PRESIDENT - 1850 - 1852 David Badham
Born: 1784 at Bulmer Essex.
Married: 12 10 1802 at Bulmer to Rebecca Pung.
Died: 20 11 1865 at Bulmer.
Born: 1784 at Bulmer Essex.
Married: 12 10 1802 at Bulmer to Rebecca Pung.
Died: 20 11 1865 at Bulmer.
Rebecca Pung: Born 1775 at Bulmer, daughter of Thomas Pung. Died 24 4 1826 at Bulmer.
Family of two sons and three daughters:
George David b 17 5 1807.
Charles b 28 7 1814 Later to be Vicar of All Saints Sudbury.
Mary b 29 6 1809 Died aged 16.
Eliza b 15 8 1816.
Alice b 28 2 1819.
1841 Census David described as Independent.
1851 Census David was a Magistrate.
1861 Census David was the Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Essex.
David never remarried.
There were always two house servants employed.
Alice stayed with her father until his death in 1865.
1881 Alice was still single and living in Lemington Priors, Warwickshire.
PRESIDENT - 1852 - 1858 Rev Edward Bull
Born: 1805 son of Rev Edward Bull.
Married: Bachelor.
Died: 1871.
Rector of Pentlow Essex 1834 to his death in 1871.
Took over as Rector from his father, another Edward Bull, in 1834.
Civic duties.
1864 was the chairman of the Sudbury Union (workhouse)
now Walnutree Hospital.
A Justice of the Peace.
A farmer.
Little is recorded of work done for the Institute before his Presidency or afterwards.
He had built the local famed Bull Tower at Pentlow seen for many miles, high on the horizon like a giant chimney. Built to the memory of his parents. Owned today by Paul Fennick an Institute member.
PRESIDENT - 1858 - 1876 Rev Edwin Sidney
Born: 19 3 1815 s/o Michael and Louisa nee Scott Born in Gloucestershire.
Married: Eliza ? Born 1795 in Shropshire.
Died: 29 10 1872 Lt Cornard.
His last recorded Church register entry was a burial five weeks earlier,
Rector of Lt Cornard 1847-1872
A friend of Farraday, well versed of the science of the day. Did talks on scientific subjects. In 1849 while as Rector at Lt Cornard he wrote a treatise on “Philosophy of Food and Nutrition in Plants and Animals”.
Had a very keen interest in magic lanterns in the 1860s, and did many magic lantern shows at the Mechanics and Literary Institute and the Town Hall. Many were for the children. His shows were at the front edge of this new technology and could do simple movements when all of his slides were of painted glass. A man of very wide ranging ideas, from his faith as a clergyman, to the views of the new Darwin era on the survival of the species and how animals and plants use food and nutrients to sustain growth. Nationally known as an authority on geology and how the landscape had been formed by the ice ages.
PRESIDENT - 1877 James St George Burke
Born: 20 12 1804 Lisbon Portugal. British Embassy Recorded birth.
s/o John French Burke and Catherine Sarah nee Thorne.
Married: 3 12 1835 Anne Eliza Grubbe (b 1807 d/o John Grubbe d 16 11 1855).
Died: 25 2 1881 London.
Family five daughters and eight sons. The sons that survived infancy went onto Military and Legal careers.
Practicing solicitor in 1831.
Admitted to the Middle Temple as a barrister. made a Queens Council in 1863 (QC).
Purchased the Aubries. Bulmer in 1857 as his home.
Burke Family Married into the Barnardiston Family:
The above family connection Barnardiston and Burke is in some measure inevitable as they were neighbours. The Reys and the Auberies are very close together.
James St George Burke’s father in law was one John Grubbe. I have found no connection with this John Grubbe and the Joseph Grubbe, who loaned the £200 interest free when the Mechanics Institute built their first premises in 1841 at 36 Market Hill. Another Grubb family member appears as the bride to William D King, one Susanna Grubb.
It was Susanna’s mother Hannah who was the first honorary female member of the Mechanics Institute. Although Susanna was born in Ireland, she does not confirm as a native Irish. In these times English families enjoyed privilege in administering the governance of law, politics and commerce. After doing their “stint” they returned home.
James St George Burke was not mentioned in Clubs day to day working. Most of the Presidents were figure heads.
PRESIDENT - 1878 - 1916 Colonel Nathaniel Barnardiston
Born: 24 4 1832 s/o Nathaniel Clark Barnardiston and Sophia.
Married: 11 12 1858 Lady Florence Legge ( b 3 8 1838 d/o Sir William and Lady Frances
Legge. Lewisham Kent. d 27 3 1917 The Reys Lt Henny)
Died: March 1916.
Army career, retired a colonel.
Father of Major General Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston.
An absentee President In the Army:
1878 - 1880 A Captain.
1881 - 1886 A Major.
1887 - 1889 Leave or temporarily resigned from the Army.
1890 - 1892 A Major .
1893 - 1916 A Colonel Most likely retired as a Major but enjoyed the retired rank of a Colonel on his 60th birthday in 1892.
PRESIDENT - 1916 - 1919 Major General Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston
Born: 20 11 1858 s/o Nathaniel and Lady Florence nee Lady Florence Legge daughter of the Fourth Earl of Dartmouth. Grandson ee of Nathaniel Clark Barnardiston.
Married: Sarah Floyd-Jones, 28 6 1892 at Massapegua, Nassua, New York
(b 18 9 1857 d/o David & Mary nee Stanton at Massapegua).
(d The Ryes Lt Henny).
Died: 19 8 1919 At Felixstowe.
Educated at Merton College Oxford Lived at The Ryes Lt Henny Extensive military career see enclosed material. An absentee President. Very old Suffolk family. A village named after them Nr Haverhill. See the previous family History of the Barnardistons. Attached is The Major Generals Military career.
Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston was an English soldier. He was born in 1858 and died in 1919. Educated at Merton College, Oxford, he entered the army in 1878 joining the 77th Regiment and later the Middlesex Regiment, afterwards serving as a staff officer from 1894 to 1901. He fought in the South African War from 1901 until 1902. From 1902 until 1906 he was military attache at The Hague and from 1906 until 1910 was assistant commandant. From 1910 until 1914 he was assistant director of military training at the War Office. On the outbreak of the War he was in command of the small British contingent from Wei-hei-Wei that co-operated in the capture of Tsingtao.
PRESIDENT - 1919 - 1932 Mr Alfred F Hitchcock
Born: 3 3 1839 son of William and Eliza. Bapt at All Sts Sudbury.
One of eight children.
Married: about 1860 to Emma Lived in Hospitalers Yard (now the Boat House yard).
Died: 14 4 1932 aged 93.
Alfred was Baptised at All Sts Church. Could not find his marriage as it may have been a Chapel wedding.
His funeral at the Congregational Trinity Chapel would indicate that Alfred followed his wife Emma’s church.
As a young man was employed as a sawyer as his father was.
Lived in New Street when he and his wife Emma started their family
Later had his own business as a coal and timber merchant.
Lived at 43 Station Rd Sudbury. Family of five daughters and two sons. From his membership Alfred was very much involved with the Institute Club covering over sixty years. Was a very generous man and the first to support any fund raising or help in material ways in time of materials needed. His coal supplies to the Institute were always heavily discounted. His business carried on down through his sons.
Civic duties: Justice of the Peace 1916- 1929. At his funeral which was held at the Congregational Trinity Chapel there were a large number of mourners from many sections of the community. Many trades people, customers, the police, the magistrates panel, Borough councillors. Officers and members of the Institute Club. Other clubs and organisations he had been engaged with over his very long life were all represented.
PRESIDENT - 1932 - 1936 Mrs Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston
Wife of the Late Major General Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston of the Ryes Lt Henny.
Born: Sarah Hall Floyd-Jones, on 18 9 1857, Massapegua, Nassau, New York.
Daughter of David Richard and Mary Louisa, nee Stanton.
Married: Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston on 28 6 1892 at Massapegua, Nassua, New York.
Died: -
In 1937 Mrs Barnardiston, as the senior member of the Barnardiston family celebrated a memorial service at Kedington Church which was the manorial family home in fifteenth century.
Listed as Mrs N Barnardiston The Reyes Lt Henny in the trade directories.
President for four years aged 75 to 78. The minute books for these years 1922 to 1951 are missing. The Presidency is confirmed in Mr ST Hyde’s History of the Mechanics Institute to the Institute Club written in 1984 for the 150th Anniversary of the Institute Club.
Full details of the Barnardiston family difficult to trace as they were a military family and were abroad a great deal.
PRESIDENT 1936 - 1943 Mr Harold Deane
Born: 1879 s/o James and Julia Clapham London.
Father James a Pharmaceutical Chemist Marr 1910 Georgina Elizabeth Freeborn d/o John and Julia Born Walthamstow 1882.
Died: -
1901 A student analytical Chemist.
1911 Works chemist for Stafford Allen at Long Melford.
1911 Private address St Olaves Priory Road Sudbury.
Private Resident 1916 -1943.
Later lived at Inward House Melford Road.
Trained as an analytical Chemist (A chemist for Stafford Allen at Long Melford Stafford Allens main office were near at Finsbury/ Clapham)
Involved with the Institute Club as a committee man and later as President.
PRESIDENT 1943 -1953 Mr Benjamin W Barr
Born 1882 s/o Benjamin A Barr b 1857 and Eliza A b 1858 nee Hibbs
(marr 1876-1881 WivenhoeMarr Maude Elizabeth Higley 1910 (b 1881 Bristol).
Died -
Son Brian aged 6 months in 1911. Parents in the inshore fishing industry. As a young man was a fisherman’s assistant (1901)
1911 census Listed as a civil servant. The Trade directories 1912 Was now a junior Customs and Excise Officer in the weights and measures section, having responsibilities for the Sudbury area Trade directories. Benjamin was the senior Inspector of weights and measures, Customs and Excise 66 Friars Street. In 1916. At 12 Friars Street in 1929 Later the office moved to Curds Lane (now Weavers Lane) Recorded there in 1937, Benjamin’s private address was York Road 1916–1937
Enjoyed a superb reputation as a billiard player in the Institute Club, having as much as a 100 handicap set against him in a match with his contemporaries.
The weights and measures inspectorate entailed checking that all drinking glasses were of the correct measure and were stamped, taking samples of spirits etc to check that the alcohol level was correct (watering of Spirits happened from time to time). The weights used on scales retained the stamped leaded inserts which ensured that the weight was accurate. Offending trades people would be prosecuted by the weights and measures inspectorate.