Victorian Bournemouth (238) has investigated events surrounding the bankruptcy of draper Stephen Ely. It has uncovered a web of dubious supply and financial management. The case leaves unanswered whether Ely’s involvement concerned just commercial failure or extended into the dubious practice of evading insolvency. He claimed never to have met the man to whom he transferred his assets, with the entire process carried out through the unilateral signing of documents. However, soon after, the business went up for sale at £5,000, a price well below the value of his buildings.
Tag: bankruptcy
Victorian Bournemouth (80): photographers
Kinship networks. Itinerant lives. Introduction Victorian Bournemouth (80) explores the social profiles belong to professional photographers who arrived by 1871. Photography appears to have had a slow start at the resort, but its early providers shared several social characteristics. Victorian Bournemouth (80): early photography A new technology Image capture and retention without the use of […]
Bankruptcy at early Victorian Bournemouth
Introduction Bankruptcy caught Samuel Bayly, one of early Victorian Bournemouth’s leading citizens, during 1856. The event attracted considerable press attention, coverage listing Bayly’s creditors as well as the amounts he owed. Publicity therefore inflicted damage to their reputations in addition to the missing money. Genealogical analysis adds texture to the press accounts, while further press […]
Early period in Victorian Bournemouth
Growth. Society. Strife. Introduction Early period in Victorian Bournemouth provides an historical outline of the resort’s development from the late 1830s to 1856. It covers progress of the commercial sector, social matters, but also disruptions. At the beginning came building activity, uncoordinated, frenzied. By the end, the town acquired an Improvement Commission, established by Parliamentary […]