MEN AND WOMEN OF BULWELL.
There have doubtless been as many good and useful men and women in Bulwell as in other places of like size, but Bulwell has been unfortunate in not having records kept, and some names may be omitted who ought to be remembered. The churches ought to keep records and portraits of all persons who have been specially useful to others, while the names of those who have lived only for themselves might follow their coffins. The names following are of persons who have endeavoured to be of some use. It is not necessary to approve of their opinions, or of every action of their lives, but it is desirable to mention some of the flowers that are recorded as having grown in their gardens. Some of the names referred to were of notables only, but are given for various reasons.
"The best portion of a good man's life,
His little nameless unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love "—Wordsworth.
John Mapurley, Esq., was Mayor of Nottingham in 1473-4 and 1481-2, and Member of Parliament 1477-8. He had an unfortunate dispute with the men of Nottingham, and they rushed to force, and he went to law, and all parties lost.
He appears to have retired after his second mayorality, and 30 years afterwards (1511-12) he was described as "then, living at Bulwell," and he sold Mapperley Park, which was named after him. (Bee pages 141-2 of "Mapperley: Then and Now.")
GEORGE STRELLEY, Esq., who died in 1668, wanted 30 of the children of Bulwell to have the chance of an education, so he built a school, and endowed it with land and buildings. It is greatly to his credit that he realized the need 200 years before other people in Bulwell did so. The constitution deed of 1669 declared the Honble. William Byron, of Bulwell Wood, Esqre., should be Governor. Richard Slater, of Nuttall, Esq.; Daniel Chadwick, Minister of the Parish of Bulwell; William Strelley, of Arnold; and Edward Clud, of Northwell Park, should be his Assistants. For their accommodation there should be an allowance of 6s. 8d. to be spent on cakes and ale yearly. The governors were to distribute a charity in bread, etc. Six threepenny loaves were to be distributed every Sabbath dayat the church.
The school did its work through succeeding generations, but is now closed, and under a Charity Commissioners Scheme, 12th Dec., 1885, the income is used in four scholarships of £15 each for three, four, or five years at the Nottingham High Schools, for inhabitants of Bulwell.
The Hon. W. BYRON, of Bulwell Wood Hall, the governor of Strelley school, was married at Papplewick church in 1661 to Elizabeth, daughter of Viscount Chaworth, of Annesley Hall, and on the death of his father he became the third Lord Byron. His wife, in 1664, gave a plate and cup to the church at Hucknall. Both husband and wife were buried in the Byron vault at Hucknall. (See Mr. Beardmore's "History," p. 91). He died in 1695.
The REV. DANIEL CHADWICKE, who was described as Minister of the Parish of Bulwell, was at the same time Curate-in-charge of Arnold. He was at Tollerton in 1650. where he was described as having the "cure of soules there, dilegently supplies the cure in his own person, beinge a godly preaching minister.'' When the five mile Act came in force, in 1665, he conformed. He was appointed Vicar of Arnold in 1683, and when he died, in 1701, he left a sum which was spent in founding the Free School at Arnold, and a small sum to the poor at Bulwell.
EDWARD CLUDD, ESQ., of Norwell Park, near Southwell, who was one of the first Governors of the School at Bulwell, was a native of Arnold. He represented Notts, in the Barebones Parliament, was a very active Justice of the Peace, married many couples under the Oak at Norwood (Cludd's Oak); but he will be chiefly remembered as the man through whose influence with Cromwell Southwell Minster was saved from demolition. He is described as a very moderate, temperate man, and as being the principal adviser of all the measures taken by Parliament in this part of the world (Dickinson). He died in 1678.
JOHN DAMS apparently was of opinion that religious services should not be confined to Sundays, and that week-night preaching would be helpful to the people of Bulwell. He therefore, in 1786, left seven acres of land, the rent of which was to be devoted to preaching in the parish church on nine Tuesday evenings in each year. These week-night lectures were continued for thirty years, but in 1817 were discontinued, yet the land was retained. The Commissioners for Charities, according to their report, warned the then Rector, the Rev. J. W. Armytage, who was an absentee, and resided near Doncaster, of the duties which attached to the enjoyment of the land, which land was then occupied by Jeremiah Read, and was worth thirty shillings per acre. Of this, la 1r. 36p. was, about 1874-5, sold to the Midland Railway Co., and afterwards five acres was sold to the Bulwell Brick Company for £1,826, the money being invested by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in Government securities. The clay has been got from the land, which now has a lost, desolate appearance by the side of the footpath leading up to the Cemetery. Would it not be possible, with proper sanction, to sell the clay under the footpath in exchange for land, which may some day come in for a useful public purpose, the levelling being left to a time of public distress?
GEORGE ROBINSON was a cotton spinner, he and his brother having the Nether, or Forest Mill. It appears that when George Robertson came from Kincardineshire, in Scotland, and settled at Bulwell in 1737, a strong prejudice then prevailing against the people of Scotland, he adopted the English name of Robinson. The Papplewick Mills were built in 1777, and the Forge Mill in 1787. He died in 1798, aged 86, having left £50, the proceeds of which he directed should be distributed to poor widows at Christmas. His tomb is in the churchyard. "He lived a bright example of industry, and every Christian virtue." JOHN ROBINSON, son of the above, about 1805, formulated a plan by which employees were to share profits, but owing to legal difficulties, it was not carried out. He, forty-two years after his father's death, imitated his father s example, and left £50 for the benefit of of the poor, the proceeds being distributed at Christmas.
The REV. JOHN READ was born at Bulwell in 1842, and died at Liverpool in 1866. It was said of him, "that few men could be met with whom nature and grace had combined to make so fair, gentle and noble."
RICHARD SANSOM was an old market gardener, living in Forest Cottage House. He disliked the habit that some people have of talking about aches and pains when they are asked as to their health. When asked, '' How are you, Richard?" his reply would be in the words of Dr. Watts' paraphrase of the 146th Psalm—
"Happy the man whose hopes rely
On Israel's God!"
and he would thereupon walk straight away. He died in 1847, aged 84.
JOHN FRY SANDFORD was a bleacher, and on his premises, which were afterwards acquired by Mr. Charles, he is stated to have formed and taught the first Sunday School in Bulwell. He died 7th June, 1817, aged 43, the inscription on his tomb (which needs repair) had better speak for itself:—"He was the assiduous friend of the poor, and sought to promote the eternal welfare of the children by habitual and diligent attention to their religious instruction, and both parents and children watered his grave with their tears. Jesus Christ was the alone Foundation of his hope, and this hope sustained him amidst the agonies of a dying hour by realizing to his soul a bright prospect of eternal glory."
JOHN NEWTON, ESQ., of Bulwell House. There is a stone tablet which records that he died on 13th Nov., 1820, aged 84, and his son, Colonel Robert Sacheveral Newton, died on the 25th of the same month, aged 58. Their mortal remains were deposited in a vault on the north-west side of the old church, the interments being on Nov. 26th, and Dec. 1st, respectively.