Charles Hardy's News Clippings

Occasionally a real treasure from the past arrives in front of me in the form of something that belonged to one of my ancestors. My sincere thanks is owed to Lorraine Spencer for recently passing to me the three books in which Charles Hardy kept his newspaper clippings over the period of 1880 until 1909. I consider it a great privilege to be able to touch some items that I know my great great grandfather put together and regularly looked at during his latter life.

The books had been passed to Lorraine by her grandmother Ada, daughter of Charles Hardy and wife of Edmund Spencer. Perhaps they had been kept by Ada because she had helped her father compile them. That is purely guess work on my part.

Along with the books are a number of clippings that are loose. Most of these seem to be from the Mormon publication the Deseret News. Some others which also contain American news and advertisements are possibly from other papers issued in San Francisco. As these are all dated around 1905/06 it is possible they were brought back from the US by Florence Hardy specifically for her father following her time visiting and teaching in the area.

The books are simply three exercise books into which Charles had the habit of gluing copies of newspaper articles of interest to him. Of course many of the articles were his own letters to the editor.

At the front of each book is a handwritten index.

The above is the first index page of the earliest book. It gives a good guide to the matters of interest to Charles at this time. Many of the clippings are related to the early land settlement issues including the Maori native land issues.

The majority of the clippings are from the New Zealand Herald, the Auckland Star and the Auckland Weekly News. I noticed some from The Christian Worker in early 1901 which consisted of correspondence critical of the Mormon Church to which Charles had written responses.

So far my examination of these books has consisted of a fairly quick read of some of the contents in each book alongside an examination of the condition of each and consideration of how to minimise any further deterioration. I believe there is not a lot we can do to fix the current condition of the books. Given their age of over 100 years it is amazing they are still largely intact and readable.

In this blog I have looked into the background of Joseph Sturton. His death notice caught my eye when I first browsed through the books.

The death of Mr Joseph Sturton

When I first saw this news cutting I thought the name was familiar and noted that Charles labelled the cutting as being from the Cambridge (England) Weekly News of Dec 2 1910. My apologies that the image below is not at all clear. The wrinkling of the pages and their discolouration makes it hard to get a properly focused image.

For this cutting to be in one of Charle's books I assume he was either sent this specifically or else he was being sent copies of the Cambridge Weekly News on a regular basis.

I referred back to my previous blog posts and to my Ancestry record in order to remind myself of the significance of Joseph Sturton to the Hardy family. He was very significant as he had married Charles' sister Sarah Hardy. He also had an involvement in a chemist business and was a close friend of Charles' father George. When I first learned some years ago of Charles and Robert both being encouraged to become apprenticed to chemists I suspected their father was influenced by Joseph Sturton.

There is a family record referred to as Effie's notes that I was sent to me by my cousin Peter Hardy some years ago. Effie was one of Robert Hardy's daughters. The notes are two pages labelled "Notes on the Family Tree by Effie Jane Hardy February 1949". They end with a paragraph relating to Robert's chemists business in Salisbury.

This reads as follows:

"I always was told 200 pounds Dad started business with, but Susan and Nina say he began with 100 pound of his own but so badly needed more from his father that a son-in-law, Mr Sturton, was sent to Salisbury to see if it was wise and not just throwing good money away to lend or give him another 100 pound. Sturton thought it wise so he quickly had the 200 pound. Soon after this his father died and he came into more money and on that I suppose he married. It wasn't long after he had his own business that he married but I don't know how long."

Peter Hardy wrote the following in his story about Robert:

Charles Hardy had also undertaken an apprenticeship to become a chemist. However he did not elect to follow this as his ongoing profession. He did however work for his brother in Salisbury for a short time in the early 1860s following his return to England from America and just before marrying Alice and deciding to emigrate to New Zealand.

Robert and Charles' mother Susan died in 1866 and their father George died in 1869.

Joseph and Sarah had married on 14 October 1840 at the Ely Holy Trinity Cathedral. They had a daughter Ann Ainsworth Sturton born July 1841. Very sadly Sarah died only a few years later in September of 1843. She is buried at the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Joseph Sturton was born in Sleaford, Lincolnshire on 19th July 1815. As a young man he was apprenticed to his elder brother John at Peterborough. His obituary in the Cambridge Times says ..."The zeal and energy he displayed in business and in all he undertook, combined with a genial personality, was responsible for quickly rising in the world. After holding various posts in Windsor and in different parts of London, he purchased a business in Fitzroy St in 1839, which he successfully carried on for 40 years."

From what I have found out about Joseph Sturton he was clearly a very smart and entrepreneurial man who had a big impact on Cambridge during the 1800s. His businesses were much broader than simply a chemists shop. He was also a farmer and a property developer. He developed the area in Cambridge called Sturton Town. He wanted to provide suitable dwelling houses for the working classes so he purchased a large plot of land and divided it into small plots. The total development was sold within 5 years.

There is a very good insight into Joseph Sturton and his impact on Cambridge that has been put together by Cambridge Historian Helen Weinstein. A wonderful video can be accessed using the link below. The link will take you to the website and if you scroll down you will find access to the very informative video.

https://resonance-cambridge.co.uk/forge/shape/sturtontown/

Below is a great photograph of Joseph in his latter years along with his family including Ann. Joseph remarried twice again after his marriage to Sarah Hardy. His second marriage was in 1846 to Mary Hooper. They had three children namely Miriam born 1847, Martha born 1848 and Joseph born 1849. Mary died in 1850. His third marriage was to Elizabeth Creeke in January of 1852. They had four children namely Susanna born 1852, Richard born 1854, Joseph born 1856 and Mary born 1858.

The people in the photo are Joseph in the middle and seated to his right hand side with her left hand on her chin is his third wife Elizabeth. Seated to her right is their daughter Mary Elizabeth. Between them leaning over from the back is son Joseph. In the back row to his left is his sister Susanna and next to her their brother Richard who is immediately behind his father. Standing next to Richard on his left is Ann daughter of Sarah and Joseph. Seated in front of her is Martha daughter of Mary and Joseph. Seated at the end is Miriam also a daughter of Mary and Joseph.

By following a series of Census records we can obtain a picture of Anne's life. Below is the 1851 Census record for George Hardy and his family in Cambridge. Ann Sturton age 9 is recorded as a visitor. George and wife Susan are there along with their children Susan, Charles, John and Ebenezer (Robert).

Ten years later Ann is in the Census record at the house of Joseph Sturton and his third wife Elizabeth.

At the time of the 1871 Census Ann has married Charles Whereat, Upholsterer employing 4 men and 3 boys. He was a widower with two sons namely William age 7 and Edward age 6. Charles and Ann married on 9 September 1868. It seems that Ann never had children of her own.

In the record below from 1911 we can see that Annie is a visitor and is with Robert Hardy's widow Emily and two of Emily's daughters Susan and Effie and a grandson Leslie.

Charles Whereat died 3 June 1900 at an Asylum suffering from Appoplexy and excessive drinking. He was age 66.

Annie died on 30 November 1917 at Brighton, Sussex. The probate for her estate was granted to Joseph Ashworth Sturton.

Joseph Ashworth Sturton was a half brother of Anne. He was also prominent in Cambridge through his involvement in business and local government, becoming Mayor of Cambridge in 1913. The newspaper report below his photograph provides some biographical details.

Joseph A Sturton in his Mayoral robes

This blog has turned into a longer story than I assumed would be the case on commencing it. It occurred to me when I had completed it that when Charles read Joseph Sturton's death notice his mind must have turned to his memories of his sister Sarah and his niece Ann along with Joseph and his family.

There is a small regret that we did not know about Joseph when we visited Cambridge and Ely. I am not sure if we went through Sturton Town. Most of our time was in Ely looking at the Holy Trinity Cathedral and Broad Street and at the Cambridge University area.

Below is one of my favourite images of Ely. Juliana and I have climbed to the top of the tower as part of a guided tour and taken in the great view.