2022 A to Z reflections

I first participated in the A to Z blogging challenge in 2014. The task is to post thematically from A to Z, with one post every day in April (except for the four Sundays) for each letter of the alphabet.

I found the first year‘s challenge busy as I had not prepared enough posts in advance. It was only by my fourth challenge in 2017 that I seem to have become more organised.

This year, my ninth challenge, I decided on a theme—places of significance in my family’s history—in advance, and I researched and drafted several posts before the beginning of the month. I wrote up all my new research during the month to fit into unallocated letters. This preparation paid off: I did not feel under pressure; in fact I quite enjoyed adding twenty-six new posts one after the other.

I continue to enjoy the Challenge, finding, researching and writing about aspects of my family history. I look forward to participating again next year.

My posts in 2022:

• Looking forward to the 2022 A to Z challenge
• A is for Addiscombe Gordon Mainwaring (1817 – 1872), one of my 3rd great grandfathers, was enrolled as a cadet at Addiscombe Military Seminary
• B is for Bookmark my third great grandmother Margaret Rankin, formerly Margaret Budge nee Gunn, died at ‘Bookmark‘, a sheep-station on the Murray River
• C is for Chewton the schools attended by my mother-in-law Marjorie Winifred Young neé Sullivan, 1920 – 2007
• D is for Drummond Street my husband Greg was born in Ballarat
• E is for Evelyn Street Bentleigh the house of the Morley and Sullivan families
• F is for Finniss Point one of my fourth great aunts Theresa Walker nee Chauncy (1807 – 1876) married George Herbert Poole who died at Finnis Point
• G is for Glenthompson my grandfather Geoff de Crespigny was born in Glenthompson on 16 June 1907
• H is for Heathcote – renovated one of my third great grandfathers, Philip Chauncy (1816 – 1880) was responsible for the building of the survey office in Heathcote and lived there for over five years
• I is for Ilmenau the third wife of my fourth great grandfather Rowland Mainwaring was a part-Austrian woman named Laura Maria Julia Walburga Chevillard (~1811 – 1891). Her house in Bournemouth was called ‘Ilmenau‘, after a small town near Weimar, where Laura had spent much of her childhood.
• J is for Jedburgh my 7th great grandfather Thomas Champion de Crespigny (1664 – 1712) was a Huguenot refugee who served in the British army and was stationed at Jedburgh for part of his career
• K is for Karlsruhe my maternal great great grandparents Matthias Manock and Agathe Maria Lang were married there on 12 April 1880
• L is for Lewes Priory my 18th great grandparents Richard, 3rd Earl of Arundel, 8th Earl of Surrey (c. 1314 – 24 January 1376) and Eleanor of Lancaster (1318 – 1372) were buried at Lewes
• M is for Merseyside – 1854 departure of the “Dirigo” my 3rd great grandmother Margaret Rankin née Gunn (1819 – 1863), her children and 2nd husband set sail from Liverpool but had to return because of a cholera outbreak, they eventually travelled to Australia
• N is for Norfolk sampler one of Greg’s 3rd great aunts  Ellen Claxton nee Jackson sewed a sampler in 1806 that is still admired today
• O is for ‘Ottawa’ Gladstone Parade Elsternwick the house of my great great grandfather Philip Champion de Crespigny (1850-1927)
• P is for Pankow my mother remembers visiting cousins in Pankow, Berlin
• Q is for Monkira Station in Queensland in 1890 Orfeur Charles Cavenagh, one of my great great uncles, died of fever at Monkira Station aged 18
• R is for Rushton my great great grandfather’s first cousin George Harrison Champion de Crespigny (1863-1945) and his wife Gwendoline (1864-1923) were married at Rushton in 1890
• S is for Stockach great great grandfather Matthias Martin, known as Matthias Manock was born at Stockach in 1851 to the widow Crescentia Martin, née Manock
• T is for Tattaila one of Greg’s great grand aunts, Charlotte Wilkins nee Young, lived at Tattaila near Moama where her husband was a school teacher
• U is for Upton upon Severn the death of my fifth great grandmother Dorothy Keane nee Scott was registered at Upton upon Severn in 1837
• V is for Vaucelles v. Trévières my 7th great uncle Pierre Champion Crespigny was the lawyer in a case where one of two Huguenot churches was in excess of the provisions of the Edict of Nantes, and one must be disestablished. The congregation of Trévières was represented by Pierre and they won, but the victory was short-lived.
• W is for Willunga my fourth great grandfather John Plaisted (1800-1858) emigrated to Australia and bought land at Willunga shortly after arrival
• X is for Xiàmén the grandfather of Frederick Harold Plowright, a cousin on Greg’s side of the family, was from China and came to Australia at the time of the gold rush
• Y not Y? I was all ready to write about Ysgeifiog as the marriage place of my fourth great-grandparents Edward Hughes and his wife Elizabeth Jones but further research revealed I was on the wrong track
• Z is for Zizenhausen the birthplace of great great grandmother Agathe Maria Lang

Z is for Zizenhausen

In 1880, when my great great grandparents Agathe Maria Lang and Matthias Manock were married in Karlsruhe, Agathe provided this information for their marriage certificate:

She had been born in Zizenhausen on 29 December 1852. Her occupation was ‘maid’ (Dienstmädchen, domestic servant). Her mother was Anna Maria Lang, a washerwoman, who lived in Zizenhausen.

Agathe did not name her father.

In 1852, when Agathe Maria Lang had been baptised at Zizenhausen, only her mother, Anna Maria Lang, was named on the certificate.

Five other children of Anna Maria Lang were baptised in Zizenhausen with with no father named:

• Paulina baptised 14 January 1844, buried 28 July 1844
• Eleonora baptised 30 October 1845, buried 14 November 1845
• Crescentia baptised 18 November 1847, buried 5 January 1848
• Johannes baptised 6 December 1848
• Josef baptised 18 April 1850, buried 19 July 1850

I think it is likely that these children were Agathe’s siblings.

Johannes, son of Anna Maria Lang, married in 1875 and had four children, three of whom died young. I have not found a record of the death of Johannes, nor of his wife Anna and his daughter Frida (born 1876).

I have not been able to find birth, marriage, or death records of Anna Maria Lang, at least those that I am confident refer to my great great grandmother. I have, however, found records of other women with the same name.

An Anna Maria Lang was born in January 1829 to Josef Lang and Maria Lang née Einhart. She married a Kaspar Schästle in 1859 in Konstanz. They had at least eight children. However, I believe that if this Anna was the mother of Agathe and Johannes then her married name would have been given on their marriage certificates.

Another Anna Maria Lang, born in 1814 to Thomas and Caecelia Kun, married Matthaeus Pfeifer at Zizenhausen in 1853. They had a daughter. As with Anna Maria Schästle I feel if this was the mother of Agathe her married name would have been mentioned on Agathe’s marriage certificate.

A third Anna Maria Lang, daughter of Georg Lang and Magdalena Lehri, was baptised at Konstanz on 17 September 1823. Nothing suggests this was the mother of Agathe.

I seem to have reached a dead end with this. But not to worry, these little puzzles are fun. I’ll persevere with it.

Zizenhausen is in the district of Stockach, a kilometre north of the town centre and about six kilometres north-west of Lake Constance. In 1852 the population of Zizenhausen was 1171: 621 female and 550 male. In 1974 Zizenhausen was incorporated into the City of Stockach.

View of the town of Zizenhausen with the castle. Watercolor on cardboard. Original, dated and inscribed by the artist, Gustav Freiherr von Bechtolsheim, 17.8.(18)83. Monogram “GB”. Image from Wikipedia

Related posts

• K is for Karlsruhe
• S is for Stockach

Wikitree and FamilySearch:

• Wikitree profile for Agathe Maria (Lang) Manock (1852 – 1926)
• FamilySearch profiles for
  • Anna Maria Lang
  • Johannes Lang born 1848

Y not Y?

My fourth great-grandparents Edward Hughes and his wife Elizabeth Jones were Welsh; Edward was from Newmarket, Flintshire, and Elizabeth from Cardiganshire. Hughes, however, is not an unusual surname in Wales, nor is Jones, and for a while I’ve been muddling them with another Welsh couple from Flintshire with the same names.

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  Photographs of Edward and Elizabeth Hughes from pages 67 and 72 of Cherry Stones by Helen Hudson

When three years ago I wrote about Edward and Elizabeth I believed, mistakenly, that they had married at Ysgeifiog (also written Ysceifiog) in 1821 and that this was Elizabeth’s birthplace. Edward was from Holywell, a couple of miles north.

I have since ordered Elizabeth’s Victorian death certificate. She died on 4 July 1865 in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

Australian death certificates include much information useful to the genealogist, though the reliability of this depends on the knowledge and good will of the informant. In Elizabeth’s case the informant was her husband Edward Hughes.

The 1865 death certificate of Elizabeth Hughes

From Elizabeth’s death certificate I learnt that she was born in Cardiganshire to Edward Jones, who was a farmer, and Elizabeth Jones née Humphreys. She was 66 years old when she died, so she was born about 1799. Elizabeth and Edward married about 1825 in Liverpool when she was twenty-six. They had eight children:

• Mary, dead;
• Samuel aged 37 years (at the time of Elizabeth’s death in 1865, so born about 1828);
• Mary aged 35 years (born about 1830);
• John dead;
• Eliza Ann dead;
• Elizabeth Humphreys dead;
• Goodman Edward Jones dead; and
• Henry aged 24 years (born about 1841).

At the time of her death Elizabeth had been in Victoria for twelve years eleven months, so she had arrived about August 1852. Although she died in Brighton, the home address of her husband Edward was View Street, Bendigo (the town at that time was also known as Sandhurst), a hundred miles north. The cause of her death was recorded as chronic disease of the liver and stomach trouble. She had been ill for two months, which perhaps implies that she had come from Bendigo to Melbourne for treatment.

Elizabeth Hughes was buried in Brighton General Cemetery on 13 July 1865. The gravestone inscription reads:

In memory 
of 
Elizabeth
Beloved wife of 
Edward Hughes 
of Sandhurst
Died 10th July 1865 
aged 66.
Precious in the sight of the lord is 
the death of his saints

(The verse is from Psalm 116.)

The Bishop’s transcripts, copies of the parish registers which had been sent to the bishop, of Liverpool marriages includes a record at the church of St Philip for a marriage by banns on 24 April 1825 of Edward Hughes and Elizabeth Jones. Neither had been previously married; both were of the parish. A transcript of the marriage register shows the witnesses were John Parry and G. Jared; I believe the witnesses are not related to the bride and groom.

As this record is a better match for the details given at the time of Elizabeth’s death I am more confident that this is the record of the marriage of my fourth great grandparents Edward and Elizabeth Hughes. Unfortunately, details which would help to confirm that we have the right couple, such as their parents’ names and occupations, are not recorded.

Building a family tree with common surnames such as Hughes and Jones is often more difficult than not, because there is more likely to be confusion over two people with the same name. From the information on Elizabeth’s death certificate, it seems that I was wrong: my fourth great grandmother was not from Ysgeifiog and my Edward and Elizabeth were not married there. I have corrected my tree and added the new information.

RELATED POSTS

• F is for Flintshire

Wikitree:

• Edward Hughes (1803 – 1876)
• Elizabeth (Jones) Hughes (abt. 1798 – 1865)

X is for Xiàmén

In 1881 my husband Greg’s great great grandparents John Plowright (1831 – 1910) and Margaret Plowright née Smyth (1834 – 1897) adopted a boy—their grandson—named Frederick Harold Plowright. The child’s father was James Henry Plowright; his mother was Elizabeth Ann Cooke, née Onthong.

Elizabeth Ann Onthong was born in 1862 in Avoca, Victoria, to Thomas Onthong and Bridget Onthong née Fogarty. The Onthong family later used the surname Cook (or Cooke). Elizabeth was the fourth of six children; she had four brothers and one sister, Mary Ann.

Elizabeth’s parents Bridget Fogarty and John Tong were married on 17 October 1855 in the Church of England vicarage at Carisbrook.

Marriage certificate (Victoria Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages) for FOGARTY, Bridget and TONG, John; Year: 1855, Reg. number: 2887/1855

The marriage certificate has them both living in Avoca. Neither could sign their name.

John Tong, son of William Tong storekeeper, was born in Amoy, China. His occupation was cook, and he was 26 years old. The certificate notes that he “could not tell his mother’s name (Chinese)”. This presumably meant that he was unable to transcribe the sounds of her name into English letters. He was probably also illiterate in Chinese.

Bridget Fogarty was born at Burr (Birr), King’s County (now County Offaly), Ireland. She was a servant, she stated her age was 21, and her parents were Michael Fogarty, farmer, and Ann Whitfield.

John Tong’s birthplace Xiamen 廈門 (pinyin: Xiàmén) is a city on the Fujian coast of China. For many years, the name, pronounced ‘Emoui’ in the Fujian dialect, was rendered ‘Amoy’ in Post Office romanization.

Amoy’s harbor, China. Painting in the collection of Sjöhistoriska Museet; image retrieved through picryl.com.

Xiàmén is 7,300 km north of Avoca, Victoria. Map generated using Google maps.

At the end of 1854 it was estimated that more than 10,000 Chinese lived and worked on the Victorian goldfields. In 1855 alone more than eleven thousand Chinese arrived in Melbourne, many of them indentured labourers from the province of Fujian via the port of Amoy.

John Tong arrived before the Victorian parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Act 1855, legislation meant to restrict Chinese immigration by imposing a poll tax of ten pounds upon every Chinese arriving in the Colony and limiting the number of Chinese on board each vessel to one person for every 10 tonnes of goods. (£10 was worth about $9,000 today in comparing average wages then and now [from MeasuringWorth.com])

Though at the time of his marriage John Tong’s occupation was cook, he later worked as a miner at Deep Lead near Avoca. Three of his sons were also Avoca miners.

John Tong was also known as Thomas or Tommy Cook. Tommy Cook was mentioned several times in the newspapers. In 1866 he was noted as having “attained considerable proficiency in the English language.” In 1871 his son William gave evidence in a court case and he, William, was the son of “Thomas Cook, a miner, residing at the Deep Lead, Avoca.” In 1875 Bridget bought a charge of assault against her husband, Ah Tong, alias Tommy Cook. He was described as “a tall, powerful, and rather wild-looking Chinaman”. Bridget said he “was very lazy, and when he got any money would go and gamble it away.”

In October 1890 Tommy Cook and his son George Cook gave evidence in the inquest of the death of George Gouge. From the report in the Avoca Mail:

Tommy Cook deposed – I am residing at Deep Lead, near Avoca. I am father of George Cook. Knew deceased. I found the body lying about six o’clock on Friday morning about 200 yards from the hotel …

MURDER AT AVOCA. Avoca Mail 7 October 1890

I do not know when and where John (Tommy Cook) died nor where he was buried. Bridget died in the Amherst hospital in 1898 but her death certificate had no details of her marriage or children.

In 1935 the “Weekly Times” had a picture of an old hut on the Avoca gold-diggings.

READERS’ CAMERA STUDIES (1935, February 23). Weekly Times (Melbourne,
Vic. : 1869 – 1954), p. 38 (FIRST EDITION). Retrieved
from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223890597

A newspaper clipping published in the 1930s claims that this was the hut of Henry, George, and Frank, three of the sons of John and Bridget. The hut was said to have been known as “Cook’s Hut”.

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Related Posts

• Finding the parents of Frederick Harold Plowright born 1881

Wikitree:

• Frederick Harold Plowright (1881 – 1929)
• Elizabeth Ann (Onthong) Wiffen (1862 – 1927)
• John (Tong) Cook (abt. 1829 – aft. 1890)
• Bridget (Fogarty) Cook (1825 – 1898)

W is for Willunga

In 1849, diagnosed with tuberculosis and possibly hoping to benefit from South Australia’s drier, warmer climate, my fourth great grandfather John Plaisted (1800-1858) emigrated there from England. With him was his wife Ann, their six children, and Ann’s sister, Abigail Green.

Several of their relatives had already established themselves in the new colony. In 1838, eleven years previously, Sarah Bock (sister of Ann Plaisted) with her husband Alfred Bock, and Ann’s brother William Green with his wife Tabitha (sister of John Plaisted) had settled there.

The Plaisted family travelled on the ‘Rajah‘, reaching Adelaide on 12 April 1850 after a passage of 4 1/2 months from London.

A month later, on 16 May 1850, the Quarterly Government Sale of Crown Lands was held at the Police Commissioners Court. John Plaisted successfully bid on seven blocks in the Hundred of Willunga, one of eleven cadastral units in the County of Adelaide, about 50 km south of the city. John Plaisted’s brother-in-law, Alfred Bock, was the licensee of the Horseshoe Inn at nearby Noarlunga.

Section
326
332
333
335
506
514
515
516

Acres
80
80
80
80
482
83
83
84

Price £ s.
£80 1s.
£80 1s.
£86 0s.
£80 1s.
£573 0s.
£88 0s.
£83 1s.
£103 0s.

John Plaisted’s blocks formed two contiguous areas, one of 320 acres near the coast, the other 742 acres close to what has since become the settlement of Willunga.

Allotments purchased by John Plaisted in May 1850. J.P. Manning bought section 519 marked in blue.
Map of Hundred of Willunga retrieved through Wikimedia Commons. (Section 714 on this map is numbered 514 on the November 1850 version of the map)

Willunga district photographed in 1924 by State Government Photographer – The History Trust of South Australian, South Australian Government. Image retrieved through Wikimedia Commons.

One of Plaisted’s neighbours was John Pitches Manning, who bought an adjacent block, later called Hope Farm, at the same auction. A family history of Manning and Hope Farm describes his purchase:

"During May 1850, George Pitches Manning journeyed south to Aldinga in search of suitable farming land but was not impressed with the country, which was covered by stunted gum and sheoak trees. His attention was then drawn to a parcel of Crown Land at McLaren Vale, which was, in later years to be the property known as Tintara Vineyards, of which more will be said later. This property was put to public auction but unfortunately he was outbid by a Mr Plaisted."

(Tintara winery was acquired by Thomas Hardy in the 1870s)

Advertising postcard for Hardy’s Tintara Wines – 1906 Image retrieved from flickr.com

There are several newspaper reports of the Plaisted family’s activities in the district. A few months later on 28 July 1850, Alfred Bock, John’s wife’s brother-in-law, hosted a divine service at his hotel in Noarlunga after the laying of the foundation stone for a new church. John’s daughter Sally, my 3rd great grandmother, played the organ for the service.

"Noarlunga—The foundation stone of the new church to be dedicated to St. Phillip and St. James, was laid on Friday, the 28th ultimo, by the Bishop of Adelaide, in the presence of a numerous, and highly respectable, concourse of the inhabitants. His Lordship read the impressive service used on such occasions, which was listened to throughout with profound attention. Divine service was performed for the first time on Sunday last, at the "Horse Shoe" Inn. Mr Bock, the worthy landlord, fitted up the room for the occasion, and Miss Plaisted led the various hymns on a splendid organ. The arrangements for the accommodation of the congregation were simple yet comfortable, and, in fact, the whole was a great improvement upon the pro tempore places of worship previously used at Noarlunga."

St. Philip and St. James Anglican Church, Old Noarlunga, South Australia, photographed 2013 by Les Haines and retrieved from Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0
By 2018 the church had been deconsecrated and was being sold.

Horseshoe Inn Noarlunga, about 1860. Taken on the day of the Oddfellow’s Picnic to Aldinga, a band sits atop the horsedrawn coach. Image from the State Library of South Australia B7931

My 3rd great grandmother Sally Hughes nee Plaisted (1836 – 1900) from the book Cherry Stones by Helen Hudson

The next year in April 1851 John’s eldest daughter Sally Plaisted married Samuel Hughes of Noarlunga.

MARRIED.
On Tuesday, 29th April, at Willunga, by the Rev. A. B. Burnett, Mr. Samuel Hughes, of Noarlunga, to Sally, only daughter of John Plaisted, Esq., of Hornsey, late of Muswell Hill, near London.

In September 1851 John Plaisted, Alfred Bock, Samuel Hughes, and John’s son John Plaisted junior attended a meeting called to establish a monthly market in Noarlunga township. John Plaisted addressed the meeting.

In December 1851 John Plaisted sailed for Melbourne. In the 1850s he and and other members of his family seem to have travelled quite frequently between Melbourne and South Australia.

In February 1852 John Plaisted of Market Square (Melbourne) was one of the merchants and brewers who registered their names and residences with the Chief Inspector of Distilleries in Victoria.

In February 1852, back in South Australia, Mr Plaisted (it is not clear whether this was John or one of his sons) won a prize of potatoes at the Noarlunga monthly market.

In March 1852 Thomas Plaisted was receiving cargo in Adelaide of 179 bags of flour and 35 bags of bran. In March and in May Job Plaisted (probably John) received mail in Adelaide. In May 1852 a Plaisted received 32 bags of flour.

In November 1852 J Plaisted, S. Hughes and A. Bock were subscribers to a fund for erecting a church at Noarlunga. The three men were generous in their donations, especially. J. Plaisted, who donated 10 pounds.

In 1853 John Plaisted was described as a farmer Hornsey Farm, Long Gully, McLaren Vale

In August 1854 Messrs. Bell and Plaisted, were in business as grocers at 67 Queen-street. In March 1855 they had moved to 57 Queens Street, advertising a range of goods from pianos to barrels of haddock.

When John Plaisted died of tuberculosis in Melbourne on 4 May 1858, his death certificate stated he had been in Victoria 5 years, thus since 1853; he had been in South Australia for only 3 years.

In his will John Plaisted left to his wife the rent of Hornsey Farm, McLaren Vale, South Australia, and the rent of the Blacksmiths Shop at Noarlunga.

Related posts:

• Plaisteds Wine Bar
• P is for phthisis (tuberculosis)
• The Green family in Australia
• Tabitha Plaisted 1806 – 1891

Wikitree:

• John Plaisted (1800 – 1858)
• Ann (Green) Cowper also known as Plaisted (1801 – 1882)
• Sally (Plaisted) Hughes (1826 – 1900)
• Sarah (Green) Bock (1809 – 1883)
• Alfred Bessell Bock (1807 – 1889)

V is for Vaucelles v. Trévières

On 13 December 1617 my ninth great-grandfather Richard Champion, eldest son of Jean Champion and his wife Marthe nee du Bourget, was married according to the rites of the Reformed [Protestant] Church at Condé sur Noireau to Marguerite, daughter of Adrian Richard Esquire, Squire of Crespigny in the Parish of St Jean le Blanc near Aunay, Lower Normandy, the marriage contract having been drawn up the week before at the neighbouring town of Vassy.

Portrait of Richard Champion died 1669 from the collection of Kelmarsh Hall

Until then, the Champion family had been Catholic. It seems likely, however, that Adrian Richard, Esquire of Crespigny, was a Huguenot—a Calvinist Protestant—and it is probable that his permission for the marriage of his daughter to Richard Champion was given on condition that his future son-in-law should adopt the creed of his wife’s family.

King Henry IV of France (1553 – 1610) was a Huguenot, who converted to Catholicism to obtain dominance over his kingdom (reportedly saying, “Paris is well worth a mass”). A pragmatic politician, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes (1598), guaranteeing religious liberties to Protestants, thereby effectively ending the French Wars of Religion.

Over the next 87 years, until 1685, with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by the Edict of Fontainebleau, those religious liberties were steadily eroded.

By 1620 the royal government had embarked upon a deliberate program to break the independent power of the Protestants. Soon after the marriage and his evident conversion to Protestantism at that time, Richard Champion was required to swear an oath of allegiance to the king, with a declaration that he did not adhere to the Protestant rebels of La Rochelle; he did this on 3 July 1621.

Richard’s son Claude Champion (1620-1695) married Marie née de Vierville (1628-1708) at Bayeux on 9 June 1651. Claude and Marie also followed the Reformed Religion. Claude and Marie had eight children:

• Pierre 1652–1739 
• Margaret 1654–1741 
• Mary 1655–1736 
• Suzanne 1656–1727 
• Thomas 1664–1712 
• Gabriel 1666–1722 
• Renee 1667–1744 
• Jeanne 1668–1748

In the 1670s Daumont de Crespigny, believed to be the same man as Pierre Champion, was deputy of the congregation of Protestants at Trévières near Bayeux. Between 1678 and 1682 he wrote letters concerning a court case involving the church at Trévières was involved. (The family later took the name Champion de Crespigny after arriving in England.)

Although Protestant churches or “temples” were allowed under the Edict of Nantes in all places where such worship had taken place in the two years before 1598, this clause was interpreted with increasing stringency, so that a number of temples were ordered to be destroyed on the grounds that they had been built since 1598. A prosecution was raised in the Court at Paris against the Temple at Trévières. The proceedings lasted from 1678 to 1681.

The case concerned the dispute between the congregation and church at Trévières, west of Bayeux, and that which had been maintained at Vaucelles near Bayeux. It had been decided by the government that one of the two was in excess of the provisions of the Edict of Nantes, and one must be disestablished. The decision as to which it was to be was left to the Royal Council of State.

Trévières now lies a short distance south of the N13, some twenty kilometres from Bayeux and about ten kilometres south of Vierville-sur-Mer. It was on the direct road between the property at Vierville and the more distant region of Crespigny, and it was evidently the local parish for the family.

The congregation at Trévières claimed that its church had been established before the church at Bayeux, and indeed that the Bayeux church was a colony of the original foundation at Trévières. It appears that the Council was at first inclined to favour Bayeux, presumably, among other reasons, because it was a large and influential city, while Trévières was and is no more than a village.

On 27 January 1681 the Council, meeting at St Germain en Laye, a chateau maintained by Louis XIV north of Versailles, held in favour of the congregation of Trévières. In the statement of settlement, M. de Crespigny is referred to as “Deputy”, agent for the congregation at Trévières, and the Advocate was a M. Soulet, a practitioner of law at Paris.

The case was extremely long-drawn, and must have cost everyone a great deal of money. It seems remarkable that the Royal Council, headed by its president the Duke of Villeroy, and attended by ten other senior officers of state, should spend its time arguing about two heretic congregations. However, the two contesting communities had to find the money to pay for the expenses of their representatives in Paris and at Rouen, and also the legal costs. Some of the correspondence deals with the problems this caused, and there is a sorry collection of letters at the end concerning the delays in paying M. Soulet the advocate his fees. Soulet eventually got his money almost a year later, and in his letter of thanks he remarks to Pierre:

All my regret is for the great trouble and the many useless journeys you have taken on account of so inconsiderable an affair…

It appears an incidental part of the royal policy in fostering these disputes was to make it inconvenient and expensive to be a Huguenot.

Pierre commented when the case was won:

It is true that our joy must be very imperfect, since the same decree that preserves our Church, condemns that of Vaucelles [at Bayeux] to be abolished. 
But that one of the two must fall, was a fatal necessity, and an inevitable misfortune; and it is by far better, both for our private interest, as well as the public good, that the church of Trévières should be preserved, since by its situation it is well adapted for collecting the scattered flocks of the neighbouring Churches.

The triumph of the success in maintaining the right to worship at Trévières was short lived. In 1681 the government commenced a policy of ‘Dragonnades‘, meant to intimidate Huguenot families into returning to Catholicism. The policy, in part, instructed officers in charge of travelling troops to select Huguenot households for their billets and to order the soldiers to behave as badly as they could. Soldiers damaged
the houses, ruined furniture and personal possessions, and attacked the men and abused the women. Huguenots could escape this persecution only by conversion to Catholicism or by fleeing France.

Protestant engraving representing ‘les dragonnades’ in France under Louis XIV From: Musée internationale de la Réforme protestante, Geneva and retrieved through Wikimedia Commons.

When in 1685 Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes with the Edict of Fontainebleau, Huguenot churches were ordered to be destroyed and Protestant schools closed. On 17 January 1686, Louis XIV claimed that out of a Huguenot population of 800,000 to 900,000, only 1,000 to 1,500 had remained in France. It was cynically asserted that Huguenots were so few they no longer needed the protections offered by the Edict of Nantes.

It was illegal for Protestants to leave France. The borders were guarded, and disguise and other stratagems were employed to cross them. Despite the difficulties it is estimated that between 210,000 to 900,000 Protestants left France over the next twenty years; about 50,000 Huguenots fled France to England, others settled in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Brandenburg-Prussia, Ireland, South Africa, and America. The refugees left their land and most of their possessions behind.

Claude, Marie and their children escaped France for England at different times. The two younger sons Thomas and Gabriel travelled to relatives in England when they were about 12 in 1676 and 1678. Claude, Marie, Pierre and three daughters were in London by 1687. The other two daughters had travelled earlier.

Claude Champion de Crespigny 1620 – 1695, my 8th great grandfather. Portrait at Kelmarsh Hall.

Marie, Comtesse de Vierville (1628–1708), Wife of Claudius Champion de Crespigny

Related posts

• F is for fleeing from France
• R is for refugees
• J is for Jedburgh
• Gabriel Crespigny and Thomas Caulfeild

Wikitree:

• Richard Champion (abt. 1590 – 1669)
• Marguerite (Richard) Champion (1601 – ?)
• Claude (Champion) Champion de Crespigny (1620 – 1695)
• Pierre Daumont (Champion) Champion de Crespigny (1653 – 1739)

U is for Upton upon Severn

My fifth great grandmother Dorothy Scott was born on 15 November 1765 at Betton Strange Hall, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire to Richard Scott (1731 – 1770) and Elizabeth Scott nee Gough (1735 – 1772). She had three older brothers.

In 1770, with Dorothy not yet five years old, her father died, and two years later her mother. I do not know who brought up Dorothy when she was orphaned.

On 20 January 1783, at the age of seventeen, Dorothy married Philip Champion Crespigny, a lawyer, forty-four years old; she was his fourth wife. Of the nine children by his previous wives, seven were living at the time of his marriage to Dorothy Scott.

Dorothy and Philip had four children, one of whom died in infancy. The polyphiloprogenitive Philip died, on 1 January 1803; he and Dorothy had been married for nearly 20 years.

Portrait of Dorothy Crespigny painted by George Romney in 1790 and now in the collection of the Philadephia Museum of Art

On 27 March 1804 at St Swithin’s Church, Walcot, Bath, Dorothy married for a second time, to Sir John Keane (1757 – 1829).

Keane was an Irish Tory Member of Parliament, who had been made a baronet in 1801. In the Irish Parliament he represented Bangor from 1791 to 1897; Youghal from 1797 to 1800; and he represented Youghal in the House of Commons from 1801to 1806 and from 1807 to 1818. The ‘History of Parliament‘ notes that “evidence of his presence at Westminster is very thin”. “In February 1817 the chief secretary was informed that he was living at Southampton and should be asked to pay a visit to Westminster. On 15 April 1818 he turned up to vote with ministers on the Duke of Clarence’s Marriage Grant. He did not seek re-election that year.”

Dorothy and John Keane had one son, George (1805 – 1880). Keane had been married previously and had at least four children by his first wife. He died on 18 April 1829 at his house in the Royal Crescent, Bath.

Royal Crescent, Bath

The dowager Lady Keane died on 5 July 1837 at Malvern Wells, Worcestershire. Her death was registered at Upton upon Severn, six miles to the east. (New legislation concerning civil registration had come
into effect on 1 July 1837 and her death was one of the first to be registered under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836. The new law required that “within Three Days after the day of such Death…[notice should be given] to the Registrar of the District”.)

Index of deaths in the July quarter 1837 from the registers maintained by the General Register Office for England and Wales

The death of the dowager Lady Keane was announced in several newspapers. The London ‘Morning Post‘ of Saturday, July 8, 1837 wrote: ‘Died: At Malvern, on the 5th inst., the Dowager Lady Keane, relict of Sir John Keane, Bart., of Bath’. The Worcester ‘Berrows Worcester Journal‘ of Thursday, July 13, 1837 had: ‘July 5th, at Malvern Wells, aged 72, the Dowager Lady Keane, relict of Sir John Keane, Bart., of the Crescent, Bath’.

Great Malvern – St Ann’s Well
The spring or well is named after Saint Anne, the maternal grandmother of Christ and the patron saint of many wells. The building housing the spring dates back to 1813.

Malvern Wells, where Lady Keane seems to have resorted after the death of her husband, was a spa town, whose water was thought for centuries to have beneficial properties. In 1817 an enthusiast named John Chambers published A General History of Malvern, embellished with plates, intended to comprise all the advantages of a Guide, with the important details of chemical, mineralogical and statistical information. In the 19th century Malvern became famous for the water cure, and it rapidly developed into to a busy town with many large hotels. Hydrotherapists promoted the cure, and the resort’s many well-known patients and patrons—one was Lord Lytton, who in 1845 published “Confessions of a Water-Patient“– contributed to Malvern’s renown.

Dorothy was buried with her second husband in St. Nicholas’ Churchyard, Bathampton, Somerset.

St Nicholas Church, Bathampton

The grave of Dorothy Scott Keane at Bathampton. Photograph by K. C. Mellem and retrieved from FindAGrave; used with permission.

Related posts

• Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 – 1803)
• Concerning her three children surviving with Philip:
  • George: D is for Durham Light Infantry
  • George (1783-1813) :  D is for Durham Light Infantry
  • Eliza (1784-1831) : G is for Gretna Green
  • Charles Fox (1785-1875) : Charles Fox Champion de Crespigny (1785 – 1875)
• On the sale of her portrait by her great grandson: Great expectations – disappointed

Further reading

• Jupp, P. J. “KEANE, John (1757-1829), of Belmont, co. Waterford.” History of Parliament , The History of Parliament Trust, www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/keane-john-1757-1829.

Wikitree:

• Dorothy (Scott) Keane (1765 – 1837)

T is for Tattaila

My husband Greg’s great-great-great grandfather was a gold-rush digger named George Young. He and his wife Caroline had thirteen children, including twins, Charlotte and Harriet, who were born on 13 July 1861 in Lamplough, a mining settlement about four miles south of Avoca, Victoria.

On 2 October 1882 Charlotte married George Edward Wilkins at the Avoca Anglican church, St John’s. Charlotte was 21, employed as a domestic servant. George was 25, a miner from Percydale, five miles west.

St John’s Church, Avoca

Charlotte and George had three children: Ethel born in 1883 in Avoca, and George and Eva, born in 1884 and 1886 at Tattaila (sometimes spelt Tataila or Tattalia), near a large grazing run of that name at Moama in New South Wales, across the Murray river from Echuca.

Satellite view of Tattaila and countryside from Google maps

Google street view of Tataila Road

They had moved to Tattaila because, no longer a gold miner, George Wilkins had become a teacher, appointed in October 1884 to the school there, with his position formally recorded as Classification 3B on the New South Wales Civil Service list in 1885.

Sadly, George and Charlotte’s daughter Eva, born on 21 January 1886, died three days later, according to her death certificate from premature birth and inanation (exhaustion caused by lack of nourishment). She was buried on 25 January in the grounds of the Tattaila Public School.

Why in the school-grounds? Sadly, there seems to have been nowhere else, no suitable burial place within range. Perhaps this arrangement provided some consolation for the parents.

In July 1887, a year and a half later, with George Wilkins still the Tattaila schoolteacher, Lord Carrington, Governor of New South Wales, passed through on a tour of inspection. The Sydney “Australian Town and Country Journal” wrote:

'EDUCATIONAL.-Not long ago I was in the Moama State School, listening to the children practising " God Save the Queen" for the Governor's visit. On that occasion the children of Latalia [sic], under the charge of their teacher, Mr. Wilkins, amalgamated with those of the Moama School under the charge of Mr. Bruce, and the practising was done under Mr. Wilkin's tuition. The children acquitted themselves admirably, subsequently earning praise from Lord Carrington, and, what was, perhaps, much dearer to the infantile heart, a whole holiday. I was considerably impressed with the progress evidently being made by the children, and not a little astonished at the advanced curriculum of the State schools in this colony. Children in New South Wales are being educated in many things of a practical as well as a scientific nature which are neglected across the border. The inference is obvious.'

The local “Riverine Herald“, published in Echuca, had predicted on 16 July that:

'Mr Wilkins has taken a good deal of pains to coach the scholars up, and their singing yesterday showed that they had profited by his teaching. The children kept time very well and sang the Anthem with considerable expression, so that they should acquit themselves very favourably on Tuesday next.'

His Excellency Lord Carrington, Governor of New South Wales, photographed about 1887. Retrieved from the National Library of Australia.

In 1889 George E Wilkins of Tattaila was promoted by examination to Classification 3A.

At the end of that year, he transferred to the Victorian education system, appointed in December 1889 as head teacher at School 1798, Major’s Line, near Heathcote. (‘Major’s Line’ refers to wheel tracks left by the NSW Surveyor-General Major Mitchell in his 1836 journey of exploration.)

On 1 January 1891 George was ‘certificated’—approved to teach, and appointed as a teacher—by the Victorian Department of Education. In October 1891 he transferred to School 1567 in Richmond and appointed junior assistant on probation. It was noted on his file that George gambled, but otherwise the probation inspection was satisfactory.

In 1892 George Wilkin’s appointment was confirmed, and he was also qualified to teach military drill. In 1893 he was transferred to School 2849, Rathscar North. His annual reports were positive. In 1899 he was
transferred to School 1109, Mount Lonarch. In 1901 he transferred to School 3022, Warrenmang. In 1902 he was at School 2811, Glenlogie. Later that year he returned to Warrenmang. In 1907 he was transferred to Homebush School, 2258. All these schools were in in the Central Highlands administrative region. He remained at Homebush until December 1921, when ill-health forced his resignation.

George Wilkins with his pupils in about 1896 at Rathscar North. From the 1988 book by Neville Taylor (1922 – 1992): Via the 19th Hole : Story of Convicts, Battlers and High Society. Neville was the son of Eva Taylor nee Squires.

George Wilkins, his children Ethel (1883 – 1955) and George (1884 – 1909), and wife Charlotte. Photograph about 1898.

Though not formally employed by the Education Department Charlotte Wilkins helped her husband with his teaching duties, brought up their children, and raised two of her nephews after their mother, her sister-in-law, died in childbirth. Charlotte was also busy in her local community. I have found no mention of Charlotte in Tattaila district newspapers, but in later years the Avoca newspapers give some better account of her activities there. for example as a hostess for various functions associated with the Homebush Soldiers Comforts Fund during World War I.

Lower Homebush School photographed some time between 1910 and 1920. In the back row are Laura Squires, Charlotte and George Wilkins. Laura Squires was sewing mistress from 1910 to 1920. She married George Wilkins after Charlotte’s death in 1925.

On 2 April 1925, following three years of paralysis, Charlotte died in Lower Homebush at the age of 63 and was buried in Avoca Cemetery.

Related posts

• Y is for Young family photographs
• W is for George Wilkins writing from Western Australia
• Cecil Young and family: Cecil’s early life up to end World War I

Wikitree:

• Charlotte Ethel (Young) Wilkins (1861 – 1925)
• George Edward Wilkins (1857 – 1944)

S is for Stockach

I don’t know very much about my German forebears—my mother’s side of the tree—but recently I’ve made some progress with names and dates, and now I’ve got a place, Stockach, a few kilometres from the northwestern arm of the Bodensee (Lake Constance).

On the basis of FamilySearch records and some images of parish registers at Stockach kindly photographed for me by one of my German cousins, I have been able to find out more about my family connections there.

My great great grandfather was a Stockach man named Matthias Martin, known as Matthias Manock.

Matthias married Agathe Lang in Karlsruhe in 1880. Their marriage certificate recorded that he was born on 2 November 1851 in Stockach, the son of Crescentia Martin, née Manock, widow of Johann Martin; Crescentia was deceased at the time of the marriage. Both Crescentia and Johann were Taglöhners, ‘day labourers’.

Matthias was baptised on 2 November 1851, son of Crescentia Martin born Manogg, widow of Johann Martin. No father was named on the baptismal record.

St Oswald’s Church: 1925 painting by Gustav Rockholtz of  St. Oswald mit Gasthaus Löwen, Stockach. The church is named after Oswald , King of Northumbria, who is venerated as a saint. The first building was consecrated in 1402 but destroyed by fire in 1704 during the war of the Spanish Succession. The church was rebuilt between 1707 and 1733 and had a tower with an onion dome. In 1932 the old church was demolished to make way for a new building. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

I have been able to work backwards to my sixth great grandparents. To keep this account chronological order I start with my sixth great grandparents, Adam Manogg and his wife Verena Huggin (they were from Boll, part of the municipality of Sauldorf, fourteen kilometres north of Stockach).

Adam Manogg and Verena Manogg née Huggin were married at Boll on 12 January 1743. They had at least ten children. Their fourth, Sylvester, was born in 1748 and baptised at Boll on 30 December 1748.

Sylvester Manogg married Theresia Stähl on 24 Nov 1773 at Raithaslach, twelve kilometres southwest of Boll and 6 kilometres northwest of Stockach. It seems Theresia died, for six months later on 24 May 1774, Sylvester Manogg married Genoveva Schrof in Raithaslach. Sylvester and Genoveva had at least seven children; their fourth was Fidel Manogg, who was baptised on 27 April 1780 at Raithaslach. Sylvester died in April 1801 and was buried 7 April at Raithaslach.

Fidel Manogg [sometimes spelt Monogg] married Marie Anna Beck on 23 September 1811 at Raithaslach. They had at least four children. Their oldest child, Kreszenz (Crescentia) Manogg, born in 1812, was baptised on 15 April at Stockach. (Saint Crescentia was a 4th-century companion of Saint Vitus, the patron saint of dancers). Crescentia married Johann Martin at Stockach on 26 October 1838. They had at least six children. Johann died in January 1850. I have not found Crescentia’s death record.

Stockach was an important postal station; its post office, one of the oldest in Germany, was first mentioned in 1505. Several major roads crossed at Stockach, including Ulm – Basel , Stuttgart – Zurich, and Vienna – Paris. In 1845 the local post office still had 60 horses, but as railways began to replace coach-roads Stockach declined in importance..

Stockach suffered in several wars. In 1499 it was besieged but not captured. In 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Elector Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria set fire to it. In 1799 and 1800 the French and Austrian armies fought in the region, and disputed possession of Stockach. The Austrians won the Battle of Stockach on 25 March 1799. A year later, on 3 May 1800, the French regained the town. Many tens of thousands of men and horses were involved in these battles.

Death of the Austrian field marshal, Karl Aloys, Prince of Fürstenberg while leading Austrian infantry during the during the Battle of Stockach. Despite the loss of their field marshal, on 25 March 1799 the Austrians won the Battle of Stockach. The French army had 26,164 infantry, 7,010 cavalry, 1,649 artillery, and 62 guns; the Austrians had 53,870 infantry, 14,900 cavalry, 3,565 artillery, and 114 guns. 4,000 French and 5,800 Austrians were killed, wounded or captured. The battle, which lasted all day, was fought at the junction of the east west and north–south roads on the eastern side of the Black Forest.

Stockach suffered in later wars of the nineteenth century and during the two world wars of the twentieth century.

In 1770, travelling to Paris for her marriage to Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France, stayed overnight in Stockach. On 20 March 1770 the Stockach magistrate decreed that the road Marie Antoinette was to take must be repaired. It is said that stones from the nearby ruined castle were used for the purpose. As she passed through the town, the people of Stockach used borrowed guns from neighbouring towns to salute the future queen appropriately. Six oxen and 80 loaves of bread were set aside for Marie Antoinette’s large entourage. The town hall was renovated for the feast.

From 9 April Stockach houses were required to be newly whitewashed. Pfailure to do this—pfor not giving a pfig—attracted a pfine of pfive pfennigs. On 2 May the future queen arrived, with an entourage of 21 six-horse state coaches, followed by 36 fine carriages. There were 450 horses and an accompanying personal suite of some 250 people. The future wife of Louis XVI spent the night in the “White Cross”. After resting the night in Stockach, Marie Antoinette and her entourage continued to Paris; her journey there from Vienna took two and a half weeks.

My 5th great grandparents Sylvester Monogg, then 22 years old, and his future wife Genoveva Schrof probably witnessed the procession and were likely involved in the preparations.

Arrival of the procession driving the archduchess Marie-Antoinette to Versailles, on May 16th, 1770. Image from historyanswers.co.uk

When I told my mother that I had traced our forebears to Stockach near Lake Constance she told me that, yes, it had always been said that the Manock family was not from Karlsruhe but from the area of Lake Constance. There is still more research to be done, but I am pleased to have extended my knowledge of this branch of my tree.

Related posts

• K is for Karlsruhe

Wikitree:

• Matthias Manock (1851 – 1925)
• Kreszentia (Manogg) Martin (1812 – bef. 1880)
• Fidel (Monogg) Manogg (1780 – 1843)
• Sylvester (Manogg) Monogg (1748 – 1801)
• Adam Manogg (abt. 1720)

R is for Rushton

I have written previously about my great great grandfather’s first cousin George Harrison Champion de Crespigny (1863-1945) and his wife Gwendoline (1864-1923).

George Harrison Champion de Crespigny, known as Harry, married Gwendoline Blanche Clarke-Thornhill (Gwen) youngest of six children of William Capel and Clara Clarke-Thornhill, on 18 December 1890 at Rushton, Northamptonshire.

Rushton Hall

Church of All Saints, Rushton

“SOCIETY.” John Bull, vol. LXXI, no. 3,660, 10 Jan. 1891, p. 16.

In the census taken on 5 April 1891 Harry and Gwen, who gave their surname as Champion Holden de Crespigny, were living at Pipewell (pronounced Pipwell) Hall, a couple of miles from Rushton. There were five servants in the house: a butler, a lady’s maid, a cook and two housemaids. Other workers on the estate were housed separately.

Harry, who had been adopted by the owner of Pipewell Hall Oscar William Holden-Hambrough as his heir, now included ‘Holden’ in his surname.

Pipewell Hall Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons, photograph by user Maypm CC BY-SA 4.0
The hall was sold in 2021 and a video of the property can be seen on YouTube.

Pipewell Hall is between Market Harborough, Corby and Kettering. It is two miles from Rushton Hall, now a hotel, and eight miles from Kelmarsh Hall, which once had a de Crespigny connection and now displays several de Crespigny family portraits.

Harry and Gwen had three children: Mildred born 1892, Arthur born 1894, and Gwendoline born 1900.

On 28 February 1893 Gwen attended the Queen’s Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. Her dress was widely described in the newspapers, with a report even appearing in Queensland. The Rockhampton ‘Capricornian‘ wrote:

Very effective and most successful was the Japanesque Court costume worn by Mrs. Holden de Crespigny, that is to say, Japanesque as to material, for the style was strictly modern English. The train was of white brocade made in Japan, the design a large floral one. At the corner of the left side it was trimmed back and faced with a piece of embroidery in golden thread, having a similar design to that in the brocade, raised from the surface in the rich metal. The dress was a very beautiful one, in soft Japanese satin, draped and trimmed with rare old lace.

There are several pictures of the Queen’s Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace that year. Sad to say, I haven’t found one of Gwen.

From The Graphic 11 March 1893 page 7 retrieved through British Library Newspapers

From The Graphic 20 May 1893 page 18 retrieved through British Library Newspapers

From The Graphic 13 May 1893 page 15 retrieved through British Library Newspapers

Related post

• Great expectations – disappointed

Wikitree:

• George Harrison Champion Crespigny (1863 – 1945)
• Gwendoline Blanche (Clarke-Thornhill) Champion de Crespigny (1864 – 1923)