Royal Bastards
Page 21
However, it has also been suggested that Frederick was a natural son of King George III and took his mother’s married name but his baptismal entry of 22 September 1761 in St Margaret’s Rochester shows him to be the son of Lieutenant (later Captain) Frederick B. Blomberg and Melissa (née Layng) his wife. It so happens that he was baptised two weeks after King George III’s marriage and the day after his Coronation. The last owner of the manor seems to have considered Blomberg to be the ‘heir-general’, and as a second cousin once removed, he could well have been the heir to his cousin.
But in 1801, the Rev. F. W. Blomberg, who by then was Chaplain and Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales, successfully claimed the property, although without any mention of his own alleged parentage. If his claim had been by right of descent (paternal or maternal), he would surely have mentioned his connection and it is perhaps significant that he did not. He did, however, build a large obelisk in the grounds of Kirkby Misperton in 1812 to commemorate the grant of this property to him by George, Prince of Wales, the Regent.
Alumni Cantabrigienses states that the Rev. F. W. Blomberg, DD, was a constant companion of George III’s children and that he resembled some of them. It records that Blomberg was admitted to St John’s College Cambridge on 7 October 1777 and a Fellow-Com on 18 January 1782, BA 1782, MA 1785 and a DD in 1822. He was ordained Deacon at Ely on 6 June 1784 and a priest the following year. He became Chaplain to George, Prince of Wales in 1787 and in the same year was appointed rector of Shepton Mallet, Somerset 1787–1833, Prebendary of Bristol 1790–1828, Chaplain to George, Prince of Wales 1793, Vicar of Bradford, Wiltshire 1793–99 and 1808–33, Vicar of Banwell, Somerset 1799–1808, Prebendary of Westminster 1808–22, and of St Pauls 1822–47, Vicar of St Giles, Cripplegate 1833–47, Prebendary of Bath and Wells until 1833, Canon Residentiary of St Pauls and Chaplain to Queen Victoria. He married Maria Floyer, of Bath on 29 May 1787.
The Gentleman’s Magazine of 1847 carried an obituary for him in which it was stated: ‘his family had been long attached to the Court’ and that he was educated ‘in intimate association with the children of King George III who always retained great affection for him.’
In a letter from Christopher Dobson, Librarian of the House of Lords, to Robert (later Sir) Mackworth Young, Librarian of Windsor Castle and Assistant Keeper of the Queen’s Archives, dated 8 June 1964, he stated that
‘as a young man George III had a number of ‘flirtations’ – innocent no doubt – with various young ladies including Lady Sarah Lennox. No doubt, if there was a child the circumstances and the parentage were rigorously concealed. The only thing that could not be hidden was the striking resemblance to the Royal family.’
What seems certain is that Blomberg was brought up as a child in company with the children of George III and that he is said to have had a striking likeness to the Royal family. As George III was passionately in love with Lady Sarah Lennox for two years or more before his marriage in 1761, it is perhaps unlikely that he would have been the father.
Nevertheless, there are a few references to Blomberg in the Royal Archives. In the Diary of Lady Charlotte Finch (GEO/ADDL 21/181) dated 4 January 1765, it is recorded: ‘The Queen determined to take Master Blomberg [aged only four] and allow him 50 pds a year and put him under Mrs. Cotesworth’s care.’ (sub-governess to the Royal children).
There are later references to payments made to him from 1784 until 1793 as Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales and to an annuity he received from 1805. There are references to his many Court appointments as Chaplain to POW (1787) and as Clerk of the Closet to POW (1808), as Chaplain to the Household at Carlton House (1821-37), as Deputy Clerk of the Closet and Chaplain in Ordinary (1827-37) and as Chaplain in Ordinary to Kings George IV and William IV (1827–37), but none as to his paternity. In Mackworth Young’s letter to Dobson, dated 6 June 1964, he also said:
‘There is no evidence here to show that he [Blomberg] was an illegitimate son of King George III. This does not of course disprove the story since it is quite likely that if there had been any such evidence, it would have been removed. On the other hand, I am personally doubtful about the traditions that George III had illegitimate children. There is one such tradition about the Rex family in South Africa which has proved to be false [see page 209]. In general the fathering of illegitimate children seems out of keeping with the King’s character. Unlike his father and sons, he was by no means a bounder, but had, on the contrary, an exaggerated sense of duty. He had several illegitimate half brothers (including curiously one of my predecessors), but I should be surprised to see proof that he ever had an illegitimate child of his own.’
He later wrote on 10 August:
‘There is no evidence of George III being Blomberg’s father. There seems no reason in principle why William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland or Edward Duke of York should not have been Blomberg’s father. In the latter case, the dates would fit in particularly well, as the D. of York died in 1767. In 1760 he was a dashing young naval officer with a reputation for success among the ladies, and could well have been the father of an infant born in Rochester in 1761. But there is no evidence here to support this speculation.’
However, after Blomberg’s death on 23 March 1847 aged eighty-five, two books entitled The Unseen World (1847) as well as The Journal and Memories of Thomas Whalley (1863) were published, attempting to explain Blomberg’s close associations with the Royal Family. They both claimed that Blomberg’s father, a British Officer, who had been serving in the West Indes, appeared as a ghost to two other officers serving there, asking them to go to a certain house in Scotland where in a chest certain documents would be found so as to enable his son to claim his property from Queen Charlotte. This they did and his son apparently came into his inheritance, besides also being brought up with the Royal Family. However, far fetched though it sounds, there is a reference in the Army List to a Captain Blomberg serving in the West Indes in 1765 as Captain in the 62nd American regiment, quartered in the ‘Charibbee Islands’, but there was no reference to him in the 1767 edition, so Blomberg’s father may have died there in 1767 after all. Now, the only thing that remains to remind us of this enigma is his portrait by Richard Brampton, sold at Christies on 16 April 1982.
George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV (1762–1830): William Francis (b ca. 1806)
Among the royal papers, those preceding George Crole (see page 126), relate to a William Francis who was also in receipt of payments from the Privy Purse for six years. The papers date from 1806, the probable year of his birth, and the payments began in 1817, when his mother or so-called mother, Mrs. Davies died, and were extended until 1823.
However, the impression one gains from the limited correspondence is that Mrs. Davies was troublesome, for on 29 August 1806, three days after her son had been handed over to her, against a receipt, there is a letter from Mr. Anstey to the Prince’s Private Secretary, saying
‘the same gentleman that Mrs. Davies cald her Counsel the day she made the Disturbance came and Produced the Order for the child, which I delivered. I have a recpt from him Acknowledging the same; would you Please to have it Sent to you, or remain with me until I See you; if you think it Proper to have it sent to you, Please to inform me in what manner I am to convey it.’ (RA 29958)
The various payments and receipts relate to William’s annual allowance of £200 and the payment of his school fees to a Mrs. Frances Stockdale, of Parson’s Green amounting to about another £100 per year and were payable at least from 1819–23.
The papers show that William was born prior to August 1806, being aged about eleven at the time of his mother’s death on 29 May 1817, and that he was destined for an army career, with funds available for the purchase of a commission. There is mention too of tentative travel plans for William in 1822, possibly involving friends in Madras. There is correspondence between Mr. M. Anstey (who appears to act as a go-between), Mr. Geldard of Grays Inn Square, seemingly a lawyer, and with Mr. Charles Bi
cknell, of Charing Cross, solicitor and attorney to the Prince of Wales and sometime a Clerk in his Household, Mr. C. F. Du Pasquier, for many years Groom of the Chamber to the Prince of Wales and Colonel the Rt. Hon. Sir John McMahon, 1st Bt, Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales / Prince Regent and Keeper of the Privy Purse (1805–17).
Moreover on 18 July 1820, suspicions were aroused as we see in the letter from R. Birnie of Bow Street to Charles Bicknall dated 18 July 1820, when he says:
‘I am still pestered by that woman named Walker who had brought a host of witnesses again, all of which state, and I must say plausibly enough, that the child was not borrowed to impose upon Du Pasquier but on a person of much higher rank; for the Lady who she judges to be the pretended Mother was of a very superior appearance, always came in her Carriage, was very particular in enquiring if the child was fair (this could not apply to Du Pasquier) and that he, Du P, always attended on her as a servant. There is an immense quantity of evidence from various persons, very well dove-tailed I assure you, but this is a Case you well know, wherein a Justice of the peace has no jurisdiction. I apprehend however that they may get into the hands of those who at this time (George IV had been crowned eight days earlier) will make a fine handle of it. It would be well if that could be prevented’ (RA 29959)
So whilst there is no conclusive proof that William Francis is another Royal Bastard, the circumstantial evidence is certainly very strong with his Private Secretary and Groom of the Chamber to the Prince of Wales arranging for the funding and welfare of a William Francis for at least six years. In all probability, William’s so-called mother was probably a paid foster mother, rather than his actual mother.
Unfortunately a search of Alumni Cantabrigienses, Alumni Oxonienses, The Army Lists, The Navy Lists, Clerical Directories, India Office Lists and others yielded not a single reference to the name. Although a search of the International Genealogical Index produced a number of entries for births or baptisms of William Francis, nothing relevant could be identified.
Chapter XV
Victorian Loose Ends
Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII (1901) (1841–1910)
During Queen Victoria’s reign, there are no references to any Royal Bastards stemming from the Queen, although the same cannot be said for her eldest son, Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.
The late Theo Aronsen in his book ‘The King in Love – Edward VII’s Mistresses’ delved most assiduously into any offspring that the King may have had as did Raymond Lamont-Brown in his book Edward VII’s Last Loves – Alice Keppel & Agnes Keyser (1998).
As was fashionable at the time, most of his lovers were respectably married women, who, rightly or wrongly, passed off their offspring, by whomsoever begotten, as the children of their husband. It is therefore very difficult for us to determine paternity with any certainty, as there is often nothing other than circumstantial evidence to rely upon for DNA had not then been discovered.
The King’s three official mistresses, all married, were in chronological order, Lillie Langtry, Daisy, Countess of Warwick and Alice Keppel, but whereas there were undoubtedly many Royal ‘flings’, we cannot be certain that any of these have led to any further Royal Bastards, possibly as a result of a bout of syphilis he is alleged to have had. Nevertheless, there are a number of claimants.
In his book The Fox Hunters of Vanity Fair, Gordon Fergusson states that Edward’s mistresses were innumerable and included among their number Patsy Cornwallis-West, whose son George Frederick Myddelton Cornwallis-West (who later married the widowed Lady Randolph Churchill) was born on 14 November 1874. He was a godson of the Prince and was grandson of the Marquess of Headford. Patsy was a court favourite and it is said that George had been fathered by the Prince in the woods at Eaton whilst staying with the Duke of Westminster. An estate worker’s little girl had ‘seen the Prince on top of her’. However as might be expected, there is no reference to this Royal paternity in Burke’s Peerage (see de la Warr, E).
Then there was the child of the 5th Duke of Newcastle’s daughter, Lady Susan Vane Tempest, née Pelham-Clinton, born in 1871, for whose upbringing the Prince was asked to contribute. Others mentioned were the son of Princesse Jeanne de Sagan, later Duchesse de Talleyrand-Perigord, who may have had a Royal father, after a dalliance in 1873 when the Prince visited the Chateau de Mello, south of Paris.
Olga, later Baroness de Mayer, the daughter of Blanche, Duchess di Caracciola, is said to have been the Prince’s favourite illegitimate child and that she was conceived on one of the Prince’s visits to Dieppe, where she was brought up discreetly. It is further said that Olga went on to become one of Winnarata, Princesse de Polignac’s lovers, long before Violet Keppel/Trefusis shared her bed. Some claim that Roderick Ross, the Chief Constable of Edinburgh and Sir Stewart Graham Menzies, head of the Secret Intelligence Service, upon whom ‘C’ of James Bond fame was modelled, were both sons of the Prince.
Then there was Sophie, wife of Colonel W. Hall Walker who used to receive the King ingognito as The Duke of Lancaster, even though he was thirty-five years her senior; and also Grace Forster, née Blomfield, of Co. Fermanagh who had a son Stewart Arthur Forster (who was born 30 August 1899) and thought by some to be the Prince’s son. Apparently Stewart was teased a lot at Winchester about his paternity and the fact that his father appeared upon so much of the coinage of the Realm, yet his children now deny knowing anything about it at all! There was also Miss Margot Thorold of Boothby Hall in Lincolnshire and Cora Pearl who liked to be dished up on a silver platter à la nue. The Duchesse de Mouchy, the sultry divorcee and Sarah Bernhardt were also paramours and the list goes on.
It has also been suggested that Rosemary Aimee Douglas Erskine Crum, née Dawson, was yet another daughter of King Edward VII. According to her husband’s entry in Who Was Who, Rosemary married in 1948 Lieutenant-General Vernon Forbes Erskine Crum, CIE, MC, (1918–71) and was the daughter of Brigadier-General Sir Douglas (Frederick Rawdon) Dawson, GCVO, KCB, CMG (1854–1933), who was Comptroller of the Lord Chamberlain’s Department from 1907–20. Dawson had married Aimee Evelyn (Evie), GBE, daughter of Gordon Pirie and she was the widow of Herbert Oakley, whom she had married as her first husband in 1889. Oakley died ten years later leaving no issue and in 1903 Evie married Dawson, although strangely no issue is recorded for them in any reference books. Evie is recorded as having been awarded the GBE in 1918 and as having died in 1946 and a check in the indexes of deaths for 1946 shows that she died aged eighty-two and was therefore born ca 1864.
However, the only reference to Rosemary’s paternity is given in the entries for her husband in Who Was Who and for her son, Douglas Vernon Erskine Crum, CBE who has been the Racecourse Director at Ascot for the last ten years and whose entry appears in the current Who’s Who. If Rosemary was to have been the daughter of the King (who died in May 1910), then she would have been at least eight years older than her husband (who was born 1918) and she would have married him in 1948 aged thirty-eight, if born in the King’s last year. More significantly, however, her mother, Aimee, who was born in 1864, would have also been forty-six at the time of the King’s death, hardly an ideal age for giving birth to her first and only child. Nevertheless her mother did at least have connections at Court through her second husband, who was Master of Ceremonies to King Edward VII from 1903. If she was to be passed off as the legitimate daughter of the Dawsons, then she must have been born after August 1904.
Like so many of these stories, nothing is conclusive, although it does, at least, indicate a propinquity to the King for Rosemary’s mother at about the right time. Nevertheless, the dates are not convincing and leave many questions unanswered.
In a more worthy vein was the unlikely Agnes Keyser who with her sister, Fanny, established the King Edward VII’s Hospital for Officers in 1899 which flourishes to this day. Despite being a considerable heiress, Agnes never married which was unusual for the king’s paramours, but because she was wealthy, she was never cons
idered a social failure. The King was impressed and interested in her good works which brought them into close contact, which became closer still over the years.
It seems that few of the fairer sex could say no to the Prince, and for many of those who succumbed, it was his custom to give them one of his well-known diamante monkey brooches.
Unlike Royal Bastards of earlier centuries, King Edward never officially recognised any illegitimate offspring. This may of course have been because he did not have any, although, as we have seen, there were many contenders, the most likely of which are listed below. At his Coronation, King Edward VII insisted upon inviting a bevy of his girlfriends, old and new, who were seated in a special pew in Westminster Abbey, which was irreverently referred to as ‘the King’s loose box.’ According to Raymond Lamont-Brown these included: La Favorita (Alice Keppel), Mrs Ronald Greville, Lady Sarah Wilson, Feo Sturt, Mrs. Arthur Paget, Lady Warwick, Lillie Langtry, Sarah Bernhardt, Jennie Churchill, Leonie Jerome, Countess Torby, Lady Albemarle (Alice Keppel’s mother-in-law), Princess Daisy of Pless and Baroness Olga Alberta de Meyer (the King’s reputed daughter by the Duchess di Carrachiola). From these the following foals have emerged.
Jeanne-Marie Langtry, MBE, CStJ (1881–1964)
There is no doubt at all that Lillie Langtry, (1853–1929) ‘The Jersey Lily,’ the beauty who became the first official mistress of Edward Prince of Wales, gave birth to a daughter, Jeanne-Marie Langtry, in France on 8 March 1881 and that the child was duly handed over to the care of Lillie’s mother, Emily le Breton, who brought her up at Lillie’s love-nest in Bournemouth, with occasional visits from the child’s ‘Aunt’ Lillie, as her actress mother was known to her.
Lillie, who was born in Jersey as Emily Charlotte, was the daughter of the Very Rev. William Corbet le Breton, Dean of Jersey, whose family had been prominent in Jersey from Norman times. Lillie married firstly in 1874 the ineffectual but compliant Edward Langtry, an Irish widower, but he died of drink in 1897, officially leaving a daughter Jeanne-Marie. Two years later, Lillie married again Hugo Gerald de Bathe, nineteen years her junior, who later succeeded as 5th Baronet and died in 1940, she having died eleven years beforehand in Monte Carlo.