Bulleid News ~~~~~~~~~~

No. 36 31 October 2009 Diana Davey – The Mystery Continues Issue No. 6 of the newsletter in April 2007 carried Bernard Everett’s account of the family legend concerning the death of his ggg grandmother, Diana Davey. She had not been married long to John Davey, when she and John Bulleid fell in love and ended up living together in Bristol, England, where John Bulleid had a gunsmith’s shop. They had two children, William Henry and James John, who might have been twins; all we know is that James was born in March 1818. According to the legend, a child entered the gunshop one day, picked up a gun and said —“I’m going to shoot you, Mrs Bulleid!” - whereupon he did so, with fatal consequences. James’ descendant, Kevin Kelleher, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, has now provided a copy of the parish register recording the burial of Diana on 10th August 1825 in Bristol, when James was aged seven. William and James’ father died just four years later when, as far as we know, they had no other family. The boys were taken in by John Crocome, one of the executors of John Bulleid’s will, until they were apprenticed two years later. William learned to be an upholsterer and moved to Shoreditch in London, where he died in 1888 aged 60. His brother James became a cabinet maker and married Grace Adams in Henbury, Gloucestershire, in 1841. Eight years later, James sailed for Australia and married Emma Toe in Melbourne in 1854, declaring that he was a widower. We now know that Grace was still alive and, in fact, did not die until 1872 in Clifton, Bristol. James moved inland from Melbourne, apparently following the gold rush, and tried his hand at various things: carpenter, publican, restaurateur and contractor. In 1856, he ‘married’ for the third time, when his bride was Johanna Gleeson, aged about 22, from County Limerick in Ireland. They were married in the residence of the Wesleyan Minister in Beechworth, Victoria, when James declared that he was a bachelor. We do not know what had become of his second ‘wife’ Emma. James and Johanna started the family, which has grown and prospered in Victoria. James lived to be 91 and Johanna about 86.

What we still do not know, however, is the cause of the death of James’ mother Diana at the age of about 31. Is there any truth in the family lore that she was shot by a child and, if so, who might that child have been? Kevin has been searching the British Library newspaper records, but has not yet traced any report of her death. The only records available online are of the Bristol Mercury, but there were almost certainly other local newspapers at the time. Do we have any family members living in the Bristol area who might be willing to further this research and perhaps finally unveil the mystery of Diana’s death?

Bulleid Web Welcome to new users of the family website, Tricia and Peter Harry and Gail Bulleid McClernon, all in Australia. Tricia and Gail are both descendants of James John Bulleid. Peter has kindly supplied this photograph of his in-laws, Geoff and Thelma Bulleid, who celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary on 20th August. Congratulations and best wishes for many more!

Their daughter, Dianne McAuliffe writes: - “On the 22nd of August 2009 family and friends gathered to help Geoff and Thelma Bulleid celebrate their 60th Wedding Anniversary with an afternoon tea

at their home in Murdoch Road, Wangaratta, Victoria. Geoffrey and Thelma were married at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Wangaratta Victoria at 11am on Saturday 20th of August 1949. They received their guests afterwards at the Royal Victorian Hotel in Faithfull St Wangaratta. Geoffrey is the youngest of the eleven children of Henry James David and Rose Anne Matilda Bulleid, grandson of James John and Johanna Bulleid.” Dianne sent in this photo of her father’s parents and siblings: -

George, Dave and Lance Bulleid are standing at the back, while those in front are Mabel Flemming, Alice Allen, Doris Hutchins, Rose Ann Matilda and Henry James David Bulleid, Rosie Canning, Olive Canning and Eileen Kelleher. Dianne went on to say, “I have included a photo of the latest addition to our family as well. Samantha and Adrian have a new little daughter Millicent (Milly) Rose Morley a little sister for Rupert. We are all quite besotted with her; I'm quite sure she will have little suction marks all over her little face from Rupert's kisses.

This morning Adrian and Rupert allowed "mummy" to sleep in, mummy woke up with a few of Rupert’s stickers placed on her forehead.......”

Vic and Marion Bulleid are back home in Dunedin, New Zealand, after their annual winter break in Australia. Their daughter Debbie and her husband Neville Kershaw have been visiting Europe, party to celebrate Neville’s 60th. Geoff and Mary Ledden were delighted to meet them in England.

Neville, Debbie and Geoff

Vic described a recent visit with Marion and daughter Gillian to Christchurch from home in Dunedin: - “Gillian was kind and drove us through, and we had a few days with Marion's sister who lives an hour's travel away from ChCh. We had a lovely trip through although it was tiring taking about 4 hours from here. We were thrilled with the spring blossom. The gardens were bursting with rhododendrons, camellias, cherries and some had mimosa and a native tree called a kowhai. The plains north of Oamaru and all the way to ChCh were recovering from being eaten off over winter and as there had been a good fine rain they were like a good golf course. While up with Marion's sister, we went out to her son's farm to see a Dutch developed milking plant for which he is agent. I was quite astonished by its complexity. They can do 300 or more milking cows with a staff of one and a half people, and they can be milked up to 6 times a day if the cow wishes it, but not any more than that, as each beast is identified by a thing worn round her neck. Of course it is all computer controlled and full details are available concerning the performance of each cow, and they are all untouched by human hand as it is completely automatic. I was impressed!” Mike Bulleid is visiting Devon from his home in Spain and, having recently discovered his Bulleid ancestry following my entry in the journal of the Devon Family History Society, plans to visit Winkleigh with wife Dee. Mike has

promised to provide several family photos, including his father Leonard (1920-44). A warm welcome to Elizabeth Weinfield of New York, daughter of Barbara Ann Bullied Weinfield. Elizabeth’s uncle Michael Bullied is a founder member of the family website. Sarah Helson – Woman of Mystery Born: 1837 Walkhampton, Devon Died: 1902 Bromley, Kent By her great-great-granddaughter. I am sitting here, by the Aga, in North Devon, wondering how to write about the on-going mystery of my great-great-grandmother, Sarah. The information I have obtained is largely thanks to my husband, Mike, and to Joan (Anderson), who has been beavering away down in Australia, I am just trying to set it down and get my thoughts in some sort of order. Joan and I have spent many e.mail miles trying to sort it all out. I first began my ‘quest’ because I loved my grandmother, Constance Marchand (nee Dean), very much, and I was often sent to stay with her and my Swiss grandfather in Bromley, Kent, when I was young. She was very artistic, went to art school before her marriage, and was wonderfully eccentric. The maternal side of my family classed her as ‘bohemian’ which, in those days of the early twentieth century was, I understood from their tone, ‘not quite the thing’. Anyway, I loved her and thought she was wonderful. Due to our dysfunctional family, I only remember being taken to see my great-grandmother, Henrietta Annie (Sarah’s only daughter – the rest of her children were sons) by my grandparents. They all lived in Bromley. All I really knew was that she was a widow, her son, Reginald had been killed at the Front in World War One, and that she always laid the table for three – her husband, Evan Dean, Reginald and herself, as though they were still alive. Eccentric - or was she still grief stricken? As the years have gone by, I do feel saddened that I was denied the opportunity of getting to know her.

This preamble is really in order to organise my thought about Sarah. Was she a ‘wronged woman’, or was she simply fed up with Anthony and the regularity with which she produced her children and wanted him to leave her alone, the only way being to leave hearth, home and children?

Just who was ‘Bertie of Biggin Hill’?

Was Anthony Bulleid Hero or Villain? He certainly seemed to have had a string of ‘housekeepers’ but this might have been simply because he couldn’t cope with the children, rather than wanting a ménage a trois, which might have been unacceptable to Sarah! Sandra (Carmichael) first drew my attention to aforementioned ‘Bertie’ in a note she wrote in a letter she sent to me quite some time ago. Anthony and Sarah both came from Devon. They married on 22nd February, 1861, in Winkleigh, Devon. At some stage they moved to Bromley, Kent. Anthony was a builder by trade, so I imagine that work was scarce in Plymouth at that time and he and Sarah decided to move. They had three sons, Anthony Augustus (b. 1861), John Ernest (b. 1863), William Henry (b. 1865), and a daughter, Henrietta Annie (b. 1866). All the boys were born in Lewisham and Henrietta was born at 2, Melrose Cottages, Upper Sydenham. By the time Henrietta was born, Anthony was a Master Builder. In 1881, the family had moved, according to the census for that year, to 20, Tylney Road, Bromley. Catherine Wilce, aged 44, was listed as being ‘Housekeeper’ in the household at that time, with Anthony and the then five children, but Sarah was missing! Where was she? Was Catherine the ‘other woman’? According to Henrietta’s Ahnentahfel Chart, Second Generation, Anthony married Catherine in 1861, but I feel that is more down to an error in the transcription than an act of bigamy, but it can’t be denied the name is a coincidence! Due to more digging, Sarah was eventually found on the census, living as a ‘Lodger’ with an elderly couple, Alexander and Charlotte Aloes, in Park Road, Chislehurst. Why? What had made her leave her children? By the time of the 1891 census, Louise Read, a widow aged 36, was ensconced as a ‘Servant/Housekeeper’ at Tylney Road but, again, Sarah wasn’t at home - she is recorded as being a ‘Laundress’, a ‘Boarder’ of Harry Foreman living at 46, Park Road, Chislehurst at the time. Why?

Enter the mystery of ‘Bertie from Biggin Hill’. With only this information to go on, we have all been racking our brains to get to the bottom of it. Sarah did have a baby, ten years after Henrietta was born. This baby, according to the birth certificate, was born on 17th September, 1876, at 42, Tylney Road, Bromley and, also according to the birth certificate, was named Bertie Alphonso Victor, with the father named by Sarah, when she registered his birth on 31st October, 1876, as Anthony Bulleid. However, she gave her address as 9, Palace Road, New Bromley. So, by the time little Bertie was born, Anthony, the other children (and maybe Catherine Wilce) might have been in Upper Sydenham, 20 or 42 Tylney Road, Bromley. Was Anthony little Bertie’s father? If he had been, ‘Bertie Alphonso Victor’ seems just a little ‘continental’ for the son of a Bulleid, comparing it with the names of his other children. Where does the Biggin Hill connection fit in? Was Bertie from Biggin Hill possibly the father, a foreigner who Sarah had met somewhere, and was little Bertie called after him? Biggin Hill is not far from Bromley. It is interesting to note that our little Bertie had slightly altered his Christian names and became ‘Albert Victor’ when he married Alice Westbrook from Orpington, seemingly having dropped the ‘Alphonso’! Did respectability come to the fore, I wonder? In the 1901 census, Sarah is now ‘Laundress and Head of House’ at 1, Queens Road, Chislehurst… Meanwhile, Anthony has changed his housekeeper yet again and, despite the children having left home, seems to have employed a younger lady called Ann Dunbar, aged 36, listed as ‘Servant Housekeeper’. One can only speculate. Having read, on little Bertie’s birth certificate, that Sarah said she was living at 9, Palace Road, New Bromley, I wonder if she really was. Henrietta had a house, 29, Palace Grove, where my father was born in 1918. Having looked in the London A-Z, and looked on Google Earth, Palace Road and Palace Grove are, in fact, next to each other. Palace Road, even allowing for war damage, possible demolition and rebuilding, doesn’t seem to fit. Palace Grove seems a much more likely place somehow.

The house in Palace Grove

I am hoping very much that Dick Smith’s mother, Ethel (now Betty Smith), can come up with some answers as Dick has told me she was close to Henrietta, though only a little girl at the time, but Dick did imply that there was a skeleton in the cupboard where Anthony and Sarah were concerned! Dick being equally mystified, Ethel is, I think, the very last hope of connection to Henrietta and Sarah. If anyone is able to help with fresh news, or any photo, of Sarah, or has any idea of what happened to Bertie and Alice and any possible descendants, it would be wonderful. Sarah died in Bromley in 1905. Sadly, I have no idea where. Was she the first of the family eccentrics – or did she just continue the line? Did that explain her behaviour, I wonder?

Carol Ventura (e.mail: dogplus632@btinternet.com if anyone has any thoughts. ) The next newsletter will be delayed, but contain news of family gatherings in Australia and New Zealand. In the meantime, best wishes to all. Geoff Ledden.