The Jobbing Historian

  T he fragmented life of Sarah Biddulph It is sad, but true, that most people avoid the attentions of Historians by being too poor, too female or too long ago. In the hunt for the origins of people donating hard cash to set up the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry I came across Sarah Biddulph.  Apart from being rare, only 7% of donors were card carrying women in the 1794 list, [1] Sarah appeared not just in the lists of births, marriages and deaths, but during the initial search, appeared in the newspapers several times over 23 years.  What will follow are fragments of History. I can not, as yet, go much beyond these spots of light in the darkness - but what fragments and what darkness. Derby Mercury 26th April 1776 Sarah was married to William Biddulph, who was involved with land in the possession of Widow Moore in 1761.  [2]  He was  renting 27 acres of pasture [at least] in Uttoxeter in 1761. [3]  William is again mentioned as being involved with the ...

  Five Historic things you never thought you needed to know. #10 A complete and utter Dud When Elizabeth Tomlinson had a little boy she did not content herself with calling him John, William or Thomas, no, she called him Dud. To be honest her lover was Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley of Dudley Castle and History records him as being Dud Dudley, which is making a point really.  He was one of 11 children. In 1622 Dud left Balliol College and took over his father’s iron works. He began to develop the use of coke-coal, a thing Abraham Darby would develop in the Eighteenth Century.  Supporting the Royalists during the Civil War he was captured, escaped and saw out his later years working as a medical doctor.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dud_Dudley   Certified Hair The Duty on Hair Powder Act 1795 [repealed 1865] was one of the many ways a cash strapped government looked to pay for the most expensive thing, war. Those wishing to use the same had to visit an appointe...

  Crowd Funding the Volunteers: The Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry Kickstarter: June 1794  Matthew Boulton Sheriff of Staffordshire On 9th June 1794 a meeting was held in aged and soon to be replaced Shire Hall in Stafford. [1]  The meeting was called by the industrialist Matthew Boulton, in his capacity as Sheriff to set about raising a body of troops to defend Staffordshire against internal and external enemies. [2]  As a result of the meeting a subscription was, in the words of the piece sent to several newspapers, ‘immediately opened’ and over £3000 was pledged. [3]  This article intends to look at what we can deduce from the initial attempt to kickstart the Staffordshire Volunteer [later Yeomanry] Cavalry. Following the general meeting, a committee was formed ‘in pursuance of the ..resolutions’.  It moved over the road to the Swan Inn. The proceedings of the general meeting and the committee were ordered to be ‘..advertised in the Birmingham, Shrewsbur...