Isabella Wright WILMOT [35453]

  General Notes:

Robert William Elliston & Isabella Wright Wilmot
Research by Michael J Wood

His mistress, or possibly bigamous wife, ISABELLA (WRIGHT) WILMOT, was perhaps b. 22 Oct 1783, bapt 30 Nov 1783 at St Olave, Southvark, d. after 1814, daughter of William & Alleia Wright. She was living in 1814 in Vauxhall Walk, Lambeth. She may be the Isabella Willmott of Lambeth who was admitted to the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum, Wandsworth on 9 Feb 1844, allegedly aged 60, suffering from dementia with epilepsy, and who died there 12 Apr 1844 described then as aged about 65 years, a lunatic pauper.
On the other hand, she may not. Her daughter-in-law Eliza Mary Morris, widow of William Henry Wilmot told her own children a more romantic story, preserved in two versions. One is in a letter written by Mary Moore from New Zealand to Lucy Bean In January 1902. [AOT: WILMOT. Appendix IV of this book.] The other exists in at least two extant copies, written by Maud Maxwell (39.v) and owned by descendants of Julia Maxwell, one each in Australia and England.

According to these accounts, Isabella Wilmot was returning to England from a continental school at the age of either 16 or 18 about the year 1802 when she met Robert William Elliston whilst both were waiting to cross by the packet boat from Calais to Dover. This "gentlemanly and attractive man .... paid flattering attention to the young schoolgirl and one day managed to accompany her for a walk the day the boat was expected to start", deliberately causing them both to miss the boat. The next boat would not be available for a week, which Isabella spent in his company, "until one day just before the boat would again arrive at Calais he told her how much he loved her, hinted that her parents would believe her compromised by remaining so many days under his protection, and persuaded her that the best way would be for them to marry secretly before returning to England. What form he went through to deceive her, or whether there was any form of marriage at all, my mother who told me the story could not say, but he succeeded in taking the poor girl away to some country town in France where they lived as man and wife together. Then he left her for some time alone, returning every now and then from England. The girl, who was of good family had written in the meantime to her parents, begging them to forgive her, and telling the whole facts of the case, but they refused to have anything more to do with her."
Isabella is said to have lived some years in France, and to have died "quite young', after which Robert "had his illegitimate children brought over to England, giving them every advantage of education in his power equally with the children of his lawful wife. My father seems to have known and mixed with his half-brothers."

Against this version is that in no biographical account of Robert is mention made of any visit to France before he went to Paris from 14 February to 17 March 1822 for "the acquisition of foreign novelty" [page 23 above]. Fuurthermore, the place of birth of one, and the baptisms of two, of the three Wilmot children have been located in England. The country could have been Ireland, for Robert may have visited Dublin in the summer of 1806. [RAYMOND, 1857: 120, but see page 9 above.] In 1802, the year of the alleged seduction, Robert was still living at Bath, where he was performing throughout each winter season.

Isabella's origin may have been fairly humble, being improved in the later telling. The Australian death certificate of her elder daughter Isabella Scott gives Mrs Scott's place of birth as Newcastle-upon- Tyne. This daughter was "Isabella Watson Wilimot [sic], born Jan 9 1808, baptised March 21, Daug. of William Wilmot [sic] of Coy: Garden: London, & Isabella daug of William Wright of Southwark", according to the register of St Mary's church, Cateshead, just outside Newcastle. Isabella the mother may perhaps be Isabella Alleia, daughter of William Wright, mariner and Alleia his wife, born 22 Oct, bapt 30 Nov 1783 at St Olave, Southwark, Mary Moore's account does not allow Isabella an early and brief marriage before her association with Robert, even though she could easily have been depicted as a deserted wife or young widow in keeping with the romantic tone of the account, so wherefore Wilmot? In seducing her Robert was perhaps playing at being John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester (1647-1680), the poet and libertine, who was, after the king, the most notorious womaniser of the Restoration era. Robert played a character named Wilmot in Partners, a new five act comedy by Prince Hoare at the Haymarket Theatre on 28 June 1805. [The Times 28 June 1805: 2; RAYMOND, 1844 II: 549. According to GENEST VIII: 674, Partners was acted only this once.]

The liaison could have begun at just this time, and Isabella may have talked him into what for him was a bigamous marriage, compelling him to maintain his alias for the sake of secrecy. A formal yet clan destine marriage, as supposed in Mary Moore's account, could explain why Isabella did not revert to her maiden surname after discovering the facts, especially if her own family had repudiated her.

Robert was a public figure, and Isabella knew his true identity by 1814 at the latest, for her younger daughter was described in the register of St Mary Lambeth, when she was baptised on 10 July 1814, as "Juliana Eliza Harris, b. 3 Nov 1810, dr. Robt. Wille. Elliston, Gentn. & Isabella Wilimot [sic] of Vauxhall Walk". When Juliana married Charles Howard in 1841 she described her father as Robert Wilmot. When the death of Isabella Scott was registered in 1856 the informant, her husband George Scott, named her parents as Thomas William Elliston and Jane Wjlmot - a curious aberration. If the baptism of Isabella has been correctly identified, she must have considered her full name, when she witnessed her elder daughter's marriage in 1825 as "I A E Wilmot", to be Isabella Alleia Elliston Wilmot, which is probably why "Elliston-Wilmot" was the surname used when her son's three eldest daughters were baptised together in 1833.

In view of the names given to Isabella's younger daughter, it may be noted that Sir Robert Wilmot, Bt (d. 1834) of Osmanston, Derbyshire, m. 23 Sept 1783, as his first wife, Jullana Elizabeth Byron (d. 15 March 1788). They had only one child, a son who, after taking his own wife's surname, was known as Sir Robert Wilmot Horton (1784-1841). He was a politician, public servant and pamphleteer in Australia. [ADB 1: 554; BP, 1930: 2487-8.] However, mock classical names like Augusta, Georgi(a)na and Juliana were then in fashion, so the siaflarity is almost certainly accidental.

The description of the manner by which Robert William seduced Isabella, and his subsequent Concern for the proper education of his children by her, are consistent with the character and behaviour of the "Great Lessee". Mary Moore seems to have been quite unaware of his identity, however, as she referred to him only as "Mr Elliston"; and not even his surname was known to Hand Maxwell when she wrote her account.

  Research Notes:

They had issue 1 boy William Henry Wilmot 1806-1842 and two girls

Isabella married Robert William ELLISTON [35451] [MRIN: 12833], son of Robert ELLISTON [35449] and Ann SMITH [35450], on 1 Jun 1796 in Bath SOM. (Robert William ELLISTON [35451] was born on 8 Apr 1774 in London and died on 8 Jan 1831 in Lambeth LND.)

Isabella next married WRIGHT [35454] [MRIN: 12834].