Evacustes Phipson & the origins of Letchworth Garden City

The Cock Inn, St Albans

The previous post, on The Peaceful Path has remined me of Edward Arthur Phipson who is already recorded on my web site as a water colour artist. He went round the country painting pictures of historically interesting buildings in the early 20th century. However he was also a radical socialist who knew Ebenezer Howard and was clearly interested in the foundation of Letchworth Garden City. A few years ago I started to investigate his early history and the following is a brief summary of his very interesting radical past.

E A (Evacustes) Phipson came from a well-to-do Birmingham factory-owning family, and may have been articled to an architect. He became a socialist and had contacts with William Morris. He failed in an attempt to found a socialist colony south of Sydney, Australia, in about 1884. He then became the London agent for Topolobampo, an attempt to establish a socialist community in Mexico. In 1893 he was treasurer of the Nationalization of Labour Society at the time when Ebenezer Howard was one of a committee set up to consider the formation of a co-operative land colony in England. Later the same year he was talking about the possibility of setting up a colony at Champions Farm, Woodham Ferris, near Chelmsford, but this apparently came to nothing. He clearly found Howard's plans for Letchworth not socialist enough, but in 1903 he corresponded with Albert Kinsey Owen and urged the American to offer his services in the building of Letchworth and the following year wrote a letter about the Australian plans for a Federal Capital saying "Having studied for many years the subject of ideal cities, and taken part in the founding of several, from Topolobarapo, on the Gulf of California, to the Garden City now building 60 miles from London ..."  In 1907 he wrote in the February Edition of Garden City comparing Letchworth with the English Fairhope. However it was said that he has spent most of his inheritance on the Australian project and his paintings may well have been to provide additional income, starting in 1894.

Several years ago I started to research this aspect of Evacustes' life and prepare some draft notes with a view to posting much fuller details on my web site, but had a long list of research still to do - particularly in connection with Letchworth Garden City. It is now clear I am unlikely to have time to finish this research and will try and put a tidied up version of my draft notes online sometime next year.

In the meantime if anyone has any information on his links with Letchworth (and perhaps later Welwyn Garden City) I would love to hear from you. In addition I suspect there are a number of his Hertfordshire paintings in private hands and I would love to be able to include details in my draft biography. As he concentrated on painting historic buildings it would be of particular interest if he ever did a painting of Letchworth Garden City.

If your ancestor couldn't write, records may be wrong

Help Desk

Braughing

When Margaret's ancestor Thomas Bradshaw (born c 1811) went to Australia in 1855 his parents were described as James and Sarah. Unfortunately online records failed to produce a suitable couple in the Braughing area of Hertfordshire. However Thomas Bradshaw couldn't read and write, so when he was asked for his parent's name he naturally gave the name of the woman he called mother - although she was actually his step mother! The matter in complicated because when one investigates the marriage between James Bradshaw and his first wife, Susanna, there is a ten year gap in child baptisms - including Thomas - probably because they were non-conformists and the relevant registers have not survived.

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The Australian Studios at Watford, World War 1

Taken at the Australian Studios

Military

Some years ago I posted this card, of young soldiers, undoubtedly in connection with the First World War, who had been photographed at the Australian Studios, Watford. I asked if anyone could identify the soldiers (from their cap badges) or the studios, which were not listed in the trade directories available to me.

Watford

I have now heard from John, from Australia, saying the photographer was a James Henry Lawre(a)nce who had gone to Australia and New Zealand in search of gold, and having been successful returned to England. Interestingly it would seem that in a period of ten years he operated from 4 different addresses, 3 in Watford and one in Fulman.

The four men were possibly friends from Watford who joined up at the same time - so can you help - if only to identify their regiment. Other pictures from the Australian Studios would also be of interest.

Did Charles run off to Australia with the cinema cashier?

Answers

Bishops Stortford

Bruce sent me extensive information about his grandfather, Charles Gilbert, who lived in Bishops Stortford for a short time in the early years of the 20th century. For a time he was publican at the White Horse Inn, but was out of work at the time of the 1911 census. However the following year went into partnership with F. A. Dando to open the Empire Picture Palace, which only traded for a short time, with Charles emigrating to Australia in November 1913 with a Mrs Annie Gilbert - but the key question is whether the Annie he emigrated with was the Annie listed as his wife in 1911, or Norah Maddocks, from Bishops Stortford, - who was the mother of the family in Australia!  For details of the complex story, and my advice, see GILBERT, Bishops Stortford, 1902-1914.

Local Newsletters --- and the Sandridge Strike of 1873

Many villages, small communities, churches and local societies throughout Hertfordshire publish newsletters. They are produced by volunteers, sometimes monthly, sometimes quarterly. Typically they contain local news and adverts, and sometimes they contain useful articles of a historical interest. They may distributed free to local households, or available through a local shop - perhaps the post office assuming that has not been closed. In many cases copies are not deposited in the local library or at HALS. This is a pity as such documents can provide a valuable record of contemporary life in the locality - and also a source of historical information not easily available elsewhere. If your ancestors come from an area  which is covered by such newsletters it can be very difficult to locate any articles which might be relevant to your research.

I was reminded of this when a copy of Neighbourhood News arrived through the post. It is sponsored by the Sandridge Parish Council for everyone in Sandridge, Marshalswick and Jersey Farm and published four times a year. This issue contains the first part of an article on the 1873 Sandridge Agricultural Strike. There is no need to rush out and obtain a copy as the article is based on material from this web site. 

However if you get one of these local newsletters it is worth checking whether there ar reference copies in the local library and HALS and if you send me details I will be happy to post details of interesting historical articles on this blog so that other people are aware of what might be available.

Let me know if you know of any local newsletters  which could frequently include articles of historical or genealogical interest.

Married Men Transported to Australia

Further to the posting Hill, Transported to Australia, 1837, David has checked the Tasmanian records, but they only say that he was ineligible to have his wife brought out from England, and there is not information as to whether the unexplained baptism of Faith Ells at Hemel Hempstead in 1840 (original documents not yet checked) is relevant. In fact a further investigation revealed yet another case where variations in spelling in the indexes (and possibly the original records) can lead to confusion and FELLS, Harpenden, circa 1840 provides evidence that Faith/Ruth Ells/Fell/Fells/Fitts is irrelevant to the main line of enquiry.

Interestingly David reports that there was a low level of requests for wives to come out to Australia and it would be interesting to know what percentage of men transported were married - and what percentage of married men made such applications? It may be that most of the convicts were unmarried and the Hertfordshire lower courts tended to be more lenient in sentencing married men with families because they were aware that the wife and children might end up as a charge on poor relief. In addition a wife with children might be a beneficial influence. Does anyone know if any such statistics (possibly for England as a whole) exists?