Additions and Corrections to

Royal Mistresses and Bastards: Fact and Fiction: 1714-1936 (2007)

Page x No 20, for 'Augusts' read 'Augustus'.

Page 16 line 8, for 'son' read 'grandson'.

Page 22 - Thomas Dunckerley. See the additional page of this website.

Page 28 - Frederick, Prince of Wales (additional entry)

1728 Elizabeth Burr. Margaret Burr, who is said to have been born in 1728, married the artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) at the Mayfair Chapel, 15 July 1746. She received an annuity of £200 from the estate of the Duke of Beaufort and is thus generally credited with having been the Duke's daughter [ODNB, vol. 21 (2004) page 268]. In 1930 a portrait said to be of James Burr and the work of Thomas Gainsborough was sold from the collection of the sitter's great, great-grandson at Barbizon House, the sitter being described in the sale catalogue as a commercial traveller who worked in the establishment of Gainsborough's father, a milliner and crepe-maker at Sudbury, Suffolk, and the brother of Gainsborough's future wife. 

However, in research on Gainsborough's early life, it was suggested by Adrienne Corri in her The search for Gainsborough (London: Jonathan Cape, 1984) that the artist's wife Margaret was the daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales [Corri (1984) 153], a conclusion strengthened when she found mention in the Prince's circle at Kew of one John FitzFrederick Burr [Corri (1984) 155].

I have not seen any evidence to substantiate any part of this theory. Margaret Burr is generally said to have been born in 1727/8 but Frederick, Prince of Wales, did not come to England until December 1728. There does not appear to be any contemporary evidence that she had a brother. The descendants of one Alexander Burr who had children (by a wife Jane Anderson) baptised at St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh between 1761 and 1769, have a pedigree [information kindly supplied by Dr J.B.L.Matthews, 2011] showing him as the son of James Burr (born 1710), the supposed sitter in the portrait, and showing James as the son of Daniel Burr and Elizabeth Daucherbs/Dancherts, who were naturalized in 1722/3, but I have not seen any evidence that there was such a person as James Burr with these relationships. Daniel and Elizabeth had no known child of that name and the parentage of Alexander Burr seems unknown. Without further evidence it seems possible that James Burr was invented to give a name to the portrait at its sale in 1930.

More recent research has apparently concluded that 'Margaret Burr must have been a half-sister of Isaak Burr and Alexander Burr, and daughter of Margaret Burr, nee Aikman', Margaret Gainsborough's will [dated 6 June 1795 with 7 codicils dated 27 July 1796 and 19 August 1797 proved PCC 10 January1799 [folio 37, PROB11/1317] having named 'a nephew James Burr of Bells Mills, Edinburgh, and a niece, Mary Burr, of Panton Street, Haymarket, London' [Susan Sloman, in Gainsborough's Family Album (National Portrait Gallery, London, 2018, page 65, quoting William T. Whitley, Thomas Gainsborough (1915), pages 9-10]. No mention is made in the National Portrait Gallery book of the portrait and supporting text which was said to relate to Margaret's 'brother', James Burr, illustrated in the Barbizon House Record (1937) No. 1.

John FitzFrederick Burr was baptised at St John the Baptist, Croydon, Surrey, 2 July 1736, the son of Frederick and Catherine Burr [FHL MF 994,331], being the fourth of six children of the couple baptised there between 1732 and 1738. He was admitted a proctor in the Court of Arches in 1758 [Act Books of Archbishop of Canterbury, ix, 330, indexed in Harleian Society,vol. 55, page 124] and is presumably the John FitzFrederick Burr who married in 1761 [Faculty Office Marriage Licence] and whose will was proved in the PCC, 23 May 1764 [PROB11/898 folio 164]. His father, Frederick Burr, seems most likely to be the Frederick Burr, aged 14 when naturalized in 1722/3 [Huguenot Society,vol. 27 (1923) pages 124, 129], and baptised at the Oude Kerk (St Nicholas), Amsterdam, 14 September 1708, the son of the above mentioned Daniel and Elizabeth Burr [FHL MF 113136 & 113179].

Page 31 - Hon. Anne Vane. The date of death of Anne Vane, as mentioned in my book, has been variously stated. The Gentleman's Magazine gives it as 27 March 1736 [GM 1736 168] but Collins [iv (1756)  307] and the later peerage writers show it as 11 March 1735/6 [e.g. BP (2003) sub Barnard of Barnard's Castle]. It would seem, however, that she actually died on Friday, 26 March 1736. The Grub Street Journal (Thursday, 1 April 1736) says that she died 'on Friday at Bath'. Read's Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer (Saturday, 3 April 1736) says that she died 'Friday 7-Night' and the Weekly Miscellany (Saturday, 3 April 1736) has 'March 26 At Bath'. According to the Daily Gazetteer (Friday, 2 April 1736) 'the Corpse of Hon. Mrs. Anne Vane is to be privately interred at Bath'.

Joseph Chester's authority for his statement that Anne's daughter Amelia (Vane) was born and baptised about midnight, 21-22 April 1733 [Chester (1876) 345], would seem to be the report in the London Evening Post (Saturday, 21 April 1733): "In the Night between Saturday and Sunday last the Hon. Mrs Anne -- was deliver'd of a Daughter at her house in Grosvenor Square, who died in two Hours, after having been batized in the Name of Amelia. Her Son, of which she was formerly deliver'd, is in very good Health". Other contemporary accounts, giving her name in full, say 'on Saturday night' (St James's Evening Post, Saturday 21 April 1733; Grub Street Journal, Thursday 26 April 1733). The latter is misleading as the previous Saturday is clearly intended. The correct date for Amelia's birth would thus seem to be 14/15 April 1733

Page 37 line 3, for '180S' read '1805'.

Page 39 line 38, for '182S' read '1825'.

Page 41 re Frederick Henry James Ritso

The St Marylebone, Middlesex, registers show the marriage by licence of Frederick Ritso, of this parish, bachelor, and Ellen Errington, of St George the Martyr, widow, on 20 October 1795 [Registers, Page 363, Entry 1089].

Page 43 re Frederick Charles Grimm Ritso

Frederick Charles Grimm Ritso, aged 57, widower, of 3 Bernard Street, son of John Ritso, deceased, Officer in the Army, married 2ndly, by banns at St George, Bloomsbury, 11 November 1880, Jane Hill Harris, 45, spinster, of 3 Bernard Street, daughter of Richard Stancombe Harris, deceased, farmer [Register, Page 6, Entry 11].

The St Pancras Old Church, Middlesex, rough burial registers show the burial of Frederick Ritso, of 3 Bernard Street, Bloomsbury, aged 78, on 19 June 1897 [Rough Book, Page 30].

Page 43 line 50, re Sophia Ritso

Sophia Ritso was buried, an infant, at Putney, Surrey, 3 September 1778 [Registers, Entry No 54].

Page 44 line 30, re Daniel Prytherch. [I am indebted to Mr John Prytherch for the information that the marriage of Caroline Georgiana Catherine (Augusta) Dalton and Daniel Prytherch took place on 18 February 1826 at Llanllwch, Carmarthenshire]. Their children were:

1d.   Daniel Dalton Prytherch, born at Priory Street, Carmarthen, 13 May 1827 and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 21 June 18827 [BTs, Entry 259]. Admitted pensioner Trinity College, Cambridge, 13 June 1845; matric. Michaelmas, 1847; named in will of father, 1854. He died of consumption at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, 20 August 1857 [GM 1857 ii 468; GRO indexes].

2d.   Caroline 'Aylife' Harriot Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 9 November 1828 and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen,16 December 1828 [BTs, Entry 429]. Aged 12, 1841 ('Eylife') [Census]; at home, 1851 [Census]; executrix to father, 1855. She died unmarried  at Battersea, Surrey, 7 September 1871 [PPR Calendar], aged 42. Her administration as late of Carmarthen, granted 15 December 1887 [PPR, £195; resworn August 1891, £608-5-5].

3d.   Margaret Augusta Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 20 May 1830 and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 21 July 1830 [BTs, Entry 608]. She died 24 January 1839, aged 9 [BLG]; buried at St Peter, Carmarthen, 30 January 1839 [BTs, Entry 522].

4d.   Charlotte Augusta Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 29 August 1832 and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 20 March 1833 [BTs, Entry 907]. Aged 8, 1841 [Census]; scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; not named in will of father, 1854.

5d.   James Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 15 January 1834 and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 20 February 1834 [BTs, Entry 992]. Aged 7, 1841 [Census]; scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854; of 14 Upper Brunswick Street, Hackney, Middlesex,Member Royal College of Surgeons, 1871 [RG10/326-132-33]. He died at 14 Upper Brunswick Street, Hackney, Middlesex, 3 March 1872, aged 38 [PPR Calendar; GRO Indexes]. His administration granted 8 May 1888 [PPR, £195]. He had married Lucy Jane Pugh.  She was born 1837-8 [1871 Census]; of 4 Holly Villas, Clapton Square, Hackney, administratrix to husband, 1888. She died 1907 [information from Mr John Prytherch]. They had issue.

6d.   Frances ('Fanny') Sarah Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 13 April 1835 and baptised at St Peter Carmarthen, 15 May 1835 [BTs, Entry 1118]. Aged 6, 1841 [Census]; scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; executrix to father, 1855. A death in this name registered at Carmarthen, June Quarter 1855 [GRO Death Index].

7d.   Susan Catherine Dalton Prytherch, baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 2 May 1837 [BTs, Entry 1347]. Aged 4, 1841 [Census, 'Susannah']. She died 22 January 1846 [BLG]; buried at St Peter, Carmarthen, 27 January 1846 [BTs, Entry 994].

8d.   Augusta Octavia Dalton Prytherch, baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 25 February 1839 [BTs, Entry 1478]. Aged 2, 1841 [Census]; scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854. She died in Sculcoates RD, March Quarter 1869, aged 29 [GRO Death Index]. She had married in Carmarthen RD, June Quarter 1865, Revd. Maurice Edward Jenkins [GRO Marriage Index]. He was born 1840 and died 1916 [information from John Daniel Prytherch]. They had issue (with a daughter):

   1e.  Edward Lloyd Prytherch Jenkins, of Egton Vicarage, Grosmont, Yorkshire, gentleman, administrator to aunt Aylife Prytherch, 1887; to grandmother C.G.C. Prytherch, 1887; to grandfather Daniel Prytherch, 1888 [not there 1881 RG11/4832-14-20; not there 1891 RG12/3993-17-1]; of 4 Mainsforth Terrace, Sunderland, clerk, 1896 [IR26/237 folio 10; not there 1891 RG12/4136-30-54; not there 1901 RG13/4715-24-39].

9d.   Adelaide Dalton Prytherch, baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 10 June 1840 [BTs, Entry 3]. Aged 1, 1841 [Census]; scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854. She married 1862, Alfred Thomas Cotterell, and had issue a son and two daughters [information from John Daniel Prytherch].

10d.   Edward Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 31 July 1842 [BLG] and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 1 September 1842 [BTs, Entry 140]. Scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854; of 8 Stratford Villa, Llanstephan, Carmarthenshire, annuitant, widower, 1881 [RG11/5396-19-19]. He died at Victoria Lodging House, Westport, Edinburgh, 15 August 1885. His administration granted 24 July 1891 [PPR, £321-6-6]. He had married in Carmarthen RD, December Quarter 1862, Margaretta Williams. She had died before 1881. They had issue a son and daughter [information from John Daniel Prytherch].

11d.   John Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 21 January 1844 [BLG] and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 26 February 1844 [BTs, Entry 231]. Scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854; with mother, unmarried, mariner, 1871 [Census]. He died at Monmouth, Monmouthshire, 12 November 1874 [PPR Calendar], aged 30. His will as of Monmouth dated 1 October 1874 proved 24 June 1876 [PPR folio 508, Under £1,500]. He had married in Strand RD, September Quarter 1871, Sarah Maria Cottrell [GRO Marriage Index], daughter of Thomas Cotterell. Of Monmouth, sole legatee and executrix to husband, 1876.

12d.   Agnes Dalton Prytherch, baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 30 June 1845 [BTs, Entry 303]. Scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854; with mother, unmarried, annuitant, 1871 [Census]; living 1901. She had married in Carmarthen RD, June Quarter 1871, Henry Bowen Davies [GRO Marriage Index]. Living 1901.

13d.   Blanche Dalton Prytherch, baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 9 September 1846 [BTs, Entry 358]. Scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854. A death in this name registered at Carmarthen, December Quarter 1856 [GRO Death Index].

Page 52 - re William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, add the following entry [I am indebted to Mr Christopher Quaile for drawing my attention to the entry in Fox-Davies ii  (1930) 1660]:

1742. Anne Williams, Lady Prendergast (d. 1770). There is a tradition amongst the descendants of Lieutenant William Roberts, R.N. (d. 1791) that he was the son of Anne Williams, a Maid of Honour to Queen Caroline, by William, Duke of Cumberland, and adopted by his uncle Sir Robert Williams [Fox-Davies, ii (1930) 1660]. However, although Anne Williams, an heiress in North Wales, recklessly extravagant and with a dubious reputation, undoubtedly knew the Duke, no contemporary evidence of any affair or child is known. Indeed, the evidence is that William Roberts was born (after her marriage) in 1742, the illegitimate son of her brother, Sir Robert Williams (d. 1745) and his mistress Margaret Roberts, and that Anne adopted the boy and subsequently bequeathed him the property she thought she possessed. The facts were set out by R.T. Jenkins, 'Some pages in the history of Pant Glas, Ysbity Ifan' in Transactions of Caernarvonshire Historical Society, x (1949) 26-29, some details being earlier given in CB iii (1903) 213 note b, sub Williams, ex information of H.R. Hughes, of Kinmel. The only evidence of any connection between Anne and the Duke appears in a letter that she wrote to him from Dublin, 27 April 1754, soliciting the Postmaster-generalship of Ireland for her husband and saying, 'When I was in a way of Life of being known to you I am sure you then would have forgiven this liberty & upon that presumption only I take the courage of soliciting yr. Grace's interest on Sir Thomas's behalf ' [Jenkins, as above, 27, quoting BL Add MS 32735 folio 196]. R.T. Jenkins concludes, 'I feel certain that William Roberts was no child of theirs'; Sir Robert brought up the child and on his death his sister took over the upkeep [Jenkins, as above, 27-28].

 

She was Anne Williams, only daughter of Sir Griffith Williams, 6th Baronet (cr. 1661), of Marl (near Conway) and Pant Glas, co. Caernarvon, Sheriff of Caernarvonshire in 1707-8 (died 1734) [his administration granted 4 October 1734 and September 1790], by his wife Catherine, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Owen Anwyl, of Penrhyn-dau-draeth and of Park, Merionethshire (they married 1734; she died 1726) [J.E. Griffith, Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families (1914) 43, 186-7; CB iv (1904) 232]. She was a Maid of Honour to Queen Caroline (died 1737); administratrix to only brother Sir Robert Williams, 7th Baronet (a minor in 1734 who died unmarried, November 1745), 9 January 1745/6. She separated from her second husband in 1762 and lived at Pant Glas but died without issue at Nant Gwilym, in Bodfari, co. Flint, 15 December 1770; buried in family vault at Llan-rhos, co. Carnarvon, 21 December 1770 [J.Y.W. Lloyd, History of Powys Fadog v (1881-7) 110 notes a tradition that she died 'in a poor-house at Eglwys-Wen or Whitechurch, near Denbigh']. Her will as 'Dame Anne Prendergast otherwise Williams of Pant Glas', dated 1766 proved at St Asaph (by William Roberts, residuary legatee), 8 February 1771 (proved also in Ireland, 1771). She had married 1stly, 11 January 1739, Sir Thomas Prendergast, 2nd and last Baronet (suc. 1709). M.P. (Ireland) for Clonmel, 1727-60; called 'an Irish blockhead' by George II, 1733 [Hervey i (1884) 200]; P.C. 17 August 1733; M.P. for Chichester, 1733-4; Postmaster-General (Ireland), 1754. He died without issue, 23 September 1760. His will proved (Ireland) 1760 [CB iv (1904) 232]. She married 2ndly, with settlement dated 27 January 1761, his distant kinsman, Captain Terence Prendergast. He assumed the surname Williams in addition to that of Prendergast in accordance with the marriage settlement, 1761. They were separated by deed, 28 December 1762. He died at Marl, 30 October 1779; buried at Llan-rhos [Jenkins, as above, 28; CB iv (1904) 232, sub Prendergast, has 3 October 1776]. Her brother's illegitimate child was:

 

William Roberts, baptised at Conway, 10 June 1742, the entry being: 'June the thenth (sic) 1742 Baptz'd William ye Reputed child of sir Robert Williams of Marle, Bart., by Margaret Roberts his concubine' [Jenkins, as above, 28]. Named in will of Anne Prendergast ('William Roberts, Gentleman, now living with me at Pantglas', 1766, and residuary legatee, 1771; had left Pant Glas by November 1770 when his second child was born at Nant Gwilym in Bodfari [Jenkins, as above, 29]; entered Royal Navy; Lieutenant, 1779. Involved in litigation with Prendergast family, he died suddenly in London, 7 July 1791 [Jenkins, as above, 29; CB iv (1904) 232, has July 1794]. He had married 1stly, at Ysbity Ifan, November 1767, Jane Morris, said to have been a maid to Ann Prendergast. They had issue 7 children. He had married 2ndly, in Hampshire, 1784, and had further issue 4 children. His issue is said to have included [Fox-Davies ii (1930) 1660]:

 

1a. Hugh Roberts, born atTremeirchion, Flintshire, 1778-9 [1851 Census]; of Beacons Hill, Denbigh, plumber, 1851 [HO107/2507-442-36]. He married 2ndly, Esther Davies, youngest daughter of John Davies. She was born at Denbigh, 1800-1 [1851 Census]. Aged 50, 1851; aged 80, 1881, widow of plumber [1881 Census]. They had (with a son Robert Morris Roberts, aged 7 in 1851] issue:

 

         1b.  Griffith Williams Roberts (eldest son), born 9 August 1841. L.R.C.P. Edinburgh; M.D.; of Cochwillan, Vale Street, Denbigh, 1880. He died in St Asaph RD, 1905, aged 64 [GRO Death Index]. He had married 23 September 1864, Ellen Rebecca Sharpe, only child of Samuel Sharpe. She was born at Holywell, Flintshire, 1845-6 [1881 Census]. They had issue: 

1c. Lincoln Williams Roberts, born 26 June 1865 and died 3 July 1865.

2c. Lincoln Williams Roberts, born 14 October 1866. B.A. 1888; M.A. Cambridge, 1896; L.S.A. (London) 1905; of Cochwillan, Denbigh; he died 14 January 1931; administration (with will) granted to sister Irene, 28 May 1931 (£4,267-18-9). Used arms of Williams; ee Fox-Davies ii (1930) 1660.

3c. Hugh Sharpe Williams Roberts, born 5 February 1869.

4c. Purcell Horatia Leigh Roberts, born 25 March 1875 and died 29 September 1875.

5c. Irene Ianthe Williams Roberts, born 1881. Of The Green Christleton, near Chester. She died unmarried, 19 August 1962; probate granted 4 December 1962 (£7,440-19-8).

Page 62 line 12, for 'Thorns' read 'Thoms'.

Page 63 - Hannah Lightfoot. See also the additional page on this web site. I do not think that the following advertisement for Hannah Lightfoot, which appeared in the London newspaper, Star, for Monday, 13 May 1793 (Issue 1575), Page 1b (and elsewhere in that issue, and again on Tuesday, 14 May 1793), has previously been noted [found by me on 30 July 2008]. It follows the death of Isaac Axford's second wife in 1791. If inserted on his behalf it shows that he did not know whether Hannah Lightfoot was alive when he married Mary Bartlett on 3 December 1759. However, it seems perhaps more likely to have been inserted by Mary Bartlett's relatives in the hope of proving her marriage invalid:

"HANNAH LIGHTFOOT, Spinster, or HANNAH AXFORD, the Wife of Isaac Axford, alias the Pretty Quaker. If any person can, and will give information and proof, whether Hannah Axford, the wife of Isaac Axford, late of Ludgate-hill, in the City of London, grocer, and whose maiden name was Hannah Lightfoot, and who formerly lived in St James's Market, and was generally known by the appellation of 'the Pretty Quaker', was living on the 4th of December, 1759, and if since dead, when and where she died, shall be handsomely rewarded by Mess. Hill and Meredith, Attornies, Gray's Inn, London, to whom the information is requested to be given".

Pages 59-76 1759. Hannah Lightfoot (see also the additional page on this web site). In the 1940s the young genealogist Pauline M. Litton was told by a great-great-aunt (who had been told the story by an aunt born in 1849) that one of her ancestors descended from a son of George III and Hannah Lightfoot, born to them in the late 1750s, given the surname Ethell and educated at the Quaker School at Ackworth near Pontefract. Later Pauline read Jean Plaidy's novel The prince and the quakeress (1968) and started research on the family, working back to Thomas Ethell who, she found, had married at Scampston, Yorkshire, in 1782. He was aged 85 in 1841 and said in the census that year that he was not born in Yorkshire. Following extensive research on the surname (and its variant Ithill) she found that Thomas Ithill or Ethell had been born and admitted to the London Foundling Hospital in 1759 and she was extremely fortunate to find and prove that he was an illegitimate child, originally named William, born to Ann Smith and Francis Reynolds, and baptised at Prees in Shropshire on 19 August 1759. Following publicity given to the story over subsequent years she was contacted by a number of people with foundling ancestors who had the same story about descent from George III and Hannah Lightfoot. She concludes that those who fostered these children tried to bolster their confidence by connecting them with a story which was current gossip when they were born [Pauline M. Litton, Pitfalls and possibilities in family history research (Swansong Publications, Harrogate, 2010), pages 242-251].

Page 70 - Mrs John Rex. I am indebted to Mr Nicholas Royal for drawing my attention to the Vicar General marriage licence for the first marriage of Mrs John Rex, the mother of George Rex of Knysna. A licence was issued by the Vicar General on 3 October 1749 for the marriage of William Perigoe and Sarah Creasey at Highgate. I have not seen the licence but the following entry appears in the Marriage Registers of St Michael, Highgate, "16 Octobr 1749 William Perigoe of the Parish of Saint Mary Newington in the County of Surry Widower and Sarah Creasey of the Parish of Saint George Southwark in the County aforsd Spinster were married pr Lic A.B." [Registers, LMA X96/479].

Page 77 - Henry Meyer. The exact relationship of Henry Meyer (c.1782/3-1847) to John Hoppner remains something of a mystery and I am indebted to Mr Michael J. Wood for bringing to my attention some details of Meyer's descendants to whom he is distantly related. The account of Henry Meyer by Annette Peach  in ODNB [vol. 37 (2004) 986-7] calls him 'Henry Hoppner Meyer' (though he does not appear to have been called that in his lifetime), suggesting that his baptism is to be found at St Paul Covent Garden, 10 February 1784, son of John Henry Meyer, engraver, and Elizabeth. However, the entry in the registers [printed in Harleian Society, xxxiv (1906) 108] does not actually give the occupation of the father. That his parents were the John Meyer and Anna Torade Hoppner who married at St James Westminster in 1767 seems most likely, but remains unproven. That Henry Meyer was a nephew of Hoppner was stated by Joseph Farington, where he is called 'Mier' [8 February 1810], and in the obituary of Hoppner in Gentleman's Magazine [1847 ii 665]. 

The account of Henry Meyer in ODNB gives no details of his private life but his engravings were published from Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, 1809-13, and he must be the Henry Meyer (called Henry John Meyer in 1813), described as an artist in Great Russell Street in 1817, who married at Southam, Warwickshire, 4 June 1805, Maria Snow, daughter of Bernard Geary Snow, of Southam, surgeon and apothecary [his will dated 17 February 1800 proved 13 February 1811, PCC PROB11/1519] by his wife Rebecca [her will as of Bicester, Oxfordshire, dated 21 March 1828 proved 22 May 1829, PCC PROB11/1756; IR26/1208 folio 157], and had various children baptised at St George Bloomsbury between 1807 and 1826.

Henry Meyer was of Red Lion Square, Middlesex, 22 December 1828, when described as 'artist, printseller, publisher & picture dealer, dealer & chapman' he went bankrupt [London Gazette, 26 December 1828, Page 2406] and was ordered to make full disclosure of his debts and assets to his creditors on 2 and 13 January and 6 February 1829 when assignees would be appointed. His certificate was to be allowed unless cause was shewn to the contrary before 10 March 1829 [London Gazette, 17 February 1829, Page 317] and commissioners were to meet 6 November 1829 to audit the accounts of his assignees [London Gazette, 13 October 1829, Page 1881]. A dividend was to be declared 12 November 1830 [London Gazette, 15 October 1830, Page 2175]. He and his wife were mentioned in the will of her mother in March 1828, Maria receiving the interest on £1,000 for life free from the debts of her husband. Between 1826 and 1836, if the below details of his children are correct, he seems to have been living in Paddington as 'George Mayer'. However, he was not with his wife in 1841; she was at Euston Place, Marylebone, aged 55, Independent, that year [HO107/686-10-25r] and died in St Pancras RD, 14 September 1856 [IR26/1208 folio 157; GRO Death Index, 1b 98]. Henry Meyer has not been located in the Census in 1841 but he died as Henry Meyer in St Pancras RD, June Quarter 1847 [GRO Death Indexes, 1 237].

They appear to have had the following children:

1a.   Frederick John Meyer, born 8 January 1807 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 27 June 1807, son of Henry and Mary Meyer [Registers].

2a.   Hellen Mary Meyer, born 27 March 1809 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 6 July 1809, daughter of Henry and Maria Meyer [Registers]. She died at Lyme Regis, Dorset, 1900.

3a.   Bernard Francis Hoppner Meyer, born 20 April 1811 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 25 December 1811, son of Henry and Maria Meyer [Registers].

4a.   Emily Maria Meyer, born 4 August 1813 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 3 November 1813, son of Henry John and Maria Meyer, Gentleman, of Great Russell Street, St George's Bloomsbury [Registers, Entry 244, Page 31]. She died unmarried in Reigate RD, 27 June 1871, aged 46 [IR26/1208 folio 157; GRO Death Index, Reigate 2a 79].

5a.   Beatrice Elizabeth Jane Meyer, born 15 September 1815 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 26 October 1817, daughter of Henry & Maria Meyer, artist, of Great Russell Street, St George's Bloomsbury [Registers, Entry 1577, Page 198].

6a.   Henry Meyer, born 24 July 1817 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 26 October 1817, son of Henry & Maria Meyer, artist, of Great Russell Street, St George's Bloomsbury [Registers, Entry 1578, Page 198]. He died June 1838.

7a.   George Warwick Meyer, born 4 October 1819 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 11 September 1821, son of Henry & Maria Meyer, artist, of Red Lion Square, St George the Martyr [Registers, Entry 709, Page 89].

8a.   Edmund Thomas Adams Meyer, born 9 August 1822 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 3 October 1822, son of Henry & Maria Meyer, artist, of Red Lion Square, St George the Martyr [Registers, Entry 1128, Page 141].

9a.   Caroline Elizabeth Meyer, born 9 February 1826 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 28 June 1826, daughter of Henry & Maria Meyer, artist, of Red Lion Square, St George the Martyr [Registers, Entry 21, Page]. With mother, aged 15, 1841. She died 14 December 1894 [IR26/1208 folio 157]. As Caroline Elizabeth Meyer, of Brecknock Street, daughter of Henry Meyer, dead, she married by banns at St James, Paddington, Middlesex, 3 November 1856, John Rolls Tims, railway clerk, of St Ann's Gardens, son of John Chamberlin Tims, tutor [Registers, Entry 23, Page 12].

10a.   Maria Meyer, baptised at St James, Paddington, Middlesex, 6 September 1826 [Registers, Entry 21, Page 3, 'Maria, daughter of George & Maria Mayer, of Paddington, gentleman' (? the same person as Caroline Elizabeth Meyer)].

11a.   Clara Ann Meyer, born 25 December 1828 and baptised at St James, Paddington, Middlesex, 27 May 1829 [Registers, Entry 747, Page 94, 'Clara, daughter of George & Maria Mayer, of Paddington, gentleman']. With mother, aged 12, 1841. She died at Wellington, New Zealand, 30 June 1916 [IR26/1208 folio 157], leaving issue. As Clara Anne Meyer, of Brecknock Street, daughter of Henry Meyer, dead, she had married by banns at St Pancras Old Church, 3 November 1856, Thomas Henry Tims, railway clerk, of Brecknock Street, son of John Chamberlin Tims, tutor [Registers, Entry 22, Page 11].

12a.  Lewis Meyer, baptised at St James, Paddington, Middlesex, 31 October 1832 [Registers, Entry 1950, Page 244, 'Lewis, son of George & Maria Mayer, of Paddington, gentleman'].

13a.   Georgiana Meyer, baptised at St James, Paddington, Middlesex, 29 June 1836 [Registers, Entry 766, Page 96, 'Georgiana, daughter of George & Maria Mayer']. Not with mother, 1841.

Page 78 line 43, delete 'his'.

Page 100 last line, for 'Past' read 'Post'.

Pages 104-111.  Lady Almeria Carpenter. In 1910 Alice the wife of Sir Alexander Bosville Macdonald of the Isles privately published A romantic chapter in family history (London, 1910) in which she said that her husband's great-grandmother Louisa was the daughter of Lady Almeria Carpenter by William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. She claimed to be drawing on an unpublished account written by Louisa's daughter Hon Elizabeth Diana Davidson of Tulloch (1804-1839) [Macdonald (1911) 6-7].

Alice Macdonald wrote that Almeria 'always considered herself the Duke of Gloucester's wife, and said she had letters from himself which proved this. Unfortunately these letters by her own request were buried with her when she died at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh (in 1809 aged fifty-seven) where she had been given rooms by the king' [Macdonald (1911) 9-10]. Almeria actually died 13 September 1809 at a house which she had rented at Brompton, Middlesex and she was buried near her brother Hon Charles Carpenter (who had lived at Thames Ditton and died in 1803) at Richmond, Surrey, 19 September 1809. Her testamentary writings (dated at Brompton, 9 August 1809) made no mention of the Duke or of any child. The duke had in any case legally married Maria, Countess Waldegrave in 1766 and had children by her in 1773, 1774 and 1776, she living unhappily with the Duke until his death in 1805.

Alice Macdonald also claimed that Almeria had a daughter, Louisa, by the Duke of Gloucester, who at Christmas 1799 was abducted by Godfrey Macdonald (subsequently Godfrey Bosville-Macdonald, 3^rd Baron Macdonald of Slate), he having seen her at Esher, they going to Ireland and marrying 'by mutual consent' [Macdonald (1911) 11]. They had three children and then in 1803, when she was again pregnant, they married by licence of the Archdeacon of Norwich dated the same day at St Gregory, Norwich, 29 December 1803, she appearing in the marriage allegation and bond as Louisa Maria LacCoast. The handwriting of the entry in the register is again 'LacCoast' with her signature as 'Laccoast' [Marriage Register, Entry 109, Page 73]. Why she married in this surname is not explained. The register entry includes the standard wording 'married in this Church' but Alice Macdonald says, 'The entry in the Register of the Church does not say whether they were married actually in church or not' [Macdonald (1911) 15].

The late Professor Arthur Aspinall equated Louisa Maria LacCoast with 'Miss Lacoste' an attendant on Caroline, Princess of Wales, mentioned in a letter from the Earl of Moira to the Prince of Wales dated June 1796 in which the Duke of York is mentioned as not thinking it politic to dismiss her [The correspondence of George, Prince of Wales, 1770-1812, iii (1965) 235]. If this is the same person she would have been aged about 14 in 1796. The Duke of York had a popular Groom of the Chamber called Lacoste from 1789 to 1813 but no connection between him and Louisa has been shown.

In a formal declaration made about their marriage before the Provost of Annan on 26 October 1807 Louisa, wihout mentioning the name LacCoast, described herself as 'Mrs Louisa Maria Edsir', saying that she and Godfrey were 'engaged and betrothed to each other as husband and wife in Christmas week 1799, and from that period understood themselves to be married persons' [Macdonald (1911) 41]. Godfrey Macdonald's wife Louisa Maria had in fact for many years been described in printed peerages as the 'daughter of Farley Edsir, Esq.', and she was so described in Godfrey Macdonald's obituary in 1832, in her own obituary in 1835 and in the above mentioned daughter's obituary in 1839, as well as in the Gentleman's Magazine, in Edmund Lodge's Peerage of the British Empire in 1837 and in Burke's Peerage in 1901 [The Complete Peerage, viii (1932) page 340].

Alice Macdonald says that Louisa had initially been adopted by and taken the surname of one Farley Edsir a steward to the Duke of Gloucester and tenant of a dairy farm near Hampton Court [Macdonald (1911) 7]. She says that Louisa believed that she was born 6 January 1782 and that her 'birth' was entered incorrectly under the date 4 February 1781 in the baptismal register of Leatherhead, Surrey, where an entry in 1781 reads 'Maria D. of Farley & Mary Edsar - Febry 4'. She seems to be suggesting some later interpolation but searches show that Maria was the eighth of ten children baptised to Farley and Mary Edsor, Edsar or Edser, seven at Stoke d'Abernon between 1766 and 1780 and then three at Leatherhead between 1781 and 1787. Farley Edser, a labourer unable to sign his name, had married Mary Rampton at Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey (between Esher and Leatherhead) on 15 May 1766 and was buried at Esher, Surrey, 17 March 1811. His wife Mary was buried at Esher from Chelsea, aged 72, in 1815. Mrs Davidson of Tulloch had apparently claimed to have seen a paper signed by Mary Edser after the death of the Duke of Gloucester in 1805 to the effect that Louisa Maria was 'not her child, but of great parents' [Macdonald (1911) 18], words which echo those that Farley is alleged to have used to Godfrey Macdonald when he asked permission to marry the girl in 1799 [Madonald (1911) 7]. Alice Macdonald admits that "there is no evidence that her 'great' parents ever took the smallest notice of her" [Macdonald (1911) 19].

No evidence has been produced to show a link between Almeria Carpenter and the child baptised Edser, or to the attendant Lacoste and the LacCoast who became Mrs Macdonald and was later said to have been an Edsir. The evidence indicates that Louisa was Farley Edser's legitimate child [Camp (2007) 104-111].

Page 112 - Mrs Maguire. Ann Davies married Charles Maguire, by Licence of the Faculty Office dated 21 March 1809, at St James, Westminster, 22 March 1809 [Registers, Entry No 97, Page 271], both describing themselves as of St James, Westminster, with witnesses Robt Brown and Mary Turberville, i.e. after the birth of her child George Joseph Robert Davis Maguire on 12 April 1808 but before his baptism on 29 April 1810.

In June 2022 I was approached by Mr Graham Young about a collection of documents relating to Ann Maguire which had come to him from an ancestor, Anthony Crosby, a solicitor at 3 Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, who had acted for her in attempts to obtain payments which she, claimed were due to her under a settlement of £2,000 a year made immediately after her claimed marriage to the Duke of Gloucester on 6 July 1811. Mr Young has kindly provided copies of some of these documents from the years 1836-7 (the Duke having died on 30 November 1834) when she was asking for a full investigation of the matter and threatening to file a Bill in Equity against the Duke's executors.

In a copy of a letter which Ann Maguire wrote to the Duke of Wellington on 14 March 1836, however, she said that she had become acquainted with the Duke of Gloucester in 1809 but was then unaware of his identity, he being introduced to her as 'Major Sidney'. In that name, she said, the Duke of Gloucester had proposed marriage to her and been accepted whereupon he had disclosed his true identity. A friend, Mrs Ann Hamilton, had expressed doubts that the Duke could legally contract such a marriage but he had rejected her concerns and  immediately asked for the preparation of a settlement of £2,000 a year upon Ann Maguire. This, she claimed, was executed just before the marriage ceremony when all those present were sworn to secrecy, the only copy of the settlement document being retained by the Duke. Her relationship with the Duke, she claimed, continued for twenty-five years until his death in 1834. However, the only document that could be found by the Duke's executors related to a payment of £200 p.a. to Mrs Maguire for life.

A document signed by her friend Ann Hamilton on her deathbed at 2 Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square, on 24 February 1814 and directed to be given after her death to Mrs Ann Maguire at 38 Great Portland Street, noted that the wedding had been conducted at Grafton Street by the Revd. Thomas Pettingal, Rector of Easthampstead, Berkshire (who had died, aged 80, in 1826), those present being John King (who had died at Florence in 1823) and the latter's wife Jane, Lady Lanesborough (who had died at Florence, aged 90, in 1828 and was the widow of Brinsley (Butler), 2nd Earl of Lanesborough, who had died in 1779), together with Ann Hamilton and an unnamed gentleman who had come as a friend with the Duke of Gloucester. This document also said that on that same day the Duke settled £2,000 a year on his wife. No actual certificate of the marriage, which would in any case have been illegal under the Royal Marriage Act, is mentioned.

I have noted that the will of Ann Hamilton, widow, residing in Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square, St Pancras, dated 26 January 1814, was proved 16 March 1814 by Ann Maguire, widow, the sole executrix [PCC, PROB11/.1553 folio 142]. Ann Hamilton bequeathed a gold snuff box and several pieces of silver "to George Maguire son of Charles and Ann Maguire" and the contents of the house to "Ann Maguire wife of Charles Maguire". [AJC 17 July 2022].

Page 114 - Olive Payne or Wilmot.  In 2010 I had correspondence with Miles Macnair the author of Olive, Princess of Cumberland (1772-1834): a royal scandal, published by Brewin Books, Studley, in 2011. In the Acknowledgements he kindly thanked me 'for editorial comments and revisions'. I had written on 15 June 2010 that I had little doubt that Olive Serres was 'a scheming impostor putting forward different claims at different times, that the greater part of the letters said to have been written to her by the Duke of Kent and the Earl of Warwick were forgeries ... that the Dearn connection is mostly self-delusion and invention' ... that the basic documents produced at the trial in 1866 were also forgeries ...  [and] that you have written an interesting book but I am sorry to say that I do not believe that it has any claims to be "sound history" or that it introduces any new facts to the old arguments'. I added 'a few specific comments and corrections that I had jotted down as I read the text'. There were over 60 of the latter. I said that 'I would be very sorry to see the book [then sub-titled 'a woman wronged'] published and Oliver Wilmot's lies and inventions given further currency'. Nine years later that remains my considered view [May 2019].

Page 127 re William Henry Ryves and James Stafford Ryves. The baptismal registers of St Mary, Lambeth, show that the brothers William Henry Ryves and James Stafford Ryves, sons of Anthony Thomas & Lavinia Janetta Horton RYVES, of Portland Place South, gent., were baptised by Henry Clissold, on 30 June 1840 [Registers, Page 102, Entries 1811-12]; their dates of birth are not given.

Page 127 re Britannia Brock. The Banns Book of St Matthew, Brixton, show that banns were read there on 5 December 1830 for the marriage of Thomas Brock bachelor and Britannia Serres spinster, both of this parish [Banns Book, Entry 287].

Page 133 re Mary 'Perdita' Robinson. There is no evidence that Mary and the Prince of Wales had any child as a result of their brief relationship in June-December 1780. The circumstances of that connection are well known and documented. The press took much interest in her and the first stories of a possible pregnancy did not appear until 2 July 1781 when the Morning Herald reported, 'Perdita is said to have declared herself pregnant, and desired the great event to be announced to certain R-l ears in form', a story repeated in the Morning Post for 18 July 1781, but not then mentioned again [Paula Byrne, Perdita: the life of Mary Robinson (2004) 159, 161].

However, the diary of Frances, Lady Shelley, who was well acquainted with the gossip surrounding the Prince of Wales, Lord Cholmondeley and Mary's lover Banastre Tarleton, recorded in 1807 that the latter had married in 1798, Susan Priscilla Bertie, whom she knew well but incorrectly described as 'the illegitimate daughter of the celebrated Mrs Robinson' [Richard Edgcumbe, ed., The diary of Frances Lady Shelley 1787-1817 (1912) 42]. There seems little doubt, however, that Susan Bertie was in fact the daughter of Robert (Bertie), Duke of Ancaster (1756-1779), who had died unmarried and by his will (dated 29 May 1779, proved 23 July 1779) [PCC PROB11/1054 folio 282] had bequeathed to her as Susan Priscilla Bertie, £150 p.a. for her upbringing until she was 21 or married and then £4,000, and to her mother, Rebecca Krudener, of Davies Street, Berkeley Square, £200 p.a. [as is noted by Hester Davenport, The prince's mistress: a life of Mary Robinson (2004) 200]. Rebecca Krudener, of St James, Westminster, married by licence at St James, Westminster, 30 November 1782, William Walker, of the Middle Temple [Registers, Entry 340, Page 276]. Her daughter was at Northaw, aged 75, in 1851, and at Cheshunt, aged 83, in 1861, saying that she was born in 'Middlesex, London' (probably thus about 1776-7).

As mentioned the circumstances of the connection between Mary Robinson and the Prince of Wales in June-December 1780 are well known and documented. If she had a child it can only have been born in March 1781 or slightly later. However, I have received many dozens of abusive emails from a correspondent interested in the origins of one Francis Wright who claims that Francis was their son. This correspondent was originally convinced that Francis was a son of the Duke of York and he has now convinced himself (merely from portraits and a photograph of Francis's son and the use of Microsoft facial recognition software), that Francis Wright was a son of the Prince of Wales and Mary 'Perdita' Robinson. His absurd claim (which I had begun to think was an elaborate hoax) is a worthless fabrication. Coupled with the silly suggestion that George IV intended the disreputable Wright to be 'his heir and successor', the claim lacks all evidence and credibility.

There is, of course, no evidence of any connection between Wright and the Prince of Wales or between Wright and Mary Robinson. Francis Wright's age is variously stated but suggests a birth about 1774 or earlier. He hurriedly left England in 1833, apparently in disgrace and probably in fear of prosecution, and died the following year. I have gathered the following details about him but little original research has been carried out and the lies told by early members of the family in Canada, in particular by Francis Wright's second wife (the mother of his three illegitimate children) and transmitted by her daughter in order to hide the truth, have greatly distorted almost everything known about him. The facts seem to be as follows. Others would be welcome:

Francis Wright, of unknown parentage, born c.1774 or earlier; Quartermaster by purchase, Romney Fencibles, aged 19, April 1794 [1828 Service Record]; Quartermaster, 3rd Dragoon Guards, aged 20, February 1795; Lieutenant without purchase, Royal Waggon Train, aged 24, 24 August 1799 [1828]; Lieutenant Royal Waggon Artillery, admitted No 4F The British Lodge, aged 28, 3 December 1799 [United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, folio 74]; Captain, Royal Waggon Train, aged 28, 3 September 1803 (a time when Captain Huxley Sandon of that Regiment - cashiered in 1809 - was agent for Mary Anne Clarke in the sale of commissions) [1828]; as result of scandal reduced to Half Pay, March 1810; of Manor House, Walworth, after 1816 - before 1831; of Penton Place, Walworth, a shareholder, urged dissolution of Hibernian Joint Stock Banking Company, 1827 [Dublin Morning Register, 22 November 1827, page 3]; with Cornelius Driscoll petitioned House of Commons against second reading of Hibernian Joint Stock Company Bill but Henry Grattan, M.P. for Dublin, presented another petition, 1 May 1828, saying that Wright and Driscoll were not shareholders of the Company [J. H. Barrow, The Mirror of Parliament ... commencing 29 January 1828, vol. II (1828) page 1238]; of Penton Place, 1828-1833 [baptisms of children]; described as aged 57, 6 February 1833 [letter of Lord Fitzroy Somerset]; presumably in financial difficulties sold his Commission, 12 April 1833 [London Gazette, issue 19038, page 706]; falsely represented his brother-in-law John Berridge as 'a person worth six or seven hundred a year and as a dealer in small estates', but Berridge had debts of about £300 in 1823 and sold pictures on commission without a stock of his own, Berridge 'had been in the habit of accepting bills for Mr Wright' and in August 1833, described as an artist and dealer in pictures, he was in prison as an insolvent debtor [London Gazette, issue 19077, 20 August 1833, page 1568], his wife, a dresser of silk stockings, some weeks earned 30s. which helped to defray the household expenses' [Morning Post, 14 September 1833, page 4], Berridge was discharged but Wright 'had since gone to America'; Wright as 'No. 3, Francis Wright, 45, Male, Officer', sailed alone from London on Sovereign and arrived New York, 8 October 1833, 'intending to become an inhabitant of America'; of York, Upper Canada, took oath of allegiance at York, 18 November 1833; petitioned Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada for 'such allowance as is usually made to officers of his rank and service' saying had not received any lands or order for lands from Crown, York, 20 November 1833; petition referred to Surveyor General, 19 November 1833, who confirmed, 22 November 1833, that Wright had not received any lands; Council recommended Wright 'for the usual grant', 5 December 1833; order issued to Surveyor General, 9 December 1833 [Upper Canada Land Petitions, Vol. 533, Bundle W18, Petition 74]. He died 13 December 1834; buried (by son-in-law Rev Thomas Campbell) at St Thomas, Belleville, 15 December 1834, as late of Thurlow, Hastings County, aged 60 [Death Certificate]. His will as of Thurlow, Upper Canada, dated 9 December 1834 (directing all real and personal property be sold 'except the UE rights for lands from the Crown which I now hold' and on which he owed money to Samuel Moss of Stormont, Ontario, the son of Samuel Moss Moses, which was to be repaid) proved Prerogative Court of Canterbury, London, 18 October 1836 [Death Duty Registers, IR27/239]; everything was to be sold to support his wife; an undated petition about land and right to cut wood on Cape Ann, Thurlow Township, which Wright wanted to purchase appears not to have been dealt with until 14 February 1835 [Upper Canada Sundries: CC-6885]. He had married 1stly, by Banns, at St Giles in the Fields, Middlesex, 12 January 1800, Rebecca Slade [BTs]. She apparently died before 23 October 1825 [banns for his second marriage]. They had issue:

1.  Francis William Wright, born 17 June 1801 and baptised at St Mary the Virgin,    Dover, Kent, 29 November 1802 [Registers; 1851 Census]. To have £10 under will of father, 9 December 1834; aged 39, of Great Suffolk Street, St George the Martyr, Southwark, clerk, 1841 [HO107/1084-6-5]; aged 49, of 30 Harper Street, St Mary Newington, commission agent, 1851 [HO107/1566-471-9]. Perhaps the Francis William Wright who died at 9 Sutton Street, York Road, Lambeth, 10 July 1859, aged 56 [GRO Death Certificate], whose administration (under £100) was granted to Elizabeth Adelaide Wright, of 2 Addington Street, York Road, 15 March 1861, claiming to be his widow, she having registered his death on 18 July 1859 saying that he was 'Proprietor of Land in Australia' [she was at 2 Addington Street, Lambeth, gentlewoman, 1861 (RG9/349-66-27) with a son Richard Wright, scholar, aged 7, and in 1871 at 57 Commercial Road, Lambeth, widow, aged 38, seamstress, born Littlehampton, Sussex, with a son Richard Wright, aged 18, labourer, born Weymouth, Dorset (RG10/647-31-9); she may be the Elizabeth Adelaide Wright who died in St Saviour Southwark RD, June Quarter 1874, aged 44 (1d 64); there was tradition in the family that Francis William Wright had gone to Australia and died there; no marriage to an Elizabeth Adelaide Wright has been found in England or Australia]. As of St Mary, Lambeth, bachelor, Francis William Wright had married by Licence at St Mary, Lambeth, 6 December 1824, Frances Maria Wright, of St James, Westminster, spinster [Registers, Entry 842, Page 281]. She seems to have been born 8 February 1801 at St Pancras [1851 Census] and baptised at St Pancras, 3 March 1802 (same day as sister Eliza born 8 October 1799), daughter of George & Eliza Wright [Registers, Page 6]. She was aged 34 in 1841 and aged 45 in 1851. Her death has not been found.

Describing himself as a widower (though no record of the death of his first wife Rebecca has apparently been found) Francis Wright had married 2ndly, by Banns (dated 23 October, 30 October , 6 November 1825), at St George the Martyr, Southwark, 8 November 1825, Faith Berridge, spinster [Registers Entry 589, Page 197]. Said to have been born 1805 the daughter of John Berridge, artist, but was probably the Faith Berridge, born 29 April 1799 and baptised at St Margaret, Westminster, 39 June 1799, daughter of John & Eliza Berridge [Registers]; named in will of first husband 'so long as she remains my widow and unmarried', 9 December 1834; of Belleville, Hastings County, Canada West, aged 45, 1851 Census. She died 1869. Calling herself Faith Henrietta Wright she had married 2ndly, at Belleville, 4 August 1849, John Reid [Ontario Marriage Notices, The Church Toronto 1837-1849, page 224]. He was aged 52 in 1851, born Scotland. Francis & Faith Wright had further issue:

2. Frederick Wright, born before marriage of parents, 4 June 1821 and baptised at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 17 September 1828. Solicitor, 26 May 1866; called to Bar, 4 September 1880. He died at Toronto, 1893. Indicative of the stories told about the family is that this illegitimate child was a godchild of the Duke of York but Frederick Wright was not baptised until September 1828 and the Duke had died in January the previous year.

3. Emma Faith Wright, born before marriage of parents, 14 April 1822, and baptised at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 17 September 1828.

4. Arthur Wright, born before marriage of parents, 9 August 1823, and baptised at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 17 September 1828.

5. Alfred Francis Wright, born 26 January 1827, and baptised at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 17 September 1828. Petition as of Belleville, Hastings County, Upper Canada, 23 March 1852 (answered 15 September 1852) [Vol. 542, Bundle W6, Petition 64].

6. Mary Elizabeth Wright, born 19 September 1829, and baptised at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 11 August 1833.

7. Matilda Frances Wright, born 9 September 1832, and baptised at at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 11 August 1833. Aged 28, 1861 Census; claimed to have been born 10 September 1837 [as on Death Certificate] and said in 1917 that her father was a son of the Duke of York. She died 1923. She had married at Belleville, Ontario, 1859, Thomas Swainston Campbell. He was born at Belleville, 18 July 1834, and died 22 February 1917, leaving issue.

Page 144 line 17, for '190S' read '1905'.

The marriage of the Prince of Wales to Mrs Fitzherbert was, of course, in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, but it was not in contravention of the 1753 Marriage Act (Lord Hardwicke's Act) as stated in Munson (2001) 82-83 and Camp (2007) 144; Section 17 of the 1753 Act says, "Provided always, that this Act, or any Thing therein contained, shall not extend to the Marriages of any of the Royal Family".

Page 149. The date of death of James Ord, here shown as 1872, is correctly given as 25 January 1873 on page 153.

Page 152 line 45, for '2S' read '25'.

Page 157 - Randolph Payne. The marriage of Randolph Payne and Jane Roberts, recorded under those names in the registers of St George, Hanover Square, on 11 April 1787, is actually signed 'Randall Payne' and 'Jean Roberts', with witnesses Robert Cade (? Cave) and Caleb Greville [1787, Entry 191]. The baptism of their son Frederick (recorded as son of Randolph and Ann Jane Payne), born 1 May, took place at St George, Hanover Square, on 3 June 1796, and the baptism of their son William (recorded as son of Randolph and Jane Payne), born 12 January, took place at the same church on 24 March 1795 [and not in 1792 and 1793 respectively as stated by the Foord-Kelceys, pages 43 and 72].

The death of the eldest son Randolph Payne's first wife, Elizabeth New, was reported in The Morning Chronicle for Tuesday, 16 December 1823: "On the 13th instant after a short but severe illness, aged 37, Elizabeth, wife of Randolph Payne of Southampton Street, Covent Garden, leaving a disconsolate husband and six young children to mourn the loss of the most affectionate of wives, the best of mothers, a true and fathful Christian". There was a shorter notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal for Saturday, 20 December 1823.

Page 162 Line 43, for 'below' read 'above'.

Page 165 - re Jane Mills and Robert Moore Bowman. The burial register of St Mary, Islington, Middlesex, shows that Robert Moore Bowman, of Belinda Terrace, aged 58, was buried there on 5 September 1851 by William Dix [Registers, Page 145, Entry 1153].

Page 167 - re Mrs Fitzherbert. No 15. Sophia Elizabeth Guelph Sims. The burial of Sophia Elizabeth Guelph Sims has been found in that name at the New Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, 19 July 1846, aged 44, of Lower Street, Islington, buried in Lower Ground [Registers, no page or entry number]. Her death was registered at Islington, September Quarter 1846, vol. 3, page 182.

Page 170 - re Mrs Fitzherbert. No 18 (Additional Entry). James Henry Adolph Hayward or Fitzgeorge. See seperate page on this website.

Page 170 - re Mrs Fitzherbert. No 19 (Additional Entry). Hannah Harrison Lowe (1795-1883). Mrs Fitzherbert almost certainly had no children and, being a devout Catholic, is most unlikely to have allowed any child of her own to be brought up as a Protestant. However, another unconvincing claim to be her child was formerly made in an article on Wikipedia about Hannah Harrison Lowe which was deleted on 30 March 2016 as being historically impossible and not supported by any reliable evidence. The details of Hannah's biography were not there given but the stories she told her daughter are outlined at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hannah-Harrison-Lowe/127902080622862?v=info [accessed 13 September 2012]. Her daughter, Ann Barnes (born in 1838/9), was the wife of Josiah Poeton, of Coventry, watch manufacturer (died 1884, aged 46), and Ann recorded her mother's stories in a document entitled 'A Family Mystery', written at Bristol in 1901, almost a hundred years after the events. 

Hannah Harrison Lowe married Samuel Barnes (died 1875, aged 79), a boot maker, at St Michael, Coventry, Warwickshire, 30 December 1816. In the 1841 census of Fleet Street, Coventry, aged 40, she made no statement as to her place of birth [HO107/1152-13-46v], but in 1851 when at 4 Victoria Street, Coventry, aged 55, a hand loom weaver, she said that she was born at Coventry [HO107/2068-316-8]. In 1861, when at 36 Victoria Street, Coventry, aged 64, silk weaver, she said that she was born at 'Knightsbridge, London' [RG9/2208-123-17] and she repeated that statement in 1871 when at 66 Albert Street Coventry, aged 75, silk winder [RG10/3181-34-18]. In 1881 when at 9 Court 2 Castle Street, Coventry, aged 85 (with her son Samuel Barnes, cordwainer), she said that she was born at 'London, Middlesex' [RG11/3073-108-16]. She died at Coventry in 1883, aged 87. Her daughter Ann, who wrote the account, is said to have been the youngest of fourteen children.

On the face of it one would assume that although her baptism has not been found, Hannah Harrison Lowe was probably a daughter of the William Lowe and Hannah Harrison who had married at Holy Trinity, Coventry, on 30 July 1791, a marriage not mentioned in the above cited account. The Prince of Wales, of course, had separated from Mrs Fitzherbert in June 1794 and they were not reconciled privately until late in 1799 (and formally on 16 June 1800).

However, Hannah Harrison Lowe (who had been reading the popular life of George IV by Percy Fitzgerald published in 1881) told her daughter that she was the daughter of the Prince of Wales and Mrs Fitzherbert and that she was born suddenly in a baby linen shop kept by a Mrs Fletcher in Knightsbridge, London on 14 November 1795 and given into the care of her grandmother Mrs Lowe. The girl is said to have remembered meeting the Prince and Mrs Fitzherbert at a house in Park Lane in November 1800 (when the Prince is said to have given her some jewellery) and she stayed with Mrs Lowe until 1803 when she was eight years old and Mr Lowe stole the jewellery and her clothing. Mrs Lowe took a job as a cook in an hotel and a frequent visitor, Captain Roberts, provided money for the girl's upkeep. Mrs Lowe then took Hannah to stay with her mother, Mrs Harrison, at Bulkington about six miles north of Coventry in Warwickshire. Hannah was brought up 'as a village child' and when 14, in 1809, she was apprenticed to a ribbon weaver. She served three months 'without pay' and three months on 'half pay' and after only six months servitude (perhaps because of lack of work) was kept on as a housemaid, something that often happened with the half-pay system in the Coventry area. This may suggest that Hannah was abandoned by her grandmother and that her apprenticeship was paid for by the parish. Hannah did not see her mother again until after her marriage to Samuel Barnes in 1815.

There is much Bulkington poor law and settlement material which needs investigation and may throw further light on the matter and this unlikely story. [AJC 19 September 2012]. 

Page 170 - re Mrs Fitzherbert. No 20 (Additional Entry). John Graves Wyatt. Yet another story about the supposed "children" of Mrs Fitzherbert appears in the unreferenced text of her biography on Wikipedia [accessed 28 September 2012] where it said that on her death [in 1837] "her children were adopted by a Scotch family named Wyatt whose name they assumed. Afterwards they came south settling in Erith, Kent. The Wyatt family, in the person of J. G. Wyatt, a former Erith man who later moved to Moose Fair [sic], Saskatchewan, Canada and Isabella Annie Wyatt claimed title to a portion of the Fitzherbert estate in 1931". Their claim is mentioned in the Lethbridge Herald, Saskatchewan, 22 May 1937, pages 1 & 9, and is presumably the claim mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle, Friday, 9 April 1937, page 7, which had previously been mentioned in the previous Friday's Daily Mail [not seen].

This is presumably John George Wyatt who was born at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, about 1872, and was at 14 Cheshunt Road, Erith, aged 29, a cartage contractor, in 1901 [RG13/700-42-14] and was a painter at Moose Jaw in 1913. He was the son of John Graves Wyatt who was born at Bexley, Kent, c.1848-9, and died at 219 Lower Road, Belvedere, Kent, 18 June 1933, aged 85, who had married Sarah Ann Starr in Woolwich RD in the December Quarter of 1869 [1d 1185]. He in turn was the son of another John Graves Wyatt who had a varied career and died in Woolwich RD, in the December Quarter of 1900 [1d 697], aged 83, by his second wife Frances Lomax, nee Medhurst, whom he had married at All Saints, Poplar, 28 September 1847 [Registers, Page 11, Entry 21]. At that time this first John Graves Wyatt said that he was a widower and the son of Jeremiah Wyatt, baker. Describing himself as John Greaves Wyatt, of full age, hairdresser, bachelor, the son of William Wyatt, butcher, he had married firstly at Pudsey St Lawrence, Yorkshire, 30 November 1841, Rachel Taylor, of full age, spinster. daughter of Thomas Taylor, hairdresser [Registers].

John Greaves Wyett, an adult, of Bermondsey Street, hairdresser, born 28 October 1818, was baptised at St John Horsleydown, 24 November 1841 [Registers, Page 290, Entry 238].

In the 1841 census of Bermondsey Street, St John Horsleydown [HO107/1087-7-35v] John Wyatt said that he was aged 22, hair dresser, not born in Surrey (with him were two apprentice hairdressers). His first wife died at 19 Bermondsey Street, in 1845, when he was present at the death and a hairdresser. In the 1851 census of London Road, Bexley [HO107/1607-121-20] John Graves Wyatt said that he was aged 32, a baker, and born in "Middlesex, City". In the 1861 Census of Plumstead he was aged 41 and born at Smithfield, London, a statement repeated in 1871 when he was aged 52, an auctioneer, at 31 Plumstead Road, Plumstead [RG10/787-7-8].

Further information about the origins of John Graves or Greaves Wyatt or Wyett would be welcome. He was an executor to Stephen Jeffery in 1861, went bankrupt in 1868, was a lodging house keeper in 1882, and a jobmaster in 1890 [entries in London Gazette].

Page 170 - re Mrs Fitzherbert. No 21 (Additional Entry). 1789/90. Miguel/Michael Hines (died 1843, aged 53). Michael Himes is said to have been born in Dublin City and to have been brought up by one Mary Hines who told him that he was the son of the Prince of Wales. He is said to have come to England, to have joined the army and been sent to South America in the 88^th Foot under Lt. Col. Alexander Duff, being present at the abortive attack on Buenos Aires on 5 July 1807 when 1,676 British soldiers were captured and he was gravely wounded. He is said to have been cared for by George Torada and he remained in the Argentine buying and selling wood until he was murdered there on 19 August 1843, aged 53.

There is no mention of a Michael Hines, born about 1789-90, in the surviving Soldiers' Documents in the National Archives but these normally relate only to soldiers discharged to pension and not to those who were killed or deserted. The Muster Books or Pay Lists for the 88^th Foot survive from 1793 but have not been searched.

A genealogy of Michael's descendants at www.irishgenealogy.com.ar gives his date and place of birth as 4 May 1790 at Dublin, but there is no reference as to where that date appears in records of the period. Another site carlosmgallo@gmail.com says that Michael was born on that date in London, but again no source for the statement is given. If he was 53 at his death on 19 August 1843 he was born between August 1789 and August 1790.

In an article, 'El primer árbol de Navidad de Buenos Aires', in Historia, 3 (Buenos Aires, 1956), Raul A. Molina says that Michael Hines was 'the natural and only son of King George IV' and he quotes a speech said to have been made by one 'Admiral Greenfield' at Michael's death in 1843 which was related by Michael's daughter Josefa Hines de Ocampo to his grandson and apparently accepted by her.

The database of Irish Roman Catholic Parish Registers from the records in the National Library of Ireland shows the baptism of a Michael Hines, son of James Hines by his wife Elizabeth Cassin, at St Catherine's, Meath Street, Dublin City, on 3 October 1789. The entry shows the god-parents as Pat Murry and Jane Blake. The surname 'Cassin' is transcribed as 'Cossin' in the database. The database does not show the marriage of James Hines and Elizabeth Cassin, or their burials, or the baptisms of any other children of the couple, but an Elizabeth Cassin, who may be the mother, was baptised at the Roman Catholic Church of St Andrew's in the City of Dublin, 30 May 1770.

However, the story has been expanded and linked to Mrs Fitzherbert in 'Chapter 9, 'El príncipe bastardo', of Daniel Balmaceda, Espadas y Corazones (2004), though no evidence has been located to show that Michael Hines claimed such a relationship when in England in 1807/8. It is unlikely that Mrs Fitzherbert had a child on 4 May 1790 because on 15 May 1790 she was present at Drury Lane Theatre when an attempt was made on the King's life [Shane Leslie, The Letters of Mrs Fitzherbert (1944) 119].

Page 171-2 re Miss Woolston alias Wilson. Horace Hayman Wilson. The baptism of Horace Hayman Wilson, which long evaded searchers, has been found at the Percy Chapel, St Pancras. He was born 26 September 1786 and baptised as 'Horace Hayman son of George & Hannah Wolstone' at the Percy Chapel, St Pancras [Registers, no Page or Entry Number].

Page 174 - George IV [additional entry]. 1787. Mary Bedborough. In July 2009 the BBC presenter Davina McCall appeared in the BBC TV series 'Who Do You Think You Are' and said that a family tradition held that her ancestor James Thomas Bedborough (1787-1860) was 'one of the many illegitimate children' of George IV and that her grandmother believed that an estate at Upton Park, near Slough, had been bestowed on him as a wedding gift by the King. The programme included 'Royal genealogist Charles Mosley of the National Archives in Kew' who 'came up with the name of 15 or 16 (illegitimate children) by him', though he admitted that not all were definitely by him [Linda Serck, 'Davina, Bedborough and George IV' on the BBC Berkshire Website, Homepage, 13 November 2014].

In the year that the King had died the purveyor of much scandal Robert Huish wrote in his Memoirs of George the Fourth (1830, vol. 1, page 262) that it was 'rather a remarkable circumstance, that no issue was ever known from any of the amours of either the Prince of Wales, or the late Duke of York', making an exception, where the Prince of Wales was concerned, only of a son supposed to have been born to Lucy Howard who died aged two and was buried at Brighton (but of whom no record can be found). We know that when discussing the terms of his will the King had acknowledged only the existence of his son George Seymour Crole.. However, dozens of people, anxious to claim a royal descent or to fill a gap in their pedigrees or simply to hide humble illegitimacy, have adopted the King as their ancestor. My 2007 book has details of thirty-five of them and others are listed in these Additions. Often there is an absolute minimum of evidence for any such connection.

This is another example. James Thomas Bedborough was born 30 October 1787 and baptised ('Bedberough') at St Sepulchre, Newgate, Middlesex, 15 June 1788, one of the many children of Thomas Bedborough (1732-1802), a stone mason at New Windsor, by his wife Mary Brown, who had married at New Windsor, 28 October 1759. Only some of Thomas's children were mentioned in his will dated 1 April 1802 and proved with two codicils 6 April 1803 [PCC PROB11/1389] and Thomas was buried at New Windsor, 12 December 1802. His widow Mary was buried at New Windsor, 12 March 1806, and not having fully administered his estate, administration was then granted, 26 March 1806, to her daughter Martha Norton, the widow of John Norton, whom she had married at St Luke, Finsbury, 13 August 1795.

The son, James Thomas Bedborough, was apprenticed to the widowed Mary, his mother, then of New Windsor, stonemason, on 29 August 1804, but would have broken the terms of his apprenticeship when he married at St George Hanover Square, Middlesex, on 18 June 1807, the young Sarah Wild (1790-1848). He died 20 February 1860. His slow rise to great prominence in New Windsor is detailed in an obituary published in the Windsor and Eton Express for Saturday, 25 February 1860, page 4, columns d-e, and his later financial problems are outlined in the article by Linda Serck. Rupert Gunnis in his Dictionary of British Sculptors (1951) page 44, says that Bedborough was much employed at Windsor Castle under Wyattville becoming chief mason in 1808 and thereafter describing himself as 'statuary and stonemason to His Majesty'. He received £1,042 for building part of the terrace walk at Windsor in 1810 and was paid £3,626 for constructing the Royal vaults beneath St George's Chapel in 1812. There is not the slightest reason to suppose that he was the King's son though Wikipedia (sub Davina McCall) says that the relationship was 'neither proved nor disproved' on the TV show.

Page 174 - George IV [additional entry]. 1788 Sarah Read (died 1838). I am indebted to Elizabeth Miller for bringing to my attention (in June 2012) the book Mostly fun: my life by one who has led it by Jim Leslie (1922) which in Chapter 3, 'The Read Connection' (pages 13-29), sets out the known facts and traditions about one Captain George Frederick Read who was born 29 September 1788 and first visited Australia as captain and part owner of the brig Lynx in 1808, eventually settling and having descendants there. He was said to be a son of George IV and Mrs Fitzherbert but it had already been established by 1922 that Sarah Till, whom Captain Read brought out from England with her husband William Till and a son John Till, was his mother, marriage records confirming that Sarah Read, widow, married William Till, widower, by licence, on 2 August 1804, at St Mary, Lambeth, both being of that parish [Parish Registers, Entry 652, Page 219].

However, this George Frederic Read, born 29 September 1788, was baptised 9 November 1788, at St Ann, Soho, Westminster, the son of George & Sarah Read [Registers], and searches now need to be made for possible further information about that couple. George Frederic Read was closely involved with Thomas Gabriel Bayliss, of Southgate, Middlesex [PCC Will as of Southgate, widower, proved 25 October 1833, PROB11/1822], and several names used by Read's children and descendants appear to come from the Bayliss family, which needs further investigation.

Page 175-6 re William Rea. The Marriage Registers of St Nicholas, Plumstead, Kent, show that the marriage of William Rea, and Christie Goulden, both of this parish, took place at Plumstead, by Banns, on 2 June 1816. She signed Christey Goulden and the witnesses were Archd. Burns and Mary Lazenby [Registers, Page 152, Entry 456].

Page 181 Line 27, for 'S' read '5'.

Page 181 - John and Elizabeth Liptrap. The Burial Register of St Mary, Whitechapel, Middlesex, shows that the burial of Elizabeth Liptrap, of Eltham, Kent, aged 82, took place there on 29 July 1843 [Registers, No Page or Entry number].

Page 181 - Elizabeth Stephen Liptrap. I am indebted to Mr Nicholas Royal for the information that Elizabeth Stephen Liptrap married at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Middlesex, 8 January 1810, William Peyton. They had issue an only daughter:

    1a.   Laura Peyton, born c.1812. She died at Temple Cottage, Southsea (the home of Sarah Rex), 12     August  1832; buried at Mile End Cemetery, Portsea, 17 August 1832. She had married Joshua Ryle, of     London Road, Brighton, Sussex, gentleman. He was born November 1812 and baptised at Croydon, 24 August 1815. He died at the house of Elizabeth Liptrap, and was buried at St Nicholas, Brighton, 24 March 1832, aged 20. They had issue an only daughter:

    1b.   Laura Ryle, born 11 November 1831 and baptised at St Nicholas, Brighton, 9 December 1831. She died at 52 Westbourne Street, Aldrington, 23 June 1887. Her will proved PPR. She had married 1stly, at St Pancras, Middlesex, 24 December 1856, Charles Tollit, of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, school master. He was born 1832 and baptised at Hemel Hempstead, 21 February 1833. He was buried at Hemel Hempstead, 23 June 1861. She married 2ndly, at the Register Office, Steyning, 4 May 1883, James Sumner, of 52 Westbourne Street, Aldrington, Sussex, retired engineer R.N. He was born at Brompton, Kent, 1824, and died at 52 Westbourne Street, 30 November 1885. His will proved PPR.

Page 190. Mother of William Augustus Miles (1798-1851). Claims by William Augustus Miles to be the son of George, Prince of Wales, are apparently discussed at some length in David Philips, William Augustus Miles (1786-1851): crime, policing and moral entrepreneurship in England and Australia (Melbourne, 2001), published in the University of Melbourne as No. 30 in its History Monograph Series, but my various efforts to obtain a copy have failed. He is the subject of an article in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 2 (1967), and was ostensibly the eldest son of William Augustus Miles (c.1753-1817), political writer, author of comic operas and holder of minor official posts. I hesitate to make further comment without seeing the late Dr. David Philips's work; he died in 2007.

Page 191. Sarah Brown/Elizabeth Hampshire. It was noted in Royal Mistresses and Bastards that there did not seem to be any truth in a story [repeated in Saul (1999) 80] that Sarah Brown, the daughter of the publican at the White Hart Hotel, Mile End Road, London, was for 15 years the mistress of the Prince of Wales and had four children by him, one of whom, William Hampshire (1800-1878) rose rapidly in the Lord Chamberlain's Department to become Paymaster in the Queen's Household in 1854. It had also been noted that this William Hampshire was baptised at St James, Westminster, 18 March 1800, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Hampshire.

 

I am indebted to the careful research of a descendant Peter Ashworth for the information [from family and other records cited below] that this Joseph Hampshire was apparently in the service of Jonathan Kendal at Chelwood House, near Bristol, in 1795, and as of Chelwood, Somerset, had married at Chelwood, in 1796, Elizabeth Brown, of Chelwood, who died at Walham Green, Chelsea, in 1841 and was buried in Brompton Cemetery. It seems that Joseph died at Flockton, Yorkshire (where he had been born), in 1819.

 

Joseph Hampshire's uncle, Lexey Mallinson, had been steward to the 5th Duke of Devonshire, at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, from about 1780 until his death in 1799, and it is likely that the 6th Duke, who was Lord Chamberlain 1827-28 and 1830-34, knew of Lexey's great-nephew and obtained for him the post of Third Assistant Clerk in the Lord Chamberlain's Department in 1832.

 

The story of a royal connection appears to have been first formulated in a letter dated September 1930, from Cyril Hampshire, to his mother Alice Isabella, the wife of Revd William Knowlton Hampshire (died 1905), Vicar of Bampton, Oxfordshire, in which Cyril Hampshire claims that it had been confirmed with many circumstantial details that we now know to be quite incorrect, by the Duke of Connaught. It appears that the story was communicated by another descendant, Oliver Myers, to Sir Anthony Wagner, and by him to the Society of the Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain in America. The relationships of the early members of the family, commencing with Joseph Hampshire's father, were as follows:

 

John Hampshire, named in will of brother-in-law Lexey Mallinson, 1799. He had married at Flockton, Yorkshire, 6 November 1761, Margaret ('Peggy') Mallinson [Registers]. She was named in the will of her brother Lexey Mallinson, 1799. Her brother was Alexander ('Lexey') Mallinson, steward or agent to the 5th Duke of Devonshire at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, with £50 p.a., from c.1780, who died unmarried, 15 August 1799, and was buried at Ault Hucknall, aged 66 [MI]; his will as Lexey alias Alexis Mallinson, of Hardwick in Hucknall, Derbyshire, gentleman, dated 23 April 1799 (freehold at Cotham, Nottinghamshire) proved 17 October 1799 [Consistory Court of Lichfield]. John and Margaret Hampshire had issue:

 

1a.       James Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 2 May 1762 [Registers]. Named trustee and executor in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799; he and Sarah (? his sister) Hampshire ran the Edensor Inn, near Chatsworth, 1799 [letter to uncle Lexey Mallinson in Chatsworth Archives].

 

2a.       Sarah Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 20 November 1763 [Registers]. Named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799.

 

3a.       Alexander (Lexey or Alexis) Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 15 March 1767 [Registers]. Named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799.

 

4a.       Ann Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 18 March 1770 [Registers]. Named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799.

 

5a.       Joseph Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 15 November 1771 [Registers]. Apparently in service with Jonathan Kendal at Chelwood House, near Bristol, 10 January 1795 [letter to uncle Lexey Mallinson in Chatsworth Archives]; named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799; perhaps the Joseph Hampshire buried at Flockton, 1819; gentleman, 1841 [death of widow]. As of Chelwood, Somerset, he had married by licence at Chelwood, 21 November 1796, Elizabeth Brown, of Chelwood [Registers]. She died at Walham Green, Chelsea, 20 May 1841 [GRO Death certificate; MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 27 May 1841, aged 70 [Registers, Grave No 137]. They had issue:

 

1b.       Charlotte Georgina Hampshire, born 22 December 1797, and baptised at St James, Westminster, 18 May 1798 [Registers].

 

2b.       William Hampshire, born 7 January 1800, and baptised at St James, Westminster, 18 March 1800 [Registers]. Third Assistant Clerk in Lord Chamberlain's Department, 1832 [see Royal Mistresses and Bastards for further detail]. He died at 6 St Albans Road, Kensington, 5 September 1878 [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 10 September 1878, aged 78 [Registers, Grave No 94098]. He had married at Sheffield Parish Church, Yorkshire, 31 March 1834, Elizabeth Wilson. She died at 6 St Albans Road, Kensington, 27 July 1867 [MI]; buried 31 July 1867, aged 63 [Family Paper]. They had issue:

 

1c.       Mary Hampshire, born 19 February 1835, and baptised at St Luke, Chelsea, 19 February 1835 [Registers]. She married at St Mary Abbots, Kensington, 2 July 1856, Alexander Turner Cory, and had issue.

 

2c.       William Knowlton Hampshire, born 10 November 1836, and baptised at St Luke, Chelsea, 7 December 1836 [Registers]. He died 2 December 1905. He had married and had issue.

 

3c.       Henry Charles Hampshire, born 23 January 1838, and baptised at St Martin in the Fields, Middlesex, 2 July 1838 [Registers]. He died at 9 Crescent Road, Wimbledon, 17 August 1910 [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 20 August 1910, aged 72 [Registers, Grave No 94098].

 

4c.       Alfred George Hampshire, born 13 August 1839. He died at 4 Maddox Street, Regent Street, 5 June 1890 [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 7 June 1890, aged 50 [Registers, Grave No 94098].

 

5c.       Frederick Thomas Hampshire, born 5 November 1840. He died 23 January 1842, aged 14 months [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery.

 

6c.       Elizabeth Georgiana Hampshire, born 3 February 1842. She died at Bampton, Oxfordshire, 2 May 1912 [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 4 May 1912, aged 70 [Registers, Grave No 171348].

 

7c.       Frederick Knowlton Hampshire, born at 16 Sussex Place, Kensington, 15 November 1843, and baptised at St Mary Abbots, Kensington, 12 February 1845 [Registers]. He died 16 May 1894, aged 50. He had married Jessie Clara Everest. She died 20 February 1934, aged 88. They had issue.

 

8c.       Louisa Maria Hampshire, born 31 August 1845, and baptised at St Mary Abbots, Kensington, 24 September 1845 [Registers]. She died unmarried at Manor Cottage, Bampton, Oxfordshire, 1926; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 27 February 1926, aged 80 [Registers, Grave No 94098].

 

3b.       Georgiana Margaret Hampshire, born 22 November 1801, and baptised at St James, Westminster, 1 December 1801 [Registers]. She died unmarried at 9 Upper Ranelagh Street, Pimlico, 20 March 1861 [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 25 March 1861, aged 59 [Registers, Grave No 26739].

 

6a.       Hannah Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 8 September 1775, and buried there 15 January 1778 [Registers].

 

7a.       Elizabeth Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 21 December 1777 [Registers]. Named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799.

 

8a.       John Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 13 January 1782 [Registers]. Named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799.

Page 197 - additional entry [27 November 2008].

c.1805. Countess Olga Jerebtzov or Gerebtzoff (or Zherebzova) (1766-1849). Although aware of the suggestion that the Prince of Wales was the father of a son (who took the surname Nord) by Countess Olga Jerebtzov I did not include her in Royal Mistresses and Bastards (2007) as the known details were so flimsy. However, as the suggestion now appears in Wikipedia (sub Olga Zherebtsova) I have decided to set out here what I know in the hope that those with additional knowledge will come forward to throw light on the matter. I am indebted to Miss Lynda Raistrick for the details from the Leeds parish registers.

 

In 1836 Sir N.W. Wraxall wrote that Charles Whitworth (1752-1825), British ambassador at St Petersburg from 1788 to 1800 (Knight of the Bath in 1793, created Baron Whitworth in 1800, Viscount in 1813, and Earl in 1815), an old friend of the Prince of Wales [CGPoW i (1963) 204] but a man of limited financial means, was in great measure supported by Countess Gerbetzow (sic) and 'In return for such solid proofs of attachment, he engaged to give her his hand in marriage' when she had obtained a divorce from her husband. However, he left for England in May 1800 and in April 1801 married the immensely wealthy Dowager Duchess of Dorset. According to Wraxall, Countess Gerbetzow, having succeeded in procuring a divorce from her husband, had meanwhile set out for London, but arrived after the marriage had taken place. She then sought to obtain restitution of the sums that she had advanced to her lover on the assurance of marriage and was paid £10,000 by the Duchess [N.W. Wraxall, Posthumous memoirs of his own time, i (1836) 188-194].

 

At the Brighton Pavilion, in November 1805, Thomas Creevey heard that she was 'a very rich Russian woman of quality who is coming to Lord Berkeley's house. She has been long in England, and is I suppose generally known in London, though new to me'. Mrs Fitzherbert told him that the Countess, who had been married at the age of 14, had kept Lord Whitworth in Russia and had got as far as Berlin when she heard that he was married. He added, 'She was raving mad for some time, and Mrs. F. describes her as being often nearly so now, but at other times most interesting, and most miserable. Her husband and children come to England to visit her, and Mrs F. says she is an eternal subject of remorse to Lord Whitworth' [Creevey i (1904) 67]. Elsewhere Creevey mentioned 'Madame Gerobtzoff' as 'a haughty Russian dame, who made row enough for the whole town to hear' when at the Pavilion, also in 1805, Sheridan sat on her lap in the dark at a phantasmagoria [Creevey i (1904) 57]. Lady Bessborough wrote about her (as 'Madame Gerebzoff') in November 1804 and August 1805 [Granville i (1917) 476-77, 492], saying that 'The office of Husband in Russia seems to be a sinecure', describing her, in the words of Pope's Philomel, as 'Chaste to her Husband, frank to all besides', and adding, 'I knew her Mother very well; she was too fat, but very handsome' [Granville ii (1917) 103].

 

The Complete Peerage says that although the story of the alleged liaison between the Countess and Lord Whitworth obtained some credence in 1805 it was, in the main, refuted in the Quarterly Review, vol. lvii (December 1836), pp. 470-71 [CP xii/2 (1959) 620-21 note e]. Indeed, the article in the Quarterly Review (a lengthy and damaging review of Wraxall's memoirs by an anonymous author) says that 'of all this circumstantial story nothing is true, except that a certain Russian countess had a partiality for Sir Charles Whitworth while ambassador at St Petersburg', that Sir Charles's influence with the Emperor had on one occasion saved her from exile, that neither 'was ever under pecuniary obligation to the other, beyond the interchange of presents usual between lovers', that she was never divorced and that her husband Count Gerepzov 'actually accompanied her on her visit to England', as many in society would remember. The review also says that Wraxall's spite against the Duchess of Dorset arose because he had obtained some of her husband's papers and, on the pretext of his cost and trouble in arranging them, would not give them up without payment.

 

In Russia many believed that the dissolute Countess had been Whitworth's mistress and in the pay of England, channelling English funds to the conspirators against the Emperor Paul I, a charge refuted by Kazimierz Waliszewski, though they certainly met in her house [K. Waliszewski, Paul the First of Russia - The Son of Catherine the Great (London, 1913) 412-15; with greater detail in the Russian edition (St Petersburg, c.1912) 552]. It had been in her house that her brother Platon Zoubov had taken refuge on the death of the Empress Catherine II in 1796 [K. Waliszewski, Autour d'un trone: Catherine II de Russie (Paris, 1894) 167]. Waliszewski says that her money was obtained during her stay in England after Paul's murder (11/23 March 1801) when she gained the favour of the Prince of Wales, returning to Russia with a son, and subsequently acquiring one of the finest Demidof estates [K. Waliszewski, Paul the First of Russia (1913) 413]. However, the genealogist Nicolas Ikonnikov says that she had long before had an open liaison with the fabulously wealthy Prokofi Akinfievitch Demidov (1710-1786) and had received from him many millions of roubles [Nicolas Ikonnikov, La Noblesse de Russie, 2nd ed., 51 vols., Paris, 1957-63, hereafter NdR].

 

Nicolas Ikonnikov (although partly confusing her with her daughter) says that after 1800 the Countess took herself to London where she was the mistress of George III (sic) and that later, in a lawsuit against the British crown, she declared that they had had a son, Egor Egorovitch Nord, but that the British court doubted it, ruling that the child was Lord Whitworth's son [NdR Borozdine (1957) No. 170 and NdR Jerebtzov (1958) No. 200, both quoting Istoritchesky Vestnik, xii (1912) 890 et seq.]. The boy is apparently called George Nord in Valentin Zubov, Zar Paul I: Mensch und Schicksal (K.F. Koehler, 1963) 221 [not seen] but no further details of the supposed court case about him have been found.

 

However, the Northampton Mercury for Saturday, 28 August 1830 [page 1f] contains the entry, 'George Nord, the gentleman said to be the son of the late King, has not been noticed by any of the members of the Royal family. To letters which have been addressed to certain high quarters, no aswer has been returned; and we understand Mr Nord has sailed, or is about to sail, for Russia.' [Noted 18 November 2012, but not apparently mentioned elsewhere in the currently available online newspaper databases].

 

She was Countess Olga Alexandrovna Zoubov, born 1766 [NdR Zoubov (1962) No. 142], daughter of Count Alexander Nikolaevitch Zoubov (1727-1795) and his wife Elisaveta Vassilieva Voronov (1742-1813) [NdR Zoubov (1962) No. 121], and a sister of Prince Platon Zoubov (1767-1822) [NdR Zoubov (1962) No. 143], the last favourite of the Empress Catherine II. According to Wikipedia in later years she returned to St Petersburg, became involved in Court intrigues centred on her grandson-in-law Prince Alexei Orlov (1796-1861), and was a patron of Alexander Herzen (presumably before his imprisonment in 1832) who describes her 'like a tree in winter' in his memoirs My Past and Thoughts (1861-67). She died 1 March 1849. She had married (before 1783), Alexandre Alexeevitch Jerebtzov, born 30 August 1754. Privy Councillor, Chamberlain to Empress Catherine II. He died 28 June 1807 [NdR Jerebtzov (1958) No. 145]. They had issue: Anna Jerebtzov (1783-1785), the below mentioned Elisaveta Jerebtzov (1787-1841) and Alexander Jerebtzov (15 October 1790 - 24 February 1817) [NdR Jerebtzov (1958) Nos. 198, 199, 200]. The latter's dates are elsewhere given (from primary sources) as 1781-1832 [Alexander Mikaberidze, The Russian Officer Corps in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815 (Staplehurst, 2005) 464 sub Zherebtsov].

 

There is some confusion in the pedigrees compiled by Nicolas Ikonikoff between Olga Alexandrovna and her daughter Elisaveta Alexandrovna Jerebtzov, born 1787, Dame de l'Ordre de Ste Catherine petite-croix, who is called Olga Alexandrovna in the Biographies des Chevalier Gardes  [quoted in NdR Borozdine (1957) No. 170 and NdR Jerebtzov (1958) No. 200]. Ikonnikov attributed to Elizaveta her mother's alleged affairs with Demidov and Whitworth. Whilst her husband was absent on service in 1816 Elisaveta had a daughter Natalia [NdR Borozdine (1957) No. 198] by General Pirect (whom her husband had taken prisoner in the Napoleonic War), but although her husband accepted the paternity of the child, on his return she abandoned him to live permanently in Paris [NdR quoting Les aides de camp generaux de Alexandre I (St Petersburg, 1913)]. She died at Paris, 26 January 1841, and was buried with her husband [NdR Jerebtzov (1958) No. 200]. She had married 2 February 1804, Nikolai Mikhailovitch Borozdine [NdR Borozdine (1957) No. 170, quoting unpublished MS 'Memoirs d'un Nain' written by Iakoubovsky the dwarf to Prince Platon Zoubov]. He was born at Pskov, 13 November 1777 [Mikaberidze, op.cit. (2005) 46; NdR has 2 October 1776]. Enlisted as private in Life Guard Preobrajensky Regiment, 1782 (aged 5); sergeant, 1784; transferred to Horse Guards; cornet, 1794; transferred to Cuirassier Regiment, 1796; returned to Horse Guards, 1797; Lieutenant, 1798; Captain, 1799; joined Chevalier Guards, 1799; Colonel, 1800; chief of Finland Dragoons, 1806-11, and of Astrakhan Cuirassier Regiment, 1811-14; Major General, 1807; served in campaigns of 1805, 1807 and 1808 against Napoleon and Sweden [career in Mikaberidze, op.cit. (2005) 46-47]; at Borodino, etc., 1812; Lieutenant-General, 1813; at Leipzig; at taking of Paris, 1814; returned to Paris, 1815; commanded Reserve Cavalry Corps, 1817; aide de camp general to the Emperor, 1820; General of Cavalry, 1826; Knight of St Alexandre Nevsky. He died at St Petersburg, 14/26 November 1830; buried at Kostyjitzy (Kostyzhetsky), Pskof  [NdR Borozdine (1957) No. 170]. They had issue [NdR Borozdine (1957) Nos. 193-198].

 

Olga Jerebtsov's son, said to have been by the Prince of Wales, was:

 

1a.           Egor Egorovitch Nord [NdR Borozdine No. 170; NdR Jerebtzov (1958) No. 200] or George Nord [above quoted references]. It is said that he 'under the name of Nord, founded a family which in recent years still had a representative in Russia' [Waliszewski, op. cit. (1913) 413]. Perhaps the same person as George Charles Nord the father of:

 

George Nord, born 1844/5 [age at death]. Present at dinner given by Grand Duke Constantine, Chesham House, London [The Times, 13 September 1871, 7e, 'M. de Nord']; Second Secretary at Russian Embassy, London, 1872-3 [AdeG (1872) 574 & (1873) 608, 'assessuer de college et gentilhomme de a chambre G.Nord']; Russian Consul at Rescht, Persia, 1875-80 [AdeG, 'L'assesseur de college G.Nord']. He died, Russian Consul at Rescht, Persia, 6 August 1880, aged 35 [Pall Mall Gazette, 24 September 1880, Issue 4864, 'George De Nord']; 'formerly of the Russian Embassy in London' [Liverpool Mercury, 1 September 1885, Issue 11745, marriage of 'stepdaughter Frances Fitzroy']. As of Camberwell, son of George Charles Nord, gentleman, he had married by licence at St Giles, Camberwell, Surrey, 9 March 1872 (as her 1st husband), Mary 'Emily' Dufton FitzRoy, of Princes Square, Bayswater, daughter of Charles Augustus FitzRoy [Registers, Page 20, Entry 40], by his wife Elizabeth (they had married at St Matthew, Holbeck, Yorkshire, 19 October 1843), daughter of James Dufton, of Leeds, Yorkshire. She was born 25 September 1844 and baptised at Leeds Parish Church, 23 October 1844 [Registers, Page 491, Entry 1534]. Of Arthur Street, Leeds, 1851 [HO107/2320-1045-4]; of Nippet Lane, Leeds, scholar, 1861 [RG9/3384-67-2]. She died at Addis Ababa, Abyssinia, 9 January 1900 [The Times, 2 April 1900, 1a]. She had married 2ndly at the Russian Church of the Russian Legation, Geneva, Switzerland, 19 November 1882, Pierre de Vlassow (Pyotr Mikhailovich Vlasov), Russian Consul at Ghelau [The Times, 9 December 1882, 1a; 20 November in Manchester Times, 25 November 1882, Issue 1298]. Russian Consul at Rescht, Persia, 1884-89 [AdeG]; received Prince Dolgorouki's Mission at Teheran [The Times, 30 May 1887, 9f]; Russian Consul General at Mesched, Persia, 1890-97 [AdeG]; as Councillor of State headed Russian Embassy to Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia, leaving St Petersburg with wife, September 1897, and arriving 17 February 1898 [Bristol Mercury, 20 April 1898, Issue 15582]; Russian Minister in Abyssinia, 1898-1902 [AdeG; The Times, 2 April 1900, 1a]; on way to Teheran, 27 September 1902 [The Times, 25 October 1902, 10a]; Russian Ambassador to Persia, 1902-3 [AdeG].

Page 198 Claudius Francis du Pasquier. It appears that Claudius Francis du Pasquier was buried at St Margaret, Westminster, where there was an inscription to him as 'Claude Francis du Pasquier, died 22nd Dec. 1822, aged 64 [The Genealogists' Magazine, vol. 5, no. 11 (September 1931) page 388].

Pages 204-5 Georgiana Quentin. I am indebted to Mr David Collins for the information that Georgiana Quentin was born 2 July 1784 and baptised 30 July 1784 at St Marylebone [LMA P89/MRY1, Item 008] and that she married 21 January 1811 at St Mary, Shaw cum Donnington, Berkshire [transcript by Berks FHS via Findmypast].

Page 208-210 Edwardina Kent and John Turner Flinn. I am indebted to Mr Jonathan Dickson of Melbourne (who has an oil painting of John Turner Flinn) for information about the marriage and death of Edward Augustus Flinn in Victoria [information received in July 2008] and particularly to Jacqueline Rowntree (who descends from one of John Turner Flinn's sisters) for a reference to Eric de Normann's Edwardina: the story of an unfortunate woman (privately printed, Ashford, 1978) [copy in British Library X.702/5976], the 1841 Census entry in Lambeth, and to the material in the Harvard Law Library about the divorce of the younger Edwardina de Normann mentioned below [information received in December 2008].

The above-mentioned book [hereafter cited as 'de Normann (1978)'] was written by the late Sir Eric de Normann (1893-1982), a great-grandson of Edwardina Kent by her first marriage in Brunswick in 1814 to Gustav de Normann. Sir Eric de Normann argues that Edwardina Kent was Princess Caroline's daughter by George Canning, detailing the latter's regular visits to the Princess in 1799, and suggesting that Edwardina was born in the first half of 1800, but that Caroline deliberately made her out to be older than she was [de Normann (1978) 11-14]. Sir Eric mentions unsuccessful searches made for Edwardina's baptism at Lewisham by a Mr Brogden on behalf of the Consul at Naples when she died in 1875 [de Normann (1978) 14], and he was unaware of the baptismal entry in September 1800 that says that she was born 'about the beginning of 1798', and of the entry in The Times for 23 April 1799 that described the way in which she had been abandoned 'a short time since' [set out in Royal mistresses and bastards (2007) 208-9]. The child, if Princess Caroline's, would have been conceived many months before her friendship with George Canning developed, but there is no evidence that she was the Princess's child. The written statement of the Revd William Groves (the gullible intimate friend of the forger Olive Wilmot Serres) in May 1830 that the Duke of Kent had told him that Edwardina was Caroline's child (and thus rightful Queen of England after the death of King George IV the following month), a document that Edwardina sent to King William IV [de Normann (1987) 34], is presumably one of Olive's many productions [Royal mistresses and bastards (2007) 114-7].

 

Sir Eric also argues that Princess Caroline's purpose in leaving England in 1814 and apparently forcing Edwardina into marriage, was, as Sir William Gell put it, 'to get rid of her for ever' [de Normann (1978) 18]. Sir William's description of Edwardina's marriage as 'a very good sale of a very bad piece of Goods', however, probably means that the group were already glad to be rid of her on personal grounds. That she was forced into marriage is conjectured from the record saying that it took place 'at 10 p.m. by special order of the Duke without banns' [de Normann (1978) 25] but the 'special order' was merely to dispense with the customary banns, the Princess leaving Brunswick the following day. There is a tradition in the family of Gustav de Normann's second wife, Theresa von der Mulbe, that Edwardina was pregnant by the Duke of Brunswick, that the child died an infant, and that she had other illegitimate children outside marriage, but these stories are dismissed by Sir Eric [de Normann (1978) 26]. No record of the birth of her (? only) child by Gustav de Normann, probably before or about May 1815, has been found [de Normann (1978) 27-28]. That they were divorced in June 1820, although 'confirmed by the Archives' [de Normann (1978) 31], remains uncertain, no details being given, though both parties remarried (she describing herself as a widow). Edwardina's movements between the birth of her child and her second marriage in Rome in 1821 remain unknown though she presumably at some stage met Queen Caroline and was introduced by her to the man who became her second husband, John Turner Flinn.

 

Sir Eric de Normann doubted that Edwardina had actually married Flinn [de Normann (1978) 39] and knew nothing of their children [de Normann (1978) 35]. After Flinn was transported in 1840 Edwardina seems to have distanced herself from him, not writing to him for fourteen years [de Normann (1987) 42-43], apparently not telling her younger children of his existence, and allowing them to believe that they were the children of her first marriage. Flinn's photograph, however, survived amongst Edwardina's papers which eventually passed to Sir Eric [de Normann (1987) 41]; how that came about is not stated. Edwardina had herself gone to live at Naples in the 1840s and died there in 1875.

 

Edwardina's daughter, also called Edwardina, born about 1826, married in the surname de Normann in 1845, Lieut. Edward Middleton, U.S. Navy, but was divorced for adultery in 1850, she having returned to live with her mother at Naples. Flinn's eldest son, Edward Flinn, had followed his father to Australia by 1852, and was joined there by a younger brother Julius who had used the name de Normann. There may have been other children. The following account brings together for the first time what is known about Edwardina's two families:

 

Edwardina (Augusta) Kent, born 'about the beginning of 1798 found in Greenwich Parish', and baptised at Lewisham, Kent, 21 September 1800, 'Parents Unknown' [Lewisham Parish Registers]. Left England with Princess of Wales, August 1814; married 1stly at Brunswick (1814); claimed that first marriage was dissolved, 1820 [her letter of 12 December 1837 quoted in de Normann (1978) 29, saying June 1820 'confirmed by the Archives']; perhaps joined Queen Caroline at Rome, February-April 1820; married 2ndly at Rome (April 1821) and Camberwell, Surrey (1824); not named in will and codicils of Queen Caroline, 1821 proved 1822 [TNA PROB11/1653 folio 97]; in Jersey, 1826-7 [baptisms of children]; her life policy, 1827, 'aged 28' [de Normann (1978) 14]; petitioned Queen Victoria for assistance, 14 July 1839 [de Normann (1978) 32]; wrote to Duchess of Kent as 'now left with five infant children', 16 December 1839 [de Normann (1978) 36]; second husband transported to Australia, May 1840; wrote to Lord Melbourne as having 'four destitute children', 3 September 1840 [de Normann (1978) 36]; of John Street, Lambeth, Surrey, aged 40, independent, born in Foreign Parts, 1841 [HO107/1060-4-8a, 'Flynn']; given £50 by Queen Victoria and £100 from Royal Bounty [de Normann (1978) 39-40]; lodged at 18 Alfred Street, Islington, giving lessons in languages and painting, 1842 [de Normann (1978) 40]; probably at Naples before January 1845 [marriage of daughter there]; at 32 Mergellina (Posilippo), Naples, 1849 [daughter's divorce papers]; wrote to second husband from Naples, 7 February 1854 [de Normann (1978) 42-43]; latterly had affair with Don Giacomo Arena, photographer, of Naples [de Normann (1978) 41]; of 32 Vico Dattero, Mergellina, Naples, 1866 [de Normann (1978) 43]. She died at Naples, 1875 [de Normann (1978) 14]. As 'Miss Edwardine Kent' she had married 1stly, 'by special order of the Duke [of Brunswick] at the Grauenhof without banns by Revd Berkhan of Lehre', at Chapter Church of St Blasius, Brunswick, 28 August 1814 (as his 1st wife), Johann Heinrich Ernst 'Gustav' von Normann (describing himself as 'Captain Edward Adolphus Gustavus von Normann') [de Normann (1978) 25], son of Johann Gustav von Normann by his wife Eleonora 'Henrietta' von Falkenhayn. He was born at Breslau, Silesia, 29 May 1790 [de Normann (1978) 20]. Educ. Warsaw; Cadet, Prussian Infantry Regiment, 1804; Ensign, 1805; Lieutenant, rifle battalion of Duke of Brunswick, 1809; wounded at Halberstadt; to England; Lieutenant in Duke of Brunswick's Regiment, 27 September 1809; Captain, 31 March 1814 [as 'de Normann', WO25/3007, quoted in de Normann (1978) 24; 1815 Army List as 'G. Norman']; served Peninsular War, 1810-14; Aide-de-Camp to Duke of Brunswick, February 1814; Major, 1 January 1815 (seniority from 8 December 1814); said to have inherited title of Freiherr [de Normann (1978) 31]; at Waterloo; half-pay, 1816; command of infantry battalion, 1822; commanded Duke's Guards and Lieutenant Colonel, 1828; Colonel, 1840; Major-General, 1841; Lieutenant General and GOC, Brunswick, 1851 [army career in de Normann (1978) 20-25, 31, 41-42]. He died at Brunswick, 26 January 1855; buried St Catherine's Cemetery, 28 January 1855 [de Normann (1978) 41-42]; obituary in Brunswick Magazine, 26 May 1855 [de Normann (1978) 41]. He had married 2ndly, 30 November 1824, Theresa von der Mulbe [de Normann (1978) 26, 31]. Edwardina and Gustav de Normann had issue:

 

1a.       John de Normann, born before or about May 1815 [de Normann (1978) 28]. Entered Neapolitan Navy as engineer, 1838 [de Normann (1978) 28]; chief mechanical engineer in charge of new electric telegraph at Naples, 1858 [de Normann (1978) 41]; his work laying cables mentioned in The Times, 1857 [1 September 1857, 8a; 17 November 1857, 8a; 26 December 1857, 7a]. He died 1912 [no W/A PPR 1911-15]. As Giovanni de Normann, of Marseilles, France, Bachelor, now residing at Paris, he had married at the British Embassy, Paris, 26 January 1856, Elizabeth 'Henrietta' Gummer, of Ramsgate, Kent, Spinster, now residing at Paris [Registers, RG33/74, No. 29]. She died at 1 Via Funaioli, Leghorn, Italy, 31 October 1907 [PPR Calendar]. Limited administration of her estate granted (to her husband's attorney), 30 January 1908 [PPR, £1,849-14-10]. They had issue:

           

1b.       Albert Edward de Normann, born at Naples, 1860. In shipping business at Marseilles and Genoa. He died at Genoa, February 1914 [no W/A PPR 1914-20]. He had married 1884, Irene Matilda Horatia Wood, daughter of Thomas Wood, H.B.M. Consul for Morea. She was born at Patras, Greece, 1856. She died at 24 Eastholm, Finchley, Middlesex, 17 January 1935 [PPR Calendar]. Her administration granted (to her son Eric), 21 February 1935 [PPR, £162]. They had issue:

 

1c.       Beatrice Nina Frederica de Normann, born at Marseilles, France, 12 August 1885. Theosophical educationist. She died (from 607 Hood House, Dolphin Square, London, S.W.1), 7 November 1974; cremated Catford Cemetery, 13 November 1974 [The Times, 9 November 1974, 30b]. Her will proved 28 May 1975 [PPR, £3,508]. She had married 1917, Robert Weld Ensor. He was born at Annaghmore, Armagh, Ireland, 1880. Captain of Police, Alberta, Canada; served (with Canadian forces) First World War; Archangel Expedition; emigrated to South Africa. He died at Lautewater, Uniondale, South Africa, 1933; buried Uniondale Church [no W/A PPR 1933-6]. They had issue.

 

2c.       Albert Wilfred Noel ('George') de Normann, born 1891. Surveyor-General of Nigeria. He died after a long illness at Cape Town, South Africa, 17 June 1957, aged 65 [The Times, 22 June 1957, 1a]. He had married Ruth Cleague.

 

3c.       Eric Norman de Normann, born 26 December 1893. Educ. Chateau du Rosey, Switzerland; University College of South Wales; served First World War, 1915-18; Office of Works, 1920; Imperial Defence College, 1935; administrator to mother, 1935; C.B. 1941; Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Works, 1943-54; K.B.E. 1946; chairman, Ancient Monuments Board for England, 1954-63; F.S.A.; author of Edwardina: the story of an unfortunate woman (Weybridge, 1978); of Aylesham, Old Avenue, St George's Hill, Weybridge KT12 0PY. He died at Aylesham, Weybridge, 25 January 1982, aged 88; funeral Randalls Park Crematorium, Leatherhead, Surrey, 29 January 1982 [The Times, 27 January 1982, 24a; obituary, The Times, 28 January 1982, 14f-g, 'of an ancient Jersey family']. His will proved 16 August 1982 [PPR, £135,665] [Who's Who; Kelly's Handbook]. He had married at St John's Wood, Middlesex, 18 August 1921, Winifred Scott, nee Leigh [The Times, 19 August 1946, 1a], daughter of I.L. Leigh, of Stockport. She died 1968. They had issue.

 

Mrs Edwardina de Normann married 2ndly, in Rome, Italy, April 1821, and again at St Giles, Camberwell, Surrey, 28 October 1824, John Turner Flinn, son of William and Sarah Flinn [Camp (2007) 209-10]. Sentenced to transportation for life, Central Criminal Court, 11 April 1840; transported to Australia, September 1840; witness to marriage of son Edward, 1852; granted free pardon, 10 December 1860; lived latterly with Registrar of Seamen, Melbourne [de Normann (1978) 42-43]. He died at Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 17 May 1865 [de Normann (1978) 42-43], aged 85 [Death Certificate 4634, as 'Flynn', not seen]. They had (perhaps with other) issue:

 

2a.       Giovanni 'Edward' Turner Flinn, born 3 January 1822, and baptised at St Giles, Camberwell, Surrey, 3 January 1823; presumably the Edward Augustus Kent Harvey Flinn (son of John Turner Flinn, Chevalier de l'Ordre de Saint Ferdinand et Merite, and Edwardina Augusta Kent Flinn, and with George Harvey and Mary Ann Julia Harvey as godparents), baptised at St Lawrence, Jersey, 3 January 1826 [Registers, Page 157]. Ship's master (Australia), 1867-70; administrator to brother Julius, 1880. He died as 'Edward Augustus Flinn' (son of John Turner Flinn, navy officer, and Edwardina Flinn formerly Kent) at Melbourne Benevolent Asylum, North Melnourne, Victoria, Australia, 9 March 1901, aged 80, master mariner; buried Melbourne Cemetery, Hotham West, 9 March 1901 [Death Certificate, No 6538 (born Jersey, 54 years in Victoria, widower, no issue); no W/A at PRO Victoria]. He had married as 'Edward Augustus Flinn', by licence, at St James Old Cathedral, Melbourne, Australia, 13 March 1852, Mary Ann Thompson [Marriage Certificate, No 5890, the spelling of her forename corrected 8 March(?) 1875]. No children of this marriage were registered in Victoria.

 

3a.       Edwardina ('Edda') Augusta Flinn, born in Italy [In the matter of the petition of Edward Middleton, as below, page 13], c.1826, and baptised at St Helier, Jersey, 17 August 1827, as 'Edwardina Augusta Tarleton Turner Flinn', with General Sir Banastre Tarleton and Priscilla Susan Tarleroton as godparents [Registers, Entry No 818, Page 137]. With mother, aged 15, born in Foreign Parts, 1841. She went to U.S.A. with husband, June 1845; left with son for Europe, arrived Marseilles, 15 June 1849; lived with mother at Naples, 1849; divorced for adultery at Philadelphia (with Harry McCall a cousin of her husband) by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, January 1850 [following her husband's evidence In the matter of the petition of Edward Middleton (Harvard Law Library, Paper Book, 1850, 1034107) supported by a statement of Sidney G. Fisher (Harvard Law Library, 1004195)]. Subsequent history not found. As 'Edwardina de Normann' she had married at the British Chaplaincy, Naples, 13 January 1845 (as his 1st wife), Edward Middleton, U.S. Navy [FHL 574,492 from Guildhall Library MS 11,209], son of Hon. Henry Middleton (1770-1846), of Charleston, South Carolina, by his wife Mary Helen Hering. He was born at Charleston, South Carolina, 11 December 1810. Educated in Europe and U.S. Naval Academy, 1828; midshipman, 1834; Lieutenant, 1841; after marriage at Naples (1845) returned to U.S.A.; arrived at New York, 1 June 1845; lived at Charleston; joined U.S. Squadron in Gulf of Mexico, 9 December 1845; returned home, May 1846; joined U.S. Steamer Princeton, June 1847; served overseas until returned to U.S.A. in 1849 (wife and son had left for Europe two months earlier); served during U.S. Civil War; Captain, 1863; Commodore, 1868; Rear-Admiral, 1876. He died at Washington, D.C., 27 April 1883 [Colonial Families of the United States of America, iii (....) 331, not seen]. He had married 2ndly, Ellida J. Davidson. He had issue by his first wife an only child:

 

1b.       (male) Middleton, born at Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A., June 1846. Taken to Naples, Italy, by mother, June 1849; living, 3 January 1850 [father's Petition, 1850]. Subsequent history not found [called Edward, said to have been born at Naples, 6 June 1846, and to have died, 1847, in FamilySearch].

 

4a.       Julius Hamilton Flinn, born c.1831. With mother, aged 10, born in Foreign Parts, 1841; of Beaufort, Victoria, Australia, 1873 [de Normann (1978) 41]. He died, a miner, at Beaufort, Victoria, 27 November 1879, aged 48 [Death Certificate, No 9730, not seen]. His administration as Julius H. Flinn otherwise Julius de Normann granted (to his brother Edward Augustus Flinn), Victoria, 6 February 1880 [PRO Victoria, File 20/103]. As 'Julius Hamilton de Normann' he had married in Victoria, Australia, 1867, Emily Livinia Burguinn [Marriage Certificate, No 3132, not seen]. Perhaps the Emily de Norman who died in Victoria, Australia, 1884, aged 49 [Death Certificate, No 2714, not seen].

 

Amended 25 October 2022.

 

Pages 210-214, William Austin. An article by Eric C. Walker, 'Adoption, Narrative, and Nation, 1800-1859; the case of William Austin', in the Journal of British Studies, vol. 53, issue 4 (Cambridge University Press, October 2014), 960-991, with information provided by the National Portrait Gallery, indicates that William Austin died in 1857, aged 54 [GRO Death Indexes, March Quarter, 1857, Chelsea, 1a 123] and as of Blackland Street, Chelsea, he was buried at Brompton Cemetery, 16 February 1857 [The National Archives, WORK/97/19, Grave No 15102]. His administration (with will dated 17 August 1824 annexed) as formerly of 107 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, Middlesex, but late of Blacklands House, Chelsea, Middlesex [thus confirming that the Census entry in 1851 relates to him], was granted in the PCC, 10 March 1857, to his brother Job Austin, a residuary legatee, Moses Hoper of Old Burlington Street, Westminster, the sole executor and universal legatee in trust named in the will having died in his lifetime [PROB11/2247 folio 167]. In the will he had left £35 annually to his mother Sophia Austin, the wife of Daniel Austin, of No 1, Swan Street, Minories, City of London; £20 annually to his father Daniel Austin; £800 to his brother Daniel Austin; £1,000 to his brother Samuel Austin; 10 guineas each for rings to Lady Anne Hamilton, the Hon Anne Seymour Damer, Lord and Lady Hood, Dr Lushington, Mr Serjeant Wilde, Mr Alderman Wood, the said Moses Hoper and Mrs Hoper his wife, and their daughter Caroline 'goddaughter of my excellent and ever to be lamented patroness Caroline, Queen of England'; after the deaths of his parents a further £200 was to go to his brother Daniel Austin, £800 to his sister Caroline at 21 or marriage, and the residnue was to be divided between his brothers Job and George when 21. The names of his father and a brother, both called Samuel, are incorrecty given as Daniel in the will. The Brompton Cemetery records note that the Grant of Aministration was made to Samuel Austin, of 1 Printers Place, Bermondsey, gentleman, and to Job Austin, of 55 Church Street, Minories, piano forte maker [TNA, WORK/97/19 Ns 14647 and 15102].

Page 216 Line 25, for 'Wood' read 'Hood'.

Pages 221-247 Frederick, Duke of York. A new and balanced biography of the Duke, Derek Winterbottom's The Grand Old Duke of York: a life of Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, 1753-1827 (Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley, 2016; ISBN 9781473845770), contains in an Appendix a section on 'The Duke of York's alleged illegitimate children' (pages 172-174), in which he kindly describes me as 'the most authoritative investigator into the illegitimate offspring of royal personages' and accepts the statements that I made in 2007.

Page 224 Agnes Gibbes (1761-1843). The statement that 'Lieutenant Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes, the Collector of Customs ... was born in London, on the 30th March, 1787, and is the son of the late John Gibbes, (nephew of Sir Philip Gibbes, Bart., of Jackby, in Oxfordshire), formerly of Barbadoes, and afterwards of London', seems first to have been published in a flattering piece, 'The Collector of Customs', in Heads of the People: An Illustrated Journal of Literature, Whims, and Oddities, vol. 1, no. 26, for Saturday, 2 October 1847, but the Baronet had no nephew of that name.

John Gibbes, describing himself as of St Paul, Covent Garden, esq., bachelor, married by licence (of the Vicar General dated 23 May 1814) at St Andrew, Holborn, 25 May 1814, Eliza Davies, of Holborn, spinster. Exactly the same entry appears in both the parish register and the bishop's transcript and the licence adds only that they they were both over 21. Their first child George Harvey Gibbs had been baptised at Kirk Ella, Yorkshire, as if he were legitimate, on 26 July 1810, and the next three children, Eliza, William Jack and Mary, were baptised at St George, Hanover Square, on 18 October 1819, as those of John Gibbes, of Lower Brook Street, Major in the Army, and his wife Elizabeth [Registers, Entries 293-695, Page 199] but the entries do not provide their dates of birth or ages. Mary had in fact already been baptised at Pontefract, Yorkshire, 21 January 1818.

I had noted that the baptism of a John Gibbs, son of John & Margaret Gibbs, born 30 March 1787, took place at St Ann, Soho, on 17 April 1787, and it looked likely that this was the man who later called himself John George Nathaniel Gibbes and was said to have been born on that date. No other children of the couple were baptised there and initial searches for the marriage of John & Margaret have not revealed a likely entry. [AJC, 21 March 2020]. I also noted that a George Gibbs married at Holborn in 1808 and had children Nathaniel and Jemima baptised at Holborn in 1812 and 1814 respectively, their father being a victualler in Christopher Street, Holborn, who died in 1816. These children were named in the will of Margaret Gibbs of Huntingdon, widow, who was buried at Huntingdon, aged 64, in 1819, as the children of her late son George Gibbs. Her will (dated 20 June 1818 and proved 4 March 1819) also mentions her daughter Mary (wife of James Lee, of Upwell, Cambridgeshire, who died in 1829), her son Thomas Gibbs, and her daughter Margaret wife of George Winkfield Mills, of Huntingdon, grocer [PCC PROB11/1614 folio 123]. The combination of forenames suggested a possible relationship to the John Gibbs who adopted the forenames George and Nathaniel but further research was required. [AJC, 25 March 2020].

However, I am now glad to say that a chance discovery by the theatre historian Terry Jenkins and published as, 'The true facts of Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes' in the Australian magazine Traces (Executive Media, December 2020, No 13), has revealed that Colonel Gibbes's mother was Mary Colman (born Mary Logan, in Ireland, in 1770, according to her contemporary William Oxberry, Dramatic Biography (1826) or, from her age at death, about 1764/5). She was the mistress from about 1795 and the second wife in June 1836 of the playwright and theatre manager, George Colman the Younger (born 1762; died 17 October 1836; ODNB). Mary Colman died at Brighton in the June Quarter of 1850, aged 85 [GRO Death Indexes, vol. 7, page 216], and in her will dated at Burlington Cottage, Brighton, 29 June 1848, and proved by her solicitor William Harry Surman (died 1870) in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 11 July 1850 [PROB11/2116 folio 504], she left her gold watch to her son Colonel Gibbes, her diamond snake ring to his wife Elizabeth Gibbes, and her best gold chain to her grandson George Harvey Gibbes, the remainder of her estate being left to a friend, Mary Ann Griesback. The grandson was, of course, the Colonel's eldest son, baptised at Kirk Ella in 1810, who remained in England (marrying at Gorleston, Suffolk, in 1831, and dying without issue at Ryde, Isle of Wight, in 1883) and who in 1874 was the administrator of the English estate of John George Nathaniel Gibbes as attorney for Augustus Onslow Manby Gibbes of Yarralumla, New South Wales. 

Mary or Maria had acted as Miss Logan at the Haymarket, 18 June 1784, but when acting from the Spring ot 1787 onwards always called herself Mrs Gibbs [Highfill, vol. 6, pages 175-8] a name she used when on 23 June 1802, as 'George Colman Esqr by Maria Gibbs', a child Edmund Craven Colman was born to them and baptised at St Marylebone, 10 July 1802. However, when Mary eventually married George Colman at St James, Clerkenwell, on 9 June 1836, she described herself as 'Mary Logan, spinster' [Registers, Entry 1519, Page 507]. The name of the father of her child born on 30 March 1785-7 thus remains something of a mystery, though he seems likely to have been a Mr Gibbs. [AJC, 31 January 2021; revised 5-7 April 2021].

Mary was a sister of the Duke of York's mistress Elizabeth or Eliza Cary or Carey [Royal Mistresses and Bastards (2007) 244-5] but the Duke died in January 1827. In 1832 she married at Walcot near Bath the theatre manager Henry Harris [Bath and Wells Marriage Bonds, 24 December 1832] though in 1827 the Duke of Wellington (the Duke of York's executor) thought that they had already been married for five years [Wellington (1952) 84-89]. At a dinner given by Mrs Carey at Fulham Lodge in January 1826 there were present George Colman the Younger, Henry Harris and (as 'Mrs G') Mary Colman and we know that Colonel Gibbs paid the rates on Fulham Lodge in 1827-8 [C.J. Ferret, Fulham Old and New (1900) i 126 and ii 176]. Henry Harris made his will at Brighton in 1839 and named his two daughters, Nannette and Charlotte but if they died without disposing of his rights (which William Harry Surman was to hold in trust) they were to go to George Harvey Gibbes then a clerk in the Commander in Chief's office [his will dated 16 February 1839 proved by William Harry Surman, PCC 13 November 1839, PROB11/1914 folio 692]. In 1841 the widowed Elizabeth Harris lived with her two daughters and her sister Mary Colman at Kings Road, Brighton [HO107/1122-7-26], and when she died early in 1848 she left Colonel Gibbes £500 and her nephew George Harvey Gibbes £1,000 as well as shares in the debts owed to her late husband Henry Harris [her will dated 22 January 1848 proved by William Harry Surman, PCC 8 February 1848, PROB11/2069 folio 122]. She was buried from 3 Rayner Place, Chelsea, in Vault No 22 at the Grand Circle Catacombs, South East Quarter, Brompton Cemetery, on 3 February 1848, aged 75 [Registers, No 2892]. [AJC, 29 April 2021].

Additional details about Mrs Carey have now been provided by Terry Jenkins in 'Mrs Carey (c.1773-1848); the other mistress of the Duke of York' in Genealogists' Magazine, vol. 33, No. 10 (June 2021) pages 354-360, who notes that the actor John Palmer (1744-1798) had associations with both Mrs Gibbs and Mrs Carey. In 1787 he had claimed to be Mrs Gibbs's godfather. [AJC, 10 June 2021]. The school that J.G.N. Gibbes attended  is to be identified with that run prior to 1806 by the Revd. John Geary at Deytheur in Montgomeryshire but no registers of the school survive [Terry Jenkins, 'The education of Colonel J.G.N. Gibbes, 1787-1873' in Descent, vol. 53, part 1 (March 2023), pages 19-20].

As mentioned above the marriage of Colonel John G.N. Gibbes apparently took place in 1814. but questions about his later bigamous marriage have remained, In 1996 the late Stephen Gibbes, who had been in touch with the various branches of the Gibbes family descending from the Colonel, wrote in The Ancestral Searcher, vol. 10, no. 2, page 72, that, "Colonel Gibbes was an unconvicted bigamist. According to his own account, he married 17-year-old Elizabeth Davis in London on an unspecified day in 1808 ... she was the daughter of an Anglican cleric, the Rev. Thomas Davis, who had done God's work in India. She was to remain Gibbes' legal spouse for 65 years. However, when aged 30 Gibbes had sailed for Quebec under mysterious circumstances, leaving Elizabeth and their four children behind in England. Gibbes was at this stage a brigade major languishing on half-pay. Documents held by London's Public Record Office and the College of Arms reveal that he wed 19-year-old Mary Ann Bell at Quebec's Anglican Cathedral on 22 May 1818, Among the witnesses was the bride's grand seigneurial father, Matthew Bell (1769-1849), who was one of Canada's wealthiest businessmen".

In Royal Mistressses and Bastards (2007) I took in good faith the statement about the sources seen by Stephen Gibbes (and apparently accepted by his family), though I had not been able to find any evidence of the Colonel's second marriage, or indeed evidence that Matthew Bell had a daughter called Mary Ann, there being a very detailed account of Bell himself in the Dictionary of  Canadian Biography, vol. 7 (1836-1850) published by the University of Toronto.

 However, with new indexes available on the genealogical databases of Ancestry and Findmypast, it is now apparent that Stephen Gibbes had seen a marriage certificate filed amongst the 'British Army Officers' Widows' Pension Forms 1755-1908' (in the National Archives reference WO 42/18/2) as part of "Officers' Birth Certificates, Wills & Personal Papers. British Officers & their families. G. 1-190", and that this had been accepted as authentic by the College of Arms. That certificate reads:

"John George Nathaniel Gibbes of the City of Quebec a Major in the Army on Half Pay of the Royal Regiment of Malta batchelor aged 46 years was married by licence and with the sonsent of her parents, to Mary Ann Bell of the same City daughter of Matthew Bell Esquire, Spinster aged nineteen years, this twenty second day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen by Jos Langley Mills, Chaplain to the Forces. Celebrating Parties: J.G.N. Gibbes, Mary Ann Bell. Present: Matthew Bell father, Susan Bell mother, Anne Bell, Marg Bell, sisters: Jane Stewart, Theresa Baby, John Hale, John Harvey, Frans Cockburn, Friends, [and on the back of the certificate is written] A true Copy from the Register of the Parish of Quebec   S.J. Mountain, Rector."

The original Garrison Register kept by Joseph Langley Mills  at Quebec, 1817-1825, is in the Archives Nationales du Quebec and available on the LDS site FamilySearch [reference Family History Library microfilm 2421572 items 4-7] but although the entries are in the same form as the above, there is no entry for 22 May 1818, The Pedigrees of Matthew Bell on Ancestry show that he had married Anne Mackenzie in 1799 and had daughters Margaret in 1802 and Anne in 1805, but do not mention a child called Mary Ann born between 1799 and 1802. No such child is mentioned in the extensive Drouin Collection of entries relating to Quebec. Joseph Langley Mills, named on the certificate, had been Chaplain to the Forces in Lower Canada and died 13 August 1832, aged 44. A further article by Terry Jenkins, 'Colonel Gibbes: bigamist or impostor?' in Traces magazine, Number 35 (December 2023), pages 13-15, which concludes that Gibbes was not a bigamist, suggests that the signature on the back of the certificate,  S.J. Mountain, was that of  Jacob Mountain (1749-1825), the first Anglican Bishop of Quebec from 1793 until his death. though if so, I doubt that he would have signed as 'Rector'.

This latter article and additional information provided by Terry Jenkins, show that the Military Register on 5 June 1816 reported that Major-General Sir John Byng would be taking 'Capt. Gibbs' as Major of Brigade to Newcastle-on-Tyne, and I have since noted that the Military Register for 9 December 1818, in a 'Panoramicc View of the Land Forces'(page 782)  showing the Staff in the various Districts, states that Major-General Sir John Byng was in command of the Northern Disrict and that those on his Staff at Head Quarters Pontefact included 'Captain Gibbes half-pay, Major of Brigade', 

Terry Jenkins has also noted that Gibbes, who had earlier appeared in the printed annual Army Llists merely as John Gibbes, disappeared from them in 1814, but re-appeared as John George Nathaniel Gibbes after 1819 when 'John Gibbes, Captain on the Staff in England' was gazetted to be Major [London Gazette, 12 August 1819, No 17505, page 1445]. Jenkins also shows that Gibbes had continued to be paid a salary throughout the missing years and that his child Mary had been baptised at Pontefact on 21 January 1818. However, I have noted that this child had been baptised a second time at St George Hanover Square, Middlesex, on 18 October 1819, along with Eliza and William Jack (sic), all children of John and Elizabeth Gibbes of Lower Brook Street, Major in the Army [Registers, Page 199. Entries 693-695] which may have indicated that John had not been present at Mary's first baptism at Pontefract the previous year; the dates of birth of the three children were not then given.

I have to agree with Terry Jenkins that Colonel Gibbes was probably not a bigamist but he was undoubtedly a quite disreputable man. He was sacked in 1859 but did not die until 5 December 1873. His son William John Gibbes conspired to defraud the Customs service and spent two years in prison and it now looks as though the false 1818 marriage entry was placed in the records of the Commander in Chief in London by his eldest son, George Harvey Gibbes, perhaps to obtain payments to the Colonel's widow, but she died on 29 July 1874. George Harvey Gibbs lived latterly at Ryde on the Isle of Wight and the person who signed the back of the 1818 copy marriage certificate may have been the Revd. Jacob Jehosaphat Salter Mountain (1824-1910), who in 1881 was living at St Catherine, Brading, also on the Island, and who described himself as born Canada, aged 56, 'Clergyman of Church of England without cure of souls' [RG11/1182-28-21]. He was the son of Salter Jehosaphat Mountain (1770-1830). [AJC, 2 January 2024].

Pages 228-30 Mother of John Molloy. In my book I had dismissed the possibility of John Molloy being the child baptised at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 8 October 1786 (son of William and Mary Molloy) because this William Molloy's connections were in a quite different social sphere from those of the ancestral John Molloy, William being a shoemaker in St Giles in the Fields and his friend, Thomas Loaring (named an executor in William's will in 1804, but not acting), also being a shoemaker. However, John is known to have been born on 5 September and if that was in 1786 then he may have purchased a commission with his inheritance when he came of age in 1807. William's personal estate was sworn 'under £2,000' which would certainly have been sufficient for such a purchase.

Proof that this is the correct entry, however, remains lacking. The widowed Mary Molloy, then of St Giles in the Fields and unable to sign her name, married by licence of the Faculty Office dated 19 November 1806 at St James Piccadilly, Westminster, 19 November 1806 [Registers, Entry 397, Page 168], one Merth Miler, of St James Piccadilly. Mary, wife of Merth Miler, of 16 High Street, Bloomsbury, shoemaker, and Thomas Loring [sic], together insured the property which they held in trust under the will of William Molloy (at 3 Tottenham Place, Tottenham Court Road, and 6 Little Earl Street, Seven Dials), with the Sun Fire Assurance Company, 24 February 1807 [Guildhall Library MS 11936/440/800420] and Merth Miler took out an insurance on 16 High Street, Bloomsbury with the same company on the same day [Guildhall Library MS 11936/440/800419]. Merth Miller [sic] is described as of 14 High Street, Bloomsbury, boot & shoe maker, in Pigot's London Directory for 1825. I have not noted his or his wife's date of death/burial or will/administration. It is possible that John Molloy later distanced himself from his step-father and that his statement in 1851 that he was born at Harrow (where he was at school) was made with that intention.

Page 242 Line 22, for 179S read 1795.

Page 242 re George Nowell William Clarke. The Baptismal Register of St Mary the Boltons, West Brompton, Middlesex, shows that Robert Noel [sic] Clarke, son of George Noel & Emma Georgina Clarke, of 12 Gloucester Road, Old Brompton, Officer in the Army, was born 18 August 1853 and baptised there 8 February 1854 [Registers, Page 35, Entry 278].

Pages 244-5 re Mrs Elizabeth Cary, see above (sub Agnes Gibbes) Page 224 re her sister Mary or Maria Gibbs.

Page 245 Line 52, for 'hater' read 'later'.

Page 246 Line 20, for 'first' read 'second'.

Page 246 Line 28, for 'second' read 'first'.

Page 263 Line 8, for '19S1' read '1951'.

Page 278 Prosper de Mestre. On 12 September 2008 Mrs Maree Amor, a Mestre descendant, posted an article 'From France to Martinique' on her http://demestrefamilyhistory.blogspot.com that includes important discoveries about Prosper (de) Mestre. It reveals for the first time that he was born 15 August 1789 and baptised Jean Charles Prosper, 'fils naturel', of Heleine Coterel, at St Louis, Lorient, 17 August 1789 [Archives de la Ville de Lorient], no father being named. He had claimed that he was born in 1793 but the earlier date agrees with the fact that he was 'of full age' (and thus born before June 1790) when naturalized in America on 5 June 1811. [Prince Edward was, of course, at Geneva from December 1787 to January 1790].

His mother Heleine Thomase Coterel was born 15 July 1768 and baptised 16 July 1768 at St Etienne, Rennes [Archives Municipales de Rennes]. It seems likely that she met Andre Charles Mestre whilst he was on leave in 1788 but if she married him before her daughter Melanie was born that marriage has not been found. Melanie Caroline Jeanne Mestre was born 15 November 1790 and baptised 16 November 1790 at St Louis, Lorient. The entry indicates that the parents married at Rennes in 1788, but Mrs Amor has found no entry at Rennes or at Lorient.

Mrs Amor (in a fascinating article about the situation in Martinique) states that Andre Charles Mestre went to Martinique with the 2nd Regiment d'Infanterie de Ligne in March 1791 under the new Governor-General, the Comte de Behague, a royalist, but that General Rochambeau, a republican, took over in February 1793 and promoted Andre Charles Mestre to be a Colonel of Artillery on 10 February 1793. He was killed on 14 March 1794 as Rochambeau's journal describes.

Page 285 - Elizabeth Kent and Constance Emilie Kent. Constance Emilie Kent is the subject of Noeline Kyle, A greater guilt: Constance Emilie Kent & the Road Murder, 1860 (Brisbane, Australia, 2009; ISBN 9781921555343).

Page 288 - Parentage of Queen Victoria. In view of my comments about A. N. Wilson's statements in 2002 (repeated by Gyles Brandreth in 2005), I am interested to see that in his more recent Victoria: a life (2014) pages 33-34, A. N. Wilson writes, 'The present book is written with the confidence that Victoria was indeed the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent and his wife Victoire' and 'It was even believed by some that he [Sir John Conroy] was the father of Queen Victoria. No evidence of this exists at all, and the more one examines the story, the less probable either supposition appears'.

Page 289 - Sir Brent Spencer (1769-1828) has been named as  the man about whom Princess Augusta  had in March 1812, described to the Prince Regent her 'twelve-year friendship and nine-year mutually declared attachment', Although 'a well set-up man, with a fine beak of a nose, side-whiskers, a short upper lip, and a prominent chin', he was later ridiculed by the Duke of Wellington as 'exceedingly puzzle-headed, but very formal' [Iremoner (1958) 136, quoting John Wilson Croker]. As well as  his long involvement with Eleanor Harriott Peneaud described below, he was credited by Thomas Frewen, of Brickwall House, Northiam, Sussex (1811-1870), a J.P. for Rutland and Leicestershire who was M.P. for South Leicestershire, 1835-6, and High Sheriff of Sussex in 1839, in notes about his family history made from 1838 onwards, with having two illegitimate children, a son and a daughter, by Jane, a  relative through his mother, and the wife of Captain James Hardy, R.N. [Frewen Archive at East Sussex Record Office, Brighton].

Jane Anna Hardy, born about 1778, was a daughter of  Bartholomew Reynolds, sometime master of the Military Academy at Norlands, Kensington, and his wife Katherine Clarke (she died 1796). She married by licence at St George, Hanover Square, 8 November 1798, Captain James Hardy, R.N., of St Luke, Chelsea, a brother of Admiral Oakes Hardy, and they had four sons, James, Oakes, Charles and William. Captain Hardy died 16 April 1812 and she made application to the Charity for the Relief of Officers' Widows [TNA ADM 6/349/13 folios 55-58]. Thomas Frewen noted that, beside these four sons, Mrs Hardy also had two natural children, a son and a daughter, by Sir Brent Spencer, as well as twins by Major Shaw and a fifth natural child by a Mr Felton, and that she died in considerable poverty in 1833. She actually died on 10 January 1834 and her administrators applied for the money owed to her by the Royal Navy, 1833-4 [TNA, ADM 45/3/695].She was buried at St George the Martyr, Southwark Surrey, 17 January 1834. the entry saying that she was from the King's Bench Prison, aged 50. 

Mrs Jane Hardy's husband, Captain James Hardy, had when at York Street, Knightsbridge, made a will on 24 July 1807. in which he had set apart £1,400, the interest from which was to provide for Jane whilst his widow, but on 12 March 1808, having moved to Lower Tooting, Surrey, he had made a Codicil to the will saying that on account of the gross misconduct of his wife who had for some time past lived separate and apart from him, by which he had suffered very seriously in property, health and peace of mind, he therefore revoked the bequest  of £1,400 and left her a legacy of £20, earnestly requesting his executors not to permit his children to be brought up by her or left in her care. In a second Codicil made at Lower Tooting on 6 January 1809 he said that his wife, whom he again stressed had for a considerable time past lived separate and apart from him, had lately been delivered of two bastard children, and he said that the residue of his estate was to be applied  solely for the use of James Hardy, Oakes Hardy, Charles Hardy and William Hardy, his only children; his wife was to be treated as if she were dead. His will and the two codicils were proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury by his brother John Oakes Hardy and two other executors on 6 May 1812 [TNA, PROB 11/1533 folios 224-5]. James Hardy was buried, aged 56, in the Chair or Quoir Vault at St Mary, Islington, on 23 April 1812 [Registers]. His brother Captain John Oakes Hardy, R.N., by will dated at Weybridge, Surrey, 6 August 1831, with two codicils dated 6 August 1831 and 23 November 1832, declared in the second codicil, that 'Mr Charles Hardy the only surviving son of my late brother Captain James Hardy deceased shall not be entitiled to any part or share of my estate' [TNA, PCC PROB11/1818].

Thomas Frewen noted in 1838 that of the two natural children by Sir Brent Spencer, Emma married Charles Shaw, who was then living with his mother in Chelsea. He noted that they had no  issue and that she died June 1840. The other child, Thomas Hardy, he noted, became a surgeon who sailed on the emigrant ship Sacramento to Sidney, 23 December 1852, when aged 39, and  died in Australia about 1858 [FRE 830].

The child Emma Hardy, born 9 October 1816, was baptised at St James, Westminster, 7 June 1820, as if she were the legitimate child, 'of Brent & Jane Hardy, Hammersmith, Gent.' {Registers, Entry 540, Page 28], but ho baptism has been found for her brother. The two bastard children named in the codicil dated 6 January 1809 may be  the 'James & Charles sons of James Hardy Esqr & Jane his wife', baptised at Buriton, Hampshire. on 12 March 1809, the remote Buriton being  near Petersfield on the road to Portsmouth. Emma Hardy, 'daughter of widow Hardy of Kensington' was bequeathed £500 by Sir Brent Spencer in a second Codicil dated 1 November 1827 to his will proved 16 April 1829, though he gave no reason for the bequest.

Emma Hardy, describing herself as aged 21, spinster, of 14 Egremont Place, New Road, daughter of James Hardy, gentleman, married by licence of the Faculty Office dated 12 October 1837 at St Mary, Islington, 14 October 1837, Charles Boyle Shaw. aged 31, bachelor, gentleman, of 7 Rufford's Row, son of Henry James Shaw, Major with Army [Registers, Page 56, Entry 111]. Emma Shaw died 15 June 1840, aged 23, and was buried from North End, Fulham, at Brompton Cemetery, 18 June 1840 [Registers]. Charles Boyle Shaw, describing himself as aged 35, an artist, lived with his mother, Mary Shaw, aged 64, at Portland Place, North End, Fulham, in 1841 [HO107/689-13-48v]. Charles Shaw, artist, widower, aged 36, was with his mother Mary Shaw, widow, aged 73, at 5 Park Field Cottages, Upper Richmond Road, Putney in 1851 [H0/107/1579-132-20], but in 1861 described himself as married, aged 48, artist, born Chelsea, and was visiting with Mary Shaw, unmarried, aged 53, independent, at 3 Scarsdale Terrace, Kensington [RG9/16-59-17]. In 1871 he was a widower, aged 59, artist in oil painting, lodging at 5 Park Place, Kensington [RG10/31-113-85], but his death has not been found. He was baptised at St Luke, Chelsea, sometime before 6 July 1806, as born on 2 June, the son of Harry James Shaw, Jane's elder brother, who 'besides his pay', as Thomas Frewen wrote to his solicitor in 1861, 'had £20,000, all of which he squandered & left his widow (my mother's 1st cousin) & children destitute' [FRE 3794].

Thomas Hardy was described as a surgeon by Thomas Frewen but has not been confirmed in that occupation. The emigrant ship Sacramento left London for Melbourne, Victoria, with 250 emigrants but was wrecked at the entrance to Port Philip, 26 April 1853, when all survived but their possessions were mostly lost, the wreck being reported in London late in August 1853. I see that a Thomas Hardy, aged 39, left Victoria, Australia, for London on the Anglesey in February 1857, and a  Thomas Powell Shaw Hardy, printer, married in London in May 1856 (as the son of Joseph Hardy, upholsterer, deceased) and died in St Marylebone in October 1859, aged 45, but Thomas Frewen believed that his relative Thomas Hardy had died in Australia about 1859, though in 1861 when discussing  Hardy's bank account with his solicitor, he still wondered if  'T. Hardy should turn up' [FRE 3794].

Brent Spencer (1806-1857), the illegitimate son of Sir Brent Spencer, mentioned at the bottom of page 289 of my book in 2007, was (like Emma) baptised as though he were a legitimate child ("son of Brent & Harriet Eleanor Spencer, of Berwick Street, St James's") at St Mary Abbots, Kensington, 9 August 1806 [Registers], though Sir Brent Spencer never married. After attending school at Richmond, Surrey, the boy matriculated 'only son of Brent Spencer, of Brompton, Middlesex, equitis, at Exeter College, Oxford, 5 May 1824, aged 17. When 21 he was admitted pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge, 10 June 1827, and matriulated as a student in the University of Cambridge, in the Lent, Easter and Michaelmas terms, 1827 [Oxford and Cambridge,Alumni], at all times as though a legitimate child.  He was a partner with Joseph Clark in the Three Spies public house, 11 Great Windmill Street, St James, Westminster, c.1829 [Evidence at Commission, 4 February 1845]. He was violent and had been attended by T. Johnson. a surgeon, for brain fever, from July 1830 to c.1832, and was then in an asylum [below mentioned Commission, 1844]. He paid Poor Rate at 6 Lincolns Inn, St Clement Danes, 1836 [Westminster Rate Books, 1836, folio 105]. He was imprisoned by his mother at 4 Princes Street, Chelsea, Middlesex, from about.1839; was there in 1841, aged 30, Ind, Yes, with Wilson Pelham, 15, Yes, and Harriet Pelham, 40, Ind, Yes [HO107/687-8-12r].

He was the subject of an 'Extraordinary and Horrible Case' reported at length in the Times , 20 May 1844 (page 8) and subsequent days. His father having been MP for Sligo the story also featured as 'Horrible Treatment of a Lunatic', in the Sligo Journal for 7 June 1844, page 3, the Roscommon  & Leitrim Gazette, for 8 June 1844, page 3, and many other newspapers. Its context is explored in Akihito Suzuki, Madness at Home: the psychiatrist, the patient, and the family in England 1820-1860 (University of California Press, 2006)pages 164-7.

The Times reported that on 20 May 1844, the Chairman of the Board of Guardians  for St Luke's, Chelsea, Mr John. Ryder, said at Queen Square police-office, that a newcomer to the parish, Charles Morris, had brought to his attention groans and cries  coming nightly from No 4 Princes Street. and it transpired that the Rector and others had heard the same  cries, as of a human chained to a wall or bed, for 11 or 12 years, but nobody had been seen near the window, the door of the house never being opened. Ryder was told that the house was occupied by a woman named Pelham, who had been a kept mistress 'of some noble lord' and had two children by him, for which she received an allowance. It was said that one of these children, a son, was of unsound mind, On 18 May the police made an entrance and found 'a most revolting scene', a man scantily clad in filthy rags lay on a rotting straw bed with vermin crawling over him. The police quickly brought a fashionably dressed woman, from 50 to 60 years of age, and a heavy-looking man about 30, and the poor creature, 'evidentlly a lunatic', was immediately taken by cab to Chelsea workhouse. The woman said that he was her son, and that he and his brother, Wilson Pelham, were the natural children of General Sir Brent Spencer. Police Inspector Forbes said that the woman claimed that her sons were the natural children of the late General and that she had some allowance for the one deranged. She said that everything was done for the boy that could be, but that he was very filthy and if anybody interfered with him he became violent and beat himself; he had got fat lately and was as happy as any man could be. However, a policeman said that he was exceedingly quiet and went happily in the cab. Asked by Mr Burrell (of the Queen Square Police Court) why the man had not been put in an asylum, Wilson Pelham said that two doctors had said that he was incurable. Wilson and Mrs Pelham were 'committed in default of finding heavy bail until Thursday' [Times, Monday, 20 May 1844, page 8c].

The Times reported on Friday, 24 May 1844 (page 7), that at the Police Court the solicitor to the Board of Guardians charged Harriet Eleanor Pelham, aged about 50, and Wilson Pelham her natural son, "that they, having the care of one Brent Spencer, a lunatic, did cruelly, unnecessarily, maliciously,and unlawfully keep, confine, and imprison him, and did keep him without sufficient and proper air and exercise necessary for his health". It was then said that Wilson Pelham was clearly acting under the control of his mother and entitled to discharge. James Cramp, a policeman, gave evidence on the entrance to the house on Saturday, when the stench from the unventilated room was dreadful. Another policeman said the mattress looked like fermented horse-dung, all sorts of vermin had crawled from it, but the lunatic was very mild and asked 'How are you?'. The passages and stairs were very filthy. Smith, chief usher to the Court, said he had been present. Daniel North of 1 Princes Street, also present, had been ill from the stench. There had been iron bars on the windows for more than ten years and a wire guard covered the fireplace, the door was defended with sheet iron and covered with green baize inside. The lunatic was crippled in his walk as he went to the cab, 'like a child learning to walk'. Charles Gooding, of 14 Wood Street, spoke of the shouting coming from the house for four years and on Tuesday, 14 May, there had been cries as from 'severe bodily pain'. Witnesses from the workhouse said Brent Spencer was "very clean in his ways' and a hairdresser had gone to the house once a month or fortnight until four years ago.. A surgeon said that there were no marks of violence on Spencer and that his bodily health was very good. The Magistrate said that he had received a letter stating that Brent Spencer had been left £6,000 and some valuable furniture by his father. On leaving, the two defendants were greated with discordant yells [Times, 24 May 1844, page 7]. 

The Times further reported on Saturday, 1 June 1844, that yesterday Mr Ryder had got someone to compel the attendance of Michael Cunningham to give evidence, Cunningham had, for a short period, seven or eight years ago, been employed as keeper for Brent  Spencer and said he would read and appreciate the works of eminent authors, and was communicative until his mother was present. Cunningham left shortly after. He learned that Spencer had £300 p.a., afterwards reduced to £240 p.a., for his maintenance. Mr Ryder said his general impression was that Wilson Pelham was not the son of General Sir Brent Spencer, who had died in 1828, but the son of a Doctor Pelham with whom Harriet had lived afterwards. The younger Brent Spencer had been affected for only the last 12 or 13 years, and had been in an asylum before 1836, but had been taken away by his mother "that she might receive the money for maintenance". Mr Burrell had a letter from Newcastle upon Tyne about the will of Sir Brent Spencer who had left £6,000 or £8,000 to his son [Times, Saturday, 1 June 1844].

The Times again reported on Friday, 7 June 1844, that the two defendants were examined yesterday. Mr Loveland had seen Sir Brent Spencer's will, proved on 16 April 1829, and £6,000 was to be paid to the son when he was 25, and the interest on £3,000 paid to Mrs Pelham for life, the capital then going to her son. Wilson Pelham was not considered legally responsible. There had been an order from the executor of the will on 24 July 1833 to pay Mrs Pelham £49 a quarter and another on 6 October 1840 to the same effect "for Brent Spencer and herself". William Cunninham said  that the boy addressed Mrs Pelham as "Mother Pelham, you rogue". and that she was sometimes mad from the effects of inebriation (she interjected to say 'not for many years'); it seemed that "she wished to keep him insane". Wilson Pelham said he received £25 a quarter from Edinburgh and had frequently said that he was not the son of Sir Brent Spencer, his father was a Mr Pelham. Mrs Pelham was required to enter into securities for her appearance at the Sessions and was bound to maintain her son in a very different way from before. She 'as before, was greeted with the most discordant yells from the assemblage in the street' [Times, Friday, 7 June 1844].

Several newspapers then reported that on Wednesday, 5 June 1844, a  Mr Deering, a gentleman who described himself as a magistrate for Buckinghamshire and claimed to have been an intimate freind of Sir Brent Spencer for seventeen years, had spoken on behalf of Mrs Pelham to Mr Bond the magistrate at Queen Square saying that 'the public should be aware of the affection that existed between mother and son and that the charges against her were 'a gross tissue of calumny and falsehood'. He said, 'The young man's habits and turn of mind had prevented his advancement for, although he was most gentlemanly in his manners, and so specious in his discource that one would fain believe him, he was carried away by every passing folly or vice, and was so strange in his behaviour  that he had been actually expelled the University of Cambridge for lying in bed 14 succesive days and nights'. Mr Bond regretted that he could not interfere in the matter [St James's Chronicle and Globe, 6 June 1844; Age (London), 8 June 1844, page 4, 'The Pelham Case'; Bell's Weekly Messenger, 9 June 1844].

The Tiimes then reported on 19 August 1844 that a formal Commission de Lunatico Inquirendo had opened on Saturday in the board-room of St Luke's workhouse, Arthur Street, Chelsea, before Mr Commissioner Barlow and fifteen special jurors (with Captain Bague, R.N., foreman), to inquire into the state of mind of Mr Brent Spencer, aged 37, son of the late General Sir Brent Spencer, described in the commission as of 4 Prince's Street, Marlborough Road, Chelsea, bachelor, but now an inmate of the workhouse of St Luke's, Chelsea. The unopposed commission was taken out at the instance of the parochial authorities of St Luke's, represented by a barrister; a solicitor watched the proceedings on behalf of Mrs Pelham. The court was much crowded. Mrs Pelham came and sat by the Commissioner and she was followed shortly after by Wilson Pelham her other son. The object was solely to ascertain whether Mr Spencer was of unsound mind and if so, to take the necessary control over his property. The evidence was reported in the Times. The barrister said that Brent's disease commenced with some eccentricities of the mind in 1828, when some disappointment in love had caused him to take to drinking, which produced brain fever, and ultimately unsoundness of mind. He might be restored by proper treatment, but until then it was necessary that his property should br protected. Further statements were made, Mrs Pelham interrupting and being reprimanded.The clerk to Coutts' Bank said £196 a year had formerly been paid by order of Lady Garvagh the executrix of Lord Garvagh the brother of the late Sir Brent Spencer [he was in fact his nephew]. Mrs Pelham's receipts stated that the money received was on behalf of herself and her son, but now £96 wa taken off. Mr T. Johnson, a surgeon, attended Brent Spencer in July 1830 for a brain fever when he was sent to an asylum as being of unsound mind. The jury expressed a wish to see the unfortunate  gentleman and left the room for that purpose but his remarks to them were generally incomprehensible. George Ledbitter who had known him in 1824-30 said he had been a gay young man, but after August 1839 appeared much altered. Wilson Pelham, his brother, said he himself was 22 and had lived in Princes street for 11 years but had not attended on Brent Spencer for four or five years, during which Brent had not been out of his room. Brent had not been seen by a doctor for 7 years, the last being Sir George Tuthill. He was kept in his room becasue he was violent and in an unsound state of mind, and had been in that state for about 14 years, Wilson Pelham said that Sir Brent Spencer had always treated him as his son, but had not left him any money. Mr Johnson was there 13 years ago, when Brent Spencer was then out of his mind. Two or three times he atempted to throw Mrs Pelham out of the window. and also in 1835 to throw himself out. Mary Chalford said she had known Brent Spencer for 17 years and had seen him this day. She used to live servant with General Sir Brent Spencer and the young gentleman used to live at home with him; his father was very kind to him. The jury expressed itself satisfied and came to the unanimous conclusion that Brent Spencer was of unsound mind and had been so from 3 July 1840, a date corrected in the Times for 21 August 1844, page 4, to 3 July 1830.

A respectable elderly woman here came forward and said that Mrs Pelham had kidnapped her child, declaring that the younger son (Wilson Pelham) had been taken by Mrs Pelham about 22 years ago; the woman went then to Queen Square to make a formal complaint to the magistrate, Mr Burrell, and this was reported in the Times on Tuesday 19 August 1844 (page 6). Her name was Elizabeth Bird and she said that between 21 and 22 years ago she was delivered of a male child at 9 John Street, Marlborough Road, Chelsea, but when the boy was about a month old a very handsomely dressed lady had visited her, admired the child, and later said that she would adopt it and that it would become the heir to a large property if the mother would come and live with her in her service. This was eventually agreed and the lady took the child saying that she would return the next day to conclude the arrangement, but was never seen again. She had now recognised Mrs Pelham as the lady who had taken her child. She said that Mrs Pelham had a youth with her of about 21 or 22 years of age, but could not say whether that young man was her son. A police constable observed that there was a great likeness between  her and Wilson Pelham, but Burrell said it was a long period of time to speak to a person's identity, saying that she still retained the traces of great beaty, but asked what her motive might be. Mr Edwards, the chief clerk, said that Mrs Pelham had an allowance of £100 p.a. from a gentleman in Edinburgh. The magistrate said he considered the theft of the child a felony but that he would take time to consider the matter.

The Times then reported on Tuesday, 20 August 1844, page 6,  that yesterday Mrs Pelham, with Mr Head from the office of Mr Steel, solicitor, had waited on the magistrate in Queen Square to deny the statement made last Saturday when a woman named Bird had said that about 21 or 22 years ago her child had been taken from her by Mrs Pelham whom she had now recognised at the workhouse, but Mrs Pelham now stated that Wilson was 23 years old and her own child, which she could prove. He had no money coming to him, though some money had been left to her (Mrs Pelham) by her mother 31 years ago at Cannongate, Edinburgh, and she produced a letter from the North British Railway Company about the matter. All then withdrew.

On 14 December 1844 the Times reported (page 4) that in the Court of Chancery the previous day, Mr. K. Parker, on behalf of Lady Garvagh, obtained an order to pay over to the committee of the lunatic Brent Spencer a sum of £3,000, to which he was entitled under the will of the late Sir Brent Spencer, to whose will Lord Garvagh was executor

Finally, on Wednesday, 5 February 1845, the Times reported on page 7, that at the Bail Court on Tuesday, 4 February 1845, when Mrs Pelham was indicted  by the parish officers of Chelsea for "being an evil-disposed person. and intending to injure Brent Pelham, her illegitmate son, did in the month of May last confine the said Brent Spencer in a dark room and neglected to give him meat, drink, sustenance. and other necessaries", but the jury returned a verdict of Guilty only upon the second and third counts which charged the defendant with "an omission to provide necessaries for the lunatic". Evidence had shown that Brent was in good health when admitted to the workhouse. He had resided with his mother, 'a very eccentric person', for eleven years and described her as 'a nice woman'. After being in the workhouse he had later been placed at a private asylum for which £1 per week was paid and his hair was allowed to remain uncut. Joseph Clark, a witness who had known him 17 years ago said that he was then of sane mind and was a partner with him in keeeping a public house, the Three Spies in Windmill Street but was then in the habbit of getting tipsy, and sometimes engaged in pugilistic encounters and associated with fighting men, such as Swift and Dutch Sam, he later lodged in Queen Street and was taken away from Queen Street by his mother..Another witness who had attended him in 1836 said that he was continually complaining of his mother's cruelty in keeping him confined. He had received £49 quarterly from Coutts's Bank since 1833 by the direction of Lord and Lady Garvagh. However, the defending solicitor said the case was much exaggerated; the surgeon had said Brent was in good condition and had evidently been properly fed. Provisions had generally been lowered into his area by a string. The case was still undecided on 17 April 1846 [The Evening Chronicle, 17 April 1846, page 4] and no further report of the outcome has been found.

Brent Spencer, gentleman, died at Heene, Sussex, 22 August 1857, aged 51, from disease of brain, 16 years and paralysis, 1 year [GRO Death Certificate, No. 460, registered 25 August 1857 by Cyrus Alexander Elliott, present at the death, the uncertified surgeon, proprietor of the asylum at Fulham], but is said to have taken place at Worthing, Sussex, 20 August 1857 [PPR Calendar]. Administration of his estate as late of Munster House, Fulham, Middlesex (a privately funded home for lunatics), was granted 16 July 1858, to the Treasury Solicitor. Under £4,000 (re-sworn January 1860 under £7,000).Brent Spencer was buried at Heene, West Sussex, 25 August 1857, aged 51, by J.W. Warters, Vicar [Registers, Entry 101, Page 13]. The death of a baby aged O, named Brent Spencer, was coincidentally registered that quarter at Liverpool (September Quarter 1857, 8b 27) and was the son of Joseph and Jane Spencer, of Slade Street, joiner, born 30 March 1857 and baptised at Berington St Alban, Liverpool, 17 Jul 1857 [Registers, Entry 496, Page 62].

The financial arrangements made by Sir Brent Spencer in his will (dated 19 May 1827) and its codicil (dated 1 November 1827), in which she is named as 'Mrs Eleanor Harriott Peneaud' (and in the Inland Revenue details as 'E.H. Peneard'), suggest a continuing relationship of trust between Sir Brent Spencer and Harriet Pelham, the mother of his son. A servant, Mary Chalford, said in August 1844 that she had known the boy for 17 years (i.e. since 1827) when he lived at home at Lee in Buckinghamshire with his father who, she said, was 'very kind to him'. However, Sir Brent Spencer apparently also had the two other illegitimate children described above, born about 1816. Princess Augusta  undoubtedly had a crush on him but there is no evidence that he wished to marry her, and her brother the Prince Regent would probably have known that.

Harriet Pelham had been born 27 September 1786 and baptised Harriot Eleanor Pinaud (daughter of John and Eleanor Pinaud) at St James Westminster, 30 September 1786 [Registers]. As Harriet Pelham, independent, aged 40, she was at 4 Princes Street, Chelsea, in 1841, in the household of Brent Spencer, aged 30, and Wilson Pelham, aged 15 [HO107/687-8-12r], At the time of the 1851 census she was, as H.E. Pelham, at 31 Park Walk, Chelsea, 'proprietor of houses', aged 63, and born Chelsea, with her son W. Pelham, unmarried, aged 39, born Chelsea, 'agent to a publisher' [HO107/1473-58-9].Her son Wilson who resided with her said at her death that she was of independent means and 'not a married woman but formerly lived with General Brent Spencer'. She was accidentally burned 'all over her body' at her home, 14 Little Cameron Street, Chelsea, Tuesday morning, 13 January 1857, and died about 1 o'clock at St George's Hospital, on Wednesday morning, 14 January 1857, aged 70 [Inquest 14 January 1857, reported in Morning Chronicle, 15 January 1857, page 3, 'Horrible death by fire', and Reyhold's Newspaper, Sunday, 18 January 1857, page 16; Post Mortem examination, 14 January 1857]. Her death as Harriet Eleanor Pelham was registered, March Quarter 1857, aged 70, at St George Hanover Square, 1a 153, and she was buried in Brompton Cemetery, 20 January 1857, Common Grave, 10 feet, F 104, No 14919,

Harriet Pelham's son Wilson Pelham, aged 38, railway porter,with others  lodged in 1861 with Henry Bloodworth, gentleman, aged 70, at 4 Belmont Place, Lambeth [RG9/357-173-8]. Wilson Pelham, a bachelor, a servant of the South Western Railway Company, died intestate, aged 42, at 8 Hayward Street, Nine Elms, Surrey, 17 May 1864. Administration of his effects (Under £450) as Wilson Pelham alias Peneaud was granted at the Principal Registry, 31 December 1864, to Adam Rivers Steele, of 44 Bloomsbury Square, Middlesex, attorney-at-law & solicitor, a creditor of the deceased [SC 70/6/3, SC 70/1/124]. Wilson Pelham was buried at St George the Martyr, Battersea, Surrey, 21 May 1864, as of Hayward Street, Nine Elms, aged 42 [Registers Entry 622, Page 78].

Page 298.  1793-6. Miss Knissel. I am indebted to Michael Kassler for drawing my attention to his forthcoming article 'The singer and the future king: Henriette Kneisel and Ernest Augustus' in The Musical Times (Winter 2014, pages 71-78), which identifies 'Miss Knissel', named by Mrs Papendiek as the mother of Prince Ernest's child 'Mr Cumberland', with Henriette Kneisel (1767-1801), a singer from Hanover who was in England in 1789-90.

She was Rosine Eleonore Elisabeth 'Henriette' Kneisel, born at Stettin, 1767. She was an actress and singer in Berlin from 1782; moved to Hanover in 1787 and last appeared there in June 1789. She came to England as the mistress of the musician Johann Jakob Hommert (1756-1825) in late October 1789 and sang in London for the first and only known time on 4 February 1790. The couple were here in October 1790 but had returned to Hanover by 12 November 1790. That she was obliged to leave Hanover because of her relationship with an unnamed 'high person' to the concern of his overseer was recalled in August 1795. She moved to Frankfort by May 1792 and from there to Berlin in 1793. She married in 1794, Francesco Maria Righini, composer and music teacher, who was born at Bologna, 22 January 1756 and died there 19 August 1812. They had three children. Unwell, she returned to England in late 1800 but was only there for six weeks, returning to Berlin and dying there, 25 January 1801. None of the correspondence and other material seen by Michael Kassler, on whom this account is based, mentions a child.

The identification, however, reveals problems with the unreliable Papendiek's story. She places Kneisel's visit to her at Windsor in 1791 [Journal, ii, 140] and says [page 258-9] that Kneisel came to England on the same boat as Frederica Mackenthum following the dismissal of Mrs Burney [in July 1791]. Papendiek's account was, of course, written fifty years after the events and in the light of later developments. She says that Kneisel was then the mistress of Mr Hassler, perhaps thinking of the composer Johann Wilhelm Hassler who came to England in October 1790 just as Kneisel and Hommert were leaving. Michael Kassler describes her then as a 'mother' [page 76] but that is a misleading assumption as it is not clear from Papendiek whether she had the boy before or after the visit. Michael Kassler [page 75] concludes that the child, 'Mr Cumberland', as he was called by Papendiek, was born sometime late in 1790. Michael Kassler thinks also that the boy cannot be identified with the child later called George FitzErnest (as I had suggested in 2007) as the latter was described as aged 20 at matriculation in 1814 and as aged 33 at death in 1828 (but as aged 35 at burial if the entry I noted relates to him). He concludes that Prince Ernest had two illegitimate sons.

If that is correct, the boy, described merely as 'Mr Cumberland' by Papendiek and so described in the Westminster School lists for 1803, disappears then from history whilst George FitzErnest appears in history at Oxford in 1810. Papendiek ascribes to Mr Cumberland a 'diseased back' following a fall from his father's phaeton, an accident which Mrs Jordan, with greater personal knowledge, ascribed to the boy George FitzErnest. Michael Kassler thinks Papendiek has taken the incident from her later memory of George FitzErnest (who wore a steel helmet and was a patient of the orthopaedist Robert Chessher) and applied it to Mr Cumberland. George FitzErnest's matriculation entry describes him as the son of Prince Ernest by Mrs Jordan and, although Mrs Jordan certainly took an interest in the boy, he was certainly not her son. His stated age in the matriculation register may be equally unreliable. Given ages at death and burial are, of course, notoriously suspect.

I have recently noted that an entry in the Royal Cornwall Gazette for Saturday, 25 August 1810, page 4, says, 'Mr Fitzernest, son of the Duke of Cumberland, has made his debut in high life, and was among the late visitors at the Prince's pavilion', which may indicate that he was then 21. The Morning Chronicle for Thursday, 16 August 1810, page 2, includes under 'Anniversary of the Prince of Wales's Birth-Day at Brighton ... Mr Fitzherbert, the son of the Duke of Cumberland, was at the review on Monday. He wore the helmet instrument, the admirable invention of Mr Chesher, of Hinckley, under whose able care Mr Fitzernest has so improved in strength and form'.

In 2017 Lamberdina Beaulieu drew to my attention in the online catalogue of the Niedersachsischen Staatsarchivs for Hannover an entry for the Duke's will, dated 28 April 1815, made in favour of his illegitimate son George Fitzernest, with a request from the child's foster mother [NLA HA Dep. 103 III Nr. 10]. The entry gives the boy's date of birth as 1795, but the file is closed and there is no further detail. April 1815 was just a month before the Duke's marriage. Geoffrey Malden Willis in Ernst August, Konig von Hannover (1961) says that the child, later known in England as George FitzErnest, was born to a 'Demoiselle Keidel' or Keitel in 1795, and that his disability was caused by a fall from his horse at the age of five. It seems perhaps likely that the attribution of the child to Ms Knissel in England arose merely from a similarity of surname.

An article by Jurgen Huck published in 2005 tentatively suggests that this Ms Keidel was a sister of Karl Heinrich Keitel (1779-1833) who later managed the Crown domains at Ottenstein, Poppenburg and Wittenburg and was a grandson of Karl Heinrich Keitel (1779-1833), farmer at Ottenstein [Jurgen Huck, 'Das ehepaar Georg und Adolphine Bock von Wolfingen und sein Lebenskreis', in Hannoversche Geschichtsblatter, New Series, vol. 59 (2005) 135-165]. The family is the subject of (the unseen) Hans-Joachim Keitel, Geschichte der Familie Keitel (1997).

Page 300. Joseph Sellis, Bachelor, and Mary Mayland, Spinster, married by Licence of the Vicar General dated 4 May 1798 [not seen] at St George Hanover Square, 8 May 1798 [Harleian Society, Register Section, vol. 14 (1888) 181].

After Joseph's death Mary Ann appears to have remarried at St Mary Islington, 7 December 1812, describing herself as Mary Ann Sellis, spinster [sic], of that parish, to James Draper, also of that parish, bachelor, the witnesses being A. Mayland and Stephen Cliff [Registers, No entry or Page number].

Their daughter Charlotte, born in 1805, married by Banns at St Peter, Liverpool,  4 May 1829, one John Foden, gardener (with witnesses Samuel Griffiths and Humphrey Embleton) [Registers, Entry 56, Page 19]. The couple seem to have moved to Runcorn, Cheshire, and in 1841 James Draper, 70, accountant, not born in Cheshire, was at Queen Street, Runcorn, with John Foden, aged 40, postman, born in Cheshire, his wife Charlotte, aged 35, milk seller, not born in Cheshire, and their five children [HO107/95-18-9]. Charlotte has not been found in 1851 but may have been alive (with a daughter Sarah, aged 13, cotton winder, born at Chorlton) in 1861 lodging at 18 Blossom Street, Hulme, a widow, aged 56, invalid, blind from age, born Middlesex, London [RG9/886-38-21].

It now seems clear that Charlotte's son Joseph Sellis (1831-1903) who married Esther Elizabeth Parton (1829-1897) in 1853, was the father of Lucy Ellen Foden (born 1854) who married William Sewell (born 1855) in 1877, who were the parents of Florence Sewell (1895-1986) who owned Sellis's key and passport. 

Charlotte's brother Ernest Augustus Sellis, said to have been baptised at St James's Palace Chapel, Westminster, 7 February 1810, and a godson of Princess Augusta and the Duke of Cumberland [Wardroper (2002) 50] is equated in many pedigrees on Ancestry.com with the Ernesta Sellis, of Great Cross Hall Street, Spinster, aged 16 years, who was buried at St John, Liverpool, on 5 February 1826 [Registers, Page 10, Entry 80; BTs No 79] but confirmation seems lacking. However, Dena Beaulieu has kindly drawn to my attention a passage in the Secret History of the Court of England attributed to Olive Serres (1832) pages 180-181 (also in the edition published c.1883 pages 77-78) in which Olive says that a gentleman who knew Mrs Sellis had told her that Mrs Sellis only had one child and she was the god-daughter of Princess Augusta, and that Mrs Sellis and her mother had been pensioned and 'both privately sent out of the country, (it is believed to Germany) but, with all our efforts, we have not been able to ascertain where they now reside'. In spite of the unreliability of Olive Serres it seems perhaps likely that John Wardroper, or someone working on his behalf, misread the entry and that the child was a girl and not a boy

Another child Joseph Sellis (son of Joseph & Mary Sellis) had been born 9 February 1807 and baptised 19 March 1807 at St James, Westminster [Registers, No Entry/Page Number].

Page 300. Mrs Charlotte Nugent and Georgina Bankes. As noted in Royal Mistresses and Bastards (2007) pages 174 and 300, Charlotte Johnstone, nee Dee, who married secondly in 1799, Admiral Charles Edmund Nugent (1758-1844), was an old friend of several members of the Royal Family including the Prince of Wales and Ernest, Duke of Cumberland. A caricature published in 1812 showed the Duke being hugged by her whilst her husband reached for his sword, and another undated caricature showed him hand-in-hand with 'Mrs. N.' [Wardroper (2002) 45]. On 23 September 1799 Fanny Nelson had written to her husband Horatio Nelson in the Mediterranean, 'I hear Admiral and Mrs Nugent have separated, a difference of temper she says is the cause ... Mrs Nugent had a daughter not long ago which I heard had given much happiness to the Admiral. These affairs make little noise for a day' [quoted in Ruth Hayward, Phippy: a biography of Jonathan Wathen Phipps/Waller eye surgeon to King George III (2014) 143]. The couple, however, did not separate though rumours about her friendship with the Duke and the paternity of her child long continued. The child, Georgina Charlotte Nugent, born on 17 January 1799 and baptised at St Marylebone, Middlesex, on 2 June 1799, was the only child of the marriage which had taken place in 1790. She married firstly George Bankes (died 1856), of Studland, Dorset, by whom she had numerous issue [Burke's Landed Gentry (1965) sub Bankes of Kingston Lacy and Corfe Castle], and secondly in 1863 Sir Edward Manningham Buller, 1st Bart (died 1882) [Burke's Peerage (2003) sub Dilhorne]. Georgina died on 7 December 1875. In 1828 the scurrilous Thomas Little writing about the hated Duke asked 'Has the likeness of Mrs George Bankes, M.P., Admiral Nugent's daughter, to his royal highness, been, no longer remembered, notwithstanding Harriette Wilson's Memoirs?' [Holly-grove, Part 1 (1828) page 67] and on Sunday, 5 May 1839, Queen Victoria wrote in her journal, 'Talked of the young Lady Le de Spencer; of Mrs George Bankes, who Lord M[elbourne] said was very pretty as Miss Nugent; he said she was very like the Royal Family; "The King of Hanover's daughter", Lord M said to me; "I believe so'" [Lord Esher's typescript in Royal Archives, quoted in Hayward (2014) 143]. Evidence of a relationship, widely believed in the family [and recounted in Viola Bankes, A Dorset heritage, the story of Kingston Lacy (1953)], is discussed in an Appendix, 'Flashback: the Duke's secret love affair, 1794-1813', to Hayward (2014) 164-173. Charlotte's close and long-term friendship with the Duke is well documented but there is no direct evidence that he was Georgina's father. Admiral Nugent was himself illegitimate and so the family had plenty to be reticent about [ODNB; CP, ix (1936) 793 note g]. I am indebted to Lamberdina Beaulieu, S. J. Parkes and David Dee for their helpful communications on this matter.

Page 300. Charlotte Wyke (died 1828). I am indebted to Lamberdina Beaulieu for drawing my attention to a statement by Ian Graham in Alfred Maudslay and the Maya: a biography (University of Oklahoma Press, 20002) page 263, that the diplomatist Sir Charles Lennox Wyke (1815-1897) was 'ostensibly the son of a certain Captain George Wyke, of Rubbleston, Pembrokeshire, but widely regarded as being the son of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland ... Wyke's father was tutor to Edward Augustus's legitimate son and heir [born in 1819] and young Wyke was educated as his fellow pupil'. Sir Charles was, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, the son of George Wyke, of Robbleston [sic], Pembrokeshire, captain in the grenadier guards, by his wife Charlotte, daughter of F. Meyrick, and born 2 September 1815. The place is presumably the one now known as Robeston Wathen. According to the 1851 Census Return of 10 Bryanston Street, St Marylebone [HO107/1489-329-39] and the 1891 Census Return of 23 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea [RG12/64], Sir Charles was born at Bath, Somerset.

The Army Lists show George Wyke as Lieutenant, 16 November 1794; Captain, 9 August 1799; on half-pay, 1815, and there is an account of his ancestry (ending with 'George Wyke, Captain in the Guards') in V. L. Oliver's History of Antigua, iii, 265. He married Charlotte Meyrick at Caversham, Oxfordshire, 17 November 1801, by licence of the Faculty Office dated 9 November 1801. The baptisms of the following children have been found: Ann Louisa Byam Wyke, baptised at Walcot, Somerset, 22 September 1802; Charlotte Frances Wyke, born 1 February 1804 and baptised 25 August 1804 at St Swithin, Walcot; George Wyke, baptised at Winsley, Wiltshire, 5 September 1805; Francis John Blair Wyke, born 5 September 1806 and baptised 25 April 1807 at St Swithin, Walcot. The baptism of Sir Charles has not as yet been found. A child Hester Ann Wyke, probably his sister, aged 3 years 10 months, was buried from Stanhope Street, Walcot, at Walcot on 9 January 1813, and an Ann Wyke, aged 66 years and 8 months, was buried there from the same address, 9 January 1813.

George Wyke's wife Charlotte was buried at Boulogne, France (as wife of George Wyke, Esq., of Antigua), 22 November 1828, aged 40 [RG33 old folio 82, new folio 43], and he was buried at All Souls, Kensal Green, 9 March 1846, as of 4 Bryanstone Street, St Marylebone, aged 74 [Registers, Entry 9806, Page 90], having died 'in London', 5 March 1846 [Freeman's Journal, 12 March 1846, page 4].

The Duke of Cumberland intended to pass much of the winter of 1814-15 at Stilliards the seat of the Duke of Mecklenburg in Germany [Cambridge Chronicle, 23 December 1814, page 1] but was at the Brighton Pavilion, 15 December 1814 [Cheltenham Chronicle, that day, page 2]. 

Page 308. 1819, Elizabeth Bond. For unknown reasons John James Bond (1819-1883) [ODNB], a Keeper at the Public Record Office, believed himself to be the son of Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex. He was considered delusional by his colleagues [John D. Cantwell, The Public Record Office 1838-1958 (HMSO, 1991) page 287 etc.]. He was born 9 December 1819 and baptised at Great Chart, Kent, 1 March 1820, the son of William Andrew Bond (who was baptised at Ashford, Kent, 8 April 1783, and was buried at St Mary Abbots, Kensington, 30 January 1822, aged 38) and his wife Elizabeth Downer who had married by licence at Ashford, Kent, 19 August 1805. Bond's sister Mary Ann (or Marian) Fairman Bond, who was baptised at Kingsnorth, Kent, 21 November 1811, married at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, 28 December 1833 Henry (later Sir Henry) Cole, Assistant Keeper of the Public Records and one of the Executive Committee of the 1851 Exhibition [ODNB]. John James Bond died unmarried at 96 Philbeach Gardens, Earl's Court, 9 December 1883, when administration of his personal estate of £497-8-2 was granted to his sister, 15 January 1884. His mother Elizabeth was alive, living with the Coles, in Kensington in 1851, aged 69 [HO107/1468-187-25].

Page 322-4 - Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The paternity of Prince Albert is further discussed in Richard Sotnick, The Coburg conspiracy: royal plots and maneouvres [sic] (no place: Ephesus Publishing, 2008) but the chronology of Princess Louise's admirers therein seems unreliable and the author is apparently unaware of Hector Bolitho's essay 'The Prince Consort's mother' in his A biographer's notebook (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1950). Sotnick [page 176], for instance, says that Prince Ernst (Albert's father) complained in an (unquoted) letter to his brother Ferdinand about a 'liaison' between zu Solms and Louise (Albert's mother) in 1819, but it seems clear from Bolitho [page 115] that their flirtation did not take place until the midsummer of 1820 and had been forgotten by the time of her idyllic second wedding anniversary on 31 July 1820 [Bolitho, page 116] the circumstances of which are not mentioned by Sotnick. Although not important in this context, Princess Louise's description of von Munchausen's devotion to her is dated to March 1820 by Bolitho [page 117, seemingly a mistake for 1821]; Sotnick dates it to 1822 [page 134].

 

The main claim of Sotnick's book (apart from the suggestion that Prince Leopold may have been Prince Albert's father), however, is that Prince Albert was the son of one Friedrich Blum who appears as lacquais to Dowager Duchess Augusta at Schloss Ehrenburg in the annually printed Staats Kalender for 1818 and 1819 [Sotnick, page 177]. It is admitted that Friedrich Blum would not have been Jewish and the only evidence for the claim is a family tradition of descent from him amongst the descendants of one Jacob Blum, a Jewish boot maker, who was born about 1856 and migrated from Tukums, Latvia, to Mile End Old Town, about 1897-8. Family members believe that Friedrich had an affair with a princess whilst at Coburg and that a child Albrecht was born and accepted as a prince of the family [Sotnick, page 178], this belief being set out in an affidavit sworn by a descendant, Lawrence Bloom, in 2004. The affidavit is not quoted in full and the story lacks all credibility. Jacob Blum's son, Nathan, who was living in 1930, is said to have had a striking likeness to Prince Albert, but his published photograph [Sotnick, between pages 136 and 137] shows, to my mind, no resemblance whatever.

 

Pages 332-3. Sarah ('Louisa') Fairbrother, Mrs FitzGeorge. Since the publication of the book two important discoveries have been made about Sarah ('Louisa') Fairbrother, known as Mrs FitzGeorge. Her baptism has at last been found and the father of her second child, Louisa Catherine, has been identified.

I am indebted to Mrs FitzGeorge's descendant Miss Diana FitzGeorge-Balfour for bringing to my attention a possible baptism for Sarah Fairbrother at St George, Hanover Square, in 1817, and further searches there have revealed the baptism of her sister Elizabeth Georgiana Fairbrother in 1813, proving that it is the correct entry. The entries in the Bishops Transcripts of the Parish Registers are as follows:

[No 681, Page 86] 1817 October 8 / Sarah / (daughter of) John & Mary Tucker / Fairbrother / James St. / Servant / (baptised by) J. Greville.

[No 537, no Page Number] 1813 [day and month not given] Elizth Georgiana / (daughter of) John & Mary / Fairbrother / Serv / James St / (baptised by) J. Greville.

It is now clear that the sisters were not twins as suggested in Williamson (1996) 153. The forename Tucker only appears in the name of the mother, Mary, at the one baptism and then when she died in 1847, but the details all fit well with the others published in my book.

It was long believed that Mrs FitzGeorge was a daughter of Robert Fairbrother (c.1768/9-1741) and in view of the interest in his family I have added a page to this website that sets out such details as I have of him and his children. I have added another page summarising the details of her life as we now know them.

Page 335 - Louisa Catherine FitzGeorge and Francis Fisher Hamilton. I am indebted to Mr Colin Burleigh the "3 times great nephew" of Francis Fisher Hamilton for bringing to my attention the latter's post-marriage settlement which he found in 1996 when looking for Hamilton entries in the Registry of Deeds in Henrietta Street, Dublin. This provides the name of Louisa Catherine's father.

The document, dated 1 August 1859 and registered 25 August 1859, is described as "an Indenture of Mortgage ... made between Thomas Bernard of Castle Bernard in the King's County Esquire Leiutenant Colonel in the King's County Militia of the first part, Francis Fisher Hamilton a Captain in her Majesty's 4th Regt of Foot and Louisa Katherine Bernard Hamilton his wife of the second part, and His Royal Highness George William Frederick Charles Duke of Cambridge and Richard Wellesley Bernard of Castle Bernard aforesaid Esquire trustees for the purposes thereinafter mentioned of the third part". It recites that prior to the marriage Thomas Bernard had agreed to provide a sum of  £1,000, secured by mortgage on his estates in King's County, the interest at 5% being for the use of Louisa Catherine Bernard Hamilton and her issue,  the mortgagees being the Duke of Cambridge and Thomas Bernard's brother Richard Wellesley Bernard.

Thomas Bernard was the eldest son of Colonel Thomas Bernard, M.P., of Castle Bernard, King's County, Ireland (died 18 May 1834), by his second wife Catherine Henrietta Hely-Hutchinson (died 1844), sister of John, 3rd Earl of Donoughmore [BLG sub Bernard of Bernard Castle]. He was born September 1816; educ. Winchester; Cornet, 12th Lancers, 24 April 1835; Lieutenant, 26 April 1839; Captain, 26 April 1844; Half Pay, 3 September 1847; Lieutenant Colonel, King's County Militia; J.P. and D.L. for King's County; High Sheriff, 1837; Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of King's County; of Carlton Club (1860) and Castle Bernard, Kinnitty, King's County [Walford's County Families, 1860, 1882]; he died unmarried December 1882. Although educated at Winchester he does not appear amongst the 'Scholars' in T.F. Kirby, Winchester Scholars (London, 1888). There is no will or administration for him at the Principal Probate Registry, London, 1882-4, but there might be something at Dublin. His parents' wills were not proved in England either.

Miss Diana FitzGeorge-Balfour informs me that members of her family who knew Louisa Catherine were  always certain that she was not a daughter of the Duke.

Following the discovery of this settlement Mr Colin Burleigh has subsequently found the baptism of Louisa Catherine in the surname Bernard! She was born 22 March 1839 and baptised (by Revd. H. Palmer) at St James Westminster, 5 July 1839, the daughter of "Thomas & Louisa Bernard, of Golden Square, esquire" [Registers, Entry 359; FHL 1,042,311]. Her age as given in the 1841 census was thus correct. The birth does not appear to have been registered in either surname and the couple were certainly not married.

Page 338 - Mary Alice Olga Sofia Jane Lane. Miss Diana FitzGeorge-Balfour informs me that Mary Alice Olga Sofia Jane Lane was born 4 June 1919 [as in Willis (2002) 77] and not 4 January 1919 [as in CEDRE, Le royaume-uni de Grande Bretagne et Irlande du Nord, ii (1989) 168] and was named in the will of her grandfather (not great-uncle) Adolphus, 1920.

Pages 349-382 - Edward VII.  The publication of Professor Jane Ridley's ground-breaking Bertie: a life of Edward VII (London; Chatto & Windus, 2012, ISBN 9780701176143), following unprecedented and privileged access to the King's diaries and to other material in the Royal Archives, has thrown considerable light on his various relationships and, where appropriate, these have been noted below, she most generously commenting (page 518) that Royal Mistresses and Bastards 'is definitive: a meticulously researched examination of Bertie's mistresses and their alleged illegitimate children', and adding after correspondence about many of them, 'Anthony Camp's prompt and scholarly research has kept me right on mistresses and bastards' (page 573). 

Page 349 - additional entry. 1863 Julie Jungheim (1838-1918). Adelaide Jungheim or Zingler (1863-1904) was, according to the account of her son Harald Schultz-Hencke (1892-1953) in Gale's International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2005), rumoured to be an illegitimate daughter of Edward VII by Julie Jungheim (1838-1918) who in 1870 married Henry Zingler. Adelaide's parentage is discussed in the more recent Harald Schultz-Hencke und die Freideutsche Jugend by Steffen Theilemann (Giessen: Psychosozial-Verlag, 2018) and I am indebted to him for his further comments and explanations, and to a family relative, John Birchenough, for drawing my attention to the claims and for providing additional material collected by his late mother Jill Birchenough.

Steffen Theilemann has shown that Julie Jungheim was born Juliane Jungheim at Vegesack in Hanover on 1 March 1838, the daughter of Johann Hinrich Christian Benjamin Jungheim, a merchant, and that she came from neighbouring Bremen to London with a cigar merchant, O. H. Muller, on 5 March 1859 [Theilemann (2018) 18-19]. Two years later she was acting as a governess in the family of Julius Ernst Winzer, a young widowed music teacher with two small children, at Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire (the 1860 Post Office Directory shows him as 'Professor of Music, Musical Warehouse, Dealer in Musical Instruments', at Iron Market, Newcastle) who married again in 1861. On 16 November 1863 Julie gave birth to an illegitimate daughter called Adelaide at 12 Bernard Street, Bloomsbury [there is no significance in the forename; 135 children called Adelaide were registered in England and Wales that quarter]. She registered the child as Rosa Henrietta Julia Bertha Adelaide on 15 December 1863 whilst at '6 Regents Place, Pancras'. .

Julie Jungheim subsequently, if not already, was living with Henry Zingler, a Hungarian commission agent, and on 9 June 1866 they had a child, also called Henry, registered in Kensington. In 1867 when the senior Henry was naturalised in the UK he said that he was married and had two children which suggests that he acknowledged Adelaide's paternity. However, the couple did not marry until 1870 when at Brighton Register Office Julie gave her address as 120 Westbourne Grove, a number which did not then exist in a street widely known as 'Bankruptcy Row'. The two witnesses to the marriage were James and Fanny Hegarty, a husband and wife who lived in the Parochial Offices in Brighton and were the office messenger and office keeper [The National Archives, RG10/1085-74-44]. In 1871 the Zingler couple and their daughter (but not their son) were at 1 Old Steine, Brighton, Sussex, where the other occupants were James Long Singleton, his wife Jane, and their family. James and Jane were involved in divorce proceedings in 1874 when Jane alleged adultery and cruelty, saying that James had brought into the house prostitutes and 'men of the lowest character' for drinking parties in 1868-9 [TNA J77 piece 137]. The Queen's Proctor intervened in the divorce and showed that Jane had also committed adultery and that there may have been collusion between them.

Julie's husband Henry Zingler had come to England in 1853 and he commenced business on his own account as a commission agent in 1867, trading as Henry Zingler & Co, but he had already entered into a Deed of Composition with his creditors. By 1873 his liabilities were estimated at £20,000 and he was made bankrupt in 1874 with liabilities of £44,000 and assets of £606. By 1891 he was again working as an agent for others and living in lodgings in Bloomsbury. He died, aged 62, in 1894.

During or shortly after the bankruptcy Julie left her husband in London and returned to Germany where unsurprisingly she refused to speak about her child's father [Theilemann (2018) 16] though rumours spread that Julie had been a lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria or was related to the Royal Family, it being suggested that Adelaide was the child of the Prince of Wales. Julie herself claimed to have been born 'Baroness Rawling von Arnsdorf' (a title extinct in the 17th century; Theilemann (2018) 17, quoting E. H. Kneschke, Neues allgemeines Deutsches Adels-Lexicon, vol. 1 (1859)) and she apparently married in that name (Bernhard) Friedrich Wilhelm Rahm with whom she had lived in Berlin at Miethaus Kurfurstendam 118 since at least 1891. She died in 1918 and was registered as the daughter of Baron Otto Rawling von Arnsdorf [Theilemann (2018) 17]. No evidence of a connection between her and any member of the Royal Family has been found and she certainly had no position at Court, even as a servant. Her daughter Adelaide had predeceased her in 1904. Julie's son Henry Zingler apparently left England in the 1870s but reappeared and married at Bradford in Yorkshire in 1895. He had kept contact with his mother in Germany as his first four children (two born before his marriage) were baptised in the surname 'Zingler Rahm' at Marden, Kent, in 1898, though they later used the surname Zingler alone.

Fuller details of the family are as follows:

Juliane ('Julie') Jungheim, was born at Vegesack, near Bremen, 1 March 1838, daughter of Johann Hinrich Jungheim, merchant [her marriage entry, 1870], and his wife Beta Christiana [Theilemann (2018) 19, quoting Ortsfamilienbuch, Bremen and Vegesack]. She came to London from Bremen, 5 March 1859 [Theilemann (2018) 19]; of 6 Regents Place, Pancras, 15 December 1863 [informant of daughter's birth]; with husband at Brighton, aged 26, born Hanover, 1871 [RG10/1072-4-1]; not found in English census, 1881; in Germany by 1891 [Theilemann (2018) 22]. Said to have died 1902 [account of grandson in International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2005)]. She died in Berlin-Schoneberg II, Germany, 7 July 1918, being described as Julie Rahm, born Baroness Rawling von Arnsdorf (daughter of Otto Rawling von Arnsdorf by his wife Christiana, nee de Zarro), aged 71, widow, by her son-in-law Harald Schultz-Hencke, informant [Death Certificate (Zuruckgefuhrtes Erstregister), No. 708]. As of full age, spinster, of 120 Westbourne Grove, London, she had married 1stly, by licence at Brighton Register Office, Sussex, 17 September 1870, Heinrich Jacob Max Zingler, of full age, bachelor, commission agent, son of Moritz Max Zingler, merchant, deceased [GRO Marriage Certificate]. Known as Henry Zingler, he was of 95 Wood Street, Cheapside, City of London, commission agent, when as debtor entered into Deed of Composition covenanting to pay creditors a shilling in the pound of debts 3 months from registration, 23 November 1866, registered 26 November 1866 [London Gazette, 27 November 1866, page 6618]; of 111 Fore Street, London and 2 Abbotts Road, Priory Road, Kilburn, Middlesex, commission agent, granted certificate of naturalisation, No 5592, 25 October 1867, on petition received at Home Office, 18 October 1867 (No 9507) stating born Liepnick, Hungary, an Austrian subject, aged 33, married, two children, commission agent, resided England 13 years; first arrived 1853, entered establishment of Messrs Bettleheim [sic] & Co, of Milk Street, London, foreign importers [? Jacques Bettelheim, commision agent, of 9 Finsbury Chambers, London Wall (London PO Directory 1853)], on death of Mr Bettleheim in 1859 commenced business on own account as commission agent, continued 4 or 5 years, then entered establishment of Messrs Spreisser & Co of Watling Street, London, where remained until 1863, then Manager to firm of Hertyberg and Stehl of Wood Street, London [recte Herzberg & Stahl, foreign agents, of 43 Noble Street, EC (London PO Directory 1863) and 95 Wood Street (1864)], on their relinquishing business in January last commenced business on own account as commission agent, private residence is 2 Abbotts Road, Kilburn, intends to reside permanently in UK [The National Archives, HO1/143/5592]; of 2 Abbots Road, Hampstead, 1869-70 [Electoral Register]; of 111 Fore Street, London, aged 35, gentleman, initiated at 193 Lodge of Confidence, 8 March 1869 (Passing 12 April 1869, Raising 10 May 1869, Certificate 7 April 1870), paid fees to 1872 [United Grand Lodge of England membership records]; William Lee, aged 34, pleaded guilty to stealing 67 yards of cloth from Henry Zingler and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, Old Bailey, 7 June 1869 [Old Bailey Online]; of 1 Old Steine, Brighton, Sussex, aged 37, commission merchant, born Hungary, 1871 [RG10/1072-4-1]; contributed £5-10-0 to Austro-Hungarian Relief Fund, 13 June 1872 [London Evening Standard, page 6]; of 9 Fairfax Road, Hampstead, occupying house also at 2 Abbots Road, 1872-4 [Electoral Registers]; of 22 Weaver's Hall, Basinghall Street, London, for invention of improvements in carriage lamps, communication from Edwin Dubsky, of Lissitz in Austria [LG, 7 March 1873, page 1419 and 5 September 1873, page 4111]; consequent on difficulties of corrrespondents in Leipzig, bills of Henry Zingler & Co, commission agents, of New Basinghall Street (a firm established in 1867) have been returned (liabilities estimated at £20,000) [London Evening Standard, 7 November 1873, page 6; also under heading 'Failures in the woollen and cotton trade', Bradford Daily Telegraph, page 3]; proceedings for liquidation of composition with creditors instituted by Henry Zingler, of 22 Basinghall Street, commission agent and financial agent, trading as Henry Zingler and Company: first general meeting of creditors, 5 January 1874 [LG, 23 December 1873, page 6107]; adjudged bankrupt, 3 February 1874, first meeting of creditors, 18 February 1874 [LG, 6 February 1874, page 583; also Edinburgh Gazette, 10 Febrary 1874]; liabilities £44,000, assets £606 [Gazette News from Lloyd's List, 7 February 1874, page 4]; trustee appointed: public examination, 16 March 1874 [LG, 24 February 1874, page 881]; general meeting of creditors, 4 May 1874 [LG, 21 April 1874, page 2241]; furnished cash account showing payments totalling £55,000 from one unspecified source [Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, 23 June 1874, page 2]; applied for UK Passport, 11 July 1874 [TNA Index only seen]; first and final dividend to be declared by 9 November 1875 [LG, 2 November 1875, page 5259]; first and final dividend halfpenny in pound declared will be paid on 22 November 1875 [LG, 23 November 1875, page 5803]; order to close bankruptcy, 13 July 1877 [LG, 27 July 1877, page 4470]; notice of general meeting of creditors to consider release of trustee, 3 November 1877 [LG, 23 October 1877, page 5783]; not found in 1881 UK census; aged 47, boarder, married, broker agent (employed), in lodging house at 2 Keppel Street, St George, Bloomsbury, 1891 [RG12/208-161-20]; described as wool broker, deceased [marriage of son Henry, 1895]. He died in Marylebone Registration District, December Quarter 1894, aged 62 [GRO Death Index, 1a 338; no W/A]. Juliane apparently married 2ndly, in Berlin, c.1894, Bernhard 'Friedrich Wilhelm' Rahm [Theilemann (2018) 22, quoting B. Koerner, Genealogisches Handbuch burgerlicher Familien, vol. 8 (1901) 389, sub 'Rahm, aus Stettin in Pommern', where no date is given]. He was born in Pomerania, 31 January 1842, and became director of a factory making agricultural machinery in Berlin. He died in Berlin, July 1917. Juliane had issue by her first husband:

1.   Rosa Henrietta Julia Bertha 'Adelaide' Jungheim, born (before marriage of parents) at 12 Bernard Street, St George Bloomsbury, 16 November 1863 [GRO Birth Index, St Giles RD, 1b 422]. As 'Adelaid Zingler', aged 6, born London, with father, 1871 [Census]. She died in Berlin, 20 February 1904. As Rosalie Adelaide Max Zingler (born 16 November 1864) she had married in Berlin, 25 April 1891 (as his 1st wife), Dankmar Carl Siegbert Schultz-Hencke, born 10 February 1857. Physicist and chemist. Founder of Institute of Photography (Lette-Verein), Berlin. He died 21 April 1913. He had married 2ndly, 1905, Elsbeth Huffer, daughter of Karl Huffer, of Elsenau, Thuringia, by his wife Elisa Rahm, niece of the above Friedrich Wilhelm Rahm [information from Steffen Theilemann, not his sister as in Theilemann (2018) 22]. Adelaide had with other issue:

      1.    'Harald' Julius Alfred Carl-Ludwig Schultz-Hencke, born in Berlin, 18 August 1892. Psychoanalist, psychotherapist and psychiatrist. Twice married, he died without issue in Berlin, 23 May 1953.

2.               2.   'Luanna' Elsbeth Helena Theda Schultz-Hencke, born 11 January 1894, died 16 September 1973. She had married 19 May 1921, Eberhard Wentrup. They had  issue:

               1. Klaus Wentrup, born 1922, died 1944.

               2. Helga Wentrup, born 11 June 1925, died 22 November 2010, leaving issue.

      3.   Walter Schultz-Hencke, born 16 July 1896, died 29 May 1015.

2.   Henry Maximilian Zingler, born (before marriage of parents) in Kensington Registration District, 9 June 1866 [1939 Register; GRO index, Sep Qtr 1866, 1a 10; Theilemann (2018) 17]. Not with father, 1871; not found in England, 1881 and 1891 [Census]; of Hubert Road, Northfield, Selly Oak, Kings Norton, Worcestershire, aged 34, traveller, worker, 1901 [Census, RG13/2808-131-45]; his 4 children baptised in surname 'Zingler Rahm' at Marden, Kent, 1898; of 103 Doidge Road, Erdington, Birmingham, aged 44, commercial traveller, born Hampstead, 1911 [Census]. Of 202 Perry Common Road, Birmingham, commercial traveller, dry salter, 1939 [1939 Register]. He died in Birmingham RD, June Quarter 1942, aged 75 [GRO Death Index, 6d 515]. Describing himself as aged 29, bachelor, merchant, of 18 Shakespeare Street, Bradford, son of Henry Maximilian Zingler, wool broker, deceased, he had married after banns at Bradford Cathedral, Yorkshire, 14 October 1895, Isabel Denton, aged 32, spinster, of 18 Shakespeare Street, Bradford, daughter of Thomas Denton, confectioner, deceased [Registers, Entry 356, Page 178]. She was born 20 July 1864 [1939 Register] and died in Birmingham RD, September Quarter 1949, aged 85 [GRO Death Index, 9c 54]. They had issue:

            1. Isabella Henrietta May Zingler, born (before marriage of parents) in Kent Road, St Saviour, Southwark, 6 July 1893 [1939 Register; GRO Birth Index in surname Zingler, 1d 92] and baptised in surname 'Zingler Rahm' at Marden, Kent, 16 October 1898 [Register, Entry 600, Page 75]. Aged 7, 1901 [Census]; as 'Henrietta M Darby', 1939 Register. She died at 176 Orphanage Road, Erdington, 16 May 1986, aged 92; probate Birmingham, 10 July 1986. She had married in Birmingham RD, June Quarter 1927 [GRO Marriage Index, 6d 1238], William Lewis Darby, born 18 November 1868. Of 170 South Road, Birmingham 23, boilerman retired, 1939 [1939 Register]. He died in Birmingham RD, March Quarter 1942, aged 73 [GRO Death Index, 6d 296].

            2. Lilian Julia Zingler, born (before marriage of parents) at Bradford, 15 October 1894 [1939 Register; GRO Dec Qtr, 1894, 9b 51], and baptised in surname  'Zingler Rahm' at Marden, Kent, 16 October 1898 [Register, Entry 601, Page 76]. Aged 6, 1901 [Census]; cashier drapery stores, aged 16, 1911 [Census]. With parents, clerk, 1939. She died unmarried in hospital at Bromsgrove from 10 Jaffray Road, Erdington, 18 June 1967; probate Birmingham, 19 September 1967.

            3. Adelaide Rosa Zingler, born Cheltenham [1901 Census] or Oakenshaw, Yorkshire [1911 Census], 1 March 1896 [1939 Register] and baptised in surname  'Zingler Rahm' at Marden, Kent, 16 October 1898 [Register, Entry 602, page 76]. Aged 5, 1901 [Census]; aged 15, school, 1911 [Census]. She died in Cardigan South RD, September Quarter 1988 [GRO Death Index, 24-1312]. She had married in Birmingham North RD, September Quarter 1924, Harold Upton [GRO Marriage Index, 6d 1130], born 6 February 1898 [1939 Register]. Of 309 Shenley Fields Road, Birmingham, foreman carpenter, supervisor general property repairs Birmingham Estate Department, ARP City of Birmingham Estates [1939 Register]. He died in Cardiganshire South RD, September Quarter 1984, aged 86 [GRO Death Index, 24-1242].

            4. Henry William Zingler, born Marden, Kent, 22 August 1897 and baptised there in surname 'Zingler Rahm', 16 October 1898 [Register, Entry 603, page 76]. Aged 3, 1901 [Census]; aged 13, school, 1911 [Census]. Of 5 The Link, Birmingham, carpenter, formerly heavy labourer, 1939 [1939 Register]. He died in Ardudwy, Gwynedd RD, September Quarter 1975. He had married in Birmingham North RD, June Quarter 1926, Lilian Pearson [GRO Marriage Index, 6d 1116]. She was born 9 December 1904 [1939 Register] and died in hospital at Selly Oak from 488 Tyburn Road, Erdington, 10 January 1952; probate Birmingham, 26 February 1952.

            5. Harold Albert Zingler, born Marden, Kent, 18 May 1899 [1939 Register]. Aged 1, 1901 [Census]; aged 12, school, 1911 [Census]. With parents, unmarried, stores superintendent, 1939 [1939 Register]. He died at Birmingham, 23 December 1977, aged 78 [GRO Death Index, 32-0692]; cremated West Midlands, 5 January 1978.

            6. Maria Victoria Henrietta Zingler, born Handsworth, Warwickshire, 12 January 1901 [1939 Register]. Aged 2 months, 1901 [Census]; aged 10, school, 1911 [Census]. Executor to sister Lilian Julia, 1967. She died in Sutton Coldfield RD, December Quarter 1971 [GRO Death Index, 9c 2666]. She had married in Birmingham North RD, September Quarter 1930, Percy C. James [GRO Marriage Index, 6d 1249]. He was born 27 February 1902 [1939 Register]. Of 220 Lichfield Road, Sutton Coldfield, assistant factory manager, Gov and ARP Brass Pumps [1939 Register]. He died 2 February 1963.

            7. Astraa Alexandra Zingler, born Wakefield, Yorkshire, 5 March 1902. Aged 9, 1911 [Census]. She died 1988. She had married in Aston RD, June Quarter 1923, Leslie Victor Summerhayes. He was born 11 January 1899 [1939 Register]. Of 23 Glendon Road, Birmingham, foreman carpenter, 1939 [1939 Register].

            8. Thomas Victor Zingler, born Holloway, London, 17 February 1905. Aged 6, 1911 [Census]; of 46 Ventnor Avenue, Birmingham, magneto fitter, 1939 [1939 Register]. He died at 146 Maney Hill Road, Sutton Coldfield, 26 August 1982; probate Birmingham, 15 November 1982. He had married in Sutton Coldfield RD, September Quarter 1932 [GRO Marriage Index, 6d 1499], Gertrude 'Evelyn' Slaney. She was born 2 July 1903 [1939 Register]. [[? did he marry 2ndly, December Quarter 1972, Sutton Coldfield RD, Irene M. Hammond [GRO  Marriage Index, 9c 2297] ]]

   3. Donald Julius Max Zingler, born 29 October 1872 and baptised 6 March 1873 at All Souls, St Marylebone, from 9 Fairfax Road, Hampstead [Registers, Entry 41]. He d ied 'youngest child' at Adelheid House, Fairfax Road, Hampstead, 18 April 1875, aged 2 years and 6 months [Morning Post, 21 April 1875, page 7; GRO Death Index, 1a 445].

Amended 13 October 2022.

Pages 349-350 - Roderick Ross. Although Royal Mistresses and Bastards showed that Roderick Ross was not a son of Edward VII, I was mystified by an illuminated scroll illustrated in the late Thomas W. Archibald's A History of the Lothian and Borders Police (1990) with the caption, 'A scroll given to the Chief Constable in 1907 by the Officers and Men of the City of Edinburgh Police on the decision of the Supreme Court denouncing the rumour that Roderick Ross was the illegitimate son of King Edward VII to be completely untrue and without foundation'. The scroll is dated 'New Year 1907' and offers 'respectful congratulations on the unanimous decision pronounced in your favour by the Supreme Court in the recent litigation in which you were defender - a decision which gave profound satisfaction throughout the whole Force'.

It seemed to me highly unlikely that such a testimonial would have been given to someone proving their legitimacy and that it related to something much more important to the Force. I have now found that late in 1906 the Chief Constable, Roderick Ross, and the Corporation of Edinburgh defended a case in which wrongful and malicious dismissal was alleged and £3,000 damages claimed. It is reported under the heading 'Ex-Dundee Policeman's Action' in the Dundee Courier for Friday, 21 December 1906, page 5, and was earlier mentioned in the same newspaper on 2 November 1906, page 4. This must be the litigation to which the scroll refers. I am indebted to James Mackie Boyd who drew the scroll to my attention and to David C. B. Conner for his assistance in the matter.

Unfortunately Blair Douglas Campbell in 2024 inserted amongst the Private Pedigrees on Ancestry a worthless table showing Roderick Ross, born in 1865, as a son of the King and his 'partner' Mary Ross.

Page 349 - Edward VII (additional entries). 1858. Mrs Edith Hemsted (died 1906). I am indebted to Professor Jane Ridley for the information that a recent History of Anacapri (1998), in a section taken from the notebooks of the historian Edwin Cerio (1875-1960) on the villa 'Il Rosajo', states that a former occupier, Mrs Edith Hemsted, 'a woman characterized by extraordinary culture, intelligence and taste', was 'the natural child of Edward VII of England'. Research, however, shows that Edith was born too early to have been the Prince's child and that she was the daughter of a London hair restorer.

She was Edith Laurence Taylor, born at St George's Middlesex, c. 1858-9 [1861, 1881Census] or Piccadilly, 1860-1 [1901 Census]; aged 2, with father, Andrew L. Taylor (aged 37, hair restorer), at Stafford Cottage, Stafford Terrace, St Mary Lambeth, 1861 [RG9/365-119-24]; aged 22, with mother, Jane Taylor (aged 61,widow, hair restorer), at 18 Spring Street, Paddington, 1881 [RG11/15-60-5];aged 41, 1901 [Census]. She died at Anacapri, Capri, 29 October 1906 [PPR Calendar]; her will proved London, 10 May 1907 [PPR, £34-9-11]. As of 18 Spring Street, aged 23, daughter of Andrew Laurence-Taylor, gentleman, she had married (signing 'Edith Lawrence Taylor') by licence at St James, Sussex Gardens, Paddington, 15 June 1881, Edward Hemsted, aged 39, widower, Major in the Army, of Aldershot, son of Stephen Hemsted, surgeon [Registers Entry 65, Page 33]. He was born in Newbury RD, Berkshire, June Quarter 1842 [GRO Birth Index; 1901 Census]; Lieutenant, 1862; Captain, 1871; Lt. Col., 1881 [Army Lists]; of 5 Granville Road, Hove, Sussex, Retired Lt. Col. Infantry, 1901[RG13/935-121-26]. He died at Steventon, Berkshire, 13 April 1903, aged 61 [PPR Calendar; GRO Death Index]; his will as of The Old Manor House, Drayton, Berkshire, proved London 14 May 1903 [PPR, £1023-17-0]. Their only son was the pioneer sexologist Edward Charles Hemsted who was born at Anacapri, 1898, and died in London, 1961.

Page 349 - Edward VII (additional entry). 1860. Elizabeth Harriet Mackey, Mrs Morton Stubbs (1835-1914). According to a biography of the actor Morton Richard Stubbs - known professionally as Morton Selten (1860-1939) - by Bruce Elder and noted on https://www.allmovie.com/artist/morton-selten-p64456 in 2021, although "claimed as the son of Morton Stubbs, Selten was actually an illegitimate son of the then 19-year-old Prince of Wales ...- the fact was an open secret among his acting colleagues of the 1930s and was related as recently as 1988 by filmmaker Michael Powell, who directed Selten in his final film appearance, in The thief of Bagdad (1940)". However, Morton Richard Stubbs was born on 5 January 1860 at 12 Queen Street, St George Hanover Square [Saint James' Chronicle, Tuesday, 10 January 1860, page 8, and Morning Post, same date, page 8], the son of Morton Stubbs and his wife Elizabeth Harriett Mackey who had married by licence at St Mary le Strand, London, 9 December 1859 [Registers, Entry 459, Page 230]. The groom described himself as Morton Stubbs, aged 56, bachelor, gentleman, of St Mary le Strand, the son of Henry James Stubbs, gentleman and the bride described herself as Elizabeth Harriett Mackey, aged 25, spinster, of St Mary le Strand, daughter of William Mackey, Captain in the Merchants Service. She was baptised at St Peter, Liverpool, on 16 January 1835, the daughter of William & Elizabeth Mackey, of Grafton Street, mariner [Registers, Entry 364, Page 46]. She had  apparently been co-habiting with Stubbs for some time as "Mr and Mrs Morton Stubbs" were amongst the visitors listed at the Foley Arms Hotel, Malvern, on 16 July 1859 [Illustrated Malvern Advertiser, Saturday, 16 July 1859, page 4]. At the time of the 1861 census the couple were staying with the The Hon. Eleanor Pitt at The Dell, Windsor, probably in connection with the latter's divorce (for which Eleanor had petitioned 11 July 1860), whilst their child, Morton Stubbs, aged 16 months, was boarded with William Tarrant, a groom, in Benhill Street, Sutton, Surrey, but shown as the latter's son [RG9/418-132-44]. The boy's father Morton Stubbs died 15 November 1877 at 21 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, and by his will dated 31 October 1877 he bequeathed "to my beloved son Morton Richard Stubbs, my watch and chain and all my rings", the remainder of his property (sworn Under £6,000) going to his widow. When the latter died on 1 January 1914 at 90 St George's Road, South Belgravia, she left by will dated 31 July 1911 all her estate "to my son Richard Morton Stubbs professionally known as Morton Selten but in case he should predecease me I give and bequeath the same to Percy Tredegar Morgan of San Francisco, California" (a person baptised at St Matthew, Great Peter Street, Westminster, on 22 August 1862, the son of George Cosmo Morgan and his wife Laura Bynes who had married at St Peter, Pimlico, in 1859). Any connection with the Prince of Wales thus seems unlikely, the story being invented merely for its publicity value. I am indebted to Dick Weindling for bringing this claimed relationship to my attention together with his article on the subject at http://kilburnwesthampstead.blogspot.com/2021/08/morton-selten-actor-with-60-year-career.html.

Page 349 - Edward VII (additional entry). 1861. Mrs Green. In November 1864 the Prince was approached by a blackmailer named Green in connection with 'wickedness' into which the Prince had been 'ensnared' by Green's wife, apparently at Windsor, and 'above three years ago'. The couple were paid an annuity of £60 for their silence in 1861 and obliged to emigrate to an unspecified place in New Zealand but the husband had returned to England and was making further demands by November 1864 [Ridley (2012) 58, 89-90]. The couple, whose forenames do not appear in the surviving records, have not been identified. She may be the unnamed woman who, according to rumours picked up by Lord Derby and noted 25 December 1861, had been introduced into the Castle at night [John Vincent, ed., Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative Party: Journals and Memoirs of Lord Stanley (Harvester Press, 1978) page 181].

Page 349. 1861. Nellie Clifden. The Prince met Nellie Clifden at the Curragh on three occasions; the dates are provided by Jane Ridley from his diary as 6, 9 and 10 September 1861[Ridley (2012) 54-55; 'N. C. 1st time', etc.].

So far as I am aware nothing is known about the history of Nellie Clifden/Clifton prior to her involvement with the Prince in Ireland in September 1861 and after 23 January 1862 when the Prince wrote that he had not heard anything about her 'for a long time'. There were actresses of the name later in the century but I have not seen any reliable statement which links any one of them to this woman. However, it has recently been brought to my attention that a memorial for one Thomas W. Davidson in the Mount Lebanon United Methodist Church Cemetery at Tarrs, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, USA, which formerly read merely "Thomas W. Davidson 1861-1918: Fredonia his wife 1875-1961", was replaced in 2013 by an elaborate and expensive stone which absurdly reads "Thomas Wettin Davidson (1861-1918) adopted son of Henry and Mary (Downey) Davidson. Born March 24, 1861, in Sunderland County [sic], Durham, England the son of HRH Albert [sic] and Nellie Clifden (nee Ellen Downey)". It may be seen at the Findagrave website [http://www.findagrave.com] numbered 19896908. Only a few moments research has shown that the birth of Thomas William Davidson was registered at Sunderland (volume 10a, page 424) in the June Quarter of 1861 and that he appears, as Thomas W. Davison [sic], aged 2 weeks, in the household of Henry and Mary Davison at 44 Wear Street, Bishop Wearmouth, in the 1861 Census, taken on 7 April 1861 [RG9/3772-105-6] and again the 1871 Census, aged 10, at 46 Page Street, Bishop Wearmouth [RG10/5008-71-26]. The marriage of Henry Davidson and Mary Downey took place in Sunderland Registration District in the September Quarter of 1856 (10a 424). The child was thus very clearly not a son of the Prince of Wales (or of Prince Albert!) and Nellie Clifden. Perhaps the descendant who perpetrated this absurdity will now have the stone altered again. [17 September 2014].

Page 355, 1868-9, re Anna and Felix Cassel The statement by Elizabeth Longford [Darling Loosy: letters to Princess Louise 1856-1939 (1991) page 293] that 'some beople beleived that he [Sir Ernest Cassel] was closely related to the royal family or at any rate had adopted two illegitimate children of Bertie's (Edward VII)' was discussed by me in 2007 when I noted that Sir Ernest's niece and nephew, Anna and Felix, the children of his divorced sister Wilhelmina Schoenbrunn, who came to live with him in the 1870s (they and their mother asuming ths urname Cassel), were born at Cologne in 1868-9 and although little is known about their father, Louis Schoenbrunn, there is no evidence that the Prince was aware of any member of their family until the late 1880s. The Prince did not meet Ernest Cassel until 1889 [Anthony Allfrey, Edward VII and his Jewish court (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1991) 139]. However, the stories were revived in the worthless account of the descendants of Edward VII provided to Ancestry.com by Blair Douglas Campbell and given space in its Public Pedigrees in 2024.

Page 359. 1862. Anonyma. In my book I had accepted the contemporary belief that 'Anonyma', the horsewoman described in an anonymous letter to The Times, 3 July 1862, was the courtesan Catherine Walters (1839-1920). She had been creating a sensation, blocking the carriageway when in Hyde Park. It was said at the time (e.g. 'Who is the lady?' in Western Daily Press, Monday, 21 July 1862, page 2) that 'her relationship to one who will one day, in all probability, be the highest personage in the land [i.e. the Prince of Wales], is the cause of all this curiosity to see her'. However, Daniel Kirwan, who saw her at Goodwood in 1869 and shows a portrait of her in Palace and Hovel (1871, page 605), was told by a police officer that her name used to be Kate Bellingham (page 603). Later he says that her real name was Brandling and that she was the daughter of a Sussex curate with five children (page 611), However, the anonymous author (Julian Osgood Field) of More uncensored recollections (1926), page 259, identified 'Anonyma' as Caroline, the first wife of the financier Sir Charles Rivers Wilson. They had married by Licence at Holy Trinity Paddington, 12 May 1860, when she described herself as Caroline Coke, aged 24, of 2 Cleveland Gardens, the name and occupation of her father being left blank in the Register [Registers, Entry 499, Page 250]. According to Burke's Knightage (1901) she was the daughter of R. Cook (sic). In the 1871 Census she was aged 35 and born at Kilkenny, Ireland [RG10/104-19-33]. She died in 1888. Is anything further known about this lady (whom Field seems to have known) and her possible relationship with the Prince?

Page 349, 1853, Elizabeth McBee Bowen. A curious statement about one Henry Keen (1853-1919) on Ancestry, repeated by Blair Douglas Campbell in the Public Pedigrees also on Ancestry, says that he was born on 20 March 1853 at Oamaru in Waitaki Dustrict, New Zealand, 'to Albert Edward King of England and Lady Elizabeth McBee Bowen', that he married Janet Porteous and had 4 children, and died on 8 January 1919 in the Public Hospital at Oamaru, North Otago. The King, of course, was born in 1841.

Research has shown that Henry Keen was actually born on 4 February 1853 at Stanford in the Vale, Berkshire, the son of John Keen, an agricultural labourer, by his wife Elizabeth Keen, formerly Step [GRO Birth Certificate, registered Faringdon, March Quarter 1853, vol. 2c No. 262; Entry 439; Elizabeth the mother and informant was unable to sign her name], and baptised at Stanford in the Vale, on 20 March, 1853, the son of John and Elizabeth Keene [FHL MF 0141799]. Henry Keen appears, aged 8, scholar, amongst this couple's seven children at Stanford in the Vale in the 1861 Census [TNA, RG9/729-63-13], and in 1871, as a servant, unmarried, groom, he was at Water Eaton Farm, Eisey, Wiltshire, in the household of Edward Akers, a farmer of 794 acres  who employed 16 men [TNA, RG10/1887-36-4]. He married at Oamaru, New Zealand, apparently in the surname King [reference 1877/1174], Janet, called Jessie, Porteous (1855-1924).

John Keene, of full age, bachelor, labourer, of Stanford, son of Benjamin Keene, labourer, had married Elizabeth Step, of full age, spinster, of Stanford, illegitimate, at Stanford in the Vale, Berkshire, on 14 October 1820, when the parties were unable to sign their names. The witnesses were Susannah Pearse and Charles Keene, X his mark. This Elizabeth Step, who said that she was born at Faringdon in the 1851 [TNA, HO107/1687-448-14] and 1861 Census Returns may be the Elizabeth, daughter of Jane Step, born 3 October 1818 and baptised 11 October 1818. An Elizabeth Keene, aged 20, was sentenced to three months imprisonment at the Berkshire County Assizes on 24 February 1838, for concealing the birth of her illegitimate infant child at Arborfield [Criminal Registers; also Berkshire Chronicle, 24 February 1838, page 3; Reading Mercury, 24 February 1838, page 3; Windsor and Eton Express, 3 March 1838, page 4], but that can have no relevance.

The so-called Lady Elizabeth McBee Bowen, said to have died in New Zealand in 1891, seems (like the claimed connection to Edward VII)  to be a complete invention as no person of that name died there in that year and the only death in England which fits her stated age died at Swansea, aged 58 in the September Quarter of 1891 [11a 451] and is probably the Elizabeth Bowen in one room at 21 Little Madoc Street, Swansea , aged 61 in 1891, a washerwoman [TNA, RG12/4479-18-29].                                                                                                           [AJC, 13 June 2024]

Pages 350-51. 1866. Jeanne, Princess de Sagan. Jane Ridley agrees that the Prince could not have been the father of the Princess de Sagan's son, Boson de Talleyrand-Perigord, born in Paris, 20 July 1867, as he did not leave England for St Petersburg (via Brussels and Potsdam) until 1 November 1866 [Ridley (2012) 171 footnote].

Page 351. 1867. Lady Filmer. Jane Ridley remarks that a quoted letter from the Prince to Sir Edmund Filmer 'hardly suggests that Bertie was having a passionate affair with the wife' [Ridley (1212) 106].

Page 352. 1867-8. Lady Forbes. Edward James's dictated memoir, sensationalised by George Melly in 1982, is rightly considered of little authority by Professor Jane Ridley [email 26 January 2010]. Edward VII's letters to Edward James's mother, Evie (Mrs Willie James) nee Forbes, which Edward James never saw and which remained sealed until after Edward James's death in 1984, did not commence until after the King's first visit to West Dean Park in 1902, and there is no evidence that Evie, born in 1868, was the King's daughter, or indeed that Edward James himself, born in 1907, was the King's son. The coincidence of the date of the King's visit in November 1906 and Edward's birth in August 1907 may be suggestive, but Evie's future second husband John Brinton was also at the house party in November 1906 and is a much more likely candidate for paternity. Despite the statements in the memoir, it was accepted that Edward was not Willie James's son [Ridley (2012) 427 footnote]. Despite these very clear indications, the worthless account of the descendants of Edward VII placed amongst the private pedigrees on Ancestry.com by Blair Douglas Campbell in 2024, shows 'Lady Forbes' as the King's 'partner' and 'Evelyn Elizabeth Forbes James' as the King's daughter, 

Page 354. 1867-8. Lady Mordaunt. Jane Ridley agrees with Queen Victoria that the Prince 'did not know more of, or admire, the unfortunate, crazy, Lady Mordaunt any more than he does or did other ladies' [Ridley (2012) 132]. I remain somewhat doubtful.

Page 355. 1868 additional entry. Mary Hayes. A pedigree inserted amongst the Public Pedigrees on Ancestry by Blair Douglas Campbell in 2024, shows "James McLauchlan (1868-1944)" as a son of the Prince and his 'spouse' Mary Hayes, born at Paisley in Scotland in May 1868, but without further detail.

This seems to be a reference to James McLauchlan who married aged 20 at Paisley in January 1888 and is said to have died at Toronto, Canada, in 1944. This James McLauchlan described himself on 13 January 1888 as a bachelor, aged 20, a railway servant, of 3 Brown Street, Glasgow, the son of John McLauchlan, seaman, merchant service (deceased) and his wife Mary McLauchlan, formerly Hay, when he made an irregular marriage in the District of Blythswood in the Burgh of Glasgow by Warrant of the Sheriff Substitute of Lanarkshire, dated that day, he making a Declaration in the Presence of George Eastwright, steamship winchman, of 3 Brown Street, Glasgow, and Samuel Marshall, steamship winchman, of 61 Dale Street, trades tem: there, to Eugenia Boyle, aged 21, bookfolder, spinster, also of 3 Brown Street, Glasgow, the daughter of John Boyle, brush manufacturer, by his wife Margaret Boyle, formerly Williamson (deceased) [Statutory Register of Marriages, 1888, 644/7, Entry 39, Page 20].

James and Eugenia with a growing family were at 13 Prussia Street, Paisley, in 1891 and 1901, he being described as a licensed broker in 1891 and as a dealer in clothing in 1901, but Eugenia McLauchlan died aged 35, at 7 New Smithhill, Paisley, on 25 January 1903, her husband then being described as a licensed broker. He married secondly after banns on 4 April 1904 at St Mirin's Church, Paisley (later the Cathedral), according to the forms of the Roman Catholic Church, he then being a furniture dealer at 7 New Smithhills, Paisley, to Mary Allan, aged 30, spinster, school teacher, of 13 Laigle Park, Paisley, daughter of James Allan, life insurance agent, by Ann Allan formerly McGuire. The couple had further children and he continued as a furniture dealer, at 28 Gauze Street, Paisley, aged 43 in 1911, and at Ingledene. Glasgow Road, Paisley, aged 53 in 1921.

No marriage of a John McLaughlan to a Mary Hay or Hayes has been found  but pedigrees on Ancestry coupled with an entry in the 1871 Census show John and Mary McLauchlan at 3 Lawn Street in the Civil Parish of Abbey in the Burgh of Paisley, when John said that he was then aged 25, a yarn printer, born at Glasgow, Lanarkshire. His wife Mary was aged 27, born at Carnoustie, Forfarshire, and their two sons were Peter, aged 5, scholar, born at Pollokshaws, and James, aged 3, born at Paisley, both in Renfrewshire. Apart from the change in religion, there was some continued connection with the surname Hay, as the birth of James, the son of the above named James and Eugenia McLauchlan, who was born at 18 North Croft on 31 August 1893 and baptised on 6 September 1893, was recoded as that of James Hay McLauchlan.

John McLachlan, a dyer in the Main Street of Pollokshaws, had married firstly (after banns according to the forms of the Established Church of Scotland) on 24 March 1865 in the parish of Eastwood, one Mary Sword Martin, a power loom weaver, aged 21, of Maxwell Street, Pollokshaws, but she had died at 3 Lawn Street, Paisley, on 16 December 1871, and as John McLauchlan, widower, he had then married secondly at 151 George Street, Paisley (after banns according to the forms of the Church of Scotland) on 6 June 1873, one Jessie Wylie, of that address, aged 26, a threadmill worker, daughter of John Wylie, weaver (deceased).

There does not appear to be the slightest reason why anyone should think that there  was an illegitimate connection with the Royal Family. [AJC, 7 July 2024].

Page 358. Blanche, Duchess of Caracciolo and Olga de Meyer. The Catholic baptism of the child Olga, has been found at St Mary, Chelsea, on 10 September 1871, as 'Maria Alberta Beatrix Olga Georgia Josephina Virginia Caracciolo-Pinelli' daughter of 'Jauarii et Mariae Blancae Caracciolo-Pinelli (olim Sampayo) conjugam', her godmother being recorded as Maria Josephina de Sangro, Duchessa Castelluccio. No godfather is named [Westminster Diocesan Archives, Register of St Mary Chelsea, 1864-73, page 277; noted 14 July 2017].

We know that Olga married in London, 25 July 1899, and had stayed with Sir Charles Rivers Wilson. Reports in the Morning Post and the London Evening Standard, 9 June 1898, both page 5, show that amongst those present at the Mansion House for the Lord Mayor & Lady Mayoress's dejeuner yesterday to meet the President-elect of Brazil, were 'Sir Charles and the Hon Lady Rivers Wilson, [and] the Princess de Moaveris Brancaccio'. The Daily Telegraph for Sunday, 14 May 1899, page 9, in 'Society at Home and Abroad: April and May in Venice', noted that 'Baron Meyer Watson and his sister, Mrs Hamish, are at the Grand; and Princess Moaria Brancaccio is at Danieli's'. London Day by Day for 26 July 1899, page 9, notes, ' At Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, SW, marriage between Baron Adolphus Edward Sigismund von Meyer of 1 Cadogan Gardens & Maria Beatrice Olga Princesse de Maovero Brancaccio only daughter of the Duke Carracio [sic] and the late Duchess, nee Sampayo, was performed by the Rev. A. J. Myers. The Baron and Baroness von Meyer subsequently left for Ostende, en route for Bayreuth'.

Copied into the volume of Marriage Bonds and Allegations of the Diocese of London for July-September 1899 with the allegation to the Vicar General of the Bishop of London made by Baron Adolphus Edward Sigismund von Meyer for a licence to marry Maria Beatrice Olga, Marchesa Brancaccio, Princesse de Moavero, dated 21 July 1899 (he was examined in chambers, 22 July; made oath, 24 July 1899), is a certified copy (translated from the German and dated 22 July 1899) of her divorce decree from the High Court of Justice at Hamburg dated 16 June 1899. As Mrs Maria Beatrice Olga Brancaccio born Caracciolo Pinelli she was granted a divorce from her husband Marquis Marino Brancaccio by reason of his 'malicious desertion'. They had married 'in the civil form' at Naples on 9  March 1892 and numerous differences and dissensions had arisen leading to actual separation, she claiming that through his fault she had been compelled to keep away from him, but was now prepared to put an end to the separation. She came to Hamburg where he attended to his financial interests and now had his domicile and called on him at his residence but he showed her the door and then wrote a letter expressing a firm determination not to take her back. She asked the Court that he be ordered to do so within a fixed period or that the marriage be dissolved. He asserted that he had sufficient reasons for keeping apart from her and that he would on no event consent to take her back as he could not anticipate any further satisfactory cohabitation. She had left Naples in 1898 when he gave up his furnished apartment of two rooms there and moved to Hamburg where he lived in rented rooms on a floor in the Colonade, had given notice to the police, attended to his business work there, and paid income tax. He thus had residence in Hamburg. At a hearing on 12 April he persisted in his determination not to continue conjugal life with her and an order for its resumption was issued, but at a hearing on 7 June 1899 he had not taken her back, had not stated a legal reason for keeping apart from her, and was thus guilty of malicious desertion and her claim for a divorce was justified; he had no right of appeal, must pay the costs, and it was lawful for her to marry again. The judgment acquired legal force from 17 July 1899.

Adolph and Olga de Meyer had visited the US on the George Washington, sailing from Southampton to New York, on 16 December 1912, intending to stay permanently, but had returned. They sailed again (as Baron Adolphus Edward Meyer and Baroness Olga Meyer) on the SS Amerika from Southampton to New York on 7 November 1913.

Adolphus Gayne, Baron de Meyer, born at Paris, France, on 1 September 1868, applied for a passport at Washington on 17 May 1920 saying that he had sailed from Southampton, England in the fall of 1913, and had lived six years uninterruptedly in the US from 1913 to 1920 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel and the Chatham Hotel, New York, and had been naturalised in the United States at the Supreme Court of the State of New York on 22 April 1920. As a designer-photographer he applied for a passport  11 May 1920 and issued 17 May 1920 (with photographs of himself and wife) to go abroad for 6 months to visit Italy, Switzerland, France and England, saying that he would leave from New York on the Giuseppi Verde on 3 June 1920 [US Passport Applications 1795-1925, 1920 Roll 1213, 17 May 1920].

His wife Mahrah Olga De Meyer (Mrs) swore that she was born in London, 8 August 1875, that her husband Adolphus G. B. De Meyer, had a passport issued by the Department of State on 2 May 1921, that he came to the US about 1910 and had resided there 10 years, principally in New York City, was now residing at Paris, France, on photographic business, and that her legal domicile was c/o Harpers Bazar, 119 West 40th Street, her temporary residence being 60 Rue de Varenne. She last left the US in May 1922 and was now residing with her husband in France. She had previously resided in England, France and Italy from birth in 1875 to 1910 and in France with one visit to the US from 1920 to date. She applied for a passport to visit France for temporary residence and to travel in the British Isles, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Czechoslovakia. She applied for a passport at Paris, France, on 1 March 1923, and it was issued at Washington on 24 March 1922. As Mahrah Olga De Meyer at 60 rue de Varenne she applied for an extension of the passport on 28 April 1924 and this was granted to 24 March 1925.

As US Citizens the couple (Gayne Baron de Meyer and Olga de Meyer) had sailed from Havre on the SS Paris, 24 September 1921, and arrived at New York, 1 October 1921 

Olga de Meyer and her husband (having arrived on the liner 'Paris' at Plymouth on 9 May 1930; Western Daily News, 10 May 1930, page 7) were reported as being at St Moritz early in 1931 [The Sketch, 21 January 1931, page 14] but she had died aged 52 [sic] on 6 January 1931 and was buried 8 January 1931 at Freiburg, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, as 'Olga Baronin de Meyer', formerly Caracciolo [Ancestry.com, Baden, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1502-1985 (database on-line)].

Adolphus Gayne de Meyer, aged 67, widower, returned to America on the SS Manhattan, leaving Le Havre on 5 May 1938 and arriving at New York on 13 May 1938, intending to go to 2075 Watsonian Terrace, Whitley Heights, Hollywood, California.. He died 6 January 1946 and was buried as Gayne Adolphus Demeyer at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale), Glendale, Los Angeles County, California, USA.

From details on www.stadtwikidd.de and https://hubpages.com/family/photographer-adolph-de-meyer, it is now apparent that the photographer Adolph Edward Sigismund Meyer (1868-1948) was the son of Adolph Lewis Meyer (1839-1878) by his wife Adele Watson (born at St Petersburg, 1840, the daughter of William Watson and Marie Toal) and that Adele, who died at Gotha in 1896, was the widow of his elder brother Ludwig Carl Meyer (born at St Petersburg, May 1833; died at Dresden, 22 April 1860) who had married her at the Evangelical Reformed Church in Moscow, 12 July 1858. The two brothers were the younger sons of a wealthy merchant Johann Meyer (born at Hanover, 28 January 1800; died at Dresden, 6 January 1887) by his wife Auguste Dorothea Fehst (born at Reval, 18 February 1802; died at Dresden 12 March 1883) the daughter of Johann Philipp Christian Fehst and Dorothea Streit. An elder brother Johann Peter Caspar Meyer lived at Florence in 1887. Their father Johann Meyer (1800-1887) was noted for his provision of social housing in Dresden and was made an Honorary Citizen of the city, 1 May 1866. Some details of his will are given in the Illustrated London News, 7 May 1887, page 9, and administration of his estate (with the will dated 28 December 1883 and a codicil dated 27 April 1886, and two codicils dated 12 October 1886 attached) was granted at the Principal Registry, London, 26 April 1887, his personal estate being sworn at £147,137 and re-sworn, August 1887, at £147,487. The photographer and his sister Sophia inherited a third of the residue of their grandfather's estate.

On 18 February 1901 the Bournemouth Daily Echo reported (page 4) that 'Baron Adolph Meyer, well known in the social and theatrical worlds as one of our most artistic photographers, has just succeeded to the fortune of his sister, the late Mrs Hamsh. Baron Meyer was already a rich man, and a year of two ago married the Princess Olga Brancaccio'. Later that year it was reported that 'Baron Adolph Meyer, who is reputed to be one of the richest men in England, is a clever and enthusiastic photographer - a hobby which his wife, who is a Russian princess, shares with him' [North Devon Gazette, 20 August 1901, page 2].

The photographer's sister Sophia had married Frederick Hamsch, of Staten Island, New York, in London, 1 October 1898, as only daughter of the late Adolphe Meyer, of 3 Parkstrasse, Dresden, and sister of Baron Meyer-Watson of 1 Cadogan Gardens [The Times, 5 October 1898, page 1, as 'Hamsh']. The GRO indexes show them as Frederick Arthur Hamsch and Sophie Auguste Meyer or Ritter [Chelsea, 1a 861]. The couple had US passports issued in France on 8 November 1898 [US Passport Applications, Issued Abroad 1877-1907, France 1897-99, vol. 52, no. 304], Frederick having been born at Manheim, 20 June 1874. His father had emigrated in 1882 and been naturalised in Richmond County, New York, 1889. He himself had lived at Clifton Street, New York, and was a banker. He had left the US 14 September 1898, resided in London since 24 September 1898, and was now temporarily in Paris. The Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad 1835-1974 [Notices 1857-1922, vol. 25, 1902-3, page 484] show that he died at Monte Carlo, 19 March 1903.

The photographer's half-brother Ludwig Adolph Meyer who was born at Dresden in 1860 and died in Paris in 1930 had married at Dresden, 1 June 1886, an American, Georgiana Ives, born in Connecticut in 1860, who died at Garmisch in 1948.

The photographer's use of the title 'baron' has not been clarified. As mentioned in 2007 his family does not appear in Die Adels-und Wappenbriefe des Namens Mayer in allen semen Schriebungen, herausgegeben von der Kais. hon. heraldischen Gesellschaft "Adler" (Wien, 1911) or the Taschenbuch der Freiherrlichenhauser, and the creation is not listed in 'The German Titular Nobility' in the Marquis de Ruvigny's The Nobilities of Europe (1910) 73-101, though other creations by the Kings of Saxony and of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha appear there. The title's appearance in Whitaker's Peerage from 1898 to 1913 unfortunately does not prove its authenticity.

Baron Adolph de Meyer was the subject of an exhibition at The Robert Miller Gallery at 524 West 26th Street, New York, in February-April 2010, and a detailed account of his work is provided by the gallery online at www.robertmillergallery.com.

Page 359 -  Lady Susan Vane-Tempest. The sad details provided by Giles St. Aubyn (Edward VII: Prince and King (Collins, London, 1979, pages 156-9) and noted by Stanley Weintraub (a Professor at Pennsylvania State University) in The importance of being Edward, King in Waiting, 1841-1901 (John Murray, 2000) make it very likely that Susan had an abortion and that no child survived, and yet Blair Douglas Campbell shows her as the Prince's 'spouse' and an unnamed child born to her and the Prince in 1875, on a largely worthless entry about Edward VII inserted amongst the Private Pedigrees on Ancestry in 2024. I noted in 2007 that she was at 20 Chapel Street, Grosvenor Square, in 1871, and died at Honfleur, near le Havre, 6 September 1875.

Page 361 - Edward VII (additional entry). Ann Tuffrey. On 8 March 1872 one Ann Tuffrey, a domestic servant, gave birth at Weston on the Green, Oxfordshire, to an illegitimate child, registered as Eva Ann Tuffrey, at Bicester, on 25 March, the father not being named [GRO Birth Certificate, No 195]. On 10 February 1874 the mother, described as Annie Tuffery, aged 20, and her child Eva, aged 1, joined Annie's parents, William Tuffery aged 51, of Oxon, Laborer, and Anne aged 48, and her younger siblings, William aged 18, George aged 15, Esther aged 12, and David aged 6, and sailed to Otago, New Zealand, on the Steam Ship Atrato [Canterbury Passenger List] under a scheme to encourage free migration to that country (which between December 1873 and February 1874 sent 4,973 migrants in 16 ships) [Tony Simpson, The immigrants (Auckland, 1997) 179], the family's 'Total Cost of Passenger Money to (NZ) Government' being £105. The couple and their children had been living at North Lane, Weston on the Green, Oxfordshire, in 1871 [TNA, RG10/1443-27-2], when William had been a highway labourer; they were previously at the Toll Gate, in Church Lane, Weston on the Green, in 1861 [TNA, RG9/898-32-14] when William Tuffry (sic) was described as a road laborer and his wife as the toll gate keeper; and in 1851 [TNA, HO107/1729-?-5] when William was an agricultural labourer. The couple, William Tuffery and Ann Brain, had married by banns at Weston on the Green on 31 August 1845 [Registers, Page 10, Entry 20], William being the son of Isaac Tuffery, woodman, and Ann being the daughter of John Brain, labourer.

The younger Ann was with her parents, aged 7 in 1861, but in 1871, just prior to the birth of her child in 1872, she was, as Ann Tufferay, aged 20, kitchen maid (domestic servant), born at Oxford, living at 32 Cavendish Square, Marylebone [TNA, RG10/159-61-52] in the household of Richard Quain, aged 66, surgeon, FRCS, and his wife Ellen, aged 55. Richard Quain (1800-1887) was a noted surgeon and uncle to Sir Richard Quain, who died in 1898 and was a Physician Extraordinary to the Queen.

There is no evidence of the identity of the father of the child Eva Ann Tuffrey, but discussions on social media (apart from saying that she may have been a daughter of the Prince of Wales!) have pointed out that shortly after arriving in New Zealand, her mother married in Dunedin on 2 June 1875, a Scottish-born carpenter, called John Reid Knowles, which may suggest that she had been in contact with him prior to her migration.They had two children but John died in 1877 . In 1879  Ann married secondly James Dewe, who was also originally from Oxfordshire, and died in 1934. Her daughter Eva Ann married at Invercargill in 1891 one Alfred Thomas who had also migrated to New Zealand on the Atrato and left a large family. She died at Invercargill on 31 July 1949. There is not the slightest reason to connect her with the Prince of Wales, though some pedigrees on Ancestry absurdly show Annie Tuffery as the Prince's 'spouse'. [AJC, 11 June 2024].

Page 362 - Edward VII (additional entry)

1867. Madame de Didier. An 'exceedingly restless' Prince accompanied his invalid wife to the baths at Wiesbaden for two months, 18 August - 18 October1867, and there was much gossip about the attention he had paid to the ladies at St Petersburg and Moscow the previous November and at Paris in May, whilst Princess Alexandra was unwell [Magnus (1964) 94-95]. The Prince seems to have met at Wiesbaden one Madame Didier to whom, on his return to Windsor, he sent some Marius buttons, 12 November 1867, and whom he again met when in St Petersburg for the marriage of his brother Alfred in February 1874, later sending a photograph and his regret at not seeing her more often [Ridley (2012)110-11].

The lady, addressed as 'Comtesse' by the Prince, has not been identified with certainty. She may be the 'Madame St Didier', with Princess Sagan and Madame Erlanger, noted as amongst the ladies on horseback who followed the Prince when hunting in France in 1874 ['The Prince of Wales in France', in Daily News, Issue 8892, 24 October 1874]. Driven out of Russia by the Revolution and in abject poverty at Monte Carlo in 1921 Madame Didier, in an attempt to raise a little money, offered the Prince's three brief and discreet letters to King George V and was given £20 [Ridley (2012) 210].

Page 362. 1874. Mrs Mary Cornwallis-West. A story in Tim Coates, Patsy (Bloomsbury, 2004; page 7) [repeated in Celia Lee, Winston & Jack(2007) 167-8], that, when sixteen, Mrs Cornwallis-West, had an affair with the Prince and that he fathered 'one, two or even three' of her children, is dismissed by Professor Jane Ridley who notes that the Prince was out of the country when the second child, George, was conceived [Ridley (2012) 167, 315; and note 70, pages 521-2].George was born at Ruthin, 14 November 1874, but the Prince had left England on 10 January 1874 and did not return to Marlborough House from St Petersburg until 4 March [The Times, 6 March 1874, 5e]. Professor Ridley provides a telling story of the Prince not recognising George at a later house party [Ridley (2012) 315].

William Cornwallis West had married Mary ('Patsy') Fitzpatrick at Dublin, 3 October 1872, and their first child, Mary Theresa Olivia ('Daisy'), was born at Ruthin,28 June 1873. The third and last child, Constance Edwina ('Shelagh'), was born at Ruthin, September Quarter 1876. Mary, aged 7, and George, aged 6, were with William's sister, Georgiana Peacocke, at West Street, Southwick, Hampshire, in 1881 [RG11/1169-3810] whilst Constance, aged 4, was with her parents at The Hermitage, Old Windsor, Berkshire [RG11/1325-88-30]. In 1891 the parents and their three teen-age children, with other relatives, were at Newlands Manor, Milford, Hampshire [RG12/900-26-7]. There does not appear to be the slightest contemporary evidence that one or more of the children was not William's though later scandal frequently made George the Prince's son.

Page 363. 1875. Mrs Mabel Batten. Jane Ridley, whilst recognising their later friendship, considers the Prince's relationship with Mabel Batten in India 'probably no more than a flirtation' [Ridley (2012) 180].

Page 363. 1875. Lady Aylesford. The Prince's three joking and flirtatious letters to 'My dear Lady Joe' (Lady Aylesford) are published for the first time by Jane Ridley [Ridley (2012) 191-2]. She considers Randolph Churchill's claim that they were dynamite that could rock the monarchy 'laughable'.

Page 363 - Edward VII (additional entry)

1875-6. Jesusa de Murrieta (c.1834-1898). In April 1875 the Prince (preparing to go to India) went to Mentone for Easter and Lord Derby heard a rumour that he had gone with Mrs Murrieta, 'abundantly notorious in London' (the description is that of Lord Derby). Mrs Murrieta, the wife of a wealthy Spanish merchant who entertained lavishly at houses in Kensington Place and at Wadhurst in Sussex [Ridley (2012) 172]. On the way back from India in April 1876, he spent three days sightseeing with her in Seville, having (Lord Derby was informed) taken lodgings under an assumed name [Ridley (2012) 195]. The extent of the Prince's relationship with Mrs Murrieta, a friend of Jennie Jerome, is uncertain; it was also rumoured that she had created a Wadhurst love-nest for him and Lillie Langtry [Ridley (2012) 211-12].

She was Jesusa, daughter of Vicente Bellido. She died in St George Hanover Square RD, March Quarter 1898, aged 54. She had married at the Chateau de Bel Air, near Bordeaux, 28 May 1863, Don Jose Murrieta del Campo Mello y Urrutia. He was born in Marylebone, 25 October 1833; created Marques of Santurce, by Alfonso XII of Spain, 4 June 1877; had Royal Licence to assume and use title, 1 October1877; and died in Uxbridge RD, September Quarter 1915, aged 81 [Ruvigny (1910) 351; GRO Death Indexes]. The Prince and Princess of Wales attended the marriages of their two daughters at Brompton Oratory in 1889 and 1891. After financial setbacks the family sold the Wadhurst estate in 1898.

Page 364. 1877. Lillie Langtry and The Red House. I had accepted statements [Brough (1975) 166-8; Beatty (1999) 87-9] that the Red House, Knyveton Road, Bournemouth was built by the Prince for Lillie Langtry in 1877, but Jane Ridley noted that there is no contemporary evidence that the Prince had any connection with the house or ever went or stayed there [Ridley (2012) 206] and further investigation has completely disproved the suggestion. Many stories about Lillie Langtry's affair with the Prince and their so-called 'love-nests' are greatly exaggerated (that relating to 103 Alexandra Road, South Hampstead, was destroyed by Dick Weindling and Marianne Colloms in their blog 'http://kilburnwesthampstead.blogspot.com/2021/05/looking-for-lillie-langtry.html in 2021, and reported by Tom Foot, 'Historians say there's no evidence for Lillie Langtry link to Camden', in Camden New Journal, 29 May 2021). 

The evidence shows that the Red House was in fact built by Langtry's contemporary Emily Langton Langton (1847-1897), a prominent women's rights campaigner and temperance activist.

Emily Langton Langton was born Emily Langton Massingberd, the eldest daughter of Charles Langton Massingberd, of Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire. She married in 1867 her second cousin Edmund Langton [Burke's Landed Gentry, iii (1972) sub 'Langton of Langton' and 'Montgomery-Massingberd of Gunby']. The couple lived principally in Bournemouth [a daughter was born at Little Forest House, Bournemouth, in 1871; Hampshire Telegraph, 21 June 1871, page 2], but Edmund died, aged 34, in November 1875, at Eastwood, East Cliffe Road, Bournemouth (the home of his father Revd Charles Langton who was at that time married to a sister of Charles Robert Darwin the naturalist), leaving her with a son and three daughters. She turned then to temperance work with the British Women's Temperance Association and in 1877 built The Red House at the junction of Knyveton Road and Derby Road, Bournemouth, adding a large assembly room for her meetings.

A portrait of Emily painted by John Moore (who died in 1880) shows her with a violin, and in December 1880 she was one of the instrumentalists for the Congregational Band of Hope in the Richmond Hill Congregational School-room, Bournemouth [Hampshire Telegraph, 24 December 1880, page 8]. In May 1880 she helped at a bazaar in Bournemouth Town Hall [Hampshire Telegraph, 29 May 1880, page 7] and in January 1881 she held a notable fancy dress dance 'at the Assembly Room of the Red House, Bournemouth' [Hampshire Telegraph, 15 January 1881, page 3]. In September 1882 she held a 'fashionable concert' at the Red House in aid of funds for the Bournemouth Dispensary [Hampshire Telegraph, 16 September 1882, page 3]. Emily was not always at the Red House and at the time of the Census (3 April) in 1881 she was staying in Kensington and the Red House had been let to John Edward Cooke, late of the Royal Navy, his wife Sarah Rosa (a daughter of Edward Mackenzie of Fawley Court, Surrey) and their young family [1881 Census: The National Archives, RG11/1194-32-55; Burke's Landed Gentry (1882) sub Mackenzie of Fawley Court; Burke's Landed Gentry of Great Britain: The Kingdom in Scotland (2001) sub Mackenzie of Farr]. In 1882 the Red House was let to Mr and Mrs Holdsworth [James Brough The prince and the Lily (1975) 259]. Emily made her first speech in favour of women's suffrage at Westminster Town Hall in 1882 and on 15 December 1883, Laura Ormiston Grant and Caroline Biggs 'held a drawing-room meeting at the home of Mrs Langton (The Red House, Derby Road)' [Elizabeth Crawford, The women's suffrage movement in Britain and Ireland: a regional survey (2013)]. Mrs Langton is listed at that address in Kelly's Directory for Hampshire for 1885.

However, Emily's father died in 1887 and she succeeded to the Gunby Hall estate in Lincolnshire. She resumed her maiden name of Massingberd by Royal Licence that year describing herself as 'of The Red House, Bournemouth, and of Gunby Hall, Lincoln, widow' [The Times, 19 March 1887, quoted in W.P.W. Phillimore & E.A. Fry, An index to Changes of Name (1968) 219]. For some years she managed the Gunby Hall estate herself and the Red House saw little of Emily Langton Massingberd when the house was often let to others. In 1891 Emily Langton's young widowed sister Alice Clark (died 1927) at the Red House with her two young children and Emily's daughter Diana Massingberd, then aged 18, and five servants [1891 Census: The National Archives, RG12/903-73-73], but meanwhile in 1889 the wife of Warren Thomas Peacocke (died 1920), a Captain in the Rifle Brigade, had given birth to a son, Warren 'John' Richard Peacocke, at the Red House [Morning Post, 7 May 1889, page 1] though his family seems to have lived mainly at Efford Park, Lymington [Burke's Landed Gentry, ii (1882) 1246 sub Peacocke of Efford Park; Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes (1893)]. By 1901 the Red House was occupied by Henry Martin Cornwall Legh (1839-1904), a retired Colonel in the Grenadier Guards and his wife Constance. The Census that year shows also three visitors and nine indoor servants, together with, in the neighbouring Red House Stables, a coachman, two footmen and a groom [1901 Census: The National Archives, RG13/1043-97-27/28]. Shortly afterwards The Red House was occupied (and it seems owned) by the Revd George Bennett, former Head Master of Sarum Cathedral School (1881-90) and Rector of Folke, Dorset (1890-3) and later Vicar of Rodmersham, Kent (1903-5) and Rector of West Quantoxhead, Bridgwater (1907-11) [Crockford's Clerical Directories]. Bennett was, in fact, described as of the Red House in 1898 [Crockford's Clerical Directory] so he had presumably let the house to Colonel Legh for a short time. In 1905 Bennett's wife advertised for a cook (good plain), a house parlour maid and a young housemaid [Western Gazette, 5 May 1905, page 6] and later that year her husband was successfully sued for damages by a local ironmonger and engineer after driving his car 'without due care and attention' [Western Gazette, 1 December 1905, page 5]. The Bennetts seem to have continued to let the house and in 1911 it was occupied by Louisa Lucy Sitwell, the 80 year old widow of Sir Sitwell Reresby Sitwell, 3^rd Baronet, who had died in 1862. She had with her three relatives as well as eight servants and a nurse, her butler and his wife living in three rooms in the stables [The National Archives, RG14, RD 95, ED 16]. Lady Sitwell (who in 1901 had with her at Gosden House, Shalford, Surrey, her granddaughter, the young Edith Sitwell) died in October 1911 but by then was living at Balcombe Tower, Branksome Park, Bournemouth [Principal Probate Registry, General Calendar of Grants, 1912]. The Revd George Bennett died at The Red House, 5 September 1915 [Western Gazette, 1 October 1915, page 5; PPR, General Calendar of Grants], and his widow, Caroline Elizabeth, died there 4 September 1937 [Western Daily Press, 16 October 1937, page 6; PPR, General Calendar of Grants]. Immediately after Mrs Bennett's death in 1937 the house was sold and converted into an hotel. The first proprietors were Cecil Henry Ravenhill Hulbert (1895-1974) and his wife Dorothy Minnie, nee Kemp (1899-1987). They named it the Manor Heath Hotel and from July 1938 actively advertised it in newspapers, producing also a brochure saying that the house was 'built originally for Lily Langtry' [https://flickr.com/photos/alwyn_ladell/15475059259].The Hulberts were presumably responsible for the Borough of Bournemouth plaque on the front of the building recording its supposed connection with the Prince's mistress. 

In 1977 Pamela Howard and her family purchased the property and called it the Red House Hotel. After restoring some of the original features and décor, they re-named it the Langtry Manor Hotel and put together an '1877 Collection' of memorabilia relating to Lillie Langtry. In March 2015 the Howard family sold the hotel. Derby Lodge no longer forms part of the estate. The present owners continue to trade on the false legend and Mrs Langton must be turning in her grave! [https://www.langtrymanor.co.uk]

The false Langtry legend. By the 1940s, when memories of Emily Langton's activities at Bournemouth had begun to fade, local people confused the names and began to say that the single lady who had lived at the Red House in the 1880s was none other than the notorious Emilie 'Lillie' Langtry, the mistress of Edward VII. Lillie Langtry had lived at Monaco since 1918 and died in 1929. She had made no mention of the house or of any Bournemouth connection in her memoirs The days I knew (1925).

However, by the time that the former journalist James Brough collected information for his The Prince and the Lily (1975), it was being said that Lillie and the late King had designed and built the Red House in Derby Road on land which belonged to Lord Derby, that they had stayed in a smaller property on the land (Derby Lodge) whilst the house was being built, and that when completed the initials E. L. L. and the year 1877 were carved into the inglenook fireplace in the dining room.

Lillie probably did not become the Prince's mistress until late in 1877 or early in 1878 [Laura Beatty, Lillie Langtry: Manners, Masks and Morals (1999) 97-8] and the initials E. L. L., which were said to be those of Emilie Le Breton Langtry, were in reality those of Emily Langton Langton. By 24 May 1877, when Lillie Langtry first met the Prince of Wales, she had already dropped the name Emilie and the monograph on her writing paper was just 'LL' [Beatty (1999) 89]. The size of the assembly room, 'more dining-hall than dining-room' as Laura Beatty described it [Beatty (1999) 89], had always been something of a surprise to those interested in the Lillie Langtry story.

The Red House is in Derby Road and it was said that the area had belonged to Lord Derby [Beatty (1999) 88) but Lord Derby owned no land in Hampshire [The Complete Peerage, iv (1916) 222] and his family papers make no mention of Lillie Langtry or of the Red House [Beatty (1999) 89].

Finally, Professor Jane Ridley, with privileged access to the Prince of Wales's diaries and other Royal Archives, states that there is no contemporary evidence that the Prince had any connection with the Red House or ever went or stayed there [Jane Ridley, Bertie: a life of Edward VII (2012) 206].

Although remaining friends with the Prince, Lillie Langtry's physical relationship with him ended in June 1880 when she became pregnant, probably by her old friend Arthur Jones with whom she went to Paris for the birth of the child, Jeanne-Marie, in March 1881 [Beatty (1999) 173].

It may be noted that Captain Warren Peacocke's father, Warren William Richard Peacocke (1822-1877), had married secondly in 1875, Georgina, the eldest sister of William Cornwallis West (1835-1917), of Ruthin Castle and Newlands Manor, Milford-on-Sea. It is just possible that Lillie Langtry, by 1889 the mistress of Fred Gebhard and frequently touring in America, had been spoken about when the Captain visited The Red House that year, for Lillie was a great friend of William's wife, the celebrated beauty Mary ('Patsy') Cornwallis West (1854-1920), whose name was also closely associated with that of the Prince of Wales. If so, it would perhaps have strengthened the local gossip and stories. Two of Mary's children stayed with Georgina Peacocke at West Street, Southwick, Hampshire, in 1881 [1881 Census: The National Archives, RG11/1169-38-10] and the whole West family were at neighbouring Newlands Manor in 1891 [1891 Census: The National Archives, RG12/900-26-7] and were well known in the area.

As I wrote here in July-August 2013, the above Mrs Emily L. Langton, a prosperous widow of about Lillie's age, who died in 1897, was at some later date confused in people's memories with the notorious Lillie (Mrs Emilie L. Langtry). Such confusion would have been strengthened by noting the Red House's beam with its inscription 'E.L.L.' and its seeming coincidence with events in Lillie Langtry's life. However, as Laura Beatty had already pointed out the entire story is based merely on local verbal traditions [AJC July-August 2013; further amended June 2015].

Edward Langtry. I paid little attention to Edward Langtry, Lillie's first husband, in 2007, and I am indebted to Ted Robbens (the author of the detailed article on Edward contributed to Wikipedia in 2019 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Langtry) for pointing out that my then details of his parentage (based on those given by James Brough  - pure fiction - and Laura Beatty) were quite incorrect, and that he was the son of Robert Langtry (1800-1855) and not of his brother Richard Langtry who died in October 1858, aged 48. Their father, George Langtry, the founder of the family mercantile and shipping business, died in 1846

Edward Langtry was born at Belfast, co. Antrim, Ireland, on 14 February 1847, the son of Robert Langtry (1800-1855) by his wife Eliza Ray (1825-1854). In 1851, aged 4, Edward was with his father Robert Langtry at Ardimersay, Kidalton, Argyll [Parish 541, ED 2, page 2], and in 1861 the orphaned Edward and his three sisters were boarding at Wonston Rectory, Hampshire [RG9/689-14-21], then the home of Revd. Alexander Robert Charles Dallas. Edward married 1stly, by Special Licence, at St Helier, Jersey, 10 March 1869 [Registers, Entry 158, Page 32], Jane Frances Price, aged 18, daughter of Francis Price, gentleman, describing himself as aged 22, gentleman, born Belfast, the son of Robert Langtry, gentleman. Edward Langtry married 2ndly, by Special Licence, at St Saviour, Jersey, 9 March 1874 [Entry 375, Page 75], Emilie Charlotte Le Bretton, describing himself as aged 26, widower, independent, born Scotland, the son of Robert Langtry, independent. In 1871 he was at Bel Air House, Rue de la Dame, St Saviour, married, aged 24, incorrectly saying that he was born at Antrim, Ireland [RG10/5760 page 26].

Page 365. re Arthur Clarence Jones (the presumed father of Lillie Langtry's only child) attracted little interest prior to the publication of Laura Beatty's biography of her in 1999, and his later history remained obscure. As aged 26, of St Heliers, gentleman, Arthur Clarence Elliott Jones was Initiated in or entered The Royal Alfred Lodge, St Heliers, Jersey, No 1179, 8 January 1878, Passing to the second degree 12 February and being Raised to the third degree 12 March 1878 [Membership Register, United Grand Lodge of England, folio 102]. Sometime in 1893-5 as Arthur Clarence Jones he married at the British Consulate, Biarritz, France, Maria Courtenay Crawshay  [GRO Consular Marriages, vol. 9, page 354], the widow of Herbert Henry Crawshay, of St Aubyn's, Brighton and formerly of Oaklands, Newnham-on-Severn, Stoneleigh, Cheltenham and St Helier's, Jersey, who had died 12 November 1892 and whose Administration had been granted to her on 19 June 1893 [London Gazette, 27 June 1893, page 3664]. She had married her first husband by licence at St Luke, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on 1 July 1888 [Registers, Entry 106, Page 53], being then described as aged 20, of 4 Lansdown Place, Cheltenham, the daughter of Arthur Fitzgerald Howe Daniel. By Herbert Henry Crawshay she had had three children [Burke's Landed Gentry 1914 sub Crawshay formerly of Cyfarthfa Castle]: (1) Dorothy Crawshay (1882-1966) who married in 1906, Leonard Corfield Bucknall (1873-1944), of Creagh Castle, Doneraile, co. Cork; (2) Irene Lisa Crawshay (1887-1980) who married Albert George L'Estrange Legallais, at Holy Trinity, Kensington, in 1910; and (3) Jessie Crawshay (1890-1891).

On 10 April 1872 Arthur Clarence Jones became an Ensign in his father's Regiment, the 2nd Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps, and rose to be gazetted Captain on 29 December 1883 [London Gazette, 28 December 1883, page 6691], but after his father's death on 13 November 1885, Arthur resigned his commission, 27 February 1886 [London Gazette, 26 February 1886, page 967]. In 16 and 17 February 1883 he had been named in advertisements in The Times as a Director of the Jersey Railway Co. Ltd. As executor to his father he sold some of his possessions at Sotheby's [The Times, 12 October 1920, page 22]. In 1911 he, aged 55, and his wife, 'Minnie' C. Jones, aged 50, had 10 rooms at Portelet, Jersey, and the Census shows that they had had a son Arthur H. Jones, born in London, and then aged 9 at school in Jersey.

As noted in 2007 Arthur Clarence Jones had died at Portelet, 6 December 1930, aged 76, and his wife, Maria Courtnay Jones, died in Jersey on 1 August 1943 [The Times, 15 September 1943, page 1]. Their only son Arthur Heron Jones died, aged 34, as the result of a motor accident, at Seremban, Malay, 29 November 1935 [The Times, 28 November 1936, page 1], his administration (£1,925-7-8), as of Portelet House, St Brelades, Jersey, being granted to his mother, 3 February 1936 [PPR Calendar].

Page 367. Widow Signoret. Presumably the Fanny Signoret named in the anonymous [i.e. Julian Osgood Field (1852-1925)], Things I shouldn't tell (London, 1924) page 16 (as a friend of Henry Milbank, the young Duc de Morny and Lord Dupplin), and in his More uncensored recollections (London, 1926) pages 235-36 (as a companion of Milan, ex-King of Serbia). She also appears with Esther Guimond (died 1879) as 'des morphinomanes' at Montmartre in Jean Lorrain, Heures d'Afriques: chronique du Maghreb 1893-1898 (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1994).

Page 368 - Edward VII (additional entry). 1881-5.   Consuelo, Viscountess Mandeville (1858-1909). According to Henry Vane's Affair of State: a biography of the 8th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire (2004), page 186, Consuelo, Viscountess Mandeville was the Prince's mistress in the mid-1880s, 'filling a niche between Lillie Langtry and Daisy Brooke', the latter being credited with sweeping out 'the American gang' that would have included Consuelo. However, there does not seem to be any confirmatory evidence of the rumoured relationship though she and her sisters were often at Marlborough House and the Prince is said to have been 'crazy about her Spanish songs' which she accompanied on the banjo. Her husband was made bankrupt in 1889 and she was ostracised for her part in the Lady Brooke controversy that year, remaining out of favour until 1905 [Ridley (2012) 233, 268, 404]. She was the model for the main character, 'Conchita Closson', in Edith Wharton's The Buccaneers (1938) [Ridley (2012) 233-4].

She was Consuelo, daughter of Antonio Yznaga del Valle, of Ravenswood, Louisiana, and New York, and Cuba. She was born in Louisiana, USA, 1858, and died at 5 Grosvenor Square, London, 20 November 1909. She had married at New York, 22 May 1876, George (Montagu), 11th Viscount Mandeville, who succeeded as 8th Duke of Manchester, 1890, and died at Tanderagee Castle, Armagh, 18 August 1892, aged 39 [CP viii (1932) 378-9].

Page 367. Edward VII (Additional entry). 1879 Mary Eliza Willmore (1849-1916). In April-May 2024 I was approached by a genealogist in Canada, Blair Douglas Campbell, who wrote that his great-aunt Lilyan Willmore (1912-2007) had claimed that her father William Thomas Willmore (said to have been born in 1877) was the illegitimate son of Edward VII and Mary Eliza Dunsdon. William Thomas Willmore had been, she said, in the British army and was said to resemble Edward VII, and 'someone with money had paid for his entire family to move to Canada to get William out of London and away from prying eyes'. My correspondent was hoping to prove the connection with DNA matches.

Differing accounts of the family appeared in pedigrees on Ancestry but the marriage certificate of William Thomas Willmore, laborer, bachelor, aged 30, of Merritton (near the Niagara Falls in Canada), son of John Albert Willmore, clerk, and Mary Dunaville, was shown on Ancestry, and he had married Nellie Clark, spinster, aged 22, of Merritton, daughter of Hugh Clark, carter, and Helen Barn, at Merritton in Lincoln County, Ontario, on 24 October 1910. 

William Thomas Willmore was thus born about 1880 but he was clearly not the William Thomas Willmore born on 19 August 1880 at 6 John Street, Roupell Street, the son of Charles James Willmore, telegraph clerk, and his wife Jane, formerly Brown. This boy had been baptised at St Andrew, Lambeth, on 12 September 1880, the baptismal entry giving the same parental details [Entry 1757, Page 220] and his parents had married at St Mary, Lambeth, on 9 May 1880, the groom being the son of Thomas Willmore, deceased [Entry 103, Page 52].

However, the 1881 census returns showed that a Thomas William Willmore, aged 2, with a sister Mary Eliza, aged 5, and an elder brother John Albert, aged 8, children of John Willmore, a railway clerk, by a wife Mary Eliza, was then living at 5 Bridge Place, St Saviour, Southwark [RG 11/519-54-28].  The two children had been baptised [Entries 1150 and 1151, Page 145] at St Saviour, Southwark, on 13 May 1886, without their ages or dates of birth, but the entries showed them as Mary Eliza, daughter of John & Mary Willmore, of 50 Newcomen Street, clerk, and Thomas William Willmore, son of the same parents. The family was then found at 50 Newcomen Street, St Saviour, Southwark in the 1891 Census  [RG12/342-19-31] the father being shown as John Willmore, aged 46, Railway clerk (not employed), born at Nuneaton, the mother being Mary E. Willmore, aged 40, born at Iver, Buckinghamshire, and the children including Mary E., aged 15, dressmaker, and Thomas W. aged 12, scholar, both born in Southwark.

With that information the birth certificate of Thomas William Willmore was obtained and showed that he was actually born on 24 June 1878, at 5 Bridge Place, Southwark, the son of John Willmore, railway carrier's clerk, and his wife Mary Eliza Willmore formerly Dunsdon, the information of birth being given to the Registrar on 24 July 1878 by J. Willmore, father, of 5 Bridge Place, Southwark. The date 24 June 1878 in fact appears on his tombstone (shown on the site 'Find a Grave') and agrees with the family's entry in the 1881 census. The birth of the sister Mary Eliza Willmore was registered at St Saviour in the September Quarter of 1875 [1d 20] but the certificate was not obtained, The incorrect pedigree on Ancestry has sadly not been corrected.

The parents, John Willmore and Mary Eliza Dunsdon (sic), had married after banns, on 25 December 1872, at St John the Baptist, Hoxton [Entry 96, Page 48], and the mother Mary Eliza Dunsdon, daughter of William & Mary Dunsdon, of Iver (in Buckinghamshire), builder, had been baptised 7 October 1849, at St Margaret, Uxbridge, Middlesex [Entry 731, Page 92].

Curious to see when Thomas William Willmore emigrated, I found that one Thomas Willmore, aged 29, male, single, labourer, able to read and write, English citizen from London, had arrived at New York on the Furnessia in December 1909, his final destination being New York and the entry on the passenger list adding 'Mother, Mrs Willmore, 41 Elford Road, Highbury, London'. That was a mistake for Elfort Road and the Electoral Registers for 41 Elfort Road, Islington East (at the London Metropolitan Archives), show that in 1907 it was John Willmore's place of abode and qualifying property [No 2644] as it had been in 1906 [No 2174] and in 1905 [as No 2110], but in 1905 the entry said that his dwelling house had been successively 103 Gillespie Road and 41 Elfort Road. That tied him to an entry in the 1901 census returns which showed the family in 4 rooms at 103 Gillespie Road [RG13/203-67-18] when John Willmore was aged 59,  a shipping clerk, his wife Mary E., was aged 50, and they had with them two daughters Mary E., aged 22, a dressmaker, and Lilian M., aged 12, and proves that the 1909 passenger details relate to him.

The registration of death of John Willmore [Entry 435] was then found and shows that he died at 41 Elfort Road, aged 62, a shipping clerk, on 15 October 1907, the cause of death being cerebral apoplexy 4 days, brochitis 4 days, and the informant being Mary Willmore, daughter, present at the death, of the same adress, on 15 October 1907. The death of his widow, Mary Eliza Willmore [Entry 308], at 105 Seven Sisters Road, on 28 January 1916, aged 64, was then found, she being described as the widow of John Albert Willmore, shipping clerk, by M. E. Jeffery, daughter, in attendance at that address, on 31 January 1916. The 1911 Census had showed Mary Willmore, aged 61, widow ('married 40 years with 4 children', struck through), born at Iver, with Mary Jeffery, daughter, aged 34, widow, tie maker, born Southwark and Lilian Willmore, daughter, aged 22, single, jeweller's polisher, born Southwark, together in 5 rooms at 29 Salisbury Road, Haringay. The entry was signed by Mary Jeffery.

I could not immediately see what Thomas William Willmore had been doing after 1909 and in the First World War, but in 1919 he, his wife and five children, were amongst the 'Returned Canadians' who on 20 March 1919  arrived in the Corsican from Liverpool at St John, Newfoundland. It is interesting to compare the passenger list showing his children (with Daisy, the eldest, aged 12), with that given in the 1921 Census of Brantford, Ontario, which shows the first child Daisy as aged 15 and born in Scotland. The latter entry says that Thomas's year of immigration was '1900' and gives the same date for this wife Nellie/Helen, but cannot be correct. As noted above Thomas Willmore had married Helen Clark at Merritton in Lincoln County, Ontario, on 22 October 1910, and the full entry is available on Ancestry. The Canadian registration records show that their first child, Thomas William, was born at Merritton on 13 August 1911 [No. 029979], their next child, Lillian May, was born at Merritton on 29 September 1912 [No.031771], and their third child, Ellen Isabella, was born at Merritton on 1 June 1915 [No. 035800; wrongly transcribed as 'Ellis' and the mother as 'Clara' on Ancestry] The child Daisy could thus not have been born after the marriage and was clearly illegitimate and probably the reason why her mother was concerned about 'prying eyes'. However, Daisy's birth registration has not been identified and it is odd that she was not listed amongst the couple's children in the pasenger list of the 'Baltic' when the family returned from New York to Liverpool in England on 5 November 1915. That list (headed by Nellie aged 27, followed by Thomas aged 37) shows only three children: Elen (sic) aged 4, Thomas aged 4, and Lillian aged 3. Thomas was born in 1911, Lilian was born in 1912, and Elen was born in 1915, The entry shows their future address as 105 Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park, so undoubtedly relates to this family.

The basic UK army sources indexed by Ancestry do not seem to include any mention of the army service of this Thomas Willmore who remained in America until late 1915 and was then in England until 1919, when his status would certainly have been questioned. I have not seen any evidence that he was the Private William Willmore, 130231, in the Royal Army Medical Corps, who received the Victory and Brtish Medals [UK, British Army World War 1 Medal Rolls Index Cards 1914-1920], as is claimed on the Ancestry pedigree.

However, the correspondent who caused this investigation, has provided an absurd account of the family of Edward VII to Ancestry for inclusion amongst its public pedigrees [accessed 27 May 2024] which is both shocking and distressing. The Prince is shown as fathering his first illegitimate child when he was eleven years old and it shows "William Thomas Willmore (1879-1958)" as the King's child together with six or seven other children born to the King's so-called 'spouses' (a word which in England implies a legal marriage) and a similar number of chidren by so-called 'partners'. Many of these claims, as in this Willmore example, are completely devoid of  any evidence of a relationship to the royal family. These statements should be deleted. DNA checks promoted by the company on such fictions would be worthless [AJC, 21 June 2024; and 15 July 2024].

I should add that the child George Lawrence Willmore (1917-2007) on the Ancestry pedigree, aged 4 in the 1921 Census and said to be born in Ontario, was actually registered as George Laurie Willmore at Dartford in the June Quarter of 1917 [2a 792] and was born on 1 April 1917 at 124 Stuart Road, Welling, in Bexley Urban District, England (not at 'Woolich' as on the pedigree), he being another child of Thomas William Willmore, general labourer, and Nellie Willmore formerly Clark. He had no immediate connection with the George and Emily Willmore who were living at 14 Stirling Road, Brixton, Lambeth in 1918 [Electoral Register] as claimed on the pedigree, as that couple appear as Charles George Willmore, aged 68, a head waiter (born at Maidstone, Kent) and his wife Emily Jane Willmore, aged 63 (born at Ramsgate, Kent), in the 1921 Census of 14 Stirling Road, Stockwell [1921 Census, Schedule No 506]. [AJC, 24 June 2024].

Page 372. Countess Raben-Levetzau (1864-1946). The comment by Diana Souhami that Count Siegfried Victor Raben-Levetzau (1891-1965) was rumoured to be the Prince's illegitimate son and 'looked particularly like him', like Princess Margaret [Diana Souhami, Mrs Keppel and her daughter (1996) page 15], was provided by her without any source, but the Count is  now shown as the Prince's son on a table which has been  inserted amongst the Private Pedigrees on Ancestry by Blair Douglas Campbell in 2024. No further comment, source or evidence is, however, there provided.

Page 372. 1889-97. Daisy, Countess of Warwick. Jane Ridley [quoting Sushila Anand, Daisy: the life and loves of the Countess of Warwick (2009) page 81] says that Daisy was in no doubt that Joe Laycock was the father of her child, Maynard Greville.

Edward VII (additional entry). Page 373. 1897. Mrs Emma Bourke (died 1935). Emma Bourke, the eldest sister of Mabel Batten and with a husband 20 years older than herself, was a regular companion of the Prince on his afternoon drives when at the Hotel Weimar, Marienbad, in August 1897. She is described as manipulative by Jane Ridley and had a history of allegedly sending poison pen letters. Her husband, a stockbroker, was often short of money. A letter from the Prince, dated 19 September 1897, hints at a physical relationship [Ridley (2012) 327]. She and her husband dined with the Prince at Nice in the spring of 1898 and on 3 July 1899 the Prince described her as 'the kindest and best little woman in the world', sending her £100 from his winnings at Ascot and Newmarket [Ridley (2012) 327]. Their friendship continued after the Prince became King, he showering her with notes addressed 'Ma Chere Amie', 'My dearest little friend' and, more, frequently 'My Dear Mrs Bourke' [Ridley (2012) 353].

She was Emma Mary Augusta (died 9 March 1935), eldest daughter of Lieut.-Gen. George Cliffe Hatch, C.S.I. She had married 1stly, 20 November 1872, Edward Roden Bourke, 6th son of Robert (Bourke), 5th Earl of Mayo, by whom she had five children. He was born 13 December 1835; Major 3rd Hussars, Military Secretary to Governor-General of India, 1869-72; died 7 June 1907. She married 2ndly, 5 August 1908, Edward (Hyde), 5th Earl of Clarendon; Lord Chamberlain,1900-05. He died 2 October 1914.

Page 373. 1897. Agnes Keyser. Jane Ridley notes from the Prince's diary that he first dined with Agnes Keyser on 8 October 1895 and not in February 1898 as generally stated [Ridley (2012) 338 note 107].

Page 374. Mrs Alice Keppel, It has been widely stated that the former Alice Frederica Edmonstone was born at Duntreath Castle but as stated at page 374 she was actually born at Woolwich, Kent, where her father was Superintendent of the Dockyard from 1866 to 1871 [Foster's Baronetage, 1881, page 202]. The 1871 Census of Plymstock, Devon, says that she was then aged 2 and born at Woolwich, and the 1881 census of St Cuthbert, Edinburgh, says that she was aged 12 and born at Woolwich. As stated her birth on 29 April 1868 was registered in the June Quarter of 1868 at Greenwich [General Register Office Birth Indexes, June 1868, 1d 820]. The mention of her second daughter at line 28 should read 'Sonia' and not 'Sofia'.

Page 376. Edward VII: additional entry. 1902. Jane Cowley (born 1874). Obituaries of Marcia Williams (1932-2019), private and political secretary to Harold Wilson, 1956-83 (at 10 Downing Street, 1964-70 and 1974-76), who took the surname Falkender by Deed Poll and received a Life Peerage as Baroness Falkender, of West Haddon, in 1974, mention that her mother Dorothy, born in 1902, the illegitimate daughter of Jane Cowley, was said to have been an unacknowledged child of Edward VII and that an aide-de-camp named Falkender obliged him by claiming to be the child's father [e.g. The Guardian, 16 February 2019]. No further details of the claimed liaison are known and the story seems to have been invented to hide the humble status of the family. However, Jane Cowley (incorrectly said to have been born in 1880) was in 2024 placed amongst the 'Partners' of the King in a wortless table of his descendants  compiled by Blair Douglas Campbell  and placed amongst the private pedigrees on Ancestry.com. See the additional page on 'Marcia Falkender' on this site.

Page 376. Edward VII - Lady Kilmorey (1858-1920).  Lady Kilmorey was named by Sir Philip Magnus as one of the occupants of the King's 'Loose Box' at his coronation in 1902 [Magnus (1964) page 299], and she has now been absurdly named by Blair Douglas Campbell in a privately submitted pedigree on Ancestry.com (in her maiden name, 'Ellen Constance Baldock'), as a 'spouse' of the King! I have written at length about her in my separate article, "Prince Francis of Teck & Ellen, Countess of Kilmorey, & Royal Wills", on this web site. She was a supporter and close political ally of her husband the Earl of Kilmorey in their opposition to Irish Home Rule, and it is now admitted that her relationship to Prince Francis of Teck was pprobably entirely platonic, no evidence  to suggest anything otherwise having been found [Michael Nash, Royal Wills (2017) 156-7]. The same may be said of her supposed earlier relationship with the King.

Page 377. Evelyn Elizabeth Forbes. See above re page 352.

Page 387 - Mrs Mary Jane Haddon. The birth of a second child to Mrs Haddon and George Edward Rogers is mentioned in C.G. Gordon Haddon, My uncle, King George V (New York: Harhill Press, 1929), page 23, where he writes, "Toward the end of 1892 my mother had another child. Whether the Duke or Rogers was its father I never found out, and in any case the baby girl did not live long enough for any one to be concerned about it. She died before her first birthday."

According to Mrs Haddon's first husband's divorce petition this child was born in August 1891, but the birth has not been identified in the indexes at the General Register Office. She may be the Mary Haddon, aged 0, whose death was registered in the March Quarter of 1892 [1a 305] for whom there does not appear to be a corresponding birth entry. The book [pages 26-27] says that Rogers left her about the end of 1894 or 1895 and "his people sent him to South Africa" where he died "partly of starvation, but mostly of drink".

The book mentions Mrs Haddon's later marriage in the surname Lambert to Robert William Kingdom in 1900 (the spelling Kingdon is apparently a mistake) [pages 46-47] adding that he left her and returned to England [page 48], and her subsequent  bigamous marriage to Henry Gorbold, a merchant in Calcutta, in 1909 [page 156]. Guy Gordon Haddon last saw his mother in March 1909 [page 156] and later made various enquiries about her death [page 158] but no trace could be found.

Page 388 - (Clarence) Guy Gordon Haddon. The extraordinary life of the unstable Guy Gordon Haddon is set out in the above mentioned book. He had clearly been led to believe that he was the son of the Duke (though he was born in India before the Duke's visit) and he harboured a life-long grudge that he had not benefited from his mother's brief connection. He was not always truthful and he makes no mention of his marriages.

He claimed to have been born at Park Street, Fulham [page 22; called Parke Street on page 97], on 28 September 1890 [page 13]; he went to India with his mother, 1894/5 [pages 26-27]; they lived at Bombay [30], Calcutta [34]. Rangoon [40] and Ceylon [42]; returned to Bombay at the end of 1897 for almost a year [44]; went to Madras at the end of 1898 [46]; his mother married, 1900, and he was sent to Melbourne, Australia; was apparently cared for by the Salvation Army at a farm at Bayswater, Victoria [50]; went to school c.1901 at Fern Tree Gally; was with mother (she had been in England looking for Kingdom) at Melbourne, January 1903 [52]; they returned to Calcutta, mid-1903 [55]; he joined the 15th Kings Hussars as a band boy as Guy Gordon Kingdom, and served in India [58] until mid-1906 [115]; went to Singapore, 1906 [133]; apprentice as marine engineer, Tanjong Pagar docks, Singapore, August-September 1906 [137]; joined China Imperial Maritime Customs, after November 1906 [144] to 1 July 1909 [155] when he resigned and joined the Hong Kong police [160]; was for several months a warder at Shanghai prison [161]; he joined the customs at Canton, but resigned after 2 weeks [162]; went to Sumatra to work on plantation at Medan, end 1909 [170]; went to Calcutta, end 1910 [174]; took ship to England, but got off at Chile [175]; about a year bay assistant with Pacific Steam Navigation Company, Valparaiso [174]; left them 19 December 1912 [176]; joined company at Taltal as engineer [176]; resigned 4 January 1914 [178]; joined Chile Exploration Company at Chuquicamata; came to England on outbreak of War, enlisted as gunner 17th Reserve Battery, Royal Field Artillery, 21 September 1914 [180]; 2nd Lieutenant, Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment, 2 April 1915 [183]; joined Tenth Reserve Battalion at Litchfield, 12 May 1915; served on Somme [184]; transferred to 289th Company, Royal Engineers, 1 July 1917 [184]; demobilised, July 1919 [185]; joined British Central Africa Company Ltd in Nyasaland [188]; to South Africa, December 1919 [192]; joined Irrigation Department of South Africa in Johannesburg, to September 1920 [193]; had other jobs in South Africa [193]; returned to England, early 1921 [194]; Clerk of Works with Imperial War Graves Commission, Macedonia, 29 August 1921 [195] to 6 March 1924 [206]; appealed to George V for assistance [208]; was few weeks temporary clerk at Somerset House [212]; sailed on S.S. Macedonia for Shanghai, 7 November 1924 [212] had applied for post with HBM's Office of Works in China; worked in Canton, etc., to 31 December 1926 [228] as engineer in Consular Service; joined Messrs Palmer & Turner, Shanghai, architects, surveyors, civil engineers, 1 January 1927, supervising building and construction [235]; was described in letter from Major General Duncan, North China Command, as "Mr. C.G. Haddon, M.C." [239]; left Shanghai for Singapore, 3 January 1928 [243], employed by Gammon (Malaya) Ltd, concrete engineers, at Kuala Lumpor, until end May [244; joined Fogden, Brisbane & Co, engineers and contractors, Singapore; in Perak, July 1928 [248] appealed to George V for assistance; sailed to England, September 1928 [245]; unemployed; went to Holland, 10 February 1929 [247]. His book was published at New York later that year, but (as detailed in my book) he had returned to England by January 1934.

Whilst in America in 1931 and as of 2558 Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, California, aged 40, engineer, he applied for naturalization. His Declaration of Intention No. 57011, sworn at Los Angeles, 7 January 1931, says that he entered the United States at Detroit, Michigan, 10 August 1930, on C.P.R.R. He gave his name as Clarence Guy Gordon Haddon, and said that he was born at Fulham, 28 September 1890, that he had married "Bistra P." at Sofia, Bulgaria, 25 November 1923, that she was born at Sofia, -- January 1896, and that they were now separated. [Record on Ancestry.com seen 11 May 2015]. The Indexes of Consular Marriages (1921-25, vol. 17 page 60) show that his wife's name was Bistra Pachev or Branecova.

As a result of his conviction by the Civil Power in 1934, Lieutenant Guy Gordon Haddon (late D.W.R. and R.E.) was deprived of the rank of Lieutenant, 15 January 1935 [London Gazette, 3 September 1935, No 5598]. The 1939 Register for 19 Aberdeen Road, Islington, shows Helen A. B. Murray, born 7 February 1896, Single, Private Means, with Clarence G. G. Haddon, born 28 September 1890, Married, Constructional Engineer. 

Page 390 - Ellen Shepherd or Ellen Mary Sheapheard (1870-1911) see the Additional Page on this web site.

Page 392 - 1907. Hilda Violet Blunt, nee Master (1880-1969). The scurrilous War of the Windsors; a century of unconstitutional monarchy by Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince, Stephen Prior and Robert Brydon (Edinburgh, 2002), suggests that the Soviet spy, Sir Anthony Blunt (1907-1983), given immunity from prosecution on his confession in April 1964 but not revealed until statements by the Prime Minister, 15 & 21 November 1979, was probably the child of Hilda, the wife of the Revd Stanley Blunt, by the Prince of Wales, subsequently King George V (pages 247-51). The authors believed that Blunt was treated leniently on exposure and retained his position in the Royal Household because of his relationship to the Royal Family, saying that he 'even kept his knighthood and membership of the Victorian Order' and that the Queen and Palace totally ignored his betrayal, though in truth his appointment to the Victorian Order had been 'cancelled and annulled' by statement in the London Gazette, 16 November 1979, page 14427.

The book is worded in such a way as to suggest (page 249) that Blunt's father had been a chaplain to Queen Victoria whereas it was his grandfather, when Rector of Scarborough, who had been the chaplain. Blunt's mother (incorrectly called Hilda Masters) had apparently, when a child at Petersham, been friendly with Princess Mary of Teck, later Queen Mary. The authors say that Anthony Blunt had 'a marked family resemblance' to the Royal Family which was 'so distinctive' (pages 250-1), something certainly not apparent from his photographs. No other evidence of a possible relationship is produced.

She was Hilda Violet Master (1880-1969), fifth and youngest daughter of John Henry Master (1831-1919) of the Madras Civil Service and subsequently J.P. for Surrey and of Montrose House, Petersham [Burke's Landed Gentry (1937) sub Master of Barrow Green Court]. In early 1907, when Anthony Blunt would have been conceived, she was living at Bournemouth where her husband had been inducted as Vicar of Holy Trinity on 31 October 1906. She died at Pond House, Ham Common, 12 November 1969, and was buried at St Andrew, Ham, 19 November 1969. She had married at Petersham, Surrey, 16 September 1900, Revd. Arthur Stanley Vaughan Blunt (1870-1929) [Burke's Landed Gentry (1914) sub Blunt of Crabbet Park], Vicar of Ham, 1898-1906; of Holy Trinity, Bournemouth, 1906-12; Chaplain at British Embassy Church, Paris, 1912-21; Chaplain to Forces, 1915-18; Senior Chaplain, Paris area, 1918-19; O.B.E., 1920; Vicar of St John, Paddington, 1921-9; died at 4 Cambridge Square, London, 23 November 1929, aged 59. He was a son of the Rt. Rev. Richard Frederick Lefevre Blunt (1833-1910), D.D. (1882), Rector of Scarborough, 1864-1905, of Hessle, 1905-10; Archdeacon of East Riding of Yorkshire, 1873-91; Canon Res. of York, 1882; Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Queen, 1885-91; Bishop Suffragan of Hull, 1891-1910; died at Holy Trinity Vicarage, Bournemouth, 23 January 1910.

Her son Anthony Frederick Blunt was born at Holy Trinity Vicarage, Bournemouth, Dorset , 26 September 1907; educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge (Fellow, 1932-6; Hon. Fellow, 1967); on staff Warburg Institute, 1937-9; Deputy Director Courtauld Institute of Art, London University, 1939-47; 2^nd Lieut. 1939; served with Intelligence Corps (France, 1939-40), War Office, 1940-45; C.V.O., 1947; Professor of History of Art and Director Courtauld Institute, 1947-74; F.B.A., 1950; Surveyor, King's Pictures, 1945-52, Queen's Pictures, 1952-72; K.C.V.O., 1956 (cancelled 1979); Commander, Order of Orange Nassau (Holland), 1948, Legion of Honour (France), 1958; F.S.A., 1960; Hon. D.Litt. (Bristol) 1961, (Durham) 1963; Advisor, Queen's Pictures and Drawings, 1972-83. He died at 45 Portsea Hall, Portsea Place, Westminster, 26 March 1983; cremated at Roehampton, 30 March 1983.

Page 393 - 1916. Marie-Leonie Graftieaux (Marcelle Dormoy) (1895-1981) - see the Additional Page on this web site.

Page 393. 1917 Maggy has been identified as Marie Marguerite ('Maggie' or 'Maggy') Alibert, born at Port Royal maternity hospital, Montparnasse, Paris 14, France, 9 December 1890, daughter of Firmin Alibert, cab driver, by his wife Marie Aurand [Rose (2013) 33]. Prostitute and courtesan. Had illegitimate daughter Raymonde by unknown father, 21 January 1907 [Rose (2013) 35]; mistress of Andre Meller and known as 'Madame Meller', 1907-14 [Rose (2013) 39-40]; mistress of Mehmed Serif (or Cherif) Pasha, former Turkish ambassador to Sweden [and brother-in-law of Said Halim Pasha (1865-1921), Grand Vizier of Ottoman Empire, 1913-17], at Cairo, 1914-15 [Rose (2013) 45-46]; mistress of Achille Fould, 1916 [Rose (2013) 47; he said to be son of financier (1800-1867) but ? his grandson Charles Achille-Fould (1861-1926)]; had affair with Prince of Wales, July 1917 [Ziegler (1990) 89-90]; attempted to blackmail Prince, October 1918 [Ziegler (1990) 90] and he told Mrs Dudley Ward [Godfrey (1998) 112, 116]; married firstly 1919 and divorced 1920; mistress of Juan de Astoreca or d'Astoreca, with fortune from nitrate mines in Chile [Rose (2013) 78]; married secondly, 1922-3; shot and killed second husband 1923; found not guilty of murder or manslaughter at Central Criminal Court, Saturday, 15 September 1923; returned to Paris, 23 September 1923 [Rose (2013) 267]. Subject of Michel Georges-Michel, La vie brillante et tragique de la Princess Fahmy Bey, parisienne (France, 30 April 1934) [Rose (2013) 308].She died at the American Hospital, Neuilly, France, 2 January 1971, aged 80; buried cemetery of Saint-Ouen, Paris [Rose (2013) 311-2, quoting Le Figaro, 13 January 1971, as 'le Princesse Fahmy-Bey']. She had married firstly at Venice, Italy (French consul officiating), 28 April 1919, Charles Laurent, captain French air force, son of Henri Laurent, businessman [Rose (2013) 69, 77 (quoting Le Figaro, 2 May 1919)]. Marriage dissolved by divorce, Tribunal of the Seine, Paris, 30 March 1920 [Rose (2013) 77]. She had married 2ndly, by contract dated at Cairo, Egypt, 26 December 1922, converted to Islam and took name Munira, 11 January 1923 [Rose (2013) 94, 98, 102 has February], Ali Kamel Fahmy bey, only son of Ali Fahmy El-Mouhandez pasha, civil engineer and cotton magnate (died 1907) [Rose (2013) 81]. He was born probably in Cairo, 10 August 1900 [Rose (2013) 81]. Honorary press attaché to French Legation, Cairo [Rose (2013) 83]. Shot by wife in Suite 41, Savoy Hotel, Strand, London, and died at Charing Cross Hospital, King William Street, 10 July 1923, aged 22 [Rose (2013) 135; death registered as 'Aly K. Fahmy', St Martin, 1a 402]; inquest Westminster Coroner's Court and verdict 'Wilful murder', 12 July 1923 [Rose (2013) 152-4]; funeral Cairo, 3 August 1923 [Rose (2013) 199]; no W/A in UK; wife claimed his estate but Sharia Court in Cairo found death was premeditated murder, April 1929, and her appeal was dismissed April 1930 [Rose (2013) 306-7].

She was the subject of Andrew Rose, Scandal at the Savoy (1991) and The prince, the princess and the perfect murder (2013) in which the author has been said to 'get away with murder', the role played by the Prince of Wales being 'bigged up to bursting point' [Craig Brown in Daily Mail, 6 April 2013].

Page 399 - Count Galeazzo Ciano. In view of the comments about Wallis Spencer's supposed relationship whilst at Shanghai between March and August 1925 with Count Ciano, I was interested to see in Ray Moseley's Mussolini's shadow; the double life of Count Galeazzo Ciano (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1999) the comment [pages 9-10] that the story of her affair and subsequent abortion was widely believed and frequently published in Italy, but that, 'While Ciano did know her, and he and [his wife] Edda once received a present from her, this story has never been substantiated and Edda later insisted to friends, presumably on the word of her husband, that it was untrue'. Count Ciano was, of course, highly promiscuous and did not marry Edda Mussolini (1910-1995) - not the most reliable of witnesses - until 1930. He graduated in 1925 and his visit to Shanghai that year is not mentioned by Ray Moseley. The latter's comment about Wallis is noted in the discussion of Ciano's time at Peking between May 1927 and August 1929, long after Wallis had returned to America.

Anthony J. Camp, the above notes and amendments were started in 2008, June, July, August 4, 15, October 12, November 13, 23, December 29, 30, and further amended on 15 February 2009; 20 April 2009; 25 May 2009; 28 September 2009; 15 March 2010; 31 May 2010; 9 June 2010; 29 July 2010; 19 December 2010; 3 March 2011; 2 January 2012; 29 July 2012; 2 August 2012; 10 November 2012; 18 November 2012; 26 December 2012; 8 April 2013; 22 July 2013; (re The Red House) 25 July 2013; 30 December 2013; 5 July 2014; 17 September 2014; 13 November 2014; 14 December 2014, 11 May 2015; 12 June 2015; 10 September 2016 (re Hines); 8 May 2017 (re Bond); 14 July 2017, 5 August 2017, 8 and 12 September 2017 (re Olga de Meyer), September and October 2017 (re FitzErnest, Nugent, Sellis and Bankes); 15 October 2017 (re Wyke); 3 August 2018 (re Kent/Flinn); 7 August 2018 (re Mary Robinson and Susan Priscilla Bertie); August 2018 (re Francis Wright); 26 September 2018 (re Marcelle Dormoy and Francois Graftieux); 8, 10, 14 abd 30 December 2018 (re Francis Wright's lies, debts and flight to America); 27 December 2018 & 1 January 2019 (re William Austin); 1 February 2019 (re Elizabeth Burr); 1 March 2019  (re Marie-Leonie Graftieaux (Marcelle Dormoy); 8 & 20 March and 2 May 2019 (re Jane Cowley & Marcia Falkender); 1-2 April 2019 (re Francis Wright); 30 May 2019 (re Edward Langtry; and re Miles Macnair and Olive Wilmot Serres); 10 June 2019 (re Blunt); 29 June 2019 (re Almeria Carpenter); 21 & 30 August 2019 (re Julie Jungheim or Zingler); 23 August 2019 (re Sellis descendants); 27 October 2019 (re Frederick B. Bate husband of Vera Bate Lombardi); 3 November 2019 (re Baring wills and Rosa  Fitz-George); 25 December 2019 (re Graftieaux and Dunckerley); 29 January 2020 (re Ellen Shepherd or Shepheard); 21 and 25 March 2020 (re Agnes and John George Nathaniel Gibbes); 30 March 2020 (re Sobieski Stuarts); 3-4 May 2020 (re Edward Mylius & George V); May 2020 (re Mrs Fitzherbert's bogus children, grandchildren and descendants in USA); 12-13 November 2020 (re James Thomas Bedborough); 31 January 2021 and 5 April 2021 (re John George Nathaniel Gibbes); February-March 2021 (re Hannah Lightfoot); 17 March 2021 (re Edward Mylius); June 2021 (re Mrs Carey); June 2021 (re Lillie Langtry); 16 June 2021 (re Arthur Clarence Jones); 23 June 2021 (re William Augustus Miles); 31 August 2021 (re Richard Morton Selten or Stubbs); 27 September 2021 (re Ethell/Ithill, Hannah Lightfoot & George III); 7 October 2021 (re Sobieski Stuarts & Boisquet de La Fleuriere's second marriage); re Edward Mylius's marriage and death, 20 Mar 2022; 6 and 17 July 2022 (re marriage of Charles Maguire & Ann Davies) and her claimed marriage to the Duke of Gloucester; 11 October 2022 [re Robert Fairbrother and Mary Fairbrother]; 13 October 2022 re Jungheim & Zingler; 6 November 2022 (second article 'Dreamy Fables: Hays, Higgenbotham, Allen and the Sobieski Stuarts') added to Sobieski Stuarts; 19 February 2023 comments added to Fairbrothers in Australia & Langtry in Norfolk Street; note re Ancestry Pedigrees added to Richard Fairbrother, 28 March 2023; note re school attended by J.G.N. Gibbes, 9 April 2023; Prince Francis of Teck & Ellen, Countess of Kilmorey, article, 26 September 2023, added Royal Wills, 5 November 2023; alleged bigamy of Colonel Gibbes, added 3 January 2024; added details from the Times re Brent Spencer's son's later history. 11 June 2024 added notes re Annie Tuffrey or Tuffery; 21 June 2024 added notes re Willmore and false claimed relationship to Edward VII.. Also re false claims re McLauchlan and Edward VII, 7 July 2024; death and burial of Ann Salmon, 18 Nov 2024.