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The Chittick Family History
as written by Erminda (Chittick) Rentoul
1890 The Lodge, Cliftonville, Belfast. Ireland
Letter from James Alexander Rentoul to James Chittick, cousins.
included in Erminda's (James Rentoul's mother)
book.
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Descent from King Henry VIIth
of England |
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Boscombe Hunt, May 21st
44 Lexham Garden, Kennington, London W
My Dear James,
I have been a long time in replying to your last letter but
I have no special news and as which all letters to or from England
and America are censored it renders letters less of private
property and as for War news you have quite as full information
as to current events as we have here.
As to my own immediate relatives in the War my nephew Alec Bob's
son went to the front a few weeks ago after having been in training
in York for over 15 months. He's in a Cavalry Regiment - a Lieutenant.
As he is the sole heir to his grandfather a Yorkshire Manufacturer,
who died a couple of years ago & left L350,000, Alec will
be, if he lives, a very rich mart. Before this War began he
had been living with me for one year preparing for Oxford University.
It was arranged that after his University Career he would get
called to the Bar and then would aim at a Political Career.
In politics here money, the chief means of success or promotion,
and as he is very quick & smart and also very witty he seems
likely to be a success in politics. All that plan has changed
by his joining the Army. He volunteered several months before
Compulsory Service was brought in as he fell it his duty to
do so. If he comes back safe he will probably go on with his
previous plans. Both the Eslers are at the front as Captains
in the Medical Service. Both are fine young men, and as doctors
they acquire much less risk than ordinary fighting men. George
Irwin's in training for Medical Service with-- but he has not
yet had to leave England. His father, Irwin S. Dr. in practice
in Co. Dunegal but as lie lost his health to considerable degree
in the Boer War he's not fit for life in the trenches. Irwin
as Jim Hern (Kem) is unfit for work of any kind and has been
so for the past 10 or 12 years. My son Gervais has been rejected
as unfit for service owing to a bad right arm which was dislocated
at the elbow many years ago & being badly managed by the
surgeon he cannot make full use of it though the defect cannot
be noticed in ordinary work. My brother-in-law Brighters ? (a
Schrulm ?) had 4 sons. All entered the Military Service when
the War began. One had been in Military Service for a number
of years and so he made Colonel at once Two others were in Military
Service in the past & one of these has been killed. The
fourth son who was a professor in ----------- has been given
the rank of Captain but is kept at home engaged by the Army
in finding suitable sites for Military Dept. Hospitals.
Gervais is married & has one child a daughter. He is in
the head office at a salary but he's allowed to carry on his
work as a barrister. While during the War barristers get very
little work at present but things will come all right for lawyers
after the War. Lizzie & I have taken a house here for five
weeks to be near Hattie? (Walter?) as Dr. Matthews has been
practically confined to bed and to the house for the past year
& a half & has permanently settled here, as there is
no hope of recovery. Lizzie returns to Belford next Monday &
I go back to London next Tuesday) -- ---- check ----- the Court
opening again. Lizzie hopes to come back from Bedford in a few
weeks but then she finally gets rid of this --- ---who will
live permanently with me in Lexham.
Owing to the War & the scarcity of printers in London I
have, - been unable to get my Family Book published though it's
ready for publication.
As to the Chideocks,
there is little doubt but that we are descended from them, though
we cannot prove the pedigree, but it does not greatly matter
because the pedigree is perfect from Thomas Chittog of Lurg,
Co. Fermanagh, who married Lady
Elizabeth Stanley, daughter of Henry Stanley, 4h Earl of Derby.
The right names of Thomas Chittog is stated in "O'Hart's
Irish Pedigree" to be Chidcock, pronounced Chiddick, and,
just as in "Burkes Peerage", it is stated that a person
is the lineal descendent of some man who lived 180 years earlier,
though the links cannot be set in detail. So Thomas Chittog
is ststed to be descended from the Chiteocks, but even without
bringing in the Chideocks, our descent from Henry VII is clearly
proved in every step as follows:
*Henry Chittog
changed his name to Chiddick. ( Chideock was, and is, still
pronounced as Chiddick) & Henry thus spelled it Chiddick,
but the people of Fermanagh pronounced it Chittick, so Henry
began to adopt this, spelling, and, in his Will, signed himself
as Henry Chittick. You will thus see that though Sir Wm. Betham,
Ulster King at Arms, in his "English Families settled in
Fermanagh" speaks of the family as Chittog, yet Henry reverted
to the original name Chideock and writes that first and afterwards
writes it as Chittick in his Will.
No pedigree is more perfectly proved than ours from Henry VII,
and, even if there were no authority for our claim to be descended
from the Chideocks, it is clear that we are descended from Lady
Elizabeth Stanley of the Derby family, and through that
family, from Henry VII and Edward IV. Our claim to be descended
from the Chiteock's rests on the statement in "O'Hart's
Irish Pedigrees" when he speaks of Thomas Chitog, who according
to Sir Wm. Betham married the daughter of the 4th Earl of Derby,
at that time King in the Isle of Man and "O'Hart"
says, "now the proper name of this family (the Chittogs)
is Chideock.". We have, therefore, Thomas Chittog and his
son John Chittog, and we have Henry Chittog changing his name
to Chiddick, and afterwards to Chittick. Beyond O'Hart's statement
that the original name of the Chittogs was Chideock, we have
no positive proof that the Chittog who came to Fermanagh, and
married Lady Elizabeth Stanley, was descended from Sir John
De Chideock but the fact the village
of Chideock, which is near here, has always been pronounced
Chiddick by the people.
Each recipient of a copy of the book may well add to his own
copy portraits of his own family. For example, you could add
portraits of yourself, your wife and your sons, also portraits
of your grandfather Lindsay and Willie, and Gertrude, and your
mother. I will add to my copy, portraits of my fathers, and
myself and then I will have on one page small portraits of my
sisters. I have all of these portraits and am now getting the
blocks made. You could have on a one-page block, yourself and
Margaret and your boys, and, on another page block your grandfather
Lindsay, your mother and Willie and Gertrude.
The pedigree tables of descent which are already made out and
in printed proof are: (1) Descent from five Ulster Planters
(Islanders?) viz, Sir James Cunninghan, Sir
John Calquhoon, Thomas
Blannerhassett, Sir John
Hume and George ------------ (11th Earl
of Audley) and by intermarriages among the descendants of
these 5 Planters they all ------------ in Captain
James Calquhoon marrying with Deborah
Blannerhassett the daughter of this marriage marrying Alderman
Alec Squire of Londonderry, this was the great grandfather
of our mother Annie Squire, who died in 1891.
The book will be of great interest I believe to your descendants
& to mine as well as to the Eslers, Irwins & Clarks
who are the offspring of my sisters. I have got the Rentoul
Crest and Coat of Arms from Burkes Encyclopedia in a -----------
published in 1844. The Crest, an Elm Tree profiled & the
motto, : "redez fermes" in :Resinley", on the
arms are given as 3 eagles displayed fonts on a shield of Silver.
The Squire Crest is an elephant's head & the motto ------
Conscere sibi" . I believe the Chittick Crest is a mailed
arm & diffe? & the motto "Vincet que palibus"
The typewritten matter which you sent to Minnie contains several
things which I did not know. I did not know of the "draught"
made in 1740 of it. "The Town Bocik of Belfast" published
30 years ago has in all about Henry Le Squire and his Will devising
his property to his brother George of Londonderry. Henry
Le Squire and George Squire were grandsons of Rev. Dr. Squire
who died Rector of Cilicherle in 1570. They had a brother Scipro
Squire who was buried in Westminster Abbey. He was senior Chamberlain
of the Court of Receipt in the Exchequer. The Rev. Dr. Squire
who died in 1570 was descended from the Squires who were lords
of the manor of West Wickham in 1413. George Squire of Londonderry
was father of Gervais Squire who was so prominent in the siege
of Londonderry and who died um married and his brother Alderman
A. Squire was your grandmother's great great grandfather. All
the steps of descent & marriages are shown in the pedigree
tables of Squires.
As to sending over the oil paintings of grandfather & Grandmother
so that I may have them copied here and sent back to you, I
think it is better not to send them till the war is over. I
should like them sent, as I have an artist friend here who does
copying exceedingly well and very cheaply.
I have little news to give you. I am glad to know that your
mother is well. I have a vivid recollection of any visit to
Beachbank and her great kindness to me.
By the way, I forgot to say that we are unable to find out what
is the relationship between us and the Humphrays of Claineren?
Co. Fermanagh. The present living members of the Humphrays family
are equally in the dark. It is evident that a Mr. Humphrays
must have been married to a Miss Squire or a Miss Chittick because
no Chittick or Squire married a Miss Humphrays. Now I remember
Dr. Robert Humphrays , surgeon in the Royal Navy, his sister
Mary Jane Huniphrays, being in a visit with us in Errity? for
a week & I remember my mother and they called each other
by their Christian names. This visit was in 1860 or 1861. This
Dr. Robert Humphrays has an elder brother Christopher who inherited
------------------ which was a moderately sized house with a
farm & also a small landed estate of a few farms ------------------------
-When he married, he and his uncle went to ----------------
on their wedding trip. Now these Humphrays, were not first cousins
of your father and my mother. They were, at the closest, second
cousins, that is their father and our grandfather or grandmother
were sec. cousins probably first cousins. Of course Aunt Harriet
could have told us the exact relationships, & how it came,
but now she is gone and all the Humphrays of her generation
are gone and none of us can find out the exact connection.
With best wishes to your mother, Willie, Gertrude & Margaret
I am,
Your affectionate cousin,
Lizzie tells me that there are in the New York Library several
books about the Hon. Robert Rentoul. I have written a sketch
of his life taken from a book called "Memory Speeches and
Writings of Hon. Robert Rentoul" and this sketch is in
the Family Book. Now if there are several books about him and
if you copied their titles and authors and sent the names to
me I would add to my sketch the words, "See also such and
such books" and if there are no such books it does not
greatly matter but the more books that have been written about
him the greater of course is his importance.
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