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

J is for jaundiced in Jamaica

Augustus James Champion de Crespigny (1791-1825), my second cousin five times removed, died of yellow fever on board HMS Scylla. and was buried at Port Royal, Jamaica. Augustus was the third son of the second baronet, Sir William Champion de Crespigny (1765-189) and his wife Lady Sarah née Windsor (1763-1825).

Augustus James Champion de Crespigny, portrait in the collection of Kelmarsh Hall. Published on artuk.org

The monumental inscription at the Port Royal Parish Church in Jamaica reads:

Sacred to the memory of Augustus James DE CRESPIGNY, 3d son of Sir W. Chn & Lady Sarah De Crespigny, who died on board H.M.Ship 'Scylla', Oct. 24, 1825. Capt De Crespigny went first to sea under the patronage of Ld. St Vincent & served under the flag of Nelson, at Trafalgar. From thence he was taken under the patronage of Ld. Collingwood, who made him study the duties of a seaman, under his particular care. The above gallant officer saved no less than sixteen lives of his fellow creatures during his naval career for which he was presented with a service of Plate from his Ship's crew, as well as a medal from the R.H.S. in the annual report of which society an account is given, the last paragraph is as follows: These are to certify to the principal officers of the Royal Humane Society that Lieutenant Augustus C. De Crespigny served with me as a volunteer midshipman from His Majesty's Ship 'Tonnant' in the gunboat service in Cadiz in 1810, during which time I had opportunities of seeing his noble conduct on three very particular occasions. First, in jumping from a boat in a very strong tide way and saving a Marine, Second, a boy in the same way, and thirdly, in taking to a small boat & pulling into the very muzzles of the enemy's guns, and evidently saving five men that were near drowning, by the 'Achilles' barge being sunk: his conduct on the last occasion was so truly noble that he not only gained the admiration of the whole flotilla but the envy of the French Commanding Officer, who at last ordered his men to cease firing on him. Given under my hand, this 12th Day of July 1815, West Cowes. This tribute to a father's memory was erected by his eldest son, Sir Claude Chn. De Crespigny, BT 1841. (from findagrave.com ) 

Yellow fever is a potentially fatal viral disease, transmitted primarily by mosquitoes. It is called ‘yellow fever’, from the French 'jaune', 'yellow', because the infected person's skin takes on a characteristic yellowish colour.

According to the caption of a photograph of the church at Port Royal taken by the International Mission Photography Archive (IMPA), the church has numerous plaques commemorating men lost in gales, killed in action or by the sinking of their ships, but more numerous than the others put together, are those commemorating men struck down by yellow fever.

Photograph of the Church of England Parish Church, Port Royal. The church is a stone built building with a red tiled roof. A number of parishioners can be seen approaching the building. The church was rebuilt 1725-1726.; Memorial tablets cover the interior walls of the church commemorating men lost in gales, killed in action or by the sinking of their ships, but more numerous than all the others put together are those commemorating those struck down by yellow fever. From the International Mission Photography Archive (IMPA) - http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll123/id/64458, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30916044

Augustus was born  6 March 1791 at Nice in the south of France. He had two older brothers and seven younger siblings:

• Claude 1787-1813
• William Other Robert 1789-1816
• Augustus 1791-1825
• Sarah 1792-1805
• Frances 1793-1793
• Patience Anne 1795-1831
• Heaton 1796-1858
• Emma Honoria Dorothy 1800-1883
• Herbert Joseph 1805-1881
• Mary Catherine 1810-1858

Augustus and his brother Claude entered the Royal Navy in the war against France.

Their grandfather, Claude Champion de Crespigny (1734-1818), was Receiver-General of the droits of Admiralty, traditional rights or perquisites of the Crown, which included proceeds from the sale of enemy ships seized in time of war. With this connection it is perhaps not surprising that two of his grandsons were enlisted in the Navy.

Augustus first went to see at the age of 14 under the patronage of John Jarvis, First Lord of the Admiralty, later Earl of St Vincent, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty. In October 1805 Augustus was at the Battle of Trafalgar on board HMS Spartiate.

He was later a volunteer midshipman on HMS Tonnant in the gunboat service in 1810 at Cadiz. While serving on the Tonnant he rescued drowning sailors on three separate occasions.

Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Part 1, 1816, page 609: Review of New Publications - Annual Report of the Royal Humane Society for the recovery of Persons Apparently Dead 1816. Retrieved from Google Books https://books.google.com.au/books?id=wc9KAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA609 (click on image to zoom in)

from page 610 of the 1816 Gentleman's Magazine

Augustus de Crespigny became a Lieutenant on 1 April 1811. (The Commissioned Sea Officers Of The Royal Navy 1660-1815 Volume 1 viewed on ancestry.com)

Augustus's brother Claude died of dysentery in July 1813 on board the HMS Gorgon off Palermo. The HMS Gorgon was serving as the flagship for Vice Admiral Francis Pickmore. Commander Claude de Crespigny replaced Commander Rowland Mainwaring at Port Mahon, Menorca, in 1813. Coincidentally Rowland Mainwaring (1783-1862) is my fourth great grandfather on another branch of my tree.

Augustus's second oldest brother William, was a lawyer and called to the bar in 1814. He served with the Surrey local militia promoted to lieutenant on 9 July 1813. He died of illness in January 1816.

Neither Claude nor William had married.

On 29 May 1817 Augustus James Champion de Crespigny, bachelor of Kensington, married Caroline Smyth, spinster, by licence, in the parish of St George Hanover Square. They had three children:

• Claude William (1818-1868) - he succeeded his grandfather as the third baronet
• Henry Other (1822-1883)
• Frederick John (1822-1887)

Heraldic Illustrations, page 84, by Bernard Burke published in 1853 repeats the facts contained on the plaque in Jamaica.

Augustus-James, Capt. R.N., gallant officer, who served under Nelson and Collingwood, and whom the latter took under his especial care. On board the Ocean, he saved no less than Gorgon, nine of his fellow subjects from a watery grave, at the imminent risk of his own life, for which he received a medal from the Royal Humane Society, and a service of plate from his ship's crew. His last gallant feat, was his taking to a small boat, and pulling into the very muzzles of the enemy's guns, whereby he saved five men who were near drowning by the Achilles Barge being sunk. His conduct on this last occasion was so truly noble, that he not only gained the admiration of the whole Flotilla, but the envy of the French commanding officer, who at last ordered his men to cease firing on him. Capt. de Crespigny, d. on board H. M. S. Scythe, off Port Royal, Jamaica, 24 Oct. 1825.

Further reading

• Australian Government fact sheet on yellow fever http://www.health.gov.au/yellowfever

Related blog posts

• Q is for quarrelling including a duel  from the 2014 AtoZ challenge concerning Augustus's younger, and less gallant, brother Heaton.

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.

D is for Durham Light Infantry

Major George Champion Crespigny, 68th Foot, was killed on 30 July 1813 in the Battle of the Pyrenees during the Peninsular War against Napoleon's forces in Spain.

Major George Champion de Crespigny (1788–1813) by British School Date painted: c.1810 Oil on canvas, 76 x 65 cm Collection: Durham Light Infantry Museum from http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/major-george-champion-de-crespigny-17881813-46147 retrieved 24 March 2014

George was the son of Philip Champion de Crespigny (1738 - 1803) and his fourth wife Dorothea née Scott (1765-1837).  He was born in 1783 at Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk. He was the tenth of fourteen children. Three of his older siblings died before he was born.

On May 19 1804, at the age of twenty-one,  George became an ensign, a regiment's lowest-ranking officer,  in the 13th Regiment of Foot by purchase.

Recorded in The Gazette (London Gazette), issue 15702, 15 May 1804, page 622

George's father Philip had died the year before, on 1 January 1803.  His mother married Sir John Keane on 27 March 1804. In 1804 his surviving half-siblings and siblings were:

• Philip (1765-1851) was a civilian prisoner of the French from 1803 to 1811.
• Anne (1768-1844) had married Hugh Barlow of Pembrokeshire Wales in 1791.
• Maria (1776-1858) married John Horsley, a captain in the Royal Horse Guards, in July 1804.
• Fanny (1779-1865) remained unmarried.
• Eliza (1784-1831) eloped with Richard Hussey Vivian (1775-1842) and they married at Gretna Green in September 1804. Vivian, later Lord Vivian, was a major in the 7th Light Dragoons. Vivian was soon to be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.
• Charles Fox (1785-1875) had been at Cambridge University in 1803. 

As a younger son, George was probably destined for a career in the church, army, navy or possibly  law. Although his father had been a lawyer, George chose the army. George had not been to Cambridge like his brother, so perhaps George was not suited to the career of a lawyer.

An ensign was the most junior commissioned officer. In 1871 the rank was replaced with 2nd lieutenant. The duties of the officer included carrying the regimental colours, the flag or ensign of the regiment.


In May 1812 George de Crespigny, Captain from the 68th Foot, became a captain in the 89th Foot. He exchanged with Captain Peter le Mesurier. (The Royal Military Chronicle VOL.IV May,1812 By The Duke of York pages 476-7)

On 17 October 1812 George, promoted by purchase to be Major, was back with the 68th Foot. ( The London Gazette Publication date: 10 October 1812 Issue: 16657 Page: 2065)

John Green, late of the 68th Durham Light Infantry, that is the 68th Regiment of Foot, wrote of his experiences in the Peninsular War from 1806 to 1815.

Green writes of the unnecessary strictness of a major when he, Green, was ill in the middle of July 1813.

Green, John. 'Vicissitudes of a Soldier's Life', 1827. Louth. page 171 retrieved from https://archive.org/stream/vicissitudesaso00greegoog#page/n185/mode/2up

The major is almost certainly George de Crespigny. Green records the death of the Major ten pages later in his account of this part of the campaign.

Major Crespigny was killed on the 30th of July. ( The London Gazette Publication date: 16 August 1813 Issue: 16763 Page: 1609)

John Green wrote of the 30th of July and the events leading up to it including "Pampeluna" (as the siege of Pamplona was called by Green), the division being stationed at "Marcelain" (Marcaláin is 11 kilometres or 2 1/2 hours walk north of Pamplona).

Green, John. 'Vicissitudes of a Soldier's Life', 1827. Louth. pages 179-181 retrieved from https://archive.org/stream/vicissitudesaso00greegoog#page/n193/mode/2up

Another modern account of the 68th Foot's action may be found in "Notes on Wellington’s Peninsular Regiments: 68th Regiment of Foot (Durham Light)" by Ray Foster at http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/Britain/Infantry/WellingtonsRegiments/c_68thFoot.html

21st June 1813 (after the battle at Vittoria)                                                                                                                
Present after battle (PAB) 484

Grant has been badly wounded so that Inglis will return for a while to hold the brigade and in fact will have it for a considerable time onward. There is much marching and counter-marching about the foothills of the Pyrenees in the Bastan Region during the next month ending with a night march in teeming rain to come up to the concentration of the army about Sorauren, for a while during all of this Inglis will be in charge of the whole of 7th Division but, when the CIC decides for the offensive on 30th July Dalhousie is back in command ready to send Inglis and his men forward and down into the Ulzama valley just west of Sorauren village, they meet General Vandermaesen's  men who put up a stout resistance trading volley for volley in a sustained fire-fight which is only broken off when Soult's men are streaming off in rear of these others who effectively become a rearguard as the whole enemy array attempts to disengage, going off to the rear at some pace. The Major of 2/68th one George Crespigny is shot through the throat and killed during the pursuit, a great relief it seems to most of his junior officers and men who saw him as a martinet, Captain Henry Irwin and Ensign John Connell fell seriously wounded and Lieutenant James Leith lightly so, of the men, three died and another sixteen were injured so that:

30th July 1813 (after the second battle at Sorauren)                                                                                                
PAB 461

 Foster's theory of the reasons for the relief felt by de Crespigny's men on his death is based largely on Green's book. (email 6 July 2014)


Additional sources

• On younger sons at the time of Jane Austen:  Handler, Richard, and Daniel Alan Segal. "Jane Austen and the Fiction of Culture." Google Books. Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Web. 04 Apr. 2015. <http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ItlrTo8mqSgC&pg=PA48&>
• Durham Light Infantry Museum frequently asked questions http://www.dlidurham.org.uk/Pages/HistoryFAQs.aspx 

Philip de Crespigny in the French Revolution

I came across a mention of a Philip de Crespigny being a prisoner of Napoleon Bonaparte in the 1889 book Englishmen in the French Revolution:

Philip Champion de Crespigny, brother of the first baronet—he was married at the Danish Embassy, Paris, in 1809, his bride having apparently gone over to share his detention—escaped from St. Germain in May 1811. He lived to be eighty-six, dying in 1851. ( From Alger, John Goldworth & Robarts - University of Toronto (1889). Englishmen in the French Revolution. London S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington Page:Englishmen in the French Revolution.djvu/295. (2011, April 1). In Wikisource, . Retrieved 23:10, August 31, 2013, from http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Page:Englishmen_in_the_French_Revolution.djvu/295&oldid=2641334 )

The first baronet was Claude Champion de Crespigny (1734 - 1818). His siblings, the children of Philip Champion de Crespigny (1701 - 1765) and his wife Anne nee Fonnereau (1704 - 1782), were:

• Susan (1735 - 1766)
• Anne (1736 - 1738)
• Philip (1738 - 1803), my fifth great grandfather
• Anne (1739 - ?)
• Jane (1742 - 1829)
• a child of whom I do not know the name, born 1733 and presumably died young

Philip, the brother of the first baronet, had died in 1803, so who was the Philip who was imprisoned? My family tree currently has ten Philip Champion de Crespignys though many of these are quite obviously not the man referred to in this book. My fourth great grand uncle Philip (1765 - 1851), son of Philip the brother of the first baronet seems to be the right man.

Philip married Emilia Wade on 21 October 1809. She died in 1832.

Family history notes compiled by Stephen de Crespigny state:

Philip was in France when Napoleon's detenu order was signed in May 1803 and was held at the fortress town of Verdun for some years , then moved to St Germain from where he escaped in May 1811. But during the time he married Emelia Wade in Paris in November 1809, a lady with a considerable fortune. (photocopy of handwritten notes on the family history compiled by Stephen de Crespigny and in possession of my father)

The Treaty of Amiens had been signed on 25 March 1802 and meant peace between the French Republic and the United Kingdom.  The peace lasted only until 18 May 1803 when Britain declared war on France.  Issues leading to the recommencement of hostilities seemed to include the British not withdrawing from Malta in accordance with the treaty terms. The Wikipedia article on the recommencement of war between France and Britain states:

On 17 May 1803, before the official declaration of war and without any warning, the Royal Navy captured all the French and Dutch merchant ships stationed in Britain or sailing around, seizing more than 2 million pounds of commodities. In response to this provocation, on 22 May (2 Prairial, year XI), the First Consul [Napoleon Bonaparte] ordered the arrest of all British males between the ages of 18 and 60 in France and Italy, trapping many travelling civilians. This act was denounced as illegal by all the major powers. Bonaparte claimed in the French press that the British prisoners he had taken amounted to 10,000, but French documents compiled in Paris a few months later show that the numbers were 1,181. It was not until the abdication of Bonaparte in 1814 that the last of these imprisoned British civilians were allowed to return home.(Treaty of Amiens. (2013, August 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:15, September 1, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Treaty_of_Amiens&oldid=570571270)

In 1851 Philip was recorded on the census as living at Harefield House in Middlesex with his half brother, my fourth great grandfather, Charles Fox. Charles Fox Champion de Crespigny was twenty years younger than his brother. Philip was described as a lunatic, by which I assume he was suffering from old age dementia.

Source Citation: Class: HO107; Piece: 1697; Folio: 376; Page: 35; GSU roll: 193605. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1851 England Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

Stephen's notes tell us a little more of Philip:

It was said of him that he was a gay fellow with a happy talent for drawing. He lived for many years in Harefield House, near Uxbridge, where he kept a dozen or more servants. Towards the end of his life he became a little senile, and his half brother Charles Fox looked after his estate for [him (remainder of note missing)] (photocopy of handwritten notes referred to above)

Philip died on 22 May 1851, only a few months after the census was taken. He died without issue.

Harefield House was used as a military hospital by the Australian Army in World War I.

ID number P02402.005 Photographer John H Avery & Co Description Harefield, England. c. 1915-06. Exterior of `Harefield House' the former stately home taken over by the No. 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital (1AAH) in 1915-03. On the right is the corner of one of the first wards and hidden from view behind the shrubbery is the bay window of the first operating theatre (formerly the sitting room). (Original housed in AWM Archive Store) (Donor R. Brown).
Retrieved from http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P02402.005  1 September 2013