Scrapbook of Samuel and Elizabeth Logan and family
Samuel Logan grew up in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. He established a boat building business and he and Elizabeth had six children including my great grandfather, John Maxwell Logan.
When our third great-grandmother, Elizabeth Logan, arrived in Cambridge she was either a single mother or soon to become one, giving birth to Samuel around 1801. In 1805, when Elizabeth was 26 she married William Jolley a 22-year-old Thatcher.
William's younger brother, Benjamin Jolley is the subject of this piece.
Benjamin was born in 1791 and died in 1876 in Chesterton. Chesterton was just situated northwest of Cambridge, the University town in Cambridgeshire, England. The two locales were unlikely to be as physically connected as they are now with both extending their borders until they eventually met.
The River Cam wends its way through both locales and the river was an important commercial, social and sporting connection to the inhabitants and visitors to the area. As was getting from one side to the other without getting wet there being at the time only a limited number of bridges. For example, the foundation stone for the Victoria Street Bridge joining Cambridge with Chesterton was not laid until 1889. My great-grandfather, Councillor John Maxwell LOGAN, was on the joint committee to make it happen.
There were several ferry crossings along the path of the Cam River. Benjamin Jolley had the one at the rear of the Pike and Eel Hotel around 110 Water Street, Chesterton. I don't know how the system worked for the ferrymen as to whether they paid rent to the pub or the pub paid them as it would have been a benefit to have the ferry there for their customers. Perhaps they just set themselves up and charged a penny for the crossing. The ferry itself would have been a flat bottom barge, very basic and as can be seen in the drawing above, he is holding a pole to provide propulsion and direction. I love the muscle definition in the drawing as it definitely would have been hard work carried out in all different weather conditions. The passengers, six or so, would have been standing and it would have taken pretty good control by the ferryman to stop everyone from being dunked.
As in any university city, there was no end to boisterous, larking undergraduates. When the rowing events between the different colleges started up and became popular, there was an influx of thousands of visitors and spectators to the banks of the River Cam making it busy for the ferrymen.
It would seem that Benjamin Jolley was well-respected and he earned the nickname 'Charon' from the university undergraduates. The nickname, of course, is taken from the Greek mythology, of Charon the Ferryman who conveyed the lost souls across the River Styx. Our Charon was known and remembered fondly far and wide.
In 1864, Charles Walwyn Radcliffe Cooke was attending Cambridge University. In that year he was awarded the Le Baz Prize/Scholarship. These awards were given to the best students in the study of Literature.
He may have won the Le Baz Prize for the writing of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Esq While an Undergraduate at Cambridge which he had published in 1864. It purports to be written by Pepys and that Cooke is merely the Editor and reading the Preface he seemed to come across these 'original' long-sought-after manuscripts/diary entries of Pepys by some fantasmagorical means. There is little to be found about the book and I couldn't initially tell whether it was a parody but it would certainly seem so now. (I haven't read it in its entirety.)
So it has come to pass that the reason for this website entry is that Cooke made a long dedication to Benjamin Jolley (Charon) at the start of the book which I have reproduced here. I want to believe that the words are sincere and that that was Cooke's intention when he penned them.
BENJAMIN JOLLEY, Esq.,
ALIAS
CHARON.
SIR,
PERMIT me to return you my Most Hearty Thanks for the Gracious Condescension and Warmhearted Affability You have been pleased to show me in granting me Your Special Permission to rescue this insignificant Work from well-merited Oblivion, by affixing to it Your memorable Name.
SIMILITUDE of Pursuits is not unfrequently productive of ardent and lasting Affection between Individuals unknown to one another, save by the brazen Trumpet of many-tongued Rumour.
BUT my Desire for dedicating the following Pages to Your Illustrious Self, has been induced by Feelings of Reverence and Admiration for the many noble Qualities displayed by You in Your daily Avocation, rather than by the more intimate Passion of Personal Regard.
NO one, Sir, who is acquainted with Your Zeal for the Good of this University, Your generous Concern for the Welfare of every Member of the same; No one who has witnessed Your Urbanity under the most trying Circumstances, Your unflagging Activity and Perseverance, tempered with a due Mixture of Moderation; Your unvarying Equability of Disposition, even when exposed to the violent and unguarded Language which seems inseparable from the Maintenance of Order and Obedience in a rowing Crew: Your Placidity and unruffled Calmness, broken only by the pacificatory Words, "Steady, Genlmun, Steady," when an unusually large Crowd of Your enthusiastic and admiring Devotees threatens to swamp that light Skiff, that fairy Bark, which under Your Guidance has now for upwards of a Quarter of a Century
"walked the Waters as a Thing of Life;"-No one, I repeat, who has witnessed these many Evidences of a grand and noble Temperament, can accuse me of wanting Discretion or Fudgement in endeavouring to obtain the Privilege of Your illustrious Name, wherewith to grace the Title-page of this humble Volume.
PENETRATED as I am with a profound Sense of Gratitude for the Favours You have been so graciously pleased to bestow upon me, and deeply gratified with the triumphant Success of my Petition, I yet feel some Pangs of Shame and Remorse in having intruded upon that Privacy, that Seclusion which it has been your constant Aim to preserve sacred from the careless Eye of the casual Beholder.
FOR as You are diligent to deserve Applause, So are You solicitous to shun it.
BUT be assured of this, that unassuming Merit and modest Worth will meet with their Desert, whether they crawl in the lowly Cot of the Peasant, or stalk in the proud Palace of the Peer.
THAT You may live for many Years to come in the Enjoyment of Sound Health and a Serene Conscience, and pursue the even Tenour of Your Way, undisturbed by untoward Occurrences, and may long retain the Esteem and friendly Regard of every Member of this University, is the hearty Aspiration
of
Your
Most Obedient,
Most Devoted,
Humble Servant,
The EDITOR:
