Untold lives blog

What sources do you turn to when you want to write a book about a little-known member of the Georgian Royal Family who barely figures in biographies and history books of that period?

A drawing by Hugh Hamilton of Frederick William Blomberg when a child. The drawing is en suite with five others of George III and his four eldest sons, all of 1769. Royal Collections Trust/© His Majesty King Charles III 2024 RCIN 935356

Master Frederick Blomberg was the four-year-old orphan boy who was adopted into the royal household at Richmond Palace by King George III and Queen Charlotte in 1765 and brought up as a prince.  Just why would the royal couple absorb a child into their home and allow him to become a close friend and confidante to their eldest son, and heir, the then three-year-old Prince George, the future regent and King George IV?  My grandmother told me many years ago that she understood Frederick was the ‘accidental’ result of a romance between the young King George III before his marriage to Queen Charlotte, and that his equerry and best friend Frederick Blomberg, an officer in the British Army, married the girl to prevent a scandal and give the child a name and an inheritance.

Records from St Margaret’s Church Rochester contain the marriage of Lt Frederick Blomberg, HM 61st Regiment, to widow Melissa Frankland née Laing in April 1760.  Their son Frederick William was baptised at the same church in September 1761.

All was well for Frederick William Blomberg until his father died on active service in the West Indies.  Accounts of Captain Blomberg’s ghostly appearance after death add piquance to the story.  The apparition exhorted his commanding officer to seek out the son of his secret marriage and to inform King George III.

Word of Frederick’s plight duly reached the King and Queen, and they very generously took in the little boy, cared for and educated him.  Frederick studied divinity at St John’s College, Cambridge, and, once ordained in 1787, he was back within his royal family as chaplain at Windsor and also private secretary to Prince George.

I was so intrigued by this story that I decided to research it and write a novel.

Finding scant reference to Blomberg in biographies and history books, I turned to The National Archives, the Royal Archives and newspaper archives for information.  The Gentleman’s Magazine and parochial and church records were also helpful.  Scouring the publications of the day I found frequent references to Prince George and Master Frederick present at royal banquets, soirees or state events.  Best of all, I found very personal accounts of them performing violin or cello duets at royal residences or out riding together near the Brighton Pavilion.  It soon became apparent that Frederick Blomberg was frequently at the heart of court events and very often present at crucial occasions, not least during King George III’s bouts of madness.  It pleased me to find a reference to Blomberg in Fanny Burney’s diary whilst she was working as a dresser to Queen Charlotte at Windsor Castle.

Reviewing the Georgian court through a ‘Blomberg lens’ has revealed so many occasions when Frederick, the ‘adopted son’, played a crucial part in royal life.  I am thankful for the generous digitization of so many of the publications of the day for making so much fascinating detail available.

CC-BY
Rosalind Freeborn
Independent researcher
Creative Commons Attribution licence

Further reading:
Rosalind Freeborn, Prince George and Master Frederick: Royal Friends and Secret Brothers (Alliance Publishing Press, 2025)
Thomas Sedgewick Whalley, Journals and Correspondence of Thomas Sedgewick Whalley vol 2 (London, 1863)
John Mason Neale, The Unseen World; communications with it, real or imaginary, including apparitions, warnings, haunted places, prophecies, aerial visions, astrology, etc (London, 1847)
Admissions to the College of St. John, the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge Pt. IV July 1767- July 1802, edited with notes by R. F. Scott (Cambridge, 1931)
British Newspaper Archive

In the days of the British Empire, North-East India provided temporary homes to a handful of European women, all with a common fascination for the Naga people.  The Nagas are a group of indigenous hill people, of Mongoloid origin, speaking diverse languages who shared a warrior culture prior to the imposition of the British administration.

Apart from the American Baptist missionary, Mary Mead Clark, these women were linked to British government representatives, military or political.  Some left written accounts, the best known being the books of Ursula Graham Bower.  These accounts cover events and comment on the people amongst whom they lived.  As such they have a historical and ethnographic value.  One of these is the diary of Connie Shakespear.  She writes of her time in the Naga Hills in 1900-1902 and includes photographs.  The world of amateur photography had just dawned; hand-held cameras were now available.  She and her husband captured traditional village culture in the Naga Hills, hardly altered for centuries, before the great social and cultural changes brought about by Baptist missions.  This unique record sets Connie’s work apart.

'Gwasen and his protege. Themakodima village. February 1902’ – image copyright of author

Connie comments on graves, dress, custom and ‘court proceedings’. Examples of her observation and description abound, such as:
‘… the unfailing good temper of the people.  I have never yet seen any exhibition of bad temper among them, no children quarrelling or fighting, no angry mothers scolding or cuffing their children, nor, as I say, any quarrelling at all, nothing but good temper and good will’.

'Mithun and group at Ghuckia's village' January 1901 – image copyright of author

Another example: ‘The Judge was a fine old fellow who standing up was haranguing the Court, (lines of men seated opposite him on the opposite bank of the street) and pointing each period of his speech by a violent dig of the spear he held in his hand into the mud in the middle of the street’.

Although Connie held the imperial mindset of her time, her ability to interact with Naga villagers, and with some individuals particularly, show a respect and a feeling for shared humanity.

Ayo and Impi -– image copyright of author

Bidding farewell to Ayo from Tamlu she writes: ‘It was quite touching.  He explained how, having his photo I should go into many countries but could always look at this and say “this is Ayo”.  He expressed his regret in many quaint little ways, and then finally laying one hand on my shoulder, and the other on my chest, with this sort of embrace he turned away, and we went our several ways’.

Moimang and Ayo, Lengta Nagas, Tamlu, February 1902 – image copyright of author

Although not in the same bracket as her cousin John Shakespear (1774–1858), who wrote on the peoples of the Lushai Hills, Connie’s photographs and writing are interesting for what they tell us of the lives of the Naga people then.  Her diary shows her love for the Naga Hills and enduring respect and feelings for the Naga people which she shared with the other ladies, notably Ursula Graham Bower, Mildred Archer and Mary Clark.

CC-BY
Nigel Shakespear
The Highland Institute, Fellow

Creative Commons Attribution licence

Further reading:
Connie Shakespear, The Diary of Connie Shakespear The Naga Hills 1900-1902 (Highlander Press, 2021)
Ursula Graham Bower, Naga Path (John Murray, 1950)
Mary Mead Clark, A Corner in India (American Baptist Publication Society, 1907)

On 30 December 1776 the Sherborne Mercury carried an advertisement for ‘a proper New-Years Gift for every Maid Servant’.  Employers were encouraged to buy Madam Johnson’s Present: Or, Every Young Woman’s Companion, in useful and universal Knowledge.

Advert for Madam Johnson's Present - Sherborne Mercury 30 December 1776 (British Newspaper Archive)

Madam Johnson’s Present was first published in 1753 and had reached its seventh edition by 1776.  The compiler kept the price low ‘out of her benevolence’ (1s 6d in 1776), and the book was said to contain twice as many pages as were usually sold for that amount.

Contents page for the fourth edition of Madam Johnson's Present 1770

The companion claimed to be the ‘Completest Book of the Kind ever published’.  It opened with a preface reflecting on the duties of servants, who should ‘take into their serious Consideration that low State of Life in which Providence has placed them, and the several little menial Offices, which they must, and ought without Reluctance, to perform’.  Servants should be grateful to their superiors who employed them, and be ‘very Industrious, Faithful, and Honest in every Trust reposed in them’.

Madam Johnson's Present - the duties of servants

This was followed by a ten-page ‘Short Dissertation on the Benefits of Learning, and a well-directed Female Education’.

Then came these sections:
• Spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic – this covered the alphabet; diphthongs and triphthongs; syllables; punctuation; writing with a pen; sample letters on different subjects; addition; subtraction; multiplication; division; time; measures for wine, beer, ale, dry goods, cloth and land; weights.

Madam Johnson's Present - 'The Young Woman's Guide to the Knowledge of her Mother Tongue'

• ‘The Compleat Market Woman' - instructions for ‘the judicious choice of all kinds of provisions’ including meat, poultry and game; butter, cheese and eggs; fish and seafood.

• A cook’s guide to ‘dressing’ provisions – roasting, boiling, and frying; cooking vegetables, with a warning about over-boiling greens which destroys their beauty and sweetness.

Madam Johnson's Present - instructions about greens

• A cook’s guide to pickling and potting, pastry and confectionery - making puddings, pies, tarts, gravies, soups (including egg soup), and sausages; baking cakes, gingerbread, macaroons, buns, and wigs (a type of teacake); making cheesecakes, creams, jellies, and syllabubs.

Madam Johnson's Present - how to make an egg soup

• An estimate of the expenditure of a family on the middling station of life – man, wife, four children, and one maidservant.

Madam Johnson's Present - An estimate of the expenditure of a family on the middling station of life – man, wife, four children, and one maidservant.

• The Art and Terms of Carving Fish, Fowl, and Flesh e.g. ‘Disfigure that Peacock’, ‘Splat that Pike’.

Madam Johnson's Present - terms for carving meat poultry game and fish

• A bill of fare for every month of the year for dinner, supper, and special occasions.
• An instructor for the correct spelling of words used in marketing, cookery, pickling, preserving etc.
• Plain and necessary general directions to maidservants - practical advice for the daily duties of housemaids, kitchenmaids, laundrymaids, and chambermaids, instructions on how to kill rats, bugs, and fleas, and clear flies and gnats; how to protect poultry from foxes and weasels; and a remedy for toothache and and ‘Scurvey in the Gums’ which involved a butcher’s skewer and gunpowder.

Madam Johnson's Present - treatment for toothache and scurvy in the gums

• Useful tables of information, including one for the most ‘familiar’ names of men and women. I was not expecting some of those listed for men – Sigismund, Caesar, Dunstan, Urban.

Madam Johnson's Present - most familiar names of men and women

Happy New Year! Time to celebrate with a bowl of egg soup and a wig.

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

On 27 December 1833 the Morning Post reported a spate of thefts in London.  Thieves had been targeting food being delivered for Christmas dinners – joints of meat, fish, turkeys, hares and pheasants.

Butcher's boy from London Characters drawn by Horace William Petherick, Image courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute.

These ‘market scamps’ noted houses had taken in a delivery and then, with a tray on their shoulder, knocked at the door.  They told the servant that an inferior cut had been left in error and that they would substitute the correct sort in a few minutes.  The servant, glad that the mistake had been detected, nearly always handed over the meat.  The thieves then quickly sold it to a new customer.

A family in Bishopsgate Street had been robbed of turkey and a piece of beef by a man looking like a butcher.  One man, who had pawned his watch to give his children an extra treat on Christmas Day, had the joint stolen and so had to make do with a couple of sheep’s heads.

However, Mr Willoughby of Bishopsgate Street had read about the scam in the newspapers.  When a man knocked at his door and told his servant that the wrong beef had been delivered, Willoughby seized him and handed him over to a law officer.

The prisoner gave his name as James Smith.  He was remanded in custody so that those who had been robbed of their Christmas dinners could come to ’look at him’.

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further Reading:
British Newspaper Archive – also available via Findmypast

The British Library holds several early photograph albums compiled by the Dillwyn Llewelyn and Story-Maskelyne families (Photo 1246).  The broader collection includes eight albums containing photographs, two sketchbooks, watercolour drawings, seven journals, letters and a four-part memoir.  This collection showcases Thereza Dillwyn Llewelyn (later Story-Maskelyne) as one of the first female photographers during a period of discovery and experimentation in early photography.

Thereza Llewelyn and dickies, 1854. salted paper print from collodion negative. Photographer: John Dillwyn Llewelyn. © British Library, Photo 1246/1(11).

Thereza was the eldest child of John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-82), photographer and botanist, and Emma Thomasina Talbot (d. 1881), born on 3 May 1834 into a wealthy Welsh family with a strong interest in various scientific fields, including photography.

‘My earliest recollections connected with it carry me back to somewhere about 1841…, when as a child - I sat for my portrait taken by my Father … no one living at Penllergare could help being interested in what was of absorbing interest to my Father & Mother and I must have heard many conversations on the subject when letters to my Mother from her Cousin Henry Fox Talbot arrived.’ [Add MS 89120/10]

It was uncommon for women to practice photography during this period.  Thereza would assist her father with his photographic experiments, but her photographic albums and journals show that she was a photographer in her own right.  On her 22nd birthday (3 May 1856), she received a journal and a camera. ‘I saw Papa make 2 stereoscopes, with the new stereoscopic camera that he gave me for my birthday present - I intend to work hard with it, so as to get some pictures worthy of it.' [Add MS 89120/4]

Her journals describe her various photographic activities and highlight the prints in her photo albums.  The albums frequently contain the work of more than one individual, as nearly every family member and their friends were involved in photography.

‘September 6th - After lunch Emma dressed up as a gipsy, and Willy made a capital hut, and represented a wild looking gipsy man looking out, whilst Emma seated on a basket turned topsy-turvy told Caroline’s fortune.  Papa photographed the scene which was very picturesque & pretty, & I made a photo stereoscope thereof.’ [Add MS 89120/5]

Gipsies, 1856. salted paper print from stereoscopic collodion negative. Photographer: Thereza Story-Maskelyne. © British Library, Photo 1246/1(32).

Thereza had other scientific interests, including astronomy and botany, for which she used photography to record her findings.

Delesseria sanguinea or Sea Beech [Botanical Specimen], c. 1854. Negative paper contact Photographer: Thereza Story-Maskelyne. © British Library, Photo 1246/2(27).

Her father built an Equatorial Observatory for her in the early 1850s.  The Observatory made it possible for them to take photos of the moon.  In her memoirs, she mentions that her father ‘made a photo of the moon, and as moon light requires much slow exposure it was my business to keep the Telescope moving steadily as there [was]no clockwork action.’  She states, ‘That was one of the first [photographs] ever made of the moon’. [Add MS 89120/9]

Moon c. 1857. salted paper print. Photographer: John Dillwyn Llewelyn and Thereza Story-Maskelyne. © British Library, Photo 1246/1(49).

Her last entry in her journals was in August 1857, and next year, on 29 June 1858, she married (Mervyn Herbert) Nevil Story Maskelyne, a mineralogist and an associate of both her father and Fox Talbot.  Her interests may have taken a back seat to marriage and family.  Still, photography remained part of her life, as she took photographs of her family and travels.

[Portrait of Nevil Story-Maskelyne with Mary and William Arnold-Forster, 1890]. Albumen print. Photographer: Thereza Story-Maskelyne. © British Library, Photo 1246/7(12).

This collection is a beautiful insight into one of the earliest female photographers.

Susan M. Harris
Cataloguer of Photographs

Further Reading:
Dillwyn Llewelyn/Story-Maskelyne photographic collection, Photo 1246
The Papers of Thereza Story-Maskelyne (1834-1926), Add MS 89120
Noel Cahanan, The Photographer of Penllergare: a life of John Dillwyn Llewelyn 1810-1882 (2013)
Richard Morris, Penllergare A Victorian Paradise (1999)
V. Morton, Oxford Rebels: the life and friends of Nevil Story Maskelyne, 1823–1911 (1987)

The cataloguing and research of this collection (Photo 1246) is part of the British Library’s Unlocking Hidden Collections initiative, with the aim to open collections and make them more accessible to researchers and the public. Readers wishing to consult this collection should write to [email protected] and arrange an appointment in the British Library’s Print Room (Asia and Africa Reading Room).

Whilst undertaking some work on the pension records of the Lord Clive Fund, I came across the marriage of Captain John Villiers Forbes to Anne Burgett in Calcutta, Bengal.

Marriage entry for John Villiers Forbes and Anne Burgett, 23 January 1849 at Calcutta, showing him described as a 'Single Man'. IOR/N/1/75 f.83

What caught my eye about the marriage was that John Villiers Forbes was described as a ‘Single Man’. The usual terminology in the India marriage records at that time was ‘Bachelor’ for an unmarried man and ‘Widower’ for a married man who had been bereaved. I had never seen the term ‘Single Man’ used before, suggesting that the Chaplain wished to make a point about the marital status of the groom!

John Villiers Forbes was born in Walcot, Somerset in 1807, the son of Thomas John & Elizabeth Forbes. He was appointed an Ensign in the Bengal Army in April 1823.

On 4 April 1831 he was married in Port Louis, Mauritius, to Marie Eudoxie De Bissey. The couple returned to Bengal shortly afterwards and had six children: Eliza Mary born 1832, Charles D’Oyly born 1833, Henry Villiers born 1836, Anna Maria Louisa born 1837, Caroline Virginie Elisabeth born 1839 and Adelaide Marie Eudoxie born 1846.

On 23 January 1849 John Villier Forbes was married for a second time to Anne Burgett, and the couple had three children Eliza Caroline Matilda born 1849, Arthur Frederick Colin born 1851 and Herbert Edward born 1853.

At the time of John Villier Forbes’s second marriage, his first wife Marie Eudoxie was still alive and living in Mauritius, which may explain the choice of words used by the Chaplain to describe Forbes's marital status.

The circumstances surrounding John Villiers Forbes being permitted to marry when his first wife was still alive are unclear. It could be that he and his first wife were divorced; it is also possible that as his first marriage was Catholic it would not have been recognised by the Church of England, and he would legally, if not morally, have been considered single.

Marie Eudoxie Forbes also remarried on 10 July 1851 in Mauritius to Alexandre George de Courson de la Villeneuve, and the couple had one daughter, Mary.

Marie Eudoxie de Courson passed away in 1851 and was buried at Pamplemousses Cemetery in Mauritius.

First two pages of the will of John Villiers Forbes, written in June 1853, outlining his wishes in relation to his children from his first marriage. IOR/L/AG/34/29/88 f.145

John Villiers Forbes died in Calcutta on 15 July 1853. His will left all his money and estates to his wife Anne, along with guardianship of their three children. He also left instructions for her relating to his surviving children from his first marriage. He left £100 Sterling each to his sons Charles D’Oyly and Henry Villiers, who at that time were at school in Essex before entering the British Army. His three daughters, Anna Maria Louisa, Caroline Virginie Elisabeth and Adelaide Marie Eudoxie, were described as living in Mauritius in the care of his late wife’s family and being supported by maternal inheritance, and he appointed their maternal uncle Gaston de Bissey as one of their guardians.

John’s second wife Anne moved to Munich following her husband’s death and remarried there in 1875 to Franz Binder.

Karen Stapley
Curator, India Office Records

Further Reading:
Bengal Marriage - IOR/N/1/75, f.83 marriage entry for John Villiers Forbes to Anne Burgett, 23 January 1849.
Bengal Burials - IOR/N/1/84, p.211 burial entry for John Villiers Forbes, 15 July 1853.
Bengal Wills - IOR/IOR/L/AG/34/29/88, f.145 – will of John Villiers Forbes, 1853.
Grave of ‘Marie Eudoxie de Courson’ at Cimetière de Pamplemousses, Mauritius 
Bengal Baptisms - IOR/N/1/35, f.79 – baptism of Eliza Mary Forbes, 29 April 1833; IOR/N/1/38, f.126 – baptism of Charles D’Oyly Forbes, 13 April 1834; IOR/N/1/50, f.60 – baptism of Anna Maria Louisa Forbes, 22 April 1838; IOR/N/1/77, f.64 – baptism of Eliza Caroline Matilda Forbes, 26 February 1850; IOR/ N/1/80, f.316 – baptism of Arthur Frederick Colin Forbes, 16 November 1851; IOR/N/1/83, f.267 – baptism of Herbert Edward Forbes, 5 June 1853.

On 31 May 1916, the India Office Library purchased seven items at auction from Hodgson & Co.  Lot 29 cost £1 10 shillings, with 9d postage.  The correspondence about the purchase is significant because it establishes that the items once belonged to the collection of Sir Alexander Johnston, Chief Justice and President in Council in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).  This provenance information had not previously been recorded in our catalogues and the link between the items had been obscured.

Notice of auction at Hodgson & Co - Westminster Gazette 27 May 1916 British Newspaper Archive

Lot 29 included copies of letters relating to Baptist Missionary Henry Beddy.  Born in Dublin, he enlisted in the East India Company’s Bengal Army at 19, arriving in India in 1811 to serve in the Bengal Artillery.  Beddy married three times.  His first wife Mary Anne died in childbirth in 1816, and his second wife (also Mary Anne) died in 1822.  On 16 January 1823 he married Margaret MacDonough, and they had at least 11 children.

List of correspondence relating to Henry Beddy -Mss Eur C92

Henry Beddy was baptised into the Baptist faith about 1827, and having left the Bengal Army was appointed as a Baptist Missionary to Patna in 1831.  Margaret’s younger sister Ellen (Eleanor) MacDonough lived with the Beddys from childhood and was closely involved in missionary work, running the Orphan Refuge.

Ellen became involved with government servant George Hutteman.  Henry Beddy tried to put an end to the relationship, but on 20 November 1847 Ellen eloped with George, married, and moved to Calcutta.  Beddy found it impossible to understand Ellen’s actions and wrote a number of letters to her, besmirching her character.  On 1 December 1847 he wrote ‘Not a member of my family shall ever speak to you with my permission... I shall impress on the children’s mind that their Aunt Ellen MacDonough is to them dead’.  Beddy was later to admit: ‘I had written language capable of being used to my discredit’.

The Huttemans attended the Lall Bazar Baptist Church in Calcutta.  The Minister James Thomas wrote to Beddy about his sister-in-law.  Beddy’s reply accused Ellen of falsehood and deception and stated that George was an ‘unbeliever’.  His hostile attitude led to an investigation into his conduct towards Ellen. 

Note by James Thomas introducing the collection of documents about Henry Beddy and Ellen MacDonough -Mss Eur C92

Thomas gathered together copies of correspondence from the various protagonists and witnesses, so they could be presented to a Baptist Committee in London.  Beddy’s own letters admitted ‘an intimacy, friendship and affection sprang up between us that led to great familiarity, and it is now lamentably true that this familiarity was looked upon by some persons as improper’, whilst Reverend Nathaniel Brice was of the opinion that ‘there are facts connected with the affair which would make your ears tingle...’.

Extract of letter from Henry Beddy to James Thomas, 13 March 1848 --Mss Eur C92

Removed from Patna, Beddy and his family moved to Simla, where he became Pastor at the First Baptist Church.  He died there on 3 June 1857.

Ellen and George had three daughters, and after his death in 1866, she married Reverend John Lawrence of Monghyr.  She died in Christchurch, Hampshire, in 1879.

The India Office appreciated that the contents of the volume were problematic.  In a letter dated 26 January 1936 the Librarian H N Randle wrote that he hesitated to include the letters as part of the forthcoming catalogue of manuscripts as ‘there may be relatives alive, even after 90 years and it seems best to let these personalities rest in obscurity for another hundred years’.

Provenance research is more than acquiring a greater understanding of our collections and their history. It uncovers fascinating human stories along the way.

Lesley Shapland
Archivist & Provenance Researcher
India Office Records

Further reading:
Mss Eur C92: Volume compiled by Rev J Thomas, Calcutta, containing copies of correspondence relating to charges of misconduct against Rev Henry Beddy, missionary at Patna for the London Baptist Missionary Society
IOR/L/R/7/20, R961/16: India Office Record Department Annual Files, 1916
Mss Eur F303/23, p.137: India Office Library, Day Book, 14 Jul 1916
IOR/L/R/9/26, L36/37: Library Committee Papers & References, 1937
Missionary Herald, May 1832 
Full text of 'The story of the Lall Bazar Baptist Church Calcutta : being the history of Carey's church from 24th April 1800 to the present day'
India Office Library Catalogue of Manuscripts in European Languages. Vol. II, Pt. II: Minor Collections and Miscellaneous Manuscripts. By G. R. Kaye and E. H. Johnston. Section I, Nos. 1–538 (London: HMSO, 1937)

One Saturday evening in May 1870 at Murree Station, Bengal, a ball was held for the civil and military officers and their families stationed there.

People dancing at a ball from Dean's Shilling Story Books, 1876 - 12809.g.21 Images Online

The next morning, the ball’s attendees were surprised to find the Station’s Chaplain, Reverend William Whitmarsh Phelps, preaching his sermon on the immoralities of dancing and of attending such balls.  He went on to make comments more generally on the financial situation of men and what he seemed to view as the excessive spending associated with balls commenting on the ‘probable inability of husbands to meet their wives' milliners’ bills.’

Many of the individuals in the congregation found his remarks to be inappropriate and out of line, and wrote to Robert Millman, Bishop of Calcutta, to complain about Phelps’s conduct.

The Bishop’s response to the complaints was prompt and decisive.  He censured Phelps for his comments, stating that the very idea of dancing being immoral seemed absurd and that he found the Reverend’s comments regarding officers' finances to be impertinent.

'The Immorality of Dancing' - Newspaper article from the Boston Guardian, 11 June 1870 British Newspaper Archive

Phelps did not remain in Bengal much longer following the events in Murree.  By 1872 he had left India on furlough, retiring from service on 16 July 1872.

The Reverend William Whitmarsh Phelps was born in Cricklade, Wiltshire, in 1826, the son of Reverend William Whitmarsh and Octavia his wife.  He studied for the clergy at Queen’s College Oxford and received his M.A. in 1852.  He was appointed an Assistant Chaplain on the East India Company’s Bengal Establishment on 2 August 1854 and was subsequently posted to Peshawar, Sialkot and Rawalpindi before being appointed as a Chaplain in 1866.  He had been Chaplain in Mian Mir before being posted to Murree.

He married firstly in Lee, Kent, in 1857 to Amelia Matilda Hughes Hughes.  The couple had no children and she died in Eastbourne, Sussex, in 1892.  Phelps married for a second time the following year to Laura King.  They had one daughter Laura Elizabeth Whitmarsh who was born in Eastbourne in 1894.

William Whitmarsh Phelps died on 6 October 1906 in Brighton Sussex, one month shy of his 80th birthday.

Karen Stapley
Curator, India Office Records

Further Reading:
IOR/E/4/828, p.103 - Appointment of Reverend W.W. Phelps to the Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment
Boston Guardian 11 June 1870 ‘The Immorality of Dancing’ British Newspaper Archive
S. J. McNally, The Chaplains of the East India Company, p.87 entry for William Whitmarsh Phelps - Available in Asian and African Studies Reading Room OIR 253.0954