Christmas Day weddings were common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as this was one of the few days off granted to working people, and on Christmas Day, 25 December 1863, George Edward Smith, engine fitter, married Sarah Lester at Swindon, Wiltshire.
And so begins a story, threaded through with Christmases, which we uncovered because of our curiosity about a hoard of photos and glass plate negatives which have emerged from the Black Dog pub in Broadmayne.
Amidst all the anonymous faces of the D-2231 images being conserved and stored at DHC, only one has a name, and that name is Frederick George Keynton. This got us wondering – who was Frederick, and what might be his connection to the mystery photos of families, workers, weddings and service people and including an image of a Black man in a three-piece suit and watch-chain. A quick look into Kelly’s directories (available in our local studies library) told us that Frederick Keynton was the Landlord at the Black Dog in the early twentieth century.
Our volunteer Valerie set out to find out more.
A year after that Christmas wedding in Swindon, at Christmas 1864, in the heart of Queen Victoria’s reign, Emily and George’s first son, Frederick George Keynton was born to the newlyweds.
Frederick’s Dad, George, was an engine fitter in the age of steam, as had been his father before him. Trains were roaring across Britain and the ‘empire’ and steam ships were the muscles of international commerce. Skilled and semi-skilled engineers of all kinds were increasingly in demand. Mr and Mrs Keynton and their two sons had moved to 3, Charles St, in the Park District, close to Weymouth station by 1878 and young Frederick was an apprentice with the GWR – Great Western Railway. A great deal of training in the new technologies went on via apprenticeships, and Weymouth held the inviting prospect of work on the railway or work at sea. Frederick’s wage per day started at 10d with an increase to 3s. by the time the apprenticeship ended in September 1885.
George described himself as the foreman of GWR’s locomotive division, and news reports allow us to glimpse him as a witness to some shocking events:
| Southern Times
03 March 1877 P4 C |
Fatal Fall
An accident which has terminated fatally occurred on Saturday morning on the Great Western Railway, to a man named John EMBLING. . . . George KEYNTON: I live in the Park and am foreman of the locomotive department of the Great Western Railway and my business is to see all the men engaged at work do their duties properly. . . . a verdict of Accidental Death. |
| Bridport, Beaminster & Lyme Regis Telegram
27 October 1882 |
Serious Railway Accident at Cattistock: Death of the Driver.
Foreman KEYNTON of the Locomotive Department at Weymouth accompanied the breakdown gang.
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| Weymouth Telegram
13 November 1885 |
Shocking case of cruelty and starvation of children: a step mother and her husband committed to prison. Frederick KEYNTON was one of the witnesses called to describe how the children were treated and how he had tried to help. |
George seems to have been a respected member of the community and was nominated by the Mayor to attend The Paris Exhibition as part of Lord Wolverton’s Dorset Working Men’s Deputation in June 1889 which must have caused great excitement in the family.
As well as being a Christmas baby, Frederick chose to seal his love for Emily Whicker in a Christmas Eve wedding in Holy Trinity church, Weymouth in 1887, with Emily’s sister Bessie as a witness. Emily was the daughter of a Weymouth baker. Frederick and his bride moved to 3, Belle Vue, Portland.
By 15th May 1890 Frederick jumped ship from GWR and went to sea. He worked on ‘Milford of Milford’ and then joined the crew of ‘Prince’ a ship out of Weymouth, as a fireman, meaning that he tended the fires and boiler system which produced the steam to drive ‘Prince’, a steamer which had been transporting passengers between Exmouth, Torquay and other new South Coast tourist spots. Prince had a 7-man crew including the Master, John Cox, but as Frederick was discharged in October this may have been a summer job.
‘Prince’ was owned by Cosens, a Weymouth-based paddle steamer company. DHC holds an interesting collection of Cosens’ records, along with several oral history interview relating to the company. One of the images within the Black Dog collections shows a paddle steamer which is less inexplicable now – is this ‘Prince’?
Frederick G Keynton was twenty-six and head of his own household in Wyke Regis by the time of the 1891 Census. Emily’s sister Bessy, who had been witness at the marriage, was living with him and Emily, and Frederick had pivoted back to work on the railway. Four years later it’s likely that the family name was mis-spelt in Kelly’s directory where we see Frederick KENTON listed at 14, Spring Gardens, Weymouth.
Meanwhile, another Christmas wedding was to interact with Frederick Keynton’s family. Thomas Fletcher {sic} married Lilian Agnes Downer on 23 December 1888 in Hackney. Like the Keynton’s, this young couple and their two children, Edward and Gertrude moved south and in 1891 they lived at 12, Spring Gardens Weymouth, next door to the Keynton’s. Thomas was a marine engine fitter, and it’s easy to see why the two families may have become friends. When young Edward’s mother Lilian died, he went to live with the Keynton’s and became their adopted son- the Keynton’s didn’t have children of their own. When Edward in turn got married to Daisy May Scriven- yes, on 26 December 1913, at St Paul’s, Weymouth, his adoptive mother, Emily Keynton, was one of the witnesses.
In the second part of this two-part blog series, we will take a look at George Keynton’s transition from engineer to Landlord, and his family’s connection to the Black Dog pub in Broadmayne.