Mainwaring family index

Whitmore Hall about 1920
Whitmore Hall photographed about 1920 by William Blake, image from Staffordshire County Council

My great great grandmother

Ellen Jane Cavenagh-Mainwaring
Photograph of Ellen Jane Cavenagh-Mainwaring from Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Christine ” Whitmore Hall : from 1066 to Waltzing Matilda”. Adelaide Peacock Publications, 2013. page 103.

55 Ellen Jane Mainwaring, daughter of Gordon Mainwaring and Mary Hickey was born on 15 July 1845 in Adelaide, South Australia. She died on 1 July 1920 in Southsea, Hampshire, England. She married Wentworth Cavenagh on 16 February 1865 in Adelaide, South Australia. After my great great grandmother Ellen Jane Cavenagh-Mainwaring, formerly Cavenagh, née Mainwaring, inherited the family property of Whitmore in Staffordshire in 1891, the family surname was changed to assume the name and arms of Mainwaring in addition to Cavenagh in acknowledgement of the inheritance.

For information on Ellen’s ten children see the Cavenagh family index

My 3rd great grandparents

Gordon Mainwaring
Photograph of Gordon Mainwaring from Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Christine ” Whitmore Hall : from 1066 to Waltzing Matilda“. Adelaide Peacock Publications, 2013. page 103.

110 Gordon Mainwaring, son of Rowland Mainwaring and Sophia Henrietta Duff was born in 1817 in Bath, Somerset, England. He died on 21 December 1872 in London. He married Mary Hickey on 5 July 1843 in St John’s C of E, Adelaide, South Australia.

111 Mary Hickey, daughter of Michael Hickey was born in 1819 in Limerick, Ireland. She died in 1890 in London.

Gordon and Mary had seven children:

  1. Ellen 1845 – 1920 [see above]
  2. Emily 1848 – 1863
  3. Charles Henry 1850 – 1889
  4. Alice 1852 – 1878 : Alice Moore née Mainwaring (1852 – 1878); Living statues
  5. Walter Coyney 1855 – 1888
  6. Julia 1857 – 1935 : Julia Wilkinson née Mainwaring (1857 – 1907); Living statues
  7. Frederick Rowland 1859 – 1891

My 4th great grandparents

220 Rowland Mainwaring, son of Rowland Mainwaring and Jane Latham was born on 31 December 1783 in London. He died on 11 April 1862 in Whitmore, Staffordshire. He married Sophia Henrietta Duff on 31 December 1810 in Stoke Damerel, Devon (Lieutenant HMS Narcissus).

Rear-Admiral Rowland Mainwaring
Rowland Mainwaring in 1861 from “The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford. An account of the family, and its connections by marriage and descent; with special reference to the Manor of Whitmore.” J.G. Cavenagh-Mainwaring, about 1935.

221 Sophia Henrietta Duff. She was the daughter of William Duff. She died on 11 Oct 1824.

Rowland Mainwaring married three times and had seventeen children

Sophia Henrietta Duff 1790–1824

  1. Rowland Mainwaring 1811–1826
  2. Edward Pellew Mainwaring 1815–1858
  3. Sophia Henrietta Mainwaring 1815–1871
  4. Gordon Mainwaring 1817–1872 (see above my 3rd great grandfather)
  5. Paulina Mary Mainwaring 1818–1825
  6. Charles Henry Mainwaring 1819–1878. His sons included:
  7. William Arthur Mainwaring 1822–1854
  8. George Mainwaring 1824–1850

Mary Anne Clark –1835

  1. Mary Anne Mainwaring 1828–1865

Laura Maria Julia Walburga Chevillard 1811–1891: I is for Ilmenau

  1. Karl Heinrich August Mainwaring 1837–1906 X is for destruction of a piratical fleet near Xiānggǎng (Hong Kong) ; J is for Jamaica; X is for Xiānggǎng
  2. Randolph Mainwaring 1839–1902
  3. Eugene George Henri Mainwaring 1841–1911
  4. Laura Chevillard Mainwaring 1843–1843
  5. Frederic Mainwaring 1844–1922 Z is for zealous in New Zealand
  6. Guy Mainwaring 1847–1909 D is for Dartmouth: Guy Mainwaring and the beagle pack ; Trove Tuesday: Cricket and the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit in 1867
  7. Horatio Mainwaring 1848–1913
  8. Algernon Mainwaring 1852–1926

222 Michael Hickey was born in Ireland. He died before 1840 in County Cork, Ireland. It is suggested in the Mainwaring family history that he was Michael Hickey, Esquire, of Kileton, co. Kerry. He had at least three children:

  • Michael Hickey 1812–1840. After the death of his father Michael, sold the family property in county Cork, and emigrated with his wife and two sisters. He died at sea on the voyage to Australia. His wife returned to Ireland.
  • Julia Hickey 1817–1884 : J is for Julia Morris nee Hickey (1817 – 1884)
  • Mary Hickey 1819–1890. My 3rd great grandmother see above

Fifth great grandparents

440 Rowland Mainwaring, son of Edward Mainwaring and Sarah Bunbury was born in 1745 in Four Oaks, Warwickshire. He died in 1817. He married Jane Latham on 10 December 1780.
441 Jane Latham. She was the daughter of Captain Latham, RN. She died on 23 November 1809.

They had the following children:

  1. Edward Henry Mainwaring 1781–1807 D is for died in Dacca
  2. Rowland Mainwaring 1782–1862 (see above)
  3. Thomas Mainwaring 1784–1835 Mainwaring younger sons go to India
  4. Charlotte Margaretta Mainwaring 1785–1836
  5. Elizabeth Mainwaring 1787–1869
  6. Susannah Jane Mainwaring 1788–1871
  7. George Mainwaring 1791–1865 Mainwaring younger sons go to India ; H is for Haileybury
    • Sons of George:
      • Rowland Rees, born in 1819 and baptised Calcutta, a General in the Bengal Native Infantry, died unmarried
      • Harry, born 1820 at Jaunpore, and died of smallpox, unmarried, at Agra, in 1845. He first joined the Bengal Army. At the time of his death Harry was Lieutenant And Adjutant, 2d Grenadiers.
      • Norman William, born at Jaunpore and baptised 1821 at Benares, and was killed in 1858 in a railway accident at Howrah. At the time of his death he was a Captain with the 73rd Regiment N.I. R is for Railway Accident
      • George Byres born 1825 Banda, lieutenant-general in the Bengal army, died unmarried. He became a noted scholar of the Lepcha language spoken in the Sikkim and Darjeeling district in West Bengal. S is for saving a language
      • Charles, born at Calcutta in 1839, a Cornet in the 6th Bengal Light Cavalry killed on the boats at Cawnpore on 27 June 1857 age 18 I is for Indian Mutiny

442 William Duff, the father of Sophia Mainwaring née Duff.: Major William Duff 1754 – 1795; Q is for Quebec
443 Dorothy Tobin née Skelly formerly Duff (abt 1768-1840), the mother of Sophia Mainwaring née Duff. Dorothy Skelly’s father Gordon Skelly died at sea in 1771

Sixth great grandparents

880 Edward Mainwaring, son of Edward Mainwaring and Jemima Pye, was born on 29 Dec 1709 in Whitmore, Staffordshire. He died on 15 Apr 1795 in Whitmore, Staffordshire. He married Sarah Bunbury on 29 May 1735 in London. : U is for university ;  J is for Jacobite rebellion
881 Sarah Bunbury died in 1798.

882 Thomas Latham. He died on 11 Feb 1762 in Shropshire, England (Buried 15 February Shrewsbury, Holy Cross (The Abbey) : Thos Latham Esq Captain in the fleet). He married Jane Kelsall.


883 Jane Kelsall, daughter of Thomas Kelsall, was born about 1739. She died on 12 Feb 1824 in London, England. By her first marriage to Thomas Latham she had three children. After Latham’s death she then married Henry Strachey and they had five children together. Henry (later Sir Henry) Strachey was private secretary to Lord Clive from 1764 and later helped with the introduction to the East India Company of his wife’s Mainwaring grandchildren : Mainwaring younger sons go to India.


884 James Duff Second Earl Fife 1729 – 1809

885 Margaret Adam of Keith, was the personal maid of the Countess Fife, the mother of James Duff


886 Gordon Skelly, son of Reverend John Skelly, Vicar of Stockton, and Elizabeth Gordon, daughter of 2nd Duke of Gordon, was born in 1741 in Warkworth, Northumberland. He died on 22 Jun 1771 in South Shields, Durham, England (Captain of the ‘Lynx’ sloop, drowned in ship’s boat which was overturned by breakers). He married Dorothy Harrison on 05 Jun 1766 in Yarm, Yorkshire.


887 Dorothy Harrison, daughter of Anthony Harrison, was born in 1743 in Yarm, Yorkshire. She died in 1784 in Yarm.

Seventh great grandparents

1760 Edward Mainwaring, son of Edward Mainwaring and Bridget Trollope, was born on 13 Aug 1681 in Whitmore, Staffordshire. He died in 1738. He married Jemima Pye in 1708 (marriage settlement).


1761 Jemima Pye, daughter of Edmund Pye and Anne Wright, was born about 1681 in Farringdon, Berkshire. She died on 22 Aug 1721.

They were the parents of 8 sons and 1 daughter:

Further generations back to William the Conqueror

  • One of my 8th great grandfathers was Edward Mainwaring, son of Edward Mainwaring and Anne Lomax, was born on 07 Apr 1635 in Whitmore, Staffordshire. He died in Dec 1703 in Whitmore. He married Bridget Trollope on 29 Jul 1679 in Dowsby, Lincolnshire. In 1652 he was admitted to Middle Temple : I is for Inns of Court. He represented the seat of Newcastle-Under-Lyme in 1685 : P is for Parliament
  • Paintings, Whitmore Hall (1): portraits at Whitmore Hall of
    • Edward Mainwaring (1577-1647) my 10th great grandfather
    • Sarah (Stone) Mainwaring (abt. 1575 – 1648) his wife, my 10th great grandmother
    • Edward Mainwaring (1603 – 1674), their oldest son, my 9th great grandmother
    • Jane Mainwaring (abt. 1607 – 1644), their daughter, my 9th great grandaunt
    • Anne (Lomax) Mainwaring (abt. 1606 – 1694), my 9th great grandmother
    • Matthew (Craddock) Cradock (abt. 1519 – abt. 1592) my 12th great grandfather: portrait was at Whitmore but no longer hangs there
  • Macavity wasn’t there! Edward Mainwaring 1577 – 1647, one of my 10th great grandfathers, was elected to Parliament on 30 September 1601 for the borough of Newcastle Under Lyme. However, he was not re-elected in the next election, on 28 February 1604, so at the time of the Gunpowder plot in November 1605, he would not have been present in Parliament.
  • F is for Faringdon, Berkshire: Cavaliers and roundheads – the Pye family on opposite sides: During the English Civil War one of my 10th great grandfathers, Robert Pye 1585-1662, fought his son, the younger Sir Robert Pye c. 1620 – 1701, my 9th great grandfather.
  • The Lancastrian Vauxs: my fifteenth great grandfather William Vaux 1435 – 1471 killed at the battle of Tewkesbury; his son Nicholas was in the court of Henry VIII and was one of those responsible for organising the tournament known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold
  • R is for Runnymede
  • D is for Domesday
  • Longing for ancestors back to William the Conqueror
  • Back to 1066 via the Mainwaring family

Other Mainwaring relatives

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, with Sir Philip Mainwaring c.1639–40 by Anthony Van Dyck now in the collection of the Tate
Sir Thomas Wentworth, with his secretary Philip Mainwaring
From a copy of a portrait by Anthony van Dyke;
the copy, of unknown date and origin, was on loan to Whitmore Hall for a short time.