Author Topic: Naval and Military LAMBERT  (Read 21794 times)

Offline LeanneS

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Re: Naval and Military LAMBERT
« Reply #18 on: Saturday 24 March 12 03:33 GMT (UK) »
Hi

Love both yours and Valda's work. George Robert Lambert (The Combustible Commodore) was my husband's 3rd Great Grandfather.  We have photos of him and his wife Catherine should you be interested.  Do you know about the Australian connection? Admiral George Robert was granted land in South Australia which he gave to his son Captain George Robert Lambert (Royal Navy).  He died in South Australia in 1875.

Leanne

Offline ThamesDitton

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Re: Naval and Military LAMBERT
« Reply #19 on: Saturday 24 March 12 09:10 GMT (UK) »
That's terrific.  I would love photos of George Robert Lambert and family - I will pm you with my email address.

I did not know about that particular Australian connection and would be fascinated by that too.  I do know about Adm. George Robert 'Combustible' Lambert's son Rowley Lambert, who also became an Admiral, with connections to Australia when as Commodore he commanded the Australia Squadron, and where Commodore's Point is named after him (see The Commodore and The Pastoralist, Tony Dawson, pub. 2011 by Manly, Warringah & Pittwater Historical Society Inc

Most grateful for particulars of George's son George and his land grant etc.  You may be interested in drawings of Weston House, the main seat of the family around Thames Ditton (Weston Green) which George Robert Lambert (later Adm) occupied for a few years in the early 1840s (ownership having passed from his eldest brother Adm Robert Stuart Lambert to the next brother, Gen. Sir John Lambert, who himself was living in the rented Newlands at the time opposite to Weston House - tithe maps).

I have just started to serialize the Lamberts in our local quarterly magazine.  Although space constraints mean I have to leave a lot out, the first episode is in the issue that can be downloaded here: http://residents-association.com/tdt_pdfs/spring2012.pdf

The Combustible Commodore is scheduled for the Autumn issue.... so your post is very timely!

I have also started to look through the diaries of Catherine Lambert nee Byndloss, who married Capt Robert Alexander Lambert as you see from the a/m article which introduces the Lamberts.  They are in the Surrey History Centre, but are small and handwritten with most entries being about dinner!  I have managed only four of the thirteen or so, so far.  That took a whole day!

pm on its way immediately

Offline ThamesDitton

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Re: Naval and Military LAMBERT
« Reply #20 on: Thursday 05 April 12 08:44 BST (UK) »
You may recall that I found it difficult to pinpoint Capt Robert Alexander Lambert's career after 1780.  I think I have now resolved that, and the story might be of some use to others.

The only clue I had was from his wife's obituary, which referred to him as "a Commissioner in the Navy."  But I could find no confirmation in the several source and academic documents that list Commissioners.  He was not senior enough to be a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty.  There were also senior men of commissioner rank who supervised dockyards on home postings, and who were engaged in other naval bodies such as the Victualling Board.  He is not cited among any of them.

Latterly I have been in touch with the College of Arms concerning the Lambert heraldry (dating from his grandfather Sir John Lambert, Bt 1711, of the South Sea Company), and their records too have him as "A Commissioner in the Navy."

His wife's (incomplete) diaries, which I am toiling through in the Surrey History Centre, show that on 11 September 1782 he sailed from Spithead in the Proserpine.  Other sources do not list him as in command of that vessel and he must have been on passage.  The 1783 diary is missing, but that from 1784 records her receiving several letters from "Dear Capt. L" who is in Jamaica (Jamaica and its plantations being a recurrent theme with Lambert and his wife Catherine who was from the Byndloss plantocracy).  He returns to London from Jamaica on 19 April 1784.

I have lately discovered the various volumes of Biographia Navalis (Charnock, 1798) which are downloadable free online.  In Vol VI there is an entry for Robert Lambert.  It seems to contain a number of errors/omissions  concerning his ships (this conclusion is based on other records including the Admiralty service record of his eldest son who was with him on two of them from the age of eight ).  The online 'seadogs' project also notes of the Biographia that it is  "known to be prone to factual error and contradictions"

However the last part of the entry for Robert [Alexander] Lambert reads: "In 1782 he was appointed a commissioner of the navy resident at Jamaica, it being thought necessary, in consequence of the very extensive naval armament then employed in that quarter, to establish a civil department to superintend the partial repairs, and refitment of ships, in order to lessen, in some degree, the care and labour of the commander-in-chief. Peace taking place very soon after this time, the newly erected office just-mentioned, was suppressed, and Capt. Lambert retired on a pension of £250. per annum, as a superannuated commissioner of the Navy."  This seems to resolve the mystery; fits with the diary; and as the post was in Jamaica accounts perhaps for his omission from academic material concerning commissioners in the UK. 

There were other ports e.g. Mahon where I believe there were navy commissioners i/c the dockyard.  So if you happen to be mystified about one of them not being listed here,......

I know from the diaries that on return to London, Capt. L visited the Admiralty Board several times in 1784 and I will be toiling through later diaries with interest.

Offline ThamesDitton

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Re: Naval and Military LAMBERT
« Reply #21 on: Sunday 08 April 12 22:27 BST (UK) »

There is a PCC will for a Robert Lambert in Marylebone but if the same burial it would not have been probated straight away (there are other Robert Lambert PCC wills).

Will of Robert Lambert of Saint Marylebone , Middlesex
3rd January 1806
PROB 11/1437

This is the one - I now have it.  Capt. Robert Alexander Lambert

(Still don't have a definite date of death though.)


Offline GrahamSimons

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Re: Naval and Military LAMBERT
« Reply #22 on: Monday 09 April 12 10:44 BST (UK) »
There are other naval biographical collections that may be worth a look - see here for example. The Navy List may just be a bit too late for you, although it included officers on half pay.

http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/UKRNPersonnel.html
Simons Barrett Jaffray Waugh Langdale Heugh Meade Garnsey Evans Vazie Mountcure Glascodine Parish Peard Smart Dobbie Sinclair....
in Stirlingshire, Roxburghshire; Bucks; Devon; Somerset; Northumberland; Carmarthenshire; Glamorgan

Offline ThamesDitton

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Re: Naval and Military LAMBERT
« Reply #23 on: Monday 09 April 12 12:06 BST (UK) »
http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/UKRNPersonnel.html
Bookmarked, thanks.

Meanwhile, deciphering the will, Robert [Alexander] Lambert set his hand and seal to it on 16 March 1805:
I the said Robert Lambert the Testator have to this my last Will and Testament contained in two sheets of paper to the first sheet thereof set my hand and to this second and last sheet my hand and seal this sixteenth day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and five

A short codicil was added to it on the deposition of two others on 2 January 1806 before it was proved a day later. 

That narrows down the date of his death to between those dates and not, as the DNB entry on his son Henry gives it, 1801 nor, as the DNB entry on his son John Lambert gives it, 1810.  The Peerage gives it as 21 December 1801.

His main address ( leasehold) and also the one mentioned in the will is Hinde Street Middlesex (parish of St Marylebone); he also had another house in nearby Cavendish Sq, and a house at Brighton.

All somewhat confusing!

Offline ThamesDitton

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Re: Naval and Military LAMBERT
« Reply #24 on: Thursday 12 April 12 21:43 BST (UK) »
The Gentleman's Magazine Vol 75, Part 2 1805 Obituaries p 1241

Dec
21.  In Hinde-street, Manchester Square, in his 74th year, Robert Lambert, esq. a commissioner of the Royal Navy

Which fits.

Offline ThamesDitton

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Re: Naval and Military LAMBERT
« Reply #25 on: Wednesday 20 June 12 09:18 BST (UK) »
Now trying to nail down Lydia Lambert the youngest daughter of Capt. Robert Alexander Lambert RN x Catherine nee Byndloss.

From an entry in Catherine's diary  celebrating Lydia's birthday Lydia's date of birth was 7 March 1791 

From the will of Lydia's eldest brother Admiral Robert Stuart Lambert  she married Frederic Mortan.  The handwriting looks like 'Mostan' but I found no trace of Mostan and other documents suggested Mortan.

From records I have:
Lydia Eliza Lambert married Frederick  Mortan  License date: 26 Oct 1827
Dual date: 26 Oct 1827 Faculty Office Marriage Licence Allegations 1701-1850

London Civil records death of Lydia Eliza Mortan  regd. Marylebone
last quarter of 1869

and death of Frederic Mortan aged 90 regd. in the first quarter of 1887 Marylebone

Mortan appears to have been a merchant dealing with the West Indies trade

I don't otherwise have birth details of Lydia (likely to be St Marylebone too) or Morton  nor have I found any children of theirs.  Any hits would be most welcome, thanks.


Offline Valda

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Re: Naval and Military LAMBERT
« Reply #26 on: Wednesday 20 June 12 18:59 BST (UK) »
Hi

1841 Census HO107 1071 Bk9 folio 33
Weston Grove Thames Ditton
Entry just below Sir John Lambert and family
Frederick Mortan 45 Ind
Lydia Mortan 45 Ind
Caroline Mortan 11
None born in county
Plus 9 servants

1851 Census Ho107 1487 folio 235
18 Beaumont Street Marylebone
Frederic Mortan 53 Head Married Agent West Indies Stow Gloucestershire
L. E. Mortan 56 Wife Married St George Hanover Square Middlesex
Plus 1 visitor and 4 servants

1861 Census RG9 71 folio 84
18 Beaumont Street St Mary Marylebone
Frederic Mortan 63 Head Married  W I Agent Stowe Gloucestershire
Lydia Mortan 69 Wife Married St Gorge Hanover Square
Plus 4 servants

12th December 1829 St Mary  born 11th December
Caroline Lambert Mortan parents Fredeic and Lydia Eliza, 18 Beaumont Street, father's occupation Esq

Caroline's death was registered in Marylebone in 1846. Buried 26th December Kensal Green Cemetery aged 17 of 18 Beaumont Street St Mary Marylebone.

Lydia died 23rd December 1869 of Beaumont Street will proved 17th January 1870. Frederic died 3rd February 1887 of Beaumont Street. The executor to his will proved 16th April was Robert Lambert of Weston Green Thames Ditton, gentleman.


Regards

Valda

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