Silvia’s Family

Marriage

Husband – Athole Hay

Mother – Emily F Amys

Father – Fausset M Baker

Brother – Arthur A F Baker

Family Tree – below

Forebears – below


Silvia's Family Tree

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Details are as accurate as possible but may be subject to alteration.

Margaret Morrisson birth & death dates are uncertain

Click here to see .pdf version

Forebears

Paternal –BAKER, MORRISSON, PARÉ, OAKES

Maternal –AMYS, HARRISON, WINDUS, YARINGTON

BAKER:  Richard & John

In the early 1930s Silvia’s brother corresponded with Aunt Anna about their father, Fausset, and his Baker forebears.  Anna lived in Dublin’s Merrion Square and was the widow of Fausset’s brother. 

From Anna’s notes, we understand that the Bakers originally came from Dartington, Devon. They were farmers and lived in a thatched house in Cott, a hamlet a mile south of Dartington.  There are only a few houses on the 1887 map (below) – it is likely that the layout hardly changed between the 1780s & 1880s. The Cott Inn is known as one of the oldest pubs in Britain.  

The family motto was “Fortis et Fides” – Strong & Faith.  Gt Aunt Adelaide suggests it should be Fortis et Fidelis meaning Strong & Faithful or Steadfast in Faith. Down the generations, according to Aunt Anna, most of the Baker sons were named Richard or John. The first Baker we know of is John who married Mary Beer of Dittisham, Devon on 9th January 1781  (&/or Mary Blacklin).  They had at least two sons born in Dartington: Richard on 26th May 1782 and John on 23rd June 1785. John (jr) was Fausset Baker’s Grandfather and Richard, his Great Uncle.  The boys were young when their father died in 1798. One wonders if they were called up to fight in the Napoleonic Wars? Or were they charged with maintaining the family farm? For whatever reason, however, in their late twenties , they sold the farm in 1811 and set off for Ireland. 

The Baker brothers established themselves in the textile trade in Dublin; maybe this was because they had been sheep farmers in Devon?  In Wilson’s 1820 Directory, Richard and John (R&J) are described as Merchant Tailors at 11 Dawson Street;  there is also a John Baker, a Woolen (sic) Draper, not far away at 3 Parliament Street.  Whether or not they had friends or relatives living in Ireland is not recorded but, within three years, the brothers had married two Morrisson sisters: Mary (m. Richard) & Margaret (m. John).  There was a double wedding at St Anne’s Church on Dawson Street on 24th June 1814. (see Morrisson below)

In 1833 Richard became High Sheriff of Dublin and received a knighthood from Marquess Wellesley, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the time (and brother of the Duke of Wellington). This would have been whilst Earl Grey was Prime Minister (1830-34). Aunt Anna implies that Richard was knighted by Queen Victoria around this time. The Queen, however, did not visit Ireland as Sovereign until August 1849 (at the height of the Great Famine). No doubt Richard and his wife would have been in attendance during her stay in Dublin.

According to a hand-me-down tree, Richard and Mary had ‘sons who died young’ and one daughter, also called Mary. She is described as an excellent singer but remained unmarried. Her Morrisson grandmother died in 1835 and so Mary acted as Lady Mayoress to her widowed grandfather. In 1838 Richard became an Alderman. He was living at Mount Errol, Donnybrook when he died in 1853, aged 72. His shop is listed in Thom’s Almanac in 1862 as Moir & Ritchie with Lady Baker in charge. Aunt Anna described the shop as ‘still flourishing’ in 1934.  Sir Richard’s details are recorded in The Illustrated London News (June 18th 1853 Issue 628 Vol 2) and also in a Peerage Notation.

The YouWho Irish website provides evidence that his ‘young’ sons were Richard (1820-1850) and Edmund (1828-1854).  It also suggests that Richard (Sr) married Mary Smith (1797-1867) in 1832.  If so, this was a second marriage, given that Richard would have been 52 and his sons were born in the previous decade.  

Meanwhile, John (Jr) had married Margaret Morrisson. He was a Warden of the Guild of Tailors.  In 1840, he purchased Morrissons Hotel from Robert Morrisson.  For many years this was the ‘top hotel’ in Dublin, on the corner of Nassau Street and 1 Dawson Street – not far from the tailor shops. We do not know much about John except through his probate. He died on 8th June 1861 and left ‘under’ £14,000. His widow was the Executor and their address was 98 Lower Mount Street, near Dublin’s Merrion Square. They had four children: (Dr) John (Fausset’s father) and Adelaide (Ada) plus two other daughters.

Dr John Baker:
John Andrew Baker was born in Clontarf in c1820. He was the only son of John & Margaret Baker. Nothing is known of his youth but he studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). According to a Licentiate Roll, he was living at 1 Dawson Street in July 1847. Morrisons hotel was very close to TCD and this suggests that he had lodgings at Morrisons when his father was the proprietor. 

Thanks to information provided by the archive department of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland -John passed his LRCSI in 1847 and became a Fellow of the RCSI in 1853. Besides TCD, he trained at Middlesex Hospital in London. He was also, a member of Obstetrics and Pathology Societies in Dublin and the Odontological Society in London (Medical Directory 1865).

On 27th September 1851, he married Caroline Paré of Castle Avenue, Clontarf. They moved into 4 Clare Street, close to Dublin’s Merrion Square and  had 4 children: Arthur, Fausset and twin girls – Caroline (Cissie) and another daughter who died three days after birth. Tragically, their mother, Caroline, died a week later, just before Christmas 1854. She is buried at the Jerome Cemetery (with Fausset).

Four years later, on 5th July 1860, John married Jane Affleck MaCarthy (1826-1885) of 63 Wellington Road. The marriage took place at St Anne’s Church, Dawson Street. Jane had 4 sisters and a brother called Jeremiah. 

in June 1866, John was elected to the Royal Irish Academy. According to Wikipedia, the RIA is Ireland’s premier learned society, an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It was founded in 1785; in 1852 the Academy moved to its current Dublin home at 19 Dawson Street, close to Morrison’s Hotel, the merchant tailor’s shop and St Anne’s Church.

Dr John was also a prominent Freemason.  The Archivist at the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Ireland has established that he joined Lodge No 143 in Dublin in 1857.

A Masonic Hall Company was set up in the 1860s to raise funds to build a masonic hall by selling shares to members.  Work began in 1866.  John was appointed to the Board of Directors in February 1869 and, in the following July, the first masonic meeting was held at, what became known as, Freemasons’ Hall.  By the early 1870s, John was the Grand Treasurer for the Great Priory of Ireland. 

A large stained-glass window, in the Hall’s Preceptory Room, was replaced in 1873 in honour of a visit by the Prince of Wales.  It depicts the heraldry of the most senior officers of the Great Priory since 1869.  John’s coat of arms features in the bottom centre panel. It corresponds to a pencil sketch that Aunt Anna sent to Silvia’s brother.  The crest shows a wyvern, similar to a family signet stamp.  The greyhound in the middle section is believed to derive from the paternal forebears of John’s first wife.  The wording at the base is: John Andrew Baker KCT (Knight Commander of the Temple).  This is an honorary title granted by the Great Prior in recognition of a Freemason’s contribution and commitment to the Order. The Duke of Leinster (Augustus Frederick Fitzgerald) had been the Grand Prior for several decades but died in 1874. 

By the 1880 edition of Thom’s Directory, John was described as a surgeon-dentist at Dr Steevens’s hospital. In December 1895, Jeremiah (a surgeon and John’s brother-in-law through his second wife) married John’s first wife’s daughter, Cissie, at St Giles in the Fields, London WC2. On the marriage certificate, her father (now deceased) was described as a Dentist.

John died of cardiac failure on 30th May 1890 at 4 Clare St aged 69 (hence he was born approx. 1820-21). At the time of his death, he was a ‘31st degree Freemason’. His probate amounted to £1,086. Jane had died of dropsy in 1885.  There is a memorial for both of them at the Jerome Cemetery:
In Loving Memory, Jane Affleck Baker, 3rd February 1885
And John Andrew Baker, Died May 30th 1890

Kate, Mary & Adelaide Baker: 

John had three sisters.  Nothing, however, was known about two of them until their names turned up on the YouWho website as Kate & Mary.  There is no mention, however, of John’s younger sister, Adelaide (1830-1909). She  married Francis Webb Sheild*, an engineer. They had two sons, Wentworth Francis (1867-1944) who became a Bishop and Francis Ernest OBE (1869-1959) who was a Civil Engineer. Like the two Morrisson girls who married the Baker brothers, the two Sheild brothers married Boyd-Carpenter sisters – Annie & Mary (Molly).

*Sometimes Shield or Shields. There are two signed paintings by their grandson who spells it Sheild.

MORRISSON

Note:  Morrisson is spelt with a double ‘s’ but is more often reduced to a single ‘s’ in the latter half of the 19thC.

Arthur Morrisson was born in c.1765. Aunt Anna writes that he came to Ireland from Scotland and was interested in literature, especially the writings of Sir Walter Scott.  Arthur married a widow called Catherine Jackson in January 1786 (tbc). Tradition has it that she was a ‘close relative’ of Maria Edgeworth, a famous novelist of the day. This would tie in with Arthur’s literary interests. There is a baptismal entry for a Catherine Edgeworth in Dublin in 1755 (making her ten years older than Arthur).  Maria and Catherine were most likely to have been cousins, rather than siblings or half siblings, as Maria’s father was only ten or eleven years older than Catherine. 

There is no record of Catherine’s first marriage;  nor is there any mention of  children but she and Arthur had four young: Robert (b.1788 or 1802), Catherine (1790-1860), along with Mary & Margaret. The latter two married the Baker brothers at a double wedding in St Anne’s Church, Dawson Street on 24th June 1814 (see Baker above).

Arthur was a well-known hotelier. He ran a mail coach tavern in Dawson Street before taking over a hotel in Frederick Street. Then in 1817 he took out a lease on 1 Dawson Street (on the corner of Nassau Street) and opened a hotel, called the Leinster Tavern & Hotel. It was known locally as Morrisson’s and, when Robert Morrisson took over in 1840, Morrissons became the hotel’s official name. Many festive occasions were celebrated in its ‘long room on the first floor’ and it was used by a variety of Charities, Clubs & Societies. In 1858 Charles Dickens stayed there and Charles Stewart Parnell MP was a regular visitor. In 1879, Parnell was elected President of the Irish National Land League and, when in Dublin, he would work from the hotel. In October 1881, however, following a recent Coercion Act, Parnell was arrested at the hotel for inciting tenants not to pay rent. He was subsequently imprisoned for six months. The original hotel building was pulled down in the early 1900s, to make way for an insurance company, and is now known as Morrison Chambers (with one ‘s’).

Morrissons Hotel, Irish Independent, 23 June 1899
Parnell Plaque, taken 2008

Arthur was very active in public life – notably in Donnybrook where he lived. He oversaw several developments in the area, including new roads, and helped enable the construction of Anglesea Bridge over the River Dodder in 1832. He was also instrumental in the foundation of a local hospital and an Asylum. Around 1808, he entered local government and served on the Grand Jury for the County & City of Dublin from 1823. The following year he was elected as one of two Sheriffs for Dublin (Saunders, 1st May 1824) and, subsequently, was a Sheriff ‘Peer’ until elected Alderman in 1829. He became the Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1835-6. Sadly, his wife died just before his Mayoralty began; instead, his granddaughter, Mary Baker (1826-1910) acted as Lady Mayoress (see Baker above).

There is an article in The Spectator (25th Feb 1832) about the then Lord Mayor of Dublin – along with Mr Alderman Morrisson, a Mr Butler, some Irish Peers and half a dozen Commoners. It reports that they paid a visit to St James’s Palace to protest about the imminent changes affecting the representation of the Irish People. The entourage walked from Regent Street in an ‘orderly procession’ and presented their anti-reform Corporation Address to William IV; it was read to the King by the Recorder.  Not surprisingly, their appeal was firmly rejected and squashed ‘in a tone which will be audible from the Giant’s Causeway to Cape Clear’.  This episode gives some indication of Morrisson’s political stance.  The Irish Reform Act duly passed into law in August 1832. 

Lord Mayor of Dublin 1835-36

Whilst Lord Mayor, a couple of satirical prints were published in 1836. In one, Morrisson is being stabbed (Death of Caesar) and, in the other, mocked (Turning the Tables). The prints are held in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London. The impetus behind these cartoons remains a mystery but they might have something to do with the Irish Municipal Corporations Bill; this was debated over several years, including at Westminster in February 1836. Online, it is possible to click on the surrounding faces, revealing members of the elite ruling class who represent a variety of political persuasions. Initially, the sketches were signed ‘HB’ and remained anonymous. Later the artist became known as John Doyle (1797-1868). He was born in Dublin but moved to London in 1822. In all, he produced nearly 700 prints, many of which now reside in the NPG as they are ‘true representations, a record of the age’.

Arthur died in 1837 at Belville Lodge, Donnybrook, Dublin (not far from his son-in-law, Richard Baker). His nephew (?), Robert, was sole executor of the Will. Arthur was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery which had opened during his mayoralty in January 1936. Initially, his wife was buried at Donnybrook but, subsequently, was re-interred at Mount Jerome alongside her husband.

Their (faded) plaque reads:

Here rest Catherine the beloved wife of Alderman Arthur Morrisson of Dawson Street the City of Dublin with whom she lived in perfect harmony as a wife, mother, friend and Christian. Her conduct was exemplary and her piety sincere. She died April 11th 1835 aged 80 years.   Also the remains of her beloved husband Alderman Arthur Morrisson who departed this life 5th Oct. 1837 aged 72 years.

A sizeable obelisk was erected in Arthur’s memory, near to Anglesea Bridge. An article by Danny Parkinson describes the inscription as extoling the virtues of Arthur who was a ‘sincere friend, charitable kind generous, as a Christian and citizen there were few to equal non to surpass him’. The obelisk also features on the Donnybrook Walking Trail.

Donnybrook Obelisk

A pencil sketch of the Morrisson coat of arms also survives, as does a book-plate. Awareness of ‘Black Lives Matter’ and slavery accountability means that, today, it is awkward to find the arms are dominated by three black heads. Some initial searches explain, however, that (as is usual) they stem from an early version of the surname – Mauritius/Maurus (meaning, variously, North African, Moorish, dark); later the name translated as Maurice, Mauritz, Moritz and in Gt Britain as Morris. Morrisson signifies the son of Morris.

In the Middle Ages, Blackamoor or ‘black moor’ were English terms used to describe black people along with their cultural artefacts. In heraldry, a blackamoor can be the ‘charge’. The head of a Moor is blazoned as a ‘maure’ or ‘moor’s head’. The design features on many heraldic shields including the Sardinian flag where four moor heads are depicted with bandanas.

Sardinian Coat of Arms

Sources:

Parkinson Article – https://www.jstor.org/stable/30101089

Donnybrook Walking Trail –
https://donnybrooktidytowns.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/DonnybrookWalkingTrail.pdf

YouWho website –
https://www.youwho.ie/morrisson.html

Richard Baker – in Peers, Baronets, Knights by Charles R Dod (aka Dodd) 1844 

PARÉ & OAKES to follow in due course…

AMYS:

We knew nothing about the Amys connection, other than it was one of my mother’s fore-names.  In the late 1990’s, however, a handwritten scrap of paper was found in an old wooden box and it referenced what looked like ‘Bickinghall’.   The local record office had recently re-opened and had set up an archive programme on their computers.  I typed in ‘Amys, Bickinghall’ and up popped Rickinghall.  This was news to us all!  It is one of a pair of villages in Suffolk – Inferior & Superior – close to the Norfolk border.  Subsequently, some relatives were able to call by and found several Amys gravestones in the Churchyard.  It seems the Amys family stretch back over many generations, spread across both Suffolk and Norfolk.

Fast forward to 2017, by which time I had gathered enough detail to put together an Amys family tree but not enough evidence.  By good fortune, I then met someone involved with the History of Rickinghall and this resulted in a wealth of background information being made available.

Adelaide’s father was John Dunham Amys. He was baptised in Parham Suffolk and was the eldest of six children (John, Anna, Frances, Ellen, Philip & Arthur). His grandfather, John Amys, was a Gentleman farmer in Rickinghall Inferior. It is thought that this particular John was orphaned and brought up by an Uncle & Aunt (John & Laetitia Quince). He married Frances Fawden in Brompton in 1783 (London Metropolitan Archives) and had 3 daughters (Frances, Elizabeth & Mary) along with two sons (John Howlett & James). They lived in Snape Hill House (now a farmhouse).
When John’s estate was sold, it consisted of 422 acres of fertile pasture and shooting drives, buildings and ‘a family residence built with celebrated white Suffolk brick’. (Times 30.06.1837)

Snape Hill House featured in an 1841 auction catalogue

John Howlett Amys was John Dunham’s father. He married Anne Harrison in 1824 and farmed on the edge of Walsham le Willows at Hartshall. According to a historic trail which passes nearby, Hartshall is a corruption of a field name, Hordeshawe. John H’s brother, James, lived in the Lodge at Botesdale. (NB: Howlett is sometimes transcribed as Hewitt.)
AmysMarried
John1752-1833Frances Fawdenc1766-1845
John Howlett1790-1851Anne Harrison1799-1852
John Dunham1826-1873Adelaide Windus1832-1912

 

HARRISON:

Anne Harrison was John Dunham Amys mother. The Harrisons were a large family based in Palgrave, not far from Rickinghall. As luck would have it, back in the late ‘noughties’, I met a member of the Palgrave Society at a lunch held in North Barningham (North Norfolk) where the small church is full of Palgrave memorials. We were in correspondence afterwards and I received a bunch of useful information about the Harrisons. A key clue was the fact that the surname of John D’s grandmother was Dunham. I kept the Harrison material in abeyance, however, until I had worked out the Amys family tree.

Maria Dunham was Anne Harrison’s mother and was one of seven siblings. Her eldest brother, Charles (1794-1873) married one of John H Amys’ sisters, also called Maria (1792-1845).

Maria D was brought up in Bridgham, a small village near East Harling, Norfolk. In 1793, she married Philip Joseph Harrison at St Mary’s Church, Bridgham. Philip was the youngest of seven children – four boys and three girls. Their parents were Charles Harrison and Ann Moore of Kentwell Hall near Long Melford. Sadly, Ann died in 1762, either in childbirth, or soon after Philip was born. Her father, John Mould, was born in Lincolnshire and succeeded his Moore cousin, who had no children. In so doing, John inherited Kentwell and changed his surname to Moore. (see Burke’s Peerage)

HarrisonMarried
Charles1721-1804Ann Moore1721-1762
Philip Joseph1762-1830Maria Dunham1772-1837
Anne1799-1852John Howlett Amys1790-1851

Kentwell Hall in 1818 by landscape engraver Thomas Higham,

during Richard Moore’s occupancy (Wikipedia, Dec 2023)

WINDUS:

Not much is known about the Windus family. They had large families and lived variously in London (including Chancery Lane), Ware in Hertfordshire and Epping. Many of them were in the legal profession.

WindusMarriedBirth
James1620-1691Anne Walpole1621-1644/63
Arthur1650-1705Margaret Parnell (2)1660-1691
James1681-1763Sarah Plumer1686- ?
William1710-1785/88Millicent Ann Hunt1712-1799
John1741-1826Ann Uffindale1741-1794
James1769-1846Rebecca Parker (2)1770- ?
John Wm1798-1848Jane Yarington 1799-1869
Adelaide1832-1912John Dunham Amys1826-1873

Adelaide’s Siblings were:

WindusBornDied
John William 1825-1898SwaffhamEpping
Jane Isabella 1826-1849
Louisa Mary 1829–1903EppingCroydon
Edward Ernest 1834–1908Epsom
Gertrude Emily 1835–1924Kensington
Beatrice Emma 1837–1908Epping
Edith Rose1840–1917
Campbell Lionel 1843–1871

Adelaide’s eldest brother, John William continued the male line. He married Emma Evans (1843-1931). John  was Clerk to the Union House Board of Governors, Clerk of the Epping & Ongar Turnpike Trust and Clerk of Epping Free Church. Several of his descendants moved to Canada. 

 

YARINGTON:

Even less is known about the Yaringtons. William (1760-1839) lived in Market Place, Swaffham. He was married in December 1797 to Mary Ingoldsby (1771-post 1841). William was a Solicitor on London Road and acted for, amongst others, the nearby Narborough estate (see Norfolk Record Office). His practice was an Agent for Holtaway in the City of London.

Adelaide’s father, John Wm Windus (1798-1848), was sent from Epping to Swaffham, to train (presumably) as an articled clerk. He married ‘the boss’s daughter’- Jane Mary Yarington, in Swaffham Church in 1823. Jane (1799-1869) had a much younger sister called Elizabeth (1810-1878). Her Will was proved by Adelaide’s sister, Louisa Mary Windus, being sole executrice. A memorial window in Swaffham Parish Church was dedicated to Elizabeth (south side of the transept).