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Dear All… I realise it’s been some time since my last post on Paul Rabey the Younger, and no new articles as yet! I can only apologise; the demands of a full-time job and a family means I always research and write my work whenever I have a spare moment. But never fear, new andContinue reading “Works in Progress, May 2022”

Reading time: 20-25 minutes (If you missed part four, you can find it here…) A Commission on the Sale of Flesh and Blood2 In June 1868, a solitary teenage girl sailing from Antwerp to London was found onboard with a letter directing her to Number 22, Somerset Street, Portman Square, London. The address in questionContinue reading “Paul Rabey and The Foreign Girls’ Protection Society: They Died With Their Shoes On, Part Five”

Reading time: 20-25 minutes (If you missed Part Three, you can find it here…) Bankrupt Paul Rabey the Younger was now bankrupt. Again. Under the bankruptcy regulations, Rabey couldn’t manage a company, start a company without court consent (which was unlikely), or indeed manage a company under a different, or assumed, name. But none ofContinue reading “Paul Rabey and the Bristol Con: They Died With Their Shoes On, Part Four”

Reading time: 10 minutes (If you missed Part Two, you can find it here…) Bankrupt…again… As we saw in the previous post, William Harvey had successfully sued Paul Rabey the Younger for false imprisonment in April 1864. Rabey had been ordered to pay Harvey £125 in damages. That’s around £13K today. Of course, Rabey hadContinue reading “The Two Paul Rabeys: They Died With Their Shoes On, Part Three”

Reading time: ten minutes (If you missed Part One, you can find it here…) Promising to stay poor South Wheal Leisure Mine, of which Paul Rabey the Younger was purser, was struggling throughout 1864. As one former worker stated, “It was very poor, and promising to stay poor”2. No ore had been raised at allContinue reading “Paul Rabey and the False Imprisonment: They Died With Their Shoes On, Part Two”

Reading time: 15 minutes The Hook1 The men of substance from Bristol were on to a good thing. There was William H. Brunt, a music-seller from St Augustine’s Parade. There was Mr Hyde, a banker, and William Chilcott, a bullion merchant. There was James Bigwood, a merchant on Great George Street2. There was Mr Atchley,Continue reading “They Died With Their Shoes On: The Career of Paul Rabey the Younger, Part One”

Reading time: 20 minutes The evil disposed2 Charlestown United and Bucklers Mines, St Austell, have long vanished from the face of the earth. There’s now a kitchen furniture dealership and various other businesses on Bucklers Lane, Boscoppa, near the old location of the mines. Back in 1847, though, these workings were a ferment of unrest.Continue reading “Trouble in Clay Country: The Food Riots of 1847, Part Five”

Reading time: 5 minutes Unlike his less-fortunate compatriots, George Stapleton and William Francis2, James Jewell chose not to wait around at his home in Crowan, so the authorities could issue him with a summons3. As the military surrounded the rioters in Higher Fore Street, Redruth, on June 4, he slipped town. Unlike the many hundreds,Continue reading “The Fugitive: James Jewell: A Prologue to Part Five of the Food Riots of 1847”

Reading time: 20 minutes Pool to Redruth2 4pm, June 4, 1847. Things were getting ugly. The majority of the crowd may not have had time to help themselves to Blamey’s provisions in Pool, and this, combined with the elation of a successful raid, emboldened them to march into the by-now forewarned and fortified town ofContinue reading “Hellfire Corner: Redruth: The Cornish Food Riots, Part Four”

Reading time: 15 minutes Redruth first?1 It may just have been taproom gossip that reached the wrong ears, but by Wednesday June 2, the authorities in Redruth knew trouble was headed their way. Soon. The town’s principal market day was that Friday, the 4th, and two local magistrates, John Penberthy Magor of Penventon House2, andContinue reading “Commotion Time: Pool, June 4, 1847: The Cornish Food Riots, Part Three”