A queer night. In bed by 7.30pm, as usual. 10pm, pee-stop number one. Switched out light. Slept. Then, suddenly, awoken. Switched on light. Nothing. Looked at illuminated clock. Non-illuminated. Bloody power cut. Tried to get to the fridge for some iced water. Well, I have difficulty walking in the daylight, in the Stygian dark I wobbled ferociously at every step. Made it safely back to bed -- there will be a few crooked pictures in the morning -- and grabbed Schnidi for safety. OK. It's not one of those two-minute powerblips. Schnidi sang me a dragonabye ... and I dreamed I was preparing to ride a horse for Peter Wolfenden. I was late and I'd left my hard hat at home and .. it was a galloper! (I hav'n't sat on a horse's back, as opposed to behind its tail, for 75 years!)
I awoke with the dawn. The clock is flashing. Phew, that meaning there will be water, lavatory, a shower, my hot lemon and, hopefully, the computer won't have suffered. The first four rituals accomplished, I set out to reset the clock. But ... it had reset itself! Odd. Oh, well, on to the computer. It, too, was in pristine ready-to-go condition. No. No restart, no passwords .. just go. And there, on the screen, was a document I'd whizzed past the day before .. glaring at me, challenging me ..
Scruton? How unusual. I thought a scruton was a testicle-receptacle. Well, I thought, there clearly would not be too many of those around, and it's a beastly, muggy 27deg outside, so I might as well play with the Scrutons for a nice, quiet day.
1821, eh? Mr and Miss. Father and daughter? Husband and wife? Brother and sister ..? Well, I picked wrongly, and spent several hours among the several (yes!) James Scruton 'musician's ... I won't list the details ... here's what I've distilled ...
The answer, by the way, is brother and sister.
This is what, I think, is the family. Ignoring Mr Scruton the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, painter and pantomimist et al.
James Scruton 'musician', son of James Scruton, barber, of Silver Street, York. I guess they are the James Scruton seen at 'at the sign of the Noah's Ark, Silver Street' in 1803.
1804 'the celebrated ventriloquist'? 1805 and thereafter oboeistt, clarionettist, flautist through a couple of decades... in 1806 he's 'Mr Scruton jnr' ... and Mr Scruton sr is playing bassoon ...
In 1800, he married a lady named Charlotte. We don't know for sure if she were Charlotte CLOUGH or Charlotte RESTIAUX, because she couldn't write. Maybe there were two Jameses and Charlottes. Anyway, thence came a James (9 September 1801), a Charlotte Elizabeth (27 April 1803), a Caroline (1 February 1805), an Elizabeth (13 May 1808), a Matilda (22 November 1810) ...
I discovered Matilda first and puzzled a while how she could have played Jeannie Deans at ten years of age, till I discovered the elder sisters. So ... I presume that the 'Miss Scruton' at Whitehaven, in 1814, must be one of those elder sisters. Which one? No idea. In 1819, Miss C Scruton (presumably Caroline) can be seen singing at spots in Westmoreland ... 1822 at Nottingham .. August 7 1823 Mr and Miss Scruton at Theatre Royal, Leeds. She performs 'a Yorkshire recitation and song in the character of a country boy'. Jane in Tom and Jerry and much singing at Stockport.
Miss M[atilda] and E[lizabeth] come on the scene around 1824-5. Matilda sings 'Little Mary of the Dee' at her elders' Benefit at Leeds. One of them sings Rossini ('There's a Grief') at the Yorkshire Amateur Meeting. They all seem to appear together at the Liverpool Olympic Circus, 'Miss' appears in Norwich and Bury, and, goodness, here is 'Miss' singing Semira and Marcellina alongside Miss Stephens at Chester! And then in 1829 we have the 'three Misses Scruton' all together at Liverpool .. by 1830, it is two again, for Caroline 'of the Theatre Royal, Bolton', has married (16 February 1829).
The name of her husband is recorded variously as John Walker MASON/MAYSON/MAYON!/MANN (it was Mayson) and he was a Bolton-born solicitor from Preston. The chap who became Mayor of Tynemouth (d 1870). This gent married a widow in 1844 ... so I suppose Caroline had died. Yes, there she is, died Northumberland, 1842. And there they are in C41, at Dispensary House, Tynemouth, with John's brother, William 'apothecary'.
Sister Matilda married into the theatre (17 January 1831). A performer named Edward Benwell who had been in the company at Birmingham with Miss Scruton of the Theatre Royal, Liverpool and Mr J Scruton, cellist. And then at Liverpool. Witnesses James and Elizabeth Scruton. Brother and sister.
Married life was too much for Edward. He supplied two sons, in two years, and then headed for the churchyard. After which Matilda married a Scotsman, Thomas CUNNINGHAM. And I lose her.
But all this was after the theatrical heyday, such as it was, of the Scruton family.
I hope I've sorted them out correctly. But they are confusing. The 1841 census shows, in Liverpool, James Scruton aged 55, with wife Charlotte 65 ... with Edward (9) and William (7) Benwell.
So which James is that? Obviously Matilda's ... brother? Teacher of music at 7 Hunter Street in the 1840s?
Charlotte died 15 June 1854 at Liverpool.
So, who is the James who died in 1834 aged 34. Who is the James 'musician' who died at Walmgate 22 December 1824?
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