Nigel Havers Who Do You Think You Are?

Actor Nigel Havers divides his time between homes in London

and Wiltshire, that he shares with his wife, Georgiana.

This is PJ, a very nice, gentle horse.

I love horses, really love them.

Especially when they run fast and win me money.

HE LAUGHS

For over 30 years, Nigel has been one of this country's most

recognisable and popular actors.

From Chariots of Fire to The Charmer, and most recently

a smooth male escort, Lewis Archer in Coronation Street.

Gail, please don't self combust, ten minutes,

that's all I'm asking, things aren't quite how you imagine them.

Oh, please, you're a common crook, a scoundrel, a bounder, a cad.

-You said so yourself.

-Huh!

Actors are supposed to live in the present,

"on the moment", as they say.

So it's kind of handy for me that I don't worry about the past.

But I have become much more reflective in the last few years.

Because I suppose I've gone beyond the halfway mark now.

You know I've always been sort of, er,

spoken of as a sort of, you know a posh, you know, guy,

always plays those sort of parts and stuff, so what I'm really

hoping for, is that my background is not like that at all.

This is a picture of my mother and father.

-I wasn't around when this was taken.

-No.

And here's a picture of my father and that's,

that's a large whiskey in his left hand there.

And I think probably on the television was a first

episode of Doctor Who or something like that.

And I'm hiding behind the sofa.

And your eyes are very large.

Cos it was so frightening.

My father was, erm, a very easy going...level-tempered man.

He became an MP as well as a barrister and served

under Margaret Thatcher as Attorney General and then Lord Chancellor.

-And here's, look, here's the family, erm, there's my father.

-Yeah.

And there's my grandfather, Sir Cecil.

My grandpa was famous for being the judge,

the last judge to sentence a woman to be hanged,

because he presided over the Ruth Ellis case, famous for that.

Famous for all sorts of things in the, in, in law terms.

As for my mother's side, I know nothing.

My parents were not remotely interested in looking back.

They only were looking forward.

It's almost as if, you know

my ancestry stopped with my grandfather, bang.

That's all you need to know.

To go back beyond his grandfather,

Nigel is off to Hampshire to see his father's older brother, Tony Havers.

My father died over 20 years ago now.

Erm, and, but Tony's er, as fit and well, I think he's 94,

95 and he's full of life.

I know that obviously my father was a lawyer

and my grandfather was a judge

and beyond that it's never really been talked about.

So I'm interested to see what Tony's going to tell me.

Oh, someone's farm. That's not right.

HE LAUGHS

Wait a minute. We'll find it. Don't worry.

-Nigel.

-Uncle Tony.

-Dear boy.

-How lovely to see you, marvellous to see you.

It's lovely to see you.

Well that, this is a, not a surprise...

It's a pleasure.

-Good.

-Come on in.

Absolutely, thank you very much.

Did you have a good trip down?

yeah, I did, it only took five hours.

-It's great to see you.

-Great to see you.

Very interesting that you've come here to see me

because we've got here a, a very good, erm, family tree.

-OK.

-Now here you are, Nigel.

-Um-hm.

-Born 1951. Great, that's right?

I'm afraid it is, yes.

I wish I could lie about it but I can't.

Er, you, son of, erm, Michael and Carol,

then we move on up to Cecil Robert Havers.

Yes.

Much-loved in our family, in fact adored.

We loved him, we really did.

When I was at prep school I suddenly got this note in the post, you know.

"Dear Nigel, I had the Beatles for tea on Thursday

"and I got their autographs for you, enclosed."

-Yeah.

-And there they were.

-Yeah.

-I've still got them.

-Yeah.

-And can you imagine that at boarding school...

-Oh!

-I was the hero, you know.

-Yeah you could have...

-Yeah, yeah amazing.

And then we go on up further to Agnes who,

who was married to Daniel.

-Hm-hmm.

-That would have been your great grandmother...

-Hm-hmm.

Great grandfather. Now we're getting, er, Nigel,

we're now getting near the top of the tree.

OK.

George Buckingham. Now then have, have a good moniker at him.

Yeah.

Confident and, erm, a good, a good

family maker, with 17 children.

17, yeah.

14 who survived. And this really is the sort of

culmination of the whole thing.

This was at, erm, Salisbury House,

-which was the Buckingham main house...

-Hm.

large house in Unthank Road, Norwich. This is George here.

Yes.

And this is the great child bearer, Elizabeth Buckingham

and she was in her single life, Elizabeth Hamblion.

Hamblion.

And so, erm, these are the 14 children, the family.

Now when I was about six, erm, my mum and father

-took me to visit Elizabeth...

-Hm.

..in her house,

because every Sunday morning she insisted that all the family

should attend Salisbury House.

-Right.

-She wanted to see them.

-Oh, right.

So we attended and we, we were lined up

-and I was told to sit on the floor because I was only six.

-Yes.

-So I was down here somewhere.

-Hm.

And we waited and waited and against the wall,

because she was up in the bedroom above and, erm,

she got into her lift up there and her lift came down...

-..and the doors parted.

-Yeah.

In a wheelchair, didn't move except to have a searching

glance from left across to the centre, over to the right.

-Yeah.

-And she suddenly said, "Where's Geoffrey?"

And, and Geoffrey had got, got into trouble for not coming.

Oh!

Dead scary.

She sounds a pretty...

She was a regal lady but...

Very regal. Looks like Queen Victoria.

-Yes, absolutely Queen Victoria.

-Yeah.

-A long dress and lace cap.

-Yeah.

But what's interesting, Nigel,

is I know a lot about all those people, but the one part of the

family tree I don't know anything about at all, is Elizabeth Hamblion.

Er, it's a blank, a blank sheet.

With his uncle's help, Nigel has managed to trace his father's

line back to his great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Hamblion.

You end up with this woman who looks just like a sort of Queen Victoria.

I don't know what to expect, but she does put on a grand,

a very grand air.

I need to know about her, I really do.

To begin his search, Nigel has come home to London

and ordered up Elizabeth Hamblion's birth certificate.

Can't wait.

So, here we are.

It's from the Registration District of Colchester, in 1841,

in the county of Essex.

So that makes her, makes her an Essex girl.

She probably didn't wear white high heels,

probably have her hair done like that.

But she's still an Essex bird.

Erm, the mother,

Elizabeth Ann Hamblion...and her father...

..was Henry Hamblion,

here we are, Henry Hamblion, and it says occupation of father, driver.

Driver. A driver.

Where does all this grandness come from, I'm wondering. Anyway.

Let's have a look on the internet.

I've loaded up the Census for 1841, so let's, let's put her name in.

Birth year we know is 1841.

OK, here we go.

Oh! Right, there is daughter, er, Elizabeth Anne.

She was two months old when this census was taken,

and at the bottom, here we are, erm, let's have a look at that.

That says Henry Hamblion, and that's the father.

And let's just go, and he's er, and his occupation,

does that say Hackney?

Hackney Master.

I think it does.

He was a coachman of some sort, or a taxi driver.

It looks like he was a cab driver.

"Take me to Whitechapel please." "Certainly, Sir."

So much for the stately home. It's time to go.

To Essex.

Nigel has come to Colchester to discover more about the

profession of his great-great-great grandfather, Henry Hamblion.

He's meeting coaching expert, Colin Porson.

Good morning.

Colin, thank you very much for coming,

and we'll talk about how you're dressed in a minute,

but, erm, I know from the census, which I've seen,

that Henry Hamblion is a Hackney Master.

Is that going up in the world? I don't know what it means.

-It is going up in the world.

-Oh, good.

But before we delve into that,

perhaps I should just explain the outfit?

It's a lovely outfit. Great.

Erm, Henry was operating in the middle of the 19th

-century as we know.

-Um-hmm.

And, and this, this uniform is in fact that of a, erm,

a coach guard from that period and I thought it would add

just a bit of local colour to our conversation.

It does, I love it, it's great.

Now, the Hackney Master.

-I recognise Hackney because we call our taxis in London, Hackney cabs.

-We do.

-Yeah.

-For exactly the same...

-I thought they came from Hackney?

-But unfortunately no.

Hackney came originally from, from an old French verb, meaning to hire.

Oh, right. Nothing to do with Hackney at all.

And I think that when he started, Henry was driving

carriages for hire, much as you have black cabs today.

But by 1841 he was obviously coming up in the world

and by describing himself as a Hackney Master,

-would suggest that he has drivers working for him.

-Oh!

-He had moved into a moved into...

-Oh!

..a more managerial, a more organisational role.

I had this image that he was just driving his own cab.

I think he's moved beyond that.

-Now, The Essex Standard was...

-Yeah.

-..the local paper.

It's, erm, 1844 now. "The Original Mews", Sir Isaac's Walk, Colchester.

H & J Hamblion, that's Henry and...

Jeremiah was his, his younger brother.

Uh-huh.

So this was a family business.

"Beg respectfully to announce to the Ladies, Gentry, and the

"Inhabitants of Colchester and its vicinity, that they have recently

"added to their Establishment a number of superior Clarence and..."

Brougham.

"..Brougham."

-As in sweeping.

-Yes. Brougham carriages.

These were prestigious vehicles.

Henry's business was, was definitely on the...

-Yeah.

-..on the up.

-What would they cost, these?

-I mean, you're...

-You're probably looking at, at stretch limo...

-Yeah.

-..money. I mean this...

-Right.

..this would be the Bentley Continental.

Oh, he's obviously doing well, I would say.

-So that's all good.

-Yeah.

He was also a Jobbed Master, someone who would hire out horses by

themselves or horses and carriages and a coachman and a groom.

This is a big business.

This is a big business.

Colin has brought with him a replica stagecoach, from the period

when Henry Hamblion was running his carriage business.

And here is your coach Nigel.

This would have been coming through Colchester every day.

So how many people does this, erm, this fit?

We would have four people in here.

Today it is driven by a coachman with a brakeman, two grooms

and Colin, the guard.

And this one goes here.

Oh, I got that.

-No time.

-Good, so here we are.

HE PLAYS HORN

That means we're going.

-That means start.

-Start.

And there were various standard calls that the guard would blow

to indicate to other road users what the coach is doing.

So, we can blow

and clear the road.

OK.

Clear the road.

HE BLOWS HORN

Isn't that great, isn't that fantastic? I love that.

You might release that as a CD.

-CD.

-Yeah. And we've cleared, you've cleared the road all right, I can tell,

look, there's nobody there at all.

They're terrified.

I feel very at home here actually, I do.

By 1844, Henry Hamblion and his brother Jeremiah were hiring

out a range of vehicles from their central Colchester stables.

Including small fast cabs operating from the centre of town, a large

omnibus and smart carriages serving the upper classes of Colchester.

Nigel is meeting local historian, Patrick Denny, to find

out where Henry and Jeremiah plied their trade.

So...this is the high street.

This is the ancient high street.

So what was Colchester really like in that period?

This is probably one of the earliest photographs we've got, it's

-dating about 1858.

-Yeah.

The livestock market is still in the high street.

All the stalls, the fish stalls as far as the eye can see.

And, and the carriages outside the fire offices where all

-the Hackney carriages used to stand.

-Yeah.

-That could be one of Henry's...

-Yeah.

-..carriages standing there.

Colchester was an increasingly prosperous town in the 1840's,

with a thriving corn market and emerging clothing industry.

In 1843, a new railway station had been built providing Henry

and Jeremiah with new business.

Transporting ever more passengers from the station to the town.

So they've got a lot of expensive carriages, horses,

wealthy passengers

and there was always a threat of people operating on the wrong side of the law, erm...

Yes. ..stealing from him.

Got a few newspaper cuttings here, one from The Ipswich Journal.

It says "Highway robbery at Mile End."

God, you know I never thought of highway robbery,

I always think of that as being much, earlier...

-Earlier on.

-Yes.

-Yeah this is, this is during Henry's time.

"A daring highway robbery was perpetrated on the Mile End Road,

"two miles from the town, early on Thursday morning.

"Daniel Underwood, in the service of

"Mr Henry Hamblion..." Here he is.

There he is, yeah.

"A short distance from the Dog and Pheasant public-house,

"a man stopped the horses whilst another

"jumped on the box of the vehicle and knocked the driver from his seat.

"They made off with only the driver's hat and silver mounted whip,

-"worth 15 shillings."

-Yes.

That's a lot of money then?

That is, 15 shillings. We've got another one actually.

"On Thursday the 23rd, a man hired a horse

"and gig at the stables of Messrs Hamblion..."

There we are.

"..of this town, under pretence of going to Bentley in Suffolk,

"but instead of which he was seen soon afterwards driving

"in the opposite direction and was traced to Braintree; and

"neither the individual nor the horse and gig has since been heard of.

"A reward is offered for his apprehension."

But this is a worry for

-Henry isn't it, I mean...

-Yeah.

..his reputation is at stake in terms of people thinking,

well, do we go with him,

-he's been burgled, maybe we...

-That's right.

-And if it happens too often of course his business could be at risk.

-Yeah.

-Er, totally.

-So this is a serious thing.

-I think so, yes.

To find out how Henry protected his business,

Nigel's meeting 19th century crime expert, Professor Peter King.

Peter, er,

I'm aware that my ancestor, Henry Hamblion, erm,

had had some trouble with highway robbery and other crimes.

How, how could you deal with that, how could you prevent these

things happening because it could be very serious?

Well, that's why we've brought you here.

Er, because the association that helped to solve that problem

their records are here in this solicitor's office,

-so let's have a look.

-OK.

Here we've got the, erm, minute book,

this is of the Colchester Association.

"At the annual meeting of the members of the Colchester

"Association held at the Town Hall, Colchester on Tuesday 5th May 1846."

"After dinner at the 3 Cups Hotel,

"the following new subscribers were elected."

There he is.

-Henry Hamblion. So he's now part of this...

-Yeah.

-..Colchester Association.

-He, his brother,

his brother Jeremiah joined a couple of years later.

Right.

So they were... the partners were both in there.

We've got a poster here from just a few years earlier, 1842.

Oh, this is a little bit before my ancestor joined.

Yes, yes.

A fantastic poster.

"Subscribers to the Colchester Association for the protection

"of property and the prosecution of housebreakers and thieves."

Yeah, it was called 'The Thieves Association',

interestingly, so Henry has just joined

the thieves in fact. And...

It says here, "No trouble or expense will be spared in detecting

"offenders and bringing them to justice."

And look, and look, the Mayor's involved.

-Yeah, the Mayor, the big noises are probably in there.

-Yeah.

-Including the MP.

-Oh, yes.

And a couple of MD's.

They were lawyers, tradesmen, shopkeepers,

the classic middle and upper middle class, you know.

This is a voluntary association,

they create a communal fund from which they can then, er...

-Protect themselves.

-..can be used. Yeah...

Can they arrest people themselves, can they go up and...?

No, no, they can't, they have to use the existing police force

and the policing of the, of the town is still very rudimentary.

Modern policing was in its infancy in the 1840's.

And it wasn't until 1856 that a nationally-funded

and government-regulated police force was introduced.

Before this, associations like 'The Thieves', could pay local

officers to prioritise their cases and pursue criminals.

By joining 'The Thieves', Henry was not only eligible for these

privileges, he also gained the kudos of being part of Colchester's

business establishment.

So, he's sort of making it now, isn't he? He's got

a good business going, he's enough money to join the association

with, along with all these, you know, respected people.

His brother-in-law.

So the two of them are really, you know,

basically, they're going up in the world, aren't they?

And four years after they joined 'The Thieves',

something else happens which has an interesting turn of events.

"Notice is hereby given, that the

"Partnership subsisting between Henry Hamblion

"and Jeremiah Hamblion is this, this day dissolved by mutual consent."

-May 9th 1850.

-And...

Which means that Jeremiah is no longer part of the business?

-I wonder why?

-We've got a couple of clues we'd like to show you.

-Oh, I see.

-And this is from The Essex Standard...

-Yes, I know The Essex Standard, yes.

-The local rag.

"Charge of furious driving." oh, God!

-"Against Jeremiah Hamblion." Right.

-Hm.

"William Dines was driving a fresh broken colt on the Lexden Road

-"accompanied by a complainant."

-By the complainant.

"When they were followed for some distance by a van."

By a van?

"Driven by the defendant, who ultimately passed the other

"vehicle and as it was alleged, he hallooed, he hallooed

"so as to cause the colt to take fright and become reactive..."

Now that's not good, is it?

So he's obviously, you know, he's a bit of a lad, this guy.

There's a bit of road rage going on here. Oh, yeah.

And we have another document suggesting that Jeremiah was

quite capable of hitting the news more than once.

Oh, God, er, "County Court October 13th. Action for wilful damage.

"Sarah Mills, fish dealer, versus Jeremiah Hamblion.

"The plaintiff stated that she was keeping an oyster

"stall in the fish market when Mr Hamblion, who had

"plenty of room to pass, drove against her stall and upset it."

HE LAUGHS

Oh!

"She cried out, for God's sake, you'll kill me,

"as the shafts of the barrow" I don't know why I'm laughing.

"struck her leg, but Mr Hamblion,

"making use of some abusive language,

"said, he didn't care what he did and took no notice of her.

"Her leg was badly injured and being in the family way..."

-Yeah, she was pregnant as well.

-I don't know why I'm laughing, He's a bit of a lad, isn't he?

It's a pregnant woman and he's taking her out... he's taking her out.

Having looked at this, I mean you're an expert at this,

do you think that's why they sort of split up?

If you got a, a furious driving brother and you're running

a company like this, it's not going to do your reputation very much good.

I was intrigued by it, the problem Henry had with, with er,

his brother.

But I think it's right that Henry decided that maybe he should go

and do something else.

So now he's lost his business partner, erm,

where does that leave him?

Nigel is meeting business historian,

Dr Terry Gourvish at 15 Queen Street.

A house in front of the site that was formerly Henry Hamblin's

livery stables.

So far I know that, erm, Henry...

-Um-hmm.

-..has gone it on his own.

I'd like to know what happens next.

-OK, well, right, well that was in 1850 I think...

-Hm.

and this is the 1851 census.

Right.

And so we've got, we've got Henry here, who's head of the house at 37.

-Er, and it says Inn Keeper.

-Hm.

What, what happened to the, erm, the horses and stables?

Oh, I think he kept those.

Oh, so he's really doing, doing well indeed, isn't he?

Yes, it's a diversification.

Fantastic, good for him. Elizabeth, wife.

Yes.

Rosanna, daughter, aged 12.

-And, and it says she has an occupation at 12 of...

-It's crossed out.

It's been crossed out, but it does actually say barmaid.

Barmaid.

Barmaid.

Right, would you, do you fancy a pint.

All that going on, she's a proper, behind the bar at 12?

Yes well, that wasn't uncommon...

in 1851.

OK. Elizabeth, daughter.

-Now Elizabeth, erm, I've seen a photograph of her.

-Oh, right.

-My uncle Tony, who's 95, showed me this...

-Oh!

..very grand lady sitting,

looking like a miniature Queen Victoria, very, very grand.

So that's her there, aged 10.

In the Brewers Arms.

In the Brewers Arms. She wouldn't have told many people that.

-I'm not sure she would.

-No he's doing fine.

He is doing fine, yes that's right.

-He's diversifying, that's great isn't it?

-Yes.

I mean, that's what people should do. And then...

You've got something else here?

Well, this is, they have to go forward some years.

"October 5th 1864."

So a "Mr Henry Hamblion begs to inform the public he's taken

"the business of Railway and General Carrying."

So that means he's taken over a different sort of business?

Indeed so.

And not carrying the public, carrying...

-Carrying goods, yes...

-Goods.

-..merchandise.

Er, and taking it to the railway station.

The rail network expanded even further in the 1860's.

With over 4,000 miles of new track.

Money could be make ferrying goods to and from the station

and around town.

By adding general carrying to his other businesses,

Henry would be competing with established

firms like Pickford's for lucrative contracts with the railways.

He's making loads of money, doing really well.

-Yes, so we might think.

-Yeah.

However, er, I have this document to show you.

Right.

And this is barely two years later.

Erm, "Henry Hamblion, of

"Colchester, in the county of Essex, licensed victualler

"and late a Common Carrier, and livery stable keeper,

"having been adjudged bankrupt."

Oh, right.

So he's gone, he's gone bust.

Yes, yes within two years of acquiring that carrying business.

Oh, dear.

Well, it was, it was all going so well, he was expanding.

Becoming more of an entrepreneur.

And then he hit me with this bombshell that,

that he'd gone bankrupt a few, literally a few years later.

And...it was a real hammer blow.

And I've got to find out why, what happened.

How this big business has just gone down the tubes.

Nigel has come to meet bankruptcy expert, Dr Katherine McMillan.

Katherine, thank you so much for seeing me.

-Hello.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

Oh, now, first of all, how bad was it to go bankrupt in 1860,

whatever it was?

-From a social perspective...

-Hm.

..a respected man like Henry, this is, attracts a huge moral stigma.

And it's a huge reverse for this man.

So what happens to you, basically?

This is a report from The Essex Standard.

The Essex Standard, it comes up a lot.

OK, this is about Hamblion, Colchester.

"Who came to the court on his own petition on the 20th October

"last, attributing his failure to, losses in business."

Something has gone wrong in the common carrier business.

Yes, you know, I mean it, there was something about,

he knew how to run the yard and, and the horses and the carriages,

but suddenly he wanted to branch out.

Maybe that's what happened?

That may well have been too much.

-He didn't know that business.

-Yes.

Too much competition?

It's entirely possible. It's a competitive industry.

So "losses in business and my having some surety for my son-in-law."

So who is this son-in-law?

Well, we answer that by looking at this, er, marriage certificate.

Here's Henry's daughter, her name is Rosina,

I know on the census I saw, she was described as a barmaid.

Yes.

-She grew up quite fast, this girl.

-Yes.

Marrying John Hum. He's a builder.

And in acting as a surety,

what Henry was doing was assuming a liability.

-He's a guarantor, basically?

-It's a form of guarantor.

By acting as a surety for John Hum, Henry was not only liable for

his own business debts, but also for a large part of his son-in-law's.

John has problems shortly before, erm,

Henry has filed his own petition for bankruptcy.

-Oh, this is in August.

-Yes.

-Whereas that was in October.

"So John F Hum,

"builder of Colchester was brought up from the county gaol."

Yes.

"As a prisoner for debt."

Right, so he's been sent down for not paying his debt?

Yes.

Now John Hum, I presume he's going to have children?

John does have children at this point, erm...

Ah now, that'll be one reason why my ancestor was keen to make

-sure that he didn't get into, you know...

-Yes.

..was a, acted as, as a surety for him.

Yes, yes.

Because he was protecting his, his eldest daughter.

-Would be very natural for a father to step in...

-Absolutely.

..in those circumstances to assist his daughter

and to assist his grandchildren.

The collapse of his own business and his attempt to

cover his builder son-in-law's debts led to Henry's ruin.

But unlike John Hum, Henry avoided prison by voluntarily

filing for bankruptcy and declaring all his debts.

We have a final, erm, entry here, erm,

in the Court of Bankruptcy.

"Re Henry Hamblion.

"The bankrupt, he can't show creditors holding security, £8,460."

-Yes. That's an enormous sum.

-Yeah.

It's equivalent probably to about £2.5 million today.

Henry handed over his considerable fortune in an attempt to pay off

his debts, which amounted to more than £2.5 million in today's money.

What a shame

to build all this up and then have it all go so horribly wrong.

Hm, what a shame, eh?

I'm sort of shattered by Henry's downfall, to be honest.

Erm, and just that, the amount of money that was involved in this.

Nigel has gone online to see

if he can discover what happened to Henry after his bankruptcy.

Hang on, let's just go to the top,

this is from The Essex Standard, Friday 17th February 1871.

So, we've now gone on, '66, '67, four years later.

Right..."The Provident Asylum Society, a special meeting of the

"members of this useful institution, the next business was to consider

"the claim of Mr Henry Hamblion, be admitted on the Foundation to

"receive the usual benefits, much commiseration was shown towards Mr

"Hamblion in his present affliction, was unanimously elected."

What does that mean in Victorian times? Provident Asylum Society.

well, I know, there are two things,

it might be that his affliction is that he's still got no money, but

er, commiseration shown towards his present affliction, maybe there's

something actually gone wrong with him, this is driving him a bit mad.

The first priority is to find out what happened to Henry, er,

also I need to find out what happened to my ancestor,

Elizabeth, who must be, she was 10 in 51, she must be in her 20's.

Nigel hopes that local historian, Andrew Phillips, can help him

make sense of Henry's circumstances.

-This is from The Essex Standard.

-Uh-huh.

Er, your local paper.

I need you to tell me what the Provident Asylum Society is?

The Provident Asylum Society was set up for people of business

and professional people to, er, pay an annual

subscription against the possibility that disaster might come their way.

So a little security. So you do this in case your...

-Oh, absolutely.

-..business fails.

And Henry was bright enough to think,

-"Just in case this goes wrong, I'm going to pay into this."

-That's right.

OK. He had the foresight to anticipate, and to cover himself.

He was now eligible to the usual benefits and they weren't nothing

because behind us stands, in fact, the Provident Asylum Society.

Oh, wow, it's very attractive houses.

Indeed.

So he has a roof over his head.

Self help societies were common in Victorian England.

There was no welfare state, and if a family fell on hard times,

it risked ending up in the workhouse.

But prudent businessmen like Henry could pay into a private

fund like the Provident Asylum Society,

ensuring him against poverty and homelessness.

-He's doing fine.

-Yes, he's doing great.

I mean, he could start again, you know, he could start another business.

Yes, but hang on, they were sympathising with his affliction.

Yes.

What does that suggest to you?

That he might not be very well.

-Oh, dear, oh, dear. Er, it's a death certificate.

-Uh-huh.

1871...let me just, one second, let me just look at this.

This was February 17th 1871.

March, so a month later he dies of, it says here, er,

the cause of death, "diseased heart certified."

-So he had a heart attack in other words, probably.

-Probably.

So the probability is he

was packing up almost to move in and had a...

Yeah.

-Oh, dear. He never made it.

-What about the family?

-Ah!

-Does he say?

-The small print. Here we are, rule 12.

Ah, "Widows of Members.

"In the event of the death of a Member of the Foundation,

"who was a married man at the time of his admission,

"his widow shall continue to reside in the house, rent and tax free."

-Oh, that's good, so he was really smart, wasn't he?

-Yeah.

-He put aside and paid for this...

-Yeah.

..in case something happened and,

and show what a wonderful man he was in many, many ways.

But tell me, I really want to know what happened to my,

my direct ancestor, Elizabeth junior, so to speak.

I know.

But I last came across her, she was, erm, 10 years old.

We roll forward a further ten years to 1881.

-Yeah.

-And I have here, a copy of the census.

Oh, here's a man called George Buckingham.

-And...

-Elizabeth.

He's a shoe manufacturer.

Was does that say, I can't see what that says?

Employing...

50 men. Oh, he's a big... big time.

That's a significant size shoe factory.

Oh, we've got to where Elizabeth is married to Buckingham.

-Yeah.

-My uncle Tony...

-Yeah.

..went and had lunch, when he was six, with those two.

-Really?

-Yes.

And so we've, we've now come... the whole circle has now joined up.

The circle of life.

But, erm, it occurs to me,

behind us, erm, Henry's wife, Elizabeth is still living here.

-That's right.

-So...

And, and she lived long after his death.

To the age of 79.

Oh, wow, that's good.

And she died in this house, er, 1892.

And she was buried with him in Colchester Cemetery.

Ah!

Oh, look at this.

"In memory of Henry Hamblion, who died March 17th 1871,

"aged 56 years."

"Also of Elizabeth Hamblion."

"Wife of the above, died December 28th 1892, aged 79."

Well...they're together.

And here we are in, in Henry's graveyard, having gone through,

you know, such hard times himself.

Losing all his fortune...

..but caring for his family and then dying suddenly at 56 years old.

Hard, really.

When Uncle Tony showed me

that picture of Elizabeth, Henry's daughter,

looking like a sort of copy of Queen Victoria, erm, I wondered

what sort of a woman she was and where she'd come from.

And now that I know,

she must have watched her father go through the ups and downs of life.

She wasn't from a great money or titled background,

she'd grown up the hard way.

I'll look at that photograph again and I'll see a woman who's,

you know, survived all that.

Having explored his father's ancestry,

Nigel is turning to his mother's side.

His mother Carol has a sister, Amanda, who lives in Hertfordshire.

Now we're off to see my Auntie Amanda, Amanda Lay.

I don't know what she knows about my family history, I have no idea.

But I know from experience that, that she's very, erm,

up for a lark, as they say.

My mother's side of the family is a complete mystery to me

and this is a whole section of the family I really

know nothing about.

Nigel has arranged to meet his aunt, Amanda Lay, at her local pub.

Auntie Mans, as I live and breathe.

Hello.

SHE LAUGHS

-Lovely to see you.

-Well, it is.

Who'd ever believe we'd be sitting in a pub talking about, well...

Family.

..family. Are we posh, or not really?

-No.

-No.

She said defensively. No.

I just wanted to know, that's all?

-I do know that, that is a photograph...

-Yes.

..of my grandfather, who of course I never met.

Whose name was?

-Stuart...

-Stuart.

-..Charles Lay.

Stuart Charles Lay.

I was told that he worked in the city.

That isn't actually true, he worked, erm, he owned a laundry.

He owned a laundry?

-Yes. And...

-He owned a laundry.

It must have been quite a profitable laundry?

-It, I think it was.

-OK.

But you definitely know this person because, er, that was his wife.

My grandmother.

That is grandma. And er, she was Irene Wackett.

I never knew that. Wackett.

Wackett.

You say that with such relish, you like that?

-So, Wackett.

-Yes.

-And she looks fantastic.

-I don't tell many people that.

No, no, I don't suppose you do.

-And I'm not going to tell many people myself.

-Good.

-I'll keep quiet about that.

-Yes.

Erm, she looks fantastic here, though. She's very, very elegant.

-She's a model, really.

-She was really fortunate

cos you can see why I take after, that side.

THEY LAUGH

No, you don't, you're gorgeous.

No, look, OK.

So, that is Elizabeth, who was, erm, her mother.

So that's my great grandmother.

Hm.

She looks quite stern.

And she was born in Cornwall.

-So this is Elizabeth Wackett, but...

-Right.

..but what was her maiden name?

Couch.

-Now we have someone.

-And now yes, this is...

Could have been, she could have been...

..my, my great grandmother, so your great-great-grandmother

and she was, er, Maria Caroline.

-Hm.

-Couch.

She looks very kind.

She was married to somebody called David Couch.

Who was a miller in Cornwall.

Here, this photo is of Jonathan Couch, who was his twin brother.

I don't know whether they were identical twins, you know,

maybe they were a little bit alike.

Nigel has discovered that his great-great-grandfather,

David Couch, was a flour miller in Cornwall.

His twin brother Jonathan lived in the same hamlet,

known as Couch's Mill.

And here we have a picture of the house.

-A lovely house.

-Yes.

I wouldn't mind that myself. What about the dates?

Are the dates in here somewhere?

Yes, on here is the, erm, this is the 1851 census.

It's on this page where David must be. Here.

David...

His father was called John Couch.

Right, so here's John Couch, he's head of the house, male, man,

-and he's, he was the miller and then there's...

-Yes.

..David, son, who was 28, he was the, the millwright.

Jonathan Couch, he's the blacksmith.

Jonathan was the blacksmith but later became the miller.

-So, so here, so the mill didn't pass down to David's children?

-No.

It went sideways to...

It, it did. David did take over for a time.

-So what happened there?

-I, I don't know.

-We would have had a mill.

-Yes. Hm.

-We would have had this mill.

-You could have been the proud owner of Couch's Mill, the whole area.

-It's such a pretty house.

-Yes.

Well, I'm really intrigued, this village with the,

the blacksmith and the miller and, I'm just... Can't wait to get there.

Auntie Amanda told me yesterday that my ancestors,

specifically David Couch were in Cornwall, so I've gone west.

I have a sneaky suspicion that something odd happens to him,

because his twin brother, Jonathan, the mill went to him,

so I just want to know what happened to David really, so...

I don't know what to expect actually, I have no idea.

Couch's Mill is on the Boconnoc Estate in Cornwall.

In the 1850's, the mill was one of many

tenanted properties owned by the Fortescue family,

who lived at the main house.

Historian Dr Catherine Lorigan is showing Nigel the way to the mill.

I think we're getting near, aren't we?

Yes, just coming down into the hamlet.

That's it, isn't it?

It is. That's the scene.

-Nothing really has changed.

-No.

There's the path, quite modest when I get close up to it.

Yes. That's interesting to see, isn't it?

Charming to be here.

I'm beginning to sound like Prince Charles, you know, so modest and...

-Shall we go and have a look inside?

-Yeah. I'll follow you.

And down, mind the steps.

So we are in the mill.

We are.

It's nearly like just someone just left one day.

Yes, they'd just gone.

It hasn't been worked since the 1920s, I think.

As the millwright, the job of David,

Nigel's great-great-grandfather, was to maintain the mill's equipment,

working alongside his father, John.

His twin brother

Jonathan worked as a blacksmith in the same hamlet.

So just to remind myself, you've got...

-Yes.

-..John Couch, who's the head.

-That's right.

-Head man.

He's the man, yes head of household, he was the miller.

He was 62, so, but he was a fit 62 I bet?

-Yes, yes. Well...

-Just like me.

A lot of them didn't...

Then there's more over here...

Then there's Ann Bryant, and she was a house servant working for...

-With the wife.

-..for, for mum.

-And then two servants actually working in the mill as well so...

-Ah!

..it's actually quite a big household, eight people...

-Oh!

-..all living in that.

-Yeah that's a bit of a squeeze, I would have thought?

-Yes.

-Sharing bedrooms and stuff.

-Yes, I would have thought so.

-That's a lot of people in this space.

-It is quite a lot of people.

I now know where my direct ancestor lived, right here.

And I know that, you know,

these things get passed down naturally, and I would

have thought that David was going to inherit the business

and continue it and evidently something goes wrong, or...

I don't know what's happened.

But I've got to find that out.

Nigel is going online at Boconnoc House to search for any

information about his great-great-grandfather.

David.

Couch. See if we can find any reference in a newspaper.

Let's search that.

Something that says, Bryant versus David Couch, hang on a minute,

Bryant.

There was someone in the... Ann Bryant, house servant.

Hang on a minute, right. Now, I'm going to magnify this.

"Trecan Gate Petty Sessions, 6th April.

"Ann Bryant versus David Couch of Boconnoc, affiliation order made..."

Affiliation order.

I don't know what that means.

"An affiliation order made for five shillings per week for six

"weeks, midwife, Mr..."

What's this, so something happened here, did she have a baby?

Is that what happened? They...

He, he, erm...

So, it looks like, what it looks like is they had an affair.

He had an affair with the servant girl

and made her pregnant.

He just couldn't resist it.

A bit of a cad, really!

HE LAUGHS

Oh, dear. I've been playing those sort of parts for years.

David Couch, you naughty boy.

Nigel hopes that social historian, Dr Tom Nutt, can shed some light

on his great-great-grandfather's affair with the family servant.

And what I've discovered is that my great-great-grandfather,

David Couch managed to get the, er, house servant pregnant.

Now, what is an affiliation order?

Affiliation is the legal process for dealing with illegitimate children.

Right.

Firstly, determining the paternity of the child,

and then the second step is a maintenance order.

-Right.

-That is, er, putting the father,

David Couch, erm, under an order to pay two shillings and six pence,

in this case for maintenance.

It says on Friday, April 15th 1853, at the Trecan Gate Petty Sessions.

What, what would they be?

Well, the Petty Sessions, er,

-was what we would now think of as the magistrate's court.

-Ah!

In 1853, according to the laws of the time, the onus

was on 19-year-old servant girl, Ann Bryant, to stand up in court

and prove her child's father was the boss's son, David Couch.

How could Ann Bryant prove

that David Couch was the father, I mean what,

what evidence is required to do that?

Ann probably would have brought in witnesses to the court, so...

What, ie they'd seen us in bed together?

Well, it could be in fact actually, erm, very often

it'll be the woman's mother or father or even a brother or

sister who might say that they'd seen them walking out together.

So this actually proves...

Ann Bryant has proved... that the child is...

-David's.

-..is David's.

-That's right.

-That's basically what this does?

That's what it does.

So, erm, what happened to the child?

Another certificate which I can show you.

-Yeah.

-And...

Oh, dear. This is a death certificate.

So, on the 15th of March 1854, a year and a month later,

inflammation of the chest is the reason, the cause of death.

Sadly, erm, deaths in infancy were very, very common.

Eleanor Couch Bryant.

Heavens above, she's got the word Couch in there.

That meant that they'd got together, do you think?

I wouldn't necessarily take that leap,

but I think this, whatever the kind of relationship they had,

was with recognition of the household, of the community.

Yeah, she'd been taken into the house, er...

Yeah, when they come to register the death

she's recorded as having the father's name.

The image I build about David is that he's a hardworking man who

had a fling, but he's not casting this girl and his child away.

What I want to now to find out is what happened to David.

Aged 30, what happens to him?

Very nice to meet you.

Nigel is meeting family historian, Dr Joanne Bailey,

at the Boconnoc Parish Church.

Joanne, I know my great-great-grandfather, David Couch

had a child, a daughter and very, very sadly little Eleanor died.

-But I know nothing about what happened...

-Yes.

Well, we have a document that I can show you in 1862.

-This is a decade later.

-They were getting married.

This was for a very happy reason, yes.

Very happy, getting married. Erm, to Maria Caroline Collins.

Yeah.

He's about 38. Oh, she's a widow.

Yes.

And he's happy to take her

and her two children from her first marriage.

-Her two children.

-Yes.

Oh, that's a good choice.

I mean, the other option would have been to marry a young woman.

He's had experience of a woman much younger and it didn't go so well.

He's showing some maturity, isn't he?

Yes, he's being very sensible.

Good for him.

Over the next six years from 1862,

David and Maria Couch went on to have three children,

David Frederick, Elizabeth and Georgina.

But in 1868, tragedy struck again.

And this, so...

-Georgina Mary...

-Yes.

-..Couch died.

-Yes.

And was buried on March the 26th.

-And she...

-Aged 20 months.

Yes. I have the, erm, death certificate here.

Georgina Mary Couch, it says here,

"Scald on the chest with white pot, lived two days, accidental death."

So what does that mean? Chest with white pot?

Well, white pots we think is a,

a local dish that was made from milk or cream and it...

Yeah.

..looks like Georgina, who was toddling,

has pulled the pan onto herself.

-Yeah. So this is, oh, he's lost two daughters now.

-Yes.

-That must have been a shock.

-Erm...

Two days of hell, to live for two days, oh!

In the second half of the 19th century in England, more than

a quarter of children died before they reached their fifth birthday.

But after Georgina's death, David's family continued to grow.

Have a look at the register of baptisms.

OK.

On March the 10th we have Georgina Mary, daughter of David

and Maria Caro...

hang on, but there's already been a Georgina.

That's right, yes, erm...

Right, so that means that, that they waited and she has another...

Yes.

-..child, which happened to be a girl.

-Yes.

So, I can see now, in remembrance...

-That's right.

-..of...

-Of the...

-..Georgina.

-..first Georgina, yes.

-Difficult, that's very sweet, isn't it?

-Yes.

So shall we have a look at, erm, the next census?

Yes, that would be great. Yeah.

This is 1871.

David Couch. Oh, he's the head of the house now.

Yes.

He's a master miller. It's taken him some time but at 48 he's a man.

Yes, his father John died in December 1864.

-Right, so there's David, there as head.

-Yes.

-There's his wife, Maria.

-Yes.

-And then there's...

-Frederick.

Frederick, Caroline and Georgina, the two daughters, and so...

-He made it there.

-The line is now sort of forming and...

-That's right, yes.

-..so I'm coming from somewhere now?

-Yeah.

And from somewhere rather nice it seems.

Yes, it does seem that, that's good.

But I know, I've seen records that in fact Jonathan took

-the mill over...

-Yes.

..and I can't work out how that happens if you've got,

-David, you know, successful...

-Yes.

..with his three children, what, what, how does that?

Well, we can turn to the Estate Steward's Diary.

Er, and this is on the 17th.

"A very busy...

"Couch's Mill bridge. Poor David Couch died this day at 1:30pm."

OK.

Right. God! So, he didn't really make 50, did he?

No, he's still 48 when he died.

So, David's established himself, he's been, you know,

-master in his own house...

-Yes.

Head of the house.

And six years later he dies, where does that leave, er, his wife and children?

Frederick is David and Maria's son, and he's still too young, really.

Frederick couldn't run the mill, he's about five, wasn't he?

Yes, so really there is no-one left.

With none of David Couch's children old enough to take over,

his widow Maria passed the mill to David's twin brother,

Jonathan, who became the master miller.

Not wishing to stay in the area,

Maria left Cornwall altogether, taking the children with her, ending

Nigel's direct ancestral connection to Cornwall and the mill.

David Couch was buried in the parish graveyard near the mill.

Oh, here we go, there's John Couch, that's his dad.

So, I bet they're nearby.

How about here?

David Couch, here he is, here's my

great-great-grandfather's gravestone.

"Also of Georgina, the daughter." So, they're buried together.

Oh, that's really charming.

They're together, which is how it should be.

That's wonderful.

There's one daughter that isn't named here,

but, erm, he had out of wedlock and losing not one but two children

is just such... Devastating, it must have been so devastating for him.

I'm so glad that he, you know, got married and had more children,

I know he died very young, really,

but I feel that he had a good life, so I feel good about it.

Discovering about my relations has been not only just emotionally

moving for me, but also, I don't know whether I can say this, really,

but I've always been you know, er,

when I'm interviewed, you know, "You're such a posh actor,"

the word "posh" always crops up.

"You must be bored playing the same, you know, posh parts."

Well, as it turns out, I'm no posher than anybody else, which is,

which is fantastic.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd