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Charlotte de Humboldt née Carter

Park House, Lower Street, Deal
Stamp Office, Somerset House, London
Dover Road, Walmer

Occupation: Wife, Mother, Stamp Office Housekeeper & Poet

Charlotte de Humboldt, née Carter

Charlotte de Humboldt, née Carter, was the daughter of John Carter and his third wife Ann Powell who married by license in St. Mary’s Church, Ealing on February, 10, 1786. John was then a twice widowed sixty two year old from Deal, and Ann a thirty five year old spinster from Wingham. 

Ann’s parents, James and Ann, née Toker, had married by licence in Canterbury in 1737 after which they returned to Wingham, where James was the licensee of The Red Lion public house. The Red Lion, now a private house, still stands right on the corner of High Street and Canterbury Road. Its size meant it was ideally suited to hold Inquests and Petty Sessions. 

Former The Red Lion

As a local magistrate John presided over the Petty Sessions cases heard at Wingham, so it seems logical to assume that it was during these sessions that he became acquainted with Ann. He had also, through Frances Underdown his first wife, inherited Lower Wenderton Farm with its 62 acres of land near to Wingham. This farm was leased to the Hollingsbery family and formed the Marriage Settlement, made between John Carter and Ann Powell just prior to their marriage. 

No baptism record for Charlotte has been found so we have no definitive idea as to when or where she was actually born but other surviving records suggest a birth year of 1785. Charlotte had two siblings Hannah, who we know was born in Deal in 1788, and Frances, their half sister who, like Charlotte, we have not found a baptism record for, but we believe  she was born in 1776 the year before her mother, Charlotte Rawlings, died.

All three girls would have spent a lot of their time at their fathers residence of Park House on Deal’s Lower (now High) Street, which was described at its sale in 1846, as a ‘capacious family residence with a dining room, a library, and drawing rooms.  Numerous airy bedrooms were reached by a double staircase. There was a spacious kitchen for the cook and her staff, sculleries and for the housekeeper her own room, a butler’s pantry and cellars. Every other domestic convenience was provided for. Outside there were gardens and for the gardener the necessary sheds and outbuildings.’ 

Elizabeth Carter
by Sir Thomas Lawrence National Portrait Gallery

Through a letter to Hannah, from their famous Aunt Elizabeth, we know that the garden had a greenhouse “…How have your plants stood the last severe frost…” she asked in January 1802 “…I hope your papa has granted you a little snug corner in his greenhouse to keep them alive…” 

Quite what the house actually looked like we can only imagine. It may, by the time the Carter family were living there, have been nearly two hundred years old. Hasted, in his ‘History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent’ writes in 1800 ‘…Even so late as the year 1624, a house, now belonging to John Carter, esq. on the west side of the Lowerstreet…’ With some alterations and improvements made, it can easily be imagined to have looked something similar to the house known as Queen Ann House on Middle Street.

Queen Anne House, Middle Street, Deal

Where Charlotte and her sisters were educated is not known, and of course they may even have had a governess. Charlotte, at the request of a friend, did write of a poem titled ‘Anniversary Of A School Meeting’ but sadly the poem gives no indication of where the school was situated. 

The sister’s most certainly spent time with their Aunt Elizabeth who lived in nearby South Street. We know that she corresponded with her nieces, though no letters to Charlotte seem to have survived. From another letter to Hannah we know that Charlotte was probably staying with her aunt in London in January 1802 as Elizabeth writes ‘…Be so good to let Matilda know that Charlotte is well…’

In 1810 John Carter died, aged 87, leaving his family well cared for. According to his will, Charlotte and Hannah were placed in the care of their mother until their marriage or until their twenty-fifth birthdays. Charlotte was then to inherit £750 and Hannah £720. Charlotte didn’t have to wait long for her inheritance, as she reached her twenty-fifth birthday at around the same time of her father’s death. We assume a similar sum was settled on Frances at the time of her marriage to army officer James Williamson in 1799. Hannah would have been twenty-five in 1813 but didn’t marry until 1826 when she married George Smith, a Secretary to the Admiralty, in St. Mary Le Strand, London. 

Apart from some smaller bequests, the remainder of John’s estate was left to his wife, Ann, and on her death he instructed it to be divided three ways between his daughters. This included Park House from where Charlotte left to marry Lieutenant Henry de Humboldt of the King’s German Legion, on May 18, 1813.  

Marriage 

The day before, on May 17th, Henry appeared before Reverend Backhouse to sign a Marriage Bond for £200 and pay the licence fee, approximately £30, to enable him to marry Charlotte the following day. 

A Marriage Settlement dated May 13th had already been made and signed by the couple with Charlotte’s brother in law, James Williamson, her cousin Rev. Montagu Pennington and the solicitor John May as trustees.

The wedding party would have drawn a crowd in Deal as they gathered to see Charlotte leaving her childhood home and taken by carriage to marry her dashing officer of the King’s German Legion, in St. Leonard’s Church, Upper Deal.
Who walked Charlotte up the aisle to ‘give her away’ we don’t know but her sister, Hannah, was one of the six witnesses to the marriage, the others were probably friends of the couple and, we assume, Henry’s fellow officers. 

Henry de Humboldt

Henry de Humboldt wearing his Waterloo and the Order of St. Anna 4th class Medals

It seems likely that Henry enlisted in the King’s German Legion, 3rd Dragoons/Hussars in around 1810. He was gazetted in October that year, in other words he was listed in the London Gazette, as being made Cornet. He appeared again in the London Gazette, in November 1812, when he was promoted to Lieutenant. 

Following the invasion of Hanover The King’s German Legion was formed in 1803, with Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge (1774-1850) as commander-in-chief, becoming part of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. It is possible that the twenty year old Henry arrived in England around this time if so there are no records to indicate where he resided or what he was doing before he joined the Legion. We do know that Henry’s regiment had been in the Canterbury and nearby Coastal areas from at least 1812 so it is most likely that the young couple met in Kent.

But who was he? His daughter’s baptism record states that he was the ‘only son of Baron Von Humboldt of Breslau, Scweidnitz in Silesia.’

In the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, by R. Avé-Lallemant, J.V. Carus, there is a family tree that shows Henry to be the ‘adopted’ son of Major Johan Georg von Humboldt of Schweidnitz (1752-1836) and his wife Reichsfreiin von Buttlar with whom he had a daughter Johanne Freidricke who was born in 1801. 

Johann Georg von Humboldt was born in Lepon, near Grodno Lithuania in 1752,  later becoming  a major in the Miners’ Corps in 1807 and Vice-commandant in Schweidnitz, he died in Schurgast, Prussia in 1836, at the age of 85. His father, also Johann Georg von Humboldt, had studied in Frankfurt at the same time as Prince Sappieha from Lithuania, after having an affair with the daughter of a pastor led to him having to leave his family and home. The Prince it seems offered him refuge in Lithuania where he gave Johann Georg the Lepon estate near Grodno.

Alexander von Humboldt was a famous naturalist and explorer and it is tantalising to believe that Charlotte may have met him. She obviously knew of him as she composed and dedicated a poem to him, written in French and dated 1835. However, by sharing the same surname with a man so widely reported on at the time it is no wonder she showed an interest.

 On August 12, 1812 the King’s German Legion 3rd Hussars took part in the Prince Regent’s birthday celebrations with the firing of a salute and feux de joie’. They, with several other regiments who were quartered with them at Hythe, amounting to nearly 2,000 men, marched to Canterbury to present this ‘….very gratifying spectacle, to a numerous assemblage of visitors…’

By September 1812 the 3rd Hussars were under orders of readiness for foreign service which the newspapers suppose to be North of Germany. On Sunday, 13, June, 1813, Ramsgate saw two troops of the German Legion march in from Deal.

in Hythe

Henry was with the German Legion in North Germany and the Netherlands between 1813 and 1814. He took part in the Battle of the Göhrde
on 16 September 1813 where he was slightly wounded.
The British Army Muster Book and Pay Lists dated 25 March 1815, tell us that Henry had a civilian servant. Who this was or what role he took is not recorded but it is likely that he was either Henry’s personnel attendant, similar to a gentleman’s valet, or his groom.

During the Battle of Waterloo he was made Brevet Captain and awarded the Waterloo Medal and the Order of Saint Ann 4th class.

The Waterloo Medal and the Order of St. Anna 4th class: The Cross was also worn on the pommel of an edged weapon, together with a silver-tasselled sword-knot of the ribbon of the Order. Henry de Humboldt’s Sword would have been the curved sabre of the Hussars.

The History of the King’s German Legion Vol. 2, indicates that Henry retired on Half-Pay  from the army to live in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria in around 1821. It was due to the letter of service under which the Legion was raised in 1803, that Henry and his fellow officers were able to continue receiving half-pay from the British Army; Article 10 states that the “…officers shall be entitled on reduction to an allowance equivalent to British half-pay…” As a rough approximation Henry would have been receiving £600 full pay in 1815. ‘Half-pay’ was paid quarterly and Henry’s was sent to the Royal Bavarian District Court in Aschaffenburg.

The earliest mention to be found of Henry in Aschaffenburg was in the Aschaffenburg Newspaper, dated 19th January 1822,  when he was appointed as an executor to a bequest to help “…the unfortunate Greeks…” Greece at this time was fighting to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire. He continued to regularly appear in the local press taking part in civic life. Why Henry settled in Aschaffenburg is not known but he remained there until his death on December 16 1859.

Married Life

Charlotte and her sister Hannah remained close throughout their lives and when apart they would have regularly communicated by letter. This was the case when Hannah travelled to Paris at the end of April 1814. The temporary fall of Napoleon, with some wanderlust, and her recently acquired inheritance having brought a manner of independence, Hannah travelled with a few friends to Paris. Charlotte perhaps would have liked to have been accompanying her sister but it had only been a month since she had given birth to her daughter, Mary Jane.

Kentish Gazette 11 March 1814

Arriving in Paris on April 29th, Hannah writes her first letter in which she vividly describes her journey. Letters, in even greater detail, were then sent almost daily, telling Charlotte of everything she sees, hears and does, right up until she departs from Paris on 13th May. Not long after her return these letters, along with a concluding description of her journey home, were published under the title ‘Letters from a Lady (Miss Ann Carter.) to her Sister…’

Charlotte probably spent the early years of her marriage living in Park House and it was to be a lonely marriage with Henry initially on active service with his regiment, then later when he settled, alone in Aschaffenburg. Whether Charlotte had intended to join her husband there we simply don’t know. We believe that she was in Deal on Friday 3rd July 1818 when the future Queen Adelaide landed there. Charlotte looks back to the arrival of the then Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningenin a poem in which she writes ~

“…I witness’d they approach to this fair land,
Saw thy foot plant its first step on our strand
While gallant Owen and M’Culloch stood
In proud attendance, sons of the stormy flood,
Guarding thy gentle form from too rude gaze
Of those who loudly shouted forth thy praise!…”

Was Henry there, and with them their young daughter, we will perhaps never know? Without any surviving letters or documentation to say otherwise it seems that Charlotte and Henry permanently separated. What contact, if any, Henry had afterwards with his wife and daughter remains unknown.

Poetry

Perhaps writing and publishing her poetry helped Charlotte overcome her failed marriage and later health problems. She released ‘Corinth, and Other Poems’  in 1821 and the similarly sounding ‘Corinth, a Tragedy: and Other Poems’ in 1838.

The latter includes the dates when most of the individual poems were written.

The earliest dated poem is titled ‘To Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart. On Reading His Story Entitled “Mary De Clifford”’.  Published In 1792 ‘Mary De Clifford’ may have been recommended to Charlotte by her cousin, Rev. Montagu Pennington, who was a friend of Sir Egerton’s. It leads you to wonder what other books were in Charlotte’s possession or in the Park House library. French dramatist Jean-Baptiste Racine, German playwright and poet Friedrich Schiller, along with poet and essayist Joseph Addison are quoted by Charlotte in both ‘Corinth…’ books, as is Shakespeare and Byron.

As a point of interest Sir Edgerton, known as Edward, whose full name was  Samuel Edward Edgerton Brydges, was acquainted with Jane Austen. When Jane visited his sister Harriet Moore, in nearby Goodnestone in 1805  there was confusion over attending a Ball at Deal. The Ball was not attended but if it had been maybe, just maybe, Charlotte could have met the then unknown writer.

Lord Byron, in 1816 had written ‘The Siege of Corinth’ and it has been suggested that his poem was the inspiration for Charlotte’s own. She was obviously an admirer of his work as in 1822 she wrote a poem ‘On Reading Don Juan’ praising Byron throughout. Then, after his death in 1824 she writes of him, in another poem, “…Had he made virtuous aims the poets care, None ever then with Byron could compare…” We assume that Charlotte simply enjoyed his poetry; there is no indication that she was aware of Byron’s scandalous reputation that led him to be described as ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know!’

Somerset House

Following her fathers death it was agreed that all but Park House was to be sold, this brought in a substantial amount of money. Lower Wenderton Farm alone, the small estate settled on Ann Carter before her marriage, was sold for £4,500. It seems strange then that Charlotte, in 1827, took up the position as housekeeper at the Stamp Office in Somerset House. As a woman, now on her own, maybe she felt she needed to be occupied and this position brought the opportunity to be near her sister who either lived in apartments or a house allocated to her husband George Smith, who was a secretary to the Admiralty at Somerset House. There is also the possibility that Mary Jane, then aged thirteen, was at boarding school. George may even have played a part in securing the housekeeper’s post for her as the Navy Office was literally right next door to the Stamp Office.

Somerset House

The House of Commons Finance Report, published in 1832, tells us that Charlotte actually lived in Somerset House where she had part of the second floor above the Stamp Office, and possibly rooms above in the attic. Further details of Charlotte’s place of abode and employment can be found in a report produced by a Select Committee, appointed in 1834, to ‘…consider how far it would be practicable to diminish the Number of Houses and Apartments now occupied by Public Officers and others at the Public Expense without detriment to the Public Service…’ The secretary to the Stamp Office, Charles Pressly, was called to be ‘examined’ on July 3rd and it is from his testimony that we know that he occupied ‘…five rooms on the second floor and seven bedrooms in the attics above…’ When asked “What other residences are there?” Charles replies “The housekeeper resides…in her own apartments…”. So we assume she had a similar or maybe smaller living space to himself. Further questioning reveals that the role of the Stamp Office housekeeper was to “take care of all the office stores; all the women who clean the office and under her direction ; she has custody of the articles…” What these ‘articles’ were is not recorded. Charles is then asked if the housekeeper’s position meant she worked  “…or is she a lady?”  he responded  “She is a lady, but she executes the duties of housekeeper.” Answers to the last question about the housekeeper tell us that her salary was £100 a year and paid by the Government. However, exactly what Charlotte’s own duties were or how many female staff she had the charge of, we have not been able to determine.

The Stamp Office

Stamp Office Floor

The Stamp Office was a noisy and busy place to work. The continuous thud of wooden stamps on ink pads followed by the stamping on the documents or paper would have reverberated around and outside of the building. As Somerset House was situated right on the river bank of the Thames it could also be somewhat odorous, due to the city’s sewage and waste being washed into the river. The lower floors were also liable to flooding right up until the ‘Great Stink’ of 1858 when the river was narrowed, making it run faster and less likely to dry periods at the height of summer. Up until then boats could moor up alongside Somerset House and if the river broke its bank the water and its effluence could reach the lower rooms of Somerset House. The ‘stamping’ of documents was required to prove payment of a tax and during Charlotte’s time this was a laborious business being done manually by hand. Until 1855 stamp duty was also paid on all the country’s newspapers . Every broadsheet page had to be hand stamped before going out to be printed, folded and cut to make the legally required four pages. It was for the convenience of proximity to the stamp office that led to the printing houses setting up in nearby Fleet Street. 

By the time of the Select Committee Report was published Charlotte had actually retired and was perhaps living in Walmer. We know she was living there, with her daughter and their housemaid, Elizabeth Hollanby, when the 1841 census was taken and the tithe schedule, dated 1843, tells us that she was leasing the house from a Mrs Nunn.

In the autumn of 1834 Charlotte travelled with her daughter to Kronberg, a town near Frankfurt in Germany. Mary Jane later published her recollections of the six weeks that they spent there in, ‘Views in Nassau, in the vicinity of Kronberg, from sketches taken in the autumn of 1834’. The reason for this visit she reveals was to restore “…an invalid mother to health…” Charlotte and Mary Jane stayed in the “Frankfurter Hof…a good boarding-house…” in Kronberg from there Mary Jane would walk the surrounding hills and villages which she described and illustrated in her book. Charlotte perhaps took the waters at Kronberg and at nearby Krothal where Mary Jane describes the saline waters as having “…the qualities of the Tunbridge Wells waters, and are efficacious in cases of debility…” The de-Humboldt ladies then, were familiar with Tunbridge Wells and its waters, indeed they were there in September 1837, in all likelihood taking advantage of the Chalybeate Spring waters as well as the fashionable society and the Assembly Balls.

Charlotte and Mary Jane in the company of Hannah and George Smith, attended one such ball while in Tunbridge Wells, at Nash’s Assembly Rooms on the Pantiles where over two hundred of  “…rank and fashion including the nobility and gentry resident and of the neighbourhood…” 

As well as the usually expected dances a variety of new quadrilles and waltzes were performed “…in great spirit …until a late hour…” with music provided by the band from Almacks, one of London’s Assembly Rooms and conducted by Richard Guinness who, until 1816 was a Navy Bandmaster. By 1837 he had also become Musical Director to the Duchess of Kent at Tunbridge Wells. 

‘Corinth a Tragedy; And Other Poems’

It was also in Tunbridge Wells that Charlotte wrote the dedication to her second book in March 1838. ‘Corinth a Tragedy; And Other Poems’ was perhaps started on her return to Walmer and was dedicated to Queen Adelaide. Corinth, the poem from her first book, became a five act tragedy. Published by Longman and Co. it was advertised in many newspapers in 1838 and went on sale at 10s. 

Age London July 8 1838

The poems that follow the five acts of this new Corinth are of a more personal nature. Some are dedicated to or written about friends. There is one dated 1813, written in French, that is clearly about Henry. It is headed by the description 

‘Prussian Officer, Who Told Me The Fatal Consequences Of Napoleon’s Entry Into His Country’

It ends with 

‘May God, supreme and just,
protect your glory!
For me, I will cherish,
forever, your memory.’

Another poem dated 1824 is written to the ten year old Mary Jane 

‘To My Child, On Her Complaining I Had Forgotten To Write Her’

It opens with

‘Forget thee, Mary! Dearest love,
How can I ere forget thee ?
Thou who hast been my heart’s delight,
Whose smiles impart the only light.’

The ‘other poems’ help place where Charlotte was at certain points in time. For instance in 1829 she was in Oxford when Sir (William) Edward Parry, Sir John Franklin and the American Ambassador, James Barbour  received Honorary degrees at the Theatre. 

In her poem she describes the three 

‘…Graceful, arrayed in robes of various dyes
…America’s stern child did foremost stand
The proud ambassador of freedom’s land.
Then stood Parry! Son of enterprise-
Fearless on ocean rude, ‘neath threat’ning skies:’
…his fading cheek his quiv’ring lip betray’d
…Beside him Franklin stood – of sturdy frame,
Whose deeds bespeak him favour’d son of fame:..’

Sir Edward and Sir John were both well known Arctic Explorers of their day. Sir John is perhaps best known for his final expedition in 1845, which led to his own death and disappearance and that of the 24 officers and 110 men who sailed with him. 

Mary Jane, then aged fourteen, wrote about this same event in a letter to her Uncle George’s nephew, George William Smith, who she appears to have had a close friendship with. He was at the time in Malta serving on HMS Ocean. 

During their stay in Oxford, Charlotte and Mary Jane along with Hannah, George and a friend, or maybe a maid, named Emma stayed with Reverend  Philip Wynter DD, the President of St. John’s College, and his wife. Reverend Wynter also subscribed to Charlotte’s second Corinth book. Mary Jane describes Mrs Wynter as very beautiful and angelic looking and an old friend of the family. Mrs Wynter was Harriet Ann, the daughter of Captain Henry Boyle Dean and Eliza Wyborn both of Sholden, near Deal. 

According to Mary Jane’s description of the Encaenia, the honorary degree ceremony, Sir Edward and Sir John were applauded loudly. She goes on to tell George William that the “..young people were free to hiss or clap as they pleased…” at these events which initially frightened her. A prosecutor of Balilol was very unpopular, she said and received “…dreadful hissing, shouting and wailing…” as did the Bishop. 

A few years later, in June 1831, the famous violinist Paginini made his first and only visit to Britain. We don’t know where Charlotte saw him play but it was likely to have been at the Italian Opera House, now known as the Royal Opera House, in Covent Garden, London. This performance she captured in a poem titled ‘On Hearing Paganini’ writing –

‘…That power is music! Whence its birth
It speaks like heaven, it breathes on earth;
Mortals entranced admire here,
Angels to listen quit their sphere.
Say – does it spring from fairy ground?
No – ‘t’ is in Paginini found
…..in him the soul of music dwells,
Not e’en \apollo’s lute could show
The skill of Paginini’s bow. ‘

The Subscribers

Both of Charlotte’s books were published by subscription and the subscriber lists of both these books make for interesting reading. Many are aristocrats, even royalty, but most are, as you would expect, from her own gentry class.There is one glaring omission in both lists, the family name of de Humboldt! 

The First Book Subscribers

This first book is dedicated, by permission, to the Right Honorable Viscountess Anson and the first poem, after Corinth, is titled ‘On Lord Anson.’ Commodore Lord George Anson was the seafaring forebear who voyaged around the world in the 1740s.

There are few individuals who subscribed to both books; most of those first book subscribers are not even from the Deal & Walmer area. What is most noticeable, when you start looking into these subscribers, is how many are related to each other in one way or another. 

For example, at the top of the list are The Right Honorable Lord Viscount Anson and his wife, formerly Louisa Catherine Phillips, each subscribed to six copies; they are followed by seven other members of the Anson family and members of Lady Anson’s Phillips family; The Right Honorable Viscountess Dowager Anson, formerly Anne Margaret Coke, who also took six copies; her father Thomas William Coke, later to become Earl Leicester and four other Coke family members also subscribed; the Honorable Vernon’s, including  Edward Venables Vernon Archbishop of York.

How, or even if, Charlotte was personally acquainted with any of these eminent people, or indeed any of the other subscribers, we will never know. 

The Second Book Subscribers

As we have already said Charlotte dedicates the second Corinth book to ‘Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Adelaide.’ The subscribers list for this edition is much longer and again there are many notable names including three HRH’s, with Queen Adelaide at the top of the list. There are many Deal & Walmer subscribers this time, along with some from Frankfurt and Tunbridge Wells as well as from London, including some of her acquaintances from her time at Somerset House.

There are many notable names too but, as with the first Corinth book we simply don’t know if they were known to Charlotte or were approached by herself or her publisher. Of those we know that Charlotte had a personal connection with were, her brother-in-law Lieutenant Colonel James Williamson and Rev. G.R.M. Clark both of the Chelsea Asylum.

Amongst the Deal & Walmer area subscribers are Rev. Montagu and Mrs Pennington and Rev. J.B. Backhouse, the latter gentleman had, twenty-five years before, performed the marriage ceremony of Charlotte to Henry.

From elsewhere there was a gentleman named Benjamin Hall, MP for Llanover. Charlotte may have formed a friendship if not acquaintance with him and his wife, Augusta. Benjamin Hall, who became Baronet Llanover in August 1838, not only subscribed to Charlotte’s book but, much later Lady Augusta Llanover recommended the artist Charles Auguste Mornewick to Hannah, Charlotte’s sister.    ADD https://familiesofdealandwalmer.co.uk/a-portrait/

The poem  ‘On The Anniversary Of The Meeting Of Welch Bards At Abergavenny, 1837, On Which Occasion A Festival Was Given At Llanover Court, By Benjamin Hall, Esq. MP’ was also written and printed in the second ‘Corinth…’

In 1834, when visiting Kronberg, Mary Jane made an excursion with Professor Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee, which she records in her own book. He too has a poem dedicated to him, by Charlotte, and he subscribes to not only Charlotte’s book but to Mary Jane’s as well. Further evidence of a friendship if not great admiration is found in a musical verse, ‘A Gypsy’s Home’  that mother and daughter composed and dedicated to the professor who taught music in Frankfurt. There are many other subscribers from Frankfurt so it seems that the de Humboldt ladies either stayed there long enough to become well acquainted in society or even that Mary Jane was a pupil of Professor Schynder.

A final subscriber mention should go to John Mercer the solicitor who, in February 1846, Charlotte wrote to query the late payment of her share of the rents from the Chemist Benjamin Hoddy and William Hobday the market gardener who appears to be renting a plot of land, adjoining West Street. She points out the inconvenience of this and goes on to say that Mary Jane will call for the payments in a few days time.

Ann Carter, Charlotte’s mother, had moved to Malta, we think with her youngest daughter and son in law, Hannah and George. In a solicitors notebook held at the Kent Archives it mentions that George and Hannah were “now of Malta.” When they actually were there is not known but we do know that they were all in Deal in 1841 when the census was taken. Ann died in Malta and was buried in 1844. Hannah and George must have returned home soon after. The sisters, as per their fathers will, then inherited what was left of their fathers estate. 

However, at the time there was some legal confusion as John May, the former Carter family solicitor, had ‘become embarrassed in his circumstances’ in 1828 and left England and could not be traced. This led in 1847 to the Court of Chancery as John May, as one of the named trustees on the Marriage Settlement for Charlotte and Henry, had not left instructions to pass on his trusteeship. 

His nephew Thomas May in 1847 stated that he believed that John May was in America; in 1828 a letter postmarked Philadelphia had been sent to a family member but since then no further correspondence had been received. His Uncle was sixty when he left England so given the circumstances the court approved the appointment of Richard King and Thomas May as new trustees. 

Charlotte in July 1846 was then legally able to transfer her third share to her daughter. 

Park House, its adjoining land, tenement and chemist shop were sold for £1,800, in June 1847. Later that year all internal and external fittings were sold off in readiness for demolition to enable the building of the new road of Park Street.

Charlotte would not live to see this. On February 11, 1847 she died in her Walmer home from Ovarian Dropsy, a condition that caused fluid filled cysts. Charlotte did not leave a will so we don’t know what assets or personal items she left to her daughter, though perhaps there was the diamond ring that Jane Curling stole in 1846.

Kentish Gazette 7 July 1846

Her death certificate tells us that Mary Johnson was with her when she died. We don’t know who this lady was; she may have been a local lady employed to help care for Charlotte, a servant, or even a good friend.  We will also perhaps never know if her beloved daughter, Mary Jane, was also there at her mother’s bedside, or if she was spared the sad departing. 

Mary Jane de Humboldt

Atlas 5 September 1840

Mary Jane was a talented artist. In 1840 she had an encouraging piece written about her in the Atlas newspaper. Then of course she illustrated her book ‘Views in Nassau…’  In both cases her sketches were then ‘Drawn on Stone’ by W Walton. Drawing on stone is a way of describing ‘Lithographs.’ Although, as far as we know, none of Mary Jane’s original sketches survive, though many lithographs, from her sketches, some coloured, ‘drawn on stone’ by W. Walton do.

She was also an accomplished musician and in the British Library where we viewed her book ‘Views in Nassau…’ there are two compositions by Mary Jane. The already mentioned  ‘A Gypsy’s Home’ written in 1838 and dedicated to the professor of music in Frankfurt,  Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee. The other, an air, titled ‘The Jew of Antioch’ was composed in 1836. The British Library catalogue description for this piece is The Jew at Antioch. Recitative & air [begins: “Alone upon the ruined wall”] … The words from Carne’s “Syria”. Carne’s Syria refers to ‘Syria, the Holy Land, Asia Minor’ written by John Carne and published in 1836. This book is illustrated by William Purser, Thomas Allom and William Henry Bartlett whose style may have appealed to Mary Jane being very similar to her own.

In April 1847 Mary Jane visited Naples in the company of her Uncle and Aunt. A letter of recommendation was given to George, from Lord Palmerston and addressed to his brother the Minister Plenipotentiary in Naples, William Temple.  

It said

“Sir, This letter will be delivered to you by Mr. George Smith, former Secretary of the Navy Board, who is preparing to visit Naples in the company of Mrs. Carter Smith and her niece M J de Humboldt. I beg you to introduce them to your acquaintance and recommend them to your protection and good offices. I beg you to accept, with all sincerity, the expression of my distinguished greetings, Sir, your very obedient Humble servant Palmerston” 

Where Mary Jane met her future husband, Captain Adjutant Major of the First Artillery Regiment, Auguste Michel Deppe, is not known, but it may have been during or even before her trip to Naples as a copy of her baptism was requested and sent to Ghent, in May 1847. 

 

Perhaps it was from Naples that she travelled to Ghent where she married on June 27, 1847 with uncle George as one of the witnesses present.

Before the marriage could take place various other documents and declarations had first to be obtained including one from the Mayor’s office in Deal, dated May 23 1847.

“We, the undersigned, Mayor and Magistrates of Deal, certify that Miss Mary Jane de Humboldt belongs to a very honorable family of this town, rightly held in high esteem by the inhabitants – and more than that she is herself personally of impeccable character. We also certify that her mother Charlotte de Humboldt receives a pension of one hundred pounds sterling per annum, which ceased at her death but as regards her private fortune, we have the means to certifying its amount. 

George Hammond Mayor and William Watt, Magistrate of Deal …”

Another was from Mary Jane herself declaring that she would never to follow her husband into camps or billets.

A letter or notarial deed was sent testifying to her father, Henry de Humboldt’s  good character and signed by ‘Le Commanderment Superieure’  in Aschaffenburg dated June 10, 1847. 

A further indication of the close ties between Mary Jane and her Uncle and Aunt is that after the sale of Park House and the marriage of Mary Jane, Hannah and George moved to Belgium, setting up home in Malines.

Mary Jane and Auguste were to have four children. Their first, Auguste Charles George was born in 1850 but sadly he died in the following year. Mary Jane was later to suffer three more deaths in quick succession. In January 1856 her last child was both born and died; the following year her Uncle George died, then in 1859 she was to lose her husband to Bronchitis. Mary Jane was then left to bring up her young daughter Marie and son Auguste. 

No doubt Mary Jane and her Aunt Hannah supported each other and remained close until Hannah’s death in 1879. Mary Jane was to survive her aunt by four years dying in Brussels in 1883. 

Mary Jane inherited at least two portraits, by Joseph Highmore, One of her grandfather John Carter, the other of Rev. Nicholas Carter, her great grandfather. These were brought from the family home of Park House in Deal, probably by her Aunt Hannah and Uncle George. Letters, written by Elizabeth Carter to her friend Miss Highmore, the daughter of Joseph Highmore, which Mary Jane must have read, were sent to Deal Town Hall by her Aunt Hannah in 1856 as “…a fitting accompaniment…” to the portrait of Elizabeth Carter already on the Town Hall’s possession. 

                                                                

Mary Jane Deppe née de Humbodlt  &  Auguste Michel Deppe, Captain Adjutant Major of the First Artillery Regiment,

In 1907 an annotation was made to Mary Jane’s marriage certificate ~

 “By judgment of the Court of First Instance sitting in Ghent dated July 10, 1907, it is ordered that the marriage certificate opposite be rectified, in that the wife’s surname “de Humboldt” will be written “von Humboldt”. 

According to a surviving letter written by Auguste Joseph Deppe, Mary Jane’s son, it had been her wish “… to obtain permission to bear, at the same time as my own, her illustrious name…”

Auguste had been in contact with Baron Hans von Humboldt, the surviving head of the family and gained from him an agreement to revive and continue the family name. 

Auguste Joseph Deppe

Mary Jane’s father would have gained the right, by inheritance, to use ‘von’ following his adoptive father’s death in 1836. ‘von’ before a surname denoted the head of a noble family and was inherited via the male line. It was often associated with the title of Baron. By gaining official recognition and use of ‘von’ meant that Auguste had posthumously corrected his mother’s and therefore his own ‘noble’ name and lineage. 

We would like to thank Valérie Van Heer Pleeck for sharing her family tree, images and research with us.

Name Born Baptised Married Died Buried
Charlotte  Carter Abt. 1785 Abt. 1785 Henry de Humboldt
St. Leonard’s Church, Deal
May 18, 1813



Born abt. 1783


Died December 16 1859
Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, Germany
February 11 1847
Walmer
Deal

Children of Charlotte Carter & Henry de Humboldt

Name Born Baptised Married Died Buried
Mary Jane de Humboldt March 9 1814,  Deal April 11, 1814
St. Leonard’s Church, Deal
Auguste Michel Deppe
June 27, 1847
Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium

Born September 23, 1814
Died August 28, 1859

1883 Brussels, Belgium

Census

Year Address Name Relationship Occupation
1841 High Street, Walmer Charlotte de Humboldt Head Independent Means
Mary Jane de Humboldt Daughter
Elizabeth Hollamby Female Servant
Sources and further reading:
Mary de-Clifford. A story. Interspersed with many poems by Brydges, Sir Samuel Egerton, Bart. (1st).
The autobiography, times, opinions, and contemporaries of Sir Egerton Brydges, bart v.1
Greenwich Maritime Museum
‘Corinth, and Other Poems’  by Charlotte de Humboldt
‘Corinth, a Tragedy: and Other Poems’ by Charlotte de Humboldt
Letters from a Lady (Miss Ann Carter.) to her Sister…’
The History of the King’s German Legion Vol 2 by North Ludlow Beamish
The History of the King’s German Legion Vol 2 by North Ludlow Beamish including Letter of Service for King’s German Legion dated 19 December 1803.
Alexander von Humboldt. Eine wissenschaftliche biographie, im verein mit R. Avé-Lallemant, J.V. Carus
Reports from Committees, Volume 11 By Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons
Finance: Accounts, Volume 26 By Great Britain. Parliament. House of commons  1832
https://statutes.org.uk/site/the-statutes/nineteenth-century/1819-60-george-3-1-george-4-c-9-newspaper-and-stamp-duties-act/
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9394
The Guiness Family COMPILED BY Henry Seymour Guinness, member of the Royal Irish Academy and Brian Guinness ARRANGED BY M. GALWEY
https://thenapoleonicwargamer.blogspot.com/2010/08/battle-of-gohrde-16th-september-1813.htmlhttps://www.napoleon-series.org/military-info/organization/Britain/Miscellaneous/BritishStaffPay.pdf
https://kar.kent.ac.uk/85965/1/240181.pdf
https://gw.geneanet.org/valerievanheer?iz=4&lang=fr&n=von+humboldt&oc=0&p=marie+jeanne&type=fiche
Banns, Special Licenses, and Common Licenses in Georgian England  https://www.paullettgolden.com/post/special-license#:~:text=A%20special%20license%20needed%20to,income%20for%20this%20permission%20slip). (blog) by Paullett Golden