‘From Baker’s Son to a Founder of the Temperance Society’
Caroline Nash-Smith approached Timelock to ask if we would be interested in a journal she was in possession of and had transcribed recording the life of one of her family’s ancestors, William Richard Ryan who lived in Devonport in the 1830s and was a founder member of the Devonport Abstinence Society.
The William Richard Ryan Journal
Caroline’s Blog about her ancestor William Richard Ryan
A journal written by William Richard Ryan, my Great, Great, Great Aunt’s husband, on my mother’s side of the family came into my possession following an unexpected source. I have been researching my family history for a number of years and use a commercial website to record my findings. I received a message from someone who lives in Sussex asking whether I might be interested in a copy of a journal written by William Richard Ryan of Devonport in the 1800’s.
The person who emailed me told me that his neighbour had recently died and had supplemented his pension through dabbling with house clearances and occasional car boot sales. He had apparently amassed a great deal of ‘junk’ that his widow now wanted help in sorting and dispersing of. In amongst this was William’s journal. Initially the offer was of a photocopy, for which I was grateful and on it’s arrival I immediately attempted to read it.. The copying had not been of a high quality and some pages were either too faded or incomplete to make sense of, not to mention the unfamiliar handwriting and writing style, inconsistent spellings and of course unfamiliarity with the social context. Having completed what I could I sent a copy to my contact and the widow as a gesture of thanks and was rewarded by the offer of the original document being given to me, for which I am very grateful.
As I progressed I realised that William was recording a deep and insightful commentary on the social history of the time, with the profound impact of the Wesleyan faith upon his early formative years and latterly as he chose to take The Pledge, having witnessed the effects drunkenness and deaths on his friends and work colleagues.
William, the son of an immigrant from Ireland, escaping from the Irish Rebellion in 1798, lived in his father’s bakery in attended the Sabbath School at the Wesleyan Church on a Sunday and latterly attended a Dames School not far from his house. It appears that his education was basic and in many less that effective settings, as his journal records his opinions of the various failings of the different establishments. During this time he records that explosions at the Naval Yard at the Powder Magazines in Kinterbury, which apparently shook the town to it’s foundations.
Leaving school William firstly worked for a grocer, which he found uninteresting, and then became apprenticed to a cabinet maker for a period of seven years. It was at this time, through a period of intrigue, he became enamoured with my great, great great grandmother’s sister, Ann Gaud, and despite the protestations of his family, he eventually married her, on the day of Queen Victoria’s Coronation, in order to avoid any of the family knowing. It was also during this period in the summer of 1837 that William went to London, hoping to secure employment which would provide for his family. Here he failed to find the work he hoped for but having joined the Temperance Society two years previously, he signed The Pledge.
On returning to Devonport William became a determined agent for challenging the drunkenness he faced around him, and without support from friends, family and his church, he sought to get others to sign the Pledge and to turn their lives from their immoral behaviour to a better way. He details how he faced opposition and even persecution and yet he gradually secured more and more success. One reformed drunkard eventually becoming a key agent for the Temperance Society. </span></span>
William and Ann then moved to London and the remainder of his journal describes the sometimes gruelling conditions he faced whilst working on the Thames, how his family was often separated through ill health and how throughout it all he retains his faith, but is challenged by family relationships in the latter part of his life.
I personally have been fascinated by the impact that William’s faith had not only on him, but also on the wider family. I am a retired Baptist minister, and here I have been reading that my great great great Uncle became one of the first Wesleyan missionaries to Van Demon’s Land (Tasmania) and I have since visited and discovered he became the Methodist circuit superintendent for Sydney and Parramatta, where my daughter currently lives.. I also have enjoyed the insights into the characters he describes, for example of Ann’s fearsome temper when he first knew her, and how she mellowed over time. As a once headteacher I read with interest how the schools of the time were clearly quite fearsome places to be with strict and perhaps not well qualified teachers, and yet quite clearly in spite of his education William has become literate and held posts with considerable responsibility.
What can we learn form this journal? What relevance has it for us today you may ask. One aspect which certainly is well witnessed to within these records is that perseverance and determination has paid off, as has love surviving against all expectations, not only for William and Ann but also for her sister Emma (my Great Great Great Grandmother) and a certain Mr Edward Sinclair Wright, a Taylor of Gravesend, who was considered unsuitable as a husband by Ann and William, as he was a widower and had a dependant child. Needless to say I am glad they won through! I would be amiss if I also didn’t comment on the story of William’s incredible faith throughout his life, to which he attributes his moral character and several snatches from the hands of death.