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[The transcript was taken from a photocopy which has a shadow of the writing from the reverse side. This
suggests that the original was written on both sides of thin paper 10½in by just over 8in in size and
possibly blue, judging by the slight shading on the copy.]
[Letter heading:]
RAWES & Co.
MERCHANTS
&
SHIPPING AGENTS
AGENTS FOR
LLOYD'S - LONDON
SALVAGE ASSOCIATION - LONDON
National Board of Marine Underwriters - New York
AND
GENERAL AGENTS IN PORTUGAL
FOR THE
Commercial Union Assurance Co., Limited; of London
&c., &c., &c.
Telegraphic Address:
RAWES - PORTO
[Page 1:]
Oporto 30th March
1908
My Dear Lea,
Glennie is, from hints he has received from my memory, and above all
notes that were on your grandfather's policy making out a "tree" of the Rawes family which I hope
may be of some interesting use to you, when you go up to Keswick as you intimated to Auntie in
one of your recent letters.
As to what happened during your good grandfather's days when I was a boy is very
marked in my memory. I think it may be interesting to you and assist in finding out what became of
my father's relations or the connections of his family. I will commence from
[Page 2:]
1844 when, I believe in the spring, so I was 4 years of age & wd be 5 on 6th of June. I went to Eng[lan]d
with my father mother & sister Agnes, (Maria Agnes) and well do I remember Keswick, where we spent some time,
at least father & myself at my father's sister's house, Mary then a widow, Mrs Clark with a daughter Lydia,
this Mrs Clark had a son Joseph who came out to Oporto & was a Clerk in my father's at the same time as Mr
Tait the present Wm. Tait's father; Joseph Clark went out to S. Francisco in 1849 with John Searle & Henry
Edward Wilby and formed the firm of Searle, Wilby & Clark, Young men that sh[oul]d with the chances they had,
have done well, but died out there leaving only debts. Well to go back to Mrs Clark of Keswick she lived up
a hill & about 2 or 300 yards from the lake, it was a short distance I remember for me to sneak out & run
down to a boatman & have a chat, for he & I were great friends & my father used to go out for the day in this
boat, so as to fish at the mouth of different
[Page 3:]
streams that ran into the lake. When at Aunt Mary's (Mrs Clark) I well remember my father's brother
who was then, I think manager of a lead mine (pencil lead) came to spend the day with my father, he
started very early in the morning with his wife who rode a very big mountain poney & they went off
home in the afternoon of the same day, and well do I remember my father & mother's admiration of
this gentleman's walking powers, and sinewy healthy figure (very like his great nephew Lea), he was
then I sh[oul]d say 53 in any case older than my father. This walk was over hills & mountain paths, I
fancy the mines must have been about fifteen miles distant. I know Mother (my mother) used to
speak of me being like that uncle, when I used to take my long walks with young ladies riding over
mountain roads in this country. As my father died in 1851 I lost sight of Aunt Mary & her daughter
Lydia. During that visit in England 1844 I re
[Page 4:]
remember going to see a Mrs Palmer at Bromley, London, she had a niece living with her a very pretty
girl Mary Rawes, and I have an idea she was the daughter of an uncle of my fathers who kept a school
at Bromley, I think and where my father was educated, this Mary Rawes afterwards married an Admiral
Goldsmith. Then there was a Robert Rawes Secretary at the Royal College of Physician in Trafalgar
Square He was a married man, but no family & I used to spend part of my holidays when at school with
him there in Trafalgar Square my bedroom window was one half of that on the extreme N.W. end of the
building the lower half being that to light the dining room window. All these occurences were in the
days of my youth. Now for those of late years. Your father had a friend in the Royal Mail who was an
intimate friend of a Rev. Rawes in the Roman Church, ie a Roman Catholic clergyman or Priest. Some five
years ago I came out in a R. Mail Packet & met a doctor
[Page 5:]
who stated he was a friend of a Dr Rawes and I wrote Leslie about this said Dr Rawes giving him every
particular then & after landing from the Royal Mail boat. Then again of later years there was a Rev.
Turner out here as locumtenens he told me he knew a Revd Rawes, of the Church of England. About twenty
years ago a Col. Wilson William Rawes who had retired from the Indian Army lived in Bath and died there.
Some five or eight years ago I went to Heatherington's factory near Manchester, the Commissionaire
looked very hard at my card and asked me if I was any relation to a Col. Wilson William Rawes? as he had
served for many years in his, the Colonel's, Cavalry Regiment. We had a chat, he, the Commissionaire told
me that the Colonel was a married man but had no children. Then again when Beatrice was at a home after
an operation in London, there was a Mr William Rawes a man ripe in years, in the same home, but as a Nurse
told Beatrice he was suffering
[Page 6:]
fering for weakness in the head, the girls in their modesty asked no further questions about him, he came
from some town in the North of England, is about all they knew or heard. Glen has mentioned Dulwich or
Bromley under the schoolmaster Rawe's name, it was at Bromley the school existed and strange it was
that my dear wife's great uncle Glennie had a big school at Dulwich. I am looking into letters hid away
at home written by Francis Tress Curteis when visiting my father's uncle at Bromley. He, Mr Curteis
was my father's school fellow, and my Godfather & a nephew of a Mrs Tress, and of the Barry family; that
is Sir Francis Barry of the Pamaras Pamarão Mines, father in law of Baron Mason, no, no, I am becoming
foggy, the first Baron, re: the mine was Mason who married my first sweetheart Izabel Barry the daughter
of the Francis Barry and the last married a Miss Tress & so my Godfather was a nephew of old Mr & Mrs
Francis Barry the present Sir Francis Barry a descendent of the old family. I fancy he died recently & now
the titled man of this prosperous mine Pamarão, is a Baron Sir or Edward Barry of course
[Page 7:]
course all this I have related "non officially", & from memory & I hope may be of interest to you and
enable you, to disintur the mystery of the Rawes family, and which I trust may be of the same interest
to you as it will be to me, your father & our children. Sir Edward Barry I have met, he is a
Gentlemanly man of about 40 years, & told me when speaking of his family that I knew as much or more of his
family circle, than he did. A Miss Charlotte Barry was y[ou]r Uncle Wilson's godmother. There was a brother
of hers that was at the Consulate in Madrid and applied to be the Consul there when his, then future brother-
in-law said don't be a fool come out with me to Pamarão which he did resulting in the Barry family becoming
very rich.
3rd April. I will close & post this and if I find in letters at home more particulars I will write you further.
A pleasant trip only wish I was going with you.
Y[ou]r aff[ectiona]te Uncle
Frank C Rawes
Notes:-
Glennie was Frank's son. Frank is writing to his nephew Percy Lea Rawes. Lea's grandfather was James Rawes
senior and Frank's father.
It is assumed that Frank is referring to Lea's Auntie, Mary Elizabeth Rawes of Oporto, Frank's sister.
Frank's father and mother were James Rawes senior, 1796-1851 and Mary Elizabeth née Wilby, 1809-1889.
Mrs Clark was Frank's aunt. Mary Clark of Keswick, 1783-1865, daughter of Lanty and Betty Rawes, who married
Joseph Clark in 1809. The lake mentioned is Derwentwater.
'Father's brother' - it is not clear to whom Francis Curteis is referring. The two possibilities are William
Rawes 1784-1870 (Borrowdale Line) & John Rawes, 1788-1864 (Jamaica Line). He mentioned his uncle's wife as
astride "a very big mountain poney", this would suggest that it was William since John's wife had died some
time before.
Mrs Palmer, was Elizabeth, 1782-1856, the widow of Thomas Carey Palmer and daughter of Richard Rawes, owner
of the Rawes Academy in Bromley. Richard Rawes was an elder brother of Lanty Rawes, and uncle to James Rawes
senior. Mrs Palmer's niece, Mary Ann, born 1819, was not her neice but a more distant relative, being the
daughter of Richard Rawes, ship's Purser in the HEICS, who in turn was son of William Wilson Rawes (Wm Wilson
Line), younger brother of the above mentioned Richard Rawes of Bromley (Bromley Line).
Robert Lancaster Rawes, 1794-1858, Secretary to the Royal College of Physicians in Trafalgar Square, was brother
to John Rawes of Keswick and James Rawes of Portugal, therefore uncle to Frank.
Rev. Rawes the Roman Catholic clergyman was Henry Augustus Rawes (Augustus Line), 1826-1885, of London. He was a
noted Catholic and appears in the National Bibliography where one can find an account of his life. Henry Augustus
was the son of William, Vicar of Easington and grandson of William, Headmaster of Kepier Grammar School, Houghton
le Spring, Co. Durham, by Ann his wife née Cantwell.
Col. Wilson William Rawes was William Wilson Rawes, 1816-1887, Deputy Inspector General of the Madras
Establishment, HEICS. He was brother to the above mentioned Mary Goldsmith née Rawes. He had three children,
three girls who lived with him in Bath.
Beatrice, 1874-1913, was the daughter of Wilson William Rawes, younger brother of Frank.
Frank's wife was Emma Octavia, the daughter of Frederick Glennie, HM Consul to Mexico. Frederick was the son of
Dr. William Glennie, 1761-1828, of the Dulwich School in Dulwich, London.
Transcribed by Bryant Bayliffe of Brockworth, 2003.
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