The Digby Beste family in Indiana, 1851

The Revd Robert Barlow's sister-in-law Marian D'Oyley Bird married her third husband, John Richard Digby Beste, in 1850.

He was a widower with ten children aged between two and nineteen; she had a 13 year old daughter Louisa and an adopted daughter aged about 17, Elencho Marie (later known as Ellen Mary).

In 1851, Marian and her new husband took ship to America with eleven of their children, a lapdog, six canaries and a parrot [cf Remarkable, but still True, chapter 18].

Digby Beste's lively account of the family's travels can now be read online: The Wabash: or Adventures of an English Gentleman's Family in the Interior of America, Volumes one and two.

He includes many lively and fluent contributions written by his children.  He had set them the task of writing something each day as an exercise in composition and handwriting.  When, as he explained in his Preface to volume one,

these descriptions appeared to me graphic or entertaining; when they told the sad scenes which I myself was incapacitated from witnessing; when, even, they only showed the impressions which a new country and new scenes produced upon new minds

he incorporated them in his text.  Those of his stepdaughter Louisa Barlow Hoy can be found by searching for "Louie".

Several of the party fell seriously ill with dysentery while they were staying in a hotel in Terre Haute, Indiana, and 9 year old Isabel died there on 10 July 1851. 

Her sister gives a touching account (pages 38 & 39) of the poor child's death and funeral, with grateful notice of the number of strangers who attended the funeral of "the little stranger of whom they knew nothing, and to show their sympathy for the family".

Details of her grave can be found here, at Find A Grave.

Mrs Barlow Hoy and the new church at Bitterne, Hampshire

Another glimpse of James Barlow Hoy and his wife Marian [cf Remarkable, but still True].  Here they are going about their public duties on his new estates in Hampshire:

On Monday, April 18th, the first stone of the new church at Bitterne was laid by Mrs Barlow Hoy.  The site of the church is in the angle of a field, close to the junction of the roads leading to Swathling, Itchen, Ferry, Bursledon, and Moor Green.  The service was read by the Rev W D Harrison, the vicar.  The inscription on the plate was as follows:-

The first stone of this church, built by subscription, on ground presented by J Barlow Hoy, Esq., MP, was laid on the 18th of April, 1836.  W D Harrison, vicar.  R Scott, and J Gale, churchwardens.  J W Wild, architect.

The style chosen by the architect is the simple Gothic of the 13th century; the church will have a nave and two aisles; there will be a west-end gallery, but no other; accommodation will be afforded for 640 sittings, of which 392 are to be free.  The name is to be “St James's Chapel, West-end.” The Rev E R Breton is to have the perpetual curacy.

[from The British Magazine, and Monthly Register of Religious and Ecclesiastical Information, Vol IX]

Appendix II: Burials 3 October to 13 December 1832

1832  Burials Register, All Saints', Rudby-in-Cleveland

Entries made by Revd R J Barlow

The register shows: Name – Abode – When buried – Age
           
John Cook – Hutton – Octr 3rd – 48 yrs
Stephen Catchasides – Hutton – Octr 6th – 39 yrs
Wm Bainbridge – Hutton – Octr 6th – 13 yrs
Thos Preston – Hutton – Octr 6th – 50 yrs
Thos Souter – Hutton – Octr 6 – 5 yrs
Jane Bainbridge – Hutton – Octr 7th – 16 yrs
Jas Catchasides – Hutton – Octr 7th – 81 73 yrs
Grace Catchasides – Hutton – Octr 7 – 82 yrs
T.  C.  Pulman Surgeon – Hutton – Octr 7th – 36 yrs
John Passman – Hutton – Octr 7th – 5 yrs
Jane How – Hutton – Octr 7th – 1 yr
*Maryanne Bainbridge – Hutton – Octr 7th 8th – 41 yrs
*Betty Skelton – Hutton – Octr 9th 8th – 39 yrs
Isaac Matth Bainbridge – Hutton – Octr 9th – 4 yrs
Thos Hall – Hutton – Octr 12th – 73 yrs
Benjamin Hall – Hutton – Octr 12 – 25 yrs
Dinah Rayne – Hutton – Octr 13th – 81 yrs
Elizabeth Bainbridge – Hutton – Octr 13 – 6 yrs
Jane Cole – Hutton – Octr 15 – 75 yrs
*Harriott Passman – Hutton – Octr 15th – 4 yrs
*Jane Walton – Hutton – Octr 16th – 59 yrs
Jonathan Eland – Hutton – Octr 19th – 82 yrs
Thos Shaw – Hutton – Octr 23 – 65 yrs
Robt Sheppard – Barrak Parish of Egglescliffe [ie. Barwick] – Octr 27th – 4 yrs
Jane Shaw – Hutton – Octr 28 – 62 yrs
Elizabeth Dixon – Hutton – Nov 10th – 41 yrs
Jane Hall – Hutton – Novr 12 – 30 yrs
Jacob Honeyman – Hutton – Nov 14th – 75 yrs
Jane Cook – Hutton – Novr 15th – 40 yrs
David Souter – Hutton – Novr 19 – 13 yrs
Elizabeth Souter – Hutton – Novr 29th – 87 yrs
John Orrigh – Faceby – Decr 3rd – 75 yrs
Emma Souter – Hutton – Decr 11th – 38 yrs
Rachel Cook – Hutton – Decr 16th – 91 yrs


*  Mary Anne Bainbridge's age is left blank in Mr Barlow's additional "Sepultorum nomina" list
*  Betty Skelton's age is left blank in the "Sepultorum nomina" list
*  Harriott Passman's age, unclear in the main register, is clearly 6 in the "Sepultorum nomina" list
*  Jane Walton's age is given as 57 in the "Sepultorum nomina" list

Appendix I: Barlow Family Tree

John Barlow = Ann [?Wilson]
        c1769-1844
  _____________________|___________________________

 

  James           Mary          Isabella        John          Anne         Robert
 Barlow         Sophia       Catherine     Wilson     "Nanny"       Joseph
   Hoy            Barlow        Barlow       Barlow      Barlow        Barlow

James Barlow Hoy (c1792-1843) married Marian D’Oyley Bird (1814-85) in 1831. 

Their only child Louisa Barlow Hoy (1838-?) married Guadagno Guadagni and had four children: Guitto, Catherine, Aurora and Mary. 

Their adopted daughter Elencho Marie Pera, later Ellen Mary, was born c1834.  She married Robert Claude Evans.  Following the death of James Barlow Hoy, Marian D’Oyley Bird married Captain Richard Meredith; following his death she married John Richard Digby Beste.

Mary Sophia Barlow (c1795-1873)

Isabella Catherine Barlow (c1799-1874)

John Wilson Barlow (c1800-37) married Georgina Borough (c1804-?) in 1831. 

Their only child was James John Barlow, of whom nothing is known.

Anne “Nanny” Barlow, Mrs Vaughan (c1801-67) married the Revd Hector Francis Vaughan (c1785-1834) in 1830. 

Their only child, Hector Barlow Vaughan (c1833-85) married Wilhelmina Christiana Mathews and had two children, Caroline and Hectoria Vaughan

Robert Joseph Barlow (c1804-78) married Marianne Webb (c1782-1852) in 1829.  They had no children

Chapter 24. Epilogue

Three years after Mr Barlow's death, the Revd George Sanger's ministry came to an abrupt and unexpected end.

The new church at Carlton was opened by the Archdeacon in March 1879.  George Sanger had done much of the work himself – it was a magnificent undertaking.  Unfortunately, his relations with his parishioners were growing increasingly difficult. 

At three o'clock in the morning on 19 October 1881, the new church was destroyed by fire.

Soon it became apparent that some of his parishioners fervently believed that their vicar had destroyed his own church.  A long history of petty grievances and village gossip had apparently combined to produce a combustible mixture.

Mr Sanger was arrested in London on a charge of arson soon after his marriage to his young and allegedly pregnant housekeeper (who seems to have been the niece of James Stanger's wife).  The case was dismissed by the Stokesley magistrates in January 1882, but the public opinion in Carlton remained unrelenting. 

Nevertheless Mr Sanger entreated his parishioners to build a new church:

Money is not wanting in the parish, where one parishioner can boast of being able to command £70,000, and the united income of the wealthy landowners is not much less than £1m a year. 

Perhaps the distinct lack of tact may explain some of his past difficulties in dealing with his parishioners.

He was inhibited by the church authorities from taking services for five years on an ecclesiastical offence, but for many years afterwards much of the parish continued to ostracise the poor man.  While parishioners attended services at Faceby, Mr Sanger lived on in the vicarage, spending his time walking on the moors.  A reconciliation took place as he came to his deathbed in 1894.  According to Major Fairfax-Blakeborough,

some of those who have had time to hear all the evidence, and every insinuation, are confirmed in the certain opinion that the Rev Geo. Sangar had no part in the burning of his Church.  The mystery will probably never now be solved, though it is said the late Vicar himself could have explained it and that spleen was the motive. 

The case inspired the Middlesbrough-born writer, E W Hornung, creator of Raffles, the gentleman thief, to write a fictionalised version in his novel Peccavi  [1]. 

Chapter 23. "The old vicar of Rudby has gone to his well-earned rest"

Life in the vicarage must have grown more lonely for Mr Barlow in the years following Nanny's death. 

His sister Mary Sophia was suffering from dementia and died aged 78 of "Senile Decay" on 17 September 1873.  She was followed six months later on 7 March 1874 by her sister Isabella, whose cause of death was registered as "General Debility" at the age of 74. 

As before, it was not Mr Barlow who registered their deaths.  Mary's was registered by Christopher Garbutt, the joiner and publican of the King's Head, and Isabella's by the joiner Alvey Kay – they had presumably supplied the coffins and were acting as undertakers. 

The sisters were buried in the family vault and a memorial tablet was placed on the church wall near the door.  Hector Vaughan possibly contributed to the cost of this, which gives full details of his father – it can be seen that Mr Barlow employed the Latin version of the degree of Master of Arts.  The lettering was apparently in gold, although no trace of this remains: 

IN A VAULT NEAR THIS LIE THE REMAINS OF NANNY VAUGHAN
WIDOW OF THE LATE REVD HECTOR FRANCIS VAUGHAN A.M.
RECTOR OF MYSHALL WHO DIED OCTOBER THE 26TH 1867
AGED 66 YEARS
ALSO OF MARY SOPHIA BARLOW WHO DIED SEPTR 7TH 1873
AGED 78 YEARS
ALSO OF ISABELLA CATHERINE BARLOW WHO DIED MARCH 7TH 1874
AGED 74 YEARS
THE NAMES OF THESE THREE DESERVEDLY BELOVED SISTERS
ARE HERE RECORDED BY THEIR AFFECTIONATE BROTHER
IN CHARACTERS OF GOLD AS A TESTIMONY OF THEIR WORTH

Now Robert was alone in the vicarage.  He had his friends and regular consultations with his curate George Sanger, and he was still active, as his notebook shows. 

Chapter 22. 'Remarkable, but still True'

The 1871 census found a diminished household at the vicarage – Robert, his sister Mary (here called Maria), whose age is now given as 75, and his sister Isabella (here for some reason called Jane), whose age is given as 72.  They had one maid of all work living in the house – 20-year-old Mary Chipchase, born in Appleton Wiske. 

New industries had come – there were now jet miners living in the village and working in Scugdale and a busy timber mill stood at the top of Sexhow Lane.  George Wilson's Sailcloth Mill employed 24 men and 9 women and was being converted from water to steam power, while over on the Rudby side of the river, the bleach house employed three men.

Mr Barlow was occupied with a new project.

Not for him the usual topics of the clergyman scholar – he was engaged in a lively volume of disguised autobiography and colourful anecdote, under the pen-name Walter Fitzallen.  It is interesting to note that nearly all the names he gives his characters were used by Sir Walter Scott – Graham, Clutterbuck, Barnard, Seymour and the name Fitzallen itself.  Perhaps, although he does not mention reading Scott, he was so fond of his works that he had absorbed the names without noticing.

The novel was printed for Mr Barlow in 1872 by Wyman & Sons of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields – again, he had evidently no desire to use the local printers – and appeared as a small octavo volume (19cm tall) of 406 pages divided into 34 chapters.