Thirteen daughters ...

A nice, cool grey morning, with a drizzle of rain. Sunday. I don't feel like doing anything intelligent, and the Olympics ar'n't yet worth watching -- deckquoits on ice, qualifying round of skijump -- 50 to qualify out of 53? -- so I decided to play the "who do you think you are" game.

It was supposed to be a quickie, but it spread a bit ... why? Because the lady in the photo had thirteen daughters (and two sons)... 

This is Mrs Edward Clark. Born Adeline Mary Scott, eldest daughter of a Sydenham stockbroker, Henry L Scott (Godstone House, West Hill). The baby is her fourth daughter, Nellie ...

Adeline (b Devizes 1843; d Sydenham 22 August 1929) married (4 May 1865) within the Sydenham stockbroking world, and she and Mr Clarke settled down in Sussex Villa, then at Eardley House, Beckenham, and finally, at child six, at Lapsewood ... the number of their household staff grew too, as Mr Clark seemed to do well at broking stock ..

I chased up the children incredulously ... first of all, seven daughters in a row, then, at last, a son. Four more daughters, and then .. twins ...

I leave aside the sons for the moment to look at those thirteen girls. Well, I haven't been able to follow them all: I lose no2 Ethel Mary (b Sussex Villas, 26 June 1867), and no10 Christine Janet (b Lapsewood 28 January 1880).

No5, Frances Alice died as an infant, no13 Sylvia Joan (b Lapsewood 11 March 1884) as a little child, and Katharine Annie (b Beckenham 1868) at the age of 18 (7 May 1887).

Four of the remaining seven girls remained single: no1 Adeline Maud (b Sussex Villa 6 February 1866; d 5 October 1843), our 'Nellie' otherwise no4 Helen Gertrude (b Eardly House 1870; d Dorset 26 September 1962), no8 Florence Ida (b Lapsewood 19 July 1877; d 2 November 1939), and twin Olive Marion (b 2 January 1883; d 1949) who was, or became, 'mentally incapacitated'.

So, just four of the thirteen girls wed, and, with the boys, carried on the family.

no6 Eveline Louise (b Lapsewood 23 September 1872; d Brentwood 17 October 1917) married William James Graham (9 June 1903) 'gentleman' of Sydenham. She doesn't seem to have had children, and in 1911 she is a patient in a private nursing home.

no7 Dora Septima (b Lapsewood 10 July 1874; b Bromley 5 June 1957) married legal man Colin Reed-Davies who became Chief Justice of the Bermudas, got knighted, making Dora a Lady. They had two children, but son Mervyn hung himself in his rooms at Cambridge University, at the age of 20, for reasons undivulged. Their daughter did not marry.

no9 Lucy Angela (b Lapsewood 29 September 1878; d 5 March 1943) had a false start. She married a soi-disant civil serviceman named Darent Henry McDonald who turned out to be unsatisfactory, and traded him in for a divorced bank manager, George Austin Adolphus who gave her four children.

no11 Violet Howard (b Lapsewood 20 September 1881; d Paddington 31 December 1962) married Mr George Herbert Higgins (31 May 1906), and had two sons and a daughter. Daughter Violet became Mrs George Ridley Debenham.

Untimely death did not leave the male line alone either. Farmer Edward George Urling (b 19 December 1875; d 3 August 1951) had two wives, a son and a daughter. Son, Edward Keats Urling Clark was killed in the war, leaving an infant son. Daughter Doris remained unmarried.

Twin son Henry Laurence Urling Clark (b Lapsewood 2 January 1883; d Reigate 15 April 1975) followed his father's traces in the stockbroking world, and became Chairman of the Council of the Stock Exchange and, in 1950, Sir Henry. I see lots of Urling Clarks around the web (latterly with a hyphen!) so I guess they come from Henry and his wives and from Edward's son ...

Henry lost a 24 year-old son, David, at El Alamein in 1942.

And another to suicide ...

Quite a family.

Well, that's what curiosity an one photo can lead to ... I'm sure there's more ...

The original of the photo (for sale) can be found on e-bay at

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275144409929?hash=item400fe28349:g:eWYAAOSwoR9h9R1S

A week later, this turned up.  No surname, but I recognised the christain names ...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284654408375?hash=item4246b992b7:g:bYUAAOSwEVdfqn3L