A great surprise recently when George & Rachel Tatham made contact,
Rachel is the School Archivist for Sherborne School and hanging in
School House is a portrait of Dr Edward Liveing Fenn my Grandfather
See “Other Records” item 3
Penning Alston 1606 - 1668.
Was a member of The Grocers Coy London in the 17thC, he gifted them
a fine gold cup used to this day
William Keable
For those of you related to the Alston, Liveing, Fenn, Vanderzee
family, a distant ancestor was Jacobus Vanderzee 1688-1746 .
His file includes an image of him by William Keable, 1715-1774
at the time his wigmaker.
Irene Graziani of the Art Dept of Bologna University Italy
contacted me about this drawing. It has proved to be the first
known work of Keable, who went on to be “a man of merit in
the profession of making portraits” A contemporary and friend
of Gainsborough he worked in England, South Carolina America,
and Italy where he died in Livorno.
Irene has written a book on the artist’s work
“William Keable, Joseph Nolekens & James Barry - Three
English Artists in Bologna in the 18thC”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Keable
de Lassence - Alston
In 1840 Auguste Cleemann de Lassence married Mary Elizabeth
Alston, daughter of Justinian Alston of Odell Bedfordshire.
Auguste’s Gt Grandchild Louis de Lassence has made contact and
shared details of his ancient & most interesting family and a copy of
The Sun Maid 1877 (See Books section)
Lieut Cmdr Robert George Liveing R.N.
Robert was destined to be one of the 1000’s of family members
in this Tree, recorded but with little knowledge of them.
That was until the descendants of his Commanding Officer
in Hong Kong, highly decorated Submariner Capt William Richmond Fell,
made contact.
Pictures, stories suddenly Robert is made known to us, see “Light
Airs” in the Books section
Hawker - “A Great British Fighting Family” Adelaide Hawker married
Dr Robert Liveing 1866 Her Grandfather James the first
of a line of Military men and South Australian leaders.
Audio Tab
Of limited interest except to NZ members of the family of
Harold Fenn are a small number of tape recordings made to
send to Nancy Hadwen nee Fenn at Xmas n the early 1960’s.
Should you have family tape recordings you would like to publish
please let me know.
Recent additions to the “Books” section on this website are:
•
The Sun Maid 1877 - A Romance set mainly in Pau France, which
had a large expatriate community at that time, including the family
of Crewe Alston of Odell Bedfordshire. Locals including the Alston’s,
and members of the de Lassence family are depicted in the
characters of this light hearted novel, which attracted many visitors
from England to Pau.
•
A History of Kenton Hall - a short resume of one of the Manors
of Kenton location of the early Fenne family, yeomen farmers
•
Autobiography of Sir Henry Austen Layard 1817 - 1840. The
early years of this remarkable man A traveller, archaeologist,
cuneformist, art historian, draughtsman, politician & diplomat.
He is best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Nineveh
Assyria (30 km Sth of Mosel Iraq)
•
Light Airs - the magazine of the IV Submarine Flotilla
Hong Kong 1929. Edited by Robert George Liveing R.N.
•
Edward Henry Torlesse Liveing. His personal cash book
1890 - 1932. Covers his spending when he first went to Australia
with his new wife Ida, to details of his professional & investment
income.
•
Old Julius - The life of Henry Richard Julius 1816-1891 and his
family by John Birch & Roy Waight: "good in the world is partly
dependent on unhistoric acts by those who lived faithfully a hidden life,
and rest in unvisited tombs." Geo Elliot.
See “Books” section, an interesting read on the middle-class life of
an educated 19thC Country Vicar, and his spirited family.
Home Page
Home Page
“Happy” 10th Birthday thekingscandlesticks - launched 13 Aug 2011
What a ride, beyond all my expectations and still attracting over 2.5
million hits a year ! A grateful thank-you to all the Contributors.
To use this website, click on the tab “Information” for an understanding
of what it contains and where to find it. Click on
I am aware that all emails do not reach their mark but I have
made it a policy that I would not “chase up” correspondents
who owe me a reply. However I am sure some have slipped
through the cracks and are in fact waiting for a reply from me !
If this is the case with you, please give me a second chance
to make amends.
Edward Fenn
This website has now been up over a decade, it remains
mainly in its original format as I am averse to change for
the sake of it.
However if you have a suggestion to improve matters, please
let me know. However the red background (for luck if you are
superstitious) is a constant !
The Future
Now starting into my 80’s I have recently instructed my solicitor
in Auckland to form “The Kingscandlesticks Trust” to take
ownership of the website, candlesticks, family pictures and
other significant items belonging to this family history.
My children and grandchildren are to be Trustees and ensure the
website’s future.
Should you be interested in participating from a research
perspective, please let me know.
Hilary Mantel in 2017 said the following, which all family historians
should take to heart:
“Evidence is always partial. Facts are not truth though they are part of it
Information is not knowledge. And history is not the past — it is the
method we have evolved of organising our ignorance of the past.
It’s the record of what’s left on the record.
It’s the plan of the positions taken, when we to stop the dance to
note them down. It’s what’s left in the sieve when the centuries have
run through it — a few stones, scraps of writing, scraps of cloth.
It is no more “the past” than a birth certificate is a birth, or a script is
a performance, or a map is a journey.
It is the multiplication of the evidence of fallible and biased witnesses,
combined with incomplete accounts of actions not fully understood by the
people who performed them. It’s no more than the best we can do, and
often it falls short of that.”
