In 1982 Janet & Eric Hall, both GPs of Chichester contacted me. He is the son of Nancy Elizabeth GAUBERT who married Herbert HALL GP in 1919. Eric's grandmother was Lucy Alice JEANS nee GAUBERT, the daughter of John Peter GAUBERT (hereafter 'JPG') who died in Russia. All the Gauberts and I are in great debt to both Eric and Janet for their tenacious work, incisive interpretation, and analytical assistance over several years. There are four principal families involved in this story - the MANNERS, STEVENSONs, BANNISTERs, and GAUBERTs. This has been probably the most interesting part of the story. It is primarily about Tatiana or 'Tania' GAUBERT and her origins, and the Russian branch of our family. It gives an insight into an immigrant‚ C 19th wealthy merchant - family's life and their connections to an important historical event, the Russian Revolution. And more besides.
This refers to her receiving from an RN pal in France a copy passport / visa signed by the Earl of Clarendon, the Secretary of State for Foreign affairs for Mrs. Ann GOBERT (GAUBERT), three sons and one daughter plus one maid servant. Dated 09.10.1857 - June 1858 with a French signature. In the bottom right-hand corner is a brief note on her route 'gendre par mer' a St Petersburg' (possible reference to her going to her son-in-law in St Petersburg).
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In 2014 I received the following information from Janet. It is primarily the contents of family letters to which I've added some of my related research.
1. Natalia VISHKOV is a descendant of Aunt Alice (who married Dahlberg) and niece of Yuri Rudenko. Natalia is a 7th cousin of Eric Hall by John Peter Gaubert's 1st marriage. Eric is the 4th generation of John Peter's 3rd marriage. In a letter of 2009, Natalia said that she and Yuri (Rudenko?) had planned a visit to Tatiana Alekseevna, who had been previously visited by Roxanna. This Tatiana is the great grand-daughter of John Robert Nicholas Gaubert (by a believed second marriage)
2. Elena Metelenka has son Yuri.
3. Natalia found grave of Bessie’s aunt Letitia (nee Babbington, wife of John Alexander Stevenson) in Croydon (died in London 1926/7). 'Bessie' was Elizabeth Ann Lucy Gaubert, the daughter of George Manners Gaubertt & Lucy nee Stevenson and who married Geltzer. Bessie had Alice, Leila and a son. It is from the son that Elena Metelenka in the line above is descended.
4. Lucy E Gaubert 1839 – 28.1.1892 buried at Graffsky Slavianka
5. Lucy Call (1772-1862) married Charles Manners who died 1824. When widowed she moved to St Petersburg to live with her daughter Eliz. Stevenson (1802 1867) and is buried with her husband in the Lutheran Burial Ground at Grafskoi Slvanka (later known as Czarskayo Slavianka) near Schusselburg.
6. Charles Manners who died 1824 was a landscape gardener to the Empress Catherine. He went to Russia in 1792, settled in Schusselburg and died of a paralytic seizure on 28th May 1824, the marriage day of his two daughters, Catherine Philipson 1796-1862 (who married Simon Romanes) and Lucy 1800 30/31 who married John Peter Gaubert.
7. STEVENSONS
The 3rd daughter of Charles Manners, ‘Mary’? Cath. Eliz Manners married Alexander Stevenson, merchant of St Petersburg. We think he came initially from a village outside Edinburgh. His eldest son John Alex. Stevenson was a papermaker in Ouglich, Tver, Russia. The shares of JPG’s paper mill were chiefly held by the Gaubert, Stevenson and Manners families.
8. John Stevenson was Secretary of the company and married his cousin Eliz. Sarah Gaubert (who died at Bridgewater, Somerset Oct 11th 1898 aged 58). They had one child, Elizabeth Alice Stevenson who married Arthur Basil Cottam, architect of Bridgewater, Somerset.
9. Alexander Stevenson 1841-1901 2nd son of Alex Stevenson married, after 1871 according to the census, to Letitia Anne Babbington 1847-1927. He became Secretary of the company when his brother died. No children.
10. The only daughter of the first Alex Stevenson, Lucy Euphemia Stevenson (1839-1892), married her cousin George Manners Gaubert 1825-1885 who became Managing Director of the company when his father JPG died in 1860.
11. Robert Manners (1771-1831) was a landscape gardener to Count .chrime..ff in Moscow. His wife Elizabeth Rutherford (1788 - 12th Jan 1824) was buried in churchyard of the British Church of St Petersburg on Jan 14th 1824. Both died in St Petersburg
12. George Frederick Gaubert 1792-1871
George Frederick was the son of George Gaubert b. 1772 and his 1st wife Sarah, and the elder brother of John Peter Gaubert 1794-1860.
Father, George Gaubert, married his 2nd wife Catherine Crawford in 1795 (IGI) and they had one son, Frederick dob unknown. We presume therefore that Sarah, 1st wife, possibly died in childbirth, or soon after John Peter was born in 1794. George Gaubert was one of the many children of Peter Gaubert & Ann, nee Waight.
George Frederick born in Middlesex married 1st Sarah nee Harris in ?1817 and they had 4 children:-
Sarah born 1818,
George Edward born 1819,
Frederick born 1827,
Georgiana Waight born 1829.
Their mother Sarah died ?1838 aged 41 therefore born 1797, because by the 1851 census, Elizabeth was his wife and they were living at 2, Hanley Road, Islington, and George Frederick was a commercial merchant, British and Russian. Later he is described as a Law Stationer and a Baltic Trade merchant, and also a painter. His 2nd wife Elizabeth (Mrs Craddock mentions ‘his 2nd wife Elizabeth’, (letter Dec 1991 see later) was one year younger than her husband in the 1851 census yet in the 1871 census when they were living at 3, Lambton Road, Upper Holloway, Islington, she was four years younger....(enumerator’s mistake or natural vanity ?). Elizabeth died between 1871–1881 as she is not in the 1881 census when Frederick Gaubert was the head of the family.
13. Children of George Frederick Gaubert
Sarah (1818-1890) was married in 1839 to John Milne Kitson Aitken (1818-1875). They went to Australia in 1849 sailing on the ‘John Woodall’ and taking with them Sarah’s brother George Edward (1819-1897 aged 78 years) who died in Brunswick, Victoria, Australia... John appears to have been a farmer and when in Australia was 1st Clerk to the Bradford Council in Victoria. I found more information about John Aitken & Sarah nee Gaubert on the following website:
http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/fh/passengerlists/1849JohnWoodall.htm -
The South Australian Register, Adelaide, Jan 20th 1849, shipping intelligence, arrived:
The barque ‘John Woodall’ 380 tons from London, steerage passengers JMK Aitken, wife and four children. Left for Victoria on the ‘Halcyon’ on January 31st 1849. ‘Halcyon’ was a brig, 174 tons, built 1848 and 97.3 x 21.5 x 13.4 ft.
She was wrecked and lost six miles south of the Murray Mouth, on 14 November 1857 but no lives lost
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The South Australian Register, Adelaide, Jan 20th 1849, shipping intelligence, arrived: The barque ‘John Woodall’ 380 tons from London, steerage passengers JMK Aitken, wife and four children. Left for Victoria on the ‘Halcyon’ on January 31st 1849. (see 2 photos) ‘Halcyon’ was a brig, 174 tons, built 1848. She was wrecked and lost six miles south of the Murray Mouth, on 14 November 1857 but no lives lost |
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| barque 'Sigyn' 359 tons similar in size to 'John Woodall' | |||||||||||||||||||
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http://www.oocities.org/vic1847/ship45.html
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No 7. Post Office, Melbourne, |
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Broadford Cemetery trust Victoria
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Sarah & John had 12 children, all of whom we can name and some of whom we know a little about. We also have an Aitken family tree. The first 7 children were all born in UK (7th child born 1847) when we think John was farming in Fordingbridge. Hants, the address given on the 1881 census for the birth place of ‘Lizzie’ (despite 1871 census giving her birthplace as Middlesex. Their 3rd child Elizabeth always known as ‘Lizzie’ (as above) 1842/43 – 1929 was aged 8 yrs in 1851 census and 29 yrs in 1871 census, lived with her grandfather and family till she went to Australia in 1904.
Their 5th child was William George 1844-1894, he became a builder and it was a great-grandchild of his, Mrs Dorothy Craddock, whom we managed to contact and who supplied their family tree and some photos. The name ‘Gaubert’ was continued with Georgiana Gaubert Aitken (next child after William George) born 1846 but I cannot see it anywhere else in the Aitken family tree.
14. Excerpt from Mrs Craddock’s letters 30.01.1991
‘John AITKEN was a law clerk and I think he was fairly well-off. His father William Aitken was a surgeon in Bombay, India before he died. His brother David and John’s brother David were also doctors.
Later on in 1856, the two Davids died within three months of each other and John’s family was left about £12,000.
I don’t really know why Elizabeth Aitken (Lizzie) was left with her grandparents and aunt. John & Sarah had already lost a son, David their 1st born, so I can only suppose she might have been sickly and they thought she might not survive the long, long sea voyage. She must have eventually come to Australia when she received her inheritance from the Aitkens’ wills, by then she was about 62 years old.”
15. George Edward 1819-1897 - 2nd child of GFG & Sarah. He went to Australia with Sarah & John Aitken.
16. Frederick 1827-1899 - 3rd child of GFG & Sarah. He was a clerk in London and never married. (1851,1871 & 1881 census).
17. Georgiana Waight – 4th child of GFG & Sarah, living at home, unmarried (1851, 1871, 1881 census). She died in Islington. In the 1881 census, Frederick (53), Georgiana (51) and ‘Lizzie’ (38) were all living at 87, Windsor Road, Islington.
What is interesting about the 1881 census taken on March 30th., is that on that night, staying at 2, Hanley Road, Islington with GFG & his family, was ‘Anne Manners, visitor, age 32, born in Russia, a British subject, and Elizabeth Sarah Gaubert great-niece, aged 10 years, born in St Petersburg, Russia, a British subject’. This ‘Anne Manners’ was Anna Maria Sarah Manners who married John Peter Gaubert, (George Frederick’s younger brother) as his 3rd wife, in 1851 in Wandsbek, Hamburg.....Maybe they were on their way to be married. (the exact date of the marriage is not given on the certificate). Their eldest child, Robert, was born 1851 (baptised 4th Oct. 1851 at St Mary, Battersea) and Peter was born 1852/3, (baptised 01.06.1853 also at St Mary, Battersea)
18. We have one complete letter of 17.3.1862 from Georgiana to her sister Sarah, and one of the same date from George Frederick Gaubert to Sarah, and an excerpt of a letter, date unknown but probably 1880/81, from Lizzie Aitken to her mother Sarah, referring to the death of Anna M S Gaubert which was in 1880.
There must have been quite a correspondence between the two sisters, though obviously there were lapses occasionally as can be read in Georgiana’s letter. Sarah must have been very busy as she had 5 more children after 1847 of which 3 lived to adulthood, whereas Georgiana was an unemployed spinster living at home, fairly comfortably we imagine.
19. Letter 17.3.1862
“My Dear Sister,
I was much pleased at receiving a letter from you after so long a silence....we began to feel quite uneasy at not hearing from some of you if only a few lines to say how you all were....I would have written to you but was uncertain whether you were still in the same locality, but you know we are settled here, therefore hope you will not be so long in writing to me again. Lizzy told you in her letter how ill I had been with Erysipelas, but am now quite recovered..... She was so very kind and attentive to me during the time... indeed I don’t know what we should have done without her. We do not wish any of us to part with her as she will always share a home with us ??? circumstances turn out as they will. She is such a companion for me”... Then a bit about the Aitken family....”Father has been very poorly with an attack of rheumatism, but he was recommended to try some medicine which has done him a great deal of good, and he is now much better, he still continues his drawing and is now getting a piece ready for to send to the Royal Academy....He felt Uncle’s conduct towards him very much, especially as there was no cause for his acting in the cold distant manner he did... he never once wrote to him, nor do we know anything of their affairs..
Mrs G is now over here with John, but they have never called upon and their conduct is certainly very strange, it was very sad his death occurring so suddenly, it must have been a fit of apoplexy, it seems he had just dined and went out to meet a gentleman, the new Governor General of the place who came to visit the inhabitants on his appointment, and make a complaint that some chemical preparation used in the manufactory had poisoned the water, which was merely a story got up to extort money as a bribe from Uncle, and in vindicating himself he became so excited that he dropped down and immediately expired.
John was married last August. We were invited to the wedding but did not go as we were strangers to the lady’s family, and not over-friendly with him, and we should not have felt comfortable ... it was rather a grand affair... they however sent us cards.
I am sorry to say that Fred is now out of employment, owing to Mr Hall giving up business, but we hope he will get something to do soon... there are so many clerks now wanting situations that it is very difficult to meet with anything to suit him...
We were so glad to hear you were getting on so well with your farm and hope will continue to prosper and try and make enough to come over here and settle, for we should so much like to see you all... Willie must now be getting quite a young man, and very useful to his father... We were pleased to hear you give such a good account of all the children, and should we not like to see them... Tell John his Aunt Blacke was quite well considering her age, when his sister called on her last, which is now about a month since. She was very pleased to hear of you....
We shall be glad to hear from George... I suppose he would not be writing because he did not hear from us in answer to his last letter... but Fred wrote him a long letter containing the catalogues and drawings of the farming implements and all the ??? ???? about which it appeared he never received at which Fred much vexed.
Father does not get so many orders from Russia as he did, but we must be thankful for what he does get, but times have not altered for the better.... but still they are no worse than when you last heard, tho’ it rather worries us that Fred cannot get something to do.... As father is going to write you a few lines I will not say any more, at present hoping this will find you all well and ???? ???? Kisses to the children, believe me I remain, Your affectionate sister, Georgianna Gaubert.
PS The portraits of Fred and Lizzy I hope you will receive before this letter reaches you. I will have mine taken in due course of the summer and send.....
Some of this last letter was difficult to decipher as it was ‘over-written’ vertically, over the horizontal writing, and then being photo-copied, parts of it were very faint.....
20. “London 17.3.62.
My Dear Sarah,
I write these few lines at the earnest request of Mama and Georgiana because they say you would like to see my hand-writing once again. It is a very long time since I took up my pen to write to you or indeed anyone else as I find it a great trouble.
I have been engaged for some months in endeavouring to find out the amount of property in the hands of Mr Whitman as executrix of John’s uncle. The property is considerable and will come to your children at the death of the annuitants, viz. The Wo (widow) the present Mrs Whitman, Mrs. Black and Mrs A.
I got Mr Fielder of Doctors Common to write to her for an account of the property and she furnished the full particulars last week. Mr. F advises a Distingras to be put on the stock in the Bank, which I shall see done this week. There will be required the names and date of birth of all the children which you must send me....
There will be some property coming to John at the death of Mrs. D. M. Aitken. I fear it will not be much as he died a good deal in debt, and his Wo (widow) is living with her father....One of the Exors to that will is transported for forgery and the other is dead. I will see after it and write all particulars.
Give our united love to John and the children and with my blessing on you all not forgetting George, I remain
Your affectionate father G.F. Gaubert
We received a paper from you last August and sent you an Illustrated News & Times last January”
21. Excerpt from a letter from Elizabeth Aitken, (Lizzie, George Frederick Gaubert’s granddaughter) to her mother, Sarah Aitken, (nee Gaubert, GFG’s daughter)
4. I think in one of Aunt’s (Georgiana) letters to you last year, she told you that Aunt Nancy, Mrs John Peter Gaubert, had undergone an operation for cancerous tumour in the left breast.
She went through it all poor thing at an enormous expense, I mean the operation, at her own house at Watford....2 physicians and 2 doctors being present, and for months after a nurse in her house from the Institution.
Date of this letter unknown, but probably 1881 as Anna Maria Sarah Gaubert died in 1880.
We can only assume that the paintings by George Frederick Gaubert in Eric G Hall’s possession (as well as some of Lucy Alice’s copies) which came down to him via his mother, Nancy E.A. Hall, nee Jeans, were left to her by her mother, Lucy Alice Jeans, nee Gaubert
Lucy Alice was the niece of GFG so we assume that the paintings were left to her by Frederick & Georgiana Gaubert, as she was a talented amateur artist who studied under Sir Hubert Von Herkomer in Bushey, Herts. Some of her paintings we have are her copies of GFG’s paintings.