During the Edwardian period
George Charles Gotelee (1874-1957), developed a glass house nursery in the village
of East Preston, on the south coast of England in West Sussex. When he arrived in the area he was in his twenties and very wealthy. He was the son of a well to
do draper who had made a fortune in unusual circumstances.
George's father had started his working life at the age of sixteen in a drapery shop in Shoreditch High
Street in 1855. The owner of the shop, Jeremiah Rotherham, was childless, having lost
his wife in a cholera epidemic in the East End of London in 1849. As the
business expanded he needed help and picked out four of his trusted employees.
One of these was Gotelee who by this time had become a buyer. The other three
were Frederick Snowden, Robert Dummett and William Ellis. They had all started
on the “shop floor” and had experience in different sides of the business. The
store by this time had expanded, serving both retail and wholesale, employing
an estimated 500 people.
Rotherham died in 1878 at the age
of 72, and realising that he needed to ensure the continuity of his
business, had made Snowden, Gotelee, Dummett and Ellis his partners. In his
will he left his one fifth share to his niece and nephew with instructions for
them to either join the business, or sell their share to the partners. It
appears that they took the latter option. The value of Rotherham’s estate when
he died was £350,000. Today that would be roughly £40million.
The four partners continued to
expand the business, buying up the leases of their shops in Shoreditch High
Street and the adjoining buildings. What they developed would today be referred
to as a departmental store, but back then it was called a warehouse and they
were “warehousemen”.
In 1898 the four partners sold
the store via a stock market flotation for £500,000 (about £62million today),
but remained on as directors. When Gotelee died in 1918 his probate was valued
at just over £117,000, probably worth over £6million today. One of Gotelee’s
sons did follow his father into the Jeremiah Rotherham & Co. business, he
was the middle son, Sydney Treble Gotelee who became a director. He was 80
years old when he retired.
By 1958 the store was struggling; foreign imports, and the slow demise of the British textile industry were
partly to blame, but the management also needed outside help. Funding was
required and for the first time an eternal director was appointed to the board.
He was Nadji Khazam, who was a money man who knew the textile industry. He
formed a partnership with Isaac Reuben Yentob and various businesses they
operated were merged. Jeremiah otherham was one of the casualties and
eventually ceased trading. Khazam’s sister, Flora, married Isaac Yentob. Their
son is Alan Yentob the TV presenter. The family businesses were streamlined and
what is left has today has become Dewhurst Dent Limited, with member of both
families still on the board.
Robert Dummett, who had been one
of Gotelee’s partners, had been little more than a porter in the despatch
department when he started at Jeremiah Rotherham. When he died in 1908 he left
the equivalent of £8million. One of his sons was Sir Robert Ernest Dummett, chief
magistrate, and one of his grandchildren was philosopher Sir Michael Anthony
Eardley Dummett.
On 12 October 1947, seventy year old Lt Col Ernest Vaughen Aylen DSO died in the Three Crowns, East Preston, West Sussex, England. His death was due to myocardial degeneration and carcinoma of the larynx. He had been a surgeon with the Royal Army Medical Corps since about 1906, and had served in China, Egypt and India. In the Great War he was part of the British-Indian defence force holding out against the Turkish army during siege of Kut Al Amara that started on 7 December 1915 and lasted 147 days. He was taken prisoner and later released by the Turks as part of an exchange. Due to a starvation diet he was in an emaciated condition. On his return to Britain he was awarded the DSO and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.
In 1906 he married May Somerville Cooper (née Bunny). She was the widow of an army captain who had died in India in 1905 from a self inflicted gunshot wound. May had a daughter from this first marriage, but the child had died in infancy. The Aylens remained childless until the birth of a son in 1923 who was named Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen. However, all was not as it seemed. The Aylens had been going through a difficult period in their relationship, and for some time there had been a lack of intimacy between them. May admitted to her husband that the biological father of the child was not him, but was Lieutenant-General Sir Sydney Turing Barlow Lawford - Aylen’s commanding officer.
In 1924, following two divorce cases, May Aylen and Sir Sydney were free to marry. The scandal was such that the Lawfords moved away from Britain and took up residents in the USA. Their son, Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen, became an actor and changed his name to Peter Lawford. In addition to his film career, Lawford also became a member of the legendary Rat Pack that included Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr and Dean Martin. He married Patricia Kennedy, daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., United States Ambassador to the UK from 1938 to 1940, and became the brother-in-law of future President John F Kennedy and Senators Edward and Robert Kennedy.
Lt Col Ernest Vaughen Aylen remained single after his divorce. Records indicate that he lived in hotels in London and in East Preston, where two of his sisters also lived. In 1944, during the war, he got in trouble with the law when he went into the grounds of his hotel in East Preston with a torch to scare off cats that were keeping him awake. He was fined 20 shillings for showing an undimmed torch during a blackout.
Lt Col Aylen is buried in the local St Mary the Virgin cemetery, East Preston, with a simple headstone that says “In Memory of Lt Colonel E V Aylen DSO RAMC 1877-1947”.
Mary Cecil Hay (1839-1886) was a novelist who grew up in Shropshire, England and spent the final years of her life in a small village on the Sussex coast called East Preston. Her work was often serialised and appeared in periodicals and weeklies in the UK, America and Australia.
She was the daughter of Cecilia Carbin and clockmaker Thomas William Hay of Shrewsbury who had three sons and three daughters: Arthur, their eldest son, was apprenticed to a bookseller and printer in Wolverhampton, and at the age of fifteen took his own life. Thomas, the youngest son, followed his father into the clockmaking business whilst the middle son, Walter, became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. He was an organist, ran his own music school, conducted orchestras and was the Diocesan Inspector of Choirs for the Rural Deanery of Shrewsbury. One of his pupils was the composer Sir Edward German.
The three daughters, Francis, Mary and Susan, remained unmarried, and lived primarily in the family home, first in Shrewsbury, later moving to Chiswick with their mother. The children were all baptised in the Shrewsbury, Swan Hill Chapel, an independent church based on Congregationalist principles whose worshipers were referred to as Nonconformists. Mary was christened Mary Cecilia Hay but adopted the middle name of her brother Walter Cecil Hay
Mary's father died in 1856 aged sixty-five; his wife Cecilia continued to run the business in Shrewsbury despite financial difficulties. In 1867 her son Walter was one of two trustees appointed to manage her affairs due to bankruptcy. In 1872 she passed the business to her son, Thomas, who became the third generation of clockmakers in the family. He had also been declared bankrupt in 1867 with trustees appointed to manage his affairs. A newspaper report indicated that he died in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1873.
The Shrewsbury Chronicle, August 30, 1872
Out of the five censuses that covered Mary's life (1841 to 1881) only one shows her away from the family home, and this was in 1861 when she was governess at the Grade and Ruan Minor rectory in Cornwall. This was the home of Rev. Frederick Christian Jackson, a talented and exhibited painter who sold his works to raise money for church repairs. The story goes that he also persuaded actress Madame Modjeska, to put on an impromptu performance in the rectory grounds for the organ restoration fund. It was said of Jackson that he welcomed "Nonconformists as well as Churchmen". Mary's novel, For Her Dear Sake, is part set near the Lizard in Cornwall, a short distance from the Grade and Ruan parishes. Starting
in the late 1860s Mary's poetry and short stories were published in periodicals such a Family Herald, The Argosy and The Belgravia, initiallyunder the pseudonyms of Mark Hardcastle, Markham Howard or Sidney Howard.
The Arrandel
Motto was her first full length novel published in about 1871 using the
name Mark Hardcastle, later re-issued as The Arundel Motto (approx. 150,000 words).
In the early 1870s the pseudonyms were dropped and work appeared under her own name of M. Cecil Hay and later Mary Cecil Hay. Her novels were sometimes published with a collection of her short stories, for example:
The first full length novel using her own name wasHidden
Perils of about 117,000 words in three volumes, published in England in 1873 by Hurst
& Blackett and in America by Harper & Brothers. These three volume
versions were intended for subscription libraries, whereas the single volumes were for direct sale to the public. Although the literary critics paid little regard to Hay's work she was a highly read author, published in countries outside the UK such as America and Australia. One of her most acclaimed books was Old Myddelton's Money, a long novel of over 130,000 words. Old Myddelton of the title was a very wealthy unmarried man, murdered (supposedly) by his nephew Gabriel, who was tried and convicted of the murder, but escaped. The murdered man's fortune passes to Myddelton's sister, Lady Lawrence, who is childless, and it is supposed that she will leave the money to various of her in-laws. A stranger called Royston Keith arrives in town and takes interest in the affairs of the family, much to the concern of a villainous lawyer who hopes to be one of the beneficiaries. The stranger and another potential beneficiary, Honor Craven, form an attraction, and it goes on from there. One of the villains is called Bickerton Slimp and the middle name of a trustee in the 1867 Hay's bankruptcy was Bickerton. Perhaps no coincidence that she gave this unusual name to the most despised person in the book.
East Preston
In the 1881 census Mary was living with her mother and two sisters in Woodstock Road, Chiswick and her occupation was given as "Author". In this same census, her sister Susan listed herself as "Artist" and mother listed her occupation as "Literary Pursuits", possibly assisting Mary. Not long after this the ladies moved to the house in East Preston on the Sussex Coast called Bay Trees. The house is believed to be still in existence and located in The Street opposite the Sea Lane Junction (now a rest home), but due to there being a Bay Tree farm in the vicinity some years ago this name has several occurrences in the village.
On July 3, 1884, Mary was present at the death of her sister, Francis Ann Hay, in East Preston. Two years later she herself died on July 24, 1886 at Bay Trees after a long and painful illness. Her personal estate was valued at £272 0s. 6d.; a rough estimate of this today is about £32,000. The executor of her estate was her sister, Susan Elizabeth Hay, of Gloucester Road, Kew.
Mary's mother died in 1888 and her death was registered in Kingston, Surrey, near to where she had been living with her daughter, Susan, in Kew. Susan died in 1908 and her executor was her niece, Amy Isabel Dovaston (daughter of Mary's brother Walter and his wife Emily (Henshaw) Hay). Amy was mother to artist Margaret Dovaston.
Mary Cecil Hay is buried in Highgate Cemetery with her mother and two sisters. Her name in the register is recorded as Mary Cecelia Hay.
Listed below in alphabetical order are many of Mary Cecil Hay's novels and short stories. It is not comprehensive and some stories may have had alternative titles when published outside the UK. A small number were published under her pseudonyms of Mark Hardcastle, although they may have been republished later in her life under her real name.
The West Dean estate, situated near Chichester, West Sussex was purchased in 1891 by William Dodge James. He bought the property from Frederick Bowers, a merchant who had owned West Dean since the death of its previous owner, Caroline Mary (Peachey) Vernon Harcourt (1785-1871). She had inherited the estate when her brother, Henry John Peachey, 3rd Baron Selsey died in 1838.
William Dodge James’s wealth came from his father, American merchant Daniel James, who was a farmer’s son born in Truxton, New York State in 1801. He moved to New York City to start a wholesale grocery business in the 1820s where he met and married Elizabeth Woodbridge Phelps. She was the eldest daughter of a successful businessman, Anson Green Phelps, who exported cotton to England and in return imported manufactured goods. He sold these in America using peddlers who travelled to inland settlements, selling or bartering their goods in exchange for furs.
The rapidly expanding population in America created an almost limitless market for both raw and manufactured goods from Britain. In about 1821, Phelps sent a partner to Liverpool, England, called Elisha Peck to act as the company’s agent. Peck used his specialist knowledge of the metals market to lay the foundations for an organisation that would become the dominant importer of metal into America during the 19th century.
In 1832 Phelps and Peck attempted to set up their own metal manufacturing works in America by importing equipment such as rolling mills and skilled labour from Britain. Peck left Liverpool to front this operation and was replaced in England by Daniel James who was made a partner in his father-in-law’s business. He had limited knowledge of the metal trades and was new to the British business environment so relied heavily on his senior clerk, Welshman, Thomas Bank. Due to a world recession the business failed in 1837, but James gradually paid off his creditors and by the early 1840s was again solvent. He spent the rest of his life in Liverpool becoming one of the most respected American merchants in the country. The exports to America that passed through his side of the operation during this period were in excess of $300 million. In 1866 he also became a naturalized British citizen.
Naturalization application May 21, 1866
Family
Daniel married three times. There were five children from his first marriage to Elizabeth. Their eldest son, Anson, was tragically killed in an accident in America while visiting his grandparents when a horse bolted and threw the boy from a carriage. Their youngest son, Henry, born in 1839 died when just a few months old and their eldest daughter, Elizabeth was an invalid with a spinal problem. Their surviving son, Daniel Willis James, moved to America when he was fifteen to work with his grandfather and his uncle, eventually becoming a senior partner in the business. Their youngest daughter, Olivia, born in 1837 married Robert Hoe, who designed printing presses for the newspaper industry.
In 1847 Daniel’s first wife Elizabeth died; she had contracting small pox several years before and never fully recovered. Two years later he married another American called Sofia Hall Hitchcock who was twenty seven. They had three children, all boys – Frank Linsly born in 1851, John Arthur in 1853 and William Dodge in 1854. They grew up and were educated in Britain, attending establishments such as Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. Sofia died in 1870, and the following year Daniel remarried to his children’s former governess, Ruth Lancaster Dickinson, who was 49. They had five years together before Daniel died in 1876.
Daniel James (1801-1876) m. 1829 Elizabeth Woodbridge Phelps (1807-1847) Children:
Anson Greene Phelps James (1830-1842)
Daniel Willis James(1832-1907) m.1854 Ellen Stebbins Curtiss (1833-1916)
Elizabeth Eggleston James (1833-1868)
Olivia James (1837-1935) m.1863 Robert Hoe III (1839-1909)
Henry James (1839-1839
Daniel James (1801-1876) m. 1849 Sophia Hall Hitchcock (1820-1870) Children:
Frank Linsly James (1851-1890)
John Arthur James (1853-1917) m.1885 Mary Venetia Cavendish-Bentinck (1861-1948)
William Dodge James (1854-1912) m.1889 Evelyn Elizabeth Forbes (1867-1927)
Daniel James (1801-1876) m. 1871 Ruth Lancaster Dickinson (1824-1907) No children from this union.
Daniel’s Will
At the time of his death, the Phelps Dodge/Phelps James company was owned and run by three families, all related by marriage. Daniel James and his American based son, Daniel Willis James, had a 36% share of the business, the Dodge family had 34% and the Stokes 30%. The business was capitalised at $4,500,000 made up of 100 shares each worth $45,000 apportioned as follows:
Partner
Shares
Daniel James
18
Daniel Willis James
18
William Earl Dodge
10
William E. Dodge Jr.
18
Charles C. Dodge
6
James Stokes
9
Anson P. Stokes
16
Thomas Stokes
5
Daniel James made his will in 1870, adding two codicils at later dates. Although not published, an estimate of his wealth at this time was $6 million. He appointed executors in both Britain and America. Those in the UK were his son Frank Linsly plus his business partner, Welshman, William Daniel Rees. In America he appointed his younger brother, Henry, and his son Daniel Willis James. The first codicil added in 1874 made provision for his wife, Ruth Dickinson. She was allowed to live in the family home during her lifetime; she also received an immediate £1000 and the income for life from $300,000 invested on her behalf by the American trustees. She died in 1907 leaving over £56,000.
Daniel left $100,000 to each of his four sons. The eldest son, American based Daniel Willis James, received his legacy in cash. The three boys living in England were given the interest only from these cash sums by trustees until the youngest of them reached the age of twenty five, at which time they all received the capital sums from this plus other investments and business interests. In his will, Daniel James left instructions that his three sons in England were to be given the opportunity to take over his partnerships if they so wished. For a period, John Arthur became a partner in Phelps Dodge/Phelps James, working with William Daniel Rees, but at the beginning of 1879 changes happened, with Rees being replaced and John Arthur leaving. This date coincided with William Dodge James becoming twenty-five years of age, triggering the release of the capital from Daniel James estate to the three sons in England.
Daniel James had shares in large areas of lumber in America and a partnership with his brother Henry who marketed the processed timber for Phelps Dodge in Baltimore. Daniel’s son in America, Daniel Willis James and his cousin William Earl Dodge Jr. ran Phelps Dodge in partnership for the next 25+ years, changing it from a mercantile operation into one of the largest copper mining and copper production companies in the world. Daniel Willis James had a son, Arthur Curtiss James, who joined the business and also invested in railroads, becoming one of the richest men in America before the depression reduced his wealth to $38 million.
In England, Daniel and Sophia’s three sons became English gentlemen, enjoying their inherited wealth, big game hunting and exploring. Frank Linsly James died in 1890 during a hunting trip in Africa; he was unmarried and his wealth was left to his two brothers. They married into British high society and became friends of Edward, Prince of Wales who later became Edward VII. John Arthur James married Mary Venetia Cavendish-Bentinck and they bred race horses in Coton House near Rugby. William Dodge James married Evelyn Elizabeth Forbes and they lived in West Dean House in West Sussex.
Charitable Legacies
Daniel James was a religious man, a Presbyterians from English puritan descent, as were his American partners. They saw it as a duty to help those less fortunate and to spread the word of God. In his will Daniel left the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions $10,000; the London Missionary Society £2000; the Liverpool Town Missionary Society £1000; the governors of the Lancashire Congregational Union the sum of £500; the Liverpool Seamen’s Friend and Emigrant Society the sum of £500 and the British and Foreign Bible Society the sum of £500 pounds. (£100 in 1876 is probably the equivalent of £10,400 today)
Probate granted September 27, 1878
Final Resting Place
Daniel and Elizabeth James’s headstone is in the churchyard of St. Andrew behind West Dean House. However they are not buried there. Their remains are several hundred mile away in Liverpool in land that was once the Liverpool Necropolis. This cemetery became hazardous due to the large number of burial (80,000) and was closed. It was landscaped with ornamental gardens and renamed the Grant Gardens. The James’ headstones were moved to West Dean in the early part of the 20th century but the graves were not disturbed, and are now unmarked. The Liverpool Necropolis cemetery was used for the burial of nonconformists and this would have been in keeping with Daniel James’s Presbyterian beliefs. This may also have been a consideration at the time for not exhuming the James family remains and moving them to the Episcopal church of St. Andrew in West Dean. In contrast, the remains of Frank Linsly James, who was killed in Africa by a wounded elephant in 1890, were moved from Kensal Green Cemetery in 1917 and reburied in the James family plot in West Dean.
James Family Burial PlotTombstone of Elizabeth & Daniel JamesElizabeth Eccleston James and Sofia Hall (Hitchcock) James
Woodend, West Stoke, c1919. The de Bathe Sussex residence.
Lillie Langtry became Lady de Bathe in 1907 after her husband succeeded to the title. They inherited various properties including a 17 bedroom home in Sussex called Woodend.
Early life
Langtry, born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton in 1853, married widower Edward Langtry in 1874 and moved to London from her home in Jersey. Her beauty and charm attracted attention in society and she was introduced to Edward, Prince of Wales, who became her lover. Their affair lasted until 1880, by which time she had achieved celebrity status – but not financial security. Her name was linked with other men at this time including the Earl of Shrewsbury and Prince Louis of Battenberg. She also had a child born in 1881 – a daughter she named Jeanne Marie.
Her friend, Oscar Wilde, suggested she try acting as a way of making money. Langtry was coached by actress Henrietta Labouchere (wife of Liberal MP Henry Labouchere) before appearing in an amateur production in 1881. Success in the professional theatre followed and she was invited to tour in the USA. In New York she met a young wealthy American called Frederick Gebhard with whom she had an affair that lasted for about 9 years – despite her still being married to Edward Langtry.
The relationship with Gebhard cooled and in 1891 Langtry met a young wealthy Scotsman called George Alexander Baird. His passions were horse racing and boxing and he gave Langtry a horse called Milford that won several races for her. She had to register it under the colours of “Mr Jersey”, because this was still a male preserve.
Whilst in this relationship with Baird she travelled to Paris with another lover. Baird found out and flew into a violent rage. They eventually returned to some kind of normality after Baird gave her gifts of jewellery and a 200ft luxury yacht. Baird died in 1893 aged just thirty-three.
Langtry’s relationships with Gebhard and Baird fostered her interest in horse racing. After Baird’s death she acquired several horses and had them trained at Newmarket. Many wealthy owners also had horses in training there including the Prince of Wales, whose residence at Sandringham was about 45 miles to the north of Newmarket. In 1895 Langtry purchased a house in the area called Regal Lodge in the village of Kentford where she trained and kept her horses.
Hugo Gerald de Bathe
In 1897 Langtry at last secured a divorce from her husband Edward. Almost immediately the popular press spread rumours of her impending marriage to Prince Esterhazy. This was not to be, but in 1899 she did remarry, and her new husband was 28 year old Hugo Gerald de Bathe. His father, Sir Henry de Bathe, 4th Baronet – who was himself a competent amateur actor – did not approve of the marriage.
When Sir Henry died in 1907 the title passed to Hugo by succession, at which time Langtry became Lady de Bathe. Hugo inherited properties in Sussex, Devon and Ireland; those in Sussex were in the hamlet of West Stoke near Chichester. These were:
Woodend, 17 bedrooms set in 71 acres;
Hollandsfield, 10 bedrooms set in 52 acres;
Balsom’s Farm of 206 acres.
Woodend was retained as their residence whilst the smaller Hollandsfield was let. Lady Helen Percy, daughter of the 7th Duke of Richmond and the future Duchess of Northumberland, became one of their tenants.
Woodend
During the early years of the 19th century Woodend had been owned by Sir George Cranfield Berkeley (1753-1818) . He married Emilia Charlotte Lennox, a grand-daughter of the 2nd Duke of Richmond. Their daughter, Louisa Emily Anne, married Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy, who commanded HMS Victory at Trafalgar. After Hardy’s death in 1839 Louisa remarried to Lord Charles Rose Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford, and they lived at Woodend until his death in 1845. Today the buildings retain their period appearance, but modifications and additions have been made and the complex is now multi-occupancy. One of the houses on the site is named Langtry and another Hardy.
Sales detail of Woodend 1919. Also included 71 acres of farm and woodlands with buildings.
The Duke of Richmond’s Goodwood estate bordered the de Bathe’s Sussex properties. Langtry attended social events there and her horses ran at the Goodwood race track; these included Merman, who won the prestigious Goodwood Cup in 1899 on the day of her wedding to Hugo.
Sale of their properties
She remained on friendly terms with the Prince of Wales, meeting him on social occasions, at race meetings and he visited her at her home in Kenford. Langtry retained Regal Lodge until it was sold in 1919; Hugo sold his properties at the same time and the couple moved to the South of France – but lived separately.
Sales details of Woodend, Hollandsfield and Balsom’s Farm
Langtry died in Monaco on 12 February 1929. Hugo remarried after her death and he died in 1940. His nephew, Christopher Albert de Bathe, became the 6th Baronet but in 1941 was killed in an aircraft crash, and with no male successor the baronetcy became extinct.
Footnote: In 1922, London County Council alderman, Louis Courtauld, and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, were living in the de Bathe’s old Hollandsfield house in West Stoke. A shocking discovery was made by a servant in their bedroom on February 6. Mr Courtauld, whilst deranged, had shot his wife and cut his own throat. Louis Courtauld was the nephew of George Courtauld, textile manufacturer.
Probate granted September 27, 1878
