P is for please may my bill. AtoZ Challenge 2016

Please pay my bill.

 When I was looking for examples of searching techniques for showing how to use Google I searched for Joseph Platt Lofthouse. I had done this many times before but this time I came up with 4 results I had never seen.
They were from the Archives of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.
I had previously found a plan of the 1851 exhibition area that surveyor Joseph Platt Lofthouse had done and been sent a photo of it by the National Library in London.

However these were letters to do with payment for work done. I wrote to the archivist there and asked about visiting the archive when I go to the UK later in the year but she very nicely offered to scan the letters for me and they arrived a few days later along with the new plan. We now had 2 plans prepared by J P Lofthouse. My husband was delighted to see his great grandfather's hand writing and new plan.

The first letter was  dated Nov 3rd 1854 and from Brompton Rd Kensington.  Mr Lofthouse asked for payment of his attached account of £91/11/-  for the work connected with the Acts of Parliament and the Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851   which was for surveying the area for proposed roads between Kensington Gore and Old Brompton Road. 

The next letter he wrote was Aug 24th 1854 from Sandon, Stone Staffordshire. 

"Dear Sir, With thanks I beg to acknowledge the rec^t  of your letter of the 21st. I have not a stamp here but will obtain one and forward same tomorrow. I have the honour to be Dear Sir, your faithful & obedient  J P Lofthouse" My husband's comment on his great grandfather's writing. " Mine is not so bad after all"  J P Lofthouse did not have the best hand writing. A friend's comment was "well he was a surveyor and probably scrawled in the dirt and was not used to writing on paper"  I didn't think that was very nice as he did do very nice plans.

The third letter  October 23 1855 was very interesting because Mr Henry Hunt was questioning the amount to be paid and as you can imagine J P Lofthouse was not happy in the fourth letter.

He sent his letter from Milwich, Stone, Staffordshire on November 26th 1855 expressing "his surprise and annoyance" at having his account being questioned. He went on with much more explanation about his account but I'm not putting it here as it will go on for pages. Mr Hunt wrote again on Nov 30 and reiterated that he thought the bill excessive but Sir W Cubitt should be consulted as to the payment.

 Finally on Dec 6th 1855  the last letter gives the go ahead to pay Mr Lofthouse.

Mr Hunt was visited by Sir W Cubitt who wished the matter settled & thought very highly of Mr Lofthouse and gave his certificate for the payment.

It only took 12 months to pay his bill. He must have been well off or he couldn't have survived for  a year without pay.

The Great Exhibition that Prince Albert initiated had been  a financial success and it was  shifted from Hyde Park to Sydenham in South London.  The Commissioners bought land in Kensington and built the museums-Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum and  Science Museum. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Exhibition

The financial success is still evident today as it is the longest running Royal Commission ever and is still giving out  fellowships. See http://www.royalcommission1851.org.uk/

L is for Lofthouse-Joseph Platt Lofthouse

Joseph Platt Lofthouse  1813-1857

Joseph Platt Lofthouse II 1848-1921

On  5th November 1812 James Lofthouse married Jane Platt in Checkley Staffordshire. At the Checkley parish church on 23rd August 1813 Joseph Platt Lofthouse was christened. He was my husband's great grandfather.
Joseph Platt Lofthouse quickly followed in his father's footsteps as a surveyor. From Gateway to the Past website http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/leisure/archives/collections/OnlineCatalogues/GatewaytothePast/home.aspx it was discovered that he had surveyed large areas of Staffordshire, particularly near Milwich in the 1830's. Copies of the surveys are available at the William Salt Library in Stafford.
After his marriage to Elizabeth Reeves on 9th September 1840 in the Holy Trinity church at Berkswich Staffordshire he continued his surveying. They were blessed with 2 daughters-Elizabeth ( 1842-1857)and Louisa (1844-1868).
His surveying must have been exceptional as he was called to London in the late 1840's to survey the Kensington area for the Great Exhibition of London in 1851. While the family were there Joseph Platt Lofthouse II was born in Lambeth on 9th April 1848.
The plan of estates in the parishes of Kensington and St. Margarets Westminster, in the County of Middlesex. was purchased by Her Majesty's Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851. [1860] which is bound into the volume  Miscellaneous pamphlets : Prince Consort, Woolwich, South Kensington &c. &c. NAL Pressmark: 802.AA.0053. Several years ago a lithograph of the plan was on sale for 600 pounds-way beyond our budget I'm afraid.
Joseph continued surveying in Staffordshire until his death on 30th November 1857. Shortly after, Elizabeth died leaving the children to be under the care of Uncle Thomas Reynolds Lofthouse and Aunt Ann Reeve(Mrs Thomas Reeve)-nee Ann Reeves and the Lofthouse grandparents.
In the 1861 census James Lofthouse was living in Hopton Staffordshire still listed as a surveyor and now had Jane his wife, Louisa and Diana Jane his granddaughters and Joseph Platt his grandson living with him. Also there were 2 servants Ellen Holford and Lorenze Brain and a visitor Harriet Platt aged 29.
James died later that year. So in 1871in the census Jane is widowed but running a farm of 30 acres. Granddaughter Diana Jane and grandsons Joseph Platt Lofthouse and Thomas Clark Lofthouse are living with her. Ellen Holford is listed as a servant still but there is another servant Arthur Fradley aged 11 who looks like he might be from the neighbouring family as they are Fradley's.
Joseph Platt Lofthouse is listed as a civil engineer aged 22. Thomas Clark Lofthouse was the son of Thomas Reynolds Lofthouse,  the other son of James & Jane Lofthouse.
From the 1879 Post Office Directory for Stroud, Gloucestershire  Joseph Platt Lofthouse II was listed as an architect, civil engineer and  surveyor to the Local Board. By 1881 he is living in Landsdown, Stroud, Gloucestershire with his sister Diana Jane, his cousin Thomas Clark Lofthouse and Caroline Synnach, a servant. He is working as a civil engineer and town surveyor.
Now he had to take a trip across the country to Caistor Lincolnshire in 1887 for his marriage to Ellen Josephine Dixon on February 22. Here begins the lies.On the marriage certificate he says he is 34 when he is actually 39 but I guess as Ellen is only 18 he wants to appear younger.
Claude Gilbert Lofthouse joined the family on 14 November 1887.
In 1890 Joseph was fined for not appearing as a juryman. As he was listed as living at 52 Hammersmith Rd, Hammersmith London in the 1891 census I guess he'd left Stroud without telling them he was shifting.
Again in the 1891 census he is creative with his age-39 this time when it should be 43.  Ellen Josephine and 3year old Claude are there and Joseph is working as a civil engineer and surveyor. At the same address we have Ellen Josephine Dixon, his mother-in-law, sisters-in- law Mary aged 14 and Norah aged 3, and brothers-in-law Samuel aged 13, Sidney aged 11 and Lionel aged 8 as they had shifted from Caistor Lincolnshire. Thomas Dixon, Ellen Lofthouse's uncle was also living there.
By 1901 they had shifted to 30 St James Square Kensington London and again he has a creative age of 49(should be 53) and he is an engineer and surveyor. Claude Gilbert is at school and from other records we know it was Merchant Taylors School for boys.
Now in 1911 Joseph Platt gets more creative. He's single, 52(no-he's 63), a civil engineer and boarding with a widow at 6 Albert Terrace, Towcester.
There is no trace of Ellen Lofthouse in the 1911 English census. Family stories have it that she went to Argentina for some time. There are records of her travelling to Buenos Aires in 1914 and on the passenger list it has her as a permanent resident of Argentina. So maybe that was where she was in 1911.
Poor Joseph Platt Lofthouse ended his days in Rowton House 103 St Dunstans Rd Fulham,,Middlesex on July 16 1921. At that time his son Claude was also living in this single men's accommodation.