According to one source (cited below), John Brewington was born on the 15th January 1834, the eldest son of Shadrach [sic] Brewington, a Feltwell shoemaker.
However, another source says he was baptised on the 22nd of November 1834 [PB: in Feltwell?], the first son of Frederick Brewington, born 1814, and his wife, Susan (nee Smith, daughter of John E. Smith, baptised at Feltwell on the 10th of October 1806). The couple had married at St. Mary's Church, Feltwell, on the 20th of November 1833. Susan Brewington was buried there on the 7th of January 1885, aged 79 years.
Before joining the army, John Brewington is known to have lived and worked at 4, High Street, Feltwell, and later [PB and perhaps surprisingly?] in Upper Tooting, in southwest London.
1841 Census
St Mary & St Nicholas, Feltwell, Norfolk.
John Brewington, aged 6, appears to be living with Thomas Chamberlaine, 50, a Baker, Sarah Chamberlaine, 40, and William Club, 20, J[ourneyman?] Baker. [PB].
1851 Census
[no numbers shown] Upper Tooting, Parish of Streatham, Surrey.
Edwin Penton, Head, 42, Master Baker employing 1 Man, born Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire [c.1809].
Sophia Penton, Baker's Wife, 39, Streatham, Surrey [c.1812].
Ann Palmer Penton, Daughter, Unmarried, 16, 1835, Bromley, Middlesex [PB: this is presumably Bromley-By-Bow] [c.1835].
William Penton, Son, 10, Scholar, Bromley, Middlesex [c.1841].
Sophia Penton, Daughter, 6, Scholar, Bromley, Middlesex [c.1845].
Jane Brazier, Servant, 17, Dean, Hampshire [c.1834].
John Brewington, Servant, 16, Feltwell, Baker's Journeyman, Norfolk [c.1835].
[PB, Dec 2013: Where is this? "Upper Tooting" is the area immediately around today's Tooting Bec Station. Was JB living on e.g. the high road that goes north-east towards Balham? The 1851 Census listing lists houses in "Bedford Hill", then "Balham Rd" (including "The Price of Wales Beer Shop"), then "Upper Tooting", then "Streatham Lane" [probably today's Tooting Bec Rd?]. Houses in Upper Tooting are seemingly substantial — attorneys, bankers, GPs, annuitants, independent means, many scholars, and most show a number of servants. The top end (i.e. near today's Balham) is clearly more affluent than the bottom, near today's Tooting Bec Station. On Ancestry.co.uk, JB is here. ]
Information received from Mr. A.J. Orange of Feltwell in Norfolk shows that John Brewington was one of eight children, the first son of Frederick Brewington and his wife, Susan:
The former was born in 1814 and had married Susan Smith at St. Mary's Church, Feltwell, on the 20th of November 1833. His wife, the daughter of John E. Smith, was baptised at Feltwell on the 10th of October 1806 and was buried there on the 7th of January 1885, aged 79 years.
Frederick Brewington formerly lived in Oak Street, Feltwell, in Hall Street in 1837, then moved to Thorndon in Suffolk, but later returned to Feltwell.
John Brewington was baptised on the 22nd of November 1834.
The second son, William, born 26th of July 1836 and baptised on the 16th of July 1837, became the ancestor of the Bushell family [see Further information below].
The other six children were born between 1839 and 1850.
In 1982 King's Lynn Borough Council decided to erect plaques on buildings in the Borough connected with notable people. The plaques have been executed in Welsh slate by David Baker, of Hunstanton.
That for John Brewington is on 4, High Street, Feltwell.
A booklet describes the various people honoured, including John Brewington, and contains information about mid-Victorian Feltwell:
Feltwell, a fenland village possessing two churches, was the home of John Brewington. Born on the 15th January 1834, the eldest son of Shadrach [sic] Brewington, a Feltwell shoemaker. [This is contrary to what was previously known of his ancestry.]
On leaving school, John worked for Thomas Chamberlain, a baker, of High Street, Feltwell. By the time of the 1841 Census, John was in lodgings with his employer, at this house, No. 4 High Street, Feltwell.
The coming of the railways to this part of East Anglia in the mid-1840s caused a widening of horizons and could have been the reason why John is found next in London working as a baker at the time of the 1851 Census. It was from Hampton Court, London, that John enlisted into the 4th Light Dragoons on the 19th of September 1851.
Enlisted at Hampton Court on the 19th of September 1851.
Age: 18.
Height: 5' 7".
Trade: Labourer.
[PB: Roy Dutton writes that JB "witnessed the death of Lt. Sparke in the Charge, however his account has been lost" (Forgotten Heroes, p20). He does not give a source.]
Sent to Scutari on the 14th of December 1854, and rejoined the regiment on the 11th of May 1855.
Tried by a District Court-martial at Aldershot on the 17th of December 1857 for "Aiding and abetting in a felony", and awarded 24 days' imprisonment with hard labour.
Discharged, "time expired", from Newbridge on the 2nd of December 1863.
Conduct: "good".
In possession of two Good Conduct badges.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
[PB (25.7.15): Medals to "Pt. J. Birmington 4th Light Dragoons" were offered for sale at Rod Akeroyd & Son with the suggestion that they are likely be the medals of John Brewington. The asking price was £6,400. I am indebted to Wendy Leahy for drawing this to my attention.]
A four Clasp Crimea medal to Pt. J. Birmington 4th Light Dragoons. The naming of this medal is an obvious misreading of the medal roll. Three of the clasps definitely read as Brewington, the fourth (Balaclava) could be could be misread as Birmington hence the naming on the medal. There is no other man in the regiment with a similar name to Brewington or Birmington, so my conclusion is that this is the original medal issued to Pt J. Brewington 4th Lt Dragoons who rode in the "CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE" on 25th October 1854.
Ref "FORGOTTEN HEROES" by Roy DUTTON. See page 20 — 1510 BREWINGTON Pt JOHN.
See more at: www.firearmscollector.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=202#sthash.aKQWzBtA.dpuf
[Source: www.firearmscollector.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=202 (accessed 25.7.15).]
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879.
Signed the Loyal Address to the Queen in 1887.
Attended the Balaclava Dinner in London on the 25th of October 1890, and appears in photographs taken at Olympia at that time. According to the key, John Brewington is on the extreme left.
1871 Census
St Mary, Sherwood, District 3, Nottinghamshire
25 Wollaton Street
John Brewington, Head, Mar, 35, Time Keeper, Norfolk Feltwell
Sarah Brewington, Wife, Mar, 34, Notts, Snenton [?]
1881 Census
12, Sotherton Street, Fulham.
The 1881 Census shows him as 54 years of age, a Labourer at a Gas Works, born at Feltwell, Norfolk.
Also present are his wife, Eliza, 45, born in St. Pancras, London, a sister-in-law, Kezia Baker, 33, an Office Cleaner, and three children: Jessie Escott, 9, Eliza Escott, 3 (these would have been the two Escott children recorded above) and a son, John Brewington [sic], 1 year.
[PB: Less than ten years later he was said by James Wightman, secretary of the Balaclava Committee, "to be without work and in great distress". ("All that was left of the 600: The starving survivors of the Light Brigade", widely republished in newspapers throughout the empire.]
Somerset House records show the death of a John Brewington, aged 57 years, during the January-March Quarter of 1892 at Fulham.
He died at 37, Breer Street, Wandsworth Bridge Road, Fulham, London, on the 20th of January 1892 (see copy of his death certificate in the "Certificates" file) and was buried in Fulham Cemetery, Grave No. 11-K-37 on the 28th of January 1892. This was a public grave, and has no form of memorial.
(See photograph of his presumed gravesite, in the 4th Hussar file. PB: date — 1980s?)
From the West London Observer for the 30th of January 1892:
Death of a Balaclava Hero.
Another of the few survivors of the Balaclava Charge has passed away in the person of 1510 John Brewington. (4th Queen's Own Hussars.)
This hero died on the 20th of January after a brief illness following an attack of influenza and bronchitis, during which he was attended by Doctor J.W. Smith at 37, Breer Street, Wandsworth Bridge Road, Fulham.
He was in the 57th year of his age.
See copies in the archive of two letters sent to The Standard in January 1892 reporting his death and possible military funeral, and the reply from a member of the public who felt that undue honour and attention was being paid to the few remaining men who rode in the Charge.
The Standard, London
Saturday 23 January 1892
The Balaclava Survivors
To the Editor of the Standard.
Sir,-
Another of the few survivors of the celebrated Balaclava Charge has passed away in the person of No. 1510, Private John Brewington, 4th Regiment of Hussars (4th Queen's Own Light Dragoons).
This old hero has just died, after a brief illness, at his residence, 37, Breer-street, Wandsworth-bridge-road, Fulham, S.W.; and it is suggested that he should be buried, in accordance with his own expressed wish, with military honours.
Perhaps your kind publication of this letter may induce the military authorities to render the necessary assistance to carry out so desirable an object.
The funeral will take place at Fulham Cemetery on Thursday next, at three o'clock.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Walter L. Brown.
49, Rosebury-road, Fulham, S.W. January 22.
[Source: As transcribed by Wendy Leahy, Shadows of Time: http://shadowsoftime.co.nz/4ths/dragoonb/brewington1.html (accessed 25.7.15).]
[PB: Some or all of the following appears to be EJB's synthesis of information received from a family member (William Bushell? Mr. A.J. Orange of Feltwell?). It is quite a complicated story, which I have not attempted to clarify.]
John Brewington married twice, his second wife being Elizabeth Escott, a widow with daughters of her own — the eldest, Jennie, never marrying, and the younger also called Elizabeth.
After her husband's death his widow had lived at 16, Boundary Road, Colliers Wood, London, with her daughters and here the youngest had met and married a Mr. Wright Ibbotson who was convalescing in the area (at the military hospital at Carshalton) from wounds received during World War One.
This man was the uncle of the wife of the person now owning the medals, a Mr. William Moulding, of Mill Hill, London. He recalls meeting Mrs. Brewington in the 1930s when, although over 90, she was in possession of all her faculties, and could remember watching the funeral of the Duke of Wellington when perched on her father's shoulder [1852].
She also said that her husband had come through the whole of the Crimean campaign "without a scratch".
Losing touch with the family during World War Two he eventually heard that Mrs. Brewington had died at the age of 97, followed soon after by her daughter's husband and the two sisters had lived together for a few years in their old home before going into a Home for old people.
Here the younger died in 1962 at the age of 84 and the elder in 1968, aged 92.
Maintaining contact with them over their last years they had left him John Brewington's medals, his account book and a certificate swearing him in as a "Special constable" while serving in Ireland in 1861-62 and 1863. (See copy of this in the 4th Hussar file.)
The muster rolls for the period show him as being on "Police Duty". He was attached to the 6th Bn. of the Military Train as "Mounted Police" and was stationed at the Curragh Camp from the 1st-17th of December 1863.
According to his account book, he was born at Feltwell, Norfolk, the son of John [sic] Brewington. His age was shown as 18 years 6 months on enlistment, height 5' 7", pale complexion, grey eyes, dark brown hair, distinguishing marks, "None". His trade was shown as a baker, which is at variance with that shown in the muster rolls.
He was paid a bounty of £5/15/6, plus £1/2/0 for "Cavalry Equipment."
His service abroad was listed as follows:
Landed in Turkey, 2nd of August — Landed in the Crimea, 17th of September 1854. — Present at the battles of the Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and served during the Siege of Sebastopol from the commencement to the fall, 8th of September 1855. — Landed in England, 26th of May 1856.
The relationship of Mr. William Bushell to John Brewington stems from the family story that his mother, Mabel Brewington, born in 1898, was the daughter of Arthur Brewington, the only son of a William Brewington who lived in Feltwell.
He said that it was his mother who had given him the reunion photograph, had been given to understand that John Brewington was her great-grandfather and who had remembered seeing the photograph hanging in her home and also the holidays spent at Feltwell with her grand-parents.
The relationship of the Bushell family to John Brewington is now known to be that Mabel Brewington was the grand-daughter of William, the brother of John Brewington.
William Brewington was present at the battles of the Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman and served at the Siege of Sebastopol from the commencement to its fall on the 8th of September 1855. He rode in the legendary Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava and was one of those who survived.
He held the Crimean Campaign Medal with clasps for the four battles mentioned.
He was also awarded the Sultan of Turkey's Medal.
He died in Fulham, London, on the 20th of January 1892, aged 57.
His known descendants are named Bushell, and live in West Newton, a village near Sandringham, Norfolk.
They possess a framed engraving of a map of the Crimea and a copy of the photograph taken at the time of the 1890 Dinner for the Balaclava survivors in which Brewington appears. (See copy of this in the 17th Lancer file.)
They have also provided a photograph taken from a family album (see 4th Hussar file) of a man believed to be him. This is based on the similarity between this and the 1890 photograph.
[PB: Which of these is the pic shown above, negfile445-5?.]
From the Eastern Daily Press, 2nd of February 1976:
"Mr. George William Bushell of Victory Cottages, West Newton, near King's Lynn, was on Sunday presented by her Majesty the Queen with the Royal Victorian Silver Medal for 24 years' service on the Sandringham estate, the last ten years being in charge of the vehicle maintenance service."
A picture of George William Bushell, his wife, and three children appeared in the same issue.
[PB: See also Wendy Leahy, Shadows of Time, "John Brewington".]
JOHN BREWINGTON
Also recorded as Brenington
BORN: 15 01 1834
AT: Feltwell, Norwich
BAPTISED: 22 11 1834
AT: St Nicholas, Feltwell, Norfolk
OCCUPATION: Baker
FATHER: Shadrach Brewington
MOTHER: Susan
REGIMENT NO: 1510
ENLISTED: 19 09 1851 Hampton Court HQ aged 18 years 8 months
Recorded as 20 09 1863 in discharge entry, 1863 being an obvious error
HEIGHT AT ENLISTMENT: 5' 6 3/4"
RANK: 1851: Private
1855: Private
1857: Private
1863: Private
COURT MARTIALS: Court martial at Aldershot for embezzlement and forging a receipt. Tried on 17 12 1857 and sentenced to 84 days HL, 25 lashes and stoppages
OTHER DUTIES: 01 01 1855 to 31 03 1855 At Scutari
11 05 1855 From Scutari
COMPLETED LIMITED SERVICE: 22 12 1863 Dublin
NOTES: Character good
Length of service after age of 18: 12 years 2 days
Discharge allowance Dublin to London £1. Total allowance £2
POST DISCHARGE OCCUPATION: Gas Works Labourer
DIED: 20 01 1892 at his home, 37 Breer Street, Wandsworth Bridge Road, Fulham, of Bronchitis.
BURIED: Fulham Cemetery, Thursday 28 01 1892, 3.00p.m.
1841 CENSUS: Ref. HO 107/774
Norfolk, St Mary and St Nicholas, Feltwell, District 14
Thomas Chamberlain, 50, Baker, Born in Norfolk
Sarah Chamberlain, 40, Not born in Norfolk
John Brewington, 6, Born in Norfolk
William Club, 20, J. Baker, Not born in Norfolk
1851 CENSUS: Ref. HO 107/1579
Surrey, Streatham, District 2d
Upper Tooting
Edwin Penton, Head, Mar, 42, Master Baker employing 1 man, Bucks, Waddesdon
Sophia Penton, Wife, Mar, 39, Baker's Wife, Surrey Streatham
Ann [Palmer] Penton, Dau, U, 16, Middlesex Bromley
William Penton, Son, 10, Scholar, Middlesex Bromley
Sophia Penton, Dau, 6, Scholar, Middlesex Bromley
Jane Brazier, Servant, U, 17, Servant, Hants, Dean
John Brewington, Servant, U, 16, Baker [Journeyman], Norfolk Feltwell
1871 CENSUS: Ref. RG 10/3506
Nottinghamshire, St Mary, Sherwood, District 3
25 Wollaton Street
John Brewington, Head, Mar, 35, Time Keeper, Norfolk Feltwell
Sarah Brewington, Wife, Mar, 34, Notts, Snenton
1881 CENSUS: Ref. RG 11/73
London, Fulham, District 33a
12 Sotheron Rd
John Brewington, Head, Mar, 50, Labourer at Gas Works, Felt_el, Norfolk
Eliza Brewington, Wife, Mar, 45, Middlesex, St Pancras
Maria Baker, Sister, 38, Office Cleaner, Middlesex, St Pancras
Jessie Escott, Dau, 9, Scholar, Middlesex Chelsea
Eliza Escott, Dau, 5, Middlesex Fulham
John Brewington, Son, 1, Middlesex Fulham
1891 CENSUS: Ref. RG 12/52
London, Fulham, District 46
37 Breer Street
John Brewington, Head, M, 57, Labourer G.L., Employed, Norfolk
Eliza Brewington, Wife, M, 56, London
John H Brewington, Son, S, 11, Scholar, Middlesex Fulham
Lizzie C Brewington, Dau, S, 19, Middlesex Chelsea
Eliza Escott, Dau, S, 15, Middlesex Fulham
1ST WIFE: Sarah Hickling
BORN: c1837, Sneinton Nottinghamshire
MARRIED: 1862, Naas [Ireland] Ref 8 329
DIED: 2Q 1878, Fulham, Ref 1a 195
MARRIED [1]: 21 10 1869, Parish Church, Battersea, Surrey
Thomas Escott, 29, Bachelor, Servant, Battersea, Son of Thomas Escott, Servant
Eliza Anne Baker, 32, Spinster, Battersea, [rest blank]
Parish Church after Banns by Henry Fermoy Durnford, Junior Curate
Between Thomas Escott and Eliza Anne Baker
Witnessed by Lucy A_____ and James Spice [Parish Clerk]
2ND WIFE: Eliza Annie/Anne Escott née Baker
BORN: c1837 St Pancras
MARRIED [2]: 06 04 1879, All Saints Church, Fulham, Middlesex
John Brewington, 47, Widower, Labourer, Fulham, Son of Shadrach Brewington, Shoemaker
Eliza Annie Escott, 42, Widow, Fulham, Daughter of Edward Baker, Clerk
Parish Church after Banns by S. Maude
Between John Brewington and Eliza Annie Escott
Witnessed by [Robert] Johnston and Fanny Johnston
NOTES: Eliza's first husband was Thomas Escott
1ST CHILD: John Hickling Brewington
BORN: 09 02 1880
BAPTISED: 20 11 1880 at St. John, World's End, Kensington and Chelsea
Son of John Brewington, Labourer, and Eliza Brewington of 12 Sotheran Rd.
TNA SOURCES: WO/12/657
WO/12/659-660
WO/12/668
WO/12/10984
WO/12/10992
WO/25/3869
WO/86/9
OTHER SOURCES: Honour the Light Brigade
The Standard, 1892
Ancestry.com
FindMyPast
LINKS: feltwell.net
[Source: Wendy Leahy, Shadows of Time, "John Brewington": http://shadowsoftime.co.nz/4ths/dragoonb/brewington1.html (accessed 25.7.15). The editors are very grateful to her for allowing us to reproduce information she has collected. I have not yet compared the information shown.]