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A friend of mine is a coin dealer and some years ago acquired a Georgian silver 5 shilling piece. The reverse has been ground and polished and then inscribed in a very elegant copperplate:-
Sarah Gouger
at Mrs Longs
South Audley St.
Grosvenor Square.
We think the writing looks c1800, and I have tried to find Sarah on the BMD and censuses, but with no real dates to go on can't really tie the ones I have found in with that address. I've also tried checking out the address with no luck so wonder if anyone out there has any ideas on who she was and what the coin was for? It would seem to be some form of early advertising perhaps, but with the quality of the work and the value of the coin is hopefully not the equivalent of modern day cards in phone boxes!
Would love to solve the mystery - all ideas welcome!
Sue
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Fascinating stuff! I look forward to hearing more on this one!
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Hi,
FamilySearch.org have several Sarah's around 1780 - 1800's
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=ancestorsearchresults.asp
Paul
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Just checked the Times and found this, in the issue of 18/4/1820
Deaths
On the 16th inst at her house in South Audley Street, Mrs Susanna Long in the 103rd year of her age.
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SOUTH AUDLEY STREET is just off Park Lane - in Mayfair - you can check it out on Streetmap.co.uk
Hope this helps.
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Thanks one and all!
Paul - yes but I couldn't find any addresses that helped!
Lynne - tried that and got into some fascinating old trade directories etc, but no names this time, and of course we don't know a street number . There are some very posh residences there inhabited by the mistresses of various titled gentlemen! So maybe Mrs Long did run some sort of 'social club' for the Gentry?
Ann - that sounds very promising! Not sure where to go next with the name tho'. She certainly lived to a good old age and merited an obit in the Times, whatever her occupation!
Thanks everyone so far!
Sue
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Just a quick update - Google show a Susanna Long mentioned in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1829 - she died at the age of 102 and was the daughter of Charles Long Esq.of Hurts Hall.This was in Saxmundham, Suffolk, so no obvious connection except her age at death , which was pretty unusual in those days. Will keep looking!
Sue
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What do you reckon - unusual name, right place:
Gouger (pronounced /ˈgʊdʒɚ/) was the fifth son of nine children of George Gouger (1763-1802), who was a prosperous city merchant, and his wife Anne, née Sibley. Robert was educated at Nottingham, England, and on leaving school the boy entered his father's office. He became friendly with Robert Owen and, influenced by him, began taking an interest in social questions. In 1829 he became associated with Edward Gibbon Wakefield and assisted him in advocating his colonization schemes. In this year Wakefield published A Letter from Sydney which appeared as edited by Robert Gouger. In the same year Gouger forwarded Wakefield's pamphlet, a Sketch of a Proposal for Colonizing Australia, to the colonial office, but received no encouragement.
In November 1829, Gouger ended up in King's Bench Prison as a result of a debt to the printer. There he shared a cell with Anthony Bacon II and first learned about southern Australia from Captain Henry Dixon. Gouger's brother soon rescued him and he began to distribute copies of the Letter, but won little support until he approached Wilmot Horton for help in forming a society for assisting pauper emigration to the colonies. From this embryo was born the National Colonization Society, with Gouger as its secretary, but it failed on theoretical details after Wakefield was released from Newgate in May 1830. Later on he was associated with another book published in 1831, The State of New South Wales in December 1830; in a Letter (addressed to R . Gouger; with remarks by him). In 1830 Gouger and others went to Spain to fight for the constitutional cause and saw active service.
Gouger died in Kensington, London on 4 August 1846. About the end of 1838 he had married Sarah Whitten. Their daughter, Adelaide Gouger, preserved his journals and papers, which formed the basis of Hodder's The Founding of South Australia.
Gouger has an honoured place among the founders of South Australia. Wakefield was the controlling mind, but Gouger was his able and hard-working representative at a time when it was impossible for Wakefield to take any prominent part in affairs. When they finally disagreed Gouger held firmly to his own views, and later on showed himself to be an efficient public servant during the difficult times attending the birth of the colony.
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I used to work down South Audley St
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So this would be the family Heather found:
Name: Sarah Gouger
Age: 50
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1811
Relation: Head
Gender: Female
Where born: Coventry, Warwickshire, England
Civil Parish: Paddington
Ecclesiastical parish: St John
County/Island: Middlesex
Country: England
Condition as to marriage: widow
Registration district: Kensington
Sub registration district: St John Paddington
ED, institution, or vessel: 11
Household schedule number: 115
Household Members: Name Age
Henry W Gouger 20 b Adelaide Australia
Sarah Gouger 50
Sarah A(delaide) Gouger 15 b Coventry
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Thanks Heather - I did reply earlier but just checked and it never got thro! I'd found a lot of that info on Google too - nice to know you agree that it's a possibility and not just wishful thinking on my part! The dates bother me tho - Ann's finding Mrs Long in the Times sounds very good, but the dates just don't tie in with the dates for Sarah - mother or daughter.
Thanks Ivy - I'd found that one too and again it sounds very likely, but sadly no real proof that it's the right Sarah - dammit!
Would love to be able to give you a house number Julie - again not found anywhere!
I just wonder what the significance is of such an inscription on what was then a valuable coin - sounds almost like an 'At Home' invitation, or could Mrs Long have been sponsoring Sarah into the London Season? At least with such respectable ladies and addresses my first insalubrious guesses are hopefully wrong!
Thanks all - will keep trying to solve the puzzle - all ideas gratefully received!
Sue
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Hi everyone,
I passed all the info on to the owner of the coin today - we didn't get much work done, but he was very grateful and amazed at the help given by total strangers. He is now going to follow this up and contact the Grosvenor Estate who probably owned the property at the time and just may have some details on who lived there.
Will let you all know if we manage to find an explanation for the inscription.
Thanks again, Sue
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