Birmingham: The Riches of the Earth – Kingsley Norris Lecture
11th January 2020 @ 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm
The Riches of the Earth
Mary Bodfish will explain all
From being Staffordshire husbandmen, the Gilbert family worked its way up to producing two brothers, nephews of an ancestress, who were Thomas Gilbert (1720-98) and John Gilbert (1724-95), prominent entrepreneurs of the early Industrial Revolution. As well as with important parliamentary reform, they were involved with pioneering mining and canal engineering on a large and widespread scale; and were friends and colleagues of Matthew Boulton, James Brindley, and Josiah Wedgwood. Which brings it all neatly back into the Birmingham area!
Mary will describe the process of the research, going back to 1599, well sprinkled with probate inventories, wills and marriage bonds along the way.
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It was from a germ of an idea of Dr. Stuart Kingsley Norris, retired surgeon at Birmingham Eye Hospital, that BMSGH now Midland Ancestors, was established in 1963. As its pioneering founder member, after his untimely death in 1972, this annual lecture was set up in his memory. The lecture is always by a society member.
