Charles Street, Berkeley Square in London came to my attention when I was researching Bram Stoker (the author of Dracula) and his family as they appear in the public records, mainly using Ancestry.co.uk, but also other sources I could easily find on the Web.
I'm currently on a mission to examine each household on the street, as it was on the night of the 1871 census, beginning with number 1. If you read the posts from January 2011 forward, you will see how the Dracula project took a detour in the Charles Street research.
For each house on Charles Street, I will typically have multiple posts. Here is the first post of the group for each address, one at a time.
1 Charles Street
1 Charles Street: Thomas C. March, family, servants. One of the top staff in Queen Victoria's household, he had a prominent role in the Duke of Wellington's funeral, was a distant cousin of Irish leader Maud Gonne, and sent the bill to actor Sir Henry Irving upon the occasion of his knighthood. The cost at the time was 26 pounds.
2 Charles Street
2 Charles Street: Henry Fleming, servants. A lively, foppish but apparently kind socialite who moved in high circles, Henry Fleming spent almost his whole career as a senior official of the Poor Law Board. I have a mental image of him sipping port with Lord Palmerston on a Sunday, while working out gruel rations for the workhouse on Monday.
51 Charles Street
The descendants of Sir John Campbell, KCTS
Sir John had grandchildren, but that is where his direct line abruptly ends, it seems. Was there a family fortune? If so, where did it go?
How could Sir John Campbell, K.C.T.S., afford to live on Charles Street?
This is one of several posts about Sir John, who lived on Charles Street in 1861, at No. 51. I'll post links to other posts in his story. This post is part of my attempt to figure out where his money came from.
Sir John Campbell's brother-in-law wrote the leading work on navigation: J.W. Norie
John William Norie is still a famous name in hydrography and navigation. His sister, Harriet Maria Norie, had three husbands. Sir John was the last. This post gives a short sketch of the family background, mainly taken from an old edition of the Dictionary of National Biography.
A timeline and links for Harriet Maria Campbell, formerly Dickson, formerly Medows, nee Norie
Harriet Maria's life is like a game where you need a program to tell the players. Three famous or perhaps infamous husbands, depending on your point of view. An apparently successful serial monogamist despite a rather late start in the marriage game.
The intriguing life of Mr. Evelyn Medows, late of 51 Charles Street, Berkeley Square, London
Harriet Maria's first husband was notorious in the years before she was born, back in his 30s, but he married her about 40 years later, and his reputation seems to have paled.
The bigamous, scandalous, fiesty Duchess of Kingston, Countess of Bristol, Elizabeth Chudleigh as was
The trial of the Duchess for bigamy was a huge event in 1776 London. Her main persecutor was Evelyn Medows.
