I confess I’m only very VERY distantly related to Lady Jane, and then only by marriage, but she’s one of those unconventional people one would so like to have met.
Lady Jane Halliday, nee Tollemache (1750-1802)
growing old disgracefully
She was born Jane Tollemache, into a very wealthy old family. At the age of 20 she eloped to Gretna Green with John Delap Halliday, the son of a rich tax collector on Antigua and grandson of Francis Delap (1690-1766, my 4x great grandfather), a slave and plantation owner whose name still survives as a district of that island. Fearing disinheritance or at least disapproval, the runaway couple had the pragmatic good sense to remarry formally in Worcester
It was a smart move. Their inherited wealth increased in leaps and bounds, and they had four children. But blood will out. Their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth Halliday was disinherited by her father for … yes, eloping to Scotland
It came out in the next generation too. Their first grandchild, Elizabeth Jane Henrietta Tollemache (whose father had taken the Tollemache name on inheriting a fortune from a maiden aunt) was considered something of a rebel. Against family advice she first married, and presumably for love, Captain Christian Frederick Charles Johnstone a man of modest means – far too modest for her as it turned out, and the marriage failed.
Lady Jane’s granddaughter then eloped, in 1823, with the rather wealthier 7th Earl of Cardigan (of Charge of the Light Brigade notoriety); but although they did eventually marry in 1826, she eloped again in 1827. This may have been with Lord Colville, described as her final intrigue, or perhaps an earlier affair. Her marriage to Cardigan finally ended in 1846, and it’s a miracle it lasted that long.
Jane herself, widowed in 1794, no doubt sailed through it all. Indeed, she lent her name to a ship owned by a Sir Richard Neve (who must have had his own reasons for naming one of his vessels after her). While tied up in Britain Antigua and St Kitt’s). The sugar was valued at eight shillings, and the thief, a dock worker called William Blue, was sentenced to seven years’ transportation to Botany Bay . Seven years for eight shillings.
In March of 1802 Lady Jane remarried, against all family advice, a Mr G.D. Ferry. It was no doubt a happy marriage, but a short one; she died on 28th August the same year, having undeniably and magnificently grown old disgracefully.
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As a footnote, it's only just occured to me that she wasn't that old when she died (same age as me in fact!) and I don't know the cause of her death. Something else to look into ...
ReplyDeleteWe are related...Jane Halliday Tollemach is a direct descendant of my family who now predominantly live in Trinidad - the Butts family:
ReplyDeleteooks like we are indeed direct descendants of
KING HENRY VII OF ENGLAND
HIS DAUGHTER - QUEEN MARY -QUEEN CONSORT OF FRANCE aka
MARY BRANDON
HER DAUGHTER IS FRANCES GREY - DUCHESS OF SUFFOLK
HER DAUGHTER IS LADY CATHERINE GREY
HER SON IS EDWARD SEYMOUR, LORD BEAUCHAMPS
HIS SON IS WILLIAM SEYMOUR, 2ND DUKE OF SOMERSET
Second Marriage to Lady Frances Devereux (1599-1674)
HIS DAUGHTER IS MARY SEYMOUR...WHO BECAME MARY FINCH
(1637 – 10 April 1673), who married Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea
HER DAUGHTER WAS FRANCES FINCH WHO BECAME FRANCES THYNNE
(who wed Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth)
Longleat house...the THYNNE estate - they were a very wealthy family!
HER DAUGHTER WAS FRANCES THYNNE WHO BECAME LADY FRANCES WORSLEY (After marrying Sir Robert Worsley, 4th Baronet)
THEIR DAUGHTER IS FRANCES WORSLEY WHO BECAME FRANCES CARTARET (born 1693 on the Isle of Wight - she married John Carteret, 2nd Earl of Granville)
THEIR DAUGHTER IS GRACE CARTARET WHO BECOMES GRACE TOLLEMACHE (Countess Of Dysart after she married Lionel TOLLEMACHE, 4th Earl of Dysart)
THEIR DAUGHTER IS JANE TOLLEMACHE WHO BECOMES JANE HALLIDAY (Born March 30, 1750, died. Aug 28, 1802. She married Major John Delap Halliday - the son of a rich tax collector on Antigua and grandson of Francis Delap (1690-1766), a slave and plantation owner whose name still survives as a district of that island )
THEIR DAUGHTER IS CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH HALLIDAY TOLLEMACHE.
(Born 1778. Mother of Henry John Worseley; William Bertie Worseley; Pauline Worseley
WILLIAM BERTIE WORSLEY (born August 27, 1797 in Nantwich, Cheshire, England) MARRIES ELIZA EARL DANIELL
THEIR DAUGHTER IS CATHERINE NORVAL MAGDALENE DYSART BUTTS (BORN WORSLEY, 1832 in Antigua Barbuda married 1854, to Harry Grosvenor Butts, Esq., M.D. (Edin), son of R.-G. Butts, Esq. of Demerara. They married on May 18, 1854 in St George's Demerara. His father RG BUTTS was a large industrialist in Guyana. Dr Butts died in South Wales - here is the death notice: BUTTS ‐ At Paynor House, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, on the 10th November, Harry Grosvenor Butts, Esq., M.D., late of this colony, in the 67th year of his age, leaving a son, two daughters and many old friends to lament his loss.
THEIR SON IS RICHARD BERTIE BUTTS BORN MAY 2, 1855. THEY ALSO HAD 2 DAUGHTERS: 1ST DAUGHTER IS Sarah Eliza Earle Ada Butts; married in Broadwater, Sussex 28 Aug 1877 to Walter Meyrick North. Here are the marriage details: Aug. 28, at the Parish Church, Broadwater, Sussex, by the Ven. the Archdeacon of Cardigan, father of the bridegroom, assisted by the Rev. Wm. Reed, Walter Meyrick North, B.A., of Brasenose College, Oxford, barrister-at-law, to Earle Ada, elder daughter of Harry Grosvenor Butts, Esq., M.D., of Demerara, West Indies. [also obit, Daily News (London) 15 Feb 1900]
2ND DAUGHTER IS CATHERINE GROSVENOR BUTTS, died 17 May 1925; married 24 Jul 1884 to Arthur Frederic Stevens
ABOUT RICHARD BERTIE BUTTS:
First Class Officer, Public Works Department; ed. in England, son of the late Dr. Harry Grosvenor Butts, proprietor, Pln. Drill; once part owner of Pln. La Grange and the Demerara Foundry (R. Buchanan & Co.); was Inspector of Police and resigned to manage Pln. La Grange; March 20, 1901, rejoined the Public Service; one of the oldest cricketers in the colony and in his day the finest field at point in the West Indies, displaying a form and agility that has not been surpassed since; played in intercolonial matches on several occasions; fastest hundred yards runner in the colony in his callow days; a fine sportsman.
OUR GRANDFATHER WAS LYNDON BERTIE BUTTS ...THE SON OF RICHARD BERTIE BUTTS
My name is Debbie Read and I now live in Canada
Debbie, I live in the U.S. and two of my immigrant ancestors to Virginia, William Farrar (my father's line) and Mrs. Diana Skipwith Dale (my mother's line) were descended from the same families of Lady Jane Tollemache. William Farrar was a descendant of Lady Elizabeth (née Wentworth) de la See, sister of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead, the grandfather of Elizabeth Seymour (sister of Queen Jane Seymour) whose granddaughter Katherine Cromwell married into the Tollemache line. My mother's ancestor Diana Skipwith Dale was the great granddaughter of Lady Amy (née Moyle) Kempe, daughter of Sir Thomas Moyle who descends from Edward I. Lady Amy's sister, Lady Catherine (née Moyle) Finch, was the ancestor of Lady Grace (née Carteret) Tollemache who was Lady Jane Tollemache's mother as you pointed out above. So, I have two connections to this line myself.
ReplyDeleteSteve Riggan
Hi Debbie and Steve,
ReplyDeleteOne of the great pleasures of writing this blog is that it reunites long lost cousins like you two! By coincidence I have just been revisiting my Halliday and Tollemache ancestry, and will try to add all the wonderful information you've left here. Thanks for visiting and reading Tall Tales From The Trees.
Colin
I find it interesting to see these connections outside of England and marvel at the number of us there are. I only became aware of the Tollemache line to myself after seeing the "Who Do You Think You Are?" Episode from last November with British actor Danny Dyer who found out he was descended from Col. Robert Gosnold of Otley Hall, Suffolk, an English Civil War participant, and son of Anne Tollemache, daughter of Sir Lionel Tollemache of Helmingham and Katherine Cromwell, both descendants of Edward III and shared descent from the Wentworth family of which my father descended. My mother connects to Anne Tollemache's husband Robert Gosnold via the Wingfields of Suffolk, another gentry family of royal descent. It's a vast network of family relationships!
ReplyDelete