Nelson & His World

Mark

Many thanks for the information about Lady Essington and Ladywood House.

Lady Essington's will mentions her sister Sarah Ashburner, of Ashsted, in the Parish of Aston, near Birmingham and a cousin William Webb Ward, of Allum Rock, in the same parish. So I think you are right, Lady Essington moved to Birmingham to be near her surviving relatives.

I will visit Warstone Lane Cemetery when next in Birmingham.

A factor which, for me, tended to discount the Essington/Penfold link was that I could not imagine how Lady Essington could have had anything to do with a pauper family. But, as you say, the adverts show that she had an inclination to help the poor.

I have searched the minute books of the Clerkenwell Guardians of the Poor but there is no mention of the Essingtons.

The other children of Henry and Mary Ann Penfold had very orginary forenames. The complete list:

1810 William Henry
1812 Thomas
1815 George
1817 Henry Essington
1820 Mary
1824 John
1829 Alfred

The forename Essington did not appear in the next generation but was widely used in subsequent generations. I have discovered 19 Essington Penfolds to date. Also the name was taken into the families of Henry Essington Penfold's two daughters. Unfortunately in all these branches of the family the origin of the name Essington is lost to memory.

It is tempting to speculate that, at first, the connection with the workhouse discouraged use of the name but that this was forgotten or overlooked by later generations.

Kind regards

Gerry

Gerry

I know for certain that Lady Essington was reinterred at Warstone Lane - I have the entry in the Burial Register for 26th February 1898.

But unfortunately no indication of where the remains were put. I know a guy who belongs to the Friends group for Warstone Lane and he said almost certainly in one of the catacombs - but of course the entrances are sealed up and only a few have the names of the "inhabitants" on them. But the Friends Group are involved in ongoing research about the cemetery and the information may eventually come to light.

Just one other thing - and something I had already remarked on to a couple of people. i.e. We know Lady Essington died on 27th November 1827. Well literally 13 days later an inventory of her furniture and household goods was posted in the local paper - in advance of an auction sale on 18/19/21 December. I couldn't decide if this was extreme practicality or insensitive haste. It certainly felt as if somebody was hovering on the doorstep with a notebook - just waiting for her to be pronounced dead.

I am sure there was no desperate rush as she was renting Ladywood House and doubtless the rent would have been paid for some period in advance.

But of course from what you have said William Webb Ward will have wanted to get rid of all the practicalities a.s.a.p. so he could get his hands on his inheritance.

MB

Mark

The following might be of interest.

Lady Essington made her will on 19 September 1827. Her executors were:

William Webb Ward (cousin)
James Ashburner (related to Lady Essington's sister, Sarah Ashburner)
Richard Smith (friend).

The executors received £100 each for their trouble.

Following the payment of a number of bequests, the estate was to be held in trust to pay the following annuities:

£200 a year to Sarah Ashburner (sister) for life
£200 a year to Rebecca Tyldesley (sister) for life
£104 a year to James Boulker (nephew) for life
£20 a year to Anna Maria Roe, now residing at Ladywood House (a servant?) for life.

After that the residue of the estate was to be held in trust for the benefit of:

The children of James Boulker (brother to Lady Essington's late father)
The children of Moses Storer and Joseph Storer (brothers to Lady Essington's late mother).

Lady Essington's will was proved 5 March 1828.

Although William Webb Ward did not stand to gain very much from Lady Essington's estate, he did stand to gain from Admiral Essington's estate.

In 1817 Lady Essington pursued an action in the Court of Chancery against her late husband's executors (The Rev. James Volant Vashon and Richard Smith) on the grounds that a substantial part of Admiral Essington's estate comprised loans made during his lifetime and that she, rather than the estate, was entitled to repayment of these loans. Lady Essington sought to bring William Webb Ward, his son William Essington Ward, William Rand Hughes and William Lardner into the action as defendants. All these parties denied Lady Essington's claim. The case went back to Chancery on a number of occasions but I have not followed up the outcome.

In 1846 William Webb Ward (now William Webb Essington) and his son William Essington Ward (now William Essington Essington) applied to the Court of Chancery to have The Rev. Duncumb Perkins and Richard Fowler substituted as executors and trustees of Admiral Essington's estate, in place Vashon and Smith, both deceased.

So, perhaps William Webb Essington got his money before is death on 13 June 1847.

Richard Fowler was a Birmingham surveyor and land agent and his papers are held in Birmingham City Archives (Jewel Baillie Collection).

Regards

Gerry

Gerry

I had to smile the other day. I realised that rather than wait for the Friends of Warstone Lane I could go to the admin office at Handsworth and find the details of Lady Essington's reinterment. A very helpful lady assisted me and she said - "That's a coincidence, you're the second person to ask about Lady Essington recently." So I thought - I think Gerry got here before me.

So I guess you have the same information as me - that she was reinterred in Catacomb ref. M11 - along with about 72 other former residents of the crypt at Christ Church.

I was told that there might be some of the Friends Group down there today so I popped down with my camera. Unfortunately I was either given incorrect information or they had already left - as I had the whole graveyard to myself.

Very few of the catacombs have names on them and likewise only about a quarter of them have numbers.

But there IS one with a number 11 on, so for now I have to assume that that is where she is.

But it seems a very small entrance for a space containing 72+ coffins.

I have heard various stories - including the fact that some of the catacombs were used as air raid shelters in WWII. And also that someone has seen photographs of some of the interiors. But he doesn't know where those photographs are now located.

So this project will remain filed under "Work in Process".

For now I have posted 3 photographs that I took today. A general view of the catacombs area, a view of the entrance of what I believe to be M11 (top right), and a close up of the numbers.

Sorry this thread has gone off the original topic - but I hope it is of some indirect interest to others. I will be doing an article for the Ladywood Local History magazine about Lady Essington. But it will probably be some time late in 2011.



MB

Mark

Yes, I made the enquiry. I phoned Handsworth Cemetery and spoke to Rose who proved most helpful.

She emailed to me a map of Warstone Lane Cemetery and the information taken from their reinterment records. I will forward these to you.

Secton M covers the right side of the catacombs as you approach them from Icknield Street and I can see from the photo that Catacomb 11 is within this section. So I think you have identified the right place.

I wonder whether the inscriptions in the now demolished Christ Church and cemetery church were ever transcribed. I am a member of the Society of Genealogists and will check there. I will also check out St Marylebone Church (I work only a quarter of a mile away) as the Essingtons resided in the parish for some years.

Perhaps you would copy to me your eventual article as I am very interested in the Essingtons.

Kind regards

Gerry

Gerry

Thanks

I am fairly confident that that catacomb with the number 11 is the one we are looking for - but I would still like to do a bit more work. i.e. I would like to take one of the names on one of the other entrances - I think there are three that have names on them - and see what the records show as the Plot reference for that particular catacomb.

I can tell you a bit more about the memorials for Lady Essington but it opens up another mystery.

A little book was produced in 1900 which conveniently included "A History of the Church of England Cemetery, Warstone Lane" together with "A History of Christ Church, Birmingham." It includes some information about the people who were moved from Christ Church to Warstone Lane.

It gives details of a memorial tablet for Lady Essington which read as follows:

Sacred to the Memory
of Mary
Relict of Vice-Admiral Sir William Essington K.C.B.
Died the XXXI November MDCCCXXVII.
Aged LXIII. years

But it then says "Now in the north-west entrance to St. Philip's Church and in St. Michael's Church, Warstone Lane."

Well I don't understand how one memorial can be in 2 places - unless it means that a copy was made.

St. Michael's Church is long gone and I have no idea what would have become of any memorials from there. So one day when I was in Birmingham I went to St. Philip's - now of course Birmingham Cathedral. The north-west entrance is now a staff entrance so I asked one of the staff if I could go in there as I was looking for a memorial on the wall. Unfortunately he was rather abrupt and said there was no point as there were definitely no memorials on the walls in there.

My feeling was that it could have been hidden behind a panel or a cupboard or whatever. But it wasn't really appropriate to have a confrontation so I decided to leave it.

Maybe if you are ever in Birmingham you could have a go yourself and you might have better luck!!

I think that is all for now.

MB

'Died XXX1 November......'? Thirty days hath September, April, June and November......'

Anna

Well spotted!

That is definitely what it says here - in a photocopy from the little book about the Church and Cemetery.

She died on the 27th so it should have read XXVII. It looks as if somebody has accidentally read the VI as another X.

If we can ever track down that memorial in the Cathedral then we can see what it says on there.

I've been thinking what is the best approach to that. First is to see if there is any record of the memorials in St. Philips/the Cathedral - as soon as possible after 1900. I feel sure there has to be.

But failing that maybe write them a letter, including a copy of this information I have here. That would give them the chance to take a proper look - rather than put somebody on the spot which I did when I asked one of the staff. Obviously if the walls have been relined in any way it will mean that the memorial is most likely hidden behind that lining.

The hunt continues!!

MB

Mark

A brief update.

There are no memorials to the Essingtons in the Church of St Marylebone. The church was consecrated in 1817, the year after Admiral Essington's death. An earlier church was built in 1741, closed in 1926 and demolished in 1949. The site is now a Garden of Rest. There are a few memorials in the garden but none relate to the Essingtons.

In 1988 The Birmingham and Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry transcribed all the surviving memorials within the Cathedral Church of St Philip. No memorial for the Essingtons is listed.

Kind regards.

Gerry