{81} Henry IV Descents for Muriel (née Baird) Noel (1884-1968)

Byron Viner Basil Noel (1880-1959)
[Image from An Isle of Greece: the Noels of Euboea]

Continuing with the descendants of Rev. Thomas Noel, we have Byron Noel, the uncle of Francis Noel-Baker, M.P.  Since Byron was the only son of Frank Noel of Achmetaga, the beautiful estate on the Greek island of Euboea (today called Evia), it would have been natural for Byron to have inherited the property on his father's death in 1919. But instead it was left to his only sister Irene Noel-Baker. Irene's daughter-in-law Barbro Noel-Baker explains in An Isle of Greece: the Noels of Euboea, her 2000 book on the family (p. 280): “Unable to come to Achmetaga immediately after her father’s death, Irene unwisely, but inevitably, had put her brother Byron in charge. Her father disliked Byron’s wife, Muriel, nee Baird. He predicted that ‘that hairy woman’ would have no children, nor did she. And he was not overfond of Byron either. So he left the main Achmetaga Estate to Irene, Drazi half and half to her and Byron—she later bought his half—and to him alone the smaller estate at Pharakla, bought in 1876, fifteen kilometres away. Later Muriel’s pet monkey, Marco, bit the Pharacla peasants and their children, so they poisoned him. Byron then piled up his furniture and cartridges in the village square and set fire to them, after which he emigrated, first to Lady Anne Blunt’s house at Sheykh Obeyd near Cairo, then to Wroxham in Norfolk. Meanwhile, acting for Irene, Byron had run down the Archmetaga Estate, sold the horses and other animals, cut down the vineyards in the field below the house and let the garden grow wild with weeds. The whole place had a general air of neglect.”

Though Frank Noel disliked his son Byron's wife Muriel Baird, "that hairy woman" with the pet monkey, she was from a rather unconventional Scottish family, one that the famous poet Lord Byron, for whom her husband was named, would have undoubtedly approved. The Bairds were originally a minor landholding family in Old Monkland, Lanarkshire. Alexander Baird acquired Ury House, the centrepiece of a 1,500-acre estate in Kincardineshire (today Aberdeenshire) in 1854 for ‎£120,000. On his death in 1862, childless, it was inherited by his brother John Baird (1798-1870), and then eight years later by John's 21-year-old elder son Alexander. In 1873, Alexander Baird of Ury House married Annette, daughter of Conservative party politician Sir Lawrence Palk, baronet (later 1st Baron Haldon). They had six children in nine years, before Annette Baird died at Ury House from complications resulting from the birth of their seventh child, Muriel Jane, in 1884. Alexander, who was created a baronet in 1897, never remarried. He was fluent in Arabic, and had a lifelong fascination with Egypt, where he had a house in Mattarieh, just outside Cairo. He spent increasing amounts of time there as the years went on, with his motherless children often joining him. He was involved in philanthropic projects, and served as president of the Permanent Arbitration Board in Egypt.

Cairo in 1922

Muriel Baird married Byron Noel when she was age 25. They had in common a dual upbringing - splitting their time growing up between a conventional life in Britain, and the exotic cultures of Mediterranean countries. Muriel never knew her mother, and Byron Noel barely knew his: she had been involved in a scandalous affair with a neighbouring playboy, which resulted in a pregnancy, divorce and exile from society, and by the time Byron was age five, his mother was not a part of the Achmetaga household. It was probably at her father's home outside Cairo where Muriel acquired her ill-fated pet monkey. Once Byron and Muriel returned to England they spent the remainder of their years living quietly in Norfolk. They are not among the list of mourners at the funerals of any of Muriel's siblings, all of whom they outlived, which suggests they kept themselves isolated from family. Byron Noel died in 1959 at the age of 78. Muriel returned to her native Scotland, where she died nine years later at the age of 84.

MURIEL JANE BAIRD, b. 4 Apr. 1884 Ury House, Fetteresso, Kincardineshire, Scotland; d.s.p. 31 Dec. 1968 Scotland; m. 17 July 1909 Fetteresso Parish Church, BYRON VINER BASIL NOEL of Browns Hill, Irstead, Norfolk, b. 28 Nov. 1880 Achmetaga, Euboea (Evia), Greece, bap. 31 May 1881 St Paul Anglican Church, Athens; d.s.p. 23 Apr. 1959 Norwich Hospital, Norfolk, only son of Francis Edward Noel of Achmetaga (1844-1919, descended from Edward III) and Edith Ellen Viner (1856-1893).

Muriel (née Baird) Noel has an interesting ancestry, with her royal lines all coming to her through her maternal side, the Palks. First up are her two 18-generation lines of descent from Henry IV thru that monarch's illegitimate granddaughter Antigone, countess of Tancarville.

Henry IV

Henry IV had a son:
A1) Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester (1390-1447), who had
A2) Antigone of Gloucester, illegit. (b. c.1420) m. 1) Henry Gray, 2nd Count of Tancarville (1420-1450, descended from Edward I), and had
A3) Richard, 1st Lord Gray of Powis (1436-1466) m. Margaret Audley (c.1441-1481, descended from Edward III), and had
A4) John, 2nd Lord Gray of Powis (1460-1494) m. Lady Anne Herbert (b. c.1460), and had
A5) John, 3rd Lord Gray of Powis (c.1485-1504) m. Margaret Dudley (c.1485-by 1525, descended from Edward III), and had
A6) Edward, 4th Lord Gray of Powis (1503-1551) = Jane Pount (d. 1583), and had
A7) Edward Gray of Buildwas Abbey, illegit. (c.1542-1592) m. Chrysogona Gifford (descended from Edward III), and had
A8) Chrysogona Gray (c.1590-c.1675) m. Sir Moreton Briggs, 1st Baronet of Haughton (c.1587-by 1647, descended from Edward I), and had
A9) Robert Briggs of Shrewsbury (c.1615-1701) m. Sarah Moreton (c.1620-1699), and had
A10) Martha Briggs (c.1640-1705) m. 2) Sir John Stonhouse, 2nd Baronet of Radley (c.1639-1700), and had
A11) Sir John Stonhouse, 3rd Baronet of Radley (c.1672-1733) m. 1) Mary Mellish (c.1675-1704), and had

Martha (née Stonhouse) Vansittart
- see Generation A12

A12) MARTHA STONHOUSE, b. 28 Aug. 1697 Westminster, London, bap. 31 Aug. 1697 St Anne Soho, London; d. 13 June 1782, bur. 24 June 1782 St John the Baptist Church, Shottesbrooke, Berkshire; m. 23 May 1723, ARTHUR VANSITTART of Shottesbrooke Park, b. 26 Dec. 1691; d. 16 Sept. 1760 Shottesbrooke Park, bur. 19 Sept. 1760 St John the Baptist Church, Shottesbrooke, son of Peter van Sittart of London (1651-1705) and Susanna Sanderson (d. 1725), and had
A13) ANNE VANSITTART, b. 1738; d. 19 Aug. 1788 Haldon House, Kenn, Devon, bur. 26 Aug. 1788 St Michael & All Angels Church, Dunchideock, Devon; m. 7 Feb. 1761 St John the Baptist Church, Shottesbrooke, Sir ROBERT PALK, 1st Baronet of Haldon House, b. Ambrooke, Ashburton, Devon, bap. 16 Dec. 1717 Old Mission House, Ashburton; d. 29 Apr. 1798 Haldon House, bur. 7 May 1798 St Michael & All Angels Church, Dunchideock, son of Walter Palk of Lower Headborough Farm and Frances Abraham, and had a son A14 and a dau B14 (see below)
A14) Sir LAWRENCE PALK, 2nd Baronet of Haldon House, bap. 6 Mar. 1766 Fort St George, Madras, India; d. 20 June 1813 Mayfair, London, bur. 3 July 1813 St George Church, Shillingford, Devon; m. 15 May 1792 Marylebone, London, Lady DOROTHY ELIZABETH VAUGHAN, b. 13 May 1764 Mamhead House, Devon, bap. 6 Jan. 1765 St Thomas Church, Mamhead; d. 15 Feb. 1849 Mayfair, bur. 23 Feb. 1849 St Andrew Church, Enfield, Middlesex, dau. of Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne (1728-1800, descended from Edward III) and his 2nd wife Dorothy Shafto (c.1733-1805, descended from Edward III), and had
A15) Sir LAWRENCE VAUGHAN PALK, 3rd Baronet of Haldon House, b. 25 Apr. 1793 Westminster, London, bap. 30 May 1793 St George Hanover Square; d. 16 May 1860 Haldon House, bur. 23 May 1860 St Michael & All Angels Church, Dunchideock; m. 1st 9 Dec. 1815 St Peter Church, Tawstock, Devon, as her 2nd husband, his first cousin, ANNA ELEANORA WREY (see B15 below), and had

1st Baron Haldon -
see Generation A16

A16) LAWRENCE PALK, 1st Baron Haldon of Haldon, b. 30 Jan. 1818 Marylebone, London, bap. 26 Feb. 1818 St Marylebone Parish Church; d. 22 Mar. 1883 Haldon House, bur. 29 Mar. 1883 St Andrew Churchyard, Kenn, Devon; m. 15 Nov. 1845 St Mary Church, Rufford, Lancashire, MARIA HARRIET HESKETH, bap. 26 Nov. 1826 St Mary Church, Rufford; d. 18 Dec. 1905 Eastfield House, Whitchurch-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, bur. 21 Dec. 1905 St Andrew Churchyard, Kenn, only dau. of Sir Thomas Henry Hesketh, 4th Baronet of Rufford (1799-1843, descended from Edward III) and Annette Maria Bomford (c.1799-1879, descended from Edward III), and had
A17) Hon. ANNETTE MARIA PALK, b. 19 Sept. 1851 Haldon House, bap. 19 Oct. 1851 St Michael & All Angels Church, Dunchideock; d. 21 May 1884 Ury House, bur. Howff Park, Ury; m. 16 July 1873 St Peter Eaton Square, London, Sir ALEXANDER BAIRD, 1st Baronet of Ury, b. 22 Oct. 1849 Old Monkland, Lanarkshire, Scotland; d. 20 June 1920 Cairo, Egypt, son of John Baird of Ury House (1798-1870) and Margaret Findlay (d. 1883), and had
A18) MURIEL JANE BAIRD (1884-1968 - see details above), wife of Byron Noel

Sir Bourchier Wrey, 7th Bt -
see Generation B14

B14) ANNE PALK, bap. 3 Aug. 1764 Fort St George, Madras, India; d. 5 Sept. 1791 Tawstock Court, Devon, bur. 16 Sept. 1791 St Peter Church, Tawstock; m. 14 Mar. 1786 St John the Baptist Church, Shottesbrooke, as his 1st wife, Sir BOURCHIER WREY, 7th Baronet of Trebigh, b. 22 Feb. 1757 Tawstock Court, bap. 23 Feb. 1757 St Peter Church, Tawstock; d. 20 Nov. 1826 Holne Chase House, Ashburton, Devon, bur. 2 Dec. 1826 St Peter Church, Tawstock, son of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 6th Baronet of Trebigh (1715-1784, descended from Edward III) and his 2nd wife Ellen Thresher (1733-1813, descended from Edward III), and had
B15) ANNA ELEANORA WREY, b. 12 Jan. 1787 Tawstock Court, bap. 18 Jan. 1787 St Peter Church, Tawstock; d. 25 Jan. 1846 Dieppe, Normandy, France; m. 2nd 9 Dec. 1815 St Peter Church, Tawstock, as his 1st wife, her first cousin, Sir LAWRENCE VAUGHAN PALK, 3rd Baronet of Haldon House (see A15 above)

The next blogpost will expand on the entries for Muriel (née Baird) Noel, her mother and her siblings, in Ruvigny's Anne of Exeter volume.

Cheers,                                        ----Brad