Yes it is well done everyone I have been trying to keep up on my phone, fascinating.

http://discovery.nationalarchives.go...ils/r/C9302854

[C1806 H5]. Short title: Hunter v Andrews. Document type: Bill and answer. Plaintiffs:...


Reference: C 13/623/29
Description:
[C1806 H5].

Short title: Hunter v Andrews.

Document type: Bill and answer.

Plaintiffs: Charlotte Hunter, infant (by Elizabeth Goreham her next friend) and said Elizabeth Goreham.

Defendants: William Andrews.

Subject: estate of Lt Colonel Dunbar James Hunter of 19th Regiment of Foot, property in Ceylon, East India.

JFP

Note: The naming of a party does not imply that he or she will appear in all the documents in this cause (after the bill)
Date: 1806
Held by: The National Archives, Kew

Yet more litigation!

Seen this on a wiki tree.....

Charles Barker Crommelin was born on 13 December 1790 at Kolkata, Bengal, India. He was the son of Charles Russell Crommelin and Julia Barker. He married Emilia Ellen Ricketts, daughter of George Poyntz Ricketts and Sophia Sarah Jane Pierce, on 27 April 1818. He died on 26 February 1827 at age 36 at Goruckpore, Bengal, India

I only used one twice (Kevin Asplin) was one and he was excellent and the other after all the info was given.......got records for a man of the same name but no other similarities......never again Lol.

The marriage record:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interacti...62/edit/record
The first witness named is Grant Allan, one of the executors of Eliza Goreham's will. And another witness is A Gordon, presumably Alexander Gordon, the other executor. So safe to say it's the right Charlotte!

Seraphina Donclere
 

Seraphina Donclere is my 3rd great grandmother. Her husband was Lt-Col Dunbar Hunter 19th Regiment of Foot (Green Howards). He was born 6 February 1773 • Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. He died on the 4 September 1803 • Trincomalee, Trincomalee District, Eastern, Sri Lanka. Seraphina died in 1810. Their only daughter was Charlotte Hunter born 1801 and after her mother died she was sent to her grandmother in England. She married my 2nd Great-grandfather Richard Bevan 30 Aug 1823 • Clapham, Surrey, , England. She died at Brighton in 1835. Details can be found on my family tree "Talbot of Stone Castle" on Ancestry.com
Richard Talbot
Vancouver Island

Seraphina Donclere was my 3rd great grandmother. She married Lt-Col Dunbar Hunter 19th Foot (Green Howards). He died in 1803. They had one child Charlotte Hunter who was sent back to England after her mother died in 1810. Charlotte married my 2nd great grandfather Richard Bevan in 1823. Further details on my tree "Talbot of Stone Castle".

My father's family were in India for 150 years and now I find also some of my mother's! Seraphina Donclere was my 3rd great grandmother. She married Lt-Col Dunbar Hunter (1773-1803) 19th Regiment of Foot (Green Howards). He died in Ceylon in 1803. Seraphina died in 1810 in Kishanganj (child birth?). They had one child Charlotte Hunter who was returned to UK to her grandmother Hunter and later married my 2nd great-grandfather Richard Bevan.

After Dunbar's death in Ceylon in 1803 Seraphina married Lt-Col William Slessor (1778-1810). Seraphina died in 1810 in Kishanganj (child birth?) and William shot himself (accident? Maybe not?) also in Kishanganj in 1810. They also had one child Harriett Slessor. Again she was sent to UK to her grandmother Slessor.

Details on my family tree "Talbot of Stone Castle" on Ancestry. Also the Bevan's family tree. Remaining mysteries:
1: Where was Seraphina born and when? Since Dunbar died in Ceylon she must have lived there too but she may have come from anywhere?
2: So was Charlotte born in Ceylon?
3: Why would the London Gazette list Seraphina as "intestate" when she left a detailed will and list of belongings? Also why would they refer to her as Mrs Seraphina Donclere when she was either Mrs Hunter or Mrs Slessor?
4: Was there another Seraphina Donclere. Perhaps her mother? She would have been Mrs Donclere.

Any help much appreciated!


The mystery deepens! Spinster???!!!

Administration with will annexed of Seraphina Donclere of Kissengunge, Bengal, India, spinster.

Harriet Bazett, nee Slessor, was the administratrix and one of the residuary legatees, and daughter of the testatrix. The will was dated 1809, and bequeathed items to Seraphina's illegitimate children and to a friend who was the mistress of an Indian Civil Service official. The administration was extracted from the records by Pitman & Sons of London, solicitors.)


Col (Ret'd) Richard Talbot
Vancouver Island
[email protected]

It's a long time since we watched this episode, so I will have to reread the thread to refresh my memory! May take a while since there are nine pages. Before I start on that, just wondering - is there evidence that Seraphina was legally married to Dunbar Hunter and then to William Slessor? If not then that could be why she was Seraphina Donclere, spinster.

Okay, having read back through the thread, and looked at the wills etc. I don't have an answer to 1 or 2, but to numbers 3 and 4 - Mrs didn't specifically mean a married woman or widow in those days, it just meant a woman of relatively high social status. So Mrs Donclere, spinster, does make sense in that context. Since she is called Seraphina Donclere in both her own will and Dunbar Hunter's will, and her will mentions William Slessor but does not call him her husband, and Dunbar Hunter's will mentions Seraphina but does not call her his wife, it seems pretty clear that she was not legally married to either of them and that is why it says "spinster".

The heading "Intestates" seems to be used as a general term for those deceased people whose estates were granted administration rather than probate. The grant for Seraphina's estate was administration with the will attached, because the person whom she named executor had died and so could not apply for probate.

Many thanks KiteRunner (shades of Kabul?). I have now reviwed all the other comments and added them to my tree. Oh Dear! Seraphina is indeed a mystery woman. Two and possibly three (Donclere) "husbands". Very modern! I have been doing my family for 50 years but have never come across an unique surname! I agree Donclere must be an anglicised version of a Portuguese or maybe mixed race name? Somewhere I read Seraphina supported her sister in a Portuguese convent but I can't find it again. Also complicating it is that her 2nd husnand? William Slessor was also born in Portugal (his father was a British General and Governor of Opporto). So somewhere Harriett says she is supporting a niece in Portugal (again I can't find it!). Does anyone have legible transcript of Hunter's will and the Chancery dispute? Ditto Elizabet Goreham? Yes Charlotte married very well. Richard Bevan was a banker whose grandfather co-founded Barclay's Bank! There is a portrait of him on-line also his father "Silvanus Bevan of Riddlesworth Hall 1790". As for Charlotte's father he was HM 19th Foot who were in Ceylon for a long time "In April 1801 the regiment was deployed to Ceylon for service in the Kandyan Wars.[13] The regiment lost six officers and 172 other ranks in a massacre there in June 1803 and then remained on the island to enforce British rule.[16] The regiment did not return to England until May 1820." So Charlotte must have been born in Ceylon. However Seraphina could have come from anywhere in or enroute to Ceylon. Goa? Monty Python would pronounce that "goer!".