James Beale – Kent Trad: songs sung in Kent

James Beale, 1836-1918.

James Beale was Cecil Sharp’s most important find when he made his visit to the Hamstreet area on 22^nd and 23^rd September 1908, providing eight songs for the collector.

Interviewed in 1983, his grandson Charles Beale said that, according to family tradition, James had been a “caravan-dweller” until settling at Hamstreet. This may well have been the case, although there’s nothing in the official records to confirm it.

The family came from Sussex. James’ father Thomas was baptised at Barcombe on 3^rd May 1801. He was probably the “Thomas Beal” who married Hannah Saunders at Heathfield, Sussex in 1827; she died and was buried at Heathfield in October 1832. He was certainly a widower when he married Elizabeth Welfare – 21 years his junior – in her home town of Wivelsfield, on 14^th November 1840.

James was baptised at Wivelsfield on 4^th April 1841. A couple of months later, at the time of the 1841 census, the family was living at Cains Wood, Wivelsfield. James had one older brother, two older sisters, and two step-sisters. His father’s occupation was given as “Railway Lab”. There are two other men given this occupation on the same sheet of the census. Almost certainly these men were employed in the construction of the first railway line from London to Brighton, which was completed in September 1841, and ran close to Wivelsfield.

By 1851 the family had fallen on hard times: James and his parents were residing in Chailey Union House – i.e. the workhouse – at Ringmer. They were described as “Pauper ag lab”, “Pauper ag lab wife”, and “Union house child pauper”. Elizabeth Beale died in 1855, but it appears that Thomas may have survived until 1882 – still “Ag lab pauper”, and residing in the East Chiltington Workhouse.

The next record we have for James, however, is his marriage to 18-year old Charlotte Hall at St Mary the Virgin, Orlestone, on 28^th July 1860. The groom, his father, and the bride’s father are all described as labourers. At the time of the 1861 census they were living at Ham Street – address not specified. Ten years later they’re still in Ham Street, and now have 6 children under 10 years of age: William, Charles, Febee, Sarah, Alice, and Henry. James had been listed as agricultural labourer in 1861, but now appears to described as “Fruiterer” (the census enumerator’s handwriting is far from clear).

Still listed as a labourer, and living in Ham Street in 1881, James now has another two children, Sarah Ann and James. Two more would follow before the 1891 census, Thomas and Frederick. In 1901 the family’s address is given as Ruckinge Road, Ham Street, and James’ occupation is listed as “Wood Dealer Timber D (Own account)”. Two years later, the 1903 Kelly’s Directory of Kent lists him as “poulterer”. In truth, he probably turned his hand to a variety of work to earn some cash. Indeed, when taken to court in 1889 by Robert Relf, a coachbuilder from Ashford – presumably to settle unpaid debts – he was described as “higgler, Hamstreet”¹ (a higgler is “An itinerant dealer; esp. a carrier or a huckster who buys up poultry and dairy produce, and supplies in exchange petty commodities from the shops in town” – Oxford English Dictionary).

James’ wife Charlotte died in 1905. At the next census, in 1911, now aged 70, he was living with his son Henry at Cyprus House, Ham Street. Both James and Henry are listed as “General dealer”. He died later that year, and was buried at St Mary the Virgin, Orlestone on 17^th October 1911.

Cecil Sharp collected three songs from James’ daughter Alice Harden on 11^th October 1911. We don’t know the circumstances of this visit, but it must have very nearly coincided with James’ death, and this may well explain why Alice had come to Ham Street from her home at Tonge, near Sittingbourne.

In the 1950s, Peter Kennedy and Maud Karpeles, consciously following in Cecil Sharp’s footsteps, recorded a number of songs from James’ son Albert Beale.

Songs

The bold fisherman (Roud 291)
Cold blow and a rainy night (Roud 135)
The Keys of Heaven (Roud 573)
The moon shines bright (Roud 702)
No John, no (Roud 146)
Sons of Levi (Roud 2430)
Stroll away the morning dew (The Baffled Knight) (Roud 11)
The Woodman’s Daughter (Roud 1277)

Kent County Examiner and Ashford Chronicle 22 November 1889 ↩︎