Yesterday we joined the Banbury Historical Society outing to Chalgrove Manor, Oxfordshire. This is a Grade 1 listed building dating in part from the mid 15th century. It has some rare 16th century wall paintings and ironworks, and a screen dating to about 1240AD. To get to the roof of what was the old Hall meant getting on our hands and knees to crawl though some narrow openings. The craftsmanship was pretty remarkable for its time.

As the outing was in the afternoon in the morning we visited the National Trust property at Hughenden, Buckinghamshire. This is the former home of Benjamin Disraeli (Queen Victoria’s favourite Prime Minister). We didn’t have time to see everything and therefore will return again some time.

Here are some photos from the day – they start with Hughenden and the last 4 are from Chalgrove.

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Last weekend we visited Caryl’s cousin, Alison, in Aberdeen. She kindly showed us around some of the places outside of Aberdeen, including Balmoral. Attached are some photos taken during our visit. As you will see the snow is still on the higher hills.

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Family History info:

Kate Baughan/Baughn was killed by a horse (with coal cart) in 1864 in Highworth, Wiltshire. I’ve documented the newspaper reports of the manslaughter case brought against the driver along with some further information and a few links.

www.baughen.co.uk/PDFs/Manslaughter of Kate Baughan-Baughn.pdf

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I’ve recently been going through some Westminster (Middlesex) parish register images for 1609. The Baffin family seem to have had a very tragic period in 1609.From the burials there are the following entries:

8 June                   Joseph

22 June                 Elizabeth

25 June                 Marie

11 July                   William

19 July                   William

20 July                   John

20 July                   Richard

21 July                   Alice

26 July                   Margerie

The Parish Registers give no further details about the individuals i.e. age or relationship. There were obviously at least one survivor, another William Baffin – the navigator after whom Baffin Island and Bay were named. His is first recorded in 1612 so it may be a case that he was on board a ship at the time in 1609. There were few Baffins after this date until there were changes to a Boffin line (unsure if deliberate or by accident) to Baffin. Although the explorer married Susan Hodges in 1607 I haven’t identified any offspring (may be in the above). He was killed on 23 April 1622 at Qeshm now in Iran. His wife remarried John Fisher in 1623.

I haven’t found any likely links of events about this time but of course it was not long before the Great Plague of 1615 and the Great Fire of 1666.

William Baffin’s widow was interviewed by the East India Company after his death and in 1628 received £500 in settlement of her claim for his estate. She was accompanied at the original hearing by a Robert Bourne. What the author(s) of ”The voyages of William Baffin”, printed by the Hakluyt Society, and others probably didn’t recognise was that Baffin is an alias* of Baughan and that ‘Bourne’ would have sounded the same. The search for more evidence continues.

*  WILL OF SAMUEL BAUGHAN – 1692

BODLEIAN LIBRARY REF 1697 W 92.332;8/2/23 SAMUEL BAUGHAN
In the name of god Amen I Samuell Baughan alt Baffin of Rowlewright alt Rowlandwright in the County of Oxon collermaker being ……

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As noted last week we went to Barcelona. Here are a selection of pictures. Please let me know if you require any further information about the places etc.

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We had a long weekend in Barcelona, Spain to celebrate our anniversary.

The bus connection between the airport and central Barcelona was excellent . Our hotel was in Central Barcelona and therefore it was ideal for getting out and visiting places. The hotel was functional (we didn’t eat there) and clean but the rooms were too hot. On the other hand the weather outside was noticeable for a biting cold wind. It was damp and overcast for the first half of the weekend but the second half saw the sun trying to come out. In the higher places there was snow on Saturday.

We did get out to see quite a few places and used one of the hop on / hop off bus tours for 2 days. I did take quite a few photos but nothing special. For a country that likes to give bold and simple designs why do they need to put up so much hardware everywhere? Other main dislikes: far too many smokers in public areas and too many beggars.

There was a big demonstration on Saturday night – presumably by those protesting about the austerity measures.

Probably the highlight of the trip was the Spanish guitar concert by Manuel Gonzalez at the Palau de la Musica Catalana.

Monday saw most museums etc. closed, the lift up the Columbus column broken, the bridge across to the old port closed for repairs …….

Overall impression of Barcelona – it didn’t live up to the reputation of one of the places you have to visit.

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After his admittance to being a drug cheat, liar, fraudster etc. who would sponsor Lance Armstrong for any future sporting venture? I know that I would boycott any company sponsoring him.

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Next week’s edition of  ’Find My Past’ (Yesterday channel at 9pm) is about the railway accident in 1865 at Staplehurst, Kent. Railway accidents weren’t uncommon in those days and often involved fatalities. More notice was taken of this one because Charles Dickens was on board.

He was still producing ‘Our mutual friend’. One of the main characters was Noddy Boffin, the ‘golden’ dustman. In a prelude of the book Dickens wrote “On Friday the Ninth of June in the present year, Mr and Mrs Boffin (in their manuscript dress of receiving Mr and Mrs Lammle at breakfast) were on the South Eastern Railway with me, in a terrible destructive accident. When I had done what I could to help others, I climbed back into my carriage – nearly turned over a viaduct, and caught aslant upon the turn – to extricate the worthy couple. They were much soiled, but otherwise unhurt. ….”.

Now I don’t want to spoil the story – and I haven’t seen the episode.

It is said that Dickens used names for his characters partly from names he came across during his life in London. There would have been few true Boffins in London about this time. The main ones originated from Bicester, Oxfordshire. There is also another family of Baughans (the name may have been pronounced, and spelt, as Boffin) in Holborn about this time.  Others (Dickens followers) may have more information.

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We visited Arundel, Sussex on 2nd January. The castle was closed. Here are a few photos of the castle and the local church.

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On January 1st 2013 we went to Brooklands Museum (www.brooklandsmuseum.com). Here are a selection of photos from the visit. This place is worth going to.

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