Thomas Courtenay was the son of Frederick Courtenay and Mary Tuty of Dublin; Frederick and Mary Courtenay were our great-great-great-great grandparents on our mother's side.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2018/03/the-courtenay-family-of-ballyedmond-and.html
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/10/the-children-of-frederick-and-mary.html
Sergeant Thomas Courtenay, was born in St. Andrews, Dublin, on 26th March 1824 (the date comes from the LDS website) - he married Mary Browne on 5th June 1859 in St. James' Catholic Church, Dublin.
The St. James' registers are currently free to view on the National Library of Ireland website, and I came across the marriage there. Thomas Courtney was living at 7 Irwin Street, which is close to the military Royal Hospital, at the time of the marriage in 1859. The register notes him as the son of Frederick Courtney and Mary Tuty (this could be Tute or Tutty). Mary Brown gave the same address as the groom. She was the daughter of Benjamin and Mary Browne. The witnesses were both living at 13 Irwin Street - George Allen and Delia, whose family name was illegible to me.
Mary Browne had been born to Benjamin Browne and Mary Farrell and was baptised in St. James' on 22nd April 1841. Her brother, Benjamin Browne, was baptised there on 6th March 1843.
Thomas Courtenay died at Royal Hospital, Kilmainham on March 20th 1895.
Thomas Courtenay, a labourer aged 18, joined the 8th Regiment of Foot in Dublin in 1842, and transferred to the 1st Battalion of the 60th Rifles on 2nd September 1844. This regiment sailed for India in 1845 under the command of Lt.Col. Henry Dundas. Thomas served during the Sikh War of 1848 - 9, and was severely wounded in action in Delhi on 18th July 1857 during the Siege of Delhi, losing his right arm close to the shoulder; the wound was 'not aggravated by vice or intemperance.' In 1856 he had been promoted to Corporal and was finally discharged from duty, due to his injuries, in Chatham on 18th August 1858, having spent 15 years in the army, 12 of them in India where he served in the East Indies Lower and Upper Scinde, and in the Punjab from 15th October 1845 till 31sts December 1857.
At the time of his discharge he was wearing two good conduct rings, but had once been charged in a regimental court with drunkenness. He had been present at the Siege and capture of Kooltan from 27th December 1848 till 22nd January 1849. at the Battle of Goojerat, and during the occupation of Attoch and Peshawar.
Following his discharge, he returned home to Dublin where he took up residence in The Royal Hospital, Kilmainham.
He married Mary Browne on 5th June 1859 in St. James' Catholic Church following his return to Dublin.
Thomas Courtenay was the same man who was admitted to the Freemen of Dublin on 16th July 1863, being the grandson of Thomas Courtenay, Shearmen, who had been admitted in 1789, although in the archives of the Dublin Freemen he was named as Thomas Frederick Courtenay. Thomas (Frederick) Courtenay was a yeoman of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham in 1863, and was named there on the Dublin Electoral Lists of 1865. Thomas was the son of our direct ancestors, Frederick Courtenay and Mary Tuty of 27 Wellington Street. We descend, therefore, directly from his sister, Emily Courtenay, who would marry John Lysaght Pennefather.
The Royal Hospital in Kilmainham had been founded as a home for retired military men, and military members of the Hospital staff were provided with apartments for themselves and their families. Thomas's father, Frederick Courtenay, worked in the library of the Royal Hospital, before retiring circa 1851 as a pensioner to the Chelsea Hospital in London.
Thomas Courtenay and Mary Browne had at least 11 children together at the Royal Hospital, before they separated in about 1880. Following the separation, Mary became ill with phthisis/tuberculosis, and died in her mid-forties in 1885.
The three youngest daughters - Adelaide, Sarah and Sabina Courtenay were sent off to school, the boys joined the army, a Courtenay family tradition, and the older daughters stayed home to care for their father, who died on 20th March 1895, and whose funeral was attended by Field-Marshall Lord Roberts who was Master of the Royal Hospital. The informant for Thomas Courtenay,s death was his daughter, A. Courtenay, ie. Adelaide.
The children of Thomas Courtenay and Mary Browne:
1) William Courtenay was baptised on 15th April 1860 at St.Mary's, Haddington Road. The sponsor at the baptism was a member of the Dwyer family, first name illegible to me.
On 19th March 1887 in the Dublin Registrar's office, William Courtenay, who was Protestant later, married Emily Yorke. In 1887 William was living at home in the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham and was working as a goods clerk in a private company. The wedding witnesses were Thomas Courtenay and Elizabeth Sarah Yorke.
Emily Yorke had been born on 3rd January 1856 to a policeman, William Yorke, and to Eliza Courtney - her address at the time of her birth in 1856 was 27 Wellington St, the home of the Courtenay family; by 1887, the year of her marriage, she was living at 3 Avondale Road. Eliza Courtney/Courtenay was a daughter of Frederick and Mary Courtenay of 27 Wellington Street, therefore William Courtenay and his wife, Emily Yorke, were first cousins.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/10/the-children-of-frederick-and-mary.html
William Courtenay and Emily Yorke had four children in Dublin -
On 25th June 1891, twin sons, John and Victor Courtenay, were born at 2 Avondale Road, John at 12.10am and Victor at 12.50am. Neither survived - John died after three minutes, and his brother, Victor, died five hours later.
Robert William Henry Courtenay was born on 27th May 1892 at 2 Avondale Road. (William's sister, Adelaide, was living at 3 Avondale Road in 1900.) On 26th May 1918 in Donnybrook Catholic Church, boilermaker Robert Courtenay of 3 Avondale Road, North Circular Road, Dublin, married Margaret Erving of 5 Warwick Terrace, Appian Way, Ranelagh, the daughter of a farmer John Erving. Robert's father, William Courtenay, was noted as a timekeeper. The witnesses were George Yorke and Annie Agatha Gerity. Robert Courtenay of 3 Avondale Road died of an ulcer in Drumcondra Hospital on 28th January 1931.
On 23rd April 1894, at 45 Avondale Road, William Courtenay and Eliza Yorke had Dorothy Mary Elizabeth Courtenay, who would later marry an antiques dealer, Erwin Arthur Stassen, a widower of 296b North Circular Road, the son of the late Philip Stassen, a maths professor. Erwin Arthur Stassen (1883 - 1954) had earlier married Florence Emily Alexandra O'Farrell Doran in Dover in 1908, but she had died of cancer aged 62 on 7th June 1937 in St. Michael's, Drumcondra. They had had a son, Bodo Phillip Stassen, in 1908 in Hampshire - he was boarding, aged only 3 years, in 1911 with the family of William and Fanny Windsor in Bournemouth, and was noted on the census return as being German.
Erwin Arthur Stassen had arrived in Ireland on 17th April 1929 and had been naturalised in the 1940s.
married in All Saints Church on 16th September 1938, and this was witnessed by Nora Elizabeth Bell and John Bell. John Bell was the bride's uncle, having married William Courtenay's sister, Sarah, while Nora was the adopted daughter of John Bell and Sarah Courtenay. Dorothy Stassen, aged 55, died at 2 Avondale Road on 16th August 1949, while her husband Erwin died aged 71 at 2 Avondale Road on 1st July 1954. His son, Bodo, was there.
On 24th November 1897, at 24 Hardwicke Street, William Courtenay and Emily York had Sylvia Eugenie Adelaide Courtenay.
William Courtenay and his family fell on hard times at the turn of the century, and the Dublin Workhouse Admission registers show the Courtenays spending time in the institution. The family was resident in the workhouse on and off throughout 1901, having previously lived in a variety of Dublin addresses, 21 Meath Street, 4 Maunsell Place, 25 Mountjoy Street and 24 Hardwicke Street. Emily's brother, George Yorke, a married house painter, also entered the workhouse in this era, having also lived at Mountjoy Street and 4 Maunsell Road, but he left on 21st March 1903.
Earlier, on 17th March 1900, William Courtenay joined the Royal Reserve Regiment for one year. A married clerk, his address at the time was Beggar's Bush, and he was aged 40 years and 7 months. His records state that he had previously served with the 1st East Lancashire Regiment but no date was given for this. When his year's service was complete, on 16th March 1901, he stated that his wife, Emily, was living at 25 Hardwicke Street.
William and his wife, Emily, were living at 12 Broadstone Avenue, Dublin, in 1911; William was an asylum attendant. Also in the house was his younger brother, the widowed Thomas Courtenay, a musician. Thomas was present with his 18 year old son, Thomas, who had been born in India. See below....
Emily Courtenay, née Yorke, died at 2 Avondale Road, North Circular Rd., Dublin, on 10th November 1933. The death registration names her as the wife of a soldier. William Courtenay, a widowed clerk of 2 Avondale Road, died aged 76 on 26th March 1936; his son-in-law, Arthur Stassen, was the informant when he died.
2) Mary Ellen Courtney of the Royal Hospital, was on 11th November 1861, and was baptised in St. James's on 21st November 1861 - the sponsors were Patrick and Mary Ellen Dwyer.
3) Mary Eliza Courtenay was born on 26th May 1863 at the Royal Hospital and was baptised in St. James' on 2nd June 1863. I presume her older sister, Mary Ellen, had died in infancy, since two sisters named 'Mary' would be unusual. The sponsors at the baptism were Edward and Eliza Browne, possible relations of the baby's mother.
4) Thomas Courtenay was born 12th May 1865, and was baptised in St. James' on 22nd May 1865. The sponsors were Michael McQuaid and Esther Gilmore. Thomas was a musician with the military and was posted to Lucknow, Bengal, where he married in Chunar, on 4th November 1891, Ann McDonald, the daughter of Henry McDonald. The marriage record records that Thomas was the son of Thomas Courtenay, and that he had been born in 1865. Ann had been born in 1872. Thomas Courtenay was noted as a sergeant with the East Lancashire Regiment.
Their eldest son, Cyrill Courtenay, was born on 14th November 1892 in Lucknow, baptised on 16th November, died on 17th November, and finally was buried in Lucknow on 18th November 1892.
Their second and only son, Thomas Courtenay, was born in Lucknow, Bengal, on 25th January 1894.
Following Ann's death, Thomas and his son, Thomas Junior, returned to Dublin, where they were recorded living (or visiting) with Thomas' brother, William, in 1911. The younger Thomas Courtenay (1894 - 1946) married Rose Ellen Moss, the daughter of William Moss and Mary Ann Murphy, in Preston, Lancashire, UK, in 1919.
5) Robert Benjamin Courtenay was born in the Royal Hospital on 27th October 1866, and was baptised in St. James' on 5th November 1866. The sponsors at his baptism were James and Ann Tighe. (Bina E. Martin wrongly gave a date of birth of 1862 for him, but the St. James' register is available online to view by way of confirmation of the correct date.)
As a child he spent time in the Royal Hibernian Military School. His records state he had been born on 27th October 1866, and entered the school on 15th January 1878. By trade he was a tailor (aged 12). His father was a member of the county regiment called the Royal American Regiment, also known as the 60th Regiment of Foot 1st.
Robert was a military man, and was posted to Fyzabad, Bengal, India where, on 21st November 1891, he married Edith Grant, the daughter of a John Grant.
The Indian Army Quarterly List of 1st January 1912, recorded Robert Benjamin Courtenay as a warrant officer in the barrack department in Allahabad, Bengal.
'The London Gazette' of 19th May 1916, recorded Robert Benjamin Courtenay under its heading for the Indian Army Departments as - "To be Assistant Commissary, with the honorary rank of Lieutenant. Conductor Robert Benjamin Courtenay. Dated 8th February 1916."
On 15th September 1921, the passenger list for the 'Castalia', sailing from Liverpool to Bombay, noted Major R.B. Courtenay, aged 54, and his wife, Mrs. Edith Courtenay, on board; their English address was given as 'Green View', Heatherside Road, Surrey, and this was confirmed by the Surrey Electoral Register of 1921 which named Robert Benjamin Courtenay at the same address.
The widowed Edith Courtenay, who had been born circa 1878, died on 10th September 1936 in Lucknow, Bengal.
6) Emilia/Emily Courtney was born 10th December 1868, at Royal Hospital and baptised on 17th December in St. James. The sponsors were Robert Courtney and Julia Doyle. The sponsor, Robert Courtney, may well have been the Robert Courtenay Junior who was also admitted to the Freemen of Dublin in 1857 by virtue of being the grandson of the original Thomas Courtenay, Shearman, although this Robert Courtney would have had to be Catholic, since only Catholics were permitted to be sponsors in Catholic christenings.
Emilia Courtney, daughter of Thomas Courtenay, married Thomas Gallagher, son of Terence Gallagher, in 1889. The marriage registration certificate shows up better detail - the couple married on 29th December 1889 in Dublin's St. James' Catholic Church. Emily Courtenay was 21, a servant who lived at 23 Echlin Street adjacent to St. James, and whose father was Thomas Courtenay who worked at what seems to be something along the lines of 'messenger' although I could have this wrong. Thomas Gallagher was a 21-year-old brass finisher of 30 James Street, the son of a currier Terence Gallagher, a currier being a leather-finisher.The two witnesses were Thomas Murray and Ellen O'Leary.
Emily Courtenay and Thomas Gallagher had four children together, although only the eldest child survived childhood. This was Joseph Gallagher who was born on 19th March 1890 to Thomas Gallagher and Emily Courtney of School Street in the Liberties area of Dublin. Present at Joseph's birth in 1890 was M. Gallagher of 9 School Street.
(M. Gallagher might be Michael Gallagher, an iron moulder, who was resident in School Street in 1901 along with his wife, Kate, and two children, Emily and Elizabeth.)
Daughter Mary Gallagher was born at 147 Thomas Street on 5th November 1891 to Thomas Gallagher, a brass finisher, but this infant only survived 30 minutes before dying.
Thomas Gallagher was born on 3rd December 1892 at 17 Bow Bridge, Kilmainham; his father, Thomas Gallagher was working as a plumber, and a member of the Courtenay family was present for the birth. This child, Thomas, died on 20th February 1894 aged only 14 months.
Daughter Catherine Gallagher was born on 12th November 1894 at 2 Bow Bridge, but she died on 18th December 1896 at 78 Francis Street.
Emily Gallagher, née Courtenay, was widowed young - her husband, Thomas Gallagher of Francis Street, died of pnemonia on 31st December 1896 aged only 27. His widow and surviving son subsequently fell on hard times. Joseph Gallagher was arrested aged 17 in 1907 in Kilmainham for stealing a gold watch, and subsequently served 1 month in jail. His widowed mother, Emily, was named in the prison records as living at 18 Hardwicke Street. Shortly afterwards she entered the Dublin workhouse, and was released on 12th September 1908. She must have been readmitted almost immediately, since she died in the workhouse of lung disease on 9th October 1908 aged only 38.
Her son, Joseph Gallagher, married in St. Victor's Church on 25th March or May 1917. His bride was named as Lilian Kate Hayes, the daughter of clerk James Hayes. Both bride and groom were living in Distillery House, Marrowbone Lane, in 1917, and Joseph was working for what seems to be 'C.R.M.S. and R.I. Rig' (?). His father, Thomas Gallagher, was deceased. The wedding was witnessed by W. Duelle and C. Hayes.
Joseph Gallagher and Lilian Kate Hayes moved to Kingston, Surrey, England where a daughter, Marjorie E. Gallagher, was born in July 1931. She would subsequently marry Peter Robert Ivor McMullan in Ealing in July 1954. Joseph and Lilian Kate Gallagher were recorded on the UK Electoral Registers - in 1934 they were recorded as living at 15 George Street, Tickenham, while in 1938 they had moved on to 24 Sidmouth Avenue.
Lilian Kate Gallagher died in Ealing on 17th March 1984; her husband, Joseph Gallagher had died in 1961. The McMullans are DNA matches of me and my mother.
7) Bina E. Martin identified a Catherine Courtenay born in 1871, and the civil registration of births confirms her birth at the Royal Hospital on 20th January 1871, but named her as the daughter of pensioner Thomas Courtenay and Mary Bourke rather than Browne.
One of my DNA matches, who matches all my other Courtenay matches, is Mark Ferguson who descends from a Catherine Courtney (1875 - 1910) who married Arklow-born Patrick Synnott, the son of John Synnott and Mary Cunningham.
Patrick Synnott and Catherine Courtenay/Courtney are difficult to uncover in the records, but the birth of a daughter, Kathleen Synnott (known later as Dorothy Kathleen) was registered as occurring on 29th November 1904 in the Rotunda Hospital. Carpenter Patrick Synnott/Sinnott and wife Catherine Courtney were living at 9 Georges Place at the time.
I can find no record of the marriage of Patrick Synnott and Catherine Courtenay; Catherine died young of nephritis and endocarditis on 13th March 1910 at 18 Hardwicke Street, and Patrick moved to Govan, Glasgow, with his daughter Dorothy Kathleen, who would subsequently marry William Ferguson (1908 - 1975) in Glasgow in 1937.
8) Edward Courtenay of Royal Hospital, was born on 16th September 1872 and baptised in St. James Church on 18th September 1872 and was sponsored by Elizabeth McCabe.
9) Adelaide Courtenay was born on 26th December 1874 in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, and was baptised in St. James on 5th January 1875; she was sponsored by Patrick and Maria McCabe.
On 19th September 1901, Adelaide Courtenay married the Co. Down widower, James Clifford, in Grangegorman Church of Ireland church. This was James' second marriage - the first had been to Charlotte Matilda Wright, the daughter of Frederick Wright, a caretaker who lived at 71 Rathmines Road. James Clifford, a policeman, was stationed at the time in Dundrum.
James Clifford's first wife, Charlotte, died on 31st August 1898 - her husband, Constable James Clifford, was stationed in Bray, Wicklow, at the time of her death.
It seems that the Courtenay children, although baptised Catholic, were reared Protestant, since yet another of Thomas and Mary Courtenay's children had reverted to the Church of Ireland by adulthood.
James was a sergeant with the Royal Irish Constabulary, and was living in Bray, Co. Wicklow at the time of his Church of Ireland marriage to Adelaide. His father was a farmer, William John Clifford. Adelaide's address was given as 3 Avondale Road, Phibsboro. Her father was a clerk, Thomas Courtenay, and the witnesses were a Meta Stringer and what seems to be James Smyth Mac Sighe. A few months later, the 1901 census picks the newly-weds up at Fairview Terrace in Bray, Co. Wicklow, where Adelaide was living with her husband and his five children.
A lady's maid named Sarah Courtenay, aged 22 (the age is wildly inaccurate however) and unmarried, was also in the household, and was stated to be a cousin of the head of the household, James Clifford. This must surely be Adelaide's younger sister, Sarah, would later marry a John Bell. Adelaide Courtenay and James Clifford moved to England at the time of the Irish Civil War.
The children of Adelaide Courtenay and James Clifford were:
a) Ernest Clifford born 1901.
b) Percival Clifford born 1902.
c) Walter Clifford, born 1904, and who had Patricia in 1932, who had Lewis in 1958. Went to Australia.
d) Albert Clifford, born 1908, who had John in 1931 and Terence in 1939.
e) Adelaide Clifford, (1914 - 1990) who married Edward Dewey of Woodmancote, Gloucestershire, and who had Michael Dewey in 1946 and Robert Dewey in 1950. Adelaide Dewey helped Bina E. Martin with her family tree.
f) Ethel Clifford, born 1916, who married John Copley of Santa Barbara, California, and who had Paul Copley in 1944, and Judith Copley in 1940 who had Lynda in 1967 and James Patrick in 1970.
10) Sarah Courtenay of Royal Hospital was born on 27th November 1876 and baptised in St. James on 5th December 1876; she was sponsored by Sarah Fulds.
On 3rd September 1901, she married a cattle-dealer, John Bell, the son of a farmer Thomas Bell. The wedding took place in Donaghmoine, Co. Monaghan, (Church of Ireland), and was witnessed by Richard and Eliza Bell. Sarah was noted as the daughter of a soldier, Thomas Courtenay, and was living in Monaghan at the time of the marriage.
John Bell had been born to caretaker Thomas Bell and to Martha O'Hagan on 18th August 1872 (Thomas Bell, son of Thomas Bell Sr., married Martha O'Hagan, daughter of James O'Hagan, on 1st April 1863 in Donaghmoyne); John Bell would die, a 93-year-old widower, at 25 Main Street, Carrickmacross, on 9th April 1966, with B.Howell present at his death. Sarah Bell, née Courtenay, had died earlier on 29th October 1948 aged 70.
John Bell and Sarah Courtenay had earlier adopted a daughter, Nora Elizabeth, who married Benjamin Howell in Castleblayney in 1944, and who had two sons, John and Ralph Howell. This from Bina Courtenay's research.
Nora Elizabeth Bell, the adopted daughter of Sarah Courtenay and John Bell, acted as the witness in 1938 when Sarah Courtenay's sister, Dorothy Courtenay, married the widowed Erwin Arthur Stassen. So who was this adopted Nora Elizabeth Bell?
When Nora Elizabeth Bell married Benjamin Howell in 1944, she gave her birth name - she had been born on 27th August 1916 in Tullynacross, Monaghan, to the coachman Cecil William Heron and to Margaret Bell. She was therefore a relation of her adoptive father John Bell. Margaret Bell, Nora's mother, was the daughter of John Bell of Cordrummon,while Cecil was the son of the late railway inspector William Heron. Nora's mother, Margaret, died of asthma, on 10th September 1917 when Nora was only a year old, and her father, Cecil Heron, moved to Dublin and remarried on 8th June 1920; his second wife was Bridget Howlin, daughter of the late Philip Howlin of the Inland Revenue. It must have been at this point that Nora was taken in by John Bell and Sarah Courtenay. Nora Elizabeth Heron's grandfather was John Bell of Cordrummon who had married her grandmother, Mary Anne White, on 17th December 1873. This John Bell was the son of an earlier Thomas Bell. Thomas Bell was also the father of Thomas Bell who had married Martha O'Hagan in 1872, and whose son was John Bell, husband of Sarah Courtenay.
11) Sabina Courtenay was born in the Royal Hospital on May 23rd 1879 and was baptised in St. James on 3rd June 1879; she was sponsored by Michael and Maria Baxter. Following her father's death in 1895, Sabina Courtenay was taken to England by friends of the family, where she wished to train as a ballet dancer.
On 26th July 1900 in Lambeth Registry Office, she married a civil servant, Frederick Temple Martin, who had been born in 1868 in Lambeth, London, to Temple Chevallier Martin and Elizabeth Mary Parkyn, but the couple separated and divorced 11 years later.
The UK Civil Divorce Records (care of Ancestry.com) give the details. On 8th May 1911, Frederick Temple Martin of 'Lexden', King's Avenue, Clapham Park, petitioned for divorce, and the final decree was granted on 29th July 1912.
Following their 1900 marriage, he and Sabina had lived together at 13 Prospect Place, Surbiton; there were three children born. Elizabeth Sabina Martin was born on 7th November 1900 and was baptised in Lambeth All Saints Church on November 16th 1900, Alice Courtenay Martin on 4th September 1906, and Temple Chevalier Martin on 1st May 1909. A fourth child, who didn't survive infancy, was Irene Clara Martin, who had been born in London in 1903, and who had died the following year.
Frederick Temple Martin cited his wife's adultery as the ground for divorce, and the court granted him custody of their three children.
The 1911 census showed Frederick living with the three children at 183 King's Avenue, Clapham, while Sabina was living at 164 Barcombe Avenue, Wandsworth, Streathem. She had filled the return out twice. The first entry was scribbled out, and read 'Subina Elizabeth Martin, aged 30, married 11 years, 4 children born alive, 3 surviving.' She filled out the second line as 'Subina Courtenay, single, dressmaking.'
Sabina Courtenay was listed on the electoral registers at this same address for the next few years. She died in Streathem in 1933 and was buried in the cemetery there.
"I was always fond of my father and like to remember him best in the very early days when we lived at Surbiton-on-Thames. He had a punt at Thames Ditton and loved to picnic on the river at week-ends. The uncles often came down from London and joined in the fun, particularly in the cherry season, for we had a huge white-heart cherry tree in the garden of our little home and they used to climb the tree and pick quantities of these luscious fruits. We lived here for almost the first eight years of my life until shortly before my grandmother died when we moved up to London to share my grandfather's new home in Clapham Park." (Bina Elizabeth Martin on her father, Frederick Temple Martin.)
The three children of Frederick Temple Martin and Sabina Courtenay emigrated to New Zealand; the oldest, Sabina Elizabeth Martin (7th November 1900 - 19th May 1985), later settled in South Africa. Her obituary was published in 'Veld & Flora' in September 1985:
'Bina Elizabeth Martin was born on 7 November 1900 at Surbiton-on-Thames as the eldest of three children. Later the family lived in with her grandparents in "Lexden", their home in Clapham Park, S.W. London. When it was sold Bina was sent to boarding school at Margate in Kent.
Having joined the Civil Service at the age of 16 during World War 1 she became financially independent when it was over and accompanied her grandfather and uncle to the Channel Islands and Europe....
...She was always an enthusiast and did everything with verve...she was particularly keen on the outdoors and loved nature and animals, especially dogs. Strangely she did not like music, but said the sounds of nature were music to her.
In 1926 Bina, her younger sister and young brother decided it would be a great adventure to see the other side of the world, and on November 7 they set sail for New Zealand, while their 84-year-old grandfather waved goodbye from the quayside at Southampton.
In New Zealand they surmounted the difficulties caused by the economic depression. Her brother became a pilot and her sister was married. Meantime Bina, having always been fond of outdoor life, became apprenticed in 1928 as a gardener at Dunedin Botanic Gardens, with the idea of obtaining the N.D.H. (N.Z.) - a six year course. Meantime she continued her adventurous life climbing the hiking trails in the New Zealand Alps and studying the flora. However, after five years, she decided to emigrate to South Africa in 1932....
....Bina started her career in South Africa in Ban Hoek, where she assisted Miss K. Stanford in her Wild Flower Nursery.
In 1936 Bina obtained a post at the National Botanic Gardens (in) Kirstenbosch under the Director, Professor Compton, and later was put in charge of the bulb section in the nursery....
...In 1940 Bina volunteered to join the W.A.A.S. as a driver, and after a year in Cape Town she volunteered to serve in the Middle East, and was mentioned in dispatches for distinguished service in 1943...
....After the war ended Bina was discharged in England, and went to Bedford College, London University, where she gained a diploma in Social Services. "
Bina returned to South Africa in 1947 and took up her old post in charge of the bulb garden in the Botanic Gardens in Kirstenbosch where she worked under Professor Compton for many years - a bulb was named after her, the Lachenalia Martinae, which she had collected in 1937. Bina retired in 1965, and was made an Honorary Life Member of the Botanical Society of South Africa.
In 1930, Bina Martin's sister, Alice Courtenay Martin (1906 - 1989), married Burton Murrell of Lake Manapouri, New Zealand, whose family was a well-known pioneering family from the region. They later ran a guesthouse there. Their children were Jack Murrell, Burton Murrell, Margaret Murrell and Bina Murrell.
The youngest child of Frederick Temple Martin and Sabina Courtenay, Temple Martin, became a pilot, serving with the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a ground engineer during the 2nd World War, and worked later as an aeronautical engineer in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.
Bina Elizabeth Martin, the daughter of Frederick Temple Martin and Sabina Courtenay, published two genealogical books, detailing her excellent research into the Martin and Edgecumbe families - 'Parsons and Prisons' and 'Edgecumbes of Edgecumbe'.
Martin Family Genealogy:
The motto of the Martin family of Killaloe, Co. Clare was 'Sic Itur ad Astra' (ie: this is the way to the stars) is the same as the motto used by the Martins of Ross, Co.Galway, and by the Martins of Ballynahinch, Co. Galway, although an early genalogical link between the Galway and Clare families has not yet been uncovered.
The earliest known member of the Martins of Killaloe was Rev. James Martin (1744 - 1824), magistrate and curate of Killaloe Cathedral, who married, in about 1777, Frances Janns. Rev. James Martin's obituary appeared in the Freeman's Journal of 28th September 1824:
'On Saturday at Killaloe, at the advances age of 80 years, the Rev. James Martin, who for upwards of 50 years officiated as Reader in the Cathedral of that Diocese. He was a most active Magistrate for many years, an office of which he discharged the arduous and important duties in a period of much peril. He was a kind neighbour and a great benefactor to the poor.'
The four sons of Rev. James Martin and Frances Janns were:
Captain Nicholas Martin 1779 - 1830
Rev. Richard Martin 1780 - 1858
Rev. James Martin 1782 - 1847
Michael Martin Esq. 1784 - 1860. (J.P. , Co. Clare.) The youngest son, Michael Martin J.P., was born on 29th May 1784, and married, on 18th May 1803, Margaret Kingsley. Their son was Rev. Richard Martin (1805 - 1852) who emigrated from Clare to England.
This son, Rev. Richard Martin (1805 - 1852), entered Trinity, Dublin, aged 18, on 18th October 1824, and graduated in 1829. In 1833 he was recorded as the Incumbent of St. John's, Greenock, Scotland. In 1834 he married Emma Mary Pilcher, née Edgcumbe (1807 - 1871), the daughter of Pierce Edgcumbe of Kent, the Edgcumbes of Kent being a branch of the Lords Mount Edgcumbe of Devonshire. Rev. Richard Martin did a stint as the vicar of Dore, Derby, before taking up a post as chaplain aboard a convict ship, first in Gosport, then in Woolwich. Rev. Richard Martin died of bronchitis in 1852, and his widow, Emma Mary Martin, became Governor of the Female Convict Prison at Brixton, a post she she held for 17 years before being pensioned off in 1870. She died at 53 Clapham Park Road on 5th October 1871.
Rev. Richard Martin and Emma Mary Edgcumbe had twelve children in total, one of whom was Temple Chevallier Martin (1842 - 1933), the grandfather of Sabina Elizabeth Martin of South Africa. He was born at Dore Parsonage on 22nd November 1842, and was named after his mother's first cousin, the Rev. Temple Chevallier (1794 - 1873), the first professor of astronomy and mathematics at Durham University who recreated Foucault's pendulum in Durham Castle to demonstrate the rotation of the earth.
Temple Chevallier Martin spent thirty years as Chief Clerk at the Lambeth Police Court, and married Elizabeth Mary Parkyn (1845 - 1909), the daughter of Frederick Silly Parkyn and Anne Everest of St. Pancras, London. The Parkyn family originated in Bodmin, Cornwall, where, apparently, the family name of 'Silly' translates as 'blessed', 'innocent' or 'holy'. Frederick Silly Parkyn was the Steward of the Female Prison in Brixton, where Temple Chevallier Martin's mother also worked.
Sabina Elizabeth Martin's father, Frederick Temple Martin (1868 - 1933), born 31st January 1868, was the eldest of six sons born to Temple Chevallier Martin and Elizabeth Mary Parkyn. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and entered the civil service like his father, rising to the position of Magistrate at the South Western Police Court, a post he held until his retirement in 1929.
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