[NPG Ax196709 by Unknown photographer albumenised salt print, late 1850s. PB: cropped and cleaned up lightly.]
[PB: Add notes and references. Enlargements? Integrate above. There is very little information about this and other pictures in a small NPG collection - I think Trevelyan must be in at least one. The portrait is very interesting indeed, and worth thinking about. Is it a wedding portrait? Notice Maria's demure downturned look at the handle of HJW's sabre, which she holds lovingly. His hat and other military items appear to lie on her lap. Look more closely. She is wearing a crucifix. Was she Roman Catholic or did Anglican women also wear them at this time?]
[Add info. re Sir Henry Herbert Wombwell - George's younger brother? Is Trevelyan (whose name features so heavily in her 1871 novel Your Cousin's Ghost) among these men?]
One of 354 Portraits in set: Bettina Harden family album: photographs, 1850s-1860s: www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/set/608/Bettina+Harden+family+album%3A+photographs%2C+1850s-1860s
[PB, July 2017: I came across a number of references online to novels by Mrs Maria Wilkin, and to a woman of the same name in a London mental hospital. Initially I wasn't sure whether these were the same person, the wife of Henry Wilkin. I have left some of my notes made at the time to indicate how the story unfolded.]
British India Office Ecclesiastical Returns, Births & (FindMyPast).
Add info. re father, mother and siblings, an MD with the East India Company.
Small amounts of information, with links, online:
There are refs online to Your Cousin's Ghost (1871), and The Shackles of an Old Love (1882, by Mrs. Maria Wilkin. Could these be by her? There is no reference to Mrs Wilkin in John Sutherland's Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (that I can find), but The Shackles of an Old Love is listed in the BL and there are scanned versions of both novels online (are they both listed in the BL?).
I can find no reference to her in the At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837 - 1901 site, but this is being added to constantly so keep checking. The site is being developed by Dr. Troy J. Bassett, Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne, and there is a Facebook page. Ask him? [Incidentally, Soames Gambier Jenyns's daughter Ada Jocelyn is not listed either. Check.]
Chapman and Hall, London, 1871.
- The name "Captain Trevelyan" or "Trevelyan" [11th Hussars, a Lieutenant with HJW in the Crimea, then Major and Lt.Colonel in HJW's regiment in India] appear 84 times.
- "India" appears 7 times.
- "Army" appears 7 times.
- "Hussar" appears 5 times.
According to the author's Preface, she wrote this at "Castlenock Lodge, Phoenix Park, Dublin, Jan 1, 1871." Was the regiment in Ireland then?
[Yes. In fact in his divorce statement, filed 16 May 1879, HJW refers explicitly to this address. Their daughter Marguerite was born here.]
Published by Wm. H. Allen.
British Library:
Title: The Shackles of an Old Love. [A novel.]
Author: Maria WILKIN, Mrs.
Publication Details: London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1882.
Language: English
Identifier: System number 003926051
Physical Description: 377 p.; 8º.
Shelfmark(s): General Reference Collection 12643.aa.18.
UIN: BLL01003926051
There is quite a lot of circumstantial evidence that it might well be MW. Notice how some of the most frequently used words or phrases (seen among Google's automatically generated "Common terms and phrases") have obvious associations (and there may be others not immediately known to me):
Anastasia Anglo-Indian asked aunt Barcelona beautiful Bedford Square Bellairs better Briton Ferry Road brother Captain de Mowbray child cousin Cranethorpe darling dead dear Don Guzman dress Elysium Eustace de Mowbray eyes face fancy fear feel felt flowers girl glad hair hand head hear heart heaven honour hope husband India kiss Lady Alfred Lady Brayville Lady Radclyffe Lady Vixen Armytage Lady Vixie laughed leave lips look Lord Alfred Lucknow Mam'selle Marguérite [MW's preferred middle name, and the name of her daughter] married mind Miss Marjoribanks morning Motee Murielle Nacre Neale Neale's Neila never night Norian old lady once pale Pearl Perduta poor pray pretty Queenie Queenie's Radclyffe Towers Regina remember rose round Rubi sigh Simla [did MW and HJW ever live there together?] Sir Henry [Her husband's name] Sir Henry's sister smile Sneakworthy soul sure Swansea sweet tears tell thing thought told took Umballa [MW and HJW lived there together] Vansittart [11H officer in the Crimea, later a stalwart of the French Jockey Club] Vixie's Wamba Warren whispered wife Willie Renfrewshire woman word young
I also inputted a number of relevant words in Google's "Snippet view", with suggestive results:
- 78 references to "India", and one mention of "John Company" [i.e. the East India Company, for whom her father worked].
- 8 references to "6th Hussars" [there wasn't one in Britain, but HJW's was of course the 7th], which appears to be the hero's own regiment. [Curiously, the 6th is the regiment in Allan Mallinson's "Hervey" series of novels.]
- 30 mentions of "regiment", and one of "I must join my regiment in Hounslow" [a cavalry barracks].
- There are several references to horse racing, including "I'm fond of soldiering myself, and regimental racing in India is not bad fun, so I shall stick to the 6th Hussars as long as they remain there [India]." [HJW was prominent in the Turf Club in India.]
Yes, it is indeed our Maria Wilkin.
by Mrs. Wilkin.
Imprint
London: Chapman and Hall, 1871.
Physical description
327 pages: portrait; 20 cm
[Stanford: Link.]
[PB: There is a portrait and a signature (notice she uses double dots on the final "a" of Maria.]
__________
by Mara (Mrs. Wilkin).
Imprint
London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1882.
Physical description
377 p.; 19 cm.
[Stanford: Link.]
There are a number of brief (and unhelpful) references to MW in William Cushing's Initials and pseudonyms: a dictionary of literary disguises (1885, 1888) (available as text and pdf at https://archive.org/stream/cu31924092475254/cu31924092475254_djvu.txt). It seems she was known simply as "Maria", e.g.
"Maria. Mrs Maria Wilkin. The shackles of an old love. L. 1882."
p.95."Wilkin, Mrs. Maria. Maria. An English novelist of the day" p.301.
But where and why would she have been known simply as "Maria"? Did she ever try to conceal her surname, perhaps for reasons of propriety?
[PB: I subsequently learned that the pen-name Maria Wilkin used on her (first?) book was not Maria but "Mārā" (with macrons (lines) over the "a"s to extend the vowel sound). This obviously relates to her given name Maria, but are there also perhaps Indian allusions in here as well?
Māra (with a long first "a") is the Sanskrit name for a demon who sends his beautiful daughters to seduce the Gautama Buddha and thus prevent him from achieving Enlightenment. "In Buddhist cosmology, Mara is associated with death, rebirth and desire", and is thus the "personification of the forces antagonistic to enlightenment".
Mara's three daughters are identified as Tanha (Craving), Arati (Aversion/Discontentment), and Raga (Attachment/Desire/Greed/Passion).[10][12] For example, in the Samyutta Nikaya's Mara-samyutta, Māra's three daughters were stripping in front of Buddha; but failed to entice the Buddha:
They had come to him glittering with beauty -
Tanha, Arati, and Raga -
But the Teacher swept them away right there
As the wind, a fallen cotton tuft.[13][Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_(demon) (accessed 11.7.17).]
Another possibility is that she adopted the name Mārā as it was the Hindustani word for "beaten", something she is (certain? very likely?) to have known.
See Shakespear's Introduction to Hindustani, published by and behalf of the East India Company in 184?, to educate its functionaries in [native languages]. Notice he uses the word to demonstrate a regular transitive verb for the masculine gender. Is it unlikely that Maria Chalmers was taught using this primer?
The birth of a daughter to HJW and his wife was announced in the London Evening Standard, Friday 05 August 1870. This may well be "Marguarite" [? Presumably Marguerite, like her mother], seen in the 1881 Census. Where was Maria in 1871?
BIRTH. WILKIN. August 4, the wife of Henry Wilkin, of 3, Stanhope-gardens, South Kensington, of a daughter.
1871 Census
2, Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington, London.
Henry J Wilkin, married, 42, lodger, Retired Major in the Army, born Trimley, Suffolk.
Henry Wilkin, 19, lodger, son, East Indies.
[Ancestry: Link.]
CHECK original Ancestry link - There are two virtually identical versions.
__________________
[1]
In the High Court of Justice
Probate Divorce & Admiralty Division
(Divorce)
Wilkin Henry John v Wilkin Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw
In the matter of the dissolution of the Marriage of Henry John Wilkin.
____________
Affidavit of Henry John Wilkin the Petitioner in support of Petition
__________________
Filed 16th May 1879
EuPu [?]
Blake & Snow
22, College Hill
Cannon Street. Etc.
Petitioner's Solicitors
[2]
In the High Court of Justice
Probate Divorce & Admiralty Division
(Divorce)
In the Matter of the dissolution of the Marriage of Henry John Wilkin
______________________
I Henry John Wilkin of No. 2 Harrington Mansions Queens Gate South Kensington in the County of Middlesex Gentleman late Major in Her Majesty's Army he lawful husband of Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw Wilkin make Oath and say as follows.
1. That on or abut the 13th day of February 1860 at the Church of St John at Meerut in British India I was lawfully married to the said Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw Wilkin therefore Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw Chalmers a Spinster.
2. That after my said Marriage the said Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw Wilkin resided with me at divers places and at Meerut, Umballa, and Simla, in British India, and at Delaforde near Dublin in Ireland and Castlenock Lodge near Phoenix Park Dublin aforesaid and at No. 2 Eastbourne Terrace Hyde Park in the County of Middlesex and No. 33 Aldridge Road Villas Bayswater in the said County of Middlesex and that there is now living issue of the said Marriage two children namely Henry Douglas Wilkin born the 27th day of March 1862 and Marguerite Agnes Wilkin born on the 20th day of June 1868.
3. That I have been informed and verily believe that about eleven o'clock in the evening of the 8th day of May 1879 against a Wall opposite to Great Western Terrace Bayswater aforesaid the said Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw Wilkin committed Adultery with a man who is to your Petitioner unknown.
4. That on or about three o'clock in the forenoon of the 9th day of May 1879 {underneath an awning in the forecourt of a house in Westbourne Park Villas Bayswater aforesaid .................... } the said Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw Wilkin again committed Adultery with the said man mentioned in the third paragraphof this my Petition.
You Petitioner therefore humbly prays that the said Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw Wilkin be dissolved and that your Petitioner may have such further and other relief in the premises as to this Honourable Court may seem meet, And your Petitioner will ever pray [etc?]
[Signed]
Henry John Wilkin
[section between <> in a different hand, judging by his signature almost certainly Henry Wilkin's. Was a gap left for him to fill? Was the whole re-copied in a second version?]
[A label indicates the notes were closed until 1980 - i.e. for 100 years.]
In the High Court of Justice
Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division
(Divorce)
Wilkin
Henry John
v
Wilkin
Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlaw
COURT MINUTES
Petition Filed 16 May 1979
Decree Nisi
FInal Decree
_________________
Wilkin
Henry John
v
Wilkin
Maria Margaret Thomasina Wardlawe with
H, D Blake & Co
1879
16th May
Blake & Snow of 22 College Hill Cannon Street, Solicitors filed Petition for Dissolution of Marriage & Affidavit & [word?] Citation.
11th June
Blake filed 2 affidavits of G. Bristow with Citation executed annexed to one of them, joint Affidavit of Petitioner & A.E. Sullivan, & Case for Motion [?]
17th June
On reading the Affidavit of Henry John Wilkin the Petititioner & Albert Oswald Sullivan sworn 4th June 1879 & Statement filed on behalf of the Petitioner & hearing [?] Counsel thereon it is ordered that the Motion to dispense with making a Co-Respondent do stand over for a further Affidavit corroborating the evidence of the said Albert Oswald
_________
[Margin note] Motion to dispense with Co-rest stands over.
___________
[new page]
Sullivan and for an additional Affidavit by the said Albert Oswald Sullivan showing how he identified the Respondent.
10th July
Blake filed Affidavit of A. Kilby.
16th July
Blake filed Affidavit of A.O. Sullivan.
22nd July
On reading the Affidavit of Amelia Kilby sworn the 9th July 1879 and of Albert Oswald Sullivan the 15th July 1§879 and Statement filed on behalf of the Petitioner and hearing [?] Counsel thereon it is ordered that the Petitioner be at liberty to proceed in this Cause without making the alleged adulterers or either of them Co-Respondents and it is further ordered that the Cause be heard by Oral Evidence before the Court itself.
________
[Margin note] Co-Respondents dispensed with
___________
[Margin note] Court itself
___________
28th July
Blake set down the Cause.
15th November
On the Cause being called and neither the Petitioner nor any person on his behalf appearing it
[New page]
was ordered by the Court that the Cause be struck out of the List of Causes for hearing.
_________
Cause struck out
_________
[PB: Where was Maria and her baby daughter? Was she in a private mental asylum at this time?]
[PB: Check the following and correct.]
1881 Census
18, Bath Road, Bedford Park, Chiswick.
Henry J Wilkin, 52, retired Major in the Army, late 11th [7th?] Hussars, Frimley, Suffolk.
Maria Wilkin, 40, wife, Shahjahanpore, Bengal, E. Indies.
Marguarite [sic?] Wilkin, 12, Scholar, Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland.
Ellen Walsh, 34, unmarried, General Servant/Domestic, Liverpool.
[Google Maps 2017: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/18+Bath+Rd,+Chiswick,+London+W4/@51.4964644,-0.2524928,3a,75y,249.96h,98.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1suU5Eg8_gBSKE-vS2cEdKAw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x48760e3f290e3061:0x24ecc88b3b8289bf!8m2!3d51.4962919!4d-0.2525525 (accessed 20.7.2017)]
[PB: A "Maria M.T.W. Wilkin" was admitted to Peckham Asylum on the 19th of January 1886. Could this be her?
__________Lunacy Patients Admissions Registers
7 October 1877: a Maria Wilkin [sic?], Private patient, was admitted to Northumberland Asylum, released 26 October 1977. This may not be her - in later admissions she is shown with all her initials i.e. MMTW Wilkin.
[Source: Link.]
__________23 July 1882 - Discharged 29 July 1882 [note Camberwell not Peckham]
[Source: Link.]
15 August 1882 to 4 November 1882 / Halliford
[Source: Link.]
[Source: Link.]
4 November 1882 to 5 December 1882 / Camberwell / Discharged: Recovered
[Source: Link.]
12 Dec 1882 to 11 August 1883 / Camberwell / Discharged: Recovered
[Source: Link.]
[Source: Link.]
14 Jan 1884 to 7 Apr 1884 / Camberwell / Discharged: Recovered
[Source: Link.]
???? 22 Apr 1884 to 19 January 1886 to 3 August 1887 - Peckham - private patient, discharged: released
[Source: Link.]
8 March 1889 to 27 [29?] July 1891 [Peckham] - private patient, discharged: released
[Source: Link.]
(UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/9051/42477_625537_11578-00499 (accessed 10.7.2017).
Oh dear, yes it is. Looking back over these notes, I see her full name at marriage was "Maria Margaret [PB: Marguerite?] Thomasina Wardham Chalmers", so the initials fit.
But notice also that she was discharged after eighteen months. There is a stroke beneath "Discharged/Reld", which stood for "Relieved" (i.e. was sufficiently well to return home or to an ordinary hospital).
After this was written I discovered a review of her date? novel in the British Journal of Psychiatry (date?). The reviewer notes that it is [highly?] unusual for them to notice novels, but ...
The reviewer concludes the author must have had experience of a private asylum, run by "? Renfrewshire" [given MW's re-use of actual names, is this possibly a hint?]. ication is she has already been in a private [home]. Which? When? For how long? Was it perhaps paid for when she was still with HJW but when they divorced was she forced to go to the presumably public Peckham Asylum?
Where was "Peckham Lunatic Asylum"? There was a Peckham House, address?, and a Camberwell House, Peckham Road. Both appear to have been private asylums.
See http://studymore.org.uk/3_06.htm, also Wellcome etc etc. Some sources say Peckham House Lunatic Asylum was at Camberley [or is this in error for Camberwell?].
http://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/camberwellhouse.html
The expanded form, spelling out abbreviations, shown in the Lunacy Act 1845: Link.
Henry Wilkin died in 1891. Obituaries mention he left a widow and two children. I have so far not been able to find any further references to Maria.
Can we find the 1891 Census for Peckham Asylum? It will probably only show initials, but that may be sufficient.
Yes:
1891 Census
Peckham House 1891
WMMTW Patient Widow 52 Authoress [note "Ret" -retired?] Where born unknown [as with all patients] Lunatic
[Ancestry: Link.]
It seems likely that no detailed patient records survive:
The "Index of English and Welsh Lunatic Asylums and Mental Hospitals" expands on this saying "Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 says Corporation of London Records Office, Guildhall, contained records of Peckham House. The City of London Record Office and Metropolitan Archives say they have not got them. There are some Poor Law registers of patients from a union: See Westminster. Rupert Stoker has a file labelled "Old Papers, Peckham House" - but no patient records. Rupert Stocker explains that this is because the medical superintendents kept the patients files".
But who knows?
[British-Genealogy formum: Link.]
[Source: Link.]
UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912 for Maria Wilkin: Metropolitan licensed houses: Piece 05: 1876-1885
No. in order of Admission: 33158
Maria Wilkin
Private, Female
Date of admission: 15 Mar 1879
Asylum: Bethnall [ Bethnal House, Cambridge Rd]
Date of Discharge or Death: 22 March 1879
Discharged: "Not Insane" [this note is unusual - i.e. not categorised as "Recovered"," Released", "Not Improved", "Died"]
[Ancestry: UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912.]
April Quarter 1931: a "Mary Wilkin" died aged 86 in Lambeth - not impossible this is Maria?
[Ancestry: Link.]
Can we find the 1891 Census for Peckham Asylum? It will probably only show initials, but that may be sufficient.
It seems likely that no patient records survive:
The "Index of English and Welsh Lunatic Asylums and Mental Hospitals" expands on this saying "Parry-Jones, W.L. 1972 says Corporation of London Records Office, Guildhall, contained records of Peckham House. The City of London Record Office and Metropolitan Archives say they have not got them. There are some Poor Law registers of patients from a union: See Westminster. Rupert Stoker has a file labelled "Old Papers, Peckham House" - but no patient records. Rupert Stocker explains that this is because the medical superintendents kept the patients files".
But who knows?
[British-Genealogy formum: Link.]
[Source: Link.]
________[Lost Hospitals of London: Bethnal House, Cambridge Road, Bethnal Green, London [E2 0HL].]
__________[Lost Hospitals of London: Camberwell House, 30-35 Peckham Road [SE5 8AQ].]]
[NA: Hospital Records Database: Camberwell House Asylum, London , 30-35 Peckham Road [SE5 8AQ].]
[South London Gallery: Camberwell House: A Progressive Asylum?.]
_________
[ Halliford House, 'Special Lunatic Asylum' (for 'patients of the higher classes'), Sunbury, Middlesex. ] Printed Leaflet advertising Halliford House, headed by an engraving by Arthur Willmore.
Author: Dr Joseph Seaton, Scottish physician and author, proprietor of Halliford House, 'Special Lunatic Asylum', Sunbury, Middlesex [ Arthur Willmore (1814-1888), engraver ]
1p., 4to. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, repaired on the blank reverse with tape. the engraving ('Halliford House, Sunbury, Middlesex', 'Drawn & Engraved by A. Willmore') is clear and undamaged. Beneath the engraving are 29 lines in small print, beginning:
'This beautiful and secluded Residence, standing in a small Park of nearly thirty acres, is appropriated to the reception of a limited number of patients of the higher classes, who may be suffering from Mental and Nervous affections, and who are under the constant personal superintendence of Dr. Seaton.' The 'House and Premises' are described, then the grounds, the 'domestic and moral management' of the patients ('They have the advantage of Carriage exercise, and a variety of amusements, such as Music, Chess, Archery, [!] &c. &c. The Gentlemen have likewise the additional advantage of a handsome and spacious Billiard Room - a very valuable resource in wet weather.'
Patients may also, '[w]hen capable of enjoying it', enter into 'cheerful society under the observation and companionship of Dr. and Mrs. Seaton; and whenever it can be done with propriety, they accompany the family to the services of the Parish Church'.
The location of Halliford House is described, and the text ends: 'The terms for the reception of a Patient are moderate, depending in a great measure upon the nature of the particular case, and my be learned upon application to Dr. Seaton.'
Seaton and Halliford House are dealt with (damningly) in the 1987 thesis of Nicholas B. Hervey, 'The Lunacy Commission 1845-60, with special reference to the implementation of policy in Kent and Surrey'.
Another authority states that 'In 1841 Dr. Joseph Seaton, MD became a tenant at Halliford House and opened an Asylum there that same year. The 1851 Census shows just four patients, but by 1881 this number had grown to about twenty-one, cared for by up to eighteen staff. The 1861 Census lists the House as a 'Special Lunatic Asylum', but by 1881 the Census again records it as being a 'Private Asylum'. The 1891 Census shows Dr. David Edwards, MD as Medical Superintendent with twenty-seven patients, a matron and twelve staff. | The 1901 and 1911 Census returns show Dr. William Haslett, MD (later Sir William) as Superintendent of the Mental Asylum with twenty-six patients identified by initials only.
The 1939 Register shows Dr. R.A.Stewart as Medical Superintendent of the Asylum. | After demolition of the derelict house in about 1957, some of its grounds were later opened to the public as Halliford Park.' No other copy traced.
[Richard Ford Manuscripts: Link.]
[Village Matters: Sunbury: Halliford House 1777 - 1957 May 31, 2017. Includes a good photograph.]
Many interesting short articles to follow up:
http://www.sarahwise.co.uk/index.html
e.g.
Bethnal Green 6 June 2013 (IB); 22 Nov 2013 (IB); 18 Jan 2014 (IB);
10 April 2014 (IB); 26 May 2014 (IB);
Charles Booth 4 May 2013 (TBS); 3 September 2013 (TBS); 18 September 2013 (TBS);
Hanwell Pauper Lunatic Asylum 25 March 2013 (Incon); 12 Nov 2013 (Incon); 23 Dec 2013 (Incon);
Nottidge, Louisa 19 May 2014 (Incon);
York House Asylum, Battersea 8 March 2014 (Incon);
Workhouses 19 August 2013 (IB); 23 April 2013 (TBS); 16 March 2013 (Incon);
Woman in White 27 Feb 2013 (Incon); 18 Dec 2014 (Incon);
http://www.sarahwise.co.uk/inconvenient.html