Author: Will Gray

Let’s meet Skeffington Gibbon

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For various slightly complicated reasons, a lot of my recent research has been less online, and has been wrestling with the problems of researching Ireland. It has however narrowed itself down, slightly surprisingly to co. Roscommon. One of the people it has thrown up is the splendidly, and obviously bogusly, named Skeffington Gibbon who published a book privately in 1824, which was then re-published in Dublin in 1829. He very snappily called it

The Recollections Of Skeffington Gibbon, From 1796 To The Present Year, 1829; Being An Epitome Of The Lives And Characters Of The Nobility And Gentry Of Roscommon: The Genealogy Of Those Who Are Descended From The Kings Of Connaught And A Memoir  Of The Late Madame O’Conor Don.

Printed By Joseph Blundell, 187, Great Britain-Street. Dublin : 1829.

It is one of the strangest, weirdest, campest, books I have ever read. It’s 170 pages long, without chapters, and is basically a mixture of gossip, sycophantic fawning, and alleged family history. Sir William Wilde [Oscar’s father] was apparently of the opinion that he [Skeffy]  used his knowledge of family skeletons to make a living from the wealthy. Presumably on the basis of  “If you pay, I’ll keep you out of the book, and if you don’t, I’ll publish.” It would be interesting to know Sir Bernard Burke’s opinion of Skeffy’s work, but possibly his view published in the 1912 edition of Burke’s Landed Gentry gives an idea. ” Of course, one knows that every Irishman is the descendant of countless kings, princes and other minor celebrities. One admits it, the thing is unquestionable. One knows, of course, also, that every family is the oldest in Co. Galway, or Co. Sligo, or somewhere else, and that, for some reason or other, every Irishman is the ” head ” of his family.”. For now, I’ll let Mr Skeffington Gibbon introduce himself. The following is the first few pages from the book. [Oh, and, Madame O’Conor Don is the wife of a fourth cousin of (5x) great-uncle Owen O’Conor.]

” The reader will not accuse me of egotism for being candid, when, contrary to the acknowledgment of other writers, I tell him of the obscurity of my birth and the poverty of my parents.

I was born in a rural, but humble, cottage on a small farm called Fairfield, on the Glinsk Manors, in the County of Galway. My father, who was descended from a respectable family in the County of Cork, at one time possessed the chief of that barony, which still retains the name of that ancient family, well known in and about the beautiful Fermoy as the Barony of Clan-Gibbon. In tracing the origin of my ancestors I find that the Province of Gibbelonian in the Italian States is their inheritance, from which some assumed the name of Giblon, a junior branch of which family inherited, about a century ago, the noble seat of Bally- giblon, now in the possession of Wrixon Beecher, Esq., who recently married the beautiful and esteemed Miss O’Neill, of the late Theatre-Royal, Crow-street.

The first of my ancestors who landed in Great Britain accompanied William Duke of Normandy in his invasion of that Empire in the tenth century, and obtained by their valour extensive manors in the Counties of Kent, Middlesex and Northampton, of which their descendants still retain a small remnant. The head of the family is now recognised by the title of that illustrious Baronet of Staines, (Sir John Gibbon,) in the County of Middlesex.

The celebrated Edward Gibbon, so esteemed for his ‘Roman History’ and his ‘Letters to Lord Chesterfield, etc.’ was descended from the same ancestors. He tells us his father was a merchant in the City of London — that he was born at Putney on the banks of the noble Thames — that his mother was a Miss Porten, of the enchanting Richmond Hill in the County of Surrey, and after her lamented demise, which was premature after his birth, he was brought into life by his maiden aunt, who spoon-fed him for nearly nine months. However, I pass by that honourable and revered gentleman for the present, to give an account of the first of my ancestors, who accompanied Fitz-Stevens into Ireland in 1172, and obtained large manors in the Counties of Wexford and Waterford, and afterwards, on the reinforcement of Strongbow, aided by MacMurrough, King of Leinster, took possession of several strong castles in the Counties of Cork, Limerick and Tipperary. Catherine Gibbon, the celebrated Countess of Desmond, who fell by the side of her hoary-headed lord, in the eightieth year of his age, in a sanguinary battle between the Cromwellian Condons of Castle-gibbon, now called Castletownroche, on the banks of the copious and navigable River Blackwater, in the territory of the great MacCarthy, was daughter of the ancient but unfortunate family from which I am descended.

The noble ruin called the ” House of Desmond,” in the town of Mallow, now in the possession of Mr. Jephson, the representative in Parliament for that borough, deserves the tourist’s notice, being one of the most magnificent structures that antiquity can boast of. It is situate in a beauteous and verdant glen, embracing a multiplicity of spontaneous boons, mountain air, a salubrious spa adorned by the River Blackwater, and a country delightfully diversified — besides a town, to the credit of the respected inheritor, much and highly improved.

From the various sanguinary commotions and civil wars that distracted this kingdom during the reign of Elizabeth — the paramount sway of Oliver Cromwell and his rapacious freebooters, under the cloak of fanaticism, and latterly, the unrelenting atrocities committed on the natives during and subsequent to the sanguinary war between the unfortunate James II. and his nephew and son-in-law the Prince of Orange, such of the nobility as were not expatriated took refuge in the woods and forests in the province of Connaught, where thousands of them expired either by famine, an incurable flux, or a contagious epidemic, then called the long scarlet fever. Amongst these was my ancestor Richard Fitzallen Gibbon, for whose head a large reward was offered by Colonel Carew, and General Boyle, ancestor of Lord Cork ; however, by changing his name to MacGibbonne or MacGibbolone, he evaded being apprehended, and got married to the daughter of FitzMaurice, of the noble house of Clare-Maurice in Mayo, a family who only possessed a remnant of their former principality at the time, as the Binghams and the Gores, under the false surmise or accusation of the heads of that puissant and illustrious family being suspected Papists, and outlawed for not joining the ruthless Cromwell and the Saints under his pious guidance, engrossed the chief of their patrimony and that of Burke the Lord of Mayo, and which, except what was sold through the prodigality of those unsought-for intruders, their heirs retain at the present time.

In Mrs. O’Mooney’s “ Sketch of her Own Times,” she observes, in her view from the lofty Crough- Patrick, the wide districts in the possession of the Earls of Arran and Lucan, (the latter title once justly bestowed on the illustrious heirs of Sarsfield) — ” Those demesnes,” adds she, ” ill got, one day or other will be ill gone.” However, to return to the subject of the family from which I am paternally descended : the progeny by the marriage with Miss Fitz-Maurice, by intermarriages, got settled in the Counties of Mayo and Galway. The chief of the Gibbon estates, which was part of the dowry of Miss Fitz-Maurice, was lately in the possession of that great diamond. Big Denis Browne, (recently deceased,) on which he built a family mansion, called ( to immortalize his name) Mount-Browne. My grand-father, who married the daughter of O’Shaughnessy, of Gort Castle, fell in defence of his family and property, where he lived, in a rural villa in the vicinity of Mylough, in the County of Galway. In consequence of the undeserved outrage committed on my grandfather, (at the head of which was a tyrant of the name of Ormsby, well known as Robert Ormsby, of Tubberavaddy, near Roscommon, a notorious partisan with the celebrated Lord Santry, as  Chairmen of the never-to-be-forgotten Hell-Fire Club, in College-green,) the land is now in the possession of an heiress of the house of Netterville, who is (I believe) married to Mr. Gerrard, of Gibbstown, in the County of Meath. Much to the credit of Sir John Burke, of Glinsk Castle, (who married Miss Cicily Netterville, of Longford, in that neighbourhood,) and a few Dominican Friars, who occupied a secluded convent and a few acres of land on the Burke manors, under the west wing of that lofty peak, called Mount-Mary, which separates the wide demesnes of those two ancient feudal Chieftains, (the Baronets of Glinsk Castle and the heirs of Castle-Kelly,) which at one time comprised upwards of twenty miles of the County of Galway, and the chief of the Barony of Athlone, in the County of Roscommon, they took compassion on the forlorn situation ol a destitute widow and her four infant children, and provided the harbourless with a small hut on the verge of this romantic mountain, on the site of a wood, called Cappa Wood. In this desolate wilderness did the unfortunate daughter of the once noble house of O’Shaughnessy and her orphans live on the scanty produce of a barren mountainy garden, mingling their anguish and poignant destitution with their tears, and a multiplicity of privations. I recollect myself having seen this farm ; it was recently held by an opulent grazier of the name of Kyne, who died suddenly at the fair of Fuerty, in that neighbourhood, a few years back.

My father told me that his elder brother, who was a proficient in the common rudiments of education, eloped from his mother, when about eighteen years of age, and sailed from Cork for the United States. How he could get out to that lovely country at that time, without friends or money, as he was not possessed of a farthing when he left his mother’s humble cottage but one guinea, which had been sent her by the Catholic Bishop of Tuam, her maternal uncle, (Doctor O’Kelly,) who lived some time in the house of Ossy, near Glinsk, where a man of the name of Glynn keeps extensive nursery gardens at the present time. The mother’s grief for her husband, their property, and her son was such, that it was impossible for her exhausted constitution to bear it any longer; she fell into a fit of despondency, and in a few weeks after the departure of her son, expired in the arms of her faithful friend, and the participator of her misfortunes — a foster-sister, who never forsook her in all her complicated disasters, till she saw her interred in the Abbey of Kilbegnad, in the ancient vault of the Skeffington family, to whom she was maternally allied through the O’Kellys of Aughrim Castle, so celebrated from its memorable battle in 1689. From this my uncle worked his passage on board as a seaman, to that land of promise. The only account my father had of his arrival in that country was from Doctor Nesbitt, who practised for some time as an eminent physician there, and visited his friends in the County of Leitrim, where he remained but a few weeks, as his wife and family remained in the City of Washington, anxiously waiting his return. The account he gave was that my uncle got married to the daughter of a Scotch merchant of the name of Douglas, who resided some distance from Washington — that he was accumulating wealth, and made a most respectable connexion on his marriage with Miss Douglas — that he heard of his mother’s death from a Mr. Fallon, the kinsman of an ancient family of that name in the Barony of Athlone — and that he intended to assist his friends in Ireland in a short time. My father had another brother, who died at Fairfield, of a malignant fever, in the 24th year of his age. I never knew my poor father to mention this brother without changing his countenance, which he strove to conceal from his auditors or his own family, and his whole frame undergoing that panic of grief that one recognizes in the aspect of those who are suffering deep affliction and sensation for the loss of some worthy friend, which wealth, luxury, or amusement cannot remove. My only sister, adds my father, who married a farmer of the name of Magrath, in the vicinity of Mylough or Mount-Bellew, died, after giving birth to three children. As it would only bring other melancholy recollections to my mind, and as my brother-in- law married about nine months after my sister’s premature demise, I never saw any of that family afterwards. We were obliged, says he, (observing about my uncle, who died unmarried,) to leave our handsome cottage at Cappa, which was surrounded with beautiful shrubs that sprung up on the site of that large wood sold to pay off some family incumbrances, which were weighing pretty heavy on the estate of Sir Festic Burke at the time. Then my brother — that brother, adds he, who was the companion and the participator of my early, innocent and rustic amusements, took the handsome farm of Fairfield, watered by a beautiful river, which proceeds from that deep moor that separates the Glinsk manors from the small patrimony of Mr. D’Arcy, a magistrate, and a respectable gentleman, allied to the ancient family of Kiltulla, in the upper part of this great and populous county. I think Mr. D’Arcy’s rural residence is called Newforest or Blackforest. Mr. James Kelly, a tanner by trade, possessed the house of Fairfield, and some fields adorned with tan-holes of no sweet odour ; when the wind blew westward, we felt it intolerable. James Kelly was uncle to William Kelly, of Buckfield — a farm which they hold from the Earls of Clanrickarde ; as also to William Kelly, now of Gardiner-street, who kept a spirit shop many years in that noble seat that Oliver Cromwell threw into the possession of the Mahon family, called Strokestown. Our residence at Fairfield (considerably augmented since my early days) was delightfully situated on the banks of a murmuring rivulet. My father, a few years before his death, said that the tenantry in the surrounding villages were draining and reclaiming those deep bogs which inundate the adjacent pasturage, the fog of which swamps caused contagion and typhus fevers through the country. The people are getting prodigiously enlightened ; nor do I think that their propensities are so vicious as they were some years back. “

We’ll come back to his father’s views in another post, but let’s leave Skeffy with a soundtrack

Massively, massively off topic – but I laughed and laughed

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This was posted on the Sainsbury’s website on the 16 September 2017, and it actually reduced me to tears of laughter. I’m so delighted that they had up-to-date electrics

Sainsbury’s Home Stainless Steel 4 Slice Toaster

 

Blew up after 2 weeks

While it was working I would have given this 3 stars. The main problem is that the slots are not very deep so much so that with some bread you needed to either cut each slice in two or turn it around and put it on again. However after 2 weeks of ownership and very light use it blew up. My wife put the bread in, pressed down the lever, there was a ‘crack’ and all the electrics in the house went off. Luckily we have very up to date electrics with trip switches so no harm was done. Unfortunately we didn’t keep the receipt as we bought it along with our weekly shop so can’t get a refund. Hey ho we live and learn..

Another view of Sir Joshua Walmsley from 1852

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From “My Life in Two Hemispheres”  by Charles Gavan Duffy,  Chapter 19 (Book 3, Chapter 3). Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (1816-1903), was an Irish nationalist and politician in Victoria, Australia; ending up as State Premier. He was born on 12 April 1816 in Monaghan, Ireland, son of John Duffy, shopkeeper, and his wife Ann, daughter of Patrick Gavan of Latnamard. Reading and dreaming over his few books, he grew up during the struggle for Catholic emancipation and his nationalism was kindled by stories of [the Irish “rebellion”] in 1798. He boasted that he was the ‘first Catholic emancipated in Ireland’ as most of his schooling was at the local Presbyterian academy. The following was written in November 1852

” Sir Joshua Walmsley, a former mayor of Liverpool, who had become spokesman of a Parliamentary group of Reformers, resting on a political society outside, appears a good deal in the diary of this date, but as nothing came of his coquetting with the Irish party one specimen will suffice:—

“Excused myself for Sunday to Walmsley (he had invited me to meet a number of his political friends at dinner, but I was engaged to Richard Swift and a muster of our own men). As he wanted to talk we dined soon after tête-à-tête at Bellamy’s. All popular questions, he thought, including the Irish Land Question, ought to be postponed till an extension of the franchise was obtained; then, and then only, would everything be possible. I told him that nobody familiar with the condition of Ireland would consent to a fresh postponement of the Land Question on any pretence. He thought Cobden and Bright might be induced to lead the franchise movement if it became wide enough to promise a speedy success. I said I would be glad to see the franchise become the English question of the day, and it would get substantial Irish help. In Ireland the franchise had dwindled away till genuine popular representation had almost disappeared. We wanted an extension urgently, but the farmer wanted the right to live on his own land so much more that it was idle to speak of the questions together. He talked of Cobden with affection. He was a truly generous man, he said. His American investments had not turned out well, but he was always ready to put his hand in his pocket for a public purpose. A fund was raised to sustain Kossuth, and Cobden gave £50 a year, while many other conspicuous Liberals, including Bright, would not give a penny. I spoke, of Hazlitt, Cobbett, Leigh Hunt, Hone, and the martyrs and confessors of Radicalism, but modern Radicalism does not apparently keep a calendar. He knew more of Edward Whitty, Linton, and The Orchestra of the Leader, but his esteem is moderate for any one who does not regard an extension of the suffrage as a specific for human woes. I asked him about Roebuck. Roebuck, he said, was privateering, and could no longer be counted on by any popular section. He loved no party, and no party loved him. My own observation confirms this description. I had some talk with him lately in the Library, and he seemed embittered and disappointed beyond any one I had ever encountered; his face had an expression that was scarcely human. I compared it mentally to the aspect of an angry dog—venomous and dangerous. He used to be called the most conceited man in Parliament, but his unkempt hair, stooping figure, and flabby look give him the appearance of a ruin.”

Obituary – Alderman Ernest A. O’Bryen 3rd May 1919

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ALDERMAN ERNEST A. O’BRYEN.

We regret to record the death of Alderman Ernest A. O’Bryen, Mayor of Hampstead, which took place on Saturday night, at the age of fifty-three years, following on an operation from which he at first seemed to be progressing favourably. Educated at Stonyhurst and Cooper’s Hill, he spent some ten years in the Indian Forest Service in Upper Burmah, shortly after its annexation. He retired from the service in 1897 and married in the following year, Gertrude, daughter of the late Alfred Pursell. In 1913 he was elected Mayor of Hampstead, first Catholic to hold that position, and held it till his death. In 1916 he was President of the Stonyhurst Association and the same year was elected a Vice-President of the London Circle of the Catenian Association. During the war he took a leading part in making arrangements for the feeding and accommodation of Belgian refugees, and he also organised and equipped hospitals for the British Red Cross and St. John Ambulance. In 1915, Alderman O’Bryen was instrumental in raising the 183rd Howitzer Brigade and the 138th and 139th Heavy Batteries of Royal Garrison Artillery.

The funeral took place on Wednesday. The Requiem Mass was celebrated at St. Dominic’s Priory, Haverstock Hill, by Father Bodkin, S. J. Among those present were Mrs. O’Bryen and her five children, Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Winstanley, Captain and Mrs. Parker, Mr. Alfred Pursell, Mrs. Edwardes, Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Bellord, Mr. Frank Pursell, Mr. Alfred O’Bryen, Mrs. Rex O’Bryen, Mrs. Basil O’Bryen, the Deputy Mayor, the Town Clerk, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of Hampstead, the Vice-Chairman of the London County Council (Mr. A. T. Taylor, L.C.C.), Alderman Sir William Dunn, Bart., Alderman J. W. Gilbert, L.C.C., Mr. W. Reynolds, L.C.C., Mr. John O’Connor, K.C., Canon Burton, Father Robert Bracey, 0.P., Rev. J. Keating, S.J., Father John Leather, 0.P., Mr. J. G. Bellord, Dr. Ernest Ware, Mr. Synnott, Mr. Lescher, and many others. Father Bodkin also gave the Absolutions, and officiated at the interment at Kensal Green, assisted by Father John Leather. Several communities of nuns were also represented in the church. The children from Bartram’s Orphanage lined the road near the church and the entrance to the avenue at the cemetery.

“The Catholic body in London has suffered a severe loss by the death of Alderman Ernest O’Bryen,” writes one who knew him. “The number of Catholic laymen who take a prominent share in London public life is unfortunately not very large, and the untimely death of one who had achieved such a notable success as to be elected six times in succession Mayor of the borough of Hampstead, in which he lived, must fill with deepest regret all those, interested in Catholic social effort in the Metropolis. Those who had the privilege of knowing Ernest O’Bryen intimately were not surprised that he secured the confidence and the esteem of his fellow workers, both Catholic and non-Catholic. An able administrator, with a sound judgment, a strong resolution, a persuasive manner, and a power of appropriate silence—the last a valuable gift in public life, his two outstanding qualities were perhaps his loyalty and his generosity of service. He was loyal, most loyal, to his religious beliefs and practices, loyal to his country, loyal to his friends, and loyal to those co-operating with him. His fellow Catholics know of his loyalty to his religion : Hampstead marked its appreciation of his loyalty to his country at the beginning of the war by re-electing him as Mayor five times to see the war through ; many like the writer have experienced his loyalty to his friends, which showed itself in times of anxiety and difficulty, not in word service but in practical form ; whilst of his loyalty to those co-operating with him his record in public life and in many Catholic organizations with which he was connected will bear willing witness.” 

His great generosity of service has undoubtedly contributed to his breakdown in health. Few London Mayors have exceeded his standard of effort as first citizen of a London borough throughout the difficult period of the national emergency. His achievements in connection with the Prince of Wales Fund, Red Cross and St. John Ambulance work, Belgian Refugees, recruiting for Kitchener’s Army and the Derby Scheme, the Hampstead Tribunal for exemptions from military service of which he was Chairman, the War Loan Campaign, the Food Economy Campaign and the provision of allotments—all are in the records of Hampstead public life, and it is to be deeply regretted that he has not lived to receive the official recognition of these services, which he so richly merited. The Catholic body in London, certainly, may be proud of the excellent record of public service for the common good which a Catholic layman has achieved.

Of his Catholic work it is unnecessary to write at length. The Catholic Federation, in its early days, the Catenian Society, the Stonyhurst Association, Catholic elementary schools, have by his death lost a good friend. If he had been spared, and, as seemed likely, his scope of public service had been increased, all these associations would have benefited materially from his support. His last visit to the writer was with a view to securing material assistance for a Catholic charitable institution, in the development of which he took great interest. His untimely death certainly creates a void in London Catholic life, which it will be very difficult to fill.

The above text was found on p.28, 3rd May 1919 in “The Tablet: The International Catholic News Weekly.” Reproduced with kind permission of the Publisher. The Tablet can be found at http://www.thetablet.co.uk .

Simon Conyers Scrope and Valentine Cary-Elwes

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MR. SCROPE.

With deep regret we announce the death of Mr. Scrope, which took place at Danby Hall on Wednesday, after a short illness, during which be received all the Last Sacraments. Born in 1858, and educated at Stonyhurst and the Oratory, Mr. Scrope lived almost all his life at Danby. He was a devoted Catholic, a thorough sportsman, and a true friend. He was a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant, and for many years served in the Yorkshire Artillery Militia, in which he held the rank of Major and Hon. Lieut.- Colonel. Of the family he represented, it is probably superfluous to speak in a Catholic paper. The Times says : “Mr. Scrope was the head of one of the oldest and most famous families in English history. In the course of three centuries from Edward II. to Charles I. the house of Scrope produced two earls and twenty barons, one Chancellor, four Treasurers, and two Chief Justices of England, one Archbishop and two Bishops, five Knights of the Garter, and numerous Bannerets. Shakespeare mentions three of the Scrapes. The grandfather of Mr. Scrope, who died in 1872, laid claim to the earldom of Wiltshire, a creation of 1397, but the decision of the House of Lords was adverse, their decision not following the Devon case.” R.I.P.

MR. CARY-ELWES.

We regret to announce the death of Mr.[ Valentine]  Cary-Elwes of Great Billing, Northamptonshire, and of Roxby and Brigg, Lincolnshire. He was taken ill with double pneumonia on Sunday, and died at his Northamptonshire residence on Wednesday. Mr. Cary-Elwes, who was born in 1832, was the only surviving son of Cary Charles Elwes of Great Billing, was formerly in the 12th Lancers, and served in the Kaffir War in 1831-32. He was a magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for Lincolnshire, of which he was High Sheriff in 1873. The following year he was received into the Catholic Church. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He was twice married, his second wife being Alice Geraldine, youngest daughter of the Rev, the Hon. Henry Ward of Killinchy, County Down, brother of the third Viscount Bangor. He leaves two sons and one daughter. The funeral will take place at Billing on Monday. R.I.P.

The above text was found on p.14,19th June 1909 in “The Tablet: The International Catholic News Weekly.” Reproduced with kind permission of the Publisher. The Tablet can be found at http://www.thetablet.co.uk .

Aunt Edith’s Elworthy Family History

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I came across this recently, which was sent to my grandfather by his sister Edith. My guess is that it was written in the late 1920’s, or early 1930’s; largely by her use of the present tense when referring to Edward Elworthy’s widow. 

Family History

What I know about the ancestry of the Elworthy family amounts to very little and is for the most part derived from hearsay evidence.

There appear to have been two branches, one living in Devon, and the other in Somerset, the latter being most aristocratic, and using a crest.

Between our branch (Devon) and the other, I believe there was only a distant cousinship. The only member of the latter that I met was a girl in N. Zealand, daughter of Edward Elworthy [1836 -1899] who emigrated from his native land, first to the Darling Doors?? Island, in the early days of that state, but soon after went to New Zealand where he mad a fortune in agricultural pursuits, and was able to endow all his children liberally. Edward Elworthy married a Miss Horrocks ( of Over Darwen ) [ actually Sarah Maria Shorrocks (1844 -1933) ]and her I also met. She has been a widow for some years. These Elworthys are considered one of the finest families in Christchurch. The mother and daughter who I met were not particularly friendly. The daughter suffered from some form of hip trouble judging from the limp. She was the only unmarried one, and spent most of her time travelling to and from Europe with her mother. When I met them they had done it a round dozen times.

They showed me a drawing of a beautiful girl (Early Victorian) rather like Gladys. Her name was Muriel and she was a noted S. of England beauty in her day. They mentioned all the names that we have in our family.

With regard to this family, a Mrs Campbell Thomson, a N. Zealander also hailing from Christchurch happened to meet Isobel and myself at [unclear unclear looks like Twat Hands] just before Isobel’s marriage, and before she learnt our names exclaimed “ I am sure the very dark one is an Elworthy, she is so like Edward Elworthy ! “

That is practically all I know about them except that two of them married two of the children of Archbishop Julius, Primate of New Zealand.

On our side, we have had handed down the tradition of Squire Elworthy of Pym or Peem, a direct ancestor, who was very wealthy, and who saved the bank when it was in imminent danger of collapse, by carrying in his money bags somewhere about the time of the South Sea Bubble. He gave each of his 25 children a farm and more than comfortable, breaking the entail to do so.

Had Uncle William in a hot fit of irresponsibility not set fire to an old oak chest full of ancient, valuable, and almost indecipherable documents during his father’s absence, there would doubtless be a fair lot more of information (authentic) available about those who went before. His father wept over the loss and declared that he had done untold harm to his family – but William as a youth was always a bit taken that way.

However Mother says it is perhaps just as well we don’t know much more about the family – we might be shocked.

The mother of William, John, Henry, and Eliza was a Serle, and she died when John was only 8 and left the children just when they most needed a mother’s care and training. Therefore I think they must rather have lacked manners.

At any rate, Uncle used to tell Isobel about an Uncle he used to visit who was rather overwhelming in his grandeur in the boy’s eyes. The old gentleman kept up style, and insisted on being treated with respect and deference on the part of his dependants. One young servant, in William’s presence, tried to bring the old man a letter without a salver under it, and got much sworn at and kicked from the room for his pains !

Uncle also told Isobel that the old place in Devon was in such dreadful disrepair it was not worth looking up. He was terribly disappointed.

There were some cousins named Searle ( if they survived the war) who were educated at Oxford, and one became a clergyman, and the other a D. of medecine. Their mother was the famous Phoebe Ditton of the auburn ringlets who tried to marry both William, and John, and finally contented herself with a cousin. She was the daughter of a clergyman who lived near the old Elworthy home, either at Hockleigh or Inderley?? ( names of the villages thereabouts). She  [four undecipherable words] when Uncle renewed his acquaintance with her that he was quite pleased that he had not made her his wife. She was a nice old party – but had a very hard life.

When Isobel went through her dark time at the hospital, her night nurse who was a great comfort to her was a Sister Vera Elworthy – daughter of Frederick Elworthy of Macaleay?? This family through Minnie’s mother was more nearly related to her than ours. Anyway she belongs to the Devon E’s. She is a nice sympathetic type of girl. She is very big, but beautifully made, 5ft 8 1/2 inches in height ( her father was 6ft 4.) She has big blue eyes, dark hair, a good chin and a very pleasant face. Her father died at the age of 65 from cancer contracted through cattle it is thought. he left a good deal of property round Thackery, North Queensland. he was always studying medicine, and had innumerable medical works in his possession. he knew he was very ill long before he acquainted his family. Her only brother Frank went to the war, and came safely back – one of her sisters married a squatter named Shannon, and another is engaged to a solicitor in Brisbane. The mother, a fine type of woman, was a Miss Wilson from Windemere, Cumberland.

James Elworthy of Melbourne was a 2nd or 3rd cousin of William and John, a fine handsome old chap who made a lot of money here. Minnie could tell you a lot about him as she was a guest of his family for so long

James and Richard both came out from England in the early days, and settled in Melbourne. Richard had married at home, and with his wife and children brought a governess who James afterwards married. The two beautiful daughters of James both committed suicide ( religious mania or some such thing) though I think the 2nd one grieved over the death of her sister and that unhinged her mind. The son died early, and the other daughter married a Lightfoot, or Proudfoot of the big firm of Daraken and Birch here.

I remember going for the week-end to stay with the daughter when I was at school in Melbourne as a kiddie. The mother was an Elworthy, and very kind to me.

Old James Elworthy lost £ 33,000 in one fell swoop in some bit of land boom in Q’land years ago, and so I think left little. He was unfortunate in several directions ! although a fine old chap himself. Richard was not much of a character and left all his children poor??

The districy was somewhere in South Devon near Exeter, but exactly where their headquarters were I don’t know nor can find out. They used to travel all over Devon, and mentioned most of the names to Arthur, several being Crediton, Lyme Regis, Tavistock, Honiton etc.

Frank and his wife have 3 very promising, and sturdy boys – Francis, Maurice, & Geoffrey. He is doing his utmost to give them all a good education. His wife Nell Sturmm, daughter of one of Q’land’s finest settlers, a German journalist named Jacob Sturmm. Her sister married [unclear, unclear, unclear] Glasgow who distinguished himself both in the Boer, and the Great War. They now have two daughters. Frank, unfortunately, is somewhat hampered by lack of funds, and finds life a hard struggle. He also possesses a huge admiration for his Elworthy forebears.

(Unclear) died as you know during the pneumatic influenza epidemic in Sydney afetr tending some of the worst cases for 8 months. He left 2 boys, and a girl, all rather delicate children, but apparently rather clever, and gifted. Unfortunately there is not much money there, and the mother is in a faril state of health. They are William ( Bill ), Richard ( Dick ), and Henry. Their mother is partly of Spanish descent, and the children are dark in colouring.

I think that is pretty well all I can tell you of our family.

A very well-read literary lady of my acquaintance tells me the family must go back a great distance because John Milton’s secretary was an Elworthy. I have never verified this. [ There is a note in another hand with an arrow pointing to the Elworthy saying Elmore Not ]

Isobel has been to a couple of seances lately, and got in touch with an old Scotch Doctor from the other side who has told her heaps of interestin things – amongst them he says:

“ Your families on both sides are and have been very finely organised about [unclear] for generations past. This is not a bad thing only it makes life harder for you all as you are so sensitive and highly strung.” He also said “ Your mother is a fine type and tried to bring up her children simply, and well; she is a great big child at heart, and cannot understand the ugly things of life. She protected you all too much, if that is possible for the hard positions in life, and so rather (unclear) you to take the knocks, but it was all for the best. She has led a good life. “

I am telling you this because it rather bears out the horoscopes: highly strung, sensitive, intense feelings etc., plenty of talents, good mentality, but the opportunities not right or lacking, or as you say Saturn, the planet of fate, the [unclear], the planet of limitations and obstructions ( but also the Purifying Angel) playing a big part, so that from a material point of view we don’t get much [unclear] . However I am convinced it will all be different from the spiritual standpoint – Setbacks, sorrows, suffering are all a necessary condition of human forgiveness, to help perfect the soul. Therein lies the consolation, and things will eventually come right in the beyond if not here. Some of the finest characters have had the most afflicted horoscopes so take heart. We can only do the best of which we are capable.

I am sorry in all this there seems nothing very definite to tell you. It is after all a very vague account of the family.