Mervyn Tulloch from Canada has recently sent me family trees of the extensive Tulloch family from Northmavine, Shetland which complement my researches in my Tree 24A relating to the Foyles and the Tullochs.

Thanks to Mervyn’s researches we now have links for Christina Foyle (whose husband Ronald Batty was my mothers second cousin) going back 6 generations to Laurence Tulloch born about 1749. I will update Tree 24A in due course.

Mervyn’s tree has over a thousand members.

So with Jacky Fogerty’s 4000 strong Australian tree this has been a very productive month.

Here is more information from exchanges of emails between Jacky Fogerty and me and a picture of the Von Ditges’ family schloss

Your research is  very impressive indeed, and I see you have perfected the skill of hunting missing pieces of information down by lateral means and in unexpected places, so vital to the historian. My Australian research was based on the excellent records and treasury of photos and documents kept by my grandmother and parents. The English research I did myself, but 30 years ago I did a doctorate in 19th and 20th century British social history, so I am fairly comfortable with the sources, if not very adept at the internet side of things.

In Suffolk FAA and Catherine Rowland lived at Stanstead Hall, Hitcham, and Catherine later lived with Alton, Henrietta and Marion at Mill House, Hartest Mill, Bury St Edmunds. I don’t know whether FAA Rowland was still living when they moved there and I don’t know what other places they lived in, my mother only remembers the Mill House address. I think the family left Mill House for more modest accommodation when Stanley died. Stanley did a couple of ink sketches of Mill House which my parents have framed – I scanned them and copied them on the tree but now cannot find my original scans to send you. I think Mill House may now be a furniture store of some sort, it seemed to be when I last googled it.

I have attached a photo of Catherine Rowland nee Laflin reading, probably at Stanstead Hall, and one taken by Stanley Rowland of Mill House and Hartest Mill. Also photos of FAA Rowland’s children (l to r: Alton, Henrietta, Percy, Stanley (front, in sailor suit), Ethel Theresa and Marion), PF Rowland with his wife Jessie and the three eldest children (Marion, Frances and Philip), PF Rowland’s entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography mentioning his parents’ names, and baptism records from the London Register of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials for PF and his brother Alton.

I do not have any hard evidence that Alton died childless, although only he and his wife are listed in the household in the 1911 Quebec Census. However they were in correspondence with my grandmother and she was very definite that Alton had no children and nor did any of PF Rowland’s other siblings, which was why she was expecting the (non-existent) Rowland money when the last sister, Henrietta, died.

In answer to your earlier question about  Marjorie Rowland  She changed her name to deed poll to Mrs Marjorie Rowland and her son David’s birth was registered as David Miles Wisely Rowland.

My mother was born Alison Ruth Milfull, mother Marian Laflin Rowland, and Marion was the eldest daughter of PF Rowland.  As you say, my mother is your third cousin.

Also I think I was being a bit glib about Philip Hastings Rowland, PF Rowland’s only son. Although it is true that he felt under pressure to do well academically like his father, he left school to go jackarooing immediately after his mother died horribly and in great pain from breast cancer.

I am attaching an old family tree chart by my cousin Peter, which does not include children born in the last ten years. I cannot work out how to convert it to a different format to edit it, and unfortunately Ancestry does not let me print out a tree diagram going downwards that is wide enough to fit everyone in, although it does a fine upwards (pedigree) view. Please ignore the last two sisters of PF Rowland at the very bottom of this chart, Ethel Theresa was a single person, not two people Ethel and Theresa (at this point we had not done any research on the English part of the family).

If Brian Rowland and family are in Australia, we would love to meet them. Looking forward to keeping in touch – thanks so much again, we are all so pleased about your research and making contact with the English family again.

By the way, did you know that Rev William John and FAA’s sister Alice Marion Rowland Hart wrote a long, interesting and amply illustrated book called Picturesque Burma about her travels there in 1895? I did not know this until I started looking for Rowland family publications and found a reprint at betterworldbooks.com. They are certainly an interesting family.

Jacky Fogerty

Thanks for sending through your Ancestry tree-immensely impressive-did you put it together and research all the documents yourselves? My researches are positively amateur by comparison. Also Australians seem to have supersize families-probably because you have so much space there! By all means update your trees with information from mine.

I think my search for continuation of the male line in Australia is likely to be still-born-both John Neville and David Miles Wisely are getting on in years. You will see from my tree that I have a first cousin, Brian Rowland who emigrated to Australia-I will check out his whereabouts from his sister Sally who lives in Norwich near my daughter Tessa. Also my son Ben and family now live near Sudbury in Suffolk-do you have FAA’s address there?

Richard Rowland

Dear Richard, How lovely to hear from you in person! Thanks so much for taking time to write such a helpful email.

And thank you again for your wonderful book, my uncle and mother (who are in their seventies) were thrilled, and my uncle of course was particularly excited about having some concrete information at last on the German connection.  My mother’s name is Alison Fogerty and she would be very pleased if you would sign a book for her.

I also noticed when I was tracking down the Rowlands that the Lewisham Local History and Archives Centre had a slightly inaccurate information box called “The Rowland Family and Champion Hall” on their website. It states that William Rowland was a barber, rather than his son. I emailed them mentioning this and asking if they had more information about Rosenthal or Henrietta Ditges and they said they had no more information on the Rowlands, but would be grateful for anything I could send. I then found out about your book, so I sent them the web address along with some jpg images of a few documents I already had. I am sure that if you wanted to provide them with a copy of your book, they would be very grateful and it would help researchers in future. Their email is localstudies@lewisham.gov.uk

I will certainly post you some information about Frederick Arthur Alexander Rowland and family, but below is a brief synopsis. I will also invite you to our tree on Ancestry. I understand if you prefer not to use Ancestry, however there is a tremendous amount of documentation attached to it (BDM index references, baptism, birth, marriage, death certificates, photos, documents, letters etc) which I cannot possibly send.

Frederick Arthur Alexander Rowland was admitted as a solicitor on Dec 20 1871 and mostly practised from 14 Clement’s Inn. He seems to have fallen out with his family in 1869 when he married a servant girl, Catherine Laflin, daughter of Suffolk farm bailiff Abraham Laflin, at St Clement Dane’s (23 August 1869, bride’s name is given as Kate Laflin). We are very grateful that he did do the decent thing and marry her, as Percy Fritz Rowland, my great-grandfather, was born very soon afterwards.

He did however, at least in the early 1870s, act in some cases for the family, eg in the sale of Rowland assets, and I have some advertisements and legal proceedings attached to my tree on Ancestry.

FAA Rowland and Catherine had three boys and three girls, but the family was very quickly in financial trouble. FAA seems to have inherited his family’s exuberance and wide ranging interests without the finances to support them. He may also have incurred litigation costs as he was personally involved in at least two cases, one relating to alleged fraud by a clerk for the solicitors acting for Alexander William Rowland’s estate, of which I have a transcript, and another as plaintiff in relation to the estate of Anton Leo, for which I have recently put in a request with UK National Archives.

He is first in the London Gazette relating to a liquidation of his assets in relation to bankruptcy proceedings on 19 August 1879, but seems to have avoided bankruptcy on that occasion. There may have been other issues in the intervening period which I have not been able to track down, apart from a couple of partnership dissolutions, but on 12 April 1894 he was declared bankrupt. At that point he permanently disappears from the Law Lists (and from the Census as you say until 1911, when he is a retired solicitor living in Suffolk; in 1901 he is elusive but Catherine is visiting her sister in law Alice Marion Hart). He does not seem to have a probate record, although his wife does, which suggests to me that he never got his affairs onto a sound footing again.

My own theory is that his wife was quietly given money by FAA Rowland’s siblings to support the family. They certainly seem to have traded down into progressively more modest rented country houses in Suffolk as time went on. My great grandfather PF Rowland was able to go to Oxford on scholarship but the other children do not seem to have done this. Stanley, Marion and Henrietta worked as teachers until their retirement and did not marry. Alton emigrated to Canada, married Emma Holland in Quebec and died there childless. I understand he was an accountant and the 1911 Quebec Census bears this out. Ethel Theresa, who was called Cissie, was said to be somewhat feeble-minded and subject to nerves. My understanding is that she did not marry but retired to a rest home/asylum, and in 1911, ET Rowlands born Hampton Middlesex in the correct year, is listed at the City of London Asylum and Hill House, as having been a typist.

Frederick Arthur Alexander’s male line has not run out, but I think it is down to one thread. His son Percy Fritz Rowland had one son, Philip Hastings Rowland and three daughters, Marian, Frances and Joan. There were hopes that Philip would be a great scholar but the expectation was too much for him and he went off after his Junior Certificate to be a jackeroo (horseman on remote properites) and farmer, later qualifying as an engineer and serving in the air force in Morotai in World War 2. Philip had one son, John Neville Rowland, and one daughter, Helen Beatrice Rowland. John Neville Rowland lives in Tasmania. He has three daughters and grandchildren, but we have been out of touch with that side of the family, so I will just check with his niece that he has not married again and produced sons.

Percy Fritz Rowland’s daughters, on the other hand, had children, almost all of whom have had their own children and grandchildren and some great grandchildren. Frances Rowland’s only grandson is named David Miles Wisely Rowland, as his mother (now deceased) changed her name by deed poll to Marjorie Rowland.

We have always been very proud of the Rowland connection, although my grandmother, who was a bit of a snob, always spoke of them as a landed family with an “estate” in Suffolk and had expectations that she would inherit the (as it turned out non-existent) Rowland money when her aunts died.  We had no idea about the association with Rowland’s Macassar Oil or FAA Rowland’s financial troubles or his wife’s humble background until we started researching them. Ironically the research was mostly to track down the elusive “German grandmother” that my grandmother spoke of but had no more information about. We are very grateful that, thanks to your work, we now know so much more about the Rowlands and also the German connection.

I have attached photos of FAA Rowland’s entry from the Bankruptcy Register from the UK National Archives (BT 293) , and the original bankruptcy petitions in 1894 (B 11/11) with more details: the full file references are on my tree. There is also a listing from the London Gazette relating to this bankruptcy and the marriage certificate for FAA Rowland and Kate Laflin. I have not attached the baptism or other records for the children because I copied them so long ago I cannot immediately find them on the system, but they are all in the London Baptisms, Marriages and Burials and images are copied on our tree.

If you come across any photos at all of FAA Rowland or his siblings (apart from the very well documented Dame Henrietta Barnett), I would be very grateful for a copy. Thank you so much.

Jacky Fogerty

The wonders of the internet!

How good to hear from you- I suppose you came across the website whilst idly browsing

I had drawn a blank on Frederick Arthur Alexander Rowland and his progeny-the reference to his daughter Ethel and her husband MJ Bassett came from my father but I don’t know where he got it.I knew nothing about PF.

I knew FAA was a solicitor in London, but he seemed to avoid Census returns, and as you will gather from my book his brother (my great grand-father) William John made a watchword of having nothing to do with his family. So any information, photos etc would be interesting.Also of course Percy Fritz and his family. It would be good if you could send me a printed copy of your tree. I will be able to update my trees on line.

So it looks as though the Rowland male line from FAA has run out.

The von Ditges stuff is interesting. Micky Watkins a biograther of Dame Henrietta Barnett is also interested in Henriette von Ditges, her mother-she learnt she was a catholic-but other than what I have included in my book, I have no more information on her. I will try to visit the “family” schloss in Honnef-you will see from my book that my great uncle Sir Philip Gibbs failed to do this.

I will be pleased to send you a copy of the book -what is your mother’s name-I can dedicate it to her.

Richard Rowland

Henriette von Ditges’ family schloss at Bad Honnef on the Rhine near Bonn in 1910, now a Business School

I have heard from Jacky Fogerty in Australia about Percy Fritz Rowland who emigrated to Australia- he was the son of Frederick Alexander Arthur Rowland, the brother of my great-grandfather William John Rowland.

See Jacky’s comments about the “family” schloss in Germany. I will hope to visit this, and also include details of the Australian connection in my tree.

Last week-end I attended the wedding of Graeme Garvin, the son of Della Noel (nee Pollard) my first cousin to Marie Hudec. So an update to the Pollard tree.

Also Colin Pollard is working on extending the Pollard Tree back-wards in time. He is going to work on these changes in Excel so they can be down-loaded to the trees.

Whilst staying with my cousin Colin Pollard in Sudbury, Ontario, he showed me his file of papers on his great great grandfather Capt George Sebastian Avron (1828-?murdered 1870) and his ship the Albion. This would have traded in the North Atlantic, South Pacific, East Indies, Bermuda, Mauritius and the Red Sea, probably carrying railway materials outward and spices homewards. He worked for the Bristol City Line of Steamships Ltd.

He was the father of Edith Mary, who married John Taylor Mawle in Banbury; they were the parents of Elsie Mary who married Arthur Reginald Cowdery; so Capt Avron  is also my great great grandfather.

Colin has a painting of Capt Avron and another thought to be of the Albion by RB Spencer. It hung for many years over our grandmother’s fireplace.

I have added a new comment to Chapter 2

I received from the Shetland Family History Society an extract from the Shetland Times of August 1932 recording a visit by the Foyles to find their Tulloch ancestors

I have also heard from Marianne Cuenoud Golay in Lausanne that the photo I have attributed to Barbie and Helen Barbezat in Chapter 4 is probably from a generation earlier!

Family Book Lunch Speech

First of all Nick and I would like to welcome you to La Capanna, Cobham’s celebrated premier restaurant.

A family lunch of this diversity and magnitude is I imagine a first for all of us; some 60 representatives of the families covered in my book aged from three years to 80 years; some of us have not met for many years, and some not at all; so please don’t let the excitement get to your heads. Bernardo our Maitre D has requested the Ladies to KEEP CALM and the Gents not to chuck the bread rolls and the Children to be an example to their elders.

The families covered in the book are;

On my maternal Grandmother’s side the Mawles-thanks to Mary Cherry as their historian. Also welcome to Jean Harris. daughter of Auntie Gwen who, as a typical Mawle had an ongoing war of attrition with another Alpha female, my grandmother Elsie Mary. And thanks to Miriam for helping me get in touch with family members

Also welcome to Hamish GS who has come back from Mongolia for the lunch.

And to Michael Mawle who I have not seen for some 60 years

On my mother’s side are the Cowderys. My mother’s sister Margaret has come from Canada for the lunch, which she said must be a once of a lifetime event; she must be our guest of honour.  Margaret has put together the Cowdery and Pollard trees. Also welcome to her son David and his wife Annette who have come from Austria in secret to surprise her. There are also some Cowderys coming from Australia-they hope to arrive a bit later!

On my wife Cherry’s side are the Adcocks who emigrated to South Africa in the 19^th century, and are now in Kenya and Abu Dhabi. Rachel and her family are here to represent them. They are planning to emigrate to Austrialia .

On my father’s side are the Gibbs. My treatment of them has been cursory since Martin has already published his own Blockbusters Anecdotal Evidence and Seven Generations of Gibbs, which must have sold out by now. And also a book about his maternal grandfather. We all ask where he is going next. Maybe his son Philip will take up the baton. Possibly with illustrations by his brother Patrick. Special thanks to Martin for guiding me in the highways and byways of genealogy.

My father and his third cousin Stella Layton who was the Aunt of my fourth cousin Mike Rowland representing what I call the Sussex branch of the family  had  worked on the Rowland tree back to the mid 19^th Century but Martin got me into Ancestry.co.uk, and the Dictionary of National Biography which took me back another 2 or 3 generations. I then relied on the Church of Latterday Saints to take me back to the 16^th century. Others will have to carry on the research.

Also at the Rowland table are Bob and Penny Astbury, my first cousin, who put together the family trees in a readable format on Excel, to whom I am very grateful. When you come to read the book-I will be signing copies after lunch, you will look in vain for these trees-I have decided to keep them on line viewable via our family website. This way comments and corrections can be made, and the trees and our family history can become truly dynamic.

Nick has arranged a four course lunch for us; since the menu is fixed it will be easy for you to move to different tables after each course to meet other members of the extended family with your glass and napkin .If everyone moves no point.

So I will finish with a toast-so please raise your glasses to the Extended Family.