Francis Lanyon was the eldest son and heir of John & possibly Margaret Richard and he is described as a ‘gentleman’. He married Elizabeth on 19 Jun 1607 at Madron (sadly most women did not have their surnames recorded in the Madron register so we don’t know which family Elizabeth was from.) He was a Penzance merchant.
Francis signed the Protestation return of 1641/2. He appears on the Subsidy Roll for Charles I in Oct 1641 and paid £3 on goods.
I Oct 1655 the mayor of Penzance granted him the profits of ‘key and pier’ (quay) for one year for £25.
In Oct 1656 the ship Dunkerke landed at Mousehole and Francis was paid 12/-
The Penzance mayoral records also show that Francis and Thomas Jenkin were paid 12d for repairing the quay’s mansards.
Francis and Elizabeth had three surviving children: Bennett, Sampson and Susanna.
Bennett Lanyon 1615-1661
Bennett, Francis’ son and heir, was baptised in 1615 eight years after his parents married. Perhaps there were other children born before him? He too took the Protestation Oath in 1641/2. In 1647 he married Martha. They had four children:
Agnes 1648 – married Edward Polgrean at Zennor in 1687. Their only child was Benedict. He married Elizabeth Stephens in Jun 1721 and in Jun 1722, just a month after his son Benedict’s baptism, he died.
Francis 1651-1719 he married his cousin Dorothie Noy (née Lanyon) when he was aged 50. Their only child Martha died aged 4. His estate was left to his nephew Benedict Polgrean in 1719. Less than three years later Benedict was dead too.
Elizabeth 1654-1655 died in infancy
Elizabeth 1655- married Francis Ellis (Elies) – 4 children: Bennett, Sampson, Francis and Katherine
Bennett’s line finishes here.
Bennett’s Tree
Sampson Lanyon 1616-
Sampson was baptised in 1616 in Madron. In 1647 he married Margaret and had four children:
Agnes 1648- no further trace
Mary 1653- no further trace
Anne 1656-1661 died in infancy
Margaret -1661 died in infancy
Sampson’s line finishes here.
Sampson’s tree
Susanna Lanyon 1619-
Susanna was baptised at Madron in 1619. In 1640 she married William Tregeco. There are no further records of this family.
Alexander Lanyon married Philippa at Madron in 1614.
Alexander Lanyon’s tree
The parish registers have lots of gaps at this time so wills can be an additional source of information. John Lanyon’s 1634 will mentions numerous grandchildren and from that we can start to build a tree.
Anne and Maud were still alive in 1634 but there is no further trace of them. They may have married and their marriages have not been recorded or they may have died.
Alexander aft. 1616-1624
Anne 1616-aft. 1634
Maud 1617-aft. 1634
Peter 1622-bef. 1634
Joane 1628-bef.1634
Walter bef.1634-1715
John bef.1634-1673
Alexander aft. 1634-1660
William -1624
The only children who have recorded marriages are Walter, John and Alexander.
Alexander Lanyon aft. 1634-1660
Alexander wasn’t mentioned in his grandfather’s will so must have been born after 1634. He and his wife died within nine months of one another in 1660. We don’t know what caused their deaths but given that they were both only in their twenties perhaps they both died of TB which killed so many young people. They had no children so this line died out.
Walter Lanyon bef. 1634-1715
Walter Lanyon’s tree
Walter was the heir and he lived at the barton of Lanyon after his father. He married Mary and they had two sons:
John 1665-1733 married Margery Ustick – one son John
Thomas 1670-1723 married Alice Baynard – no children
Walter died 8 Sep 1715 at Madron and left a will.
Walter’s will 1715 – Source CRO/AP/L/1174
The will gives his son John the barton of Lanyon, son Thomas half his goods and cattle and his wife Mary land in Boswednan, Madron and Boswarva and these lands to go to his grandson John after her death.
He also leaves his suit of ‘best apparel’ to Francis Lanyon of Penzance and £3 to his beloved henchman Richard Wallish.
Walter’s son John married Margery Ustick in 1691 and their only child John was born the following year. John died in 1733 and the estate passed to his son, Walter’s grandson.
John junior married Elizabeth Huthnance the daughter of Henry Huthnance, the vicar of Breage. They had a daughter, also called Elizabeth, born in 1718. John’s wife died but there is no record of her burial. John remarried in 1725 to a Lanyon cousin, Jane Andrew. (She was the daughter of Isabel Lanyon and Matthias Andrew of Sancreed.) They didn’t have any children.
In 1954 William Lamparter corresponded with Miss Dorothy E B Hichens, the niece of John Hichens, who was then aged 90 and the great grandson of Richard Hichens who held the lease at ‘Lanyon’. She stated “The only thing I can tell you about Elizabeth Lanyon is a story handed down the family and told to me by my grandmother – that Elizabeth’s mother having died, the child was neglected by her father and her mother’s family paid a gypsy to steal her. They brought her up after which she presumably returned and married my ?? grandfather.”
His only daughter Elizabeth married Richard Hutchens (Hichens), they had four children: Richard, Jane, Elizabeth and Thomas.
John Lanyon was without a male heir and when he died in 1784 aged 92 he left the barton of Lanyon to his favourite granddaughter, Jane Hutchens. John was the last Lanyon to live at the old ancestral home.
John Lanyon’s will 1784 – Source CRO/AP/L/1878
Jane Hutchens renounced the bequest and from 1784 Mr John Hosking of Landithy, Madron took a 99 years lease of Lanyon for his two sons John and Thomas who failed to make a success of the farm and Mrs Elizabeth Hutchens’ grand sons, Richard and Thomas took the remainder of the lease and much improved the Lanyon estate. The old manor house was pulled down and a new house built. Thomas’ son, Richard Hutchens, died at Lanyon in 1889.
Jane Hutchens renounces the bequest from her grandfather. Source – CRO/AP/L/1878
This is the end of Walter’s line.
On 29 March 1927 Jane Veale Mitchell wrote the following:-
“Last Tuesday the weather improved and I went off to keep an appointment at Carne, in Morva with Mr John Hichens (St Ives family) whose great-grandfather Richard held Lanyon in Madron and Rissick in Madron, under 99 years lease or remainder. (For several weeks I have missed him when he came into Penzance; then we met and I went out). How glad I was, you can imagine when he brought in a great armful of oldish deed for me to see. Between us (and you too) we are sworn to secrecy in regard to these deeds, as the man would be pestered for them; as it is, he gave me the one I longed for and which explicitly explained what my instinct told me must be a fact i.e. that a Lanyon, as his fathers before him, lived and died at Lanyon in Madron in the year 1784, the very last one in the old Manor House, before Mr Hosking (who renewed the lease from Philip Rashleigh’s assigns) tore it down and built the present farmhouse.”
John Lanyon – bef. 1634-1673
John was the second surviving son of Alexander and Philippa. John Lanyon married Blanche about 1648, the marriage was not recorded but their first child was born about 1650.
John & Bennett Lanyon’s tree
They had seven children:
Mary – 1654 died in infancy
Margaret 1649-aft. 1673 no further trace
Bennett abt. 1650-aft. 1673
David 1650-1656 died in infancy
Dorothie 1659-1732 she married Thomas Noye in 1678 – six children. Then in 1701 she married her cousin Francis Lanyon – they had one daughter Martha who died age 4.
Rebecca 1661-1706 she married Humphrey Stodden – three children
Philippa 1666-aft. 1673 no further trace
Mary – 1654 died in infancy
We’re covered Dorothie in the post ‘Lanyons, Trewrens and Noys’.
Bennett Lanyon abt. 1650-aft. 1673
Bennett was born about 1650. He was the executor of his father’s will. We know he married but we don’t know his wife’s name. He had six children:
Mary 1673-1673 died in infancy
John 1673-1733 married Blanche Pendar
Mary 1675-1676 died in infancy
Ann 1677- married Alexander Johns in 1706 no further trace
Blanch 1678- no trace
Walter 1681- no trace
John Lanyon 1673-1733
John and Blanche married in 1723 when John was aged 50. His son John may have been from an earlier unrecorded marriage.
John died in 1733 and his will begins “being penitent and very sorry for my sins”. One wonders what he had done!
John Lanyon’s will 1733 source: CRO/AP/L/1371
There is no record of John and Blanche’s son being baptised, married or buried. His father left him 1/- in his will which suggests he had already inherited. In 1752 he had the role of Accessionable Manor’s Commissioner and we know nothing else about him.
And this is where we must leave Alexander’s line, there are no more traceable Lanyon descendants.
Interestingly on 5 Mar 1781 an Alexander Lanyon died in Penzance aged 100. There is no record of any Alexander Lanyon being baptised about 100 years earlier. Could he be a descendant of this line?
The Lanyons, Trewrens and Noy (Noye) families intermarried over several generations.
Lanyon & Trewren families in Tudor times
The Trewren family lived in Sancreed Cornwall. Driff or Drift was the ancient seat of the family—“Dryffe“ wrote Norden in 1584, “The howse of Thomas Tre-wryn.” This family was settled here as early as 1340; they moved from this place to Trewardreva, Constantine.
Map of Sancreed Cornwall – The Lanyon family had homes at Madron, Bosullow, Sancreed, Paul and Morvah in the 15th, 16th & 17th century.
Jane Trewren married Sampson Noy on 22 Jul 1587 at Madron, Jane died giving birth to her seventh child Chesten on 6 Feb 1600. Two years later Sampson married his friend, John Lanyon’s daughter, Ane Lanyon and he had a further ten children!
Lanyon & Noy family
John Lanyon had a son called Alexander who married Philippa, he mentions them in his will of 1634. Their son John was also mentioned in the will but we don’t know when he was born. John junior married Blanche possibly in 1648 because their first child Margaret was born in 1649. Their fourth child Dorothie was born in 1659 and in 1678 she married Thomas Noy. Thomas died in 1699 and Dorothie then married her cousin Francis Lanyon at Morvah in 1701. Francis was fifty when he married for the first time and Dorothie was forty two. Their only child Martha died aged four.
Sampson Lanyon married Johane Noy at Madron in 1602. There is no record of his birth but it is possible that he was an unrecorded son of John Lanyon and Margaret Richard and was named after his grandfather Samspon John Richard. Johane Noy was a daughter of Johane Noy widow of Sancreed who died in 1606. I can’t trace a marriage for Johane who died in 1606 but it seems likely that she was connected to Samspon Noy as he took the inventory of her goods for her will in 1606 along with John Lanyon (gent).
The Noys also married into the Gwinear Lanyon branch of the family.
William Noy of Buryan married Phillipa Lenyne about 1556 at Gwinear. The Herald’s Visitation shows Philippa as the daughter of Edward Lenyne but Edward didn’t have any daughters. It seems more likely that Philippa was the daughter of William Laniene Esq and Thomasine Tregian. William and Philippa had at least three sons: William, John and Edward. Edward married Jane Crabb and their son William Noy of Carnanton and of Lincoln’s Inn became Attorney General to Charles I.
Sir William Noy – Attorney General
William Noy’s son was Humphrey Noy of Carnanton. He was born 1614. He married Hester Sandys, the daughter of Henry Lord Sandys. Humphrey served as a colonel in Charles I’s army. His estates were sequestered by Parliament and he was fined a tenth under the Articles of Truro. He lived for many years on the charity of his friends. He died at Mawgan in Pydar and was buried there on 12 Dec 1679. Hester was buried at St Buryan in Cornwall on 5 May 1676.
For a time Hester Noy lived at the home of John Lanyon in Essex. John Lanyon wrote to his cousin Rashleigh about Hester and the letter still survives.
Honored Sir, In answer to your last of the 14th present there is all care taken as far as counsel can advise that there may be no prejedishe [prejudice?] by the conveying of Mr Harveys intrist [interest] first to Mr Trelawney which truly could we have avoided it should not have been done but I understand it will be so done as that there shall be [in or no] […?…] of either Perrimans or Spreyes ordering the estate the cause in particular you shall receive with the writings for we desire to act nothing without your [pre…?…] consent that is considerable being in the trust equally concerned and for what is done towards the sale of [land?] however you deem it in the west I may assure you it hath been acted with much difficulty and charge having had so many parties to satisfy closing the [tytell? title?] and satisfying Harveye who hath been very peevish and unreasonable in regard of the long delays he has had and being put to [sue?] ? to the extremety of the law, which [makes?] him stand on having his money at one payment, and caution that he shall for the time [to come?] never have more trouble by it, the transactions of which together with the [composing?] and moderating the deptes [debts?] I confess is a work of much trouble and charge and needs the help of friends much more then to drive a bargain for land being on the place where it is I should be glad it were in my [p..?..] to do both but I [c..?..] the greater necessity of my present assistance is here until the greater depts [debts?] are settledI can not as yet give you an account how moderate Harveye will be as to his intrist [interest?] he having never received any but we do hope to bring the younger sons of the late Countis [Countess?] of […?…] to reason for a thousand pound judgement that my cousin Noye [a…?…] 12 years since, we shall do what we may with the rest of the creditors here for what is done as to abatements must be done [save?] it be known (publicly) that land is sold, the in cloased [enclosed] in my letter I have conveyed to my cossen Noye who is with her child at my house in Essex as touching her behaviour how ever reported [following inserted] hath been honorable as formally, I do assure you as to her care in preserving her husbands estate I think it impossible (as her condition has been) for any body living to have done more by herself and friends, I have lived to see many good people in affliction, but from my soul I speak it, upon all occasions never saw the like of her in all herself. I have with no small compassion heard her sighs and protestations always desiring god that her husband would after all his neglects consider himself and his poor children what ever became of her and also her suffering should be [impass..?.. impossible?] yet without a [purse?] necessity she would never ask, although to her own subsistance, I must confess that which I have most taken notice of her laying to heart (of all miscarriages) was when she was told that my cossen should report that she had given him the foul disease and his never taking notice of her youngest child by letter or message these things indeed hath been bitter unto her and has drawn tears and many sad sighs from her. After all this I have heard her often aver that she would be so far from acting to the ruin of that estate which her dear [parent?] with so many years [patience?] and more then [than?] competencey of fortune had contributed to [preserve?] that she would not in the least out of it carve to her self, but desired the just debts to be paid a settlement without [charge?] to her poor infants and out of her husbands then fortune a base competency to her self, and this is all that ever I heard her thought arise unto by all which your self may be judge what temper she is of, and consequently what upon the settlement of the estate and care of the children she may without all doubt be persuaded to. Sir excuse my tedious lines and I shall as being obliged remain your faithful kinsman
and humble servant
John Lanyon
Source – Cornish Record Office RS/1/62 dated 19 Jul 1653 transcribed by Louise Quigley
John Lanyon’s daughter Hester (1635-1700) may have been named after Hester Noy.
Arthur was the third son of John Charles Lanyon and Jane Stacy Bennett. Their first son John Charles died as a baby and it was soon apparent that the second son Sydney Howard Lanyon had a variety of health problems.
John Charles Lanyon’s tree
Sydney suffered with severe eczema. After Wellington College he attended Cambridge University where he suffered from appendicitis and failed his degree. He was rejected by the army before the first world war and committed suicide on 24th Oct 1914 by jumping off Westminster Bridge in front of his nephew Noel Hindley. His body was eventually found at Rotherhithe on 4th Nov 1914.
He left his estate to his brother Arthur who was the reluctant heir to the family business.
Arthur’s other siblings were: Alice who married Walter Paton Hindley. Jane who never married or worked and died age 88 in 1949. Vivian who worked as a colonial agent and married his nurse, Eliza Crowe. They never had any children. Mabel who married James Buckley, a venereologist and had four children. Arthur’s youngest brother, Alfred Leonard Lanyon died in infancy.
Arthur Herbert Lanyon
Arthur left Harrow in Dec 1883 at the age of 17 to join the family business JC Lanyon & Sons. On 22 Apr 1899 he married Catherine Septima Lamotte at St John the Evangelist, Croydon. (Catherine was descended from Huguenot refugees).
Their son John Arthur Lanyon was born in 1900 and their daughter Joan was born three years later.
John Arthur Lanyon and baby sister Joan about 1903.
John with his father Arthur and formal portrait aged about 5.
John and Joan with their mother Catherine Septima Lamotte.
The early photos were taken at Sanderstead, Surrey, the family home. At age 11 John was a pupil at Farnborough school. In 1918 he was briefly in the Royal Artillery and then he went on to read chemistry at New College Oxford.
Joan didn’t attend school. She was mildly epileptic and her mother disapproved of school so a governess, Cath Blakeney was hired.
Joan became a senior commander in the ATS during the second world war however during peacetime she didn’t work. She travelled extensively, played polo and never married. Joan died aged 92 in 1995.
Joan Catherine Lanyon
In 1927 John married Nancy Eleanor Mitchell and worked as a research chemist at ICI.
Nancy Eleanor Mitchell (1901-74) married John Arthur Lanyon. Nancy was the only daughter of Isaac Haig Mitchell and Margaret Hunter. Margaret’s story is told in the post ‘DNA Detective’, this is the story of Isaac’s family.
Isaac Haig Mitchell was a mechanical engineer who became a trade unionist. You can read about him on Wikipedia and see his portrait at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Isaac was named after an uncle also called Isaac Haig Mitchell who was born in 1831. I eventually tracked him down to New York, America where he was working as a clerk and married to Sarah. He died of arthritis chronic inflammation of the joints aged just 36 in 1868, just a year after his nephew Isaac was born.
Isaac’s father was Alexander Mitchell 1816-1894 he was born in Eccles and lived all his life in the borders area, dying in Hawick in 1894.
Alexander Mitchell 1816-1894
He was a wool dyer and scourer (scouring is washing the wool to remove all the dirt and grease). Wool was a big industry in this area and many people worked from home, spinning and weaving. Hawick was known for its tweed and cashmere industries.
Alexander’s first wife was Mary Gadd from Leicestershire. They had 7 children together but sadly Mary died of puerperal fever aged 37, five days after giving birth to her seventh child. Baby Alison also died. Alexander was now a widower with six young children to care for.
Alexander may also be the father of Mary Little’s illegitimate son Alexander Mitchell who was born in 1856 and grew up to be a dyer and scourer. (Mary Little was the niece of John Hunter who was the father of Margaret Hunter who married Isaac Haig Mitchell and this may be how the two families knew each other.)
In 1860 Alexander married Isabella Cairns age 27 and the mother of an illegitimate son born in 1859, James Adie Cairns. They were both living at the same address when they married so perhaps Alexander was the father of her child although he had another son named James from his first marriage who was still alive in 1861 so it seems unlikely.
Isabella & Alexander had three children: Isabella, Margaret Douglas & Isaac Haig. Alexander is described as the step father of James Adie Cairns who sadly died age 4 of Phthisis Abdominalis (abdominal tuberculosis). Sometime before 1881 they adopted a child, John Murray born 1871, the son of Elizabeth Murray. Elizabeth may be a relative or a friend. In 1871, aged 23 she was admitted to Roxburgh Poorhouse as she was a pauper, pregnant and unmarried. Ending up in the poorhouse usually meant the woman’s family has disowned her and thrown her out.
By 1891 John Murray was no longer with the family, I couldn’t find a record of his death but did locate a record that showed a John Murray joining the Kings Own Scottish Borderers Militia in 1890. After that there are too many John Murrays to identify what happened to him.
The 1891 census shows that Alexander and Isabella had two grandsons living with them: William Paterson and Alexander Brown Mitchell. These are both the illegitimate sons of Isaac’s older sister Isabella. Isabella was a power loom weaver and as she was able to support herself financially and had support from her family she didn’t end up in the poorhouse.
William’s father is named as William Paterson a solicitor’s clerk. William (junior) changed his name to Mitchell from Paterson. This William Mitchell was staying with Isaac in London in 1901 when Nancy Eleanor was born.
Isabella Cairns is descended from the Cairns family in Yetholm Roxburgh. Yetholm is the gypsy capital of Scotland and most of the families in this small village were descended from or intermarried with the gypsy community.
Isabella’s mother was Margaret Douglas and the Douglas family were a well known gypsy family.
Walter Baxter / Kirk Yetholm Gypsy stone inscription
Unlike his peers Isaac stayed on at school and did an engineering apprenticeship. On the 1891 census he was boarding at Newcastle Upon Tyne where he joined the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. In 1892 he moved to New York and found work as a millwright and joined the Socialist Labour Party of America. In 1894 he moved back to Galashiels in Scotland and founded a branch of the Independent Labour Party. He moved to Glasgow where he was the ASE’s delegate on the TUC. In 1899 he became the first general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions.
In 1899 he also married Margaret Hunter and in 1901 their daughter Nancy Eleanor was born.
Isaac & Nancy
They moved to London and he was elected as a Progressive Party alderman on London City Council. In 1907 he accepted an offer to work for the Board of Trade. He became known as ‘Haig Mitchell’ and grew a distinctive beard.
Isaac after 1907
His first wife Margaret died in 1922. On 29 Jul 1927 he married a widowed neighbour Avis Chatterley Baird. Avis died in 1986 aged 100!
Isaac
In 1941 Isaac wrote an article “The Road to Peace”
Isaac died on 15 Mar 1952 at Wandsworth, London. After his death Avis wrote to his daughter Nancy and the letter gives us an insight to his traits as he aged.
When I started working on the family tree I very quickly progressed on all branches apart from Margaret Hunter’s family. I was completely stumped.
Margaret Hunter
Margaret was the mother of Nancy Eleanor Mitchell and Nancy’s birth certificate gave me her maiden name of Hunter. I found Margaret’s marriage to Isaac Haig Mitchell on 29 Oct 1899 and the marriage certificate stated that her age was 33 and that her father was called John Hunter, a deceased hosiery worker.
Margaret’s marriage certificate
I easily found Isaac and Margaret on the 1901 and 1911 census. In 1901 Margaret is listed as age 34, born in Scotland and on the 1911 census she is described as age 44, born in Hawick and living in Sutton, Surrey. (I haven’t yet managed to find them on the 1921 census.)
1911 Census return
I then started a search for a Margaret Hunter born about 1866/67 in Hawick the daughter of John Hunter a hosiery worker. There weren’t any candidates so I expanded the search to the whole of Roxburgh and, as Margaret Hunter is a fairly common name, I found lots. I found a few with father’s called John but none of them was a hosiery worker or similar and whilst people did change their occupations I thought it unlikely that a man would, in middle age, change from mining or agriculture to become a hosiery worker.
I decided to search in the 1871 census for a 4/5 year old Margaret Hunter in Hawick and then the whole of Roxburgh and again had no real luck. I then searched the 1881 census (the Mormon Church has transcribed this whole census and it is easy and free to search) for the whole of the UK and found a Margaret Hunter born in 1865 in Scotland with a father called John Hunter who was a weaver now living in Cumberland. After months of searching I thought I had at last found ‘our’ Margaret. At age 16 this Margaret had an illegitimate child who was raised by his grandparents. Her father John Hunter was a blind weaver born in Scotland but as there are thousands of John Hunters born in Scotland I thought I couldn’t go any further and I left the story there and moved onto another branch of the tree.
Months later I returned to this branch of the tree and decided to look for John Hunter’s death certificate. He was recorded as deceased on Margaret’s marriage certificate so his death must have occurred sometime after the 1881 census and before October 1899. I eventually found his death on 10th Feb 1887 in Carlisle. He was 68, a woolen weaver and his daughter Margaret registered the death. The only problem was she was called Margaret Martin now. It was fairly easy to find her marriage and then to find her on the 1901 census with Mr Martin so she couldn’t possibly be ‘our’ Margaret.
I started again from a slightly different angle. I had found a record for a burial of a Margaret Mitchell in Banstead Surrey on 15 Nov 1921. Margaret was recorded as being 53 years old giving an approximate date of birth as 1868. I had assumed this was ‘our’ Margaret as there was only one death of a Margaret Mitchell in this area. I decided to obtain the death certificate just to confirm the information. When the certificate arrived many weeks later it stated that she was the wife of George Mitchell a ‘carman’ so she wasn’t ‘our’ Margaret.
The wrong burial!
I spent several days searching for her death. Her death wasn’t registered near her residence in Surrey so I had no idea where to look. Eventually I found her death registered in Lambeth/Brixton on 5 Aug 1922 where she is recorded as being age 55 giving an approximate date of birth as 1867. (She died of stomach cancer and pneumonia.)
Death certificate
I now searched in Scotland for every Margaret Hunter born between 1864-1870, there are lots! I then checked the census and married up every one of them with a family. Some had fathers called John Hunter. I was able to eliminate any John who was still alive after 1899. I was able to eliminate any Margaret who was still a spinster after 1899. I was able to eliminate any Margaret who married someone other than Issac Haig Mitchell and was still married in 1901. I then eliminated any John Hunter who’s occupation didn’t fit with the description ‘hosiery worker’, so all the miners, heavy labourers, farmers etc. Slowly but surely I whittled the list down and still could not find ‘our’ Margaret.
I then took a different approach. I decided to look for all John Hunters in Hawick who were working in any capacity in the wool/cloth industry. Hawick and the surrounding towns in Roxburgh are famous for their wool industries so there were quite a few candidates but one stood out.
1871 census for 50 Loan Street, Hawick. John Hunter age 40, wool frame work knitter but the only problem was he was unmarried. He did however have a daughter called Margaret Hunter. Unfortunately she was aged 11 and therefore born 1860 which is several years before ‘our’ Margaret was supposedly born.
I searched for a birth of Margaret Hunter in 1859/60/61 in Hawick. Again without success.
I then concentrated on John Hunter and slowly but surely worked out the story.
In 1851 John Hunter was recorded on the Hawick census as age 19, a woollen frame work knitter and living as a lodger with the Thomson family. His place of birth is listed as Langholm Dumfries.
I found him again in 1861 lodging with Margaret Graham and her mother Margaret Notman at Myreslaw Green in Hawick. He was age 27, a power stocking frame tender, unmarried.
Margaret Graham is listed as a married seamstress. The following children are also listed at the same property: Elizabeth Graham age 12, Joan Graham age 9, John Hunter age 6, William Hunter age 3 and Margaret Hunter age 1, all born in Hawick. The relationships are listed against the head of the house Margaret Notman so it’s not always clear if they are actually related to the lodger John Hunter.
1861 Census Hawick
By 1871 John Hunter was listed as the head of the household and the children were listed as his sons and daughters. Margaret Graham is listed as his married housekeeper and there were two more children: Isabella age 7 and Mary age 2. Unfortunately his surname was transcribed as Hanler and hers as Crahan which made the search a little more tricky!
1871 Census Hawick incorrectly transcribed.
It appears as though John Hunter was co-habiting with Margaret Graham. I decided to search for a birth for a Margaret Graham born 1859/60/61 in Hawick, without success. I then tried using the surname Notman and hit the jackpot!
Margaret’s birth record
Margaret Notman (or Graham) 27 Mar 1860 in Hawick. Margaret is listed as illegitimate but there is a note “Margaret Notman wife of George Graham who the informant declares she has not seen for 9 years”. So having been abandoned by her husband George Graham (a mason’s journeyman) in 1851 she went back to her parents and later met John Hunter, who she lived with until her death in 1877 age 47.
After her death John Hunter continued to live in Hawick with his daughter Isabella and appears on the 1881 census still working as a wool frame work knitter. He died on 4 Nov 1890 at the Melrose District Asylum age 62. Cause of death was paralysis of the insane four years (late stage Syphilis). The death was registered by Andrew Butler, Isabella’s husband.
John Hunter’s death record
By 1881 Margaret Notman/Hunter had left home and I spent quite a long time looking for her on the census. The most credible entries I found were:
Margaret L Hunter age 21, birth year 1860 Hawick, Roxburgh. Working as a tablemaid at The Scores, St Andrews, Fife. (I couldn’t find a Margaret L Hunter born in 1860 in Roxburgh).
B) Margaret Hunter age 18, birth year 1863 Roxburgh. Working as a domestic servant and described as a visitor staying with Robert & Helen Gilholm at their home in Ancrum Roxburgh. I did find a Margaret Stodda Hunter born in Roxburgh 1863 but it wasn’t ‘our’ Margaret.
By 1891 there was no obvious candidate for her in the UK census. I decided to look at both Margaret Notman/Graham’s family and John Hunter’s family to see if Margaret had gone to live with any of them.
Margaret’s Tree
John Hunter (born 20 Nov 1830) was the son of John Hunter born about 1792 and Margaret Budge baptised 7 Aug 1794 Langholm. He had several brothers and sisters. His elder sister Agnes Gaskill Hunter was born in 1815, she married Andrew Little and their first child was born in 1833. They had several children and their daughter Margaret Little was born in 1837. In 1856 Margaret Little gave birth to an illegitimate child called Alexander Mitchell in Hawick. He grew up to be a wool scourer and dyer. It’s pure speculation but I wondered if he could be the illegitimate son of Isaac Haig Mitchell’s father who was also called Alexander Mitchell who was also a wool scourer and dyer. It would perhaps explain how ‘our’ Margaret knew Isaac Haig Mitchell.
John Hunter’s Tree
Alexander Mitchell, father of Isaac Haig Mitchell and possible father of Alexander Mitchell born 1856.
Alexander Mitchell/Little died age 28 of pulmonary consumption. In 1879 he was involved in a Sheriff Court paternity case with Sarah McWatters over the paternity of her daughter Ellen L Stainton McWatters. He went on to marry Betsy Young the year before he died.
I still don’t know where ‘our’ Margaret was in 1891. But it appears that at age 39 she married 32 year old Isaac Haig Mitchell. In 1901 age 41 she gave birth to Nancy Eleanor Mitchell, her only child. She maintained the lie about her age for the rest of her life.
Margaret with her daughter Nancy Eleanor Mitchell
Of course this was all speculation until my husband submitted a DNA test to ancestry.com and we discovered several distant cousins all descended from John Hunter and Margaret Notman/Graham which confirmed at long last that I had indeed found ‘our’ Margaret Hunter.
What happened to Margaret’s brothers and sisters?
Elizabeth Graham her half sister was born about 1849. There are a couple of possible marriages but I could not find anything to prove which was correct.
Joan/Jane Graham/Hunter born 1852 may or may not be George Graham’s daughter. By 1871 she is no longer with the family, she may have died or moved away. No further trace of her.
John Hunter born 1855 and died 3 May 1930 Kilmarnock. He married Isabella Wilson and they had 7 children. Their youngest, born in 1898, was called Maggie Notman Hunter.
William Hunter born 1857 married Agnes Sanderson Hutton and moved to Peebles. They had 4 children, the youngest was born in 1886 and was called Margaret Notman Hunter.
Isabella Hunter born 1863 died 5 Feb 1931 Paisley. She was run over by a lorry and killed, there is a procurator fiscal’s report attached to her death certificate. She married Andrew Butler and had 6 children, the eldest was born in 1885 called Margaret Notman Butler.
James Hunter born 7 Mar 1867 and died 6 Sep 1867 of whooping cough.
Mary Hunter born 17 Aug 1868 and died 19 Mar 1877 of tubercular meningitis.
Without DNA I would never have ben able to confirm that this was indeed ‘our’ Margaret Hunter.
On 3 Nov 1881 Temple Wilmot/Charles Howard was released from prison and then further jailed for a month for failure to report for police supervision.
On release he evidently went straight back to writing ‘letters’ and attempting to commit fraud. By 27 Mar 1882 he was on trial again for unlawfully attempting to obtain by false pretences, from the Duke of Montrose, the Duke of Sutherland, and others, certain moneys, with intent to cheat and defraud.
The Duke of Montrose testified “I received a letter which has since been destroyed; it was in the same handwriting as this one which I hold in my hand—I subsequently saw the prisoner, and he admitted to me that it was in his handwriting (This was a letter signed Hoovardo, dated London, January 19, 1882, referring to a previous letter asking for an advance of 100l., and stating that 50l. would be a material sum, but 100l. would help him to weather the storm till October)—in his former letter, which was destroyed, he stated that he was Count Monti, and had taken his second title of Hoovardo because he was in difficulties, that he was my father’s godson, and in consequence bore the name of Graham, and that he was in difficulties owing to his agent in Italy having disappeared with the rents…”
Charles may have been back in Jersey as the first letter was dated in Jersey. Henry Wright the Duke of Sutherland’s secretary testified that he had received letters “These were also signed “Hoovardo” dated 9th and 10th December, from St. Heliers, and stated that the writer was the son of the late Marquis de Monti, and was the godson of the Duke’s father, and bore the name of Gower, and requested the loan of a few pounds.”
Neither Duke sent any money and Charles Howard was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment without hard labour.
On the 8 May 1885 Charles’ daughter Rose Eleanor Vivian Stuart Howard got married. She has been working in Germany as a governess where she met Major Johann Georg Hermann Friedrich Quehl.
Rose & Johann
On her marriage certificate she used the surname Von Zobeltitz, the daughter of Stuart Vilmar Howard Von Zobeltitz and Ana Von Zobeltitz.
Baden & Hesse marriage register
Rose and Johann had a daughter, Anne Marie who died in 1943. During the war Rose returned to England and lived with her son. She lived to the age of 98 and died in 1961 in Germany. On her death certificate her maiden name is given as Wilmot.
Just 10 days after Rose’s wedding Charles Howard was on trial again!
Charles Howard 58 (born about 1827) a retired Captain ‘with property In Italy’ conned several people into sending him money by postal orders telling them they were potential heirs to a deceased American millionaire and were in line to inherit £3000.’ (I think Charles would have loved the internet!)
We don’t know where he went after his release from prison but by 1893 he was again on remand.
On 2 Feb 1893 Catherine Bennett Wilmot petitioned the divorce court to protect her earnings and property earned by working as a professional nurse. She didn’t use the surname Gould or Howard and no mention is made of her second marriage.
The affidavit states that she was married in 1862 a year earlier than they actually married.
Charles Howard was on remand for obtaining money under false pretences and perhaps she was worried that her assets were at risk if he was found guilty.
On 17 Jun 1893 Charles Mowbray Fitzallen Howard married Florence Ethel Fulton. Their marriage announcement describes his father as “The Late Captain Charles Temple Howard of the Royal Horse Artillery” but that’s not true, he’s still very much alive and in Holloway prison!
Charles ‘junior’ was working as a journalist and sang in the church choir. By 1939 Charles was working as an actor which seems fitting. He and Florence had four children: Florence, Glory, Catherine and John (Jack). John Mowbray Temple Howard was killed on HMS Invincible at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Charles died in 1943.
Charles’ brother Thomas David Kenneth Howard married Mary Julia Dennis on 22nd Sep 1900 at Lexden in Essex. His father is recorded as Captain Temple Howard on the entry in the register.
Thomas was a furniture store manager. He and Mary had three daughters: Mary Catherine, Marjorie and Joan. Thomas died in 1944.
And what of Catherine? She died on 24 Jan 1935 at Great Yarmouth. She had been living with her son Thomas. Her probate lists her as Catherine Bennett Gould and she left an estate worth £1100 to her son Thomas.
What happened to Temple Wilmot/Charles Howard?
On 25 Nov 1893 Charles Howard died of pneumonia and bronchitis whilst on remand in Holloway Prison. His death certificate states he was age 78 therefore born in 1818.
His newspaper death notice states that he was aged 70 (born about 1823). it also states that he was the son of wealthy parents and had received an excellent education but had squandered his money.
So who was Temple Wilmot aka Charles Howard?
Clearly Temple was an educated man who had sufficient skills to pass as a member of the gentry or aristocracy. Perhaps he was from a wealthy family. He claimed to have been a Captain in the army and a diplomat in the War Office and this was accepted. He seems to have been popular with ladies too! It’s not clear if he was married to them but so far I have found at least five relationships: Catherine Somerville, Louisa Heminger, Marian Davenport, Catherine Boase Bennett Bosustow and Ana Von Zobeltitz.
We don’t have any photos of Temple but the photos of his two sons hint at his appearance. We do however have a physical description from the UK Register of Habitual Criminals and Police Gazettes.
The two entries describe his place of birth as Virginia America! Born about 1818 & 1828.
It describes his occupation as a labourer and gives the following physical description: Fair complexion, grey hair, blue eyes, 5ft 5 1/2”, proportionate build with a long face. Right shin was fractured, scars on forehead, over right eye, right groin and left arm. Lost left thumb and left fingers crippled, birthmark on left arm. (That’s a pretty distinctive appearance!)
I don’t think he was American, I think he was good with accents and I think he liked pretending to be someone he wasn’t.
Catherine’s affidavit of 1893 gives us some clues to pursue.
Catherine stated “The said Temple Bouverie Cleveland Wilmot informed me he was connected with the English family of Eardley Wilmot but he never introduced me to any member of his family. I have made several enquiries with the view of finding out who were his relations but have not been able to ascertain. Previous to his trial similar enquiries were made by the police but they were unable to find out to whom he was related.”
The family of Eardley Wilmot proved to be a very interesting line of enquiry.
Eardley Nicholas Wilmot (1752-1834) was the son of Sir Robert Eardley Wilmot, 2nd Baronet of Osmaston Hall in Derby. Sir Robert Wilmot was married to Mariana Howard, the heiress of Charles Howard of Stafford (1742-1791). The chance of a family having the names Wilmot, Charles and Howard seems to be too much of a coincidence.
I suspect that by 1851 Temple had already tired of his real name, perhaps he already had a criminal record and a change of name was necessary to find work. Perhaps a newspaper article about the Wilmot family (who had a protracted legal case) inspired his choice of name or perhaps Temple looked through John Debrett’s ‘The Baronetage of England’ and spotted some names he liked. There is no record of a Temple Wilmot on the 1841 census. In fact in 1841 there are only 29 people called Temple in the whole of the country and some of them are women.
In August 1853 the ‘Journals of the House of Commons’ reported the following and that may have given Temple an idea for some new middle names! Voila, Temple Bouverie Cleveland Wilmot was ‘born’!
Journals of the House of Commons Vol 108 (1853)
In 1855 Edward St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset died. No doubt this was listed in the journals of the day and that may have given Temple the inspiration for his ‘father’s name’ ‘Somerset St Maur Wilmot’!
Temple even featured in a book: ‘Mysteries of Police & Crime’ by Arthur Griffiths.
“BURTON, ALIAS THE COUNT VON HAVARD.
Compared with these top-sawyers and high-flyers in crime we have little to show on this side of the Atlantic; but I may mention one or two notorious swindlers of these latter days, remarkable in their way for the dexterity and the pertinacity with which they pursue their nefarious trade. Every now and again the police lay their hands on some fine gentleman who is well received in society, like Benson, bearing some borrowed aristocratic name, but who is really an ex-convict repeating the game that originally got him into trouble. There was the man Burton, as he was generally called, who rejoiced in many aliases, such as Temple, Bouverie, Wilmot, St. Maur, Erskine, and many more, and whose career was summarily ended in 1876, when, as Count von Havard, he was sentenced to five years’ penal servitude for obtaining money by fraud. This man’s character may be gathered from the police description of him when he was once more at large. He was described as a native of Virginia, in the United States; was supposed to be a gentleman by birth and education, and spoke English with a slightly foreign accent. The police notice went on to say that he was “an accomplished swindler, an adept in every description of subterfuge and artifice; he tells lies with such a specious resemblance to truth that numerous persons have been deceived by him to their cost. He is highly educated, an excellent linguist, and also skilled in the dead languages, and his good address has obtained him an entrance into the very highest society abroad. By the adroit use of secret information of which he has become possessed he has extorted large sums as blackmail. One of his devices is to enter into a correspondence with relatives of deceased persons, leading them to suppose they are bénéficiaires under wills, and thus obtain money to carry on preliminary inquiries. He frequently makes his claim through a respectable solicitor, whom he first dupes with an account of his brilliant connections and prospects. He represents himself as the son of a foreign nobleman, De Somerset St. Maur Wilmot, and claims relationship with several distinguished persons.”
He was in reality a very old offender, who had done more than one sentence in this country, and had probably known the interior of many foreign prisons. His operations extended throughout Europe, and he had visited the principal health resorts and holiday places of the Continent, such as Biarritz, Homburg, Ostend; and this constant movement to and fro no doubt helped him to elude the police.”
In conclusion
Ultimately we’ll never really know who he was, we don’t know when or where he was born it could have been as early as 1818 making him 45 at the time of his marriage to 16 year old Catherine! We don’t know his real name and with so many aliases we often lose sight of him in the records. Perhaps even his own family never actually knew who he really was.
On 16 Sep 1862, at Chelsea in London, Temple Wilmot (junior) was born. He was the son of Temple Wilmot, Captain Horse Artillery and Marian Wilmot née Davenport. The couple were living at 1 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London. Temple has gone up in the world!
Birth registration of Temple Wilmot junior
I could not trace a marriage between Temple and Marian Davenport but they may have married using different names.
Sadly there is no further trace of Temple junior or his mother Marian. Did they die? Were they abandoned and changed their names?
By early 1863 Temple is in Jersey grooming Catherine Bosustow!
I searched the 1861 census for any sign of Temple and eventually found the following entry at Kingston Upon Thames.
He’s listed as Cleaveland Wilmot age 32 (born about 1829) living at The Grey Towers Kingston Upon Thames. Born St James Middlesex and employing two servants. His occupation was listed as Retired Captain from Horse Artillery and ‘foreign’(?) Diplomatic service and HM War Office. (It appears as though he has been promoted!!)
As we saw in ‘part 1’ he married Catherine in Jun 1863 at St Saviour’s church in Jersey and his daughter Rose was born six months later at Ennis, Clare in Ireland.
On 27 Feb 1864 Campbell Bouverie Cleveland Wilmot was indicted for fraud and sentenced to 12 months in prison. I don’t know what happened after he was released from prison but in 1870 when his son was born he was using the name Charles Howard.
Birth cert of Charles Mowbray Fitzallen Howard
Charles Mowbray Fitzallen Howard was born on 17 Oct 1870 at Corfe Castle, Dorset. This is the second time Temple has been associated with Dorset, his first son and daughter were also baptised at Dorchester in Dorset. The birth is registered by Catherine ‘Howard’ and father’s profession is listed as ‘gentleman’.
By the time of the 1871 census Charles Howard was not living with his family. Catherine, Rose and Charles Junior were living in Southampton. There is no trace of Temple/Charles on the 1871 census so he must be abroad, or using another alias or in prison under a different name.
At his 1876 trial a letter from his wife was mentioned, letter dated Southampton, 23 April, 1874, addressed to ‘Captain Howard, Passas, Bavaria,’ signed ‘your affectionate wife, C. H.‘ (Catherine must have just realised she was pregnant and was perhaps writing to inform him.) On 20 December 1874 Thomas David Kenneth Howard was born in Stoke Damerel, Plymouth. Temple/Charles was using the alias Temple Howard.
By this time Temple Wilmot aka Capt Charles Wilmot had deserted the family and was residing with another woman, as his wife, ‘in a very expensive style’ at the Hotel Rautenkranz Eisenach in Germany.
Hotel Rautenkranz by Uwe Aranas
Temple was now using the name Von Zobeltitz and his wife was Ana Von Zobeltitz! They arrived with 16 portmanteaus and rented 3 rooms. Temple then began to write letters to fraudulently obtain money.
Charles Howard alias FC Judford (47) was charged with unlawfully obtaining 380l. of Richard Harvey, by false pretences. Chief Inspector George Clarke found 82 names of people that he had corresponded with and stated “and there might be more.”
At the trial Richard Harvey described the letter he received “Strictly private and confidential. Mr. F. C. Judford presents his compliments to Mr. John Harvey. In 1870 a man of wealth died leaving a last will signed in compos mentis bequeathing property to the amount of forty thousand pounds to John Harvey, son of William James Harvey, of Carnousie, in the county of Banff, Esq., and of Mrs. Isabella Harvey, his wife.” The will had been deposited with some bankers and that 380l. would be required to release it. Mr Harvey duly sent the money! How many others fell for the con?
At the trial Matthew Wyatt Gunning gave evidence which filled in a few more gaps in the life of Temple Wilmot:
“I am a clerk in the Financial Department of the War Office, Pall Mall—the prisoner was a temporary clerk there, he came l think in 1855, and remained till 1858—I think his name is Talbot Bouverie Cleveland Wilmot—I heard that in 1858, before he left he met with an accident to his thumb, but I was in China at the time—I saw him in Ireland in 1864, but did notice his thumb—I know his writing, I had to examine all queries in his accounts; I believe these letters to be his writing; I have no doubt about it. The last time I saw him write was in 1856, I believe—I gave evidence on the trial in Ireland in 1864…”
The prisoner was further charged with having been previously convicted in February, 1864, in the name of Campbell Bouverie Cleveland Wilmot, of obtaining a book by false pretences, when he was sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment. To this he PLEADED GUILTY. Inspector Clarke stated that the prisoner “had been pursuing this course for the last ten years, and obtaining from various persons large sums of money.”
On 21 Oct 1876 Charles Howard alias F.C. Judford was sentenced to 5 years penal servitude and 5 years police supervision for fraud and obtaining property by false pretences.
On 31 Jan 1879 Catherine remarried in Brentford Middlesex to Sergeant Joseph Lionel Gould, it’s not clear if she was actually divorced at the time! The marriage certificate describes her as a widow!
Marriage certificate of Catherine and Joseph 1879
On 31 Jul 1882 their son, Francis Joseph Lionel Gould was born at Thanet in Kent.
Joseph Gould’s first wife was Ann Boice/Beice and they married in 1861. She died in 1868 in Wells Somerset. Joseph died in 1886 when his son was aged six.
In 1891 Catherine had reverted to her maiden name of Bosustow and appeared on the census living with her mother at Ramsgate in Kent with her three sons. Catherine was working as a nurse.
The last trace I have of Francis Gould is the 1901 census, he was living at a boarding house in Deptford and working as a draper’s assistant.
Whilst searching for a marriage between Temple Wilmot and Catherine Somerville I came across another possible wife!
On 8 Mar, 9 Mar 1857 and again on 5 June 1857 there are banns called for a marriage between Temple Bouverie Cleaveland Wilmot and Louisa Heminger née Hooper. It’s not clear if any marriage actually took place as they are crossed through and unsigned however the GRO does have the marriages listed as taking place!
I attempted to obtain the marriage certificates from the General Register Office and received this message back:
‘Thank you for your enquiry. We are sorry that you did not receive notification of the outcome of your order. We should have advised you that we were unable to produce a certificate because we have checked the entries at the references quoted and both entries have been cancelled. As a result it appears there is an error in the indexes.‘
So who was Temple pretending to be now and who was Louisa Heminger?
The crossed out marriage entries are for Temple Bouverie Cleaveland Wilmot Esq the son of Thomas Wilmot, gentleman, deceased.
Louisa Heminger was a widow living in St Giles, Camberwell, Surrey and the daughter of John Hooper, a minister of the Lutheran Church, also deceased.
I set out to find her first marriage without much success, I couldn’t find a marriage for Hooper/Heminger. I changed the parameters slightly and found a marriage on 23 Jun 1852 at St Pancras between a Henry Heming and a Louisa Hooper. Louisa was six months pregnant.
Marriage entry of Henry & Louisa
Louisa was aged 22 and the daughter of Stephen Hooper a stationer. Henry was a commercial traveller and the son of John Heming a silversmith.
Louisa’s family lived at 45 Fleet St, London and her father was a legal stationer, a specialised and lucrative trade producing parchment for lawyers. Stephen married Louisa Kingsford in 1827. (Hooper may have been an anglicised form of Huber.)
Louisa and Henry had a son Henry Hooper Heming born 23 Sep 1852.
I can’t find a death for Henry Heming but it must have been before 1857 when Louisa ‘almost’ married Temple. On the 1861 census for Tunbridge Wells Louisa was living with her mother and son and both women were listed as widows. They also have a Cecil Mortimer Esq age 48 living with them as well. I did wonder if this was another of Temple’s aliases but a little research revealed that he was legitimate.
Louisa Heming died on 1 Oct 1861 from Phthisis Pulmonalis (TB), she was just 33 years old.
Louisa’s mother raised her grandson. They are both listed together on the 1871 census. In 1872 Henry emigrated to America where he worked as a journalist.
So why did Temple try and fail three times to marry Louisa? Perhaps her family spotted exactly what kind of man he was and each time put a stop to it. Perhaps their connections with the legal trade enabled them to investigate and find out he wasn’t who he claimed to be.
Temple didn’t stay ‘single’ for long after his failed attempt at marriage with Louisa. By September 1862 he had fathered another child!
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’s relationship to her cousin Jane.
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!
St. Saviour’s Church – Historical and Topographical Description of the Channel Islands 1840 Robert Mudie
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 Bridget Boase Bennett Bosustow
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).
1851 Census Market Rasen
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.
Double baptism 1856 – Holy Trinity Church baptismal register.
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.
Army Record of Mongo Wilmot
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.
The Lanyons 