On my last blog-post, I wrote about Philip Morant’s 1760s book that documented eighteenth century Essex:
The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex.
It was the first county history of Essex and published in two volumes: the first in 1763 and the last in 1768.
The book contained a number of maps of the Hundreds of Essex. All beautifully executed and drawn.
Unfortunately, because of these beautiful maps, many surviving books have suffered considerable damage – with many plates removed and sold separately. Many of these maps are on eBay today!
Here they are, the Hundreds of Essex, as they were in the 1760s. Can you spot your own home town?
Hundreds of Barstable, Rochford and Dengy
Map of Beacontree, Waltham & Ongar Hundreds, and Havering Liberty
Map of Lexden Hundred
Map of Chelmsford & Witham Hundreds
Map of Dunmow Hundred
Map of Hinckford Hundred
Map of Clavering, Uttlesford and Freshwater Hundreds
Map of Thurstable, Winstree and Tendring Hundreds
Check back next week when I’ll be putting on my blog other images contained within Morant’s book
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Did anyone watch the D-Day 75 flypast go out through Essex today?
A poignant moment for many watching. Not least because the powers-that-be think this will be the last such display as the veterans are now sadly so old.
My granddad – Thomas Hopkins – was part of D-Day landings. In June 1944, he was Acting Captain for the 21st Army Group. He – and his men – went across on the D-Day landings on 11 June 1944.
The entire D-Day landings took from the 6th June to 30th June 1944 to complete.
This from Wikipedia
“The 21st Army Group operated in Northern France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany from June 1944 until August 1945, when it was renamed the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR).
The 21st Army Group had six armoured divisions (including the Polish 1st Armoured Division), ten infantry divisions, two airborne divisions, nine independent armoured brigades and two commando brigades. Logistical units included six supply unit headquarters, 25 Base Supply Depots (BSDs), 83 Detail Issue Depots (DIDs), 25 field bakeries, 14 field butcheries and 18 port detachments. The entire army group was supported over the beaches and through the Mulberry artificial port specially constructed for the purpose.“
My Granddad was quickly swallowed up in the fighting in Normandy where he made contact with and fought alongside the French Resistance.
His war was hazy. He never told anyone about it. Not surprisingly, because when he came home, he divorced my grandmother. And promptly married the daughter of the local French Resistance leader where he had been based in 1944.
By the end of the war, he was appointed Acting Major. A rank confirmed on him in 1954 after he relinquished his commission. He was awarded on OBE in 1960 due to his services as an architect in the reconstruction and rebuilding of London after the war.
Sadly I didn’t know him, as I was a toddler when he died in the 60s.
First two photos taken sometime between 1942 and 1944, when he was a cavalry officer. Last photo when he was a young man in the 1930s, shortly after he was in charge of Eric the Whale – the 80 ton embalmed whale – at Southend’s The Kursaal.
Tonight, I’ll be raising a toast to Captain (later Major) Hopkins. And all the others that risked or gave their lives on those beaches in Normandy throughout June 1944.
My Grandpa: Thomas Hutchinson Hopkins. A scally-wag and rogue. But a brave D-Day hero nonetheless.
Thomas Hutchinson Hopkins
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The last few posts on my blog, I’ve shown you images from Philip Morant’s 1748 book on Colchester
“The History and Antiquities of the most ancient town and borough of Colchester”
In the 1760s, he also wrote about the whole of Essex
📚“The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex”.📚
This later book was the first county history of Essex. It was published in two volumes: the first in 1763 and the last in 1768.
As with his earlier Colchester book, this history also contains beautiful elaborate engravings and plates – this time of grand Essex houses and churches, and maps of Essex.
After hunting around the internet, I’ve found that there were approximately 250 first edition copies printed, and the complete 2 volume first edition should contain
24 engravings of grand Essex houses and churches
9 maps
But, once again, many surviving books have suffered considerable damage – due to these beautiful images – with many plates removed and sold separately.
💸This perfect copy – with all its plates intact – is currently for sale in America – at the price of $3,500 (plus import duty). 💸
There is a 1970s reprint – but even copies of that start at £125 and that’s only for a copy in “acceptable” condition!!
💸I really must start doing the lottery!💸
This map is just inside the front cover of the book (if it hasn’t been detached and sold separately!). It is a map of the entire county – as it was in the 1760s – including all the parts of Essex that are today considered to be administrative London Boroughs (although geographically still part of Essex).
Philip Morant’s map of Essex in the 1760s
Check back next week when I’ll be putting on my blog some of the beautiful maps of Essex’s Hundreds contained within Morant’s book
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Not sure how to trace your family tree?… Need help researching the history of your house?..Would a Discovery Research Plan aid you in your own historical research?
The last few posts on my blog, I’ve shown you images from Philip Morant’s 1748 book on Colchester
“The History and Antiquities of the most ancient town and borough of Colchester”
Today’s post shows some of the images from his book
Below is Morant’s description of the Castle.
This stately pile stands on the north-side of the High-Street, almost opposite to All Saints Church. It is a square of about 224 yards in circumference on the outside, all projections and windings included. The four sides lie nearly to the four principal points of the compass. The building consists of the outer walls 12 feet thick in the lower story, and 11 in the upper, flanked at the corners, with strong and lofty towers: On the inside there run, north and south, two strong parallel walls, which served for partitions and supports to the several apartments, but the greatest part of the westernmost wall is taken down. The easternmost is built in the Roman, that is, the herringbone fashion.”
The gate of the Castle is on the south-side; and within, on the left hand, and in the south-west tower, is the grand staircase. On the right hand as you go in, is a large vault above ground, well arched; over which, out door leading from the grand staircase, was the passage into the chapel: This stands in the south-east tower, or rather bastion, being strongly arched at the top; the length of it from east to west, is 47 feet; the width of it from north to south 40 feet, where widest; and the height proportion able. Below it is a good arched vault, now used for a prison; or bridewell.”
Within the ground, under the. greatest part of the Castle, there are side and spacious vaults; they were discovered not above seventy years ago, being full of sand on which the arches were turned; the sand was taken out at a considerable expense, by John Wheely, who was endeavouring to pull the Castle down; and, to carry off the sand, he cut a cart-way through the foundation-wall near the north-east corner, where the wall is 30 feet thick, but it did not answer expectation. The partition in these vaults supporting the arches, is exactly in the form of a cross.
Taken from “The History and Antiquities of the Most Ancient Town and Borough of Colchester in the County of Essex”
South East View of Colchester Castle, 1748
North-East view of Colchester Castle, 1748
Learn more about Colchester Castle and the role it played during Essex’s witchcraft trials of the 16th and 17th century from my online course
Last week, I showed you pictures of one of my most coveted books – Philip Morant’s
“The History and Antiquities of the Most Ancient Town and Borough of Colchester in the County of Essex, in Three Books. Collected Chiefly from Manuscripts. With an Appendix of Records and Original Papers.”
Morant was arguably the most important chronicler of Essex. Writing in the eighteenth century, his books give us, the, modern reader, a unique peak into Essex as it looked nearly three hundred years ago.
His first book about the town of Colchester was published in 1748.
Today, I’m showing you a few of the engravings and plates from his book.
Below, the first plate shows the ruins of St Botolph’s Priory in Colchester – as it was in 1748. Today in the care of English Heritage and Colchester Borough Council, the Priory is an important part of the town’s heritage.
Next is the plate showing the north prospect of the town – as it was in 1748. I suspect that those fields in the foreground of the engraving are now long gone?
Below is Morant’s plate showing St John’s Abbey Gate – as it was in 1748. Today in the care of English Heritage and Colchester Borough Council, the Gate is an important part of the town’s heritage.
“This elaborate 15th-century gatehouse is all that remains standing of the Benedictine abbey of St John the Baptist that stood outside the walled town of Colchester. The extent of the abbey is still defined by the much-repaired precinct wall, and the gatehouse stands at the centre of the northern boundary.”
“The abbey was founded in 1095 by Eudo Dapifer, William the Conqueror’s High Steward and Constable of Colchester Castle. From its inception the abbey made a major contribution to the development of medieval Colchester and became a wealthy and privileged house, despite losing part of its buildings to fire in 1133.”
“In the late 14th and early 15th centuries, perhaps as a result of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, the abbey strengthened its defences and the gatehouse was added as part of this revamping around 1400.”
“St John’s was one of a handful of abbeys that refused to surrender to Henry VIII’s Commissioners during the Suppression, succumbing only after the execution of the abbot for treason.”
“The property was eventually acquired by the Lucas family who converted some of the abbey buildings into a house. It remained their family seat until the mid-17th century, but it suffered considerable damage as a Royalist stronghold during the siege of Colchester in 1648. The gatehouse itself was stormed by Parliamentary troops and their artillery damaged the vaulted roof and destroyed part of the upper storey.”
“The site was used to house Dutch prisoners in the 1660s, after which the remaining abbey buildings appear to have been demolished; there are no references to occupation after the mid-18th century.”
By the time of Philip Morant’s work, only the Gate of this once great abbey remained (as above). So, Morant included another engraving – depicting the abbey’s church as it was back in the 1500s – before Henry VIII dissolved it and the abbey’s abbot was executed for high treason for rebelling against the king.
The engraving in Morant’s book was based on a much earlier sixteenth century drawing. A drawing that was then (in the 1740s) in the “Cotton Library” (see the text at the bottom of the plate).
From Wikipedia, this is the description of the Cotton Library:-
“The Cotton or Cottonian library is a collection of manuscripts once owned by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton MP (1571–1631), an antiquarian and bibliophile. It later became the basis of what is now the British Library, which still holds the collection. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, many priceless and ancient manuscripts that had belonged to the monastic libraries began to be disseminated among various owners, many of whom were unaware of the cultural value of the manuscripts. Cotton’s skill lay in finding, purchasing and preserving these ancient documents.”
A great picture – but of a scene that no longer existed by the time of Philip Morant’s 1748 book.
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As a historian and an avid enthusiast of old books, I love a good rummage around a second hand book shop. My children despair over the number of books in my house. We have bookcases upon bookcases.
📚📚📚📚📚Books everywhere.
I’m a firm believer that you can’t have too many books. But, I must admit that I’m not a great lover of Kindle. I have a handful of books on Kindle – as I much prefer to hold a real book.
📖 Books. The original hand-held device!📖
Although last week, I went against everything I’ve just said about Kindle. I purchased a book on my Kindle! My reasons being that the Kindle version was about a twentieth of the price of the “real thing”.
I would much rather own the real thing. Maybe one day when I win the lottery… However, until I win the lottery (not that I do it), I’ll have to make do with my Kindle version.
📖The book I purchased on Kindle was a facsimile edition of a Harvard University owned copy of the splendidly named:
“The History and Antiquities of the Most Ancient Town and Borough of Colchester in the County of Essex, in Three Books. Collected Chiefly from Manuscripts. With an Appendix of Records and Original Papers.”
✍️This important work was written in 1748 – nearly 300 years ago – and is the first “travelogue” and guide to an Essex town.
Written by Philip Morant, this book, along with his later 1760s book (covering the whole Essex), are arguably the most important works about Essex.
There is a great deal of information on the internet about Philip Morant – including the various Essex parishes and rectories where he was the rector. Although born on the island of Jersey, he was very much an important Essex man, and the first chronicler of our county.
He is still remembered today in the name of one of the secondary schools in Colchester – the Philip Morant school.
📖Back to his first published book… “The History and Antiquities of Colchester, in the County of Essex.”
📖On second-hand bookshop websites, copies of the Colchester book ranges in price from £200 to £800. Hence me purchasing my £3 Kindle copy!…
📖The price-range of Morant’s books are so great (particularly First Editions) because he produced the most amazing plates of maps and engravings of Essex buildings.
These were all included in his books. Over the centuries these engravings have become – err-hmmm – detached from their original book and sold separately.
Two hundred copies of the Colchester book were printed in 1748 as the First Edition.
With such a scarce number of originals surviving, it is incredibly hard to work out how many engravings and plates the book should have. And what those engravings/plates should be!
From digging around the internet and reading various summaries, I’ve found that the Colchester book should have about 9 engravings/plates (can anyone confirm that?).
My Kindle copy (from no less the Harvard University!) has only 4 plates! Hmmmm…..
Exactly where did those missing plates go….? ✂️👩🎓👨🏼🎓👨🏼🎓
The image below is the book plate from Harvard University and the librarian’s date stamp showing that the book was last lent in 1974.
📖Below is an image of one of Philip Morant’s books that’s currently for sale on the internet – at the price of £800. With such high price (others start at £200), it must have all its plates and engravings intact.
💵Maybe I should just Crowdfund my blog and Facebook page – then I might have enough money to buy it. 💵
Can’t you just smell the book from this delicious photo!
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Yesterday, my brothers and I – along with our families – went ancestor hunting in Spitalfields Market in the east end of London.
A lovely family get-together but with an ulterior motive…
To meet our Cole and Parnall ancestors.
It’s always a strange – but very familiar – place for me to visit. I used to work nearby on Bishopsgate – when I was still in the corporate world. I often visited Spitalfields market for my lunch.
But its main pull for me is that Bishopsgate is a place where 7 consecutive generations of my family have worked at one time or another since the 1830s.
From my youngest daughter – all the way back in time to my great-great-great grandfather, William Parnall. At least one member of every single generation – without a break – has worked on Bishopsgate.
Just round the corner from Bishopsgate is Brushfield Street – on the very edge of Spitalfields Market.
This is where my family’s past hurtles its way forward to meet the present.
Or rather where we can race back through time and space to meet our Cole ancestors.
All thanks to a chance discovery I made 30 years ago…. A plaque with my great-great grandfather’s name – R A Cole – sunk into an 18th century building in Spitalfields.
Robert Andrew Cole and his wife Sarah Cole. Churchwarden of Christchurch Spitalfields, and also Victorian grocers and teadealers of Spitalfields market.
Following our beloved Dad’s death 3 years ago, we three, his children, swore we’d get as many of our family as possible together. And celebrate our unity and strength – after some incredibly tough years – together by the Cole plaque.
Not all our family are here. But we still managed to get 3 generations into our photo. All descendants (or married to descendants) of Robert Andrew and Sarah Cole.
Nearly 150 years ago, in exactly the same place where we stood, our ancestors (and their surviving children) watched the unveiling of their plaque.
Yesterday the youngest descendants walked, for the first time, in the steps of their ancestors.
A spine tingling moment.
150 years after the Robert Andrew and Sarah Cole lived here, three of their great-great-great grandchildren (one also called Sarah Cole), posed with the youngest family member – a great-great-great-great grandson.
Try explaining to a 4 year old that this was where his great-great-great-great grandparents once lived and worked!…
If you want to read the whole story about our Cole ancestors and the Victorian grocer of Spitalfields Market then follow the link below – to my story I originally wrote on my blog 7 years ago.
Click the picture below – an 1860s photo of my great-great-grandfather – Robert Andrew Cole – to read more about the Cole family of Spitalfields Market.
There were lots of Victorian Cole and Parnall ghosts tapping our shoulders yesterday. I think our late Dad was watching over us too.
History is full of coincidences and ironies. The date of 28th January is one such coincidence – 28 January 1457 and 28 January 1547 – two dates 90 years apart. The former the date of birth of the first Tudor despot, the later the date of his son’s death, the most tyrannical Tudor monarch of all.
Calendar page for January with additions from three different handwritting: 1. the obit of Catherine de Valois and the date of marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York (black ink); 2. the date of birth of Henry VII (in Latin – faded brown ink); and 3. the obit of Henry VIII (brown ink at bottom of folio), from Book of Hours (The ‘Beaufort/Beauchamp Hours’), Use of Sarum, (England (London), after 1401, before 1415) shelfmark Royal 2 A XVIII f.28 January
Below are close-ups of the entries for the birth of Henry VII and the death of Henry VIII.
Natale d[omi]ni Henrici filij Emundi comitis Richemondie ac d[omi]ne M[ar]rgarete vxoris sui filie Joh[ann]is nup[er] duc[?is] Somersete anno d[omi]ni millio cccc quinquagesimo sexto. Born Henry son of the Earl of Richmond and Margaret his wife daughter of John, Duke of Somerset 1456. (Latin text kindly transcribed by Rob Ellis of Medieval London)
The xxviijth [28th] daie of January deceassd the noble prynce Henry the eight the yere of owr lorde 1546
Although Henry VII’s date of birth was 1457, and Henry VIII’s date of death 1547, the years above of 1456 and 1546 are correct because these are contemporary entries written at times when the old Julian Calendar was still in use in England. Until 1752, the 1st January was only the start of the ecclesiastical New Year but not when the year-date changed. The change to a new year started on Lady Day (25th March). Thus English documents written prior to 1752 will have any dates between 1st January and 24th March written in the Old Style. Modern historians either have to adjust these dates to the New Style or ‘double date’ the entry to show both old and new date (e.g. the above dates would be dated ‘1456/7’ and ‘1546/7’).
Henry VII from Guild Book of the Barber Surgeons of York (England, N. (York?), 2nd half of the 16th century) shelfmark Egerton 2572 f.7.
Henry VIII from Guild Book of the Barber Surgeons of York (England, N. (York?), 2nd half of the 16th century) shelfmark Egerton 2572 f.8.
Henry VII giving the manuscript to the monks of Westminster from Indenture for Henry VII’s Chapel (England, S. E. (London), 1504) shelfmark Harley 1498 f.98.
Henry VIII praying in his bedchamber from The Psalter of Henry VIII (England, S. E. (London), c1540-1541) shelfmark Royal 2 A XVI f.3.
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A slightly strange thing to be doing on a cold winter’s afternoon on a Sunday in January, but those of you who know me, know that I’m slightly obsessed with the witches of Essex. Essex people (mainly women) who – between the 1560s and c1680s – were legally convicted of the crime of witchcraft.
Living close to the Essex town of Maldon, I’m a mere stone’s throw from some of the major “outbreaks” of England’s Tudor witchcraft. So, hence my decision to go on a witch-hunt.
Today, I visited the village Hatfield Peverel. In this village lived one of the first people to be executed for witchcraft in England. She was executed in 1566. If Essex was Tudor witch-county (which it was), then Hatfield Peverel was witch-village. The parish had more Elizabethan witches living in it than anywhere else in Essex (and therefore, by default, anywhere in England).
Hatfield Peverel today, despite being near the City of Chelmsford, is still relatively small. It is probably better known for its a train station with fast trains into London and its very easy access to the A12.
Not many people realise that it was once a witch village.
So, I went hunting for poor Agnes Waterhouse of Hatfield Peverel – executed in Chelmsford in 1566 for being a witch. Her grandmother, sister and daughter – all of Hatfield Peverel – were witches too.
A woodcutting of Agnes Waterhouse. Executed in 1566 for murdering William Fynee by witchcraft
Today, there is very little trace of the Tudor or medieval village. A small amount of remnants are present in a few buildings and within the names of some of the houses. Such as Priory Lodge – located where there was once a medieval priory. Later, the ruins of the former priory were heavily amended during the 18th century.
Born in the early 1500s, Agnes Waterhouse and her family would have known the original Benedictine priory. It was closed in 1536, during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries – part of the consequences of the English Reformation. Long before her execution in 1566, as a young poor woman of the village, Agnes might have visited the priory, seeking charity and alms – such as bread and milk – for her family from its monks.
With most of the medieval/Tudor village long gone, the nearest I could get to poor Agnes was today’s parish church – St Andrew’s.
Agnes Waterhouse was born in the early 1500s – during the reign of Catholic Henry VII. Today’s parish church was originally part of the pre-Reformation Catholic priory’s church. But by the time of her trial in 1566, England had changed and was Protestant under Queen Elizabeth I’s Religious Settlement.
So much religious change happened during the 60 years of Agnes’ life.
A booklet printed at the time of her execution stated that Agnes said her prayers in Latin. A clear indication to Tudor folk that she was of the old religion – the banned Catholic faith. During Elizabeth I’s reign, England was a Protestant country and everyone was legally forced to say their prayers in English – the language of Protestantism.
Agnes’ prosecutors used the fact that she said her prayers in Latin – the language of the banned Catholic faith – as evidence that she was a witch.
Strange times…
Unfortunately, today Hatfield Peverel’s church was locked, so I couldn’t get inside it. The interior probably looks very different to how it was during Agnes’ childhood. Back then, at the start of the 1500s, the priory’s church must have been highly decorated with paintings of Catholic saints and symbolism. The interiors of English churches were white-washed on the orders, first of Henry VIII and then later by his son Edward VI.
Today, 450 years on, it was the nearest I could get to Agnes Waterhouse.
It was very peaceful in today’s churchyard – although I could hear the constant roar of the nearby A12 – East Anglia’s equivalent to a motorway. A murder of crows was calling in the churchyard’s trees (I love that expression – I’ve always wanted to say it!). But even in the coldness of the first Sunday in January, snowdrops were in full bloom.
Normally, when I’m witch-hunting, my next steps would be to look in the parish registers – baptisms, marriages and burials. It’s unlikely I’d find the burial of a convicted Essex witch– they were buried in a pit of executed criminals in Chelmsford – in unconsecrated ground. But I might find a witch’s victims buried in the local churchyard.
However a quick look at Essex Record Office’s website shows that Hatfield Peverel’s parish registers start in the early 1600s. I don’t know the complete history of St Andrew’s – particularly when it started to be the village’s parish church after the priory (and therefore it’s church) was closed. Agnes may have worshiped at another nearby church such as the one at Ulting.
So that’s one avenue of my research closed.
I didn’t quite find Agnes. But I certainly found the places where she played and roamed – and learnt her craft of being a witch – as a child in Henry VII’s and Henry VIII’s England.
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By the way, many people think that the major road in Chelmsford – Waterhouse Lane – was named after her. Even Chelmsford’s local newspaper has published an article saying that it was….
But think about it carefully… Witches were feared throughout England. Would a road (even what was, in Tudor times, a small country lane) really be named after a convicted notorious and much dreaded executed witch? Moreover, poor Agnes came from Hatfield Peverel – not Chelmsford.
But then, playing devil’s advocate, maybe the lane was named after her because of her place of execution. Chelmsford’s gallows was located approximately at the start of Waterhouse Lane. The hangman’s gallows were roughly where the road called Primrose Hill now is.
Then again, would the great and good of Tudor Chelmsford really really name a road after an executed and much feared witch from Hatfield Peverel who had a cat called Satan – who spoke to her and told her to say her prayers in Latin.
I think not.
Agnes Waterhouse’s cat – Satan
You can learn more about Agnes Waterhouse and other witches of Essex by enrolling in my online course on the Witches of Elizabethan and Stuart Essex. Click the “Learn More” button below to discover more details…
The 5th December, is the Eve of the Feast of St Nicholas. The 5th and 6th December are times of much celebration for the excited children (and parents!) from many countries across Europe. Saint Nicholas is due to make his arrival and give presents to the children of Europe. Parts of France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Poland all celebrate, in different ways, this saint – known as the protector of children.
However, in England, as a consequence of Henry VIII’s break with Rome and the English Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, it is no-longer the custom to celebrate Saint Nicholas on 6th December. But before Henry VIII’s break with Rome in the 1530s, the feast of Saint Nicholas was celebrated in many towns and villages of England as part of the Catholic festivities of Yuletide and Christmas.
The legend of Saint Nicholas
The stories and legends of St Nicholas made their way into the exquisite and breath-taking illuminated manuscripts of medieval England. One such legend is the tale of three children who had wandered away from their homes and got lost. A wicked butcher lured the children, by now cold and hungry, into his shop where he attacked and murdered them, then pickled them in a large tub. Fortunately Saint Nicholas saved them and brought them back to life – thus forever taking his place in legends as the protector of children.
Another story was that he saved sailors from drowning after their boat capsized. Thus becoming the patron of mariners.
Below is a selection of images of Saint Nicholas, the saviour of pickled children and drowning mariners.
Bishop Nicholas of Bari (or Myra)
By the 1400s, the illuminated manuscripts changed from showing the stories of the pickled children and drowned mariners. Instead, the exquisite medieval manuscripts shifted their focus to show St Nicholas in his bishopric finery.
Saint Nicholas and Boy Bishops By medieval times, the Feast of Saint Nicholas on the 6th December was a firm part of English cultural life. The feast was coupled with the medieval practice of electing young boys as bishops. A boy from the local community was elected as the parish’s (or establishment’s) ‘Bishop’ on the Feast of St Nicholas and he replaced the authority of the real Bishop until Holy Innocents day (28th December). (See my blog-post Boy Bishops & the Feast of St Nicholas for more details about this medieval custom).
In 1542, Henry VIII abolished the custom of having boys-bishops on Saint Nicholas’s feast day. It was probably around this period, with Henry VIII’s full-on attack on the Catholic cult of saints, that Saint Nicholas’s feast day itself was brought to an end.
The late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
During the reign of Elizabeth I, Christmas was still celebrated with great feasts, games, and the celebrations of the 12 Days of Christmas from 25th December until 6th January. But the celebrations were without Saint Nicholas.
Christmas itself was legally stopped during the Interregnum of the mid-seventeenth century. In 1647, Christmas was officially banned with the Ordinance for Abolishing of Festivals. Deemed as a throwback to Catholic days and too full of Popery, frivolity, merry-making and gluttony, the Puritans didn’t want any part of Christmas.
However, it was during the Interregnum that we once again catch a glimpse of Saint Nicholas. Although by this time, calling him Saint Nicholas was far too much for Puritan sensibilities. Two satirical pamphlets about Christmas were published in the 1650s. And, for the first time in literature, Father Christmas (aka Old Christmas) was named as such.
‘The Vindication of Christmas’ by John Taylor,(London, 1652/3). The central figure is Old Christmas
‘The examination and tryall of Old Father Christmas At the assizes held at the town of Difference, in the county of discontent. Written according to legal proceeding’ by Josiah King, (London, 1658 – this image is from the 1686 reprint)
The 1658 woodcutting of Father Christmas clearly shows that by the mid-seventeenth century, he had already taken on the appearance that we know and love today. Who knows what colour his robe would have been if they had colour printing then! Would it be red? Or green? Or brown? Or purple…
The 1650s’ Father Christmas looks very familiar!
Fortunately for us, when the monarchy was restored in 1660, Christmas was too.
References to Old Christmas are tantalising glimpsed in a small number of plays and pamphlets throughout the eighteenth century. But it wasn’t until the Victorian era that there was resurgence of the popularity of Father Christmas.
Charles Dickens and the Ghost of Christmas Present
The Victorian revival and obsession with Father Christmas was partly due to Charles Dickens’ 1843 story A Christmas Carol. His pen-portrait of the Ghost of Christmas Present along with the accompanying illustration by John Leech showed that Father Christmas was alive and very much kicking! Dickens described Scrooges’ encounter with the Ghost thus:
“I am the Ghost of Christmas Present,” said the Spirit. “Look upon me.”
Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed in one simple green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.
The Ghost of Christmas Present with Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens (1843). Illustrated by John Leech
Early Twentieth Century Father Christmas
Dickens described the Ghost as having a green robe. We’re not quite there with our modern day Father Christmas! By the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Father Christmas had a variety of different coloured robes. This was before that well-known gigantic soft-drinks company unilaterally made him a little rotund beaming fella with red robes trimmed with white fur!…
Below are a selection of early twentieth postcards showing Saint Nicholas/Father Christmas/Santa Claus in a wide variety of robes. Notice that even when he was dressed in red, the early 20th century Father Christmas was a tall and lean chap. Not the little fat fella of today!
Early 20th Century – Father Christmas in a brown robe
Early 20th Century – Father Christmas in a browny/purple robe
Blue robed Father Christmas
There was even a white-robed Father Christmas!
Early 20th Century – Father Christmas in a red robe. Nearly like today’s Father Christmas – but not quite as cuddly!
Early 20th Century – Father Christmas in a red robe. A lot taller and thinner then today’s Father Christmas.
Father Christmas had nearly fully transformed. From being a pre-Reformation Catholic saint and the saviour of pickled children, he was now a tall angular man with a fur trimmed robe, who brought gifts and presents to good children throughout the world.
Nearly transformed… But not quite…
Modern day Father Christmas
The Father Christmas that we all know and love today is the consequence of a massive advertising campaign by that well known soft drinks company. In the 1930s, the artist Haddon Sundblom, created the very familiar image of Santa for Coca-Cola. Below is “Somebody Knew I Was Coming” and the basis for the company’s advertising material during the 1930s/1940s at Christmas.
Father Christmas from December 1940 by Haddon Sundblom
Sundblom based his Santa on the 1822 poem by Clement Clark Moore
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads
Saint Nicholas’ metamorphism into Father Christmas (aka Santa Claus) was complete! Although, strictly-speaking Santa’s red-robe wasn’t because it was Coca-Cola’s corporate colours. Or was it?
His red-robes had long been established before Sundblom’s creativity, as seen in the early twentieth century postcards. But just maybe, by using their corporate colours, Coca-Cola stopped all the other brown/blue/purple/white robed Father Christmases!
Looking at Sundblom’s image and the ones above showing the saintly bishop, it occurred to me that six hundred years after the beautiful illuminated manuscripts of the middle ages, Father Christmas’ right hand is still raised in a form of benediction.
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