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Lieutenant Philip Salkeld V.C.

May 26th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Standing in the churchyard of St. Andrew’s Parish Church at Fontmell Magna is the memorial erected for Lieutenant Philip Salkeld V.C., who died on 10th of October 1857 at Delhi. Philip Salkeld was born and brought up in Fontmell Magna where his father the Revd. Robert Salkeld was Rector.

Philip Salkeld’s military career started when he entered Addiscombe College in 1846. While he was there he was selected, by competition, for an engineer appointment, attaining the top position in mathematics and modern languages. He achieved the rank of 2nd Lieutenant on the 9th of June 1848. The next two years he spent studying the theoretical and practical side of fortification and engineering at the Royal Engineer establishment at Chatham.

His service records show he was ordered to travel overland to India and he arrived in Calcutta in June of 1850, where he joined the Corp of Sappers and Miners, Bengal Establishment. He quickly acquired an excellent knowledge of Hindustani. In June 1853 he was sent to Meerut as the extra engineer. Later that year he was appointed officer in charge of the Grand Truck Road, a position he held until December 1856. His promotion to the rank of Lieutenant came on 1st of August 1854.

During his service in India Philip was mindful of events at home and he was able to save enough money to send home £100 a year to be used towards the cost of education for his younger brother Charles, in preparation for him to follow Philip to Addiscombe College. On the 10th May 1857 at the outbreak of the Meerut mutiny Philip Salkeld was still stationed in Delhi; he escaped from the city and the massacre but his possessions were lost, including his money which was in a Delhi bank.

He joined Major General Sir Harry Barnard’s column and was recognised as a brave officer. A decision was taken on the night of 13th September 1857 to launch an assault on the Cashmere and Water Bastions at dawn the following day. Colonel G Campbell was commanding the 3rd column consisting of the 32nd Regiment of Foot; 2nd Bengal Fusiliers and 1st Punjab Regiment. They were to attack the Kashmir Gate after it had been blown open.

Three Engineer Officers were attached to the column: Lieutenants Home, Salkeld and Tandy. According to the account of the attack, the column fell in and marched to their respective places. The plan was for the 1st column to storm the breach near the Cashmere bastions, while the 2nd column was to storm the Water bastion. As the exploration party for the 3rd column advanced to the gateway in broad daylight they came under musket fire from above the gateway and from both flanks as they laid and adjusted the powder bags. Lieutenant Salkeld had been shot and had fallen into a ditch. Sergeant Carmichael tried to fire the charge, but was shot dead. Sergeant Burgess successfully fired the charge but was shot dead. In the confusion Sergeant Smith, thinking that Burgess had failed to fire the charge, ran forward and seeing the charge was alight he threw himself into the ditch.

In his account Sergeant John Smith says the Sappers going to the gate were led by Lieutenant Home and Bugler Robert Hawthorne; following a few paces behind, led by Lieutenant Salkeld, came the party carrying the powder; Sergeant Smith bringing up the rear to see none of them remained behind. Four of the Indians in the party refused to go on and Sergeant Smith threatened to shoot them. Lieutenant Salkeld came to see what was happening and said to leave them as they had enough powder. Sergeant Smith says he went on but only Lieutenant Salkeld and Burgess were there. Lieutenant Carmichael was dead, Sergeant Smith at great risk retrieved Carmichael’s bag of powder, set the fuse and reported “all ready” to Lieutenant Salkeld who, stooping down to light the fuse, put one of his feet out and was shot through the thigh; he told Sergeant Smith to fire the charge, but it seems Burgess had already done it.

Sergeant Smith says in his account that: “…as soon as the dust had cleared away we saw Lieutenant Salkeld and Burgess covered with dust their laying in the middle of the ditch having saved them from falling debris…I went to Lieutenant Salkeld and called the bugler to help me remove him under the bridge as the fire had covered upon us, and Lieutenant Salkeld’s arms were broken…LieutenantSalkeld would not let us remove him so I put a bag of powder under his head for a pillow, and bound up his arms and thigh and I left the bugler to look after him and went to Burgess…I got some brandy from Lieutenant Home and gave to both...” Sergeant Smith then went to the rear and obtained two stretchers and with the help of Bugler Hawthorne got Lieutenant Salkeld onto one of the stretchers and had him removed to the hospital.

The gallantry displayed that day by Lieutenant Duncan Charles Home; Lieutenant Philip Salkeld (both of the Bengal Engineers); Sergeant John Smith of the Bengal Sappers and Miners and Bugler Robert Hawthorne of the 52nd Regiment, earned them all the Victoria Cross.

Lieutenant Salkeld was mortally wounded. He survived until 10th of October 1857, when he died of his injuries. One report says that one arm had been amputated. The award of the Victoria Cross was given by Major General Sir Archdale Wilson, who had his Aide-de-Camp, Lieutenant Turnbull, pin the ribbon of the VC upon Philip Salkeld in the hope that it might invigorate his spirits but he said only “…it will be gratifying to send it home…” Philip Salkeld was buried in the cemetery at Delhi and his death was recorded on the War Memorial there.

Philp Salkeld’s brothers, Richard Henry and Charles Edward, both served in the Indian Army.

Stephen Pope

May 21st, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Stephen Pope of Cripplestyle (see our story in Real Lives Category)

Stephen Pope of Cripplestyle (see our story in Real Lives Category)

Stephen Pope of Cripplestyle

May 21st, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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We make no great claims for Stephen Pope, nor would he want us to. He was a hard working family man with a dry sense of humour. He lived at Cripplestyle in the parish of Alderholt, where he was born in 1843, the son of James and Elizabeth Pope.

In the autumn of 1867 he married Fanny Beal, a girl from the same parish and they had several children. He earned his living from the land as a woodman, hurdle maker and later as a driver of a corn threshing engine.
 
Stephen Pope was a godly man: he attended the small Williams Memorial Chapel, built in 1807. The mud walls and rough timbers would have fitted well with Stephen’s character and his strong Puritan ways. Later, with generous help from Lord Salisbury, the Old Chapel became a church and Stephen marched in the procession of villagers from the Chapel to take possession of the new Church.
 
Stephen’s interest in the little church to which he belonged remained strong until the end of his life; he told stories of past difficulties but was devoted to the place.

The land for the Old Chapel was given by Mr William Baily and it was his son who became the first Pastor. Stephen Pope was one of the Deacons of the church until he passed away in 1926 at the age of 82. On hearing of Stephen’s death the Marchioness of Salisbury wrote: “I cannot say with what regret we heard of Stephen Pope’s death; he was an old friend, and so striking a personality.”
 
Men like Stephen are immortalised in the novels of Thomas Hardy.

Note: we have placed a photo of Stephen Pope in the gallery.

Sherborne: Edwin Childs (1859-1934)

Apr 30th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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As the Victorian era was drawing to a close the 20th century was taking its first breaths. The Horseless carriage, the motor car to you and me, was becoming less of a rich man’s novelty and more a viable form of transport. The penny-farthing had evolved into the safety bicycle, there was farm machinery to be kept working and industrial machines to be maintained; this was a good time to be a mechanical engineer.

Six decades earlier things had not been so good. For Charles Childs of Yetminster this meant moving to Deptford in Kent soon after his marriage in 1841 to Harriet King. Their son Charles was born there in 1847 followed by a daughter, Sarah Ann, in 1849. Later the couple moved to the Old Kent Road area, which was then a part of Surrey and where their son, Henry, was born in 1852.

When Charles Childs secured a job maintaining new machinery that had been installed at Willmott’s silk mills in Sherborne he was able to bring his family home. They lived in the Westbury area of the town and had three more children: Temperance in 1855, Albert in 1857 and Edwin in 1859.

The youngest boy, Edwin, inherited his father’s interest in all things mechanical and in his teens he was apprenticed to Joseph Read of Westbury. Read was a general smith, engineer and bell-hanger and through his works came many farm wagons, gigs and broughams (light, four-wheeled horse-drawn carriages) and there was plenty of business to had keeping primitive farm machinery running. Edwin was ideally suited for his placement with Joseph Read and this hands-on experience was supplemented by reading about his chosen trade in books and magazines.

The family was non-conformist. The children with their parents attended the Congregational Church. Edwin was a bell-ringer too, became captain of the Abbey Church bell-ringers and played a trumpet in the town band. In 1884 Edwin married Jane Bown in the Abbey Church at Sherborne and his eight children were all baptised there but he continued his allegiance to non-conformity. Edwin and Jane made a perfect match; she supported and encouraged his driving ambition to make something of himself and shared his enterprising spirit. They set up home in Hound Street, Sherborne and started to save for the future – no easy task on an income of thirty shillings a week.

In 1892 Edwin and Jane bought an ailing business, The Sherborne Coffee Tavern, for a deposit of £50 and a mortgage of £500 advanced by the Foresters Benefit Society.  An odd choice of business for a mechanical engineer but it was a means to an end. At that point in their married life they had four children. Edwin continued to work for Joseph Read and had set up his own workshop and forge behind their cottage, where he carried out small jobs for his friends and kept up to date with his reading, while Jane served endless cups of coffee and innumerable trays of buns at the Tavern.

Two years on and Edwin was ready to launch his own business. The tea and coffee urns, counter, table and chairs went to make way for bicycles, bells, bags, lamps and oil. He commenced trading as a Cycle Agent selling Singers, Rovers, Ormonds, Swifts and Sunbeams. He hired out, repaired and cleaned bicycles and trikes and even taught customers how to ride. His timing was spot-on and after years of hard work he had his own business spurred on by a wave of bicycling enthusiasm that swept the country at the turn of the century.
 
1896 brought the first London to Brighton car rally and the first London Motor Show opened. Locally a Colonel Baxter who lived in Sherborne bought his first car, a Clement Panhard, and became Edwin Childs’ first automobile customer.

Motoring in those early days could be a hazardous experience. The heroic Colonel and his car would venture forth, but more often than not the car would stop and fail to restart somewhere along the planned journey and Edwin would be standing by to rescue the stranded Colonel and his car. Borrowing two strong horses from the Brewery and equipped with a strong rope he would tow the car back to his workshop and sort out the problem.

Bicycle sales increased but Edwin Childs was not a man to rest on his laurels. The windows of the Tavern were knocked out and double doors put in, large enough to facilitate entry of the very first tri-cars, the frames of which were mounted with a single cylinder four-stroke engine with a wicker-work passenger carriage fitted in front. The family’s first car was a tri-car with twin seats. On a Sunday morning, ignoring protests from an anxious mother, Edwin would drive his two youngest children the five miles to Yeovil and he prided himself always to have them back in time for Sunday lunch.

In 1903 the Motor Car Act was passed and came into force on the 1st of January 1904. This increased the speed limit to twenty miles-per-hour and required all drivers to have a licence then costing five shillings. Edwin Childs and his eighteen year-old son Charles were number thirty-nine and forty in the Dorset Licensing Register.

About this time Edwin purchased a plot of land in Long Street and on it he built a garage, the first in Sherborne.  In the 1909 edition of the Handbook of the Motor Union of Great Britain he is listed as: “E.Childs. Repairer. Standing for twenty cars.” Not everyone who could afford one bought one but amongst his early customers were Colonel Baxter; E.A. Ffookes; R.T. Grantham; E.W. Bartlett, and Harry and Reggie Boden.

The car was not welcomed by everyone in Sherborne, for some saw the car as a danger to the town’s ancient heritage. The Church and School watched with distaste the innovation of the dust-raising mechanical carriage.

Edwin was convinced the car was here to stay and began to build a fleet of cars for hire. He already owned a pre-1900 Benz and added a 12 horse-power Vulcan, a 16 horse-power Argyle and a 22 horse-power Darraqu. The Darraqu was an open touring car with leather upholstery and canvas hood and windows, which, with the removal of the hood, could be winched into position by block and tackle. It was much in demand from the hunting fraternity for ferrying to and from various Point-to Point. The Darraqu could be converted into a car for all occasions. It was the ideal limousine for weddings and funerals and was also used for Hunt Balls that were held throughout the county during the hunting season.

Edwin Childs was a good husband, father and employer. He had spent his life working towards a personal ambition and with its fulfilment he found his leisure time and income increased and he now started to work towards his chosen good cause, the Yeatman Hospital; this, in the days when the Welfare State was still a dream of radicals.  Eventually he was made a life governor of the Cottage Hospital. At the beginning of the First World War, he bought, maintained and provided a driver for an ambulance for the Red Cross to carry injured servicemen from the station to some local buildings and houses including Sherborne Castle, Leweston Manor and Chetnole Grange, that had been converted to receive them.

Edwin and Jane Childs had four sons and four daughters. One son served in France another in the Middle East and later the two younger sons were posted to army camps in different parts of the country. During the war there was still hire business to be had and because of the war effort more tractors had to be kept going, Petrol was rationed but people who had cars were using them in the service of their country, and these, too, had to be kept running. Approaching old age Edwin Childs found himself working as long and hard as he ever had at any time in his busy and eventful life. When the war ended the motor car was a fact of life. He died in 1934.

We have placed photographs pf Edwin Childs in the photo gallery.

FOOTNOTE: We have been contacted by Andrew Norwood who says about the Clement Panhard mentioned in the article: “ I am pleased to tell you that 110 plus years later the car is still going strong – although it is as temperamental as it was back in 1900. I own the car and you can find more about it at www.clementpanhard.com under ‘Our Car’ “ Mr Norwood has sent us a photo of the car and we have placed the image in the gallery.

Sherborne – Edwin Childs

Apr 29th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The Clement Panhard mentioned in our story about Edwin Childs of Sherborne. Our thanks to Andrew Norwood for sending us this photograph. He is the current owner of the car.

The Clement Panhard mentioned in our story about Edwin Childs of Sherborne. Our thanks to Andrew Norwood for sending us this photograph. He is the current owner of the car.

Thomas Coram (1668-1751)

Mar 28th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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On the 14th of August 1739 a charter incorporating the Hospital for the “Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children” was signed by King George II. This was the culmination of seventeen years of determined campaigning by Thomas Coram, who was concerned about the number of abandoned and dying children on the streets of the capital. On a bleak November day in the same year in a room at Somerset House, London, the Governors of the Foundling Hospital convened for their first meeting.

We have to search his later correspondence for glimpses into the early years of Thomas Coram. He was born in Lyme Regis and we believe he was the son of John Coram who was in the merchant shipping business and traded from Lyme Regis.  John Coram was baptised in 1629; his wife, Spes, died in 1677. Thomas wrote that his mother had died when he was a young boy; his father had remarried and moved to Hackney. Thomas went to sea when he was eleven and later his father apprenticed him to a shipwright.
 
At the age of 24 he was appointed by the government to audit tonnage and supply transports for Ireland and this brought him to the attention of some London merchants, who put him in charge of a plan to establish a new shipyard in Boston, Massachusetts. The colony was Puritan and Coram was an Anglican; he acquired enemies and an attempt was made on his life during the ten years he was there. He married Eunice Wayte on the 27th of June 1700. Correspondence with his wife’s family suggests it was a happy marriage but childless.

Coram returned to England in 1704. His interest in the North American colonies led him to identify Boston’s need for a lighthouse and fraud in contracting navel stores from there.  In 1712 he was elected to a role in the private enterprise, Trinity House, which combined public responsibilities with charitable works. He was considered a diligent and reliable public servant as well as a businessman. In 1735 Horace Walpole told his brother Robert, then Prime Minister, that Coram was the “honestest, the most disinterested and the most knowing person about the plantations I ever talked with.”

In England he pursued his business and charitable interests from his home at Rotherhithe. He regularly travelled into the city and on those journeys he saw abandoned, dying and dead children on the streets. In 1722 his moral and civic spirit compelled him to take action.

He had a wealth of experience and many acquaintances, some of them with great influence while he had persistence; against him was his rough-manner and rather blunt way of speaking. Initially there was little interest in his attempts to promote a foundling hospital – indeed, some were positively hostile to the idea on the grounds that it would encourage more illegitimate births.

The situation improved in 1729 with the ‘ladies petition,’ which was signed by peeresses and had the patronage of Queen Caroline, but it took until the 21st of July 1737 for Coram’s petitions to be laid before the king in council. A committee of the Privy Council was set up to consider the proposal, while Coram was given the responsibility for finding the first governors.

It was Coram who looked for suitable sites for the hospital, designed its seal and researched similar institutions in Europe. The hospital opened on the 25th of March 1741 at a site in Hatton Garden. The first two children to be baptised were named Thomas Coram and Eunice Coram (it was usual for children to be given a new name when they entered the hospital). Mothers left a token to identify their child should they wish to claim them later.

Coram’s involvement in the governance of the hospital ended in 1742 under a cloud: he was said to have been indiscreet in his criticisms of other Governors and how the hospital was run. A new hospital was built at Lamb’s Conduit Fields and began to receive children in October of 1745.  The hospital continued into the 20th century, moving out of London to Berkhamstead in Berkshire in 1926; it finally closed as a hospital in 1954. Over the centuries the institution cared for over 25,000 children; the ideals and work continue to this day as the children’s charity known appropriately as “Coram”.

The Foundling Hospital prospered and surprisingly became a meeting place for fashionable society, who by then supported the project. People came to admire works of art donated by prominent artists such as William Hogarth, Francis Hayman and Joseph Highmore; George Frederic Handel organised annual concerts at the hospital from 1750.

Thomas Coram’s career had been at the sharp-end of life. Hands-on, dealing mostly with ordinary men, he was not equipped with the airs and graces necessary to mix easily with London society in the 18th century; his bluntness and straight-forward speaking did not sit comfortably with those he wished to gain influence with.  Nevertheless, his achievements were significant: Boston harbour had a new lighthouse, the Georgia trustees permitted female inheritance, and a civil settlement was established in Nova Scotia. All these things Coram had campaigned for.

In his good works he often used his own resources, with little thought for his own needs. He was not ashamed to admit “in my old age, I am poor.” However, his friends and supporters raised a pension to see him through his last years free from want.

Sir William Martyn of Athelhampton

Mar 17th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Lord Mayor of London?

Promotion to the nobility came late in life for William Martyn, which is not to belittle his achievements earlier in life. He was actively engaged in administration for the government at a local level; he was at various times a Commissioner for the Peace, his name appears as a witness on many local documents and in 1492 a William Martyn was the Steward of Dorchester. He was Collector of Customs and Subsidies in Poole in 1473 and 1476, a position his father had held in 1449 and later his son and heir, Christopher, in 1499.  A licence to import wine was granted to him in 1486, suggesting he was a merchant as well as being a member of the landed gentry and a sheep farmer.

He was born in 1446 and inherited the manor of Athelhampton and estates in Somerset at the death of his father, Thomas Martyn, on the 14th of September 1485. The standing of the Martyn family in Dorset was on a par to that of the Trenchards and Strangeways; in short William Martyn was a figure of importance in Dorset society of the day. We think it unlikely this busy member of the Dorset gentry could have found time in 1492/3 to hold and fulfil the duties of the office of the Lord Mayor of London, a role credited to him by most commentators from the usually reliable Royal Commission on Historical Monuments to the less reliable Wikipedia and most in between.

The Evidence

A trustworthy source nearer to the events of those days, Hutchins, makes no mention of Sir William Martyn holding the position of Lord Mayor of London – neither does an earlier source, Coker’s Survey of Dorset.  

In 1495 a Licence was issued by Henry  VII: “To William Martyn, gentleman, and his heirs, to enclose and fortify their manor at Alampston, co. Dorset, with walls of stone and lime, and to build towers within the said manor and crenellate the same and to impark and inclose with pales 100 acres of their lands called ‘Adlampson Parc’ and 60 acres called ‘le Est’ and le Mydell Closes’ belonging to the said manor and make a park thereof so than none shall enter the said park or warren to course or take anything which belongs to park or warren under a forfeiture of 101”.
 
Hutchins says the father of William Martyn of Athelhampton was called Thomas; elsewhere it is stated that William Martyn, Lord Mayor of London, was the son of Walter Martyn of Hertford. Furthermore, the Chronicles of London report that William Martyn, Alderman, was knighted in 1494, but in the licence granted to William Martyn of Athelhampton in 1495 and mentioned above he is referred to as a gentleman and this continues to be the case until 1501.

We might also question why separate general pardons were granted for offences prior to March 1502: one to William Martyn of Athelhampton, co. Dorset, knight and another to William Martyn, knight and alderman, a citizen of London. Another pardon roll refers to one Richard Martyn, gentleman, skinner or merchant of the staple as being “son and heir of William Martyn knight, late alderman of London.” The heir to Sir William Martyn of Athelhampton was named Christopher; William’s second son was named Richard and is later referred to as Richard Martyn of Exeter, not London.

Then there is the matter of the Wills. Sir William Martyn of Athelhampton died in 1504. According to The Chronicles of London Sir William Martyn, described as a “skinner and late mayor”, died in October 1505. In the Will of Sir William Martyn of Athelhampton many Dorset place names are mentioned but there is no reference at all to London. In “The Index of Wills Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury” a will was proved in 1504 of a Sir William Martyn of Puddletown, Dorset. A further will was proved in 1505, that of Sir William Martyn of St. Christopher’s, London.

Conclusion

All the evidence points to there being two men who shared the same name, rank and importance within their own communities yet certainly nothing we have found detracts from the status and respect afforded of Sir William Martyn of Athelhampton.

Robert Battiscombe (1752-1839) – Royal Apothecary

Mar 10th, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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The Battiscombe family moved to west Dorset in 1452, when John Battiscombe purchased the farm at Vere Wotton (sometimes called Verse) about a mile from the market-town and sea-port of Bridport.  It was here on the 3rd of October 1752 that a boy hesitantly came into the world, apparently showing little appetite for life and unimpressed by the prospect of being born into the Dorset gentry. Ahead of him, though, was a long and prosperous journey that would include over forty years of service to his sovereign, King George III.
 
Peter and Lydia Battiscombe, the boy’s parents, were so concerned their son would not survive the day that they sent for the vicar. Sensing the urgency of their message, he hurried to the child, who had been given the name Robert. At a private ceremony in the family home the clergyman received Robert into the church. Before leaving, father and churchman held a whispered conversation about burial arrangements for the child. Several weeks later, having won his battle for life, Robert Battiscombe was presented by grateful parents to the congregation of the Parish Church of St. Mary’s, Bridport, and baptised.

For his early education Robert was sent to a school at Crewkerne, then in 1766 he went to Eton as a King’s Scholar; he stayed for three years. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed for five years to the apothecary George Hailes of Hill Street, Berkeley Square, Middlesex, for a fee of £157.10s.0d.

Sometime before 1780 Robert moved to Windsor, where he set up in business and opened an apothecary’s shop in the town. Here he married and brought up five sons: Richard, Robert, William, Henry and Christopher, all of which followed their father to Eton and were ordained, except Christopher, who died in infancy. There was also a daughter, Myra. From time to time Robert would return to Eton to celebrate the achievements of his sons, for there is a note in his papers: “Attended the Speaker at Eton….their Majesties and the Princesses were present”.

A memoranda book and some of his accounts have survived; they reveal he was supplying medicines, attending and treating the King and other members of the Royal Household from 1780, several years before the onset of the King’s malady, which these days is often referred to as the madness of King George.

The quarterly account of bills for services to the Prince of Wales was regularly over £50. There were similar accounts for the Queens: from April 1782 to July 1784 the total was £346.14s.3d. Bills for the following quarter amounted to over £400. In 1810 the Queen’s and Princesses accounts came to a little less than £600; Princess Amelia was very ill and the apothecary attended her until her death in November and received £300 from the King for his services. The memoranda book records that in 1786 he had bled Princess Amelia six times. In 1787 he bled the Prince of Wales in April and in June he bled the Princess Royal twice and Princess Amelia three times and in July he also bled Princess Mary.

October 1788 saw the onset of the King’s illness.  At the suggestion of Dr. Warren the apothecary attended the King on 30th of October and the 1st and 4th of November, when he “cupped his Majesty” and on the last visit “applied blisters to the head”. On the 5th of November and then at regular four-nightly intervals Robert Battiscombe was on duty and always noted in his diary which doctor was in waiting.  In December he several times had to dress the blisters on the King’s legs and on the 25th he played drafts with the King.  Battiscombe was on duty all through January and notes that on the 13th “saw the King, talked of having his music sent down to him”; a fortnight later he “talked about his horses, music etc.” By mid-February he notes “thought him much better”. He had an hour’s conversation with the King on the 14th and noted “appears nearly well”. On the 27th the apothecary was told through an equerry “that my further attendance at Kew House is from this day dispensed with”; yet on 2nd of March he bled the King again. He goes on to record that for these and other services “his Majesty made me a present of £100”.

In 1793 there is a note about another of the Princesses: “Princess Sophia has had hysteric fainting for weeks. Tried all kinds of private medicines without effect”.   From time to time in his memoranda book it is noted that he felt the King’s pulse.

In May 1805 Robert Battiscombe was sworn in as Apothecary in Ordinary at a fee of £38.13s.2d. From this time he received many presents from members of the royal family: from Princess Amelia a silver watch and a bread basket;  from Princes Sophia a silver tea caddy; from Princes Augusta  a silver inkstand  and Princes Mary gave him an egg cup and four spoons and on another occasion a coffee pot stand and lam. Princess Elizabeth presented him with a muffin dish and cover. He also received from King George a watch and from the Queen a kettle and a lamp, for his care of Princess Amelia.

Bills rendered for services to the Royal establishments were usually paid four months in arrears. However, in 1808 Robert Battiscombe had to chase-up payment of his bills.  To the King he wrote “With the most profound respect….to lay my case before Your Majesty and to state that my bills for medicines for the use of your Majesty, their Royal Highnesses, the Princesses and your Royal Household are twenty quarters in arrears. That the bills have been delivered into the proper office vouched by Sir Frances Millman….I presume to suppose there may be some delay in the official department, which encourages me to lay my case at your Majesty’s feet.”

During 1810 Robert Battiscombe sat with the King every fifth night. This attendance started in October and lasted till mid-April 1811, when his salary was increased to £300. In 1811 he gave up his business at Windsor but he continued to serve as Royal Apothecary and his appointment was confirmed by King Geoge IV, though there are few entries in his memoranda book for his later years.

The Apothecary could afford to extend a little credit to his Sovereign. He came from landed gentry and in 1798 inherited property in Dorset and Somerset. His papers show he was a shrewd businessman who occasionally invested in shares. He was no stranger to the county of his birth and frequently travelled to Bridport on family business.

Robert Battiscombe’s death was registered at Windsor during the first quarter of 1839. On his death the gifts he received from the King and members of the Royal Family were weighed and divided equally among his children.

Mary Frances Billington – Journalist

Feb 23rd, 2013
by Dorset Ancestors.
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A Woman in a Man’s World

It was John Passmore Edwards, proprietor and editor of the London newspaper, the Echo, who encouraged a Dorset born woman to pursue a career in journalism. There were very few women journalists then and most of those worked on fashion, education and homemaking features. Mary France Billington was a reporter covering hard news stories; no doubt she had some prejudices to overcome but she went about her work in a way that commanded respect from her male colleagues. She also worked on the Graphic and the Daily Telegraph.

In 1896 in an article about lady journalists she wrote: “I can speak with experience of both morning and evening work. In the latter, the hours are certainly more reasonable, but all that one does, whether in the form of notes for the first editions, or in special descriptive accounts of events occurring in the afternoon for the late issues, has to be turned out at an exhaustingly high rate of speed. A morning paper often involves very late hours at the office, and I have wondered sometimes, how many women there are who could stand such a day.”

She went on to describe her day covering the arrival of the Shahzada on a visit to this country in 1895: “…we were in Portsmouth Dockyard at nine in the morning, inspected the ship, saw the various receptions and addresses presented on board, attended the Queen’s Birthday Review on Southsea Common, came up to town in the special train, and had three columns of material to write on arrival. However, special correspondence is not the department allotted usually to feminine hands, and I think I stand pretty well alone of my sex in what I have done and to do of it.”

She travelled widely in Russia, India, Nepal and Canada, and wrote a charming book Women in India. Between 1913 and 1920 she was President of The Society of Women Journalists and in 1920 she was the Overseas Delegate to the Imperial Press Congress held in Ottawa.

In 1896 she wrote a long article for Pearson’s Magazine entitled Leading Lady Journalists. Later she wrote The Red Cross in War, published as part of a series by the Daily Telegraph. During the First World War she travelled to France as a correspondent and also worked in hospitals and camps.

Her parents met in 1861 in Dorset: a clergyman from Cheshire and a clergyman’s daughter from Bedford. George Henry Billington was curate at St Giles Church, Wimborne when the aging rector, Robert Moore, had a visit from Frances Barber, a 74 year-old clergyman’s widow and her two daughters Frances Anne and Mary Elizabeth.
 
George and Frances, it seems, had a whirlwind romance; they were married later that same year. Both in their early thirties there was no time to loose, if they were to have a family. In 1862 George Billington became rector of Chalbury, a pleasant little parish in the east of the county close to the Wilts and Hants borders. The journalist to be was born at Chalbury in 1862; she was followed by three brothers: George in 1864, Roland in 1866 and Horace in 1868.

On retiring from a distinguished career she returned to Chalbury, where she involved herself in parish affairs and became organist at the church. She lies in the quiet churchyard close to her parents and brothers.

(see Chalbury Church, Published 24th February 2011, in the Chalbury Category).

After the Rebellion

Nov 2nd, 2012
by Dorset Ancestors.
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During the summer of 1685 the West Country was in turmoil. The Duke of Monmouth’s short lived campaign to seize the throne failed, leaving many mothers without husbands and sons. Those of Monmouth’s supporters who survived the fight faced a journey to Dorchester and the rough justice dispensed by Judge Jefferies at what was to become known as the Bloody Assizes. (See our article: the Monmouth Rebellion, published 18th October 2012 in the General Category).

The 800 or so who were sentenced to be transported were the fortunate ones; nearly three hundred were sentenced to death and for many of those the journey out of this world was to be a cruel and barbaric one. A few saved themselves by testifying against their fellows, while some wealthy individuals were able to buy themselves a pardon and a lucky few managed to escape and blend back into their communities when the hue and cry had died down. (See our article: Prideaux Family at Forde Abbey published 20th July 2012 in Real Lives Category).

Supporters of Monmouth continued to be sought out until the announcement of a General Pardon in March 1686. One was James Daniel, a lawyer, who lived in Beaminster. Following the defeat at Sedgemoor he fled to his home town and hid in a closet in his house. Hearing that soldiers were heading towards Beaminster looking for him he hurried west out of town to Knowle Farm, where he hid in a barn and covered himself with straw.

The soldiers arrived at the farm and charged into the barn, stabbing at the straw with their bayonets; amazingly they missed him. Eventually, the soldiers abandoned their search, leaving the fugitive to wonder about his miraculous escape. He was sure God had saved his life.

Four years passed before things improved for the better and James Daniel’s life could return to something resembling normal. The first thing he did was to buy the barn and the land around it, establishing a private burial ground so he and his descendants would lie where he believed God had saved him. James Daniel lived a further three score years reaching the age of 100 before it was time for this former Rebel to return to Knowle Farm one last time.  The burial ground remains to this day. Just 40 ft by 24 ft it is surrounded by a hedge of holly and a low stone ivy-covered wall, being entered through two large iron gates.

Those who fought on the side of the king returned to their homes and occupations, while some of the landed gentry who had supported the royal cause were received and thanked for their loyalty and service personally by the king in London.
 
In the thick of the battle commanding a troop of Dorset Horse was Thomas Chafin from Chettle. He was a devoted family man who frequently sent letters home to his wife; some of these have survived and provide us with first hand accounts of life on the field of battle, as well as giving us a glimpse into his relationship with his wife and his pride at being presented to James II.
In an early letter home Thomas Chafin tells of how his cousin was killed “barbarously” and goes on to say that one of his friends saved himself by hiding in a plot of kidney beans and how another escaped by running into a garret: “he was running as fast as he could thither and he and Thomas Clements and his gardener with him, well armed.” In another letter home he says: “after being fallen upon by rebels there was an hour’s fighting and away they ran”. He goes on to claim they took and killed a thousand of the rebels and captured three loads of arms.

In a further despatch to his wife who he addresses as: “My Dearest Creature” and  closes with “… and blessings to the brats and let Nancy take true love from her Deare Tossey,” Chafin tells her they “had totally routed the enemies of God and the king and could not hear of 50 men together of the rebel army. Every hour they picked up rebels in fields, hedges, and ditches including the Duke of Monmouth’s valet; the duke’s last words to him were that he was undone”.

The Duke of Monmouth was captured hiding under a tree near Cranborne Chase, at a spot still referred to as Monmouth’s Ash. He was running from the battlefield, trying to get to Poole, where he hoped to secure a passage back to Holland. Instead he was taken to London under a guard of soldiers from 1st King’s Dragoon Guards and executed.

It is not clear if Chafin and his men were a part of that guard but certainly Chafin was in London for Monmouth’s execution, a fact he reports to his wife. He describes how he and Thomas Erle were presented to the king, who gave them his hand to kiss, so that the whole company gazed on them and wondered who they were.  “Pray let ten cock chickens and two hens be sent to Thomas Erle’s speedily” Chafin orders, his wife adding: “The Duke of Monmouth’s head was severed from his body yesterday morning on Tower Hill. Blessing to Brats. So farewell, my dearest deare Nancy, quoth Tossey”.

The outcome of the conflict impacted the lives and relationships of many Dorset people. Some were cruelly sent to their deaths, some were shipped-off to far-away shores with no hope of seeing their loved ones again, and some were royally rewarded.

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