Seeking Ferret

My family history entries used to be a regular feature of this blog, but has rather trailed off recently, in part for lack of time, in part because I'd already picked the low-hanging fruit on the family tree. It's long been my ambition to do something more substantial with the Butlers in due course, but I'd thought of it as a retirement project - which indeed it still is. However, recent events have made me consider starting a little earlier.

A few months ago I was contacted by my third-cousin (once removed), Michael, of whose existence I had been aware but whom I had never met. He had recently inherited from his elder brother a large number of family papers, and very generously offered to share them with me - and, indeed, to give me a portrait of my great*4 grandmother, Margaret Kynnier, born 1736. Her picture is now hanging at the top of the stairs:



Just as exciting, though, was a cache of letters from my great-great-grandfather Thomas and his siblings, written between 1822 and 1825 to their elder brother Weeden, who was at Harrow at the time. Weeden (the third of that name) carefully preserved a good many of them, and together they constitute a fascinating (at least to me) source for what life was like at 6 Cheyne Walk at the time, when Weeden's father (also Weeden) was running a classical school there. Everyday life, the activities of the siblings and the school pupils, visits to different parts of the country, public events, worries and illnesses, are all laid forth in the disparate voices of Weeden's four siblings:

Anne (b. 1808), aged 13-16 over the period of the letters, and the most prolific correspondent.

Tom (b. 1809), aged 12-15

Fanny (b. 1811), aged 10-14

George (b. 1813), aged 8-12.

The baby of the family, Isabella (b. 1820), is too young to write herself, but a presence throughout.

Luckily, Weeden Senior taught his children good penmanship, so the letters are mostly legible, though several raise the stakes by using cross-hatching - a way of saving paper by writing twice on the same sheet at 90-degree angles:



All in all it's quite a treasure trove. I'll give you a few highlights in the entries to come. And here, to start us off, is a letter from Fanny, then aged 11, dated Sunday 22nd June 1823, the day after Weeden's 17th birthday.

My dear Weeden

We all drank your health yesterday but Anne, who was not returned from school. My Holidays began on the 10th of the month. Mrs Wishart, Brunell, Mr Leeds and his two daughters, Mr Bey and Mr & Mrs Quinby and Willets were here at the play on Tuesday they all acted very well, Henry Hancock was compared with Kean. He and Tom acted the best of all.

Thursday 26th. Maryann Leeds was continually saying to me that it was very well acted. I sat next to her. She and her sister Susan had never been at a Play in their lives before so it was a great treat to them. Brunell sat just behind me. I asked him if he remembered when they acted a Play here before and when he was an old woman. He said yes but that was nothing compared to this.

Anne is now marking Studholme’s and Strachey’s stockings. I think George will not be satisfied till he fills the house with Cats for he has been out today to get one.

I went yesterday to the house of old Mr Griffith with Papa who went to see him and his son Abel. It seems Griffith had pawned his coat which was a very good one, for the man gave him £2/1s for it and being in want of money he had gone I believe to ask his father for some more. His father would not listen to him so he shot him dead in the Temple and then laying down on the table the Pistol he had shot his Father with he walked to the looking glass to see where most effectually to shoot himself. I staid down in the parlour while Papa went upstairs to look at them both. He could see no likeness in Griffith to what he was when Papa saw him last. He was still bleeding at the mouth though he had been dead I believe 2 days and the verdict was settled at 11 o’clock on Tuesday night. It was brought in Murder and Suicide. William has heard that his body will be buried in the cross road at Pimlico.

One of our hens has been set for duck’s eggs.

I remain
Your affectionate sister
Frances Mary M. Butler

"Brunell" is of course Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then 17, a Cheyne Walk neighbour and a former pupil at the school. I don't know if it's widely known that he acted the part of an old woman, but therein lies my flimsy justification for the clickbait title. As for the case of Abel Griffith and his father, it was well known at the time - and in fact he was the very last suicide to be buried, according to tradition, at a crossroads; the law would be changed just a month later. The place of his burial is the current site of Victoria Station, apparently. At the time of his death Abel was a 22-year-old law student, and it seems quite likely that he, like Brunel, was one of Weeden Senior's former pupils, since he clearly knew him from some time before - and felt concerned enough his affairs to take his 11-year-old daughter to the place where his corpse was being stored. Different times.