As a respectful tribute to the memory of the Founder of Fairlop Fair,
the Company of Block Makers caused this stone to be repaired A.D.
1829, under the direction of the following members:—Joseph Flowers,
William James Grinyer, Thomas Hemingway, Abraham Kimm, William Row,
and John Owen, Treasurer.
Close to his grave is a brick tomb, with an inscription to the memory of
his sister, Mrs. Sarah Killick, who died the 22d of August, 1782, in the
93d year of her age. A woman remarkable for the beauty of her person,
sweetness of disposition, and the share of health she also enjoyed
through life. Till her death she could play at cards, and read and work,
without spectacles.
Having thus briefly introduced to the reader, an outline of the character
of Mr. Daniel Day, who in the latter part of his life was called “Old
Daniel Day,” we will proceed to say a few words of his favourite
Oak.—This venerable and stupendous tree stood in Hainault Forest, about
10 miles from London, 3 from Ilford, and 2 from the village of Chigwell,
in Essex. The trunk, or main stem, of this giant of the forest measured,
about a yard from the ground, 36 feet in circumference! From this issued
11 vast arms, each of the dimensions of a tree of moderate growth. In
the meridian of the day, about 60 years ago, it is said that its shadow
extended over nearly an acre of ground! This tree was, about the year
1800, fenced round with a close paling, above five feet high, almost all
the extremities of its branches sawed off, and Mr. Forsyth’s composition
applied to them, to preserve them from decay; and the injury which the
trunk of the tree had sustained from the lighting of fires in the
cavities, was repaired, as much as possible, by the same composition. At
the same time, on one of the branches, was fixed a board, with this
inscription: “All good Foresters are requested not to hurt this old Tree,
a plaster having been lately applied to its wounds.” The rabble,
however, regardless of the respect due to the veteran of the Forest, soon
broke down the paling, lighted fires within the trunk, as heretofore, and
in consequence, before long, several of the limbs were broken quite off.
On the 25th of June, 1805, this famous Oak was discovered to be on fire,
occasioned by a party of sixty persons, who came from London in several
carriages during the morning, and amused themselves through the day with
playing at cricket and other sports; they had kindled a fire, which had
spread very considerably after they left the spot, but it was not
discovered for two hours. A number of persons came with water to
extinguish the flames, which was not effected until the main branch on
the south side, with part of the body, was consumed.
The high winds of February 1820, however, stretched its massy trunk and
limbs on that turf which it had for so many ages overshadowed with its
verdant foliage; and thus it exhibited a melancholy memento of the
irresistable power of time in bringing to an end not only the flower of a
season, but also the towering growth of many ages.
The remains of the Fairlop Oak were purchased by Mr. Seabrooke, the
builder of St. Pancras Church, and both the magnificent pulpits of that
church were formed out of it, and they are certainly the most beautiful
of their kind to be met with.
Our friend Mr. Day—for the friend of mankind never dies—had a small
estate, whether hereditary, or a purchase, we do not know, near the
Fairlop Oak, and thither he annually resorted, about a fortnight after
Midsummer, to receive his rents; the congeniality of his temper would not
suffer him to receive the good things of this world alone, and it was his
custom to invite a few of his neighbours to accompany him, and there he
would treat them with a repast of beans and bacon, &c. under the canopy
of the Oak, the accomodations being provided from an adjacent small
public-house, the Maypole. Mr. Day’s friends were so well pleased with
the rural novelty, that they one and all pledged themselves to accompany
him on the same occasion every year, on the first Friday in July, during
their lives.
In the course of a few years, this amicable meeting greatly increased,
and became known to the neighbouring gentry, farmers, and yeomanry; and a
vast number of them annually, on the day of Mr. Day’s jubilee, visited
the place. Suttling booths were soon found to be necessary for their
accommodation, which naturally produced various other booths for sale,
arranged around the huge Oak; and about the year 1725, this charming spot
began to present every resemblance of a regular fair. It progressively
increasing, puppet-shows, wild beasts, fruits, gingerbread, ribbons, and
toys, of all descriptions, attended with the usual pastimes of a country
wake, soon succeeded, and in a very few years it became one of the most
respectable, well-regulated, and harmonious, fairs round the metropolis.
This new generation of Mr. Day’s creation became his principal
hobby-horse, and he found himself highly flattered by the honest
attentions of his numerous visitors.
Suffer me here to digress for a few moments: methinks we see the good old
man indulging the graceful sensations resulting from a knowledge of his
having founded and promoted a meeting of innocent conviviality, and
receiving the smiling congratulations of artless beauty, dancing around
him and his venerable Tree, with bosoms light and pure as the atmosphere
above them. Say, ye sons and daughters of dissipation, who indulge in
midnight revelry, are your pursuits equal to the simple joys of a country
fair? Is there no difference between the confined and crowded
play-house, or opera, where you are all gasping for a little contaminated
effluvia, and the healthful and fragrant breezes of sylvan Fairlop?
See the ruddy glow of rosy health, so fascinatingly contrasted with the
lily’s rival, and the natural ringlets flowing with the playful wind!
Behold the modest, yet delightful work of nature! Is there no
distinction between these simple beauties, and the artful manufactured
face, on which the faithless rouge and poisonous white lay waste God’s
best of works, and leave not a wreck behind?
But to return: the open and generous heart of Mr. Day expanded with
inexpressible delight at being the cause of happiness to others, he
thought some little return due to the lads and lasses, who so graciously
favoured him with their company; he provided several sacks of beans, and
a sufficient quantity of bacon, dressed; the bacon was mixed in slices
with the beans, and distributed from the trunk of the Tree to the
multitude in pansful. The happy, frolicksome contest for the envied
portion, is more easily conceived than described. Unfortunate was he who
did not procure a share for his fair-one. Blessings were the donor’s
reward, and the air resounded with huzzas; the very leaves of the
venerable Tree nodded in silent and majestic gratitude: this custom he
continued to his death. How long the chosen companions of this festival
lived to accompany the founder, is not known. It is not to be doubted
but they individually kept their word. Mr. Day survived them all, about
ten in number, several years.
In the former part of Mr. Day’s life, he usually walked to Fairlop and
back again; later in life he was wont to ride on horseback, but having a
fall from his horse, he declared he would never cross another; he kept
his vow, sold his horse, and purchased a mule: this obstinate animal
also, unconscious of the worth he bore, threw his rider in the mire. Mr.
Day discarded his mule as he had done his horse, and determined never
more to trust himself upon the back of a four-legged beast. His next
resource was a post-chaise or a coach; in one of these he also met with
an accident, and ever after refused to enter into either. This last
circumstance induced him to direct his remains to be conveyed by water to
the place of burial, saying, “If he was conveyed in a hearse, he should
be awakened.” He next invented a machine to go by the aid of mechanical
power without horses, which, after two years successful trial, broke down
in attempting the third expedition. His dernier resort was a
jockey-cart, in which, attended by music, he took his annual trip up to
the July preceding his death.
Long previous to Mr. Day’s exit, Fairlop Fair was known all over Essex,
and the adjoining counties; and naturally the inhabitants of Wapping, and
the eastern parts of London, could not be ignorant of it, consequently it
was attended by a vast concourse of people. The engine-makers,
pump-makers, and block-makers of Wapping, and other places contiguous to
the river, a few years before Mr. Day’s death, to the amount of about
thirty or forty, every year went to the Fair in a boat made of one piece
of entire fir, covered with an awning, mounted on a coach-carriage, drawn
by six horses, with flags, streamers, and pendants flying, and a band of
music, attended by a great many persons on horseback, in carriages, and
on foot. This custom, on the first Friday in every July, has been
successively observed to this time, in compliment, and in commemoration
of their old friend and “brother chip,” to whose pious memory they never
fail to drink. The great annual resort to Fairlop Fair is so well known
for twenty miles around, that it is needless to say more on the subject
than that in point of the number of persons who go to it, and in
accomodations and articles for sale, it is not inferior to any fair near
the metropolis, excepting that it is only of one day’s duration. Seven
and twenty years have now elapsed since the famous Fairlop Oak ceased to
attract the attention of the holiday-makers, but the mirth and festivity,
gypsying, archery, donkey-riding, swinging, &c. are still to be witnessed
to a great extent. Long may Fairlop’s Friday continue to be joyously
looked forward to by all as “the good Day’s” day of “fun and jollity!”
THE WILL OF Mr. DANIEL DAY.
(_NEVER BEFORE PRINTED_.)
Extracted from the Registry of the
Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
In the Name of God, Amen.
I, DANIEL DAY, of the Parish of Saint John, Wapping, in the County of
Middlesex, late Block and Pump Maker, do hereby revoke all former Wills
by me at any time heretofore made, and do make and declare this to be my
last Will and Testament. I desire to be decently buried in Barking
Church Yard, in the County of Essex, at the discretion of my Executors
hereinafter named. And I desire to have six men of the same trade that I
followed to attend my funeral, and to put my body into a boat, and to
convey the same to Barking aforesaid by water, and then to see the same
interred. And I give and bequeath to the said six men one guinea each,
and also a new apron, and a pair of gloves to each of them for their
trouble therein. I give and bequeath unto Thomas Dillow, of the Parish
of Broughing, in the County of Hertford, five pounds. I give and
bequeath to Thomas Wright, of the Parish of Standon, in the said County
of Hertford, five pounds. I give and bequeath to my Servant, Elizabeth
Richardson, five pounds, and a bed, in case she shall be living with me
at the time of my decease. I give and bequeath to the Treasurer of the
Charity School of the Parish of Saint John, Wapping, aforesaid, the sum
of five pounds, in trust, and for the sole use and benefit of the
Children belonging to the said School. I give and bequeath to the poor
of the Parish of Barking, aforesaid, the sum of two pounds, to be
distributed amongst them by the Church Wardens and Overseers of the said
Parish, in such manner as they shall think proper. I give and bequeath
to the Children of Blagrave Gregory the sum of one hundred pounds, to be
equally divided to and amongst them, share and share alike, and to be
paid to them by my Executors hereinafter named, when and so soon as they
shall respectively attain their ages of twenty-one years, or days of
marriage, which shall first happen; and in case any or either of them
shall happen to die before they shall attain their ages of twenty-one
years, or be married, then the share of him, her, or them, so dying,
shall be equally divided to and amongst the survivor or survivors of
them; and in case there shall be but one such Child who shall live to
attain the age of twenty-one years, or be married, then I give the said
one hundred pounds to such surviving Child. And as to all my money in
the public funds, goods, chattels, and all other the rest, residue, and
remainder of my personal Estate, of what nature or kind soever, which I
shall be possessed of, interested in, or entitled unto, at the time of my
decease, after payment of my just debts and funeral expences, I will,
order, and direct, that my Executors hereinafter named, and the Executors
and Administrators of the survivor of them, shall stand seized and
possessed of the same upon trust and confidence; nevertheless, to make
sale of any part of my goods and chattels, and to call in and receive
such parts of my said personal Estate as is now outstanding, and to
invest the money arising thereby in some or one of the public funds, or
Government securities, in the names of my said Executors; and when the
same shall be so invested, as aforesaid, it is my will and I do hereby
give and bequeath all the residue of my said personal Estate (after
payment of my just debts and legacies, hereinbefore mentioned) unto
William Weale, Tabitha Weale, Sarah Ann Weale, Daniel Weale, James Weale,
Esther Day Weale, and Louisa Weale, the sons and daughters of James
Weale, late of the Parish of Saint John, Wapping, aforesaid, Block Maker,
deceased, to be equally divided to and amongst them, share and share
alike, and to be paid to them respectively on their attaining their
respective ages of twenty-one years, or days of marriage, which shall
first happen; and in case any or either of them shall happen to die
before he, she, or they, shall attain their ages of twenty-one years, or
be married, then the share of him, her, or them, so dying, shall go to
the survivor, or survivors, of them, share and share alike. And I do
hereby order and direct that my said Executors shall not be answerable,
or accountable, for the acts, deeds, receipts, or payments, of the other
of them, but each of them for his and their own acts, deeds, receipts,
and payments, respectively. And that my said Executors, their Executors,
or Administrators, shall deduct and retain in his or their hands, all
such costs, charges, and expences, which they, any, or either, of them
shall sustain, or be put unto, in, or about, the execution of this my
Will. And I do hereby constitute and appoint William Camden, and John
Camden, of the said Parish of Saint John, Wapping, aforesaid, Sugar
Refiner, and Peter Manswell, of the Parish of Saint Matthew, Bethnal
Green, in the said County of Middlesex, Tallow Chandler, Executors of
this my Will. In witness whereof, I, the said Daniel Day, the Testator,
have to this, my last Will and Testament, contained in three sheets of
paper, annexed together and sealed with my seal, to the two first of the
said sheets set my hand, and to the last my hand and seal, and published
and declared the same, this thirty-first day of December, in the year of
our Lord one thousand, seven hundred, and sixty-six.
Daniel Day.
Signed, sealed, published, and declared, by the said Testator, Daniel
Day, as and for his last Will and Testament, in the presence of us, who,
in his presence, and at his request, and in the presence of each other,
have subscribed our names as Witnesses thereto.
Robert Tudman,
Matthew Coates,
John Yourson.
_Proved at London the_ 24_th_ _October_, _in the year of our Lord_ 1767.