A portrait of Betsy or of Anne?

In 1912 pastel portraits of four members of the Champion de Crespigny family were sold by the art-auction firm Christie’s. The unnamed artist was listed as ‘British school’.

Without offering any authority for its identifications, Christie’s sale catalogue names the sitters as:

• Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, Bart., in grey coat and plum coloured vest
• Susanna, sister of the above, and wife of Sir Richard Sutton, Bart,. in white flowered cloak and straw hat
• Sarah, wife of Sir William Champion de Crespigny, Bart., in yellow dress with blue scarf
• Anne, wife of Philip de Crespigny, Esq., in white flowered dress, oval

The portrait of Anne is now considered to have been the work of an eighteenth-century Scottish portrait-painter, Katherine Read (1723 – 1778). It was sold most recently by Sotheby’s auction house in 2018. The other three portraits are probably by the same artist.

Katherine Read PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN, PROBABLY ANNE CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY (1739-1797), BUST LENGTH, WITHIN A DRAWN OVAL sold by Sotheby’s lot 54 29 October 2018

Last year on a visit to Kelmarsh Hall, the Northamptonshire country residence of the Lancaster family who were cousins of the Champion de Crespigny family, I took the opportunity to view the various de Crespigny and other family portraits on display.

The Kelmarsh collection includes oil-on-canvas copies of all four of the portraits sold in 1912. However, there are discrepancies between the names attributed to the sitters of the pastel portraits and those of the oil copies.

Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny (1734–1818), 1st Bt British (English) School Kelmarsh Hall Medium oil on canvas Measurements H 74 x W 62 cm

Susan (1735–1776), Sister of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 1st Bt George Romney (1734–1802) (circle of) Kelmarsh Hall Medium oil on canvas Measurements H 75 x W 62 cm

Mary Clarke (1749–1812), Wife of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 1st Bt British (English) School Kelmarsh Hall Medium oil on canvas Measurements H 75 x W 62 cm

Betsy Hodges (d.1772), Second Wife of Philip Champion de Crespigny George Romney (1734–1802) (circle of) Kelmarsh Hall Medium oil on canvas Measurements H 75 x W 62 cm

Kelmarsh Hall oil on canvas portraits of Claude, Susan, Mary, and Betsy de Crespigny

The first two portraits, Claude (1734 – 1818), the first baronet, in a plum-coloured waistcoat and Susan wearing a straw hat, are clearly copies of the pastels and there is no discrepancy as to who the sitters were.

Susan, Claude’s sister, was born 1735 and died in 1766, which means that her portrait was probably drawn before 1766. In 1765 Susan married Richard Sutton. It seems reasonable to suppose that this portrait was done about the time of her wedding.

The sitter of the third pastel portrait was identified in the 1912 Christie’s catalogue as Sarah (1763 – 1825), wife of Sir William Champion de Crespigny (1765 – 1829).

Kelmarsh Hall has a oil portrait said to be of Sarah, and in this she is wearing a blue dress with a yellow shawl not, as in the pastel, a yellow dress with blue scarf. She is very much younger than the other sitters.

Kelmarsh Hall also has a portrait of Mary (1747 – 1812), wife of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny the first baronet. She is wearing a yellow dress with a blue shawl, as described in the 1912 catalogue. I think it more likely based on the description that the third pastel portrait in the 1912 catalogue is the portrait hanging at Kelmarsh and now said to be of Mary de Crespigny née  Clarke.

Lady Sarah Windsor (1763–1825) British (English) School Kelmarsh Hall Medium oil on canvas Measurements H 74 x W 61 cm

Mary Clarke (1749–1812), Wife of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 1st Bt British (English) School Kelmarsh Hall Medium oil on canvas Measurements H 75 x W 62 cm

Kelmarsh Hall: Lady Sarah Windsor (1763–1825) and Mary Clarke (1749–1812), Wife of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny, 1st Bt

Claude and Mary married in 1764. I think perhaps the first and third portraits were done not long after their wedding, maybe about 1765, at the time when Susan’s portrait was done. It seems likely that the 1912 catalogue misidentified the sitter as the wife of the second baronet. She was in fact Mary, wife of the first baronet. The Kelmarsh Hall portrait of Mary seems to be a better match to the other three portraits and thus likely to be a copy of the third pastel sold in 1912.

There is another possibility: the third portrait is of Sarah Champion de Crespigny née Cocksedge, the first wife of Philip Champion de Crespigny who was the brother of Claude and Susan. Sarah de Crespigny died in 1768. It may be that the 1912 catalogue description correctly identified the sitter as Sarah de Crespigny but misattributed the husband as William de Crespigny (1765 – 1829) instead of his uncle Philip de Crespigny (1738 – 1803). I know of no other portrait of this Sarah de Crespigny.

The fourth portrait, of Anne, has been offered for sale several times since 1912, most recently in 2018. This portrait was probably of Anne Champion de Crespigny, the sister of Philip and Claude, not of her mother, Anne Champion Crespigny née Fonnereau (1704 – 1782), wife of Philip (1704 – 1765). The woman in the portrait, probably drawn in the 1760s, is too young to be the senior Anne de Crespigny.

Katherine Read PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN, PROBABLY ANNE CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY (1739-1797), BUST LENGTH, WITHIN A DRAWN OVAL sold by Sotheby’s lot 54 29 October 2018

Betsy Hodges (d.1772), Second Wife of Philip Champion de Crespigny George Romney (1734–1802) (circle of) Kelmarsh Hall Medium oil on canvas Measurements H 75 x W 62 cm

The pastel portrait sold most recently by Sotheby’s in 2018 and thought to be of Anne de Crespigny, and the Kelmarsh oil on canvas portrait said to be of Betsy de Crespigny née Handly. I am reasonably certain the painting at Kelmarsh Hall is a copy of the pastel portrait and is thus of the same woman – so is the portrait of Anne or of Betsy?

However, the copy of the portrait identified in 1912 and 2018 as Anne de Crespigny is identified at Kelmarsh as being of Betsy Hodges née Handly formerly Borradale, second wife of Philip Champion de Crespigny brother of Claude and Susan and Anne.

Betsy was born in 1743. In 1765 she married George Borradale, a clergyman. They were divorced in 1769 and Borradale died shortly afterwards. In 1770 or 1771 Betsy married again, to Philip Champion de Crespigny, who had been widowed in 1768. Betsy died in May 1772, not long after the birth of her son Charles Champion de Crespigny (1772 – 1774).

It is hard to know if the pastel portrait with a copy at Kelmarsh Hall is of Anne or her sister-in-law Betsy.

At the time of the 2018 sale of the pastel through Sotheby’s, the description of the work stated that there was an indistinct inscription on the reverse. The lot includes a photo of the reverse but I am unable to make out any inscription. Perhaps in the early 20th century the inscription was clearer and thus the attribution of the sitter as Anne de Crespigny was based on that inscription.

Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 – 1803) had four wives: Sarah died 1768, Betsy died 1772, Clarissa died 1782 and Dorothy died 1837. Clarissa and Dorothy had their portraits painted by the fashionable artist George Romney. Philip was interested in portrait painting and it seems plausible that his first wife would have had her portrait done.

If the inscription on the reverse of the fourth portrait could be deciphered it might give more certainty as to who the sitter was. Similarly if the third portrait re-appears, an inscription would also give some certainty as to who the sitter might be.

I suspect that the 1912 catalogue was correct in the names of the sitters, that is the four portraits were of Claude, Susan, Sarah and Anne de Crespigny. Confusion may have arisen because the 1912 catalogue was incorrect as to who were the husbands of Sarah and Anne de Crespigny. It also may be that Kelmarsh Hall has misattributed the sitters of the portraits of Mary de Crespigny née  Clarke and Betsy de Crespigny née  Handley. Without further documentation I don’t think it is possible to be certain.

A miniature note

A year ago I wrote about a miniature portrait of my grandfather Geoff de Crespigny painted by the wife of his maternal uncle, Olive Amy Hughes née Chatfield (1880 – 1945). Olive married Vyvyan Hughes in 1916. Sadly, he died soon afterwards in a military hospital.

Before her marriage Olive Chatfield lived in Adelaide from about 1910 to 1916. She returned to New Zealand in November 1916.

A de Crespigny cousin has sent me a photograph of a portrait of Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny, Geoff’s father, my great grandfather.

A miniature portrait of Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny in the possession of a cousin

I think this miniature was painted before my great grandfather left for overseas service with the Australian Imperial Force in May 1915. Or perhaps it was painted from a photograph taken before he left; the portrait is  similar to a photograph that appeared in the Adelaide Express and Telegraph on 20 May 1915.

OFF TO THE FRONT. (1915, May 20). The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide, SA : 1867 – 1922), p. 5 (4 O’CLOCK EDITION. SPORTS NUMBER). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article209986299

Related posts

• Miniature portrait of Geoff de Crespigny by Olive A Chatfield
• Arthur Murray Cudmore World War I service (discusses the departure of the contingent of Adelaide doctors including both my great grandfathers)
• No 3 AGH (Australian General Hospital) Lemnos Christmas Day
• U is for Unibic biscuit tin

Provenance of a photograph of Philip Lamothe Snell Chauncy

Philip Chauncy 1878, image attached to my ancestry.com family tree

The photograph above, “Philip_Chauncy 1878”, first shared by me on 27 March 2012 on my online public tree at Ancestry.com, has been saved and added by at least 13 people to their public Ancestry trees.

Yesterday someone asked me how I knew the subject was really Philip Chauncy, an excellent question. To able to substantiate your facts is the foundation of every sort of history.

Over twenty years ago, before Greg and I moved from Canberra to Ballarat, we spent an evening with one of my third cousins once removed, like me a descendant of Philip Lamothe Snell Chauncy (1816 – 1880), my 3rd great grandfather. My cousin and his wife very generously shared the results of their family history research with me, including a copy of “Philip_Chauncy 1878”, which I remember they said came from the Anglican Cathedral in Ballarat.

Philip Chauncy was appointed Registrar of the diocese of Ballarat in August 1878. He had lost his position as Government surveyor in January 1878 when around 400 public servants were sacked by the Victorian Government. He resigned as Registrar in late 1879 and died the following April. He had held the Registrar’s position for just over a year. The Church of England Messenger and Ecclesiastical Gazette for the Diocese of  Melbourne and Ballarat published an obituary on 7 June 1880.

THE LATE MR. PHILIP CHAUNCY. (1880, June 7). The Church of England Messenger and Ecclesiastical Gazette for the Diocese of Melbourne and Ballarat (Vic. : 1876 – 1889), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197135316

Three years ago Greg and I went to the Anglican Cathedral in Ballarat in search of “Philip_Chauncy 1878”, naturally expecting to have to make an appointment to view the archives. To our surprise the gentleman who met us at the door was able to take us directly to the photograph, which was hanging on the wall close to the entrance of the Diocesan offices. The photograph was captioned “Philip Chauncy Esq. Registrar of the Diocese 1878”, and signed “Richards & Co Ballarat”. It was indeed the image passed on to me by my cousin.

Anglican Diocese of Ballarat: Cathedral and Diocesan Offices Lydiard Street September 2016

Portrait of Philip Chauncy hanging in the Diocesan Offices of the Anglican Diocese of Ballarat in September 2016

It is one of only two photographs of Philip Chauncy that I have come across, the other being a family portrait taken shortly after the death of Philip’s wife Susan in 1867.

Philip Chauncy and children shortly after the death of Philip’s wife Susan Chauncy nee Mitchell in 1867. From left to right Auschar Philip (1855–1890), Amy Blanche (1861–1925), Theresa Snell (1849–1886), Frederick Philip Lamothe (1863–1926), Philip (1816 – 1880), on Philip’s lap Clement Henry (1865–1902), William Snell (1853–1903), Constance (1859–1907), Annie Frances (1857–1883)

Sources

• Notes. (1878, September 13). The Church of England Messenger and Ecclesiastical Gazette for the Diocese of Melbourne and Ballarat (Vic. : 1876 – 1889), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197135877
• MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1878. (1878, September 16). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5948571
• Advertising (1879, December 2). The Church of England Messenger and Ecclesiastical Gazette for the Diocese of Melbourne and Ballarat (Vic. : 1876 – 1889), p. 10. Retrieved September 6, 2019, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197136149http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197136149
• THE LATE MR. PHILIP CHAUNCY. (1880, June 7). The Church of England Messenger and Ecclesiastical Gazette for the Diocese of Melbourne and Ballarat (Vic. : 1876 – 1889), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197135316
• Photographs taken by Anne Young 15 September 2016.

 

Travelling north with lunch at Whitmore

On Wednesday 8 May we drove north from Bath, calling in at the village of Whitmore in Staffordshire, near Stoke-on-Trent, to visit some of my cousins. On the way we stopped at Tewkesbury, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, to look at the abbey there. From Whitmore we went on to West Didsbury near Manchester, our next base.

One of my fifteenth great grandfathers, William Vaux (1435 – 1471), who fought in the War of the Roses for the Red Rose of Lancaster, was killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471. He is said to have been buried at the Abbey, but I have been unable to find any record of this in the Abbey archives, and the list of inscriptions in the Tewkesbury Abbey church does not mention his name. This didn’t matter, for if you had an untraceable ancestor said to have been buried somewhere you couldn’t do better than not have him in Tewkesbury. It’s a lovely old church, said to be the one of the finest Norman abbeys in England.

 

We drove on to Whitmore and had lunch and an edifying chat with my cousins about Brexit, which turns out to be a plot to deprive England of its sovereignty, like 1066. At least one Australian present was reminded of the joke about a headline in an English newspaper that read, ‘Fog in Channel. Continent cut off’. On the other hand, the German car we had hired was showing unmistakable signs of having been designed and assembled by a committee of bureaucrats in Brussels, so who knows?

The Eureka flag was flying, a present we had sent to England some time previously. There is a family connection other than cousins from Ballarat; a Cudmore cousin fought at Eureka (on the Government side).

Lunch was served on the family’s Minton china, commissioned by my great uncle Rafe Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1906 – 1995), a copy of a setting that his great great grandfather (my fourth great grandfather) Rowland Mainwaring (1783 – 1862) had ordered. Time moves slowly in the pottery towns, and Minton apparently still had the records from the first commission to run up a second one. When you got to the bottom of your plate, there was the family crest, an ass’s head on a crown. The motto is ‘Devant si je puis’ [Forward if I Can], a useful reminder to wait for the next course.

We had a tour of the house and stables and saw many family portraits. The house, now listed with Historic Houses, is open to the public. Our guide seemed very knowledgeable on the family history. In one or two places a section of the modern wall had been removed to expose the original structure. This had an interesting consequence. Breaching the wall had allowed a ghostly lady from an earlier era playing ghostly old music to wander into the present. There has been a house on the same site for over 900 years and it has belonged to the same family since the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, so I suppose you’d expect an apparition or two.

 

 

 

My fourth great grandfather Rowland Mainwaring kept a diary, now stored and displayed in an upstairs sitting room. Several volumes have been stolen unfortunately, probably souvenired by visitors. While we were at Whitmore my son Peter photographed some pages of the diary for me, including, sadly, the last entry, written by Rowland Mainwaring on the day he died.

 

 

Before we left we visited the churchyard and some family graves.

 

 

Related post

• D is for Domesday

P is for portraits

I look forward to seeing my family’s Champion de Crespigny portraits at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire when we visit England next month.

Kelmarsh Hall and its 3,000 acre estate was bought in 1902 by George Granville Lancaster (1853-1907) and Cicely Lancaster née Champion de Crespigny (1874-1946).

Kelmarsh Hall from page 160 of volume 3 of “Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.“, by John Preston Neale. Published 1820.

 

Cicely was the second child and oldest daughter of Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny (1847-1935) and his wife Georgiana (1849-1935). She married George Lancaster on 19 March 1896 at Maldon, Essex, where the de Crespigny family lived at Champion Lodge.

George and Cicely Lancaster had two children: Valencia (1898 – 1996) and Claude (1899 – 1977). (I wrote about Valencia in last year’s A to Z challenge.)

Claude Lancaster inherited Kelmarsh when he turned 25. Not long afterwards, the Hall was leased, a ten year repairing lease, to Ronald Tree and his wife Nancy Tree nee Perkins formerly Field. Ronald Tree was a journalist and investor and later a politician. The Trees redecorated Kelmarsh. Nancy later become well known for helping to create the English Country House look.

When the Trees purchased a different house in 1933, Claude Lancaster moved back to Kelmarsh Hall, where he became an enthusiastic gardener. In 1948 he married the then-divorced Nancy Tree. Five years later, in 1953, the Lancasters were divorced. Despite the short marriage Nancy is best known by her third married surname, Lancaster.

At present times, Kelmarsh Hall is renowned for its gardens and for the interior decoration of Nancy Lancaster.

Claude Lancaster’s grandfather, Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny the fourth baronet, died in 1935. The title passed to one of his sons, Claude Raul Champion de Crespigny (1878-1941). When Raul died in 1941 the title passed to Raul’s cousins. None of the baronets had sons and the title was passed on three more times in the 1940s. The title became extinct in 1952 with the death of the eighth baronet.

At some stage, presumably in the 1940s, Kelmarsh Hall became the repository for a number of Champion de Crespigny portraits and family documents. The contents of Champion Lodge, including the pictures, were sold in January 1947 after the death of the sixth baronet, Henry Champion de Crespigny (1882 – 1946).

Chelmsford Chronicle January 17, 1947 advertisement from page 2 retrieved from FindMyPast from newspapers digitised by the British Library Board

 

 

The pictures in the sale are not specified. Perhaps Claude Lancaster bought the family pictures at the auction; perhaps Raul or Henry had given the pictures to Claude Lancaster to be hung at Kelmarsh Hall. After Champion Lodge was sold, Kelmarsh Hall was the only home in the family that would be large enough to hang the pictures.

Claude died in 1977. On his death his sister Valencia inherited Kelmarsh. Claude and Valencia established an independent charitable trust dedicated to preserving the Hall and the landscape around their childhood home as a traditional agricultural estate with the pastoral lifestyle of the countryside.

Claude and Valencia as children

 

For a number of years many images from the Kelmarsh collection have been able to viewed online through artuk.org. At present there are 88 works that can be viewed through that website.

I am pleased to be able to see images of my forebears on the Internet, but I look forward to seeing the originals of the portraits and paintings at Kelmarsh Hall.

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

Related posts

• V is for Valencia
• Extinction of the de Crespigny baronetcy

Sources

• Kelmarsh Hall and Gardens website
• Lecture by Martin Wood on Nancy Lancaster: English Country House Style https://youtu.be/AN7PJA4aq_g

Temperance Crew nee Bray (abt 1580 – 1619)

My 11th great grandmother was Temperance Crew nee Bray (abt 1580 – 1619). She was the wife of Sir Thomas Crew (1564 – 1634), a lawyer and politician. His entry in the History of Parliament online mentions his marriage to her, noting that she was the daughter of Reynold Bray of Steane and a kinswoman of the 7th Earl of Shrewsbury, Gilbert Talbot (1552 – 1616). Temperance, her father who died in 1583, and her and Thomas’s son John, are also mentioned in her husband’s entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Temperance was the fourth of five daughters of Sir Reginald (or Reynold) Bray (c. 1550 – 1583) and his wife Anne Bray nee Vaux (c. 1550 – 1619). She was baptised on 6 November 1580 at Hinton in the Hedges, Northamptonshire.

Reginald Bray died in October 1583 and was buried at Hinton in the Hedges on 18 October 1583. Reginald was aged about 44.

An inquisition post mortem was held (Esc. 26 Eliz. n. 119.) This was a local enquiry into the lands of a deceased person, held to discover what income and rights were due to the crown. Information from this inquisition was used to produce a family tree by George Baker in his 1822 book History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton (page 685).

Reginald had one son, William, who died in his father’s lifetime aged about 7. Reginald had five daughters who were his coheirs:

• Mary, aged 14 in 1583 thus born about 1569. On 16 August 1586 at Eaton Bray, Bedfordshire,  she married Sir William Sandys (c 1562 – 1641) of Fladbury, Worcestershire. She appears to have died by 1597 about which time  Sir William Sandys married secondly to Margaret Culpepper. She appears not to have had children.
• Anne, aged 10 in 1583 thus born about 1573; she was later the wife of John Sotherton (1562 – 1631), a judge and later a Baron of the Exchequer. John Sotherton married two more times and had two sons and a number of daughters – it is not certain if Anne was the mother of these children. Anne had died by 1602.
• Alice, aged 6 in 1583 thus born about 1577. In 1592 she married Nicholas Eveleigh, a lawyer. Nicholas Eveleigh died aged 56 in 1618 when the Chagford Stannary Courthouse collapsed killing him, two of his clerks and seven others, also leaving a further 17 injured. She secondly married Elize (Ellis) Hele, a lawyer and philanthropist who died in 1635. The trust from his will was used to found a number of schools including Pympton Grammar School. Alice died on 20 June 1635, it would seem she had no children. She and her second husband are buried at Exeter Cathedral but there is a monument to both of her husbands at Bovey Tracey Church.
• Temperance, aged 3 in 1583 (see below)
• Margery, age 2 in 1583 thus born about 1581. She married Francis Ingoldsby of Boughton and they had a son John.

The chancel of Bovey Tracey Church, Devon looking eastward. On the left (north) side , the monument with effigy of Nicholas Eveleigh (d.1618); on the south side the monument with effigy of Elize Hele (d.1635), who married Eveleigh’s widow Alice Bray. Photograph by Wikimedia commons user Lobsterthermidor [CC BY-SA 3.0], retrieved from Wikimedia Commons

Effigy in Bovey Tracey Church, Devon, of Nicholas Eveleigh (d.1618) of Parke in the parish of Bovey Tracey. Photograph from Wikimedia Commons by user Lobsterthermidor [CC BY-SA 3.0]

Monument to Elize Hele in Bovey Tracy Church, Devon. Below his effigy are the kneeling effigies of his two wives, facing each other in prayer, behind the left one kneels his young son. Photograph from Wikimedia Commons by user Lobsterthermidor [CC BY-SA 3.0]

In 1596 Temperance married Thomas Crew (1665 – 1634). Temperance was a kinswoman of Gilbert Talbot, 7th Earl of Shrewsbury (1552 – 1616). Thomas Crew was in the service of the Earl. Thomas had been educated at Shrewsbury School and the Inns of Court.

Thomas Crew was first elected to Parliament in 1604 representing Lichfield.

Temperance and Thomas had nine children:

• John Crew (1598 – 1679)
  • My 10th great grandfather. Married Jemima Waldegrave and had six sons and two daughters. Was a Member of Parliament and was mentioned in the diaries of  Samuel Pepys.
• Anne Crew (1599 – ?)
  • married Sir Edward Stephens, a Member of Parliament. They had three sons and a daughter
• Thomas Crew (abt 1602 – after 1682)
  • Attended Queen’s College, Oxford: matriculated 1618, BA 1622, MA 1625.
• Nathaniel Crew (abt 1606 – 1692)
  • Attended Lincoln College, Oxford, matriculated 1623. Admitted Gray’s Inn January 1622.
• Patience Crew (abt 1608 – 1642)
  • Patience married Sir John Curzon (1598 – 1686), a Member of Parliament. They had seven children. Patience and John are buried at Kedleston, Derbyshire.

Memorial to Sir John Curzon, All Saints’ Church, South Transept, Kedleston Photograph from Geograph.org.uk

• Temperance Crew (abt 1609 – 1634)
  • Temperance married John Browne (c 1608 – 1691) and died without having children. She is memorialised at Steane. In June 1660 Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he went to visit Mrs Browne. The 2000 edition published by University of California Press has annotated  that Mrs Browne was Elizabeth, second wife of John Browne, Clerk of the Parliaments: his first wife (d. 1634) was Temperance Crew, aunt of Montagu’s wife.
• Silence Crew (abt 1611 – 1651)
  • Silence married Sir Robert Parkhurst (1603 – 1651) of Pyrford, Surrey, Member of Parliament. They had one son.
• Salathiel Crew (1612 – 1686)
  • Attended Lincoln College, Oxford, matriculated 25 November 1631. Was a soldier. In 1641 there was a Certificate of residence showing Salathiel Crew (or the variant surname: Crewe) to be liable for taxation in Northamptonshire, and not in the half-hundred of Newport, Buckinghamshire, the previous area of tax liability. Salathiell Crew was appointed sherif of Rutland in 1652. Salathiel Crew was buried at Hinton in the Hedges. His will mentions his brother Thomas and two granddaughters, Isabella and Elizabeth. I have found no record of Salathiel’s marriage, children or military career other than the mention of militis in Oxford University Alumni.
• Prudence Crew (1615 – 1641)
  • Prudence Crewe died unmarried in 1641. She left a will probated 10 June 1641.

Temperance Crewe died in 1619.

Sir Thomas rebuilt the chapel of St Peter at Steane in memory of his wife who was buried there and an altar Tomb bears her figure and that of Sir Thomas dressed in his Sergeants robes.On a tablet is this inscription:

“Temperans Crewe, the wife of Thomas Crewe, esq. And one of the daughters and coheirs of Reginald Bray, esq. By his wife Anne, his wife, daughter of Thomas Lord Vaux, died in the year of our Lord 25 October, 1619, in the year 38 of her age, and now restith from her labours, and hir works follow hir:
A daughter of Abraham here doth lye
Returned to her dust
Whole life was hid in Christ with God
In whom was all her trust
Who wifely wrought while it was day
And in hir spirit did watch and pray
To heare God’s word attentive was her care
Hir humble hart was full of holy feare
Hir hande which had good blood in every vaine
Yet was not dayntye nor did disdayne
Salve to applye to Lazarus fore
And was inlarged to the poore
Lyke God’s Angells she honor’d those
That taught his word and did his will disclose
And persons vile her hart abhor’d
But reverenst such as fear’d the Lord
A true Temperans in deed and name
Now gone to heaven from whence she came
Who with her lott was well contented
Who lived desired and dyed lamented.
Premissa non amissa, discessa non mortua
Conjux casta, parens foelix, matrona pudica,
Sara vivo, mundo Martha, Maria deo.”
[Having never lost, went out without having died, = Not lost, but gone before
A chaste wife, a happy parent, a modest lady,
A living Sara, a worldly Martha, Maria of god.]

Photographs of the chapel and the monument can be seen by clicking the links below:

• The outside of the chapel
• Photographs by by Northamptonshire Historic Churches Trust

Thomas Crew served as speaker of the House of Commons from 1623 – 1625. Thomas Crew was knighted in 1623.

To the end of his life Sir Thomas Crew continued to practice law.

Portrait of Sir Thomas Crewe, Speaker 1623 – 1625. Given by his descendant Ralph Cartwright, Esq. 1805. In the collection of the UK Parliament (catalogue number WOA 2702) Crew displeased James 1 by upholding the liberties of Parliament as ‘matters of inheritance, not of grace’ but later said by the King to be the ‘ablest Speaker known for years’.

Crewe died on 1 Feb. 1634, aged 68, and was buried with his wife under the  marble effigy in the chapel he had built at Steane. His funeral sermon praised the quickness of his wit, the firmness of his memory, and the readiness of his expression. He was said to be one who ‘set the stamp of religion on all his courses, in his whole conversation’, ‘a man exceeding conscionable’, ‘a marvellous great encourager of honest, laborious, religious ministers’, ‘the poor man’s lawyer’, and ‘a great lover of his country’.

Sources

• Archive.org
  • Family tree of Reginald Bray retrieved from Baker, George. “History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton.” 1822, page 685 retrieved electronically through Archive.org archive.org/stream/HistoryAndAntiquitiesOfTheCountyOfNorthamptonBakerVol1/History%20and%20Antiquities%20of%20the%20County%20of%20Northampton%20-%20Baker%20Vol%201#page/n687/mode/2up.
  • Ingalsbe, Frederick W. “Ingoldsby Genealogy, Ingoldsby, Ingalsbe, Ingelsby and Englesby, from the 13th Century to 1904 ” Archive.org, archive.org/details/ingoldsbygenealo00inga/page/8.
  • Philipot, John. “The Visitation of the County of Buckingham Made in 1634 by John Philipot, Esq. .” Archive.org, College of Arms, 1909, archive.org/details/visitationofcoun58phil/page/76.
• History of Parliament online
  • CREWE, Thomas (1566-1634), of Gray’s Inn, London and Steane, Northants.; later of Serjeants’ Inn, Fleet Street, London.
  • other links in text
• British History online : ‘House of Commons Journal Volume 7: 12 November 1652’, in Journal of the House of Commons: Volume 7, 1651-1660 (London, 1802), pp. 214-215. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/commons-jrnl/vol7/pp214-215
• Google books
  • William Cotton (1859). Some account of the ancient borough town of Plympton St. Maurice, or Plympton Earl. With memoirs of the Reynolds family. John Russell Smith. pp. 28–29.
  • George Lipscomb (1847). The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham. J. & W. Robins. p. 169.
  • Samuel Pepys (30 July 2000). The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. 1: 1660. University of California Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-520-22579-4.
  • The Gentleman’s Magazine (London, England). F. Jefferies. 1790. p. 420. (Monument at Stean in honour of Temperance Crew nee Bray)
  • England; John Britton (1810). The beauties of England and Wales; or, Delineations… of each county, by J. Britton and E. W. Brayley [and others]. 18 vols. [in 21]. pp. 83–5.
• National Archives (UK)
  • Chancery: Inquisitions post mortem: Bray, Reginald: Northampt.  Esc. 26 Eliz. n. 119. Reference C 142/204/119
  • Certificate of residence showing Salathiel Crew (or the variant surname: Crewe) to be liable for taxation in Northamptonshire, and not in the half-hundred of Newport, Buckinghamshire, the previous area of tax liability.  Reference E 115/112/113
• ancestry.com
  • England, Select marriages ,1538 – 1973
  • Wills probated in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury
  • Dictionary of National Biography (UK)
• Wikipedia: links in text

Miniature portrait of Geoff de Crespigny by Olive A Chatfield

My father has a small collection of family portraits. One is a miniature of his father Richard Geoffrey “Geoff” Champion de Crespigny (1908 – 1966) as a child.

The portrait is signed  ‘O. A. Chatfield’. This was Olive Amy Chatfield (1880 – 1945).

Olive Chatfield was born in New Zealand, the fourth of eight children of an architect named William Charles Chatfield (1852 – 1930). Olive’s mother Mary Chatfield nee Hoggard (1853 – 1896) died when Olive was 15.

In November 1910 Olive Chatfield ‘of New Zealand’ was one of the artists in the 13th annual Federal Art Exhibition in Adelaide, a showing organised by the South Australian Society of Arts. I am not sure when Olive Chatfield came to Adelaide or why she was living there.

In March 1912 Miss Olive Chatfield donated a miniature portrait of Lady Bosanquet, wife of the South Australian Governor, to the Art Gallery of South Australia. Described as ‘gouache on ivory, 7.6 x 6.3 cm’, it remains in the Gallery’s collection,

In 1914 and 1915 Olive Chatfield is mentioned several times in Adelaide newspapers, usually under ‘social notes’.

On 3 April 1916 Olive Chatfield married Vyvyan Hughes (1888 – 1916), Geoff’s maternal uncle. Vyvyan Hughes died a few weeks later in a military hospital in Ceylon.

Vyvyan Hughes with Olive 1916

Olive Hughes did not re-marry, and in November 1916 returned to New Zealand, where under the name of Mrs Westbury Hughes she practiced as a professional artist specialising in miniature portraits. Some of her work was exhibited by the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts.

Photo of Olive Hughes accompanying an article in the Sydney Sun of 16 December 1923

ART AND HEREDITY (1923, December 16). The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 – 1954), p. 1 (Women’s Supplement). Retrieved December 6, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222682064

Olive Hughes died in Wellington, New Zealand on 10 July 1945.

There is a family resemblance down the generations between Geoff and his descendants.

Geoff de Crespigny

Geoff’s son

Geoff’s grandson

Geoff, his son, grandson, and great grandsons

Sources

• MARRIAGES. (1916, April 8). Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 – 1954), p. 32. Retrieved December 6, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87243826
• Family Notices (1916, May 18). The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 – 1929), p. 8. Retrieved December 6, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59818703
• AUSTRALIAN ART. (1910, November 3). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 – 1912), p. 4. Retrieved December 5, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207214665
• PERSONAL. (1912, March 23). Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 – 1931), p. 34. Retrieved December 6, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article164772419
• Art Gallery of South Australia Collection: item 0.634
• ART AND HEREDITY (1923, December 16). The Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 – 1954), p. 1 (Women’s Supplement). Retrieved December 6, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222682064
• PapersPast: New Zealand digitised newspapers:
  • Notes for Women, New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9507, 15 November 1916, page 5. Retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19161115.2.25
  • Notes for Women, New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9777, 28 September 1917, page 9. Retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19170928.2.59

• • At the Art Gallery, New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10271, 5 May 1919, page 3. Retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM19190505.2.9
  • Sketch Exhibition, Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 121, 23 May 1919, page 4. Retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NEM19190523.2.27
  • Social Gossip, Free Lance, Volume XIX, Issue 1006, 15 October 1919, page 22. Retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZFL19191015.2.34
  • Dispute over a miniature, Sun, Volume VII, Issue 2099, 5 November 1920, page 4. Retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNCH19201105.2.16
  • Deaths, Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 9, 11 July 1945, page 1. Retrieved from https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19450711.2.4

Related post

• K is for Kanatte General Cemetery in Colombo

 

A visit to Parliament House in Melbourne

Last Wednesday I went on a group tour of Parliament House in Melbourne. This magnificent building is a wonderful example of high-Victorian public architecture.

The double-storey Parliamentary Library, with its gas lights, curving staircases and central ten-sided table is particularly impressive.

 

Hanging in what is known as Queen’s Hall is a portrait of Sir Harry Lawson (1875 – 1952), politician and Premier of Victoria from 1918-1924. Lawson was a first cousin of my great grandmother Beatrix de Crespigny nee Hughes. The portrait, painted in 1981, is a copy of a 1923 portrait by John Longstaff.

Sir Harry Lawson, portrait by John Perry 1981. This copy of ‘Portrait of Sir Harry Lawson’ 1923 by John Longstaff (original held at Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum) was presented to the Parliament of Victoria by the Lawson Family and the Perpetual Executors and Trustees Association of Australia Ltd in 1981.

 

Also on display is crockery from the Parliament House collection, with it a program for a dinner given to Harry Lawson by the Government of Victoria on 20 December 1922, shortly before Lawson’s departure for an official trip to Europe.

The Age, reporting the dinner, called the date ‘Mr Lawson’s lucky day’. 20 December coincided with the 23rd anniversary of Lawson’s selection to Parliament, and he had been offered his first position in Cabinet on 20 December 1913). Lawson served as Premier from 1918 to 1924.

Our group also visited the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne’s war memorial, in St Kilda Road. Lawson was a trustee of the Shrine of Remembrance. It was commissioned while he was Premier.

Report of the opening of the Shrine on 11 November 1934: VICTORIA’S GREAT SHRINE OF REMEMBRANCE. (1934, November 12). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 13. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205078251

 

Further reading

• Donald S. Garden, ‘Lawson, Sir Harry Sutherland Wightman (1875–1952)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lawson-sir-harry-sutherland-wightman-7117/text12277, published first in hardcopy 1986
• Paul Strangio; Brian J. Costar (2006). The Victorian Premiers, 1856-2006. Federation Press. pp. 161–. ISBN 978-1-86287-601-9. from Google Books
• History of Parliament House from https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/about/the-parliament-building/history-of-the-building
• Shrine of Remembrance Conservation Management Plan prepared October 2010, retrieved from http://images.heritage.vic.gov.au/attachment/64891

Portrait of Anne de Crespigny

Today I received an email from the art broker Sotheby’s to say that it is selling a pastel portrait by Katherine Read (1723 – 1778) of Anne de Crespigny, my 6th great aunt. The sale is being conducted as a timed auction ending on October 29 2018. (See http://timed.sothebys.com/…/KATHERINE-READ-Portrait-of-a-w…/  )

This portrait was sold by Christie’s in 1912 and sold again in 1927 and 1931. I am not sure if the sale in 1912 was by a member of the Champion de Crespigny family, but it seems likely given there were three other de Crespigny family pictures sold at the same time. In the 1912 catalogue Anne is asserted to be the wife of Philip de Crespigny. This is probably incorrect. Philip de Crespigny’s wife Anne Fonnereau (1704 – 1782) was a much older woman at the time this  was made. It seems more likely that the portrait is of her daughter Anne.

From Art Prices Current 1912 retrieved from https://archive.org/details/artpricescurrent06lond/page/54

I have previously written about my sixth great aunt at The marriages of Anne Champion Crespigny (1739-1797)

Portrait of Mrs Geoffrey de Crespigny by Ernest Milston

Mrs Geoffrey de Crespigny née Kathleen Cudmore (1908-2013), portrait by Ernest Milston

My father has a portrait in oil of his mother, my paternal grandmother, Kathleen Cudmore (1908-2013) painted about 1941 when she was 33.

The signature is ‘Milston’. Who was he? Before the Internet it was hard to find out.

Trove has made it easy. Here is newspaper article mentioning the portrait:

SEES ART FUTURE FOR AUSTRALIA (1946, March 30). News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 – 1954), p. 3. Retrieved January 15, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128344371

 

Ernest Milston (1893-1968), born in Prague Czechoslovakia, graduated from the University of Prague in 1916. He was Jewish and fled Europe in 1939 and began practicing as an architect in Adelaide in 1940. He enlisted in the Australian Army in November 1942 as Ernest Muhlstein, and served with the Royal Australian Engineers. He was discharged on 20 March 1946.

In Adelaide a September 1940 newspaper review of the Spring Exhibition mentioned a portrait of a mother and son Milston exhibited. In April 1941 he was reported as being responsible for the decor of an amateur ballet performance.

After the war Milston moved to Melbourne and successfully practised as an architect. He also exhibited with the Victorian Artists’ Society and in 1945 one of the paintings he showed was my grandmother’s portrait.

My grandmother kept a newspaper clippings book and it includes a review from the 1945 exhibition by George Bell in the Sun newspaper (not apparently currently digitised by Trove).

 

Milston is best remembered for winning the design for the second world war memorial at the Melbourne Shrine.

News of the Day (1950, February 18). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 – 1954), p. 2. Retrieved January 15, 2018, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article187342730

 

Thanks to Trove I have been able to learn much more about the artist who painted my grandmother.

Further reading

• biography of Ernest Milston in a database of unsung architects compiled by Built Heritage Pty Ltd

Related post

• Kathleen Cudmore: a Memoir