Maria Margaretta KNOTTESFORD [9953]

  General Notes:

Married.
November 23 at Billesley Church, by the Rev E. B. Knottesford Fortescue, the Rev Francis George Jackson, the only son of Sir George Jackson KGH to Marie Margaretta, youngest daughter of the Rev Francis Fortescue Knottesford, of Alveston Manor, and Rector of Billesley, in this County.
Ref: Leamington Spa Courier 2 December 1843

Maria's father wrote a long letter describing the marriage.
Liveing Archive
Alveston Manor, Dec. 12, 1843
My dear niece,
Altho' I have not addressed you for some time, yet I can assure you, I have had you often in my thoughts, & sympathized with you in all your sorrows. I have followed you in all your movements, & watched with you in your maternal cares & attendance on on (sic) your beloved family. That a new source of anxiety has arisen in the illness of another daughter has been a cause of grief to me & to us all. We feel assured however that this also shall be reckoned amongst the "all things" that will work together for your everlasting good: for it is not one thing only, but all taken together, the whole course of God's dispensations towards us, that being duly improved thro' his accompanying
(page 2)
grace shall produce this salutary effect. And we are to remember that in these all things¹ every thing is to be comprehended that befalls us thro' his Providence, whether it be adversity or prosperity, poverty or riches, sickness or health. We are not to be the choosers, but must leave our condition with Him, who alone knows what is really best for us & what will contribute most to our progress in the Christian course, & consequently to our possession of the eternal inheritance laid up for them who thro' faith & patience shall endure unto the end, in confident reliance on his promise. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which God hath promised to them [that]² love him. It is thro'tribulation that we must enter the Kingdom of God, & therefore no Cross, no Crown. However as he sees fit, he is pleased sometimes to change his countenance, & to send forth his brighter beams upon us: mixing mercy with judgment. From the last report you gave us, I hope that your anxiety respecting Sarah Anne is diminishing, & that she will recover her accustomed health³. I think too that you have reason to be thankful (as removal had providentially become necessary)

¹ It is probable that the words "all things" should be in quotation marks here, as referring back to the "all things" that will work together for good, on the previous page.
² The word "that" appears to have been omitted inadvertently, and has been inserted by the editor.
³ Sadly, Sarah Anne did not recover, and Francis's letter to Mrs Liveing dated the 21^st March 1844 offers his condolences upon her death.

(page 3)
that so suitable & comfortable an habitation was prepared for you at Stoke where you are placed within reach of many friends by whom you are esteemed & beloved especially Mr Torlesse⁴ and his family (to whom please to remember me & all enquiring friends at our beloved Stoke & elsewhere⁵) under whose ministry too, you are likely to derive edification & comfort, when you can attend it. The only disadvantage respecting your situation that I am aware of is its distance from the church, but perhaps you have some little carriage that conveys you thither. Possibly you & your young people may like to be acquainted with our proceedings at the wedding, of which I will now give you some details. The marriage was solemnised at Billesley (where Mr J⁶ had previously kept the residence required), & a solemn service indeed it was, the most so of any marriage at which I ever was present as the administration of the Holy Sacrament accompanied it, according to the recommendation of the Church, it seems peculiarly appropriate upon the occasion when the mystical union between Christ & his Church is so strikingly represented. Edward performed the ceremony in the body of the Church previous to the Introit or Psalm, which was sung whilst we walked up to the altar where Edward proceeded with the remainder of the service to the end of the prayers. The Sanctus

⁴ The Reverend Charles Martin Torlesse was curate, and later vicar, of Stoke by Nayland (the location of Mrs. Liveing's new home) from 1832 until his death in 1881.
⁵ Francis had lived at Stoke by Nayland before he inherited Alveston Manor, near Stratford upon Avon.
⁶ Mr J is Francis George Jackson, and his bride was Francis's own daughter Maria Margaretta Knottesford. It is understood that the wedding took place on the 23^rd November, 1843. Mr Jackson was a clergyman and (as is explained later in this letter) became Francis's assistant priest at Billesley, and also took services at Wilmcote whenever Edward was unwell.
(page 4)
was then sung by the Wilmcote choir who attended in their surplices, & were placed in due order on opposite sides. We then changed places, I taking the north side of the Lord's Table, chanted the Communion Service, the responses being made very sweetly by the choir as at Wilmcote; the Bride & Bridegroom alone kneeling at the altar till they communicated. There was a longer communion than usual as all our usual attendants were present beside the bridal company, & £4 5s were collected at the Offertory which was sent to a distressed family now bereaved of their parent by desire of Mr & Mrs J (for we have no poor). After the Nicene Creed, Edward ascended the pulpit & having read the Church's exhortation, delivered a most powerful & impressive address, on the subject of marriage & of the Holy Sacrament as connected with it, explaining the reasons & propriety of it to the congregation. I was surprised & delighted, for I never heard him attempt anything of the kind before but suppose he is in the habit of doing so at W[ilmcote] for otherwise he could hardly preach so many sermons as he does, besides which he catechises & explains the C [?] every Sunday afternoon for the benefit of the congregation. The day without was dull, but all was bright within. Our party filled four carriages. In Lady Jackson's⁷ went first Mr J, accompanied by Mr Morgan. In the Archdeacon's⁸ Mrs Tait i.e. K. Spooner⁹ Maria's great friend who lately married Dr Tait the Head Master of Rugby School¹⁰, a great match to a very clever & excellent man with an income of £4000 per annum.

⁷ The groom's mother; something is said about her later in the letter.
⁸ William Spooner, the Archdeacon of Coventry, was the father of both Mrs Tait and also Mrs Fortescue (on whom see the following notes).
⁹ Catharine Spooner was the sister of Frances (Fanny) Anne Spooner, the wife of Edward Fortescue: so that Edward was related by marriage to the future Archbishop of Canterbury.
¹⁰ Dr Tait later became first Dean of Carlisle, then Bishop of London, and ultimately Archbishop of Canterbury.
(page 5)
Mrs Fortescue¹¹, Miss Tyndale & the children. In Mr Annesley's carriage the four bridesmaids: two Miss Annesleys, Miss Jackson & Miss Spooner, all dressed alike: & last in ours, the bride who looked extremely well, Lady Jackson, your aunt & myself. It did not actually rain, but if it had done so, we should have been secured by the kind & beautiful contrivance of our friends the Mills¹², who had prepared a covered way of evergreens, floored with matting, all the way thro' a large farm yard to the church gate (which I had ordered to be so prepared as to drive thro', which we do not usually do as it is very troublesome). At the entrance into this beautiful grove stood a servant with an elegant basket lined with white satin & filled with choice flowers procured from Leamington I should suppose at no small expense, & presented each person with a bouquet as they got out of the carriages. We returned in reversed order, the bride & bridegroom in¹³ front Edward & Mr Morgan being in our carriage which immediately followed them. Miss Mills also accompanying in her carriage to spend the day with us. Three arches had been erected during our absence by the servants on the approach to the house, and the doors adorned with flowers. At two o'clock we had a dejeuné, after which our dear Edward made two speeches highly creditable to his taste & feeling, which were inadequately responded to by myself & Mr Jackson.

¹¹ It is assumed that this is Frances (Fanny) Anne Spooner, the wife of Edward Fortescue.
¹² Mr Arthur Mills was Francis's cousin.
¹³ The word "in" has been supplied by the editor; it is not in the text.
(page 6)
At 3 the B. & Bridegroom went away in Lady J.'s carriage with her man & maidservant to her house near Worcester, which she has lately taken to be within a reasonable distance of her son, of whom she is very justly proud; for he is a very amiable man & most devotedly attached to Maria. There they still remain, having given up a once proposed journey into Hampshire, where they were invited by an aunt of his, till the summer. They will go to Rugby¹⁴ for a few days & from thence return home before Christmas day bringing Little brown¹⁵ back with them as Mrs Tait took her home with her for changes [.....?] We dined late & had a very pleasant evening with the rest of the company, all of whom, except the Misses Annesley, were accommodated not without some difficulty in our house. Lady J staid (sic) till Monday, when our son & daughter¹⁶ came over to luncheon (25 miles) & she returned with them. The only drawback was the absence of our dear Fanny¹⁷ & her excellent husband & of Miss Mordaunt¹⁸ who was to have been one of the bridesmaids, but the wedding was necessarily so long delayed in consequence of difficulties arising about the settlement, that neither of those parties could stay for it, the former being obliged to return home after 7 weeks' absence, & the latter to leave home for Hastings on account of her health for the winter; this was a sore disappointment to dear Maria.

¹⁴ Presumably, in order to visit Mr & Mrs Tait.
¹⁵ This may be a reference to a horse which Mrs Tait had taken for her journey from the wedding back to Rugby, and which Mr & Mrs Jackson are to bring back.
¹⁶ The word "our" here is probably a misprint for "her": Francis's only surviving son was Edward, who was clearly present throughout the festivities, rather than only coming for luncheon on Monday; and his only daughter, apart from Maria, was Mrs Frances Dewe, who lived in Norfolk, much more than 25 miles away from Alveston.
¹⁷ This Fanny is Frances Catherine Knottesford [9951] Mrs Frances Dewe, not Fanny Anne: Fanny's husband Rev Joseph Dewe was not able to stay for the wedding, whereas Fanny Anne's husband conducted it!
¹⁸ A relative of Sir John Mordaunt, a close friend of Francis and the High Sheriff of Warwickshire and Member of Parliament for South Warwickshire, whose death is referred to in Francis's letter of the 9^th October 1845.
(page 7)
Now I must tell you who Mr Jackson is, which it seems has not been explained to you. With his grandfather Dr Jackson who was Canon Res[identiary] of St. Pauls & would have been a bishop had he lived, I was acquainted at Tottenham, & it was for him that I once preached in that great cathedral. When we came to Hadleigh¹⁹ we found there living, two old ladies, a Mrs Dowding & a Mrs Baines, the latter mother of the late Lady Knightley, the former of Mrs Jackson, who with her husband Dr J regularly visited her once a year, so that the acquaintance was renewed there. Dr Jackson had several children, one of whom married Mr Dawson Warren to whom he gave the great living of Edmonton, which my great uncle had, & in whose house there I was born. Dr J.'s eldest son was Mr Francis Jackson, a man of very superior talent, the great friend of Mr Canning, & ambassador at Constantinople & Denmark (I think) & was at Copenhagen when it was besieged by our naval forces, much against the inclination of K[ing] G[eorge] 3rd, who thought it an unjust proceeding, & would not favor those concerned in it. So Mr J. rose no higher as otherwise he would certainly have done. However he died not long after and left a family by a foreign peeress whom he had married. The second son was the present Sir George Jackson K.C.H.²⁰ who for many years was the principal representative of our government at the Court of Brazil with whom his son was there for some time, but was obliged to leave him

¹⁹ It is understood that Francis was curate of Hadleigh, in Suffolk, before he inherited Alveston Manor, in Stratford upon Avon.
²⁰ There is some information about Sir George Jackson at the diary:
junction.blogspot.co.uk/2011_05_01_archive.html. It appears that Sir George (re-)married in 1856 and retired in 1859 after a long diplomatic career, and that after his death his widow published two volumes of her late husband's letters and diaries. The writer of the article is not aware that Sir George had been married previously.
(page 8)
on account of his misconduct, which has occasioned a separation between him and his Lady. He is now returned home & living in London in a very disreputable way. No connection however subsists between him & the family, any further than a formal announcement of his son's marriage. Lady J's entire fortune was secured to her amounting to £1,200 per annum which is at her own disposal. Her sister has the same: they were daughters of Mr Savile of Oakhampton (sic) in Devonshire²¹ to which he had appointed the member before the Reform Bill, so that Mr Jackson is every way well connected; but what is far better, he is an excellent, amiable man, obliging & kind to an extraordinary degree. Mr Crawford's election to the mastership of the school at Brompton made an opening for him to succeed as my assistant at Billesley, which is not so much an object on my account as on Edward's, whose exertions are far too great for his strength & almost for that of any one, but Mr J who is a great friend of his & is extremely fond of him (& by whom he was first introduced here from Oxford) will always assist him when he needs it, as he often does, so that he will probably be as much or more at W[ilmcote] than at B[illesley] and that I dare say to his greater pleasure. The distance to the two churches is the same 4 miles tho' they are but 1½ mile apart, so that he can walk from one to the other, when he does not go on horseback for the whole day. Ed & Fanny Anne left us the week after the wedding for Wilmcote, & I am sorry to say having been without help now for several Sundays, he is now overdone, & we fear we must bring J & M home for next Sunday.

²¹ Albany Savile (1783 - 1831) became the Member of Parliament for Okehampton, and also the Recorder of Okehampton, in 1807, by virtue of the property owned by his father. Information about his parliamentary career may be found at www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/savile-albany-1783-1831 <http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/savile-albany-1783-1831>.
(page 9)
We shall be obliged to you to inform us when you write, whether Miss Whishaw is yet living for we have not heard from her for a very long time. If you should ever have an opportunity of contacting them, the many people at Hadleigh who remember Mrs Dowding will know who Mr Jackson is as being her great grandson; & is therefore nephew to Mrs Warren who lived at Assington Hall²² & cousin to Mr W of Little Horsley & Mrs Morgill (?): by marriage: for Mrs Dowding's first husband was a Mr Warren, & so they are connected by half blood, with all that family. Lady J. has a half brother, Mr Ferrand M.P.²³ who lives in a large place in Norfolk, where Mr & Mrs J. were invited to pass some time in their wedding tour, & perhaps would have done so if Mr & Mrs Dewe²⁴ had not come here as they could have easily gone to see them from thence. I doubt I shall have quite worn out your patience & might as well have begun at once upon a larger sheet, but had no notion of enlarging so much: but having the pen in my hand, I have run on thinking you might like to know all about the family,

²² Assington Hall was in Suffolk, about 5 miles southeast of Sudbury. It burned down in 1857.
²³ There was a William Busfeild Ferrand who was MP for Knaresborough, in Yorkshire, from 1841 to 1847, and who spoke in the debate on the Corn Laws. He later became MP for Devonport, and had a close connection with St Ives, in Cornwall. There is information about him at www.friendsofstives.org.uk/history/ferrands_2.php <http://www.friendsofstives.org.uk/history/ferrands_2.php> . This may be the MP to whom Francis is referring, although the editor has not found any evidence of a connection between Mr Ferrand and Norfolk.
²⁴ Mr and Mrs Dewe are Francis's daughter Frances Catherine, and her husband the Reverend Joseph Dewe. Mr Dewe was Rector of Rockland St Mary, in Norfolk.
(page 10)
especially as you might hear some things that might seem unpleasant, & perhaps might not be correctly stated. Lady J. is a very peculiar woman, but has been very kind to Maria who is much attached to her new sister Georgiana who is a well informed, sensible & well disposed young woman; has travelled a good deal & is very communicative. There is another sister married to a Mr Hawkesley a clergyman near London. I will now finish this side by telling you of the pleasant visit Maria & I had to Hartlebury Castle²⁵ (your aunt did not go, as Fanny Anne was just then expecting to be confined). It is a magnificent house, & has the advantage of the valuable library left to the See by Bishop Hurd containing his own collection with those of Bishop Warburton & Mr Pope²⁶, for which a new room was built 80 feet long. In this delightful apartment the Bishop allowed me to read at pleasure during my stay. Two chaplains & some friends of ours in Oxfordshire were staying in the house & other company each day to dinner at 7 o'clock. At ½ past 9 in the morning & 10 in the evening the Bishop himself read prayers in the beautiful chapel which forms one wing of the Palace, the company & servants attending. The Park & gardens are extremely beautiful as is the country all around. The Bishop most happily combines dignity with kindness both at home & abroad, as we have twice experienced at our own house. We write in kindest love to yourself & those around you & believe me ever your truly affectionate uncle
F. Fortescue Knottesford
(continuation of page 10, written at the top of page 1)
the black seal is for Capt. Morgan, the only son of my first cousin Miss Fortescue, first wife to Mr Morgan but whom I scarcely remember. Mr M is now 85 in good health & spirits. I married his youngest daughter 2 months ago to her cousin Major McMahon just home from Dover [?] a very desirable match. He lives at Burton Dassett 16 miles from hence of which he is vicar. I am happy to add that we have just heard thro' Mr Pritchard that dear Edward is so much better that I hope there will be no necessity of bringing back the Jacksons.

²⁵ The official residence of the Bishop of Worcester, about 5 miles south of Kidderminster, Worcestershire. Some information about the castle, including the very remarkable Hurd Library, may be found at www.hartleburycastletrust.org <http://www.hartleburycastletrust.org> .
²⁶ The poet Alexander Pope: it is said that 43 volumes from his library are located here.
Transcribed by Dr S Lapidge

Jackson Maria Margaretta of North Lodge Windsor Forest Berkshire widow died 2 June 1906 probate London 7 July 1906 to George Knottesford Fortescue Esq Effects £17,072 15s 7d. Re-sworn £19,186 15s 10d
National probate calendar

  Research Notes:

Deaths: 1906 2nd Qtr JACKSON Maria M. 96 Easthampstead BRK 2c 237

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 7 Jun 1841, Manor House Alveston WAR. Maria is recorded as aged 31 not born WAR

2. Census: England, 30 Mar 1851, Alveston WAR. Maria M Jackson is recorded as a daughter married aged 40 born Stoke by Nayland

3. Census: England, 8 Apr 1861, Weston Lodge Albury SRY. Maria is recorded as a visitor at the house of John Taylor aged 51 born Stoke SFK

4. Census: England, 2 Apr 1871, North Lodge Winkfield BRK. Maria is recorded as a wife aged 60 born Stoke Suffolk.

5. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, Winkfield BRK. Maria is recorded as a wife aged 70 born Stoke SFK

6. Census: England, 5 Apr 1891, North Lodge Winkfield BRK. Maria is recorded as head of house a widow aged 71 living on her own means born Stoke SFK

7. Census: England, 31 Mar 1901, North Lodge Winkfield BRK. Maria is recorded as head of house a widow aged 91 living on her own means an employer born Stoke SFK

Maria married Rev Francis George JACKSON [9954] [MRIN: 3049], son of Sir George JACKSON K.C.H. [26215] and Cordelia SAVILLE [26216], on 23 Nov 1843 in Billersley WAR. (Rev Francis George JACKSON [9954] was born in Eling HAM, baptised on 30 Sep 1813 in Eling HAM and died on 6 Aug 1886 in North Lodge Windsor Forest Berkshire.)