EDGOOSE:
In search of Ancestry
Biographies
» Show All «Prev «1 ... 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 ... 665» Next»
VALETTA POWELL
CLARA VALETTA RIGGALL 1896-1970
Clara Valetta RIGGALL was born at Malta House, Alford, Lincolnshire, in 1896.
(GRO June Q 1896 Spilsby 7a 581)
The 1911 census of 67 Forest Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire:
Marmaduke RIGGALL, head, aged 60, Wesleyan Methodist Minister, born at Warne, Yorkshire;
Harriet RIGGALL, wife, aged 52, married 19 years, 4 children (all living), born at Algarkirk, Lincolnshire;
*Clara Valetta RIGGALL, daughter, aged 14, born at Alford, Lincolnshire;
Kate FLETCHER, servant, aged 20, single, general domestic servant, born at Whittlesea, Cambridgeshire;
Mary Ann Bates FLETCHER, servant, aged 16, general servant domestic, born at Whittlesea, Cambridgeshire.
(RG14/19117)
She eloped to Gretna Green with MALCOM POWELL who was twenty years her junior.
Malcom McInnes POWELL and Clara Valetta RIGGALL married for a second time in Inverness, Scotland:
(1938 Inverness 098/A 257)
NOTES & QUERIES:
"Re Malcolm POWELL - He was 20 years younger than Valette - they eloped to Gretna Green & mum insisted they got "properly" married in Inverness at 14 Ardross Street - must have been 1938 or 37. Their only son Malcolm was born Sept '39 - he lives in Vancouver now - Malcolm Sn. left Valette for another woman and died in USA."
(letter from Harriet MITCHELL)
CLARA VALETTA RIGGALL'S NOTES
[Sent to me by Colonel J. S. Riggall MBE in 1999 and slightly edited by me]
"The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna
We buried him darkly at dead of night
The sods with our bayonets turning
By the struggling moonbeams misty light
And the lanterns dimly burning
Not a shot was heard, not a funeral note
As his corpse to the ramparts we hurried
Not a soldier discharged a farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero was buried
My Great Grandfather Trooper Jones was present at this Burial. He eloped with my Great Grandmother Grace O'Grady when stationed in Ireland with the Cavalry. He was a Welsh non-conformist and his bride a Roman Catholic of good family who disowned her in consequence. She went to war as a trooper's wife and was at the Battle of Waterloo. My Great Grandmother was sent to England in a troopship as she was pregnant and my Grandmother Betsey Grace Jones was born at sea during the crossing and born in the Camp supposed to be lucky. She was their only child, and after Waterloo when the war ended, they settled in Algarkirk near Boston. Great Grandfather Jones as an unemployed trooper still had his black mare "Poppit" which he'd ridden through the wars, and he had the job of Riding Post in the country district around Boston on Poppit.
One market day he and his wife rode into Boston market, she on a horse and he on Poppit. He was drinking in the Red Lion (?) at the end of the day, and she rode on ahead to Algarkirk. In mounting in the Inn yard he must have been intoxidler his horse on his head on the cobbled inn yard & was killed
This is one of the reasons for my Mother's horror of drink handed down from her Mother Betsy Grace whose father died in this way. She was brought up by a Methodist, but I often heard my Mother refer to her strong Catholic flavoured princit passed on by her Roman Catholic Grandmother, i.e. Grace O'Grady (Jones).
The widow Grace Jones somehow brought up her only child Betsy Grace who married Joel Edgoose, one of the Dutch engineers who at that time came to Lincolnshire to show how to drain the fens like Holland, i.e. land drains are still called DYKnshire. They had several children, Mother Harriet Edgoose being, I think, the youngest. She told me she remembered always being cold in the winter as she wore woollen dresses with no sleeves - low neck - and how she used to rub her poor little arms blue with cold.
I have a dress belonging to my Grandmother Betsy Grace Edgoose of sprigged muslin with a full skirt and linea shaped bodice showing she was very tiny. As a young girl my Mother Harriet used to stay with a Mrs. Armstrong in Boston who wasr and to whom she confided her anxiety about their family poverty. I think Mother must have worked for Mrs. Armstrong as she told me the first money she earned she bought as a present for her mother a small barrel of Porter? stout. No doububt thinking it would be good for her. Through the interest Mrs. Armstrong took in her she planned to take a job as companion so as to help her family. I imagine her Father was at this time dead. ith a reference from Mrs. Armstrong Mother wenenent to the Cockers of Belle Vue Hathersage as nurse companion. She must have been very attractive with chestnut brown hair, brown eyes and rosy cheeks which she always had all her life. She was full of fun, I think an interesting mixture of her Irish Grandmother's adventurous spirit and the practical sensibility of her Dutch Edgoose Father.
The fantastic story of her happiness with the Cockers and eventual marriage to their only son John is another story, of which I know many details."
[signed Valetta Powell, Bushton 1963]
(revised 31.08.2017)
» Show All «Prev «1 ... 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 ... 665» Next»