My fifth great grandmother Dorothy Skelly, daughter of Gordon Skelly and Dorothy Skelly nee Harrison, was baptised on 10 October 1768 at Yarm, Yorkshire.

St Mary Magdalene, Yarm

Childhood

Dorothy was the second of three children of Captain Gordon Skelly of the Royal Navy and his wife Dorothy, daughter of Anthony Harrison, a Yarm apothecary.

In 1771 Captain Skelly drowned when the ship’s boat was overturned by breakers while crossing the bar at the entrance to Shields Harbour. Dorothy was three years old.

In early 1772 Dorothy’s younger brother, Andrew, was born after his father’s death.

In 1784 Dorothy’s mother, Dorothy (Harrison) Skelly died in 1784 when Dorothy junior was 12. She was buried in Yarm. Andrew died aged 13 in 1785 when young Dorothy was 17. 

Marriage to William Duff

On 9 April 1787 Dorothy married an army major, William Duff of the 26th foot, in Redmarshall, Durham. Dorothy was then 19 years old: her husband was 33, 14 years her senior. 

Their marriage was announced in The Scots Magazine of 1 April 1787:

At Red-Marshall in the County of Durham, Major Duff, of the 26th Regiment, to Miss Skelly, of Yarm, daughter of the late Gordon Skelly Esq, Captain in the navy.

William Duff (1754–1795) was the youngest of three illegitimate children of James Duff second Earl Fife (1729 – 1809). James Duff acknowledged the children as his own and they were cared for by William Rose, his factor (agent). All three received a good education at his expense. William Duff was sent to the Royal Military Academy Woolwich in southeast London, a training college for officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers.

Less than a month after their marriage in May 1787 William and Dorothy sailed for Quebec, where he assumed command of regimental headquarters. Just before they sailed William wrote from Cork in Ireland to William Rose:

We expect to sail to-morrow for Quebec. After various delays we reached this place a fortnight since. I am, as you often told me I should be, happier than ever in possession of a real, confidential friend. Everyone likes her. Were we richer it would be better.

On 12 February 1788 Dorothy gave birth to their daughter Sophia.

In 1789 the regiment was transferred to Montreal. In 1790 they moved to frontier posts along the Niagara River. In 1792 the regiment transferred back to St. John’s (Fort Saint-Jean) in Quebec.

Three years later William Duff retired from the army in March 1793, and returned to England. On 5 July 1795 he died aged 41 at Fulford, near York. William has a memorial in the Duff House Mausoleum at Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, which reads:

Sacred to the memory of William Duff of the 26th Regiment, a meritorious officer, a most sincere friend, an affectionate husband, an indulgent parent. He lived esteemed and respected. He died regretted and lamented in the 41st year of his age in the year of the Lord 1795.

Dorothy and Sophia stayed in touch with William’s family. A letter written by Dorothy to her father-in-law, Earl Fife, in London mentions Dorothy’s visit to William’s sister, and Earl Fife’s visit to Sophia at her school in Doncaster in south Yorkshire.

Dorothy Duff to Earl Fife
Richmond, Yorkshire Dec’r 23rd, 1801.

My Lord,— I have to thank you for a letter which yu were so good as inclose me fr Lady Duff before you left Duff House, and after being so long without hearing fr your Lordship, was glad to have so good an account of you which was confirmed to me by ye Miss Whartons who wrote me after ye Ball you gave them and that they seemed to have much enjoyed. I have to thank you, my Lord, likewise for your visit to Sophia at Doncaster, where, she tells me, you were so kind as to call upon her notwithstanding a very bad day on which you walked up to ye School, and by which she was much flattered. I had ye pleasure of receiving her a few days ago in perfect health when I returned home after being near three months with my friends at Redmoss Hall. Sophie is wonderfully grown, and is now nearly as tall as I am. When she was with me in Summer I had her at Scarborough two months for ye sea bathing, which gave us an opportunity also of being wt Miss Duff who we had not seen for a very long time. She is by this time gone to Ly Norcliffe. I hope ye much wished for Peace will be ye means of bringing Sir James and Ly Duff soon to England. Your Lordship may perhaps have heard that my Brother is married. It took place here a week ago, before I came home, and he has entirely left ye army — in which he has relinquished very flattering prospects.
Your Lordship would be sorry for ye death of poor Ld Adam Gordon — in whom I lose an affectionate relation and friend. I was deeply hurt at ye event- Sophia and I were to have spent this coming Christmas wt him at ye Burn. It was so settled when he was so kind as visit me here in ye summer, but our plans formed so long have proved vain. Sophia sends her duty to your Lordship.— Wh my respectful good wishes I remain, My Lord, your much obliged, etc., etc.,

D. Duff
The Earl of Fife, Fife House, London. 

Among the people mentioned in the letter are:

  • Sophia, who was about 11
  • William’s sister, Jean Duff,
  • William’s brother, Sir James Duff and his wife Basilia, Lady Duff nee Dawes
  • Dorothy’s brother, Gordon Skelly, who on 15 December 1801 married Elizabeth Newsome
  • Dorothy’s great uncle, Lord Adam Gordon, the brother of Dorothy’s paternal grandmother. He died on 13 August 1801.
Dorothy’s brother Colonel Gordon Skelly (1767-1828), wearing the uniform of the Royal Regiment of Foot
Artist Charles Shirreff

Marriage to George Tobin

On 13 June 1804 Dorothy Duff nee Skelly widow, of Richmond, Yorkshire, married Captain George Tobin of the Royal Navy at St George, Bloomsbury, England.

The Oxford Journal 16 June 1804:

At St. George's, Bloomsbury, Captain Tobin, of the Royal Navy, to Mrs. Duff, of Richmond, Yorkshire, widow of the late Major Duff, of the 26th Regiment of Foot.

Two children were born to Captain Tobin and Dorothy: George in 1807 at Bristol and Eliza in 1810 at Plymouth.

Dorothy’s daughter Sophia married Rowland Mainwaring in 1810. The Mainwaring family remained close to the Tobin family.

On 11 March 1834 Dorothy’s daughter Eliza Lucy Hope Tobin died in Bath after a short illness. She was buried at All Saints, Weston, Bath. The newspaper notices suggest the great grief of her parents:

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette 13 March 1834

Died.
March 11, in Bennett street, aged 23, to the inexpressible grief of her parents, Eliza Lucy Hope, only daughter of Capt. Tobin, R.N. C.B., commanding his Majesty’s yacht. Prince Regent.

Naval & Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the United Service 22 March 1834

Deaths
At Bath, after a short illness, aged 23, LUCY, the accomplished daughter of Capt. G. Tobin, R.N., C.B., captain of H.M. yacht Prince Regent.

George Tobin

In May 1780 George Tobin entered the navy when he was twelve years old as a captain’s servant on HMS Namur, 90 guns. He completed his training as a midshipman and then left the navy and sailed as sixth mate on board the East Indiaman Sulivan to Madras and Whampoa (Huangpu) between the autumn of 1788 and June 1790. He rejoined the navy and was made a lieutenant in 1790 on HMS Tremendous (74 guns). In 1791 he sailed under Captain William Bligh on the HMS Providence on Bligh’s second breadfruit voyage to Tahiti. This voyage also took him to Australia and the West Indies. In 1802 Tobin was promoted to captain. In 1814 Tobin retired to Teignmouth, Devon. On 8 December 1815 he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath, C.B.. Tobin was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the White on 10 January 1837.

On 16 April 1838 George Tobin died in Teignmouth, Devon. He was buried in St. Michael the Archangel Churchyard, Teignmouth.

Portraits

At some time between 1815 and about 1830 portraits of Captain Tobin and his wife Dorothy were painted. We do not know who painted them, who they were painted for, when they were painted, nor how they got from George Tobin to Admiral Mainwaring. The portraits are now at Whitmore Hall.

David Small, author of George Tobin’s biography in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, wrote about the portraits which he viewed in the 1990s:

Although the portraits of Captain Tobin and Dorothy were both given the same type of frame at some time, are the same size and have a similar plain dark background it is not clear from the style whether they were both painted by the same artist. Neither of them is signed or dated nor is there any evidence to identify the sitter. There are no distinguishing marks on the back of the painting of him, though it was not possible to check hers.

The portrait of George Tobin is a dark oil painting of a naval officer in uniform wearing a single decoration which might be the CB he was awarded in December 1815. One could speculate from the portrait that George Tobin was in his fifties or early sixties which might suggest that it was painted between 1818 and 1830. There is some damage to the portrait around the sitter’s nose and the painting was in need of some restoration. Dorothy’s portrait seems to have been done in a similar style and it seems to show a woman who is also in her fifties or early sixties.
Portraits of George Tobin and his wife Dorothy

Death of Dorothy Tobin

On 30 August 1840, two years after her husband, Dorothy Tobin died at Gosport, Hampshire, aged 73 of ‘Affection of the heart’ according to her death certificate. At the time of her death she was living in Anglesey, a hotel that had been built by Robert Cruikshank, a local attorney and developer; he was Dorothy’s solicitor.

The Crescent, Anglesey Hotel, Alverstoke, Gosport, Hampshire about 1900
Photograph from Hampshire Cultural Trust

In accordance with a codicil to her will Dorothy Tobin was buried on 7 September 1840 with her daughter Eliza at All Saints Church, Weston, Bath.

The grave is an altar tomb and was once surrounded by iron railings. It has inscriptions to Eliza Lucy Hope, Dorothy and George Webbe Tobin. Only two of them are now legiblen on two sides. The verger keeps a book of the details taken down at some time (with some inaccuracy) and Dorothy’s reads 

‘Dorothy Tobin widow of Rear Admiral George Tobin C.B. Died at Anglesey near Gosport August 30 1840 aged 72.’ 

Somerset Record Office has:

‘Sacred to the memory of ....’. 
The Grave of Dorothy Tobin and two of her children at All Saints Church, Weston, Bath
photographed by David Small

Dorothy’s son

Dorothy’s son George Webbe Tobin was educated at the King’s School, then a grammar school, at Ottery St Mary; the headmaster was the Reverend George Coleridge, brother of the poet, who was a friend of George’s uncle, James Webbe Tobin. George then went to Eton college.

In 1826 he joined the 2nd Regiment of the Dragoon Guards, known as the Queen’s Bays, as a Cornet (the lowest grade of commissioned officer in a British cavalry troop). He was promoted to lieutenant in 1828. On 15 December 1830 George married Susannah Christian Cobham (1808-1840) in East Teignmouth, Devon. In February 1831 he resigned from the army.

In January 1840 Susannah died at Clifton, near Bristol. They had no children.

George then spent some months at Baden, returning to England just after the death of his mother in August 1840. Admiral Rowland Mainwaring records in his diary that George Webbe Tobin returned to England from Germany two days after his mother’s death.

On 21 September, three weeks after the death of his mother, George died at Anglesey hotel, Gosport. He was buried with his mother and sister at Bath.

Related posts and further reading

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