Charles Dickinson Brigham (1851-1891)

Charles Dickinson Brigham was born in Driffield in c.1851. His brother was the photographer William Dobson Brigham, in whose studio he may have learned his trade. He certainly used his brothers address on the backs of some of his carte de visites, so presumably worked in Scarborough on occasion. In April 1874 Charles was working as a photographic assistant to Antoni Straub in his studio in Bath, Somerset. A newspaper reports that he was accused of “feloniously embezzling the sum of £1 1s 2d” from his employer. His brother in Scarborough gave him an excellent character reference and he was found not guilty. He seems to quickly leave town for Staffordshire where he establishes his own business. In 1875 he is recorded assisting the police after an officer was assaulted in the Alma Public House in Stone.

In 1880 he finds himself in trouble again. This time he appears in court for threatening to shoot John Oulton, a guard on the North Staffordshire Railway. It is reported that Oulton was a former sweetheart of Mrs Brigham and that Charles had pulled out a revolver and threatened to shoot Oulton in a Stafford street. He was bound over for the sum of £50 to keep the peace for 12 months. His final appearance in the newspapers is also a dramatic one. it records an inquest into his death when he was living and working in Birmingham. It is recorded that for some time leading up to his death he had been constantly drunk and according to his wife had aher on a number of occasions. She was living elsewhere but their daughter Elizabeth was at home with him when he drank two bottles of his photographic chemicals. He was taken to the General Hospital where he died. His age was recorded as 42 but he was actually only 40. His studio in Stafford was taken over by a photographer call Bordley.

C. D. Brigham was the son of the auctioneer and registrar of births, marriages and deaths, John Brigham and his wife Elizabeth Dobson. He was married to Jane Hassell Mills in Bath during 1874. They had four children John (b.1873, Stone, Staffordshire), Charles Dickinson (b.1876, Stone, Staffordshire), Elizabeth Ann (b.1877, Stafford) and William Dobson (1879-1905, b. Stafford).