Boldly going to Bastard (From The Northern Echo)

Boldly going to Bastard

9:09am Saturday 6th January 2007

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IN London, in the shadow of Guy's Hospital, there is Crosby Court and Crosby Row which are both named after him.

In the Imperial War Museum is a large obelisk that, from 1771 to 1907 stood in the centre of St George's Circus in Lambeth proudly bearing his name.

In St Martin's Church in Chelsfield, Kent - where he was Lord of the Manor - there is an inscription in his memory. In Bromley, there is a plaque celebrating the house where he lived.

Even in Canada, there are a couple of towns named after him.

But in the place of his birth, Stockton-on-Tees, there is nothing. Brass Crosby, the champion of free speech who was the first to be "as bold as Brass", is forgotten. This week, the town's mayor Suzanne Fletcher began a campaign to right this wrong.

Crosby - whose mother was Mary Brass from Blackhall, hence his metallic first name - was born in 1725. He was apprenticed as an attorney in Sunderland but found Whittingtonesque fame and fortune in London where he rose to become Lord Mayor and Chief Magistrate.

In 1770, the London Evening Post dared to print verbatim proceedings of the House of Commons. The Government and the King threw the editor into jail.

They expected Crosby, as Chief Magistrate, to legitimise the punishment. But he believed in fair trials and the rule of law, in open democracy and free speech.

So he freed the fellow.

In a fury, the Government tossed Crosby into the Tower of London. But judges refused to hear the trumped-up charges against him, and protest meetings were held across the country demanding his release. After six weeks, the Government backed down and Crosby was freed. Forty-two carriages waited his re-emergence from the Tower, and he was processed triumphantly through the streets of London to the Mansion House for a victory meal.

Never has anyone been as bold as Brass in standing up to the Government; never again has the publication of Parliamentary debates been prevented.

Although Stockton does not, as yet, celebrate its champion, he is recalled by a peculiar phrase wherever the English language is spoken. And, in Canada, between Ottawa and Quebec he is commemorated by the towns of North and South Crosby.

These were settled in 1795 by immigrants from Scotland and England, who cleared the forests and tilled the soils. According to their website, the settlement was "very likely named after Brass Crosby, at one time the Lord Mayor of London".

In 1998, the Crosbys were amalgamated with the neighbouring town of Bastard to form the Rideau Lakes council. Yes, Bastard.

It, apparently, takes its name from the ancient Bastard family (pronounced "Bah-stahr-d") who settled there from Devon. Or it takes its name from the meeting called by the settlers in 1796 to discuss what to call their new home. They had appointed a chairman, but they waited well over an hour for him to turn up.

Then the co-chairman said: "The bastard is not coming."

According to the Rideau Lakes website: "All present thought it would be a good idea to memorialize that thought, so they called it Bastard Township."

Which is extraordinary.

But then, so is the Rideau Lakes website.

This is how it describes the joys of the district that takes its name from the lad from Stockton: "Today, North Crosby with its forgiving forests, its rugged hills and many pristine lakes is a paradise for recreational fishing and an Eden for cottaging."

It's where George Michael goes for his holidays, apparently.

Hopefully whatever wording Stockton chooses to commemorate its local hero will be more appropriate.

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