Rockingham Press was founded in 1991 by David Perman --
or, to give him his full moniker, David Leonard Rockingham Perman.
Hence the title of the press is a family name -- nothing to do
with eighteenth-century Prime Ministers, forests or china! His
interests are wide-ranging and multifarious. This is his
page:
First,
the Rockingham bit. My mother's family were barge people:
my great-grandfather, Isaac Rockingham, was the tunnel keeper
of the Regent's Canal tunnel under Islington. I have traced back
that part of my family to Daniel Rockingham, labourer, who on
10 April 1793 married Susanna Wood at Potterspury in Northants
(she died in 1799 and Daniel then married Mary Gray). Daniel died
in Potterspury Workhouse on 16 July 1843 -- but I don't know when
or where he was born or, of course, who his parents were! Can
anyone help with the Rockinghams -- particularly the birth or
baptism of Daniel?
Second,
the Permans. I have had far less luck tracing my father's
family -- only to the marriage of my grandparents: Thomas Perman,
iron plate worker, who died (the family says of drink) in 1915,
and Alice Ann Bailey, who died in 1917, thus consigning her children
to an orphanage in Norwood, South London. There are more Permans
around than Rockinghams -- do you have any information on Thomas
Perman?
I
have a great interest in poetry, history (especially Ware history
-- see below) and publishing. But my career has been mainly that
of a journalist -- first at the Oxford Times, then the Oxford
Mail, The Observer Foreign News Service and then the BBC World
Service.
Apart
from journalism and family history, my main interests concern
Ware and its History. As the
former secretary of the Ware Society, I managed the restoration
of Scott's Grotto
and have written a guide about it. My biography of the
grotto's creator, the Quaker poet John Scott of Amwell, was published
in 2000 -- see the BIOGRAPHY
page. I also managed and/or fund-raised for a number of other
projects in Ware -- restoration of the riverside gazebos, erection
of the Bluecoat Boy statue (by Angela Godfrey) and, most recently
in November 1999, erection of the bronze Maltmaker sculpture (by
Jill Tweed) -- seen left with a seasonal patina of frost in the
garden outside St. Mary's Parish Church in Ware High Street.
I
was a founder of Ware Museum
in 1986 and was its Hon. Secretary and Curator until the spring
of 2002. Our great achievement was to extend and modernise the
museum with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Since I am no
longer associated with the museum, I must refer all inquiries
now to Wareonline/museum.
Even
though I'm no longer at the museum, my interest in Ware history
goes on. My historical interests include the following:--
1.
Wickham of Ware -- the splendid engineering firm which
made railcars, trolleys and construction equipment for countries
throughout the world. We have now published the history of Wickham's
-- see Page 1, Index.
2.
Another interest is Anne Bourchier, daughter of the Earl
of Essex and the divorced (in fact three times divorced)
wife of William Parr, Marquess of Northampton. The divorce was
a scandal through four reigns and Anne is said to have had a
family by a man named Huntley. Does anyone have information
about the Bourchier-Huntley liaison, or where Anne was buried
in 1571, or whether she was a Roman Catholic and -- even better
-- if any portrait exists of Anne Bourchier? Holbein drew William
Parr.
3.
An important figure in the Ware malting industry was Edward
Chuck (1786?--1852). He was godfather to the brewer John
Courage's son, Edward, and also a close friend of Thomas Coke,
Earl of Leicester, of Holkham Hall, Norfolk. A large oil portrait
(49 x 39 inches) of Edward Chuck wearing a stove-pipe hat was
painted by Sir Francis Grant, President of the Royal Academy,
and is the only known representation of Chuck. It was sold at
auction in the early 1950s and went to America. Does anyone
know where the Chuck portrait is now? I would love to have
a photograph of it.
Any
information on the above -- or comments on anything on this page
-- please
to david@rockpress.freeserve.co.uk,
or to the Rockingham Press, 11 Musley Lane, Ware, Herts SG12 7EN
(Tel/Fax: 09120 467868)
