TRAVELLERS & GYPSIES

Peter Edwards was the speaker for the well-attended October meeting. Being of Romany decent and having done his own family history research Peter gave us a fascinating description of Romany life.
The gypsies originated from Northern India hence, he explained the dark hair in ringlets & sallow complexion. Over the centuries they crossed Europe and arrived in Scotland in 1515 & were called ‘Egyptians’.
The Irish gypsies came over during the potato famine & are a different people entirely. The Irish & ‘Egyptians’ never mixing in normal circumstances, both having different ‘standards’ & ways of life.
Peter spoke of the family names such as Lee, the Scamps of Kent, and Lovell, Wood the celebrated family of Bala North Wales the Toogoods, Buckland, Smith & Jones & many more. There was an inclination to change ones name if the situation called for it, but surnames were often taken from the female line.
The first names were also very different some being Comfort, Crimea, Ishmael, Malachi, Samson & of course Delilah, Shandras, Uriah & again many more.
Their occupations were many & varied, for without doubt if one did not work one did not eat! They were good & knowledgeable horse traders, dealers in scrap metal, a lucrative business apparently as one of Peter’s relatives, himself a scrap metal dealer, now owns many race horses. Hawking, land work, basket & peg making, knife sharpeners & so on. Fortune telling was left to the women folk. Peter showed us an anvil used by a relative who was a tinker who would repair your pots & pans. It would appear that there was no job a gypsy could not do. They were also antique dealers although the method of obtaining the antiques was dubious. They carried their wealth as gold earrings & rings on their fingers but had few other possessions.
In 1824 The Vagrancy Act was passed & begging was made illegal. Those caught were fined £5 or jailed just for being a gypsy in some cases. Peter recalled his grandfather, a great drinker, & all the troubles he got into. Although gypsies have a high moral standard especially when it comes to their children, they were not above’ breaking the law ‘& Peter told of his relatives who were apprehended for attempted murder, bigamy,’ furious’ driving of horses, counterfeiting & being drunk & disorderly especially on cider. The magistrates were kept busy with the misdeeds of the gypsies, seeing the same people on a regular basis. They travelled around following the work as dictated by the seasons often turning up at the same place at a certain time of year.
The diet was mentioned being mostly what could be found in the hedgerow like hedgehog, rabbit & fruits. Bread & milk was often obtained by begging from the farmers who provided work for the gypsies. Their health was good, many of Peter’s relatives living well into there 90’s. It is believed that hard work & an outdoor life although hard was tranquil.
The true Romany cares for nature, never leaving the site untidy or destroyed even to the point of cutting out turf to make a fire & then returning the turf when they leave. Peter showed us an original iron used for holding a kettle over a fire. Photographs and handouts were available & the meeting ended with many people asking questions.
[Barbara Holmes]