Charles ALSTON [1008]

  General Notes:

Charles was from Colchester and was left 100pds for his education by his Grandfather Samuel.

Living at 15 Newenham Street, Chatham, Kent in the 1881 Census

Alston A Fenn records "Photographs of Charles & Matilda at Alston Court". not accounted for by E L Fenn 1999.

40 Newnham Street,
Henry St. Chatham.
10th April 1874

My dear little grand niece
I feel sure I am writing to a good girl to thank her very much for her kind presents of cuffs and silk handkerchief - a very nice one indeed and which shall be kept for Sunday's only - when I am able to walk to Rochester Cathedral.

This morning I received a book I had ordered at my Booksellers, The Childrens Friend which I hope you will like - I send the same to your cousins in Australia and Arthur Alston is quite pleased with it and little Lucy also.

I shall send it this evening by book post and trust you will have safely some time tormorrow.

Please give my love to Grandm's Aunt Annie and your Mama and with best love to yourself,
I remain
My dear niece your affectionate Grand Uncle
CHARLES ALSTON
Letter in possession of F B Brennan 2012

CHARLES ALSTON
Birth year1792
Age90
Death quarter3
Death year1882
DistrictMedway
CountyKent
Volume2A
Page281
CountryEngland
England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007

  Research Notes:

Bap - may be May 3

  Other Records

1. Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature & Holy Scriptures: Adapted for Children, 1814.
This little book (90mm x 140mm), first published in 1799, was owned by Master W Cooke in 1814, he has not been traced as a member of the Alston Family.

He has been placed in Charles Alston's file to make it available to any interested person.
It has been well recorded on the internet for sale.

The complete book can be found on this website under the "Books" button, "Knowledge of Nature & Holy Scriptures"

2. Charles Alston fecit, 1821.
The publication of the "Friendship Gazette" January 1921 is attributed to Charles who may at the time been "interested" in Miss Catherine Mary Downing? who married Dr Edward Liveing later that year.
Charles married Matilda Cross in Dec 1821

Miss C. M. Downing
Stoke by Nayland
Suffolk
Friendship's Gazette and Miscellaneous journal
January 1, 1821
Colchester

The Black Bee
"I'll have a suit of Sables" - Hamlet

Under this head dark as it may seem we intend to present our fair correspondents with some light articles on the first of each month, (if agreeable) and entreat them not to be alarmed at its formidable name, since we can assure them it has no sting for its friends: and professes a strong attachment to the British Fair!
This we know are its sentiments and consequently feel certain that nothing will appear to offend its friends in any succeeding article . . . . .


CMD's requests shall be attended to speedily no doubt Henry will be extremely obliged to her for the very kind invitation she has given him through our columns her wishes are commands with us and we beg leave to say we shall always execute them, as far as it is possible with the greatest pleasure.

CA presents his kind regards to Mrs Downing and yourself and would have returned to Nayland to dinner but was prevented; and trusts the present year will permit him to spend a few days with his friends more pleasantly than the last - he wishes you to state to Mr and Mrs Allston the reason of his detention - a request from Mr Taylor to finish his work.

Stanzas to C.M.D.
Dear Catherine fair this heart would pay
Its tribute on the new years day
To thee at friendships shrine;
Would thank thee for the kind of esteem
Thou't wer shown - that welcome beam
Caught from love font divine!

What shall its offering be? Alas!
Praise with most for flatt'ries pass;
I flatter not, attend!
Thou long has known me; childhood days
Saw the first glimmerings of those rays
Which grace the name of Friend.

And manhood finds the worth increase
A firm regard; which ne'er can cease
Best with this meeting heart;
Yet, not the silence of the tomb,
With all its deep surrounding gloom
Can cause it to depart.

Ah, no! tho clouds attend us here,
There is prepared a brighter sphere;
And Hope delighted tells
That hallowed Friendship will be there;
Banish'd her tears from regions where
Sweet peace forever dwells.

These shall its oft ring'd be - its prayers
To him who for the vertuous cares
That he thy heart may keep
From evils that beset us round.
Nor suffer pain that heart to wound;
Or cause those eyes to weep.

But that young joy and hope may breathe
Their magic spells around; and wreath
Life's loveliest flowers for thee;
And bring their smiling train to grace
Thy future years and swiftly chase
All thoughts of misery.

And may thy chosen partner prove
Worthy that gentle bosom's love,
Thy fondest hopes to bless:
He - must - he will his noble heart
Would scorne the base dissemblers part
Or blight your happiness

Thy mother! may she live to view
Indulgent heaven with blessings strew
Thy path - and long, long tell
Thy friends; her latest hours are blessed
In finding thee beloved - carest
Dear Catherine now, farewell!
CA

Stanzas to ---
Hast thou not seen an early morn
The dew drops trembling on the thorn;
And sighed to think that gems so fair
Should perish in the morning air?

Hast thou not seen its purist ray
Gleam on the coronet of May;
And heard the feather'd chorister
Sweet notes amongst the drooping firs?

And lov'st thou mid such scenes to view
The timid lev'ret brush the dew;
And mark along the hedgerow side
The blackbirds glossy plumage glide?

And lov'st to hear the tinkling bell
Of sheepfold in the lonely dell?
While on the breeze wild notes of joy
Are born from happy peasant boy?

And lov'st to see the morning sky
Display its gorgeous pageantry;
Whilst o'er thy path the skylark sings
His anthem to the King of Kings

If scenes like these delight thee still,
Indulge thy spirit - rove at will;
And natures charms tho' sought by few
Well ever please with something new
CA

STOKE
by Nayland - a poem
Addressed to CMD by the Black Bee

Village of loftiest aspect. wheresoever
My drifting(?) may place me, I shall dwell
With pleasure on thy charms throughout the year;
And recollections oft this heart will dwell
With eager hopes, again to view each dell;
And when upon my path the evening beams
In slanting glories fall, they will but tell
Of thy loved scen'ry and recall the gleams
Of happier hours and friends - now, vanished as dreams

When gentle spring escaped from winters arms
Hath scattered all her modest flower'ets 'round
The gardens and unveiled her blushing charms;
Profusely taking all thy meadows ground
With tokens of her love; and when the sound
Of the lone cuckoo's voice salutes the ear
And lambs are sporting on each grassy mound
Emblems of innocence in the sweet career
Then Stoke thou dost to me in loveliness appear.

There's is in thy woodland scenery a bright,
A wild luxurious beauty which oft thrills
A pensive wanderer with serene delight
When she with blossoms every ticket fills
And spreads her influence o'er the sylvan hills
Embroidering mossy banks with sweetest flowers
The violet's fragrance scents of sunny hill's;
And clouds refreshing earth with hasty showers,
Their crystal gems suspend in Flora's gayest bowers

And thou my friend accept this wish sincere
That health and happiness and cosy joys,
Which bounteous providence doth send to cheer
As pilgrimage below without alloy,
May be thy share - for well I know that toy
The means oft persue with eager eye is,
(and erring world's applause, to it doth cloy
there pallid sense who clasp a shadowy prize
and disappointed die) thy mind doth all despise.

To such we'll leave that pleasure and dance
Where bright eyed beauty sheets its trembling light,
Made brighter still as lightest feet advance
To music's thrilling measure; where the sight
May wander een to dizziness - or quite
Bewildered in the magic brilliance, seck
Some calm recess to muse away in the night
Or listen for the joyful tones that speak
Of gratitude e'er yet appears moms earliest streak.

And who thad wandered ere the rising Sun
Hath poured its life in inspiring light around;
While from the leafy covert heath begun
Natures own hymn - and does not feel its sound
Strike on the chords of love? that heart it is bound
In apathetic sterness, which repel
Those strong incitements, ever to be found
In nature's rich variety - she dwells,
Most beautifully clad, within thy grooves and dell's.


Tis sweet to rest upon a verdant slope
Screen'd from the noontide heat, by some broad tree
When summer breezes oft the foliage ope
Then onward sale invisible and fill;
Chequering the ground incessantly; the bee
Humming around some wild and lovely flow'r,
Pauses a moment on the wing ere He.
Extracts its sweetness which obtained once more,
The little spoiler flies to, increase his honied store

Two sweet to walk the hazel-row between;
Or near the silver brooks green margins stand
That winds with gentlest murmur searching seem
For envious thickets close-entwining band
That guard the lovely naiad from the hand
Of ev'ry rude and careless wanderer
Who might her well pollute: that spring heath found
With her delicious breath; or been afar,
The choicest streams, and soon forget they ever were.

(To be continued when Black Bee is in the humour)

We shall feel deeply obliged to our friend if she will point out any incorrectness of language which the darkness of an hive prevents our seeing in the foregoing stanzas - we shall give a profile likeness of Lord Byron in our next with an extract from his works - likewise an occasional glance at the fashions which might prove interesting to our friends - for ourselves they pass unnoticed having arrived in "A suit of Sables" - A few extracts from the periodicals may not be despised with a little of that delicious spice to some and we know. Politics -- well such is our present outline and believing we shall tire(?) you with this
We conclude with much esteem.
CA

Carefully written and illustrated on three sides of one sheet, sealed with a large Alston seal, signs of a faint postmark

3. Charles Alston fecit, 1821.
Mifs Downing
Stoke by Nayland
Suffolk.

Friendship's Gazette and
Miscellaneous Journal No2
February 19th, 1821
Colchester.
The Black Bee
I'll have a suit of sables.
Shakespeare. We are concerned to find, by a note from CMD that she was disappointed on the first of this month we are sure her nothing but - time - was necessary for the completion of this article and this we trust will be our excuse - for the future we will arrange matters so that she may receive them on the 1st of each month - we were pleased to find our 1st number met with so kind a reception, and where the venture to predict improvement under such encouragement.
The Black Bee is inclined to visit Stoke soon if convenient perhaps next Sunday;
the magazines were received safe, and we were pleased at the punctuality of CMD in returning them within the time allowed, for which, we tender our thanks - I have not heard anything of GA except in her note of the second. Suppose the grand excursion to the Antipodes has by this time, like many eccentric plans fallen to rise no more?
Of news - real news we know little - the reports of the morning come before us in startling attitude - but phantoms all they vanish and are scarcely thought of in the evening - but we can tell you what in all probability you knew before that the celebrated Dr Tomkyns is dead and buried he formerly resided at Nayland. That Lt Col Boggis has become almost bankrupt, his horses were put to the hammer on Saturday last - the furniture is expected to follow soon - but it is confidently asserted he could pay 30 shillings in the pound as the phrase is could he sell the very large stock of Caiyes [?] Advantageously but there is no market for that article except at a very great loss, and there we must leave the Col.
The Levellers still float in many an ample fold round the fan of the Promenade as on the Lexden Path, displaying all the rich and varied tents of evening in the silk linings of their appendages - while a pair (now and then) of brilliant eyes darting their " ? rays" on all they meet from beneath the deep circumference of hat, seems something like twin sisters in Joys right hemisphere. We saw the other day a lady and her own house in a Ruby gown with a worked muslin apron and 1 of our favourite capes - she was rather tall, a pretty figure and for once we laid aside our antipathy to glancing display - and thought her becomingly attired - what a change - perhaps you will say in the opinion of Black Bee - no such thing we are sure you - if you do so - we only [?] Aside our dislike to glancing in order that we might

the more readily survey the lady - but to resume our sables - there appears no material change in the form or colour of female envelopes since our last, (where we did not notice the subject) but purple pelesses costume, some displaying on the shoulder a rabbit's tail - while round the skirt [?] two dozen skins appear to be stitched - such we lately saw in the High Street - and determine the report them to you the 1st opportunity - they were pretty jacket shaped things to be sure - but are that but - others display the same colour but less ornamental - once only once we saw beauty in modest chaste attire apparently sisters, and gentle girls they wore dark olive pelesses with collars and capes they have usually been termed tips but B.B. ventures to call them what they are - others, we have noticed is persons being anti-slender, and consequently adapted for exhibition, have (perhaps with a view of instructing the rising generation in the elements of geography) allowed their fair forms to be encircled with apelisse of honour on whose . . . . . might be seen a labyrinthine maze of intersecting twist of which it would puzzle a philosopher to find the beginning, and therefore . . . . . after this we shall take leave of the fashions of the day for the present - with a request that should our notice be unpleasant CMD will inform us on the completion of number 3.
Page 4 contains a sketch which might relate to above.
As a contrast to the preceding we will next present you with an extract from Dr Chalmers Commercial Sermons. Speaking of the non-generous poor whose meanness and rapacity of spirit render him the worst enemy of the poor his brethren he says beautifully "there is at times kindly nurse of feeling ready to stream forth with a tenfold greater liberality than ever on the humble orders of life; and it is he, and such as he, who have . . . . . The transcriber has given up, make what you wish of this tosh! Charles was a cabinet maker was he seeking to cast himself as an intellectual to C.M.D.

4. Census: England, 7 Jun 1841, Maidenburg St Colchester.
Charles is recorded as aged 45 a cabinet maker born Essex

5. Census: England, 30 Mar 1851, 11 George St St Nicholas Colchester ESS.
Charles is described as head of house married aged 59 upholsterer born Bocking ESS HO107/781

6. Census: England, 8 Apr 1861, George St Colchester ESS.
Charles is recorded as head of house married aged 69 retired cabinet maker born Bocking

7. Census: England, 2 Apr 1871, Newnham St Gillingham Chatham KEN.
Charles Ashton is recorded as head of house married aged 79 retired upholsterer born Bocking

8. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, 15 Newenham Street Chatham, Kent.
Charles is recorded as head of house widower aged 89 retired cabinet maker born Bocking ESS.

9. Charles Alston: Family data sent to Edward H T Liveing.
Not always accurate.

Charles married Matilda CROSS [1009] [MRIN: 325] on 30 Dec 1821 in Colchester ESS. (Matilda CROSS [1009] was born on 24 Feb 1798 in Sudbury SFK and died in 1869 in Medway KEN.)