When Thomas HARDY met my 3x great grand-father Henry DAVIS a Tale of Two Storeys I don’t know exactly why you feel curious about your ancestors, but what I am personally considering as the most thrilling experience is when the modest story of one of our dear forefathers crosses the path of a famous character and when he is, even by a tiny bit, involved in the History. “Fame at last!” wrote my cousin Hilary Soper a year ago, whom I wish to thank very much for this priceless discovery. Indeed here is the

Henry Davis (1824-1907)

quote my cousin extracted from Thomas Hardy’s ‘Facts’ Notebook1 in which Thomas HARDY tells of his chance encounter with my 3x great-grandfather, Henry DAVIS, on the 22 May 1902: I have done my best to localise the theatre in which Kean played “Octavian,” and have doubtless succeeded. I had the good luck to hunt up Mr. Henry Davis, an old and much respected tradesman of Dorchester, living now with his son, Mr. Charles Davis, in Durngate-street, who was born in High West-street in 1824. He told me that in the rear of the house was a large building which had long before his birth been used as a theatre, but Messrs Curme and Mondey had used it for a lengthy period prior to his birth as a builder’s workshop, after which it became his father’s shop for cabinet-making and is now used by Mr. Godwin as an earthenware store.

And the fact is Thomas Hardy was very passionate about the well-known Georgian actor Edmund KEAN (1787-1833). Even 22 years later, Thomas Hardy wrote2, on the 22 April 1924: My dear Mr Granville Barker: The particulars about Kean have arrived, and I am greatly obliged. They agree with what I have always heard [...] and I feel sure they are true. I have now inked in the title-page of the visitors’ book for Mr Godwin, and no doubt he will get some shillings by exhibiting the place.

Lastly, here are the words of Florence Hardy herself, written in 19303: 50

In June [1902] Hardy was engaged in a correspondence in the pages of the Dorset County Chronicle on Edmund Kean’s connection with Dorchester, which town he visited as a player before he became famous, putting up with his wife and child at an inn called ‘The Little Jockey’ on Glyde-Path Hill (standing in Hardy’s time). His child died whilst here, and was buried in Trinity Churchyard near at hand. The entry in the Register runs as follows : Burials in the Parish of Holy Trinity in Dorchester in the County of Dorset in the year 1813: Name, Howard, son of Edmund and Mary Kean. Abode, Residing at Glyde Path Hill in this Parish. When buried, Nov. 24. Age 4. By whom the Ceremony was performed, Henry John Richman.

Davis’s premises c1860 (the building on the corner)

The interesting point is also to notice that Henry DAVIS’s father, William Davis (1796-1886), was a cabinetmaker, and that he had got his workshop and dwelling at this very 10 High West-street, where is now located the café The Horse with the Red Umbrella. So let’s talk about the history of the building now. There is a letter4 written by A M BROADLEY of The Knapp on 1 March 1912 which reads: 2.- Writing in 1830 Henry Lee speaks (Vol. II p. 141) of “the theatre near the Antelope Inn Yard.” This was doubtless the first theatre built in 1792 for Lee by Mr. Curme, sen., on the Trinity-street site, now occupied by Mr. Godwin’s china shop. This, in all human probability, was the theatre in which Edmund Kean played before his engagement at Drury Lane. The exterior of the existing structure bears a strong resemblance to that of the old Theatre in Orchard-street, Bath, and other 18th century houses. 3.- The third theatre erected for Lee, by Mr. Henning, “on his own land,” and which only lasted two years, “as the owner needed the site for his own purposes,” was that erected in North-square and afterwards occupied by the Salvation Army. 4.- Then comes the theatre built for Lee by Mr Curme, jun., in 1828, and opened on Monday, February 25th, of that year by Mr. Lee.

Hence we can induce that the 10, West High-street ceased to be a theatre at the latest in 1825, Florence Hardy adding in her memoirs: The Greenwood Tree Vol. 39 No.2 May 2014

The following week (June 1902) Hardy sent a supplementary note […] there are still dwellers in Dorchester who have heard persons speak of seeing plays in the older theatre about 1821 or 1822...’

The fact is that in the Dorset land taxes, we find John CURME Dorchester Holy Trinity as early as 1823, and that he baptized a son in 1828, ‘abode High West Street’. So John Curme’s business went on for 20 years when5: NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership lately subsisting between us the undersigned, John Acres Curme and Edward Mondey, as Surveyors, Builders, Cabinet Makers, Furnishing Ironmongers, and Upholsterers, at Dorchester, in the county of Dorset, was this day dissolved by mutual consent : As witness our hands this 7th day of February 1844.

And the same year 1844 in Pigot’s Directory are given the name of the former trader and of the new one: CARPENTERS & BUILDERS as well as IRONMONGERS: CURME & Munday, High West St CABINET MAKERS AND UPHOLSTERERS: DAVIS, William, High West St.

As a matter of fact, John Acres CURME, Upholsterer, High West Street, had been qualified to serve on Juries in Dorchester Holy Trinity from 1825 to 1843. William DAVIS was apprentice in his younger days to his uncle-in-law Laurence ELFORD, a joiner. William established himself firstly in Shire Hall Lane, Holy Trinity, about 1820, until moving to High East Street, All Saints, between 1839 and 1841. William was at 10 High Weststreet by 1844, and among the men qualified to serve on Juries as well, listed as a cabinet maker in High West Street, from 1846 to 1862. He appears regularly in that abode: in the census of 1851, in Slater’s Directory 1852/3, in the census of 1861 and in the Harrods’ Directory 1865. However, the Dorset County Chronicle, from Thursday 21 Jan 1864 to Thursday 18 Feb 1864 announced: DORCHESTER. TO BE LET, and entered on at Lady Day, all that commodious DWELLING HOUSE and SHOP. extensive STORES and PREMISES, situate in High Weststreet, Dorchester, now in the occupation of Mr. William Davis, Cabinet Maker, Upholsterer, &c. For particulars apply to Mr. Henry Bascombe, Southstreet.’

A later advertisement in September 1864, reported ‘Mr. Davis, […] is quitting his residence’ and ‘Mr. Davis having been in the trade for a great number of years’. William Davis’s successor appeared in Harrods’ Directory 1865 further along the street: ‘Godwin Eliza, glass, china, & earthenware dealer, 59, High West street’. Prior to Eliza GODWIN’s move The Dorset County Chronicle (2 February 1865) announced: ASSEMBLY ROOMS, TOWN HALL, DORCHESTER. By the kind permission of the Worshipful the Mayor [...] HIGHWEST-STREET, DORCHESTER. E GODWIN begs to announce that she is now SELLING OFF her STOCK of CHINA, GLASS, &c, at greatly REDUCED PRICES, previous to Removal...’ The Greenwood Tree Vol. 39 No.2 May 2014

Thus the Godwin family took possession of those premises in the following months of 1865, and the china trade lasted there until 1907. Let us remark how tiny was the chance that Thomas Hardy and Henry Davis met on this very day, 22 May 1902. Henry had just lost his wife, Mary Ann (née WOODFORD), on the previous 27 January whilst living at 14 Victoria Road in the parish of Pokesdown St James, Bournemouth. Amazing, isn’t it? So the picture which shows Henry Davis about the time he encountered Thomas Hardy by sheer accident was likely taken between 1902 and 1907 by Thomas GRIGG, photographer at Dorchester. Henry died, aged 82, on the 28 January 1907 of ‘bronchitis after 7 days of exhaustion’. After William Davis (1796-1886) and his son Henry (1824-1907) came grandsons Walter (1846-1887) and Charles (1849-1925) and, last of the dynasty, greatgrandson Walter Henry Davis (1889-1938). In Kelly’s Directory (1920), it reads: ‘Davis & Son (established 1812), cabinet makers; builders & decorators; high-class cabinet work carried out on the premises by skilled craftsmen with the aid of modern machinery, 47 High East-street.’ A hundred years of cabinet-makers in Dorchester. According to Edith Ann Keats PEARCE (1881-1964) in her husband’s life at https://familysearch.org/photos/stories/1438050 Mr. [Charles] Davis was the best cabinet maker in town. He was disliked by the other workman, but had all of the choice work to do

Is there anybody nowadays who still owns any furniture made by one of them? Any contribution (photo, picture, drawing, writing or anything else) related to my Davis dynasty in Dorchester would be very much welcome. Thank you. Arnaud C. Aurejac-Davis 1776 route de Cayrac F82800 Bioule, France [email protected] Picture of High West Street in 1860 from the collection of Major John Warry, courtesy of Dorset County Museum 1

Thomas Hardy’s ‘Facts’ Notebook, edited by William Greenslade, 2004, p328

2

The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy: 1920-1925, volume 6, by Richard Little Purdy & Michael Millgate, Clarendon, 1979, p248

3

The Life of Thomas Hardy, Thomas & Florence Hardy, 2007, p324

4

Thomas Hardy’s ‘Facts’ Notebook op sit, p330

5

The London Gazette, 9 Feb 1844, 20315, p446

Davis’s premises today: The Horse with the Red Umbrella

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