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TOTHAM:
_PRINTED AT_
CHARLES CLARK’S PRIVATE PRESS.
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FAIRLOP’S FRIDAY,
1847.
The History and Origin of Fairlop Fair, with Memoirs of Mr. Daniel Day,
the Founder, &c.
THIS curious and interesting account, written by a gentleman of Essex,
intimate with one of the descendants of Mr. Daniel Day, will afford us an
instance of its being in the power of almost every man, to add to the
felicity of his neighbours and fellow creatures. The subject before us,
though in the middling rank of life, for a series of years had the
gratification to see the hearts of hundreds annually rejoiced and made
glad, by his means, around the old Oak, and thousands to this time
assemble there, on the day he set apart for innocent pastime and rational
recreation, so that the benevolent views of his heart were not buried
with him in his grave: and, we most sincerely hope, while the spot
whereon stood the far-famed Fairlop Oak is to be pointed out, the sons
and daughters of freedom and hilarity will meet beneath the delightful
shades of the Forest of Hainault, in commemoration of the Founder of the
Feast and Fair, Daniel Day.
Daniel Day was born in the parish of St. Mary Overy, (in which parish his
father was an opulent brewer) in the year 1683, and for a great number of
years, until his death, was a very considerable engine, pump, and
blockmaker, in the parish of St. John’s, Wapping, where, to this day, his
memory is respected as a great benefactor to that parish, particularly in
the gift of the great bell at the consecration of the new church in 1760,
and as an upright and ingenious tradesman, a great mechanic, as the many
inventions he has left behind him in the construction of various
descriptions of engines and pumps, and of the improvement he made in the
jiggers used by brewers in the starting of beer, which is worked by them
to this day, sufficiently proves. He was of a most charitable and humane
temper, and exemplarily generous and liberal in his principles and
actions; to evince this we need only mention his portioning off his twin
nieces in his life-time with £1000 each, one of whom lies buried near
him. He would not only lend a distressed friend considerable sums, but
he invariably refused the smallest interest, and very frequently forgave
the principal; in short, his character for probity was such, that his
neighbours were ever satisfied with his arbitrations in their disputes,
to which his abilities were amply adequate; his memory was astonishingly
retentive, in so great a degree, as to enable him to repeat, almost
verbatim, a long discourse or sermon. He was not the enemy of any man,
or particular description of men, but the muscles of his face were
violently agitated whenever he heard of litigation in law, and he always
professed to be uneasy in the company of the practitioners of it.
Notwithstanding the very large sums he distributed in charities and lent,
he lived in comfort and died rich, leaving to the eight fatherless
children of his niece, whom we have already alluded to, the bulk of his
property to be equally divided.
It is with some degree of pain we mention that Mr. Day was never married,
because with a heart replete with the milk of human kindness, and
possessing an understanding at the same time solid and elevated, he
wanted only the additional great characters of a husband and father to
have made him more completely the great and good man.
Mr. Day had many eccentricities, but they were unoffending in their
nature, and no man was ever splashed or injured by his hobby-horse. We
should be doing injustice to his memory if we did not mention a peculiar
and very high trait in his character, and that was, his kindness to his
servants; in a few words, he was their friend. He had a widowed
house-keeper who lived with him for thirty years, and died in his
life-time at a very advanced age. She had two very strong attachments,
one to her wedding-ring and garments, and the other to tea; when she
died, Mr. Day would not permit her ring to be taken off—he said, “If that
was attempted, she would come to life again,” and directed that she
should be buried in her wedding suit, and a pound of tea in each hand;
and these directions were literally obeyed.
This whim was highly illustrative of his good nature, for although he had
an aversion to tea, and never drank it, he did not debar his servants the
use of it; and in the instance of his old house-keeper, carried his
liberality even into her grave, by providing her a commodity there, which
she was so fond of here. And although a bachelor, no man honoured more
the marriage state, as will be seen hereafter.
Mr. Day enjoyed as much as any man his friend and pitcher, but he was
temperate and regular in his mode of living, and very fond of the
exercise of walking; by this means he enjoyed an uncommon share of
health, until his death.
We are now drawing towards that last scene which sooner or later must
happen to the mighty and the weak, the rich and the poor, the good and
the bad.
A few years before Mr. Day’s death, a branch of the Old Oak received a
shock, either by decay, by lightning, or storm; this operated upon Mr.
Day as the warning of an old friend—it pointed out to him the instability
of life, and the effects of time; and he received the call with the
resignation of a christian, and the fortitude of a man, who was conscious
of having performed his allotted part with propriety.
He set about with alacrity, a task which to some men would have been an
awful preparation for the journey: his first business was to provide the
repository; by the favour of the lord of the manor, he procured the
dismembered limb of his favourite tree: this being done, he employed a
Mr. Clear, a carpenter, to measure him for a coffin, and to make it out
of this oak. Mr. Clear executed his job, and brought home his work,
which was neatly pannelled, and highly rubbed and varnished with
bees-wax. Mr. Day viewed his future habitation with the utmost serenity
and philosophy, and addressing himself to the carpenter, said, “Mr.
Clear, I have heard that when a person dies he is much stretched, and
consequently much longer than when living,” and, punning upon the man’s
name, went on, “now, Mr. Clear, it is not very CLEAR to me that you have
made this coffin long enough, but, however, we’ll try;” and laying
himself down in the coffin, he found it too short. “Never mind it,” says
the Stoic, “you must desire my executors to cut off my head and put it
between my legs.”
His next care was the disposition of his estate, and in this instance, as
well as in every action of his life, he demonstrated himself to be a just
and honest man.
After bequeathing several legacies, and providing for the children of his
niece, as we have before observed, he carried his harmless oddities to
the last action possible, and in that his mind shone with its wonted
benignity. He directed his executors to convey his remains, by water, to
Barking, accompanied by six journeymen pump and block-makers, as bearers;
to each of whom he gave a new white leather apron and a guinea.
There is a proof of his munificence that ought not to be omitted; it was
his custom, upon the birth of all his niece’s children, to present the
mother with a gold coral, a pap-boat, and a purse of 50 guineas. I
appeal to those of my fair country-women who are mothers, whether such a
gallant present would not be very pleasing to them upon such occasions;
and I cannot dismiss this account without observing, that the poor were
daily fed at his door, and never craved other relief from him in vain.
Mr. Day was not one of those persons who left the grand account to be
balanced at the hour of dissolution, or who have to trust only to a
sick-bed repentance for the errors of their whole lives: he was a
protestant, and a constant attendant upon divine worship at his parish
church, and though he had no child of his own, he would always enforce
the attendance of his nephews and nieces, their children, and of his
servants.
Mr. Day was not without his aversions, which were generally well founded
and immoveable, but he had few resentments.
In his dress and manners he was simplicity itself, and he was an amateur
of music and dancing, the meetings of which he frequently attended; upon
one of these occasions he was invited to a superior circle, where he was
told it would be necessary to wear ruffles, and a pair of the finest
point lace was presented to him; he viewed them with some degree of
contempt, and said, “If it was the custom he must comply, but it should
be in his own way,” and directed his house-keeper to get the lace dyed
green, in which colour he wore them at that assembly, and upon all
similar occasions.
Mr. Day retained his health until within a day or two of his death, and
his faculties to the last. As he had lived, so he died—a devout
christian, a sincere friend, a good master, and an honest man; he was
just without austerity, liberal without profuseness, free without
intemperance, and lively without excess; in fine, he lived merry and
wise, and died universally revered and lamented on the 19th of October,
1767, in the 84th year of his age, and was buried agreeable to his Will,
in his oak coffin, in the churchyard at Barking, in Essex, where the
following epitaph may be seen:—
Here lieth interr’d the Body of Mr. DANIEL DAY, Block and Pump Maker,
late of the Parish of St. John’s Wapping; who departed this Life
October the 19th 1767, Aged 84 years.
Death, from this world, hath set me free
From all my pain and misery.