Trove Tuesday: Nancy de Crespigny at Salt Creek 1936

Trove  is a repository of digitised data managed by the National Library of Australia.

Recently when I was researching Trove's digitised newspapers, I came across a newly-added photograph of my great aunt Nancy de Crespigny.

Miss N. de Crespigny, Salt Creek Image from State Library of South Australia PRG 1218/34/435

Nancy Champion de Crespigny (1910-2003),  the second child of Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny and his wife Beatrix née Hughes, was the sister of my grandfather Geoff. She was a close lifelong friend of my grandmother Kathleen, Geoff's wife.

Nancy went to Woodlands School in Adelaide and then attended the University of Melbourne, where she graduated in 1933 with a history degree. She studied archeology at the University of London and Newnham College of Cambridge University.

The photograph comes from the State Library of Australia. It was taken 8 March 1936 by Charles Pearcy Mountford (1890-1976) at Salt Creek, also known as also known as Winnininnie Creek, about 330 kilometres north of Adelaide.

The photo of Nancy is in the Mountford-Sheard Collection. In the same collection I found two shots of Nancy's future husband Hallum Movius (1907-1987) taken on the same day.

Hallam Movius, Salt Creek Image from State Library of South Australia PRG 1218/34/433B

Hallam Movius, Salt Creek Image from State Library of South Australia PRG PRG 1218/34/433A 

The Adelaide Advertiser of 11 March 1936 mentions Nancy and Hal's excursion. With them was the Adelaide anthropologist Charles Pearcy Mountford (1890-1907) .

PERSONAL (1936, March 11). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), p. 18. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35415220

A few months later, in June, Hal sailed from Australia. Nancy followed in July. In September the pair married in London.

Life on the Ocean Wave (1936, June 18). Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic. : 1885 - 1939), p. 9. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article152065161

Adelaide Archaeologist (1936, August 1). The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), p. 25. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48212356

DAUGHTER OF ADELAIDE DOCTOR MARRIED (1936, September 28). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), p. 13. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48182227

Lighter Side of London Life Adelaide Girl Weds Young Archaeologist (1936, October 27). News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article132025722

Related posts

• The memoir of my grandmother mentions Nancy several times although only in passing: Kathleen Cudmore: a Memoir
• My great-aunt Nancy owned a small camphorwood box with a silver plaque engraved with a shield and a motto. My father did some research into the coat of arms on that box: A search for the arms of the Dana family

Further reading

• Obituary for Nancy Movius in The Boston Globe of 12 December 2003
• Hallam L. Movius from  Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
• Philip Jones, 'Mountford, Charles Pearcy (1890–1976)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mountford-charles-pearcy-11188/text19941, published first in hardcopy 2000, accessed online 2 May 2017.
• SA Memory: Charles P. Mountford, photographer and ethnographer
• Trove Help ›› Using Trove ›› Getting to know us ›› Trove is...

U is for Unibic biscuit tin

My great grandfather Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny (1882-1952) served as a doctor in World War 1.

In 1917 he was in charge of the 1st Australian General Hospital in Rouen which dealt with general battle casualties. On 9 July 1917 Her Majesty Queen Mary visited the hospital. She was photographed with my great grandfather inspecting an honour guard of nurses.

Rouen, France. 9 July 1917. Her Majesty Queen Mary visiting No. 1 Australian General Hospital (1AGH). HM is accompanied through a guard of honour of nurses of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) by the hospital's commanding officer, Colonel Trent Champion de Crespigny DSO. Temporary wards and tents are on both sides of the path and patients in hospital uniform look on. Australian War Memorial photograph id K00019

That photograph has been reproduced on a biscuit tin a hundred years later 'in honour of ANZAC Day and in remembrance of the nurses who served in the war.'

photograph taken in Woolworths supermarket, Ballarat April 2017

The tins are filled with Anzac biscuits. The biscuit company promises that from the sale of the tins, which 'celebrate the origin of Anzac biscuits, reminding us of the packages of love and care from home that helped buoy the Anzac Spirit in the trenches of Gallipoli', will go towards service organisations such as the Returned and Services League (RSL).

Dr de Crespigny on behalf of the hospital at Lemnos dealing with the sick and wounded from Gallipoli, received tins of biscuits from Australia. The biscuits were probably not the Anzac biscuits we know today.

WATTLE DAY LEAGUE WAR EXTENSION WORK. (1915, November 18). The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 - 1929), p. 6. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59989826

One of the earliest Anzac biscuit recipes was in a 1916 newspaper, winning 4th prize in a Western Australian recipe contest; 4th prize was an electroplated butter knife with an engraved handle.

Fourth Prize (1916, June 4). Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), p. 7 (Second Section). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58013699

This 1920 recipe from the Argus is much closer to the recipe I have made. I don't know about eating the biscuits with a spoon though.

KITCHEN AND PANTRY. (1920, September 15). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 7. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4583769

the bought biscuits, not bad, but I normally associate Anzac biscuits with being home-made

The Unibic factory is in Broadmeadows, a suburb of Melbourne. The biscuit factory is over 60 years old and employs 170 people. In 2012 Unibic got into financial difficulties. The factory was threatened with closure but was rescued by a consortium of investors. The production of Anzac biscuits and the support of the Returned and Services League helped the company survive. ("Anzac Biscuits Factory Looking Forward To A New Future | Australian Food News". Ausfoodnews.com.au. 2012. )



Related posts

• R is for No. 1 Australian General Hospital at Rouen
• No 3 AGH (Australian General Hospital) Lemnos Christmas Day
• Arthur Murray Cudmore World War I service
• F is for fundraising

T is for Talbot in 1869

In March 1852, my great great great grandfather Philip Champion Crespigny (1817-1889) with his wife Charlotte Frances née Dana and their two children, Ada and Philip, arrived in Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia.

Philip Crespigny, then 34, was moderately well-educated. He had attended Cambridge University, admitted on 7 November 1838 to Downing College as a Fellow-commoner. He had the status of a student who had matriculated, and he was not on a scholarship.

His period at Cambridge did not lead to a career in the Church, and it appears that at the time of his arrival in Victoria he had never previously had paid employment, nor had he been in business or trade.

Philip's arrival coincided with the great rush for gold in Victoria which followed the announcement of significant discoveries in July 1851. In March of that year, Victoria had a population of about 77,000. By the end of the following year, 1852, this figure had increased by 100,000.

The administration of Victoria's Lieutenant-governor, Captain Charles La Trobe, under-staffed and under-resourced, was barely able to cope with the huge population increase.

The management of the goldfields was specially difficult. LaTrobe copied the New South Wales system of gold-digging licenses, designed to discourage people from joining the rush to the diggings. It didn't work. Despite the enormous numbers of immigrants, Melbourne suffered from a serious labour shortage as men deserted their jobs to join the scramble for gold. Agricultural production fell. The harvest of wheat, for example, fell from 733,000 bushels in 1851 to 154,000 bushels in 1853. The area of land under cultivation shrank.

Philip Champion Crespigny (1817-1889)

Philip was appointed an Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Goldfields on 18 November 1852.

Victoria Government Gazette, Gazette 57, Wednesday, October 5th 1853, page 1459 retrieved from http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1853&class=general&page_num=1459

Philip Crespigny was first appointed as a magistrate in 1853. Victoria Government Gazette, Gazette 58, Wednesday, October 12th 1853, page 1532 retrieved from http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/view.cgi?year=1853&class=general&page_num=1532

In February 1859 Philip was appointed police magistrate at Amherst, near Talbot, central Victoria. In 1861 the population of Amherst and Talbot was about 2,200.

View of Talbot c 1854-1862. Elevated view over township, in foreground a sign on wall reading Talbot Drug Store, on left line of double storey shop fronts with porch over footpath: Metropolitan Hotel, the library, jeweller and the Theatre Royal. In the distance scattered huts and earth works. From the State Library of Victoria Image H2009.84/35.

There are many newspaper reports of Philip Crespigny's police-court cases in the newspapers. (They will be covered in separate blogposts.)
In 1869 Philip left Talbot to become magistrate and coroner at Bairnsdale. A farewell banquet for him was held in the Talbot Borough Hall.

THE NEWS OF THE DAY. (1869, February 4). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article177005710

In March 1869 Mr Dowling, the magistrate who had replaced Philip, was transferred to Geelong and Philip returned to Talbot from Bairnsdale, with Clunes and Creswick added to the area he administered.

In August 1869, Philip advertised his farm near Talbot for sale. This property, of 83 acres, was on the road between Talbot and Amherst. There was a house, stable, barn, and an orchard and garden.

Advertising (1869, August 5). The Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 - 1924), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112891274

Later in the month Warden Crespigny fell from his horse near Clunes. According to the newspaper report, he was lucky to escape serious injury.

In June 1870 Philip was transferred from Talbot to Bright.  When Philip took up the Bright post in north-east Victoria, the rest of his family moved to Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne, 330 kilometres away. Some people felt he had been badly treated. At the time of his transfer Philip Crespigny was 53.

THE NEWS OF THE DAY. (1870, July 28). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article189330876

In February 1871 a rumour was reported in the Bright newspaper that the local police magistrate, Mr P. C. Crespigny, was about to be removed. In March 1871 Mr Crespigny took leave and was relieved by Mr Willoughby. In April 1871 Mr Crespigny PM was hearing cases in Eaglehawk, Bendigo. In May it was announced that Mr P. C. Crespigny PM would succeed Mr Daly as police magistrate in the Ararat district. He remained at Ararat until he resigned from government service in 1877.

Map showing Talbot, Bairnsdale, Bright, Hawthorn (a suburb of Melbourne), Eaglehawk (near Bendigo), Clunes and Creswick (south-east of Talbot) and Ararat. (click image to enlarge)

Related posts

• Australian arrival of the Champion Crespigny family on the 'Cambodia' 31 March 1852
• Divorce of John James and Charlotte Frances née Dana

R is for Rosydyon Tower the seat of Sir W. de Crespigny Bt

Among a collection of images relating to the Champion de Crespigny family, I came across an image of a drawing of Rosydyon Tower, the seat of Sir W. de Crespigny Bt. The drawing is said to have been done by Mary Catherine Champion de Crespigny (1810-1858), the youngest of Sir William and Lady Sarah de Crespigny's ten children. Mary married John Brigstocke (1791-1858).

Sir William de Crespigny (1765-1829) was the second baronet, succeeding in 1818 to the baronetcy on the death of his father Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny (1734-1818).  In 1786 William  married the Right Honourable Lady Sarah Windsor (1763-1825), a daughter of the 4th Earl of Plymouth.

Sir William's entry in Burke's Peerage of 1830 mentions Rhosydyon Tower, Carmarthenshire in Wales, as one of Sir William's three country seats. His town residence was Champion Lodge at Camberwell.

Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, Volume 3, 1830, page 204

Rhosduon Tower is mentioned in Buildings of Wales,  referring to a plaque memorialising Lady Sarah de Crespigny:

Her husband built Rhosduon Tower in the parish c. 1820, a castellated toy fort, long demolished.

Rhosduon Tower was near the village of Pencarrag, in south-west Wales.

In 1825 Lady Sarah de Crespigny died at Rhosdyon Tower.

"FASHIONABLE ARRIVALS." Morning Post, 27 Sept. 1825. British Library Newspapers, tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/4bRUr9. Accessed 28 Mar. 2017.

Sir William de Crespigny died on 28 December 1829 in London.  The estate was advertised for sale a few months later.

"Multiple Classified ads." Morning Post, 22 May 1830, p. 4. British Library Newspapers, tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/4bRXy0.

Notes

I have spelt the name of the tower in the various ways it appears in each of the sources.

Kelmarsh Hall is in Northamptonshire. It is presently operated by a trust set up in 1982 by Valencia Lancaster (1898-1996),  Valencia was the grand daughter of the fourth baronet. Many Champion de Crespigny pictures and records are held at Kelmarsh Hall.  Some of the pictures can be viewed at https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/collection:kelmarsh-hall-713

Carmarthenshire and CeredigionVolume 6 of Buildings of Wales by Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach, Robert Scourfield published by Yale University Press, 2006.  page 363.

Q is for Queenscliff in 1882

In October 1877 my great great grandmother Annie Frances Chauncy (1857-1883) married Philip Champion de Crespigny (1850-1927). At the time of their marriage Philip was the manager of the Bank of Victoria branch at Epsom five miles north-east of Bendigo. Their first son Philip was born at there on 18 June 1879.

Annie Frances Crespigny nee Chauncy about 1877

In early 1882 Philip moved from Epsom to Queenscliff, a small town on the Bellarine Peninsula 30 kilometres south-east of Geelong. The Bank of Victoria was at 76 Hesse Street.

THE BENDIGO ADVERTISER (1882, February 3). Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article88622924

General view of Queenscliff from Adman's Tower (later known as the Vue Grand Hotel at 46-48 Hesse Street), about 1882 photographed by Fred Kruger from the National Gallery of Victoria

Hesse Street from Baillieu's Tower, Queenscliff. Baillieu's Tower was later called the Ozone Hotel and was on Gellibrand Street.. The Bank of Victoria can be seen towards the centre foreground. Image from the National Library of Australia PIC/8760/67 LOC Album 19/nla.obj-140532878.

On 5 March 1882 Philip and Annie's son Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny was born in Queenscliff in the Bank of Victoria where his father was manager.

We have some transcripts of family letters. One that survives from January 1883 is to his mother Charlotte Crespigny nee Dana about her visit to Queenscliff.

From: Philip Crespigny
To: Charlotte Frances Crespigny [his mother]
Queenscliff 21st Jany 1883
My dearest Mother
Only a few lines to tell you how eagerly we are all of us looking forward to your visit. I do hope you will start immediately after the mail is delivered. You had better come by the mid-day train reaching here at 2.45. I have enclosed Vi a ticket by the Williams which will defray half her expenses when she pays her visit and this will prevent your feeling the extra expense of taking a single ticket instead of a return which is only available now from Friday till Monday.
Your loving son
Lou

(Philip was called Lou or Loup, 'wolf' in French, by his family. Vi was his sister Viola (1855-1929).

One month after Philip wrote to his mother, at the young age of 25, Annie Frances died after a three week illness of what was diagnosed as pelvic cellulitis, a bacterial infection of tissue adjacent to the uterus. Pelvic cellulitis was often a complication of childbirth. Annie quite possibly died after a third pregnancy. She left two small children, Philip was 3 and Constantine Trent was 11 months.

Death certificate of Annie Frances Crespigny, Victoria 1883/2892 (click to enlarge)

Annie is buried in Point Lonsdale cemetery. Her sons are remembered on her gravestone. Philip (1879-1918) was killed in action near Jerusalem in World War 1. Constantine Trent (1882-1952) died in Adelaide and was cremated.

Gravestone in Point Lonsdale for Annie Frances Crespigny and her two sons from FindAGrave

The building which was formerly the Bank of Victoria at 76 Hesse Street is still standing. From Google street view it looks as though it is now a cafe. It is mentioned in the Queenscliff Heritage Study 2009.

Related posts

• Wedding Wednesday: Philip Champion de Crespigny married Annie Frances Chauncy 25 October 1877
• E is for entertainment in Epsom
• The Bank of Victoria in Collins Street

N is for the Labour candidate for Newark in 1945

On 13April 1945, the Grantham Journal of 13 April 1945 noted briefly that Air Vice-Marshall H. V. Champion de Crespigny had been selected as the Labour Candidate for the constituency of Newark in Nottinghamshire, England.

Air Vice Marshal Hugh Champion de Crespigny, Commander of the Royal Air Force in Iraq and Iran during World War 2, photographed about 1943, at his desk by Cecil Beaton. Photograph CBM 2192 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

On Saturday 16 June 1945, Harold Laski, chairman of the Labour Party addressed a meeting of about 1,500 people in the Newark Market Place. Afterwards he was asked why he seemed to be openly advocating violence. Laski's response was alleged to have included the comment that "If Labour did not obtain what it needed by general consent, we shall have to use violence even if it means revolution".

This was tantamount to calling for a violent left-wing revolution if Labour could not get its way by parliamentary democracy, and Laski's statement was immediately reported in the Beaverbrook conservative press. Laski sued for defamation. In November 1946, when the case was heard, a jury found against Laski. (Collini, Stefan (2006). Absent minds : intellectuals in Britain. Oxford University Press, Oxford ; New York. Pages 131-2)

Nottingham Evening Post Friday 22 June 1945 page 6. Image © Local World Limited. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

The 1945 General Election was held on 5 July. There was an 11.7% swing to Labour, which won. In the Division of Newark Hugh Champion de Crespigny received 42.35% of the vote, but this was not enough to defeat the sitting member, the Conservative Sidney Shephard. Shephard held the seat, with 18,580 votes, or 45.09%. Compared to previous election results for the Labour party in Newark, Hugh de Crespigny had managed to continue the swing to Labour despite the Laski affair.

During the war there had been an agreement that major parties would not contest by-elections in seats held by another party in the wartime Conservative-led coalition government, so when there was a by-election in 1943 in Newark no Labour candidate contested the seat. In the 1935 general election the sitting candidate, the Marquess of Titchfield, held the seat with 62% of the vote against the Labour candidate.

In the 1950 general election, with 54% of the vote, George Deer the Labour candidate for Newark, unseated the incumbent Sidney Shepherd.


See also

• Hugh Vivian Champion de Crespigny (1897 - 1969)

K is for Kherson, death place of John Howard prison reformer

Yesterday I wrote about Shrewsbury Prison, known as The Dana. Above the main entrance to the prison is a  bust of the prison reformer John Howard (1726 - 1790) , and the street leading up to it from the main road is named after him.

John Howard, prison reformer, above main entrance of Shrewsbury prison. Photograph from Wikimedia Commons taken by R J Higginson 2009.

In January 1790 John Howard died of typhus at Kherson in present day Ukraine. He is said to have contracted the disease on one of his prison visits.

Howard was buried in the Ukraine. Though he had requested a quiet burial, without pomp and ceremony, he was evidently judged an important person, and the Prince of Moldovia himself was in attendance at what in fact turned out to be a rather elaborate funeral.


When news of Howard's death reached England a month later, a series of commemorative John Howard tokens was struck, including one reading "Go forth" and "Remember the Debtors in Gaol".

Howard became the first civilian to be honoured with a statue in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Statues  were also erected in his honour at Kherson and at Bedford and other English prisons.

Memorial for John Howard. John Bacon the Younger (1777-1859). 1795. St. Paul's Cathedral, City of London. Located near entrance to crypt. Image from http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/funerary/howard1.html, photograph taken by George P. Landow.

In 1786, four years before his death, a monument to Howard had been proposed. A subscription list was got up and a poem lauding his achievements was published.

Pratt, Samuel Jackson. The triumph of benevolence; occasioned by the national design of erecting a monument to John Howard, Esq. Printed by J. Nichols, Red Lion Passage, Fleet Street; sold by Messrs. J. Dodsley, J. Robson, T. Cadell, P. Elmsly, and C. Dilly; by Mr. Prince at Oxford; and Mr. Merrill at Cambridge, MDCCLXXXVI. [1786]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale Document Number: GALE|CW0112448476

Subscribers who gave £2 2s, that is 2 guineas, included Charles Chauncey Esq., Claude Champion Crespigny, Philip Champion Crespigny, and Charles Snell-Chauncy. Mrs Champion Crespigny is listed as having given £1 1s. I am not sure who Charles Chauncey was, but Charles Snell-Chauncy (1759-1809) was my 6th great uncle. Claude Champion Crespigny is probably another of my 6th great uncles (1734-1818). Mrs Champion Crespigny in this case is probably Claude's wife Mary nee Clarke (1747-1812). Philip Champion Crespigny is my 5th great grandfather (1738-1803), the brother of Claude. Mrs Champion Crespigny was possibly his wife Dorothy nee Scott (1765-1837).

I found it interesting to discover relatives from two different branches of my family tree supporting prison reform.

Further reading

• Howard, John (1726?-1790) Dictionary of National Biography in Wikisource

I is for Ipswich: Hintlesham Hall and the Crespigny family

From about 1783 to 1790 Philip Crespigny (1738-1803) , my fifth great grandfather lived at Hintlesham Hall near Ipswich, Suffolk.

Hintlesham Hall in 2007. Photograph by Bob Jones retrieved from geograph.org.uk

The Hall is now a hotel. The following is extracted from a brief history of the building given on the hotel's website.

Hintlesham Hall started as a small moated manor house, it was rebuilt and extended. Major construction which gave the Hall the looks it has today were a rebuilding from 1724, by the then owner, Richard Powys (1707-1743), with money he had made from the South Sea Bubble.

He raised the ceiling in Salon and Parlour cutting off access between the North and South wings so built on the Orangery and Long Gallery. He covered the original Elizabethan red brick frontage with the Georgian façade but left the original walls clear at the rear of the Hall. He moved the 1686 oak staircase to the end of the orangery and put in vertical sash windows throughout. He built the Stable block (now [a] Courtyard accommodation wing) and constructed the arch with cobbled driveway for a carriage and four to enter. Richard Powys died in 1743 nearly £4k in debt.

In 1747 Powys’ widow sold to Richard Lloyd (1696-1761), a successful political lawyer who became Solicitor General. It was while the Lloyd family owned the Hall that Philip Crespigny leased it.

Three of Philip's children were born at the Hall:

• George in 1783
• Eliza in 1784
• Charles in 1785

In 1785, Philip's daughter Jane died at the Hall aged 19.

Philip Crespigny's parliamentary career was linked to the area around Ipswich.

from Google maps showing Hintlesham Hall, Ipswich, Sudbury and Aldeburgh (click to enlarge)

Philip's mother, Ann, was the daughter of Claude Fonnereau, a wealthy merchant. In 1734 Claude Fonnereau had bought  Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich.

Ann's brother, and thus Philip's uncle, Thomas Fonnereau (1699 - 1779) was returned for Sudbury in 1741 and sat for that constituency until 1768. Several of those years were in conjunction with Thomas Walpole who was a business connection. Thomas later sat for Aldeburgh from 1773 until his death in 1779.

In 1774 Crespigny was returned on the Fonnereau interest at Sudbury after a contest, but lost his seat on petition.

In 1780 Philip was returned unopposed at Aldeburgh on the Fonnereau interest, and at Sudbury after a contest. He held both seats until 1781 when he lost Sudbury on petition. He continued to sit for Aldeburgh until 1790.



My parents visited Hintlesham Hall in 2004.

My mother at the front of Hintlesham Hall

rabbits on the lawn from my parents' window in the east wing

Sources

• Drummond, Mary M. "CRESPIGNY, Philip Champion (d.1803), of Burwood, Nr. Cobham, Surr." The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790, 1964. Member Biographies from The History of Parliament Online. <http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/crespigny-philip-champion-1803>.
• Namier, Sir Lewis. "FONNEREAU, Thomas (1699-1779), of Ipswich, Suff." The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790, 1964. <http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/fonnereau-thomas-1699-1779>.) 
• Wikipedia: Thomas Fonnereau
• Hintlesham Hall website
• For an explanation of Parliamentary interest see The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790: The Constituencies

Related posts

• Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 - 1803)

G is for Gretna Green

Eliza Champion Crespigny (1784-1831), my 5th great aunt, was the 11th of 14 children of my 5th great grandfather Philip Champion Crespigny (1738-1803), second of four children by his fourth wife Dorothy Scott (1765-1837). Eliza was born on 29 July 1784 at Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk, ten miles from Ipswich in the east of England. Three of her half-siblings had died before she was born. At the time of her birth, her father was a member of Parliament for the seat of Aldeburgh.

Eliza's father died on 1 January 1803 and his wife married Sir John Keane on 27 March 1804. 1804 seems to have been a year of changes for the de Crespigny family.

• On May 19 1804, at the age of twenty-one, by purchase George became an ensign, a regiment's lowest-ranking officer, in the 13th Regiment of Foot.
• On 17 July 1804, at the age of twenty-eight, Maria married John Horsley Esquire, a Captain of Royal Horse Guards at St George's, Canterbury.
• Eliza, aged twenty, eloped with Richard Hussey Vivian (1775-1842) and they married at Gretna Green on 14 September 1804.

record of marriage of Richard Hussey Vivian to Eliza Champion Crespigny from the Gretna Green marriage register retrieved through ancestry.com. Original data: “The Lang Collection of Gretna Green Marriages Records.”

Eliza and Richard had five children

• Charles Crespigny Vivian 1808–1886 
• Charlotte Elizabeth Vivian 1815–1877 
• John Cranch Walker Vivian 1818–1879 
• Jane Frances Anne Vivian 1824–1860 
• Georgina Agnes Augusta Vivian 1828–1835

Richard Hussey Vivian, 1st Baron Vivian, by William Salter (died 1875). Portrait in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Richard, later Sir Hussey Vivian, joined the army in 1793 and had a successful career. He served in Flanders and the Netherlands. In 1800 he was promoted to Major and served in the Peninsular War. On 20 September 1804, one week after his Gretna Green marriage, Richard was promoted lieutenant-colonel in the 25th light dragoons, but he never never joined the regiment, and on 1 December exchanged back into the 7th light dragoons. He was an aide-de-campe to the Prince Regent and was promoted to Major General in 1814. In 1815 he was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

Vivian served at Waterloo; the account in Wikipedia summarises his achievements in that battle:

After the enemy were repulsed, Vivian's hussars made the final charge of the day between Hougomont and La Haye Sainte, sweeping the Middle Guard and Line units before them before breaking upon the squares of the Old Guard, which they soon learned to avoid. This service was rewarded by the thanks of both houses of Parliament, an award of the KCH (Royal Guelphic Order from the House of Hannover), and the Orders of Maria Theresa and St. Vladimir from the emperors of Austria and Russia.

After the war, Vivian entered politics and sat in Parliament from 1821 to 1831. The History of Parliament states that Vivian described his wife as:

‘violent, jealous and touchy, but she has a good heart at bottom and is open and honourable to an extreme’.

The History of Parliament also quotes a description of Lady Vivian and her husband by Mrs Arbuthnot, whose stepson later married Charlotte, the Vivian's oldest daughter. Mrs Arbutnot described the couple:

a very pretty woman, a great coquette ... [who] practises her art with great success on my eldest brother ... I don’t like her at all, for she is the most complete Mrs. Candour I have ever met with, and an amazing gossip. He is a good-natured, rough hussar.

In June 1830 Eliza became ill and Vivian left his parliamentary business, despite at that time Parliament considering a proposed legislative restriction on smoke emissions from factories; the legislation posed a threat to the Hafod copper works, a Vivian family business. At the time Vivian also wished to sell his house, Beechwood House, near Lyndhurst in Hampshire as it was considered too damp for his wife's good.

Vivian was offered an appointment to command the forces in Ireland and to leave Parliament. However, he initially turned down the Irish appointment on account of his wife's health. He wrote to his brother:

‘in poor Eliza’s dreadful state I can think of but one thing’. The following day, contemplating her inevitable early death, which would leave him with ‘three motherless girls’, he confided to [his brother] John Henry:
I sometimes think I shall give up Ireland altogether and go abroad with my whole family for two or three years. In short, I know not what to think or determine on. It is a grievous affliction to look forward to, but it must come ere long.

He left Parliament and withdrew from politics on account of the desperate condition of his wife, who died five months later aged 47.

Following her death, Vivian took on the Irish command of the forces and remarried in 1833. Vivian died in 1842.

Sources

• Dictionary of National Biography: Vivian, Richard Hussey from Wikisource 
• Wikipedia: Hussey Vivian, 1st Baron Vivian
• History of Parliament Online: VIVIAN, Sir Richard Hussey (1775-1842), of Beechwood House, nr. Lyndhurst, Hants.

Related posts

• Eliza's father: Philip Champion Crespigny (1738-1803) 
• Eliza's brother's and sister's: 
• Philip (1765-1851) was a civilian prisoner of the French from 1803 to 1811. 
• Maria (1776-1858) married John Horsley, a captain in the Royal Horse Guards, in July 1804. 
• Fanny (1779-1865) remained unmarried. 
• George (1788-1813) served in the Durham Light Infantry and was killed in Spain

B is for Borneo

My third cousin four times removed, Claude Augustus Champion de Crespigny (1829-1884), was the fourth of five sons of the Reverend Heaton Champion de Crespigny and his wife Caroline.

Claude went to school at Christ's Hospital, London, known as the Bluecoat School. He was recorded there on the 1841 census.

Claude joined the Royal Navy, probably at about the age of 15 in 1844. He served as a midshipman on HMS Daedalus which was based in the Pacific Station from 1845 and in 1848 the Daedalus was involved in a survey of Borneo.

On 12 March 1851 Claude was promoted to Mate, and 11 January 1854 was promoted to Lieutenant. That year, during the Crimean War, he was recorded as commanding the Snap, a screw-driven wooden gunboat of 232 tons and three guns.

In 1856 Claude was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

In November 1856 Lieutenant C.A.C. de Crespigny R.N., F.R.G.S. submitted a proposal to the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain for a more thorough exploration of Borneo, Claude arguing that he should command since he had been involved in a survey of the north-west coast in 1848 and had that time learned the Malay language and had become acquainted with the native people and their customs.

retrieved from Volume 1 of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain) digitised by Google Books

The Society was later advised that the Admiralty had given permission and resources for Lieutenant de Crespigny to make the expedition.

Proceedings page 209

In 1858 Claude reported to the Royal Geographical Society on his 1857 expedition.

Claude continued his connection with Borneo. A History of Sarawak under Its Two White Rajahs 1839-1908 by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould and C. A. Bampfylde states the late Mr C.A.C. de Crespigny was formerly of the Royal Navy, and summarises his career in the Colonial service in Borneo and Malaysia as being firstly with the Labuan Civil Service, and from 1871 with the Sarawak Civil Service. In Sarawak, Claude was Resident at Mukah, and subsequently Divisional Resident of the 3rd Division.

In 1865 Henry Adams, a zoologist and conchologist described a new genus of Land-Shells from the Island of Labuan, Borneo. He named them Plectostoma decrespignii. The present day scientific name is Opisthostoma decrespignyi and the common name is De Crespigny’s karst snail. The species is critically endangered, possibly extinct, with the last recorded sighting being before the 1960s.

Description of a new genus of Land-Shells from the Island of Labuan, Borneo by Henry Adams 1865 retrieved from https://archive.org/stream/biostor-91194#page/n0/mode/1up

Preserved specimen of Opisthostoma_decrespignyi from Wikimedia Commons

retrieved from http://opisthostoma.myspecies.info/taxonomy/term/547/media

Claude spoke several times to London societies about Borneo. In 1872, for example, Lieutenant de Crespigny gave a lecture at the Victoria Institute on his "Journey to the Murut Country in Northern Borneo". In February 1875 Claude spoke at the Anthropological Institute about the "Milan's of Borneo".

On 31 July 1882, while Resident of Baram, Claude referred to oil in his diary. A Malaysian blogger writes about Claude's observations:

... Mr. C.C. (Claude Champion) de Crespigny, then the Resident of Baram, who was the first to record the presence of oil in Sarawak. The entry in his diary, dated 31st July 1882, refers to oil discovered in some 18 wells dug by hand by the local inhabitants. 'Earth Oil' (Minyak Tanah) was their name for it. Ever since this strange substance appeared in seepages, its possibilities had begun to be realised. They used the oil mixed with resin for chaulking boats. They also tried to use it for lighting, employing an open wick, but it invariably caught fire, usually with disastrous results to their homes. 'Earth Oil' soon earned a reputation of being possessed by a 'hantu' (ghost/spirit) with an inconvenient and insatiable desire to burn down houses.

Claude's role as resident is mentioned in  The Pagan Tribes of Borneo by Charles Hose and William McDougall 

In 1883 a fort was built at Marudi (now officially known as Claudetown), a spot on the river-bank some sixty miles from the sea, the first spot at which in ascending the river a high bank suitable for a settlement is encountered. Here Mr. Claude de Crespigny, assisted by two junior officers, a squad of some thirty rangers, and a few native police, began the task of introducing law and order into these 10,000 square miles of dense jungles, rushing rivers, and high mountains, the scene for unknown ages of the hard perpetual struggle of savage man with nature, and of the fierce conflict of man with man. At first the interior tribes remained aloof, and the little outpost of civilisation was frequently threatened by them with extermination. But after some few years the Kayans of the lower villages became reconciled to the new state of affairs, recognised the authority of the Rajah and of the Resident, and consented to pay the small annual door-tax amounting to two dollars per family or door.

Claude never married. He died 28 December 1884. The will of Claude Champion de Crespigny formerly of Sarawak but late of Crowcombe Villa, an officer in the Service of Rajah Brooke, was proved by his brother Eyre Nicholas Champion de Crespigny.

In 1883 the fort built at Marudi, Sarawak, was named Claudetown in Claude de Crespigny's honour.

The Fort at Claudetown, image from The Pagan Tribes of Borneo vol 2 facing page 264

References

• Schilthuizen, M. & Vermeulen, J. 2004.  Opisthostoma decrespignyi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2004: e.T44628A10930095. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2004.RLTS.T44628A10930095.en. Downloaded on 30 March 2017.

Related posts

• I is for interested in India concerning Claude's brother Eyre de Crespigny.