123312 Joseph Spender 1826-1885
Joseph Spender Clay, the second son of Henry Clay and Sarah née Spender, was baptised on 20 November 1826 at Burton. He went to school at Repton in 1842, and at the age of 18 was admitted as a pensioner to Trinity College, Cambridge, on 10 May 1845. He matriculated at Michaelmas 1845, received his B.A. in 1849 and his M.A. in 1853. He entered the Inner Temple on 23 April 1849, but was not called to the Bar. He lived at Branstone Hall, Burton‑on‑Trent, and was a J.P. for Derbyshire.
On 2 June 1874 he was married by Rev. W. Garrett, uncle of the Bride, assisted by Rev. Walter Baskerville‑Mynors, husband of the briide-groom's sister Carrie, in All Saints, Upper Norwood to (Elizabeth) Sydney (Jane) Garrett (see below).
Sydney's father having died aged 59 five years earlier, she was given away by her cousin, William Richard Annesley, the 4th Earl of Annesley (21 February 1830 - 10 August 1874) who died of a heart attack at Cowes just two months later, aged 44. Her bride'smaids were Harriette & Silvia Garrett, her younger sisters, and Miss Clay[1] & Miss Mynors[2], nieces of the Groom[3]. Best man was Mr H Bass, and Mr & Mrs Gerard Leigh[4] were among the guests.
Joseph and Sydney had two children :-
Herbert Henry Spender born 4 June 1875, see page 67.
(Sylvia) Violet (Blanche) born 1877 in Dormansland, married Lord Bingham 5th Earl of Lucan, 30 November 1896 who died 20 April 1949. They had two sons and two daughters. She was appointed an O.B.E. in 1920. She lived latterly in Portman Square, London, and died aged 95 on 31 January 1972.
Joseph Spender Clay moved from Burton, to Ford Manor, Dormansland, Lingfield, Sussex, and died there on 3 November 1885 at the age of 59.
(Elizabeth) Sydney (Jane) née Garrett
Sydney was born about 1846 in Castlewellan, County Down, the ancestral hom of the Annesley family; she was the third daughter (of five) of Rev. James Perkins Garrett of Kilgarrow, Co. Carlow (Co. Wicklow) and Caroline Anne Elisabeth Moore (1812–1887).
After her husband's death, she married secondly, Beresford V. Melville, and died on 5 May 1912, aged about 60.
[1] Her brother Henry's only daughter Edith Louisa, then aged 5.
[2] His sister Caroline's only daughter Evelyn, then aged 14.
[3] It is curious that his other sister Emily had married nine years before, and had a daughter Alice, who was not a bride'smaid. His other brother Charles John was not to marry for another nine years.
[4] He may have been the groom's mother's brother Thomas Gerard Leigh ?
