Figure 1.--Here we have a portrait of Edward Robinson, the pastor's younger grandson in his cricket whites. The trousers would have been flannels. Note the modern-looking school (or club) tie and the belt. Our HBC reader tells us, "This portrait would have probably been taken about 1881. He appears to be 12 or 13 years old though this image is not named or dated but I have guessed at the age and date from other photos of him from 1878-1880 which ARE dated. The buckle appears to be worthy of mention too - it looks like it is an old bearded sailor or farmer."

There is a long and amazing story which will result in you getting some SUPERB unique and very rare shots in a LONG series of late 1870s-1880s Middle Class family in South-East England next year. To cut it VERY short... I won an old album for $10 on eBay from the US and when it arrived I could not believe what I saw. HUNDREDS of EXCELLENT unique amateur photos of the family of a country pastor, with about 1/3 of the shots featuring his sons (aged about 9-13 and 13-17 respectively) and their friends, largely full-length with excellent detail on the clothing. Well, earlier this year I visited the village where they were taken and saw the house they were taken at, spent the day with the current pastor and saw the church window that was dedicated to the pastor himself. The album was taken to the Kent County Archives (as the photos and album are beginning to disintigrate and have a shelf life of about another decade before the primitive glue destroys them forever) who have digitally scanned and photographed every shot for their archives and in a few weeks I will have a CD of them all and will send to you one by one. I really am confident this will make up an excellent series of pages.

Pastor

The patriarch of the family (it was actually the eldest son who owned the album) was the pastor for the village and he has a memorial stained-glass window in the local church. Thus the family photographb album is a wonderful glimse into the life of a country pastor.

The Family

The Robinsons were a substantial middle-class family. The photographs in the album or not a collection offormal studio portraits. Actually within the limits of the photography of the day, These photographs disprove the popular image of an austere and loveless Victorian family life. The photograhs were taken by the eldest son of the Reverend Robinson. He and his wife had two sons and threee older daughters. The photographs suggest a tightly-knit, affectionate family. The family appears to have remained close to family patriarch--the Rev. Robinson.

Chronology

The Robinson family photographs were taken during the 1870s-80s. Some of the portraits are dated. Others can be roughly dated by assessing the boys' ages. This era is interesting to fashion historiuans. Some of the images show the boys wearing clothes that look quite modern, in fact garments that are still worn today. Other photographs show the boys wearing fashions that look decidely Victorian.

Location

The family was located lived in Kent, the county in southeastern England. The family lived at Chart Sutton Vicarage (near Staplehurst). Chart Sutton is a small village about four miles SE of Maidstone, which is the administrative centre for the County of Kent. Our reader writes, "Well, earlier this year I visited the village where they were taken and saw the house they were taken at, spent the day with the current pastor and saw the church window that was dedicated to the pastor himself." It is known the Robinsons moved from Chart Sutton before the death of the Rev Robinson but research has been unable to uncover what became of the family afterwards. The HBC contributor who now owns this album contacted the current Vicar in August 2004 and in September visited the village. Most of the buildings in the album were exactly as they looked over a century ago. A journey was also made to the old Vicarage, which has hardly changed at all, and the present owner was able to see the images for herself.

Individual Family Members

The patriarch of the Robinson family was the Rev. Thomas Robinson (died 30th June 1895). He was the Vicar of the Parish for 25 years and, it appears, an important Freemason. He now has a memorial window dedicated to his memory in the village church. A local account survives on a time when the Rev Robinson was Governor of the village school. He was apparently a figure of fear amongst the children and it is known he did dispense corporal punishment and suspend some children for wrong-doing (though this is, of course, nothing harsh for the times). Many of the images are titled and we can clearly make out there were two boys in the family: the elder brother, William, and the younger brother Edward. They are the pastors grandchildren. The photographs show the boys at about age 9-13 and 13-17 respectively). There was a large extended family resident at the Vicarage - up to 11 people in what appears to at one time be four generations. The entire family will be featured on a later page.

Family Friends

An interesting aspect of the album is that the portraits are not just of the family. Also included are friends of the boys and the family. Some of these individuals are identified. Others are not. Thus we have some of the boys' friends. Some are presumably school friends, but here we have few details. Given social conventions atr the time it is likely that after they went away to school that most of their friends would hsve been school friends.

Photographic Album

Victorian families loved to collect photographs and other memorabilia of all sorts and to create albums and scrapbooks. These were kept in the family parlor and brought out to entertain guests. The Robinson family was no exception. The family album contains HUNDREDS of EXCELLENT unique amateur photos of the family of a country pastor. About 1/3 of the shots featuring his sons and their friends. They are largely full-length with excellent detail on the clothing. The album was taken to the Kent County Archives (as the photos and album are beginning to disintigrate and have a shelf life of about another decade before the primitive glue destroys them forever) who have digitally scanned and photographed every shot for their archives. The album is elaborately leather-bound but the contents are highly fragile and falling apart; virtually every page has come away from the binding and the actual paper pages themselves are disintegrating. The album consists of 140 sepia-tinted albumen prints of various sizes - all glued into place. The album book is inscribed 'William C H Robinson, from Aunt Esther, Jan 12th 1879'. It seems fitting this new set of pages should be launched on the eve of the 126th anniversary! William was the eldest grandson, who appears to be about 15 years old at the time he received this book. It is probable this gift was his birthday present.

Amateur Photography

The photographs were taken by a very talented amateur photographer - of the Robinson family. Most photographs of this period are studio portraits. Amateur photography like these are rather rare. The very rich could afford them, but it was less common for a middle class family. Not only was it expensive, but it was much more complicated than modern photography. Cameras were bulky. Film speeds were still slow. There was no roll film. Thus processing was a major undertaking.

Clothing

There are 35 images of the Robinson family, friends and environs in this album are wonderful rare and clear examples of what boys were wearing in the affluent upper-middle-classes in England at the time. This collection is also of benefit to us as so many of the images are full-length, when most images of this period are simply head and shoulder portrait shots. The boys mostly appears in formal outfits like suits, showing the formality of the day in clothing. They always wear long pants, although by the 1870s shortened lrength pants like kneepants and knickers were becoming increasingly popular for younger boys. We also see the boys in sporting gear for cricket, important as many popular boys' styles developed from English cricket.

Activities

One especially interesting aspect of the Robinson family collection here is that it provides glimses of boys' and family activities during the late 19th century. Now film speeds did not permit action photography. Some activities like chess which were more commonly done inside have been brought outside in the sunshine to make photographs without flash possible. Still we have fascinating climses of different activities. Clearly cricket was popular for the boys, although we do not know if a school or village sport is involved. The bulky cameras and equipment of the day may have prevented the phoographer from actually taking photographs at the boys' schools.

Sources

Huchinson, Philip. E-mail message, January 12, 2005. Philip would be interested in discussing these images with interested readers.

Created: 06:09 AM 1/12/2005
Last updated: 3:53 AM 1/21/2005