MARY ELIZABETH BRADDON'S ANCESTRY
by David Barton
Introduction
My maternal grandmother was a Braddon; it was my memory of her stories of her childhood in Cornwall that encouraged me to start the enterprise of researching the Braddon family history. It was much later that I came across the link between my line and that of Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
The Braddons
When family settlement patterns are, through the availability of such records as Parish Registers, first discernible in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, we find Braddons settled in the South Western counties of Devon and Cornwall and only rarely elsewhere.
The name 'Braddon' probably derives from the place name Braddon (Old English for 'broad hill') in the parishes of Buckland Brewer and Ashwater in Northwest Devon. We read of William de Braddon in a document of 1330.
Even within these counties there was a concentration in three localities: in the Southeast of Devon around Ottery St. Mary, in South Devon near Teignmouth and, most particularly, in the border areas of Northwest Devon and Northeast Cornwall.
It was this last compact area some fifteen miles square straddling the Devon-Cornwall border that was home to MEB's ancestors.
Among the early Braddons were William and John Braddon from Topsham who in the 1580s were sailing across the Atlantic to fish off Newfoundland, William Braddon the Civil War commander and Republican Member of Parliament from St.Gennys, his son Laurence who was imprisoned in 1683 for rashly challenging King Charles II over the circumstances of the death of the Earl of Essex and Nicholas Braddon from Colyton who in 1685 was sent into slavery in America as punishment for joining Monmouth's rebellion.
These were the exceptions, though. Most lived, generation after generation, in their home villages as landowners or agricultural labourers, farmers or clergymen.
William Braddon (- 1683)
The earliest known direct ancestor of MEB was William Braddon. A yeoman living in the hamlet of Grimscott (Ordnance Survey reference SS 264 027) in Launcells parish near Cornwall's border with Devon, seven miles west of Holsworthy, he is recorded as signing the Protestation Return in 1641 and paying Hearth Tax in 1660 and 1664.
He married Margaret Bayly at Launcells parish church (SS 246 055) in 1618.
Their children were:
Nicholas. See below.
Grace who married William Treverton of Northill, Cornwall
Katherine who married Zacharias Calway of Launcells
William
Elizabeth who married John Harris of Penzance, Cornwall and
John
In his will made in 1677 William left his land to his son Nicholas. He died in 1683, nine years after Margaret, and was buried at Launcells.
Nicholas Braddon (- 1715)
William and Margaret's son Nicholas was a butcher and farmer of Launcells. In 1678 he bought land in Grimscott from the William Braddon of St.Gennys who had served as MP in the Commonwealth parliament.
He married Amy Pierce in 1669 at Launcells.
Their children were:
Richard who was buried nine days after his christening in 1673
Richard who held land near Launceston
William who left money for his nephew Nicholas' education at Oxford and land
to his nephew John and
John. See below.
Nicholas died in 1715 and is also buried at Laucells .Amy died ten years later.
Rev. John Braddon (1680 - 1725)
The son of Nicholas and Amy, John matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford University and in 1713 was installed as Rector of Luffincott (SX 337 944) and St. Giles on the Heath (SX 349 909), nine miles from Launcells.
He had married Mary Sharsell (nee Mill), the widow of Rev. Nicholas Sharsell (vicar of Bridgerule) in 1703.
Their children were:
Elizabeth who married Parmenas Penrose of Holsworthy, Devon, yeoman
Henry who died age one
Grace who married William Kirkham of Kings Nympton, Devon, gentleman
Judith who died age two
Judith who married William Carter of Hartland, Cornwall, gentleman
John See below.
Nicholas who matriculated from Oxford University and
Mary who married William Martin of Stratton, Cornwall
John died and was buried at St. Giles on the Heath in 1725, aged forty-five.
John Braddon (1716 - 1789)
John and Mary's son John was christened at Launcells in 1716.He was a beneficiary of his uncle William's will in 1738 and was five years later described as a yeoman of Bridgerule (SS 276 027) when he married Mary Martyn at Stowford, Devon (SX 434 868).
They lived at the farmhouse of Milford (SX 414 861), for generations the Martyn family home and now the location of the Dingles Steam Village tourist attraction.
Their children were:
John who died age six months
Mary Martyn who died aged four
Elizabeth who died aged nine
Nicholas who died aged five months
William who married Margaret Spettigue of Treneglos, Cornwall and inherited from her father the estate of Treglith in that parish. After her death he remarried. (He is my direct ancestor - David Barton)
John who matriculated from Exeter College, married Mary Smith and served as
Vicar of Werrington, Devon from 1788 to 1842
Mary who married Rev. Thomas Hamley
Henry See below
Richard who died in 1783 and
Nicholas who served as his father's executor but died soon after in 1793.
John died in 1789 and was buried at Stowford; Mary lived until 1806 when, as she requested in her will, she was buried next to her husband.
Henry Braddon (1759 - 1815)
John and Mary's son Henry was christened at Stowford parish church in 1759. A surgeon, he married Sarah Phillis Clode at Lanteglos by Camelford, Cornwall on December 2nd 1782.
Sarah Phillis was the sister and heiress of Major William Clode of Skisdon Lodge, St. Kew, Cornwall (SX 007 758), who had made his fortune in India. On his death in 1807 she inherited Skisdon Lodge. MEB spent happy childhood holidays here with her.
Henry was Mayor of Camelford in 1790, 1798 and 1807.
Their children were:
William who was born at Lifton, Devon in 1787 and served for thirty years as a Judge in Bengal. He married Hannah Maria Daniells. Their son William sent the young MEB a dress from India and later bought Skisdon Lodge from her. William senior was murdered by a burglar at his home Blacklands near Plymouth in 1858.
Richard who was a Major in the Bengal Army and died unmarried in 1850.
John Clode who was described by Wolff as 'an old fashioned family solicitor, a Squire and a sportsman'. He died unmarried in 1850.
Edward Nicholas who became Vicar of St. Mary's, Sandwich, Kent. He married Charlotte Wright of Rochester in 1834 and on her death married Tabitha Buck. He died in Sandwich in 1867.
Sarah Phyllis Clode married Captain Edward Kelly and on his death Rev. William Cowland
Mary who married Admiral Charles Basdin and died in 1871 aged 79 and
Henry. See below.
Henry was buried at St. Kew in 1815 aged 56.
Henry Braddon (1802 -)
Henry and Sarah's son Henry was christened at St. Kew in 1802. A solicitor, he married Fanny White, the daughter of Patrick White from County Limerick in Ireland on 30th September 1823 at Warfield, Berkshire - the home of her married sister.
Henry was the father of whom she wrote ' he was his own worst enemy', a feckless man who was unfaithful to his wife and unsuccessful in his professional life, although she does indicate that she knew only her mother's side of the story.
Their children were:
Margaret Eleanor, born around 1824 who married Antonio Cartighoni and moved to Naples to live with him there. They had one son Nicolino. We read in Wolff of their financial difficulties and of the effect that her death had on MEB.
Edward Nicholas Coventry who was born in 1829, went out to India to join his cousin William Braddon in the family mercantile business. During the Indian Mutiny he appears to have raised a regiment against the rebels. He then served in the Indian Civil Service for thirty years. He married Amy Georgina Palmer in 1857 but was widowed in 1864 and married Alice Harriet Smith in 1876. He had five children by his first and one by his second marriage. He 'retired' to Tasmania but found himself nominated to Parliament, then appointed as the colony's Agent-General in London and finally Prime Minister of Tasmania. We read again in Wolff of his strained relationship with MEB in later years. He died in 1904. One of his descendants is the author Russell Braddon.
Francis who was christened on 15th October 1834 at St. Anne's, Soho, London but who must have died young as we hear nothing more of her.
Mary Elizabeth of whom………..
Afterword.
The act of writing this narrative has illuminated the gaps in my knowledge; at some point, however, research has to pause while incomplete findings are put to paper. Please tell me of any further information you have or any errors you have identified.
Those of you who have looked at MEB's family history as it is set out by Robert Wolff will note that his account based on Burke's Colonial Gentry does not correspond with my research into original sources; such books as Burke's did, I am sorry to say, often seek to flatter contemporary families with origins that were more illustrious or interesting than genuine.
If anyone is interested in the justifications for my research's findings you are most welcome to write to me at the address below.
I have not included sources or references, as the footnotes would overshadow the content.
Again, if anyone wishes to know the source of any stated fact, please write to me at davidhbarton@btopenworld.com
David Barton
10th January 2000