Category Archives: Mainwaring

Battle of Trafalgar Prizes

25 Saturday Oct 2025

Posted by in Bayley, Bayly, Baillie, CdeC baronets, Mainwaring, Napoleonic wars, navy

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During the Napoleonic Wars, the French and Spanish Naval fleets combined forces. On 21 October 1805, the Royal Navy under the command of Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson intercepted the enemy fleet off Cape Trafalgar, on the south-west coast of Spain. The allied fleet lost 22 of its 33 ships, while the smaller British fleet of 27 ships lost none. Nelson, shot at close range shortly after the battle began by a marksman in the rigging of Redoubtable, died a few hours later.

The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 by Samuel Drummond
In the collection of Royal Museums Greenwich ID BHC0550

In the Royal Navy, and other navies, prize money was awarded for the capture of enemy ships and the destruction of enemy shipping or stores. When a prize was brought into port, the ship and its cargo, and guns were sold, and the proceeds, as determined by a prize court, divided among the crew according to rank. The captain received two-eighths (or 25%) and the commander-in-chief received one-eighth. Officers, warrant officers, and the crew then split the remaining five-eighths based on their rank, with senior officers getting larger portions of the smaller shares and the lowest-ranked crew members receiving a quarter share to be divided among them.

Although the British had achieved a resounding victory, many of the captured Franco-Spanish ships were destroyed in a fierce storm that followed the battle. To honour the Navy’s achievement, a grant of £300,000 grant was distributed among the crews of the ships that had taken part in the fighting.

The payments, recorded in ‘prize books’, reveal who had served on each ship and how the prize money and grant had been shared.

In addition to this special grant, individuals also received prize money from the sale of any captured ships that were salvaged.

At least four of my relatives served at Trafalgar and received a share of the grant and prize money.

  • Augustus James Champion de Crespigny, aged 14 years, was a midshipman on the Spartiate, 74 guns
    • During the battle Spartiate with Minotaur forced the surrender of the Spanish ship Neptuno, of 80 guns
    • Prize money was awarded to the captain and company of the Spartiate for the capture of 4 French-Spanish ships captured that day together with proceeds of the Bounty Bills for ships destroyed: A “bounty bill” in the Royal Navy was a document detailing the distribution of prize money to officers and crew who captured enemy ships, vessels, or their cargo. The “bounty” was the payment, and the “bill” was the official authorization for its distribution, typically after a prize had been adjudicated as lawful in a court of admiralty.
    • Midshipman Augustus Crespigny of the Spartiate received £26 6s 0d on 18 February 1807 as his share of the Trafalgar Parliamentary Grant and prize money of £10 14s 0d on 22 Oct 1807. (Worth about £50,000 today).
Captain Harvey of the Temeraire… clearing the deck of the French and Spaniards…. (1806)
In the collection of Royal Museums Greenwich ID PAG9030

  • Benjamin Mainwaring, 11 years old, was a volunteer 1st class (rated as A.B. able seaman) on the Temeraire, 98 guns
    • During the battle Temeraire had closely engaged two French ships
    • Able Seaman Benjamin Mainwaring of the Temeraire received £4 12s 6d on 5 January 1807 as his share of the Trafalgar Parliamentary Grant and £1 17s 6d as his share of the prize money. (Worth about £9,000 today).
Naiad closes in on the beleaguered Belleisle
In the collection of Royal Museums Greenwich ID PAD5705

  • Thomas Francis Charles Mainwaring, 25 years old, was a lieutenant on the Naiad, a 36 gun frigate
    • The Naiad was too small to take part in the battle. Instead, she lay to windward of the action. After the battle she destroyed the Monarca, a Spanish 3rd-rater and towed Belleisle, the only British ship to be dismasted during the battle, to Gibraltar.
    • Lieutenant T F C Mainwaring of the Naiad received  £161 0s 0d as his share of the Trafalgar Parliamentary Grant on 10 September 1806 and £65 11s 0d as his share of the prize money on 10 Apr 1807. (Worth about £300,000 today).
The Day after Trafalgar – The Victory Trying to Clear the Land with the Royal Sovereign in Tow to the Euryalus (1810) by Nicholas Pocock
In the collection of the Royal Museums Greenwich ID: PAF5883

  • James Bayly, 21 years old, was a midshipman on the Euryalus, a 36 gun frigate
    • Euryalus was too small to play a major role in the battle and stood off until the late afternoon when she took the badly damaged Royal Sovereign in tow and turned her to engage the French ship Formidable.
      Following the death of Admiral Nelson, Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood transferred his flag from Royal Sovereign to Euryalus which became the British fleet’s flagship for the next ten days.
      After the battle Euryalus took on survivors from the French ship-of-the-line Achille, as well as the captured French Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve. Blackwood also received the surrender of the Spanish ship Santa Ana.
    • James Bailley, midshipman on the Euryalus received £26 6s on 10 September 1806 as his share of the Trafalgar Parliamentary Grant. He received £10 14s on 9 April 1807 as his share of the prize money. (Worth about £50,000 today).

Unlike the army, a naval officer could not purchase a commission. They had to start at the bottom of the officer hierarchy. Many, like Benjamin Mainwaring and Augustus Champion de Crespigny were aged between 11 and 14 years old; most officers joined no later than age 13. Even though they were on the lowest rungs of the Navy career ladder they were entitled to a share of prize money.

The Royal Navy tradition of prize money allowed men to acquire huge sums of money relatively quickly. Many men risked the perils of life at sea because of the chance of earning a fortune. The wars against France in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century meant it was a particularly rich period for Royal Navy prize captures.

Related posts and further reading

Wikitree:

A Loyalist’s reward

26 Tuesday Aug 2025

Posted by in Mainwaring, Canada, American Revolution

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On 4 July 2026 it will be 250 years since the first Independence Day. For that anniversary I am gathering stories of people in my family who fought in the American Revolutionary War.

Edward Mainwaring (1744-1803), my first cousin seven times removed, was born in 1744 in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. He was the oldest of three sons of an attorney at law, Benjamin Mainwaring  (1719–1782). Benjamin, was the youngest son of Edward Mainwaring (1681-1738), the 6th Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore, and his wife Jemima Mainwaring nee Pye (~1688-1721).

The family history Mainwarings of Whitmore records that Edward

served as an officer during the first American war and obtained a considerable grant of land as an acknowledgement for his services in raising a company of loyalists at his own expense.

Edward Mainwaring was a captain in the first battalion of Rogers’ King’s Rangers. I have not been able to discover when he joined or where he served.

An Edward Mainwaring of the 66th Regiment of Foot was promoted from Lieutenant to Captain-Lieutenant in 1772. It appears that he left the regiment by January 1775. At that time the 66th was based in the United Kingdom. In 1775 it was posted to Ireland. These Edward Mainwarings are probably the same man.

Rogers’ Rangers was a company of soldiers from the Province of New Hampshire raised by Major Robert Rogers (1731-1795) and attached to the British Army during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The unit, adopted into the New England Colonies army as an independent ranger company, was disbanded in 1761. In 1776 it was revived as a Loyalist force during the American Revolutionary War.

Soon after the war commenced Robert Rogers offered his services to General George Washington. Rogers had just returned from a long stay in England. Washington, fearing that he might be a spy, turned him down. Infuriated by the rejection, Rogers offered his services to the British side. In 1776 he formed the Queen’s Rangers and in 1779 the King’s Rangers. The Rangers specialized in close combat, irregular warfare, raiding, reconnaissance, and tracking.

During the Revolution, more than 19,000 Loyalists had served on the British side. After the Revolutionary War the government of King George III settled Loyalists in British colonies in the Caribbean and what is now known as Canada. Loyalists were granted land in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island (then called St. John’s Island), and the Canadas (Quebec and Ontario)

Many Loyalists settled in Canada in 1783 and 1784, 30,000 of them in the territory that became the Maritime provinces. 

“A plan of the island of St. John with the divisions of the counties parishes & the lots as granted by government likewise the soundings round the coast and harbours. Surveyed by Capt. Holland. 1775.”

In 1782 Captain Samuel Hayden and Captain Edward Mainwaring of the King’s Rangers began promoting the Island of St John in newspaper advertisements. Hayden and Mainwaring, said to be New Jersey men, were stationed there.

James Rivington's Royal Gazette 12 March 1783
To those loyal Refugees, who either have already left, or who hereafter may leave their respective Countries in search of other Habitations.
We the subscribers, (Your Countrymen and fellow sufferers) hearing that several Families have already arrived in Nova Scotia from New York, and that many others intend coming to some of these northern Colonies next Spring.
Think it our Duty to point out this Island to you, as the most eligible Country for you to repair to; of any we know between this and New Jersey.
The Soil is good, it is well wooded, and free from Rocks.
The Climate so good that Fevers and Agues are unknown.
Water every where excellent.
The Harbours Spacious, numerous, and safe.
The Rivers, Bays, Lakes, and Coasts abounding with a great variety of Shell, and almost all other kinds of Fish, and good of their kinds.The Government is mild. But very few Taxes. These very light, and raised solely for the benefit of the Island.
There is room for tens of Thousands, and Lands in the finest situations.
On Harbours Navigable Rivers, and Bays; To be had exceedingly reasonable.
Cattle are plenty; witness the droves which have been this year taken to Halifax Market.
Before we came here, we were told, as perhaps you may be; the worst things possible of the Country, such as, that the People were Starving; we should get nothing to eat and should ourselves be eaten up by Insects, and much more equally groundless, for we have found the reverse to be true;
therefore, do not attend to such reports, but come and see, and depend on the evidence of your own Sences.
You will not imagine us to be interested in the advice we have given you, or in the Charactor of the place, as we may be ordered away tomorrow.
Be assured of the Contrary. What we have said is intended purely for your good, and if you attend to it we shall hereafter receive your thanks.
In the mean time believe us sincerely your Friends &c.
S HAYDEN Captain Commanding King Rangers
Edward MAINWARING Capt. Kings Rangers
Island Saint John
Gulph of St. Lawrence
30th November 1782.

[Docketed- An Address to the American Loyalists From the Officers of the King's Rangers stationed on the Island of Saint John 30th Novr. 1782 N.B.- The subscribers are New Jersey men.]

Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) 4 Mar 1783, and the Bath Weekly Chronicle and Herald (Bath, Avon, England) of 10 July 1783, and The Edinburgh Advertiser (Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland) 11 July 1783 carried similar advertisements.

In 1784 a muster roll records Captain Edward Mainwaring received a land grant of 700 acres on the Island of St John. Mainwaring’s grant was in East Point, Lot 47 (the most north-easterly point of the island). The muster records one man, one woman, and three servants in his household.

About 1787 Edward Mainwaring, then 41, married Elizabeth Judith Reeves, 18, born in London. I do not know where they met nor where they were married. Their first child was born on the Island of St John in 1788. Six more children were born in England from 1790.

Edward Mainwaring transferred his landholding to a fellow Ranger, Peter Rose (1763-1812).

The Red Bank Pioneer cemetery occupies land once owned by Peter Rose. A history of the cemetery describes the land transfer from Edward Mainwaring to Rose:

Captain Edward Mainwaring was one of the commanding officers of the First Battalion of the King's Rangers, a British provincial military unit raised by Colonel Robert Rogers in Nova Scotia in 1777.
Peter Rose joined the Rangers as the servant of Captain Edward Mainwaring.
In the Spring of 1782, the First Battalion was stationed in St. John's Island (Prince Edward Island). The Battalion was disbanded in the autumn of 1783, but in November 1782, members of the King's Rangers had been encouraged to settle in St. John's Island (PEI). 
...
Peter Rose decided to stay in St. John's Island and is listed on the Muster Roll of June 12, 1784 as receiving one hundred acres in Lot 47. Captain Mainwaring, being an officer, received seven hundred acres, also in Lot 47 where North Lake is located.
Mainwaring and Rose together with Martha Potts, Mainwaring's housekeeper, arrived at Surveyor's Inlet to claim their land. Some time after establishing themselves, Mainwaring decided to return to England. He proposed that if Peter married Martha Potts, he would also receive title to all of Mainwaring's land. Rose agreed and in 1796 received all of the land in North Lake.

In 1803 Captain Edward Mainwaring, aged 59, died in London and was buried on 16 April 1803 in St Martin-In-The-Fields.

The paucity of relevant records makes it difficult to describe Edward Mainwaring’s career in detail. I do not know when he came to the American Colonies nor what his motivation was for adopting a Loyalist position in the American Revolutionary War.

Related posts and further reading

Wikitree: Edward Mainwaring (1744-1803)

S is for Sarah

22 Tuesday Apr 2025

Posted by in A to Z 2025, Mainwaring, Whitmore, Whitmore Hall portraits

≈ 11 Comments

Sarah Mainwaring (1774-1837) was the eldest daughter of William Mainwaring and Frances Mainwaring née Stone. She was born in 1774 and was baptised on 22 September 1774 at Saint Botolph without Aldgate, London.

Sarah’s father William (1737-1812) was the second son of Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore Hall and his wife Sarah Mainwaring née Bunbury.

William was a merchant in London and was Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1807 until his death in 1812.

William married Frances, daughter of Richard Stone, a London banker. They had five sons and six daughters:

  1. Edward, a Cornet in the 13th Dragoons, born in 1772, and died, unmarried, of yellow fever in the West Indies in 1796
  2. Sarah, born 1774
  3. William, born in 1776, in the Honourable East India Company’s service, died, unmarried, at Madras in 1811
  4. Frances Susanna, who died an infant, born 1777
  5. Henry, of the Royal Navy, born in 1779, died, unmarried, on the 4th of June 1797, being shot in an engagement with a French frigate off Vigo, Spain, on board H.M.S. Boston
  6. Rowland Eyton, a Captain in the Honourable East India Company’s service, born in 1780, present at the capture of Seringapatam in 1779, died, unmarried, in 1801
  7. Anne, born 1781, married 1803 Joseph Sladen and died in 1814, leaving issue
  8. Janet, born 1783 married 1803 Michael Russell and died in 1858, leaving issue
  9. Charlotte, died in infancy, born 1785
  10. Charles, born 1787, died, unmarried, in 1831
  11. Julia, born 1789, died, unmarried, in 1851

Four of Sarah’s brothers served in either the army or the navy; all of these died comparatively young with no children. Two sisters died in infancy; two married and had children. One brother and one sister did not marry and later lived with Sarah.

Sarah’s uncle, William’s elder brother, was the eighth Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore Hall (1736–1825). He married; there were no children.

In 1817 Edward Mainwaring made a will naming Sarah’s brother Charles as heir to the “manors of Whitmore and Biddulph and the advowson of the rectory of Whitmore, all his messuages land, &c. in Whitmore, Swynnerton and Biddulph, his messuage land, &c. in Bucknall, and all other his real estates, in the county of Stafford”. He named Sarah and Charles’s cousin  Rowland Mainwaring as heirs after the death of  Charles.

In 1819 Edward Mainwaring added a codicil and revoked the provision in the will whereby Charles was to succeed his uncle, and gave a life estate to Sarah preceding that of her brother, he to have an annuity of £300 during the joint lives of himself and his sister, all legacies to Sarah being revoked. £100 was to be spent annually, during the life of Sarah, on repairing and making substantial and useful additions to the mansion house at Whitmore. Sarah was not to let or part with the possession of Whitmore Hall, and the furniture, books, pictures &c., were to descend as heirlooms. He revoked the legacy of £2,000 to his nephew, Rowland, in the event of his succeeding to the estate.

I do not know what Charles had done to earn his uncle’s displeasure.

In December 1825 Edward Mainwaring died and Sarah Mainwaring succeeded her uncle.

Sarah lived at Whitmore Hall with her brother Charles and unmarried sister Julia. Sarah had a companion, a Miss Chawner.

During his lifetime Sarah’s brother, Charles, appears to have acted as if he were the owner of the estates, despite Charles having been excluded by his uncle. 

In 1827 Charles Mainwaring, esq. was a member of the Whitmore Association for the Prosecution of Felons on behalf of Whitmore Hall.

Charles died unmarried at Whitmore Hall in December 1831.

Portrait of Charles at Whitmore Hall

Sarah, referred to as Mrs Mainwaring, and her sister Julia, Miss Mainwaring, were busy in the parish, for example in 1833, for example, they were reported as supporting 2 day and Sunday schools in the parish of Whitmore. In 1835 Sarah Mainwaring was a member of the Whitmore Association.

Sarah and Julia Mainwaring and Miss Chawner of Whitmore Hall  were mentioned in two 1836 letters from Emma  Darwin to her sister in law Frances “Fanny” (Mackintosh) Wedgwood. Josiah Wedgwood II owned Maer Hall, three miles from Whitmore. Josiah’s daughter Emma (Wedgwood) Darwin (1808-1896) was the wife of the naturalist Charles Darwin. Fanny was her sister-in-law. 

In a letter of 17 December 1836 Sarah Mainwaring’s frailty is mentioned:

We are in such a dissipated humour that we have actually invited the Mainwarings & Mrs Moreton for next Wednesday & then we shall be clear of the world for a year to come. I dined there last Tuesday & had some more of the Capts lovely flute playing. There was a Mr Clark there a clergyman from Eccleshall who played very tolerably but we were not spared a note of Capt M’s notwithstanding. Poor Mrs M. is no longer able to feed herself & I can't think how they can endure her to sit in company to be made a spectacle of with Miss Chawner putting the food into her mouth. I suppose Miss M. does not like to propose her not dining with them.

(I am not sure who the Captain Mainwaring was. Rowland was in Germany at the time. Rowland’s son Edward Pellew Mainwaring had left the navy in 1835 without gaining the rank of Captain.)

Sarah Mainwaring died at Whitmore Hall on 31 March 1837.

On her death two similar marble tablets were erected, one in Whitmore and the other in Biddulph Church, bearing the following inscription:—

“In memory of Mrs. Sarah Mainwaring, late of Whitmore Hall, who died the XXXI day of March MDCCCXXXVII, aged LXIII. This table is placed here in affectionate remembrance by a grateful tenantry"
Plaque in the church of St Mary and All Saints at Whitmore

Sarah Mainwaring’s will passed probate on 31 July 1837.

Sarah’s portrait hangs at Whitmore. Though it is now considerably discoloured, one of my Mainwaring cousins has photo-enhanced an image to show better what the original looked like.

My photograph of the portrait in May 2019
Portrait of Sarah Mainwaring at Whitmore Hall – adjusted using photo editing tools

In the 19th century a cap neatly covered a lady’s hair while she was at home and abroad. “Through lace, ribbons, and trimmings, ladies of the age continually reinvented the cap, transforming it from what might otherwise have been a merely utilitarian scrap of fabric into a fashionable, feminine confection.” I have found various examples of caps in portraits of the time but few as elaborate as Sarah’s.

Related posts and further reading

Wikitree:

R is for Rowland

21 Monday Apr 2025

Posted by in A to Z 2025, cemetery, grave, Mainwaring, navy, New South Wales, Whitmore Hall portraits

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My 3rd great grand uncle, Rowland Mainwaring (1811-1826) was the oldest son of Rowland Mainwaring, an officer in the Royal Navy, and his wife Sophia née Duff. 

The younger Rowland Mainwaring was born on 11 September 1811 at Stoke, Devon. He travelled with his parents, first to Malta where he became sick. By 1813, the family had moved to Smyrna, in Turkey, where his sister was born. By 1815, when his younger brother Edward Pellew was born, the family had moved back to Malta.

On 30 September 1815 , the brig-sloop ‘Paulina‘, with Mainwaring aboard, was ordered to proceed to Plymouth, and Rowland Mainwaring returned to England with his “family, goods and chattels, a milch goat, and various little comforts and luxuries for the voyage home.” He was paid off in November 1815 and did not serve afloat again.

The family settled in Bath. In Mainwarings of Whitmore Gordon-Cavenagh-Mainwaring describes the life of Rowland senior:

After their return to England they took up their abode at Bath. He paid Window Tax on 21 windows in 1819. A Diary (1819-1862), now at Whitmore, gives a record of their daily life. Annual visits to Teignmouth in summer, and to Whitmore in the autumn, for the shooting, and occasional visits to various relations in other parts of the country. Rowland Mainwaring seems to have been singularly energetic, and his diary records that he received lessons in painting, drawing, fencing, playing the flute, and also French. Nearly every weekday, when at home, he was occupied in “ schooling ” his young children, and on Sundays he regularly heard them repeat the collects and catechism. He appears to have been a great walker. On one occasion he set out to walk from Gosport to Bath, reaching Southampton on the first day, a distance of 25 miles; on the following day his destination was Deptford Inn, about 10 miles beyond Salisbury on the road to Frome; on the third day he reached Beckington, about 4 miles beyond Frome, and then took the coach to Bath.

In November 1824, at the age of 13, the younger Rowland Mainwaring entered the Royal Navy as a volunteer 1st class, and was posted a midshipman on HMS Warspite, a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line built in 1807.

Portrait of Rowland Mainwaring at Whitmore Hall
The Warspite returning to Spithead from her voyage round the World, July 28 1827
by Henry Moses (1831), in the collection of the Royal Museums Greenwich

In1826–27 Warspite sailed around the world. She visited Port Jackson (Sydney), the first ship of the line to visit the colony of New South Wales.

On Friday 20 October 1826, a Sydney newspaper called the Monitor announced the arrival of the HMS Warspite from Trincomalee, Ceylon:

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. ARRIVALS-...H. M. S. WARSPITE. 74 Guns and 500 Men, Commodore Sir James Brisbane. From Trincomalee August 26th.

The Sydney Gazette of 21 October included a poem in honour of the Warspite, a description of her arrival (which mentioned the illness of the commodore Sir James Brisbane), and more details of the welcome.

Thursday last presented a novel and magnificent spectacle. About 10 o'clock the Warspite weighed anchor, and proceeded, under the auspices of fair wind and flood tide, to direct her course towards the capital of Australia. Long had the notion been idly indulged that a line-of-battle ship, of her magnitude, would be unable to pass the Sow-and- Pigs, but that prejudice, like hundreds of others, has successfully been confuted; and there can be little doubt but the largest ships in the Navy would, with the greatest facility imaginable, find their way to Sydney Cove, or to Darling Harbour. A little after 11, the massy floating pile rounded Bradley's Head, when the battery at Point Piper, as usual, anticipated the honours of the Fort, and royally saluted the Commodore. With a mild sea breeze, the Warspite came majestically along, and we never witnessed so grand a sight in the Colony. The town's people, high and low, rich and poor, flocked in hundreds to Dawe’s Battery, to catch a glimpse of the gratifying novelty. At noon, she came to an anchor; and, in the course of a few minutes, with music playing, fired the usual salute from her numberless port-holes, which made no trifling impression on the ear. The compliment, as directed by the Authorities, was immediately returned. In the course of an hour afterwards, Colonel DUMARESQ. Private Secretary His EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR in CHIEF, paid an official visit on board to the Commodore, who was pleased to express himself much gratified with the attention manifested towards him, but delayed landing until yesterday. Sir JAMES is rather unwell, and has suffered, it is said, most severely from an indisposition peculiar to the destructive clime of India; but, should the Commodore only continue with us a few weeks, he will be certain to leave us with renovated heath, and his spirits will be exhilarated with the attention and respect which a BRISBANE will undoubtedly receive from all classes of the Community.

Further information about the ship in harbour was in a report in The Australian of 25 October. A journalist from the Monitor went on board, and his report was published 27 October. 

On 27 October 1826 Rowland Mainwaring, just 15 years old, died in Sydney of dysentery. 

On 19 December 1826 Sir James Brisbane, commodore of the Warspiteat the time of Rowland’s death, also died in Sydney, the result of illness contracted on previous service in Burma. There is a memorial to Brisbane in St James’s Church, Sydney.

Rowland Mainwaring and James Brisbane were both buried in the Devonshire Street Cemetery at Brickfield Hill. 

The funeral of a midshipman from the Warspite was reported in the Monitor of Friday 3 November 1826: 

The funeral of the son of Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, a midshipman on board H. M. S. Warspite, took place on Saturday last. The body was removed from the vessel at three o'clock in the jolly-boat. It was met at the dock-yard by a firing party and the band of the Buffs regiment, and moved along George-street, followed by the midshipmen of the ships of war now in harbour, and the boats-crew of the Warspite. The Union Jack supplied the place of a pall, which was borne by four friends of the deceased. He had long been an invalid, and departed this life on the preceding evening, to the great regret of his brother officers.

I have not been able to find the burial of a man named Warren in 1826, and perhaps this report is in fact about the funeral of Rowland Mainwaring. Warren’ could be a mispronunciation of the second two syllables of ‘Mainwaring’. The previous Saturday was 28 October, which means that death occurred on the evening of 27 October, the day that Rowland died. In 1826 Rowland’s father held the rank of commander.

It was not until the following year that news of Rowland’s death reached England. The circumstances of his death on the Warspite was reported in various English newspapers including the London Packet and New Lloyd’s Evening Post 23 April 1827

Letters have been received from his Majesty's ship Warspite, dated the 4th of December, from Port Jackson (New South Wales); she had seven weeks' passage from Trincomalee, five of which Commodore Sir James Brisbane was confined to his bed. The ship arrived on the 19th October and he landed somewhat better; but a relapse of dysentery ensued, and we have much regret in adding, that on the 2d December he was so ill as to be despaired of; but when the letters came away a little change had ensued, which produced a hope. Lady Brisbane and family, in point of health, were well. Sir James Brisbane's attack commenced at Prome, six months before, and he was so reduced at Trincomalee, as to be with difficulty removed from the Boadicea to the Warspite. Mr. Rowland Mainwaring, midshipman (son of Captain Rowland Mainwaring), died on the 27th of October, of dysentery.

The Devonshire Street cemetery

The Devonshire Street cemetery, where Roland Mainwaring was buried, was consecrated in 1820. By 1860, it was full. It was closed in 1888, with the last interment in 1891. 

In 1901, the cemetery ground was resumed to allow for the development of the Central railway station. 30,000 bodies had to be removed. Remains that were claimed were transferred to a number of cemeteries throughout Sydney and even to Newcastle, over 160 kilometers north. Unclaimed remains were relocated to a purpose-built cemetery, Bunnerong Cemetery, which now forms part of the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park in Matraville. 

Before the graves were exhumed, a local couple named Arthur and Josephine Ethel Foster, documented the cemetery with photographs and copying the inscriptions into a notebook.

A G Foster preparing a headstone for photographing by his wife.
Image from Choat, C. (2021). The Fosters. Devonshire street cemetery, Sydney, New South Wales at Project Gutenberg Australia.
Transcription of graves at Devonshire Street Cemetery, Sydney from A G Foster’s Epitaph Book retrieved through gutenberg.net.au

2825 tombstones were moved to Bunnerong. In 1976 the Botany Cemetery Trust removed most of these and created a new, low maintenance lawn area, with 746 headstones in concrete strips, unrelated to the graves below. 

Rowland Mainwaring was reinterred at Bunnerong, but his headstone did not survive the 1976 beautification program by the Botany Cemetery Trust.

Brisbane was also interred at Devonshire Street but his remains were reinterred at Waverley Cemetery.

Related posts and further reading

Wikitree: Rowland Mainwaring (1811-1826)

Q is for Quintin

19 Saturday Apr 2025

Posted by in Mainwaring, India, army, Bath, British East India Company, A to Z 2025

≈ 12 Comments

My first cousin five times removed, eleventh child and ninth son of Thomas (1784-1835) and Sophia (1791-1868) Mainwaring, was christened with the forenames Reginald Quintin. Quintin, ‘Fifth’, is a perfectly acceptable name for boys, but to follow the Latin scheme he should have got ‘Nonus’. I don’t know where ‘Quintin’ came from. Perhaps it honoured one of his godparents.

He was born on 8 October 1828 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India, and baptised on 19 December.

Reginald’s father Thomas was a district magistrate in the Bengal Civil Service. He died in 1835, when Reginald was six.

In the U.K. 1841 census Reginald Mainwaring (age 12) was recorded as a student at Mr Day’s school in Cleveland House, Brixton Hill, Streatham, Surrey. He was later taught by Mr Ogle in St Johns Wood. His education was “classical and mathematical”, the usual preparation for a boy who intended to become a cadet in the Honourable East India Company.

In June 1845 Reginald applied to join the Madras Infantry as a cadet. His mother recommended him and he was nominated by Lieutenant General Sir Jeremiah Bryant, one of the Directors of the East India Company. On the application Reginald noted that his father was a civilian in the Honourable Company’s Service in Bengal and his mother was residing at 68 Milton Street, Dorset Square, London.

On joining the Company in 1845 Reginald was assigned to the 2nd Regiment Madras Native Infantry. In the years that followed, the regiment—and Reginald Mainwaring—saw very little action.

On 29 November 1854 in Quilon, Madras, at the age of 26, he married Charlotte Law Pinson (age 18), daughter of Lt Col Albert Pinson of the Madras Army.

Reginald and Charlotte had nine children in 14 years.

The family of R Q Mainwaring was recorded in the Madras Military Fund roll of subscribers & families.

In 1859, after the Mutiny (the Madras army was not involved), Lieutenant Mainwaring served with the Staff Corps. He was promoted to captain in 1860.

A miniature portrait of Reginald Quintin Mainwaring
Currently for sale

In 1865 he was promoted to Major and in 1871 was living in Madras. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1871 and was brevet Colonel 1876. In 1880 he was commanding Kamptee Station (700 miles north of Madras) in the Nagpur District.

At the time of the 1881 census Charlotte L Mainwaring (age 44), ‘Wife Of Col Mainwaring’, was the married head of household at 24 Marlborough Buildings, Walcot, in Bath, close to Royal Crescent. Her husband had not yet returned from India.

Charlotte died on 25 December 1881 in Bath of pulmonary emphysema and dilation of the heart. Their son Charles registered the death.

Two years later, on 13 November 1883 at Holy Trinity, Ilfracombe, Devon, Colonel Reginald Quintin Mainwaring married Caroline nee Partridge, widow of Monsieur Jules A. Le Crosnier. Caroline was a cousin through her mother to Reginald’s first wife Charlotte.

On the India List July 1891 for the Indian Staff Corps, Lieutenant Colonel R. Q. Mainwaring (with Colonel’s allowance) was listed as being ‘in Europe and on the unemployed supernumerary list’. He was recorded on the census in England living at 24 Marlborough Buildings Bath with his wife, four unmarried daughters from his first marriage, and two servants.

In 1894 Lieutenant-General Reginald Quintin Mainwaring of the Indian Staff Corps was among those listed to be Generals on the Unemployed Supernumerary List.

General Reginal Mainwaring became Mayor of Bath in 1893. He also served as one of Bath’s magistrates and was president of the Royal Mineral Water Hospital and chair of the Board of Guardians.

General Reginald Quinton Mainwaring 1893 in mayoral robes
From Bath in Time image library reference 48709

He died in Bath on 28 October 1903. 

There is a detailed account of his funeral in the Bath Chronicle of 5 November 1903. The service was held at St Andrews Church where in his retirement he had served as a sidesman. Among the mourners was the mayor of Bath, aldermen, members of the Board of Guardians and other organisations including fellow magistrates. General Mainwaring was noted to have taken an interest in the police matters, and thirty members of the Bath City Police Force also attended the funeral.

General Mainwaring was buried at Locksbrook cemetery, Bath.

A pair of miniature portraits of Reginald Quintin Mainwaring in uniform and his wife Charlotte is for sale.  From Charlotte’s dress it appears that they were painted in the 1860s.

Rare Victorian Portrait Miniature Pair, Mainwaring Family for sale through RubyLane.com

Related posts and further reading

Wikitree: Reginald Quintin Mainwaring (1828-1903)

K is for Katherine

12 Saturday Apr 2025

Posted by in Mainwaring, grave, Cheshire

≈ 18 Comments

One of my 13th great grandmothers (I have, at a maximum, 16,384, and so do you) was a Cheshire woman born about 1471 named Katherine Honford. Honford, now called Handforth, is about ten miles south of Manchester. Katherine was the daughter of John Honford, who also spelt his name Hondford or Hanford, and Margaret Savage. He died about 1479 and Katherine’s mother married again, to Sir Edmund Trafford of Wilmslow, two miles from Handforth.

About 1497 Katherine, then eighteen years old, married John Mainwaring of Over Peover, Cheshire, ten miles south of Wilmslow. In nineteen years they had fifteen children. John Mainwaring died in 1516 and Katherine died in 1529.

Fifty-seven years later John and Katherine’s son Edward erected a memorial to them.

Mainwaring memorial St Lawrence’s, Over Peover
photographed by Craig Thornber and used with permission

Inscription
Here lyeth the bodies of Sr Jhon Maynwaringe, of Pever, and Badyley, wthin the countie of Chester, kt. wch deceassed an’o Dom’i 1515, and dame Kathrine his wyfe wch deceassed an’o Dom’i 1529, wch a Edward caused this monument to be made 1586.

The memorial was an incised slab of alabaster, commissioned from Richard and Gabriel Royley, father and son alabasterers of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire.

The Royleys had made a similar monument at Peover for Katherine and John Mainwaring’s son Philip who died in 1573. That memorial was commissioned not long after Philip’s death.

In 1580 Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore, my twelfth great grandfather, commissioned an incised alabaster slab following the death of his wife Alice in 1576.

The slabs of Philip Mainwaring and his wife Anne at Over Peover and of Edward Mainwaring and his wife Alice at Whitmore

Shortly before his death in 1586 Edward commissioned the Royleys to create a monument honouring his parents. This shows the 15 children of John and Katherine.

Incised slabs

The term ‘incised slab’ is a memorial with an effigy of the deceased, a cross, or other appropriate subject cut directly into the stone. It had some of the features of a monument in brass, but was cheaper, and much cheaper than a raised tomb.

Alabaster is a is a sort of soft marble. The engraved representations were not portraits, and features were invariably represented conventionally.

Depiction of Katherine

Women’s fashions of the early 16th century consisted of a long gown, usually with sleeves, worn over a kirtle or undergown, with a linen chemise or smock worn next to the skin. 

Katherine’s gown has a high round neck, with small ruff above; it opens apparently from neck to waist, with tight sleeves ending in a turn-back cuff supplemented by small ruffles. She has a small sash at her waist.

She wears a partlet, a 16th-century fashion accessory: the partlet was a sleeveless garment worn over the neck and shoulders, either worn over a dress or worn to fill in a low neckline. Katherine also has a small shoulder cape.

Katherine’s headdress is a Gable hood, an English woman’s headdress of  about 1500–1550, so called because its pointed shape resembles the architectural feature of the same name. Lappets, decorative side panels, are doubled back and pinned up on top, with a veil cast horizontally over the peak at the front.

Katherine’s two daughters are portrayed in similar dress.

Katherine’s husband is portrayed wearing armour. His head is resting on a donkey, which seems odd. The Mainwaring crest, however, features the head of a donkey, and accounts for the animal’s presence on the memorial.

Twelve of the thirteen sons are dressed alike in long robes with long sleeves. The sleeves are of various lengths; the sleeve length perhaps an indication of their age at death. The fifth son, John, is depicted as a member of the clergy in a surplice and stole; above him are a clasped volume, surmounted by a diamond-shaped object, a chalice and wafer, and a flagon.  

The incised alabaster memorial is a modest and rather initmate commemorative marker. Five hundred years after his parents’ death Edward’s small act of filial piety keeps their names alive.

Related posts and further reading

  • Greenhill, F. A. (Frank Allen) (1976). Incised effigial slabs : a study of engraved stone memorials in Latin Christendom, c.1100 to c.1700. Faber and Faber, London. volumes 1 and 2
  • Thornber, C. Photographs of over Peover, Cheshire, England, UK, and Mainwaring family. Eight Sites by Craig Thornber. https://www.thornber.net/cheshire/htmlfiles/peover.html

Wikitree: Katherine (Honford) Mainwaring (1471-1529)

1. Anne is the daughter of Rafe Champion de Crespigny 
2. Rafe is the son of Kathleen Cavenagh (Cudmore) Symes (1908-2013) 
3. Kathleen is the daughter of Kathleen Mary (Cavenagh) Cudmore (1874-1951) 
4. Kathleen is the daughter of Ellen Jane (Mainwaring) Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1845-1920) 
5. Ellen is the daughter of Gordon Mainwaring (1817-1872) 
6. Gordon is the son of Rowland Mainwaring (1782-1862) 
7. Rowland is the son of Rowland Mainwaring (1745-1817) 
8. Rowland is the son of Edward Mainwaring (1709-1795) 
9. Edward is the son of Edward Mainwaring (1681-abt.1738) 
10. Edward is the son of Edward Mainwaring (1635-1703)
11. Edward is the son of Edward Mainwaring (1603-1674)
12. Edward is the son of Edward Mainwaring (1577-1647)
13. Edward is the son of Edward Mainwaring (abt.1544-1604)
14. Edward is the son of Edward Mainwaring (abt.1506-1586)
15. Edward is the son of Katherine (Honford) Mainwaring (1471-1529) (Commissioned the monument)
This makes Katherine the 13th great grandmother of Anne.

B is for Bridget

02 Wednesday Apr 2025

Posted by in A to Z 2025, Mainwaring, Whitmore Hall portraits

≈ 18 Comments

My eighth great grandmother Bridget Trollope was born about 1641 in Lincolnshire, England. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Trollope of Casewick near Uffington, county Lincoln, and Mary Trollope née Clitheroe. Her father had been created a baronet about the time of her birth. Sir Thomas Trollope died about 1654. Her maternal grandfather, Christopher Clitherow (1578 – 1641), had been Lord Mayor of London in 1635.

In 1679 Bridget, aged about thirty eight, married Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore Hall, a widower. Edward had three surviving daughters by his first wife.

On 4 May 1679 an indenture was made between Edward Mainwaring of the first part,  Dame Mary Trollop Widow and Bridgett Trollop Spinster, her younger daughter, of the second part. The third part was signed by Bridget’s brothers, Sir Thomas Trollop Bart. and Matthew Trollop, Gentlemen, together with  William Hyde Esquire, Bridget’s brother-in-law, and his son William Hyde Junior, these four ensured Bridget’s interests were upheld; Sir Edward Abney Knight and Thomas Abney both cousins of Edward Mainwaring, ensured Edward’s interests were maintained.The settlement concerned the uses of the manors of Whitmore, Annesley and Bucknall, and lands at Tutbury and Stoke; the sum of £3,500 was paid over as the bride’s portion.

The marriage was solemnised on 29 July 1679 at the parish church of Dowsby in Lincolnshire.

Bridget Mainwaring nee Trollope 1741-1723

The children of Bridget and Edward were:

  •      Mary Mainwaring (1680–1742)
  •      Edward Mainwaring (1681–1738) inherited Whitmore Hall
  •      Bridget Mainwaring (1682–1776)
  •      A still born daughter born 1685

Bridget was most likely in her forties or thereabouts when her children were born, and she had what was for the times a small family.

Edward died in 1703. His will and appointed Bridget as his executor, and he left her all his personal effects and plate and the residue of his estate.

Edward Mainwaring 1735-1703

On her husband’s death their son Edward inherited Whitmore Hall and Bridget appears to have lived at Newhall near Audlem, eleven miles west of Whitmore.

Bridget died in May 1723 aged 82 and was buried on 27 May 1723 at St Mary & All Saints, Whitmore. Her will mentions silverware, much of it engraved with coats of arms. This is no longer in possession of the family.

In what appears to be a companion pair, portraits of Edward and Bridget hang at Whitmore Hall.

The paintings are difficult to date, but, based on the hairstyle and style of dress, these were not done at the time of the marriage in 1679 as might have been expected. An account of the disbursements of Edward Mainwaring from 1674 to 1692 reproduced in the book Mainwarings of Whitmore (James Gordon Cavenagh-Mainwaring, 1935) does not mention any payments for portraits. This suggests that the portraits were painted after 1692.

Bridget’s portrait is similar to a portrait of a Miss Wynne by Charles Jervas (1675 – 1739), a well known and fashionable portrait painter. Jervas was an assistant to Sir Godfrey Kneller between 1694 and 1695. In both cases the sitter is painted against a dark, muted background that gives emphasis to the foregrounded human form. The two women have the same pose and are seated on a similar bench at a table also alike.

Jervas, Charles; Miss Wynne of Leeswood; Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales; From artuk.org
Bridget Mainwaring nee Trollope

Bridget was in her fifties when her portrait was done. The artist was flattering both to her physical beauty and the air of confidence and assurance she appears to project. Perhaps Bridget was portrayed as she was supposed to be, not necessarily as she was–we do not have more information to know better.

Portrait of Edwin Mainwaring 1801-1823

26 Thursday Dec 2024

Posted by in army, India, Mainwaring, portrait

≈ 2 Comments

I have many soldiers in my family tree. One was my second cousin six times removed Edwin Mainwaring, youngest son of Edward (1744 – 1803) and Elizabeth nee Reeves, who saw service in India in the Royal Scots regiment from 1818 until his death there in 1823.

Edwin was born on 20 January 1801 and baptised on 25 February 1801 in All Saints, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England.

Edwin’s father died when he was two years old. Edward had served as an officer during the first American war. Edwin’s half uncles, John Montagu Mainwaring and Jemmet Mainwaring were in the army and navy respectively.

Edwin’s brothers all entered the armed services: three were in the army and two in the Royal Navy.

This abbreviated family tree shows Edwin was second cousin to Rowland Mainwaring, my fourth great grandfather.
Many Mainwaring sons including Edwin’s father, half-uncles, and his brothers joined the army or the navy; colour coding shows which men joined the army (orange) and which the navy (blue).

On 13 April 1814, at the age of thirteen, Edwin Mainwaring was gazetted as an ensign in the 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots); ensign was the lowest rank of commissioned officer in infantry regiments of the British Army. Edwin served in India with the second battalion and was made lieutenant without purchase on 24 June 1818.

The 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment was in India from 1813. In April 1813 the right wing of the regiment served on a field force in the southern Mahratta country for a year. In November 1814 the battalion was stationed at Hyderabad when, in November 1814, they joined a field force at Ellichapore commanded by Brigadier-General John Doveton to act against the Pindaris who were ravaging central India.

The Pindaris were irregular military plunderers and foragers, mostly horsemen armed with spears and swords. They accompanied initially the Mughal Army, and later the Maratha Army, and acted as reconnaissance units. Later they became a force in their own right. They were unpaid and their compensation was entirely the booty they plundered during wars and raids. Fighting against these mounted gangs lasted until late 1817 when the problem was deemed to have been dealt with. 

The Regiment was then involved in the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819), the final and decisive conflict between the British East India Company under the command of Governor General Hastings and the Maratha Confederacy.

The Regiment fought in 

In a general order, dated Madras, 28th April, 1819, the conduct of the five companies of the regiment was spoken of in the following terms:—

“The conduct of the detachment of His Majesty’s Royal Scots under the command of Captain Wetherall, and of His Majesty’s 30th Foot, under Major Dalrymple, during the siege of Asseer, has been most exemplary, and such as to reflect the most distinguished credit on their several commanding officers, as well as on the whole of the officers and men composing those detachments.”

After the capture of Asseeghur fortress the services of the five companies of the Royal Scots were no longer required with the Hyderabad division. On 11 April they commenced their march for the Deccan and reached Wallajahbad, forty-seven miles from Madras, on 24 July; the march of 104 days was 750 miles. The battalion remained at Wallajahbad until the 21st of December, when it marched for Trichinopoly, where it arrived on 11 January, 1820. The 2nd battalion remained at Trichinopoly until June, 1824, when it marched to Madras

Places in India associated with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment between 1813 and 1824

Edward [Edwin] Mainwaring (age 22) lieutenant of HM Royal Regiment died and was buried on 10 February 1823 in Trichinopoly, Madras. 


A friend wrote to me recently drawing my attention to the current sale of a miniature portrait of Edwin Mainwaring by Hale Fine Art of Bath, Somerset, through Antiques Atlas.com.

A portrait of Edwin Mainwaring (1801 – 1823).

The uniform matches a portrait of Captain Wetherall from 1818. Like Edwin Mainwaring, Wetherall also served in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Scots. 

In 1818 Captain George Augustus Wetherall was adjutant in the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Scots. He later commanded the 1st Battalion from 1828 to 1843 and rose to the rank of lieutenant-general.

Wetherall’s uniform is described as : 

“The Royal Scots, as they were titled from 1812 to 1821, had two types of dress coat. The previous short-tailed, more practical jacket worn in 1815 transformed into the long-tailed coatee. The blue lapels were folded back and decorated with rows of closely placed gold lace with gilt buttons at the extremities. They were no longer placed in pairs. The collar had a single gold loop and was three inches high, covering the black stock. The shirt collar protruded well above the stock, or cravat, and the ruffle was reduced to a small showing at the throat. This gold laced coatee was worn for dress occasions. Full dress was worn for formal evening wear, at levées, balls and court appearances. For that the regiment had the even more expensive embroidered coatee. He has a single gold bullion epaulette which indicates that he is below the rank of major. Flank company officers had wings on both shoulders.”

Related posts and further reading

  • Wetherall, Major Joseph Compiler (1832) An Historical Account of His Majesty’s First, or the Royal Regiment of Foot: General George, Duke of Gordon GCB, Colonel from page 124 
  • Cannon, Richard (1846). Historical Record of the First, or Royal Regiment of Foot: Containing an Account of the Origin of the Regiment in the Reign of King James VI of Subsequent Services to 1846 from page 202
  • Luscombe, S., & Griffin, C. (n.d.). 1st or Royal Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots). The British Empire. Retrieved December 26, 2024, from https://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/1stroyalregiment.htm 

Wikitree: Edwin Mainwaring (1801 – 1823)

John Ball (1585-1640) curate at Whitmore

07 Sunday Jul 2024

Posted by in Whitmore, Mainwaring, religion, Puritan, clergy

≈ 2 Comments

It is tempting to assume that Whitmore Hall, remote, rural, and unimportant, played no significant part in the great religious upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and, like the Vicar of Bray, as circumstances changed, simply made the necessary accommodations with the dominant faction then went about its manorial business as usual.

In fact, Whitmore Hall gave public support and protection to an influential Puritan Divine (theologian), the Reverend John Ball (1585-1640), thereby aligning itself with the reforming end of the theological spectrum, in opposition to the conservative beliefs and practices of the English Church.  Prevented by his Calvinist convictions from obtaining ecclesiastical preferment, Ball spent three decades at Whitmore in Staffordshire under the protection and patronage of the Squire, my tenth great grandfather Edward Mainwaring (1577-1647).

John Ball was born in Oxfordshire in 1585 in the reign of Elizabeth I, the son of William Ball and his wife, Agnes Mabet. Ball’s family, who were apparently not well-off, sent him to a private school in Yarnton, a neighbouring village. There he was recognised as a talented scholar, and in 1600 at the age of fifteen he matriculated to Brasenose College, Oxford. He graduated in 1604 as a Bachelor of Arts. However, lacking the means to continue his university studies, Ball was forced to find employment. In about 1605 he took a position as tutor to the family of Lady Cholmondeley, a Puritan sympathiser in Cheshire.

Mary, Lady Cholmondeley (nee Holford; 1562 – 1625) was a granddaughter of Sir Randle Manwaring of Over Peover (1495-1557) and second cousin of Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore. At the time of Ball’s appointment she was the widow of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley (1552–1601), who had been the holder of several offices in the county of Chester, including queen’s escheator, sheriff, and treasurer.

James I had ascended the throne; his Authorised Version of the Bible was not entirely acceptable to critics of the established Church and, though Bloody Mary was gone, her persecution of Protestants was still in living memory. It was during his period in Cheshire that Ball, then about twenty, seems to have adopted the Puritan view that the Church of England was still gravely in need of reform.

In 1610 John Ball was ordained by an Irish Bishop, avoiding a public declaration of belief in the Thirty-Nine Articles, an avowal required for ordination in the Anglican Church. The Thirty-nine Articles set out the fundamental doctrinal principles of the Church of England, its basic beliefs. Ball evidently found himself unable to give these his full endorsement.  Following his incomplete ordination, in 1610 Ball took up the Whitmore curacy and became the chaplain of Whitmore Hall to Edward Mainwaring 3 (1577-1647). There was a family connection: Edward Mainwaring was a second cousin of Lady Cholmondeley. (At the time of his appointment Whitmore chapel had the status of parochial chapel under the control of the parish of Stoke, one of two ancient parishes in the northern part of Staffordshire.)

As a known nonconformist Ball suffered from ‘prelatical persecution’, harassment by local bishops. It is said that Ball was deprived of a living by John Bridgman, Bishop of Chester from 1619 to 1646, because he had called for a day of prayer and fasting on the Feast of the Ascension (Maundy Thursday). The Roman church celebrated the Ascension, Protestants at the time generally did not, and Ball’s liturgical recommendation seemed to go against the grain.  His persecution continued, and Ball was imprisoned twice for his beliefs, even with the protection of Edward Mainwaring, so much so that in the late 1830s he considered emigrating to New England to join the Puritans there.

At Whitmore John Ball lived in Whitmore Hall with the family of his patron, Edward Mainwaring. He was employed as chaplain. Ball’s duties in the Mainwaring household included expounding the scriptures on a daily basis and catechising and counselling the family.

Edward’s wife, Sarah Mainwaring nee Stone (1575 – 1648), was noted for her piety. In The Lives of Twenty-two English Divines by Samuel Clarke (1599-1683), Clarke states of Ball:

His ability to counsell and comfort dejected, tempted Christians, was occasioned, (as himself would acknowledge,) by his conversing with Mistresse Sarah Mainwyaring, (Wife to the Gentleman in whose house he continued many years, as was before mentioned) who was much exercised in that kind, and was an unparallel'd Gentlewoman for holy tendernesse and exactnesse in Religion.

In the parish register of Whitmore in 1648 there is the following tribute to the memory of Sarah, formerly Stone, who married Edward Mainwaring, Esq., of Whitmore :

" Sarah Mainwaring, virtutis exemplum et ornamentum, sexus gloria et eclipsis, ex assidua pietate in Deum, profusa liberalitate in pauperes, spectata probitate in omnes, ab omnibus imitanda pariter et admiranda, Vidua Edvardi Mainwaring, Armigeri, maximo omnium luctu necnon et damno, sepulchro conditur, July, Anno Domini 1648."
[Sarah Mainwaring, an example and ornament of virtue from constant piety to God, lavished liberality on the poor, looked upon with honesty by all, to be imitated and admired alike by all, widow of Edward Mainwaring, the squire, the greatest grief of all as well as loss, buried in the grave, July 1648.]
Sarah (Stone) Mainwaring (abt. 1575 – 1648)
Edward Mainwaring (1577 – 1647)
Edward and Sarah Mainwaring, patrons of the Reverend John Ball

Ball was also tutor to the children of Edward Mainwaring:

  • Edward (1603 – 1674), heir to Whitmore estates
  • Jane (1607 – 1644)
  • John (1610 – 1692)

The Mainwaring sons, tutored by Ball, were regarded as well educated. Edward Mainwaring was subsequently educated at Middle Temple in 1620, held various offices within Staffordshire including mayor. In 1625 he was elected to parliament. His biographical entry in The History of Parliament concludes he was well educated, as at the time of his death, he owned £19 worth of books, including works in Latin and Greek. John Mainwaring attended Cambridge university and earned an M.A. He became a fellow of Caius and entered the church in 1630. He was rector of Stoke upon Trent from 1633 until his death in 1692. In 1654 he earned a Doctorate of Divinity.

On 4 August 1612, two years after his arrival in Whitmore, John Ball married Ellen Buckhall. They had seven children, the first six born while the Ball family was living in the Hall. In 1624 Ball and his family moved into a house of their own, built for them by Edward Mainwaring.

Ball died at his house at Whitmore, Staffordshire, on 20 October 1640.

He was buried in Whitmore Chapel, now the Church of St Mary and All Saints.

Ball had a considerable reputation for his learning and piety. He published several books, several more were published posthumously. His works include

Ball’s humour is illustrated in his biography in the The Lives of Twenty-two English Divines by Clarke:

At another time a dear Friend relating his great danger by a fall off his horse in a journey, and saying that he never had received such a deliverance. Master Ball answered, Yea an hundred times, (viz.) so often as you have ridden and not fallen; because the preventing of perils is to be prized as much as our rescuing out of them.

Ball is regarded as one of the founders of Presbyterianism in England; he was known scornfully as The Presbyterians Champion. He was said by the English Nonconformist church leader and theologian, Richard Baxter, as being  “deserving as high esteem and honor as the best bishop in England.”

Related posts and further reading

Wikitree:

A is for the Admiral

01 Monday Apr 2024

Posted by in Mainwaring, A to Z 2024, Whitmore 2024 A to Z

≈ 26 Comments

One of my 4th great grandfathers was Rowland Mainwaring (1782–1862), a British naval officer.

Rowland Mainwaring was the second son of Rowland Mainwaring of Four Oaks in Warwickshire (1745–1787). This Rowland was a younger son of Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore Hall (1709–1795) (Edward 7).

In 1795, at the age of twelve, Rowland joined the navy as a midshipman. He had an active career during the Napoleonic wars and rose to the rank of lieutenant. In November 1815, however, with the wars over, Lieutenant Mainwaring was paid off and did not serve at sea again.

In 1810 Rowland had married Sophia Duff, daughter of an army officer and step-daughter of a naval officer. They had eight children. From 1815 the Mainwaring family lived at Bath. After Sophia’s death Rowland married a further two times and had a total of 17 children.

In 1817 Rowland Mainwaring had been named by his uncle Edward Mainwaring (1736–1825) (Edward 8) as heir after the death his, Rowland’s, cousin Charles, to the “manors of Whitmore and Biddulph and the advowson of the rectory of Whitmore, all his messuages land, &c. in Whitmore, Swynnerton and Biddulph, his messuage land, &c. in Bucknall, and all other his real estates, in the county of Stafford”.

Edward Mainwaring 8 had had no children, and the succession did not transfer to his nephews, for although his brother William Mainwaring had five sons all of them died unmarried. Charles Mainwaring (1787–1831), his first nominated heir, was in fact excluded for some unspecified reason from the inheritance of Whitmore by an 1819 codicil to Edward Mainwaring’s will. This codicil, which left the estate to Charles’s older sister Sarah Mainwaring (1774–1837), reaffirmed that Rowland would succeed to the estate after Sarah’s death.

Rowland Mainwaring was a second son, and so not in the direct line of inheritance. His older brother Edward (1781–1807), however, had died at the age of 26 while on service at Dacca in the East Indies.

Rowland Mainwaring attended his Uncle Edward’s interment at Whitmore on the 15th of December 1825, and left an account of the funeral procession.

The body, preceded by the curate, the physician, the estate agent, the estate solicitor, the apothecary and the undertaker, was borne by eight estate labourers, with six of the principal tenants as pall bearers. The chief mourners were three of his nephews [including Rowland], followed by his butler, his groom, his footman, his valet, his gamekeeper and the estate waggoner, the other tenants, labourers, servants and villagers came after.

Rowland’s cousin Sarah Mainwaring died on 31 March 1837 at Whitmore. Rowland Mainwaring heard news of her illness on 25 March and returned promptly to England. 

Staffordshire Advertiser 29 April 1837

DINNER AT WHITMORE.—Yesterday week the tenants on the Whitmore estate dined together at the Mainwaring Arms, Whitmore, by invitation of Captain Rowland Mainwaring, on the occasion of his taking possession of the family property, which has descended to him on the demise of the much-respected lady, Mrs. Sarah Mainwaring, whose death was announced in one of our late numbers. The dinner was very ample, and was served up to the entire satisfaction of the guests, who appeared to enjoy themselves in the most comfortable manner. The gallant Captain presided at the table, and his kind and open demeanour made a very favorable impression on all present, and from that, as well as from the repeated expressions of the most friendly feelings, every one felt assured that he should experience the same liberality in the new connexion as he had done under that which had now terminated by the lamented event before alluded to. We understand Captain Mainwaring, who now resides abroad, intends to bring his family to Whitmore Hall, in about twelve months, and then to make it his permanent residence.

He spent three months in England sorting out his affairs before returning to Germany and after a farewell tour there travelled to Whitmore and took up residence with his family.

When Rowland and his family arrived at Whitmore railway station on 31 October 1837, they found all the tenantry, and a large number of tradesmen from Newcastle, waiting to receive them. A procession was formed, consisting of: —
. Six Horsemen,
. The Scholars of the National Schools,
. Two men carrying evergreens and flowers,
. A Flag,
. The Newcastle Brass Band,
. THE CARRIAGE containing Captain Mainwaring and family,
. 120 Horsemen — 2 and 2.
. The carriage was drawn by a number of stout labourers.

The entrance to the village was announced by the firing of cannon and the ringing of the village bells. A cask of ale was distributed before the Hall door, where the children paraded and made their obeisance to Mrs. Mainwaring. The cottagers were given a dinner of good substantial English fare, while Captain Mainwaring and his eldest son dined with a party of seventy in the village, when the hilarity of the evening was kept up to a late hour.

The Staffordshire Advertiser 4 November 1837

REJOICINGS AT WHITMORE.
The beautiful and sequestered village of Whitmore presented a scene of great animation and unusual gaiety on Tuesday and Wednesday last. The expected arrival of Captain Mainwaring, R.N., who had lately come in possession of his estates at Whitmore, had determined his tenantry and cottagers to observe Tuesday as a regular gala day, in order to give that gentleman a hearty welcome to the peaceful mansion of his ancestors. On the morning of the day the village was enlivened by the merry peals of the bells and the music of Mr. Worrall's excellent military band, from Newcastle. The Captain and his family, consisting of Mrs. Mainwaring, his sons and daughters, were met at the Whitmore railway station by his tenantry and cottagers, the children of the village schools, and a number of gentlemen and tradesmen from Newcastle and the surrounding neighbourhood, who received him with the greatest marks of respect, a respect which that gentleman had secured for himself by the urbanity of his manners and the kindness of his heart displayed during a visit estates some short time since. A number of his cottagers and labourers employed about the estate refused to allow his horses to be put in the carriage in which himself and family were seated, and with the greatest enthusiasm resolved themselves to draw it to the hall. The carriage was preceded by the children of the village schools, the superannuated labourers residing on the estate, the band playing a favourite march, the Union Jack and several other banners flying in the air, and followed by a cavalcade of about 120 horsemen, who escorted the Captain and his family to the hall ; the whole marshalled under the superintendence of J. Cottrill, of Newcastle, mounted, wearing his Waterloo medal. On entering the village, they were welcomed by a salute of cannon, and on their arrival at the hall were loudly cheered by the numerous groups of bystanders, and the cheering was most enthusiastically responded to by the whole cavalcade.
The CAPTAIN ascended an elevation, from which he addressed his tenantry and the other gentlemen who had honoured him on that interesting occasion, and expressed his gratitude for their kindness, and assured them that the distinguishing mark of respect he had that day received from them would never be forgotten by him. He felt his interests were identified with theirs, and it would be his happiness on all occasions to promote their comfort.
The short address was received with the most enthusiastic cheers. The fine old ale from the cellars of the family mansion was liberally distributed among the crowds who had gathered on the lawn ; and the health of the Captain was drunk with many a sincere and hearty wish for " long life and happiness." After the bustle of a life of 36 years spent in the service of his country, such a scene as this, and on such an occasion, must have been highly gratifying and deeply affecting; and most sincerely do we join in the wish that he may long enjoy the happiness of this quiet and lovely retreat, and live in the affections of his tenantry and surrounding neighbours.
The Captain, observing from his elevation a private soldier of the 63rd standing at a distance looking with interest on the scene, took him a glass of ale, and handing it to him said, "in peace, as in war, sailors and soldiers should assist each other."
After this the boys and girls of the village schools were regaled with cake and wine; and the cottagers and labourers had a most substantial dinner provided for them at the Mainwaring's Arms, and were waited upon by the respectable tenantry while they partook of the good cheer.
Mr. Martin had provided in a room fitted up for the occasion a most sumptuous dinner, with a rich dessert, to which 130 gentlemen sat down.
… (toasts and speeches)
The Chairman and Captain Mainwaring left about eleven o'clock in the evening, when the chair was taken by E. F. Mainwaring, Esq., and the festivities were kept up to a late hour. The company parted in good humour, highly delighted with the day's proceedings. The spirit stirring music of Mr. Worrall's excellent band contributed largely to the pleasures of the evening.
We are happy to say that the poor of the workhouse were not forgotten on this festive occasion. The men were regaled with a substantial dinner on the Tuesday, and the women with tea on the following day.
On Wednesday the wives of the respectable tenantry and the cottagers sat down to tea at the Mainwaring's Arms, after which the evening was spent in dancing. The dance was opened by Captain Mainwaring and Mrs. John Furnival. The whole of the Captain's family was present, and by their affable demeanour and kind attentions made the humblest cottager feel easy and happy. Too much praise cannot be given to Mr. Martin, the landlord of the inn, for the excellent provisions he had made on such short notice, as Mr. Mainwaring's arrival had only been heard of, we believe. on the previous day.
… (career of Captain Mainwaring)

Portrait of Captain Rowland Mainwaring painted by Mr. John Phillip, afterwards R.A., at Whitmore in May 1841

Captain Mainwaring settled down to the ordinary life of an English country gentleman. He attended the Stafford Assizes in March 1838 and was sworn on the Grand Jury and was placed on the Commission of the Peace for Staffordshire, thereby becoming a magistrate. His magisterial duties occupied much of his time. He was also a substantial landlord of 3000 acres (1240 hectares) in 5 different parishes.

On 29 September 1855 he was promoted to Rear-Admiral. He was one of 11 Captains on the Retired List promoted to be Retired Rear Admiral without increase of pay.

    Rowland Mainwaring died at Whitmore on 11 April 1862 at the age of 79. He was buried in the local church of St Mary and All Saints.

    Newspapers, such as the Morning Herald (London), noted his passing: 

    MAINWARING.—On the 11th inst., at his seat, Whitmore Hall, Staffordshire, Rear Admiral Rowland Mainwaring, aged 79. The deceased was present at the battles of the Nile and Copenhagen.

    A longer obituary appeared in the Illustrated London News of 26 April 1862. It mentioned:

    He succeeded his cousin, Miss Sarah Mainwaring, in the Mainwaring estates, the 31st of March, 1837, and since his accession to them he has devoted himself entirely to his duties as country gentleman, and has made himself universally beloved and respected as a kind and considerate landlord, a good neighbour, and an active and upright magistrate.

    Related posts and further reading

    • Cavenagh-Mainwaring, James Gordon. The Mainwarings of Whitmore and Biddulph in the County of Stafford; an account of the family, and its connections by marriage and descent, with special reference to the manor of Whitmore, with appendices, pedigrees and illustrations. 1934. Pages 104 – 115. Retrieved through archive.org
    • Mainwaring Rowland. The Lost Manuscripts of a Blue Jacket. 1850. Retrieved through Google Books

    Wikitree: Rowland Mainwaring (1782 – 1862)