In the former part of Mr. Day’s life, he usually walked to Fairlop and back again; later in life he was wont to ride on horseback, but having a fall from his horse, he declared he would never cross another; he kept his vow, sold his horse, and purchased a mule: this obstinate animal also, unconscious of the worth he bore, threw his rider in the mire. Mr. Day discarded his mule as he had done his horse, and determined never more to trust himself upon the back of a four-legged beast. His next resource was a post-chaise or a coach; in one of these he also met with an accident, and ever after refused to enter into either. This last circumstance induced him to direct his remains to be conveyed by water to the place of burial, saying, “If he was conveyed in a hearse, he should be awakened.” He next invented a machine to go by the aid of mechanical power without horses, which, after two years successful trial, broke down in attempting the third expedition. His dernier resort was a jockey-cart, in which, attended by music, he took his annual trip up to the July preceding his death.
Long previous to Mr. Day’s exit, Fairlop Fair was known all over Essex, and the adjoining counties; and naturally the inhabitants of Wapping, and the eastern parts of London, could not be ignorant of it, consequently it was attended by a vast concourse of people. The engine-makers, pump-makers, and block-makers of Wapping, and other places contiguous to the river, a few years before Mr. Day’s death, to the amount of about thirty or forty, every year went to the Fair in a boat made of one piece of entire fir, covered with an awning, mounted on a coach-carriage, drawn by six horses, with flags, streamers, and pendants flying, and a band of music, attended by a great many persons on horseback, in carriages, and on foot. This custom, on the first Friday in every July, has been successively observed to this time, in compliment, and in commemoration of their old friend and “brother chip,” to whose pious memory they never fail to drink. The great annual resort to Fairlop Fair is so well known for twenty miles around, that it is needless to say more on the subject than that in point of the number of persons who go to it, and in accomodations and articles for sale, it is not inferior to any fair near the metropolis, excepting that it is only of one day’s duration. Seven and twenty years have now elapsed since the famous Fairlop Oak ceased to attract the attention of the holiday-makers, but the mirth and festivity, gypsying, archery, donkey-riding, swinging, &c. are still to be witnessed to a great extent. Long may Fairlop’s Friday continue to be joyously looked forward to by all as “the good Day’s” day of “fun and jollity!”
THE WILL OF Mr. DANIEL DAY.
(NEVER BEFORE PRINTED.)
Extracted from the Registry of the
Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
In the Name of God, Amen.
I, DANIEL DAY, of the Parish of Saint John, Wapping, in the County of Middlesex, late Block and Pump Maker, do hereby revoke all former Wills by me at any time heretofore made, and do make and declare this to be my last Will and Testament. I desire to be decently buried in Barking Church Yard, in the County of Essex, at the discretion of my Executors hereinafter named. And I desire to have six men of the same trade that I followed to attend my funeral, and to put my body into a boat, and to convey the same to Barking aforesaid by water, and then to see the same interred. And I give and bequeath to the said six men one guinea each, and also a new apron, and a pair of gloves to each of them for their trouble therein. I give and bequeath unto Thomas Dillow, of the Parish of Broughing, in the County of Hertford, five pounds. I give and bequeath to Thomas Wright, of the Parish of Standon, in the said County of Hertford, five pounds. I give and bequeath to my Servant, Elizabeth Richardson, five pounds, and a bed, in case she shall be living with me at the time of my decease. I give and bequeath to the Treasurer of the Charity School of the Parish of Saint John, Wapping, aforesaid, the sum of five pounds, in trust, and for the sole use and benefit of the Children belonging to the said School. I give and bequeath to the poor of the Parish of Barking, aforesaid, the sum of two pounds, to be distributed amongst them by the Church Wardens and Overseers of the said Parish, in such manner as they shall think proper. I give and bequeath to the Children of Blagrave Gregory the sum of one hundred pounds, to be equally divided to and amongst them, share and share alike, and to be paid to them by my Executors hereinafter named, when and so soon as they shall respectively attain their ages of twenty-one years, or days of marriage, which shall first happen; and in case any or either of them shall happen to die before they shall attain their ages of twenty-one years, or be married, then the share of him, her, or them, so dying, shall be equally divided to and amongst the survivor or survivors of them; and in case there shall be but one such Child who shall live to attain the age of twenty-one years, or be married, then I give the said one hundred pounds to such surviving Child. And as to all my money in the public funds, goods, chattels, and all other the rest, residue, and remainder of my personal Estate, of what nature or kind soever, which I shall be possessed of, interested in, or entitled unto, at the time of my decease, after payment of my just debts and funeral expences, I will, order, and direct, that my Executors hereinafter named, and the Executors and Administrators of the survivor of them, shall stand seized and possessed of the same upon trust and confidence; nevertheless, to make sale of any part of my goods and chattels, and to call in and receive such parts of my said personal Estate as is now outstanding, and to invest the money arising thereby in some or one of the public funds, or Government securities, in the names of my said Executors; and when the same shall be so invested, as aforesaid, it is my will and I do hereby give and bequeath all the residue of my said personal Estate (after payment of my just debts and legacies, hereinbefore mentioned) unto William Weale, Tabitha Weale, Sarah Ann Weale, Daniel Weale, James Weale, Esther Day Weale, and Louisa Weale, the sons and daughters of James Weale, late of the Parish of Saint John, Wapping, aforesaid, Block Maker, deceased, to be equally divided to and amongst them, share and share alike, and to be paid to them respectively on their attaining their respective ages of twenty-one years, or days of marriage, which shall first happen; and in case any or either of them shall happen to die before he, she, or they, shall attain their ages of twenty-one years, or be married, then the share of him, her, or them, so dying, shall go to the survivor, or survivors, of them, share and share alike. And I do hereby order and direct that my said Executors shall not be answerable, or accountable, for the acts, deeds, receipts, or payments, of the other of them, but each of them for his and their own acts, deeds, receipts, and payments, respectively. And that my said Executors, their Executors, or Administrators, shall deduct and retain in his or their hands, all such costs, charges, and expences, which they, any, or either, of them shall sustain, or be put unto, in, or about, the execution of this my Will. And I do hereby constitute and appoint William Camden, and John Camden, of the said Parish of Saint John, Wapping, aforesaid, Sugar Refiner, and Peter Manswell, of the Parish of Saint Matthew, Bethnal Green, in the said County of Middlesex, Tallow Chandler, Executors of this my Will. In witness whereof, I, the said Daniel Day, the Testator, have to this, my last Will and Testament, contained in three sheets of paper, annexed together and sealed with my seal, to the two first of the said sheets set my hand, and to the last my hand and seal, and published and declared the same, this thirty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand, seven hundred, and sixty-six.
Daniel Day.
Signed, sealed, published, and declared, by the said Testator, Daniel Day, as and for his last Will and Testament, in the presence of us, who, in his presence, and at his request, and in the presence of each other, have subscribed our names as Witnesses thereto.
Robert Tudman,
Matthew Coates,
John Yourson.