Sunday, 13 December 2015

Seventh newsletter of the Rigmaiden One-Name Study, November 2015

Artists in the family: Mary and Ambrose McEvoy

Mary Edwards [full name Mary Augusta Spencer Edwards], born 1870 married artist Ambrose McEvoy in 1902. Mary was the 3rd daughter of Spencer Henry Hutchins Edwards and Flora Campbell Bowie. Spencer Henry Hutchins Edwards was the eldest son of Benjamin Hutchins Edwards and Elizabeth Rigmaiden (daughter of Thomas and Margery Rigmaiden), thus Mary was the great grand-daughter of Thomas and Margery Rigmaiden of Liverpool.

She was born at the Edwards family home at Abbotsleigh, Freshford in Somerset on the 2nd October, 1870. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and exhibited at the New English Art Club between 1900 and 1906 then painted no more, presumably busy with family life, until her husband died in 1927. She then exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1928 until 1937 and died at Abbotsleigh Cottage in 1941 whilst staying with her sister, Helen.

Ambrose and Mary had two children: Michael Ambrose William McEvoy, born in 1904 in Faringdon, Berkshire and Mary Annabel McEvoy, born on the 8th August 1911 in London. In the 1911 census the family are recorded as living at 107 Grosvenor Place, Pimlico. Daughter Mary Annabel married Geoffrey Vyvian Arundell Seccombe-Hett in 1934 in Westminster who later represented Britain in the 1936 Olympic fencing team and the Seccombe-Hetts lived in Canada for a while. Son Michael does not seem to have married and died in London in 1966.

However, this is a digression from the painting theme as Ambrose McEvoy was also an  artist, though somewhat better known than his wife. At the age of 15 he entered the Slade School of Fine Art in London (he was born in 1878 so was 7 years younger than Mary). Ambrose’s father had been a friend of James McNeil Whistler who encouraged Ambrose in his artistic ambitions. At the Slade he became friendly with Augustus John with whom he shared a studio for a short time at 76 Charlotte Street. In 1898, when he was 20, he became involved in a stormy affair with Augustus John’s sister, Gwen John, also a well known artist. She was devastated when, in 1900, Ambrose broke off the relationship to become engaged to Mary Augusta Spencer Edwards.

Ambrose became particularly well known for his portraits, many of well known individuals of the day. In 1909 he went to Dieppe with Walter Sickert and his style became looser and broader. On his return he was much in demand as a portrait artist of fashionable society women, such as Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough, Lady Diana Cooper and the actress Lilah McCarthy.

Although best known for his portraits he also painted landscapes. During the First World War he was attached to the Royal Naval Division and produced, after three months on the Western Front and some time with the Fleet in the North Sea, a series of portraits of naval officers now in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. He died in 1927 from pneumonia brought on by overwork and high living.

After his death Mary resumed her painting and one of her pictures ‘Interior: girl reading’ is owned by the Tate Gallery, others are in the City Gallery, Southampton and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin. Portraits of both of them exist – many by Augustus John of Ambrose McEvoy, and of Mary there is a pencil sketch by Augustus John in a private collection and a bronze bust by Jacob Epstein in the Leeds Museum Art Gallery. 
There is also a self-portrait of Ambrose which shows him to be an individual with a long face and large eyes.
Sketch of Ambrose by Augustus John
Self portrait by Ambrose
Photograph of Augustus John, Ambrose and Philip Wilson Steer
Self portrait by Ambrose

Portrait of Mary by Ambrose

Portrait of Mary by Augustus John

Bust of Mary by Jacob Epstein

Picture by Mary 'Girl reading'

Portrait of Winston Churchill by Ambrose
Portrait of Ramsay Macdonald by Ambrose

Portrait of Gwen John by Ambrose


[Ref: Oxford National Biographies and Pinterest]

Archaeological find

Just to fill the last page, a snippet from an old newspaper that I found told of the archaeological discovery of a gold ring in the Nottinghamshire area inscribed G[e]orge Rigmaiden- probably dating from the 15th or 16th centuries. I have contacted the local museum service for more information but it may be that the Rigmaiden in question may have been a descendant of the William Rigmaiden who was a JP and sherif in the area during the early 1400s and who lived at Blyth. 

Best wishes of the season and good luck with your family trees!








Monday, 7 September 2015

Rigmaiden Newsletter no 6



I am pleased that I am able to post the next instalment as promised of the Rigmaiden story, in this case the text of Thomas Rigmaiden’s will (1846-1803). I have transcribed the handwritten document and attach it with this covering sheet.

This is to be the last blog in this format, that is to say mostly factual with research to back it up, as I shall be putting together the information that I have collected over the years and hope to issue it in book form, so should anybody want to use any of the information contained in this blog please acknowledge myself as the source as is usual with copyright material. The newsletters so far issued will form the basis of the first six chapters of the book.

Future posts will be more 'newsy' so if anyone has any stories that they would like to be included let me know. Meanwhile the gist of the will is this:

Thomas appointed two executors to carry out the terms of his will,  that is his brother-in-law (his wife’s brother), John Jackson and his son-in-law James Dickson (married to his eldest daughter, Margaret). It sounds as though he is leaving his money and estate to the two afore mentioned but he later mentions that the monies raised from the sale of his properties and other property should be divided equally among his children when they marry or reach the age of 21, with the proviso that £500 should be deducted from the amount for his eldest daughter, Margaret, as she had that amount on her marriage in 1800 to James Dickson.
He also refers to John Jackson and James Dickson as guardians for his children who may be minors when he dies, and in fact this applied to all of his children except for the two eldest Margaret (married to James Dickson) and John (born 1872) – indeed his youngest daughter, Lucy, was only seven when he died.

He asks that the two executors invest the money for the minors in government securities or in mortgaged properties, the interest from which should be used to for the education and clothing of the children until they can inherit the capital.
He comments that he bought his ‘messuage with the garden behind’ in Liverpool from Richard Gerrard, Esquire, and that is where he was living when he made the will.
He mentions that Edward Kitchin of Worcester left him real estate and money which would go to him after the death of a Lucy Pattrick, wife of James Pattrick of Orsett in Essex should she have no children.
He also asks the executors to pay his Aunt Elizabeth Weld (or Wild) an annual sum of £15 for the rest of her life in six monthly instalments.

From some research on Ancestry I have found that Lucy Pattrick was born Lucy Kitchin and therefore is a relative of some sort of Edward Kitchen. She married James Pattrick on the 28th April 1787 at St George’s, Hanover Square, Middlesex (London). They were bachelor and spinster and lived in the same parish.
I also think that Lucy was the same Lucy Kitchin that was baptised on the 10th May, 1758 at St Helen’s in Worcester, her father named John and her mother, Mary.

An Edward Kitchin was baptised on the 27th March 1748 in Blockley, Worcestershire whose father was John and mother was Ann so it is possible that Lucy was Edward’s sister or other relative.
I am not sure of the connection between Edward Kitchen and Thomas Rigmaiden except that Thomas’s mother’s maiden name was Kitchen so they could have been relatives of some sort – maybe cousins but that is only conjecture and one should avoid making too many unsupported guesses in family history!
From research it would seem that Lucy Pattrick died in October 1837 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, though I have not obtained the death certificate, so it is probable that the remaining children would have waited quite a while for that portion of their inheritance.
Whether John Jackson and James Dickson dealt fairly with the children it will probably not be known, but it can be said that the two younger daughters, Elizabeth and Lucy Rigmaiden, made advantageous marriages to Benjamin Hutchins Edwards (to be a retired army Major) and Henley Smith (a man of law and inheritor of an estate on the Isle of Wight),respectively so it would seem that they were materially catered for at least.
Unfortunately, not all the sons suffered the same fate as these two sisters, as two of the brothers, Edward and Henry, who became wine merchants became bankrupts, and the eldest son, John, though supposedly a stockbroker, died a lunatic.

Here is a transcript of the will:

This is the last will and testament of me Thomas Rigmaiden of Liverpool in the County of Lancaster Gentleman which I make and publish this twenty first day of March one thousand eight hundred and three. I direct that all my just debts and funeral expenses and the charges of probate of this my will be first duly paid out of my personal estate. I give, devise and bequeath unto my brother-in-law the said John Jackson of Liverpool aforesaid Brazier and my son-in-law James Dickson and the survivor of them and the heirs executors administrators and assigns of the survivor all that my freehold messuage with the garden behind the same, and the lot of land some time since purchased by me from Richard Gerard Esquire all situate in Liverpool aforesaid and now in my own occupation – and also all and every the freehold leasehold and copyhold messuages tenements lands and heriditaments situate in the City of Worcester or elsewhere and all the other real estate whatsoever and wheresoever late the estate of Edward Kitchin of the said City of Worcester and by him devised and bequeathed to me and my heirs and assigns after the death of Lucy Pattrick wife of James Pattrick of Orsett in the County of Essex Yeoman and in failure of issue of the body of the said Lucy Pattrick by her said husband; and also all other  my freehold leasehold and copyhold estates wheresoever situate; whether in possession, reversion or remainder . And also all and singular my goods chattels money and effects of what nature kind or quality soever, and all such sum or sums of money as I shall  or may be entitled to under or by virtue of the will of the said Edward Kitchin after the death and in failure of issue or aforesaid – according to the nature and quality thereof respectively upon Trust as soon as conveniently may be after my decease to sell and dispose of my said freehold premises in Liverpool either by public sale or by private treaty for the best price which my said trustees can obtain for the same and to collect get in and convert into money all my outstanding debts personal estate and effects whatsoever by sale of such parts thereof as are in their nature saleable in such manner as they shall think fit . And when my revisionary property shall aforesaid shall come into possession by the happening of the contingency to which the same is subject – to sell dispose of and convert the same into money in the same manner as I have herein directed respecting my property in possession. And the monies to arise from the sales aforesaid to pay and divide unto and amongst all and every my child and children living at my death in equal shares and proportions (the sum of five hundred pounds being nevertheless deducted from the share of my daughter Dickson, she having received that sum on her marriage). The shares of such of my said children as shall be under twenty one or unmarried to be paid them upon their attaining  that age or marriage respectively whichever event shall first happen. Provided always and it my will that the shares of such of my children as shall be minors or unmarried at my decease shall be laid out and invested  by and in the power of my said trustees in government securities or on mortgage of real estates, and the interest or dividends thereof or so much thereof as shall be requisite shall be by them paid and applied in the maintenance education and clothing of such minor or minors and any surplus interest or dividends if any there shall remain shall be again laid out and invested as often as my said trustees  shall see fit and convenient, to accumulate the Capital of such minor or minors and it is my will that in case any of my children shall die under the said age and unmarried , the share of him or her so dying, shall be equally paid and divided amongst the survivors if more than one, and if but one then to such only survivor wholly. And I hereby will and declare  that the receipt or receipts of my said trustees on the survivor of them or the heirs executors or administrators of the survivor shall be a good and sufficient discharge to the purchaser or respective purchasers of all or any part of my said real and personal estates and after the purchase money paid and such receipt or receipts  so signed, the purchaser or purchasers shall not be obliged to see to the application of the monies therein expressed to be received nor be in anywise accountable for the non application or misapplication thereof , but that he and they and the premises herewith purchased shall therefore stand entirely freed and discharged therefrom. And I further declare , that my said trustees shall  not be answerable or accountable for any loss or damage that shall happen to my estate or effects in anywise, so as the same do not happen by or through their wilful neglect or default – nor shall either be answerable for the acts of the other , but each for his own only  and that it shall be lawful for them to reimburse themselves all costs, charges and expenses as they may incur or be put to in the execution of the trusts of this my will – and lastly I hereby nominate and appoint the said John Jackson and James Dickson executors of this will  and guardians of such of my children as shall be under age when I die – and I give to each of my said executors ten pounds as a compensation for their trouble in the creation of this my will and hereby revoke all former wills  by me, at any time heretofore made – and I recommend and empower my trustees to pay to my Aunt Elizabeth Weld  {Wild?] fifteen guineas yearly during her life by half yearly payments
In witness whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and affixed my seal, the day and year first before written 
Signed sealed published and declared                                                    [Signed}
By the testator as and for his last will                                                      Thos Rigmaiden
And testament in his presence, at his request,
and in the presence of each other
[Signed] Mary Maine
                Jane Taylor        
                T Halsall