Henry  Thelluson Sanderson

Henry_Thelluson_Hargrave

• General Notes
  • Henry Thellusson SANDERSON (Henry SANDERSON, Mary JOWETT, Peter, Peter) was born
    on 22 Feb 1821. He died on 11 Aug 1899 in Little Bay NSW.
    Henry married Elizabeth Dora BOWEN. Elizabeth was born on 16 Sep 1823 in Johnston
    Pembrokeshire Wales. She died on 3 Aug 1908.
    He emigrated in 1855 from Australia. Arrived in Botany Bay NSW aboard Chowringhee on
    16.11.1855
    Henry married Bessie Dora Bowen
    Henry Thellusson Sanderson was born 22ndFebruary 1821 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England and baptised 6thMay that year in Brodsworth, Yorkshire, England. He was a qualified Civil Engineer and on 1stApril 1848 in Walton on the Hill, Lancashire, England he married Elizabeth Dora Bowen born in 1823 in Pope Hill, Johnston, Pembrokeeshire, Wales.. Elizabeth was the daughter of Peregrine Bowen, a Navel Lieutenant and Elizabeth Scowcroft and was baptised in Johnston. Pembrokeshire, Wales on either 5thAugust or 6thSeptember 1823. A daughter called Bessie Mary Thelusson Sanderson was born to Henry and Elizabeth in Southampton, England in 1851. In November 1855 Henry and Elizabeth, together with Bessie arrived in Sydney on board the ship “Chowringhee”. Where Henry along with his younger brother Edmund took up appointments as Railway surveyors for the government of the colony of New South Wales. Three more children were born to Henry and Elizabeth in Australia. Arthur Charles Thelusson Sanderson in 1858, Alice Maud Bowen Sanderson in 1860 in Glebe, Sydney and Henry Alexander Musgrave Sanderson in 1865 in Dalby, Queensland, while Henry was working in that state for the Government. Henry died in 1899 and is buried in the hospital cemetery at Prince Henry Hospital, Little Bay, Sydney, N.S.W. Elizabeth Dora Bowen died in 1908 and is buried in Waverley cemetery, Sydney N.S.W.
    Henry Thellusson Sanderson
    1821 - 1899
    Henry Thellusson Sanderson appears to have been a very colourful personality. Not only did he consider himself among the best in his profession, but as well seems to have been obsessed with his entitlement to some inheritance. But first his story begins on his arrival in the colony on 16thNovember 1855. By 24thNovember he had been appointed as a government railway surveyor and paid four hundred pounds ($800.00) for transport costs. By September 1859 he was working as a surveyor and clerk to the Glebe Municipality in Sydney. In April 1860 he applied for a position in the Queensland Survey Office. November 1864 saw him practicing in Dalby, Queensland, as a Civil Engineer / Architect / Surveyor when his 4thchild Henry Alexander Musgrave Sanderson was born. In 1865 he moved to Toowoomba, but returned to Brisbane and was declared insolvent in May 1867. Henry urged the government to build a direct road to the Mary River goldfields in 1867, hoping for some employment. He was offered work as a Mining surveyor in 1868. Later moving back to New South Wales where he continued to work as a Surveyor and Engineer up until the 1870’s. However he was still full of ideas and continued to propose them to the Queensland government without a lot of success. But moving on to the inheritance claims. Henry Thellusson Sanderson believed his mother, Mary Ann Ives was the illegitimate daughter of a member of the Thellusson family. A family belonging to the English aristocracy, descended from the Huguenot families and said to be the ancestors of Lady Diana Spencer, later Princess Diana. Henry Thellusson Sanderson claimed that Peter Thellusson born in 1797 had because of Henry’s mother’s illegitimacy given her permission to use the Thellusson name when naming her children, thus his, Henry’s second given name. This permission of course would have been given prior to Henry’s birth in 1821. Henry’s mother had been raised by a Mr Ives a gamekeeper on the Thellusson estate, Brodsworth Hall in Yorkshire, and had considered him her Uncle. Henry made an approach in 1857 to PeterThellusson and later followed up his approach with a letter some years later after Peter Thellusson had died. This resulted
    Notes of interest…
    Peregrine Bowen, the father of Elizabeth Dora Bowen wife of Henry Thellusson Sanderson. Was at the naval battle of Trafalgar. He then held an important position in Liverpool, England procuring ships for the Royal Navy. He was disgraced when charged with forging his dead brother’s signature on a will in favour of himself. The brother had died in China while on active service. Peregrine Bowen hung himself from a door during the trial. He was later exonerated posthumously. Both the Bowen and Scowcroft families were of the Quaker religion in Haverfordwest, Wales.
    Henry Thellusson Sanderson appears to have been a very colourful personality. Not only did he consider himself among the best in his profession, but as well seems to have been obsessed with his entitlement to some inheritance. But first his story begins on his arrival in the colony on 16thNovember 1855. By 24thNovember he had been appointed as a government railway surveyor and paid four hundred pounds ($800.00) for transport costs. By September 1859 he was working as a surveyor and clerk to the Glebe Municipality in Sydney. In April 1860 he applied for a position in the Queensland Survey Office. November 1864 saw him practicing in Dalby, Queensland, as a Civil Engineer / Architect / Surveyor when his 4thchild Henry Alexander Musgrave Sanderson was born. In 1865 he moved to Toowoomba, but returned to Brisbane and was declared insolvent in May 1867. Henry urged the government to build a direct road to the Mary River goldfields in 1867, hoping for some employment. He was offered work as a Mining surveyor in 1868. Later moving back to New South Wales where he continued to work as a Surveyor and Engineer up until the 1870’s. However he was still full of ideas and continued to propose them to the Queensland government without a lot of success. But moving on to the inheritance claims. Henry Thellusson Sanderson believed his mother, Mary Ann Ives was the illegitimate daughter of a member of the Thellusson family. A family belonging to the English aristocracy, descended from the Huguenot families and said to be the ancestors of Lady Diana Spencer, later Princess Diana. Henry Thellusson Sanderson claimed that Peter Thellusson born in 1797 had because of Henry’s mother’s illegitimacy given her permission to use the Thellusson name when naming her children, thus his, Henry’s second given name. This permission of course would have been given prior to Henry’s birth in 1821. Henry’s mother had been raised by a Mr Ives a gamekeeper on the Thellusson estate, Brodsworth Hall in Yorkshire, and had considered him her Uncle. Henry made an approach in 1857 to PeterThellusson and later followed up his approach with a letter some years later after Peter Thellusson had died. This resulted
    Notes of interest…
    Peregrine Bowen, the father of Elizabeth Dora Bowen wife of Henry Thellusson Sanderson. Was at the naval battle of Trafalgar. He then held an important position in Liverpool, England procuring ships for the Royal Navy. He was disgraced when charged with forging his dead brother’s signature on a will in favour of himself. The brother had died in China while on active service. Peregrine Bowen hung himself from a door during the trial. He was later exonerated posthumously. Both the Bowen and Scowcroft families were of the Quaker religion in Haverfordwest, Wales.
    4
    in Charles Thellusson, son of Peter contacting his solicictor Mr M. A. Reynoux in London. The following is a copy of the letter written to Charles Thellusson by his solicitor in July 1866, some nine years after the initial approach.
    Under the circumstances it could be considered that the solicitor has not suggested anything in this letter
    excepting a lot of probables and has rambled on considerably without any real convincing arguments. In
    fact the Solicitor was in error when he referred to the 2ndchild given the Thellusson name as being
    Arthur Charles Thellusson son of Henry Thellusson Sanderson and born in Australia in 1858. Arthur’s
    elder sister Bessie born in England in 1851 was the 2ndrecipient of the name.
    Oral history… handed down through the family of Edmund Sanderson, brother to Henry, is that many years ago the family needed to raise money regarding an inheritance in England. Perhaps the money was required to mount a legal challenge to the above claim.. But more likely it would have been for the following claim as explained in the next letter written by Henry to his sister Mary Ann Lauchlan (nee Sanderson) in April 1894. Unfortunately Edmund died in September 1894 and after his death his family fell on hard times and were not able to raise the amount of money required.
    It would also seem from Henry’s letter to his sister that little contact was maintained between his and Edmund’s families after Edmund moved to the Gundagai district.
    99 Cannon Street, London
    21st July 1866
    My dear Sir,
    This cool transaction of Mr Henry Sanderson is now explained. He evidently would insinuate that his mother was a Thellusson by illegitimate production. Now, his mother having been married in 1818, we may take her as 18 at least, making her birth about 1800, when your father was 3 years old, so that any surmise on that score is disposed of.
    There was a bailiff of the name of Ives, and very likely, Sanderson’s mother was Ives’ daughter. Ives was appointed by the Trustees and is long since dead and the Estates were managed or rather mismanaged, by the Trustees and their agents.. from 1797 to 1852, without you or your father having a voice in the management; so that this person cannot raise the shadow of a shade of a plausible ground for attempting to secure money out of you. I think Ives was a Doncaster man, and his daughter was probably born at Doncaster; and he being settled at Brodsworth, his daughter was married there. I have no recollection whatever of the name of Sanderson.
    When this man went to your father in 1857 with the tale of his being a grandson of Ives, your father most likely treated him civilly, but as to not clearing up the “mystery” of parentage of his mother, it is something more than nonsense. Does he want to find out that she was illegitimate ?
    Yes, surely, he does. That would be a god-send for him, - so, he thinks.
    If your father did permit him to use his name in christening the first child, this meant kindly, it was inconsiderate. I have had a search made at Somerset House and find a child so named and at that time. But he says your father or rather “relative” permitted him to Christian the two first children with the name of Thellusson. Now, the 2nd child didn’t come forward until June 1858, too late for your father’s permission: and this 2nd child being named “Arthur” preceding Charles, he probably had gone to Mr Arthur Thellusson. Are we to suppose that the permission was given by anticipation because the 2nd child was born in Australia.
    I’ve no possible object in answering his letter, which I return, because you may wish to refer to it again.
    I remain, my dear Sir,
    Yours very truly
    M.A. Reynoux
    Charles S.A. Thellusson Esquire.
    Extract of letter from Henry Sanderson to Mrs Lauchlan 2ndApril 1894.
    2, Remick Street, Leichhardt,
    Sydney, NSW
    “ Of course you are aware that I am over 73 years of age, yet God has in plenitude of his mercy preserved all my faculties, and I am able to say that as a Civil Engineer and Surveyor I am second to none in my profession. Last November when at home, I received information that my name was in the Index of Dougall’s published list of heirs and next of kin; that enquiry had been made of other Henry Sandersons resident in these Colonies (only two) I believe, and these persons had no expectation from England. I am quite aware that Mrs Ives made a will and disposed of her property amongst the six children of her niece our sainted mother. I know from my Aunt Ann Ives own words to myself and poor William that her property would be fairly and equally divided amongst us. However, I have written fully by this mail to Messrs. Buddson & Brodie, Solicitors, 33 Bedford Row, requesting
    their kind interference and instructing them to act for me. I regret to say Edmund an