Antiques Roadshow

[Olde Crone]

Anyone else see it tonight and that astounding sampler?

For those who didn't, they produced a sampler made in 1903(?) by an inmate of the lunatic ward in the workhouse. I wasn't paying attention at this point, so don't know which workhouse, but the person who worked the sampler was called Lorina Bulwer.

The sampler was enormous and was an endless furious rant about her situation, interspersed with nasty asides about people she knew. The curator of the museum which owns the sampler said those words guaranteed to make a family history enthusiast get up on their hind legs and start sniffing, i.e. "We don't know anything about Lorina Bulwer".

If anyone is bored.........

OC

[HarrysMum]

She's in the Yarmouth North District Workhouse in 1901.

[HarrysMum]

Looks like she was born about 1839, daughter of William ( a grocer) and Anna, in Beccles Suffolk.

[HarrysMum]

She's a milliner, still at home, unmarried in 1861.

[HarrysMum]

And....she's still at home with her parents in 1871, but has "no profession". can't find 1881 or 1891 at the moment.

Surely that wouldn't have been too hard for the AR lot to find.....lol

I'm not actually bored, just trying to delay starting the day....lol

[HarrysMum]

She's down as Louisa in 1891 still at home with her widowed mother. No mention of occupation for either.

[HarrysMum]

1881, she is with her mother and is a domestic housemaid. Her mother is a cook who takes in lodgers so maybe they run a boarding house.

What a seemingly uninteresting life. I can see she probably learnt to sew as a milliner but what turned her to make the sampler?

How very interesting.

[Phoenix]

Any relation of "It was a dark and stormy night" Bulwer Lytton, I wonder?

Bulwers were a posh family in Norfolk. I have tried (and failed!) to find a connection between them and my humble Bullard/Buller family.

[HarrysMum]

Phoenix....one census was transcribed as BULMER, but had a correction added and 1881 and 1891 she is transcribed as Louisa.

[Olde Crone]

I did wonder if she had some sort of mania because the sampler was absolutely enormous - probably 20 ft long - and she apparently made TWO of them. She must have sewed day and night, poor soul.

The curator said she would have to be careful reading out some bits as they "are quite rude".

I have this picture in my mind of some crafty (clever?) lunatic attendant saying, "there, there dear, why don't you write it all down, or better still, sew it into a sampler, you're a lovely needlewoman" to shut her up!

OC

[HarrysMum]

OC.....I was thinking that. She never married (unless she did and divorced between census, but not likely).

It just goes to show how little the census really tells us of the lives of people. Mind you, anyone looking at any census I have filled in would think we are a nice normal family as well.......lol

[Olde Crone]

I've googled and it seems they do know more than they said on AR - they certainly have the census info and they have her death cert. They say she died in 1917, still in the workhouse, but I think the year is a typo - her death is indexed in 1912.

Someone made the remark that her sampler was the equivalent of a rant on FB today!

OC

[tenterfieldjulie]

My sister and I went to the wonderful patchwork exhibition at the V & A in 2010. It had a wonderful patchwork from a Men's Prison in the UK and it had quite a lot of interesting remarks stitched into some of the squares.. Julie

[Shona]

Didn't see the AR episode, but have had a look at Lorina Bulwer sampler (a letter to a Maharaja?) - I'm flabbergasted. It's astonishing - all capital letters, no punctuation. She rambles - seems delusional at times. Quite a bit of family history, though, but how much is correct? At one point, she claims she is actually royal birth.

I reckon Lorina had some form of schizophrenia and experienced delusional episodes.

Here's a transcription of the Norfolk sampler:

http://frayedtextilesontheedge.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/transcription-of-lorina-bulwer-2004-824-1_2.pdf

[Langley Vale Sue]

My thoughts, after looking for her in the censuses and other records, were that she was put in the institution after her mother died. Maybe she was 'a bit simple' (in words of that era) and wasn't able to look after herself or maybe she was physically disabled.

The National Probate Calendar shows she died 5 March 1912 and was of The Infirmary, Caister Road, Gt Yarmouth. Administration was granted to Edgar Turner Bulwer, a retired woollen draper (her brother?) and her effects were £359.2s.6d.

[Olde Crone]

Apparently all the people she mentions on the sampler do exist, except for a mysterious "doctor" who has apparently done some rude things to her sister!

I don't think she was "simple" I think she had a serious mental illness, perhaps made worse by the menopause? Whatever it was, she must have been an embarrassment to her family if she went around in public saying some of the things she wrote on the sampler!

OC

[Lilly the flower]

I also have been following this thread with interest, and what I find very odd, is she left nearly 35,000 pounds in today money...maybe from her parents...but....just seems odd to me (so much)....also was she really simple??? I think her brother just wanted her out the way...:(..her parents seems to manage OK with her for many years....just seems odd to me...or am I missing something.:confused: anyone read The forgotton seamstress, by Liz Trenow, it could be the same woman (its not) but the story is very similar, in this story all she done...was get pregnant!! baby took away from her and spent nearly all of her life in a institution..she also made a beautiful quilt , which 100 years later it is discovered in it a mysterious message embroidered into its lining, maybe Lorina, wasn't 'mad' and it was the only way she could express herself...also they wouldn't be allow to have needles unless they were reasonable sane...to many questions :(:(...Lilly

[Olde Crone]

I think once her mother died - or maybe before that - if she was ranting in the street she would very quickly have been put away where she couldn't embarrass "decent" people, lol. But there is a whole untold story here, as Libby says.

OC

[Shona]

Read one account which said that it was Lorina's brother Edgar who had her put away because she was incapable of running her own affairs. He died in 1917 and left more than £4,000.

[Olde Crone]

I suppose yet another possibility is Alzheimer's. She produced two of these stupendous samplers in a space of three years, then nothing, which might mark the final decline in her mental powers. I am reminded of how nasty and spiteful my grandmother became when advanced into Alzheimer's - she lost all inhibition but she had a tremendous amount of energy and could rant on for hours on end.

Incidentally, I think that if Lorina had some money she would have paid to be in the asylum. It would only be free for those with no means.

OC

[Lilly the flower]

Its the money that bothers me OC, she had nearly 34,000 pounds (sorry no pound sign ha) her brother dies a few years after her and left nearly half a million, a lot now, how much would you get in these days!!!...hmm fishy this...they could have afford to pay someone to look after her...and again, how did she have so much money, and end up in a work house...as I said before to many questions...:(...Lilly

[Olde Crone]

£360 wasn't a fortune even then and perhaps they had already tried to have someone look after her and it didn't work out. She wasn't actually in the workhouse, she was in the asylum attached to the workhouse which is slightly different. I think it is obvious that she was not "normal" so I don't sense any wrong doing by the brother in having her committed to an asylum.

My grandmother was cared for at home by an army of daughters-in-law and granddaughters for many years. However, once she became violent AND started wandering the streets shouting and carrying on, she HAD to be confined somewhere for her own safety - it was beyond the family at that point to give her the safe care she needed.

OC

[Langley Vale Sue]

Some of you will remember the story of my Great Aunt who, in about 1911 was put in an asylum after she had an epileptic fit shortly after she started menstruating. She was in there for over 50 years until her release in the early 1960s, not even being allowed out to attend either of her parents funerals. Whilst she was in the asylum she worked in the laundry, losing the sight of one eye after a fellow patient flicked a sheet in her eye, and was able to amass quite a sum of money from her 'wages' which was saved for her until she was released. She had very few expenses whilst she was in the asylum, other than personal items, as all her needs were met including uniform type clothing. I realise my aunt's incarceration wasn't at the same time as Lorina's but this may help explain why she had that amount of money to leave in her will.

[vita]

You've probably seen this already, but the "Norfolk Ancestor" site says a talk was given
given about Lorina in 2009 after a member drew up her tree. It says the tree was every bit as fascinating as the talk!
I love the fact that she's got some posthumous fame - she seems to have quite a lot of
enthusiastic fans eg the "Frayed". Textiles on the Edge" group.

[Shona]

Before the NHS, the Workhouse Infirmary was the place where many people - not just those who were poor - went for their healthcare. The infirmary would also look after those with mental health issues.

Having showed Lorina's handiwork to some medically trained chums, they reckon she was a paranoid schizophrenic who had delusional episodes.

Even today, families can find it tough caring for people with schizophrenia, particularly they don't take their medication.

Did someone say she was once a milliner? Would have loved to have seen those hats!

[HarrysMum]

Before the NHS, the Workhouse Infirmary was the place where many people - not just those who were poor - went for their healthcare. The infirmary would also look after those with mental health issues.

Having showed Lorina's handiwork to some medically trained chums, they reckon she was a paranoid schizophrenic who had delusional episodes.

Even today, families can find it tough caring for people with schizophrenia, particularly they don't take their medication.

Did someone say she was once a milliner? Would have loved to have seen those hats!



Yes...she was a milliner in one census. I think we may have seen some hats she inspired.....did you watch William and Kate's wedding?
There were some mighty odd ones there.....lol

[Janet]

Libby, surely you're not suggesting... :d

[HarrysMum]

Janet, I just think if you have unlimited money, you can do better than putting a starfish on your head for a wedding hat.......lol

[Janet]

:d:d:d

[tenterfieldjulie]

Libby .. tut .. I am sure it was a veeeery expensive starfish ..

[Olde Crone]

Do you know, my dear old Auntie Jessie was a milliner and SHE went batty too.(Although very quietly). I wonder if there was something in the felt dyes or something?

OC

[Merry]

Didn't felt hat makers get mercury poisoning?

[Margaret in Burton]

Didn't felt hat makers get mercury poisoning?

Yes, hence the mad hatter in Alice in Wonderland.

[Olde Crone]

Oooh, I must have known that in the back of my mind!

OC

[KiwiChris]

* descended from a long line of hatters*


*Tiptoes out of thread* :o