My 7th great uncle Pierre Champion (1653-1739), later known as Pierre Champion de Crespigny, was born in 1653 in Normandy, France, the oldest son of Claude Champion and his wife Marie nee Vierville.
By an Act of 5 March 1691 in the English Parliament Pierre and his seven siblings became denizens of England. At this time the family surname was Champion. (A denizen was neither a subject with nationality nor an alien, but had a status similar to permanent residency. Importantly, a denizen had the right to own land. Denizenship was the forerunner of naturalization.)
Peter Champion de Crepigny (Crespigny), son of Claude Champion de Crepigny, by Mary his wife, born at Vierville in Normandy, in France.
Pierre became a leader of the exiled community. He was a member of the council of the General Assembly of French Churches in London. This was an association of both conformist and non-conformist congregations which was especially active in relief and charity work. Pierre was also a founding Director of the French Protestant Hospital. Formally incorporated under royal charter on 24 July 1718 as “The Hospital for Poor French Protestants and their Descendants Residing in Great Britain”, it is commonly known as ‘La Providence’.
Pierre was also assisted in the administration of legal affairs of members of the Huguenot community in London: there are several cases where he appears as a witness, as an executor, as maker of an affidavit, or as the provider of a certified translation. There is no evidence that he was formally licenced, but he was no doubt paid for his services.
Surviving letters to him and documents in his own hand were written in French, but he certainly was proficient in the English language.
He never married.
On 22 December 1739, at the age of eighty-six, Pierre died of apoplexy, a sudden stroke.
His will was made 10 August 1739 – it was translated into English for probate – after various individual bequests amounting to just over £1000, and the remainder was left equally to his nephews Philip and Claude, sons of Thomas. Besides giving money to his servant and his kinsfolk, Pierre gave £20 to the French Church of the Savoy and £20 to the Maison de Charité (House of Charity) in Soho.
Pierre asked that his body be placed in the family vault at Marylebone with that of his parents, and this was done on 27 December.
Murdoch, T. V. (Tessa Violet) & Vigne, Randolph & Murdoch, Tessa (2009). The French Hospital in England : its Huguenot history and collections. John Adamson, Cambridge
My corner of the world, Victoria in southeastern Australia, is hot and dry. Its natural landscape is largely open eucalypt forest, much of it cleared to grassland for pasture. With vicious hot northerly winds blowing in from the barren interior, summer time means bushfires, some of them catastrophic. In 1851 fires burnt out 20,000 square miles, a quarter of the state; in 2009 fires destroyed 2000 square miles and killed 173 people.
From the 1890s to her death in 1904 my 3rd great grandmother Charlotte Crespigny nee Dana (1820-1904) lived at Eurambeen, a large sheep station in central Victoria, 58 kilometers from our town, Ballarat, and 9 kilometers west of Beaufort. On the station were her daughter Rose Beggs (1858-1937) and Rose’s husband Frank (1851-1921).
On 9 February 1900 Charlotte wrote to her daughter Ada about a bushfire that threatened to burn through Eurambeen:
… Ethel went with Tedo to the Ararat Races. She staid at [?]. Frank was going to take Con and Arthur and then at the last minute changed his mind. He is so afraid of a fire breaking out. After tea last night a great fire was seen near Tedo’s paddocks and there was no end of commotion. The horses had to be hunted up and the men, old Gibbie and Frank, set out for it, Con on his bicycle, Tedo’s men too, one of the farmers burning off a large paddock of stubble nearly a yrd high, with a heavy wind. The brute never gave any notice. Poor Rose stood out by the tank for hours in fear of its coming on the run and the men had to remain until it was all safe. There is a fire on the Mountain now.
Ethel Davidson (1878-1985) was a niece of Frank Beggs, the daughter of his sister Clamina Davidson nee Beggs.
Con was Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952), Charlotte’s grandson, Rose’s nephew, my great grandfather.
Arthur Mitchell Hale (1878-1961) was a first cousin of Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny through his mother Annie Frances Crespigny nee Chauncy.
“Old Gibbie” is William Gibton, related by marriage to the Beggs family.
By ‘Mountain’ Charlotte meant Mount Cole, just north of Eurambeen. According to the Melbourne ‘Argus‘ a house and several haystacks were burnt down. Five thousand acres of cleared land was lost, and at Eurambeen, 130 acres of grassland.
Last week, 124 years later, bushfires were burning through Mount Cole again and Eurambeen was once more under threat. A thousand bushfire fighters have been brought in, supported by 25 water-bombing aircraft. Eurambeen is considered to be safe. The fire on Mount Cole and beyond is still burning.
One of my family’s heirlooms is a (roughly) 1:10 model Bretonschooner, named Ariel.
She was built by my 3rd great grandfather Philip Robert Champion Crespigny (1817-1879), who lived at Saint Malo in Brittany from 1849 to 1851. He was probably helped by a local boat-builder or by a fisherman out of season.
Ariel is mentioned in a 1903 letter by Philip’s wife, Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny nee Dana, in Australia. The model was passed to their daughter Rose Beggs nee Champion Crespigny, then to Rose’s great-nephew, my grandfather, Richard Geoffrey Champion de Crespigny (1907-1966). She is now in the care of Geoff’s son Rafe, my father.
My father has written about the model yacht:
Ariel: an essay
Rafe de Crespigny
Personal reminiscence
My first recollection of Ariel is from the time I was a small boy in the 1940s, staying at our family’s beach house near Adelaide. My room had a simple hanging cupboard, and on the top was this large model ship. Her paintwork was black above and green below the notional water line, with a white strip between the two, and white upper-works. The hull is constructed in true style, with a metal keel supporting ribs and planks, and a deck with two hatches. Stays for the masts are held by linked pairs of wooden blocks, and there are racks of belaying pins along the side-rails to fasten the sheets for the sails.
Some time in the late 1940s, after my father Geoff had come back from the war, he spent several weeks refurbishing her, including a new fore-mast and new sails, and over the next several years, into the early 1950s, we sailed her quite frequently during the summers. Measuring 1.9 metres [six feet three inches] from bowsprit to stern, and 1.4 metres [four feet seven inches] from the keel to the top of the mainmast, Ariel is rigged as a two-masted schooner with mainsail and foresail, triangular top-sails, and a staysail, jib and flying jib. She sailed remarkably well, sometimes in rough and windy weather, and on occasion with all sails furled and relying only upon the staysail.
The keel of Ariel was not quite heavy enough to keep her steady when she was fully rigged, but two small sacks of ball-bearings served as ballast and gave her more stability. She also leaked, and had to be pumped out after – and occasionally during – each cruise – with a metal kerosene pump.
I had a collection of toy sailors, officers and men, who were glued to her decks, and my mother Kathleen, very patiently, sewed signal flags for her. I got to know a lot of signals, but the most commonly used hoist comprised the five letters of her name.
By the 1950s, the hull was beginning to deteriorate and was admitting increasing quantities of water. I caulked her, with wood and [then new] plastic glue, which slightly improved her seaworthiness. In consequence, however, the original hull colouring was lost, and she was painted overall in green, while her sails, which had become discoloured, were dyed a pale red. The sepia photograph above was taken at that time; both flags and [with care] the men can be seen in the picture. There is also a film from the same period, and a screenshot appears below.
My father died in 1966, but our son Mark, born in 1963, remembers sailing Ariel when he visited Adelaide to stay with my mother and her second husband George Symes. He and George were close, and George had been a keen sailor in India before the war.
After George died in 1981, however, there was small opportunity to sail the Ariel, and though she remained fully rigged for a time, she was eventually reduced to storage in the garage. My mother let me bring her across to Batemans Bay when we built a new house there in 1996, but there was no time or occasion for either Mark or me to do any work on her, and we have another large pond yacht, Sturm, which the children were able to use.
We spent a deal of time looking for someone to restore Ariel, but all possibilities came to nothing until Mark, through the Modellers Shipyard, got in touch with Lex Wilson of Turramurra early in 2007. We sent her up to him in January, and he finished the work in May. Ariel is now fully rigged on a stand in our hallway; and though her old flags are gone we have plans for some replacements. One must accept, however, that her seafaring days are most probably ended.
An attempt at history
The history of Ariel can be traced quite reliably from the beginning of the twentieth century, but before that it is confused and doubtful.
It is fairly certain that she came into my father’s hands from his “Aunt Rose” [Helen Rosalie nee Champion de Crespigny], who was born in 1858 and married Frank Beggs of Eurambeen and later St Marnock’s near Beaufort in Victoria. They had no children, but for many years my father Geoff visited them for holidays, and when she died in 1937 the Ariel was left to him. One of her ribs is cracked, and the damage was said to have occurred as she was being brought across to Adelaide by rail.
Rose was the youngest daughter of Philip Robert CdeC, who was born in 1817, came to Australia in 1852 and was appointed a magistrate in Victoria. His eldest son, also Philip, my father’s grandfather, was the eldest brother of Rose [who was strictly speaking my father’s great-aunt]. The wife of Philip Robert, and the mother of Philip, Rose and three other children, was Charlotte Frances nee Dana, who was born in 1820 and died in 1904.
In a letter to her eldest daughter Ada on 24 November 1903, sent from the Beggs’ property Eurambeen East, near Beaufort, Charlotte Frances, then aged eighty-three, wrote:
I have made such lovely Flags for the ship and it stands on a very pretty oval table in the hall. You have no idea how well it looks now it is cleaned, painted and revarnished.
This is surely a reference to Ariel. My father’s cousin Phil, born in 1906, recalled seeing the ship at St Marnock’s, both on display in the entrance hall and sometimes sailing on the dam.
There was a legend that Ariel was built by Philip Robert CdeC while he was in Australia, and that there were three other models, some even larger, but there is no firm record or reference to them. After his arrival at Melbourne, from 1853 to 1869 Philip Robert was magistrate in Talbot and Amherst, north of Ballarat and the site of a major gold rush, and during the 1870s he was transferred to Bairnsdale, Bright and Ararat. In 1876 he was taken ill and retired, and he died at Brighton in 1889, after suffering from general paralysis for thirteen years. It seems most unlikely that he had leisure – nor indeed the experience and the skills – to build such a large-scale model [or models] during a little over twenty years of active life in Australia.
In 1998, while Christa and I were in France, we noticed a piece in the weekend edition of the newspaper Figaro describing a festival of sailing ships at Douarnenez in Brittany. Situated on the bay of that name near the end of the Breton peninsula, the commune of Douarnenez in the department of Finistère is noted for its collection of traditional boats; and the leading ship in the photograph is very like Ariel.
The majority of ships in the Breton tradition have square-rigged top-sails, as the other two ships of the picture, and pure schooners are less common, but Ariel appears to reflect that second heritage.
This theory becomes a good deal more likely in the light of family history, for Philip Robert CdeC and Charlotte Frances nee Dana had been at St Malo in Brittany before they came to Australia. Charlotte had formerly been married to John James a solicitor of Gloucestershire, but she ran away with Philip Robert, and their first child Ada was born in 1848 and christened at St Servan, just south of St Malo and now a suburb of that city. In May 1849 Philip and Charlotte received a passport from the British consul at St Malo to travel to Paris, and they were married there at the British Embassy in July. Six months later, in January 1850, the birth of my great-grandfather Philip was registered at St Malo.
Apart from the excursion to Paris, therefore, Philip and Charlotte were living in the area of St Malo for two or three years. They sailed for Australia from Southampton in December 1851, but probably spent only a short time in England before that voyage – there may still have been potential for difficulty from the divorce.
It seems very likely, therefore, that Ariel was built at St Malo in the late 1840s. Her design reflects that of ships from the region, and Philip, of independent means but in semi-imposed exile with someone else’s wife and one or two small children, may well have occupied part of his time with an interest in sailing and, in the winter, in model boat-building. It is probable that he had professional help, for in the off-season many fishermen or sailors could turn their hands from regular major repairs to such smaller-scale craftsmanship for visitors. Ariel may be the result of a simple commission, though it is pleasant to think of Philip being personally involved in her construction. It may also be that he did have more than one model at that time, but only Ariel could be brought with the family, and the others never came to Australia.
It is perhaps a little surprising that a couple with small children, seeking a new life in a strange and uncertain land, should have found room amongst their baggage for a fair-sized model yacht. They travelled in some comfort, however, with a cabin of their own and accompanied by a female servant, and there must have been space in the hold. Though Philip’s appointments as a magistrate took him and Charlotte to many different parts of Victoria, the model ship would have served as a souvenir of the first years of their marriage, and Charlotte was pleased to have it on display fifty years later. From fragments of evidence, then, and a deal of guess-work, Ariel is now 170 years old. And she’s come a long way.
Yesterday Greg and I visited the grave of my great great aunt Ada de Crespigny (1848-1927) in the Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery, Melbourne.
Some years ago when we were visiting the grave of Greg’s great grandparents Henry and Anne Sullivan, in the Methodist section of Cheltenham Memorial Park, we also visited what we thought was Ada’s grave there. It was unmarked. This surprised me. Why was Ada was buried in a grave with no headstone or marker, not with other members of her family in Brighton cemetery, five miles north, closer to where she had lived?
Here was the solution. Ada was buried in Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery, not the Memorial Park.
The inscription reads:
Sacred to the memory Of Ada Isadora Charlotte Died 29th November 1927 Eldest daughter of the late Charlotte Francis And Philip Champion de Crespigny
Heaven’s morning breaks And earth’s vain shadows flee.
The epitaph is from the last verse of the hymn “Abide with Me”.
Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery is well kept. There was a good map, and it was easy to find our way about. (I had obtained the location of her grave through FindAGrave.)
I still don’t know why she was not buried with her family at Brighton cemetery, but her grave in Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery is a fine grave and the cemetery is peaceful and pretty.
Family lore has it that my great grandfather, Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952), fond of his aunts Ada and Viola (Ada Isadora Charlotte Champion Crespigny (1848 – 1927); Viola Julia Constantia Champion de Crespigny (1855 – 1929)), was sorry that as single gentlewomen, of limited education and with little opportunity to make their own way in the world, they were forced to remain financially dependent upon men.
He insisted that his own daughters should have a university education, and indeed Nancy graduated from Melbourne University and Cambridge. Margaret also gained a Melbourne University degree.
In November 1847, discovering she was pregnant by her lover Philip Champion Crespigny, my 3rd great grandmother, Charlotte James nee Dana, deserted her husband and her daughter Charlotte Constance and fled to France. Philip and Charlotte’s daughter Ada Isadora was born out of wedlock in Paris on 15 May 1848.
Isadora Ada Charlotte was baptised with the surname ‘D’Estrée’ at St Servan near St Malo on 4 July 1849. This was an attempt at concealment: Ada’s parents were hiding there from Charlotte’s husband John James, who attempted to sue Philip over Charlotte’s desertion.
Ada apparently felt the stigma of illegitimacy all her life; her great-nephew Francis Philip (Frank) Champion de Crespigny (1918-2010) remembered her as “Mad as a snake; never got over it.”
In a letter from her father, probably written when he was away in Melbourne about 1860, Philip Crespigny addresses Ada as Mouse
[MELBOURNE?] [undated, about 1860] Dearest little Mouse A little bird has just told me that you have been a dear good little girl, and I shall therefore get the prettiest present for you I can. Tell Loup [Philip] that I shall not forget to buy him something too, and if the little bird tells me he has been very good, I will get whatever I think he will like best. I shall be back very soon after you get this letter, so mind be very good children and be very kind indeed to dear Mama. I will not forget something for Bab and Polly. Goodnight darling Mouse. I hope soon to give you all a great big kiss. Your most affec Father, P C C
Ada was at this time about twelve years old, and the nickname “Mouse” may indicate that although she was the eldest she was quiet and shy. “Loup,” in contrast, from the French for a wolf, refers to Philip, who turned ten in 1860 and appears always to have been energetic. Philip was known in the family as Loup or Loo for much of his life. “Bab” and “Polly” are presumably the two youngest children; Viola, turning five, and Rose, two.
Some fifty letters to and from members of the Crespigny/CdeC family during the nineteenth century were collected by Ada and passed to her nephew, my great grandfather Constantine Trent. The letters are now held by the State Library of South Australia. They have been a great source of insight into the lives of members of the family. (The letters feature in Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny nee Dana (1820-1904) and her family in Australia).
Ada spent her teenage years near Talbot, in the Victorian goldfields where her father was a magistrate. We know she learned the piano and there are several newspaper reports of her performing in concerts in 1867.
In 1869 Philip Crespigny, Ada’s father, was transferred from Talbot to Bairnsdale. Ada accompanied him to keep house. In a letter to his ten-year-old daughter Helen Rosalie, written at Bairnsdale one month after his departure from Talbot, Philip airs a small complaint about Ada’s tidiness:
2 March, 1869 My own darling little Rose, I must apologise for not answering your dear little letter before. I am so very glad to hear that Vi and you have been such very good children and taken such care of your poor Mother in that dreadful sale and the other miseries since we left. Poor dear little love, how delighted I was to hear of the narrow escape you had! – from the falling tree I mean. Vi will soon be going to Inglewood and your poor Mother will have no one but you. What care you will take of each other! How I long to be with you. You would laugh if you could see poor Ada and I keeping house together. When we first commenced I thought I could have it all my own way and make her tidy and so forth – but hitherto she says she will begin tomorrow! But tomorrow never comes. I much fear I shall be beaten in my attempts at making her tidy! Now good-bye, my own darling, with love in which Ada joins me. Your most affectionate Father P C Crespigny
Ada, at the time of this letter aged 21, spent most of her life helping her father and later her brother with housekeeping, though it seems from this letter that at least, in the early days she herself was not very tidy.
Ada Champion de Crespigny from the album of her sister Rose Beggs nee Champion de Crespigny (1858-1937) The photo on the left is thought to have been taken about 1874-1877 and on the right about 1878-1882
This photograph is annotated on the back by Rose’s husband Frank Beggs: Miss Ada de Crespigny on Malahide at Eurambeen East Malahide was afterwards sold to Admiral Bridges Trawalla for ladies hack where he lived his natural life FB
Ada’s sister Rose and her husband Frank lived at Eurambeen East from about 1882 to 1908. The horse was probably named after the place in Ireland near Dublin from where the Beggs family emigrated. Admiral Bridges was at Trawalla, eighteen kilometers east from Eurambeen on the other side of Beaufort, from 1887 to his death in 1917.
In the Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.), Saturday 19 September 1891, page 5:
Mr. Francis Beggs, Eurambeen, Beaufort, requests permission to supplement our correspondent's report of the Ararat show by stating that his colt Saint Marnocks, by Macgregor-Nightlight, took first prize at Ararat in the class for two and three year old thorough-breds, and also Messrs. Briscoe's special prize for the best thoroughbred stallion in the yard. In the light-weight hack class his horse Malahide, by Macgregor, took first prize.
Malahide was 3 years old in September 1891 so the photograph was probably taken in the early 1890s. A horse would generally not be ridden until its third year, maybe longer as riding sidesaddle like this takes even more training than basic astride. The horse looks fully mature so I would guess that this photo was taken no earlier than 1892.
Ada died on 29 November 1927 in a private hospital in Vale Street, East Melbourne, following four days from intestinal obstruction and toxaemia. She was buried on 30 November at Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery.
I was surprised to discover that she was not buried with other members of her family, including her parents, brother and sister, who are buried in Brighton cemetery, about 9km north of the Cheltenham cemetery. Ada’s usual residence at her time of death was Hampton Street, Brighton, which is closer to Brighton Cemetery than Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery.
This month the online genealogy service MyHeritageannounced that it had added two new features:
“AI Record Finder™ revolutionizes genealogy like ChatGPT revolutionized searching the internet: it is an interactive, intelligent, free-text chat to help the user locate relevant historical records about a person of interest in MyHeritage’s vast database of 20 billion records.”
“AI Biographer™ automatically compiles a rich narrative about an individual’s life using information from historical records that match the person, creating a Wikipedia-like biography about anyone. Narratives are enriched with relevant historical context using AI and are easy to share.”
I decided to evaluate these new tools for research, using for case studies, two of my relatives:
Jane Champion Crespigny (1766 – 1785), my fourth great grand aunt
James Kenneth Cudmore (1867 – 1948), my second great granduncle
The result for Jane was disappointing. The MyHeritage AI produced links to unreliable trees, and offered no links to records. (The MyHeritage database does not apparently usefully cover records in England for the period of Jane’s life.)
I generated the biography from my own family tree on the MyHeritage database.
The AI-generated biography lists her birth, death, parents, and siblings. It then goes on:
Biography
Jane Champion Crespigny was born in 1766 to Philip Champion Crespigny and Sarah Champion Crespigny (born Cocksedge) [1][2]. Her father, Philip, was born on April 1, 1738 [1][2], with conflicting records stating his birthplace as either Pauls, London, England or Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England[1][2]. Jane's mother, Sarah, has differing years of birth recorded, being listed as born in 1733 and circa 1743, with her place of birth also varying between Thetford, Norfolk, England and an unspecified location in Middlesex, England[1][2].
Throughout her life, Jane had a large family consisting of many siblings. Records indicate that she had at least three siblings named Thomas, Philip, and Anne[1], but other sources expand this list to include Charles,Clarissa Champion, Maria, Harry, Fanny, Eliza, Charles Fox, George, and Dorothy, bringing the total number of siblings to twelve[2].
Jane Champion Crespigny passed away at the young age of 19 on February 13, 1785[1][2]. One record specifies that she died in Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk, England[1].
No records are given, even though my tree entry at MyHeritage does include citations from sources such as The Gentleman’s Magazine and the Norfolk Chronicle. Jane’s baptism record is available through Ancestry.com.
The variations in the number of siblings result from nine of her siblings being from other marriages of her father. Jane was the daughter of Philip’s first wife, by whom he had four children; Philip had four marriages and thirteen children.
The biography is poorly written because it relies only on the FamilySearch tree and my family tree recorded at MyHeritage and refers to no records.
The report adds
Historical Context
Jane Champion Crespigny was born in 1766, a period marked by the intellectual movement known as the Age Of Enlightenment. This era emphasized reason, science, and individualism over tradition and was characterized by significant advancements in philosophy, politics, and society. Her father, Philip Champion Crespigny, would have been influenced by these ideas, which permeated through British society and its colonies. The family's status likely afforded them access to education and the arts, hallmarks of an enlightened upbringing.
In Georgian England, large families like that of Jane Champion Crespigny were common, reflecting societal norms and the lack of effective birth control methods. With at least twelve siblings, her household would have been bustling with activity, indicative of the social and economic standing necessary to support such a sizeable family during this time. The presence of multiple children also served to secure lineage and provide assistance in managing familial estates or businesses.
Jane Champion Crespigny's untimely death at the age of 19 on February 13, 1785, reflects the harsh reality of mortality rates in the late 18th century. Despite the progress of the Enlightenment, medicine was still primitive by modern standards, and diseases could easily claim young lives. Her passing at Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk,suggests she lived amidst the rural gentry, who, despite their relative affluence, were not immune to the health challenges of the era.
All this is conventional historical blather. ‘Contextualising’ the detail of family history by referring to what might appear to form the bigger picture is back-to-front. The bigger picture is usefully constructed from the smaller facts of family history, not the other way around.
The next part of the report looks at Jane Champion Crespigny’s surname.
Last Name Origins
The surname Champion is of Old French origin, derived from the word 'champion', which means 'warrior' or ‘fighter'. It was likely used as a nickname for someone who was a champion in sports or warfare, or metaphorically someone who excelled in any contest. The name was brought to England by the Normans during the Norman Conquest of 1066.
The surname de Crespigny comes from a place name in Normandy, France, possibly derived from an Old Norse personal name and the Gallo-Roman suffix '-iniacum', indicating a landholding. The family that bears this name first settled in England after the Norman Conquest. Over time, the name has evolved, and its bearers have become prominent in various fields, particularly in the military and legal professions.
I had not heard of the possibility that part of the surname derived from the Gallo-Roman suffix ‘-iniacum’, indicating a landholding.
These speculations seem a little pointless against a single hard fact, to which the AI report does not refer, that the family with its distinctive surname came to England in the late 17th century as Huguenot refugees. The rest is blather.
Finally the report highlights some consistency issues
1.Father’s birthplace: ‘Pauls, London, England’ [1] vs ‘Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England'[2] 2.Mother’s year of birth: ‘1733’[1] vs ‘circa 1743′[2] 3.Mother’s place of birth: ‘Thetford, Norfolk, England'[1] vs ‘[2] 4.Number of siblings: ‘3’[1] vs ’12’ [2]
These issues are due to the lack of completeness or errors in the tree at FamilySearch, a collaborative tree. Baptism records make it clear Philip was born in London. Similarly there is a baptism record for Sarah Cocksedge for 1733 where contributors to the FamilySearch tree have apparently estimated her age based on her marriage in 1762. No birthplace is given for Sarah at FamilySearch.
The variation in number of siblings is discussed above.
The lack of coverage by MyHeritage of English records in the late eighteenth century meant that the new tools were of limited use in the AI’s review of the life of my fourth great grand aunt, Jane Champion Crespigny (1766 – 1785).
I am sure the MyHeritage tools will be further refined and, with luck, may become more useful. The results were certainly more accurate than my experiments earlier this year with ChatGPT, a more general Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool (My post of 25 January: Don’t trust chatbots ).
However, I do not feel that I can rely on the MyHeritage tools as a starting point for research. The problem is not false assertions. These can be corrected. It is the tone, content, and direction of the AI’s generated history. Fishing for facts is not history, not even family history. Commissioning a robot to line up dead facts is no substitute for careful, sensitive understanding of what actually happened.
I will review the result of applying the MyHeritage tools to the case of James Kenneth Cudmore in a separate post.
When I was a girl, in a gloomy corridor of my grandmother’s house in Adelaide there was a lithograph of Tel-el-Kebir, the 1882 battle that won the Anglo-Egyptian War for the British. It probably came from my step-grandfather, George Symes, whose regiment, the Yorks and Lancs, had a part in the victory.
1890 Bird’s eye view of the battle of Tel-el-Kebir drawn by G. W. Bacon. Image retrieved through Geographicus Rare Antique Maps: a zoomable image is available through the link. Zagazig is shown on the horizon. The Bengal infantry are to the left on the other side of the canal, the Cameronian Highlanders are in the front of the charge to the left. The 84th Regiment (York and Lancaster) are to the right, being led by an officer with a raised sword and next to the cannon.
The picture of Tel-el-Kebir hanging in my brother’s house
In 1882 Alliston Toker (see L is for Languages) was D.A.A.G. [Deputy Assistant Adjutant General] to the Indian contingent at Tel-el-Kebir and subsequent pursuit to Zagazig; he was mentioned in despatches, receiving the brevet of Lieut.-Colonel and the 4th class of the Order of Osmanieh
13th Bengal Cavalry at the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir on 13th September 1882 retrieved from BritishBattles.com
From 1879 Colonel Ahmed ʻUrabi (or Orabi or Arabi) sought to depose the Khedive Tewfik Pasha and end British and French influence over the country. Egypt had been bankrupted by interest payments on loans incurred to fund an over-ambitious programme of infrastructure projects. The country’s finances were controlled by representatives of France and Britain.
The British were afraid they might lose control of Egypt, forfeiting loans and interest repayments. They were also concerned about the security of the Suez Canal which, since its opening in 1869, had become a vital part of the global communications of the British Empire.
Garnet Wolseley‘s 24,000 British and 7,000 Indian troops was the largest Imperial overseas force since the Crimean War in the 1850s. On his arrival Wolseley took control of the Suez Canal, secured his communications, created a strong base, built up stores, and concentrated his forces.
To defend Cairo the Egyptian forces dug in at Tel El Kebir, north of the railway and the Sweetwater Canal, both of which linked Cairo to Ismailia on the canal. The defences, though hastily prepared, included trenches and redoubts.
Wolseley planned to approach the position by night and attack frontally at dawn, hoping to achieve surprise, and a final, decisive victory.
Night marches are risky but the approach march of the main forces was made easier because the desert was almost flat and unobstructed.
Orders to prepare for battle were issued at 3pm on the afternoon of 12 September. One hundred rounds and two days’ rations were issued to every man. The orders instructed “Commanding officers are to be very particular about the fitness of water-carts, which will be filled and follow in rear of the battalions, and to make sure, by the personal inspection of company officers at 5 p.m. to-day, that every man has his water-bottle filled, if possible, with cold tea.”
The troops were told to maintain strict silence on the march; orders were to be given in whispers and rifles would be unloaded to avoid chance shots. No lights were to be shown; smoking was banned. Tents were left standing until dusk, campfires burning thereafter, so as not to alert the enemy to the fact that the British were on the move.
The advance from Ismailia began at 1.30am. An estimate of one-mile-per-hour average speed was calculated for a dawn attack. Navigation was by the stars. There were frequent halts to check direction and alignment. The march from the perspective of the 79th Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders was described in the regimental history:
“The weird night march, long to be retained in the annals of the regiment and the country, can never be forgotten by those who took part in it ; the monotonous tramp, the sombre lines, the dimly discerned sea of desert faintly lighted by the stars, were at once ghostly and impressive. The pace was necessarily slow ; one halt was made, and shortly afterwards the directing star having become concealed another one was chosen, and the direction slightly changed to the right. The 42nd, 74th, and 75th, did not at once conform, and the consequence was that a halt had to be made as these regiments found themselves almost facing each other.
This line was quickly and silently re-formed, and the advance continued.
Just as dawn was breaking two shots were fired from the left front, and Private James Pollock of the regiment fell dead. It was now evident that the regiment was close upon the enemy. Bayonets were at once fixed.”
At 5.45 a.m. Wolseley’s troops were six hundred yards from the entrenchments and dawn was just breaking, when Egyptian sentries saw them and fired. The first shots were followed by multiple volleys from the entrenchments and by the artillery. British troops charged with the bayonet. The Highlanders charged “to the shrill music of the pipes, and cheering as they ran”.
“A ringing cheer is inseparable from charging. I do not believe it possible to get a line in action to charge in silence ; and were it possible, the general who would deprive himself of the moral assistance it gives the assailants, must be an idiot. It encourages, lends nerve and confidence to an assailant : its very clamour makes men feel their strength as they realise the numbers that are charging with them. Nothing serves more to strike terror into a force that is charged than a loud ringing cheer, bespeaking confidence.”
Battle of Tel-el-Kebir, 1882; painting by Henri-Louis Dupray. In the collection of the National Army Museum. The painting depicts the moment at first light when the Highland Brigade, having advanced within 150 yards of the Egyptian trenches and fixing bayonets as they went, stormed the enemy at bayonet-point.
The British advance was shielded from view by the smoke from the Egyptian artillery and rifles. Arriving in the trenches at the same time, all along the line, the resulting battle was over within an hour. The Egyptians fought strongly, Sir Archibald Alison, a Highland commander, reported in ”The Highland Brigade” by James Cromb, recalled:
‘Retiring up a line of works which we had taken in flank, they rallied at every re-entering angle, at every battery, at every redoubt, and renewed the fight. Four or five times we had to close upon them with bayonet, and I saw these men fighting hard when their officers were flying.’
It was a crushing defeat for the Egyptians. Official British figures gave a total of 57 British troops killed. Approximately two thousand Egyptians died. The British army had more casualties due to heatstroke than enemy action.
British cavalry pursued the broken enemy towards Cairo, which was undefended.
“At 4.30 p.m. the same day the regiment, with the 74th and 75th, marched about five miles towards Zagazig and bivouacked for the night. The following day it moved on to Zagazig, 13 miles distant.
On entering Zagazig, about 6 p.m., the 72nd Highlanders were seen encamped on the other side of the canal, and raised many a cheer as the regiment passed. They formed part of the Indian contingent, and had pushed on in front of the Highland brigade.”
Occupation Of Zagazig, after the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir from Recent British battles on land and sea by James Grant, page 492 retrieved through Google Books
The British were at Ismailia and marched to Tel el Kebir. Fugitives from the battle fled to Zagazig.
Zagazig, is situated in the eastern part of the Nile delta. It is just under 60 km west of Tel el Kebir and 70 km north of Cairo. Many fugitives from the battle fled there.
Organised Egyptian resistance collapsed after Tel el-Kebir and the puppet regime of the Khedive was restored by the British. ʻUrabi was captured and eventually exiled to the British colony of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Egypt became a British colony in all but name.
Also serving in the battle was Tyrrell Other William Champion de Crespigny (1859 – 1946), brother of the 4th baronet and a distant cousin. I wrote about him in ‘U for Unregistered in 2021‘.
Faulkner, Neil. “All Sir Garnet! The Battle of Tel El-Kebir, 13 September 1882.” Military History Monthly, the-past.com, 6 Nov. 2021, https://the-past.com/feature/all-sir-garnet/ . Accessed 15 Mar. 2023.
Today is the 82nd anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Tobruk in 1941. My grandfather Richard Geoffrey Champion de Crespigny (1907 – 1966), known as Geoff de Crespigny, who served in the Second Australian Imperial Force as a doctor, was in Tobruk for nine months through the siege. His long enforced stay there earned him the nickname of `The old man of Tobruk’. He was mentioned in dispatches. Below is an extract from his diary.
5 Apr
The threat of attack by German and Iti forces has been growing the last few days, and today we felt the effects, as people started to return from forward area with various stories. Hundreds of sick are to be sent to 4 AGH. Luckily a hospital ship is expected soon.
6 Apr
The “flap” is on. The hospital took in about 400 patients in the last 24 hrs, and units and base personnel are streaming in. The air is full of rumours, and German patrols have been playing old Harry with our L of C [lines of communication], people leaving all at news of them and making for Tobruk.
2/3 CCS turned up again, less some equipment, and the rear party of the hospital likewise. An enemy patrol was captured just SW [southwest] of Tobruk. At one stage it was feared that an armoured column (Hun [i.e. German]) was on its way here direct across the desert. Since we had nothing to stop tanks, things looked sticky and it appeared to be more than likely that we would all become POW. Felt a bit disturbed, naturally, but there was nothing to be done about it. Talk of sending the nurses away on an awful little cargo boat, but the patrol turned out to be only a patrol, and it was decided, very wisely, to send them by Hosp[ital] Ship next day. I went about a bit on Alice [his motorcycle] on sundry commissions.
7 Apr
DDMS and DADMS Cyrcom [Colonels Walker and Furnell] turned up – very fed up at the nature of the rout which seems to have been quite complete, and we have lost much valuable equipment and personnel as POW. The 9 Div[ision: infantry] have done very well but were hopelessly under-equipped to withstand AFVs [armoured fighting vehicles: i.e. tanks, armoured cars etc] and the 2 Arm[oured] Div[ision], much of it in Iti tanks, had a hiding alas.
A hospital ship arrived and I went to 4 AGH to tee things up. Then to the wharf where no sign could be seen from the ship. She turned out to be the Vita – a hospital carrier, with accommodation for only 240 pts [patients], and we had over 400 and the nurses to go! Prepared to get all possible aboard, but matters held up as the ship’s launches broke down. Eventually got a large number aboard using various craft – the nurses went in a schooner! 18 Bde [Brigade] arrived, and I saw Gregory Bruer on the docks.
8 Apr
Arose early and got the remainder of the sick and the baggage aboard. We put 324 and the nurses onto the poor little chap.
Had a confab with McQuillan of 2/4 Field Hygiene Section as to functions. All POW labour has gone and we have to use Libyans, which makes things rather difficult. There are still many tales of the flap. The opposition is closing in, and all our troops that got away are now in Tobruk area. Heard, to my distress, that Roy Binns and his co[ompan]y of 2/8 Field Ambulance were captured. Also it appears that we have lost two generals, and poor old Colonel Godding, who stayed with us at HQ, was also captured. At the same time there have been remarkable escapes.
9 Apr
An air raid early in the morning. Nothing much happened. Rode out to POW cage to see about cleaning it. Frieberg [Fryberg] is to superintend. Did some more beetling about in the afternoon, and in the evening went to the hospital. When nearly home found a shoe heel missing, so returned and found it where I had started the bicycle. Nearly back again when the fireworks started and I spent a perfectly horrid ¾ hour lying in a shallow depression and hoping no AA stuff would land on me. Some bombs fell moderately close. Made one dash for it but was forced to ground again. Eventually got in, and went to the docks to inspect damage. There was an enormous hole on the dock – a 500 lb bomb it was thought.
10 Apr
A horrid dusty day, and spent most of the time indoors. Hoped to get out to the POW cage but dust prevented it. There was a lot of artillery fire all day. Ours we think! At 1800 hrs there was a fierce air raid, the objectives being apparently the two hospitals at town and beach – no other places attacked and it seemed quite deliberate. Chambers and Schwartz were killed and Row from 2/2 CCS severely wounded, and there were a number of casualties among patients and staff. Eric Cooper had an amazing escape, as a bomb fell within feet, and didn’t go off. We all felt very sick about it. Another raid in the evening, but no damage although bombs fell.
The effect of a thousand pound bomb on a small ship lying at wharf in Tobruk harbour. Australian War Memorial Accession Number 007578 Maker Hurley, James Francis (Frank); Place made North Africa: Libya, Cyrenaica, Tobruk Area, Tobruk; Date made 7 May 1941
Tobruk. The town seen from the harbour beach. Australian War Memorial Accession Number 007510 Maker Anderson, Alan Frederick; Place made North Africa: Libya, Cyrenaica, Tobruk Area, Tobruk; Date made c April 1941
Tobruk. Unloading stores from a transport ship at Tobruk Harbour. Thanks to the navy Tobruk’s sea communications have been kept open. Australian War Memorial: Accession Number 007501; Maker Hurley, James Francis (Frank); Place made North Africa: Libya, Cyrenaica, Tobruk Area, Tobruk; Date made c April 1941
My third cousin four times removed Eyre Nicholas Champion de Crespigny (1821–1895), by profession a medical practitioner, was a keen amateur botanist who became Superintendent of the Government Botanical Gardens at Dapuri [Dapodi] near Poonah [Pune] in India.
He was born on 7 May 1821 in Switzerland, near Montreaux, oldest child of the Reverend Heaton Champion de Crespigny (1796-1858) and Caroline née Bathurst (1797-1861).
Following a succession of scandals in the late 1820s Heaton, improvident and unstable, was committed in 1832 to a debtors’ prison, and the family was rendered destitute.
By 1834, however, through Caroline’s family and friends, means were found to send Eyre to Segrave House, in Cheltenham, where he received a book prize, early evidence, perhaps, of his abilities.
On 2 March 1835 Eyre, now aged 13, ‘son of Heaton de Crespigny, clergyman of 27 Queen Street Grosvenor Square’, is recorded as having been admitted to St Paul’s School, London.
In the late 1830s Eyre and several of his brothers moved to Heidelberg with his mother, now separated from her husband Heaton.
In 1842, at the age of 21, Eyre graduated from Heidelberg University with a medical degree. He returned to England, and gained medical experience as an intern in St Bartholomew’s and Guy’s Hospitals. In 1845 he took up an appointment with the Medical Establishment of the East India Company in Bombay, arriving there in September. In 1846 he was posted to Rutnagherry [Ratnagiri], a port city some 300 km south.
On 5 November 1850, at Malligaum [Malegaon, a town in Maharashtra, 300 km northeast of Bombay], Eyre Nicholas Champion de Crespigny, Esq., Bombay Medical Establishment, married Augusta Cunningham, daughter of a wealthy West Indianplanter.
They had five children, one of whom died an infant. Their first child was born 1853 at Ahmedabad in Gujarat, 500 km north of Bombay. Four more children were born at Rutnagherry.
During his residence in India Eyre was employed in several different military, naval, and civil medical roles for the East India Company .
In 1859 he became Acting Conservator of Forests and Superintendent of the Government Botanical Gardens at Dapooree [Dapuri], Poonah [Pune].
The gardens had been established on the estate of Major-General Sir John Malcolm at his residence there. Malcolm, Governor of Bombay from 1827, had purchased the Dapooree estate, originally owned and developed by an English Naval commander, Captain Ford.
Malcolm was keen to convert the Dapooree garden into a botanical establishment, where scientific experiments would be conducted for the naturalisation of fruits, vegetables, and timber, to be obtained from all over the world. The first superintendent was Assistant Surgeon Williamson, who died shortly after taking up the post. He was succeeded by Dr Charles Lush, also an Assistant Surgeon. The most notable superintendent was Alexander Gibson (1800 – 1867), a surgeon of the East India Company. He served as superintendent of the Dapuri botanical gardens from 1838 to 1847, becoming the first Conservator of Forests of India in 1847. Eyre de Crespigny’s move to the gardens from the post of Assistant Surgeon was quite in line with previous appointments, all of them medical men.
In 1862 Eyre returned to England. Though unwell he continued his enthusiasm for botany as an active member of the Botanical Exchange Club, which later became the Botanical Society of the British Isles. In 1877 he published A New London Flora. His obituary in the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign notes that “Beyond this Dr. de Crespigny did not publish, but devoted himself quietly to the study which had for many years been his chief interest.”
Eyre de Crespigny died in 1895. He was survived by his widow, a son and three daughters.
During his residence in India Eyre had collected coloured drawings of plants. After his death these were acquired by the Botanical Department of the British Museum. He had also compiled a herbarium of botanical specimens, which was donated, with 42 snake skins, to Manchester Museum.
From the 2002 book The Dapuri Drawings: Alexander Gibson & the Bombay Botanic Gardens.
Page from the 2002 book The Dapuri Drawings showing an 1865 plan and some views of the bungalow at Dapuri. Image retrieved through AbeBooks.
Present-day Firozpur [Ferozepore] is a city of some 100,000 people on the left bank of the Sutlej, in the Punjab, India. Partition in 1947 placed it a few miles on the Indian side of the border with Pakistan.
I have a family connection to the area, through my 1st cousin four times removed, George Bannatyne Wymer (1839–1908), who was the third child of my third great aunt Emily Crespigny Wymer née Hindes. George was born on 10 December 1839 and christened on 5 January 1840. (Emily’s previous children had died in infancy.)
Emily Hindes (1813–1891) was the illegitimate daughter of my fourth great grandfather, Charles Fox Champion de Crespigny (1785–1875). Charles sponsored her trip to India in 1830, almost certainly with the expectation that she would find a husband there. On 1 December 1832 at Neemuch, in what is now Madya Pradesh, she duly married George Petre Wymer (1788–1868), a Major of the Honourable East India Company.
India – The Town and Fort of Ferozepore coloured lithograph 1846 by Henry Pilleau – published by Dickinson & Sons, London, after a sketch by H. Pilleau Esq. late 16th Lancers, C. 1846. Image retrieved from Mullock’s Auctions.
Wymer had entered military service in the East India Company in August, 1804, by 1833 gaining the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was active in the first Anglo-Afghan War of 1838–42, fought between the British and the Emirate of Kabul over a succession dispute.
The British achieved their objective of re-installing the former emir and occupying Kabul, but with a fragile peace and continuing hostility toward them, a military expedition with Wymer in command was sent to Kabul, leaving Ferozepore in February and arriving in the first week of April.
The Bombay Gazette 8 January 1840 reported:
Colonel Wymer proceeds with the 2d Regiment N. I. from Ferozepore, in command of the grand convoy.
A letter from Ferozepore, dated 24th January, says, “the grand convoy about to proceed into Affghanistan, under the command of Brigadier Wallace, will probably move from this in the first week in February. The troops composing the convoy will amount to about 2,000 fighting men. The force consists of the 2d Reg. N. I., six depot companies of native regiments, drafts for H. M.’s 13th Light Infantry and drafts for the 1st European regiment, and the mountain-train for the service of his majesty Shah Soojah ul Moolk, with upwards of 200 remount horses, 21 lakhs of rupees, with some 800 camels with stores, &c., will accompany the troops, besides numerous private stores, merchandise, &c.”
In addition to regular and Bengal Army troops there were about 4,000 camp followers and 2,000 camels.
A convoy to Afghanistan pictured in 1839, the year before Wymer led the convoy. The Army of the Indus forcing the Bolan Pass, 1839 Tinted lithograph from ‘Sketches in Afghanistan’, 1838-42, after James Atkinson. Image in the collection of the National Army Museum
I do not know if Emily Wymer and little George were part of the convoy, but it seems likely, for Wymer was posted to many different places in the course of his career in India and it was usual for the wife of a senior officer to accompany her husband. In 1840 we find him in Kandahar [Candahar], Afghanistan, under Sir William Nott, and in 1843 Emily gave birth to a daughter in Mussoorie, a Himalayan hill station near Dehradun, north of Delhi. If she was with him then she probably had been with him earlier.
Firozpur (formerly Ferozepore) is close to the present day border with Pakistan and 75 km to Lahore.The distance as the crow flies between Firozpur and Kabul is 402 miles (647 kilometers).