Thomas Brand Hollis-an "English radical republican" at The Hyde, Ingatestone, Essex

Thomas Brand Hollis (1719-1804) - an "English radical republican" at The Hyde, Ingatestone, Essex

This exhibition is to take place at Ingatestone Library from 2 - 24 December 2011, and will initially form part of the Ingatestone Victorian Christmas Evening on Friday 2 December, from 18.00 - 20.30.

This will be a study of the life of the owner of The Hyde Estate, Ingatestone, concentrating on his friendships with John Adams (First US Ambassador in London, first Vice-President and second President of the United States) and his holiday in Ingatestone in July 1786; and William Godwin (political philosopher, husband of Mary Wollstonecraft and father of Mary Shelley) who met Brand Hollis regularly and also visited him at The Hyde in the 1790s and just before his death. Brand Hollis's correspondents and circle of friends in radical and Dissenting circles was wide. In this country it included Godwin, Thomas Paine, John Horne Tooke, Thomas Holcroft, Samuel Romilly, Joseph Priestley, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and John Disney, who acquired Brand Hollis's estate. In the American colonies and United States he was close to Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. In France his friends included La Fayette and PĂŠtion and others in the French Jacobin Clubs.

Extracts from documents and letters from the time will be on display with photographs taken of The Hyde and places in Essex visited by the Adams family on their stay in Ingatestone and news items from the Chelmsford Chronicle which reveal the issues and concerns of the period 1780-1820, some of which still have contemporary echoes. The exhibition will contain details of the visit of John Adams to the offices of the Chelmsford Chronicle in July 1786 and a fascinating connection between Daniel Sutton, the Ingatestone smallpox inoculator, and Thomas Jefferson's slave Sally Hemings.

(Contact: INGATESTONE LIBRARY: 01277 354705 or ROBERT FLETCHER: 01277 354431)

1

“Tuesday last the hon. J. Adams, ambassador from the United States of America, and gen. (sic) Smith, aide de camp to gen. Washington, during the last war, attended by T. Brand Hollis esq., and several other persons of distinction, paid a visit to this town. It cannot but afford singular pleasure to the philosophic citizen of the world, and to the heart of general philanthropy, to see Britains and Americans, so lately agitated with strong animosity, already forgetting what is past, and looking forward to the future, chearfully mingle in the intercourse of social harmony, and mutually eager to join in measures conducive to the common felicity”1 When I read this back in the summer2, I thought I had noticed it before but had never bothered to follow it up. This time I did and the current exhibition is a result of this several months research.

Recently, John Donne’s words, “...When Thou hast done, Thou/hast not done,/For I have more” from his A Hymn To God The Father, have seemed appropriate to this task, as each time I thought I had things in order some other revelation would appear. After the John Adams material I then by chance came upon the William Godwin connection simply after reading a review of the first volume of his letters, which had just been published, and followed up a reference to his dairies which the Bodleian in Oxford had put online, to find meetings with both Brand Hollis and John Disney Senior. Then very recently, by chance again, I discovered a connection between Daniel Sutton the smallpox inoculator of Ingatestone and Jefferson’s mixed-race slave and mistress Sarah (Sally) Hemings, and as Brand Hollis had met and corresponded with Jefferson we had a connection both ways, and as I show later on, a possible explanation for the American’s awareness of the Suttonian inoculation process used on Sally in Paris in 1787.

I have not tried to set out a detailed biography of Brand Hollis, the details of this can be found in both Wilde, Yearsley, his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry and most recently in Graham Brereton’s nice pamphlet prepared for Ingatestone Church which is on sale there. The study has made me aware of the often political and religious self-censorship in Wilde, in that Brand Hollis’s American sympathies are mentioned but nothing else and Richard Stubbs, the Rector of Fryerning who met Godwin, has several pages on his life but nothing on his beliefs. I have always felt that the Wilde book, as iconic locally as it is, is flawed by firstly the almost complete absence of the railway and, most glaringly, the disability of publication in 1913. What a different book we could have had if Wilde had published in 1919 or 1920, and what a different view of village life it might reveal. As for the Disneys, and particularly the “Walt” one, I will say to those who may ask me, that John Disney Senior did not come here to live until 1804, whereas Walt’s forebears were from Ireland, settling first in Canada and then Chicago in the early 1800s. So there is no “d’Isigny-fication” of culture or history here. I try to be three and not just two dimensional. Having recently noticed a reference to a local Dick Whittington myth in a local estate agent’s magazine I feel very strongly about this kind of thing!

I have many people and bodies to thank, and I have given these thanks at the end, together with as many as the references to websites and publications which may be of interest for further reading and study.

Robert W Fletcher Ingatestone, Essex, England December 2011 1

From the Chelmsford Chronicle 28 July 1786. The microfilm copy of this article held in Chelmsford Library is actually virtually unreadable due to the turn of the page but see Grieve below 2 Hilda Grieve, The Sleepers and the Shadows: Volume 2, (Chelmsford: Essex Record Office Publications, 1994), p230

2

Chelmsford Chronicle 23 August 1776

The American Declaration of Independence of the 4 July 1776 in the Chronicle in August 1776. The Oxford DNB3 tells us that Brand Hollis reprinted the United Sates constitution. In the absence of daily newspapers in Essex, the Friday Chronicle was circulated by a number of agents in Essex and the Eastern Counties and included international and national news and items from the Court, from the London Gazette, as well as local news, letters and adverts, many for medicinal remedies. Very few submissions, like those from Brand Hollis, would be attributed directly and letters say on agricultural matters would be signed “An Essex Yeoman�. Poems, often about this time on political reform or the Slave Trade, will be signed by some mock-heroic person. The only persons who would get a direct reference would be King George III or the Regent on a proclamation and the names on treaties would be listed.

3

See Thomas Brand Hollis, Colin Bonwick (Oxford; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online 2004-11).

This can be accessed by Essex Library members online using ELAN number and password and signing in as an Essex Libraries member

3

Declaration of Independence of the United States of America 04 July 1776 (From the educational website: classroom.monticello.org)

4

Chelmsford Chronicle 19 September 1783

Chelmsford Chronicle 03 October 1783 The Treaty of Paris on 03 September 1783, which formally ended the War of Independence, signed

by Hartley, the King’s minister plenipotentiary, and the Americans. The terms of this were to give both Adams and Jefferson headaches in the years to follow, as they tried to agree settlement of the debts due to British merchants and deal with Indian trouble on their borders, complicated by the slowness of the British in withdrawing their troops from United States territory. Another concern for them both was to be the ability of the new nation to find finance and credit and to seek trade agreements, and this was to keep both US First Ministers busy in London and Paris with their trips to Dutch bankers.

5

Chelmsford Chronicle 10 June 1785

John Adams arrives in London as First Minister in May 1785 and soon purchases his house at 9 Grosvenor Square, London as Embassy, not the site of the current building. His house at number 9 bears a plaque erected in 1933 by the Colonial Dames of America.

John Disney in his memoir refers to Brand Hollis talking of Adams’ meeting with the King as follows: “I wish you, sir, to believe,” (said the king to Mr Adams at his first audience) “and that it may be understood in America, that I have done nothing in the late contest, but what I thought myself indispensably bound to do by the duty I owed my people. I will be very frank with you, sir, I was the last to consent to the separation being made; but that having been inevitable, I have already said, and I say now, that I will be the last to disturb the independence of the United States, or in any way infringe their rights” “Mr Adams said this to Thomas Brand Hollis, October 178-“4

4

John Disney, Memoirs of Thomas Brand Hollis Esq. F.R.S. AND S.A., (London: Gillet 1808), p.13

6

Chelmsford Chronicle 16 December 1785

Joseph Brant (1743-1807) - painted in London by Gilbert Stuart in 17865

This article shows the problems Adams had to deal with in respect of trouble with the various Indian nations. Brant was a Mohawk, who had sided with the British, and following the War of Independence they had had mainly moved over the border into Canada. Brant had an audience with King George III, asking for assistance, and then a few weeks later travelled on to Paris and from there back to Quebec, no doubt avoiding any American vessels or ports.6 In 1792 he was in Philadelphia, invited

by President Washington, who tried to get him to return to the USA; an offer he refused. He died and was buried in Ontario, but he never received the fame awarded to the later Shawnee warrior Tecumseh who died fighting in the War of 1812 for the British and Canadian forces.

5 6

See his entry on Wikipedia The Chronicle mentions his departure, but calls him a Cherokee Chief

7

Chelmsford Chronicle 14 July 1786

8

Visit of John Adams and family to The Hyde, Ingatestone; Monday 24 July 1786 – Friday 28 July 1786 From the John Adams diary 45, 24-28 July 17867: “JULY 24 1786 MONDAY Went with Mr Bridgen, Col. Smith, Mrs Smith, to The Hide in Essex the Country Seat of Brand Hollis Esqr8. We breakfasted at Rumford,

Romford Market – early 20th century and turned out of the Way to see the Seat of Lord Petre at Thorndon. Mr Hollis prefers the Architecture of this House to that of Stow, because it is more conformable to Paladio, his Bible for this kind of Knowledge. There are in the back Front six noble Corinthian Pillars”. ....

July 24. 1786 Monday 7

John Adams diary 45, 24-28 July 1786 (electronic edition), pages 1-4, Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/, Massachusetts Historical Society 8 Brand Hollis’ London house was in Chesterfield Street, Mayfair, just a short walk from Adams at the embassy

9

We dined at the Hide, with Mr. Brand Hollis and his Sister Miss Brand9. This is a curious Place. The House is the Residence of an Antiquarian, as most of the Apartments as well as the great Hall, sufficiently shew. ...... ...We have a pleasant View of Lawns and Glades, Trees and Clumps and a Piece of Water, full of Fish.

The lake at The Hyde-2011 The Borders, by the Walks, in the Pleasure Grounds, are full of rare Shrubbs and Trees, to which Collection America has furnished her full Share.....Mr. Brand Hollis has, planted near the Walk from his Door to the Road, a large and beautifull Furr, in Honour of the late Dr Jebb10 his Friend. A Tall Cyprus in his Pleasure Grounds he calls General Washington, and another his Aid du Camp Col. Smith.11

Cedar at The Hyde, in front of the site of the old house-2011 THE HIDE JULY 25 1786 TUESDAY Mr. Brand Hollis and Miss. Brand, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Mr. And Mrs. Adams, took a ride to Chelmsford, stopped at a Booksellers, the Printer of a Newspaper in which Mr. B. Hollis had printed 12 the late Act of Virginia in Favour of equal religious Liberty

9

Miss Elizabeth Brand John Jebb (1736–1786) was an English divine, medical doctor, and religious and political reformer.

11 William Stephens Smith (1755-1816) was Adams’ son in law and Secretary at the embassy 12 Chelmsford Chronicle (Messrs Clachar and Gray the editors in High Street, Chelmsford. The current Essex Chronicle). Published on 14 July 1786-see page 8 10

10

Chelmsford Chronicle 14 July 1786 We then went to Moulsham Hall, built originally by Lord Fitzwalter, but lately owned by Sir William Mildmay, one of the Commissaries with Governor Shirley at Paris in 1754, for settling the Boundaries between the French and English in America. ...

Old Mildmay coat of arms at Chelmsford Museum-2011

11

We returned by another road through the race grounds13.....

Old Race Course at Galleywood

Whites Bridge Margaretting-road to The Hyde

13

Chelmsford Race Course was in Galleywood and the railings and some of the circuit still remain

12

...to the Hide and after Dinner, made a Visit to the Gardiners House to see his Bees. He is Bee mad, Mr. B. Hollis says. ...

Bee hives at The Hyde in front of the Coach House-2011 The Hide July 25. Tuesday...

JULY 26. WEDNESDAY Mr. B. Hollis, Miss Brand, Mrs. Adams, Mrs. Smith, and I walked to Mill Green, or Mill Hill14 the Seat of a Mr. Allen a Banker of London. We walked over the Pleasure Grounds and Kitchen Garden and down to Cocytus, a canal or Pond of Water surrounded with Wood in such a Manner as to make the Place gloomy enough for the Name. This is a good Spot, but Mr. Allen has, for want of Taste, spoiled it by new Pickett Fences at a great Expence. He has filled up the Ditches and dug up the Hedges and erected wooden Fences and brick Walls, a folly that I believe in these days is unique. They are very good, civil People, but have no Taste.15

The current Mill Green House

14

I think this must have been a walk via The Grove in Little Hyde Lane to Mill Green, and possibly Old Mill Green House, on the site of the present Mill Green House 15 Mrs A Adams Smith also comments on this walk in a letter to her brother John Quincy Adams and her description of the walk back to The Hyde suggests this location (27 July 1786). The question of “Taste� was an important topic in the Enlightenment, discussed, among others, by the philosopher David Hume

13

New development at the Lightoaks site at Mill Green

Current footpath from Hardings Lane, Mill Green to The Grove and Little Hyde Lane THE HIDE JULY 27. 1786. THURSDAY Went with Mrs. Adams to Braintree about Eighteen miles from the Hide. ...The Country between Chelmsford and Braintree, is pleasant and fertile, tho less magnificent in Buildings and Improvements than many other Parts of England: but it is generally tillage Land and covered with good Crops of barley, oats, Rye, Wheat and Buckwheat. ...

Braintree is at present the Residence only of very ordinary People, manufacturers only of Bays’s

14

Chelmsford was probably named in Compliment to Mr. Hooker who was once Minister of that Town in Essex....

Thomas Hooker memorial adjacent to The Shire Hall, Chelmsford JULY 28 1786. FRYDAY Returned to Grosvenor Square to Dinner.�

15

John Adams’ daughter, Abigail (Nabby) Adams Smith, referred to the holiday at The Hyde in a letter dated 27 July 1786 to her brother John Quincy Adams. She made the following comments regarding the visit to Thorndon: “...Viewing the Houses and Gardens of Noblemen, constitutes one of the principle Summer amusements of this Country, Natives as well as strangers, and the Gardens of all the Nobility are open to the Latter. ...The Houses are generally seen only by Tickets from the Owner,...”16 She says that The Hyde: “...stands, half a mile from the Road, upon a plain. At some distance it seems to be sarrounded with hills, Coverd with wood.”

View towards Margaretting from The Hyde “Before the House are three other ponds, which have fish of various kinds in them, the ponds are not large, but have an agreeable affect.”

“Tuesday (25 July) ...After dinner we walkd-out as Mr S. Amused himself with attempting to take Fish.”

“Thursday 27. ...We amused ourselvs in the Morning with fishing, and walking, but could ceatch no fish large enough to eat, so they were only removed from one pond to another still enjoying their Lives Liberty”

16

This, and following extracts from Abigail Adams Smith to John Quincy Adams, 27 July 1786, Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2007. http://www.masshist.org/ff/ - Abigail incorrectly calls Ingatestone “Torrington in the County of Essex” possibly confusing the Devon town with the area from which some of her father’s relatives emigrated from

16

William Stephens Smith (1755-1816) - the fisherman at the Hyde and first US Marshal of New York17

18

Abigail Adams Smith (1765-1813) – painted by Mather Brown in 1786

17

The “Mr S.” in the letter quoted above. See http://www.usmarshals.gov/history/firstmarshals/smith.htm Nabby is one of the first well-known woman to undergo a mastectomy, performed in her home in October 1811. Unfortunately the cancer returned. (See James S. Olsen “Bathsheba’s Breast: Women, Cancer and History” (John Hopkins UP, 2002). The attempted attack on King George III by Margaret Nicholson is also mentioned by Nabby in this letter (the event was depicted in the film The Madness of King George (1994) ).

18

17

Chelmsford Chronicle 28 July 1786 – more Indian trouble, but peaceful cricket in Essex

18

The Spread Eagle Posting House, High Street, Ingatestone before demolition in the 1960s

John and Abigail Adams were back through Ingatestone again in August 1786, as JA had to go to Holland to deal with official business. Adams’ letter of 5 August 1786 describes the journey through here to Harwich where he was at The Three Cups Inn waiting for the Packet Boat: “Three Cup’s Harwich August.5.1786.Saturday19 ...We came very leisurely, dined the first day at Ingatestone....As fortune would have it, Hearn is the Captain.20 ...The Country from London to Harwich is very delightfull, we were not much incommoded by dust.

We found a card at woods21, from mr Hollis requesting us to call on him and take dinner or Bed &c.

We reachd woods about 2 oclock orderd our dinner and walkd to the Hide. Mr Hollis received us with great Hospitality, and miss Brands countanance shone. She treated us with some cake, we Sat an hour took our leave and dined at Woods.”

It appears therefore, that the Adams had lunch at The Spread Eagle. They then went on to Witham where they slept, and from there on the next day, to Harwich via Mistley. According to a German lady traveller on this route in 1786, the Posting Houses along the London – Harwich Packet route had connections with each other to arrange for changes of horses. 22

19

John and Abigail Adams to William Stephens Smith, 5 August 1786, Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2007. http://www.masshist.org/ff/ 20

Thomas Hearn commander of “Prince of Wales (1780-1805)-see I F Trinder, The Harwich Packets 1635-1834, (Colchester: I F Trinder, 1998), App. B, p144 21 Almost certainly William Woods, who was landlord of the Spread Eagle at 1791 and up to 1833. See www.deadpubs.co.uk/Essex/Pubs/Ingatestone/seagle.shtml 22 Trinder, p89

19

Chelmsford Chronicle 15 June 1787

Adams was back through Ingatestone again in 1787, after another visit to Holland, probably to agree 23 a further loan with bankers in The Hague (In the film Jefferson in Paris , Jefferson, played by Nick Nolte, takes a trip to The Hague to agree a loan he says “to pay the interest on the first loan�). Disney states that Adams visited The Hyde in 1786 and 1787, but this is the only real evidence I can find of 24 an occasion in 1787 when he might have stopped off on the way to Harwich or back to London.

Chelmsford Chronicle 29 February 1788 John Adams returns to American and calls in to the King to take his formal leaving.

23 24

Film Jefferson in Paris, Director: James Ivory, 1995 Disney, p12

20

Chelmsford Chronicle 07 March 1788

It is announced that John Adams will not be replaced by an actual ambassador, but a trade consul.

Chelmsford Chronicle 28 March 1788

The Dutch award Adams a medal in recognition of his services and the way that he conducted himself in the various trade and financial discussions.

21

Abigail Adams (1744-1818) The Disney memoir contains a letter from Mrs Adams written in New York dated 6 September 1790.

John Adams (1735-1826)-First US Ambassador to the UK, First Vice-President and Second President of the United States of America.

(His son John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was to become the Sixth president of the United States, serving between 1825-1829)

The Disney memoir includes several letters to Thomas Brand Hollis from Adams after his return to Boston, and he writes warmly of his visits to The Hyde.

22

Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson and the Daniel Sutton smallpox inoculation connection

Sally Hemings as played by Thandie Newton in the film Jefferson in Paris (Dir. Ivory, 1995) (There are no known pictures of her, only descriptions of her appearance)

Thomas Jefferson’s mixed-race slave and mistress Sarah (Sally) Hemings (1773-1835) came to London in June 1787 aged 14, accompanying Jefferson’s daughter Mary (Polly) on their way to Paris from America where Jefferson was First Minister. After staying a while with the Adams family in London, they were accompanied to Paris in July. In November of that year, Jefferson paid $4025 to have Sally inoculated for smallpox by Robert Sutton Junior, the brother of Daniel Sutton who had his practice in Ingatestone on the site of Brandiston House in the High Street. His country house was at Maisonette in Fryerning. Maisonette, much altered, is still there but Brand Hollis’s The Hyde house 25

Fawn M Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, (London: Eyre Methuen, 1974), p233 and Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, (New York: Norton, 2008), see Part II all of Chapter 10-“Dr Sutton”

23

was destroyed by fire in 1965. Gordon–Reed says26 that Daniel Sutton, with his father-in-law Dr Worlock27, set up the practice in Paris and that he was the “Family impresario”. She states that there is no real record of how Jefferson came to know of Sutton and how he contacted him, but as Brand 28 Hollis had met Jefferson in London in 1786 and had at least two dinners with him , it is possible that they spoke about smallpox inoculation and that the Ingatestone man mentioned his famous neighbour. As Sutton was at Maisonette until at least 1792, when the house was rented, and he was travelling up to his London house, Brand Hollis must have been aware of him and even met him occasionally. I suggest that this could be how Jefferson came to be aware of the Suttons and Robert Sutton Junior in Paris and his services.

Jefferson and his family, including Sally and her brother James, who had trained as a cook, returned to Virginia in 1789 although both could have stayed behind as free citizens in France. However, Sally was now pregnant with her first child, certainly Jefferson’s, and her master had agreed to support her and any future children (she eventually had at least six children who were believed to be Jefferson’s) and probably due to the support offered, and the political situation in France, Sally was prepared to go back to America where she was never officially freed.

In 1802, with Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) as third President, the scandal was revealed by a Richmond newspaper with allegations that Sally was his mistress and had born him children (his “Dusky Sally”) and it was never actually denied. Recent DNA tests seem to confirm a connection between them. Either way, it is an interesting historical link for the village of Ingatestone, and Daniel 29 Sutton (1735-1819), who has no Oxford DNB entry.

Brandiston House, High Street, Ingatestone-site of Daniel Sutton’s Inoculation house

26

Gordon-Reed, pp218-219 See E. E. Wilde, Ingatestone and the Great Essex Road, (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1913), p277, where the Worlocks are said in a footnote to have owned most of the island of Antigua. This could suggest that the family had interests in the sugar plantations, so could therefore have been owners of slaves themselves (??)

28 John Adams diary 44, 15 and 18 April 1786 (electronic edition), page 4, Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/, Massachusetts Historical Society 27

29

See also Daniel Van Zwanenberg, The Suttons and the Business of Inoculation, (Medical History 22 (1978): 71-82

24

William Godwin and his meetings and associations with Thomas Brand Hollis and John Disney

William Godwin (1756-1836) John Barrell recently described Godwin as “...the author of one of the great novels of the 18th century and the founding text in the philosophy of anarchism, the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft, the father of Mary Shelley, and the friend or acquaintance of almost everyone on the liberal left over 50 years of 30 the most intellectually exciting years in British history” With such a pedigree like that it seems obvious that he would have known both Brand Hollis and John Disney, for their shared views on constitutional reform, Dissenting religion, the abolition of the slave trade and other issues. The meetings and dinners I have concentrated on are those on 14 July 1790 and 14 July 1791 (Bastille Day celebrations), 4 November 1791 (Glorious Revolution Dinner and a reflection on Joseph Priestly), and Godwin’s visits to Ingatestone on 18-23 August 1792 and 11 October 1803. As well as the often stating the venue, Godwin may add the subjects discussed and those at each meeting: Diary Entry for 14 July 179031 French Revolution: Stanhope, Tooke, O’Brien, B. Hollis, Geddes, Lindsey, Price, Paradise: sup with Fawcet. “We are particularly fortunate in having you among us; it is having the best cause countenanced by the man, by whom we most wished to see it supported.”

Diary Entry for 14 July 179132 Crown and Anchor: Rous and Merry: B. Hollis, Shore, Barbauld, Disney, Jennings, Rees, Morgan, Lindsey, Lewis. Fawcet sups

30

John Barrell, May I come to your house to philosophise?, (London: London Review of Books, 8 September 2011); review of the first volume of the letters of William Godwin 1778-1797 published by OUP 31 The Diary of William Godwin, (eds) Victoria Myers, David O’Shaughnessy, and Mark Philp (Oxford; Oxford Digital Library, 2010). http://godwindiary.bodleian.ox.ac.uk – 14 July 1790 32

Godwin Diary – 14 July 1791

25

This famous picture by Gillray (Library of Congress) was published on 19 July 1791 of a Crown and Anchor meeting, and shows Fox, Sheridan, Tooke, Priestley and Wray. George II is about to be executed whilst the Queen and Prince Regent swing from a lamppost.

Diary entry for 4 November 1791 Call on B. Hollis, Henley, Robinson & Mrs Webb. Dine at London Tavern, With Paine, Pethion,33 Horne Tooke, Priestley, Kippis, Rees, B. Hollis, Listers, Morgans. Birmingham Trials34

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) – Ellen Sharples 1794

Gillray – “A Birmingham Toast” (for Bastille Day) - 23 July 1791

33 34

This is Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, the French Jacobin See Priestley/Godwin Diary – 4 November 1791

26

Priestley’s house and laboratory in Birmingham had been destroyed by a mob in July 1791 and trials were taking place of some of those who took part. He had fled to Hackney where Brand Hollis visited him in February 1792. Priestley was out but wrote to thank him for his support on 24 February 1792: “ I am sorry that I was not at home when you did me the favour to call at my house, that I might acknowledge in person your very generous benefaction towards re-instating my affairs, deranged by the riots in Birmingham”...35

Chelmsford Chronicle 10 August 1792

On his return to Paris, J Pétion (1756-1794) had been elected Mayor of Paris and was a member of the French Assembly. Here he is, as reported in the Chronicle, serving the deposition on Louis XVI which would eventually lead to his execution the following January. Pétion would eventually fall foul of the Revolution and go on the run back to his home region and was later found dead in a field having committed suicide. Strange to think that land forming the AES Ingatestone playing fields were once owned by a man who dined with Pétion, who had started the course of events sending the French king to the guillotine.

35

Disney, p44 – It seems as if Brand Hollis had given Priestley some financial support

27

Chelmsford Chronicle 17 August 1792 Reports of the start of the September Massacres in Paris which are quite accurate.

Diary entries for 18 – 23 August 179236 18. Sa Finish Eloise, 94 pages. Tea miss Godwin’s: stage to Rumford, Geo. Shelley. Sleep at the Cock and Bell.

“The Cock and Bell”, Romford – no longer an Inn

36

Godwin Diary – 18-23 August 1792

28

Aug. 19. Su. Walk to Ingatestone, B. Hollis’s. Vie de Franklin, 43 pages: Corrections of Common Sense37 20. M Prospects on the Rubicon, 22 pages: Johnson’s Life of Milton: Toland’s d , 30 pages: Franklin, 27 pages. Mr Preston of Jerico38 & miss D’Alton dine.

Edgar Disney tomb 21. Tu Chronology of Milton: Finish Rubicon: Franklin, 10 pages: Woolston, 40 pages: Castle of Indolence, B. 1.

22. W. Woolston, 250 pages passim. Tea at Dr Stubbs of Frierning, with B. Hollis.

Richard Stubbs on the Rectors board at Fryerning Church 37

Due to the period of time spent in Ingatestone, and the fact that no inns are mentioned it is presumed that Godwin must have stayed at The Hyde 38 The house “Jericho” at Blackmore, later on owned by Edgar Disney

29

23. Th. Walk to Rumford, 3 hours: stage to town(:?) breakfast at miss Godwin’s: dine at Mr Marshal’s. See Cross Partners.

Diary entry for 11 October 1803 11. Tu. Breakfast at Waltham: snap at B. Hollis’s: adv. Miss Toms: tea at Rumford: Somers Town, M. Sups.39

Brand Hollis’s association with Godwin points to something much more than Wilde’s pure sympathy with the American Colonialists. Brand Hollis’s involvement with Thomas Paine and the assistance he may have given to him in respect of the printing of the two parts of The Rights of Man (1791 and 1792) points to his further support for radical movements. Peter H. Marshall states that it was Brand Hollis who introduced Godwin to Paine in 179140 and that he and Holcroft had helped Paine to publish his work41. This claim is repeated by Graham Brereton42 and referred to by Bonwick43 who does also mention that Brand Hollis later on denied this. Disney had somewhat guardedly repeated his friend’s denial in his Memoir but this was said at the end of Brand Hollis’s life, when his health was failing and his admiration of the revolutionary times had faded. However, we should remember that he had, just a little later, assisted Priestley financially after he was hounded from Birmingham by the rioters, so such help offered to Paine is not unlikely.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) painted by Auguste Millière in 1880 39

Godwin Diary – 11 October 1803: Godwin had been returning from Leicestershire and the previous day had stopped at Bury St Edmunds and Sudbury and slept at Bocking. The breakfast stop would have been at Little Waltham, being on the Braintree road, with “snap” at The Hyde being some sort of lunch break!

40 Peter H. Marshall, William Godwin, (New Haven, Yale, 1984), p 84 41 Marshall, p.80 42 Graham Brereton, Thomas Brand Hollis and the Disneys of Ingatestone, (Brereton, 2005), p3 43 Bonwick, Oxford DNB

30

Chelmsford Chronicle 17 August 1792 Accusations against the Marquis De La Fayette in The National Assembly in Paris

31

Another claim made for Brand Hollis was that it was he who gave a key from the Bastille prison in Paris, following its fall in 1789, to Paine, and that this was passed to Washington in 1790 as a sign of Franco-American sympathy by La Fayette, who had served in the American Continental Army.

Marquis De La Fayette (1757-1834) painted by Joseph-Désiré in 1791

(From the George Washington Mount Vernon Museum)

This story was repeated by Caroline Robbins in 1953 but it is not clear how Brand Hollis would have come by the key, or how he could have arranged for it to be forwarded on to Washington.44 What is clear, is that Paine’s works were immediately controversial as articles in the Chronicle show :

44

Caroline Robbins, (Thomas Brand Hollis (1719-1804): English Admirer of Franklin and Intimate of John Adams) (American Philosophical Society, 1953), p 1 – it is from this article that the title of the current exhibition is taken, Robbins describing Brand Hollis as “...an English radical republican...”

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Chelmsford Chronicle 24 August 1792

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Chelmsford Chronicle 31 August 1792

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After the deposition on Louis XVI in France in 1792, his execution in January 1793 followed, leading to periods of warfare in Europe up to 1815. This period covers the death of Brand Hollis, the acquisition of his estate by John Disney and Disney’s death soon after in 1816. The following extracts from the Chronicle give a flavour of the times:

Chelmsford Chronicle 01 February 1793 Execution of the French King, Louis XVI in Paris, January 1793

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Chelmsford Chronicle 3 March 1797

News of the start of the French attempt to land an invasion force, which came ashore at Fishguard in Wales, but was soon overwhelmed and surrendered to local militia and regular troops. The French force had been spotted sailing up the Bristol Channel off the coast of Devon. This was the last time that a successful invasion force landed on the British mainland.

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Chelmsford Chronicle 14 September 1804 Death of Thomas Brand Hollis on 09 September 1804

Thomas Brand Hollis Memorial in Ingatestone Church (1806)

Chelmsford Chronicle 03 April 1807 Bill for the Abolition of the Slave Trade going through parliament

Chelmsford Chronicle 22 May 1812 Funeral of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval; shot in the lobby of the House of Commons

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Chelmsford Chronicle 30 September 1814 Capture of Washington by the British and burning of The White House (“The War of 1812”)

Chelmsford Chronicle 30 June 1815

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Chelmsford Chronicle 13 December 1816 End of a poem regarding the 1816 Spa Fields Riots in Islington, London

JOHN DISNEY’S “ROPE OF SAND” “We have nothing but general principle to unite us – and the moment specific propositions are named, we become a rope of sand”45

Chelmsford Chronicle 03 January 1817 Death of John Disney Senior on 26 December 1816

John Disney Senior tomb at the rear of Fryerning Church

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This wonderful quote from John Disney can be found in Vallance’s book on British Radical History, and he also uses it as a chapter heading (Edward Vallance, A Radical History of Britain, (London: Little Brown, 2009), p294 (Chapter 11) )

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The Hyde – the house in the 20th century, before the 1965 fire, and the site in 2011

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BIBLIOGRAPHY & SOURCES Books Brereton, G, Thomas Brand Hollis and the Disneys of Ingatestone, (Brereton, 2005) Brodie, F, M, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, (London: Eyre Methuen, 1974) Chase-Riboud, Barbara, Sally Hemings, (London: Virago, 2002) Chryssides, G, The Elements of Unitarianism, (Shaftesbury: Element, 1998) Disney, J, Memoirs of Thomas Brand Hollis Esq. F.R.S. AND S.A., (London: Gillet 1808) Godwin, P, R, Harwich and Dovercourt Pubs, (Colchester: Tempus, 2004) Gordon-Reed, A, The Hemingses of Monticello, (New York: Norton, 2008) Grieve, H, The Sleepers and the Shadows: Chelmsford: a town, its people and its past, Vol. 2 From Market Town to Chartered Borough 1608-1888, (Chelmsford: Essex RO, 1994) I&FPC, A Walk Down Ingatestone High Street, (Ingatestone: I&FPC, 1990s) I&FHAS, A Survey of Ingatestone High Street, (Ingatestone: I&FHAS, 1990) Johnson, S, The Invention of Air, (London: Penguin Books, 2009) Keane, J, Tom Paine: A Political Life, (London: Bloomsbury, 1995) Latimer, J, 1812: War with America, (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 2007) Marshall, P, H, William Godwin, (New Haven: Yale, 1984) McCullough, D, John Adams, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001) Olsen, J, S, Bathsheba’s Breast: Women, Cancer and History, (Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2002) Robbins, C, Thomas Brand Hollis (1719-1804): English Admirer of Franklin and Intimate of John Adams, (American Philosophical Society, 1953) Trinder, I, The Harwich Packets 1635-1834, (Colchester: Trinder, 1998) Uglow, J, The Lunar Men: The Friends Who made The Future, (London: Faber, 2002) Vallance, E, A Radical History of Britain, (London: Little, Brown, 2009) Van Zwanenberg, D, The Suttons and the Business of Inoculation, (Bethesda: Medical History 22, 1978) Wilde, E, E, Ingatestone and the Essex Great Road, (Oxford: Humphrey Milford Oxford UP: 1913) Yearsley, I, Ingatestone & Fryerning: a history, (Romford: Ian Henry Pubs., 1997)

Films, periodicals and online reference Ivory, J, (Dir), Jefferson (Film), (Merchant Ivory Production, 1995) The London Review of Books

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Thomas Brand Hollis, Colin Bonwick (Oxford: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online 200411).

Websites http://godwindiary.bodleian.ox.ac.uk http://lh.matthewbeckett.com/ http://www.new-unity.org/unitarianism http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk/ http://www.unitarian.org.uk/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/unitarianism/ http://www.deadpubs.co.uk http://www.imdb.com/ http://london.usembassy.gov/ http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/ http://www.masshist.org/ff/ http://www.mountvernon.org/ http://www.shsu.edu/ http://www.theroot.com/ http://www.usmarshals.gov/history/firstmarshals/smith.htm http://www.whitehouse.gov/ http://www.wikipedia.org/ Photographs are the author’s own unless stated.

Acknowledgements and thanks United States: Massachusetts Historical Society – Anna Cook, Assistant Reference Librarian, and Elaine M. Grublin, Head of Reader Services, for permission to quote from the various Adams family papers and advice on citation. The MHS, founded in 1791, is the oldest historical society in the USA. U.S. Marshals Service-David Turk, Historian, for confirming permission for me to quote information on W S Smith. They have an interesting website that covers the days of the “Wild West” (or should that be “The Western Country”?) up to more recent federal law enforcement.

UK: Essex Libraries Chelmsford Library-for help from the staff to use the microfilm machines in the Local Studies Section and the sometimes delicate old reels of the Chelmsford Chronicle dating back to 1764. Although British newspapers are now available online via The British Library, this is a wonderful resource for local papers and you only have to pay for the cost of copies.

Essex Records Office Chelmsford-Tony King, Senior Conservator, for emailing me advice on presenting books and documents and then meeting me at ERO and providing some materials so I could show the Disney and Wilde books in the cabinet to the best effect, and for giving me the hint to use cushion pads to support books!

William Godwin’s Diary Oxford-David O’Shaughnessy of the Editorial Team for taking an interest in the Brand Hollis connection with Godwin. I hope they can get some extra funding to do more work on the online diary. The first volume of Godwin’s letters have recently been published by Oxford UP; a snip at £100!

Finally, thanks must go to Sharon Stevens and her staff at Essex Library Ingatestone for taking up my idea for this exhibition and agreeing to run it through to Christmas 2011 from the Victorian Evening. One beneficial spinoff has been the acquisition of the cabinet from another library which will now reside at Ingatestone and will be a valuable tool for other displays in the village, which has, up to now, lacked the facilities to do this on a regular basis.

I have enjoyed membership of Ingatestone & Fryerning Angling Club since 1978, and the non-piscatorial visits to The Hyde Lake have been very useful.

Alan Pudney, the current owner of The Hyde itself, who lives on the old estate, was very helpful with dates of various buildings and locations of trees, and for giving me permission to stray off I&FAC territory.

Can I also belatedly apologise to the head teacher of The Hyde School circa 1964 for not knocking on the main door and asking if I could fish the lake, and having to be called back from across the lawn for him to reprimand me and then letting me go on to fish. I didn’t catch anything that day, and never did get to see behind him into the great hall; and then in 1965 the house caught fire........

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