An absentee proprietor from Barbados whose family owned several sugar estates there.
Lived at 2 Litfield Place, Clifton, Bristol
Will dated 11 July 1884, proved in England. See Genealogy of Barbados Families by Brandow p.85.
190. Charles Bruce Knight Alleyne
Died suddenly after a few hours illness. From his obituary: "He was to have been a groom on Saturday, but instead was a corpse on Sunday."
Was in the 2nd. Regiment Life Guards.
191. Elizabeth Willing Alleyne
Had 13 children
Had 13 children
Was at Exeter College, Oxford.
A tablet on the north side of Clifton Church, Bristol, records the dates of his birth and death.
Was at Merton College, Oxford.
Called to the Bar of Inner Temple 1878
Will, see Brandow p.86.
67. Henry Austin Bruce G.C.B.,P.C.,J.P.,D.L.
Henry Austin was created 1st Baron Aberdare of Duffryn, South Wales in 1873. He was called to the Bar in 1837 and elected the Liberal MP for Merthyr Tydfil (1852-68) and Renfrewshire (1869-73), became Home Secretary under Gladstone, Lord President of the Council and the first Chancellor of the University of Wales. He married twice, his first wife being Annabella Beadon (?-1852).From him and Arabella are descended the present Lord Aberdare and amongst others,
Lord Belper, The Duchess of Norfolk, Lord Digby and The Hon. Mrs Randolph
Spencer-Churchill (Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman)The second, third and fourth Lords Aberdare are, respectively: Henry Campbell Bruce (1851-1929), Clarence Napier Bruce (1885-1957) and Morys George Lyndhurst Bruce (1919-).
Buried as Sarah C.McNaughton
Son of John Alleyne Beckles and Elizabeth of Barbados.
Rector of St.Michael's, Berbice.
Henrietta Maria was the writer of letters to her cousin J.G.A. in Barbados. She tells that the year after her mother's death, when she was seven, her father sent his motherless girls to their great-aunt Jemima Grant Skeete, who had brought up their own mother. By this time Jemima was a Mrs Thorpe and lived at Holetown, Barbados, where the Austin children often visited their Alleyne cousins at Porters nearby.
When the Thorpes died and were buried in St Thomas churchyard, the two girls returned to their father who was by this time Rural Dean of Essequibo, B.G.
Henrietta eventually married her father’s curate, the Rev. John Freeman, and he died young leaving her with one daughter, Aveline Maria Freeman, born in 1868 in British Guiana and who died in London in 1933.
In her letters to J.G.A., written when she was an old lady, Henrietta tells of the struggle that she and Aveline had to make both ends meet. When the Old Dean died in 1884, they left the ‘dear old Rectory’ and settled in a house called Sandgrove about a mile away and there she spent the rest of her life. Her only means of livelihood were a few rents, the value of which went down as the rates went up.
87. Capt. Hugh Whitchurch Austin
Hugh was born in England and received a good classical and mathematical education according to correspondence written by his father.
Hugh was eleven years old when the family moved to Canada. Two years later he was serving in the ranks of the cavalry troop his father had raised, guarding the border between lower Canada and the United States and being exposed to all hardships of two winters. This experience led to a military career for Hugh. In 1842 he joined, as an Ensign, the 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot when it was stationed briefly at Fort Chambly. He rose to the rank of Captain in 1853. He spent about fifteen years of service was spent in various places including Gibraltar and Bermuda, Jamaica, India, Ireland and the Crimea. Immediately following the Crimean campaign and the battle of Sebastopol (and the charge of the Light Brigade) Hugh’s record was added to with the following laudatory statement:
‘Captain Austin was actively employed during the rebellion in Canada in 1837-38 in a local regiment of cavalry, served also at the siege and fall of Sebastopol (Medal and Clasp)’.
The regiment returned from the Crimea in August 1856 and Hugh resigned his position. He returned to Chambly to live and in 1858 he married Ada Fanny Cox, daughter of Sir Edmund Cox of Kingsey, Quebec. Hugh became Fishery Overseer for Richelieu division and moved to Berthier-en-Haut a few years before his death in 1886. He and his wife are buried in St Stephen’s churchyard, near the Austin family vault in Chambly.
202. ? Austin
Name unknown, died young
Henry was born in Ilfracombe, Devon. He was 10 years old when the family moved to Canada and, after finishing his education in Lennoxville, he was articled firstly with Francis G. Johnson and then with Robert Mackay, lawyers in Montreal. He was called to the bar of Lower Canada in February 1848 and subsequently joined Robert Mackay and formed the law firm of Mackay and Austin, advocates. He was appointed Bar Examiner in 1868 and a Joint Fire Commissioner in 1878.
Henry married Marie Louise Guy in Montreal in 1860. She was of French-Canadian decent, a daughter of Hipolite Guy, a judge in Montreal. Henry and Marie Louise had three sons and one daughter.
In 1880 Henry was named Chief Justice of the Bahamas Islands by Imperial Appointment which was announced by 10 Downing Street. He and his wife and their three youngest children arrived in the Bahamas on 5th October and he was sworn in the next day. As Chief Justice he was the sole judge of all the Superior Courts in the Colony, Chancellor and Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court and was later named President of the Legislative Council of the Bahamas. During his term of office, four different governors had been appointed, the last being Sir Ambrose Shea, with whom Henry had an antagonistic relationship. Henry’s career as Chief Justice of the Bahamas ended acrimoniously when Governor Shea sought the Chief Justice’s dismissal and although Henry protested, the Governor’s demand was upheld by the Colonial Office in London and Henry left the service with a pension. On his return to Montreal he wrote a 120 page booklet entitled ‘Ten Years Chief Justice of the Bahamas, 1880-1890: The Reasons of my Resignation.’ In this booklet he referred to the cases which brought about Governor Shea’s demand. The Chief Justice had alleged that the Attorney-General withheld information during a murder trial as many of the witnesses and members of the jury were his relatives. He also accused a prisoner of attempted murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment and flogging. The prisoner, appearing in court on another charge, had left the dock and tried to attack the Chief Justice. Henry was bitter that he was not allowed an appeal, to which he was entitled by law, and that the newspaper refused to print addresses of support he had received on his retirement. One such address from Archdeacon Charles Wakefield on behalf of the clergy of Nassau states ‘I view your departure as a misfortune, for I hazard the assertion that outside a certain circle of a few bound by blood and marriage, it is impossible to find in this colony a dozen persons who speak otherwise than with respect and confidence of one who is styled by the masses ‘the righteous judge’.’
Henry had gained expertise in maritime law whilst in the Bahamas so opened a law practice in Montreal specialising in that aspect of law.
208. Henry Guy Austin
He was in the N.W. Mounted Police in Canada and died in the N.W. territory.
Frederick spent most of his working life in the Canadian Civil Service in Ottawa. He worked mainly in the Ordnance Lands Branch, Dominion Lands Office, Department of the Interior. He was fifty years old when he married Catherine, daughter of George Lyon-Fellowes, a one time mayor of Ottawa and member of Parliament for the old province of Canada. Sadly, Catherine died in childbirth in 1880. When Frederick retired he settled in Sorel, Quebec where he died in 1912.
Wyndham was born in Bitton, Gloucestershire and was very young when the family moved to Canada. After his early education, he became a medical student in Montreal but did not continue to graduation. In 1853 he married Ellen Louise Winchester, daughter of Colonel William P. Winchester of Boston, Massachusetts who was a member of the family that produced the famous Winchester rifle. They were married in Boston but returned to live in Chambly. They had one daughter and four sons.
Charlotte was born at Clifton, Bristol and was only one year old when the family moved to Canada. In 1852 she married at St Stephen's Church, Chambly, the Honourable John James Bury, the second son of 2nd Earl of Charleville and his wife Harriet, niece of the Duke of Argyll. The Honourable of J. J. Bury was a Captain in the Royal Engineers stationed at Montreal at the time of the wedding. Later, Charlotte travelled with him wherever he was posted. They had four daughters whose birth place varied from ‘at sea’, to ‘Australia’, to ‘Ireland’. The daughters were Beaujolois Arabella Charlotte (1854-1865); Georgina Florence (1856-1939) who married Lieutenant Colonel Edward Guy Selby-Smyth (Royal Irish Rifles) in Ottawa in 1879; Louise Emily Neville (1858-1881) who died unmarried in Ottawa; Ada Pearce Tighe (1859-1926) who married Colonel Raymond Oliver de Montmorency (Royal Irish Rifles) in Ottawa in 1885.
The Honourable John James Bury died in Exeter, England in 1864 and Charlotte returned to Canada with her younger daughters. In 1868 she married Cornwall Herbert O’Meara who was with the military department of the Canadian government in Ottawa. They had one daughter, Eva Stanley (1869-1970).
This was an exciting time to be in Ottawa as Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia had joined together to form the Dominion of Canada which came into being on 1st June July, 1867 and Queen Victoria had chosen Ottawa as its capital. The Bury girls enjoyed an active social life especially when the Marquess of Lorne, to whom they were related, was governor General of Canada (1878-1883) and he and his wife, H. R. H. the Princess Louise, were in residence at Rideau Hall. When Georgina Bury married in 1879, their present to her was a gold bracelet set with pink coral pearls and diamonds. Both Georgina and Ada spent most of their married lives in England.
Following Captain Herbert O’Meara’s retirement in 1897, he, Charlotte and their daughter Eva went to England to be near Charlotte’s married Bury daughters. Charlotte died in 1913 at Kingston upon Thames and is buried there. Eva Stanley O’Meara married Henry Barré Dowling, a barrister, and they had one daughter, Vera (1908-1999). Vera was a Civil Defence Ambulance Driver during World War II. In the 1950’s she was one of the founders of the Surbiton and District Historical Society. She lived in Surbiton, Surrey, all her life. Vera was also very interested in her line of the Austin family and contributed a picture of Thomas and Charlotte Austin and their family which appears in this book.
Capt.Hon. John James Bury R.E.
Second son of the Earl of Charleville and Harriett, niece of Earl of Argyle.
His brother was 3rd. Earl of Charleville.
94. Rev. William George Gardiner Austin
He was named after his father’s half-uncle and is referred to in letters as W.G.G. He was not nearly so outstanding a personality as his father the Bishop although he too was a fine oar and won his rowing blue at Oxford in 1856. From Magdalen College, he gained his B.A. in 1858 and M.A. in 1859. He was called to the Bar of Lincoln Inn in 1858.
W.G.G. took Holy Orders and married Mary Emily Gray Smyth (d. 1921), a gentle amiable woman held in great affection by his relations. He was for a time his father’s Chaplain in Georgetown but most of his life was spent in England where he was Chaplain at the private Chapel at Hampton Court. Later he was Vicar of Stanway in Essex and then of Abingdon in Berkshire. On retirement he bought a house in Reading which became a meeting place for relations from overseas and at home and his family remained there for many years after his death. William and Mary had eight children.
225. Charles Thomas Piercy Austin
He was born in Georgetown.
226. Ellen Lockhart Piercy Austin
She was born in Georgetown but died in England unmarried.
He was also born in Georgetown and died in California unmarried.
229. Stella Evelyn Piercy Austin
She was born and lived in Reading where she died unmarried.
230. Capt. Arthur Hyndman Piercy Austin
Arthur was Stella’s twin brother. He was commissioned a Captain in the 13th Service Battalion, the Durham Light Infantry in 1914 and was killed in action in the battle of the Somme during World War I. He has no known grave and is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial, between the villages of Bapaume and Albert.
Eliza Arabella was known as ‘Ara’ to J.G.A. and she was his favourite cousin. In 1861, she married a young Englishman from the Secretariat in Georgetown called Augustus Frederick Gore, who was said to be a descendant either of one of Queen Victoria’s ‘wicked uncles’ or perhaps one of their sisters. At all events Augustus Gore possessed various items such as a sword and miniatures which had some connection with the Royal family. He became Colonial Secretary of Barbados and lived at Maxwell’s great house in Christchurch where he was a friend and parishioner of Francis Bell Grant, Dora Austin’s father. Later he became Administrator of St Vincent. Not long after her marriage, Ara was the unfortunate victim of a carriage accident which injured her spine. After some years as an invalid, she died leaving a family of five little girls. They were: Cecilia Emily ( -1943), Mary ( -1891), Eliza Charlotte ( -1948), Adelaide Isabella ( -1947) and Dora Laetitia ( -1914). None of these daughters married and their lives were sad, existing as they did in genteel poverty, selling off their father’s souvenirs and furniture when they were in difficulties.
D.H.A. kept in touch with these cousins and visited them in Addison Road, London where they lived in lodgings, occasionally taking a niece or nephew with her, but she herself was in no position to offer financial assistance, which in any case, they would have been too proud to accept. The last sister died in a nursing home in Oxford.
Was said to be a descendant either of one of Queen Victoria’s ‘wicked uncles’ or perhaps one of their sisters. At all events Augustus Gore possessed various items such as a sword and miniatures which had some connection with the Royal family. He became Colonial Secretary of Barbados and lived at Maxwell’s great house in Christchurch where he was a friend and parishioner of Francis Bell Grant, Dora Austin’s father. Later he became Administrator of St Vincent.
233. Eliza Charlotte Gore
God-daughter of Bishop William Piercy Austin.
Charles was the other surviving son, baptised in 1839. He had a career in the Government Service of British Guiana and eventually became Receiver General. In 1868, he married Rosalie Ann Sarah Crosby, daughter of a well-known character in the colony of that day, who was the Protector of Immigrants. The East Indians regarded Crosby as a true friend and the phrase ‘go to Crosby’ when they were in trouble persisted long after his death.
Charles and Rosalie themselves both died in early middle age, the former a few months before his father, leaving a family of eight. These were sent away from Demerara in charge of the eldest daughter who was only eighteen at the time. They stayed first with relations in Barbados and then went onto England where presumably their uncle and aunt made arrangements for the care of the orphans.
The Colonial Office List for 1888 gives Charles Piercy’s career as follows:
Clerk of Records, government secretary’s office British Guiana, 1860;
Acted as assistant government secretary, March to November 1863, February to June, 1866 and October 1866 to March 1867;
Private secretary to Governor Sir Frank Hincks, September 1865 to May, 1866;
And to Lieut. Governor Major Mundy, October 1866 to September 1867;
Assistant government secretary and assistant receiver-general for Berbice, April 1868;
Acted as stipendiary magistrate February to June 1872;
Assistant government secretary 1874;
Acted as government secretary July 1875 to January 1876, March to August 1877, June to December 1878, and on several other occasions;
Acted as auditor-general December 1878 to September 1879 and February to July 1866;
Acting immigration agent June and July 1881;
Receiver-general 1879.
Charles Piercy died in Georgetown.
236. Marie Augusta Piercy Austin
Died without issue
237. Rosalie Frederica Piercy Austin
She died a spinster
239. Maud Mehetabel Winifred Piercy Austin
She died a spinster
240. Alice Colin Muriel Piercy Austin
She died in Paris.
241. John Wykeham Piercy Austin
He was born in Belsize Park, London and died at Stanway, the home of his uncle William George Gardiner Austin.
242. William Crosby Piercy Austin
William Crosby Piercy Austin joined the firm of Jardine Matheson. He was threatened with tuberculosis and the firm sent him to Los Angeles, most generously paying all expenses. He was cured and about to return when the ‘talkies’ came along and anyone with an English accent was at a premium. ‘Bill’ (as William Crosby Piercy was known) happened to have not only the accent but a good enunciation and an attractive manner. He got into Paramount Studios, Hollywood, was a passable actor and quickly made a good deal of money, a lot of which went to helping his family, education of younger members etc., especially John Edmund Piercy Austin, a child of his younger brother Hugh Cecil Havelock Piercy Austin, who was only a baby when his father died in 1892. Bill was tall and straight, and in 1929 he married a sweet little American, Dora Mae Howe, who had been in silent films. They had a large, Spanish-style bungalow on Beverley Hills and Bill was a ‘feature’ so that trippers would stroll across the front lawn and tick him off in their little books when they had done the ‘stars’. He lived latterly in Corona del Mar, 75 miles north of San Diego, California. Bill and Dora had no children.
Bill’s first film was Common Sense (1920) and he played in 75 films in all. His last film was The Ghost Goes Wild (1947).