I am writing on behalf of the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, in pursuit of a tangled tale that involves Henry Delmar Van Toll.
I've just played a hunch and come up trumps with the will of Henry Philip Hope (1774–1839), scion of the Anglo-Dutch banking family of that name and a collector of art and gems who once personally owned the Hope Diamond. He left a great deal of money and some valuable mementos to young Henry Delmar Van Toll and his aunt (or 'aunt'?), Maria Minna Delmar. Hope's will states that Mrs. Delmar was his 'esteemed, beloved and valued' friend for 'upwards of 37 years', but that doesn't preclude the possibility that young Henry was their child, rather than her nephew.
I am writing to everyone I can identify with an interest in the extended family to ask if anyone has found evidence that young Henry's putative father, also Henry Delmar Van Toll, existed at all. It's certainly rather odd that he should carry the name 'Delmar' when Maria Minna Delmar is otherwise identified as the widow of one Colonel Delmar of the Dutch service, and her maiden name seems to be something like 'Vanderplan' (it's not clear on her marriage certificate of 1842, and three native Dutch speakers have yet to decipher it for me).
Hope's will explains how Maria Minna Delmar and Henry Delmar Van Toll both came to be wealthy, but it deepens the mystery of his birth and her early life. In the event, her second (?) husband, Frederick Orlando Tompson Delmar, inherited her money and her name, and on his death endowed a charitable trust that exists to this day.
Any light any other family historian could shed on this story would be appreciated by the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, who are now keeping a watchful eye on the Grade II Listed Tompson Delmar monument, one tangible legacy of this remarkable story.
