This article appeared in the July 2002 issue of Family History Vol.20, No.172, NS No. 148.

Celebration of the Jubilee of the Accession of Queen Victoria to the Throne of this Realm

Tuesday the 21st day of June 1887 was the day appointed by Royal Proclamation for celebrating the Jubilee of the Accession of Queen Victoria to the Throne, throughout her dominions. It was a day worthy of great occasion. “Queen’s weather” is a proverb with us; today if [it be] “Queen’s weather indeed”. For weeks we have had uninterrupted sunshine; no rain has fallen in this place for more than a month. Many were fearful that if the same sultry heat prevailed over today, the festivities would be marred owing to the exhaustion of the people. But with the morning, all these fears have been dispelled. Gentle fresh, and refreshing breezes have tempered the sunshine. No more perfect temperature could be desired.

Fowey has today been true to her ancient traditions; to her ancient spirit of loyalty. The great event is well worthy of our Celebration. All around us during this eventful half-century Thrones and Dynasties and Princes have been falling like leaves in Autumn; war and anarchy have swept over fair realms and desolated Noble Cities; Kingdoms have been shattered and reconstructed, whilst to us in our Island Home these things have seemed only like the mutterings of a distant storm, or the spent shock of an earthquake far away. For this is our thankful adoration is due, in the first instance, to the never failing Providence which ordereth all things both in Heaven and Earth, but we cannot fail to recognize a chief instrument of the providential direction in the maintenance and support of the Gracious Lady who during all these years has occupied the British throne. In the apparent working of our Constitution the Sovereign retires into the background, but much more than is commonly supposed depends upon the personal action of the Queen.

The smoothness with which the wheel of government revolve, the ease with which power is transferred – from one party in the state to another, the tranquility with which profound modification have been affected in our social and legislative condition are happy results of her discerning appreciation of the delicate position which she occupies. She has known how to subordinate her personal preferences to the deliberate judgment of her people, without abdicating any part of the silent influence which must needs flow from her permanent office and her vast experience. In foreign matters particularly it is probable that her knowledge, derived from long and intimate acquaintance with the Courts of Europe, is greater than that of her wisest counselors; And we may ascribe it largely to her advice if our international relations during these difficult times have been on the whole directed safely. But it is not, after all, the public action of the Queen which stirs the heart of the Nation so deeply and so universally as her personal and individual character. We know her intimately. She has taken us all into her confidence after a fashion which no Sovereign has ever dreamt of before, in those journals of her daily life which she has given to our perusal. We have seen her there, divested of state and ceremony, in all the simple capacities of a woman. She has allowed us to watch her through the various successive Staffs of life; and we have seen her perform the several parts of girl, wife, mother, widow, with blameless and unfailing accuracy. The splendours of a Court and cares of Government have never obscured for her the charms of domestic life and have only made the simple pleasures of rural retirement more enjoyable. Nor have they ever closed her ease to the whisper of distress, or prevented her from offering her ready sympathy to the Victims of Sudden accident or the mourners over Sad bereavement. It is the personal knowledge of the Queen, this sense that she is one of ourselves, sharing all our feelings and affections, and identifying herself with all our joys and sorrows, which has made this Jubilee Year a great deal more than a mere matter of Public celebration. It is a real outpouring of the hearts of the people to a friend which they seem to know for themselves, a genuine expression of enthusiastic loyalty which is mingled with something of personal affection.

This memorable Jubilee Day was ushered [in her honour] by a Merry Peal from our fine Church Bells. given with a will, by our Fowey Ringers. The Town was wide awake before these sweet sounds awoke the echo at 6 o’clock a.m. All seemed to be busy decorating the Streets and their houses in honour of their Queen. Triumphal Arches with appropriate devices were spanning the roadways and bursting abundant from every coin of vantage.

At 10 o’clock the children of the Church Sunday School began to assemble on the Town Quay and soon there was a fine parade. With their Teachers they marched to Church to take part in the Special Service of Thanksgiving which was held at 10.30 a.m. The Church was well filled, non-conformists showing by their presence that this was a day of Union in Thanksgiving before God. The Service was a thoroughly bright and joyous one, the singing being exceptionally good, (the Choir was reinforced by several ladies and gentlemen who volunteered their Services for the day.) After a Short address given by the Vicar, who took his text from Proverbs viii 15 – “By me Kings reign”, The Service concluded with a really most excellent rendering of the “Gloria in excelsis” from Mozart’s twelfth Mass. At 12.30 Dinner was served in the Tennis Court (placed at the disposal of the Committee by C E Treffry Esqre) of [Fowey] Place. This dinner was open to all Parishioners, rich and poor alike, who chose to sit down to it. Some 800 in all were present and one and all confessed that a better or more thoroughly well arranged Banquet had never been seen. Before the Banquet commend, Mr Treffy in a short and most fitting speech, proposed to the assembled Parish, “Health and long Life to her Majesty, and confusion to her Enemies,” this was received with acclamation, as was also of [sic for a] Telegram of Congratulation which the Revd H S Purcell proposed to the Meeting as follow “Fowey with loyal respects, greets Queen Victoria on her day of Jubilee.” The sick, (Unable to be present) were not forgotten, dinner was sent from the Table to each sick one, volunteers from among the Committee carrying the plates to the several homes. At 3 o’clock a procession was formed, consisting of the Fowey Royal Naval Reserve, the Fowey Battery of the Volunteer Artillery, the children of all the Sunday Schools in the Parish; this procession, headed by the Volunteer Band, marched through the Town, beginning from Place gate and traversing the whole place.

At 4.30pm v. good, substantial Tea, with meat, was served to all who were unable to be present at dinner, to this some 250 sat down, also about 500 children to Tea, Cake and Bread and butter. This meal was also served in the Tennis Court. At 6 o’clock there were Sports in the Cricket Field, running, jumping and which were entered into with much jest by the competitors and the public generally. At 10 o’clock at night there was a Torch light procession through the Town, in which about 150 took part, this was most effective and striking. On ascending the Hill by the old Wind Mill, many of the Bonfires blazing on the Cornish Peaks were visible at Midnight, a grand scene not soon to be forgotten.

Altogether the occasion is a great one and it has been greatly observed. “The hearts of the whole British race everywhere have been moved, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.” But it ought not to pass without a note of warning. We heed to whispers of an undertone in minor key to remind us of the instability of mortal things. Our great ceremonial ought not to lack some substitute for the skeleton in the Egyptian Feast, or the voice of the Slave in the Roman Triumph. Not indeed for the Sovereign herself. She has gone mourning all her days since the husband of her youth was taken from her, doubtless the reinstatement of the long disused magnificence of Royal Pomp is a Sore burden to her saddened spirit. But her subject[s] will do well to remember the old Greek Proverb which spoke of the jealous eyes with which the Gods behold excessive prosperity, and to moderate the natural exultation which these celebrations tend to produce, by the more Christian reflection that “the most High ruleth in the Kingdom of Men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will.”

I have inserted this account of Jubilee Day in the Baptismal Register Book of the Parish, because it seemed too me to be a piece of Local History which ought to be preserved, and I know of no better way to preserve it than by placing it thus among the Parish Records.
Handfield Noel Purcell (M.A. Oxon)
Vicar of Fowey
Cornwall
Tuesday
21st June 1887