Elizabeth Maddocks, eldest daughter of Elizabeth Craven, and her descendants
Elizabeth Craven's eldest daughter, also named Elizabeth, seems to have been of rather a serious turn of mind.
In the only portrait we seem to have of her, aged ten with her brother William, she is holding a book in her hand. Eleven years later, her name "Hon Miss Craven" is found among the subscribers to this interesting volume, Thoughts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Selected from His Writings... and Translated by Miss Henrietta Colebrooke (London, 1788), which suggests that the intensive education she got from Madame de Vaucluse was not wasted. She also subscribed to various volumes of printed music and sermons. (1)
Elizabeth was fifteen when her parents separated. Three years later, while her mother was travelling abroad, she came out in society. It appears that she and her younger sister Maria were presented at the same time as they are always mentioned together. Both attended the ball given for the King's Birthday in June 1787, and danced in the formal minuet. It was reported that "The Miss Cravens were both dressed alike in a celestial blue, with a robe and petticoat of white crape, on which were tulip buds, in embroidery, paintings, and silver spangles, with a beautiful border in celestial blue with laurel leaves, edged with silver spangles, and another a very deep border of silver fringe and coloured foils, with a wreath of roses from the bouquet to the bottom of the petticoat. Their caps were a crown of ostrich feathers, very large, and highly ornamented with full blown roses." (2)
It seems to have been usual for them to dress alike, as in 1790, the dresses they wore to another court occasion were described thus in The Lady's Magazine, “An Italian gauze, embroidered, ornamented with bunches of pink foil roses, and broad silver rings.” (3)
In 1789 the sisters were invited together to Boodle's Gala at Ranelagh, by the Prince of Wales. “ The Prince's Party consisted of the Duke of York, Duke of Clarence, Mrs. Fitzherbert, Duchess of Cumberland, Lady Duncannon, Lady Haggerstone, Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, Miss Pigot, and the Miss Cravens." (4)In 1791 their father died, so for some time, black would have been the only colour the sisters could wear.
On April 17th 1792, three days before her twenty-fourth birthday, Elizabeth married John Edward Maddocks Esq., a lawyer and MP. His family had two estates, one in Wales where they originated, and another in Kent, purchased by his father who had also been a lawyer and MP.
His home in Kent, Mount Mascall near Bexley, was a fine one, standing impressively at the top of a long avenue. It was still in existence until the late 1950s, when it was demolished.
The real drawback of this match for the bride was that Maddocks was a widower, aged forty, and he already had seven children by his late wife, so his second wife instantly became a step-mother to this teeming brood. The inheritance being firmly fixed on the sons of the first marriage, her own children stood to inherit very little, nor did she if left a widow. This was very like the situation of the Dashwood sisters in Sense and Sensibility.
Around the time of this marriage, Elizabeth's mother returned to England, and all four sisters were warned by their brother and their uncle Lord Berkeley that it would be better not to associate with her. The scandal of the separation had been too great. Happily, the eldest did not long adhere to this cruel and sanctimonious behaviour. She was the first to relent and respond to her mother's overtures. So the Margravine was not denied the chance to see the two granddaughters who were born in the years immediately following her daughter's marriage, Charlotte (born August 14th 1793) and Eliza Maria (born September 10th 1794).
We don't know what the Margravine thought about John Maddocks but we know that she really hit it off with his younger brother, Joseph, who was a talented amateur actor. He had set up his own amateur theatrical company in Kent, the Society of Kentish Bowmen, and his performances were praised by Sheridan and Garrick. No sooner had she seen him in action, than the Margravine head-hunted him for her own private theatre at Brandenbourgh House. He performed in many of her most successful productions, including The Robbers in 1798 and was applauded in the press. Surely John and Elizabeth Maddocks must have attended these productions. (5)
When John Edward Maddocks died on 6th March 1806 his daughters were left as orphans. It was a shocking death, as Maddocks gambled away his fortune at Watier's club in London and then cut his own throat. After his death, Mount Mascall had to be sold to pay his debts and the girls were left homeless. (9)
Their uncle Lord Craven was appointed as one of their guardians, and their aunt Maria's husband, Lord Sefton, was appointed as the other. Charlotte and Eliza went to live with the Seftons, whose two eldest daughters, Lady Georgiana and Lady Maria Molyneux (born 1792 and 1795) were happily close to them in age. The Seftons were wealthy, owning a large house in London as well as a mansion in Lancashire, so they could comfortably accommodate two more girls along with their own ever-increasing family.
As Lady Sefton was a patroness of Almacks, there was nobody better placed to bring out the two Maddocks sisters when they reached marriageable age. In February 1813, the younger one, Eliza Maria, aged eighteen, became engaged to Edward Berens Blackburn, a lawyer. The news was quickly passed on to the Margravine, who wrote to a friend, "I have a granddaughter Eliza Madocks, going to be married to a Mr Blackburn" and wondered if she would soon be a great-grandmother "an even greater curiosity". (10)
The pair were very happy and led a busy life in London society. Eliza's aunt Georgiana Craven wrote in her diary, "I now live totally out of the world and Mrs Blackburn very naturally lives a great deal in it – Gifted with an amazing flow of spirits she has every reason to enjoy it." (11)
Charlotte remained with her aunt, or with the family of Lord Craven, at whose home she met and - if her aunt Georgiana is to be believed - fell in love with Captain Brunton, brother of the earl's wife. Either he did not return her feelings, or they could not afford to marry, and in February 1820 he was sent to the East Indies. So she remained single as the years passed.
Edward Blackburn's career as a barrister went so well that by 1823 he was appointed to a post of Commissioner for Justice with the Admiralty. The only drawback was that the post was in Mauritius. Eliza was rather dismayed. From Mayfair to Mauritius was quite a hop. How would the long journey, conditions and foreign clime affect their five children? However the prospect of promotion could not be turned down. Like her aunt Arabella before her, Eliza decided to follow her husband around the world. (12)
At first the plan was for them to take Eliza's sister Charlotte too, which suggests that she was living with them. However, Charlotte changed her plans and surprised her family by becoming engaged, at the age of thirty, to a Mr Edward Smythe Owen of Condover near Shrewsbury. The marriage took place in January 1824, her aunt Georgiana commenting that Charlotte was very lucky. She was indeed fortunate as Edward Smythe Owen, who was Charlotte's own age, inherited Condover Hall in Shropshire, one of the finest Elizabethan houses in England. His family had owned it since 1586. (13)
The house was supposed to be haunted and there was a legend of a family curse that pursued every heir of Condover Hall. It is true that Charlotte and her husband seem to have had no children, as on his death in 1863 the estate passed to a cousin, but this may have been because she was somewhat older than most brides when she married. (14)
In January 1824 the Blackburns set off for Mauritius. Aunt Georgiana wrote, "Poor Mr Blackburn came to take leave of me. They sail on the 20th. He was most amazingly agitated. I never saw a man detest a thing so much." A few months later they landed safely at Port Louis in Mauritius with their five children - two boys, three girls - and a nursemaid. Edward prospered and became a Chief Justice by 1826, but Eliza wrote to her aunt that the conditions there were terrible. It was politically unstable, with many hazards. One girl at least seems to have died as no more is heard of "Miss G. Blackburn". (16) In July 1829 Eliza and two of her children came back to England, on account of her health. But in June 1830 she got news that another of her children had died in Mauritius, and in 1831 she returned there, alone, leaving her son and daughter in the care of the Seftons. (17)
In her absence, Blackburn had become mixed up in some dodgy dealings. The British had officially abolished the slave trade but in 1828 it was discovered that slavery was still going on surreptitiously in Mauritius. Blackburn resorted to some ruse that was judged to be fraud, to buy an estate there, a sugar plantation, which he named Mount Mascall, after his wife’s family home in Kent. It relied on slave labour and was very lucrative. He was found out and prosecution ensued. To make matters worse, in June 1832, the Blackburns' eldest daughter, another Eliza, aged seventeen, eloped with a man called Vaughan, one of his partners in the plantation deal. Vaughan was penniless and her father, furious, allotted them a pittance to live on, so long as they remained in France or Italy and never returned to England. Only a year or so later, Mr Vaughan died leaving his young wife with a child. (18)
The Blackburns' other daughter Charlotte had been left in England, in the care of the Seftons, but she too was unlucky. When exploring the ruins of Kenilworth Castle with her brother, she fell from a height of thirty three feet, breaking her collar bone & four ribs. Nasty though this accident was, it proves she had the adventurous spirit of her Craven great-grandmother. (19)
Things in Mauritius were in a bad state altogether, with uprisings, power struggles between the British and the French, accusations of corruption and general anarchy. So in 1835 the Blackburns returned to England and they both died at his home in Alnwick, Northumberland in 1839, Eliza outliving her husband by only a few months. It would be interesting to know if the Justice Blackburn, Mr Peter Blackburn MP and Miss Blackburn living together Kensington in 1863 were their children. (20)
It is possible that in the miniature portrait, Charlotte Smythe Owen is in mourning for Eliza and Edward Blackburn. Her costume seems to fit the early Victorian period. The Smythe Owens lived to a peaceful old age, staunchly supporting charitable causes such as the Shropshire Infirmary, of which Edward Smythe Owen was Treasurer. (21)
Condover Hall is still standing, and it is now an Activity Centre.
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