Sarah Ann Dobbs: The Extraordinary Life of a Victorian Lady told by her Autograph Album

By Christiane Lindner

The book "Sarah Ann Dobbs" describes the extraordinary life of a Victorian lady told by her autograph Album. Over 150 years old, the autograph Album of Sarah Dobbs containing beautifully handwritten poems, dating from 1862 to 1871, is a remarkable and fascinating document of the Victorian age. By steamship it made its way from Wales, UK, to the USA around 1868 as its owner Sarah Dobbs immigrated as one of the early pioneers to Kansas, USA. This book contains all Album entries, for better reading they were transcribed and where possible identified. The author also added a genealogy research, underlined by newspaper articles which were all transcribed, of Sarah Dobbs, her family and the family of her husband Henry Poolly Cooper. Before their immigration to the USA both of them lived in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK. Sarah Dobbs as innkeeper daughter of the White Hart Inn, Beaufort Square, Chepstow, Wales, UK.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: Jun 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9783751947527

Christiane Lindner

Christiane Lindner, holds a master`s degree in biology and a Ph.D. in molecular biology. After purchasing the autograph Album of Sarah Dobbs she is now publishing her very first book as an author. She lives in Germany with her family.

Book preview

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Introduction

My journey into the past started on 13th July 2018, the day I purchased from internet an autograph Album. The Album was offered by a seller located at Upper East Side, Manhattan, United States of America (USA), with the words: Victorian Wales 1862 handwritten Album Sarah Dobbs Chepstow Wales.

After some weeks, the Album was delivered in Germany, the country I live.

I was astonished about the excellent condition of the Album taking into account its age of around 150 years and so I decided to write a book about this unique and exceptional Album and her owner Sarah Dobbs.

This book is divided into three parts:

Part I

Description of the Album itself and a genealogy research of Sarah Dobbs` s family and the family of her husband, underlined by newspaper articles. As the scans of the newspaper articles were sometimes difficult to read, they were all transcribed for better reading.

Part II

Scans of the Albumen prints, lace papers and pencil paintings of the Album

Part III

Scans of each Album page, all poems were transcribed and where possible identified.

I want to thank my two children Thorben and Melissa and my husband Andreas for their patience and for sharing ideas which supported the creation of this book so well. Furthermore, a big Thank you to all people who supported my research by sharing information which made this research project amazingly interesting.

Last year I even had the pleasure to travel to Chepstow, Wales, United Kingdom, and the visit of Sarah`s home town strengthened my vision of writing this book.

Sofar not all questions could be answered, so if you have corrections and / or any additions to the content of this book, please feel free to send an email to my account: [e-mail]. Your feedback is appreciated!

So, please enjoy reading!

Dear reader,

you might have already noticed that I`m not a native English speaker. Therefore, kindly apologise for any English language or grammar mistake in my writing, they are caused solely by myself.

PART I

Description of the Album of Sarah Dobbs

Description of the Album as purchased:

Autograph Album with Albumen prints and beautiful calligraphy penmanship.

Hardcover, brown leather over-board, missing the spine.

66 pages, size: approximately 9 inches (230mm) by 7 ¼ inches (185mm), majority of pages are white, but there are a few coloured pages (brown, pink, turquoise, grey and dark blue) and embossed papers, all pages with gilt edge.

The decorative stamping on the front and back cover forms a border (stamp publisher ROCK. & Co London).

The stamped image on both the front and back cover is gilded and is the same image. The front and back cover displays the word ALBUM which is gilded, too.

The very first page of the Album shows a hand coloured engraving of a richly decorated vase with two pigeons and various kind of flowers (please refer to enlarged image in book part II), no artist named.

The Album is without any stationer`s label on the inside of either the front or back cover, no publisher is mentioned.

First dated entry: 22 Jan 1862, last dated entry: 11 Feb 1871.

During internet research I became aware that similar Albums were published and sold by John C. Riker (publisher, author, printer) in New York, USA, from around 1827 to 1859. He published at 129 Fulton Street, New York, between 1844 and 1855. John C. Riker died in 1865.

Example of a John C. Riker–Album The Dream that belonged originally to Jane B. Alden, Vermount, USA, with first dated entry in 1847:

As the Album of Sarah Dobbs was missing the spine I decided to give it to a master bookbinder to restore the spine in order to save the Album for the future. As working copy for my research I scanned each page of the Album to use it like a photobook. In this way there was no need to touch the original Album too often.

I put the original in an acid free box.

The Watermark: R TURNER CHAFFORD MILLS

How can it be proved that the Album is an original?

On 5 pages of the Album I found the watermark R TURNER CHAFFORD MILLS (Figure 1 and 2)

Figure 1: Watermark

Figure 2: Watermark

This finding proves that it is an original Album.

Based on the watermark image the paper of the Album dates from the 1850s. At this time paper was made by hand, sheet by sheet, on a pair of moulds. The paper was made on both moulds as the tail of the R in Chafford within the watermark image is different on figure 1 and 2. It is known that watermarks on pairs of moulds were rarely identical.

The Chafford Mill was located at Fordcombe on the river Medway in Kent, England, United Kingdom (UK), and had a 160 years history until it was demolished in the early twentieth century. Only the mill owner´s house has survived.

On 17th September 1834 the Mill owner Mrs Turner was visited by Princess Victoria and her mother the Duchess of Kent.

The paper was of such excellent quality that even the famous English author Jane Austen wrote some letters in 1810 / 1813 on paper with watermark W Turner & Son Chafford Mill Penshurst Kent.

William Turner was the father of Richard and George William Turner. He died in 1828 and his two sons took over the mill. In 1830 Richard Turner continued the business in Chafford and his brother George William in Bermondsey in the country of Surrey, England, UK. This marked the end of their partnership.

The Chafford Mill is also known for producing base papers for photography in the 1850s and 60s.

Lace Paper stamp marked KERSHAW & SON

Next to the pages containing the watermark images, there are two lace papers stamp marked KERSHAW&SON in the Album.

Lace paper

George Kershaw, a publisher and manufacturing stationer, was active in the mid of the 19th century from 1840 to around 1860 based in London, England, UK. His business was the creation of fine papers (including lace paper), valentine cards, pictorial headed notepaper and comic seaside notepaper.

Stamp marked ROCK & CO. LONDON

The frontpage, backpage and several pages of the Album contain different kind of stamps marked ROCK.&.CO. LONDON, ROCK. LONDO, ROCK Co or without any publisher name. ROCK & CO, the London publishers, were founded by William Frederick Rock (born 1801- died 1890) who was a British publisher and philanthropist.

The Fern

Within the Album I found a part of a dried leaf which was laid loose at the end of the Album. It turned out that the part of leaf belongs to the bracken fern (Latin called Pteridium aquilinum) which is a widely distributed fern and can be found throughout the world in tropical and also in temperate regions.

Part of the bracken fern

Who was Sarah Dobbs?

As time passed the Album put me more and more into its spell. I wanted to know more about the owner Sarah Dobbs who was also called Sarah Ann, her life and the people who had written into her Album.

Who was Sarah Dobbs?

Who was her mother and her father, which occupation did they have?

Did she have brothers and sisters?

Did she really live