Files, John | Day 8

Long amusing account of putting up the 70-80 ft flagpole on Prince of Wales Terrace to be seen in Finglesham! Received £25 from Mr Ramell to share between 24 men for 3 days work putting up a 70-80ft flagstaff at Prince of Wales Terrace. Then £2 for taking it down, 16s for door keeping while Sir Julian Goldsmid was around and £11 15s for watching the poles. Also received money as one of the Bold 42.

Witness Type: Bribee, Briber, The Bold 42

Party: Liberal

Witness Testimony:

  • 9179.

    (Mr. Jeune.) Did you choose the men to assist in this ? — I did.

  • 9180.

    Were they friends of yours ? — Not particular. We Deal boatmen are all brothers ; we all share shilling and shilling, and you will find we shared shilling and shilling, and penny per penny.

  • 9181.

    Are they all voters ? — No ; but you will find a great many there.

  • 9182.

    (Mr. Holl.) They are most of them voters ? — Most of them. There might have been 10 or 15. I do not know who are not voters.

  • 9183.

    (Mr. Jeune.) Was this a Conservative FLAGSTAFF ? — No, it was Sir Julian Goldsmid’s FLAGSTAFF. I tell you the reason this was put on for ; because some malicious person or other — he was no friend to Sir Julian Goldsmid, and he was no friend to Mr. Crompton Roberts.

  • 9184.

    (Mr. Holl.) Are you sure your watchmen did not do as some watchmen told us yesterday, that they went and looked at the POLES the last thing at night ? — Look here, we had too good a watch on them for that. A malicious person took our main FLAGSTAFF down, and I took good care they did not do it again ; we were creeping about for them. We did not know whether it was going to kill Sir Julian Goldsmid or Mr. Crompton Roberts. As it was 80 feet high we did not know whether it was going to fall one side of the house or the other.

  • 9185.

    Do you mean to say these men watched turn and turn, the whole night through ? — Yes.

  • 9186.

    Was it for watching this particular FLAGSTAFF ? — No, all round.

  • 9187.

    How many had you on the watch ? — Six to eight.

  • 9188.

    Were all these men employed in this night watching ? — Yes, every one. We all had a share. We all had shilling and shilling.

  • 9189.

    There were 24 of them. How many of them watched at a time ? — Six. I tell you there were six from 8 to 12.

  • 9190.

    Each only did one night out of two ? — No, six from 8 to 12, and six from 12 to 4, when it became daylight ; and nobody would take it down in daylight.

  • 9191.

    (Mr. Turner.) That is 12 a night ? — Yes.

  • 9192.

    (Mr. Jeune.) There were 24 men, so that each man only did one night out of two ? — That is it.

  • 9193.

    How many nights did you have it watched for ? — Four nights we had to watch. I will not be sure whether it was four or five.

  • 9194.

    They had to watch for six hours two nights ; that is what it comes to ? — I watched two nights.

  • 9195.

    (Mr. Holl.) Each man had about 10s. ? — Something about that. There is the people that watched, and we received 11L. 15s. for it ; you have every man’s name who watched there.

  • 9196.

    (Mr. Jeune.) That comes to about 10s, a man ? — Yes.

  • 9197.

    That is 10s. for two nights ; that is 5s. a night ? — Yes, I had 5s. ; that is 5s. a night.

  • 9198.

    Pretty good pay, is not it ? — Sometimes we earn nothing, and sometimes we earn 50L, or 60L.

  • 9199.

    You would like to have another job of the same kind again ? — No, I should not; I would rather be without it.