Snippets    Sni’ppets, n. detached fragments of knowledge or information, short fragments from books, odds and ends: OED     A Gap Filled         Over the years I’d been researching Morgan Aubrey’s life – a long one, covering almost all the Elizabethan era.  I had thus come to know him very well.  So much so that Morgan, as a person, came to life in my mind.  I knew what he looked like and even the sort of man he was.  I can still visualise him.  It was because of his vivid presence, albeit imagined, that I could put his thoughts into words on the pages of Salt & Silk. I had traced nearly all aspects of his life, bar one, that was his entry into the Guild of Salters.      One day, just as I had almost completed the final draft of the book, I found myself in the City of London Archives, tucked away at the back of the Guildhall Library.      Sitting along one wall on the wooden floor were hundreds of old boxes full of card indexes.      As always, I asked the question of the helpful assistant – did she have anything on Morgan Aubrey, Salter, Citizen of London, Alderman, etc.      Yes, one of the files in the first box was devoted to him.  The card she showed me looked disappointingly bare for a man with such a long life, but it did have some mysterious letters and numbers at its top.  These she recognised immediately and asked me to wait while she found the book they referred to.  She disappeared into the nether regions.      I held my breath. To my astonishment, when she emerged, she bore in her hands, a huge, leather-bound book, nearly three inches thick, which she deposited carefully on a table.  The code on the card told her which of the hundreds of hand-written, parchment pages referred to Morgan Aubrey.      At last, there he was. The spidery Elizabethan writing declared that he had become apprenticed to James Peel and had been received into the Company of Salters on Thursday the 19th day of  December in the Year of our Lord, 1560.      Now I knew the name of his Master and the date of his acceptance into his Guild.      I gazed on the dusty page, much as Morgan himself must have done with pride almost four hundred and fifty years ago.       The most important gap in Morgan Aubrey’s life that I lacked, had at last been filled.      To read how he not only made money as a Salter, but also survived the religious and political upheavals of the time, go direct to Order and buy your copy of Salt & Silk – chronicles of the Aubreys of Clehonger.    D Meredith McFadden    ‘Lunatics’ & ‘Leaders’         Life is busy at present, researching and writing the histories of an asylum and a railway station, both important in their own ways.        From 1889, Cane Hill Hospital in Coulsdon was one of London County Council’s asylums.  Thousands of Londoners were sent there, many never to return.      Having worked with one of the clinical teams preparing patients to finally leave Cane Hill Hospital before it closed, I researched Croydon’s pauper lunatics admitted there until 1899 as part of my MA.        With that behind me, I have traced the history of this important institution from the 1870s until its closure in 1992.       The History of Cane Hill Hospital will be published in November 2010.       Meanwhile, I am unearthing the history of another place: Droxford Station where Winston Churchill met with General de Gaulle and General Smuts just before D-Day – with important consequences for the ending of World War II, and Britain’s entry into the EEC! Pam Buttrey    The Bedell Family         At least one branch of the Bedell family (sometimes spelt ‘Beadle’) came from Bedfordshire.  One who made his name (and money) was Mathew Bedell.      He was probably the second son of Mathew Bedell of Kempson in Bedfordshire, and so had to make his way in the world and not rely on inheriting the family estates.  Whatever there was, would be destined for his older brother.      This younger Mathew, a younger son, was probably born c1570.  He moved to London where he immersed himself in the Merchant Taylors’ Company, ranked sixth out of the twelve leading Guilds of London.      Some time in his twenties, he married Margaret Titus, widow (possibly a rich one), of a fellow member of the same Guild.  They had a son, named for his father, and two daughters.      Both married Citizens of London and Members of Guilds.  Their social standing and the opportunities they had to better themselves and make money, is well described in Salt & Silk, showing how Morgan Aubrey became a Citizen of London and member of the Salters’ Guild and grew rich.       Prudence Bedell married Thomas Thorold, Citizen and Ironmonger, while Anne Bedell married Citizen and Grocer with the appropriate name of Thomas Mustard.       Soon after the birth of these children, England saw the accession to the throne of King James I.  There was much jubilation in London, and guild members (among others) were expected to contribute to the cost of the festivities to welcome the new king.  According to surviving records, Mathew Bedell donated £1; a paltry amount compared with other donations.       Like the Salter Morgan Aubrey, whose life is outlined in Salt & Silk – chronicles of the Aubreys of Clehonger.  Mathew became an Alderman of the city of London.       After Margaret died, Mathew married Anne, the daughter of Thomas Boothby, another Warden of the Merchant Taylors’ Company.  Thomas, the eldest son from that marriage entered Grays Inn having graduated B.A. from Oxford University.  A daughter, Elizabeth, married Herbert Aubrey of Clehonger, Morgan Aubrey’s grandson.       So guild members often prospered, bought land and married their sons or daughters into the well-established county gentry..  Just as Morgan Aubrey married his son (later Sir Samuel Aubrey) to Joyce Rudhall, daughter of Sir William Rudhall, whose ancient family network extended over most of Herefordshire.  See Salt & Silk – chronicles of the Aubreys of Clehonger for details.