Another letter from the package of letters and items that Sugar received from his cousin.
The transcription follows. Make a cup of tea and sit down.
The transcription errors are mine, and mine alone. I usually post a transcription after review and correction, but on this one, I keep finding errors on my part. Note to self: Do not transcribe while talking to Sugar on the phone.
July 25, 1965
Mr. Colin McDonald
122 Marine Parade
Cottesloe
Western Australia
Dear. Mr. McDonald:
Mrs. E. Farrar Bateson has shown my mother, Lucinda
Bateson More, your letters of May 12 and June 1. My mother, in
turn, has asked me, as the unofficial ( and I fear inefficient)
family genealogist, to write you, which I do with pleasure.
My grandfather, Charles Edward Bateson, apparently was
not a communicative man and was regrettably uninformative about
his family. Accordingly, I have much less information on the
Bateson family than on the families of my other grandparents.
I will give you below what I know, and hope, in turn, that you
will favor me with some additional information:
Richard H. Bateson:
While having no information, except that he was still
alive in the late 1880’s and that his wife was then dead, I do
have pictures. I also have a picture of a pretty but wistful
young woman which appears to have been taken about a hundred years
ago and may well be his wife, Susannah Wagstaffe. (I note you
spell this Wagstaff. Have you an authoritative source?) Would
you be able to identify the picture? I should be happy to send
you copies of these or any of the other pictures noted below
which would interest you. Getting copies made takes some time,
and, not wishing to delay this letter any longer, I am not sending
any now, but as stated, would be delighted to do so. As to
Richard’s children:
- Richard Henry:
I would very much like to have a chart of his descendants
(including yourself) showing dates of birth and death, dates of
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marriage, names and dates of birth and death of their spouses,
and any other items of particular interest. Unfortunately, until
hearing from you, we have no facts at all about your grandfather.
- Clara Beatrice:
She died about 1925, never having married. I am told
she was very game and was travelling about on then primitive air-
planes and what-not right up to the end. She visited this country
but was resident in England. I have a picture taken about 1878.
- Charles Edward:
According to an advertisement received from “Burke’s
Landed Gentry” in 1937, he was from the West Riding of Yorkshire
and came to this country in 1871. I do not know the ship.
He was the first to come over. As you will see below, a brother and
a sister came later. He settled in New Orleans, La., and there
married (June 21, 1877) my grandmother, Mary McLaughlin Stamps
(born March 22, 1861, died on her birthday in 1950). They moved
to St. Louis, Mo. after the birth of their first child. From
there, they moved in the late 1880’s to New Rochelle, N.Y., where
my mother was born in 1889. In the mid 1890’s, they moved to
New York City and remained there. He died June 13, 1918 and is
buried in Tarrytown, N.Y. next to his wife, three of their children
and one grandchild. As to their children and descendants, please
refer to the enclosed page of a chart I prepared some years ago,
and which I have updated as legibly as I can. The remainder of
the chart related to the family of Mary McLaughlin Stamps and
presumably would be of scant interest to you. It is this kind of
chart which I would like to prepare for the Bateson family, given
sufficient information. I have pictures of Charles Edward Bateson,
mostly in later life. He was quite successful, with reverses, in
the textile business.
- Florence Amelia:
She married Francis Humphreys and had three children:
Dorothy (I think the oldest), Francis and Brian. I have no informa-
tion on Francis (“Frank”) or Brian, except that Francis was the
older. I have a picture of Brian as an English Army officer in
- Dorothy (“Dolly”) married John Talbot, an English Army
officer (who I think became a general), and had two pretty daughters,
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Althea and Vivian. Shortly after World War I, the Talbots moved
to Vancouver, B. C. with the young girls. Vancouver was then
wilderness, and they lived there seemingly as pioneers. My
mother believes they later returned to England. I have pictures
of Florence in 1878 and with her infant granddaughters, and
various portraits and snapshots of Dolly and her family in England
and Vancouver, as well as pictures of the handsome Talbot family
place “Rack Leage” (sp?) in Gloucestershire.
- Walter:
My mother thinks he died young. She is not aware that
he married, as indicated in your May 12 letter. Further informa-
tion would be appreciated. He was a great favorite of my gran-
mother, his sister-in-law. I have a picture of him taken in
Leipzig, apparently about 1878.
- Susan Ada:
According to my mother, she was an invalid and never
married. She was still alive about 1920, living in England, but
there the trail ceases.
- Horace:
Your date of birth is incorrect, as I have it in Horace’s
own handwriting as August 23, 1857. He came to this country
perhaps ten years after Charles Edward Bateson, or about 1880, and
settled in St. Louis, Mo., where he married Sophie H. of that city
(born May 15, 1858). They had issue, but we know little of them.
Relations between the two families were, I am told, quite cool.
I have pictures of Horace at 18 and of him and his wife on his
fiftieth birthday.
8. “Polly” (Correct name and birthday unknown)
She was the youngest of Richard H. Bateson’s children
and was still living about 1918. She married Arthur Widdows
(Widows?), who was dead by about 1918, and had two sons, Manley
and “Jeff”. When last heard of, Manley, the elder, was a lawyer
in Oklahoma City. It seems that Arthur Widdows was at one point
an English Army major. In the late 1890’s they came to this
country and settled in Isle of Pines, Fla. I have a picture of
Polly in about 1878, and picture of her husband and two sons
when the latter were perhaps six to eight years old.
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It was over six years ago that I started collecting
family information and trying to put it together, but then a
change in jobs put me off the project, unfortunately before much
was done about the Bateson side. There are, however, sources of
information, aside from you. First, there are, of course, the
Bateson papers mentioned in your June 1 letter. I had not
previously heard of these and would be must interested to know
more of them. It would be particularly interesting to have a
copy of the pedigree you mention. If you could give me the
address of the Society of Genealogist, I might try to get a copy
and make one available to you. The second source is Mrs. John H.
Bateson (Madeline), wife of Col. John (“Jack”) Holgate Bateson,
CMG, DSO, who died in 1956, and was, I believe, a cousin of our
grandfathers. After World War II, William Bateson Gaillard (who
an be located on the enclosed chart) became very interested in
the family and obtained much information from Jack. Sadly, most
of William’s records were prepared when he was in the last stages
of tuberculosis contracted in German prison camp, from which he
died, and his family has been reluctant to release the records
for fear of contamination. His brother, however, has indicated
he has available some of the information, and I am writing him
in this regard. I shall also write Jack’s widow, whose address
is 40 Yew Tree Road, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Any-
thing I learn will be passed on to you.
Since I hope we shall be corresponding further, a word
about myself. You will find me and my wife and children listed
at the very bottom of the enclosed chart. I graduated from
Harvard College in 1947, after a brief tour of duty as an Ensign
in the Pacific, and from Columbia University Law School in 1950.
I am now General Counsel of one of the larger chemical companies
in this country, Hooker Chemical Corporation, the address shown
above being that of the company’s headquarters. My home address,
and the one I suggest using, is 11 Edgehill Road, Glen Cover,
Long Island, N. Y. In recent years my picture-taking has produced
slides, and so I have no prints lying about. I am, however,
enclosing a snapshot taken by my sister’s husband on Thanksgiving
Day in 1963 at my house, howing (in back, left to right) my
sister, Mary Virginia Anstruther; my wife, Pamela; her brother,
Peter Marr; and (in front, left to right) my daughters, Robin and
Alison; and myself. The tartans draped over Robin and my wife
are bolts I had recently obtained in London. You may recognize
them as MacLachlan.
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Should you pass through New York again, it would be a
great pleasure to put you up. It is a pity no one was available
when you visited in 1961.
I am sending copies of this letter to my mother and
Mrs. Bateson, to whom you wrote. Like you, I prefer to type
letters, in my case so that they will be legible.
Finally, by way of miscellaneous information, enclosed
is a copy of a 1952 newspaper article regarding the death of
Cmdr. C. H. Lightoller, said to be a cousin of our grandfather,
who was the last surviving officer of the Titanic. I know
nothing more of the relationship.
Sincerely,
Cousin Douglas
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