NOTABLE PEOPLE OF SUNDERLAND |
|
Town Crier, painted by Gillis Brown in 1884. In the background are the Donnison School for poor girls and Holy Trinity Church. Tommy Sanderson, born 1808, was a well-known character-poet, inventor, musician, umbrella mender and last town crier of Sunderland. An eccentric he lived in "Metal Hall", an iron hut on wheels on the site of the present museum. Evicted by the council he left Sunderland, but returned eventually to become bellman and town crier until his death in 1892 |
|
Over a century ago Mary Ann Cotton shocked the nation. She is thought to have murdered as many as fifteen people and a number of these died while she was living in Sunderland. She was born in Low Moorsley and came to Sunderland to work as a nurse in the infirmary. In August 1865 she married George Ward a patient at the hospital. Her first husband died some months before with gastric trouble. Soon George was showing the same symptoms and died in 1866. The symptoms were also similar to arsenic poisoning. |
| In 1866 she went to work for James Robinson a widower who she later married. When she left three years later three of Robinson's children had also died.The suspicious deaths of those close to Mary continued. She was arrested in West Auckland after the death of her stepson. On 25th March 1873 she was hanged at Durham Gaol. |
|
John Crawford better known as "Jack" was born in Sunderland. Jack served under Admiral Duncan on the flagship HMS Venerable. In October 1787 the ship engaged in battle with the Dutch fleet, who were allies of the French at Camperdown. At the height of the battle the mast top was shot away, and to show that Duncan had not hauled up his colours, Jack climbed the mast and nailed the Admiral's flag to it. The British won a great victory and Jack became a national hero. After surviving Camperdown Jack was the second victim of the cholera, which raged in Sunderland in 1831. There was a revival of interest in Jack in the late 19th century when a statue was erected in Mowbray Park. A memorial was also erected over his grave in Sunderland Parish Church. |
|
Dr William Clanny was born in 1777 an Ulsterman, and died 1850. He became one of Sunderland's leading doctors. He played an important role in the fight against cholera in 1831. He invented a variety of miners lamps, two of which are shown in the picture. |
|
Mr Reay, the "Hot Potato Man" was one of Sunderland's best known characters. He was loved by thousands of the towns-people. He stood outside the Royal cinema in Bedford Street selling scalding hot potatoes, sprinkled with salt and eaten straight out of the paper bag. I remember coming out of the cinema with my parents on a cold winter evening and getting a bag of these potatoes. Mr Reay was succeeded by his son. |
|
The "Crab Woman" sat in Crowtree Road in the town centre selling fresh boiled crabs from a pram. Children could be seen walking along the street picking the crab meat out of the crab legs with a hairpin. It was the fathers who usually grabbed the nippers, the mothers took home the main body of the crab to make sandwiches for the tea. |
Go Home
Back to My Ancestors Sunderland
