The ‘Queen’s Bounty.’

[Iain...]

Good morning All…
I know I should have posted this as a military thread but there’s an aspect that might not be dealt with there; and that’s the ‘Queen’s Bounty.’ 

My Regiment the Scots Guards (3rd Regiment of Foot Guards) was one of the 3
regiments that garrisoned the Waterloo chateau-farm of Hougoumont on the 18th of June
1815.
Before the battle, one of the Guardsmen was a man called George Osbourne who apparently married a girl in the nearby village of Enghien on the 23rd of April 1815.
I do not know if she was Belgian or British because I do not have her name.
And this is my research…, to find her name.

As was traditional with many British battles, the wives often followed their husbands and on the morning of the 17th of June 1815, Mrs Osborne followed the regiment to Quatre Bras for the first battle; that afternoon, she then moved on with the regiment to Waterloo and found herself on the ridge that evening by 19h00.   The 3 Light Companies were then moved down to the farm at 19h30 and spent the night loopholling the walls.

It’s not clear if she moved into the farm or if she was ordered off to the rear, but during the battle, she was wounded and when she arrived in England, she received the honour of  the ‘Queen’s Bounty.’
Because I do not have her name, I'm unable to find details about her honour…, nor can I research the Belgian BDM archives just in case she was born in the region.   

Any guidance would be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.   
Kind Regards…, Iain.


PS  RHQ Wellington Barracks can’t help…
http://www.napoleonicwarsforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=2961

[philipsearching]

Before the battle, one of the Guardsmen was a man called George Osbourne who apparently married a girl in the nearby village of Enghien on the 23rd of April 1815.
I do not know if she was Belgian or British because I do not have her name.
And this is my research…, to find her name.

This website may have a helpful link: http://www.enghien-edingen.be/fr

If there isn't an e-mail contact for the church or civil registration there is one for the local library who might be able to advise you where to search: bibliotheque@enghien-edingen.be

Hope this helps
Philip

[jbml]

As was traditional with many British battles, the wives often followed their husbands and on the morning of the 17th of June 1815, Mrs Osborne followed the regiment to Quatre Bras for the first battle

She'd have been a bit late ... the battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras were fought on 16 June 1815

[Rena]

I've had a look at the google map and see there's a Catholic Church/Eglise on the main road of Enghien

Eglise Saint-Martin, Rue du Village 42, 7850 Enghien, Belgium

...  and there are another two Catholic Eglises in close proximity.  The website links given for the church websites are useless as you'd need to know an email contact address plus the age of the church to make sure it was in existence during the relevant period. 

This webpage gives a list of churches where you can see there are several churches with addresses in Enghein (and for rasons unknown some have an address of Enghein-Silly, Unfortunately I couldn't make out which diocese the village churches belonged to nor which archives also have copies of the local church records:

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01juy/

I followed one Enghein church link and was interested to see that there's a Facebook \parish Church page which has a facilities to make contact|:-

 https://www.facebook.com/pg/egliseinfo.be/about/?ref=page_internal

Good luck.

[Iain...]

Philip and Rena…, thank you both very much for your positive replies; research and interesting URLs.

In fact, I live only a few miles from Waterloo and my daughter built a house at Plancenoit…, as such, I’m probably around the farm and the region more often than the Guides.   
In the meantime, with half of my genealogy being that of my wife, I’m a club-member of http://wallonia-asbl.be/actes/index.php : 
This allows access to all BDMs south of Enghein with all certificates being free thanks to a yearly subscription of about £30. (unlike the UK)   
Unfortunately, Enghein is just ‘over the border’ and as such, a friend of mine has put out a request on their website for information.   Still waiting !

In the meantime, Enghein is not really my problem…   
It’s the ‘Queen’s Bounty’ that interests me.   Even Wikipedia doesn’t mention it except for Queen Anne in 1704; a century before the battle.

Whether Mrs. Osborne was Belgian or British is unimportant, the fact that she received a ‘mysterious’ British honour; it must be indicated somewhere ! 

If I was able to consult the British Archives with a ‘valid’ title for such a post-Waterloo decoration, then I’d be half way there.
Unfortunately…

Kind Regards…, Iain.   

[Rena]

If you look back in time you will find that every Queen either built a hospital for wounded servants of the Crown. or set up trusts for pensions (bounties) for other worthy causes e.g.

1) for rank and file soldiers (Chelsea Hospital/Chelsea Pensioners who wore red uniforms)which I believe was set up by Queen Mary consort of William III,  and

2) for sailors (Greenwich Hospital/Greenwich pensioners who wore green uniforms) and/or

3) donated money and set up a trust for some good causes such as Queen Anne's Bounty for destitute clergy, their widows and their families.

4) Queen Victoria's Bounty was set up for mothers who gve birth to living triplets/quads

She obviously received some form of pension. Was she widowed.  In those days a wife took her husband's nationality, thus she was a British citizen, but she'd have to provide proof of marriage.I'm wondering if the beaurocrats had difficulty in processing her claim and they decided she was entitled to a war pension from the Office of the Queens Bounty.

Sorry I can't be of more help.  Hopefully somebody else can point yu in the right direction

[Iain...]

Thank you Rena…, you are a hive of information.

I don’t quite like admitting it but I didn’t relate the word bounty to pensions. 

And it got even more confusing when we take into consideration that there was no Queen in 1815. (from 1760 to 1830 we had George the third and fourth)
As such, the Queen’s Bounty could only relate to the ‘last’ Queen who was Anne – House of Stuart; 1702-1714.
So it would have been the ‘Queen Ann’s Bounty’!
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C240
http://www.thesocialhistorian.com/the-queens-bounty/

Thank you again Rena. 
Kind ReGuards…, Iain.
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/o7dyzzs5ih8niq4/AAC6g4k932bIoFowIJ1RLTwFa

[Iain...]

Hi All…
I am no lover of this type of book so I don’t particularly want to read it.

Is there by any chance someone here who knows the story "A Novel without a Hero'?  Could Amelia Sedley (below) have been the Queen Anne’s Bounty recipient ?
As for George Osbourne, I have found his particulars in relation to a Waterloo Medal.
2nd Battalion 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards. (Light Company at Hougoumont-Waterloo)
Unfortunately, despite having the Companys' Returns (principally used for salaries) he’s nowhere to be seen among the dead.

Kind Regards…, Iain. 


Thackeray's Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) was born in Calcutta to Anglo-Indian parents. He came to Britain in 1817 to attend school and then spent two years at Cambridge. Thackeray studied art before turning to writing as a living. He began to make his reputation in the 1840s through his writings for Punch. Vanity Fair was his first major novel.
A novel without a hero
First published in monthly parts over 1847–8, and then as a single volume in 1848, Vanity Fair: a novel without a hero, traces the interwoven destinies of two very different heroines during the period of Waterloo and its aftermath. The orphaned Becky Sharp is resourceful and socially ambitious, whilst her school friend Amelia Sedley is trusting and unworldly. As the war clouds gather, the main characters move with their soldier husbands and the British army to Brussels. George Osborne, Amelia’s husband dies in the Battle of Waterloo, although we learn nothing more about his death. The novel is filled with references to the battle, yet the action remains off-stage. Thackeray had created a novel without a hero, leaving readers to provide their own interpretation of the action.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/wellington-and-waterloo/0/steps/24877

[Rena]

Have you tried this avenue to see if there are any surviving records of your lady?

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CAM

Church Commissioners administers of "Queen Anne's Bounty"

Queen Anne's Bounty. A fund established by Queen Anne in 1704. She surrendered her revenues from first fruits and tenths to the fund, which was to be used for the benefit of poorer beneficed clergy. In the 19th century the fund also received parliamentary wants and private donations. In 1948 the administration of the fund passed to the Church Commissioners.

First fruits and tenths were payments made to the Pope by beneficed clergymen. In 1534 in England these were acquired by the King under Act. Various exemptions were made in 1535, 1536, 1558, 1706 and 1707. In 1703 an Act was passed enabling Queen Anne to employ these moneys in augmenting poor benefices, and since then they have been known as Queen Anne's Bounty, and have been administered by commissioners, first appointed in 1704. Existing legislation regarding Queen Anne's Bounty are Acts of 1703, 1716, 1777, 1780, 1801, 1803,1805, 1830, 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840, 1846, 1865, 1870, 1874, 1875, 1881, 1890, 1894, 1908. The Acts known as Queen Anne's Bounty Acts are those of 1703, 1716, 1803, 1838, 1840 and 1870.