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Newsletter 17 .pub - The Binns Family

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From <strong>The</strong> Editor<br />

…..going to any lengths in the name of research<br />

It is almost a year since the last<br />

issue of <strong>Binns</strong> Connections but<br />

data has continued to be added to<br />

thebinnsfamily files. In this newsletter<br />

you will see that some of the<br />

names are followed by brackets<br />

that contain the I number of the<br />

individual, so locating the individual<br />

in the files is made easy. Some of<br />

the notes for the individuals are a<br />

bit sparse but if any body has more<br />

information they would like to add,<br />

please do get in touch.<br />

Once again I would like to thank<br />

everybody who has helped to<br />

make this <strong>pub</strong>lication possible by<br />

contributing articles and hopefully<br />

I have acknowledged this inside.<br />

<strong>The</strong> most important contribution,<br />

once again, has been that of my<br />

wife Elaine, who has skilfully converted<br />

my crude efforts into<br />

something of interest. I trust you<br />

will forgive any errors and omissions;<br />

they are entirely of my<br />

making.<br />

Our Website: www.thebinnsfamily.org.uk<br />

T h e B i n n s F a m i l y N e w s l e t t e r<br />

OUR SPECIAL THANKS GO TO<br />

IAN A . BINNS and PEACH DIGITAL<br />

FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF THE WEBSITE<br />

AND THEIR CONTINUED SUPPORT<br />

Inside this issue:<br />

Poetry Corner 2<br />

George <strong>Binns</strong>, Chartist 3<br />

Canadian Cousins 3<br />

<strong>The</strong> Brett <strong>Binns</strong> <strong>Family</strong> 4/5<br />

Another Chemist<br />

Ernest <strong>Binns</strong> the Impresario<br />

5<br />

6/7<br />

Tales from Michigan 8/9<br />

Another <strong>Binns</strong> Shop 10<br />

1st Lady wears Tom <strong>Binns</strong> Pearls 10<br />

<strong>The</strong> Good Old Days 11<br />

Alan <strong>Binns</strong> & the <strong>Binns</strong> Organ 12<br />

More on Sir Henry <strong>Binns</strong> 12<br />

R. N. Jenkinson & Thomas <strong>Binns</strong> 13<br />

Some Recent Contacts 14<br />

Autumn 2009<br />

Number <strong>17</strong>


Poetry Corner<br />

by George <strong>Binns</strong>, Bishop Auckland<br />

8 May 1840 <strong>The</strong> Northern Liberator; Poetry:- To the Magistrates who<br />

committed me to prison under the Darlington Cattle Act, for addressing a<br />

Chartist meeting.<br />

Oh! Bind your fetters fast as hell<br />

Can forge them for your master,<br />

I smile to think they ring your knell;<br />

I’ll wear them for the Charter.<br />

And ope your dismal dungeon’s jaws,<br />

To those who will not barter<br />

For tinsel rank, a noble cause,<br />

I’ll enter for the Charter.<br />

And herd me with the base and bad,<br />

Because I’ll not surrender,<br />

<strong>The</strong> rights of England to your nod,<br />

I still will love the Charter.<br />

<strong>The</strong>n bind my limbs and lash the dust,<br />

My soul you cannot fetter,<br />

Its chainless wing flies with the just,<br />

Round England and her Charter.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Switzer’s Tell – the Tyrol’s pride,<br />

<strong>The</strong> noblest blood of Sparts,<br />

<strong>The</strong> men who’ve nobly liv’d and died,<br />

Cry, onward with the Charter<br />

Page 2


George <strong>Binns</strong>, Chartist<br />

George <strong>Binns</strong>(I204) was born on 6 th December<br />

1815 , the sixth child and third son of George<br />

and Margaret <strong>Binns</strong>. After schooling at Ackworth<br />

in Yorkshire he returned to Sunderland.<br />

He had radical political views and, along with<br />

James Williams, established a Mechanics Institute<br />

that included a newspaper library for the<br />

general <strong>pub</strong>lic to use.<br />

<strong>The</strong>ir next venture was to set up as booksellers,<br />

stationers, and newsagents in Sunderland<br />

where their newly-formed Sunderland Democratic<br />

Association met. This association became<br />

one of the many Chartist movements in the<br />

North of England.<br />

In 1839 both men were arrested and in 1840<br />

found guilty of attending an illegal meeting and<br />

sentenced to six months in Durham. Prison. After<br />

their release in January 1841, fellow Chartists<br />

met them at the prison gates and marched<br />

with them back to Sunderland.<br />

A Chartists Meeting in London in 1848<br />

Canadian Cousins<br />

Judith Baxter wrote to tell us that she was looking for the family<br />

of David <strong>Binns</strong> who lived in Keighley in 1881 and emigrated to<br />

Toronto, Canada.<br />

His son Cyril Waddington <strong>Binns</strong> (I351) married Judith’s<br />

great aunt May Slater in Toronto in 1914. <strong>The</strong>y had a<br />

son Wilfred and if he is still alive Judith would dearly<br />

like to get in touch with him, or his family.<br />

This family has been connected to a John <strong>Binns</strong><br />

(I3558) born about 1820, in Kildwick.<br />

Judith very kindly sent a variety of interesting snippings<br />

from Canadian newspapers amongst which was an<br />

account of the death on Prince Edward Island of Benjamin<br />

<strong>Binns</strong>, in August 1945. Benjamin was 34, and a<br />

former maritime amateur middleweight boxing champion.<br />

His jugular vein had been severed and his brother<br />

in law, Leo Herbert Cheverie, was accused of murder.<br />

In February a grand jury found that Cheverie had no<br />

case to answer and assumed the death was suicide.<br />

Sadly, deaths in unusual circumstances are often reported<br />

in the papers. Another example, from April<br />

1950, describes how the body of 76 year-old Alfred<br />

<strong>Binns</strong> was recovered from the government dock at<br />

Waubashene. <strong>The</strong>re were no witnesses to the drowning<br />

but he had been seen sitting on the dock a short<br />

time before his body was found<br />

Another former boxer, Roland <strong>Binns</strong>, died in November<br />

1985, after his foot developed gangrene and had<br />

to be amputated. Roland was 83 years old and had<br />

been living in a nursing home so his death caused<br />

quite a rumpus. His obituary said that he was born in<br />

Leeds, Yorkshire, in 1902 and arrived in Toronto with<br />

his father when he was seven. He was British Empire<br />

Welterweight Champion in 1930, and retired from boxing<br />

in 1932, aged 30.<br />

Page 3


<strong>The</strong> Brett <strong>Binns</strong> <strong>Family</strong><br />

Edward Brett <strong>Binns</strong> was the subject of a brief article in the<br />

Autumn News Letter of 2007 (Issue 14) and investigations<br />

have now established further connections.<br />

It is now known that his grandfather, Joseph <strong>Binns</strong>,<br />

was born in about 1814 in Aberdare, Glamorgan,<br />

Wales. Joseph, who like his brothers, Watkin, Francis,<br />

and John, was a blacksmith in Tipton, Staffordshire,<br />

married Mary Hill and they brought up eight children in<br />

Tipton. Interestingly between 1852 and 1858, their<br />

three youngest children appear to have been born in<br />

Monmouthshire, Wales.<strong>The</strong> eldest of their children<br />

was John <strong>Binns</strong> (born c.1839) who in 1862, in Newport,<br />

Wales, married Catherine Brett (born c. 1840 in<br />

Wales). <strong>The</strong>y lived in Pelsall, Staffordshire where he<br />

had a career as a mechanical engineer. <strong>The</strong> birth of<br />

their third child Edward Brett <strong>Binns</strong> was registered as<br />

Edward Brett in West Bromwich in September Quarter<br />

1867 and, as described in Issue 14, he was brought<br />

up in Wales by his grandfather Edward Brett. Edward<br />

Brett had Irish connections and it is interesting to<br />

speculate that Joseph <strong>Binns</strong>, his paternal grandfather,<br />

who was born in Aberdare, might have had an Irish<br />

father.<strong>The</strong> story of the Brett <strong>Binns</strong> family is further enhanced<br />

by the addition of the following thumbnail<br />

sketch of Clarence Edward Brett <strong>Binns</strong> (I9984), contributed<br />

by Rex Needle and previously <strong>pub</strong>lished in<br />

“Prominent People of Bourne”<br />

“Many of us long for the adventurous life but circumstances<br />

usually dictate that we settle for the routine,<br />

ending up with a family and mortgage much the same<br />

as everyone else. Tales of faraway places, acts of<br />

derring-do and even heroism are therefore all the<br />

more appealing when we read about them from the<br />

comfort of the armchair and few of us can deny that<br />

our lives would have been much richer if only we had<br />

been prepared to have taken more chances when<br />

young .Reading about the career of Clarence Edward<br />

Brett <strong>Binns</strong> is particularly exciting because he was a<br />

soldier, traveller and sportsman whose life story reads<br />

like an episode from Boy’s Own Paper yet he died<br />

quietly and almost forgotten in Bourne over 30 years<br />

ago.<br />

He was born at Grimsthorpe House, Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire,<br />

on 16th November 1897, son of Edward<br />

Richard <strong>Binns</strong> who was estate agent to the first and<br />

second earls of Ancaster. (Edward Richard <strong>Binns</strong><br />

worked for the Ancaster family for sixty years)<br />

Clarence was educated at Charterhouse, one of Britain’s<br />

most exclusive <strong>pub</strong>lic schools based at Godalming,<br />

Surrey, and after volunteering for military<br />

service during the Great War of 1914-18, he was<br />

commissioned in the King’s Own Royal Lancashire<br />

Regiment, attaining the rank of captain and fighting<br />

at Passchendale in Flanders between July and November<br />

19<strong>17</strong> which was among the bloodiest battles<br />

of the war. He subsequently transferred to the newly<br />

-formed Royal Flying Corps as a flight-lieutenant,<br />

working as an observer, and during 500 hours of<br />

flying time he crashed three times but escaped serious<br />

injury. At the war’s end, he was appointed a<br />

member of the special commission convened to find<br />

the bodies of personnel from the RFC killed in action.<br />

Returning to civilian life, he went to the Middle East<br />

as an executive of the Persian Oil Company (now<br />

the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company), surviving a serious<br />

attack of typhoid fever before moving to Malaya as a<br />

rubber planter for fifteen years and becoming one of<br />

the pioneers in the production of palm oil. In 1936,<br />

he moved to take over a 7,000 acre plantation in the<br />

Northern Shan State of Burma where he employed<br />

1,000 workers on the production of tung oil, used in<br />

dyes, stains and wood varnish, and it was here, at<br />

Maymyo, a colonial hill station, that he married his<br />

wife Phyllis who had flown out from England to join<br />

him.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Second World War started in 1939 and when<br />

the Japanese invaded Burma in 1942, the couple<br />

lost their livelihood and all of their belongings. Mrs<br />

<strong>Binns</strong> managed to escape by plane to England while<br />

he trekked to safety in India and for three months his<br />

wife did not know whether he was dead or alive. For<br />

his work with the part time military forces while in<br />

Malaya, Mr <strong>Binns</strong> was subsequently awarded the<br />

T e r r i t o r i a l D e c o r a t i o n .<br />

Page 4


<strong>The</strong> Brett <strong>Binns</strong> <strong>Family</strong> con’t<br />

He remained in the Far East for the rest of the war, returning<br />

to duty with the Royal Air Force as a flight lieutenant<br />

working for central photographic intelligence, helping<br />

drop agents behind Japanese lines but when the war<br />

ended in 1945, he returned home to Grimsthorpe to join<br />

his wife and their two daughters, Diana, who had been<br />

born in Burma, and Cynthia in India.<br />

He went into partnership with Lord Ancaster and formed<br />

the Grimsthorpe Nurseries, running them successfully<br />

until he retired in 1963 and the following year, he and his<br />

wife moved to No 23 North Road, Bourne. He also served<br />

for a spell on the Income Tax Commission which sat at<br />

Corby Glen, as a member of Edenham Parish Council<br />

and as a manager of the village primary school. During<br />

his earlier years, he was also an enthusiastic<br />

sportsman, playing tennis<br />

and cricket with great ability and golf,<br />

at which his handicap was six.<br />

Mr <strong>Binns</strong> died at his home in North Road on Sunday<br />

16th February 1975 after several months of failing<br />

health, aged 77. <strong>The</strong> funeral was held at Edenham<br />

parish church the following Wednesday, conducted by<br />

the vicar, the Rev Geoffrey Roberts. He was survived<br />

by his wife and daughters. Floral tributes were from<br />

family members only but other mourners and sympathisers<br />

were asked to send a donation to the Royal<br />

British Legion of which Mr <strong>Binns</strong> was a founder member.<br />

He is buried in the churchyard at Edenham.<br />

Another Chemist<br />

As regular readers will know, in a former life I was a chemist and always interested to<br />

discover earlier <strong>Binns</strong> members of the profession<br />

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.<br />

Monday, July 7th, 1856.<br />

Mary Dougherty was tried for feloniously cutting and<br />

wounding Edward Dougherty, her husband, with intent<br />

to do him some grievous bodily harm.<br />

WILLIAM BIDDLE (policeman, B 155). Last Saturday<br />

night fortnight I was called to a chemist's shop, Mr.<br />

<strong>Binns</strong>'s, in York-street, Westminster, and found<br />

Dougherty there, bleeding profusely from the nose—I<br />

took him in a cab, in a fainting state, to Westminster<br />

Hospital; he was not able to walk—as I came out of<br />

the hospital I saw the prisoner standing outside, and<br />

Dougherty said, "That is the party who cut my nose,"<br />

and gave her in charge—that was after his nose was<br />

dressed—on the way to the station, she said that she<br />

could not think who it was that had done it; it must<br />

have been someone in the passage—she appeared<br />

perfectly sober—I went to the house, and found this<br />

razor (produced) on a shelf, by the side of the fireplace,<br />

and have had it ever since; there is a slight<br />

mark of blood on the handle, and likewise on the<br />

blade—this is the apron (produced), here are spots of<br />

blood on it—I should say, from her appearance, that she<br />

was perfectly sober—I told the Magistrate that she was a<br />

little excited—I do not remember saying that she was the<br />

worse for liquor—this is my signature to my deposition; I<br />

believe it was read over to me before I signed it—I have<br />

no recollections of telling the Magistrate that she was the<br />

worse for liquor; she appeared a little excited, but I<br />

thought that was from what had occurred—she might<br />

have been drinking a little, but she was what I should call<br />

sober; she was evidently in possession of her faculties.<br />

JOHN FREDERICK LANGFIELD . I am manager to Mr.<br />

<strong>Binns</strong>, a chemist. <strong>The</strong> prosecutor was brought there,<br />

bleeding very copiously from a wound on the nose—he<br />

lost very nearly a quart of blood—I bound it up, and sent<br />

him to the hospital.<br />

Prisoner's Defence. I do not recollect doing anything; the<br />

blood on my apron was from a blow he struck me on my<br />

nose when we were on the floor; I have not the least recollection<br />

of anything afterwards; I have a recollection of<br />

seeing the razor; I have not a friend in the world.<br />

GUILTY of illegally wounding. Aged 45.— Confined<br />

Twelve Month.<br />

Page 5


Ernest <strong>Binns</strong> the Impresario<br />

Ernest <strong>Binns</strong> has featured in several earlier issues of the newsletter, but now, thanks to Ted Jowett, in Canada, we<br />

can identify his family as originating with Abraham <strong>Binns</strong> (I10816) in Halifax, Yorkshire. Ted’s grandmother was<br />

Elizabeth <strong>Binns</strong>, sister of Ernest so we have excellent information.<br />

Ted writes: -<br />

“I was born in Bradford. In 1942 when I was 6 years<br />

old I first went for my holidays at my great Uncle<br />

Ernest’s house in Hest Bank near Morecambe.<br />

He lived in a big house at 1, Coastal Drive Hest Bank<br />

it was a fantastic house as far as I was concerned,<br />

after all I lived in a very small terraced house with an<br />

outside toilet in Bradford.<br />

I was in UK last year 2008, I went to see if the house<br />

was still there, it is and it still looks really great. It is<br />

over 67 years old.<br />

He had a very large warehouse in the White Lund<br />

complex where the scenery was stored along with<br />

costumes etc. That is also where scenery was<br />

painted by a gentleman called Mr. MacGregor.<br />

When I was about 10 or 12 years old my friends<br />

and I were allowed to go to the show at the end of<br />

the pier; we went so often we got to know the lines.<br />

We were asked at one point not to go to the show<br />

again as we were giving away the jokes before the<br />

comedian e.g. “Ladies and gentlemen, here is a<br />

special announcement. After the Monday and<br />

Tuesday shows (wait for it)…comes Wednesday,<br />

Thursday and Friday’s shows”; we used to shout<br />

out the last part, the comedian was not happy.<br />

When my father came out of the forces, he was<br />

employed by Ernest <strong>Binns</strong>; that is when we moved<br />

to Morecambe from Bradford.<br />

Ernest <strong>Binns</strong> had a show at the Arcadian <strong>The</strong>atre<br />

called “<strong>The</strong> Arcadian Follies.<br />

On occasions Ernest had visitors such as Wilfred<br />

1914<br />

My Grandma Elizabeth Jowett (nee <strong>Binns</strong>) lived with<br />

Ernest, (her brother) and helped to look after my great<br />

Aunt Miriam (Ernest’s wife) who was not in good<br />

health. In later years he had homes on Broadway and<br />

Torrisholme Road in Morecambe.<br />

My memories of Ernest <strong>Binns</strong> (I705) were for a period<br />

when he presented the show at the end of the “West<br />

End Pier” in Morecambe. It was called the “West End<br />

Follies.” He also had Christmas pantomimes such as<br />

“Cinderella,” “Puss in Boots,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,”<br />

and “Mother Goose.”<br />

Pickles, Albert Modley, Max Miller and others.<br />

Page 6


<strong>The</strong> Many Faces of Ernest <strong>Binns</strong><br />

Ernest and ? In Morecombe<br />

Page 7


American Tales from Lenawee County, Michigan<br />

by Brad Hess<br />

Way back in autumn of 2004 we had a<br />

brief look at the <strong>Binns</strong> family of Lenawee County<br />

Michigan. This time around I explore a bit about<br />

the early county history and the varied progenitors<br />

of the family within this county.<br />

As the <strong>Binns</strong> family moved into Michigan<br />

in the mid 1830s Michigan was a territory at a<br />

crossroads between statehood and the outbreak<br />

of war. Michigan and Ohio were locked into a<br />

stalemate over a 468 square mile piece of land at<br />

the border. In the midst of this struggle was a<br />

small border county given the name of Lenawee<br />

by former territorial governor Lewis Cass.<br />

When David <strong>Binns</strong> stepped into this<br />

county in March of 1834 the population was<br />

around 7,900 souls. Just three years later that<br />

would approach fifteen thousand. By 1840 it<br />

would be the fourth largest county in the newly<br />

formed state.<br />

David and the rest of the <strong>Binns</strong> settled<br />

into what would shortly become Woodstock Township.<br />

This township has the distinction of being<br />

the most “irregular” in the county. Early histories<br />

of the area refer to the land as “broken and rugged”<br />

and “swampy and marshy in places, and the<br />

soil third rate and poor.” Nonetheless the township<br />

is not without highlights as it does contain<br />

more than a dozen lakes as well as “Prospect Hill”<br />

which is one of the highest elevations in the state.<br />

Through the hard work and energy of the settlers<br />

of this area, many of which share <strong>Binns</strong> blood, the<br />

area has been converted into a rich agricultural<br />

area.<br />

I don’t know much about David <strong>Binns</strong> but<br />

based on the fact that he seemed to closely move<br />

with my ancestor James (I97) and information<br />

found in the Bindex I believe him to be a second<br />

cousin to Joseph recorded as I144. We first see<br />

record of James and David together in the<br />

“Microfilm records of Fayette county courts, as<br />

regards: Petitions, Declarations of Intent, and<br />

granting of Citizenship actions” index as follows:-<br />

“#233 DAVID BINN; born Skipton (?),<br />

County of York, England on January 18<br />

<strong>17</strong>80; migrated September of 1818 from<br />

England and arrived in the U. S October 21,<br />

1818; sworn statement of March 1819.<br />

#234 JAMES BINNS, born at Canonly (?),<br />

County of York, England, on September 13,<br />

<strong>17</strong>73; migrated from whence place September<br />

1818 and arrived in U. S. October 21, 1818;<br />

sworn statement of March 4, 1819.”<br />

We again see James and David living two townships<br />

from each other in Pennsylvania during the 1820 Federal<br />

census.<br />

Additionally we know that David received two<br />

different land patents in today’s Woodstock Township<br />

on October 1, 1935. <strong>The</strong> first consisting of 160 acres<br />

in section 23 and the other in section 33 containing 120<br />

acres. As we know David came into the area in 1834<br />

it’s likely that he cleared the way for the rest of the family<br />

to come in 1835.<br />

James and his descendants came in 1835.<br />

James and his wife Alice (I<strong>17</strong>5) had emigrated from<br />

England to Fayette County, Pennsylvania in either<br />

18<strong>17</strong> or 1818. We know from the book titled “<strong>The</strong> Thistlewaite<br />

<strong>Family</strong>” by Bernard Thistlewaite (private circulation,<br />

1910, pages 4 and 5) that James was of<br />

Cononley Woodside, parish of Kildwick in Yorkshire<br />

and that he was the son of John (I55) and Sarah (I94).<br />

James married Alice Thistlethwaite whose family was<br />

from Stonehouse near Dent. James was described as<br />

a “clogmaker” between <strong>17</strong>97 and 1808 and then later<br />

as a “farmer” between 1810 and 1818. Together they<br />

are recorded as having eight children; Sarah, Margaret,<br />

William, Daniel, John, Joseph, Wilson and Hannah. All<br />

the children were born in Cononley Woodside. Of the<br />

sons, we know that Daniel died as an infant and are<br />

told that all the rest, except William, ventured into Lenawee<br />

County and settled in the area of Addison,<br />

Michigan. What follows is an exploration of that statement.<br />

<strong>The</strong> James <strong>Binns</strong> family seems to have first<br />

made its appearance into Lenawee County on July 9,<br />

1835. John and his wife Sarah were received on certificate<br />

from Providence Monthly Meeting in Pennsylvania<br />

into the Adrian Monthly Meeting from the town of<br />

the same name along with his father James and stepmother<br />

Elizabeth. With James and Elizabeth were minor<br />

children Wilson, Hannah and Daniel. Another son<br />

Page 8


Tales from Michigan con’t<br />

of James, Joseph, was accepted into the Meeting on<br />

December 10, 1835. Sadly Hannah’s death is recorded<br />

the following day.<br />

On the fourth day of April, 1836, the first meeting<br />

of the township of Woodstock was held at the<br />

house of Jesse Osborn. Among the officers elected<br />

that day we find Jesse Osborn and John <strong>Binns</strong> (I180),<br />

directors of the poor. John purchased eighty acres in<br />

the west half of the Northeast quarter of section 32, in<br />

Township five, south of Range one East, in the District<br />

of Lands subject to sale at Monroe, Michigan Territory<br />

on March 18, 1837. This purchase would be in what<br />

is today known as Woodstock Township in Lenawee<br />

County, Michigan. John was married to Sarah Hewitt<br />

(I461) and they appear to have had five children.<br />

On the same day John’s brother Joseph<br />

(I181) purchased the Southwest fractional quarter,<br />

and Northwest quarter of section thirty, in what is today<br />

Woodstock Township. This land grant consisted<br />

of “one hundred and twenty-one acres and fifty two<br />

hundredths of an acre.” Also in February of 1846 we<br />

see a petition presented to the Michigan State Senate<br />

by Joseph <strong>Binns</strong> and twenty-five other citizens of Lenawee<br />

County for the incorporation of a manual labor<br />

school which was later built in Woodstock Township.<br />

Joseph married Susannah Lupton who was the<br />

daughter of Gideon Lupton a prominent Friend and<br />

Minister of the Gospel on December 14, 1842. <strong>The</strong>y<br />

had at least five children.<br />

My ancestor, Wilson <strong>Binns</strong>, is notably the<br />

most obscure of the group. I have a family bible that<br />

records the marriage of Wilson <strong>Binns</strong> (I182) and<br />

Adaline Carr on the eighteenth of January 1843. <strong>The</strong><br />

same source mentions that he married Jane Faucett<br />

on the twenty-ninth of January, 1857. According to<br />

the bible Wilson died on the seventh of April, 1877.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re is little mention of Wilson aside from the occasional<br />

census and an entry in the Adrian Monthly<br />

Meeting notes. On the eight of August, 1844 he condemned<br />

himself for marrying outside of unity with<br />

Adaline. Wilson and Adaline had three children.<br />

<strong>The</strong> last known son of James to settle in<br />

Lenawee County is Daniel (I185). He was a half<br />

brother to the rest, having been born June 28, 1828<br />

near Brownsville, Pennsylvania to James’ second<br />

wife Elizabeth Hewitt. He came to Addison in the<br />

spring of 1935 with the previously listed siblings and<br />

parents. His parents died the following year. That<br />

left him, at the age of seven, to be raised by an unknown<br />

aunt and uncle. He returned to Fayette<br />

County, Pennsylvania in 1848. <strong>The</strong>re he married<br />

Caroline Nickel on Oct 13, 1852 and conducted a<br />

mercantile business for approximately 25 years. She<br />

preceded him in death in 1904. In 1878 he purchased<br />

a farm near Addison, Michigan and farmed<br />

there until one year before his death. Daniel, like<br />

many in the family, was a Quaker. By 1857 he had<br />

moved to the Methodist denomination. He then began<br />

active work in the church which continued for<br />

more than 40 years. “Though busy with the cares of<br />

a business and a large family during all of this time<br />

he was a local preacher in both Pennsylvania and<br />

Michigan and often preached continuously for several<br />

months during the illness of the regular pastor. He<br />

was also Sunday school superintendent during much<br />

of this period.” He and his wife had thirteen children,<br />

twelve of whom were living at the time of his death on<br />

January 7, 1906. His obituary states that his children<br />

were scattered across Pennsylvania, Michigan and<br />

California.<br />

So there we have the origins of all but one of<br />

the many <strong>Binns</strong> branches in the Addison, Michigan<br />

area. Feel free to contact me at<br />

Brad.Hess@Gmail.com.<br />

We very much look forward<br />

to reading more about the<br />

Lenawee family in future<br />

Editor.<br />

Page 9


Discovering Another <strong>Binns</strong> Shop<br />

Sandy & David<br />

at<br />

In early Spring this year Elaine and I enjoyed a six-week visit to the Eastern USA. My second cousin, Sandy (nee<br />

<strong>Binns</strong>) and her husband took us on a wonderful tour from Orlando right up to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, visiting<br />

Hilton Head Island SC, Savannah GA, Washington DC, Mount Vernon VA and Tallmadge OH to meet more of the<br />

family, to name but a few but imagine our delight when on our visit to Williamsburg we came across a very high class<br />

<strong>Binns</strong> store. Of course, we had to go in. <strong>The</strong> Assistant CEO, Thomas Smith, welcomed us and we talked briefly<br />

about the <strong>Binns</strong> stores in Sunderland and other places in the North of the UK. He was under the impression that the<br />

Edinburgh store was the headquarters, but we put him right on that one. He told us there was no longer a <strong>Binns</strong> family<br />

connection with the Williamsburg store but sadly he wasn’t able to explain the origin of their name. <strong>The</strong>y very<br />

proudly displays photographs of the Queen visiting the store during her last visit to the US.<br />

In <strong>The</strong> Public Eye<br />

……………….Tom <strong>Binns</strong>’ jewellery<br />

Michelle Obama wears<br />

Tom <strong>Binns</strong> jewellery<br />

.According to Vogue, the American First Lady continues<br />

to win the votes of the fashion jury with her on-themoney<br />

taste and eye for hot designers. Michelle Obama<br />

worked this season's obsession with pearls at a White<br />

House gala event wearing a Tom <strong>Binns</strong> pearl necklace.<br />

Born in Belfast, Ireland, Tom <strong>Binns</strong> graduated from Middlesex<br />

Polytechnic in 1981 with a BA in jewellery design,<br />

obtaining all the necessary skills to make real pieces.<br />

With the influence of the Dada movement, Tom went on<br />

his own revolutionary way creating his collection of<br />

‘object trouves.’<br />

Tom is the pioneer of design alchemy where anything<br />

becomes possible. He can find something and make it<br />

an icon. He may treat diamonds with remarkable negligence<br />

and then hold a piece of beach glass with great<br />

nobility. His poetic sense, combined with his anarchic<br />

wit and caustic humor has been the essence of his<br />

spirit. ‘You are not dealing with reason, you are dealing<br />

with attitude.’ His art is feminine, anti-conformist and<br />

elegant. It was his collaboration with Vivienne Westwood<br />

and Malcolm McClaren, starting with <strong>The</strong> Punk<br />

Couture that created the perfect marriage for Tom’s<br />

Dada embrace. Tom <strong>Binns</strong> is in his element, as adornment<br />

has become the focus of fashion. ‘Jewelry is always<br />

a treasure, and though it may not be made of gold<br />

and diamonds, it should still have that sentiment<br />

Page 10


Democracy in the Good Old Days<br />

<strong>17</strong> July 1841 <strong>The</strong> Examiner (London); Votes in the<br />

Market:- A man by the name of Benjamin <strong>Binns</strong><br />

[I11252], a hay-dealer, on Quarry Hill, who has always<br />

before voted for Liberal candidates, on the last<br />

occasion offered his vote to the Liberals for £5. This<br />

was refused and he voted for Jocelyn and Beckett.<br />

We know, from the statement of the man himself, that<br />

the Blues offered to find him floor-boards for a house<br />

he is building, which he declined, not considering it<br />

sufficient.<br />

24 Jul 1841 <strong>The</strong> Leeds Mercury; Charge of attempted<br />

bribery refuted: In last week’s Intelligencer, appears a<br />

denial from a Benjamin <strong>Binns</strong>, of Quarry Hill [Leeds],<br />

hay and straw dealer and beer shopkeeper, of a statement<br />

which had been previously made in the Leeds<br />

Times, to the effect that he had been offered a bribe if<br />

he would vote for Beckett and Jocelyn at the late election.<br />

<strong>The</strong> paragraph in the Intelligencer runs as fol-<br />

lows:-<br />

Mr <strong>Binns</strong> requests us to say that the statement is untrue;<br />

but he was offered £5 by Mr Wm. Hellewell,<br />

clock maker, late of Quarry Hill, if he would vote for<br />

Hume and Aldam. He refused; when Mr Hellewell<br />

pressed for his support, and said he would procure<br />

him a much larger sum from the Yellow committee,<br />

provided he gave the Yellow party his vote; which tender<br />

Mr <strong>Binns</strong> also rejected. <strong>The</strong> Blues made no offer<br />

of any kind, bur merely canvassed him in the ordinary<br />

way.<br />

This explicit charge against a respectable party could<br />

not go without investigation, and we are happy to<br />

have Mr Hellewell’s authority to say that the statement<br />

is a base fabrication on the part of <strong>Binns</strong>. So far from<br />

Mr Hellewell having offered him money, it appears<br />

that <strong>Binns</strong> himself was the only man to speak of such a<br />

recompense for voting. Mr Hellewell states that all that<br />

passed between them on any occasion when money<br />

was named, was – that when he was going to <strong>Binns</strong>’s<br />

on the Sunday preceding the election, the latter called<br />

out, “How are you Blues and Yellows coming on?” to<br />

which he (Mr. H.) replied that he understood <strong>Binns</strong> (who<br />

had always previously voted with the Liberals) was<br />

about to vote Blue. To this that worthy rejoined, “I’ll not<br />

vote for any body that will not give me £5, and I’ll have<br />

it before I start.” Mr. Hellewell solemnly asserts that<br />

nothing further passed relating to the election, but after<br />

a short conversation on other topics, they separated,<br />

and he never saw <strong>Binns</strong> again until he appeared at the<br />

polling-booth, flanked by a horse dealer and a legal<br />

gentleman, to vote exactly opposite to what he had<br />

done at former elections. <strong>The</strong> man’s want of principle is<br />

evident from this, but it is still more apparent from the<br />

fact that on a gentleman, of the East ward, asking him a<br />

week before how he should vote, he replied, “I’ll vote for<br />

that party that will give me most brass!” Whether he<br />

needed any of this commodity, we shall leave others to<br />

decide, but if not, by means of his new friends he has<br />

obtained such an inordinate supply as to have uttered<br />

an accusation against a respectable person, who denied<br />

it in the most emphatic manner, and says that<br />

nothing but his inability to sustain the expense of a lawsuit,<br />

prevents his calling the proprietors of the Intelligencer<br />

to account for giving currency to such a charge from<br />

such a quarter. <strong>The</strong> fact which is spoken to by the gentleman<br />

we have referred to, is sufficient to show<br />

whether Mr. Hellewell or <strong>Binns</strong> is most worthy of credit;<br />

and we are persuaded that Mr Hellewell need have no<br />

apprehension as to the decision either of those who<br />

know or do not know the respective parties.<br />

Health and Safety in the Good Old Days<br />

4 Sep 1880 Leeds Mercury; Fatal Accident to an Overlooker<br />

at Bradford: An inquest was held yesterday before<br />

Mr Hutchinson, Coroner for Bradford, relative to the<br />

death of Henry Squire <strong>Binns</strong> (I7336), overlooker. <strong>The</strong><br />

deceased was employed at the Ross Shed, Birksland<br />

Street, Bradford, and on the 18 th ult. he was assisting<br />

one of the workmen to repair a gas- pipe. <strong>The</strong> deceased<br />

was standing upon a loom, from which he<br />

slipped, and being caught by a driving belt, he was<br />

drawn round the shaft several times before the engine<br />

could be stopped. He was shockingly injured, his right<br />

arm being torn off. He was removed to the Infirmary,<br />

where he died on Wednesday. Mr Wiemar, the house<br />

surgeon, being of the opinion that death was the result of<br />

exhaustion and shock to the nervous system caused by<br />

the injuries. A verdict of “Accidental Death” was returned.<br />

Page 11


Alan Penrose <strong>Binns</strong> and the James Jepson <strong>Binns</strong> Organ<br />

Alan writes to say—<br />

“I was accompanied on a James Jepson <strong>Binns</strong><br />

instrument at what turned out to be my final <strong>pub</strong>lic<br />

performance. I sang Panis Angelicus at the wedding<br />

of a friend’s daughter at Habergham,<br />

Burnley in 1993. I couldn’t sing it now. I thought<br />

it was an appropriate swan song to sing to a<br />

<strong>Binns</strong> organ. I would love to think J J <strong>Binns</strong><br />

(I4059) was one of mine. He came from close to<br />

my <strong>Binns</strong> in N Leeds but he has not left enough<br />

info to claim him.”<br />

More on Sir Henry <strong>Binns</strong> - descendant of John <strong>Binns</strong> and Abigail King<br />

Ashley <strong>Binns</strong>-Ward writes from South Africa<br />

“<strong>The</strong> world is full of incredible coincidences”.<br />

A good friend from my university days in Pietermaritzburg<br />

was in Cape Town from Natal for a wedding this<br />

past weekend and called on me while he was here to<br />

catch up. I mentioned to him that I had recently been<br />

pulled into the <strong>Binns</strong> family genealogy and that part of<br />

it included Sir Henry <strong>Binns</strong> (I289), the 19th century<br />

prime minister of Natal. 'That's interesting' he said, 'I<br />

am related by marriage through the Acutt family to<br />

Henry <strong>Binns</strong>'.<br />

My friend has a book on the Acutt family; and as soon<br />

as he got home he sent me some pages from it which<br />

included a photograph of Sir Henry's widow, Lady<br />

<strong>Binns</strong> (Clara Acutt), with her son Percy and daughter<br />

in law and three of the grandchildren. A copy is attached.<br />

('Harry' would have been Henry Innes <strong>Binns</strong>;<br />

THE BINNS FAMILY: Mrs.Ethel <strong>Binns</strong>,(nee Acutt),<br />

Percy <strong>Binns</strong>, Lady <strong>Binns</strong>, Cisisle, Helen & Harry<br />

'Helen' would have been Ethel Helen and 'Claisie' presumably<br />

Clara Agnes.) I am also including some information<br />

that you might use to update/correct/amplify the<br />

relevant parts of the family tree on the website.”<br />

Of course the web site data has been appropriately edited and<br />

Ashley has created an article in Wikepedia on Sir Henry <strong>Binns</strong>.<br />

Page 12


Richard Napoleon Jenkinson<br />

Medallion issued to all Tasmanian school children<br />

following the cessation of transportation in 1853<br />

dence against them won the day. <strong>The</strong>y were all found<br />

guilty of stealing only, and not of breaking and entering.<br />

For each the sentence was “Transported for Seven<br />

Years, Confined Nine Months”.<br />

Gayle Plunkett from Cairns, Australia, is a descendant<br />

of Richard Jenkinson and is happy to provide further<br />

information about her ancestor and his descendants<br />

.<br />

Thomas <strong>Binns</strong>’ Grove House School 1828 – 1877<br />

With help from Margaret Page I have been able to<br />

locate this interesting account by Thomas Hodgkin, of<br />

Thomas <strong>Binns</strong>’s school founded at Grove House, Tottenham<br />

in 1828 for the sons of ' Friends in comfortable<br />

circumstances’. <strong>The</strong> Schoolhouse was - a fine old red<br />

brick building standing surrounded by spacious<br />

grounds on the Old North Road. <strong>The</strong> headmaster,<br />

Thomas <strong>Binns</strong>(I151), a thoroughly good conscientious<br />

man, desired first of all to make Christian gentlemen<br />

of his pupils. A little Frenchman, an ex-officer of Napoleon's,<br />

gave one of the pleasantest and most useful<br />

lessons in the school, holding a free and easy conversation<br />

class in French at which he encouraged the<br />

boys to ask questions and accustomed them to the<br />

sound of a foreign language.<br />

Another school practice, of which Thomas felt the<br />

value in after life, was the weekly recitation. This took<br />

place whilst the boys were engaged in map making or<br />

mechanical drawing. Each in turn had to recite a piece<br />

of prose or poetry. This not only stored their minds<br />

with fine literature, but gave them a certain selfconfidence,<br />

Thomas did well at this recitation, and he<br />

believed that it helped him later in preaching and<br />

Richard Napoleon Jenkinson was born in Tottenham,<br />

London, in 1819 and died in Australia on 21 st September<br />

1861. His journey to Australia had started on 6 th June<br />

1838, when it was discovered that 6 pairs of shoes, 1 bat<br />

owned by John Lister, 1 bat owned by Henry Bugby, a<br />

variety of skates, planes, and chisels, and cricket balls<br />

had been stolen from an outhouse in the grounds of Thomas<br />

<strong>Binns</strong>’s premises in Tottenham.. Together with William<br />

Ashton, William Webb, and Thomas Newland, Richard<br />

found himself on trial at <strong>The</strong> Old Bailey, before Mr.<br />

Justice Littledale on the 18 th June. <strong>The</strong> first witness was<br />

Thomas <strong>Binns</strong> (I151) who described the missing articles<br />

and the damages to the outhouse. He also said he knew<br />

the prisoners by sight and indeed Newland had done<br />

some work for him about a fortnight before the robbery.<br />

<strong>The</strong> prisoners said very little in their defence and the evispeaking.<br />

Of history teaching at school there was practically<br />

none; he kept up his own study of history because<br />

he loved it.<br />

Thomas enjoyed hockey, one of the few games he<br />

learned to play pretty well, but at cricket he says he<br />

was always ' an incurable muss,' and never arrived at<br />

being able to throw a ball decently overhand. <strong>The</strong> boys<br />

were not taught to swim, though they occasionally<br />

bathed in the River Lea on summer days.<br />

Thomas says that his ' uncle doctor ' [Thomas Hodgkin<br />

after whom the disease was named] watched the progress<br />

of his two nephews at school as the trainer in a<br />

racing stable watches his colts. Neither he nor their<br />

father considered the classical teaching at Grove<br />

House up to the standard they desired for the boys,<br />

and determined before long to send them elsewhere.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y were sent for by their uncle to have their proficiency<br />

in the classics tested by Professor Maiden, and<br />

he decided that they were quite fit to enter University<br />

College, London. So Eliot went first in 1845, and Thomas<br />

followed the next year.<br />

Exract from ‘Life and Letters of Thomas Hodgkin’, by<br />

Thomas Hodgkin and Louise Creighton, Longmans ,<br />

Green, and Co., 1918.<br />

Page 13


Some Recent Contacts:-<br />

Australia: Gayle Plunkett; Thomas <strong>Binns</strong> of Grove School, Tottenham<br />

Canada: Kirsti <strong>Binns</strong>; father Richard, uncles Peter and David<br />

Canada: Yvonne Leeming; John and Abigail descendants<br />

Canada: Deb Phillips; John <strong>Binns</strong> Wright in Canada<br />

Cost Rica: Natalia <strong>Binns</strong>; families in Turrialba, Limon and San Jose abt.1900<br />

New Zealand: Natalie Bratton; F C <strong>Binns</strong> on North Island<br />

New Zealand: Barry Currin; Thomas Layfield <strong>Binns</strong><br />

UK: Jack Colin Crossley; Isabella born abt. 1820 daughter of Jeremiah <strong>Binns</strong><br />

UK: Ann <strong>Binns</strong>; Edward <strong>Binns</strong>, born Idle <strong>17</strong>91, lived in Whitby<br />

UK: Alastair Downey; Rufus <strong>Binns</strong> born 1839, Oldham, Lancs<br />

UK: Dennis <strong>Binns</strong>; Samuel <strong>Binns</strong>, born 1862, Bradford, Yorks<br />

UK: Andy Bentley; John Richard Jepson <strong>Binns</strong> born New York<br />

UK: Susie Marriot; <strong>Family</strong> of Phyllis <strong>Binns</strong> 1913-44<br />

USA: Janet A Peterson; Eliza <strong>Binns</strong> who married Abraham Sage<br />

USA: Norma Skoglund; Hannah born 1864 Rochdale, father Thomas <strong>Binns</strong><br />

USA: Mary Alice Goins; James <strong>Binns</strong> who emigrated to West Virginia<br />

USA: Jean <strong>Binns</strong>; William <strong>Binns</strong> (1806-70) married Sarah Baylis in Ohio<br />

USA: Heather Knuffke; Enid <strong>Binns</strong> born 1882, Swinton, Yorks<br />

All these correspondents would be delighted to share their interests and Information.<br />

If you recognise any of the families please contact David <strong>Binns</strong> who will do his best to bring you together.<br />

.<br />

Waiting to hear from YOU…….<br />

We always need stories and this newsletter can only continue if we get articles, so.— who do you<br />

think you are ?<br />

Most of us think , or hope, we have connections to famous or infamous people.<br />

If you have a fascinating history, famous connections or not, please share your story, we will be interested<br />

David T. <strong>Binns</strong>,<br />

103 Haswell Gardens,<br />

North Shields,<br />

Tyne and Wear,<br />

NE30 2DR.<br />

Alan P. <strong>Binns</strong>,<br />

518 Colne Road,<br />

Reedley,<br />

Burnley,<br />

Lancs.<br />

BB10 2LD

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