Connecting Richard Henry Crespigny (1891 – 1894) to the family tree

Several years ago I wrote about a child who I could not connect to the family tree: Richard Henry Crespigny (1891-1894) a workhouse inmate. A cousin, NF, has recently written to me:

I think that I may have a plausible explanation regarding Richard Henry de Crespigny.

You have a Eliza Clarissa Emelia Toker in your tree.

She married Richard Bulkley Twyford Thelwall 1824-1878.

They had six children and their youngest was baptised Richard de Crespigny Thelwall.

Now Richard de Crespigny Thelwall is shown as being in Medical School at St. Mary’s Hospital London in 1888/89

For some reason he does not finish his studies. My GF always maintained that a family member was thrown out of Med School for getting a young lady pregnant. Did this Richard drop the Thelwall on the birth record of Robert Henry, being a poor student and merely disappearred?

At a later date Richard Thelwall marries an Anna Hamilton Lang (Long?) and they have five children all with the middle name of de Crespigny. By 1897 Richard is a well established clergyman.

Clarissa Champion Crespigny (1776 – 1836) was the daughter of my 5th great grandfather Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 – 1803) and his 3rd wife Clarissa Sarah Champion de Crespigny nee Brooke (1755 – 1782).

Clarissa Champion de Crespigny and two of her children by George Romney. It would seem that the daughters shown are Clarissa born about 1775 and Maria born about 1776.

In 1801 the younger Clarissa married Edward Toker (1777 – 1849) of Ospringe, Kent. They had eight children. The eldest son, Philip Champion Toker (1802 – 1882) married Elizabeth Jeanette Branthwayt (1808 – 1889) in 1830. They had seven children. The eldest child was Eliza Clarissa Emilia Toker (1831 – 1888).

In 1855 Eliza married Richard Bulkeley Twyford Thelwall. They had seven children; the youngest was Richard de Crespigny Thelwall born 19 May 1871 at Batcombe Somerset.  He was baptised on 14 July 1871 at Batcombe. His father’s occupation was adjutant of volunteers. The 1871 census was taken on the night of 2 April, just before Richard’s birth. At the time of the census the Thelwall family were living in Batcombe: Richard senior’s occupation was Captain and Adjutant 3rd Battalion Rifle Volunteers. As well as his wife Eliza there were two children aged 8 and 6 and two general servants. One son had died as a small child, two other sons were at school: one at St John’s College Hurstpierpoint, Sussex; another at Christ’s Hospital Educational Institution, St John’s Hertfordshire. I have not been able to locate the oldest daughter.

On 19 July 1878 Richard Bulkley Twyford Thelwall died very suddenly at Weston-Soper-Mare. He was late Adjutant 3d Battalion Somerset Rifle Volunteers and late 65th Regiment. (London Evening Standard 27 July 1878 page 1)

He was 54 and his youngest son Richard was only 7 years old.

Eliza Thelwall nee Toker died in 1888.

In 1889 Richard de Crespigny Thelwall was studying medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, London. (The Wellcome Trust; London, England; Medical Students Register; Reference Number: b24389602_i13752728 Description Registration Year: 1889. Retrieved through ancestry.com)

At the time of the 1891 census Richard Thelwall aged 20 was living in Hustanton, Norfolk as a boarder. His occupation was Tutor School.

The 1897 UK clergy list indicates he entered the Anglican clergy in 1894 and from 1894 to 1897 was a curate of St. Paul, King-Cross, Halifax, Yorkshire.

In 1903 Richard de Crespigny Thelwall married. He and his wife had at least five children. Richard died in 1923.

Do you think Richard de Crespigny Thelwall was the father of Richard Henry Crespigny (1891 – 1894)?

Can you suggest any evidence that might be available? None of the documents I have relating to the child Richard Henry Crespigny, for example his birth and death certificates,  include his father’s handwriting.

update: Another cousin, JT, has written in February 2021

Richard de Crespigny Thelwall attended Medical School in 1888 and as the family said “he walked the wards” and hated it, and so left. He went on to try teaching and hated that too and finally attended Anglican College and became a priest.

Richard de Crespigny never had an illegitimate child/son.

Certainly his future father-in-law would never have allowed Richard de C. Thelwall to marry his eldest daughter, if this had been the case.

Related post:

• Richard Henry Crespigny (1891-1894) a workhouse inmate

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.