| DESCENDANTS of CHARLOTTE CORNWALL Of Charlotte Cornwall, the sole daughter of P.M.Cornwall's second marriage, an unusual family anecdote has been passed down. Reputedly extremely beautiful, she is said to have been the object of the unwelcome attentions of the Prince Regent, the future George IV, when visiting Bath. This incurred the displeasure of her father, the redoubtable Reverend Peter Monamy (Durell) Cornwall, who is reported to have employed his riding crop on a portion of the royal flesh. If this actually happened, Charlotte could only have been about 16 years old at the time, since George IV came to the throne in 1820. Some external corroboration of the incident would be welcome. If there are any living descendants of Charlotte's son, William Ebenezer Bletchly, and his wife, Emily Anne Playne, perhaps they could add more detail. February 2010. More detail is forthcoming ! P.M.Cornwall's aggressive sally is not an impossibility. George IV was exceptionally unpopular. According to James Laver, in English Sporting Prints, 1970, Thomas Cribb, the British Champion, "together with Gentleman Jackson, both dressed in the royal livery were hired by George IV to protect him at his Coronation from the hostile crowd." Tom Sawyer, in Noble Art, 1989, says that Jackson "headed a corps of prize-fighters at the coronation". Sufficient, no doubt, to deter the Reverend Cornwall from further onslaught. February 2006. A correspondent has recently taken me to task for even suggesting that the Rev. Cornwall could have struck the Prince Regent. Such an action, it was maintained, would have resulted in instant death. It was also asserted that the Prince would have had no need of protection by prize-fighters at his coronation, since the entire army was there to protect him. I have since discovered that this correspondent, an American, while writing in good faith, seems to harbour a remarkable impression of the tyrannical character of the British royal family during this period. This conforms to the ridiculously demonized image of George III put about in America following their Declaration of Independence. To the English, of course, the Hanoverians were a toothless dynasty, and only allowed to occupy their constitutional role on sufferance. They must have been fully conscious that should they ever act against the consensus interests of the English people they would have been sent packing as promptly as their Stuart predecessors. However, it may well be that the family anecdote has been embellished as it was passed down. James Laver's source for his account of the liveried boxers remains obscure. It can hardly be doubted, however. November 2007. Delving into Robert Halsband's highly esteemed biography of Lord Hervey, I couldn't help being struck, if that's the right word, by the following account (p.128) of the amatory pursuits of Frederick, Prince of Wales, 1731: "He cast a wide net in his flirtations --- an apothecary's daughter ... a farmer's wife at a country dance near Hampton Court (when the indignant farmer rewarded him with a beating) ." There is no mention of the instant demise of the farmer. Precedent is basic to English law, and the Reverend Cornwall would only have been exercising his hallowed right. |
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