A-Z of Entries

Baur

HCR diary 20.6.1818 a musical party at Aders "Two Germans - Baur (brothers?) performed on the violin and violincello in so exquisite a style as to delight everyone -such sounds were bought from the violincello as I have never heard". The two musicians walked back with Robinson and complained that the French appreciate merit in music but the English not.

The only Baur alive then in music dictionaries was Charles-Alexis Baur who was a harpist, so these remain a mystery to me


Bayley, Miss

HCR diary 1.5.1842 Robinson saw Miss Bayley "interesting chat only I said too much about Mrs Aders etc."

No identification at present


Beaumont, George Howland

HCR diary 4.4.1823 "I met by appointment at Aders Wordsworth, Sir Geo. Beaumont and Rogers." "Sir Geo. proposed bringing Fuseli" "Sir Geo. seemed to be in particular interested by these specimens of old German art. The Perugini (3 figures in a sort of open temple) he declared to be in parts hardly distinguishable from Raphael. The great painting by Van Eyck he spent a long time in examining"

George Howland Beaumont (DNB 1753-1827)


Becher

HCR diary 26.10.1817 "Poor Becher has had the misfortune to be, tho' innocently, involved in the late great Liverpool smuggling fraud".

                        3.1.1818 "called on Mrs Meyer to excuse myself from going to Mr Becker's with her this evening, but she was herself unwell" (Mrs Meyer was the future Mrs Aders)

                      26.4.1818 about Becher "There are very bad reports in circulation about him. He is charged with acts that amount to gross dishonesty"

                      20.6.1818 "chatted with Miss L. she seems fully aware of the nature of the…


Beckford, William

HCR diary 5.6.1834 re: Aders' pictures "Beckford is after some of the pictures and I have more hope of him than of anyone else"

William Thomas Beckford (DNB 1760-1844)


Beechey, William

HCR diary 18.12.1820 Mrs Aders talking of her father John Raphael Smith "Sir W Beechey used to receive half a guinea of S: and when he went into the country to paint his wife came for the money, but B: did not recollect the kindness of his friend"

William Beechey (DNB 1753-1839). For J R Smith see my background article "3 Wives, 3 Husbands Living"


Benecke

HCR diary 17.2.1822 "dined late at Sievekings. The Aders, Jenkins and Benickes there - a very agreeable evening"

                    7.11.1836 at Benecke's re: Mr Aders "I found that A: had obtained from Souchay a promise of £100 but he had represented to S: that he wanted £2000!!!"

                    9.11.1836 at Aders "I mentioned that Mrs W Benecke had told me the other evening that Matilda Becher obtained from her (Ch. Souchay made the advance) £200 for Mrs Leigh" (see Becher QV*)

                    22.2.1838 Benecke "I requested Mr B to send direction to Mrs B…


Bent, Jane Mary

HCR diary 2.4.1838 "I was glad to perceive Mrs Aders house nearly full - Miss Lawrence, Mrs Bent a widow gentlewoman and a young German must render their living now very litle expence to them"

                 12.6.1839 "went on to the Aders - a friendly reception, but a little constraint. I am afraid to ask questions - Nothing about Ellen, nor their loss of their lady inmate - nor Miss Lawrence - they are now quite alone"

See my background article "3 Wives, 3 Husbands Living". Jane Mary, niece of the renowned plasterer Joseph Rose (1745-1799), married at St Marylebone on 8.8…


Betham, Matilda

HCR DIARY 26.6.1820 Miss Beetham, poetess and radical at Charles Lamb's

(Mary) Matilda Betham (DNB 1776-1852)

GODWIN DIARY 16.11.1810 call on Montagu; adv. Tuthill & Betham / 10.11.1821 Betham calls / 26.11.1821 au soir Betham & Grave / 18.1.1822 Betham calls / 2.12.1822 Betham sups / 12.12.1822 call on Betham / 24.1.1823 Betham calls / 26.1.1823 call on Betham / 9.9.1824 Betham calls

Plausibly this was Matilda Betham, Godwin often referred to independent women with just their surname. Might also have been her father William DNB 1749-1839 or one of her fourteen…


Beuth, Peter

HCR diary 8.6.1826 at Aders "A Prussian, Beuthe, a finance minister, who has the air of a superior man"

Christian Peter Wilhelm Friedrich Beuth (1781-1853) see Marquardt II p109 n304, Karl Friedrich Schinkel (DNB 1781-1841) and Peter Beuth in de.wikipedia, and Schinkel in Crabb Robinson Diary dataset


Bischoff

HCR diary 11.5.1826 (called on) "Bischoff who acquits Hatton Stansfeld of dishonesty but attributes to him monstrous fatuity"

Probably James Bischoff (DNB 1775-1845). Hatton Hamer Stansfeld stuff manufacturer of King St, Cheapside was declared bankrupt in the London Gazette of 6.5.1826. Bischoff was, like Hatton Stansfeld, a Leeds merchant living in London, and had married Stansfeld's older sister Margaret. Stansfeld's older brother Thomas had been declared bankrupt earlier in 1826.


Blake, William

GODWIN DIARY: Heath (& Blake) at theatre 14.11.1805

see my entry for Blake, Arthur to whom the above entry is coded on GD website. More likely to have been William Blake DNB 1757-1827, Heath was a friend and fellow-engraver.

SWEDENBORGIANS: William Blake and his wife Catherine were among the 18 who signed the 1788 Swedenborgian New Church Conference along with the 77 printed names.

GREATER SOHO: see Poland Street 19 to 44 in London Addresses dataset

William Blake 28 Poland St ratebooks Xmas 1785-1790

CRABB ROBINSON DIARY:

The journal of John…


Blessington, Lady

HCR diary 9.5.1833 Lady Blessington "has not been to see Aders pictures"

Marguerite Gardiner (DNB 1789-1849)


Bourgoin

HCR diary 29.1.1845 called on "Miss Denman but I did not go in. Her sister Marian was buried that morning from the house - a happy release for the survivors at all events"

                      1.2.1845 "I found Miss Denman in trouble - She has been ill-treated by Miss Bourgoin with whom her late sister Marian lived but she ought to feel the death of her sister a great comfort"

Mary Ann Denman buried 29.1.1845 from Upper Norton St age 64. She was an unmarried sister of Maria Denman, perhaps the Mary Ann Denman bapt 3.1776 at Whitechapel, though her age at death suggests she…


Briggs

HCR diary 22.5.1823 at Bischoff's "Mr Briggs from Constantinople"

                      8.4.1826 "Aders spoke of Thomas Stansfeld's bankruptcy and blamed it on his father-in-law Briggs"

                    11.7.1836 at Mrs Aders blue stocking party "Briggs"

These are possibly three different Briggs. Samuel Briggs, British pro-consul at Alexandria 1805 (British Library IOR/H/479 p 537). From 1810 he was a merchant in London and Alexandria. Morning Post 17.1.1823 he spoke at meeting in London about the distress after earthquakes in Syria. In 1837 he spoke to the Select…


Briscoe, John Ivatt

HCR diary 12.1.1828 at Flaxman's "The Aders were there and a Mr Briscoe a very agreeable man" (Saint- Surrey magistarte - beautiful wife etc)

John Ivatt Briscoe (History of Parliament 1791-1870) married 25.9.1819 at St James Piccadilly to Anne Maria dau of Sir Joseph Mawbey, 2nd baronet


Brown, Harriet

HCR diary 14.4.1820 Mrs Brown wife of Ipswich architect "very agreeable young woman - sensible without pretension, frank and easy without obtrusive egotism, respectful without obsequiousness. She brought her two little girls with her and was no restraint on our conversation"

William Brown architect of Ipswich 1778-1851 (Colvin). His father was Crispin Brown shoemaker of Mendham, Suffolk. He married Harriet Jermyn at Ipswich in 1810, they baptised children there (Harriet Jermyn 1813, Marianne Layton 1815, Isabella 1816, Ellen 1818, William 1820, Margaret Latitia 1823, Rose Emma 1826…


Brown, Mrs

HCR diary 9.7.1823 Miss Hays living at Vanbrugh Castle, Greenwich where a Mrs Browne keeps a school

               21.12.1823 in Greenwich "at Mr Brown's where I dined by invitation with Miss Hays - rather a dull but not an unpleasant afternoon. Mrs B: is apparently an amiable woman - both Mrs Hays and Mrs Aders think highly of her as a schoolmistress. The husband seems a mighty insignificant man - his occupation is keeping his wife's accounts - but they are attached like lovers to each other - Miss Tuck, Mrs B's sister is a worthy woman too...there are two sons....the elder...a…


Bunsen

HCR diary 6.3.1839 re: sale of Aders' pictures "to have some catalogues sent to Germany and hope that Bunsen may assist in this"

Christian Karl Josias Freiherr von Bunsen (1791-1860) met Robinson in Rome in 1829, married about 1816 an Englishwoman Frances Waddington, his stepsister Christiane Bunsen born 1806 (Marquardt II p240 n)

 


Burdett, Francis

GODWIN DIARY: R & Sophia Burdet 27.8.1804 at Tooke's

Robert son of Francis Burdett DNB 1770-1844 born 16.4.1796 died 1880 and his sister Sophia who married 23.10.1833 Robert Otway Cave and died 1849

B Jones 9.3.1806 at Tooke's

This may have referred to Sir Francis Burdett, who after the death of his aunt Lady Jones, "took the name of Jones by royal licence 5.4.1800 but only briefly affected it" (historyofparliamentonline) or possibly to his younger brother William Jones Burdett 1774-1840. Both have person records in the GD website, and Godwin had several times…