{56} Charles II Descent for Rachel (née Newton) Moore (1891-1965)

Col. (Lancelot) Geoffrey Moore (1886-1955)

I didn't expect that it would take me as long as it did to enter the ancestry of Rachel Esme Newton, wife of Col. (Lancelot) Geoffrey Moore, into my database. Her lines of descent from Edward I flow through many families that I didn't have, so a project that I initially thought would take only a couple days, has ended up taking a couple weeks. It's been a worthwhile endeavour, with many interesting lines of descent that will be elaborations and additions to Ruvigny's Plantagenet Roll series.

Regarding Rachel's father, Charles Milnes Newton, I haven't been able to uncover much information in my research. He was an artist and painter, a graduate of King's College Cambridge, attending the university where his uncle, the renowned ornithologist Alfred Newton (1829-1907), served as its first Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, lecturing the Victorian students on Darwin's new theory of evolution. Charles also was an enthusiast of the game of golf, and in 1892 co-founded the Hillingdon Golf Club on part of the Middlesex estate of Hillingdon House, home of his aunt Lady Cox (née Elizabeth Newton).

Prof. Alfred Newton
of Cambridge (1829-1907)

This Newton family can be traced back to the late 18th-century, and one Samuel Newton on Saint Croix, one of the Virgin Islands. The Newtons made a fortune in the West Indies through sugar plantations, and Samuel's son William Newton (1782-1862) was able to purchase in 1815 the Suffolk manor, Elvedon Hall, and establish himself firmly in the upper levels of British society, representing Ipswich in the House of Commons for two years. William married Elizabeth Milnes, whose late father, Richard Slater Milnes of Fryston Hall (1759-1804), the heir of a Presbyterian cloth merchant from Wakefield, had represented the city of York in the House of Commons. The Milnes family continued to climb in the 19th-century, and Elizabeth (Milnes) Newton's nephew was raised to the peerage as 1st Baron Houghton in 1863. The Newton family never reached that height, and indeed, did not even make it into Burke's Landed Gentry, despite notable achievements by several of its members (in addition to the ornithologist Alfred Newton, who has a bio in ODNB, there was his younger brother Sir Edward Newton (1832-1897), Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica).

Rachel Newton's paternal grandfather, Francis Rodes Newton (1827-1886), was the fourth (and least remarkable) of the six sons of William Newton of Elvedon Hall, M.P.  Francis was the son who oversaw the family's West Indies business interests, and made the family's St Croix plantation, Castle Burke, his home. He took an island-born wife, Anna Louisa Gyllich, whose parents were of Dutch descent - her father Major Jacob Heitmann Gyllich (1795-1868) was an officer in the West Indian army. All of their children, including eldest son Charles Milnes Newton, were born on the Castle Burke plantation, though all were sent over to England for their education. Charles Milnes Newton, Rachel's father, is yet another example of a Victorian-era gentleman from the upper level of British society who has no traceable lines back to medieval Plantagenet rulers (Remember the claim of esteemed genealogist John Horace Round - that you can give him any man in England, aristocrat or tradesman, and he could trace him back to Edward III? It's ringing more and more hollow when put into actual practice).

Castle Burke Plantation, St Croix, Virgin Islands c.1833

Rachel's husband was of an established landed gentry family. The youngest son of the squire of Appleby Hall in Leicestershire, Geoffrey Moore (he didn't use his first name Lancelot) was "a brave and successful soldier," writes his cousin Peter Moore in the second edition of A Son of the Rectory. "He became a colonel and commanded his battalion of the 60th Rifles. He had the rare distinction of being awarded the DSO and Bar, he was badly wounded and he was taken prisoner. His lone attempt to escape was the model for an incident in a book written by Alec Waugh, a fellow prisoner with Geoffrey in Germany."

From Daily Mirror London 23 February 1917

Geoffrey married Rachel Newton while on leave in 1917. In January 1918, he asked his eldest brother Charles Moore for the £6,000 which was to be his inheritance per their father's will. He eventually received it after Appleby Hall was sold. In the 1920s, he moved with his wife Rachel and their daughter Katherine to Southern Rhodesia to set up a farm. Rachel's uncle (her father's younger brother), Sir Francis James Newton (1857-1948), was well established there as a colonial administrator and plantation owner. It was in Southern Rhodesia that Geoffrey and Rachel Moore's younger daughter Mary was born. Geoffrey was killed there in a riding accident in 1955, and Rachel returned to England, where she died ten years later.

St Mark Church North Audley Street

RACHEL ESME NEWTON, b. 4 Sept. 1891 Chelsea, London, bap. 7 Oct. 1891 St Mark Church, North Audley Street, London; d. 6 June 1965 Chelsea, only child of Charles Milnes Newton of Brompton (1856-1932) and Helen Mary FitzRoy (1857-1935, descended from Charles II); m. 22 Feb. 1917 St Peter Church, Eaton Square, Belgravia, London, Col. (LANCELOT) GEOFFREY MOORE of M'Sonnedi, Southern Rhodesia, b. 5 Feb. 1886 Eaton Square; d. 30 Mar. 1955 M'Sonnedi, ashes bur. St Michael & All Angels Church, Appleby Magna, Leicestershire, yst son of George John Moore of Appleby Hall (1842-1916, descended from Henry VII) and Louisa Kekewich (1846-1921, descended from Edward IV), and had issue, one son (died an infant) and two daughters.

As interesting as Rachel's paternal ancestry and family are, it is through her mother Helen Mary FitzRoy, that Rachel can be traced back eight generations to Charles II, as follows.

CHARLES II = BARBARA VILLIERS, Duchess of Cleveland (1640-1709, descended from Edward III), and had a son,

1st Duke of Grafton -
see Generation 1

1) HENRY FITZROY, 1st Duke of Grafton, illegit., b. 20 Sept. 1663 Westminster, London; d. 9 Oct. 1690 Cork, co Cork, Ireland, bur. St Genevieve Church, Euston, Suffolk; m. 6 Nov. 1679, ISABELLA BENNET, 2nd Countess of Arlington, b. 1667; d. 7 Feb. 1723, only child of Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington (1618-1685, descended from Edward III) and Isabella van Nassau (1633-1718), and had
2) CHARLES FITZROY, 2nd Duke of Grafton, b. 25 Oct. 1683 Arlington House, London, bap. there 30 Oct. 1683; d. 6 May 1757 Euston Hall, Suffolk, bur. 13 May 1757 St Genevieve Church, Euston; m. 30 Apr. 1713 St Luke Church, Chelsea, London, Lady HENRIETTA SOMERSET, b. 27 Aug. 1690; d. 9 Aug. 1726 Grafton House, Bond Street, London, dau. of Charles Somerset, Marquess of Worcester (1660-1698, descended from Edward III) and Rebecca Child (1667-1712), and had
3) Lord AUGUSTUS FITZROY of Marylebone, b. 16 Oct. 1716; d. 24 May 1741 Jamaica; m. Mar. 1734, ELIZABETH COSBY, b. c.1715; d. 21 Dec. 1788, dau. of William Cosby of Soho Square, London (c.1690-1736, descended from Edward III) and Grace Montagu (1687-1767, descended from Edward III), and had
4) AUGUSTUS HENRY FITZROY, 3rd Duke of Grafton, b. 28 Sept. 1735 Marylebone, London, bap. 17 Oct. 1735 St Marylebone Parish Church; d. 14 Mar. 1811 Euston Hall, bur. 21 Mar. 1811 St Genevieve Church, Euston; m. 2nd 24 June 1769 ELIZABETH WROTTESLEY, b. 21 Oct. 1745 Wrottesley Hall, Tettenhall, Staffordshire, bap. there same day; d. 25 May 1822 Mayfair, London, bur. 31 May 1822 St James Church, Westminster, dau. of Sir Richard Wrottesley, 7th Baronet of Wrottesley (1721-1769, descended from Henry VII) and Lady Mary Leveson-Gower (1717-1778, descended from Edward III), and had
5) Lord WILLIAM FITZROY of East Sheen, Surrey, b. 1 June 1782 London; d. 13 May 1857 East Sheen, bur. 20 May 1857 Mortlake Cemetery, Surrey; Admiral of the White 1853-1857; m. 22 Aug. 1816 St George Hanover Square, London, GEORGIANA RAIKES, b. 17 May 1789 London, bap. 13 June 1789 St Botolph Bishopsgate, London; d. 2 Dec. 1861 Hastings, Sussex, dau. of Thomas Raikes of Freelands, Kent (1741-1813) and Charlotte Finch (1750-1822, descended from Edward III), and had

3rd Duke of Grafton -
see Generation 4

6) (FRANCIS) HORATIO FITZROY of Frogmore Park, Yateley, Hampshire, b. 6 June 1823 London, bap. 16 July 1823 St Mary Church, Hambleden, Buckinghamshire; d. 20 Mar. 1900 Frogmore Park, bur. 24 Mar. 1900 Holy Trinity Churchyard, Hawley, Hampshire; m. 17 Nov. 1849 St George Hanover Square, London, Hon. GERTRUDE DUNCOMBE, b. 4 Apr. 1827 Westminster, London, bap. 12 May 1827 St Marylebone Parish Church; d. 24 Feb. 1916 Frogmore Park, bur. 28 Feb. 1916 Holy Trinity Churchyard, Hawley, dau. of William Duncombe, 2nd Baron Feversham of Duncombe Park (1798-1867, descended from Edward III) and Lady Louisa Stewart (1804-1889, descended from Henry VII), and had
7) HELEN MARY FITZROY, b. 13 June 1857 Belgrave Square, Belgravia, London, bap. 13 July 1857 St Michael Chester Square, Belgravia; d. 31 Oct. 1935 Garats Hay, Woodhouse, Leicestershire; m. 14 Oct. 1890 Holy Trinity Church, Hawley, CHARLES MILNES NEWTON of Brompton, b. 11 Apr. 1856 Castle Burke plantation, St Croix, Virgin Islands; d. 18 Jan. 1932 Montpelier Square, Brompton, London, eldest son of Francis Rodes Newton of Castle Burke (1827-1886) and Anna Louisa Gyllich (1833-1862), and had
8) RACHEL ESME NEWTON (1891-1965), wife of Col. (Lancelot) Geoffrey Moore - see details above

My next post will elaborate on the two Henry VII lines of descent for Helen (née FitzRoy) Newton, one through each of her parents, that Ruvigny includes in his Tudor volume.

Cheers,                                                 -----Brad