The diary of Antonia Booth[1]
Antonia Booth was my great grandmother. She died in 1952, 5 years before I was born.
Diary entries are in black,
commentary is in blue
and footnotes are below in black.
Entries are captured in months.
This blog begins with the year 1898 even though the diaries start in 1894 because it is more straightforward to introduce the main characters in this year. I shall return to 1894 in a while.
If you think I’ve left something out please do let me know or if there is a factual error please tell me gently.
Monday October 24th 1898 (5 days after the second marriage proposal)
24 Great Cumberland Place My very Dear Malcolm Will a little letter at breakfast make you happier?…..My dear you looked so sad when you went away but that was about our being married at Easter and what can I say about that except that if it must be so we must both try to be very good because you know you said we were rather badly in debt. Perhaps we shall also be able to pay off a little of what we owe beloved, for that is what you are, you mustn’t be sad…..your Dodo
Clearly Malcolm thinks waiting six months to be married is much too long. I don’t know what the debts are, but they may be linked to the marriage and purchase of a house. I think it is unlikely that she had a debt, indeed she brought to the marriage a settlement which included shares in the family shipping business. Maybe Malcolm has accumulated them in his early years as a lawyer. What is clear is that she has immediately taken on joint responsibility for these debts which shows how steadfast she is.
‘Marriage was an expensive business. The same impulse which led to family limitation in the 19th century also discouraged many men from forming an alliance which might bring about a reduction in their standard of living. ‘My £800 a year keeps me in luxury as a bachelor,’ explained the author of ‘On Some of the Impediments to Marriage’ in Fraser’s Magazine in 1867, ‘ – the club, the rubber, the little dinner at Richmond, the bottle of ’34 claret, the opera stall, the month at Baden-Baden, are quite within my modest means; but the moment I marry, I exile myself from this easy paradise.’[2]
So who was Malcolm Macnaghten and what manner of family was Antonia marrying into?
He was born on the 12th January 1869.
He was the son of Edward Macnaghten (Baron Macnaghten) and Frances Arabella, the only child of Sir Samuel Martin, a Baron of the Exchequer.
He had eleven brothers and sisters:
Beatrice Mary
Florence Mary
Octavia Mary
Anne Julia Mary
Ethel Mary
(Sir) Edward Charles who married firstly the Hon. Gwen Abbot with whom he had one son, Hugh. Secondly he married Edith Powell, and they had two sons and one daughter.
Frances Helen
Francis Alexander who married Beatrice Ritchie, daughter of Sir William Johnstone Ritchie 2nd Chief Justice of Canada. They had no issue.
Edith Arabella Mary died aged 1 month
(Sir) Frederick Fergus who married Ada Webster (actress-more of her later). No issue.
(Capt.) Maurice Patrick who married Sybil Torbock Graham, daughter of Col. Henry Graham. Had no issue.
So just to recap Edward and Frances Macnaghten had 12 children. One died in infancy. None of the daughters married. All the sons married. Between them their sons had 8 children though two died in infancy. Of their remaining three daughters and three sons, two of the sons were tragically killed in the First World War so only one son remained, Antonia and Malcolm’s son, Antony Macnaghten.
Malcolm Macnaghten was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union. In 1890, he graduated with 1st class honours in history. He became a Barrister at Lincoln’s Inn in 1894.
This is Malcolm’s tutor and Antonia’s cousin writing to him in 1894:
October 20th 1894 Dear Muggins (this was Malcolm’s nickname at Cambridge) I was very glad indeed to get your letter. You, I think you were the 1st to get a scholarship in History. And the first to get a Fellowship. Now history is quite on a footing of advantage and patronage with other subjects in the College. That is, though, of course not in numbers. They seem in fact anxious to make Trinity a centre of History as they were anxious to make it a centre of moral science. I hope they will succeed as well in the one as in the other. Good luck to you at the bar. Yours, Fraternally GM Trevelyan[3]
He grew up in London at 198 Queens Gate Kensington
and in Ireland at Runkerry House near Bushmills.
Malcolm’s father had Runkerry built as his summer residence. Malcolm’s sisters continued to live there after their father’s death.This picture of Runkerry was taken by Malcolm’s first cousin Mary Young: Mary Young nee Macnaghten was born at Dundarave, Bushmills, County Antrim.
When she married she went to live at Galgorm, a house near Ballymena in County Antrim.
She was an enthusiastic and accomplished photographer. She took over a thousand photographs between 1890 and 1915, and she often experimented with chiaroscuro. Most of the photographs are of her family, and life on the Galgorm Estate.
This is Mary Young getting married from her childhood home, Dundarave, in 1893. After the wedding ‘a company numbering 150 sat down to the wedding dejeuner at Dundarave. The repast was served in the very choicest style by the house steward Mr. Suckling’.[4] The Suckling family worked for the Macnaghtens for many years. Mary Young’s father was Sir Francis Macnaghten, 3rd Baronet and her mother was Alice Mary Russell. More of them shortly.
Malcolm’s father, Lord Macnaghten, a University First Class man and a University ‘Blue’, … was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1857, practised as a Chancery barrister, was made a Q.C. in 1880, and became a leading counsel in the Court of the Master of the Rolls, then a Chancery judge. Lord Macnaghten represented Antrim, from 1880 to 1887 in the House of Commons. In 1887 he was appointed as Lord of Appeals. Lord Macnaghten’s judgements were considered to be “not only good law but good literature. There is racy humour in them, in addition to their learning and their sound, solid, subtle reasoning [with] a flavour of fine scholarship.” [5]
Malcolm’s mother Frances Arabella Macnaghten nee Martin was known for her charitable works including support for the Children’s Protection League:
Under the auspices of the Children’s Protection League, a meeting was held at 198, Queen’s Gate, the residence of Lady Macnaghten. The chair was occupied Lord Peel, who said that the condition of the houses of the poor was a source of terrible temptation and an incitement to drink, and no one could say that if they lived in such places they would not act in the same way. For “his own part he must, honestly confess he thought he would take to drink under such conditions. Lord Peel went on to say that it was disheartening to hear persons congratulate temperance people upon the introduction the Black List as preventive of drunkenness. It was ridiculous to suppose that the Black List would result in everlasting benefit. He thought that the act of sending round to licensed houses the photograph of some unfortunate wretch, to hung up in a conspicuous position, would not last more than two or three years. He was glad to see that the magistrates were taking steps to reduce the number of licenses. Illustrated Police News – Saturday 28 March 1903
Here is Frances Arabella as a child with her mother:
Lady Frances Arabella Macnaghten’s father, Sir Samuel Martin QC, was an Anglo-Irish politician and judge with an estate in Myroe, County Londonderry; and her mother Frances Homera was the daughter of Sir Frederick Pollock, first baronet.[6] He contributed a number of papers on mathematics to the Royal Society, including one on what is now known as the ‘Pollock’s Conjectures’ which were:
Pollock’s tetrahedral numbers conjecture: Every positive integer is the sum of at most five tetrahedral numbers. This is unproven I think.
Pollock’s octahedral numbers conjecture: Every positive integer is the sum of at most seven octahedral numbers. This conjecture has been proven for all but finitely many positive integers.
As an MP, Sir Frederick Pollock, first Baronet, was apparently no great orator:
Sir Frederick is in the habit of throwing back his head and withdrawing himself a few feet from the table. At other times he shakes his head a good deal, and applies his fist with all his force to the table. In the beginning of his speeches his utterance is slow and solemn; as he advances he proceeds with a little more rapidity. The tones of his voice are somewhat harsh; and they fall more disagreeably on the ear from their want of variety.” Morning Post – Wednesday 24 August 1870
‘When he was appointed Attorney-General in 1834 he had to be knighted, and by consequence to provide himself with a coat of arms. For this purpose he applied to the College of Arms in London, but thought the fees excessive. After some negotiations a messenger called on him from Garter King-of-Arms with a final statement of the lowest possible terms. The answer was thus: ‘Tell Garter King-of-Arms with my compliments that he may go to the devil sable (sable is the black tincture of heraldry) in flames gules (gules is the red tincture of heraldry) with a pitchfork argent (argent is the silver tincture of heraldry) stuck in his backside proper (proper is the natural coloration in heraldry).’ After which Sir Frederick Pollock, being the son of a Scot, betook himself to Lyon King-of-Arms at Edinburgh, and there found better contentment.’ [7]
Sir Frederick Pollock’s Father (and Malcolm Macnaghten’s great great grandfather) was Mr. David Pollock, who carried on a flourishing business at Charing Cross as Saddler to King George 111 from 1786 – 1815. David Pollock ‘lived and he had his business in Down Street, Piccadilly, but later, after he was appointed Saddler to King George III, they moved to a house in the Royal Mews which stood just forward of the site now occupied by the National Gallery.’[8]
This is George III probably sitting on a saddle that Malcolm Macnaghten’s great great Grandfather made.
So Malcolm’s Anglo Irish family were pillars of society in London and Antrim and unlike the Booths they were devout protestants. Yet scandal in relation to love and marriage were not unknown to this family.
Malcolm’s uncle (and Mary Young’s Father) was the Hon Francis Edmund Workman Macnaghten, the 3rd baronet.[9] It is said that he owned eight thousand acres in the Bushmills area when, in 1866, he married eighteen year old Alice Mary Russell[10].
In 1883, four children and 15 years of marriage later there was a huge scandal when Lady Alice ran off with Mr Thornhill who was agent to the Macartneys at Lissanoure…. Sir Francis, the third baronet, was not of a pleasant disposition. When Lady Alice ran off with her lover, he had her dog shot, and all portraits of her in Dundarave were turned to the wall. It is said that the Anglicans of Bushmills did not want to be buried near him.[11]
THE ELOPEMENT OF LADY MACNAGHTEN. A few days ago Sir Frederick Macnaghten’s suspicions were aroused concerning the fidelity of his wife in consequence of his coming home suddenly from a shooting expedition and finding Mr. Thornhill along with his wife in her boudoir. Mr. Thornhill was ordered out of the house, Lady Macnaghten remonstrating with tears in her eyes. She implored her husband’s forgiveness, which was granted on condition that no further intercourse should held between herself and Mr. Thornhill, which she promised. Next day Sir Francis Macnaghten resumed shooting and coming home in the evening found his wife had taken her departure. Mr. Thornhill and Lady Macnaghten having been traced by Sir Francis to Bray, near Dublin, he proceeded thither, and implored his wife to return home if only for the sake her children, and promised further forgiveness; but she firmly refused, and handed him an inventory of all the articles of furniture, etc., at Dundarave. House, which belonged to her, with the request that they should be at once forwarded to her lodgings at Bray. It is doubtful, however, whether Sir Francis will comply with this request. He has already taken preliminary steps in the Dublin Courts to secure a divorce, which according to statements current in Coleraine will not lie opposed. Lady Macnaghten was a general favourite in the North of Ireland, and especially in the neighbourhood of Bushmills. The representative of the Macartney estate has demanded Mr. Thornhill’s resignation which has been sent in. Much sympathy is felt for Sir Francis Macnaghten, who has been left in charge four young children. Jersey Independent and Daily Telegraph – Saturday 06 January 1883
THE ELOPEMENT OF LADY MACNAGHTEN CONTINUED. Further particulars have been ascertained to the elopement last week of Lady Alice Macnaghten, wife of Sir Francis Macnaghten of Bushmills, County Antrim, with Thornhill, agent. The latter is a young man, while her Ladyship is the mother of four children. The two on leaving County Antrim proceeded to Bray a fashionable suburb of Dublin, and put up at a hotel there, and passed as a bridal pair. Money was plentiful, and they occupied a suite of apartments specially reserved. Her Ladyship never went out of doors without such protection as afforded by a thick veil, doubled in its fold. At first the strangers were accompanied to their hotel by two maids, but after few days one of the attendants departed, the other remaining. All went well till Thursday morning, when the arrival of the morning papers, with an announcement of the elopement, caused a great flutter. Her Ladyship and lover then most mysteriously disappeared, and, although the greatest curiosity was evinced to get a look at them, they were successful in leaving without attracting public attention. The maid remained behind and paid the hotel bill. It is not known where they went to, but is believed they have taken private lodgings. The domestics at the hotel, on hearing of the elopement, openly expressed their indignation, and the fugitives were put to some inconvenience in consequence. The case will shortly come on in the Dublin Divorce Court, and will not be defended. Her Ladyship is denoted being about the medium height, strongly built, and dark, almost being swarthy. Mr Thornhill is said to be a fine-looking young fellow, with slightly sandy hair. Dundee Courier – Monday 01 January 1883
Her daughter Mary Young recalled
‘I was always terrified of my father. I admired his philosophical courage, but I never loved him because I was too afraid of him. When I was about 14, my mother left him and us to go away with Mr Thornhill….. My mother was very pretty and gay, almost 20 years younger than my father. I think she was about 19 when I was born and had married my father as a good match and not with any affection…….Before my mother went away from Dundarave I was dimly conscious for a long time that something dreadful was about to happen to us. She used to walk around the Gallery with me singing hymns, chiefly I remember “Jesus, Lover of my Soul” which I have never cared for since I remember. Of course, I did not realise what the catastrophe was going to be, but I’m sure that she fought very hard with herself before one day she left us. Her faithful maid went with her…. All this made my father harder and more aloof, and we were never allowed to hear about her. Her picture was taken off the wall and her name never mentioned. I resented this very much indeed and it did not increase my affection for my father. I never saw my mother again until I married and could take the matter into my own hand. A few days after my marriage in 1893, Willie took me in a Hansom to Hampton Court where she was then living with my Grandfather and his second wife Antoinette and the Thornhill Child, Evelyn.’[12]
This was not the first time that an elopement had featured in the family history:
‘In 1740, John Macnaghten inherited his family estate worth £500 a year. He lived as a country gentleman, was a governor of Derry workhouse in 1754, was involved in 1755 with founding one of the first farming societies in Ireland and was also high sheriff of Antrim in 1756. He was part of the extravagant lifestyle of Ascendancy Dublin and developed an addiction to gambling and squandered away a large part of his inheritance, running up substantial gaming debts and by 1750 was threatened with arrest. His friend the Earl of Massereene introduced him to Mary Daniels, sister of the Earl’s wife and daughter of the Dean of Down. Despite solemn promises, Macnaghten rapidly lost still more money, and when in 1756 creditors ambushed him violently at the door of their Dublin house, the shock killed his pregnant wife. He was then appointed to the lucrative post of Tax Collector for Coleraine but gambled away £800 of the King’s money. His estate was sequestered and by 1760 he was penniless. He gained support trying to help overcome his addiction from a childhood friend, Andrew Knox. Knox was a wealthy land-owner and Member of Parliament for Donegal who lived on an estate at Prehen about two miles outside the city of Derry. Mary Anne who was Knox’s 15-year-old daughter, was already a substantial heiress, having received some £6,000..and John and Mary Anne developed a relationship as he visited the Prehen estate regularly. In November 1760 John Macnaghten attempted, without success, to be selected as candidate for the parliamentary seat of Carrickfergus. John Macnaghten’s hopes of succeeding to the estates of his uncle Edmund Macnaghten, who was then 82, were crushed in 1761 when the old man married a young wife. Edmund Macnaghten proceeded to father two sons and lived until he was 102 years old; Edmund was great- great grandfather of Malcolm Macnaghten. John Macnaghten and Mary Anne Knox seem to have gone through a form of marriage ceremony before her father discovered what was taking place and forbade further contact between the two. The practice of abduction and marriage was prevalent in 18th century Ireland among young men of social standing but with little property. On November 10, 1761, Macnaghten and his followers attempted to abduct Mary Anne from a carriage on a family journey to Dublin Parliament with the intention of eloping with her. The attempt failed miserably as Macnaghten shot and mortally wounded Mary Anne by mistake.’
Mary Anne Knox
The coach that Mary Anne and her parents were travelling in.
A court found Macnaghten guilty of murder and he was sentenced to execution by hanging. At Strabane jail on December 15, 1761, Macnaghten hurled himself from the gallows with such force that the rope broke. He had the sympathy of the crowd who believed this was divine intervention for a man distraught with grief over the death of his love. Despite the belief that Macnaghten could not be hanged a second time, he failed to use the cover of a sympathetic crowd to make good his escape. Rather he defied the public mood of the people with the never-to-be-forgotten words, “I vow that no one will ever speak of me as Half-Hanged Macnaghten.” He returned himself to the jurisdiction of the hangman and, with a new rope, was dispatched into the arms of eternity.’[13]
‘John Macnaghten’s story is still familiar in the north of Ireland, and ironically the sobriquet that he feared is that by which he is remembered. Many details and different versions of the events of his life and death are preserved in folk tradition, and there are also a number of accounts written at the time. What was left of Macnaghten’s estate was inherited by his daughter, Cassandra. However, in 1767 Macnaghten’s creditors received some satisfaction, and following lawsuits in 1791 and 1797 Cassandra and her husband Joseph Hardy were obliged by the court of chancery to sell the estate and house of Benvarden. It was bought by the merchant and banker Hugh Montgomery (1743–1832), who was known as ‘Split-fig Montgomery’.’[14]
[1] Antonia Macnaghten née Booth was born on 3 February 1873. She was the daughter of Rt. Hon. Charles Booth and Mary Catherine Macaulay.1 She marred Rt. hon. Sir Malcolm Martin Macnaghten. She had four children. She died on 18 January 1952 at the age of 78 leaving 53 diaries which are transcribed here.
[2][2] ‘A Bachelor’, ‘On Some of the Impediments to Marriage’ in Fraser’s Magazine. LXXVI (1867), p.782. b10148863_Auchmuty_Rosemary_Katherine (1).pdf
[3] ‘George Macaulay Trevelyan was a cousin of Antonia’s on her mother’s side and a British historian and academic. Trevelyan was the third son of Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, and great-nephew of Thomas Babington Macaulay, whose staunch liberal Whig principles he espoused in accessible works of literate narrative avoiding a consciously dispassionate analysis, that became old-fashioned during his ..career. The noted historian E. H. Carr considered Trevelyan to be one of the last historians of the Whig tradition.’ Once called “probably the most widely read historian in the world; perhaps in the history of the world.” Trevelyan saw how two world wars shook the belief in progress. Historiography has changed and the belief in progress has declined. Trevelyan’s reputation suffered but J. H. Plumb argued: ‘What is perhaps most frequently forgotten, or ignored, is the skill of his literary craftsmanship. Trevelyan was a born writer and a natural storyteller; and this, among historians, is a rare gift … If one quality is to be singled out, is should be this, for all historians he is the poet of English history … His work has one other great and enduring merit: the tradition within which it was written. The Victorian liberals and their Edwardian successors have made one of the greatest contributions to science and to culture ever made by a ruling class. To these by birth and by instinct Trevelyan belonged.’
[4] Coleraine Chronicle – Saturday 02 September 1893
[5] Lord Macnaghten’s most famous contribution to English law was the definition of category charities in the case of commissioners for special purposes of income tax when he pointed out that “income tax, if I may be pardoned for saying so, is a tax on income. It is not meant to be a tax on anything else.” In the case of Montgomery V Thompson in 1891, he held that a brewery opened in the town of stone in Staffordshire could not use the name “Stone ale”, as it will infringe on the rights of an existing seller of a product under the name “Stone ale”. He famously remarked: “drinking folk want beer, not explanations”.
He is famous for the elegance of his prose. Lord Macnaghten also sat in another famous case, Salomon v Salomon & Co., which laid down the rules governing corporate personality. On his death in 1913 Lord Macnaghten was described as “one of the most learned and distinguished barristers in England, having been a Lord of Appeal-in-Ordinary since 1887.” [5] http://www.pemselfoundation.org/about-us/the-pemsel-case-foundation/
[6] Her father was MP for Huntingdon from 1831 to 1844, served as Attorney General between 1834 and 1835 and 1841 and 1844 in the Tory administrations of Sir Robert Peel. In 1841 he was admitted to the Privy Council and in 1844 he was appointed Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Having been knighted on 29 December 1834, Pollock was created a Baronet, of Hatton in 1866.
[7] https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1376&context=nclr For My Grandson. Remembrances of an Ancient Victorian. By the Rt. Hon. Sir Frederick Pollock, Bt.
[8] https://www.david-pollock.me.uk/the-holts/ and http://www.pollock.4mg.com/David.html
[9] ‘Sir Francis was an Officer Hussar in the British Army and was present at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War in 1854. He was part of Lord Raglan’s staff and saw, from the top of the ridge, his regiment being decimated in the attack on the Russian guns. (The Charge of the Light Brigade)
[10] Alice’s father, Sir William Russell, was an Irish reporter with The Times, and is considered to have been one of the first modern war correspondents. He spent 22 months covering the Crimean War (It was at this time that he met his future son in law, Sir Francis Macnaghten) including the Siege of Sevastopol and the Charge of the Light Brigade. Shocked at the living conditions of ordinary soldiers, Russell wrote with great pathos from Sebastopol:
The commonest accessories of a hospital are wanting; there is not the least attention paid to decency or clean linen; the stench is appalling; the fetid air can hardly struggle out to taint the atmosphere, save through the chinks in the walls and roofs; and for all I can observe, these men die without the least effort being made to save them. There they lie, just as they were let gently down on the ground by the poor fellows, their comrades, who brought them on their backs from the camp with the greatest tenderness, but who are not allowed to remain with them. The sick appear to be tended by the sick, and the dying by the dying.
He later covered events during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the American Civil War, the Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War.
I saw a steady stream of men covered with mud, soaked through with rain… pouring irregularly, without any semblance of order, up Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol…I Perceived they belonged to different regiments…Mingled pell-mell together…Hastily, I ran downstairs and asked an officer…where from? Well, sir, I guess we’re coming out of Virginny as far as we can, and pretty well whipped too…I know I’m going home. I’ve had enough of fighting to last a lifetime.
-William Russell, an English journalist, encountering Northern troops coming from the First Battle of Bull Run, 1861.
His dispatches were hugely significant; for the first time the public could read about the reality of warfare. Shocked and outraged, the public’s backlash from his reports led the Government to re-evaluate the treatment of troops and led to Florence Nightingale’s involvement in revolutionising battlefield treatment.’ Russell wrote about his meetings with Mary Seacole, and spoke highly of Seacole’s skill as a healer, writing “A more tender or skilful hand about a wound or a broken limb could not be found among our best surgeons.” Russell’s war reporting (often in semi-verbatim form) features prominently in Northern Irish poet Ciarán Carson’s reconstruction of the Crimean War in Breaking News (2003) https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/war-correspondent. Wikipedia and https://www.military-history.org/feature/19th-century/war-reporters-william-howard-russell.htm
[11] George Kane-Smith http://www.kane-smith.co.za/book/part1.pdf
[12] The recollections of Mary Alice Young 1867-1946.
Antonia and Mary 
Hello Jean
I love these blogs! Reciting the names of the ‘maiden aunts’ is a wonderful trigger for me remembering Lily tidying up their graves in the Bushmills cemetery and looking at the memorial to Douglas and Harry. That makes me look again at the following bit of the blog:
“Of their remaining three daughters and three sons, two of the sons were tragically killed in the First World War so only one son remained, Antonia and Malcolms son Anthony Macnaghten. ”
You might have wanted to add that they also had three daughters, one of whom – Mary – is or rather was your grandmother. But perhaps the introduction to the whole project makes that clear…..
I am amazed at the name Suckling as I knew a Mrs Suckling as the chief housekeeper of Dunderave when I was five years old until maybe eight or nine years old. Or was she in charge of Runkerry? I dunno.
And Half Hung Macnaghten! In 2012 I went sailing amongst the Ionian islands with a school friend who had a yacht based at the Actium marina near Preveza. We had a long evening in Mitikas with other yachties including a former headmaster from Londonderry; as soon as I mentioned a connection with Northern Ireland through people called Macnaghten he went into a fifteen minute full story-telling mode about Half-Hung Macnaghten!
It is wonderful to have the various strands of the family woven together by you – I hear my mother talking about Uncle Francis, I see Lily looking at the interpretation board above White Park Bay about the school there, I hear Malcolm in extreme old age and considerable dementia in Camden Hill Court shouting at me where is Helen?
Much love
John
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