{73} Ruvigny Addition: Descendants of Harriet (née Milbanke) Tilghman (1765-1835)

Harriet (née Milbanke) Tilghman (1765-1835)

In May of 1788, Abigail Smith wrote a letter to her mother Abigail Adams (the future First Lady of the United States) about her voyage home from England and two of her fellow passengers: “We were in all six cabin passengers. I wrote you from Falmouth of a Mr. and Mrs. T[ilghman]; he is a native of Maryland, sent early to England for his education; but it is not easy to discover that this was the motive of his visit, unless to be thoroughly knowing in the career of New-Market, Brooks, and every species of gambling, extravagance, and dissipation, was the education intended for him; he is a Lieutenant of the British Navy, was on board the Somerset, and a prisoner in Boston during the war. Three years since he ran off with, and married the daughter of the Admiral, a step which I believe every person but herself, thinks she has much cause to repent of. It is said he has run through his own fortune, and a fortune of five thousand pounds, which his brother, who died in the East Indies, left him; and is now much in advance. They are now upon a visit to his father, who is a man of property in Maryland; and strange as it may appear, although Mrs. T—— is of a most amiable disposition, pleasing in her person and manners, she appears greatly attached to him, and to be happy. I never saw two persons, who excited in my mind so much surprise.”

Meanwhile in Chestertown, Maryland, thirty-year-old Mary 'Molly' Tilghman, wrote a few weeks later, in July 1788, about her brother 'Phil', to their cousin Mary 'Polly' Pearce, "we heard of
Phil [Tilghman]'s arrival; since which time I have been in so anxious a state of suspense, and expectation that I have hardly even thought of writing to any body out of the family. Phil wou'd have been here a Month ago, but for the indisposition of little Harriet, who has never been able to travel till now. She caught a violent cold off the Banks of Newfoundland, and was very ill when they landed. I have had three letters from Mrs [Phil] Tilghman, who seems very impatient to get here. They got to Philad[elphi]a yesterday week, and meant to leave it last Thursday, which they did not, or they wou'd have been here before this. I have no words to express my astonishment when I first heard they were at New York. To you, my dear Polly I will own that my feelings were far from being joyful ones. I was indeed extremely shock'd. When Phil left America, it was with an idea of never seeing it again, which makes me fear that something disagreeable has happen'd. As yet we are all in the dark as he prudently defers all explanations till he can make them in person. Such has been our situation for the last Month and I need not add that it has been most harrassing. Every post we have expected to hear that we shou'd see him in a day or two and as often have we been disappointed. Since Saturday we have been in hourly expectation of them and of course constantly on the watch. Indeed I am almost exhausted. Every Carriage that I hear throws me into a tremor."

Map of the Chestertown area
[Image from Historical Society of Kent County]

The couple eliciting such excitement and judgment was Philemon Tilghman and his wife Harriet (née Milbanke), who were travelling from England with their infant daughter (also named Harriet), to the Tilghman family on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where Phil's father and siblings would meet his wife and daughter for the first time. Harriet was in the early months of pregnancy with their second child.

The fifth of the six sons of attorney James Tilghman of Chestertown, Maryland, and of Philadelphia, Philemon 'Phil' was undoubtedly the most impulsive of Tilghman's ten children[*1]. Aged eleven when his mother Anne, a sickly woman, died, Philemon (named for his notable great-grandfather Philemon Lloyd of Maryland) was living with his elder brothers James Jr. and William on their father's plantation in Queen Anne's County when the war for American Independence broke out in 1775. James Tilghman was an important and respected government official in Philadelphia, who was a political moderate with a dread of civil war. Zealous patriots viewed him suspiciously as a Loyalist, and he was one of about forty persons who was arrested by Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council in the summer of 1777. Philemon's sixty-year-old father was now a prisoner-of-war. Upon hearing the news of his father's arrest, sixteen-year-old Phil ran off to join the British. Admiral Lord Howe's fleet was sailing up the Chesapeake to deposit troops on the way to Philadelphia, when Phil Tilghman appeared asking for a commission in the British army or navy. Howe quickly made the lad a midshipman on the 64-gunner Somerset. James Tilghman was given parole and permission to visit his Maryland home, and on his return there learned of Phil's "rash and indiscreet" action. He tried to get his son out of the British navy for the next two years, to no avail. "I hope and believe you acted upon Principle," James wrote to Phil, "and therefore I cannot abandon you or withdraw my affection unless I should have the misfortune to hear that you have departed from the principles of virtue and honour." It wouldn't be until after the Revolutionary War when Phil abandoned those principles.

H.M.S. Somerset

The H.M.S. Somerset ran aground off of Provincetown in 1778, and Phil Tilghman was one of over 100 of its men who were taken prisoner and forced to walk over 125 miles to Boston. He later ended up on ships involved in the relief of Gibraltar. There, he was put under the command of Vice-Admiral Mark Milbanke, and young Tilghman eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant. But his career in the British navy came to an abrupt halt when in 1785, 24-year-old Lt. Tilghman eloped with Admiral Milbanke's beautiful 20-year-old daughter Harriet. With no career, and an inclination towards gambling and partying rather than the pursuit of one, Phil apparently relied on financial assistance from Richard 'Dick' Tilghman, an older brother who, like Phil, was an Anglophile, and had left America for good in 1776 for a career with the East India Company. Tragically, Dick drowned at sea on a voyage back to England from India in January 1786. Phil and Harriet's first child arrived a year later. Unable to turn to Admiral Milbanke for assistance due to their elopement, the young couple were clearly in a bind in London, so Phil made a solo trip to his father in Maryland at the end of 1787, which apparently did not go so smoothly, since when he departed back to England in January 1788, his sister Molly Tilghman was left with the impression that she would never see him again. Thus her mixture of surprise and annoyance when she learned that summer that Phil was returning to them, this time with his wife and infant daughter.

The Plantation
[Image from Metropolitan Museum of Art]

By all accounts as amiable as she was beautiful, Harriet Tilghman seems to have won over her husband's family, especially Molly. Phil, on the other hand, seems to have remained as arrogant as he was unemployable. A few weeks after the birth of his second child, daughter Caroline, Molly Tilghman wrote to their cousin Polly Pearce, "Her name is a whim of her fathers, who is hardly yet reconcil'd to his second Daughter. He was in as terrible a friz on the occasion, as if a title and vast estate had depended on the birth of a son.” Phil seemed to completely lack the skills and talents of his brothers: the eldest, Tench Tilghman served as George Washington's most trusted aide-de-camp during the War, and afterwards returned to a prosperous career as a merchant, in which he was joined by youngest brother Thomas. James Jr. and William both took seats in the Maryland legislature, and William, an attorney like their father, went on to become Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Phil and his growing family lived with his father James in Chestertown, until the latter's death in 1793, after which he removed to one of the Tilghman plantations, Golden Square, where he himself died prematurely in 1797, at age 36, just 17 months after the birth of his eagerly anticipated son. Phil had outlived all but three of his siblings - his only surviving brother was William, the attorney in Philadelphia. Harriet Tilghman found herself widowed in her early 30s, with five young children aged 10 to 2, and the responsibility of a small plantation on Maryland's Eastern seaboard, staffed with slaves. Unable (Tilghman was in such massive debt at his early death that creditors were still trying to collect from his estate as late as 1810) or, hopefully, unwilling (Harriet's first cousin Sir Ralph, who had just succeeded as baronet and head of the Milbanke family back in England, was an active politician and anti-slavery crusader) to run the plantation on her own, Harriet returned to England with her children.

By this point her father Admiral Milbanke was in his late 70s and retired. He and his wife had a townhouse in the fashionable London neighbourhood of Portman Square, but they had no huge fortune or country seat. Harriet made her home in Portman Square, and the Admiral bequeathed her and her children what he could in his 1805 will, but it was Harriet's younger sister Eliza Emily and her husband, the talented Liberal politician William Huskisson, who became the patrons of Harriet's children. The Huskissons had no children of their own, and the Tilghman siblings benefitted tremendously from their influential uncle. Eldest sister Harriet Tilghman married Rev. Richard Cockburn, the curate of Eartham in Sussex, where William Huskisson's country seat was situated. Youngest sister Charlotte Tilghman married Molyneux Nepean, the son and heir of Sir Evan Nepean, one of Huskisson's closest friends and political allies in Parliament. And it was Huskisson who secured his nephew Richard Milbanke Tilghman a position in the Honourable East India Company. Middle sister Emily Tilghman's marriage to Jeremiah Hoffman, the London representative of a successful Baltimore mercantile family, seems to have been the only one made without the influence of the Huskissons.

College of the East India Company, Hertfordshire

History would repeat itself in 1834 when Harriet's only son Richard Tilghman died prematurely at age 38 in India, leaving five young children aged 12 to 3. Unlike Harriet's children however, these next generation Tilghmans were completely orphaned, their mother having died just a few months before their father. They were taken to England, and put in the care of their unmarried aunt Caroline Tilghman, and under the patronage of their widowed great aunt Eliza Emily Huskisson. She made the elder of her Tilghman great nephews, the one named for her late husband, her heir. On her death in 1856, William Huskisson Tilghman inherited Eartham Place and changed his surname to Huskisson. His own premature death in 1865 at age 37 brought an end to the male line of Philemon and Harriet Tilghman. None of his three surviving sisters married: one, Emily Eliza Tilghman, ended her days in a mental institution, and the other two as solitary spinsters on the English coast, distant echoes of the Tilghman-Milbanke elopement that had caused such a stir in the social circles of the newborn United States.

Details of why the Milbankes of Halnaby, Yorkshire are additions to Ruvigny's 1911 Mortimer Percy volume can be found in a previous post. Harriet Tilghman and her descendants below would be additions to that volume.

Nave of Winchester Cathedral

HARRIET MILBANKE, b. Chester Deanery, co. Durham, bap. 30 Sept. 1765 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; d. 4 Apr. 1835 Portman Square, London, bur. 11 Apr. 1735 St Etheldreda Church, Bishops Hatfield, er dau. of Admiral Mark Milbanke of Portman Square (1724-1805, descended from Edward IV) and Mary Webber (c.1740-1812); m. (eloped) 1785, Lt. PHILEMON TILGHMAN of Golden Square Plantation, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, b. 29 Nov. 1760 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; d. 11 Jan. 1797 Golden Square Plantation, yr son of James Tilghman of Philadelphia (1716-1793, descended from Edward III) and Anne Francis (1726-1771), and had issue, one son and four daughters[*2].

Issue of Harriet (Milbanke) and Philemon Tilghman:

1) HARRIET TILGHMAN, b. 3 Jan. 1787 Westminster, bap. 16 Apr. 1787 St James Church, Westminster; d.s.p. 26 July 1863 Winchester, Hampshire; m. 12 Dec. 1808 St Margaret Church, Westminster, Rev. RICHARD COCKBURN, Prebend of Winchester Cathedral 1825-31, b. 1769 Yorkshire; d.s.p. 24 Nov. 1831 Winchester, bur. 30 Nov. 1831 Winchester Cathedral.

2) CAROLINE ELIZA TILGHMAN, b. Dec. 1788 Chestertown, Kent County, Maryland; d. unm. 6 Sept. 1867 Portman Square, London, bur. 13 Sept. 1867 St Margaret Church, Eartham, Sussex.

3) (ELIZA) EMILY TILGHMAN, b. 1790 Chestertown; d. 14 June 1813 Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London, bur. 21 June 1813 St Etheldreda Church, Bishops Hatfield; m. 19 Oct. 1811 St Marylebone, London, JEREMIAH HOFFMAN of Chatsworth House, Baltimore, Maryland, b. c.1780 Maryland; d. Oct. 1844 Baltimore, yr son of Peter Hoffman of Baltimore, merchant (1742-1809) and Mary Dorothea Stirlin Lloyd (1745-1811), and had issue, one son and one daughter.

Harriet (née Hoffman) Weld
(1812-1892)

Issue of Eliza Emily (Tilghman) and Jeremiah Hoffman:

3A) HARRIET EMILY HOFFMAN, b. 19 July 1812 Russell Square, London, bap. 17 Feb. 1813 St George Bloomsbury; d.s.p. 1892 Maryland, bur. Old St Pauls Cemetery, Baltimore; m. 30 May 1843 Baltimore County, Maryland, HENRY THOMAS WELD of Mount Savage, Allegany County, Maryland, b. 31 Jan. 1816 London; d.s.p. 18 July 1893 Mount Savage, er son of James Weld of Archers Lodge, Hampshire (1785-1855, descended from Edward III) and Hon. Juliana Anne Petre (1789-1862, descended from Charles II).

3B) GEORGE WILLIAM HOFFMAN, b. June 1813 Russell Square; d. there 14 June 1813, bur. 21 June 1813 St Etheldreda Church, Bishops Hatfield.

4) CHARLOTTE TILGHMAN, b. c.1793 Chestertown; d. 26 June 1838 Portman Square, London, bur. 6 July 1838 St Mary Magdalene Church, Loders, Dorset; m. 30 Aug. 1813 St Marylebone, as his 1st wife, Sir MOLYNEUX HYDE NEPEAN, 2nd Baronet of Bothenhampton, b. 28 Sept. 1783 Westminster, London, bap. 21 Oct. 1783 St Margaret Church, Westminster; d. 4 June 1856 Lee Hall, Hexham, Northumberland, est son of Sir Evan Nepean, 1st Baronet of Bothenhampton (1752-1822) and Margaret Skinner (1760-1833, descended from Edward I), and had issue, three sons and eight daughters.

Issue of Charlotte (Tilghman) and Sir Molyneux Nepean, 2nd Baronet:

Sir Molyneux Hyde Nepean, 3rd Baronet
(1814-1895)

4A) Sir MOLYNEUX HYDE NEPEAN, 3rd Baronet of Bothenhampton, b. 2 July 1814 Charmouth, Dorset, bap. 28 July 1814 St Matthew Church, Charmouth; d.s.p. 13 Mar. 1895 Loders Court, Dorset, bur. 16 Mar. 1895 St Mary Magdalene Church, Loders; m. 27 Apr. 1841 Old Kilpatrick, Dunbartonshire, Scotland, ISABELLA GEILS, b. 1812 Cardross, Dunbartonshire; d.s.p. 17 Mar. 1895 Loders Court, bur. 22 Mar. 1895 St Mary Magdalene Church, Loders, dau. of Col. Andrew Geils of Dumbruck House, Dunbartonshire (1773-1843) and Mary Noble (1783-1853).

4B) CHARLOTTE NEPEAN, b. 26 Oct. 1815 Loders Court, bap. 29 Oct. 1815 Holy Trinity Church, Bradpole, Dorset; d. unm. 16 July 1838 Eartham House, Sussex, bur. 26 July 1838 St Mary Magdalene Church, Loders.

4C) THOMAS NEPEAN, b. 11 Dec. 1816 London, bap. 5 Feb. 1817 All Saints Church, Chelsea, London; d. unm. Oct. 1846 Jamaica.

4D) Capt. EVAN PHILIP TILGHMAN NEPEAN, b. 17 Feb. 1818 Camesworth House, Dorset; d. unm. 7 Mar. 1854 Dinapore, Bengal, India.

4E) ELIZA EMILY NEPEAN, b. 7 Feb. 1819; d. 21 Aug. 1827 Mapperton House, Dorset, bur. 29 Aug. 1827 St Mary Magdalene Church, Loders.

4F) MARGARET HARRIET NEPEAN, b. 27 May 1821 Hinknowle, Netherbury, Dorset, bap. 23 June 1821 St Mary Church, Netherbury; d. 28 Feb. 1830 Mapperton House, bur. 8 Mar. 1830 St Mary Magdalene Church, Loders.

4G) CAROLINE NEPEAN, b. 7 Dec. 1823 Hinknowle (twin with a stillborn sister), bap. same day; d. 12 Dec. 1823 Hinknowle, bur. 13 Dec. 1823 St Mary Magdalene Church, Loders.

St Mary Magdalene Church, Loders, Dorset

4H) MARY NEPEAN, b. 10 Nov. 1824 Hinknowle, bap. 2 Aug. 1825 All Saints Church, Mapperton; d. 20 June 1826 Mapperton House, bur. 25 June 1826 St Mary Magdalene Church, Loders.

4I) ELEANOR ANNE NEPEAN, b. 16 Jan. 1828; d. 6 Aug. 1842 Marylebone, London, bur. 12 Aug. 1842 St George Hanover Square, London.

4J) JANE ISABELLA NEPEAN, b. 29 Jan. 1829 Mapperton House, bap. 1 Mar. 1829 All Saints Church, Mapperton; d. 13 Dec. 1833 Jamaica.

4K) FRANCES AUGUSTA NEPEAN, b. 1 Dec. 1834 Jamaica, bap. 20 Sept. 1838 St Mary Church, Netherbury, Dorset; d. 8 Dec. 1880 St Andrews House, Lyme Regis, Dorset, bur. 13 Dec. 1880 St Michael Church, Lyme Regis; m. 1st 28 Jan. 1857 St George Hanover Square, London, Commander JAMES BLAIR GROVE of Edinburgh, b. 15 Mar. 1832; d. 10 July 1865 Plymouth, Devon, bur. Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, son of Capt. Francis Grove of Edinburgh (1799-1864, descended from Edward III) and his 1st wife Emily Ure (d. 1838), and had issue, two daughters; m. 2nd 29 Aug. 1871 St Andrew Church, Charmouth, Dorset, as his 2nd wife, SAMUEL LOWNDES of Esher House, Surrey, b. 5 Nov. 1825 Bloomsbury, London, bap. 25 Apr. 1826 St George Bloomsbury; d. 16 Sept. 1903 Walton Lodge, Guildford, Surrey, son of William Loftus Lowndes of Lincolns Inn (1793-1865, descended from Edward III) and Eliza Cox (1793-1885), and had further issue, two stillborn children.

5) RICHARD MILBANKE TILGHMAN, officer Honourable East India Company, b. 30 July 1795 Chestertown, Kent County, Maryland; d. 1 June 1834 Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh, India; m. 30 Oct. 1818 Bengal, India, CAROLINE FLEMING, b. 1799; d. 10 Feb. 1834 Hamirpur [*3], and had issue, five sons and three daughters.

Issue of Richard Milbanke and Caroline (Fleming) Tilghman:

Tilghman Coat of Arms
[Per fesse sable, and argent, a lion rampant-
reguardant double-queued, counterchanged,
crowned or]

5A) RICHARD MILBANKE TILGHMAN, b. 30 Oct. 1820 Calcutta, Bengal, India, bap. there 27 Jan. 1821; d. young.

5B) CAROLINE TILGHMAN, b. 19 May 1822 Patna, Bihar, India, bap. 15 Oct. 1822 Dinapore, Bengal, India; d. unm. 25 Mar. 1911 Bournemouth, Dorset.

5C) EMILY ELIZA TILGHMAN, b. 14 Aug. 1824 Patna, bap. 15 Nov. 1824 Dinapore; d. unm. 9 Jan. 1878 Great House, Low Leyton, Essex.

5D) WILLIAM HUSKISSON TILGHMAN, b. 9 Aug. 1827 Allahabad, Bengal, India; d. there 18 Aug. 1827, bur. there same day.

5E) WILLIAM HUSKISSON TILGHMAN [later HUSKISSON] of Eartham House, Sussex, b. 17 May 1828 Allahabad; d.s.p. 5 Aug. 1865 Regents Park, London, bur. 12 Aug. 1865 St Margaret Church, Eartham; m. 21 Jan. 1858 All Souls Church, Langham Place, London, ELIZA MARY RIVETT CARNAC, b. 23 May 1835 Baker Street, London, bap. 9 July 1835 St Marylebone, London; d.s.p. 18 Mar. 1905 Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland, dau. of Admiral John Rivett Carnac of Portman Square (1796-1869) and Maria Jane Davis (c.1804-1882).

5F) HARRIET LOUISA TILGHMAN, b. 10 July 1829 Calcutta, bap. there 28 Oct. 1829; d. unm. 5 Mar. 1911 Westbourne, Bournemouth, Dorset.

5G) Capt. RICHARD MILBANKE TILGHMAN of Portland Place, b. 4 June 1831 Simla, Bengal, India, bap. there 10 Oct. 1831; d. unm. 23 Oct. 1861 Richmond Barracks, Dublin, Ireland, bur. 6 Nov. 1861 St Margaret Church, Eartham.

5H) CHARLES JAMES TILGHMAN, b. 17 Sept. 1833 Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, bap. there 10 Nov. 1833; d. young India.

[*1] For a comprehensive, well-researched account of James Tilghman and his family during the American Revolution, see Maryland historian Jennifer A. Bryan's article 'The Horrors of Civil War': The Tilghman Family in the American Revolution," Maryland Historical Magazine Vol. 103 (2008).

Sworn statement of Richard Milbanke Tilghman
regarding his birth from his 1810 application
to the College of the East India Company

[*2] When Richard Milbanke Tilghman applied to the College of the East India Company in 1810 he was required to produce proof of his age, and wrote on his application, "I have caused search to be made for a Parish Register whereby to ascertain my age, but am unable to produce the same, there being none to be found; and further I make Oath, and swear, that from the Information of my Parents (and other relations) which Information I verily believe to be true, that I was born in the Parish of Chester, in the County of Kent, in the State of Maryland, one of United States of N. America, on the thirtieth day of July 1795." Without a register for Chester Parish for this period, we can only estimate the birthdates of (Eliza) Emily and Charlotte Tilghman, but it is certain that Emily was older than Charlotte, and Charlotte in turn, older than their only brother Richard.

[*3] Various Tilghman family genealogies identify the wife of Richard Milbanke Tilghman as "Augusta, daughter of Lord Elphinstone," though no such lady existed. Tilghman's marriage notice in the East-India Register and Directory identifies her only as "Miss Caroline Fleming."

A noteworthy observation about this family group is that of the twenty-one grandchildren of Philemon and Harriet (née Milbanke) Tilghman, eleven lived to adulthood, but only one of those left issue of her own. Jean Elizabeth (née Hope) (b. 1937), wife of Sergio Pizzicaria, an Italian attorney, and any children and/or grandchildren they may have, are today the only living descendants of Admiral Mark Milbanke, his daughter Harriet, and her husband Philemon Tilghman of Maryland. Mrs. Pizzicaria is the great-granddaughter of Frances Augusta Nepean (see 4K above). I hope to detail her descent in a future post.

The next blogpost will examine the two lines of descent from Edward III for Lt. Philemon Tilghman.

Cheers,                                      ------Brad

{72} Some Edward III Descents for Admiral Mark Milbanke (1724-1805)

Milbanke Coat of Arms
[Gules, a bend ermine; on a canton, Or,
a lion's head erased, of the first]

This blogpost is a continuation of genealogical research into the family and descent of Admiral Mark Milbanke, ambassador to Morocco in 1760 and governor of Newfoundland from 1789 to 1792. The Admiral has an entry in ODNB, as well as one in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Neither one has much in the way of genealogical details, and the ODNB even confuses the Admiral's son with his namesake first cousin. Hopefully the account below will be helpful in future studies of the Milbanke family.

Obscurity surrounds the wife of Admiral Milbanke. Robert Surtees (1779-1834), the celebrated English historian from Durham, and contemporary of the Admiral, published a pedigree of the Milbanke family in 1816, in the first volume of his The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham. Surtees identifies the Admiral's wife as "Mary, dau. of ……. Webber, of Gibraltar.” This was a mere eleven years after the death of the Admiral, and less than four years after the death of his widow, the lady herself. Mary's maiden name of Webber matches to the entry of her marriage in the Chester-le-Street parish register. No doubt if Surtees had been able to further identify Mary's Webber family he would have. The marriage was certainly a love match, for it would appear Mary Webber was the mistress of Captain (later Admiral) Milbanke before she was his wife. Ralph, son of Mark Milbanke, was baptized at Chester-le-Street in 1761, and Harriet, daughter of Mark Milbanke and Mary, was baptized there in 1765. All good, but in July 1768 is an entry in the same parish register for the marriage of Mark Milbanke and Mary Webber, followed six months later by the baptism of their son Mark in January 1769.

Royal Navy frigate, 18th-century

Mark Milbanke returned from his diplomatic mission to Morocco in 1860, apparently with Mary Webber, who was probably the daughter of a fellow officer in the Royal Navy stationed at Gibraltar. As Mary bore a daughter in 1777, almost nine years after the birth of their last recorded child at Chester-le-Street (so quite possibly a change of life baby), she could not have been born earlier than about 1735, and so was a dozen or so years younger than the Admiral. In 1760, the head of the Milbanke family was Mark's eldest brother Sir Ralph, the fifth baronet. He installed Mark in Chester Deanery, the estate in county Durham that had come to him from his wife, the heiress Elizabeth Hedworth. Mark Milbanke, in addition to bringing Mary Webber on his return to England in 1760, had also brought with him horses from the Mediterranean. He took up racehorse breeding at Chester Deanery in the 1760s, in addition to his duties as commander on the fifty-gun Guernsey. Sir Ralph and Lady Elizabeth Milbanke had every reason to be sympathetic to their worldly naval officer brother just returned from far-off lands, with a teenaged mistress in tow. Thirteen years previous, the marriage of Ralph Milbanke, then the 25-year-old heir to the baronetcy, to the 16-year-old Elizabeth Hedworth, was recorded in the register of Chester-le-Street on 4 July 1747, followed 24 days later by the baptism of their firstborn child Ralph (the future sixth baronet), on 28 July 1747. Elizabeth was an orphan, her mother had died 8 months after her birth, while her 63-year-old father John Hedworth, the county M.P., had died at the end of May 1747, just two months prior to her necessary marriage. His death occurred suddenly in his carriage on his return trip home from London, leaving his teenaged daughter the heiress of Chester Deanery. No doubt the task of smoothing over the melodramatic circumstances of that summer of 1747, fell to the local prelate, Rev. William Lambe (1706-1769), who owed his preferment as rector of Chester-le-Street to the patronage of Squire Hedworth. Whatever obstacles Ralph Milbanke and Elizabeth Hedworth had faced with their marriage, they clearly had the loyalty of her rector. This loyalty and discretion was called upon once again by the family in regard to the situation of Mary Webber, and it would have been Rev. Lambe who officiated at Mary's 1768 marriage to the Admiral. That the promising naval officer and diplomat had an enduring love for Mary, strong enough to eventually marry her and defy social conventions, is reflected four decades later in his 1805 will, in which he refers to her as his "Dearly beloved wife Mary Milbanke."

Chester Deanery, co. Durham

Drama and tragedy haunted the family of Admiral Milbanke into the next generation. His younger son Mark died an infant, while his elder son Ralph followed his father into the Royal Navy, and "was lost at sea, 1790," per Surtees. The original Dictionary of National Biography confused the Admiral's son Ralph Milbanke with the Admiral's nephew Capt. Ralph Milbanke (1751-1823), also in the Royal Navy, and the error has been continued in the ODNB. Harriet Tilghman, the Admiral's elder daughter, had eloped at age 20 with an American-born officer of the British Navy. After his death on a Maryland farm that he leased from his family, Harriet, now a 32-year-old widow, with very limited financial means and five young children, returned to England and the home of the Admiral. William Huskisson, the brilliant politician who married the Admiral's younger daughter Eliza Emily Milbanke, would go on to become the world's first widely reported railway casualty in 1830 at age 60. And, finally, the Admiral himself died a violent death at age 81, when he fell over the staircase balcony in his London home.

I presented five lines from Edward III to the Admiral in a January 2007 post to SocGenMed, all thru his father Sir Ralph Milbanke, the fourth baronet. One of those (the one thru George Neville, Archbishop of York) turned out to be invalid. A few weeks later, John Higgins posted ten more lines, all thru the Admiral's mother Anne Delaval. The lines below are additional lines from Edward III to Admiral Milbanke, not included in those earlier posts.

Admiral MARK MILBANKE of Marylebone, Governor of Newfoundland 1789-1792, b. Halnaby Hall, Croft-on-Tees, Yorkshire, bap. 12 Apr. 1724 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; d. 10 June 1805 Upper Wimpole Street, Marylebone, London, bur. 17 June 1805 St Etheldreda Church, Bishops Hatfield, Hertfordshire, 3rd son of Sir Ralph Milbanke, 4th Baronet of Halnaby (1688-1748, descended from Edward III - see Generation A15 below) and his 2nd wife Anne Delaval (1702-1765, descended from Edward IV - see Generation B16 below); m. 16 July 1768 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street, co Durham, MARY WEBBER, b. c.1740; d. Dec. 1812 Upper Wimpole Street, dau. of "--- Webber of Gibraltar," and had issue, two sons and two daughters.

Issue of Adm. Mark and Mary (Webber) Milbanke:

1) RALPH MILBANKE, Royal Navy, bap. 29 July 1761 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; d. unm. "lost at sea, 1790."

2) HARRIET MILBANKE, b. Chester Deanery, co. Durham, bap. 30 Sept. 1765 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; d. 4 Apr. 1835 Marylebone, London, bur. 11 Apr. 1735 St Etheldreda Church, Bishops Hatfield; m. (eloped) 1785, Lt. PHILEMON TILGHMAN of Golden Square Plantation, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, b. 29 Nov. 1760 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; d. 11 Jan. 1797 Golden Square Plantation, yr son of James Tilghman of Philadelphia (1716-1793, descended from Edward III) and Anne Francis (1726-1771), and had issue, one son and four daughters.

William Huskisson, M.P.
(1770-1830)

3) MARK MILBANKE, b. 9 Dec. 1768 Chester Deanery, bap. 10 Jan. 1769 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; bur. there 6 June 1769.

4) ELIZA EMILY MILBANKE, b. 13 June 1777 Portsmouth, Hampshire; d.s.p. 7 Apr. 1856 Eartham House, Sussex, bur. 15 Apr. 1856 St Margaret Church, Eartham; m. 6 Apr. 1799 St Marylebone, London, WILLIAM HUSKISSON of Eartham House, M.P., b. 11 Mar. 1770 Birtsmorton Court, Malvern, Worcestershire; d. 15 Sept. 1830 Eccles, Lancashire, bur. 24 Sept. 1830 St James Cemetery, Liverpool, Lancashire, son of William Huskisson of Oxley (1743-1790) and his 1st wife Elizabeth Rotton (c.1743-1774).

Edward III had two sons A1 & C1 (see below)
A1) Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (1338-1368) m. 1) Lady Elizabeth de Burgh (1332-1363, descended from Edward I), and had
A2) Lady Philippa Plantagenet of Clarence (1355-1377) m. Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March (1352-1381), and had

Sir Martin at See -
see Generation A6

A3) Lady Elizabeth Mortimer (1371-1417) m. 1) Sir Henry 'Hotspur' Percy (1364-1403), and had a dau A4 & a son B4 (see below)
A4) Lady Elizabeth Percy (c.1395-1437) m. 1) John, 7th Lord Clifford (1388-1422, descended from Edward I), and had
A5) Mary Clifford (c.1420-by1458) m. Sir Philip Wentworth of Nettlestead (1424-1464), and had
A6) Elizabeth Wentworth (c.1457-by 1479) m. Sir Martin at See of Barmston Hall (c.1420-1494), and had
A7) Joan at See (d. 1527) m. Peter Hildyard of Winestead (d. 1502, descended from Edward I), and had
A8) Isabel Hildyard m. Ralph Legard of Anlaby Hall, and had
A9) Richard Legard of Rysome (d. 1594) m. Margaret Marshall, and had
A10) Faith Legard (d. 1639) m. Sir Thomas Dawnay of Sessay (c.1563-1642, descended from Edward III), and had
A11) Elizabeth Dawnay (b. c.1590) m. Sir William Acclom of Moreby Hall (1582-1639, descended from Edward III), and had

Acclom of Moreby Coat of Arms

A12) John Acclom of Moreby Hall (1619-1644) m. Elizabeth[?] Wormeley (b. 1616), and had
A13) ELIZABETH ACCLOM, b. Jan. 1641 Moreby Hall, bap. 3 Feb. 1641 St Helen Church, Stillingfleet; bur. 23 Mar. 1671 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees, Yorkshire; m. 6 Sept. 1660 St Helen Church, Stillingfleet, as his 1st wife, Sir MARK MILBANKE, 1st Baronet of Halnaby, b. June 1638 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, bap. 1 July 1638 All Saints Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; d. June 1680, bur. 2 July 1680 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees, and had
A14) Sir MARK MILBANKE, 2nd Baronet of Halnaby, b. Moreby Hall, bap. 11 Dec. 1661 St Helen Church, Stillingfleet; bur. 13 May 1698 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; m. 3 Feb. 1680 St Michael Church, Houghton-le-Spring, co. Durham, JANE CARR, bap. 20 Oct. 1663 St Nicholas Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; bur. 14 May 1704 St Andrew Holborn, London, dau. of Sir Ralph Carr of Cocken Hall (1634-1710) and his 1st wife Jane Anderson (d. 1667), and had
A15) Sir RALPH MILBANKE, 4th Baronet of Halnaby, b. 6 Oct. 1688 Halnaby Hall, Croft-on-Tees, bap. 30 Oct. 1688 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; d. 9 May 1748 St James Square, London, bur. 28 May 1748 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; m. 2nd (contract 11 Sept.) 1721, ANNE DELAVAL (see B16 below), and had

A16) Admiral MARK MILBANKE (1724-1805-see details above)

B4) Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland (1394-1455) m. Lady Eleanor Neville (1403-1472, descended from Edward III), and had
B5) Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland (1421-1461) m. Eleanor Poynings (1428-1484, descended from Edward I), and had
B6) Lady Margaret Percy (b. c.1447) m. Sir William Gascoigne of Gawthorpe Hall (c.1450-1487, descended from Edward III), and had
B7) Margaret Gascoigne (b. c.1470) m. Ralph, 3rd Lord Ogle (1468-1513, descended from Edward I), and had
B8) Dorothy Ogle (c.1498-bef.1570) m. 1) Sir Thomas Forster of Adderstone (d. 1527), and had
B9) Margaret Forster (b. c.1516) m. 1) William Heron, Heir of Ford Castle (d. c.1533, descended from Edward I), and had

Carr of Ford Castle Coat of Arms

B10) Elizabeth Heron (1532-1554) m. Thomas Carr of Ford Castle (d. 1558), and had
B11) William Carr of Ford Castle (1551-1589) m. Ursula Brandling, and had
B12) Thomas Carr of Ford Castle (1577-1641) m. Isabel Selby (d. c.1608), and had
B13) William Carr of Ford Castle (1605-1644) m. Susan Hodgson (d. aft.1686), and had
B14) Elizabeth Carr (1640-by 1713) m. Sir Francis Blake of Ford Castle (1638-1718, descended from Edward I), and had
B15) Mary Blake (1664-1711) m. 2) Edward Delaval of Dissington Hall (see C11 below), and had
B16) ANNE DELAVAL, b. Dissington Hall, Newburn, Northumberland, bap. 8 Sept. 1702 St Michael Church, Newburn; d. 21 Mar. 1765 Marylebone, London, bur. 28 Mar. 1765 St Marylebone Parish Church; m. (contract 11 Sept.) 1721, Sir RALPH MILBANKE, 4th Baronet of Halnaby (see A15 above)

C1) John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399) m. 3) Katherine Roet (c.1350-1403), and had
C2) Lady Joan Beaufort (c.1377-1440) m. 2) Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland (1364-1425), and had
C3) Richard Neville, 1st Earl of Salisbury (c.1398-1460) m. Alice Montagu 
(1406-1462, descended from Edward I), and had

1st Earl of Salisbury -
see Generation C3

C4) Lady Alice Neville (c.1434-aft.1503) m. Henry, 5th Lord Fitzhugh (1429-1472), and had
C5) Elizabeth Fitzhugh (1462-bef.1507) m. 2) Nicholas, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden (c.1460-1523, descended from Edward I), and had
C6) Anne Vaux (b. 1494) m. Sir Thomas L'Estrange of Hunstanton Hall (c.1490-1545), and had
C7) Roger L'Estrange of Wiveton Hall m. ----, and had
C8) Katherine L'Estrange m. Sir Edward Gray of Morpeth Castle (d. 1631, descended from Edward III), and had
C9) Edward Gray of Bitchfield (d. 1658) m. Margaret Widdrington (d. 1661, descended from Edward III), and had
C10) Margaret Gray (c.1642-1709) m. George Delaval of Dissington Hall (d. 1695, descended from Edward IV), and had
C11) Edward Delaval of Dissington Hall (1664-1744) m. Mary Blake (see B15 above)

The next blogpost will look at the Admiral's elder daughter Harriet Milbanke, her children and grandchildren, and the Edward III descents for her American husband Philemon Tilghman.

Cheers,                               -----Brad

{71} Ruvigny Addition: Mortimer/Percy Descent for 11th Baroness Wentworth (1792-1860)

Sir Ralph Milbanke, 6th Baronet (1747-1825),
father-in-law of Lord Byron

Neither George Gordon, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale (the famous poet Lord Byron), nor his wife Anne Isabella (Milbanke), 11th Baroness Wentworth of Nettlestead, appear in Ruvigny's Plantagent Roll series. Lord Byron's descent from Isabel (Plantagenet), Countess of Essex, was examined in a previous post. His wife descends through her father, Sir Ralph Milbanke, 6th Baronet of Halnaby, from Lady Elizabeth (née Mortimer) Percy, and her line of descent below is an addition to Ruvigny's 1911 Mortimer-Percy volume.

The Milbankes were settled at Chirton, in the parish of Tynemouth, Northumberland, by the close of the 16th century. Family tradition says that Ralph Milbanke was cupbearer to Mary Queen of Scots, but was obliged to leave her court after fighting a duel. He fled to England, and purchased the estate at Chirton. This Ralph's great-grandson, Mark Milbanke (1603-1677), a merchant and mayor of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was so prosperous he was able to purchase the Yorkshire estate of Halnaby Hall, as well as lend large sums of money to Charles II in exile during the Protectorate. After the Restoration, the king wished to promote Milbanke to a baronetcy, but the merchant turned it down in favour of his eldest son, also named Mark. It was this Sir Mark Milbanke, 1st Baronet, with an annual income estimated at £2,000, who was the first of his family to marry into the Edward I bloodline, when he took to wife in 1660, Elizabeth Acclom, the heiress of a family who had been seated at Moreby Hall, in the parish of Stillingfleet, Yorkshire, for over two centuries. Their eldest son and heir, the second Milbanke baronet, was the first of the family to be returned to Parliament. Moreby Hall was sold in 1787 by the fifth baronet (the grandfather of Anne Isabella, Lady Byron). The Milbanke baronetcy continued in the family until the extinction of the legitimate male line in 1949, after which the Yorkshire seat of Halnaby Hall was, sadly, demolished.

Below is the 11th Baroness Wentworth's 18-generation descent from Edward III through Lady Elizabeth (née Mortimer) Percy.

Edward III had a 2nd surviving son

Lady Elizabeth (née Mortimer) Percy
- see Generation 3

1) Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence (1338-1368) m. 1) Lady Elizabeth de Burgh (1332-1363, descended from Edward I), and had
2) Lady Philippa Plantagenet of Clarence (1355-1377) m. Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March (1352-1381), and had
3) Lady Elizabeth Mortimer (1371-1417) m. 1) Sir Henry 'Hotspur' Percy (1364-1403), and had
4) Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland (1394-1455) m. Lady Eleanor Neville (1403-1472, descended from Edward III), and had
5) Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland (1421-1461) m. Eleanor Poynings (1428-1484, descended from Edward I), and had
6) Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland (c.1449-1489) m. Lady Maud Herbert (c.1457-by 1487), and had
7) Lady MAUD PERCY, b. by 1487; d. before 1543; m. (settlement 7 Oct.) 1510, as his 2nd wife, Sir RALPH RYTHER of Ryther Castle, Yorkshire, b. c.1450; d. 2 Apr. 1520, bur. All Hallows Church, Ryher, son of Sir William Ryther of Ryther Castle (d. 1475) and Eleanor Fitzwilliam, and had [*1]
8) ELIZABETH RYTHER, b. c.1513; d. before 1544; m. by 1530, as his 1st wife, WILLIAM ACCLOM, Heir of Moreby Hall, Stillingfleet, Yorkshire, b. c.1510; d. c.1547, son and heir of John Acclom of Moreby Hall (d. 1551) and Katherine Pilkington (descended from Edward I), and had
9) WILLIAM ACCLOM of Moreby Hall, b. c.1532; d. 1568; m. c.1554, as her 1st husband, MARGARET MORDAUNT, b. c.1535; d. by 1584, dau. of John, 2nd Baron Mordaunt of Turvey (1508-1571) and his 1st wife Ela Fitzlewis (1510-1543), and had

Detail of the Memorial to John Acclom (1555-1611)
in St Helen Church, Stillingfleet

10) JOHN ACCLOM of Moreby Hall, b. 1555; d. 24 Dec. 1611, bur. St Helen Church, Stillingfleet; m. c.1580, ISABEL PALMES, b. c.1560, d. unknown, dau. of Sir Francis Palmes of Lindley (d. 1567) and Margaret Corbet (descended from Edward I), and had
11) Sir WILLIAM ACCLOM of Moreby Hall, b. 1582; d. 1639; m. (lic. 10 Oct.) 1609, ELIZABETH DAWNAY, b. c.1590; d. unknown, dau. of Sir Thomas Dawnay of Sessay (c.1563-1642, descended from Edward III) and Faith Legard (d. 1639, descended from Edward III), and had
12) JOHN ACCLOM of Moreby Hall, b. there, bap. 25 Apr. 1619 St Helen Church, Stillingfleet; d. 1644; m. by 1640, ELIZABETH[?] WORMELEY, b. 1616; d. by 1657, dau. of Henry Wormeley of Riccall Hall (1584-1658) and Margaret Consett (d. 1652) [*2], and had

Acclom of Moreby coat of arms

13) ELIZABETH ACCLOM, b. Jan. 1641 Moreby Hall, bap. 3 Feb. 1641 St Helen Church, Stillingfleet; bur. 23 Mar. 1671 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees, Yorkshire; m. 6 Sept. 1660 St Helen Church, Stillingfleet, as his 1st wife, Sir MARK MILBANKE, 1st Baronet of Halnaby, b. June 1638 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, bap. 1 July 1638 All Saints Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; d. June 1680, bur. 2 July 1680 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees, and had
14) Sir MARK MILBANKE, 2nd Baronet of Halnaby, b. Moreby Hall, bap. 11 Dec. 1661 St Helen Church, Stillingfleet; bur. 13 May 1698 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; m. 3 Feb. 1680 St Michael Church, Houghton-le-Spring, co. Durham, JANE CARR, bap. 20 Oct. 1663 St Nicholas Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; bur. 14 May 1704 St Andrew Holborn, London, dau. of Sir Ralph Carr of Cocken Hall (1634-1710) and his 1st wife Jane Anderson (d. 1667), and had
15) Sir RALPH MILBANKE, 4th Baronet of Halnaby, b. 6 Oct. 1688 Halnaby Hall, Croft-on-Tees, bap. 30 Oct. 1688 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; d. 9 May 1748 St James Square, London, bur. 28 May 1748 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; m. 2nd (contract 11 Sept.) 1721, ANNE DELAVAL, b. Dissington Hall, Newburn, Northumberland, bap. 8 Sept. 1702 St Michael Church, Newburn; d. 21 Mar. 1765 Marylebone, London, bur. 28 Mar. 1765 St Marylebone Parish Church, dau. of Edward Delaval of Dissington Hall (1664-1744, descended from Edward IV) and Mary Blake (1664-1711, descended from Edward III), and had

Milbanke of Halnaby coat of arms

16) Sir RALPH MILBANKE, 5th Baronet of Halnaby, b. May 1722 Halnaby Hall, bap. 1 June 1722 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; d. 8 Jan. 1798 London, bur. St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; m. 4 July 1747 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street, co. Durham, ELIZABETH HEDWORTH, b. Chester Deanery, bap. 26 Jan. 1731 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; d. 6 July 1767 Bath, Somersetshire, bur. 18 July 1767 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees, dau. of John Hedworth of Chester Deanery (1683-1747, descended from Edward IV) and his 2nd wife Margaret Ayton (1711-1731), and had

17) Sir RALPH MILBANKE [later NOEL], 6th Baronet of Halnaby, b. 28 July 1747 Chester Deanery, bap. 20 Aug. 1747 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; d. 19 Mar. 1825 Hampstead, Middlesex, bur. 27 Mar. 1825 All Saints Church, Kirkby Mallory, Leicestershire; m. 9 Jan. 1777 All Saints Church, Kirkby Mallory, Hon. JUDITH NOEL, b. 3 Nov. 1751 Kirkby Hall, Kirkby Mallory, bap. 4 Nov. 1751 All Saints Church, Kirkby Mallory; d. 28 Jan. 1822 Kirkby Hall, bur. 5 Feb. 1822 All Saints Church, Kirkby Mallory, est dau. of Edward Noel, 1st Viscount Wentworth of Wellesborough (1715-1774, descended from Edward III) and Judith Lamb (1725-1761), and had
18) ANNE ISABELLA MILBANKE [later NOEL], 11th Baroness Wentworth (1792-1860), wife of Lord Byron

Table II from Ruvigny's Mortimer-Percy volume

[*1] For Maud (née Percy) Ryther as a daughter of the 4th Earl of Northumberland, see one of my earliest blogposts, 'Who Was Dame Maud (née Percy) Ryther?' That Maud was the daughter of the 4th Earl of Northumberland is certain. And, given her first name, she appears to have been his youngest legitimate daughter by his wife Lady Maud Herbert. In Table II (p. 2) of his 1911 Mortimer-Percy volume, Ruvigny has "Catherine Percy," wife of "Ralph Rethers," as a daughter of Sir Thomas Percy (second son of the 5th Earl of Northumberland) and Eleanor Harbottle, with a question as to whether there was any issue of the "Percy-Rethers" marriage. This is completely incorrect: there was no Catherine Percy, and instead, Lady Maud Percy, wife of Sir Ralph Ryther, should take her place on Table II as a daughter of the 4th Earl of Northumberland, alongside her sisters Eleanor (Percy), Duchess of Buckingham, and Anne (Percy), Countess of Arundel.

Wormeley of Riccall coat of arms

[*2] That the wife of John Acclom, and the mother of his only child and heiress Elizabeth (née Acclom) Milbanke, was a daughter of Henry Wormeley of Riccall Hall, is proved by the latter's 1657 will, in which he mentions his granddaughter Elizabeth Acclom of Moreby, who proved the will the following year. Unfortunately, in the Wormeley pedigree drawn up by Sir William Dugdale at the 1665 Visitation of Yorkshire, only the three sons of Henry Wormeley were given. Rev. John Clay, in his 1917 Wormeley of Riccall pedigree, assigns Henry one daughter, Margaret Wormeley, wife of Francis Wilkinson. That there had been another daughter, wife of John Acclom of Moreby, deceased by the time Henry Wormeley made out his will, is clear. An entry in the IGI, said to be taken from a parish register, states that Henry Wormeley had a daughter Elizabeth, baptized in 1616. Pending further research into the family of Henry Wormeley of Riccall Hall, I'm assuming it was this daughter Elizabeth who was the wife of John Acclom and the mother of Elizabeth (Acclom) Milbanke.

Continuing with the Milbanke family, the next blogpost will explore the family of Admiral Mark Milbanke, great-uncle to the 11th Baroness Wentworth, and include some of his lines of descent from Edward III.

Cheers,                             -------Brad

{70} Edward IV Descents for 11th Baroness Wentworth (1792-1860)

11th Baroness Wentworth (1792-1860),
about the time she received the Barony

Anne Isabella 'Annabella' Milbanke was an enlightened woman of the Regency period. Per her entry in the ODNB, "She was brought up to be concerned for the workers and tenants of the estate and helped establish a school in Seaham. An early reader, Annabella Milbanke was especially interested in mathematics and astronomy, which she studied with a Cambridge tutor; new ideas on magnetism and phrenology fascinated her." She met the famous poet Lord Byron in 1812 - she was twenty and he was twenty-four. She rejected his first marriage proposal, but maintained regular correspondence with him, so that when he came to visit her at Seaham Hall, the estate of her parents in county Durham, she accepted his second proposal and they married there. On the first day of their honeymoon at Halnaby Hall, Yorkshire (another Milbanke family estate), the new groom showed his bride a love letter he'd received from his half-sister Augusta (Byron) Leigh, and told her the only reason he married her was revenge for her previous refusal - Annabella would never have his love. Eleven months later, in December 1815, she gave birth to their only child, and four weeks afterwards, Lord Byron sent his wife and the newborn back to her parents, and never saw either again. The couple were legally separated in April 1816, and Annabella devoted herself to her daughter Ada Byron, who inherited Annabella's love for mathematics, and is famous today as one of the pioneers of computer science. But Annabella's own main interest was in developing education for the underprivileged, improving slum conditions, discussing rights for women, and the anti-slavery movement.

At the death of her cousin Baron Scarsdale in 1856, Annabella, Lady Byron, as the last surviving grandchild of the 1st Viscount Wentworth of Wellesborough, had the abeyance of the 300-year-old barony of Wentworth of Nettlestead terminated in her favour. Her daughter Ada having died of cancer four years prior, Lady Byron would pass the Wentworth barony on to Ada's elder son at her own death in May 1860, at the age of 67. Several modern writers, who idolize Lord Byron, have judged his wife unfavourably, which is the opposite of how she was viewed by her own family and friends, one of whom described her as "one of those pure spirits, little valued by the world, though worshipped by those who knew her well."

Seaham Hall, county Durham

ANNE ISABELLA MILBANKE [later, in 1822, NOEL], 11th Baroness Wentworth of Nettlestead, b. 17 May 1792 Elemore Hall, Pittington, co. Durham, bap. 10 Aug. 1792 St Mary Church, Seaham, co. Durham; d. 16 May 1860 Primrose Hill, London, bur. 21 May 1860 Kensal Green Cemetery, London, only child of Sir Ralph Milbanke, 6th Baronet of Halnaby (1747-1825, descended from Edward IV - see below) and Hon. Judith Noel (1751-1822, descended from Edward III); m. 2 Jan. 1815 Seaham Hall, co. Durham (separated 15 Apr. 1816), GEORGE GORDON BYRON, 6th Baron Byron of Rochdale, b. 22 Jan. 1788 Marylebone, London, bap. 1 Mar. 1788 St Marylebone Parish Church; d. 19 Apr. 1824 Missolonghi, Greece, bur. 16 July 1824 St Mary Magdalene Church, Hucknall Torkard, Nottinghamshire, only son of Capt. John Byron of Marylebone (1757-1791, descended from Edward III) and his 2nd wife Katharine Gordon (1764-1811, descended from James IV), and had issue, one daughter.

Ada (née Byron),
Countess of Lovelace
(1815-1852)

Issue of 11th Baroness Wentworth and 6th Baron Byron:

1) Hon. ADA AUGUSTA BYRON, b. 10 Dec. 1815 Mayfair, London, bap. 20 Dec. 1815 St George Hanover Square, London; d. 27 Nov. 1852 Marylebone, London, bur. 3 Dec. 1852 St Mary Magdalene Church, Hucknall Torkard; m. 8 July 1835 St Mary Church, Ealing, Middlesex, as his 1st wife, WILLIAM KING-NOEL, 1st Earl of Lovelace, b. 21 Feb. 1805 Westminster, London, bap. 14 Mar. 1805 St Margaret Church, Westminster; d. 29 Dec. 1893 Horsley Towers, East Horsley, Surrey, bur. 2 Jan. 1894 Lovelace Mausoleum, St Martin Churchyard, East Horsley, er son of Peter, 7th Baron King of Ockham (1775-1833, descended from Edward III) and Lady Hester Fortescue (1784-1873, descended from Henry VII), and had issue, two sons and one daughter.

The 11th Baroness Wentworth's interesting ancestry will be explored in the next couple blogposts. First up are her three lines of descent from Edward IV's illegitimate daughter Dame Margaret Lumley.

Edward IV

Edward IV = (probably) Margaret Fitzlewis, Dame Lucy (1440-1466, descended from Edward I), and had a dau:
A1) Margaret Plantagenet, illegit. (b. c.1462) m. Thomas Lumley, Heir of Lumley Castle (c.1462-1503, descended from Edward III), and had a son B2 and two daus A2 & C2 (see below)
A2) Anne Lumley m. 1) Robert, 4th Baron Ogle (c.1490-1532, descended from Edward III), and had
A3) Agnes Ogle [*1] m. Sir John Delaval of Seaton Delaval Hall (by 1523-1572), and had
A4) Sir Robert Delaval of Seaton Delaval Hall (by 1542-1607) m. Dorothy Gray (c.1554-bef.1600, descended from Edward III), and had
A5) Sir John Delaval of Dissington Hall (by 1579-1652) m. 2) Elizabeth Selby (c.1595-1658), and had
A6) George Delaval of Dissington Hall (d. 1695) m. Margaret Gray (c.1642-1709, descended from Edward III), and had
A7) Edward Delaval of Dissington Hall (1664-1744) m. Mary Blake (1664-1711, descended from Edward III), and had
A8) ANNE DELAVAL, b. Dissington Hall, Newburn, Northumberland, bap. 8 Sept. 1702 St Michael Church, Newburn; d. 21 Mar. 1765 Marylebone, London, bur. 28 Mar. 1765 St Marylebone Parish Church; m. (contract 11 Sept.) 1721, as his 2nd wife, Sir RALPH MILBANKE, 4th Baronet of Halnaby, b. 6 Oct. 1688 Halnaby Hall, Croft-on-Tees, Yorkshire, bap. 30 Oct. 1688 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; d. 9 May 1748 St James Square, London, bur. 28 May 1748 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees (c.1688-1748, descended from Edward III), and had

Sir Ralph Milbanke, 6th Bt
- see Generation A10

A9) Sir RALPH MILBANKE, 5th Baronet of Halnaby, b. May 1722 Halnaby Hall, bap. 1 June 1722 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; d. 8 Jan. 1798 London, bur. St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; m. 4 July 1747 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street, co. Durham, ELIZABETH HEDWORTH (see B10 below), and had

A10) Sir RALPH MILBANKE [later NOEL], 6th Baronet of Halnaby, b. 28 July 1747 Chester Deanery, bap. 20 Aug. 1747 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; d. 19 Mar. 1825 Hampstead, Middlesex, bur. 27 Mar. 1825 All Saints Church, Kirkby Mallory, Leicestershire; m. 9 Jan. 1777 All Saints Church, Kirkby Mallory, Hon. JUDITH NOEL, b. 3 Nov. 1751 Kirkby Hall, Kirkby Mallory, bap. 4 Nov. 1751 All Saints Church, Kirkby Mallory; d. 28 Jan. 1822 Kirkby Hall, bur. 5 Feb. 1822 All Saints Church, Kirkby Mallory, est dau. of Edward Noel, 1st Viscount Wentworth of Wellesborough (1715-1774, descended from Edward III) and Judith Lamb (1725-1761), and had
A11) ANNE ISABELLA MILBANKE [later Noel], 11th Baroness Wentworth (1792-1860-see details above)

[*1] For my reasoning behind my placement of Agnes, wife of Sir John Delaval, as daughter of the 4th Baron Ogle, see footnote [*1] in 'Edward IV Descents for Agnes Mary (née Eyston) Western (1870-1961)'.

Lambton coat of arms

B2) Roger Lumley of Ludworth Tower m. Isabel Radcliffe (descended from Edward I), and had
B3) Agnes Lumley (d. 1564) m. John Lambton of Lambton Hall (c.1505-1549), and had
B4) Robert Lambton of Lambton Hall (c.1530-1583) m. Frances Eure (b. c.1530, descended from Edward III), and had
B5) Ralph Lambton of Lambton Hall (1555-1593) m. Eleanor Tempest (b. c.1565, descended from Edward I), and had
B6) Sir William Lambton of Lambton Hall (1589-1644) m. 1) Jane Curwen (c.1590-1619, descended from Edward III), and had
B7) Henry Lambton of Lambton Hall (1614-1693) m. Mary Davison (d. 1660), and had
B8) ELEANOR LAMBTON, b. c.1655; bur. 20 Dec. 1722 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street, Durham;  m. 6 Apr. 1676, RALPH HEDWORTH of Chester Deanery (see C8 below), and had
B9) JOHN HEDWORTH of Chester Deanery, bap. 10 July 1683 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; d. 31 May 1747 Leicestershire, bur. 9 June 1747 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church; m. 2nd 14 Aug. 1729 St Mary Church, Gateshead, Durham, MARGARET AYTON, b. West Herrington, Houghton-le-Spring, Durham, bap. 16 Sept. 1711 St Michael Church, Houghton-le-Spring; bur. 1 Sept. 1731 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street, dau. of Samuel Ayton of  West Herrington (d. 1725) and Elizabeth Robinson, and had
B10) ELIZABETH HEDWORTH, b. Chester Deanery, bap. 26 Jan. 1731 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; d. 6 July 1767 Bath, Somersetshire, bur. 18 July 1767 St Peter Church, Croft-on-Tees; m. 4 July 1747 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street, co. Durham, Sir RALPH MILBANKE, 5th Baronet of Halnaby (see A9 above)

C2) Sybil Lumley (c.1480-by 1526) m. William, 9th Lord Hilton (d. by 1537), and had

Hedworth of Harraton coat of arms

C3) ANNE HILTON, b. c.1515; d. unknown; m. Sir RALPH HEDWORTH of Harraton Hall, b. c.1517; d. by 12 Feb. 1566 (when inventory of goods was taken), son of John Hedworth of Harraton Hall (d. 1534) and Ellen Hoton, and had
C4) JOHN HEDWORTH of Harraton Hall, b. c.1537; bur. 15 Jan. 1600; m. c.1560, JANE BELLASIS, b. c.1535; bur. 25 Feb. 1601, dau. of Richard Bellasis of Henknoll (c.1489-1540) and Margery Errington (d. 1587), and had
C5) JOHN HEDWORTH of Chester Deanery, Chester-le-Street, Durham, b. c.1570; d. 23 Oct. 1613 Chester Deanery, bur. 24 Oct. 1613 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; m. 1st, JANE BRANDLING, b. c.1572; bur. 10 June 1602, dau. of William Brandling of Felling and Anne Helye,  and had
C6) RICHARD HEDWORTH of Chester Deanery, b. c.1595; d. 1680; m. ELIZABETH HERBERT, dau. of Thomas Herbert of York (d. 1614) and Mary Harrison (d. 1604), and had
C7) RALPH HEDWORTH of Chester Deanery, bap. 10 Sept. 1619 St Michael Church, Houghton-le-Spring; d. 1683; m. ANNE ----, bur. 4 Jan. 1660[*2], and had
C8) RALPH HEDWORTH of Chester Deanery, bap. 26 Feb. 1654 St Mary & St Cuthbert Church, Chester-le-Street; d. 1705; m. 6 Apr. 1676, ELEANOR LAMBTON (see B8 above)

[*2] Robert Surtees was unable to further identify Ralph Hedworth's wife Anne in his 1820 pedigree of Hedworth of Chester Deanery, and I've had no further luck in 2016.

The next blogpost will cover a line from Edward III to the 11th Baroness Wentworth that is an addition to Ruvigny's Mortimer-Percy volume.

Cheers,                           ------Brad

{69} James IV Descents for Katharine (née Gordon) (1764-1811), Mother of Lord Byron

Katharine Gordon (1764-1811), mother of Lord Byron

The story of Lord Byron's mother is a sad one. The eldest of three daughters of George Gordon, the 12th Laird of Gight Castle, at the age of 18, Katharine Gordon was the only surviving member of her immediate family, with her parents and her two younger sisters all cut down prematurely by illness. Described by Jerome McGann, author of Lord Byron's entry in the ODNB, as "unsophisticated, emotional, and naïve...Also plump and plain," Katharine was an heiress worth £23,000 (millions of pounds today) ripe for potential exploitation. That came in the form of a fortune-hunting rake, Capt. 'Mad Jack' Byron, a former officer who had seduced the Marchioness of Carmarthen, caused her divorce, then married her and lived off of her income of £4000 a year until her death in January 1784. In massive debt, hounded by creditors, and disinherited by his respectable, disapproving father Admiral John Byron, the 28-year-old Mad Jack made his way to Bath in search of a gullible lady of fortune. The sheltered, plain heiress of Gight, on holiday in that resort town, was putty in the hands of the still handsome Capt. Byron, the couple hastily married, and the heiress returned to Aberdeenshire with her new husband.

The Gordons of Gight Castle were scions of the Dukes of Gordon, the 1st Laird having been a younger son of the 2nd Earl of Huntly. "Fierce, colourful, and dangerously unstable," per psychologist/historian Andrew Steptoe in his 1998 book Genius and the Mind, the Gight Gordons had a legacy of violence, murder and execution, even before Katharine's paternal grandfather Alexander, the 11th Laird of Gight, drowned in an apparent suicide in the cold winter of 1760, four years before Katharine's birth. His widow, the formidable Margaret Duff, Lady of Gight, the closest family member Katharine had remaining, was forced to watch in dismay as her granddaughter's new husband burned through the inheritance in less than two years, reducing Katharine to an annual income of £150. Gight Castle was sold to the Duke of Gordon in 1786, and Mad Jack fled town with Katharine, bailiffs and creditors constantly on the couple's heels. In March 1788, two months after the birth of her only child, Katharine received a settlement securing £4222 of her estate against her husband's relentless creditors. The family settled in the city of Aberdeen, but Mad Jack Byron abandoned his wife and son in the autumn of 1790 for his sister in France, where he died the following year. Despite everything, Katharine had remained devoted to her husband and was desolate at his death. She never remarried, devoting herself instead to her son, who, in 1798 at the age of 10, succeeded the eccentric 75-year-old Lord Byron (who had outlived his wife, all four of their children, and their only grandchild) to the Barony of Byron of Rochdale and to Newstead Abbey, the family seat in Nottinghamshire. It was there where Katharine spent her final years, alone in the end except for the servants. She received colourful accounts of her son's adventures in the letters he wrote to her while on his two-year continental Grand Tour, at the same time fighting off at Newstead Abbey creditors and bailiffs seeking payment on the debts her son, taking after his heavy-spending father, had amassed. She died there on 1 August 1811, while Lord Byron was on his way home, and her death left the poet with a guilt which would linger with him for the remainder of his life.

Gight Castle in 1851, by James William Giles

Katharine Gordon Byron's maternal family, the Inneses, were a much more responsible, far less volatile, clan than the Gordons of Gight Castle had been. They were established around the town of Banff, where her maternal grandfather, Alexander Innes of Rosieburn House (in the nearby parish of Alvah), served as sheriff, town clerk and Provost (i.e. mayor), and married the daughter of the county  M.P.  Katharine's mother was the first of Alexander Innes's five children to die, and her orphaned daughter remained close to her maternal Innes and Russell aunts and uncles, frequently seeking their expertise to safeguard her greatly reduced inheritance. All four of Katharine Gordon's grandparents descend from the Stewart Kings of Scotland, but it is only through her maternal grandparents Alexander Innes and Katharine Abercromby that she has James IV in her ancestry. Details on the couple and their children will be followed by their four lines of descent from two of that monarch's illegitimate daughters.

ALEXANDER INNES of Rosieburn House, Alvah, Banffshire, Scotland, b. Dec. 1701; d. 16 Apr. 1761, bur. Banff Parish Church, 3rd son of John Innes, 6th of Edingight House (1662-1719, descended from James IV - see below) and Helen Strachan; Provost of Banff 1735-38; m. 29 Nov. 1729, KATHARINE ABERCROMBY, b. Glassaugh House, Fordyce, Banffshire, bap. 9 May 1708 Fordyce Parish Church; d. 8 Oct. 1784, bur. Banff Parish Church, 2nd dau of Alexander Abercromby, 3rd of Glassaugh House, M.P. Banffshire 1706-1727 (1678-1729, descended from James V) and Helen Meldrum (d. aft.1744, descended from Edward III), and had issue, one son and four daughters.

Innes of Edingight Coat of Arms
[Argent, 3 stars azure, with a border cheque]

Issue of Alexander and Katharine (Abercromby) Innes:

1) HELEN INNES, b. 1737/8; d. unmarried 21 Mar. 1829, bur. Banff Parish Church.

2) ELIZABETH INNES, bap. 16 Apr. 1739 Banff Parish Church; d. 20 Feb. 1821 Aberdeen; m. Apr. 1767, as his 2nd wife, ALEXANDER RUSSELL, 3rd of Moncoffer, 1st of Aden, bap. 3 Jan. 1723 King Edward Parish, Aberdeenshire; d. 1798, est son of Alexander Russell, 2nd of Moncoffer (1697-1733, descended from James IV) and Katharine Skene (b. 1701, descended from James IV), and had issue, three sons and one daughter.

3) KATHARINE INNES, b. c.1742; d. 16 Aug. 1782; m. 2 June 1763 Banff Parish Church, GEORGE GORDON, 12th Laird of Gight Castle, bap. 14 Nov. 1740 Ardlogie, Morayshire, Scotland; d. 9 Jan. 1779 Bath, Somersetshire, bur. 15 Jan. 1779 Bath Abbey, son and heir of Alexander Gordon, 11th Laird of Gight Castle (1716-1760, descended from James I) and Margaret Duff (1720-1801, descended from Edward III), and had issue, three daughters.

Issue of Katharine Innes and 12th Laird of Gight Castle:

Capt. John Byron (1757-1791)

3A) KATHARINE GORDON, bap. 22 Apr. 1764 Banff Parish Church ("Katharine, daughter of George Gordon of Gight and Mrs. Katharine Innes, Lady Gight, was baptised and named after Mrs. Katharine Abercrombie, relict of Alexander Innes of Rosieburn, the grandmother by the mother"); d. 1 Aug. 1811 Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, bur. 9 Aug. 1811 St Mary Magdalene Church, Hucknall Torkard, Nottinghamshire; m. 12 May 1785 St Michael Church, Bath, as his 2nd wife, Capt. JOHN BYRON of Marylebone, b. 7 Feb. 1757 Plymouth, Devon, bap. 17 Mar. 1757 St Andrew Church, Plymouth; d. 2 Aug. 1791 Valenciennes, France, er son of Hon. John Byron of Plymouth (1723-1786, descended from Edward III) and Sophia Trevanion (1730-1790, descended from Edward III), and had issue, one son (the famous poet Lord Byron).

3B) MARGARET GORDON, bap. 27 Dec. 1766 Banff Parish Church; d. unm. 7 Mar. 1780 Bristol Hot Baths, Gloucestershire.

3C) ABERCROMBY GORDON, b c.1770; d. young 28 Jan. 1777 Banff, bur. Banff Parish Church.

4) ANNE INNES, b. 1747; d. 13 Nov. 1814, bur. Banff Parish Church; m. 26 Feb. 1767 Banff Parish Church, Capt. THOMAS RUSSELL, 2nd of Rathen, b. 1742; d. 12 Apr. 1827, bur. Banff Parish Church, yr son of John Russell, 1st of Rathen (1700-1753, descended from James IV) and his 2nd wife Margaret Calder (1714-1770, descended from James IV), and had issue, seven sons and eight daughters.

5) THOMAS INNES of Rosieburn House, b. 1749; d. unmarried 24 Aug. 1784, bur. Banff Parish Church.

James IV of Scotland

James IV had two daus A1 & C1 (see below)
A1) Lady Janet Stewart, illegit. (c.1510-1562) m. Malcolm, 3rd Lord Fleming (c.1494-1547), and had a son A2 and a dau B2 (see below)
A2) John, 5th Lord Fleming (c.1540-1572) m. Elizabeth Ross (c.1545-1578), and had
A3) Jean Fleming (c.1565-1630) m. William Bruce, Heir of Airth (d. 1596, descended from James I), and had
A4) Sir John Bruce, 4th Laird of Airth (c.1585-by 1622) m. Margaret Elphinstone (see B4 below), and had
A5) Christian Bruce (b. c.1610) m. 2) John Innes, 4th of Edingight House (c.1614-1674, descended from Edward III), and had
A6) John Innes, 5th of Edingight House (c.1640-1726) m. Elizabeth Gordon (b. c.1640, descended from Edward III), and had
A7) John Innes, 6th of Edingight House (1662-1719) m. Helen Strachan, and had
A8) Alexander Innes of Rosieburn House (1701-1761 - see details above) m. Katharine Abercromby (see D9 below), and had
A9) Katharine Innes (c.1742-1782 - see details above) m. George Gordon, 12th Laird of Gight Castle (1740-1779, descended from James I), and had
A10) Katharine Gordon, 13th Lady of Gight Castle (1764-1811- see details above), mother of Lord Byron

4th Lord Elphinstone -
see Generation C3

B2) Agnes Fleming (c.1537-1597) m. William, 6th Lord Livingston (d. 1592, descended from James I), and had
B3) Jane Livingston (c.1557-1621) m. Alexander, 4th Lord Elphinstone (see C3 below), and had
B4) Margaret Elphinstone (1588-by 1643) m. Sir John Bruce, 4th Laird of Airth (see A4 above)

C1) Lady Margaret Stewart, illegit. (1496-aft.1562) m. 2) Sir John Drummond of Innerpeffray (d. aft.1554), and had
C2) Margaret Drummond (c.1532-1590) m. Robert, 3rd Lord Elphinstone (1530-1602), and had a son C3 and a dau D3 (see below)
C3) Alexander, 4th Lord Elphinstone (1552-1638) m. Jane Livingston (see B3 above)

D3) Elizabeth Elphinstone (c.1563-1613) m. Robert Innes, 19th Laird of that Ilk (1562-1596), and had
D4) Sir Robert Innes, 1st Baronet of that Ilk (1584-1658) m. Lady Grizel Stewart (descended from James V), and had
D5) Elizabeth Innes (c.1613-1640) m. 2) Alexander, 15th Laird of Brodie (1617-1680), and had
D6) Grizel Brodie (b. 1636) m. Sir Robert Dunbar, 3rd Laird of Grangehill (c.1625-aft.1670, descended from James I of Scotland), and had

Abercromby coat of arms

D7) Katherine Dunbar (b. 1655) m. 2) Alexander Abercromby, 2nd of Glassaugh House (d. bef. 1691, descended from James I of Scotland), and had
D8) Alexander Abercromby, 3rd of Glassaugh House (1678-1729) m. Helen Meldrum (c.1685-aft.1744, descended from Edward III), and had
D9) Katharine Abercromby (1708-1784 - see details above) m. Alexander Innes of Rosieburn House (see A8 above)

[Note: The first three of the above lines of descent appear on pp. 76-77 of Gary Boyd Roberts' The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants. Many thanks to my friend John Higgins for pointing out to me Line D above. The James V descent for Lord Byron is detailed in this post.]

This wraps up the series of posts on the royal ancestry of Lord Byron. The next post will look at his wife, the 11th Baroness Wentworth, and her lines of descent from Edward IV.

Cheers,                                         ------Brad

{68} Hiatus Explained: Eleanor (de Bohun), Countess of Ormond (c.1310-1363)

Effigy of Eleanor (de Bohun),
Countess of Ormond 
at St Mary Church, Gowran
[Photo courtesy of Mark Humphrys
at humphrysfamilytree.com]

It's been three months since my last blogpost. There are several reasons for the hiatus, but I'm just going to go ahead and blame it on Eleanor (de Bohun), Countess of Ormond (c.1310-1363). Work and personal life reduced the amount of time I had for genealogy during the months of February and March. So I had to put aside my database work and focus exclusively on an article for the upcoming issue of Foundations, the Journal of the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy (FMG). I have written a handful of articles for FMG since their existence, all under the editorial talent of Steven Edwards. I was delighted to meet up with Steve last year at Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire. The conversations we had that afternoon have led to my resolve to become more involved with FMG, and I'm looking forward to attending their annual meeting in late October.

As a granddaughter of Edward I who married a newly-created Irish earl, Lady Eleanor de Bohun is, for hundreds, if not thousands, of Irish gentry families, the gateway ancestor to a descent from the Plantagenet kings. Yet little is known about her life, beyond the basic dates provided in the peerage works. She was a very important lady in the reign of her first cousin Edward III, and the details behind the marriages which her children and grandchildren made are fascinating. 14th-century genealogical research is full of challenges, especially where Ireland is concerned, but they just make the reward that much better when a breakthrough occurs. The chancery documents, translated from medieval legalese in Latin or Anglo-Norman French, make dry, dull reading, but often hidden within them are important clues in establishing vital dates of birth, marriage and death. The most important of all surviving documents to genealogy is a will. Jessica Lutkin and Jonathan Mackman have provided a full transcription and translation of the 1363 will of Eleanor, countess of Ormond, for this summer's issue of Foundations. It's the first time this document is being published, and a full reading of it casts much-needed light on the life the countess led.

To complement the will, I provided an article, 'Descendants to the Third Generation of Eleanor, Countess of Ormond', which compiles the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the countess using original chancery documents and contemporary chronicles. It was incredibly time-consuming, but fascinating as well, especially the Irish lines, which I hadn't looked into in any detail beforehand. Hopefully it will prove useful to those studying the families of Butler of Ormond, Fitzgerald of Desmond, Talbot of Herefordshire, and Fitzwalter of Essex.

I also put together a photo essay that will appear in the online edition of Foundations. It tells how Kilpeck Castle came into the possession of the countess of Ormond, as well as the role the castle played in the marriage of her elder daughter, Lady Petronilla Butler, to Gilbert, Lord Talbot. Pictures taken on my excursion to the castle (and other nearby landmarks) in October 2015 complement the text. Following is an extract - the first portion of the photo essay.

I-------------------------I

KILPECK CASTLE AND THE COUNTESS OF ORMOND

The South Wall of Kilpeck Castle

About 9 miles southwest of Hereford, and just 5 miles from the Welsh border, on top of a hill surrounded by farmland, stand the ruins of Kilpeck Castle. This country was once the small Welsh kingdom of Ergyng, later Anglicized to Archenfield. After the Norman invasion, William the Conqueror granted Kilpeck to his kinsman William Fitz Norman, who built the initial timber castle, later extended with stonework. Shortly after the accession of Edward I, Kilpeck Castle came into the hands of the baronial Plugenet family of Herefordshire. The Plugenets held the castle of the king, who was lord of the hundred of Archenfield.[*1]

Kilpeck c.1325
An artist rendering of the area as it appeared in the early 14th century
[from the Kilpeck Castle entry sign]

By 1325, when Sir Alan Plugenet, the 2nd Baron, died childless, Kilpeck Castle and the thriving medieval village which surrounded it, was valued at £62 0s 6d. In the previous century, Kilpeck had been granted a weekly Friday market and an annual fair, and it served as the administrative centre for Archenfield. Kilpeck was very much a Marcher village: Welsh was the primary language spoken by its inhabitants, and its architecture and art contained a strong Celtic influence. Sir Alan Plugenet’s heir was his middle-aged, childless sister Dame Joan Bohun, a Bannockburn widow. Her husband Sir Henry de Bohun had been killed by Robert the Bruce in single combat the day before that battle. Dame Joan travelled to court in October 1325 and performed homage to King Edward II for her brother’s lands, including Kilpeck Castle.

Tomb of Dame Joan (Plugenet) Bohun in Hereford Cathedral

A benefactress of nearby Hereford Cathedral (where her elaborate tomb still exists), Dame Joan Bohun would have been well known to Adam Orleton (d. 1345), the bishop of Hereford who played an instrumental role the following year in the invasion of Edward II’s wife Queen Isabella and her lover Sir Roger Mortimer, and in the deposition of Edward II in favour of his 14-year-old son, now King Edward III. Likely aware of her imminent death, in the last months of her life Dame Joan Bohun, worked, no doubt in collusion with the bishop of Hereford and Queen Isabella, to determine who would inherit Kilpeck Castle and the other Plugenet lands in Herefordshire. Their choice was a kinswoman of Dame Joan’s late husband, and in the early autumn of 1327, while Parliament was meeting in Nottingham, occurred the transfer of Kilpeck Castle from Dame Joan Bohun, who would die just a few weeks later in December, to Lady Eleanor de Bohun, a teenaged noblewoman freshly emerged from a nunnery. [*2]

The approach to the North Wall of Kilpeck Castle

As the elder daughter of the powerful earl of Hereford and Essex, constable of England, Lady Eleanor de Bohun’s early years were mainly spent at Pleshey Castle, the Bohun’s chief seat in Essex. She was orphaned when about age 12, after her father joined the earl of Lancaster in open rebellion against Edward II, and was killed at the battle of Boroughbridge in 1322. Luckily, Lady Eleanor’s mother--who had died in childbirth when Eleanor was only about age 6—had been the king’s sister Elizabeth, countess of Hereford. So after her father’s death, King Edward II entrusted his niece Eleanor to the care of her aunt, his sister the nun-princess Mary (1279-1332), at Amesbury Priory in Wiltshire. The priory was a daughter house of Fontevraud Abbey, a Benedictine institution in Anjou, France, which had been founded by Petronilla of Chemillé (d. 1149), its first abbess, whose feast day on April 24th was celebrated in both Fontevraud and Amesbury. That Amesbury Priory, the Order of Fontevraud, and the education received from her aunt the nun-princess Mary all had a life-long impact on Lady Eleanor, is reflected by her giving her firstborn daughter the name Petronilla, after Fontevraud’s founder, and in her 1363 will, in which she made a bequest for the soul of her aunt Mary (one of only two deceased relations whom Eleanor remembered in her last testament). In 1327 when she received Kilpeck Castle, Lady Eleanor was about age 17, and Kilpeck gave her enough income to maintain a life independent of the court and of her four elder brothers. It also would make for a good marriage portion, and Lady Eleanor was no doubt a leading lady at the court of Queen Isabella and the young Edward III in the first two years of the reign. It would’ve been at court that Lady Eleanor met the Irish knight who became her first husband. [*3]

[*1] Most of the information on the community of Kilpeck and the history of the castle is from the excellent guidebook, The Parish Church of St Mary & St David at Kilpeck, by James Bailey, Berrington Press (Hereford: 2000).

[*2] For details on Dame Joan Bohun and her brother Sir Alan Plugenet, see the Plugenet article in CP Vol. 10 (1945), pp. 554-556.

[*3] Entries regarding the transfer of Kilpeck Castle to Lady Eleanor de Bohun can be found in CPR 1327-1330, pp. 164, 181-182, 230, with Queen Isabella’s involvement specifically mentioned on p. 175. For the type of education, with an emphasis on lineage, that Eleanor would have received from the nun-princess Mary at Amesbury, see Laura Barefield, ‘Lineage and Women’s Patronage: Mary of Woodstock and Nicholas Trevet’s Les Cronicles,’ Medieval Feminist Forum Vol. 33 No. 1 (2002), pp. 21-30.

I-------------------------I

The full photo essay has been uploaded to the FMG website, here.

I encourage all who are interested in medieval genealogy to become a member of FMG. It sponsors and encourages detailed research in the pre-16th century period, and certainly inspires me to continue my own research and maintain it at the level of academic standard. Anyone wishing to access the full photo essay who is not a member of FMG, let me know, and I'll send you a pdf file of the essay (text only).

At the beginning of this month, I had both the article and photo essay in submittable drafts, and was able to turn my focus back to expanding the Royal Descent database. I'm still in the process of building up the ancestors and descendants of the immediate family of the poet Lord Byron. It's led to some fascinating lines, and I'll be sharing them in the next several blogposts. First up will be the lines of descent from James IV of Scotland to Lord Byron's mother, Katharine (née Gordon).

Cheers,                                   ------Brad