Following the recent post about ‘What lies in dark cellars’, Steve Baldock made contact with some fascinating possibilities concerning:

• Background on another William Baldock, nephew of William the smuggler and son of his brother, John Baldock and wife Dorothy (nee Newman).
• Possible size and scale of William’s haul of liquors and fine wines from the large cellar owned by the nephew and offered for auction on his death.
• The Seasalter Company’s connection with Flushing (Vlissingen, Holland) through a family named Minter.

Much of Steve’s thinking is covered below and I’d like to thank him, once again, for being so generous with his research and time.

If you can add to the following information or elaborate on it, please make contact.

For more information on the Baldock Family and its connections visit Steve’s website.

 

William Baldock, son of John Baldock. A trustworthy nephew.

 

“William Baldock (later to become a Captain) was born on 9 May 1791 in Kingston-upon-Thames to John Baldock and Dorothy (nee Newman).

On 22 Aug 1814 he (William) married Louisa Maria Durrant of Salehurst, Sussex at the parish church. Louisa was the daughter of Samuel Durrant and Eleanor (nee Pike).

In 1821 the famous obstetrician, geologist and paleontologist Gideon Algernon Mantell named his son Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell after his friends William Baldock and Samuel Durrant who are mentioned in Gideon’s journals. This is probably the same William (John and Dorothy’s son) who is also listed as a sponsor to some of Gideon’s publications.

Louisa Maria died in 1819 at the young age of 27, but not before providing William with a daughter, Louisa Ellen (b. 1815, Malling, Sussex), and a son, William.

Louisa Maria Durrant came from a prominent Sussex family. On the 19 May 1835 William’s daughter, Louisa Ellen, married William Egerton Hubbard in Kensington, London. The (Egerton) Hubbard family were of a noble lineage, and prominent Russia merchants. Again, we see some evidence of another Baldock building on the family name and connections which was such a hallmark of William the smuggler’s success.

Captain William Baldock spent 18 years on his own, but on 7 Dec 1837 he married Julia Elizabeth Martin at Brighton (St. Nicholas), Sussex. In 1842 Julia provided William with another daughter, Julia Elizabeth, born in Sevenoaks. In 1845, William ‘of Sevenoaks’ made his Will, in which he mentions his son William and wife Anna Gibson Baldock (nee Agnew).

At some point, Capt. William ends up in Bath, Somerset, with Julia, at the prestigious address of 3 Royal Crescent, and dies on 28 Feb 1854.

It’s here that we come across his very fine cellar of choice wines. And it could well be that Aunt Elizabeth, wife of William the smuggler, gave much of the Petham cellar as a gift or for safe keeping to the Captain and her husband’s namesake.

 

William’s haul of liquors and fine wines

 

In the Bath Chronicle of 20 Apr 1854 (p2, col.6) an auction notice appears for the sale of 120 dozen items comprising Champagne, Claret, Hock, Port, Madeira, Sherry, Marsala etc.

It is advertised as the ‘property of the late William Baldock, Esq. and will be delivered from the cellars of his late residence, No. 3, Royal Crescent, Bath.’

Some key words in the advertisement are ‘procured’ and ‘under most advantageous circumstances’.

As a naval man he may well have acquired them during his travels. However, the 1851 census lists him as ‘Landed Proprietor’. This leads to the possible conclusion that his father, John, was the brother of William the smuggler who was born in 1755 at Elham, Kent.

The theory would fit well with what we know about Dorothy, wife of John, who was born 1760 at Kingston-upon-Thames. If true, this would make Capt. William another nephew of the smuggler, but, as we have found elsewhere, progeniture may have played a part. Much of the wealth appears to have been handed to the older brother Richard’s son, William Henry who was a banker, and High Sheriff of Kent; buried at Godmersham, Kent.

This is even more likely since we can only determine step-children for William the smuggler through his wife Elizabeth’s previous marriage to William Jackson.

Perhaps then, Elizabeth passed on most of the cellar collection of liquors to this nephew and Captain. Locating a Will for her might clarify this.

 The Flushing connection

On 16 Aug 1803, Richard Hobday Baldock and his wife, Susanna, had their newly-born daughter, Sarah, baptised at Herne, Kent. We now know Richard Hobday played a prominent part in the activities of the Seasalter Smuggling Company as a complicit Riding Officer.

It may well have been that through these activities acquaintance with the Minter family was made and nurtured. On 16 May 1831 there was a marriage allegation made between Michael Minter ‘of Whitstable’ and Sarah Baldock ‘of Herne’. They married in Herne the next day.

Michael had been born on 12 Jan 1807 in Vlissingen, Holland (anglicised to ‘Flushing’). We know that the Seasalter Smuggling Company traded in both French and Dutch prisoners-of-war and the connection with the Minter family would have provided William Baldock with a useful set of contacts and connections to continental Europe. We need to temper this with the fact that the Minter family generally come from Folkestone but we do see how certain areas like Whitstable and Canterbury were home to families who found the Channel no obstacle to their business or family connections.