Arriving in London

Introduction

This short piece was written as a 250-word weekly assignment piece for the Diploma of Family History Unit “Writing Family History”. For this assignment we had to “think about a moment in your ancestor’s life where they arrived in a new place and ask yourself some of the key questions of family history: what? where? when? how? why?”

John Common was baptised in 1779 in Longhorsley, Northumberland. In 1806 his first child by Mary Oldfield was buried in Wapping, London. Given that there were coalmines in Longhorsley and that massive amounts of coal were being shipped from the Northumberland ports (including Newcastle) to London, it is almost certain that John would have made the trip by collier. How would a young man who had grown up in a rural Northumberland village feel as the collier slowly made its way up the Thames estuary?

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Arriving in London, circa 1800

It was the sheer size which stunned John as the collier drifted up the Thames estuary within sight of the northern shore. A bare, flat shore with just the occasional church tower which the master noted one by one as they passed. Initially John couldn’t make out the southern shore, but then it appeared as a flat hazy line on the horizon. It was so different to the Tyne back in Northumberland, where the estuary showed as a clear gap between the low cliffs.

Gradually the banks edged together, but it was still very wide when the river began to meander, wide sweeping loops between the flat lands. He suddenly felt a longing for the hills around Longhorsley.

At Blackwall they heaved to as a boat rowed out from the old docks to check their cargo and direct them to their wharf. Then they continued left, right, left up a series of long reaches. Gradually small groups of cottages appeared on the flat banks. They made a final left turn and suddenly there were buildings as far as the eye could see across a mass of ships. He gasped and asked the man next to him if that was London. “Nay,” came the answer, “’Tis just Shadwell.”

As they approached the wharf he saw that the houses were just as small, mean and pokey as the cottages he had left behind in Longhorsley and as well just as crowded as Newcastle. Well, he was committed to a future here now.

Sources

1. Parry, Naomi, ‘Module 5 Writing Activities’, HAA004: Writing Family Histories, Accessed 23 Nov 2011.
2. Baptism of John Common, baptised 30 August 1779, Parish Registers of St Helen’s Church, Longhorsley, Northumberland, England, FHL microfilm 252593, item 1.
3. Marriage of John Common and Mary Oldfield, married 27 Jul 1806, Parish Registers of Saint John of Wapping, Wapping, Middlesex, England.
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_mining_in_the_United_Kingdom
   https://web.archive.org/web/20160418022803/http://www.cmhrc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/nblandcf.htm.
5. http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/mhn/1896-33.htm.
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collier_(ship).
7. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/abs/industrial-coal-consumption-in-early-modern-london/5777CBD7E2B6D476303AF91CEFBA4D1D.
8. https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/womens-history/maritime-women/perils/.
9. https://maps.nls.uk/view/102341461.
10. https://maps.nls.uk/view/102342032.
11. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Schematic-map-of-the-Thames-Estuary-showing-in-two-parts-up-and-down-estuary-of-the_fig1_226079902.