GOLDEN DAWN MEMBERS:

EMILY KATHARINE, KATHERINE OR CATHERINE BATES:

File one FAMILY BACKGROUND

 

GETTING TO THE START – SHORT FORMS FOR THE SOURCES

 

GR1; GR2       A Year in the Great Republic, Kat’s account of her travels in Canada and the US.

                        She is named on the original cover as E Catherine Bates.  2 volumes, London:

                        Ward and Downey 1887.

KSS                 Kaleidoscope: Shifting Scenes from East to West.  Kat’s account of her time in                        Australasia, the Far East and Alaska.  She’s named on the original cover as E

                        Katharine Bates.  London: Ward and Downey of Covent Garden 1889.

 

S/U                  Seen and Unseen London: Greening and Co 1907; New York: Dodge Publishing                   Company 1908.

                        The page numbers are from my own copy, printed 2016 by Filiquarian Publishing           

                        Llc, see                        www.Qontro.com

 

Do/Dead          Do the Dead Depart?  I can’t say which name appeared on the front cover of the

                        British edition as I can’t find any copies of it.  E Katharine Bates is the name on

                        the title page of the American edition published New York: Dodge Publishing

                        Company  1908.  My page numbers are from a modern reprint by

                        www.forgottenbooks.com of the US edition.

 

P/Sci/Chr        Psychical Science and Christianity where Kat’s name is E Katharine Bates on the

                        front cover.  London: T Werner Laurie.  No publication date but the British                         Library stamp says “1 SEP 09”. 

 

P/Realm          The Psychic Realm on whose front cover Kat’s name is given as E Katharine                        Bates.  London: Greening and Co 1910.

           

PHFL               Psychic Hints of a Former Life by E Katharine Bates.  London: Theosophical

                        Publishing Society of 161 New Bond Street.  1912.

 

Cope                The Coping Stone: its True Significance by E Katharine Bates.  London: Greening                   and Co Ltd 1912.  The dates given are very vague in this one.  Kat was writing it

                        while separated from most of her papers.

           

OLD                Our Living Dead: Some Talks with Unknown Friends by E Katharine Bates with a

                        Preface by Alfred E Turner.  London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner and Co Ltd

                        1917

 

C/Dawn           Children of the Dawn by E Katharine Bates (sic).  London: Kegan Paul Trench                 Trubner and Co.  NewYork: E P Dutton and Co 1920.  Kat’s last published work.

 

 

FAMILY BACKGROUND: CARLETON AND BATES

Kate’s mother was a Carleton.  The family had branches in Ireland and Cumberland, where they were landed gentry and worked as business people and in the professions. 

 

Kat’s father’s family, the Bates’s, had intermarried with the Ellisons of Cheshire and Great Marlow several times.  The Ellisons were business people and landowners; the Bates family owned land and worked in the professions, though Kate’s father seems to have been the first cleric. 

Kat’s father was a second son.  His elder brother, Henry William Bates (1807-63) inherited the family estate at  Denton in Sussex.  On Henry William’s death Denton passed to Kat’ eldest brother Henry Stratton Bates; but he had sold it by 1882.

 

SOURCES:

The Carletons of Ireland and the Lake District:

There are discrepancies between the two accounts of the Carleton family that I have found.

 

The first account is Memorials of the Carletons published London: Gurney 1869; authors Captain Percival Augustus Carleton and Susan Georgiana Hare.  Kat’s grandfather John Carleton of Dublin and later Ambleside is on p51: the family estates in Ireland are at Darling Hill, and Blackcastle county Clare.  According to this account John Carleton married Mary Chambers and they had three children:

-           Kat’s uncle Francis of P&O who married Sarah North

-           Kat’s aunt Mary Elizabeth who married George Croft Vernon of Hanbury Worcestershire

-           Kat’s mother Ellen Susan or Susannah.

 

The second account I found at alison-stewart.blogspot.co.uk.  Alison is a descendant of Francis Carleton’s business partner and relative Charles Wye Williams.  Her main source is an obituary of Wye Williams published in Journal of the Society of the Arts 13 April 1866.

 

Kat’s grandmother Mrs Carleton, who was living in Ambleside in the Lake District in the 1830s:

A Companion to the Lakes of Cumberland, Westmoreland... by Sir Edward Baines 1834 p326 begins the section on Ambleside; p327 in list of residents of Ambleside, a Mrs Carleton, living at Oak Bank.

The latest reference to her that I could find was in Black’s Picturesque Tourist and Road-Book of England and Wales published by Adam and Charles Black 1847.  On p229 a list of villas around Ambleside includes Oak Bank, still lived in by Mrs Carleton.

 

When talking of her relatives, Kat often spread her net very wide.  Dame Ethel Macdonald, née Armstrong, was a distant relation though haven’t worked out exactly what the relationship was.  Ethel was over a decade younger than Kat and in Children of the Dawn pp34-35 Kat says it was Ethel’s parents that she knew.  She spent a winter with them in Italy; she doesn’t say when. 

In Children of the Dawn Ethel is “Ethel M” and her husband is “Sir C M” but they were quite easy to identify as Sir Claude Maxwell Macdonald (1852-1915); and his wife Ethel, later Dame Ethel Macdonald (1857-1941).  See wikipedia, ODNB etc for more on them.  Sir Claude led the defence of the Peking foreign quarter when it was besieged in 1900 during the Boxer rebellion.

The Morning Post’s obituary of Sir Claude Maxwell Macdonald, 11 September 1915 identifies Ethel as the daughter of Major William Cairns Armstrong of the 15th Regiment.  I found the obituary via google, reprinted in Highland Light Infantry Chronicle January 1914 to April 1914 (but actually covering a lot longer) pp132-133.

 

Ethel is a fine example of how Kat’s family went out to rule the Empire and elsewhere.  Her father served in West Africa.  Her first husband was in the Indian Civil Service.  And Sir Claude, her second husband, worked in Egypt, Nigeria, China and Japan.

 

Kat’s uncle Francis Carleton, who died when she was two:

Website www.poheritage.com, includes coverage of the Dublin Steam Packet Co’s transatlantic steamer Great Liverpool.  P&O was formed out of the Dublin Steam Packet Co and P&O in April 1840.  Carleton was one of its three managing directors.

Gentleman’s Magazine volume 184 1848 p667 death notices for October includes one for Francis Carleton, on 22 October [1848] at Sydenham Hill, aged 47. 

Website www.gracesguide.co.uk focuses on British industrial history.  There is an entry for Francis Carleton based on an obituary in Minutes of Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers 1848 or 1849.

Francis and Sarah Carleton were survived by two children; two of only three first cousins Kat had: 

1 = William Frederick Carleton who joined the 60th Rifle Regiment.

Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire by Edmund Lodge et al 1869 p671 family of Sir Edward Fitzgerald Campbell, Lt-Colonel of the 60th Rifles, eldest son of the late Sir Guy Campbell Baronet and wife Pamela.  William Frederick Carleton married Sir Edward’s sister Mary Louisa in 1867.

Probate Registry entry for William Frederick Carleton of The Elms Bracknell, who had died on 2 June 1887 at Hyères France.

Probate Registry entry for Mary Louisa Carleton of Firgrove Sunninghill near Ascot, who had died 25 October 1887 at 22 Lupus Street Westminster.

 

2 = Louisa Carleton who married barrister Francis Dobinson in 1858.  They later changed their surname to Logan.  They lived in Surrey and then Bournemouth. 

Alumni Cantabrigiensis volume D-J p201: Francis Dobinson was at St John’s College.

Men-at-the-Bar 1885 couldn’t see page number: Francis Dobinson later Logan, called to the bar November 1850, 2nd son of Joseph Dobinson.

The change of surname: Heraldic Chronicle 1867 p475 with date 11 June [1867], “by deed enrolled in Chancery”; a list of people who have changed from Dobinson to their maternal surname Logan.

Probate Registry entry for Francis Logan, formerly Dobinson, late of Cliffeside Bournemouth, barrister of Lincoln’s Inn; he had died 5 January 1879. 

Censuses 1881-1901: Kat’s cousin Louisa continued to live at Cliff Side, Grove Road, East Cliff Christchurch.  On the day of the 1901 census, Kat’s other cousin, Ellen Bearcroft, was visiting her.

Probate Registry entry for Louisa Logan of Cliffe Side, Grove Road Bournemouth, who had died on 5 March 1924. 

 

Kat’s aunt Mary Elizabeth Carleton, who had died before Kat’s parents even married:

For the Vernons of Hanbury see wikipedia and www.dodderhillhistory.org.uk

Website www.shrawley.org.uk is a list of burials in Shrawley Bromsgrove.  The list includes Mary Elizabeth Vernon and two of the three daughters she gave birth to:

1829    Mary Jane Vernon of Bromsgrove; buried December1829 aged 4 months

1831    Mary Elizabeth Vernon of Bromsgrove; buried 18 June 1831 aged 28

1831    Lucy Vernon of Bromsgrove; buried September1831 aged 8 months by Rev John Vernon

And the burial of her husband George Croft Vernon

1856    George Croft Vernon of Hanbury; buried 18 December 1856.

A poem by Wordsworth was written to commemorate Mary Elizabeth Vernon, see The Prose Works of William Wordsworth by Wordsworth and Alexander Balloch Grosart.  Googlebooks says 2006.  On p417 Section XXIV: Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces number 497 is entitled By a Blest Husband Guided. 

Read the full text at www.everypoet.com,

 

One of Mary Elizabeth Carleton Vernon’s daughters survived: Ellen Bearcroft (1831-1902): at www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/ellen-vernon-18311902 there’s a portrait of her, painted around 1850; it’s now at the National Trust’s Hanbury Hall Droitwich.

See wikipedia on Hanbury Worcestershire for more on the Vernons and the Bearcrofts of Mere or Meer Hall. 

George Croft Vernon was guardian to the sons of Thomas Tayler Vernon, see www.britishtowns.net. They were the heirs of Hanbury Hall.

Annual Register volume 94 1853 p240 marriage notice: Ellen Vernon to Henry Bearcroft Esq, at Hanbury church.

 

The Bates family of Denton and elsewhere and their marriages with the Ellisons:

A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain by John Burke 1834 p556. 

Genealogic and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry volume 1 1847 by John and Bernard Burke: p69. 

The Gentleman’s Magazine volume 96 Part 2 p477 death notice for John Ellison Bates’ mother Harriet.

There’s more detail in:

Burke’s Landed Gentry volume 2 1871 p1584.  The grandparents of Henry William Bates and his brother Rev John Ellison Bates were John Henry Bates (1775-1828) and his wife Harriet Eliza née Smith.  There were four brothers in all.  The two younger ones were Francis Edward Bates RN (1811-24) and Charles Chester Bates (1816-47).

 

There are archives of the Denton estate at West Sussex Record Office in the records of the Raper family.  They include a valuation of the estate dated June 1863, after the death of Kate’s uncle Henry William Bates.  All references to the Denton estate after 1882 have Caroline Catt’s name as the owner.

A Compendious History of Sussex by Mark Antony Lower 1870 p135 entry for Denton shows how many families owned the land between the reign of Henry VI and the mid-1860s.

 

Kat’s uncle Henry William Bates 1807-63:

A New Gazetteer or Topographic Dictionary of the British Isles 1852 by James A Sharp.  P552 entry for Denton Sussex has Henry William Bates as patron of the living of St Leonard’s church Denton. 

He appears on the 1851 census as one of the lodgers in Mr and Mrs Chapman’s house at 17 St Alban’s Street, St James’s Square.  He was a bachelor.

 

KAT’S FATHER JOHN ELLISON BATES

He was the second of the four sons of Henry Bates of Denton Sussex and his wife Sarah née Ellison.  After Westminster School he went to Christ Church Oxford University where he studied classics and rowed in the Boat Race.  Then he was ordained into the Church of England.  From 1836 to 1840 he was curate at St Bride’s Church Liverpool.  He had taken the job specifically to work for its vicar, Rev James Haldane Stewart.  He then spent three years as vicar of Christ Church Great Crosby, before moving in 1844 to be curate of Hougham, a village on the road between Dover and Folkestone.  He was still perpetual curate of Hougham when he died in 1856.  Kat later described her father as “a rigid Evangelical”, but with a “beautiful nature over that somewhat mournful creed”.

 

Sources:

Education:

List of the Queen’s Scholars of St Peter’s College Westminster p491, pp499-500.

University Oars: A Critical Enquiry into the Health of the Men who Rowed in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race from 1829 to 1869... by John E Morgan, 1873: p133 Rev J E B’s jobs listed as: Stratton Audley; St Bride’s Liverpool; then Waterloo near Liverpool; finally Christ Church Dover; p360 d at Dover Feb 1856.  This was a snippet and I couldn’t see which year(s) he’d rowed in the boat race.

At Liverpool: two books above, and these:

Gladstone Diaries volumes 1 and II covering 1825-1839.  Edited by M R D Foot.  1969: p321, and footnote; entry for Sunday 5 September 1830 – John Ellison Bates was one of the dinner guests that night.

Ecclesiastical Gazette 1839 p144 forthcoming publications included Unitarianism Confuted, a series of lectures originally given at Christ Church Liverpool; Rev J E Bates had given the nineth of them. 

The Deity, Personality and Operations of the Holy Ghost published 1839; another lecture by Rev J E Bates.

Church of England Magazine volume 8 number 227 p361 issue of 6 June 1840 has on front page an article by Rev J E Bates on the holy ghost.

The Destiny of the Jews and their Connexion with the Gentile Nations London: John Hatchard and Sons 1841.  Rev James Haldane Stewart, vicar of St Bride’s Liverpool gave the first and last lectures and wrote the introduction.  Rev Henry Raikes MA Chancellor of Chester gave the 3rd.  Rev J E Bates gave the sixth, beginning p225:  The Original Promise Further Unfolded by the Prophet Isaiah, taking as his texts Isaiah vii:14 and ix: 6 and 7.  By the time of the booklet he was curate at Christ Church Crosby.  I mention Haldane Stewart and Raikes because Rev Bates’ children continued to know them and their families after his death.

Israel Restored: The Scriptural Claims of the Jews edited by W R Fremantle, published 1841.  Its Lecture VI is by Rev J E Bates, curate of St Bride’s: The Original Promise Further Unfolded by the Prophet Isaiah.

 

John Ellison Bates’ mentor and friend:

Memoir of the Life of the Rev James Haldane Stewart MA by his son, Rev David Dale Stewart incumbent of All Saints Maidstone.  2nd edition London: Thomas Hatchard 1857 passim but for Bates in particular pp249-98; and just noting that Rev Stewart was away from his post a great deal, especially during the summer.  In 1841 Rev Townsend replaced Bates as curate and Bates went to Crosby.

The Church of England Magazine volume VIII number 227 issue of 6 June 1840 pp361-64 article by Rev J E Bates: The External Evidence of the Truth of God’s Word.

 

John Ellison Bates at Hougham Dover:

The Hope of the Apostolic Church published 1845, a series of lectures.  Lecture V was by Rev JEB, pp119-42: The Attendance of Angels in the Day of Christ.

The Church Missionary Record volume 17 1846 p290.

Book Seventy Prayers on Scripture Subjects published 1848.  Rev J E Bates pp17-20: The Spread of the Gospel, and God’s Judgements on the Heathen.

The Temples of the Holy Ghost published 1851; originally a sermon given by Rev J E Bates on Sun 16 Nov 1851 at Christ Church Dover.

The Indian News and Chronicle of Eastern Affairs 1855 p146.

Rev Bates’ church at Hougham, a rather short-lived building:

A Descriptive Picture of Dover by William Batcheller 1852 p30 indicates that it was still being built; with Rev Bates financing a lot of it himself.  A school was also built, in 1848.

At website www.dover.free.uk.com/churc.cchdover/htm there’s a picture of Christ Church Hougham.  It was consecrated in 1844 by Archbishop of Canterbury William Howley.  Howley’s grand-daughter Lina Rowan Hamilton was a member of the GD.  The church was later demolished and a block of flats is now on the site

Blackwell’s Dictionary of Evangelical Biography 1730-1860 editor Donald M Lewis.  Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1995 Volume I p67 doesn’t have an entry for Rev J E Bates.

Kat’s description of her father: GR1:240-242.

 

 

LIFE BY DATES BEGINS HERE with the marriage of Kat’s parents

7 January 1836

Rev John Ellison Bates, about to be curate of St Bride’s Liverpool, married Ellen Susan Carleton, daughter of the late John Carleton; at Ambleside in the Lake District.

Sources:

Via familysearch to England-ODM GS film number 97341: parish registers.

The Christian Remembrancer 1836 p128 Notices to Correspondents p128.

The British Magazine and Monthly Register of Religious and Ecclesiastical News volume 9 1836 p224.

Via genesreunited to Kendal Mercury 23 January 1836 marriage announcements.

Via genesreunited to The Christian Remembrancer 1836 p128

 

JANUARY 1837

Rev and Mrs Bates’ eldest child, Henry Stratton Bates, was born.

Source:

Familysearch England-EASy GS film number 1546288: St Bride’s Liverpool parish registers.

At www.lan-opc.org.uk baptisms at St Bride’s Toxteth 1831-51 p11 item 85.  The Bates family was living in Falkner Terrace Liverpool at the time.   Rev Bates’ boss, Rev James Haldane Stewart, baptised the baby.

 

EARLY 1839

Charles Ellison Bates was born in Liverpool.

Comment by Sally Davis: I think he was Kat’s favourite brother.

Source: via www.lan-opc.org.uk, to the baptism register of St Bride’s Liverpool 1831-51 p23 entry 163: Charles Ellison Bates was baptised by his father on 26 May 1839; he’d been born on 15 April 1839.   The family were living at 1 Falkner Terrace Liverpool, probably the same house as they were in 1837.

 

NOVEMBER 1840

Rev and Mrs Bates had a daughter, Mary Ellen.

Comment by Sally Davis: I’m not sure Kat ever knew that there had been an older sister.  She certainly never mentions one – even one she knew of through spiritualist mediums – in any of her published works.

Source:

Familysearch England-ODM GS film number 1546288: St Bride’s Liverpool parish registers.

 

EARLY 1841

Rev John Ellison Bates became curate of Christ Church Great Crosby, whose church had only just been built.  The family moved out of Liverpool.

Comment by Sally Davis: on the day of the 1841 census, John Ellison, Ellen and their three children were living at Great Crosby, with (I think) three servants.  This was a comfortably-off household – as his Will makes plain, Rev Bates was not reliant on his stipend as a curate for income; and probably his wife had some money of her own as well though I haven’t found evidence for that.

Although by the time Kat was born the family had moved away from Crosby, they must have gone back there from time to time, because Kat could remember the “Waterloo sandhills”.

Sources: 1841 census; and see the section on Rev Bates’ career for his new posting.  GR2 p115.

 

?1843; certainly before 1848

Mary Ellen Bates died.

Possible source for a death in 1843: Familysearch England-EASy GS film number 1067133 burials in Brighton.  Source for her definitely having died by July 1848: John Ellison Bates’ Will; see below for that.  As Kat never mentions having had a sister, I think Mary Ellen was probably dead by 1846.

 

1844

Rev John Ellison Bates was appointed perpetual curate of Hougham on the edge of Dover.

Source: see the section on Rev Bates’ working life.

 

AUTUMN 1844

The Bates’s youngest son, John Sidney, was born in Dover.

Comment by Sally Davis: John Sidney was Kat’s nearest sibling in age but she doesn’t seem to have been so close to him as to Charles.  John Sidney was the only sibling to survive Kat; he was her executor.

Source for the birth: I couldn’t find his baptism on Familysearch so it’s freebmd.

 

EARLY OCTOBER 1846

Kat Bates was born in Dover, John Ellison and Ellen’s youngest child.  Her birth was registered twice, as Emily Katharine and then as Emily Katherine Anne.  She was baptised as Emily Katharine on 11 October 1846 in her father’s church at Hougham.

Comment by Sally Davis: the two different registrations of Kat’s birth, and her names at her baptism - which were different again - set the pattern for the rest of her life!

Sources: freebmd (twice) and for baptism: Familysearch England-ODM GS film number 1836242.  Just to add to the confusion about names, Kat’s mother was named in the baptism record as Ellen Susanna, rather than Ellen Susan.

 

1 APRIL 1848

Kat’s mother died, aged 38.

Sources: death registration for Ellen Susannah (sic) Bates.  There was no entry for her in the Canterbury court Wills on Ancestry, so I assume any independent income she might have had came from a trust fund.

Gentleman’s Magazine volume 29 1848 p562 death notices.

 

JULY 1848

Kat’s father made a Will.  It set up a trust fund to manage the inheritance of his four surviving children, with two trustees, who were both relations of his, and both lawyers: George Thomas Ellison and Rev Bates’ brother-in-law George Croft Vernon.  Two executors were appointed:Rev Bates’ other brother-in-law Francis Carleton; and his eldest and only surviving brother Henry William Bates.

Comment by Sally Davis: I haven’t been able to figure out the exact relationship between John Ellison Bates and George Thomas Ellison but they were probably cousins.

Sources:

Will of John Ellison Bates: Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1384-1858 seen at Ancestry although I found it difficult to read.

 

JOHN ELLISON BATES’ EXECUTORS AND TRUSTEES

Trustees:

GEORGE THOMAS ELLISON

History of the Parish of Wraysbury... by Gordon Willoughby.  Published J Gyll 1862 p226, p228.  In a section on the village of Horton: a mention of George Thomas Ellison who was brother of Mr Ellison, vicar of New Windsor and legal advisor to Colonel Williams of Horton Place.

Royal Calendar and Court and City Register.  This was a snippet and I couldn’t see the year of publication but it was probably during the 1840s and 1850s: p311 G T Ellison is one the directors of the London and Blackwall Railway Co of 60 Fenchurch Street.  Perhaps Rev Bates owned shares in this company.

Burke’s Landed Gentry an issue published before 1842: pp297-298 in August 1842 George Thomas Ellison married Catherine Margaret Cresswell, daughter of Richard Estcourt Cresswell of Pinkney Park Sidbury and Bibury, MP for Cirencester. 

He was by many years the last survivor of the four men appointed to carry out the Will of Rev Bates. Probate Registry 1885: George Thomas Ellison was a very rich man when he died on 8 January 1885 at 33 Seymour Place Portman Square.  His personal estate was eventually calculated at £105,973/4/9.  His executors included his son George Henry Ellison of 1 Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Probate Registry 1901: his widow Catherine Margaret Ellison of The Elms Wokingham died 25 September 1901. 

 

George Croft Vernon was the widower of Ellen Susan Carleton’s sister Mary Elizabeth.

At www.dodderhillhistory.org.uk, the records of the Dodderhill Parish Survey Project include coverage of the Vernons of Hanbury Hall; a cadet branch of the barons Vernon of Shipbrook in Cheshire.   George Croft Vernon was uncle and guardian of Thomas Tayler Vernon (died 1835); and Thomas’ younger brother Harry, who inherited Hanbury Hall in 1859.

Familysearch England-EASy GS film number 328829: baptism of George Croft Vernon took place on 8 April 1785.  He was the son of Thomas Shrawley Vernon and Elizabeth.

Familysearch England-VR GS film number 97341: George Croft Fernon (sic) married Mary Elizabeth Carleton at Ambleside in 1827.

Legal Observer 1837 p159 a list of those recently qualified as solicitors includes one articled in George Croft Vernon’s firm in Bromsgrove.

At www.discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk PROB 11/2247/3  copy of the Will of George Croft Vernon of Hanbury Worcs.  Probate date: 2 February 1857. 

Death George Croft Vernon registered Worcester October-December 1856.

 

Executors:

Francis Carleton, brother of Ellen Bates; see above for a bit on his life.  What’s important now is his death:

22 OCTOBER 1848

that is, only a few months after Rev Bates’ Will was made. 

Source:

Gentleman’s Magazine volume 184 1848 p667 death notices for October includes one for Francis Carleton, on 22 October [1848] at Sydenham Hill, aged 47. 

 

Henry William Bates; see 1856 below.

 

?perhaps from late 1840s CERTAINLY FROM EARLY 1850s

Rev Bates was an invalid for a lot of the time.

Source: S/U p11.

Comments by Sally Davis:

A curate came to help with Rev Bates’ clerical duties in 1852: M R James, an Informal Portrait by Michael Cox.  Oxford University Press 1983 p2: the curate was M R James’ father.

 

?1850s ?1860s; TO MID-1870s

Kat knew Oscar Wilde.

Source: Cope p77 in which she says that she knew him in Ireland; and then when he was at Oxford University.

Comment by Sally Davis: the wikipedia pages for Oscar, his father Sir William Wilde and his mother Jane Wilde say that the family lived in Dublin, where Sir William Wilde was an ophthalmic surgeon; and at a country home in Mayo.  Sir William died in 1876 and Jane Wilde moved to London in 1879, so if Kat knew them in Ireland it will have to have been before then.   This reference in Cope is the only one Kat makes to Oscar; and she doesn’t actually mention knowing anyone else in the family; perhaps the Wildes were friends of her mother’s family the Carletons.

 

CENSUS DAY 1851

The widowed Rev Bates was living at Priory Gate, on Folkestone Road in Hougham.  Kat – listed as “Emily C” - and John Sidney aged 6 were at home.  There was no mistress of the household on that day.  Rev Bates was employing a housekeeper, a page, and a young woman listed as a nursery maid.  Henry and Charles were both away; Henry was at school.

Comments by Sally Davis: this census entry does set a couple of patterns for Kat’s life.  My own view is that the household had no mistress after Kat’s mother died.  Neither the Rev Bates nor his wife had any close female relations living by the 1840s; hence, I suppose, Rev Bates’ decision to employ a housekeeper rather than a cook.  Kat never mentions an aunt or cousin coming to run the household and do her best to substitute for the dead wife and mother.  Even during her father’s last illness, there were no women in the household who were blood relations; Kat’s godmother was there.

 

I couldn’t find Kat’s brother Charles on this census.  Henry was one of nine boarders – all boys of course – at the school in Plumstead run by Edmund Eves and his wife Harriett; Mr Eves (if that’s the correct spelling –  it looked like Eves to the transcriber, I wasn’t sure about it myself) was listed as an officer in the navy; the entry doesn’t say so but he was probably retired.

Sources:

C/Dawn p134 in which Kat sees the spirit of her old nurse in a photograph taken by Robert Boursnell. 

 

That’s the end of this file, on Kat’s family background and her first few years.  The years 1856 to  roughly the mid-1870s are covered in the next file.

 

 

 

Copyright SALLY DAVIS

5 March 2018

 

 

 

Find the web pages of Roger Wright and Sally Davis, including my list of people initiated into the Order of the Golden Dawn between 1888 and 1901, at:

 

www.wrightanddavis.co.uk

 

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