newsletter spring.2006 - The Binns Family

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2WWZHOO%LQQV In News Letter No. 6 published in September 2000 there was a passing reference to Ottwell Binns, who was a prolific novelist. We have recently had contact with a few of his descendants and I thought it would be of interest to write up and publish what we currently know, especially as we have the charming photographs that accompany this article. Perhaps the first thing to mention is that, as far as I have been able to discover, there is no published biography and even The Times, although it reviewed several of his books, did not print an obituary. The sources for this article are therefore readily available registration or census records, supplemented by obituaries printed in local newspapers and very kindly provided by descendants. The 1881 Census shows nine year old Ottwell living with his parents, Thomas and Abigail, and his seven year old sister Abigail at 44 Spotland Rd., Spotland, near Rochdale, Lancashire. Thomas was a grocer and provision dealer and why he gave his son the name Ottwell is not known, but it was not from his mother’s maiden name as before her marriage in 1871 she was Abigail Wilkinson. We don’t know where he received his schooling but clearly somebody fired his imagination because as a schoolboy, he “was so fascinated by the American gold rush that he purchased a revolver and set out. He was discovered in Ireland and brought back to his family after spending the night in Liverpool Police Station.” After school he trained for the Congregational ministry at The Western College, Plymouth, where he first started writing and it must have been about this time when he met his future wife, Rosetta Annie Foot, the daughter of a school master in Lytchett Minster, near Poole in Dorset. They were married in the later half of 1897, the marriage being registered in South Stoneham, near Southampton in the next county. Between 1896 and 1901 he was pastor of the Congregational Church at Portland 3DJH in Dorset and it was in Portland that his first two children Bernard Ottwell and Rosetta Marion Margory were born. He subsequently became a Unitarian and accepted a church at Scarborough, Yorkshire where his second son Max Dalman was born in 1905. In 1908 he became minister of Cockey New Chapel, Ainsworth, which lies between Bolton and Bury in Lancashire and his third son Patrick Thomas was born there in the same year. It was whilst he was at Ainsworth that he began his career as a novelist, mainly because of the encouragement given to him by the firm of Tillotson, and many of his novels were serialised in many British newspapers as well as in newspapers throughout the British Empire by means of the syndication of fiction in which Tillotsons were the pioneers. He once confessed to a representative of the Bolton Evening News that he commenced his career as a novelist in order to provide the means for the education of his sons, and he did not then dream that his success would lead him to such a widespread reputation or to such a prodigious output. Significantly he never neglected his pulpit for his literary pursuits and in 2005, I received an unsolicited email in which the writer wrote of the memories his 91 year old mother had of Ottwell Binns during his time in Ainsworth saying “she remembers as a child being asked to sing during the Whit Walks by Mr. Binns, who, she said, was ‘nice’” From Ainsworth, Ottwell and family moved on in 1920, to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire where he took on the ministry at the Old Meeting House, which had been founded in 1662 and is the oldest nonconformist place of worship in Nottinghamshire. “During his seven years there the institute was founded and a room built for its activities. The Sunday School finances were brought to a better condition than ever, and the social meetings under his organisation knit together teachers and scholars” While in Mansfield he was a regular attender at the Broxtowe Lodge of Freemasons, of which he was a Worshipful Brother and Chaplain. “Owing to ill health he was compelled to seek a less arduous post and went to Torquay, from which he retired after four years ministry. After his retirement, Mr. Binns went to live at Porlock Weir, Somerset, where he devoted himself entirely to literary work.” In about 1933 he moved to Lelant in Cornwall where he intended to settle down to fulfilling one of his life’s ambitions, which was to write a Cornish historical story dealing with the Penzance district. Following a visit to London he became ill on his return to Lelant and after a visit from the doctor was removed to West Cornwall Hospital Penzance, where he died a few days later at the age of 63. He left a widow, three sons and one daughter and it was reported that a sister Miss L. Binns attended his funeral. His literary output was prodigious and some of his novels were turned into films. The British Library Catalogue lists 103 volumes dating from 1890 when ‘Anthony Jasper, A West Country Tale’ was published, under the pseudonym Ben Bolt, by Fisher and Unwin. Strangely, to say that he died in 1935, almost twenty titles under %,116&211(&7,216
2WWZHOO%LQQVFRQW«««« his authorship were published after 1935, the last, the Mystery of Airedale Hall, in 1944. At least nine of his stories ran to a second edition, including ‘A Mating in the Wild’, ‘A Sin of Silence’, ‘An Adventurer in the Bay’, ‘Behind the Ranges’, ‘A Buccaneer’s Bride’, ‘Captain Lucifer’, ‘Java Jack’, ‘The Sword of Fortune’, and ‘Where Aurora Flames’. Most of the novels have similarly lurid and flamboyant titles but I imagine that the contents are less exciting and his obituary in the local Mansfield newspaper concludes “he has left a monument to himself in his literary creations”. He set a standard in the novel which can never be challenged for its clean and wholesome atmosphere, and a proof beyond question that the reading public does not demand salacious and unsavoury novels and writings, before it will support an author’s work.” It is worth recording that Ottwell’s efforts to provide for his children’s education appear to have been well rewarded. His eldest, Bernard Ottwell Binns, was an officer in British Overseas Service and was knighted for creating a blight resistant strain of rice in Burma; Rosetta Marion Marjory Binns was a schoolteacher and head mistress; Max Dalman Binns was a journalist, author and publisher; and Thomas Patrick Binns was a doctor and musician. Finally, by a curious coincidence I discovered that Ottwell Binns visited my ancestral home, Cullingworth, in about 1910 when he attended the funeral of his sister-inlaw Hilda Emily who was the wife of the vicar of Cullingworth the Rev. William A Allan. I wonder if he looked at any of the surrounding graves stones and was struck by the presence of Binnses. 6QLSSHWV 1) In August 1939, Mrs. C. E. Binns was master of ceremonies at two Grand Carnival whist drives at Blenkhorn's Boat House Cafe, Knaresborough. If any of our readers were there would they please get in touch with the editor. 2) Eric Binns played for Blackburn Rovers in the 1950’s. Is he a reader? 3) Lieutenant Colonel P. L. Binns has written the story of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, titled “ A Hundred Years of Military Music”. 4) In 1801 Thomas Binns invented a water cooled candle mould that was further improved in 1823 by Joseph Morgan, who used a moveable piston to eject the finished candles. 5) Yale University Library has the handwritten commonplace book that belonged to Thomas Binns of Liverpool in 1789. 6) In 1834 the pub in Trawden was known as The Steps Head and the licensee was John Birtwistle. In 1848 when Thomas Binns was the tenant it was known as the Sun Inn. 7) Esther Binns first appeared before the Sheriff at York Assizes on 29 July 1797. She was remanded in custody appearing again on 9 March 1799, when she was sentenced to be transported for seven years. She next appeared on 6 July 1799 and finally on 26 July 1800 when the sentence was confirmed. The crime was larceny. 8) On 16 th May 1831, George Binns, a watch maker living in the Strand, London was robbed of 13 rings and a ring-case, total value £15- 2s. At the trial that took place at the Old Bailey on 13 th June, George and his two assistants, 14 year-old Thomas Jones and William Flegg gave evidence against 21 year-old William Bennett who was found guilty of larceny and sentenced to transportation for seven years. 3DJH %,116&211(&7,216
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newsletter spring.2006 - The Binns Family

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