Kay; Robert (?-?)

• Kay; Robert (?-?)

Robert Kay was a successful bootmaker with a number of shops in York. He was the son of an intemperate shoemaker. A Wesleyan temperance reformer, he ran Priory Street Wesleyan Young Men's class in around 1894. His notebook, also called Grandfather Robert Kay's diary and covering the period 1875-1900, was created to record 'what I remember in connection with, and a record of, any noteworthy incident occurring at any of the public houses between Fossgate and Walmgate Bar.' The notebook, whose original is still in the possession of the Kay family, is addressed to 'my much beloved children' and signed 'drink, debt, dirt and the devil I HATE, Robert Kay'.

York bootmaker and shop owner, as well as a Wesleyan temperance reformer and teacher.

Robert Kay was a successful bootmaker with a number of shops in York. He was the son of an intemperate shoemaker. A Wesleyan temperance reformer, he ran Priory Street Wesleyan Young Men’s class in around 1894. His notebook, also called Grandfather Robert Kay’s diary and covering the period 1875-1900, was created to record 'what I remember in connection with, and a record of, any noteworthy incident occurring at any of the public houses between Fossgate and Walmgate Bar.' The notebook, whose original is still in the possession of the Kay family, is addressed to 'my much beloved children' and signed 'drink, debt, dirt and the devil I HATE, Robert Kay'.

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) - Ottawa

Masters, Charles Walter. (2010) The respectability of late Victorian workers: a case study of York, 1867-1914. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.; Harrison, Laura (2015) Negotiating the meanings of space: leisure, courtship and the young working class of York, c.1880-1920. PhD thesis, University of Leeds. p.58