Fiddle-de-diddledy dee ... two ladies!

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I like to have my first morning cups of green tea while I read the last night's tennis results. But at this time of year the tennis world gets a bit dreary, as the circuit gets glued down in Indian Wells and Miami, so, instead, I play the ebay game: identify a Victorian photo as I sip. Mrs Goodlake née Curwen was a fun one, but I thought today I would try for someone less 'important'. I picked two labelled ladies who looked as if they would do ...

The vendor of this very fine looking lady has her listed as Harriet M Tipper. I know Victorian handwriting can be a beast to decipher ...

The lady is in fact Miss Harriet Mary PEPPER and -- I've done it again! -- she is a descendant of a most noteworthy family. The Peppers of Ballygarth Castle, County Meath.  On the River Nanny, at Julianstown. The Peppers of Ballygarth fill more than a full column in Burke's Landed Gentry, which is hardly surprising since they had been there since 1660, producing the usual stock of Soldiers, EIC Men, vicars and children to carry on the family name .. I'll just stick to the more recent generations. Thomas Pepper, sometime MP for Kells, had eight sons and four daughters. Most of the sons were for some time in the East India service and army. The fifth son, Charles Hamden Pepper (1784-1848) has the longest entry in Burke:  Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the 27th foot, sixteen years in Italy under Sir John Stuart, and in the Peninsula under the Duke of Wellington. And, of course, Ireland. His wife was Matilda Mary St George, by whom he had the regular run of children, of whom only two sons and two daughters survived. Eldest son Thomas St George Pepper was the heir of Ballygarth and Julianstown and succeeded to the arms and motto of that place on the death of his childless uncle. He lived there up to his death 21 July 1884. Charles (b 1 November 1845) also inherited a vast amount from Uncle George. The two girls, Harriet (b c 1841) and Matilda [Victoria Mary] (b Rathmines 28 June 1842) remained single, and seem to have spent their time between Ireland, Europe and the more splenditious hotels of London. In 1901 the three unwed siblings -- Charles is now a Colonel, commanding the 5th Leinsters -- can be seen at the Westminster Palace Hotel, in 1911 Matilda is missing ...

Harriet actually died in Wiesbaden 7 July 1913. I guess she was there for the waters. She left wills in Ireland in England, which seem to have left everything (24K GBP) to brother Charles. I see Charles taking the waters at Bath in 1927 ...

Let's pick someone who isn't in Burke or Debrett for number three. Here, this lady looks a bit uncomfortable in her Sunday best ...

Name. Lucy E G ??Henry?  Oh dear, three initials. Hmmm. No, its not Henry. Let's try Kerry.

Lucy Eliza Geils KENNY daughter of Thomas Geils Edward Gemmell Kenny and Charlotte Watson.  Oh, dear, four initials. Born 3 January 1856 or is it 1850 in ... oh no! India! I've picked another Indian Army family!  

Geils? Kenny? Geils of Geilston? Yes, they're linked with the Kennys and the Aylmers ... Aylmer is a middle name of half of the eight or nine children of TGEG and Charlotte [Aylmer] nee Wilson ...   look! 1856 marriage at Geilston of Courtenay Thomas William Aylmer Kenny Captain of the 88th Connaught Rangers to Georgina Edith Pauline Kenny daughter of the late Henry Kenny MNI. MNI? Madras Infantry?

Undoubtedly I've found the right family. Am I going to delve into the family history of TGEG? I think its probably enough to just say he's ... oh, goodness! that Courtenay Kenny is on Wikipedia! He emigrated to New Zealand and became a memorable person in Marlborough, just one province (and forty years!) from me! And wait a mo, Courtenay Crow Kenny and Mary née Geils are TGEG's parents. And the memorable Courtenay from Picton (1835-1905) is, therefore, Lucy Eliza's eldest brother! Well! I sure know how to pick 'em! 

I spot TGEG in India's Madras Staff Corps in 1839, and rising up the ranks Captain, Major, Colonel in the 2nd Madras European Light Infantry, while the ranks of his family rose as well. I guess the children were brought up in India. But in 1867 (21 January) the Colonel died at Cuddalore, Tami Nadu, Madras and the family split up. Daughter Amy married the local Reverend John Clough, daughter Alice married Mr Kirk, the chaplain at Aden, eldest brother headed for the green green grass of New Zealand, while the widowed Charlotte chose to go, like so many Indian Army widows, to the then elegant purlieus of Cheltenham, Glos. Which is how I found Lucy: for this photo was taken in Cheltenham.

In the 1871 census mother Charlotte with spinster daughters Charlotte and Lucy can be seen residing in Imperial Square, but some of the family stayed in India, where brother Aylmer died  aged 35. 

In 1881 Amy is home from England with children and sister Grace while husband continues spreading the Christian word in India. Clough became the vicar of Clifton-cum -something, Nottinghamshire where his proselytising days were done. Nine children, 4 servants. It was at Clifton vicarage that Lucy died in 1889 (14 January). She wrote a will, so I daresay her death was not sudden ... only a death-certificate would tell for sure. Clough was her executor. Mother had already gone, the previous year, sister Charlotte lived till 1913. Amy, much much longer ... Grace the longest of all.

Oh, the familytree makers say Lucy was born in 1856, which would make her 16 in this photo. 1850 does seem more likely ...

Well, goodnight, ladies. Been nice knowing you.

Coryphées et courtisanes (3)

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End of episode. For my next, I'll go back to the Le Corsaire B team: Mlles Cellier, Poussin, Troisvalets, Pierron, Villiers, Savel, Rousseau ...

An experienced brigade. I see in 1851 the four last-named already dancing prominently in the Ballet des Nations, and the whole six are featured in Aelia et Mysis in 1853.

Francine [Augustine] Cellier (1839; d Paris, February 1891) did not become a long-term pensionnaire of the Opéra. After some six years, aged only 20 ('très gracieuese, très jolie') , she gave up dancing for acting, studied at the Conservatoire where she took a first prize in comédie, moved to the Gymnase, and then the Théâtre du Vaudeville at the start of an honourable career in which her portrayal of Madame Pommeau in Les Lions pauvres was a highlight.
He greatest 'success', however, was her liaison with George Eugene Haussmann, Prefect of the Seine, the man immortalised by his 'clean up Paris' building campaign. Francine, noted for her intelligence as well as her grace and beauty, apparently put her money into bricks and mortar rather than diamonds.

Laure Poussin 'fille d'un valet de chambre de la grande maison'. I see what I suppose is she in 1851, in Zerline, in Aelia and Mysis in 1853, in Orfa and Marco Spada in 1857, in Sacountala in 1858. Dupeuty marked her as 'très jolie, surtout du mérite'. However, he also noted that she didn't seem to be going forward. Actually, she went north. In 1859 she supported Ferraris at St Petersburg where she was marked as 'pas encore une grande danseuse mais promet beaucoup' ... in 1862 she was still there .. in 1867 she was mentioned as 'retired'.

Elise Troisvalets, of the same class as Poussin, proved much more durable. 'Une jolie brune', for more than a decade, she was one of the most frequently seen soloists -- one of the 'big four' or the 'Quatre filles Aymon' -- on the Opéra stage in both ballets and opera ballets. I see her in 1853, in Aelia et Mysis, in Gemma, La Corsaire, Orfa, Marco Spada, as Pierette in Le Marché des Innocents, in the Gitanilla of Il Trovatore, in La Muette de Portici, Herculaneum, La Magicienne up to 1865, when she quit the company. She crossed to the Italiens, visited London to appear at the Italian opera in La Harem, but by 1867 she, like the rest of the 1850s team was listed as retired. So I guess she was not the Mlle Troisvalets who featured in the dances of Le Tour du Monde en 80 Jours at the Cirque in 1876. In 1893, Madame (!) Troisvalets was still listed in the Almanach des Artistes of the year. 70 rue, Château d'Eau. I think the Madame might have been honorific. Elise is listed in the Jolies Filles de Paris, and appears in the odd anecdote... and I have also found her in the 1881 census of Brompton, UK, 'aged 32, born Paris, artist'!

Elise Troisvalets and Alexandrine Simon

(?Clara) (?Caroline) Pierron began a little before  the two last named girls. I see her in already featured in Le Violon du diable and L'Enfant prodigue in 1850, as Euphèmie in Vert-Vert, and lastly in 1856, when she crossed the channel to feature at the Italian opera.
The reason I have a ? before her prénom is that I think it is an error which has become a 'fact'. She is only, to my knowledge, billed as 'Pierron' at the Opéra, often preceded in a list by 'Caroline' (comma). The 'Caroline' before the comma is, of course, our friend Caroline Lasciat. And just to muddle things further, there is a slightly younger Mlle Pierron, variously called Justine or Caroline (d 1924), who became a long-time dugazon and later character lady at the Opéra-Comique. However, the British press calls her 'Clara'. Or is that a comma job too? Anyway, it seems as if she might have stayed a while in Britain. In 1859-61, the Pyne and Harrison Opera at Covent Garden features 'Mlle Pierron' as second star danseuse....
There's a bit more work to do yet, sorting out 'Mlle Pierron'.

Adèle Villiers (Mme Villiers-Petit) was a much admired dancer, through twenty years on the Opéra stage. She started in the corps de ballet, by 1851 was getting featured moments (Zerline, Ballet des Nations, Le Rossignol, and within a few seasons was performing pas de deux and with the 'big four'. In 1856, although sh'ed been dancing some time above her 'classement', she was officially promoted from coryphée to sujet, and for the next fourteen years appeared as a practically permanent member of the team of sub-star ballerinas in both ballets (Le Corsaire, La Vivandière, Mario Spada, La Sylphide, Diavolina, Sacountala, Coppélia, Néméa, Les Elfes). She replaced Ferraris in the star role Pierre de Medicis, crossed to the Comédie Française to dance a pas de deux, danced Winter in the Seasons ballet in Les Vêpres Siciliennes, in Le Prophète, Dion Giovanni, La Juive, La Muette de Portici and Faust, and seems to have visited London's Princess's Theatre in 1859.
The authorial gentlemen of clubland don't mention her much, for she had one fault 'beaucoup de talent, ménagère de premier order'. First-class housewife. Madame Petit was married.

Adele Villiers 'une vraie danseuse'

Maria Savel probably served the Paris Opéra, in a dancing capacity, almost as long as anyone. I see her in 1848, a member of the corps de ballet in L'Apparition, but she very soon moved up in grade though L'Enfant prodigue, Zerline, Ballet des Nations, Le Prophète, Vert-Vert, Giselle, Aelia et Mysis, a sujet in Gemma, La Corsaire, Sacountala ... in 1857 she was 'une des abbesses applaudies de Robert le diable' . She is listed as a sujet in the cahiers of 1860, danced in Le Papillon in 1860, Alceste in 1861, Giselle in 1862  ... I see her in La Maschera in 1864 ... but she is part of that 'retired' list in 1867. Her fine performances were duly noted, but of her personal life I can find nothing...

Léontine Rousseau was another of the slightly older guard, whose engagement went back to the 1840s. In 1857, she was summed up as 'Déjà coryphée depuis longtemps et toujours jolie, talent correcte, propre, jamais hors ligne, jamais médiocre' (1857). In 1859 she danced the role of 'le jeune elfe' in Les Elfes, in 1863 she was still there, described as 'plantureuse', in 1867 she was said to be 'retired'.

These Corsaire ladies, however, did not have the whole of the 1850s sujetdom to themselves. Lacoste, Luigia Taglioni (Mme Fuchs), Astory, Delacquit, the two Laurents, 'Mathilde' (which may have been Marquet 2), Olimpia Priora , Nadège Bagdanoff, of the newly fashionable Russian tribe, Fournier, Caterina Baratte, Carlotta Morando, Adeline Théodore, Eugénie Schlosser, Irma Carabin, Henriette Mathé, Françoise-Virginie Mauperin, Pauline Mercier ('demi-mondaine, mistress of Vicomte Paul Daru of the Jockey Club'), our pal Clara Pilvois, Annette Mérante, Augustine Stoikoff, Léontine Beaugrand .. I'll have missed heap, but let's go with some of these ...

Mlle Baratte

Irma Carabin

Irma Carabin

Francoise-Virginie Mauperin

Augustine Stoikoff

Annette Mérante

Annette Mérante

Pauline Mercier

Pauline Mercier in Le Diable à quatre (1862)

Eugénie Schlosser

Mlle Schlosser

Olympia Priora was apparently 20 years old when she came to the Opéra to compound the Italianisation of the ballet. She came from Bologna as a 'prima ballerina', but her employ in Paris, though much enjoyed, wasn't quite at star level. Between 1851-3 she led the support team behind behind Adelaide Plunkett, Régina Forli et al, appearing as Blanche in Vert-Vert et al to much praise for her 'talent incontestable' and 'les bravos de la salle entière', before moving on to fresh successes in Vienna, and then round Europe.

Most of the foreign or 'foreign' dancers who appeared at the Opéra were top-of-the-bill names -- Rosati, Fabbri, 'Ferraris' (Marie-Louise Eloy, femme Kowalski), Cerrito, Couqui, Marie Petipa ...

Marie Petipa

but some did join the company at a slightly lesser level:

Luigia Taglioni was another Italian visitor. A relation (aunt?) of the more famous Marie Taglioni, and a member of a very dancing family. I presume it was she who married the ballet master Fuchs, and ended up as the Comtesse Dubourg. She seems to have appeared at the Opéra for the first time in 1848 in Nisida supporting Mdlles Plunkett and Fuoco, before moving on after 1854. Dubourg died in a hunting accident ...

Piedmontaise dancer Carlotta Morando arrived in Paris, having already made something of a name in Trieste (1849), Milan (1850-1) ....

Caterina Beretta (or Baretta) (b Milan 8 December 1839?; d Milan 1 January 1911) has made the reference books, as after her dancing career was over she went on to become ballet-mistress at St Petersburg and at La Scala. The myth surrounding her has her birth date varying from 8 December 1839 to 11 November 1828 to 1840 (NYPL). Her career at the Opéra was of only three seasons, in which she was a well-liked sujet, after which she was allegedly paid a large sum to buy her contract out to make space for the Russian dancer Zenaide Richard (Mdlle Zina).

Zenaide [Josefovna] Richard (aka Mlle Zina, Zina Mérante) (b Moscow 1832-d Courbevoie, 13 September 1890)

From Russia, also came Nadejda Bagdanoff, a pupil nevertheless of St Léon. She appeared as a sujet in the earlier 1850s. She seems to have made her official debut dancing Cerrito's role in La Vivandiere in 1851 and was judged 'promising'. The Italians press sniffed 'non manca ni di leggerezza, ni di forza, però manca di bon gusto'. I find several mentions of her in the various memoirs ... 'Nadejda Bagdanoff whose peculiar manner of appropriating to herself the entire stage did not obtain for her the good will of her companions of the dance. She was even accused of being a secret diplomatist sent over by the court of St Petersbourg..'. George Augustus Sala tells unappreciative tales of her in his Russian notes. She was better-liked at home, whither she was, apparently, obliged to flee because of the Crimean War. She appeared at Saint Petersbourg in support of Cerrito. In 1858 she danced Giselle in Berlin and subsequently made herself a reputation in central Europe. She seems to have retired in 1867 and died in St Petersburg 15 December 1897.

Léontine Beaugrand

I've gone off on a sidetrack. So, back to the 1850s. Well, maybe tomorrow.

Mlle Céline Moïse, One of the Moïses sisters, dancers at the Opéra ...?

Here, alas, my computer took an unfortunate overdose of lamb juice and died, taking with it the screeds of notes I had amassed on the remainder of the ladies of the ballet.

Had it survived you would have had the stories of the sisters Louise and Eugenie Fiocre, Elise Parent ...

Elise Parent

Mlle Morlot

Mlle Leroy, coyphée through the 1860s and 1870s

and here is 'Mdlle Blanche of the corps de ballet'  1862

Ah! The gentleman who owned (and inscribed) these cards clearly had a considerable collection ... I think these English ladies are from the Porte Saint-Martin ..

A photo with a high and mighty story ...

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I was wandering through ebay yesterday, scouting out 19^thcentury French ballerinas photographed by Disderi of Paris, and I came upon this rather elegant lady. Mrs Goodlake otherwise Miss Curwen. Curwen, ah! Memories of childhood piano music! Well, I was a bit fagged with day three of pointe shoes and gauze, so I thought I’d take time out to discover why a nice ordinary English lass was getting photographed in Paris.

 Well, I quickly discovered that she wan’t officially English, and she was far from ordinary. First step, I hied me to the Free BMD site, which informed me that Miss Margaret Jane Curwen married Gerald Littlehales Goodlake in 1870 (5 November). Well he shouldn’t be hard to track down with a name like that! And he wasn’t. And he was very far from ‘ordinary’. He won the VC, to start with. Son of Thomas Mills Goodlake, ‘from the well-known Letcombe Regis family’, of Wadley House, Faringdon. 

Findagrave rendered up a photo of Gerald’s grave, and of him. And a neat biographical sketch by William Bjornstad:

British Army Lieutenant General, Crimean War Victoria Cross Recipient. He received the award for his actions at Inkerman, Crimea (now part of the Russian Federation) on October 28, 1854 as a brevet major in the Coldstream Guards of the British Army. Born at Wadley, in Faringdon, Oxfordshire, England, he was commissioned in June 1850 as a lieutenant in the 21st Regiment of Foot of the British Army and the following year he transitioned into the Coldstream Guards. While serving in the Crimean War, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards and participated in various engagements, including the Battles of Alma, Inkerman, Balaclava, and Sevastopol. He later achieved the rank of lieutenant general and died in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England at the age of 57. In addition to the Victoria Cross, he received the French Legion of Honor and the Ottoman Empire Order of the Medjidie, among other military awards. His Victoria Cross citation reads: "On 28 October 1854 at Inkerman, Crimea, Major Goodlake was in command of a party of sharpshooters which held Windmill Ravine against a much larger force of the enemy, killing 38 (including an officer) and taking three prisoners. He also showed conspicuous gallantry on a later occasion when his sharpshooters surprised a picquet and seized the knapsacks and rifles of the enemy." His Victoria Cross is on display at The Guards Regimental Headquarters at Wellington Barracks, London, England. His letters to home while serving during the Crimean War were compiled in a book by Michael Springman entitled "Sharpshooter in the Crimea: The Letters of Captain Gerald Goodlake V.C." (2005).

And gracious, he has a wikipedia entry! Mother was the daughter of a baronet, so they’re all in Debrett. I could have guessed. Doesn’t mention his wife. And yet, I was to find, Margaret’s lineage was just as impressive as her husband’s. If not more so.

Margaret is buried in the same grave as Gerald. 34 years later. But findagrave was a bit iffy on her details, and they didn’t have a photo, so I posted this one. And set out to find more about her. That wasn’t hard either! 

Margaret was one of THE Curwens. The Curwens of Workington Hall, Cumbria. Lords of the Manor and all it surveyed for many centuries. The Curwens ran rather dry in the C18th and the sole heiress to the manor was like to lose the famed name in marriage. But, in a reversal of the usual process, when Isabella Curwen married John Christian, he took her name and armaments and became the ‘head of a family with which few of England’s nobility could compare, either for antiquity of lineage or extent of inheritance’. The Curwens ruled benignly over their lands and tenants – some splendid tales emerge from the journals of the time: a tale of John ‘the celebrated agriculturist’ paying his workers in food and clothing rather than cash, or in famine year, diverting the potatoes usually steamed and destined to feed his horses, to the villagers – and the marriage was fruitful in children. Their second son, William (b 1789; d 30 April 1822), was designed to the church, and became rector of Harrington, and before his premature death wed Margaret Ewing (d 14 May 1871) and gave birth to Robert Ewing Curwen (1816-1854). Which brings us to our Margaret. Robert was her father.

When she was baptised 1 November 1837 at Ketteringham, Norfolk, her father’s ‘abode’ was listed as Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. And in the 1881 census she says she was born in Glen Kens. So I guess that makes her officially Scots. Robert Curwen (‘sometime of Dallas Lodge, Forres’) evidently spent much time in Scotland, but it was much time of a little time. He died at Aviemore, Inverness-shire aged just 38 in 1854.

His extremely wealthy and extremely social widow headed south, daughter in tow, and the following year they were presented at court by Lady Cranworth. Margaret was seen dancing in the Quadrilles of the endless balls of the aristocracy (the participants in which were ruthlessly listed in the press), and took part in their amateur dramatics, Mother hosted balls, soirées musicales and concerts at her home at 42 Grosvenor Place, and the pair were seen eating and dancing everywhere in town and country, not to mention the ‘spots’ of France, in the houses of royalty and the titled, over the next fifteen years. Until Margaret married. So I guess it was during those years that the photo was taken. The inscription seems to have been an afterthought. 

Margaret, with her husband, continue to appear in the lists of those present at the same royal, military, musical and aristocrasocial gathering as before. He is aide de camp to the Queen. 6 January 1886, Mary Ann Curwen died at Cecil House, Brighton. She left a vast 172,000 pounds to Margaret, entailed to her eventual children (it was fairly obvious by now, at nearly 50, that she wasn’t going to have any) or to a mass of hospitals, topped by St George’s Hospital. I wonder if the Ewing Ward is still there.

Just four years later, the Colonel died, at their longtime home, The Fishery Mansion, Denham, Uxbridge. But Margaret lived on, nearly a quarter of a century .. I see her at Denham in 1891 with a butler, two maids, a laundrymaid, a manservant ..  cottages for the estate manger, gardener, gamekeepers. In 1911 she is at her other home, 36 Chester Square, with just eight servants … She died at her Buckinghamshire home 1 January 1924 and her will was executed by a spinster neighbour in Chester Square. 

Which leads me to the single oddity in this tale of the little lady in the photograph. In her marriage announcement, she firmly says ‘only child of Robert Ewing Curwen’. And mother leaves her all her 'millions'. But the amateur genealogists would have it otherwise. They credit Robert with a second child, a son bearing his father’s name. And the said Robert jr says on his wedcert that he is the son of REC sr. Now, this REC is a very respectable man. The doyen of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, a justice of the peace, plenty of wealth, plenty of servants … he died at the age of 93, in 1934 leaving a bundle of children and money. Odd.

Back to ballerinas.