CRS Offset Typography

Topic: CRS Versions
Lynn Rohrbough made a major change in his print operations in 1951 when he purchased an offset press and hired Oscar Bailey to operate it.  This brought changes to the organization, including Oscar’s wife, Sara, who handled page layout. [1]

As mentioned in the post for 1 May 2022, offset images are not as clear as those of a letter press.  This does not seem to have affected the music plates made by Jane Keen, but it did affect the titles.  The Varityper machine still was used, but a simpler font was selected.

If one compares the heading with that from an earlier edition discussed in the post for 8 May 2022, one can see that the capital “C” is similar, although the differences in line width are less pronounced.

The new font is sans-serif and the vertical lines are all straight.  The leg and the ascender on the capital “K” join the stem below the x-height line, so the ascender is longer and thinner.  The lower-case “k’s” are identical with the upper-case one.

The same font was used when CRS published “The Keeper” in a 1955 songbook for the Canadian Council of Churches.  The bars on the lower-case “e’s” are horizontal, rather than slanted as they are in the verses.  Coincidentally the capital “T” in the title is very close to the Keen’s handwritten one in the lyrics.

While the typefaces are simpler, the actual work of composing the page was more complex.  When the letter press was used, the physical properties of lines of type kept the components of a page aligned.  With offset, it was the skill of Sara Bailey that did that.  The title for the “Cuckoo” is right on the edge of the plate and parallel to the staff lines.

The difference in skill is obvious from the heading for “Over the Meadows” published after Sara and Oscar left CRS.

Someone, perhaps Keen, wrote the credit for Augustus D. Zanzig.  Then, that person or another, pasted it onto plate at a slight angle.  Keen didn’t always keep all her letters on a baseline, but she also did not write on an incline.  It looks like the addition wasn’t aligned.  This is not an error Bailey or Keen would have made.  They were better artisans.

Notes on Performers
Sara Besco was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, and raised in the county north of Wheeling, West Virginia, where she was active in 4-H.  Sewing was one of her main projects. [2]  Sewing with a paper pattern requires eye-and-hand coordination to match each piece with a fabric’s design so that seams are not visible when a garment is completed.  That is a key skill she used when she was doing layouts for CRS.  In later life, she turned to quilting, which required even more manual dexterity. [3]

In West Virginia, the top award winners in each county were awarded scholarships to the state 4-H camp.  She went five times. [4]  It probably was there that she met Jane Farwell, who was a recreation specialist for the state extension office in Morgantown. [5]  They may have met again when Bailey attended West Virginia University.  Her family remembers she was a bit overwhelmed by the school, and went to the 4-H offices for help. [6]

Farwell led the folk dancing program at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, where Sara met her future husband.  A photograph of them at Oglebay appears with the post for 1 May 2022.  She later wrote an appreciation of Farwell that was included in a collection published by CRS. [7]

Unlike most members of the CRS staff, Bailey was interested in music.  She organized a 4-H chorus, and was active in the local Methodist church. [8]  She later became a Quaker, so her children could be full member’s of her husband’s church.  However, her family recalls she “remained partial to old hymns.”  When she was older, and her memory was failing she still “knew all the words and harmony to any song we could find in an old hymnal.”  They added, “She knew quite a bit about singing, developing a voice, how to ‘tune’ voices to one another.” [9]

The details of her work illustrated in the post for 29 May 2022.

Graphics
1.  “Cuckoo - (Kuckuck),” English by K. K. R., copyright 1953, Cooperative Recreation Service.  63 in Lift Every Voice, edited by Larry Eisenberg for Inter-Division Committee of the General Board of Education of the Methodist Church.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.  KFR is Katherine Ferris Rohrbough.  The copyright was nullified by publications like that for the YWCA, which did not carry the copyright notification as required by law.  The song is discussed in the post for 8 May 2022.

2.  “Kuckuck (Cuckoo).”  61 in Sing Along the Way, edited by Marie Oliver for the YWCA’s Woman’s Press.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.  See the post for 8 May 2022 for more details on the songbook.

3.  “The Keeper.”  52 in Lift Your Voices, edited by Kenneth S. Willis for Department of Christian Education, Canadian Council of Churches.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service, sixth edition, 1955.

4.  “Over the Meadows.”  8 in Sing Along, edited by Mary Wheeler, Lura Mohrbacher, and Augustus D. Zanzig for the YWCA’s National Board, Bureau of Communications.  More details on the songbook are in the post for 24 April 2022.

5.  Sara Besco, at left, with members of the Seminole 4-H Club Chorus, Ohio County, West Virginia.  Copy courtesy of her family.  The capes probably were a club sewing project.

End Notes
1.  “How a Sampler Is Made.”  Song Sampler Number 3:7–8:July 1956.  Quoted by Larry Nial Holcomb.  “A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Michigan, 1972.  134.

2.  “Know Your Neighbor: Miss Sarah Besco.”  Newspaper clipping in scrapbook of Sara Besco Bailey, 24 May 1939.  Copy provided by her family.

3.  Sara Besco Bailey’s family, email, 27 February 2022.

4.  “xxx H Girl Wins High Recognition.”  Newspaper clipping in scrapbook of Sarah Besco Bailey.  Copy provided by her family.  Top corner with headline partly obscured; after 1941.

5.  “Jane Farwell.”  Wikipedia website.
6.  Sara Besco Bailey’s family, email, 24 February 2022.

7.  Sara B. Bailey.  “Introduction.”  2–3 in Folk Dances for Fun.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service.  The songbook seems to have been published first by the West Virginia state extension office. [10]  Bailey may have been responsible for the CRS edition, which was published sometime after 1956 when Farwell had toured Japan.  The book contains no credits, but it seems possible Bailey did the blue-on-white cover design and added some artwork to the pages. [11]  This book sold for .25.  A later edition, with a wedgewood blue cover that sold for .50, has a different introduction.

8.  “Know Your Neighbor.”
9.  Sara Besco Bailey’s family, email, 24 February 2022.

10.  Ron Houston.  “Folk Dances for Fun.”  The Society of Folk Dance Historians website, 2018.

11.  Grace Goulder mentions Sara was a silk-screen artist in “Good Neighbors in Action.”  Cleveland Plain Dealer Pictorial Magazine, Cleveland, Ohio.  Copy provided by Sara Besco Bailey’s family.  The post for 1 May 2022 has details on its possible publication in 1951.

CRS Early Typography

Topic: CRS Versions
Type fonts are one of those things that only interest people who are amused by running their cursor down a computer’s menu and watching a word change from Algerian to Blackadder to Windsor.  However, when you are a publisher you are aware it is the first thing people notice subliminally.

Lynn Rohrbough and his wife, the former Katherine Ferris, made decisions for Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS) in the 1940s that gave their songbooks an identifiable style.  Below are excerpts from the indexes of two booklets created in 1944.  The top one may have been done by a commercial printer, and the other by their own press.

I am going to concentrate on “K,” the first letter in “Kumbaya.”  It is composed of three strokes.  The upright post is called the “stem,” while the section that reaches upward and outward is an “ascender.”  The lower line that reaches outward is the “leg.”  The height of lower-case letters is termed the “x-height” and “stressed” is used to identify fonts with lines that vary in thickness. [1]

Beyond the obvious difference in size between the two examples, the main distinguishing feature between them is the use feet or serifs on the left index.  David Carson says such types tend to be used by newspapers, while san-serif fonts are favored by digital publications. [2]  The default in Word and Excel documents, Calibri, has no flourishes, while Times New Roman does.   

The leg and the ascender for the “K” on upper example are equally long and both come from the x-height point on the stem.  All are straight lines, and equally thick.  In other index, done for Songs of Many Nations, the ascender extends beyond the height of the stem and is longer than the leg.  Both come from x-height point on the stem, but the ascender may be slightly thicker—it gets more ink.

The text for an individual song is composed of three parts: the title, the headnotes, and the lyrics. Below the music staff, it might have additional verses and/or a footnote.  In Joyful Singing, the above example, each has a different font.  Jane Keen still was working from South Dakota, and so at least two people worked on the version of “The Keeper” [4] below.

Keen produced a plate with obvious hand lettering.  The stem on the initial “k” in the first verse is curved toward the right, while the “d” in “would” has two curves and the “f” in “first” leans left.  The stem on the “k” is as tall as the capital “T,” but the “d” in “would” is noticeably shorter.  The stem and ascender are plain, but the leg has a finial that points upward. The arms on the capital “T’s” are horizontal.  The one beginning the second verse is not as straight.

The headnote was produced by the same typeset as the index.  The title is a blocky form of sans-serif.  The “K” forms a oblong box, with the ascender and leg coming from the x-height point on the stem.

Keen had remade the plate for “The Keeper” by the time it appeared in the 1944 edition of Songs of Many Nations.  As mentioned in the post for 24 April 2022, the Rohrboughs were creating their own style that included compressing songs so more than one could appear on a page.  The new rendition has three, rather than two, measures in the first line.  Keen did not change her lettering much, although she spaced the notes so they were aligned with the words.

She probably did the headnote, and may also have done the title.  It imitates the block style of the earlier version, but the “K” is more stylized.  The lines on the “K” vary in thickness, with the ascender the widest.  It connects to the stem below the x-height point, and the leg extends from it, not the stem.

Keen moved to Ohio in 1947, and at some time Rohrbough purchased a Varityper machine. [5]  This was a typewriter that allowed multiple fonts, decades before IBM introduced the spinning ball on its Selectric machines. [6]  It was used for the title of “Cuckoo” [7] published in the late 1940s or early 1950s by the YWCA.

Richard Polt was told the “fonts were a half-moon shape and after hammering on the characters toward the center of the font for a couple of years, the fonts had a nasty tendency to lose some of their curvature.” [8]  This can be seen in the capital “C” which is stressed so no two parts of the letter are the same thickness.

The three strokes on the capital “K” are different thickness, with the stem the boldest.  The thin ascender connects to the post below the x-height line, and the leg curves from it with a finial serif.  The headnote was done by Keen: the letters are not even with a base line.  Some of her letters in the verse are more elaborate, but the lower-case “e” and the upper-case “T” only differ from her earlier work in the way hand lettering varies.

Later, Keen seems to have incorporated elements of the Varityper font used by CRS into her own style.  When “The Keeper” was included in the Camp Fire Girls’ edition of Joyful Singing in the early 1950s, the plate remained unchanged.  What changed was the title.  The stems on the capital letters are heavily stressed.

Notes on Performers
Jane Keen is profiled in the post for 24 April 2022.  More examples of her work appear in the posts for 15 May 2022 and 29 May 2022.

Graphics
1.  Index for Joyful Singing, published for The National Convocation of the Methodist Youth Fellowship.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Custom Printed Songs.  As mentioned in the post for 20 February 2022, the “Introduction” refers to songbooks published in 1942; the MYF meeting probably was held in 1944.  It also is discussed in the post for 24 April 2022.

2.  Index to Songs of Many Nations, published for Evangelical and Reformed Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Custom Printed Songs, 1944.  The editor probably was Edward Schlingman.  It is discussed in the posts for 20 February 2022 and 24 April 2022.

3.  “The Keeper.”  9 in Joyful Singing, 1944.

4.  “The Keeper.”  24 in Songs of Many Nations.

5.  “Kuckuck (Cuckoo)”.  61 in Sing Along the Way, edited by Marie Oliver for the YWCA’s Woman’s Press.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.  This has the same cover and most of the same songs as the 1951, fifth printing.  I assume this was earlier, and the date was added for the fifth printing to avoid confusion.  This songbook is discussed in the post for 20 March 2022.

6.  “The Keeper.”  9 in Joyful Singing, Campfire Girls Edition.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.  Dark colored cover.  Copy provided by Josephine Weber of the Winnebagoland CFG Council, Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  Published sometime between 1946 and 1955; I assume in the early 1950s.  The songbook is discussed in the post for 20 February 2022.

End Notes
1.  I am using definitions from Orana Velarde.  “A Visual Guide to the Anatomy of Typography [Infographic].”  Visme website, 30 November 2017.  I found similar information in “Learn: Anatomy of a Typeface.”  Typedia website.

2.  David Carson.  “Serif vs. Sans Serif Fonts: Differences Between the Font Types.”  Master Class website.

4. Camp Songs, Folk Songs provides a short history of “The Keeper” on page 231.

5.  “How a Sampler Is Made.”  Song Sampler Number 3:7–8:July 1956.  Quoted by Larry Nial Holcomb.  “A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Michigan, 1972.  134.

6.  Richard Polt.  “Varityper.”  Xavier University website.

7.  “Cuckoo” is one of the case studies in Camp Songs, Folk Songs, 178–186.  If one were ranking songs introduced by CRS by their importance in camp tradition, it would come second to “Kumbaya.”  It is the only one to spawn a parody as popular as the original: “An Austrian Went Yodeling.”

8.  Former Varityper employee quoted by Polt.

CRS Print Shop

Topic: CRS Versions
The production of custom songbooks by Lynn Rohrbough’s Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS) involved more than the compilation of a list of available songs.  It also required the creation of a physical plant to produce the booklets at low cost with reasonable quality.

Before the Rohrboughs moved to Delaware, Ohio, they used commercial printers in Chicago [1] and, before that, in Boston. [2]  They probably used someone local when they first relocated, but soon after bought a “small hand-fed press.”  Rohrbough’s wife, Katherine Ferris Rohrbough, recalled, they “put it in the barn and hired one man to operate it. [3]

Most likely it was a letterpress printer.  Usually, type was set and the pages laid out.  Then, copper-sheet molds were made that were used by the press. [4]  They could have been setting the type themselves or hiring the work done.  In 1937, Lynn said CRS had four employees, plus some who worked part-time. [5]  The latter probably helped with shipping.

The introduction of music added a level of complexity.  Jane Keen’s drawings were transferred to copper plates with light-sensitive coatings.  Then, like photograph negatives, they were exposed while electrical impulses etched the lines.  These thin sheets often were backed by chrome so they could withstand long press runs. [6]

The Rohrboughs hired William Detwiler to operate the press, [7] and probably sent the artwork to Van Bolt Kreber Electrotype in Columbus. [8]  Frank Kreber bought out the interest of George Van Bolt in 1938, and his son continued to run the company. [9]  By 1957, the Electrotypers Union was supplying chrome-plated copper printing plates. [10]

Newer presses were added to the hand-fed one, until Donald Frye remembered there were four in the barn. [11]  In 1948, Grace Goulder described them as “thundering, up-to-date presses” that could “ turn out as many as 30,000 booklets at a time.” [12]  John Leininger set the type and Hugh Macmillan ran the letter press. [13]

In 1951, Rohrbough introduced offset printing. [14]  Oscar Bailey photographed completed pages, and exposed the negatives “under arc-light in contact with aluminum printing plates in a vacuum frame.” [15]  In 1957, the Photoengravers Union of Newark Engraving Company was supplying zinc etchings. [16]

Offset printing images are not as clear as those of letterpress, [17] but involve less labor.  More important, the technology provides more flexibility.  When I was in high school in the early 1960s, our yearbook was produced by a commercial offset printer. [18]  All the photographs and lines of text were rubber cemented onto large pieces of paper marked by light blue graph lines, then shipped off to the printer.

This means that, whenever CRS produced a new songbook, all the shop had to do was take Keen’s original autograph, [19] or a photograph of it, and lay out a new page with new page numbers and whatever changes were required in the headings.  After the songster was mocked up, Bailey could create new plates.  There was no need to redo Keen’s work, and no need for outside skilled labor.

Because offset printing relied on photography, it allowed artwork to be incorporated at little cost.  However, CRS did not exploit these uses.  The only artistic book produced by the company was a reissue of Flora McDowell’s collection.  The cover of the 6 5/8" x 8 5/8" book has a drawing by McDowell’s son. [20]

Rohrbough never produced separate plates for different colors, [21] but instead, within the technology of a single plate, created effects with different colored inks and papers.  Oscar’s wife, the former Sara Besco, made sketches that appeared at the bottoms of pages of McDowell’s book.

Keen redrew the music, and used curved tails for the eighth notes.  The clef sign also is more upright than in her 1940s autographs. [22]  In what had become a small artistic community, each person rose to the levels of the others.

Notes on Performers
William Detwiler’s grandfather [23] moved to Thompson Township, in the northwestern corner of Delaware County, Ohio, where he opened a tavern in the 1830s. [24]  William was born in 1913, [25] so he would have been in his twenties when he began working for Rohrbough.  He and his wife moved to Alabama while he served in the military in World War II, when Rohrbough would have needed someone else to run his press.  The Detwilers returned after the war. [26]  I do not know when he retired.  He died in 1981. [27]

John A. Leininger was a former Unitarian minister who worked as a compositor for the Rohrboughs.  He graduated from the Harvard Divinity School. [28]

Hugh MacMillan was from Berlin Township, south of Delaware. [29]

Oscar Wilson Bailey’s Quaker ancestors moved to Belmont County, Ohio, from North Carolina in the early 1800s. [30]  He graduated from the denomination’s Wilmington College in 1951 and went to work for “a commercial printer in Delaware, Ohio” [31] where he “learned offset printing.” [32]

Bailey met his wife when he attended folk dances sponsored by the Oglebay Park in Wheeling, West Virginia. [33]  Their interest in dance may be one reason that devoted such attention to the McDowell revision.

He left in 1956 to pursue a master’s degree in fine arts from Ohio University.  He taught photography at State University College in Buffalo and the University of South Florida.  While he was teaching, Bailey’s reputation as an artist grew.  Ohio Wesleyan University exhibited his works in Delaware in 1964. [34]

Oscar and Sara [35] moved to the North Carolina mountains near Burnsville [36] after he retired in 1985. [37]  His interest in art turned to more manual ones: he designed their home, built furniture, and designed kites, which he called “wind-supported sculptures.” [38]  A member of the Society for Photographic Education recalled: “Oscar was a fun and exciting person to be around.  He liked to figure out how things worked and then explored how he could integrate these qualities with his ideas.” [39]  Bailey died in 2010. [40]

The Newark Engraving Company was founded by James Dean Mackey in 1926.  He was born near Marietta, Ohio, but lived in Columbia, South Carolina, and Parkersburg, West Virginia, before returning to Ohio.  In each city he worked as a professional musician and ran engraving companies.  He patented some improvements in the design of clarinets. [41]

Graphics
1.  Flora L. McDowell.  Folk Dances of Tennessee And Other Authentic Folk Material.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service.  Cover by Jack McDowell.  Music autographs by Jane Keen.  Typesetting, layout, and sketches by Sara Bailey.  Photography by Orville Joyner.  Printing by Oscar Bailey.  Editorial Supervision by Lynn Rohrbough.  McDowell is discussed in the post for 12 December 2021.  As suggested then, this booklet may have been published in 1953, or shortly thereafter.

2.  Bottom line of “Shuckin’ of the Corn.”  Credits and other illustrations of this music appear in the posts for 372 12 December 2021, 13 February 2022, and 22 February 2022.

3.  John A. Leininger.  Photograph by Grace Goulder for her “Good Neighbors in Action.”  Cleveland Plain Dealer Pictorial Magazine. Cleveland, Ohio.  Copy provided by Oscar Bailey’s family. [42]

4.  Hugh MacMillan.  Photograph by Grace Goulder for 1951 article.

5.  Sara Besco Bailey and Oscar Wilson Bailey at Oglebay Park, Wheeling, West Virginia.  Copy provided by their family.

End Notes
1.  Holland Press. [43]
2.  Old Dutch Press. [44]

3.  Katherine Ferris Rohrbough.  “Good Times as a Career.”  Wellesley Alumnae Magazine 84–86:January 1956.  84.  Quoted by Larry Nial Holcomb.  “A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Michigan, 1972.  108.

4.  “Letterpress Printing.”  Encyclopædia Britannica website, 20 July 1998; last updated 30 October 2013 by Yamini Chauhan.  The plates were coated to preserve the lead type.

5.  Lynn Rohrbough.  “Cooperative Recreation Service.”  Consumers’ Cooperation 33(11):171–172:November 1937.  Cited by Holcomb.  108.

6.  “Electrotyping.”  Wikipedia website.  Katherine Rohrbough said “for a long time, I did all the music drawings from which electrotypes were made.” [45]

7.  Grace Goulder.  “Play Is Business for Delaware (O.) Couple Who Specialize in Group Recreation.”  Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, 5 December 1948.  Cited by  Holcomb.  109.  Also, 108.

8.  The YWCA listed the unions involved with its 1957 songbook. [46]  There is no reason to believe Rohrbough changed contractors, once he found good ones.

9.  “The Evolution of Kreber.”  Company website.

10.  Forward to Revised Edition.”  1–2 in Sing Along, edited by Mary Wheeler, Lura Mohrbacher, and Augustus D. Zanzig for the Young Women’s Christian Association’s National Board.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service, 1957.  1.

11.  Donald Frye.  Interviewed by Larry Nial Holcomb on 7 January 1972.  Cited by Holcomb.  109.  Frye was born around 1928, [47] and began working for the company in the late 1930s mowing lawns.  He learned the printing trade, before leaving in 1950 to open his own business in Delaware. [48]

12.  Goulder, 1948.  Quoted by Holcomb.  109.
13.  Goulder, 1951.
14.  “Oscar Bailey.”  National Gallery of Art website.

15.  “How a Sampler Is Made.”  Song Sampler Number 3:7–8:July 1956.  Quoted by Holcomb. 134.

16.  YWCA.  1.

17.  Robert Lechêne.  “Printing.”  Encyclopædia Britannica website; revised 9 May 2000; last updated on 1 October 2020 by Aakanksha Gaur.

18.  Our school paper was produced by the local newspaper and went through the older printing processes that included  linotype machines.  I am drawing up my own knowledge of the two publications to fill gaps left by web articles that assume the reader either knows or does not care about details.  Many write about technological processes as they exist today, not as they did in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

19.  “Autograph” is the technical term for preparing a piece of music for print.

20.  Flora McDowell’s son was William Jackson McDowell.  He was living in Cincinnati, Ohio, when he died in 1994. [49]

21.  The one exception may be an African Song Sampler, which featured a multi-colored painting by Thango.  The 1958 edition was overseen by Walter F. Anderson of Antioch College and is twice as wide as a CRS publication.

22.  Keen’s early work is illustrated in the post for 24 April 2022.  Her later work is discussed in the posts for 8 May 2022, 15 May 2022, and 29 May 2022.

23.  Detwiler’s father was John Harry Detwiler. [50]  John Harry’s father was John Detwiler. [51]

24.  Illustrated Historical Atlas of Delaware County, Ohio.  Philadelphia: L. H. Everts and Company, 1875.  11.

History of Delaware County and Ohio.  Chicago: O. L. Baskin and Company, 1880.  546.

25.  “William L Detwiler.”  Ancestry website.

26.  “Margaret Elaine Detwiler.”  The Delaware Gazette, Delaware, Ohio, 25 October 2012.  She was William’s wife.

27.  “William L Detwiler.”
28.  Goulder, 1951.
29.  “Hugh McMullian in the 1940 Census.”  Ancestry website.

30.  Bailey’s mother was Rebecca Steer.  Her ancestor, Moses Hall, arrived from North Carolina in 1804. [52]  The Bailey line has been traced back to Lindley Patterson Bailey who was born in Belmont County in 1850. [53]  The movement of Quakers from North Carolina to Ohio is discussed in the post for 28 March 2021, which describes the ancestry of Varner Chance.

31.  National Gallery of Art.  Prabook makes clear the commercial printer was CRS. [54]

32.  Mary Lea Bailey.  Email to John Blocher, Jr.  25 June 2016.
33.  Email from Oscar Bailey’s family, 23 February 2022.
34.  National Gallery of Art.
35.  Sara Bailey is discussed in the post for 15 May 2022.
36.  Barbara Edwards.  Photograph on Flickr website.
37.  National Gallery of Art.

38.  “Remembering Oscar Wilson Bailey.”  Society for Photographic Education website, 30 January 2010.  Bailey was a founding member of the organization. [55]

39.  Society for Photographic Education.
40.  National Gallery of Art.

41.  Will Peebles.  “James Dean Mackey’s Clarinet Patents.”  The Clarinet 47(4):46–49:September 2020.

42.  Holcomb has the date as 1949, but 1951 is more likely.  Not only are the Baileys mentioned, but the Homestead Acres project is described as “three years ago.”  In note 15 for the post for 22 May2022, Holcomb says that project began in 1948.

43.  Holcomb.  63.
44.  Holcomb.  63.
45.  Katherine Ferris Rohrbough.  108.  Quoted by Holcomb.  84.
46.  YWCA.  1.

47.  “Donald Frye in the 1940 Census.”  Archives website.  He was living in Radnor, Township to the northwest of Delaware.

48.  Holcomb.  109.
49.  Steve Eskew.  “Fora E. Lassiter.”  His website; last updated 25 August 2021.
50.  “William L Detwiler.”

51.  “Delaware/OakGrove.”  Internment website.
“Detwiler Tavern.”  Past Perfect Online website.

52.  Elizabeth J. (Hall) Hartley.  Descendants of Moses Hall, John Dounda, and Benjamin Hall (Quaker Families of Belmont County, Ohio, from Virginia & North Carolina.  Denver, 1958, second private printing.  vii on Moses Hall, 1 on his son Moses Hall, 146 on Joseph Hall, 181 on Thomas Hall and David Hall, 182 on Linley Hall who married Millicent Bailey, and 183 Mary Hall who married William James Steer.

53.  “Oscar Joseph Bailey.”  Roots Web website.  Oscar Joseph was Oscar Wilson’s grandfather.  Oscar Wilson’s great grandfather was Lindley Patterson Bailey.

54.  “Oscar W. Bailey.”  Prabook website.
55.  National Gallery of Art.

Jane Keen

Topic: CRS Versions
Lynn Rohrbough’s Cooperative Recreation Service grew slowly from the 32 customers he mentioned in 1942. [1]  Larry Holcomb lists four new titles in 1946, seven in 1947, and five in 1948.  Instead of church groups, these were 4-H clubs. [2]  They were in addition to reprints and new editions of existing books. [3]

The musical plates all were made by Jane Keen.  As mentioned in the post for 26 September 2021, Rohrbough met her at the 1936 Northland Recreation Workshop near Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she made stencils of songs introduced by E. O. Harbin.  She began doing piece work for him from her home in Henry, South Dakota, in 1938.

To be useful to CRS, her work had to be as good as that done by a commercial company.  Below is the opening line of a song from Singing America, published by C. C.  Birchard.  Below that is the copy made by Keen.

She probably was using preprinted staff paper.  She had to compress the space between notes for a 3.75" page.  Singing America was 6" wide.  To do this, she had to continue a measure in the first line onto the second.  Birchard had no such needs.  She must have had some knowledge of music to make the break after two beats, so each part of the measure began on the strong pulse.

The first measure includes quarter and eighth notes.  The second has two quarter notes and a half note, while the third begins with a dotted eighth, followed by a sixteenth.  The stems are not quite as vertical as the mechanically produced ones, and the tails are straight, not curved.

Her lettering is narrow to fit the needs of the page.  The words do not all fall under their associated tones.  The “g’s” and the “m” in “blooming” have some flourishes, while she uses italics for the tempo marking.  The uneven fill of the notes may be the result of the printing press, rather than her work.

Her skills improved.  She, no doubt, got feedback from CRS’s customers through Rohrbough.  The plate for “Over the Meadow” was remade in 1944.  The stems of her notes are shorter: the C at the end of the first measure no longer extends below the staff lines.

Most of the changes accommodated singers with elementary skills in reading music.  Instead of a single verse with the music, and the others below, more verses are placed with the notes.  The eighth notes are connected by tie lines that replaced the tails.  Their length varies, so the text is almost always aligned with the tones.  The bowl of the half note is completely horizontal.

Around 1947, she moved to Delaware, Ohio.  This allowed easier communication with CRS, and exposed her to new ideas.  The next plate for “Over the Meadows” again simplifies the notation. The eighth notes are re-separated, with curved tails that are close to the original printed version.  They are spaced for the text.  The half note again is angled and the stems have returned to their former heights.

Keen completed more than 2,000 plates before Rohrbough bought a music typewriter in 1956. [4]  Then, she did an additional 500 more before she died in 1960. [5]

The plate for “Over the Meadows” was redone in 1957 to add guitar chords.  The key was changed to make it easier for a beginning instrumentalist.  All the stems are exactly the same length, and perfectly perpendicular.  While most of the words appear below their texts, the first word of the first verse remains a problem.

Notes on Performers
Keen’s father’s family migrated to the Hudson River valley of New York probably sometime in the 1750s. [6]  The earliest ancestor born in this country, Jacob Keen, was born in Orange County, New York, in 1758. [7]  Her great-grandfather moved from there to Wayne County, Pennsylvania, in the Poconos mountain, where he ran a sawmill and took in boarders. [8]

Her parents and great-grandparents settled in Garden City, South Dakota, [9] perhaps after her parents married in 1890 in Gravity, Pennsylvania. [10]  In 1915, her father, Edward Keen, was managing the local telephone company in nearby Henry. [11]  Jennie, as she then was called, [12] first came to public notice in 1913 when she won a scholarship for having the highest grades in Codington County. [13]  She probably quit school soon after her mother died in April of that year. [14]

The next public notice, this time for Jane Keen, appeared in 1923 when she was a supervisor of the Codington County girl’s club. [15]  By 1926, she was a 4-H leader, and in 1930 secretary for the state 4-H leaders’ association. [16]

She was sufficiently important in 1936 that Horace Jones, director of 4-H in South Dakota, took her to the Northland Recreation Laboratory when he was invited by the organizer, Fred Smith, to attend. [17]  She must have discovered puppetry at the spring workshop, [18] because in June she staged a puppet show at a local 4-H camp.  Jones led the singing. [19]  At State Club Week in October, she put on another marionette program, while Peter Olson taught folk games. [20]  He also had been at the Northland meeting. [21]

Codington County escaped the worst effects of the early Depression, which mainly hit central and western South Dakota.  However, the county population dropped 2.4%. [22]  Keen’s father’s telephone company probably had been merged into another years before, and telephone usage in rural areas, in general, started dropping in the 1920s. [23]  Whatever other employment Edward found, it is not the kind to appear on the internet.  With crop failures in the county in 1934, he may have lost his job.  Sometime in or after 1935, her obituary says she became a recreation leader for the WPA. [24]

Her name last appears in Huron, South Dakota, in 1946 when she was awarded a silver pin for twenty-years service as a 4-H leader. [25]   Her father had died in 1944, [26] and she moved to Delaware, Ohio, when she was 49 years old.  Mary Lea Bailey remembers when she visited the Rohrboughs in 1948, “she was working in the barn behind the Rohrbough house.” [27]

Keen died in 1960 when she tried to avoid a dog in the road and swerved into oncoming traffic.  She then was president of the Delaware Business Girls Club and still in touch with three cousins in Pennsylvania. [28]  Someone returned her ashes to Garden City and erected a headstone near those of her family. [29]

Life may never have been easy for Keen.  Bob Nolte recalled she “had a residual limp from childhood polio” and had an “uncorrected overbite.” [30]  Her mother suffered from inflammatory rheumatism for six years before she died. [31]  Even so, Keen was experimenting with writing as early as 1910, [32] and, in 1931, won a prize in a photography contest sponsored by Popular Science. [33]

By 1934, the local newspaper in Henry gave her space each week to publicize 4-H activities.  She sent a cartoon to National 4-H Club News that shows her lettering abilities and skills as a draughtsman when she was 36 years old.

She accompanied her submission with a note that indicated a sense of humor helps “especially since they lost their county agents and have to contend with drouth and hoppers.” [34]

The posts for 8 May 2022, 15 May 2022, 2022and 29 May  have more on her lettering skills.

Graphics
1.  “Over the Meadows.”  Czech tune with English words by A. D. Z.  53 in Singing America.  Boston: C. C. Birchard and Company, 1940.  Copy from the office of the Battle Creek, Michigan, Camp Fire Girls.  Singing America is discussed in the post for 26 September 2021.

2.  Jane Keen autograph for “Over the Meadows.”  Czech folk song from SINGING AMERICA, by permission of A. D. Zanzig.  27 in Joyful Singing, prepared for The National Convocation of the Methodist Youth Fellowship.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Custom Printed Songs.  The MYF meeting was held in 1944.  Joyful Singing is discussed in the post for 20 February 2022.

3.  Jane Keen autograph for “Over the Meadows.”  Czech song from Singing America, by permission of A. D. Zanzig.  22 in Songs of Many Nations, for Evangelical and Reformed Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Custom Printed Songs, 1944.  The editor probably was Edward Schlingman.  The songbook is discussed in the post for 20 February 2022.

4.  Jane Keen autograph for “Over the Meadows.”  Czech song from SINGING AMERICA, by permission of A. D. Zanzig.  16 in Sing Along the Way, edited by Marie Oliver for the YWCA’s Woman’s Press.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service.  Same cover and most of the same songs as the 1951, fifth printing.  I assume this was earlier, and the date was added to avoid confusion.  This songbook is discussed in the post for 20 March 2022.

5.  “Over the Meadows,” English by A. D. Z., plate made by Jane Keen using a music typewriter.  8 in Sing Along, edited by Mary Wheeler, Lura Mohrbacher, and Augustus D. Zanzig for the YWCA’s National Board, Bureau of Communications.  Czech song from SINGING AMERICA, by permission.  Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Cooperative Song Service, revised 1957.

6.  Cartoon by Jane Keen published by National 4-H Club News 12(6):2:June–July 1934.

End Notes
1.  Rohrbough’s 1942 list is discussed in the post for 20 February 2022.

2.  Larry Nial Holcomb.  “A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Michigan, 1972.  106–107.  One songbook was for Azalea Trails.  In 1976, it was sponsored by San Gorgonio Girl Scout Council of Colton, California.

3.  This is a conservative estimate.  I have purchased more that these on the internet that were published in this time period.

4.  “How a Sampler Is Made.”  Song Sampler Number 3:7–8:July 1956.  Quoted by Holcomb. 134.

5.  “Jane Keen Dies After Head-On Collision.”  The Delaware Gazette, Delaware, Ohio, 31 December 1960.  Copy provided by Joe O’Rourke, Delaware County District Library, Delaware, Ohio.

6.  James G. Leyburn.  The Scotch-Irish.  Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1962.  244.

7.  Dea Lowry.  “Jacob Keen.”  Geni website; last updated 10 November 2018.

8.  Rhamanthus Menville Stocker.   History of the First Presbyterian Society of Honesdale.  Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press Association, 1906.  194 on George Murray Keen.  It was a coal mining and glass making area then.  Tourists probably arrived later. [35]

9.  Blanch Flanigan.  “George M Keen.”  Find a Grave website, 15 January 2012.  He is Jane’s paternal grandfather and died in 1925.  Her uncle also moved with the family. [36]

10.  “Death of Mrs. Cybil H. Keen.”  The Citizen, Honesdale, Pennsylvania, 8 April 1913.  1.  Posted to the internet by makummerer on 30 April 2015.

11.  “Henry Union Telephone Company v. Dakota Central Union Telephone Company.”  In Public Utilities Reports, edited by Henry Clifford Spurr and Ellsworth Nichols.  Rochester, New York: The Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Company, 1915.  938.  Codington County abuts Clark County, with Garden City, on the east.

12.  Her full name may have been Samantha Jane. [37]  “Jenny” had been a nickname for “Jane” in the family since the early 1800s. [38]

13.  “A Story from the West.”  The Citizen, Honesdale, Pennsylvania, 17 January 1913.  8.  Posted to the internet by makummerer on 30 April 2015.

14.  “Death of Mrs. Cybil H. Keen.”

15.  “Leader’s Cartoon.”  National 4-H Club News 12(6):2:June–July 1934.  Four-H became active in South Dakota in 1919. [39]  For more on the history of the rural youth group, see the post for 3 October 2021.

16.  Item.  “County, State and National News.”  National 4-H Club News 24(1):8:January 1946.  The government paid 4-H agents, but leaders were volunteers.  Her position as secretary may not have been paid.

17.  Bob Nolte.  Northland Recreation Lab: A History.  1984. 7.  Copy provided by Heidi Ryan, 21 June 2016. 13.  Minneapolis is about 200 miles due east of Watertown, the seat of Codington County. [40]  Northland is discussed in the post for 26 September 2021.

18.  Nolte.  “Jane Keen.”  13–14 in Nolte.  13.  He called her a “classic introvert” and believed she chose puppetry because “she could hide behind the set and project her usually restrained personality through the puppets.”  His memory may have confused her with Deborah Simmons Meador who was a puppeteer in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  She ran part of the WPA program on puppetry and offered workshops.  Either she, or one of her students, must have taught Keen at Northland.  Meador argued: “by protecting the children from the sight of the audience, it frees them from self consciousness.” [41]

19.  Evelyn Htrtatgei.  “Girls Enthuse About 4-H Camp Raymond Club Members Had Good Time At Lake Kampeska; Want To Return.”  The Daily Plainsman, Huron, South Dakota, 26 June 1936.  4.  Some errors introduced by digitization.

20.  Item.  The Evening Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, 26 October 1936.  20.
21.  Nolte.  15.

22.  W. F. Kumlien.  Graphic Summary of the Relief Situation in South Dakota (1930-1935).  Brookings, South Dakota: Agricultural Experiment Station South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Bulletin 310, May 1937.  53.

23.  Claude S. Fischer.  “Technology’s Retreat: The Decline of Rural Telephony in the United States, 1920-1940.”  Social Science History 11(3):295–327:Autumn 1987.

24.  “Jane Keen Dies.”  The WPA recreation program included puppetry. [42]
25.  National 4-H Club News, 1946.
26.  Blanch Flanigan.  “Edward L. Keen.”  Find a Grave website.  15 January 2012.
27.  Mary Lea Bailey.  Email to John Blocher, Jr., 25 June 2016.
28.  “Jane Keen Dies.”
29.  Blanch Flanigan.  “Jane Keen.”  Find a Grave website, 15 January 2012.
30.  Nolte.  13.  He added that as soon as she was able, she had corrective dental work done.

31.  “Death of Mrs. Cybil H. Keen.”  Inflammatory rheumatism was a generic term for debilitative anti-immune system diseases.

32. “Story from the West.”
33.  “Winners of First Contest.”  Popular Science Monthly, October 1931.  78.
34.  “Leader’s Cartoon.”

35.  Corinne K. Hoexter.  “A Colorful Corner of Pennsylvania.”  The New York Times, 31 May 1987.
 
Michael O’Malley.  “Wayne County: A History Deep and Clear.”  Pennsylvania Heritage, Summer 1988.

36.  Blanch Flanigan.  “Willard N Keen.”  Find a Grave website, 15 January 2012.  He was born in 1863 and died in 1931.

37.  “Ed L Keen.”  My Heritage website.
38.  “Matthias Keen.”  Ancestry website.  He was Jacob’s son and George Murray’s father.
39.  “History.”  South Dakota State Fair website.
40.  Google Maps.

41.  Curt Brown.  “Puppetry Lifted St. Paul Woman from Poverty.”  Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 17 July 2017.

42.  George H. Field.  Final Report on the WPA Program for 1935–43.  Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1946.  62.

Civil War in Barbados - 1648–1652

Topic: Gullah History
The end of hostilities in the English Civil War in 1647 did not bring peace.  Parliament still was divided between supporters of Charles I, Presbyterians, and Puritans. [1]  The fleet mutinied in May, because men had not been paid. [2]  Charles’ younger son, James, was given command of the rebel fleet when it reached Holland.  Francis Willoughby was named its vice-admiral. [3]

Meanwhile, Charles had concluded a secret treaty with the Scots.  They agreed to invade England, if Charles established Presbyterianism. [4]  The invasion began in summer of 1648.  Willoughby returned to command a unit. [5]  The uprising was put down in August, and leaders were treated as traitors. [6]  Most of the fleet returned to Parliament. [7]

Six ships remained with Willoughby when he returned to Holland. [8]  The son of Charles’ sister Elizabeth took charge of them. [9]  Rupert planned to turn them into pirates attacking English ships to raise money for his uncle. [10]  The cost of maritime insurance increased. [11]  Dutch ships were able to offer lower prices to planters in Barbados.

The New Model Army became alarmed when Presbyterian members of Parliament began negotiating terms for Charles to be restored.  Thomas Fairfax, mentioned in the post for 10 April 2022, enabled a coup led by Oliver Cromwell’s son-in-law, Henry Ireton.  Ireton then prevented the full House of Commons from meeting. [12]

The members deemed safe by Ireton tried Charles I for treason and hanged him in January 1649. [13]  The Scots declared his son, also Charles, their king in early February. [14]  When news reached Bermuda, it declared Charles Stuart king on July 5. [15]  Virginia, whose governor commanded the Royal army in Exeter, also supported Charles II of Scotland. [16]  The governor of Barbados, Philip Bell, kept the island neutral.

The Rump Parliament organized a Council of State to replace the king and his court. [17]  The navy was reorganized in February, and, in March, Parliament ordered new ships be built to combat piracy. Thereafter, it continued to add to the fleet. [18]

Parliament acted against Willoughby in December 1649, when it seized his estates. [19]  He left for Holland to get Charles Stuart to confirm his rights to Barbados. [20]  Stuart’s counselors saw the island as an important ally and recommended he appoint Willoughby governor, [21] on the condition he move there. [22]

Most news reached Barbados by merchant ships.  Since travel times could be two months or longer, reports from England always were obsolete.

Henry Walrond arrived on Barbados sometime in 1649, with his brother Edward. [23]  As mentioned in the post for 3 April 2022, his family’s land was in western Somerset.  He had connections with a more noble family in Devon, but his great-great-great-grandfather had been a younger son. [24]

Little has been written about Walrond on the island, until he began working to take control in 1650.  He probably did not arrive with the resources of Thomas Modyford.  This means he probably was not aware of land prices on the first landing in the Caribbean, nor that land was available on other islands.  Modyford’s original instructions had been to go to Antigua.  Only the yellow fever epidemic kept him on Barbados. [25]

Whether Walrond heard that Willoughby intended to take over the island for Charles Stuart, [26] or if he was driven by other forces is not known.  Apart from being unable to buy land, he may have been angry at men who had prospered while he was in jail. [27]  He also may have had a feudal view that only the gentry should become wealthy: the men he attacked were all self-made men who rose through talent and an ability to invent new ways of doing things.

In 1650, he engineered the removal of the treasurer appointed by the General Assembly, which gave him control of the arsenal. [28]  James Drax blunted his attempts to join Bermuda. [29]  In April, Walrond began organizing other young immigrants against Drax and others seen as supporting Parliament. [30]

Willoughby’s ship arrived on April 29, [31] but did not make its presence official until May 7. [32]  When Willoughby announced himself, he informed Bell that he now held the legitimate commission to be governor. [33]  Walrond convinced Willoughby to visit other islands in James Hay’s grant. [34]  They’d heard rumors Rupert was coming, and he might arrive anytime. [35]

With Willoughby gone, Walrond had the Assembly named Drax, Constant Silvester, and Thomas Middleton as disturbers of the peace. [36]  On May 11, he ordered all dissenters leave the island by July 2, a date before Willoughby’s planned return.  He reordered men out on May 23, [37]  and set up a commission to handle their estates. [38]  On June 13, he place Drax under house arrest. [39]  Drax left for London. [40]

Stuart landed in Scotland on June 23. [41]  Rupert finally headed for the Caribbean, but was foiled by a September storm near the Azores that sank one of his ships. [42]

Willoughby returned to Barbados on July 29, [43] and removed Walrond.  He then repealed the acts of sequestration, [44] and made peace with Modyford who had tried to negotiate earlier with Walrond. [45]  Willoughby also sent John Colleton to visit London merchants as his emissary. [46]

When Parliament heard news from Barbados, it passed as an act of October 3 forbidding trade with the island. [47]  It also ordered part of its new fleet to head to the island. [48]  The Dutch told the island about the fleet in February 1650, and Willoughby began strengthening the island’s defenses. [49]  He also reinstated the sequestering of estates and destroyed their livestock. [50]

Back in England, the New Model Army moved toward Perth, which allowed Stuart to invade England. [51]  A fleet, under George Ayscue, finally set sail for Barbados on August 5, with Drax on board. [ 52]

Cromwell defeated Stuart at Worcester on September 3, [53] but news reached Barbados in October that Stuart had been victorious and retaken London. [54]  Soon after, Ayscue sailed into Carlisle Bay and seized 14 ships from Dutch merchants. [55]  He took their provisions, and dispatched them to other islands to obtain water. [56]

Willoughby responded by stationing armed men around the island’s perimeter. [57]  Ayscue decide to blockade the island and starve it into submission. [58]

News reached Ayscue on November 12 that Stuart had been defeated.  He began sending messages to Willoughby, who still believed Stuart had won. [59]  When things remained stalled, Ayscue began trying to reach Modyford, who had learned the true state of affairs in England. [60]

Finally, on 3 January 1652, Modyford acted.  He and his regiment changed sides. [61]  Willoughby refused to negotiate until January 9. [62]  Finally, a treaty was signed on January 11 that restored everyone’s land to them, including Willoughby’s in England. [63]  Planters gained everything they had been demanding since the beginning of the war.  Daniel Seale became the governor. [64]

In March, the General Assembly banished Willoughby and Walrond for a year. [65]  Later the banishments were extended.  Willoughby probably went to the coast of Guiana where he had established a colony in what is now Surinam. [66]

Parliament was forced to accept that new status of the island on 18 August 1652. [67]  Soon after, Willoughby returned to England to resume ownership of his estate. [68]

Less is known about Walrond after his banishment.  On 5 August 1653, Philip IV granted him a Spanish title.  It is assumed he must have entered Philip’s service, perhaps in the Caribbean. [69]  A family genealogists notes these “‘vizcondados previos’ titles were created with fiscal purposes, as the beneficiaries had to pay a fairly large amount of money in order to obtain them.” [70]

Rupert finally made it to the Caribbean in March 1652, only to sail past Barbados.  Another hurricane struck his fleet, this one killing his brother Maurice on September 13. [71]  Rupert returned with the remains of his ships to France.  When he sold the ships and booty [72] in March 1653, his Stuart cousin took half the profits.  Charles saw it as his right as the oldest son of a king to take the earnings of an entrepreneur.  In a way, the war was fought to assert the superiority of the Stuarts and Walronds over self-made men like Drax and Silvester.

Rupert retired to the continent. [73]

End Notes
1.  “English Civil War.”  Wikipedia website.

2.  Ben Coates.  “The Impact of the English Civil War on the Economy of London, 1642-1650.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Leicester, June 1997.  152.

3.  Charles Harding Firth.  “Willoughby, Francis.”  62:31– 35 in Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Sidney Lee.  London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1900.  62:33.  Willoughby is introduced in post for 10 April 2022.

4.  N. Darnell Davis.  Cavaliers and Roundheads in Barbados.  Georgetown, British Guiana: Argosy Press, 1887.  3.

5.  “Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham.”  Wikipedia website.
6.  “English Civil War.”
7.  “Prince Rupert of the Rhine.”  Wikipedia website.
8.  Robert H. Schomburgk.  The History of Barbados.  London: Longman, 1848.  269.

9.  David Plant.  “Biography of Francis, Lord Willoughby of Parham.”  British Civil Wars Project website; last updated 19 January 2010.  The older sister of Charles I, Elizabeth, married Frederick V, Elector Palatine. [74]  The couple had thirteen children.  Rupert was the third son; Maurice was the fourth. [75]  Since they were not in the line of succession, they became mercenary soldiers during the Thirty Years War in Europe. [76]

10.  “Prince Rupert.”
11.  Coates.  36.
12.  “Rump Parliament.”  Wikipedia website.
13.  “English Civil War.”
14.  “Timeline of the English Civil War.”  Wikipedia website.
15.  “English Civil War.”

16.  Davis.  4-5.  The governor of Virginia was William Berkeley.  The commander at Exeter had been his brother, John Berkeley. [77]

17.  “Timeline of the English Civil War.”

18.  Rif Winfield.  British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1603–1714.  Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Seaforth Publishing, 2009.  1652.

19.  Firth.  62:33.

20.  The transfer of Hay’s grant for Barbados to Willoughby is mentioned in the posts for 23 January 2022 and 10 April 2022.

21.  Schomburgk.  270.

22.  Antigua and the Antiguans: a Full Account of the Colony and Its Inhabitants.  London: Saunders and Otley, 1844.  2:350.  The author is assumed to be Mrs. Lanaghan, possibly Francis T. Lanaghan. [78]

23.  “Humphrey Walrond.”  Wikipedia website.

24.  Bernard Burke.  A Genealogical and Herlardic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland.  London: Harrison, 1862.  1625.

25.  Richard Ligon.  A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes.  London: Peter Parker, 1673.  21.  “Our intention at first was not to stay long there, but only to sell our goods, cattle, and horses, and so away to Antigua where we intended to plant: but the ships being for the most part infected with this disease and ourselves being unprovided of hands for a new plantation by reafon of the miscarrying of a fhip, which set out before us from Plymouth a month before, with men victuals, and all utensils fitted for a plantation we were compelled to stay longer in the island.”  He arrived during the yellow fever epidemic mentioned in the post for 27 March 2022.  The original is:

“Our intention at firft: was not to ftay long there, but onely to fell our Goods, Cattle, and Horfes, and fo away to Antigoa: where we intended to plant: but the fhips being for the moft part infected with this difeafe and our felves bting unprovided of hands for a new Plantation by reafon of the mifcarrying of a fhip, which fet out before us from Plimonth a month before, with men victuals, and all utenfils fitted for a Plantation we were compelled to ftay longer in the
Ifland.”

26.  Davis believes the news probably had reached Barbados by then. [79]
27.  This is mentioned in the post for 10 April 2022.
28.  Davis, 140, and Schomburgk, 270.

29.  Davis, 141, and Schomburgk, 270.  Drax is introduced in the post for 17 January 2022.

30.  Davis.  138, 140, 141.
31.  Davis.  160.
32.  Davis, 161, and Schomburgk, 270.
33.  Schomburgk.  271.
34.  Davis.  161, 163.
35.  Davis.  138.
36.  Davis.  164.  Silvester and Middleton are discussed in the post for 27 March 2022.
37.  Davis.  166.
38.  Davis.  168.
39.  Davis.  171–172.
40.  Davis.  173.
41.  “English Civil War.”
42.  Davis.  195.
43.  Davis.  173.
44.  Davis.  174.
45.  Davis.  173.
46.  Davis.  175.
47.  Davis.  186–187, 189.
48.  Davis.  189.
49.  Davis.  196.
50.  Davis.  200.
51.  “English Civil War.”
52.  Davis.  193.
53.  “English Civil War.”
54.  Davis.  208.
55.  Davis.  210, 212.
56.  Davis.  214.
57.  Davis.  212.
58.  Davis.  215.
59.  Davis.  220.
60.  Davis.  233–234.
61.  Davis.  239–240.
62.  Davis.  243.
63.  Davis.  249–250.
64.  Davis.  255.
65.  Davis.  256.
66.  Davis, 203, and “Francis Willoughby.”
67.  Davis.  250.
68.  “Francis Willoughby.”
69.  “Humphrey Walrond.”

70.  Paige Miller.  “Humphrey Walrond (abt. 1602 - bef. 1693).”  Wiki Tree website, 15 December 2019; last updated 29 Nov 2021.  Miller also notes that “a primary source for this title is yet to be located.”

71.  Davis.  258.
72.  Davis.  259.
73.  “Prince Rupert.”
74.  “James VI and I.”  Wikipedia website.
75.  “Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia.”  Wikipedia website.
76.  “Prince Rupert.”

77.  Eugene A. Andriette.  Devon and Exeter in the Civil War.  Newton Abbot, Devon: David and Charles, 1971.

78.  Gregory Frohnsdorff.  “‘Before the Public’: Some Early Libraries of Antigua.” Libraries and Culture 38(1):1–23:Winter 2003.

79.  Davis.  137–138.

Civil War in Barbados - 1645–1647

Topic: Gullah History
Politics on Barbados during the Civil War in England was driven by attempts of the proprietor, the younger James Hay, to gain control of the island from its trustees and creditors.  These were countered by the planters, who resisted his attempts to raise the money he needed.

In June 1643, the governor, Philip Bell, offered to yield his share of rents collected on the island if the assembly would pay him a salary.  This made him their representative, not Hay’s.  In April of the following year, the trustees agreed to stop demanding past-due taxes and confirm titles, if the Barbados assembly would accept a new rent schedule. [1]

The tides of the war began changing in England in the summer of 1645, when Parliament formed the New Model Army. [2]  Francis Willoughby had raised a regiment in 1643 that was stationed in Lincolnshire, [3] where Richard Ligon had lost his money. [C4]  He was typical of the nobility who found it hard to take orders from others.  Oliver Cromwell complained about the behavior of his men.  As a member of the House of Lords, he opposed the formation of the army and became a leader of the Presbyterians, [5] who were suspected of covertly supporting Charles I. [6]

1645 was the year Brazilians rebelled against the Dutch, and the price of sugar soared. [7]  This also was when John Winthrop and Constant Silvester became active in supplying the island with necessities. [8]

In July, the newly organized army took back Bridgewater.  Humphrey Walrond was one of the men the general, Thomas Fairfax, demanded be ceded.  His property was sequestered, and by October he was in jail. [9]

By July, the planters on Barbados were saying they would not pay rents until Hay came to island and negotiated with them directly. [10]  Charles heard a rumor that Hay was planning an alliance with Robert Rich, commander of Parliament’s navy, and regranted the Caribbean islands to John Ley. [11]  Bell persuaded the Barbados assembly to assert its neutrality. [12]  Ligon was later told “some of them of the better sort” vowed not to use the words “Roundhead or Cavalier” in public. [13]

Ley arrived in Barbados in August to assert his position, then moved on to the Leeward Islands also owned by Hay.  Parliament responded by abandoning Rich’s claim on behalf of the heirs of William Courteen in favor of Hay. [14]

Things remained at an impasse on Barbados.  In England, Fairfax moved towards Exeter in October 1645, but rain stopped his advance. [15]  He settled to the east and blocked the supply of goods to the city from that direction. [16]  George Goring’s royalist troops were pillaging to the west. [17]

Things were looking grim for Charles by the end of the year.  He ordered his son to leave Exeter; he had sent the fifteen-year boy there in September as symbolic commander of his troops. [18]

Fairfax finally prevailed in April 1646, when Exeter surrendered.  Everyone was allowed to leave the garrison and city if they took an oath not to fight again.  In addition, those who actively supported Charles had to send a plea to Parliament.  The usual fine was the value of two years’ income from their properties. [19]

Charles was captured in Nottinghamshire in May, [20] and Parliament was able to address the petitions from men whose property had been seized.  Thomas Modyford filed his appeal in May 1646, and received his fine that August. [21]  In June, Walrond was free and his fine was accessed. [22]

Hay’s problems became more severe in January 1647, when Parliament issued a demand for a loan.  He was too far in debt to contribute.  On the 23rd, he sold his lease to Willoughby.  [23]  In July, Willoughby was elected speaker of the House of Lords in July.  Two months later, the New Model Army arrived in London and arrested him. [24]  When he was released in December, he fled to the Netherlands. [25]

By then, Modyford was in Barbados as an agent for Thomas Kendall.  The latter was born in Cornwall in 1609, [26] and had married Modyford’s sister by 1636 when their oldest son was born. [27]  In 1639, Kendall was elected bailiff in 1939, when his father-in-law’s father-in-law, Robert Walker, was mayor. [28]  In the interim, he had been in Lisbon where he was involved in trade with Brazil. [29]  He apparently spent the war years in London, where he was associated with the London Merchant Adventurers, who sold unfinished cloth to the Netherlands. [30]

Kendall probably saw the profits being made in trade with the Caribbean, but did not quite trust Modyford’s commercial instincts.  He sent Ligon and another partner with him [31] when Modyford set said in June. [32]

End Notes
1.  J. H. Bennett.  “The English Caribbees in the Period of the Civil War, 1642-1646.”  The William and Mary Quarterly 24(3):359–377:July1967.  371.

2.  “New Model Army.”  Wikipedia website.  The ordinance establishing the army was passed on 6 January 1645, but it took time to get units organized.

3.  “Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham.”  Wikipedia website.

4.  The drainage program is mentioned in the post for 7 November 2021.  Ligon’s loss is mentioned in the post for 3 April 2022.

5.  “Francis Willoughby.”  Depredations committed by armies on both sides until the New Model Army. [33]

6.  “New Model Army.”
7.  This is discussed in the post for 17 January 2022.
8.  They are discussed in the post for 27 March 2022.
9.  “Humphrey Walrond.”  Wikipedia website.
10.  Bennett.  372.

11.  Bennett.  373.  Ley was the Earl of Marlborough.  As mentioned in the post for 3 April 2022, Rich also was head of the Commission of Plantations.

12.  Bennett.  373.

13.  Richard Ligon.  A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes.  London: Peter Parker, 1673.  57.

14.  Bennett.  373.

15.  Eugene A. Andriette.  Devon and Exeter in the Civil War.  Newton Abbot, Devon: David and Charles, 1971.  155.  Exeter is shown on the map with the post for 3 April 2022.

16.  Andriette.  131.
17.  Andriette.  136.  Goring is mentioned in the post for 3 April 2022.
18.  Andriette.  134.
19.  Andriette.  166.
20.  “Timeline of the English Civil War.”  Wikipedia website.

21.  Jane Stevenson.  “Richard Ligon and the Theatre of Empire.”  285–309 in Shaping the Stuart World, 1603 - 1714: The Atlantic Connection, edited by Allan I. MacInnes and Arthur H. Williamson.  Leiden: Brill, 2006.  289.

22.  “Francis Willoughby.”

23.  Bennett.  377.  Robert H. Schomburgk says the imprisoned Charles agreed to the transfer. [34]

24.  “Francis Willoughby.”  Schomburgk says Willoughby was “suspected of being connected with the intrigues of the Earl of Suffolk, Lord Hundesden, Lord Maynard, the Earl of Lincoln, Lord Barkley, and the Earl of Middlesex.” [35]

25.  Willoughby escaped to Holland in March 1647. [36]

26.  John. P. Ferris.  “Kendall, Thomas (1609-66), of Chiswick, Mdx.”  In The House of Commons, 1660-1690, edited by Basil Duke Henning.  London: Secker and Warburg for the History of Parliament Trust, 1983.

27.  “Grace Modyford.”  Ancestry website.

28.  Richard Izacke.  Antiquities of the City of Exeter.  London: E. Tyler and R. Holt for Richard Marriot, 1677.  See the post for 3 April 2022 for more on Walker, and the importance of these offices.

29.  Bennett.  81.

30.  “Company of Merchant Adventurers of London.”  Marine Lives website.  They specialized in the “export of English cloth, especially undyed, white, broadcloth.”

31.  Ligon.  22.  “Upon this Plantation I lived with these two partners a while, but with Colonel Modyford three years: for the other went for England, and left Colonel Modyford to manage the employment alone: and I to give what assistance I could for the benefit of both: which I did partly at their requests and partly at the instance of Mr. Thomas Kendall who reposed much confidence in me, in case Colonel Modyford should miscarry in the voyage.”

The original is: “Upon this Plantation I lived with thefe two partners a while, But with Colonel Modiford three years: for the other went for England, and left Colonel Modiford to manage the imployment alone: and I to give what affiftance I could for the benefit of both: which I did partly
at their requefts and partly at the inftance of Mr. Thomas Kendal who repofed much confidence in me, in cafe Colonel Modiford thould mif-carry in the Voyage.”

32.  Ligon.  1.
33.  “New Model Army.”
34.  Robert H. Schomburgk.  The History of Barbados.  London: Longman, 1848.  269.
35.  Schomburgk.  269.
36.  Schomburgk.  269.

Civil War in Barbados: 1642–1644

Topic: Gullah History
Civil War was brewing in England long before it broke out on 22 August 1642.  Few were ready to take sides, and most who did had personal reasons.  For instance, during the summer of 1642 individuals in the Fen district of eastern England rebelled against drainage schemes promoted by Charles I.  They became supporters of Parliament, [1] and Richard Ligon, who had been an investor, became a Royalist. [2]

On Barbados, cotton and tobacco still were the main crops.  James Hay was still trying to pay off the debts of his father, the first James Hay, so he could inherit Barbados and the other Caribbean islands claimed by his father. When the planters heard rumors of Parliament’s activities in January 1642, they refused to pay their rents to Hay until they got approval from Parliament. [3]

When Charles learned Barbados had not sprung to his support in January 1643, he ordered Hay to replace the governor, Philip Bell, with a man selected by himself.  The trustees of Hay’s estate, who had their own interests in maintaining trade on the island, intervened. [4]

In March 1643, Parliament passed the Sequestration Ordinance, which allowed it to collect the rents of people who were actively supporting Charles. [5]  This was aimed at men who owned land, [6] but merchants in London saw potential dangers in Parliament’s attempts to raise funds to support its army.  This is when they began investing their movable income in land on Barbados. [7]

Meantime, as armies were formed in England, people were forced to take sides.  In the west country, shown in the map above, Cornwall, at the far left, supported Charles.  The peninsula was in an area where the western Amorica and eastern Avalonia plates joined to close an ocean basin many millennia ago.  Since the area west of the river flowing to Exeter was lifted, the granite area had been mined for tin. [8]  It enjoyed royal protection and became a safe haven for his troops. [9]

The central part of Devon, the county east of Cornwall generally supported Charles, and provided a roadway for armies going to and from Cornwall.  Much of the inland east of the river flowing from the north through Exeter was devoted to sheep, while the ports on both the north and south coasts supported fishermen.  Exeter was the exception.  It became the center for merchants who collected woven goods from the interior and shipped them to the Netherlands for finishing. [10]  Landowners, who held obligations to the king that dated back centuries, supported Charles, while merchants supported free trade promoted by Parliament. [11]

Since the port of London was controlled by Parliament, Charles’ armies secured all the west country ports, except Plymouth, to maintain supply lines with Ireland and France.  Garrisons were maintained in the cities, but citizens were expected to provide housing and food for the soldiers.  Groups raided the countryside for food, animals, firewood, and other supplies.  Nearly all could be vicious, but those of George Goring were the worst. [12]

Henry Walrond’s lands were in Somerset, the county to the northeast of Devon.  Ilminster is in the south where armies marched.  He joined one of the bands of citizens that formed to protect themselves from marauders.  When Bridgewater, the port on the river flowing into Bristol Channel, was taken in June of 1643, he claimed “he was robbed by the king’s soldiers and driven into the garrison at Bridgewater.” [13]

Charles established his headquarters in Exeter after the city surrendered in September 1643.  John Berkeley, brother of Virginia’s governor, was appointed governor. [14]  Thomas Modyford was made a county commissioner for Devon. [15]

Little has been written about Modyford’s background.  The family lands were in Halberton. [16]  This is in eastern Exeter in the little arc south of Taunton.  It is thought they had come from Somerset. [17]  One would guess, his father, John Modyford, became a middleman who purchased woolen goods in the country and sold them to export merchants in Exeter.  This placed him somewhere in the middle of the social structure in the port.

Before the Royal takeover, Exeter was governed by a council of twenty-four controlled by the merchant guild.  Each year a man was elected mayor and four were made bailiffs.  The latter actually were tax collectors. [18]

His father’s rise began in 1602 when he was elected bailiff in Exeter in 1602.  He was bailiff again in 1612, [19] when he bought land within Saint Mary Arches, [20] the Puritan-leaning merchant parish. [21]  The next year he was elected sheriff, [22] which was a county, [23] not city office.  His father-in-law, Thomas Walker, [24] was mayor in 1614.  Modyford held the office in 1622, and Walker again in 1625. [25]  When he died in 1628, John had half the wealth of Walker. [26]

Modyford was eight-years-old when his father died, and could not inherit money until 1642.  He apparently was raised to be the landowner, but did not gain his property until his mother died. [28]  His brother James was apprenticed to a merchant company in the Levant. [29]  His sister Grace married Thomas Kendall, who became a merchant in London. [30]

1643 was the year James Drax made his fortune in selling sugar. [31]  In November, Parliament asserted oversight of foreign colonies, and appointed Robert Rich head of the Commission on Plantations. [32]  Back in 1638, when Hay began demanding his then governor, Henry Hawley, forward monies owed the estate, Hawley began supporting Rich’s scheme to take over Barbados for the heirs of William Courteen. [33]  When Hay fired Hawley, he returned to Barbados and claimed the island now belonged to Rich. [34]

While Hay was finessing demands from Rich and Charles, Bell was investing in his plantation.  He had been granted 200 acres as his right, and gradually added to the land. [35]  He bought slaves from the Guinea Company, and, as mentioned in the post for 30 January 2022, was given slaves by a sea captain wishing to ingratiated himself in late July of 1644.

The Guinea Company, formally known as the Company of Adventurers of London had been granted a monopoly for trade with Africa by James I in 1618.  Nicholas Crispe had a controlling interest by 1628. [36]  In 1643, Parliament sequestered his property for debts he owed as farmer of the customs. [37]  The attempt to recover the funds led to the collapse of the Guinea Company in 1644.  When the records were audited, it was found Bell was the largest debtor. [37]

Graphics
Kelisi.  “A Map of England’s West Country.”  Uploaded to Wikimedia Commons on 5 January 2008; last updated by Carlog3 on 17 June 2009.

End Notes
1.  Ann Hughes.  The Causes of the English Civil War.  London: Macmillan, 1991.  127.  Cited by “English Civil War.”  Wikipedia website.

2.  Susan Scott Parrish.  “Richard Ligon and the Atlantic Science of Commonwealths.”  The William and Mary Quarterly 67(2):209–248:April 2010.  210.  Ligon published a survey of Barbados in 1673 that has been cited in previous posts.

3.  J. H. Bennett.  “The English Caribbees in the Period of the Civil War, 1642-1646.”  The William and Mary Quarterly 24(3):359–377:July1967.  368.  The senior Hay is introduced in the post for 7 November 2021.  He was the Earl of Carlisle.

4.  J. H. Bennett.  370.

5.  Charlotte Young.  “‘His Lands as well as Goods / Sequestred ought to be’: The Introduction of Sequestration, 1642-3.”  British History in the 17th Century seminar group, Institute of Historical Research, 9 June 2016.

6.  Ben Coates.  “The Impact of the English Civil War on the Economy of London, 1642–1650.”  PhD dissertation.  University of Leicester, June 1997.  81, 157.

7.  Michael D. Bennett.  “Merchant Capital and the Origins of the Barbados Sugar Boom, 1627-1672.”  PhD dissertation.  The University of Sheffield, June 2020.  127–128.

8.  Arjan H. Dijkstra and Callum Hatch.  “Mapping a Hidden Terrane Boundary in the Mantle Lithosphere with Lamprophyres.”  Nature Communications 9:3770:2018.

9.  Mark Stoyle.  Loyalty and Locality: Popular Allegiance in Devon during the English Civil War.  Exeter, Devon: University of Exeter Press, 1994.  16–17.

10.  Eugene A. Andriette.  Devon and Exeter in the Civil War.  Newton Abbot, Devon: David and Charles, 1971. 16–17.

11.  Stoyle identified 137 who were known to support Charles.  15% were gentlemen or squires, 13% were involved with producing cloth (fullers, weaver, combers), 12% were innkeepers, and 12% were merchants.  Many of the others were skilled tradesmen.  He found 57 who actively supported Parliament.  3.5% were gentlemen, 25% were cloth workers, and 21% were merchants.  Instead of innkeepers, 14% were shopkeepers. [39]

12.  Andriette.  77, 104.
13.  “Humphrey Walrond.”  Wikipedia website.
14.  Stoyle.  45.

15.  Jane Stevenson.  “Richard Ligon and the Theatre of Empire.”  285–309 in Shaping the Stuart World, 1603 - 1714: The Atlantic Connection, edited by Allan I. MacInnes and Arthur H. Williamson.  Leiden: Brill, 2006.  289.

16.  “John Modiford Will.”  Marine Lives website, 12 April 2011.

17.  William Henry Hamilton Rogers.  Archaeological Papers Relating to the Counties of Somerset, Wilts, Hants, and Devon.  Taunton, Somerset: 1902.

18.  Richard Izacke.  Antiquities of the City of Exeter.  London: E. Tyler and R. Holt for Richard Marriot, 1677.

19.  Izacke.

20.  “Feoffment.”  Devon Archives and Local Studies Service (South West Heritage Trust), Document 332A/PF 16.  National Archives website.

21.  David Cornforth.  “Exeter during the Civil War.”  Exeter Memories website, 2007; last updated 22 April 2009.

22.  Izacke.
23.  Andriette.  19.
 
24.  John Knox Laughton.  “Modyford, Sir Thomas.”  38:94–95 in Dictionary of National Biography, edited by Sidney Lee.  London: Smith, Elder and Company, 1894.

25.  Izacke.
26.  “John Modiford Will.”
27.  “John Modiford Will.”

8.  “Sir James Modyford.”  Centre for the Study of Legacies of British Slavery, University College London website.

29.  John. P. Ferris.  “Kendall, Thomas (1609-66), of Chiswick, Mdx.”  In The House of Commons, 1660-1690, edited by Basil Duke Henning.  London: Secker and Warburg for the History of Parliament Trust, 1983.

30.  “Grace Modyford.”  Ancestry website.

31.  For more on the introduction of sugar in Barbados, see the post for 17 January 2022.
32.  J. H. Bennett.  370.

33.  Larry Gragg.  Englishmen Transplanted: The English colonization of Barbados, 1627–1660.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.  39  Rich was the Earl of Warwick.  He and Hawley are mentioned in the post for 30 January 2022.  Courteen is introduced in the post for 31 October 2021.

34.  Gragg.  40.

35.  Hilary MacDonald Beckles.  “White Labour in Black Slave Plantation Society and Economy: A Case Study of Indentured Labour in Seventeenth Century Barbados.”  PhD dissertation.  The University of Hull, August 1980.  317.

36.  “Guinea Company (London).”  Wikipedia website.
37.  Coates.  83.
38.  See the post for 30 January 2022.
39.  Stoyle.  105–106.