C: Morris Fuller. The man behind the Scandal Part 2

Part 2.

Hannah Fuller's diaries 1820- 1824 and

the story of Morris's father Thomas Fuller

 

As a consequence of these very pages, we were recently contacted by the

distinguished former County Archivist  for the East Sussex Record Office,

Mr Christopher Whittick. He was in process of cataloguing 2 volumes of

the diaries of Hannah Fuller  recently purchased for the E.S.R.O. by its

Friends Organisation and now identified  as  ACC 14146 and to be listed

in the catalogue as AMS 7417/ 1 and 7417/ 2.

Moreover, Christopher had transcribed and annotated some extracts from the

volumes as part of his preparations for the catalogue and was very happy for

us to make use of them (in addition to finding Thomas in the 1851 Census).

For all this kind assistance  we would like to convey our gratitude

for this opportunity, albeit in my subjective selection, to observe the

private life of the Fuller family in the decade before Morris's birth and the

events which unfold thereafter on this page.
 

Jan 1820 – Dec 1821


1 Jan 1821   Her wishes for the year, including her afflicted father,

and ‘what I long to see more of in my dear husband, oh that he had but

those feelings for himself that I have for him’


2 Jan 1820   Mr [John] Vinall’s sermon: ‘I am greatly in hopes that my

dear father heard with some degree of profit, I observed that he wept greatly’;


3 Jan 1820   Shopping, ‘preparing for the dear little expected stranger’;

Chapel, ‘but it was a grief to me that I could not mix faith with the word preached’

7 Jan 1820   Mr F to Brighton


24 Jan 1820   Mr F set off this morning to collect a little of the needful to

satisfy his creditors

 

25 Jan 1820   Fearful for her pregnancy; ‘rather tried respecting my dear husband,

I fear the state of his soul is no matter of concern with him’;  

 

26 Jan 1820   Mr F set off for another journey ... I believe he is ignorant of what

is passing at times within me ... I am vileness itself

 

5 Feb 1820   my dear husband though he has said but little yet I think has been aware

that I have been in a poor plight, for he kindly stayed longer than usual after each meal

 

7 Feb 1820   Her state of mind during her pregnancy; husband went to the public dinner

of the prosecuting society, ‘I almost wish there was no such things as public dinners

for I care not how little Mr F has to do with the world, ... he always returns home as

soon as possible and is particularly abstemious; I took it very kind of him that he went

unknown to me to see if sister V was likely to come and sit with me’

 

13 Feb 1820   when in the house of God, the enemy seldom fails to set my present

situation before me in the worst light;

 

18 Feb 1820   my dear husband went to Brighton to take stock, sister R kindly

came to stay in his absence

 

20 Feb 1820   ‘we heard today that we were likely to be turned out of our present

abode, that out landlord intends selling the house etc etc; I should certainly be

very sorry to leave, I scarcely know a house in Lewes I should like so well’;

speculates that she might ‘be called to the house appointed for all living, the hour of

nature’s sorrow is drawing on apace, and I know not how it may terminate’


25 Feb 1820   last dinner at 217 [High Street] before her confinement;


27 Feb 1820   Gathered encouragement from a dream; at chapel sister V informed

her of the death of Mrs Kell, ‘who know but that before another sabbath I too may be

a corpse’; ‘I should be very thankful could I be at a greater certainty with regard to the

state of my dear husband’s soul, but this I must leave’


29 Feb 1820   Rather hurt at husband’s going to dine at Mr C Hillman’s ...

‘the company of the world I wish to see him wholly abandon except when called by duty’


2 May 1820   Birth of a daughter on 5 March, attended by Dr [Avery] Roberts and preceded

by spiritual encounter with the enemy; her joy at her safe delivery – ‘I even felt that I could have

got up into Mr [John] Vinall’s pulpit and preached to the people’; her providential visit to Mr [William]

Hudson at Stourbridge in May 1819; breast-feeding redolent of her desire that her daughter

‘may in the same way crave after the sincere milk of the word’; dissatisfaction with her appearance, by which

‘the pride of my desperately wicked heart was sorely mortified’; went downstairs on 26 March;

sister R left on Mrs Cathery’s arrival at 217 [High Street]; difficulty in breast-feeding, ‘in this time

I saw more of the filthiness of my corrupt nature than ever I did before, I became sick of the world,

sick of all things in it and sick of myself’


11 May 1820   ‘God in mercy grant that it [the baby] may not be an idol in my heart but in infinite wisdom

keep husband, child, parents, relatives, friends and all other things in their proper places’;


16 Jun 1820   Perturbed by her husband’s failure to return from London, and the grievous things

‘suggested to me by the enemy of my peace’


26 Jun 1820   Mr F went to the funeral of his grandfather


29 Jun   1820   Party of 17 for the christening  ‘but I was too poorly to take any active part’;


24 Jul 1820   Has been busy with baby; her anxiety and submission to God’s will

‘it was thine to give and it is thine to take away whenever thou seest fit’


30 Jul 1820   Mr V’s sermon – ‘he did not see how the time went, the devil took great advantage of it

and wrought sadly upon my wicked heart … I felt almost angry with him for keeping on so long … certainly

being home so late makes it awkward for the servants going in time to a place of worship in the afternoon’

[no entries until 22 August]


22 Aug 1820   At Brighton for nearly three weeks while house was cleaned and painted; sister V’s accouchement

on 6 August; family sickness; self-loathing; ‘Besides this dismal catalogue I am sorely tried at the conduct of my

dear husband respecting money matters’


5 Sep 1820   my mind is now happily relieved in consequence of my dear husband having honourably acquitted

himself respecting some money matters that had caused me great uneasiness;


4 Jan 1821   Bed-wetting by baby – ‘she made quite a little pond in the bed’

– brings on feelings of spiritual self-loathing


17 Jan 1821   Strong desire that her husband ‘might be caught in the gospel net’


21 Jan 1821   Glad that God keeps her and her husband together in so much domestic peace and harmony,

‘as we do not, not certainly enjoy any spiritual union’

 

6 Mar 1821   Mr F went to Jireh this evening to meet with the singers to practice, he was not home till after 10;

reproaches herself for her churlish reception, which he appeared not to notice


8 Mar 1821   I am far from satisfied with J[ane] T yet cannot bring my mind to give her warning


10 Mar 1821   Has given Jane notice to quit – her qualities and faults –

‘her love of dress increases to an unbearable degree’


12 Mar 1821   ‘a girl apparently every way suitable for me came along today’;

Husband’s accounts favourable


16 Mar 1821   I settled to have Sophy Cox


18 Mar 1821   Mr V seemed to have heavy foreboding of what may be coming upon us as a nation

and as a church finding the Catholics are gaining ground; I wrote to nurse having now great reason

to suspect that I shall want her again


25 Mar 1821   Mr V seems greatly to feel the attempts the Roman Catholics are making to get into power;

 

31 Mar 1821   I am grieved to find what effect the unpleasant affair of some ranges has had upon Mr Hooper,

he has said most unwarrantable things about my dear husband


14 Apr 1821   brother E supped with us … it was brought up respecting Mr S and Mr F not signing the petition;

I spoke my mind too frankly and perhaps too warmly, for it has been a great grief to me that they should act

(according to my opinion) so very inconsistently, however it would have been better if I had preserved silence for Mr F is highly offended


15 Apr 1821   Coping with her husband’s sulky conduct


19 Apr 1821   we had the satisfaction to hear that the bill in favour of the Roman Catholics was thrown out of the House of Lords

by a majority of 39; grieved to hear how brother H felt respecting the leather that was seized at his yard; how much I wish

that [my husband] was of a more frank and open disposition, so that if anything was the matter we might discuss it


2 May 1821   Thoughts of her unworthiness in her pregnancy – ‘I expect to become the mother of nothing less than a fiend’


19 Jul 1821   Coronation day but cannot rejoice, Mr F has gone to Brighton ‘when there was preaching at our chapel,

thereby showing a decided preference to pleasure and giving a proof of his indifference to his soul’s interest


29 Oct 1821   Married five years


2 Nov 1821   unpleasant discussion of the leather affair with brother Hooper, made more so by the conduct of sister H –

I fear there is a breach that never will be healed


18 Nov 1821   Letter from sister H wishing for a reconciliation with ‘my dear husband’


31 Dec 1821   Retrospective account of the birth of her daughter on 22 November while her husband was in Sheffield,

where he called at the Excise Office to see Mr N; ‘my dear husband joined the party that annually meet at his uncle William’s;

oh that the day may come when such company may have no charms for him, when the family of God may be considered by him

as the very excellent of the earth. My brother B it seems has formed an acquaintance with a young lady, how the matter will t

erminate is unknown to us, and sure I am all was settled before time began.’


Jan 1823 – Dec 1824


1 Jan 1823   Suspects that she is pregnant


4 Jan 1823   Clear she is not pregnant


5 Jan 1823   Mr Fuller has made great exertions on behalf of my brother Ebenezer but my father has this day wholly

declined having anything to do with the business that now offers itself;


11 Jan 1823   every possibility that Ebenezer [Morris] will have the business lately carried on by Mr [James] Sturt


13 Jan 1823   brother Ebenezer and Mr F have looked at the premises and are well pleased


18 Jan 1823   E and [James] Sturt’s executors have agreed on terms


26 Jan 1823   Mr [William] Hudson left for Brighton, ‘I think him much improved since he was a little bit of a beau of mine’;

no regrets that they did not marry, despite having ‘within this last year met with many trials to induce me to feel some degree of dissatisfaction’


2 Feb 1823   began strongly to suspect that I am breeding, I find it a trial to me, but a great desire for submission to the will of God


23 Mar 1823   Mr [John] Vinall preached in London, Mr Funnel supplied his place at Jireh, my dear husband therefore accompanied me;

‘satisfied that none but an almighty power can incline his heart to attend constantly


Aug 1823    Long retrospective account of the illness, treatment and death of her daughter Hannah on 19 July 1823, attended by doctors [Avery] Roberts

and his partner Watkins, advised by Dr [John] Gibney from Brighton and Mrs Williams, ‘a woman eminent in the treatment of abscesses’; results of autopsy;

buried ‘in my father’s vault’ on 24 July; her distress; called on Mr [David] Fenner when in London


Sep 1823   Mr F drove us to Newhaven where we had tea; suspects she is pregnant


22 Sep 1823   my husband to London and I to Stone Cross with my dear little girl and sister R


23 Sep 1823   Dicker Chapel; ‘Mr [Thomas] Oxenham preached, and a very profitable opportunity I found it,

but am still in a low place’


28 Sep 1823   Heard [Thomas] Oxenham with much satisfaction, accompanied by husband;

‘how glad should I be did he always attend with me, but this remains still a crook, and a cross that I must carry yet longer’


30 Nov 1823   Long retrospective account of the birth of her daughter on 19 October;


7 Dec 1823   Death of her daughter Sarah Ann on 6 December


20 Dec 1823   Retrospective entry: burial of Mrs Vinall in the garden behind Jireh Chapel on 9 December,

[Thomas] Oxenham officiated; reconciliation between Mr [John] Vinall and Mr F, through the medium of

Mr [William] Spittall and Aunt Fanny; burial of Sarah Ann on 13 December; ‘on 14 December I had the

happiness of seeing my dear husband resume his seat for a constancy at the chapel


31 Jan 1824   Her 34th birthday; thoughts on her life, faith, the loss of her children and God’s providence


1 Feb 1824   The sacrament administered with great solemnity – ‘I am far from being satisfied with being

merely a spectator when I have some reason to believe I ought to be a partaker’


11 Feb 1824   Long rumination on the loss of her children in the context of her faith;

has felt ‘a much greater degree of resignation … than ever before’


5 Mar 1824   What would have been Hannah’s fourth birthday; long contemplation of God’s role

in the death of her two children


14 Mar 1824   Her struggle with satan in contemplating the death of her children


19 Apr 1824   Baby vaccinated

 

22 Dec 1824   ‘a little secret disappointment’ [she is not pregnant]; ‘I hope I may never become so anxious

for an increase of family as to ask for another child. I wish to be passive, my heavenly Father knows what is best for me,

I would not choose for myself if I could’

 

The troubled humanity of Morris's mother laid bare tells so much more of the real person in these few brief words

than the combined reams of print and self publicity ever manage to truly convey of husband Thomas Fuller

or Morris Fuller, the son. Would that we had such  documents as these from Thomas or Morris themselves!

 

************

 

When searching the Census and family histories, it soon became clear that

something was amiss in the Fuller household. A notice in the Brighton Gazette

on December 4th 1845, when Morris was 15, put a very different light on things

and set the next course in the direction of my researches. There is certainly

no mistaking this man for any other Thomas Fuller as he was most certainly 

Morris’s father and his life’s course must have profoundly affected the lives of

his family, perhaps going some way to explaining Morris Fuller’s own very

driven life. 

The British Newspaper Archivehas been essential to this next part of the story

and to start, we must go back some 13 years earlier in the family when we learn

from the local newspapers in 1832  that the family business,  described as

“an established and extensive Business carried on as Curriers and Leather

Cutters for a great number of years to the present time.”  has been declared

bankrupt and this notice appears in July 1832 reprinted, as with all these public

notices, from the London Gazette:

 

 

 

 

For the next 7 years until the final dividend of 1839, the administration of the

debts and the paying out of dividends is regularly published in the

London Gazette.

The results of these protracted negotiations are not to be found in the local

newspaper columns so we will never know if they had at some point to relinquish

their “Household Furniture of which they were respectively in possession, at their

respective dwelling houses at the date of the Fiat.”   However, the appearance

over several issues of notices of “AUCTION SALES” to be held in October shows

that plans had at least in theory been formulated to pay the creditors and salvage

their livelihoods. They show that Messrs Fuller & Son had quite a property

portfolio in addition to their stock in trade as leather merchants:

Of particular interest is a very prestigious investment in what became Adelaide

Crescent in Hove. This is found as 3 of the Auction lots that were to be sold on

12th. October 1832 at the Clarence Hotel in Brighton:

 

 

 

 

Who eventually was responsible for the completion of Nos 1, 2 and 3 

Adelaide Terrace  (Lots vi,vii,and viii from the October auction notice above)

has so far been impossible to ascertain, though it is quite possible that

Thomas Fuller’s  brother -in-law ( Morris's Uncle, Ebenezer Morris, Brighton

Iron founder and business man) who was a Mortgagee of part of the Fuller estate,

or his brother, William Fuller (one of the Bankrupts and also an Assignee of the

Fiat ) dealt with that part of the debt. However, the houses most surely were

completed along with further buildings soon to become known as Adelaide

Crescent, right at the heart of Regency Brighton on the sea front.

It was sufficiently complete in time to be included in a publication which was

advertised  on 27 November 1833 in the Brighton Guardian:  

 

 

 

 

 

The Antheum was a glass and cast iron domed botanical garden  that collapsed

before final completion even though the public were alread visiting it. It is most

fortunate that nobody was killed or injured when it fell. There were meetings called

to rebuild it at a cost of £10,000 but it was never to be.

 

 

 

This venture was a very real part of the property speculations that were building

Brighton into the fashionable place to be, and Morris’s father, Thomas Fuller Jun.,

seems if nothing else to have spent a lot of this part of his life trying to be a part

of it. Along with the properties we have already seen where the family resided,

Nos. 1,2,and 3 Adelaide Crescent are also very much in evidence today, the

remainder of the Crescent being built on the site of the fallen botanical

glass-house

 

Google Street View

 

 The Brighton Gazette tells us No. 1 was occupied by December 1833 as the

“Hon Mrs Greville, (wife of the Hon. Robert Fulke Greville) has issued cards

for a grand ball and supper on 31st Dec on taking possession of her new house

in Adelaide Crescent”

The paper also announced  that “Several houses are now finished in Adelaide

Crescent. The first occupied in that delightful spot has just been opened as

a school.” 

With reference to the above, No 5, which wasn’t part of the Fuller auction sale,

was complete and occupied by  "Mrs. Davis & Mrs. H Cooper’s Establishment

for Young Ladies” opened on August 1st 1833.

 

At present, how the family managed to cope with what we would have thought

to be the stigma of bankruptcy is unknown. What the papers do begin to say is

that Thomas Fuller, (and we have now to assume they mean Jun.,) by July 1836,

still in the middle of the bankruptcy, is being proposed for inclusion for election

as one of the Commissoners for the Hundred of Whalebone. At the time 16 such

positions were being contested but Thomas failed to gain a place, coming 18th

in the field. His address then was given as Western Road so he may well have

been living at the Priory then and with Hannah’s school established.

 

Two years later in January 1838 he failed to make the grade again, this time by

just one place, in a controversial Whig/Tory battle. His 1836 sponsor Mr Bowdidge

“on the part of Mr Thomas Fuller demanded a scrutiny” the result being that

Thos. Fuller’s name was added to the list of those elected but “so loosely had

the election been conducted, it was impossible to make a return and therefore

is null and void” The result was subsequently upheld and so the final list of 27

names were elected.

 

On 24th April 1838 Mr Bowdidge proposed a list of men including Thomas Fuller

for election to the Vestry to act as Directors and Guardians of the Poor. Other

names based on party political lines were also proposed and much “discussion”

reported. It included the following point made by Mr Bowdidge in defence of an

unidentified proposed candidate:  

" A Vestry meeting, which was held previously to the appointment of the

overseers, sent in a list including Whigs, Tories, and Radicals, to the

Magistrates; but did they choose any from the list?  No; but one of them

insulted a most respectable man by asking whether he had not been a bankrupt.

He (Mr. Bowdidge) would put it to the meeting whether any man, with the feelings

of a gentleman or a Christian, would have done so? (Loud cheers) It was a

disgrace to the man who uttered the language; and if it had been applied to him

(Mr B) he would have had satisfaction,  and if it had not been given, he would

have taken it.

In May 1839 he is found as a Committee member of the newly formed Brighton

Conservative Association .

 

The papers then report Mr W Barnes was elected to the position of

High Constable on Jan 7th 1841 it is assumed to fill a vacant position

until the next appointment in April 1841:

 

 

 

It seems as if on political grounds at least, the bankrupt sheep was welcomed

back to the fold. Whether “Society” at the time was ever entirely comfortable

with the situation is another matter and how it affected the Fuller family is really

the purpose of these investigations 

Thomas Fuller had a quite eventful year in office and lest we forget, he had a

wife and 5 children ranging in ages from 9 to18 ; Morris was then 11. For the

first time we see the editorial opinion of Thomas, the man, in the Brighton Gazette:

 

 

 

During his year in Office, in April, he supported the sending of a petition to

Parliament, as briefly mentioned above, advocating the abolition of the

Church Rate.

 

In August he chaired a controversial decision regarding the enlargement of

the Workhouse, rescinding a previous course of action taken by the Vestry.

 

His chief sucess upon the greasy pole of early Victorian politics was as the

figurehead that announced and attended to the Royal Visit of Victoria and

Albert to Brighton in February 1842. In addition to this auspicious occasion

he was also able to report in the Brighton Gazette  on 24th March the following:

 

The HIGH CONSTABLE takes the earliest opportunity of communicating to

the Inhabitants of the Borough that he had the distinguished honor (accompanied

by Capt. G.R.Pechell. R.N., M.P.) of presenting the loyal and dutiful Address of

Congratulation on the Birth of the Prince of Wales to Her Most Gracious Majesty

the Queen , at a Levee at St James's Palace on the 16th instant, which Her 

Majesty was most graciously pleased to receive:

And on the following day the High Constable (accompanied by Captain Pechell)

presented the Address of Congratulation to His Royal Higness Prince Albert, who

was graciously pleased to return the following verbal answer:- “ I beg you will

announce to the Inhabitants of Brighton that I thank them sincerely for their loyal

and dutifull Address, and I wish every prosperity to their town.”

The High Constable (accompanied by Captain Pechell) also on the same day

presented the Address of Congratulation to Her Royal Higness the Duchess of

Kent, who was graciously pleased to return the following answer :- “I am most

sensible of the flattering terms of this Address; and I rejoice to learn that the

emotions with which the Birth of the Prince of Wales animate my own heart, are

so warmly responded to by the loyal inhabitants of Brighton.”

THOMAS FULLER High Constable

Brighton, 21st March 1842.

 

The following month a new High Constable was elected and Thomas Fuller was

never to reach such heights again. By 1845, though still a Leet Court Juryman

with Montpelier Road given as his address, the dreadful business of Bankruptcy

re-emerged, though this time in a personal capacity, as he was declared an

INSOLVENT DEBTOR and publiscised as such in the Brighton Gazette on

4th December 1845:

 

 

 

************

 

 

The Bubble Bursts

 

Our next port of call was to look in the London Gazette to find the details of this

latest episode as nothing further is found in the local Brighton papers.

Quite how long Thomas Fuller remained in the Queen’s (Bench) Prison has not

as yet been discovered, but the next Gazette references are for  September 1851.

 

 

His initial incarceration may have been quite short, after which being released

within the “Rules of the prison” i.e with the immediate vicinity of the prison.

He had, since 1846, been quite active, (trying to pay off his debts ?) and in the

process had accumulated a  number of new addresses and occupational changes

within the leather trade.

By June 22 1852 the amount in the pound payable to his creditors is settled. It is

a pitiful amount and rather tells just how far Morris Fuller’s father had fallen from

his glory days in Brighton :

 

 

There were very clearly close family connections between Fuller’s, Morris’ and

Hooper’s  that allied Non-conformity and the Leather trade. This is apparent

with a number of 1st cousin marriages within those families. Whilst it isn’t evident

that Hannah was willing and able to assist Thomas in his business life, there is

some evidence that the Hooper connection  didn’t entirely shun Thomas. The

following Gazette entry suggests that this family connection was perhaps finally

broken with the dissolution of this partnership: 

 

 

 

 

If the above demonstrates James Hooper cutting his losses then does the entry

from the following year show Thomas himself being cut loose? 

 

 

James Hooper tanner and leather merchant was a nephew of Thomas and Hannah

(his brother Benjamin was their son-in-law married to Esther Hannah). He had

married Elisabeth Berry Morris the daughter of Hannah’s brother Benjamin Morris

and so they were also cousins. James seems to have had a varied career and

moved about in his capacity as a merchant with one child born in Liverpool and

another in Brazil. The family emigrated to the USA in around 1867 where he

had the occupation there of a Fire Insurance Clerk. 

 

 

 

 **********

 

 

When Esther Hannah married James’ brother Benjamin in 1843, the notice

appeared in the paper in an expected form: 

MARRIED.--On the 15th inst., at Nicholas', Brighton, by the Rev James

Vaughan, Benjamin son of the late Mr Cleeve Hooper, of Bermondsey, to

Esther Hannah, eldest surviving daughter of Mr Thomas Fuller, of Brighton

Was Thomas still within the bosom of his  family when Elizabeth Sarah Ann

was married in 1851?

 

Does this simple notice located in the newspaper columns (insensitively placed

alone above a bankruptcy case)  represent the family’s shame about the current

events or does it indicate a deeper rift in the marriage of Hannah and

Thomas Fuller?  

He was still styled as a Leather Merchant on Morris and Helen Fuller’s marriage

certificate? It was however his brother, Thomas M.D. who signed as a witness

to the event on December 29th. 1859.

Was Thomas in attendance, at the wedding or indeed at the weddings of any

of his children? We’ll probably never know, but of those certificates that it has

been possible to examine, he does not sign the registers as a proud parent.

 

 

**************

 

Although it is natural to speculate, it is never wise to make any assumptions

about historical figures. It was nevertheless the seeking of evidence to support

a hypothosis, formed when first looking at the Census' lack of information, that

has uncovered the story so far.

The fact that Cornelius Wetherall Fuller, their youngest child, embarked upon

a career in the leather trade does perhaps at least suggest  vindication of the

“family business” to Thomas if not to Hannah. From this distance it does very

much look as if Hannah’s interpretation of “family business” was rather different

and she determinedly kept at least a part of the family afloat during what must

have been very difficult times. This also begs the question whether it was her

diligent example that allowed  her two other sons to prosper in professions not

quite so susceptible to economic catastrophe, or perhaps she was just simply

attempting to protect them from a profligate father?

 

One can almost hear the “I told you so” when we find Cornelius also in the

bankrupts’ courts from 1862 to 1878 in places ranging from Bermondsey to

Brixton, Brighton to Northampton  and Kidderminster.

 

The conclusion of this chaotic lifestory is found in the following benign notice  in the

Brighton Gazette for Thursday 17th October 1867:

 

The death certificate gives "Carcinoma" as the cause of death

 

There is an interesting postcript to this story found in a report of the death of

Morris Fuller in the Sussex Agricultural Express of August 3rd. 1901 and one

wonders if this was a family press release, and  an attempt to further rehabilitate

Morris's father for future Fuller generations:

 

 

***********

 

 

Christopher Whittick kindly ends this page for us with the above photograph of a family monument

in the churchyard of All Saints, Lewes. The church now has for over 40 years been a community

arts and youth centre run by the Lewes Town Council. The prominent edifice commemorates the

Morris family of Lewis and is covered with multiple and fast fading inscriptions where is to be found

Hannah Morris and a part of the family that married the Fullers.  Verrals, Martins, Hoopers and

Robinsons are all included on the monument, being the spouses of Hannah's sisters.

Fortunately a transcription of the lettering was made before its current condition made it

difficult to read and it records the following:

 

The more one sees of the family background, the more one thinks it should be entirely unsurprising

that Morris Fuller turned out to live a life so fraught with contention.

 

 

 

Click here for Part 3

 

 

 

Page last updated: Wednesday 17th July 2024 1:21 PM
Powered by Church Edit