Anthony J. Camp
https://httpanthonyjcampcompage21htm-static.myshopblocks.com/images/favicons/f2ffad889c3a3527984c1260faa97f3c.ico
Anthony J Camp, MBE, BA Hons, Hon FSG, FUGA, FAGRA
Additions and Corrections to

Royal Mistresses and Bastards: Fact and Fiction: 1714-1936 (2007)

Page x No 20, for 'Augusts' read 'Augustus'.

Page 16 line 8, for 'son' read 'grandson'.

Page 22 - Thomas Dunckerley. See the additional page of this website.

Page 28 - Frederick, Prince of Wales (additional entry)

1728 Elizabeth Burr. Margaret Burr, who is said to have been born in 1728, married the artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) at the Mayfair Chapel, 15 July 1746. She received an annuity of £200 from the estate of the Duke of Beaufort and is thus generally credited with having been the Duke's daughter [ODNB, vol. 21 (2004) page 268]. In 1930 a portrait said to be of James Burr and the work of Thomas Gainsborough was sold from the collection of the sitter's great, great-grandson at Barbizon House, the sitter being described in the sale catalogue as a commercial traveller who worked in the establishment of Gainsborough's father, a milliner and crepe-maker at Sudbury, Suffolk, and the brother of Gainsborough's future wife.

However, in research on Gainsborough's early life, it was suggested by Adrienne Corri in her The search for Gainsborough (London: Jonathan Cape, 1984) that the artist's wife Margaret was the daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales [Corri (1984) 153], a conclusion strengthened when she found mention in the Prince's circle at Kew of one John FitzFrederick Burr [Corri (1984) 155].

I have not seen any evidence to substantiate any part of this theory. Margaret Burr is generally said to have been born in 1727/8 but Frederick, Prince of Wales, did not come to England until December 1728. There does not appear to be any contemporary evidence that she had a brother. The descendants of one Alexander Burr who had children (by a wife Jane Anderson) baptised at St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh between 1761 and 1769, have a pedigree [information kindly supplied by Dr J.B.L.Matthews, 2011] showing him as the son of James Burr (born 1710), the supposed sitter in the portrait, and showing James as the son of Daniel Burr and Elizabeth Daucherbs/Dancherts, who were naturalized in 1722/3, but I have not seen any evidence that there was such a person as James Burr with these relationships. Daniel and Elizabeth had no known child of that name and the parentage of Alexander Burr seems unknown. Without further evidence it seems possible that James Burr was invented to give a name to the portrait at its sale in 1930.

More recent research has apparently concluded that 'Margaret Burr must have been a half-sister of Isaak Burr and Alexander Burr, and daughter of Margaret Burr, nee Aikman', Margaret Gainsborough's will [dated 6 June 1795 with 7 codicils dated 27 July 1796 and 19 August 1797 proved PCC 10 January1799 [folio 37, PROB11/1317] having named 'a nephew James Burr of Bells Mills, Edinburgh, and a niece, Mary Burr, of Panton Street, Haymarket, London' [Susan Sloman, in Gainsborough's Family Album (National Portrait Gallery, London, 2018, page 65, quoting William T. Whitley, Thomas Gainsborough (1915), pages 9-10]. No mention is made in the National Portrait Gallery book of the portrait and supporting text which was said to relate to Margaret's 'brother', James Burr, illustrated in the Barbizon House Record (1937) No. 1.

John FitzFrederick Burr was baptised at St John the Baptist, Croydon, Surrey, 2 July 1736, the son of Frederick and Catherine Burr [FHL MF 994,331], being the fourth of six children of the couple baptised there between 1732 and 1738. He was admitted a proctor in the Court of Arches in 1758 [Act Books of Archbishop of Canterbury, ix, 330, indexed in Harleian Society,vol. 55, page 124] and is presumably the John FitzFrederick Burr who married in 1761 [Faculty Office Marriage Licence] and whose will was proved in the PCC, 23 May 1764 [PROB11/898 folio 164]. His father, Frederick Burr, seems most likely to be the Frederick Burr, aged 14 when naturalized in 1722/3 [Huguenot Society,vol. 27 (1923) pages 124, 129], and baptised at the Oude Kerk (St Nicholas), Amsterdam, 14 September 1708, the son of the above mentioned Daniel and Elizabeth Burr [FHL MF 113136 & 113179].

Page 31 - Hon. Anne Vane. The date of death of Anne Vane, as mentioned in my book, has been variously stated. The Gentleman's Magazine gives it as 27 March 1736 [GM 1736 168] but Collins [iv (1756) 307] and the later peerage writers show it as 11 March 1735/6 [e.g. BP (2003) sub Barnard of Barnard's Castle]. It would seem, however, that she actually died on Friday, 26 March 1736. The Grub Street Journal (Thursday, 1 April 1736) says that she died 'on Friday at Bath'. Read's Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer (Saturday, 3 April 1736) says that she died 'Friday 7-Night' and the Weekly Miscellany (Saturday, 3 April 1736) has 'March 26 At Bath'. According to the Daily Gazetteer (Friday, 2 April 1736) 'the Corpse of Hon. Mrs. Anne Vane is to be privately interred at Bath'.

Joseph Chester's authority for his statement that Anne's daughter Amelia (Vane) was born and baptised about midnight, 21-22 April 1733 [Chester (1876) 345], would seem to be the report in the London Evening Post (Saturday, 21 April 1733): "In the Night between Saturday and Sunday last the Hon. Mrs Anne -- was deliver'd of a Daughter at her house in Grosvenor Square, who died in two Hours, after having been batized in the Name of Amelia. Her Son, of which she was formerly deliver'd, is in very good Health". Other contemporary accounts, giving her name in full, say 'on Saturday night' (St James's Evening Post, Saturday 21 April 1733; Grub Street Journal, Thursday 26 April 1733). The latter is misleading as the previous Saturday is clearly intended. The correct date for Amelia's birth would thus seem to be 14/15 April 1733

Page 37 line 3, for '180S' read '1805'.

Page 39 line 38, for '182S' read '1825'.

Page 41 re Frederick Henry James Ritso

The St Marylebone, Middlesex, registers show the marriage by licence of Frederick Ritso, of this parish, bachelor, and Ellen Errington, of St George the Martyr, widow, on 20 October 1795 [Registers, Page 363, Entry 1089].

Page 43 re Frederick Charles Grimm Ritso

Frederick Charles Grimm Ritso, aged 57, widower, of 3 Bernard Street, son of John Ritso, deceased, Officer in the Army, married 2ndly, by banns at St George, Bloomsbury, 11 November 1880, Jane Hill Harris, 45, spinster, of 3 Bernard Street, daughter of Richard Stancombe Harris, deceased, farmer [Register, Page 6, Entry 11].

The St Pancras Old Church, Middlesex, rough burial registers show the burial of Frederick Ritso, of 3 Bernard Street, Bloomsbury, aged 78, on 19 June 1897 [Rough Book, Page 30].

Page 43 line 50, re Sophia Ritso

Sophia Ritso was buried, an infant, at Putney, Surrey, 3 September 1778 [Registers, Entry No 54].

Page 44 line 30, re Daniel Prytherch. [I am indebted to Mr John Prytherch for the information that the marriage of Caroline Georgiana Catherine (Augusta) Dalton and Daniel Prytherch took place on 18 February 1826 at Llanllwch, Carmarthenshire]. Their children were:

1d. Daniel Dalton Prytherch, born at Priory Street, Carmarthen, 13 May 1827 and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 21 June 18827 [BTs, Entry 259]. Admitted pensioner Trinity College, Cambridge, 13 June 1845; matric. Michaelmas, 1847; named in will of father, 1854. He died of consumption at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, 20 August 1857 [GM 1857 ii 468; GRO indexes].

2d. Caroline 'Aylife' Harriot Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 9 November 1828 and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen,16 December 1828 [BTs, Entry 429]. Aged 12, 1841 ('Eylife') [Census]; at home, 1851 [Census]; executrix to father, 1855. She died unmarried at Battersea, Surrey, 7 September 1871 [PPR Calendar], aged 42. Her administration as late of Carmarthen, granted 15 December 1887 [PPR, £195; resworn August 1891, £608-5-5].

3d. Margaret Augusta Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 20 May 1830 and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 21 July 1830 [BTs, Entry 608]. She died 24 January 1839, aged 9 [BLG]; buried at St Peter, Carmarthen, 30 January 1839 [BTs, Entry 522].

4d. Charlotte Augusta Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 29 August 1832 and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 20 March 1833 [BTs, Entry 907]. Aged 8, 1841 [Census]; scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; not named in will of father, 1854.

5d. James Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 15 January 1834 and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 20 February 1834 [BTs, Entry 992]. Aged 7, 1841 [Census]; scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854; of 14 Upper Brunswick Street, Hackney, Middlesex,Member Royal College of Surgeons, 1871 [RG10/326-132-33]. He died at 14 Upper Brunswick Street, Hackney, Middlesex, 3 March 1872, aged 38 [PPR Calendar; GRO Indexes]. His administration granted 8 May 1888 [PPR, £195]. He had married Lucy Jane Pugh. She was born 1837-8 [1871 Census]; of 4 Holly Villas, Clapton Square, Hackney, administratrix to husband, 1888. She died 1907 [information from Mr John Prytherch]. They had issue.

6d. Frances ('Fanny') Sarah Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 13 April 1835 and baptised at St Peter Carmarthen, 15 May 1835 [BTs, Entry 1118]. Aged 6, 1841 [Census]; scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; executrix to father, 1855. A death in this name registered at Carmarthen, June Quarter 1855 [GRO Death Index].

7d. Susan Catherine Dalton Prytherch, baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 2 May 1837 [BTs, Entry 1347]. Aged 4, 1841 [Census, 'Susannah']. She died 22 January 1846 [BLG]; buried at St Peter, Carmarthen, 27 January 1846 [BTs, Entry 994].

8d. Augusta Octavia Dalton Prytherch, baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 25 February 1839 [BTs, Entry 1478]. Aged 2, 1841 [Census]; scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854. She died in Sculcoates RD, March Quarter 1869, aged 29 [GRO Death Index]. She had married in Carmarthen RD, June Quarter 1865, Revd. Maurice Edward Jenkins [GRO Marriage Index]. He was born 1840 and died 1916 [information from John Daniel Prytherch]. They had issue (with a daughter):

1e. Edward Lloyd Prytherch Jenkins, of Egton Vicarage, Grosmont, Yorkshire, gentleman, administrator to aunt Aylife Prytherch, 1887; to grandmother C.G.C. Prytherch, 1887; to grandfather Daniel Prytherch, 1888 [not there 1881 RG11/4832-14-20; not there 1891 RG12/3993-17-1]; of 4 Mainsforth Terrace, Sunderland, clerk, 1896 [IR26/237 folio 10; not there 1891 RG12/4136-30-54; not there 1901 RG13/4715-24-39].

9d. Adelaide Dalton Prytherch, baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 10 June 1840 [BTs, Entry 3]. Aged 1, 1841 [Census]; scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854. She married 1862, Alfred Thomas Cotterell, and had issue a son and two daughters [information from John Daniel Prytherch].

10d. Edward Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 31 July 1842 [BLG] and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 1 September 1842 [BTs, Entry 140]. Scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854; of 8 Stratford Villa, Llanstephan, Carmarthenshire, annuitant, widower, 1881 [RG11/5396-19-19]. He died at Victoria Lodging House, Westport, Edinburgh, 15 August 1885. His administration granted 24 July 1891 [PPR, £321-6-6]. He had married in Carmarthen RD, December Quarter 1862, Margaretta Williams. She had died before 1881. They had issue a son and daughter [information from John Daniel Prytherch].

11d. John Dalton Prytherch, born at Carmarthen, 21 January 1844 [BLG] and baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 26 February 1844 [BTs, Entry 231]. Scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854; with mother, unmarried, mariner, 1871 [Census]. He died at Monmouth, Monmouthshire, 12 November 1874 [PPR Calendar], aged 30. His will as of Monmouth dated 1 October 1874 proved 24 June 1876 [PPR folio 508, Under £1,500]. He had married in Strand RD, September Quarter 1871, Sarah Maria Cottrell [GRO Marriage Index], daughter of Thomas Cotterell. Of Monmouth, sole legatee and executrix to husband, 1876.

12d. Agnes Dalton Prytherch, baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 30 June 1845 [BTs, Entry 303]. Scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854; with mother, unmarried, annuitant, 1871 [Census]; living 1901. She had married in Carmarthen RD, June Quarter 1871, Henry Bowen Davies [GRO Marriage Index]. Living 1901.

13d. Blanche Dalton Prytherch, baptised at St Peter, Carmarthen, 9 September 1846 [BTs, Entry 358]. Scholar at home, 1851 [Census]; named in will of father, 1854. A death in this name registered at Carmarthen, December Quarter 1856 [GRO Death Index].

Page 52 - re William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, add the following entry [I am indebted to Mr Christopher Quaile for drawing my attention to the entry in Fox-Davies ii (1930) 1660]:

1742. Anne Williams, Lady Prendergast (d. 1770). There is a tradition amongst the descendants of Lieutenant William Roberts, R.N. (d. 1791) that he was the son of Anne Williams, a Maid of Honour to Queen Caroline, by William, Duke of Cumberland, and adopted by his uncle Sir Robert Williams [Fox-Davies, ii (1930) 1660]. However, although Anne Williams, an heiress in North Wales, recklessly extravagant and with a dubious reputation, undoubtedly knew the Duke, no contemporary evidence of any affair or child is known. Indeed, the evidence is that William Roberts was born (after her marriage) in 1742, the illegitimate son of her brother, Sir Robert Williams (d. 1745) and his mistress Margaret Roberts, and that Anne adopted the boy and subsequently bequeathed him the property she thought she possessed. The facts were set out by R.T. Jenkins, 'Some pages in the history of Pant Glas, Ysbity Ifan' in Transactions of Caernarvonshire Historical Society, x (1949) 26-29, some details being earlier given in CB iii (1903) 213 note b, sub Williams, ex information of H.R. Hughes, of Kinmel. The only evidence of any connection between Anne and the Duke appears in a letter that she wrote to him from Dublin, 27 April 1754, soliciting the Postmaster-generalship of Ireland for her husband and saying, 'When I was in a way of Life of being known to you I am sure you then would have forgiven this liberty & upon that presumption only I take the courage of soliciting yr. Grace's interest on Sir Thomas's behalf ' [Jenkins, as above, 27, quoting BL Add MS 32735 folio 196]. R.T. Jenkins concludes, 'I feel certain that William Roberts was no child of theirs'; Sir Robert brought up the child and on his death his sister took over the upkeep [Jenkins, as above, 27-28].

She was Anne Williams, only daughter of Sir Griffith Williams, 6th Baronet (cr. 1661), of Marl (near Conway) and Pant Glas, co. Caernarvon, Sheriff of Caernarvonshire in 1707-8 (died 1734) [his administration granted 4 October 1734 and September 1790], by his wife Catherine, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Owen Anwyl, of Penrhyn-dau-draeth and of Park, Merionethshire (they married 1734; she died 1726) [J.E. Griffith, Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families (1914) 43, 186-7; CB iv (1904) 232]. She was a Maid of Honour to Queen Caroline (died 1737); administratrix to only brother Sir Robert Williams, 7th Baronet (a minor in 1734 who died unmarried, November 1745), 9 January 1745/6. She separated from her second husband in 1762 and lived at Pant Glas but died without issue at Nant Gwilym, in Bodfari, co. Flint, 15 December 1770; buried in family vault at Llan-rhos, co. Carnarvon, 21 December 1770 [J.Y.W. Lloyd, History of Powys Fadog v (1881-7) 110 notes a tradition that she died 'in a poor-house at Eglwys-Wen or Whitechurch, near Denbigh']. Her will as 'Dame Anne Prendergast otherwise Williams of Pant Glas', dated 1766 proved at St Asaph (by William Roberts, residuary legatee), 8 February 1771 (proved also in Ireland, 1771). She had married 1stly, 11 January 1739, Sir Thomas Prendergast, 2nd and last Baronet (suc. 1709). M.P. (Ireland) for Clonmel, 1727-60; called 'an Irish blockhead' by George II, 1733 [Hervey i (1884) 200]; P.C. 17 August 1733; M.P. for Chichester, 1733-4; Postmaster-General (Ireland), 1754. He died without issue, 23 September 1760. His will proved (Ireland) 1760 [CB iv (1904) 232]. She married 2ndly, with settlement dated 27 January 1761, his distant kinsman, Captain Terence Prendergast. He assumed the surname Williams in addition to that of Prendergast in accordance with the marriage settlement, 1761. They were separated by deed, 28 December 1762. He died at Marl, 30 October 1779; buried at Llan-rhos [Jenkins, as above, 28; CB iv (1904) 232, sub Prendergast, has 3 October 1776]. Her brother's illegitimate child was:

William Roberts, baptised at Conway, 10 June 1742, the entry being: 'June the thenth (sic) 1742 Baptz'd William ye Reputed child of sir Robert Williams of Marle, Bart., by Margaret Roberts his concubine' [Jenkins, as above, 28]. Named in will of Anne Prendergast ('William Roberts, Gentleman, now living with me at Pantglas', 1766, and residuary legatee, 1771; had left Pant Glas by November 1770 when his second child was born at Nant Gwilym in Bodfari [Jenkins, as above, 29]; entered Royal Navy; Lieutenant, 1779. Involved in litigation with Prendergast family, he died suddenly in London, 7 July 1791 [Jenkins, as above, 29; CB iv (1904) 232, has July 1794]. He had married 1stly, at Ysbity Ifan, November 1767, Jane Morris, said to have been a maid to Ann Prendergast. They had issue 7 children. He had married 2ndly, in Hampshire, 1784, and had further issue 4 children. His issue is said to have included [Fox-Davies ii (1930) 1660]:

1a. Hugh Roberts, born atTremeirchion, Flintshire, 1778-9 [1851 Census]; of Beacons Hill, Denbigh, plumber, 1851 [HO107/2507-442-36]. He married 2ndly, Esther Davies, youngest daughter of John Davies. She was born at Denbigh, 1800-1 [1851 Census]. Aged 50, 1851; aged 80, 1881, widow of plumber [1881 Census]. They had (with a son Robert Morris Roberts, aged 7 in 1851] issue:

1b. Griffith Williams Roberts (eldest son), born 9 August 1841. L.R.C.P. Edinburgh; M.D.; of Cochwillan, Vale Street, Denbigh, 1880. He died in St Asaph RD, 1905, aged 64 [GRO Death Index]. He had married 23 September 1864, Ellen Rebecca Sharpe, only child of Samuel Sharpe. She was born at Holywell, Flintshire, 1845-6 [1881 Census]. They had issue:

1c. Lincoln Williams Roberts, born 26 June 1865 and died 3 July 1865.

2c. Lincoln Williams Roberts, born 14 October 1866. B.A. 1888; M.A. Cambridge, 1896; L.S.A. (London) 1905; of Cochwillan, Denbigh; he died 14 January 1931; administration (with will) granted to sister Irene, 28 May 1931 (£4,267-18-9). Used arms of Williams; ee Fox-Davies ii (1930) 1660.

3c. Hugh Sharpe Williams Roberts, born 5 February 1869.

4c. Purcell Horatia Leigh Roberts, born 25 March 1875 and died 29 September 1875.

5c. Irene Ianthe Williams Roberts, born 1881. Of The Green Christleton, near Chester. She died unmarried, 19 August 1962; probate granted 4 December 1962 (£7,440-19-8).

Page 62 line 12, for 'Thorns' read 'Thoms'.

Page 63 - Hannah Lightfoot. See also the additional page on this web site. I do not think that the following advertisement for Hannah Lightfoot, which appeared in the London newspaper, Star, for Monday, 13 May 1793 (Issue 1575), Page 1b (and elsewhere in that issue, and again on Tuesday, 14 May 1793), has previously been noted [found by me on 30 July 2008]. It follows the death of Isaac Axford's second wife in 1791. If inserted on his behalf it shows that he did not know whether Hannah Lightfoot was alive when he married Mary Bartlett on 3 December 1759. However, it seems perhaps more likely to have been inserted by Mary Bartlett's relatives in the hope of proving her marriage invalid:

"HANNAH LIGHTFOOT, Spinster, or HANNAH AXFORD, the Wife of Isaac Axford, alias the Pretty Quaker. If any person can, and will give information and proof, whether Hannah Axford, the wife of Isaac Axford, late of Ludgate-hill, in the City of London, grocer, and whose maiden name was Hannah Lightfoot, and who formerly lived in St James's Market, and was generally known by the appellation of 'the Pretty Quaker', was living on the 4th of December, 1759, and if since dead, when and where she died, shall be handsomely rewarded by Mess. Hill and Meredith, Attornies, Gray's Inn, London, to whom the information is requested to be given".

Pages 59-76 1759. Hannah Lightfoot (see also the additional page on this web site). In the 1940s the young genealogist Pauline M. Litton was told by a great-great-aunt (who had been told the story by an aunt born in 1849) that one of her ancestors descended from a son of George III and Hannah Lightfoot, born to them in the late 1750s, given the surname Ethell and educated at the Quaker School at Ackworth near Pontefract. Later Pauline read Jean Plaidy's novel The prince and the quakeress (1968) and started research on the family, working back to Thomas Ethell who, she found, had married at Scampston, Yorkshire, in 1782. He was aged 85 in 1841 and said in the census that year that he was not born in Yorkshire. Following extensive research on the surname (and its variant Ithill) she found that Thomas Ithill or Ethell had been born and admitted to the London Foundling Hospital in 1759 and she was extremely fortunate to find and prove that he was an illegitimate child, originally named William, born to Ann Smith and Francis Reynolds, and baptised at Prees in Shropshire on 19 August 1759. Following publicity given to the story over subsequent years she was contacted by a number of people with foundling ancestors who had the same story about descent from George III and Hannah Lightfoot. She concludes that those who fostered these children tried to bolster their confidence by connecting them with a story which was current gossip when they were born [Pauline M. Litton, Pitfalls and possibilities in family history research (Swansong Publications, Harrogate, 2010), pages 242-251].

Page 70 - Mrs John Rex. I am indebted to Mr Nicholas Royal for drawing my attention to the Vicar General marriage licence for the first marriage of Mrs John Rex, the mother of George Rex of Knysna. A licence was issued by the Vicar General on 3 October 1749 for the marriage of William Perigoe and Sarah Creasey at Highgate. I have not seen the licence but the following entry appears in the Marriage Registers of St Michael, Highgate, "16 Octobr 1749 William Perigoe of the Parish of Saint Mary Newington in the County of Surry Widower and Sarah Creasey of the Parish of Saint George Southwark in the County aforsd Spinster were married pr Lic A.B." [Registers, LMA X96/479].

Page 77 - Henry Meyer. The exact relationship of Henry Meyer (c.1782/3-1847) to John Hoppner remains something of a mystery and I am indebted to Mr Michael J. Wood for bringing to my attention some details of Meyer's descendants to whom he is distantly related. The account of Henry Meyer by Annette Peach in ODNB [vol. 37 (2004) 986-7] calls him 'Henry Hoppner Meyer' (though he does not appear to have been called that in his lifetime), suggesting that his baptism is to be found at St Paul Covent Garden, 10 February 1784, son of John Henry Meyer, engraver, and Elizabeth. However, the entry in the registers [printed in Harleian Society, xxxiv (1906) 108] does not actually give the occupation of the father. That his parents were the John Meyer and Anna Torade Hoppner who married at St James Westminster in 1767 seems most likely, but remains unproven. That Henry Meyer was a nephew of Hoppner was stated by Joseph Farington, where he is called 'Mier' [8 February 1810], and in the obituary of Hoppner in Gentleman's Magazine [1847 ii 665].

The account of Henry Meyer in ODNB gives no details of his private life but his engravings were published from Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, 1809-13, and he must be the Henry Meyer (called Henry John Meyer in 1813), described as an artist in Great Russell Street in 1817, who married at Southam, Warwickshire, 4 June 1805, Maria Snow, daughter of Bernard Geary Snow, of Southam, surgeon and apothecary [his will dated 17 February 1800 proved 13 February 1811, PCC PROB11/1519] by his wife Rebecca [her will as of Bicester, Oxfordshire, dated 21 March 1828 proved 22 May 1829, PCC PROB11/1756; IR26/1208 folio 157], and had various children baptised at St George Bloomsbury between 1807 and 1826.

Henry Meyer was of Red Lion Square, Middlesex, 22 December 1828, when described as 'artist, printseller, publisher & picture dealer, dealer & chapman' he went bankrupt [London Gazette, 26 December 1828, Page 2406] and was ordered to make full disclosure of his debts and assets to his creditors on 2 and 13 January and 6 February 1829 when assignees would be appointed. His certificate was to be allowed unless cause was shewn to the contrary before 10 March 1829 [London Gazette, 17 February 1829, Page 317] and commissioners were to meet 6 November 1829 to audit the accounts of his assignees [London Gazette, 13 October 1829, Page 1881]. A dividend was to be declared 12 November 1830 [London Gazette, 15 October 1830, Page 2175]. He and his wife were mentioned in the will of her mother in March 1828, Maria receiving the interest on £1,000 for life free from the debts of her husband. Between 1826 and 1836, if the below details of his children are correct, he seems to have been living in Paddington as 'George Mayer'. However, he was not with his wife in 1841; she was at Euston Place, Marylebone, aged 55, Independent, that year [HO107/686-10-25r] and died in St Pancras RD, 14 September 1856 [IR26/1208 folio 157; GRO Death Index, 1b 98]. Henry Meyer has not been located in the Census in 1841 but he died as Henry Meyer in St Pancras RD, June Quarter 1847 [GRO Death Indexes, 1 237].

They appear to have had the following children:

1a. Frederick John Meyer, born 8 January 1807 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 27 June 1807, son of Henry and Mary Meyer [Registers].

2a. Hellen Mary Meyer, born 27 March 1809 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 6 July 1809, daughter of Henry and Maria Meyer [Registers]. She died at Lyme Regis, Dorset, 1900.

3a. Bernard Francis Hoppner Meyer, born 20 April 1811 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 25 December 1811, son of Henry and Maria Meyer [Registers].

4a. Emily Maria Meyer, born 4 August 1813 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 3 November 1813, son of Henry John and Maria Meyer, Gentleman, of Great Russell Street, St George's Bloomsbury [Registers, Entry 244, Page 31]. She died unmarried in Reigate RD, 27 June 1871, aged 46 [IR26/1208 folio 157; GRO Death Index, Reigate 2a 79].

5a. Beatrice Elizabeth Jane Meyer, born 15 September 1815 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 26 October 1817, daughter of Henry & Maria Meyer, artist, of Great Russell Street, St George's Bloomsbury [Registers, Entry 1577, Page 198].

6a. Henry Meyer, born 24 July 1817 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 26 October 1817, son of Henry & Maria Meyer, artist, of Great Russell Street, St George's Bloomsbury [Registers, Entry 1578, Page 198]. He died June 1838.

7a. George Warwick Meyer, born 4 October 1819 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 11 September 1821, son of Henry & Maria Meyer, artist, of Red Lion Square, St George the Martyr [Registers, Entry 709, Page 89].

8a. Edmund Thomas Adams Meyer, born 9 August 1822 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 3 October 1822, son of Henry & Maria Meyer, artist, of Red Lion Square, St George the Martyr [Registers, Entry 1128, Page 141].

9a. Caroline Elizabeth Meyer, born 9 February 1826 and baptised at St George Bloomsbury, 28 June 1826, daughter of Henry & Maria Meyer, artist, of Red Lion Square, St George the Martyr [Registers, Entry 21, Page]. With mother, aged 15, 1841. She died 14 December 1894 [IR26/1208 folio 157]. As Caroline Elizabeth Meyer, of Brecknock Street, daughter of Henry Meyer, dead, she married by banns at St James, Paddington, Middlesex, 3 November 1856, John Rolls Tims, railway clerk, of St Ann's Gardens, son of John Chamberlin Tims, tutor [Registers, Entry 23, Page 12].

10a. Maria Meyer, baptised at St James, Paddington, Middlesex, 6 September 1826 [Registers, Entry 21, Page 3, 'Maria, daughter of George & Maria Mayer, of Paddington, gentleman' (? the same person as Caroline Elizabeth Meyer)].

11a. Clara Ann Meyer, born 25 December 1828 and baptised at St James, Paddington, Middlesex, 27 May 1829 [Registers, Entry 747, Page 94, 'Clara, daughter of George & Maria Mayer, of Paddington, gentleman']. With mother, aged 12, 1841. She died at Wellington, New Zealand, 30 June 1916 [IR26/1208 folio 157], leaving issue. As Clara Anne Meyer, of Brecknock Street, daughter of Henry Meyer, dead, she had married by banns at St Pancras Old Church, 3 November 1856, Thomas Henry Tims, railway clerk, of Brecknock Street, son of John Chamberlin Tims, tutor [Registers, Entry 22, Page 11].

12a. Lewis Meyer, baptised at St James, Paddington, Middlesex, 31 October 1832 [Registers, Entry 1950, Page 244, 'Lewis, son of George & Maria Mayer, of Paddington, gentleman'].

13a. Georgiana Meyer, baptised at St James, Paddington, Middlesex, 29 June 1836 [Registers, Entry 766, Page 96, 'Georgiana, daughter of George & Maria Mayer']. Not with mother, 1841.

Page 78 line 43, delete 'his'.

Page 100 last line, for 'Past' read 'Post'.

Pages 104-111. Lady Almeria Carpenter. In 1910 Alice the wife of Sir Alexander Bosville Macdonald of the Isles privately published A romantic chapter in family history (London, 1910) in which she said that her husband's great-grandmother Louisa was the daughter of Lady Almeria Carpenter by William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. She claimed to be drawing on an unpublished account written by Louisa's daughter Hon Elizabeth Diana Davidson of Tulloch (1804-1839) [Macdonald (1911) 6-7].

Alice Macdonald wrote that Almeria 'always considered herself the Duke of Gloucester's wife, and said she had letters from himself which proved this. Unfortunately these letters by her own request were buried with her when she died at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh (in 1809 aged fifty-seven) where she had been given rooms by the king' [Macdonald (1911) 9-10]. Almeria actually died 13 September 1809 at a house which she had rented at Brompton, Middlesex and she was buried near her brother Hon Charles Carpenter (who had lived at Thames Ditton and died in 1803) at Richmond, Surrey, 19 September 1809. Her testamentary writings (dated at Brompton, 9 August 1809) made no mention of the Duke or of any child. The duke had in any case legally married Maria, Countess Waldegrave in 1766 and had children by her in 1773, 1774 and 1776, she living unhappily with the Duke until his death in 1805.

Alice Macdonald also claimed that Almeria had a daughter, Louisa, by the Duke of Gloucester, who at Christmas 1799 was abducted by Godfrey Macdonald (subsequently Godfrey Bosville-Macdonald, 3rd Baron Macdonald of Slate), he having seen her at Esher, they going to Ireland and marrying 'by mutual consent' [Macdonald (1911) 11]. They had three children and then in 1803, when she was again pregnant, they married by licence of the Archdeacon of Norwich dated the same day at St Gregory, Norwich, 29 December 1803, she appearing in the marriage allegation and bond as Louisa Maria LacCoast. The handwriting of the entry in the register is again 'LacCoast' with her signature as 'Laccoast' [Marriage Register, Entry 109, Page 73]. Why she married in this surname is not explained. The register entry includes the standard wording 'married in this Church' but Alice Macdonald says, 'The entry in the Register of the Church does not say whether they were married actually in church or not' [Macdonald (1911) 15].

The late Professor Arthur Aspinall equated Louisa Maria LacCoast with 'Miss Lacoste' an attendant on Caroline, Princess of Wales, mentioned in a letter from the Earl of Moira to the Prince of Wales dated June 1796 in which the Duke of York is mentioned as not thinking it politic to dismiss her [The correspondence of George, Prince of Wales, 1770-1812, iii (1965) 235]. If this is the same person she would have been aged about 14 in 1796. The Duke of York had a popular Groom of the Chamber called Lacoste from 1789 to 1813 but no connection between him and Louisa has been shown.

In a formal declaration made about their marriage before the Provost of Annan on 26 October 1807 Louisa, wihout mentioning the name LacCoast, described herself as 'Mrs Louisa Maria Edsir', saying that she and Godfrey were 'engaged and betrothed to each other as husband and wife in Christmas week 1799, and from that period understood themselves to be married persons' [Macdonald (1911) 41]. Godfrey Macdonald's wife Louisa Maria had in fact for many years been described in printed peerages as the 'daughter of Farley Edsir, Esq.', and she was so described in Godfrey Macdonald's obituary in 1832, in her own obituary in 1835 and in the above mentioned daughter's obituary in 1839, as well as in the Gentleman's Magazine, in Edmund Lodge's Peerage of the British Empire in 1837 and in Burke's Peerage in 1901 [The Complete Peerage, viii (1932) page 340].

Alice Macdonald says that Louisa had initially been adopted by and taken the surname of one Farley Edsir a steward to the Duke of Gloucester and tenant of a dairy farm near Hampton Court [Macdonald (1911) 7]. She says that Louisa believed that she was born 6 January 1782 and that her 'birth' was entered incorrectly under the date 4 February 1781 in the baptismal register of Leatherhead, Surrey, where an entry in 1781 reads 'Maria D. of Farley & Mary Edsar - Febry 4'. She seems to be suggesting some later interpolation but searches show that Maria was the eighth of ten children baptised to Farley and Mary Edsor, Edsar or Edser, seven at Stoke d'Abernon between 1766 and 1780 and then three at Leatherhead between 1781 and 1787. Farley Edser, a labourer unable to sign his name, had married Mary Rampton at Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey (between Esher and Leatherhead) on 15 May 1766 and was buried at Esher, Surrey, 17 March 1811. His wife Mary was buried at Esher from Chelsea, aged 72, in 1815. Mrs Davidson of Tulloch had apparently claimed to have seen a paper signed by Mary Edser after the death of the Duke of Gloucester in 1805 to the effect that Louisa Maria was 'not her child, but of great parents' [Macdonald (1911) 18], words which echo those that Farley is alleged to have used to Godfrey Macdonald when he asked permission to marry the girl in 1799 [Madonald (1911) 7]. Alice Macdonald admits that "there is no evidence that her 'great' parents ever took the smallest notice of her" [Macdonald (1911) 19].

No evidence has been produced to show a link between Almeria Carpenter and the child baptised Edser, or to the attendant Lacoste and the LacCoast who became Mrs Macdonald and was later said to have been an Edsir. The evidence indicates that Louisa was Farley Edser's legitimate child [Camp (2007) 104-111].

Page 112 - Mrs Maguire. Ann Davies married Charles Maguire, by Licence of the Faculty Office dated 21 March 1809, at St James, Westminster, 22 March 1809 [Registers, Entry No 97, Page 271], both describing themselves as of St James, Westminster, with witnesses Robt Brown and Mary Turberville, i.e. after the birth of her child George Joseph Robert Davis Maguire on 12 April 1808 but before his baptism on 29 April 1810.

In June 2022 I was approached by Mr Graham Young about a collection of documents relating to Ann Maguire which had come to him from an ancestor, Anthony Crosby, a solicitor at 3 Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, who had acted for her in attempts to obtain payments which she, claimed were due to her under a settlement of £2,000 a year made immediately after her claimed marriage to the Duke of Gloucester on 6 July 1811. Mr Young has kindly provided copies of some of these documents from the years 1836-7 (the Duke having died on 30 November 1834) when she was asking for a full investigation of the matter and threatening to file a Bill in Equity against the Duke's executors.

In a copy of a letter which Ann Maguire wrote to the Duke of Wellington on 14 March 1836, however, she said that she had become acquainted with the Duke of Gloucester in 1809 but was then unaware of his identity, he being introduced to her as 'Major Sidney'. In that name, she said, the Duke of Gloucester had proposed marriage to her and been accepted whereupon he had disclosed his true identity. A friend, Mrs Ann Hamilton, had expressed doubts that the Duke could legally contract such a marriage but he had rejected her concerns and immediately asked for the preparation of a settlement of £2,000 a year upon Ann Maguire. This, she claimed, was executed just before the marriage ceremony when all those present were sworn to secrecy, the only copy of the settlement document being retained by the Duke. Her relationship with the Duke, she claimed, continued for twenty-five years until his death in 1834. However, the only document that could be found by the Duke's executors related to a payment of £200 p.a. to Mrs Maguire for life.

A document signed by her friend Ann Hamilton on her deathbed at 2 Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square, on 24 February 1814 and directed to be given after her death to Mrs Ann Maguire at 38 Great Portland Street, noted that the wedding had been conducted at Grafton Street by the Revd. Thomas Pettingal, Rector of Easthampstead, Berkshire (who had died, aged 80, in 1826), those present being John King (who had died at Florence in 1823) and the latter's wife Jane, Lady Lanesborough (who had died at Florence, aged 90, in 1828 and was the widow of Brinsley (Butler), 2nd Earl of Lanesborough, who had died in 1779), together with Ann Hamilton and an unnamed gentleman who had come as a friend with the Duke of Gloucester. This document also said that on that same day the Duke settled £2,000 a year on his wife. No actual certificate of the marriage, which would in any case have been illegal under the Royal Marriage Act, is mentioned.

I have noted that the will of Ann Hamilton, widow, residing in Grafton Street, Fitzroy Square, St Pancras, dated 26 January 1814, was proved 16 March 1814 by Ann Maguire, widow, the sole executrix [PCC, PROB11/.1553 folio 142]. Ann Hamilton bequeathed a gold snuff box and several pieces of silver "to George Maguire son of Charles and Ann Maguire" and the contents of the house to "Ann Maguire wife of Charles Maguire". [AJC 17 July 2022].

Page 114 - Olive Payne or Wilmot. In 2010 I had correspondence with Miles Macnair the author of Olive, Princess of Cumberland (1772-1834): a royal scandal, published by Brewin Books, Studley, in 2011. In the Acknowledgements he kindly thanked me 'for editorial comments and revisions'. I had written on 15 June 2010 that I had little doubt that Olive Serres was 'a scheming impostor putting forward different claims at different times, that the greater part of the letters said to have been written to her by the Duke of Kent and the Earl of Warwick were forgeries ... that the Dearn connection is mostly self-delusion and invention' ... that the basic documents produced at the trial in 1866 were also forgeries ... [and] that you have written an interesting book but I am sorry to say that I do not believe that it has any claims to be "sound history" or that it introduces any new facts to the old arguments'. I added 'a few specific comments and corrections that I had jotted down as I read the text'. There were over 60 of the latter. I said that 'I would be very sorry to see the book [then sub-titled 'a woman wronged'] published and Oliver Wilmot's lies and inventions given further currency'. Nine years later that remains my considered view [May 2019].

Page 127 re William Henry Ryves and James Stafford Ryves. The baptismal registers of St Mary, Lambeth, show that the brothers William Henry Ryves and James Stafford Ryves, sons of Anthony Thomas & Lavinia Janetta Horton RYVES, of Portland Place South, gent., were baptised by Henry Clissold, on 30 June 1840 [Registers, Page 102, Entries 1811-12]; their dates of birth are not given.

Page 127 re Britannia Brock. The Banns Book of St Matthew, Brixton, show that banns were read there on 5 December 1830 for the marriage of Thomas Brock bachelor and Britannia Serres spinster, both of this parish [Banns Book, Entry 287].

Page 133 re Mary 'Perdita' Robinson. There is no evidence that Mary and the Prince of Wales had any child as a result of their brief relationship in June-December 1780. The circumstances of that connection are well known and documented. The press took much interest in her and the first stories of a possible pregnancy did not appear until 2 July 1781 when the Morning Herald reported, 'Perdita is said to have declared herself pregnant, and desired the great event to be announced to certain R-l ears in form', a story repeated in the Morning Post for 18 July 1781, but not then mentioned again [Paula Byrne, Perdita: the life of Mary Robinson (2004) 159, 161].

However, the diary of Frances, Lady Shelley, who was well acquainted with the gossip surrounding the Prince of Wales, Lord Cholmondeley and Mary's lover Banastre Tarleton, recorded in 1807 that the latter had married in 1798, Susan Priscilla Bertie, whom she knew well but incorrectly described as 'the illegitimate daughter of the celebrated Mrs Robinson' [Richard Edgcumbe, ed., The diary of Frances Lady Shelley 1787-1817 (1912) 42]. There seems little doubt, however, that Susan Bertie was in fact the daughter of Robert (Bertie), Duke of Ancaster (1756-1779), who had died unmarried and by his will (dated 29 May 1779, proved 23 July 1779) [PCC PROB11/1054 folio 282] had bequeathed to her as Susan Priscilla Bertie, £150 p.a. for her upbringing until she was 21 or married and then £4,000, and to her mother, Rebecca Krudener, of Davies Street, Berkeley Square, £200 p.a. [as is noted by Hester Davenport, The prince's mistress: a life of Mary Robinson (2004) 200]. Rebecca Krudener, of St James, Westminster, married by licence at St James, Westminster, 30 November 1782, William Walker, of the Middle Temple [Registers, Entry 340, Page 276]. Her daughter was at Northaw, aged 75, in 1851, and at Cheshunt, aged 83, in 1861, saying that she was born in 'Middlesex, London' (probably thus about 1776-7).

As mentioned the circumstances of the connection between Mary Robinson and the Prince of Wales in June-December 1780 are well known and documented. If she had a child it can only have been born in March 1781 or slightly later. However, I have received many dozens of abusive emails from a correspondent interested in the origins of one Francis Wright who claims that Francis was their son. This correspondent was originally convinced that Francis was a son of the Duke of York and he has now convinced himself (merely from portraits and a photograph of Francis's son and the use of Microsoft facial recognition software), that Francis Wright was a son of the Prince of Wales and Mary 'Perdita' Robinson. His absurd claim (which I had begun to think was an elaborate hoax) is a worthless fabrication. Coupled with the silly suggestion that George IV intended the disreputable Wright to be 'his heir and successor', the claim lacks all evidence and credibility.

There is, of course, no evidence of any connection between Wright and the Prince of Wales or between Wright and Mary Robinson. Francis Wright's age is variously stated but suggests a birth about 1774 or earlier. He hurriedly left England in 1833, apparently in disgrace and probably in fear of prosecution, and died the following year. I have gathered the following details about him but little original research has been carried out and the lies told by early members of the family in Canada, in particular by Francis Wright's second wife (the mother of his three illegitimate children) and transmitted by her daughter in order to hide the truth, have greatly distorted almost everything known about him. The facts seem to be as follows. Others would be welcome:

Francis Wright, of unknown parentage, born c.1774 or earlier; Quartermaster by purchase, Romney Fencibles, aged 19, April 1794 [1828 Service Record]; Quartermaster, 3rd Dragoon Guards, aged 20, February 1795; Lieutenant without purchase, Royal Waggon Train, aged 24, 24 August 1799 [1828]; Lieutenant Royal Waggon Artillery, admitted No 4F The British Lodge, aged 28, 3 December 1799 [United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, folio 74]; Captain, Royal Waggon Train, aged 28, 3 September 1803 (a time when Captain Huxley Sandon of that Regiment - cashiered in 1809 - was agent for Mary Anne Clarke in the sale of commissions) [1828]; as result of scandal reduced to Half Pay, March 1810; of Manor House, Walworth, after 1816 - before 1831; of Penton Place, Walworth, a shareholder, urged dissolution of Hibernian Joint Stock Banking Company, 1827 [Dublin Morning Register, 22 November 1827, page 3]; with Cornelius Driscoll petitioned House of Commons against second reading of Hibernian Joint Stock Company Bill but Henry Grattan, M.P. for Dublin, presented another petition, 1 May 1828, saying that Wright and Driscoll were not shareholders of the Company [J. H. Barrow, The Mirror of Parliament ... commencing 29 January 1828, vol. II (1828) page 1238]; of Penton Place, 1828-1833 [baptisms of children]; described as aged 57, 6 February 1833 [letter of Lord Fitzroy Somerset]; presumably in financial difficulties sold his Commission, 12 April 1833 [London Gazette, issue 19038, page 706]; falsely represented his brother-in-law John Berridge as 'a person worth six or seven hundred a year and as a dealer in small estates', but Berridge had debts of about £300 in 1823 and sold pictures on commission without a stock of his own, Berridge 'had been in the habit of accepting bills for Mr Wright' and in August 1833, described as an artist and dealer in pictures, he was in prison as an insolvent debtor [London Gazette, issue 19077, 20 August 1833, page 1568], his wife, a dresser of silk stockings, some weeks earned 30s. which helped to defray the household expenses' [Morning Post, 14 September 1833, page 4], Berridge was discharged but Wright 'had since gone to America'; Wright as 'No. 3, Francis Wright, 45, Male, Officer', sailed alone from London on Sovereign and arrived New York, 8 October 1833, 'intending to become an inhabitant of America'; of York, Upper Canada, took oath of allegiance at York, 18 November 1833; petitioned Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada for 'such allowance as is usually made to officers of his rank and service' saying had not received any lands or order for lands from Crown, York, 20 November 1833; petition referred to Surveyor General, 19 November 1833, who confirmed, 22 November 1833, that Wright had not received any lands; Council recommended Wright 'for the usual grant', 5 December 1833; order issued to Surveyor General, 9 December 1833 [Upper Canada Land Petitions, Vol. 533, Bundle W18, Petition 74]. He died 13 December 1834; buried (by son-in-law Rev Thomas Campbell) at St Thomas, Belleville, 15 December 1834, as late of Thurlow, Hastings County, aged 60 [Death Certificate]. His will as of Thurlow, Upper Canada, dated 9 December 1834 (directing all real and personal property be sold 'except the UE rights for lands from the Crown which I now hold' and on which he owed money to Samuel Moss of Stormont, Ontario, the son of Samuel Moss Moses, which was to be repaid) proved Prerogative Court of Canterbury, London, 18 October 1836 [Death Duty Registers, IR27/239]; everything was to be sold to support his wife; an undated petition about land and right to cut wood on Cape Ann, Thurlow Township, which Wright wanted to purchase appears not to have been dealt with until 14 February 1835 [Upper Canada Sundries: CC-6885]. He had married 1stly, by Banns, at St Giles in the Fields, Middlesex, 12 January 1800, Rebecca Slade [BTs]. She apparently died before 23 October 1825 [banns for his second marriage]. They had issue:

1. Francis William Wright, born 17 June 1801 and baptised at St Mary the Virgin, Dover, Kent, 29 November 1802 [Registers; 1851 Census]. To have £10 under will of father, 9 December 1834; aged 39, of Great Suffolk Street, St George the Martyr, Southwark, clerk, 1841 [HO107/1084-6-5]; aged 49, of 30 Harper Street, St Mary Newington, commission agent, 1851 [HO107/1566-471-9]. Perhaps the Francis William Wright who died at 9 Sutton Street, York Road, Lambeth, 10 July 1859, aged 56 [GRO Death Certificate], whose administration (under £100) was granted to Elizabeth Adelaide Wright, of 2 Addington Street, York Road, 15 March 1861, claiming to be his widow, she having registered his death on 18 July 1859 saying that he was 'Proprietor of Land in Australia' [she was at 2 Addington Street, Lambeth, gentlewoman, 1861 (RG9/349-66-27) with a son Richard Wright, scholar, aged 7, and in 1871 at 57 Commercial Road, Lambeth, widow, aged 38, seamstress, born Littlehampton, Sussex, with a son Richard Wright, aged 18, labourer, born Weymouth, Dorset (RG10/647-31-9); she may be the Elizabeth Adelaide Wright who died in St Saviour Southwark RD, June Quarter 1874, aged 44 (1d 64); there was tradition in the family that Francis William Wright had gone to Australia and died there; no marriage to an Elizabeth Adelaide Wright has been found in England or Australia]. As of St Mary, Lambeth, bachelor, Francis William Wright had married by Licence at St Mary, Lambeth, 6 December 1824, Frances Maria Wright, of St James, Westminster, spinster [Registers, Entry 842, Page 281]. She seems to have been born 8 February 1801 at St Pancras [1851 Census] and baptised at St Pancras, 3 March 1802 (same day as sister Eliza born 8 October 1799), daughter of George & Eliza Wright [Registers, Page 6]. She was aged 34 in 1841 and aged 45 in 1851. Her death has not been found.

Describing himself as a widower (though no record of the death of his first wife Rebecca has apparently been found) Francis Wright had married 2ndly, by Banns (dated 23 October, 30 October , 6 November 1825), at St George the Martyr, Southwark, 8 November 1825, Faith Berridge, spinster [Registers Entry 589, Page 197]. Said to have been born 1805 the daughter of John Berridge, artist, but was probably the Faith Berridge, born 29 April 1799 and baptised at St Margaret, Westminster, 39 June 1799, daughter of John & Eliza Berridge [Registers]; named in will of first husband 'so long as she remains my widow and unmarried', 9 December 1834; of Belleville, Hastings County, Canada West, aged 45, 1851 Census. She died 1869. Calling herself Faith Henrietta Wright she had married 2ndly, at Belleville, 4 August 1849, John Reid [Ontario Marriage Notices, The Church Toronto 1837-1849, page 224]. He was aged 52 in 1851, born Scotland. Francis & Faith Wright had further issue:

2. Frederick Wright, born before marriage of parents, 4 June 1821 and baptised at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 17 September 1828. Solicitor, 26 May 1866; called to Bar, 4 September 1880. He died at Toronto, 1893. Indicative of the stories told about the family is that this illegitimate child was a godchild of the Duke of York but Frederick Wright was not baptised until September 1828 and the Duke had died in January the previous year.

3. Emma Faith Wright, born before marriage of parents, 14 April 1822, and baptised at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 17 September 1828.

4. Arthur Wright, born before marriage of parents, 9 August 1823, and baptised at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 17 September 1828.

5. Alfred Francis Wright, born 26 January 1827, and baptised at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 17 September 1828. Petition as of Belleville, Hastings County, Upper Canada, 23 March 1852 (answered 15 September 1852) [Vol. 542, Bundle W6, Petition 64].

6. Mary Elizabeth Wright, born 19 September 1829, and baptised at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 11 August 1833.

7. Matilda Frances Wright, born 9 September 1832, and baptised at at St Mary Newington, Surrey, 11 August 1833. Aged 28, 1861 Census; claimed to have been born 10 September 1837 [as on Death Certificate] and said in 1917 that her father was a son of the Duke of York. She died 1923. She had married at Belleville, Ontario, 1859, Thomas Swainston Campbell. He was born at Belleville, 18 July 1834, and died 22 February 1917, leaving issue.

Page 144 line 17, for '190S' read '1905'.

The marriage of the Prince of Wales to Mrs Fitzherbert was, of course, in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, but it was not in contravention of the 1753 Marriage Act (Lord Hardwicke's Act) as stated in Munson (2001) 82-83 and Camp (2007) 144; Section 17 of the 1753 Act says, "Provided always, that this Act, or any Thing therein contained, shall not extend to the Marriages of any of the Royal Family".

Page 149. The date of death of James Ord, here shown as 1872, is correctly given as 25 January 1873 on page 153.

Page 152 line 45, for '2S' read '25'.

Page 157 - Randolph Payne. The marriage of Randolph Payne and Jane Roberts, recorded under those names in the registers of St George, Hanover Square, on 11 April 1787, is actually signed 'Randall Payne' and 'Jean Roberts', with witnesses Robert Cade (? Cave) and Caleb Greville [1787, Entry 191]. The baptism of their son Frederick (recorded as son of Randolph and Ann Jane Payne), born 1 May, took place at St George, Hanover Square, on 3 June 1796, and the baptism of their son William (recorded as son of Randolph and Jane Payne), born 12 January, took place at the same church on 24 March 1795 [and not in 1792 and 1793 respectively as stated by the Foord-Kelceys, pages 43 and 72].

The death of the eldest son Randolph Payne's first wife, Elizabeth New, was reported in The Morning Chronicle for Tuesday, 16 December 1823: "On the 13th instant after a short but severe illness, aged 37, Elizabeth, wife of Randolph Payne of Southampton Street, Covent Garden, leaving a disconsolate husband and six young children to mourn the loss of the most affectionate of wives, the best of mothers, a true and fathful Christian". There was a shorter notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal for Saturday, 20 December 1823.

Page 162 Line 43, for 'below' read 'above'.

Page 165 - re Jane Mills and Robert Moore Bowman. The burial register of St Mary, Islington, Middlesex, shows that Robert Moore Bowman, of Belinda Terrace, aged 58, was buried there on 5 September 1851 by William Dix [Registers, Page 145, Entry 1153].

Page 167 - re Mrs Fitzherbert. No 15. Sophia Elizabeth Guelph Sims. The burial of Sophia Elizabeth Guelph Sims has been found in that name at the New Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, 19 July 1846, aged 44, of Lower Street, Islington, buried in Lower Ground [Registers, no page or entry number]. Her death was registered at Islington, September Quarter 1846, vol. 3, page 182.

Page 170 - re Mrs Fitzherbert. No 18 (Additional Entry). James Henry Adolph Hayward or Fitzgeorge. See seperate page on this website.

Page 170 - re Mrs Fitzherbert. No 19 (Additional Entry). Hannah Harrison Lowe (1795-1883). Mrs Fitzherbert almost certainly had no children and, being a devout Catholic, is most unlikely to have allowed any child of her own to be brought up as a Protestant. However, another unconvincing claim to be her child was formerly made in an article on Wikipedia about Hannah Harrison Lowe which was deleted on 30 March 2016 as being historically impossible and not supported by any reliable evidence. The details of Hannah's biography were not there given but the stories she told her daughter are outlined at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hannah-Harrison-Lowe/127902080622862?v=info [accessed 13 September 2012]. Her daughter, Ann Barnes (born in 1838/9), was the wife of Josiah Poeton, of Coventry, watch manufacturer (died 1884, aged 46), and Ann recorded her mother's stories in a document entitled 'A Family Mystery', written at Bristol in 1901, almost a hundred years after the events.

Hannah Harrison Lowe married Samuel Barnes (died 1875, aged 79), a boot maker, at St Michael, Coventry, Warwickshire, 30 December 1816. In the 1841 census of Fleet Street, Coventry, aged 40, she made no statement as to her place of birth [HO107/1152-13-46v], but in 1851 when at 4 Victoria Street, Coventry, aged 55, a hand loom weaver, she said that she was born at Coventry [HO107/2068-316-8]. In 1861, when at 36 Victoria Street, Coventry, aged 64, silk weaver, she said that she was born at 'Knightsbridge, London' [RG9/2208-123-17] and she repeated that statement in 1871 when at 66 Albert Street Coventry, aged 75, silk winder [RG10/3181-34-18]. In 1881 when at 9 Court 2 Castle Street, Coventry, aged 85 (with her son Samuel Barnes, cordwainer), she said that she was born at 'London, Middlesex' [RG11/3073-108-16]. She died at Coventry in 1883, aged 87. Her daughter Ann, who wrote the account, is said to have been the youngest of fourteen children.

On the face of it one would assume that although her baptism has not been found, Hannah Harrison Lowe was probably a daughter of the William Lowe and Hannah Harrison who had married at Holy Trinity, Coventry, on 30 July 1791, a marriage not mentioned in the above cited account. The Prince of Wales, of course, had separated from Mrs Fitzherbert in June 1794 and they were not reconciled privately until late in 1799 (and formally on 16 June 1800).

However, Hannah Harrison Lowe (who had been reading the popular life of George IV by Percy Fitzgerald published in 1881) told her daughter that she was the daughter of the Prince of Wales and Mrs Fitzherbert and that she was born suddenly in a baby linen shop kept by a Mrs Fletcher in Knightsbridge, London on 14 November 1795 and given into the care of her grandmother Mrs Lowe. The girl is said to have remembered meeting the Prince and Mrs Fitzherbert at a house in Park Lane in November 1800 (when the Prince is said to have given her some jewellery) and she stayed with Mrs Lowe until 1803 when she was eight years old and Mr Lowe stole the jewellery and her clothing. Mrs Lowe took a job as a cook in an hotel and a frequent visitor, Captain Roberts, provided money for the girl's upkeep. Mrs Lowe then took Hannah to stay with her mother, Mrs Harrison, at Bulkington about six miles north of Coventry in Warwickshire. Hannah was brought up 'as a village child' and when 14, in 1809, she was apprenticed to a ribbon weaver. She served three months 'without pay' and three months on 'half pay' and after only six months servitude (perhaps because of lack of work) was kept on as a housemaid, something that often happened with the half-pay system in the Coventry area. This may suggest that Hannah was abandoned by her grandmother and that her apprenticeship was paid for by the parish. Hannah did not see her mother again until after her marriage to Samuel Barnes in 1815.

There is much Bulkington poor law and settlement material which needs investigation and may throw further light on the matter and this unlikely story. [AJC 19 September 2012].

Page 170 - re Mrs Fitzherbert. No 20 (Additional Entry). John Graves Wyatt. Yet another story about the supposed "children" of Mrs Fitzherbert appears in the unreferenced text of her biography on Wikipedia [accessed 28 September 2012] where it said that on her death [in 1837] "her children were adopted by a Scotch family named Wyatt whose name they assumed. Afterwards they came south settling in Erith, Kent. The Wyatt family, in the person of J. G. Wyatt, a former Erith man who later moved to Moose Fair [sic], Saskatchewan, Canada and Isabella Annie Wyatt claimed title to a portion of the Fitzherbert estate in 1931". Their claim is mentioned in the Lethbridge Herald, Saskatchewan, 22 May 1937, pages 1 & 9, and is presumably the claim mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle, Friday, 9 April 1937, page 7, which had previously been mentioned in the previous Friday's Daily Mail [not seen].

This is presumably John George Wyatt who was born at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, about 1872, and was at 14 Cheshunt Road, Erith, aged 29, a cartage contractor, in 1901 [RG13/700-42-14] and was a painter at Moose Jaw in 1913. He was the son of John Graves Wyatt who was born at Bexley, Kent, c.1848-9, and died at 219 Lower Road, Belvedere, Kent, 18 June 1933, aged 85, who had married Sarah Ann Starr in Woolwich RD in the December Quarter of 1869 [1d 1185]. He in turn was the son of another John Graves Wyatt who had a varied career and died in Woolwich RD, in the December Quarter of 1900 [1d 697], aged 83, by his second wife Frances Lomax, nee Medhurst, whom he had married at All Saints, Poplar, 28 September 1847 [Registers, Page 11, Entry 21]. At that time this first John Graves Wyatt said that he was a widower and the son of Jeremiah Wyatt, baker. Describing himself as John Greaves Wyatt, of full age, hairdresser, bachelor, the son of William Wyatt, butcher, he had married firstly at Pudsey St Lawrence, Yorkshire, 30 November 1841, Rachel Taylor, of full age, spinster. daughter of Thomas Taylor, hairdresser [Registers].

John Greaves Wyett, an adult, of Bermondsey Street, hairdresser, born 28 October 1818, was baptised at St John Horsleydown, 24 November 1841 [Registers, Page 290, Entry 238].

In the 1841 census of Bermondsey Street, St John Horsleydown [HO107/1087-7-35v] John Wyatt said that he was aged 22, hair dresser, not born in Surrey (with him were two apprentice hairdressers). His first wife died at 19 Bermondsey Street, in 1845, when he was present at the death and a hairdresser. In the 1851 census of London Road, Bexley [HO107/1607-121-20] John Graves Wyatt said that he was aged 32, a baker, and born in "Middlesex, City". In the 1861 Census of Plumstead he was aged 41 and born at Smithfield, London, a statement repeated in 1871 when he was aged 52, an auctioneer, at 31 Plumstead Road, Plumstead [RG10/787-7-8].

Further information about the origins of John Graves or Greaves Wyatt or Wyett would be welcome. He was an executor to Stephen Jeffery in 1861, went bankrupt in 1868, was a lodging house keeper in 1882, and a jobmaster in 1890 [entries in London Gazette].

Page 170 - re Mrs Fitzherbert. No 21 (Additional Entry). 1789/90. Miguel/Michael Hines (died 1843, aged 53). Michael Himes is said to have been born in Dublin City and to have been brought up by one Mary Hines who told him that he was the son of the Prince of Wales. He is said to have come to England, to have joined the army and been sent to South America in the 88th Foot under Lt. Col. Alexander Duff, being present at the abortive attack on Buenos Aires on 5 July 1807 when 1,676 British soldiers were captured and he was gravely wounded. He is said to have been cared for by George Torada and he remained in the Argentine buying and selling wood until he was murdered there on 19 August 1843, aged 53.

There is no mention of a Michael Hines, born about 1789-90, in the surviving Soldiers' Documents in the National Archives but these normally relate only to soldiers discharged to pension and not to those who were killed or deserted. The Muster Books or Pay Lists for the 88th Foot survive from 1793 but have not been searched.

A genealogy of Michael's descendants at www.irishgenealogy.com.ar gives his date and place of birth as 4 May 1790 at Dublin, but there is no reference as to where that date appears in records of the period. Another site carlosmgallo@gmail.com says that Michael was born on that date in London, but again no source for the statement is given. If he was 53 at his death on 19 August 1843 he was born between August 1789 and August 1790.

In an article, 'El primer árbol de Navidad de Buenos Aires', in Historia, 3 (Buenos Aires, 1956), Raul A. Molina says that Michael Hines was 'the natural and only son of King George IV' and he quotes a speech said to have been made by one 'Admiral Greenfield' at Michael's death in 1843 which was related by Michael's daughter Josefa Hines de Ocampo to his grandson and apparently accepted by her.

The database of Irish Roman Catholic Parish Registers from the records in the National Library of Ireland shows the baptism of a Michael Hines, son of James Hines by his wife Elizabeth Cassin, at St Catherine's, Meath Street, Dublin City, on 3 October 1789. The entry shows the god-parents as Pat Murry and Jane Blake. The surname 'Cassin' is transcribed as 'Cossin' in the database. The database does not show the marriage of James Hines and Elizabeth Cassin, or their burials, or the baptisms of any other children of the couple, but an Elizabeth Cassin, who may be the mother, was baptised at the Roman Catholic Church of St Andrew's in the City of Dublin, 30 May 1770.

However, the story has been expanded and linked to Mrs Fitzherbert in 'Chapter 9, 'El príncipe bastardo', of Daniel Balmaceda, Espadas y Corazones (2004), though no evidence has been located to show that Michael Hines claimed such a relationship when in England in 1807/8. It is unlikely that Mrs Fitzherbert had a child on 4 May 1790 because on 15 May 1790 she was present at Drury Lane Theatre when an attempt was made on the King's life [Shane Leslie, The Letters of Mrs Fitzherbert (1944) 119].

Page 171-2 re Miss Woolston alias Wilson. Horace Hayman Wilson. The baptism of Horace Hayman Wilson, which long evaded searchers, has been found at the Percy Chapel, St Pancras. He was born 26 September 1786 and baptised as 'Horace Hayman son of George & Hannah Wolstone' at the Percy Chapel, St Pancras [Registers, no Page or Entry Number].

Page 174 - George IV [additional entry]. 1787. Mary Bedborough. In July 2009 the BBC presenter Davina McCall appeared in the BBC TV series 'Who Do You Think You Are' and said that a family tradition held that her ancestor James Thomas Bedborough (1787-1860) was 'one of the many illegitimate children' of George IV and that her grandmother believed that an estate at Upton Park, near Slough, had been bestowed on him as a wedding gift by the King. The programme included 'Royal genealogist Charles Mosley of the National Archives in Kew' who 'came up with the name of 15 or 16 (illegitimate children) by him', though he admitted that not all were definitely by him [Linda Serck, 'Davina, Bedborough and George IV' on the BBC Berkshire Website, Homepage, 13 November 2014].

In the year that the King had died the purveyor of much scandal Robert Huish wrote in his Memoirs of George the Fourth (1830, vol. 1, page 262) that it was 'rather a remarkable circumstance, that no issue was ever known from any of the amours of either the Prince of Wales, or the late Duke of York', making an exception, where the Prince of Wales was concerned, only of a son supposed to have been born to Lucy Howard who died aged two and was buried at Brighton (but of whom no record can be found). We know that when discussing the terms of his will the King had acknowledged only the existence of his son George Seymour Crole.. However, dozens of people, anxious to claim a royal descent or to fill a gap in their pedigrees or simply to hide humble illegitimacy, have adopted the King as their ancestor. My 2007 book has details of thirty-five of them and others are listed in these Additions. Often there is an absolute minimum of evidence for any such connection.

This is another example. James Thomas Bedborough was born 30 October 1787 and baptised ('Bedberough') at St Sepulchre, Newgate, Middlesex, 15 June 1788, one of the many children of Thomas Bedborough (1732-1802), a stone mason at New Windsor, by his wife Mary Brown, who had married at New Windsor, 28 October 1759. Only some of Thomas's children were mentioned in his will dated 1 April 1802 and proved with two codicils 6 April 1803 [PCC PROB11/1389] and Thomas was buried at New Windsor, 12 December 1802. His widow Mary was buried at New Windsor, 12 March 1806, and not having fully administered his estate, administration was then granted, 26 March 1806, to her daughter Martha Norton, the widow of John Norton, whom she had married at St Luke, Finsbury, 13 August 1795.

The son, James Thomas Bedborough, was apprenticed to the widowed Mary, his mother, then of New Windsor, stonemason, on 29 August 1804, but would have broken the terms of his apprenticeship when he married at St George Hanover Square, Middlesex, on 18 June 1807, the young Sarah Wild (1790-1848). He died 20 February 1860. His slow rise to great prominence in New Windsor is detailed in an obituary published in the Windsor and Eton Express for Saturday, 25 February 1860, page 4, columns d-e, and his later financial problems are outlined in the article by Linda Serck. Rupert Gunnis in his Dictionary of British Sculptors (1951) page 44, says that Bedborough was much employed at Windsor Castle under Wyattville becoming chief mason in 1808 and thereafter describing himself as 'statuary and stonemason to His Majesty'. He received £1,042 for building part of the terrace walk at Windsor in 1810 and was paid £3,626 for constructing the Royal vaults beneath St George's Chapel in 1812. There is not the slightest reason to suppose that he was the King's son though Wikipedia (sub Davina McCall) says that the relationship was 'neither proved nor disproved' on the TV show.

Page 174 - George IV [additional entry]. 1788 Sarah Read (died 1838). I am indebted to Elizabeth Miller for bringing to my attention (in June 2012) the book Mostly fun: my life by one who has led it by Jim Leslie (1922) which in Chapter 3, 'The Read Connection' (pages 13-29), sets out the known facts and traditions about one Captain George Frederick Read who was born 29 September 1788 and first visited Australia as captain and part owner of the brig Lynx in 1808, eventually settling and having descendants there. He was said to be a son of George IV and Mrs Fitzherbert but it had already been established by 1922 that Sarah Till, whom Captain Read brought out from England with her husband William Till and a son John Till, was his mother, marriage records confirming that Sarah Read, widow, married William Till, widower, by licence, on 2 August 1804, at St Mary, Lambeth, both being of that parish [Parish Registers, Entry 652, Page 219].

However, this George Frederic Read, born 29 September 1788, was baptised 9 November 1788, at St Ann, Soho, Westminster, the son of George & Sarah Read [Registers], and searches now need to be made for possible further information about that couple. George Frederic Read was closely involved with Thomas Gabriel Bayliss, of Southgate, Middlesex [PCC Will as of Southgate, widower, proved 25 October 1833, PROB11/1822], and several names used by Read's children and descendants appear to come from the Bayliss family, which needs further investigation.

Page 175-6 re William Rea. The Marriage Registers of St Nicholas, Plumstead, Kent, show that the marriage of William Rea, and Christie Goulden, both of this parish, took place at Plumstead, by Banns, on 2 June 1816. She signed Christey Goulden and the witnesses were Archd. Burns and Mary Lazenby [Registers, Page 152, Entry 456].

Page 181 Line 27, for 'S' read '5'.

Page 181 - John and Elizabeth Liptrap. The Burial Register of St Mary, Whitechapel, Middlesex, shows that the burial of Elizabeth Liptrap, of Eltham, Kent, aged 82, took place there on 29 July 1843 [Registers, No Page or Entry number].

Page 181 - Elizabeth Stephen Liptrap. I am indebted to Mr Nicholas Royal for the information that Elizabeth Stephen Liptrap married at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Middlesex, 8 January 1810, William Peyton. They had issue an only daughter:

1a. Laura Peyton, born c.1812. She died at Temple Cottage, Southsea (the home of Sarah Rex), 12 August 1832; buried at Mile End Cemetery, Portsea, 17 August 1832. She had married Joshua Ryle, of London Road, Brighton, Sussex, gentleman. He was born November 1812 and baptised at Croydon, 24 August 1815. He died at the house of Elizabeth Liptrap, and was buried at St Nicholas, Brighton, 24 March 1832, aged 20. They had issue an only daughter:

1b. Laura Ryle, born 11 November 1831 and baptised at St Nicholas, Brighton, 9 December 1831. She died at 52 Westbourne Street, Aldrington, 23 June 1887. Her will proved PPR. She had married 1stly, at St Pancras, Middlesex, 24 December 1856, Charles Tollit, of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, school master. He was born 1832 and baptised at Hemel Hempstead, 21 February 1833. He was buried at Hemel Hempstead, 23 June 1861. She married 2ndly, at the Register Office, Steyning, 4 May 1883, James Sumner, of 52 Westbourne Street, Aldrington, Sussex, retired engineer R.N. He was born at Brompton, Kent, 1824, and died at 52 Westbourne Street, 30 November 1885. His will proved PPR.

Page 190. Mother of William Augustus Miles (1798-1851). Claims by William Augustus Miles to be the son of George, Prince of Wales, are apparently discussed at some length in David Philips, William Augustus Miles (1786-1851): crime, policing and moral entrepreneurship in England and Australia (Melbourne, 2001), published in the University of Melbourne as No. 30 in its History Monograph Series, but my various efforts to obtain a copy have failed. He is the subject of an article in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 2 (1967), and was ostensibly the eldest son of William Augustus Miles (c.1753-1817), political writer, author of comic operas and holder of minor official posts. I hesitate to make further comment without seeing the late Dr. David Philips's work; he died in 2007.

Page 191. Sarah Brown/Elizabeth Hampshire. It was noted in Royal Mistresses and Bastards that there did not seem to be any truth in a story [repeated in Saul (1999) 80] that Sarah Brown, the daughter of the publican at the White Hart Hotel, Mile End Road, London, was for 15 years the mistress of the Prince of Wales and had four children by him, one of whom, William Hampshire (1800-1878) rose rapidly in the Lord Chamberlain's Department to become Paymaster in the Queen's Household in 1854. It had also been noted that this William Hampshire was baptised at St James, Westminster, 18 March 1800, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Hampshire.

I am indebted to the careful research of a descendant Peter Ashworth for the information [from family and other records cited below] that this Joseph Hampshire was apparently in the service of Jonathan Kendal at Chelwood House, near Bristol, in 1795, and as of Chelwood, Somerset, had married at Chelwood, in 1796, Elizabeth Brown, of Chelwood, who died at Walham Green, Chelsea, in 1841 and was buried in Brompton Cemetery. It seems that Joseph died at Flockton, Yorkshire (where he had been born), in 1819.

Joseph Hampshire's uncle, Lexey Mallinson, had been steward to the 5th Duke of Devonshire, at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, from about 1780 until his death in 1799, and it is likely that the 6th Duke, who was Lord Chamberlain 1827-28 and 1830-34, knew of Lexey's great-nephew and obtained for him the post of Third Assistant Clerk in the Lord Chamberlain's Department in 1832.

The story of a royal connection appears to have been first formulated in a letter dated September 1930, from Cyril Hampshire, to his mother Alice Isabella, the wife of Revd William Knowlton Hampshire (died 1905), Vicar of Bampton, Oxfordshire, in which Cyril Hampshire claims that it had been confirmed with many circumstantial details that we now know to be quite incorrect, by the Duke of Connaught. It appears that the story was communicated by another descendant, Oliver Myers, to Sir Anthony Wagner, and by him to the Society of the Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain in America. The relationships of the early members of the family, commencing with Joseph Hampshire's father, were as follows:

John Hampshire, named in will of brother-in-law Lexey Mallinson, 1799. He had married at Flockton, Yorkshire, 6 November 1761, Margaret ('Peggy') Mallinson [Registers]. She was named in the will of her brother Lexey Mallinson, 1799. Her brother was Alexander ('Lexey') Mallinson, steward or agent to the 5th Duke of Devonshire at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, with £50 p.a., from c.1780, who died unmarried, 15 August 1799, and was buried at Ault Hucknall, aged 66 [MI]; his will as Lexey alias Alexis Mallinson, of Hardwick in Hucknall, Derbyshire, gentleman, dated 23 April 1799 (freehold at Cotham, Nottinghamshire) proved 17 October 1799 [Consistory Court of Lichfield]. John and Margaret Hampshire had issue:

1a. James Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 2 May 1762 [Registers]. Named trustee and executor in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799; he and Sarah (? his sister) Hampshire ran the Edensor Inn, near Chatsworth, 1799 [letter to uncle Lexey Mallinson in Chatsworth Archives].

2a. Sarah Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 20 November 1763 [Registers]. Named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799.

3a. Alexander (Lexey or Alexis) Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 15 March 1767 [Registers]. Named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799.

4a. Ann Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 18 March 1770 [Registers]. Named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799.

5a. Joseph Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 15 November 1771 [Registers]. Apparently in service with Jonathan Kendal at Chelwood House, near Bristol, 10 January 1795 [letter to uncle Lexey Mallinson in Chatsworth Archives]; named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799; perhaps the Joseph Hampshire buried at Flockton, 1819; gentleman, 1841 [death of widow]. As of Chelwood, Somerset, he had married by licence at Chelwood, 21 November 1796, Elizabeth Brown, of Chelwood [Registers]. She died at Walham Green, Chelsea, 20 May 1841 [GRO Death certificate; MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 27 May 1841, aged 70 [Registers, Grave No 137]. They had issue:

1b. Charlotte Georgina Hampshire, born 22 December 1797, and baptised at St James, Westminster, 18 May 1798 [Registers].

2b. William Hampshire, born 7 January 1800, and baptised at St James, Westminster, 18 March 1800 [Registers]. Third Assistant Clerk in Lord Chamberlain's Department, 1832 [see Royal Mistresses and Bastards for further detail]. He died at 6 St Albans Road, Kensington, 5 September 1878 [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 10 September 1878, aged 78 [Registers, Grave No 94098]. He had married at Sheffield Parish Church, Yorkshire, 31 March 1834, Elizabeth Wilson. She died at 6 St Albans Road, Kensington, 27 July 1867 [MI]; buried 31 July 1867, aged 63 [Family Paper]. They had issue:

1c. Mary Hampshire, born 19 February 1835, and baptised at St Luke, Chelsea, 19 February 1835 [Registers]. She married at St Mary Abbots, Kensington, 2 July 1856, Alexander Turner Cory, and had issue.

2c. William Knowlton Hampshire, born 10 November 1836, and baptised at St Luke, Chelsea, 7 December 1836 [Registers]. He died 2 December 1905. He had married and had issue.

3c. Henry Charles Hampshire, born 23 January 1838, and baptised at St Martin in the Fields, Middlesex, 2 July 1838 [Registers]. He died at 9 Crescent Road, Wimbledon, 17 August 1910 [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 20 August 1910, aged 72 [Registers, Grave No 94098].

4c. Alfred George Hampshire, born 13 August 1839. He died at 4 Maddox Street, Regent Street, 5 June 1890 [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 7 June 1890, aged 50 [Registers, Grave No 94098].

5c. Frederick Thomas Hampshire, born 5 November 1840. He died 23 January 1842, aged 14 months [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery.

6c. Elizabeth Georgiana Hampshire, born 3 February 1842. She died at Bampton, Oxfordshire, 2 May 1912 [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 4 May 1912, aged 70 [Registers, Grave No 171348].

7c. Frederick Knowlton Hampshire, born at 16 Sussex Place, Kensington, 15 November 1843, and baptised at St Mary Abbots, Kensington, 12 February 1845 [Registers]. He died 16 May 1894, aged 50. He had married Jessie Clara Everest. She died 20 February 1934, aged 88. They had issue.

8c. Louisa Maria Hampshire, born 31 August 1845, and baptised at St Mary Abbots, Kensington, 24 September 1845 [Registers]. She died unmarried at Manor Cottage, Bampton, Oxfordshire, 1926; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 27 February 1926, aged 80 [Registers, Grave No 94098].

3b. Georgiana Margaret Hampshire, born 22 November 1801, and baptised at St James, Westminster, 1 December 1801 [Registers]. She died unmarried at 9 Upper Ranelagh Street, Pimlico, 20 March 1861 [MI]; buried at Brompton Cemetery, 25 March 1861, aged 59 [Registers, Grave No 26739].

6a. Hannah Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 8 September 1775, and buried there 15 January 1778 [Registers].

7a. Elizabeth Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 21 December 1777 [Registers]. Named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799.

8a. John Hampshire, baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, 13 January 1782 [Registers]. Named in will of uncle Lexey Mallinson, 1799.

Page 197 - additional entry [27 November 2008].

c.1805. Countess Olga Jerebtzov or Gerebtzoff (or Zherebzova) (1766-1849). Although aware of the suggestion that the Prince of Wales was the father of a son (who took the surname Nord) by Countess Olga Jerebtzov I did not include her in Royal Mistresses and Bastards (2007) as the known details were so flimsy. However, as the suggestion now appears in Wikipedia (sub Olga Zherebtsova) I have decided to set out here what I know in the hope that those with additional knowledge will come forward to throw light on the matter. I am indebted to Miss Lynda Raistrick for the details from the Leeds parish registers.

In 1836 Sir N.W. Wraxall wrote that Charles Whitworth (1752-1825), British ambassador at St Petersburg from 1788 to 1800 (Knight of the Bath in 1793, created Baron Whitworth in 1800, Viscount in 1813, and Earl in 1815), an old friend of the Prince of Wales [CGPoW i (1963) 204] but a man of limited financial means, was in great measure supported by Countess Gerbetzow (sic) and 'In return for such solid proofs of attachment, he engaged to give her his hand in marriage' when she had obtained a divorce from her husband. However, he left for England in May 1800 and in April 1801 married the immensely wealthy Dowager Duchess of Dorset. According to Wraxall, Countess Gerbetzow, having succeeded in procuring a divorce from her husband, had meanwhile set out for London, but arrived after the marriage had taken place. She then sought to obtain restitution of the sums that she had advanced to her lover on the assurance of marriage and was paid £10,000 by the Duchess [N.W. Wraxall, Posthumous memoirs of his own time, i (1836) 188-194].

At the Brighton Pavilion, in November 1805, Thomas Creevey heard that she was 'a very rich Russian woman of quality who is coming to Lord Berkeley's house. She has been long in England, and is I suppose generally known in London, though new to me'. Mrs Fitzherbert told him that the Countess, who had been married at the age of 14, had kept Lord Whitworth in Russia and had got as far as Berlin when she heard that he was married. He added, 'She was raving mad for some time, and Mrs. F. describes her as being often nearly so now, but at other times most interesting, and most miserable. Her husband and children come to England to visit her, and Mrs F. says she is an eternal subject of remorse to Lord Whitworth' [Creevey i (1904) 67]. Elsewhere Creevey mentioned 'Madame Gerobtzoff' as 'a haughty Russian dame, who made row enough for the whole town to hear' when at the Pavilion, also in 1805, Sheridan sat on her lap in the dark at a phantasmagoria [Creevey i (1904) 57]. Lady Bessborough wrote about her (as 'Madame Gerebzoff') in November 1804 and August 1805 [Granville i (1917) 476-77, 492], saying that 'The office of Husband in Russia seems to be a sinecure', describing her, in the words of Pope's Philomel, as 'Chaste to her Husband, frank to all besides', and adding, 'I knew her Mother very well; she was too fat, but very handsome' [Granville ii (1917) 103].

The Complete Peerage says that although the story of the alleged liaison between the Countess and Lord Whitworth obtained some credence in 1805 it was, in the main, refuted in the Quarterly Review, vol. lvii (December 1836), pp. 470-71 [CP xii/2 (1959) 620-21 note e]. Indeed, the article in the Quarterly Review (a lengthy and damaging review of Wraxall's memoirs by an anonymous author) says that 'of all this circumstantial story nothing is true, except that a certain Russian countess had a partiality for Sir Charles Whitworth while ambassador at St Petersburg', that Sir Charles's influence with the Emperor had on one occasion saved her from exile, that neither 'was ever under pecuniary obligation to the other, beyond the interchange of presents usual between lovers', that she was never divorced and that her husband Count Gerepzov 'actually accompanied her on her visit to England', as many in society would remember. The review also says that Wraxall's spite against the Duchess of Dorset arose because he had obtained some of her husband's papers and, on the pretext of his cost and trouble in arranging them, would not give them up without payment.

In Russia many believed that the dissolute Countess had been Whitworth's mistress and in the pay of England, channelling English funds to the conspirators against the Emperor Paul I, a charge refuted by Kazimierz Waliszewski, though they certainly met in her house [K. Waliszewski, Paul the First of Russia - The Son of Catherine the Great (London, 1913) 412-15; with greater detail in the Russian edition (St Petersburg, c.1912) 552]. It had been in her house that her brother Platon Zoubov had taken refuge on the death of the Empress Catherine II in 1796 [K. Waliszewski, Autour d'un trone: Catherine II de Russie (Paris, 1894) 167]. Waliszewski says that her money was obtained during her stay in England after Paul's murder (11/23 March 1801) when she gained the favour of the Prince of Wales, returning to Russia with a son, and subsequently acquiring one of the finest Demidof estates [K. Waliszewski, Paul the First of Russia (1913) 413]. However, the genealogist Nicolas Ikonnikov says that she had long before had an open liaison with the fabulously wealthy Prokofi Akinfievitch Demidov (1710-1786) and had received from him many millions of roubles [Nicolas Ikonnikov, La Noblesse de Russie, 2nd ed., 51 vols., Paris, 1957-63, hereafter NdR].

Nicolas Ikonnikov (although partly confusing her with her daughter) says that after 1800 the Countess took herself to London where she was the mistress of George III (sic) and that later, in a lawsuit against the British crown, she declared that they had had a son, Egor Egorovitch Nord, but that the British court doubted it, ruling that the child was Lord Whitworth's son [NdR Borozdine (1957) No. 170 and NdR Jerebtzov (1958) No. 200, both quoting Istoritchesky Vestnik, xii (1912) 890 et seq.]. The boy is apparently called George Nord in Valentin Zubov, Zar Paul I: Mensch und Schicksal (K.F. Koehler, 1963) 221 [not seen] but no further details of the supposed court case about him have been found.

However, the Northampton Mercury for Saturday, 28 August 1830 [page 1f] contains the entry, 'George Nord, the gentleman said to be the son of the late King, has not been noticed by any of the members of the Royal family. To letters which have been addressed to certain high quarters, no aswer has been returned; and we understand Mr Nord has sailed, or is about to sail, for Russia.' [Noted 18 November 2012, but not apparently mentioned elsewhere in the currently available online newspaper databases].

She was Countess Olga Alexandrovna Zoubov, born 1766 [NdR Zoubov (1962) No. 142], daughter of Count Alexander Nikolaevitch Zoubov (1727-1795) and his wife Elisaveta Vassilieva Voronov (1742-1813) [NdR Zoubov (1962) No. 121], and a sister of Prince Platon Zoubov (1767-1822) [NdR Zoubov (1962) No. 143], the last favourite of the Empress Catherine II. According to Wikipedia in later years she returned to St Petersburg, became involved in Court intrigues centred on her grandson-in-law Prince Alexei Orlov (1796-1861), and was a patron of Alexander Herzen (presumably before his imprisonment in 1832) who describes her 'like a tree in winter' in his memoirs My Past and Thoughts (1861-67). She died 1 March 1849. She had married (before 1783), Alexandre Alexeevitch Jerebtzov, born 30 August 1754. Privy Councillor, Chamberlain to Empress Catherine II. He died 28 June 1807 [NdR Jerebtzov (1958) No. 145]. They had issue: Anna Jerebtzov (1783-1785), the below mentioned Elisaveta Jerebtzov (1787-1841) and Alexander Jerebtzov (15 October 1790 - 24 February 1817) [NdR Jerebtzov (1958) Nos. 198, 199, 200]. The latter's dates are elsewhere given (from primary sources) as 1781-1832 [Alexander Mikaberidze, The Russian Officer Corps in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815 (Staplehurst, 2005) 464 sub Zherebtsov].

There is some confusion in the pedigrees compiled by Nicolas Ikonikoff between Olga Alexandrovna and her daughter Elisaveta Alexandrovna Jerebtzov, born 1787, Dame de l'Ordre de Ste Catherine petite-croix, who is called Olga Alexandrovna in the Biographies des Chevalier Gardes [quoted in NdR Borozdine (1957) No. 170 and NdR Jerebtzov (1958) No. 200]. Ikonnikov attributed to Elizaveta her mother's alleged affairs with Demidov and Whitworth. Whilst her husband was absent on service in 1816 Elisaveta had a daughter Natalia [NdR Borozdine (1957) No. 198] by General Pirect (whom her husband had taken prisoner in the Napoleonic War), but although her husband accepted the paternity of the child, on his return she abandoned him to live permanently in Paris [NdR quoting Les aides de camp generaux de Alexandre I (St Petersburg, 1913)]. She died at Paris, 26 January 1841, and was buried with her husband [NdR Jerebtzov (1958) No. 200]. She had married 2 February 1804, Nikolai Mikhailovitch Borozdine [NdR Borozdine (1957) No. 170, quoting unpublished MS 'Memoirs d'un Nain' written by Iakoubovsky the dwarf to Prince Platon Zoubov]. He was born at Pskov, 13 November 1777 [Mikaberidze, op.cit. (2005) 46; NdR has 2 October 1776]. Enlisted as private in Life Guard Preobrajensky Regiment, 1782 (aged 5); sergeant, 1784; transferred to Horse Guards; cornet, 1794; transferred to Cuirassier Regiment, 1796; returned to Horse Guards, 1797; Lieutenant, 1798; Captain, 1799; joined Chevalier Guards, 1799; Colonel, 1800; chief of Finland Dragoons, 1806-11, and of Astrakhan Cuirassier Regiment, 1811-14; Major General, 1807; served in campaigns of 1805, 1807 and 1808 against Napoleon and Sweden [career in Mikaberidze, op.cit. (2005) 46-47]; at Borodino, etc., 1812; Lieutenant-General, 1813; at Leipzig; at taking of Paris, 1814; returned to Paris, 1815; commanded Reserve Cavalry Corps, 1817; aide de camp general to the Emperor, 1820; General of Cavalry, 1826; Knight of St Alexandre Nevsky. He died at St Petersburg, 14/26 November 1830; buried at Kostyjitzy (Kostyzhetsky), Pskof [NdR Borozdine (1957) No. 170]. They had issue [NdR Borozdine (1957) Nos. 193-198].

Olga Jerebtsov's son, said to have been by the Prince of Wales, was:

1a. Egor Egorovitch Nord [NdR Borozdine No. 170; NdR Jerebtzov (1958) No. 200] or George Nord [above quoted references]. It is said that he 'under the name of Nord, founded a family which in recent years still had a representative in Russia' [Waliszewski, op. cit. (1913) 413]. Perhaps the same person as George Charles Nord the father of:

George Nord, born 1844/5 [age at death]. Present at dinner given by Grand Duke Constantine, Chesham House, London [The Times, 13 September 1871, 7e, 'M. de Nord']; Second Secretary at Russian Embassy, London, 1872-3 [AdeG (1872) 574 & (1873) 608, 'assessuer de college et gentilhomme de a chambre G.Nord']; Russian Consul at Rescht, Persia, 1875-80 [AdeG, 'L'assesseur de college G.Nord']. He died, Russian Consul at Rescht, Persia, 6 August 1880, aged 35 [Pall Mall Gazette, 24 September 1880, Issue 4864, 'George De Nord']; 'formerly of the Russian Embassy in London' [Liverpool Mercury, 1 September 1885, Issue 11745, marriage of 'stepdaughter Frances Fitzroy']. As of Camberwell, son of George Charles Nord, gentleman, he had married by licence at St Giles, Camberwell, Surrey, 9 March 1872 (as her 1st husband), Mary 'Emily' Dufton FitzRoy, of Princes Square, Bayswater, daughter of Charles Augustus FitzRoy [Registers, Page 20, Entry 40], by his wife Elizabeth (they had married at St Matthew, Holbeck, Yorkshire, 19 October 1843), daughter of James Dufton, of Leeds, Yorkshire. She was born 25 September 1844 and baptised at Leeds Parish Church, 23 October 1844 [Registers, Page 491, Entry 1534]. Of Arthur Street, Leeds, 1851 [HO107/2320-1045-4]; of Nippet Lane, Leeds, scholar, 1861 [RG9/3384-67-2]. She died at Addis Ababa, Abyssinia, 9 January 1900 [The Times, 2 April 1900, 1a]. She had married 2ndly at the Russian Church of the Russian Legation, Geneva, Switzerland, 19 November 1882, Pierre de Vlassow (Pyotr Mikhailovich Vlasov), Russian Consul at Ghelau [The Times, 9 December 1882, 1a; 20 November in Manchester Times, 25 November 1882, Issue 1298]. Russian Consul at Rescht, Persia, 1884-89 [AdeG]; received Prince Dolgorouki's Mission at Teheran [The Times, 30 May 1887, 9f]; Russian Consul General at Mesched, Persia, 1890-97 [AdeG]; as Councillor of State headed Russian Embassy to Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia, leaving St Petersburg with wife, September 1897, and arriving 17 February 1898 [Bristol Mercury, 20 April 1898, Issue 15582]; Russian Minister in Abyssinia, 1898-1902 [AdeG; The Times, 2 April 1900, 1a]; on way to Teheran, 27 September 1902 [The Times, 25 October 1902, 10a]; Russian Ambassador to Persia, 1902-3 [AdeG].

Page 198 Claudius Francis du Pasquier. It appears that Claudius Francis du Pasquier was buried at St Margaret, Westminster, where there was an inscription to him as 'Claude Francis du Pasquier, died 22nd Dec. 1822, aged 64 [The Genealogists' Magazine, vol. 5, no. 11 (September 1931) page 388].

Pages 204-5 Georgiana Quentin. I am indebted to Mr David Collins for the information that Georgiana Quentin was born 2 July 1784 and baptised 30 July 1784 at St Marylebone [LMA P89/MRY1, Item 008] and that she married 21 January 1811 at St Mary, Shaw cum Donnington, Berkshire [transcript by Berks FHS via Findmypast].

Page 208-210 Edwardina Kent and John Turner Flinn. I am indebted to Mr Jonathan Dickson of Melbourne (who has an oil painting of John Turner Flinn) for information about the marriage and death of Edward Augustus Flinn in Victoria [information received in July 2008] and particularly to Jacqueline Rowntree (who descends from one of John Turner Flinn's sisters) for a reference to Eric de Normann's Edwardina: the story of an unfortunate woman (privately printed, Ashford, 1978) [copy in British Library X.702/5976], the 1841 Census entry in Lambeth, and to the material in the Harvard Law Library about the divorce of the younger Edwardina de Normann mentioned below [information received in December 2008].

The above-mentioned book [hereafter cited as 'de Normann (1978)'] was written by the late Sir Eric de Normann (1893-1982), a great-grandson of Edwardina Kent by her first marriage in Brunswick in 1814 to Gustav de Normann. Sir Eric de Normann argues that Edwardina Kent was Princess Caroline's daughter by George Canning, detailing the latter's regular visits to the Princess in 1799, and suggesting that Edwardina was born in the first half of 1800, but that Caroline deliberately made her out to be older than she was [de Normann (1978) 11-14]. Sir Eric mentions unsuccessful searches made for Edwardina's baptism at Lewisham by a Mr Brogden on behalf of the Consul at Naples when she died in 1875 [de Normann (1978) 14], and he was unaware of the baptismal entry in September 1800 that says that she was born 'about the beginning of 1798', and of the entry in The Times for 23 April 1799 that described the way in which she had been abandoned 'a short time since' [set out in Royal mistresses and bastards (2007) 208-9]. The child, if Princess Caroline's, would have been conceived many months before her friendship with George Canning developed, but there is no evidence that she was the Princess's child. The written statement of the Revd William Groves (the gullible intimate friend of the forger Olive Wilmot Serres) in May 1830 that the Duke of Kent had told him that Edwardina was Caroline's child (and thus rightful Queen of England after the death of King George IV the following month), a document that Edwardina sent to King William IV [de Normann (1987) 34], is presumably one of Olive's many productions [Royal mistresses and bastards (2007) 114-7].

Sir Eric also argues that Princess Caroline's purpose in leaving England in 1814 and apparently forcing Edwardina into marriage, was, as Sir William Gell put it, 'to get rid of her for ever' [de Normann (1978) 18]. Sir William's description of Edwardina's marriage as 'a very good sale of a very bad piece of Goods', however, probably means that the group were already glad to be rid of her on personal grounds. That she was forced into marriage is conjectured from the record saying that it took place 'at 10 p.m. by special order of the Duke without banns' [de Normann (1978) 25] but the 'special order' was merely to dispense with the customary banns, the Princess leaving Brunswick the following day. There is a tradition in the family of Gustav de Normann's second wife, Theresa von der Mulbe, that Edwardina was pregnant by the Duke of Brunswick, that the child died an infant, and that she had other illegitimate children outside marriage, but these stories are dismissed by Sir Eric [de Normann (1978) 26]. No record of the birth of her (? only) child by Gustav de Normann, probably before or about May 1815, has been found [de Normann (1978) 27-28]. That they were divorced in June 1820, although 'confirmed by the Archives' [de Normann (1978) 31], remains uncertain, no details being given, though both parties remarried (she describing herself as a widow). Edwardina's movements between the birth of her child and her second marriage in Rome in 1821 remain unknown though she presumably at some stage met Queen Caroline and was introduced by her to the man who became her second husband, John Turner Flinn.

Sir Eric de Normann doubted that Edwardina had actually married Flinn [de Normann (1978) 39] and knew nothing of their children [de Normann (1978) 35]. After Flinn was transported in 1840 Edwardina seems to have distanced herself from him, not writing to him for fourteen years [de Normann (1987) 42-43], apparently not telling her younger children of his existence, and allowing them to believe that they were the children of her first marriage. Flinn's photograph, however, survived amongst Edwardina's papers which eventually passed to Sir Eric [de Normann (1987) 41]; how that came about is not stated. Edwardina had herself gone to live at Naples in the 1840s and died there in 1875.

Edwardina's daughter, also called Edwardina, born about 1826, married in the surname de Normann in 1845, Lieut. Edward Middleton, U.S. Navy, but was divorced for adultery in 1850, she having returned to live with her mother at Naples. Flinn's eldest son, Edward Flinn, had followed his father to Australia by 1852, and was joined there by a younger brother Julius who had used the name de Normann. There may have been other children. The following account brings together for the first time what is known about Edwardina's two families:

Edwardina (Augusta) Kent, born 'about the beginning of 1798 found in Greenwich Parish', and baptised at Lewisham, Kent, 21 September 1800, 'Parents Unknown' [Lewisham Parish Registers]. Left England with Princess of Wales, August 1814; married 1stly at Brunswick (1814); c