Brian Blessed Who Do You Think You Are?

Come, let's get a fox. Come on, let's get a fox.

Actor Brian Blessed was born in Mexborough, South Yorkshire,

in 1936, the son of a coalminer.

Today, he lives in Surrey with his wife and their many rescued animals.

I love my name, Brian Blessed.

It's the most perfect name - Brian Blessed - boom-boom.

I like it. Wouldn't exchange it for any name.

But who are the Blesseds?

Come on.

It's not good enough just to know your mother and father

and your granddad and this, that and the other.

You want to know the whole root system.

Zebra 2-1.

Brian shot to fame in the early 1960s in the police drama Z Cars.

He went on to star in further television series,

theatre and films, famously playing Prince Valtan in Flash Gordon.

Recently, he's chaired the quiz Have I Got News For You.

I'm Brian Blessed! Yes, it's me!

HE LAUGHS LOUDLY

Also a passionate adventurer, he has made three attempts on Everest

and is the oldest man to reach the Magnetic North Pole.

I'd always wanted to be an explorer or an actor.

Those are my two great loves in life.

And I was determined to do it.

Hey, Misty, Misty.

I'm going to find out about my family history.

This is going to be an adventure, and I really am looking forward to it.

I'm not looking for crowns and coronets and so forth,

and the glittering prizes, I'm looking for humanity.

You know, on television, the greatest dramas are about ordinary people,

ordinary relationships.

That is where we learn so much. That has great meaning.

And that's what I'm looking for.

To start his journey,

Brian is heading back to South Yorkshire where he was born.

I'm a Yorkshireman through and through,

and I think that Yorkshire people have a great sense of humour

and therefore, I'm approaching this to a certain extent with humour,

but I'm very serious about it as well.

Almost naive and full of faith.

I can't wait to get started.

# The train goes running along the line, chickety-can, chickety-can

# I wish it were mine I wish it were mine

# Chickety-can, chickety-can, the engine driver stands in front

# He makes it run, he makes it shunt, chickety-can, chickety-can

# Chickety-can, chickety-can... #

HE MIMICS TRAIN WHISTLE

I find trains madly exciting.

I can't comprehend the speed we're going at.

I mean... But it's taking me to my dreams, isn't it?

Well, the picture there, of course, there's my mother,

looking very demure, and my father there,

and then that gorgeous-looking baby is me!

Which is ridiculous!

HE CHUCKLES

I've got my grandfather from the Blessed side, with his wife,

my grandmother Alice.

My father and my grandfather were both coalminers.

My grandfather started work at about 12 years of age,

he was at Hickleton Main doing all the dynamite

for blowing up the seams, and my father started in the mine

just off Hickleton and he looked after all the ponies.

And he was 13 years of age.

So my father and grandfather were coalminers,

but who begat my grandfather?

Who was before that? Where did they live?

Who were they? Were they coalminers?

And my wise granddad - "Hello, Brian, lad,"

wouldn't talk about anything about his predecessors,

and that was frustrating.

Brian grew up near Doncaster.

He's come back to start his search.

Well, I'm really excited because I'm going through Doncaster now

and I know this scenery very well.

I'm going to the Doncaster Archives to maybe learn a bit more

about the Blesseds. How far the miners go back. Or were they miners?

-Hi, Charles, nice to see you.

-Welcome.

-Have you found anything about the Blesseds?

-I think I have.

-You have?!

-Come through into the search room.

-Oh, great. Great!

Archivist Charles Kelham has been looking into the Blessed family tree.

So here we are, Brian, the Blessed family line.

Here we have your grandfather, George William,

your great-grandfather, George Jabez Blessed.

And his father was Jabez Blessed who was born about 1817.

My goodness me. What extra... Jabez Blessed.

And his parents, we know, were Barnabas Blessed

and Elizabeth Atkinson.

Barnabas Blessed was married to Elizabeth Atkinson.

Do you know anything about Barnabas Blessed?

I mean, was he a coalminer?

Ah, now. We happen to know that he was a bookbinder and stationer.

-Never!

-By trade, yes.

-He was a bookbinder and stationer?

-Yes.

I used to do that at school, bookbinding and...

Do we know anything more about them at all there, Charles?

Well, we know from their marriage banns that they were

married in 1801 at St Pancras Chapel in London.

-In London?!

-Yes.

Extraordinary. St Pancras and that way. And a bookbinder.

And his wife, a gentle trade, publishing.

I mean, definitely it's not kind of miners.

-The coal-mining seems to have stopped and now we're into bookbinding.

-Yes.

-But London! The south!

-Mm.

Here we come!

Brian now knows that his great-great-great-grandparents,

Barnabas and Elizabeth Blessed, were married in 1801,

not in Yorkshire, but in London.

This has taken me by surprise, this one.

I didn't expect to be going back to London.

Which is, absolutely, a complete shock.

I'm here at the back of King's Cross, St Pancras,

all this noise, it's ridiculous.

And I didn't know this church existed.

It's St Pancras Church and I believe this is where Barnabas

and Elizabeth got married.

I would never have expected it. Where are my Yorkshire roots?!

HE CHUCKLES

It's bizarre!

HE HUMS

HE EXHALES

Isn't it lovely?

A wonderful atmosphere.

And I didn't know about it.

HE EXHALES LOUDLY

All so startling, as you know, it was over 200 years ago -

1801. 200 hundreds years ago they were here and they got

married and they had children and out of the long line...

..I appeared.

I owe them that.

So, thank you, Barnabas and thank you, Elizabeth.

I wonder if they're looking in on me now.

I wonder what they looked like.

I wonder what she wore, you know.

I bet she looked gorgeous.

Barnabas... Barnabas Blessed.

It sounds like, like something from Dickens, doesn't it?

"Barnabas Blessed, do you take Elizabeth for your wife?"

"Yes."

"Do you take Barnabas for your husband?" "Yes. Yes."

"You may kiss the bride."

Professor James Raven has more information for Brian

about Barnabas Blessed.

Hello, Brian.

Hello, James. I believe you're going to enlighten me?

Well, I hope so.

THEY CHUCKLE

So, Barnabas was a bookbinder and a stationer.

I mean, what does that involve?

Well, this was an extremely exciting time for the book trade.

There was increased literacy - there was a growing demand for books,

and the books were all hand, handmade.

And in many ways the binder, which

your great-great-great-grandfather was one,

was one of the unsung heroes

of this extraordinary revolution in book production

at the end of the 18th century and the early 19th century.

-An unsung hero?

-Absolutely.

At the time, books were manufactured unbound

and it was the job of bookbinders like Barnabas Blessed,

to sew in the pages, construct the cover and engrave the lettering.

In the rapidly-expanding market,

there was a huge range of bookbinders,

from modest itinerants, who carried their tools on

their backs, to the highly-skilled, who worked for elite customers.

So Barnabas, have you any idea what his position was in this world

-he lived in?

-Well, that's a very good question.

-He didn't have a shop or something like that?

-Well, we think he did.

Now we're very fortunate because there is a certain

type of record that we're able to use to pinpoint him quite precisely.

No!!

And we have here the Land Tax Records of the early 19th century,

and they can show us quite precisely where Barnabas

or as he says here, Barnaby, Barnaby Blessed...

What does it say, my son, what does it say?

And here he is in Bull Inn Court.

Bull Inn Court.

Which is just off the Strand.

-And we can tell from the assessment...

-Yes, yes.

..that the tax collector has made, as rent, £32,

which puts him in the sort of middling range.

-How fascinating.

-The size of the shop's really very important,

but it's also more the location.

-That's what's most exciting.

-Really?

Because he's in the middle of a flourishing,

extremely fashionable part of London, close to book-sellers

and close to potentially elite customers as well.

-Oh, bravo, Barnaby, eh?!

-Yes, absolutely.

Marvellous history personified by a great guy.

-Oh, I'm very proud of him.

-Good.

-And so, Bull Inn Court, is it still there now?

-Indeed it is.

You can actually see where your great-great-great-grandfather had his shop.

Well, I'm damned! Oh, you marvellous man, you lovely!

That is a surprise. It's Christmas!

LAUGHTER

That's great!

So, Brian, here we are in the Strand.

-Absolutely.

-Which in the early 19th century would be a bustling

-thoroughfare as it is, of course, today.

-It is indeed.

And just behind us,

behind there would have been Book-sellers' Row which would

have had huge numbers of book-sellers and book trade personnel.

And here is, as you see, Bull Inn Court.

Well, I've never been here before.

And your great-great-great-grandfather's shop...

-Yes.

-..would have been about here according to the Land Tax Records.

-Probably some...

-About here?

-..about here.

-And how high would it have been?

-Well, it would have been

about as high as it is today, and the family

would probably live over it, probably a servant at the very top.

And I think if we, if we held hands,

I'm just thinking if you stretch your hand out like that...

-Yes, yes, right.

-..that's about the width...

-Really?

-..that's about the width of the shop.

-Gosh!

-Should come somewhere against there.

-And he was here?

He was right here. There would have been one door, probably...

Yes.

And a bow window and his name would have been above the door.

Gosh! BARNABY! BARNABY! HELLO!

-I think that's probably... there would have been a lot of noise.

-Yes, a lot of that going on.

There would have been a lot of noise, a lot of bustle.

I mean, down there was the Strand, down there is the Strand.

And there's monkey machines da-da-dang-dang, da-da-dang-dang-dang.

Taverns around - coffee, coffee houses.

-Oh, really?

-Up there, because that's Maiden Lane on the way to

Covent Garden and you have great bustle, great meeting places.

People would have stopped to see people, conversations, so forth.

Well, years and years I passed there doing voiceovers

and so forth, I never realised that

my great-great-great-grandfather was located here.

I'll come down here when I'm doing voiceovers and I'll go...

..and to his wife, yes.

And say, "Well done, Barnaby, well done to his wife."

THEY CHUCKLE

I mean, how... Do we know how long he was here?

I mean, you know, I mean...

Well, we know he was certainly here for at least three years,

but we also do have some baptism records of his children.

-Oh, do you?

-Now, here we have...

We've been led on again. Here we go.

-Baptism Record, May 9th, 1808 in London.

-Gosh, yeah.

"Martha Atkinson, daughter of Barnabas Blessed, bookbinder."

-But then we get this.

-Here we go again.

-Baptism Record, 1814.

-Yes.

"Barnabas Blessed's son, Barnabas Charles, was

"baptised in St John's Chapel in the Parish of Portsea."

Which is now Portsmouth.

Portsmouth! Well, what's he doing there?

Well, we can only really speculate about that.

But Portsmouth had been booming in this period, of course,

the Napoleonic Wars.

-He may not have been as successful as he thought he could be here.

-Yes.

He might have thought he could make his fortune in Portsmouth.

-Brave lad. A great adventure.

-Yeah.

Portsmouth's connection to the Navy meant it always

prospered in times of war.

In 1814, Britain had been fighting the French for almost 20 years.

The conflict brought thousands of sailors

and soldiers to Portsmouth and other trades followed.

Overall, 15 to 20,000 people moved to the town -

the Blessed family among them.

Now Brian's come to Portsmouth to try and discover what

opportunities his ancestor Barnabas might have found here 200 years ago.

Oh!

Hello, John. Well, it's nice to meet you.

-And you too.

-Yes, great.

Dr John Steadman is an expert on the history of Portsmouth at the time.

I mean, John, why would a bookbinder and a stationer leave London

and come here to Portsmouth?

Well, Portsmouth was a boom town in 1814.

All the businesses that prospered through

the presence of the Navy needed paper and books.

The Navy needed paper for its ships, its logs, books on navigation,

so there were great opportunities for bookbinders

and stationers in Portsmouth to the Navy.

Terrific then for him as he is a bookbinder, I can understand that.

But this period of prosperity was not to last.

Just a year after the Blessed family moved to Portsmouth,

Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo.

Britain's long war with the French was over.

Well, that, I suppose, would mean that business subsided in Portsmouth?

Very definitely.

The Government started laying off dockyard workers

on an enormous scale. Ships are laid up.

The amount of trade coming to Portsmouth's businesses

declines very dramatically.

And would this have affected my, er, Barnabas Blessed and his family?

I think it would have been a crisis.

If he's running his own business then, um,

he would have lost a lot of his custom.

I wonder how he fared.

Well, I don't know what to expect now.

I'm a bit concerned, a bit of trepidation

because, I mean, I just hope they didn't suffer as a family,

you know, Barnabas and Elizabeth and their children.

And being so brave coming all the way from London over here now

to Portsmouth, and then the war, the Napoleonic War ends

and everyone seems to have been out of work.

And why shouldn't THEY be out of work?

And I don't want to come across a tragic story if I can help it.

Of course, if it is tragic then you face it.

But he seemed such a great guy.

Obviously his wife was lovely, that lovely church

and that ceremony they had and now their children,

I don't want to hear that anything untoward happened.

And that's about it.

HE SIGHS

Two years after the end of the Napoleonic War, Barnabas

and Elizabeth's son, Jabez, Brian's direct ancestor,

was born in Portsmouth.

St Mary's Church has records relating to the family.

HE HUMS Well, well, well!

-Welcome.

-Hello there. Nice to meet you.

-And you, sir.

-Great.

-My name's Bob. Pleased to see you.

-Yes, nice to nice to meet you, Bob.

-Good, good.

Canon Bob White is the vicar.

A lad like myself.

Bob, I'm keen to understand how the Blesseds got on,

and I believe that you have a record of them.

We have, we have some records that might help you to find that out.

-So if I open up the book.

-Excellent, excellent.

-Shall I give you...?

-Oh, there it is, I can't...

Try around there. Around this line.

"Elizabeth", and there's the surname, "Blessed". And what does that imply?

-If you look at the top of the page, Brian...

-Yes, yes.

..it might give you some indication to what the records are.

"Burials in the Parish of Portsea in the County of Southampton

"in the Year 1822."

Oh, no! Is that poor Elizabeth died?

I'm afraid that's the record of her burial.

-Oh, she was only 40 years old.

-Yes. Yeah.

How sad.

Well, Barnabas, I mean, he's got to look after his... He hasn't got

a wife and he's got three children, he's got Martha, Charles and Jabez.

And I'm afraid there's another one. There are four children.

We've got some records that aren't here,

but I've got a note of it - of the birth of Elizabeth.

No!

Who, as you can see, was born in 1820.

"Elizabeth, born 1820".

So at the time of the older Elizabeth's death she'd only

have been two years old.

So there are four children, one of them who is only two.

Right. What does this mean? "Father, pauper"? What...?

Well, that describes the state that the family were in.

A pauper. Barnabas a pauper?

Is that...do you mean to tell me he's ended up as a pauper?

That's what the records seem to be suggesting.

It means that they had no income, no finances

and they were entirely dependent upon the state, the parish.

-Oh!

-But...

-Oh! Bob, I don't like this.

Nothing I can do about it, I'm afraid.

All we can do is acknowledge the records that they were paupers.

I mean... he was a great success in London.

He had a shop and comes all the way to Portsmouth

and then he ends up a pauper and loses his wife.

Ah. And he's now got four children and one just two years old.

Oh, poor man!

-And there is more, I'm afraid.

-Oh, no!

If we turn to another page,

and it's the same burial register

and, I'm afraid, it's the same year, 1822.

1822, another burial.

Take me there, where is it? Point it out.

Roughly the same kind of...

"Barnabas Blessed..." What, "41 years"?

He dies as well?

He dies in the same year, about six months later on.

Oh, dear, dear.

And we're left with...

What...he's got four children!

-Four children.

-Four kids!

-Four kids in very poor conditions.

Ah!

Losing your mum and dad - inside six months...

..incredibly sad.

And paupers.

And paupers.

-Yeah. So they had nothing.

-Wow!

So when Elizabeth and Barnabas died, I mean,

where would they be buried? Around here?

They'd have been buried outside in the churchyard, but there's

no marks because paupers' graves were always unmarked.

-Oh, yes, oh, dear. Well, it's not what I expected, Bob.

-No.

Thank you anyway.

In a short time I've travelled a great distance.

It's...

..it's started to have real meaning for me this journey,

and I, I know that, er, Barnabas

and Elizabeth are buried here somewhere amongst this grass here.

I mean, they died at 40, 41, but they lived so much in that span of time.

They experienced success and failure.

And, er...

It's so peaceful here and I feel they're resting,

and I feel close to them.

That's, um, it's the first time I've ever felt close

to my roots...

..and, er...

..I do.

Ah.

I'm terribly moved.

I just, er...

One can feel them, one can feel them.

I've never felt this before... in my life.

It's tangible and real.

But more than anything I feel they're at peace

and that I'm at peace with them.

Following the deaths of Barnabas and Elizabeth Blessed,

their four children, Martha, Barnabas Charles, Jabez

and Elizabeth were entirely dependent on the parish.

To see if he can discover what happened to the children,

Brian has come to Portsmouth History Centre.

-Hello there.

-Hello.

-Are you Anna?

-I am, yes.

-Yes, of course. I'm Brian Blessed.

-Please to meet you.

Well, I'm here on this quest about Barnabas Blessed

and what happened to his four children after he died.

I mean, so I'm hoping you can give me some information about them.

Yes, I've been doing some research into that.

As Barnabas was a pauper, the most likely thing that would have

happened to the children when they became orphans, would be

that they would have gone into the local parish workhouse.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any trace of the family,

however, once the children became orphans and became

chargeable to the parish, they might have been removed elsewhere.

Were the family originally from Portsmouth?

No, no, no, they came from London.

Well, it seems possible then they may have been removed to London.

But they were just children, weren't they?

If they were a burden to the ratepayers then the parish

was often very keen to actually remove them elsewhere.

Oh, dear, dear!

At the time, paupers had no automatic right to remain

where they were living, but could be removed anywhere the family

had once earned entitlement to financial support.

As a result, destitute men,

women and even children were routinely sent vast distances

to the parish that was legally obliged to take them.

To try to find out if the four Blessed children were

victims of this system, Brian is travelling back to London.

I mean, if what Anna says was right, after all this calamity,

the children have now been taken away.

'And there were four of them.

'I mean Martha's 14, trying to be brave and the little baby...'

HE IMITATES BABY CRYING

And then you've got Charles, you know,

who's about eight years of age and Jabez is about five,

five or six years of age.

I think they would have become numb.

Their mother dying just six months before, and then their father

dying as well.

I think they'd be in a state of shock.

I see wide eyes and stillness.

But they had each other, they were grouped together,

they were a team and Martha will become the mother.

She would be very grown up.

She'd have had to grow up more so.

So, I think it's up to Martha

to really hold them together. And I think she will.

I hope she does.

If the Blessed children were removed to London, it would have been to the

parish of St Martin in the Fields where the family once lived.

The parish records are held at the City of Westminster Archives.

HE HUMS

-Hello, Alison, I'm Brian Blessed.

-Hello.

-Nice to meet you.

And you. Lovely to meet you.

Yes. I'm on a quest to find these four orphaned children.

-I think you might be able to give me some information.

-Yes.

Our volunteers have done some indexes of the Poor Law Records,

we could have a look at those.

-Would you like to see them?

-Excellent.

-OK, let's go over here.

-Thank you.

Well, here are the

St Martin in the Fields Settlement Examinations.

Now, do you know when the family might have come to London?

Yes, in about 1822.

Oh, right, this should be this one here.

Let's have a look at it.

And so we'd be looking for...?

-Blessed. Blessed.

-Surname. Yes, right.

Let me just have a look and...

It's a strange name, as you know.

See, we'll just scroll down there, and...

Oh, yes!

There it is, Blessed, look.

-Yes.

-1822. You've done it. You've got it.

-And what does that mean there? What's that?

-Oh, yes, yes.

So it's, "Children removed from Portsea..."

That's it!

"..on the 11th November." Now... "Fa"?

"Father rented in Bull Inn Court."

Yeah, that that makes sense.

Bull Inn Court, that's where the father,

Barnabas Blessed used to live and he was a bookbinder and a stationer.

-So, of course, they've sent them back to that parish.

-Yes.

Look at this.

Now, 11th of November, that's when they came over, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Yes, but, but extraordinarily, I mean,

their father died on the 8th of November.

And that means three days later they're coming to London

after their father's death.

-Yes, yes.

-Astonishing!

They were really in a hurry to get rid of them, weren't they?

-I think they were, yes, I think...

-It's all about money.

Yes. Yes, it is. Yes.

My goodness.

-That's a picture, isn't it?

-Yes.

Oh. Where do we go from here?

Well, we've got the Day Books for St Martin in the Fields Workhouse,

so we could have a look at that and see if they were received there and

whether they've recorded anything else about them on their arrival.

-Marvellous.

-Yes. Shall we go and have a look at that?

You're a miracle worker, my dear, a miracle worker. Wow!

-Right, yes.

-HE CHUCKLES

Well, this is the Day Book of the St Martin in the Fields Workhouse.

Well, we're looking for the 11th November, 1822.

So, if you just support that side, that might

be a bit of a way through the book.

10th of November... and...

Ah, here we are, on this side here, we've got,

we've got the family up there, can you...?

Yes, I can see, yes, I can see it. My goodness, look at that.

We've got Charles Blessed there,

and we've got Jabez Blessed, 6¾ years of age.

Those are the ages, yes.

And Martha, look, 14 years of age. It's all here.

And look at this.

Elizabeth Blessed was barely two years old.

Yes, 22 months.

22 months. Well, what a find!

Yes, indeed.

So, they're, obviously, admitted into the St Martin's Workhouse

on that day.

It looks as if the children were split up, actually, because it

tells you what ward they were put in and we can see the two boys seem

to have been kept together, they're in, BS, Boys School, then Martha

is put into Ward 10 and Elizabeth, the baby, is put into Ward 8.

-Oh, dear, dear!

-Right.

-It's sad, isn't it?

-It is a sad story, yes.

-It's very sad, but they're surviving.

-Yes, yes, they are.

-Split up but surviving.

-Split up, yes with Charles as their spokesman.

-But the two boys are together.

-Yes.

-So that's a positive thing, yes.

-Yes, yes, it is.

-Look at this.

It says - "Martha Blessed, 14 years of age." What's that?

What's that say? What's that say? What's...?

That says, "an idiot".

An idiot.

Martha described as an...idiot.

I mean, idiot, that's an extraordinary word to use.

What does it mean? What's it mean?

Well, I think that was the word they used to describe what

-we would now call learning difficulties.

-Right.

Um, or special educational needs. Yes.

-And that was the overseer's shorthand for that.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Oh, that's terribly sad, isn't it?

-It is a sad story, yes.

Poor Martha. I mean, I got the impression that Martha,

being 14 years of age, would be in charge of the family

and be responsible for the family, you know.

But it seems actually the reverse.

It looks as if she couldn't and it was probably up to Charles,

of 8½, it was his responsibility to look after,

probably looking after Martha as well.

Yes, I think so.

In 1822, the workhouse was just off Trafalgar Square,

opposite the Parish Church of St Martin in the Fields.

For the Blessed children being admitted would have been

a daunting experience.

It was one of the biggest workhouses in the country,

with over 800 inmates.

The central courtyard was a graveyard packed

full of the workhouse dead.

Little attempt was made to keep families together,

with all inmates segregated by age and gender.

Children lived a highly regimented life.

They were given a basic education and instructed in a trade.

They rarely, if ever, left the building,

except to go to church on Sundays.

Brian has come to St Martin in the Fields Church

to meet Professor David Green, who has more information about what

happened to the Blessed children after they arrived at the workhouse.

I've got a record to show you, but, very sadly, it's a burial register.

Oh, no! Where's that, where's that, where's...?

From 1822.

Where? Ah, there.

Oh, no! Oh, Martha. Martha. Gosh.

But, I mean, what... she died November the 19th.

-I mean, they came here on the 11th.

-That's correct.

And she died eight days later, 14½ years of age!

Oh, how sad...

I mean, obviously the journey killed her.

She may have been sick when she arrived.

I mean, her parents had died

and they were removed very quickly to St Martin in the Fields.

Within three days of the father dying.

Poor Martha, eh.

There were four of them. How, how were the others?

I mean, was there any danger that they could be ill as well or...?

Well, there certainly was.

On the following day, on the 20th, a day after Martha was buried,

there were two Blessed children baptised here,

in this very church - Jabez and Elizabeth.

The baby and, and the six-year-old?

That's right.

The speed with which they were baptised suggest that they

may well have been ill and we've got a little bit more evidence

that that was actually, sadly, the case.

Oh, no! No, David! There's not going to be anybody left.

This is the next page of that very same burial register.

Where?

Oh, no! Little Elizabeth, December 3rd...

-That's right.

-Age - two years of age.

(Oh, that's terrible.)

Oh!

Poor little mite.

What kind of a life - born in Portsmouth

and comes over in a cart and...

That's right.

..and then, you know, probably didn't know where the hell she was,

a little baby and screaming and God knows what, and...

That's right.

..and then she dies. I mean, that's incredibly cruel.

And so the two brothers had, in a short space of time,

lost their parents and lost their sisters.

I mean, I mean, how did they take that on board?

I mean, eight years of age and six.

I mean.

Terrible losses.

I've never come across anything like that in my life.

Awful.

Well, at least Jabez and Charles had each other

but I mean, what happened to them next?

Well, within a week, Jabez was sent off to the Infant Poor House

at Highwood Hill which is to the north of London.

He was sent there?

That's right, with people he didn't know.

Charles remained in the workhouse and Jabez was moved out.

-What kind of traumatic effect did that have on him?

-Yes, yes.

Charles being eight and Jabez being six, incredibly young, isn't it?

I mean, they'd have clung on to each other

-and suddenly Jabez was taken out there.

-Yes.

Lost his parents, lost his sisters,

and now he's separated from his brother.

It was common practice to send pauper children out of London

to infant poorhouses in the countryside where the cleaner

air and water improved their chances of survival.

Jabez Blessed spent three years away.

Then, at the age of nine, he was returned to the workhouse.

But the previous year his brother Charles had been

apprenticed in South London.

It says here that Charles Blessing, aged 11 years,

he's going to be a shoemaker.

So that does mean that when Jabez came back his brother had

gone on this apprenticeship, out of the workhouse?

It does. Jabez comes back to the workhouse

and all of a sudden his brother isn't there any more.

-His brother isn't there. Been looking forward to seeing his brother and he's not there.

-That's right.

Oh, dear.

So, they were isolated from each other which is a great shame.

So, they'd have to be resolute on their own, wouldn't they?

-You know, and facing life on their own.

-Yes.

Jabez was now the sole remaining Blessed child in the workhouse.

For two years the records make no further mention of him.

Then, in 1827, when he was 11, he reappears.

So, there's Jabez Blessed, yes.

What is...? 29th of July, 1827.

That's correct.

It says "run away... when at church with the other boys."

That's right. My God!

-He does a runner!

-He's done a runner.

It looks to me like he came to church, did his prayers,

"Oh, very good." In-between that and here - oing!

-He's gone.

-That's right.

Well, he must have been absolutely sure of himself.

He must have had a plan.

I mean, he knew the area around London, would he, I don't know?

But I mean he's, he's 11 and smart, and resolute, and crafty.

Bloody good going!

He sounds a character, even at that age, doesn't he?

He does, he does.

Jabez is biting.

He's... I'm beginning... I'm really beginning to get very

enthusiastic about him cos he's a lad after of my own heart.

Adventurous. He decides to run off and escape.

He's now going out into the world.

His parents die, so what? So what? He still exists.

"I am here. I am Jabez. I am alive.

"I am well.

"Off I go, faster than a speeding bullet."

He's on his way.

HE HUMS

To find out about the world his great-great-grandfather Jabez

escaped into,

Brian has come a short distance from St Martin in the Fields

to Covent Garden Market to meet historian Alysa Levene.

Very nice to meet you.

-Well, here I am, Alysa, on this quest.

-Uh-huh.

I'm in search of one of my ancestors, Jabez Blessed,

an 11-year-old boy

and he escaped from St Martin in the Fields in 1827.

How would he have survived at that time, around here?

Although we don't know exactly what Jabez did, we thought that,

probably, this was exactly the sort of place that he might have come.

I've got a picture here of the site where we're standing in 1827...

-God!

-..the year that he ran away.

-Gosh! It hasn't changed.

-No.

And, as the picture shows, there's quite a lot of opportunities here

for an enterprising and adventuresome boy.

We've got lots of markets stalls here selling food that he

would, probably, have had to filch to try and keep himself together.

-How could he have earned money?

-Well, he probably would have looked for any little

opportunities to find in a busy area like this,

like holding a gentleman's horse while he went off to

do his errands, or perhaps doing a bit of street entertainment.

I mean, what kind of thing would they be doing?

Well, we know that young boys were involved in gangs doing

things like turning cartwheels in the streets

and doing acrobatics, especially in theatre land, there would have been people leaving the

theatre in the evening with a bit of money in their pockets and boys like Jabez would have run ahead

-of them, turning their cartwheels and asking for a bit of money.

-Extraordinary.

If he was a strong boy, a charismatic boy,

that would have helped him a lot in a place like this.

I mean, the boy intrigues me. I'm dying to know what happened to him.

Well, I do have something else to show you.

-Shall we go and sit down and have a look?

-Great.

When we were thinking about what this boy might have done

we knew that there was a chance that he might have been

picked up by one of the officials, and

so the first place that we looked was back in the Workhouse Register.

And sure enough, on the 10th of August, 1827, we find him

back at the workhouse about 2½ weeks after he first ran away.

Jabez?

-Yeah. There he is back again.

-They caught him?

He certainly ended up back there.

But he actually did end up going off and doing something else.

-Really?

-If we look further along here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-This is a record of his apprenticeship

-Yes.

On the 22nd of August, 1828, he was bound to David Davis

of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the County of Northumberland - Master Mariner.

Master Mariner! Been taken as an apprentice!

Uh-huh.

And we know that this David Davis regularly

came down from Newcastle to London and he was a transporter of coal.

That's amazing! How long did he do that for?

How long was the apprenticeship for?

Unfortunately, there are no marine records to tell us

anything about how long Jabez spent at sea.

It certainly would have been a hard life.

Working on a boat like this would have been dirty and dangerous,

and he's still only 12 years old.

As an apprentice to a Master Mariner, Jabez would probably

have lived on board the coal ship and spent most of his time

at sea, travelling continuously between Newcastle and London.

We then lose sight of Jabez for quite a long time, and the

first time we can track him down in a census is 23 years later in

1851 where he turns up in the market town of Brigg in Lincolnshire.

In Brigg!

Yep, there he is, Jabez Blessed.

-Aged 34.

-Aged 34.

And this is what he's doing.

So he's a glass and china dealer.

A glass and china dealer, from being on ships!

-So he's left the sea behind him.

-Yeah.

-Oh, my God!

-He's had a complete change.

-Well, yes.

-That's not the only change in his circumstances...

No, what...?

..because listed below him we can see his wife.

His wife!

-And she's called Ellen.

-Ellen, his wife.

-Uh-huh. Age 28.

28! And he's got a daughter.

-Uh-huh. A daughter called Harriet.

-Harriet.

And if we turn over the page we can see that Harriet wasn't

-the only child he'd had by then.

-Elizabeth...

Uh-huh.

..William, my dad's name, Emma. So he's got four children in Brigg.

Yep.

-Well, good on him?

-Absolutely.

In fact, he didn't stop there, because we can pick him

up again ten years later in the 1861 Census, still living in Brigg.

So there he is, Jabez Blessed.

Oh, yes, Jabez Blessed, and he's a licensed hawker.

Uh-huh. So, he's still a seller of goods.

All the glasses and china and so forth, and four children, very enterprising.

Well, let's look again at the four children

because he's still living with his wife Ellen...

-Yes.

-..then we have Elizabeth...

-Elizabeth...

-..who's 18, and again, if you turn over the page...

I can't wait! Here we go. No!

Look at this. William Blessed, Emma, Charles...

Uh-huh.

..which, of course, is his brother's name, isn't it?

Anna, Alice, George and another Jabez!

-Uh-huh.

-And Ellen. That's...

-A baby.

-How many's that?

-Ten altogether.

-Ten!

-The oldest must have left home.

Well, he was a randy lad, wasn't he?

SHE CHUCKLES

And a healthy wife. My goodness me!

A runaway boy from the age of 11,

he goes all over the country to Northumberland,

then he goes to Brigg and then he has ten children, gets married.

And he must have been doing reasonably well for himself

because all of the children, apart from the baby, are labelled as being scholars.

-And you had to pay for education.

-Believes in education.

-Yeah.

What a great guy.

His story was so sad, I was almost in tears.

You know, all the people dying and so forth.

I wonder what Brigg is like now.

-It's not very far from where I grew up.

-Maybe you should go and take a look.

I think I should. I think I should go to Brigg.

HE LAUGHS

The journey to Brigg takes Brian back to

within 50 miles of where he was born in South Yorkshire.

Jabez, he's becoming quite a hero to me.

Cos an interesting thing was,

I mean that, of course, he was 12 years of age

and then sent on the coal ships, really tremendously hard work.

But it just wasn't something that was grim. Oh, no.

And you cannot emphasise enough about the sea.

"I long to go to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

"A cry that may not be denied, and all I ask is a tall ship

"and a star to steer her by."

Think of the nights - the stars would shine.

Be still sometimes and then stormy.

Wonderful scenery as well.

So it would have opened his heart up.

So I'm now going to Brigg. I'm really excited about it.

This is where he came.

I mean, it's a tremendous surprise to me that he

should come here as a hawker and get married and have a large family.

I'm intrigued!

-Hello, Ian. Well, well, well.

-Hello, Brian.

Brian has come to ask historian, Ian Packer,

how hard it would have been for Jabez to make his living in Brigg.

I mean, my great-great-grandfather, Jabez Blessed,

he was a china and glass hawker. What would that have involved?

And to be a successful hawker I think the greatest asset you

could have is a charismatic personality,

somebody who's a natural salesman who can draw people in.

Yeah, and would it be a good place to do business?

Yes, it definitely would.

That time when Jabez is here, is just at the moment

when Brigg is really starting to grow and to thrive.

This is the main market town for this area of Lincolnshire.

It's where people come to buy and sell.

Well, Ian, I've got a census here, I mean, with this address on it.

There we are, you hold it with me - there, me ducks.

And I've got there, look,

-Jabez Blessed, there he is.

-Calvin Chapel Yard.

Calvin Chapel Yard, I mean, that's where he lived.

-Does it still exist?

-Yes, it does. Would you like to go and take a look at it?

Marvellous! Wonderful! You're a star!

-Let's go and do that.

-Thank you.

And this, of course, would have been the main street in

19th-century Brigg, as it is now, with the shops on either side.

Pork butcher, as we have here.

And here is Calvin Chapel Yard where your ancestor lived.

-Well, that's marvellous.

-Shall we go and take a look?

-Marvellous. Within, yes, indeed.

-Yes.

-Gosh.

Well, this is atmospheric, isn't it, eh? Amazing.

And this is... These buildings are more or less as they would

have been when your ancestors lived here.

-So, it's not changed much?

-No.

Look at this! Ah, it's amazing.

And this one here is undergoing restoration at the moment,

-so we can go in and take a look if you like.

-Wonderful. Wonderful.

HE HUMS

Oh, well I never!

I mean, if Jabez lived here, I mean, this is akin to me as a child.

This is very like the room we had.

And you had the fireplace here, look,

and you cooked all your stuff in here, and you had your kettle there,

all black-leaded and so forth, but it was a happy way of living.

Ah, memories. But it was this kind of atmosphere.

If Jabez lived in a place like this, it would actually be fine here,

with ten children because little single beds, etc,

double beds, they'd make it work.

Well, actually, Brian, we know from looking at later censuses

that Jabez and his wife finally had 13 children.

-13 children.

-Hm-mm.

-He was... There was nothing wrong with him, was there?

-Certainly not.

He didn't need the purple pill, did he?!

He was a real...a randy lad.

Really, he served his country well.

HE LAUGHS

Marvellous. Terrific.

And it looks like all 13 of those children grew up to be adults.

It's very unusual in the late 19th century.

People thought it was astonishing that all

nine of Queen Victoria's children grew up to be adults.

But the... So for 13 of Jabez's children to grow into adulthood,

-it's quite extraordinary.

-Marvellous!

I'm sick of hearing about, you know, horrible death

and disease from Portsmouth and all that, that they

actually came to Brigg and had good health.

Well, I'm damned.

I feel we've found him.

Jabez - we've found you!

UNDER HIS BREATH: "I know!"

Could you hear that? No, that was him.

But I'm sure we've found him.

You can, I find, you can feel your ancestors.

I can feel him. I can feel them.

I can feel the children.

I can feel the happiness and the health.

And all these chapels and everywhere they were,

they were baptised, it starts to sink into your DNA molecule.

You're not... It's not just looking at something of a dead past,

but a past that is a present and the future, all one,

and you can feel it growing within you.

I feel part of them.

Not just the blood, the somehow...

their very presence.

Obviously a very happy family.

And obviously healthy. Led a healthy life.

Well, it obviously was a very healthy life for the family

because the first death that we know of is actually Jabez's wife

Ellen, who dies in 1875 after 35 years of marriage.

(Gosh, gosh.)

Did Jabez outlive her by much or very much longer?

Well, on that, there's something more I'd like to show you.

I don't believe it. Yes, lead on, lead on!

This is something I thought might interest you.

This is Jabez's

second marriage certificate...

in 1876.

Second?!

After Jabez's first wife died, he married again.

He got married again.

What is it? "Jabez Blessed." Yes.

"When married - August 1st."

Does it give the wife's name?

Yes. Yes, here she is.

It's Sabina Johnson.

Sabina! That's very glamorous. Johnson.

-Of course.

-So he married again.

We can see here he gives

the residence at the time of his marriage as 463 Coldharbour Lane.

Coldharbour Lane? I mean...

It's London.

Yes, as you can see, the Parish of Brixton.

Brixton. What's happened to Brigg? I am totally mystified.

I haven't a clue where I am.

I thought, "This is it. The circle is complete.

"I've been to his room, I've been to the house." You know,

the 13 children, the wife died and heroic man and colourful man,

charisma and all this, that and the other,

-and getting married again and he's in London!

-That's right.

Bloody hell! What's he doing in London?

Well, he may not be living there, he may just be staying there

because we know that Jabez

and his new wife Sabina end up back here in North Lincolnshire.

Oh, God.

And so she lived then, did she? In Brixton, until... No?

The address for her is Winterton in Lincolnshire.

That's about ten miles from here, in Brigg.

Well, that's even more extraordinary.

What possessed them to go and get married down there then?

Well, I've got something here which may give us a clue.

BRIAN CHUCKLES

-What we have here is the census from 1881...

-Yes.

..so it's as closest in date to the marriage,

and as you can see here, this is the register for Coldharbour Lane.

Yes, Coldharbour Lane, yeah.

And this will tell us who the occupier is of 463 Coldharbour Lane.

So, here we go 463...

So, it says - "Barnabas C Blessed..."

Oh-ho...

God. "Shoemaker"!

No!

-No, it's not, it's not his brother?

-Yes.

Well, I'm damned! It's Charles.

-Yes, it is.

-I wondered what had happened to him.

I thought he'd died, I didn't dare inquire.

Well, I'll be damned!

I wouldn't have put any money on that.

So, his brother!

But is that why he goes down there to be married? I mean...

Well, he's certainly staying with his brother at 463 Coldharbour Lane,

and if we look back at the marriage certificate

we can see who is witnessing the marriage -

"Barnabas Charles Blessed" who witnessed the marriage.

The last time I was acquainted with them

they were six and eight years of age, I mean, you know,

they were there in the workhouse, and separated.

I mean, you're talking... This is over 50 years later!

And now they're together again.

How do you think they managed it?

How does the story seem to you? I mean...

It's very difficult to know HOW they got back in contact

with each other or how they kept in contact with each other.

Utterly extraordinary.

We just don't know.

My God!

It's a beautiful, beautiful conclusion.

How romantic.

I mean, just amazing. And brotherly love.

I mean, after all that they suffered as children,

all those separations, this is really a miracle.

I mean, I'm just thinking that, er, their father, you know,

my great-great-great-grandfather Barnabas Blessed,

and his wife, would be so proud of them.

And it's turned out well.

I mean, I wanted to find guts and courage and imagination,

and I've found it.

This is what life's about.

HE EXHALES

(Ah, well...

(There's a George...

(That's it. There you are.)

Ah. Gosh.

"Jabez Blessed.

"Died June 20th, 1890. Aged 73 years of age."

Ah, dear, Jabez.

I was just hoping

and praying that it would end up like this, a successful life.

My God, you lived life, Jabez, you lived it.

A tremendous example. A real Blessed.

I feel a great affinity with you, Jabez.

Same kind of spirit.

I just think he was a great survivor and adventurer.

No coward.

Yeah, reminds me of Emily Bronte's words, Jabez -

"No coward soul is mine,

"No trembler in the earth's storm-troubled sphere;

"I see Heaven's glories shine

"and faith shines equal...

"..arming me...

"..from fear."

HE EXHALES

HE SOBS

I don't think I've ever cried in my life.

SOBBING: I've never cried in my life.

Never cried.

Not even as a baby.

I'm proud of you. I'm proud to have found you.

I had a really great-great-grandfather.