One postcard amongst the stamp collection of William Henry Morgan is particularly interesting. This comes from Rev John Whitehead a Baptist missionary in Congo in the early 20th century and conveys Christmas greetings and best wishes for the new year of 1914.
Postcard from Rev John Whitehead Nov 1913 Front
Postcard from Rev John Whitehead Nov 1913 Back
The card is addressed to a Miss Grigg, Prospect Cottage, Little Bessels Green in Sevenoaks in Kent. We do not know if Miss Grigg has any personal connection to William Morgan. He could have simply bought the card much later for its stamp and interesting country of provenance. A bit more speculatively John Whitehead’s wife (L.F.) Lillian Frederica (nee Gordon) was the daughter of a Cooper in the East End of London. William Henry Morgan’s grandfather Daniel Chiswick also practised the same profession in the neighbouring streets. The Chiswicks had Congregationalists amongst their numbers. This may give grounds to suppose some connection between members of William Morgan’s larger family and Miss Grigg and the Whiteheads in turn.
Rev John Whitehead was based first at Lukolela and later Wayika on the upper Congo River and Lualaba. His published linguistic work in that part of Africa could be considered very much a precursor of work later carried out by William Henry Morgan’s grandson David John Morgan in the 1990’s. This is a fine coincidence.
This family artefact therefore serves as a lesson not to draw too much from coincidences when finding documents in family archives. We know anecdotally that there is no possible connection or influence demonstrated by this card to the career of William’s grandson. This card has lain unnoticed in a stamp album for well over sixty years.
Sources
- 1911 census has Lillian Frederica Whitehead with her young daughter living with her mother Sarah Gordon in Aylsham, Norfolk. She is described as a ‘wife of a missionary’ born in Blackheath.
- 1871 census shows Lillian Frederica Gordon (2 years old) with Father who is a Master Cooper in Poplar.
- Enquete Dialectale de l’Ubangi et de la Mongala, Region de l’Equateur Republique du Zaire, by Jim Fultz and David Morgan (SIL 2016 ISSN 1559-1417)