Who Do You Think You Are - Brian Blessed 14th Aug

[kiterunner]

Originally Posted by Olde Crone

Oh dear, is it just me? What was Ann Sloane doing upstairs in the Blessed household????

I was wondering the same thing, OC! And her alias of Nancy just adds to the whole "Oliver Twist" feel of the story. I kept expecting Brian Blessed to break into a medley of songs from "Oliver" as it was, before I even came across the newspaper story, but maybe the BBC didn't want to pay to use the songs!

[Olde Crone]

LOL Kate!

What you have found in less than 24 hours - and all on the internet - is far more interesting than the combined forces of all those historians and archivists. Perhaps they ought to look on line a bit more in future.

OC

[JBee]

I found it interesting despite BB.

However the programme does tend to skip over things like where Javez married before going to Lincolnshire.

Thanks for filling in the gaps Kate.

[Nell]

Unlike some of you, I liked BB's over the top performance on Have I got News for You.

However, I found his "real" personality very wearing, he got over-excited and jumped to conclusions before people had finished telling him what they'd found, which led me to believe he already knew.

The actual story was interesting but I was also irked by the pronunciation of "Jabez". My father's eldest brother was called Jabez and we always called him "Uncle Jim", but my Dad and his other brothers called him "Jabe".

I do agree Barnabas Blessed does sound like a Dickens character though and the story of 2 brothers in the workhouse being reunited years later is very Dickensian.

[Ann from Sussex]

"The actual story was interesting but I was also irked by the pronunciation of "Jabez". My father's eldest brother was called Jabez and we always called him "Uncle Jim", but my Dad and his other brothers called him "Jabe".
"

That fits with how I have always assumed Jabez is pronounced - Jay-bez.

[Nell]

Exactly!

[Margaret in Burton]

I think the problem with the pronunciation started with the first researcher / archivist, they pronounced it Jabbez. Obviously BB had never heard the name. It is a biblical name. Where he got Ja- BEZ from I have no idea. I was screaming at the TV, it's JAY-BEZ.

[Nell]

He would have had fun with my ex's gt x a lot grandfather Onesipherous then!!!!

[Shona]

Just reading my notes on the Brian Blessed episode before consigning them to the recycling...

Jabez Blessed was apprenticed to David Davies - a master mariner who shipped coal from Newcastle to London.

Do we know much about him? Did he stick at shipping coal by barge/keel after the railways came in, which marked the terminal decline of the trade? Could Davies have switched to the fishing?

Although a different type of marine trade, workhouses, prisons, courts, industrial schools, etc, supplied most of the boy apprentices for the fishing industry operating out of Hull and Grimsby. They were a cheap - an expendable - source of Labour. The better masters took in the boys as lodgers, but most of the boys were just left to their own devices when in port. Many legged it as soon as they could.

Did Jabez stick to life at sea, given he was dealing in glass and china come 1851? He did marry in Hull, though. Did the coastal coal keels call in at Hull? Is that how he met his future wife?

The BBC should have got the marriage cert to find out what Jabez was doing in 1840 when he married Ellen Hobson - rather than jump to the 1851 census.

Fantasy WDYTYA...

Researcher:
'While we don't know if Jabez completed his apprenticeship, we know he got married...'

BB (wide-eyed):
'Really? Oh, good lad.'

'Researcher: '...in Hull - to a Yorkshire woman.'

BB (booming voice):
'A Yorkshire lass! Oh, how totally marvellous! A Yorkshire lass, you say - fancy that.'

Researcher:
'Jabez married a milliner named Ellen Hobson in Hull and the couple's first two children were born in Malton in Yorkshire - Ellen's home town.'

BB (furrowed brow):
'Is that how the Blesseds ended up in Yorkshire?'

Researcher:
'If they went via Brigg in Lincolnshire, that is. Here they are in the 1851 census.'

Etc...

[Ann from Sussex]

Originally Posted by Shona

Just reading my notes on the Brian Blessed episode before consigning them to the recycling...

Jabez Blessed was apprenticed to David Davies - a master mariner who shipped coal from Newcastle to London.

Do we know much about him? Did he stick at shipping coal by barge/keel after the railways came in, which marked the terminal decline of the trade? Could Davies have switched to the fishing?

Although a different type of marine trade, workhouses, prisons, courts, industrial schools, etc, supplied most of the boy apprentices for the fishing industry operating out of Hull and Grimsby. They were a cheap - an expendable - source of Labour. The better masters took in the boys as lodgers, but most of the boys were just left to their own devices when in port. Many legged it as soon as they could.

Did Jabez stick to life at sea, given he was dealing in glass and china come 1851? He did marry in Hull, though. Did the coastal coal keels call in at Hull? Is that how he met his future wife?

The BBC should have got the marriage cert to find out what Jabez was doing in 1840 when he married Ellen Hobson - rather than jump to the 1851 census.

Fantasy WDYTYA...

Researcher:
'While we don't know if Jabez completed his apprenticeship, we know he got married...'

BB (wide-eyed):
'Really? Oh, good lad.'

'Researcher: '...in Hull - to a Yorkshire woman.'

BB (booming voice):
'A Yorkshire lass! Oh, how totally marvellous! A Yorkshire lass, you say - fancy that.'

Researcher:
'Jabez married a milliner named Ellen Hobson in Hull and the couple's first two children were born in Malton in Yorkshire - Ellen's home town.'

BB (furrowed brow):
'Is that how the Blesseds ended up in Yorkshire?'

Researcher:
'If they went via Brigg in Lincolnshire, that is. Here they are in the 1851 census.'

Etc...

You've got BB's turn of phrase off to a tee Shona. I swear can actually hear him whilst reading your post. Splendid,splendid!