Geoffs Genealogy Update 4 October 2014
Saturday October 4th, 2014 | Geoff
What a wonderful month September was in the UK. Beautiful weather throughout the month, and virtually no rain! Jan and I had a great night at the BBC Last Night of the Proms in the Park at Singleton Park, Swansea three weeks ago, when we saw our favourite singer perform. Bryn Terfel had flown in that day from Vienna, especially for the event, and he gave his usual superb performance. At the moment you can still see this in the BBC iPlayer, and it is well worth watching.
This month’s family history research has been varied, trying to fill in gaps on the tree, in no particular order of priority. Some of the people I have looked at are quite far removed from my direct line, but as Bankes descendants they command my attention, as I am trying to fill in as much detail as I can in the Bankes Pedigree. Thus it was that I turned my attention to the Bathurst clan.
At this point some of you may be asking – Who were the Bathursts?
They were the descendants of John Price (1802-1840), one of the sons of David Price, Citizen & Haberdasher of London (1774-1840). When David Price died in March 1840 I don’t imagine that John and Joseph, his two sons, thought that within nineteen months they would both have died, but that was what happened. John died in October r1840 and Joseph died a year later.
John did not marry, but he had a daughter named Susanna Clarissa Waddington Whitcombe by a lady named Susannah Rosetta Whitcombe (abt 1805-1883). The child was born c1825 in Bermondsey, Surrey, and was acknowledged by John Price in his will. When she grew up she married Lacey Bathurst (1818-1861) at West Hackney Church in Middlesex and they produced four children, one of whom was John Bathurst (1855-1922). The people I have been looking at in the last few weeks were the children of John and his spouse, Annie Christina nee Roper.
Annie was born in Dublin in 1863, and the marriage between her and John took place in that fair city in 1890. Of course, in those days the British ruled what is now the Republic of Ireland.
It seems that almost immediately John and Annie moved to live in Sydenham, a largely middle class suburb of London, with a railway link to the City. Interestingly, Sydenham was the home of the Crystal Palace after the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Bathursts would have been very familiar with this glass edifice, which was moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham in 1854, and was there until it was destroyed by fire in November 1936. The Bathursts were living in Sydenham in 1891, and their two sons – Philip Lancelot Bathurst (b 1892) and Robert Capel Bathurst (b 1896) were both born there. Philip married Madeline Langham Noakes (1896-1958) in 1916 and appears to have been a schoolmaster at Tonbridge School in Kent. He had himself been educated at that school, as was his brother.
So far as I know Robert did not marry. He became a solicitor and practised in Dublin. Indeed, it seems that his parents moved to Dublin at some time between 1911 and 1914. John Bathurst died in Dublin in 1922, and Robert died in Monkkstown, Co. Dublin in 1947.
It seems that sometime after her spouse’s death Annie probably returned to live in Kent, for I have traced a death entry in 1922 for a certain Annie C Bathurst that was registered in Bromley, Kent.
Just after the outbreak of the Great War Philip Lancelot Bathurst signed up at Ashstead to serve in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, but he was to have what I would regard as a lucky break when he failed his medical. He had already undergone varicocele surgery, and was deemed to be “not likely to become an efficient soldier on medical grounds”. It seems that the surgery had not completely cured his medical problem. We will never know whether Philip was pleased at his discharge, or disappointed not to be able to serve, but on 3 January 1915 he was discharged from the army.
One of the interesting aspects of British Army WW1 records is the personal information they contain. We now know that Philip was a student at age 22. He stood 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 154 lbs, and he had blue eyes and light brown hair. When he died in 1968 his death was registered at Battle, East Sussex.
I have not traced any children born to Philip or his brother, so I believe that this particular Bathurst line died out with them. However, as their father had three siblings, there is a chance that the Bathurst line endures. We have traced a marriage for Charles Lacey Bathurst (1847-1922). In 1877 he married Kate Sarah Woods (1848-1933) and they had three daughters, who may have produced some children.
Further research possibilities for another day.
Re Edward Williams. B July 01 1897
This is my grandfather. I note only two children documented. He actually had 7 children with Lavinia, my mother being one of his daughters. Additionally, he married two more times after Lavinias Death and had an additional 4 or 5 children.
We are still
Searching for the additional children (I have their names but unable to locate). Is there a way of adding ALL the extensive information I hold?
Hello Lorna. Good to hear from you. I am always happy to add information that will enhance the tree, so would be very happy to receive any information that you are able to share with me, and it will be included on Geoffs Genealogy when we next update the tree on the website. There are a couple of caveats re this, however. One is that in order to protect people’s privacy I have a policy of not including details of anybody born after 1900, unless I know that they have died. The second is that updating the tree is rather a large job, so we don’t do it as often as we would like. It may therefore be a while before additional data appears on the website. If you would like to send me any data it would probably be best to use one of the email links on the Geoffs Genealogy website. I hope that you are happy with this, and very muck look forward to hearing from you again.