Colorado

I have tended to pay more attention to those Ommannies who remained on the eastern side of the Atlantic (or went further east still) than those who drifted in the other direction. As anyone who has googled the name will know, however, there are certainly Ommannies in North America. This is the partial story of one of the earliest of them. 

Arthur Ross Ommanney was born on 14 May 1854 in Surrey. In 1872, at the age of 17, he arrived in the USA, seemingly on his own. What was he doing there?

I had no real leads until I identified him as the ‘young Ommanney’ (no first name given) who features in the journal published by Allayne Beaumont Legard under the name Colorado (1872).  You can find a copy online at https://archive.org/details/colorado00lega

 Legard was an Englishman who was serving in the army in Canada when he decided to embark on a three-month trip to Colorado. He arrived in New York in March 1872 intending to meet a friend, only referred to as ‘HPB’ in the journal but actualy Harry (later Sir Harry) Paul Burrard. On arrival, though, he found not Burrard but a stack of letters from him. Legard tracked Burrard down to St John, New Brunswick, where Burrard was supposedly looking after the 17-year old Arthur Ommanney (‘I all by myself, HPB positively declining coming even as far as New York, and saying that he had sent young  Ommanney, who had been entrusted to his care, on to Denver by himself… There is a beautiful mammoth hotel at St. John now, which is most reasonable in its charges. I, however, left it, and took up my quarters at a boarding house with young Ommanney, who had been entrusted by his confiding parents to the care of H.P.B. Had many and long talks with H.P.B. but failed to impress upon him that his conduct was in any way strange or different from what it should have been…’)

HPB (who was in St John to get married) somehow palmed Arthur off onto Legard permanently, and the pair then travelled on to Colorado.

The question is how Arthur had come to find himself alone in the US at that age. So far as we know, his parents were living in peaceful retirement in Putney.

They had an eventful trip to Colorado:

Left Denver at 7am on horseback…When we got in every atom of skin was blisterd off our faces, and Ommanney was nearly snow blind…

Ommanney went bull whacking to get a sack of flour, and encountered a ditch and a surly Yank. The former he had some difficulty in getting over. The latter utterly floored him, for seeing that he was new at work, with Yankee generosity stubbornly ignored the idea of helping him. He pointed out the bag of flour, and then collected his family to witness his (Ommanney’s) frantic struggles to get it to the waggon, while he indulged in sneering and vulgar remarks upon once having been an English gentleman himself, and the necessity of being able to work hard in this country. Ommanney, however, got the flour on the waggon and safe home…

Once in Colorado, Legard bought a 320-acre property in the Wet Moutain valley in Custer County, near Rosita. This he left in Ommanney’s hands when he returned to New York and embarked for Southampton in June 1872. (‘Got power of attorney correctly fixed up for Ommanney to act for me, and deposited it at the bank… Sorry to leave Ommanney to such a lonely occupation, but I think he really likes it. He is a good lad…’)

We do not know what happened to Arthur directly after that, but around 1880 he married Maria Wright. They had six children, the first born in Colorado in 1880. In 1890 there is a record of the family arriving back in the US after a transatlantic voyage from Glasgow. They were divorced in 1900 at Denver.

On 14 May 1907 married a Norwegian, Bertha Aandahl, and they had children.

By 1910 he was a chicken farmer at San Bernardino, California. In 1920 he was a miner living at Seattle. Arthur died on 1 March 1925 at Seattle.

A photograph of the younger George Campbell Ommanney

From the Church Portrait Journal, Vol.3 (1882)

The 1929 Ommanney tree

Some time ago - so long that I had forgotten until I was recently reminded of it - I saw a listing in a library suggesting that they held a large Ommanney family tree from the early 20th century. I had for a while intended to motor down there and take a look, but I never quite got round to it. No matter. I have recently received a series of photographs of this same document from an Ommanney descendant who also has a copy (my thanks to Jayne, and her brother).

It has set several hares running and I will be producing an update of my document Descendents of Admiral Cornthwaite Ommanney shortly. Somehow, once you have a tip-off in genealogy, it is much easier to track down further details. And the 1929 tree is a hatful of tip-offs.

What is most striking is just how accurate it is. Of course, in 1929 they were closer to the action than we are now. But I can sit here calling up all sorts of documentation from the 18th to the 20th centuries at the touch of a button; they had to pack a dozen valises and jump into the Bentley for a weekend jaunt down to the library at Portsmouth to achive the same thing. And yet almost every new detail on the tree is backed up by all the evidence I can muster. It is most impressive.

Genealogical Table Showing the Descendants of John Ommanney
Produced by Henry Mortlock Ommanney, 1929

John Ommanney was Cornthwaite’s great-grandfather. It seems though that every more recent Ommanney can be traced back to Cornthwaite rather than to his brothers or uncles.

Rev. Edward Aislabie Ommanney

The portrait below has recently been made available by the National Portrait Gallery.

A number of other Ommannies are in their collection but not yet digitised. These include Honoria Catherine Ommanney and three more shots of Francis Downes Ommanney. I don’t know what their timetable is but it looks like they are working their way through them. If they are doing it alphabetically, we might expect them very soon.

BA (1827) / MA (1831) Exeter College Oxford 

Deacon: 20 December 1829, London

Curate: 22 December 1829, Mortlake

Priest: 19 September 1830, Cantebury

Perpetual Curate: 14 December 1832, Mortlake

Later Prebendary of Wells Cathedral (1848) and Rural Dean of Chew Magna (1850).

On 15 July 1841 he married Anna Catherine de Hochepied Larpent (20 June 1819 – 14 December 1893) at Wandsworth.

Author of Plain Advice to Persons who have been Lately Confirmed by the Bishop (1863). His advice probably did not extend to family planning, as he had twelve children between 1842 and 1861.

Died 21 January 1884. An obituary was published in The Times on 24 January 1884

Mrs Nettleton's School: UPDATE

I have received a few helpful pointers following my previous post, most of all from Giles Colchester, a descendent of the Nettletons who knows more about the school than I expected to find out.

Courtesy of him, here are four picture of what Francis Ommanney called that "huge, red brick, hideous house and the level expanse of playing field that lay behind it":

It turns out that Mrs Nettleton's school at Stonefleet was destined to become Feltonfleet, which moved to Cobham, Surrey in 1917, to escape the airship bombs. It is still there. I ought to have known, as my brother-in-law was a pupil. It's funny how these things turn out. 

January 2019: a further update. For photographs of some of the Feltonfleet school sports teams from the 1908-1911 period, please see https://www.flickr.com/gp/sjm_1974/39eQu8

Mrs Nettleton's School, Folkestone: the class of 1911

I have an idea for something called Reverse Genealogy. Perhaps it already exists, but if so, I haven't found it.

Normally in genealogy you go looking for information on the people you are interested in. The limitation is that you can only ever hope to find things that are somehow directly connected with those names. 

In reverse genealogy, you have some information, and then you set about the fairly simple task of finding the people descended from those concerned, and then you wave it in their faces.

Here's an example. Francis Downes Ommanney wrote a detailed description of his school days at a boarding school in Folkestone in his autobiography The House in the Park. I found my way to this book rather easily, because it happened to be my (distant) relative who wrote it, and whose name pops up in the library catalogue.

But if you're descended from Ommanney's schoolmate Poulton Major you're very unlikely to find this material. Ommanney is hardly a household name, after all. Poulton Major and the account in the book cannot be linked by even the most painstaking genealogist, partly because the book is never read, but mostly because Poulton Major is a pseudonym. 

How do I know? Because they were at school when the 1911 census trundled past.

Here's the census of 2nd April 1911, with the seven year old Francis Ommanney, his brother, and the other boys:

It must have been Francis's first term, because his brother Owen is there, and Francis writes in the book 'Both my brother and his friend left at the end of my first term'.

What about those pseudonyms? Well, unfortunately the boys are generally anonymous, but the teachers appear in detail. The hierarchy of cook and matron and Headmaster is dutifully preserved in the census, and enables us to compile the following list:

CENSUS                                                                            BOOK

Harry Thomas Nettleton (Head):                                       'Old Mr Shuttleworth'
George Nettleton (son of HTN), born c.1871:                   'Edward Shuttleworth'
[His sister seems to have been absent for the 1911 census]
Caroline Wood (nurse - school matron), born c. 1875:      'Miss Watson'
Eliza King (cook), born c. 1877
Louisa Bird (housemaid), born c. 1883
Herbert Jeffery (teacher), born c.1876:                              'Mr Simpson'

There is just enough similarity between the pseudonyms and the real names (Nettleton/Shuttleworth; Wood/Watson) to reassure me I'm on the right track.

The pupils (and approximate birth year, based on ages) are:

Cecil Lillie (1898)
Guy Reeves (1902)
Ernest Ashworth (1900)
Joseph Badeley (1899)
Owen Ommanney (1899)
Basil Colchester (1900)
William Ashworth (1899)
Robert Ferrier (1900)
Harold Porter (Pater?) (1900)
Charles Porter/Pater (1901)
Ronald Selby (1900)
Llewellyn Jones (1901)
Raymond Wickham (1902)
Ronald Pitt (1902)
Francis Ommanney (1903)

It's tempting to hypothesise that Harold Porter might be the Poulton Major of the book, as he appears to have had a younger brother, and he is of an age with Owen Ommanney, and there is a similarity in the surname along the lines of those used for the adults. But perhaps that's a step too far.

FDO mentions in the book that there were about 40 pupils; it is not clear why there are only fifteen on the census sheet. (The next page of the census begins with a girls' school, but there is no indication in the book that it was a mixed school, so perhaps that was another institution down the road).

The Head's wife, Julia Browne ('old Mrs Shuttleworth'), does not appear in the census because she died in November 1910. This is recounted in FDO's book, as he met her on an earlier visit to the school.

The text of the school chapters are in the attached PDF.  If you're taken with it, the whole book can be found in online bookshops for a song.

1850s photographs of Manaton Collingwood Ommanney and family

The Lucknow Album, held in the British Library, is a photographic record of prominent residents of Lucknow, both European and Indian, directly before the siege of 1857.  The album was formerly owned by The Times' war correspondent William H. Russell, who was presented with it by Captain Trevor Wheler. The bookplate has the inscription: 'HeadQuarters Camp Dilkoosha Lucknow March 15th 1858. Presented to me by Trevor Wheler [signed] W.H.Russell.' The album was compiled before the Siege of Lucknow (May 1857) and features the work of a local photographer, Ahmad Ali Khan, from 1856 and early 1857. Many of the prints are annotated by hand, presumably by Wheler and Russell, giving the names of the sitters, and sometimes their fate in the siege.

The British Library has just changed its policy on readers taking photographs of material in the Asian and African reading room (March 2015), which enables me to include the following pictures of Manaton Collingwood Ommanney, Judicial Commissioner of Oude, with members of his family and circle of friends.

Manaton Collingwood Ommanney, with his wife Louisa Costley (seated, centre) and two daughters (standing, left and right). Salt Paper print, 97x85mm. Miss White is at back centre and Mrs Kirk front right. The photograph is annotated 'How many? Oh, mercy!'








Manaton Collingwood Ommanney was born on 19 March 1813. His father was Sir Francis Ommanney, Navy Agent and MP for Barnstaple, and his siblings included Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanney, Major Octavius Ommanney, and Captain Walter Stirling Ommanney, all of whom feature elsewhere in this blog. He was to spend 26 years in the Bengal Civil Service between 1831 and his death at the siege of Lucknow in 1857. He had by that time risen to become Civil Service Judicial Commissioner at Oude.

He married Louisa Engleheat Costley on 1 November 1834 at Jubulpoor, and they had six children, including Georgiana Ouseley Ommanney (born 1837); Agnes Elizabeth Ommanney (born 1845); Manaton Francis Ommanney (1847-1861), and Ralph Thomason Ommanney (1852-1872).

Louisa Ommanney, nee Costley. By the time of the siege she was reportedly an invalid. 
















The following details of Manaton's dramatic death are taken from the Perlustration of Great Yarmouth by Charles John Palmer, (1872); A Widow’s Reminiscences of the Siege of Lucknow (London, James Nisbet & Co, 1858); A Personal Narrative of the Siege of Lucknow by L.E. Ruutz Rees (1858); and The Siege of Lucknow – a Diary by the Hon. Lady Inglis (James R Osgood, London, 1892).

On 4 July 1857 Ommanney was sitting in his room, soon after the commencement of the siege, with Sergeant-Major Watson. The double-storied house was only lightly defended, surrounded by a deep ditch and a hedge of cactus. Additionally, it had two guns to sweep the road between Gubbin’s Post and the Sikh Square, in case Gubbin’s was overrun. It was considered safe enough – Brigadier Inglis made his headquarters there after the death of Sir Henry Lawrence, and later Henry Havelock and his staff made it their residence.

As he sat there, Ommanney was struck on the head by a cannon ball, which 'scattered a portion of his brains'. Although he did not die immediately, there was no expectation that he would recover. The sergeant-major died almost at once, although it did not appear that the ball had touched him. Ommanney died four days later. 'Ommanney's House' (or the remnants of it) is still so named.

The two daughters who were present at the siege, and who feature in these photographs, were engaged to the Cunliffe brothers; the first, Mr. Cunliffe of the artillery, died in the siege; the second, a civilian, died at Byram Ghat.

The Misses Ommanney, with an unidentified companion. One of these could presumably be Georgiana, who would have been in her late teens. Could their companion be one of the Mr Cunliffes?








At first, the rumour spread abroad that all the whole family had been killed:

Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, Saturday 21 November 1857
Mr Ommanney, the civil superintendant of Oude, with his wife and two daughters, have perished at Lucknow. Mr Ommanney is brother to the Rev. Prebendary Ommanney, of Chew Magna, near Bristol.

This was incorrect. Louisa Ommanney and the two girls arrived at Southampton in the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s steamer Pera on 22 April 1858, as recorded in the Bath Chronicle of that date.

Lady Inglis in her diary of the siege wrote that:

Steady rain all day. Several desertions took place from the garrison; one could hardly wonder at it. Mr. Cunliffe, artillery, died of fever; he was engaged to one of the Miss Ommanneys; and his brother, a civilian, who had been killed in the district, had been engaged to the other. Poor girls! their father had died during the siege, and their mother was a confirmed invalid and required all their attention. I did not know them, but heard that their conduct was most praiseworthy, and that they bore their troubles nobly. (Entry for 22 September 1857)

The 'poor girls' (centre and right), with Miss White (in black).














The inscription on Ommanney's memorial, which still stands at Lucknow, reads:

Sacred to the memory of
Manaton Collingwood Ommanney Esq
For 26 Years in the Bengal Civil Service
The sixth son of Sir F. M Ommanney Bt
and Georgina Frances his wife
He was born March 19th 1816 and died July 8th 1857 
From the effects of a round of shot during the memorable defence of Lucknow in the province
of Oudh of which he was the Judicial Commissioner
Leaving a widow and six children to sorrow
Not without hope for one thus suddenly cut off in his career of Christian integrity, benevolence and usefulness beloved by themselves
and esteemed by all who knew him
The righteous is taken away from the evil to come 
Isaiah 57th Ch (16) Verse

Miss Ommanney (most likely Georgiana)



The Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette of 24 May 1924 recounts a talk by a survivor of the siege of Lucknow, a Mrs Huxham, in which she refers to Ommanney as ‘one of the best and most able leaders of the garrison.’ She also referred to a letter in the possession of Brigadier-General Albert Edward Ommanney, written by Manaton during the siege. It was addressed to Sir Albert de H. Larpent at Calcutta, and had been enclosed in a quill and smuggled out of Lucknow by a native Indian. It included the following passage: “No rain here, and cholera prevalent. Plague, pestilence, famine and sword impend, but all females and males are in good health and spirits.”

Louise and three of the children (Agnes, Manaton and Ralph) made it out, and can be found in the 1861 census back in England.  Manaton (younger) died a few weeks after the census; Ralph died at 19 years old in 1872, an Ensign in the 107th Regiment.


Louisa (of 35 Kildare Terrace, London) died on 18 January 1892.