What on earth is it?

[Davran]

I have just come across the occupation of "B.A. Cure Call Care" in the 1861 Tunbridge Wells. The first 'l' of call is taller than the second, but I really don't think the second one's an 'e'. Otherwise the letters are quite clear, but I've no idea what it can mean! It's not a relative of mine, so not vital, but I'm just curious to know what it is - any ideas anyone? :confused:

[Reeve99]

If you put the reference, we can all have a look.

One of my relatives was the Kleeneze Man! We went to look through Parish Registers at the church and purely coincidentally the woman given the task of supervising us was a distant relative and remembered the Kleeneze man. My mum had totally forgotten the he had been.

During the same trip we found that the groom's father has his occupation down as Money Lender! The couple emigrated to Canada so perhaps we could add "successful"!

Anna

[Davran]

Hi Anna

Reference is RG9/492 FOL91 P5. The gentleman in question is a Frederic Munn (or Mann). The enumerator's spelling is not always great. I've a feeling the occupation may be something to do with the clergy - there were a lot of posh people in Tunbridge Wells in 1861, as you can imagine.:)

[Pam Downes]

It's actually RG9/492 folio 94 page 5. Indexed as Munn.
I've often seen something along the lines of 'Cure of all souls', or 'Cure without souls' against a clergyman.
But even with extremely bad writing I can't see how the enumerator could have interpreted 'souls' as 'care', unless he wasn't concentrating and repeated a word in error.
Pam

[arthurk]

It's actually Folio 94, not 91, but I found it by just putting the name in the search boxes at Ancestry.

I agree with you about "Call" - compare the surname "Russell" 3 lines lower down. The combination of words suggests clergy to me as well, so maybe you need to look in a clerical directory? Incidentally I couldn't find Frederic in the 1871 or 1881 census.

I wondered if the word after B.A. might be an enumerator's misreading of "Cam" (for Cambridge), so perhaps a look in the Alumni would help as well. It looks a bit as though the clerk who looked over the return later didn't really know what it was either - the overwritten word looks to me like "Grad".

Arthur

[Pam Downes]

I wonder if 'Cale bare' is Latin for 'without souls'?
Pam

[Davran]

OOPS, sorry about the Folio number!! I'm glad it's not just me who can't figure it out. The idea of Cambridge sounds feasible combined with the BA bit. Perhaps the CALL was actually written as COLL for 'college' and CARE was the name of the college - maybe Caius? Or the whole thing was ? College Cambridge. Who knows? It's rather nice to think that the enumerator maybe had as much difficulty with handwriting as we do today.

[Reeve99]

I don't think it's B A though as if you look at the A of Artist a few lines up its completely different. I think it's actually an H as in House maid above and below it.

I think it reads

B H Cure (possibly short for curate) and then maybe the place he was curate of Cale Bare(?)

Anna

[Pam Downes]

'Tis definitely B A. See the A of Alfriston, fifth line down in the birthplace column.
Sorry Anna, but it's nothing like the H of housemaid.
Pam

[Mythology]

"I wonder if 'Cale bare' is Latin for 'without souls'?"

No. You may well be on the right track, but that doesn't work, because "Without care", usually shown for a member of the clergy in English as "Without care of souls" is "sine cura" in Latin.

Edit:
Forgot to mention ...
If the "of souls" bit was included in the Latin as we do in English, it would be "sine cura animarum"

[John]

'Tis definitely B A. See the A of Alfriston, fifth line down in the birthplace column.
Sorry Anna, but it's nothing like the H of housemaid.
Pam
It's not unusual for a capital letter to take a different form depending on its position, and that without doubt is BA.

John

[arthurk]

The idea of Cambridge sounds feasible combined with the BA bit. Perhaps the CALL was actually written as COLL for 'college' and CARE was the name of the college - maybe Caius? Or the whole thing was ? College Cambridge. Who knows? It's rather nice to think that the enumerator maybe had as much difficulty with handwriting as we do today.
Just after I switched the computer off last night it occurred to me that it might have been "B.A. Clare Coll Cam", which would have made perfect sense until mangled by the enumerator.

Arthur

[Davran]

Well, I think you've probably cracked it Arthur, though it is rather strange to put that as an OCCUPATION - perhaps he was a perennial student.:D

[kmdward]

he might have been a tutor or other staff member of Cambridge who lived a Clare College, as there is no mention of age. this could be why he is not on other census, he is off bearleading, his charges around tours of Europe.

[michaelpipe]

Frederick Nunn (b Ixworth , Suffolk, 1837, d 1870) was the son of a Solicitor/Magistrate's Clerk in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
In 1851 he was resident (presumably not an inmate?) at Bury St Edmunds gaol, named as the nephew of the Governer of the gaol, Patrick McIntyre (member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, not in practice) and his wife Elizabeth Orridge.
In 1859 he played first class cricket for Cambridge University:
<< http://www.rammyarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/37/37409/37409.html >>

Which tells us little about the 1861 census entry except to say that he graduated with a BA, and was living or visiting his sister Marie and her husband Thomas Fox Simpson, solicitor, in Tunbridge Wells.
He had died by 1870, aged 33