X is for destruction of a piratical fleet near Xiānggǎng (Hong Kong)

My fourth great uncle Karl Heinrich August Mainwaring  was the tenth of the seventeen children of Rowland Mainwaring (1783-1862), eldest of the eight children of Rowland's third wife Laura Maria Julia Walburga Chevillard (1811-1891).

Karl Mainwaring was born 4 September 1837 at Mannheim in Germany. He died 21 August 1906 at Saint Helier, Jersey.

On 19 September 1856 Karl Mainwaring appointed as lieutenant in the Royal Navy.  From 1874 to 1893 Karl Mainwaring was harbour master in Kingston, Jamaica. He retired from the navy with the rank of captain.

In 1866 Lieutenant K.H.A Mainwaring was stationed in Hong Kong with the China Squadron on  HMS Princess Charlotte.   

Xiānggǎng is the modern transcription of 香港 , Hong Kong, 'fragrant harbour'.

HMS Princess Charlotte painted 1838 by James Kennett Willson from Wikimedia Commons

HMS Princess Charlotte was a 104-gun first-rate ship launched in 1825. Once the the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, from 1858 until she was sold in 1875 the Princess Charlotte was used as a receiving ship, a harbour-bound hulk used for stores and accommodation in lieu of a permanent shore base.

Kellett’s Island, looking west across Wanchai towards Central and the Peak, with HMS Princess Charlotte on the right (1869 - 71). Retrieved from Cheung, Tim. "Maritime Museum to Show Historical Pictures of HK." Artinfo. BlouinArtinfo Corp., 15 Jan. 2014. W <http://hk.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/983316/maritime-museum-to-show-historical-pictures-of-hk>.

Hong Kong Harbour about 1868 from The China Magazine Midsummer Volume 1868, page 88,  digitised by Google books.  The view possibly shows Signal Hill.

In July 1866 Lieutenant Mainwaring was given charge of HMS Opossum.

In 1865 HMS Opossum had been engaged in attacks on Chinese pirates in co-operation with the fleet of the Manchu Qing government. The attacks were reported in The Illustrated London News of 23 October 1865.

'Expedition against the Chinese Pirates' from The Illustrated London News of 23 October 1865 page 409 with illustration: Fleet of Chinese junks, with HMS Opossum, preparing to attack pirates at How-Chow. Retrieved from thegenealogist.co.uk

On 18 July 1866 HMS Opossum, commanded by Lieutenant Mainwaring, together with HMS Osprey attacked pirate vessels in Sama Bay, now known as Sanya Bay on Hainan Island, 250 miles south-west of Hong Kong. The British destroyed 22 Junks and 270 cannon and killed about 100 men.

HMS Opossum was a wooden screw gunboat of the Albacore class which carried about 38 crew and four guns. (In the 1866 Navy List, the Opossum is listed as a tender to the Princess Charlotte and Mainwaring is in charge of the Haughty, also an Albacore class wood screw gunboat.) HMS Osprey was a Vigilant class gunboat with about 80 crew and four guns.

H.M.S. Osprey and H.M.S Opossum destroying Chinese pirate junks in Sama Bay from The Illustrated London News of 29 September 1866, page 313, retrieved from the genealogist.co.uk

The attack on the pirates was reported in The Illustrated London News of 22 September 1866 and followed up with an illustration the following week.

"Piracy in the Chinese Seas" from The Illustrated London News 22 September 1866 page  291 retrieved from the genealogist.co.uk (click on image to enlarge)

The 1866 engagement with the pirates was widely reported. The following account is from the Melbourne Leader.

DESTRUCTION OF A PIRATICAL FLEET BY H. M. SHIPS OPOSSUM AND OSPREY. (1866, September 29). Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918), p. 17. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article196560667

Related posts

• D is for Dartmouth: Guy Mainwaring and the beagle pack concerning Karl's younger brother Guy
• In 1869 Karl's brother, Guy Mainwaring, visited Hong Kong when he served aboard the Galatea: Trove Tuesday: Cricket and the Duke of Edinburgh's visit in 1867

Further reading

• HMS Osprey and HMS Opossum destroying Chinese Pirate Junks in Sama Bay. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 29 September 1866 [graphic]. Research | CSSC Maritime Heritage Resource Centre | Search Result :: Hong Kong Maritime Museum. Retrieved 26 Apr. 2017 from http://www.hkmaritimemuseum.org/eng/research/cssc-maritime-heritage-resource-centre/search-result/30/50/1956/hms-osprey-and-hms-opossum-destroying-chinese-pirate-junks-in-sama-bay-illustration-for-the-illustrated-london-news-29-september-1866-graphic.html

D is for Dartmouth: Guy Mainwaring and the beagle pack

Guy Mainwaring (1847-1909),  my 4th great uncle, was the 15th of the 17 children of Rowland Mainwaring (1783-1862), sixth of the eight children of Rowland's third wife Laura Maria Julia Walburga Chevillard (1811-1891).

Mainwaring joined the navy on 11 September 1860 at the age of 13. On the 1861 census he is recorded as a naval cadet  on the training ship HMS Brittania in Portsmouth Harbour in the south of England.

In 1878 Mainwaring, by then a Lieutenant, was serving in the the cadet training ship HMS Britannia at Dartmouth, Devon. (A different ship of the same name,  the renamed HMS Prince of Wales built in 1860.)

A picture of Lieutenant Mainwaring (standing towards the stern) with cadets from HMS Britannia, including the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of York, from The Story of the "Britannia", by E. P. Statham, 1903. Project Gutenberg has this book.

also from The Story of "Brittannia"

One of the lieutenants wrote:

'There did not seem much for the three Lieutenants to do. We took alternate day duty, and on those heard and dealt with minor offences. We attended at meals, looked round the seamanship classes, saw to the boys going and returning from recreation, received any applications and went rounds.'

In his book on the Britannia pack, Sir James Eberle suggests Guy Mainwaring may have been a little bored and just wanted to have a little local sport and founded a hunting pack. Jim was a terrier belonging to Mr Evans, the First Lieutenant of HMS Britannia. Jim with his son Jimson and about six other dogs formed the first pack with Lieutenant Mainwaring as master. They would hunt anything that could be found including a drag which was a rabbits skin soaked in herring oil. Other dogs in the pack may have been named Flirt, Rummager, Magpie, Bird, Beauty, Countess and Rattler. In 1879 Lucy, the first hound was purchased from a Mr Cartlich of Staffordshire. In 1880 Homeless, a beagle, was acquired from the Battersea lost dogs home.

In 1881 Lieutenant Mainwaring left HMS Britannia. He was succeeded as master of the pack by Lieutenant Furlonger.

Jim, the founding member of the pack, died in 1886. His grave is in the grounds of the Royal Naval College.

from The Story of the "Britannia", by E. P. Statham, 1903 which can be viewed on Project Gutenberg

The pack still seems to be going strong with a puppy from the pack being named Regent by the Princess Royal in 2013.


In 2016 Bonhams Auction House sold a chest containing papers and photographs of Guy Mainwaring. The contents included a silver hunting horn presented to Mainwaring by the whips of the Britannia Beagle pack.

Sources

• Eberle, James. Jim, First of the Pack: A History of the Britannia Beagles during One Hundred Years of Hare Hunting in South Devon, 1878-1978. London: J.A. Allen, 1982.
• The Story of the "Britannia", by E. P. Statham, 1903 retrieved from Project Gutenberg
  
  
  

Related posts

I have previously written about Guy Mainwaring when he served aboard the Galatea in 1867: Trove Tuesday: Cricket and the Duke of Edinburgh's visit in 1867

Z is for zealous in New Zealand

Frederic Mainwaring (1844-1922), 13th of the 16 children of Rowland Mainwaring (1783-1862), was my fourth great uncle. His mother, Laura Maria Julia Walburga Mainwaring née Chevillard (1811-1891), was  Rowland Mainwaring's third wife.

Frederick was born on 5 October 1844 in Frankfurt, Germany. He was educated at Rugby school, Warwickshire entering the school in 1859. The headmaster at the time was Frederick Temple.

Frederic Mainwaring's father died in 1862. Frederic emigrated to New Zealand in 1864 with his brothers Eugene (1841-1911) and Randolph (1839-1902). For the first few years the three brothers were pastoralists on the Manipouri Station, south-west Otago, in the south of New Zealand. This was unprofitable. Randolph became a journalist. Eugene, who had trained as an engineer, joined the New Zealand Public Works Department. When Ashburton County Council was formed in 1878, Frederic joined as a clerk. (Ashburton is 50 miles south-west of Christchurch.)

Frederic was an excellent employee. He served the council for 44 years without a day's leave until early May 1922 when he was granted twelve months sick leave. He died only a fortnight later.

Ashburton County Clerk, New Zealand Press, 6 May 1922 page 9 retrieved from PapersPast

Obituary New Zealand Press 19 May 1922 page 10 retrieved from PapersPast

Ashburton Council was authorised by legislation (section 56 of Reserves and other Lands Disposal and Public Bodies Empowering Act 1922Public Act 1922 No 50 Date of assent 31 October 1922) to

pay to Adelaide Mainwaring, widow of the late Frederic Mainwaring, formerly Clerk of the said County Council, a sum not exceeding one hundred and fifty pounds by way of compassionate allowance.

Frederic had married Adelaide Sarah Blundell (1856-1945) in 1874. They had two daughters, one of whom died in infancy.

Trove Tuesday: Obituary for Admiral Mainwaring

Rowland Mainwaring (1783 - 1862) was my fourth great grandfather.  In 1840 his son Gordon (1817 - 1872) was sent from England to live in Australia.

Rowland Mainwaring in 1861 from The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford. An account of the family, and its connections by marriage and descent; with special reference to the Manor of Whitmore. J.G. Cavenagh-Mainwaring, about 1935.

 
Gordon was the third son, not expected to inherit the estate. Gordon Mainwaring had a problem with alcohol. He drank too much, and after a time in the army in India arrived in South Australia in January 1840, banished there by his family, who paid for him to stay away. He is known in the family as the remittance man. This term meant an emigrant, often sent to a British colony, supported or assisted by payments of money from his family.

The South Australian Register of 17 June 1862 reproduced a lengthy obituary of Gordon's father, Admiral Rowland Mainwaring,  first published in the Illustrated London News on 26 April 1862.  Gordon's older brothers had died and Gordon, to everyone's surprise, perhaps including his own, was now the heir to the Whitmore estate.

THE LATE ADMIRAL MAINWARING. (1862, June 17). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50172924

The original article from the Illustrated London News is slightly easier to read:

"Obituary of Eminent Persons." Illustrated London News [London, England] 26 Apr. 1862: 425. The Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003. Retrieved through Gale News Vault via the National Library of Australia

Related post

• Family stories

1892 journey on the Ballaarat

Portrait of Wentworth Cavenagh, Commissioner of Public Works of South Australia from 4 March 1872 to 22 July 1873 from the State Library of South Australia

Browsing the National Library of Australia's 'Trove' digitised newspaper collection recently, I came across a shipping departure notice which gives a succinct family history of my Cavenagh and Mainwaring great great and great great great grandparents. The Cavenagh-Mainwaring family were about to sail for England on the Ballaarat.

The Ballaarat was a P & O ship of 4752 tons built in 1882, designed for service between the United Kingdom and Australia. The P&O history site remarks that "Her dining saloon was considered particularly fine, and patent iron beds replaced bunks for her first class passengers."

Ballaarat – 1882 Greenock retrieved from http://www.findboatpics.com.au/sppo2.html

Latest News. (1892, April 27). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 - 1912), p. 2 Edition: SECOND EDITION. Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204477375

Lots of information to follow up and facts to check.

Until I came across this information I did not know that James Gordon Cavenagh, my great great great grandfather, an army surgeon with the Royal Staff Corps, was at Waterloo. He is listed on page 20 in the list of officers as a surgeon in the Royal Staff Corps in John Booth's 1816 book of The Battle of Waterloo. He is also listed in The Bloody Fields of Waterloo: Medical Support at Wellington's Greatest Battle by Michael Crumplin published in 2013.

I also didn't know very much about his son, my great great grandfather, Wentworth Cavenagh. It appears that he was educated at Ferns Diocesan School in Wexford, Ireland. When he was 18 years old he went to Canada, Ceylon, and Calcutta and from there to the Bendigo diggings.

Trove Tuesday: Cricket and the Duke of Edinburgh's visit in 1867

Duke of Edinburgh about 1867

In 1858 Alfred (1844-1900), the second son of Queen Victoria, joined the navy as a midshipman. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1863 and three years later, in 1866, gained the rank of captain, appointed to command the steam frigate HMS Galatea. In the same year Alfred was made Duke of Edinburgh in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

The Galatea sailed for the Mediterranean in February 1867 and then to Brazil on June 12 for a state visit to the emperor of Brazil. After two months at the Cape, the Galatea arrived at Adelaide on 31 October 1867 and commenced a royal tour of Australia. The Galatea visited Melbourne, Tasmania, Sydney and Brisbane.

On the Galatea were two of my relatives from two different branches of my family tree: Sub-lieutenant Guy Mainwaring (1847-1909) and Midshipman Philip Augustus Champion de Crespigny (1850-1912). When the ship arrived in Adelaide, she had 540 men aboard: 42 officers of all ranks, 46 boys, 70 marines and 382 blue jackets.¹

The Royal navy frigate HMS Galatea sits moored in Farm Cove 1868. Picture: Daniel Solander Library at the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. retrieved from http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au

The Galatea fielded a cricket team and Philip de Crespigny played with them in Adelaide on 8 November 1867 against the members of the South Australian Cricket Club. The South Australians won the game but the commentary favourably noted de Crespigny's bowling and batting.²

In March 1869 the men of the Galatea, including Philip de Crespigny, played against a team of Aboriginal cricketers. The game was over two days and was a draw with the Aboriginal team scoring 331 for 9 wickets against 293 with the loss of five wickets.³

Three masted sailing ship H.M.S. Galatea, ca. 1868 from the Archer Family Photograph Album now in the collection of the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/39932

Mainwaring did not play cricket but did perform in the Galatea's theatrical entertainment. For example when the Galatea was due to depart Sydney in March 1869, Lieutenant Mainwaring appeared as Gimlet in a comedy performed for several hundred guests. The Sydney Morning Herald reported it as a "highly creditable performance".⁴ He also appeared as the Ancient Mariner.⁵

A fellow officer, Lord Charles Beresford, danced the hornpipe. Later in the voyage while in Hong Kong, Guy Mainwaring and Charles Beresford were photographed together in costume. (This is the Charles Beresford who as Admiral became notorious for his bitter dispute with Sir John (Jackie) Fisher, First Sea Lord. )

Lord Charles Beresford and Guy Mainwaring, photographed in Hong Kong in 1869 while serving on HMS Galatea retrieved from the Library of Nineteenth Century Photography . Looking at other photographs of Beresford, it would seem that the bearded man is Guy Mainwaring.

Guy Mainwaring was my third great grand uncle. Philip Augustus Champion de Crespigny was my fourth cousin three times removed.

Guy Mainwaring retired from the Royal Navy with the rank of captain in 1895.

Philip was promoted to Lieutenant on 8 August 1874. As late as 1903 he appeared in the Navy List still with the rank of lieutenant but on part pay. He played first class cricket in England and his obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack mentioned that he played played for Hampshire v. Somerset at Bournemouth in 1880, scoring 2 and 3. It also mentions that he was on the Galatea.

The Royal visit was extensively reported. There are over 6,000 newspaper articles currently on the National Library of Australia's digitised newspaper collection at http://trove.nla.gov.au which mention the visit of the Galatea and the Duke of Edinburgh in the late 1860s.

..........

Notes
<sup>1. H.M.S.S. GALATEA. (1867, October 31). South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), p. 2. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39180042 ↩
2. DUKE OF EDINBURGH'S VISIT TO ADELAIDE.—The Cricket match. (1867, November 26). Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers (Melbourne, Vic. : 1867 - 1875), p. 10. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60819944 ↩
3. CRICKET. (1869, March 4). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 5. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5817582 ↩
4. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH IN SYDNEY. (1869, April 21). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 5. Retrieved July 13, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13179267 ↩
5. THE GALATEA FETE. (1869, April 15). Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1853 - 1872), p. 3. Retrieved July 14, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63514477 ↩</sup>

My grandmother's cousins

My grandmother, Kathleen Cudmore (1908-2013), had many cousins. Her sister Rosemary claimed they had ninety.

Their father, Arthur Murray Cudmore, was one of thirteen children and their mother, Kathleen Mary Cavenagh-Mainwaring, was one of ten.

Two of the bridesmaids at my grandmother's 1933 wedding, Mary and Dymphna Toll, were her cousins. SOCIAL NOTES. (1933, June 12). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), p. 5. Retrieved May 12, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46980229

The children of James Francis Cudmore (1837-1912) and Margaret née Budge (1845-1912):

• James Kenneth Cudmore (1867-1948) had four children
• Margaret Jane Cudmore (1869-died young)
• (Arthur Murray Cudmore, Kathleen's father, had two children)
• Violet Mary Cudmore (1872-1947) had three children
• Kenneth de Lacy Cudmore (1874-1940) had two sons
• Dorothea Nevill Cudmore (1876-1925) had one son
• Thomas Cecil Cudmore (1877-1926) had no children
• Rosa Florence Cudmore (1879-1954) had five children
• Daniel Cashel Cudmore (1881-1966) had one child
• Alexandrina Budge Cudmore (1882-1953) had three children
• Mary Jane Cudmore (1883-1884) died as an infant
• Mary Paringa Cudmore (1887-1952) had two children
• Robert Milo Cudmore (1889-1969) had four children

There were 25 Cudmore cousins for the two daughters of Arthur Murray Cudmore.

The children of Wentworth Cavenagh (1822-1895) and Ellen Jane née Mainwaring (1845-1920):

• James Gordon Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1865 – 1938) had four children
• Eva Mainwaring Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1867 – 1941) had two children
• Mabel Alice Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1868 – 1944) had two children
• Wentworth Rowland Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1869 – 1933) died without issue
• Orfeur Charles Cavenagh (1872 – 1890) died without issue
• (Kathleen Mary Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1874 – 1951), Kathleen's mother, had two children)
• Hugh Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1875 – 1953) had three children
• Helen Maud Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1877 – 1918) had three children
• Alice Mainwaring Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1879 – 1952) had two children
• Gertrude Lucy Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1882 – 1968 ) had one child

There were seventeen Cavenagh-Mainwaring cousins for the two daughters of Kathleen Mary Cavenagh-Mainwaring.

In total my grandmother Kathleen had 42 first cousins.

Some of my grandmother's first cousins once removed. Members of the Cudmore family who owned "Adare" at Victor Harbor. Back Row, l-r: Roland, Henry, Mary (Minnie), Paul. Front Row, l-r: Collier, Martha, Daniel H;, Danny (on footstool), Milo DATE ca.1900 From the State Library of South Australia image B 48077. Daniel Henry Cashel Cudmore (1844-1913) was the brother of my grandmother's grandfather.

As their grandparents were all from large families, Kathleen and her sister Rosemary had many second cousins. Their great grandparents on the Cudmore side had 52 grandchildren, including the 13 children of James Francis Cudmore. 39 of those grandchildren were the first cousins of Kathleen's father Arthur Murray Cudmore and thus my grandmother's first cousins once removed. The children of the 39 cousins were Kathleen's second cousins.

On the Budge side, Kathleen's grandmother, Margaret Budge, had two brothers and two sisters but only one of the brothers and one of the sisters had children and there were only five grandchildren other than the thirteen Cudmore grandchildren.

Kathleen's grandfather Wentworth Cavenagh had six brothers and sisters. Only one brother had two sons who survived. 

On the Mainwaring side, although Kathleen's great grandparents had seven children, only one, Kathleen's grandmother Ellen Jane Mainwaring had children. Thus Kathleen had no second cousins from this side of the family.

In total my grandmother Kathleen had 46 first cousins once removed. This calculation does not include the younger generation, the children of her first cousins.

My own cousins

I have only two first cousins, the daughters of my mother's sister. My father was an only child and my mother had one sister. These cousins do not have children so there are no first cousins once removed downwards.

My mother had no first cousins. Her father was an only child and her mother's sister had no children. She is, however, close to a cousin of my grandmother's, and also to her children, my mother's second cousins.

My father had one cousin on his mother's side of the family, the Cudmore side, with whom he remains close. There was another boy who died as an infant. On his father's side, the de Crespigny side, my father has four first cousins from his father's sisters and five cousins from his father's half-sister. In total I have eleven first cousins once removed on my father's side of the family.

As for my second cousins, my great aunt Nancy had five grand children. My great aunt Margaret had six grandchildren. I am not sure of the number of grandchildren my great aunt Charlotte has (I must follow this up with her). On the Cudmore side, my great aunt Rosemary had three grand children. I have fourteen second cousins in addition to the grand children of my great aunt Charlotte.

Geneablogging

This post was inspired by Randy Seaver's post some weeks ago asking How many cousins do you know you have?

I enjoyed Alex Daw's and Caitlin Gow's responses and thought I would have a go myself.

I wanted to calculate my great aunt Rosemary's statement about the number of cousins she had. 42 first cousins and 46 first cousins once removed is certainly a lot. Calculating the number of second cousins is a large task that remains for another day.

I found it very interesting that both my grandmother Kathleen's parents came from large families but their children, my great grandparents and my various great great aunts and uncles on my grandmother's side, all had small families. There was a very rapid shift in the size of families within a generation.

I am more interested in tracing my family tree backwards than keeping track of the present generation but I am always delighted to hear from them and would be thrilled to share what I have learned of our family history.

The challenge was:

1) Take both sets of your grandparents and figure out how many first cousins you have, and how many first cousins removed (a child or grandchild of a first cousin) you have.

2) Extra Credit: Take all four sets of your great-grandparents and figure out how many second cousins you have, and how many second cousins removed you have.

HINT: Make a Descendants Chart with your genealogy software program!

3) Tell us the grandparents and great-grandparents names, but don't give the name of living cousins unless you want to.

4) Are there any of those lines that you don't know all of the cousins names? Do you care? 

5) Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post of your own. Be sure to drop a comment to this post to link to your work.

A confusion of Sir Henry Mainwarings

Sir Henry Mainwaring (1726-1797), by Allan Ramsay

There are two notable portraits of Sir Henry Mainwaring  (1726-1797), the fourth baronet of Over Peover. Unfortunately these portraits are sometimes thought, mistakenly, to be portraits of Sir Henry Mainwaring (1587-1653) the pirate. I wrote about the pirate in an earlier blog post.

The two men were related, as third cousins four times removed. Their common ancestor was John Mainwaring (1470-1515), of Over Peover, Cheshire, sheriff of Flintshire, knighted at at the taking of Thérouanne and Tournai. John Mainwaring is my thirteenth great grandfather.

There are no known portraits of the earlier Henry Mainwaring. In the introduction to The Life and Works of Sir Henry Mainwaring printed for the Navy Records Society in 1920, the editor, G. E. Manwaring, states

Before completing this volume I had hoped to discover a portrait of Sir Henry Mainwaring, but after a fruitless search in many quarters I am convinced that none exist. (page xvi at http://archive.org/stream/lifeworksofsirhe01mainuoft/lifeworksofsirhe01mainuoft_djvu.txt )

There is a cartoon image of Henry Mainwaring, the pirate, in Disneyland at Anaheim in California in the area where people wait for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

 Henry Mainwaring the fourth baronet was the nephew of the third baronet, Sir Thomas Mainwaring (1681-1726). Sir Thomas died leaving no children. His brother Henry (1686-1726) had married Diana Blackett (1703-1737) on 26 July 1725. They had one son, Henry, born on 7 November 1726, after his father's death on 1 July 1726. This child inherited the baronetcy from his uncle who had died on 21 September 1726. The young Henry's mother, Diana, married again to Thomas Wetenhall (1708-1776).

George E. Cokayne (1900), Complete baronetage, Exeter: W. Pollard v. 3. English, Irish and Scottish, 1649-1664 pages 129-130

Betham, William. The Baronetage of England, Or the History of the English Baronets, and Such Baronets of Scotland, as Are of English Families: With Genealogical Tables, and Engravings of Their Armorial Bearings. Vol. 5. London: E. Lloyd, 1805. Google. Web. 12 May 2014. <http://books.google.com.au/books?id=zKNBAAAAcAAJ>. pages 574-5.

Sir Henry Mainwaring was educated at Durham School and then at Oxford University.

Sir Henry Mainwaring's portrait was done by Allan Ramsay, a noted portrait painter in 1748 when Mainwaring was about 22. When Mainwaring died leaving no children, this portrait probably passed to his friend George, Lord Grey, later Earl of Stamford. It was sold by the Earl of Stamford's descendants in 1928. It was recently sold again, by Sothebys in 2007 for £18,000.

When Sir Henry Mainwaring was in Rome on the Grand Tour in 1760 he was painted with his companion Lord Grey, by Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland RA.

George Harry Grey, Lord Grey of Groby, later 5th Earl of Stamford (1737-1819) and his Travelling Companion, Sir Henry Mainwaring, 4th Bt (1726-1797)

The painting is in the collection of the National Trust and on display at Dunham Massey in Cheshire. Henry Mainwaring, standing, is showing Grey a cameo ring.  Grey and Mainwaring commissioned Dance to paint a subject from Virgil. He painted Aeneas and Venus for Mainwaring and The Meeting of Dido and Aeneas for Grey. The latter painting is now in the Tate. Venus appearing to Aeneas and Achates as a Huntress by Nathaniel Dance dated 1762 was sold by Christie's in 1994 for £243,500.

Venus appearing to Aeneas and Achates as a Huntress by Nathaniel Dance dated 1762

Mainwaring bought other paintings on the tour for example The Bay of Naples from Posillipo by Pietro Fabris and Antiquaries at Pola by Thomas Patch.

Antiquaries at Pola: Sir Henry Mainwaring Bt (1726-1797), Jacob Houblon (b.1736), George Harry Grey, 5th Earl of Stamford (1737-1819) and the Reverend Jonan Lipyeatt by Thomas Patch 1760. The painting is at Dunham Massey, now owned by the National Trust following a bequest by the 10th Earl of Stamford. Mainwaring is seated on a Roman altar at the left; beside him Houblon stands, extravagantly dressed in check trousers and red-lined hooded black cloak, a pistol in his belt; and next to him Lord Stamford in a similar cloak; Lipyeatt in the foreground is bending over a marble fragment which he is deciphering. A fragmentary marble head caricatures the features of Patch and his spaniel, with water gushing from his mouth, appears to represent a life-like fountain; a lateen-rigged boat at the right, a servant carrying baggage and in the background the amphitheatre at Pola. Pola or Pula, is opposite Venice on the coast of Croatia.

Grey bought A Punch Party in Florence by Thomas Patch which is now owned by the National Trust at Dunham Massey.

A Punch Party by Thomas Patch with Sir H. Mainwaring; Earl Cowper; Viscount Torrington; Reverend J. Lipyeatt; Lord Grantham; Sir Brook Bridges, Bt; James Whyte; Jacob Houblon; the Earl of Moray; Mr Charles Hatfield, the landlord; Earl of Stamford; Charles S. Boothby; Sir John Rushout Bt, and Sir Charles Bunbury, Bt. The 5th Earl of Stamford is seen with his friends enjoying an evening at Mr Hadfield's inn called Carlo's near Saato Spirito in Florence. The artist has introduced a caricature bust of himself on the wall on the right, with the horns of a faun. Fourteen figures are depicted, engaged in various activities round a table, for example, Lord Grantham is carrying a pedlar's tray filled with cameos from which Lord Stamford, because he wears it on his finger, has evidently acquired one; but principally they are engaged in drinking the punch provided by the patron Charles Hadfield. On the back wall are paintings of Bacchus and of Silenus in chariots pulled by leopards and tigers respectively; on the wall at the right is a caricature bust of the artist with the ears of a faun, perhaps echoing the replica of the Dancing Faun on the adjacent wall, the original of which is in the Uffizi. The socles on which the sculpture is placed are decorated with the Medici arms.
Sir Henry Mainwaring is sitting at the end of the table (in blue) opposite  Sir Charles Bunbury who is proposing the toast.

Sir Henry Mainwaring the fourth baronet died unmarried and the baronetcy became extinct.

Henry Mainwaring the fourth baronet is my seventh cousin seven times removed.

Z is for Zulu War

When my son asked me to write about the Zulu wars for the letter Z of this blogging challenge, I found a second cousin four times removed, Henry Germain Mainwaring (1853-1922), who served in the Zulu war of 1879.

Henry Germain Mainwaring was a Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion 24th (2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot. He sailed for South Africa on 2 February 1878 and was there until 20 December 1879.

H. G. Mainwaring of the 2/24 Regiment. Photograph from the "Ron Sheeley Collection"

From 20 January 1879 the 24th Regiment was camped at Isandhlwana, an isolated hill in the Zulu kingdom in the east of Southern Africa. B Company of the Second Battalion had been left to guard the stores and hospital at Rorke's Drift ten miles away. Rorke's Drift was a mission station and the former trading post of James Rorke, an Irish merchant. It was near a ford, known as a drift, across the Buffalo River which formed the border between the British colony of Natal and the Zulu kingdom.

On 22 January, Lord Chelmsford, British Commander-in-Chief,  took the second battalion of the 24th, with the artillery and some of the Natal Native Contingent away from the camp to seek battle with the Zulus, who had been reported to be south-east of the camp. 1,800 British and Colonial troops were left in the camp including 585 men of the 24th Regiment, the only British regular infantry regiment among them. While Chelmsford was absent, the camp was attacked from the north-east by a force of Zulu warriors, said to number 20,000. Of the 1,800 British forces, about 300 survived. These had fled south-west across the Buffalo River; of the 585 men of the 24th only ten survived.

The Battle of Isandlwana, 22 January 1879.  Charles Edwin Fripp (1854-1906), 1885 (c). A small band of the 24th gathered in a square around their Regimental Colour. In the aftermath of the battle there were several groups of bodies found which indicated that men had gathered themselves together to fight to the last. In the background rises Isandhlwana Kop which, significantly, is shaped like a Sphinx, the badge of the 24th.

 Chelmsford and his troops arrived back at camp that night. John Price, of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment, wrote to his parents:

We arrived in camp about nine o’clock at night, and all the tents were burned to the ground, and where we had to sleep was a very uncomfortable place among the dead bodies all night…  from http://www.1879zuluwar.com/t2449-various-eye-witness-accounts

Henry Germain Mainwaring was among those with Chelmsford. He was a Lieutenant in F company of the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Regiment.

The mission station at Rorke's Drift was attacked by several thousand Zulu warriors on the afternoon of 22 January and the battle continued overnight. 140 British and colonial troops, including 36 men in the hospital, defended the garrison. Chelmsford's troops arrived at 8am on the morning of the 23rd. Seventeen British soldiers had been killed, ten wounded, and 450 Zulus had been killed.

The defence of Rorke's Drift 1879 Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville  via Wikimedia Commons

The battle was reported around the world. For example it was reported in New Zealand in the Otago Witness of 22 February 1879 where Mainwaring's name was listed as one of the officers of the 24th Regiment which had been in the battle and "almost completely annihilated" in the "massacre".

The remainder of the 24th cleaned up after the battle and buried the dead. Mainwaring made a map of the battlefield showing the graves of those who were killed and were buried.

Mainwaring received a medal and clasp for the South African Campaign of 1877, 1878, and 1879. He was promoted to Captain in 1880. In the First World War he served as a Brigadier General.

Location of the Zulu Kingdom, Southern Africa, ca. 1890 by Seb az86556 [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

1879 map of Zululand with Rorke's Drift and Isandhlwana highlighted by red arrows

References:

• UK National Archives WO76/233 South Wales Borderers (2nd Batn). Descriptions relating to individuals have been created using information from a nominal card index relating to Army Officers' service compiled in the 1980s.
• David, Saul. "Zulu: The True Story." British History. BBC, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/zulu_01.shtml>. 
• "24th - Anglo-Zulu War 1879." 24th, 2nd Warwickshire, Regiment - Fact Sheets. The Royal Welsh Regimental Museum Trust, 16 July 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://royalwelsh.org.uk/downloads/B05-01-24th-Anglo-Zuluwar1879.pdf>. 
• Luscombe, Stephen, and Charles Griffin. "The 24th Regiment of Foot." British Empire: Armed Forces: Units: British Infantry. Britishempire.co.uk, 7 Nov. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armyunits/britishinfantry/24thfoot.htm>.
• "The Battle of Islandlwana." Zulu War. Britishbattles.com, 10 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://www.britishbattles.com/zulu-war/isandlwana.htm>.
• Austin, Ronald J. (Ronald James) (1999). The Australian illustrated encyclopedia of the Zulu and Boer wars. Slouch Hat Publications, McCrae, Vic

N is for Naval husbands

In 1895 my great-great-grandmother, Ellen Jane Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1845-1920), wife of Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1822-1895), was widowed at the age of 49.  Of their ten children, six were daughters and five of these were unmarried. She saw all of them married before she died, even the youngest, Kiddie.

• James Gordon (1865 – 1938) 
• Eva Mainwaring (1867 – 1941) 
• Mabel Alice (1868 – 1944) known as May
• Wentworth Rowland (1869 – 1933) 
• Orfeur Charles (1872 – 1890) 
• Kathleen Mary (1874 – 1951) known as Kate
• Hugh (1875 – 1953) 
• Helen Maud (1877 – 1918) known as Nellie
• Alice Mainwaring (1879 – 1952) known as Queenie
• Gertrude Lucy (1882 – 1968) known as Kiddie

Ellen and her daughters were all born in Australia. In 1891 the family moved to England and lived at Southsea near Portsmouth when Ellen inherited the Whitmore estate in Staffordshire after the death of her brother Frederick (1859-1891). The estate was leased, hence The Cavenagh-Mainwaring family could not live there until the lease expired.

Christine Cavenagh-Mainwaring, writing in 2013, suggests that Ellen Jane, following her inheritance of the Whitmore Estate in 1891,

didn't feel that Staffordshire offered sufficient suitable young men as potential husbands for her daughters, so being a very sensible and pragmatic woman, promptly took a house in Southsea, near to the naval base of Portsmouth where there were a considerable number of young naval officers and installed her bevy of girls there. (One can almost feel the approval of this strategy of Jane Austen's Mrs Bennet. ) The girls duly obliged and in due course five of them married naval officers. (Cavenagh-Mainwaring, Christine and Britton, Heather, (editor.) Whitmore Hall : from 1066 to Waltzing Matilda. Adelaide Peacock Publications, 2013. pages 117-118)

This Jane Austen view of a bevy of girls needing husbands, on the marriage market, provides a misleading image of the Cavenagh-Mainwaring daughters. When the Cavenagh-Mainwaring women married they were not young. Eva married at the age 25 to a 41-year-old lieutenant, not a successful career officer. My great grandmother Kathleen was 27 when she married.  Helen was 25 when she married, Mabel was 37, Alice was 33 and Gertrude was 37. Perhaps their colonial Australian background hindered their marriage prospects, perhaps they were not interested marrying as quickly as possible, perhaps not all Victorian women married young and our assumptions are wrong about this aspect of Victorian  life.

My grandmother wrote on the back of the photograph that it was taken in 1908 and the names: Back row, left to right: Queenie Magee; Kate Cudmore; Nellie Millet Middle row, L to R: Eva Gedge; May Gillett Front centre: Kiddie Bennett

In 1892, the oldest daughter Eva married a naval officer, Herbert James Gedge (1851-1913). There were reports of the wedding in English and Australian newspapers. (For example A LADY'S LETTER. (1892, November 26). South Australian Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1895), p. 18. Retrieved April 14, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92300620 .)

Launch of HMS Agammemnon at Chatham Dockyard from the Illustrated London News of September 27 1879

In September 1892 Herbert J. Gedge was appointed lieutenant and joined the Agamemnon. ("Naval & Military Intelligence." Times [London, England] 24 Sept. 1892: 6. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.) He retired from the Navy as captain on 3 May 1904. (1912 Navy List page 645) He became an adviser in Egypt with the title of Pasha, a title denoting high rank or office. In 1913 Herbert Gedge died in Alexandria, Egypt. 

Eva and Herbert had two children: Norah (1894-1971 and Edward 1895-1991).

Kathleen, my great grandmother, married Arthur Murray Cudmore (1870-1951) in Melbourne, Australia in 1901. He was the only husband of these six daughters who was not in the navy. He was a doctor, a colleague of Kathleen's brother Wentworth. Arthur would have known the Mainwarings in Adelaide, South Australia. He went to England to study. The Cudmores had two daughters, Rosemary (1904-1987) and Kathleen (1908-1913).

In 1902 Helen, known as Nellie, married Thompson Horatio Millett (1870-1920) in Hampshire.

Thompson Millet was appointed Fleet Paymaster in September 1909. (Navy List 1918 page 130) In the 1919 King's Birthday Honours he was made Commander of the Bath (civil division). He then held the rank of Paymaster Commander (acting Paymaster Captain). ("Birthday Honours." Times [London, England] 3 June 1919: 18+. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.) In recommending him for the post-war award Admiral Commanding 3rd battle Squadron,  Sir E. Bradford wrote

Paymaster Captain Thompson H. Millet, was my Secretary throughout the period of my command of the 3rd Battle Squadron, from June 1914, to July, 1916. Being almost always detached from the C-in-C's Flag except at sea, and generally having addition battleship and cruiser squadron and a flotilla under my orders was a source of increased Secretarial work, and Paymaster Captain Millet performed his duties with untiring zeal and an admirable punctuality. ( from http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=28039)

Helen died in 1918 and Thompson in 1920. They had had three children, Hugh (1903-1968) and Guy (1907-1978), and a third child, who died in infancy.

"Deaths." Times [London, England] 14 Apr. 1920: 1. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Mabel married Owen Francis Gillett (1863-1938) on 16 April 1906 at St Paul's Church, Valletta, Malta.

"Marriages." Times [London, England] 23 Apr. 1906: 1. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Elevation drawing of St Paul's Valletta by the architect William Scamp in 1842. Retrieved from http://www.oneweekholiday.com/malta/valletta-floriana/st-pauls-anglican-cathedral-valletta-2/

In 1924 Owen Gillett retired as Vice-Admiral, and was promoted to Admiral on the retired list. His obituary in the Times mentioned his World War 1 service at the Cape, where he was senior naval officer at Simonstown for over three years. ("Admiral Gillett." Times [London, England] 23 Mar. 1938: 16. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.)

Mabel and Owen had two children, Michael (1907-1971) and Anne (1911-?).

Alice, known as Queenie, married William Edward Blackwood Magee (1886-1981) on 14 August 1913 at St Simons, Southsea.

In December 1910, W.E.B. Magee gave his future mother-in-law a book of the first two operas of the Ring Cycle.  I wrote about the book at http://ayfamilyhistory.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/a-christmas-gift.html

In 1917 and again in 1918, as Lieutenant Commander, William Magee was mentioned in despatches as part of the honours for the Destroyers of the Harwich Force. ( London Gazette 22 June 1917 and Edinburgh Gazette 25 February 1919) In 1920, for services in the Baltic in 1919, Lieut.-Cdr. William Edward Blackwood Magee, R.N. was made Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, for distinguished services in command of H.M.S. "Watchman.". (Edinburgh Gazette 10 March 1920) In 1945 Captain (Commodore second class, R.N.R.) William Edward Blackwood Magee, D.S.O., R.N. (Ret.), was appointed Commander of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire for Distinguished Service in the War in Europe. (London Gazette 7 December 1945) William Edward Blackwood Magee became a Captain in 1929. (1939 Navy List).

Alice and William had two children, Richard (1915-1937) and Jean (1917-1996).

The Harwich Force Leaving for Sea by Philip Connard 1918. A view from the stern deck of a Royal Navy warship looking back at a convoy of warships arranged in two parallel lines. Four sailors stand on the deck. The foremost ships visible include light cruisers and a destroyer. The coastline is visible in the left background. © IWM (Art.IWM ART 1318)retrieved from http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/5431

Gertrude, known as Kiddie, married Edward Morden Bennett (1878-1941) on 30 April 1919 at St Thomas's Church, Portsmouth.

In January 1919 Commander Edward Morden Bennett, R.N. was made Officer of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire. (London Gazette 1 January 1919) At the time of his death he held the rank of Captain. 
 

"Deaths." Times [London, England] 28 Apr. 1941: 1. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

Kiddie and Edward had one daughter, Jean (1921-2009).

The six daughters of Ellen Jane Cavenagh-Mainwaring had a very different experience of marriage and motherhood to that of their mother. Ellen Jane married aged 19 and had ten children. Her daughters were aged between 25 and 37 when they married and had none of them had more than three children.

In the middle of the nineteenth century the mean age of women marrying in the United Kingdom was 25. (Woods, Robert (2000). The demography of Victorian England and Wales. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge ; New York page 82) Recent figures have age at first marriage in the United Kingdom as 28.5 for women in 2005 and in Australia at 27.7 as at 2009. (Age at first marriage. (2014, April 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:56, April 16, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Age_at_first_marriage&oldid=603021351) Historic figures for the United States show that the median age at first marriage for women was about 22 between 1890 and 1910, declining in 1920 and lowest in the 1950s and has climbed higher over the last decades to over 26 years old today. (US Census Bureau graph of Median age at first marriage by sex: 1890 to 2013  https://www.census.gov/hhes/families/files/graphics/MS-2.pdf ) The earliest figure I have for Australia is that the median marriage age for spinsters in 1921 was 25.2. This figure is not useful to compare to the Cavenagh-Mainwaring women as it is after World War I. (Vamplew, Wray (1987). Australians, historical statistics. Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, N.S.W., Australia page 46)

In composing this blog post I have realised how little I know about young women 100 years ago and my great grandmother and her sisters. I am unable to assess whether they were eager to be married or content to wait until the right person was there. I suspect they were financially able not to marry. Perhaps there was pressure on the youngest daughter not to marry and keep her mother company.

A related post  five of the girls attend a children's ball in 1887: http://ayfamilyhistory.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/trove-tuesday-kathleen-cavenagh-dressed.html