Tuesday

Unknown - portrait of Mrs Booth


This miniature portrait is unsigned. The sitter is identified by several notes on the reverse as Mrs Booth (nee Mary Patricia Deze) b. 17 Mar 1776 d. 28 Nov 1868. She was born in Gibraltar and was the mother of Captain Charles O'Hara Booth, who was Commandant of the Port Arthur Penal Colony in Tasmania Australia.

The portrait was framed in Hobart, with a frame-maker's label for Robin Hood of Elizabeth St Hobart as below which was in use in 1838-1840.

Charles Booth's journal is available in a book edited by Dora Heard, but there is no indication that his mother ever traveled to Tasmania. 1006

Later - A kind visitor has supplied quite a lot of information about the family including the following;

Another son, Captain James Richard Booth R.N., also lived in Tasmania for a short while in Oak  Lodge, Richmond.  The Coal River Valley Historical Society Inc operates the house as a local museum.  Please see www.coalriverhistory.org.
the Society has a lot more information about the family.


I have scratched around my notes for the Booths descendants which are far from exhaustive, and the only likely candidate I have for the name on the back of the miniature is
Cyril Herbert Thomas Ilott (1880-1948), son of Herbert James Ilott, M.D., of Bromley, Kent , and Theresa Georgianna, daughter of Charles Ring of Upper Tooting.  Charles Ring married Eliza Sarah Booth, daughter of Mary Patricia Booth nee Deze.

Cyril was a Cambridge medical graduate who practiced in Bromley.


For your records, I just learned from a contact at TMAG that T. J. Lempriere's portrait of Captain Booth and one of his wife, were once the property of a Mr Bernard Walpole, were bequeathed to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.in 1925. I have no ideas as to his relationship with the Booth family.

Later - May 2018 - Another kind visitor has sent me some more about the family as below:

From the detail you have provided I can tell you that Mary Patricia Booth (nee Deze) was my direct ancestor of seven generations - she was my father's, father’s, father’s, father’s, mother’s, mother’s, mother.

I’m in the early stages of my own genealogical research but I can tell you that Mary was the second child of James DezĂ© (c.1740 – 1797), who was a Secretary's Clerk, then Postmaster and later the notable position of Assistant Commissary General of Stores and Provisions of Gibraltar. Her husband, Richard Booth, had moved to Gibraltar as a young man and is recorded as a dockyard carpenter. He joined the Royal Navy as purser of the HMS Surprize, before serving on HMS London during the Napoleonic Wars under Lord Nelson.

Richard and Mary had at least three children at Gibraltar before moving to Basing House ­­-- a Tudor palace and castle in the village of Old Basing near Basingstoke in the English county of Hampshire. There is an article on Basing House here if you are interested: http://www.oldbasing.gov.uk/_UserFiles/Files/Newsletters/OBLPC09%20ISSU.pdf. The couple went on to have six more children - as you note several of their sons went on to have distinguished careers in the Royal Navy.

I don’t know much about Theresa Georgianna Ring that your visitor mentions other than that she was the daughter of Charles Ring and Eliza Sarah Booth as your visitor suggests. I also don’t know the connection with Mr Bernard Walpole.

 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Richard & Mary Booth had 9 children between 1794 & 1816 the 1st 3 in Gibraltar, the 2nd child Charlotte O'Hara Booth was my 3rd great grand aunt as she married my 3rd great Grand uncle Dr Alfred C Barltey.