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Messages - Fritz10

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1
Antrim / Re: James Stuart CB of Gracehill
« on: Saturday 17 August 19 00:14 BST (UK)  »
The reference that you would find invaluable is. Three hundred years in Innishowen by Amy Young.
She was a Stuart before her marriage and has written an extensive and invaluable history which documents much of the family history.
You might be able to get it from a library but it is rare. However, I note a copy for sale as below.
http://www.deburcararebooks.com/three-hundred-years-in-innishowen-by-young-amy-isabel-e75/

2
Antrim / Re: James Stuart CB of Gracehill
« on: Friday 16 August 19 21:08 BST (UK)  »
Fascinating.
Best of luck with that. It could be an excellent lead.

3
Antrim / Re: James Stuart CB of Gracehill
« on: Tuesday 30 July 19 22:28 BST (UK)  »
Well done on locating the will!
Interesting, but not promising re Maria being the mother of James Stuart's illegitimate children. Not even the smallest hint!
I suspect that we should be looking elsewhere, but there don't seem to be any clues.

4
Antrim / Re: James Stuart CB of Gracehill
« on: Tuesday 23 July 19 22:56 BST (UK)  »
Charles George Stuart of Ballyhivistock was a first cousin of Major General James Stuart.

Rev Irwin Stuart and his wife Elizabeth (nee McDaniel) had two daughters: Elizabeth (born 1737 married Rev. Hugh McClelland), Jane (born 1739, married Richard Young) and five sons: James Stuart Esq (1743 - 1824 married Grace Lynd), Charles McDaniel, (December 1744 – 1826, married Sarah Dunlop), Archibald (b 1746, married Jane Henry), Henry (b 1748) and Christopher (b 1750).

The oldest son, James (Born 1743, died 1824), built Gracehill and was the father of two daughters, Elizabeth and Grace, who died in early childhood. May have been the first two children. Plus seven other children as follows:
•   Frances. Died 1845 ‘at an advanced age’ in 1845. ‘She was a most excellent woman, of great sound sense and sterling worth’.
•   Margaret. B 1781 or 1783; known as ‘Cross Peggy’. Died unmarried at the residence of her niece, Sophia Irwin, at Dundalk, 11 Feb 1870, aged 89. A very fine-looking, handsome woman.
•   Sophia. M 14 Sept 1812, Thomas Ledlie Esquire of Antrim. MD in the H.E.I.C.S. He was Assistant Surgeon, Bengal, 15 July 1792; Surgeon 1806 and retired 1812. Two daughters: Sophia, died young, and Grace Frances who married Basil George Brooke, of Moyaver, near Armoy, Co. Antrim. He was a grandnephew of the Earl of Macartney and descended from the Brookes of Donegal. Died at Castleblayney, leaving several sons and daughters.
•   Caroline, m August 1812, James Irwin of Wellbrook, Co Tyrone.
•   Henry Irwin. Born ca 1776. died unmarried 2 Feb 1836 in his 60th year. Captain of the Irish Artillery, then of the Antrim Militia and Treasurer of the County of Antrim. Died unmarried at Gracehill, 2 Feb 1836. Aged 60.
•   William. Captain in the Royal Artillery and died in early life in the West Indies in 1809. Unmarried.
•   James. (Major General James Stuart, C.B.) A.M. of Trinity College, Dublin and had studied for the Bar. Then joined a Native Infantry Regiment in India, where he served with distinction, having held for many years the honourable office of Military Secretary to the governor General and Government of India. Forced to resign this in consequence of failing health and his promotion to General Officer.
For his valuable services in the war appointed a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.



His younger brother, Charles McDaniel Stuart, and his wife Sarah had six children, including Charles George Stuart:
1.   Samuel, born 11 August 1786
2.   Alexander, born 7 October 1788, died 20 May 1789 [6 months]
3.   Jane, born 26 March 1790, died 19 Feb 1794 [four years]
4.   Eliza, born 10 Jan 1792
5.   Charles George, born 19 April 1793
6.   James, born 10 July 1794

I hope this helps!

5
Antrim / Re: James Stuart CB of Gracehill
« on: Tuesday 23 July 19 02:41 BST (UK)  »
Well done on Henry Todd Stuart. It looks as if he wasn't one of James' Stuart's children.
The research I'm quoting was done decades ago, so I don't know the people who did it.
Re the mother of James' Stuart's children - there is a theory:

On 1855 30 May, Major-General James Stuart Married Maria, widow of Lieut Colin Johnstone, 21st Light Dragoons, and d.s.p. 1759.
It is possible that he knew her brother Adam Duffin, and therefore Maria, when he was at Trinity.
Descendant Michael Irwin posed a question as to why he dropped a legal career and went off to India? Suggested that it might have been to get out of some trouble. Inference that he was caught in the wrong bed and left to avoid scandal.
Or possibly in love with Maria Duffin when at Trinity and followed her out to India after she married Colin Johnston?
Either way, as D.G. (Jim) Stuart, his great grandson, put it he ‘must have been quite a lad, as it appears from Birth Registers etc. that he produced three illegitimate sons”. [Also a daughter!] Mother’s name never given on the birth certificates.
Michael Irwin noted ‘within Irwin family tradition there has always been the story of an affair between James Stuart (brother of Caroline Irwin) and the wife of a fellow officer. So maybe the mother of his children was the same Maria Duffin who married Lieut Colin Johnston, but was eventually to marry James Stuart in 1855 after her first husband had died. Little is known of Maria, though the families of Duffin and Lynd are connected. (James Stuart’s mother was Grace Lynd).

6
Antrim / Re: James Stuart CB of Gracehill
« on: Monday 22 July 19 22:50 BST (UK)  »
There is no evidence of a first marriage. Do you know any details?
And it does appear that his children were illegitimate.

The person who provided this material - many years ago - obviously didn't know about Olivia Grace.
I don't know her birth date but I have found out some other info.

Olivia Stuart married George Thomas Gowan at Calcutta, 1854. (Source: Women in India)
She was probably about 21. Her brother was born in 1835, which would make him 19 at this time.
In ‘Narrative of Events Attending the Outbreak of Disturbances and the Restoration of Authority in the District of Moradabad in 1857-1858’ [the Indian Mutiny] by J.C. Wilson Esquire, aka Cracroft Wilson, Judge and Sessions Judge of Moradabad. He makes considerable reference to a Captain Gowan of the 18th Regiment Native Infantry.
Henry Benson Stuart (Olivia’s brother) was in the same regiment in 1854/55. (retired as a captain)
Robertson & Co.'s Bengal almanac, companion, and ... 1853.


EDITED BY C. U. WILSON, M.A., OF THE BENGAL EDUCATION SERVICE,
List of Inscriptions on Tombs or Monuments in Bengal possessing Historical or Archaeological Interest. Calcutta, 1896
St Paul’s Cathedral. Consecrated 1847.
June 1857. George Thomas Gowan.
To the beloved memory of GEORGE THOMAS GOWAN, Captain in the 27th Regiment Bengal Native Infantry, and Commandant 9th Regiment, Oude Irregular Force, second son of Major-General G. E. Gowan, Bengal Artillery, killed at Sitapur, Oude, June 1857, in the 35th year of his age. He fell whilst endeavouring to recall the mutinous sepoys of his own corps to order and obedience.
June 1857. Olivia Grace Gowan and infant
Also to the memory of OLIVIA GRACE, daughter of Major-General James Stuart, Bengal Army, and wife of Captain G. T. Gowan, who, with their infant son, George Boyce Combe, was cruelly murdered by the rebels at Sitapur, June 1857.

Fascinating, but very sad.

7
Antrim / Re: James Stuart CB of Gracehill
« on: Monday 22 July 19 22:46 BST (UK)  »
This is what I've recently learned about James's Stuart's children – from research done some years ago. 'In each case the birth certificate gives the father’s name as Major James H.C. Stuart (initials H.C. unaccounted for). They are said to have been:
1.   Henry Todd, later Major-General Henry Todd Stuart of the Madras Army (retired July 1882). Evidence circumstantial but he was born 3 December 1827. Father a Major at the time. Married 1 August 1854 Mary (surname unknown but born 1 February 1826 and died 18 February 1911) and died 26 October 1910. Nine children!
2.   James Irwin. James Irwin Stuart, born 14 July 1832, Baptised 21 March 1833.
Died aged two years and four months. Burial date, 9 December 1834.
Calcutta.
3.   Henry Benson. Born Calcutta 1835 and apparently named after Col. Benson, a friend of his father. Mother’s name not on baptism certificate. He was brought up by James’s sister Caroline in the Irwin household in Belfast, and educated at Rugby School. His guardian was James Ruddell Todd, 33 Portland Place, London. Nominated for service in the HEICS (Honourable East India Company Service) Army by Sir James Weir Hogg, Bt, of India House and 16 Grosvenor Square, London, with reference from Col Benson. He was an Ensign in the 18th Native Infantry 1854/55, 4th European Regiment Bengal Army and referred to in 1887 as Captain Henry Benson Stuart. He was author of ‘A History of Infantry from the earliest times to the present’ and last heard of in the Argentine in 1893. He married on 17 Nov 1859 at St Saviour’s Church, Paddington, Middlesex, Isabella Louisa, daughter of Joshua Carter of the Bengal Civil Service, and had three children.

8
Antrim / Re: James Stuart CB of Gracehill
« on: Monday 22 July 19 21:44 BST (UK)  »
I am a great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Francis Stewart-Moore, nee Stuart, so that line is my main interest.

I possibly can tell you more about James Stuart CB's children. I'm presuming you're meaning the Major-General who served in India? (There are quite a lot of James Stuarts!).
I'm interested that you're descended from him and that your great-grandfather was his eldest son. What was his name?

9
Antrim / Re: James Stuart CB of Gracehill
« on: Thursday 18 July 19 07:46 BST (UK)  »
I am also researching the Stuarts, for another project.
However, these Stuarts are very close cousins.
Henry Benson Stuart had a sister, Olivia. I don't have a birth date but on FindMyPast I found a marriage entry that is probably hers.
Calcutta, 1854. An Olivia Stuart married George Thomas Gowan.
The name is correct and so is the date - she would have been about 21 at this time.
I can find no entries for Gowan so would be delighted if someone else could.
My understanding is that Olivia, her husband and a child were killed in the Indian Mutiny in 1857.
It would be great to find out some more details... for a start I don't have any details about Olivia and Henry's mother, the wife of Col James Stuart.

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