The Irish Bomfords

Robert Bomford of Rahinstown, second son of Stephen Bomford and Elizabeth Sibthorpe (16.9) died in 1817 (19.2.3) leaving his wife Maria (15.5, 19.1) and seven surviving children (15.5.1 Note 9, 19.1), a boy and six sisters, all minors. In 1811 Robert made provision for his wife and children (19.2.2) by placing his lands in the hands of trustees, John Arthur of Seafield, Co Dublin, who was Maria’s first cousin, and William Leonard of Baker Street, London, who was a relative of Maria’s mother. The trustees had to raise £3,000 for Maria, £3,000 for Robert George the only son, and £15,000 to be split between the six daughters (£2,500 apiece), making an overall total of £21,000. This was a considerable task for the trustees and an enormous burden for the lands of Rahinstown, Dirpatrick, Baconstown and Arradstown, which totalled 2,358 statute acres. William Leonard died about 1820 and was not replaced. Once the money was raised from the land, two other trustees were responsible for allocating it to the members of the family. These other trustees were Robert's brother George Bomford of Drumlargan (16.9), and John Massy Bolton who in 1821 inherited Massy land and so changed his name to John Bolton Massy (19.2.2). George Bomford died before Robert, in 1814 (18.8.6) so the only trustees left were John Arthur and John Bolton Massy.

The pound was devalued after the war and sometime between the settlement and the payments, so the payments appear to be in excess of that stipulated in the settlement. Some of the deeds use the words ‘old currency’ and ‘new currency’, but others are not so good and one is left guessing. This has led to a problem concerning mortgages, particularly those on Rahinstown, which Maria took out to cover payments of the settlement.

There are many deeds concerning the settlement and this chapter takes each child and covers their marriage, their ‘in-laws’ and their settlement. The following tree may help to place the family.

There are two Richard Boltons -

Richard Bolton of Bective Abbey who married Frances and
Richard Bolton of Brook Lodge who married Jemina

See also the Massy-Dawson and Poore Pedigrees.

21.2 Maria Bomford (the Mother)

17th November 1821 Maria’s Settlement

Between

1. Maria Bomford of Rahinstown, widow and sole executor of Robert Bomford, late of Rahinstown.

2. Rev John Graham of Thornhill, Co Tyrone

Reciting

1. The settlement of 28th June 1811 (This is quoted at length and agrees with 19.2.2).

2. Robert Bomford’s will of 17th December 1816 (ref 19.2.3) (in which he conveyed land in trust and directed that the money, £21,000, should be paid in equal parts to his six daughters, Annette Maria, Jane Rosetta, Frances Georgina, Jemima Letitia, Susan Margaret and Sarah Maria at their marriage or at the age of 21 which ever comes first). Robert George is to receive £3,000 at the age of 21. His wife is to be the sole executor and guardian of the children. (This is the only reference to Robert’s will, which is missing (though see also 21.6.1). It is also important because it gives a list of the daughters which is normally in order of age, and this confirms that the order in Burke is wrong, that the last two are the other way around; this was previously suspected from an estimate of their birth dates).

3. That Maria (Annette Maria) and Rosetta (Jane Rosetta) had recently come of age. (Actually Rosetta was only 19 but she was married this year and so eligible for her settlement).

4. That the widow, Maria Bomford, had borrowed £2,000 from John Graham by mortgaging the land. John Bolton Massy arranged this mortgage and the money was paid to Jane Rosetta.

Now Maria Bomford has been paid in full, £5,040.

(Book 767 Page 132 No 520267)

A second deed of the same date is almost a duplicate of the above, but adds that George Bomford has died so John Massy Bolton is the sole executor.

(Book 767 Page 133 No 520268)

21.2.1 Second Mortgage on Rahinstown 20th March 1824

This states that:

Maria Bomford, widow, is to receive an annuity of £800;

Annette Maria is lately 21 and is to receive £3,000;

John Bolton Massey raises another loan of £2,500 from Rev John Graham of Thornhill (presumably a second mortgage on Rahinstown); and

Robert George is also ‘lately 21’.

(Book 790 Page 250 No 534185)

Technically Annette Maria and Jane Rosetta should have had £2,500 apiece and their mother Maria £3,000 making a total of £8,000, whereas, in the first deed, Maria was paid £5,040 and in the second a further £2,500 making a total of £7,540 or three lots of £2,500, plus £40 which was no doubt interest. There is an anomaly here, which even the devaluation of the pound does not clarify. However no matter how the figures are juggled the settlement was paid to Maria and two of her daughters, and John Graham holds two mortgages on the land totalling £4,500.

The Rev John Graham of Thornhill was a brother to William Graham (24.6.2) who in 1834 bought Oakley Park for £15,000 and in 1837 sold it to George the younger who in 1824 was aged 13.

Canon Leslie states that from 1795 - 1834 John Graham was Rector of Pomeroy in Co Tyrone which he got through the influence of Lord Norbury (1st Earl, 1745-1831) whose wife was Grace, daughter of Hector Graham of Ballinakill. Rev John married Anna, daughter of Rev John Field and had four children: Letitia Graham born 1800, James Jones Graham born 1801, Henry Hope Graham born 1808 and became Colonel of the 77th Regiment and later a General, and Isabella Graham who married William Lowry of Drumreagh, Commander R.N., whose family came from Pomeroy House.

The Rev John’s father was William Graham of the Meath Militia (15.6.3) and Rev John died in 1834. A more extensive tree of these Grahams will be found in 24.6.2.

21.3 Jane Rosetta

As said above Jane Rosetta was paid her settlement on her marriage rather than at the age of 21. She was born on 13th March 1802 so was 13 months short of her 21st birthday when she married. There were portraits (#1) (#2) (#3) of her at Grenane House (but they seem to have disappeared from the internet as at 1 Jan 2016).

Much of the detail of the Mansergh family comes from Howard’s Visitations of Ireland of 1897.

21.3.1 Marriage – Jane Rosetta Bomford & Richard Martin Southcote Mansergh 25th February 1822

The Mansergh Family

In the early 1500s this family was living at Barwicke Hall in England. A century later Bryan and his younger brother James migrated to Ireland and obtained grants of land, Bryan mostly in Kilkenny, and James mostly in Co Cork around Fermoy. James’ line died out in the early 1700s and most of his land came to Bryan’s son, Daniel, including what was to become the family home of Grenane, two miles north of the town of Tipperary. Much later, in 1878, the land around the house totalled 2,086 acres. The present house is late Georgian and so was possibly built by Daniel’s grandson, Nicholas Southcote Mansergh who died in 1818, or, more likely by his great-grandson, John Southcote Mansergh.

John Southcote Mansergh (Jane Rosetta’s father-in-law) was born at Grenane on 3rd April 1773 and was baptised there. Two of his godparents were Richard Martin and his wife, Catherine, of Clifford, Co Cork, and it was their nephew, Charles Rudinge Martin (21.8.1, 21.8.3), who in 1826 married Susan Margaret Bomford, the fourth sister of Jane Rosetta. Meanwhile on 7th January 1795 John Southcote married Mary Martin (portrait - seems to be no longer online as at 1 Jan 2016), the only daughter of his godparents Richard and Catherine Martin, and Mary eventually inherited Clifford House near Castletownroche from her father and Bridgetown from her mother.

Mary died on 3rd September 1811 and was buried at Castletownroche, and John Southcote married again. He died at Grenane on 14th September 1817 and was buried in the family vault in Tipperary. They had five sons and three daughters and it was their eldest surviving son, Richard Martin Southcote Mansergh, who married Jane Rosetta Bomford. So Jane Rosetta had four brothers-in-law and three sisters-in-law and ended up with more than 23 Mansergh nephews and nieces.

The Marriage (St Peter parish records, Dublin)

Richard Martin Southcote Mansergh of Grenane was born at Bridgetown Co Cork, “at half-past 11 o’clock at night” on 14th November 1800. He was baptised privately at Castletownroche and received into the Church at Tipperary by the Rev Bryan Mansergh, his uncle.

His marriage to Jane Rosetta Bomford (born 13th March 1802 and so age 19) took place at Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, on 25th February 1822. Maria Bomford, Jane’s mother, had taken No 9 Fitzwilliam Square North for the year 1822 according to the Dublin Almanack, so the marriage probably took place from that house. They were married by the Hon Charles Dalrymple Lindsay, Bishop of Kildare from 1804 till his death in 1846. The only parent alive at the time of the marriage was Maria, aged 53; her husband Robert had died in 1817, and both the Mansergh parents had died, John in 1817 and Mary in 1811. However it would have been a social occasion and Maria even took a town house for it. It is doubtful if Jane Rosetta was given away by a Bomford, all her uncles were dead with the possible, though unlikely, exceptions of Ephraim and Chichester, so it is likely that her Massy-Dawson uncle, James Hewitt of Ballynacourty who was a Member of Parliament at this time, did the honours.

Jane Rosetta died 20th February 1836, aged 34, and was buried in the Mansergh family vault at Tipperary. They had five children. Her husband Richard lived on at Grenane and married again in 1843 (21.3.3) and had six more children. He died, aged 76, at Grenane on 24th March 1876 and was buried with his two wives in the family vault.

21.3.2 Jane Rosetta’s Children

1. The eldest was John Southcote Mansergh who inherited Grenane, born at 138 North Gate, Chester, ‘at 3 o’clock in the morning’ of 28th June 1823. The sponsors at his baptism at Little Neston, Cheshire, were: George Bomford who was only 12 that year so it must be Robert George of Rahinstown, the baby’s uncle who was 21. Charles Mansergh, the baby’s uncle who was still at Trinity, and the Hon Mrs Edward Massy of Chester, Jane Rosetta’s mother’s cousin and sister-in-law of Hugh 3rd Baron Massy. It may have been at her house where the baby was born. John joined the army, firstly the 62nd Regiment of Foot, then the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen’s Bays) which in 1847 was stationed at Carlow and finally he became the colonel commanding the 4th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment, becoming their Honorary Colonel. On 24th July 1851 he married in England Mary Elizabeth, only daughter of Charles Walter Wyatt of St Asaph, Flintshire. They had no children. He died in Fulham, London, on 8th February 1899 and was buried at the Brompton Cemetery. His wife died a month later (8th March) and was probably buried with her husband. Grenane was passed to his nephew, Richard Southcote Mansergh.

2. Robert George Mansergh, born at 27 Molesworth Street, Dublin, ‘on Sunday at 2 o’clock p.m.’ 17th April 1825. The sponsors at his baptism were Mrs Mansergh his great-great-grandmother (this is according to Howard but I think she was Elizabeth his great-grandmother); Mrs Massy his great-aunt; Colonel Massy his great-uncle (see below); and Rev John Charles Martin, Fellow of Trinity College (and Jane Rosetta’s future brother-in-law). Robert graduated BA from Trinity in 1844 and died unmarried at Cheadle, Cheshire, on 29th May 1869 aged 44, and was buried there. The relationship of Mrs Massy, the baby’s great-aunt, and Colonel Massy, the baby’s great-uncle, is given by Howard. The baby’s grandparents were Robert Bomford and Maria (Massy-Dawson), so Mrs Massy and the Colonel must be a brother or a sister of Robert or Maria. They are not relatives of Maria who in any case were Massy-Dawsons and so they must be Robert Bomford’s sister Frances Jane and her husband Colonel Cromwell Massy. This adds to our Bomford information because the last mention of this couple was in 1804 and we now know that they were both alive in 1825 and, in all probability, were living in Dublin (15.10.1).

3. Maria Annette Mansergh was born at 3.45 p.m. on 24th April 1828 at Cheltenham. The sponsors at her baptism were Richard Bolton, Rosetta’s brother-in-law (probably the one of Bective Abbey because the other one had not yet married into the family); Mrs Bomford, Rosetta’s mother Maria who at this time was living in Cheltenham and so, no doubt, it was at her house that Maria Annette was born; and Lady Hesketh of Rufford Hall, Lancashire, Rosetta’s sister Annette Maria after whom the baby was named. Maria Annette was married at Tipperary on 26th September 1865 to Joseph Edmund Kooystra Nadin who was born in 1826 and was a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1850. He had previously been married to Emma Margaret Mitchell and by her had issue, Emma Catherine Nadin, b 1855, Chorlton, Lancashire, d c 1865, Tipperary Town, aged 10. He died at Nelson Place, Tipperary on 27th May 1900 and was buried in the Churchyard of Tipperary. One assumes that he was the surgeon at the Tipperary Hospital and that they lived in Nelson Place. Maria Annette died three months before her husband on 13th February 1900 at Nelson Place and both were buried together. Maria and Joseph had a daughter, Annette Jane Nadin, b 27 Jun 1866, Tipperary Town.

4. Jane Rosetta Mansergh was born at Grenane at 7 a.m. 12th March 1830 and was baptised there privately. Her sponsors were Mrs Massy-Dawson (who must be Eliza Jane the wife of James Hewitt Massy-Dawson and great-aunt of the baby) Miss Clarinda Mansergh (another great-aunt, the sister of John Southcote), and Southcote Mansergh, 50th Regiment (of Grallagh Castle, Thurles, now demolished, the baby’s uncle). Jane Rosetta was married at St Paul’s Dublin on 23rd April 1852 to William, son of John Lane, both of Lanespark, Thurles, Co Tipperary. He was born in 1825 but it was not known when either of them died. Neville Good (email 20 Nov 2008 and personal communication Dec 2008) provided additional infromation. Neville has a copy of Jane Rosetta Lane's death certificate, which reveals that she died on 18 August 1908 at 396 Stanmore Road, Marrickville (Sydney) aged 78, that her father Richard Martin Southcote Mansergh was of independent means, that her mother's maiden name was Jane Rosetta Bomford, the informant was her grandson Stanley Rudduck, that she was buried on 19 August 1908 in the Church of England Cemetery in Waverley, that she was born at Grenane, Co Tipperary and had been in NSW for 56 years, that she was 21 years old when she married William Lane, and that she had three children, all living at the time of her death, John Lane aged 54 (so b c1854), Jane Lane aged 50 (b c1858) and Maria Lane aged 48 (b c1860). From that, Jane Rosetta moved to New South Wales, Australia, in 1852, the year of her marriage. Jane Rosetta and John Lane seperated about 1880 when he went to New Zealand. Jane Rosetta's daughter Maria Lane married Sydney Herbert Rudduck (1855 - 1921) in Balranald NSW in 1877. Jane Rosetta lived with her grandson, Maria's son Stanley Rudduck, in Sydney until her death in 1908. Neville Good is compiling a family tree of all the Rudducks in Australia, all descended from two brothers, Samuel Rudduck (1806 - 1869) and Joseph Benjamin Rudduck (1812 - 1879: he moved to Australia with several of his family of 10, including his youngest, Sydney Herbert Rudduck, on the 'Yorkshire' in 1861). If you want more information on the Rudduck family in Australia, contact us.

5. Rosetta’s youngest child was Richard St George Mansergh who was born at Grenane ‘at 10 minutes to 2 o’clock pm’ 25th February 1833. The sponsors at his baptism were Mrs George Walker (Catherine, 1797-1860, wife of Commander George Walker of the Royal Navy of Fermoy, the baby’s aunt), Richard Southcote Mansergh St George of Headford Castle, Galway, (the baby’s great-uncle, the additional surname, St George, was added to inherit Headford Castle), and the Rev John Dawson of Ballinacourty (unable to trace). Richard lived at Friarsfield outside Tipperary in the same parish as Grenane. He inherited Friarsfield from his great-uncle Captain Robert Mansergh. He married Sophia Elizabeth Ellard, the eldest daughter of Richard Oliver Ellard of Newtown-Ellard, Pallasgrean, Co Limerick (or Co Lon), and his wife (m 20 Sep 1838) Charlotte Rebecca Lindsey (or Rebecca Charlotte Lindsey) who was the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Lindsey and his wife Martha Pyne (Lorraine Egan email 28 Nov 2009; website) of Peake, Coachford, Co Cork. Sophia Elizabeth was born on 6th August 1839 and the marriage took place at Pallasgrean on 5th August 1858. Richard died at 5.35 am on 9th August 1897 and was buried in the family vault at Tipperary; Sophia Elizabeth died 7th August 1905. They had three children:

a. Richard Southcote Mansergh was born at his grandparents place at Newtown-Ellard on 25th October 1859. He was baptised at Pallasgrean in the Parish of Grean, and his sponsors were Richard Martin Southcote Mansergh and Richard Oliver Ellard, his grandfathers, and Mrs Charlotte Rebecca Ellard, his grandmother. He was educated at ‘The Abbey’ Tipperary, and Rossall in Lancashire. He inherited Grenane when his uncle died in 1899. He never married and Grenane was passed to his younger brother when he died on 22nd January 1906.

b. Charlotte Rosetta Mansergh was born at Friarsfield 2nd August 1861. Her sponsors were her grandmother, Mrs Charlotte Rebecca Ellard, and her aunt, Miss Elizabeth Mary Mansergh (1845-1868). Charlotte did not marry and died 11th July 1917.

c. Philip St George Mansergh was born at Friarsfield 12th May 1863. The sponsors at his baptism were Miss Maria Annette Mansergh his aunt, and two of his uncles, Philip Oliver Ellard and Southcote Mansergh. He was educated at ‘The Abbey’ with his brother, and became a Railway Engineer based on Beira, East Africa. His home became Friarsfield, which he inherited when his father died in 1897, and in 1906 he inherited Grenane. On 23rd April 1907 he married his cousin, Ethel Marguerite Otway Louisa Mansergh, only daughter of Major Charles Stepney Perceval Egmont Mansergh, 40th Regiment, of Clifford and Bridgetown, Co Cork. Philip died 5th October 1928 and his wife Ethel died 8th February 1963. They had two boys and the elder, Charles Ogilvy Martin Southcote Mansergh, born 1908 inherited Grenane House and the younger one known as Philip has Friarsfield.

21.3.3 Jane Rosetta’s Family Tree

There follows a simplified family tree showing Jane Rosetta’s family. It will be seen that she died in 1836 when her family were still very young, aged 13 down to 3. Her husband married again so the children were brought up by their stepmother, ChristineMauleverer, the daughter of the local Rector of Tipperary, Richard Mauleverer. There were also three step-brothers and three stepsisters, but they were much younger.

21.4 Annette Maria

It is not known when Annette was born, but she was probably the oldest of Robert and Maria’s children. She is first mentioned in the deed of November 1821 (21.2) when she had recently come of age so she was born in or before 1800, probably c1799. She received the money for her settlement in 1824, which was no doubt embroidered into her marriage settlement, which has not been found.

Neither is it known how she or her mother came to meet Thomas Henry Hesketh. The Hesketh family had Irish connections, many of the daughters had married into Irish families in Queen’s Co, Limerick, Tipperary and Tyrone, but basically the Hesketh family came from England.

21.4.1 The Hesketh Family

The Hesketh pedigree goes back to the 1100s, and their house, Rufford Hall near Ormskirk in Lancashire, came into the family by a marriage in the 1200s. William Hesketh fought at the Battle of Crecy in 1346 and was knighted by Edward III. Rufford Old Hall was built in the early 1400s and has been added to at various times since then; the last addition being in 1821, a couple of years before the marriage of Annette Maria Bomford and Thomas Henry Hesketh.

Many of the early Heskeths were soldiers and so were involved in the Wars of the Roses and the Hundred Year’s War. Robert Hesketh was knighted by Henry VIII in 1539 and we are told that “he served the King in France and for his valoure, forwardness, actyvytie and good service was Knighted by the King’s own hand with great countenance and many good wordes”.

Robert’s son, Thomas, was also knighted by Queen Mary at her Coronation in 1553 for service in the Scottish Wars. The family were Royalists in the Cromwellian Wars and would have lost their estates if the head of the family, another Robert, had not been over 80, and his heir an infant grandson.

In 1761 Thomas Hesketh was created a baronet; he died without children and his brother Robert became the 2nd Baronet. Sir Robert’s grandson was the 3rd Baronet and he was the father of our Sir Thomas Henry Hesketh

The 3rd Baronet, Annette Maria’s father-in-law, was Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh, born 1777 and died 27th July 1842. He married twice:

Firstly in 1798 to Sophia, only daughter of Rev Nathaniel Hinde. She died in 1817 having had one son and three daughters:

1. Thomas Henry Hesketh, who married Annette Maria Bomford, was born 11th February 1798 which appears to be the same month and year that his parents married, hopefully Sir Thomas and Sophia were married in 1797 in February.

2. Harriett Hesketh married in 1832 Rev Joshua Horton of Howroyde in Yorkshire. She had children but died in 1836.

3. Sophia Elizabeth Hesketh married in 1840 Rev J.S. Hodgson, Rector of Brinklow in Warwickshire. She had children and died in 1886.

4. Emma Susette Hesketh married a Mr E. Honzecker.

Secondly in September 1821 to Louisa Allemand who died in 1832 giving birth to:

5. Matilda Catherine Hesketh who died unmarried in 1906. No doubt Annette Maria assisted in bringing her up.

21.4.2 Marriage Annette Maria Bomford & Sir Thomas Henry Hesketh 3rd April 1824

Thomas Henry was 26 when he married Annette Maria who was perhaps 25. His mother was dead and his father had just married again. It is not known where the marriage took place (familysearch.com records it at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England) but in 1826 they were both living at Rufford Hall with Thomas’ three sisters. Nick Reddan's newspaper extracts record from the Westmeath Journal of 15 April 1824: 'At Cheltenham, Thomas Henry Hesketh, Esq., only son of Sir Thomas Hesketh, Bart. of Rufford Hall, Lincolnshire, to Annette Maria, eldest daughter of the late Robert Bomford, Esq. of Rahenstown House, County Meath.'

Rufford Old Hall is now a folk museum, presented to the National Trust in 1936 by the late Lord Hesketh, great grandson of Annette Maria. It is a medieval timber-framed manor house with an ornate hammer beam roof. The great hall itself was built in the early 1480s and has remarkable carved wooden screens designed to keep out drafts. The east wing was built about 1662 and is a good example of late Jacobean brick architecture. Much of the original Jacobean oak furniture and a magnificent Tudor tester bed is now in the folk museum which also includes the Hesketh collection of arms, tapestries, ancient coins, porcelain, and books. All of these would have been familiar to Annette Maria.

Tomas Henry succeeded to the title and to Rufford Old Hall when his father died in 1842, but seven months later he himself died on 10th February 1843. This left Annette Maria with Rufford Hall and the two children, both minors. She did not die until 17th April 1879. Rufford Old Hall was extended and renovated by Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh as a wedding present for his son.

Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire, a souvenir guide (National Trust 2007; emails 29 Apr & 2 May 2016) says that Annette and Thomas Henry Hesketh raised their family in the Old Hall, moving to the New Hall on the death of his father, Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh. Thomas Henry died shortly after, leaving his 18 year old son Thomas George Hesketh to succeed. Thomas George became 5th Baronet and married Arabella Fermor in 1846 and moved into the New Hall, with Annette returning to the Old Hall, the dower house, until her death in 1879.

21.4.3 The Children of Annette Maria Bomford and Sir Thomas Hesketh

They only had two children, a boy and a girl

1. Thomas George, born 11th January 1825, succeeded to the title in 1843 when he was 18, and became the 5th Lord Hesketh. Later he became Colonel of the 2nd Lancashire Militia and Member of Parliament for Preston. When he was 21 he married on 10th March 1846 Lady Anne Maria Arabella Fermor, the eldest daughter of Thomas William, 4th Earl of Pomfret, a title that is now extinct. He took the name Fermor-Hesketh as a result of inheritance contained in their marriage settlement when in 1867 Arabella inherited Hawksmoor Mansion and a 5,000 acre estate of Easton Neston in Northamptonshire. She died 25th February 1870 and he died 20th August 1872. Their children were:

a. Thomas Henry Fermor-Hesketh, born 9th January 1847, became the 6th Baronet of Rufford Hall. He died unmarried aged 29 on 28th May 1876.

b. Thomas George Fermor-Hesketh, born 9th May 1849 and succeeded his brother in 1876, 7th Baronet of Rufford Hall. He served with the Rifle Brigade and later became Honorary Colonel of the 3rd and 4th Battalions of the King’s Liverpool Regiment. On 23rd December 1880 at San Francisco he married Florence Emily Sharon, daughter of William Sharon, Senator of Nevada. Flora, as Florence was called, and her husband took Somerville from Lord Athlumney, and later Killeen from the Earl of Fingall, for the hunting with the Meath. Elizabeth (Daisy), Countess of Fingall of Killeen, has much about her in her book ‘Seventy years young’. She says that Flora had the distinction of wearing the red coat out hunting and goes on to relate:

“Flora looked very well on a horse, with her neat figure and charming face. She was most attractive and had all the young men after her. She used to entertain greatly in London later at their house, 111 Piccadilly, and often entertained King Edward there. On one occasion Flora told Lady Annette La Touche that she was to meet the Prince of Wales – as King Edward was then – at dinner, and Lady Annette thought that Flora was making fun of her. And, being introduced to His Royal Highness, refused flatly to curtsey, saying, ‘Oh, I know you are not the Prince of Wales!’ I talked of Flora the other day to Sir Seymour Fortescue. He said, ‘What I liked was Flora’s independence. If she liked you, she liked you, no matter who you were. If she didn’t like you, she didn’t like you, no matter who you were.’ In those early hunting days in Meath she went with more courage than knowledge, and couldn’t hold her horses, so that they carried her rather wildly across the country. Once, pulling hard, unable to stop her mount, she landed on top of Harry Bourke – Lord Mayo’s brother, and a great hunting man – at a double. When they were disentangled on the other side he asked her, with much good language, what the devil she thought she was doing. Flora smiled at him enchantingly; ‘Well’, she said, ‘If you will sit roo-oosting on those doubles.’ It was Flora’s victory.”

Their two sons were:-

i. Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, born 17th November 1881, 8th Baronet of Rufford Hall. Served with the Royal Horse Guards. He married and the Hesketh line continues from his marriage

ii. Frederick Hesketh, born 24th September 1883, served with the 9th Lancers

c. Hugh Robert Hesketh, born 11th June 1850, died unmarried aged 29 in 1879

d. Edith Elizabeth Hesketh married 10th August 1871 Lawrence Rawstorne of Penwortham Priory, Lancashire, and had children.

e. Constance Maria Hesketh

f. Augusta Sophia Hesketh died unmarried 1875

2. The only daughter was Maria Harriet who on 15th November 1845 married Lawrence Palk, 1st Lord Haldon.

21.4.4 Lord Haldon’s Family Annette Maria’s Son-in-Law

Lawrence Palk, 1st Baron Haldon of Haldon, near Exeter, was the eldest son of Sir Lawrence Vaughan Palk, 3rd Baronet, and Anna Eleanora the eldest daughter of Sir Bourchier Wrey. He was born in 1818 and became a JP and DL for Devon. In 1845 he married Maria Harriet Hesketh and they had six children, and in 1880 he was made a peer. He died on 22 March 1883 and she lived on until 18th December 1905 when she died. Their children were:

1. Lawrence Hesketh Palk, 2nd Baron Haldon, born 6th September 1846, became a JP and saw service with the Scots Guards. On 7th October 1868 he married Hon Constance Mary, the eldest daughter of George William, 7th Viscount Barrington. He died 31st December 1903 having had 4 children

a. Lawrence William Palk, 3rd Baron Haldon, was born 13th July 1869. He was a Captain with the Royal Fusiliers and served in the South African War in 1900 and 1901. On 10th February 1893 he married Lidiana Amalia Crezencia, a daughter of Colonel Jacob William Maichle of the Imperial Russian Army. They had a son:

Lawrence Edward Broomfield Palk, born 13th May 1896, the 4th Baron Haldon.

b. Lawrence Charles Walter Palk born 28th September 1870 was a Captain in the Hampshire Regiment.

c. Florence Annette Georgina Palk was born 21st October 1871.

d. Mary Evelyn Palk was born 28th October 1875.

2. Robert Henry Palk, born in 1848, served with the 23rd Fusiliers and died unmarried 6th March 1878 aged 30.

3. Walter George Palk was a Lieutenant with the Royal Horse Artillery when he died unmarried 1st May 1876 aged about 26.

4. Edward Arthur Palk, born in 1854, saw service with the Devonshire Regiment and became their Honorary Colonel. On 18th July 1883 he married Charlotte Frances, a daughter of the Rev Sir Frederick Shelley, 8th Baronet of Shobrooke Park, Devon. She was born 21st May 1855 and they had no children.

5. Annette Maria Palk married on 16th July 1873 Sir Alexander Baird, 1st Baronet of Urie, Kincardine. She died on 21st May 1884 having had two sons and five daughters, of whom the eldest son was:

a. Sir John Lawrence Baird, 2nd Baronet, born 1874 and joined the Diplomatic Service in Abyssinia. He married in 1905 Ethel Sydney Keith-Falconer, the eldest daughter of the 9th Earl of Kintore.

6. Evelyn Elizabeth Palk married on 26th April 1882 Ernest Gambier Perry of Elmcroft, Goring-on-Thames. He was a Major in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. They had children.

21.5 Robert George Bomford (Only Son)

The deed of 1824 (21.2.1) states that Robert George Bomford is “lately 21” and so eligible for the money from his father’s settlement, but there does not appear to be any deed which actually states that he got his £3,000. He did not have it in 1827 because the deed of that year only says that he has “become entitled to” it (21.6.1).

Robert George was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated BA as the following extract from Alumni Dublinenses shows: “Bomford, George, Socius Comitatus, Private Tutor, 5th May 1817 (entered) aged 16, son of Robert, Generosus, born Meath, BA Summer 1821.”

This is the only document, which tells us about Robert George’s early days, and immediately his birth date is under dispute. Burke states that he was born in 1802 and, if this is so, then he and Jane Rosetta were twins since she was born on 13th March 1802; on the other hand the Trinity record states that he was born in 1801 (entered 5th May 1817, aged 16) and this is much more likely and Burke should be amended.

So Robert George was born in 1801 in Meath, most probably at Rahinstown. Later he had a private tutor, also probably at Rahinstown. At the age of 16 he entered Trinity and 4 years later he got his BA.

In 1826 he married Elizabeth Kennedy in Dublin according to the Marriage Licence issued by the Diocese of Dublin, “Bomford, Robert George, and Elizabeth Kennedy, 1826 ML” Page 373.

The marriage settlement was dated 9th October so it is most likely that the marriage was in October 1826.

The next chapter (22.1) contains more about Robert George and his wife Elizabeth.

21.5.1 Marriage Settlement – Robert George Bomford & Elizabeth Kennedy 9th October 1826

Between

1. Robert George Bomford of Rahinstown

2. James Trail Kennedy of Annadale, Co Down, and his only surviving child, Elizabeth Kennedy, spinster

3. John Arthure of Seafield, Co Dublin (Trustee of Robert Bomford’s settlement)

4. James Stewart of Belfast, merchant (Trustee with John Arthur of Kennedy property).

5. Thomas Henry Hesketh of Old Rufford Hall, Lancashire (Robert George’s brother-in-law) and Archibald Hamilton Rowan of Leinster Street, Dublin (Trustees of Robert George’s marriage settlement).

6. James Massey-Dawson Junior of Forest (New Forest) Co Tipperary (died 1837, 1st cousin of Robert George) and Arthur Hill Read of Killeleagh, Co Down (perhaps a Kennedy relation).

Reciting

1. Lease of 27th June 1811. (This is the lease, the day before Robert Bomford’s settlement of Rahinstown etc (19.2.2) to the trustees John Arthur and William Leonard; the latter has since died.)

2. Marriage settlement of the marriage shortly to be had between Robert George Bomford and Elizabeth Kennedy. The land is to be conveyed to Robert George Bomford (this land must be Mullagh), and that Elizabeth Kennedy is to be given, after his death, the sum of £500 of the late currency or £461.10.9 present currency; and further that the sons and daughters of the marriage should receive £4,000. The Trustees are to be Thomas Henry Hesketh (Annette Maria’s husband) and Hamilton Rowan.

3. James Trail Kennedy leases to the trustees, John Arthure and James Stewart: the lands of Mullagh containing 297 plantation acres (481 statute) in the Barony of Deece; Derrylough 89 plantation acres (144 statute) in the Parish of Loughbrickland, Co Down; Ballymacanallin, Ballintagert and Mullabruck, Co Down, half share only; Galvally 21 and 32 plantation acres (total 86 statute) in the Barony of Castlereagh, Co Down . . . (The list goes on and includes houses in Belfast).

The trustees are to pay Robert George Bomford £400 late currency a year during the life of James Trail Kennedy.

They are to hand over the land of Mullagh to Robert George Bomford. (Book 818 Page 198 No 550933)

This deed is really a memorial of a number of previous deeds and includes the details of the marriage settlement; the actual marriage settlement has not been located. However it is clear that Robert George is to get £400 a year whilst his father-in-law is alive, that Elizabeth is to get £500 when Robert George dies and that the children of the marriage are to get £4,000; it is not clear whether this £4,000 is to be shared between the children or whether they are to get £4,000 each, but the question will not arise as Elizabeth had no children.

Mullagh

Mullagh becomes a Bomford property. This townland covers the crossroads of the Kilcock - Dunshaughlin road and the Summerhill - Dunboyne road. Ten years later in 1836 the Ordnance Survey places it in the Parish of Kilmore and states that it contains “496 acres the property of Mr Bomford (Robert George) who has it let at £1.15.0 an acre”, and so bringing in an income of £868. The survey of 1654 also places it in Kilmore Parish but then it had less than half the acreage, only 220 statute acres.

21.5.2 Portrait of Robert George

Robert George Bomford c 1801 - 1846. Click on picture for larger view.

This miniature portrait by an unknown artist hangs at Crodara. The frame is a duplicate of that of his mother Maria, and Joan Clifford of Canterbury who had the portrait there at one time, thought that it was of Robert George’s father, Robert Bomford; but my father was quite definite in the identification of the picture as that of Robert George. I do not remember his reasons but certainly the clothes indicate the 1820s rather than the 1800s.

Robert George is dressed in a black coat with high astrakan collar and white shirt with a black cravat. He looks to be in his early 20s and has curly black hair with white streaks in it. He has blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He was married when he was 25 and this portrait may be dated about that time, as he looks to be about that age. A note pasted to the back of the picture states "Robert George Bomford of Rahinstown High Sheriff of Co. Meath 1832 ...".

21.5.3 The Kennedy Family

Elizabeth’s grand-parents were Gilbert Kennedy of Belfast, born 1706 (another source gives 1717) and died 12 May 1773. On 24 December 1742 he married Elizabeth, second daughter of James Traill 1690-1743 and Mary Hamilton; he was a son of Hans Traill of Tullochin (Catherine Holman email 10 Jul 2008). She was born 12 October 1712 and died 20 April 1786. They lived at Annadale, Knockbreda, Co Down and had at least one son, James Traill Kennedy of Annadale. He was born on 8 April 1751and died on 28 August 1832 in Belfast (Elsie Ritchie email 10 Jul 2008), becoming a respected merchant in Belfast along the way. In 1790 he married Ann who was born in 1769 (could she be the “Anna” of “Annadale”?). They had at least two children:

1. James Kennedy, baptised 6 March 1792 and died at Windsor 29 December 1806, aged 14

2. Elizabeth Kennedy, baptised18 Aug 1806, Eustace Street Presbyterian, Dublin, died 1 July 1870, buried at St Annes Church, Dublin (Elsie Ritchie email 10 Jul 2008),married c October 1826 Robert George Bomford, who died in 1846. See paragraph 22.10 concerning Elizabeth’s second marriage of 6 June 1850 to Marcus Gervais de la Poer Beresford, Archbishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of Ireland. She had no children.

After Elizabeth married and her father had died, her branch of the Kennedy family ended and Annadale was sold. The Kennedy who underwrote the Rahinstown mortgage of 1838 (22.2.2) was from another branch – the Kennedy family of Cultra on the south side of Belfast Loch in County Down.

21.6 Frances Georgina Bomford (3rd daughter)

There are a number of deeds concerning her settlement and marriage. The settlement was paid in two parcels, £1,800 in April 1827 and the balance in December, and involved another mortgage on Rahinstown.

21.6.1 Mortgage on Rahinstown etc 20th April 1827

Between

1. John Bolton Massy of Ballywire, Co Limerick (actually it is just inside Co Tipperary)

2. William Jones Armstrong of Demerara, West Indies (where he was Colonial Secretary, later he lived at the family home of Killylea, Co Armagh. His mother was a daughter of John Tew and connected to the Bomfords through Thomas the elder. See family trees under 9.3.7 and 22.2.2).

3. Maria Bomford of Rahinstown, widow of Robert Bomford deceased, now residing at Cheltenham, Co Gloucester.

4. James Hewett Massey Dawson of New Forest, Co Tipperary, Member of Parliament, and Bartholemew Dillon of Kildare Street, Dublin, Doctor of Physic (These two were party to Robert Bomford’s settlement on his children of June 1811, 19.2.2.)

5. Robert George Bomford, only son and heir of Robert Bomford deceased.

Reciting

1. Lease of 27th June 1811 (Robert’s trust of Rahinstown etc 21.5.1).

2. Will of Robert Bomford of 17th December 1816 (21.2).

3. Frances Georgina Bomford has lately become 21 and has received £1,800 on 18th April 1827 out of her £3,000.

Now Maria Bomford the widow and George Robert Bomford, also lately 21, have become entitled so a mortgage is raised by the only surviving trustee John Bolton Massey. He gets £1,384.12.3 or £1,500 old currency from William Jones Armstrong. (Book 824 Page 491 No 554826)

A continuation of the above deed dated 8th December 1827 lists the land mortgaged. These lands were Dirpatrick 475, Arradstown 77, Baconstown 507, and Rahinstown 396 all in plantation measure. (Book 830 Page 557 No 558392)

Their mother, Maria, is now living in Cheltenham and has left Rahinstown to Robert George and his wife Elizabeth; later she returns to Dublin. She ends her days with her daughter Frances Georgina at Bective Abbey.

Final Settlement Payment to Frances Georgina Bomford 8th December 1827

Between

1. Richard Bolton of Headfort, Co Meath, (belonging to Thomas, 1st Marquess of Headfort, Kells) and Frances Georgina Bolton, his wife and 3rd daughter of Robert Bomford formerly of Rahinstown deceased.

2. John Bolton Massey of Ballywire, Co Limerick, surviving trustee of the settlement of 8th June 1811 (19.2.2, which is recited).

Reciting

1. That Frances Georgina Bolton was entitled to £3,000.

Now she has received payment in full. (Book 830 Page 445 No 558381)

21.6.2 Marriage Settlement of Frances Georgina Bomford and Richard Bolton 9th May 1827

Between

1. Richard Bolton of Bective, Co Meath

2. Frances Georgina Bomford of Rahinstown, spinster.

3. Robert George Bomford of Rahinstown and Thomas H Hesketh of Rufford Hall, Co Lancaster.

On the marriage of Frances Georgina Bomford and Richard Bolton, Richard Bolton places in trust to Party 3 his lands of Bective Abbey and the surrounding land (all listed). (Book 829 Page 379 No 557714)

Nick Reddan's newspaper archive records from the Westmeath Journal of 24 May 1827: 'At Cheltenham, Richard Bolton, Esq., of Abbey, county Meath, to Frances Georgina, daughter of the late Robert Bomford, Esq., of Rehinstown House, co. of Meath.'

21.6.3 Richard Bolton of Bective Abbey and his family

Much time was spent in sorting out the two Richard Boltons (the other is covered at 21.7.2); but finally the following was found in the 1861 edition of ‘Henderson’s Post Office Directory for County Meath’. Items in brackets come from other sources. See also his entry in Burke (A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain, 4th Edn, 1862, page 123).

“Bolton, Richard Esq. of Bective Abbey, DL, married Frances, daughter of George Bomford of Rahinstown. (Should be Robert Bomford).

Lineage

Sir Richard Bolton, Knight Recorder of Dublin in 1607, was the son of John Bolton of Great Fenton, Co Stafford, and derived from a branch of the family of Bolton at Bolton Lancashire.

In 1639 he became Lord Chancellor of Ireland. (1639 was a critical year for Ireland and Sir Richard became involved with the constitutional wrangle between King Charles, Pym and Strafford, but he ended up on the right side and literally kept his head although Strafford did not. He was granted the Parish of Bective by King Charles I.)

He married firstly Frances, daughter of R Walters of Stafford. (Frances died in 1641 defending Brazeel against Ruah O’Neill whilst her husband was away. Lady Bolton held off the attackers for some time but the Castle caught fire, was burnt down and Frances died in the flames. The Castle was not rebuilt. Sir Richard married...) secondly Margaret, daughter of Sir Patrick Barnewall of Turvey (at Donabate, Co Dublin, who held the now extinct Viscountcy of Kingsland. (See note). He had two daughters and seven sons by his first wife, of whom the eldest...

Sir Edward Bolton, of Brazeel, Co Dublin, was knighted in 1635 and constituted Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland, but was removed by the Commonwealth. [The Civil Survey of 1654 records “Sir Edward Bolton of Braseile, Protestant” as the proprietor in 1640 of the whole of the Parish of Bective consisting of eight townlands totalling about 2,000 statute acres in the Barony of Navan, plus 226 acres of the townland of Balreesk in Balsoon Parish. All this came in time to Richard who placed it in trust in 1827 for his wife Frances Georgina (Bomford) (21.6.2). The Survey updates the above to 1654 and says that Bective Parish “was then in the possession of Sir Edward Bolton, Knt, Protestant, whoe helde the same in ye sayd yeare by Patent and then worth Twenty Pounds of all ye Tythes. Posessed now by Nicholas Bolton Esq. son and heire to Sr Edward Bolton.” From this we can deduce that Sir Edward died about 1650 (Burke says 1648).]

His eldest son Nicholas, of Brazeel, d 1692, married in 1649 Anne, daughter of Nicholas Loftus of Fethard (died 1666) and ancestor of the Marquess of Ely. They had five children and his second son...

Richard of Brazeel, married Anne Catherine, daughter of Stein Bill of Copenhagen, and dying in 1721 was succeeded by his eldest son ...

Edward (of Brazeel), MP for Swords, who married Letitia, (youngest) daughter of (Robert 1st) Viscount Molesworth (Ambassador to Denmark) and died 1758 leaving nine children. The eldest son ...

Robert married 1754 Elizabeth, daughter of John Blennerhassett, and had two sons. (Elizabeth’s mother was Anne the daughter of Colonel James Dawson of Ballynacourty, and sister to Mary the wife of the 1st Lord Massy. Mary was the grandmother of Maria who married Robert Bomford of Rahinstown, see 19.2.2). Robert Bolton died 1798 and was succeeded by his son:

Edward of Brazeel who married firstly Miss Donaldson, and secondly ... Frances, daughter of Joseph Neynoe. The eldest son ...

Robert Compton of Brazeel, had two wives: His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of James Massy-Dawson (and sister to Maria Bomford); they had no children (but see below). By the second wife, Charlotte, daughter of Joseph Neynoe, whom he married in 1800, he had a daughter and two sons. His eldest son succeeded him ...

Richard Bolton, now (1861) Bective Abbey.”

The 'Massy-Dawson and Poore Pedigrees' (1937, published privately, copy in the British Library) has a different end to that story. According to it, Robert Compton Bolton and his wife Elizabeth Rosetta Bolton had 5 children. The eldest son was Captain Robert Dawson Bolton, who became a Cornet on 18 June 1801 and died of wounds received while on duty at the Battle of Orthes in the Peninsular War in 1814; the second son was John Bolton-Massy, born 1785, took the name Massy on inheriting Ballywire and other lands from his grand uncle the Hon John Massy, married Jane Greene (1793-1878) and died in Dublin on 4th February 1871 having had three sons; the third son was James Bolton who died when about 20 years old; the second daughter was Kate Bolton, who died in infancy. Elizabeth Rosetta was born c 1770 and died in 1851, aged 80 or more. According to the 'Pedigrees', Robert and Elizabeth married in about 1783 (and the eldest son must have been born about then), when she would have been an improbable c 13 years old, so she may have been born before 1770. The 'Pedigrees' states that Robert Crompton Bolton "joined a band of strolling players and was never heard of again."

The 'Pedigrees' records that Richard Bolton of Bective Abbey was born in 1804, died on 28th February 1868, was buried in the Bective Churchyard, and was the only and younger brother of Lieut.-Colonel John Bolton. It does not record who their parents were. Lieut.-Col John Bolton, the elder brother, was born in 1797, was an ensign in the 67th Regiment of Foot from 5th November 1813, Lieut from 26th March 1819 and became a Captain on 4 September 1835. He joined the 75th on 6 April 1837, was promoted to Brevet-Major on 9 November 1846 and retired on 28 January 1848. Six years later he was confirmed as Lieut.-Colonel on 28 November 1854. He married Maria Arthur (1808-89) and died at Sedbury, South Devon, on 7 December 1862 aged 65. She died in Dublin on 27 January 1889.

So the parentage of Richard Bolton of Bective Abbey is uncertain. Possibly as stated in the Post Office Directory and in Burke he is the son of a second marriage of Robert Compton Bolton of Brazeel who otherwise "joined a band of strolling players and was never heard of again", though probably not the elder son by that marriage. See the discussion and tree at 15.5.1.

What is clear is that Richard’s marriage to Frances Georgina Bomford took place in May 1827, in Cheltenham. They had no children and Bective Abbey was passed to their nephew, Rev George Henry Martin, youngest and fourth son of Frances Georgina’s sister Susan Margaret and Charles Rudinge Martin (21.8.4).

In 1838 Lewis comments: “Bective Parish is the property of Richard Bolton. He resides at Bective House a handsome modern residence, pleasantly situated on the banks of the River Boyne. There is no Church and the parishioners attend Divine Service at either Trim or Kilmessan. The Abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII.” Since previous Boltons were “of Brazeel” and Bective House was ‘modern’ in 1838, we can presume that it was Richard Bolton who built the house before his marriage in 1827. Burke’s Country Houses places it as c1790 but this would make Richard’s father “of Bective” rather than “of Brazeel”. Richard also built the Church at Bective in 1851; the Church was closed down in 1990.

Richard Bolton died at Bective on 27th February 1868 and was buried in the church there on 4th March by the Bishop of Meath, Samuel Butcher.

Frances Georgina lived on for another 16 years. She headed the list of subscribers in Bective Parish till her death on the 24th June 1884, aged 80.

‘The Landowners of Ireland’ 1878 edition credits “Mrs Frances G. Bolton of Bective, Navan,” with 3,516 acres in Co Meath with a valuation of £3,034. On her death this all passed to her nephew.

Richard was one of two unplaced Boltons.

Note on Turvey

I could not resist including this story of Turvey and wonder if it was the origin of the saying ‘topsy-turvy’. It happened when our Richard Bolton was a little boy. Towards the end of the 1700s, when there was a false rumour of the death of the bachelor 5th Viscount Kingsland, who lived abroad, a Dublin tavern waiter named Matthew Barnewall, believing himself to be the heir, took possession of Turvey with a party of his friends and dispensed ‘rude hospitality’ there to the local populace; cutting down trees and lighting bonfires. After a short while he was evicted and committed to prison for contempt; but in 1814, thanks to the researches of a friendly lawyer, he was actually recognised as the 6th Viscount Kingsland. However he did not succeed in claiming Turvey or any of the other estates, which formerly went with the title, since they had been bequeathed by the 5th Viscount, who died in 1800, to his kinsman the 13th Lord Trimlestown.

21.7 Jemima Letitia Bomford (4th Daughter)

Jemima was twin to Frances Georgina and was born in 1806. This would make her 27 when she was married in 1833. No marriage licence has been found, but the following deed places her ‘of Merrion Square, Dublin’. The Dublin Almanacks record no Bomford living in Merrion Square but ‘Mrs Bomford’, was living just round the corner in No 7 Merrion Street. ‘Mrs Bomford’ would be Jemima’s mother Maria, and it is likely that the marriage took place from this house.

21.7.1 Marriage Settlement - Jemima Letitia Bomford and Richard Bolton 15th March 1833

Between

1. Lyndon Bolton of Monkstown Castle, Co Dublin, and Jane (formerly Carpenter), his wife

2. Richard Bolton of Monkstown Castle, eldest son and heir of Lyndon Bolton

3. Jemima Letitia Bomford of Merrion Square, Dublin, spinster

4. John Massey Bolton, then John Bolton Massey, of Ballywire County Tipperary and late of Dawson Street, Dublin. (Executor of Robert Bomford’s settlement)

5. William Parsons Hooey of Leeson Street, Dublin and Henry Justice of Denzelle Street, Dublin, Barrister at Law (Trustees of Jemima’s £400 annuity)

6. Thomas Henry Hesketh of Old Rufford Hall, Co Lancaster, and Richard Bolton of Bective, Co Meath. (Both are Jemima’s brothers- in-law)

7. Andrew Bourne of Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, Barrister at Law, (Richard Bolton’s brother-in-law), and Abraham Bolton of Dublin, Captain H.M. 5th Regiment of Dragoons (Richard’s younger brother) (Both were trustees for the children).

8. Robert George Bomford of Rahinstown

Reciting

1. Lyndon Bolton leased Richard Bolton several houses in Dublin on 21st May 1831, and land in Co Dublin.

2. Richard Bolton is to receive £3,000 on his marriage

3. In accordance with the settlement of Robert Bomford for his children, Robert (George) Bomford gives Jemima Letitia her settlement of £3,000

4. A marriage is intended to be had between Richard Bolton and Jemima Letitia Bomford.

Now Richard Bolton places his Dublin houses and land in Co Waterford and in Co Dublin in the hands of William Parsons Hooey and Henry Justice in trust for an annuity of £400 to Jemima Letitia to be paid upon his death. Jemima Letitia places her £3,000 in trust to Andrew Bourne and Abraham Bolton for an annuity of £60 for each of her children. (Year 1834 Book 5 No 277)

This is not the only Bomford / Bolton marriage. Jemima and Richard’s niece, Elinor Jane Bolton, will marry John Francis Bomford in 1866 (30.3.1). The following background to the Bolton family will lead to both marriages

21.7.2 The Bolton Family

(This is not the family of the other Richard Bolton (of Bective Abbey), covered at 21.6.3. See also The Bolton family of county Wexford Ireland: with emphasis on land records by Elizabeth Nichols and Adrian Cardell; and Bolton Families in Ireland by Charles Knowles Bolton.) Note: Adrian Cardell says (email 22 Feb 2021) the text here 'perpetuates the nonsense in Charles Knowles Bolton, and Burke, concerning the early Bolton family,' so take what is here with a grain of salt and read his book.

There are many Boltons in Ireland, but this branch is “of The Island”, their residence at Kilmuckridge, Co Wexford. The house is about half way between Gorey and Wexford Town, and due east of Enniscorthy. It was probably built by John Bolton who died in 1758 without leaving any children and he bequeathed it to his brother William. The centre block of the house was of three storeys with five bays and the wings were of two storeys, the right wing being of three bays and the left of one bay so the wings were not balanced; the rooms had low ceilings which were decorated with elaborate plasterwork in the ground floor rooms during the 1800s. The Island has been passed from one William to the next until the William who died in 1958 without any children. He left it to his three nieces, Eva, Violet, and Mary Hughes who sold it in 1962, there being no more Bolton’s from that branch in Ireland.

This Bolton family came from Beaumaris in Anglesey and the first Bolton to come to Ireland was Richard, born 1620, who acquired Ballyduff in Co Wexford probably around 1650 - 1660. Richard’s great-grandson, another Richard, 1695 - 1730, is recorded as being of Ballyduff and Cold Harbour, both in Co Wexford. He married Ann, a daughter of Sir John Roberts of Ardamine, Co Wexford, and died in 1730 having had eight sons and four daughters three of whom were:

1. Richard of Ballyduff, who had two sons:

a. Edward, born 1750, of Ballinstraw (Ballyduff must have been sold), had eight sons and five daughters. Their descendants, many of whom are alive today, have moved out of Ireland after a spell in Dublin.

b. Richard who had a son, Robert.

2. John who inherited much property and probably built The Island, died unmarried in 1758. His property all passed to his brother, the 3rd son.

3. William (see below).

The other nine children mostly did not marry, and the only one who did and who had children ended with a grand-daughter who married Joaquin Carrion, the Councillor of State to the King of Spain.

The third son, William, born 1720, was known as “Black Billy”. He became a Commissioner in Co Wexford, married twice and died in 1776. His first marriage was to Grace, second daughter of Denny Cuffe of Sandhill, Co Carlow, a connection of the First Lord Desart. She had three sons:

1. William of The Island married in 1780 Dorothea, daughter of Sir John Blunden, 1st Baronet. Dorothea’s brother was the 2nd Baronet who married Dame Frances Blunden the heir of John Robbins of Ballyduff, Co Kilkenny, and it was Frances who left £4,500 to Arbella Bomford in 1805 (18.8.4).

William and Dorothea had a number of children, but we shall not follow their offspring. The next four generations all started with “William of The Island”; the first William, 1782-1853, kept a pack of hounds which he hunted at his own expense: these hounds were kept on after his death and became famous as ‘The Island’ hunt. The second William, 1815-1905, was Godfather to John Stephen Bomford in 1869 (33.3).

William was made High Sheriff of Co Wexford in 1789 and no doubt was a prime target for the rebels of 1798. Indeed the family must have had interesting tales to tell of the 1798 Rising as they were very close to the start of the Wexford part of that rebellion. The Island is only 2½ miles from Oulart Hill where the rebels initially gathered, and annihilated all but Colonel Foote, a sergeant and two privates from the whole Loyalist force sent to deal with this threat. Indeed this disaster left the town of Wexford virtually without a garrison and caused a ripple of panic to spread through the countryside. Almost certainly The Island was evacuated and most probably looted. A few days later Enniscorthy fell to the rebels after many hours of fierce fighting, and the garrison with many refugees staggered back along the only road open to them, the road to Wexford. Wexford itself fell the next month and that whole corner of Wexford was in the hands of the rebels. The consequent unrest, pillage, burning and atrocities were horrendous and were carried out by both sides. Dick Clifford’s great grandfather (see Susan Margaret’s grand-children, 21.8.5), Robert Clifford who lived fairly close to the Boltons, was captured by the rebels and about to be killed with a pike, but his life was spared by order of a brewer’s drayman who was their leader, and who said that Robert always gave him a glass of whiskey whenever he left a barrel of beer at his house. He was kept captive with many others in Wexford until it was eventually retaken.

2. Henry Denny Bolton married in 1776 and had two sons, William and Henry, neither of whom married.

3. John was born in 1756, but there is no other information about him.

William, ‘Black Billy,’ married secondly in 1754, Mary Lyndon, and it is this branch with which the Bomfords became involved. They had one son.

4. Lyndon Bolton, of Monkstown Castle, Dublin, born 1760. On 2nd November 1793 he married Jane Carpenter, a daughter of Richard Carpenter, apothecary of Dublin. They had thirteen children (21.7.3) of whom the eldest was:

a. Richard Bolton, who married Jemima Letitia Bomford and they are both party to the marriage settlement (21.7.1).

Lyndon “joined the rebels and was disowned by his father,” Black Billy. It is not known what rebels he joined and one immediately thinks that he sided with the rebels of the ‘98 Rising’, but this could only be so if his father died after 1798 and not as recorded in 1776. However the matter could not have been too serious as he went on to become a successful and wealthy woollen draper in Dublin and took over his father-in-law’s apothecary business. It must be that the rebels were the American rebels of 1775-76.

Jane Bolton died on 3rd September 1834 and Lyndon on 29th January 1852.

21.7.3 Lyndon Bolton’s Children

1. Richard Bolton, see below.

2. Lyndon Henry Bolton was born in Dublin on 10th March 1801, educated at Trinity (BA 1825, MA 1865), and became a clergyman. According to Leslie’s Succession Lists he was installed as ‘P.C.’ in St Luke’s, Dublin, in 1857 when he was living at No 70 Camden Street, and then from 1861 until his death he was Rector of Drumcondra (Drumconrath), south-east of Kingscourt. He had land in Carrickmines, Co Dublin, which he passed to his second son and which included Priorsland, Bullock; and in Co Cavan at Burren and Cooleague, which he passed to his eldest son.

On 26th January 1826 he married Anna Maria, a daughter of Walter Bourne, Clerk of the Crown to the Queen’s Bench and to the North East Circuit of Ireland. He died 20 November 1869 aged 68 but she lived on until 14th May 1886 having had nine children. After her husband’s death she moved back to Dublin to No 1 Grovesner Terrace at Monkstown but later when she was elderly she went to live with her daughter Elinor at Drumlargan where she died aged 82. She was buried with her husband in Drumcondra Churchyard (Drumconrath).

Their eldest daughter Elinor Bolton married John Francis Bomford in 1866 (30.3.1). Lyndon Henry’s family will be found in paragraph 30.3.2.

3. Maria Bolton, known as Jemima Bolton, was born on 13th February 1804. In 1825 she married James Knott of Battlefield, Co Sligo, son of Harloe Knott. James was born in 1777 and educated at Trinity, BA 1796. They had children, not traced.

4. Abraham Bolton was born on 18th February 1805 and educated at Trinity. He was one of the trustees for Richard and Jemima’s children mentioned in their marriage settlement of 1833, and at that time he was a Captain in the 5th Regiment of Dragoons serving in Dublin. He rose to become a Colonel and died unmarried.

5. Jane Bolton, born 28th March 1806, married twice; firstly to a Mr Lockwood, and secondly in 1835 to the Rev John William Greer or John William Grier, b c 1810. Grier graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1833 and in 1842 became first priest at the Holy Trinity Church, Amblecote near Stourbridge, Worcestershire. Grier was a published author, writing Papers on the Romish Controversy and on Prophesy. He died on 28 January 1866 and is buried at the entrance to the Church. Jane died on 31 December 1894, aged 88, and is buried next to her husband. They had children. (Diana Hill email 2 Sep 2011)

a. Richard Macgregor Grier, b 11 Dec 1835

b. Anna Maria Grier, b 1837, m 1878 Henry Waldron

c. Lyndon John Grier, b 1838

d. William Magee Grier, b 17 Sep 1839, m 1863 Georgiana Elizabeth Harwell of London and Co Antrim (Gentleman's magazine, vol 215 p 233)

e. Sarah Nassau Grier, b 1841

f. Jane Emily Grier, b 1843

g. John William M Grier, b 1845

h. Abraham Francis Grier, b 1848

6. Charlotte Bolton was born on 15th March 1811. She married Andrew Bourne, the 3rd son of Walter Bourne and brother to Anna Maria, Lyndon Henry Bolton’s wife. They were living in Birmingham in 1873 and in Rugeley in 1875 probably with her sister Jane Greer. Charlotte died in 1906 having had no children. Andrew was a trustee of Richard’s marriage settlement.

7. Emily Bolton was born on 27th May in either 1817 or 1819, and was married twice; firstly on 9th March 1837 as his second wife to John Irwin of Camlin, Co Roscommon, who died in 1842. They had three sons. She married secondly on 15th June 1852 the Rev John Hall DD who was pastor of the 5th Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York and who died in 1898. Emily died in New York on 13th February 1904 and by her second marriage had a further three sons and a daughter.

It is thought that the three Irwin boys from the first marriage were brought up with the Halls in New York because it was one of their descendants who became very rich in America and in 1966 bequeathed his fortune to relations, amongst whom was Dorothy Cripps, a daughter of George Lyndon Bomford, see 35.7.

8. William Gordon Bolton was born in 1822 and educated at Harrow and Trinity where he got his BA in 1842. It is not known whom he married but she was an actress and they had two daughters who both died unmarried in 1928; one was Frances Gordon ‘Leila’, born 1857, and the other was Constance ‘Conte’ who was born in 1862.

9. Belinda Bolton was born in 1826 and at an early age, on 21st June 1842, married a brother of John Irwin of Camlin, Andrew Irwin of Ballymore, Co Roscommon. She died on 14th March 1873 having had six sons and one daughter.

In addition there were four children who died young:

10. Mary Bolton was born on 20th June 1796, died 9th January 1799, aged 2½.

11. Eliza Bolton was born on 27th February 1798, died 3rd February 1799, aged 1.

12. Lyndon Bolton was born on 8th January 1799, died 23rd January 1799, aged 2 weeks.

13. Edward Bolton was born on 26th March 1809, died 20th February 1827, aged 18.

Our Richard was the only child who survived the critical and sad year of 1799 when three of Jane’s babies all died. However at the time of Richard’s wedding in 1833 there were three younger brothers and five younger sisters alive.

21.7.4 Richard and Jemima Letitia Bolton and their Children

Richard was born in 1797 and educated at Trinity. Jemima Letitia Bomford was twin to Frances Georgina and born in 1806, so she was about nine years younger than Richard. Their marriage took place on 12th August 1833 in Bangor Cathedral: Richard Bolton of Monksdown Castle in the County of Dublin and Jemima Letitia Bomford of Rainstone House in County Meath were married by licence by James W (or D?) Cotton (from parish registers of the Cathedral Church of St Deiniol, courtesy of Stephen Killen, emails 20 & 28 May 2017: a photo of the register entry is available on findmypast, and another photo on LDS FHL Film 2427309, Item 3). Richard is recorded (where?) as ‘of Brook Lodge, Co Meath, and Bally Shoonock, Co Waterford’. The marriage settlement mentions land in Co Waterford and this may be Bally Shoonock, but no Meath property is mentioned. There is a Ballyshunnock in County Waterford on Google Maps and a Ballyshonock in County Waterford on the Irish Townlands website (Stephen Killen email 29 May 2017). Brook Lodge may have been a purchase after their marriage and, since it is mentioned first, probably they lived there, at least until they moved to England, to Suffolk Square in Cheltenham where they were living from at least February 1839 until 1858 and maybe longer. I have been unable to locate Brook Lodge with certainty, but there is a Brook Lodge down a side road from Culmullin cross-roads, about 4 miles north-east of Drumlargan.

Richard Bolton died on 15th November 1868 aged about 71, and Jemima Letitia in 1878 aged about 73. They had three sons (sic: but the third one is actually a daughter):

1. George Thomas Lyndon Bolton was born in 1845. He served with the Royal Navy and on 21st October 1876 married Mary Beatrice (Nina), the elder daughter of Edmund Maghlin Blood of Brickhill, Co Clare. (See “The Crown Jewels” at the end of this paragraph). She died in 1885 and he on 29 May 1893, aged 48 and having had no children.

2. Richard Bomford George Bolton was born in 1834 and educated at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He served in the Army and saw active service in the Crimean War in his early 20s. His first regiment was the 5th Dragoon Guards, the same as his uncle Abraham Bolton, then as a Lieutenant he served with the Royal Horse Guards, and finally he was a Lieutenant Colonel with the King’s Regiment (2nd Lancashire Militia).

Although he is recorded as being of Brook Lodge it is unlikely that he lived there much, if at all; Walford’s County Families credits him in 1900 with “Silliot Hill and Ballyshoonocke, Co Waterford” but makes no mention of land in Co Meath, so Brook Lodge had probably been sold by then. In 1864 he married Beatrice, a daughter of Thomas James Ireland, JP, and Member of Parliament, of Ousden Hall, Suffolk. They had five children before he died in 1890 aged 56. In 1900 she was living at 44 Queen’s Gate Terrace, London SW1; she died on 1st May 1924, aged over 80.

a. Richard George Ireland Bolton of Colwood Park, Bolney, Sussex, was born on 15th January 1865 and educated at Eton and Cheltenham. He became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Scots Guards having served in the South African War (1899 - 1902) where he was mentioned in despatches, and throughout World War I. On 24th April 1919 he married Dorothea Louisa Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Thomas Guy Paget, JP, of Humberstone Hall, Leicestershire. He died 22nd November 1956 and she on 21st October 1958 having had no children.

b. Beatrice Frances Alice Bolton married on 12th June 1892 Captain Dudley Loftus of the Grenadier Guards. The Dudley family came from Killyon, Co Meath, during the 1700s and early 1800s. He died in 1938 and she on 18th October 1948. They had one son,

i. Ferrars Patrick Loftus (1893 - 1938); and their grandchildren, Godfrey Loftus and Heather Loftus, are still alive.

c. Violet Emily Caroline Bolton married on 24th July 1894 Lieut-Colonel Cecil Welby Jackson, JP, youngest son of Judge Welby Brown Jackson. He was born on 2nd June 1861, went to India and served with the Bengal Cavalry, later he transferred to the 8th Hussars, and died in 1940. She died in 1955 having had a son and a daughter :

i. Patrick Arthur Dudley Jackson, who was killed at Ypres in 1917.

ii. Moira, who in 1918 married Rupert Lewis, MC, We1sh Guards, and had a daughter:

Anna Myfyanny Lewis.

d. Maude Anette Letitia Elizabeth Bolton married twice. Firstly on the 18th February 1893 to Arthur Bradshaw of Newcrofts House in Surrey, who died on 22nd March 1900. They had a son and a daughter:

i. Major William Pratt Bradshaw, DSO, of the Scots Guards,

ii. Violet who in 1919 married Captain Geoffrey Blandy.

Secondly in October 1903 to Lieut-Colonel Henry William Harris of the West Somerset Yeomanry of Thornton Hall, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire. They had a son and a daughter before he died on 4th November 1943. She died on 24th August 1950. Their children were:

iii. Francis Henry Bolton Harris, born on 12th April 1905, of the Scots Guards, and

iv. Nina who in June 1934 married Lieut John Young of the Life Guards.

e. Jemima Amy Bolton (‘Mima’) married on 5th August 1896 Lionel Beresford Bethell, 3rd son of the Hon Slingsby Bethell, CB, DL, JP brother of Lord Westbury. He was born on 29th January 1864 and died on 7th December 1928. She died on 20th September 1961 and had at least two sons:

i. Vivian Lionel Slingsby Bethell, born 1897.

ii. Rupert Patrick Slingsby Bethell, born 1902.

3. Frances Jane Bolton died aged 19 in 1862 from the effects of a fall from a horse. She is remembered, with her father, in a window in Rufford Church, Ormskirk, Lancashire (Church of St Mary the Virgin).

The Crown Jewels

Mary Beatrice Blood had a famous, or perhaps infamous, ancestor who was called “The Reputed Colonel”. He was Thomas Blood of Sarney, near Dunboyne, Co Meath, c1628 - 1680. He served in the Parliamentary Army; in 1663 he took a major part in the plot to abduct the Lord Lieutenant from Dublin Castle, in order to seize the Castle and overthrow the Government, the Lord Lieutenant was the Duke of Ormonde but Thomas was foiled in that attempt; however he tried again in 1670 to abduct and hang the Duke, but again the plot failed although Ormonde was removed from power by King Charles. The Duke of Ormonde had been a thorn in the side of King Charles for some time and since Thomas Blood was only mildly chastised for his action, it is thought that he must have had the private backing of the King.

But what Thomas is really famous for was his attempt to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Colonel Blood disguised himself as a clergyman and managed to make friends with Edwards, the Keeper of the Regalia, an old man. At 7 o’clock on the morning of 9th May 1671 Blood came to the Tower with two accomplices. As soon as Edwards let them in he was knocked senseless and gagged. Blood took the State Crown and flattened it with a mallet so it could be easily hidden, and the accomplices stole the Orb and the Sceptre, which was first cut in half. But at this point Edward’s son suddenly appeared. Finding the door to the Jewel House open, and his father moaning on the floor, he raised the alarm. In the running fight, which followed all three men, were captured.

Nobody really knows why Blood was not severely punished. His enigmatic remark that “it was a brave attempt, for it was for a Crown”, coupled with the fact that Charles II not only pardoned him but also gave him a pension of £500 a year, and gave him back his Irish estates, led some to suppose that King Charles, chronically in need of money, had commissioned Blood to steal the treasures.

It is also interesting to note that all the Crown Jewels had been destroyed by Cromwell, and that Charles II had that same year, 1671, paid his goldsmiths £31,978 for his new regalia, a very high price which the King could hardly afford. So altogether it does look as though Blood and King Charles were working together.

21.8 Susan Margaret Bomford 5th Daughter

Susan Margaret Bomford 1806 - >1858, artist unknown. Click image for larger view.

Susan Margaret was not the youngest daughter as stated in Burke, but the second youngest. The deed of 1824 (21.2) lists the daughters in order, Jemima Letitia, Susan Margaret, and Sarah Maria. The youngest, Sarah Maria, was baptised on 5th November 1810 and if Susan Margaret was born after her she would have been 15 or 16 at the time of her marriage, so she must have been born in 1806 as the following deed of 1827 indicates. (The Massy-Dawson and Poore Pedigrees say that Susan Margaret and Sarah Maria were twins, but does not record the year of their birth). At the time of her marriage she was 20 and there is a miniature painting of her at Crodara, which looks as though it was painted at that time, or a little earlier. The painter is unknown but it has the same sort of ‘J’ in the shading of her red sash as the painting of her mother (19.1), so it was probably by the same artist. Judging by the way it hangs she is wearing a white dress of a thick material, perhaps satin. Her head covering is white like her dress and the end hangs down her back. The only touch of colour is a red sash around her waist, which trails behind her. She has prominent eyebrows, blue eyes and curly blond hair, which hangs below her shoulders. A note pasted to the back of the painting has more information on her descendants including members of the Clifford and Stanuell families (see below).

21.8.1 Charles Rudinge Martin

Charles, Susan Margaret’s husband, was born in 1803 in Cork and brought up in the suburbs of Cork at Blackrock on the south side of the River Lee. His father, John Martin, was a merchant in Cork and no doubt in the same line of business as his father was; John’s elder brother Henry lived in Bordeaux and so it is possible that the family was involved in the wine trade. John Martin died in December 1811 when Charles was eight; it is not known when his mother, Mary Allen, died.

Charles was educated at Dr Maginn’s school in Cork and then entered Trinity College, Dublin, in November 1821 when he was 18. He left in the spring of 1827 with a BA, so he married whilst at Trinity. The story is that they eloped to Scotland and were married on 17 June 1826 at Portpatrick (SW of Stranraer), Wigtownshire (Marriage Register of Portpatrick Wigtownshire at http://www.ulsterancestry.com/ShowFreePage.php?id=277: 229 records: '229. Charles Martin Esqr. of the City of Dublin and Miss Susan Bomford of Rachan's Town in the County of Meath, 17 June 1826'). It may be that the objection of Susan’s mother to the marriage was that Charles was still at Trinity. Certainly Maria held back Susan’s settlement money until she was 21. This is recorded in the deed that follows which grants “Susanna Margaret Martin” her settlement of £3,000. Indeed this may have been granted on her 21st birthday and, if so, she was born on 29th January 1806.

21.8.2 Marriage Settlement - Susan Margaret Bomford & Charles Rudinge Martin 29th January 1827

Susanna Margaret Martin, wife of Charles Martin of Dublin, is now entitled to £3,000 in the terms of the settlement of Robert Bomford of Rahinstown. Charles Martin will place this money in trust for her and her children. The parties to the deed were:

1. Charles Rudinge Martin and Susanna Margaret, his wife

2. George Bomford of Drumlargan and John Massey Bolton of Dublin. (These two were the original trustees of Robert’s settlement, but George Bomford has died long since. This George cannot be George the younger who is now only 15.)

3. Maria Bomford, widow and ‘guardian of her children’

4. Robert George Bomford of Rahinstown (now 25) and Sir Thomas Hesketh, 4th Baronet of Rufford Hall, Co Lancaster.

(The deed of 1839, 22.2.5, states that these two were the trustees of the marriage settlement of Charles Martin and Susan Margaret). (Book 832 Page 329 No 559464)

The Marriage Licence was issued by the Diocese of Dublin so they were married in Dublin, “Bomford, Susan Margaret, and Charles Martin 1826 ML Page 336.” St Mark parish records, Dublin, give the marriage date: 23 June 1826. Susan was of Dawson St. The witnesses were J H Haskett and S Martin.

After the wedding they must have stayed on in Dublin at least until Charles finished with Trinity and got his BA in 1827. At some later date he became a clergyman and was Chaplain to the Grand Duchess of Mannheim in Mannheim on the Rhine where the Neckar joins it. He is not listed in Canon Leslie’s ‘Index to the Clergy of Ireland’ so did not officiate in Ireland at all. However their fourth son was born in 1833 in Cork and was educated in Ireland so they did not sever their ties with Ireland completely; perhaps he was left a house in Cork by his father or perhaps his mother was still alive and living there.

Charles died in 1847, before May, aged 44. At that age he was probably still working so he may have died in Mannheim. Susan Margaret lived on in Germany as the deed of February 1850 places her in Baden-Baden, but in October 1851 (22.9.3) she had returned to Dublin and she was still alive and in Dublin in May 1858 (22.6.3). According to Burke she died on 12th August 1849 but this must be wrong; the Burke date is so precise that there may be a misprint in it, perhaps 1849 is an error for 1859, and if so she died on 12th August 1859; but even at this date she was only 53 so maybe it should read 1869. It is not known where she died but probably in Dublin. They had four sons but no daughters.

Susan Margaret was heir to the Bective estates of her sister Frances Georgina and Richard Bolton. Frances Georgina lived at Bective until her death in 1884 so it is doubtful if Susan Margaret actually inherited Bective though her fourth son George Henry Martin did on the death of his aunt. However Susan may have lived there with her sister. Nigel Lawford (email 20 May 2015) says that in her final years Susan lived in Cheltenham with her sister Frances Georgina Bolton, owner of Bective Abbey.

21.8.3 The Martin Family

It is interesting that the original Martins came from Wiche in Worcestershire, and the original Bomfords from Arrow, Wyre and Atch Lench also in Worcestershire. They cannot have lived very far from each other in the early 1600s and may have known each other, but John Martin went to Ireland a good 30 years before Laurence Bomford.

There follows an abbreviated Martin family tree, which shows the connection between the husbands of the two Bomford sisters, Jane Rosetta and Susan Margaret. Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland, 1912 edition, lists the Martins of Wiche (John Davies NTL email 10 Aug 2011).

John Martin of Wiche, Worcestershire, married a daughter of Humphrey Rudinge, hence the name ‘Rudinge’. He died at the beginning of the 1500s and his son was:

Gilbert Martin of Creckers, Bedfordshire. His son was:

George Martin of Wiche, living there in 1627, married Alice a sister of William Caulfeild, 2nd Lord Charlemont. The 1st Lord Charlemont, Sir Toby Caulfeild, came from Great Milton, Oxfordshire, and fought for Queen Elizabeth against O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and had much to do with the Plantation of Ulster under King James I. No doubt it was with this connection that the Martin family moved to Ireland. George was succeeded by his son:

John Martin of Lurgan, Co Armagh. He was MP for Charlemont in the Irish Parliament for a number of years from 1639 and dying in 1656, was succeeded by his son:

Ffulke Martin of Brownlow Derry, Co Armagh. He was a major in the army and distinguished in the Civil War. In 1650 he married a daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Brownlow of Lurgan. He died in 1679. The family of his eldest son Robert died out in the mid 1700s. His 2nd son:

Miles, 1660-1735, was an officer in the army of William III who fought at the Battle of the Boyne and at Limerick. He settled in Co Kerry and married in 1706 Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard McLaughlin and Catherine Blennerhassett of Ballydowney, Co Kerry. By his marriage he acquired considerable estates in Cork and Kerry. He sold the Co Cork estates and purchased land in the City of Cork, where he later lived. His only son was:

Henry, 1710 - 1773, who became an eminent merchant in the City of Cork. He sold the Kerry estates and bought more property in the City of Cork. He was a grandson of Catherine Blennerhassett (18.5.6). In 1743 he married Elizabeth a daughter of John De la Cour of Cork. He had six children, but we are only interested in two:

1. Richard Martin, the eldest son, of Clifford House on the Blackwater near Castletownroche, 1744-1823, became a barrister. In 1773 he married Catherine, only daughter of Randal Roberts and heir to Bridgetown. They had one daughter, Mary, who was born on 3rd October 1774. Mary married John Southcote Mansergh of Grenane (See the Mansergh lineage, 21.3).

3. John Martin, Henry’s third son, of Blackrock, Cork, was born in 1755 together with his twin brother Charles who died 1821 and left his Cork estates to his nephew John Charles Martin. On 31st December 1791 John married Mary, a daughter of Aylmer Allen of Woodview, Co Cork. He died in December 1811 having had seven children and his fourth son was Charles Rudinge Martin who married Susan Margaret Bomford.

The family connections of the later Martins showing the Bomford, Mansergh and Martin relationship.

The Children of John Martin 1755 - 1811

The brothers and sisters of Charles Rudinge Martin:

1. Henry Martin, born 1794, was educated at Cambridge and Trinity College, Dublin, (BA 1828, MA 1832). In 1830 he married Jane, younger daughter of Thomas Higinbotham of Mountjoy Square, Dublin, and 2nd Teller of the Dublin Exchequer; Thomas Higinbotham’s co-heirs were Jane and her sister Anne who married James Martin (1804 - 1812) of Ross, Co Galway, whose youngest daughter was Violet Florence (“Martin Ross”, the writer) (1862 - 1915) co-author with her cousin Edith Somerville of ‘Some Experiences of an Irish RM’ and many other classic novels of Irish life.

Henry was Rector of Inver (Larne), Co Antrim, from 1836 to his death. He died without children on 17th November 1859 at 109 Lower Gloucester Street, Dublin.

2. John Charles Martin was born in Cork on 14th March 1791 and educated at Mr Lee’s School. He entered Trinity in November 1811 aged 14, BA 1816 Fellow 1821, MA 1825, BD and DD 1835. Became Rector of Killeshandra 1831 - 1878, Archdeacon of Ardagh 1854 – 1866, Archdeacon of Kilmore 1866 - 1878.

On 23rd June 1829 at Hollywood he married Agatha, only daughter of Bishop Richard Mant (1776-1848), DD, Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore. She was born 14th February 1806 and died 4th September 1875; he died 17th January 1878 and both died at the Rectory, Killeshandra, and were buried there.

Extract from his obituary:“... after great bodily sufferings, born with surpassing patience and Christian fortitude, the Ven. J. C. Martin, Archdeacon of Kilmore, aged 80 years. He was for 46 years the rector of Killeshandra Parish, and was universally beloved and respected by all who knew him...”

They had 12 children who are recorded in paragraph 35.6.2.

3. Aylmer Richard Martin was born in Cork in 1798, and became a solicitor living at Vernon Mount, Cork. He was High Sheriff of Cork in 1831 and also Chamberlain of the City until he died. On 23rd October 1824 he married Henrietta, daughter of Robert O’Donoghue of Cork and older sister of Catherine who married his brother.

They had five children before he died on 2nd April 1841, aged 43.

Vernon Mount was built on a hilltop near Douglas c1784 by Henry Hayes 1761 - 1832, who was knighted in 1790 whilst Sheriff of Cork. This small but exquisite house is all curves, oval in shape as are many of the rooms, and the whole concept is towards entertaining and gracious living. This enchanting house is the complete opposite of Sir Henry’s character. Having spent most of his wife Elizabeth Smyth’s large inheritance, he let her return to her family and she died at Ballynatray in 1794. Three years later Sir Henry abducted a plain but very rich Quaker heiress whose fortune he coveted; he imprisoned her for a night at Vernon Mount and went through a form of marriage ceremony. She, however, threw the ring across the room and resisted when he tried to ‘push her towards the bed in the rudest manner’ and next morning was retrieved by her enraged uncle. Sir Henry was charged in 1801 and sentenced to transportation to Australia, where he went in a convict ship accompanied by his valet and a mountain of luggage. He would have remained there but at Brighton in 1812 the Prince Regent took a fancy to one of his daughters, and she extracted a free pardon for him. On the way home his ship was wrecked due to the captain’s drunkeness. Sir Henry and his ever present valet immediately seized one of the boats lowered to take off the women, and ungallantly rowed themselves away to safety. Finally he got back to Ireland and joined his son in his lovely Vernon Mount where he died in 1832. The house would have been bought then, or perhaps only leased, by Aylmer Martin.

4. Charles Rudinge Martin (1803 - 1847) who married Susan Margaret Bomford (1806 - c1869).

5. Richard Caulfield Martin (or Richard Caulfeild Martin: Caulfeild is commonly mistranscribed and the Caulfield/Caulfeild connection is this instance has not been established; see also 35.6.2), born 1809 in Cork, and was educated at Mr Maginn’s School and entered Trinity 1823 aged 14, BA 1827. He became a barrister and at some stage had something to do with the defence of a would-be assassin of Queen Victoria. On 10th January 1838 he married Catherine, youngest daughter of Robert O’Donoghue of Cork. He died 29th October 1859 having had one son and three daughters.

6. Elizabeth Martin married David Beatty about 1815 and so was probable the eldest child. David Beatty of Borodale, near Enniscorthy, Co Wexford was a Captain in the army and fought at the Battle of Talavera in Spain in July 1809 under Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington. He died in 1855 having had one son, David Beatty of Borodale, who married in 1838 his cousin Mary Elizabeth Longfield. Their grandson, another David, 1871 – 1936, had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy. He was ADC to King Edward VII and during the Great War was Admiral of the battle cruiser fleet, which won the Battles of the Dogger Bank and Jutland; he became Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet and was created 1st Earl Beatty of the North Sea.

7. Mary Martin married Robert Longfield, only surviving son of Doctor John Longfield, MD, of Cork, in April 1815. She was probably the second or third child. Their daughter Mary Elizabeth married David Beatty her cousin, see above

21.8.4 The children Susan Margaret Bomford & Charles Rudinge Martin

See also the Massy-Dawson Poore Pedigrees.

1. John Charles Martin was born 28 March 1829 and died unmarried on 19 July 1857 of sunstroke in Paris, aged about 28. A letter about John Charles and his brother Charles Nassau Martin was written to Wilfred Bamford from his mother, Agatha, whose great Aunt was Susan Margaret:

“Aunt Fran’s (Frances Georgina, see below, grand-daughter of Susan Margaret) eldest uncle John (Charles) Martin went to Paris to meet his brother Charles Nassau who was returning wounded from the Crimea, and John fell dead of sunstroke in the streets of Paris. Charles Nassau was called ‘Casey’ in the family. The bullet was in his leg for the rest of his life and at times he suffered greatly from it. Though surgical science had advanced years before his death and an operation was suggested he thought it better not to have it out as he was getting on in years.” It is not known when he died.

2. Robert Frederick Martin was born on 24 June 1830. He became a Major in the 74th Highland Light Infantry (4 Februrary 1871), retired in June 1876 and died unmarried in 1878.

3. Charles Nassau Martin was born 12th July 1832, joined the army and became a Major General with the Royal Engineers. He served in the Crimea War and was wounded severely in the leg at Sebastopol (letter above). He was decorated with the Legion of Honour. On 10 February 1863 he married Anna Maria, daughter of Peter Horrocks, JP, DL, of Penwortham Lodge, and Mascalls near Faversham, Kent. She died on 4th June 1891 having had four children and he died on 31 March 1908:

a. Charles Francis Martin was born on 9 January 1864, went to Sandhurst and became a good Rugby football player. He became a Captain in the Highland Light Infantry and died unmarried while still serving in the Army on 24th December 1893.

b. Charles Rudinge Martin was born in 1866, became a doctor, and died unmarried on 28 June 1932.

c. Ethel Martin who married Colonel Pratt and was known as ‘Teetee Pratt’.

d. Eileen Martin was born on 1 February 1870 and died unmarried on 12 November 1907.

4. George Henry Martin was born at Kilnamastery Glebe in Cork on 19 December 1833, educated by Mr Alton and in October 1853 entered Trinity College, Dublin, aged 20. He got his BA in 1857 and his MA in 1861, but before that he was ordained in 1860. On 20th December 1859 he married his cousin Edith Agatha, daughter of Archdeacon John Charles Martin, the Rector of Killeshandra. Killeshandra in Co Cavan had Martins for a rector for 99 continuous years, firstly the Archdeacon from 1831 to 1878, then his son another John Charles from 1878 to 1882, then another son Henry Francis John from 1882 to 1906, and finally their nephew Richard D’Olier Martin from 1906 until 1929.

Edith Agatha Martin was born on 22nd April 1835 so was a couple of years younger than her husband. After George Henry became a clergyman in 1860 he went as curate to Killegar, Co Leitrim, where he remained until 1871. He was promoted in 1871 when he became Rector of Agher, which included the closed down Parishes of Drumlargan and Gallow; he stayed there until 1884. It is not known where they actually lived, perhaps in the Agher Glebe House or perhaps at Bective with his Aunt Frances Georgina, although this is unlikely since Bective is over 10 miles from Agher. In 1884 Frances Georgina died and left him the Bective Estate amounting to about 3,500 acres, but by then he had left Agher and become Resident at Trinity College in 1884 settling in Palmerston Park, Rathgar, their home until they died.

In 1886 George Henry buried his uncle George Bomford of Oakley Park in the family plot at Laracor.

Bective was leased by him for a number of years to General Sir Charles Fraser, 1829 - 1895, a bachelor and a cavalry-man who had distinguished himself in the Indian Mutiny and in Abyssinia. He had house parties there to which came many lovely ladies and they all hunted with the Meath, he with one arm strapped to his side, the result of some injury, though wags told the girls it was to prevent him from putting it around their waists, something he was inclined to do.

Edith Agatha died on 14th February 1893, aged 58, and George Henry died nearly four years later on 12th December 1896, aged 63. They had eight children, the grandchildren of Susan Margaret and Charles Rudinge Martin. Bective was left to their fourth child Mary Louisa (below) who lived there from perhaps as early as 1895, Sir Charles’ death, or 1896, her father’s death.

21.8.5 Children of Rev George Henry Martin

1. Susan Maria Martin was born on 23rd January 1861 and died in 1891, aged 30. She married Rev Charles W. O’Hara Mease on 6th May 1888. They had no children.

2. Agatha Edith Martin was born on 24th July 1862 and married Captain H. Stanuell (Herbert Stewart McCance Stanuell) of the 21st Regiment on 24th July 1862 in Dacca; he was known as ‘Rock Stanuell’. They had four children and their line continues.

3. Charles Robert Hesketh Martin was born on 11th October 1863 and died unmarried in Cyprus on 3rd March 1884, aged 20.

4. Mary Louisa Martin was born on 2nd or 3rd September 1865 at Newtown Gore, Co Leitrim, while her father was curate at Killegar, and known as ‘Aunt Loo’. She inherited Bective from her father and farmed it herself. It is said that my grandfather, George Lyndon Bomford, was ‘sweet’ on her but it came to nothing and she died unmarried at Portrush on 24th September 1941, aged 76.

My [Peter Bamford's] mother as a young child was not certain whether Aunt Loo was a man or a woman because she spoke with a deep voice and acted the tough Irish farmer speaking with a brogue and dressing the part. Sometimes she would ‘blow’ the harvest money and take my mother to London as her chaperone: this was all part of Aunt Loo’s fun as she was about 55 and her ‘chaperone’ about 17. My mother had many tales of these excursions, which took place about 1920 and later. On one occasion Aunt Loo acted scared of the traffic in Oxford Street and made a ‘holy show’ of her chaperone, finally they took a taxi to cross the street. On another occasion they went to visit Aunt Loo’s younger sister, Aunt Fran, who had just left Ireland to settle in Kent; Aunt Fran wrote to Aunt Loo saying that they could not get any decent Irish gardening tools; immediately a set of tools was grabbed from the yard and she set off with them and my mother. The entanglements she got mother into when carrying these loose tools, which included the long-handled Irish shovel and equally long grape would make a hilarious film, particularly with the advice Aunt Loo gave in her brogue. Actually mother was acutely embarrassed whenever an amused crowd had gathered to which Aunt Loo responded, with rich farming advice; but it was all done in fun and she was known and loved throughout the county as a great character.

Louisa Martin was a successful player in the early Irish Lawn Tennis Championships and runner up at Wimbledon: http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=393050. It appears that she was also one of Ireland's top hockey players for a number of years along with Florence Stanuell (sister of Captain Herbert Stanuell, who married Louisa's sister Agatha), with whom she won several doubles titles at lawn tennis (Mark Ryan emails 19 & 22 May 2015). Louisa Martin competed in the Cheltenham annual tournament from 1884 to 1889, and won the singles four years running from 1886 to 1889 (in the process defeating Maud Watson in 1886 and 1887 and Blanche Hillyard in 1888 and 1889). She seems to have entered the Cheltenham event at the age of eighteen before playing in the Fitzwilliam. She beat Florence Mardall and Lilian Watson in 1884. Louisa had a home from home in Cheltenham as her grandmother Susan Martin lived there (along with two of her sisters, Jemima Bolton and Frances “Bective” Bolton), and then after Susan’s death in 1884, Louisa’s uncle General Charles Nassau Martin appears to have moved to Cheltenham and taken over Susan’s house, staying until 1888 or later before moving to Weymouth. Two of Louisa’s brothers went to Cheltenham College as boarders (after Ernest Browne’s time) as did two of Charles’s sons, also as boarders (Nigel Lawford email 21 May 2015).

There is good reason to think that Louisa Martin the tennis player was Mary Louisa Martin of this family tree, notwithstanding that the Bomford history of her as recorded by Peter Bamford made no mention of tennis. The place and club references given for Louisa by newspapers in tournaments in 1884 to 1886 are consistent with that identification - 'Cheltenham' in 1884 per the Gloucester Echo of 13 June 1884, 'Meath' in 1885 per Freeman's Journal 26 May 1885, 'Fitzwilliam Club' in 1886 per Freeman's Journal 22 May 1886 (while referring to her as "the county Meath lady" on 29 May 1886) (Nigel Lawford email 21 May 2015).

5. George Bomford Martin was born 16th January 1867 and died unmarried.

6. George Henry Ffulke Martin was born 18th October 1868 and died in Dublin on 8th March 1888, aged 19.

7. Alfred Ernest Martin was born 20th October 1871 and died after 15 days on 4th November at the Rectory, Killeshandra.

8. Frances Georgina Martin was born on 24th April 1874 and was named after her great aunt Frances Georgina Bolton (Bomford) who left the family Bective. ‘Fran’ as she was called, together with her brothers and sisters was brought up as a teenager at Bective. On 21st September 1898 she married her cousin, the Reverend Richard Frederick Mant Clifford, the only son amongst six daughters of Olivia Frances (Martin) and Richard Henry Clifford of the Bengal Civil Service who had died of ‘Jungle Fever’ at Almora in India in 1876, at which date he had 480 acres in Newtown, Co Kilkenny; his mother lived on until 10th March 1910.

The Rev Richard F. M. Clifford, or Dick as he was called, was born on 3rd October 1874. According to the Succession Lists in the RCB Library he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and got his BA in 1897. He was ordained in 1898 and went to Bective as curate and then as rector from 1902 to 1903. He was then transferred to Ballyloughloe, near Clonmacnoise, from 1903 to 1907; this was the same parish in which Rev Thomas Caulfeild was rector about 40 years previously and Caulfeild was a brother-in-law to George Bomford of Oakley Park. The name Ballyloughloe was changed in the early 1900s to Mount Temple and the Church was later closed down and demolished. Dick then spent three years (1907 - 1910) as curate at Castleknock, Dublin, before returning to Bective where he was installed as Rector on 10th December 1910. He stayed at Bective until 1917 but he was also Temporary Chaplain to the Forces from 1915 - 1919 and went to France.

In the 1950s my father showed me an outhouse which he and his Uncle Dick had built entirely of old railway sleepers at the Bective Rectory which is across the road opposite the Church. From 1917 to 1924 Uncle Dick was Rector of Kells and it was at Kells that my father spent his leaves in the later part of World War I. Whilst there he met my mother (35.6); and so another Bomford – Martin relationship was made. Uncle Dick was a keen sportsman and a player of repute in hockey, cricket, tennis and when older, croquet. This was at a time when there was plenty of time for sport and the surrounds of Kells produced many international players in particular the three Harvey brothers from Athboy Rectory, Dick’s cousins, who with their father were in the Guinness Book of Records for at one time, the most rugby caps for a family. Uncle Dick was capped for Ireland in Hockey a few times as “half-back” and indeed was sometimes Captain. Aunt Fran also played most games and became known for her hard hitting of the hockey ball.

From Kells they went to England, firstly as Vicar of New Romney from 1924 to 1929, and then to the Canterbury Parish of Chillenden and Knowlton from 1929 to 1946. In 1946, aged 72, he retired to Canterbury to a house which they bought cheaply during the early 1940s; the house was cheap then because those German aeroplanes which were driven back from the London blitz dropped their bombs anywhere, and Canterbury was in what became known as ‘bomb alley’.

They died at Canterbury, Aunt Fran on 4th September 1961, aged 87, and Uncle Dick on 4th January 1966, aged 91. They had three children who all died from inherited creeping paralysis.

a. Joan Olivia Clifford was born and baptised by her father at Bective on the same day, 14th November 1900. She died unmarried at Canterbury on 1st November 1962.

b. George Richard Melville Clifford was also born and baptised at Bective on the same day, 13th March 1903. Archdeacon J. Dennison carried out his baptism. These two baptisms are recorded in the Bective Parish register. In 1924 Melville was best man at the wedding of Evelyn Bomford and Wilfred Bamford (35.6). He served in World War II and retired from the Royal Air Force as a Group Captain. In 1930 he married Dorothy G. Black and had three daughters who all married and had children. She died on 23rd January 1962 and in April 1963 he married secondly Daphne Speechly. He died at Maidenhead, Berkshire, on 31st March 1971.

c. Charles Hesketh Clifford was born on 2nd July 1907 at, probably, either Ballyloughloe or Castleknock. On 27th October 1932 he married Nancy Price and they had a son and a daughter, both of whom married and had children. Hesketh died 27th February 1976.

The Martin, Bomford, Clifford and Bamford relationship might appear clearer from the following tree.

21.9 Sarah Maria Bomford (Youngest, 6th Daughter)

Sarah Maria has been recorded as the youngest of Robert’s children (Burke) or second youngest (Massy-Dawson and Poore Pedigrees). She may have been christened at Rathcore Church on 5th November 1810, but the Parish Register gives the name as “Maria Susanna”, who is probably a 7th daughter who died young (21.10). Sarah Maria was probably a twin sister to Susan Margaret Bomford (21.8; Massy-Dawson and Poore Pedigrees) and either of them may be the elder sister; so Sarah Maria may have been born c 1806. The IGI suggests she was born at Rahinstown in about 1803.

Nothing has been found concerning her marriage in 1831 [Burke] and there is only the one deed of 1839, which follows, concerning her father’s settlement. She died in 1835 so she is not mentioned in the deed, which is a pity as it might have confirmed that her name was really Sarah Maria, and not Maria Susanna.

21.9.1 Robert’s Settlement on Sarah Maria 20th February 1839

Between:

1. Honourable Frederick James Tollemache of Hyde Park Place, London.

2. Richard Bolton of Cheltenham, Co Gloucester. (This is the Richard who married Jemima Letitia, Sarah Maria’s sister).

3. Robert George Bomford of Rahinstown

4. John Bolton Massey of Ballywire, Co Tipperary, surviving trustee of the Deed of Settlement of 28th June 1811.

Reciting:

£2,769.4.7 has been paid to Sir Frederick James Tollemache by John Bolton Massey.

This is the last payment [required under Robert's settlement, 19.2.2] and the lands of Dirpatrick, Arradstown, Baconstown and Rahinstown are no longer charged with this bequest. (1839 Book 3 No 237 )

[But that is not quite the end of the matter. See 22.2.3 and following: while the bequest was discharged, the resulting mortgages on the properties were not; and finally 22.9, when Rahinstown was sold to settle the mortgages after the death of Robert George.]

21.9.2 Marriage - Sarah Maria Bomford and the Honourable Frederick James Tollemache 26th August 1831

Burke states “5. Sarah Maria, married 26th August 1831, as his first wife, Hon Frederick James Tollemache, 5th son of Sir William Tollemache, 1st Baronet, and died 3rd January 1845, leaving issue (see Burke's Peerage). He died 2nd July 1888.”

Peter Bamford says there are a couple of mistakes here. Firstly Sarah was the youngest or 6th daughter, not 5th (see 21.8; but the Massy-Dawson and Poore Pedigrees say that Susan Margaret and Sarah Maria were twins, and that Sarah Maria was the elder; the Pedigrees do not record the date of their births); and secondly she died on 3rd January 1835 aged 25, not 1845, which must be a clerical error. We should perhaps add to Burke, Sarah’s only child, Louisa Maria Tollemache, born 27th August 1832 at St Marylebone, died unmarried 7th May 1863 in Cirencester (letter from Peter Bamford to Richard Bomford 18 September 2006).

We did not know where the wedding took place and since no marriage licence has been found it was assumed probably not in Ireland. The wedding took place at Hanby Hall, Lincoln (according to the IGI). It looks as though the married couple lived at Hyde Park Place in London after the marriage. Frederick and his daughter were living there in 1839 and 1847, and a deed of 1851 shows that the daughter, Louisa, was living at Ham House, Co Surrey, probably with her father and stepsister. The marriage had only lasted about three and a half years when Sarah Maria died, so the daughter Louisa would hardly remember her mother. She was probably brought up in London by one of Frederick’s unmarried sisters, and died aged about 30. Her father lived on until 1888 when he died aged 84.

21.9.3 The Tollemache Family

This family can trace their descent with certainty back to the reign of King Stephen (1135-54), and possibly to Saxon origin. By the early 1500s most of their land was in Suffolk and Norfolk.

Lionel was made the first baronet in 1611 and it was his grandson who became the first Earl of Dysart, and Lord Huntingtower by his marriage in the 1630s. Dysart is in Fife and Huntingtower in Perth. There was the odd Irish connection in marriage but there was nothing permanent.

The following detail starts with the 4th Earl, Sarah Maria’s great grandfather.

Lionel, 4th Earl of Dysart, born 1707 and married in 1729 Lady Grace Carteret, eldest daughter of John, 1st Earl of Granville who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and later Secretary of State to King George II. Lady Grace died in 1755 and Lionel lived on until 1770. They had 15 children, three of whom were:

1. Lionel was born in 1734 and became the 5th Earl of Dysart and married in the same year 1770. His wife was Charlotte, the illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole and sister to HRH Maria, Duchess of Gloucester. She died without children in 1789. Lionel married again but had no children so the Earldom went to his brother in 1799.

2. Wilbraham the 6th Earl of Dysart was born in 1739, married in 1773 and died in 1821 also without children, so the peerage devolved upon his only surviving sister.

3. Louisa, Countess of Dysart, was born in 1745 and married in 1764 John Manners of Grantham Grange, Lincolnshire. He died in 1792 but she lived on until 1840 and became Sarah Maria’s grandmother. When she was living at Ham House she became friendly with John Constable, R.A. the painter, grandfather of Hugh Constable who married Elinor May Bomford in 1892 (33.5). John Constable was a regular visitor at Ham House in the 1820s and 30s.

They had a number of children who were Sarah Maria’s uncles and aunt. Those living at the time of Sarah Maria’s wedding were:

1. Sir William Lord Huntingtower was born in 1766 and assumed the name of Talmash only. He was made a baronet in 1793. In 1790 he married Catherine Rebecca, a daughter of Francis Grey of Lehena, Co Cork.

These two were Sarah Maria’s father and mother-in-law and they had a number of children (see below). He died in 1833 and she in 1852.

2. John Manners married in 1806 Mary, Duchess Dowager Roxburgh. She died in 1838 and he in 1837 without having any children.

3. Charles Manners was born in 1775 and married Frances, niece of George, the 7th Marquess of Tweeddale; the 7th Marquess and his wife died in 1804 within a few months of each other whilst they were imprisoned in the fortress of Verdun by Napoleon. Charles died in 1850 having had a number of children.

4. Catherine Sophia Manners in 1793 married Sir Gilbert Heathcote and died in 1825.

5. Maria Caroline Manners married the 4th Earl of Fife and died in 1805.

6. Louisa Grace Manners married the 6th Duke of St Albans and died in 1816, three hours after the birth of her only son, Aubry the 7th Duke.

7. Laura Manners married in 1808 the 7th Earl of Stair but this marriage proved to be bigamous as he had another wife, Johanna Gordon, and she was given a divorce in 1809. She died in 1834.

To revert to Lord Huntingtower (1766-1833, ‘1’ above) and his children who were Sarah Maria’s brothers and sisters-in-law. There was a dozen of them:

1. Lionel William Tollemache (or Talmash) was born in 1794 and married in 1819 Maria (Toone). On the death of his great-aunt Louisa, the Countess of Dysart, he became the 8th Earl of Dysart in 1840. He died in 1878 and his wife in 1869 having had one son.

2. Felix Thomas Tollemache was born in 1796 and married Sarah Grey of Ballincar, King’s Co. She died in 1831 and Felix married Frances Peters. There were two children by his first marriage.

3. Arthur Caesar Tollemache was born in 1797 and married in 1820 Catherine Scheppers. They had five children before he died in 1848 and she in 1868.

4. Rev Hugh Francis Tollemache was born in 1802 and married a couple of times. He had a number of children before he died in 1895.

5. Frederick James Tollemache was born 16th April 1804 at Petersham, Surrey (IGI), and became Member of Parliament for Grantham. The marriage to Sarah Maria Bomford took place on 26th August 1831. She died on 3rd January 1835 having had one daughter, Louisa Maria Tollemache, born on 27th August 1832 at St. Marylebone (IGI). She never married and died on 7th May 1863, aged about 30.

Frederick married secondly Isabella Anne Forbes who was born on 31st Aug 1818 in Bengal and died on 30th August 1850 at St. George, Southwark, one of perhaps 12 children of Gordon Forbes, born 1783, died June quarter 1870 at Kingston, Surrey, and Eliza Agnew Brown, born in 1795, married on 5th January 1814, died in 1835. Frederick and Isabella had a daughter Ada Maria Katherine Tollemache. Ada married Charles Tracy, 4th Lord Sudelay, on 9th May 1868 at the Chapel at Ham House, Ham, Surry, and they had eight children. She died on 6th Jan 1928 at Reston Lodge, Petersham, Surrey. Frederick lived on until 2nd July 1888.

6. Algernon Grey Tollemache was MP for Grantham after Frederick from 1833 to 1837. In 1857 he married his cousin, Frances Louisa, who died 15th April 1893. He died 16th January 1892 and had no children.

7. Louisa Tollemache married in 1816 Sir Joseph Burke, 11th Baronet of Glinsk in Co Galway. She died in 1830 having had some children.

8. Catherine Camilla Tollemache married in 1816 Sir George Sinclair, 2nd Baronet of Thurso Castle, Caithness. She died in 1863 having had children.

9. Emily Frances Tollemache died unmarried in 1864.

10. Caroline Tollemache died in 1825 unmarried.

11. Catherine Octavia Tollemache was born in 1800 and died in 1878 unmarried.

12. Laura Maria Tollemache married in 1847 Sir James Grattan of Tinnehinch at Enniskerry, Co Wicklow. James Grattan was the son of Henry Grattan the famous Irish politician who was presented with Tinnehinch by a grateful Irish Parliament soon after 1782. James died in 1854 and she in 1888, aged 81.

21.9.4 Wedding of Sarah Maria Bomford and Frederick Tollemache

These close relatives of Sarah Maria Bomford and Frederick Tollemache were alive in 1831 and any, or all, of them could have attended the wedding.

BOMFORD		TOLLEMACHE
	Grand-parents
None alive		Louisa, Countess of Dysart
	Parents
Maria Bomford		Sir William, Lord Huntingtower
		Lady Catherine Rebecca
	Uncles & Aunts
None alive		Lord John Manners and Mary the Duchess of Roxburgh
		Lord Charles Manners and Lady Frances
		Earl of Fife
		Duke of St Albans
		Lady Laura Manners
	Brothers & Sisters
Robert George and Elizabeth		Lionel (future Earl of Dysart) and Lady Maria
Lady Annette and Sir Thomas Hesketh		Sir Felix Tollemache
Jane and Richard Mansergh		Sir Arthur Tollemache and Lady Catherine
Frances and Richard Bolton		Rev Sir Hugh Tollemache and Lady Matilda
Jemima (not yet married)		Sir Algernon Tollemache
Susan and Rev Charles Martin		Sir Joseph Burke, Baronet of Glinsk
		Lady Catherine and Sir George Sinclair
		Lady Emily Tollemache
		Lady Octavia Tollemache
		Lady Laura Tollemache

It is very noticeable how few elderly Bomfords were alive at this time; only Maria and David’s children, Isaac and his sisters, were over 35. All of Oliver’s branch have died out, and the only one alive of Laurence of Killeglan’s branch is Rev Thomas Bomford who is soon to die without children.

One can do extraordinary things with family trees. For instance as said above:

Sarah Maria married Frederick Tollemache; her great-aunt was Lady Jane Tollemache, sister-in-law to Maria, HRH the Duchess of Gloucester.

Lady Jane married John Delap Halliday whose aunt was Rebecca Delap.

Rebecca Delap married Hugh, 1st Lord Massy.

Hugh’s grand-daughter was Maria Massy-Dawson.

Maria married Robert Bomford whose daughter was Sarah Maria with whom we started, so Sarah Maria’s mother was also her cousin of a sort.

The same sort of thing can be done with Frances Georgina and her husband Richard Bolton, and, I am sure, with others also. These Irish families were very closely allied with many cross connections.

21.10 Maria Susanna Bomford, 1809 - 1813

Maria, the youngest of Robert’s children, is known from her father's headstone. He was buried in the graveyard of St Ultan's Church, Rathcore, County Meath: the inscription reads, 'Maria Bomford died on 28 February 1813, aged 3 years 4 months. Robert Bomford Esq. of Rahinstown died on 17 April 1817, aged 64 years' (19.2.3; Moggie Douglas email 23 Jul 2023). So Maria was born in Oct/Nov 1809. There is a record of a christening at Rathcore Church on 5 November 1810: the Parish Register gives her name as “Maria Susanna”. Peter Bamford originally attributed that record to Sarah Maria, but it seems there were two daughters with the name of Maria, and the christening record seems more likely to refer to this Maria rather than her sister.

Next Chapter: Chapter 22

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