P is for Penelope

Last year I wrote about how the children of my sixth great grandparents Constantine Phipps (1746-1797 and Elizabeth Phipps nee Tierney (1749-1832) were stranded in France during the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

Constantine and Elizabeth Phipps had fourteen children:

• Mary Ann Phipps 1772–1779
• Frances Phipps 1773–
• Elizabeth Phipps 1774–1836
• Penelope Phipps 1775–1814
• Constantine Phipps 1776–1794
• James Phipps 1777–1795
• Pownoll Phipps 1780–1858
• Lucy Elton Phipps 1781–
• Anna Maria Phipps 1782–
• Weston Phipps 1785–
• Maria Jane Phipps 1786–1822
• John Lyon Phipps 1788–1819
• Charlotte Phipps 1790–
• Elvira Phipps 1791–1875

My sixth great aunt Penelope Phipps (1775-1814) was the oldest of the eight children left behind. She was 17 1/2 when her parents travelled away from their home at Caen, France temporarily. The next oldest child was Pownoll aged 12. The Phipps parents took with them their two oldest living daughters Frances and Elizabeth, who was about to be married, their second son James, and one small daughter, either Lucy or Anna. Penelope’s brother Constantine had obtained a post with the Honourable East India Company and had left for Madras.

So from November 1792 Penelope needed to care for:

1. Pownoll Phipps aged 12
2. Lucy Elton aged 11 or Anna Maria aged 10 (not sure which accompanied her parents to England)
3. Weston aged 7
4. Maria Jane aged 6
5. John Lyon aged 4
6. Charlotte aged 2
7. Elvira Jane aged 1

Nine emigrés are executed by guillotine, 1793

The children were watched over by family friends, in particular two bankers surnamed de la Fosse who loaned money. In June 1793 private property in France – including Caen, of course – began to be seized by Commissioners of the Convention. The house leased by the Phipps was threatened. The children were to be evicted and imprisoned. People in the town protested on their behalf and the children were allowed to remain under confinement with a sentry to guard the house and the stables given over to the military. Through this the Phipps children luckily gained some shelter from the violence of the Terror.

 

It was only in May 1795 that the children were allowed out of the grounds of their house. Pownoll had previously been granted some freedom and had helped to gather food as well as exploring Caen at the time.

The children knew neighbours who were arrested and executed by the guillotine, including the de Beaurepaire family. Pownoll later married their adopted daughter, Henriette de Beaurepaire, who survived although she was arrested and imprisoned in Paris.

About the same time as Pownoll became engaged to Henriette de Beaurepaire, Penelope became engaged to James Chatry de la Fosse, nephew of the bankers who supported the Phipps family.

In 1797 five of the younger children were affected by smallpox and Penelope nursed them through it.

In 1798 the Phipps family were set at liberty and the children returned to England. Their father had died while they had been in France.

Their mother, Eliza Phipps, disapproved of the engagements of Penelope and Pownoll. James Chatry de la Fosse and Henriette de Beaurepaire were Roman Catholics and French and the English generally disapproved of  such marriages.

Pownoll was found a cadetship in the Bengal army and sent abroad.

In 1799 Henriette de Beaurepaire followed Pownoll to England. Some members of the Phipps family, seeking to prevent the marriage of Pownoll and Henriette, arranged to have Henriette arrested as a spy. Penelope found out about the plot and came to the rescue of Henriette.

In 1802 Penelope travelled to Calcutta with Henriette and met her brother Pownoll there. Permission to travel to India and avoiding her family finding out required an elaborate plan. Instead of waiting for her fiancee Jacques to come to England, Penelope chose to help her brother and Henriette. She wrote to Jacques breaking off her engagement.

Pownoll married Henriette on 10 August 1802 in Calcutta.

In October 1806 Penelope, aged 31,  married Daniel Johnson (1765-1835) at Allahabad. Daniel was from Great Torrington, Devon and was a surgeon with the Honourable East India Company 1805-1809. Daniel was later the author of “Sketches Field Sports as followed by the Natives of India” (1822) .

Penelope’s nephew, Reverend Pownoll William Phipps (1835-1903) said in his book (page 79) that she was never happy after her marriage and died broken-hearted.

In February 1814 Penelope died aged 38. She was buried at Great Torrington, Devon on 27 February 1814. There appear to have been no children although Daniel had a daughter Jane born about 1799.

Sources

• Phipps, Pownoll William. The life of Colonel Pownoll Phipps K.C., H.E.I.C.S. with Family Records. London: Bentley, 1894. pp. 5, 12, 230–231. Viewable through archive.org.
• Marriage notice: The Asiatic annual register or a view of the history of Hindustan and of the politics, commerce and literature of Asia. 1806. p. 5.

Related Post

• C is for caught in Caen during the Reign of Terror

C is for caught in Caen during the Reign of Terror

There is a family story that one of my de Crespigny forebears was in Paris during the Reign of Terror but I and other family historians been unable to find any evidence of this other than my fourth great grand uncle Philip de Crespigny (1765-1851) who was detained in France 1803-1811, but that was later.

However, I do have family who were caught in France during the Reign of Terror. In 1793, my 6th great grandfather Constantine Phipps (1746-1797), who had been living in France, returned to England leaving eight of his fourteen children in Caen. (Phipps was the grandfather of Eliza Julia Trent (1797-1855) who married Charles Fox de Crespigny (1785-1875).)

Constantine Phipps married Elizabeth Tierney on 13 May 1771. Early in 1788 the Phipps family, including ten surviving children of eleven born to date, moved to Caen, Normandy, where Mrs Phipps’s sister lived. According to his grandson Constantine Phipps was determined to live in France for the sake of his children’s education. He is said to have trusted that a permanent peace between France and England had been secured by the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the American War of Independence. Three more children were born at Caen.

In 1792, the Phipps were visited by a nephew, John Trent (1770-1796), who became engaged to Elizabeth, the third and second oldest surviving daughter. It was thought that the marriage should take place in their own country. In November 1792 Constantine and his wife left for England with their two oldest surviving daughters, their second son and a little girl. They left behind Penelope and seven other children. Penelope was then 17 years old.

Three months later, in January 1793, war was declared between England and France. The Phipps in England were unable to return to France and the children were unable to leave. The Phipps children were not reunited with their mother until October 1798. Their father, Constantine Phipps, had died in June 1797.

 

The castle at Caen from Wikimedia Commons, image by User Urban

Sources

• Phipps, Pownoll William. The life of Colonel Pownoll Phipps K.C., H.E.I.C.S. with Family Records. London: Bentley, 1894. pp. 5, 12, 230–231. Viewable through archive.org.

Related Posts

• Philip de Crespigny in the French Revolution

Deaths at sea

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is the sea. In fact, the prompt picture of Bondi Beach inspires thoughts of holidays by the beach, but I have recently been researching several members of my family who died at sea and I was reminded that the sea is not always benign.

The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault painted 1818-1819 and now hanging in the Louvre. The Méduse was wrecked off the coast of Africa in 1816. Of the 400 on board only 15 survived.

Arthur Branthwayt (1776-1808) was the second husband of my 5th great grandmother Elizabeth née Phipps (1774-1836). He died at sea in a shipwreck. He was travelling to Gothenburg and the Crescent, a frigate with 36 guns, which was lost off the coast of Jutland. 220 of the 280 aboard her died. A raft was constructed, similar to the Méduse‘s. Arthur Branthwayt’s wife, eight-month-old daughter and four step-children were not travelling with him.

Hampshire Chronicle 6 February 1809

Kentish Gazette 30 December 1808

Morning Post (London) 17 January 1809

Arthur Branthwayt’s grandson, Arthur Branthwayt Toker (1834 – 1866), my first cousin five times removed, is doubly related to me as his mother married her half-sister’s nephew by marriage, the son of Clarissa Champion de Crespigny (1776 – 1836). Young Arthur died at sea of typhoid fever while returning to England from New Zealand. He had been an officer in the 65th Regiment (later the York and Lancaster Regiment) and fought in the Maori Wars. He was unmarried.

 

from William Francis Robert Gordon’s album “Some “Soldiers of the Queen” who served in the Maori Wars and Other Notable Persons Connected Herewith”. Retrieved from the collection of Puke Ariki, New Plymouth, New Zealand

 

Wellington Independent 27 March 1866

In 1814 another shipwreck took the lives of Henry Gore Wade, his wife and children. Wade was the brother-in law of my fourth great uncle Philip Champion de Crespigny (1765 – 1851).  The Wade family were returning to England from India and died when the John Palmer was wrecked.

Morning Post (London) 31 March 1814

Morning Post (London) 1 April 1814

Gordon Skelly, who died in 1771, was my 6th great grandfather. His granddaughter Sophia née Duff (1790 – 1824) married Rowland Mainwaring (1783 – 1862). Skelly was the captain of the Royal Navy sloop Lynx stationed at Shields Yorkshire. He was drowned when his ship’s long boat, ,crossing the bar of the harbour, was overturned by breakers. At the time of his death his two children were aged four and three.

Leeds Intelligencer 2 July 1771

Entrance to Shields Harbour from The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 1 by William Findon retrieved from Project Gutenberg

When I checked my family tree I found a number of others who died at sea:

• Charles Patrick Dana (1784 – 1816), my 4th great grand uncle, who died while travelling from the East Indies to England on the Sir Stephen Lushington.
• Michael Hickey (1812 – 1840), the brother of my 3rd great grandmother died on the voyage to South Australia from Cork, Ireland,  on the Birman.
• Kenneth Budge (1813 – 1852), my 3rd great grandfather, died of cholera while sailing near Elsinore, Denmark.
• Walter Wilkes Plaisted (1836 – 1871), my 3rd great grand uncle, who died of phthsis (tuberculosis) on board the SS Geelong during the passage from Singapore to Melbourne. His probate file, held by the Public Records Office of Victoria, includes an inventory of his effects, a fascinating insight into his possessions.

My great great grandfather, James Francis Cudmore (1837 – 1912) was born at sea aboard the Siren off the coast of Kangaroo Island. His mother, Mary née Nihill (1811 -1893) was travelling from Launceston to the very new colony of Adelaide to join her husband Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore (1811 – 1891).

My husband’s great great grandmother Margaret née Smyth (1834 – 1897) gave birth to a baby boy as she travelled to Australia from Ireland on the Persian. The baby is recorded on the passenger list but it is not known what happened to him after arrival. He probably died as an infant. His death was before compulsory civil registration.