Glenbuchat Heritage

26 Grenfell- Maxwell Families

Grenfell / Maxwell Family

The above pictures show:

Picture 1 Painting of John Pascoe Grenfell (Admiral) the grandfather of Sir Charles Forbes 5th Bart wife Emma Theodora Maxwell.
Picture 2 Admiral Grenfell in uniform.
Picture 3 Pre-wedding Photo of Philae Maxwell in The Sketch - Wednesday 18 June 1919
Picture 4 Cartoon in the Birmingham Weekly Mercury mocking the ‘second hand wedding dress’. Note however the distinguished guests at the wedding
Picture 5 1895 Page from Newe Castle Visitors book Note the presence of the Maxwells at a House Party noted in the Maxwell diaries (See below)

If a larger view required click on the ‘view large version’ link at the bottom of the page.

Click to see the album of Treasures of Castle Newe

John Pascoe Grenfell (20 September 1800 – 20 March 1869) was a British officer of the Empire of Brazil. He spent most of his service in South America campaigns, initially under the leadership of Lord Cochrane and then Commodore Norton. He was the nephew of British politician Pascoe Grenfell and grandfather to General Sir John Grenfell Maxwell. In Brazil, he rose to the rank of admiral and for his achievements was made a knight grand cross of the Imperial Order of the Rose and a knight of the Imperial Order of the Southern Cross.

John Pascoe Grenfell (Admiral)
Birth 20 Sep 1800 Battersea, London, England
Death 20 Mar 1869 Paris, City of Paris, Île-De-France, France
Parents
John Maugham Granville Grenfell 1772–1816
Sophia Perry Turner 1775–1848
Spouse
Maria Dolores Massini 1807–1860
Children
John Granville (1829–1866),
Maria Dolores (1831–?),
Sophia (1833–1898),[10]
Maria Emma (1833–1886) ,
Alfred (1839–?),
Flora (1841–1874),
Harry Tremenheere (1845–1906)
Thomas Cochrane (1847–49)

Maria Emma Grenfell Mother of Sir Charles wife Emma Theodora
Birth Abt 1834 S America, Moutefider
Death 10 Mar 1886 Kensington, London, England
Parents
John Pascoe Grenfell Admiral 1800–1869
Maria Dolores Massini 1807–1860
Spouse
Robert Maxwell 1827–1890
Children
Maria Dolores Maxwell 1856–
Flora Masini Maxwell 1857–1920
Robert Grenfell Maxwell 1858–1904
John Grenfell Maxwell 1859–1929
Angelita L Epine Maxwell 1860–
Emma Theodora Maxwell 1868–1953

John Grenfell Maxwell Sir Charles brother in law
Birth 11 Jul 1859 Toxteth, Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Death 21 February 1929 Newlands, City
of Capetown, Western Cape, South Africa
Parents
Robert Maxwell 1826–1874
Maria Emma Grenfell 1832–1886
Spouse and
Louise Selina Bonynge 1871–1929
Children
Helena Philae Olive Virginia Maxwell 1893–1973

(11 July 1859 – 21 February 1929) was a British Army officer and colonial governor. He served in the Mahdist War in the Sudan, the Boer War, and in the First World War, but he is best known for his role in the suppression of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland and subsequent execution of rebellion leaders. He retired in 1922. He was the brother of Emma Theodora Wife of Sir Charles Forbes 5th Bar.

Helena Philae Olive Virginia Maxwell, the daughter of General Sir John Grenfell Maxwell and niece of Sir Charles Forbes, was known as Philae and was a close friend of the Forbes family and can be seen in a number of Castle Newe photographs

Click to see pictures of Philae and husband at Castle Newe

Philae married in July 1919 Lieut. Clifford Carver of the US. Navy. His career included: Secretary to American ambassador, London, 1914-1915. Secretary to Colonel E. M. House on mission to Europe for President, 1915-1916. Assistant to Bernard M. Baruch in Council National Defence, 1917. Commissioned Lieutenant (junior grade) United States Navy Reserve, September 17, 1917. On duty Office Naval Intelligence, Washington, 1917-1918, as aide to Rear Admiral Roger Welles and later attached to United States Ship Rochester on convoy duty. Chairman, Baker, Carver & Morrell, Inc.

See below for news paper reports of her marriage.

Helena Philae Olive Virginia Maxwell
Birth July 1893 St George Hanover Square, London, England
Death 5 March 1973 Kaui, Hawaii
Parents
John Grenfell Maxwell 1859–1929
Louise Selina Bonynge 1871–1929
Spouse
Clifford Nickels Carver 1891–1965
Children
John Amos Henry Carver 1920–2006
Clifford Maxwell Carver 1921–1984
George William Douglas Carver 1923–1981

The Maxwell family and Royal Connections
From https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/26403844.pdf

Miss Louise Selina Bonynge,(Mother of Philae) the flirtatious daughter of a San Francisco stockbroker, married him and introduced him into a social web of European royalty cantered on the children of Queen Victoria. The Maxwell’s only child, Philae Helena, married Clifford Carver, and became the mother of three Princeton graduates and the one responsible for presenting 17 boxes of British upper-class memorabilia to the University in 1968

….It is perhaps not surprising that the Bonynges (Philae’s mothers’ family) also spent time in the German resorts so patronized by Queen Victoria's family. The long-sought acquaintance with royalty seems to have occurred in 1888 at Wiesbaden, where Princess Helena, one of Queen Victoria's five daughters and wife of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, had gone with her own two daughters to recover from an eye inflammation. If Virginia Bonynge was the favourite and made a place for herself by reading aloud to the convalescing Princess, Louise found a friend in Helena's younger daughter, Princess Marie Louise….

…Once the royal connections had been established in Wiesbaden, Louise’s attachment to the handsome but untitled Major Maxwell the following year in Cairo could hardly satisfy the ambitions of Charles Bonynge. He opposed the marriage. Shrewdly, Louise called upon her royal friends to change her father's mind. The middle-aged Princess Helena ("not very discreet but the greatest comfort") responded with enthusiasm:

How sorry I am for you — & how much I feel for you! I have heard nothing but good of Major Maxwell — & him so highly spoken of by all who know him. As soon as I return home, which I do tomorrow I will [go?] see yr father & will do all I can.

Dear Louise, it has touched me so much yr writing to me — Anything I can do for you — I will gladly do. God bless you.
Yours very affectly & truly Helena….

A daughter, Philae Helena, born in 1894, provided sufficient excuse, but her descendants report that Louise (Philae’s mother) left Philae almost entirely in the care of Virginia (her sister), now Viscountess Deerhurst, in order to amuse herself more freely during her husband's long absences from England. For 1895, the albums include aristocratic autographs from a house party in Aberdeenshire (perhaps during the hunting season) (See photo above), and the signatures of Kitchener and Lord Cromer among the party goers in Cairo, and several months of leave to England in the summer. It probably did not take Louise long to decide that life was more amusing away from Africa….

Maxwell Signatures from the Newe Visitors Book 1895
P Leger Grenfell
Angela L E Maxwell
Louise S Maxwell
Angel L Maxwell
Floralulu Maxwell
Robert Grenfell Maxwell


(Other signatures of note (in the photo above) at the 1895 Party are Victoria Sackville West and her husband Lionel Sackville West 3rd Baron Sackville, the parents of Vita Sackville West a rather scandalous author and garden designer.)

… Did Louise's behaviour during the next years finally scandalize the Princess to the point where she felt constrained to break off the relationship? We may never know the answer, but the daughters of Queen Victoria - whose name is a synonym for propriety- continued to seek her out. Christmas 1905 found the Maxwells, including 11-year-old Philae, celebrating with three of the Princesses even though Major Caryl "Beauty" Ramsden, Louise's reputed lover, had autographed one of her house-party albums only a month before….

… He (Gen Maxwell) and Louise gave a great ball for their daughter, whose debutante portrait had graced the Daily Sketch on 5 June 1912. The guests at the ball in their house on Grosvenor Place the following summer included the future Queen Mary, Lord Carnarvon, Lord Dufferin, and other distinguished people. The Maxwells then sailed off to East Africa on James Gorden Bennett's yacht.72 Louise was socializing in Baden-Baden during the fatal August of 1914.

Daily Mirror - Monday 20 May 1912
This Morning's Gossip.
Social events are more numerous than ever this week, and there are many dances taking place. Mrs. Stainton has a dance tonight at the Ritz, and Mrs. Archibald Norman is also giving a ball. A similar entertainment is to be given by Lady Maxwell, the wife of General Sir John Maxwell, at her house in Eaton-square. This dance is in honour of the debut - of Miss Philae Maxwell.

Pretty Christian Name. Miss Philae Maxwell, who, with her people, stayed for the Knutsford ball at Tatton Park with Lord and Lady Egerton of Talton, owes her pretty Christian name to an island, not far from Assouan and above the first cataract. Philae, unlike its neighbour the beautiful island of Elephantine, called Flowery Isle by the Arabs, is still covered with the remains of ancient buildings, many of them relics of temples and obelisks, though now partially submerged. Miss Maxwell's father has been intimately associated with Egypt throughout his career, and for the last four years he has been in command of its troops.
Ross Gazette - Thursday 02 January 1913

The Sketch - Wednesday 18 June 1919
AN AMERICAN-IRISH ENGAGEMENT OF ROMANCE, NOT POLITICS.
Miss Helena Philae Maxwell's engagement to Lieutenant Clifford Carver, U.S.N.R.F., is one of the first matches of social interest, in which the bride comes from this side of the Atlantic, and the groom from the other. Miss Maxwell is the daughter of General Sir John Grenfell Maxwell, a distinguished soldier who has seen active service in South Africa, in the Boer War and in France, -J 2A_I Egypt and Ireland in the present war, for he was C.-in-C. of troops in the Isle of Unrest in 1916. Lady Maxwell is the daughter of Mr. C. W. Bonynge and Miss Helena Philae Maxwell, who is soon to be carried off to America by Mr. Clifford Carver, son of Amos Carver, of Locust Valley, Long Island, New York, is an only child

As Miss Philae Maxwell, Mrs Carver was greatly sought after at young people's parties. Princess Christian was her godmother—hence her first name, Helena, though she is always known by her second, taken from the island of Philae, in the Nile. Her father spent many years of his military career in Egypt.

Clifford Carver and Maxwell Wedding
Note he presents from four children of Queen Victoria.

Irish Society (Dublin) - Saturday 12 July 1919
Carver —Maxwell.
Princess Louise Duchess Argyll and Princess Beatrice and the Marquess of Carisbrookc honoured with their presence the marriage of Mr. Carver and Miss Helen Philae Maxwell, which took place at St. Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge. The bride is the only daughter of Lieutenant-General Sir John Maxwell .and of Lady Maxwell, and the bridegroom is the son of Mr. Amos Carver, of Locust Valley, Long Island, New York, and is a lieutenant of the United States Xaval Reserve Force. The officiating clergy were the Dean of York, Canon Edgar Sheppard, D. D., Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal, and Prebendary Leith Boyd, die Vicar.

The bride, who was driven by her father, wore a short gown of soft cream silk (the same as that worn her mother at her wedding – see cartoon), trimmed with pale gold lace, the transparent train of the same delicate dentelle being ornamented with a large tulle bow and orange buds. Her tulle veil was swathed round the brow and held in place with sprays of orange flowers, and she carried a white vellum Prayer Book, the gift of the bridegroom.

Her attendants were her three cousins—the Hon. Helena and the Hon. Peggy Coventry and Miss Betty Forbes - and the Hon. Doris Meysey- Thompson, daughter of Lord and Lady Knaresborough. Lord Fairfax discharged the duties of best man.

In the congregation were Lady Maxwell, Viscount and Viscountess Deerhurst and the Hon. George and the Hon. John Coventry the Hon. Mrs. Henry Coventry, Mrs. McCreery, Miss Margaret and Miss Rosamond Maxwell, Miss Bridget Forbes, the Countess of Kilmorey and Miss Grosvenor, the Duchess of Rutland, the Marchioness of Anglesey, the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn Herbert, the Countess of Clancarthy, Viscountess Churchill, and the Hon. Ursula Spencer, Lord Ludlow, Lord and Lady Saltoun, Lady Cheylesmore, the Dowager Lady Decies, Field-Marshal Lord Grenfell, Lady Mary Egerton, Lady Stewart, Lady Julia Wombwell, the Hon. Mrs. Frank Whitbread, the Hon. Mrs. Henry Gibbs, the Hon. Mrs. Vandeleur, the Hon. Mrs. Codrington, the Hon. Mrs. Rowland Leigh, Colonel and the Hon. Mrs. Edward Lumb, Lady Arthur, Lady Ross, General Squier, the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, Brigadier-General and Mrs. Ross and Miss Ross, Major and Mrs. A. E. Gordon, and Mr. William Gillett.

The Duke of Connaught (third son of Queen Victoria) sent the bride a ruby and diamond brooch, and Lady Patricia Ramsay gave her a brocaded writing-pad. From Princess Christian, her godmother (fifth child of Queen Victoria) , she received a silver salver; Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (fourth daughter of Queen Victoria) , presented her with antique silver candlesticks, and Princess Beatrice (fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria) gave a silver box.

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Picture added on 11 February 2024 at 22:13

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