Every family has one or two black sheep and it’s every genealogist’s dream to come across a character like Temple Wilmot. Tracking down the story has taken many months of painstaking research but I think it has been worth it!
Jane Stacy Bennett’s cousin was Catherine Bridget Boase Bennett Bosustow and her story must have scandalised the whole family.
Catherine originally caught my eye as she was married in St Saviour’s church in Jersey, just a few yards from my home, and curiosity piqued I decided to investigate a little further. Thank goodness I did as I uncovered a wonderful scandal!
Catherine Bridget Boase Bennett Bosustow was born on 10 Oct 1846 in Redruth Cornwall to Richard Bosustow and Catherine Boase Bennett. Richard was a grocer and in 1845 he married Catherine Bennett the daughter of John Bennett a stationer in Redruth.
The Bennett, Bosustow and Lanyon families were all successful Redruth shopkeepers and pillars of the community and then in 1847 Richard Bosustow was imprisoned at Bodmin Gaol for debt. In 1851 the census showed him living with his wife and daughter and working as a ‘commission agent’. Ten years later he was lodging with another family and described as having ‘independent means’. In 1861 his wife and daughter were living in Guernsey with his sister Ann Bosustow.
In 1861 Catherine ‘senior’ had aged only 3 years since the 1851 census!
It’s not clear why they were in the Channel Islands; they may have been on an extended holiday or avoiding creditors.
They next appear in the records on 10 Jun 1863 when Catherine Bridget Boase Bennett Bosustow married Temple Bouverie Cleaveland Wilmot Esq at St Saviour’s Church in Jersey.
Catherine was 16 and three months pregnant. Bother her parents attended the wedding and signed the register as witnesses.
I obtained a copy of their marriage entry from the register:
It shows that Temple was the son of Somerset St Maur Wilmot Esq of Beaulieu, Hampshire, he was a bachelor and aged 35.
None of this is true!
Temple and Catherine’s first child was born on 26 December 1863 at Ennis, Clare in Ireland. She was baptised for the first time as Rose Eleanor Vivian Stuart Wilmot on 12 Mar 1864 at the Church of Ireland at Drumcliff, Co. Clare. The baptism record shows that her father Temple Wilmot was in jail. She was baptised for a second time at Our Lady’s RC church St John’s Wood Middlesex England on 24 Feb 1865. Her godmother was her grandmother Catherine Bosustow and her christian names had been upgraded to Rosa Eleanora.
Temple and Catherine’s second child was born on 17 Oct 1870 at Corfe Castle in Dorset and his name was registered as Charles Mowbray Fitzallen Howard and Temple was now using the name Charles Howard.
It was time to start investigating Temple Wilmot/Charles Howard.
I started searching for Temple’s birth but there is no record of a Temple Bouverie Cleaveland Wilmot being born or baptised anywhere in the UK or indeed the world, nor is there any trace of a Somerset St Maur Wilmot. Evidently Temple was a little economical with the actualité!
I searched for various iterations of the name and found an 1851 census entry for a Temple Wilmot working as an assistant teacher at Market Rasen in Lincolnshire. The census states that he is aged 26 (born about 1825 in Derby).
It didn’t take long to find a Thomas Cleveland Brice Wilmot and his wife Catherine (not Catherine Bosustow who would only have been 10 in 1856) baptising two children at the Holy Trinity Church in Dorchester, Dorset on 19 Sep 1856.
Charles Cleveland (with a faint third name which looks like Summerfield) and his sister Catherine Elizabeth. Father was described as ‘Clerk in the War Department Horse Guards’ and their residence is London. I could not find any trace of a marriage between Thomas Wilmot and Catherine before 1856.
After a fruitless search for the birth of a Charles Wilmot I found a birth entry for Cleaveland Somerville Wilmot born 10 Mar 1855 Islington (mother’s maiden name Somerville.) Father: Cleaveland Thomas Wilmot and father’s profession was described as ‘formerly in the army.’
I couldn’t find a birth entry for Catherine Elizabeth but I did find a relevant entry for a Catherine Somerville born 27 May 1856 father’s name Thomas Bryce Cleaveland Wilmot a clerk in the war office.
I also found a death entry for the child Catherine Elizabeth Somerville Wilmot.
On 5 Nov 1856, at Woolwich Arsenal Greenwich London, Catherine died. Father is listed as Thomas Wilmot, clerk in the war office, and they were living at 33 New Road. Cause of death was Tabes Mesenterica, a form of TB which can occur if an infant is fed cow’s milk. The death was registered by a Jane Cockle who was present. Jane Cockle was a neighbour, she was married to Francis and can be found on the census from 1841 – 1871.
The girl was buried at Greenwich on 10 November and her father was listed in the burial register as Edm. Wilmot!
No further trace of Catherine Wilmot senior.
Further research for what happened to Cleaveland Somerville Wilmot produced a Cleaveland Wilmot on the 1881 census for Newington. He was an engineer (metal) worker and lodging with James Stanford. He apparently married Elizabeth Martin and was the father of Mongo Park Wilmot born 1889 at Victoria BC Canada. Mongo married in 1910 to Emily Maud Sercombe in Exeter, Devon. He was dangerously ill with Spanish Flu in Nov 1918 but survived and lived until 1955.
In 1910 his marriage certificate declares that his father Cleaveland Wilmot was a coachman, deceased but I can find no trace of his death.
It’s not clear if Temple continued his contact with his son Cleaveland/Charles Wilmot or if he was raised by his mother or another relative. I can find no trace of him on the census for 1861 or 1871. I can only assume that he was listed under another surname.
To be continued……
The Lanyons 