Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 August 31

= August 31 =

Bruce Angrave's birth date
Can one of our genealogists confirm the birth date of the English illustrator Bruce Angrave, please? The article currently has a footnote saying "Sources differ on Angrave's birth year, either 1912 or 1914.". He was born in Leicester. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:31, 31 August 2020 (UTC)
 * 1912 is the more likely. A Bruce Angrave appears in Ancestry's "civil registration birth index" as having had his birth registered in the first quarter of 1913. Mother's maiden name stated to be "Letts". An abstracted version of this index entry is available for free via Familysearch: British WWI service record for a Charles Francis Angrave (also via Ancestry) says he's married to an Elsie (née Letts) as of 27(?) Dec 1910 and son Bruce was born in Leicester on 6 Dec 1912. This fits with what that other record indicates. Unfortunately I cannot find it on Familysearch so you'll have to take my word for it. 199.66.69.67 (talk) 13:13, 31 August 2020 (UTC)
 * The Family History of the witty, urbane and handsome Ken Phillips (so maybe not too official) gives a birth date for Bruce Angrave of "6 Dec 1912 Leicester, Leicestershire... Father, Charles F Angrave b. 11 Jul 1886, d. 1976, Mother, Elsie Letts b. 3 Jul 1890". Alansplodge (talk) 13:23, 31 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Also, New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors: A Companion to On-line & Off-line Literature - 2018 has: "Bruce ANGRAVE {UK} (M: 1912 (wrongly 1914) Dec 6 - 1983 Jul 8)". Alansplodge (talk) 13:31, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Thank you all for yet another excellent response. I've updated the article accordingly. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 23:22, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Style's Judges
Which book is Elihu Burritt referring to in this 1868 text?

"If the book is still extant, no better place could be found than Boscobel for reading "Style's Judges." It would show proofs of devotion and self-sacrifice for the outlawed, hunted, hungry Whalley, Goffe, and Dickinson as brave, unswerving, and unselfish as the loyalty of the Penderels to their fugitive sovereign. It would disclose the same expedients for their security; how one stout-hearted woman had a false floor made, or two floors for her garret so deep between the joists that the three men might lie in it by night and day if need were; how she strewed the upper floor with reeds, and wiled away the soldiers from their frequent search; how the fugitive judges, when they transferred their hiding-place to the cave, were startled on the first night by two fiery eyes that glared at them more fiercely than any human pursuers could do, but felt relieved when they found that it was a panther instead of one of the soldiers of Charles II. I am sure that book would now have a wide reading in England, if republished here; for it is full of that romance of adventure, heroism, and fidelity which few modern novels present in their fictitious experiences."

Who was "Style"? Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 23:34, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

page 224. 199.66.69.67 (talk) 23:56, 31 August 2020 (UTC)
 * On the previous page the narrator discusses how his view of the hiding spot reminds him of "the cave's mouth in the West Rock, at New Haven." He then goes on to talk about how "three of the judges that condemned Charles I to death" took up hiding there (I suspect they are the "Whalley, Goffe, and Dickinson" mentioned in the later sentence). Thus, I think "Style's Judges" is a work about their hiding; whether "Style" refers to Charles I himself or is some sort of metaphor, I don't know. In a letter dated 29th January 1817, Washington Irving mentions the book to Henry Brevoort thusly:"By the way I wish you to send me by the first private opportunity, or by some Captain of a vessel that knows our house in L'pool—a copy that you have in your possession of "Style's Judges"; it is a little old book giving an account of the regicides who took refuge in America. I wish to shew it to an old gentleman here, who has a curiosity on the subject, and will return it carefully to you."
 * , however, suggests that "Style's" may refer to Ezra Stiles. Looking for a bibliography of Stiles reveals he wrote History of Three of the Judges of King Charles I, which may be your book. 199.66.69.67 (talk) 00:03, 1 September 2020 (UTC)
 * That must be it. Thank you. I have added a footnote accordingly, to en:Wikisource:Walks in the Black Country and its Green Border-Land/Chapter 11. Andy Mabbett ( Pigsonthewing ); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 08:42, 1 September 2020 (UTC)