In which we delve into the marriage of the second daughter of Thomas Meriton and Sarah Wilkinson (leaving for much later the oldest daughter and her husband Apsley Pellatt 3). Mary’s husband, George Hutton, turns out to be quite wealthy, with an interesting background. Their daughter’s marriages yield some interesting and sometimes amusing stories, while her three children have proved impossible to trace beyond their christenings.
Marriage to George Hutton: Mary Meriton (after 1740-1761) married George Hutton ( – bef 1807), Batchelor at St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey on 24 March 1761. Mary was a Minor, marrying with parental permission. The witnesses were her father, Thomas Meriton and Apsley Pellatt, presumably her brother-in-law, married to older sister Sarah. Mary signed the Register in a very neat hand.
She and George had just one known child. I surmise that Sarah Charlotte Hutton was born around 1766, or before, since that is the year Mary died, buried age 26 in ‘Mrs Merriton Vault, Churchyard’, St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey. I have not found a Baptism for Sarah Charlotte; perhaps Mary died in or after childbirth with her – or not.
We pause a moment to look at the very long, rather tedious, but quite interesting Will of George Hutton. On Monday 6 July 1807, the Hampshire Chronicle reported ‘At Deptford, near London, where he had realized about 20.000l [£], whilst master of an academy there, George Hutton, Esquire, who has bequeathed the greatest part of his property to Kings College Aberdeen, where he received his education’. On 7 July The Sun in London added that George was ‘uncle to the Rev. Dr. Lloyd Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge, and Minister of St. James’s Chapel, Leith.’
Having attempted to plough my way through the very very many pages of George’s Will and Codicils, I have been rescued by a piece in the Belfast Newsletter, 3 November 1807, titled ‘George Hutton, Esq. of Deptford’. The text reads as follows:
The late Mr. Hutton, who kept an academy in Deptford, was educated at King’s College. in the University of Aberdeen. To his last will, in which he left an annuity to his wife, a sum to his only daughter, Mrs. Mackie (the widow of a naval officer), and sundry legacies, he added a codicil, bequeathing all the remainder of his estate to his executors…in trust for the following beneficent purpose. To establish a number of Burses or Scholarships in the King’s College, Old Aberdeen, which shall be assigned to students, by the Principal and Regents, or Professors of the College. [The following six paragraphs describe how this system should work…in great detail! But the final paragraph carries a punch…] The Will and two codicils have been regularly proved at Doctor’s Commons. But we learn that there is a doubt whether this testamentary disposition of his real estate is legal, and whether the will can be carried into execution. If not, the whole will go to his widow, and Mrs. Mackie, of Camberwell, his only daughter.
George’s Will? W e find an answer to the outcome of this conundrum in the following text copied from https://www.electricscotland.com/history/statistical/kings.htm New Statistical Account of Scotland (1845)
Volume XII – Aberdeen. Account of the University and King’s College of Aberdeen, Drawn up by William Gregory, M. D., Professor of Medicine and Chemistry in King’s College, Aberdeen.
21. Hutton’s Bursaries.— Founded in 1801 by Mr George Hutton of Woolwich, who left a large amount of property, both landed and personal, for the support of forty-eight bursars. The act of mortmain defeated his intentions as to his real property, and the College at last only received the residue of the personal estate amounting to about L.5000, 3 per cent. red. ann., and yielding a revenue of about L.153. On this fund there are now four bursars at L. 18, and four at L. 16; and L. 15 are annually given by competition under the name of the Huttonian prize. In the amount of the bursaries and the arrangement of the prize, the College has adhered as closely as possible to the intentions of Dr Hutton. Patrons the Senatus.
Mortmain? And so, it would appear that George’s wishes were thwarted in part through legal dispute as to disbursement of his real estate. To explore further, we need to look at events surrounding his daughter, Sarah Charlotte Hutton. As noted in George’s Will, she was the widow of Thomas Mackie. They had married at St Nicholas Deptford on 22 March 1787. Witnesses were Elizabeth Kerr and Margaret Lloyd (no doubt related to the Rev Lloyd mentioned above). They appear to have had three children, baptised at St Nicholas Deptford and the latter two at St Paul, Deptford: Mary Ann Hutton Mackie (1787 -); George Squire Mackie (1789 -); and Charlotte Hutton Mackie (1792 -1794). George’s baptism notes that his father was Thomas Mackie, Purser in the Royal Navy. There is a burial record for Charlotte Hutton Mackie on findmypast – on 22 March, 1794, at St Paul, Deptford, but I cannot find burial records for the other two children.
The note above appears to state that the ‘real’ property of George Hutton came under dispute, and, indeed, we find that on 15 December 1809, the Public Ledger and Daily Advert published a note of ‘Freehold and Leasehold Estates at Deptford to be peremptorily Sold’, pursuant to a decree at the High Court of Chancery in a Cause, Curtis, Bart., v Monkton, Esq. Who are they?
Baronet Curtis was an Executor of George Hutton’s Will, and ‘Monkton’ was John Monkton, R.N., who on 10 September 1807, just two months after her father’s death, had married Sarah Charlotte, nee Hutton, widow of Thomas Mackie. Clearly Mr Monkton, then a Captain in the Royal Navy, thought he should profit from his new wife’s legacy. The property for sale was considerable, comprising of George Hutton’s school premises, courtyard, and numerous other properties at the heart of Deptford. The notice of the sale included a number of sources of further information, including one Mr. Sudlow, of Monument, who was none other than John James Joseph Sudlow, whom you can read all about in my blogpost number 32.
John Monkton had had a distinguished, but also flawed, naval career, which you can read all about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Monkton He had four children by his first wife, and no children by Sarah Charlotte, his second, who sadly died in 1811, making no mention of surviving Mackie children in her Will, perhaps indicating that all three had died in childhood. John Monkton was to marry again, having already retiring to Dorset, where Sarah Charlotte was buried, in Burstock . He eventually died in France, and I will end this post with an extract from his Will, written on 10 June 1826 in Havre, France, as the then superannuated Rear Admiral. After assigning his then wife as his Executor, he penned the following:
‘I forgive to my [heart?] all my children for their ill treatment to me during my life time, for my kind treatment to them. As to my daughter Charlotte Winslow I have nothing whatever to say against her respecting myself and I forgive her husband which has so completely robbed me of my property which papers I shall leave to testify my assertion now particularly his Bill and charges when he received my dear wife’s money …I recommend to my dear wife to forgive my children for all their faults and to show to them my kindness for the love and regard she has ever had for me…’
Oh dear! Clearly a man to whom property and money had proved an issue over the years. I will leave them there, and turn in the next post to more Meriton descendants.
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