Jeremy Watson's Family Stories

TALBOT, JOHN STUART

John Stuart Talbot was my father's aunt's father's aunt's cousin's husband's grandfather.

Born - Feb 15 1770  Parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, London.

Died - Oct 20 1853 (at age 83)  Grahamstown, Western District. 

 

So there is relative certainty that John Stuart Talbot has some circuitous connection to us. 

 

But who was he specifically? From this point onwards we need to be careful.

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 According to MyHeritage.com >>

He in turn was the son of my father's aunt's father's aunt's cousin's husband's great-grandfather. George III Frederick. 

Born - June 4 1738 - Norfolk House, London, England

Died - Jan 29 1820 - Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England

 

So say some records. These details come off the MyHeritage website. If this is indeed the family of the John Stuart Talbot that we have connections to, then read on. (Note : connected to, not related to). 

 

I am sceptical - how does the "Talbot" creep into our family naming? I am inclined to think that either there was a more straight forward connection to a Talbot line - or - family members in the past believed the connection to be real.

 

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There is a concurrent story, in many ways parallel, that involves George Rex.

 

The MyHeritage website records continue -

Parents of George - Frederick Lewis, Augusta Lewis (born Von Saxe Gotha)

Siblings - Cornwall Fitzfrederick, Amelia Fitzfrederick, Elizabeth Caroline, Unknown Elizabeth, Henry Fred, Caroline Princess Hanover

Wife 1 - Margaret Frances Frederick (born Sheldon) 

Wife 2 - Princess Charlotte Frederick (born Sophia)

Children George Rex, George Augusta Hanover, Unknown William, Edward Augustus Hanover, Ernest Augustus, Augustus Frederick, John Stuart Talbot, Sophia Guelph.

Note that the George Rex found here matches that of the person after whom the coast town was George was name. 

The name of Talbot is found quite often, generally as a middle name, amongst my Watson forebears and I have always wondered why. There are similar instances of reused middle names such as "Scott". "Talbot" though is more mysterious. Look up the name on the find facility on this website and you will find it 10 times. 

Of those the story of Am I the rightful king of England? is the most intriguing. You can find more on that here LOOSE ENDS. I suggest that you seek out each instance of "Talbot" yourself. It is but one of several loose ends in discovering my Family Stories.

Do we have Royal Lineage???!!

The town of George was named after George Rex. While it was common to name places in far off parts of the empire after the reigning monarch, "Rex" after all usually meaning the reigning king. But although King George had a son of this name, an alternative interpretation of the story may be closer to the truth. In the article in the Heritage Portal (see link below), it is shown that John Rex (George's father), who is shown in the London merchant directories of the seventeen-seventies in business as a distiller at 87 High Street, Whitechapel. 

So are these two "George Rex"s different people or the same? Is it possible that this was the same person? He was after all something of an outcast from the royal family. 

The town of George has been renamed Goringhaikona (//Kurin gai-Quena). The name means "seafood collectors" (Strandlopers).

1820 SETTLERS website : https://www.1820settlers.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I16834

HERITAGE PORTAL : https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/george-rex-remarkable-not-royal