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Sir Rowland Hill and a murder most foul...

Dennis Williams

Dennis Williams

Gone but not forgotten
Sir Rowland Hill KCB, FRS (1795–1879)
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowland_Hill_(postal_reformer)

An English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of penny postage and his solution of prepayment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters (where did it all go wrong?). Hill later served as a government postal official, and he is usually credited with originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service, including the invention of the postage stamp.

Born in Blackwell Street, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. Rowland's father, Thomas Wright Hill, was an innovator in education and politics, including among his friends Joseph Priestley, Tom Paine and Richard Price. At the age of eleven, Rowland became a student-teacher in his father's school. He taught astronomy and earned extra money fixing scientific instruments. He also worked at the Assay Office in Birmingham and painted landscapes in his spare time. Busy boy.

But there was lots more to this remarkable man. For a spot of company and a swift half or two he is known to have frequented the Woolpack Hotel in Moor Street, together with other notable luminaries of the day, John Baskerville and Dr Samuel Johnson. In 1819, Rowland established the Society of Literary Improvement there. In the latter part of the 18th Century, however, I’m glad to say, this hostelry turned to offer other less academic pursuits and became a cricketing pub, and was for a long time the HQ of the ‘Gentlemen Players’ of England. Not many people know that …

Anyway, whilst researching this incredible Birmingham man and his contributions to stamp collecting, I chanced upon other fascinating character apects, such as cartography and a sort of pre-Agatha Christie interest in ‘murders most foul’. A combination of mikejee and Aidan no less. Well, judge for yourself, from this link to the Mary Ashford Murder, and his part in it….

If only I could read the text and decipher the maps? Boys? Help…

https://www.kunstpedia.com/articles/a-dark-deed-mapped-by-the-originator-of-the-penny-black.html
https://www.archive.org/stream/showellsdictiona00harm#page/10/mode/2up/search/ashford
 
The case set a number of legal precedence when Thornton, accused of the Mary Ashford Murder and acquitted but there was sufficient outcry (along the same lines as the modern paediatrician/paedophile hounders) to move to revive the long-disused right of appeal against acquittal.

So Thornton invoked an ancient right and challenged the King's Bench judges to armed combat, literally throwing down his gauntlet. Since they could not respond, the result was a victory for Thornton, followed by an Act abolishing both wager of battle and appeal against acquittal.

Our Rowland Hill was certainly a Polymath. There is an interesting article about him and particularly his impact on schooling in the Stanley Gibbons Monthly mag (surely you must be an avid reader?) https://www.gibbonsstampmonthly.com...y/February_2004/attachments/ferowlandhill.pdf His father owned Hill Top school in Town but he opened Hazelwood Scool on the Hagley Road in 1819 and in London a few years later to critical acclaim. As there are Blue plaques (anyone have pictures?) at 146 Hagley Road and also in Lionel Street and Severn Street I assume they are connected.
 
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So Thornton invoked an ancient right and challenged the King's Bench judges to armed combat, literally throwing down his gauntlet. Since they could not respond, the result was a victory for Thornton, followed by an Act abolishing both wager of battle and appeal against acquittal.

Aidan,

You are not quite right. It was Mary Ashfords brother, William Ashford, who appealed against the 'Not Guilty' verdict of the original trial. Thornton challenged Ashford not the judges. Ashford refused the challenge and thus the appeal was dismissed.

Old Boy
 
It appears from Showell that you are correct Old Boy. I trust a "Wager of Battel" will not be required to uphold honour?
 
Some genealogical info:

Born: 3rd December 1795, Kidderminster, the third of six sons. (Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8))
Married: Caroline Pearson 27th Sept. 1827 St. Peter or Collegiate, Wolverhampton.
Died: 27th August 1879 aged 84 at his residence in Hampstead.
Buried : 1879 Westminster Abbey [2nd chapel to the left of the North entrance]. (see attached pic)
Father: Thomas Wright Hill. d. 13 June 1851
Mother: Sarah Lea. marr: 29July 1791, St. Martin, Birmingham. (can we get a look up please?)

Rowland's siblings:
Matthew
Edwin
Arthur
Caroline
Frederick
William
Sarah

Rowland's children:
Pearson.
Clara Pearson.
Louisa Mary.
Eleanor Caroline.
 
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Aidan, apparently there were two Hill Top Schools, founded by Hill's father, the first being in West Brom' and the latter in Brum.

The original 'Hill Top School' was at actually at Hill Top, but not in the same location as the last Hill Top School (demolished a few years ago).

It was, more accurately, Hill's, Top School, (for older children) according to my old teachers, and Mary Willett's ''A History of West Bromwich'' published 1882.

''Hill'' was the name of one of our school 'Houses' - the other's being Faraday, Dickens and A.N.Other (memory fails me here) all of whom had connections (however tenuous) with the surrounding area. The original school building existed until the late 1960's, possibly into the early 1970's (?) and was a Dickensian, long uneven sprawl of a building, at the corner of Witton Lane and Long (?) Street, behind St. James Church.

It was in the midst of coal-pits, charcoal burnings, furnaces and metal-workings ... all of which, if extant at the time the school was open, must have made it a most dreadful place! It was reputedly haunted, and was a truly grim place; a sort of 'Industrial Gothic' pile, set amongst the weed-strewn ruins of every stage of the Industrial Revolution onwards.
 
jennyann said:
There's a photo of at least one of Sir Rowland Hill's Blue Plaques plus many other past Brum luminaries on this site: https://www.google.ca/images?q=Sir ...&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1024&bih=551
Click to expand...

Thanks Jennyann - the only one I could see on there for our Rowland says it is in Brindley Place and if so is not listed on the Blue Plaque site. There may well be four plaques or more. There are others too in Kidderminster and London. I wondered if anyone has photos of any of these plaques?
 
Interesting info on the Hill('s) Top schools JohnO. Any pics by any chance? I'm not sure where any of them were.

Thomas Wright Hill (1763-1851), the father, had also been a type of reformer who came from a family of dissenting small traders. It was while serving an apprenticeship in Birmingham that Rowland's father came under the influence of Joseph Priestley (scientist, Republican and Unitarian radical). It was Priestley who obtained a position as a teacher for Rowland in a charity school. Thomas returned to this profession starting Hill Top in 1803 after a failed business venture manufacturing ponchos.

In 1819 Rowland and his brother established a new school designed by Rowland on the Hagley Road, called Hazelwood. In terms of physical conditions it was ahead of its time possessing a science laboratory, swimming pool, stage, library, museum, craft room, gas powered lighting and air ducted central heating.

Rowland, along with his older brother Matthew, became strongly interested in educational reform and a friend of Jeremy Bentham, publishing what became their famous "Public Education" (Can we find a copy?) in 1822 having introduced some of their ideas at Hill Top and elucidating the work they had carried out at Hazelwood. These included:
*Introduction of science as a compulsory subject
*abolition of corporal punishment
*one afternoon a week allocated to sport
*pupil self government
 
Alas, no pics of Hill's original school, I've been searching for one for several years. I was a young trainee photographer when the building still stood, but unlike the fashion of the time for industrial-wasteland 'back-drops' I was too used to seeing such ugly sights/sites on a daily basis, and I prefered photographing 'pretty things' ... most of whom wore mini-skirts! :D
 
Shame there is not an actual account of the murder and trial , who was Mary Ashford where and when was she murdered and who was the aquitted prisoner.
paul
 
There was a brilliant thread on the murder of Mary Ashford which seems sadly to have disapeared. She was a young lady who went to a dance at the Tyburn House in 1817 and was murdered on her way home. The case is facinating with many books on the subject. Mary is buried at Holy Trinity Church Sutton Coldfield.
 
Going back to my very early interest in stamps (long gone), i think it registered the sheet that the stamps came from
Mike
 
Paul, here you are:
To prevent forgery, the stamps had small crown watermarks on the back and check letters in the bottom corners. The letters were impressed by hand with a punch. The letters were marked 'A' through 'T' horizontally on the plate and 'A' through 'L' vertically so 'AA' was found at the top left of the sheet and the final stamp position at the bottom right was 'TL'.​
[Source: Penny Black 1840.]
 
There is an apocryphal but touching story about how Roland become interested in the post:

"By chance he witnessed a touching scene, a postman brought a letter from London addressed to a young village girl. She examined the letter, but because the postage on it was so great she refused to accept it. Rowland Hill intervened but the girl was clearly embarrassed by his action. Patiently he questioned her and she finally confessed that the letter was from her fiance working in London, but as she was too poor to afford letters from him they had devised a neat strategem. By various ingenious signs and marks drawn on the covering of the letter the young man was able to let her know that he was keeping well and that he still loved her. Rowland was profoundly disturbed by this story and he pondered on the problem..."
 
Thylacine said:
.... Here is that beautiful object, the Penny Black (1840):
Click to expand...

Rowland Hill actually expected the Mulready stationery to be more popular than the postage stamps, but the postage stamp prevailed. The Mulready (Artist/Designer, William Mulready; Engraver, John Thompson; Printers, William Clowes & Sons) was issued in two denominations, One Penny (black ink on cream paper) and Two Pence (blue ink on cream paper), in two different colors to distinguish the denominations, and in two different formats - unfolded envelopes and unfolded letter sheets. Envelopes were still a novelty at the time, as the prior postal rates had been based not on weight but on the number of sheets of paper, and an envelope counted as one sheet, doubling the rate. Note that there is no stamp or indicium in the design, merely the postage value printed at the bottom. It was only later, when stamps became the standard way to pay postage, that stamp-like images were printed on postal stationery. Some people seemed to like the new design, and enhanced it with hand colouring as shown in the pic attached.

The Mulready design was so elaborate that it generated widespread ridicule and lampooning, and in addition was perceived in some areas as a covert government attempt to control the supply of envelopes, and hence control the flow of information carried by the postal service (which had become solely a government monopoly under the 1840 reforms). Many caricatures (or lampoons) were produced by stationery manufacturers whose livelihood was threatened by the new lettersheet. Only six days after their introduction, on May 12, Hill wrote in his journal:
“I fear we shall have to substitute some other stamp for that design by Mulready ... the public have shown their disregard and even distaste for beauty.”
 
Aidan said:
... There is an interesting article about him and particularly his impact on schooling in the Stanley Gibbons Monthly ...
Click to expand...

Thanks, Aidan. That's a fascinating article about Rowland Hill's life "before postal reform". He was a remarkable man.

Here are three e-texts (courtesy of archive.org) for those who want to learn more about the great man:
[1] Rowland Hill. Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability. London: Knight, 1837.

[2] Rowland Hill and George Birkbeck Hill (his nephew). The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of Penny Postage. Volume I. Volume II. London: De La Rue, 1880.

[3] [Eleanor Caroline Smyth née Hill.] Sir Rowland Hill: The Story of a Great Reform: Told By His Daughter. London: Fisher Unwin, 1907.​
 
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A few pictures of Rowland Hill at various stages of his life.

Sources: [1] Illustrated London News (13 May 1843); [2] circa 1850? (Smyth 1907); [3] Illustrated London News (21 May 1864); [4] circa 1870? (Smyth 1907).
 
Rowland Hill family album (all from Smyth 1907):

[1] Thomas Wright Hill (his father); [2] Caroline Pearson Hill (his wife); [3] Pearson Hill (his son).

I was interested to read that T W Hill was an amateur mathematician and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and corresponded with computer pioneer Charles Babbage.
 
This song was dedicated to "Sir Rowland Hill, late of the General Post Office" early 1860s. The music is for piano with voice and was composed by W T Wrighton with lyrics by L M Thornton. Perhaps it should be rededicated to our own dear Postie?

What a wonderful man the postman is
As he hastens from door to door!
What medley of news his hands contain
For high, low, rich, and poor!
In many's the face the joy he can trace,
In many's the grief he can see,
When you open the door to his loud rat-tat
And his quick delivery.

Chorus (twice after each verse):
Every morning as true as the clock
Somebody hears the postman's knock.

Number One he presents with news of a birth,
With tidings of death, number Four,
And at Thirteen a bill of terrible length
He drops through a hole in the door;
Now a cheque or an order in Fifteen he leaves
In Sixteen his presence to prove,
While Seventeen doth an acknowledgement get,
And Eighteen a letter of love.

And the mail must get through
Whatever the hazards or odds
This low man of letters just peddles on through
Pursued by a pack of wild dogs
But ease and complaining whatever the trial
Or beating he never retreats
For you get a free bag and a hat with a badge
And it's better than walking the streets.

It is now a Morris Dance standard (no, really) - here is 1st Sedgley Morris performing it in Dudley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqtQsAqbLHQ
 
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Interesting link of Penny Black motif to the original Queens Head tavern in Steelhouse Lane. Nice photo of pub and sign before it was swept away in 1884 as part of the Corporation Street redevelopment. Two more versions of Queens Head built near original site, last one still there, but now renamed the Jekyll & Hyde.
Photo replaced, but not necessarily by same as original

Queens%20Head%20Yard.jpg
 
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