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GENEALOGISTS’
Special Library Edition - further distribution or copying in any format is not permitted
MAGAZINE
Journal of the Society of Genealogists
Volume 33 Number 5 Mar 2020
© Society of Genealogists and its contributors, March 2020
Special Library Edition - further distribution or copying in any format is not permitted
NEW SoG TITLE
My Ancestors worked in Textile Mills
For anybody researching their textile worker industry in the UK; and the living conditions of textile
ancestors, this book is useful guide as well as a mill workers throughout history. The second
compelling work of social history. It is divided into recommends genealogical resources to readers
two parts. The first examines the cotton, wool, linen searching for guidance on where to research their
and silk industries; the development of the textile own textile mill worker ancestors.
£9.99
You can purchase this title at our bookshop or via www.sog.org.uk/books-courses
For further information please call: 020 7702 5483 or
email: sales@sog.org.uk
Registered number: 03899591 | Registered office: 14 Charterhouse Buildings London, EC1M 7BA | Registered in England and Wales. www.sog.org.uk
© Society of Genealogists and its contributors, March 2020
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A MESSAGE FROM SOCIETY OF
GENEALOGISTS
THE CHAIRMAN Founded 1911
It seems that 2020 is already galloping away. I’d love to report progress towards the sale of our premises,
but as yet we’ve only just appointed an agent to handle the sale. On the plus side there is at least some
political certainty for the next few years, though much still remains to be resolved.
Hopefully this will mean that we will find a buyer at the right price to enable us to invest in the work to
revolutionise our digital assets and their accessibility and to find a worthy location for our library.
Our plan is to sell the current premises, but as part of the deal we would lease the building back from the
purchaser to allow us the time to continue an accelerated programme of digitisation and cataloguing. It
would also allow the time to prepare the collection for its move to our new location and to prepare our
new home. We’d anticipate this will take two or three years.
Our dream home will be readily accessible, close to train links, comfortable and spacious with excellent
systems and Wi-Fi. Our aspiration would be for longer opening hours, and an increased programme of
training. In short what we want is to create the sort of facility that attracts much larger visitor numbers
and which, with vastly improved online resources, will be attractive to a larger and sustainable level of
membership.
As so many of our readers live in different parts of the country, perhaps you can keep your eyes open for
other libraries who might be planning relocation? We should not be too proud to find partners.
You’ll see elsewhere in this magazine, that we are making our annual call for expressions of interest from
people who would like to volunteer as trustees. As you can see, we are grappling with major issues and
welcome those who can bring expertise and passion to leading the society. We’d love to hear from you.
Ed Percival
Chairman, Society of Genealogists
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GENEALOGISTS’
MAGA Z I N E
Volume 33 Number 5 Mar 2020 Editor: Michael J. Gandy, BA, FSG
CONTENTS
Genealogists’ Magazine
152 The British and the Chinese Treaty Ports
Professor Robert Bickers
160 The sad life and mysteries of Rosamond Clifford (1816-1902)
Vincent Tickner
165 Obituary - Kingsley James Ireland, FSG
166 Constable Joseph Watt: a policeman who died on duty 106 years ago is honoured
Fred Feather
168 A return to the past: film is back
Helen Dawkins LRPS
172 Obituary - John Harnden, FSG
173 Book Reviews
176 Readers’ Queries
178 Obituary - Sue Lumas, FSG
178 Recently Deceased
179 Genealogists’ Magazine - Advertising Rates
179 Society of Genealogists’ Opening Hours
Centre Pull-out Sections
1-10 Library Section
1-4 Society of Genealogists’ News
11-19 Library Section (continued)
Cover picture:
‘Bund of France town in Shanghai’ postcard, 1901-1907. From the Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection,
The New York Public Library Digital Collections (http://digitalcollections.nypl.org). Public domain image.
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THE BRITISH AND THE
CHINESE TREATY PORTS
A
Robert Bickers
s quiet began to descend on battlefields in Belgians and Austria-Hungarians, while an
Europe and in Asia at the end of the Second American concession had been laid out and then
World War, one of the largest periods of handed over to the British. Side by side, each had its
mass movement of people in human history own form of governance, laid out roads, dug sewers,
commenced. The victorious allies began to organised a police force, created and enhanced
demobilise their own armies, and to start to ship public spaces with administration buildings designed
back from still-occupied territory millions of enemy to showcase national styles, erected statues, and
combatants. Civilian refugees began to move back named the streets in its own languages. The Rue de
home; others found themselves in temporary France led into Victoria Road, then Woodrow
camps. Much of this process was voluntary, but Wilson; Vittorio Emanuele led into Petrograd; from
there were extensive involuntary migrations. Ethnic Yamaguchi you could turn off into Rue de Takou,
Germans living beyond the borders of the rump which became Taku Road.
state now occupied by the Allied powers were
expelled. The dissolution of the Japanese empire The world came to Chinese cities. A Chinese
saw the deportation of hundreds of thousands of resident of Tianjin might, in the course of a single
settlers and colonial officials back to the home walk, pass along a route that traversed Japanese,
islands. These are familiar episodes, but hidden French, British and German territory, and laws,
amongst them is the story of the winding up of a passing a Vietnamese or a Sikh policeman, as well
sophisticated network of communities and as a Japanese and German one. At Shanghai, a
institutions that formed part of the network of French concession was formally a part of the
Allied colonial interests: the treaty ports of China. French Empire, and its administration answered to
These are victors who lost, amongst them the the Governor-General of Indo-China. A much
British in China, including those who called larger ‘International Settlement’ evolved a more
themselves Shanghailanders and Tientsinites. independently-minded zone, with its own annually-
elected council (in which elections a British
In this article I will sketch out the history of this majority was routinely reinforced), and governed
group and the world they developed and lived in, and the heart of what evolved into China’s most
provide some thoughts about researching its records, important commercial, educational, financial,
including some that can be accessed through ‘China industrial and political centre. A Chinese rickshaw
Families’, a new platform I run at the University of needed three licences to navigate the entire city,
Bristol.1 Between 1843 and 1943, in cities along the one for each foreign zone, and one for Chinese-
Chinese coast and the Yangzi river, the British and controlled territory. Meanwhile at Hong Kong and
other powers established in port cities opened by Qingdao, and in Taiwan, foreign-run colonies
treaty with the Qing Empire, scores of ‘concessions’ alienated Chinese territory in perpetuity, while 99-
and ‘settlements’. Some Chinese cities housed just year leases were taken by the Japanese at Dalian,
one or two of these concessions, but others hosted a the British in the Kowloon New Territories and at
number of different neighbourhoods that were Weihaiwei, and the French at Guangzhouwan.
administered by foreign powers. The great northern
city of Tianjin, the gateway to the capital, Beijing, The treaty ports were knit together by shipping
was the site at one time of nine different concessions. networks, and by small fleets of river gunboats
Small parts of the city were ruled by the British, backed up by foreign navies, army garrisons, and by
Germans, Japanese, French, Russians, Italians, networks of foreign consuls who, from buildings on
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Rue du Consulat or Consulate Road, administered new Soviet state renounced its privileges c.1919.
their charges, and were exempted, as a result, from Established in 1927, the National Government of the
Chinese jurisdiction. Foreign courts, laws, and Guomindang - popularly known as the Nationalists,
lawyers, oversaw the lives of most foreign nationals. led by Chiang Kai-shek - checked the operations of
Memories, loyalties and rituals - Remembrance Day these administrations, in order to claw back control.
ceremonies held at their war memorials, for In the revolution that brought it to power, two British
example, parades on Empire Day or the King’s concessions were seized in January 1927, and were
birthday - also generated a sense of particular local subsequently surrendered (at Wuhan - Hankow; and
identity. These were, as the Chinese noted, states at Jiujiang - Kiukiang). In the years immediately after
within a state, their political impact far outweighing the revolution, a few more concessions were returned
the practical advantages many of them gave their (including Chinkiang, Amoy, and the leased territory
owners. After all, a Briton could pace around the at Weihaiwei on the tip of Shandong province).
tiny concession at Xiamen (Amoy) in barely twenty British Municipal Concessions on the Yangzi which
minutes, walking slowly. had on a modest scale all the appearance of town
government in England, were abolished. Few of these
If our Briton grew tired of such a circumscribed were missed by the diplomats - the British had
round, he, or she, could decamp to the treaty port quickly labelled Weihaiwei ‘Where-are-we?’, or
equivalents of India’s Hill Stations, to the highland ‘Why-oh-Why?’ But they were able to retain after
resorts at Kuling (pun intended) close to Jiujiang, or retrocession its use as a summer home for the Royal
Monkanshan (Moganshan) accessible from Navy’s China Station.
Shanghai; or to the beach resort at Peitaho (Beidaihe),
or Chinwangtao, or to Tsingtao (Qingdao). China There is something potentially absurd about
coast residents often vacationed in Japan. Both elements of this world, with seemingly grand
Kuling, and Chefoo (Yantai), on Shandong province’s colonial designs made concrete in a few roads laid
north coast, were homes to boarding schools for out on marshy territory that usually housed a small
foreign children. Chefoo’s largely served the families and unwilling subject population. There was
of the China Inland Mission. (School registers are nothing absurd about the politics of opposition to
held in the School of Oriental & African Studies). this system, which grew to take a central role in the
Boarding school days for 70 children in 1935 were great nationalist upsurge in mid-20th century
enlivened by the piracy of the ship taking them north China, and which still shapes its nationalism today.
from Shanghai back to Chefoo. This was not a catch The Japanese invasion of China that unfolded after
the pirates had expected, nor one they wanted. The the seizure in 1931 of the Northeastern provinces
pirates were not as piratical as some of the children known as Manchuria prompted, in response, a 14-
thought they ought to have been, according to press year war of resistance that eventually folded into
reports. (All the children survived unharmed, though the Second World War. But there was also nothing
one guard did not). Chinese bandits and pirates were absurd about the functional role these little bits of
very much to the liking of foreign writers and Britain or France played in the global networks of
journalists in the 1920s and 1930s, forming, along trade, information, communications, and the
with Chinese warlords, a gallery of villains who were movements of people and transfer of personnel that
the subject of hit movies such as Shanghai Express, characterised the wider empires and extent of
or The Bitter Tea of General Yen, but most people British and French power. The treaty port network
encountered neither. was actually abolished twice: the Japanese
occupation authorities in China abolished those
This foreign degradation of the sovereignty of the they had seized and handed them to the Chinese
Qing Empire survived the dynasty’s deposition in collaborationist governments from 1 August 1943;
1911 and the establishment of a Republic of China. the British and Americans had also surrendered
The reach and character of the foreign presence was their treaty privileges in February that year.
constantly changing nonetheless - when China Nobody asked the Britons and Americans who
entered the First World War on the Allied side, it lived in Shanghai, Tianjin, or Wuhan what they
seized German and Austria-Hungarian assets and the thought about this, and they were shortly
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British treaty ports in China, 1927.
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afterwards interned. After the end of the conflict Shanghai list another 2,000 men and women who
the abolition of this network, with the exceptions of died intestate. (Some cemetery lists survive, but
the British Crown Colony at Hong Kong, and these are fragmentary). The tangled business of the
Portuguese-administered Macao, was confirmed. living - disputes, law cases, divorces, property
British policemen, Public Works Department ownership - can be traced in consular and court
inspectors, municipal gardeners, nurses, teachers, documents. A vibrant press quickly developed, with
surveyors and architects, found that they had lost the first English-language newspaper being printed
their jobs and, it turned out, their pensions. in Shanghai in 1850, quickly joined by titles in
Wuhan, Fuzhou, Tianjin, Beijing, and in the
Manchurian cities. Some of these are lost altogether,
but others survive almost in their entirety. They
record the treaty port British at play, at work, on
parade with their militia, the Shanghai Volunteer
Corps, or Tientsin British Volunteers, at meetings of
Masonic Lodges and Recreation Clubs, on the sports
field and at the races, at school plays, and on
vacation. (There you can find young Peggy
Hookham, later Margot Fonteyn, who learned to
dance in Tianjin and in Shanghai.) Annual resident
and business directories were published, and more
ephemeral travellers can be glimpsed in the
passenger lists regularly published in the press.
Fig. 1 - The Hacking family at tea in Hong Kong, c.1912.
Although they are scattered, the British network has
left copious records, and it drew into it, for even only
a small period of time, tens of thousands of Britons.
At its peak, in about 1930, there were between 15-
20,000 Britons living and working in China outside
Hong Kong. And in addition thousands passed
through each year, including men of the merchant
navy, or Royal Navy (most naval personnel had a
term of service on the China Station), or others
Fig. 2 - Young Peggy Hookham (Margot Fonteyn),
passing through seeking employment (or even, by in Tientsin, 1928.
the 1930s, on holiday). The Chinese Customs
Service employed 5,500 British nationals between We have much by way of surviving material
1854 and 1949; and the same number again of other through which we can trace the lives of those
Europeans, Japanese and Americans combined. The Britons who lived in this treaty port world. The vast
International Settlement recruited some 2,500 majority arrived by sea, and passenger lists in the
British men to its police force between 1854 and North China Herald, the most widely available
1941. While many of these men and women barely English-language newspaper (1850-1941), are a
stayed a few years, and many moved on to Australia good place to start. (British, US and Canadian
or to Canada (Vancouver Island was a favourite passenger lists are also invaluable sources for those
retirement spot for the wealthier), some stayed travelling to or from Asia). At least four different
lifetimes, and some families could count three, some digitised sets of the North China Herald are
four, and one or two even five generations of available to search (the most accessible via
residence. Many died there. A British Supreme subscription on Newspaper Archive is incomplete,
Court for China was established in 1865. By 1941 it but holds 76 years of it, from 1850-1926). This does
had dealt with nearly 4,000 probate cases relating to not catch everybody, and certainly not those who
Britons who had died in China; consulate records at arrived by rail when the Trans-Siberian railway
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Fig. 3 - At the races in Amoy, 1889.
opened. Published directories capture tens of The British official apparatus in China generated
thousands of names and occupations, and a great official documents of vital events that can be viewed
number are freely available online and can be at the National Archives in Kew (probates, intestate
searched (links to 60 of these between 1842-1939) memo books, consular correspondence, some BMD
can be found on the China Families platform). A registers), while registers from the Anglican Holy
useful shortcut can be provided by the extensive Trinity Cathedral, and non-denominational Union
collection of research notes collected by a Hong Church, can be found at Lambeth Palace Library.
Kong-based historian, the Rev Carl T. Smith, who However, Catholic Church records are not so easy to
combed through newspapers, directories and a wide find (with the exception of Catholic cemeteries in
range of archival material in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong, with burial lists available through
transcribed his findings on to index cards that can familysearch). However, the institutions of the treaty
now be searched and viewed on the website of the port world were not British government agencies.
Hong Kong Public Record Office. (In addition, Policemen were recruited by the Shanghai
familysearch.org holds image files of all these Municipal Council, not the Foreign or Colonial
cards). To complement this, the public library Office. The Customs Service was an office of the
system in Hong Kong has digitised several historic Chinese government. There are no records in Britain
titles which are freely available on its Multimedia relating to the internal operations of such
Information System.2 This is not indexed for organisations, although there is much about the
searching, but can be navigated to specific dates. politics of policing or the Customs Service at the
China Families provides links to other openly National Archives (and some material on those
accessible runs of China’s newspapers. The fruitless claims for pensions). Some sets of private
NewspaperSG platform holds newspapers from papers now lodged in libraries and archives overseas
Singapore and the Straits, and these also frequently hold much vital information. For example, the
contain China coast snippets (as do Trove and correspondence of Sir Robert Hart, the Ulsterman
Papers Past). who headed the Customs from 1861 until his death
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in 1911, contains much detail about the men he But if the archives are closed in China, there is much
recruited, and sometimes their families (especially if yet to be found overseas. While the archives of many
he found that a subordinate had a musical, and foreign enterprises were retained after they withdrew
attractive, wife).3 Although British subjects lived in the early 1950s, some extensive collections can be
and worked under the umbrella of consular found in London (John Swire & Sons, Hongkong &
jurisdiction, and were required by law to register Shanghai Bank), and Cambridge (Jardine Matheson),
annually with consulates, this does still leave and some employee records are held within these.
extensive gaps in the records one might expect to The Protestant missionary enterprise, which extended
find (starting with the registers, which do not survive far beyond China’s treaty ports, was headquartered
barring two sets of cards). Registration of births at from overseas (with the singular exception of the
consulates was routine, but many deaths were not China Inland Mission, now known as the Overseas
formally recorded. This applies especially to the Missionary Fellowship). The headquarters archives
offspring of unmarried couples, especially when the of the congregationalist London Missionary Society,
mother was Asian and father British, and to and Wesleyan missionary societies, are held in the
registration of many deaths of the Asian wives, if Special Collections of the School of Oriental &
indeed they were formally married: instead, the African Studies. The Church Missionary Society
euphemism ‘housekeeper’ often surfaces in wills, archive is held at Birmingham University’s Cadbury
and sometimes in public records. Library. Yale Divinity School has digitised and made
freely available online a great deal of published and
The records of bodies like the Shanghai Municipal archival material, and a collaborative International
Council do in fact actually survive, and are Mission Photography Archive hosts thousands of
extensive. The revolutionary state established by photographs that allow this world to be visualised. I
the Chinese Communist Party in 1949 was keen direct a more specialist site, ‘Historical Photographs
to preserve the records of its enemies, for what of China’, which presents online privately-owned
better source of evidence for imperialist crimes photographs from family collections.4 It is now easier
and Chinese ‘collaborators’ might there be than in than ever before to get a sense of what these places
the archives of the imperialists themselves (as they looked like, and the texture of the lives that people
were viewed). The Shanghai Municipal Archives, lived within them.
and similar city archives in Tianjin and other cities
hold these records. However, while much survives Researchers have more luck with China’s libraries,
and is accessible, access to records has recently and the Shanghai Library has been digitising its large
become very difficult. Where once I might call up collection of English-language newspapers (North
the personnel files of three-score Britons who China Herald, its sister title North China Daily
joined the Shanghai Police (when researching my News, the American-owned China Press, and
history of the force, published as Empire Made Shanghai Evening Post & Mercury, and others). The
Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai (Penguin)), library also holds runs of local magazines such as the
now all personnel files are closed. Land and illustrated Social Shanghai, which is not widely
property archives have always been closed, and available outside China, China Weekly Review, and
the records of municipal registration of births and China Journal of Arts & Sciences (a magazine with
deaths might well survive, but have never been a less highbrow range of content than the title
sighted. The extensive historic records of the suggests). Little survives from the schools that
Customs Service, which holds records of its staff operated in these settlements, such as the Cathedral
amongst its 60,000 operational files, closed a School in Shanghai (known to many through its
decade ago and have not been re-opened. The portrayal in former pupil J.G. Ballard’s Empire of the
digital copies of many editions of the annual Sun), but the Shanghai press carried extensive notes
Service List of the Customs can be found on the on schools’ activities. The social world can also be
Harvard University Library catalogue, and this is explored through the books that are often found
invaluable, but only scratches the surface of the amongst the collections of families with China
information that survives in China. backgrounds: Patricia Allan’s A.A.Milne-esque
Shanghai Picture Verse, delightfully illustrated by
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the Russian cartoonist ‘Sapajou’ (who captured Archive. The Virtual Shanghai online platform hosts
many foreign residents in his newspaper sketches); dozens of maps, digitised books and photographs
J.O.P. Bland’s verse tales of shooting holidays, and provides a great deal of useful material including
Houseboat Days in China; and Daniel Varé’s light SMC Annual Reports and other publications.
fictions of Chinese life. One critical but flavoursome
survey can be found in the pages of W. Somerset
Maugham’s On a Chinese Screen (1922), drawn
from his travels around the treaty ports in 1919-20.
He was not impressed, and - his hosts believed - had
abused their hospitality and penned a grotesque
caricature. A more positive story can be found in the
accounts in the local press of the treaty port men who
left to fight in 1914-18, including 110 men who
sailed back to London together as the First Shanghai
Volunteer Contingent, and the patriotic activities that
the communities organised to raise funds to buy a
Spitfire in World War Two. Guidebooks and Fig. 4 - The Shanghai Scottish Company of the Shanghai
handbooks for residents can provide a rich taste of Volunteer Corps, on parade with pipes on Nanking Road, 1924.
the practical side of life, especially Shanghai (C.E.
Darwent, 1st ed.1908), and The Treaty Ports of Most of these stories are unexceptional, even if we
China and Japan (W.E. Mayers & N.B. Dennys, think they sound exotic, because before 1949 China
1867), both available online. These will also provide was in fact a perfectly normal field of opportunity
basic lessons in the lingua franca of treaty port life: in which Britons sought employment. But it might
‘pidgin English’. Many books and pamphlets also be remembered that the world in China was
published in the treaty ports can be found on Internet also a world in which a man or woman might
Fig. 5 - Shanghai Picture-Verse, 1940,
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reinvent themselves, for at such a distance from the • Shanghai International Settlement, 1842-1943.
more densely traversed routes through which • Canton (Guangzhou), British concession, 1842-1943.
Britons circulated, a new arrival might have to be • Foochow (Fuzhou), opened 1842.
• Amoy (Xiamen), British concession, 1852-1930.
taken at face value. The records of the Special
• Tientsin (Tianjin), British concession, 1860-1943.
Branch of the Shanghai Municipal Police (its • Hankow (Hankou, part of Wuhan), British concession,
political branch) are an exception to the rule that 1861-1927.
the records of the treaty ports reside in the former • Kiukiang (Jiujiang), British concession, 1861-1927.
treaty ports, for in 1949 US intelligence agents • Chinkiang (Zhenjiang), British concession, 1861-1930.
heard tell that its guardians were offering its • Weihaiwei Leased Territory, 1898-1930.
contents for sale. They acquired the entire surviving • Kulangsu International Settlement (Gulangyu island,
archive, which eventually found its way to the Xiamen), 1903-1943.
• In addition, its fate intertwined with these cities, the
headquarters of the CIA, and after a further 20-
British occupied Hong Kong island in 1841,
years or so, to the US National Archives. Badly establishing a Crown Colony in 1842 that was
catalogued, it is nonetheless a treasure trove rich in retroceded to China in 1997. The original possession
fraudsters and confidence tricksters, and other was significantly augmented with the transfer to British
‘bobbery’ (trouble), and in Britons - if such they control of the Kowloon New Territories in 1898 on a
really were in some cases - who talked loudly and 99-year lease.
confidently in the bars and clubs of the International
Settlement, flashed the name cards of their friends All photographs courtesy of Historical Photographs of
the Brigadier this, company chairman that, but China project, www.hpcbristol.net
turned out to be grifters, making their way,
sometimes chop chop, from one port to another, Notes
now Singapore, next Hong Kong, now Shanghai.
1. China Families: www.chinafamilies.net This platform
Most residents were of course perfectly law- hosts cross-searchable data relating to: Allied civilian
abiding, and lived lives far removed from the exotic internees in China & Hong Kong, 1943-45; non-
Shanghai of fiction and film, but ‘maskee!’ (never interned foreign nationals in Shanghai in 1944;
mind), there are just enough of the chancers and Chinese Maritime Customs Service staff, outline
tricksters in the Special Branch files to help the careers 1854-1950 (and additionally ‘Outdoor’ staff
city’s history retain its special flavour. register, Shanghai, 1870s-1880s); Shanghai Municipal
Police European, North American and Japanese staff,
Recommended reading 1854-1945; intestate British subjects, 1868-1935;
The course of the rise and fall, and legacies, of the probates of British subjects, 1857-1941; Shanghai
Chinese treaty ports is presented in my books The International Settlement death registers, 1873-77;
Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, various lists of cemeteries in China; marine staff,
1832-1941, and Out of China: How the Chinese Ended China Navigation Company, 1883-1900.
the Era of Foreign Domination (both in Penguin). A 2. Links to all of these can be found through:
useful survey can also be found in Robert Nield, China’s www.chinafamilies.net/links-for-further-
Foreign Places: The Foreign Presence in China in the research/hong-kong/
Treaty Port Era, 1840-1943 (Hong Kong University 3. John King Fairbank et al, The I.G. in Peking: Letters
Press). An engaging social history is Frances Wood, No of Robert Hart Chinese Maritime Customs 1868-
Dogs, and Not Many Chinese (John Murray). The best 1907 (2 volumes, Harvard University Press).
short history of Britain’s longest-lasting possession is 4. International Mission Photography Archive:
John M. Carroll, A Concise History of Hong Kong (Hong https://tinyurl.com/missionphotographs; Historical
Kong University Press). Photographs of China: http://hpcbristol.net
British concessions in China, 1842-1997
Under ‘most favoured nation’ clauses in Sino-foreign Robert Bickers
treaties, all foreign nationals from states that had a treaty Robert Bickers is a Professor of History at the
relationship with China could reside in ports open to University of Bristol, and directs the China Families
foreign residence and trade by any other power. Britons and the Historical Photographs of China projects.
lived in many other towns and cities as well, but in those Email: Robert.Bickers@bristol.ac.uk
listed below there were British-controlled, or British-
dominated municipal administrations.
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THE SAD LIFE AND MYSTERIES OF
ROSAMOND CLIFFORD (1816-1902)
U
Vincent Tickner
sually the information available on topographer. Sir Thomas had studied at the Jesuit
wealthy and aristocratic families and College in Liège and then at the College of Navarre
individuals is more traceable. The Clifford in Paris. Many years later, when living in Bath in
family was part of a network of old English 1813, he had welcomed a number of French exiles
Catholics and has a whole book published on it1, to his house. These included the French King Louis
and there is a Clifford Association that specialises XVIII at whose request he was made a Baronet in
in the family’s history. Nevertheless, one section May 1815. Incidentally though of no relevance to
of the family, and one individual in that section, our story, Thomas and Arthur’s sister Lucy Bridget
Rosamond Clifford (1816-1902), is only beginning Clifford married Thomas Weld who became a priest
to be uncovered2, despite her father, Arthur Clifford after her death and was made a cardinal in 1830.
being distinguished enough to be recorded in the
Dictionary of National Biography. Rosamond, the eldest known child of Arthur and
Elizabeth was born on 5 September 1816 in Tours
Rosamond’s youth and loss of her parents - (Indre-et-Loire). She was followed by Arthur
1816-1840 Lewis4 (b. 4 June 1818 in Paris) and Lewis Arthur5
(b. 7 February 1820 also in Paris).
Rosamond Clifford was born on 5 September 1816
in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, France, the only daughter Arthur and Elizabeth appear to have lived in Paris
of Arthur Clifford (1777-1830) an antiquarian of until 1823, but by 1824 they were living in Oxford.
Tixall, Staffordshire. As a child Arthur studied at On 4 May 1824 Arthur witnessed the marriage by
the English College, Douai, and was certainly there licence in Slindon, Sussex, of Thomas George
by September 1786 and still there when he was Walmsley of Showley, Lancashire, and Susan
arrested by the French revolutionary forces, Trusler. The family appears to have lived in Oxford
perhaps in 1792. He was released on 25 February at 59, Cowley Road, near to the Roman Catholic
1795 and returned to London in March. chapel of St. Ignatius that Elizabeth’s uncle, the
Jesuit Priest, Father Charles Leslie (d.1806)
Arthur was living in Edinburgh when, on June 14 founded in 1793.
18093, he married Elizabeth Matilda McDonell
(c.1789-1827) in the Roman Catholic chapel at Rosamond’s mother, Elizabeth, died in Oxford on
Berrington Hall, five miles south of Berwick and 24 July 1827 aged 38 when Rosamond was only ten
home of the Clavering family. She was the daughter years old. Arthur apparently left the property in
of Captain John McDonell, 5th Lord of Leek, and Cowley Road in the autumn of 1828 with his family.
his wife Elizabeth Leslie. Presumably there was also
an Anglican ceremony somewhere. Knowledge of Arthur died in Winchester, Hampshire, on 16
Arthur and Elizabeth’s whereabouts over the next January 1830 aged 52 and was buried in the
six years is unknown, and they may have had issue cemetery of St. James. He left no will and as the
over this period, but none survived into adulthood. three children were all minors (Rosamond 13,
Arthur 11 and Lewis 9) their uncle James Francis
Soon after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 Arthur Clifford (1775-1855)6 was appointed their guardian
(with Elizabeth) returned to France for several and letters of administration were granted on 30
years with his eldest brother Sir Thomas Hugh March 1830. The estate was valued at £338.14s.
Clifford Constable, Bart (1762-1823), botanist and
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(1778-1855) and his French wife, Marguerite
(‘Misou’) De Roche (1794-1879) who was the only
surviving daughter of Lieut. Col. Philippe Henri
De Roche of the Regiment de Saintonge (1742-
1835). Sometimes referred to as Théophile he was
educated at the College at Verdun and nominated
for the Madras Infantry (East India Company) on
17 February 1836 by John G. Ravenshaw (who had
been a civil servant in Madras for many years) and
recommended by his uncle George Strachey. He
passed and became an Ensign on 10 May 1836,
joining the 29th Madras Native Infantry on 29
April 1837, while they were stationed at Jaulnah.
He became a Lieutenant on 8 October 1839.
The witnesses to the marriage were Basil Francis
and Margaret Wright and G. Strachey who was
probably Theophiles’ uncle George Strachey
Fig. 1 - Rosamond Clifford (1816-1902). Portrait by L. S. Costello7 (1775-1849), a bachelor. He had been a schoolboy
in the possession of Catherine Renou. Dated 14 May 1830. friend of the poet, Robert Southey, but became an
administrator in the Madras Civil Service and was
After Arthur’s death in 1830 the extended Clifford in India from 1796. He returned to England in 1820
family seems to have assumed responsibility for and on 7 July 1821 he bought Bownham House,
his children, but it is unclear quite who was Rodborough, Gloucestershire, where he may have
involved. It would appear that the children’s uncle come into contact with the Countess of Newburgh
James Francis Clifford played a key role. Young whose family were from Gloucestershire.
Arthur was sent to boarding school and Rosamond
was placed under the care of the Catholic Anne, The marriage settlement was dated 30 September
Countess of Newburgh (1763-1861), in Slindon 1840. John Wright (the Catholic banker) of
House. She was a relative (née Webb) and the Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, esq; Rev. Joseph
godmother of Lewis. In July 1836 Rosamond was Silveira of Slindon, clerk, and George Robert
a witness at the marriage of Lt Col Charles Leslie Morgan of Mount Noel, Slindon, esq. were
(presumably related through her mother) to appointed trustees of the £2,000 marriage
Dorothy Eyre at Slindon parish church. settlement, as well as the new £3.10s. percent
annuities that Rosamund brought to the marriage.
First marriage in Sussex, life in India, and death
of brother and husband, and maybe also Following the marriage the couple went to Bognor
Rosamond’s daughter 1840-1843 before going to the north of England and then leaving
for India. While they were in India, Rosamond’s
Rosamond’s first marriage took place on 5 October brother Arthur, who had become a Jesuit priest, died
1840 in the Roman Catholic chapel at Slindon of consumption (tuberculosis) on 7 October 1841 in
House and was conducted by Joseph Maria Silveira Stonyhurst, the Jesuit school in Lancashire. Then
(1794-1876), who was the Roman Catholic priest Theophilus Strachey died on 26 February 1843 of a
at Slindon House from 1829 to 1845. She married liver problem in Ahmednuggur (Ahmednagar), aged
Theophilus William Strachey, with relatives of both 25, when he was Adjutant of the 3rd Regiment of the
families present. Both were given as residing at Nizam’s Infantry. Rosamond gave birth to their
Slindon House at the time. He was born on 13 daughter, Louisa Strachey, on 6 May 1843 in
January 1818 in Verdun, France, and was the Aurungabad. It is not known if there had been an
second son (but maybe by 1840 the oldest earlier child or children nor whether Louisa herself
surviving son) of Capt. Christopher Strachey RN survived but she is not mentioned again.
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A Surgeon’s Wife - 1846-1849 Rosamond and Jean had two children (both born
in Mouzay):
Rosamond, with or without a daughter returned to 1. Clemence Marie Anna Cornu (1852-1936)
England and married John Samuel Charlton (from (born 4 August 1852) who married, in Loches
another old English Catholic family) in the on 21 May 1878, Alfred André Renou (1836-
Catholic chapel at Ugbrooke House, Chudeigh, on 1925), and had eight children.
19 March 1846 - perhaps she was living with her 2. Antoine Jules Felix Cornu (1854-1919) (born
Clifford cousins in Devon. Hugh Charles, 7th Lord 19 February 1854) who married, in Paris on 1
Clifford of Chudleigh (1790-1858), had inherited March 1886, Jeanne Marie Thierrée (1864-pre
the family properties and had also married Mary 1919), and had six children.
Lucy Weld, only daughter of Cardinal Weld
(though she died in 1831). Hugh Charles was a Life in an asylum in Blois from 1861-1902
keen Roman Catholic, and after the 1829 Catholic
Emancipation Act, altered and improved the The life of Rosamond changed abruptly when her
Ugbrooke Chapel over the period 1835-1841. children were nine and seven. On 29 November
1861, aged 45, she was placed in a mental asylum,
John Samuel Charlton was born on 3 October 1815, the ‘asile public d’ aliénés’ (later called the ‘asile des
and became an Assistant Surgeon in the 63rd (West aliénés de Blois’), with ‘monomanie religieuse’. This
Suffolk) Regiment of Foot on 1 March 1839, but ‘religious mania’ is not a classification that modern
then transferred to the 67th (South Hampshire) psychiatrists would use, and it is not clear what its
Regiment of Foot on 3 September 1847. He died, manifestations were. She stayed there for the rest of
however, on 20 August 1849 at Sudbrook Park, her life and family life continued without her.
Richmond. No. 4 Sudbrook Park was a hydropathy
clinic run by Dr James Ellis who in 1846 had faced Jean Cornu died on 14 April 1876 at his then home
a charge of manslaughter (eventually dropped) when - either in the Boulevard Heurteloupe or 20
a patient died following the cold water treatment. Boulevard Bérenger in Tours.
John’s will (dated 1 August 1849 and proved 13
February 1850) left everything to Rosamond who In 1878, when her daughter Clemence married, one
was also sole executrix. There were no children. of the documents presented was ‘un certificat du
médecin en chef de l’asile des aliénés de Blois,
Rosamund’s life in France 1851-1861 dument légalisé, attestant que Madame veuve Cornu,
née Rosamond Clifford, mère de la future, est, par
Once again we do not know how it came about, but suite d’aliénation mentale, dans l’impossibilité de
Rosamond was married a third time, in Paris, donner valablement son consentement au mariage
France, on 24 July 1851, to Jean Michel Julien qui fait l’objet des présents’8. At the marriage of her
Adrien Cornu (1808-1876). He was a journalist but son in 1886, she was aged 69, but was heavily
in the same year (1851) he became the owner of handicapped and was again unable to express her
the Chateau of Beautertre (previously a place of wishes. The marriage record states that ‘elle ne peut
pilgrimage where the Virgin Mary is said to have manifester sa volonté’ (she could not express her
appeared), in Mouzay, Indre-et-Loire. wishes) and that Doctor Doutrebente9 had
accordingly to provide her consent to the marriage10.
Rosamond Cornu, widow, of the asylum of Blois,
Indre-et-Loire (at 34 Avenue de Paris, but closed
down in 1943), died at 11 pm on 28 February 1902,
aged 85, given as a ‘dame des lettres’ (‘woman of
letters’), with her place of residence given as
Mouzay (Indre-et-Loire). Why she was referred to
as a ‘Woman of Letters’ is not known. The death
Fig. 2 - Château of Beautertre, Mouzay, Indre-et-Loire. certificate from the asylum says that she was of
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Genealogists’ Magazine
© Society of Genealogists and its contributors, March 2020Henry Thomas Clifford = Barbara Aston Capt John MacDonell = Elizabeth Leslie
(1732-1787) (1744-1786) (1722-1805/7) of Dugud, Balquhan,
of Tixall, Staffordshire 5th Lord of Leek, Aberdeenshire
m. 1762 Inverness-shire
Sir Thomas Hugh Lucy Bridget James Francis (10 other Lewis Clifford Arthur Clifford = Elizabeth Matilda (3 other siblings)
Clifford Constable Clifford Clifford siblings) (1777-1806) (1777-1830) (twin) MacDonell
Bart (1762-1823) (1771-1815) (1775-1855) (twin) antiquarian (c. 1789-1827)
botanist & m. 1819 Navy Pay m. 1809, d. 1827,
topographer Thomas Weld Office, Berrington R.C. Chapel aged 38,
m. 1791 (1773-1837) Plymouth Northumberland Oxford
Mary MacDonald (single without d. aged 52, Winchester
d. 1823, issue)
Ghent
1 2 3
Sir Thomas Aston Mary Lucy Weld Rosamond = Theophilus William = John Samuel = Jean Michel Julien Arthur Lewis Lewis Arthur
Clifford Constable (only child) Clifford Strachey Charlton Adrien Cornu Clifford Clifford
2nd Baronet m. Hugh Charles (1816-1902) (1818-1843) (1815-1849) (1808-1876) (1818-1841) (1820-1852/3)
(1807-1870) Clifford 1 m. 1840 lieutenant surgeon in journalist/ Jesuit priest merchant
163
(only son) 7th Lord Clifford in Slindon, Sussex 29th Regiment British Army property owner m. 1844
(who inherited of Chudleigh, 2 m. 1846, Madras Infantry d. 1849 d. 1876 to Anne Moran
Burton Constable, Devon Ugbrooke, Chudleigh d. 1843, in Richmond, in Tours in Gilmoss,
Genealogists’ Magazine
Yorkshire in 1823) (1790-1858) (no issue) Ahmnednagar, Surrey Liverpool
m. 1851, India (no known issue)
Paris, France
d. 1902, aged 85, at
an asylum in Blois
Louisa Strachey Clemence Marie Anna Cornu Antoine Jules Felix Cornu
b. 1843, (1852-1936) (1854-1919)
Aurungabad, (b. Mouzay, (b. in Mouzay,
(appears not to have Indre-et-Loire) Indre-et-Loire)
© Society of Genealogists and its contributors, March 2020
survived into m. 1878 m. 1886
adulthood) Alfred André Renou to Jeanne Marie Thierrée
(1836-1925) in Loches (1864-pre 1919) in Paris
(8 children) (6 children)
Special Library Edition - further distribution or copying in any format is not permitted
Immediate ancestors, relatives, siblings and children of Rosamond Clifford (1816-1902)Special Library Edition - further distribution or copying in any format is not permitted
Beautertre, Commune de Mouzay, Indre-et-Loire, Cooper, Thompson (revised by Alexander Goldbloom), Sir
and letters of administration were granted to Thomas Hugh Clifford (later Constable) 1st Baronet (1762-
1823) in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Vol. 12,
Beresford Rimington Heaton (c1863-1940), OUP, 2004.
solicitor on 3 May 1902 in London, he acting for Dodwell, Edward and Miles, James Samuel, Madras Civil
Antoine Jules Felix Cornu and Anna Marie Servants 1780-1839, Longman, Orme, Brown & Co., London,
1839.
Clemence Renou. Rosamond’s effects were valued Gillow, Joseph, A literary and biographical history, or
at £6,038.3s.4d. bibliographical dictionary, of the English Catholics from the
breach with Rome, in 1534, to the present time, 1885.
Bibliography Johnston, William, Commissioned Officers in the Medical
Services of the British Army 1660-1960, Vol. 1 (1727-1898),
Birth Record (Acte de Naissance) of Rosamond Clifford, born 5 London, The Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1968 (SoG
September 1816 in Tours (Archives Départmentales (AD) Library).
Indre-et-Loire, Tours). Mitchell, Rosemary, Arthur Clifford 1777-1830 in Oxford
Marriage Certificate of Theophilus William Strachey and Dictionary of National Biography Vol. 12, OUP, 2004.
Rosamund Clifford married in the Roman Catholic Chapel, Oliver, George, Collections Towards Illustrating the Biography of
Slindon, Sussex on 5 October 1840. Scotch, English and Irish Members of the Society of Jesus,
Marriage Record (Acte de Mariage) of Alfred André Renou and Charles Dolmen, London, 1845.
Anna Marie Clemence Cornu married in Loches on 21 May Sanders, Charles Richard, The Strachey Family 1588-1932, Duke
1878. University Press, 1953.
Marriage Record (Acte de Mariage) of Antoine Jules Felix Cornu Scott, W.L., The MacDonells of Leek, Collachie and Aberchalder,
and Jeanne Marie Thierrée married in Paris on 1 March 1886. Canadian Catholic Historical Association Report, 2 (1934-
Death Record (Acte de Décès) of Rosamond Cornu (née 1935), 22-32.
Clifford), died 22 February 1902 at the Asylum of Blois Stapleton, Mary Helen Alicia Dolman, A history of the post-
(Archives de Blois). reformation Catholic missions in Oxfordshire: with an account
Probate Inventory for Arthur Clifford of 1830 (PROB31/1277/ of the families connected with them, 1906 (p.235).
556) (TNA). Strachey, Barbara, The Strachey Line, Victor Gollancz, London,
Will of John Samuel Charlton, made on 1 August 1849 and 1985.
proved on 13 February 1850 (PROB 11/21 08/368). Wroth, Warwick William, Arthur Clifford (1778-1830) in
Will with letters of administration of Rosamond Cornu (née Dictionary of National Biography 1885-1900, Vol. 11.
Clifford) proved on 3 May 1902 in London. GENI website - Family of Anna Marie Clemence Renou (née
Cadet Papers of Theophilus William Strachey for the Infantry of Cornu) (1852-1936).
Madras (India Office Library (IOL) (Ref: L/MIL/9/184/
pp.244-50). Notes
East India Register and Directory (1836-1846) (IOL).
Birth/Baptism record for Lewis Arthur Clifford in 1820 1. Clifford, Hugh, The House of Clifford from Before the
(DDCC(2) 43/B/48), (East Riding of Yorkshire Archives). Conquest, Phillimore, 1987.
Gentleman’s Magazine Vol. 147 (January to June 1830), London, 2. The following people have been of assistance in uncovering
1830 - Obituary of Arthur Clifford, p.274. some of these details: John Stuart Adams, Catherine Bas,
Sussex Advertiser, Monday 28 September 1840. Helen Clark, Gérard Clement, Alexis Durand, Stuart
Madras Almanac (1840-1845) (IOL). Forbes, Lydiane Gueit-Monchal, Malcolm Linfield,
Madras Military Fund - Registers of Subscribers and their Elizabeth Mills, Jean-Paul Richer, Elodie Taupin and Jackie
Families (IOL) (Ref: L/AG/23/10/1-2). Tench. ‘Rosamond’ was the spelling used by her father, so
Marriage Register of St. Mary’s, Slindon in 1836. that is used throughout this text.
Add Mss 18918 ‘Marriage Settlement of Theophilus William 3. Edward and Jacobina Clavering were witnesses to their
Strachey and Rosamond Clifford’, made 30 September 1840 marriage. Edward was the proprietor of Berrington Hall, but
(WSRO). got badly into debt from 1807, and then he died in 1816, aged
Records of the Asile de Blois ((ref: 3 H dépôt) (AD Loir et Cher) 66. He had married in 1780, Jacobina Leslie (1760-1840),
- Death Record No. 895 of Rosamond Clifford (Cornu) of 28 daughter of the late Patrick Leslie Esq. of Dugud, Balquhain.
February 1902 (FRAD 041 Q 148 (2); and Personal Record Jacobina appears to have been Elizabeth Matilda’s aunt.
(No.1882) of Rosamond Clifford (Cornu) (FRAD 041 1Q15). 4. Lewis was the first name of his father’s twin brother, who
Journal des Villes et des Campagnes, 21 Janvier 1852 (pp.6-8). died in 1806.
Récensement de 1872 - Mouzay (A.D. Indre-et-Loire). 5. He became a merchant in Liverpool, and married there in
The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany, Vol. 71, 1844, but it appears the Treasury sent him, with his wife, to
Partie 1, p.477. South Africa in 1845 to be a clerk on the establishment of
Transcription by Pierre Maurice Clément of ‘Memorandum for the Commissariat, and he had to report there to Gen. Palmer
my daughter Rosamond’ (manuscript), Oxford, 1824 by A.C. i/c Commissariat at Cape Town. They maybe had issue
(Arthur Clifford) (little green book that Rosamund’s there, but none have yet been located.
descendants in France possessed, which is now lost). 6. He was thought to be the only brother of Arthur’s who
Clifford, Hugh, The House of Clifford from Before the Conquest, survived to this period. He worked in the Navy Pay Office
Phillimore, 1987. in Plymouth, and appears to have remained single and
without issue.
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7. Maybe the Anglo-Irish female writer, Louisa Stuart Costello 10. Usually in that period the parents of the married couple
(1799-1870), who was also an artist of miniatures, and who would all be cited in the marriage record, and if, for any
lived in Paris, but who travelled around a lot staying with reason, they were not present it would be indicated, but
different people. Rosamond’s signature was not there. As her absence was not
8. (a certificate of the head-doctor at the mental asylum of indicated, it has been assumed, by some, that she was there.
Blois, subsequently legalised, attested that Madam widow
Cornu, née Rosamond Clifford, mother of the future spouse,
was, because of her mental illness, unable to give in a viable
way her consent to her daughter’s marriage, which was why
this certificate was being presented). Vincent Tickner
9. This would appear to have been the doctor, Alfred Jules
Email: gamco@netcomuk.co.uk
Gabriel Joseph Doutrebente, Directeur of the Asile d’Alienes,
Blois, who died on 1 December 1893.
KINGSLEY JAMES IRELAND , FSG
1942 - 2019
Our friendship was kindled in June 1972 when I read Midland Society for Genealogy & Heraldry and other
Kingsley J. Ireland’s article in the Genealogists’ similar groups.
Magazine (London) Society of Genealogists entitled ‘A Over the years Kingsley demonstrated his immense
Century of Grandchildren’. I found the article well skills at following up genealogical clues. He produced
written, informative, easily readable and an absorbing comprehensive accounts of his Ireland, Overall and
account of how he and some other of his relatives had Cavenett families and their contribution to South
managed to organise a massive family reunion in 1969. Australia. He was in 1973 a founder member (number
Kingsley married Lynley Blatchford in 1965 and that 7) of the South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry
his marriage had sparked an enthusiasm to learn more Society (SAGHS), including later service on its
about his family. Council, and acted as a consultant to many researchers
Kingsley James Ireland was born in Port Broughton, of their family histories (much as he had done for me
South Australia to Reginald James Ireland and Jean with my South Australian family links). He was a
Cavenett. He was a great-grandson of Robert Ireland member of the Society of Australian Genealogists
from Somerset, UK who arrived in South Australia on (SAG) and his scholarship was correctly acknowledged
the ‘David Malcom’ on 4 January 1854. Kingsley grew by his election to the Fellowship of the (London)
up to become a Primary School Teacher, his latter schools Society of Genealogists. His painstakingly thorough
being in the wine-cultivating area of the Barossa Valley. analysis of sources and meticulous attention to detail
Kingsley, amongst a few privileged individuals, had was widely admired in many genealogical circles; and
managed, legally, to obtain access to the South his advice was often sought by other researchers. He
Australian Registry for Births, Marriages and Deaths: and I were also joint authors of several papers
this enabled him to inspect all the registers and make published over the years in the SAG magazine, also in
(uncertified) notes without having to pay for every the Journal of the Australian Jewish Historical Society
certificated document. The extensive information he and also in the Genealogists’ Magazine (London).
obtained was of enormous use for genealogical Kingsley’s interest in his family history’s past also
research and acquired at a fraction of the cost than if extended to its future through his descendancy: a very
every event had had to be paid for by purchasing proud father of his son, Cavenett, and his daughter,
individual certificated documents. Unfortunately, this Marianne. He was similarly a proud grandfather to their
anomalous privilege became unsustainable and was children and to a great-grandson. To Lynley, his widow,
withdrawn but not before Kingsley had been able to and all of them we offer our condolences. Although of
conduct a very large genealogical hunt on my behalf course Kingsley was not a Jew his involvement in mine
which resulted in him locating many latter-day and others Jewish family researches would certainly
descendants of early South Australian settlers merit him receiving the traditional Hebraic valediction
A few years later Kingsley paid a visit to UK and from the Pirkei Avot (the Ethics of the Fathers): ‘you
stayed in Birmingham with my late first wife and me. have done your best, it is not your duty to finish the
Thus, began a personal association which flourished over task but neither may you desist from it’.
the years with us being guests of each other in our
respective homes and sometimes accompanied by Dr Anthony Joseph, FSG
spouses. He was also able to give several very successful
(This appraisal also draws on an obituary published in The South Australian
Genealogist, November 2019, written by Nancy Baldock & Andrew Peake who
genealogical presentations to The Birmingham & have kindly given me permission to quote from their work.)
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