Living statues

A year ago, in August, I wrote about two of my great-great grand-aunts, Alice Moore née Mainwaring (1852-1878) and Julia Wilkinson née Mainwaring (1857-1907), who in 1874 appeared in Shakespearean tableaux vivant, static ‘living pictures’ with live models.

Alice

Julia

Portraits of Alice and Julia Mainwaring hanging in the Chinese Room at Whitmore Hall

Miss Alice Mainwaring of Whitmore appeared as Portia from ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in tableaux arranged by James Sant, a Royal Academy portraitist. Julia Mainwaring appeared as Juliet in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ tableaux arranged by Edward Matthew Ward, also a member of the Royal Academy. In April 1874 Alice was 21 and Julia was 17.

Today I was contacted with more information about these tableaux by a researcher with the ‘Shakespeare in the Royal Collection’, a project funded by the British Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). This project concerns the Shakespeare-related holdings of the Royal Collection, primarily from the period 1714-1945.

The tableaux staged in 1874 were photographed by Alexander Bassano (1829-1913), a society photographer of the late nineteenth century. There are twenty-eight albumen prints of these tableaux in the Royal Collection.

The Shakespearean tableaux vivants were performed on 21 and 22 April 1874 in a small theatre at Cromwell House in South Kensington, the home of Charles James and Eliza Freake, to raise money for the National Orphan Home and the Victoria Hospital for Sick Children. The scenes were presented by noted artists, including the Pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais. There was music too, with original compositions by Arthur Sullivan. Henry Irving gave dramatic recitations. The guests of honour were the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, and the newly-wed Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Prince Alfred and his wife the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia.

The album of prints came into the Royal Collection from the collection of Prince Alfred, quite likely presented to him as a memento of the event to which he and his wife had given their patronage.

Royal Collection Trust Image 2369163

Scene from The Merchant of Venice: “What find I here, fair Portia’s counterfeit.”

A group of four performers recreating a scene from The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, scene 2. They are Alice Mainwaring as Portia, Sarah Fanny Sant as Nerissa, Arthur Ram as Bassanio and Alfred J. de Sterne as Gratiano. The tableau depicts the moment when Bassanio successfully passes the casket test by locating Portia’s miniature. Bassanio is on one knee, studying the miniature; Portia stands behind him with her hands clasped, perhaps in prayer, while Gratiano and Nerissa observe. Like the other tableaux in this set, this scene includes some elaborate early modern costumes, but this scene uses a backdrop and furniture resembling a Victorian interior, and Portia’s costume combines a mixture of Victorian and Renaissance fashions.

Royal Collection Trust Image 2369164

Scene from The Merchant of Venice: “This house, these servants and this same myself are yours, my lord”

A group of four performers recreating a scene from The Merchant of Venice, Act 3, scene 2. They are Alice Mainwaring as Portia, Sarah Fanny Sant as Nerissa, Arthur Ram as Bassanio and Alfred J. de Sterne as Gratiano. The caption directs primary attention to Bassanio and Portia on the right hand side: Bassanio is on one knee, holding Portia’s hands and evidently proposing marriage. To the left, Gratiano and Nerissa are apparently engaged in a different kind of negotiation: Gratiano leans in eagerly, one hand rested on Nerissa’s shoulder, while she recoils and fends him off with both hands.

Royal Collection Trust Image 2369165

Scene from The Merchant of Venice: “How far that little candle throws its beam…”

Sarah Fanny Sant and Alice Mainwaring posing as Nerissa and Portia from The Merchant of Venice Act 5, scene 1. Both figures are elaborately costumed; Portia wears a voluminous travelling cloak and Nerissa is clutching a book. Portia gestures towards the left of the frame. Behind the figures, a trompe-l’oeil backdrop portrays the exterior of a large house.

These three tableaux were ‘arranged’ by the Royal Academician James Sant, who was well known for his portraits of women and children.

The Daily Telegraph of 21 April 1874 reported: “In Mr. Sant’s scenes from “The Merchant of Venice” the colouring is once more most effective, and there will be praise in store for the Portia of Miss Alice Mainwaring of Whitmore, and the most effective Jessica of Miss Tennant.”

Royal Collection Trust Image 2369170

Scene from Romeo and Juliet: “Do thou but close our hands with holy words”

G.V. Boyle, Julia Mainwaring and Colonel Henry Armytage posing as Romeo, Juliet and Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet Act 2, scene 6—the wedding scene. The young lovers kneel facing one another and holding hands, while the friar stands over them with his hands over them in blessing. All three figures wear sixteenth-century costume. Behind them, a trompe-l’oeil backdrop suggests the interior of a stone building, with sunlight beaming through a window.

Royal Collection Trust Image 2369171

Scene from Romeo and Juliet: “Take thou this phial”

Julia Mainwaring and Colonel Henry Armytage posing as Juliet and Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet Act 4, scene 1. Juliet sits on a bench, one hand clutched to her chest in alarm, as the friar, standing, passes her the potion that will allow her to appear dead.

The Daily Telegraph commented “An innovation has been suggested by Mr. E. M. Ward, R.A., by clothing his Juliet in startling colours of green and orange, instead of the conventional white satin: but the scenes from the well-known play were heartily applauded and appreciated.”

These two tableaux were ‘arranged’ by the Royal Academician Edward Matthew Ward, an artist specialising in historical and genre painting. He had painted two pictures of scenes from Romeo and Juliet and the tableaux reproduced these paintings.

“Romeo And Juliet Before Friar Lawrence”

Juliet and friar Laurence (Romeo and Juliet) Take thou the phial, being then in bed, and this distilled liquor drink thou off

The two paintings of scenes from Romeo and Juliet by Edward Matthew Ward R.A.
“Romeo And Juliet Before Friar Lawrence” retrieved through liveauctioneers.com
“Juliet and friar Laurence (Romeo and Juliet) Take thou the phial, being then in bed, and this distilled liquor drink thou off”, from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare pub.by J Coker & Co Ltd retrieved through meisterdrucke.uk

I am pleased to have more information about these tableaux and the photographs to add to my posts of August last year.

Related posts and further reading

• Alice Moore née Mainwaring (1852 – 1878)
• Julia Wilkinson née Mainwaring (1857 – 1907)

• Shakespearean Tableaux enacted at Cromwell House, 1874, in the presence of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh; photographed by Alexander Bassano: album in the Royal Collection Trust
• “Shakespearian Tableaux at Cromwell House.” Daily Telegraph, 21 Apr. 1874, p. 5. The Telegraph Historical Archive
• “SHAKSPERIAN TABLEAUX AT CROMWELL HOUSE.” Morning Post, 22 Apr. 1874, p. 6. British Library Newspapers
• “Shakespearian Tableaux.” Times, 23 Apr. 1874, p. 7. The Times Digital Archive
• “TABLEAUX VIVANTS AT SOUTH KENSINGTON.” Era, 26 Apr. 1874. British Library Newspapers

Wikitree:

• Alice (Mainwaring) Moore (1852 – 1878)
• Julia (Mainwaring) Wilkinson (1857 – 1907)

240th birthday of Rowland Mainwaring

My fourth great grandfather Rowland Mainwaring (1782 – 1862) was born 240 years ago on 30 December 1782, two days before the end of the year. He married, at the age of 28, on the last day of 1810.

Some records give Rowland’s date of birth as 31 December 1783. However, his baptism, at St George Hanover Square, recorded on 18 January 1783, gives his date of birth as 30, that is, 30 December 1782. Two pages earlier in the register, the month of December is shown as 1782, with the register dates conforming with the new style of dating adopted in England in 1752, when the start of a new year was changed from Lady Day (25 March) to 1 January.

Rowland Mainwaring joined the Royal Navy at the age of 12 and saw continuous service from 1795 to the end of 1810, when he took leave to marry. This was followed by eight months of half-pay. At the time of his marriage he was a lieutenant with the Narcissus.

His bride was Sophia Duff (c. 1790 – 1824), whom he met at a picnic in Devonport, near Plymouth, on 11 July 1808. They became engaged two years later, in November 1810, and were married on 31 December at Stoke Damerel (now part of Plymouth). In “The First Five Years of My Married Life”, which he published in 1853, Mainwaring described their meeting as love at first sight.

Stoke Damerel Church, the Church of St Andrew with St Luke, from an 18th century etching. In the 19th century, after the Mainwarings’ wedding, the church was renovated including a clock being added to the tower in 1811, the rebuilding of the chancel in 1868 and a restoration in 1883. Image from https://plymouthhistoryfestival.com/2020/05/28/reverend-edward-blackett/

Devon Marriages And Banns retrieved through FindMyPast

From The First Five Years of My Married Life by Rowland Mainwaring, 1853, pages 21-25:

It was on a cold winter's morning, at the earliest possible hour of December 31st, 1810, that our marriage took place, at the retired village Church of Stoke Damarel, just one short mile distant.

It was of the most unassuming and simple description.

Bride maids were dispensed with; white favours, to call public attention, those emblems of a man's wisdom or folly, (as the case may be,) which one sees now and then on such occasions, were especially prohibited; in short, we endeavoured to steal away unobserved; and certainly, neither our dresses or retinue bespoke a bridal party.

My Wife, attired in a dark riding habit, and close cottage bonnet, ready, if needs must, to travel to the world's end with me, and myself in a non-descript costume, half naval, half civil, with the contents of my wardrobe packed in a kind of sea chest, indicated neither wealth or ostentation.

Two post chaises, (wretched vehicles,) which every one who travelled in those days, not possessing the luxury of their own carriage, must remember, formed the interesting cortége, and conveyed us to the church door; one contained the good old Admiral Kelly, with the bride, (who officiated in the absence of her Father; ) the second, myself and the Lady's maid, under the travelling name of “Kitty Rags,” a plain unsophisticated kind of being, wife of a Boatswain's Mate in the Andromache, (or, as she used to call her, the Andrew Mac,) a first class frigate, commanded by my wife's step-father, then at sea.

In this vehicle, after the ceremony, were we launched, for better for worse, into the great uncertain matrimonial world. What a change, thought I.

The battles, the hurricanes, and heaven knows the host of incidents which all sailors partake of, more or less, in their professional career, sank into insignificance, as I drew a comparison and looked back on my bachelor life on ship board. And thus we rattled along, (in every sense of the word,) from stage to stage.

Three days brought us to London, the last of which lay across Bagshot heath. It was late in the evening, and quite dark. I had heard a great deal about robberies, and such like unpleasant incidents on Bagshot, and other heaths in the vicinity of London, and concluding (as a matter of course) that we should be robbed, a consultation was held, how, or in what way we should conceal our valuables ; not that we had many to lose, still what we had were worth preserving, and Kitty Rags undertook to stow away our watches.

Where she put them I had not the most distant idea, but she assured us they were perfectly safe, and I thought it unnecessary to make further inquiries. However, good honest Kitty and ourselves were spared the painful operation of a search, and at a late hour we drove up to the Adelphi Hotel, in the Strand, happy in having arrived so far towards our destination without accident or mishap. I had been particularly recommended to this Hotel, as one of a fashionable and first-rate description; and really, if enormous charges constitute fashion, we had arrived at the right place; but the locality did not appear to me very first-rate, and in a few days we cut and run to more suitable lodgings, that is to say, better suited to the confined state of our finances.

Never was poor amphibious creature more out of his element than myself ; scarcely had I passed a month ashore than my heart yearned for the sea, and although I was as happy as mortal could wish, I longed to be again pacing the quarter deck. Such is the perverseness of human nature. I soon became tired of the great Metropolis, had seen all there was to be seen, whereupon we weighed anchor, left our lodgings, and started for the country.

We had many invitations, and many kinsfolk to whom I wished to introduce my wife, and between whom we passed the first six months of my married life. It was at one of these hospitable houses that I underwent the process of Christianizing, (if I may so express myself,) for I was told that really I was but an elder species of unlicked cub, quite unacquainted with men and manners, scarcely advanced beyond a cockpit education, and that, occasionally, I made use of expressions very offensive to ears polite, and, therefore, it was actually necessary I should be taken in hand, polished up and reformed. I had an entire new outfit from a first-rate Northampton tailor; my old sea chest was exchanged for a handsome travelling trunk, and the odour of pitch and tar, with which my clothes were dreadfully impregnated, in process of time, by the friendly aid of soap and soda, completely purified.

Mainwaring and Sophia travelled to London for their honeymoon. The coach took three days; they were a little concerned about being robbed on the way.

Their first London hotel was the Adelphi, but though, Mainwaring said, it had been recommended to them as one of a “fashionable and first-rate description; and really, if enormous charges constitute fashion, we had arrived at the right place…the locality did not appear to me very first-rate, and in a few days we cut and run to a more suitable lodgings, that is to say, better suited to the confined state of our finances.”

[The Adelphi Hotel was located at 1-4 John Street in the Adelphi Buildings designed the Adams brothers in the 1780s. The buildings were demolished in the 1930s.]

Adelphi from the Thames in London, etching by Benedetto Pastorini in the collection of the Rijksmuseum

Soon afterwards, tired of London and having “seen all there was to be seen” they left to visit family and friends in the country. They then settled at Stoke, the village they had married in, near Devonport.

After 8 months on half-pay Rowland returned to sea; on 16 August 1811 he was appointed as senior Lieutenant to the Menelaus, a 38-gun fifth rate frigate.

Rowland and Sophia had eight children. She died aged 33 on 11 October 1824 in Bath, two months after the birth of her eighth child.

Portrait of Captain Rowland Mainwaring painted by Mr. John Phillip, afterwards R.A., at Whitmore in May 1841. The portrait of Sophia was also painted in 1841, many years after her death in 1824. Both portraits now hang in Whitmore Hall.

Related posts and reading:

• Midshipman Rowland Mainwaring
• Rowland Mainwaring: from midshipman to rear-admiral
• Sophia Duff
• Mainwaring, Rowland. The First Five Years of My Married Life. 1853. Retrieved through Google Books.

Wikitree:

• Rowland Mainwaring (1782 – 1862)
• Sophia Henrietta (Duff) Mainwaring (abt. 1790 – 1824)

O is for Old Palace Yard

At one time, my fifth great grandfather, Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 – 1803), lived at 4 Old Palace Yard, beside the Palace of Westminster (the Houses of Parliament). Philip Crespigny was a lawyer: an advocate at Doctors’ Commons from 1756 and a King’s Proctor from 1768 – 1784. He also served as a member of Parliament.

Old Palace Yard was opposite the King’s Entrance to the House of Lords near the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey. It was one of a block of old houses re-fronted in the Georgian style. The residence leased by Philip de Crespigny was the property of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey.

Old and New Palace Yards were two main courtyards of the medieval Palace of Westminster.

“Old Palace Yard, Westminster” watercolour by Thomas Malton, probably exhibited in the Royal Gallery in 1796. No 4 Old Palace Yard is apparently one of the houses pictured.

 

Philip de Crespigny’s maternal uncle, Thomas Fonnereau (1699 – 1779) lived at 4 Old Palace Yard and died there 20 March 1779. Thomas was a member of Parliament; his residence was conveniently close to the Houses of Parliament. (I wrote about Thomas Fonnereau earlier in this series of posts. He commissioned the building of the lighthouse on Lizard point, Cornwall.)

In 1780 Philip re-entered Parliament. In 1774 he had been returned to Parliament on the Fonnereau interest at Sudbury after a contest, but lost his seat on petition. In 1780 he was returned unopposed at Aldeburgh on the Fonnereau interest, and at Sudbury after a contest. He held both seats until 1781 when he lost Sudbury on petition, and continued to sit for Aldeburgh. Philip de Crespigny supported the administration of Lord North, a Tory, or conservative, administration.

On 14 February 1780 P.C. Crespigny Esq. of Old Palace Yard joined the Somerset House Lodge of Freemasons and that year he also joined another Lodge of Freemasons, the Stewards’ Lodge.

Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738–1803), MP by John Opie RA (1761–1807) Portrait in the collection of Kelmarsh Hall and image retrieved through https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/philip-champion-de-crespigny-17381803-mp-49154

 

In 1786 Philip sold the lease of 4 Old Palace Yard to William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833), later to become a noted leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade.

On 16 October 1834 the Houses of Parliament caught fire. Among the buildings burned was 4 Old Palace Yard. Number 6 and 7 Old Palace Yard survived.

The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons by J.M.W. Turner

6 – 7 Old Palace Yard. The Palladian design is said to be by Isaac Ware.

 

In the 1890s and early 1900s the Office of Works acquired the leaseholds to 1-4 Old Palace Yard and 1 – 3A Poet’s Corner. The site was redeveloped as a memorial to King George V.

The statue of George V and the Henry VII Chapel of Westminster Abbey

Related posts

• Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 – 1803)

Sources

• De Crespigny, Rafe Champions from Normandy : an essay on the early history of the Champion de Crespigny family 1350-1800 AD. Lilli Pilli, New South Wales Richard Rafe Champion de Crespigny, 2017. Can be viewed at Champions from Normandy
• Drummond, Mary M. “CRESPIGNY, Philip Champion (d.1803), of Burwood, nr. Cobham, Surr.” History of Parliament Online, The History of Parliament Trust ,https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/crespigny-philip-champion-1803.
• Library and Museum of Freemasonry; London, England; Freemasonry Membership Registers; Description: Register of Members, London, vol I, Folios 46, 85 viewed through ancestry.com
• “Old Palace Yard Watercolour.” Art in Parliament, UK Parliament, 10 Jan. 2009, www.parliament.uk/about/art-in-parliament/news/2009/malton/.
• Cundall, H. M. (Herbert Minton), 1848-1940, (author.) and Project Gutenberg Masters of Water-Colour Painting. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, Salt Lake City, 2007. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22379/22379-h/22379-h.htm
• The National Archives (UK): Office of Works and successors WORK 20/18, Acquisition of leaseholds of 1-4 Old Palace Yard and 1-3A Poets’ Corner (afterwards King George V Memorial Site) 1894 – 1902

• Google books:
  • Pollock, John (20 December 2013). Wilberforce. David C. Cook. p. 54.
  • Metropolitan Improvements; Or London in the Nineteenth Century: Displayed in a Series of Engravings… Jones and Company. 1828. p. 153

M is for Marylebone

Claude Champion Crespigny (1620-1695) and his wife Marie née de Vierville (1628-1708), my eighth great grandparents, were Huguenots, French Calvinists. After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the family fled France, abandoning most of their property.

Claude and Marie died in London and are buried at Marylebone. Their gravestone indicates that they were refugees from France.

The couple’s memorial originally had this inscription:

Hic jacet in fornice Claudius Champion de Crespigny et Maria de Vierville ejus uxor

E Galliae persecutione profugierunt cum integrâ octo liberorum familiâ

tandem in cǽlum veram patriam transmigrarunt

Ille: Ann.Sal: MDCXCV; Ǽtat LXXV

Haec: Ann Sal:MDCCVIII; Ǽtat LXXX

In English this means:

In this vault lie Claude Champion de Crespigny and Marie de Vierville his wife

who, on account of persecution, fled from France with all eight members of their family and have at last reached their true home in the heavens:

He in the Year of Salvation 1695, at the age of seventy-five;

She in the Year of Salvation 1708, at the age of eighty.

The original inscription is recorded in a manuscript held at Kelmarsh Hall with other family papers.

Photocopy from the “Kelmarsh Book” a manuscript of the Champion de Crespigny family history held at Kelmarsh Hall, Northamptonshire.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the stone was still in the churchyard of St Marylebone but much of the inscription was illegible. A new memorial was set up, with an inscription in English.  The year of Claude’s death is given wrongly as 1697, not 1695:

The Burial Place of Claude Champion de Crespigny a refugee from France, Died April 10, 1697 Also of Marie de Vierville his wife, Died June 21, 1708

A cousin recently visited the memorial stone of Claude and Marie at Marylebone

To know more about Marylebone, I read W.H. Manchee’s paper on ‘Marylebone and its Huguenot associations’ published in 1916 in the Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London.

The parish of St Marylebone has had four churches on three different sites. The first church was built in about 1200 AD. It was demolished in 1400. The second church was located on a new site. It fell into decay and was demolished in 1740. The interior of the second church is depicted in one of William Hogarth‘s ‘Rake’s Progress‘ paintings from between 1732 and 1734.

Rake’s Progress number 5 of 8 paintings by William Hogarth – The marriage: Tom Rakewell attempts to salvage his fortune by marrying a rich but aged and ugly old maid at St Marylebone. The shabby setting of Marylebone church, the second parish church building, was then a well-known venue for clandestine weddings on the northern fringes of London. In the background, Tom’s fiancee Sarah arrives, holding their child while her indignant mother struggles with a guest. It looks as though Tom’s eyes are already upon the pretty maid to his new wife’s left during the nuptials.

In 1916 the parish church, built in 1742, was the third in that  location. The second church was erected in 1400 and demolished in 1740. Manchee notes that as late as 1779 it was considered a country walk through fields to get the church in Marylebone. A fourth parish church was constructed between 1813 and 1817 on the Marylebone Road. In 1916 the third church was a chapel-of-ease for the parish church, that is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. The 1742 church building was on High Street Marylebone and the churchyard backed on to the National School. The 1742 church was demolished in 1949, and its site, at the northern end of Marylebone High Street, is now a public garden.

Manchee mentions the gravestone and its replacement (page 75). In 1916 it seems both the old and the new gravestones were in the same garden. He describes the churchyard as one of the prettiest spots in the neighbourhood, and writes that the “old tombstones are still in situ and in the centre is the pillar forming the memorial to Charles Wesley. Near by under the shade of a tree, is to be found the memorial stone to Sieur Claude de Crespigny.”

pages 75 and 76 of the article by Manchee

In his discussion of the family, Manchee is wrong about which Philip escaped from Paris during the reign of terror. I have written about that previously.

In an appendix Manchee includes a list of Families of foreign names resident in the Parish of Marylebone for the years 1728 – 1780 which has at

• page 115 Mrs Cripigny [sic] living at 20 Orchard Street in 1770. At the same address also in 1770 was Philip Crespigny. In 1780 Ann Crespigny was living at 29 Duke Street.
• page 118 Mrs Fonnereau living at Welbeck Street 1750, 1760; Philip Fonnereau living at 37 Upper Seymour Street in 1780

The scene is quite different today, of course:

Claude and Marie’s gravestone is in the Garden of Rest at 65 High Street Marylebone, around the corner from the nineteenth century parish church. Other family gravestones, such as that of Betsy de Crespigny nee Handley (1743 – 1772), second wife of Philip de Crespigny (1738 – 1803) which was mentioned in the 1795 Environs of London, have not survived.

Related post

• F is for fleeing from France

Sources

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/12471
• Lysons, Daniel. “Marylebone.” The Environs of London: Volume 3, County of Middlesex. London: T Cadell and W Davies, 1795. 242-279. British History Online. Web. 11 April 2019. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-environs/vol3/pp242-279 .
• Manchee, W. H. ‘Marylebone and its Huguenot associations’, Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London, Vol. XI. No. 1, pp 58 – 128 retrieved from https://archive.org/details/proceedingsofhug1113hugu/page/58

K is for Kings Lynn

Greg’s great great grandfather John Plowright (1831 – 1910) was born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, on 26 November 1831. He was christened three days later in St Margaret’s Church.

The church, now known as King’s Lynn Minster, is Grade 1 listed – a building of exceptional interest – in the register of the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England.

King’s Lynn Minster formerly known as St Margaret’s

King’s Lynn Minister was founded in 1095 as part of a Benedictine Priory. Some Norman architectural elements remain. There are Gothic towers from the 12th and 15th centuries and the chancel, the area around the altar, dates from the 13th century. Part of the building collapsed in 1741 and was rebuilt in Gothic Revival style. The church was the parish church for the town of King’s Lynn and was granted the title of Minster in 2011 by the Bishop of Norwich. (Minster is an honorific title given to particular churches in England, most famously York Minster in York and Westminster in London; a minster refers more generally to “any large or important church, especially a collegiate or cathedral church”.)

John was the fourth of eight children of William Plowright (1791 – 1869) and William’s second wife Sarah Ann Plowright nee Jackson (1796 – 1864).

John’s father William was christened at St Margaret’s in 1791.

William was a mariner. He lived at various addresses in King’s Lynn, among them:

• 1818 Priory Lane
• 1825 Church Street
• 1829 Austin Street

On the 1841 census William Plowright was living at Austin Street. His occupation is described as labourer; his wife was absent; and there were eight children aged from 2 to 20 living in the household. The oldest son, William, aged 20, was a plumber. William’s wife, Sarah Plowright, was a female servant in the household of John Ayre, a merchant living in Norfolk Street, Kings Lynn.

In 1851, William, occupation seaman, Sarah, and three children and two lodgers were living at 22 North Clough Lane. Their son Edward aged 14 was a Boots at the inn. Frederick aged 12 was an errand boy, Mary Ann aged 8 was at school.

John Plowright signed on as a merchant seaman in 1858. On the 1851 census he was living in Tower Hamlets, St Pauls Shadwell, in the East End of London. He was a boarder in a house with other seamen who were also boarders.

About 1853 John Plowright sailed to Australia on the brig “Speculation”, probably as a seaman. He disembarked at Melbourne and joined the gold rush, never to return to England.

E is for enterprise

One of my fifth great grandfathers was Thomas Plaisted (1777 – 1832), who owned a wine bar in Deptford (I have written before about this, at Plaisteds Wine Bar). Deptford was a dockyard district on the south bank of the River Thames in south-east London.

The Coopers Arms, also known as Plaisteds Wine Bar, in 2008 (photograph from Wikimedia Commons taken by Ewan Munro and uploaded by Oxyman) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 ]

 

According to my cousin Helen Hudson in “Cherry Stones“, her history of her forebears, Thomas Plaisted was born in Newnham on Severn in west Gloucestershire. His Plaisted ancestors were connected with the village of Castle Combe in Wiltshire. Helen describes an excellent ploughman’s lunch she had there.

Helen’s research was largely based on the work of Arthur Plaisted, who published “The Plaisted Family of North Wilts” in 1939. With the benefit of direct access to many more records and with the power of indexes and digitisation, current family history researchers differ from some of Arthur Plaisted’s conclusions.

Two records of my fifth great grandfather I feel confident about are:

• his marriage to Lydia Wilkes in June 1797 at St Bride’s Church Fleet Street
• his will of 1832 and associated codicil, where he names his wife and children. In the codicil to his will he stated: “I Thomas Plaisted do hereby acknowledge that the house known as the sign of the Coopers Arms Woolwich Kent has been from the taking of the above house and is now the property of my son John Plaisted and I do hereby direct that the Licences be transferred to him or to whom he shall appoint witness my hand this twenty ninth day of May one thousand eight hundred and thirty two”. John Plaisted (1800 – 1858) was my fourth great grandfather who in 1849 emigrated to Australia.

The wine bar survived under different owners to about 2010. According to Google Street View in 2018, the building was is being used as a laundrette. Although it looks Georgian, the facade of the building apparently dates from a renovation in the 1920s. The distinctive lamp may date from the original building.

I don’t know why my 5th great grandfather migrated from Gloucestershire to London, or if in fact it was his parents who migrated. London’s population grew from about three-quarters of a million people in 1760 to 1.1 million people in 1801, when the first reliable census was taken. The Plaisted family were among those migrants to London. Some of London’s population growth was due to reduced infant mortality: by the 1840s children born in the capital were three times less likely to die in childhood than those born in the 1730s. However, population growth attributable to reduced infant mortality was outweighed by increased migration and rising fertility.

Thomas Plaisted ran a successful business, which survived and was run by his descendants for most of the nineteenth century. The building was bought in 1890 by a Mr E.J. Rose, who continued to use it as a wine shop and bar. It changed hands several times in the twentieth century and finally closed about 2010.

Related posts

• Plaisteds Wine Bar
• P is for phthisis (tuberculosis)

Sources

• Hudson, Helen Lesley Cherry stones : adventures in genealogy of Taylor, Hutcheson, Hawkins of Scotland, Plaisted, Green, Hughes of England and Wales … who immigrated to Australia between 1822 and 1850. H.L. Hudson, [Berwick] Vic, 1985.
• Plaisted, Arthur Henry (The) Plaisted family of North Wilts, with some account of the branches of Berks, Bucks, Somerset, and Sussex. The Westminster publishing co, Westminster, 1939.
• Ancestry.com. England, Select Marriages, 1538–1973  Name: Thomas Plaisted Marriage Date: 10 Jun 1797 Marriage Place: Saint Bride Fleet St, London,England Spouse: Lydia Wilks
• 1832 will of PLAISTED Thomas, Kent, Jul 463 [PROB11/1803 (451-500) pages 100 R&L] transcribed by Jeanette Richmond
• http://www.dover-kent.com/2016-project/Plaisteds-Woolwich.html
• https://www.chrismansfieldphotos.com/RECORDS-of-WOOLWICH/Woolwich-High-st-/i-4RT9wb2
• Clive Emsley, Tim Hitchcock and Robert Shoemaker, “London History – A Population History of London”, Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0, 04 April 2019 ) retrieved from https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Population-history-of-london.jsp
• Google street view

Z is for Zacharie

One of my eighth great grandfathers, born on 10 February 1636 at La Rochelle, was a Huguenot linen merchant named Zacharie Fonnereau (also known as ‘Zacharia or ‘Zachary’ Fonnereau).

In 1674 he married Marguerite Chateigner, and in 1677 they had a son, Claude.

Possibly Zacharie Fonnereau (b.1636) Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service: Ipswich Borough Council Collection Retrieved from https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/possibly-zacharie-fonnereau-b-1636-11563

Possibly Marguerite Fonnereau as an Elderly Lady by Balthasar Denner (1685–1749) (circle of) Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service: Ipswich Borough Council Collection retrieved from https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/possibly-marguerite-fonnereau-as-an-elderly-lady-11562

La Rochelle is a seaport on the French Atlantic coast. From 1568, La Rochelle became a centre for the Huguenots, and the city declared itself an independent Reformed Republic on the model of Geneva. La Rochelle suffered religious wars and rebellions including the Siege of La Rochelle in 1627-8 (which resulted in a victory for King Louis XIII and the Catholics), the expulsion of 300 Protestant families in November 1661, and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by Louis XIV who claimed to be entitled to do so because there were no more Huguenots in his kingdom and their special privileges were no longer needed.

Cardinal Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle, by Henri Motte, 1881

 

In 1689 Claude, 12 years old, was sent to England. In 1693 he received his certificate of denization (granting permanent resident status and the right to own land) and was naturalised in 1698.

In 1698 Claude Fonnereau married Elizabeth Bureau (1670-1735), who was also from La Rochelle. Claude and Elizabeth had eight children, among them Anne Fonnereau (1704-1782), who married Phillip Champion de Crespigny (1704-1765). Anne Fonnereau was my sixth great grandmother.

Claude Fonnereau (1677-1740) Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service: Ipswich Borough Council Collection retrieved from https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/claude-fonnereau-16771740-11776

 

Claude’s mother Marguerite Fonnereau née Chateigner died in England on 1 October 1720 and is buried in St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London.

I do not know when Zacharie died. There is no record of the death of Zacharie in England. It may be that the record has not survived or that he never emigrated there. There is also no record of his denization nor can I find a record of him in an English Huguenot church. It would be useful to have témoignages credentials, for example, which were certificates of sound doctrine and good behaviour from his previous congregation presented by a person moving to a new church.

While I have been able to find records which refer to Claude Fonnereau as the son of Zacharie, I have not been able to find records of Zacharie’s parents. I have found family trees which suggest that Zacharie was the son of a Zacharie. The earlier Zacharie may have been a notable watchmaker but at present I feel unable on the evidence to claim Zacharie Fonnereau watchmaker of La Rochelle as my direct forebear.

 

A pre-balance spring gilt-metal and rock crystal crucifix watch signed by Fonnereau a la Rochelle in 1650 and sold by Sothebys at auction on 11 May 2008 for CHF133,000 ($Au177,688).

 

Sotheby’s gives a biography of Zaccharie Fonnereau the watchmaker: “Originally from Geneva, he was apprenticed in Lyon in 1618 and then became Compagnon in 1622. As a master watchmaker in 1641, he settled in La Rochelle.”

The watch auctioned by Sotheby’s in 2008 was displayed in an exhibition of watchmaking in Geneva in 2011-2012.

a watch made by the watchmaker Zacharie Fonnereau will also be displayed. Circumventing the ban on crosses decreed by the goldsmiths’ guild in 1566, he created, like other Genevan masterwatchmakers, this cross-shaped timepiece. Dating from 1620 and worn around the neck at the time, the watch is more a piece of jewellery than a precision instrument. The valuable case is carved from rock crystal.

Sources

• Agnew, David C. A. Protestant Exiles from France, Chiefly in the Reign of Louis XIV; or, The Huguenot Refugees and Their Descendants in Great Britain and Ireland. vol. 2, pages 399-400 Edinburgh, 1886, archive.org/stream/protestantexiles02agne_0#page/398/mode/2up
• 1693 denization records from http://genealogy-quest.com/1693-english-denization-records/
• Shaw, William Arthur, editor. Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalization for Aliens in England and Ireland. 1 1603-1700, page 252, Huguenot Society, 1911, archive.org/stream/lettersofdenizat01shaw#page/252/mode/2up/.
• Sotheby’s press release: GENEVA, MAY 11th, 2008 – The first evening sale of Important Watches to take place at Sotheby’s in Geneva
• “Catalogue Entry for Fonnereau Watch.” Important Watches, Sotheby’s, 2008, www.sothebys.com/it/auctions/ecatalogue/2008/important-watches-ge0801/lot.81.html.
• “Watchmaking in Geneva: Treasures of Gold and Enamel at the Muse D’art Et D’histoire.” Edited by Ignacio Villarreal, Artdaily, Artdaily.org, 2011, artdaily.com/news/52756/Watchmaking-in-Geneva–Treasures-of-gold-and-enamel-at-the-Mus-e-d-art-et-d-histoire#.WuYQVC9L060.

Related posts

• F is for fleeing from France–  the emigration of the Huguenot Champion de Crespigny family from France
• 52 ancestors: Whitehall June 15 1727 concerning Philip Crespigny (1704-1765) who married Anne, grand daughter of Zacharia Fonnereau
• Champions from Normandy see pages 150-151 concerning the Fonnereau family

K is for Kherson, death place of John Howard prison reformer

Yesterday I wrote about Shrewsbury Prison, known as The Dana. Above the main entrance to the prison is a  bust of the prison reformer John Howard (1726 – 1790) , and the street leading up to it from the main road is named after him.

John Howard, prison reformer, above main entrance of Shrewsbury prison. Photograph from Wikimedia Commons taken by R J Higginson 2009.

In January 1790 John Howard died of typhus at Kherson in present day Ukraine. He is said to have contracted the disease on one of his prison visits.

Howard was buried in the Ukraine. Though he had requested a quiet burial, without pomp and ceremony, he was evidently judged an important person, and the Prince of Moldovia himself was in attendance at what in fact turned out to be a rather elaborate funeral.

When news of Howard’s death reached England a month later, a series of commemorative John Howard tokens was struck, including one reading “Go forth” and “Remember the Debtors in Gaol”.

Howard became the first civilian to be honoured with a statue in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. Statues  were also erected in his honour at Kherson and at Bedford and other English prisons.

Memorial for John Howard. John Bacon the Younger (1777-1859). 1795. St. Paul’s Cathedral, City of London. Located near entrance to crypt. Image from http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/funerary/howard1.html, photograph taken by George P. Landow.

In 1786, four years before his death, a monument to Howard had been proposed. A subscription list was got up and a poem lauding his achievements was published.

Pratt, Samuel Jackson. The triumph of benevolence; occasioned by the national design of erecting a monument to John Howard, Esq. Printed by J. Nichols, Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street; sold by Messrs. J. Dodsley, J. Robson, T. Cadell, P. Elmsly, and C. Dilly; by Mr. Prince at Oxford; and Mr. Merrill at Cambridge, MDCCLXXXVI. [1786]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale Document Number: GALE|CW0112448476

Subscribers who gave £2 2s, that is 2 guineas, included Charles Chauncey Esq., Claude Champion Crespigny, Philip Champion Crespigny, and Charles Snell-Chauncy. Mrs Champion Crespigny is listed as having given £1 1s. I am not sure who Charles Chauncey was, but Charles Snell-Chauncy (1759-1809) was my 6th great uncle. Claude Champion Crespigny is probably another of my 6th great uncles (1734-1818). Mrs Champion Crespigny in this case is probably Claude’s wife Mary nee Clarke (1747-1812). Philip Champion Crespigny is my 5th great grandfather (1738-1803), the brother of Claude. Mrs Champion Crespigny was possibly his wife Dorothy nee Scott (1765-1837).

I found it interesting to discover relatives from two different branches of my family tree supporting prison reform.

Further reading

• Howard, John (1726?-1790) Dictionary of National Biography in Wikisource

Constantine Pulteney Trent Champion de Crespigny (1851 – 1883)

Constantine Pulteney Trent Champion de Crespigny was born at St Malo, France, on 5 May 1851, the son of Philip Champion Crespigny and his wife Charlotte Frances née Dana. He was christened on 28 May at the Anglican Chapel, Saint-Servan-sur-Mer, which is two miles from St Malo.  He was the third child of the couple; his older sister Ada was born in 1848 and his brother Philip was born in 1850.

Not long after his birth his parents emigrated to Australia from England with their two older children. They left Constantine in England in the care of his grandparents and aunt. The Champion Crespigny family embarked from Plymouth on the Cambodia on 3 December 1851 when Constantine was not yet 7 months old. They must have determined he was too small and not strong enough to make the journey.

The family stayed in touch by letters and copies of some of this correspondence survives. For example:

undated but before July 1856

My dearest little Ada and Loup Loup:
     A thousand thanks for your nice little letter which delighted me.  Little Conny could not read them but Charlie learnt them by heart and repeated them to the little darling. I hope Ada has received the little books I sent her by this time and that you have both had a ride in Papa’s new carriage. Grandpapa will send you some seeds for your garden by the Great Britain Steam Ship and I hope you will have as much pleasure in growing your mustard and cress as Charlie has. Conny and Charlie are always talking of you and longing to have you both as playfellows. Do send me word what I can send you my little darlings to amuse you. I am very glad the boots fitted so well. Goodbye to you both. Conny and Charlie send you many kisses and I am ever your Affte. Gd. Mama.
     Gd. Papa and Aunt send you many loves and kisses.

The letter is from Eliza Julia Champion Crespigny  née Trent (1797 – 1856), wife of Charles James Fox Crespigny (1785 – 1875), and mother to Philip senior. Loup Loup was a nick name for Philip junior and means wolf. Charlie is the cousin of Constantine, Charles Stanley Champion Crespigny (1848 – 1907), the son of Philip’s older brother Charles John Champion Crespigny (1814 – 1880). The aunt was Philip’s sister, Eliza Constantia Frances Champion Crespigny (1817 – 1898). It was Constantia who spent much time caring for young Con.

from letter of 9 January 1858 from Charles James Champion Crespigny at Cheltenham to his son Philip

… The care she [Philip’s sister Constantia] takes in your dear Con and the delight she has in him is not to be described. It will be a great loss and pain to us to part with him when the time comes that he must go to school. He says positively that he will not go till he is eight and gets on so well with us that it will be time enough. I much wish to live long enough to see him grow up and started in the world but this is hardly to be expected.

When old enough and if we think it will be best to send him to the College here – 600 boys! but it is very good and terms very moderate, within sixty pounds a year – if a boy is at a boarding house, the last forty and twelve or fourteen to the college and about twelve per annum to hire the presentation or pay about one hundred in purchase of a presentation which is always saleable when you want it no longer. I have offered to pay for Charlie’s if Charlie will send him there and I think Charles has made up his mind to do so. I much wish the two dear boys to be brought up together. They are exceedingly fond of each other. Conny is of course exceedingly fond of Constantia but he will say that he likes me but “except you know my Papa and Mama and my brothers and sisters, I like them best of all.” He is often talking of you all and asking various questions about you. He has excellent qualities and gets on well in everything. He never will be idle a moment but must read or write or draw, but it would be needless to speak of him as I am sure Constantia has told you all about him. He is delighted now with Charles with us for his holidays. …

I must give you Conny’s last remark to Constantia just reported: He said: “Grand P was sent to school at 5 years old because he was not loved. Now I am so much loved you will not bear to part with me at 8. You will not know how to let me go to school.” The fact is I was so hideous they could not bear the sight of me and till 5 I was left always with servants in the country.

 From about 1858 there was a photograph of Con taken with his grandfather. The original is in my father’s possession.

From: Constantine Pulteney Trent ChC

To: Philip Robert [his father]

[London]

April 9 1859

My dear Papa

I beg you will write to me next time. I am sorry Mama had rheumatism when you wrote. Charlie has got the measles. I have seen a panorama * of Delhi with the Massacre of Cawnpore! My Aunt did not go as she could not stand that, so I went with Payne.
I am too busy pasting in my scrap-book to finish this myself. Charlie and I had no more pictures to paste, but Grd.papa went out and brought us home 4 dozen old “Punch’s”. I send my love to all and remain

Your affecte

Con

What fearfully hot weather you have had! I am very glad you are en permanence at Amherst. We have your letters up to Feby.12.¹

In 1861 Con was living with his grandfather, aunt and three servants (cook, parlour maid and house maid) at 11 Royal Parade Cheltenham.

 Contemporary photos of a Royal Parade house currently for sale given an indication of their home:²

Letter 4

From: Eliza Constantia Frances ChC [Aunt Constantia]

To: Ada ChC [age 14]

[Cheltenham ?]

May 19th, 1862

My dearest Ada

I was delighted to receive your very nice note and to read such a cheering and pleasant account of you all and I am sure it must fill you with joy to see your dearest Papa’s health so wonderfully improved. I hope both he and your dearest Mama continue well. It was also a great comfort to me to find you were all getting the better of that dreadful whooping cough. Your dear brother Con is not looking well just now and I shall be glad when we can go to the sea or somewhere for a change next month and when you receive this I hope we shall be not here. Perhaps we shall go to Malvern as that is much nearer than the sea-side and the mountain scenery is very beautiful. Con would enjoy it I think even more than the sea.

A young friend of ours at College here has asked Con to take a long walk with him on Saturday and he is looking forward to it with great joy! The young Collegian is much older than Con who is rather proud of being patronised by him but I don’t much like Con going out in the scorching sun and shall persuade them to put off their walk to the evening.

I have nothing more to tell you, my dearest Ada, except to beg you to write to me as often as you can and to tell me all about each one of the family at Daisy Hill. [Daisy Hill was the name of the goldfield by Amherst.] With fondest love to all

Ever yr Affte Aunt E C F Crespigny

On 14 July 1869 Con joined the 69th (The South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot as an Ensign.  He is listed in the 1870 Hart’s Army list.³

 In 1871 Con was still with his grandfather and aunt at 11 Royal Parade Cheltenham.  There were still 3 servants, one of whom, Susan Tolman had been in the household ten years ago. Con was an ensign with the 69th Regiment.

A clipping from the journal [The Bro]ad Arrow of 13 May 1871, in my father’s possession, notes the promotion, by purchase, of Constantine Trent Pulteney Champion-Crespigny from Ensign to Lieutenant in the 69th Foot. According to Stephen de Crespigny, Con had served with the 69th Foot against the Fenian invasion of Canada in 1869. The London Gazette of 14 November 1871 page 4664 announces that

Lieut. Constantine Trent Pultenay Champion Crespigny from 69th Foot to be Lieut from Charles Stanley Champion Crespigny who retires from 41st Foot. 

Less than a year later the London Gazette of 18 October 1872 page 4939 notes the retirement of Lieutenant Constantine Trent Pulteney Champion-Crespigny of the 41st Foot, “receiving the value of his commission” dated 19 October 1872. From Letter 10 below, it appears he suffered from tuberculosis.

 Con’s grandfather died 4 March 1875.  Con joined his parents and siblings in Australia.  He arrived in Melbourne on 16 November 1875 on the iron clipper ship Melbourne which departed London on 17 August.  It was the maiden voyage of the ship and a report of the ship and the voyage appeared in The Argus of 17 November 1875 on page 4.

Letter 10

From: Eliza Constantia Frances ChC [sister of Philip Robert]
To: Rosalie Helen Beggs [her niece]⁴

Priory Street

Cheltenham

12th May, 1876

My dear Rose

I have not written to you since your marriage but I very often think of you all and especially of you and your dear Frank, and believe you are all very dear to me for yr loved parents’ sake tho’ so far away and unknown. Con being amongst you seems to bring you all even nearer to my heart than ever, and you, the youngest of all my nieces, yet the first to marry, you of whom your dear Mother has so often written in deep sorrow and anxiety when you have been laid upon a bed of sickness, – you can hardly imagine the tender interest I take in you, or how earnestly I wish and how fervently I pray that your married life may be blessed with true happiness, for dear Con assures me your husband is one of the best fellows he ever met and sure to make you happy! And the satisfaction and comfort yr parents feel in seeing their darling married to one they have so long known and esteemed must, I think, render yr happiness as perfect as it is possible to be in this world.

Con had been enjoying himself immensely in your house when he last wrote to me. It was such a pleasure to him to see his little sister in her dignified matronly character! Poor Con! ‘Twas a sad fate for him to lose his profession and to be an idle man at 25. But the love of parents, brothers and sisters which you have all so freely and fondly bestowed upon your newly imported brother, has brightened his life, hitherto so sadly clouded, and if only his hopes of employment are realised, I trust his life may yet be a happy and useful one.

I feel so grateful to everyone of those who have been so kind to Con and I know how kind and hospitable your father-in-law has been and how he has enjoyed himself at Eurambeen (I don’t know if I spell the name right!). I suppose Con rides with you sometimes when you are together. Mount him on a good horse and he is at the summit of felicity! He has told me of the rides he has enjoyed. He must be dreadfully missed in your old home, particularly, I should think, by Vi, as she is nearest yr age. I hope she enjoyed the ball at Woolaston to which she was enabled to go by yr dear Frank’s kindness.

Try and find time now and then to write to yr old Aunt, my dear Rose, and with much love to you both

Believe me always

Yr affte Aunt

E C F Ch. Crespigny

In June 1877 Con was appointed truant officer for the Education Department: From The Argus of Friday 15 June 1877 page 4:

Mr. T. C. Crespigny has been appointed truant officer for the St. Kilda district.

 From The Argus of Saturday 16 June 1877 page 7:  

Mr. Crespigny’s appointment as truant officer, announced in Friday’s Argus, includes the district of Prahran as well as St Kilda.

In July 1877 Con wrote a letter to the paper concerning an attack on his dog, a terrier, in Albert Park.  He was living in Gurner Street, St Kilda. The letter was published by The Argus on 7 July 1877 page 8.

Map showing Gurner Street and Albert Park retrieved from Google maps 7 April 2013

In 1879 there was an assault case in which Constantine seems to have been involved.  Waiting on newspaper report digitisation to be completed. Will update this post then:

FRIDAY, MARCH 14. 

The Telegraph, St Kilda, Prahran and South Yarra Guardian (Vic. : 1866 – 1888) Saturday 15 March 1879 p 3 Article

LrConstainines ” Crespigny summoned Mathias Lyons for assault. The evidence. showed that the plaintiff and walking near the South Beach last Sunday

The Sydney Morning Herald of 10 August 1880 reported the arrival of the Wotonga at Sydney on 9 August having sailed from Melbourne.  Passengers included CP Crespigny and P C Crespigny.  This may well have been father and son, C P being Constantine Pulteney, or possibly Con was accompanied by his older brother Philip.  This appears just to have been a visit to Sydney.  CP Crespigny left Melbourne on board the Sobraon  in February 1881.

From The Argus of 14 February 1881, Shipping Intelligence on page 4:

Letter 11

From: Eliza Constantia Frances ChC

To: Rosalie Helen [her niece]

29 Kingsholm Road

Gloucester

4th Aug, 1881

My dear Rose

Con wishes me to tell you how glad he was to get your letters and how much he regrets his inability to answer them. He has been very weak and ill ever since his return. A few weeks ago there was some slight improvement. The intense heat we had seemed not only to benefit his lungs but to relieve his fever. Certainly he ceased during those extremely hot days to suffer from daily attacks of fever, tho’ in some ways the intense heat tried him severely. But with a sudden change in the weather and fall of temperature his fever returned with increased severity. One of the lungs got worse and had to be treated with repeated blisters. It is now better but the daily attacks of fever are terrible, lasting sometimes 8 hours during which he suffers acute headaches, shortness of breath, cough and nausea. He seems sometimes ready to die, so very ill is he.

Under these circumstances I am sure you will see how difficult it is for him to write even a few lines to his Mother and I am always trying to impress upon him that he ought not to tax his strength by writing, and that if he must write, it should be onlyto his Mother and let that be considered enough for the family. I feel sure you will forgive him for deferring to write to you till he is better, altho’ it is a very great pleasure to him to hear from you. I hope this will find you and your husband pretty well. I was sorry to hear that he had not been well. With fond love from Con and much from me

Ever Yr affte Aunt

E C F Ch Crespigny

Con is only able to take a short drive for little more than half an hour on his best days when he feels his best.

Letter 12

From: Eliza Constantia Frances ChC

To: Rosalie Helen [her niece]

Tuesday, 6th March [1883]

My dearest Rose

Just one line to enclose 2nd half £5 notes. I hope you recvd first half all safe in last mail.⁵ My heart aches for yr poor Mother who would now, as I believe be receiving my letter of 25 January, telling her how near death her darling was – tho’ I scarcely knew that he must be taken from me the very next day. I miss him more and more and long to go to him.

God bless you and your husband, dearest Rose.

Your affte Aunt

E C F Ch Crespigny

Con’s death was announced in The Argus of 24 March 1883:

Constantine is buried at St Peter’s, Leckhampton, Gloucestershire with his grandparents. His grave states:

“Constantine Trent Pulteney Champion_Crespigny. Late of HM 69th Regt. Born 5th May 1851. Died 26th January 1883. Youngest son of Philip Robert Champion Crespigny of St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia”⁶

The verse under Constantine’s inscription is  Matthew 11:28: Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

On 5 March 1882 Constantine’s nephew, the second son of Philip, was born at Queenscliff, Victoria and named Constantine Trent.

---

Footnotes

Letters, copy held by my father Rafe de Crespigny:

The originals of these letters were in the possession of my grandfather Sir Constantine Trent ChC/CdeC. After his death in 1952, his second wife Mary Birks nee Jolley, Lady de Crespigny, had them copy-typed by Ms W M Walsh, and distributed the copies among members of the family. I obtained a set through my father Richard Geoffrey CdeC, Constantine Trent’s elder son. It seems probable that most of the letters were collected by Ada Champion Crespigny (1848-1927), eldest daughter of Philip Robert ChC (1817-1889), for many of them are addressed to her.

^{1. Constantine ChC, born in May 1851, was now just under 8 years old.
The asterisk has a note by the transcriber: from here adult writing by Charles James Fox ChC.
The siege of Cawnpore [modern Kanpur] concluded on 24 June 1857 with the slaughter of the British defenders as they sought to leave under promise of safe conduct. Panoramas were common forms of exhibition at this time. The spectators entered a large room and the event was displayed, normally in two dimensions, on the surrounding walls, aided by special lighting.
In February 1859 Philip Robert was appointed from Justice of the Peace to Police Magistrate at Amherst in the county of Talbot, some 5 kilometres northwest of that town. Philip Robert had formerly held general posts as Assistant Commissioner for Crown Lands, Magistrate in the Colony of Victoria and Warden of the Goldfields.↩}

^{2. images retrieved from Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/66hZh retrieved 7 April 2013 and from http://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/21093258 7 bedroom property for sale £1,800,000 Royal Parade, Cheltenham GL50↩}

^{3. from page 215 of The Army List Author Colonel H. G. Hart Published 1870 Original from Oxford University Digitized 15 Oct 2007 retrieved from http://books.google.com.au/books?id=C_ANAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA215 3 February 2012 ↩}

^{4. Constantia, born in 1825, was now 51 years old. Rose, born in October 1858, was now 17 years old. She had married Francis Beggs of Beaufort on 3 February 1876. ↩}

^{5. One means of sending money with some security by post was to cut bank-notes in two. Each note was printed with a number in two places. Half a note, with only one number, was valueless, but when the two halves were put together they could be credited with a bank. ↩}

^{6. Tombstone inscriptions from http://www.stpeters-leckhampton.org.uk/ retrieved 7 April 2013.
The full tombstone transcription is:}

M11 Chest-tomb, on base, inward sloping sides, worn, once painted. Sc: LEWIS.Sc.

South: IN MEMORY OF

CHARLES FOX CHAMPION CRESPIGNY,
BORN AT HINTLESHAM HALL NEAR IPSWICH 30TH AUGUST 1785, 
DIED AT CHELTENHAM 4TH MARCH 1875. 
IN SURE AND CERTAIN HOPE OF BEING RAISED WITH THE FAITHFUL IN CHRIST
TO EVERLASTING LIFE. 
ALSO OF CONSTANTINE TRENT PULTENEY CHAMPION CRESPIGNY.
LATE OF H.M. 69th REGT BORN 5TH MAY 1851. DIED 26TH JANUARY 18–.
YOUNGEST SON OF PHILIP ROBERT CHAMPION CRESPIGNY
OF ST KILDA, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
– – – – – – LL YE THAT LABOUR AND – – – HEAVY LADEN – – – WILL OF – – –
North: IN MEMORY OF / 
ELIZA JULIA, THE BELOVED WIFE OF 
CHARLES FOX CHAMPION CRESPIGNY ESQUIRE,
WHO DIED THE 17TH DAY OF JULY 1855, AGED 59 YEARS.
PURE AND INNOCENT OF MIND, KIND AND BENEVOLENT, “HER WAYS WERE WAYS OF
PLEASANTNESS, AND ALL HER PATHS WERE PEACE.” PROVERBS. III.17.
UNTO YOU THAT HAVE MY NAME SHALL THE SUN(sic) OF RIGHTOUSNESS ARISE
WITH HEALING IN HIS WINGS. MALACHI IV 2
I WILL RANSOM THEM FROM THE POWER OF THE GRAVE I WILL REDEEM THEM
FROM DEATH. HOSEA XIII.I.
– -EL- – – – NOT SHARE OUR SORROW, S——– THE -OT-E— BLESSED
– – – – – – – A FUTURE LIFE – – – – – – – – – -SAVED – – – – – .

 The verse under Constantine’s inscription is  Matthew 11:28: Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The verse for his grandfather is derived from the Book of Common Prayer but is not a direct quote. ↩