Colourful; Jacquetta the Duchess, the Queen Mother & the Witch?

I love historical fiction, and one of my most favourite authors of this genre is Philippa Gregory. The series of books which I enjoyed the most, from her body of work, was the Cousin's War series, which included a book called The White Queen. It told the story of the rise and fall of Edward Plantagenet, Duke of York, who became Edward IV of England, from the perspective of his wife, commoner Elizabeth Woodville. I loved how Gregory was able to imagine and relate the story of kingship and war through the eyes of this woman, who was considered by many as a beauty. Whilst Elizabeth was portrayed as the white queen (white due to the white rose of York), it was her mother Jacquetta who was vibrantly colourful by comparison. In fact Jacquetta was my favourite character in the books, and as a result one of my favourite women in history.

The York house used the white rose to for their heraldic badge, and the house of Lancaster used the red rose. 

When I discovered that my grandfather's line connected me to the Plantagenet royal family, I eagerly traced my line back, and was so excited to discover that this colourful character from the Plantagenet era was actually my 18x great grandmother! 

Jacquetta was the eldest daughter of Peter I of Luxembourg. Peter was the Count of Saint-Pol, the area around the city of St Pol in northern France, just south of Calais. He also inherited the counties of Brienne (in France) and Conversano (in Italy). Her mother was Margaret of Baux, and was descended from a powerful family in the Provence region of France.

The Luxembourg family believed they were descended from the water goddess Melusina.

The county of St Pol can be seen near the centre of this map 

Whilst Jacquetta was known in the Gregory novels as a member of the York family, she began her life in the royal family of England, as a member of the Lancaster house. At the tender age of 17 Jacquetta married John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, on the 22nd April 1433 at Therouanne, in France, just north of Saint-Pol. The Duke was 43 years old, and the third son of the ruling king of England, Henry IV. The marriage was childless, and did not last long, coming to a natural end when the Duke died after 17 months of marriage, in Rouen, France. As the wife of a royal prince, Jacquetta was obliged to travel to England, to visit the king, who was by then Henry VI of England, the nephew of her deceased husband.

© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Jaqueline de Luxembourg at left, full-length portrait, Anne de Jauche, Philippa de Lalaing and Bonne de Vieuville in outline, all in fifteenth-century costume; after the 'Recueil d'Arras'; from Rubens' Costume Book Pen and brown ink and greyish-brown wash.

Henry VI sent Sir Richard Woodville (sometimes spelled Wydvill, Wydeville, or Wydevill) to France, to escort her to England safely. Richard Woodville was the son of another Richard Woodville, who was chamberlain to the late Duke of Bedford. Richard Woodville, the son, also worked for the Duke and so it was a natural fit to have him bring Jacquetta home to England. Richard Woodville was considered a commoner, and was far below Jacquetta's level of privilege and power, and yet on their return to England the two of them fell in love.

Poems and Romances (Shrewsbury book), illuminated by the MASTER OF JOHN TALBOT, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Henry VI, as depicted in the Shrewsbury Book.

Jacquetta was quite the catch, with her dower lands reverting back to her, in her widowhood, but this was contingent on her not remarrying without the kings permission. Despite this she married Richard Woodville in secret without the approval of the king, which somewhat angered Henry VI. He refused to see them, and the happy couple were fined a whopping one thousand pounds. When the fine was paid, the king apparently forgave them, and Jacquetta was once again allowed to benefit from her dowery. 

Jacquetta did well at court, and was a favourite of the king (Henry VI) and queen (Margaret of Anjou). As the aunt, by marriage, of the King, she was the most powerful woman in the court, with the exception of Queen Margaret, and it was using this influence that her new lowly born husband was created Baron Rivers in 1448.

Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, and related to Jacquetta by marriage.

Jacquetta and Richard were a prolific couple and had many children together, including their eldest daughter Elizabeth Woodville, who was to become Queen Consort of England when she married Edward IV in 1464. Their second child, Lewis, died in childhood, in about 1438, and their third child and second daughter was Anne Woodville. Anne was my 17x great grandmother, who married William Bourchier. They had a further eleven children (14 in total); Anthony (c. 1440-1483), John Woodville (c. 1444-1469), Jacquetta (1445-1509), Lionel (c. 1446-1484), Eleanor (died c 1512), Margaret (died c 1500), Richard (1453-1491), Edward (c 1456-1488), Mary (c 1456-1481), and Catherine (c 1458-1497).

The marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. Illuminated miniature from Vol 6 of the Anciennes Chroniques d'Angleterre by Jean de Wavrin.

All their children, who survived to adulthood, married well, thanks to Jacquetta and their eldest sister's powerful connections. And Richard Woodville rose to greater heights as his wife and daughter used their royal connections. Before their marriage Richard Woodville was a captain and a knight. He was created Baron Rivers in 1448, and then was appointed lieutenant of Calais in 1454-55. In 1459 Richard became the Warden of the Cinque Ports, defending Kent against invasion from the Yorkist earls.

The Garter Stall plate of Sir Richard Woodville, at St George's Chapel, Windsor, created in the 15th century. 

Later, after he switched sides, from Lancaster to York, and then after his daughter Elizabeth married Edward IV, Richard Woodville, Baron Rivers, became Earl Rivers. In 1466 he was appointed Lord Treasurer and then Constable of England, the following year. The Woodvilles were on their way up, in part due to Jacquetta's power and influence; rare in the very much male dominated world of medieval England.

Whilst the many Woodvilles were happy with their new found influence and prosperity, there were a few in the royal court, who were not. Edward's brothers George and Richard Plantagenet, and Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (known as 'The Kingmaker' due to his excessive power, wealth and resulting influence) did not like that this family of commoners were doing so very well. Finally things came to a head in 1469, when Warwick truly fell out with Edward IV, and threw him from the throne. While 'King Warwick' held the kingdom he had Earl Rivers and his son John captured, and executed at Kenilworth on the 12th August. 

An imagined portrait of Richard Neville., Earl of Warwick (aka The KingMaker) painted in the 16th century by an unknown artist.

It was not long after this execution that Jacquetta was accused of witchcraft, by a Warwick 'hanger on'; Thomas Wake. Wake had a lead figurine which he claimed Jacquetta had created, with the purpose of using it for witchcraft and sorcery. The claim against Jacquetta fell apart when Warwick released Edward, and he climbed back on the throne. The King's Great Council cleared Jacquetta of all charges made against her on 21st January 1470. 

Jacquetta died in 1472, at the age of 56, but the allegations of witchcraft were raised again, in 1484, when Richard III (Edward's younger brother) claimed that Jacquetta and Elizabeth her daughter, had used witchcraft to bewitch Edward, and secure the royal match. Richard did not offer any proof to back up these claims, and, as history tells, he died in 1485, losing the crown for the Plantagenet's forever more, and thus it passed on to the Tudor dynasty. (Richard's body famously was found in recent years, buried underneath what had become a Leicester city council car park.)

The earliest surviving portrait of Richard III, painted by Barthel in about 1520. It is owned by the Society of Antiquaries, in London. 

The Cousin's War (nowadays more commonly known as the War of the Roses) was brought to an end when Edward and Elizabeth's eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, married prince Henry, the son of Henry Tudor (Henry VII). Elizabeth of York, and Henry VII had seven children together, most notably Henry VIII, their third child, and second son.

When the War of the Roses came to an end, the houses of York and Lancaster were united through marriage. To symbolise this union, the white rose of York, and the red rose of Lancaster were combined to create the Tudor Rose.

In the books by Philippa Gregory, Jacquetta is portrayed as an actual  witch, who used her powers to protect her family and ensure they rose to the highest ranks of the land. She was not described as a Halloween witch, wearing the traditional black pointy hats and  riding broomsticks, etc. Instead her character was closer to a white witch, not creating anything evil, but good, positive vibes that helped her family. This characterisation was undoubtedly a large part of what I found so colourful about Jacquetta's character in the novels. The real witchcraft accusations were quite clearly an effort, from those who disliked her and her family's power, to move her aside, and remove her from the ear of the king. Whilst the witchery of Jacquetta was clearly an illusion it doesn't diminish my draw to her. The fact that she married (Richard Woodville) for love, and against the wishes of the monarchy, and then despite that 'faux pas' managed to rise to such heights, bringing her husband and many children with her, retains her colourful character, without the need of witchcraft and sorcery. I remain bewitched by her!

#Newell

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_I,_Count_of_Saint-Pol

http://www.maproom.org/00/36/present.php?m=0056

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_Saint-Pol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Woodville,_1st_Earl_Rivers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_of_York

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VII_of_England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Woodville

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquetta_of_Luxembourg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_IV

Challenging; An Itinerant Physician in the Era of the Witch Hunt

This week's post has been made possible by the help of my marvellous neighbour and friend, Sheila McIntyre, who teaches various courses in American History at SUNY Potsdam, including one about witchcraft in the early communities of New England. She has helped me with the information I relate below, including the books mentioned, 'Medicine and Healing', and 'Witch Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England'. I am sure she will be appalled at my terrible attempts at citations. I am not an academic writer, and write purely for the love of sharing what I have found out about my ancestors and their lives. I hope she will forgive me, and know that I am so grateful for sharing her knowledge with me!

The writing prompt for this week's piece is very timely, especially with our proximity to Halloween, and all that is spooky! This week's ancestor is none other than Dr Phillip Reade (sometimes spelled Read, or Reed). I am connected to him via my 3x great grandmother, Sophia Reed, who was married to George Newell, and mother to my 2x great grandfather Frederick Newell. It was Frederick who, as one of the many mariners in our family, sailed from New England to Scotland, and there met my 2x great grandmother Christine Hall Main, thus bringing the Newell family back to Britain, after a 200 year hiatus in the USA.

Dr Phillip Reade was my 8x great grandfather. He was born in England in 1623; his father (a student of divinity) coming from Kent, according to 'The History of the Reed Family in Europe and America'. The family were first mentioned in Woburn, MA, but Dr Reade himself settled first in Lynn, and then later in Concord, MA. Phillip married Abigail Rice in 1669, at the age of 46. Together they had four children; Phillip (1671-1720- my 7x great grandfather), Jacob (born 1673), Abigail (born 1675), and Amy (born 1678). Dr Phillip Reade's story includes an interesting professional life, a fair number of appearances in various trials, including ones involving accusations of witchcraft. It is always challenging when we are confronted by ancestors whose beliefs are so glaringly different from the beliefs we hold today. 

Dr Phillip Reade served several communities in New England, including Concord, where he lived, and all the way out to the coast at Lynn, and further north at Salem. He would have travelled long distances to see his patients all living in various, fairly isolated communities in a roughly 400 square mile area. 

Dr Reade visited patients in Concord, Billerika, Woburn, Reading, Lynn, Salem, Boston, Charlestown, Cambridge, and Sudbury.

He would see patients at inns and 'ordinaries', which were sort of 17th century community centres. He was not entirely a successful medic, as there are records of several cases made against him, regarding his under or over doctoring skills, and bills. There are, however, reports that he was a diligent medic;

'In 1670 six men certified they had observed Reade at work in their own houses and elsewhere when he took care of the sick and lame, "and some of us have observed him to bee carfull in his practise of physick and chirurgery and have Reseived Good by his care and industry."'
(The Trials of Phillip Reade, Rapoza; Medicine and Healing, page87; published by Boston University, 1992)

Around the time of King Phillip's War (the war between the colonists and a group of indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands) Dr Reade travelled with Major Willard, who commanded the troops of Middlesex county, and was the second highest paid in those forces, in January 1676, after Major Willard himself. The first of the doctor's stories that I find challenging happened a few years before, in 1669, at Lynn, and relates to a lady by the name of Ann Burt.

Major Simon Willard

Ann Burt and her husband had arrived in the colony in 1635, and settled in Lynn. By 1669 Ann Burt was a widow. She was a known healer in her community, but in 1669 was accused of witchcraft by several people. One of the people who Goody Burt was said to have afflicted was Sara Townsend. Dr Phillip Reade was asked to testify in this case;

'...he had no opportunity to examine her condition but did plainly perceive there was no natural cause for such unnatural fits[.] But being sent for the fourth time and finding her in meet capacity to give information of her aggrievance and cause of her former fits she told me the above  Burt had afflicted her and told her if ever she did relate it to anyone she would afflict her worse[.] One hour after she had a sadder fit than any ever she had afore: then I asked her who afflict[s] her now and what the matter was[.] She replied with a great screech she had told me already and that she did now suffer for with it much more now.'
(Witch Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England, by David D Hall; Three Ambiguous Cases (1669-1681), page 186; published by Northeastern University Press, 1991)

Of course, as a female healer, Ann Burt was at risk of such accusations. Dr Phillip Reade might also have benefitted from her not being able to practise healing; with less competition he would potentially increase his income. There are no records of any trial against Goody Burt, so perhaps she was acquitted. Ann Burt died in 1673.

It seems that Lynn was not a great place for our doctor. In 1679 it was in the town of Lynn that Phillip Reade fell out with a couple by the name of Gifford. John and Margaret Gifford were residents of Lynn, and John had been described as a 'stormy petrel of Essex County and litigant par excellence.' Doctor Phil had started a big argument between himself and the Giffords, by calling John a 'cheating dog', because Gifford had cheated a friend of his out of one thousand pounds. But what Reade did next was, with the benefit of modern hindsight, inexcusable. He accused Margaret Gifford of witchery by saying;

'...for there were some things which could not be accounted for by natural causes.... [others had been] strangely [and] badly handled by her'

Margaret Gifford later met Reade at the ordinary in Reading, where she told him that she had been cleared of his accusations. She had not stood trial, however the pair were furious with Dr Reade and the matter was not over.

It was in fact, October 31st (it's not lost on me that this was Halloween!) 1679 that Phillip and John met again, on the road to Salem. Reade was going towards the town, travelling east, and Gifford was coming west, away from the town. It was at this meeting that Gifford claimed that Dr Reade assaulted him, cutting him on the hand and elbow with his sword. Reade, of course, claimed that he was the injured party, and that it was Gifford who had struck him, and kicked him in the chin. In the ensuing trial over this matter Dr Reade reasserted his accusation of witchcraft against Gifford's wife Margaret, and even started painting John with the same brush accusing him of 'haveing Sum familiaritye with Satan or his instruments.' Margaret was ordered to appear in court the next day, but Reade's accusations of devilry against John Gifford were largely ignored. As it happened Margaret never did appear in court, and like Goodwife Ann Burt, she never sat trial. 

By unattributed - William A. Crafts (1876) Pioneers in the settlement of America: from Florida in 1510 to California in 1849[1], Pioneers in the settlement of America: from Florida in 1510 to California in 1849. edition, Boston: Published by Samuel Walker and Company, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17689791
The Witch Trial Craze of Salem began in 1692, and its possible that both Goody Burt and Gifford avoided further trouble from Reade's accusations because they predated that time. Had the accusations been made in 1692-3, things could have been very different for Ann Burt and Margaret Gifford.

On the face of it, it is hard to understand or excuse Dr Reade's accusations, but perhaps I'm being too hard on him. Our 17th century ancestors thought the world worked in a very different way than our understanding about how it does now. The science of the 1600s was not the science of today, if indeed you can call it a science by today's standards. Instead religious beliefs, and superstition ruled the hearts and minds of the people, and as much as we would like to think that our ancestors were people with knowledge and understanding like you and me, they were not. Dr Phillip Reade was, however, a challenging man in many other ways, not necessarily to me, but to his fellow colonists, some of whom were members of his own family.

The doctor's dispensary and the apothecary's shop in the 17th century. Pictures facing title page of 'The expert doctor's dispensary' by Nicholas Culpepper (1616-1654) et al. Rare Books Keywords: Physicians; Herbalist; Drugs; Pharmacy; Herbal remedies; Apothecary; Medicine
Dr Phillip Reade would have travelled to larger towns where he would have stocked up on medicines, and treatments.

It seems that Dr Phillip Reade was an incredibly cantankerous sort, who possibly made more enemies than friends. In August 1669 warrants were issued for the apprehension of a Robert Williams who had been heard to say that he would 'have the blood of Doctor Read.' Phillip was apparently in fear of his life, and the reports that Williams had also said that he would 'get a club and.... knock out the doctors brans' surely did not help his anxiety. The records only give us a glimpse of why Williams was so upset with Reade; 'Dr Read had given him such Language as that he would not bear it though it cost him his blood.' No verdict was ever reached, as Williams ran away. 

Another time Reade sued Ambrose Makefasset who reportedly said that Reade's mother (and supposedly my 9x great grandmother) was a whore! That truly does sound awful, but what was it about Reade that rubbed people so entirely, up the wrong way?! I can't imagine that the deeply religious people of the colony would use such language without having a great many buttons pressed.

Stony Ground, by Edwin Austen Abbey, shows a Puritan pastor preaching to a family around the dinner table. Whilst the Puritans were deeply religious, they did not abstain from drinking alcohol.

Phillip Reade was not just nasty to his neighbours, but also turned his spite on his mother-in-law (another of my 9x great grandmothers!) In 1671 Abigail Rice, his wife (and my 8x great grandmother) was desperately ill. Abigail's mother, Mary Rice, suggested to Phillip that he pray to God that his wife would recover, and this reasonable suggestion ignited the fuse for this explosive response;

'ye Devill take you and yor ch[ris]t... ye Divel take you & yor prayers'

Later on, Reade shared with another person that his mother-in-law infuriated him, saying 'the Devill take her for she brought [me] to it'. Reade was accused of blasphemy, an offence that carried the death penalty, and he was taken to the prison in Boston, ahead of his case being tried in court. The charges were not found to be proven, and he escaped being hung, yet he was admonished, and ordered to pay the court costs. 

In his lifetime Dr Phillip Reade spent at least a couple of times in jail. He was ordered to pay a fine of twenty pounds for making nasty comments against Reverend Bulkely in 1670, which he was unable to pay. For this he was sent to the Boston jail, and then was moved to the Cambridge jail, while the family tried to raise the funds. His wife, Abigail, in pleading to the court, gave an inkling to the reason behind his nastiness. She argued that her 'greatest feare is... he would injure himself Lying under soe many temtations.' The temptations being alcohol.

By Price - http://maps.bpl.org/details_10913, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10475205
This map from 1745 shows the location of Boston jail.

It seems that as well as a mediocre doctor, Phillip Reade was a nasty drunkard. An earlier court case recorded the testimony of Ann Adams of Cambridge, who reported that Reade had come to her house 'much overtaken in drinke, & in such a condition that wee could not get rid of him, but were forsed to entertaine him till the morneing and that he uttered sundry evil & reproachful termes against Captain Gookin' (one of the magistrates who often sat on Reade's cases). 

Whilst I might be able to forgive Dr Phillip Reade for his accusations of witchcraft. I think it's certainly clear that his fellow New Englanders found his nasty drunk self to be challenging. He left behind him a litany of records citing unpaid bills, fines, and hate filled spiteful commentary; all symptomatic of a life of an alcoholic. He died in Concord, MA on 10th May 1696, at the age of 73. Just three years earlier  he had been sued for slander, after saying that John Clarke's wife had the French Pox (syphilis.) It seems that our Doc Reade remained the cantakerous old drunk he always had been, and that even his 70 years had not mellowed him. 

Yup- Dr Phillip Reade was most definitely challenging, in plenty of ways!

#Newell

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https://digital.nls.uk/histories-of-scottish-families/archive/94790627#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=287&xywh=-258%2C162%2C5442%2C4034

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3720.ar079701/?r=0.569,0.555,0.156,0.085,0

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Samuel_Willard

Lost Contact; The Funnell Sisters

My great grandmother was Alice Funnell. She was born in 1880, in Brighton, Sussex. She was the oldest of three sisters, and I believe they had a strong bond, possibly formed by the death of their mother, when they were young, and then solidified when their father remarried a woman who was not keen on raising someone else's children. Their subsequent lives, and the following generations lead the Funnell sisters to live their lives at different ends of England, and their descendants at different ends of the earth. But thanks to modern genealogy tools, that contact is no longer lost.

Brighton Pavillion, the royal seaside home.

Mary Jane Vinall (my 2x great grandmother) was a Brighton girl. She was one of several generations who lived in the St Peter's ward of Brighton, Sussex, not far from the Brighton neighbourhood known today as North Laine. North Laine is now considered a bohemian, cultural quarter of Brighton, but back in the 1800s this area was considered a slum neighbourhood, and a far cry from the gentile parts of town that drew the wealthy to Brighton. Mary Jane was the daughter of Henry Vinall (a painter, who I wrote about in 'Health' week), and Jane Munro, a laundress (who I wrote about in one of my first posts, 'Origins'. Mary Jane was the youngest child of 8, born to Henry and Jane, in 1856. Her next older sister, Louisa, who I believe played a major part in Mary Jane's daughter's lives, was born just two years earlier in 1854.

Mary Jane Vinall married Joseph Funnell, a miner, on 29th September 1878, at St Peter's church, Brighton. Mary Jane's address at the time of their marriage was 4 St Peter's Street, and Joseph's was just a stone's throw away, at 14 New England Street. They were definitely a local pair! Joseph's father was Jesse Funnell, a gardener, and his mother was Caroline Pierce, the daughter of Alfred, a labourer. These were solid, working class people, who would have lived in small cramped conditions, with poor sanitation, on meagre earnings. Their lives would have been markedly different in all manner of ways from my Money ancestors, who lived in Brighton at the same time, and who I recently wrote about in my two 'Most' posts.

St Peter's church, Brighton

Two years after their marriage, and at the age of 24, Mary Jane and Joseph welcomed their daughter Alice (my great grandmother) to the world. Born on 18th September 1880, at 37 Queens Gardens, Brighton, Alice was to be the eldest of the three sisters. By the time of Alice's birth Joseph was working as a railway labourer, presumably at the nearby Brighton Railway Station, which was built in 1840-41. Whilst this work may have offered a more reliable wage, it was likely just as dangerous; there was no such thing as Health and Safety in 1880!

When Alice was 2 years old, her sister Louise arrived. The small family were, by now, living at 4 St Peter's Street, with her parents, Henry and Jane Vinall, and brother Charles, and sister Louisa. Mary Jane, Joseph, and Alice had moved here prior to 1881, and were listed as residing at the address in the census of that year. Number 4 was not a large house by any means. The terraced houses on St Peter's Street are still standing, and I would guess that it is a traditional '2 up/ 2 down', workman's cottage, meaning that inside there would likely have been a couple of rooms on the ground floor, and a couple on the floor above. Not much room for 6 adults and 2 infants.

Two years later the family were living at 7 Park Crescent Road, Brighton, and it was in this family home that the youngest of the three sisters was born. Margaret Funnell was born on 2nd November 1885, when her oldest sister Alice was 5, and Louise, the middle child, was 2. 

Mary Jane conceived a fourth child, but this time her pregnancy did not progress as it should. On the 16th April 1888, at the age of 32, Mary Jane Funnell died, as she miscarried her child. Going by the death certificate, and after consulting some medical friends, it seems likely that Mary Jane suffered from a DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation) as a result of her miscarriage, which caused her body to go into shock, in turn causing convulsions. This would be a rare domino effect of conditions today, but in the 1800s it may have been more common due to poor nutrition, or lack of antibiotics. Mary Jane's three young daughters were motherless. Alice was 7 years old, Louise was 4, and little Margaret was just 2 years old.

Mary Jane Funnell's death certificate

Less than a year later Joseph, the girls' father, remarried. With three daughters to care for he would have needed someone, to help look after them while he went out for work. Joseph married Sarah Jane Marshall at the Brighton Register Office, on the 11th March 1889, when Joseph was a labourer, and Sarah Jane was a laundress at the Albion Hotel. The Albion Hotel was one of the most famous hotels in Brighton, and the building that previously stood on the same ground was part of the reason why Brighton, and British seaside towns had become so 'en vogue' in the Regency era. 

The Royal Albion Hotel

Richard Russell was a physician, and Sussex native. He encouraged his patients to bathe and drink seawater, and built Russell House on the seafront at Brighton in the mid to late 1700s. Russell House was where Dr Russell lived, and ran his treatment centre. The back doors of the house opened out onto the beach where bathing machines would enable his patients to get in and out of the sea in a modest fashion. The Albion Hotel became the Royal Albion in 1847, and towards the end of the 19th century the hotel was in decline, eventually closing for renovations and refurbishment in 1900. It seems that Sarah Jane was working at the hotel when the glory of this once beautiful building was definitely fading. 

Sarah Jane may have been happy to leave the hard work of laundress at the decaying hotel, but according to reports from fellow descendants of the sisters, she was not particularly happy about mothering the little girls. In 1891, Joseph, two of his daughters, Alice and Louise, were living with the 'wicked stepmother', at 4 Hastings Road. I've been unable to locate Margaret, who would have been 6 years old at the time of the 1891 census of England. Perhaps little Margaret annoyed Sarah Jane too much and she was sent away, although I've not found her with any of the Vinall or Funnell extended family. Perhaps her being omitted was an enumerator error. 

Traditional tales, like Cinderella describe strained relationships in blended families.

In the following census report Alice had left the family home, to work as a general servant for a local wine merchant. In the same census I have been unable to locate Louise, or the step mother Sarah Jane, but it seems likely that Margaret and Joseph were living at 89 Carlyle Street, where Joseph was recorded as a 'navvie', which was a slang term for a labourer working on a railway construction.

So, for those two decades it's hard to know what was happening with the three sisters, and how they fared. Things begin to become clearer as we journey through the next decade. In 1909, my great grandparents married at All Souls, Brighton. They lived at 23 Warwick Street, and William Edgill, my great grandfather, was a cook. Warwick Street no longer exists; some of the houses were pulled down in the 1930s as a slum clearance measure, and the entire neighbourhood was redeveloped in the 1960s.

Louise was the next sister to marry, shortly before the 1911 census. She married a wonderfully named tobacconist, called Havelock Desire Turner, from Harrow. At the time of her marriage to Havelock Louise was working as a maid servant at the St Clere Estate, near Sevenoaks in Kent. By the time of the 1911 census Louise was still working at the St Clere Estate, as a laundry maid, alongside her younger sister Margaret, as yet unmarried, and also employed as a laundry maid. St Clere is a large estate, and Georgian country house in Ightham, near Sevenoaks in Kent. The property was owned by Sir Mark Edlman Collet, in 1911; the son of an earlier governor of the Bank of England. 

The St Clere estate is often used today, as a film location.

In the 1911 census, Alice and her husband of 1 year, William, were working together below stairs, at a house near Winchester, called The Firs, Twyford. William was the cook, and Alice was the house parlour maid, for the family of Harry Merrill Colebrook, and 'importer of foreign corn'. They had one child together, but she was not living with them. Their daughter Mary Margaret Louise Edgill, and 11 month old infant, and 'nurse child' was living with the Hurdle family, at #2 St Peter's Street, Brighton, just next door to Alice's aunt Louisa Vinall (older sister to Mary Jane). It struck me, when I found the record, that Alice had named her first born child and daughter for her mother, and two sisters, and that the child was entrusted with her aunt, and neighbours, while her and William were working in service.

Margaret had her big day later in 1911, when she married Joseph Stoker Varey, an estate labourer from Ulleskelf, Tadcaster, Yorkshire. They married at Kirkby Wharfe parish church on the 28th October 1911. Margaret's address recorded on the marriage certificate was 'Brancaster' which is in Norfolk, and I've tried to figure out how Margaret, a maid from the south of England, ever met an estate labourer in Yorkshire. The best I've come up with is that perhaps Margaret travelled with the Collet family, as sometimes staff did, for a stay at an estate in the Tadcaster area. Not far from Kirkby Wharfe is an estate called Grimston Park, which could fit the type of estate the wealthy family might have visited, bringing an entourage of staff. That said, I've not located a big fancy house in Brancaster, Norfolk, and cannot account for her address there. How they met remains a bit of a mystery, but met they did!

Grimston Park, near Tadcaster. Possibly the estate where Margaret and Joseph met, when working in service there.

Alice and William went on to have 3 more children; William Nicholson Edgill, Edith Alice Edgill, and James Ernest Edgill. Before 1913 they moved to Sutton where William had a job as a cook at Banstead Lunatic Asylum; you can read more about his story here. Alice was a home maker and stay at home mother, as were most married women in that era. 

Louise and Havelock welcomed their first child in June 1911; two months after their marriage. Lillian Mary was born in Brighton, when her parents were living at 4 St Peter's Street, with Louise's aunt Louisa. Their first three children (all daughters) bore the names of the important women in their lives; Lillian Mary, Janet Alice, and Margaret Louise. Louise and Havelock did not remain in Brighton, and when they had their second daughter, Janet Alice, they were all living in Wembley, on Lancelot Road, and  Havelock, no longer a tobacconist, but was working as an insurance agent instead. By 1915, the family had moved again, to Sandringham Road, Willesden Green, where Havelock was a store keeper (yet another job change!). At this time Margaret Louise, daughter #3 was born. They went on to have a further four children, all boys; Frederick George, William Frank, Arthur Henry, and Anthony Francis.

Meanwhile in Yorkshire, Margaret was equally busy, birthing a child pretty much every two years; Joseph Charles (1912), Olive Betty (1914), Doreen (1916), George Francis (1918), Richard Stoker (1920) and John Thomas (1923). The year after, in April 1912, their aunt Louise died in Brighton, at the address that had been home to several generations of Vinalls, since at least 1851. Alice had been with her at her passing, and was the person who registered Louisa's death.

Louisa Vinall's death certificate

The 1921 census showed how all three women continued with household duties and  raising their children, each in their own corners of the country. Alice lived with her children and husband William, now a mental nurse at Banstead Mental Hospital, at 34 Kings Road, Belmont. Louise was still on Sandringham Road, Willesden Green, with her family. At this time Havelock was still a store keeper, but also had yet another job; a motor engineer for the New Engine Company, at Willesden Motor Engineers. Margaret was in Ulleskelf, Tadcaster, Yorkshire with her family, where Joseph her husband was a general labourer.

The first of the sisters to die was my great grandmother, Alice. She died on the 12th February 1934, at her home on Kings Road, Sutton, from cancer. She was 54, and her children were between the ages of 24 and 12 at the time of her death. Her youngest daughter was 19 at the time, and with her older sister by then married, it fell to her to run the house, and care for her 12 year old brother. William, Alice's husband, died in 1938, just four years later, from tuberculosis. 

At the start of WWII the National Register of 1939 was taken, and it's records show the surviving sisters continuing to live in their chosen home towns. Louise was living in Willesden, at 11 Strode Road with Havelock, now working as a laundryman. Her two youngest daughters (Lillian, and Janet), and her three eldest sons (Frederick, William, and Arthur) were at home with her and Havelock. Margaret Louise had married earlier that year, and the baby of the family, Anthony Francis was living in Northamptonshire, possibly as a 13 year old evacuee.

Margaret was living with her husband Joseph, who was working as a road man for West Riding County Council. Her two adult sons Richard Stoker, and John Thomas were living with them, at The Old Hall, Tadcaster, and were working as nursery men, growing tomatoes. Their eldest son, Joseph Charles, was working as a railway man, and living in the Tadcaster railway cottages, with other people named Varey, possibly relatives. Doreen had also married, and was living nearby to  her parent's home, in Tadcaster. I have been unable to locate George Francis Varey in the 1939 Register. Olive, known to all as Betty, had married, and was living in Willesden with her husband; a short half hour walk from her aunt Louise's home.

Just over a decade after the war ended, Margaret died. She passed on the 19th March 1956, in Ulleskelf, Yorkshire. She left behind her husband Joseph, and adult children. She was 70 at the time of her death.

The gravestone for Margaret and Joseph Stoker Varey, at the Methodist Chapel graveyard, in Ulleskelf, Yorkshire.

Louise died at the age of 82, on the 19th March, 1965. Her husband Havelock had died in 1952, when Louise was 68. All seven of her children survived her. 

When I started the task of researching and documenting our family tree I knew nothing of these sisters, and their lives, and neither did my family. We knew lots about other branches of our tree, but this branch was a complete mystery. These women, the three sisters, their mother, and her sister, stood out to me as a tightly bonded group of women, and I felt somewhat sad that those connections had been lost by the distance of geography and generations. A few years ago I took an Ancestry DNA test, given to me by my wonderful husband for Christmas. One of my first couple of 'matches' was with a pair of women who are descendants of both Louise and Margaret. We have shared research, and emails, and have hoped for a real life meet up at some point. But with one of us living in Australia, another in Canada, and the third in England, it seems like we are further flung than our ancestors, the Funnell sisters. We can but hope, but in the meantime we can enjoy a virtual connection, and thank the internet gods for social media!

#Edgill

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Russell_(doctor)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Albion_Hotel#

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1043366?section=official-list-entry

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.6&lat=50.82045&lon=-0.12849&layers=168&b=ESRIWorld&o=0

https://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/topic/warwick-street-brighton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimston_Park

Full House; Genealogy Bingo!

When a British person is given the prompt "full house", the first thing that will come to mind is 'BINGO'! To that end, when I saw this coming up I knew that I would have to create a Genealogy Bingo card. In the course of this post, I'll show how I can call 'Full House!', or at least will in a week or two!

Since starting this #52Ancestors challenge in January this year I have written about many of my ancestors. In February I wrote about my 2x great grandfather, and his life as a collier, and later chip shop owner. The following week I turned my attention to the other side of my tree, and write about the Newells who left England in the early 1600s, to start a new life in the new world. Later their descendants emigrated back to the UK, and settled in Scotland.

In a post from March, I detailed the life of my great grandfather, who seems to have been a bigamist. He got away with it, and lived a happy life with my 2x great grandmother, whilst his first wife apparently remarried, so no big deal. I believe bigamy was far more common, when divorces were harder to come by. That same great grandfather was initially a cook in the Brighton workhouse, and later a cook in a mental hospital. During WWI, it seems he switched from being a cook, to being a nurse in the same mental hospital. 

I also wrote, in March, about the Bell family, the father of which was a publican, and he and his daughters formed the Victorian Music Hall stage act Les Trois Cloches. They even performed at the London Hippodrome; quite a distance from their home town in the north west! The same month, I wrote about our Gambier ancestors, and their seeking refuge in England, after the French king Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, basically making many French protestant Huguenots religious refugees.

I went from writing about one kind of religious persecution, to another, when I wrote about an 11x great grandfather, Richard Sherborn, and his family, who were Catholic recusants in Elizabethan England, and the family's subsequent downfall.

March was a busy month, because I also wrote about my husband's great grandfather, and his service in WWI. Later in June I wrote about my husband's grand uncle who was an airman in WWII, and who died, with the rest of his flight crew in the early hours of D Day. Whilst neither were soldiers (they were each a sailor and an airman respectively), they were both active participants in the war efforts, and I think that's good enough for my Bingo squares! Continuing on, with my husband's family, I recently wrote about his 2x great grandfather and his family of railway workers. In another post about my in-laws' family, I wrote about a story well told by the newspapers of the time, and the murder of two games keepers, the surviving third game keeper being my husband's 3x great granduncle, who was the star witness for the prosecution.

A  further murder was written about in August, when I wrote about the murder/suicide committed by my 2x great granduncle. In researching that ancestor and his story, I discovered that his first wife died of cancer in the Brighton workhouse. I also discovered that the child who was possibly his son, by the woman he murdered, and who was orphaned by his heinous crime, became a British Home Child, and was sent to Canada as a result.

Just last month I wrote about the slave trade, and the Gambier branch of our family were slave owners, and also played a key role in the abolition of slavery. And just the month before I shared some details of a book written by my 3x great grandfather, who was just one of many mariners in my family.

In early October I wrote about the wife and child of my husband's 3x great grandfather, who both died as a result of TB, or consumption as it was then known. And last month I wrote about how I discovered that I am descended from King Edward III, and his wife Queen Philippa of Hainault.

I plan to write about maids next week, in the 'Lost Contact' week, and the following week, 'Challenging', will be when I write about a particularly challenging ancestor, who was a doctor in New England, during the time of the Witch Trials.

So, as you can see.... I am left to find someone who fought in the American Revolutionary War, and that someone is my 5x great grandfather Jedediah Phipps.

Jedediah Phipps was born on the 11th March 1724, in Sherborn, MA. He was the son of John and Hannah Phipps. Jedediah Phipps was settled in  Douglas, MA prior to the start of the war. He was a committed revolutionary, and his name appeared on a list of officers commissioned in the first regiment of militia in Worcester, MA, dated 1st March 1763. It seems that at the close of the Seven Years War (known in the USA as the French and Indian War) some sort of a plan for a revolution against the British empire was being formed, and Jedediah Phipps was signing up at the start. He was in Captain Caleb Hill's company, based in Douglas, and in Colonel John Chandler's regiment.

The Second Congregational Church, Douglas, MA

With the rank of lieutenant, Jedediah and his family returned to Sherborn in May 1768, and sometime near the beginning of the war Jedediah Phipps was heard by the General Court. At this point in the history, the colonial army were almost out of ammunition. Jedediah had a solution.

".... Mr Jedediah Phips of Sherborn, has produced to this Court several pounds of salt petre, of his own manufacturing, and given full evidence of his knowledge in discovering earth impregnanted therewith, as well as of his abilities to manufacture said commodity; and has also consented to entre into the employment of the Government for improvnig the art and business aforesaid, and engaged to communicate his useful discoveries therein; Therefor resolved, that the said Jedediah Phips be taken into the service of this Colony, as aforesaid, until the 15th of December next, and he is hereby directed to repair to Newburyport as soon as he maybe, and use his utmost efforts with Dr Whiting, Mr Baker, and Capt John Peck, a committee of this Court for the purpose aforesaid, or either of them to make further improvements in the art of manufacturing said commodity and for every day which he shall be absent from his home and employed agreeable to this resolve he shall be allowed and paid out of the Public Treasury, the sum of 6s per day for his services, and 20s per week, to defray his expenses, as already provided for said committee."

Salt peter, an important ingredient in black gunpowder, is crucial to the manufacture of explosives and ammunition. There were not many manufacturers of ammunition and weapons in the 'colony', and whilst the French did support the weaponising of the Revolution eventually, this aid did not come until about 1778. The first 3 years or so were a struggle of cobbling together what the Continental Army could muster, against the well equipped British army. The ingenious method described by Jedediah Phipps was clearly one of the answers to this issue.

Salt Peter was referred to as Chinese Snow, by the ancient Arabian people.

Jedediah Phipps had a good estate in Sherborn, between Peter's Hill, and the Framingham Road which left the town of Sherborn travelling north towards Framingham and Mansfield. He and his wife, Sarah Learned, had at least 5 children; John (1757-1831), Jedediah Phipps (1760-1847), Jesse Phipps (born 1763), Sarah Phipps (1766-1838), Persis Phipps (born 1768), Mary Polly Phipps (1770-1851; my 4x great grandmother), and Anna Phipps (1778-1867). 

From an 1857 map of Sherborn, MA

Throughout the Revolutionary War Jedediah Phipps worked in various guises, including his work on developing salt peter. He was a selectman (1773 & 1780). A selectman was, and still is, a local political position. Selectmen during the colonial times of New England were generally responsible for licensing, the twon watch, and poor relief. He was moderator of Sherborn town meetings in 1778 & 1779, and was on the Sherborn committee of safety in 1780. The committee of safety, along with other committees (inspection, & correspondence), took control of the governance of a locality in  the Thirteen Colonies, which significantly reduced amount of power and authority held by the British overseers.  As a member of the committee of safety, Jedediah Phipps would have been party to passing laws, and regulations, and enacting statutes. 

Continental Soldiers

Jedediah Phipps lived to the grand old age of 94, and died in Sherborn on October 14th, 1818.  The book 'The Ancestors and Descendants of John Phipps, of Sherborn, 1757-1847' tells us that the genealogist Rev. Abner Morse visited Jedediah in his final months. He related the following description of him;

"He had never been sick in his life. At 94 he retained a great vigour in the faculties of his mind and had a rare sensibility to the beauties of nature, language and art. He could describe the constellations as clearly as the fields of his own farm; he could at that gerat age repeat quotations correctly from the classics, and he could give the names of his former acquaintances who had conversed with Peregrin White. He dwelt much on divine goodness. Though professedly a laboring mind, he had stored his mind by a habit of spending his minutes of relaxation in reading, and he had long been the oracle of the vicinity, and was well known in all the bordering towns."

He certainly sounds like he was an interesting man.

Now, my Bingo card looks almost full. By the end of the month I will be able to call 'HOUSE!!'

What is on your Genealogy Bingo card?

#Newell

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War#Prelude_to_revolution

https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/american-revolution-1763-1783/overview/

https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/exhibition/a-revolution-in-arms/

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/saltpetre-mining.htm#:~:text=The%20mining%20process%20involved%20extracting,blood%2C%20to%20create%20the%20saltpetre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate

http://famousamericans.net/abnermorse/

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Sherborn_past_and_present%2C_1674-1924_%28IA_sherbornpastpres00sher%29.pdf