HORATIO BRIGHT c1828 - 1906

PART 2

Continued from PART 1

"a remarkable figure of his day in the second half of the last (nineteenth) century"

What I did not realise at the time I "found" Horatio living in Spring Hill was that he was 

"a remarkable figure of his day in the second half of the last (nineteenth) century"

"Crookes Revisited" compiled by the Crookes Local History Group

"a man of keen intelligence and masterful disposition.."

Sheffield Daily Telegraph

His father SELIM BRIGHT was a prosperous watchmaker and jeweller who had a shop in Waingate, Sheffield. He married his first wife in 1849. MARY ANN TURTON was the daughter of Thomas B Turton, Master Cutler in 1846 and Mayor of Sheffield in 1850. THOMAS was one of the Turton Brothers - the family firm was called Turton Brothers and Mappin. The firm operated from the former William Greaves and Sons Sheaf Works. Horatio must have worked for his father in law as a traveller but after his marriage he became his business partner in the successful steel manufacturing firm of Turton, Bright and Co. who were based in Cross Smithfield, Sheffield. One of their chief products was the manufacture of high quality dies for The Royal Mint

Undoubtedly Horatio had made the "right" marriage but I'm sure his business career would have flourished without the marriage. He was reputed to be  a hard nosed and dogmatic employer but his employees were paid higher than the average wage at the time. Horatio was Jewish by birth but he renounced Judaism and refused to adhere to any religious creed whatsoever throughout the rest of his life. This dogmatic refusal obviously did not however hurt his career in Sheffield. By 1881 he was living in Lydgate Hall, a far cry from Spring Hill !.

Fortunately there are two marvellous photos of the family and the Hall that have survived.

The first shows Horatio leaving Lydgate Hall in 1885. It was said that one of his more noticeable traits was that he used to travel to Sheffield in the mornings behind black horses and in the afternoons, behind grey horses. The above photo is obviously a family occasion and so he did not bother following his regime. The Hall itself was not large but was lavishly furnished with collections of china, furniture and silver. He also acquired over the years an art collection that was displayed in the house. The house was surrounded by extensive grounds and had substantial stabling for his horses. According to Douglas Lamb, he also purchased Crawshaw Hall near Stannington, and some land at nearby Moscar, which he intended to use as a family burial plot. He built a small mausoleum on the plot and it was here that Horatio's first wife MARY ALICE BRIGHT was laid to rest in the summer of 1891 at the age of 60. (GRO ref Ecclesall Bierlow June quarter 1891 vol 9C page 352). She was joined three months later by their only son  SAMUEL BRIGHT. MARY ALICE was embalmed and placed in a glass sided coffin. The mausoleum was decorated with pictures, statutes and ornaments and fitted with mahogany panelling. He even installed a small hand operated organ so that he could play funeral music to his departed love ones on his frequent visits

According to the press, the deaths affected him badly and when he decided to retire "he virtually let the business go" His trade mark and goodwill were made over to the firm of William Jessop. and Sons Ltd

HORATIO BRIGHT died early in 1906 age 77 (GRO Ref Ecclesall Bierlow March 1906 quarter volume 9C page 2_9). In  his published will, he left £136,220, most of which went to charities associated with London Hospitals but the will stipulated that all Sheffield charities were to be excluded from receiving any monies at all. Why Horatio made this stipulation is unclear but it did arouse a great deal of comment at the time. I have been told that the reason for this was an argument he had with the local hospital board in Sheffield  

Horatio also demanded that his burial was to remain as private as possible with no obituaries and no onlookers at the funeral. And so on the morning of 6th February 1906 Horatio's coffin was taken from the family home at Lydgate Hall by cab to his final resting place. According to "Crookes Revisited" a local reporter from the Sheffield Telegraph learnt of the funeral that was to take place at half past eight in the morning and travelled out to the family mausoleum which had been built at Moscar. It was known as "Moscar Rest." According to the report there was no religious ceremony with the only onlookers being the undertaker and the mausoleum's caretaker. The coffin was placed in the "beautifully decorated" mausoleum  and Horatio was laid to rest alongside his first wife Mary Alice and his son Samuel who died in 1891.

The Scotsman newspaper included the following report in its Wednesday 7th February 1906 edition. This dates the funeral as taking place on Tuesday 6th February 1906

However the GRO indexes reveal that Horatio remarried in the March quarter of 1895 GRO ref Sheffield 1895 volume 9C page 491). His second wife was called CLARA MINNIE (nee HARLE born 1871) and was the 24 year old daughter of a Northumbrian Iron Merchant JOHNSON HARLE. Clara is listed in the 1891 Census as an "actress" lodging with a Police Constable Mallett at 37 Newbury Road, Bromley Kent.

"Mallett, Edwin 31 Devonport, Devon or Devonshire Head  Bromley  Kent - Police Constable
Mallett, Selina 32 Liskeard, Cornwall Wife  Bromley  Kent
Harle, Minnie 20 Sunderland, United Kingdom Boarder  Bromley  Kent -Actress
Miller, Ada 20 Dover, Kent Boarder  Bromley  Kent - - Actress " 

In The Era (London, England), dated Saturday, January 5, 1895; Issue 2937 and under the title "Amusements in Sheffield" there is a review of what is referred to "an annual" or what we would call a pantomime. It lists Minnie Harle as appearing in the cast of Robinson Crusoe at the Theatre Royal in Sheffield. The show received an excellent review from the correspondent but I am left wondering if this is where Horatio first met Minnie. The first reference I can locate for Minnie is in The Era dated Saturday, April 13, 1889; which states that Minnie, then aged 18, appeared in a production of "The Gold Man" an Irish drama by W R Waldron. The play held at the Lecture Hall and Opera House in Chatham, received a "fairly good reception" and Minnie was described as "charming" in her role as Oona.

 Three years after marrying Horatio, Minnie gave birth to a son HORATIO HARLE BRIGHT. HORATIO had become a father again at 70! (update at foot of the page)

After Horatio's death and funeral in 1906, there was a Sale of Paintings owned by Horatio. The Scotsman dated Monday 23rd April 1906 reported

As for Lydgate Hall, the house was left unoccupied for more than twenty years. It was then used as a boarding house, and after that by the Conservative party for meetings of the "Young Britons", a party youth group. And then, like many other fine houses in Sheffield, it was demolished    

And finally a letter in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph in 1933 gives an indication of Horatio in his prime!

The next piece of information I have on the family is from The Times dated Tuesday 1st March 1960 in the section headed "LATEST WILLS". It states

MRS CLARA MINNIE BRIGHT of Bishop's Stortford, Herts, widow of Horatio Bright, left £42,472 gross, £41,807 net (duty paid £10,721) If her daughter Mary be still living at her death in a dwelling house left under the terms of her will, the net proceeds from the sale of the house are left to St Dunstan's. After other bequests, the testatrix left the residue on trust for her daughter Mary for life and then to the Royal Veterinary College, London.

I knew that Horatio had a son by his second marriage but I knew nothing of a daughter. I checked the FreeBMD site and in the September quarter of 1896, there is a registered birth for a MARY ALICE BRIGHT (GRO Ref Ecclesall Bierlow Vol 9C Page 441). I will need to check the 1901 Census to confirm but it seems likely that Mary was named in memory of Horatio's first wife.  The two other interesting thing to note is that there is no mention of a son and so it must be presumed that he predeceased her, and that Clara herself never remarried. She remained a widow for over fifty years.

As for the firm of Thomas Turton, it was closed in 1980 as part of an EEC plan to reduce steel capacity throughout the European Community.

There is rather a sad postscript to Horatio's life or rather death. In 1983 a report in the local newspaper The Sheffield Star brought their readers attention to the plight of the Bright Mausoleum at Moscar Top. In January, grave-robbers had broken in through the half-inch thick steel door and ransacked the coffins. The police investigation focused on robbery as being the motive for the desecration - the bodies interred were believed by the robbers to have valuables on them. The Trustees of the Mausoleum were unable to confirm if anything was taken. In order to prevent similar attacks Sheffield City Council applied to the Home Office to have the remains removed from the Mausoleum but this was refused. Rather ghoulishly further attempts were made at desecrating the bodies inside the Mausoleum resulting in the Home Office reversing their initial refusal. Once permission was granted for exhumation, the Council removed the remains of the family and re-interred them in the local municipal cemetery at Crookes, Sheffield. A simple headstone marks the final resting place of Horatio and his family. Rather ironically, the cemetery is more or less adjacent to where Horatio lived in the last years of his life - Lydgate Hall

A photo was kindly sent to me in December 2006 that sadly shows the degree of desecration that occurred in the Bright Mausoleum. Six months later, in May 2007, I received the following two photographs. They were taken in Crookes Cemetery, Sheffield and show the final resting place of Horatio, his first wife Mary Alice and their only son Sam. It seems rather sad in a way - Horatio had spent both time and a lot of money on the Bright Mausoleum at Moscar, but to no avail. The other rather puzzling point is the last wording on the gravestone

LET NO-ONE ELSE REST REST HERIN

and the lack of any date for Horatio's death. "He went to sleep" seems unfinished to me and the grave certainly gives no indication that Horatio was

"a remarkable figure of his day in the second half of the last (nineteenth) century"

NOTES

• Further information on Horatio's family can be found on

HORATIO BRIGHT's FAMILY - SHEFFIELD and LIVERPOOL

• The Sheffield Local Studies Library has a small number of items relating to Horatio. The Sheffield Spectator for August and October 1966 has an article about his life. The local newspapers carry sketchy reports of his funeral and the details of his will.

Sources

"Crookes Revisited" compiled by the Crookes Local History Group

The Scotsman newspaper  - Wednesday 7th February 1906 - Monday 23rd April 1906

The Times - Tuesday 1st March 1960 

Lest We Forget - Douglas Lamb

The Sheffield Star - January 1983

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This page was last updated on 18/03/08 11:59