Who Do You Think You Are - Frances De La Tour 22nd Oct

[kiterunner]

Last in series. On BBC1 at 9 p.m. and repeated next Tuesday at 11:45 p.m.

[Nell]

Should be interesting. I saw Frances de la Tour years ago in a play in Hammersmith. She was eating in the theatre restaurant before the show and looked totally anonymous, but once she was on stage, she was completely captivating. Amazing talent.

[kiterunner]

Episode synopsis:
Frances De La Tour lives in Tufnell Park, London, near to her 40 year old daughter Tamasin (Tammy) and son Josh who is 3 years younger than Tammy. Frances's parents Charles and Moyra divorced when she was 8.

Frances's brothers Simon and Andrew (Andy) came to help her get started on her research. Their grandfather Percival De La Tour had made a book of their family tree which he gave to Simon when he was 21. The tree showed that Frances's great-grandfather Edward Frederick De La Tourmarried Edith Jadis, who was descended from the Delaval family. Edith's father was John Jadis and her grandfather was Henry Jadis. Henry's parents were John Godfrey Maximilian Jadis and the Hon. Sophia Ann Delaval. Henry's wife was Maria Elizabeth Adderley (Lady Gardner).

Frances went to show her copy of the tree to a genealogist who gave her some information about Maria's first marriage: Captain Alan Hyde Gardner married Miss Maria Elizabeth Adderley, aged about 15 or 16. Maria was the stepdaughter of the Earl of Buckinghamshire. Alan, a captain in the Navy, later inherited the title of his father Admiral Lord Gardner. Frances was shown a report from the Scots Magazine of 1805 saying that Captain Gardner had been awarded £1,000 damages against Henry Jadis for "criminal conversation" with his wife, although he had been asking for £20,000.

Frances visited the Parliamentary Archives and met an historian who showed her records of the case. She then went to Mayfair, where the Gardners lived, and was shown copies of the court documents for Alan's suit against Maria. Maria's maid gave evidence about a visit from Henry Jadis while Alan was away on a voyage to the West Indies (they had sailed in January 1802), and Maria's subsequent pregnancy. The maid said that Maria had initially hoped to convince her husband that the baby was his, then tried to deny she was pregnant, and gave birth secretly in December 1802, sending the baby boy away immediately to be wet-nursed by a Mrs Bayly. A footman had told the story to Alan a few months later.

In 1805, Alan petitioned parliament for a divorce from Maria, with a bastardization clause for the boy. The divorce was passed but the bastardization clause was removed. Maria married Henry Jadis later the same year.

Frances went to Iver, Buckinghamshire, and met an historian who showed her a report from "The Era" of 1825 saying that Alan Legge Gardner, Alan's son by his second wife, was claiming his father's peerage but it was contested by Henry Fenton Jadis, but it was ruled that Henry was illegitimate and could not inherit the peerage. Maria died on the 4th Dec 1831, aged 50, and Henry sr had a memorial plaque to her put on the wall of Iver church.


Frances then moved on to the Delaval family. She found a burial record for Sophia Ann Jadis, nee Dalaval, dated 2 Aug 1793 at Doddington Pigot, Lincolnshire, so she went to Doddington Hall and met the current occupant, who looked in the Delaval family archives for information about Sophia (also known as Sophie). There was a letter dated 1778 from Sophia to her sister, apologising for her "misconduct", and a letter to their father Sir John Hussey Delaval offering condolences on Sophie's "rash marriage". There was a baptism record at Doddington church dated 19 Jan 1778 for Henry, the son of Henry Devereux of Bordeaux, France and Sophia Ann. Her surname was originally written as Delaval but this had been crossed out and Devereux written in. Frances met an historian who said they had been unable to find any record of Henry Devereux of Bordeaux or of his marriage to Sophia, and thought that he might have been invented to give Henry jr a legitimate father on his baptism record. Henry Devereux jr became Henry Jadis when Sophia married John Jadis, an ensign in the army, in Feb 1780. A letter from Sir John Delaval to his land agent said that Sophie was determined to separate from her husband who had treated her badly, Jadis saying that the mistreatment was only when he had been drinking. Letters showed that a year after the separation, Sophia had moved to London. There was a bill for £57/9/8 from an apothecary named Mr Fussel. Frances went to London and met a medical historian who showed her the itemised bills from 1790 and 1791 - a lot of the money was spent on ever-increasing amounts of laudanum (an opiate) with other items including "a specific lotion", perhaps a treatment for VD.

Frances was shown an itemised bill for Sophia's funeral, for £316, paid by her father. Her date of death was shown as 23 Jul 1793.

Frances went to Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland, the Delaval family's main residence. She met an expert on the Delaval family, who showed her a portrait of the young Sophia and one of her father, Sir John. Sir John's elder brother, Sir Francis Blake Delaval was a dissolute gambler who ran up debts totalling £45,000. Sir John and his siblings got an Act of Parliament passed in 1756 which gave them a mortgage to pay off the debts, and made Sir John head of the family instead of Sir Francis. This was a very unusual occurrence.

[Olde Crone]

Enjoyed this. It was definitely different!

This has been a good series overall, I think, even though I didn't enjoy a couple of them.

OC

[kiterunner]

I found it very interesting, but I was expecting them to look at the French origins of the De La Tour family at some point.

Now I want to know where the "Hussey" in Sir John Hussey Delaval's name came from as I have some posh Husseys way back in my tree.

[Olde Crone]

I keep meaning to say THANKYOU Kate, for all your work in transcribing each episode. It has certainly helped me to remember each episode as these days most of the detail has gone from my mind as soon as the episode has ended!

OC

[kiterunner]

You're welcome, OC!

[kiterunner]

For those with Findmypast, here is the image of Henry's baptism in the Doddington Pigot PR's:
http://search.findmypast.co.uk/recor...hlights=%22%22

For those without, here is the free version on Lincs to the Past:
http://www.lincstothepast.com/Record...216&iid=196516

Henry son of Henry Devereux Esqr of Burdeux in france by Sophia Delaval (crossed out, Devereux written in) daughter of Sr John Hussey Delaval Bart of Doddington Pygot Bapt April 9 1778

[kiterunner]

And here is Sophia's burial on Lincs to the Past:
http://www.lincstothepast.com/Record...084&iid=196618

1793 Augst 2d The honorable Sophia Ann Jadis, Daughter of the right Honorable Lord Delaval, Buried.

[kiterunner]

This is John Jadis and Sophia Ann's marriage record, on ancestry:

http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/16...l=ReturnRecord

St Mary, Lambeth
John Godfrey Maximillian Jadus of this Parish a Batchelor & Sophia Anne Jadus a Widow of the same Parish, married in this church by Licence 6 Feb 1780, witnesses Tho Greene of Grays Inn and James Singleton.

Her name hasn't just been written in wrong, because she has signed it Sophia Ann Jadus.

FMP has them in the "Faculty Office Marriage Licences Transcription" database, dated 5 Feb 1780, and again both are down as Jadus.