Itinerant photographer J. Evans

I purchased this carte de visite on eBay a couple of years ago, not just because of the interesting subject of three men about to scythe some hay, but also because I thought it might have been an example of the work of Derbyshire studio photographer Joshua Evans of Bradwell.


I'd be interested to hear from any readers who can deduce any insights from this photograph. For example, are there any clues to where it was taken? Are the clothing styles typical of a particular part of the country or era? Perhaps the scythes are of a special design? The three men are all holding their scythes and the files used to sharpen them; their trousers are rolled up, and they are clearly ready for action, and it appears that the first sweep of hay has already been cut behind them. I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with English farming practices or geography to infer a great deal more.


The design on the reverse of the card mount includes a paint palette and brushes, similar to a positively identified cdv by Joshua Evans (see previous blog post about William Bocking of Bradwell). However, there is no location shown, and the name of the photographer is merely given as "J. Evans" which is not conclusive evidence. The writing at the base provides the only clue that I can find suggesting this was not Joshua. It states, "Negatives not kept more than 7 days after delivery," which is a strong indication that J. Evans was a travelling photographer, as they did not have the space in their caravans to carry large collections of glass negative plates. The text can be compared with Joshua Evans's cdvs, which states, "Copies of this portrait can always be had." Although in the event, Joshua Evans did not last very long in the photographic business, he had clearly intended to stay put for a while.

Using Cabinet Cards for Self-Promotion

Carte de visites and, to a lesser extent, cabinet cards were also ocasionally used as a means of a more personal type of advertisement. My friend Tippie from Hampton, New Hampshire very kindly sent me this wonderful cabinet card which was in a small collection put together some years ago by her late father Louis DuBois, a keen amateur photographer.

The photo shows a moustached man, apparently a preacher, with his wife and two sons, in front of a blackboard, on which is written the "good word" that he is preparing to spread. The reverse reveals an even more extraordinary example of self promotion:

TO THE PUBLIC

I find that, wherever I go, there is a certain class of men disposing of my photograph. Were the prices not so exorbitant and the picture a poor copy, I should not object. But since my friends are so imposed upon, I have had this picture taken, and will dispose of it for FIVE CENTS, or for less, or for nothing; and will continue to issue them as God gives me funds.

Arthur A. Waite
Whose highest ambition is to be
THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND

NOTICE

I furnish these pictures to Rev. Mr. Waite for five and one-third cents each, by the thousands.

H.J. REED, Photographer,
406 Main Street, Worcester, Mass.

I couldn't really believe Arthur Waite's claim that other people were distributing photographs of him, let alone selling them, so I wondered whether this was a rather blatant form of solicitation for the purposes of preaching God's word, or perhaps a complete confidence trick. Was he really a "Reverend"? And what on earth was a "children's friend"? I spent some time doing background research on Waite, and discovered that he did leave paper trail.

Arthur A. Waite was born around September 1849 in St Louis, Missouri, son of a portrait painter and Justice of the Peace, Liberty Waite and his second wife Mary Ann née McKeen. He married Hellen A. Flagg in that city in June 1868, and their first son Arthur C. was born in April the following spring. Between then and 1873, when a second son Henry was born, they moved to Tennessee, and then again to New York before December 1897, when a daughter Minnie was born. The 1880 Census shows Arthur living with wife and three children at 20 Independent, Newburyport, Essex County, Massachusetts, and described himself as a preacher. I've been unable to find them in the 1870 Census, and by 1900 Arthur had died, leaving his widow and elder son living at 871 Western Avenue, Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts. Nor have I found any documentary evidence of his proselytizing.

It appears that the two boys in the photograph were probably his sons Arthur and Henry. If so, then the photo was probably taken c. 1877-1878. The photographer H.J. Reed operated from studios at various loations in Worcester, Massachusetts from the 1860s at least until around the turn of the century. Does anyone else have any ideas about this photo and how to find out more about the subjects?

The Derby Local Studies Library's Portrait Collection

Apologies for the hiatus in Photo-Sleuth postings, which has been partly due to a long awaited family holiday to England. During this trip, I managed to fit in a visit to the Derby Local Studies Library (LSL), just off Irongate.

A few years ago, not long after I started compiling the Index to Derbyshire Photographers & Studios as an online resource for local and family historians, I received an email from noted Derbyshire historian, and ex-chief archivist at the Derby Local Studies Library, Maxwell Craven. He told me of the existence of a large collection of old portrait photographs held by the library, guessing that it would be of great interest to me in my studies of early Derby portrait studios. This collection is currently being digitised by the library, and will be made available online on the Picture The Past web site. However while at the library recently, I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to look through several hundred portrait photos.

The visit was kindly set up for me by Jane James, who is the Derby LSL's part-time family history researcher, and with whom I had communicated previously on other matters. She confirmed the existence of the portrait collection, and spoke with the Senior Librarian Trish Kenny about the nature of my web site. I was informed that the Derby LSL wishes to encourage such projects, creating resources for the use of the general public, and to this end would permit me to scan a selection of the photographs for reproduction on the web site. Trish and the other two library staff members, Mark Bowyer and Fiona Nevin, were very helpful, and I managed to come away a few hours later with detailed scans of several dozen cartes de visite, cabinet cards and portraits of other formats stored handily on a USB drive. I'm grateful to all of them, both for the opportunity and for the assistance. I hope I can do them justice.

Over the last few weeks, I've been steadily going through these scans, compiling them into the portfolios of photographers on the web site. Some of them are already online, for example in the profiles of James Brennen, John Burton & Sons, Richard Keene, J.W. Price, Clement Rogers and W.E. Swift. However, I thought I'd also preview some of the more interesting portraits in a series of postings here.


W.W. Winter's Midland road, Derby studio in the mid-1870s ...
A large proportion of them are from the Derby studio of W.W. Winter, which is still going. My brother and I walked past the premises several times recently, as it is only a short walk from the Derby railway station in Midland road.


... and the same building now, largely unchanged.
I will admit to being a little disappointed in the relative dearth of examples by other early (1860s) Derby photographers, of whom there were many, but this was more than made up by the fact that almost all of the portraits in the collection have the subjects named, and many are also dated. They portray men - and occasionally their wives - who were prominent members of the Victorian Derby community, including textile manufacturers, brass founders, engineers, mayors, magistrates, aldermen, a vaccination officer, clergymen, policemen, legal practitioners, a newspaper proprietor, innkeepers, bank managers, volunteer militia officers, stationers, printers, railway clerks, landowners, chemists, farmers and maltsters. I have thus been able to make some valuable additions to the portfolios of several studios. In fact, I've had to revamp the W.W. Winter profile, resulting in a complete revision of the classification and dating of the various card types. This part of the project is not yet complete, but I hope to have it finished and uploaded early in the New Year.

Cabinet Cards - superior portraits from "High Art" photographers

The next style of photograph to be introduced for popular consumption after the carte de visite was the cabinet card. They were substantially larger than the cdv, and were clearly aimed at the upper end of the market. Although the format - a 4"x5½" photographic albumen print mounted on 4¼"x6½" card stock - was originally introduced in 1863, it was not until the mid-1870s that it became popular; this trend reached its peak between the early 1880s and the late-1890s.


One advantage of the larger format was that it enabled more detailed portraits to be produced, such as this fine vignetted head-and shoulders presentation of a young man. It was taken at the studio of W.M. Phillips in the port town of Southampton (60 Oxford Street), probably in the late 1880s, and I presume that the subject is wearing the uniform and cap of the merchant navy.


The larger area also made the task of producing less cluttered, more relaxed group portraits a great deal easier. This nicely arranged family group, probably consisting of a father with his three sons, was taken at the studio of the Burton Brothers of Dunedin, on the South Island of New Zealand.

Alfred and Walter Burton were sons of John Burton, who had started a photographic studio in the town of Leicester (England) in the late 1850s. After working with their father in England, and helping to open and run several branch studios in Birmingham, Nottingham and Derby in the early 1860s, they emigrated to New Zealand in the late 1860s. Here they developed a renowned partnership which lasted for a decade, before they split due to personal differences and went their separate ways. Alfred Burton travelled over much of New Zealand, taking magnificent landscape photographs (see below), while Walter Burton concentrated on portrait photography in Dunedin.


The Sutherland Falls Expedition. A survey party and two photographic teams at Milford Sound, New Zealand. October 1888. Taken by Burton Bros. of Dunedin. Courtesy of David Simkin.
The following advert by John Burton & Sons appeared in the Derby Mercury newspaper dated 15 May 1867 (kindly sent to me by Clyde Dissington, courtesy of The Magic Attic).


It draws attention to the cabinet portrait as "the New and Favouritre style" and as

"... the most pleasing style that has been introduced in Photography for some years. The increased size of this Portrait over the Carte de Visite offers facilities for rendering more fully the characteristics of the sitter; and it is well suited for framing, while it is equally adapted for an album."

References/Further Reading
Cabinet Card at Wikipedia
The Burton Brothers, by Tai Awatea/Knowledge Net from Te Papa Online
Burton Bros. A Portfolio of 11 South Island, New Zealand Views from the 1870s and 1880s, from PhotoForum

Working at the big house

Following a previous posting which dealt, in part, with the uniforms worn by domestic servants in Victorian and Edwardian times, I recently came aross the following two cabinet cards. The first shows a fairly standard group portrait of half a dozen domestic servants, taken outdoors against an ivy coloured wall.


The photographer does not appear to have been particularly skilled, as little care was taken with the group's arrangement, and the bright whites of the maids' pinnies have resulted in a rather washed out appearance in the photo. The second photo of the pair is rather more interesting, as each of the young women, seated in a slightly different order, now carries the various tools of their trade.


They are, from left to right, a pestle and mortar,


... a watering can,


... a cooking pot,


... a salver, possibly with a note on,


... sewing,


... and another watering can.


These serve to illustrate a range of household duties, from growing vegetables in the kitchen garden to preparing and cooking food, running errands for the master and madam around the house, and mending clothes. There appears to be only slight variation in the uniforms worn, and this may have more to do with their age than their individual duties. The girl in the centre holding a pot, who appears to be younger than the others, has a light coloured dress, while the others' dresses are all dark.


The stamp on the reverse of the cabinet card, shown above, identifies the photographer as Samuel Whitbread of West Street in Havant, a small town in Hampshire, not far from Portsmouth. Although originally a baker, Whitbread turned his hand to photography in the late 1880s. The family lived in West Street, but moved to 20 South street prior to April 1891, suggesting a latest date for this sitting of early 1891.

The sleeves of the womens' dresses are also appropriate for between 1889 and 1891, with the first appearance of the fashionable puffed sleeves so characteristic of the 1890s being worn by the younger women,


... while the older woman, seated at front left in the lower photo, has the rounded-shoulder sleeves more fashionable in the 1880s.



If it was taken c. 1890-1891, this was possibly taken during the early part of Whitbread's photographic career, which would explain the amateurish poses and exposure. He remained in business for at least another decade, so presumably he did get better at his job.

The chances of identifying any of the female servants in the photo, or the location at which it was taken, are slim. However, it may be worth noting that the 1891 Census shows one of Whitbread's daughters - Laura Alice, aged 19 - working as a cook, presumably for a wealthy resident in the town of Havant, and it is remotely possible that she is one of those pictured.

Henry Lawless of Exeter - a portrait of a portrait

Old photos were frequently copied long after the original portrait had been taken, often subsequent to the death of the subject, and I have come across many examples in the compilation of my Derbyshire Photographers & Photographic Studios collection. However, sometimes the memory of a departed family member was celebrated in a slightly different fashion.

A style not often encountered, this "portait of a portrait" was sent to me recently by Angela Johnson. The cabinet card probably shows her great-great-grandfather Henry Lawless (1826-1877), an Exeter wine merchant, churchwarden and town councillor. She writes:

"It has been suggested that the photo was taken of a portrait after his death....of course, it may not be him ... I have tried to make out what the bits and pieces are by blowing up the picture, but it just isn't quite clear enough to decipher the titles of the books etc. - the folded bit of paper looks like a cartoon about the Town Council."

The photographer William S. Sugden died at Brighton in 1880, so this portrait must have been produced before then. William Sugden was in partnership with Edward Williams at 88 High Street, Exeter briefly between April 1877 and February 1878. However, in March 1878 the two went their separate ways. Scott (1985) shows them both with premises in March 1878 - Sugden at 88 Queen Street, and Williams at 241 High Street, Exeter - but no later listings in that town.

This photo is a rather unusual one, and I believe it must have been taken after the death of the subject. The arrangement of the framed portrait on the writing desk with the books, ink well, quill pen, lamp and loose papers was meant to portray his life and work, and the distinguished person that he was. His clothing looks tailored to me - you don't often see people this well-dressed in photographs from the 1870s. The portrait style, card mount design and known dates for Sugden's studio operation in Exeter, confirms a date of between 1877 and 1880. I suspect that it was taken shortly after his death, either in 1877 or 1878.

The clothing style suggests to me that the original portrait, which appears to have been enlarged considerably from the size of a standard studio portrait, was taken not long before the presumed subject's death in 1877. All of the items placed on the desk are likely to have had some significance, if only we could work out what it was.

I would be interested to hear from any other viewers who have come across studio portraits such as this one, not just copied from older photos, but incorporating the older photograph, in a separate frame, with carefully selected and arranged accessories to embellish the portrait and give an impression of his importance.

References:
History, Gazetteer & Directory of Devon (1878-79), Historical Directories from the University of Leicester
Photographers in Devon 1842-1939 : a brief directory for photograph collectors, by C.G. Scott, 1985, The PhotoHistorian Supplement No. 101, ISSN 0957-0209

Thomas Gallimore, maltster & brewer of Ashbourne

This photo, sent to me by Jo Bevan, was among a small collection of photographs possibly acquired in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, and including several early CDVs by photographers (George Edgar, Robert Bull & Louis Twells) in that town.

The carte de visite mount is clearly marked, "Copied by Winter Derby" and is similar to others by W.W. Winter taken and/or copied at the Midland Road studio in the late 1870s and early 1880s. However, the man's clothing, his pose, and the portrait style suggest that the photograph was originally taken much earlier, perhaps in the early to mid-1860s.

The inscription on the sack clearly stands for "Gallimore, Ashbourne." Thomas Gallimore (1820-1874) was a maltster, brewer and publican, proprietor of the Old Red Lion Inn in the Market Place, Ashbourne. At the time of the 1861 Census, George Edgar was lodging next door to Gallimore at the Red Lion. In fact, he was the only photographer working in Ashbourne at this time, and it seems likely that he was the original photographer who took this portrait. It also seems highly probably that the subject is Thomas Gallimore himself, holding a sack of barley (or perhaps hops), used in the brewing and malting process.

This photo is a good example where the studio name is a red herring with respect to finding out where it was taken. In this case, it is fortunate that a knowledge of the provenance of the photo, in conjunction with a detailed examination of the subject and "studio accessories," reveal enough clues to discover not only the original location, but also to provide a likely identity for the subject.

It is also a nice illustration of how accessories were often used by portrait artists, as they often styled themselves, to convey an image, in this case of an industrious, down-to-earth middle-aged man, proud of the business that he had built up over some twenty years. If it was indeed taken in the early 1860s, then it would have been quite a novelty for someone of moderate means in this small Derbyshire market town. Although photography had already been existence for over two decades, the high price of daguerreotypes and ambrotypes had largely limited their availability to the more wealthy clientele. Only with the widespread introduction of the carte de visite in 1860 had it become affordable to a wider proportion of the population.

Early pictures of working folk, or at least ordinary people in their working clothes, were fairly uncommon. There were some photographers who took a special interest in documenting the lives or workers, but these generally tended to be of domestic staff, mine and factory workers and other employees. Portraits or self-employed people in their working clothes were rather unusual in the 1860s, so this image is particular interesting from that point of view.

Coming to America

Photographs are often used to tell a story. Good examples of this may be found in some of the photographs sent by emigrants to their kin back home in the old country. They wanted not only to be remembered by and keep in touch with their families, but also to share their new lives with their parents, siblings, cousins etc. Perhaps they were even trying to convince them of the good life, and persuade them to join them in their adventure.


Kimberly Carlton sent me this photo by Seaman & Sons of Chesterfield and asked: "I purchased this photo at a garage sale in the Kansas City, Missouri area, so I don't know the subjects. The back has some faint pencil writing that I think says "Frank Wood". It looks to be around the turn of the century, but not sure. Did this photographer ever work in the USA or is this pic from the UK? And why wouldn't these people be standing next to each other, I thought that was strange how spread out they were?"

I believe, by comparing the style of the mount with others produced by this studio, that the photograph was produced at around the turn of the century, as Kim has suggested. The shape of the house looks to me to be more suited to North America than late Victorian Derbyshire. I have no evidence that any members of the extensive Seaman family spent any time in North America, and have seen no other examples of photographs taken by them outside England. I wonder if perhaps the photograph was originally taken somewhere in North America, sent to relatives back home in Derbyshire, and subsequently copied by Seaman & Sons? From the shape of the sleeves of the dresses worn by the women, I think it likely that the photograph was originally taken in the 1890s.

The more I think about it, the less I can imagine this building being in Derbyshire, England, and the more convinced I am that it is located somewhere in North America, perhaps not far from Kansas City, Missouri where Kim rescued it from a garage sale. The style of photo, with the people spread out like that, although not as common as more formal studio portraits, could, I believe, have been intended by the photographer to give more of an impression of the lifestyle of the recently arrived immigrant family to their kinfolk back home in England.

Although the subjects are nominally the four people, in the usual stiff, unsmiling poses common to both indoor studio portraits and outdoor poses of the era, the photographic artist, as he would no doubt have styled himself, is trying to convey a much "bigger picture". The saw and horse, pile of freshly sawn logs, wagon or cart pulled by pair of large horses harnessed to a wagon, waiting in the yard, the rough wooden fences in the background, perhaps enclosing the yard or an orchard, and last but not least the large, solid, two-storey house, are perhaps employed to tell a story to their relatives at home - one of hard work and just reward for their efforts, and a picture of their new life in a new land.

Judging by the lack of leaves on the trees I guess this is late autumn or winter. Is that a smudge towards the top of the photo, or perhaps smoke coming out of the chimney? A fire in the hearth would not be out of place at that time of the year. I note that there are no young children shown in the photo. The man with a beard, wearing strong shoes, a wide-brimmed hat and long coat, marked above and below with two Xs, is obviously the primary subject, and presumably man of the house. The woman with a long dress standing behind him, and slightly to his right, is probably his wife The female at the extreme left appears to be a young woman - her dress is shorter, which suggests to me that she is perhaps in her teens. Perhaps she is a daughter. The younger man with a smaller hat and shorter jacket, holding the reins may be part of the family, but he could well be an employee on the farm.

This brings to mind the story of my own gg-grandfather, Henry Payne (1842-1907), who took his wife Henrietta and children to start a new life in America in 1880. First Henry and his 13-year-old eldest son Charles Vincent (my great-grandfather) sailed from Liverpool to Philadelphia on board the S.S. British Crown, arriving on American soil on 2 March [see my transcript of the Passenger List].


The S.S. British Crown of the American Line in 1881, by Antonio Jacobsen (1850 - 1921)


Passenger List for the S.S. British Crown of the American Line, arriving at the Port of Philadelphia on 2 March 1880
According to my gg-uncle Hallam, they "took up" a farm at Bladensburg, about four miles north-west of Washington D.C. They must have moved fast to find the farm and get the crops planted by late April or early May, although the census on 7 June shows a farm labourer Thomas Cash boarding with them, and he may well have helped, driving the wagon just as the man in Kim's photo.


1880 Census entry for Henry & Charles V. Payne at Columbia Road (Bladensburg), Washington D.C.
Henrietta had given birth to their fourth son Fred at St. James' Road in Normanton (Derbyshire, England) in December the previous year, and probably waited in Derby for Fred to get a little older, and for word from Henry, before setting out to join them. They left Liverpool in late June, they arrived at the Port of Baltimore - via Norfolk and Halifax - on 7 July aboard the SS Hibernian [see my transcript of the Passenger List], and must have joined Henry and Charlie at the farm shortly after.


The S.S. Hibernian of the Allan Line


Passenger List for the S.S. Hibernian of the Allan Line, arriving at the Port of Baltimore on 7 July 1880 (NB. "Allan" written incorrectly for "Hallam")
Even after the rigours of an Atlantic crossing, they do not seem to have had much time for rest and recuperation. Only two days after their arrival, Hallam fell out of "the buggy" and broke his right arm, resulting in a "four or five week stay in hospital in Washington." In the meantime, Charlie was attacked by two "niggers" (Hallam's words, not mine) on his way back from Washington. Of far greater importance, however, was the fact that the climate did not agree with Henrietta's health. They returned to England soon after Hallam's recovery, "leaving all the crops in the fields", and the UK census shows them again running the family grocery at 38 St. James' Road in Normanton by 3 April 1881.


April 1880 Census entry for Henry & Henrietta C. Payne and family at 38 St James' Road, Normanton, Derby
The trip seems to have been a disaster, and Henry apparently gave up any ideas of leaving England again. It did not, however, put off their children. Hallam, Charles Vincent and Frank, together with CV's young bride Amy, made short-lived forays to Chicago in the early 1890s [1890-1892: Chicago, Pullman & the World's Fair]. My grandfather Leslie Payne was born during this stay in Chicago, and himself returned to North America when he was a young man, spending a few years before and after the First World War in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.


Henry & Henrietta Payne in Derbyshire, England, 1898
To get back to Kim's photo, it is evocative of the experiences of many thousands of English families, and of course those from all over Europe, who arrived in America in great numbers in the latter part of the nineteeth century and built new lives for themselves. Since we only have Uncle Hallam's brief words and the rather impersonal and matter-of-fact census & passenger list entries to hint of their experiences, we must resort to our imaginations to fill in the gaps and flesh out the story a little. I can pretend for a moment or two, perhaps, that this is my own family making their way in a new land ...

Mending Day in Arboretum Square

The post card format for photographs was introduced around the turn of the century, and was particularly popular before, during and after the Great War, although it continued in common use until the 1940s. Kevin Rhodes sent me this post card portrait of his relative Frances Rankin (at right) seated with an unidentified friend in a garden. Both are dressed in what appear to be maids' uniforms, and seated next to a table with a sewing basket and other sewing paraphernalia.

Kevin asked "Did the photographers go out to private houses and take alfresco pictures like this? And would they bother with the servants? It seems so by the evidence but I am surprised. I don’t know if the address on the Postcard fits to the picture."

My first task was to estimate a date for the photograph. It is unfortunate that the stamp has been ripped off, and that the postmark is largely obliterated. There is enough of the latter still visible to confirm that it was indeed posted in Derby, and the remnant of the stamp still stuck to the card is, I believe, enough to identify it as one of two King George VI green half-penny definitive stamps issued in 1911 and 1912. They were replaced by another issue later in 1912, suggesting that, if my identification is correct, the card may have been posted in 1911-1912 or shortly after.

The clothes worn by Frances and her companion appear to be appropriate for that approximate period. It's perhaps worth illustrating the development of domestic uniforms over the decades, from the 1880s until the 1940s, with the following selection of images from my own collection and from others on the web. Hover your mouse over an image for the approximate date, click on it to see the original source.

I found an interesting discussion of the lives of Victorian domestic servants on Peter Ward's web pages. Housemaids appear to have had slightly different uniforms from other house servants, such as the housekeeper, ladies' maids, cooks, kitchen maids and scullery maids.

The reverse of the post card shows that it was produced by the studio of Pollard Graham, who operated a studio in Derby for several decades from the mid-1880s until the 1930s.

I checked the 1912 issue of Kelly's Trade Directory for Derbyshire, probably compiled in late 1911, and discovered that the occupant of 5 Arboretum Square, Derby - the home address given by Frances - was none other than the photographer Pollard Graham himself! I think this deals directly with your question about whether photographers would normally have gone to private residences to take portraits of servants. The answer is, it probably depended on the circumstances.

I have a photograph of my great-grandparents and my grandfather (shown above), taken in about 1894 by a Derby studio photographer (in spite of the card mount stating Leeds!), almost certainly in their garden in St James' Street, Normanton. However, they could perhaps afford it. The Arboretum Square photo may well have been done for free by Pollard Graham for his employees. A nice gesture. We'll have to wait a few years until the 1911 Census is released, but when it is, we may well find this confirms that Frances and her friend were working for Pollard Graham. Perhaps we may also be able to identify her companion.

Joseph Roper (1791-1868), Plasterer of Chesterfield

Joseph Roper was born at Brampton, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire in 1791, son of Joseph Roper senior and his wife Sarah. In 1814, he married Anne Heath at St Peter's Church, Old Brampton, and when a son George was baptised there on 1 March 1815, Joseph described himself as a plasterer, living at Ashgate (a hamlet near Brampton). Anne presumably died shortly afterwards because Joseph was remarried at Chesterfield on 4 January 1820 to Anne Heald (1796-); again he described himself as plasterer. Joseph & Anne went on to have another three daughters (Anne, Emma, Elizabeth) and three sons (Wlliam, Charles, Henry/Harry) between then and 1839. The family are shown living at White Horse Yard, West Bars, Chesterfield in the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses, and Joseph continued working as a plasterer. He died at the age of 77 at Chesterfield (Regn. Dist.) in the June quarter of 1868.

More detailed biographical and professional notes for photographer Samuel Whiting have been provided elsewhere, but he operated a studio in Chesterfield from at least 1868 until the 1880s. The earliest premises recorded were in Vicar Lane, and it seems likely that Whiting took this portrait of Joseph Roper shortly before the latter's death, possibly between 1866 and 1868.

I purchased this carte de visite on eBay, my interest having been aroused by the fact that it was the only example I had then seen by the itinerant photographer and travelling fairground showman Samuel Whiting, and because the subject was identified on the reverse. However, I subsequently discovered that fellow DerbysGen lister Liz Newbery is descended from Joseph Roper's sister Anne Roper (1796-1872), who married Richard Kirk (1795-1867), Chesterfield's crier. I'm grateful to Liz for sharing her research material, and know that she's enjoying the detailed image of this photo that I sent her. I'd be happy to do the same for any other family members who'd like to get in touch.