John Dean Paul, by William Wood
With its elaborate outfit and dark red background, this miniature is a rather a surprise within William Wood’s catalogue.
James Fletcher (1768-1800) by William Wood (& Henry Stubble)
This miniature of James Fletcher (1768-1800) by William Wood is an unusual confection. Certain aspects are in Wood’s style, but the powdered face is notably less expressive than his typical work. The brightly painted lips are also something of a departure.
‘On the ship Dublin, James Ryder Master’ (1777)
The verse letters of John Monk's aunt, Mary Ryder, included the following touching prayer for the safety of her brothers Stephen and John, who captained privateers and merchant ships, often sailing together from Liverpool to London and further afield.
John Monk witnesses the birth of airmail, maybe
I uncovered an array of stories while researching Bonaparte & Brimstone, some of which proved to be just a step too far removed from my subject and had to be discarded.
Headstones scrubbed bare by the centuries
Several generations of the Monk and Matthews families lie under three large, slab headstones opposite the entrance to the church of St Mary and St Helen, Neston. The stones have aged very badly through the years and today reveal very little about those who lie beneath.
The faces of Bonaparte & Brimstone
Portraits of the better-known characters in Bonaparte & Brimstone were easy to locate, but beyond naval captains and aristocracy, unearthing portraits of family members is a long game, involving patience and luck.
Scandal! Charles Monk and the Neston Savings Bank
Set alongside John Monk’s roguish charm, his eldest brother Charles always seemed rather stuffy and uptight to me, unfairly so perhaps. He may not have had John’s exciting stories, but he had a strong sense of civic duty and could regularly be found on committees or supporting local initiatives. Even far into his retirement, Charles remained an influential figure locally.
Kelsick Wood, Georgian shipbuilder, artist, doodler…
I have been fascinated with the pocketbooks and story of Kelsick Wood for some time now. Kelsick was a Georgian shipbuilder in the West Cumberland town of Maryport, who carried a small leather-bound pocketbook with him during the 1820s and 1830s. He filled its pages with the business of his yard: contracts for ships, timber yard stock lists, details of his shipwrights, even a short-lived diary.
John Brown goes to vote
Among the directions in which research for Bonaparte & Brimstone took me, one of the most unexpected was into the murky world of Georgian politics. The book includes the story of a riot in the build-up to the 1820 general election, during which John Monk prevented a candidate from being thrown to his death from Chester’s Old Dee Bridge.
Conclusion to the 1824 Leghorn diary
One of the most intriguing parts of Bonaparte and Brimstone for me has been the 1824 diary kept by a passenger on board John Monk's brig, the William Black. It is rare to uncover a first-hand account of the man you are describing, and it was satisfying to be able to reproduce an unknown primary source.
The Monk window, Neston
The window which John Monk gifted to the church of St Mary and St Helen in 1874 was designed by Henry Holiday, a Pre-Raphaelite artist and one of the leading designers of stained glass in the second half of the 19th century.
