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Something cool I found whilst geocaching today


tonibunny

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I did a cache today that was located in a nature reserve/graveyard in London. The cache setter requested that, as there were famous people buried in the park, anyone finding the cache should find the grave of a famous person and write about that person in their log. Well, the cache itself had sadly been muggled (only the box was left) and I didn't have a lot of time so I couldn't go looking for anyone famous, but there are some really cool looking graves in this park so I took a few photos.

 

I'm fascinated by genealogy and history in general, so when I got home I decided to look up a one of the inhabitants of the graves up in the UK census, to see where they lived and what they worked as when they were alive.

 

I chose to look up a bloke with the fabulous name of "Erasmus Lawrence". According to his monument, he was "an old and respected inhabitant of the parish of Saint Luke's, having filled most of its important offices". He was "beloved in life, mourned in death". I figured he may have been a parish clerk or something....

 

....and it turns out that he was actually a bartender and publican for well over 30 years! St Lukes is the parish around Old Street, and Erasmus is listed as a "Retired licensed victualler" on City Road in 1871. He was the landlord of the City Arms on City Road in 1861. Ten years earlier he was a bartender and victualler in Norton Foldgate (just up from Bishopsgate, on the way to Shoreditch) and in 1841 he was a plumber.

 

So yes, I'd say he did fill some pretty important offices! :laughing: Looks like his memorial inscription was intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but it's a joke that got lost in time. Now thanks to geocaching it's been found again :laughing:

 

Cheers,

 

Toni

 

(more info: Erasmus was baptised at St Andrew's church, Holborn, on 23rd March 1806, the son of Erasmus and Mary. He had an older sister called Maria, baptised in 1803. His father served on a couple of juries for trials at the Old Bailey in the 1780s. Erasmus himself married Jane Yates (who is buried with him) on 25th April 1829 at St Dunstan in the East in the City of London (this church got destroyed in the war but there are gardens on the site now and there's a very nice cache hidden there!).

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I did a cache today that was located in a nature reserve/graveyard in London. The cache setter requested that, as there were famous people buried in the park, anyone finding the cache should find the grave of a famous person and write about that person in their log. Well, the cache itself had sadly been muggled (only the box was left) and I didn't have a lot of time so I couldn't go looking for anyone famous, but there are some really cool looking graves in this park so I took a few photos.

 

I'm fascinated by genealogy and history in general, so when I got home I decided to look up a one of the inhabitants of the graves up in the UK census, to see where they lived and what they worked as when they were alive.

 

I chose to look up a bloke with the fabulous name of "Erasmus Lawrence". According to his monument, he was "an old and respected inhabitant of the parish of Saint Luke's, having filled most of its important offices". He was "beloved in life, mourned in death". I figured he may have been a parish clerk or something....

 

....and it turns out that he was actually a bartender and publican for well over 30 years! St Lukes is the parish around Old Street, and Erasmus is listed as a "Retired licensed victualler" on City Road in 1871. He was the landlord of the City Arms on City Road in 1861. Ten years earlier he was a bartender and victualler in Norton Foldgate (just up from Bishopsgate, on the way to Shoreditch) and in 1841 he was a plumber.

 

So yes, I'd say he did fill some pretty important offices! :laughing: Looks like his memorial inscription was intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but it's a joke that got lost in time. Now thanks to geocaching it's been found again :laughing:

 

Cheers,

 

Toni

 

(more info: Erasmus was baptised at St Andrew's church, Holborn, on 23rd March 1806, the son of Erasmus and Mary. He had an older sister called Maria, baptised in 1803. His father served on a couple of juries for trials at the Old Bailey in the 1780s. Erasmus himself married Jane Yates (who is buried with him) on 25th April 1829 at St Dunstan in the East in the City of London (this church got destroyed in the war but there are gardens on the site now and there's a very nice cache hidden there!).

 

Great stuff, i love it when people go and do a bit of extra research on a cache site.

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