at the end to follow him to his grave, and see his
mortal remains interred in the Pitsmoor Churchyard.

" With his name the remembrance of the Sheffield Mechanics' Library will
ever remain closely associated-an institution which may fairly claim to
have fulfilled its original design for about forty years, by furnishing
the means, at little cost, of reading valuable works on arts, science,
literature, and religion, which were adapted to improve the intellect
and to form and establish the moral and religious character."

WRAGG: Thank you. Our friend Leighton has, I see,fallen asleep, which is
a reminder that we ought to be going home. [Exeunt.]

This out of copyright material has been transcribed by Eric Youle, who has provided the transcription on condition that any further copying and distribution of the transcription is allowed only for noncommercial purposes, and includes this statement in its entirety.

Any references to, or quotations from, this material should give credit to the original author(s) or editors.

[syrup]

Hi Fellow SHs There is refference in this post to stocks in Sheffield and there whereabuts one being The Old Sugar House Sheffield Moor what and where would this have been ? .

EVERARD : The lamp in the centre of the Square has taken the place of

the old cross shaft, removed there from Snig hill head ; but the steps

up to it are, I should think Unchanged. The stocks were removed there

from the Church

WRAGG. : And drunken men were placed in them on Sundays

for punishment. The practice had to be dropped because of the

disturbances it caused. The last instance of a drunken man being placed

in the stocks was forty-three or forty-four years ago.

LEIGHTON: What became of the stocks in the Square?

WRAGG: When they got out of order, the two pieces of wood that confined

the delinquents' feet became loose, and the late Mr. W. H. Clayton, the

broker under the steps in the Square, removed them into his back yard

for safety. There they remained for years, and no one ever inquired for

them.

EVERARD: There were stocks also at Bridgehouses, opposite the end of the

iron bridge; at Attercliffe; near Ecelesall Chapel; and near the old Sugar House, Sheffield moor.

[huthwaite]

Hi Fellow SHs There is refference in this post to stocks in Sheffield and there whereabuts one being The Old Sugar House Sheffield Moor what and where would this have been ? .

EVERARD : The lamp in the centre of the Square has taken the place of

the old cross shaft, removed there from Snig hill head ; but the steps

up to it are, I should think Unchanged. The stocks were removed there

from the Church

WRAGG. : And drunken men were placed in them on Sundays

for punishment. The practice had to be dropped because of the

disturbances it caused. The last instance of a drunken man being placed

in the stocks was forty-three or forty-four years ago.

LEIGHTON: What became of the stocks in the Square?

WRAGG: When they got out of order, the two pieces of wood that confined

the delinquents' feet became loose, and the late Mr. W. H. Clayton, the

broker under the steps in the Square, removed them into his back yard

for safety. There they remained for years, and no one ever inquired for

them.

EVERARD: There were stocks also at Bridgehouses, opposite the end of the

iron bridge; at Attercliffe; near Ecelesall Chapel; and near the old Sugar House, Sheffield moor.

James Bennet staunch Methodist supporter in the second part of the 1700's, learnt the skill of sugar refining whilst working in London and on his return to Sheffield opened what was to become one of the largest sugar refining business's in the country, his "Sugar House" was near the bottom of Coalpit Lane and Union Street, apparently methodist ministers used to preach from a cask outside.

[RichardB]

Edward BENNET sugar baker Union Street Gales & Martin 1787

John BENNET sugar refiner Universal 1791

The Revill/Revell family were involved in the trade as well, certainly from as early as 1811.

[syrup]

James Bennet staunch Methodist supporter in the second part of the 1700's, learnt the skill of sugar refining whilst working in London and on his return to Sheffield opened what was to become one of the largest sugar refining business's in the country, his "Sugar House" was near the bottom of Coalpit Lane and Union Street, apparently methodist ministers used to preach from a cask outside.

Hi huthwaite Thanks for that i must be looking at the wrong sites as i could find no refference to it..

[RichardB]

and this is only Chapter 1, tremendous stuff, I wonder what the real name of Mr Twiss was ... ?

[Edmund]

and this is only Chapter 1, tremendous stuff, I wonder what the real name of Mr Twiss was ... ?

...and after four and a half years... the answer is:

from the preface of Leader's update on Reminiscences - "Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century" (1901)

[RichardB]

Required reading, the whole thing, then read it again.

[Ponytail]

Plan of Sugar House, Union Street, Sheffield, the property of Mr Revel. December 1826.

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc01830&pos=133&action=zoom&id=71183

 

Improvements in South Street, Coalpit Lane, Balm Green and Hereford Street, with a selection of part of South Street and Jessop Street, 1825. 

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc04251&pos=2&action=zoom&id=105413

Marked: South Street [The Moor], road from Manchester, Younge Street [Young Street], Bennets Lane [Bennett Lane], Hereford Street, [Jail, Fail, Tail Street?], Bright Street, Cumberland [Street], Jessop Street, T. Holy's garden [Holy Green], Earl Street, Rockingham Street, Landers Lane, Duke Street, Carver Street, Ward Street, Porter Lane, Union Street, Sugar House, Furnival Street, Coalpit Lane, Burgess Street, Cross Street, Pinston Street [Pinstone Street], St Paul's, Charles Street, Norfolk Street, Balm Green, Far Gate, an Division Street.

 

A plan of the ground before the front of John Hoole's House [between The Moor and Porter Street] 1796.

Surveyor: William Fairbank II.

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc03494&pos=3&action=zoom&id=98790

Shows Sugar House. Also Marked: Turnpike Road; Porter Lane, Samuel Broomhead Ward; 

 

Sugar House not marked on this Plan but used as a point of reference. 

Plan of John Hoole's tenements near the Sugar House,1788. 

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;arc03704&pos=4&action=zoom&id=99280

Marked: Little Sheffield Moor West; Porter Lane; Union Lane; a fourteen foot lane; a twenty foot lane; Joseph Swift's leasehold. 

 

Probably Joseph Swift was leasing the property known as Sugar House?