Jamaica: Flora du/da Costa WAYLAND parents

[ValJJJ]

I have a puzzle from a family I'm looking at and wonder if anyone can shed light on it?  It is touched on in another thread https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=881212.0

NB Wayland appears transcribed variously as Mayland,  Magland, Hayland, Wagland.

Jan 3 1856 - St Pancras. William Robinson Wayland son of Abraham, gentleman, married Charlotte Harriette Croft Ryland daughter of Octavius Ryland, dead (although he wasn't as he had earlier been transported to Australia for life for blackmail).  This marriage failed as Charlotte is in later censuses as a widow living in a household in Highbury New Park.

Flora du/da Costa WAYLAND first appears in the records when baptised on 12 Sep 1861 (birth stated as 10 Mar 1860) in St Paul's chapel, Marylebone.  William Robinson Wayland (a govt clerk) and Charlotte Harriette Croft Wayland (1831-1883).  Abode. 7 Park Place, Clarence  Gate, Regent's Park.  I couldn't find her in the GRO records.

Flora then appears in 1871 census at a school in Richmond (Apsley House?) as F Wayland scholar (transcribed daughter) age 11 born Jamaica. Head of household was Anne Haywood.

In 1881 she appears at Ismeer, Willesden, as a visitor, 21, born Kingston, Jamaica, in the Machin household.  Her name transcribed as Flora de Costa Mayland.

On 19 Oct 1882 she married Harry Machin, age 22, stating father Walter Ransom Wayland, govt official. Harry son of Frederick - both wholesale confectioners.  Her abode is Highbury New Park (the home of Charlotte H C Wayland in the Broome household, and where Charlotte died).

A newspaper report states:
Machin-Wayland  Oct. 19 at St Mark's, Hamilton Terrace, N.W.,by the Rev. G. Colesworth, M.A., Harry,eldest son of Frederick Machin, Esq., of Ismeer, Willesden to Flora Da Costa, only surviving child of the late Walter Ransom Wayland of Jamaica.

Meanwhile Isabella Augusta Joliffe (nee Wayland) was born 15 Jul 1860 (in the 1939 register according to Bethanyyd96 - although I have a sub I couldn't see this dob).  Her marriage cert 27 Nov 1880 states her age as 21 and William Robinson Wayland, gentleman, as her father. 

If Isabella's and Flora's birth dates are correct, then was Isabella actually the daughter of Ada Matilda WOODS, who William Robinson eventually married in 1878. They had five children - four of these GRO records show Woods as MMN. The first, Ada Rebecca Wayland in 1857 has no MMN given. 

In the 1871 census, Isabella and the other children are listed in the same household as William R Wayland and Ada Matilda Wayland. So Isabella probably was Ada's. 

What was the Jamaica connection?  Ryland or Wayland or both?  Was William Robinson Wayland in Jamaica at all, or Charlotte HC Ryland (the one born in 1831) and where does the Du Costa middle name come from for Flora. The name of her mother, father or godparent?  Did Walter Ransom Wayland actually exist?

Comberton found a Jamaica connection in a Dec 1883 newspaper report for the Rylands - Charlotte HC Ryland. As Octavius Ryland’s daughter married Wayland in 1856 this reference is presumably to John Croft Ryland’s daughter of the same name born 1820 and I think never married.  She's single in the 1911 census.

Hope someone can help unravel this!

[*Sandra*]

Just posting these articles for interest - 

First half related to the brother Edward Croft Ryland.  A Band of forgers......

The New York Times
New York, New York 
Fri, 28 Apr 1882
Page 8

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times/144355351/

The New York Times
New York, New York
Fri, 28 Apr 1882
Page 8

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times/144355502/

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis, Missouri
Thu, 19 Jun 1884
Page 1

https://www.newspapers.com/article/st-louis-post-dispatch/144355755/

The Philadelphia Inquirer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
Sat, 27 Sept 1884
Page 3

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer/144356053/

[ValJJJ]

Quite a story!

And a bit of a Jamaica link in the 1882 article, thanks Sandra, but the whole story could well be fiction as it seems to be part of a general scam.

The Rylands were a sprawling family, many recorded on Ancestry as having Freedom of the City of London due to patrimony.

Octavius (a son of Richard) transported for life for 'Feloniously sending to William Bango Collier threatening to accuse him of an infamous crime with intent to extort money from him'. Proven guilty and transported for life. This in 1880 at Newgate.

John Croft Ryland (another son of Richard if born 1788, or possibly grandson born 1813) is listed as being discharged from the Fleet in Jan 1840. J C Ryland snr died later that year.  Was the Fleet purely a debtors' prison?

Also https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18560707-712 has Edward Croft Ryland accused but found not guilty of fraud (revolving around a forged cheque). The trial was on 7th July 1856 and the witnesses included his sister Charlotte Wayland. Also Robert Mendham Evans, his uncle and employer, who had in Aug 1855 arranged for Edward to go to Australia and didn't know he hadn't left.  The uncle sent his niece (Charlotte) a cheque but inadvertently sent a blank one too, and he was accused of making it out for 525 shillings.

A dodgy family indeed.

[ValJJJ]

Also imprisoned in Millgate prison, Middx, for 7 years in Jan 1868 for larceny. Moved to Dartmoor in Dec 1868.

[ValJJJ]

Thomas Fullerton Warren did exist - the entry in the probate notice states died Dec 1813, probate 1858.  Effects under £400 (but then a handwritten note 'in England' - implying more elsewhere?).

Letters of administration (with will annexed) of the personal estate and effects of Thomas Fullerton Warren late of Brompton in the parish of Kensington in the county of Middlesex Esquire deceased...left unadministered by Richard Ryland Esquire one of the named executors named in the said will were granted... to Harriet Warren of 15 Portman Square in the said county spinster the sister and one of the residuary legatees named in the said will she having been first sworn. Former Grant Prerogative Court of Canterbury January 1814.

That's a long gap between death and probate.

[ValJJJ]

He was baptised in St Elizabeth (church or place?) Jamaica 1781. Parents Margaret and Thomas Warren. Buried in Kensington aged 33.

There is also his will on Ancestry but the writing is hard work!  It mentions St Elizabeth Jamaica.

[*Sandra*]

For your records - marriage of Edward Croft Ryland. New York, U.S., Episcopal Diocese of New York Church Records, 1767-1970.

Edwd Craft Ryland - 1830 - 19 July 1879 - place of residence Washington DC.
Marriage   19 Jul 1879   New York, New York
Church Name   City Mission Society
Father    Octavius Ryland -  Mother    Mary A Ryland
Spouse    Elsie Gabrielle J. Law

New York, U.S., Governor's Registers of Commitments to Prisons, 1842-1908

Edward Ryland
Prison Location   Cayuga, New York - Prison Name   Auburn Prison. Forgery Sec. Deg.
Conviction or Sentence Place   New York, New York
Conviction or Sentence Date   18 Feb 1885
Received Date   20 Feb 1885

[ValJJJ]

Thanks for that Sandra.

Still hunting Flora...

Da Costa seems a common surname in Jamaica but I'm not getting very far. 

[ValJJJ]

I would expect the baby Flora to be on a passenger list back to the UK, even if unnamed, with a parent, but haven't had much success with this.  Also the mother going there.

How did people travel between Jamaica and the UK then?  Did they go via another country or direct?  And as Jamaica was a British colony then, would there be passenger records in the same way that they were collected between different countries.  Was it considered a different country?

I'm wondering whether the birth in Jamaica was just a story.  I have yet to look at Scotlands People to see if she was born there, since I can't find her in the GRO records as a Wayland or a Ryland.