Peccadillos in India - the life of Thomas Augustus Gidley

The Prag-Mahal in Bhuj, Kutch, India

Thomas Augustus Gidley was born 4th February 1801, probably in Stoke Damerel in Devon, as his father, Othniel Gidley, originally from Buckfastleigh, was a high-ranking Clerk of the Survey at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Plymouth. The family was comfortably off, having land at its disposal. In 1809, for example, when he was only 8 years old, from the terms of his grandfather's will Thomas knew he would one day inherit the rents from an estate called Shepherd's Tenement in Buckfastleigh, after the death of his father. His older brother Othniel was to inherit another of his grandfather's properties. Another brother, Caleb, is described as a "gentleman" at the time of his death in 1839, so presumably lived from his rents, and yet another brother, John Kerswell Gidley, was a "landed proprietor" by the time of the 1851 census, and in all subsequent ones.

The first mention of Thomas' army career is in 1818 when we learn that he and his brother Othniel were sent off to Bombay in India as "cadets for the infantry". Othniel does not seem to have prospered there and died back in England in 1829, but we learn from army reports in newspapers of Thomas's rise through the ranks, becoming a Lieutenant in the 11th Native Infantry in Bombay by 1825, rising from Captain to Major in 1841 and by 1851 he had become a Lieutenant-Colonel of the 15th Native Infantry. But disaster struck in 1854, and, as well as this calamity in India, there was scandal at home.

Thomas married Matilda, surname unknown, place and date unknown, and Matilda's age and place of birth fluctuate in the censuses. They had a daughter Mary Louisa Matilda Gidley, born in about 1831. In 1841 Matilda and her daughter were in Hammersmith, and Thomas was presumably in India. All seemed to be going smoothly when Mary married one of Thomas's brother officers in 1850, but by 1851 Thomas is living in Great Marlborough St, Westminster described as a "lodger, unmarried". I haven't found Matilda at all in 1851, but perhaps she accompanied her daughter to India. By 1861 she is living in Hastings, occupation "lady", and by 1871 she is possibly a "widow, railway dividend, 3 Markham Square, St Luke's, Chelsea." She died in 1875 in the Brighton area. The marriage had obviously failed, as Thomas was still very much alive.
Thomas may well be the "Captain Augustus Frederick Gidley" mentioned in a newspaper report in 1831, when a man of that name appeared in a court case involving some damage, when he had been found in the house in Exeter of a Miss Hammond, a "lady of ill repute".

So Thomas's home circumstances were not perfect, when in 1854 his army career came to an abrupt end. Newspapers of the time reported in full the circumstances leading to his court-martial and being dismissed the army.
"First charge: gross dereliction of duty when commanding officer in Bhooj, Cutch province, 1 January - 1 September 1853, he countenanced intemperance and unbecoming conduct among officers of the regiment under his command, by permitting unchecked and unpunished instances of drunkenness and impropriety degrading to gentlemen and ruinous to discipline". It was alleged that several of his junior officers, including a surgeon and an officer of the day, were drunk whilst attending a Durbar, and in the billiard room, amongst other places.
Second charge: not interfering to prevent the following scenes of indecency and conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman, namely that disgusting language had been used towards Surgeon Elliot, whose person was indecently exposed in the billiard room by certain officers of the regiment".
Thomas was found guilty on most of the counts, and struck off the strength of the army. The junior officers were also to be brought to trial.
No blame seems to have been attached personally to Thomas, except that of laxity in commanding his officers. Certainly Thomas is reported in shipping lists as returning to Bombay in 1857, but by then his life in England had taken a more domestic turn.

By 1861 Thomas is living in Peckham, South London, as an Army Pensioner, with his "daughter-in-law" Maria, about 35 years his junior. His "grandson", Thomas Augustus Gidley born about 1856 (no birth registration found) is living with them. By 1871, at a different address in South London, the younger Thomas is now said to be his son. Thomas and Maria claimed to be married in 1861, when their two older children were christened in Lewisham, but the marriage did not take place until 1863, when Thomas's first wife, Matilda, was still living. Perhaps he had lost all touch with her for seven years by then, and considered himself a free man.
In 1881 Thomas seems to have discovered he was entitled to benefit from three estates: that of his mother, who died in 1840, of his brother Caleb, who died in 1839, and of his sister, Mary Louisa Gidley, who died in 1861. Thomas had all three wills proved that year. He died three years later, in 1884, but his second wife Maria survived until 1921. Their children were called after Thomas' sisters. Their oldest daughter, Maria Louisa Gidley, had almost the same name as her half sister, Mary Louisa Matilda Gidley. Their son, Thomas Augustus Gidley the younger, vanishes after 1871. There is a tantalising reference to a divorce case in Bombay in 1918, when he could possibly be the Augustus Gidley who admitted adultery with the respondent.
Stop press 2012: I've just received the death certificate for Thomas Augustus Gidley (the younger) who died in Lambeth Hospital in 1933, aged 75. A hospital administrator, and not a relative, registered his death, and Thomas's former occupation was not known to him. Thomas had been a resident in St Peter's Home in South Lambeth before he was admitted to hospital.

With apologies to any descendants, was there a family failing? Thomas's youngest brother, John Kerswell Gidley, who never seems to have worked for his living, is found in Exeter Gaol in 1841, having been found guilty of larceny the year before. I've also seen references to Othniel Gidley, I think the father of Thomas and John Kerswell claiming a civil service pension in the early 19th century, who is described as "late 2nd Clerk to the Clerk of the Survey at Plymouth, has asked for superannuation but his superior says he is very negligent, disrespectful and totally incompetent and has, on two occasions, been suspended from office." The Victorian work ethic seems to have passed this particular family by, but by twenty-first century standards the very fact of putting English officers in complete charge of native soldiers in an inhospitable climate where they were lords of all they surveyed, seems to have brought out the worst in many of them.

Two Gidleys to be proud of ...

Hoopern House, Exeter (taken by Wilkinson Grant & Co. Property Agents), formerly home of Bartholomew Charles Gidley (see below).

I chanced across a History of Victorian Exeter in the The National Archives' library at Kew today. Knowing that there were two prominent Gidleys who filled the role of Town Clerk in that period, I checked for them in the index.

The book reference is:
NEWTON Robert. Victorian Exeter 1837 - 1914. Leicester UP, 1968.

Pages 116 - 117 deal with John Gidley, of the Honiton part of the Winkleigh Gidley family.He was born 21 Mar 1795 in Honiton, son of Courtenay Gidley and his wife Margaret nee Gordon, and several of the family were lawyers. John married Elizabeth Caroline Cornish, from a prominent Exeter family, and although they had at least nine children (several died young) and there were grandchildren, I haven't traced any further descendants in the male line. His home was in Bedford Circus.

"In 1865 the death of John Gidley "the learned and venerable clerk to the municipal body of the city" broke another link with the pre-Reform era and the traditions and manners of the eighteenth century. Town clerk of Exeter, judge of the provost's court, clerk to the Land and Assessed Tax Commissioners, recorder for the borough of Bradninch and member of an ancient Devon family, Gidley had been firm, tactful and hard-working, a conscientious pilot for the new council and its often strong-willed members. His tastes were described ... as "eminently archaeological and his learning that of that patristic, half-ecclesiastical, philological cast which benefits such pursuits." He was indeed a representative of the well-educated scholarly, professional men who formed the backbone of innumerable learned societies in the age that was passing. Originally said to be a man of Liberal principles, John Gidley had become a Conservative but he retained the respect of both political parties, guided the council through innumerable lawsuits, found time to maintain an extensive practice, and as a staunch Anglican, was reputed to have written powerful anonymous letters to the press in support of the bishop during the surplice controversy."

Page 204 deals with his son Bartholomew Charles Gidley, who died prematurely aged only 49 in 1888. From the census it seems he was educated at Ottery St Mary School, then Oxford University. Living in Southernhay in 1871, he had purchased Hoopern House, a Regency mansion, by 1881. For some years it was part of the University of Exeter, but has now returned to being a palatial private residence.
"In 1874 Alderman Gidley, an active and influential member of the [Conservative] party, and son of the first town clerk, resigned his position as alderman and was subsequently elected town clerk." He was Mayor of Exeter in 1870 - 1871, a Freeman of the city, and took a great interest in antiquarian matters, contributing articles to the Devon Notes and Queries magazine.
It seems there were dark deeds in the town hall at that time: a dishonest clerk in the Treasurer's department was responsible for a shortfall of £2000, and according to Newton's book, "the Conservatives were determined to retain control of key posts, [but] the personal integrity of Gidley was never in doubt."

The family has an impressive tomb in All Hallows on the Wall churchyard, Exeter, on a corner by the road where it is impossible for passing traffic to miss it.

Gidleys of Spreyton and Heavitree

Four generations of Gidleys

Some photos from my own Gidley family (with thanks to distant cousins "Nanastea42" and Sue Tiller).

Top left is my father and his brothers, all born in West London.

Right at the bottom is my great great grandfather George Gidley born in Spreyton, Devon in 1808. Apprenticed as a child to Thomas Cobley in Spreyton (presumably the one who had an Uncle in the Widecombe Fair song) he later left Spreyton for Heavitree where he had 13 children in total, by two wives. Consequently he has a large number of descendants, many of whom are still in the Exeter area, but also elsewhere in the UK. The descendants of his oldest daughter, Fanny, who moved to South Wales in the boom years of the Welsh economy, own this photo of him and have generously shared it on Ancestry. George also took on the illegitimate son of his second wife, Elizabeth Elston, William Smale Elston, who was absorbed into the family as Samuel Gidley until he reverted to his real name and left for London as a young man. George was a farmer in a small way at Broomfield in Heavitree and moved with his wife Elizabeth to Ducke's Almshouses in Heavitree where he died.

Third from the top is my grandfather Walter Gidley as a young boy, born in Heavitree in 1888. He moved to London as a young man, partly to seek his fortune (he was a shoemender and sadly never found it) but also to have his leg properly set following an accident when he fell from a wall. This actually turned out to be a stroke of luck because his game leg kept him out of the First World War.

Second from the top is George Gidley's youngest surviving son, Jim Gidley, my great grandfather, who remained in the Heavitree area all his life, and worked as a gardener at Digby's asylum. Eventually he and his wife, Martha, and unmarried daughters moved to a house in Coronation Row, Wonford. He died there in the 1930s, fortunately missing the Exeter blitz, although the house still survives. Jim and Martha's descendants are mainly through his daughters. Of his four sons, only my grandfather Walter had sons himself. Jim and Martha's oldest son was James Henry Gidley, who died in the Boer War and whose photograph is on an earlier blog posting.

More Gidleys in New Zealand

I've just discovered that another Gidley family emigrated to New Zealand, though I haven't found their names on any published passenger lists.
Another seaman, Charles Arthur Gidley and his wife Ada Louisa, nee Muchamore, plus their two children, Rhoda and Horace, settled in the Wellington area, probably just after the First World War, and it seems they flourished there. Newspaper reports of the time reveal that in 1925 Ada Gidley presided over a meeting of ladies in the Early Settlers' Hall, Wellington, where she dealt with the seamens' strike from a woman's point of view. As the wife of a British seaman with over 28 years service, she also told the meeting that conditions in England were very different from New Zealand. In England she had had a 6 roomed house and an acre of land for which she paid 7s 6d weekly, but in New Zealand she paid £2 10s for a smaller house with no land.
C.H.A. (Horace) Gidley enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in January 1940.
Source: PapersPast available at http//www.natlib.govt.nz.
Charles Arthur Gidley was the youngest child of James Gidley originally of Dean Prior, who travelled from there to Plymouth, then on to London, where several of his children were born, then back to Plymouth.
And I should also mention Brian Gidley, singer in West End shows of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, who emigrated to New Zealand more recently. He was from the Buckfastleigh Gidley family.

Richard Treffry Meredith and Ann Gidley

A posting about a non-Gidley, but one who managed to father two illegitimate children with Ann Gidley, who came from a very respectable family living in Plymouth. The shock to her family must have been immense. It is interesting that Richard Treffry Meredith has left a fairly clear paper trail of what are presumed to be his misdeeds.

Ann Gidley was born on 8th March 1849, the oldest daughter and second child of Gustavus Gidley and his wife, Ann, who had nine children altogether. Gustavus was a respected solicitor in Plymouth and comfortably well-off. In 1861 they employed a cook and a housemaid, in 1871 a cook, a housemaid and a general servant. Gustavus' wife Ann died in 1863, and by 1871 his sister was living with the family.
By 1875 Ann must have met Richard Treffry Meredith, also from a comfortably-off family. He was born in Westbury-on-Trim in 1842, his father being then in the UK Marines. By 1861 his mother had been widowed and the family was living in Fowey in Cornwall, still with sufficient means to employ a tutor in the household. Richard's appointment as a Lieutenant in the Cornwall Rangers Militia is recorded by the Edinburgh Gazette in March 1867, although he resigned his commission only eight months later in November 1867.
By 1871 he is staying in a hotel in Exeter St David's and described as a retired gold digger. To follow this occupation presumably he had left the country after 1867. He is also described as married, and I found his marriage in the September quarter of 1867 to Jane Eleanor Trye. Although the central marriage indexes are typed for this period, Richard's middle name was transcribed by FreeBMD as Treflry, and by FindMyPast as Tretlry. Jane Trye was a daughter of the vicar of Leckhampton in Gloucestershire, but the marriage was not to last long. In 1870 there is a record at The National Archives of Richard petitioning for a judicial separation from Jane. On FindMyPast where the entry is shown, there is a cryptic reference "cross sent" (does this mean Jane cross-petitioned Richard?). The unusual event of a divorce must have caused considerable scandal, especially in a vicar's family.
The result of his meeting Ann Gidley, presumably in Devon, was the birth of a daughter, Minnie Meredith Gidley, registered in the September quarter of 1876 in Islington registration district. I haven't seen the actual birth certificate, but no first name for the child was given when she was registered, and I don't know who the informant was. By 1878 a son was born to them, and Ann Gidley registered the child herself. She gave her name as Ann Meredith, wife of Richard, profession or rank, gentleman. She also gave their son his grandfather's name, Gustavus, as a middle name. And Ann had now moved to Stratford-on-Avon, where in 1881 and 1891 she was lodging with William Moore, a widower.

Richard Meredith seems to have moved on by this time. By 1881 he has yet another lady in tow. He is by now an accountant, lodging in Grays Inn Lane, with a "wife", Mary P Meredith and a 12 year old "son" Reginald W Meredith, aged 12. The most likely candidate for this new "wife" is Mary Paine Worthy, who in 1871 was living in Topsham in Devon and described as the widow of a schoolmaster. By 1891 she and her son have returned to Topsham, reverted to their former names, and where she is described as "living on her own means". One hopes Richard Meredith was generous in his provision for his ladies.

I have found no further trace of Richard Treffry Meredith in this country. A Richard T Meredith, clerk, single, sailed from Londonderry for Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1895. The reference to the death of a Richard T Meredith in 1917 in Richmond (Surrey) RD is for a Richard Thomas Meredith who lived a blameless life in southwest London.
Ann Gidley, however, was in Newbury, Berkshire in 1901, as a "widow" and housekeeper to the Primitive Methodist minister. She is actually the nearest Gidley there has been to my present address, and the house where she lived is still there. She had moved back to Stratford-on-Avon by 1911, and had moved in with her daughter, who was married to a local clock and watch repairer. Ann is described as having private means. She died in Warwick RD in 1925.
After her shortlived marriage I can't find Jane Eleanor Meredith in the English censuses until 1901 when she was boarding in a lodging house in Bath with a much older sister, and is described as a widow. She later moved to Cheltenham, where she died in 1911.

Was Richard Treffry Meredith a bounder and a cad, the Gidley equivalent of "Captain Wickham" from Pride and Prejudice? Or was he a Bohemian who cared nothing for strict Victorian conventions? Either way he must have been possessed of considerable charm to have enticed three ladies of highly respectable backgrounds to share his life.

2015 update:
Richard Meredith's great grandson has recently contacted me. He has generously given me permission to mention that Richard had a reputation within the family for domestic violence. To quote from the email: "He [Richard] had 3 children (Arthur, my grandfather, a baby girl and Harriette) with Jane Eleanor Trye before the marriage dissolved. She was the granddaughter of Charles Brandon Trye a notable surgeon in Gloucestershire. They took their children on a voyage to New Zealand in 1869....the baby girl died when the ship was becalmed by the Falklands. We think Richard died in Australia in December 1897."

2020 update

Going through all the General Register Office births in England and Wales with the mother's maiden name given as Gidley, I have found two earlier children born to Ann Gidley and Richard Treffry Meredith. They both died very soon after birth and were named after their parents: Richard, born and died in the June quarter of 1874 in St Saviour's Southwark registration district, and Annie, born and died in the March quarter of 1875 in Islington registration district.

Another new family - Nicholas Gidley of Dunsford

I've just returned from three days of research in the Devon Record Office, and the supply of Gidleys in the parish registers is starting to dry up. But I still came across another previously undocumented family, that of Nicholas Gidley of Dunsford, Devon, in the 17th century. I had come across Nicholas himself before, and know where he fits in. He was the son of George Gidley by his wife Grace, nee Coleridge. They married in 1637 at St Olave's in Exeter, and I believe that George was the younger brother of Bartholomew Gidley, the supporter of Charles II. George, however, died in about 1639, and left a son, Nicholas, named after Grace's father, Nicholas Coleridge. An abstract of Nicholas Coleridge's will exists in Olive Moger's series of will abstracts in the DRO. The will was proved in 1650. There is mention of Samuel Gidley (Grace's brother) and Samuel's brother-in-law, Thomas Jeffery, who are to oversee the arrangements. All did not go smoothly and in 1673 the will was exhibited in the cause May or Bishopp als Gidley. Grace Gidley had now remarried, to William Bishopp. Samuel Gidley's receipt dated 3 Jun 1653 for the sum of £66 paid him by William Bishopp of Dunsford "being a half part of the marriage portion with his wife Ursilowe [Ursula]", and another receipt by Samuel Gidley for a legacy to his wife "Urselowe", witnessed by Bartholomew Gidley, Thomas Jeffry and Richard Dunning were both documents exhibited in the case.
I have omitted all the complicated property details (including a fascinating story about Nicholas Coleridge's ride to London to procure from the Lord Great Almoner of England the rightful inheritance of his grandchildren by his other daughter. Their property had been forfeited to the King as their other grandfather, Scipio Heywood, had "become felo de se" i.e. had committed suicide, whilst holding the land in their names).
Nicholas Gidley's children are listed in the Dunsford parish registers as follows: George baptised 1669, Joane 1671, Mary 1675, John 1677, Bartholomew 1680, Samuel 1684 and Elizabeth 1685. Another son John was buried in 1674. I have concluded that Nicholas married Mary Collihall in 1669 at Exeter St Petrock (Boyd's Marriage Index). Unfortunately there is no further trace of any of the family in the Dunsford registers, and so far I can't find where they went. It is possible that Bartholomew married Wilmot Tozer in South Tawton in about 1702. There is no record of the marriage in the South Tawton parish register, but a Marriage Licence allegation exists for these two names in the Gidley family file pedigree held at the West Country Studies library in Exeter. Bartholomew is described as a gentleman. A Bartholomew Gidley was buried at South Tawton in 1728, and a daughter was born to the couple in 1703 in South Tawton.

The Palk Arms, Christow, Devon

Recently I was contacted by Tricia King, nee Wreford, who kindly shared her memories of the Palk Arms in Christow, where she was brought up. This pub was run by George Gidley and his wife Elizabeth Browning, who became the innkeepers certainly by 1881. George died in 1885, when his widow took over the lease until her own death in 1909. They had six sons, and the fifth, Arthur, then became the landlord. His war service record in 1918 records his address as The Palk Arms. He died in 1938, but it is not known when the Palk Arms ceased to be a pub.
The name "Gidleys" is clearly visible over the doorway in the photo. Elizabeth Gidley is presumably the older lady, and her son Arthur, who was the barman in the 1901 census, is possibly the man. The younger woman is not known. Arthur did not marry Emily Hill until 1909 in Scotland, but Elizabeth Gidley had at least one daughter by her previous marriage.
Tricia recounts "I was brought up in Christow and we lived at Hillcrest Bakery, formerly The Palk Arms.
At the time I lived there, 1949-1960, we shared the house with another family - the two fathers were in partnership for the bakery business. When we lived there, there were still signs that it had been a pub - a ledge where our phone was, by a hatch that led into the previous bar shown on the right hand side of the house, and swing doors, exactly as in western films!, inside the front door. Occasionally ramblers used to knock, assuming it was still a pub.
The photograph may be from a book on the history of Christow by Stafford Clark which I saw once.
I will always be willing to chat to anyone who is interested in the house".