Richardson William Fowke 1847 - 1899
Richardson William Fowke , Teacher of Classics in a catholic school in Stoke Poges (1871). of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Tea-planter, subsequently Schoolmaster in Europe & U.S.A. He emigrated to Ceylon in the 1864 with his brother Philip and sister Emily from Wales both of whom married into the Gray family. Dickoya seems to have been a coffee plantation in 1853...? Dickoya is in Upper Bulatgam area. Of of Morowakorle (1876). Of Glencairn, Estate, Dickoya, 1882. ). Dicky Wallis :My grandmother's father, William Richardson Fowke, had converted the whole family to Catholicism towards the end of the 19th century after being overwhelmed by the beauty of the music being played in the Brompton Oratory. He had taken shelter there from the rain during a London storm and decided on the spot to become a Catholic. Frank Rede Fowke left a notebook to Olive Summerly Rede Mangeot. PvM was given a copy, which passed to CvM. Page 70 - "Richardson William Fowke born at Carmarthen 22nd or 23rd Oct 1847 bapt. there [this is as his account. His wife Dora Fowke told me there was a doubt as to the date; but she believed it was 23rd. She says he was 54 in 1897 and was therefore born in 1843 and not as he makes out in 1847] and was educated in a very expensive manner. On his father's death he found his mother's means were very scanty, he did not get on well with her and refusing to be maintained at her cost, he started for himself as an office boy. Part of his work was to put up the shutters which much as he disliked it he did when he could not afford to pay another boy to do it. He had during this time no companions. He shunned those with whom he had formerly associated and would not associate with the lot amongst whom he was cast, During this time his cousin Ada Fowke showed him what kindness she could. His employment was at Bristol. During his leisure he worked to perfect his education and when sufficiently advanced entered a school as ... usher[?] gradually rising to the top of the teaching staff. Then he joined his brother in Ceylon and took to coffee planting - He married his 1st wife at Colombo Ceylon on 28th May 1873 Mary Frances Lewis Bird, daughter of Henry Robinson Lewis Bird of Slough, co. Bucks. She was born at Banda Bengal 12 April 1850. This woman he brutally ill treated and it was reported there was local evidence that he actually killed her. By her, besides a child who died before its mother, he had a daughter Ruth Fowke, born March 1874 who became a nun. Richardson William Fowke married secondly on 29th August 1876 Dorathea Frances Alan Stevenson (niece of Robert Louis Stevenson [CvM note - this is wrong.. she was a 1st cousin]) 2nd daughter of Alan Stevenson C.E. Edinburgh and had issue three sons and two daughters viz Katherine Fowke (brought up an RC became a Protestant) born at Galle Ceylon 22nd July 1877 Her father wanted to force her to marry a black man, on account of his health in Ceylon, she was actually engaged to him for two days after which she said she couldn't do it and attempted to kill herself - the matter got into the local papers and created such a stir that her mother took her to the Nigharry Hills. She had scarcely begun to recover from the effects of her father's brutality when he turned up with a German (who had proposed when on the boat coming out, and had asked the hotel keeper to send him a wire if ever Miss Fowke was in any trouble. It is said he asked Richardson how much he was getting if she married the Rajah and offered to pay the same amount.) Otto Karl Richelmann whom he forced her to marry in two days 24th August 1893 at Ootacamund S. India they had three children viz 1. George Otto Richelmann born at Penang Bay (or Hill) 7th July 1895 2. Lionel William Richelmann born at Sumatra 6 August 1896 2. Katherine Wynand born in Southern India 30th May 1906 (2nd child of Richardson and Dora Fowke) 2 Richard Humphrey born on the Dickoya Estate, near Kandy Ceylon 18th March 1881 and died 27th August 1883 3 Dorathea Margaret Fowke (brought up as a Protestant became RC) born Java 7th Nov 1883 married 30th April 1903 at St Mary's Cath. Armenian St. Madras, John Power Wallis advocate general of Madras eldest son of the late John Edward Wallis of the inner temple (later he became a Judge and consquently Sir John Wallis, after he retired they lived in London and Italy where she died Issue 1 Dorathea Lucy Wallis born at Madras 2nd March 1905 2 Claire [sic] Margaret Wallis born 25th June 1905 3 Joan Wallis born at Madras 3rd Nov 1906 4 John Wallis 14th August 1908 5 Edward Wallis June 1909 or 10 Note When Dora Fowke was abandoned by her husband I took her in for a time and subsquently I educated Dorathea Margaret Fowke with my daughter Olive. Dora was in very straightened circumstances and her daughter Little Dora being desirous to make money by sitting as an artists model, I favoured her introduction to some artists by whom she was employed also at the Royal College of Art. I understood at the time she was doing this to assist her mother but afterwards discovered that she was only desirous to have money to buy herself ... and finery. She ... her mother ... just her own way and when, after her marriage, she returned from India she would not come downstairs to see her mother who had come to greet her on her arrival - and said she desired to forget she had ever been a Fowke. This note of father's gives an awful picture of Little Dora (Olive's note) She had suffered so much as a child, being so terrified of her father that she used to rush and hide under any piece of furniture when she heard him coming and her brother Frank certainly suffered from arrested development from the way he was ill treated. I was told when she was going to have her 1st child she tried to hide herself like an animal and the rapid succession of child bearing certainly upset her nerves and she could or would not bear it my own impression was that she ...ed to ... I always found her a very kindly rather vague girl with very little power of concentration, but no more selfish or desiring nice clothes or ornaments than the average girl of her age. She was a most amusing companion and used to entertain us much with wild stories told in a slow drawl always commencing "such a painful thing happened" and almost invariably ending "so depressing for her (or them or him as the case might be) surely". She also referred to any uneducated or boundary people as Villagers her mother Big Dora was also a very vague and delightfully impossible creature, no one could help her, she just slipped away at any suggested contact or help, and her statements were coloured by a vivid imagination not always to be relied upon. Note Olive Summerly Rede Mangeot nee Fowke) 4. Frances Thomas Fowke (4th child of Richardson and Dora Fowke) born 27th Sep 1886 in Java. Brought up a RC - so ill treated by his father that his intellect never appeared to reach its normal development (He and his brother were left at a convent school at weston Super mare without payment or any means of communicating with their parents, for years) Went into the mercantile marines but left on account of .. ... fingers crushed in a donkey ... He was sent when quite young to Canada to fend for himself. He wanted stability and got into trouble. He went subsequently to the USA living at 176 Sherwood Avenue Detroit Mich. USA in 1918 at 329 11th St Toldeo Ohio where he was I believe employed on the railway. He married a woman of humble position in life but I believe a most excellent person Pansy Macevereath (Note I wish I could find out where he is the last I heard of him was a very pathetic letter my sister Joyce had before she died in 1930. His wife was dead and he was very lonely O.M.) 5 Rowan (Rohan on birth cert,) Richard Humphrey Fowke born 16th Feb 1888 at Chelsea married RC Church Colombo 9th December 1915 Margaret daughter of Charles Morrison born 29th June 1887 had a daughter 1. Margaret Rosemary born in Madras 18th April 1926 Poss. BT27 Last name First name Sex Year of departure Departure port Destination country Destination port FOWKE E W M 1893 London India Madras 08 August 1897 - Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper - London, London, England W. Richardson Fowke of 5 Norland square, Notting Hill was on Wednesday at West London police court committed for trial on a charge of bigamy. "BIGAMIST'S HEARTLESSNESS. …BIGAMIST'S HEARTLESSNESS. A particularly heartless case of bigamy came before the Common Serjeant at the Old Bailey, London, the accused being a tea P, nter named Richardson William Fowke. Be had left his wife in Ceylon, and although he was corresponding with her on the most affectionate terms, he made the acquaintance of, and ultimately went through the ceremony of marriage with, a Mrs. Benson… The Cardigan Observer and General Advertiser for… 25th September 1897 News p.2 192 words" England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770-1935 First name(s) Richardson William Last name Fowke Suffix - Occupation None Age 45 Birth year 1852 Year 1897 Date 14 Sep 1897 Place London Victim's first name(s) Astrid Dahl Victim's last name Benson Series CRIM9 Source Central Criminal Court: After Trial Calendars of Prisoners Piece number 43 Folio number 11 Record set England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770-1935 Category Institutions & organisations "6 weeks (without hard labour) , Pentonville Prison. (To be computed from 14th September, 1897) Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper August 8, 1897 page 15 W. Richardson William Fowke, of 5 Norland square, Notting hill was on Wednesday at West London police court committed for trial on a charge of bigamy.
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| Born: Quay st, Carmarthen, Wales 21st Oct 1847 | Baptised: St. Peter's, Carmarthen, Wales 19th Nov 1847
| | Died: Paris, France 4th Aug 1899 | Buried:
| | Family: Fowke formerly of Carmarthan |
Timeline
| 21st Oct 1847 | Born (birth) Carmarthen, Wales | | 19th Nov 1847 | Baptised (baptism) Carmarthen, Wales | | 31st Mar 1851 | Son in 1851 census (census) Clifton, Gloucs., England | | 1871 | Lodger in 1871 census (census) Stoke Poges, Bucks., England | | 28th May 1873 | Married Mary Frances Louis Bird
(Fowke ) 1850 - 1875 (marriage) Columbo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) | | 20th Sep 1876 | Married Dorothea (Big Dora) Frances Alan Stevenson
(Fowke ) 1850 - 1931 (marriage) Galle, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) | | 24th Aug 1893 | MARR/ROLE WITN Ootacamund, Madras, India | | 18th May 1897 | Married Astrid M. Dahl
(Benson , Fowke ) 1867 - 1942 (marriage) London, England | | 1897 | Divorced Dorothea (Big Dora) Frances Alan Stevenson
(Fowke ) 1850 - 1931 (divorce) | | 4th Aug 1899 | Died (death) Paris, France |
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