The Addams-Williams Family, or Llangibby Lost ...

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I should be proofreading the books, but ...

The breakfast-time scoot through ebay turned up two pictures of a pretty girl from Wales, with her birthday and name on the back ... so I had a little look. Odd, that on the back of one photo she was called Eleanor and on the other Francis. Same birthdate ...

Yes, they are twins. The tenth and eleventh children of Mr William Charles Addams Williams, solicitor, of Monmouth, and his wife Julia Ellen (née Gabb).

Hopton, Willie, Julia Helen, Mary Selina, John, Leonard, Jessie Louise, Marcia Caroline, Christopher ...

And, oh dear! Its another broken up family album! Here is sister Julia Helen (1867-1956, Mrs Charles Richard Taylor)

And youngest brother Christopher (b 2 April 1877; d 1944) who went on to become a civil engineer in the Indian public words department

And here is Marcia Caroline (b 1 January 1876; d March 1958, Mrs James E Briggs) ...

and aged 21

This is labelled 'Julia and Jessie Louise' .. Jessie Louise (Mrs William Henry Burden, b 14 April 1878; d 24 August 1952) of Tynmawr Hill, Mon ... farmer's wife.

I wonder if the rest of the "Addams Williams" family are lurking in a box chez "faustino's dad". Mary Selina married a clergyman who became a bishop!  Willie was drowned in a boating accident (10 September 1886) of the River Wye ..

Oh, why the cumbersome name?  The Welsh library clears that up ...

Addams-Williams family, of Llangibby Castle.

Biographical history

The Williams family acquired the Llangibby Castle estate (anciently called Tregrug) following the purchase of the estate by Roger Williams (d. 1585) of Usk in 1544-1545. He was succeeded by his son, Rowland Williams, followed by his son Charles Williams, who became MP for Monmouthshire in 1621. He was succeeded by his son Sir Trevor Williams who played a prominent role in the civil war in Monmouthshire, siding first with the King, then with the Parliamentarians before rejoining the royalists in 1648. The estate remained in the hands of the Williams family until the death of Sir John Williams without male issue in 1739. His daughter Ellen (1724-1781/2), who inherited the estate, married William Addams of Monmouth who assumed the additional surname of Williams.

And there followed an absolute torrent of Monmouthshire A-Ws, confusingly far too often named William or Thomas, and who apart from being sizeable landowners were solicitors or ... you guessed it! clergymen. Groan.

Our family are the children of William Charles (b 1829; d 1916), son of William A-W (1793-1865), son of Thomas (1758-1842) of Usk ... I haven't delved into the lineage from Roger of the Castle, doubtless one of those works that specialises in Gentry of Wales or the like will have done it. Oh, by the way, Llangibby Castle hasn't been an actual Castle for centuries. It is now an estate named for the ruins of the ancient castle. The Williamses seemingly collected ex-castles. In 1899 Alfred AW, the owner of Llangibby paid out over eighteen thousand pounds for the ruins of Usk Castle.

However, although our ex-album is peopled by A-Ws, they are only part of the story. This seems to be an album based on the family of William Charles's wife, Julia Gabb, and here come the Gabbs ...

Tom Gabb was a solicitor in Abergavenny. He married Miss Marcia Willoughby, 20 May 1829, and she bore him five daughters and two sons, before his demise at the age of 53 in 1849 (2 February).  In order: Christopher, Cicely, Selina, Marcia, Julia, Charles and Eleanor. Eleanor was lost at the age of 13, Christopher in Madeira at 21 ... Cicely died a maiden lady of 56 (1887) ... Selina (b 9 July 1833) became a schoolmistress and, at forty, married a tutor, George William Gilmore, who turned missionary. They apparently missioned, from 1899, in Florida, where Selina died at Jacksonville 4 February 1926. They had a daughter, Florence.

Julia, as we know, contributed largely to the Gabblety of the Nations, and Marcia (10) and Charles (4) did likewise ...

Charles went to India and became an officer in the Bombay Cavalry. He married Mary Anne Allen, from Leeds, at Agra, sired Lucy Marcia, Christopher William Willoughby, Mary Selina, and Charles Willoughby .. of whom the odd photo survives in our set:

Lucy (b 16 October 1867; d 1 December 1944)

This one is labelled 'Captain Willoughby Gabb', so I suppose is Charles ...

Charles died at sea, near Malta, on his way to England aged 32. The papers commented that he was the grandson of the late Sir Christopher Willoughby, bart, Baldon House, Oxford. Yeh ...

Of course, it could be his son, also a Captain, who died of a polo accident in Poona ...

His other son became a vicar in Derbyshire.

And then there was Marcia. Mrs Charles Price Lewis. A farmer's wife! Hurrah. 100 acres. 'Of the Mynde, Herefordshire'.

Children ...? Where? When?

Helen Lewis

John Lewis

Leonard Lewis

Willie Lewis

   

Mary Selina

unnamed Lewis

Well, the children all had their photographs taken in Monmouth, so I guess they were born there, but the Lewis family emigrated to South Africa. Marcia died there, in Richmond, Natal 11 February 1932. I see that son John Llewellyn Lewis died there, aged 36, at the family's home at "The Hill" Thornhill  Junction 21 November 1913 .. and husband Charles, aged 87, on 21 October 1926. At his death, the South African authorities listed his surviving progeny ...

Mrs Mary Eleanor Roberts

Charles Christopher Lewis

Arthur Ernest Lewis

Tom Anthony Lewis (d 13 May 1959)

Marcia Emmeline Lewis

Frances Marion Lewis (d 2 October 1960)

Sydney Willoughby Lewis (d 8 January 1964)

there was also a Wilfred Percy Lewis and Marcia Selina (see above) who were deceased as well as John .. ...

Odd. The names don't match the photos ... I wonder why. Have they been labelled wrongly?

"The Hill", Thornhill Junction. Little bit of nostalgia there? "The Hill" had been the home of the wealthy legal Thomas Addams Williams and his family back in Monmouth ...

Ah well, the family spread far and wide, and now I suppose the collection of family photos one of them cherished will be blown to all corners of the globe ..

PS all credit to "faustinos dad": he has indicated which other photos, unnamed, came from the same collection. We need more vendors like him!

London, eh ... but none from Pietermaritzburg ...

There's clearly much more to discover about these families. The Gabbs ... and the castle that isn't a castle... the Reverend who suffered (?) a stinging crush from the Swiss au pair ... the maiden sister who went a-nursing in South Africa ... the Rev who went to preach in Trichnopoly ...

The castle that wasn't a castle

And the little twins who have cost me a day ... 17 December 1909, Eleanor became Mrs Dr Arthur Edward Francis (b 27 May 1874; d 26 December 1957) ... in Calcutta! They came home, of course, and in 1939 I see them living No5 The Glen, Sunninghill ...

Frances, I lose ... 

Maybe I'll have one little last probe after the horses are fed. And then hand this over to Family Treasures Reinstated to take it from here. They did us all proud with the Lee family from Cumberland ..