Henry Albert Seymour blog

A fellow researcher has discovered the address of the Science Library in Tunbridge Wells.

The shop was listed as an agent for ‘Justice’, which was the publication of the Social Democratic Federation.

The address was 98 Camden Road, Tunbridge Wells according to the January 1885 issue of Justice.

This seems to be were In Gear is currently located.

It is interesting to note that the shop was open in January 1885 which was just before Seymour moved to London.

It is also noteworthy that the shop was acting as an agent for the SDF publication.

This information adds further detail to some recent research undertaken by a fellow researcher who is looking into the history of the SDF in Tunbridge Wells.

Dan

I have just come into possession of scans of some letters from seymour from early 1885.

This was just before Seymour moved to Islington from Tunbridge Wells and has some very interesting details that confirm that Seymour was working on the first edition of ‘The Anarchist’ before leaving Tunbridge Wells.

There is also mention of ‘The Science Library’ as being a shop in the town. This is the first time I have found any clue about the library and means another trip to the reference library to try to track it down.

As ever with Seymour another snippet leads to more questions!

Dan

I have added some images of a Seymour Superphone Gramophone.

You can see them HERE

The images are courtesy of Revelstoke Nickelodeon Museum www.revelstokenickelodeon.com

Dan

Monday April 9th marks the 130th anniversary of the day that Henry Seymour posted the placards that led to his prosecution for blasphemy in Tunbridge Wells.

I plan to mark the day and will post pictures of the event.

Below is the text of the placard:

Great attraction
fun fun fun
Secular Hall
Tunbridge Wells
on Easter Monday and Tuesday at 8pm
Come and see Jumbo what a trunk!!
“Hamlet and the Holy Ghost”
a side splitting Burlesque, and the following vocalists-
Mr J Egerton Mr H Sims
Mr J Davis and Mr J Vincont
admission 6^d & 3^d Doors open 7.30pm

Dan

• Simon John Cox posted on May 9, 2012
  Such disgusting blasphemy. No wonder he was hauled before the beak.

I have spent time today in the archives of the tunbridge Wells borough council.

I have found a number of fascinating snippets and will put some details up soon.

Dan

I recently purchased a seymour soundbox and am about to conduct some tests as to its sound qualities. So I will hopefully post some video soon ….

I have added a number of new images to the repository page.

The images have been supplied by Sarah Young who is a descendant of Henry’s

There is a lot of information from Sarah, which I will add over the next few weeks

Dan

The last few days have proved to be very exciting indeed!

One of Henry’s descendants, Sarah has made contact and has provided a wealth of detail on Henry’s family life. I have added a picture of Clara, Henry’s wife to the repository page.  Sarah has shared a number of stories from her mother which I will discuss at a later point.

Sarah’s mother was Henry’s granddaughter and she has recalled many fascinating details from her childhood, not least of which is that the family called Henry ‘Pops’!

Details like this really start to give Henry a much more human face, as up until now most of my information has come from his writings, which do not shed much light on the man as a person.

Dan