The Binns Family Ar-chive occupies several shelves in my study. It was started by Donald Benson Binns (1934-1998) who collected any material he could find that mentioned the name Binns. The indexed material continues to grow and I would urge you to send me copies of anything you might have that could be added to the archive.

On a slightly different note it is clearly always going to be the case that York-shire predominates in Binns research, but can I ask those who, like me, do not live in Yorkshire, to ask the staff at the Local History section of their library if they have a file on Binns. There is such a file in North Shields, Newcastle

and Sunderland and cop-ies of their contents are now in the Binns Family Archive. David Binns

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T. David Binns,

103 Haswell Gardens,

North Shields,

Tyne & Wear,

NE30 2DR.

Alan P. Binns,

518 Colne Road,

Reedley,

Burnley,

BB10 2DL.

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I’m happy to say that my plea for feedback on the News Letter did not fall on deaf ears. I’ve received useful and encouraging comments from, among others, Lilian Vear of York, Richard Binns of Leighton Buzzard, John A Binns of Holmfirth, Dave Binns of South Wales, and Peter Binns of Bromley. The Wakefield Binnses have been very active in shar-ing information of late and Mike Binns has continued to enter Guiseley information into the data base on the web site. Our knowledge of Binns families from the North West Midlands has been greatly increased thanks to the efforts of Dave Binns.

In Issue 10 I asked for any information on Charles Binns. One of his

descendants, Peter Binns of Bromley, very kindly wrote;

“Re. Charles Binns. Charles Luther Binns was born 31st Dec 1865 and died 6

th Feb 1941. He was the

son of John Binns (who married Isabella Riley on 30 Apr 1859). Charles married Elizabeth Ann Dolling in 1899 and they had five children. I am the eldest son of his youngest son, John. Sadly, I know little of my grandfather who died when I was three years old. I do have a copy of his book “Principles of Educational Woodwork” and a letter from R. E. Marsden, his co-author, dated 2 Apr 1945, when he was 69, to my father’s brother Wilfred saying that a new edition of the book was published that year. I have my grandfather’s tool box and several of his named tools.”

Ken Binns from Abindon who has been a prolific collector of Binns

information for many years has contributed the following;

“Cutting from the Oxford Times of 21 Oct 2005 that mentions a Mrs. Claire Binns, age 31, of Chipping Norton who has led a patient campaign to reinstate a plastic surgeon who had been struck off after the GMC had found HE HAD AN AFFAIR WITH A PATIENT.”

Ken also draws our attention to the fact that the Vicar of Great St Mary’s , The University Church , Cambridge, is one Dr. John Binns.

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Beverly Binns has been in touch again. She is desperately seeking a lead on her Christopher and Michael Binns who were in Jamaica in the 1820’s.

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)HHGEDFN��««««««�����������������������������������IURP�(OOHQD�:RRGZDUG� Finally Alan Binns was delighted to receive this attachment to an email from Ellena Woodward who has been a correspondent for many years. It makes the effort of publishing and distributing the News Letter seem worth-while when we get this sort of feedback. Please let us know if you have found anything of particular interest in this current edition.

Thank you for sending me a copy of News Letter Number 9; I had put aside the reading of it for a time when I could give it my total attention, so yesterday was the first time I could actually do that. I enjoyed reading the contents and when I came to page 10, “Snippets”, I was astonished to read No.7 – US Census 1900 Kentucky, with Families 1 & 2, - certainly Family No.1 was star-tlingly familiar! I thought I recog-nised the names. I couldn’t wait to check it with my own family chart, only to find that YES - it was a match! Walter Binns – the Head of Family on the census, was the youngest brother of my great-grandmother Jane Binns, born 1837 (who mar-ried David Hutchinson). Walter and his wife emigrated to Indiana and Kentucky, US. I had the names of all his children, but not their dates of birth, so was de-lighted to write them in. His eldest brother, William Binns emigrated to Victoria, Australia. My father, Ronald Hutchinson, was sent out to the US around 1912/1913 to further his educa-tion, studying at Kentucky Univer-sity. He stayed with his great-uncle Walter for some time, help-ing on their chicken farm, where I heard that he rather disturbed them by sleepwalking! I have a much-prized photograph of him with his uncle during that stay, which I only obtained a couple of years ago when I went to stay with a Hutchinson cousin. In the bed-room, there was an old photo and when I looked, I thought the face of the younger man looked famil-iar. On asking about it, I was told my cousin had looked through some old family photos, thought I would be interested, and had it enlarged and framed for me. To say I was delighted would be an understatement.

It is the only photograph I have of my father as a young man. Family 2 on the Census – who lived next door to Walter Binns and family, might have been Walter Binns’s nephew. On my Chart I have an older brother – Thomas Binns, who married a Jane Cooper and they had 5 children, the second of whom was William Binns. Unfortunately I have no dates of birth for any of them. But this William could have moved out to join his uncle. Jane Binns was the daughter of Mat-thias Binns who, I think, was a Law Stationer. I do know that Jane Binns married David Hutchinson and they had 7 children - 4 boys and 3 girls (all the 3 girls becoming Headmis-tresses) – my grandfather, David Hutchinson, the eldest of the seven, was an Assistant Inspector General in Bankruptcy (which was rather ironic, because my father – his eld-est son – was, a few years after the death of his father, forced into bank-ruptcy after building some houses and being unable to sell them be-cause of the Depression). Jane was a pastry cook and ran a High Class Bakery in Chelsea. The family later moved to East Dulwich to a large 5-storey terraced house in a square surrounding tennis-courts which, dur-ing the 1939-1945 second World War was converted into a Barrage Balloon Station, with the men who ran it being lodged in the house next door. The house continued to be occupied by the family and Jane died there. Her daughters – the three who became Headmis-tresses – continued to live there until 1939 when they moved to a thatched cottage in the countryside to avoid the bombing. They had left the house just as it was, still furnished but with dustsheets over everything. They allowed my father (who by then was bankrupt) to occupy the empty top floor and attics, so I lived in this house with my mother and father.

Later, after the bombing had de-stroyed so many homes, the local Council “requisitioned” the house and re-housed two families in the unoccupied parts of the house, much to my mother’s chagrin be-cause we then had to share our bathroom with the family directly below us. They were from the “Gorbals” and brought bed-bugs with them who shortly made the trip upstairs to her bed! Fortu-nately for me, I was spared this indignity as I had moved up to the attic and made my bedroom there, and the migration was stopped before they reached my territory. Our inconvenience was however, compensated for in a small way, when the Queen visited the air-men who were billeted in the house next door to ours. Some time after this, we received a visit from an American soldier, stationed in England, who must have been from the family in Ken-tucky, but he did not leave any contact details and never re-turned. He had called during the day and seen only my mother, who had little knowledge of my father’s family, and perhaps he was put off by the multi-occupation of the house and our unconventional circumstances. But who knows what happened – he might have been posted out of the area and unable to return for a number of reasons. I always regretted the fact that we were unable to take advantage of this splendid opportunity to obtain more knowledge of our extended family. But, of course, these were extremely difficult times and the highest priority for all was basi-cally survival!”

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In News Letter No. 6 published in

September 2000 there was a passing

reference to Ottwell Binns, who was a

prolific novelist. We have recently had

contact with a few of his descendants and I

thought it would be of interest to write up

and publish what we currently know,

especially as we have the charming

photographs that accompany this article.

Perhaps the first thing to mention is that, as far as I have been able to discover, there is no published biography and even The Times, although it reviewed several of his books, did not print an obituary. The sources for this article are therefore readily available registra-tion or census records, supple-mented by obituaries printed in local newspapers and very kindly provided by descendants. The 1881 Census shows nine year old Ottwell living with his parents, Thomas and Abigail, and his seven year old sister Abigail at 44 Spotland Rd., Spotland, near Rochdale, Lancashire. Thomas was a grocer and provision dealer and why he gave his son the name Ottwell is not known, but it was not from his mother’s maiden name as before her marriage in 1871 she was Abigail Wilkinson. We don’t know where he received his schooling but clearly some-body fired his imagination because as a schoolboy, he “was so fasci-nated by the American gold rush that he purchased a revolver and set out. He was discovered in Ire-land and brought back to his family after spending the night in Liver-pool Police Station.” After school he trained for the Congregational ministry at The Western College, Plymouth, where he first started writing and it must have been about this time when he met his future wife, Rosetta An-nie Foot, the daughter of a school master in Lytchett Minster, near Poole in Dorset. They were mar-ried in the later half of 1897, the marriage being registered in South Stoneham, near Southampton in the next county. Between 1896 and 1901 he was pastor of the Congregational Church at Portland

in Dorset and it was in Portland that his first two children Bernard Ottwell and Rosetta Marion Mar-gory were born. He subsequently became a Unitarian and accepted a church at Scarborough, York-shire where his second son Max Dalman was born in 1905. In 1908 he became minister of Cockey New Chapel, Ainsworth, which lies between Bolton and Bury in Lan-cashire and his third son Patrick Thomas was born there in the same year. It was whilst he was at Ainsworth that he began his career as a nov-elist, mainly because of the en-couragement given to him by the firm of Tillotson, and many of his novels were serialised in many British newspapers as well as in newspapers throughout the British Empire by means of the syndica-tion of fiction in which Tillotsons were the pioneers. He once con-fessed to a representative of the Bolton Evening News that he com-menced his career as a novelist in order to provide the means for the education of his sons, and he did not then dream that his success would lead him to such a wide-spread reputation or to such a pro-digious output. Significantly he never neglected his pulpit for his literary pursuits and in 2005, I received an unsolic-ited email in which the writer wrote of the memories his 91 year old mother had of Ottwell Binns during his time in Ainsworth saying “she remembers as a child being asked to sing during the Whit Walks by Mr. Binns, who, she said, was ‘nice’” From Ainsworth, Ottwell and family moved on in 1920, to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire where he took on the ministry at the Old Meeting House, which had been founded in 1662 and is the oldest non-conformist place of worship in Not-tinghamshire. “During his seven years there the institute was founded and a room built for its activities. The Sunday School finances were brought to a

better condition than ever, and the social meetings under his organi-sation knit together teachers and scholars” While in Mansfield he was a regu-lar attender at the Broxtowe Lodge of Freemasons, of which he was a Worshipful Brother and Chaplain.

“Owing to ill health he was com-pelled to seek a less arduous post and went to Torquay, from which he retired after four years ministry. After his retirement, Mr. Binns went to live at Porlock Weir, Som-erset, where he devoted himself entirely to literary work.” In about 1933 he moved to Lelant in Cornwall where he intended to settle down to fulfilling one of his life’s ambitions, which was to write a Cornish historical story dealing with the Penzance district. Following a visit to London he be-came ill on his return to Lelant and after a visit from the doctor was removed to West Cornwall Hospi-tal Penzance, where he died a few days later at the age of 63. He left a widow, three sons and one daughter and it was reported that a sister Miss L. Binns attended his funeral. His literary output was prodigious and some of his novels were turned into films. The British Li-brary Catalogue lists 103 volumes dating from 1890 when ‘Anthony Jasper, A West Country Tale’ was published, under the pseudonym Ben Bolt, by Fisher and Unwin. Strangely, to say that he died in 1935, almost twenty titles under

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his authorship were published af-ter 1935, the last, the Mystery of Airedale Hall, in 1944. At least nine of his stories ran to a second edition, including ‘A Mating in the Wild’, ‘A Sin of Silence’, ‘An Ad-venturer in the Bay’, ‘Behind the Ranges’, ‘A Buccaneer’s Bride’, ‘Captain Lucifer’, ‘Java Jack’, ‘The Sword of Fortune’, and ‘Where Aurora Flames’. Most of the novels have similarly lurid and flamboyant titles but I imagine that the con-tents are less exciting and his obituary in the local Mansfield newspaper concludes “he has left a monument to himself in his liter-ary creations”. He set a standard in the novel which can never be challenged for its clean and whole-some atmosphere, and a proof be-yond question that the reading public does not demand salacious and unsavoury novels and writ-ings, before it will support an au-thor’s work.”

It is worth recording that Ottwell’s efforts to provide for his children’s education appear to have been well rewarded. His eldest, Bernard Ottwell Binns, was an officer in British Overseas Service and was knighted for creating a blight resis-tant strain of rice in Burma; Rosetta Marion Marjory Binns was a schoolteacher and head mis-tress; Max Dalman Binns was a journalist, author and publisher; and Thomas Patrick Binns was a doctor and musician. Finally, by a curious coincidence I discovered that Ottwell Binns vis-ited my ancestral home, Culling-worth, in about 1910 when he at-tended the funeral of his sister-in-law Hilda Emily who was the wife of the vicar of Cullingworth the Rev. William A Allan. I wonder if he looked at any of the surround-ing graves stones and was struck by the presence of Binnses.

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1) In August 1939, Mrs. C. E. Binns was master of ceremonies at two Grand Carnival whist drives at Blenkhorn's Boat House Cafe, Knaresborough. If any of our readers were there would they please get in touch with the editor. 2) Eric Binns played for Black-burn Rovers in the 1950’s. Is he a reader? 3) Lieutenant Colonel P. L. Binns has written the story of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall, titled “ A Hundred Years of Military Music”. 4) In 1801 Thomas Binns in-vented a water cooled candle mould that was further improved in 1823 by Joseph Morgan, who used a moveable piston to eject the finished candles.

5) Yale University Library has the handwritten commonplace book that belonged to Thomas Binns of Liverpool in 1789. 6) In 1834 the pub in Trawden was known as The Steps Head and the licensee was John Birt-wistle. In 1848 when Thomas Binns was the tenant it was known as the Sun Inn. 7) Esther Binns first appeared before the Sheriff at York As-sizes on 29 July 1797. She was remanded in custody appearing again on 9 March 1799, when she was sentenced to be trans-ported for seven years. She next appeared on 6 July 1799 and finally on 26 July 1800 when the sentence was confirmed. The crime was larceny.

8) On 16th May 1831,

George Binns, a watch maker living in the Strand, London was robbed of 13 rings and a ring-case, total value £15- 2s. At the trial that took place at the Old Bailey on 13

th June, George

and his two assistants, 14 year-old Thomas Jones and William Flegg gave evidence against 21 year-old William Bennett who was found guilty of larceny and sen-tenced to transportation for seven years.

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In this photograph Wilkinson Binns (1831-1914) proudly stands with his wife Martha outside their cottage at Daisy Bank, Oldfield. It was said of Daisy Bank that “It was rather a bar-ren spot but by his activity he made many blades of grass grow where only a few had grown before.”

Pay-out

The Times of 20 May 1867 carries, in accordance with the Regimental Debts Act 1863, a list of those deceased servicemen for whom the Secretary of State for war is holding their personal estate. Among those listed is Thomas Binns, Driver with the Royal Artillery the sum of £3-9s-9d.

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On reading an article about someone finding photos of up to four genera-tions reminds me of a wonderful ex-perience some 12 years ago. Researching the Binns family in the Yorkshire dales area someone mentioned that a Norman Binns knew a bit. His 60-something-year-old daughter-in-law took me to see this 92-year old. I introduced myself to him and said my mother was a Binns. He replied in his Yorks dialect, "dos te know who I am?" I replied "Yes Norman Binns." He then said, "Aye I'm Norman, son of Joseph, son of John, son of

Nathan, son of Timothy, son of Abram." I was quite stunned and he contin-ued, "Timothy had one leg shorter thantother and walked with a limp." He proceeded to show photographs and culminated with a painting of Nathan dressed in a full-length leo-tard sitting on a chair arms folded saying “this is my great-grandfather, he was a prize-fighter (went round villages taking on all-comers).”

Editor’s note Arthur adds that Norman came from a Cowling family who farmed at Shay Bank and Intake from 1851 to 1891. He was born in 1897 and his gravestone is in the churchyard at Cowling. At the time of the encounter he was living in Skipton.

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I sat and talked over cups of tea for four hours listening to tales of his life and wish that I had recorded these wonderful moments. Sadly he passed away a couple of years later so never got to see him to say that I had confirmed through all the census returns (which took some doing, pre-computer days) that his genealogy was correct and that he was who h e s a i d h e w a s . He did say he did go to the USA to visit relations (showed me his Stetson) and that on the flight over he met the pilot who was called Binns.

Fort La Maune

Captain James William Binns was master of the ship Fort La Maune when she was torpedoed and sunk by a Ger-man U-boat on 25 January 1944 while carrying a cargo of 8130 tons of general cargo and military stores on a voy-age from New York, Suez and Aden to Cochin, India. Happily the Captain and his crew of 48 and 7 gunners landed on the Arabian coast and were taken by HM Corvette Nigella to Aden on 06/02/44.

Sinking of HMS Hood Acting Leading Seaman William Binns, D/SSX. 19463 gave evidence at Newcastle on 15th August 1941 that was to be used for a board of inquiry into the loss of H.M.S. Hood in action with the German battleship Bismarck on 24th may 1941. He explained, under questioning that he had been watching the Hood closely from the 5” gun deck of H.M.S. Norfolk and had seen the Hood firing her guns just a few minutes before she blew up.

The Times ; Rapid Promotion 9 May 1861 John H Binns promoted to the rank of first class assistant engineer in the Majestic, for the Dapper. 13 Jun 1861 John H Binns appointed engineer to the Majestic, for service in the Goshawk. 26 Sep 1861 J H Binns appointed engineer to the Fishguard for the Rifleman. 2 Aug 1877 Chief Engineer John H. Binns was placed on the retired list. 29 April 1886 John Henry Binns, retired Chief Engineer on Admiralty List advanced to be Fleet Engineer

John Binns is rather remote from our direct line being my husband’s first cousin five times removed, but he is such an interesting character I have been rather fascinated by him. Here is a summary of what I have found so far... John Binns was born in Dublin, the second son of John Binns 1747-1775 (an Ironmonger) and Mary Pemberton 1749-? After her first husband died (drowned in ship-wreck returning from England) Mary married George McEnteggert of Dundalk. When John was about ten years old, he and his older brother Benjamin Pemberton Binns left the McEnteggert home in Drogheda and returned to Dub-lin where they were taken in and educated by their grandfather (it is not known whether this was their Pemberton or Binns grandfather - the Binns Grandfather would have been Jonathan Binns 1721-c.1790 (Ironmonger)). Benjamin inherited from his father and was appren-ticed as a plumber whereas John was apprenticed to a soap-boiler. In about 1794 Benjamin and John moved to London where they be-came very involved in the London Corresponding Society, a group actively lobbying for greater de-mocracy (universal suffrage, an-nual parliaments etc). Benjamin was secretary and John, who had a gift for public speaking, was a 'deputy'. At this time, in a decade when there was revolution in France and turmoil throughout Europe, the British government felt very inse-cure and in August 1797 John was arrested in Birmingham on a war-rant from the Home Office and charged with sedition, an illegal

action inciting resistance to lawful authority and tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the gov-ernment. He was brought to trial at Warwick but the jury refused to convict. Just a few months later, in 1798, John was again arrested, this time in the company of a group includ-ing James Quigley, Arthur O'Con-nor, John Allen and Jeremiah Leary. They were all tried for High Treason but only Quigley was con-victed and was executed. It should be remembered that from May onwards in 1798 there was rebellion in Ireland, backed by the French that was not finally sup-pressed until 1804. It may be that John Binns was also a member of the multi-denominational United Irishmen, founded by Wolf Tone, and some sources suggest that he used the alias John Pemberton. Shortly after being released, the British government having sus-pended the Habeas Corpus Act for a third time in April 1798, John Binns was again arrested and held without charge in Gloucester Gaol. His brother was also arrested and held in prison. After Habeas Cor-pus was restored in October 1801 both Binns brothers were released and they then emigrated to the USA. I am not sure that Benjamin did not return to Dublin, a B P Binns, plumber appears in Dublin Directo-ries at 4 St Mary’s Abbey in 1798, 1800, 1803, 1810, 1811 and 1814. However in 1817 a Benj. Pemberton Binns is listed in the Index to Records of Aliens' Decla-rations of Intention and/or Oaths of Allegiance in Philadelphia. It is possible that he went to the USA, returned to Ireland and then went back to the USA. In 1801 John Binns went to North-umberland, Pennsylvania and lodged at the home of Joseph Priestley (or his son) who had emi-grated to America in 1794. It seems very likely that he would have had letters of introduction from mutual friends in the London

Corresponding Society and he may well have met the Priestleys during his missionary visits to Bir-mingham. In Northumberland he set up a printing press and published Priestley’s works as well as editing and printing a newspaper the "Republican Argus" from 1802. In 1805 he was involved in a duel with one Samuel Stewart. This duel caused the passing of an act outlawing duels in Pennsylvania. In 1806 he was married to Mary Ann Bagster from Shropshire, England by Joseph Priestley, Jr. They eventually had 10 children 5 boys and 5 girls. He continued to be involved in politics and moved to Philadelphia in order to pursue his political am-bitions and to continue his printing business. He founded a new newspaper, the Democratic Press (which some claim to be the foun-dation of the Democratic Party). He produced an engraving of the Declaration of Independence in 1816 and another of Washington’s last address as well as pamphlets and advertisements. He was made an Alderman of Philadelphia in 1822, a post he held until 1844 and I have found a number of reports of his activities in this capacity, performing mar-riages, witnessing wills and oaths. He was accused of corruption a couple of times but acquitted at trial. In 1840 he published ‘Binns' Justice, Or the Magistrate's Daily Companion: A Treatise on the Of-fice and duties of Aldermen and Justices of the Peace, In the Com-monwealth of Pennsylvania, etc.’ A remarkably popular work, it went through six editions in his lifetime, and it was revised and reissued well into the twentieth century. In 1854 he published his memoirs a copy of which I have not yet been able to access, relying in-stead on quotations from secon-dary sources. He died in Philadelphia in 1860.

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John Binns

Born 1772, Dublin, Ireland

Died 1860 Philadelphia

Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

According to papers that belonged to Richard William Binns, of Royal Worcester Pottery who was his first cousin once removed, three of John Binns’ children were: Benja-min Franklin Binns, John Silas Binns and Matilda Pemberton Binns. Searching various Philadel-phia Newspapers and Magazines I have found reference to three more of his children, Pemberton Binns, John Pemberton Binns, and Sny-der Binns. Details 1. Benjamin Franklin Binns RW Binns papers. No further infor-mation 2. John Silas Binns

RW Binns papers. No fur-ther information. Possibly died young since another son John Pemberton born about 1813 and lived until at least the 1830s.

3. Snyder Binns

Named after Governor Simon Snyder of Pennsyl-vania, a close friend of John Binns. In 1816, Ann Carson kidnapped five-year-old Snyder Binns in an attempt to put pressure on Governor Snyder to free her convicted mur-derer husband. Married Matilda Caroline Geyer, daughter of Alder-man Geyer in 1832.

4. Pemberton Binns, Son, Born 1810

Died in a skating accident in 1823 age 13

5. John Pemberton Binns, Son, Born abt. 1813

John Pemberton Binns ap-pears as Clerk of Works at founding of the Girard Col-lege for Orphans. Married Joanna Catherine Geyer, daughter of Alder-man Geyer in 1832. A Catherine Binns mother of Edward H. Binns, whole-sale grocer and Matilda Binns appears in the 1880

census. I think this may be Joanna Catherine, in which case Edward’s family are John Binns grandchildren. I believe Edward H. to be Edward Hudson Binns who is listed in various trade di-rectories in Philadelphia. His wife was Harriet and his chil-dren were:

1. William Binns, Son, Born abt. 1859

2. John Pemberton Binns, Son, Born abt. 1861

Pharmacist Died Dec 1884

3. Burton Binns, Son, Born 21 Dec 1862 Lawyer Married Louisa

4. Thomas Binns, Son, Born

abt. 1866 Possibly died 5 Jun 1939 5. Edward Hudson Binns, Son,

Born abt. 1872 Possibly father of Edward Hud-

son Binns, film actor born 1916 died 1990

6. Lila L Binns, Daughter, Born abt 1872

Possibly died 1921 7. Walter R Binns, Son, Born

1883 Possibly died1941 8. Olivia Binns, Daughter, Born

1 Jul 1894 Possibly died 1973

6. Matilda Pemberton Binns,

Daughter, Born 1824 Married John W. Simes a pharmacist, and had at least 4 children: 1. Snyder Binns Simes, Son,

Born 17 Nov 1842 Married Ellenor Rector of Gloria Dei Church,

Philadelphia 1868-1915 Died 1915 2. John H. Simes, Son, Born

1844 3. Samuel Simes, Son, Born

1848 4. Emma M. Simes, Daughter,

Born 1852

In addition to the above I’ve found reference to Margaret Eleanor Pemberton-Binns b 1880 daughter of Henry Pemberton-Binns of New York who married in 1903 Archibald Douglas Schomberg Douglas-Hami l ton (b. Frankfur t 1.10.1861, d.22.1.1908) a younger son of the house of the Dukes of Hamilton. I won-der if these Pemberton-Binns are connected in any way with either John or Benjamin. Also the 1880 US census has some Binns whose fathers were born in Pennsylvania. I wonder of any of them are connected;

• David Binns, Farmer, born 1837 PA living Franklin, OH in 1880

• Sarah L Binns, Widow, at home, born 1803 PA, liv-ing Philadelphia, PA in 1880 mother of

• Chas. H. Binns, Widower, Tax Collector, born 1838, living Philadelphia, PA in 1880 father of

• J George Binns, Student, born 1860, living Philadel-phia, PA in 1880, mother born Scotland and

• Wm H. Binns, Clerk In Dry Goods Store, born 1861, living Philadelphia, PA in 1880.

I’d be very interested to hear from anyone with more informa-tion about this line of Binns.

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This article has been very kindly pro-vided by Phyllis Williams. In our News Letter No 4 published in May 1999 there was a briefer account of John Binns and although some of the same information appears in the current article he is such an important figure that a little repetition does not seem inappropriate.

“Volume XXXV of The Sher-

woodian, published in November

1948, paid this homage to the

Principal who had guided the col-

lege through fifteen traumatic, but

also fruitful years from 1933 to

1947:

‘To him be the honour for the

proud position Sherwood holds in

India today.

Si monumentum requiris, circum-

spice’

(These translations are courtesy

of Anne Binns. The same words

are inscribed on Sir Christopher

Wren’s tomb in St. Paul’s Cathe-

dral. In her 1953 Latin exercise

book at Dudley High School for

Girls, the words were translated as

‘If you seek his monument, look

around you.’ Anne feels this alter-

native could be more appropriate

for Alwyn and Sherwood: ‘If an en-

dearing example is needed look

around you.’)

The Reverend Alwyn E. Binns

did indeed work wonders during

his 15 year trusteeship of Sher-

wood College. Alwyn has often

been acknowledged as a great

Principal. Colvyn Haye, an Old

Sherwoodian of the late 1930s/

early 1940s, is quoted in Hazel Craig’s Under the Old School

Topee (1996) with these words:

‘This was the legendary man who

made Sherwood what it was, an

Anglican School which produced

The well known author and authority on France and cricket, Richard Binns, has kindly agreed to allow us to publish this account of his Uncle who for many years was Principal of Sherwood College in India.

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girls from Naini Tal’s All Saints and

Wellesley schools to contact me.

First, when I announced Alwyn’s death in The Daily Telegraph; and

then, following a profile of ‘yours truly’ in The Sunday Express in

which I recalled with great affection

my four years at Sherwood, from

1943-1946, when I was a short

trousered little ‘un, with autumn

chaps and chilblains, aged five to

nine!

Typical of the numerous letters

was one from Laurence George

(1936-1944). Almost 40 years after

leaving Sherwood he was able to

look back with crystal-clear perspec-

tives on his time at school and to

write about Alwyn: ‘his intense en-

ergy and drive, his utter commitment

to excellence; his passionate attach-

ment to Sherwood; and the loneli-

ness of his struggle.’ He finished his

letter with ‘Alwyn Edwin Binns, a re-

markable man.’

As I look back now over my 68

years of very mixed experiences of

male human beings I am not sur-

prised in the least by such contra-

dictory opinions of my ‘Uncle Alwyn’.

Certainly in my four years there, de-

spite being so young, and the same

goes for my brother Keith who’s two

years younger, Alwyn made 100%

certain that he would never be seen

bestowing any favours on his young

nephews.

Yes, he was a strict disciplinarian;

muscular Christians in the manner

of Arnold’s Rugby, with corporate

life centering on Chapel worship,

academic excellence and compul-

sory games.’

Yet how did the same Alwyn

come to be described, in the early

1970s, in words uttered to my wife

Anne by an Old Sherwoodian

friend of ours who lived in the

Bucks village we had moved to in

1970: “Few liked him. Some hated

him.”

The words were used before Al-

wyn first stayed with my family in

Chesham Bois village. Later, on

several occasions, the Rector of St.

Leonard’s asked Alwyn to preach

at his church (as at Sherwood, al-

ways off the cuff with just a few

‘crib’ words as ‘notes’). The old

Sherwoodian, a member of the

same church, met Alwyn and, over

the next few years, spent many

hours in his company. Before the

end of the decade my friend had

grown to know, respect and admire

Revd. Binns; and to understand

better what made Alwyn such an

inspiring dynamo of a human be-

ing. Anne remembers our friend

saying:“I’ve grown to respect

him.”Much better still he was able

to thank Alwyn, to his face, “for his

rewarding Sherwood days.”

During the 1980s two separate

events gave an opportunity to

many Old Sherwoodians and old

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paid for in the main by their fa-

ther’s employers. Not bad for a

railway ‘inspector’ father. Could

that happen today? My research

leads me to believe that the boys

attended, at one time or another,

the Lawrence Memorial School at

Ghora Gali, Murree (now known

as Lawrence College and, of

course, in Pakistan) and the Law-

rence Royal Military School (now

The Lawrence School), Sanawar,

in the Simla(Shimla) Hills.

For Alwyn to become Sherwood

College’s Principal at the tender

age of 28 underlines both the

quality of his education and the

amazing amount of work and en-

ergy he put into the ten years af-

ter he left school.

I know he spent many years in

England. He won his degree and

took Holy Orders – he was or-

dained at Southwark Cathedral

and then accepted a curacy at All

Souls, Langham Place (across

the road from the BBC); later he

had a spell at Christ Church, East

Greenwich. He played hockey for

Blackheath and also represented

Kent; he was a ‘brilliant’ player

and prolific scorer, averaging well

over two goals a game when

playing in England. Then back to

India to become Principal of Sher-

wood on 11th November 1932. I

bitterly regret not getting Alwyn to

tell me more about those eventful

years. Only now, sifting through

dates, have I realised the obvi-

ous: at 28 he was the ‘head’ at

Sherwood.

The story of Uncle Alwyn’s life after he left India in 1947 will be continued in the next News Let-ter.�

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he may well have appeared

‘fearsome’ to many boys; and he

expected pupils to meet his own

very high standards. But he lived for

his cherished Sherwood and I shall

defend that claim to my death!

I had the great good fortune to get

to know Alwyn very well indeed

from the early 1950s to his death in

1982. We became close friends.

Even in his late 70s, in the years

before his death, he still retained his

‘human dynamo’ energy, his intense

interest in everybody and everything

and, above all, he kept-up his con-

tact with an immense number of

friends. Apart from myself, brought

about by the tens of thousands of

letters I’ve received from readers of

my many travel books and articles,

each one of whom has had a reply

(over 30,000 in total!), I’ve never

come across anyone else who des-

patched so many letters to corners

all over the globe.

Alwyn was marvellous company,

endlessly encouraging and exceed-

ingly generous. For example: in the

1950s he helped his younger

brother Leslie and sister-in-law

Muriel, plus a young family of three,

to twice extend their home, an oth-

erwise smallish West Midlands bun-

galow.

Some telling words from the 1948 Sherwoodian identify with melan-

choly clarity the likely outcome of

the years facing the Principal’s de-

parture at the end of 1947. ‘Who

would feel the separation more?

Sherwood or Alwyn? It was hard to

tell. Sherwood is sufficiently well es-

tablished, thanks to Alwyn, to over-

come any great loss; how would Al-

wyn exist without his beloved Sher-

wood?’ Perceptive indeed!

Let me give you a run down of the

28 years from Alwyn’s birth to his

arrival at Sherwood, as Principal, on

11th November 1932; and then a

brief account of his life after leav-

ing Naini Tal.

Alwyn was born in Lahore on 9th

April 1904. He was the third of four

brothers: Angus, the oldest, was

born in Bombay on 31st March

1901; Cecil, my father, in Lahore

on 29th July 1902; and Leslie, the

youngest, in Lahore on 26th De-

cember 1905. Imagine: less than

five years between the foursome!

Their father, Richard Edward

Binns, was born in Salford, Lanca-

shire, in 1874. Aged just 17 he

joined the 2nd Battalion Oxford

Light Infantry as a private, shortly

after his father Simon died in 1891.

Richard did military service in In-

dia. About 1902/1903 he left the

army and joined India’s North

Western State Railway.

My family tree research, going

back to the 18th century, confirms

that all Simon’s earlier ancestors

were Leeds folk. So there’s one

possible reason for Alwyn’s

bloody-minded guts and glory,

laced with fair play: his roots were

in Yorkshire! Throughout their lives

the four boys remained a very

close quartet. The oldest and

youngest had an engineering bent;

the middle two, my father and Al-

wyn, had other talents and most

definitely were not practical souls;

replacing a light bulb was just

about on! The same goes for me,

though I’m not quite that useless;

yet my brother Keith is both a

qualified engineer and a superb

computer guru to boot.

I believe the four boys must have

been educated at one or more of

the schools created by the British

Military or opened for the children

of railway employees. Either way

what a great education they had;

/HWWHU�IURP�$XVWUDOLD�Following on from the account of how Fred Binns from Cowling left to make a new life in Australia, here is the surviving part of the letter he wrote home to his nephew in Yorkshire.

Topaz Via Peeramon, North Queensland 21

st July 1930

Dear Jack, I was very pleased when I received your letter to-day, and to show you how really pleased I was I will en-deavour to write you a long inter-esting reply, I don’t know whether you still go to school or not, but in any case you ought to know where to find Queensland on the map. [Jack would have been about 14 at the time]. Now if you happen to have a map you will be able to fol-low my travels from New South Wales up – into the far North of Queensland where the most pictur-esque scenery is in the whole world. I will skip the description of the New South Wales coast & start my narrative from the Border of the two States. The river Tweed is the divider on the coast line with a town on each side. Tweed Heads is Queensland side. Once across the border we notice a change in things; all the houses are built up on piles, this is because of ventila-tion & a pest called white ants which eat timber as quick as you can eat porridge. From here you catch the train to Brisbane, the largest city & seat of government of the state of Queensland. Brisbane is divided by a big river which al-lows ocean going liners to come right into the heart of the city, thereby adding to its importance & prosperity. As a city it is well laid out & clean while its suburbia is in most cases beautiful along the banks of the river. On the North side & in the city is a reservation called the Botanical Gardens, here you find species of many Queen-sland trees, shrubs, & animals; the trees are very striking at the first acquaintance, being subtropical mostly in the shape of palms to throw shade on the roots from the hot sun. The animals are too nu-merous to mention, but to mention a few, naturally the kangaroo

comes first & I am sure you will have seen pictures of them carrying their young in a pouch in front of the body. These are timid in their wild state, but woe betide anyone who gets one cor-nered & has not a weapon of defence; they can rip a man up in no time with their powerful hind legs. There are a large number of smaller animals of the same type as the Roo; Wallabys & Bandycoots which are a source of an-noyance to farmers which we are al-lowed to shoot, so that is one form of sport. Next comes the Emu, a large bird of the Ostrich type. I have not seen these in the wild state, but a similar large bird is found round my own place called the Cassowary & they are also protected; they don’t fly of course, be-ing too large. After these come hosts & hosts of smaller & very beautiful birds especially the parrots & cockatoos; our finest Parrot, the King Parrot is a very beautiful fellow & can be taught to speak if caught young. Last but most dangerous are the Australian snakes. I think the worst is the tiger snake, a yel-low and black fellow which grows to around 12 feet long, with him is the death adder, a dark brown almost black; a bite from either means death if not attended to immediately. Then comes the Black snake, a fellow so quick he can almost beat the eye, very poisonous too, he is found most any-where in Australia. One more I must mention is the beautiful carpet snake, a chap which grows up to 20 feet and sometimes over; he is patterned with bright yellow & black and if he has had a feed you can approach him safely & tickle him if you have got the nerve. I have had one round my legs & pulled them about, but he is best left alone; if he is hungry he might be also angry if molested; usually he ignores human beings, except to keep his beady eyes on one. Now we will leave Brisbane & join the Townsville mail train for 700 miles ride north. Our first 100 miles is very interesting; on the left we see three spires in the distance & they seem to be travelling with you. These are the famous Glasshouse Mountains & can be seen for mile & miles out at sea. Then you come to Gympie, an old

mining town, where all the mines are now closed leaving gaping holes surrounded now by miles of pastorial pursuits, with cattle grazing. Another 50 miles & we reach Maryborough & thoughts run to eats where we do justice to a three course meal in the Government Buffet. After 20 min we entrain & be-gin to settle down for the night, converting seats into beds etc & if you’re lucky will wake up in Rockhampton, a big town which is the junction for long reach out West. After breakfast we go on again, watching oc-casional views of the sea, the South Pacific Ocean; just be-fore we reach Mackay we run within an easy throw of the sea. After leaving Mackay we lose sight of the sea again & run through tropical jungle country till we reach Bowen, where we have dinner & eat fish in compliment of its chief industry. Again on the road, we retire for another nights sleep with windows wide open in consequence of the heat & suffer millions of flies, beetles, & moths & mosquitoes. How-ever morning brings us into Townsville, a very prosperous town. Here we have to change trains & wait for 1-5 hours for a train to take us to Cairns, an-other 400 miles nearly. Quite a change greets us now for we are coming into Queensland's great sugar growing country. For miles & miles one sees nothing but fields & fields of sugar cane & oh, the pity of it, you see swarthy faced South-ern Europeans, Chinamen, & others, in fact you look at your fellow travellers & you notice that Britishers are in a minority now. If you happen to break your journey at Innisfail you will open your eyes in wonder at the babbel of foreign tongues, Dagoes, & Chinks; one feels that this isn’t English & glad to

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4) Lionel Binns is descended from James Taylor Binns, a Wesleyan min-ister born about 1851 in Whitby. 5) Peter J Binns has lots of informa-tion about the family of Abraham Sug-den Binns who was born in Oakworth in 1837, married Minerva Flowers in Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, in 1866, and returned to Oakworth sometime between 1879 and 1884. Missing from the 1881 Census in both Canada and England does anybody know where they were? 6) Lesley Steege asks if we have any information about Henry Binns who married Emma Grimshaw in 1866. 7) Malcolm Binns, not the pianist, traces his family through Pickles Binns back to William and Zillah Binns. He tells us that Pickles was an inventor of some ability, and whilst running the bar at the Saltaire conser-vative club,

1) Paul Binns is a film editor for television in London and one of things he has worked on is the genealogy series, Who Do You Think You Are? He edited the ones on Jeremy Paxman and on Stephen Fry. Last year he did one about Vic Reeves and Meera Syall. His ancestors come from Light-cliffe and the family was re-searched by Donald Benson Binns, our late founder.

2) Graham Smith is de-scended from Thomas Brace-well SMITH (b. Jun 1842 Keighley v.23 p.272, d. Jun 1900 Keighley v.9a p.157) who married Sarah Elizabeth BINNS (b. Mar 1847 Keighley v.23 p.376, m. Jun 1866 Keighley v.9a p.245, no record of death). 3) Nikki Binns is researching Herbert Binns who was mar-ried to an Ethel and had three children Leonard, Roy and Dorothy.

he was able to supplement his income by patenting inven-tions. Most important of which was a machine to bottle soda water.

8) Ray Rappold from West Vir-ginia (a descendant of the James Binns, born Bierley, 1836, who married Mary Roe in Egton in 1864) is about to sell what is left of his ancestor’s farm at Kesslers Cross Lanes, Summersville 9) Andrew Harrison tells us he has a book inscribed "Ida Binns, Highfield House, Cull-ingworth, Nr Bradford". It is dated August 1935. This ad-dress is then crossed through and replaced with "I. Binns, 50m Stanbury, Keighley, Yorks".

that this isn’t English & glad to shake the hot red dust of this tropical town from your feet, yet it holds more millions of money for its size than any other town or city in Australia. I think it is a pity that the foreigner has such a hold on the place; it would be very nice with its waving coconut trees & tropical scenery. The rivers we cross now are nice to look upon but it would be very dangerous to be tempted to bathe as they are all infested with alligators & a nice fat man is much appreciated as a dainty morsel by these ugly brutes. However we arrive in Cairns & now the most beautiful city in the north is presented to our sight. Situated on the coast line & a tropical climate, it is the outlet to the tablelands & gets its wealth from the gold fields, corn fields & dairying industries,

chiefly the timber, of which I will tell you a bit later. After spending a night in Cairns there are two tempting ways of climbing up on to the tablelands, one via the rail-way which runs up & past the fa-mous Barron Falls running on the edge of hundreds of precipices& getting hair raising thrills, or by going by car up the range road, where for 12 miles the road is so dangerous only one way traffic is allowed & motor cars are only al-lowed to travel at 12 miles per hour. However once on top you suddenly get a view of very fertile & wonderful country cleared up from thick jungle scrub lands. Atherton is the centre of this table-land but I won’t take you there, I will take you straight to Topaz & my own place which is about 30 miles from the top gate of the Range Road.

Now we have got a good metal road most of the way & from the gate we reach Gurrylussa a small town. Within 5 miles from there we go to Peeramon all through dairying districts. I nearly forgot, half way to Gungaburra there is a big lake called Lake Barrene & three miles from that is another one called Lake Echam Both these lakes are places for recreation & get many visitors; I often go there for a swim at weekends. However we reach Puramon, another small town with a station, now we are 15 miles from my home & turn our face to Queensland’s highest mountain, Bartle Fresi, 5287 ft above sea level, my place is close to the foot of it on the West-ern side.

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Thanks also to my wife Elaine, without whose understanding and tolerance would find it impossible for me to collect the information in the News Letter, and without whose skill in organising the layout, would be a pretty dull publication.

www.thebinnsfamily.org.uk

We’re on the web at : -

Have you been one of our ‘Hits’? To date there have been 321,715 ‘hits’ on the Binns Family web site. The Data Base contains 6,296 individuals in 1,604 families. The John and Abigail file has had 1,548 ‘hits’. It contains 810 individuals in 309 families. Bradford Parish records on the site has had 1,506 ‘hits’. It contains 339 individuals in 130 families, And Haworth Parish records on the site has had 1,758 ‘hits’. It contains 1,573 individuals in 414 families.

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My grateful thanks also go to Alan Penrose Binns, for without his enthu-siasm and dedication the News Let-ter would not have popped through your letterbox.

Dave Binns, from South Wales has been very actively collecting re-cords on Binnses in the Midlands . He has entered data onto the web-site including the family of Albert Edward Binns, born in Kettlebrook, Warwickshire in about 1883, who died and was buried in Basra, Iraq, in 1917. As far as we know he and his widow Sarah did not have any children.

Mike Binns has entered data on Giuseley families including off- shoots in Fewston and Timble. He has uncovered potential evi-dence of some interesting changes of name from Nichols to Binns and we look forward to hearing more of this story.

Your editor has been adding a va-riety of detail to the John Binns and Abigail King data as well as updating some of the extensive Cowling families. Peter A. Clark and Arthur Evans have been valuable sources for this information.

And finally, I apologise to those who have supplied items that have not ap-peared in this issue. They will be ap-pearing at some time in the near fu-ture. I thank most heartily Richard Binns, Arthur Evans, Phyllis Williams and Ellena Woodward for the interesting articles they have contributed. My thanks also to my eldest son Ian A. Binns and Peach Digital Ltd. for their invaluable help in maintaining such a prominent place on the world wide web for the Binns family.

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