The Carney Family

When I was a child my great-aunt, Elsie BURRELL, sometimes spoke of her CARNEY ancestors, and told the intriguing tale that they were descended from the Kings of Ulster. The family crest, it was said, hung on the wall of Dublin Castle. Our ancestor was said to have been heavily involved with the process of making blue glass - the famous Bristol Blue glass which is still made today. The implication was that he invented the process and brought it from Ireland. Another branch of our family had heard a very similar tale, with minor variations.

However Elsie's grandmother, Selina CARNEY, was born (in 1834)  into a very poor family in central Bristol, and it seemed to me to be very unlikely that my aunt's stories were the whole truth.

Selina BURRELL nee CARNEY, 1834-1901

CARNEY is not a common name in England or in Bristol, so we were able to make some progress in tracing the family back a generation.  Selina's parents, George CARNEY and Elizabeth nee TOSSELL, certainly didn't live well. George was described as a smith or a labourer in census records, and they lived in various rented houses in central Bristol. One son was even born in the Poor House, but they managed to raise 6 of their 7 known children to adulthood.

George CARNEY was the son of William and Hannah nee MARTIN; although I have found baptisms for some of his siblings, George's baptism has not yet been found. He was born about 1807, probably in the Redcliffe district of Bristol. The church of St Mary Redcliffe has been described as the 'finest parish church in England' but this beautiful building served a very varied parish, with merchants and gentry living to the south, the docks and factories (and their workers) to the north.

Near to St Mary's was the Phoenix Glasshouse. One of several in the area, it seems very likely that this is where William was employed. I have not been able to find him mentioned in any of the surviving documents from this factory; he may been a glassmaker rather than burdened with management or ownership! The evidence so far is that this glassworks manufactured bottles and window glass during William's era, and that the blue colouring process actually came from Saxony, rather than Ireland.

Drawing of Phoenix Glass Works with St Mary Redcliffe in the background

So far, Elsie's stories seem to have contained a grain of truth (the link to glassmaking) but the reality has perhaps been embellished over the years.

So what of the suggested link with royalty?  Detailed tracking of a CARNEY family back to Ireland, where records are more difficult to find and often missing altogether, is all but impossible. We did, however, have a few clues - for example, William had his children baptised in Protestant churches in Bristol; and the stories suggested a link with Dublin Castle. From census and age at death, we guessed that William was born about 1779/1780. Searching the Protestant records for the nearest parish to Dublin Castle came up with a William Corny who was baptised on 4th May 1776. The address given was Abbey St and he was the son of James and Elizabeth.  Was this our ancestor?

Further research into the Irish link came up with the story of Sir Richard CARNEY. He was Ulster King of Arms from 1655-1692 (and succeeded by his son, also Richard) and credited with organising and recording the first heraldic designs for Irish counties. He was appointed by Cromwell, but he evidently made a success of it as he kept his post for many years after the restoration. Further details of the Ulster King of Arms can be found here.

We have not been able to find written evidence of the link between Sir Richard CARNEY and our ancestors, but there must surely be one. The story may have been a little mangled over the years, our CARNEYs were Heraldic officers rather than actual royalty!  But I like to think Auntie Elsie would still have been proud of the connection.

Scandal and deception - the Roger TICHBORNE case - and a CATER connection

The most frequently found (and distinctive) name in my CATER family is 'John Wyatt CATER'. To date I have identified 15 individuals with this name, living in the UK, USA and Australia.  


This story concerns one John Wyatt CATER, born 1825 in Canterbury, Kent, the son of Wyatt CATER and Catherine ALLEN. John's early life was, I think, disrupted and difficult. 


His father, a mason originally from Stapleton, near Bristol, seems to have travelled to Kent to find work. He married Catherine in St James, Dover, in 1819, and John was their third child (the second child, also John Wyatt, died in infancy).  in 1825/26 the family returned to Stapleton, and a further 4 children were born there, but only one survived infancy.  In 1830 Wyatt was described as a Brick and Tile Maker/Lime Burner in Pigot's Directory of Bristol.


John's father Wyatt died aged 38, and was buried on the same day as his youngest son Robert. John would have been only 8 years old.  In 1841, John's mother Catherine was described as a Pauper: the family were still in Stapleton. John was an errand boy; his elder brother James had taken up an apprenticeship with a mason in Bristol. James later moved north, ending up in Perthshire where he raised a large family.

1841 Census, Stapleton, Gloucestershire

Catherine sadly died in 1844, and sister Mary Ann married in 1846 to a farmer from Worcestershire. Sometime between then and 1850 John sailed to Australia.


John made a life for himself in Wagga Wagga, Australia, where he worked as a baker, although there seems to be little surviving evidence of his life there. I would not have found even this snippet of his adult life, had it not been for his involvement in the case of Roger Tichborne (the story begins about 1865).

Hampshire Museums Service hold archives concerning the case, this is their summary: "The story concerns Roger Tichborne, disappointed in love who is then lost at sea, and a man who, more than a decade later, appears from the Australian outback claiming to be the missing heir. The civil and criminal trials which followed held the record as the longest court case in British legal history until the mid 1990s, and the archive contains photographs of almost everyone involved: - the extended Tichborne family and the Tichborne Claimant, the legal teams on both sides; the witnesses; judges and jurors; and even the court ushers and the boy who sold the newspapers in the street outside."  Their web page describes the case, which was at the time an enormous media event. Unfortunately as John didn't attend the Court case, he is not included in the photograph archive.


The property at stake in the Trial was Upton House, near Alresford, Hampshire.  


John's became involved in the case as he had known the claimant (also known as Arthur ORTON and Tom CASTRO) in Wagga Wagga. As far as I can tell John didn't appear at Court, but sent several letters describing the claimant and giving background information, which were read in Court and have since been published in "The Tichborne Trial"

The shack in Wagga Wagga where Arthur Orton alias Thomas Castro and his wife Mary Ann Bryant lived when first married circa 1865, taken by William Fearne of Wagga Wagga, Australia vol 1, page 62 - Views connected with the Trials.(Hampshire Museum Service)

Internet searches show that the Trial may have ended, eventually, in 1874, but the case has interested writers ever since - in 1929 this piece was published in Cornhill Magazine, and in 1959 Harold T Wilkins wrote a chapter about it in his book Mysteries Solved and Unsolved.  A film based on the story was made in 1998. Even the Simpsons had an episode based on the story "The Principle and the Pauper"!


By the time of the Trial, John Wyatt CATER had retired and the letters read at Court show that he travelled back to England; he gives his address as Worcester and later Perthshire, so it is likely he visited his siblings.  However at some point he travelled back to Australia, and he died there in 1900.