Family lore has it that my great grandfather, Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952), fond of his aunts Ada and Viola (Ada Isadora Charlotte Champion Crespigny (1848 – 1927); Viola Julia Constantia Champion de Crespigny (1855 – 1929)), was sorry that as single gentlewomen, of limited education and with little opportunity to make their own way in the world, they were forced to remain financially dependent upon men.
He insisted that his own daughters should have a university education, and indeed Nancy graduated from Melbourne University and Cambridge. Margaret also gained a Melbourne University degree.
In November 1847, discovering she was pregnant by her lover Philip Champion Crespigny, my 3rd great grandmother, Charlotte James nee Dana, deserted her husband and her daughter Charlotte Constance and fled to France. Philip and Charlotte’s daughter Ada Isadora was born out of wedlock in Paris on 15 May 1848.
Isadora Ada Charlotte was baptised with the surname ‘D’Estrée’ at St Servan near St Malo on 4 July 1849. This was an attempt at concealment: Ada’s parents were hiding there from Charlotte’s husband John James, who attempted to sue Philip over Charlotte’s desertion.
Ada apparently felt the stigma of illegitimacy all her life; her great-nephew Francis Philip (Frank) Champion de Crespigny (1918-2010) remembered her as “Mad as a snake; never got over it.”
John James and Charlotte Frances née Dana obtained a divorce the following year. Before 1857, when the Matrimonial Causes Act reformed divorce law, shedding an unwanted marriage partner was an expensive and convoluted bureaucratic process.
Charlotte Frances Dana married Philip Crespigny in Paris on 18 July 1849. They had four more children: Philip (1850-1927), Constantine Pulteney Trent (1851-1883), Viola Julia Constantia (1855-1929), and Helen Rosalie, known as Rose (1858-1937). In 1851 the family sailed for Australia, arriving in Geelong on 31 March 1852. They never returned to England. The youngest two daughters, Viola and Rose, were born in Australia.
In a letter from her father, probably written when he was away in Melbourne about 1860, Philip Crespigny addresses Ada as Mouse
[MELBOURNE?]
[undated, about 1860]
Dearest little Mouse
A little bird has just told me that you have been a dear good little girl, and I shall therefore get the prettiest present for you I can. Tell Loup [Philip] that I shall not forget to buy him something too, and if the little bird tells me he has been very good, I will get whatever I think he will like best. I shall be back very soon after you get this letter, so mind be very good children and be very kind indeed to dear Mama. I will not forget something for Bab and Polly. Goodnight darling Mouse. I hope soon to give you all a great big kiss.
Your most affec
Father, P C C
Ada was at this time about twelve years old, and the nickname “Mouse” may indicate that although she was the eldest she was quiet and shy. “Loup,” in contrast, from the French for a wolf, refers to Philip, who turned ten in 1860 and appears always to have been energetic. Philip was known in the family as Loup or Loo for much of his life. “Bab” and “Polly” are presumably the two youngest children; Viola, turning five, and Rose, two.
Some fifty letters to and from members of the Crespigny/CdeC family during the nineteenth century were collected by Ada and passed to her nephew, my great grandfather Constantine Trent. The letters are now held by the State Library of South Australia. They have been a great source of insight into the lives of members of the family. (The letters feature in Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny nee Dana (1820-1904) and her family in Australia).
Ada spent her teenage years near Talbot, in the Victorian goldfields where her father was a magistrate. We know she learned the piano and there are several newspaper reports of her performing in concerts in 1867.
In 1869 Philip Crespigny, Ada’s father, was transferred from Talbot to Bairnsdale. Ada accompanied him to keep house. In a letter to his ten-year-old daughter Helen Rosalie, written at Bairnsdale one month after his departure from Talbot, Philip airs a small complaint about Ada’s tidiness:
2 March, 1869
My own darling little Rose,
I must apologise for not answering your dear little letter before. I am so very glad to hear that Vi and you have been such very good children and taken such care of your poor Mother in that dreadful sale and the other miseries since we left.
Poor dear little love, how delighted I was to hear of the narrow escape you had! – from the falling tree I mean. Vi will soon be going to Inglewood and your poor Mother will have no one but you.
What care you will take of each other! How I long to be with you. You would laugh if you could see poor Ada and I keeping house together. When we first commenced I thought I could have it all my own way and make her tidy and so forth – but hitherto she says she will begin tomorrow! But tomorrow never comes. I much fear I shall be beaten in my attempts at making her tidy!
Now good-bye, my own darling, with love in which Ada joins me.
Your most affectionate Father
P C Crespigny
Ada, at the time of this letter aged 21, spent most of her life helping her father and later her brother with housekeeping, though it seems from this letter that at least, in the early days she herself was not very tidy.
There are several photographs of Ada in her sister Rose’s photograph albums.
Miss Ada de Crespigny on Malahide at Eurambeen East
Malahide was afterwards sold to Admiral Bridges Trawalla for ladies hack where he lived his natural life FB
Ada’s sister Rose and her husband Frank lived at Eurambeen East from about 1882 to 1908. The horse was probably named after the place in Ireland near Dublin from where the Beggs family emigrated. Admiral Bridges was at Trawalla, eighteen kilometers east from Eurambeen on the other side of Beaufort, from 1887 to his death in 1917.
In the Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.), Saturday 19 September 1891, page 5:
Mr. Francis Beggs, Eurambeen, Beaufort, requests permission to supplement our correspondent's report of the Ararat show by stating that his colt Saint Marnocks, by Macgregor-Nightlight, took first prize at Ararat in the class for two and three year old thorough-breds, and also Messrs. Briscoe's special prize for the best thoroughbred stallion in the yard. In the light-weight hack class his horse Malahide, by Macgregor, took first prize.
Malahide was 3 years old in September 1891 so the photograph was probably taken in the early 1890s. A horse would generally not be ridden until its third year, maybe longer as riding sidesaddle like this takes even more training than basic astride. The horse looks fully mature so I would guess that this photo was taken no earlier than 1892.
Ada died on 29 November 1927 in a private hospital in Vale Street, East Melbourne, following four days from intestinal obstruction and toxaemia. She was buried on 30 November at Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery.
I was surprised to discover that she was not buried with other members of her family, including her parents, brother and sister, who are buried in Brighton cemetery, about 9km north of the Cheltenham cemetery. Ada’s usual residence at her time of death was Hampton Street, Brighton, which is closer to Brighton Cemetery than Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery.
Related posts
- Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny nee Dana (1820-1904) and her family in Australia
- Photograph albums from great great aunt Rose
- Divorce of John James and Charlotte Frances née Dana
- Australian arrival of the Champion Crespigny family on the ‘Cambodia’ 31 March 1852
- 170 years since the Australian arrival of the Crespigny family on the ‘Cambodia’ 31 March 1852
- T is for Talbot in 1869
- O is for ‘Ottawa’ Gladstone Parade Elsternwick
- St Marnocks
- Trove Tuesday: Melbourne Cup 1916
- Bequests from Anna Penelope Wood
Wikitree: Ada Isadora Champion Crespigny (1848 – 1927)
This post was created as part of Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. This week’s theme is “Family Lore.”