This is a drill-down from the Callands sons

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John / Sarah / George / Augustus / Charles

the Forbes Bentleys

Charles Calland's children

John Calland's ancestors? 1635-1750

When researching this family I collected many odd newspaper reports, on-line hits and census entries about each of them. To keep the main story short, and make it easy for family historians to pick at the data, I now simply summarise the biography of each of the surviving children. Their children were born after 1837, but not always in the UK so I give their details as well, plus the scandal which I reconstructed from the census returns!

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Sarah CALLAND 1768 - 1841

Sarah's story is told in the Samuel and Sarah Hawkins chapter.

John CALLAND 1763 - 1800

The Rev'd John Calland settled happily into his new rectory. As well as being Rector of Bentworth, he had also been appointed a prebendary of Chichester, and chaplain to the Right Honourable Lord le Despencer. His sister Sarah came to stay in 1799 and her son Bradford Denne was born there. He even knew Jane Austen, who persuaded him to dance. Between 1775 and 1801, Jane - herself a clergyman's daughter - lived at Steventon Rectory, Hampshire, about 20 miles west of Bentworth, just the other side of the M3. Her letter of December 1798 suggests that she had known John Calland for a long time, and the implication in Penelope Hughes-Hallet's book is that he might have been Jane's model for Mr Darcy. Jane knew a great deal about clergymen, young and old, and not a great deal about any others.

"In the 1780s and 1790s, when dancing at public assemblies was popular in small country towns, clergymen both young and not so young, married and unmarried, were in demand as dancing partners. Clergymen arriving at a local dance hall, where ladies were frequently obliged to sit against the wall for lack of partners, were not expected to stand and watch. When the Rev. John Calland, rector of Bentworth, stood with his hat in his hand at a Manydown ball in December 1798, Jane Austen and her friend Catherine Bigg 'teased him into it at last' - Jane reporting delightedly to [her sister] Cassandra that he became thereafter 'altogether rather the genius and flirt of the evening' [Collins] and 'I was very glad to see him again after so long a separation' [Hughes-Hallett].

Unfortunately, the Rev John Calland fell from his horse. The Daily Advertiser of 15th September 1800 published the following notice:

DIED - On Thursday last, at the Parsonage House of Alton, in Hampshire, the Revd John Calland, eldest son of Mr Calland, of Sloane-street. He was seized with a nervous fever, which for three days rendered him delirious owing to a fall from his horse. His family lament him, and very numerous and respectable circle of friends join in the melancholy remembrance.

He was 38 years old. His parents later arranged for a marble memorial to be installed in Bentworth church. But Madras John did not change his will.

George CALLAND ~1772 - 1820

I am not sure how long George stayed in the army. In a 1791 London directory there is one mention of a Captain Calland living at George Street, Manchester Square, and a curious comment on the Regimental website that officers were required to take lodgings away from the barracks, to keep the noise down. Manchester Square is the other side of Hyde Park, but it was probably him. The Life Guards regiments were at Waterloo in 1815, but the Caledonian Mercury of Thursday 17th Apr 1806 reported a Gazette notice that Brevet Major George Calland, from 2nd Lifeguards, was to be Captain of a company, 98th Regiment of Foot. From 1807, the 98th (Prince of Wales) Regiment of Foot served in Bermuda and New Brunswick, and in Canada. A brevet appointment normally means promotion in the field, but I have been unable to discover where the 2nd Regiment might have been fighting in the early 1800s - the first mention I can find is 1812 and the Peninsula war. George seems to have managed to attend all the various company meetings after his father's death, and in 1808 wrote to Charles from Plymouth Dock (being posted overseas?).

The next mention of him is almost the final one. In Littleham parish church near Exeter is a memorial to a Major Calland dated 1820. British History Online says that many of these memorials were for people who died whilst resident in Exmouth for their heath. Was it George? Well, probably, since he and Ann SCOBLE had a son called George, born in Exmouth in 1820, and SCOBLE descendents are active in researching the Calland family. But had George been injured on active service? I know no more.

Augustus CALLAND ~1773 - ?

Augustus was the youngest, and I can find very little about him, except that he took part in the business meetings concerning the Forest Estate. He married a Mary Amelia and they lived in Goring, Sussex. I think she was a widow in 1809 when she was a god-mother for one of the children, but Augustus' will was not proved until 1812. Charles Calland kept a watchful eye on Mary Amelia, because she had inherited Augustus' share of the Forest Estate, and Charles did not want it to leave the family. She re-married in 1822.

Charles CALLAND ~1770 - 1837

Charles outlived all his brothers and became the driving force of the Forest Estate. After being admitted to Lincoln's Inn he worked for Samuel's legal practice in Pall Mall. In 1794 he was involved in the run-up to a Scottish court case where his father John was trying to reclaim a loan from his brother-in-law Charles Campbell. I have reported the Scottish case in John's main story, and I suspect that Charles might have been one of 'the parties in London who signed the agreement without the presence of any person acquainted with the law of Scotland'. Because I found the following newspaper report of R v Campbell in the Morning Post of the 9th August 1794:

The whole article occupies one and a half newspaper columns and the cutting is big enough to need its own link here. One interesting point is that nowhere is the defendant's first name given, so I have just had to assume that it was Donald. The second is that although he was found guilty, I cannot find on-line any further mention of his sentence, even though the trial was heard before Lord Chief Justice Kenyon and a special jury. By the 13th August his Lordship was off on circuit, at Maidstone. I can find no mention on the Old Bailey's website or anywhere else, but Donald was alive and well and in court with John Calland in 1796. If you know what happened, please email me!

The next newspaper report was in 1801 and it concerned a Colonel CALLAND. Had Charles given himself a promotion when talking to the reporter? It seems that a Captain Murray had gone across to Hamburgh with his seconds, Major Blair and Colonel Calland, to fight a duel with Sir Samuel Hannay, following a fight some time ago at Steven's in Bond Street. They got back two days later but Sir Samuel was reported to be quitting Lord Cathcart's regiment 'in consequence of this unfortunate affray'. Apparently he then went to Australia (what a wonderful thing is the internet). I can find no mention of a Colonel Calland anywhere. Was it Charles in high spirits again?

In 1807, the Calland papers catalogue suddenly includes business letters addressed to Captain Charles Calland at Bristol. The explanation is simple - in August of that year he married Miss Catharine FORBES, daughter of the late Thomas Forbes Esq of Clifton. When I was researching John Calland's early life I came across a Thomas Forbes out in India at the same time as John. I have no idea if it was the same man, but it is yet another tempting assumption since I do know that the Clifton Thomas' son also served with the East India Company. Charles military title was because he was now a Captain in the Royal Glamorgan Militia [London Gazette Jan 1804]. I do not know where Charles and Catherine settled; over the next few years his business letters (and the occasional hare) were addressed to him in Devon, and later at Shoreham. In later newspaper reports - usually concerning the marriage of his various children - Charles is usually referred to as 'of Upper Forest, Glamorgan', or similar, even though he had a home in London. At his son Frederick's wedding the Ipswich Journal said Charles had been Deputy-Lieutenant and Magistrate.

In 1818 Charles applied to the Court of King's Bench to be re-admitted as an attorney, having not practised for fifteen years. Then I found this odd advertisement in The Times of 4th May:

"Apply to Charles Calland, Esq., Worthing (or Wm Farquar, Esq, Doctors'-commons; or Thomas Ramsay Esq St Mary's-hill): Sea-bathing with Classical instruction, in a beautiful and healthy village in Sussex: Parents and Guardians having children to place out, whose constitutions require the aid of sea air and bathing, with particular attention to health and comfort, will find the above ESTABLISHMENT for YOUNG GENTLEMEN fully to answer their most sanguine wishes."

The advertisement was repeated in 1819, adding "Seminary with classics, French, total of twelve, has three vacancies". Was Charles running a private school? He does seem to have been a man with great energy, so I would not be surprised. In 1824 Charles advertised the sale of a lease on 83 Norton Street, Marylebone, with a sitting tenant, Mrs Pickar, a rental income of £99 5s per year, and with a 40-year lease remaining. Nothing can have happened because he was living in that house in 1830. But in 1828 he was living on The Mumbles - the lovely headland off Swansea. He had summoned his nephew the Rev John Hawkins from his vicarage at Compton Beauchamp to browbeat him about giving up his share of the coalmines and making it over to Charles. John wrote a rueful letter to his brother Bradford at Rivenhall, talking of 'facing the squire's wrath' and being hectored with figures and short-term promises.

In 1830, when Charles's son Augustus started school at Harrow, Charles was described as 'of Worthing'. In 1832 Charles paid surety for a Miss Isabella Campbell, travelling to Bengal. I think this was Donald's sister, so whatever had happened between Charles and Donald had not soured his relationship with the rest of the family. In 1835 Charles was a witness at his niece Eliza's third wedding at Rivenhall, and in 1837 he died.

Charles' Last Will and Testament

Charles Calland's will is one of those unsatisfactory ones which goes on for pages but says little. He does not ever name his wife or his daughters, but does say that his estate includes (under coverture) the settlements made on his wife by her father, her brother, and Mr Charles Bentley (who bequeathed her an interest on £7,000), as well as the expected coalfields and farms, and the Kittle Hill Estate in Glamorgan. As expected, he anticipates being able to control the remaining 40% of the Forrest Estate at Llansamlet currently in the hands of his sister Sarah, and sister-in-law Mary Amelia, the widow of Augustus, and stresses that the Forrest Estate is to remain in the family for future generations. He also reminds his executors that although his brother George left one-sixth of £10,000 to Ann Scoble (the mother of George's illegitimate son, in Exmouth) for her lifetime, it should then revert to Charles himself. There is also a promisory note for £1,022 from William Banbury Jones - there was a barrister at Harcourt Buildings, Temple, at the right time; might it have been him? Charles also confesses to an earlier mistake, which looks as though it has to be put right by his executors:

"the yield of £98 14s 8d pa paid on £948 7s 1d of East India Stock, left by brother George to sister Amelia but imprudently transferred by me partly to Bell & Grant of Angel Court and the remainder to myself [oops - had he paid Amelia back, I wonder? - and was the Grant of Bell & Grant, Angel Court, Throgmorton St, anything to do with executor Charles GRANT?]"

His witnesses include his nephew, the Revd JCCBP Hawkins; the executors and trustees were Charles GRANT - which is the name of his sister Sarah's' son-in-law and a name which is frequently present in the family papers - Henry PATRICK [no idea who he is], and Charles' three sons. I have a full transcript - please email me if you would like a copy.

Widow Catherine CALLAND and the Forbes Bentley connection

After Charles died his widow Catherine settled herself in a house in Hertford Street, Westminster. In each census from 1841 to 71 she was there, later with married daughters staying there too, or other visitors, plus a cook, two housemaids, and a footman. A middle initial P or full name Pearkes keeps cropping up in connection with Catherine - it is on the St Mary's parish register entry for the baptisms of Catherine and Louisa, and at her death, reported in the Monthly Record of BDMs on Google books, she is described as Catherine PEARKES. I have no idea why. If it were not for the coincidence of age and place she could be someone else entirely!

Catherine is also the reason for the 'Forbes' name given to sons in the family and, somehow, for the 'Bentley' name given to her grandson. Catherine's brother Thomas Forbes BENTLEY Esq, son of the late Thomas Forbes of Clifton, died in 1853. He was not married, he had been in the East India Company's Bengal Civil Service, and died aged 65 at home at Stanhope Terrace, Hyde Park Gardens - a huge house. When it was sold after his death The Times advertised it as:

" a capital family residence facing the Park and Kensington Gardens, with eight bed chambers, communicating drawing rooms, excellent dining room, library, bath room, entrance hall with stone staircase, water closets, &c and good domestic offices on the basement; also a double coach-house and a three-stall stable, with man's room and loft over. Held by lease under the Bishop of London, 75 years still unexpired, with ground rent of £20 pa. Viewing by ticket only."

and, separately:

"the EFFECTS in the residence, which comprise a suite of rosewood furniture in figured crimson satin, curtains en suite, handsome chimney-glasses, polished steel fender and fire-irons, Brussels carpet, rugs, French clocks and ornamental items in drawing room, excellent mahogany tables, chairs, sideboard, chiffonier, bookcase, Turkey carpets, and curtains in dining room and library; mahogany and iron four-post, tent and French bedsteads, superior bedding, &c; 300 vols of books, bed and table linen, glass, china, dinner and dessert services, plated goods, and a variety of effects: a small cellar of very choice wines, including Port (1831), Sherry, Madeira, Claret, and other French and Rhenish wines."

He also owned 'a desirable freehold residence with gardens, pleasure grounds, and paddocks, at Woodford, Essex, and an adjoining cottage with garden, both occupied by lease-holders' which was sold after his death. It looks as if he was another one who did well out of the East India Company, or the mysterious Bentley did - I never did track him down. I tried to find Thomas Forbes Bentley in the English censuses, without success. But I did manage to find his house in 1851 [Paddington St John Dist 2 HO 107/1647 p43 folio 54b], occupied by the Macleods, another East India Company family.

In 1854 John Forbes Calland (son of Charles and Catherine) wrote to Queen Victoria, asking for permission for his son George to change his name to George Forbes BENTLEY. The London Gazette published the following notice, which explains why:

"Whitehall, April 24 1854. The Queen has been pleased to give and grant unto John Forbes Calland, of Glyncollen, in the county of Glamorgan, Gentleman, on behalf of George Calland, his only surviving son, an infant of the age of four years and upwards, Her royal licence and authority that he, the said George Calland, may (in compliance with a clause contained in the last will and testament of Thomas Forbes-Bentley, of Stanhope-terrace, Victoria-gate, in the county of Middlesex, Esq., deceased) henceforth assume the surnames of Forbes and Bentley, instead of his present surname, and that he may bear the arms of Forbes and Bentley quarterly with his own family arms of Calland, and that the said surname and arms may in like manner be borne and used by his issue: such arms being first duly exemplified according to the laws of arms and recorded in the Heralds' Office, otherwise the said license and permission to be void and of none effect. And also to command that the said royal concession and declaration be registered in Her Majesty's College of Arms."

I went rushing off to track George down. The Times archive online, for 1871, contains a Mr Forbes Bentley who owned a racehorse called Favori, which won the West Moulsey Plate of 50 sovereigns in 1871, and another one called Victoire which raced at Goodwood the same year, and another three more called Epworth, Ptarmigan and Runnymead, racing at Brighton, and one called Sophie racing at Liverpool. If it is the same man then it looks as though his uncle Thomas left him more than a new surname. I found one reference, in the Cambridge University Alumni register, which was clearly him - born 12 Feb 1850, son of J Forbes Calland of Weston-super-Mare, school at Harrow, Caius college Cambridge 1868, no profession, of Bay Tree Cottage, Beckley, Sussex, died 10 May 1912. I could not find him in the 1901 or 1911 census indices. Nor could I find any marriage, although The Times for 1919 reported the marriage of Captain Rupert Forbes-Bentley, DSC, RAF, of Masslands, Beckley, Sussex. I shall stop there.

[two years later]... or so I thought. In December 2011 I received an email from a philatalist who had been writing an article based on an envelope addressed to Capt Rupert Forbes-Bentley, in Malta, in 1928. He knew no more about the family but did find and send to me this Australian postal history website, which contains a number of envelope covers to and from Capt Forbes-Bentley, some wartime and biographical details, and a photograph! Thank you.

The children (and grandchildren) of Charles and Catherine

• Charles George 1808-1841 baptised at Clifton in June 1808. Charles George became a Lieutenant in the military service of the East India Company, in Bombay. He was appointed Sheriff for Glamorganshire in 1839 [The Times + Liverpool Mercury] He died at Rajcote in India, of fever, on 21 October 1841. The National Archives has a copy of his will and the London Gazette of 1847 and later includes his name and estate valuation (£1,900) in lists from the Registrar of the Supreme Court in Bombay.
• John Forbes ~1810-1882 born about 1810; in later censuses he says he was born in Clifton. Got his BA from Pembroke College in 1838. In 1846 at St George's, Hanover Square he married Harriet Ann GARDNER of Conington Hall, Cambridge. In 1848, in partnership with a John Glasbrook [London Gazette 1853], he built the Landore pottery on the Swansea canal, producing printed and common earthenware for dinner, tea and toiletware; discontinued about 1856 [Ceramic Art in GB, by Llewellynn Jewitt, pub Virtue & Co London 1878]. In the 1851 and 61 censuses describes himself as a landed proprietor, living at Glyncollan, Glamorgan. In 1866 he advertised his house The Gnoll, at Neath, to be let [Bristol Mercury Sat 7 April]. Although the 1871 census shows him as being in Uphill, Somerset, by October he was living at Shirley House, Cheltenham, where his two sons started school in October at Cheltenham College. In 1878 he was a JP for Glamorgan, but living at Portsea, Hampshire where, in 1882, he drowned whilst swimming from a bathing machine on Southsea beach [Pall Mall Gazette Thurs 1 June]. His age was given as 72. The children of John Forbes and Harriet were:
  • Harriet Georgina born in Paris, 1848
  • John C F b 1849
  • George Forbes b 1850 - [see the Forbes Bentley connection above]
  • Catherine Mary b 1851
  • Emily Elizabeth b 1852
  • Helen Alathea b 1854
  • an unknown son born at Bonn-on-the-Rhine [announced in the Morning Chronicle 31 August 1855 but no more info]
  • Arthur Henry b 1856 in Boulogne-sur-Mer - was Captain of 3rd Battalion Welsh Regiment at his father's inquest
  • Sophia Alice b 1859
  • Constance Ada b 1860
  • Theodore Hatton b 1863 at Neath
  • Charles Forbes b 1866 at Neath
• Emily Eliza ~1812-? - can't find a baptism; only found her when her marriage was announced in 1840: She married Captain Edward William HARRIS of the Indian Navy. Can't find him in any census. She was living at her mother's house in one of the early censuses. No more data.
• Catherine Caroline ~1815-1893 baptised 4 Nov, Broadwater, Sussex, with sister Louisa; married Henry S WILDE, a barrister, in 1847, nephew of Lord Chief Justice Wilde. Some family papers in the Calland collection at Swansea. Catherine died at their home at Pembroke Gardens, Kensington [The Times 4th July 1893].
• Louisa ~1814-? baptised 4 Nov, Broadwater, Sussex, with sister Catherine. At home with mother Catherine in Hertford Street in the 1841 census; can find no more.
• Augustus Percival 1815-1901, baptised 16 July 1815 at Broadwater, Worthing; joined Harrow School Jan 1830, nominated as Sheriff for Glamorganshire in 1840 [Liverpool Mercury], married Hannah Matilda GIBSON of Ramsgate in the summer of 1840, lived in Italy for a few years but by 1851 were living at Westbourne Terrace Road, Paddington. In 1861 they had moved to The Slade, Willesden. Hannah died and Augustus Percival moved back to Ramsgate, where I think he was helpful to the seven unmarried and homeless daughters of his cousin the Revd John Cunningham Calland Bennett Popkin HAWKINS, who have their own chapter in this saga. In 1871 Augustus Percival married again - his new wife Ellen Sarah was very young and maybe to spare the feelings of his two daughters he moved back to Maida Vale, London. He died at 16 Hall Road, Marylebone St John in the autumn of 1901. The children of Augustus Percival and Hannah Matilda were:
  • Emily Florence b 1842 buried 7 November 1842 in Florence, Italy
  • Charles Forbes b 10 June bapt 17 July 1843, in Florence, Tuscany; Lieut in 98th Regiment - his uncle George's regiment. In 1871 he married Annie Isabella A SHAW, daughter of William Shaw, retired major in the Bengal Cavalry who caused me much confusion later by changing his surname to ALEXANDER. I think the contemporary newspapers would have described Charles Forbes as a bit of a bounder. In 1872 a Charles Forbes Calland and George Oliver Camroux, wine merchants of Eastcheap, London, were declared bankrupt with liabilities of £5,000. In the 1881 census he was living on Bromley Common, a merchant, but his wife was back with her parents in (now called ALEXANDER) in Weybridge and their two daughters were with their Calland aunts in Ramsgate. In the 1891 census he described himself as an Australian merchant and was re-united with his wife (born in the East Indies) and a new son Arthur. This reconciliation did not last long: by 1901 Charles Forbes was living with two sisters in a four-roomed house in Brixton (can't find any marriage) and Annie Isabella was now Head of her own household with her three children, at Derry Downs, Bromley, Kent. Charles Forbes' death in 1907 was registered in Neath, Glamorgan - goodness knows what chaos he left behind when he returned to the ancestral estates! He was 65.
  • Augustus Percival Jnr b 2 June bapt 1 August 1844 in Florence, Italy and he was with his parents in the 1851 and 1861 censuses. I know very little more - the National Archives has a record of a court case in 1871 concerning the Forest estate where Augustus P Jnr is described as 'abroad'. I do not know when or where he died.
  • Henry Douglas birth registered in Kensington in 1846; with parents in 1851 and 1861. Mentioned in the same court case in 1871, also 'abroad'. No more data. NB the GRO's BMD index says a Frederick Douglas' birth was registered in 1846. I can find no further trace of this name and think it is a transcription error.
  • Gertrude Florence is at home in the 1851 census but that is the only mention of her that I could find. No birth, marriage, or death registered at the GRO.
  • Caroline Lavinia birth registered at Kensington in 1850, one of the two daughters left in Ramsgate when their father re-married then I think she surfaces again in the 1901 census, having married in 1892, Marylebone, a Frederick Coore MEIN, a retired major of the Shropshire Light Infantry and widower with three children. In the 1901 census the new family is in Wilton, Somerset. If I found the right one.
  • Emily Elizabeth Harriet birth registered in Swansea in 1852, the other of the two daughters left in Ramsgate when their father re-married. She died in Ramsgate in 1892, aged 39.
• Charlotte Sophia 1817-? baptised on 23 March at Broadwater, Sussex. I know no more.
• Frederick ~1818-1887 can't find a birth record and his age varies wildly throughout the censuses but I think his was the death recorded in Dorking, aged 69 in 1887, which would make him born about 1818. This son seems to have taken an active part in running the family business in Wales. He married twice, the second time into the same GARDNER family of Connington Hall, Cambridge, as did his brother John Forbes Calland.

Postscript: In November 2009, at that serendipitous meeting with some Forbes-Bentleys, I learned that at least one more of the daughters also married into the GARDNER family and a lot of GARDNER information is in their possession. Photographs, coats-of-arms, family trees, are being collected and stored safely.

Bibliography

John Calland's friendship with Jane Austen is mentioned in Jane Austen and the Clergy by Irene Collins, published by The Hambleton Press in 1994 and My Dear Cassandra - letters to her sister selected and introduced by Penelope Hughes-Hallett, published by Collins and Brown, 1990.