Category Archives: Brighton

G is for Gainsborough

08 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by in Bath, Brighton, divorce, Surrey, Wade

≈ 9 Comments

Gainsborough, Thomas, 1727-1788; Captain William Wade

Captain William Wade by Thomas Gainsborough. Image retrieved through https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/captain-william-wade-40008

William Wade, born about 1733, was the great nephew of Field-Marshal George Wade (1673 – 1748), best remembered as the builder of military roads in Scotland and as a long-time member of Parliament for Bath. William Wade, sometimes incorrectly stated to be one of the illegitimate sons of the Field Marshall, is named in George Wade’s 1747 will as the son of George Wade’s nephew Major Wade.

I am distantly related to William Wade: he was the father-in-law of my fifth great uncle Philip Champion Crespigny.

William Wade was educated at the Westminster School and then had a career in the army.

In December 1760 he married Catherine Gore, daughter of Henry Gore of Leatherhead, Surrey. William and Catherine had at least four children, three daughters and a son.

In April 1769, William Wade, at that time holding the rank of Captain, was elected Master of Ceremonies at Bath. Beau Nash (1674 – 1761) was his most notable predecessor in the position. Nash’s place there was unofficial but he met visitors to Bath, encouraged them to subscribe to the Assembly Rooms and kept the peace by enforcing the rules there. Nash made money by sharing in the receipts from the subscriptions and the benefit balls. By the time Wade was appointed, the position was by the election of subscribers of the Assembly Rooms and a salary was paid to the holder of the position from the proceeds of the benefit balls.

1769 cartoon King of Bath election

Female intrepidity, or the battle of the belles on ye election of a King of Bath. May 1769. Etching. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY 4.0. Image retrieved from https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qkyn4etc

The season at Bath ran from October to May. Patronised by the Prince of Wales, Brighton also became a fashionable summer resort, known for sea bathing. Since the social seasons of Bath and Brighton did not overlap, Wade was able to occupy positions in both places; he held the post of Master of Ceremonies at Brighton from 1767.

At Bath, the Lower Assembly Rooms were built in the early 1700s. The Upper Assembly Rooms, which had four rooms: the Ball Room, the Tea or Concert Room, the Octagon Room (which links the rooms together), and the Card Room, were built between 1769 and 1771. William Wade presided over the ball conducted to open the new Rooms.

The Octagon Room began life as a card room, where people gathered at tables to play whist and other games of chance. At the centre of the room is a particularly spectacular Whitefriars crystal chandelier, the largest in the building. It was made in 1771 and has 48 lights, originally candles.

Octagon Room

Octagon Room, Bath Assembly Rooms photographed by Glitzy queen00 at English Wikipedia (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Octagon_Room.jpg), CC BY-SA 3.0

Chandelier in the Octagon Room, Bath Assembly Rooms.

Chandelier in the Octagon Room, Bath Assembly Rooms. Photograph by Heather Cowper who blogs at www.heatheronhertravels.com/ retrieved from Wikimedia Commons, originally uploaded to https://www.flickr.com/photos/heatheronhertravels/4547807786 CC by 2.0

In 1771 Thomas Gainsborough, then living in the Circus at Bath, painted a portrait of Captain William Wade as a present to the new Assembly Rooms. This picture of the first Master of Ceremonies at the Assembly Rooms was hung in the Octagon Room, and hangs there again today. The portrait includes his badge of office, a gold medal enamelled blue worn on an indigo ribbon.

In 1777 Captain Wade was named in divorce proceedings between John Campbell Hooke Esq and Elizabeth Eustatia Campbell Hooke nee Bassett.

Wade lost the position of Master of Ceremonies at Bath as a consequence of the scandal but continued as Master of Ceremonies at Brighton.

Henry Gore, the father of Catherine Wade nee Gore, died in 1777. He left his estates to his son-in-law William and daughter Catherine. These estates included the Mansion at Leatherhead, Surrey, 47 miles north of Brighton and close to one of the main routes from London to Brighton. William Wade would have found the residence conveniently close to Brighton for his duties there.

Following the death of Catherine Wade nee Gore on 26 April 1787 William Wade married Elizabeth Eustatia Bassett, a ‘single woman’, by licence on 30 June 1787. They had already had a daughter together, Georgina Dennison Bassett Wade, who was born in 1783 or possibly as early as 1777. (The index of her death in 1863 said she was 86 when she died and thus born 1777; the census of 1851 gives her age as 68 and thus born 1783.) Georgina was mentioned in her father’s will.

William Wade’s son, Henry Gore Wade, died at sea in 1814. William’s three daughters by Catherine Gore shared in the estate. One of the daughters, Emilia, married Philip Champion Crespigny (1765 – 1851). Philip and Emilia lived in the Mansion at Leatherhead after Henry Gore Wade’s death. Emilia died in 1832.

In his role of Master of Ceremonies at Bath he would possibly have met my 5th great grandfather Philip Champion Crespigny (1738 – 1803), who built his house there in 1786.

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Sources and further reading

F is for Francis

06 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by in A to Z 2018, Ballarat, Brighton, Edwards, Gilbart, immigration, insolvency, probate, railways, Trove

≈ 10 Comments

One of my husband’s great great grandfathers was Francis Gilbart Edwards (1848-1913).

He was born at St Erth, Cornwall, on 21 January 1848, youngest of the nine children of Thomas Edwards (1794-1871) and Mary née Gilbart (1805-1867).

Francis Gilbart Edwards was christened at the parish church of St Erth on 11 June 1848. On the christening documents his father’s occupation is given as carpenter.

Shortly after Francis’s birth the family emigrated to Victoria, arriving at Port Philip on the Lysander on 13 January 1849.

On 27 December 1870 Francis Gilbart Edwards married Caroline Ralph (1850-1896) in Ballarat. At the time of his marriage Francis’s occupation was declared to be farmer.

Francis and Caroline had ten children:

  • Edith Caroline (1871-1946), Greg’s great grandmother, born Ballarat, Victoria
  • Lucy Gilbart (1873-1908) born Ballarat
  • Helena Mary Francis (1876-1950) born Ballarat
  • Annie Tuckfield (1879-1906) born Port Adelaide, South Australia
  • Elizabeth Christina (1881- ) born Gladstone, South Australia
  • Ethel Augusta (1885-1963) born Kensington, South Australia
  • Benjamin Gilbart (1887-1888) born Ballarat, died Richmond, Victoria
  • Stanley Gilbert (1889-1917) born Richmond
  • Ernest Francis Gilbart (1891-1901) born East Brunswick, died Brighton
  • Arnold Leslie Morton (1893-1904) born Brighton, died Elsternwick

The oldest three children of Francis and Caroline were born in Ballarat. Sometime between 1876 and 1879 the family moved to South Australia, and three more children were born there. A seventh child was born in Ballarat in 1887. Not long afterwards the family moved to Melbourne. In March 1888 their then youngest son died in Richmond. Three more sons were born in Melbourne. From the place of birth information on their birth certificates, it appears that the family moved from Richmond to East Brunswick, Victoria. In 1893 the youngest child, Arnold, was born in Brighton and died a year later in Elsternwick. (Richmond, East Brunswick, Brighton, and Elsternwick  are suburbs of Melbourne.)

On 1 December 1887 Francis joined the railways as a carriage cleaner.

In 1894, due to ‘a reduction in his wages and sickness in the family’, Francis became insolvent.

 

NEW INSOLVENTS. (1894, February 3). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 10. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8727630

 
On 22 July 1896, after six week’s illness, Caroline Edwards died of cancer of the uterus. At the time the Edwards were living in Grant Street, Brighton.

 

Ethel Augusta Edwards & James McCorkell 1911

Francis Gilbert Edwards, seated on the left, was photographed at the 1911 wedding of his daughter Ethel Augusta Edwards to James McCorkell

 

On 29 March 1913 Francis, who had been ill for twelve months, died of  diabetes, at Primrose Crescent, Brighton. His occupation was given as railway employee.

Francis Edwards died intestate. His estate, valued at £1076:13:1, included two houses, one at Primrose Crescent Brighton and the other at Male Street Brighton. Each was valued at 500 pounds. Also in his estate was money in the bank, a gold watch, jewellery, and a cow.

Gilbart, the maiden surname of Francis’s mother, has often been used in the family as a given name. Francis Edwards used it consistently as his second personal name. There have been variant spellings. My mother-in-law Marjorie insisted that Gilbart should be spelled with an ‘a’ rather than an ‘e’. Her mother, granddaughter of Francis, was christened Stella Esther Gilbart Dawson. Sometimes, however, the name is spelled ‘Gilbert’, perhaps because of a recording error and at other times perhaps quite deliberately. Stanley Gilbert Edwards (1889-1917), a son of Francis Gilbart Edwards, spelled it with an ‘e’ when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in World War 1 and when he married.

References

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E is for Eliza

05 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by in A to Z 2018, Brighton, illness and disease, Morley, Sinden, Sussex

≈ 9 Comments

My husband’s great great grandmother – one of them – was Eliza Morley née Sinden (1823 – 1908).

Eliza was born about 1823 in Cuckfield, West Sussex, to William Sinden (c. 1870-1839), a coach driver, and Mercy Sinden née Rose (1779-1852). She was probably the youngest child of at least six.

At the time of the 1841 census Eliza was living with her widowed mother Mercy Sinden at Albourne, Sussex, just over six miles south of Cuckfield.

On 17 September 1848 Eliza married John Morley (1823-1888) at Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, less than a mile east of Albourne.

Morley Sinden marriage 1848

In 1851 the Morley family was living in Keymer, 2 miles east of Hurstpierpoint. They were living at 97 Railway Terrace. John was a railway labourer. Keymer junction was an important railway junction on the line between London and Brighton. John and Eliza had one daughter, aged one, and soon afterwards, another son, William.

In 1853 they emigrated to Australia, arriving in Melbourne on the Ida, on 12 July. They were assisted passengers, that is, their voyage was subsidized by the Victorian Government.

On 10 May 1853 William, then aged one, died at sea of scarlatina  (scarlet fever, a bacterial infection). There were 26 deaths on the voyage. Eleven were attributed to scarlatina.

In Victoria the family lived at Collingwood, an inner city suburb of Melbourne, until at least 1861. There Eliza had five more children.

In 1862 John Morley was renting a  house in Tucker Road, Moorabbin, then a village fifteen kilometres or so miles south-east of the city centre.

In 1864 Eliza’s seventh child was born in Brighton, a suburb about eleven kilometers south-east of the city.

In 1866 Eliza’s brother George emigrated to Australia and came to live with Eliza’s family. George Sinden (1811-1884) never married and all George’s and Eliza’s other siblings had died. George Sinden died in 1884 aged 73.

In 1888 Eliza’s husband John died from a malignant disease of the stomach after an illness of three months. Eliza, then 65, was living at 7 Evelyn Street, East Bentleigh, with her daughter Anne who had married Henry Sullivan in 1887. Three of Eliza’s seven children had survived into adulthood.

In 1886, in addition to the house in East Bentleigh which was then rented by John Morley, Eliza was renting 2 1/2 acres of land nearby, where she seems to have kept a few cows. In 1890 it was reported that she had been fined 7s 6d plus 2s 6 d costs for straying cattle.

On 23 April 1908 Eliza died after an illness of ten weeks at the age of 85 from cancer of the pharynx  and of asthenia, a medical term for abnormal weakness.  She was buried in Brighton cemetery with her husband John. Their graves are unmarked.

References

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