{98} Ruvigny Elaboration: Henry VII/James V Descents for Margery (née Portal) Evan-Thomas (1881-1962)

Margery (née Portal) Evan-Thomas
(1881-1962)

When Geoffrey Rawstorne married Margery Portal in the summer of 1907, "two ancient and interesting county families" [The Graphic, July 27, 1907] were united. The wedding received a write-up in the Lancashire Daily Post, which is to be expected, as the 27-year-old groom was the heir to the manor of Penwortham Priory, as well as to Hutton Hall in the same parish, within that county. But it also received coverage (with photographs of the young couple) in two different London illustrated weekly newspapers, The Graphic and The Sketch. This was a first for the Rawstornes, and it seems that it was the bride's family who warranted such attention.

Margery Portal and her siblings grew up as social fixtures in the neighbourhood of Whitchurch, in northern Hampshire. She was the eldest of four children of a baronet, the head of the firm which manufactured the paper for the Bank of England notes, and for postal orders. Their home was Laverstoke House, a fine mansion standing in a park of 275 acres which slopes down to the right bank of the River Test. It had been the family seat for over a hundred years when Margery was born, since its purchase in 1759 by Henry Portal (c.1690-1747), a French Huguenot immigrant who had turned the local corn mill into a thriving paper manufacturer. Portal had fled persecution after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and arrived in Southampton in about 1706. He found there an influential community of Huguenot émigrés including the White Paper Makers’ Company of England, with whom he became involved, working in a paper mill at South Stoneham, near Southampton in 1710. In December 1724, Henry Portal was awarded the contract for producing watermarked banknote paper for the Bank of England. Personal connections may have played a part: the then-governor of the Bank of England, Sir Gilbert Heathcote, was from a Huguenot family, and it was his uncle, Sir William Heathcote, who granted Portal the lease to his first mill (Bere, in Whitchurch) in 1712. [See Gearing Franklin, Laverstoke Mill, Whitchurch, Hampshire: Historic Buildings Report, English Heritage Research Department Report Series, 2010]

Laverstoke House, Hampshire

John & Elizabeth (née Drummond) Portal Memorial
All Saints Church, Whitchurch

It was Henry Portal's grandson John Portal who first married into the Edward I bloodline, as a 51-year-old widower. John was the youngest of his father's three sons, and the only one who was interested in the family business: the eldest son had become an officer and the second a solicitor. So when Joseph died in 1793, he bequeathed to John a smaller family estate in Hampshire, Freefolk Priors, as well as the family business and all of the mills. The following year John Portal married Mary Corrie, the 19-year-old daughter of a non-conformist London merchant, who, like Portal's father, had died the previous year. Mary bore Portal eight children, before death descended on the family in the autumn of 1811, and claimed the 36-year-old Mary and three of their children. A middle-aged widower with five surviving young children, it was important for Portal to marry again. Appropriately enough for the man who owned the mills which produced the banknote paper, his choice fell on 27-year-old Elizabeth Drummond, a spinster from one of London's leading banking families. Her paternal grandfather, the Hon. Henry Drummond had been the seventh and youngest son of the Jacobite peer Viscount Strathallan, killed at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Henry was a partner of Drummonds, the London bank in Charing Cross founded in 1717 by his uncle Andrew Drummond (1688-1769). The Grange, a beautiful mansion in Hampshire ten miles southeast of Laverstoke House, was the country seat of the banking Drummonds of London, and Elizabeth's elder brother Henry Drummond (1786-1860) was its squire when she married John Portal in 1815. She became a real matriarch within the Portal family, a mother not only to her four stepchildren but to the seven children she went on to have with him as well.

Portal Baronets coat of arms

Margery, the great-granddaughter of John and Elizabeth (née Drummond) Portal, and her younger sister (by three years) Mary Portal, grew up in the world of turn-of-the-century yachting. Their father Sir William Wyndham Portal, 2nd Bt, was a longtime member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. Mary was the first to become engaged, at age 19, to Capt. the Hon. Charles Monck, an officer in the Coldstream Guards and heir to an Irish viscountcy. Margery was a bridesmaid at their wedding in 1904. When Margery wed Geoffrey Rawstorne three years later, he was a land agent controlling the estate of Wyvern in Radnorshire. When war broke out, Rawstorne joined the Lancashire Hussars, the same regiment his elder brother had fought with in South Africa. Both Margery and her sister Mary lost their officer husbands in combat during the Great War. Unlike the Moncks, however, the Portals were childless. Two weeks after Germany surrendered, the 37-year-old Margery re-married. Her second husband Charles Evan-Thomas was also a land agent, the sixth and youngest son of a London barrister from a minor gentry family in Glamorganshire. The second marriage was also childless. Evan-Thomas died at age 77 in 1943, in the midst of the Second World War. Margery survived him almost twenty years, her only surviving sibling her brother Sir Wyndham Portal, whom she was no doubt pleased to see raised to the peerage, first to a barony in 1935, followed by a viscountcy in 1945. But he, like Margery, was childless, so at his death in 1949, his peerages became extinct but the baronetcy passed to an 84-year-old uncle. Margery spent her remaining years in retirement in the beautiful Herefordshire village of Breinton on the River Wye, though she died in 1962 at age 81 in Winchester, in her home county of Hampshire, a city which had been especially beloved by her father.

Maj. Geoffrey Rawstorne
(1879-1917)

MARGERY PORTAL, b. 11 Apr. 1881 Chelsea, London; d.s.p. 12 Dec. 1962 Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester, er dau. of Sir William Wyndham Portal, 2nd Baronet of Malshanger (1850-1931, descended from James V - see Generation A13 below) and Florence Elizabeth Mary Glyn (1858-1931, descended from Edward III); m. 1st 24 July 1907 St Mary Church, Laverstoke, Hampshire, Maj. (THOMAS) GEOFFREY RAWSTORNE of Wyvern, Radnorshire, Major Lancashire Hussars 1916-17, b. 29 Sept. 1879 Westminster, London, d.s.p. (killed in action) 31 July 1917 Ypres, Flanders, Belgium, bur. Bard Cottage Cemetery, Ypres, yr son of Lawrence Rawstorne of Penwortham Priory (1842-1938, descended from Henry IV) and Edith Elizabeth Hesketh (1851-1931, descended from Henry VII); m. 2nd 27 Nov. 1918 Westminster, CHARLES HENRY EVAN-THOMAS of Caerwnon, Breconshire, Wales, land agent, b. 15 Aug. 1866 Cranmers, Mitcham, Surrey, bap. 1 Sept. 1866 St Peter & St Paul Church, Mitcham; d.s.p. 13 Sept. 1943 Harrow Weald, Middlesex, yst son of Charles Evan Thomas of Gnoll, Glamorganshire, barrister (1817-1902) and Caroline Pearson (c.1822-1909).

Margery Portal in Ruvigny's Tudor volume

Margery Portal appears with her father and siblings on p. 539 of Ruvigny's 1903 Tudor volume. Line A below is an elaboration of the line from Henry VII that the marquis traced for her. Line B is her second line from Henry VII, through his grandson James V of Scotland, which wasn't traced by Ruvigny as it is stems from an illegitimate son of the Scottish monarch.

Henry VII

HENRY VII had two daus A1 & B1 (see below)
A1) Princess MARY TUDOR, b. 18 Mar. 1496 Richmond Palace, Surrey; d. 25 June 1533 Westhorpe Hall, Suffolk, bur. 22 July 1533 Bury St Edmunds Abbey, Suffolk; m. 2nd 31 Mar. 1515 Paris, France, as his 3rd wife, CHARLES BRANDON, 1st Duke of Suffolk, b. c.1483; d. 22 Aug. 1545 Guildford, Surrey, bur. 9 Sept. 1545 St George Chapel, Windsor Castle, Berkshire, yr son of Sir William Brandon (c.1453-1485, descended from Edward I) & Elizabeth Bruyn (d. 1494), and had
A2) Lady ELEANOR BRANDON, b. 1519; d. 27 Sept. 1547 Brougham Castle, Westmorland, bur. Holy Trinity Church, Skipton, Yorkshire; m. June 1535 Suffolk House, Southwark, Surrey, as his 1st wife, HENRY CLIFFORD, 2nd Earl of Cumberland, b. c.1517; d. 2 Jan. 1570 Brougham Castle, bur. Holy Trinity Church, Skipton, er son of Henry Clifford, 1st Earl of Cumberland (1493-1542, descended from Edward III) & Lady Margaret Percy (c.1495-1540, descended from Edward III), and had

Margaret (née Clifford), Countess
of Derby - see Generation A3

A3) Lady MARGARET CLIFFORD, b. 1540; d. 29 Sept. 1596 Cleveland Row, Westminster, bur. 22 Oct. 1596 Westminster Abbey; m. 7 Feb. 1555 Whitehall Palace, Westminster, HENRY STANLEY, 4th Earl of Derby, b. Sept. 1531 Lathom Castle, Lancashire, bap. there 4 Oct. 1531; d. there 25 Sept. 1593, bur. 4 Dec. 1593 St Peter & St Paul Church, Ormskirk, Lancashire, son of Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby (1509-1572, descended from Edward III) & his 2nd wife Lady Dorothy Howard (c.1514-c.1547, descended from Edward I), and had
A4) WILLIAM STANLEY, 6th Earl of Derby, b. Derby House, Cannon Row, Westminster, bap. 20 July 1561 St Martin Ludgate, London; d. 29 Sept. 1642 Chester, Cheshire, bur. there 1 Oct. 1642; m. 26 Jan. 1595 Greenwich Palace, Kent, Lady ELIZABETH DE VERE, b. 2 July 1575 Theobalds House, Hertfordshire, bap. there 10 July 1575; d. 10 Mar. 1627 Richmond Palace, Surrey, bur. 11 Mar. 1627 Westminster Abbey, est. dau of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604, descended from Edward I) & his 1st wife Anne Cecil (1556-1588), and had

7th Earl of Derby -
see Generation A5

A5) JAMES STANLEY, 7th Earl of Derby, b. 31 Jan. 1606 Knowsley Hall, Lancashire; d. 15 Oct. 1651 Bolton, Lancashire, bur. St Peter & St Paul Church, Ormskirk; m. 26 June 1626 The Hague, Holland, CHARLOTTE DE LA TREMOILLE, b. Dec. 1599 Thouars Castle, Poitou, France; d. 22 Mar. 1664 Knowsley Hall, bur. 6 Apr. 1664 St Peter & St Paul Church, Ormskirk, dau of Claude de La Trémoille, 2nd Duke of Thouars (1566-1604, descended from Frederick IV of Naples) & Countess Charlotte Brabatine of Nassau (1580-1631), and had
A6) Lady AMELIA ANN SOPHIA STANLEY, b. 17 July 1633; d. 22 Feb. 1703, bur. Dunkeld Cathedral, Perthshire, Scotland; m. 5 May 1659, JOHN MURRAY, 1st Marquess of Atholl, b. 2 May 1631; d. 6 May 1703, bur. 17 May 1703 Dunkeld Cathedral, son of John Murray, 1st Earl of Atholl (d. 1642, descended from James IV) & Jean Campbell (descended from Edward III), and had

2nd Lord Nairne -
see Generation A7

A7) WILLIAM MURRAY [later NAIRNE], 2nd Lord Nairne, b. 10 Dec. 1664; d. 3 Feb. 1726 Nairne House, Auchtergaven, Perthshire, bur. Auchtergaven Parish Church; m. (contract 18 Jan.) 1690, MARGARET NAIRNE (see B7 below), and had
A8) Hon. MARGARET NAIRNE, b. 19 Aug. 1692; d. 28 May 1773 Machany House, Blackford, Perthshire; m. 1 Nov. 1712, WILLIAM DRUMMOND, 4th Viscount Strathallan, b. c.1690 Machany House; d. (killed in battle) 16 Apr. 1746 Culloden Moor, Inverness-shire, Scotland, 4th son of Sir John Drummond, 3rd of Machany House (c.1650-1707, descended from James IV) and Margaret Stewart (descended from Edward III), and had
A9) Hon. HENRY DRUMMOND of The Grange, Northington, Hampshire, partner Drummonds Bank, Charing Cross, London, M.P. Wendover 1774-80, Midhurst 1780-90, b. 7 Feb. 1730 Machany House, bap. 9 Feb. 1730 Blackford Parish Church; d. 24 June 1795 The Grange, bur. 1 July 1795 St John Church, Northington; m. 23 Mar. 1761 St James Church, Westminster, ELIZABETH COMPTON, b. 13 Sept. 1734; d. 25 Mar. 1819 Marylebone, London, bur. 2 Apr. 1819 St John Church, Northington, 4th dau. of Hon. Charles Compton of Northampton (1698-1755, descended from Edward III) and Mary Lucy (b. 1709, descended from Edward III), and had

Hon. Henry Drummond
- see Generation A9

A10) HENRY DRUMMOND, Heir of The Grange, M.P. Castle Rising 1790-94, b. 13 Jan. 1762 Westminster, bap. 9 Feb. 1762 St Margaret Church, Westminster; d. 4 July 1794 Spring Gardens, London, bur. 11 July 1794 St John Church, Northington; m. 13 Feb. 1786 St Martin in the Fields, London, as her 1st husband, Hon. ANNE DUNDAS, b. 28 Sept. 1768 Edinburgh; d. there 21 Jan. 1852, bur. St John Princes Street, Edinburgh, 2nd dau. of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742-1811, descended from James IV) and his 1st wife Elizabeth Rannie (1750-1846), and had
A11) ELIZABETH DRUMMOND, b. 31 Jan. 1788 Westminster, bap. 28 Feb. 1788 St James Church, Westminster; d. 21 May 1877 Knightsbridge, London, bur. 26 May 1877 St Mary Church, Laverstoke, Hampshire; m. 1 Aug. 1815 St Swithin Church, Walcot, Bath, Somersetshire, as his 2nd wife, JOHN PORTAL of Laverstoke House, b. 29 Apr. 1764, bap. 9 Oct. 1764 All Saints Church, Whitchurch, Hampshire; d. 7 May 1848 Freefolk Priors, Hampshire, bur. All Saints Church, Whitchurch, yst son of Joseph Portal of Laverstoke House, paper mills owner (1720-1793) and Sarah Peachey (d. 1802), and had

Sir William Wyndham Portal,
1st Bt- see Generation A12

A12) Sir WYNDHAM SPENCER PORTAL, 1st Baronet of Malshanger, b. 22 July 1822 Freefolk Priors, bap. 28 June 1823 St Mary Church, Laverstoke; d. 14 Sept. 1905 Malshanger House, Oakley, Hampshire, bur. 18 Sept. 1905 St Leonard Church, Oakley; m. 19 Apr. 1849 All Saints Church, Deane, Hampshire, MARY JANE HICKS-BEACH, b. 9 Sept. 1828 Oakley Hall, Church Oakley, Hampshire, bap. 13 Oct. 1828 All Saints Church, Deane; d. 4 Nov. 1903 Malshanger House, bur. 9 Nov. 1903 St Leonard Church, Oakley, est dau. of Col. William Hicks-Beach of Oakley Hall (1783-1856, descended from Edward III) and Jane Henrietta Browne (1804-1831, descended from Edward III), and had
A13) Sir WILLIAM WYNDHAM PORTAL, 2nd Baronet of Malshanger, b. 12 Apr. 1850 Westminster, bap. 19 May 1850 St Mary Church, Laverstoke; d. 30 Sept. 1931 Laverstoke House, bur. 3 Oct. 1931 St Mary Church, Laverstoke; m. 23 June 1880 Chapel Royal, Savoy, London, FLORENCE ELIZABETH MARY GLYN, b. 17 June 1858 Great Stanmore, Middlesex, bap. 12 July 1858 St John Church, Great Stanmore; d. 30 Dec. 1931 Marylebone, London, bur. 3 Jan. 1932 St Mary Church, Laverstoke, 2nd dau. of Hon. St Leger Richard Glyn of Bramble Hill House (1826-1870, descended from Edward III) and Florence Elizabeth Wilmot Williams (1827-1887, descended from Edward III), and had
A14) MARGERY PORTAL (1881-1962-see details above)

Margaret (née Tudor), Queen of
Scotland - see Generation B1

B1) Princess MARGARET TUDOR of England, b. 28 Nov. 1489 Westminster Palace, London, bap. St Margaret Church, Westminster; d. 18 Oct. 1541 Methven Castle, Perthshire, bur. Charterhouse, Perth; m. 1st 8 Aug. 1503 Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, JAMES IV STEWART, King of Scotland 1488-1513, b. 17 Mar. 1473 Stirling Castle, Stirlingshire; d. (killed in battle) 9 Sept. 1513 Flooded Field, Northumberland, bur. St Paul's Cathedral, London, and had
B2) JAMES V STEWART, King of Scotland 1513-1542, b. 10 Apr. 1512 Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian; d. 14 Dec. 1542 Falkland Palace, Fifeshire, bur. 8 Jan. 1543 Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh; = 1532, EUPHEMIA ELPHINSTONE, b. 11 May 1509; d. after 1564, dau. of Alexander, 1st Lord Elphinstone (c.1480-1513) and Elizabeth Barlow (c.1476-1518), and had

1st Earl of Orkney -
see Generation B3

B3) ROBERT STEWART, 1st Earl of Orkney, illegit., b. spring 1533 (per ODNB); d. 4 Feb. 1593 Earl's Palace, Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, bur. St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall; m. 14 Dec. 1561, Lady JANET KENNEDY, b. c.1542; d. Sept. 1598, dau. of Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassillis (c.1517-1558) and Margaret Kennedy (c.1520-1596), and had
B4) LADY JEAN STEWART, b. c.1565; d. after 1642; m. 1st, PATRICK LESLIE, 1st Lord Lindores, b. c.1557; d. by 5 Oct. 1608 (per ScotsPeer), 2nd son of Andrew Leslie, 5th Earl of Rothes (c.1530-1611) and his 1st wife Grizel Hamilton (d. by 1573, descended from James II), and had
B5) Hon. MARGARET LESLIE, b. c.1600; d. unknown; m. (contract 30 Apr.) 1622 (per ScotsPeer), JOHN DRUMMOND, 2nd Lord Maderty, b. c.1580; d. by 1651, son of James Drummond, 1st Lord Maderty (c.1555-1623) and Jean Chisholm (1555-1589, descended from James IV), and had

Margaret Nairne -
see Generation B7

B6) Hon. JEAN DRUMMOND, b. c.1625; d. unknown; m. c.1640 PATRICK GRAEME, 5th Laird of Inchbrakie Castle, Crieff, Perthshire, b. c.1610; d. 1687, son of George Graeme, 4th Laird of Inchbrakie Castle (c.1585-1654, descended from James II) and Margaret Keith (descended from James I), and had
B6) MARGARET GRAEME, b. c.1644; bur. 3 May 1704 (per Burke's); m. after 10 Jan. 1657 (per ODNB), ROBERT NAIRNE, 1st Lord Nairne, b. c.1620; d. 30 May 1683, bur. June 1683 Auchtergaven Parish  Church, Perthshire, son of Robert Naire of Strathurd, Perthshire, advocate (d. 1652) and Katherine Preston, and had
B7) MARGARET NAIRNE, b. 16 Dec. 1669; d. 14 Nov. 1747, bur. Auchtergaven Parish Church; m. (contract 18 Jan.) 1690, WILLIAM MURRAY [later NAIRNE], 2nd Lord Nairn (see A7 above)

For the next blogpost, I'm going to take a break from the peerage and baronetage, and focus on the Edward III descent for British actor Danny Dyer, which was featured last November on the season premiere of Who Do You Think You Are.

Cheers,                                      ------Brad