My ol' Granny used to say : "We Margraves are of ROYAL BIRTH, you know - through the Margraves of Baden Baden."
I'd like to prove she was right!
My PROVED blood line is from an elusive character called Lofthouse MARGRAVE (Senior). He was probably born in Westminster, London, circa 1795; he married Hannah (later known as Anna) BOOTH on 17/10/1824 at Birstall, Yorkshire, having then recently moved from London. [His Marriage Certificate shows his Christian name only as Lofthouse, but the I.G.R.record shows "Lofthouse or Stephen"]
His first son, Thomas MARGRAVE was baptised in Bradford Parish Church on 26/03/1825. The family then moved to Llangennech, Carmarthenshire where Anna (Junior), Lofthouse (Junior), Mary, Robert, Alice, John, Frederick and William were born -either at Plasiffa of Penlan, Llangennech.
[Has anyone traced the descendents of these children? I have quite a lot of info. about most of them, but that's a side issue (
) at the moment.]
Back to Lofthouse MARGRAVE (Senior) - He seems to have been involved in the coal industry in Llangennech and is described as being one of the Landed Gentry of the County
. But I suspect that his business experienced financial difficulties circa 1840-44 and I finally traced him in Canada - having left his wife and kids in South Wales for whatever reason; he died in Halifax, Nova Scotia on 23/02/1845.
Having failed to find his birth/christening records, I tried to trace such evidence by searching for his brother in London. I now know that he had a brother, Thomas MARGRAVE (Senior), who appears to have been a wealthy businessman in the City of London. Thomas' date and place of birth are unknown, but his 1834 Will gives his address as New Broad Street Court, City of London, and refers to his sons Robert MARGRAVE and Thomas Jones MARGRAVE. His wife was Mary[nee ?] Thomas (Senior) obviously resided in Llangennech (probably at "The Plas") as well as London from time to time, because a sired an illegitimate son, William, by a servant called Mary ROBERT, there in 1825!
Thomas' Will was proved in 1837 by Thomas Jones MARGRAVE, himself a wealthy man and (unlike his pa?) a good man of the Church. Thomas Jones MARGRAVE died , a bachelor), in Turkey on 20/06/1881 - so that's the end of that line. However, Thomas Jones MARGRAVE was christened on 20/05/1807 at St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, London -so that's the scent I'm now pursuing to trace that promised Royal Blood.
So, all you MARGRAVES out there, see if you can join the hunt with me. I know that there are rather a lot of MARGRAVES all running in parallel in and about Luddington/Eastoft/Garthorpe/Adlingfleet in the 1700 and 1800's. Yorkshire has several Thomas MARGRAVES living there at that time and Lincolnshire also has several THOMAS and WILLIAM MARGRAVES whose trees I would like to POACH. [ I'm not
]
Lofthouse, oh! Lofthouse, where are your roots? Or are you a Stephen MARGRAVE, after all?
MARGRAVES of the World achieve your crowning glory with me!
