References and Notes on the Family of Medlicott of Dunmurry
(41 – 75a)
Compiled by Ronald F. Medlicott from Glascott’s Pedigree and from material collected by Henry Edmondstone Medlicott.
51. Jane Medlicott was born on the 27th December 1787 at the Castle, Kildare, and married J. Scriven.
42. Ellen Medlicott was born on 3rd. February 1789, at the castle, Kildare, and died unmarried, at Nielstown, Co. Dublin, on 3rd. October, 1810, aged 21 years.
43. George Medlicott was born 2nd September 1790. “on the King’s Inns Quay”. He was of Rutland Square. He was Clerk of the Peace for the county of Kildare, and on the occasion of his retirement from official life after a service of 65 years he was presented with a testimonial with the following inscription: “Presented to George Medlicott Esq. by his numerous friends in Co. Kildare, in token of their esteem and of there appreciation of the courteous and zealous manner in which for a period of sixty-five years he discharged the duties of Clerk of the Peace in that County”. He married Emily daughter of Arthur Magan Esq. of Clonearl, and Togherston who was born on 26th July 1756. His wife Hannah Georgina was daughter and co-heir (with her sister Eliza Anne, wife of Charles, Lord Castlecoote) of the Revd. Henry Tilson D.D. of Eagle Hill, Co. Kildare.
44. Louisa Medlicott married on 21st December 1858 the Hon. John Prendergast Vereker. He was the son of the 3rd Viscount Gort, and was Lord Mayor of Dublin 1863-4 and High Sheriff of Dublin, 1878.
45. Edward Medlicott born 14th February 1793 in Queen Street, Dublin, and went to Lisbon in 1814 where he founded a successful wine growers business. He married Miss F. Brown. We have in our possession an interesting letter from him to his brother Joseph concerning the finances of their sister Mary, The name of his estate was Cabo Ruivo Poco di Bispo, about six miles from Lisbon. The property consisted of residence, vineyards, with a long river frontage on the Tagus, and a large stock of valuable wine.
A friend recently wrote to us from Lisbon as follows; “Some weeks ago Senhor Frederigo Pinto Pasto told me that he was putting together a small Peninsula War Museum at his country house near Obidos, and has come across in his family papers the name of a Mr. Medlicott. He would be very grateful to know if this gentleman was a financial agent of the British Government at that time”. This in my opinion could not refer to Edward Medlicott, who did not go to Lisbon until 1814, and was then aged only 21 years. The possibility that two separate branches of the Medlicott family settled in Portugal is strengthened by the fact that the Rt. Revd. Adolphus E. Medlycott, Vicar Apostolic of Malabar, and Roman Catholic Bishop of Trichur was said to have come from Portugal, and we certainly cannot connect him with Edward Medlicott.
46. Joseph Medlicott, married a Miss Brown, his cousin. She was still residing in Lisbon at 65, Rua Novade San Francisco de Paula in 1907.
47. Edward Medlicott, succeeded to his father’s business which in 1868 was turned into a limited company with a capital of £35,000 divided into 140 shares of £250 each, the shares being held chiefly by his family. Messrs Sandeman, Wine Merchants, London had for many years taken nearly all the produce of the firm and it was eventually sold to them. The profits were estimated at between 15 and 20 %. After its conversion into a limited company Mr. Medlicott continued to superintend the estate, which he had managed for at least fifty years.
He married a Miss Waterson Smith originally Irish whom he had met in America.
48. William Medlicott died in 1896. His wife Jane corresponded with the Late Henry Edmondstone Medlicott until 1907. In 1897 she offered for sale some beautiful old silver plate belonging to the Medlicott family. She gave us much information about her branch of the family, and in 1907 wrote of the children of Edward Medlicott, who all left Lisbon in 1888 to live with their mother in Kansas, the following: “I occasionally hear from the Edward Medlicott branch of the family. They are all grown up; part of them live at Kansas, and part in New York. Two of the boys are married. All are doing well. Ernest and Roland are the ones that are married, Edward and Stanley are not. Neither is Carrie, the only daughter. Mrs. Edward Medlicott is still living.”
Recent enquiries to ascertain whether either Mrs. Joseph Medlicott or Mrs William Medlicott are still living in Lisbon, has proved fruitless.
49. James Medlicott born 30th January 1795 in Queen St. Dublin, and died 5th September 1840, at Pau in France.
50. Samuel Medlicott born 28th August 1796 in Queen Street, Dublin. Was rector of Loughrea, Co. Galway. He married Charlotte, daughter of Colonel Henry Benedict Dolphin, C.B. The Dolphin family, properly, Godolphin, came from Galway. Colonel Dolphin, the grandfather fell at the battle of Guadeloupe. Samuel Medlicott died in 1858, and the following account of him was written “by an octogenarian” in the Church of Ireland Gazette in 1907.
“The Rev. Samuel Medlicott having been appointed curate in 1823, became rector ten years later. He married a Miss Dolphin, who belonged to a County Galway family, whose tomb, having three dolphins in relief sculptured upon it, stands amid the ruins of Loughrea Abbey. My earliest memory of Mr. Medlicott goes back to the great cholera of 1832, when he, Dr. Coen, Roman Catholic Bishop of Clonfert, my oldest brother then a young surgeon in the town, and other helpers gave unremitting attention to the sufferers and did so much to relieve the prevailing distress that for many years afterwards they were remembered with gratitude. In other ways Mr. Medlicott had established himself in the affections of his parishioners, and it was with genuine sorrow that they witnessed his departure from Loughrea in 1838, from which time the place which had so long known him was to know him no more. He, with his wife and family (three sons, one daughter), removed, first to Dublin where he lived for some years; then for a further period made France his home, and finally coming to England, took up his abode in Bath. Mr. Medlicott died in 1858, just twenty years after his final departure from Loughrea, and the affairs of his parish were during that interval administered by a succession of curates.”
Charlotte Medlicott died at Montreux, Switzerland, on Thursday, May 1st. 1884 in her 80th year.
51. Joseph Medlicott M.A. Trinity College Dublin, an account of him was given in the annual report of the Asiatic Society, 1867: “Mr. J.G. Medlicott was well-known as one of the earliest and most energetic members of the Geological Survey of India. He arrived in India in 1851 already an experienced geologist. In 1861 he was specially commissioned by Government to draw up a handbook on the cotton production of Bengal, a work which gained for him a high reputation. In 1862 he joined the Education Department of Bengal. The duties of the post he occupied were ably discharged up to the time of his death.”
In an article from another newspaper of the same date recording his connection with the various departments above mentioned in eulogistic terms they end.; “By the death of Mr. J.G. Medlicott the Government loses one of its few enthusiastic servants, and India one of its few scientific men”.
Another newspaper article in the “Pioneer” says: “The deceased gentleman was an accomplished scholar and an able writer and his death is a public loss to the literary world of India.”
Lord Canning as Governor General selected him to compile an exhaustive history of the cotton plant in Bengal and within four months the “Cotton Handbook for India” was completed. For this he was rewarded in money and by being made a member of the Senate of the Calcutta University. He was a frequent writer in the Calcutta Review. Darwin wrote out to India to discover the author of an essay on his “Origin of Species” and finding it was Mr. Medlicott he wrote a most flattering letter to him saying that his was the best essay on that book.
He was struck with paralysis from 1863, came home but could not stand inactivity and returned to India, where after a short resumption of his duties his health entirely gave way and he finally sank. He died on 10th May 1866.
He married Agnes, daughter of J.F. Harrison, Esq. M.P. for Kilmarnock Burghs.
52. Samuel Medlicott only son of Joseph Medlicott and Agnes, died in British Colombia in June 1900.
53. Henry Benedict Medlicott was born August 3rd 1829, and graduated as M.A. at Trinity College, Dublin. He entered the Geological Survey of Ireland in 1851, and was in the Geological Survey of England in 1853. In 1854 he was transferred to the India Service, and became professor of Geology at Rourkee. He was appointed Director of the Geological Survey of India in 1876, and was made Fellow of the Royal Society. He possessed the Wollaston Medal and the Indian Mutiny Medal. He was the author of various pamphlets and in a book entitled “Precious Stones and Gems” by Edwin W. Streeter, the diamond diggings in the Bundelkund are described by him. He married Louisa, daughter of the Rev. Daniel Henry Maunsell, Vicar of Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.
54. John Henry Medlicott is now the only living member of this branch of the family. He was an irrigation engineer in the service of the Indian Government, and is at present residing in Trinidad. He married in 1932 Georgina widow of Walter de Morgan. She has since died.
55. Samuel Medlicott M.A. Trinity College, Dublin. Was rector of Bowness, Cumberland, and died on 20th January 1889, aged 57.
56. Joseph Medlicott was born on 5th January 1790, in Queen Street, Dublin. He was admitted into “the liberties and franchises” of the city of Dublin on 31st December 1821. He was Vicar of Potterne, Wiltshire, and married on 6th December, 1838 Dionysis Meliora, daughter of Richard Godolphin Long, Esq. of Rood Ashton, Wiltshire, who was High Sheriff and M.P. for Wilts, The mother of Dionysis Long was the daughter of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 6th Bart. and it is through this marriage that her descendants now stand on the Plantagenent Roll of the Blood Royal, tracing there decent through the Wreys.
Joseph Medlicott died on 16th April 1871.
57. Henry Edmondstone Medlicott, was born 18th January, 1840, at Sandfield, Potterne, Wilts. In 1848 he went to preparatory school and in 1851 went to London and saw the Duke of Wellington and the first Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. In October of the same year he went to school at the Rev. L.J. Bernay’s, Elstree Hill. In 1854 he entered the Rev. D. Vaughan’s House at Harrow. In 1858 he matriculated and entered Wadham College, Oxford. He rowed No. 3 in the winning University crew at Putney in 1861 when (as the “Times” said next day) “Oxford brought up to London one of the most magnificent crews ever seen in an eight-oared boat.” In May 1862 he took his B.A. Degree and was nominated to a Clerkship in the House of Lords Office by Sir J.G. Shaw Lefevre, Clerk of Parliaments. In 1863 he entered as a Student at Middle Temple, read in Chambers, and took his M.A. degree in 1865. In 1866 he was called to the Bar and joined the Western Circuit and Wilts Sessions. In 1868 he went to Canada and the United States from August to December. In 1871 he was appointed an Inspector of Schools by Lord Ripon under the 1870 Education Act, but was invited at the same time by his cousin, Richard Penruddocke Long to undertake the management of the Rood Ashton Estates and preferred the latter. In the same year he was elected a Member of the first Synod at Salisbury. In 1872 he purchased Sandfield, and went to live there. In 1875 Richard Long died and left him as Executor and Guardian to his children. In 1876 he was sworn as J.P. for County Wilts, and put on the Asylum, Prison and other Committees. In 1881 he was made Chairman of the Asylum Committee in succession to Alexander Meek Esq. and in the same year he was appointed Secretary of the Wilts Archaeological and Natural History Society in succession to C.H. Talbot, at the August Annual Meeting.
In 1888 he was elected representative of the Potterne Division of the County Council. A series entitled “County Council sketches” describes him as follows:
“No county gentleman in Wiltshire, we can safely say, is more universally esteemed and beloved by all who know him, than Mr. Medlicott. He is the first to move in any matter calculated to benefit or ameliorate the condition of those around him, and to lend a helping hand to a needy neighbour. As a magistrate his law is sound, and his judgements are tempered with mercy. As a County Councillor he is one of the most lucid and agreeable of speakers, and possesses the rare gift of saying just enough, but not too much, to point his subject and support his argument. He as for many years been one of the most indefatigable workers in the county business, and without his assistance it is difficult to know how the Asylum Committee could have managed affairs so efficiently and successfully. Mr Medlicott is essentially one of those men of whom local governing bodies should consist, if they are to prove a success – an active energetic business man with a ready grasp of facts and figures and a genial affability which contrasts favourably with a jarring pugnacity of speakers for effect and seekers for popularity. We hope it will be long before Mr. Medlicott’s kindly face and pleasant smile will be missed from the gatherings of our local Parliament, of which he is such an eminently useful and practical member.”
Mr Medlicott died on September 5th, 1916. He had married in April 1874 Kate D’Oyly, daughter of Alexander Robinson Gale, of Stanton Lodge, Bury-St-Edmunds, who was born on 21st February, 1853. Previous to her marriage she had lived for a few years in Rood Ashton, Wilts, with Mrs Long, an old friend of her mother’s. She devoted her whole life to her family and her village. Of intense religious feelings and extreme simplicity, she had a great sense of humour inherited from her Irish descent.
She was dearly loved by all who came in contact with her. She died on 7th March 1922 and at her funeral remarkable tributes were paid to her by the whole neighbourhood of Potterne. Little is known of her father, but I believe that Colonel Gale was Master of the Horse to the Duke of Orleans. Captain W.S. Medlicott has a lithograph of him done in France in about 1843.
58. Kate Josephine Medlicott, was born on the 2nd May 1875. She married in 1899 Henry Paton Rogers, Captain Wilts Regiment and eldest son of Walter Lacy Rogers, Barrister-at-Law, of 11 Queens Gate Place. Her husband died in the South Africa war in 1900. She lived all her life at Sandfield Potterne. She took up County District and Parish work and was the first woman County Councillor in Wiltshire. She devoted the whole of her energy during the Great War to women’s organisations for assisting soldiers and the work she did then undoubtedly undermined her health.
She was a very fine golf and tennis player. The Village Hall at Potterne, formerly the Temperance Hall, was renamed Rogers Hall in memory of her and of her successful effort in raising money for its purchase. She died on the 21st March 1921.
59. Walter Sandfield Medlicott was born in 1879. He was educated at Harrow and Oxford, and played cricket for both scoring 87 runs in the Eton v. Harrow match. He adopted the profession of Estate Agency. He married in 1910 Lavender Mary, daughter of Sir Alfred Edward Pease, 2nd Bart. She was born in 1889. Sir Alfred Pease was M.P. for York and then for the North Riding, and is the author of several interesting books, among which is “The Book of the Lion.”
W.S. Medlicott served during the war as Captain in the Northumberland Yeomanry and is now well-known in the sporting world as a prominent judge in Retriever Trials.
60. Henry Edward Medlicott was born 24 July 1882, and was educated at Cheltenham College and R.M.A. Woolwich. Joined R.F.A. 1900 and served in the South African War with the Irish Horse. He was transferred to 3rd. Bengal Cavalry in 1907 and was A.D.C. to the Commander-in-Chief in India 1909-1910. In 1914 he won the blue ribbon of amateur sport in India, the Kadir Pigsticking Cup. He served in the Great War in France (D.S.O. 1918) and later in the Afghan War 1919. He retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1921. He is at present engaged in business in London.
He married in 1910 Clair Charlotte Marjorie Gabrielle second daughter of the late Sir Martin Gosselin#, G.C.V.O. who was H.M. Minister Plenipotentiary in Lisbon.
#An article of this family appeared in Burke’s Landed Gentry (1914 edition) under the heading “Gosselin of Blakesware.”
61. Ronald Francis Medlicott was born in Simla on 23rd April 1911, and was educated at Eton. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1933, and is the author of these notes.
61a. Stephen Medlicott Sub. Lieut. R.N. was born May 22nd, 1892. He entered the Royal Navy through Osborne and Dartmouth and after partaking in minor naval actions in H.M.S. Attack in the Bight of Heligoland and off the Dutch coast he was seconded to the R.N.A.S. He was killed on active service on 26th April 1915, as the result of an accident when testing an aeroplane.
62. Walter Edward Medlicott was born June 23rd 1841, at Potterne Wilts. He was educated at Elstree, Harrow and Christchurch Oxford. He was ordained in the Diocese of Winchester in 1866 by Bishop Sumner, with a title to the curacy of Stoke-next-Guildford. In 1871 he was appointed Vicar of Swanmore, Hants., where he remained for 36 years. He retired in 1907 and lived at Shedfield till his death on March 18th, 1926. He married on 30th June 1868 Edith Louisa, daughter of Rev. Robert Sumner, and grand-daughter of the Bishop of Winchester. She died on December 12th 1876.
63. Robert Sumner Medlicott was born on May 2nd, 1869, and was educated at Winchester and Magdelen College, Oxford. Ordained in 1892, and served curacies at Derby and Leeds Parish Church, Vicar of St. Thomas, Portsmouth 1903-15. Rector of Burghclere, Hants. He married in 1905 Ellen Douglas, daughter of John James Irvine, of Waterford, Kubusi, South Africa. He is an Hon. Canon of Winchester.
64. John Medlicott was educated at Winchester, and then at Magdalen, College Oxford. He was born on July 16th 1914.
65. Walter Barrington Medlicott, was born Oct. 12th. 1872. He was educated at Winchester (Mr. Hawkins’ House 1886) and then practised in London as an architect. He married April 24th, 1900, Hilda Fothergill, second daughter of the late William Fothergill Robinson Q.C. Vice-Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. At the beginning of the War he enlisted in one of the Public School Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers. He was commissioned in 1916 and was badly wounded at the battle of Beaumont Hamel. After recovery he was transferred to the Tank Corps as Camouflage Instructor. After being demobilised he went out with a cousin Mr John Medlicott (54) to work a timber concession in Cilicia. The station was captured by Mustapha Kemal’s forces and they were both made prisoners. Every effort was made to communicate with them but without success until the end of December 1920, when an Agent of the American Relief Mission found Mr. John Medlicott at Kaisaria in the interior of Asia Minor, still a captive and in very bad health. He reported that Mr. Walter Medlicott had died of fever on September 18th.
66. Ossory Medlicott was born at Tully on 15th September 1684. Entered Trinity College, Dublin, 25th May, 1699, M.A. 1707. He was left £100 by his mother. He became Vicar of Ticehurst, Sussex, about 1760, and was Chaplain to George II. According to Dorcas Medlicott and Glascott’s pencil notes his first wife was Hannah, daughter, of Major General John Pepper, whom he married at St. Georges, Hanover Square, London; by whom he had issue John Pepper Medlicott, who was named in the Wills of his grandfather and his uncle Samuel, and who died unmarried.
Ossary Medlicott married secondly, on 23rd September, 1729, Margaret, daughter of John Bradeston, Esq. and widow of Edward Pakenham Esq. of Pakenham Hall.
In 1925 we received a letter from a Mr. C.F. Lord, who is in the Colonial Service, asking for confirmation of the fact that an ancestress of Mrs Elphick, née Lord, had married the Revd. Ossory Medlicott, Vicar of Ticehurst. We were unable at the time to find any evidence of this, but I have now discovered one record which does give this marriage, though I do not know on what Authority. Perhaps she was his third wife.
In the manuscripts of the British Museum there are two letters written by Ossory Medlicott D.D. Chaplain to George II to the Duke of Newcastle, and two petitions by him to George II.
67. Jane Medlicott wife of John Bowes, was bequeathed wearing apparel by her mother’s Will. She was born on 14th February 1687 at Tully.
68. Frances Medlicott was born in Crown Alley, Dublin, on 14th July 1689. She married Revd. Thomas Barton of Goule, Co. Wicklow. In one record however, the name of her husband is given as Fisher.
69. Henry Medlicott was born at Turnstile Alley, Dublin, on the 15th April 1691, and died on 27th April in the same year.
70. Thomas Medlicott was born at Tully on the 5th June 1692. He was a Notary Public of Dublin and his Will was proved in 1738.
71. Margaret Medlicott was born at Tully on November 4th 1693, and was wife of James Moore.
72. Anne Medlicott was born at Tully on 22nd May 1695, and was the wife of Nicholas Dowdall.
73. Alice Medlicott was born on 22nd May, 1697, and was the wife of Thomas Thornton.
74. John Medlicott was born at Tully on 8th March 1698, and was of Ballysax. He was Trustee of his brother Samuel’s Will, and was left £400 by his Mother. He married Hester Withers of Tully, Widow. Marr. Lic. 7th February 1727.
75. Elizabeth Medlicott of Charlemont St. Dublin, was born in 1728, and died unmarried on 4th August 1808, aged 80. She is buried at St. Kevin’s, Dublin. By her Will dated 28th September 1803, and proved 27th August 1808, she directed that she should be buried in the same grave with her Mother, and that her head should be cut off her body before burial, and that a surgeon should be paid for so doing.
75A. Cecelia Medlicott was born 4th April 1701. She was named in her Mother’s Will as unprovided for and left £400.
We have in our possession a letter from a Lieut. John Medlicott R.N. dated August 16th 1811, and addressed to Sir William Coles Medlycott, Bart. of Ven House, soliciting his patronage for the purpose of obtaining a promotion to a Captaincy, which he eventually obtained.
Although we are unable to trace Lt. John Medlicott on the pedigree, he is obviously connected with the Dunmurry family, and therefore I quote the following particulars given in his letter to Sir William Medlycott: “Your request that I would favour you with what knowledge I have of my family shall with pleasure be complied with as far as in my power lies, but it is very scanty owing to my having lost both father and mother at so early an age as not for me to know the value of such knowledge, as also being by professional call constantly distant in foreign climes: nor should I have had the knowledge of your favourable acquaintance had not Providence directed the steps of the Revd. Dr. Coulston hence. My father as far as I could ever learn was possessed of a large farm called Charafield in the Co. Kildare, Ireland, under the Duke of Leinster. He held a Captain’s commission in the Volunteers at the time of what was called “The White Boys’ Disturbance” in or about the year 1780, in consequence of which his duty required his attendance in the County of Kilkenny, when he formed a connection with a Miss Cavanagh, whom he married and by whom I was begotten; but owing to his extravagance he was obliged to dispose of his property and go to Philadelphia in North America, where he died leaving me a helpless orphan. Yet through the goodness of a then existing uncle I was brought to Ireland, and after receiving a moderate education placed in the Navy, where I have been these eighteen years. On examining your arms and motto I find they are exactly the same as mine; though I am not now in possession of a seal which bears the arms, I am of one with the crest, which I shall affix to this letter for your further satisfaction.”
(I have previously mentioned Lt. John Medlicott when dealing with James Medlicott R.N. marked 28 on the pedigree).
TULLY.
With regard to the estate at Tully, the following cutting from the Morning Post of the 3rd December, 1915, may be of interest:
“Colonel Hall Walker, M.P., last night authorised the statement that the Government have accepted the offer of his stud, and his horses from Tully, Co. Kildare, and Russley Park, which were to have been sold by Messrs. Tattersall at Newmarket today, and have consequently been withdrawn from the catalogue. Tully Stud, as our Racing Correspondent recently pointed out, is situated in one of the best bloodstock-breeding regions of Ireland, and should form a strong nucleus for a State-owned horse breeding establishment. It extends over a thousand acres, and has been the birth place of many noted horses, including Minoru, the Royal Derby winner, and Prince Palatine. Now that Colonel Hall Walker’s offer has been accepted the development of this new enterprise on the part of the government will be awaited with keen interest on the part of breeders of light horses.