Berlin Wool

 

At the 1851 Census John and Jane Goodfellow were living in Market Place, Wincanton.  Jane ran the Berlin Wool depot. Louisa MacKenzie lived with them and was an assistant draper in the Berlin Wool shop.  This is an example of Berlin wool work.

"Berlin wool work is a style of embroidery similar to today's needlepoint that was particularly popular in Europe and America from 1804 to 1875.   It is typically executed with wool yarn on canvas, worked in a single stitch such as cross stitch or tent stitch, although Beeton's book of Needlework (1870) describes 15 different stitches for use in Berlin work. It was traditionally stitched in many colours and hues, producing intricate three-dimensional looks by careful shading. Silk or beads were frequently used as highlights. The design of such embroidery was made possible by the great progress made in dyeing, initially with new mordants and chemical dyes, followed in 1856, especially by the discovery of aniline dyes, which produced bright colors.  

Berlin work creates very durable and long-lived pieces of embroidery that can be used as furniture covers, cushions, bags, or even clothing." (Wikipedia)

Jane's grand-daughter Grace (Goodfellow) Murphy embroidered this table mat.  She also embroidered tablecloths and painted pictures.

Grace's grand-daughter Diana (Murphy) Heins made eight hooked rugs between 1972 and 2005.  She learned North American rug hooking in Burlington, Ontaro, Canada.  She designed this rug with Australian wildflowers and dyed the woollen material strips for the flower hooked loops.

Diana's grand-daughter embroidered these Australian Summer Gum wildflowers using counted cross stitch tapestry.

Wincanton Old School

Old School House Church Street, Wincanton
19 September 2019
Photograph by Diana Heins

John Goodfellow and Jane Jeanes were married in Wincanton on 17 April 1823, by licence.  John Goodfellow was a widower; Jane was a spinster.  They both lived in the parish of St Peter & St Paul, Wincanton.   

In the 1841 Census they were living in Church Street, Wincanton.  John, aged 50 was a painter, Jane aged 35 was a school mistress. There was one teacher and 15 girls, who were pupils at the school.  

 At the 1851 Census John and Jane were living in Market Place, Wincanton.   Jane, aged 48 was a school mistress and ran the Berlin Wool depot. Louisa MacKenzie lived with them and was an assistant draper in the Berlin Wool shop. There were four scholars living with them.

Goodfellow Places: Somerset and London, England

In the 1800s, the Goodfellow, Jeanes and Bridle families lived in Somerset County in south west England.  In the 1850s, Henry and Grace (Fitzpatrick) Goodfellow moved to London, where Grace had lived with her mother, Jane (Howe) Fitzpatrick and sisters in 1841.  Jane was born in Clerkenwell, London in 1791 (see Jane's places and the history of London and Clerkenwell below). Their son, George Goodfellow, migrated to Queensland Australia in 1873.

Somerset

The Jeanes and Goodfellow families were long-time residents of Wincanton in the east of Somerset County.  In 1847, Henry Goodfellow and Grace Fitzpatrick were married in Wincanton. Their first child, George was born in Glastonbury in 1848.

Somerset County - Glastonbury and Wincanton

Henry Goodfellow was born in Wincanton in 1825 and his parents John Goodfellow and Jane Jeanes were also born in Wincanton.  Jane's mother, Susanna Bridle was born in Evercreech in about 1778.

Somerset: Glastonbury, top left; Evercreech, top centre; Wincanton, on lower right.
Family Tree Maker aerial view with symbols added in PowerPoint

Somerset: Glastonbury, top left; Evercreech, top centre; Wincanton, on lower right.
Family Tree Maker road map with symbols added in PowerPoint

London and Clerkenwell

Cecil R. Humphery-Smith, The Phillimore Atlas and index of Parish Registers, 3rd ed. 1963.
Middlesex County, p.22. 

In London in the 1800s, the Fitzpatrick, Howe and Goodfellow families lived west of the City in the Parishes of Clerkenwell, Islington, St Pancras, St Marylebone, Paddington, Kensington, Hammersmith and Fulham.

When Jane Howe was born in Clerkenwell in 1791, the area was on the urban fringe of London, around the Foundling Hospital.  A 1574 map shows rural land north and west of Smithfield.  Plans for re-building after the Great Fire of 1666 still show Hatton Garden and Clerkenwell outside the urban area (White, p 17).  The fire destroyed 13,000 houses and 87 churches.  The illustrated London: the story of a great city (Jerry White, 2014) describes London as a “City of Suburbs”. It was only from 1750 that Westminster Bridge connected London to south of the Thames River and Lambeth.  By 1800, London had a population of one million, increasing to over six million by 1900.  In West London, Bedford Park Chiswick on Bath Road was one of the first garden suburbs in the late 19^th century.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, 1558-1603, East London developed as a trades area with poorer housing.  The hills to the north were of middling quality.  The west end had better quality houses.  Elegant squares were developed after the Great Fire from 1670 to the end of the 18^th century.  There were silk weavers, porcelain and potteries at Chelsea, jewellery, silk weavers at Spitalfields and ceramics in Lambeth.  Covent Garden was an early example of town planning. 

In Clerkenwell, streets for the middle classes north and south of Pentonville Road and elegant housing around the great squares – Brunswick, Mecklenburgh, Myddelton, Holford -  were established during the 1820s.  By the 1870s there was poorer housing with the many trades and businesses.  Notable were the craft metal and wood workers – jewellers and watchmakers - cabinet makers, inlaid furniture, drapers, artificial florists.  William Coombs Howe & Co were teachers of cutting.  (Alan Godfrey, Old Ordnance Survey Maps; Clerkenwell, Kings Cross & The Angel, 1871, Dunston, Gateshead, 1990.) 

Jane’s uncle was General Robert Gardiner, a British army soldier in the 3^rd Buffs, who served in the Peninsular and Napoleonic Wars.  In 1815 his troop helped restore order during the Corn Law Riots in London.  He was aide-decamp to monarchs George IV, William IV and Queen Victoria and was Governor of Gibraltar from 1848 to 1855 and Honorary Master Gunner, St James’ Park 1840-1864.  He married Caroline Mary McLeod, eldest daughter of Lieutenant-General John Macleod.  He died in Esher, Surrey on 26 June 1864.  (Wikipedia, 7 March 2024)

Sir Robert’s father was Captain John Gardiner of the 3^rd Buffs.  His brother was Lieutenant-General John Gardiner, Colonel-in-Chief of the 61^st Regiment of Foot.  Caroline’s parents were Lieutenant-General John Macleod and Lady Wilhelmina Kerr, daughter of William Kerr, 4^th Marquess of Lothian.  (Wikipedia 8 March 2024.) There may have been a military connection with John Fitzpatrick, who was also in the 3^rd Buffs (according to Shearman).  Jane Howe married John Fitzpatrick on 28 October 1820 at St Martin’s in the Fields. This old church is south west of Clerkenwell, closer to the Thames River and near Westminster.

Large land uses were the Middlesex House of Correction and House of Detention, builders’ yard and cartridge manufacture between Farringdon Road and Gray’s Inn Road.  North of Old Street were engineering works, foundries, dye works, drug mills and gasometers.

John Fitzpatrick died in 1838 at Hatton Garden, between Gray’s Inn and Farringdon Roads.  This is now between the British Museum, Museum of London and Covent Garden.  In 1898, the housing was middle class, well-to-do and fairly comfortable.  Nearby were St Bartholomew Hospital and the Smithfield markets: fruit and vegetable, poultry and meat. 

After John’s death in 1838, Jane lived with her daughters Mary, Grace and Jane at 5B Brunswick Place, St Mary Islington Parish in 1841.  The Brunswick Place south of The Regent’s Park in Marylebone has elegant townhouses.  But there is another Brunswick Place near the southern boundary of St Mary Parish, near Old Street, just east of Clerkenwell. Here, in 1898 there was a Board School; this might have been established after the Education Act of 1870.  The houses were fairly comfortable, but there were poor streets nearby in St Mark Old Street and St Clement City Road parishes.  The new Poor Law Act of 1834 had led to the establishment of workhouses.  Around the corner were the Haberdashers’ Alms Houses, St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics and the London Living-In Hospital.

In the 18^th century road tolls were introduced at turnpikes at Marylebone and Finchley Roads.  During the 19^th century, with London expansion from 1813, there were many changes taking place during the time the Fitzpatrick, Howe and Goodfellow families were living in London.  Sedan chairs and Hackney chairs had been replaced by coaches and hansom cabs.  The Thames River flooded before the embankments were built.  The river froze during the winter of 1813-14.  Cheapside was the main shopping area before new shopping streets such as Regent Street from the 1820s.  From 1829 there were omnibuses drawn by two or three horses.  King George IV opened Buckingham Palace in the 1830s; Parliament House was destroyed by fire in 1834. Then there was the Victorian age, when the Queen reigned from 1837 to 1901.  The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace was held between May and October 1851.  It was not until 1854 that Dr John Snow proved the polluted public water pump in Broad Street Soho was the source of infections.  The cholera epidemic of 1832 had killed 5275 and in 1848-49 there were 14,789 deaths.  Big Ben clock dates from 1860. There were still shoe-cleaning boys in 1851 and chimney sweeps in 1861.

In 1851, Jane Fitzpatrick was a visitor in the house of Richard Woolcock, south of the Thames River at Hardinge Terrace, St Mary Parish, Newington. The church is on Kennington Road, lined with middle class, well-to-to houses.  Hardinge Terrace appears in faint letters on Penton Place in Booth’s 1898 London Poverty Map: fairly comfortable, with good ordinary earnings.  Jane may have known Richard Woolcock from Finsbury.  By 1861, Jane was at Bark Place, Paddington, in the parish of St Matthew Bayswater, north of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.  She was a widowed pensioner, a lodger in the household of Peter and Elizabeth Jervis.  This well-to-do small street must have been densely populated, as the houses behind are fairly comfortable, yet there are upper-middle and upper class wealthy homes along Bayswater Road and Kensington Palace.  Bark Place still has substantial terrace houses with many chimneys.

The underground railway from Paddington through Kensington opened in 1863.  The first department stores opened in Oxford Street in 1864. There were immigrants from Europe: Italians in Holborn and Clerkenwell. Smallpox in 1871 caused 8,000 deaths. 

By 1871, Jane was living at 48 Judd Street, St Pancras Parish.  This is near Regent Square, north of the Foundling Hospital.  Regency era terrace houses in Judd Street were built between 1808 and 1816.  Thanet Street workmen’s cottages between 1812 and 1822.  The 1871 map shows individual houses, set back from the street.  Judd Street had comfortable housing quality in 1898, but there were poor areas in the back streets and This area was redeveloped into large blocks of flats.  Nearby are Regents Square and St George’s Gardens and in 2024 the University College London Language and Speech Science Library.

Jane moved east of London by 1881 to Back Street, 3 Stamford House, Brentwood.  I cannot find this address in this hamlet.  She was living with her daughter Mary and her husband Thomas Howe.  Mary, age 60 (born about 1821) in Hampshire, was a teacher of music.  Thomas age 70 (born about 1811) was a professor of languages.  Jane died in 1889 in Billericay, Essex.  This is a town east of Brentwood.  She was 95 years old, indicating she was born in 1794.  Her previous Census ages in 1841 and 1851 estimated her birth in 1791.  Mary and Thomas were the beneficiaries of her will. Mary and Thomas were married on 30 August 1841 at St Mary Islington.  Jane Fitzpatrick was the spouse’s mother.

George Henry Goodfellow and Margaret Johnston

George Goodfellow was born in Glastonbury in 1848.  His father, Henry Tewksbury, was a druggist (chemist), grocer and dealer in Berlin Wools.   

His mother Grace Fitzpatrick was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Picardie, on the north-west coast of France. Grace was a schoolmistress.  The family lived in High Street, Glastonbury near St John's Anglican Church.  

About 1853, Henry was declared an insolvent debtor.  In 1854, they were living in St Marylebone, London, when their daughter Jane was born.  George was still at school in 1861.  In 1871 he was a railway porter, boarding with other railway workers at Haydon Square next to the goods station of the London and Northwestern Railway.

Margaret Rebecca Johnston was born at "Dunstin Lees", Paris, France about 1852.  Her parents were Arthur William Johnson/ Johnston and Annie Pasquie.  There is a baptism of Anne Françoise Pasquier on 1 August 1833 at St François-Xavier-des-Missions-Etrangères in Paris.  The location of Dunstin Lees is not known.  

There is no confirmation that the parents of Annie Pasquie were Jacques Isidore Pasquier and Gabrièle Corbet.  Little is known about Margaret’s father, Arthur William Johnston.  Is it possible that he is the person baptised in Paris, France in 1827?  On the baptism record is a note that Arthur William Johnson's parents were Colonel Jeremiah Johnson and Saiba and he  was born in Java.

George and Margaret were both immigrants on the Ship Winefred, which arrived in Moreton Bay, Brisbane in January 1874.  They were married in Brisbane on 26 January 1874.

Bustard Head Lighthouse 1886-89

 

Bustard Head was home to George and Margaret Goodfellow and their children from 1886 to 1889.  George Goodfellow was the second assistant light keeper.  My grandmother Grace lived at Bustard Head between the ages of seven to ten years.  There was a one-teacher school from 1882, so Gertrude, Grace and later Henry would have attended with the children of the other lightkeepers. Olive was younger, born in 1885.

Bustard Head was named after the turkey birds seen by James Cook in 1770.  The lighthouse was the first built on the Queensland coast after Queensland became a separate colony in 1859.  The lighthouse, between Gladstone to the north and the Town of 1770 to the south, was extremely isolated, with hazardous access by boat and provisions once a month.  Stuart Buchanan’s The Lighthouse of Tragedy details the history of its construction and stories about the lightkeepers.  Margaret Goodfellow is recorded in this lighthouse history, telling news to the other residents about the 1887 suicide of Kate Gibson, the lightkeeper’s wife.  Later there were drownings and accidental deaths.  Neville Murphy, Grace’s son, visited in 1934; his story is in Chapter 9.

Neville rode his motor bike from Sydney to the lighthouse.  Even then, the only land access was east of Turkey pastoral station by horse to Middle Creek, then walking seven miles (eleven kilometres).  Now, tourists visit by boat along the beach from the Town of 1770.

George and Margaret Goodfellow and their family left in 1889, soon after the birth of George in 1888.  By the time baby Queenie was born and died in 1892, the family was in Sydney.

There is more history about the lighthouse in the following:

Lighthouses of Australia

Queensland State Archives

LARC tours

Australian Geographic

Migration to Australia 1874

Ship Winefred

When Margaret Johnston was 24 years old, she travelled by ship “Winefred” to Brisbane, Queensland in Australia.  Margaret R Johnston is listed as “Free”.  Her name is spelt Johnson in the shipping list not Johnston. 

George (aged 25) and his brother Horace (20) Goodfellow were Assisted passengers in the shipping list for the ‘Winefred’ which sailed from London 4 October 1873 and arrived in Moreton Bay 14 January 1874.  There is a strange column called number of land order: George was no. 1014 and Horace no. 942. 

Not all assisted passengers have such a number.  Assisted passengers are separate from Saloon, Second Class, Steerage, Free and Remittance.  So George was not a remittance man, but the Free passengers do not have Land Order numbers.  The Shipping List does not include any place of birth or residence for the passengers.

Twelve days after arriving in Brisbane, on 26 January 1874, George Henry Goodfellow aged 27 and Margaret Rebecca Johnston aged 22 were married at the manse of the Presbyterian Church, Anne Street, North Brisbane, on 26 January 1874. 

The witnesses at their marriage were William Dodimead and Maria [her mark] Caps.  Edwin W Dodimead was an Assisted passenger on the 'Winefred' shipping list.  His land order number is 941, just one before Horace Goodfellow’s.  I can’t see Maria Caps amongst the passengers.

 

Wincanton, Somerset

Thursday 19 September 2019. Glastonbury to Wincanton

In Glastonbury we walked through Market Square then up High Street to the Post Office next to the Wool Shop.  St John's church was being renovated so we just took photos from outside and walked back to the Town Hall to wait for the bus to Wincanton.

The driver of bus 77 to Yeoval told us we did not need to change at Ilchester, but could continue to Yeoval and change there to bus 58 to Wincanton.  We travelled through Street town with the Clark shoe factory, and Somerton, just after we caught a glimpse of the old railway bridge which might have been a Brunel construction.  

This would have been on the closed Somerset and Devon railway line.  

There were some views over the valley, but mostly narrow rural roads lined with high hedges, just missing trucks and tractors on the other side.  The lanes through the villages were also very narrow, houses with doors opening onto the footpath.  There were several one-lane sections with traffic lights for road works.  Finally, at 10:50am we arrived at Yeoval to discover that the bus 58 to Wincanton left at 10:45 and the next bus would be two hours later at 12:45. This was disappointing, as we would have arrived in Wincanton at 11:15am if we had changed buses in Ilchester.  So we bought a replacement for Frédéric’s old bag, and ate takeaway sandwiches in the square before going back to the bus.

Wincanton town hall, Church Street on the right
Photo by Diana Heins, 19 September 2019

We arrived at Wincanton after about 55 minutes.  The Information Centre at the Town Hall was closed until 2pm, so we took photos of the Market Square and walked up High Street to find the top car park bus station.  Back at the Information Centre the staff searched for photos of old schools while Terry collected maps of walking tours around town.  

Wincanton Cemetery (lower left), St Peter and Paul church (middle), old school house (red pin)

Old School House, Church Street, Wincanton

We walked down Church Street and found the Old School House.  Jane Goodfellow ran a school in Church Street in 1841 and 1851 and by 1851 was also running the Berlin Wool depot.  Could this be the school?

Church Street, Wincanton, towards Town Hall on right

Sts Peter and Paul church was attended by the Goodfellow family for baptisms and marriages.  We did not realise that the front is more imposing than the back along the pathway through the church yard.  The staff at the Information Centre had given us a list of Goodfellow names and plots in the Cemetery.  Fortunately, they also gave us directions to go through the churchyard and across the zebra crossing.

One of the walks showed us Cemetery Lane, so we discovered the River Cale and walked through the park to the Cemetery. 

On the way back we remarked at the embankment with new houses near the river.  We read later that these houses were built on the old railway embankment.

Terry and I searched for Goodfellows: I found two graves, one Julia Goodfellow in 1956, but we could not find plot 318 with Henry and Jane.  Many were indecipherable. We took photos of the graves and the cemetery. The weather was sunny and very warm 22 degrees, in shirt sleeves, with hat and sunglasses in the Cemetery.

High Street Wincanton.  Quaker Meeting House on the right.
Photo by Diana Heins 19 September 2019

 On the way up High Street hill to the bus a man asked us if we had found the plots; he was one of the workers, who could have told us where they were.

  

Wincanton Town in 1840

By then it was too late and we explained that we were content walking where my ancestors would have walked in the town and taking photos of the old buildings in streets they would have known.

The 666 bus left at 3:45pm and travelled a circuitous route around Bruton, collected private school pupils, narrowly avoided trucks, gave way at several red light one-lane sections, could not fit between cars on one street, arrived 12 minutes late at Castle Cary railway station and sped along straight sections.  At Street town we alighted at Crispin Hall and crossed the road to catch the 367 double-deck bus to Glastonbury.  

There are historical photographs of Wincanton:

https://www.picturesofengland.com/England/Somerset/Wincanton

Wincanton photographs

and information for visitors:

Somerset Council

 

Glastonbury, Somerset

On 18 September 2019 we travelled from Luxembourg to Glastonbury in one long day.

This was Serena’s first day at Lycée, catching the 7:11am bus to Aline Mayrisch.  We caught the 6:58am 192 bus to Luxembourg Gare, the 16 bus to the Airport and KLM flight to Amsterdam.  There, we raced through the airport to Birmingham departure gate, running again at Birmingham to get surprise shuttle train to the Airport Station, train to New Street and really ran to just catch the Cross Country train to Bristol.  Scenery whizzed past: many row houses with front porch and back glass conservatory, ploughed fields, short corn.  

Arriving at Bristol Temple Meads, we searched for bus to Glastonbury. The 376 took over 90 minutes to travel through Wells, held up by road works.

Glastonbury town map showing High Street and St John's church

In Glastonbury we alighted at the Town Hall at 6:15pm.  Found High Street and our hotel – just behind us in the Market Square.

George and Pilgrim Hotel.
Photo by Diana Heins 19 September 2019.

The George and Pilgrim Hotel was built in 1479.  The entry is through an archway to an alley with bar, restaurant to the left and reception and narrow circular stairs to the right.  It smells of old wet towels.  Room 10 has bathroom which is part of the hall to the fire stairs.  The floorboards squeak.  We phoned Hassel and spoke briefly to Serena explaining we had arrived in Glastonbury. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant.  It was very warm at night; Terry propped open the window with a wooden prop.

Glastonbury air photo showing location of 50 High Street (red pin) and Glastonbury Abbey.
Photo by Diana Heins, 20 September 2019

High Street, Glastonbury
Photo by Diana Heins, 20 September 2019

In the 1851 Census, Henry Goodfellow aged 27 and his wife Grace (Fitzpatrick), a school mistress aged 27, were living at 50 High Street Glastonbury with three children, George aged three years, Elizabeth aged one year and baby Arthur aged one month were all born in Glastonbury. 

Henry's birthplace was Wincanton.  Grace was a British subject born in France.  Also living with them were a school governess and a house servant.

Fabric shop, Glastonbury
Photo by Diana Heins, 20 September 2019

Thursday 19 September 2019. 

In the morning we were woken by the sound of barrels rolling down steps.  After breakfast, we walked back through Market Square to Northland Street and round the back to discover the Gauntlet alleyway, then up High Street to the Post Office next to the Wool Shop.  Opposite this fabric shop is number 50 High Street, where Henry and Grace were living in 1851.  This location is now the Avalon Club, built in 1897.

Friday, 20 September. Glastonbury

 After a late breakfast, we walked up High Street again taking photos of the old Tribunal building.  I talked to the owner of the Wool Shop, which had been a barber shop.  She didn’t know of any Goodfellow druggist business.  The Post Office next door was more recent; the man at the Information Centre told us 1900s; the plaque was 1938.  The previous post office had been up High Street and in the street to the right.  I took photos of High Street from both sides.  We walked back to the Information Centre which opened at 10am.  They gave us maps of the town and I told them about the Goodfellow family in the 1851 Census.

St John's Anglican Church, High Street, Glastonbury.
 Photograph by Diana Heins 19 September 2019.

Glastonbury has a product to sell.  Along High Street are many shops catering for alternative, mystical, crystals, elaborate long dresses, books on magic mushrooms and magic generally and much about the mythical King Arthur seem to predominate.  Being there on the eve of the Autumn Equinox may have increased the numbers of gongs, drums and bodhrans.

The previous day we had been disappointed to find the Church is being renovated so we just took photos from outside and walked back to the Town Hall to wait for the bus to Wincanton.

Photo by Diana Heins, 20 September 2019

We bought tickets for the bus up to Glastonbury Tor which left at 11am.  It was a steep and winding road so we were glad we had not walked.  There was still a steep path with many steps to the top of the Tor with its 15^th century tower.  It was very windy but a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside.  Amazing to realise this Tor was an island with the flooded Somerset Levels all around.  There were people sunbaking, one man playing a huge gong.  We took photos towards Glastonbury and Street.  Down the hill we sent a birthday text message to Greg.

 

Glastonbury town from the Tor. 19 September 2019. Photograph by Diana Heins

Glastonbury Abbey ruins Photo by Diana Heins, 20 September 2019

Back on the bus to the town at midday, we walked to the park next to the playground east of the Abbey.  There were squirrels running across the grass and up the trees.  We returned to the Abbey where we spent a long time surveying the ruins, wondering where we took slide photos in 1971.  There was a herb garden, a deep pond, which had been part of the Abbey water supply and the old abbey kitchen on a very warm sunny afternoon.