From Rundall family

 

Having spent some time with the “founding couple” of Rundalls, Lucy Collins and  John William Rundall, married 15 January 1769 and their various children, I had been of the thought that they largely spent time in London or India.

 

Oh dear no! Bath features very strongly. (Not for poor old John, he was born in Trowbridge (1738) and is buried at Woodford Essex (1788), and spent much of his married life in Limehouse), the rest however tell a different story.

 

Just to refresh your memories, John and Lucy were your (Patrick and cousins) 4th great grandparents, and they had six children who achieved their majority, three of whom married and got on with “begetting”.

 

Your 3rd great grandfather is Thomas Warton Rundall who was Secretary and Auditor of the Military Fund in London of the East India Company (worth noting that his eldest son was his deputy, his brother Charles was Secretary in India, and the President of the fund was Lt General Bell. father-in-law of Charles. Nepotism alive and well evidently!)

 

Thomas married Dorothy Braithwaite and they lived in 13 Bedford Row, Red Lion Square. I know nothing of her save she was the mother of Thomas and second son James from whom you are descended. However, when Dorothy died, he rather quickly married Jane Haworth, who seems to have been a fairly wealthy widow and a near neighbour. Equally swiftly they seem to have moved to Bath – 37 Bathwick Hill where they lived until the death of Thomas in 1837. Any of a curious mind can “google” these two addresses, and will find two rather fine houses. P & S gawped at Bathwick Hill in November.

 

The next “breeding” child was Elizabeth. She eventually married Robert Elliston an actor and theatre manager in Bath, Bristol, Leamington Spa and London. She was a dance teacher in Bath, and it would seem that the city was agog with the scandal of their courtship. Her employer wrote to mamma Lucy and brother Thomas to get the thing stopped, and Thomas rushed down to Bath and carted Elizabeth off back to London with Elliston in hot pursuit.  However the Lords and Ladies of Bath made a fuss, and the pair returned to marry in Bath Abbey. He carried on carving a name for himself on the Stage, and was most often in Drury Lane, London. Elizabeth started her own dance “academy” at 39 Milson Street (now the Ivy Restaurant – again worth a google), with sister Dorothea, their home as well so far as I can tell, and started to breed.

 

An odd thing which caught my eye about this period is this snippet in a letter written in 1807

“Elliston …… has just succeeded to a considerable fortune on the death of an Uncle. I would not have it enough to take him from the Stage, she should quit her business, & live with him in London.”

 

Nothing much in that, but the letter was written to Cassandra  by Jane Austen. It is said that Elliston was her favourite actor and “she” was Elizabeth, his wife. Therefore, not only did the sainted Jane write about Miss Elizabeth Bennett, she wrote briefly about Miss Elizabeth Rundall!

 

During this time sister Dorothea and mother Lucy lived with the Elliston family in Milsom Street, and it was there that Lucy died in 1811. The announcement of her death in the “Gentleman’s Magazine” says “At Mr Elliston’s, Bath, after a few minutes’ illness, Mrs Rundall. Mother of Mrs E”.  Lucy is buried at the graveyard of St Thomas a Becket Church at Widcombe Bath. P & S went along in November to see the grave. It is well covered in mould, but the Widcombe Association at one time cleaned and recorded the inscriptions. We managed to scrape away enough to be sure that we were at the correct site. The inscription reads

 

 “SACRED to the memory of LUCY RUNDALL who on the morning of the 22 November 1811 in the 67th year of her age was suddenly called away from this transitory life to a blessed immortality where in the adorable presence of the God and Saviour she is resting The reward of her piety and virtue Reader be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh. Mat 24 v44

 

ALSO the Remains of THOMAS WHARTON RUNDALL esq of Bathwick Hill, Son of the above Deceased on 22nd March 1837 Aged 64 Years”

 

Whilst all of this was going on, another sister Mary Anne Rundall was running a school for “Young Ladies” in Bath called the Percy House Seminary. Lauded and reviled in equal measure for her ideas. You can find her on Google.

 

Charles Rundall the only other “breeding” member of the family did spend most of his life in India. Philip Rundall who many of you will have met is descended from Charles.

 

Nearly there! James Rundall 2nd great grandfather and son of Thomas Wharton married Laura Thompson at Walcot Church in Bath in 1836. Her family seemed totally

“East End”, but they too ended in Bath. Her parents are buried at St Saviour’s in Bath. No-one has done any inscription deciphering there, so we haven’t yet visited.

 

Thought I’d covered it, and low and behold, I found that your great uncle Charles Frank, a WW1 hero and late resident of St Ives in Cornwall is buried along with his wife in plot E.123 of St John the Baptist cemetery in Batheaston. That will have to be for another time

 

Perhaps in the Spring P & S will revisit the main grave in Widcombe and if the vicar allows, will plant a few flowers  in memory of the “Mother of the Clan”