{101} Charles II Descent for Madeleine (née Petre) Clarke (1913-2005)

Madeleine (née Petre) and Lt-Col. Desmond Clarke
in 1944 on their wedding day
[Image courtesy of Desmond Clarke]

Desmond Clarke, guest blogger in the previous post, has an interesting ancestry through each of his parents. First up is his mother's descent from Charles II. Born the fifth child of an officer in the Royal Navy, Madeleine Marie Ethel Petre was a woman with strength of character, devotion to her faith, and a keen interest in genealogy and the role that her family played in British history. The strength of character was evidenced at an early age in February 1927, when Madeleine gave evidence at the Coroner's court in Marylebone on an inquest into the death from tetanus of a 10-year-old schoolboy in Addlestone, Surrey, who, while playing in a field, was allegedly bit by a dog owned by one Madame Julien. Questioned by counsel from both sides, Madeleine straightforwardly relayed what she had witnessed in the field, even though it challenged the previous testimony of her friend Madame Julien. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, acquitted Madame Julien of criminal intent, but found that she did not exercise proper control over the dog ['Alsatian Dog Again in Court: Inquest on Boy', The Yorkshire Evening Post, Tuesday, February 15th, 1927]. The Coroner was impressed by Madeleine's testimony in this serious case, and it's even more impressive when one realizes that Madeleine was only age thirteen at the time!

Madeleine and her childhood friend Diana Preston became Volunteer Aid Department (VAD) nurses at the outbreak of World War II, stationed at the Brigade of Guards Depot at Caterham, Surrey, where they dealt with the hundreds of guardsmen returning from Dunkirk in 1940. In January 1944, Madeleine married Desmond Clarke, a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Artillery, who had served on the Western Desert Campaign in Egypt, and the Burma campaign. The young couple had known each other in childhood -- the Clarkes, Petres, and Prestons were military Catholic families who socialized closely together in Weybridge and Addlestone -- but, apart from watching the Coronation of George VI in 1937 while Desmond was on leave in England from his service in India, had only briefly seen each other over the past ten years. Their first child, named Desmond after his father, was born in January 1945, but Lt-Col. Clarke's Division was a key part of the Normandy landings, and the War kept the couple separated for much of the remainder of its duration. Afterwards, Clarke continued a thriving career in the military, and the couple were able to set up house together, with four additional children following, the youngest one born in 1958, a few weeks before Madeleine's forty-fifth birthday.

Battle of Waterloo 150th Anniversary medallion
struck for the Guildhall Banquet in 1965

After her husband's retirement in 1966, Madeleine was able to focus her keen intellect on the history of the Petres, described in the Catholic Encyclopedia as "one of those staunch and constant families, which have always played a great part in the preservation of the Catholic faith in England." Madeleine's research culminated in her book, Sans Dieu Rien, the title taken from the family motto, which translates to 'Without God Nothing'. When Madeleine and her husband were dined by Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer at the Tower of London the year of her husband's retirement, she was shown the cell in which her ancestor the 4th Baron Petre had been imprisoned. The previous year, at the 150th anniversary celebrations for the Battle of Waterloo, which her husband had organized, a senior officer inquired how Madeleine's eldest son Desmond, then a Sandhurst cadet, had managed to get an invitation. Madeleine responded it was due to his great-great-grandfather having captured Napoleon's charger after the battle, then enquired about the senior officer's connection. I'm very much looking forward to reading Madeleine's book on the Petres.

It is more than appropriate to give the final word on Madeleine to her eldest son:
"Madeleine was a wonderful mother and a loving and very supportive wife...I well remember her little habits such as insisting that we (and later her grandchildren) ate a plain piece of bread and butter before being allowed cake at tea and that she always changed for dinner every night after saying her prayers at her prie-dieu in the privacy of her room. In her widowhood, she would enter every year two of her paintings for the Caldbeck art exhibition and was thrilled when these quickly sold, not knowing that they had often been bought by my brother Dominic! When she died early in 2005 in her 92nd year, the Gunner magazine most unusually published a short obituary for a much admired and loved wife of a very senior Gunner officer. She would have been very pleased...She also loved doing the Daily Telegraph crossword and would sometimes ring my sister, Amicie (a Guardian reader!), if she was having difficulty with a clue. While in her late eighties, she once took the unfinished crossword with her on a visit to her doctor in Caldbeck and before leaving the surgery asked for his help in resolving a clue. As he held open the door for her she was overheard to say, 'I thought it might be syphilis'!" [Desmond Clarke, Footnotes: A personal history]

MADELEINE MARIE ETHEL PETRE, VAD Nurse WWII 1939-44, family history author, b. 16 June 1913 Portsmouth, Hampshire; d. 4 Jan. 2005 Chichester, Sussex, 2nd dau. of RAdm. Walter Reginald Glynn Petre of Pinecroft, Weybridge, Surrey (1873-1942, descended from Charles II - see Generation 8 below) and Agnes Marie Cadic (1880-1963); m. 19 Jan. 1944 Surrey, Maj-Gen. DESMOND ALEXANDER BRUCE CLARKE, C.B., C.B.E., of Caldbeck, Cumberland, b. 15 July 1912 Kasauil, the Punjab, India; d. 22 Nov. 1986 Cumberland, yr son of Robert Thomas Clarke of Weybridge (1871-1953) and (Margaret Mary) Gladys Whyte (1880-1966, descended from Edward III), and had issue, three sons and two daughters, with thirteen grandchildren and (to date) eleven great-grandchildren.

Charles II

Madeleine (née Petre) Clarke is a ninth-generation descendant of Charles II through his youngest illegitimate child.

CHARLES II = Mary Davies (c.1651-1708), and had a dau

1) Lady MARY TUDOR, illegit., b. 16 Oct. 1673; d. 5 Nov. 1726 Paris, France; m. 1st 18 Aug. 1687,  EDWARD RADCLIFFE, 2nd Earl of Derwentwater, b. 9 Dec. 1655; d. 29 Apr. 1705 London, est son of Francis Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Derwentwater (1625-1696, descended from Edward III) and Katherine Fenwick (descended from Edward III), and had

2) JAMES RADCLIFFE, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater, b. 26 June 1689 Piccadilly, London; d. (executed) 24 Feb. 1716 Tower Hill, London, bur. Dalston Chapel, Northumberland; m. 10 July 1712, ANNA MARIA WEBB, b. 1693; d. 19 Aug. 1723 Brussels, Belgium, est dau. of Sir John Webb, 3rd Baronet of Odstock (c.1670-1745, descended from Edward III) and his 1st wife Hon. Barbara Bellasis (c.1673-1740, descended from Edward III), and had

3) Lady ANNA MARIA BARBARA RADCLIFFE, b. 1716; d. 31 Mar. 1760 Ingatestone Hall, Essex, bur. 4 Apr. 1760 St Edmund & St Mary Church, Ingatestone; m. 2 May 1732 St Pauls Cathedral, London, ROBERT JAMES PETRE, 8th Baron Petre of Writtle, b. 3 June 1713; d. 2 July 1742 London, bur. 8 July 1742 St Edmund & St Mary Church, Ingatestone, est son of Robert, 7th Baron Petre (1690-1713, descended from Edward III) and Catherine Walmesley (1698-1785, descended from Edward III), and had

9th Baron Petre - see Generation 4

4) ROBERT EDWARD PETRE, 9th Baron Petre of Writtle, b. Feb. 1742; d. 2 July 1801 Westminster, London, bur. 9 July 1801 St Edmund & St Mary Church, Ingatestone; m. 1st 19 Apr. 1762 Golden Square, London, ANNE HOWARD, b. 29 Aug. 1742; d. 15 Jan. 1787 Thorndon Hall, West Thorndon, Essex, bur. 23 Jan. 1787 St Edmund & St Mary Church, Ingatestone, dau. of Philip Howard of Buckenham House (1689-1750, descended from James II of Scotland) and his 2nd wife Henrietta Blount (1708-1782, descended from Edward III), and had

5) Hon. GEORGE WILLIAM PETRE of Bellhouse, Stanford Rivers, Essex, b. 10 Jan. 1766 Mayfair, London; d. 22 Oct. 1797, bur. 28 Oct. 1797 St Margaret Church, Stanford Rivers; m. 16 Aug. 1785, as her 1st husband, MARIA HOWARD, b. 2 Jan. 1762 Bath, Somersetshire; d. 11 June 1837 Heatham Lodge, Twickenham, Middlesex, bur. same day St Mary Church, Twickenham, yr dau. of Philip Howard of Corby Castle, Cumberland (1730-1810, descended from Edward III) and Anne Witham (1734-1794, descended from Edward III), and had

6) Lt. HENRY WILLIAM PETRE of Dunkenhalgh Hall, Lancashire, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, fought in Battle of Waterloo and took home Napoleon's charger 'Morengo', b. 23 Apr. 1791 Marylebone, London; d. 26 Nov. 1852 Portman Square, Westminster, bur. St Mary Catholic Chapel, Enfield, Clayton-le-Moors, Lancashire, son of Hon. George William Petre of Bellhouse (1766-1797, descended from Charles II) and Maria Howard (1762-1837, descended from Edward III);m. 1st 17 July 1818 St Meubred Church, Cardinham, Cornwall, ELIZABETH ANNE GLYNN, b. 2 Sept. 1791 Glynn House, Cardinham, bap. 13 July 1792 St Meubred Church, Cardinham; d. (as a result of childbirth) 13 Sept. 1828 Dunkenhalgh Hall, dau. of Edmund John Glynn of Glynn House (1764-1840, descended from Edward III) and Elizabeth Anne Worsley (1771-1797, descended from Edward III), and had

Sir George Glynn Petre -
see Generation 7

7) Sir GEORGE GLYNN PETRE of Dunkenhalgh Hall, K.C.M.G., C.B., b. 4 Sept. 1822 Twickenham, bap. 30 Sept. 1822 St Mary Church, Twickenham; d. 17 May 1905 Hove, Sussex, bur. All Saints Churchyard, Odiham, Hampshire; m. 10 Apr. 1858 British Embassy, Paris, France, EMMA KATHARINE JULIA SNEYD, b. Dec. 1830 Mattingley Lodge, Heckfield, Hampshire, bap. 6 Mar. 1831 St Michael Church, Heckfield; d. 27 Dec. 1916 Hotel Rubens, London, 5th dau. of Maj. Ralph Henry Sneyd of Mattingley Lodge (1784-1840, descended from Edward I) and Jane Robina Dunbar (1791-1878, descended from James V), and had
8) RAdm. WALTER REGINALD GLYNN PETRE of Pinecroft, Weybridge, Surrey, D.S.O., b. 14 Dec. 1873 Westminster, London, bap. Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, Soho, London; d. 26 Dec. 1942 Weybridge, bur. 29 Dec. 1942 Weybridge Cemetery; m. 22 Jan. 1906 St Peter Catholic Church, Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Wales, AGNES MARIE CADIC, b. 1880; d. 21 Sept. 1963 Chichester, Sussex, bur. Weybridge Cemetery, dau. of Capt. Eugene A. Cadic of Rennes (1838-1908) and Marie Amélie Garnier-Duplessix (c.1840-1905), and had
9) MADELEINE MARIE ETHEL PETRE (1913-2005-see details above)

The next blogpost will elaborate on and continue Ruvigny's account of Madeleine's father, Rear-Admiral Walter Petre, in the 1905 Clarence volume.

Cheers,                            -----Brad