Samuel Edwards Esq of Flintshire

[Rochdalian]

Samuel Valentine Edwards was the grandson of Samuel Edwards esq (there are too many Samuels so I will use esq when referring to the main man!).  SVE was born 20 Nov 1807 and baptised at St Martin in the Fields 6 May 1808 son of Samuel Edwards (b1777) and Betty Eccles. 

There is a 'sort of' link to Flintshire in that the daughter of Samuel esq, Sarah Margaret Edwards, married Hugh Totty in Flintshire in 1791 and at some point in their lives they lived in Bath, and both died there.  The Totty family lived in Flintshire and Hugh was a clergyman of some note and lived to be 101 years old.

The St Benet's records, as far as we can, have been checked and re-checked to no avail.  Although we think he may just have been living in that parish as another unsubstantiated 'fact' is that he was a Proctor in Doctors' Commons which was just near by.  If indeed he was then it must only have been when he was a young man as he certainly was a wine merchant (Helen has a copy of a list of wine provided to Lord Walsingham in Norfolk in1782).

Indeed, the newspaper reference was strange in that it was the only one to mention Flintshire.

Thank you both so much for the effort you have put in on what seems to be destined to continue to be a brick wall!

B & H

[despair]

I can't find an online database,but might "Samuel Esq" have been a member of The Honourable Company of Vintners?Perhaps there might be some form of record/biography of him there.Even if it is only a joining date perhaps something could be inferred from this.
There also seems to be reference to acquaintance of both Samuel and Doligny with Francis Towne the artist,but again frustratingly no online version of the correspondence(with a third party) containing the reference,only a summary with notes allluding to it.

Regards
Roger

[Rochdalian]

Roger, could you tell us please where the reference to Samuel & Doligny knowing Francis Towne comes from?  Helen tells me that she heard about that about ten years ago but never got on top of it as she had a computer crash and lost all her notes and emails etc.

Cheers

B & H

[despair]

The reference is here in the notes to the first correspondence in this series

http://francistowne.blogspot.co.uk/2007_09_01_archive.html

While it might be a reasonable assumption that they met in the London area,I think Towne also visited North Wales.

Regards
Roger

[Rochdalian]

Roger, Helen managed to find the email address of the chap she was corresponding with all those years ago.  Funny thing is she found it in a notebook, they don't crash, and the chap still had the same address.  Upshot is we sent an email and got a quick reply.  Samuel esq was given power of attorney over one of Towne's savings accounts at the Bank of England in 1780 just prior to him (Towne) going to Italy - from B of E archives.  Doligny Edwards received 100 pounds in Towne's will.  And Towne was very friendly with William Pars and knew his brother Henry and Henry married Samuel's sister-in-law.  The Par's were artists also so maybe the connections between the Edwards family and Towne were through their mutual friends the Par's. We get the feeling that they were in and 'arty set'.

Also sent an email to the Vintners Company but no reply yet.

Thanks for the leads and tips!

Cheers

B & H