Charles Steele Bompas: Home Schooling in a London Baptist family 1837

 

This is an interesting letter written by Charles Steele Bompas to his mother. He was home-schooled in a Baptist family and his letter describes how he and his sibling’s “Characters” were scored each day on three undefined dimensions. This may have been a method taken from a book but I cannot find a link. The letter is written in a very good, clear hand.

Charles’s father died suddenly in 1844 and was a London lawyer  with the title of Serjeant Bompas. He was known to Charles Dickens on whom the character of Serjeant Buzfuz in The Pickwick Papers is based. The extended family had several notable members. Charles’s younger brother William, mentioned in the letter, became Anglican Bishop of Selkirk in Canada’s Yukon; curiously the surname of the children’s Nanny/ Governess Miss Kennion turns up as a first name in the Canadian branch of the Bompas family. But the internet is unhelpful about the fate of the author of this letter, Charles Steele Bompas. The Royal Academy lists him as an “Artist” with no further detail; the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford lists him as interested in “folklore”; an Australian surgeon in the 1870s has the same name …. Charles’s letter is cross-written by his nanny/governess/tutor.

 

Transcription

11 Park Road March 4^th 1837

My dear Mamma

We were very glad to receive your letter which told us of your safe arrival but were sorry to hear you had lost your voice but I hope it will soon be well enough for you to go out. We are pretty well here my throat has been very uncomfortable these 1 or 2 last days so I do it with the stuff inside and out & it is rather better today. George has a little cold, Mary Jane, Sophia, Wiliam & Baby very well. Miss Kennion’s and Selina’s colds are better. Bendals face aches very badly somtimes [sic] Cousin Jospeh has given a lot of such beautiful minerals, you cant think what nice specimens they are. Cousins are coming this afternoon.

Our characters today are Mary Jane minus 2 she lost one point because she was not in school yesterday afternoon at the proper time but she could not help it because Cousin Emma Skey was giving her her Music Lesson so she had, “loss of 1 point excusable” written under minus 2, her other characters were 6 – 0. George 2-6-2 he lost one because he had not finished his letter to you. Mine 3-6-2 I was ready but I had 1 taken away from me because I could not do my lessons because the others were not ready as we do our lessons together. I broke open the seal of the letter which I suppose you received the other day by mistake thinking it was for me [ his father is also named Charles Bompas].

Please to give my love to Papa & Joseph

I remain

Your affec^te son

Charles Steele Bompas

PS Monday. Just as I had finished writing on Saturday morning Cousins came. Joseph was not very well. We all forgot to send this letter & the paper until it was too late. Our characters this morning were Mary Jane 6 – 0 George 4 – 1 Myself 4 – 1. Yesterday Bendall cut her thumb just at the bottom very badly indeed it kept bleeding all the morning when she moved it so after dinner she went to Uncle Joe’s [ possibly Dr Joseph Bompas]to show it him and he said that it was nothing except a bad cut & he told her how to bind it up. We are all pretty well.

 

Cross written by Miss Kennion who also writes the address “Mrs Bompas / Joseph Tomkins Esq [her father], Broughton, Nr Stockbridge, Hants. Postmarked from London 6 March 1837 [ the Monday]

 

My dear Madam

As Master Charles has not written a very long letter I shall add a few lines to say what I am sure will give you pleasure that your dear children have all been very good during your absence. The weather has been fine though cold so that they have had a walk every day and I am very thankful this week has passed without any increase of colds or any accidents. Dear little Selina and Sophia are gone today as it was pretty fine and much warmer to spend two or three hours with Mrs Hawkins – she called yesterday and said she was going to write to you therefore you will probably hear of them from her. I hope your cold is quite well and that you have been able to get out a little. Your sweet baby and little William [ William Carpenter Bompas 1834 – 1906, Anglican Bishop of Selkirk in Canada’s Yukon] will I am sure be very glad to see their dear Mamma again and indeed all treasures being to talk of your return with great pleasure and I sincerely hope you will find them as well as they are now. I took three eldest to Chapel twice yesterday and we had a coach in the evening as Master Charles [said] they had been accustomed to go with their Papa. Ann says she misses Master Joseph very much. I hope he is very happy and with respects to Mrs Tomkins and Miss Jane

I am my dear Madam

Your very obedient Servant

M Kennion

JAMAICA 1782 The Marriage of Slave Owner John Scrogie’s daughter with Slave Owner Mary Jacobi’s Son

Click on  Image to Magnify

The letter transcribed below is in fine condition and the handwriting easily read. The internet carries information which supplies most of the missing detail. John Scrogie was a first-generation settler and slave owner in Jamaica living at “Scrogiehall” either in or close to the parish of St Ann’s. At a later date (1792) he was recorded as the owner of 30 enslaved people. He is writing by regular Packet mail to John Plomer, a well-known figure in Northamptonshire, living at Welton Place near Daventry; I can’t establish his relationship with the writer. In very measured terms, he writes about the elopement of his daughter [ who is not named] with George Amos, the son of Mary Jacobi by her first marriage – she has now been twice-widowed; later, in 1792, she is recorded as owner of 49 enslaved people. She lives in St Ann’s parish. The young couple who have married are now in England; nothing clarifies whether they married in Jamaica or in England.

George Amos’s mother intended that he should marry his cousin Miss Catherine Wordie who would indeed have been a good match: she is recorded as dying still single in 1837 and has having been owner of 114 slaves on the Schwalenberg Estate. In contrast, the girl who George Amos has run away with had only ten negroes to her name, according to her father’s letter.

It seems that George Amos did return to Jamaica: in the 1837 Militia list for St Ann’s parish, John Scrogie is listed as Lieutenant and George Amos as an Ensign. But whether he came with  John Scrogie’s daughter, I cannot establish though it seems the most likely outcome: intriguingly a Mary Ann Amos claimed in the 1830s for one slave on St Kitts and is conceivably the same person as the Mary Ann Scrogie who claimed for seven in Jamaica. George Amos is not recorded as making any claim and was presumably dead by then.

 

Scrogiehall Jamaica 11^th September 1782

To John Plomer Esqr, Welton near Daventry Northamptonshire

[sent] per packet.

Sir

Your favour of 23d May came to my hand only the 6^th Instant having been left at a post office, to which I seldom have an opportunity and is owing to Mr Amos constantly putting St. Ann’s on the address.

I most sincerely feel for his & my Daughters distress, but must own it is what I expected, nor was it in my power to prevent it, having done as much as possibly I could before their departure from this island.

Mr Amos has every reason to believe he was of age [twenty one]  April last [1782], as his now wife & I were invited by his mother [ Mrs Jacobi] the 10^th Apr 1781 to drink his health on being twenty years old; and till  they found him fixed in his resolution of marrying my Daughter, to whom they could have no just objection, but that it prevented his union with his Cousin Miss Wordie it never was doubted, but he would be of age April last [1782]. Mr Macauley [a local clergyman presumably] has been dead these ten years, & the present Incumbent told me he had a Letter from Mrs Jacobi his Mother wanting to know if any Register of Births was kept in the parish.

I wave taking notice of his Mother & Aunts behaviour, before & since his marriage, it is too well known here, and looked on in the light it deserves. I have wrote him [George Amos] thrice since his departure, & in each letter pressed him to use every means to be in friendship with his Mother, as there is no evident way, how he can maintain himself & family on returning to this country, without her reconciliation and assistance.

I was bred to no particular employment, but my anxiety to support my Family & love of being independent of my Relations, made me try every means rather than be idle.

Necessity drove me to take up house soon after my arrival in this Island, with my children mostly young & uneducated, nor have I yet cleared off the debts contracted then. With a negroe girl I gave my Daughter & her issue, and others bought with a legacy left her by my uncle, she has now ten negroes young & old which is all she can expect till my death and it would much grieve me to think they must sell them without it put them in an evident way of getting a good livelihood.

Your observation of Mr Amos incapacity of putting his hand to any employment is too true, but also his not being desirous to do any thing to maintain himself and Family much grieves me, & what I dreaded.

I have distantly given him hints on that subject in all my Letters, and as the strain of your Letter breathes benevolence and Friendship, will take the liberty to request your talking or writing to him on that subject in such a way as he may seriously lay it to heart. He is young and healthy, & I know his wife is virtuous and sensible.

Capt King’s behaviour is truly generous; and if any post in the Navy or any other way could be procured for him in Eng[lan]d I see evident destruction of his coming to this country without his Mother’s reconciliation and he ought not in any event to come until he is of age.

I am Sir

Your most obed & hble Servant

J Scrogie 

John Julius Angerstein (1735-1823) writes to the Governor of Gibraltar

 

London to Gibraltar 1812. A single sheet letter addressed to His Excellency Lieutenant General Campbell, Governor of Gibraltar, from John Julius Angerstein acting as secretary for some Committee for Orphan Relief and sent through the regular post with a red FOREIGN despatch mark but no other markings. The letter is in very poor condition: I make the guess that it may have been passed on at the time to one of the persons referred to in the letter and carried around rather than filed.

In relation to the letter's contents, Mr Keeling appears to have been a Gibraltar merchant of Scottish descent best known for issuing copper coins for local use; in Robert Keeling's Last Will and Testament he mentions his longtime friendship to George Allardyce. Mr Allerdyce (alternative spelling) appears in  1804 as a member of the Committee for the preservation of Public Health in Gibraltar set up during a Yellow Fever epidemic. Both are plausible candidates for taking an interest in the fate of Peninsular War orphans.

John Julius Angerstein is a significant and controversial figure: his collection of paintings formed the basis of the National Gallery’s collection and in the recent past much research has been conducted, both by the National Gallery and by Lloyd's of London, to ascertain to what degree his wealth derived from direct or indirect involvement with the slave trade.

Click on Image to Magnify

 

 

London 26^th October 1812

Dear Sir

I had the Honor to receive your Excellencys Letter of   [blank space ]  with its enclosure.

A committee of subscribers met lately; your Letter and Mr Keeling’s of the 5^th of March last were read as were the Papers of which I enclose Copies. It appeared to the Committee that the names of only two of the twelve children in the list furnished by Mr Keeling are to be found in the list of Orphans in the Asylum on the 26^th of May 1805, Viz. Peter Yeoman and James Yeoman, Mr Keeling’s being a list of Protestant Orphans only. It also appeared from the list of Subscribers at Gibraltar (No. 2) and the list of Subscribers in London that the contribution [? Should be Contributors] to the support of the Orphans were of different religious persuasions from which circumstance the Committee concluded that the Subscriptions were intended for the support of the Orphans in general without any distinction with respect to religion.

The Committee was therefore of opinion, that that it would not be right to confine the Benefit of the Subscription to the Orphan children of Protestant Parents only but in order to afford relief to those Orphans Resolved that the Sum of Five Hundred Pounds be issued for their support and that Your Excellency be requested to desire Mr Allerdyce or if not still in Gibraltar some other Person to furnish me with the best Account he can of the nineteen Orphans not included in Mr Keeling’s List; to inform me whether they are in Want of support and in what manner such support can be afforded to them.

I have to request that Your Excellency will be pleased to draw yourself, or to direct Mr Keeling to draw upon me for five hundred Pounds at sixty days Sight, advising me by Letter of such Draft.

The Committee have Met with Objects which they have relieved here.

I have the Honor to be/ Your Excellencys/ Very faithfull …….[presumably Serv't] J J Angerstein

Spain First Carlist War Colonel Edward Aldrich and the Surrender of the Fortress of Melilla in 1839

 

This is a single sheet letter dated March 1839  comprising diplomatic correspondence apparently sent through the regular post from Madrid to the Governor of Gibraltar, Sir Alex Woodford,  and recording a meeting between Henry Southern, a British diplomat in Madrid, with the new Prime Minister of Spain Perez de Castro. The topic discussed is the unappreciated role of the British Colonel Edward Aldrich in securing the surrender of the fortress of Mellila to the Queen of Spain. The letter is damaged; it may have been opened by the Spanish authorities. It is  not entirely legible but relates to a significant moment in the First Carlist War in Spain.

Click on Image to Magnify

 

Address:

His Excellency / Major Gen’l Sir Alex Woodford K.C.B. / Gibraltar

Sender’s autograph bottom left: Henry Southern

….ch [March] 1839  [written from Madrid]

Postal marking “8” in red

Sir

I have communicated the contents of your last letter dated 7^th March to M. Perez de Castro [ recently appointed Prime Minister of Spain – see Wikipedia ]. It …….. Mr Aldrich’s return and the conclusion of an agreement between the Captain Gen’l of Grenada and two commissioners from the revolted garrison of Melilla. I gave him to understand that if the termination had been advantageous, that it was in part to be attributed to the presence of an English agent [ Colonel Edward Aldrich – see Wikipedia]. Neither did I disguise from him that it was but an uncourteous mode of demonstrating the gratitude of this govt. that on the two occasions when Mr Aldrich might have [been? – word seems to have been omitted] instrumental  in serving the cause that in the 1^st he was denied a copy of the conditions offered by the Insurgents and in the 2^nd he was not invited to the discussion of the terms on which the fortress was to be delivered up . This is a point which I cannot avoid also pointing out to our Gov^t  for better will or greater zeal was never exhibited in order to assist a friend in distress & it was but just that the good intentions should be acknowledged by the party aided, not only in word but in deed.

M. Perez de Castro informed me that he was aware of the [ letter damaged at this point] that it was the ratification [more damage] important for the commissioners [damage] submitting the document to DCas[tro? for?] approval.

I mentioned to you that Mr Perez de Castro spoke to me of sending me a Confidential communication on the subject of the conduct of the French in Oran &c as regards Melilla. He has not done so; but I know that he has addressed a Note on the subject to the French Ambassador here.

Maroto [Rafael Maroto – Carlist general] continues paramount in Navarre & takes the King (soi-disant) about with him as part of his baggage train. On the 7^th inst. he presented  himself in Los Arcos with 15 battallions. Leon immediately  went to attack ……[place name?commander name?] moving to support him; but Maroto retired.

I am Sir Yr faithful obd^t Serv^t   Henry Southern

 

Docketing note: Henry Southern Esqre Acknowledging letter of 7^th Instant relative to Melilla.

Mohamet Ben Abdel Malik and a Dishonourable British Consul 1786

 

Credit: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

 

 

In a past when all letters were handwritten it was common for both senders and receivers to make copies or have them made. There were circumstances in which this was routine: a British Ambassador might need to forward a letter received (or a copy of it) to the Foreign Office in London; if any query came back, either the original or a copy would be to hand.

What I transcribe below is a copy letter probably made in Gibraltar and written on watermarked paper of European manufacture – maybe British, maybe Spanish – the watermark will identify if it can be matched. The letter may have been translated from Arabic either at source or in Gibraltar. There is no signature at the end as one would expect on an original, just a note of the date it was written with the year given as an Islamic 1200 (1785-86 and, in context, 1786).

The author is (in the spelling of the English copy) Mohamet Benabdelmalik, Pasha of Tangier, a prominent figure in the service of King Mohammed the Second who ruled Marocco from 1757 to 1790; when Benabdelmalik travelled as ambassador to Vienna in 1783 his portrait was painted and is reproduced above. 

The letter's  recipient is General George Augustus Eliott, Commander in Chief and Governor of Gibraltar from 1777-1787, a period which included the Great Siege of Gibraltar.

The letter concerns the conduct of the recently departed British Consul in Tangier, Charles Adam Duff in post from 1784 to 1786 and succeeded by the much better known James Mario (or Maria) Matra.

This is what the Pasha has to say:

To the Commander in Chief and Governor of Gibraltar, General George Augustus Eliott, Peace to the true and faithfull

I received your esteemed favor last week with an inclosed from Constantinople, which I immediately forwarded to my Royal Sovereign. I am glad to hear of your welfare; at the same time cannot fail imparting to you that your friend Consul Adam Duff, has been at Court with my Royal Sovereign, and I make no doubt that what he told him concerning King George’s Order is too true.

Mr Duff informed me that he intended going to Spain with his mother and family requesting that I should salute him with Guns at the time of his departure, - I told him it was not customary, for if he had remained at this place for four or five years and be afterwards relieved by another Consul he was intitled to a salute in that case only as a favor; - he replied, that if I did not salute him, he should not leave his English staff here. – I leave you to conceive if such conduct is competent to a man of his Character- I apprehend from his Actions and Expressions, that he is not a fit person to act between two Crowns; he has contracted many debts, and in short his proceedings are so bad, that it is a shame to relate; - God forbid that such insults should be suffered by your Nation; -

I thought it proper to impart you thereof, fearing you should be otherwise informed and give Credit to it – what I write you is nothing but fact.-

Believe me on all occasions ready to serve you, and I request you will Command me freely –

Dated the 20^th of Dec ElHahdath 1200 

I can find little on Google about Charles James Duff except for an interesting passage from a letter quoted in David Bensoussan Il etait une fois le Maroc (2012). Benoussan notes that according to a British consul writing in 1770, the Islamic rulers of Morocco depended on Jewish assistance to maintain their government and that in 1786 Consul Duff wrote that the employment of Jews in public offices was harmful to the King’s interests.

 

 

Clarissa Parry writing from Tavistock Place in 1806 to John Dovaston junior

  

 This is really about how much information is available on Google.  Here is a fairly ordinary letter which I have transcribed and the interpretation of which is aided by the fact that the recipient’s surname, Dovaston, is not common and that the Dovaston in question has his own Wikipedia page as John Freeman Milward Dovaston. Google allowed me to establish that

-          The sender is writing from 30 Tavistock Place though the letter only gives “Tavistock Place”.

-          That the “C Parry” is Clarissa Parry and her father Frederick Parry who is some kind of dispensing chemist and a governor of the “Northern Dispensary”. (It creates only a little confusion that the maiden name of Clarissa Dalloway in Virginia Woolf's novel is Clarissa Parry - though I did wonder if Mrs Woolf living in Tavistock Square had once heard of a Clarissa Parry who over a century before lived in Tavistock Place)

-          That the “Betty” she goes to watch perform in Orestes is the child actor Master Betty whose life story is freely available online.

-          That Mr Foulkes of Hart Street [in Bloomsbury] is an Attorney.

-          That there is a family of sea captains named Bayliff and that the relevant one may have set sail for Bombay earlier in the month in which this letter was written and won’t return until 1807 which may have upset what was being planned.

-          From my own prior knowledge I guess that “Enfield” [in Middlesex] is where a nurseryman supplying plants and seeds is located – but which nurseryman I can’t establish from google.

-          And because I can’t read the word it remains unclear what was causing concern in the conduct of the young man now being lined up for a life on board ship. This is frustrating.

*

Transcription of the letter

Tavistock Place March 27 1806

I think I hear you say what another letter why surely the Girl is mad what can she mean by tormenting me in this manner; seriously D. [Dovaston] I should not have troubled you with this; but you seem to have taken my saying so little about your Cousin Parry in so serious a light that I think it right that you should be undeceived. I did not at the time of writing recollect what had passed at our house between you and I mentioned him as a matter of course. I have the satisfaction of telling you that I believe he has profited by your advice for I do not think he has visited xxxxx [looks like initials or a house number] since; he has dined with us every Sunday he has had to himself the last excepted when he was at Mr Foulkes of Hart Street and came to us in the evening. He seems to have a great desire of going to sea & papa thinks him very steady and fit for business he believes he has it now in his power to send him out with a particular friend of his Capt. Bayliff to be in the line of a purser if his father consents Parry has written on this subject and papa writes today; I hope he will give his consent and I think it will be a good thing for him.

I thought D when you left town it was to study the law and not the art of gardening  however I am glad to find that you practice so much that I have it in contemplation to make you my head gardener We shall expect you early in April and I sincerely hope you will not be troubled with any of your melancholy fits while here

We have been very quiet since my last [letter] having (only) been to the Play once to see Betty in Orestes and to the opera. Papa has not yet been to Enfield and I dare say you will be quite in time to accompany him for he like many others of my friends takes a long time to consider of a thing before they undertake it. All in the House of Tavistock desire their best regards among whom Madam subscribes herself

Your sincere friend

C Parry

Dr W G Henderson Headmaster of Leeds Grammar School Will Put Your Name Down for Oxford

  

It’s surprising what you sometimes find inside old envelopes. Here the Reverend Dr W G Henderson, Headmaster of Leeds Grammar School from 1862 to 1884, writes to the father of a pupil. The school year has ended and Dr Henderson is already taking a break on the Kent coast at Walmer. But he is also sending out bills:

My dear Sir,

I send you your sons [the apostrophe does appear to be missing] accounts for the past half year. His general conduct is quite satisfactory, with the exception of the old want of energy. I did not hear whether he had made up his mind about going to Oxford. If he resolves to go I will write in August & get his name put down.

I beg my kind regards to Mrs. Barstow & am

My dear sir

Very faithfully yours

W G Henderson

Dr Henderson has a Wikipedia page as “William Henderson (Priest)” which tells me that he was - among other distinctions - a Fellow of Magdalen College Oxford and so his recommendation would count.

The charm of this letter is that if young Barstow decides he wants to go then Dr Henderson will “put his name down” and he will go and Barstow Senior will have got good value for the school fees he has paid. Whether even the formality of an admissions interview was required, I do not know.

But did Barstow go up to Oxford?

The Barstow name is not common in Oxford's records of its alumni(only three in the period 1715-1886) but a John Smithson Barstow, son of a John Barstow, [the envelope is addressed to a J Barstow] born in Yorkshire [Leeds is in Yorkshire] attended the Queen’s College, matriculating on 20 April 1866, aged 20. [I think that’s rather old for the period; maybe something to do with “want of energy”]. He obtained a B.A. and M.A. though at what seems a leisurely pace - the records just state “1873” and in 1876 Barstow junior became a vicar of the Church of England as Oxford's graduates often did and still do. It looks like his father put some money into the Lincolnshire parish where he was first appointed, but I guess that is another story for someone else to research.

John Barstow senior is classified as a “Gent[leman]” in the Oxford records and a local Directory of the period identifies him as a farmer which is not incompatible. The Leeds Grammar School records connect a “John Smithson Barstow” to a “J Barstow Farmer”. Glancing through those records, it's clear that Leeds was a school which in the Victorian period regularly sent boys to Queen's College.

Well, after half an hour online, I conclude it likely that Dr Henderson did write his letter.

*

Postscript: The envelope no longer contains the tradesman's accounts rendered but their presence is indicated by the additional penny stamp added to the Penny Pink pre-stamped envelope and which was needed because the letter exceeded the half ounce weight limit for a penny letter; two pence was the next step up for letters under one ounce.