Wynmelvin » British Library

October 31st, 2009

Russell — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:26:23 +0000

LONDON — Today I returned to the British Library. Now that I knew the date of Benjamin Coles’ death, I reasoned that I would be better able to select documents more likely to yield a positive result. I requested five and it was in the last that I viewed that I found what I was looking for. So after four hours of searching I put in a request to have a couple of pages scanned, and I now have to return on Monday afternoon to collect my copy.

Getting around London is a bit fraught this weekend—the last weekend of mid-term break. Not because their are kids everywhere, or the fact that it’s Halloween, but because the London Transport Authority chose this weekend to close three lines completely with partial closures of five others for engineering maintenance. Unfortunately the Circle line is one of those closed completely as I find that is the one I use most often. My London Underground app has certainly paid for itself.

September 5th, 2009

Russell — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 20:41:41 +0000

LONDON — My second full day in London was spent in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room of the British Library. The object of my search was my 5 × great grandfather Benjamin Coles. Various sources have listed his occupation as a labourer, warehouseman, porter, and clerk at the East India House. The British Library is the repository for the archives of the East India Company and I was hoping that there might be something in its miles of archives that would shed some light on Benjamin’s life and career.

The staff at the enquiries desk were very helpful and got me pointed in the right direction. While waiting for some documents to be retrieved, I started trawling through a microfilm of the minutes of a pension fund. It looked like it could be a treasure trove because to qualify for a pension the prospective recipient had to supply to the trustees of the fund documentation supporting their marriage, baptisms of any children, certificate of burial, etc. After scanning three volumes totalling 35 years of minutes there was no mention of either Benjamin Coles or his widow Elizabeth, and I began to wonder whether I had missed a mention. The fourth and fifth volumes were the indexes to the first three (it would have been nice if they had been placed ahead of the minutes on the microfilm to save a lot of time) and these confirmed that I hadn’t missed anything.

By now it was early afternoon and the salary lists I had ordered were ready. They were large thick volumes detailing payments made to home staff of the East India Company. Too much information to read sequentially so I just sampled the quarterly accounts but could find no mention of Benjamin. I think he may have been too junior in the company to have been recorded in these particular documents.

Leaving the Reading Room I headed downstairs to visit the Henry VIII exhibition. Unfortunately both Saturday and Sunday were already sold out, and I discovered that the exhibition finished on Sunday. So all in all not a particularly successful day, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

September 3rd, 2009

Russell — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:37:04 +0000

LONDON — I did manage to get some sleep during the flight to London but it wasn’t a lot, and not very high quality sleep either. Now when the lights go off you also have the glow from the LCD screens in the back of the seats to contend with as well.

I didn’t open the book I had bought in Auckland. Not on the flight anyway. I did read half a dozen pages of the prologue while in the departure lounge but that was it. It seemed as though much of the flight was in darkness, and what daylight we did see, we were either being served dinner or breakfast or in transit at Los Angeles.

Arrived at Heathow 10 minutes early. Initial indications were that we would be landing 30 minutes ahead of schedule but 20 minutes of flying in circles put a stop to that.
Getting through British customs wasn’t a problem. The biggest hassle was waiting in the queue to have your passport stamped. My luggage was already going round and round when I finally made it to the baggage claim area and then it was straight out the green no items to declare exit.

Caught the Heathrow Express into London, arriving at Paddington Station about 12:15 pm. Everything looked so familiar, it was as though I had just been there yesterday, not five years ago. Maybe my memory is not as bad as I thought, except that I’m sure I watched a third in-flight movie, the name of which I can’t seem to recall just now! Since I had a bit of time to kill before check-in at the hotel, I took the opportunity to reserve a seat on the 10:06 train to Truro on Monday.

After checking into the Falcon Hotel I made my way back to Paddington Station and took the underground to St Pancras. Right next door to St Pancras Station is the British Library and I wanted to register for a reader’s card. The British Library holds the archives of the East India Company and I want to see if they hold any information on the life and occupation of my 5 × great grandfather Benjamin Coles. He was apparently variously employed by the honourable company as a warehouseman, porter, and clerk.
I have made a mental note (perhaps I should write it down) that I must go back and visit the Henry VIII exhibition currently on display in the Library. I also made the mistake of visiting the Library’s shop and purchased a book that I’ve been wanting since doing an early english paper at Auckland University: The New Testament / translated by William Tyndale ; the text of the Worms edition of 1526 in original spelling. They also had it in a facsimile edition but that was more difficult to read and cost half as much again.

The last task for today is to prepare for my trip to the National Archives tomorrow.